I’m from Cambridge, England, and there are a few Real Tennis courts there. I got to play it once when I was at school. It's a game that is the origin of tennis and squash etc. The word Real here originates from the word Royal. You have a weird ball, a weird racket and a weird asymmetric court with all sorts of strange architectural features. There’s a weird way of scoring: there are lines on the ground called chases… if you “cut to the chase” then you change the way a certain set is scored or played to your own advantage.. you get the drama quicker.. it’s a foggy memory but I’ve believed that that’s the origin of the phrase..

In German to fall in love is translated with "sich verlieben", using a prefix that is often (but not exclusively) associated with excess, and making mistakes. "Verlaufen" means to lose one's way (ver + laufen=walk/run),  and "verschlafen" means to oversleep (ver + schlafen=sleep). "Versprechen", amusingly, means both to promise and to inadvertently say something one didn't mean to say. Maybe "to fall in love" in German is then a state of being excessively and uncontrollably in love? It is the common translation of "being in love" as well, which I feel lends itself nicely to extend the falling-ness of being in love.

ok, so what is Love for one individual AND even IF this can only happen between the 2, what if the second party isn't having a similar experience- does that even matter?  But a bigger problem, imo, here is, how can anyone possit that no individual...

todd’s argument that love is a contradiction is the exact opposite of kant’s argument for the dignity of subjectivity in the Groundwork (all subjects have inalienable value as ends in themselves because they determine the value of all other ends)

the claim that “one plus one is equal to two” is a synthetic judgement was the claim in kant’s metaphysics which confused me most on first reading and i increasingly suspect its one of the best insights

i think the “event of the three” is a pretty strong argument but i think this argument is a complete miss. the throuple is not two (or three) couples any more than the couple is two ones

the English translation of Lacan on love is off   Lacan translated to Spanish: "Amar es dar lo que no se tiene, a quien no es" means "Give what you don't have to someone who is not.

Ryan and Todd pick up their discussion of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit with an exploration of the "Spirit" section of this book. They probe into Hegel's conception of Sittlichkeit (or the ethical order) and his investment in the act of getting one's hands dirty ethically and politically.

Hegel's Spirit

In their penultimate episode on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Ryan and Todd analyze the religion section of the book. They focus most on the comic work of art and the revealed religion sections as they try to make sense of why Hegel gives religion such a prominent place in the Phenomenology.

Ryan was recently a guest discussing graduate student conferences, which one can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/lclcoralhistory
 
Barry Manilow’s “misunderstood” Dr. Pepper song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyonMvAh1Bw

Hegel's Religion

Ryan and Todd conclude their series on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit with a discussion of the Absolute Knowing section. They explore the relationship between this section and the rest of the book as well as considering what this section has to say about the relationship between mediation and immediacy.

Hegel's Absolute Knowing

Ryan and Todd discuss the diagnostic categories of psychoanalysis, beginning with neurosis. They analyze the three forms of neurosis--hysteria, obsession, and phobia--while also focusing on the different manifestations of these three forms in the contemporary political arena.

Neurosis

Ryan and Todd explore the philosophical concept of the event, tracing its trajectory through three thinkers--Martin Heidegger, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek. They make this discussion concrete with an extended discussion of the current revolutionary feminist actions occurring in Iran.

Event

Ryan and Todd provide an introduction to the philosopher of contemporary French thinker Alain Badiou. They begin with his insistence on the importance of mathematics and then move on to his understanding of truth in relation to the event. They also discuss the contrast between Badiou and Hegel.

Badiou

Ryan and Todd trace the history of how thinkers have dealt with the problem of love--the varying definitions of love, the view of love's role in society, and love's philosophical importance. They begin with Plato's Symposium, touch on the New Testament, explore the role of love in Hegel's thought, discuss Badiou's love event, and conclude with the psychoanalytic conception of love, as developed by Jacques Lacan and Mari Ruti.

Love

This is a special Why Theory episode that was recorded live at the Impakt Festival that took place in Utrecht, Netherlands. Ryan and Todd discuss the theme of the festival--"the curse of smooth operations"--in terms of our relationship to technology. They question how technology provides enjoyment for us. 

The introduction ends at 4:53, and the question and answer period starts at 57:48.

Technology

Ryan and Todd discuss the role that debt plays in the structure of capitalist society and in the psyche necessary for sustaining this society. They explore debt as a subject matter in film and television, as well as debt's relationship to the lacking subject.

Debt

In an annual attempt to theorize the Christmas film, Ryan and Todd examine the concept of the misfit in three famous stop-motion Christmas films from the 1960s and 1970s: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They discover the politics of nonbelonging at work in these films as it is figured through the idea of the misfit.

Clips:
We’re a Couple of Misfits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDHF08vEZTg)

The Island of Misfit Toys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6GbKciNCY)

Silver and Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY-XDQN6ipE)

 The First Toymakers to the King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8NSlCUAI4M)
 
My World is Beginning Today (Jessica’s Trippy 2001/ Vertigo song; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCq34_49Ws)
 
Snow Miser (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPrbccEdI5o)
 
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (Springsteen; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76WFkKp8Tjs)
 
Father Christmas (The Kinks; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPPCPqDINEk)

Misfit Christmas

Ryan and Todd engage with Freud's late essay "Negation" (1923). They look at the radical insights that he comes to as well as address the moments where he leaves various theoretical points undeveloped. They make a claim for the outsized importance of this brief essay.

Negation

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

Love

Why Theory

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