The Plurality of the Subject & the Crisis of Modernity

You are very welcome to attend a special International Conference in 2 weeks time on the 4th-6th February at the Casa Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon :

The Plurality of the Subject & the Crisis of Modernity (via navigating through such writers as Nietzsche, Pessoa and Kierkegaard). 

Programe Link: http://www.nietzschelab.com/conference2015  

Entrance is free, presentations are in Portuguese and English, come to hear and engage with some of the diverse talks that may be of interest to you. There are over twenty-five speakers from territories such as Portugal, Ireland, Brazil, Italy, U.S.A, Spain, and U.K. There will also be book launches on the evenings of both Wednesday (on Kierkegaard) and Thursday (on Pessoa), and the conference will conclude with a dance performance inspired by the theme of the plurality of the self in the writings of Nietzsche, Pessoa and Kierkegaard.  

The conference will open with the brilliant essayist, philosopher and culture critic, Prof. Eduardo Lourenço (winner of Pessoa Prize 2011). Other keynote speakers include: Prof. George Pattison, Prof. Oswaldo Giacoia Jr., Prof. Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, Prof. João Constâncio and Richard Zenith (Winner of Pessoa Prize 2012). Spread the news!   

- For a description of the conference, see below.

- Poster attached below

- for more info, contact: [email protected]  

ENGLISH: The Plurality of the Subject is one of the most fundamental and pertinent issues in modern European philosophy and literature. Thinkers and poets such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Pessoa’s unrelenting excavation and critique of the subject, or man’s subjectivity, and in what sense man’s identity can or cannot be understood in terms of the concept of an “I” or “subject” has had a massive impact in the second half of the twentieth century that ended in the debate of “the death of the subject”. However, what is only now being acknowledged in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in Nietzsche, Pessoa and Kierkegaard research is that the critique of the subject or subjective thinking, rather than being dead, is itself a plurality, and opens up new vistas for creative thinking and praxis in the face of the continual crisis of modernity. Throughout the three days of this conference at the famous Casa Fernando Pessoa in the centre of Lisbon, there will be an international array of scholars, writers and philosophers exploring this plurality of the subject - via such themes as the use of mask, metaphor, heteronyms and pseudonyms in confronting ideas of truth, the interval between the poet and the philosopher, re-creating new mythologies, the challenges of self-knowledge, transforming Shakespeare’s multiplicity, re-imagining a new-paganism and aesthetics, Pessoa and Nietzsche´s encounter with Islam, exploring a self as process rather than product, and many more. 

PORTUGUESE: A pluralidade do sujeito é um dos tópicos mais pertinentes e fundamentais na filosofia e literatura europeias contemporâneas. A crítica e indagação impiedosas do sujeito ou da subjectividade por pensadores e poetas como Nietzsche, Kierkegaard e Pessoa tiveram um impacto maciço na segunda metade do século XX, culminando no debate sobre “a morte do sujeito”. No entanto, o que só agora, nas primeiras duas décadas do século XXI, tem sido reconhecido na investigação sobre Nietzsche, Pessoa e Kierkegaard, é que a crítica do sujeito ou do pensamento subjectivo é, ela própria, uma pluralidade que abre novas perspectivas para a prática e o pensamento criativos face à crise contínua da modernidade. Ao longo dos três dias desta conferência na famosa casa Fernando Pessoa, no centro de Lisboa, um conjunto internacional de investigadores, escritores e filósofos explorarão esta pluralidade do sujeito – através de temas como o uso da máscara, da metáfora, de heterónimos e pseudónimos no confronto com ideias de verdade, o intervalo entre o poeta e o filósofo, a re-criação de novas mitologias, os desafios do auto-conhecimento, a transformação da multiplicidade de Shakespeare, a re-imaginação de um novo paganismo e de uma nova estética, a relação de Pessoa e Nietzsche com o Islão, entre muitos outros.