Redeeming Agnosticism: Richard Kearney’s Anatheistic Wager

Agnosticism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 186-212
Author(s):  
Guy Collins
Keyword(s):  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Constructive Dialogue

This chapter explores whether there is more to agnosticism than a failure to take a position. Philosophy and theology are often faced with an impossible choice between the Scylla of theism and the Charybdis of atheism. Concentrating on metaphysical and epistemological agnosticism rather than psychological agnosticism leads to an exploration of Richard Kearney’s anatheistic wager. Drawing deeply on continental philosophy, Kearney offers a way of drawing theism and atheism into a constructive dialogue. Kearney, it is argued, redeems agnosticism by presenting it as an essential truth about the nature of philosophical thought about the divine. Against the oppositional logic that contrasts theism and atheism, Kearney’s anatheism shows how both theism and atheism are necessary in the search for the divine. In contrast to the certainty of both new atheists and old fideists, Kearney’s anatheistic wager inscribes agnosticism at the heart of the quest for God.

scholarly journals Eurocentric Pitfalls in the Practice of African Philosophy: Reflections on African Universities

Phronimon ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ephraim Gwaravanda ◽  
Amasa Ndofirepi
Keyword(s):  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
African Philosophy ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
African Development ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Self Examination

We argue that African philosophy scholars are sometimes blinded by Eurocentric tendencies in the practice of African philosophy, and that it is important to identify and overcome these problems. The research gap we intend to fill is that the route of self-examination, self-criticism and self-evaluation has been underexplored in the practice of African philosophy at universities in Africa. The self-understanding of African philosophy is necessary for the reconstruction of indigenous elements for the purpose of African development. Firstly, African philosophy is divided along Eurocentric lines of analytic and continental philosophy. We argue that such a dualism closes other approaches to African philosophy. Secondly, the practice of African philosophy is done in the language of the colonisers; however, concepts from indigenous African languages remain largely unexplored. Thirdly, the Eurocentric approach of making philosophy “universal” and “transcultural,” results in African scholars seeking a general African philosophy that fails to accommodate the diversity and richness of African cultures. Fourthly, African philosophy, as practised in African universities, tends to disregard African culture as the basis of philosophical thought in trying to make philosophy scientific and objective. We argue for decolonial thinking as a means of making African philosophy more genuine.

Bonhoeffer and Contemporary Philosophy

2019 ◽  
pp. 427-446
Author(s):  
Jens Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
Phenomenological Tradition ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Starting Point

How does Bonhoeffer view the relation between philosophy and theology? To what extent is his own theology shaped by philosophical thought? Moreover, how do the major themes of Bonhoeffer’s theological work relate to concerns of contemporary philosophy? These are the questions addressed in this chapter. Given Bonhoeffer’s training in and proclivity to continental philosophy, we will focus on the phenomenological tradition in general and on personalism and hermeneutics in particular. As it turns out, Bonhoeffer’s Christological starting point in the incarnation offers important insights for contemporary ethical philosophy (Lévinas) and postmodern hermeneutical thinkers (Derrida, Kearney, Caputo, and Vattimo).

A Politics of Intensity: Some Aspects of Acceleration in Simondon and Deleuze

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-517
Author(s):  
Yuk Hui ◽  
Louis Morelle
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
Generic Concept ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Ontological Ground ◽  
Shed Light

This article aims to clarify the question of speed and intensity in the thoughts of Simondon and Deleuze, in order to shed light on the recent debates regarding accelerationism and its politics. Instead of starting with speed, we propose to look into the notion of intensity and how it serves as a new ontological ground in Simondon's and Deleuze's philosophy and politics. Simondon mobilises the concept of intensity to criticise hylomorphism and substantialism; Deleuze, taking up Simondon's conceptual framework, repurposes it for his ontology of difference, elevating intensity to the rank of generic concept of being, thus bypassing notions of negativity and individuals as base, in favour of the productive and universal character of difference. In Deleuze, the correlation between intensity and speed is fraught with ambiguities, with each term threatening to subsume the other; this rampant tension becomes explicitly antagonistic when taken up by the diverse strands of contemporary accelerationism, resulting in two extreme cases in the posthuman discourse: either a pure becoming, achieved through destruction, or through abstraction that does away with intensity altogether; or an intensity without movement or speed, that remains a pure jouissance. Both cases appear to stumble over the problem of individuation, if not disindividuation. Hence, we wish to raise the following question: in what way can one think of an accelerationist politics with intensity, or an intensive politics without the fetishisation of speed? We consider this question central to the interrogation of the limits of acceleration and posthuman discourse, thus requiring a new philosophical thought on intensity and speed.

Extra Time and the Death Penalties: On a Newly Arisen Violent Tone in Philosophy

Derrida Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Martin McQuillan
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Future Challenge ◽  
Extra Time

In light of recent writing on politics and violence within contemporary continental philosophy, this text revisits Derrida's frequently articulated philosophical opposition to the death penalty. This essay expresses dismay at a certain theoretical discourse today that finds within itself the resources to mount a defence from within the humanities of political violence and by extension an overt justification of the death penalty. Slavoj Žižek's essay on Robespierre is unpicked as one such representative text. It is contrasted to Derrida's scrupulous reading of Kant as an advocate of the death penalty. This essay seeks to name and question a new Maoist, thanato-theological current in contemporary theoretical writing and should be considered as an opening salvo in a sustained future challenge to such thought.

Music, Landscape, and the Sound of Place

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Grimley
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Cultural Geography ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
British Library ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Final Time ◽  
Walking Tour ◽  
Meaning Representation ◽  
Critical Literature

One of the most poignant scenes in Ken Russell’s 1968 film Delius: Song of Summer evocatively depicts the ailing composer being carried in a wicker chair to the summit of the mountain behind his Norwegian cabin. From here, Delius can gaze one final time across the broad Gudbrandsdal and watch the sun set behind the distant Norwegian fells. Contemplating the centrality of Norway in Delius’s output, however, raises more pressing questions of musical meaning, representation, and our relationship with the natural environment. It also inspires a more complex awareness of landscape and our sense of place, both historical and imagined, as a mode of reception and an interpretative tool for approaching Delius’s music. This essay focuses on one of Delius’s richest but most critically neglected works, The Song of the High Hills for orchestra and wordless chorus, composed in 1911 but not premiered until 1920. Drawing on archival materials held at the British Library and the Grainger Museum, Melbourne, I examine the music’s compositional genesis and critical reception. Conventionally heard (following Thomas Beecham and Eric Fenby) as an imaginary account of a walking tour in the Norwegian mountains, The Song of the High Hills in fact offers a multilayered response to ideas of landscape and nature. Moving beyond pictorial notions of landscape representation, I draw from recent critical literature in cultural geography to account for the music’s sense of place. Hearing The Song of the High Hills from this perspective promotes a keener understanding of our phenomenological engagement with sound and the natural environment, and underscores the parallels between Delius’s work and contemporary developments in continental philosophy, notably the writing of Henri Bergson.

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