Why Theory

Why Theory episodes:

• 04.13.2024

  Seminar 11

  Ryan and Todd unpack Jacques Lacan's most well-known seminar--Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In doing so, they focus on Lacan's own exclusion as a starting point and then delve into two concepts that Lacan does not list...

  
• 03.30.2024

  Seminar 7

  Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.

  
• 03.16.2024

  Critique Of Pure Reason -- Introduction

  Ryan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment. Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first

  
• 03.03.2024

  Blue Velvet

  Ryan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.

  
• 02.18.2024

  Critique Of Pure Reason -- Preface

  Ryan and Todd begin their analysis of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by working through the prefaces to the first and second edition of the work. They focus on the radicality of Kant's breakthrough and the role that the...

  
• 02.05.2024

  Symbolic Castration

  Ryan and Todd consider the concept of symbolic castration as it develops in psychoanalysis and as it bears on both politics and culture. They relate symbolic castration to some of the key concepts in psychoanalytic theory, including fetishistic disavowal and...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Dialectical Reversal

  Ryan and Todd explore the working of the dialectical reversal, how weaknesses can turn into strengths, how successes can turn into failures. They look at this through a variety of everyday examples and a few choice filmic ones.

  
• 01.08.2024

  Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

  Ryan and Todd think through Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, focusing especially on the parallels with psychoanalysis and the work's political significance. They also address the ramifications of the private language argument that Wittgenstein formulates.

  
• 12.24.2023

  Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

  Ryan and Todd discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's project in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They begin by looking at this project on its own terms and taking stock of its grand ambitions. Then they examine its intersection with the concerns of psychoanalysis and...

  
• 12.12.2023

  1980s Christmas

  In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this...

  
• 11.26.2023

  Discourse on Method

  Ryan and Todd examine perhaps the founding text of modern Western philosophy--Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method. They consider how Descartes articulates an egalitarian philosophy through his conception of radical doubt and examine the influence of this text of subsequent...

  
• 11.13.2023

  Envy

  Ryan and Todd discuss the structure of envy, its relationship to jealousy, and its political implications. They make reference to Othello and Seven as landmark explorations of envy, while also noting its relationship with the other deadly sins.

  
• 11.02.2023

  Science Fiction Cinema

  Ryan and Todd discuss the generic development of science fiction cinema while also addressing its philosophical implications. They include a deeper analysis of Metropolis, The Thing From Another World, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. See: Voyage to the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLVChRVfZ74 Metropolis:...

  
• 10.12.2023

  Monadology

  Ryan and Todd present the philosophy of Leibniz as articulated in his late work the Monadology. They link this text to the breakthroughs of later thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, as well as discussing how Leibniz anticipates the contemporary...

  
• 10.01.2023

  The Prince

  Ryan and Todd analyze Machiavelli's The Prince by tracing its influence on later political thinkers, including Hegel, Gramsci, and Althusser. They discuss Machiavelli's novelty and his limitations as a thinker of the political act.

  
• 09.16.2023

  Surplus Enjoyment

  Ryan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.

  
• 09.02.2023

  Surplus Value

  Ryan and Todd unpack Marx's concept of surplus value and explore its fundamental role in the interpretation of capitalist society. They discuss the relationship between surplus value and profit, while considering how we should think about the drive to amass...

  
• 08.19.2023

  Oppenheimer

  Ryan and Todd offer their interpretation of Christopher Nolan's most recent film Oppenheimer. They focus on the relationship between the form of the film and its content, while considering the political implications of its depiction of the hero. They think...

  
• 08.05.2023

  Barbie

  Ryan and Todd interpret the film Barbie while responding to both leftist and rightist critiques of the film. They discuss the film's exploration of fantasy, its highlighting of contradiction, and its emphasis on the role of desire in politics.

  
• 07.22.2023

  Creative Writers & Daydreaming

  Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Creative Writings and Daydreaming." They look first at the theory of fantasy that Freud develops in this essay and then turn to his conception of what generates the work of art, discussing it in...

  
• 07.10.2023

  Uncanny

  Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "The Uncanny" and the broader implications of this concept. They discuss the importance of the uncanny for understanding the horror film and focus on the difference between a psychoanalytic approach to the concept and...

  
• 06.24.2023

  Poststructuralism

  Ryan and Todd attempt to show why the term "poststructuralism" is inapt for describing any of the thinkers that it usually is thought to indicate. They go through the major theorists known under this moniker and reveal why poststructuralism doesn't...

  
• 06.12.2023

  Tribute to Mari Ruti

  Ryan and Todd devote this episode to the memory of Mari Ruti, who died on June 8, 2023. They discuss her core theoretical ideas and work through her major works. In addition, they include a few memories of Mari's singular...

  
• 05.29.2023

  Succession

  Ryan and Todd analyze the recently concluded television series Succession. They discuss it in terms of capitalist subjectivity, tragedy, the death drive, and the ideology of the family. There are spoilers at every point in this discussion.

  
• 05.28.2023

  Bottle Episode

  Ryan and Todd explore the concept of the bottle episode from the production and analysis of television. They discuss a variety of its manifestations along with its theoretical importance as a form. Ryan's article: https://www.academia.edu/82724525/The_Limitation_of_the_Bottle_Episode_Hegel_in_Community_preprint_

  
• 05.15.2023

  Beyond Good and Evil

  Ryan and Todd explore the important ideas from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, focusing especially on Nietzche's historical critique of morality, his perspectivalism, and his notion of the will to power. They situate Nietzsche's breakthrough in relation to Freud's.

  
• 04.30.2023

  The Racist Fantasy

  Ryan and Todd discuss Todd's recent book The Racist Fantasy, which explores the psychic structure that underlies racism and that allows it to deliver enjoyment to those invested in it. They cover the role that fantasy plays in social life...

  
• 04.16.2023

  Twitter

  Ryan and Todd delve into the formal limitations that define the medium of Twitter. They analyze the politics of Twitter and the impact of the takeover by Elon Musk. Ryan's article cited in the episode is available here: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol24/iss4/

  
• 03.31.2023

  The Radical Western

  Ryan and Todd delve into the western in its most radical manifestation, but they use as a starting point, the paradigmatic western Shane. They then examine more contemporary films that turn from the individual hero into a collective one.

  
• 03.18.2023

  Western

  In their second episode devoted to the classical Hollywood genres, Ryan and Todd explore the western by focusing on some of the most popular and some of the most theoretically compelling. They discuss directors John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Anthony...

  
• 03.05.2023

  Critique of Dialectical Reason

  Ryan and Todd lay out the key points in Jean-Paul Sartre's vast attempt to marry existentialism and Marxism--The Critique of Dialectical Reason. They discuss the best moments of this work and then attempt to clarify how it goes awry. Its...

  
• 02.18.2023

  Analysis Terminable & Interminable

  Ryan and Todd delve into Freud's late essay "Analysis Terminable and Interminable." They focus on the role that the death drive plays in this essay and in Freud's later thought. They view this through the lens of Freud's claim in...

  
• 02.05.2023

  Negation

  Ryan and Todd engage with Freud's late essay "Negation" (1923). They look at the radical insights that he comes to as well as address the moments where he leaves various theoretical points undeveloped. They make a claim for the outsized...

  
• 01.23.2023

  Being and Nothingness Side B

  Ryan and Todd conclude their discussion of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness with a focus on Sartre's conception of freedom. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses that follow from how Sartre theorizes subjectivity in relation to the social order.

  
• 01.08.2023

  Being and Nothingness Side A

  Ryan and Todd discuss the first half of Jean-Paul Sartre's magnum opus Being and Nothingness. They cover the difference between the in-itself and the for-itself, bad faith, temporality, the unconscious, and other important concepts. The next episode will cover the...

  
• 12.21.2022

  Misfit Christmas

  In an annual attempt to theorize the Christmas film, Ryan and Todd examine the concept of the misfit in three famous stop-motion Christmas films from the 1960s and 1970s: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and...

  
• 12.10.2022

  Debt

  Ryan and Todd discuss the role that debt plays in the structure of capitalist society and in the psyche necessary for sustaining this society. They explore debt as a subject matter in film and television, as well as debt's relationship...

  
• 11.26.2022

  Enjoyment Right & Left

  Ryan and Todd discuss Todd's latest book Enjoyment Right & Left, which examines the political divide in terms of the different forms that enjoyment takes. They engage with this divide across a variety of issues, from anti-trans violence to the...

  
• 11.12.2022

  Technology

  This is a special Why Theory episode that was recorded live at the Impakt Festival that took place in Utrecht, Netherlands. Ryan and Todd discuss the theme of the festival--"the curse of smooth operations"--in terms of our relationship to technology....

  
• 10.29.2022

  Love

  Ryan and Todd trace the history of how thinkers have dealt with the problem of love--the varying definitions of love, the view of love's role in society, and love's philosophical importance. They begin with Plato's Symposium, touch on the New...

  
• 10.15.2022

  Badiou

  Ryan and Todd provide an introduction to the philosopher of contemporary French thinker Alain Badiou. They begin with his insistence on the importance of mathematics and then move on to his understanding of truth in relation to the event. They...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Event

  Ryan and Todd explore the philosophical concept of the event, tracing its trajectory through three thinkers--Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. They make this discussion concrete with an extended discussion of the current revolutionary feminist actions occurring in Iran.

  
• 09.17.2022

  Neurosis

  Ryan and Todd discuss the diagnostic categories of psychoanalysis, beginning with neurosis. They analyze the three forms of neurosis--hysteria, obsession, and phobia--while also focusing on the different manifestations of these three forms in the contemporary political arena.

  
• 09.04.2022

  Hegel's Absolute Knowing

  Ryan and Todd conclude their series on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit with a discussion of the Absolute Knowing section. They explore the relationship between this section and the rest of the book as well as considering what this section has...

  
• 08.20.2022

  Hegel's Religion

  In their penultimate episode on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Ryan and Todd analyze the religion section of the book. They focus most on the comic work of art and the revealed religion sections as they try to make sense of...

  
• 08.06.2022

  Screwball Comedy

  Ryan and Todd begin a series of discussions about the classical Hollywood genres with the screwball comedy, a genre that centers on the sexual antagonism. They look at the film that kicks off the genre, It Happened One Night, as...

  
• 07.23.2022

  Mourning and Melancholia

  Ryan and Todd are joined for the episode by James Godley, who recently organized a conference on mourning and the pandemic, entitled "In the Wake of the Plague" (which one can access here: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/wake-of-the-plague/), to discuss Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia."...

  
• 07.09.2022

  Wild Psychoanalysis

  Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Wild Psychoanalysis" and delve into the problem of treating symptoms with knowledge rather than addressing the enjoyment that they offer. Even though this is a minor Freud essay, it provides one of the pillars...

  
• 06.25.2022

  Abortion Theory

  In this special episode, Ryan and Todd address the newly minted US Supreme Court decision that overturns the nationwide right to abortion access. They delve into the history of the famous decision granting abortion rights and theorize what has changed....

  
• 06.11.2022

  Quilting Point

  Ryan and Todd investigate the concept of the quilting point (point de capiton), as originally coined by Jacques Lacan and then in additional permutations. They attempt to develop this concept in further directions that challenge Lacan's original theorization of it...