"The Post/Human Condition," Annual Conference, Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy (ASCP), University of Auckland, December 3–5, 2008.

What is it to be human? The advent of modern science, the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern nation-state, and the development of evolutionary theory conspired to bring about the collapse of traditional understandings of the human condition during the Enlightenment. But recently the modern and postmodern paradigms that emerged out of this period of philosophical upheaval have themselves been put to the test by an unprecedented constellation of phenomena: biotechnologies, globalization, the ecological crisis, and the virtualization of social relations, to name but a few. How then are we to think about the human experience today? What language can we find for it? Indeed, what language would provide not only a descriptive but also the necessary critical perspective on the human condition in the contemporary context? Is the category of “the human” still viable, or should we now speak of “the post-human”? Are we better served by categories such as “animal” or “life”? Are the “de-centering” strategies of postmodernism to be further developed, or is it imperative, as some have maintained, to revive the concept of the “subject”? What is the status of the body and embodiment in an age of technological prosthesis and genetic manipulation? How is the social or “plural” character of human existence to be theorized in view of contemporary patterns and possibilities of familial, economic, and political interaction? What, if anything, has been contributed by the recent “post-secular turn” in philosophy to questions concerning the human condition? And finally, what, if anything, can be said by the philosopher about the “ends” of humanity today? The ASCP 2008 Conference Committee invites proposals for papers exploring these questions or any others of relevance to contemporary philosophical debates concerning the (post-)human condition. Paper proposals in other areas of Continental Philosophy are also welcome. Proposals are also encouraged for topical panels addressing the conference theme and for panels on books by Australasian philosophers. Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Leonard Lawlor (Penn State)
• Prof. Ewa Ziarek (SUNY Buffalo)
• Prof. David Wills (SUNY Albany)
• A/Prof. Nikolas Kompridis (York)

Conference Streams (draft list):

• Animality and Humanity
• Human/Post-Human
• Bare Life and Biopolitics
• The Posthuman Body
• Merleau-Ponty
• Phenomenology of Life
• Phenomenology and Post-Phenomenology
• Arendt and the Human Condition
• Hegel, Desire, Subjectivity
• Levinas and the Humanism of the Other
• Humanism and Anti-Humanism
• The Legacy of Existentialism
• Comparative Philosophy
• Philosophy & Literature
• A Post-Human Aesthetics?
• Richard Rorty in memoriam
• Philosophy of the Future
• The Human To-Come

Abstract Submissions:

Deadline: Friday, September 19, 2008. Paper and panel proposals should be emailed to Dr Simone Drichel at simone.drichel@stonebow.otago.ac.nz. Please include your name, paper title, an abstract (200 words max), plus up to 5 key words.

Further information will be posted here in due course: http://www.ascp.org.au/conferences.htm.