What is Science and Why Should We Care?
I propose to share with you a few reflections about the nature of scientific inquiry and its importance for public life. At a superficial level one could say that I will be addressing some aspects of the relation between science and society; but as I hope will become clear, my aim is to discuss the…
Read MoreOn Ken Kelman and His Theory of Cinema
The playwright and film theorist, Ken Kelman, was a contributor to Logos. His longtime friend, P. Adams Sitney, has prepared an edited collection of Kelman’s writings and unpublished lectures, which will be released by Anthology Film Archives. In memory of Kelman, below is Sitney’s introduction to the forthcoming collection. We are also publishing an excerpt from Kelman’s…
Read MoreOn Kenneth Anger, Christopher MacLane, and Isidore Isou
The following is excerpted from a forthcoming collection of Ken Kelman’s writings and lectures on film. The volume is edited by his longtime friend, P. Adams Sitney, and will be published by Anthology Film Archives. Logos has also published Sitney’s introduction to the volume in this issue. We have selected the following lecture by Kelman because it…
Read MoreWalking Wall Street
Certain times require a spark: not merely to ignite action but to foster some sense of historical understanding. This is one of those moments and Occupy Wall Street struck the match. Frustrated over the seemingly intractable character of the financial crisis that began in 2007, and the inability of established political organizations to do anything…
Read MoreArt: The Covid Series
The major American animator, director, artist, and longtime friend of Logos, Ralph Bakshi, has recently produced a series of painting inspired by his bouts with Covid. Of the experience, Bakshi writes: “When painting a still life or a landscape, you get many different feelings as the painting moves on. With the covid paints, no feeling changed……
Read MoreMandela’s Non-Racialism
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. — Nelson Mandela, Presidential Inaugural Address, 1994 The Issue Section 1…
Read MoreReview Essay: Magda Teter’s Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism
The Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2013 to protest anti-Black racism, especially the killing of Blacks at the hands of the police, was arguably the largest protest movement in the history of the United States. It created a tectonic shift in the understanding of the systemic character of racism in American society and…
Read MoreLabor’s Rank-and-File Owes OWS a Thank-You Card for its PR Help
The Occupation movement has been unfairly but predictably criticized in the mainstream media for having an ill-defined political agenda and no clear path to institutionalizing its struggle against long-standing abuses of corporate power in America. While all that gets sorted out in its free-wheeling “general assemblies around the country, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has already…
Read MoreBook Review: Lerone A. Martin’s The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism
Back in 1961 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover told staff it was their duty to “reaffirm” the bureau’s Christian purpose … to defend and perpetuate the dignity of the nation’s Christian endowment,” since Christianity was “the main line of resistance against all enemies of our heritage.” (P 229) Many of us had assumed that this public…
Read MoreBook Review: Andrew Feenberg’s The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing
Andrew Feenberg’s philosophical work has centred on three main themes: the reconstruction of Herbert Marcuse’s philosophy, an appreciation and contemporary reconstruction of Georg Lukács’ early work, and an engaged philosophy of technology. The latter project is grounded in the first two insofar as the relation between reification and the critique of technology is central to…
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