Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Friday, 14 November 2014.

In recent years, philosophers working in the Anglo-American tradition have paid a significant amount of attention to groups. Particular areas of focus have included collective intentionality, the ontology of collective action, and collective responsibility. On the other hand, while not necessarily sharing the same concerns, French philosophical thought in the 20^th and 21^st centuries has seen the proliferation of a number of novel ways of thinking about groups and other collective phenomena: Lacan’s work on the ‘big Other’; Sartre’s analysis of the formation and structure of groups in the Critique of Dialectical Reason; Simondon’s work on psychic and collective individuation; Deleuze’s and Guattari’s thinking about the relation between ‘collective assemblages of enunciation’ and ‘machinic assemblages of bodies’; Badiou’s (but also Rancière’s) work on collective political subjects, and so on.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers interested in exploring the contributions that contemporary French thought can make to recent philosophical theorizing about groups. In particular, we are interested in exploring novel ways to conceptualize the relation between individuals who can be said to ‘share’ intentions and agency. A small number of speaking slots are available. Prospective speakers are asked to email a short summary of their proposed papers (no more than 300 words) to [email protected] by Monday, 1 September 2014.

The workshop is hosted by the European Philosophy and the History of Ideas research group.

Burwood Corporate Centre, Deakin University, Melbourne Friday 7th November

Researchers across a number of disciplines have noted that the internet, and especially the increasing ubiquity of social media, is changing the ways in which the dead figure in the lives of the living. New means of commemorating, remembering, forgetting, interacting with and even denigrating the dead have emerged in online contexts, from online memorial sites, to new conventions of public mourning, to Facebook users continuing to post on the walls of deceased friends, to speculative new technologies that will create interactive avatars of the dead. Such practices raise important questions about the ontological, ethical, and social standing of the electronically-mediated dead and the digital ‘remains’ in which they are instantiated.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on this topic from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, media studies, cultural studies and sociology. A small number of speaking slots are available. Prospective speakers are asked to email a short (<300 word) summary to [email protected] by Friday 5th September.

If you would like to attend this workshop please email Neil Henderson ([email protected]); attendance is free but registration is required for catering purposes.

This event is being held as part of “Online Interactions With The Dead,” a one-year research project funded by Deakin University. The workshop is hosted by the European Philosophy and the History of Ideas group.

On July 22, Dr Talia Morag from the University of Sydney will present a paper titled “A Naturalized Conception of the Unconscious”.

The seminar will take place from 4pm to 5.30pm at our Burwood Campus, room C2.05.

For further information, please see the Philevents entry.

Next Tuesday, July 15, Dr Ashley Woodward from the University of Dundee will be giving a paper titled “Information and Event”. The abstract for the talk and Ash’s bio can be found on PhilEvents.

The talk will run from 4pm to 5.30pm, room C2.05, Deakin Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood.

All welcome!

 3rd-4th July,. Monash  University Caulfield Campus

This is the first of a series of workshops based on the Australian Research Council Discovery grant, ‘Reinventing Philosophy as a Way of Life’. The Discovery project investigates early modern and modern reinventions of the idea of philosophy as a ‘way of life’. In this workshop our speakers will investigate the salience and formative role of this ancient model of philosophy in the work of Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus and Deleuze.

Details of the workshop can be found here.

This Tuesday 17th June, Deakin’s own Professor Stan van Hooft caps off his storied and celebrated career with a talk on his “Theory of Everything.”

The talk will be held at 4-5:30pm, room C2.05 Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood. (Details on PhilEvents)

All welcome!

The philosophy group at Deakin is saddened by the passing of Professor Emeritus Max Charlesworth AO, who passed away on 2nd June 2014 in Melbourne aged 89.

Professor Charlesworth was Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne before becoming Planning Dean of the School of Humanities at the newly-formed Deakin University in 1976 and Professor of Philosophy from 1980.

Across his long career Max made outstanding contributions to philosophy in Australia, principally in the fields of Contemporary European philosophy, bioethics and the philosophy of religion, not least as the founder of the journal Sophia. He made many innovations in education and was a prominent public intellectual.

As a founder and leading light of this department for many years, Deakin philosophy owes him an enormous debt of gratitude, and he leaves behind many friends and admirers here. He will be greatly missed.

The Australasian Association of Philosophy has established a Tributes Page, where those who knew Max are invited to share their recollections.