Thursday, October 16: Lecture “From Nature to the Earthbounds: Rethinking the Adventure of the Moderns”
18:00–20:00 (CET), Room 3A (NIG) and online
Friday, October 17: Workshop “Geophilosophies”
10:00-16:30 (CET), Room 3A (NIG) and online
Lecture “From Nature to the Earthbounds: Rethinking the Adventure of the Moderns” (October 16)
Abstract: The Moderns are notably defined by their concept of nature. In this talk, I aim to examine the birth, circulation, and normative power of the concept of nature, as well as its current crisis. How was the idea of nature and a natural order invented? To which events was this idea connected? How was it deployed across all levels of Modern experience to become the focal point of all major issues? Finally, how did nature become a political force that now reveals its limitations within the framework of the “new climatic regime”? These questions will be explored through the lens of several thinkers, primarily Whitehead, Deleuze, Stengers, and Latour.
Workshop "Geophilosophies" (October 17)
Description: Reading and discussion of texts by and with Didier Debaise (Université Libre Bruxelles).
Inputs/talks by Christoph Hubatschke (IT:U Linz), Eva Jägle (University of Vienna/ University of Music and Performing Arts), Lilian Kroth (University of Fribourg), Isabella Schlehaider (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna).
Texts for the workshop and online participation (Zoom): ralf.gisinger@univie.ac.at or eva-maria.aigner@univie.ac.at
Workshop-texts:
- "The earthly becomings of thought. How do we take the legacy of Geophilosophy?" (Deleuze and Guattari Studies)
- "The Land of the Modernes. The sense of Latour’s Pragmatism" (Theory, Culture and Society)
- "An Ethology of Abstractions: Learning How to Cultivate Our Modes of Thought with Stengers" (Adventure of Aesthetics)
- (With I. Stengers): "An ecology of trust? Consenting to a pluralist universe"
Didier Debaise is professor at the Université Libre Bruxelles. His main areas of research are contemporary forms of speculative philosophy, philosophy of nature, and links between American pragmatism and the French contemporary philosophy. He wrote several books on Whitehead’s philosophy (Un empirisme spéculatif, Le vocabulaire de Whitehead and L’appât des possibles), edited volumes on pragmatism (Vie et experimentation), on the history of contemporary metaphysics (Philosophie des possessions), and he wrote numerous papers on Bergson, Tarde, Whitehead, Simondon, Deleuze, Latour and Stengers. Two of his books were published in English: Nature as Event and Speculative Empiricism.
Next Event 2025
Claire Colebrook (Penn State University)
November 21, 10:00-12:00, online. Live-Streaming and Responses in Room 3A (NIG)
THINKING NATURE, organized by Eva-Maria Aigner and Ralf Gisinger
Research Circle Poststructuralism, Gender Theory, Psychoanalysi
Funded by the Vienna Doctoral School of Philosophy
Contact
Eva-Maria Aigner (eva-maria.aigner@univie.ac.at )
Ralf Gisinger (ralf.gisinger@univie.ac.at )