Dimitris Vardoulakis - Phronesis and Materialism: Practical Judgment and Agonism

Wann: Mittwoch, 5. Juni 2019, 19:00 Uhr. Wo: Konferenzraum IPW, NIG, 2. Stock, Trakt A, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien. Vortrag von Dimitris Vardoulakis (Western Sydney University) im Rahmen der IPW Lectures, einer internationalen Vortragsreihe des Instituts für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Wien.

Einladung zur IPW Lecture "Phronesis and Materialism: Practical Judgment and Agonism".

Vortragender: Dimitris Vardoulakis (Western Sydney University)
Moderation: Oliver Marchart (IPW | Universität Wien)

Wann: Mittwoch, 5. Juni 2019, 19:00 Uhr
Wo:  Konferenzraum IPW, NIG, 2. Stock, Trakt A, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien.

Abstract:

It is a commonplace to turn to Book 6 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics to find out what the ancient Greeks thought about practical judgment or phronesis. There is good reason for this: Aristotle’s is the lengthiest account of phronesis. We regularly fail to note, however, the importance of phronesis in epicureanism. I first explore how Epicurus’s conception of phronesis differs from Aristotle’s. I also indicate how Epicurus’s conception influences political discourse in early modernity in materialists such as Machiavelli and Spinoza. Then I explain how practical judgment is indispensable for an agonistic politics. Finally, I delineate how the exclusion of Epicurus’s conception of phronesis in early twentieth century, for instance by Heidegger, results in the invention of a politics beyond instrumentality and calculation as a way of repressing the materialism of practical judgment.

Dimitris Vardoulakis is the deputy chair of Philosophy at Western Sydney University. He is the author of The Doppelgänger: Literature’s Philosophy (2010), Sovereignty and its Other: Toward the Dejustification of Violence (2013), Freedom from the Free Will: On Kafka’s Laughter (2016), Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy (2018), and Authority and Utility: On Spinoza’s Epicureanism (forthcoming in 2020). He is the director of “Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society,” and the co-editor of the book series “Incitements” (Edinburgh University Press).

Eine Veranstaltung im Rahmen der IPW Lectures, einer internationalen Vortragsreihe des Instituts für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Wien.

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