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Title: From German communist antifascism to a contemporary united front
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2021
Abstract: Dr. Devin Z. Shaw (Douglas College) writes the book chapter From German communist antifascism to a contemporary united front (2021).
Subject(s): Anti-Nazi movement--Germany, Anti-fascist movements--Germany--History--20th century, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Communists--Germany--History--20th century, Germany--History--1933-1945
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Review of the book How Fascism Works, by J. Stanley
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2020
Abstract: Dr. Devin Z. Shaw (Douglas College) reviews the book How fascism works, by J. Stanley (2020).
Subject(s): Stanley, Jason--How fascism works : the politics of us and them, Fascism--Book reviews, Polarization (Social sciences)--Political aspects--Book reviews
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Inaesthetics and truth: The debate between Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2007
Abstract: In this essay I attempt to defend Badiou's conception of inaesthetics, drawn from the Handbook of Inaesthetics, from the pertinent criticisms of Rancière. In doing so, it is possible to delimit the intra-philosophical effects (truth effects) of artistic events (this combination being the domain of inaesthetics). Badiou can be defended from all of Rancière's objections, save the objection that inaesthetics asserts a 'propriety of art.' However, in granting this objection, it is possible to open a different question regarding Badiou's work: what is the status of Badiou's comments on art outside of the Handbook of Inaesthetics? Through a reading of Le siècle, I show that, for Badiou, the importance of art extends beyond inaesthetics to other domains of thought. Yet Badiou has yet to answer the question of how art and truth relate outside of the domain of inaesthetics.
Subject(s): Philosophy, Philosophy, Modern--20th century, Philosophy, Modern--21st century, Politics and government--Philosophy, Aesthetics, Truth, Truth (Aesthetics)
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Cansolv CO2 capture: The value of integration
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2009
Abstract: If CO2 emissions are to be reduced to control global warming, many large scale projects will need to be executed on a short term that capture and sequester the CO2. Most studies to date have focused on CO2 capture from power plant flue gas and concluded that the cost of CO2 scrubbing is in itself expensive and that more mature and efficient technologies are needed. CO2 emission control is also complicated by the need to provide SO2 and NOx emission control as well. Burner modifications can be used to control NOx, but other scrubbing technologies are needed to control SO2 emissions. For high sulfur coals, limestone scrubbing is generally applied, adding to the cost of power through purchases of limestone reagent and disposal of by-product gypsum. Cansolv has evolved amine based regenerable technologies that capture SO2 and CO2 and that release them in a water wet, nearly pure condition. SO2 can be converted to sulfuric acid and CO2 can be dried, compressed and sequestered without further treatment. Most importantly, energy used to capture SO2 can be recycled to help capture CO2, reducing the net energy demand of the CO2 process. The use of these two technologies together allows power companies to use higher sulfur, lower cost fuels and reduce energy consumption rates for CO2 capture. By-product sulfuric acid from the SO2 scrubbing system also provides a ready source of revenue to offset scrubbing costs. Cansolv has proven its SO2 scrubbing technologies in commercial applications since 2002. It has operated CO2 pilot plants at several different locations, logging over 6,000 hours of operation. The two technologies will come together in an integrated system, in a plant designed to generate 50 tons per day of CO2, which will start up in 2009. This paper presents important design and performance advantages of these systems.
Subject(s): Carbon dioxide, Carbon dioxide capture, Air--Pollution--Control, Sulfur dioxide, Sulfur dioxide mitigation, Amines, Sulfuric acid
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Cartesian egalitarianism: From Poullain de la Barre to Rancière
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2012
Abstract: This essay presents an overview of what I call “Cartesian egalitarianism,” a current of political thought that runs from François Poullain de la Barre, through Simone de Beauvoir, to Jacques Rancière. The impetus for this egalitarianism, I argue, is derived from Descartes’ supposition that “good sense” or “reason” is equally distributed among all people. Although Descartes himself limits the egalitarian import of this supposition, I claim that we can nevertheless identify three features of this subsequent tradition or tendency. First, Cartesian egalitarians think political agency as a practice of subjectivity. Second, they share the supposition that there is an equality of intelligences and abilities shared by all human beings. Third, these thinkers conceptualize politics as a processing of a wrong, meaning that politics initiates new practices through which those who were previously oppressed assert themselves as self-determining political subjects.
Subject(s): Egalitarianism, Political philosophy, Feminism--Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: The nothingness of equality: "The 'Sartrean existentialism' of Jacques Rancière"
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2012
Abstract: In this essay, I propose a mutually constructive reading of the work of Jacques Rancière and Jean-Paul Sartre. On the one hand, I argue that Rancière's egalitarian political thought owes several important conceptual debts to Sartre's Being and Nothingness, especially in his use of the concepts of freedom, contingency and facticity. These concepts play a dual role in Rancière's thought. First, he appropriates them to show how the formation of subjectivity through freedom is a dynamic that introduces new ways of speaking, being and doing, instead of being a mode of assuming an established identity. Second, Rancière uses these concepts to demonstrate the contingency of any situation or social order, a contingency that is the possibility of egalitarian praxis. On the other hand, I also argue that reading Sartre with Rancière makes possible the reconstruction of Sartre's project within the horizon of freedom and equality rather than that of authenticity.
Subject(s): Equality, Contingency (Philosophy), Existentialism
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence: Biopolitics and the state of exception
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2006
Abstract: In this essay, I attempt to show that the “war on terror” intensifies the use of biopolitical techniques. One such example, which I take as a point of departure, is Guantánamo Bay. We must place this camp in its proper genealogy with the many camps of the twentieth century. However, this genealogy is not a genealogy of the extremes of political space during and after the twentieth century; it is a genealogy of the transformation of political space itself. I will attempt to show this in three steps: first, a description and critique of the biopolitical in both Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, who I take as exemplary in their analyses; second, an analysis of contemporary biopolitical techniques (including the camp), which enables us to avoid the liberal-democratic ideological misunderstanding of the war on terror; and third, a discussion regarding resistance to biopolitical techniques.
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: 'Animals, those incessant somnambulists’: A critique of Schelling’s anthropocentrism
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author), S.J. McGrath (editor), Joseph Carew (editor)
Date: 2016
Abstract: The ‘death’ of German Idealism has been decried innumerable times since its revolutionary inception, whether it be by the 19th-century critique of Western metaphysics, phenomenology, contemporary French philosophy, or analytic philosophy. Yet in the face of two hundred years of sustained, extremely rigorous attempts to leave behind its legacy, German Idealism has resisted its philosophical death sentence. For this exact reason it is timely ask: What remains of German Idealism? In what ways does its fundamental concepts and texts still speak to us? Drawing together new and established voices from scholars in Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling, this volume offers a fresh look on this time-honoured tradition. It uses myriad of recently developed conceptual tools to present new and challenging theories of its now canonical figures. From publisher description.
Subject(s): Idealism, German, Philosophy, German, Philosophy, German--19th century, Philosophy, German--18th century
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Egalitarian moments: From Descartes to Rancière
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2016
Abstract: Drawing on the claim that egalitarian politics persistently appropriates elements from political philosophy to engage new forms of dissensus, Devin Zane Shaw argues that Rancière's work also provides an opportunity to reconsider modern philosophy and aesthetics in light of the question of equality. In Part I, Shaw examines Rancière's philosophical debts to the 'good sense' of Cartesian egalitarianism and the existentialist critique of identity. In Part II, he outlines Rancière's critical analyses of Walter Benjamin and Clement Greenberg and offers a reinterpretation of Rancière's debate with Alain Badiou in light of the philosophical differences between Schiller and Schelling. From engaging debates about political subjectivity from Descartes to Sartre, to delineating the egalitarian stakes in aesthetics and the philosophy of art from Schiller to Badiou, this book presents a concise tour through a series of egalitarian moments found within the histories of modern philosophy and aesthetics. From publisher description.
Subject(s): Equality--Philosophy, Political science--Philosophy, Existentialism, Philosophy and aesthetics
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Freedom and nature in Schelling's philosophy of art
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2010
Abstract: Schelling is often thought to be a protean thinker whose work is difficult to approach or interpret. Devin Zane Shaw shows that the philosophy of art is the guiding thread to understanding Schelling's philosophical development from his early works in 1795-1796 through his theological turn in 1809-1810. Schelling's philosophy of art is the 'keystone' of the system; it unifies his idea of freedom and his philosophy of nature. Schelling's idea of freedom is developed through a critique of the formalism of Kant's and Fichte's practical philosophies, and his nature-philosophy is developed to show how subjectivity and objectivity emerge from a common source in nature. The philosophy of art plays a dual role in the system. First, Schelling argues that artistic activity produces through the artwork a sensible realization of the ideas of philosophy. Second, he argues that artistic production creates the possibility of a new mythology that can overcome the socio-political divisions that structure the relationships between individuals and society. Shaw's careful analysis shows how art, for Schelling, is the highest expression of human freedom. From publisher description.
Subject(s): Art--Philosophy, Idealism, German, Philosophy, German, Philosophy, German--18th century, Philosophy, German--19th century
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: The “keystone” of the system: Schelling’s philosophy of art
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author), M Altman (editor)
Date: 2014
Abstract: The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism features essays from leading scholars on German philosophy. It is the most comprehensive secondary source available, covering not only the full range of work by Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, but also idealists such as Reinhold and Schopenhauer, critics such as Jacobi, Maimon, and the German Romantics. Part of the "Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism" series. From publisher description.
Subject(s): Idealism, German, Philosophy, German, Philosophy, German--19th century, Philosophy, German--18th century, Art--Philosophy
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: "Reading Ranciere's Disagreement today: Politics, policing, and the extreme right"
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2018
Abstract: Conference paper presented at The Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy (CSCP)annual conference November 15-17 (2018), Calgary, Alberta. In this talk I revisit Rancière’s politics as it is set forth in his landmark book Disagreement (1995). I argue that his politics involves a practice of both the symbolization of equality and the subversion or destruction of hierarchical relations of force or command that implement oppressive social relations. Then, I will argue that, by emphasizing the way that egalitarian politics combats reified structures of command, coercion, force, or violence, we can draw a sharp opposition between our egalitarian politics and the so-called “political” mobilization of the extreme right, which, on Rancière’s account, would be a form policing rather than politics.
Subject(s): Political science--Philosophy, Ranciere, Jacques--Criticism and interpretation, Equality--Analysis
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: 'Command that does not command': Reconsidering Rancière's opposition of politics and policing
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2020
Abstract: Since the publication of his last book-length political polemic, 'Hatred of Democracy' (2005), the work of Jacques Rancière has generally focused on developing the conceptual and historical features of his account of aesthetics. With the recent publication of his 2009 debate with Axel Honneth, 'Recognition or Disagreement?' (2016), we have good reason to return to his political thought as it is outlined in 'Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy' (1995) and related texts such as his “Ten The ses on Politics” (1998). Programmatically speaking, Rancière conceives of politics as a practice of dissensus enacted in the name of equality. But in examining the debate between Rancière and Honneth, Jean-Philippe Deranty and Katia Genel have recently sought to reframe Rancière’s account of dissensus in the terms of Honneth’s theory of recognition. Drawing on the subtitle of Disagreement, it is necessary to critique Deranty and Genel both at the level of politics and how this politics implicates philosophy. Elsewhere, I have already indicated how reframing dissensus as a form of the politics of recognition blunts the radicality of Rancière’s methodological commitments. I will not revisit these claims here. Instead, I would like to dispel the assumption that makes this “recognition” reading—as one variant of a generally liberal reading of Rancière—possible. On this assump tion, Rancière holds that dissensual speech is political action. As Deranty writes, “politics in Disagreement is a battle of justifications, mainly a battle about what counts as justification and who is entitled to proffer and expect justifications.” But Rancière’s work isn’t about how to distribute social goods and allocate duties and entitlements to such a degree that we will willingly accept inequalities in our societies. So I will argue, by contrast, that for Rancière speech functions as a me tonymy for a broader praxis of egalitarian, dissensual politics. More specifically, I will contend that Rancière’s egalitarian politics entails two forms of praxis: the symbolization of equality through dissensus and the subversion or elimination of relationships of command, coercion, or force implemented by regimes of policing.
Subject(s): Rancière, Jacques--Criticism and interpretation, Rancière, Jacques--Political and social views, Law enforcement--Political aspects, Law enforcement--Philosophy
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Review of the book Critiquing Brahmanism: A collection of essays, by K. Murali (Ajith)
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2020
Abstract: Dr. Devin Zane Shaw (Douglas College) reviews the book Critiquing Brahmanism: A collection of essays, by K. Murali (Ajith) (2020).
Subject(s): Murali, K.--Critiquing Brahmanism, Capitalism--Religious aspects--Brahmanism--Book reviews, Brahmanism--Book reviews
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: On necrocapitalism: A plague journal
Author(s): M.I. Asma (author), J. Moufawad-Paul (author), Devin Z. Shaw (author), Mateo Andante (author), Johannah M. Black (author), Alyson Escalante (author), D. W. Fairlane (author)
Date: 2021
Abstract: M.I. Asma is the collective designation for six authors from Canada and the United States, representing a variety of revolutionary anticapitalist theoretical persuasions: J. Moufawad-Paul, Devin Zane Shaw, Mateo Andante, Johannah May Black, Alyson Escalante, and D. W. Fairlane. As the pandemic transitioned from science fiction to reality in early 2020, a number of writers and thinkers in the imperialist metropoles declared the impossibility of writing in the face of a future that is foreclosed. And yet, due to the nightmare that capitalism has been since its beginning, numerous writers and thinkers from the margins have always written in the face of such foreclosure. Meanwhile, other contemporary thinkers sought to conceptualize the unfolding pandemic according to conceptions of bio/necropolitics, forgetting the foundation upon which these conceptions have always existed. The M.I. Asma writing group came together to stake out a different terrain, thinking through the pandemic as events unfolded while also always working to think beyond the capitalist imaginary. Writing between April 2020 and May 2021, the authors set out to produce a serial theoretical philosophical project focused on class struggle in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors approached the pandemic as an occasion to think capitalism according to what it always has been, what the pandemic reveals about its current ideological deployment, and how we can think about a communist alternative in the face of exterminism. This book collects, with some revisions and with a new epilogue, the entries from the On Necrocapitalism blog, where M.I. Asma’s interventions first appeared.
Subject(s): Capitalism--Social aspects, COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020---Social aspects, COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020---Political aspects, COVID-19 (Disease)--Social aspects, COVID-19 (Disease)--Political aspects
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: The politics of the blockade
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2020
Abstract: Summary: "This pamphlet contains two essays on antifascist theory and practice within settler-colonial societies, with a specific focus on Indigenous-settler solidarity praxis (written from an anti-fascist settler perspective) in what is presently called Canada."--From preface.
Subject(s): Anti-fascist movements, Fascism, White supremacy movements, Right-wing extremists, Settler colonialism--Canada, Decolonization--Canada, Sovereignty--Canada, Indigenous peoples--Canada--Government relations, Canada--Social conditions--21st century
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Philosophy of antifascism: Punching Nazis and fighting white supremacy
Author(s): Devin Z. Shaw (author)
Date: 2020
Abstract: "Through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir, with some reference to Fanon and Sartre, this book identifies the philosophical reasons for the political action being enacted by contemporary antifascists. In addition, using the work of Jacques Rancière, it argues that the alt-right and the far right aren’t a kind of politics at all, but rather forms of parapolitical and paramilitary mobilization aimed at re-entrenching the power of the state and capital. Devin Shaw argues that in order to resist fascist mobilization, contemporary movements find a diversity of tactics more useful than principled nonviolence. Antifascism must focus on the systemic causes of the re-emergence of fascism, and thus must fight capital accumulation and the underlying white supremacism. Providing new, incisive interpretations of Beauvoir, existentialism, and Rancière, he makes the case for organizing a broader militant movement against fascism."--From publisher description.
Department: Philosophy, Humanities and Social Sciences