Caleb Ward
@calebw.bsky.social
3.4K followers 1.2K following 2.7K posts
Social and political philosophy, feminism and social change, almost done with a book on the philosophy of Audre Lorde Postdoc at Uni Hamburg Photo by Frank Ward, 1999 https://www.calebward.xyz/
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calebw.bsky.social
“But can’t we use the master’s tools just this once, as a treat??”

Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱
Using and Abusing ‘The Master’s Tools’ Caleb Ward's Audre Lorde Lecture
Audre Lorde’s statement that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” stands for uncompromising vision in the fight…
vimeo.com
calebw.bsky.social
Tfw you think “Material Girl” is Marxist
calebw.bsky.social
She didn’t “defy Democrats.” She defied THE SENATE. Thats the story @nytimes.com
calebw.bsky.social
"Bondi defied Democrats". "Bondi goes on the attack".

What the hell's going on @nytimes.com with these double-meaning headlines, describing things in terms MAGA obviously desires? Report the goddam news:

Bondi refuses to answer for political corruption in the Justice Department.
Screen grab from NYT reporting on Bondi's appearance before Senate dems
calebw.bsky.social
guy with a bad philosophy kink logs on
calebw.bsky.social
It's funny because it splits between unreflective sloganeering of her words and (probably more annoyingly) the glib dismissal of her words by people who haven't thought about her work beyond that single sentence. My pinned post is a talk I gave recently about this
Reposted by Caleb Ward
schlawinerkreis.bsky.social
10/ Why does this still matter? Hegel’s ideas of freedom and progress still reverberate today, both in theory and in practice. Yet they’re entangled with a logic of tutelage – the belief that some peoples must be “guided” toward freedom – risking a repeat of his errors alongside his insights.
A 1921 Literary Digest map titled “Map of Palestine (British Mandate)”, depicting the territory administered by Britain under the League of Nations Mandate. The map outlines the borders of Palestine, neighbouring Syria and Egypt, and major cities such as Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Gaza, and Amman. It marks railroads, principal highways, and regions “below sea level”, with shaded zones indicating definite and tentative mandate boundaries. The image visualises the political geography of a League of Nations Class A mandate: territory carved from the Ottoman Empire and placed under European administration “until such time as [its] peoples are able to stand alone”.

Context: In Hegel and Colonialism, we argue that this form of hierarchical sovereignty echoed Hegel’s philosophy of history, which framed colonial domination as an “educational stage” in the world-spirit’s progress toward freedom. The Mandate system’s logic of tutelage – administering “not-yet-mature” nations until “ready” for self-government – reproduced Hegel’s view that freedom develops unevenly across climates and peoples. British Idealists like Edward Caird and Jan Smuts adapted these ideas, recasting empire as a moral duty to guide “backward” peoples toward civilisation. Article 22 of the League’s Covenant codified this rationale by formalising graded classes of sovereignty, institutionalising a hierarchy of political maturity.
Reposted by Caleb Ward
schlawinerkreis.bsky.social
1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system.

Thread below ⬇️
Hegel and Colonialism
Cambridge Core - Classical Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism
www.cambridge.org
calebw.bsky.social
wish that were true
calebw.bsky.social
👀
It's an epidemic
calebw.bsky.social
It's a pretty good informal primer of some of the things about Lorde that I think are interesting. It's also on Youtube with video, in case you for some reason like to see Dave's and my pasty mugs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsBf...
Audre Lorde as Philosopher (w/ Caleb Ward)
YouTube video by Museum Hegel-Haus
www.youtube.com
calebw.bsky.social
I got interviewed for the Deadbeat Philosophy podcast, talking about Audre Lorde's thought and her impact, including why philosophers should care.

Lorde's work makes a demand of her readers, and I think more philosophers and theorists need to answer to it
Audre Lorde as Philosopher (w/ Caleb Ward)
open.spotify.com
calebw.bsky.social
It’s a metonym for all of nature’s buzzing and booming
calebw.bsky.social
Ah yes, "the smart man's burden"
calebw.bsky.social
Audre Lorde makes a similar claim for Black women's survival & feminist activism: "Rather than siphoning off energies in vain attempts to connect with women who refuse to deal with their own history or ours, Black women need to choose the areas where that energy can be most effective."
calebw.bsky.social
Du Bois is advocating conditional voluntary self-segregation for purposes of survival... but white ppl need to recognize that it is *conditional*. As soon as we eradicate the condition of racist dehumanization, even locally, then we might work together.

tl;dr: the ball's in white ppl's court
calebw.bsky.social
Robin here picks out the thread connecting "continental philosophy" with other marginalized traditions in the US vs. UK philosophy landscapes. Explains a lot of my intuitions (and explains why my first article on Lorde in 2020 was sent to the "Continental Philosophy" associate editor at the journal)
robinjames.bsky.social
Tbh I don’t get the whole (mostly British) wing of haunty-Marxists, even wrote a thing about it in this months The Wire
calebw.bsky.social
WEB Du Bois: “When my room-mate gets too noisy and dirty, I leave him; when my neighbors get too annoying and insulting I seek another home; when white Americans refuse to treat me as a man, I will cut my intercourse with white Americans to the minimum demanded by decent living.”
calebw.bsky.social
My alarm went off, and I’m like, “Come on, clock, read the damn room. What we’re doing here is not that kind of shit. Here we are doing sleep shit.”
calebw.bsky.social
Not as smart as I thought I was: In my book I just wrote that something was dismissed "whole cloth." I then realized I used that phrase wrong, so I changed it to dismissed "writ large." Then I realized I used THAT phrase wrong too. Amazing. I wonder what other new ignorances I'll discover today...
calebw.bsky.social
Srsly. Maybe we should measure each car’s climate pollution output in life-saving inhalers rather than the other way around? 🤷‍♂️
calebw.bsky.social
Joni Mitchell was doing work when she wrote “I’ve spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes”
calebw.bsky.social
You better call Tyrone