Anarchives – Differential Moments of Affirmation through Revolutionary Love

"In order to counter the idea that there is no way out of the grand narratives of separation between the Western, dominant modes of production of knowledge, art and politics and the opposing ones, anchored either in the movements of liberation of the Third World or in the transition from the ex-Communist to a global capitalist model, I propose a type of practice that I call revolutionary love. This practice may generate a space of “differential consciousness” (Sandoval), related to a space of “relational matrices,” which involves discord and dissension, “adventitious growth,” and “surplus movements” (Massumi). Revolutionary love is poetically transcribed in the micropolitical gestures of anarchives – a toxic input that can free desire from the imperceptible repressions it is obeying."

Historicizing Hermann von Helmholtz’s Psychology of Differentiation

Nineteenth-century scientist Hermann von Helmholtz’s peculiar wavering between empiricism and transcendentalism in his philosophy of science in general, and in his theory of perception in particular, is a much debated and well-documented topic in the history and philosophy of science. This contribution aims at providing a fresh angle on this classical issue, by considering Helmholtz’s account of differential consciousness against the background of a centuries-old philosophical debate between the (strict) empiricist tradition and the tradition of transcendental idealism. By placing Helmholtz’s psychology against the background of a historical narrative stretching from Hume to Fichte, one can gain insight into the possible merits of his empirico-transcendentalism with regard to the problem of differentiation. More particularly, it is argued that Helmholtz’s psychology tilted towards transcendentalism when met with the classical theoretical problems of strict empiricism in dealing with the foundation of consciousness, most notably circularity and infinite regress. Without claiming that Helmholtz’s theorizing presented a self-conscious attempt to overcome the latter issues, his well-known wavering between perspectives in general, and his appropriation of the a priori in particular, might have served him well in avoiding the deadlocks of empiricism. As noted at the end, however, Helmholtz’s account produced complex philosophical problems of its own.

Occupying a Middle Space: Toward a Mestiza Sport Studies

In this paper, the author explores the usefulness of Chicana feminist scholarship for sport studies. Gloria Anzaldua’s concept of mestizaje, Maria Lugones’s concept of coalescence, and Chela Sandoval’s concept of differential consciousness are relied upon to assert the relevance of Chicana scholarship for sport studies. More specifically the paper focuses on the usefulness of such scholarship for identifying the ways that citizen-subjects both align with and resist dominant ideologies in everyday life. Interviews with former and current softball athletes of various Latina/o ethnicities are used to illustrate the occupation of a middle space and the usefulness of a mestiza sport studies.