CFP: ASCP Conference 2008

T H E   P O S T / H U M A N   C O N D I T I O N
Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy
(ASCP)
University of Auckland, Dec 3?5, 2008

What is it to be human? The advent of modern science, the industrial
revolution, the rise of the modern nation-state, and the development of
evolutionary theory conspired to bring about the collapse of traditional
understandings of the human condition during the Enlightenment. But
recently the modern and postmodern paradigms that emerged out of this
period of philosophical upheaval have themselves been put to the test by
an unprecedented constellation of phenomena: biotechnologies,
globalization, the ecological crisis, and the virtualization of social
relations, to name but a few.

How then are we to think about the human experience today? What language
can we find for it? Indeed, what language would provide not only a
descriptive but also the necessary critical perspective on the human
condition in the contemporary context? Is the category of ?the human?
still viable, or should we now speak of ?the post-human?? Are we better
served by categories such as ?animal? or ?life?? Are the ?de-centering?
strategies of postmodernism to be further developed, or is it
imperative, as some have maintained, to revive the concept of the
?subject?? What is the status of the body and embodiment in an age of
technological prosthesis and genetic manipulation? How is the social or
?plural? character of human existence to be theorized in view of
contemporary patterns and possibilities of familial, economic, and
political interaction? What, if anything, has been contributed by the
recent ?post-secular turn? in philosophy to questions concerning the
human condition? And finally, what, if anything, can be said by the
philosopher about the ?ends? of humanity today?

The ASCP 2008 Conference Committee invites proposals for papers
exploring these questions or any others of relevance to contemporary
philosophical debates concerning the (post-)human condition. Paper
proposals in other areas of Continental Philosophy are also welcome.

Proposals are also encouraged for topical panels addressing the
conference theme and for panels on books by Australasian philosophers.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Leonard Lawlor (Penn State)
Prof. Ewa Ziarek (SUNY Buffalo)
Prof. David Wills (SUNY Albany)
A/Prof. Nikolas Kompridis (Toronto)

CONFERENCE STREAMS (draft list)
Animality and Humanity
Human/Post-Human
Bare Life and Biopolitics
The Posthuman Body
Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of Life
Phenomenology and Post-Phenomenology
Arendt and the Human Condition
Hegel, Desire, Subjectivity
Levinas and the Humanism of the Other
Humanism and Anti-Humanism
The Legacy of Existentialism
Comparative Philosophy
Philosophy & Literature
A Post-Human Aesthetics?
Richard Rorty in memoriam
Philosophy of the Future
The Human To-Come

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Deadline: Friday, 19 Sept
Paper and panel proposals should be emailed to Dr Simone Drichel:
simone.drichel@stonebow.otago.ac.nz. Please include your name, paper
title, an abstract (200 words max), plus up to 5 key words.

REGISTRATION
Deadline: Friday, 7 Nov
Early bird rates (before 19 Sept): $170 NZD (staff/waged) / $80 NZD
(student/unwaged)
Late registration rates (after 19 Sept): $185 NZD (staff/waged) / $90
NZD (student/unwaged)
Conference dinner: $55 (incl. drinks).

ACCOMMODATION
The University of Auckland is able to arrange accommodation at a
University Hall of Residence or at a local hotel for the duration of the
conference at reasonable rates. Bookings can be made by completing the
accommodation form available on the ASCP website. (See website for
further instructions.)

The registration form, accommodation form, and further details are
available on the ASCP website (www.ascp.org.au).