What Critique?
Amherst 01002
United States
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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
This is a student event (e.g. a graduate conference).
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