Beyond Signification - Graduate Conference in Philosophy

Philosophy Department - Free University Berlin - 7th & 8th of December 2007

On the 7th and 8th of December 2007 the Department of Philosophy at Free
University Berlin will host its second International Graduate Conference
in Philosophy. This year´s conference addresses the recent comeback of
concepts such as substance, presence and reality in and outside the
Humanities as well as the crisis of poststructuralism that accompanies it.

conference homepage: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jgs/

-- Call for Papers --

Beyond Signification. The Return of Reality and the Crisis of

Poststructuralism.

Today a growing number of people in the Humanities suggest that the

times of poststructuralism have come to an end. According to them we
concentrated on symbols, signs and discourse for far too long. Did we
not thereby forget the reality of things? How do we account for the
materiality of media, experiments, and writing? What happened to
reality, substantiality and presence? This conference aims at discussing
contemporary criticism of poststructuralism, its historical conditions,
its impact on the present, and its implications for the future. Does
poststructuralism really fail to acknowledge reality? How do we evaluate
the emerging new theories that challenge poststructuralism? We would
like to suggest three main areas for discussion:

1. How important are concepts like "reality" and "materiality" for

contemporary debates in the Humanities? On the one hand there is
increasing demand for the rehabilitation of a non-discursive reality; on
the other hand there is a growing scepticism towards ideas such as the
worldmaking power of discourse or the "free play of the signifyer". In
recent years this led to the development of new versions of cultural
materialism. How do these conceive of culture and reality, of man and
the world? What are their advantages and disadvantages and how big is
their impact on the humanies? Do we witness a lasting turn from
poststructuralism to cultural materialism, from symbol to substance?

2. Is the return of the real limited to academia or is it part of a more

general shift that affects social and politial life as a whole? Outside
of university, various discourses emphasise the constraints of reality.
Consider the threat of global climate change and the diagnosis of a new
age of vulnerability after 9/11. Can we identify a turn to materiality
in such fields as politics, society, arts, and science? Are we faced
with a paradigm shift?

3. Is it true that French Theory neglects materiality, and if so, why?

Critics accuse poststructuralism of having forgotten or repressed the
importance of reality and of having discredited thinking and writing
about it. Others claim that these theories propose extraordinarily
subtle ways of conceptualizing reality which are more adequate for an
understanding of the complexities of the present. We would like to
discuss various poststructuralist accounts of reality and we would like
to speculate on the future of Derrida, Lyotard and Deleuze. Will they
play a role in the debates to come? And what role could that be?

We invite graduate students and young researchers from all faculties to

submit proposals for a 30-minute presentation. Presentations can be
given in English or German; at least a passive knowledge of German is
recommended. Free accomodation will be provided. Please send abstracts
of no more than 500 words, accompanied by some biographical information,
to:
Johannes-Georg Schülein (jgs@zedat.fu-berlin.de) or Jan Wöpking
( jan.woepking@googlemail.com)

Deadline for abstracts: 30th August 2007

For more information see http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jgs/