2025’s final lecture focused on the early period of Islamic political thought (from its beginnings to al-Farabi). It was, in fact,an online guest lecture at Istanbul University. This gave me the opportunity to read some relatively recent publications on the socio-economic context. 3 wonderful reads:

Good point. Other examples that come to mind: Electra (tragedy) --> Elektra (opera) Salome (play) --> Salome (opera) I don't even like R. Strauss's music, but these are still masterpieces.

Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World – Online Lecture Series, 2026  The Cultures of Philosophy Team at the University of Exeter is excited to announce our new online lecture series, "Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World". In recent years, the…

The deadline for next year's HM Istanbul has been extended!!! Due to overwhelming demand, we have decided to extend the deadline for submitting paper/panel proposals to 12 December 2025. Make sure to send us your abstracts, comrades! Further details from the HM Istanbul website below.

Sounds exciting: **** [...]How could free persons be made into slaves? John Samuel Harpham shows that English authors found answers to this question in a tradition of ideas that stretched back to the ancient world, where they were most powerfully expressed in Roman law. [...]" ****

The true academic method: open 12 papers, read none of them, feel intellectually intimidated

Deadline for HM Istanbul extended!!! "Dear all, we are delighted by your interest in our conference. In response to requests, we are pleased to announce that we have extended the deadline by 10 days. The new deadline for paper and panel submissions is 3 December 2025." hmistanbul.org

My final academic talk of 2025 is the fourth session in an online seminar series on Lukács’s Aesthetics (held in Turkish). We have been reading the dense text of The Specificity of the Aesthetic paragraph by paragraph, and we have only just reached the end of the first section of the first chapter.

A wonderful conference on "Hegel, Woman and Feminism" (20229. I was particularly amazed by Ankica Čakardić's speech. youtube.com/playlist?lis...

I wonder why there is a frenzy about celebrating Spinoza’s birthday this year.

The comments section of any opera video on YouTube features a few recurring characters: 1. The Callas-fan bot 2. The contemporary-singer hater 3. The Pavarotti fan 4. The classical-staging enthusiast

Today and tomorrow: “Environmental Humanities Meets the History of Knowledge,” an interdisciplinary workshop organized at the University of Konstanz ( @uni-konstanz.de ). I will speak on “Reconsidering Nature: Lukács’s Ontological Turn and Its Contemporary Relevance,” alongside excellent colleagues.

The 1981 Stuttgart Hegel Congress—where D. Henrich, R. Spaemann, J. Habermas, and O. Pöggeler were keynote speakers, and where philosophers from the Eastern Bloc (Oizerman, Buhr...) presented alongside Gadamer, Rorty, Labarrière, and D’Hondt... We need to discuss more about the circulation of ideas.

Nicolas Tertulian was one of the foremost scholars of Lukács. The articles collected in this book are excellent examples of his ability to combine historical methods—marked by an erudite reading and contextualization of a variety of texts, especially those of Heidegger—with philosophical critique.

On board a Deutsche Bahn train heading to Berlin, in the midst of semi-insomnia, I check my itinerary and suddenly find myself transported to the late 19th- and early 20th-century history of German social democracy.

Truly and deeply honoured x.com/DeutscherPri...

This evening: A conference organized by the Chair of the History of Knowledge (Prof. Anne Kwaschik) at the University of Konstanz — “Translating Hitler,” by Olivier Mannoni.

How fascinating that this book was published just a few days before my session on "The Specter of the Haitian Revolution: Kant and Hegel on Slave Labour and the Racial Division of Labour." ☺️ ***** Hegel and Colonialism, by Daniel James and Franz Knappik. Open Access at cup.org/3LqOwGa

Today is Halloween. On All Hallows' Eve in 1590, Scottish authorities claimed 200 witches tried to prevent King James from reaching his bride in Denmark. Dozens were arrested & tortured, and 1000s killed in an era of sexist witch-hunts. Learn more here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/wit...

Nobody seems to have noticed, but the event is actually scheduled to Tuesday, *4 November* (and not the 5th).

Herr Kollege Uslu ist derzeit Gastwissenschaftler an der Universität Konstanz. Sein Forschungsschwerpunkt liegt seit Jahren im politischen Denken Lukács’. Kolleg:innen in und um Konstanz möchte ich das Kolloquium besonders empfehlen.

Freely available as a PDF on our website 💕 marxistiskestudier.com/danish-marxi...

Next Tuesday (5 November 2025, 17:00-18:30): A talk on "The Specificity of the Political: Georg Lukács’s Political Thought in the Post-Stalinist Ferment of Ideas (1956-1971)" @uni-konstanz.de Colloquium of Modern History.

Georg Lukács Commemoration Day in Heidelberg (Press Release)

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new website and the opening of the Call for Papers for Historical Materialism Istanbul 2026! Please visit our website here: www.hmistanbul.org

Coll: Colloquium Modern History https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-158222 Konstanz, 21.10.2025-03.02.2026, AG Kolář, Universität Konstanz

‘Lukács Day’ has begun in Heidelberg. First stop: Keplerstr. 28, one of his residences in the city during the 1910s.

Upcoming on 4 November: www.geschichte.uni-konstanz.de/fach/vortrae...

The syllabus for my Winter semester course, “Work and Gender in Political Thought (18th–19th c.),” is now online: atesuslu.com/genel/syllab... For now, it includes only the main readings and will be expanded with additional materials throughout the semester.

István Mészáros is an underrated philosopher and this one is his most underrated book.

Very humbled to be shortlisted alongside such an impressive group of scholars

Ateş Uslu (@atesuslu.bsky.social), A Social History of Political Thought, “Demands for Equality Against Abstract Universalism (1789‑1917)”

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

An entire day dedicated to Lukács - complete with conferences, walking tours, and lunch? In Heidelberg? That may sound like a Lukács scholar’s dream, but it’s reality. Heidelberg, October 21, no pre-subscription required. www.uni-heidelberg.de/de/veranstal...

Turkey restricts social media amid police blockade on opposition party bianet.org/haber/turkey...

Police use tear gas outside CHP office as court-appointed İstanbul leadership prepares to take over 🗞️Evrim Kepenek & Gülseven Özkan bianet.org/haber/police...

We are witnessing the destruction of the remnants of Turkey’s already agonizing parliamentary democracy, as police forces occupy the Istanbul headquarters of the main opposition party, firing tear gas and plastic bullets both inside and outside against party members, MPs, and protesters.

I'm finalizing the syllabus for a course on Work and Gender in Political Thought that I will be teaching at Konstanz University. About 75% of the course will consist of a critical analysis of canonical texts, ranging from Rousseau to Mill. Any suggestions for hidden gems in the secondary literature?

Husserl’s essentialist approach can be criticized because it overlooks social, historical, and political contexts, but this critique could offer an opportunity to develop a new methodology that integrates it with contemporary social phenomena.

Join us to rethink the transformations and afterlives of ideas! #CfP

Ok, let me be clear: I am against the use of AI for generating any academic text (whether in whole or in part), just as I am against the use of internet search engines for plagiarism. Personally, I don't even use citation software, because I think handmade bibliographies are part of the craft.

There should be an alternative to both the unquestioning enthusiasm for AI in humanities classes and the "this is an analogous course, just use your brains" kind of neo-Luddism. You can use tools in a toolbox, but you can’t live in it. Let’s remind students that generative AI is just that:a toolbox.

I personally like modernized opera stagings, but this one is obnoxious. Attila as an animalistic, gold-obsessed barbarian fighting against European nations carrying actual contemporary flags? Even the most patriotic Risorgimento supporter was more refined back in the 1840s. youtu.be/1hLqPmFMmi8?...

Mikhail Psellos has an interesting exchange of letters with Leo Paraspondylos on fish and cheese, a pretext for contrasting divine and human modes of creation.

As of today, Volkan Cidam (@volkancidam.bsky.social) has been denied access to the Boğaziçi University campus, where he worked for many years, due to his participation in the protests against the rectorate.

Meanwhile, the entirety of Eastern European philosophy before 1989 is criticized for its rejection of idealism in favor of materialism. I'm not sure whether such a title would have been acceptable in a philosophy journal of the Eastern Bloc.

This is probably the most fascinating thread I’ve read here so far - almost like a lecture, one might say.

One like, one opinion on intellectual history.

📄 Christine de Pizan on Class, by Peter King brill.com/view/journal... #philsky 11/11

📢 HPLA 28.1, Special Issue: New Social Perspectives in Medieval Philosophy (edited by Ana María Mora-Márquez and Jenny Pelletier) published. brill.com/view/journal... #philsky 1/11