University of Brighton Philosophy Society

PHILOSOPHY TALK THIS THURSDAY, 13TH DECEMBER

ANDREW DAY, THE PHILOSOPHY FOUNDATION:

PHILOSOPHY IN SCHOOLS - HOW AND WHY

PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY TALK THIS THURSDAY, 15TH NOVEMBER

Andy Knott (University of Brighton):

Machiavelli: Two dispositions, or three?

Abstract:

In all three of his books dealing with internal affairs -- The Prince,The Discourses and The Florentine Histories -- Machiavelli asserts that there are two dispositions in all cities or states: 'those that want to dominate and oppress', and 'those that want to avoid domination and oppression'. This should be considered a fundamental thesis of Machiavelli's account of politics. This paper will identify and consider the various passages in which this thesis is developed. It will then go on to question whether Machiavelli's oeuvre in general held true to this thesis, and indicate that a further group featured prominently within his account: 'those that accept domination and oppression'. It then offers a proposal of how this further group should be situated within the explicit account of two dispositions that Machiavelli offers. It, finally, alludes to the continuing relevance that Machiavelli offers in our dire neoliberal predicament.

Thursday 15th November, University of Brighton Pavilion Parade Campus, room B4. Please arrive ready for a 6.30pm start

ALL WELCOME

PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY TALK THIS THURSDAY, 1ST NOVEMBER

Stephen O'Kane (independent scholar):

COMPATIBILISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

Thursday 1st November, 6.30 pm, University of Brighton Pavilion Parade Campus, room B4.

ALL WELCOME

First talk of the term tomorrow! Michael Neu speaks on 'The supreme emergency of war'.

18:30
Thursday 11th October
Room B4
University of Brighton
10-11 Pavillion Parade
Brighton BN2 1RA

LECTURE TODAY AT 6.30 pm, Room M57, GRAND PARADE
ALL WELCOME

DANGEROUS IDEAS

Resistance
(Professor Howard Caygill,Professor of Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University)

2011 may well be remembered as the year of resistance. The uprisings of the Arab Spring, the movement of indignados in Spain and Mexico, the Aganaktismenoi in Greece and the Occupy actions are all primarily movements of resistance. Even in the UK the term is acquiring political force. Resistance is on its way to becoming a word of power, emerging alongside the terms ‘revolution’ and ‘reform’ that Hegel saw defining the range of modern politics.

Yet, while increasingly familiar, the significance and potential of the term are not fully recognized. The philosophical analysis of resistance during the past thirty years has been inconclusive – while recognizing its importance, attempts to make sense of what it is or does break off very quickly.

In this lecture Professor Caygill traces these conceptual uncertainties, while defending the possibility of an affirmative resistance of life as an end in itself.

Howard Caygill is Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University. His many books include Walter Benjamin: The Colour of Experience (London, Routledge, 1998) and Levinas and the Political (London, Routledge, 2002). Professor Caygill’s work touches on key themes in this seminar series, including reflections on resistance, on the pariah, on critique and on the possibility of justice.

6.30 pm, Tuesday 20th of March,
Room M 57, Grand Parade, CRD
Organised by CAPPE and the Critical Studies Research Group, Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton

This week's Philsoc speaker is local author Ivor Southwood. Usual time and place - check the event page link below for more details!

https://www.facebook.com/events/408585495823705/

Just a reminder that the Dangerous Ideas seminar series also takes place this week, on Tuesday. The speaker this week is Professor Costas Douzinas from Birkbeck. The only info I have is the title "Resisting Neoliberalism" but I can tell you from experience he's a warm and charismatic public speaker with some interesting views on the topic.

This lecture is 1830 in room M57, Grand Parade campus. This event is open to the public but please turn up on time as the building is now access controlled and there won't be anyone around to let you in if you're late!

Philsoc is back again this week. Our speaker will be the University's very own Andy Knott! This lecture on the changing face of labour should be of special interest to students interested primarily in politics, Marxism and globalisation. We hope to see you there - tell your friends!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Brighton-Philosophy-Society/180500404991

DANGEROUS IDEAS: SEMINAR 7

Professor Sarah Franklin, University of Cambridge
The Mechanics of Substance: Rethinking Reproductive Politics in the 'Age of Biology'
Tuesday 21st of February, Room M57, Grand Parade Campus

CAPPE and the Critical Studies Research Group, of the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton are very pleased to welcome Professor Sarah FranNumberingklin from the University of Cambridge for the next Dangerous Ideas seminar series. Professor Franklin's work cuts across the dividing lines between the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. She draws on critical theory, anthropological research and scientific knowledge to track and critically analyse the relationships between human beings, their material embodiment and reproductive technologies.

Professor Franklin will talk about changes in the definition of biological materiality, as a consequence of developments in synthetic biology and regenerative medicine. She relates this to debates about bio-capital drawing on recent critical theoretical work in feminist and Marxist scholarship.

All welcome.

Dr Karen Soldatic of Curtin University, Sydney, Australia will be visiting the University to give a seminar next month. See below for full details:

‘Appointment Time: Disability and Neoliberal Temporalities’

Thursday 8th March
Seminar time: 5pm-6.30pm
Location: Mayfield House, Room 101, Falmer Campus, University of Brighton

In this presentation I aim to reveal the complexity of neoliberal temporalities on the lives of disabled people forced to participate in workfare regimes to maintain access to social security measures and programming. Through drawing upon some of the contemporary debates arising within the social study of time, this article explicates what Jessop refers to as the sovereignty of time that has emerged with the global adoption of neoliberal workfare regimes. It is argued that the central role of temporality within the globalizing project of neoliberal workfare and the positioning of disability within these global macro-structural processes requires the sociological imagination to return to both time as a theme and time as a methodology.

Dr Karen Soldatic
Research Fellow
Centre for Human Rights Education
Curtin University, Sydney, Australia
British Academy Visiting Fellow: Lancaster University (Jan - May 2012)

Philosophy Society starts up again in the first week of term, and we've got some really exciting speakers lined up, so keep an eye on the page for updates!

One-day symposium on Adam Smith
at the University of Brighton
Friday 20th January 2012

The symposium seeks to explore what the Left might learn and take from Smith in articulating new forms of critical political economy and of moral and political criticism and resistance.

There will be four sessions, led by academics developing recent and current work on Adam Smith and what the Left can learn from him:

David Cassasas Marques (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Mark Thomas (Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
Anita Rupprecht (University of Brighton, UK)
Paul Reynolds (Edge Hill University, UK)

The cost of the symposium is £25 (and £10 Unwaged/students) which
includes lunch. Cheques should be made out to Paul Reynolds (Adam
Smith Symposium) and posted to 17 Lea Crescent, Ormskirk, Lancashire
L39 1PG.
All correspondence should be directed to Paul Reynolds at
[email protected]

The symposium is organised on behalf of CAPPE
(http://artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk/research/centre/CAPPE-centre-
for-applied-philosophy-politics-and-ethics/by Paul Reynolds, Reader in Sociology and Social Philosophy,
Edge Hill University, together with Professor Bob Brecher, Director of CAPPE.

Adam Smith: Lessons for the Left A one-day symposium at the University of Brighton.