Shows
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS5 EP 4 - The Truth of Social Formation0:00–22:30What does The Gay Science have to do with rhetoric? ; §57 “To the Realists”, §58 “Only as Creators”, §59 “We Artists” ; our drunken passion for reality and reason ; our ridiculous desire to transcend reality ; creation, destruction, and the insanity of maintenance ; is there a political valiance to this dynamic? §76 “The Greatest Danger” ; the dangers of the exception and the rule ; what happens when “the exception” wears tin foil hats and joins the tea party? ; Is this dichotomy too clumsy? 22:30–31:50Complicating Nietzsche’s argument about “truth and lying in a nonmoral sense” ; the active power of rhetoric to “make equal,”...
2025-08-1147 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS5 EP 3 - A Taste for Thinking0:00–18:30Intro; Approach for a second read; Nate gratuitously makes it about Hegel; §26 “What is Life?” ; the positivity of becoming; §23 “The Signs of Corruption” and §24 “Different Forms of Dissatisfaction” ; §39 “Changed Taste.” The active power of taste & decay; the non-linearity of futurity; taste vs opinion; §11 “Consciousness” the body doesn’t trust consciousness – it’s still in beta testing ; Napoleon & Decay; the individual18:40–31:15The value of consciousness; not your baseliner’s materialism; structure of the aphorisms; intellectual irritability; do I contradict myself? : invention and resolution; contradictions are bodies31:20–41:20What is a body? Is the intellect in...
2025-08-041h 03Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS5 EP 2 - Questioning, Evaluating, and Other Injustices0:00-8:50 – Intro; §2 “Intellectual Conscience” ; My questioning, my certainty, my injustice.8:50-28:30 – The instinct to evaluate; The art of questioning; The mystical allure of authorial intention; the inadequacy of quantification, the absurdity of grading, and other equivalences28:40-39:45 – Back to the intellectual conscience; reading for understanding? lol; teaching bad (?) movies; §3 “Noble and Common” ; Tyranny of the instrumental; Wait, was it a bad movie?39:50-46:30 – Diagnostic of dispositions; §14 “The Things People Call Love” ; Common desire for possession; Noble desire for transformation; Nathaniel makes it about Phaedrus again; the eternal injustice of the noble46:30–...
2025-07-281h 11
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS5 EP 1 - Becoming Bovine0:00–5:20 – Pedagogical query: “Why can’t white dudes follow simple instructions?” 5:20–18:50 – Intro to the new season; Structure of the book, tone, question of completeness, title: gay, joy, queer? 19:00–34:55 – Philosophy’s blind pursuit of truth, value of the veil with nothing behind it, philosophy and health, the careful art of not knowing – Serena Williams example: the context is not separable from the content – Nate’s angry dissertation 35:00–36:40 – Distance and Superficiality “The Greeks were superficial out of profundity.” 37:50–47:40 – Different kinds of superficiality; Fighting to win? Sisyphus’s new rock.47:45–1:01:25 – Pedagogy, distance, m...
2025-07-211h 11
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 10 - White MythologyIn this ep, we discuss Derrida's "White Mythology."
Some themes and talking points:
- metaphor as an organizing principle of philosophy
- how to ground or "unground" a philosophical system
- catachresis vs metaphor
- Hegel vs Derrida
- Heidegger's nostalgia
2023-02-1559 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 9 - Dr. Brooke Rollins / Decisions and Responsibility in Sports and in LifeIn this special episode, Dr. Brooke Rollins, an Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University, joins the Thinking With crew to discuss Derrida's "Nietzsche and the Machine" interview, as well as Brooke's research in risk, gambling, analytics (in sports and in life), and rhetorical theory.
2023-02-081h 14Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 8 - From Restricted to General EconomyIn this ep, we talk through Derrida's essay, "From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelianism Without Reserve." Much of this episode is dedicated to teasing the orientational differences between Hegel and Derrida, as well as the difficulties and affordances, generally, of the post-Hegelian project.
2023-02-0155 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 7 - Structure, Sign, and PlayIn this episode, we discuss Derrida's essay, "Structure, Sign, and Play."
Topics covered include:
- the relationship between ethnocentrism and metaphysics
- our culpability in metaphysical structures of engagement
- Derrida’s version of rigor in critical theory
- Derrida’s treatment of Levi Strauss
- the limits of deconstruction
- the bricoleur vs engineer
- the relation between contingency and universality
2023-01-2553 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 6 - Signature Event ContextIn this episode, we talk through Derrida's "Signature Event Context," which is primarily a reading and extension of J.L. Austin's How to Do Things with Words. Our conversation covers, among other things, Derrida's notion of iterability, Austin's concepts of performativity and illocutionary force, the Searle vs. Derrida exchange, and the desire for truth and certainty in philosophy.
2023-01-1856 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 5 - Plato's Pharmacy IIFirst ep of 2023! We took a lil break for the holidays. In this ep, we're talking about Derrida's "Plato's Pharmacy" again, among other things. Good episode -- no effort in the episode description.
2023-01-1251 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 4 - Plato's Pharmacy - The Limits of the TextIn this episode, Nathaniel, John, and Nate talk through the first half of Derrida's "Plato's Pharmacy."
2022-12-2147 minThinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 3 - Grammatology: Under ErasureIn this episode, we talk through the first 25 pages of Derrida's Of Grammatology:
- the primacy of writing
- embeddedness of metaphysics
- who needs Saussure anymore?
- signifiers, signifieds, and signifier/signifieds
- writing instruction as constitutively theological
2022-12-141h 05Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 2 - An Itinerant EpisodeWe cover a lot of ground in this episode, but not a lot of this ground is tied directly to Derrida. In the beginning of the episode, we talk about the dynamics of appropriation, math, physics, the terminology of becoming, and Heraclitus. Towards the middle and end, we discuss the brevity of history, how Hollywood must save us, and the genius of the Matrix.
2022-12-0744 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS4 EP 1 - "Différance"Thinking With... is back! This season, we cover a variety of Derrida's texts, including "Différance," Of Grammatology, "Plato's Pharmacy," "Signature Event Context," "From General to Restricted Economy," "Nietzsche and the Machine," and "White Mythology."
In this episode, we do a short intro where we discuss the details of this season as well as the new intro music.
In the episode, proper, we discuss Derrida's "Différance," the various components of Derrida's central (non)concept, the differences between Heidegger and Derrida, the dynamics of contemporary theory, among other things.
2022-11-301h 11
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 10 - OuttakesSampled conversations from previously recorded episodes on Heidegger that did not make the cut (but are still potentially worth your time).
2022-06-2143 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 9 - What Counts as Philosophy0:00-16:00
as thinkers of movement, why don’t Hegel and Heidegger use the term, “becoming”?
Heidegger’s celebrating of ancient Greek thought
the duality of “Being” and “being”
the performative undercurrent of representational thinking
16:00-29:00
H’s fetishizing and essentializing of Greek thinking
essence for Heidegger vs. essence for Nietzsche
trying to think the problematic of representationalism
H’s seeming obsession with origins vs. Nietzsche’s disinterest in origins
29:00-41:00
what counts as philosophy for Heidegger
the ambiguity and fundamentality of the “Being” vs. “being” dualism
how the opposition functions in Heidegger
41:00-end
H’s emphasis on the verb (as a constitutive linguistic-ontolo...
2022-06-1447 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 8 - How to NOT Answer Questions0:00-13:00
thinking as perceiving
dwelling in the problematic
slogans in philosophy
H’s notion that philosophical questions cannot (structurally) have answers
13:00-19:00
thinking the movement of thinking
rendering the unthought thinkable
Heidegger’s ambitions as a philosopher
19:00-31:00
essence as ambiguity
Heidegger’s fetishizing of ambiguity
the problem of common speech and language
31:00-40:00
calcification as a way of enabling difference and complexity
how posing a definitive answer to a philosophical question is not inherently reductive or restricting
why representational thinking is “too advanced” for Heidegger
40:00-end
the anti- or post-Hegelian project
why is Nate bringing up Hegel again?
Karen Barad’s or...
2022-06-071h 04
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 7 - Beating the Authenticity Horse Again0:00-13:00
teaching deconstructive moves in the classroom
meta-reflection
Nathaniel’s exploratory essay assignment
13:00-27:00
AF / AM critical discourse
Teaching Ta Nehisi Coates
an argument in favor of difficult writing
27:00-46:00
Heidegger’s mysticism / nostalgia
the ambiguity of H’s notion of authenticity
46:00-end
H’s etymological linking of “thinking” and “thanking”
human being’s indebtedness to the other
2022-05-2458 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 6 - Teaching Constructivism (Provisionally)0:00-16:00
Heidegger’s central question
diagnosing representational thinking
propriety / purity in Heidegger
the fascism built into the text
16:00-38:00
Heidegger’s disdain for commonness and traditional thinking
differences between Heidegger and Hegel
social constructionism
difficulties with language and representation
38:00-end
the functions/effects of education
fear of death
provisional thinking
2022-05-171h 03
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 5 – Heidegger's Eternal ReturnThe Heidegger Files: What is Called Thinking? By Martin Heidegger Lecture X
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, & Nathaniel Street
Time Complicates Being, Eternal Return of the Same, Deliverance from Revenge, Let Will be Will (Start-11:55)
Why does the “same” return?; what’s up with the “eternal”?; this is why no one writes about time anymore; linear time, blurred (12:00-21:50)
Dasein and the pros and cons of representational thinking; time, history, eternity; perspectivalism, epistemological or ontological?; (22:00-29:30)
Cosmological Eternal Return; What’s up with eternity?; Eternity of being/will/presence; how does the will will itself? (30:00-40:20)
Nathaniel resurfaces; Eternal will, willing itse...
2022-05-111h 00
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 4 - The Most Profound Thought0:00-13:00
teaching on zoom
unpacking theory for students
lectures 9 and 10
what makes Heidegger and this text so compelling
how Heidegger rehabilitates Nietzsche
13:00-24:00
the “treasure of metaphysics” for Heidegger
how Heidegger and Derrida relate to metaphysics
the relative inescapability of metaphysical thinking
24:00-43:00
the eternal return
overcoming the will’s desire for revenge
representational thinking as a way of enacting revenge on difference
Hegel’s Aufhebung vs. Nietzsche’s transformation via overman
43:00-
more on sublation in Hegel
transition of last man to overman
what is involved in the negation of negation of Absolute Spirit
2022-05-041h 10
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 3 - Training the Last Metaphysician0:00-4:00
Nate trying to learn the game, “Go”
John’s golf game
4:00-20:00
instinct or “feel” vs analysis / cognition
Heidegger’s commitment to authenticity (and to pluralism / becoming)
Heidegger’s strange etymological interpretation of “blinking”
20:00-33:00
the importance of Nietzsche for Heidegger’s thinking (and post-structuralist thinking)
Heidegger’s attempt to surpass Nietzsche
Heidegger’s slowness
33:00-end
the “superman” or “overman”
the characteristics of the overman and the last man
2022-04-2648 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 2 - Mood Playlists in Philosophy0:00-4:00
The therapeutics of reading philosophy
4:00-9:00
Heidegger’s pace and style
preliminary reflections on H’s notion of authenticity
essences of being and thinking
9:00-23:00
critique of representational or technological language
abbreviations, acronyms, etc.
styles and tones of thinking (Heidegger and Nietzsche)
23:00-39:00
overman
being “in the zone”
how might one channel the overman?
some necessary basketball talk in here
39:00-49:00
what disposition is Heidegger attempting to cultivate?
ways of inhabiting language, texts, life
Heidegger’s anthropocentrism
49:00-end
Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity
the ontological conditions (and ethical impl...
2022-04-191h 03
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS3 EP 1 - Heidegger: Affirmations and IrritationsThe Heidegger Files
Focus: What is Called Thinking? By Martin Heidegger Lectures I, II, III
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, & Nathaniel Street
Opening Gambit: Thinking is not simply a mental event but always emerges in-relation; the irksome problem of essences; antagonistic progressivism (Start–11:00)
Heidegger’s Pedagogy, teaching, learning, thinking; example of the wordworker, authenticity and pluralism; involvement vs confrontation; Externality and Simulacrum vs Internality and Authenticity; Tuna Production (11:10–27:15)
Pluralizing disclosures; the luxury of authenticity (27:20–32:30)
The intimacy of reading and thinking – questions: answers and responses; Socrates’ orientation to questions and responses, the dialectic; what is called thinking – "was heißt" vs "was ist"); “one...
2022-04-121h 22
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 14 - Aparallel Evolution and Other PedagogiesIn the season finale of Deleuzecast, we talk through the appendix of Deleuze’s Logic of Sense: "The Simulacrum and Ancient Philosophy."
0:00-14:00
difference and identity
atomism
clinamen
14:00-23:00
color and perception
color as object or as relation
species differences
limits of perspectivism
23:00-30:00
eternal return of the same
Deleuzian repetition
30:00-45:00
evolution
error and mutation / the Deleuzian complication to this logic of error and development
sexual reproduction / diversity
the conjunctive “nature” of nature
the orchid and the wasp
differential pedagogy
45:00-1:00:00
reversal of platonism
absolute difference and absolute sameness
back to the eternal return
the molar and molecular
theology as a t...
2021-09-211h 15
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 13 - The AnswerFocus The Logic of Sense “Twenty-Sixth Series of Language,” “Thirty-Third Series of Alice’s Adventures” and “Thirty-Fourth Series of Primary Order and Secondary Organization”
With: “Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, & Nathaniel Street
Nathaniel’s excellent sense of “the cool” (Start-1:35)
Reflection on Logic of Sense as a whole; Re-Intuiting Representation; John’s Resistances to Psychoanalysis; Deleuze’s Engagement with Psychoanalysis; (1:40-17:00)
Hegel and Concrete Universality; Structuralism and Psychoanalysis; Psychic-Policing; Lacan’s Domineering Tone; Super-Zizek saves Hegel and Lacan; Voluptuous Vitriol for Derrida; Derrida doesn’t save Nietzsche; Allen Iverson is the Answer (17:10-30:15)
Humor, Satire, Irony; Irony and Community; Satire and Stephen Colbert (30:25-39:50)
L...
2021-09-141h 01
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 12 – Same Same, but Different ~or~ To Infinitive, But Not BeyondFocus The Logic of Sense “Twenty-Fourth Series of the Communication of Events”
With: Caddie Alford, Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, & Nathaniel Street
John Discovers Conditioner (Start–2:20)
Deleuze Contra Hegel; Productivity of Distance (2:25–18:10)
Idioms and Defense Mechanisms; Social Media, Narcissism, and Community Production (18:15–23:40)
In/Compossibility, Leibniz, and Disjunction/Conjunction (23:45–35:20)
Infinitives; Expressions – “To Butterfly”; the Place and Function of Logic (35:30–45:25)
Do we “do” affirmation?; First Philosophy: Ontology or Ethics? (43:35–51:16)
Hegel and the Unity of Opposites; The Eternal Return… of the same or difference?; Logic at the Level of the Event; The Town within the Town; Im/Material Expressionism (51:28–!:07:55)
Limits of Human Consciousness; Overcoming the Human; The (Meta)Consciousn...
2021-09-071h 18
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 11 – Hard Times with TimeFocus: Logic of Sense “22nd Series – Porcelain and Volcano” and “23rd Series of the Aion”
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
Hard Times with Time (Start – 5:45)
Derrida and the Deconstructed Present; Vulgar Time (6:00-11:48)
Kant, Time/Space, Faculties; Heidegger and the relationship of change to bodies (12:00-25:40)
Deleuze’s book on Kant; Sublime: Limits of Representation, “'God', for example” (25:50-33:30)
(Failed) Representation: What’s the point of language?; Freedom, choice, and self-transformation; Events and Spacing (33:40-43:05)
"Crossing the Rubicon," for example; Language – Container or Modulator?; (43:15-51:40)
Emergence of Language; Wait, is language a thing? Do we have it? Do we speak it?; Molar...
2021-08-301h 14
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 10 - No Affirmation. Not NowFocus: Logic of Sense "Twentieth Series on the Moral Problem in Stoic Philosophy" and "Twenty-First Series of the Event"
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
hair / beard care
pedagogical approaches to intro classes / infusing theory in the classroom
interpretive lenses
Deleuze’s ethics “not to be unworthy of what happens to us”
“getting in the zone”
affirmation of becoming
2021-08-231h 11
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 9 – Two Ways of Unravelling StringFocus: The Logic of Sense – "Seventeenth Series of the Static Logical Genesis," Eighteenth Series of the Three Images of Philosophers," and "Nineteenth Series of Humor"
With: Caddie Alford, Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
Teaching the Enthymeme (Start-4:30) Taste, Enthymemes, and Disrupting Subjectivity (4:30-5:30) Enthymeme and the Syllogism (5:30-7:50) Socratic Irony, Mania, Pedagogy of the Dialogue (8:00-15:45) Romantic Irony; Humor; Individual and Personal; (15:50-37:35) Masters of Ironic Comedy; Vagabond Humorists; Feminism and Bodies (37:40 - 45:00) Heights, Depths, and Surfaces; Ticks (45:05-49:50) Fogged Up Window Panes; Two Ways of Unravelling String; Ticks, again (50:00-57:10) More Ticks; Diogenes; Lines, Planes, and thickness; a P...
2021-08-161h 22
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 8 – No DeleuzeFocus: Not Deleuze
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
Superfans; Calcifying/Undoing Mimetic Rhythms; Nietzche’s Mustache Oil; Impossibility of Non-Individuation (Start-16:45)
Podcast Pedagogy; Instructional Tidiness; Heuristics of Learning; Narcissism and the Undoing of the Ego, Borges and Epochs of Reading One’s Own Writing (17:00-33:00)
Course Design, Lecture/Seminar; Pacing Course Reading; Degrees of Structure; Teaching Derrida, Performativity, Phaedrus and other Theory Stuff; Jeffrey Nealon gets Plugged (33:00-44:30)
No Deleuze (44:30-End)
2021-08-0945 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 7 - Heights, Depths, and Other SurfacesFocus: Logic of Sense "Sixteenth Series of the Static Ontological Genesis"
With: Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
- on being lost when reading Deleuze - an attempt at an intro to Leibniz - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - immanence / transcendence - 3 images of philosophy: heights / depths / surfaces - Nathaniel's version of Plato's Phaedrus - analogies of philosophies to music - calcification of styles (and why bones aren't your enemy) - diagnosis itself is not transcendent (nor is critique)
2021-08-0358 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastBo Burnham's InsideFor this special episode, Nate, Nathaniel, and John are joined by Caroline Wigmore, and the group riffs in response to Bo Burnham's recent Netflix comedy special Inside. We discuss different styles of contemporary comedy, the role of self-awareness in critique, the dynamics of cancel culture, branding, and many more concepts that Burnham's provocative special engages.
2021-07-271h 31
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 6 - Amateur Philosophy, Expertise, and IntimacyFocus: Logic of Sense "Fourteenth Series of Double Causality" and "Fifteenth Series of Singularities"
With: Caddie Alford, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
2021-07-1946 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 5 - Becoming ConnotativeFocus: The Logic of Sense "Twelfth Series of the Paradox" and "Thirteenth Series of the Schizophrenic and the Little Girl"
With: Caddie Alford, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
0:00-16:00
the metaphorics of the schizophrenic
Alice in Wonderland
Deleuze’s style of reading / diagnostics
16:00-28:00
the “meta” move
the tendency to romanticize becoming (vs being) in philosophy or theory
the simultaneity of identity and difference
28:00-46:00
how to live in the face of deterritorialization
the terror of becoming
the conceptual assumptions that are necessary for survival
the necessity/impossibility of categories
46:00-end
the quasi cause / double causality
how doxa are engendered
provis...
2021-07-121h 01
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 4 - It's About TimeFocus: The Logic of Sense "Tenth Series of the Ideal Game" and "Eleventh Series of Nonsense"
With: Caddie Alford, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
0:00-15:00
Deleuze’s concept of time
kairos and chronos
the challenge of not thinking linearly
time vs relationality
15:00-32:00
Kant’s concept of time
chance
good or common sense
attending to sense in its complexity
32:00-50:00
paradox and doxa
the paradoxes of thinking
thinking as irreducible to consciousness
50:00 - end
sense as both structure and event
thinking relationality outside of the categories of identity
making relations into a new object or foundation of a philosophical system
2021-07-0556 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 3 - The Structure of ChanceFocus: The Logic of Sense "Seventh Series of Esoteric Words," "Eighth Series of Structure," and "Ninth Series of the Problematic"
With: Caddie Alford, Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, Brooke Rollins, and Nathaniel Street
What are the stakes of Deleuze’s project? (Start)
Structure/Event and Series
Langue & Parole
Logic of Serial Invention
Methodology (10:15)
Literary Methods
Barthes’ “Order of the Known”
Differential Ontology
Place of “Sense” in all of this
Displacement on the Flat Plane
Reflection without eHeight
What the Hell is Sense? (17:00)
Seriously, what the fuck is going on?
Alexius Meinong
Flattening Out the Plane (31:30)
Ideational Material
Problems & Solutions
E.G. Pandemic
Early vs Late Deleuze (43:10)
Methodology for Reading
Struc
2021-06-281h 16
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 2 - Parataxis and TeachingFocus: The Logic of Sense "Fourth Series of Duality," "Fifth Series of Sense," and "Sixth Series on Serialization"
With: Caddie Alford, Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
0:00-15:00
- the word "sense"
- Deleuze on Carroll (vs. Derrida on Austin)
- selective reading
15:00-25:00
- denotation (against formal logic)
- subjectivity and non-subjective desire
25:00-44:00
- summarizing vs. intervening
- subjective unity/failure to totalize (refrain)
- causality vs association
44:00-55:00
- parataxis vs. hypotaxis
- what teaching is
- imposter syndrome and expertise
55:00-end
- Isocrates
- corporate "thinking outside the box"
2021-06-231h 04
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastS2 EP 1 - Starting into Sense: Plato and the "Field" of RhetoricFocus: Logic of Sense "First Series of Paradoxes of Pure Becoming" and "Second Series of Paradoxes of Surface Events"
With: Caddie Alford, Nate DeProspo, John Muckelbauer, and Nathaniel Street
0:00-8:00
- why we each want to read Deleuze
8:00-13:00
- Deleuze vs Hegel's writing style
13:00-16:00
- Deleuze's Body
16:00-24:00
- our reading speeds
- Caddie's current book project
- start book with bi-directionality of sense
24:00-34:00
- The task of rethinking Plato for our field
- Nathaniel's current essay on Plato's Phaedrus
40:00-60:00
- Who is "Plato?"
- What is the "field" of rhetoric?
-demagoguery
- self-awareness / against self-awareness
60:00-end
...
2021-06-151h 24
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastIntro to DeleuzecastIn this brief episode, Nathaniel and Nate preview the forthcoming second season of the podcast, in which we dive into Gilles Deleuze's The Logic of Sense. We also discuss the neuroses of the writing process and finish with some NBA talk. When season 2 releases in a week, Nathaniel, Nate, and John will be joined by Dr. Caddie Alford, an assistant professor at VCU.
2021-06-0734 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 12 - The Essence of GeniusEP 12 - The Essence of Genius
2021-05-171h 01
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 11 - The Language of Theory0-6 philosophy as "bad writing"
7-13 the case of Judith Butler
14-19 thinking and emotions (scapegoating)
19-24 developmental writing/from simplicty to complexity
24-36 the impact of grammar on thinking
37-42 beyond representing/universals
43-49 animals
50-54 writing that is "messy" v "clean"
54-70 violence
71-72 and contingency
72-76 Theory as therapy in this political climate
2021-05-101h 16
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 10 - The Error of Dread: Why Ethics Isn't "For" Us0:00-11:00
the Understanding vs Self-Consciousness
the shape of knowledge in Hegel
progress and teleology
11:00-20:00
the logic of the proposition
essentiality vs performativity
the “real” as mobile rather than static
20:00-29:00
failure and lack vs multiplicity
fear of error; dread
22:05 - a transformer explodes on John’s street
the taming function of the Understanding
29:00 - end
Hegel’s ethics
Hegel’s theism
immersion in complexity
the “should” claims or policy claims in Hegel
virtue theory
2021-05-0350 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 9 - Propositions and Other DelusionsHegel’s Authoritative Tone (start)
Post-Human Idealism (6:00)
Inversion of Plato’s Idealism (10:15)
¶56 and the Shame of Learning (20:53)
Demand of Metareflection (25:43)
Imperiousness of the Text (34:48)
Textual Auto-Deconstruction (40:44)
Hegel’s Argument about Arguments (47:00)
Difficulty of Philosophical Writing (54:13)
2021-04-261h 18
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 8 - Math and Other (Lifeless?) Repetitions0:00-8:16
john’s turning point on reading Hegel
Hegel as a thinker of movement
dialectical monism
8:16-18:40
paragraph 46 of the preface
Bridging Deleuze and Hegel... both thinkers of movement, both critics of representational thinking
the problem with mathematical thinking
18:40-30:30
math and philosophy
the complex function of the Understanding
30:30-49:00
“team” affirmation and “team” negation
perennial and recurring debates in philosophy
Hegel’s seriousness and its link to negation
Nietzsche’s humor / Zizek’s humor
Hegel’s arrogance
49:00-60:00
the rarity o...
2021-04-191h 13
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 7 - One or Several Hegels?Why do humans matter? (start)
No, seriously, why do humans matter? (8:30)
Theological and Anthropological Hegels (16:11)
Differentiation on a Flat Ontological Plan (29:24)
Monisms and Dualisms (37:15)
Living Life on the Flat Plane (43:03)
“New forms of fucking life man; that’s what we’re talking about”! (50:10)
The Necessity of Lingering (58:08)
2021-04-121h 13
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 6 - Cutting, Blurring, and the Agony of Overcoming the HumanJimmy Butler Works Out Too Hard (Start)
Blurring the Production/Consumption Divide (1:10)
On Enemies and Indistinction (11:45)
On (Meta)Reflection and Decision (22:50)
On the Supposed Superiority of the Inside (33:35)
Post/Humanism (41:10)
The Unavoidability of Invention (55:00)
Hey, we read some Hegel! (1:09:50)
2021-04-081h 13
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 5 - On the Curious Desire for Conceptual Stability0:00-5:00
basketball talk
5:00-14:00
talking around paragraph 21 of the preface
totalizing impulse in Hegel
maintaining distinctions, identity, branding in scholarship
Barad and branding in academia
external pressures, publishing industry
deconstruction
14:00-23:00
Deleuze and identity
Deleuze and Foucault (“anti-dialectical”) vs Hegel
Why do certain thinkers (such as Deleuze and Foucault) resist Hegel so fiercely?
the ethics of negation vs the ethics of affirmation
23:00-30:00
why are we invested, respectively in Hegel and/or Deleuze?
what does each thinker offer for the rhetorical theorist?
Deleuze’s emph...
2021-03-291h 24
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 4 - Grading and Other Essences0:00-5:30
framework of the podcast
NBA references
commentary on academic culture
5:30–18:10
politics of grading
grading and teaching styles
18:10-24:30
institutional ethics
various institutional contexts and their effects on pedagogy
24:30-29:00
paragraph 19
God, divine cognition
Hegel’s seriousness; his emphasis on suffering, labor, the tragic dimension of life
29:00-36:00
(lost Nathaniel for a short chunk here)
Hegel’s ostensible essentialism
Zizek’s reading style; his reading of Hegel; Catherine Malabou’s reading of Hegel
John’s suspicions of Zizek’s reading
...
2021-03-2256 min
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 3 - In/Distinction0:00-5:00
our particular investments in the text
affirmation and negation
Hegel and Deleuze
5:00-22:20
abyss or multiplicity? void or response?
self-consciousness as thought through these terms
meta-reflection
subjectivity
22:20-34:30
Hegel and Nietzsche
will to power
active and reactive force
the appeals of their various approaches or dispositions
34:30-51:00
paragraph 17 of the Preface
the basic movement of the dialectic (thesis, antithesis, synthesis)
Hegel’s simultaneous critique of empiricism and subjectivism
immediacy as mediation
51:00-1:01:00
paragraph 18
self-alienation
teleology and development in the Hegelian system
positing your own presuppositions
1:01:00-end
Why does Hegel so forcefully...
2021-03-151h 15
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 2 - How to Read Theory (and Complications)The entire episode is engaged in the question of how to read theory, using Hegel as a jumping off point. We discuss philosophy as a matter of "taste" (beginning around minute 5), the "both/and" responses to binaries (around minute 12), as well as the function of critique (what we term "generous reading" vs. "adversarial reading" - around 32). In addition to Hegel, and beginning around 30 minutes in, we use Karen Barad's work and her reception in the field of rhetoric as a recurring example (that concludes around minute 65). We conclude by looking closely at a passage of Hegel that illustrates some...
2021-03-011h 21
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastEP 1 - Styles of Reading / Academic Dispositions / Hegel's "Appropriation Machine"0:00-5:00
shooting the shit
5:00 - 13:00
styles of reading, styles of teaching
13:00-20:00
pedagogy, authority, academic types/dispositions
20:30-30:00
we get into Hegel and start with paragraph 13 of the preface
forms of knowledge: Hegel’s Understanding vs. Self-Consciousness
the condition of possibility for scientific knowledge
30:00-36:00
in the shift between theoretical paradigms, are there historical ruptures or stylistic breaks?
36:00-40:00
the democratic impulse of the text
...
2021-02-221h 01
Thinking With... A Rhetorical Theory PodcastIntroduction to the PodcastWe talk through the impetus and structure of the podcast: this is not an introduction (or advanced) course on Hegel. We are not Hegel experts. We are not even in philosophy departments. The "Hegel Tapes" takes sections of The Phenomenology of Spirit as touchstones and catalysts for thinking through a range of theoretical questions. "Thinking With..." is a pedagogical experiment that serves as an invitation to think along with the text, with us, and with each other. We are three academics who specialize in Rhetorical Theory: Nate DeProspo (ABD at the University of South Carolina), John Muckelbauer (Associate Professor at...
2021-02-2224 min