Continental Philosophy

Duquesne University, Department of Philosophy

Full time one-year position, beginning fall semester 2009. Rank: Visiting Assistant Professor. Ph.D. required.

AOS: Continental Philosophy. AOC: Open.

3/3 teaching load. Candidate will teach some Core courses, including Ethics.

Send complete dossier, including evidence of teaching effectiveness and a recent writing sample, to Search Committee, Philosophy Department, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh PA 15282. Review of applications will begin April 1, 2009, and continue until the position is filled. The department will conduct phone and on campus interviews.

The Duquesne Philosophy Department has a strong commitment to contemporary continental philosophy and the history of philosophy. Applicants must be willing to contribute actively to the mission of the University as well as show respect for the Spiritan Catholic identity of Duquesne University. The mission is implemented through a commitment to academic excellence, a spirit of service, moral and spiritual values, sensitivity to world concerns, and an ecumenical campus community. Duquesne University was founded in 1878 by its sponsoring religious community, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Duquesne University is Catholic in mission and ecumenical in spirit. Motivated by its Catholic identity, Duquesne values equality of opportunity both as an educational institution and as an employer.

Earlier this month, as many readers know, Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton, Peter Hallward, Michael Hardt,
Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Gianni Vattimo, Slavoj Zizek all participated at the conference “On the Idea of Communism.” For those of us who sadly missed it, Monthly Review has a good recap of links. If you know of more, please post them in the comments! (See also the lacan.com article)

Visiting Assistant Professor, beginning September 2009.

Two positions. (1) AOS: Continental Philosophy; (2) AOS: American Philosophy.

Each position will teach at least one large lecture course with graduate teaching assistants. Ability to teach advanced courses in Continental or American Philosophy, including graduate courses, and at least two of the following is required: Phil 110, Human Nature; Phil 311 History of Modern Philosophy or Phil 325, Logic, Argument and Inquiry; Phil 312, History of 19th Century Philosophy; and Phil 444, Feminist Ethics. Teaching experience and PhD required. Salary will be competitive depending on qualifications. We seek candidates with a commitment to working effectively with students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds.

Review of applications will begin April 22 and will continue until the position is filled. Complete applications, including c.v., three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample should be sent to Philosophy Search Committee, Department of Philosophy, 1295 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1295. For more information, please refer to http://hr.uoregon.edu/jobs/. EO/AA/ADA institution.

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Introduction to the special issue on continental philosophy of law — Nick Smith

The catechism of the citizen: politics, law and religion in, after, with and against Rousseau — Simon Critchley

The dedifferentiation problem — Pierre Schlag

Bodies against the law: Abu Ghraib and the war on terror — Kelly Oliver

Overblocking autonomy: the case of mandatory library filtering software — Gordon Hull

Commodification in law: ideologies, intractabilities, and hyperboles — Nick Smith

Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport

New French Philosophy and Media Theory

A conversation with Bernard Stiegler

April 2nd, 7:00 pm, La Maison Française, NYU, 16 Washington Mews, NYC

http://cultureandcommunication.org/newfrenchphilosophy/

Bernard Stiegler, Philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris. Founder of Ars
Industrialis (a group dedicated to the “industrial politics of spirit”). His writings have been broadly influential on the study of time, labor,
capitalism, media theory, and psychopower. They include: La technique et le temps (3 vols. 1994-2001; trans. Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus [Stanford UP, 1998]); De la misère symbolique (2004); Mécréance et Discrédit (2006); Economie de l’hypermatériel et psychopouvoir (2008); and Prendre soin: De la jeunesse et des générations (2008).

Respondents

Avital Ronell, Professor of German, English and Comparative Literature, NYU. Author of The Test Drive (2005); Stupidity (2003); The Telephone
Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech (1989)

Alexander Galloway, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, NYU. Author of Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (MIT,
2004), Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (Minnesota, 2006).

Moderator

Emily Apter, Professor of French, English and Comparative Literature, NYU. Author of The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature (2006)

Organizers

Emily Apter, Department of French, English and Comparative Literature, Denis Hollier, Department of French, Alexander Galloway, Department of
Media, Culture and Communication, and Ben Kafka, Department of Media, Culture and Communication.

212.998.8750 maison.francaise@nyu.edu

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6

Contributions are now invited for the 2009 issue of the MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, an international, refereed online journal. A special, themed section of the journal will be dedicated to ‘Space/Time,’ though papers on other topics are also welcome.

The MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities (http://www.mhra.org.uk/ojs/index.php/wph) is an electronic publication forum intended to allow researchers to present initial findings or hypotheses such as might, at a more advanced stage, become eligible for publication in established scholarly journals. As such it will be of particular interest to postgraduate researchers, though established scholars are also invited to submit papers.

The fourth issue of the Working Papers will be published in November 2009, and the editorial panel aims to choose half of the papers from submissions that relate to the theme of ‘Space/Time.’ Authors might consider, among other things:

- Linear temporality and its disruptions
- History and historical narrative in language, literature, or culture
- Memory, recollection, nostalgia, forgetting
- Monumentalisation – fixing points in the landscape in perpetuity
- Place and space
- Science fiction (other spaces, other times)
- Outer space
- Engagement with landscape
- Language across/within borders
- Nations and nationalism as constructions in space and time
- Translation across space and time

Papers may come from any field in the ‘modern humanities’, which include the modern and mediaeval 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.

THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS 1 MAY, 2009.

In order to submit a paper, you are kindly requested to register as an author on the journal’s website at http://mhra.org.uk/ojs/index.php/wph/user/register; thereafter, submissions may be made via the website or via email to the editors (see below).

Charles Guignon reviews S. J. McGrath, Heidegger: A (Very) Critical Introduction

S. J. McGrath’s trim little book offers us an overview of Heidegger’s life-work, with special emphasis on his political activities and his relationship to theology. The book is part of a religious series originating from the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, and McGrath is up front in announcing that he is a Christian humanist and a personalist. Though he is highly impressed by Heidegger (this is his second book on the subject), his religious commitments incline him to be “very” critical of Heidegger. The book is divided into five chapters. After a short introduction, there are chapters on phenomenology, ontology, axiology, and theology, with a brief conclusion on “Why I Am Not a Heideggerian.”

Rest of the review

John Protevi has posted a new outline of Foucault’s Security, Territory, Population 1-4

Link

This is of course a very important press for continental philosophy. Note:

Within the U.S., receive free ground shipping with a purchase of $25.00 or more. Enter code WWEZXX at checkout to redeem free shipping offer.

Order today, quantities are limited. Sale ends 6/30/09.

Shop now

Two pieces of interest:

David Harvey, Why the US stilmulus package is bound to fail.

Christopher Hitchens, The revenge of Karl Marx

New Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

Link

An international conference in continental philosophy of religion

Towards a Philosophy of Life: Reflections on the Concept of Life in Continental Philosophy of Religion

Date: Friday 26th – Sunday 28th June, 2009

Venue: Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK

“The question whether it is still possible to live is the form in which metaphysics impinges on us urgently today.” Adorno, Metaphysics: Concepts and Problems, 112.

Traditionally, a common conception of philosophy has been as a melete thanatou or ‘meditation upon death’. However, in recent years it is the significance of the concept of ‘life’ which has begun to receive increasing attention in contemporary European philosophy. Indeed, writing in the wake of the brutalization of life in the death camps of Auschwitz, Adorno poses a central question for current philosophical debate on life, namely, ‘How might life live?’ The aim of this conference is to address this question and in doing so assess recent philosophies of life. In particular, the conference seeks to explore metaphysical, phenomenological, ethical and religious underpinnings of philosophies of life, especially in light of the emergence of ‘continental philosophy of religion’. By enquiring into conceptions of life in contemporary philosophical and religious thought, this conference also aims to reconsider the key project of ancient philosophy: the teaching of the good life.

Keynote speakers:

Dr. Pamela Sue Anderson (The University of Oxford)

Professor John D. Caputo (Syracuse University)

Professor Don Cupitt (The University of Cambridge)

Professor Jean-Yves Lacoste (Institut Catholique, Paris)

Professor John Milbank (The University of Nottingham)

Abstracts (no more than 400 words) are invited on a broad range of themes including:

* The concept of life in vitalism and philosophies of immanence (Spinoza, Nietzsche, Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Henry, Alain Badiou, etc)
* Life, power and politics (especially Foucault, and Giorgio Agamben)
* Alterity, gift and life: deconstruction and phenomenology
* Rethinking life in light of the body, natality and sexual difference: feminist philosophy of religion and feminist theology
* Psychoanalysis (life, death and desire)
* Theologies of life (creation, incarnation, sacrament and grace)

We expect to publish in an edited book a selection of papers from the conference proceedings. To submit an abstract (deadline: Friday 17 April, 2009), or for further information please email: Dr. Patrice Haynes – haynesp@hope.ac.uk

Conference organisers: Dr. Patrice Haynes, Dr. Steven Shakespeare and Dr. Charlie Blake at Liverpool Hope University

Call for Proposals: Monk and Philosophy

Mr. Monk is the latest in a long series of brilliant detectives, but like most such characters, his genius brings along with it serious flaws. We love detective stories, but, like Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe before him, we love the man of genius himself, even when we don’t admire everything about him, or, indeed, wish to be like him.

Monk and Philosophy is an edited volume in Open Court Publishing Company’s Popular Culture and Philosophy series. We solicit proposals for book chapters that will engage philosophical issues within or relevant to the television series Monk, written for a general audience. Chapters should be lively, engaging, and entertaining. Preferably, they should help a fan of the show understand why she enjoys the show so much, and what she can take from the show that helps her better understand herself and our world.

Topics might include:

• What counts as evidence? How do we make inferences? Why can’t we do what Monk does?
• Abduction and the pitfalls of inference to the best explanation
• Problems with practical reasoning that Monk is able (somehow) to avoid—confirmation bias, false premises, etc.
• Phenomenology of perception, and what Monk sees that others can’t
• Why is he named “Monk”? Is he a contemporary ascetic?
• Monk’s habits and Aristotle’s virtues
• Freud’s theory of repetition compulsion, trauma, and mourning
• How is genius tied to madness?
• Why do we (well, some of us) have a “will to truth,” if the truth doesn’t help us to be happy?
• Cynicism, Diogenes and Monk: shunning social norms and the search for an honest man
• The nature of friendship, and Monk’s relationships with Sharona, Natalie, and Stottlemeyer
• Is “courage” the same thing for everybody? Does Monk display a kind of moral virtue in simply leaving the house at all?
• Why are we charmed by and why do we sympathize with eccentricities in fictional characters that we consider flaws, failings and vices in real people?

We welcome submissions from any philosophical perspective, and from theoretically based interdisciplinary perspectives. Relevant figures, in addition to those mentioned above, might include James, Dewey, and Hume. Relevant areas, in addition to those mentioned above, might include philosophy of law, professional ethics, and aesthetics. (Aesthetics? Well, do you remember Monk’s confrontation with a painting in the first episode?) Chapters comparing different characters in philosophically relevant ways are also welcome, for example: Monk v. Holmes, Monk v. Wolfe, Monk v. House.

Proposals should be 200-400 words, and should be quick, lively presentations of the topics and questions to be addressed in the full chapter. We are planning this book on a very tight schedule! We want to be sure to get the book on the shelves before the series finale—preferably well before it.

Proposals due by April 1st. Notification of acceptance shortly thereafter. Full chapters of about 4000 words due by June 16th. Please be sure, before you send in a proposal, that you’re willing and able to set aside a chunk of the first part of your summer to get this done!

Please submit to: monk.and.philosophy@gmail.com

Oxford Forum Public Conference — Ricoeur: On Memory, Politics and Forgiveness

20-21 March 2009, Faculty of Philosophy and Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford

Friday, 20 March, Faculty of Philosophy

14.00-15.15 Dialogue with Pamela Sue Anderson (Oxford)
On Confidence, Power and Affirmation

15.15-15.30 Break

15.30-16.45 Dialogue with Luc Bovens (LSE)
On Apologies and Forgiveness

16.45-17.15 Coffee/Tea

17.15-18.30 Dialogue with Morny Joy (Calgary)
On Solicitude and Gift

Saturday, 21 March, Regent’s Park College

11.30-12.45 Dialogue with David Klemm (Iowa-Glasgow)
On Reading Ricoeur (tbc)

13.00-14.15 Lunch (own arrangements)

14.15-15.30 Dialogue with William Schweiker (Chicago)
On Ricoeur and Theological Humanism (tbc)

15.30-16.00 Coffee/Tea

16.00-17.00 Round table
Chair: David Jasper (Glasgow)

The event is open to all and there are no registration fees. For further information and to book a place contact Roxana Baiasu, Roxana.Baiasu@philosophy.ox.acor Juliana Cardinale: 020 7955 7539, J.Cardinale@lse.ac.uk
Forum for European Philosophy European Institute, London School of Economics, WC2A 2AE www.philosophy-forum.org

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Editorial

Articles

Ed Hackett is running a poll on the best continental philosopher:

Link

The British Society for Phenomenology Conference 2009

St Hildas’ College, Oxford April 3 – 5

The full programme and registration forms are available from the BSP web-site: http://www.britishphenomenology.com.

If you have any queries, please contact David Webb: d.a.webb@staffs.ac.uk

Ullrich Haase (Manchester Metropolitan University)

‘History: Heidegger on Nietzsche’s 2nd Untimely Meditation’

David Krell (Depaul University)

‘Nietzsche in Derrida’s Politiques de l’amitié’

Will McNeill (Depaul University)

‘The Descent of Philosophy: On the Nietzschean Legacy in Heidegger’s Phenomenology’

Graham Parkes (University College Cork)

‘Nietzsche on Experiencing the Natural World – As It Really Is?’

Andrea Rehberg (Bilkent University)

‘Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty: Physiology, Body, Flesh’

John Sallis (Boston College)

‘Perspectives on Shining: Nietzsche and Beyond’

Jim Urpeth (Greenwich University)

‘The Phenomenology of Religious Life; Nietzsche and Bergson’

Book Discussion Session

Prof Douglas Burnham (Staffordshire University) & Joanna Hodge will discuss Jill Marsden’s book After Nietzsche: Notes Towards a Philosophy of Ecstasy (Palgrave)

Jill Marsden (University of Bolton) will respond.