Aesthetics in the 21st Century abstract

The Aesthetics in the 21st Century page has been updated to include the program as well as abstracts, so I thought I would post my own, to be presented as the final paper of the conference:

“The Feeling of Things: Transcendental Empiricism in Herder, Whitehead, and Serres”

Abstract: While contemporary philosophers have turned once again to aesthetics as an important field, some going as far as to maintain it as “first philosophy,” this focus has important precursors (and, as we will see, an unfortunately ignored contemporary). This paper aims to outline an important historical tradition steeped in romanticism and a variety of transcendental empiricism, while also showing its relevance and applicability to the speculative turn. Beginning with Johann Gottfried Herder, the author will show an alternative to Kantianism, a philosophy which takes feeling and sensation seriously. This will ground a position the author terms “non-cognitive philosophy,” a methodology in opposition to many of the neo-rationalists associated with or related to speculative realism (Badiou, Meillassoux). Non-cognitive philosophy refuses to reduce the world to concepts, language, human minds, or rationality. Instead, it is a methodology aimed at showing the multiplicity of things, affirming that a thing is not reducible to any single variety of access (cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, causal, logical, relational, etc, etc.). This tradition continues prominently in the work of Alfred North Whitehead and his attempt to construct a “critique of pure feeling” in contrast to the Kantian and Idealist traditions. In addition, Whitehead provides a non-anthropocentric metaphysics, with feeling no longer being tied to flesh and nerves, but is instead an attribute of being. The essay will conclude by turning to Michel Serres, whose work has gone seemingly unnoticed by the speculative realist movement. Serres should be a central figure for the “aesthetic turn” both for his metaphysics of communication as well as his study of bodily sensation as an alternative to epistemology. This tradition founded on the principle of “feeling as first philosophy” will prove to be an important, though untapped, aspect of the speculative turn.

In addition to this paper, I will also be speaking as part of the Editor’s Workshop along with my fellow Speculations editors, Paul Ennis and Robert Jackson, as well as Paul Boshears from continent. It should be a great conference and I’ve very much looking forward to finally meeting those I’ve known for so long online!

The Correlationist Continuum

Something I’m working on… More at some point I suppose!

(Click through for a larger image.)

Liberate your research through open access publishing

I’ll be participating in a panel here at MUN on open-access publishing this week. I am of course an advocate of OA and will be talking about my experiences with both writing for and editing OA volumes. Full info is below:

Workshop: Liberate your research through open access publishing: local success stories

When: 12:30-2pm, Tuesday, November 1st

Where: L2028 (the computer lab on the main floor of the QEII Library)

Abstract: Care about access to scholarly information? Author’s rights? Research funding? Then you need to know more about open access publishing, a global movement transforming the way that scholars share information. Beginning with an overview of open access, the session will explore success stories from local panelists in the Arts, Sciences, and Health Sciences. Attend this session to learn about:

- Why academic authors should retain copyright on their works
- Practical ways for openly disseminating research
- New initiatives from MUN Libraries
- Success stories from 5 local panelists:

Dr. Shabnam Asghari, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
Michael Austin, Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy
Dr. John Lewis, Professor, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography
Dr. Jennifer Lokash, Associate Professor, Department of English
Dr. Michael Shute, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies

CFP: Schelling Society of North America

Below is the call for papers for the first annual meeting of the Schelling Society of North America. Please circulate widely!

CALL FOR PAPERS
FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
SCHELLING SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA (SSNA)

AUGUST 31 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2012
SEATTLE UNIVERSITY (SEATTLE, WASHINGTON USA)

The SSNA is open to anyone who conducts research on Schelling and Schellingian philosophy in the English language. The SSNA mission is to (1) further research in English, both historical and systematic, on Schelling and related figures (eg., Boehme, Oetinger, Baader, Fichte, Novalis, Hölderlin, Schubert, early Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Oken, Fechner, Coleridge, Bradley, Peirce); (2) organize a stand-alone Schelling conference every other year at a North American University, with proceedings published online, and the best papers published every four years with an academic press; (3) gather data concerning current graduate research in English on Schelling; (4) coordinate translation projects of Schelling into English.

PLEASE SEND ABSTRACTS (500 WORDS) TO JASON WIRTH (wirthj@seattleu.edu) AND SEAN McGRATH (sjoseph.mcgrath@gmail.com) by 15 JANUARY 2012.

CFP: Thinking Nature Vol. II – Aesthetics

The following is a courtesy posting for a journal you should all be reading (and not just because I’ve published a piece in the first volume):

For the second issue of Thinking Nature we are seeking papers which address the relation between nature and aesthetics. Writing on and about nature whether theoretical or not often relies on the aesthetic as a means of highlighting nature’s importance and the importance of ecological politics, activism, and living. For this issue we are seeking speculative and experimental approaches to the opportunity and problem of aesthetics as it crosses nature, the natural, and ecology.

Possible Topics:

Environmental Aesthetics
The relation of the sublime to nature and aesthetics
The importance of the visual for ecology/ecological critique
Anthrocentrism and Aesthetics or Aesthetics of the Inhuman
Aesthetics and the natural/artificial relation
Sentience and Aesthetics/Cognitive models and Aesthetics of Nature
Non-Visible Nature and Aesthetics

We are asking for completed manuscripts (in rough draft form or better) of 5,000 – 8,000 words with Chicago style references (footnotes and not endnotes).

We are also interested in art pieces, either single pieces or a small collection, either written, visual, or other.

The Deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2012.

Please email submissions to woodardbenjamin@gmail.com or timothymorton303@gmail.com.

CFP: Speculations Vol. III

Speculations, a journal for speculative realist thought, invites submissions for its third volume. Speculations is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal seeking to provide a forum for the exploration of speculative realism and post-continental philosophy. Our aim is to facilitate discussion about ongoing developments within and around the emerging continental realisms. We accept short position papers, full length articles and book reviews.

Our aim in the third volume is to open up the problem of speculation as it pertains to areas as diverse as theology, politics, and queer theory. Papers addressing any of these three specific topics will be addressed in special sections of issue alongside our more traditional non-thematic articles.

Potential authors should make sure to go through the ‘Submission Checklist’ before submitting which can be found at: http://speculationsjournal.org

Articles should be no longer than 8,000 words and follow the Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html).

The deadline for submission is January, 8th 2012.
Submissions can be sent to speculationsjournal@gmail.com

Editors:
Paul J. Ennis, University College, Dublin
Michael Austin, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Fabio Gironi, Cardiff University
Thomas Gokey, Syracuse University
Robert Jackson, University of Plymouth

“Subjectivity and Structuralism” @ Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy 2011 Congress

I will be presenting a paper titled “Subjectivity and Structuralism” at this year’s annual Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy Congress, to be held here in St. John’s. Are any readers of the blog presenting or attending? I’ve included by abstract below. It is essentially working within the same area as as “Structure, Sense and Territory,” except focused entirely on the problems of structuralism that occupy the first half of that paper and focusing more on how this show Badiou to be less-than-revolutionary.

“Subjectivity and Structuralism” Abstract:

While attention has been payed to the pre-evental in Badiou insofar as such an analysis could foster political revolution, nothing substantial has been said on the possibility of a primal or ur-event. In attempting to understand what could constitute the first event, we will explore Badiou’s anthrocentrism and his connection to the structuralist understanding of the relation of humanity to nature as one of alienation as exemplified in his allegiance with Lacan and Rousseau. It will be suggested that to accept Badiou’s model of subjectivity, one must also accept the structuralist thesis that the human is equiprimordial with language.

Recent Publications

Some of you may be interested to read my recent publications on metaphysics and psychoanalysis!

The first appears in Thinking Nature, Volume 1, edited by Ben Woodard and Tim Morton. It’s on the concept of the metaphysical unconscious as it arose in 19th Century German thought. It essentially proposes an alternative to the limited metaphysical options proposed by Meillassoux in After Finitude. While he claims that the only options in the wake of Kant short of dogmatism are weak and strong correlationism, or speculative materialism. I propose another option.

The second appears in the International Journal of Žižek Studies, Volume 5, No. 2. In this essay I explore the idea that Žižek and Badiou’s work can be read as responses to the question posed to Lacan and taken up in Seminar XI, that of ontology. I look at the two thinkers as each taking up a potential reading of the Real in Seminar XI, with Žižek presenting a phenomenological ontology and Badiou presenting us with a formal ontology.

More to come.

Speculations Vol. II

Speculations Vol. II is out now! In this volume, I have a piece diagnosing structuralist metaphysics and presenting the oppositional school of what I term “semiotic metaphysics” which really means “non-anthro-centric metaphysics of communication.” Against people like Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Badiou and Žižek, I present the work of Deleuze and Guattari, Jakob von Uexküll, C.S. Peirce and Michel Serres on metaphysics and communication. In some ways, this is the first step I want to take in looking more seriously at both Peirce and Serres in relation to contemporary (realist) metaphysics. I’m planning on doing more with Serres soon in relation to transcendental realism and the romantic response to Kant.

You can of course go to the Speculations site and download the journal in PDF, ePub or Mobi formats. Or you can buy an affordable physical copy at Lulu.

Returning to Freud

I’m slowly trying to get back in to Freud. My advisor described the process as akin to getting into a hot bath and he’s right. Get in too quickly and it hurts like hell, while getting in too slowly leaves no enjoyment either (I’d even say it leaves you cold!). In any case, I’ve been going through my own notes rather than back directly to the texts. I guess it’s a good sign that my own ideas from months ago still seem interesting and valuable. The writing I’ve been going over is mostly on Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Totem and Taboo, and I’m hoping to do something rather soon with the latter (a short article I think). I haven’t talked a lot about Freud publicly, though he’s always there. I had wanted to include a section on him in my Claremont paper, but ended up not having room and even having to cut the material I already had on Nietzsche to get the paper under twenty minutes. Hopefully this little article will give some idea as to what I’m trying to do in my own “return to Freud,” in opposition to the structuralist return.

First though, I’m waiting to be able to finish up my piece for Speculations II. I’m missing a reference and waiting for the book to be recalled so I can find it. Once that’s done, I’ll be diving head-first back in to Freud, trying to get this bit of work done quickly, only to jump right back to post-Kantian and contemporary metaphysics, with work on Schelling, Kant and Meillassoux, then back to Freudian stuff, though by then I’ll be looking at a few ways of reading Freud (structuralist, Freudo-Marxist, therapeutic, and neuro-scientific). Part of that work will involve working through Malabou’s Les Nouveaux Blessés. The plan is to take that work on Freud and Malabou and submit it to the sixteenth volume of theory@buffalo on Malabou, due sometime in September. Sometime in there I wanted to try to write something on Schelling and Laruelle as well. Maybe that will be my submission to CSCP. Anyway, I have to run to a public lecture on Kant and Levinas. More soon.