Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

Russell Berman - Modern Culture and Critical Theory: Art, Politics and the Legacy of the Frankfurt School

Since the 1930s the theoretical writings of the Frankfurt School have provided tools for analyses of political and cultural developments in Europe and the United States. Initially a response to Hitler's reign of terror, this influential wing of Western Marxism focused on analyzing the totalitarian potential inherent in any democratic society. Are the arguments of the Frankfurt School still relevant? Modern Culture and Critical Theory investigates this question in the context of important issues in contemporary cultural politics: neo-conservatism and new social movements, discontents with modernity and debates on postmodernism, the political hegemony of Ronald Reagan and the cultural hegemony of structuralism and poststructuralism. Throughout, Berman argues that the analysis of political processes must have an aesthetic component.

Gerhard Richter - Thought-Images: Frankfurt School Writers' Reflections from Damaged Life

In this book, Gerhard Richter explores the aesthetic and political ramifications of the literary genre of the Denkbild, or thought-image, as it was employed by four major German-Jewish writers and philosophers of the first half of the twentieth century: Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, and Siegfried Kracauer. The Denkbild is a poetic mode of writing, a brief snapshot-in-prose that stages the interrelation of literary, philosophical, political, and cultural insights. Richter's careful analysis of the linguistic characteristics of this mode of writing sheds new light on pivotal concerns of modernity, including the fractured cityscape, philosophical problems of modern music, the experience of exiled homelessness, and the disaster of Auschwitz. Thought-Images not only reorients our understanding of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory in important ways but also establishes significant links between these writers and contemporary French thinkers such as Jacques Derrida.

T. Čerkez - AI interregnum

Review of Nick Srnicek, Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2026)

Nick Srnicek’s new book, Silicon Empires, responds to the global struggle for computing power. The demand for computing power is driving new economies of scale – hyperscaling that are reconfiguring relations between the transnational capitalist class and the state, in addition to upending the well-established neo-liberal principles of global trade. Srnicek’s book is a serious and systematic attempt at unravelling the complex ‘geopolitical economy of contemporary AI’. But what exactly is the geopolitical economy of contemporary AI? To elaborate, Srnicek first turns to setting up his thinking around AI’s value.

https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/rp221_cerkez.pdf

Richard Maxwell, Toby Miller - How Green is Your Smartphone?

Every day we are inundated by propaganda that claims life will be better once we are connected to digital technology. Poverty, famine, and injustice will end, and the economy will be “green.” All anyone needs is the latest smartphone. In this succinct and lively book, Maxwell and Miller take a critical look at contemporary gadgets and the systems that connect them, shedding light on environmental risks. Contrary to widespread claims, consumer electronics and other digital technologies are made in ways that cause some of the worst environmental disasters of our time conflict-minerals extraction, fatal and life-threatening occupational hazards, toxic pollution of ecosystems, rising energy consumption linked to increased carbon emissions, and e-waste. Nonetheless, a greener future is possible, in which technology meets its emancipatory and progressive potential. How Green is Your Smartphone? encourages us to look at our phones in a wholly new way, and is important reading for anyone concerned by the impact of everyday technologies on our environment.