Seminars
February
Negation/Consistency 1
Thursday 05 February 2009
1030h-1230h auditorium
March
Negation/Consistency 2
Wednesday 11 March 2009
1030h-1230h auditorium
April
Negation/Consistency 3
Thursday 09 April 2009
1030h-1230h auditorium
May
Matter/Knowledge 1
Thursday 21 May 2009
14h-16h RM 204
June
Imagination/Dialectic 1
Sunday 14 June 2009
14h-18h RM 204
September
Imagination/Dialectic 2
Thursday 03 September 2009
14h-15h Auditorium
October
Stasis/Rupture 1
Thursday 08 October 2009
14h Auditorium
November
Stasis/Rupure 2
Thursday 05 November 2009
14h
December
Stasis/Rupture 3
Tuesday 01 December 2009
14h
February
Historical contingency/Subjective necessity
Wednesday 03 February 2010
10h30-12h30 Auditorium
March
Sociological reflexivity/Philosophical reflexivity
Thursday 04 March 2010
14h Auditorium
Stasis/Rupture 3
Tuesday 01 December 2009
14h
In our final seminar of the year, we will conclude by turning to an unlikely figure: Leibniz. Leibniz may be the idealist thinker of the 17th century par excellance but his work has served as one of the main touchstones for contemporary attempts to both problematize issues in contemporary materialist thought and to strengthen some of its most fundamental theoretical positions. In contemporary debates about complexity (and "chaos" held as a scientific category), theoretical scope vs. phenomenological scale, preformation, contingency and issues concerning the interaction between objects, the return to an investigation of the Leibnizian legacy is not far behind. In this, our invited speaker, Graham Harman proposes a project for "Monads for the 21st century". Harman's work is no doubt also in the center of many other contemporary debates today. Holding down the "object" end of the discussion around a "speculative realism", his influence has pushed many contemporary discussions toward reinvesting in the problem of interaction and causality. To close this year's seminar and to open up the next year, we will investigate with Harman the enduring force (conatus) that this rationalist metaphysician of the 17th century exerts on materialist thought today.
Abstract:
Monads for the XXIst century
Graham Harman
A case could be made for Leibniz as the greatest metaphysician of all time. No one does a better job than Leibniz at integrating the Aristotelo-Scholastic tradition with the new current of modern philosophy that began with Descartes. But at the same time, few metaphysicians have been as ridiculed as Leibniz, both for his metaphysical optimism ("the best of all possible worlds") and for his apparently wild speculations on monads and their consequences. This lecture will try to sort out what is living and what is dead in the Leibnizian metaphysics, and will end by recommending a 21st century philosophy guided by Leibniz as its hero.
texts:
G. W. Leibniz, The Monadology, trans. by Robert Latta. link.