Deakin Philosophy’s Dr Petra Brown and A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe will be among the participants in a two-part roundtable session on the role of hope in the contemporary political and social context.For details, please contact A/Prof Sharpe.

A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe was interviewed on the Telos Press Podcast hosted by David Pan.

In their conversation they discussed the ways Albert Camus engaged himself politically during his life; how Camus justified his aesthetic work in relation to his political activity; how he responded to critiques of his focus on contemplation rather than political engagement; and how he understood the relationship between aesthetic contemplation and philosophical contemplation.

You can listen to or download the podcast here.

Philosophy and the Rise of Fascism

A Symposium on Lukác’s Destruction of Reason

February 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 2022, 5 – 8 pm EST (via Zoom)

Join us for a three-day symposium centered around discussion of the legacy and importance of György Lukács’s 1954 work, The Destruction of Reason, one of the most important twentieth century works of philosophy, hosted by Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics, Deakin University, and Verso Books

Presenters

Mariana Teixeira, Freie Universität Berlin

Vanessa Wills, George Washington University

Dirk Moses, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Adrian Johnston, University of New Mexico

Carl Sachs, Marymount University

Daniel Lopez, Jacobin Magazine

Ishay Landa, Open University of Israel

Margit Köves, Delhi University

Tijana Okić, Scuola Normale Superiore

Organizers

Daniel Tutt, Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics

Matthew Sharpe, Deakin University

Please  RSVP to A/Prof. Sharpe

Philosophical Perspectives on Artistic Agency: A day-long workshop 

Friday, November 19^th, 2021 

(All sessions will be held online via zoom, all session times AEDT) 

What do artists “do” when they make art? Where does the artist end and her work begin? How might accounts of the agency at work in artistic creation help us to think agency more generally? Does artistic agency have political implications? These questions and more will animate our discussions during this day-long virtual workshop, hosted by the Philosophy and History of Ideas Research Group (PHI) at Deakin University. The workshop will bring together scholars working on themes related to artistic agency for a series of short presentations and informal discussions. All are welcome.  

Zoom Details 

Topic: Philosophical Perspectives on Artistic Agency 

Time: Nov 19, 2021 09:30 AM Australia/Melbourne 

Join Zoom Meeting 

https://deakin.zoom.us/j/86180097516?pwd=VnFvZkVCSVZZNUI0UEFNK3ZtQjNUdz09 

Meeting ID: 861 8009 7516 

Password: 09046113 

Program  

9.30 – 9:45am 

Welcome 

(Timothy Deane-Freeman and Alistair Macaulay, Deakin University) 

9:45 – 10:45am 

Riding the Currents of Creation, Agents and Actants in the Field of Dance  

Philipa Rothfield (University of Southern Denmark, La Trobe University) 

10:45 – 11:45am 

Intentionality without Ends: reading Klossowski’s Nietzsche alongside Practising Theory 

Antonia Pont (Deakin University) 

11:45 – 12pm 

Coffee Break 

12 – 1pm 

The Genesis of an Improvisational Space: Cleaning the Canvas and the Thread of a Tune 

Alistair Macaulay (Deakin University)  

1-2pm 

Lunch 

2 – 3pm 

Artistic Agency and the Painting of Sensation: Francis Bacon’s Challenge to the Standard Theory of Action 

Sean Bowden (Deakin University)  

3 – 4pm 

Castoriadis on the Creation of the Individual 

Gavin Rae (Universidad Compultense de Madrid) 

4 – 4:15pm 

Coffee Break 

4:15 – 5:15pm 

Machinic Agents: Schizoanalysis and the Semiotics of Nature 

Timothy Deane-Freeman (Deakin University)  

Abstracts and author bios: https://philevents.org/event/show/93993 

This event will take place primarily on unceded land belonging to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. 

A/Prof Matthew Sharpe has published a piece via ABC Religion and Ethics on countering the appeal of the far right in contemporary politics:  

If we are to combat recruitment into the ranks of the far right, even among the well-educated in our communities, we need to face the uncomfortable fact that forms of right-wing libertarianism, misogyny, ethnonationalism, neo-Nazism, and accelerationism (the desire to “speed up” the purportedly inevitable collapse of the liberal democracies) have powerful appeal among certain groups — especially in periods of distress and social, political, and economic alienation like we face in the era of the global financial crisis, debt and immigration crises in Europe, and now the global pandemic.

The article can be read in full here.

Deakin’s Prof. Jack Reynolds and Dr Marilyn Stendera are presenting at the forthcoming “Reassessing the Relationship between Explanation and Phenomenology” online workshop, October 4-7 2021:  

“It is often claimed that phenomenology is not an explanatory enterprise, yet the motivations for this claim are not often spelled out explicitly. At the same time, for empirical science, explanation is a key concern, and there are a variety of suggestions currently under debate on how best to marry phenomenology with empirical science. Similarly, there are currently numerous types of explanation under discussion within analytic philosophy of science. This hybrid workshop brings together leading interdisciplinary scholars with the intention of furthering the understanding of the relationship between phenomenology and explanation in the areas of philosophy, cognitive science, and psychology.

“Our workshop is in preparation for a special issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences due for release in 2022/23 being edited by Heath Williams (University of Notre Dame Australia) and Kristina Musholt (University of Leipzig). Each presenter is an invited contributor to the special issue. The workshop is hosted by the University of Leipzig philosophy department, and is in a ‘hybrid’ format. Some speakers will be present in Leipzig whereas others will present from locations across the globe such as Australia and the US.

“The focus of our workshop is on engaging in constructive dialogue with the aim of improving the quality of contributions to the special issue. Each presenter is assigned a primary ‘respondent’ who will be expected to pre-read their contribution and prepare a critical and constructive commentary. We are also making papers available for pre-reading approximately two weeks before the conference for the general public to read and comment. Presentations during the workshop are expected to be kept relatively short in order to allow for plenty of time for discussion. We are planning to record presentations as well as the Q&A session and to make recordings available via this website.

All interested scholars are invited to participate in the workshop. Registration is free, but the number of places available is limited.”

 

https://www.explanationandphenomenology.com/

A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe was a guest on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live with Phillip Adams, discussing the increasing popularity of stoicism. 

Listen to the interview here.

Couldn’t make it to our recent fortnightly philosophy research seminars? Catch up on the recordings here! 

• Miguel Vatter, Atheism, Post-secularism and the Legitimacy of Democracy 
• Matthew Sharpe, Anais’ New Covenant: Montesquieu & the theologico-sexual politics of despotism in the Persian Letters 

And here’s the video of Christopher Mayes, From pastoral power to paddocking power: Rethinking Foucault’s conception in Australia:

Stoicon-x, a convention for stoics and people interested in stoicism, is taking place in Melbourne on 30 October 2021. 

The event features a keynote from former NSW Premier Bob Carr, while Deakin’s A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe will be interviewing Australian tennis great Pat Cash.

Stoicon-x is designed for people interested in taking their first steps on a journey to a Stoic life or for those who are already living a Stoic life and want to delve deeper into how and why it’s a valid philosophy for life in the unfolding world of covid.

For more details, visit the Stoicon-x website.

A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe has appeared on ABC Radio National’s Sunday Extra‘s ‘The Round Table,’ in a discussion of how stoicism can help in dealing with the pandemic:

The Ancient Greek philosophy has seen a revival in the last decade, which has rapidly accelerated during the pandemic. Is Stoicism, with its focus on emotional regulation, acceptance and self-awareness, the key to greater resilience during lockdown? 

The program can be downloaded here, via the ABC Listen app, or via your preferred podcast platform.