Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy
Posted by Farhang Erfani on July 27th, 2008
T H E P O S T / H U M A N C O N D I T I O N
Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy (ASCP)
University of Auckland, Dec 3–5, 2008
What is it to be human? The advent of modern science, the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern nation-state, and the development of evolutionary theory conspired to bring about the collapse of traditional understandings of the human condition during the Enlightenment. But recently the modern and postmodern paradigms that emerged out of this period of philosophical upheaval have themselves been put to the test by an unprecedented constellation of phenomena: biotechnologies, globalization, the ecological crisis, and the virtualization of social relations, to name but a few.
How then are we to think about the human experience today? What language can we find for it? Indeed, what language would provide not only a descriptive but also the necessary critical perspective on the human condition in the contemporary context? Is the category of “the human” still viable, or should we now speak of “the post-human”? Are we better served by categories such as “animal” or “life”? Are the “de-centering” strategies of postmodernism to be further developed, or is it imperative, as some have maintained, to revive the concept of the “subject”? What is the status of the body and embodiment in an age of technological prosthesis and genetic manipulation? How is the social or “plural” character of human existence to be theorized in view of contemporary patterns and possibilities of familial, economic, and political interaction? What, if anything, has been contributed by the recent “post-secular turn” in philosophy to questions concerning the human condition? And finally, what, if anything, can be said by the philosopher about the “ends” of humanity today?
The ASCP 2008 Conference Committee invites proposals for papers exploring these questions or any others of relevance to contemporary philosophical debates concerning the (post-)human condition. Paper proposals in other areas of Continental Philosophy are also welcome.
Proposals are also encouraged for topical panels addressing the conference theme and for panels on books by Australasian philosophers.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Leonard Lawlor (Penn State)
Prof. Ewa Ziarek (SUNY Buffalo)
Prof. David Wills (SUNY Albany)
A/Prof. Nikolas Kompridis (Toronto)
CONFERENCE STREAMS (draft list)
Animality and Humanity
Human/Post-Human
Bare Life and Biopolitics
The Posthuman Body
Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of Life
Phenomenology and Post-Phenomenology
Arendt and the Human Condition
Hegel, Desire, Subjectivity
Levinas and the Humanism of the Other
Humanism and Anti-Humanism
The Legacy of Existentialism
Comparative Philosophy
Philosophy & Literature
A Post-Human Aesthetics?
Richard Rorty in memoriam
Philosophy of the Future
The Human To-Come
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Deadline: Friday, 19 Sept Paper and panel proposals should be emailed to Dr Simone Drichel:
simone.drichel@stonebow.otago.ac.nz. Please include your name, paper title, an abstract (200 words max), plus up to 5 key words.
REGISTRATION
Deadline: Friday, 7 Nov Early bird rates (before 19 Sept): $170 NZD (staff/waged) / $80 NZD
(student/unwaged) Late registration rates (after 19 Sept): $185 NZD (staff/waged) / $90
NZD (student/unwaged) Conference dinner: $55 (incl. drinks).
ACCOMMODATION
The University of Auckland is able to arrange accommodation at a
University Hall of Residence or at a local hotel for the duration of the
conference at reasonable rates. Bookings can be made by completing the
accommodation form available on the ASCP website. (See website for
furtavailable on the ASCP website (www.ascp.org.au).
For further information regarding the conference, please see the ASCP
website (www.ascp.org.au), or Dr. Robert Sinnerbrink
Lecturer, Department of Philosophy
Macquarie University
North Ryde, NSW 2109
Sydney Australia
e-mail: rsinnerb@scmp.mq.edu.au
Tel: +61 2 9850 9935
Fax: +61 2 9850 8892
www.phil.mq.edu.au/staff/sinnerbrink.htm
Chair, Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy
http://www.ascp.org.au/
Book review co-editor, Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy and
Social Theory
http://www.acumenpublishing.co.uk/critical_horizons_aims.asp?TAG=&CID=
