Philosophy, Aesthesis and Technical Life (Convenor: Prof Ian James)
This seminar will interrogate the way in which some of the most important recent and contemporary French philosophers have taken up the question of 鈥榝eeling鈥� and 鈥榮ensation鈥� as a means of interrogating our relation to, and knowledge of, shared worldly existence. For each of these thinkers the question of feeling or aesthesis opens onto broader considerations concerning the status of philosophical thought, its aesthetic dimension, and the relation of these both to artistic presentation and to life itself understood more generally as being technical through and through. Via readings of Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, Catherine Malabou and the mid-twentieth century philosopher of biology Georges Canguilhem students will be encouraged to think these issues through in the context of wider questions of concerning literary and art criticism and the relation of the arts to the life sciences more generally. They will also be introduced to some of the key developments within French thought since the 1990s.
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Week 1
Reading:
Nancy, Jean-Luc, Corpus (Paris: M茅taill茅, 1992), in particular pp. 77-105; trans. Richard A. Rand (Fordham University Press, 2008), pp. 88-121
Nancy, Jean-Luc, Le Sens du monde (Paris: Galil茅e, 1993), in particular pp. 61-75, 89-98. The Sense of the World; trans. J. S. Librett (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997)
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Suggested further reading:
James, Ian, The Fragmentary Demand: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006)
James, Ian, 鈥業mmanence and Technicity鈥�, Senses and Society 8.1 (2013), 14-25
Morin, Marie-Eve, Jean-Luc Nancy (密桃视频: Polity, 2012)
Ross, Alison, 鈥樷�淎rt鈥� in Nancy鈥檚 鈥淔irst Philosophy鈥�: The Artwork and the Praxis of Sense Making.鈥� Research on Phenomenology 38.1 (2008), 18-40
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Week 2
Reading:
Canguilhem, Georges, La Connaissance de la vie (Paris:Vrin, 1992); Knowledge of Life听; trans. Stefanos Gerolanos and Daniela Ginsburg (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008)
Canguilhem, Georges, 鈥楲e cerveau et la pens茅e鈥� in Georges Canguilhem, philosophe historien des sciences (Paris听: Albin Michel, 1993), pp. 11-33听; 鈥楾he Brain and Thought鈥�, Radical Philosophy 148 (March/April 2008)
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Suggested further reading:
Braunstein, Jean-Fran莽ois (ed.), Canguilhem: Histoire des sciences et politique du vivant (Paris听: Presses Universitaires de France, 2007)
Gayon, Jean, 鈥楾he Question of Individuality in Canguilhem鈥檚 Philosophy of Biology鈥�, Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 31, no. 3, (Autumn 1998), 305-325
Lecourt, Dominique, 鈥楲a Question de l鈥檌ndividu chez Georges Canguilhem鈥� in Georges Canguilhem, philosophe historien des sciences (Paris听: Albin Michel, 1993), pp. 262-70
Rabinow, Paul, 鈥業ntroduction鈥� in Georges Canguilhem: Selected Writings, F. Delaport (ed.) (New York, Zone, 1994), pp. 11-25
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Week 3
Reading:
Stiegler, Bernard, La Technique et le Temps 1: La Faute d鈥櫭塸im茅th茅e (Paris: Galil茅e, 1994), pp. 145-87; pp. 211-43; trans. R. Beardsworth, Technics and Time 1 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), pp. 134-82, pp. 204-38
Stiegler, Bernard, La Technique et le temps 3: Le temps du cinema et la question du mal 锚tre (Paris: Galil茅e, 2001), pp. 275-326听; trans. Stephen Baker, Technics and Time 3: Cinematic Time and the Question of Malaise (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp. 187-224
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Suggested further reading:
Beardsworth, Richard, 鈥楾hinking Technicity鈥�, Cultural Values, 2:1, 1998, 70-86
James, Ian, 鈥楤ernard Stiegler and the Time of Technics鈥�, Cultural Politics, Vol. 6. No. 1, March 2010
James, Ian, The New French Philosophy (密桃视频: Polity, 2012), pp. 61-82
Moore, Gerald and Howells, Christina, Stiegler and Technics (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013)
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Week 4
Reading:
Malabou, Catherine, Que faire de notre cerveau? (Paris: Bayard, 2004); trans. S. Rand, What Should We Do with Our Brain? (New York, Fordham University Press, 2008)
Malabou, Catherine, Avant demain (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2014), pp. 1-31, 267-301听; trans. C. Shread, Before Tomorrow (密桃视频: Polity, 2016), pp. 1-19, 155-74
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Suggested further reading:
James, Ian, The New French Philosophy (密桃视频: Polity, 2012), pp. 83-109
James, Ian, 鈥�(Neuro)plasticity, Epigenesis and the Void鈥�, Parrhesia, no. 25, 2016, 1-19
Martinon, Jean-Paul, On Futurity: Malabou, Nancy and Derrida (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
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