Graduate Researcher Seminar Wednesday 23 July 1.15pm

READING WRITING FUTURES Graduate Researcher Monthly Seminar

We meet again this month, the fourth Wednesday, in our community of graduate researchers, staff and fellow practitioners and scholars for READING WRITING FUTURES.

On 23 July 1.15 to 2pm, we will be lucky to hear from current doctoral candidate Sajad Kabgani. Please find the abstract below, and we look forward to your company, conversation and engagement with this fantastic work.

In the caverns of German idealism: Remembering reality in Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams

In response to the various human-induced catastrophes (most tangible in environmental crisis), a group of philosophers have found the solution in adopting a realist view. In philosophical terms, this approach by critiquing rationalism inherent in (German) idealism, argues for an objective, mind-independent view which renders human perspective either marginal – conceiving it as one among many others – or entirely redundant. In this presentation, I critically examine the above observation in the context of Werner Herzog’s film Cave of Forgotten Dreams. I argue that Herzog in this film, without necessarily defending a rationalistic/idealist perspective, demonstrates that the inherent subjectivity of time and space causes reality to lose its homogeneous totality, hence preventing the establishment of an unyielding normativity. In this way, the reality conjured up here potentially harbours an essential ethical promise, making us aware of its contingent structure. This argument is informed by Kant’s conceptualisation of time and space, Deleuze’s take on simulacra and Nietzsche’s notion of the sublime.

Sajad Kabgani is currently doing his PhD in philosophy at Deakin University, Australia. Sajad’s research is informed by continental philosophy (Deleuze, Levinas, Blanchot, Bataille, among others), psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan), and critical race studies (Sylvia Wynter). He is interested in questions of subjectivity, time and ethics. He has published papers in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory. He previously earned a PhD in educational philosophy from UNSW, Sydney.

https://deakin.zoom.us/j/81913025666?pwd=UbvuvwXt50AUz4rwtECM7UCYGGRwUa.1

Meeting ID: 819 1302 5666

Passcode: 37913633