Telos (journal)

Last updated

History

The journal was established by Paul Piccone and fellow working-class philosophy students in May 1968 at SUNY-Buffalo, though it was never formally associated with SUNY or any other university. [1] [2] [10] Elisabeth K. Chaves writes that "this non-institutionalization, in academia or elsewhere, helped keep the journal distinct from other positions within the [intellectual] field, and it reveals a kinship to artists within the field of cultural production that choose to practice 'art for art's sake,' disdaining the economic and political power found at the dominant pole." [10]

According to Chaves, the journal specifically saw its objective as "vindicat[ing] the ineradicability of subjectivity, the teleology of the Western project, and the possibility of regrounding such a project by means of a phenomenological and dialectical reconstitution of Marxism in conjunction with the New Left." [10] [ undue weight? – discuss ] In this light, the journal sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction relevant for the United States. In order to avoid the high level of abstraction typical of Husserlian phenomenology, however, the journal began introducing the ideas of Western Marxism and of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School to a North American audience. [11] [12] [13] In a 1971 pamphlet, in reference to its heterodoxy, members of the Chicago Surrealist Group said Telos conference organizers were "capable only of promoting the peaceful coexistence of various modes of confusion". [14] [ independent source needed ]

Poster from the Telos website describing the journal's development. Telos publicity poster with cover images redacted.jpg
Poster from the Telos website describing the journal's development.

Over time, Telos became increasingly critical of the Left in general, with a reevaluation of 20th century intellectual history, focusing on authors and ideas including the legal philosopher and Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, [15] [2] [16] federalism, and American populism through the work of Christopher Lasch.[ citation needed ] Eventually the journal rejected the traditional divisions between Left and Right as a legitimating mechanism for new class domination and an occlusion of new, post-Fordist political conflicts—part of its critique of the New Class or professional-managerial class. [17] This led to a reevaluation of the primacy of culture and to efforts to understand the dynamics of cultural disintegration and reintegration as a precondition for the constitution of that autonomous individuality critical theory had always identified as the telos of Western civilization. [18] [19] [20]

During the journal's "conservative turn" in the 1980s, many editorial board members, including Jürgen Habermas, left Telos. [2] [6] The academic Joan Braune writes that one cause for the resignations was Piccone's support of the United States intervention in Nicaragua. [15] [ undue weight? – discuss ] According to Chaves, the journal's split with Habermas was due significantly to the second generation of Critical Theory's embrace of the linguistic turn. [10] [ undue weight? – discuss ] The paleoconservative Paul Gottfried, a former student of Herbert Marcuse, former Republican Party activist, and critic of neoconservatism, joined Telos in the 1980s and 1990s. [6] In January 2025, he was not listed on the journal's masthead. [21]

Advertisement for 1994 Telos conference "Populism and the New Politics" Telos conference 1994 populism.jpg
Advertisement for 1994 Telos conference "Populism and the New Politics"

European New Right figures such as Alain de Benoist were key contributors to Telos in the 1990s. [22] [23] Piccone asserted that the French New Right had incorporated "95 percent of standard New Left ideas". [22] Joseph Lowndes describes Telos as "the major translator" to English of de Benoist and other New Right figures. [7] [24] Their ethnonationalist ideas later influenced the alt-right. [10] [24] [22]

In 1994, the paleoconservative Sam Francis was a panelist at a Telos conference in New York about populism. [7] [25] [26] The audience "shifted uncomfortably in their seats and chuckled in embarrassment" when Francis said the 1947 anti-austerity riots targeting Jews in England were an authentic form of populism to embrace, as recalled by Lowndes. [7] [25] Telos had ties with figures of the paleoconservative Chronicles magazine, and was sympathetic to the Lega Nord in Italy, though Telos' support for NATO military intervention against Serbia in 1999 to prevent ethnic cleansing was a tension with paleoconservatives. [5] [7]

Noting various criticisms, Timothy Luke, a Telos editor, described the journal in a 2005 remembrance of Piccone as "out beyond the margins of the established academy ... featuring the voices of alternative networks recruited from the contrary currents of many different intellectual traditions". [27] [28] According to Chaves, the journal "always maintained a critical distance from any party or political movement." [10] [ undue weight? – discuss ]Telos author John K. Bingley wrote in 2023 that "the clash of divergent opinions" is "at the core of [the journal's] identity." [29]

The journal is published by Telos Press Publishing and the editor-in-chief is David Pan. [30] It is affiliated with the Telos Institute, which hosts annual conferences, select papers from which are published in Telos.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, and Current Contents/Arts & Humanities. [31] According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2023 impact factor of 0.1. [32]

Telos Press Publishing

Telos Press Publishing was founded by Paul Piccone, the first editor-in-chief of Telos, and is the publisher of both the journal Telos as well as a separate book line. It is based in Candor, New York.

Related Research Articles

Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and a paternalistic strain of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, traditionalist conservatism, and non-interventionism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as with paleolibertarianism. By the start of the 21st century, the movement had begun to focus more on issues of race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Gottfried</span> American political philosopher (born 1941)

Paul Edward Gottfried is an American paleoconservative political philosopher, historian, and writer. He is a former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is editor-in-chief of the paleoconservative magazine Chronicles. He is an associated scholar at the Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank, and the US correspondent of Nouvelle École, a Nouvelle Droite journal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lew Rockwell</span> American libertarian author, editor, and political consultant (born 1944)

Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit promoting the Austrian School of economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Schmitt</span> German jurist and political theorist (1888–1985)

Carl Schmitt was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. He was present as a presiding legal expert during meetings where the decision to bypass the process of formulating a new constitution under the Third Reich was formalized. An approach that would nominally maintain the former constitution was adopted, even as the Leader Principle was promoted to a transcendent super-legal status. Schmitt claimed that the adoption of the Leader Principle in place of a legal constitution was legitimized by the presumed 'Volkisch' or racial constitution of the German people and their identification with Adolf Hitler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleolibertarianism</span> Right-wing political activism strategy

Paleolibertarianism is a right-libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention by using messages accessible to the working class and middle class people of the time. They combined libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state. The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Lasch</span> American historian (1932–1994)

Robert Christopher Lasch was an American historian, moralist and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiveness with which major institutions, public and private, were eroding the competence and independence of families and communities. Lasch strove to create a historically informed social criticism that could teach Americans how to deal with rampant consumerism, proletarianization, and what he famously labeled "the culture of narcissism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Wolin</span> American historian (born 1952)

Richard Wolin is an American intellectual historian who writes on 20th Century European philosophy, particularly German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the group of thinkers known collectively as the Frankfurt School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy J. Shapiro</span> American philosopher

Jeremy J. Shapiro, is an American academic, educational performance artist, translator, and activist. He is professor emeritus at Fielding Graduate University and works in the area of critical social theory with emphasis on the social and cultural effects of information technology and systems, social change, and the aesthetics of music. His main intellectual products/innovations include

Paul Piccone was an Italian-American philosopher, critical theorist, intellectual historian, and most notably the founder and long-time editor of the journal Telos.

Timothy W. Luke is university distinguished professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences as well as program chair of the Government and International Affairs Program, School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Neoconservatism and paleoconservatism are two major branches of the American conservative political movement. Representatives of each faction often argue that the other does not represent true conservatism. Disputed issues include immigration, trade, the United States Constitution, taxation, budget, business, the Federal Reserve, drug policy, foreign aid and the foreign policy of the United States.

The Rockford Institute was an American conservative think-tank associated with paleoconservatism, based in Rockford, Illinois. Founded in 1976, it ran the John Randolph Club and published the magazine Chronicles. In 2018 the Rockford Institute merged with the Charlemagne Institute, which became the new publisher of Chronicles. The Charlemagne Institute describes itself as "leading a cultural movement to defend and advance Western Civilization, the foundation of our American republic."

Mitchell Cohen is an author, essayist and critic, He is professor of political science at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center. From 1991 to 2009, he was co-editor of Dissent, one of the United States' leading intellectual quarterlies. He is now an Editor Emeritus.

Jean Louise Cohen is the Nell and Herbert Singer Professor of Political Thought at Columbia University. She specializes in contemporary political and legal theory with particular research interests in democratic theory, critical theory, civil society, gender and the law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telos Institute</span> Non-profit organization associated with the journal Telos

The Telos-Paul Piccone Institute (TPPI) is a 501(c) non-profit organization created in 2006 and incorporated in 2012 in memory of Italian-American philosopher and social theorist Paul Piccone, the founding editor of the scholarly journal Telos. The institute "develops new ideas for addressing the challenges of modernity worldwide through the resources of particular communities and traditions." Its board president is Russell A. Berman.

Andrew Arato is a professor of Political and Social Theory in the Department of Sociology at The New School, best known for his influential book Civil Society and Political Theory, coauthored with Jean L. Cohen. He is also known for his work on critical theory and constitutions and was from 1994 to 2014 co-editor of the journal Constellations with Nancy Fraser and Nadia Urbinati.

Elliot Neaman is a professor of history at the University of San Francisco, where he began teaching in 1993. He won the USF Distinguished Research Award in 1999. He received a BA from the University of British Columbia in 1980, an MA from the Free University of Berlin in 1985 and his Ph.D from UC Berkeley in 1992. He also studied with Paul Feyerabend and Paul Hoyningen-Huene in Zürich in 1981-82. His dissertation advisor in Berlin was Ernst Nolte. At Berkeley he studied with Martin Jay, Gerald Feldman, Hubertus Dreyfus and Martin Malia. Neaman was President of the University of San Francisco Faculty Association from 2005-2018. He is an expert in modern European intellectual history, especially twentieth century Germany. Neaman is also one of the editors of a Festschrift for his mentor from UC Berkeley, Prof. Martin Jay, called The Modernist Imagination. Neaman is also a staff writer for Tikkun Magazine and the German conservative publication Junge Freiheit. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Right-Wing Studies .https://escholarship.org/uc/jrws/editorialBoard

"Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory that misrepresents Western Marxism as being responsible for modern progressive movements, identity politics, and political correctness. The conspiracy theory posits that there is an ongoing and intentional academic and intellectual effort to subvert Western society via a planned culture war that undermines the supposed Christian values of traditionalist conservatism and seeks to replace them with culturally liberal values.

<i>Compact</i> (American magazine) Online political magazine

Compact is an American online magazine that began operating in March 2022. The magazine was co-founded by Edwin Aponte, a populist and founder of the online magazine The Bellows; Matthew Schmitz, previously an editor of the ecumenical religious journal First Things; and conservative Catholic opinion journalist Sohrab Ahmari. When Compact was launched, its listed contributors and contributing editors were described by The New York Times as ideologically diverse, including religiously conservative Catholics, populists, and dissident Marxist feminists. The magazine's editorial line is critical of liberalism from both the left and the right.

References

  1. 1 2 Gary Genosko with Kristina Marcellus, Back Issues: Periodicals and the Formation of Critical and Cultural Theory in Canada (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2019): 1-20.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Chaves, Elisabeth K. (2016). Reviewing Political Criticism: Journals, Intellectuals, and the State. Routledge. pp. 84–90. doi:10.4324/9781315606217. ISBN   978-1-315-60621-7.
  3. ↑ Stephen Eric Bronner, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2017): 87, 90.
  4. ↑ "About Telos". Telos Press. Retrieved December 9, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Ashbee, Edward (March 2000). "Politics of paleoconservatism". Society. 37 (3): 75–84. doi:10.1007/BF02686179.
  6. 1 2 3 Sedgwick, Mark (2019). "Paul Gottfried and paleoconservatism". In Sedgwick, Mark J. (ed.). Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the new threat to liberal democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN   978-0-19-087760-6. The Telos group formed in 1968 as a New Left publication and group, only to turn toward conservatism by the 1980s and 1990s.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Lowndes, Joseph (August 7, 2017). "From New Class Critique to White Nationalism: Telos, the Alt Right, and the Origins of Trumpism". Konturen . 9: 8–12. doi: 10.5399/uo/konturen.9.0.3977 .
  8. ↑ Telos Press, "Masthead," https://www.telospress.com/masthead
  9. ↑ Jacoby, Russell (June 13, 2008). "Consider This: Paul Piccone: Outside Academe". Chronicle of Higher Education . 54, n. 40 (1): B6 –B7.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Elisabeth K. Chaves, "Writing that W/rights Politics?—An Examination of the Re-viewing Practices of Telos, The Public Interest, and the Journal as an Institution of Criticism," doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, June 2, 2011, 178, 174, available at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstreams/a8d04950-234f-47f3-a153-b4f7d382624d/download
  11. ↑ Genosko, Gary (2004). "The Arrival of Jean Baudrillard in English Translation: Mark Poster and Telos Press". International Journal of Baudrillard Studies . 1 (2).
  12. ↑ Luke, Timothy (2005). "The Trek with Telos: A Remembrance of Paul Piccone (January 17, 1940 — July 12, 2004)". Fast Capitalism. 1 (2): 137–141. doi: 10.32855/fcapital.200502.015 .
  13. ↑ Kenneth Anderson, "Telos, the critical theory journal and its blog," November 18, 2007.
  14. ↑ Surrealist Intervention: Papers Presented by the Surrealist Group at the Second International TELOS Conference (Buffalo, NY), November 1971, 2; see also Abigail Susik, "Chicago Surrealism, Herbert Marcuse, and the Affirmation of the 'Present and Future Viability of Surrealism," Journal of Surrealism and the Americas 11:1 (2020), 42-62, available at https://jsa-asu.org/index.php/JSA/article/download/23/20/115
  15. 1 2 Braune, Joan (2019). "Who's Afraid of the Frankfurt School? "Cultural Marxism" as an Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory" (PDF). Journal of Social Justice. 9 (2164–7100): 1–25.
  16. ↑ Ohana, David (July 3, 2019). "Carl Schmitt's Legal Fascism". Politics, Religion & Ideology . 20 (3): 273–300. doi:10.1080/21567689.2019.1656073. ISSN   2156-7689.
  17. ↑ Timothy W. Luke, "The Trek with Telos: A Rememberance[sic] of Paul Piccone (January 19, 1940—July 12, 2004), Fast Capitalism 1 (2) (2005), https://fastcapitalism.uta.edu/1_2/luke.html; Telos Staff, "Populism vs. the New Class," Telos 88 (Summer 1991), 2-36, 6.
  18. ↑ Danny Postel, "The metamorphosis of Telos," In These Times, April 21-30, 1991.
  19. ↑ Russell Jacoby, The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (New York: Basic Books, 1987): 151-52.
  20. ↑ Jennifer M. Lehmann, Social Theory as Politics in Knowledge (New York: Emerald Group Publishing, 2005): 81-82.
  21. ↑ https://www.telospress.com/masthead/
  22. 1 2 3 Drolet, Jean-Francois; Williams, Michael C (February 2022). "From critique to reaction: The new right, critical theory and international relations". Journal of International Political Theory . 18 (1): 23–45. doi: 10.1177/17550882211020409 .
  23. ↑ Bar-On, Tamir (2011). "Transnationalism and the French Nouvelle Droite". Patterns of Prejudice . 45 (3): 199–223. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2011.585013. ISSN   0031-322X.
  24. 1 2 Minkowitz, Donna (December 8, 2017). "The Racist Right Looks Left". The Nation . Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  25. 1 2 Drolet, Jean-François; Williams, Michael C. (January 2, 2020). "America first: paleoconservatism and the ideological struggle for the American right". Journal of Political Ideologies . 25 (1): 28–50. doi:10.1080/13569317.2020.1699717.
  26. ↑ "Populism and the New Politics" (conference announcement), back matter, New German Critique 61 (Winter 1994), back matter (behind paywall), https://www.jstor.org/stable/488627
  27. ↑ "Timothy W. Luke, "The Trek with Telos: A Rememberance[sic] of Paul Piccone (January 19, 1940—July 12, 2004), Fast Capitalism 1 (2) (2005), https://fastcapitalism.uta.edu/1_2/luke.html
  28. ↑ "Timothy W. Luke". liberalarts.vt.edu. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
  29. ↑ Bingley, John K. (September 21, 2023). "Diversity and the End of Deference". Telos. 2023 (204): 155–162. doi:10.3817/0923204155.
  30. ↑ "About the Editor". Telos Press. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  31. ↑ "Web of Science Master Journal List". Intellectual Property & Science. Clarivate . Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  32. ↑ "Telos". 2023 Journal Citation Reports (Social Sciences/Arts and Humanities ed.). Clarivate. 2024 – via Web of Science.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.