Continental Philosophy

Symposium

Journal of the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy

Call for Papers

Special Issue on Early Phenomenology

Guest Editors: Kimberly Jaray and Jeff Mitscherling

This special issue of Symposium will focus on the treatment of problems and themes by Husserl and those philosophers who had been his students prior to WWI. The editors are interested in submissions that (i) critically examine the manner in which these thinkers identified and approached what they considered to be central problems or concerns of philosophy, and (ii) critically assess the results of their investigations and the possible contribution of these investigations to current research. Simply expository papers will not be considered for publication.

Papers should be no longer than 8,000 words. The editors request that authors submit an abstract by 1 September 2009. The completed submission must be received no later than 1 May 2010, and any required revisions by no later than 1 September 2010. The issue is expected to appear in 2011.

Correspondence and submissions may be directed to either of the editors, electronically or by regular mail:

Kimberly Jaray kjaray@mac.com
Jeff Mitscherling jmitsche@uoguelph.ca

Department of Philosophy
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
Canada N1G 2W1

http://www.mediafire.com/?enzv3j2f2zn

(h/t: Thomas N)

Apologies for lack of posting. Coming back to the site tomorrow!

The Absent Center

A Graduate Student Conference on Contemporary Issues in Political Theology

University of Texas at Austin, Government Department

19-20 February 2010

Keynote speakers:

Simon Critchley (New School for Social Research)

Eric Santner (University of Chicago)

The Secular enlightenment sought to replace religion as a foundation for political legitimacy and personal meaning. It led to a profound disappointment, one not specific to contemporary life. Even Spinoza, the great rationalist and philosopher of immanence, feared for a society lacking any belief in salvation whatsoever.

Precisely because the transition to secular modernity has failed, contemporary society has invested with renewed critical interest and urgency the age-old question: “What might be the best normative center for any society”? Even those who say with Nietzsche that “God is dead” would likely concede that a divine center, even though absent and yet to be replaced, retains for many a powerful force upon political imagination.

The Absent Center Conference will examine these circumstances in terms of the following questions: Is a normative center necessary for political life? Are multiple centers possible? If so, which can or ought to be affirmed, and who should decide, by what criteria? Alternatively, can political community and political action be centerless, as philosophers such as Alain Badiou and Simon Critchley argue? Can secular reason and its contemporary political form – liberal democracy – harness the passions and channel the grievances of a thoroughly secular political life? Can alternative post-secular forms of political life be imagined? Could they ever be realized without a return to the religious?

Graduate students interested in presenting a paper should e-mail an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a CV, to:

absentcenterconference@gmail.com

Submission Deadline: 1 August 2009

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified in early September 2009

In a BBC HARDtalk interview broadcast on 24 March 2009, Stephen Sackur talks to French socialist philospher Alain Badiou. As the world’s richest economies plunge deeper into recession could there be a whiff of revolution in the air? Alain Badiou has been an intellectual hero of France’s anti-capitalist left since the Paris street protests of 1968. His recent book ‘The Meaning of Sarkozy’, in which he attacked the French President, has caused a storm in France. But does anyone beyond Parisian café society believe communism is the answer to the current crisis?

WHAT IS THE COMMON?
An International Conference

10-11 October 2009
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Submission deadline: September 5
Contact: info@kurrents.org
Full details>http://www.kurrents.org/conf

Keynotes (The list of keynotes will be extended)

Jacques Rancière

David Harvey

The theme of this conference was decided after our conference on Spaces of Mobility in 2008.
In the shadow of the global crisis of capitalism, the common, somehow obliterated in the recent past, has emerged as an indispensable and central notion. The conference addresses this notion both as a real movement and as an already present horizon, a dynamic principle, for societal life. It is a critical topic today, not only because the public, administrated by the state, is reduced to expendable assets for regulating a supposedly self-regulating machine called Market, but more importantly because the emerging forms of the common impose themselves with an unprecedented acuity and in opposition to the doxa of the private property.

The common refers not only to primary resources, such as water or ecological conditions on a planetary level, but it is at the same time a political force that traverses diverse fields of tension such as art and culture, law and gender relations. The question “What is the Common?” is addressed as a real agenda that conditions the thought. The conference is a program that extends over 4 years. Each year will treat two themes. The conference 2009 will welcome papers related to the following two axes:

1. The Common and the Economy: Which are the specific emerging forms of the common today and what defines its relation to the material conditions of production of values in contemporary capitalism? Under this axis, both theoretical discussions and case-specific investigations in areas such as autonomous popular organisations, regional movements or global changes in one specific economic sector are welcome.

2. The Philosophical Understanding of what the Common Is: The common has since Plato’s Republic been a central question for the philosophical thinking. What is the relation or non-relation between the common and the totality of social relations? In which form and based upon what ontological or existential categories does it emerge? What is the difference between the common as the name of a real movement and the nostalgies of the return to a simple life?

Submission Guidelines: We are welcoming papers from all disciplines regardless academic affiliation or other background. All Interested researchers are required to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words, not later than September 5. Submissions via email must be in MS Word, RTF, or PDF format. Presentations will be given in English. Presenters will each be given 30 minutes for their presentation, followed by a 15 minutes discussion with the floor. Each session will be appointed a chair. Please specify if you are interested to chair a session. Number of sessions are limited to 8. If accepted, you will be required to provide a complete version of your 10-15 page double-spaced paper by January 1, 2010. Your abstract should not include your name, but do include the following on a separate page: Name, paper title, affiliation (university, other), email address. Submissions should be sent either by electronic mail to: info@kurrents.org or as a paper copy to: Sylva Frisk, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 700, SE-405 30 Goteborg, Sweden.

About the Organization: The conference is organized upon an original proposal by Dr Dariush Moaven Doust. He is also responsible for the organization of the conference and the head of the Scientific committee in which Tomas Jonsson, researcher at CEFOS, Professor emeritus Sven-Eric Liedman, History of Ideas, Professor Lennart Nilsson, CEFOS, Professor emeritus Jan Ling, Sylva Frisk, Director of Studies at the School of Global Studies participate. The host for the conference is the School of Global Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences. The conference has been made possible by economical support from University of Gothenburg and mångkultur, Art and Culture development, West Gotaland Region.

Lucid and rigorous in equal measure, Watkin’s Phenomenology and Deconstruction is both a timely intervention and a critical introduction to a vital current in contemporary European thought. It is also an essential reconfiguration of the intellectual landscape as concerns phenomenology, giving us back the bodies we need, but stranger and richer. –Prof. Patrick ffrench, Department of French, King’s College, London

Description
Phenomenology or Deconstruction? challenges traditional understandings of the relationship between phenomenology and deconstruction through new readings of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricoeur and Jean-Luc Nancy. A constant dialogue with Jacques Derrida’s engagement with phenomenological themes provides the impetus to establishing a new understanding of ‘being’ and ‘presence’ that exposes significant blindspots inherent in traditional readings of both phenomenology and deconstruction. In reproducing neither a stock phenomenological reaction to deconstruction nor the routine deconstructive reading of phenomenology, Christopher Watkin provides a fresh assessment of the possibilities for the future of phenomenology, along with a new reading of the deconstructive legacy. Through detailed studies of the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur and Nancy, he shows how a phenomenological tradition much wider and richer than Husserlian or Heideggerean thought alone can take account of Derrida’s critique of ontology and yet still hold a commitment to the ontological.This new reading of being and presence fundamentally re-draws our understanding of the relation of deconstruction and phenomenology, and provides the first sustained discussion of the possibilities and problems for any future ‘deconstructive phenomenology’.

Christopher Watkin is a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is currently working on atheism and the death of God in Nancy, Badiou, Zizek and Meillassoux.

Link

To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor,

William Irwin, at wtirwin@kings.edu.

Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.

Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

Is Peter Parker a philosopher?; Is there room for God in the universe of Spider-Man?; Peter Parker, Spider-Man, and the problem of personal identity; Does Peter Parker, post spider-bite, become something other than human?; The Amazing Spider-Man and genetic therapy; Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, and the Clone Wars: flesh of my flesh?; Just how does Spidey-sense work?; Does Peter really have a choice?; Aunt May and moral wisdom; Do Peter’s book smarts have anything to do with moral wisdom?; The scope of responsibility: should Peter feel guilt over the death of Uncle Ben?; Great power, responsibility, and the foundations of obligation; Is Peter virtuous, or just continent?; Is Mary Jane morally superior to Peter?; Doctor Octopus and the passions; Peter Parker, adolescence, and moral maturity: why is Peter so insecure?; What makes a hero?; Is Spider-Man a deontologist, a virtue ethicist, or neither?; Character and responsibility for one’s character: the case of Harry Osborn; Character and moral transformation: the case of Harry Osborn; The Spider-Man villains and consequentialism; Pride and the anti-hero; Spider-Man and the problem of evil: where does the Venom Symbiote really come from?; Spider-Man, the Venom Symbiote, and moral purification; Spider-Man, Sandman, and forgiveness; Is Mary Jane a feminist?; Peter Parker, equality, and friendship: can a superhero have non-superhero friends?; Gwen Stacy: superheroes and death; J. Jonah Jameson and obsession; The Daily Bugle, media, and manipulation; Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and what makes a family; Fathers and sons: what happened to the Osborns?; Superheroes and the limits of community; Superheroes, exceptional types, and the common good: the Green Goblin vs. Spiderman; and the unmasking of Spider-Man; Peter Parker and life as narrative.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Submission deadline for abstracts (100-500 words) and CV(s): June 1, 2009

2. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers: September 1,2009.

3. Submission deadline for finals drafts accepted papers: November 2, 2009

Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to:

J.J. Sanford: jsanford@gwia.franciscan.edu

The Department of Philosophy at George Mason University proudly presents, Vulnerable Bodies:
a symposium in honor of the retirement of Professor Debra Bergoffen

This symposium examines the vulnerabilities of aging, disabled, intersexed, harmed, and raped bodies. In turning to these specific vulnerabilities, the symposium participants alert us to the dignity of the body and create paradigms of embodiment where the dignity of the vulnerable body informs the ways in which we formulate medical practice and social justice policies.

Thursday April 16, 2009
1:30 pm – 7 pm
George Mason University, Fairfax campus, Research 1, Room 163, Reception to follow

Speakers Include:
Professor Debra Bergoffen
Professor Ellen Feder
Professor Robin May Schott
Professor Gail Weiss
Guest Panel:
Professor Lynn. M. Constantine
Sara Regina Micho
Laina H. Saul

A review of Narrative Identity and Moral Identity: A Practical Perspective

Narrative conceptions of agency have attracted considerable philosophical interest in recent years, and both of these books make significant contributions to the growing literature on this theme. Each treats a wide range of related concepts, including not just narrative agency itself but also personal and practical identity, temporality and the self, practical reasoning, and autonomy.

Kim Atkins’ Narrative Identity and Moral Identity is a book about the nature of human selfhood. Atkins uses the terms “selfhood” and “identity” interchangeably, and approaches her subject in part through a discussion of theories of personal identity. Her central interest, however, is in practical rather than metaphysical identity. A person, in the sense of interest to Atkins, is a practical unity of first-, second-, and third-personal perspectives (more on this below), and questions about personal identity, in her sense, are questions about the continuity of this practical unity over time.

Rest of the review

A free access to all the SAGE journals with content from 1999-current until April 30, 2009

The SAGE Journals Online provides users with access to one of the largest and most powerful collections of social science, humanities, and science, technical, and medical content in the world. SAGE is also the world’s leading publisher of research methods and during the trial you will be able to search more than 25 research methods journals from qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to evaluation.

Register here

Just the strangest illustration of Sartrean Bad Faith:

A Maryland woman involved with a group described as a religious cult pleaded guilty in the starvation death of her son, but insisted that the charges be dropped when he is resurrected.

The condition was made a part of Ria Ramkissoon’s plea agreement, officials said. She entered the plea Monday in Baltimore, Maryland, to a first-degree felony count of child abuse resulting in death, her attorney, Steven Silverman, said Tuesday.

Ramkissoon, a member of a group called One Mind Ministries, believes Javon Thompson, her year-old son, will rise again, and as part of her plea agreement, authorities agreed to the clause.

“She certainly recognizes that her omissions caused the death of her son,” Silverman said. “To this day, she believes it was God’s will and he will be resurrected and this will all take care of itself. She realizes if she’s wrong, then everyone has to take responsibility … and if she’s wrong, then she’s a failure as a mother and the worst thing imaginable has happened. I don’t think that, mentally, she’s ready to accept that.”

…

In court Monday, it was clarified that the “resurrection clause” would apply only in the case of Javon’s actual resurrection — not a perceived reincarnation, Silverman said.

Link

(h/t: Ben G)

Keynote Speaker, Friday, April 3rd at 5pm
Courtelyou Commons, 2324 N. Fremont St.
Falguni Sheth, Hampshire College: “The Newest Unruly Threat: Muslim Men and Women”
Respondent: Rohan Sikri, DePaul University

Conference Sessions, Saturday, April 4th from 9am to 5:30pm:
Courtelyou Commons, 2324 N. Fremont St.

9:00am-10:00am
Jessica Sims, University of Oregon: “The Identification of Feminisms: Working Toward a Definition of Woman/Women within the Feminist Tradition”
Respondent: Kristin McCartney, DePaul University

10:10am-11:10am
Trevor Smith, Marquette University: “Furthering Burdened Virtues”
Respondent: Rosalie Siemon, DePaul University

11:20am-12:20am
Fanny Söderbäck, The New School for Social Research: “In Search for Time Lost: On Origins and Beginnings in Plato and Irigaray”
Respondent: Holly Moore, DePaul University

12:20pm-2:00pm
Break for Lunch (Local options are listed on the reverse side of the program)

2:00pm-3:00pm
Shannon Winston, University of Michigan: “Inner Spaces/Other Places: Travel, Subjectivity, and Reproduction in Simone de Beauvoir and Julia Kristeva”
Respondent: Perry Zurn, DePaul University

3:10pm-4:10pm
Nathalie Nya, Penn State University: “Mayotte Capécia and the Integrity Race Narratives”
Respondents: O’Donavan Johnson, DePaul University; Azadeh Erfani, DePaul University

4:20pm-5:20pm
Roundtable Discussion
Leading Participants: David Bleeden, Marie Draz, James Manos, Jana Mc-Auliffe, Sonya Ozbey–DePaul University
Moderator: Jeff Pardikes, DePaul University