From French Philosophy to French Theory: theoretical and political implications

Date: 14th of October 2013, 5-8pm

Room: Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre, Goldsmiths Campus

Speakers:Tzuchien Tho (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften/Centre Internationale de la Philosophie Francaise Contemporaine)

Giuseppe Bianco (University of Warwick / USR 3308 Cirphles CNRS/ENS)

Roundtable Participants:

Nina Power (Roehampton University)

Mark Rainey (Goldsmiths College)

Morten Paul (University of Konstanz, Germany)

This is an afternoon workshop based around the book Badiou and the Philosophers: Interrogating 1960s French Philosophy, ed. and translated by Tzuchien Tho and Giuseppe Bianco, Bloomsbury 2013.
 
The rise of so-called “French Theory” through the intellectual voices in the events of ’68 is often used as a retroactive trope to galvanize different strains of thought leading up to it (see e.g. Francois Cusset, French Theory). We seek to re-contextualize some of these debates by looking a few years earlier at the state-funded television program, undertaken by Dina Dreyfus and hosted by Alain Badiou, designed to innovate philosophy pedagogy in the French education system. Using these televised interviews with the major thinkers of the time like Michel Foucault, Georges Canguilhem and others, we trace some of the transitions within the self-conception of French philosophy from the late 1950’s to the late 1960’s.

In his talk, Giuseppe Bianco will develop a historical reading of the context of the 50’s and 60’s arguing for the importance of the Algerian War, the rising dominance of the social sciences, the shifting philosophical importance of literature and film and the reform of the French educational system in understanding the shape of philosophy during this period and the turn to “theory” that was to come.

Tzuchien Tho will examine, employing the same historical context, the conceptual constraints of the rethinking of the relation between truth and philosophy caught between universality, totality and temporality.

Their papers will be followed by a roundtable session with Nina Power, Mark Rainey and Morten Paul and a discussion with the workshop participants.

The workshop is free and open to the public.Please register for the event here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/8471345021

* Organised by the Centre for Cultural Studies, the Graduate School and INC at Goldsmiths