Impostor Syndrome & the False Idol of Intelligence

*I want to thank Meghan Schrader and Neil Levy for commenting on earlier drafts of this post. Neil Levy recently published an interesting take on impostor syndrome, explaining why it’s so common. He says that “pretense is an unavoidable element of coming to occupy a professional role.” So, in a sense, we’re all faking it. I […]

Transhumanism is Eugenics for Educated White Liberals

Transhumanism as “newgenics” Vice just published an article on how “prominent AI philosopher and ‘father’ of longtermism,” Nick Bostrom, “sent very racist email to a 90s philosophy listserv.” Bostrom “said that ‘Blacks are more stupid than whites,’ adding, ‘I like that sentence and think it is true,’ and used a racial slur.” The article mentions that the […]

Happy New Year! Is 2023 the Year for Non-linear Time?

Kinship Time I’ve been seeing a lot of progress reports on social media. In light of this, let me remind you that linear time is a social construct. You do not need to live up to a productivity schedule that follows a linear timeline. Indigenous philosopher Kyle Whyte of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation writes that […]

How Medico-capitalism Fuels Over-diagnosis and Over-medication

I’m surprised that there’s controversy over the claim that people are over-diagnosed and over-medicated in a laissez-faire capitalist society. The medical establishment is part of a capitalist order that classifies and commodifies everything for profit, including human emotions and behaviours. Capitalism also suppresses dissent and resistance in order to maximise profit at the expense of […]

Beautyism as Ableist Eugenics… and the Mystique of “Choice Feminism” 

Introduction I recently came across this article on Vice.com asking filmmakers to “stop making hot actors play normal people.” The author indicts filmmakers for casting too few “normal” people. I think that this is a much-needed critique, but it lacks philosophical nuance, which I intend to provide here. My analysis will explore the harms of mainstream beauty […]

CFP: “… the point is to change it,” 40th Anniversary of the RPA, Nov. 17-19, 2022 (deadline: Jul. 15, 2022)

The Radical Philosophy AssociationConference Program Committee invites submissions of 250-500 word abstracts for talks, papers, workshops, roundtable discussions, and other kinds of conference contributions for its 15th biennial conferenceto be held at the University of North Florida from November 17 to 19, 2022. Conference Theme The past several years have been characterized by an onslaught […]

Capitalism and Chronic Fatigue (guest post by Michelle Ciurria)

The essay below was presented at Philosophy, Disability and Social Change on Friday, December 11, 2020. _____________________________________________________________________________ Capitalism and Chronic Fatigue By Michelle Ciurria In this presentation, I am going to offer a biopolitical explanation of chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS. First, I’ll explain what CFS is. Then, I’ll explain why I consider CFS to […]

Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Michelle Ciurria

Hello, I’m Shelley Tremain and I’d like to welcome you to the sixty-sixth installment of Dialogues on Disability, the series of interviews that I am conducting with disabled philosophers and post to BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY on the third Wednesday of each month. The series is designed to provide a public venue for discussion with disabled philosophers […]

Dialogues on Disability on Wednesday, September 16th, at 8 am EST

“I have read almost all of your interviews and they are always wonderful. …  I am really looking forward to the next installment of Dialogues on Disability.” — Adrian Piper “The Dialogues on Disability platform … has been very helpful to me, especially at times where I did not feel I belong in the world of […]