Continental Realism - International Conference in Munich

Ontology is the investigation into the most general aspects of reality as it asks either questions “On What There Is,” or focuses on the basic categories of being and their relations. A common ‘battle-line’ within this discipline is the famous and still vividly contested analytic continental divide. It has been questioned in recent years especially by authors who share the assumption that science is not systematically the ultimate measure of truth and reality. This does not mean that we should abandon the notions of truth or objectivity all together, as has been posited repeatedly within certain currents of twentieth century philosophy.  Investigations of contemporary philosophers – presented under titles such as “New Realism”, or “New Materialism” – combine therefore theoretical philosophy with speculative realism and process philosophy. Authors within this field share similar desires: to rethink the Kantian opposition between the noumenal and the phenomenal, and to reconsider under the term “correlationism” the former hard-fought battle-lines between realism and anti-realism.

The international conference “Continental Realism” focuses on the uniting interests of these new investigations with the aim of clarifying what the so-called “continental” tradition nowadays stands for within contemporary ontology. The conference is divided in three areas of investigation: 1.) Realism in Contemporary Theoretical philosophy, 2.) Knowledge and Metaphysics, 3.) Ontology and Politics