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Announcement Theme: African Political Philosophies Type: Summer School 2022 Institution: Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy (MSCP) Location: Online Date: 14.1.–11.2.2022 Deadline: Ongoing __________________________________________________ The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy is proud to present the Summer School 2022 curriculum. The course is 10 hours in length and will be taught via Zoom. Video recordings will also be available within a few days after each seminar for those who can't make the schedule. Readings are made available online before the school begins. Links to the Zoom classroom are sent out with the registration email. Starts: Fri 5:00-7:00pm 14 Jan Full Schedule: Jan 14, 21, 28, Feb 4, 11 "African Political Philosophies" Lecturer: Peter Gratton The study of political philosophy worldwide is not just dominated by a few Western figures, but is also guided by concerns often seen as abstract and of little relevance to developments in Africa and elsewhere. This short course looks to provide an introduction to African political philosophy in the post-colonial context. African Philosophy as a self-demarcated field is only decades old—though the African archive of thought is perhaps older than any—and was formed in the heady days of widespread national liberation, sustained itself during the most difficult periods of neocolonialism and fraternal violence, and today offers promising lines of inquiry that could reshape the whole of philosophy in the future. Political philosophy from out of Africa mirrors this historical context, forging works that attempt to follow the difficult trajectory from traumatic memory to political and communal hope. Most work on Africa tends to focus on viewing its communities as all-but-passive recipients of movements and forces arriving from the West: the horrors of slavery, colonialism, and racism; the Manichaean Cold War-era bifurcation of the continent in a wider war over the fate of communism; the blank slate onto which Western neoliberal dreams of triumphant capitalism can be realized; etc. The goal, ultimately, is to arrive at the end of the course better able to show how, with the provincialization of Europe, Africa’s political philosophers see the future as anchored by Africa as a true subject of world history. The syllabus of readings below focus on those writers in dialogue with Continental thinkers, all to allow a more fruitful discussion of how these philosophers recognize specific African differences in thinking and political existence. Each class begins with a pre-written lecture shared via the screen, with plenty of pauses when needed for questions and comments. We then proceed by using the reminder of the time as a seminar engaged in the questions raised by the readings: Lectures 1-2: This class takes up the physical and epistemic violence of colonialism with readings that also offer wider lessons about the legitimization of violence within politics and the modes of resistance necessary in the wake of psychic colonialism and self-Other misrecognition. Lectures 3-4: At the heart of African ontologies are critiques of Western atomized conceptions of individuality and the politics and ethics that follows from it. In these classes, we read about a supposed African communalism that grounds many political discussions. This will lead us into questions about whether such a communalism can be found in pre-colonial archives; whether such a communalism is inherently reactionary and conservative, i.e., traditionalist; and how contemporary thinkers have posited such a communalism without lapsing into forms of essentialism. Lecture 5: In this class, we chart, by way of Achille Mbembe, the various paths to thinking Afropolitanism, which argues that the future of the world is to be found in lived everyday experiences found in the arts, music, philosophies, and communities of Africa. This will mean reviewing previous ways of depicting Africa in the pan-Africanist and Negritude movements. Of note will be Mbembe’s concern that if the world is to become “black,” it must avoid the horrors of globalizing the horrors of commodifying the human being found in African enslavement. If you have any questions which aren't in our FAQs please email: [email protected] Full details and enrolment are available on the website: https://mscp.org.au/courses/summer-school-2022 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
