HICO Agenda
— Upcoming events
Lezing door Emiliano Acosta (HICO): Over idioten, non-binair denken en emancipatie in de geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte
Maandag 26 February, 4pm
Faculteitszaal
Inschrijven is niet nodig: HICO heet iedereen welkom!
Inclusief koffiepauze met versnaperingen, U vrijgevig aangeboden door HICO
Abstract: Voor velen maakt de imperatief “ken jezelf” het wezen uit van het filosoferen. Maar is hetgeen men gebruikelijk onder "ken jezelf" begrijpt, ook de betekenis die filosofen aan deze woorden gaven? Filosofie is zeker en vast een soort antwoord op deze imperatief. Maar het idee dat deze zelfkennis kennis van de singulariteit van mijn bestaan is, is allesbehalve iets dat we bij de meeste filosofen zouden vinden. Het is eerder wat het gezond verstand – lees: de idioten die we allemaal volgens Heraclitus zijn – denkt dat de filosofie is. De zelfkennis waar bepaalde filosofen over praten is iets anders. Deze vertrekt vanuit de veronderstelling dat men pas begint te filosoferen als men voorbij elke vorm van dualiteit durft te denken, en het absolute, zelfs ahistorische, karakter van elke grens tussen normaal en abnormaal durft uit te dagen. In die zin is filosofie weliswaar reactief, maar in deze reactie zit de mogelijkheid tot emancipatie van het dogmatisme dat ons het paradijs of de comfortzone van het niet-denken aanbiedt.
Deze ideeën – het idiotisme, het non-binair denken en de emancipatie – maken de kern uit van het laatste boek van Emiliano Acosta: Filosofische Decamerone. In deze lezing voor HICO bespreekt en illustreert hij ze aan de hand van een aantal werken van filosofen die in zijn boek aan bod komen.
Lecture by Eric Schliesser (University of Amsterdam): On The Possibility of an (liberal) art of Government: Foucault, professional philosophy, and Kuhn Loss
Friday 1 March, 4pm
Faculteitszaal
Registration is not required: HICO welcomes all!
Including coffee break and refreshments, generously provided by HICO
Abstract: The circulation and eventual English translation of Foucault’s Lecture series known as The Birth of Biopolitics generated huge scholarly industries on governmentality, biopolitics, and neoliberalism (to name just a few). Without being too precise about it, a much smaller literature developed applying Foucault’s idea of an ‘art of government’ to contemporary issues. However, that there is a liberal art of government – diagnosed by Foucault in the 18th, 19th, and 20th century – has made a negligible impact on contemporary (normative) liberal political philosophy and 'analytic' history of philosophy. This is a bit odd because as Foucault's lectures indicate, there was once a thriving study of a liberal art of government.
My paper will re-inscribe Foucault’s account of the liberal art of government in a much larger history of the art of government, and then diagnose the grounds of the so-called Kuhn Loss. it consists of four parts.
First, in a once famous paper (1962), “Rationalism and Politics,” Oakeshott suggested that the very idea of an art of government is relatively new, dating back to Machiavelli. (Oakeshott is critical of this development.) As is well known, Foucault is familiar with Machiavelli’s significance to the art of government, and traces its effects in earlier lectures during the 1970s. In particular, Foucault calls attention to the seminal role of Bacon.
Second, in his narrative, Foucault leaves a century-long gap. I will point to the manner in which Locke and Toland conceive the art of government; and thereby provide a kind of missing preface to the Birth of Biopolitics. The gap in the narrative is less mysterious once one realizes that Elie Halevy’s *The growth of philosophic radicalism* is (alongside Tocquevile’s writings) both a source and target of Foucault’s lectures.
Before diagnosing the Kuhn Loss, I inscribe Oakeshott’s and Foucault’s narratives in a much longer framework. Foucault himself had noted the significance of Plato’s Statesman to his project. But on the narrative I propose, Plato’s Republic is the originating source—yes, footnotes again. The Republic is structured around the need for an art of government within the epistemic and cognitive division of labor. By using Plutarch’s reading of Damon, we can discern how Plato lets Socrates defer to Damon (a political advisor to Pericles) on the contents of this art, and thereby helps correct the image of Socrates as an isolated gadfly.
I conclude by diagnosing the source of a Kuhn loss by showing how from being central in Mill’s philosophy, the art of government was made disciplinarily homeless in the modern university.
Yearly HICO Lecture: Sam Berstler & Thomas Pendlebury
Wednesday 15 May, 3pm
Location TBD
For our yearly flagship lecture, HICO is proud to announce a double bill, consisting of the honourable professors Sam Berstler (MIT) and Thomas Pendlebury (University of Chicago). Their lectures will be followed by a reception, generously offered to you by HICO.
— Past events (Academic year 2023-2024)
Lecture by Prof. Angela Condello (University of Messina): Sciences of the spirit vs. Sciences of nature: Law through the algorithmic revolution
UPDATE: Due to illness, professor Condello's talk was given online
Monday 12 February, 10am
Faculteitszaal
Registration: gertrudis.vandevijver@ugent.be
Abstract: In this lecture I discuss the current opening of law and legal professions to artificial intelligence in terms of a “total social fact” generated by a graphical and linguistic revolution. I will address how this affects law mainly at an epistemological level, since it concerns its scientificity by involving the form of the data and the information circulated and used for legal operations.
Engaging with the dichotomy between “sciences of the spirit” versus “sciences of nature” through the work of Dilthey in particular, aiming to argue against such a challenge in our civilization and legal culture. Accepting a certain method means accepting a certain idea of law, because law does not just have a method, but is its own method.
The Entwinement of Logic and Life (12-14 September 2023)
Our honorable members Levi Haeck, Kobe Keymeulen, and Xuansong Liu have organized a conference on the entwinement of ‘logic’ and ‘life’ in German idealism and its intellectual legacy.
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