Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Larry Rickels discussing psychoanalysis. First segment of a public lecture at European Graduate School EGS.

Part One

Part Two:

Part Three

A review of Alan Schrift’s Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers

Schrift offers an unusual and original perspective on the development of French philosophy in the twentieth century, by which he means, not “a unified tradition that shares certain philosophical assumptions” (p.2), but simply “a historical unfolding of philosophical discourse that took place in the French language in the twentieth century”. There is, indeed, in his opinion no such thing as a uniquely “French” philosophy, if that means a unified tradition of the kind just referred to. What gives twentieth century French philosophy such unity as it has is rather “the empirical fact that the figures discussed below . . . did their philosophical work in the French language and were engaged with and informed by the institutional practices of the French academic world” (p.2). It is above all, Schrift has come to believe, these institutional practices which are responsible for some of the characteristic features of French philosophy in this period. He goes so far as to say (p.188) that “It is impossible to understand the evolution of French philosophy in the twentieth century without understanding some of the unique aspects of French academic culture”.

The rest of the review

Speculative Realism
A One-Day Workshop
1–7pm, Friday 27 April 2007
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW

Participants: Ray Brassier (Middlesex), Iain Hamilton Grant (UWE), Graham Harman (American University in Cairo), Quentin Meillassoux (Ecole Normale Supérieure)

Contemporary ‘continental’ philosophy often prides itself on having overcome the age-old metaphysical battles between realism and idealism. Subject-object dualism, whose repudiation has turned into a conditioned reflex of contemporary theory, has supposedly been destroyed by the
critique of representation and supplanted by various ways of thinking the fundamental correlation between thought and world.

But perhaps this anti-representational (or ‘correlationist’) consensus – which exceeds philosophy proper and thrives in many domains of the
humanities and the social sciences – hides a deeper and more insidious idealism. Is realism really so ‘naïve’? And is the widespread dismissal of
representation and objectivity the radical, critical stance it so often claims to be?

This workshop will bring together four philosophers whose work, although shaped by different concerns, questions some of the basic tenets of a
‘continental’ orthodoxy while eschewing the reactionary prejudices of common-sense. Speculative realism is not a doctrine but the umbrella term
for a variety of research programmes committed to upholding the autonomy of reality, whether in the name of transcendental physicalism,
object-oriented philosophy, or abstract materialism, against the depredations of anthropocentrism.

The workshop will be held under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths and chaired by Alberto
Toscano (Sociology, Goldsmiths). It is co-sponsored by the journal COLLAPSE. Relevant articles by the four speakers will be posted on the
CSISP website in advance in order to facilitate debate.

Schedule
1-1.15 Welcome
1.15-2.30 Ray Brassier
2.30-3.45 Iain Hamilton Grant
3.45-4.15 Break
4.15-5.30 Graham Harman
5.30-7.00 Quentin Meillassoux
7.00-8.00 Drinks

ATTENDANCE IS FREE BUT PLEASE REGISTER BEFOREHAND BY EMAILING a.toscano@gold.ac.uk / www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/csisp

(h/t: Ray Brassier)

A review (in pdf) of Michel Foucault’s Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the College de France 1973-1974

An extract of the book from Foucault Studies

Even though the entire book is available in html format here (thank to Joel for the tip), I received a link for the famous “Freud and Lacan” chapter in pdf. (Thanks to the tipster as well).

[I also apologize of the backlog of emails to which I have not responded. After a brief down period, I am trying to catch up.]

ARTICLES

Dominique Séglard. Foucault à Tunis: Note sur deux conférences, pp.7-18.
Michael V. Ure. Senecan Moods: Foucault and Nietzsche on the Art of the Self, pp.19-52.
Sergei Prozorov. The unrequited love of power: biopolitical investment and the refusal of care, pp. 53-77.

EXCHANGE

Bernadette Baker. Normalizing Foucault? A Rhizomatic Approach to Plateaus in Anglophone Educational Research, pp. 78-119.
James Marshall. On Being Agnostic: A Response to Bernadette Baker, pp. 120-126.
Bernadette Baker. Hypnotic Inductions: On the Persistence of the Subject: A Response to James Marshall, pp. 127-148.

A review of my colleague Jin Park’s edited collection, entitled Buddhisms and Deconstructions:

This book contains a number of fascinating articles dealing with a comparison between two systems of thought, one a longstanding tradition from the East and the other a contemporary movement in the West, that have in common an emphasis on a main philosophical element–the interconnectedness of phenomena characterized as emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism, and “difference” or différance in the works of Derrida.[1] Other forms of modern Western thought such as existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and pragmatism have come close to and are often compared with Buddhism for the way they advocate going beyond egocentrism and substantive notions of selfhood to realize a dynamic and holistic understanding of reality. However, according to this volume, it is deconstructionism that is the best approximation in seeking to overthrow logocentrism in all its manifestations, overt and hidden, and to surpass onto-theology (a term first coined by Heidegger to capture the Western metaphysical and theological traditions both based on substantive ontology).

The rest of the review

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Religion and Theatre Focus Group invites submissions to its online peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Religion and Theatre. We welcome descriptive and analytical articles examining the spirituality of world cultures in all disciplines of the theatre, performance studies in sacred rituals of all cultures, themes of transcendence in text, on stage, in theatre history, the analysis of dramatic literature, and other topics relating to the relationship between religion and theatre. The journal aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge throughout the theatrical community concerning the relationship between theatre and religion and as an academic research resource for the benefit of all interested scholars and artists. The journal is indexed in MLA International Bibliography. The address of the journal is: http://www.rtjournal.org

Submission Guidelines:

– Submit your article in Microsoft Word format via the internet
– Include a separate title page with the title of the article, your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number, with a 70 to 100
word abstract and a 25 to 50 word biography
– Do not type your name on any page of the article
– MLA style endnotes — Appendix A.1. (Do not use parenthetical references in the body of the paper/ list of works cited.)
– E-Mail the article and title page via an attachment in Microsoft Word to Debra Bruch: dlbruch -at- mtu.edu. (Please replace the -at-
with @.)

DEADLINE: May 1, 2007