Dear All, The following event might be of interest:
University of Western Sydney Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy Occasional Seminars 2009 "The Disunity of Reason, Reflective Disclosure, and Democratic Politics" Nikolas Kompridis, University of Toronto April 8, 3-5pm Bankstown campus, Building 1, Room 1.1.117 Details available on the website of the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy: http://www.uws.edu.au/ccpp ABSTRACT: I propose a conception of practical reason that starts from the acknowledgement of pluralism and the irreducibility of reasonable disagreement. This leads me to question the presumption of the “unity of reason” which underlies Kantian and neo-Kantian conceptions of reason. I argue that this view not only underestimates the depth of cultural pluralism it also approaches the problems of pluralism in completely the wrong way as problems to be “managed” or “mastered.” Taking pluralism seriously requires that we begin from the presumption of the disunity of reason, from which it follows that we will occasionally require more than a translation of the reasons of others: we will require learning the language of others. An alternative conception of practical reason is conceived in terms of practices of reflective disclosure, my reformulation of Heidegger’s complex notion of “world-disclosure.” I connect this idea of practical reason as a practice of reflective disclosure to the Kantian and Arendtian idea of freedom as the capacity to initiate a new beginning. BIO: Nikolas Kompridis is a Visiting Professor with the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto. His areas of specialisation are: Contemporary Political Theory (rationality and practical reason); 19th and 20th Century Political Thought; Aesthetics and Cultural Studies: Aesthetics and Ethics; Aesthetics and Democratic Politics; Philosophy of Art, Literature, Film and Music. He is the author of Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006; Philosophical Romanticism (editor), London and New York, Routledge, 2006; and numerous articles published in Parrhesia, Political Theory, European Journal of Political Theory, Critical Horizons and the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature. Dr. Robert Sinnerbrink Lecturer, Department of Philosophy Building W6A, Balaclava Rd Macquarie University North Ryde, NSW 2109 Sydney Australia e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +61 2 9850 9935 Fax: +61 2 9850 8892 www.phil.mq.edu.au/staff/sinnerbrink.htm Chair, Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy http://www.ascp.org.au/ Book review co-editor, Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory http://www.acumenpublishing.co.uk/critical_horizons_aims.asp?TAG=&CID= Disclaimer This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and do not necessarily reflect the views of Macquarie University. _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list [email protected] List Info: http://lists.arts.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil NEW LIST ARCHIVE: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
