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Telos (journal)
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Telos (journal)
Telos is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles on politics, philosophy, and critical theory, with a particular focus on contemporary political, social, and cultural issues.
Established in May 1968 by Paul Piccone and fellow students at SUNY-Buffalo with the intention of providing the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective, the journal, which has long considered itself heterodox, has been described as turning to the right politically beginning in the 1980s.
The journal's masthead lists its editor as David Tse-Chien Pan and its editor emeritus as Russell A. Berman. Piccone died of cancer in 2004 at age 64.
The journal was established by Paul Piccone and fellow working-class philosophy students in May 1968 at SUNY-Buffalo, though it was never formally associated with SUNY or any other university. Elisabeth K. Chaves writes that "this non-institutionalization, in academia or elsewhere, helped keep the journal distinct from other positions within the [intellectual] field, and it reveals a kinship to artists within the field of cultural production that choose to practice 'art for art's sake,' disdaining the economic and political power found at the dominant pole."
According to Chaves, the journal specifically saw its objective as "vindicat[ing] the ineradicability of subjectivity, the teleology of the Western project, and the possibility of regrounding such a project by means of a phenomenological and dialectical reconstitution of Marxism in conjunction with the New Left."[undue weight? – discuss] In this light, the journal sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction relevant for the United States. In order to avoid the high level of abstraction typical of Husserlian phenomenology, however, the journal began introducing the ideas of Western Marxism and of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School to a North American audience. In a 1971 pamphlet, in reference to its heterodoxy, members of the Chicago Surrealist Group said Telos conference organizers were "capable only of promoting the peaceful coexistence of various modes of confusion".[independent source needed]
Over time, Telos became increasingly critical of the Left in general, with a reevaluation of 20th century intellectual history, including focuses on Carl Schmitt, federalism, and American populism through the work of Christopher Lasch.[citation needed] Eventually the journal rejected the traditional divisions between Left and Right as a legitimating mechanism for new class domination and an occlusion of new, post-Fordist political conflicts—part of its critique of the New Class or professional-managerial class. This led to a reevaluation of the primacy of culture and to efforts to understand the dynamics of cultural disintegration and reintegration as a precondition for the constitution of that autonomous individuality critical theory had always identified as the telos of Western civilization.
During the journal's "conservative turn" in the 1980s, many editorial board members, including Jürgen Habermas, left Telos. The academic Joan Braune writes that one cause for the resignations was Piccone's support of the United States intervention in Nicaragua.[undue weight? – discuss] According to Chaves, the journal's split with Habermas was due significantly to the second generation of Critical Theory's embrace of the linguistic turn.[undue weight? – discuss] The paleoconservative Paul Gottfried, a former student of Herbert Marcuse, former Republican Party activist, and critic of neoconservatism, joined Telos in the 1980s and 1990s. In January 2025, he was not listed on the journal's masthead.
European New Right figures such as Alain de Benoist were key contributors to Telos in the 1990s. Piccone asserted that the French New Right had incorporated "95 percent of standard New Left ideas". Joseph Lowndes describes Telos as "the major translator" to English of de Benoist and other New Right figures. Their ethnonationalist ideas later influenced the alt-right.
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Telos (journal)
Telos is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles on politics, philosophy, and critical theory, with a particular focus on contemporary political, social, and cultural issues.
Established in May 1968 by Paul Piccone and fellow students at SUNY-Buffalo with the intention of providing the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective, the journal, which has long considered itself heterodox, has been described as turning to the right politically beginning in the 1980s.
The journal's masthead lists its editor as David Tse-Chien Pan and its editor emeritus as Russell A. Berman. Piccone died of cancer in 2004 at age 64.
The journal was established by Paul Piccone and fellow working-class philosophy students in May 1968 at SUNY-Buffalo, though it was never formally associated with SUNY or any other university. Elisabeth K. Chaves writes that "this non-institutionalization, in academia or elsewhere, helped keep the journal distinct from other positions within the [intellectual] field, and it reveals a kinship to artists within the field of cultural production that choose to practice 'art for art's sake,' disdaining the economic and political power found at the dominant pole."
According to Chaves, the journal specifically saw its objective as "vindicat[ing] the ineradicability of subjectivity, the teleology of the Western project, and the possibility of regrounding such a project by means of a phenomenological and dialectical reconstitution of Marxism in conjunction with the New Left."[undue weight? – discuss] In this light, the journal sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction relevant for the United States. In order to avoid the high level of abstraction typical of Husserlian phenomenology, however, the journal began introducing the ideas of Western Marxism and of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School to a North American audience. In a 1971 pamphlet, in reference to its heterodoxy, members of the Chicago Surrealist Group said Telos conference organizers were "capable only of promoting the peaceful coexistence of various modes of confusion".[independent source needed]
Over time, Telos became increasingly critical of the Left in general, with a reevaluation of 20th century intellectual history, including focuses on Carl Schmitt, federalism, and American populism through the work of Christopher Lasch.[citation needed] Eventually the journal rejected the traditional divisions between Left and Right as a legitimating mechanism for new class domination and an occlusion of new, post-Fordist political conflicts—part of its critique of the New Class or professional-managerial class. This led to a reevaluation of the primacy of culture and to efforts to understand the dynamics of cultural disintegration and reintegration as a precondition for the constitution of that autonomous individuality critical theory had always identified as the telos of Western civilization.
During the journal's "conservative turn" in the 1980s, many editorial board members, including Jürgen Habermas, left Telos. The academic Joan Braune writes that one cause for the resignations was Piccone's support of the United States intervention in Nicaragua.[undue weight? – discuss] According to Chaves, the journal's split with Habermas was due significantly to the second generation of Critical Theory's embrace of the linguistic turn.[undue weight? – discuss] The paleoconservative Paul Gottfried, a former student of Herbert Marcuse, former Republican Party activist, and critic of neoconservatism, joined Telos in the 1980s and 1990s. In January 2025, he was not listed on the journal's masthead.
European New Right figures such as Alain de Benoist were key contributors to Telos in the 1990s. Piccone asserted that the French New Right had incorporated "95 percent of standard New Left ideas". Joseph Lowndes describes Telos as "the major translator" to English of de Benoist and other New Right figures. Their ethnonationalist ideas later influenced the alt-right.