On a lighter note: the online Gateway Computer store just had a one-day sale on TV Tuners.Here is the reason why, according to the Gateway site, you should buy a TV Tuner (allowing you to watch tv on your computer):

Now you can use your computer to watch over-the-air TV—but also cable and satellite, too! (As long as you pay your monthly bills to your TV service provider, of course.) But having this StarTech TV Capture/Tuner does mean you can put those moneys to even greater use. Imagine how impressed your family and friends will be that you watch television even more than you do now. It's a sign of living an authentic life, in the Sartrean sense, we're sure! Okay, so maybe if this device had been around in the mid-1900s, Sartre and Camus and the rest of them philosophers would have been too busy using it to develop existentialism. But look at it this way: It already has been…so watch, watch, watch away!

I captured the whole page. (Link) 

MARTIN HEIDEGGER AND RUDOLF CARNAP: RADICAL PHENOMENOLOGY, LOGICAL POSITIVISM, AND THE ROOTS OF THE CONTINENTAL/ANALYTIC DIVIDE — James Luchte. Philosophy

REPRESENTATION AND POIESIS: THE IMAGINATION IN THE LATER HEIDEGGER — John W M Krummel
           
HEIDEGGER'S ETYMOLOGICAL METHOD: DISCOVERING BEING BY RECOVERING THE RICHNESS OF THE WORD — Matthew King

THOUGHTS IN POTENTIALITY: PROVISIONAL REFLECTIONS ON AGAMBEN'S UNDERSTANDING OF POTENTIALITY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THEOLOGY AND POLITICS — Alberto Bertozzi.       

A CRITIQUE OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR'S EXISTENTIAL ETHICS — Matthew Braddock

TWO NOTIONS OF OBJECTIFICATION — Iddo Landau.

COMMITTED PERCEPTION: MERLEAU-PONTY, CARROLL, AND IRANIAN CINEMA — Farhang Erfani

ON GIVING HEGEL HIS DUE: THE "END OF HISTORY" AND THE HEGELIAN ROOTS OF POSTMODERN THOUGHT — Jere O'Neill Surber

INNOCENCE, PERVERSION, AND ABU GHRAIB — Kelly Oliver

"OURS IS NOT A TERRIBLE SITUATION" — Alain Badiou, Simon Critchley

A review of What Is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being 

What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being is the first book-length contribution to contemporary ethical theory by this highly regarded scholar of ancient philosophy. With it, Richard Kraut joins recent moral philosophers who draw inspiration from ancient Greek philosophy, particularly that of Plato and Aristotle, to advance lines of thinking that challenge utilitarianism and certain forms of neo-Kantianism in ethics.[1] Kraut defends two central theses. His "developmentalism" about well-being holds that something is (non-instrumentally) good for a person just in case it is productive or part of human flourishing, i.e., productive or part of the "maturation and exercise of certain cognitive, social, affective, and physical skills" (p. 141). Kraut defends a complementary thesis in the theory of practical reason, "That there is just one legitimate route — the route of goodness — for arriving at practical conclusions" (p. 15). Aiming in this way to secure a link between his account of well-being and conclusions about how we should act, Kraut lays the foundation for a "good-centered" ethical theory that he opposes to utilitarianism, on the one hand, and Rawlsian contractualism, on the other. Against the utilitarians, Kraut objects to quantifying value along a single measure and to emphasizing maximization as the proper response to value. Against Rawls, Kraut argues not only that the case for the purported priority of the right over the good ultimately rests on a false conception of goodness but also that moral rightness, understood as introducing a category of reasons distinct from and superior to those that advert to goodness and badness, "does not exist" (p. 29).

Rest of the review 

Call for Nietzsche in Translation
 
Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics is looking for English translations of any material by Nietzsche not currently available in translation. Primarily, we are looking for translations of his letters and for translations of his poetry that attempt a new approach to reflecting Nietzsche’s poetic style. Any other materials not readily available in current publication, particularly his early papers, such as the early essays, lectures, and lecture notes (Prolegomena to the Choephori of Aeschylus, The Greek Lyricists, Greek Rhythm, Toward a Theory of Quantified Rhythm, The Religious Worship of the Greeks, The Diadochai of the Pre-Platonic Philosophers), are also welcome.

All submitted translations must not have been previously in publication. Contributors need not be established translators with previous translations in publication.
 
German original texts must be identified by their KSA numbers.

The editors can be contacted at “nceditors AT nietzschecircle DOT com”
 
http://nietzschecircle.com

AND 

 
Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics is seeking submissions. Essays may cover artists and art works in any of the arts: visual art, literature, music, theatre, dance, cinema, or any other form of art that contributors wish to argue possesses aesthetic legitimacy, as well as architecture. Contributors should be mindful of Hyperion’s primary readership: professional philosophers, academicians in the arts, and practicing artists.

We invite submissions particularly from university faculty members and graduate students. However, independent scholars and working artists are welcome, as well. Our primary concern is with the quality of the thought and writing, not with the author’s credentials.

Please submit initially a proposal for an essay, which must be original work by the submitting author. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be read.

For further details, please see Hyperion’s Contributor’s Guidelines.
 
The editors can be contacted at “nceditors AT nietzschecircle DOT com”
 
http://nietzschecircle.com/hyperion_cfp.html

Guattari, Felix. Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics (Peregrines). New York City: Puffin, 1984.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

(h/t: Thomas Nail)

". . . And to define America, her athletic democracy." The Philosopher and the Language Shaper:In Memory of Richard Rorty(part 1)

by Jürgen Habermas 

[The following is the first part of an address delivered by Jürgen Habermas at Stanford University on Friday, November 2, 2007. Part 2 will appear on Saturday, and part 3 on Monday. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the journal New Literary History, which will publish it in early 2008, in an issue devoted to Richard Rorty.]

Dear Mary, dear Friends and Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Given the highly personal occasion that brings us together here today, please allow me to start with a private memory.

I first met Richard Rorty in 1974 at a conference on Heidegger in San Diego. At the beginning of the convention, a video was screened of an interview with the absent Herbert Marcuse, who in it described his relationship to Heidegger in the early 1930s more mildly than the sharp post-War correspondence between the two men would have suggested. Much to my annoyance, this set the tone for the entire conference, where an unpolitical veneration of Heidegger prevailed. Only Marjorie Green, who had likewise studied in Freiburg prior to 1933, passed critical comment, saying that back then at best the closer circle of Heidegger students, and Marcuse belonged to it, could have been deceived as to the real political outlook of their mentor.

Link

(h/t: Azadeh Erfani) 

      4^th ANNUAL PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE 

      FEBRUARY 15-16, 2008

      UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

      MEMPHIS, TN 

      Expanding the Notions of Community and Solidarity

      Keynote Speaker: Tina Chanter, DePaul University

      The 4^th annual Philosophy Graduate Student Conference will be held February 15-16, 2008 at the University of Memphis, in Memphis, TN. The purpose of the conference will be to discuss the notions of community and solidarity by expanding them into various areas in contemporary thoughts. This conference aims to provide a forum for graduate students to present their ideas concerning how we can re-think the questions on community and solidarity today and to provide new theoretical and practical possibilities for political and ethical thinking. Our hope is to capture a wide array of interests and perspectives, tapping into multiple areas such as feminism, race theory, and post-colonial theory in contemporary applications to politics from both continental and analytic perspectives.  

      Deadline for submission of papers is December 15, 2007. Papers should be sent as Word Documents not to exceed 12 double-spaced pages. Papers should be suitable for blind review, including a cover letter with all relevant personal information (name, contact information, university affiliation). Electronic submissions are preferred.  

      Send Paper Submissions to:

      University of Memphis

      Department of Philosophy

      Clement Hall 327

      c/o Cigdem Yazici and Jessica Horowitz

      Memphis, TN 38152

      Electronic submissions to: cyazici@memphis.edu and jhorowtz@memphis.edu 

      For more information, please contact one of the conference committee members:

      Cigdem Yazici at cyazici@memphis.edu

      Jessica Horowitz at jhorowtz@memphis.edu

      Samaiyah Jones at samaiyahjones@yahoo.com

Jean-Luc Nancy, The Deleuzian Fold of Thought, in (ed) Paul Patton, The Deleuze Critical Reader, Blackwell, 1996, pp. 107-113.pdf

Link 

Via 

The Eighth Biennial Radical Philosophy Association Conference,

November 6-9, 2008, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

Art has long served as a form of critical reflection and a source of alternatives to what Herbert Marcuse and others have called "the given." At the same time, it has served to reinforce the status quo, whether through comics of "happy" African slaves, the design of certain buildings and monuments, or sleek commercial and political advertisements. In the situation we confront today, what role might art play in enabling us to think, imagine, and go beyond "the given"? Does art disclose truth or distract us from it? Is it more a tool for revolution or a means of co-optation? Do popular art and popular culture entrench dominant social relations, or help us question and overthrow them? Today, as we struggle to understand and contend with various forces of social reaction, exclusion, and oppression, it seems timely to ask what role art might play in renewing critical consciousness and social transformation.

Proposal Submission Instructions: We invite submissions of proposals for papers, panels, workshops, poster sessions, performances, and other types of conference contributions on all topics related to radical philosophy and praxis from philosophers and theorists who work inside and outside the academy. We encourage contributions from graduate students and from those who are often excluded from or marginalized in traditional academic disciplines and professional organizations, including people of color, gays and lesbians, persons with disabilities, and poor and working-class persons. We also encourage submissions that challenge standard conference presentation format, and that emphasize collective inquiry and interaction between participants and audience. Individual papers should be limited to 3000 words, for a 20-25 minute presentation. Some preference will be given to proposals which reflect the conference theme. In your proposal submission, include: 1. Name, contact information, and affiliation of presenter(s); 2. Title of presentation paper(s), panel, workshop, poster session, performance, etc.; 3. Abstract of 250-500 words for each individual presentation paper; and/or, 4. Description of panel, workshop, etc., including siting, audio-visual, and other requirements. 5. Let us know if you are willing to serve as chair for a panel or workshop that needs one. Send your proposal by March 8, 2008 to peterama@drexel.edu; or Peter Amato, RPA ‘08, English & Philosophy Dept., Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. Information about accommodations at: www.radicalphilosophy.org. A selection of papers from the conference will be published in Radical Philosophy Today, Vol. 6.

A review of Beckett, Derrida, and the Event of Literature (Cultural Memory in the Present):

If there is no such thing as literature — i.e., self-identity of the literary thing — if what is announced or promised as literature never gives itself as such, that means, among other things, that a literature that talked only about literature or a work that was purely self-referential would immediately be annulled. You'll say that that's maybe what's happening. In which case it is this experience of the nothing-ing of nothing that interests our desire under the name of literature. Experience of Being, nothing less, nothing more, on the edge of metaphysics, literature perhaps stands on the edge of everything, almost beyond everything, including itself. It's the most interesting thing in the world, maybe more interesting than the world, and this is why, if it has no definition, what is heralded and refused under the name of literature cannot be identified with any other discourse. It will never be scientific, philosophical, conversational.

 

– Jacques Derrida, "'This Strange Institution Called Literature': An Interview with Jacques Derrida"[1]

 

Over the years there have been various efforts to engage Jacques Derrida's conception of literature.[2] I think it is widely acknowledged now that there is (or was) no concept or theory of any sort but instead an ongoing attraction to forms of language that make certain works of writing peculiar enough to trouble the ways in which we make sense of things. Anyhow here is what I think we think we know about Derrida's thinking with respect to literature:

 the rest of the review