Poetic Thinking
What sort of thinking happens in our encounter with art? Some philosophers maintain that no thinking worth its name occurs, because, so they argue, real thinking is always oriented towards a universal—hence unchanging—truth, and our encounter with art is anything but. Other philosophers grant that thinking does happen, but only in so far as it can be expressed in concepts, which means that the experience must somehow be rendered in conceptual terms—translated into philosophical language.
In Spring 2013, the work of the Center is devoted to exploring alternatives. We will look to psychoanalysis for inspiration, since it is an audacious attempt at thinking the poetic dimension of human existence. The work of the reading group will be supplemented by several symposia.
Reading Group Schedule
Spring 2013: Poetic Thinking
Conveners: Michel Chaouli (Germanic Studies) and Eyal Peretz (Comparative Literature)
The reading group meets Fridays, 2 - 3:30 pm, in the College Arts & Humanities Institute, 1211 E. Atwater Ave., except where noted otherwise.
Jan. 18: Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 2, "The Method of Interpreting Dreams."
Jan. 25: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 3, "A Dream Is the Fulfillment of a Wish."
Feb. 1: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 4, "Distortion in Dreams."
Feb. 8 (1:45 - 3:15 pm): The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 5, "The Material and Sources of Dreams," sections A - B.
Feb. 15: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 6,"The Dream-Work," sections a and b, "The Work of Condensation," "The Work of Displacement."
Feb. 22: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 6,"The Dream-Work," sections c and d,"The Means of Representation in Dreams," "Considerations of Representability"
March 1: Lecture by Irad Kimhi; reading group does not meet.
March 8, 15: Spring Break
March 22: The Interpretation of Dreams, through Chpt. 6,"The Dream-Work."
March 29: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 7, "The Psychology of the Dream Process," a and b.
April 5 (1:45 - 3:15 pm): The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 7, "The Psychology of the Dream Process," c and d.
April 12: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chpt. 7, "The Psychology of the Dream Process," through the end.
April 19: Symposium with Cathy Caruth and Shoshana Felman; reading group does not meet.
Fall 2013: The Idea of Theory
Conveners: Joshua Kates (English) and William Rasch (Germanic Studies)
We will reflect on theory not from a point of view that stands relatively apart from it, but from within.
Recommended editions:
Jacques Rancière, Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, trans. Julie Rose (U of Minnesota P, 2004).
Carl Schmitt: The Concept of the Political: Expanded Edition, trans. George Schwab, with an introduction by Tracy Strong (U of Chicago P, 2007); includes Leo Strauss's "Notes on Carl Schmitt."
Max Weber: The Vocation Lectures: Science as a Vocation, Politics as a Vocation, ed. David Owen and Tracy Strong, trans. Rodney Livingstone (Hackett, 2004).
Aug. 24: Plato: Republic, Bk I (327a-354c)
Aug. 31: Plato: Republic, Bk II, 357a-368a, Bk X, 595a-614c (optionally 614c-621d)
Sept. 7: Max Weber: “The Meaning of ‘Ethical Neutrality’ in Sociology and Economics” (PDF)
Sept. 14: Max Weber: “Science as a Vocation”
Sept. 21: Carl Schmitt: The Concept of the Political; Leo Strauss: “Notes on Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political” (Ballantine 208)
Sept. 28: Leo Strauss: Natural Right and History, Chapter 2 (Ballantine 208)
Saturday, October 6: Symposium on Schmitt/Strauss with Douglas Moggach, University of Ottawa, and Tracy Strong, UC San Diego.
Oct. 12: Louis Althusser: “Overdetermination and Contradiction” (For Marx)
Oct. 19: Louis Althusser: “On the Materialist Dialectic” (For Marx)
Oct. 26: Louis Althusser: “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”; Jacques Ranciere, “On the Theory of Ideology—Althusser’s Politics” (Ballantine 208)
Saturday, November 3: Workshop on Althusser with Warren Montag, Occidental College, and Ellen Rooney, Brown University.
Nov. 9: Jacques Ranciere: Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (Foreword, Chapters 1, 2, 3) (Ballantine 208)
Nov. 16: Jacques Ranciere: Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (Chapters 4, 5, 6)
Nov. 23: Thanksgiving Break
