Non-Buddhism

With Hannes Schumacher

An ideal crash course in the history of European philosophy

🗓 SATURDAYS, bi-weekly, from November 30, 2024.
⏰ 11 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern US Time. See time zone converter if you’re in a different location to make sure you get the time right.
🔗 A Zoom link will be provided on registration.
💰Three options:
(i) $30 monthly dues (two sessions per month).
(ii) Donation of your choice, including:
(iii) no cost solidarity ticket if you cannot afford to pay at this time (please email us requesting this option: inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com).
Registration at bottom of this page.

GROUP DESCRIPTION

After Finitude is arguably one of the most influential books in contemporary philosophy. Following its publication in 2006 (and Ray Brassier’s translation in 2008), a whole series of related movements have emerged, such as Speculative Realism and Object Oriented Ontology. Graham Harman wrote a book on Meillassoux; even a Meillassoux Dictionary was published.

Despite the trendy character of these epigonic movements, Meillassoux himself today is generally acknowledged as a genuine thinker. His anti-Kantian critique of postmodern “correlationism” asks us to rethink the entire history of European philosophy since Kant: What if the so-called “Copernican revolution in philosophy” (Kant) was instead a counter-revolution, which circles around man and not around the sun? What if human finitude acclaimed by existentialism may be transformed into a genuine knowledge of the absolute, a “Chaos capable of destroying and of producing, without reason, things and the laws which they obey”? In short: What if philosophy could speak no longer about concepts, but about the matter itself?

In this seminar, we’ll read After Finitude together and discuss it from the title to the final page. Due to its vast amount of references, it is an ideal crash course in the history of European philosophy. It also is a major document of contemporary thought on chaos and, thus, combinable with Chaos Research Group.

Group materials

A PDF of After Finitude will be provided on registration. The chapter titles are as follows:

Preface by Alain Badiou
1. Ancestrality
2. Metaphysics, Fideism, Speculation
3. The Principle of Factuality
4. Hume’s Problem
5. Ptolemy’s Revenge

Facilitator: Having lived and studied all around the world, Hannes Schumacher works at the threshold between philosophy and art. He completed his MA in Berlin with a thesis on Hegel and Deleuze, and he also published widely on Nishida, Nagarjuna, chaos theory, global mysticism, and contemporary art. Hannes is the founder of the Berlin-based publisher Freigeist Verlag and co-founder of the grassroots art space Chaosmos ∞ in Athens, Greece. Recently, he facilitated the incite seminars “Nishida Kitarō: The Logic of Place and the Religious Worldview” and “Who’s Afraid of Hegel: Introduction to G. W. F. Hegel’s Science of Logic.” He runs the ongoing Chaos Research Group.

REGISTRATION

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For the non-cost solidarity option, email us at inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com