# Table of Contents **[[#Part 1 - The Problem]]** *[[#01. Capitalist Consciousness & The Homeostatic Imperative]]* - We seek to highlight the internalisation of capitalist and oppressive mental frameworks within modern society. Then explore how these frameworks contradict our most basic survival drives. ___ **[[#Part 2 - The Baseline]]** *[[#02. Inferring Reality & Motivating Change]]* - We seek to lay a foundational understanding of the human animal as a generator and enactor of predictive models; Then address how these processes become entangled within neoliberal society. *[[#03. Affective Souls & Becoming Soulless]]* - We seek to illustrate the essential properties of felt experience as the foundation for conscious life; Then analyse how dehumanising childcare practices alienate us from these crucial mental foundations. *[[#04. The Social Self & Homeostatic Reconstructionism]]* - We seek to explore how unique forms of human experience emerge from evolutionary processes; Then assess our ability to deconstruct the most harmful forms of symbolic and social constructed realities. ___ **[[#Part 3 - The Solution]]** *[[#05. Ritual Recalibration & Better Metaphors]]* - We establish practical tools for the collective reconfiguration of human consciousness through ritual, play, and absurdity; Then look to a means of restructuring human thought through conscientious linguistic shifts and reconceptualisation. *[[#06. On Relational Autonomism & Postcapitalist Consciousness]]* - We sketch the outlines of an alternative ontological framework for humankind's post-capitalist era; Then delve into what this might mean for the state of postcapitalist consciousness. ___ **[[#General Notes]]** # Part 1 - The Problem ## [[01. Capitalist Consciousness & The Homeostatic Imperative]] ***Aims:*** 1. To expose the ways oppressive ideologies have become internalised at the levels of individual and collective consciousness. 2. To highlight the unique qualities of mental oppression experienced under neoliberal and late-capitalist culture. 3. To contextualise modern struggles in the fundamental processes of homeostasis and free energy minimisation. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. [[Capitalist Realism (Book)|Capitalist Realism]] - [[Mark Fisher]] - *(Essential)* 2. [[Psychopolitics (Book)|Psychopolitics]] - [[Byung-Chul Han]] - *(Essential)* 3. [[Pedagogy of The Oppressed (Book)|Pedagogy of The Oppressed]] - [[Paulo Freire]] - *(Essential)* *Additional:* - [[Anaximander]] - [[Carlo Rovelli]] - [[Basic Call to Consciousness]] - [[Akwesasne Notes]] - [[Black Skin, White Mask]] - [[Frantz Fanon]] - [[Late Soviet Britain]] - [[Abbey Innes]] - [[My Grandmother’s Hands]] - [[Resmaa Menakem]] - [[The Strange Order Of Things]] - [[Antonio Damasio]] - [[Your Silence Will Not Protect You]] - [[Audre Lorde]] # Part 2 - The Baseline ## [[02. Inferring Reality & Motivating Change]] ***Aims:*** 1. To provide a foundational understanding of the brain as a predictive system which blends subjective expectations with physical experiences. 2. To demonstrate how core features of modern society actively work against our natural predictive processes, inhibiting individual function and collective success. 3. To unpack the relation between mind, body, and environment so that we may better design our physical and social infrastructures to support positive change. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. [[The Experience Machine]] - [[Andy Clark]] - *(Essential)* 2. [[Punished By Rewards]] - [[Alfie Kohn]] 3. [[Palaces For The People]] - [[Eric Klinenberg]] *Additional:* - [[An Immense World]] - [[Ed Yong]] - [[Being You]] - [[Anil Seth]] - [[How Life Works]] - [[Philip Ball]] - [[Livewired]] - [[David Eagleman]] - [[Surfing Uncertainty]] - [[Andy Clark]] - [[The Disordered Cosmos]] - [[Chanda Prescod-Weinstein]] - [[The Predictive Mind]] - [[Jakob Hohwy]] ## [[03. Affective Souls & Becoming Soulless]] ***Aims:*** 1. To emphasise the critical role of affect, feeling, and emotion in the development of behaviour and conscious experience. 2. To explore how affective systems interact with culture to take on new and context dependent emotional forms. 3. To call attention to the undermining of affective processes by self-destructive cultural systems. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. [[The Hidden Spring]] - [[Mark Solms]] - *(Essential)* 2. [[How Emotions Are Made]] - [[Lisa Feldman Barrett]] 3. [[The Will to Change]] - [[bell hooks]] *Additional:* - [[Determined]] - [[Robert Sapolsky]] - [[Incognito]] - [[David Eagleman]] - [[The Archeology of Mind]] - [[Jaak Panksepp]], [[Lucy Biven]] - [[The Master and His Emissary]] - [[Iain McGilchrist]] - [[The Matter With Things]] - [[Iain McGilchrist]] ## [[04. The Social Self & Homeostatic Reconstructionism]] ***Aims:*** 1. To outline the formation of self-identity and reflective consciousness as socio-cultural phenomena. 2. To investigate the cognitive and historical origins of some human kinds most pernicious social constructs 3. To provide exemplary works of social deconstructionism as inspiration for individual journeys. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. [[Becoming Human]] - [[Michael Tomasello]] - *(Essential)* 2. [[Categories We Live By]] - [[Ásta]] 3. [[Caliban And The Witch]] - [[Silvia Federici]] *Additional:* - [[Bodies That Matter]] - [[Judith Butler]] - [[Inglorious Empire]] - [[Shashi Tharoor]] - [[Orientalism]] - [[Edward Said]] - [[The Ant Trap]] - [[Brian Epstein]] - [[The Dawn of Everything]] - [[David Graeber]], [[David Wengrow]] - [[The Invention of Women]] - [[Oyérónké Oyěwùmí]] - [[The Price For Their Pound of Flesh]] - [[Daina Ramey Berry]] - [[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]] - [[Max Weber]] - [[The Wretched of The Earth]] - [[Frantz Fanon]] # Part 3 - The Solution ## [[05. Ritual Recalibration & Better Metaphors]] ***Aims:*** 1. To examine the role of ritual, collective practices, and embodied experiences in the shaping and maintaining of individual and collective consciousness. 2. To note the significance of human reliance on symbolic and metaphorical thinking to structure our everyday experiences of reality. 3. To establish an emerging sense of agency and autonomy around the reclamation and recalibration of human cultural evolution. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. [[Ritual]] - [[Dimitris Xygalatas]] - *(Essential)* 2. [[Dancing in the Streets]] - [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] 3. [[Metaphors We Live By]] - [[George Lakoff]], [[Mark Johnson]] *Additional:* - [[Homo Ludens]] - [[Johan Huizinga]] - [[Theatre of The Oppressed]] - [[Augusto Boal]] - [[The Culture Industry]] - [[Theodor Adorno]] - [[The Playful Brain]] - [[Sergio Pellis]], [[Vivien Pellis]] - [[The Ritual Process]] - [[Victor Turner]] ## [[06. On Relational Autonomism & Postcapitalist Consciousness]] ***Aims:*** 1. To consolidate all we have covered into a coherent model for understanding the human relation to reality. 2. To clearly link this model to existing bodies of thought from across time, space, and perspective. 3. To provide a meaningful and practical sense of hope for human futures. --- ***Reading List:*** *Core:* 1. TBD 2. TBD 3. TBD *Additional:* - [[Care Manifesto]] - [[The Care Collective]] - [[Empire]] - [[Michael Hardt]], [[Antonio Negri]] - [[Helgoland]] - [[Carlo Rovelli]] - [[Meeting the Universe Halfway]] - [[Karen Barad]] - [[Mutual Aid]] - [[Dean Spade]] - [[Object-Oriented Ontology]] - [[Graham Harman]] - [[On Dialogue]] - [[David Bohm]] - [[Queer Phenomenology]] - [[Sara Ahmed]] - [[Red Pedagogy]] - [[Sandy Grande]] - [[Spinoza and Relational Autonomy]] - Editors: [[Aurelia Armstrong]], [[Keith Green]], [[Andrea Sangiacomo]] - [[Tao Te Ching]] - [[Lao Tzu]] - [[The Coming Insurrection]] - [[The Invisible Committee]] - [[The Only Cure]] - [[Mark Solms]] - [[The Order of Time]] - [[Carlo Rovelli]] # General Notes ## Please Note This is very much a work-in-progress! Most notes are currently empty. But I hope you enjoy this cursory glance into the workings of my mind. I will populate the notes as and when I am able. I also want to mention that I am aware the current reading list is skewed towards cis-het white men. While I have made efforts to diversify the reading list, there is an inherent demographic bias in the sciences I cover. However, source material for the latter sections, which still require a lot of development, are skewed in the opposite direction. I believe this will balance things out. But only once I have actually completed that research. Oh, and I'm dyslexic as fuck so please excuse any spelling and grammatical peculiarities. 😘 ## How to Use This Vault Postcapitalist Pedagogy is an ongoing process and a living project that can and will change, sometimes in minor ways, sometimes in major ways. Currently, it is split into five primary folders; 001 Postcapitalist Pedagogy, 002 People, 003 Texts, 004 Theories & Concepts, 005 Essays. Obsidian work much like a wiki page. Clicking on blue links will either take you to a specific location within a note, or to a different, related note. My aim in publishing these notes is to provide a scaffold for people interested in my ideas to find and explore related topics, delve into the details, and see the connections I have been making during my research. Remember, this is just one form of understanding that has worked well for me. There are myriad other ways, through which the same thing can be understood. Do not expect an exhaustive work. Please feel free to contribute the insights of your unique perspective at: [email protected] ## How the Framework is Structured The framework is split into three parts and six section: Part 1, identifies the source of societal problems as an issue of collective consciousness and its inherent connection to material reality. Part 2, provides a contemporary scientific baseline for understanding the healthy functioning of human beings within individual and social contexts. Part 3, utilises insights from previous parts to anchor and reinforce practical solutions, and to sketch out a new ontological framework for a postcapitalist world. Each section has a primary and secondary aspect. The primary aspect establishes the core conceptual framework, the secondary contextualises it. ## What is Postcapitalist Pedagogy? - The simple sharing of a perspective that may hold insight for others, as it has for me. - An interdisciplinary narrative framework that helps us better understand our experience as humans. - An attempt to answer the question of why humans have become such a self-destructive force. - An attempt to untangle the oppressive and dehumanising forces woven into the human psyche. - A liberatory praxis that accounts for both the oppressed and the oppressor as those in need of healing.