Nova PhDs

If any of you are going to be in Belgium in early May, you might give me a shout as I am going to be in Leuven giving a lecture at the Institute of Philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The lecture, on May 10, will be on Max Horkheimer's moral theory. The next day I will give a doctoral seminar on architecture and democracy that will contain some of the same material as the paper I gave at SPEP on the panel with Ammon and Ted. Both are hosted by the Institute's Center for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy.

This will be my first time in Leuven, or Belgium for that matter. I will probably have a couple days to myself. Any of you have any advice on what one should do and see there?

Since the program is out for April's Central APA, I figured I would post the info on the panel I am going to be on:

Friday, April 20
II-H. Colloquium: Crossing the Analytic-Continental Divide

9:00-10:00 a.m.
Chair: Joshua Shaw (Penn State Erie, The Behrend College)
Speaker: Scott C. Davidson (Oklahoma City University)
“The Scandal of Philosophy: Cavell and Levinas on the Problem of Skepticism”
Commentator: Tyler Roberts (Grinnell College)
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Chair: Cristina Lafont (Northwestern University)
Speaker: Benjamin Bayer (University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign)
“Taking Sellarsian Holism Seriously”
**Graduate Student Travel Stipend Winner**
Commentator: John Fennell (Grinnell College)
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Joseph K. Schear (California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo)
Speaker: Joseph C. Berendzen (Loyola University–New Orleans)
“Is Coping Nonconceptual? On Merleau-Ponty, Dreyfus, and McDowell”
Commentator: Joseph Neisser (Sam Houston State University)

I don't think there are any other Villanova-related people on the main program. I don't know about the group program. Anyone going to be in Chicago for the conference?

You may remember that, last October, John posted something about Hubert Dreyfus's 2005 Presidential Address to the Pacific APA (see here). In the ensuing discussion, I mentioned that I had been working on the issues discussed in that piece, and that I do not exactly agree with Dreyfus's use of Merleau-Ponty. Well, I continued with that work, and have had a paper dealing with these issues, titled "Is Coping Nonconceptual?: On Merleau-Ponty, Dreyfus, and McDowell," accepted to the 07 Central APA.

The basic argument of the paper is that Dreyfus misrepresents Merleau-Ponty's philosophy in his attempt to use Merleau-Ponty against McDowell, and that Merleau-Ponty's thought is actually fairly close to McDowell's in certain crucial respects. The bulk of the paper deals with the former point, while the latter is more or less only suggested (one way I think the link can be drawn between Merleau-Ponty and McDowell is to investigate the ways/senses in which each is an Hegelian)...

Click here to read the abstract I sent with the submission:


For NovaPhD's authors, I have uploaded the whole paper to the "files" section on the blog administration page (it is called "07centralapasub.doc, and can be seen on the "rename/delete files page) . I don't really expect you guys to read it, but if you have some time to kill, I would love to hear what you think...

In any event, thanks to John and NovaPhDs for providing the impetus for the paper!

This is a bit of a self-serving post (nothing new for a blog, I guess). I think it might go a bit beyond the self-serving, though, so here goes:

I have an article in the newest issue of Philosophy Today (one might have seen this on Farhang's Continental Philosophy board) titled "Sartre and the Communicative Paradigm in Critical Theory." Right after it in the issue is an article by David Sherman titled "Sartre, Critical Theory, and the Paradox of Freedom," so anyone interested in drawing links between Sartre and the Frankfurt School (or interested in Sartre generally) should check the issue out.

What is particularly funny about this is that David and I gave versions of those papers, on the same panel on Sartre and Critical Theory, at the last North American Sartre Society meeting. That our papers are together again in Philosophy Today is sheer coincidence.

I think it is quite a happy coincidence, though. While both papers are on the same basic topic, they should provide very different takes on the issue. David's work focuses more on first generation critical theory than mine, and he has a bit of a different take on Sartre, so reading the two papers together should be particularly interesting. Enjoy!

As many of you have probably seen, the SPEP 2006 program is out. Following is a rundown of the Nova PhD grads on the main program (followed by some other Nova-related folks). I have not looked at the satellite meetings yet.

The first time slot, THURSDAY AFTERNOON 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., is a big one for Nova PhDs, and includes:

The Promise of Memory: History and Politics in Marx, Benjamin, and Derrida
Moderator: Kym Maclaren, Northern Arizona University
Speaker: Andrew Cutrofello, Loyola University, Chicago
Speaker: Jonathan Maskit, Dennison University
Respondent: Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University

and

The Contemporary Import of Hegel’s Aesthetics
Moderator: Tom Brockelman, LeMoyne College
“On the Lyrical Presentation of History: Hegel and the Modern Poem,”
Ammon Allred, Villanova University
“The Public Design of the Shape of Spirit: Hegel and Contemporary Architecture,” J. C. Berendzen, Loyola University, New Orleans
“Radical Passivity, Resistance, and Art: Agamben’s Unworking Of
Hegel’s Aesthetics,” Theodore George, Texas A&M University

(I imagine that Ammon and Ted will join me in being somewhat dissapointed that our panel is at the same time as Matthias’s book session.)

On SATURDAY AFTERNOON 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., look for:

“Reduction or Subtraction: Marion, Badiou & the Recuperation of
Truth,” Adam S. Miller, Collin County Community College

In a panel titled “Immanence and Truth.”

I believe that there are no other papers being delivered by Nova PhDs, but on FRIDAY AFTERNOON 4:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., one should look for:

Paul Ricoeur and the Nazis
Speaker: David Kaplan, University of North Texas
Respondent: Farhang Erfani, American University

I am sure Farhang will give this Kaplan fellow the buisness!

As for other Nova PhD’s participating on the main program, Shannon Mussett (“New Efforts at Containment”), Jamey Findling (“A Weak Cousin No Longer: Gadamer’s Rhetorical Imaginary as the Inversion of Philosophy”), and Dana Belu (“Political Phenomenality, Marxism, and the Praxis of Phenomenology”) are all moderating panels.

See future Nova PhDs, on SATURDAY MORNING 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.:

Deleuze, Badiou, and Ranciere on Literature and the Work of Art
Moderator: Gary Aylesworth, Eastern Illinois University
“To Be a Man Without References: The End of Tragedy and the Task of
the Comic,” J. Eric Butler, Villanova University
“Truth and Master: Badiou Reads Mallamaré,” Alexi Kukuljevic, Villanova University
(Along with “‘I dream of war…of utterly unforeseeable logic’: Rancière Reads
Rimbaud,” Sid Littlefield, Gordon College)

Regarding Nova professors, it will be a big SPEP for Walter Brogan. There is a book session for his work Heidegger and Aristotle: The Twofoldness of Being on Thursday afternoon at 3:45 p.m. AND at Saturday 12:00 Noon he is giving the Andre Schuwer Lecture, “On Giorgio Agamben's Naked Life: The State of Exception and the Law of the Sovereign”
(It is also worth noting that at 9:00 am on Friday Denny Schmidt is speaking on a panel on comedy and philosophy and at 4:15 on Friday Jack Caputo will be giving a paper on Derrida and Marion.)

If I missed anything or anyone has something to add, mention it in a comment and I will amend the post.

Jamey Findling posted the following in a recent comments thread. I thought it would be worthwhile to have it on the front page, so I am taking the liberty of posting it here, with some minor editing:

"I thought I would pass along this link. It's the homepage for the (rather awkwardly named) society that Ted and I, along with some others, have been working on. Our first conference is this coming weekend, so it'll be nice to see things come to some measure of fruition. There will also be a satellite session at SPEP this Fall, at the usual Thursday morning time, for those arriving early."

I know the conference schedule won't come out for another few weeks, but the official letters of acceptance came out a couple weeks ago--so, I figured that I would let you know that the following Nova PhDs-related panel has been accepted:

The Contemporary Import of Hegel's Aesthetics

Ammon Allred, “On the Lyrical Presentation of History: Hegel and the Modern Poem”

J.C. Berendzen, “The Public Design of the Shape of Spirit: Hegel and Contemporary Architecture”

Theodore George, “Radical Passivity, Resistance, and Art: Agamben’s Unworking Of Hegel’s Aesthetics”

I, personally, am certainly looking forward to sharing the stage with my esteemed former colleagues. The loser of the panel buys the shots...

Are there any other Nova folks out there who are giving papers at SPEP?

I recently learned that an article I submitted to International Philosophical Quarterly has been accepted. The piece is titled “Elements of a Post-Metaphysical and Post-Secular Ethics and Politics: Albert Camus on Human Nature and the Problem of Evil," and it will appear in the June, 2007 (!) edition. The seed of this paper was planted in the "Body Politics" course Tom Busch offered a few years ago.

If one cruises the internet for philosophy sites, one gets the impression that the hot new thing in (analytic) philosophy is something called “Experimental Philosophy.” I have been hearing this term for a while, partly because one of its golden boys, a cat at UNC named Joshua Knobe, was profiled as a “rising star” in the Chronicle last year. A big discussion of “X-phi” (as the obnoxiously cutesy seem to be calling it) has been kicked up on the net recently, though, because of an article on Salon.

After looking at some of this discussion, I wondered to myself, "what might all of this have to do with things happening in Continental philosophy?" I then figured I would post some of my own thoughts and ask you all about it.

First, though, lets have a brief description of Experimental phil from the horse's (Knobe's) mouth:

"Since the earliest days of analytic philosophy, it has been a common practice to appeal to intuitions about particular cases. Typically, the philosopher presents a hypothetical situation and then makes a claim of the form: ‘In this case, we would surely say....’ This claim about people’s intuitions then forms a part of an argument for some more general theory about the nature of our concepts or our use of language.
One puzzling aspect of this practice is that it so rarely makes use of standard empirical methods. Although philosophers quite frequently make claims about ‘what people would ordinarily say,’ they rarely back up those claims by actually asking people and looking for patterns in their responses. In recent years, however, a number of philosophers have tried to put claims about intuitions to the test, using experimental methods to figure out what people really think about particular hypothetical cases. At times, the results have been extremely surprising."

So, experimental philosophers actually do the empirical legwork (the most popular form of which seems to be adminstering surveys--a practice which is not strictly speaking an experiment, I think, but what the hell...). As an aside, it strikes me that the only thing that is at all new about this is that some guys who have philosophy degrees have hit the streets and administered surveys and so-forth, rather than relying on psychologists, etc. to do the empirical work.

Now, I don't know how interested I am in the specific work that is getting called "Experimental Philosophy." I do wonder, however, how the emphasis on empirical research jibes with continental philosophy. Well, one quick answer (which I think is ultimately a half truth) is that it doesn't fit with most of Continental phil, because it is based on the valorizing of the methods of the empirical natural sciences, and that is something of which continental philosophy is generally critical...

Consider, though, Horkheimer's early Frankfurt School plan for interdisciplinary research. It clearly included a strong commitment to using empirical data (and they even used surveys and questionairres...). There is still a commitment in critical theory (say, for example, in the attention Honneth pays to people's experiences of injustice) to such research.

In any event, I am interested to hear what you all think about the relation of continental philosophy to empirical research, both in terms of the history of continental phil (for--a possibly lame--example, is there room for empirical research in Heidegger's project) and in terms of your own research. Could there be an "Experimental Continental Philosophy"?

just out of curiosity, what are people sending in or proposing for spep this year? the deadline is in a couple weeks, and i don't really have a completed paper i want to send in, so if anyone is still thinking of putting together a panel proposal before feb. 1, i'd be interested in hearing it and talking over an addition.

hope you're all enjoying the beginning of your second semester!

If anyone out there is going to be at the APA this week, you might consider dropping by my paper on the 29th. I am speaking in a panel titled "History and Metaphysics," that runs from 1:30-4:30 p.m., in Murray Hill Suite A (Second Floor). My paper, titled "Horkheimer's Materialist Stance," is scheduled for 3:30.

Even if you can't make that scintillating event, I hope to see some of you there.

hi all,

i just wanted to share some exciting news with you, which is that i'm joining the band of villanova alumni to whom philosophy today has been kind -- i just got word from them today that they're going to publish my piece on derrida and kierkegaard, probably sometime in 2006. so that makes quite a lot of us that have gotten something into that journal in the last couple years! the piece is called "questioning the self: kierkegaard and derrida."

hope all is well with everyone, and a belated happy birthday to big JC Berendzen.

It is great to hear that the Berendzen tour of the country is going well! Any groupies yet?

On a different matter, friends, I have a suggestion/request. I love that we have this blog to keep our Villanova community together. I know that I am not the only one who is grateful for the education that I received from the Ph.D. program. Each of us has expressed and will continue to express this appreciation in different ways. I have an easy and concrete suggestion.

As you know, Dr. Walter Brogan brought Epoche to Villanova a couple of years ago. Epoche used to be housed in Utah and it was dormant at best. Walter has revived it and turned it into a wonderful journal of the history of philosophy. Each issue so far has been fantastic. There is a special issue on Derrida that will come out soon too. It makes the program look good.

In addition, a Villanova graduate student works with Walter on the journal every year, underlining the journal’s commitment to the professional development of the grad students as well as the importance of the journal to the program’s prestige and intellectual activity.

Villanova has thus far institutionally and financially supported Epoche, but as you all know even the best of journals compete for subscriptions.

I suggest that each of us who has been fortunate to have a job at a new institution ask the new library to subscribe to Epoche. American University, my new home, did not. It took a few seconds of sending an email to the librarian with the link and it was a done deal!

Please consider asking your libraries to promote Epoche. Thanks.

i have a paper i'm about ready to submit to Philosophy Today, and i just had a quick question about their guidelines for those of you who have worked with them. in the actual journal credit-page submission guidelines, they say just to include 2 manuscript copies in blind review format, but when i looked them up online, they said to include a floppy or CD with that. is that necessary as well (i.e. have y'all done that), or can i just send them the hard copies?

...has now completed a full draft of his dissertation. and no, nobody (neither busch nor the other committee members) has seen a single page out of the 260 up to this point. so if anyone would like to pray for the boy, or send him best wishes, or whatever, now might be an appropriate time. although this is a very seth-like thing to do, i didn't really think he would actually do it. but he called me a couple nights ago to say he has, so there you are...

This morning I got the information for the panel that I am going to be presenting on at The Eastern APA. Here it is:


III-H. Colloquium: History and Metaphysics
Thursday, 12.29.05, 1:30-4:30 p.m., Murray Hill
Suite A (Second Floor)
Chair: Yitzhak Melamed (University of Chicago)

3:30-4:30 p.m.
Speaker: Joseph Berendzen (Loyola University of New Orleans)
“Horkeimer’s Materialist Stance”
Commentator: Max Pensky (Binghamton University-State University of New York)

The other two papers on the panel are on Locke and Kant, so it is sort of an odd panel. My paper basically discusses the metaphysical and anti-metaphysical aspects of Horkheimer's discussion of materialism, and then sides with the latter by interpreting Horkheimer through the lens of Bas van Fraassen's discussion of a "stance".

Glad to share this news with you all. Matt Groe is officially ABD. He defended his proposal yesterday — June 21st — the first day of summer! — and here is the title of his forthcoming magnum opus:

“Ethical Coexistence Beyond Dualism: The Converging Visions of Dewey and Merleau-Ponty”

Dr. Busch is the director; Dr. Betz and Dr. Margolis are readers.

I have asked Matt reply to this post and to share with us a brief synopsis of his work. I think it is wornderul to have a Villanova PhD on MP and Dewey, showing the "convergence" — to use Matt's word — of these two great traditions.

Congratulations, Matt!

i just wanted to share with you all that i just received an email from Sartre Studies International informing me that they have accepted my paper on Les Mots — the revision of the sartre chapter in my diss! they said that it should come out next year (2006), probably in the fall edition.

so i'm pretty excited right now, as this will be my first solo article in print, and it's in a pretty specialized journal!

now, we've talked about this before, but i thought that i would run a question by you guys, since you've all got some things out already. when you get comments for critical revisions, what do you generally do with them? do you attempt to accomodate everything all the reviewers had to say, or what? any feedback here would be helpful.

thanks guys!

Since this fall's SPEP program just came out, I figured I would post all the current and past members of Villanova's PhD program who are participating. First, those who are giving papers (if there is no school listed after their name, they are still affiliated with Villanova):

Thursday, Oct. 20
1:00:
Gregory Hoskins, "Political Membership and the Politics of 'Dangerous Memories'"
Farhang Erfani, American University, “The Agony of Global Democracy: Chantal Mouffe and Paul Ricoeur on Cosmopolitan Citizenship”
Theodore D. George, Texas A&M University, “The Worklessness of Literature: Blanchot, Hegel and the Ambiguity of the Written Word”

Friday, Oct. 21
9:00:
Adriel Trott, “Toward a New Metaphysics: Difference in Irigaray’s Reading of Plato’s Cave”
Alexi Kukuljevic, “To Be Done With Finitude”
Eric Butler, “Prime Matter or Void: Heidegger and Badiou on the Grounds of Ontology"

Saturday, Oct. 22
9:00:
J.C. Berendzen, Loyola University, New Orleans, “Enabling Limitations: Rule Following, Creativity, and Morality in von Trier’s The Five Obstructions”
Joshua Delpech-Ramey, “Has Selma Seen It All?: Visibility and Ethics in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark”
12:00
Michael Shaw, Utah Valley State College, “Madness and Politeia: Aesthetic Disruption in Foucault and Plato”
Matthias Fritsch,Concordia University, “Liberalism and Agonistic Democracy"

Note that Greg and Farhang are on the same panel, Eric and Alexi are on the same panel, and Josh and I are on the same panel. All others at the same time are on competing panels.

Also, on the concurrent SPHS program giving a paper at 2:45 on Friday is Jamey Findling, Newman University,“ Gadamer’s Interpretation of the Republic.”

On the program in some other capacity are:
Ammon Allred
Sarah Donovan, Wagner College
Shannon Mussett, Utah Valley State College

Clearly, we will be well represented in Salt Lake City...