[Submission Deadline has been extended to January 31st 2013. Please visit
www.translatingrealismconference.wordpress.com for more information and
conference updates.]
Translating Realism: The Nature and Emergence of Contemporary French Thought
An Interdisciplinary Conference
Keynote Speakers:
Adrian Johnston (University of New Mexico)
Dorothea Olkowski (UCCS/Rotman Institute)
Michael Naas (Depaul)
We are pleased to announce that on May 10-11 2013, we will be hosting a conference on the
emergence and renewal of French thought in the 21st century at the University of Notre
Dame.
In the last decade, the cutting edge of French thought appears to have changed radically.
Questions of metaphysics, of realism, science, and objectivity, of the end of critique, which
might have been proscribed a generation ago, seem to take pride of place. This conference is
in part, then, a contribution to a history of the present. Our aim is to provide a genealogy, an
account of the present moment in French thought, broadly speaking. We intend to improve
our understanding of the non-discursive, material agents – local, global, institutional, social,
political, and otherwise – that have jointly made the present moment in French thought
possible. However, we also intend to make an intervention in present debates, responding to
current dilemmas and puzzles. We would like to gain a firm grasp on the strictly conceptual
issues at stake, and start charting both dead ends and new ways forward. If the dream of
much 21st century French thought is to burst existing constraints, in ways both accountable
to and transformative of the very real networks in which it finds itself, we would like to start
tracing the most promising fault-lines.
In the interests of fostering as intensive and wide-ranging discussion as possible, as well as
future collaboration, we hope to organize panels of consisting of both graduate students and
faculty.
With all of this in mind, we have decided to orient our conference along two axes:
- Realist philosophy in French context: the appearance of specifically French strains of realism and materialism, whether scientific or speculative, signals a stunning change in theoretical concern from only a decade or two ago. We are confronted with the “irreductive” reflections on scientific theory and practice of Latour and Serres, the rationalist materialism of Badiou and Meillassoux, and the speculative – though differing – philosophies of Malabou, Stengers, Laruelle and Deleuze. Similarly, we find speculative, realist, and/or metaphysical themes in more traditional philosophical programmes: speculative philosophies of life, for example, in the phenomenology of Renaud Barbaras and Michel Henry. Beyond merely tracking influences and identifying ideas, we hope to specify the varieties of French realism their convergences and divergences, the theoretical problems to which they respond and, perhaps most importantly, their conceptual, argumentative supports and limitations.
- Translation: though the focus of our conference is contemporary French thought, it would be naïve, at best, to ignore the importance of translation, in a broad sense, in its development. Contemporary French thought has developed to a great degree through processes of literal translation, through dialogue and the establishment of links across individuals and disciplines, both within France and across national boundaries. Further, contemporary French thought is thoroughly engaged in translation in a broad sense, transmitting into new contexts and transforming the concepts of thinkers from Hume to William James and A. N. Whitehead to Bloor and Pickering. Thought never emerges in a vacuum, and the work of translation does not take place in a void. We are interested in discussions of the specific sorts of media through which these translations and transformations have taken place, from cyberspace to international conferences to collaborative research programmes, and their effects on the development of French realism.
We encourage submissions that relate broadly to either of these axes. Some suggestions
include:
- Serres, Latour, and the end of critique
- the relation and constraints of science and metaphysics in French thought
- Deleuze’s realism
- theological speculation in Meillasoux, Marion, and/or others
- the metaphysics of individuation (e.g. Simondon, Stiegler)
- new forms of radical and/or egalitarian French political theory (e.g. Badiou, Rancière)
- the impact of American/pragmatist thought on contemporary French philosophy (e.g. Stengers)
- the reorientation or translation of the legacies of, e.g., Derrida, Merleau-Ponty, etc.
- theological and non-theological metaphysics in the French phenomenological tradition
- the heritage, legacies, and futures of psychoanalysis in the 21st century
- the flat ontology of Tristan Garcia
- rethinking temporality beyond phenomenology (e.g. in Ricoeur, Lyotard, Badiou)
- the impact of international developments in sociology of science on French thought
- the development of the sociology of critique
- Laruelle and the transformation of the “end of philosophy”
- the institutionalization and development of historical epistemology in, e.g., the Max Planck
- Institute
- the relation (and conflicts) between realism, natural, and materialism in various French
- thinkers.
- plasticity, science, and naturalism
High-quality submissions on other dimensions of contemporary French thought are also
welcome.
Papers should be prepared for blind-review, and should be suitable for a presentation of 20-
25 minutes. Deadline for submission is January 31 2013.
Presenters will be provided with lodging and most meals. There may be funds available to
subsidize some graduate student travel. Schedules and travel information will be posted at
www.translatingrealismconference.wordpress.com as they become available.
Submissions can be sent to translatingrealismconference@gmail.com.