[SydPhil] FW: Hannah Arendt master class October 13 - see attachment
The Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy at the University of Western Sydney invites you to a Master Class with Peg Birmingham (Philosophy, De Paul University) on Hannah Arendt and the Question of History in Politics: the first draft of The Human Condition Wednesday October 13, 2-4 pm Room 1.1.114, UWS-Bankstown Campus Peg Birmingham's synopsis for the class: In the forward to Fragwurdige Traditionsbestande im Politischen Denken der Gegenwart, (roughly translated: The Questionable Remains of Tradition in Political Thought of the Present) Hannah Arendt states that these essays, written in the years 1953-1956 and published in 1957,* are unified around a reflection on the modern break in tradition and the subsequent attempt in the modern age to replace tradition with a concept of history. At the same time, and as the title suggests, these essays reflect on what remains of the tradition in our current political thought, a thought that is at once marked by the collapse of tradition even as it is still haunted by it. In other words, for Arendt, the breakdown in tradition does not necessarily mean that traditional concepts have lost their hold on the present age, but instead, these concepts now have a tyrannical claim on our thinking which springs from our no longer having any sense of the origin and original vitality of these concepts. In a gesture very similar to Heidegger's at the outset of Sein und Zeit, Arendt suggests that the aim of these essays is not merely critique, but at the same time, an attempt to discover the source of traditional concepts in order to renew their original sense which would in turn open new possibilities for political thought today. Insofar as these essays take up most of the themes in The Human Condition, it is my claim that together they form the first draft of The Human Condition. As a first draft, they shed important illumination not only on the central concepts of The Human Condition, specifically, the concepts of action, natality, and the public space, but also the general direction of Arendt's political thought after the writing of The Origins of Totalitarianism. Preparation for the class: Read the essays Tradition and the Modern Age, The Concept of History, and What is Authority which comprise part of the volume, Between Past and Future (*English translations) and also The Human Condition (specifically the Prologue and Chapter 6). Peg Birmingham is the author of Hannah Arendt and Human Rights: the predicament of common responsibility (Indiana 2006). She has been publishing essays on Hannah Arendt in a number of recent collections including A Lying World Order: Political Deception and the Threat of Totalitarianism in R. Berkowitz, J. Katz and T. Keenan Thinking in Dark Times; Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics (Fordham UP, 2010). Rsvp: Chris Tobin CCPP - c.to...@uws.edu.au ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 950 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Dimitris Vardoulakis on Hobbes and Hamlet
The Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney is pleased to present Dimitris Vardoulakis on Shakespeare as a Critic of Hobbes Friday 3 September 11.00am-12.30pm Bankstown Building 1.1.114 via the Henry Lawson Drive exit of the M5 In this presentation, I propose to read Hamlet as propounding a critique of Hobbes' position about sovereignty. Even though the Leviathan was written half a century after Hamlet, still both works present parallel descriptions of the subject as the figure that is subjected both to the law of the sovereign and the law of nature. I will show that whereas the Leviathan requires a clear distinction between these elements, Hamlet destabilizes their distinction. Further, I will indicate how this seventeenth-century debate can inform contemporary discussions about biopolitics and bare life in Giorgio Agamben and Eric Santner. Dimitris Vardoulakis is lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. His books include The Doppelgänger: Literature's Philosophy (Fordham UP, 2010); as an editor Spinoza Now (U of Minnesota P, 2011); and as a co-editor After Blanchot (2005). All welcome. RSVP/info writ...@uws.edu.au ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 950 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Beth Lord, Spinoza and Income Inequality: Seminar, Thursday 12 May 12-1pm @ UWS, Bankstown Campus
Everyone welcome! - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 The School of Humanities and Languages invites you to a presentation by Dr Beth Lord at University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus. Date: Thursday, 12 May Time: 12-1pm Location: X-Lounge (Level 1, Building 1), Bankstown Campus Beth will be speaking around the following subject: Spinoza and Income Equality How does equality contribute to sustainable and happy communities? In this paper I present some ways of thinking about this question from the perspective of 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. I will introduce some of his ethical and political views in light of recent research in the social sciences that links income inequality to numerous negative social outcomes. What does Spinoza think about rational equality, moral equality, and material equality? The answer is far from clear. On one reading, Spinoza appears very much in line with the view that inequalities and social hierarchies necessarily have negative outcomes, but on a more Nietzschean reading, he can be seen to promote certain inequalities as the unavoidable and natural difference between the powers of individuals. Bio: Beth Lord is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Dundee, Scotland. She is author of Kant and Spinozism: Transcendental Idealism and Immanence from Jacobi to Deleuze (Palgrave Macmillan 2010), and Spinoza's Ethics: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide (Edinburgh UP, 2010). RSVP to m.frague...@uws.edu.aumailto:m.frague...@uws.edu.au Best regards, Mariana Fragueiro Assistant to Head of School School of Humanities and Languages University of Western Sydney Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751 Ph: + 61 2 9772 6103 | Fax: +61 2 9772 6373 Ext: 6103 | Email: m.frague...@uws.edu.au ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000 subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Beth Lord, workshop roundtable, UWS, May 19
Workshop: Spinoza and the politics of sustainability Beth Lord Thursday, May 19, 11am - 1pm University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus Building 3, Room G.27 (library of the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy) In this workshop we will focus on Spinoza's Ethics, Part IV, Proposition 37: The good which every man who pursues virtue aims at for himself he will also desire for the rest of mankind, and all the more as he acquires a greater knowledge of God. After explaining the context of the proposition and the meaning of the terms, we can critically discuss its implications for any or all of the following, depending on people's interests: politics, law, religion, issues of similitude/ difference, gender, ethics/ morality, animal ethics, environmental ethics, Spinoza's relation to Hobbes' social contract theory, Spinoza's relation to Kantian moral autonomy, Spinoza as rationalist, Spinoza and the radical Enlightenment. Workshop Reading: Baruch Spinoza, Ethics - Read Part IV. If you have time and interest, read as much as you can of the other Parts. [I can forward by request the entire part IV as a PDF] Suggestions for further reading: Gilles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy (City Lights, 1988) - excellent introduction to ethical, social and political themes in Spinoza's Ethics Etienne Balibar, Spinoza and Politics (Verso, 1998) - another very accessible book on this topic Beth Lord, Spinoza's Ethics: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) - introduction to reading the Ethics, designed for first-time readers Genevieve Lloyd (ed.), Spinoza: Critical Assessments, 4 vols. (Routledge, 2001) - essays on a variety of topics, including animals, environmental ethics, politics, religion, historical context, etc. Beth Lord (University of Dundee) is the author of Kant and Spinozism (2010), and Spinoza's Ethics (Edinburgh UP, 2010). Roundtable on Beth Lord's Kant and Spinozism: Transcendental Idealism and Immanence from Jacobi to Deleuze Participants: Andrew Benjamin (Monash University) and Simon Duffy (University of Sydney) Respondent: Beth Lord Thursday, May 19, 2-3.30pm University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus Building 3, Room G.27 (library of the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy) Spinoza was re-discovered in the twentieth century through Althusser and Deleuze's interpretations. Within this post-structuralist context, Spinoza was seen to offer an alternative to the dialectic. Thus, Spinoza has mostly been interpreted through his reception after Kant, for instance, in the philosophy of Hegel. Beth Lord shows in that the background to this post-Kantian reception is crucial in understanding Spinoza's reception in idealism and romanticism. In the late eighteenth century, several thinkers attempted to fuse Kant's transcendental idealism with Spinoza's philosophy of immanence. These 'Spinozistic' readings of Kant had a profound influence on the development of his theories of nature and teleology in the Critique of Judgment. By presenting this background, Lord provides a broader and illuminating basis for grasping Spinoza's influence in modern thought. - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000 subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Peg Bermingham seminars on Agamben
UWS Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy MASTER CLASS September 2011 AGAMBEN: BETWEEN ONTOLOGY AND POLITICS PEG BIRMINGHAM In the same way in which the great transformation of the first industrial revolution destroyed the social and political structures as well as the legal categories of the ancient regime, terms such as sovereignty, right, nation, people, democracy, and general will by now refer to a reality that no longer has anything to do with what these concepts used to designate-and those who continue to use these concepts uncritically literally do not know what they are talking about -Giorgio Agamben, Means without Ends: Notes on Politics COURSE DESCRIPTION: This seminar will focus on the thought of Giorgio Agamben, specifically his well-known claim that Western politics is founded upon the state of exception. Our task will be to examine the status of this founding as thought by Agamben. In other words, is Agamben making a historical claim about the way in which Western politics has to date been founded on the exception, a founding act made possible by Western metaphysics? Or, is he claiming something more, namely, that event of being is such that the state of exception is an ontological condition and as such renders impossible any avoidance of it at the level of the political? And if it is the case that the ontological is at work in the political, then what does it mean to introduce, as Agamben does in the passage above, the historical dimension into the political? This last question raises a larger theme that guides this seminar: what is the relation between the ontological (the event of being) and political events such as totalitarianism or the holocaust?The seminar will focus on Agamben's Homo Sacer with references to Means without Ends and Remnants of Auschwitz. READING LIST: Giorgio AgambenHomo Sacer Means without End: Notes on Politics Remnants of Auschwitz CLASS DATES AND TIME: Mondays September 5, 12, 19, 26: 2-5 pm PLACE: Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy, UWS (Bankstown Campus), Building 3 (Room 3.G.54) PEG BIRMINGHAM BIO: Peg Birmingham is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University and author of Hannah Arendt and Human Rights: The Predicament of Common Responsibility. She is also the co-author of Dissensus Communis: Between Ethics and Politics. She is currently finishing a manuscript titled, Hannah Arendt: Immortality, Sacrificial Violence, and the Limits of Political Action. Please!! RSVP: Chris Tobin -c.to...@uws.edu.aumailto:-c.to...@uws.edu.au - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000 subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Genevieve Lloyd's Providence Lost @ UWS (Dec 7)
Philosophy@UWS: Encounter the author series Genevieve Lloyd, Providence Lost Encountering the Author is a series of special events on selected publications in philosophy. Speakers will make short presentations on the books, and the author is invited to respond. The series endeavours to draw attention to important publications, to foster an exchange of ideas and to promote philosophical dialogue. The next event in the series is on Genevieve Lloyd's Providence Lost. In this provocative book, the leading Australian philosopher proposes an alternative history of freedom. Lloyd traces how the usual distinction between necessity and freedom of the will that governs the discourse on freedom is in fact intermixed with the discourse on providence. Providence thus becomes the cipher of many of our preconceived ideas of what it means to be free. [providence lost.jpg] Wednesday, December 7 Time: 1.30 to 4.30, followed by nibbles and drinks Place: University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus 2 Bullecourt Avenue, Milperra Building 3, Room G.55, RSVP by noon December 5 to s.marti...@uws.edu.aumailto:s.marti...@uws.edu.au is essential for catering purposes Program: 1.30 - 3.00: Amy Allen (Darmouth College) Norma Lam-Saw (UWS) Chris Fleming (UWS) 3.00 to 3.30: coffee break 3.30 - 4.30: Nick Malpas (University of Sydney) Dimitris Vardoulakis (UWS) Respondent: Genevieve Lloyd 4.30 to 5.30 Reception (please RSVP to by noon December 5 to s.marti...@uws.edu.aumailto:s.marti...@uws.edu.au) We look forward to seeing you all there. Best, Dimitris - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 inline: image001.jpginline: image002.jpg___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000+ subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] REMINDER: Genevieve Lloyd's Providence Lost (tomorrow)
Just a reminder about the event on Genevieve Lloyd's Providence Lost. Wednesday, December 7 Time: 1.30 to 4.30, followed by nibbles and drinks Place: University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus 2 Bullecourt Avenue, Milperra Building 3, Room G.55, For detailed program and additional details, please visit http://www.uws.edu.au/philosophy/philosophy@uws/events/encountering_the_author - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000+ subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Kafka and Philosophy
The philosophy research initiative at the University of Western Sydney (www.uws.edu.au/philosophyhttp://www.uws.edu.au/philosophy) presents a Sydney Seminar on the Arts and Philosophy on Kafka and Philosophy. The presenters include Prof Henry Sussman (Yale University). When: February 9, from 1.30 to 5pm Where: University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus, Building 20, Room G.06 Please RSVP for catering purposes by noon Tuesday, February 7 to: philoso...@uws.edu.aumailto:philoso...@uws.edu.au For more information, please visit: http://sydneyseminar.org/wp/2012/01/seminar-17-kafka-and-philosophy/ You can download the flyer: http://sydneyseminar.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/17_Kafka-and-Philosophy.pdf - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Languages Bankstown Campus, 7.G.11 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 1000+ subscribers now served!! To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
[SydPhil] Reminder: ASCP 2013
The CFP for this year's conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy is expiring this coming Friday. We are still accepting papers, as well as thematic panel proposals. The conference is held at the University of Western Sydney. The keynote speakers are Graham Harman, James Martel, Elizabeth Rottenberg and Gianni Vattimo. There is also a plenary panel on Rosalyn Diprose's work. For more information and to make a submission, please go to www.uws.edu.au/ascp2013http://www.uws.edu.au/ascp2013 - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Communication Arts Bankstown Campus, 7.G.10 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://bit.ly/sydphil New archive: http://bit.ly/SydPhilArchive To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://bit.ly/sydphil ... and if you can't get to that page, try the EMERGENCY PAGE: http://bit.ly/SydPhilEmergency
[SydPhil] workshop with Vattimo
Philosophy@UWS is organizing an Encountering the Author workshop on Gianni Vattimo's latest book Hermeneutic Communism (with Santiago Zabala, 2011). Vattimo will be present to participate in a roundtable on his book that will include Prof Peg Birmingham (DePaul University, Chicago) and Dr Diego Bubbio (UWS). Charles Barbour (UWS) will be the chair. The workshop will take place in Building EA, room 33, of the Parramatta Campus, UWS, on December 2, 2.30 to 4 pm. Everybody welcome! The conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy will start the following day at the same location: www.uws.edu.auy/ascp2013http://www.uws.edu.auy/ascp2013 Vattimo is one of the keynote speakers. - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Communication Arts Bankstown Campus, 7.G.10 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia ___ SydPhil mailing list: http://bit.ly/sydphil New archive: http://bit.ly/SydPhilArchive To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://bit.ly/sydphil ... and if you can't get to that page, try the EMERGENCY PAGE: http://bit.ly/SydPhilEmergency
[SydPhil] [Thinking Out Loud] David Wood, Responsibility in the Age of Climate Change
This is a reminder about David Wood's lectures. Note that there will be a reception on the opening night, starting at 5.30pm. All welcome but please register - a few places remaining. [cid:image003.jpg@01D0769B.58BF60D0]Philosophy@UWS of the University of Western Sydney in collaboration with the State Library of NSW, ABC Radio National and Fordham University Press invite you to this year's Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society. David Wood Responsibility in the Age of the Climate Change Climate change brings new significance to traditional philosophical questions around reason, agency, responsibility, community and our place in nature. The focus is shifting away from promoting the good life and towards the survival of the species. Leading environmental philosopher David Wood tackles the Anthropocene in his Sydney Lectures. Lecture 1: Monday, April 27 Who Do We Think We Are? Lecture 2: Wednesday, April 29 Thinking Geologically Lecture 3: Friday, May 1 Agency / Responsibility / Survival 6 pm to 8.00 pm Dixson Room Mitchell Library building, State Library of NSW $10 per lecture or $25 whole series, bookings essential For booking and further details go to: www.uws.edu.au/thinkingoutloudhttp://www.uws.edu.au/thinkingoutloud - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis University of Western Sydney School of Humanities and Communication Arts Bankstown Campus, 7.G.10 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
[SydPhil] MA in Contienntal Philosophy @ Western Sydney University
Dear All, Please remember that applications for the MA in Continental Philosophy at Western Sydney University close in a fortnight, on February 3. Our MA offers teaching from renowned scholars such as Professor Dennis Schmidt. We are also supporting our MA students to apply for PhD programs in the US. Domestic students may find these Frequently Asked Questions useful: www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy/MA_domestic_FAQ<http://www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy/MA_domestic_FAQ> If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me a message. Best, Dimitris - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis Western Sydney University School of Humanities and Communication Arts Bankstown Campus, 7.G.10 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808 www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy<http://www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy> - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
[SydPhil] information session about the MA in Continental Philosophy (Western Sydney University)
Are you thinking about continuing your study in Continental Philosophy after you complete your undergraduate degree? The philosophy group at Western Sydney University runs an excellent MA. You can find details online: www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophyMA<http://www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophyMA> See also the Frequently Asked Questions Document: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1177725/MA_in_Continental_Philosophy_FAQs_domestic.pdf If you are interested in this MA, please come along to the information session on Thursday 11 May 2017 at the Female Orphan School, Building EZ, Parramatta South Campus. The running for the evening will work along the following lines: * Registration and welcome drinks from 5:30pm * Student Consultation between 6.00pm and 8.00pm * The setting will be a cocktail type style Please let me know if you have any questions. Best, Dimitris - - - - - - - - - Dimitris Vardoulakis Western Sydney University School of Humanities and Communication Arts Bankstown Campus, 7.G.10 Locked Bag 1797 Penrith, NSW 2751 AUSTRALIA tel: +61 2 9772 6808<tel:+61%202%209772%206808> www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy<http://www.westernsydney.edu.au/philosophy> - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
