Anarchist Philosophy on Clubhouse

Description

This is a club dedicated to understanding and discussing anarchist political philosophy and theory.

Topics range from history of thought to contemporary issues, concepts and figures, with a focus on theory, history, economics, social order, and activism. This club is open to critiques and alternative theories.

This club embraces and seeks to process all forms of anarchist thought so long as they maintain a concern with the state, domination, authority, and hierarchy, without the exclusive priority of any one person, lineage, or institution. This club is not affiliated with any person, organization, or institution.

This club seeks to analyze anarchist thought from a broad range of ethical perspectives drawn from across (and beyond) the philosophical spectrum. Opposition to the state and systems of oppression and social domination is analyzed, and the possibilities and reasons for free, voluntary, and beneficial social orders explored.

There is no one singular agreed-upon definition of anarchy or anarchism, but it perhaps can be best understood "as the belief that society should be arranged (i)
without some undesirable x, or (ii) in the name of some desirable y, or (iii) without some
undesirable x in the name of some desirable y."

The variables x and y in this formulation can then be fulfilled as "objects of anarchist opposition" (x) and "objects of anarchist support" (y.) "The objects of opposition traditionally include (non-exhaustively) government, state, law, violence, social power, domination, authority, and hierarchy. Traditional objects of support (on which such opposition may rest) include liberty, autonomy, equality, happiness, virtue, flourishing, and other more complex goods."

A provisional definition may therefore be formed such that anarchism is "the belief that society should be
arranged (i) without government/state/law/violence/social power/domination/authority/hierarchy,
or (ii) in the name of liberty/autonomy/equality/happiness/virtue/flourishing/some complex good,
or (iii) without government/state/law/violence/social power/domination/authority/hierarchy in the
name of liberty/autonomy/equality/happiness/virtue/flourishing/some complex good" (all quotations taken from Paul McLaughlin, "Anarchism, Anarchists, and Anarchy" in Chartier and Van Schoelandt, "The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought," Routledge, New York, 2021.)