Wednesday
'Slavoj Zizek: the Elvis of Philosophy' a talk by Chris Bainbridge Tuesday 12 January 2016
Abstract:
"The Elvis of philosophers", "the Giant of Ljubljana", and "the thinker of choice for Europe's young intellectual vanguard" are just some of the descriptions of 66-year-old Slovenian-born philosopher Slavoj Zizek. "To witness Zizek in full flight is a dizzying and at times alarming experience, part philosophical tightrope walk, part performance-art marathon, part intellectual roller-coaster ride" (Sean O'Hagan, the Observer).
Zizek has published some 60 books in his lifetime, 6 in 2014 alone. You meet the same ideas and identical chunks of text in several of his works, but it's still a Stakhanovite feat. There is even an institute of Zizek studies.
He illustrates his points with an extremely wide range of cultural references, including Jane Austen, Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Wagner, Eric Satie, and recent films such as "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer" ( a lesser known aspect of the great US president's early career).
His great influences are Hegel, Marx, Christianity and the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. But does it all add up to a coherent philosophy? Some argue that beneath the firework displays of provocative jokes and unconventional use of language his thoughts are unoriginal and banal. Are they right? "
Tuesday
Our Next talk is by Philip Collins, 'How Does the Philosophy of Politics Connect to the Practice?' on 10 November at 7.30 pm
Abstract:
The idea of the good society is a staple of political philosophy on the Left. It has taken many forms but it may in fact be more of a hindrance in the practice of politics than most people on the Left acknowledge. As someone who has been a political philosopher and a practitioner there has always seemed to be very little relation between the two disciplines. But what is political philosophy for if not to inform the conduct of politics? It is, to be sure, about imagination, critique and legitimation too. But in the end the point, as Marx said, "is to change the world".
Sunday
'Up Close and Personal: The Private Lives of Public Figures' a talk by Prof Sue Mendus, 13 October 2015
Up Close and Personal: The Private Lives of
Public Figures
Over the years numerous public
figures have had their careers damaged or even destroyed by revelations about
their private lives: the Monica Lewinsky affair almost brought down President
Clinton, Cecil Parkinson fell rapidly, and dramatically, from grace when his
affair with Sarah Keays was made public and, most recently, Lord Sewel was
forced to resign as deputy speaker for the House of Lords when his interest in
prostitutes and orange bras was made public.
Revelations of this kind are
often defended as being in the public interest, but do we (the people) really
have an interest in knowing about the private lives of public figures? How much
can we legitimately demand to know about them, and how much is (or should be)
private? These are the questions I will address in this talk and I will take as
my central example the case of Judge Clarence Thomas and Ms Anita Hill[1].
The talk will last about 30
minutes and I hope that there will be a lively discussion afterwards.
Sue Mendus
[1]
I will give the broad outline of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill affair during
my talk but, for those who wish to look this up in advance, they are to be
found here: https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/hillframe.htm
'Socrates and Antigone: Two ways not to be martyred' a talk by Prof Sophie-Grace Chappell 8 September 2015 7.30 - 9pm
Not all martyrdoms[1]
are worth it. Some martyrdoms are not worth it even in the martyr’s own terms.
Here I argue first– very briefly– that Antigone’s martyrdom was worth it, at
least in her own terms (§1). At greater length I argue next that, in contrast,
Socrates’ martyrdom was not worth it, even in (what we might have expected to
be) his own terms (§2). Then (§3) I examine their “terms”, their beliefs, as
depicted in Plato’s Crito and Sophocles’ Antigone respectively.
This examination will produce the surprise that Socrates’ terms are not what we
might have expected them to be.
[1] I use “martyrdom” to mean “any choice to accept death which is made by
an agent on the grounds that adherence to his or her principles makes death
unavoidable, given the behaviour of others”. It is no objection to this
definition that Antigone dies by her own hand, and might have been saved. For
Antigone did “accept death”, and she did not know that her own death was not
unavoidable, since she had no reason to expect that Creon was going to change
his mind at the last minute.
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