Keynote Speakers: Ray Brassier, Levi Bryant, Iain Hamilton Grant and Catherine Malabou
‘The contemporary end of metaphysics is an end which, being sceptical, could only be a religious end of metaphysics.' Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude: an Essay on the Necessity of Contingency (London: Continuum, 2008).
Meillassoux identifies the ‘turn to religion' in contemporary continental philosophy with a failure of thinking. The Kantian refusal to think the absolute leads to scepticism about reality in itself. Ironically, this lends itself to ‘fideism', the decision to project religious meaning on to the unknowable beyond. According to Meillassoux, a philosophy obsessed with mystery becomes the accomplice of irrational faith. The solution is to find ways of once more thinking the absolute in its reality, severed from its dependence upon a knowing subject, or upon language and social norms. At the same time, new possibilities for thinking religion (exemplified by Meillassoux's own Divine Inexistence) are emerging.
This conference invites proposals which critically consider this speculative turn in philosophy and its implications for thinking about religion. To what ‘end' is speculation leading? Does it simply announce the closure of religion and its subordination to a philosophy of the absolute, nature or the ‘All'? Can it open new lines for a philosophy of religion which is not wedded to the Kantian horizon? Is speculation itself open to Kierkegaardian critique as yet another move to position and reduce ethical and religious claims, sacrificing the future on the altar of abstract possibility? Does renewed attention to the canon of speculative idealism offer a way beyond the impasse between relativism and dogmatism?
The organisers welcome proposals which examine the roots and extensity of recent speculative thinking, and which critically consider its impact - direct and indirect - on philosophy of religion. Relevant thinkers and themes might include Quentin Meillassoux on God and the absolute, Alain Badiou's ontology, Catherine Malabou on Hegel and plasticity, Francois Laruelle's ‘future Christ', Iain Hamilton Grant on Schelling's Naturphilosophie and the thinking of the All, Ray Brassier's nihilism. However, we are particularly looking for contributions which creatively use or depart from the speculative turn to offer original insights into the nature and content of the field.
Visit: http://www.hope.ac.uk/acpr/call-for-papers.html.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Ralon, Laureano. Interviews at FIGURE / GROUND COMMUNICATION.
Figure/Ground Communication’s scholarly interview series amounts to a number of in-depth conversation with emerging and established university professors about various topics related to education, technology and society. The primary goal of this section is to help graduate and undergraduate students become acquainted with the work, research interests and activities of various authors and scholars, as well as to inquire about their views on some of the challenges (attention span, evolving notions of selfhood, changing conceptions of originality, the quest for authenticity, etc.) associated with an “age of interruption” characterized by information overload. In so doing, I hope to make a contribution to understanding the changing nature of scholarship and academia in an age governed by digital interactive media. . . .
Access the interviews here: http://figureground.ca/interviews/.
Access the interviews here: http://figureground.ca/interviews/.
Brandom, Robert. "Knowing and Representing: a Reading of Hegel’s Introduction to the PHENOMENOLOGY." Hegel Lectures, LMU Munich, May 30-June 1, 2011.
The philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel is a major focus of Robert Brandom's work. Brandom makes Hegel's thought accessible to analytic philosophy by developing a semantic interpretation of the Phenomenology of Spirit. In his Munich lectures, Brandom is going to present new texts on the "Introduction" of Hegel's Phenomenology for the first time.
Visit: http://www.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/lehreinheiten/philosophie_2/forschungsprojekte/society/english_version/lectures/index.html.
- Monday, May 30, 2011, 18 h (LMU main building, room A 140):
Lecture One: "Conceptual Realism and the Semantic Possibility of Knowledge" - Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 18 h (LMU main building, room A 240):
Lecture Two: "Representation and the Experience of Error" - Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 18 h (LMU main building, room A 140):
Lecture Three: "Determining Meaning and Truth: The Emergence of the New, True Object"
Visit: http://www.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/lehreinheiten/philosophie_2/forschungsprojekte/society/english_version/lectures/index.html.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Cfp: Eleventh Annual International Gathering in Biosemiotics, International Society for Biosemiotic Studies, Rockefeller University for Biomedical Research, June 21-26, 2011.
Biosemiotics is an interdiscipline that seeks naturalistic understandings of metalistic phenomena, grounded in biology, and, in turn, seeks understandings of biological processes in terms of a general semiotics.
What can be learned about human semiosis, interpretation, communication, creativity and meaning-making by studying less complex but analogous phenomena in cellular signaling, chemotaxis, zoosemiotics, embryonic development, or the immune system? Can the pervasive metaphoric usages of chemical “message,” genetic “information,” and ”signaling” in contemporary biology be defined more precisely by taking them literally? While human symbolic representation may be species-specific–or at least unique to unusually big-brained animals–it must have emerged out of less complex semiotic processes and proto-semiotic processes. What are the antecedents of human semiosis? And how can the exploration of these antecedents help bridge the unnatural gap between body and mind that was imposed centuries ago more for religious than scientific reasons? Participants from various fields in the sciences and humanities will explore these and other questions at the June gathering. All are welcome to attend.
Visit: http://dactylfoundation.org/?page_id=3026.
What can be learned about human semiosis, interpretation, communication, creativity and meaning-making by studying less complex but analogous phenomena in cellular signaling, chemotaxis, zoosemiotics, embryonic development, or the immune system? Can the pervasive metaphoric usages of chemical “message,” genetic “information,” and ”signaling” in contemporary biology be defined more precisely by taking them literally? While human symbolic representation may be species-specific–or at least unique to unusually big-brained animals–it must have emerged out of less complex semiotic processes and proto-semiotic processes. What are the antecedents of human semiosis? And how can the exploration of these antecedents help bridge the unnatural gap between body and mind that was imposed centuries ago more for religious than scientific reasons? Participants from various fields in the sciences and humanities will explore these and other questions at the June gathering. All are welcome to attend.
Visit: http://dactylfoundation.org/?page_id=3026.
Patterson, Steve. "Sexism and the Idea of the Great Speech: the GUARDIAN's Classicist on Rhetoric." RAIL February 27, 2011.
Many in the field of rhetoric, I’ll wager, are happy to see an article about their discipline at all in a major newspaper like the Guardian. Being a philosopher myself I sympathize with the sort of small-town-ish “Hey! They’re talking about US!!” feeling engendered by articles like Mary Beard’s What makes a great speech? The article itself, however, is rather a letdown in terms of what it communicates to the reader about rhetoric.
Let me begin in fairness by noting that Mary Beard is a well-known classicist in the UK. Thus it is not surprising that her treatment of rhetoric here focuses primarily on sources and examples drawn from Greco-Roman antiquity. Be this as it may, she speaks in a general voice here about rhetoric and so her discussion is disturbingly incomplete. Rather than showing rhetoric as the very active and modern discipline that it is, her focus on the ancients gives the impression that the study of rhetoric ended with Cicero. She makes no mention at all of any figures in the history of rhetoric between antiquity and the present day. Not even foundational figures of contemporary rhetoric like Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, get a mention, to say nothing of figures lesser known outside rhetoric but equally if not more important within it like Burke, Richards, Toulmin, or Henry Johnstone Jr.. Though to her credit she avoids rehashing the standard Platonist objections to rhetoric, Beard’s presentation is rendered somewhat shallow by her lack of modern sources. . . .
Read the rest here: http://railct.com/2011/02/27/sexism-and-the-idea-of-the-great-speech-the-guardians-classicist-on-rhetoric/.
Let me begin in fairness by noting that Mary Beard is a well-known classicist in the UK. Thus it is not surprising that her treatment of rhetoric here focuses primarily on sources and examples drawn from Greco-Roman antiquity. Be this as it may, she speaks in a general voice here about rhetoric and so her discussion is disturbingly incomplete. Rather than showing rhetoric as the very active and modern discipline that it is, her focus on the ancients gives the impression that the study of rhetoric ended with Cicero. She makes no mention at all of any figures in the history of rhetoric between antiquity and the present day. Not even foundational figures of contemporary rhetoric like Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, get a mention, to say nothing of figures lesser known outside rhetoric but equally if not more important within it like Burke, Richards, Toulmin, or Henry Johnstone Jr.. Though to her credit she avoids rehashing the standard Platonist objections to rhetoric, Beard’s presentation is rendered somewhat shallow by her lack of modern sources. . . .
Read the rest here: http://railct.com/2011/02/27/sexism-and-the-idea-of-the-great-speech-the-guardians-classicist-on-rhetoric/.
Beard, Mary. "What Makes a Great Speech?" GUARDIAN Ferbruary 26, 2011.
When the Greeks read of Demosthenes speaking through the pebbles, or trying to make himself heard above the waves, or declaiming loudly as he climbed up hill, almost out of breath, they were grasping an important truth of ancient culture: that the art of public speaking could be learned, that the techniques of oratory were teachable. In a culture in which oral persuasion counted for almost everything in politics, it was crucial to believe that public speaking was a skill that could be acquired by almost anyone who was prepared to put in the hard work.
Ancient literature was full of advice to would-be orators. Although they are little read now, even by the most devoted students of Latin and Greek, volumes of this stuff survives, dealing with everything from how to move your hands or when to make a joke, to the rhythms, cadences and structures of effective oratory. And Roman boys (the rich ones at least) spent most of their school days practising the art of speech-making. Some of these school exercises still survive: "Defend Romulus on the charge of having killed Remus", the kids were asked; or "Make a speech advising Agamemnon whether or not to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia". The Roman equivalent of the national curriculum was committed to training boys to speak persuasively, even on these flagrantly fictional topics.
The modern world has largely inherited the ancient view that oratory is a matter of technique. True, we do have a romantic notion that some people are "naturals" at public speaking – whether it is something in the air of the Welsh valleys that produces the gift of the gab, or the "natural" sense of timing that great orators share with great comedians. But modern speech-writers always stress the importance of technique, and they advocate many of the same old tricks that the ancients used ("group your examples into threes", they advise – that's the classical "tricolon", which was taken to extremes in Blair's famous "education, education, education" soundbite). . . .
Read the rest here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/26/kings-speech-oscars-mary-beard.
Ancient literature was full of advice to would-be orators. Although they are little read now, even by the most devoted students of Latin and Greek, volumes of this stuff survives, dealing with everything from how to move your hands or when to make a joke, to the rhythms, cadences and structures of effective oratory. And Roman boys (the rich ones at least) spent most of their school days practising the art of speech-making. Some of these school exercises still survive: "Defend Romulus on the charge of having killed Remus", the kids were asked; or "Make a speech advising Agamemnon whether or not to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia". The Roman equivalent of the national curriculum was committed to training boys to speak persuasively, even on these flagrantly fictional topics.
The modern world has largely inherited the ancient view that oratory is a matter of technique. True, we do have a romantic notion that some people are "naturals" at public speaking – whether it is something in the air of the Welsh valleys that produces the gift of the gab, or the "natural" sense of timing that great orators share with great comedians. But modern speech-writers always stress the importance of technique, and they advocate many of the same old tricks that the ancients used ("group your examples into threes", they advise – that's the classical "tricolon", which was taken to extremes in Blair's famous "education, education, education" soundbite). . . .
Read the rest here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/26/kings-speech-oscars-mary-beard.
Joseph, John E. "What If Derrida Was Wrong About Saussure?" TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT April 14, 2011.
Daylight, Russell. What If Derrida Was Wrong About Saussure?. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2011.
This book is the first systematic analysis of all of Derrida's published pronouncements on Saussure's Cours, including its impassioned rejection of writing as only a secondary representation of language, the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign and the problem of its existence in time. The last is, more precisely, one of the topics pursued seriously by Saussure that Derrida never took up - thus allowing him to depict Saussure as implying certain ideas that in fact he directly rejected.
Daylight patiently combs through the fine silk weave on which Derrida has painted his broad brushstrokes. He leads us step by step through each of Derrida's readings of Saussure, then sometimes back again through the same texts as we proceed to the next set of Derridean claims. Daylight sees his task not as defending Saussure from falsehoods, but showing that Derrida's interpretation is by no means the only possible one. . . .
Read the rest here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=415785&c=1.
This book is the first systematic analysis of all of Derrida's published pronouncements on Saussure's Cours, including its impassioned rejection of writing as only a secondary representation of language, the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign and the problem of its existence in time. The last is, more precisely, one of the topics pursued seriously by Saussure that Derrida never took up - thus allowing him to depict Saussure as implying certain ideas that in fact he directly rejected.
Daylight patiently combs through the fine silk weave on which Derrida has painted his broad brushstrokes. He leads us step by step through each of Derrida's readings of Saussure, then sometimes back again through the same texts as we proceed to the next set of Derridean claims. Daylight sees his task not as defending Saussure from falsehoods, but showing that Derrida's interpretation is by no means the only possible one. . . .
Read the rest here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=415785&c=1.
Cfp: 6th Annual Meeting, North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, Boston College, September 15-17, 2011.
NASPH was formed in 2005 in order to further the study of philosophical hermeneutics. While honoring the rootedness of philosophical hermeneutics in the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, NASPH also recognizes that the future of such thinking depends on engaging with a diverse range of figures and issues. Our intention is to promote dialogue focusing on both the sources of, and the prospects for, philosophical hermeneutics.
James Risser will give the Keynote Address. Other invited speakers will include Theodore George, Drew Hyland, Dennis Schmidt, and Charles Scott.
James Risser will give the Keynote Address. Other invited speakers will include Theodore George, Drew Hyland, Dennis Schmidt, and Charles Scott.
"Simone de Beauvoir Now: a Symposium to Mark the 25th Anniversary of Simone de Beauvoir's Death," Centre for Philosophy and Literature and Department of Women's Studies, Duke University, September 23, 2011.
Confirmed Speakers:
Emily Apter (French, New York University)
Stella Sandford (Philosophy, Kingston University, UK)
Ursula Tidd (French, University of Manchester, UK)
Linda Zerilli(Political Science and the Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago)
Respondents:
Nancy Bauer (Philosophy, Tufts University)
Toril Moi (PAL; Literature, Duke University)
Visit: http://www.duke.edu/web/philartslit/events.html.
Emily Apter (French, New York University)
Stella Sandford (Philosophy, Kingston University, UK)
Ursula Tidd (French, University of Manchester, UK)
Linda Zerilli(Political Science and the Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago)
Respondents:
Nancy Bauer (Philosophy, Tufts University)
Toril Moi (PAL; Literature, Duke University)
Visit: http://www.duke.edu/web/philartslit/events.html.
Seminar Series on the Philosophy of Literature, Royal Holloway College, University of London, February-March, 2011.
During the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, the characteristics of the philosophical approach to literature have undergone some important changes. Alongside the continuation of the traditions of Continental thought, representatively symbolized by the work of Badiou and Rancière, can be detected a move back to elements that were challenged 40 years ago by the generation of Barthes, Lacan, Foucault and Derrida. The death of the author is now being countered by the notion of the author as intentional subject; the disconnection between life and art-work is giving way to a new interest in biography; the notion of the self-contained work of art, or of art-as-textuality, is being displaced in favour of a view of literary language as a hard-wired element of human cognition. From Marion’s version of phenomenology to Currie’s Arts and Minds, the philosophy that might underlie literature is being re-appraised.
Session 1 (23 February 2011) : The Intentional Subject
Session 2 (16 March 2011): (T)exteriors
Session 3 (23 March 2011): The Intentional Act
Visit: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2011/03/the-philosophy-of-literature/.
Session 1 (23 February 2011) : The Intentional Subject
Session 2 (16 March 2011): (T)exteriors
Session 3 (23 March 2011): The Intentional Act
Visit: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2011/03/the-philosophy-of-literature/.
"No Quarrels: Literature and Philosophy Today," Humanities Foundation, Boston University, April 1-2, 2011.
[This conference is over but readers may still wish to know about it.]
Our speakers are literary critics and philosophers thinking at the intersection between traditions. Working from the details of particular literary and philosophical texts, they will consider the present state of some ancient quarrels:
Our speakers are literary critics and philosophers thinking at the intersection between traditions. Working from the details of particular literary and philosophical texts, they will consider the present state of some ancient quarrels:
- Does literature offer some kind of “truth” as philosophy has traditionally sought to do?
- Is literary art an exercise of rational capacities, or does it extend beyond the formal enclosures of reason?
- Is the effect of literary art to stir up the passions and blind us to reality, as Plato and others have warned, or can it also be part of a legitimate moral and political education?
- How might literature and philosophy expose one another’s limits?
- What is the future of their relationship, both institutionally and intellectually?
Sinnerbrink, Robert. Interviews on Deleuze. THE PHILOSOPHER'S ZONE.
Part 2: At the Movies April 2, 2011:
This week, The Philosopher's Zone goes to the movies. In the second of two programs devoted to the great French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, we examine what he had to say about cinema. He was one of the first philosophers to turn their attention to films and he saw film as a philosophical medium. But what did that mean and why, in his view, did film become more philosophical after World War II?Part 1: Who was Gilles Deleuze? March 26, 2011:
Gilles Deleuze, who died by his own hand in 1995, was one of the most influential and prolific French philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. He wrote influentially not just on philosophy, but on literature, film, fine art and the environment as well. But his writing style - highly allusive, peppered with neologisms - is not easy-going. This week, we try to get to grips with a significant and important thinker.
"Hermeneutics and Translation Studies," University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, May 26-27, 2011.
Even though Translation Studies and Hermeneutics share a common interest in the mediating processes, these two disciplines have co-existed and developed since the advent of Translation Studies in the mid 20th century with strikingly little interaction. The purpose of this symposium is to explore avenues in which Hermeneutics and Translation Studies could complement one another, thereby strengthen research on both oral and written mediation and the mediating processes. The symposium is conceived of as a forum for posing and discussing questions of relevance to these two disciplines. In particular, the purpose of the symposium is to begin developing the contours and goals of and simultaneously setting limits to the scope of an emerging discipline, Translational Hermeneutics, which could be developed by merging these heretofore distinct research strands.
Suggested Topics:
1. A Retrospective: Hermeneutics and the Development of Translation Studies
3. Didactics of Translation and Interpreting from a Hermeneutical Point of View
4. Translation in Practice – Specialized Texts versus Literature
5. Hermeneutics, Culture and Postcolonial Translation Studies
6. Synergies: Hermeneutics and Cognitive Linguistics
7. Hermeneutics, Corpus Studies and Empirical Research – Conflicting Paradigms?
Visit: http://philosophyoftranslation.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-for-papers-hermeneutics-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PhilosophyOfTranslation+%28Philosophy+of+Translation%29&utm_content=FeedBurner.
Suggested Topics:
1. A Retrospective: Hermeneutics and the Development of Translation Studies
3. Didactics of Translation and Interpreting from a Hermeneutical Point of View
4. Translation in Practice – Specialized Texts versus Literature
5. Hermeneutics, Culture and Postcolonial Translation Studies
6. Synergies: Hermeneutics and Cognitive Linguistics
7. Hermeneutics, Corpus Studies and Empirical Research – Conflicting Paradigms?
Visit: http://philosophyoftranslation.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-for-papers-hermeneutics-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PhilosophyOfTranslation+%28Philosophy+of+Translation%29&utm_content=FeedBurner.
Cfp: "Space, Place and the McLuhan Legacy," Twelfth Annual Convention, Media Ecology Association, University of Alberta, June 23–26, 2011.
McLuhan gave much attention to the changing environment of the city in the wake of technological change. As he stated in an article published in Canadian Architect in June 1961,“[t]oday the entire human community is being translated into ‘auditory space,’ or into that ‘field of simultaneous relations,’by electric broadcasting. It behooves the architect and town planner, above all, to know what this means” (p. 52).
For McLuhan, the city is a “technological composite,” a patchwork of media and technologies built up over time and space. In this context, new technologies may be imagined as “punctuations” in our historical landscape, inaugurating irreversible cultural, social, and economic changes. Locating the MEA convention in the heart of Edmonton’s urban centre will provide an occasion to reflect on the significance of this Western Canadian city in shaping McLuhan’s early explorations of perspective as a fundamental artistic and communicational principle.
The 12th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association will include papers, panels, and creative projects exploring space, place, and city in the context of the McLuhan intellectual legacy. How might media ecology inform today’s architecture and city planning? What is the relationship between urban and virtual media realities? What is the meaning of the city in the “global village”? How do new media technologies intertwine, intersect, and reform today’s urban landscapes?
For McLuhan, the city is a “technological composite,” a patchwork of media and technologies built up over time and space. In this context, new technologies may be imagined as “punctuations” in our historical landscape, inaugurating irreversible cultural, social, and economic changes. Locating the MEA convention in the heart of Edmonton’s urban centre will provide an occasion to reflect on the significance of this Western Canadian city in shaping McLuhan’s early explorations of perspective as a fundamental artistic and communicational principle.
The 12th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association will include papers, panels, and creative projects exploring space, place, and city in the context of the McLuhan intellectual legacy. How might media ecology inform today’s architecture and city planning? What is the relationship between urban and virtual media realities? What is the meaning of the city in the “global village”? How do new media technologies intertwine, intersect, and reform today’s urban landscapes?
A suite of themes have been developed for the Centenary, presented in the form of five probes or heuristics, which McLuhan often used in his teaching and public addresses:
- Media as extensions of the human senses
- Media as “punctuations” in history (bias of time, bias of space)
- Figure and ground as a means of achieving a deep understanding of changes in perception occasioned by new media
- The city as a technological composite
- The city as classroom
Cfp: "Philosophies of Travel: Exploring the Value of Travel in Art, Literature, and Society," University of Sydney, September 30-October 1, 2011.
Journey, pilgrimage, linear narration; what are the paradigms of travel and how do we think on them? The philosophies of travel make vital revelations about the cultures from which travellers emerge. Do we travel, to change ourselves or as Samuel Johnson argued, to “regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are”? Or do we use the journey to ‘turn back’ on things reflectively, or, as Pliny wrote, “to see what we disregard when it is under our own eyes.” From the ‘temple tourists’ of Augustan Rome, to Thomas Cook’s dreams of a tourism-enabled sobriety, to iPod™-wielding backpackers in the ashrams of India, travel has been understood as education, forging, exploration (both of the worlds of others and of the self), as well as frivolity, hedonism, and colonialism. Tourists have even been called the “barbarians of our Age of Leisure” (Turner and Ash 1975). This conference will look at the habits, traditions, and writings of travellers from the past and the present in order to build a picture of what travel is and has been understood to be for the traveller.
Abstracts for papers of 20min length are welcome on any of the following subjects:
Abstracts for papers of 20min length are welcome on any of the following subjects:
- Philosophical justifications of/explanations of the impulse to travel
- Pilgrimage, religious tourism, and spiritual tourism
- Identity, meaning, and tourism
- The aesthetics of travel in art, literature, or film
- Ideals of travel/ideals of journeying
- Reactions against travellers/travel
Cfp: Meeting (in Conjunction with 2011 Annual Meeting of Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy), International Association for Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (IAPCS), Philadelphia, October 19, 2011.
We invite abstracts for papers that explore issues at the intersection of phenomenology and the cognitive sciences. This includes, but is not limited to, developing approaches to naturalized phenomenology, neurophenomenology, and the treatment of various issues (e.g., embodied cognition, perception, intersubjectivity and social cognition, etc.) that foster communication between the continental phenomenological tradition, analytic philosophy of mind, and empirical cognitive science. Phenomenology is here understood as a philosophical discipline and method in the tradition started by Edmund Husserl, and including the work of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and numerous others.
Abstracts (maximum 500 words) should be sent as email attachments no later than May 16 to:
joelk@hum.ku.dk.
Abstracts (maximum 500 words) should be sent as email attachments no later than May 16 to:
joelk@hum.ku.dk.
Cfp: "Transforming Human Nature in Science, Technology and the Arts," Dublin City University, October 21-23, 2011.
Update (April 18, 2011):
The venue has changed from Bahrain (due to the political unrest) to Dublin, Ireland. We are also extending the CFP deadline until June 1st. Please see the new details on our website: www.transformingthehuman.org. (Refresh the webpages if you have visited us before to clear your browser cache and see the updated pages.)
Original Post (January 26, 2011):
From genomics to virtual reality, technology has been changing the way human beings interact and navigate in the world at an ever increasing pace. During the last two decades, advances in technological integration are calling for special attention from thinkers across the disciplines and around the world. As the technological characteristics of the human condition impact our understanding of "the human", we are faced with radical changes in self-undersatnding and human identity. In short, through technology we are transforming human nature.
Possible Topics could include, but are not limited to:
· Bioethics, bioconservatism, bioliberalism, enhancement
· Posthumanist anthropology, aesthetics, ecology, feminism, critical theory
· Representation of human performance in technology and the arts
· Transhumanism and/or posthumanism in science fiction, fantasy, dystopian/utopian literature
· Enhancement and political discourse, regulation, and rights
· Humanism, transhumanism, and posthumanism in philosophy
· Poststructuralism, postmodernism, and posthumanism
· Transhuman and posthuman impact on ethics and/or value formation
· Phenomenology and postphenomenology
· Embodiment relations and identity
· Globalization and the spread of biomedicine and transhumanism
· Economic implications of transhumanist projects
· Popular culture and posthumanist representations
· Theology, enhancement, and the place of the posthuman
· Technology, robotics, and ethics
· Cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality
· Cyborgs and democracy
· Humanity, human, biotechnology
Visit the conference website: http://www.transformingthehuman.org/.
The venue has changed from Bahrain (due to the political unrest) to Dublin, Ireland. We are also extending the CFP deadline until June 1st. Please see the new details on our website: www.transformingthehuman.org. (Refresh the webpages if you have visited us before to clear your browser cache and see the updated pages.)
Original Post (January 26, 2011):
From genomics to virtual reality, technology has been changing the way human beings interact and navigate in the world at an ever increasing pace. During the last two decades, advances in technological integration are calling for special attention from thinkers across the disciplines and around the world. As the technological characteristics of the human condition impact our understanding of "the human", we are faced with radical changes in self-undersatnding and human identity. In short, through technology we are transforming human nature.
Possible Topics could include, but are not limited to:
· Bioethics, bioconservatism, bioliberalism, enhancement
· Posthumanist anthropology, aesthetics, ecology, feminism, critical theory
· Representation of human performance in technology and the arts
· Transhumanism and/or posthumanism in science fiction, fantasy, dystopian/utopian literature
· Enhancement and political discourse, regulation, and rights
· Humanism, transhumanism, and posthumanism in philosophy
· Poststructuralism, postmodernism, and posthumanism
· Transhuman and posthuman impact on ethics and/or value formation
· Phenomenology and postphenomenology
· Embodiment relations and identity
· Globalization and the spread of biomedicine and transhumanism
· Economic implications of transhumanist projects
· Popular culture and posthumanist representations
· Theology, enhancement, and the place of the posthuman
· Technology, robotics, and ethics
· Cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality
· Cyborgs and democracy
· Humanity, human, biotechnology
Visit the conference website: http://www.transformingthehuman.org/.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Hodge, Joanna. Review of Michael Ehrmantraut, HEIDEGGER'S PHILOSOPHIC PEDAGOGY. NDPR (March 2011).
Ehrmantraut, Michael. Heidegger's Philosophic Pedagogy. London: Continuum, 2010.
There is, of course, a mountain of commentary on the thinking of Martin Heidegger, and claims to open up a genuinely new line of enquiry can be only rarely made out. Nevertheless, Michael Ehrmantraut does bring into focus a new angle of entry: the question of the importance for Heidegger's enquiries of the process of teaching philosophy. This question is then narrowed down again, for Ehrmantraut does not propose to pursue the interpretation given by Heidegger of Plato's practice in general, nor yet of the famous readings of the allegory of the cave in both GA 34 (Lectures on Plato's Allegory and on the Theaetetus) and in the second set of lectures from GA 36/37 (recently translated as Being and Truth by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt). The question is focused rather on Heidegger's own activity as teacher. In this Ehrmantraut proposes to provide a motivation for Heidegger's otherwise unexplained enthusiasm for Graf Yorck von Wartenburg's contribution to a discussion of historicality, expressed in the latter sections of Being and Time (1927), and it is with Heidegger's response to Yorck that Ehrmantraut begins his study. Against Dilthey, Yorck insists on the ontological status and futural orientation of historicality, and Ehrmantraut shows Heidegger seizing on the notion of historicality as a virtuality awaiting actualisation. That actualisation is to take place through the task of educating the next generation to take up a stance in the world as oriented towards another kind of future. In this task, philosophy in general, and more specifically the radically transformative philosophy proposed by Martin Heidegger, is to play a significant role.
The role in the enquiries of Being and Time of Dasein and Sein, of Seinsverständnis and das Man, are well enough known; those of the privilege to futurity over pastness and presentness, and to historicality over everydayness and within-timeness, less so. The stance of radical self-appropriation in the moment of Entschlossenheit, the defining moment of opening up to this futurity and historicality has been the focus of controversy for decades, at least since the decisive intervention of Ernst Tugendhat. In his magisterial Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl and Heidegger (1968), Tugendhat argues that the departure from a close tie between meaning, truth and expressibility in language renders the notion of Entschlossenheit otiose. This is a serious criticism; but what it precisely refuses to engage with is Heidegger's implicit appeal to future meanings, conjured into existence by that very stance which, in time, appropriates to itself both past, present and, more importantly, future conditions for meaningfulness. This very basic disagreement concerning truth is matched by a less obvious but no less basic challenge posed by Heidegger to the commonly understood notion of practice. The fallen, everyday notion of practice presumes that there is a theoretical orientation and specification of aims of living, given in advance of activity, and that there is then a subsequent turn to their practical realisation. Heidegger's proposal in Being and Time is to up-end this ordering, in line with the up-ending of the notion of truth: the practical orientation, a willingness to be put in question by being, precedes all determination of Dasein as self-questioning with respect to its circumstances, its past, its present and its future engagements. The radicality of these two moves comes to the fore in Ehrmantraut's analyses. . . .
Visit: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=23190.
There is, of course, a mountain of commentary on the thinking of Martin Heidegger, and claims to open up a genuinely new line of enquiry can be only rarely made out. Nevertheless, Michael Ehrmantraut does bring into focus a new angle of entry: the question of the importance for Heidegger's enquiries of the process of teaching philosophy. This question is then narrowed down again, for Ehrmantraut does not propose to pursue the interpretation given by Heidegger of Plato's practice in general, nor yet of the famous readings of the allegory of the cave in both GA 34 (Lectures on Plato's Allegory and on the Theaetetus) and in the second set of lectures from GA 36/37 (recently translated as Being and Truth by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt). The question is focused rather on Heidegger's own activity as teacher. In this Ehrmantraut proposes to provide a motivation for Heidegger's otherwise unexplained enthusiasm for Graf Yorck von Wartenburg's contribution to a discussion of historicality, expressed in the latter sections of Being and Time (1927), and it is with Heidegger's response to Yorck that Ehrmantraut begins his study. Against Dilthey, Yorck insists on the ontological status and futural orientation of historicality, and Ehrmantraut shows Heidegger seizing on the notion of historicality as a virtuality awaiting actualisation. That actualisation is to take place through the task of educating the next generation to take up a stance in the world as oriented towards another kind of future. In this task, philosophy in general, and more specifically the radically transformative philosophy proposed by Martin Heidegger, is to play a significant role.
The role in the enquiries of Being and Time of Dasein and Sein, of Seinsverständnis and das Man, are well enough known; those of the privilege to futurity over pastness and presentness, and to historicality over everydayness and within-timeness, less so. The stance of radical self-appropriation in the moment of Entschlossenheit, the defining moment of opening up to this futurity and historicality has been the focus of controversy for decades, at least since the decisive intervention of Ernst Tugendhat. In his magisterial Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl and Heidegger (1968), Tugendhat argues that the departure from a close tie between meaning, truth and expressibility in language renders the notion of Entschlossenheit otiose. This is a serious criticism; but what it precisely refuses to engage with is Heidegger's implicit appeal to future meanings, conjured into existence by that very stance which, in time, appropriates to itself both past, present and, more importantly, future conditions for meaningfulness. This very basic disagreement concerning truth is matched by a less obvious but no less basic challenge posed by Heidegger to the commonly understood notion of practice. The fallen, everyday notion of practice presumes that there is a theoretical orientation and specification of aims of living, given in advance of activity, and that there is then a subsequent turn to their practical realisation. Heidegger's proposal in Being and Time is to up-end this ordering, in line with the up-ending of the notion of truth: the practical orientation, a willingness to be put in question by being, precedes all determination of Dasein as self-questioning with respect to its circumstances, its past, its present and its future engagements. The radicality of these two moves comes to the fore in Ehrmantraut's analyses. . . .
Visit: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=23190.
"Speculative Philosophies and Religious Practices: New Directions in the Philosophy of Religion and Post-Secular Practical Theology," Centre for Faiths and Public Policy, University of Chester, June 1, 2011.
This workshop is a one-day workshop exploring the intersection between recent trends in continental philosophy of religion and realist versions of public theology. It is an interrogation of the implications – whether political, theological or practical – of the turn to the Real in recent thought. From the perspective of public and practical theology, this involves bolstering the realist strands of the discipline (Manchester Realism and the William Temple Foundation) with the resources of philosophy, constructing a philosophical toolkit for realist public theologians. John Reader and Christopher Baker’s Entering the New Theological Space, for example, has already started drawing on post-Derridean philosophies as theoretical background to their theological enterprises, moving beyond the sociological and pragmatic basis that public theologians have traditionally found sufficient; there is a growing realisation, however, that a new generation of philosophers – the philosophers of the speculative turn – may well be more fruitful for deepening and broadening public theology’s self-understanding. Therefore and from the perspective of philosophy of religion, this interrogation of the Real involves thinking through the consequences of continental philosophy of religion’s recent flirtations with a more realist brand of speculation. The philosophies of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, Graham Harman, Iain Hamilton Grant and Quentin Meillassoux are beginning to be felt throughout the humanities, and the papers in this workshop, following the lead established in Smith and Whistler’s After the Postsecular and the Postmodern, will begin to think through the broader impact of this new tendency, especially as it impacts on philosophy of religion. In other words, the guiding question for the day is: what has the speculative turn in continental philosophy of religion to do with religious practice? This workshop brings together public theologians and philosophers of religion to inhabit the intersection between philosophical theory and religious phenomena.
See: http://www.chester.ac.uk/sites/files/chester/Speculative%20Philosophies%20and%20Religious%20Practices%20-%20vs%202.pdf.
See: http://www.chester.ac.uk/sites/files/chester/Speculative%20Philosophies%20and%20Religious%20Practices%20-%20vs%202.pdf.
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