CSP Seminar with Professor John Russon
King's Event
CSP Seminar with Professor John Russon
March 20, 2010 - March 21, 2010
Contemporary Studies is pleased to announce plans to host two upcoming events with John Russon of the University of Guelph:
1. Professor Russon will be leading a weekend seminar (March 20-21) for interested participants on Derrida’s book: Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. (Rogues was originally published in France under the title Voyous and includes two lectures given by Derrida (in 2002) on the foundations of the sovereignty of the modern nation-state. The title of the work refers to the designation “Etat voyou,” the French equivalent of “rogue state,” as it has come to be employed by certain global powers in the aftermath of 9/11. In this connection, Derrida examines the history of the concept of sovereignty in the works of Bodin, Hobbes, Rousseau, Schmitt, and others. In these lectures, Derrida also outlines his understanding of ‘democracy to come’ and ‘autoimmunity,’ notions which are crucial in his thinking about politics.)
For a number of years now Professor Russon has been organizing annual private seminars in Toronto to study core texts in philosophy with invited participants from around North America. Topics in recent years have included Hegel’s Phenomenology, Kant (on education), Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger and Derrida (on finitude), Paul and Augustine, and Frantz Fanon. These seminars are meant to provide an arena in which to grapple with issues in philosophy by engaging in conversation around a selected text. Professor Russon is currently on sabbatical and is visiting locations around North America (and, recently, Istanbul) in response to invitations to lead such seminars with various communities of scholars. Participants in the Toronto seminars (which usually last about a week) travel from far and wide to participate; we are pleased that Professor Russon has agreed to lead a seminar for us here at King’s.
Anyone interested in participating in the weekend seminar on Derrida’s Rogues should contact Scott Marratto (scott.marratto@ukings.ns.ca) before Monday, March 8 (or sooner, if possible) so that we can take account of projected numbers in arranging for the appropriate venue, seminar format, etc. The seminar is open to faculty and upper year students. It should be noted that participation is crucial to the success of the seminar and that meaningful participation presupposes a prior, careful, reading of the text and some background in contemporary continental philosophy (a familiarity with Derrida’s philosophy in particular will be helpful but not essential). Space will be limited to 25 participants. The seminar will involve four two-hour meetings (two on Saturday, and two on Sunday) as well as optional social gatherings on the Friday and Saturday evenings.
Professor Russon has forwarded the following reading suggestions for prospective participants:
My intention is that we will read and discuss the whole of Rogues. In order to help you in your preparations, I am specifying here what I think are the most important bits in the text, so that if you have minimal time for reading before the seminar you can at least insure that you have read them. Also, I am specifying some valuable supplementary readings, which I strongly encourage you to read over.In Rogues (essential readings in roughly systematic order of importance):
On pp 123 (lines 9-14) and 124 (11 lines from the bottom) he defines
his central notion of "autoimmunity."
First Essay, Section 3, "The Other of Democracy" (pp 28-41) will
quickly orient you to the key tensions in democracy (exemplifying
this "autoimmunity").
First Essay, Section 8, "The Last of the Rogue States" (pp 78-94) is
the central presentation of the main theme of the book.
Second Essay, Section 2, "To Arrive--At the Ends of the State" (pp 141-
159) is the clearest statement of the conclusion.
[All together, those readings are a few pages short of 50. The whole
book is about 160.]
Other readings:
Plato, Republic, Book VIII, 550c-end (569c) on oligarchy and
democracy. The discussion of oligarchy, especially with respect to not-
regulated finance figures in Derrida's essay, as do many of the details
of the ensuing discussion of democracy. [About 20 pages.]
Aristotle, Politics, Book I, Chapters 1-2, on the nature of the
political. [About 4 pages.]
Aristotle, Politics, Book III, Chapters 12 and 13, on principles of
government. [About 4 pages.]
Aristotle, Politics, Book V, Chapter 1, on democracy. [About 1 page.]
Derrida, "Signature, Event, Context," in Margins is one of the most useful introductions
to his philosophical project, and good preparatory reading for any who are not familiar
with Derrida. The first part of his essay "Force of Law" (in Acts of Religion and
elsewhere) is also a valuable introduction. These two pieces are two of his most easily
readable essays.
2. On the evening of Monday, March 22, Professor Russon will be delivering a paper in Alumni Hall entitled, “The Project of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit.”
John Russon received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1990 and was a post-doctoral fellow in Classics at Harvard. He has held teaching appointments at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, Acadia University, the Pennsylvania State University, Stony Brook University, Boston College and the University of Guelph (where he was recently named Presidential Distinguished Professor). Professor Russon is the author of two books on Hegel: The Self and Its Body in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (University of Toronto Press, 1997) and Reading Hegel’s Phenomenology (Indiana University Press, 2004). He is also the author of Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis and the Elements of Everyday Life (State University of New York Press, 2003) which was awarded the 2005 Broadview Press/Canadian Philosophical Association Book Prize. His most recent work is entitled Bearing Witness to Epiphany: Persons, Things and the Nature of Erotic Life (State University of New York Press, 2009). He has also co-edited two published collections of essays on Plato and one on Hegel. Professor Russon is also the author of many articles in the history of philosophy including papers on Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, and Derrida.
