Philosophy Portal — Fall 2026
Project: proj.philosophy-portal.fall-2026 (considering)
Membership community + live continental philosophy sessions. Founder: person.cadell-last. Pitched as slower rhythm and living dialogue — alternative to algorithmically mediated attention.
Prior engagement
- Dec 2023: supported Philosophy Portal; looked at Lacan Écrits course (
capture.internet.2023.md) - Captured person.cadell-last.todd-mcgowan-lacking-subjectivity from Philosophy Portal Substack
- person.todd-mcgowan — first encounter via philosophyportal.online
- person.cadell-last — linked through peter-limberg / thestoa
- philosophy.md — Philosophy Portal Phenomenology of Spirit link
Fall 2026 sessions (all members)
| When | Session | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | Metamodern cultural theory | Greg Dember |
| Oct 2026 | Science fiction as hyperstition | Bryce Nance |
| Nov 2026 | Land's Xenosystems | Michael Downs |
| Sep–Dec 2026 | Marxism and Politics | Chris Cutrone |
| Sep–Dec 2026 | Sex and Society — "The Gender Sessions" | Rebecca Rose Prentice |
| Sep–Dec 2026 | The Žižek Lectures (new) | Adrian Johnston, Russell Sbriglia, Katherine Everitt, Cadell Last |
Links: https://philosophyportal.online · https://philosophyportal.substack.com
Module map → memex
1. Metamodern cultural theory (Greg Dember)
About: Cultural mood after postmodern cynicism — oscillation between hope and irony, rebuilding meaning without naïve certainty. Epoch theory, sincerity, art and politics after grand narratives.
Related notes:
- metamodern.md — entry; metamoderna.org; The Listening Society
- developmental-stage-theory.md, dialog.md — metamodern as era row (pre-modern → modern → postmodern → metamodern)
- postmodernism.md — backdrop (over-certainty → skepticism)
- daily.journal.2025.01.25.md — zeitgeist, dialectic, synthesis, map-crisis
- when-trying-to-save-ourselves-does-more-harm-than-good.md — metamodern oscillation (priest / psychiatrist)
- the-tactics-for-getting-status-within-the-group-are-directly-opposed-to-the-tactics-for-spreading-the-message-beyond-the-group.md — critique of metamodern/integral insularity
Gap: no Greg Dember note yet.
2. Science fiction as hyperstition (Bryce Nance)
About: Ideas as self-fulfilling fictions — narratives that propagate and then become real (CCRU / Nick Land milieu). Sci-fi as future-engineering, not escapism.
Related notes:
- simulacrum.md — Hyperstitional Reflective Consistency
- reflexivity.md — same hyperstition link; reflexivity breaks naive scientific method
- accelerationism.md — adjacent CCRU/Land lineage
- reading.self-and-unself.md — sci-fi as imagining futures
- meme.md, reading.the-evolution-of-culture.md — memetic propagation (weaker)
Gap: no dedicated hyperstition or CCRU note.
3. Land's Xenosystems (Michael Downs)
About: Nick Land (philosopher — not Henry George). Xenosystems blog; accelerationism, cybernetics, anti-humanism, capitalism as alien intelligence.
Related notes:
- accelerationism.md — Jacobite intro + LessWrong summary of Land
- daily.journal.2025.01.25.md — AI momentum, acceleration anxiety
- ai.risk.md — acceleration vs control (different register)
Caution: land.md is Henry George on land rent — not Nick Land.
Gap: thin; module would go much deeper than current bookmarks.
4. Marxism and Politics (Chris Cutrone)
About: Left Marxism after the 20th century — dialectics, capitalism, why the left fails, politics beyond culture-war. Likely Platypus / Frankfurt School register.
Related notes:
- marxism.md — minimal (link to "goodbye marx")
- anarchism.md — Marx vs Bakunin contrast
- hegelian-dialectic.md, person.hegel.md — dialectic + alienation (Marx builds on Hegel)
- reading.embracing-alienation.md — emancipation via alienation, not identity traps
- democracy.md, darren-allen.democrapathy, culture-war.md — political present
- books.md — The Listening Society (metamodern politics counterpoint)
Gap: thin on explicit Marx / political economy.
5. Sex and Society — "The Gender Sessions" (Rebecca Rose Prentice)
About: Lacanian theory of sex — sex as Real (not chosen identity), symbolic orders, enjoyment (jouissance), why gender debates miss structural questions.
Related notes (strongest overlap):
- reading.embracing-alienation.md — Zupancic What is Sex?; politics begins with loss of identity; symbolic identity as refuge
- gender.md, masculinity-feminity.md — entry points
- unconscious.md — Lacan on subjectivity vs ego psychology
- landing-language.md, landing-language.origins.md — Lacanian discourse / impossibility of expressing desire
- culture-war.md — contemporary gender politics battlefield
- books.md — Zupancic The Odd One In, McGowan Embracing Alienation
Active reading: reading.embracing-alienation.md is the direct prep for this track.
6. The Žižek Lectures (Johnston, Sbriglia, Everitt, Last)
About: Lacanian Marxist popular philosophy — ideology as lived fantasy, enjoyment as political glue, Hegelian dialectic, pop culture as theory. New series with serious Lacanian scholars (especially Adrian Johnston).
Related notes:
- person.slavoj-zizek.md — psychoanalysis liberates you from yourself toward a greater cause
- reading.embracing-alienation.md — same Lacanian universe (McGowan, Zupancic)
- hegelian-dialectic.md, person.hegel.md — dialectic + alienation via Embracing Alienation
- capture.internet.2023.md — Lacan Ecrits course captures
- postmodernism.md, dialog.md — ideological / cultural context
Through-line
Postmodernism → Metamodern
↓
Hyperstition / Sci-fi → Land / Accelerationism
Hegel / Dialectic → Marxism & Politics ──┐
├→ Žižek Lectures
Lacan / Sex / Alienation → Gender Sessions ┘
Continental diagnosis: how do we live and think after modernity's promises broke?
Your memex already sits at center-left: metamodern epoch, Hegelian dialectic, alienation (reading.embracing-alienation.md, person.hegel.md), Lacan (unconscious.md), Žižek (person.slavoj-zizek.md). Portal adds Land/hyperstition (lighter) and formal Marxist politics (Cutrone).
Tensions to expect
- Metamodern ↔ Land: hope/sincerity vs anti-human acceleration
- Theory subculture insularity: see
the-tactics-for-getting-status-within-the-group...md - Metamodern politics ↔ Cutrone Marxism: Listening Society vs rigorous left critique
- Sep–Dec overlap: four parallel tracks if attending everything live
Decision frame
Would structured cohort time on material already in progress (McGowan / Zupancic / Lacan via reading.embracing-alienation.md) beat solo reading with Substack and books?
2023 Écrits interest suggests prior answer was yes. Worth checking: price tier, live vs async, time per track, membership vs prior support.