The Many Faces of Violence

The Many Faces of Violence
The Many Faces of Violence takes as its point departure the publication of Richard Bernstein’s last book Violence: Thinking without Banisters (Polity Press, 2013), inviting participants to explore the intricate and elusive issue of violence.

One purpose of the workshop is to examine critically Bernstein’s approach to violence, and its relation to previous works such as his Radical Evil. But we will also bring in other philosophical voices and perspectives, supplementing and challenging those that are featured in the retrospective and prospective investigations in Bernstein’s new book.

The participants represent a diversity of intellectual approaches, and the workshop should provide rich materials for further reflection: What is the difference between violence and cruelty? How has philosophy understood confrontation and horror? What are the hopes and illusions of a politics of peace? Is literature a better vehicle than philosophy to understand the roots of violence? Is violence in our day beyond the very category of the tragic? Are our times worse than dark times?

This is the first event organized by an international group of scholars that will continue their activities next May 2014 in Spain, in the company of new voices.

Participants

Richard Bernstein Megan Craig Ramón del Castillo Alexis Dianda Brendan Hogan Anne O’Byrne Bjørn Ramberg Santiago Rey Martin Stone Carlos Thiebaut

Sponsored by

Plan I+D+i

FFI2012-38009-C02-01 MINECO / España

Facultad de Filosofía

UNED / España

CSMN

University of Oslo / Norway

in collaboration with

The New School for Social Research

Coordination

Ramón del Castillo Departamento de Filosofía / UNED / España 

18-19 OCTOBER 2013

THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH 80 Fifth Av. (Room G 529) New York City

FRIDAY 18

09:30 Introduction
Ramón del Castillo (Uned-Mineco)

9:45 10:30

If This Was Now Possible, Everything Was Going to Be Possible

Anne O’Byrne (Stony Brook University)

Harm and Violence. Does the Notion of Harm Help Us to Define Violence and non-Violence? Carlos Thiebaut (Universidad Carlos III-Mineco)

11:15-12:00 Discussion (Chair: Martin Stone, Cardozo Law School)

12:30-13:45 Lunch

13:45 Thinking Dialogically about the Limits of Dialogue (Some Thoughts on Being Bernsteinian)
Bjørn Ramberg (University of Oslo)

14:30 On the Edges of Violence
Brendan Hogan (New York University)

15:15-16:00 Discussion (Chair: Alexis Dianda, NSSR)

SATURDAY 19

10:00 Violences: Near and Far
Megan Craig (Stony Brook University)

10:45 Dog People: Kaniuk and Coetzee on Cruelty Ramón del Castillo (Uned-Mineco)

11:30-12:15 Discussion (Chair: Brendan Hogan ) 
12:30-13:45 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Final Remarks

Richard Bernstein

Open Debate (Chair: Santiago Rey)

15:30-16:45  Coffee

16:45-17:30  Planning future activities (closed session)