Fordham Natural Law Colloquium
5:30-6:00 check in, 6:00-7:50 program
Location: Fordham Law School, Bateman 2-01B
Contact Michael Baur and Ben Zipursky for more information.
Contact John Drummond for more information.
Socrates’ close association of madness and philosophy from the Phaedrus’ Palinode has puzzled interpreters. How can philosophy be equated to irrationality? In this paper I argue against interpretations that either deny that the association of madness and philosophy ought to be taken seriously or downplay this association by considering madness as akin to the unreflective inspiration characterizing only the first stages of philosophizing but subsequently overcome by the mature philosopher. I show that the association of madness and philosophy is an integral part of Socrates’ polemics against what he calls “human moderation”, characterized by a cold calculation of costs and benefits. And, moreover, that madness is an ongoing feature of philosophy and of the philosopher, who is never fully in possession of all his rational and cognitive processes but has to constantly work on them in an effort of self-clarification.
External visitors must comply with the university’s guest policy as outlined here: https://www.newschool.edu/covid-19/campus-access/?open=visitors.
Audience members must show proof of a full COVID-19 vaccination series (and booster if eligible), ID, and remain masked at all times.
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/
Analyzing the Mexican case of collectives of women currently looking for their disappeared relatives due to an escalation of violence related to the so-called War against Drugs that former president Felipe Calderón (2006–2012) started, this essay develops a new conception of politics grounded not only on rational thought but also on affect. These collectives put forward a materialistic, feminist, and performative mode of politics. Publicly lamenting their losses and literally digging bodies out of Mexican land, these women perform and recover the citizenship that the Mexican state has de facto disavowed of them. I propose conceptualizing them as “bad victims” since their taking action does not take away their pain; rather, the public exposure of their lament actually turns them into political agents.
Bio:
Rosaura Martínez Ruiz is Full Professor of Philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a member of the National System of Researchers, level III. She was coordinator of the research projects “Philosophers after Freud” and “Philosophy and Psychoanalysis as Critical Borders of the Political.” She is the author of Freud y Derrida: escritura y psique (2013) and Eros: Más allá de la pulsión de muerte (2017). This last book has been translated into English and published by Fordham University Press (2021). She has coordinated several collective books and published articles on the intersection between psychoanalysis and philosophy and on the field of the psychopolitical. In 2017 she was awarded the Research Prize in Humanities by the Mexican Academy of Sciences; in 2019 she was a Fulbright Scholar; in 2021 she received the Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz UNAM recognition; and during the Fall 2023 she was the Tinker Visiting Professor at Columbia University. She is part of the advisory board of the “International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs” coordinated by Judith Butler.
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/
Th 1/25/24: Kate Manne
Th 2/1/24: Scott Shapiro
Th 2/8/24: Ekow Yankah
Th 2/15/24: Tommie Shelby
Th 2/22/24 Gideon Rosen
Th 2/29/24: Sabeel Rahman
Th 3/7/24: Amy Sepinwall
Th 3/14/24: Erik Encarnacion
Th 3/21/24: Seyla Benhabib
Th 4/4/24: Amalia Amaya
Th 4/11/24: Debbie Hellman
Th 4/18/24: Mala Chatterjee
Th 4/25/24: Liam Murphy
Contact Aditi Bagchi: https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/aditi-bagchi/