Since the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire has been important for disseminating the concept of dialogue in education. Dialogue is often framed as the kind of interaction that educators should enact in their practice, to right historical and socio-political wrongs. With this, speaking and assuming one’s voice has a special place in education, but this paper argues for the significance of listening for any conceptualisation of dialogue. Starting with a description of an event that Freire described as (...) the ‘clearest and most bruising lesson’ of his life as an educator, this paper undertakes a phenomenology of the error leading to his development of dialogue as an educational praxis. From this the paper addresses the question ‘how do we learn when we are wrong?,’ and argues against an exclusively epistemological perspective on dialogue and ‘being wrong’ in favour of an ontological framing of dialogue and ‘being in error’. (shrink)

The leading contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou has been a lifelong devotee of Beckett's work. This ground-breaking study provides a full introduction to and critique of Badiou's philosophy, politics, ethics and aesthetics, and his interpretation of the Irish writer, as a basis for a major new reading of the Beckett corpus.

Concerned with the possibilty of a postmodern ethics of reading. Each chapter discusses a particular aspects of Levina's thought and also contained detailed analysis of particular texts.

Explores the concept of historical intermittency in 5 recent French philosophers. Andrew Gibson engages with five recent and contemporary French philosophers, Badiou, Jambet, Lardreau, Francoise Proust and Ranciere, who each produce a post-Hegelian philosophy of history founded on an assertion of the intermittency of historical value. Gibson explores this `anti-schematics of historical reason' and its implication for politics, ethics and aesthetics in a wide range of modern intellectual contexts, finding its necessary complement and most powerful expression in a wealth of (...) modern art, chiefly modern literature. The result is a sustained reflection on the possible character of a contemporary philosophy of history and an important contribution to our knowledge of contemporary French philosophy. (shrink)

This book is the first major study of the theme of misanthropy, its history, arguments both for and against it, and its significance for us today. Misanthropy is not strictly a philosophy. It is an inconsistent thought, and so has often been mocked. But from Timon of Athens to Motörhead it has had a very long life, vast historical purchase and is seemingly indomitable and unignorable. Human beings have always nursed a profound distrust of who and what they are. This (...) book does not seek to rationalize that distrust, but asks how far misanthropy might have a reason on its side, if a confused reason. There are obvious arguments against misanthropy. It is often born of a hatred of physical being. It can be historically explained. It particularly appears in undemocratic cultures. But what of the misanthropy of terminally defeated and disempowered peoples? Or born of progressivisms? Or the misanthropy that quarrels with specious or easy positivities (from Pelagius to Leibniz to the corporate cheer of contemporary `total capital`)? From the Greek Cynics to Roman satire, St Augustine to Jacobean drama, the misanthropy of the French Ancien Regime to Swift, Smollett and Johnson, Hobbes, Schopenhauer and Rousseau, from the Irish and American misanthropic traditions to modern women`s misanthropy, the book explores such questions. It ends with a debate about contemporary culture that ranges from the `dark radicalisms`, queer misanthropy, posthumanism and eco-misanthropy to Houellebecq, punk rock and gangsta rap. (shrink)

Discussions about the role of universities have long been framed in terms of questions of what is good for the public, as well as how and whether higher education serves that good. Today, the language of societal impact has become an accepted way for policymakers to frame the matter, but just who is included in the underlying definition of society that this formulation presupposes? In this paper, we consider how society has been constructed in discussions of the societal impact of (...) humanities research in Denmark, through an engagement with legislation, national political commentary, and institutional policy. We draw on the work of Martin Heidegger and Simone Weil to analyse the vision of society these policies construct. We conclude with proposals for alternative societies and forms of policy that these philosophers make possible. (shrink)

Discussions about the role of universities have long been framed in terms of questions of what is good for the public, as well as how and whether higher education serves that good. Today, the language of ‘societal impact’ has become an accepted way for policymakers to frame the matter, but just who is included in the underlying definition of society that this formulation presupposes? In this paper, we consider how ‘society’ has been constructed in discussions of the societal impact of (...) humanities research in Denmark, through an engagement with legislation, national political commentary, and institutional policy. We draw on the work of Martin Heidegger and Simone Weil to analyse, through an ontology of policy approach, the vision of society these policies construct. We conclude with proposals for alternative societies and forms of policy that these philosophers make possible. (shrink)

The border-crossing nature of science is well recognised, and has long been a focus of policy-makers with an interest in governing this space. The international aspect of the humanities is less clearly understood, and the extent to which it has been a focus of policy is similarly not well conceptualised. UNESCO’s efforts in this area provide a useful corpus of texts through which international humanities policy can be explored. Drawing on Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectics, this paper considers what UNESCO’s attempts (...) at developing international humanities policy have to say about the ontological status of the humanities, and of policy itself. In setting out an ontology of policy, it generates a concept of ‘world humanities’ as a means of reconstituting the humanities its own specific mode of inquiry and form of knowledge. (shrink)

This paper argues against the apparently benign concept of ‘academic citizenship,’ drawing on resources and conceptual precedents from within higher education generally and philosophy specifically. It does so not only in order to offer a critique, however. By considering the directions from which criticism can be levelled at the notion of ‘citizenship’, and the State-centric conceptualisation of the university underlying it, an argument for an alternative conceptualisation of academic being is offered. Ontology is suggested as a suitable route to dealing (...) with the urgency of the questions confronting those inhabiting contemporary higher education. Drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, along with Isabelle Stengers, it proposes a ‘nomad ontology’ as both a form of analysis and possible mode of being for academics. (shrink)

Drawing on the works of philosophers Charles Taylor and Joseph Heath, this paper argues that the critique of consumerism is too often separated into an emphasis on “ideas” or “practices.” Taylor’s critique is set against the backdrop of his interpretation of the ideas and values that are constitutive of Western selfhood. To engage in excessive consumption, on this view, is to betray the ideals underlying one’s cultural identity. Heath, by contrast, argues that critics of consumerism must avoid this kind of (...) ideas-based social criticism because it is not only unproductive, but also illiberal and elitist. The phenomenon of consumerism must be approached, rather, by way of an institutional critique that treats excessive consumption as a collective action problem arising within the context of the market economy. The paper argues that while Heath makes an invaluable contribution to the critique of consumerism, his misunderstanding of the importance of ideas is such that his critique ultimately lacks vigor and persuasiveness. (shrink)

The article lays down the broad strokes of an interpretive approach to social criticism. In developing this approach, the author stresses the importance of both a pluralistic notion of social justice and a rich ideal of personal growth. While objecting to one-dimensional conceptions of social justice centering on legal equality, the author develops the idea of there being multiple "spheres of justice", including the spheres of "care" and "merit". Each of these spheres, he argues, is subject to historical interpretation. He (...) furthers this view by arguing that the social basis for these different spheres is best understood against the canvas of an ideal of self-fulfillment and individuality. Based on the elaboration of these two sets of premises—a pluralistic conception of social justice and a collective ideal of personal self-fulfillment—the article outlines the basis for and challenges inherent to the practice of interpretive social criticism. (shrink)

Françoise Proust’s essential points of reference are Kant and Walter Benjamin. Alain Badiou ignores the extraordinary and sometimes beautiful dark power of Proust’s work on Benjamin. As is clear, however, from both Daniel Bensaïd’s interview with Proust and the title of Élizabeth Lemirre and Catherine Perret’s memorial volume (Une philosophie de la résistance: Françoise Proust), the concept of Proust that is most likely to become the dominant one is not Badiou’s, but rather the concept of her as above all a (...) philosopher of `resistance’. (shrink)

Timothy Murray _Like a Film: Ideological Fantasy on Screen, Camera and Canvas_ London: Routledge, 1993 0-415-07734-6 267 pages.

This book reconstructs the narratological system and its geometrics.Bachelard set out to study the psychological problem presented by our convictions about fire.

The wider conditions of society and our own personal circumstances do not simply disappear as we cross the threshold into the research world. The illusion of life in academic research as an abstract ‘life of the mind’ is unsustainable. Outside academia, wider social changes have come to have an increasingly profound influence on our working lives. Within the academy, changing employment conditions and funding for higher education in recent decades have led to an increasingly insecure existence for those undertaking PhDs (...) and further research. Slow change is happening in response, with more focus being given to precarity within the academy, the mental health needs of early career researchers, and presenting a more honest and open picture of what it’s like to build an academic career. The Affective Researcher confronts this challenge of defining a new relationship between researchers and their research. It sets out, simply and accessibly, how you can become a more rounded, authentic researcher. It does this not in terms of the risk management of a methods section, or by cordoning off subjectivity as a threat to supposed objectivity. Nor is it another book on being a more ‘effective’ researcher. Instead, it sets out a path of how to become a more affective researcher. The chapters draw together a variety of threads from a number of discourses to provide a roadmap, as well as accompanying concepts and tools, for researchers to assert their agency over the research process through the integration of the affective perspective. (shrink)