Discussing Richard A. Lee’s The Thought of Matter: Materialism, Conceptuality and the Transcendence of Immanence (2016). Matter has an alterity, an otherness, to thought. How does philosophical materialism allow the otherness of thought to emerge? This is an urgent question in a context where empiricism proliferates, and new materialisms emphasise the agency of things without a critical philosophy that can sustain ethical and normative commitments.
BIO: Richard A. Lee Jr. is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago. He was educated at New School University and Jagiellonian University (Cracow, Poland). He teaches and works in the areas of Medieval and early modern philosophy, the Frankfurt School, and social and political philosophy. His recent published work includes The Force of Reason and the Logic of Force (Palgrave-St. Martin’s, 2002), and Science, the Singular, and the Question of Theology (Palgrave-St. Martin’s, 2002) as well as essays in journals such as Telos, Hobbes Studies, Vivarium, and The Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. He is currently working on a project on the possibility of materialism that takes Hobbes as a clue. Rick is co-host of Hotel Bar Sessions podcast: https://hotelbarpodcast.com
