Name: Kant and Freedom by Why Theory
Duration: 1 h 20 min 6 s
Description: In this episode, Ryan and Todd explore the radicality of Immanuel Kant's notion of freedom, which he ties to our ability to give the moral law to ourselves. This paradox that the law is the source of our freedom serves as the basis for a discussion that touches both Kant's place in the history of philosophy and his relationship to psychoanalysis.

We create the moral law but we experience it as though it is external, eternal and should be obeyed.  How can we escape the conclusion that it only comes about due to our ability to  empathise or at least do the good to later get the good? 

This doesn't detract from the fact that we give ourselves law and then demonstrate our freedom by choosing to obey or transgress it, but it does disabuse us of the idea that the Categorical imperative is a real entity. 

Don't we need to introduce contradiction here into the discussion of law and freedom? Isn't the reason that the law opens up a space for freedom, the fact that it is self-contradictory? For instance, for Antigone, it's impossible to fulfill both the state law and the moral law. This impossible double bind opens up the space for the ethical act. And perhaps in this context we might say that freedom is the freedom to violate particular laws, in order to assert a universal moral law. But how does that relate to enjoyment?

It's interesting that the argument that it's okay to lie if it has a positive outcome, assumes that we can know the results of our actions in advance--something I think a Hegelian would deny. You can't use ends to justify means if the ends are indeterminate.

It seems to me that this points to an ethics of sublimation and of the production of libidinal economy (and ecology); and again, what is missing in the discussion is the role of TECHNIQUE and REHEARSAL, probably because psychoanalysis wants to be a master discourse and reduces questions of the techniques of living, to techniques of the clinic. But isn't the difference between the artist who self-destructs and dies young, and the artist who suffers but creates a metastable psychic life that allows for a lifetime of productivity, precisely a question of techniques of life and art?

I really like this idea of opposing structure-preserving transgressions against structural transformations. But of course, it gets especially interesting when we realize that we need to preserve some structures (ecosystems, human bodies) while transforming others (capitalism). We want to avoid transformations of capitalism, that would result in mass human extinction, as opposed to the neonazi/ecofascist/accelerationist versions of anti-capitalism, which accept or actively seek mass human extinction in order to end capitalism.

Every time I enter a whorehouse, I feel free, knowing I'm going to be hung afterwards

imo the musical parellel of kant would be pantera, who had a career in the 80s as a power metal band releasing four albums before their original sound of southern thrash. so in this analogy, Kant's CPrR is comparable to Vulgar Display of Power

Thanks for your replies.  This is going to sound really stupid, but where does the signifying order come from? 

What about if moral laws conflict? For example, the old example of the Gestapo coming to your door, the duty not to lie, but also the duty to protect the innocent? What if it is impossible to uphold them both. What would Kant say regarding which should take precedence?

Premiered by Riot Ensemble and Tyler Bouque. Conducted by Aaron Holloway-Nahum.
Commissioned by the Gaudeamus Foundation.

For Baritone, Soprano, Bass Clarinet, Trombone, Double Bass, and Percussion
no processing or fixed media (in the traditional sense)

consumed; teeth shut (2022)for Baritone, Soprano, Bass Clarinet, Trombone, Double Bass, & Percussion

riss 2
für Ensemble
Ensemble Modern/Leitung : Lucas Vis
Kompositionsauftrag der Alten Oper Frankfurt
für Stephan Pauly und das Ensemble Modern
UA am 30.09.14 in der Alten Oper Frankfurt
(Foto: Pierre Reimer)

riss 2 für ensemble

ꋪꍟꉣꍟ꒒꒒ꀤꈤꁅ ꍏ꓄꓄ꋪꍏꉓ꓄ꂦꋪꌗ
Electronic piece for stereo audio support

Year — 2024
Duration — 10'38''
Première — tbd
Informations — Based on strange attractor models, ꋪꍟꉣꍟ꒒꒒ꀤꈤꁅ ꍏ꓄꓄ꋪꍏꉓ꓄ꂦꋪꌗ oscillates between states of equilibrium and non-periodic phases, repetitions and sudden bifurcations. The result is a very organic and fluid composition stretched or atomized in space — the material staggering from explosive bursts of percussive, noisy impacts to static but recurrent drones. The whole system expands gesturally from complex, chaotic activity to full suspension state — like an unpredictable, non-linear, yet adaptive and self-sustaining ecosystem.

ꋪꍟꉣꍟ꒒꒒ꀤꈤꁅ ꍏ꓄꓄ꋪꍏꉓ꓄ꂦꋪꌗ

From the album Videoman - Objective (2024) https://stylar.bandcamp.com/album/objective

Objective

Change

Videoman - Change

Ryan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.

Blue Velvet

LUDWIG BERGER - SPECIES LONELINESS
Cat #: OUS051
Release date: March 29, 2024
Distributed by Kudos: https://kudosdistribution.co.uk
Label Bandcamp: https://ousooo.bandcamp.com

«I wanted to revisit the sound worlds of 1970s eco-horror films, a time of growing fears about environmental consequences. Today, we no longer fear the revenge of frogs or insects; we are mourning their vanishing. My music channels the eerie, anticipatory dread of those films into a contemporary lament for what’s been lost and a search for what might still be restored.» — @ludwigberger

Leading up to his first ‘fictional’ album «Garden of Ediacara», which will be released on May 3rd via -OUS,  landscape sound artist Ludwig Berger presents the EP «Species Loneliness».

Building on an extensive and acclaimed body of work in sound art, field recordings, installation and performance, as well as music for film and theatre, the EP «Species Loneliness» and the subsequent  album «Garden of Ediacara» mark a shift in Berger’s creative work. But as he enters the realm of ‘fictional’ music by engaging with environmental emotions, he still relies on his far-reaching practice as a close listener and archivist of unheard sounds.

With «Species Loneliness», Berger explores a yearning for interspecies connection on a damaged planet. The six track EP presents a set of muted songs that are haunted by echoes of eco-horror and eco-gothic films of the past century, while interwoven raw field recordings create the space to breathe. The tracks center around the term of «Species Loneliness» — an ecological form of isolation and solitude. It expresses the feeling of homesickness while being at home, arising from the loss of natural habitats and the decline of biodiversity. Through layers of degraded samples, eco-nostalgia runs through the EP, longing for meaningful relationships obscured in the shadows of the Anthropocene.

Ludwig Berger is a landscape sound artist, educator and musician. In his compositions, installations and performances, he enables intimate and playful sonic encounters with plants, animals, buildings and geological entities. In his musical work, Berger produces sonic eco-fictions with processed and synthetic sounds.  He has composed sound and music for award-winning films and theatre pieces and curated the landscape sound festival ‘Sonic Topologies’ in Zurich. He is also founder and curator of the label Vertical Music, which releases field recordings and experimental music. 

Berger holds degrees in electroacoustic composition, as well as musicology, art history and literature. As a sound researcher and teacher at the Institute for Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich from 2015-2022, he studied the sonic dimension of Japanese gardens, alpine glaciers and urban landscapes, which among other things led to the release of the acclaimed album trilogy ‘Melting Landscapes’, ‘Dammed Landscapes’ and ‘Buried Landscapes’.

CREDITS
Written and produced by Ludwig Berger 
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Album cover by Paulin Rogues

Species Loneliness

Sea of Decay

Buy on Bandcamp

Ludwig Berger - Species Loneliness - 1 - Sea Of Decay

Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.

Seminar 7

for Soprano and Bass Flute
First performed and recorded by Juliet Fraser and Helen Bledsoe May 2018 at The Gaol, Louth Ireland.

O Yes & I (2017)

In this episode, Ryan and Todd explore the radicality of Immanuel Kant's notion of freedom, which he ties to our ability to give the moral law to ourselves. This paradox that the law is the source of our freedom serves as the basis for a discussion that touches both Kant's place in the history of philosophy and his relationship to psychoanalysis.

Kant and Freedom

Gris souris - Sophie Delafontaine - 2017

Ardoise noire de brune
Ardoise gris souris
Ardoise bleue de lune
Satin du matin
Velours de la nuit
Ardoise éblouie

extrait de « Ardoises » de Jacques Prévert

Gris souris

Take from the album Synopsis Seriation reelased as 2CD and Digital

Hecker 'Synopsis Seriation (1/2) (excerpt)' (EMEGO 256)

Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.

Kant and Freedom

Why Theory

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