Workshop in social political philosophy at MSU with Donna Haraway, Paul Thompson, and Andrew Feenberg

An important connection explored in the humanities concerns the degree to which technological rationality changes our lives, whether in terms of our behavior, our conceptions of who and what human animals and non-human animals are, or the goals we set for ourselves. What are some of the new ways of living brought on by these changes? Are such changes consistent with the precepts of an inclusive democracy? Or have they unacceptably commodified our social, political, and cultural relationships? Do we now live in a world where what is understood as a meaningful life is in peril because technology and commodification are all that remain?  This workshop in social and political thought will be dedicated to bringing important contemporary scholarship to MSU to address these questions with keynote addresses, commentaries, and other workshop activities. It demonstrates that philosophy and the humanities are central in understanding the world we live in.

via Commodification, Technoculture, and the Human. Rethinking Technology. Workshop at MSU.

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was a conservative German legal, constitutional, and political theorist. Schmitt is often considered to be one of the most important critics of liberalism, parliamentary democracy, and liberal cosmopolitanism. But the value and significance of Schmitt’s work is subject to controversy, mainly due to his intellectual support for and active involvement with National Socialism.

via Carl Schmitt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

We are pleased to announce a one-day seminar on the concept of marginality broadly defined and its impact on humanities and social sciences

THE ANATOMY OF MARGINALITY

A One-Day Seminar at the Indiana University Bloomington

Friday October 15, 2010
218 Woodburn Hall, Department of Political Science

9.30-10.00: Aurelian Craiutu (Indiana University) and Costica Bradatan (Texas Tech University): “The Paradox of Marginality” (Introduction to the Marginality Project)

Morning Session (Moderator: Costica Bradatan)
10.00-10.30: Giuseppe Mazzotta (Yale University), “The Margins of Thought”
10.30-10.45: Response: Hall Bjornstad (Indiana University)
10.45-11.00: Coffee Break
11.00-12.15: Discussion of Giuseppe Mazzotta’s paper

After-noon session (Moderator: Hall Bjornstad)
2.00-2.30: John A. Hall (McGill University), “Marginality Imposed and Embraced, Understood and Interpreted: The Case of Ernest Gellner”
2.30-2.45: Response: William Scheuerman (Indiana University)
2.45-4.00: Discussion of John A. Hall’s paper
4.00-4.15: Coffee Break
4.15-5.30: Round-Table Session (Moderators: Aurelian Craiutu, Costica Bradatan and Hall Bjornstad): “The Proper Study of Marginality”: Theoretical Framework, Conceptual Apparatus and Methodologies

The event is jointly sponsored by Indiana University’s Institute for Advanced Studies, Department of French and Italian, Department of Political Science, the Tocqueville Program, and the Horizon of Knowledge Lecture Series.

Participation is open to the public.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
DEADLINE DECEMBER 1st 2010

philoSOPHIA: a feminist society
5th Annual Meeting
Vanderbilt University
Nashville Tennessee

Thursday May 5th Ð Sunday May 8th, 2011

We welcome project proposals of works in progress that engage continental feminist theory and work done on major figures and themes from the continental feminist tradition, as well as feminist work inspired by continental philosophy more generally. We also strongly encourage interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that combine theoretical perspectives and situated reflections.

Extemporaneous presentations strongly encouraged, while reading papers is discouraged. The conference will have a variety of different kinds of session formats, including workshops, author-meets-critics, works in progress, round-table discussions of topics and/or recent books in Continental Feminism.

Guidelines for Submission:
1. Individual abstracts of approximately 750 words.
2. Panel proposals (500 words) with individual abstracts (750 words each). Panel proposals should include 3 panelists and 1 moderator.
3. Round-Table discussions. Proposals should include a topic (500 words indicating the importance of discussing a theme, or recent book published in the area of Continental Feminism), along with names of 3 people who will Òkick offÓ the discussion, include the name of 1 moderator.
4. Author meets critics sessions. Proposals should include names of 1 moderator, 3 commentators and 1 respondent who is the author of a book published within the last 2 years.

Abstracts should be suitable for anonymous review. In a separate document, please include your name, affiliation, contact info, and a brief bio, along with the title of your presentation.

Please submit all proposals electronically to philosophia2011@gmail.com For more information, visit http://www.philosophiafeministsociety.org or http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/philosophy/events/philosophia.html.

In terms of the history of western philosophy, the philosophy of embodiment is relatively recent. For much of this history the body has been conceptualised as simply one biological object among others, part of a biological nature which our rational faculties set us apart from, as well as an instrument to be directed and a possible source of disruption to be controlled. Problematically for feminists, the opposition between mind and body has also been correlated with an opposition between male and female, with the female regarded as enmeshed in her bodily existence in a way that makes attainment of rationality questionable. “Women are somehow more biological, more corporeal, and more natural than men” (Grosz 14). Such enmeshment in corporeality was also attributed to colonised bodies and those attributed to the lower classes (McClintock 1995, Alcoff 2006, 103). Challenging such assumptions required feminists to confront corporeality in order to elucidate and confront constructions of sexual difference.

via Feminist Perspectives on the Body (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Open Court’s Popular Culture and Philosophy book series (http://www.opencourtbooks.com/) is currently accepting Abstracts and Proposals for Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy, edited by Josef Steiff, for publication in late 2011. Your proposal can address any iteration of Sherlock Holmes, including works by creators other than Doyle, and use any approach that seems relevant or is exciting to you.

Our goal is to be first and foremost a book about Sherlock Holmes. To this end, we will use philosophy, literary theory and/or media theory with philosophical underpinnings as a tool to create a deeper and more thoughtful exploration and understanding of issues raised by Sherlock Holmes as a character or a narrative. You may examine a specific story or book, multiple stories or editions, any of the characters (major or minor), thematic or contextual analysis, works by other writers in which Holmes or Watson appear, even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself or any of the people who have adapted his material (most recently, Guy Ritchie).

We want to include analysis of short stories, novels, plays, movies, comics, anime as well as material inspired by (or making sly reference to) Sherlock Holmes. For example, this could include analysis specific to the recent films or the 1930s silent film adaptation of the stage play or specific TV adaptations or even TV series like House or Monk.

Please submit your initial proposal or expression of interest to Josef Steiff at ocbook@gmail.com by August 15; query regarding late proposals after that date. Final drafts will be due February 2011.

Good for student readers.

Link

Gary Overvold, Editor’s Note
James R. Mensch, The Phenomenological Status of the Ego
Christopher Arroyo, The Role of Feelings in Husserl’s Ethics
Tracy Colony, Concerning Technology
Maria Granik, Mary Troxell, The Autonomy of Art in Heidegger and Schopenhauer
Emilia Angelova, A Continuity Between the A and B Deductions of the Critique
Lisa Folkmarson Käll, Expression Between Self and Other
Elena Ficara, Hegel’s Dialectic in Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy
Jennifer Holt, Nihilistic Praxis
Farhang Erfani, We Are Not Saints, But We Have Kept Our Appointment
Christopher Lauer, Kierkegaard and Aristophanes on the Suspension of Irony
Jacob M. Held, Marx via Feuerbach
Dwayne A. Tunstall, Transcendental Pragmatisms

Link

Architecture+Philosophy 2011
Boston University, Department of Philosophy
Boston, MA
April 8-9, 2011

Thinking about architecture has long been an enterprise of philosophers and architects alike, but in recent years there has been a growing divergence between them over terminological and methodological issues. Philosophers charge architects with mishandling texts and architects charge philosophers with mishandling buildings.

But there are also other divisions among contemporary architectural theorists themselves. Some theorists concern themselves with the human experience, with ethical and poetical questions, and with sensory and aesthetic explorations of architecture and its environment. Other theorists are bent on treating architecture as a form of knowledge that takes shape as a formal and socio-political practice through tools such as language, algorithms, and diagrams. Still other theorists see their task as navigating among these sometimes quite distinct approaches.

Keynotes

Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez :: Saidye Rosner Bronfman Professor of the History of Architecture
McGill University :: School of Architecture

Dr. Karsten Harries :: Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Philosophy
Yale University :: Department of Philosophy

Call for Papers

The Boston University Department of Philosophy invites submissions from professionals and graduate students in philosophy, architecture, and other related discplines. Topics may be from any point of view, including the so-called phenomenological and critical, modern and postmodern, postcritical and projective, and urban and sustainable approaches to architecture.

The Architecture+Philosophy 2011 conference aims to provide an arena for careful clarification of current trends in architectural thought. Send complete papers (3,000-5,000 words) with a 150 word abstract, formatted for blind review, to architecture.philosophy@gmail.com by January 15, 2011.

Please visit http://philarch.wordpress.com for more information and a pdf of the Call for Papers.

A Life Worth Living: Part II
Simon Glendinning
In the first part of this discussion about the meaning of life I suggested that the recent absence of reflection on this question was due in large part to a general acceptance by European intellectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries of “the secularisation thesis”. Writings taking up themes related to the significance of our lives were framed by an assumption that the historical movement of modernity was forging a transition from a society dominated by magic, myth, superstition and religion, into one with a cognitively superior outlook in which these things are disclosed as illusions and delusions which we shed in the name of reason, criticism and science. Classic questions concerning the meaning of life seemed to be wrapped up with ideas of providence that had no place in a rational and scientific age.

Link

Lady Power

By NANCY BAUER
Nancy Bauer is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Tufts University.

If you want to get a bead on the state of feminism these days, look no further than the ubiquitous pop star Lady Gaga. Last summer, after identifying herself as a representative for “sexual, strong women who speak their mind,” the 23-year-old Gaga seemed to embrace the old canard that a feminist is by definition a man-hater when she told a Norwegian journalist, “I’m not a feminist. I hail men! I love men!” But by December she was praising the journalist Ann Powers, in a profile in The Los Angeles Times, for being “a little bit of a feminist, like I am.” She continued, “When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves.” Apparently, even though she loves men — she hails them! — she is a little bit of a feminist because she exemplifies what it looks like for a woman to say, and to believe, that there’s nobody like her.

The rest

A review of Santiago Zabala’s The Remains of Being, over at The Church and Postmodern Culture

Link

Men With Balls: The Art of the 2010 World Cup
Curated by Simon Critchley

June 10 – July 11, 2010
Opening reception: June 10, 6-8pm

LIVE screening of matches at apexart
June 11 – July 11 (see schedule)

More details!

CALL FOR PAPERS: ‘Myth’. DEADLINE: 1 AUGUST 2010

Contributions are now invited for the 2010 issue of the MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, an international, refereed online journal aimed at postgraduate and early-career researchers.

‘Writing begins, this is its condition, with the effacement or the disappearance of mythical names’ (Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe). We should like to propose this statement as a starting point for a collective reflection on myth. For Lacoue-Labarthe, then, myth is excluded or overcome at the point in human history when art and culture emerge. However, one wonders how far it might be possible to stretch such a myth-busting model: for instance, could it be applied to the notion of mythlessness on which it relies? This question recalls a second understanding of art’s relation to myth, which sees art not as an effacement of myth, but rather as myth in its turn. Such has been the position both of those who have denounced art as ‘a thing of the past’ (Hegel), and of those who have sought to revitalize it, thereby creating new possibilities and new practices. We seek to publish articles engaging with these questions; with what they assume or distort; or with topics of the author’s choosing. Some suggestions are:

- The absence or interruption of myth
- Literature between muthos and logos
- The alterity of myth
- Myth for structuralism, anthropology, psychoanalysis
- Art as (new) myth
- Mythologization and the political
- Mythological woman; gender challenges to myth
- The timeless, the eternally recurring, the pre- or post-historic
- Mythological figures
- (Self-)mythologizing authors
- Myth and collective or anonymous authorship

Papers, of up to 3,000 words in length, may come from any field in the ‘modern humanities’, which include the modern and medieval languages, literatures, and cultures of Europe (including English and the Slavonic languages, and the cultures of the European diaspora). History, library studies, education and pedagogy, and the medical application of linguistics are excluded.

In order to submit a paper, you are kindly requested to register as an author at http://mhra.org.uk/ojs/index.php/wph/user/register. Any informal queries can be directed to the editors at postgrads@mhra.org.uk.

From Ohio University Press: Dead Letters to Nietzsche, or the Necromantic Art of Reading Philosophy (Series In Continental Thought)

Dead Letters to Nietzsche examines how writing shapes subjectivity through the example of Nietzsche’s reception by his readers, including Stanley Rosen, David Farrell Krell, Georges Bataille, Laurence Lampert, Pierre Klossowski, and Sarah Kofman. More precisely, Joanne Faulkner finds that the personal identification that these readers form with Nietzsche’s texts is an enactment of the kind of identity-formation described in Lacanian and Kleinian psychoanalysis. This investment of their subjectivity guides their understanding of Nietzsche’s project, the revaluation of values.

Not only does this work make a provocative contribution to Nietzsche scholarship, but it also opens in an original way broader philosophical questions about how readers come to be invested in a philosophical project and how such investment alters their subjectivity.

JBSP: Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology

Volume 41 – No 2 – May 2010: Confrontations

TRACY COLONY: A Matter of Time: Stiegler on Heidegger and Being Technological
ERNST WOLFF: The Quest for a Post-Metaphysical Access to the Human:
From Marcel to Heidegger
CHAD ENGELLAND: The Phenomenological Kant: Heidegger’s Interest in Transcendental Philosophy
NIALL KEANE: Interpreting Plato Phenomenologically: Relationality and Being in Heidegger’s Sophist
ADAM GONYA: Assertion and Receptivity: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and the Poet’s Redemptive Utterance
LESTER EMBREE: Wisdom more than Knowledge and more than Loved: Dorion Cairn’s Revision of Husserl’s Philosophic Ideal

Postmodernism, Culture and Religion 4
“The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion”
Syracuse University
April 7-9, 2011

Plenary Speakers:
JOHN D. CAPUTO
Watson Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Syracuse University (http://religion.syr.edu/Caputo.html)

PHILIP GOODCHILD
Professor of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Nottingham (UK) (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Theology/People/philip.goodchild)

CATHERINE MALABOU
Professor of Philosophy
University of Paris-X, Nanterre (http://www.u-paris10.fr/10980645/0/fiche_EE8__pagelibre/)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Paper submissions are invited on the topic “The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion,” its past and present, its history and its prospects, in the widest possible terms, addressing the whole range of its implications—politics, feminism, constructive theology, philosophy, history, literature, interfaith dialogue, and the hermeneutics of sacred texts.
Read the rest of this entry »

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