Alternative or Dilemma?
Catherine Malabou will hold the Spinoza Chair of the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities in the second term of the academic year 2018-2019 and will be delivering the accompanying two Spinoza Lectures on 'Philosophy and Anarchy'.
Malabou's first Spinoza Lecture is entitled ‘Beyond the "archic" Principle: Alternative or Dilemma?'
In contemporary Western philosophy, destruction or deconstruction of metaphysics has been presented by prominent thinkers like Levinas, Derrida or Schürmann as the liberation of an an-archic way of thinking. The possibility of questioning and acting beyond the «arkhè», beyond the principle (commandment and beginning at the same time), has opened new perspectives in ontology and ethics. Levinas, for example, characterizes the relation to the Other in terms of «an-archic responsibility». Interestingly, such an ontological and ethical anarchy has always been strictly distinguished from political anarchism. Can we envisage a confrontation between the two traditions? Is "post anarchism" a satisfactory way of setting it up?
Practical information
Location: Aula - Oude Lutherse kerk
Singel411
1012 XMAmsterdam
Date and time: Thursday 21 February 2019, at 20:15. The Aula is open at 19:30.
Entrance: admission is free (no reservation required).
Language: The lectures will be given in English.