CALL FOR PAPERS

09.02.2007 - 10.02.2007    

Workshop
Title: “Despite Oneself. Subjectivity and its Secret in Kierkegaard and Levinas”

So far relatively few scholars have examined the relation between Levinas and Kierkegaard. This workshop is an attempt to take up that challenge. It focuses on the more problematical aspects of Kierkegaard’s and Levinas’ conceptions of subjectivity in relation to alterity – both in relation to the divine Other and to the human other(s). The task of the workshop is threefold: First, we will outline and clarify Kierkegaard’s and Levinas’ respective conceptions of the subject and/or the self as it is involved in interpersonal relations and in the God-relationship. Secondly, the commonalities and differences between these conceptions will be highlighted. Finally, the implications, strengths and weaknesses of their ideas will be discussed.
Among the controversial issues to be raised are the following: Which ideas of subjectivity or selfhood are criticized when Kierkegaard speaks of the necessity of ‘self-denial’ or ‘self-annihilation’ and Levinas of the ‘breakup’ of the ego’s identity? To what extent are their criticisms justified and to what extent are they, themselves, to be criticized? Are their counterclaims, e.g. Kierkegaard’s notion of subjectivity as self-relation and Levinas’ notion of subjectivity as subjection, substitution and susceptibility, convincing? Does Levinas rightly criticize Kierkegaard? What are the benefits and the dangers of advocating an asymmetrical rather than a reciprocal relation between the self and the other? In what sense must alterity remain exterior to the self, and in what sense can it be inherent in a self that comes to understand itself as another? In line with these questions, broader themes like the status of ontology, the relation between ethics and religion, immanence and transcendence as well as the meaning of time can also serve as starting points for discussion.

Keynote speakers: Arne Grøn (Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen), Pia Søltoft (Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Copenhagen), Rudi Visker (Institute of Philosophy: Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Leuven), Claudia Welz (Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen)

Call for papers: Additional papers are welcome (incl. discussion max. 30 min, no more than 2200 words). If you’d like to present a paper, please send an abstract of about 200-400 words.

Location: Workshop University of Copenhagen, The Faculty of Humanities, Njalsgade 140-142 (more information to follow).

Participation is free, but prior registration is required, since there will be a limited number of places. Please contact Claudia Welz at clw@cfs.ku.dk

Registration deadline: November 15, 2006. A reply will be sent by December 15, 2006.

Organized and sponsored by the Danish National Research Foundation: Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen (CFS). Workshop organizers: Claudia Welz (clw@cfs.ku.dk) and Karl Verstrynge (Karl.Verstrynge@hiw.kuleuven.be).