Parrhesia: School of Philosophy, Berlin

Ancient prison for philosopher corrupters of the youth.

THIS EVENING in Berlin! The winter (of our discontent) is long. Interrupting it collectively seems imperative. Come to Vierte Welt this Wednesday evening at 7-9 pm to listen to Leon Brenner distill the tactics and strategy of psychoanalytic treatment. You are also welome to join us online via Zoom.

We will be discussing the distinctive nature of Lacanian psychoanalysis in terms of its subject matter and act as well as what it passes down to us, as psychoanalysts, or even as philosophers.

Please register here: https://parrhesia-berlin.net/

Come and join in this important discussion on statehood. All are welcome.

Participate in-person or online via Zoom.

Register at the door or online at http://Parrhesia-Berlin.net/courses/autumn-2023

Dear Friends,

You are warmly enjoined to come and discuss the conditions and incisiveness of "Thought in the Act".

There will be a series of courses and talks across October and November on Lacan and clinical practice; Rancière, art, theatre and politics; AI and labour; Israel and the question of the state; pedagogical experiments; and embodied critical practice.

Make a note!

Many thanks for the poster go to Joulia Strauss (drawing) and Natasa Efstathiadi Nata Souko (design)

TONIGHT! Reminder that Cindy Zeiher, having come all the way from New Zealand, is going to talk on "Disrupting Collective Destinies: Freud on History, Myth and Repetition". More details at: https://parrhesia-berlin.net/courses/spring-2023
Zeiher is the author, with Ed Pluth, of On Silence: Holding the Voice Hostage
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-28147-2

Disrupting Collective Destinies: Freud on History, Myth and Repetition

A talk by Cindy Zeiher

For Freud, memories of the past serve as affective markers for the cultivation of myth: we stick to historical signifiers in order to understand the antagonisms of the present. From a Freudian perspective however, history is not so reliable, but the myths accompanying its structure are. Accordingly, we can appreciate how patterns of history and its ‘witnessing’ provoke mythic memories. This seminar explores Freud’s ‘anthropology’ as a feminist intervention attuned to the particular suffering of patriarchal ‘authorities’.

Value, Exchange, and Heinrich’s ‘New Reading of Marx’: Remarks on Marx’s Value-Theory, 1867–72 Abstract The exclusive emergence of value and abstract human labour through exchange of mere products is a fundamental principle within the ‘New Reading of Marx’, especially that of Michael Heinrich. He invokes both Capital and the manuscript Additions and Changes, where Marx revised his value-f...

Samuel Beckett - MSCP A symposium on Samuel Beckett - June 15 and 17 2023.

Fascinating session with Michael Heinrich and Patrick Eiden-Offe on how to write good biographies of radical political thinkers. Or why good biography alters how we view the approaches of good Marxists themselves (Althusserians and Negrians take note). Eye-opening discussion.

Reminder that, starting tomorrow, Prof Richard Dienst will guide us on a 5 tour of Foucault's crucial work on the ancient Greek thought and practice of parrhesia, 'the courage to speak truth to power'.
What was going on in ancient Greece? How can it orient us around the theme of truth and truthful speech today?

Richard Dienst is the author, notably, of 'The Bonds of Debt: Borrowing against the Common Good' https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2187-the-bonds-of-debt .

When: Wednesday April 19, 7-9 pm
Where: Gerichtstrasse 45, 13347 Berlin Wedding.

Come and join us tomorrow, April 18, 7-9pm for discussions on how this cat can avoid biting its own tail. Estelle Ferrarese will discuss how the Dialectic of Enlightenment sheds light on care ethics in the dynamics of contemporary capitalism. Does ethical consumption achieve its goals? Are there collective procedures of care that sketch a path other than that of today's Cannibal Capitalism (as Nancy Fraser titles her most recent book, which will also be discussed)?
Please register on the website https://parrhesia-berlin.net/courses/spring-2023

All are warmly welcomed to the Spring Semester for 2023

Philosophy, Formalization & Truth as Creative Process

We continue on from last year with a series of courses and workshops that deepen our approach to philosophical formalization, to questions of truth as a procedure or practice, the situation of global politics today, and a leftist approach to biography!

Registration is now open at https://parrhesia-berlin.net/courses/spring-2023

All come next Wednesday, February 8, from 7.30 to 9.30 pm!

We are delighted to announce that opening this year's Parrhesia is Antonio A. Casilli, who will be delivering a talk on

"The automaton and the pieceworker: Artificial intelligence, data annotation, and global labor arbitrage"

The event is free of charge (donations are welcome!) and participants can attend in person or online. For those wanting to attend online, please register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-automaton-and-the-pieceworker-ai-and-global-labor-arbitrage-tickets-521034878347

We look forward to seeing you all at the spacious and cozy venue of Hopscotch Reading Room at Gerichtstrasse 45 in Berlin-Wedding.

A few words about the lecture:

Artificial intelligence relies heavily on data annotation, which involves labeling data sets in a way that allows machines to learn from them. This is a labor-intensive task that is often outsourced to platforms and firms located in low-income countries. Global labor arbitrage lies at the heart of today's artificial intelligence. It allows tech companies to pay this "unskilled" digital labor by the piece. It is a condition that contributes to endemic precarity on the labor market, especially in the global South. In this presentation, Antonio will review recent empirical evidence of changes and struggles in the field of data work in African and Latin American countries based on a decade of research. He will then examine contemporary concerns about the destruction of jobs due to automation not in terms of replacing workers, but rather as a result of precarization and formalization.

About the speaker:
Antonio A. CASILLI is a professor of sociology at Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and a researcher at the Institut Interdisciplinaire de l'Innovation (i3), a joint research unit of the CNRS. His research focuses on digital communication, fundamental rights, and the future of work. He is the co-founder of the DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor) research program and of the INDL (International Network on Digital Labor). In addition to several scientific publications in French, English and Italian, he is the author of En attendant les robots (Seuil, 2019/Points 2021), an investigation of the low-paid click work required to train artificial intelligences. In 2020 he was editorial advisor for the France Télévisions documentary series "Invisibles - Les travailleurs du clic", based on his research.

( 📷source:https://partage.imt.fr/index.php/s/WCbokiTiiNSydyW)

In welcoming the New Year, Parrhesia Berlin would like to express its endless gratitude to the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy for all its inspiring work and practical support in helping us forge a philosophical space of learning and debate in Berlin this year!

In 2023 we will deepen the lines of thought we have already opened - on Fanon, decolonial thinking and social therapy, on radical anthropology, on political, artistic and educational practice, on philosophy and psychoanalysis, on structures of memory and manifesto, on contemporary capitalism, and so on -- and pursue new threads of philosophical inquiry!

We would like to wish a Joyous New Year to all the participants and teachers for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm, with a special mention for including the five-year old Mira Kusiak-Corcoran, for all her great postering and sticker work on the streets and in the bars of Berlin.

We began with an event hosted by Alex Karschnia at the Volksbühne to discuss structures of education and solidarity with Vasyl Cherepanyn of the VCRC in Kyiv, and Joulia Strauss of Avtonomi Akadimia in Athens, with whom we hope to do more collaborative work this year (📷 4). A host of courses ensued: Gal Kirn with Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro from the Nyabinghi Lab (📷 2). Anne Dippel Gilles Delire with Joulia Strauss (📷 3) and Marlon Miguel and Elena Vogman (📷 1), Eva von Redecker and Bibi Stewart (📷 5), Elad Lapidot (📷 6), Steve Corcoran, and, lastly, Leon Brenner (📷 7). And there were three engaging talks given by Samo Tomšič (📷 8 ) Eraldo Souza Dos Santos (📷 9) and by Derek Hook, which was held in collaboration with Unconscious Berlin (📷 10). Many wonderful thanks to everyone for the knowledge sharing and collective thinking.

Our presence in the city was supported and able to thrive thanks to the Hopscotch Reading Room and Siddhartha Lokanandi, with whom we sought to develop the space at Gerichtstrasse 45 in Wedding, Berlin, to diffrakt : zentrum für theoretische peripherie who extended us a comradely hand in a time of need by allowing us to use their great premises at Merve Verlag; and to Vierte Welt who were fantastic hosts for our memorable summer courses!

Lastly, many thanks go to the efforts of the rest of the Parrhesia team -- Elad Lapidot, Daniela Voss, Korina Pavlidou, Joulia Strauss, Anne Dipple, Max Lowdin, and Gal Kirn! This year we are very happy to welcome Audre Gruodyte, who will be working with us in Berlin until June and hopefully beyond!

Details of our spring courses, which start in March 2023, are forthcoming! Come and join us to develop Parrhesia, that is to say, a public practice of philosophy in connection with affirmative forms of political, artistic, scientific and amorous thought.

To keep updated, sign up for our newsletter on the Parrhesia website (https://parrhesia-berlin.net/). We are also on twitter (https://twitter.com/ParrhesiaBerlin and IG (https://www.instagram.com/parrhesiaberlin).

Stay in touch and let's make 2023 a philosophically joyous year!

--
Steve Corcoran
Parrhesia: School of Philosophy, Berlin, e.V.