Self, Other, Thing

Prof Jeff Malpas (University of Tasmania)

ABSTRACT: Topology or topography is a mode of philosophical thinking that combines elements of transcendental and hermeneutic approaches. It is anti-reductionist and relationalist in its ontology, and draws heavily, if sometimes indirectly, on ideas of situation, locality, and place. Such a topology is present in Heidegger and, though less explicitly, in Hegel. Such a topology is also evident in many other recent and contemporary post-Kantian thinkers in addition to Kant himself. This talk will explore the elements of such a topology with particular reference to the understanding of the self, and especially in regard to the way such a topology is articulated through the mutual inter-relation between self, other, and thing. Heidegger will loom large in this discussion, along with several other thinkers, but Hegel will also have a role to play. The primary emphasis, however, will be on gaining further insight into the idea of topology itself, along with the ideas it encompasses and to which it relates.