Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)

Description from the publisher’s website:

Radical Atheism presents a profound new reading of the influential French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Against the prevalent notion that there was an ethical or religious “turn” in Derrida’s thinking, Hägglund argues that a radical atheism informs Derrida’s work from beginning to end. Proceeding from Derrida’s insight into the constitution of time, Hägglund demonstrates how Derrida rethinks the condition of identity, ethics, religion, and political emancipation in accordance with the logic of radical atheism. Hägglund challenges other major interpreters of Derrida’s work and offers a compelling account of Derrida’s thinking on life and death, good and evil, self and other. Furthermore, Hägglund does not only explicate Derrida’s position but also develops his arguments, fortifies his logic, and pursues its implications. The result is a groundbreaking deconstruction of the perennial philosophical themes of time and desire as well as pressing contemporary issues of sovereignty and democracy.

SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL THEORY AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Northwestern University
Third Annual Conference
April 23–25, 2009

Keynote Addresses:
Samuel SCHEFFLER: “The Normativity of Tradition”
Seana SHIFFRIN: “Inducing Deliberation”

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
The deadline for submission is February 15, 2009. We welcome submissions from both faculty and graduate students, as some sessions will be reserved for graduate student presentations. Please submit an essay of approximately 4000 words and an abstract of not more than 150 words. Essay topics in all areas of ethical theory and political philosophy will be considered, although some priority will be given to essays that take up themes from the works of Samuel Scheffler and Seana Shiffrin (such as autonomy, distributive justice, legal philosophy, the morality of association, and responsibility).

Essays and abstracts should be prepared for blind review in word, rtf, or pdf format. Graduate submissions should be sent to leegoldsmith2012 [at] u.northwestern.edu; faculty submissions should be sent to garthoff [at] northwestern.edu.

Notices of acceptance will be distributed no later than March 31, 2009. For more information, please contact Jon Garthoff at the email address
above or visit the conference website

Autonomy, Reciprocity, and Responsibility: Darwall and Levinas on the Second Person, Michael D. Barber

Locke, Kierkegaard and the Phenomenology of Personal Identity, Patrick Stokes

Belief and Self-consciousness, David Hunter

Postmetaphysical Thinking or Refusal of Thought? Max Horkheimer’s Materialism as Philosophical Stance, J. C. Berendzen

Seebohm’s Hermeneutics and Gadamer, Robert Dostal

Schutz, Seebohm, and Cultural Science, Lester Embree

Seebohm, Husserl, and Dilthey, Thomas Nenon

Three Responses, Thomas M. Seebohm

Here

DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY 3RD ANNUAL GRADUATE PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE:
WHY NIETZSCHE? WHICH NIETZSCHE?

KEYNOTE SPEAKER KATHLEEN HIGGINS
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
MARCH 28, 2009

In the more than 130 years since the publication of his first philosophical work, Friedrich Nietzsche has become one of the most talked about, debated, celebrated, appropriated, despised and (mis) interpreted philosophers in the history of philosophy. As we stand at the beginning of a new century, we wish to inquire into the continuing significance of Nietzsche’s thought for contemporary philosophical reflection. Following Foucault, we recognize that there are a multiplicity of “Nietscheanisms” and we welcome papers that speak to the question, “What serious use can Nietzsche be put to?” We also invite papers that explore Nietzsche’s contemporary relevance by asking, “Why turn to Nietzsche now?” and “Which Nietzsche should we turn to?” We encourage papers that ‘put Nietzsche to work’ for diverse and unexpected purposes, but also papers that are critical of Nietzsche’s usefulness in meeting the challenges of life and philosophy in the 21st century.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to): Nietzsche as precursor to phenomenology, Nietzsche and aesthetics, appropriations of Nietzsche by feminism and critical race theory, Nietzsche and the political, Nietzsche and laughter, Nietzsche and the history of philosophy, Nietzsche and the future of philosophy, Nietzsche and post-structuralism/post-modernism, Nietzsche and the textuality of the text. This conference has been organized by the Duquesne Graduate Students in Philosophy (GSIP), with support from Duquesne University Philosophy, and the Dean of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts.

Submission Deadline: February 1 st 2009
Submission Guidelines:
• Submit papers by email to duquesneGSIP@gmail.com.
• All papers must be submitted in blind review format: papers should not include the author’s name or any other identifying information. All personal and contact information (with paper title) should be included in the body of the email.
• Papers should not exceed 3,000 words and should include an abstract of no more than 300 words.
• Papers must be in either Word or PDF electronic formats.
• For further information, questions, or problems with submissions contact Patrick Craig, at craigp@duq.edu .

Special Issue ‘Cornelius Castoriadis’. Thesis Eleven 49 (1997) http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=f…359ae25edd7d9a

College, Sex, & Philosophy

Robert Stewart and Michael Bruce (eds.)

Abstracts are sought for a new title in the Wiley-Blackwell series Philosophy for Everyone, under the general editorship of Fritz Allhoff.  As with previous titles now subsumed under the series—Wine & Philosophy, Beer & Philosophy, Food & Philosophy, and Running & Philosophy—College, Sex, & Philosophy will integrate the insights of philosophers, interdisciplinary academics such as sociologists and psychologists.  The abstracts and resulting selected papers should be written for an educated, but non-specialized, audience.

This edition would explore the philosophical issues concerning the sexual practices of college students, people roughly 18-23 years of age. This unique social space has many important issues that are can be investigated in a meaningful and assessable way, namely ethical issues of dating, cheating, courtship, pregnancy, homosexual experimentation, drug and alcohol use, and more as it pertains to the college framework. Essays will introduce philosophers and their arguments to the dilemmas with critical rigor, insight, and humor. Possible topics include:

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Noam Chomsky called for people to vote for Obama ‘without illusions’. I fully share Chomsky’s doubts about the real consequences of Obama’s victory: from a pragmatic perspective, it is quite possible that Obama will make only some minor improvements, turning out to be ‘Bush with a human face’. He will pursue the same basic policies in a more attractive way and thus effectively strengthen the US hegemony, damaged by the catastrophe of the Bush years.

There is nonetheless something deeply wrong with this reaction – a key dimension is missing from it. Obama’s victory is not just another shift in the eternal parliamentary struggle for a majority, with all the pragmatic calculations and manipulations that involves. It is a sign of something more. This is why an American friend of mine, a hardened leftist with no illusions, cried when the news came of Obama’s victory. Whatever our doubts, for that moment each of us was free and participating in the universal freedom of humanity.

The rest

TOC

‘I Like Your Colour!’ skin bleaching and geographies of race in urban Ghana - Jemima Pierre

why queer diaspora? - Meg Wesling

diasporic governmentality: on the gendered limits of migrant wage-labour in Portugal - Kesha Fikes

wal-mart, ‘katrina’, and other ideological tricks: Jamaican hotel workers in Michigan - Deborah A Thomas

engendering ‘race’ in calls for diasporic community in Sweden - Lena Sawyer

postcolonial criticism, transnational identifications and the hegemonies of dancehall’s academic and popular performativities - Denise Noble

the comic side of gender trouble and Bert Williams’ signature act - Michelle Ann Stephens

Obama’s victory marks a symbolically powerful moment in American history, defined as it is by the stain of slavery and the fact of racism. It will have hugely beneficial consequences for how the United States is seen throughout the world. His victory was also strategically brilliant and his campaign transformed those disillusioned with and disenfranchised by the Bush administration into a highly motivated and organized popular force. But I dispute that Obama’s victory is about change in any significant sense.

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(h/t: Micah White)