Political Philosophy

This Day in Philosophy — 24 August: the death of Simone Weil

She gave up a philosophy post to work in a factory, went to Spain to fight, and died in England at thirty-four. Simone Weil lost her life on 24 August 1943, leaving behind unfinished notebooks and a single concept: attention.

This Day in Philosophy — 23 August: the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, the birth of Kenneth Arrow

On 23 August 1927 two Italian anarchists went to the electric chair despite protest across the world. On the same date in 1921, Kenneth Arrow was born, who would demonstrate the mathematical limits of collective decision.

This Day in Philosophy — 22 August: the Haitian uprising and the first Geneva Convention

The uprising that began at Saint-Domingue on 22 August 1791 became the hardest test the universality of human rights has faced. On the same day in 1864 the first Geneva Convention was signed, committing to paper the idea that even war has limits.

Agamben's Heidegger notebooks published: the Le Thor seminars

The notes Giorgio Agamben took at Heidegger's Le Thor seminars in Provence in 1966 and 1968 have appeared as 'The Time of Thinking'. Zone Books has also reissued the philosopher's collection 'Profanations'.

Giorgio Agamben

Sloterdijk's book on Europe appears in English as The Continent Without Qualities

The German philosopher's essays on Europe have now appeared in English from Polity, translated by Robert Hughes. The title carries an open allusion to Robert Musil's celebrated novel of a man suspended between possibilities.

Peter Sloterdijk

After Jürgen Habermas: the philosopher of the public sphere dies at 96

The philosopher who set the intellectual direction of post-war Germany died in Starnberg on 14 March 2026. President Steinmeier spoke at the memorial service in Frankfurt.

Jürgen Habermas

Two books from Žižek: 'Liberal Fascism' is out, 'Signs from the Future' in October

The Slovenian philosopher's collection of essays on authoritarianism packaged in the language of the free market has been published. The second book arrives on 29 October 2026.

Slavoj Žižek

Judith Butler at The New School: 'Contemporary fascist passions'

Butler gave the keynote at the GSSI Symposium on 23-25 April 2026. In February she spoke to an audience of some two hundred at WashU on 'Who's Afraid of Gender?'.

Judith Butler

Elizabeth Anderson at Lund: 'Libertarianism, inequality and the slide to authoritarianism'

The Michigan philosopher used her Pufendorf Lectures, delivered on 11-13 May 2026, to argue that the language of market freedom erodes political freedom.

Elizabeth Anderson