Continental Philosophy

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture requests submissions for Issue 11.2 “Cultural Productions of 9/11”

Deadline for proposals: February 1, 2010 (final drafts of invited submissions will be due August 15, 2010)

How has the subject of “9/11” been produced? From the moments when people cried “too soon” to the gratuitous preying on the subject in the name of “9/11”—how has this date stamp affected cultural production?

This special issue of Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture will present a range of disciplinary responses to the aftereffects—as well as the affective hype—of the notoriously popular subject of 9/11. We mean the subject of 9/11 to register in least two senses: as the topic of myriad discourses, and also
as the individual liberal subjects who were (and still are) affected, traumatized, or otherwise interpellated by the effects and afterimages of 9/11. Therefore, we are not as interested in what really happened” on that day as much as we are interested in the cultural production(s) of 9/11—how “9/11” became a subject
as such. We hope to analyze how the events of 9/11 created a cause–effect reversal of sorts, and how by its very utterance, 9/11 can evoke affective trauma. We are also interested in the material implications for thinking that after 9/11, certain things in the world “had changed.”

We therefore solicit focused articles from divergent fields and disciplines that reconsider the subject of 9/11. We do not claim to know whether it is still “too soon” or whether the subject has had “enough time” to be thought about clearly; indeed, we hope to indicate the difficulty of such considerations in the issue. The
issue will thus seek to foster a dialogue wherein we might begin to gauge the mythological and affective reverberations of this strange moniker, “9/11.”

While there has been a staggering amount of work that has tried to make sense of this subject, from films to novels, from conspiracy theories to The 9/11 Commission Report, this special issue of Reconstruction will attempt instead to bracket the subject as a subject—that is, we seek essays that assess what trends have emerged and what gaps have been opened up by the cultural production(s) of this subject. We envision a series of scholarly articles, as well as a significant review section of cultural productions (in myths, medicine, advertising, music, movies, architecture) that may not warrant full-length essays, but still deserve critical notation in terms of the subject produced by “9/11.”

We invite work that focuses on the following topics:

The ‘subject’ of 9/11
The alleged singularity of 9/11
Collective responses to 9/11
“Security threat levels”
Trauma theory
Mourning
Commemoration
9/11’s visual culture
Law(s) produced by 9/11
Post-9/11 military technologies
Effects of “The War on Terror” in everyday life
Architectural responses to and challenges posed by 9/11
The post-9/11 novel
A 9/11 refrain: “It looked like a movie!”
Cultural imperialism and 9/11
The “other” 9/11
Music ‘inspired’ by 9/11
9/11 as a cause–effect reversal
9/11/2001 as the marker of a new phase or period
The mobilities of 9/11
Cultural productions of 9/11 deemed “too soon”
9/11 as the end of irony
Ecology after 9/11
9/11 and the clinic

This list of topics is representative but not exhaustive; please feel free to propose articles or reviews that are in line with the scope of the issue but whose contents may not appear above.

Send abstracts or proposals of no more than 300 words as well as a CV to co-editors Christopher Schaberg (schaberg@loyno.edu) and Kara Thompson (kara.thompson@oberlin.edu) no later than February 1, 2010 (final drafts of invited submissions will be due August 15, 2010). We are happy to answer queries concerning review pieces or other possible submissions.

Reconstruction articles are archived in the MLA database. All submissions
are refereed. Papers must follow the Reconstruction guidelines for
submission .

Philosophers Zone – 17 October 2009 – What would Karl Marx think?.

Commodities, capitalism and computers. At a time when the Berlin Wall has fallen but Wall Street is decidedly shaky, a self-described lapsed Marxist takes us through some of the key philosophical and practical ideas of Karl Marx and argues for what is still useful today. What is worth keeping in Marx? He had his limitations but later thinkers have built on his core concepts and used his methods to produce results that still speak to the changing nature of work in contemporary Australia.

Louis Althusser (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

from lacan dot com

http://www.lacan.com/lacan1.htm

Slavoj Zizek
Hollywood Today: Report from an Ideological Frontline

http://www.lacan.com/essays/?page_id=347

[…]
Les non-dupes errent
So when even products of the allegedly “liberal” Hollywood display the most blatant ideological regression, are any further proofs needed that ideology is alive and kicking in our post-ideological world? Consequently, it shouldn’t surprise us to discover ideology at its purest in what may appear as Hollywood at its most innocent: the big blockbuster cartoons. “The truth has the structure of a fiction” – is there a better exemplification of this thesis than cartoons in which the truth about the existing social order is rendered in such a direct way which would never be allowed in the narrative cinema with “real” actors?

JBSP: Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology
Volume 40 – No 3 – October 2009
Hermeneutics
Including the following articles:

NICHOLAS DAVEY
Lest We Forget:
The Question of Being and Philosophical Hermeneutics
GÜNTER FIGAL
Hermeneutics as Phenomenology
ANNETTE HILT
The Anthropological Boundaries of Comprehensive Meaning,
its Finitudes and Openness:
Towards a Hermeneutics of Expressivity
DANIEL L. TATE
Art as Cognitio Imaginativa:
Gadamer on Intuition and Imagination in Kant’s Aesthetic Theory
JAMES RISSER
The Incapacity of Language
JENS ZIMMERMANN
Weak Thought or Weak Theology?
A Theological Critique of Vattimo’s Incarnational Ontology

And A Discussion Paper
ALFONS GRIEDER
What are Boundary Situations?
A Jaspersian Notion Reconsidered:

And Book Reviews
Nicholas Davey: Unquiet Understanding; Gadamer’s
Philosophical Hermeneutics, by Blair M. Ogden

Steven M. Rosen: Topologies of the Flesh: A Multidimensional
Exploration of the Lifeworld, by Orion Edgar

Simon Glendinning: The Idea of Continental Philosophy,
by A.C. Zielinska

Subscriptions
The JBSP is published three times a year, in January, May and October. Three such issues will
constitute one volume: each issue will contain approximately 112 pages.
Orders for the JBSP should be sent to the publisher, Jackson Publishing and Distribution, 3
Gibsons Road, Heaton Moor, Stockport, Cheshire, SK4 4JX, England, or at your local
bookseller.
The cumulative index is available from the publisher either in electronic form or in hard copy for £10.00

Notes for Contributors
The JBSP is an internationally refereed journal. All submissions are sent to two referees for
blind peer-reviewing. The JBSP publishes papers on phenomenology and existential
philosophy as well as contributions from other fields of philosophy. Papers from
researchers in the humanities and the human sciences interested in the philosophy of their
subject will be welcome too. Space will be given to research in progress, to
interdisciplinary discussion, and to book reviews. Intending contributors are asked to
submit papers and correspondence for inclusion in the journal to the Editor, Dr. Ullrich
Haase, Dept. of Politics and Philosophy, Manton Building, Manchester Metropolitan
University, Rosamund St. West, Manchester M15 6LL, UK. Tel.: 0044 (0)161 247 3438;
Fax.: 0044 (0)161 247 6312. Email: u.haase@mmu.ac.uk.

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy presents:

WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY FOR?
MSCP SPRING WORKSHOP 2009

www.mscp.org.au

Why were universities created? Has that purpose substantially changed or become outmoded? Is the only form of rationality economic rationality? Is higher education a public good, or just a public cost? Aren’t universities hot beds for elitist anti-Australian attitudes? What is learning for? Do we believe in education as the formation of character any more or is the only purpose of education to make people ‘job ready’?

The MSCP Autumn and Spring Workshops provide an opportunity for philosophical dialogue on contemporary issues. The workshops are free one-day events. Our panel of speakers are asked to provide opening statements in order to open up the question at hand. After this, the panel and audience enter a free discussion aimed at moving the issue forward.

WHEN AND WHERE?
11am-4pm
Friday, 16th October, 2009
The Gryphon Gallery,
1888 Building
University of Melbourne.

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy is an independent teaching and research group made up of graduate students and academics who share the goal of providing continental philosophy wherever it is needed. The MSCP teaches philosophy short-courses at its annual summer and winter schools. See the website for details and join our mailing list for updates on MSCP activities. The MSCP is housed in the philosophy department at the University of Melbourne. The MSCP is affiliated with the open access journal Parrhesia.

The Inhumanities, a new group blog dedicated to exploring the question of the animal in all of its philosophical valences.

We are pleased to announce our first event, an intervention in and reading of Matthew Calarco’s Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida. We plan to cover a chapter a week, and the first post on the book will be up this coming Tuesday, 9-1-09. We encourage everyone to participate in comments, or emails. Calarco has been kind enough to agree to follow the discussion, and post a response at the end of the discussion.

Remember, if you want to email us just drop us a line at inhumanitiesblog@gmail.com

The term real usually refers to reality, the state of things as they actually exist. But in law, the word real means relating to a thing as distinguished from a person. The new topic of MONU magazine on urbanism will deal with the latter and particularly with real estate. Thus, Real Urbanism should be understood as Real Estate Urbanism and not as Actual or Factual Urbanism.

In law, real estate is defined as a term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property, in contrast with personal property, meaning movable property or any property that can be moved from one location to another.

MONU #12 seeks to explore how people in the real estates business perceive and conceive cities. What do cities look like in the eyes of real estate investors, property managers, and urban developers? What is a good and what is bad city according to real estate agents? This issue tries to illuminate the hidden forces that ultimately establish the physical reality of cities.

But this issue is not meant to be merely polemical and critical of financial forces and economic power that are related to real estate in cities – no Don-Quixotean anti-capitalistic battles shall be fought – but rather attempts will be made to reveal the particular interests of people involved in the real estate sector and their consequences on the built environment. What concerns us most is to put those topics on the agenda and to understand their impacts and dependencies. Nevertheless, radical critical texts are also very welcome.

This call for submissions invites sharp texts, significant and relevant projects, artistic reflections, but also applicable photography or illustrations on the topic of “Real Urbanism” for our next issue of MONU. Abstracts and ideas should be sent with a word count of 200 to 500 and images and illustrations in low resolution to info@monu-magazine.com by the end of November 2009. MONU #12 will be published in the winter of 2010.

Call for Papers 34th Annual Conference of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, May 24th-30th, 2010

Cultures of Differences: National, Indigenous, Historical

For submissions and more information, please visit http://iapl.info/

Deadline for Submissions: Oct. 15th, 2009

Accounts of human action in many parts of philosophy tend to depend on the idea that action is to be characterised in terms of following norms or rules. This gives considerable emphasis to the idea of self-consciously determining yourself to do something, according to a rule. This model has considerable consequences for how procedures are codified in many areas of social and professional life. However, there are serious reasons to think that this model is inadequate as an account of how we actually do many things. This is because, even though rules are essential, so much that we need to do these things cannot come immediately to consciousness when we do them. Examples of what is involved here range from the ways in which we carry out conversations, to the example used for the talk: jazz improvisation.
Presentation includes musical examples and is followed by a performance by the Andrew Bowie Jazz Trio, featuring John Turville (piano), and Tom Farmer (bass).
URL for podcast:

http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2009/10/andrew-bowie-background-capabilities-and-prereflexive-awareness/

TOC

After Montinari: On Nietzsche Philology, Werner Stegmaier and Lisa Marie Anderson

Nietzsche’s Critique of Democracy (1870–1886), H. W. Siemens

Freud and Nietzsche on Sublimation, Ken Gemes

Nietzsche’s Free Spirit Trilogy and Stoic Therapy, Michael Ure

A review of NDPR Negri, In Praise of the Common”>Cesare Casarino, Antonio Negri, In Praise of the Common: A Conversation on Philosophy and Politics by Jason Read:

In Praise of the Common is a difficult book to categorize; neither a collection of interviews nor a collection of essays, it combines both formats, becoming in the end something unique. It is also a book that not only became something different than was initially intended, but which also explicitly states this difference. The book was conceived as a series of interviews that would address the historical background of Antonio Negri’s thought, the tumultuous period of political action and philosophical reflection of the Italian sixties and seventies that remains largely unknown in the Anglo-American world despite the popularity of Empire and Multitude. However, as these conversations developed they became less about the past, less a matter of one person interviewing another about his experiences, and more about the present and future. The interview became a conversation. Unlike an interview, a conversation is determined less by an asymmetry between the one who knows and the one who asks than by the production of some common understanding. In Casarino’s terms, “Conversation is the language of the common” (1).

Continue reading the review

Call for Papers

Society for Student Philosophers Annual Conference
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
April 9-11, 2010

Conference Theme: Philosophy & Communication

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Larry A. Hickman
Department of Philosophy
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Dr. Gerard A. Hauser
Department of Communication
University of Colorado at Boulder

The Society for Student Philosophers (SSP) invites the submission of papers for possible presentation at its 2010 conference at the University of Texas at Austin. We are especially interested in papers that touch on some topic connected to our conference theme??Philosophy and Communication.? Many topics in philosophy and communication have relevance to those in the other field, for example, topics in ethics, new technologies, aesthetics, art, the public sphere, free speech, the philosophy of language, rhetoric, metaphor, persuasion, issues of social/political philosophy, etc. While submissions do not need to focus specifically on ?philosophy and communication,? papers that have some relevance for both fields are especially encouraged. Other papers will still be considered.

The goal of this event is to start dialogues between those in philosophy and communication studies. While no one paper needs to exhaust this conversation, we envision individual papers as speaking to issues in philosophy or communication that will spark discussion among the multiple disciplines represented in our audience. Feel free to contact Dr. Scott Stroud at the email below with any questions you may have concerning your submission to this event.

Authors must be of on-going graduate or undergraduate student status (in philosophy, communication, or any other discipline) and papers must not be published or accepted for publication. Papers previously
presented at SSP events are excluded from submission. Papers should be suitable for a 25 minute presentation. Leave identifying references to the author out of the submitted paper, but include author information (address, department, institution, etc.) in the text of your email.

Please send your completed paper by November 2, 2009 to Dr. Scott R. Stroud, SSP Director, at: ssp_conference@hotmail.com

More details on the SSP can be found at: http://www.societyforstudentphilosophers.org/

A pdf version of this call can be found at: http://www.societyforstudentphilosophers.org/images/SSPUTACFP10.pdf

THE EUROPEAN LEGACY: Volume 14, Issue 5 (2009)

We are pleased to announce the publication of the new (special topic) issue of “The European Legacy,” which is available online at:

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g914049653

Topic: Philosophy as Literature

Guest Editor: Costica Bradatan (The Honors College, Texas Tech University)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Articles:

“Introduction: Unorthodox Remarks on Philosophy as Literature”
By Costica Bradatan
Pages 513 – 518

“Of Poets and Thinkers: A Conversation on Philosophy, Literature and the Rebuilding of the World”
By Costica Bradatan; Simon Critchley; Giuseppe Mazzotta; Alexander Nehamas
Pages 519 – 534

“Hunting Plato’s Agalmata”
By Matthew Sharpe
Pages 535 – 547

“The Nexus of Unity of an Emerson Sentence”
By Kelly Dean Jolley
Pages 549 – 560

“The Concept of Writing, with Continual Reference to ‘Kierkegaard’”
By Mark Cortes Favis
Pages 561 – 572

“An Inhumanly Wise Shame”
By Brendan Moran
Pages 573 – 585

“Stanley Cavell and Two Pictures of the Voice”
By Adam Gonya
Pages 587 – 598

“Philosophy, Poetry, Parataxis”
By Jonathan Monroe
Pages 599 – 611

Review Essays:

“After the Abyss: Theory Lives On”
By Constance Eichenlaub
Pages 613 – 616

“Funny Masters”
By Sonia Arribas
Pages 617 – 620

“Ritual or Playful? On the Foundations of European Drama”
By Victor Castellani
Pages 621 – 631

Book Reviews:

Reviews by Nick Bentley; Ronald Bogue; Peter Burke; John Danvers; Christopher Irwin; Geoff Kemp; Martyn Lyons; David Malcolm; Gordon Marino; Amy L. Mclaughlin; Brian Nelson; Christian Roy; Paola S. Timiras; Eric White
Pages 633 – 646