What Critique?

April 23, 2016
Amherst Reading Group for Continental Philosophy

Amherst 01002
United States

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Speakers:

Guzman Luis
New School

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What Critique?

Organized by the Amherst Reading Group for Continental Philosophy,

University of Massachusetts Amherst

It has been more than a decade since Bruno Latour asked whether ‘critique has run out of steam’--whether the ubiquity of ‘being critical’ has not rendered ‘critique’ redundant. Admittedly, critique is often spoken of in university discourse as though its meaning were self-evident, though its concept is not made explicit. The persistence of critique in its various forms nevertheless indicates a perennial need and dissatisfaction with prevailing modes of thought. But what is critique? In its original Kantian formulation, thoroughgoing critique concerns examining presuppositions and immanent limits of thought and its objects--and post-Kantian thinkers developed this line of thought in the various ways that have resulted in the curious situation at present.

This conference intends to address the question of critique by way of a number of concerns: What is the relation between critique and criticism? What are the stakes of critique and uncritical discourse? Is critique a method or does method risk dogmatism? Does a critical project concern merely dismantling foundations or uncovering and clarifying foundations? Can/must critique be applied to itself in order to avoid being mere criticism or dogmatism? What is the relation between critique and speculative thought? Does critique belong to Modernity, or is such a belief in itself an uncritical assumption? What is the relation between critique and secularism? Above all, what coherent and precise account of ‘critique’ can be given in light of its various guises and practices today?

The aim of this conference is to clarify the concept of critique by considering and developing its actual practices in various disciplines.

Schedule:

Conference: What Critique?

Clarifying Concepts / Developing Practices

 

Saturday, April 23, 2016

UMass Amherst, Integrative Learning Center, Room N211

9:00-9:15 – Opening Remarks (Zachary Kimes)

9:15-10:45 – Panel I: Critique in Historical Perspective – Discussant: Thomas Dumm

Alexandra Alekseyeva (Vanderbilt University)

Hegel’s Aesthetics as Critique: At the Interstice of Art and History

Daniel Burnfin (University of Chicago)

Speculation as Critique: Hegel’s Critique of ‘Understanding’ as Critique of Metaphysics

Jason Yonover (Johns Hopkins)

Spinoza’s Critique of Natural Right, on the Example of the Animal

10:45-11:00 – Coffee Break

11:00-1:00 – Panel II: Past and Present of Critical Theory – Discussant: TBA

Jeremy Arnott (Western University)

From Correspondence to Critique: Adorno, Benjamin and the ‘Origins’ of Critical Theory

Manon Garcia (Sorbonne/Tufts)

Feminist Critique and Normative Concepts

Rylie Johnson (Boston College)

What Are You? Towards an Ethical Retrieval of Trans Subjectivity

Jéssica Passos (Northwestern University)

A Lacanian Critique of Subjectivity

1:00-1:45 – Lunch Break

1:45-3:15 – Panel III: Reconsidering Traditions of Critical Theory – Discussant: TBA

Iain MacKenzie (University of Kent)

Critique in the Age of Indifference

Roy Ben-Shai (Haverford College)

Critique, Emancipation, Revolt: Three Paradigms of Critical Thinking

Gabriel Rockhill (Villanova University)

Critical and Radical Theory

3:15-3:30 – Coffee Break

3:30-5:00 – Panel IV: Practicing Critique and Narrating Capital – Discussant: David Pritchard

Felix Fuchs (McGill University)

Developing a Critical World-Literature: The ‘Untranscendable Horizon’ of Historical Materialism

Adam Rensch (University of Illinois Chicago)

The World to Come: Autonomy, Guilt, and Redemption in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory & Ben Lerner’s 10:04

Mariam Matar (New School)

Adorno on Suffering: Critique of Progress and Method of Critique

5:00-5:15 – Coffee Break

5:15-6:15 Keynote Address: Luis Guzmán (New School) – Moderator: Zachary Kimes

Negativity, Skepticism and Critique in Hegel: Converting the Negative into Being

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https://umasscontphil.wordpress.com

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