Obscurity and Involvement

This is the presentation I gave at my dissertation defense at DePaul University on March 15th, 2019. The dissertation is entitled “Obscurity and Involvement: On the Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume.”

Perhaps I should begin by reminding myself, and sharing with you, a bit about how I got here. This is not the dissertation I set out to write, which of course is fine. Some of you may recall that a few years ago I planned to write a dissertation on the concept of the miraculous. The miraculous, I still think, is an extremely rich concept in early modernity, sitting as it does at the intersection of a host of discourses: metaphysics and theology, epistemology, physics, politics, and economics. In each case, I wanted to argue, the miraculous exhibits a necessary contradiction, one internal to that discourse and also in that discourse’s relation to the others.

Podcast on Spinoza and Ideology

I recently appeared as a guest on Poststructuralist Tent Revival, a podcast about contemporary philosophy, theology, and political theory. I talked about why I think Spinoza is especially helpful for thinking about problems of ideology and why his metaphysics of ideas remains compelling and relevant. It was a lovely time!

Listen here.