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UK funding (£20,319): Continental Stoicisms: Beyond Reason and Wellbeing Ukri1 Jan 2016 UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
Overview
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Continental Stoicisms: Beyond Reason and Wellbeing
| Abstract | Ancient Stoic philosophy provides rich theoretical resources for answering many of modernity's big questions, just three of which might be sketched as follows. First, what are the relations of human language and thought to "objective" reality? In other words, to what extent can we know the world as it really is? Second, how can human desires and drives find satisfaction, health, and integrity in this reality? In other words, how can we "belong" in the world? Third, what room do nature and society leave for genuinely autonomous desires and drives anyway? In other words, how can we be "free?" Thinkers working in the so-called continental tradition have done a great deal to highlight Stoicism's value for answering these questions. Yet the breadth and profundity of their interpretations have never been surveyed, and remain largely unknown to mainstream experts on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially in the English-speaking world. At the same time, both mainstream scholarship and parts of the ancient evidence remain unknown to most experts on continental philosophy. We aim to bring these experts together in order to understand and disseminate the value of this interpretive tradition. A few examples may help to convey the tone and richness of the interplay between Stoic and continental philosophies. With regard to metaphysics and epistemology, Gilles Deleuze's Logic of Sense (1969) announces its provocative intentions with the claim that "as a general rule, only little girls understand Stoicism." While the role of Stoic metaphysics and linguistics in Deleuze's theories has received some attention, his ironic claims about Stoic paradoxes, ethics, humor and tragedy merit further meditation. Moreover, his work is unknown to many experts in Stoicism. Even more neglected is Hans Blumenberg's erudite and poetic Paradigms for a Metaphorology (1960). Stoic epistemology, physics, and astronomy play exemplary roles in Blumenberg's argument that "absolute metaphors" are prior to conceptual thought and establish its emotional and investigative horizon. With regard to ethics one might point to Peter Sloterdijk's You Must Change Your Life (2009). Stoicism mingles with Buddhist and Indian traditions in Sloterdijk's post-Nietzschean manifesto for individual and communal self-cultivation. In this Sloterdijk develops Michel Foucault's comparatively better known handling of Stoic "technologies of the self" (1984, 2001). However, interpreters of Stoicism generally downplay Foucault's bold arguments about how truth, power, and selfhood define one another. At the root of these arguments is an interrogation of the possibility of freedom. In this Foucault reprises and implicitly challenges Jean-Paul Sartre's discussions of Stoic determinism in Being and Nothingess (1943) and his posthumously published notebooks. The foregoing authors are not only leading philosophers, but also widely-read critics of contemporary lifestyles, economics, and politics. The aim of this project is to appreciate how Stoicism continues to inspire this enormous range of philosophizing, from the metaphysics of meaning to critiques of digital technologies. The logistical core of our project will be two international colloquia, one in Bristol (UK) and the other in Miami (USA). For practical reasons the first will focus on French reception, which is by far the most elaborate. The second will focus on the German tradition. We will invite young researchers, established scholars, and contemporary philosophers to contribute papers. There will also be a number of public-facing events. |
| Category | Research Grant |
| Reference | AH/N00373X/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 01/01/2016 |
| Funded period end | 31/12/2016 |
| Funded value | £20,319.00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FN00373X%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| University of Bristol |
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