In his well-known book Specters of Marx, published right after collapse of communism in 1993, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida called for a radical rethinking of the meaning of political action and moral responsibility at the global level under the aegis of what he figuratively termed a "new internationale".  Although the new internationale never materialized, it did gradually and insidiously find its counterfeit version in the planetary neo-capitalist apparatus that has come to be known as "progressive neoliberalism".  Now a series of calamitous events from Covid to the supply chain crisis to global inflation to the war in Ukraine is on the verge of bringing the progressive neoliberal world order to the edge of collapse.  The specters of Marx have become specters of nothingness.  Yet amid the chaos a more profound sense of the future akin to Derrida's may be emerging.

Carl Raschke is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Denver, where he was University Lecturer from 2021-22.  He is the author of numerous books and articles ranging from post-structuralist philosophy to globalization theory.  His most recent book is Neoliberalism and Political Theology: From Kant to Identity Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).

Chair: prof. Jessica Roitman
Response by: prof. Chris Doude van Troostwijk