Filed under: Call for Papers, Cinema, Leads, Media, Philosophy, Publications
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Philosophy of J. J. Abrams
Edited by Patricia Brace and Robert Arp
University Press of Kentucky’s The Philosophy of Popular Culture
Series: http://www.kentuckypress.com/newsite/pages/series/series_philosophy.html
Abrams’ filmography from the Internet Movie Database can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009190/
Please send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu, by January 1, 2010: (1) A short, no more than 100 word abstract of a chapter you would like to write for the book. In the abstract, you could simply say something like, “In this paper I will argue X. First, I will do A… Then, I will do B… Finally, I will do C…”(2) A short CV that has your
contact info (email, phone), affiliation, and a few publications, if you have any. Again, send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu, by January 1, 2010
Here are possible topics, but any related topic will be considered:
LOGIC
• The Logic Daniel Faraday Utilizes to understand the Island
• Fallacious Reasoning Utilized by Abrams’ Characters
• Feminist Logic Utilized by Abrams’ Characters
METAPHYSICS
• Eastern Philosophical Themes in Abrams’ Work
• The Place of God in Abrams’ Work
• Lost, Inadvertent Actions, and Fate/Determinism
• Lost and Time Travel
• Alias, Personal Identity, and Identity over Time
• Benjamin on Lost and the Distinction between Psychopathology and a Healthy Personality
• Fringe and the Definition of Conscious States
• Felicity and Philosophies of Love and Friendship
• Catharsis in the Human Psyche and Abrams’ Characters
• Cloverfield, First-Person Perspectives, and the Nature of Consciousness
• Cloverfield and the Conditions and Criteria for Living Things
EPISTEMOLOGY
• Lost and the Nature of Deception
• The Belief Systems of Paranoid People
• There are Two Spocks: Perceiver and Perception in Abrams’ Works
• Conflicting Testimony and Justification for Claims in Abrams’ Works
• Sydney Bristow, Alias, Sense, and Reference
• Locke’s Empiricism and the Island as Tabula Rasa on Lost
ETHICS
• Sayid and the Ethics of Torture on Lost
• Felicity, Virtue Ethics, and Parental Role Models
• Sawyer, Juliet, Kate and Jack: Free Love, and the Ethics of Sex on Lost
• Fringe and “If Science Can Do It, Then Science Ought To Do It”
• Jacob and the Idea that Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
• Why Daniel Faraday had to Die: Utilitarian Reasons for Maintaining
the Fabric of Time
• Utilitarian vs. Deontological Approaches in Abrams’ Work
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
• Film as an Essential Medium for Public Discussion
• Sydney Bristow and the Public’s Obsession with Superheroes
• Massive Dynamics and the Nature of Law on Fringe
• The Nature of Justice in Abram’s Star Trek
• Different Types of Freedom Espoused by Abrams’ Characters
What is the appropriate way to do philosophy? Historically, the form of philosophy has varied; Plato preferred the dialogue, Nietzsche the aphorism, Kierkegaard the parable. In the 20th century many philosophers pronounced a proper way to do philosophy. The logical positivists wanted to do away with metaphysics and held science as the ideal model for philosophy. Wittgenstein relied heavily upon examples. Heidegger proposed the dissolution of the tradition in order to start enquiry afresh. Foucault’s relation to the label ‘philosophy’ was, of his own admission, ambiguous. Derrida questioned the exclusivity of philosophical language. Today philosophers such as Cavell and Mulhall do philosophy in film, while others hold that logical analysis is still indispensible to philosophy. Is there a correct way to do philosophy? Does philosophy have one language? How important is the relation of form and content for philosophy? Should the fusion of philosophy and other disciplines be resisted? These are questions that receive radically different answers from different traditions and different philosophers.
The 12th International Graduate Conference in Philosophy at the University of Essex, to be held 9 May 2009, invites abstracts on any issue relevant to questions on the language of philosophy, philosophical method and the forms philosophy can take. Possible topics include:
- Problem-solving by dialogue in Plato
- Philosophy through reflection and action
- Is there a proper medium for philosophy?
- The role of logic and rigour in philosophical analysis
- Must philosophy be primarily ethics?
- Should a philosophical ‘point’ be explicit?
- Kierkegaard’s reaction to Hegel’s system
- Philosophy as… (film, literature, music…)
- Heidegger and the circularity of philosophy
- Wittgenstein and beginning in the middle
- Derrida and the distinction between literature and philosophy
- Cavell and teaching philosophy
We aim to hold a wide-ranging philosophical exchange and hope for a broad display of positions and perspectives. We invite papers that explore the diverse ways in which philosophy manifests itself;
conversely, we encourage papers that have a clear view about what the proper philosophical medium is. In short, we hope for a day of productive discussion of a contentious issue for philosophy.
Keynote speakers:
Daniel P. Watts (University of Essex)
Marie McGinn (University of East Anglia)
Final papers should be suitable for a 20-minute presentation (2000-2500 words in length), which will be followed by a discussion. The Department of Philosophy will be able to offer invited speakers limited financial assistance towards the cost of travel. For enquiries, please e-mail Matt at pygradc@essex.ac.uk, or see the website.
Abstracts of 500 words in length should be sent by Monday 19 January 2009 to pygradc@essex.ac.uk or in duplicate by post to:
Graduate Conference 2009
Department of Philosophy
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
First Graduate Conference in Frankfurt am Main, 19.-21 March 2009
Whether or not “critical theory” constitutes a well-defined, easily identifiable and self-contained school of thought has been a matter of debate. For the organizers of this conference, given the plurality of theoretical projects that consider themselves in the tradition of the “Frankfurt School,” critical thinking cannot be reduced to one academic ‘camp’ in any meaningful way. Rather than representing one coherent philosophical paradigm, ‘critical theory’ embodies a diverse set of practices of radical questioning exercised in various discourses including that of arts, social and political sciences as well as radical political debate. Moreover critical theory is a highly self-reflexive process. Thus, rather than being a sign of crisis or lack of orientation, the increasing number of publications about the meaning and significance of “critique” and “critical theory” in recent years point to a vibrant and diverse intellectual community constituted around similar theoretical and political commitments. The existence of different theoretical positions and disagreements within that community can be best interpreted as an invitation to reconsider one’s own stance in relation to other ways of critical thinking and to reflect on common grounds.
“The Future(s) of Critical Theory” Graduate Conference in Frankfurt aims to serve as a forum for this ongoing debate. We invite PhD students and postdocs from the humanities and the social sciences to discuss their work in relation to the challenges posed by the current debates on the status of critical theory today. Critical theory proves itself only in relation to its concrete object of investigation. We are therefore equally looking forward to the presentation of empirical research as to theoretical reflections.
Contributions may include – but need not be limited to – the following themes:
- What is Critique? What makes critical theories critical? How critical is Critical Theory?
- C/critical Theory(ies): 1,2,3…many Generations of critical theory(ies); Critical Theory and Post/structuralism; Critique, Genealogy, Deconstruction; Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche; Postcolonial Studies, Feminism, queer.
- Methodologies of critique: Theory and Practice; Philosophy and Sociology; Knowledge and Human Interest; Militant Investigation, Collective Theorization.
- Critique and the Good Life: Desire, Love, Intimacy, Affect, ‘The Private’ and of course Friendship.
- Critical Theory, The Political and Politics: Democracies, Socialisms, Liberalisms; Power and/or Domination; Law, State, Police and Sovereignty.
- Theorizing Capitalism: (Ir)rationality, Alienation and Reification; Old and New Spirit of Capitalism; Redistribution or Expropriation; Reform or Revolution.
- Cultures of Critique: Sub-, Pop- and Mainstream- Culture (industries); Media and Cultural Studies; Hegemony and Discourse; Narratology, Semiotics and Rhetoric.
Submission Information
Please submit abstracts of a maximum of 300 words to the following e-mail address: info@graduateconferencefrankfurt.de. We accept proposals until the 31. November 2008. Languages of the conference will be German and English, abstracts can be submitted in either language. Papers presented at the conference should not exceed the duration of twenty minutes and will be followed by a brief discussion.
Papers will be selected through a blind review process therefore please do not mark your name or other indications of the author on abstracts and make sure to clearly state the title of your proposal in the email.
Candidates will be informed by January 1st whether their paper has been accepted for presentation.
The publication of a selection of conference papers is intended.
Keynote speakers
Keynote speakers are Bonnie Honig (Chicago), Axel Honneth (Frankfurt) and Emmanuel Renault (Paris/Lyon).
Contact
For further information see www.graduateconferencefrankfurt.de.
We are looking for scholarly philosophical essays written for a lay audience to be included in Doctor Who and Philosophy, to be published by Open Court Press. This is an opportunity for you to express your philosophical musings about your favorite Time Lord and popularize philosophy at the same time.
All papers that focus on some philosophical aspect of either the classic or recent Doctor Who will be considered, but papers on the following topics will be given special consideration. Such topics include:
· The metaphysics of Doctor Who
· The ethics and moral dilemmas of Doctor Who
· The science of Doctor Who
· Doctor Who, human nature, and spirituality
· Conflict and conflict resolution in Doctor Who
Deadline for receipt of essays is November 15, 2008
Interested parties should contact one of the individuals listed below for a detailed set of guidelines. As a rough guide: essays should be 12-15 pages typed, double-spaced, properly referenced, and should have a separate title page with author information to help facilitate the blind review process. Please send essays via email or hardcopy to both:
Dr. Paul Smithka
Paula.Smithka@usm.edu
Court Lewis
dlewis14@utk.edu
Aurora invites graduate students to submit papers in any area of philosophy for publication. The length of the submissions should range between 4000 and 6000 words.
The aim of the journal is to publish the highest quality papers by philosophers starting their career. Hence submisisons should both be clearly written and present and maintain a defined thesis.
Submissions should be accompanied by a 150-word abstract and a set of keyword describing the topic(s) of the paper. Submissions should be prepared for blind review: please ensure that there are no self-identifying references in the text. Either .doc or .rtf files will be accepted. Please make all citations in-text and limit the number of footnotes.
For more information, and instructions on how to submit a paper, please go the the journal’s website at: http://aurora.gc.cuny.edu/
Jacob Berger
C.A. Evans
Thomas Ferguson
Myrto Mylopoulos
Tudor Protopopescu
Monique Whitaker
The Editors, Aurora
Department of Philosophy
The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY, 10016
http://aurora.gc.cuny.edu/
Call for Papers for the 4th Annual Joint Conference of the Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy at University College Dublin, Ireland, 29-31 August, 2008.
The SEP-FEP Joint Conference offers faculty and graduate students the opportunity to present papers in any area of European Philosophy. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted by 30th May 2008 to Juliana Cardinale, either in electronic form to J.Cardinale@lse.ac.uk or by mail to:
Forum for European Philosophy
Room J5, European Institute
Cowdray House, Portugal Street
London School of Economics, London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
In addition to proposals for individual papers (as above) proposals for themed panels of (up to) four speakers on any area of European Philosophy are also invited. If you would like to organise a themed panel please contact Brian O’Connor before 18th April, 2008 at brian.oconnor@ucd.ie.
The conference keynote speakers are:
Françoise Dastur (Nice)
Alessandro Ferrara (Rome)
Jean Luc Marion (Paris IV/Chicago)
Michael Rosen (Harvard).
There are also two open plenary sessions: The Possibilities of Critical Theory, Maeve Cooke (UCD) and The Future of Phenomenology, Dermot Moran (UCD).
UCD, Philosophy Conference 2008
Perspectives on Intercorporeality and Insubjectivity Conference,
Dublin, June 6/7 2008
We invite the submission of abstracts on the theme of intercorporeality and intersubjectivity from postgraduate students and professional philosophers working in philosophy and other relevant disciplines.
Abstracts should be no longer than 350 words. Speakers will have approximately 30 minutes in which to deliver their papers.
E-mail abstracts to iiconference@ucd.ie
Website: http://www.ucd.ie/philosophy/iiconference/
Submission deadline: March 15th, 2008
Organisers: Luna Dolezal, Connell Vaughan, Sheena Hyland
Annual conference July 11-13 2008
The Conference calls for papers from all areas in the arts and humanities, the natural and social sciences. It invites participants from both within and outside critical realism who are interested to explore critical realist philosophy, method and practice, encouraging a broad focus on the nature and grounds of critique.
We live in a world of deep conflict, rapid change and flux, in which the problems facing human being and the natural world have never been greater. Challenges posed by techno-scientific fixes to the problems of nature and human nature; by the re-emergence of imperialist conflicts in the name of neo-liberal economics and politics; and by the re-assertion of the division between the secular and the spiritual as the form of modernity and the basis for taking sides in conflict: all provide ample grounds for critique. They also raise the crucial question: what are the grounds of critique at a time when, it is said, critical thinking has lost its way.
Questions of critique are central to critical realism. Whether it be immanent critique throughout its development, explanatory and emancipatory critique in its second phase, dialectical and meta-critique in its third, or the most recent assertion of the meta-real, critical realists have sought to be critical about critique. From these different standpoints, they have drawn on or built bridges to theorists as diverse as Plato and Aristotle, Hegel and Marx, Adorno, Habermas and Derrida. So broad a palette requires reflexivity: how do the different forms of critique relate to each other, what are their limits, how are they critically assessed? What is specific to critical realist critiques? How are critiques rooted in the western tradition assessed in the light of those from elsewhere in the world? How does critical realism deal with the ‘end of critique’? How does it shed light on problems of interdisciplinarity? How does it make emancipation possible?
Such questions lead us more concretely to ways of doing critique. What are our critical methods? How does critique inform normative theory and argument? How do we ‘do critique’ in relation to both the social and natural sciences and the world? How does it inform political activism and movements for emancipation, or policy formation and outcomes? How is critical realism ‘applied’, i.e., how does it engage with particular fields or objects, or establish research exemplars and examples? How does it approach, negotiate, challenge and overcome disciplinary boundaries?
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/law/events/iacr/
The deadline for receiving abstracts for papers is Friday 7 March 2008.
Saturday 7 June 2008
Avenue CampusUniversity of Southampton,
Southampton, UK
Keynote speaker: Stephen Mulhall (University of Oxford), ‘The Meaning of the Question of Being: Wittgenstein and Heidegger Converse’
The University of Southampton’s annual one-day Graduate Conference in Philosophy will this year be devoted to issues in and arising from German-speaking philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Academic staff and research students at Southampton have active interests in Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and Arendt. We welcome equally contributions on any philosophers and themes that fall within the scope of the conference title. Papers are invited from graduate students, and we are hoping to attract a wide external audience.Deadline for submission of papers: 4 May 2008
Papers should be not more that 3,000 words in length, suitable for a 20 minute presentation followed by discussion. Please submit papers to Professor Christopher Janaway at the address below, or preferably by email to: cjanaway@soton.ac.ukFor other inquiries and registration, please contact Adam Dunn or Dan Clifford.Philosophy, School of Humanities, Avenue Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK
Theme Issue for Angelaki: journal of theoretical humanities
Edited by:Frida Beckman – The University of Uppsala
Charlie Blake – Liverpool Hope University
Proposed publication date: April 2009
This collection intends to address recent and contemporary reconfigurations of Sadism and Masochismin philosophical, literary and image-based expressions of identity. How can theoretical approaches to Sadismand Masochism assist our understanding of technologiesof self and other today? What are the philosophical,political and creative implications of these‘perversions’ in contemporary discourse, culture and media?In the second thesis of Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer famously argue that the illumination and liberation signalled by the Kantian enlightenment will inevitably decay into the inhumangeometry of the Sadeian enlightenment. This is a realm in which any conventional notion of the “good” is either utterly corrupted or divorced from all rational ends and replaced by the exponentially conceived pursuit of pleasure, pain and depravity.
While there are certainly innumerable recent instances that wouldseem to indicate that this may indeed be the case inthe institutional and political arena, (as, forexample, the distinctly Sadean tableau of the human pyramids of Abu Ghraib), in the private and cultural arenas, the configurations of power and desire that make up human identity are more complex and ambivalent in their response to the violence of rationality. This is an ambivalence that characterizes the Sadean and Masochean spectrum, from individual proclivities and the subcultures of BDSM that have formed around them,on the one hand, to its broader expression and interrogation in art, film and fiction, on the other; an ambivalence whose consequences are further accentuated when viewed through and against the capacity of digital media systems and networks to infinitely duplicate and transform images and identities through repetition.From this observation, and following Gilles Deleuze’s distinction in Coldness and Cruelty between the Sadean obsession with cruelty as institutionalized possession and the Masochean deployment of cruelty as a contracted alliance, it becomes possible to revisitand reassess both the politics and the cultural obsession with violence, cruelty and sexuality inrecent and contemporary philosophy, literary fictions, art and film, as a spectrum of possibilities rather than as a logic of imposition.
Abstracts are, therefore, invited that will explore these themes in philosophy, politics, literature, art and film. Although some papers will inevitably traverse these thematic domains, the editorial design will delineate three main sections, dealing respectively, though in no way exclusively, with“Humiliating Reason: Philosophy & Perversity”, “TheCorrupted Text”, and “The Depraved Image”. We areparticularly interested in submissions that consider the implications of the discourses of Sadism/Masochismfor the contemporary theory and practice of self.
Abstracts should be submitted in electronic format byFebruary 29, 2008, to the editors:Frida Beckman and Charlie Blake. The editors will respond to abstracts within a month.
If accepted, completed papers should be with the issueeditors no later than September 7, 2008. Length:5000–10,000 words. Papers will then be circulated to external referees and depending on their feedback, papers will be amended or accepted by the deadline of December 1, 2008. Queries on this special issue may be addressed to the issue editors. Work accepted for development in this special issue must conform to theModern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (www.mla.org). Manuscripts should be original in content and not published, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts are not returned.
Angelaki: journal of the theoretical humanitieshttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/0969725x.html
“Human Rights”
Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual Journal
Volume 9, Number 2 (June 2008)
Human rights have become the dominant framework by which the contemporary world morally evaluates particular laws and nation-states in terms of providing the social, political, and economic conditions required for an individual to be able to lead a good life. However, there are numerous practical, substantive, and theoretical issues related to human rights which are philosophically controversial. Essays in Philosophy invites submissions for an issue dedicated to the philosophy of human rights.
Example topics include:
- The Nature and Scope of Human Rights: What should be included within the category of “human rights”? Should it include such things as education, national self-determination, indigenous rights, or the right to a clean environment? How do we proceed in situations where human rights conflict? Are all human rights equal, or can they be ordered in a hierarchy?
- Implementation and Enforcement of Human Rights: What means are international organizations or particular countries justified in using to promote adoption of, and adherence to, human rights standards? How do we determine when, if ever, intervention in the operation of a sovereign state is justified to protect human rights?
- Justification / Criticism of Human Rights: On what basis are human rights justified: equality, autonomy, human dignity, fundamental human interests…? To what extent do contemporary doctrines of human rights depend on notions of human nature and human interests which are culturally contingent or biased? If different cultures – such as liberal and communitarian cultures, or Western and Eastern cultures – have differing views on what constitutes human nature, identity, or essential human interests, then what implications does this have for the project of negotiating, defining, justifying, and implementing “Universal Human Rights”?
Submission deadline: 1 March 2008
Editor: David Heise, Humboldt State University
All submissions should be sent to the General Editor via
email: mfg1@humboldt.edu
Contact:
Michael F. Goodman, General Editor
Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual Journal
The Department of Philosophy
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA
USA
Email: mfg1@humboldt.edu
Web: http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/
I reckon this one might be worth a punt!
The Blackwell Philosophy and PopCulture Series
David Kyle Johnson, Editor davidjohnson@kings.edu
William Irwin, General Editor 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:
- Do We All Have a Destiny? Peter Petrelli, Sylar, Freewill and Fate
- “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.” (Is the past changeable? Is the future “written in stone”?)
- Painting the Future. (If Isaac can paint the future, can we be free?)
- Can Hiro Really Travel in Space? (Is teleportation philosophically possible?)
- Can Hiro really Travel in Time? (Is time travel philosophically possible?)
- Heroes Time Travel (Is the story consistent?)
- Physics and Philosophy: The Physical Possibility of Super Powers
- Matt Parkman, Mind Reading and the Problem of Other Minds
- Sanjog and the Philosophical Possibility of Dream Manipulation
- Are Niki and Jessica the Same Person? (Personal identity)
- Is Niki’s “Power” a Power at All? (Multiple personalities)
- Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind and the Art of Watch Repair; Seeing How Things Work and How Sylar Acquires His Powers
- Hana Gitelman: Personal Identity and Artificial Intelligence (See Comic # 33 & 34 “The Death of Hana Gitelman”)
- Peter Petrelli, The Haitian and the Philosophical Implications of Memory Loss. (What role does memory play in identity?)
- What is evil? Sylar, Linderman and Working for the Greater Good.
- Freedom vs. Security in a Futuristic Post Nuclear Holocaust: Restricting Liberty to Protect the Public
- Sylar’s “Evolutionary Imperative” and the Ethics of Evolution (Does evolution leave room for morals? Did our moral sense evolve? Is it ethically acceptable to interfere in evolution (to progress or hinder it by genetic engineering)?)
- Stealing Swords and Saving the World; The Appropriate Use of Powers (Hiro cheating Vegas, Jessica stealing tuition money, Linderman torturing with healing powers (see Comic 24-29 “War Buddies.”))
- The Ring of Gyges and the Hero’s Duty; Does the Ability to Do Good Create an Obligation to do Good?
- Nietzsche’s Will to Power and the “Superman” of Heroes
- Working for The Company; Ethical Obligations and Following Orders.
- Is Love all that Matters? The Meaning of Life and Finding Kindred Spirits.
- The Drive to be Special: Who’s to Blame—Sylar or his Mother?
- “Activating Evolution”; Science, Pseudoscience and Scientific Progress (Telling the geniuses from the cranks?)
- Can the Simplest of Questions Ever be Answered? (Why are we here? What is the Soul? Why do we dream?)
- The Power of Persuasion (Eden McCain)
- Voting to Include Characters? Communitarian Involvement in Fetish TV Shows.
- Plagiarism and Heroes. Isn’t this just X-men?
Contributor guidelines:
1. Abstract of paper (100-500 words).
2. CV or resume for each author and co-author.
3. Submission deadline for abstracts: Dec 10, 2007
4. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers (tentative): April 1, 2008
5. Submission deadline for final papers June 1, 2008
6. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail, with or without Word attachment.
Send by e-mail to:
David Kyle Johnson davidjohnson@kings.edu
The 10th International Conference of the Spinoza-Society, held at the Philipps University of Marburg, Sept. 26-26th 2008
Keynote Speakers:
Dieter Birnbacher (Düsseldorf), Andrea Esser (Marburg), Alan Gabbey (Columbia University), Petra Gehring (Darmstadt), Barbara Merker (Frankfurt), Ursula Renz (ETH Zürich), Winfried Schröder (Marburg), Robert Spaemann (Stuttgart), Rudolf Stichweh (Luzern), Lutz Wingert (ETH Zürich)
Call for papers for the following panels:
- Reception of Spinozistic conceptions of nature
- Nature and history
- Nature and Mind
- Nature and Lawlikeness
- Nature and Religion
Please send abstract (German or English) under the heading of the section the paper should presented by March 31th 2008 to hampe@phil.gess.ethz.ch
Awarded Essay: How much of Man is natural?
Responses to this question can be submitted till May 15th 2008. Enclose a CV on one page to renz@phil.gess.ethz.ch. Contributors should be under 35 at December 12th 2008 and not yet hold a professorship. Prize: 1000 Euro. The elected essay will be presented on the conference and be published.
PD Dr. Ursula Renz
Wissenschaftliche Assistentin
Professur für Philosophie
ETH Zentrum
Rämistr. 36
CH – 8092 Zürich
On the 7th and 8th of December 2007 the Department of Philosophy at Free University Berlin will host its second International Graduate Conference in Philosophy. This year´s conference addresses the recent comeback of concepts such as substance, presence and reality in and outside the Humanities as well as the crisis of poststructuralism that accompanies it.
Beyond Signification. The Return of Reality and the Crisis of Poststructuralism
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jgs/
Today a growing number of people in the Humanities suggest that the times of poststructuralism have come to an end. According to them we concentrated on symbols, signs and discourse for far too long. Did we not thereby forget the reality of things? How do we account for the materiality of media, experiments, and writing? What happened to reality, substantiality and presence? This conference aims at discussing contemporary criticism of poststructuralism, its historical conditions, its impact on the present, and its implications for the future. Does poststructuralism really fail to acknowledge reality? How do we evaluate the emerging new theories that challenge poststructuralism? We would like to suggest three main areas for discussion:
1. How important are concepts like “reality” and “materiality” for contemporary debates in the Humanities? On the one hand there is increasing demand for the rehabilitation of a non-discursive reality; on the other hand there is a growing scepticism towards ideas such as the worldmaking power of discourse or the “free play of the signifyer”. In recent years this led to the development of new versions of cultural materialism. How do these conceive of culture and reality, of man and the world? What are their advantages and disadvantages and how big is their impact on the humanies? Do we witness a lasting turn from poststructuralism to cultural materialism, from symbol to substance?
2. Is the return of the real limited to academia or is it part of a more general shift that affects social and politial life as a whole? Outside of university, various discourses emphasise the constraints of reality. Consider the threat of global climate change and the diagnosis of a new age of vulnerability after 9/11. Can we identify a turn to materiality in such fields as politics, society, arts, and science? Are we faced with a paradigm shift?
3. Is it true that French Theory neglects materiality, and if so, why? Critics accuse poststructuralism of having forgotten or repressed the importance of reality and of having discredited thinking and writing about it. Others claim that these theories propose extraordinarily subtle ways of conceptualizing reality which are more adequate for an understanding of the complexities of the present. We would like to discuss various poststructuralist accounts of reality and we would like to speculate on the future of Derrida, Lyotard and Deleuze. Will they play a role in the debates to come? And what role could that be?
We invite graduate students and young researchers from all faculties to submit proposals for a 30-minute presentation. Presentations can be given in English or German; at least a passive knowledge of German is recommended. Free accomodation will be provided. Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words, accompanied by some biographical information to Johannes-Georg Schülein or Jan Wöpking
Deadline for abstracts: 30th August 2007
