Guest Speaker: Henrike Moll (Southern California)

'From Biopolitics to Bodypolitics'

Guest Speaker: Karsten Schubert (Freiburg)

This session will feature a paper from MPhil student Thaddee Chantry-Gellens, who will be interviewed by David Bather Woods. The abstract for Thaddee’s paper is below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Primitivist Violence? An alternative to Sarkissian’s argument on the darker side of Daoist Primitivism

Violence is a historical fact. It has permeated the development of human history for millennia, sometimes bringing it to the brink of the abyss, other times leading it to the highest peaks. Violence of the oppressor on the oppressed, violence of the oppressed on the oppressor, forcing one’s will on others through aggressive means is multi-faceted and should not be understood as a monolithic phenomenon. Violence can be liberating, and it can be repressive. China has known political violence throughout many of the periods and forms of its long existence. The moment in time this essay focuses on is a transitory one: the shift between the aptly-named Warring States period and the first unification of China under the Qin Dynasty. It will try to depict some of the arguments made in the Primitivist section of the Zhuangzi anthology. This will be done in the context of Hagop Sarkissian’s (2010) article on the “darker side” of Daoist primitivism.

Please contact Johan Heemskerk for further information (j.heemskerk@warwick.ac.uk)

Guest Speaker: Christopher Janaway (Southampton)

Title: 'Different Kinds of Willing in Schopenhauer'

Guest Speaker: Ruth Boeker (University College Dublin)

'The Biopolitics of Mobility'

Guest Speaker: Martina Tazzioli (Goldsmiths)

This session marks the last WiP seminar of Term 2. We will be looking at a paper from PhD student Jonathan Clarke-West. The abstract for Jonathan’s paper is below. We look forward to seeing you there!

 Imagination in Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. 

 This paper introduces my thesis before staging the first chapter. It addresses the requirement to study the role of imagination in Recherche before drawing out examples of its operation from Recherche. It outlines three categories by which I understand imagination to operate within the novel: firstly, its operation as a faculty; secondly, its role in the context of artistic production; finally, its articulation in the presentation of society. It then moves to consider the presentation of imagination as a faculty in the novel – the imagination. It looks at the positions held by different commentators – who mostly centre upon the ampliative powers acquired once imagination and sense conspire. It elects to focus upon the operation of imagination articulated by the phenomena of Proustian sensation and involuntary memory. Deleuze’s reading of Kant’s Sublime grants a point of entry to this operation. The similarities enable the claim to be made that Proust articulates a literary analytic of the encounter in these phenomena.

Please contact Johan Heemskerk for further information (j.heemskerk@warwick.ac.uk)

Details TBC

Guest Speaker: Barbora Siposova (Warwick)

Guest Speaker: Jonathan Webber (Cardiff)

Session 1: Preface and Chapter 1: Evil and Unconditional Respect

Contact Tom Crowther (T.Crowther@warwick.ac.uk)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Guest Speaker: Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson (Syracuse University)

Title: Contested Legacies: Constellations of Terrorism in the Postbellum United States

Response by Quassim Cassam (University of Warwick)

The seminar will be held online on MS Teams. If you wish to attend and be added to the Team, please send an email to Daniele.Lorenzini@warwick.ac.uk.

We are very pleased to be discussing a paper by MPhil student Sailee Khurjekar. The abstract for Sailee’s paper is below, and the paper itself is attached for those who wish to read it ahead of time. We look forward to engaging with such a vital topic.

Establishing the Place of Race: A Critical Evaluation of Cultural Constructionism 

The metaphysics of race has presented competing theories about the definition and role of human races, alongside debates surrounding the existence of races. Social constructionists on race are concerned with the nature of race and the way that it latches on to our social reality. There are two strands of social constructionism on race: political constructionism and cultural constructionism. This paper is a critical evaluation of Chike Jeffers’ cultural constructionist account of race. I will posit three criticisms of Jeffers’ position, all pertaining to his claim that races ought to be preserved in a post-racist world. The form of my criticisms is as follows:

(1) Criticism 1: Single and Unified Culture by Race

A single and unified culture by race does not exist after the end of racism.

(2) Criticism 2: Racial Difference

Racial difference cannot be celebrated in a utopian world because such difference ceases to exist.

(3) Criticism 3: White Supremacism

The preservation of racialised people worryingly blurs the line between White pride and White supremacism.

I hope that the thesis will show: The significance of the social construction of race; the benefits of adopting Jeffers’ cultural constructionist account of race; and the drawbacks of preserving racial groups after the end of racism.

Guest Speaker: Johannes Roessler (Warwick)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Guest Speaker: Paulina Sliwa (Cambridge)

Title: "Hermeneutical Advice”

Sometimes we rely on moral testimony to decide what to do. But we also rely on moral testimony for guidance on what to make of a moral situation: how to make sense of it. Such moral testimony has the power to change both hearts and minds; it can affect not just what its recipient knows but also how she feels about her situation. My aim in this paper is to develop an account of this kind of moral testimony – hermeneutical advice – and draw out its implications for the ethics and epistemology of moral testimony, as well as about the nature of moral expertise.

Session 3: Chapter 4: Remorse and Its Lessons, and Chapter 5: Evil Done and Evil Suffered

Contact Tom Crowther (T.Crowther@warwick.ac.uk)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Guest Speaker: Naomi Eilan (Warwick)

Session 4: Chapter 6: Naturalism, and Chapter 7 Modalities

Contact Tom Crowther (T.Crowther@warwick.ac.uk)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Guest Speaker: Robert Stern (Sheffield)

Title: "How is human freedom compatible with the authority of the Good?’ Murdoch on moral agency, freedom, and imagination"

This paper deals with the issue of choice and agency in moral action. On the one hand, it seems that the moral agent should use their practical reason to determine what it is right for them to do, and act accordingly; on the other hand, this seems to leave little room for choice in their action, where choice is often said to be a marker of freedom and how the will is exercised. In response to this difficulty, Ruth Chang has argued recently that reasons themselves need to be seen as being created through an act of will. Looking at the work of Iris Murdoch, it is argued that this response is problematic. At the same time, it is also argued that Murdoch can provide a fruitful way of dealing with this problem through her account of imagination, which gives a role to the agent not in choice, but in uncovering the reasons that should guide their actions.

Session 5: Chapter 8 Meaning, and Chapter 9 Individuality

Contact Tom Crowther (T.Crowther@warwick.ac.uk)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Guest Speaker: Vasu Reddy (Portsmouth)

Contact: Jack Shardlow, jack.shardlow@warwick.ac.uk

Session 7: Chapter 10: 'An Attitude Towards a Soul', and Chapter 11: 'Goodness'

Contact Tom Crowther (T.Crowther@warwick.ac.uk)

14th June 3-4pm

How to find a job outside academia (2)

Irene dal Poz (who got her PhD from Warwick last year and managed to land a job at Oxientia) kindly agreed to tell us about her experience and answer questions.