BSP Podcast

Ashley Woodward - Lesson of Darkness: Phenomenology and Lyotard’s Aesthetics

This is one of the papers from our 2017 Annual Conference, the Future of Phenomenology. Information and the full conference booklet can be found at www.britishphenomenology.org.uk

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Ashley Woodward is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Dundee. He obtained a B.A. (Hons) at LaTrobe University and a PhD in philosophy at the University of Queensland. He is a founding member of the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy and is an on-going editor of Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy. He is also a member of the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy: http://scotcont-phil.org/ He has published three monographs: Lyotard: The Inhuman Condition. Reflections on Nihilism, Information, and Art. ( Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016); Understanding Nietzscheanism (Chesham: Acumen, 2011); Nihilism in Postmodernity: Lyotard, Baudrillard, Vattimo (Aurora, Colorado: The Davies Group, 2009). His most recent publication is an edited collection, Acinemas: Lyotard’s Philosophy of Film, ed. with Graham Jones (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).

Lesson of Darkness: Phenomenology and Lyotard’s Aesthetics

This paper examines the relationship of Jean-François Lyotard’s aesthetics to phenomenology, especially the works of Mikel Dufrenne and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It argues that Lyotard invents what could be called a postphenomenological aesthetics, which critiques and moves beyond key aspects of phenomenology, but nevertheless continues to be governed by problems of this tradition. Lyotard cites Merleau-Ponty as opening the problem of difference in the aesthetic field, yet believes that the phenomenological approach can never adequately account for it. Lyotard critiques Dufrenne and Merleau-Ponty on what he calls a ‘metaphysics of continuity’ which governs their works: the continuity is between silence and signification, or the dark ground of Being or Nature and the light of linguistic meaning. For both, the continuity is given through the mediation of expression, the immanence of the sensory in the poetic, and is grounded in a unitary ontology. Lyotard argues that these approaches cannot do justice to the radical alterity of aesthetic experience, and seeks to accentuate the differences between the sensory and language, and to locate difference in the transgressive and deconstructive effects between these two heterogenous orders. For Lyotard this is not simply an abstract theoretical matter, but one which concerns the capacity of art to be engaged in critical, political practice. After outlining Lyotard’s critiques of Dufrenne and Merleau-Ponty, the paper will demonstrate how his late aesthetics, which have received little critical attention, can be seen to return to phenomenological themes but in the form of a reversal. The last section will then clarify the notion of a postphenomenological aesthetics by noting the parallel between Lyotard’s work and some recent attempts to develop a Speculative Realist aesthetics: the suggestion that Kant’s third Critique outlines an access to the real beyond conceptual categories imposed by a subject is a path which Lyotard also explored. Lyotard’s ‘lesson of darkness’ is that the secret power of art can never be brought out into the light of phenomenal appearance, or be subordinated to a stratum of meaning continuous with knowledge, but can only be registered negatively as the mark of a deconstitution. Artworks do not testify to the birth of perception, but to its resurrection.

Tanja Staehler – Phenomenology of Childbirth between Theory and Practice

This is one of the papers from our 2017 Annual Conference, the Future of Phenomenology. Information and the full conference booklet can be found at www.britishphenomenology.org.uk

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Tanja Staehler is Professor of European Philosophy at the University of Sussex. Her current research focuses on the bodily experiences and emotions of pregnancy, birth, and being with infants, from a phenomenological perspective. Her research mediates between philosophers (phenomenologists), parents, and healthcare professionals such that the perspectives can be shared as well as differences acknowledged. She has published numerous essays in this area, including articles in the journals Janus Head, Health Care and Philosophy and also in the Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy. Tanja has written books on (2016) Hegel, Husserl, and the Phenomenology of historical worlds. Rowman and Littlefield International (2016); Plato and Levinas: the ambiguous out-side of ethics. Routledge, New York (2009) and (together with Michael Lewis), Phenomenology: An Introduction. Continuum (2010)

Phenomenology of Childbirth between Theory and Practice

In this presentation, I want to reflect on the experience of researching childbirth from a phenomenological perspective. In particular, methodological challenges will be considered that emerge from work at the intersection of theory and practice. My co-designed online learning module for the Royal College of Midwives entitled ‘Communication in Labour’ will serve as an example for the practical aspect. The module attempts to utilise the concepts of emotions, reflection, responsivity and situation which emerge from the theoretical analysis.

Will Large – “Before language there is language”

In the final paper of our Cormac McCarthy workshop, Will Large, of the University of Gloucestershire and former BSP President, gives a critique of Cormac McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem for its reliance on scientific methodology. The chair is Dr David Deamer.

Dan O’Hara – “Some Aesthetic Implications of McCarthy’s Conception of the Role of the Unconscious in the Evolution of Forms”

Dan O’Hara (New College of the Humanities) speaks about the aesthetic implications of Cormac McCarthy’s concept of the unconscious in the Kekulé Problem at our July 2017 workshop. The chair is Katja Laug, another speaker at the conference whose paper is available in a previous podcast episode.

Julius Greve – “‘The Kekulé Problem’ in Cormac McCarthy’s Concept of Nature”

Julius Greve examines the concept of nature at work in Cormac McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem and his literature, most emphatically in comparison with F. W. J. Schelling. The chair is Keith Crome, president of the BSP.

Matt Barnard – “The Silent Call: Heidegger and McCarthy on Talking to Yourself”

Matt Barnard draws comparisons between Cormac McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem and Heidegger’s Being and Time in our July 2017 workshop. The chair is Adonis Frangeskou, member of the BSP executive.

Katja Laug – “Kekulé, or McCarthy’s Physicality of Dreaming”

Katja Laug speaks on physicality and dreaming in the work of Cormac McCarthy at our July 2017 workshop. The chair is Patrick O’Connor, convenor of the workshop and BSP Executive Member.

Chris Thornhill – “Language in Benjamin, Agamben and McCarthy.”

Chris Thornhill discusses Benjamin, Agamben and McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem at our July 2017 Cormac McCarthy workshop. The chair is Will Large, former President of the BSP.

Patrick O’Connor – “The Phenomenology of the Unconscious in Cormac McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem”

Dr Patrick O’Connor, convenor of our July 2017 workshop on Cormac McCarthy’s Kekulé Problem, opens the day with discussions of the philosophical themes of the author’s first essay. The chair is Matt Barnard, Secretary to the BSP.

Interview: Patrick O’Connor on Cormac McCarthy and Philosophy

This is an interview with BSP Executive Member Dr Patrick O’Connor discussing Cormac McCarthy and philosophy, the upcoming workshop Patrick is hosting in association with the BSP and Nottingham Trent University on 26th July 2017 in Manchester. Information about this workshop can be found at www.britishphenomenology.org.uk