A CPTRG research event

Audio recording: https://soundcloud.com/royalholloway/aspects-of-the-political

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/471244953032938/

The Contemporary Political Theory Research Group is pleased to be organizing a seminar on “Aspects of the Political: What is the relevance of Theology and Anthropology, of God and the Human, for Contemporary Political Philosophy.”

Date: 10 June 2015

Time: 4-6pm

Location: Senate House, University of London, Room 261 (Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

Speakers: Dr. Emma Ingala (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Dr. Gavin Rae (American University of Cairo).

Abstracts and Bios:

1) A Political Anthropology in Deleuze and Guattari? A Response to Some Paradoxes

Deleuze’s and Guattari’s works have more often than not been inscribed in the so-called anti-humanist tendency that dominated French philosophy during the second half of the 20^th century. The purpose of anti-humanism was, in Foucault’s terms, to complement the awakening of philosophy from its dogmatic slumber with another awakening, in this case from an ‘anthropological sleep’. Nevertheless, this positioning, which intended to be emancipatory by denouncing the idea of a universal human nature as a pregiven essence, resulted in a disturbing paradox: the defense of a flexible, nomadic, fluid and plastic subject led to more sophisticated forms of submission that mirrored those found in capitalist societies. This is why Althusser affirmed the need to supplement the ‘theoretical anti-humanism’ with a ‘practical humanism’. Some commentators accuse Deleuze and Guattari of not having included this supplement and thus of having remained in a paradoxical and even dangerous political philosophy. Our aim is to show that this is not the case and that Deleuze and Guattari engage with this problem by developing a political anthropology. To do this, we will first examine the change of perspective between Difference and Repetition and Logic of Sense, and between Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus, to demonstrate that the abandonment of the anthropological approach is only apparent. Second, we will analyse a set of concepts that would form the basis of a deleuzo-guattarian political anthropology, including the rule of caution, becoming everybody and homo tantum.

Emma Ingala is Lecturer of Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and Academic Visitor at Royal Holloway University of London. Her areas of specialisation are Twentieth Century French Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.

2) POLITICAL THEOLOGY SAID IN MANY WAYS

While Western thinking was explicitly grounded in theology for most of its history, modernity sought to overcome this by offering a naturalist metaphysics rooted in human reason. This culminated in a number of 19^th century thinkers (Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche) proclaiming the death of God, a proclamation that led many 20^th century philosophers (Heidegger, Sartre, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault) to explore the possibility of fully purging onto-theo-logical assumptions from thought to think without foundations. A number of contemporary philosophers have, however, questioned the direction taken by these critiques pointing out that their turn away from theology entailed an implicit turn to another form of theology that continued to be subtly and implicitlyinformed by onto-theo-logical assumptions. If the attempt to turn away from theology has, in reality, been a return to theology, we need to make explicit this return to rethink the place and meaning of theology. One of the places where this return has been most prominent is in the realm of the political. It is no surprise to find, therefore, that the question of political theology has come to the fore. Conceptually, this return challenges the dominant narrative of Western Enlightenment, and, by extension, the political structures and narratives historically used to think about the political. Whereas a return to the theological was, historically, the preserve of conservative thinkers, contemporary political theology has been of marked interest to so-called radical thinkers who see in it a way to challenge Western narratives, expose conceptual ambiguities and the folly of Enlightenment hubris, as well as simply provide new concepts to re-think various issues that have, for so long, seemed settled. This talk will explore the historical problem that brought forth this resurgence in political theology, distinguish it from political philosophy, identify different senses in which the theological aspect of political theology can be said, and conclude by showing some of the possibilities that this re-thinking has for our understanding of the political.

Dr. Gavin Rae is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He specializes in post-Kantian philosophy with particular emphasis on ontology, theories of subjectivity, and political philosophy. He is the author of Ontology in Heidegger and Deleuze (Palgrave Macmillan: 2014) and Realizing Freedom: Hegel, Sartre, and the Alienation of Human Being (Palgrave Macmillan: 2011), as well as numerous articles on figures including Heidegger, Hegel, Sartre, Deleuze, Kierkegaard, Marcuse, Haraway, and Schmitt.