Do I have some treats for you!

Robert Sinnerbrink
Hollywood in Trouble: David Lynch’s Inland Empire
Wednesday 28 July from 5-7pm in ib3.307

This Wednesday 28 July from 5-7pm in ib3.307 Dr Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University) will present ‘Hollywood in Trouble: David Lynch’s Inland Empire’.

Please note that I listed the wrong date for Dr Sinnerbrink’s presentation in my email last week. The presentation is this Wednesday, not this Thursday.

Just for good measure, you’ll find a good synopsis/analysis of Lynch’s film at http://www.waggish.org/2006/12/28/david-lynchs-inland-empire-hypotheses-and-spoilers/. This should have you primed for Wednesday.

Coming presentation:
Professor Renata Salecl
Tyranny of Choice and the Desire to Control the Future: Subjectivity in Late Capitalism
Wednesday 11 August from 5pm in ib3.307

On Wednesday 11 August from 5pm in ib3.307 Professor Renata Salecl will present Tyranny of Choice and the Desire to Control the Future: Subjectivity in Late Capitalism.

Renata Salecl is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and a Senior Researcher in the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She also teaches as a Visiting Professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York. She has been Fellow at Wissenschafts Kolleg in Berlin, Visiting Professor of Law at Humbolt University in Berlin, Visiting Humanities Professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC, Visiting Professor at Duke University in Durham, NC, and Fellow at Remarque Institute at NYU.

Her books include On Anxiety, Spoils of Freedom and Perversions of Love and Hate and the edited Sexuations. Her newly published Choice (Profile Books) is a brilliant study of the nature of choice, showing the despair to which limitless freedom can lead. Her work brings together law, criminology and psychoanalysis.

This promises to be another philosophically engaging trimester at Deakin.

Enjoy!

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Inland Empire
Screening from 5-7pm
Wednesday 21 July in ib3.307

Wednesday 21 July from 5-7pm in ib3.307 the Deakin Philosophical Society will screen the first two hours of David Lynch’s Inland Empire in anticipation of Robert Sinnerbrink’s presentation to the DPS on the film next week.

Find a review of the movie here.

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Literature and Comedy, Round 2
Dr Geoff Boucher on Literature and Comedy:
In Defence of Northrop Frye
Wednesday, May 19
4-5.30pm in ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds Campus

This Wednesday (May 19) the Deakin Philosophical Society will go a second round on the topic of literature and comedy. Dr Geoff Boucher will defend Northrop Frye’s thesis that comedy, as a literary genre, is defined by reintegration more than humour. We’ll explore this thesis through an excerpt from AC Hamilton’s (1991) Northrop Frye: Anatomy of his criticism (1.5MB).

If you are on campus, hard copies are available at my office (ic1.211), which is in the dungeon of the Arts and Education building.

In other news, The MSCP has released its Winter School program:

The MSCP 2010 Philosophy Winter School
5-23 July
University of Melbourne

Week One (5-9 July)

Andrea León: Lévinas and Derrida: another time at the anarche of subjectivity (11am-1pm)
Mark Hewson: Maurice Blanchot: literature and the ambiguity of the negative (2-4pm)

Week Two (12-16 July)

James Garrett: Heidegger’s Aristotle (11am-1pm)
Martin Black: History of Philosophy II: Plato (2-4pm)

Week Three (19-23 July)

Jon Roffe: Spinoza’s Ethics (11am-1pm)
Dan O’Meara and Cameron Shingleton: Max Weber – Social Philosopher (2-4pm)

Each course consists of 5 x 2-hour seminars.
Fees begin at $80
Enrol now at www.mscp.org.au

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy is an independent teaching and research organisation made up of academics and graduates who share the goal of providing philosophy wherever it is needed. The MSCP runs 1-day free workshops in autumn and spring, and teaches a variety of courses at its annual summer and winter schools, and throughout the year in evening classes. Join the MSCP mailing list online to receive updates on mscp and associated philosophical activities. The MSCP is housed by the philosophy department at the University of Melbourne.

Regards,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Deakin Philosophical Society special event

Dark Knights: Exploring the Deceptive Heroics of Philosopher Kings, Princes and Übermenschen
Dr Kim Huynh, Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations
Australian National University
Wednesday, May 12 from 4pm in ib3.307

This Wednesday the Deakin Philosophical Society weekly meeting will be tranformed into a free film night followed by a guest presentation by Dr Kim Huynh from ANU. There will be a screening of Batman: The Dark Knight from 4pm in ib3.307 (the regular meeting time and place), followed at 6.35pm by Dr Huynh’s presentation: ‘Dark Knights: Exploring the Deceptive Heroics of Philosopher Kings, Princes and Übermenschen’. Here is a summary of Dr Huynh’s presentation:

Plato’s philosopher kings, Machiavelli’s prince and Nietzsche’s Übermensch (Over-man) are among the most infamous figures in Western political philosophy. Their shady reputations grow in large part out of a shared willingness to deceive. Philosopher kings deceive in order to maintain stability and virtue within the polis. From this perspective, society is underpinned by certain myths which, while not technically true, have nonetheless become imperative for people to prosper. Nietzsche’s Übermensch has also dispensed with comforting illusions, particularly of a religious nature. However, the Übermensch has an ambivalent relationship with truth. While believing that the vast majority of people are incapable or unwilling to grasp the ultimate vacuousness of human existence, the Übermensch retains an impish desire to puncture orthodoxies and thereby toy with the prospect of social disintegration. Machiavelli’s prince asserts that the ultimate amorality of politics makes it necessary for the prince to act immorally. The prince must lie and deceive in order to secure stability and glory for the city-state. Indeed, the honesty and virtue of all citizens rest on his capacity to be mendacious and cruel. This paper compares and contrasts these alluring figures in the context of contemporary Australian politics (including case studies of John Howard, Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd) and popular culture (concentrating on the Hollywood action blockbuster Batman: The Dark Knight). By bringing together and analysing these individuals, ideas, stories and events, the paper considers the value of truth and honesty in politics.

This is a free public event.

Guests are quite welcome to arrive at 6.35pm for Dr Huynh’s presentation.

If you have any questions, send me a reply email.

Regards,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Matthew Sharpe
Comedy and literature
4-5.30pm in ib3.307
Wednesday May 5

Following our discussion of Hamlet and tragedy, this week the Deakin Philosophical Society will discuss comedy. Matthew Sharpe will lead the discussion.

The meeting will be based around two readings. The first is an excerpt from Alenka Zupančič’s (2007, pp. 200-211 inclusive) The Odd One In: On Comedy; the second is a paper by Matt and serves an as introduction to what Zupančič is talking about, and the position from which she is speaking. In his presentation, Matt will also link up some of this material to other attempts to understand comedy.

The title of the Zupančič excerpt translates from the German as (approximately) ‘Where is the phallus going in today’s times?’

Regards,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society

What makes Hamlet a Tragedy?
Jason Freddi (PhD candidate, Melbourne University) on Shakespeare and tragedy
Wednesday, April 28
4-5.30pm in ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds Campus

Jason Freddi, PhD candidate at Melbourne University, will be on the Waurn Ponds campus this Wednesday guest lecturing for the Philosophy, Freud and Reason unit. I thought I’d take advantage of Jason’s presence and invite him to present at the Philosophical Society on Shakespeare, the subject of his PhD. Jason kindly accepted and will discuss Shakespeare and tragedy at this week’s meeting, (tomorrow)Wednesday, April 28 from 4-5.30pm in ib3.307. In particular, Jason will address the question ‘What makes Hamlet a tragedy?’

You can access the reading that will form the backbone of Jason’s presentation at http://deakinphilosophicalsociety.com/texts/nuttall/shakespearethethinker.pdf. It is an excerpt from AD Nuttall’s (2007) Shakespeare the thinker. There are no page numbers on the PDF file, but the pages are in order and run from 192-205 inclusive.

Philosophy Café
Marie Kuchenmeister OAM
A Philosophy of meaningful employment: adults with special needs
Wednesday, April 28
7-9pm at The Barking Dog hotel

Philosophy café is also on this Wednesday from 7pm at The Barking Dog hotel, 126 Pakington st Geelong West. This month Marie Kuchenmeister OAM will present ‘A Philosophy of meaningful employment: adults with special needs’

Philosophy Café is a free public event sponsored by Deakin University’s School of International and Political Studies.

Regards,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Terry Eagleton: Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching
Wednesday, April 21
4-5.30pm in ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds campus

To wrap up the theism versus atheism discussion (for now), this Wednesday April 21 we’ll discuss Terry Eagleton’s scathing review of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Eagleton’s review was published in the London Review of Books in 2006. You can access the review online at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching.

DPS Lectures online

Also, both AC Grayling’s and Tamas Pataki’s lectures are now available on the Deakin Philosophical Society website: http://deakinphilosophicalsociety.com/lectures

Regards,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Dr Tamas Pataki, Religion & Violence
Thursday, April 15
3-4.30pm in ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds Campus

The next instalment in the Deakin Philosophical Society’s 2010 presentation series is on this Thursday. Dr Tamas Pataki will explore the link between religion and violence.

Dr Pataki is honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne and honorary fellow of Deakin University. He studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne and psychoanalysis at University College, London University. He has been a lecturer in philosophy at RMIT, University of Tasmania and University of Melbourne. He co-edited, with Michael Levine, Racism in Mind (Cornell 2004) and is the author of Against Religion (Scribe, 2007) as well as of several articles and book chapters on the philosophy of mind, and numerous popular pieces and reviews.

The presentation is in room ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds campus (the same room we used for AC Grayling’s presentation) from 3-4.30pm.

This is a public presentation and anybody is welcome to attend. If you have any questions you can email Dylan Nickelson: mail@deakinphilosophicalsociety.com or dnic@deakin.edu.au.

Against Religion
Wednesday, April 14
4-5.30pm in ib3.307 on the Waurn Ponds campus

In preparation for Dr Pataki’s presentation, this Wednesday the DPS will discuss his Australian Book Review essay ‘Against Religion‘. The essay is online at: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~abr/Feb06/Pataki%20essay.htm .

So feel free to join us for the discussion this Wednesday from 4-5.30pm in ib3.307.

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Civil Liberties and the Proposed Internet Filter
Wednesday, 24th March 2010
ib3.307 from 4-5.30pm

This week the Deakin Philosophical Society will look at the debate over the proposed Internet filter in Australia. Discussion will be based around two brief articles:

• Clive Hamilton (2009) ‘Web doesn’t belong to net libertarians‘, The Age, February 16; and,
• ABC News (2009) ‘Green light for Internet filter plans‘, ABC Online, December 15.

These articles contain a number of arguments for and against the filter. Both articles refer to Electronic Frontiers Australia, a group for online civil liberties.

This discussion will continue the topic of Civil Liberties and Conceptions of Liberty.

I hope to see you there for another week of lively discussion,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

Following on from AC Grayling’s presentation last Thursday on the topic of civil liberties and conceptions of liberty, tomorrow, Wednesday 17th March, from 4-5.30pm the Deakin Philosophical Society will meet in ib3.307 to further discuss Professor Grayling’s position.

The discussion will focus on both Grayling’s presentation and a short article by him entitled ‘Tolerating Intolerance’ [1].

I hope to see you there,

Dylan Nickelson,
President, Deakin Philosophical Society.

1. AC Grayling (2007), ‘Tolerating Intolerance’, Index on Censorship, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 124-130