tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1438289051411770399.post2980368843311146409..comments2024-03-28T09:51:55.365-06:00Comments on ECOLOGY WITHOUT NATURE: Juliana Spahr and Joshua Clover: Biopolitics Liveblog 5Timothy Mortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05067377804366363020noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1438289051411770399.post-23195995834088603622012-10-19T11:45:22.265-05:002012-10-19T11:45:22.265-05:00Re: Joshua's point about the diachronic and sy...Re: Joshua's point about the diachronic and synchronic, AND the question that keeps coming up at our events this week--"yes, we can talk, but how to we act" which often then ditches philosophy in favor of organizing around un-interrogated categories, I'll share my shared love for Benjamin and invoke the constellation. <br />Things from the "Theses on the Philosophy of History" I find useful in this discussion:<br />A) the constellation's method: places events into significant clusters to make visible their connections and their falling out. By taking moments out of their naturalized context, we are able to see the Benjaminian “flash” of meaning in history, to recognize the important links between past and present, and events whose relations are otherwise obscure in our present moment (like stars being nearer and farther away, yet clustered together from a situated vantage point) <br />B) The final lines of Marx’s "Theses on Feuerbach," the inspiration for Benjamin’s title: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” Rather than accept Marx’s binary between interpretation and change, Benjamin’s Theses put forward a new way of interpreting history that could in fact change it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com