Night School

Islam is the religion of free markets and profits. It's earliest icons were investors and entrepreneurs. This week Benedikt Koehler, economic historian and former banker, explains how and why this is the case.

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An intellectual history consists not just in tracing the trajectory of ideas but also how these ideas were embedded in societies - who and how they were created, circulated and clashed with other ideas. Professor Brena has worked mainly on the political and intellectual history of the Spanish and Atlantic worlds during the first quarter of the 19th century. In this episode we discuss the trajectory of liberalism.

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In this episode we go over French Psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan's three most famous concepts: the symbolic, the real and the imaginary. Along the way we will also touch on how psychoanalysis could be of use in understanding Malaysia.

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In this episode we look at the centrality and taken for granted value of our narratives. Angela Kuga Thas walks us through the fundamentals of how even the most intimate things we tell ourselves, are often social and political. Good narratives reveal our interaction with the world in honest ways, bringing us towards greater healing and freedom.

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Ethnomusicologist Lawrence Ross joins us again to critically explore the much talked about, and maligned, rural-urban Malay divide. He shares his opinions and observations on the pitfalls of that generalisation for understanding the full complexity of a globalising Malaysia.

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This week we welcome iconic scholar and activist Dr. Syed Husin Ali to reflect on his career, intellectual development and Malaysia's future.

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The US presidential elections have become a global spectacle and the mass media with its political pundits dominate the framing of this phenomenon. But how have professionally trained social scientists viewed this spectacle? Today we ask to what extent American political scientists have been successful in understanding electoral dynamics there and if they have failed, then why?

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This week Dr. Mark Sabine takes us on a journey through Lusophone studies, touching on the major works of the canon and its corresponding historical and geopolitical contexts.

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We look back to what was an exciting 2015 for the episode, recounting the highs and lows and the challenges that await. More important, thank you all for the support over the past three years. It's been a wonderful journey and we look forward to more good stuff for the next year!

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“[The nation] is an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. [It] is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately, it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willing to die for such limited imaginings,” wrote Benedict Anderson in his influential ‘Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism’. While he was critical of what he called the “angels of banality” who decontextualised his historical argument, the expression “imagined community” secured Anderson’s global reputation. And along with Southeast Asian-focused “The Spectre of Comparisons” to an exploration of anarchism “Under Three Flags”, Anderson shaped several generations of scholars.

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The quote Fuad meant actually reads as follows: "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." What does movement and space have to do with this discussion on our visual age? Join us this week to unpack how the act of looking has become where politics, ethics, morality and capitalism all converge. Pang Khee Teik leads the way.

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Abjection: that which evokes deep repulsion and disgust, gripping us before we can even rationalise why. In this episode we reflect on how this works and the many forms it's taken in Malaysia. Aziff Azuddin sits in for Sharaad.

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Architect Nabil Ahmad joins us this week to share his thoughts on the state of architecture in Malaysia and how it relates to broader developments overseas. He comments on the power of developers and the intersections between capital, public space and politics.

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How do we engage with complex questions about privilege and power across cultural contexts? When does privilege become abusive? When can it be shared productively? This week we are joined by Justin Galle, Alizeh Ahmed and Sara Townsend, all Fulbright English teachers in Malaysia, to reflect on those questions and their implications.

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What's the relevance of socialism for the 21st century? What are the main issues confronting the ideology? How can we balance a local view with an international one? Parti Sosialis Malaysia is organising a conference on the weekend of 21st November to discuss these questions. Sivarajan Arumugam and Choo Chon Kai joins the show to offer a preview of what to expect.

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What is the state of art criticism today? How can it respond to questions of state and corporate power? Who ought art critics speak to to begin with? In this episode we get a primer from art critic Lee Weng Choy on the state of contemporary art criticism.

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How are health and politics embedded into one another? How did they form an intrinsically contentious relationship throughout our history? In this episode, we unpack these questions and more as we are joined by Por Heong Hong to explore the deep and disturbing ramifications of our aspirations for good health.

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Friedrich Nietzsche, after Marx, is the most talked about thinker of this show. What gives? Fuad and Sharaad share their admiration of this intriguing existentialist in this tribute show that also goes over some of the key themes of his philosophy.

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This week we unpack the myth of overseas education. Why are Malaysians so obsessed with it? How did it gain its dangerously erroneous value? How can we rethink education differently given the realities Malaysian youths face. We're joined this week by Maryam Lee, Imran Rasid and Yana Rizal to help us explore the questions together.

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For centuries, philosophers have debated the necessity of religion for an ethical life. There's no consensus as of yet, and it seems that the discourse will only continue for generations to come. In this episode we offer a very local take on the issue, featuring our regular guest Syed Muhiyuddin.

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Malay studies is more complex than it sounds. Among the themes it explores is the different ways "Malay-ness" transcends the rigid cultural and political confines surrounding it. Teo Lee Ken of the National University of Singapore offers an overview of the discipline's challenges and potential.

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As the world sees a rise in leftist politics, we take a look at the most venerable leftist of all, Karl Marx. But we will ground his ideas on a specifically Malaysian context: is he relevant for us? How should we come to terms with his call for a scientific socialism? What considerations and challenges should we keep in mind as we engage his work. Yin Shao Loong (Institut Rakyat) Sivarajan Arumugan (Parti Sosialis Malaysia) and Yuva Balan (Committee for a Workers' International) are the panelists. To the left, to the left?

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Religions are often embedded in their social, cultural and political contexts. Buddhism is no different. Contemporary Buddhism is caught between an image of a religion of peace and harmony, and increasingly one of political violence entwined in the nation-state. In this episode we try to disentangle the different strands that make up this complex religion through the perspective of a social theory.

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Idearaya is a grassroots, autonomous, youth-led festival of ideas that explores the politics of marginalization in an age of crisis and oppression. Join two of its curators, Maryam Lee and Muz Amer to explore the philosophy inspiring the curation of this very unique event. They discuss their strategic use of Bahasa Malaysia and choice of topics, among other things.

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This week we discuss the iconic French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's theory of language. What is language, exactly? And what does it offer us? And how on earth is it connected to the phallus? Listen in to find out!

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As Malaysians face uncertain times, Fuad and Sharaad reflect on the valances and dimensions of optimism and pessimism. How can we best think of hope amidst trying times? Is optimism always bounded to pessimism? And could pessimism actually turn out to be a good thing, after all? We really hope you will join us for our usual weekly critical unpacking.

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... and a hundred schools of thought contend, or so goes the famous saying. Malaysia is experiencing its own advances in intellectual discourse via the flourishing of various autonomous, youth driven discussion circles that explore theories and ideas from the edge. Maryam Lee, Zikri Rahman and Megat Hanis, three of its movers and participants share their thoughts on this development.

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Night School regular Syed Muhiyuddin Al-Attas discusses an iconic theory of happiness from legendary philosopher Syed Naquib Al-Attas. Delving into the intricacies of the human soul, it offers a way out of the tragic trappings of modern secular existence.

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More than mere entertainment, science fiction is a meditation on the fate of humanity as they grapple with the consequences of their obsession with technology. Yin Shao Loong tells us what all that's about.

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In 1969 US national security advisor Henry Kissinger wrote, ”Our deepest challenge [will be] to base order on political multipolarity even though overwhelming military strength will remain with the two superpowers.” In 1989, after years in decline the USSR fell apart and the world was left with the effective dominance of the United States of America. Since then we have seen the rise of Russia, China, India and other BRIC nations. What does this mean for the notion of multi-polarity and the really existing distribution of power in the international system of nation-states?

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In order to be civilized, we must repress our truest desires to the point that they become no longer recognizable. This is the price of a sustainable life in a community, or so says Psychoanalytic icon Sigmund Freud. Fuad and Sharaad unpacks its implications.

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Curators Ong Jo-Lene and Yap Sau Bin join us this week to discuss art theory and how it is connected to the Malaysian context. How have artists responded to a divisive identity politics? How have they attempted to carve out alternative spaces of expression? Fuad and Sharaad probe critically, as always.

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Shahrul Bahyah Kamaruzzaman shares findings from her latest landmark research to help us better understand what it means to grow old in Malaysia. Fuad and Sharaad come to terms with life, in critical fashion as always.

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How has traditional Malay performing arts fared amidst modernization and moral policing? How do we continue to critically think through the meaning of tradition as something that is dynamic and ever evolving? Lawrence Ross, an ethnomusicologist at Universiti Malaya joins Fuad and Sharaad this week to explore those questions.

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For legendary French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, we are always in a state of misrecognition, torn between our image of ourselves, and our physical embodied existence. Fuad and Sharaad explores the hows and whys of this famous theory called "the Mirror Stage".

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What are the ideas that are animating contemporary India as well as the ideas that established that nation but are now said to be superseded? Was Gandhi India’s greatest traveller and how did Narendra Modi move himself from the dangerous fringe to occupy power at the center. Today we speak to a novelist and political commentator. He is the author of “Arzee The Dwarf”, the editor of an anthology of Indian fiction “India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion” and a columnist with Bloomberg Views.

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Freud established psychoanalysis through his Interpretation of Dreams. This week Sharaad and Fuad go over his main claims to unpack its implications.

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We explore how urbanism is understood differently across cultures. Among the topics discussed: the costs of development, alternative models of progress and why architects should be engaging society. Caroline Bos of UNStudio and Tom Kvan of the University of Melbourne lead the way.

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Fresh off the press with his “The Iron Cage of Liberalism: International Politics and Unarmed Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa”, this assistant professor of politics and international relations walks us through his thesis on why unarmed revolutions succeed or fail. Invoking the godmother of the study of revolution, Theda Skocpol, Ritter invites us to consider some of the inter-linkages between states that make resistance to authoritarian rule potentially successful.

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Raja Ali Haji was the first and the last political theorist of the Malay classical tradition. Find out more as we explore his ideas and 19th century context with regular and old friend Syed Muhiyiddin Al-Attas.

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Because K-Pop (Hallyu) is looking for newer consumers as it stretches its reach further and wider into the region. Cultural theorist Mary Ainslie, co-editor of a book on the Korean Wave in Southeast Asia joins us today to help us better understand this phenomenon.

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We walk through the history of film studies from its early start from social reformers concerned about the leisure activities of the working-class. In three decades film was finding its place in art museums and not to long later its arrival at the university as part of the curriculum. One of the most successful products of the 20th century’s culture industry, film is at the confluence of capital, class and culture. Grieveson who is Reader in Film Studies and Director of the Graduate Programme in Film Studies, and author of numerous books on films, also put together the colonialfilm.org.uk project which features material from our own history.

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We all want to develop, but why? How? What does that even mean? Are we using frameworks that are enabling or colonizing? Guy Burton joins us this week to lay out the discourse of development and its implications.

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Another discussion on moderation, though this time we critically unpack the meaning, implications and risks of this project. Our guest today is Dr. Lyana Khairuddin, a leading figure in our current moderation discourse.

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Qian Zhong Shu pioneered the masterful craft of comparative literature and culture at a time before it became the popular discourse it is today. A worldly thinker, he was also deeply rooted to China, enduring the most precarious events that defined the nation in the 20th century. Douglas Shang introduces us to this genius.

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We discuss the ethics of subaltern engagement this week. How do we ensure that our outreach doesn't just replicate already existing hegemonic structures? What should we keep in mind in dealing with imbalances of power in activism, wherein the privileged and their good intentions tread in the margins? Join the usual duo and activist-scholar Petra Gimbad for this lively discussion!

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You actually want to kill your father and make love with your mother, that is if you're a boy, according to Freud at least. He calls it the Oedipus Complex. What's with all this nonsense? Why did it come about? Is it even nonsense to begin with? This episode explores those questions. Join the usual duo for another exciting conversation!

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Our bodies are gendered, marked with various norms, mores and social expectations. These have implications far beyond medicine and it is in this circumstance that we understand what's healthy and what's not. Priya Lall joins us this week to help us make sense of it all, with particular focus on Asia.

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We go from north to south and back again, discussing the interweaving of narratives here and Europe. Batu Sarwar was the former capital of Johor and it makes a curious appearance in this discussion. History is tenuous and that makes it all the more fascinating. Peter Borschberg leads the way.

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Scholar Clive Kessler joins us this week to talk about the political culture and historical development of Kelantan. What sets it apart from the rest of the country? How are we to make sense of its contradictions? Also featuring Noraini Othman who shares some of her insights on the distinct patterns of family and relationships there.

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Pity is such a universal sentiment, often assumed to be good, and ultimately a mark of one's humanity. Nietzsche is less certain about that though. He believes it has mutated into a culture of self-indulgent molly coddling of suffering, so much so that life has become unthinkable without it. Why on earth would he think that? Join Sharaad and Fuad this week as they take on this theme!

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For our Valentine's special we are joined by Pang Khee Teik, Wong Yuen Mei and Thilaga to reflect on the relationship between love and freedom. Where do they come together, and at what points do they diverge? Why? How do we stay loyal to the dynamism of our desires in a world ridden with social conformity laden with the chaos inherent to a capitalist world. It's your typical mindblowing Night School episode.

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This week we reflect alongside members of the team behind Making Space: We Are Where We Aren't, an ongoing exhibition on the dynamics of space. Among other things we question the issues inherent to the public / private divide and the challenges of presenting art in contemporary Kuala Lumpur. With space so essential to who we are, how do we think it the better to understand ourselves as citizens and individuals. Featuring curator Ong Jo-Lene, artist Sharon Chin and art critic Johan Zolhaidi.

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Martin Heidegger's 1927 opus "Being and Time" is an incomplete work but it caused waves in Western philosophy upon its release. Its legacy remains polarised today, given Heidegger's infamous affiliation with the Nazi Party. His indictment against the alienating forces of modern life, however, remains relevant as ever. This week, Fuad and Sharaad unpacks its call for authenticity to understand the values of its insights for our time.

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“I used to say to my classes that the ways to get insight are: to study infants; to study animals; to study primitive people; to be psychoanalyzed; to have a religious conversion and get over it; to have a psychotic episode and get over it; or to have a love affair with an old Russian. And I stopped saying that when a little dancer in the front row put up her hand and said, 'Does he have to be old?” That was one of the big names in anthropology, Margaret Mead, whose work on identity and culture made waves when it was first published. In this episode we talk to a Malaysian, Mohan Ambikaipaker about his journey into anthropology.

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The spectacle of protests across the United States of America following the unarmed shooting by police of a young African-American boy, reminded the world of the persistence of the racial dimension of social and political realities even in countries that claim to be democratic. In this episode we discuss Critical Race Theory and how it might be usefully applied to understanding the British and American society. We speak to a Malaysian-born, American-trained anthropologist whose field work was based in the metropolis of London.

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The Australian National University’s online journal, New Mandala, describes her volume, "Student Activism in Malaysia: Crucible, Mirror, Sideshow" as an extensive study into an area not often explored. Weiss jokes that this study is the continuation of her work on civil society and other marginal social forces in Malaysia society and history. In this episode we explore the concepts central to this largely historical work including the ecology of the campus, the dual social nature of students and the politics of intellectual containment.

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Poised between self-congratulations and self-criticism, our hosts look back at a year of Night School episodes. We walked through the genetics, psychology, philosophy, history, linguistics, social theory and even religion (we tip-toed). Together with independent art curator, Jolene, we asked ourselves how better can we make the show for 2015.

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Earlier this month, Ebrahim Moosa, one of the world's foremost South African intellectuals visited Malaysia to give a series of talks. BFM Night School was fortunate to host him for an in depth one on one interview, where we discuss, among other things, his intellectual journey, activist worldview and helping us contextualise contemporary issues.

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How do historians see the world? And how has history been used by politicians and others in shaping the world around? Peter Carey is the Adjunct Professor at Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia and Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College, Oxford. His books include “The Power of Prophecy; Prince Dipanagara and the End of an Old Order in Java, 1785-1855”, “East Timor: Third World Colonialism and the Struggle for National Identity” and “From Burma to Myanmar: Military Rule and the Struggle for Democracy”.

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Asia as Method by Chen Kuan-Hsing is changing the way in which we view Asia. It has become an indispensable resource in cultural studies and social theory, as it calls for an understanding of Asia beyond the cultural confines of Eurocentric lenses and assumptions to an appreciation of the region's complexities and multiplicity. A new discourse of Asia, that is grounded in a full grasp of its material challenges is beginning. We speak to Adelle Lim and Douglas Shang, postgraduate students at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus for an understanding of this key texts and its theoretical implications.

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Fresh from the George Town Literary Festival – the fourth in the series – and while waiting for their flight their respective homes in the Klang Valley, our hosts look back at ideas and notions embedded in the many conversations they had at the annual gab-fest. From the absence of Kassim Ahmad, and Sudhir Vadaketh’s Malayans to Zan Azlee’s suburbanites in Afghanistan and aspiring writers, we rummage about for GTLF gems.

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In this episode, we discuss the famous Slovenian psychoanalyst, Marxist and philosopher, Slavoj Zizek! Fuad is joined by Douglas Shang, a Masters student from the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, who provides a general overview of Zizek's method, ideas and flamboyant style as well as the factors behind his rapid rise to fame and notoriety. Among other things we discuss the importance of popular culture and jokes as a way of conveying complicated theoretical ideas about the world around us.

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A full recording of the forum “Handling The Heat - Is Media Freedom A Requirement For Democracy?”. Sponsored by the British High Commission, KL, and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus as part of their Great Debate series. The forum was held on the 19th of June 2014, at the Malaysian Tourism Center, Kuala Lumpur.

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“All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place,” wrote Edward W. Said, author of the seminal “Orientalism”. In this episode we walk through some of the key points in the analysis of the historical construction of the Other of Western civilization, and therefore of itself.

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“The Discovery of India” is the title of a work by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his imprisonment between 1942-1946. In this episode we attempt our own discovery of India with the help of our guest. A native of the state of Assam, he guides us through the country’s North Eastern states. It is an area which he characterises as black hole in the Indian imaginary. We look at the notion of “Indic Civilisation”, narratives which marginalize and exclude, and the bloody fate of North-Easterners in contemporary India.

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“What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially,” wrote French philosopher Roland Barthes in “Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography”. Today we explore why and how the photographic image has come to be such a ubiquitous part of our lives and reference many thinkers who has sought to theorize this phenomenon.

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Hannibal Lecter, from whom the title quote comes, is the protagonist in the crime thriller “Silence of the Lambs”. He represents the ‘return of the repressed’ in human society. But in the larger Animal Kingdom, cannibalism, once thought to be a rare behavior, is now understood to be common. It is not the issue moral repugnance or repressed desires that animates this discussion by the question of evolutionary biology. Does it make evolutionary sense to eat your own kind? Sharpen your knives.

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“Download some good books or bring one or two good book. Please, no *hardcore* topics. I personally downloaded few iBooks like Pride and Prejudice and some english novels beside books written by Ibn Qayyim - and it helped a lot. You wont have much activities in the makkar and these books can keep you *alive*.” This is from the Tumblr-based diary of (as far as we know) a Malaysian woman doctor who joined the proto-state organization, the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant. She calls herself the Bird of Jannah and her daily accounts of life in Iraq go by the title “Diary of a Muhajirah”. In this episode we try to re-frame the discussion around the much vilified group and the people attracted to its cause.

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“Sensation without commitment”, “life like a permanent wank inside you” and “a sort of dry-rot amid the odour of boiled milk”: turns of phrase and ideas from Richard Hoggart’s ‘The Uses of Literacy”. A pioneer of Cultural Studies – “a combination of literature, sociology and moral uplift” – Hoggart’s 1957 classic on the British working-class broke new ground and launched his career which included helming UNESCO. "Sex in Shiny Packets" is the title of a chapter in that book. In this episode we learn of his significance both as a scholar and a public intellectual who famously took the stand at the trial on the banning of D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”. 

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“French laicite is probably aggressive and antagonistic to religion, but there are other models of secularism in the world where there could be reconciliation between religion and secularism,” suggests the Tunisian political professor Rashid Al-Ghannushi. But what is the history that produced this notion and practice of the separation of Church and State. We also explore the resistance to ‘the separation’, the specific issue of Muslims in contemporary France and the rejection of the politics of multi-culturalism.

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In this episode we explore the study of French – its language, literature, and cinema. We also take time to delve into the work of one of the francophone world’s most celebrated and influential minds, Michel Foucault. His milieu illuminates the intellectual challenges facing Europe in the political and socially heady years, from the 1950s to the 1970s. “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play), ” he wrote. Precisely, what Night School aims to do.

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To celebrate BFM’s 6th Anniversary, Night School puts on a special episode looking at 6 ideas we each encountered in our lives and through our work. In this free-wheeling episode, we talk about Antonio Gramsci’s “common sense”, Edward Said’s notion of the role of “the intellectual”, Buddhism’s concept of “impermanence”, the power of “historical materialism” as well as Alexis de Tocqueville’s understanding of “enlightened self-interest”.

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Children’s Studies is emerging as an independent field of study that’s recently achieved institutional recognition in the establishment of dedicated departments in several universities. We ask what makes Children’s studies different from the numerous studies on children that exist in many other disciplines.

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Poverty porn is an expression that describes the ‘exploitative’, sometimes ‘gratuitous’ images of the poor that many of us consume through mainstream as well as social media. This episode explores the cultural and symbolic dynamics of representing the poor and marginalized.

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“It was a cold morning, and he shivered a little; but he had been taught by his uncle that his prayers were more acceptable to God if he said them in his nightshirt than if he waited till he was dressed. This did not surprise him, for he was beginning to realise that he was the creature of a God who appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers,” wrote W. Somerset Maugham in “Of Human Bondage”. The basic facts of the human condition – life, disease, happiness, desire and death - and responses it are subjected to some scrutiny in this episode.

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The downing of MH17 has made the Feminist notion that “the international is personal, and the personal is international” almost intuitive. And despite the “realist” assumptions underscoring most journalistic writing on the tragedy, we might ask, as critical International Relations scholars might, what are the “hidden narratives” in this unfolding crisis. In this episode we explore the field of International Relations (not the MH17 tragedy).

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Working from an anthropology of education Professor Behr was able to propose the introduction of a new dimension of educational curriculum in German schools which continues to help a migrant population assimilate into society. By recognizing that the religious commitments of the community was not the problem but part of the solution of the social dislocation of migrants, the government was able to speak to the children of migrants in a language they understood.

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“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die,” wrote Charles Darwin in his magna opus “The Origin of Species”. Biology’s unified theory – natural selection and evolution – provides the basis for understanding a range of non-human animal behavior. Today we try to get to grips with the logic behind “honest signaling”.

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Is the intellectual merely devoted to the “life of the mind” or ought she be committed to social progress. And what happens to a society in which intellectual have lost their nerve, refuse to ask difficult questions? This week we speak to the author of “Minda Terwan”, loosely translated as ‘The Capitive Mind’. Whose extended essay ponders the Malaysian intellectuals’ condition. His first published book entitled "Menyarung Jiwa" or "Soulship", a collection of poems in Malay and English.

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“Although I believe identity politics 'produces limited but real empowerment for its participants,’ it is important to note that it contains significant problems: first, its essentialist tendency; second, its fixed "we-they" binary position; third, its homogenization of diverse social oppression; fourth, its simplification of the complexity and paradox of being privileged and unprivileged; and fifth its ruling out of intersectional space of diverse forms of oppression in reality,” writes Namsoon Kang in “Cosmopolitan Theology: Reconstituting Planetary Hospitality, Neighbor-Love, and Solidarity in an Uneven World”. We explore the contours of this compelling mode of being.

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A full recording of the forum “No Pain No gain - Cutting Subsidies is Necessary For Malaysia’s Future Prosperity”. Sponsored by the British High Commission, KL, and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus as part of their Great Debate series. The forum was held on the 20th of March 2014, at the Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur.

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A new debate series organised by the British High Commission, KL, and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus is the subject of this episode. Held 20 March 2014, at the Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur, the debate was titled “No Pain, No Gain: Cutting Subsidies is Necessary For Malaysia’s Future Prosperity”. The panelists were Senator Senator and Cabinet Minister Abdul Wahid Omar, Parliamentarian Ong Kian Ming, and economists Manokaran Mottain and Teo Wing Leong.

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The 'Sekolah Falsafah' initiative has explored a plethora of philosophers from the classic Plato to anti-philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Held on weekday nights, the students engage in critical discourse, probing the arguments of different thinkers across the centuries. Drawing to its final class after five months, we talk to the 'Sekolah Falsafah' graduates on the appreciation and application of philosophy as well as its structured learning environment and what the country could do to accommodate this intellectual tradition.

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“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world; Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind ...” So starts the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a Charter that defines membership in the powerful multi-national organization called the United Nations. The question remains, do its claims hold up to philosophical scrutiny?

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How do we frame the debate about democracy and democratic transition? Why do we fear the emergence of religious voices in the democratic game? The Cordoba Foundation says that it wants “to provide a strong voice of tolerance and reason in promoting dialogue and a rapprochement between Islam and the West”. We speak to its founder to better focus on the contours of an important contemporary debate.

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Friedrich Nietzsche is one of Night School’s favourite philosophers – critical of received wisdom, his provocations has forced thinkers to re-examine the very foundations of Western thought. In this episode we examine the suggestion that justice and punishment is a compromise with revenge. And also consider Nietzsche’s proposal that “forgetting” is the only way to address the question of justice.

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A year ago William Roff, author of ‘The Origins of Malay Nationalism’ died. A substantial body of work on the question of Islam followed his PhD thesis on the politics of the Peninsular. Sumit Mandal studied under Roff at Columbia University. He presents Roff’s essay “Islam obscured ? Some Reflections on Studies of Islam & Society in Southeast Asia” published in the journal Archipel in 1985.

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For much of modern history the work of anthropologists and the stuff of museums was a natural fit. Displays of human evolution, society and culture presented in neat, order narratives in text, dioramas and artifacts encased on glass vitrines. But for decades now that relationship has been interrogated and refigured, changing both the study of people and cultures and well as its presentation to the public. We explore.

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“The existence of the things qua commodities, and the value-relation between the products of labour which stamps them as commodities, have absolutely no connection with their physical properties and with the material relations arising there from. There it is a definite social relation between men, that assumes, in their eyes, the fantastic form of a relation between things. This I call the Fetishism ... of commodities,” wrote Karl Marx. This week we explore the consequence of a world in which things have a life of their own.

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“The important thing is not what we write, but how we write, and in my opinion the modern writer must be an adventurer above all, willing to take every risk, and be prepared to founder in his effort if need be. In other words we must write dangerously,” said James Joyce in a conversation with Arthur Power. How can story-telling be dangerous and how can it resolve the environmental and economic the world finds itself in.

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“I think what we need is a return to a belief not in liberty, because that is easily converted into something else, as we saw, but in equality. Equality, which is not the same as sameness. Equality of access to information, equality of access to knowledge, equality of access to education, equality of access to power and to politics. We should be more concerned than we are about inequalities of opportunity, whether between young and old or between those with different skills or from different regions of a country. It is another way of talking about injustice,” said Tony Judt, historian and author of “Ill Fares the Land”.

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It is written of 17th Century philosopher Rene Descartes that he had four rules for himself in his thinking: Never accept anything except clear and distinct ideas; Divide each problem into as many parts are needed to solve it; Order your thoughts from the simple to the complex; Always check thoroughly for oversights. His “methodological doubt” lead him to the famous formulation “I think, therefore I am”. And in doing so inaugurated a break in Western thought with the thinking subject – the “I” of cogito ergo sum – at its center.

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“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas,” wrote Karl Marx in the German Ideology published in 1845.

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The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. … What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? … The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” wrote Jeremy Bentham in The Principles of Morals and Legislation. This week we look at the implications of the philosophy of naturalism.

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“I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience,” wrote Indonesia’s most serious contender for a Nobel prize winner for literature, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. His body of work has survived the New Order regime which sent him into internal exile without trial for close to two decades. Today we look at his work, “The Chinese in Indonesia”, and the underlying re-interpretation of the notion of nation and nationalism.

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“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many,” wrote Baruch Spinoza aka Benedict de Spinoza. This 17th century philosopher’s radical interpretation of the notion of God changed the very terms of the debate in the Western tradition. A len’s maker by profession, his embrace of science as a way to understand God, suggests the profound connection between philosophy and the world it inhabits.

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This part of the world was embroiled in a pantheist controversy in the 17th century. Tune in to find out more about the context, figures, discourses and philosophies that formed the circumstances behind this fascinating chapter of our intellectual history. Our regular guest, Syed Muhiyiddin Al-Attas paves the way.

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“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or a brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy,” wrote Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics. This rather commonsensical view of happiness is part of a larger, and deeper analysis of the meaning of happiness. This week, we explore one of the great minds of classical European philosophy.

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