Foucault: the Words, the Things, the End of Man.

When, in 1967, I came to the US, I carried with me a relatively small number of books, but among them was Michel Foucault’s Les Mots et les Choses, published the previous year by Gallimard. I had been reading at it since it came out & it is certainly one of the books that marked me the most. The disappearance of Man — with what to replace it, I … Read more Foucault: the Words, the Things, the End of Man.

Summer Reading for All: Spinoza on Freedom of Thought in a Free State

I am re-reading this final chapter of Bento Spinoza’s Tractatus  — an important text right now! — in a friend’s house where I found it in a lovely little French edition published by Cahiers de l’Herne, & decided to post an english translation below. Enjoy! IN A FREE STATE EVERY ONE IS AT LIBERTY TO THINK AS HE PLEASES, AND TO SAY WHAT HE THINKS. If it were as … Read more Summer Reading for All: Spinoza on Freedom of Thought in a Free State

Say goodbye to the information age: it’s all about reputation now

by Gloria Origgi, Via Aeon Not faking it. From the Apollo 15 mission. Photo NASA There is an underappreciated paradox of knowledge that plays a pivotal role in our advanced hyper-connected liberal democracies: the greater the amount of information that circulates, the more we rely on so-called reputational devices to evaluate it. What makes this paradoxical is that the vastly increased access to information and knowledge we have today does … Read more Say goodbye to the information age: it’s all about reputation now

“To Think With Derrida Wherever He Is”

La revue du Collège international de philosophie —   N° 89-90, 2016/2 Penser avec Derrida où qu’il soit Sommaire EXERGUE …Où qu’il soit Safaa Fathy HORIZONS Au lieu de l’écriture Carlos Lobo CORPUS Métaphore, méta-force Geoffrey Bennington Jacques Derrida/Gaston Bachelard. Pour une métaphorologie fractale. La « fleur de Schrödinger » dans Le Jardin d’Épicure Charles Alunni Derrida et Frege Marian Hobson Les logiques de Derrida Carlos Lobo Derrida fantôme Catherine Paoletti Derrida avant Derrida … Read more “To Think With Derrida Wherever He Is”

Hyperion Mallarmé

A new issue of Hyperion, the first of a two-part issue on Mallarmé curated by guest editor Kari Hukkila, was released at the end of last year. It features new texts written expressly for this occasion, as well as the first-ever English translation of Alain Badiou’s Perroquet text from 1986, “Est-il exact que toute pensée émet un coup de dés?” Badiou reads Mallarmé’s Coup de dés as “the greatest … Read more Hyperion Mallarmé

Nimrod (befoe ISIS), Peter Sloterdijk on Heidegger (in French), Samah Selim on Translation & Adaptation

& here for the weekend’s end a few items of interest in between the ongoing Meddeb / Malady of Islam serialization: Much angered by the destruction of Nimrod & other archeological sites. Must be the first time I am thankful (put that word under erasure) for the British & French colonial greed that stole & stored much of the moveable treasures in their museums. Nimroud : à quoi ressemble la … Read more Nimrod (befoe ISIS), Peter Sloterdijk on Heidegger (in French), Samah Selim on Translation & Adaptation