Event overview
Visual Cultures Public Programme Summer 2016
The aim of this talk is to articulate and defend the connection between contemporary forms of prometheanism and rationalism. It will begin by defining prometheanism through its opposition to political liberalism and normative naturalism, as developed by the projects of left-accelerationism and xenofeminism. It will then show how the success of these oppositions is premised upon philosophical rationalism, insofar as it supplies the needed accounts of positive freedom and normative autonomy, and articulate the problems faced by alternatives to liberalism and naturalism that reject these conceptual resources. The remainder of the talk will be devoted to elaborating the account of rational agency through which these concepts should be understood. Positively, it will aim to explain what reason is, giving a minimalistic picture of the capacities its exercise involves. Negatively, it will aim to explain what reason is not, addressing some common objections to rationalism based on misunderstanding its relation to affect, embodiment, collectivity, and other issues.
Chair: Simon O’Sullivan
Pete Wolfendale is an independent philosopher from the North East of England. His work develops the consequences of philosophical rationalism for the philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and metaphysics. He is the author of ‘Object-Oriented Philosophy: The Noumenon’s New Clothes’ (Urbanomic 2014).
The event is free and no booking is required. All welcome.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 5 May 2016 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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