Tom Vandeputte
@tomvandeputte.bsky.social
Philosophy and critical theory | Professor at Sandberg Institute Amsterdam | Working on catastrophe, pessimism and utopian imagination | Books-in-progress: Benjamin, Anders, Weil
Günther Anders writing to Ernst Bloch in 1959: “Adorno […] regards me as an unpleasant piece of furniture, an uncontrollable one – we don’t make use of each other”
July 6, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Günther Anders writing to Ernst Bloch in 1959: “Adorno […] regards me as an unpleasant piece of furniture, an uncontrollable one – we don’t make use of each other”
Summer reading from years ago that is back on this year's reading list: early 20C histories/theories of depression
June 20, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Summer reading from years ago that is back on this year's reading list: early 20C histories/theories of depression
Even at its most saturated, our apocalyptic imagination pales in comparison to that of a random fifteenth-century monk
June 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Even at its most saturated, our apocalyptic imagination pales in comparison to that of a random fifteenth-century monk
Reportedly the largest public demo in the Netherlands over the last two decades, with up to 100k protestors heading toward the seat of the International Court of Justice in The Hague
May 18, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reportedly the largest public demo in the Netherlands over the last two decades, with up to 100k protestors heading toward the seat of the International Court of Justice in The Hague
Today at 5pm, for those in Amsterdam:
May 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Today at 5pm, for those in Amsterdam:
Today at 5! Open to all - feel free to stop by if you’re in Amsterdam
April 3, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Today at 5! Open to all - feel free to stop by if you’re in Amsterdam
Utopian nature in the Old Testament, where not only the human domination of nature but all struggle among species is abolished (Isaiah 11:6-8)
March 25, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Utopian nature in the Old Testament, where not only the human domination of nature but all struggle among species is abolished (Isaiah 11:6-8)
Continuing my series of public philosophy seminars on Bloch and utopia today. Meeting this afternoon, April 11 and May 16 (13-16) at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.
March 14, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Continuing my series of public philosophy seminars on Bloch and utopia today. Meeting this afternoon, April 11 and May 16 (13-16) at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.
Today at 5pm: a public talk by Søren Mau (@sorenmau.bsky.social) drawing on his current work on utopian thought and the Marxist critique of utopianism. Open to all, but please register attendance with an email to criticalstudies@sandberg.nl
February 27, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Today at 5pm: a public talk by Søren Mau (@sorenmau.bsky.social) drawing on his current work on utopian thought and the Marxist critique of utopianism. Open to all, but please register attendance with an email to criticalstudies@sandberg.nl
Peak David Lynch: “THE ANGRIEST DOG IN THE WORLD. The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.”
January 18, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Peak David Lynch: “THE ANGRIEST DOG IN THE WORLD. The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.”
Bloch appears in Rose’s account as a dialectical thinker of conspiracy theories, grasping them as the wild “expression of a human potential which nourishes itself with illusion only insofar as it cannot find expression in reality”
January 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Bloch appears in Rose’s account as a dialectical thinker of conspiracy theories, grasping them as the wild “expression of a human potential which nourishes itself with illusion only insofar as it cannot find expression in reality”
Finally getting down to this:
January 6, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Finally getting down to this:
Stunning that this has not yet been translated: Anders’ “stenograms” – dense, fragmented philosophical reflections reckoning with the “apocalyptic monstrum” of the twentieth century
December 17, 2024 at 9:02 AM
Stunning that this has not yet been translated: Anders’ “stenograms” – dense, fragmented philosophical reflections reckoning with the “apocalyptic monstrum” of the twentieth century
The violence of reading becomes central to Weil’s thinking of the implication of ‘reading’ in all violence, as well as the peculiar form of killing specific to war:
December 5, 2024 at 7:57 AM
The violence of reading becomes central to Weil’s thinking of the implication of ‘reading’ in all violence, as well as the peculiar form of killing specific to war:
Weil’s reflections on ‘reading’ harbour a theory of experience where meaning leaps out alongside every appearance, as if it had the same externality as matter:
December 5, 2024 at 7:45 AM
Weil’s reflections on ‘reading’ harbour a theory of experience where meaning leaps out alongside every appearance, as if it had the same externality as matter:
Simone Weil's 1941 essay on reading: punctuated by references to punches in the stomach, burnt hands, meaning that pierces, strikes or stabs
December 3, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Simone Weil's 1941 essay on reading: punctuated by references to punches in the stomach, burnt hands, meaning that pierces, strikes or stabs
Entries from Günther Anders’ diaries, written in the 1950s and 60s, selected and arranged by himself. With reflections on ruins and ruination, exhaustion, the ‘lamented future’ – as well as an entry simply titled ‘world unchangeable’
November 21, 2024 at 4:23 PM
Entries from Günther Anders’ diaries, written in the 1950s and 60s, selected and arranged by himself. With reflections on ruins and ruination, exhaustion, the ‘lamented future’ – as well as an entry simply titled ‘world unchangeable’
Work in progress - currently expanding four lectures on Anders’ apocalyptics from two years ago into a small book
November 21, 2024 at 12:17 PM
Work in progress - currently expanding four lectures on Anders’ apocalyptics from two years ago into a small book
Turns out this is a well-known father-son thing - they even come in two sizes
November 20, 2024 at 10:23 PM
Turns out this is a well-known father-son thing - they even come in two sizes
A piece that came out in New German Critique sometime between leaving Twitter and rejoining this place: "Continuity as Catastrophe: Origins of a Thesis in Walter Benjamin."
read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-c...
Unfortunately no longer open access, but feel free to PM for a copy.
read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-c...
Unfortunately no longer open access, but feel free to PM for a copy.
November 20, 2024 at 7:14 PM
A piece that came out in New German Critique sometime between leaving Twitter and rejoining this place: "Continuity as Catastrophe: Origins of a Thesis in Walter Benjamin."
read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-c...
Unfortunately no longer open access, but feel free to PM for a copy.
read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-c...
Unfortunately no longer open access, but feel free to PM for a copy.