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Month: June 2021

CFA Weil and Wittgenstein

Call for Abstracts Extended — New Deadline July 30thBetween Weil and Wittgenstein: Connections and Comparisons in Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics

There are many parallels between the thinkers Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. They each lived in a tense relationship with religion, with both being estranged from their cultural Jewish ancestry, and both being tempted at various times by the teachings of Catholicism. They both underwent a profound and transformative mystical turn early into their careers. Both operated against the backdrop of escalating global conflict in the early 20th century. Both were concerned, amongst other things, with questions of culture, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, science, and necessity. And, perhaps most notably, they both sought to radically embody their ideas and physically ‘live’ their philosophies. 
Yet despite this, there exists no systematic attempt in the literature to chart the connections, contrasts, and comparisons between these two profoundly influential thinkers. This anthology proposes to fill this gap in the literature, by collating a series of essays that track the relationship between the two, their thought, and any potential areas of meaningful overlap and communication between them. It is hoped that doing so may help cast a clarifying light over the work of two of the most enigmatic philosophers of the 20th century, as well as providing a rich resource for approaching the issues discussed by both thinkers from a fresh perspective.
This anthology is accepting abstracts on any of the topics mentioned above, and any further topics that may be of philosophical, ethical, or theological interest. Abstracts should be 500 words, and should be sent with a 50 word biography to , under the topic ‘Wittgenstein and Weil’

ONLINE WORKSHOP "WITTGENSTEIN’S EXERCISES: AESTHETIC AND ETHICAL TRANSFORMATIONS"

DFG Research Training Group 2477 “Aesthetic Practice”
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim


15–16 July 2021 
ONLINE WORKSHOP
"WITTGENSTEIN’S EXERCISES: 
AESTHETIC AND ETHICAL TRANSFORMATIONS"

This workshop aims to investigate Wittgenstein’s philosophical practices as exercises. It explores their simultaneously aesthetic and ethical dimension, so as to uncover their transformative potential for and within ordinary social practices, conceived of as a weave of trained, embodied practices and techniques. For this purpose, the workshop focuses on three intertwined issues: 
1. It examines the aesthetic/literary form of Wittgenstein’s texts, so as to investigate the use of pictures, comparisons, and instructions as exercises to be enacted by readers, and further analyzes the transformative, both aesthetic and ethical, effects which such exercises bring out.
2. It explores Wittgenstein’s texts as improvisational exercises to be enacted by readers in their relation to particular aesthetic practices.
3. It sheds light both on the aesthetic and ethical dimension of the notion of exercise, as well as on the constitutive ambiguity of constitution and transformation entailed in ordinary practices conceived of as embodied trainings and techniques. 

Thursday, 15 July, 2021 
2:45–7:40 pm                   
 

2:45–3:00 Opening Remarks Lucilla Guidi (University of Hildesheim, Germany)

3:00–3:50 Beth Savickey (University of Winnipeg, Canada) Are We Having Fun yet? 
4:00–4:50 Davide Sparti (University of Siena, Italy) Projective Imagination. Therapeutic Exercises and Improvisation in Wittgenstein by way of Cavell

4:50–5:20 Break 

5:20–6:10 Katrin Wille (University of Hildesheim, Germany) Wittgenstein: Philosophy as Aesthetic Practice
6:20–7:40 Anna Boncompagni (University of Irvine, California, US) Between Captivity and Liberation: The Role of Pictures in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy

Friday, 16 July, 2021 
3:00–8:00 pm


3:00–3:50 Logi Gunnarsson (University of Potsdam, Germany) Að hugsa á íslensku og útlensku / Thinking in Icelandic and foreign tongues / Auf Isländisch und in Fremdsprachen denken
4:00–4:50 Oskari Kuusela (University of East Anglia, UK) Transformation of Thinking and Dissolution of Problems

4:50–5:20 Break

5:20–6:10 Anne-Marie Christensen (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark) ‘Slab, I shouted, slab!’ Transformations of Identities and Language in light of Wittgenstein’s Later Philosophy.
6:20–7:10 Andreas Hetzel (University of Hildesheim, Germany) Philosophizing as a Self-transformative Praxis. Wittgenstein and Valéry 

7:20–8:00 Closing Discussion

The workshop will be hosted on Zoom. To receive further details and attend the workshop, please register by 12 July by writing to:  

50 minutes are scheduled for each speaker: 20/30 min. for the presentation, the rest for discussion. Each 50 min. slot will be followed by a short break (10 min.).

The workshop is organized by Lucilla Guidi  within the activities of the Research Training Group 2477 “Aesthetic Practice”.   
For more information on our research please visit: www.uni-hildesheim.de/grk-2477/

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