The Interrationale was an attempt at a philosophical synthesis through sheer determination. It began and failed in 2008.
The goal was to do a thorough analytic-style treatment of two continental philosophical works, constructing line-by-line a parallel system of formal definitions and theses. I was working with The Theory of Communicative Action, by Jürgen Habermas, and The Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Debord. At some point Georg Lukacs’ History and Class Consciousness got sucked in.
As it turns out, I didn’t have the staying power. The Theory of Communicative Action is a long book. It is very impractical to carry it on a subway. It also ranges so broadly that it was not possible to systematize it with the time I had available. Meanwhile, The Society of the Spectacle resisted almost all attempts at formalization.
“Well, what did you expect?”
