In Embodiment and the Meaning of Life Jeff Noonan presents pessimism and technotopianism as two s... more In Embodiment and the Meaning of Life Jeff Noonan presents pessimism and technotopianism as two sides of the same coin, as both begin from the premise that the limitations of embodied life are inherently negative. He argues that rather than rendering life pointless, the tragic failures that mark life are fundamental to the good of human existence. The necessary limitations of embodied being are challenges for each person to live well, not only for their own sake, but for the sake of the future of the human project. Meaning is not a given, Noonan suggests, but rather the product of labour upon ourselves, others, and the world. Meaningful labour is threatened equally by unjust social systems and runaway technological development that aims to replace human action, rather than liberate it.
Alternate routes: a journal of Critical Social Research, 2011
All varieties of socialism share this trait in common: they are systematic alternatives to capita... more All varieties of socialism share this trait in common: they are systematic alternatives to capitalism. But why should a systematic alternative to capitalism be necessary? Has it not proven to be the most productive economic system in history? Has it not created social conditions in which the powers of human imagination, creativity, and scientific understanding have grown to wider scope than in any previous society? Has it not enabled human beings to extend their life span and live healthier and more active lives than ever before? Has it not proven extraordinarily plastic, able to solve unforeseen problems in ways that its opponents continue to predict that it cannot, thus proving itself superior to any proposed alternative? These are difficult questions that anyone who claims that an alternative is necessary must take seriously. There is little use in denying that one part of honest answers to the foregoing questions is “yes.” No system has proven as productive, has enabled the deve...
Economic crises are never just economic—they call into question the legitimacy of all major socia... more Economic crises are never just economic—they call into question the legitimacy of all major social institutions and the governing value system that unifies them into a hegemonic way of life. That is why crises are always moments of possibility for systemic change—the contradiction between the ruling value system and people’s life-requirements is exposed, opening a shared space for critical, democratic reflection on alternatives to a failing status quo. If democratic mobilization is to be defeated and the crisis resolved on the ruling class’s terms, new ways of running existing institutions must be devised.
Purportedly liberal countries insist that they are the standard-bearers of all that is good and h... more Purportedly liberal countries insist that they are the standard-bearers of all that is good and humane in the world. At the same time, they leave African migrants to drown in the Mediterranean; the...
In The Fair Society, Pete Corning asserts the normatively foundational role of basic human needs ... more In The Fair Society, Pete Corning asserts the normatively foundational role of basic human needs against the scepticism of neo-classical economic theory. Using the 2008 financial collapse and ongoing economic and environmental crises as evidence of the systematic way in which capitalism ignores fundamental human needs, Corning calls for a new social contract rooted in the values of equality, equity and reciprocity. While critical of capitalism, Corning also takes pains to distinguish his conception of the fair society from Marxian socialism and social democracy, doctrines which he regards as insufficiently attentive to the claims of individual merit in the distribution of surplus wealth. While these claims might strike some as repetitions of well-worn political arguments, Corning believes that the sciences of human nature (anthropology, behavioural genetics, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and experimental and behavioural economics) that he draws upon set those arguments upon...
My aim in this paper is to extend the general critique of academic capitalism to the changes in t... more My aim in this paper is to extend the general critique of academic capitalism to the changes in the nature of academic work time it is bringing about. I will argue that university teaching and research requires an open-ended structure of time free from externally imposed routines and deadlines. I call this structure of time ‘thought-time’ to emphasise its intrinsic connection to the way in which ideas develop in the mind and objectified in social life. Thought-time is incompatible with the structure of what I will call ‘money-time’. Money time is the structure of time required by capitalist markets. Its structure is determined by the generic goal of productivity – maximum output for minimum input of resources, labour, and time. Hence money-time structures human activity by forces without regard to the content and goal of the activity considered in itself – the precisely measured sequences, routines, and deadlines are calibrated to ensure the production of as much money-value profit as possible, and not the free development and elaboration of ideas in the open-ended processes characteristic of thought-time. This temporal restructuring of academic labour has especially pernicious effects in those areas of academic research, especially the humanities and social sciences, which are not amenable to the creation of commodifiable research. Hence, the progressive subordination of thought-time to money-time is a serious challenge to the future health of these disciplines.
The traditional liberal justification of democracy appeals to the rights ground of social moralit... more The traditional liberal justification of democracy appeals to the rights ground of social morality. According to this ground, citizens are entitled to appropriate and dispose of their property according to absolute property rights. These rights impose no obligation on appropriations of property that compromise the life interest of fellow citizens. Against contemporary democratic theory, I argue that democracy has not developed through the simple evolution of this rights ground to include positive rights to welfare, but rather, through struggles rooted in an alternative ground of social morality, the needs ground. The needs ground argues that the existence of a fundamental need is sufficient for claims on the resources necessary to satisfy it, and from it follows a conception of democracy as social and not simply political self-determination.
Abstract This article argues for a realist conception of human needs. By ‘realist’ we mean that c... more Abstract This article argues for a realist conception of human needs. By ‘realist’ we mean that certain fundamental needs are categorically distinct from consumer wants, holding independently of people's subjective beliefs as objective life requirements. These basic needs, we contend, are baseline measures of social justice in the sense that no society that does not prioritise their satisfaction can be legitimate. The paper concludes with a comprehensive response to seven core objections to our position.
... James F. Pontuso, Assault on Ideology: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Political Thought Review... more ... James F. Pontuso, Assault on Ideology: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Political Thought Reviewed by. Jeff Noonan. Bookmark and Share. This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical 3.0 Unported license. ...
McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone 1 Problems o... more McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone 1 Problems of Cartesianism Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis 2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity Gerald A. Press 3 Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid Two ...
McGill-Queen's University Press 2003 ISBn o-7735-2578-5 Legal deposit third quarter 2003 Bib... more McGill-Queen's University Press 2003 ISBn o-7735-2578-5 Legal deposit third quarter 2003 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of ...
In Embodiment and the Meaning of Life Jeff Noonan presents pessimism and technotopianism as two s... more In Embodiment and the Meaning of Life Jeff Noonan presents pessimism and technotopianism as two sides of the same coin, as both begin from the premise that the limitations of embodied life are inherently negative. He argues that rather than rendering life pointless, the tragic failures that mark life are fundamental to the good of human existence. The necessary limitations of embodied being are challenges for each person to live well, not only for their own sake, but for the sake of the future of the human project. Meaning is not a given, Noonan suggests, but rather the product of labour upon ourselves, others, and the world. Meaningful labour is threatened equally by unjust social systems and runaway technological development that aims to replace human action, rather than liberate it.
Alternate routes: a journal of Critical Social Research, 2011
All varieties of socialism share this trait in common: they are systematic alternatives to capita... more All varieties of socialism share this trait in common: they are systematic alternatives to capitalism. But why should a systematic alternative to capitalism be necessary? Has it not proven to be the most productive economic system in history? Has it not created social conditions in which the powers of human imagination, creativity, and scientific understanding have grown to wider scope than in any previous society? Has it not enabled human beings to extend their life span and live healthier and more active lives than ever before? Has it not proven extraordinarily plastic, able to solve unforeseen problems in ways that its opponents continue to predict that it cannot, thus proving itself superior to any proposed alternative? These are difficult questions that anyone who claims that an alternative is necessary must take seriously. There is little use in denying that one part of honest answers to the foregoing questions is “yes.” No system has proven as productive, has enabled the deve...
Economic crises are never just economic—they call into question the legitimacy of all major socia... more Economic crises are never just economic—they call into question the legitimacy of all major social institutions and the governing value system that unifies them into a hegemonic way of life. That is why crises are always moments of possibility for systemic change—the contradiction between the ruling value system and people’s life-requirements is exposed, opening a shared space for critical, democratic reflection on alternatives to a failing status quo. If democratic mobilization is to be defeated and the crisis resolved on the ruling class’s terms, new ways of running existing institutions must be devised.
Purportedly liberal countries insist that they are the standard-bearers of all that is good and h... more Purportedly liberal countries insist that they are the standard-bearers of all that is good and humane in the world. At the same time, they leave African migrants to drown in the Mediterranean; the...
In The Fair Society, Pete Corning asserts the normatively foundational role of basic human needs ... more In The Fair Society, Pete Corning asserts the normatively foundational role of basic human needs against the scepticism of neo-classical economic theory. Using the 2008 financial collapse and ongoing economic and environmental crises as evidence of the systematic way in which capitalism ignores fundamental human needs, Corning calls for a new social contract rooted in the values of equality, equity and reciprocity. While critical of capitalism, Corning also takes pains to distinguish his conception of the fair society from Marxian socialism and social democracy, doctrines which he regards as insufficiently attentive to the claims of individual merit in the distribution of surplus wealth. While these claims might strike some as repetitions of well-worn political arguments, Corning believes that the sciences of human nature (anthropology, behavioural genetics, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and experimental and behavioural economics) that he draws upon set those arguments upon...
My aim in this paper is to extend the general critique of academic capitalism to the changes in t... more My aim in this paper is to extend the general critique of academic capitalism to the changes in the nature of academic work time it is bringing about. I will argue that university teaching and research requires an open-ended structure of time free from externally imposed routines and deadlines. I call this structure of time ‘thought-time’ to emphasise its intrinsic connection to the way in which ideas develop in the mind and objectified in social life. Thought-time is incompatible with the structure of what I will call ‘money-time’. Money time is the structure of time required by capitalist markets. Its structure is determined by the generic goal of productivity – maximum output for minimum input of resources, labour, and time. Hence money-time structures human activity by forces without regard to the content and goal of the activity considered in itself – the precisely measured sequences, routines, and deadlines are calibrated to ensure the production of as much money-value profit as possible, and not the free development and elaboration of ideas in the open-ended processes characteristic of thought-time. This temporal restructuring of academic labour has especially pernicious effects in those areas of academic research, especially the humanities and social sciences, which are not amenable to the creation of commodifiable research. Hence, the progressive subordination of thought-time to money-time is a serious challenge to the future health of these disciplines.
The traditional liberal justification of democracy appeals to the rights ground of social moralit... more The traditional liberal justification of democracy appeals to the rights ground of social morality. According to this ground, citizens are entitled to appropriate and dispose of their property according to absolute property rights. These rights impose no obligation on appropriations of property that compromise the life interest of fellow citizens. Against contemporary democratic theory, I argue that democracy has not developed through the simple evolution of this rights ground to include positive rights to welfare, but rather, through struggles rooted in an alternative ground of social morality, the needs ground. The needs ground argues that the existence of a fundamental need is sufficient for claims on the resources necessary to satisfy it, and from it follows a conception of democracy as social and not simply political self-determination.
Abstract This article argues for a realist conception of human needs. By ‘realist’ we mean that c... more Abstract This article argues for a realist conception of human needs. By ‘realist’ we mean that certain fundamental needs are categorically distinct from consumer wants, holding independently of people's subjective beliefs as objective life requirements. These basic needs, we contend, are baseline measures of social justice in the sense that no society that does not prioritise their satisfaction can be legitimate. The paper concludes with a comprehensive response to seven core objections to our position.
... James F. Pontuso, Assault on Ideology: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Political Thought Review... more ... James F. Pontuso, Assault on Ideology: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Political Thought Reviewed by. Jeff Noonan. Bookmark and Share. This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical 3.0 Unported license. ...
McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone 1 Problems o... more McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone 1 Problems of Cartesianism Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis 2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity Gerald A. Press 3 Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid Two ...
McGill-Queen's University Press 2003 ISBn o-7735-2578-5 Legal deposit third quarter 2003 Bib... more McGill-Queen's University Press 2003 ISBn o-7735-2578-5 Legal deposit third quarter 2003 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of ...
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