Reading the Foucault Collège de France Lectures with
Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Veena Das, François Ewald, Didier Fassin, James Faubion, Nancy Fraser, Frédéric Gros, Daniele Lorenzini, Nancy Luxon, Achille Mbembe, Paul Rabinow, Judith Revel, Pierre Rosanvallon, Ann Stoler, and Linda Zerilli
in conversation with Columbia University colleagues
Etienne Balibar, Partha Chatterjee, Jean Cohen, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Katherine Franke, Robert Gooding-Williams, Stathis Gourgouris, Axel Honneth, Jeremy Kessler, Lydia Liu, Anna Lvovsky, Sharon Marcus, Alondra Nelson, John Rajchman, Emmanuelle Saada, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Kendall Thomas, Adam Tooze, and Nadia Urbinati
Moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Race war, biopolitics, the hermeneutics of the self, governmentality, the examination of one’s conscience, sécurité, the courage of truth, illégalismes, juridical forms, governing through truth, the “punitive society,” truth-telling, judicial apparatuses of repression, the Nu-pieds rebellions of 1639, parrhesia … Michel Foucault’s thirteen years of lectures at the Collège de France introduced us to new concepts and novel research avenues. For many of us, those avenues have been fertile ground for our own theorization, for others fertile ground for critique. They represent, as Foucault intended, rich and productive “pistes de recherches.”
With the publication of the entire series of lectures at the Collège de France—the last, Théories et institutions pénales (1971-1972) just released in May 2015—it is now time to read them chronologically: to grasp the overall project of those lectures at the Collège, to discuss the full trajectory, and to continue to excavate our own “pistes de recherche” building on Foucault’s.
The Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought and the Columbia Society of Fellows, with the support of the Maison Française, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, are delighted to host 13 seminars on the 13 courses. The seminar series—Foucault 13/13—will extend over the full 2015-2016 academic year at Columbia University. The seminar series will be open to Columbia faculty, fellows, and students, as well as faculty and students from other New York universities.
Each seminar will be led by distinguished scholars from different disciplines. The seminars will take place on Monday evenings in the Fall semester (2015) and Thursday evenings in the Spring semester (2016) from 6:15pm to 8:45pm.
The seminars will be open to students and faculty from Columbia University and other New York universities (please bring university ID). Please RSVP at [list from Sundial, CU event listing place]. If you are interested in attending and would like a place reserved at the seminar table, please send an e-mail explaining your interest to Claire Merrill at cm3325@columbia.edu.
Event locations vary — please see event location for each seminar. The Columbia Maison Française is located on the Columbia campus in Buell Hall next to Low Library. The Heyman Center Common Room is located in the Heyman Center (in East Campus) on the second floor. The Hispanic Institute for Latin American and Iberian Cultures (Casa Hispanica) is located at 612 West 116th Street. A campus map of Columbia University is here.
Seminar Series Schedule: Foucault 13/13
Monday, September 14, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Lessons on the Will to Know (1970-1971)
James Faubion, Rice University
and Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota
Maison Française
***
Monday, September 28, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Penal Theories and Institutions (1971-1972)
Etienne Balibar, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre & Columbia University
and François Ewald, Series Editor of Foucault’s Collège de France Lectures
Casa Hispánica
***
Monday, October 12, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Punitive Society (1972-1973)
Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) & EHESS,
Axel Honneth, University of Frankfurt & Columbia University, and
Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, October 26, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Psychiatric Power (1973-1974)
Linda Zerilli, University of Chicago,
Anna Lvovsky, Columbia University, and
Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, November 16, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00pm
Abnormal (1974-1975)
Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University,
Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France, Paris, and
Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Monday, November 23, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
“Society must be defended” (1975-1976)
Ann Stoler, The New School,
Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, and
Robert Gooding-Williams, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, December 7, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978)
Seyla Benhabib, Yale University,
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University, and
Adam Tooze, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, January 28, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-1979)
Nancy Fraser, The New School
and Kendall Thomas, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, February 11, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of the Living (1979-1980)
Achille Mbembe, University of the Witwatersrand,
Daniele Lorenzini, Université Paris-Est Créteil, and
Jean Cohen, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, February 25, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Subjectivity and Truth (1980-1981)
Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley,
Katherine Franke, Columbia University, and
Stathis Gourgouris, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1981-1982)
Homi Bhabha, Harvard University,
Paul Rabinow, University of California Berkeley, and
Lydia Liu, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, March 31, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of Self and Others (1982-1983)
Judith Revel, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre,
Sharon Marcus, Columbia University, and
John Rajchman, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, April 14, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Courage of Truth (1983-1984)
Frederic Gros, Sciences Po,
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, and
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
Casa Hispánica
***
All sessions moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Reading the Foucault Collège de France Lectures with
Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Veena Das, François Ewald, Didier Fassin, James Faubion, Nancy Fraser, Frédéric Gros, Daniele Lorenzini, Nancy Luxon, Achille Mbembe, Paul Rabinow, Judith Revel, Pierre Rosanvallon, Ann Stoler, and Linda Zerilli
in conversation with Columbia University colleagues
Etienne Balibar, Partha Chatterjee, Jean Cohen, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Katherine Franke, Robert Gooding-Williams, Stathis Gourgouris, Axel Honneth, Jeremy Kessler, Lydia Liu, Anna Lvovsky, Sharon Marcus, Alondra Nelson, John Rajchman, Emmanuelle Saada, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Kendall Thomas, Adam Tooze, and Nadia Urbinati
Moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Race war, biopolitics, the hermeneutics of the self, governmentality, the examination of one’s conscience, sécurité, the courage of truth, illégalismes, juridical forms, governing through truth, the “punitive society,” truth-telling, judicial apparatuses of repression, the Nu-pieds rebellions of 1639, parrhesia … Michel Foucault’s thirteen years of lectures at the Collège de France introduced us to new concepts and novel research avenues. For many of us, those avenues have been fertile ground for our own theorization, for others fertile ground for critique. They represent, as Foucault intended, rich and productive “pistes de recherches.”
With the publication of the entire series of lectures at the Collège de France—the last, Théories et institutions pénales (1971-1972) just released in May 2015—it is now time to read them chronologically: to grasp the overall project of those lectures at the Collège, to discuss the full trajectory, and to continue to excavate our own “pistes de recherche” building on Foucault’s.
The Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought and the Columbia Society of Fellows, with the support of the Maison Française, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, are delighted to host 13 seminars on the 13 courses. The seminar series—Foucault 13/13—will extend over the full 2015-2016 academic year at Columbia University. The seminar series will be open to Columbia faculty, fellows, and students, as well as faculty and students from other New York universities.
Each seminar will be led by distinguished scholars from different disciplines. The seminars will take place on Monday evenings in the Fall semester (2015) and Thursday evenings in the Spring semester (2016) from 6:15pm to 8:45pm.
The seminars will be open to students and faculty from Columbia University and other New York universities (please bring university ID). Please RSVP at [list from Sundial, CU event listing place]. If you are interested in attending and would like a place reserved at the seminar table, please send an e-mail explaining your interest to Claire Merrill at cm3325@columbia.edu.
Event locations vary — please see event location for each seminar. The Columbia Maison Française is located on the Columbia campus in Buell Hall next to Low Library. The Heyman Center Common Room is located in the Heyman Center (in East Campus) on the second floor. The Hispanic Institute for Latin American and Iberian Cultures (Casa Hispanica) is located at 612 West 116th Street. A campus map of Columbia University is here.
Seminar Series Schedule: Foucault 13/13
Monday, September 14, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Lessons on the Will to Know (1970-1971)
James Faubion, Rice University
and Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota
Maison Française
***
Monday, September 28, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Penal Theories and Institutions (1971-1972)
Etienne Balibar, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre & Columbia University
and François Ewald, Series Editor of Foucault’s Collège de France Lectures
Casa Hispánica
***
Monday, October 12, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Punitive Society (1972-1973)
Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) & EHESS,
Axel Honneth, University of Frankfurt & Columbia University, and
Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, October 26, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Psychiatric Power (1973-1974)
Linda Zerilli, University of Chicago,
Anna Lvovsky, Columbia University, and
Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, November 16, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00pm
Abnormal (1974-1975)
Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University,
Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France, Paris, and
Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Monday, November 23, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
“Society must be defended” (1975-1976)
Ann Stoler, The New School,
Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, and
Robert Gooding-Williams, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, December 7, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978)
Seyla Benhabib, Yale University,
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University, and
Adam Tooze, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, January 28, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-1979)
Nancy Fraser, The New School
and Kendall Thomas, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, February 11, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of the Living (1979-1980)
Achille Mbembe, University of the Witwatersrand,
Daniele Lorenzini, Université Paris-Est Créteil, and
Jean Cohen, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, February 25, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Subjectivity and Truth (1980-1981)
Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley,
Katherine Franke, Columbia University, and
Stathis Gourgouris, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1981-1982)
Homi Bhabha, Harvard University,
Paul Rabinow, University of California Berkeley, and
Lydia Liu, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, March 31, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of Self and Others (1982-1983)
Judith Revel, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre,
Sharon Marcus, Columbia University, and
John Rajchman, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, April 14, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Courage of Truth (1983-1984)
Frederic Gros, Sciences Po,
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, and
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
Casa Hispánica
***
All sessions moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Seminar dedicated mostly to French existentialism (Jean-Paul Sartre) and post-structuralism (Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze).
There will be free wine, cheese, and plenty of intellectual pleasure
Reading the Foucault Collège de France Lectures with
Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Veena Das, François Ewald, Didier Fassin, James Faubion, Nancy Fraser, Frédéric Gros, Daniele Lorenzini, Nancy Luxon, Achille Mbembe, Paul Rabinow, Judith Revel, Pierre Rosanvallon, Ann Stoler, and Linda Zerilli
in conversation with Columbia University colleagues
Etienne Balibar, Partha Chatterjee, Jean Cohen, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Katherine Franke, Robert Gooding-Williams, Stathis Gourgouris, Axel Honneth, Jeremy Kessler, Lydia Liu, Anna Lvovsky, Sharon Marcus, Alondra Nelson, John Rajchman, Emmanuelle Saada, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Kendall Thomas, Adam Tooze, and Nadia Urbinati
Moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Race war, biopolitics, the hermeneutics of the self, governmentality, the examination of one’s conscience, sécurité, the courage of truth, illégalismes, juridical forms, governing through truth, the “punitive society,” truth-telling, judicial apparatuses of repression, the Nu-pieds rebellions of 1639, parrhesia … Michel Foucault’s thirteen years of lectures at the Collège de France introduced us to new concepts and novel research avenues. For many of us, those avenues have been fertile ground for our own theorization, for others fertile ground for critique. They represent, as Foucault intended, rich and productive “pistes de recherches.”
With the publication of the entire series of lectures at the Collège de France—the last, Théories et institutions pénales (1971-1972) just released in May 2015—it is now time to read them chronologically: to grasp the overall project of those lectures at the Collège, to discuss the full trajectory, and to continue to excavate our own “pistes de recherche” building on Foucault’s.
The Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought and the Columbia Society of Fellows, with the support of the Maison Française, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, are delighted to host 13 seminars on the 13 courses. The seminar series—Foucault 13/13—will extend over the full 2015-2016 academic year at Columbia University. The seminar series will be open to Columbia faculty, fellows, and students, as well as faculty and students from other New York universities.
Each seminar will be led by distinguished scholars from different disciplines. The seminars will take place on Monday evenings in the Fall semester (2015) and Thursday evenings in the Spring semester (2016) from 6:15pm to 8:45pm.
The seminars will be open to students and faculty from Columbia University and other New York universities (please bring university ID). Please RSVP at [list from Sundial, CU event listing place]. If you are interested in attending and would like a place reserved at the seminar table, please send an e-mail explaining your interest to Claire Merrill at cm3325@columbia.edu.
Event locations vary — please see event location for each seminar. The Columbia Maison Française is located on the Columbia campus in Buell Hall next to Low Library. The Heyman Center Common Room is located in the Heyman Center (in East Campus) on the second floor. The Hispanic Institute for Latin American and Iberian Cultures (Casa Hispanica) is located at 612 West 116th Street. A campus map of Columbia University is here.
Seminar Series Schedule: Foucault 13/13
Monday, September 14, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Lessons on the Will to Know (1970-1971)
James Faubion, Rice University
and Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota
Maison Française
***
Monday, September 28, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Penal Theories and Institutions (1971-1972)
Etienne Balibar, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre & Columbia University
and François Ewald, Series Editor of Foucault’s Collège de France Lectures
Casa Hispánica
***
Monday, October 12, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Punitive Society (1972-1973)
Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) & EHESS,
Axel Honneth, University of Frankfurt & Columbia University, and
Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, October 26, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Psychiatric Power (1973-1974)
Linda Zerilli, University of Chicago,
Anna Lvovsky, Columbia University, and
Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, November 16, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00pm
Abnormal (1974-1975)
Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University,
Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France, Paris, and
Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Monday, November 23, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
“Society must be defended” (1975-1976)
Ann Stoler, The New School,
Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, and
Robert Gooding-Williams, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Monday, December 7, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978)
Seyla Benhabib, Yale University,
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University, and
Adam Tooze, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, January 28, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-1979)
Nancy Fraser, The New School
and Kendall Thomas, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, February 11, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of the Living (1979-1980)
Achille Mbembe, University of the Witwatersrand,
Daniele Lorenzini, Université Paris-Est Créteil, and
Jean Cohen, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, February 25, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
Subjectivity and Truth (1980-1981)
Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley,
Katherine Franke, Columbia University, and
Stathis Gourgouris, Columbia University
Maison Française
***
Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1981-1982)
Homi Bhabha, Harvard University,
Paul Rabinow, University of California Berkeley, and
Lydia Liu, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, March 31, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Government of Self and Others (1982-1983)
Judith Revel, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre,
Sharon Marcus, Columbia University, and
John Rajchman, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
***
Thursday, April 14, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm
The Courage of Truth (1983-1984)
Frederic Gros, Sciences Po,
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, and
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
Casa Hispánica
***
All sessions moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
A panel discussion with Gayatri Spivak and invited guests
Event Location: Teatro, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies
This new release of Of Grammatology is a milestone in the history of an indispensable work of contemporary critical philosophy. In celebration, join us as we reflect on the importance of Jacques Derrida’s book with panelists:
Benjamin Conisbee Baer, Princeton University, Eduardo Cadava, Princeton University Mireille Calle-Gruber, Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, Avital Ronell, New York University, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
Featuring a performance by pianist and Columbia Scholar, Yohann Ripert.
Moderated by Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University.
No registration required. Seating is limited. First come, first seated.
Book Signing to Follow Event
Sponsored by: Barnard Center for Translation Studies, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia Global Centers, Department of Philosophy at Barnard, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Institute of African Studies, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Department of French and Romance Philology, Johns Hopkins Press, Maison Française, Office of the Dean of Humanities, and South Asia Institute.
The North American Society for Early Phenomenology
in conjunction with
The Max Scheler Society of North America
Presents
Feeling, Valuing, and Judging: Phenomenological Investigations in Axiology
May 19th-21st, 2016
St. John’s University – Manhattan Campus
Invited Speakers
- Anthony Steinbock (Southern Illinois University – Carbondale)
- John Drummond (Fordham University)
- James Dodd (New School for Social Research)
Call for Abstracts
Feelings, values, and judgements all played central roles in the philosophical writings of the early phenomenologists – from their discussions of formalism in ethics, to social ontology, the phenomenology of moods and emotions, and even the phenomenology of religion. Though heavily inspired by the work of Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler and the Munich phenomenologists conceived phenomenology as less a method and more an attitude, and developed their phenomenological investigations accordingly. With the phenomenological attitude, the meaning of the object of cognition is revealed. Doxic, volitional, and affective intentional attitudes gives rise to phenomenological descriptions of the world in terms of its meaning and value. Understood in this way, the early phenomenologists saw questions of value as arising alongside questions of ontology.
The theme of this conference will be phenomenological studies in axiology (ethics and aesthetics), and will look at the relationship of intuition, the emotions, and intersubjectivity to acts of feeling, valuing, and judging. Topics include phenomenological theories of valuation, the departure of later phenomenologists from Husserl’s and Brentano’s distinctions of types of mental phenomena, axiological properties of intentional objects, the self as a member of a community, sympathy and empathy, criteria for correct and incorrect value judgments, the difference between axiological and ontic characteristics and fact-value differentiation, axiology in universals and particulars, judgments of value and the role of implicit beliefs, phenomenological descriptions of striving, volition, emotions, moods, the beautiful and the sublime, etc. We encourage papers on the work of Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Theodor Lipps, Max Scheler, Alexander Pfänder, Moritz Geiger, Josef Geyser, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Siegfried Hamburger, Nicolai Hartmann, Waldemar Conrad, Aurel Kolnai, Roman Ingarden, Edith Stein, Emmanuel Levinas, Hans Reiner, and others. We are also interested in papers proposing original phenomenological descriptions of emotions, feelings, volition, and judgments that follow the phenomenological tradition, and build upon these historical antecedents in new and interesting ways.
Abstracts should be 500-700 words, and include a short bibliography of primary and secondary sources. All abstracts must be prepared for blind review and sent via email in .doc or .docx format to Dr. Rodney Parker at: (rodney.k.b.parker@gmail.com).
Both senior researchers and graduate students are encouraged to submit.
Deadline for submissions is: December 15, 2015.
—————————————–
http://philevents.org/event/show/18534
The Max Scheler Society of North America (MSSNA) invites members of the international community of scholars to participate in their biannual meeting, which will be held at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus. The 2016 meeting will take place in conjunction with the North American Society for Early Phenomenology (NASEP), with sessions from each society running concurrently.
Broadly conceived, the general theme of the meeting is the phenomenology of value or axiology. The MSSNA is particularly interested in papers examining Max Scheler’s contribution to the study of value and the relevance of his work to recent investigations. Papers examining the significance of value in Scheler’s thought are not restricted to his ethics and may concern any aspect of his work. For this meeting, the intent is to have a program that reflects the tremendous diversity of Scheler’s thought and relevance of value in human existence.
Participants will have approximately 35 minutes to present their work. Though completed papers are preferred, abstracts of at least 500 words in length will also be considered. Deadline for submission is December 15, 2015.
All submissions should be sent electronically to Dr. Zachary Davis (davisz@stjohns.edu). Because all submissions will be reviewed blindly by the selection committee, submissions should have a separate cover sheet with name and contact information. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by January 31.
This study explores the increasingly troubled relationship between humankind and the Earth, with the help of a simple example and a complicated interlocutor. The example is a pond, which, it turns out, is not so simple as it seems. The interlocutor is Jean-Paul Sartre, novelist, playwright, biographer, philosopher, and, despite his several disavowals, doyen of twentieth-century existentialism. Standing with the great humanist at the edge of the pond, the author examines contemporary experience in the light of several familiar conceptual pairs: nature and culture, fact and value, reality and imagination, human and nonhuman, society and ecology, Earth and world. The theoretical challenge is to reveal the critical complementarity and experiential unity of this family of ideas. The practical task is to discern the heuristic implications of this lived unity-in-diversity in these times of social and ecological crisis. Interdisciplinary in its aspirations, the study draws upon recent developments in biology and ecology, complexity science and systems theory, ecological and Marxist economics, and environmental history. Comprehensive in its engagement of Sartre’s oeuvre, the study builds upon his best-known existentialist writings, and also his critique of colonialism, voluminous ethical writings, early studies of the imaginary, and mature dialectical philosophy. In addition to overviews of Sartre’s distinctive inflections of phenomenology and dialectics and his unique theories of praxis and imagination, the study also articulates for the first time Sartre’s incipient philosophical ecology. In keeping with Sartre’s lifelong commitment to freedom and liberation, the study concludes with a programmatic look at the relative merits of pragmatist, prefigurative, and revolutionary activism within the burgeoning global struggle for social and ecological justice. We learn much by thinking with Sartre at the water’s edge: surprising lessons about our changing humanity and how we have come to where we are; timely lessons about the shifting relation between us and the broader community of life to which we belong; difficult lessons about our brutal degradation of the planetary system upon which life depends; and auspicious lessons, too, about a participatory path forward as we work to preserve a habitable planet and build a livable world for all earthlings.
Matthew C. Ally was supposed to be an ecologist. During the same semester in which he took a required course in “Temperate Forest Ecosystems,” he took an elective philosophy course called “Tyranny and Freedom.” The rest is history. He is professor of philosophy at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York and coordinator of the BMCC Sustainability Studies Project. He has published articles on Sartre’s philosophy, progressive and radical pedagogy, philosophical ecology, environmentalism, and sustainability.
The paper follows and elaborates on a line of argument in my book The Confucian Political Imagination, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan this summer. I do not address the main argument of the book, but sum up a line of thought that has gradually taken form since I began to read Confucian texts. I explain what I learned about reading Confucianism from my teacher Tu Weiming, and why I could not follow the philosophical turn in American Confucian studies. I point to the importance of reading in an emphatic sense, and argue that the philosophical approaches to Confucian texts often leads to an impoverished reading of these texts. Then I provide my own suggestions towards a definition Confucian discourse. I briefly point to the historical reasons Confucian discourse is not philosophy, and finally I ask if all this really matters.
THE COLUMBIA SOCIETY FOR COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Welcomes:
Eske Møllgaard (University of Rhode Island)
With a response from:
Andrew Lambert (College of Staten Island, CUNY)
Manuel DeLanda (NYC); Philosopher; Pratt GAUD Adjunct Professor
Graham Harman (LA); Philosopher; Distinguished Professor of Philosophy SCI-Arc
New Architectural Contexts