Skip to content

Integral [+] Facticity

Last entry 2 November 2026

Podcast1 h 10 min

Towards a New Structuralism & Humanism w/ Matt Flisfeder

Integral [+] Facticity, episode 18 of 21, with Matt Flisfeder

First published on Acast, 17 June 2023, with show notes on Medium. All 21 episodes

Appearance
Text size
Episode details
Date
Length
1 h 10 min
Type
PodcastIntegral [+] Facticity, episode 18 of 21
People
Contents
  1. Overview
  2. Description
  3. Original episode
  4. References & Further Reading
Listen to episode 18, 1 h 10 min. The recording is served by Acast.

Overview

Matt Flisfeder outlines a dialectical approach to humanism within Marxist theory, drawing on structuralism, Althusser, Žižek and debates about alienation. The discussion connects ideology and media theory with the Žižek–Peterson debate, religion and the political left, masculinity, technological culture, Adrian Johnston’s materialism and Habermas’s account of modernity.

Description

Can Marxism make room for a renewed humanism without pretending that alienation can simply be overcome? That question sits near the centre of Matt Flisfeder's work. Matt, a media and communication theorist at the University of Winnipeg whom I discovered through the Pillpod, helped organize the 2019 Žižek–Peterson debate in Toronto. He retraces his thinking from Louis Althusser and screen theory at York University toward Žižek, and explains why his case for a universal, dialectical humanism remains within Marxism. When I ask about religion, he reflects as a secular Jew on Žižek's Christian atheism and Marx's On the Jewish Question.

We discuss whether this amounts to a new humanism or a renewal, the new structuralism of Algorithmic Desire, and Matt's criticism of a left that excludes religious voices while neglecting a crisis of masculinity. Adrian Johnston's transcendental materialism, technology, Habermas's unfinished modernity and Matt's forthcoming book on humanism complete the discussion.

Original episode

Title as published
Towards a New Structuralism & Humanism w/ Matt Flisfeder
Published
Length
1 h 10 min
Guest
Matt Flisfeder
Series
Integral [+] Facticity, episode 18 of 21

References & Further Reading