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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Historical Materialism Istanbul Conference: Three days full of dozens of engaging sessions. In addition to presenting my paper on Lukács, I was very pleased to participate in a panel marking the 25th anniversary of Praksis, a historical materialist social sciences journal published in Turkish.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Do you happen to be in Istanbul on 2 April, in the wake of the Historical Materialism Conference? You are kindly invited to our book launch "Versuche Lukács umzudenken", with the participation of our editor Hassan Maarfi Poor, at Istanbul University Faculty of Political Science (2 April, 12:30).

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

It is always a good idea to watch and listen to Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia to get myself into the mood for talking about Machiavelli and his time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5rkjZY6uKQ

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

The first event of the semester: a seminar on Machiavelli, organised by the Political Philosophy Student Club at Istanbul University. The seminar will focus on a comparative study of the dedicatory letters of The Prince, Discourses on Livy, The Art of War, and Florentine Histories.

Machiavelli - Reading Seminar
25 February 2026
Istanbul Uni. Faculty of Political Science

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

The very last talk of my sabbatical period will be on “Lukács’ Social Ontology: Ontological Emergence and the Specificity of the Political". The background text is a very dense paper that Lukács wrote in 1968, in which he condenses, in 16 pages, the 1,600 pages of his Ontology.

Lukács, Georg. "The Ontological bases of human thought and action" [1968]. The Philosophical Forum 7(1), 1975: 22–37

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Why does every day involve a fight with eduroam?

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

It is particularly ironic that 10 years ago, Kristi Sweet—who now discusses a colleague’s syllabus with College leadership and proposes the censorship of Plato readings—wrote an article that concludes with the paragraph cited above. Now tell us about liberal arts under duress, Dr. Sweet. Ridiculous.

Excerpt from an article by Kristi Sweet: "Kant and the Liberal Arts: A Defense", The Journal of Aesthetic Education , Vol. 49, No. 3 (Fall 2015), pp. 1-14.

"Even though Kant himself does not explicitly announce a defense of the liberal arts along these lines, there are deep resources in his thought to articulate a rich line of inquiry into the matter. In these times, when the university in general and the liberal arts in particular are under duress, we would do well to remember Kant’s analysis. The liberal arts ought not attempt to justify themselves according the logic of utility and economics. We should remember our place as not in service to a particular government and the influence it may seek to have on its citizens, but to ideals that the government must also be subject to. The liberal arts have an independence from the government proper, an independence that allows for relating to the government in a critical—and productive—way. Certainly, the liberal arts may do more than I have articulated here; what they accomplish exceeds what they contribute to our fulfillment of our civic duties. Nevertheless, I believe this analysis may make a good beginning for thinking about how Kant can further our understanding of the pedagogical aims of professors of the liberal arts and how to think about our place in society."

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

2025 in four pictures. In the end, we keep coming back to the beginning - only to realize that the beginning has already been sublated. (Stuttgart, January (x2) - Tübingen, April - Stuttgart, December)

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

2025’s final lecture focused on the early period of Islamic political thought (from its beginnings to al-Farabi). It was, in fact,an online guest lecture at Istanbul University. This gave me the opportunity to read some relatively recent publications on the socio-economic context. 3 wonderful reads:

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Sounds exciting: **** [...]How could free persons be made into slaves? John Samuel Harpham shows that English authors found answers to this question in a tradition of ideas that stretched back to the ancient world, where they were most powerfully expressed in Roman law. [...]" ****

John Samuel Harpham - The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Now it's funny to see it from that angle.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

My final academic talk of 2025 is the fourth session in an online seminar series on Lukács’s Aesthetics (held in Turkish). We have been reading the dense text of The Specificity of the Aesthetic paragraph by paragraph, and we have only just reached the end of the first section of the first chapter.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Today and tomorrow: “Environmental Humanities Meets the History of Knowledge,” an interdisciplinary workshop organized at the University of Konstanz ( @uni-konstanz.de ). I will speak on “Reconsidering Nature: Lukács’s Ontological Turn and Its Contemporary Relevance,” alongside excellent colleagues.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

The 1981 Stuttgart Hegel Congress—where D. Henrich, R. Spaemann, J. Habermas, and O. Pöggeler were keynote speakers, and where philosophers from the Eastern Bloc (Oizerman, Buhr...) presented alongside Gadamer, Rorty, Labarrière, and D’Hondt... We need to discuss more about the circulation of ideas.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I had the chance to attend one of his seminars at the EHESS (Paris) in 2005. He was 76 years old at the time, and I was mesmerized by his energy and enthusiasm - the seminar lasted more than five hours, and he spoke almost without interruption the entire time.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Nicolas Tertulian was one of the foremost scholars of Lukács. The articles collected in this book are excellent examples of his ability to combine historical methods—marked by an erudite reading and contextualization of a variety of texts, especially those of Heidegger—with philosophical critique.

Nicolas Tertulian, Modernité et antihumanisme. Les combats philosophiques de Georg Lukács, Paris, Klincksieck, 2019

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

On board a Deutsche Bahn train heading to Berlin, in the midst of semi-insomnia, I check my itinerary and suddenly find myself transported to the late 19th- and early 20th-century history of German social democracy.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

This evening: A conference organized by the Chair of the History of Knowledge (Prof. Anne Kwaschik) at the University of Konstanz — “Translating Hitler,” by Olivier Mannoni.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Next Tuesday (5 November 2025, 17:00-18:30): A talk on "The Specificity of the Political: Georg Lukács’s Political Thought in the Post-Stalinist Ferment of Ideas (1956-1971)" @uni-konstanz.de Colloquium of Modern History.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Georg Lukács Commemoration Day in Heidelberg (Press Release)

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Try these: -Túró Rudi -Pogácsa (avoid the "tepertős" [pork fat] version, if vegetarian) -Zserbó/Gerbeaud Slice (the classical version can be found in Budapest, but you can probably find a good one at a bakery in Debrecen)

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

The final event of the Lukács Day: roundtable.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

‘Lukács Day’ has begun in Heidelberg. First stop: Keplerstr. 28, one of his residences in the city during the 1910s.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Upcoming on 4 November: www.geschichte.uni-konstanz.de/fach/vortrae...

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

28. Tisini's book on the conceptions of matter in Islamic thought is far better executed than Bloch's "Aristotelian Left." Yet the former remains almost entirely forgotten, while the latter is well read and widely translated. More translations of Tisini's works from Arabic are much needed.

Tayeb Tisini, Die Materieauffassung in der islamisch-arabischen Philosophie des Mittelalters, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1972.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

And trustee Gürsel Tekin, who -like a conquistador- is now trying to enter the office, which is defended by barricades. Notably, he was a long-serving member of the same party he is now attempting to conquer with the help of police forces.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I couldn’t help posting this (and sorry, I don’t have time to provide a translation and context for people unfamiliar with the Turkish high school curriculum 😀 )

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

20. There is a book on the history of philosophy that consists entirely of poems. It is sometimes brilliant, sometimes hilarious.

JOSÉ MIGUEL IBÁÑEZ LANGLOIS
HISTORIA DE LA FILOSOFÍA
Poemas

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Meanwhile, the entirety of Eastern European philosophy before 1989 is criticized for its rejection of idealism in favor of materialism. I'm not sure whether such a title would have been acceptable in a philosophy journal of the Eastern Bloc.

"I am Also of the Opinion That Materialism Must Be Destroyed", article by Graham Harman, published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2010, vol. 28, pp. 772-790.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

I'm not really into collector's items or original editions, but it was quite an experience to actually touch the very first edition of Lukács's History and Class Consciousness.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

The third lecture, on ‘Self-Respect and the Value of Protest,’ just started @ktbberlin.bsky.social P.S. I was a little late, as bus services were suspended due to an anti-fascist protest, held also in solidarity with non-binary people. Practice meets theory, somehow.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Tommie Shelby on solidarity, politics, and intellectual life. What a fitting coincidence to have this lecture on race, class, and the political ethics of the oppressed, on Juneteenth.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Rahel Jaeggi and Robin Celikates @robin-c.bsky.social introduce today's Benjamin Lecture, delivered by Tommie Shelby. @ktbberlin.bsky.social

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

By the way, we'd have a much clearer understanding of Early Modern intellectual history if specialists placed more importance on 'minor thinkers,' rather than straining to read between the lines of the 'great books' in an effort to rescue canonical thinkers from charges of colonialism and racism.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Congrats to all colleagues. Aminah Hasan-Birdwell's article on Ottobah Cugoano was particularly striking to me, as it highlights how our understanding of the history of political thought -including international thought- is limited by the neglect of thinkers who fall outside the traditional canon.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Does anybody have this volume within reach? I need to access the table of contents.

Transactions of the Fifth International Congress on The Enlightenment 6 / Utopias and utopians / Voltaire Foundation, 1981

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Fariborz Shafai published one of the most thorough books on Lukács's philosophy in 1996. And then—nothing. No trace of him on the internet. Did he remain an "Independent Researcher in Philosophy"? Did he maintain his enthusiasm for “the movement of Communism past and present”?

Fariborz Shafai, The Ontology of Georg Lukacs: Studies in Materialist Dialectics (Avebury Series in Philosophy)

"In dedication to the movement of Communism past and present"

Contents
Preface
An open ontological introduction to Georg Lukacs
Philosophy, literary criticism and aesthetics
Search for the kingdom of freedom in History and
Class Consciousness
Lukacs' Hegel studies
Labour: The ontological foundation of social being
Select bibliography
Name index

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

12+ There are many others that I forgot at first: the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which I don't particularly like but where I spent a very, very long time; the convenient ELTE History Department Library; the well-ordered and luminous Edinburgh University Main Library...

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

11. University of Konstanz Library I like to compare it to the labyrinthine Aedificium of The Name of the Rose. Enter from one of the secret red gates, downstairs, reach the elevator, go to 5rd floor... Calm, serene, with a huge collection and a lovely green-and-white interior—my favorite for now.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

10. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Library, Delhi A magnificent collection. Unlike many university libraries in India, it uses an open-shelf system. The slightly old and dusty book depot has its own charm. (If only the libraries of my beloved Kolkata let you roam freely among their shelves…)

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

9. İSAM (Centre for Islamic Studies) Library, Istanbul Despite its name, it's not limited to Islamic Studies. Perhaps the richest humanities collection in Istanbul. For some reason, it also holds a remarkable trove of Indian Marxist academic literature.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

8. Zweigbibliothek Asien-/Afrikawissenschaften (Humboldt University, Berlin) My hidden gem. Here I found many rarities related to South, East, and Southeast Asian intellectual history. Where I actually started to write my Social History of Political Thought. (sorry no decent picture available)

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

7. Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum (Humboldt University Central Library, Berlin) Where you can find anything, from the German Democratic Republic's lost literature to the most recent publications. I adore the vast open-shelf collection, and brownies. But the overall atmosphere... not so much. Still—

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

6. Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Kollégium Library A hidden place in a huge student residence hall, where I unexpectedly found rare literature on philosophy, musicology, and history.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

5. Széchényi National Library (Hungary) It was a pleasure to wait for dusty volumes of 19th-century literature on floor 7, unpublished archival material on floor 6, and grilled sandwiches on floor 5. Crossing the path behind the National Gallery to reach the main entrance felt like a rite.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

4. Paris City Libraries A network of more than 30 libraries, all accessible via a single registration. Their excellent collections made my initial doctoral research on the history of opera possible, with books on art history, CDs, and music sheets.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

3. Galatasaray University Library Not only my long-time study space but also my first workplace. My second home&family. Relatively rich in humanities and social sciences literature, it allowed me to access critical theory and Marxist literature—mostly in French, but also in English and Turkish.

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Ateş Uslu @atesuslu.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

2. Saint Michel High School Library It changed locations three times during my years there in the 1990s. This is where I discovered the Les Belles Lettres collection, a crucial influence on my interest in textual studies and philology—the basis of my later passion for intellectual history.

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