"Neuropsychoanalysis: Who Needs It?," 10th International Neuropsychoanalysis Conference, Paris, June 26-29, 2009.

Neuropsychoanalysis has been the major international development within psychoanalysis in recent decades. However, opinions differ as to whether it will have a positive or negative impact on the future of the discipline. At this congress, the leading exponents of the new approach will present their findings and discuss their points of view with some of France’s outstanding psychoanalytic and neuroscientific authorities. The Unconscious, child development, and the clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis in particular will be discussed. The congress will be an historical event, the impact of which will be felt for many years to come. Speakers at the Congress include: György Gergely, Claude Gottesmann, André Green, Catherine Morin, Lionel Naccache, Georg Northoff, Philippe Rochat, René Roussillon, Howard Shevrin, Mark Solms, Daniel Stern, Daniel Widlöcher and Yoram Yovell. Visit the conference webpage here: http://www.neuro-psa.org.uk/npsa/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=61.

"International Law and Global Justice," Centre for Study of Social Justice & Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, May 20-21, 2009.

Debates on international law and on global justice have for the most part proceeded separately. Only very few theorists have suggested that the project of designing principles of international/global justice is closely related to that of designing principles of international law. Taking the lead from this often underappreciated suggestion, in this workshop we aim to explore the connections between international law and global justice. In particular, we welcome papers – both legal and philosophical – discussing the following topics: The relation between coercion, law and (global) justice: an increasing number of political theorists have argued that obligations of justice only apply within political communities by virtue of the existence of a coercive legal system. What are the implications of this view for the question of global justice? Can we plausibly claim that international law is coercive in the same way in which domestic law is? If not, does this mean that principles of justice should not apply to it? The effectiveness of international law as a means to realising global justice: if international law is one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal to bring about a morally better world, what sort of reforms of the current international legal system would be necessary to move closer to the goal of global justice? Given the sui generis nature of the international legal system, how can such reforms be most fruitfully brought about? Global justice, international law and state sovereignty: is the principle of the sovereign equality of states itself a principle of international/global justice or a hindrance to the quest for global justice? Would a world inhabited by states which are genuinely – as opposed to merely formally – equally sovereign be a just world? Or does the realisation of a just world require us to transcend the very idea of state sovereignty, moving from a system of international law to a global legal system? Keynote Speakers: Prof. David Armstrong (University of Exeter) Prof. Allen Buchanan (Duke University) Prof. Terry Nardin (National University of Singapore) Dr Amanda Perreau-Saussine (University of Cambridge) Further information is available frmo globaljustice@politics.ox.ac.uk.

Pub: GLOBAL JUSTICE: THEORY, PRACTICE, RHETORIC 2 (2009).

Articles:

• Manfred Steger ‘Political Ideologies and Social Imaginaries in the Global Age’ pp. 1-17
• Regina Kreide ‘The Ambivalence of Juridification. On Legitimate Governance in the International Context’ pp. 18-34

Reviews:

• Clara Brandi ‘We the Stakeholders: The Power of Representation beyond Borders?Terry Macdonald, Global Stakeholder Democracy. Power and Representation Beyond Liberal States, Oxford,Oxford University Press, 2008′ pp. 35-41
• Miriam Ronzoni ‘Making Access to Trade Conditional on Labour Standards?Christian Barry and Sanjay Reddy, International Trade and Labor Standards: A Proposal for Linkage, New York, Columbia University Press, 2008′ pp. 42-46
• Tiziana Torresi ‘The Cosmopolitan Future Of DemocracyDaniele Archibugi, The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008′ pp. 47-49
• Laura Valentini ‘Social Liberal or Cosmopolitan?David Miller, National Responsibility and Global Justice, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007′ pp. 50-53

Visit the journal homepage here: http://www.theglobaljusticenetwork.org/journal.

Cfp: "Knowledge and Pain," Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 24-26, 2010.

Pain, physical or emotional, as a field of knowledge about suffering, is a subject of scholarly attention in the humanities and social sciences, in parallel with the scientific study of pain mechanisms and controls. The conference "Knowledge and Pain" will be devoted to the voices of the sufferers (rather than to those of inflictors, healers, or managers of pain). Bypassing, as much as possible, the messages of professional mediators, it will focus on the light that sufferers themselves shed upon their condition through verbal or visual expression. The organizers of the conference welcome proposals that deal with the following questions: * How does discourse function as an intermediary between sufferer and listeners? Is pain destructive of language or does it merely challenge it? * How and in what contexts does body language communicate suffering in different cultures and inter-culturally? * What social capital (if any) do sufferers gain from communicating their pain? * Is pain exclusively destructive of the subject's world or can it yield cognitive or spiritual gain? * Is it ethically problematic to ascribe meaning to pain beyond its function as a symptom? * What are the relationships between physical and emotional pain? * How are the media used to represent pain, and with what side effects? * Do artistic representations of suffering improve our understanding of the pain of another? * How does the voice of pain implicate the hearer? A selection of papers based on the work of the conference will be published by an academic press. Paper proposals of 300 to 500 words should be sent to msecohen@mscc.huji.ac.il by September 8, 2009.

"Are We Beyond the Two Cultures?" SEEDMAGAZINE.COM May 11, 2009.

May 7 marks the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures lecture. Half a century ago the prominent novelist and speaker, who studied under Lord Rutherford, described a chasm between literary intellectuals and scientists, a gulf that impoverished both sides and impeded efforts to relieve suffering around the world. Science was not understood or respected by the dominant culture, to the detriment of all, he said. At some point scientists had ceased to be considered intellectuals, Snow noted, and though any educated person was required to know Shakespeare, almost none knew the second law of thermodynamics. Snow’s words touched off decades of debate on both the existence of the “Two Cultures” and the possibility of a “Third Culture” — a group Snow envisioned as curious non-scientists who could bridge the gap between scientists and humanists. In 1991, literary agent John Brockman wrote an essay entitled “The Third Culture,” which made the point that “scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.” In 1991, his Edge Foundation launched a website  — Edge — explicitly to bring together intellectuals of the Third Culture — many scientists, but also writers and philosophers—with the goal of bringing empirical studies directly to the public. The Third Culture has grown beyond Edge, as scientists have become increasingly public — and even famous  — figures. Seed approached six thinkers to ask where we are now: Whether the Two Cultures are still divided, and what role the Third Culture is playing. . . . Read the rest here: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/are_we_beyond_the_two_cultures/.

Crease, Robert P. "TWO CULTURES Turns 50." PHYSICSWORLD.COM May 1, 2009.

Half a century ago this month, the physicist and author Charles Percy Snow (1905—1980) delivered the annual Rede Lecture in the Senate House of the University of Cambridge. (Usually referred to as C P Snow, he was later made a life peer and enjoyed appearing in the House of Lords as Baron Snow, despite being a self-professed socialist.) Its title — The Two Cultures — referred to a gulf Snow diagnosed between “literary intellectuals” and “natural scientists”, and it elaborated themes he had mentioned in the New Statesman three years earlier. The talk was published in Encounter in June and July 1959, and then as a book. Soon after the book appeared, critics attacked Snow’s abilities as a writer, his achievements as a scientist, the rigour of his concepts, the legitimacy of his characterizations and the validity of his claims. Yet the book remains in print, and its famous phrase continues to describe the gulf still perceived to exist between the arts and sciences. Read the rest here: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/38894.

"The Ethics of Interpretation from Ancient to Postmodern Times," Marquette University, May 13-14, 2009.

Sponsored by the Seminar on Phenomenology and Hermeneutics and the Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Wednesday May 13 1:45-2:00 Greetings 2:00-3:00 Dr. Franco Trivigno (Marquette University) "Childish Nonsense? The value of Interpretation in Plato's Protagoras" 3:00-4:00 Mr. Shazad Akhtar (Marquette University) "Merleau-Ponty Reads Husserl: A Case Study in the Ethics of Appropriation" 4:00-4:30 Coffee Break 4:30-6:00 Dr. Kenneth Dorter (University of Guelph) "Platonic Hermeneutics: Plato Reading, Reading Plato" Thursday, May 14 9:00-10:00 Mr. Geoffrey Holsclaw (Marquette University) "Can Hermeneutics Overcome Historicism? The Ethics of Textual and Sacramental Practices" 10:00-11:00 Mr. Nathan Blackerby (Marquette University) "Knowledge and Society: Two Interpretations of Alfarabi's Political Philosophy" 11:00-11:30 Coffee Break 11:30-12:30 Dr. Sebastian Luft (Marquette University) "Interpreting 'Correctly': Authors' Intentions, Readers' Interpretations, and the Problem of a 'Correct Reading'" 12:30-2:00 Lunch Break 2:00-3:00 Dr. Steve Long (Marquette University) "The Unity of Interpretation: Augustine’s Understanding of Language in Light of Mignolo’s Post-colonial Theory" 3:00-4:00 Dr. Pol Vandevelde (Marquette University) "The Ethics vs. the Politics of Interpretation" 4:00-4:30 Coffee Break 4:30-6:00 Dr. Vincent Colapietro (Pennsylvania State University) "Transgressive Fidelity" Visit the conference homepage here: http://www.sem-phen.org/NextPresentations.html.

Anderson, Thomas C. Review of Jonathan Webber's THE EXISTENTIALISM OF JEAN-PAUL SARTRE. NDPR (May 2009).

Webber, Jonathan. The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. London: Routledge, 2008. On his first page Jonathan Webber informs his readers that his aim "is to present a single coherent picture of the central themes of Sartrean existentialism" (xi) presented in Being and Nothingness and published works immediately preceding and following it. He argues that Sartre's philosophy is an "elaboration of one basic idea," which is that an individual's character consists in the projects the person pursues. The author's thorough explication of Sartre's notion of character is highly original as is his use of that notion to make better sense of bad faith, good faith, sincerity and authenticity. Also, Webber's claim that a study of Sartre's notion of character can contribute significantly to contemporary discussions of ethics, especially virtue ethics, seems to this reviewer on the mark. The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, which confronts an impressive number of the major interpreters of Sartre, is an extremely valuable scholarly contribution to that study. . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15985.

"Carl Gustav Jung." GREAT LIVES. BBC Radio 4. May 1, 2009.

Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Ruby Wax discusses the life and work of Carl Gustav Jung, who has been called 'the father of analytical psychology'. Along with author and Jungian analyst Professor Andrew Samuels, Ruby discusses Jung's theories of personality and psychological types, and reveals how his work has affected her own life. To listen, visit the following URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jxhdd.

"Phenomenology, Social Sciences and the Arts," University of Konstanz, May 14-16, 2009.

The international and interdisciplinary conference “Phenomenology, Social Sciences, and the Arts” focuses on the specific interrelationship of a philosophical, epistemological position and a particular social scientific perspective with distinct analytical potential to investigate art phenomena. While the phenomenological perspective allows reflection on the subjective point of view of artists and interpreters, the social science perspective reconstructs the sociohistoric preconditions of the triad artist and interpreter, and the objectified work of art. The theory of the life-world developed in the interface of phenomenology and social sciences, allows an interpretation of diverse reality spheres involved in the work of art, thus describing the symbolically established meaning structure which is responsible for the function of the art work as such. The most significant social scientist and philosopher dedicated to the analysis of interrelations between phenomenology, and social science, was Alfred Schutz. As part of his work, he used phenomenology to describe the epistemological foundations of social science, in particular Max Weber’s concept of social action, which was declared the nucleus of social science. Furthermore, Schutz developed a theory of the life-world concept, as well as a theory of sign and symbol which especially serve the interpretation of art phenomena; in relation to this, Schutz’s work on literature and music in particular, became most crucial. Especially well-known among researchers in phenomenology and social science, are his analyses of multiple reality spheres within Don Quixote, as well as his interpretation of Mozart’s operas. This conference will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Alfred Schutz’s death. The thesis supported within the theoretical framework of the symposium, claims that the analysis of production, as well as the perception and interpretation of art work, needs to take into consideration the subjective viewpoint of the artist, in addition to that of the interpreter. Phenomenology allows a description of the subjectively centered life-world of the individual actor – artist or interpreter – while the perspective of social science, serves to reconstruct the socio-historical structure involved in the creation and reception of the art work. This specific theoretical focus which combines both the disciplines phenomenology and social science offers an innovative framework for the analysis of art phenomena, and allows the conference participants a creative interpretation of a variety of distinct art forms and works, in addition to the realization of theoretical reflections on the interdependence of arts, phenomenology and social science. Visit the conference homepage here: http://www.uni-konstanz.de/soziologie/archiv2/projekte/humboldt/pssa/index.html.

Cfp: "French Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalysis in French: Language, Literature, Culture," University of South Carolina, March 18-20, 2010.

38th Annual French Literature Conference. Psychoanalysis in France has a long and rich history. From the early work of Marie Bonaparte, the interventions of the surrealists, and the dissertation of a young medical student named Jacques Lacan in the 1920s to the heights of the École Freudienne, the expulsion of Luce Irigaray, and Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus in the 1970s, psychoanalysis played a central role in French intellectual life throughout the twentieth century. Indeed, whether in the work of Lacanian and postLacanian intellectuals and analysts (such as Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, and Jacques Derrida), or in that of psychoanalytic skeptics such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault, specifically French debates on and within analysis have shaped the culture of literary, philosophical, cinematic, and historical studies around the globe. At the same time, the postcolonial world of Francophone literature and film have radically called into question the very universality of the Freudian family romance, forcing us to pose the question, in the words of a famous book title: is there an 'Oedipe Africain'? Finally, both inside France and beyond its borders, there is a rich tradition of psychoanalytic interpretation of the classic texts of French literature. This conference seeks to pose the following questions: is there a specifically French form of psychoanalysis and what are its characteristics; does the psychoanalytic narrative also have purchase on the larger world of Francophonie or are such pretensions to universalism necessarily ahistorical and imperialistic; what is the future of psychoanalysis as method of interpreting French literature and film and will its insights continue to produce new understandings or has its time now passed? Twenty-minute papers addressing these subjects should be sent by e-mail to Allen Miller (pamiller@sc.edu) by November 1, 2009. All papers accepted for this conference will be published in volume 38 of French Literature Series (FLS).

"Déconstruire, dit-il...: Autour de l'Oeuvre de Jacques Derrida," Université de Paris IV - Sorbonne, May 20-23, 2009.

Intervenants/Speakers: Geoffrey Bennington (Atlanta) Gérard Bensussan (Strasbourg) Gisèle Berkman (Paris) Fernanda Bernardo (Coimbra) David Brezis (Paris) Mireille Calle-Gruber (Paris) Joseph Cohen (Dublin) Danielle Cohen-Levinas (Paris) Marc Crépon (Paris) Michel Deguy (Paris) Simon Glendinning (Londres) Jean Grondin (Montréal) Ebe Gruber (Paris) Jean-Luc Guichet (Paris) Andrew Haas (Dublin) Stéphane Habib (Paris) Werner Hamacher (Francfort) Felix Heidenreich (Stuttgart) Stefan Lorenzer (Francfort) Michel Lisse (Louvain) René Major (Paris) Marie-Louise Mallet (Paris) Serge Margel (Paris) Raoul Moati (Paris) Tim Mooney (Dublin) Ginette Michaud (Montréal) Michael Naas (Chicago) Jean-Luc Nancy (Strasbourg) Orietta Ombrosi (Bologne) Raphael Zagury-Orly (Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem) For Programme information, please contact Dr. Joseph Cohen : joseph.cohen@ucd.ie Pour toutes informations relatives au colloque présenté, veuillez contacter M. Joseph Cohen : joseph.cohen@ucd.ie.

"The Two Cultures in the 21st Century," New York Academy of Sciences, May 9, 2009.

In 1959 the prominent British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow gave a pivotal lecture before a crowd of his colleagues in Cambridge. The lecture focused on what he saw as a serious divide between the sciences and the humanities. As a researcher and creative writer he had a unique perspective on the problem and its impact on society at large. Now, 50 years after that famous lecture, Science & the City is gathering together a wide array of experts to discuss whether or not the divide still exists and how it affects contemporary society. This full-day symposium will feature keynotes by E.O. Wilson, Dean Kamen, and former Congressman John Edward Porter, as well as panel discussions on politics, education, and the history surrounding the two cultures debate. Visit the conference page here: http://www.nyas.org/snc/twocultures/index.asp.

Fish, Stanley. "God Talk." THINK AGAIN BLOG. NEW YORK TIMES May 3, 2009.

Eagleton, Terry. Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate. New Haven: Yale UP, 2009. In the opening sentence of the last chapter of his new book, Reason, Faith and Revolution, the British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance — science, reason, liberalism, capitalism — just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed. “What other symbolic form,” he queries, “has managed to forge such direct links between the most universal and absolute of truths and the everyday practices of countless millions of men and women?” Eagleton acknowledges that the links forged are not always benign — many terrible things have been done in religion’s name — but at least religion is trying for something more than local satisfactions, for its “subject is nothing less than the nature and destiny of humanity itself, in relation to what it takes to be its transcendent source of life.” And it is only that great subject, and the aspirations it generates, that can lead, Eagleton insists, to “a radical transformation of what we say and do.” The other projects, he concedes, provide various comforts and pleasures, but they are finally superficial and tend to the perpetuation of the status quo rather than to meaningful change: “A society of packaged fulfillment, administered desire, managerialized politics and consumerist economics is unlikely to cut to the depth where theological questions can ever be properly raised.” . . . Read the rest here: http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/god-talk/.

Cfp: "Writing Research Across Borders II," George Mason University, February 17-20, 2011.

As societies become more knowledge-intensive and communication technologies draw us more closely together, the importance of writing in economic, scientific, civic, personal, and social development becomes more apparent. Correspondingly, the imperative to conduct research on writing in schools and the workplace, in relationship to learning and development, and in all aspects of our lives has invigorated work among scholars in all regions of the world. The conference Writing Research across Borders II will provide an opportunity for researchers to share their findings and set research agendas for the coming years. Continuing the success of the three previous international research conferences held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the 2011 Writing Research Across Borders II will be held at George Mason University in the Washington D.C./Northern Virginia area. We invite proposals that will continue to deepen the cross-disciplinary, international dialogues across the many different domains of writing research. As in past years, this conference will focus on writing development across the lifespan, including the impact of new technologies on learning to write, early acquisition of writing, writing across grade levels (K-20), writing in the disciplines and professions, and writing in the workplace or other community and institutional settings. We invite proposals presenting research in these areas. We also invite proposals on any other areas of writing use and practice, such as writing in progressive or large scale educational programs, or proposals that link writing research and policies. We welcome papers raising methodological issues about researching writing. We invite work from any research tradition that is grounded in the tradition’s previous research and pursues the methodical gathering of qualitative or quantitative data appropriate to its claims. Proposals should identify the format preferred (panels, roundtables, individual presentations, and poster presentations). Individual or poster proposals should be a maximum of 500 words. Proposals with multiple presentations (panel and roundtable) should contain a short overview statement and then no more than 400 words per speaker. Proposals should specify the relevant research literatures, research questions, methods, data, and findings, as well as the scope and duration of the research projects. The deadline for proposals is May 3, 2010. Please submit proposals in .doc or .rtf format by email attachment to writing@education.ucsb.edu. Also, be sure to include a title for your proposal and each speaker’s individual talk, as well as contact information for each individual presenter. For further information, contact: Professor Charles Bazerman Department of Education Gevirtz Graduate School of Education University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 phone: 805-893-7543 bazerman@education.ucsb.edu http://www.education.ucsb.edu/bazerman.

Joint Conference, Hegel Society of Great Britain and UK Kierkegaard Society, St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford,September 3-4, 2009.

Thursday, 3rd 1.00 - 1.30 Conference Registration 1.30 - 3.00 Clare Carlisle (Liverpool), "Kierkeggard and the Question of Motion: the Sphere of Thought and the Sphere of Freedom" 3.30 - 5.00 Genia Schönbaumsfeld (Southampton), "Kierkegaard contra Hegel on the 'Absolute Paradox'" 5.30 - 7.00 George Pattison (Oxford), "Antigone and the End of Art" Friday, 4th 9.30 - 11.00 Paul Cruysberghs (KU Leuven), "Soul-Consciousness-Mind in Hegel, Rosenkranz and Kierkegaard" 11.30 - 1.00 Dan Watts (Essex), "Subjective Thinking: Kierkegaard on Hegel’s Socrates" 2.00 - 3.30 Jon Stewart (Copenhagen), "Kierkegaard’s Notion of Actuality and the Criticism of Hegelian Abstraction"

Balakrishnan, Gopal. Review of Terry Eagleton's TROUBLE WITH STRANGERS. NDPR (May 2009).

Eagleton, Terry. Trouble with Strangers: a Study of Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. Trouble with Strangers is the latest reflection on ethics from the distinguished literary critic Terry Eagleton. Best known for his witty and sympathetic popularizations of critical theory, Eagleton once claimed that its main contemporary currents -- Marxism, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis -- were devoid of practical ethical corollaries, thereby contributing to a wider condition of relativistic malaise. Eagleton was probably the only proponent of post-structuralism at the time to be troubled by this. But even if it were true that the main variants of post-structuralism once exhibited such nihilist tendencies, one could say that they have all subsequently sought to make amends, for after their 80's heyday, all of them made a turn towards ethical inquiry, along lines laid out by Levinas, Derrida and the late Foucault. Indeed, even Lacanians like Žižek who dismiss the post-structuralist ethics of difference and undecidability, invariably do so in ethical terms. It might also be noted that this development seems to conform to a broader trend that has brought us bio-ethics, professional ethics, and ethical consumerism. Eagleton has addressed this broader ideological context in other works, but in Trouble with Strangers, he limits himself to providing a comparative overview of some of the different conceptions of ethics coming out of that mixture of continental intellectual traditions that is still called 'Theory'. The plan of the book might initially seem whimsical: the author divides ethical philosophies into categories drawn from Lacan's schema of psychic relations -- the Imaginary, Symbolic and Real -- here offered as little more than a loose framework of classification. Indeed the book's architrave is not even specifically Lacanian, and replicates the terms of Kierkegaard's familiar account of three existential worldviews -- the aesthetic, ethical, and religious. While lumping different bodies of thought together in this way might fail to capture the problems they raise on their own terms, Eagleton often employs this heuristic device to good effect, bringing to light shared assumptions, rhetorics, and blind spots. . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15890.

"Power to the People?," Radical Philosophy Conference, Birkbeck College, University of London, May 9, 2009.

... masses, proletariat, workers, soviets, nation, community, subalterns, multitude, commons... `Power to the people!' was once a revolutionary slogan, but reference to government by the people and for the people soon became an empty cliché of the post-revolutionary status quo. The people has become a notoriously ambiguous and contested term, for which numerous alternatives have been proposed: the proletariat, the workers, the masses, the soviets, the nation, the community, the multitude, the commons... And now? How might we assess the different conceptions of political change embodied in these often conflicting ideas? What is the political and philosophical significance of `the people' today?

PROGRAMME:

Plenary (chair: Peter Osborne, RP):

• Gayatri Spivak (Columbia University, NY), "They, the People"

1. The General Will (chair: Peter Hallward, RP)

• David Andress (Portsmouth), "The General Will on the Street: Parisian Activism, Sovereignty and Power, 1789–93"
• Sophie Wahnich (CNRS, Paris), "How Do the People Make Themselves Heard?"

2. Urban Collectivities (chair: David Cunningham, RP)

• AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths), "Urban Intersections and the Politics of Anticipation"
• Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester), "Reflections on the Post-Political City"

3. Population & Biopolitics (chair: Claudia Aradau, RP)

• Couze Venn (Nottingham Trent), "Biopolitics, Diasporas and (Neo)Liberal Political Economy"
• Encarnacion Gutierrez Rodriguez (Manchester), "Feminist Strategies Revisited – Sexopolitics, Multitude and Biopolitics"

4. Class, Commons & Multitude (chair: Esther Leslie, RP)

• Massimo De Angelis (UEL), "Crisis, Tragedies and the Commons"
• Daniel Bensaid (University of Paris-VIII), "Can We (Still) Break the Vicious Circle of Domination?"

£25/£10 unwaged Registration and further details: matt.charles@blueyonder.co.uk.

Stikkers, Kenneth W. Review of Sergio Franzese's THE ETHICS OF ENERGY: WILLIAM JAMES MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN FOCUS. NDPR (May 2009).

Franzese, Sergio. The Ethics of Energy: William James's Moral Philosophy in Focus. Frankfurt: Ontos, 2008. Every scholar and reader of William James is aware of his frequent uses of "energy," especially in his discussions of ethics and most notably in his 1906 Presidential Address to the American Philosophical Association, "The Energies of Men". But while other interpretations treat James's use of "energy" as merely one of his several folksy metaphors, The Ethics of Energy: William James's Moral Philosophy in Focus is the first monograph, as its author, Sergio Franzese, rightly claims, to focus upon "energy" as a central concept in James's ethics. Ethics, for James, is not about values, goods, or principles but about the organization of energy, especially into habits, in the service of personal, aesthetic ideals. As such this book is an original and valuable addition to the literature on James, and it does much to bring James into closer dialogue with other recent efforts to rethink ethics without appeal to some rule of reason, whether it be in the form of an utilitarian calculus or a categorical imperative. Such efforts include those of Friedrich Nietzsche, whom Franzese discusses extensively, Max Scheler, whom he mentions only briefly (51-52), and especially Michel Foucault, whom he does not mention at all. Previous scholars have missed the importance of "energy" in James's philosophy, and thereby have misunderstood his ethics, because, Franzese argues (11-17), they have uncritically followed Ralph Barton Perry's early interpretation of James's 1891 essay "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life" as an outline of some new ethical theory and thus missed the truly revolutionary thrust of that essay. Rather than merely adding one more ethical theory to the lot, James's essay was a radical assault upon ethical theory as such, "a critical analysis of the validity of any moral theory," "intended to show the futility of that traditional philosophical task" (3). The essay aimed to clear the ground for the rethinking of ethics radically anew, to rethink it, as the title implies, in relation to life, rather than as theory abstracted from life. Furthermore, James was not merely cashing in on the popular use of "energy" in his day, as he did with so many other popular terms. "Energy" meant for him no metaphysical substance but rather activity -- living itself (166) -- and for James the pluralist there could be no singular, universal form of right living. The task of ethics is therefore not to prescribe theoretically the features of some universal Good, under which all particular goods are to be arranged and to which all moral agents must submit, but to organize practically the energies of life in service to one's own personal and ideally unified desires and demands against evil, namely, against "limits on the full and free expression of human life" (7): "the ethics of energy does not set moral aims and values"; rather, "it is . . . the way in which one becomes the master and author of one's own energy" (199). . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15926.

Hodge, Jonathan. Review of Michael Ruse, et al., eds. CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. NDPR (May 2009).

Ruse, Michael, and Robert J. Richards, eds. Cambridge Companion to The Origin of Species. Cambridge: CUP, 2009. It will be as well to begin with a clarification and a declaration of interest. As readers of NDPR will know, Cambridge University Press has for some years now been publishing a series of volumes on the philosophers: their Cambridge Companion series. A few of these volumes have been devoted to scientists. There is one on Darwin, now out in a second edition. It is edited by Gregory Radick and myself. The same press has also been publishing a series of Companion volumes on particular books. The volume under review here is devoted to Darwin's Origin of Species, first published in 1859. There is only a little overlap between the two Companion volumes. Each has a chapter by John Brooke discussing Darwin's religious views, but the emphasis is different enough that interested readers will want to consult both. Again, Darwin's analogy between natural and artificial selection is discussed in both volumes and also naturally enough his theory of natural selection. There is no chapter in the Origin volume on the structure of the whole argument of that book. However there is a chapter -- by the philosopher of biology, Kenneth Waters -- on just that in the Darwin Companion. As for philosophy: the Origin volume has only one chapter (by Tim Lewens) by a philosopher writing with philosophers in mind. The Darwin Companion has half a dozen. The contents of this Origin volume are diverse. The editors' introduction usefully gives synopses of all the chapters. After the short first chapter, by Michael Ruse, on how and why Darwin came to write the Origin as he did, the remaining chapters fall into four groups. The first group is devoted to the topics Darwin himself takes up in his book, in the order he adopted. So we have a chapter each on: the selection analogy, variation and inheritance, natural selection, species, the principle of divergence, the objections Darwin anticipated and countered, geology, biogeography, classification, and embryology and morphology. Then there is a second group, of three chapters: on Darwin's botany, on his rhetoric, and on his religion. Next come three chapters on the legacies: for literature; for political thought, and for philosophy. Finally, there is a chapter on the Origin as a book rather than a text: its production, publication, sales and so on. . . . Read the whole review here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15965.