Idiosyncracy of Thinking: On Alphonso Lingis’s Philosophical Opera

Idiosyncracy of Thinking: On Alphonso Lingis’s Philosophical Opera Host: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague Organizers: Joff P. N. Bradley (Tokyo), Martin Nitsche (Prague) Venue: AKC – Academic Conference Centre, Prague, Husova 4a Dates: March 19-20, 2026 We shall address Alphonso Lingis’s philosophical opera and approach it in terms of its uniqueness, peculiarity, and irreducible singularity. Lingis’s phenomenological work is genuinely fascinating because, following Deleuze, he urges his readers to discover how to speak in their own distinctive manner, to find a singular and unmistakable voice. What, then, does it mean to speak in one’s own name, and how do we accomplish that, and how do we find the courage for it? How do we cultivate such a voice? The task of finding one’s voice should, we believe, befit a conference devoted to the unique phenomenological philosophy of Alphonso Lingis. We therefore propose a gathering on idiosyncrasy, the idiosyncrasy of thought, as we want to compare this to the demoralizing and even disastrous emergence of idiomsynchrony, which we take to signify a kind of linguistic entropy or exhaustion of idiomatic expression, brought about by our growing dependence on, and uncritical enthusiasm for, artificial intelligence. We are thus interested in critiquing idiomsynchrony, which we understand as a threat to stylistic and expressive particularity, largely produced by the linguistic entropy generated by large language models (LLMs). There is, we believe, a devastating levelling of expression that we are now witnessing, and philosophy is uniquely positioned to offer a countervailing way of speaking and doing, an uncanny and provocative mode of comprehension that resists the idiomatic homogenization produced through the synchronization of styles and utterances of AI calculation. We therefore propose that we treat philosophy itself as an idiom, a peculiar and inventive mode of expression, and that we each return to Lingis’s work to consider the unique ways of speaking and writing that we find there. We should each seek out a different temperament, a different krasis - composition of forces, affects, and dispositions - from that idiocrāia we encounter in Ancient Greece thought. Our intention is that we examine Alphonso Lingis’s oeuvre as a pre-individual singularity, and idiosyncratic practice of philosophy, a thisness of thought. We should explore the opera of his work, celebrate its eccentricity and particularity, and reflect on our own modes of articulation, to meditate on our own idiosyncrasy, and to propose new modalities of thought that move against the prevailing tide of linguistic repetition without difference. We welcome your participation and look forward to your contributions. Presentations should not exceed 30 minutes, Additional Q & A are 15 minutes. To submit a presentation proposal send an abstract of 200-300 words by January 15, 2026 to both emails: [email protected] and [email protected] (notification of acceptance will be sent by January 31, 2026). There is no conference fee. Alas, organizers cannot assist with accommodations and travel.