<strong>Call for Submissions</strong> Fall 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities a... more <strong>Call for Submissions</strong> Fall 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities and Technology Review</em> We are happy to announce the call for submissions for the 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities and Technology Review</em>. The <em>HTR</em> is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that explores the impact of technology on human life from a broad range of perspectives. We welcome papers that investigate the cultural interaction of the humanities, science, engineering, and technology. The theme for this year's journal is, <em>Morality and Creativity in a Technological Age</em>. Possible themes for submissions include the ethics of coding technologies; the ethics of gene technology and human engineering; the use of GMOs and questions of food security, along with papers that address how changes in technology carry implications for social and political thought. All papers examining vital issue areas at the juncture of technology and society will be considered. For submission guidelines see: http://htronline.weebly.com/guidelines-for-authors.html Deadline for submissions: June 30th, 2017 <br> Please send submissions and questions to Dr. Sean Erwin at <strong>Serwin@barry.edu</strong>
Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2020
Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli... more Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli’s position on the freedom of political agents. Some scholars like Roecklin (2012) and Rahe (2007, 2008) argue that Machiavelli was a determinist based on Machiavelli’s rejection of the clinamen; others argue with Brown (2010, 2013, 2015) and Morfino (2006, 2011) that Machiavelli’s affirmation of Lucretian natural principles left room for the freedom of agents. However, this paper takes a different approach by arguing that Machiavelli successfully resists identification with either of these positions. I argue here that Machiavelli affirms a notion of agency that reflects the influence of the Lucretian notion of mixed bodies where human actions emerge from an irreducible multiplicity of subjective and objective factors. I also argue that Machiavelli structures the narratives describing the actions of his agents in a way that supports interpreting their actions as both contingent and neces...
reformulation of certain postures . . . in respect of masculinity and male sexuality” (102– 03). ... more reformulation of certain postures . . . in respect of masculinity and male sexuality” (102– 03). AlthoughWong asserts the tradition is inextricably linked tomasculine personas, space is given here to consideration of works by Louise Labé, Aphra Behn, and Margaret Cavendish, and so may act as a prompt for further scholarship concerning the influence of the basium tradition on women’s writing from this period. Moving on to discussion of early modern European texts, Wong demonstrates how a view of “the continental scenery” (201) forms a crucial backdrop to an interpretation of English vernacular works. Briefly proving the basium tradition’s influence on Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, Wong’s weight of focus in chapter 7 confirms its more significant impact on Drummond’s vernacular imitations of European antecedents, and in the works of the Neo-Latin Scottish poets Buchanan, Ayton, and Leech. As discussion moves on to the “Sophistication of the English Kiss” (chapter 7), we are reminded that although “early modern drama is full of kisses . . . few stage kisses betray close kinship with the lyrical basium” (255). As such, Wong touches only briefly on Shakespearean drama before moving on to a fuller discussion of Venus and Adonis, which is “patently though subtly” informed by the Secundan basium tradition (261). Through the exploration of CatullanSecundan influences on the works of Shakespeare, Campion, Jonson, Donne, Cowley, and Stanley, in this chapter, Wong is able to develop new insights into the reading of specific works through the lens of the basiummotif, while also demonstrating the weight of repetition and reiteration that forms the basis of a literary practice based on principles of imitatio. Indeed, with this study, Wong aims to demonstrate the “value of attending closely to those aspects of literature which are most generic, imitative and repetitive” (xvii). The Poetry of Kissing succeeds in focusing on the minutiae of motif, while maintaining a broad appeal. Here the novice may learn the value of attending to the detail for a better understanding of the whole; and the seasoned scholar is encouraged to return to well-known texts, to explore the new perspectives that may be afforded when proper account is taken of Neo-Latin contexts.
This article examines Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his 1978 lecture series, Sécuri... more This article examines Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his 1978 lecture series, Sécurité, territoire, population. I argue that Foucault’s interpretation in these lectures deliberately misrepresents Machiavelli. This misrepresentation allows him to develop later traditions in political thought in a way that precludes any importance Machiavelli might have had for the concerns of these later authors. Further, thorough analysis of Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli uncovers a common thread between the two authors. For Machiavelli, the political is a space articulated by an immediacy of princes to peoples and generated from the fold formed by the difference between the qualities of the political humors. For Machiavelli, this difference of the humors—unstable and porous as it is—between those who desire to dominate and those who desire not to be dominated is immanent to the political. Read from this perspective Foucault’s critique of the tradition in anti-Machiavellian literatur...
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2010
... As Skinner states: [Machiavelli] may have been thinking in particular about the misfortunes o... more ... As Skinner states: [Machiavelli] may have been thinking in particular about the misfortunes of his native city, which undoubtedly suffered a ... On the other hand, Machiavelli dedicates the Discorsi to Zanobi and Cosimo Buondelomonte, both of whom he addresses as potential ...
Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli... more Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli's position on the freedom of political agents. Some scholars like Roecklin (2012) and Rahe (2007, 2008) argue that Machiavelli was a determinist based on Machiavelli's rejection of the clinamen; others argue with Brown (2010, 2013, 2015) and Morfino (2006, 2011) that Machiavelli's affirmation of Lucretian natural principles left room for the freedom of agents. However, this paper takes a different approach by arguing that Machiavelli successfully resists identification with either of these positions. I argue here that Machiavelli affirms a notion of agency that reflects the influence of the Lucretian notion of mixed bodies where human actions emerge from an irreducible multiplicity of subjective and objective factors. I also argue that Machiavelli structures the narratives describing the actions of his agents in a way that supports interpreting their actions as both contingent and necessary.
Fall 2019 edition of The Humanities and Technology Review. with transhumanism as the main theme.... more Fall 2019 edition of The Humanities and Technology Review. with transhumanism as the main theme. Contains two articles by Albert Antosca and Christopher England and book reviews by Ryan Marnane and Michael Scully.
Table of Contents Technological Re-Enchantment: Transhumanism, Techno-Religion, and Post-Secular Transcendence Albert R. Antosca
Three Visions of the Human Future: Transhumanist, Conservationist, and Nietzschean Christopher England
Book Reviews The Environmental Humanities: A Critical Introduction Authors: Robert S. Emmett and David E. Nye Reviewed by Ryan Marnane
William Robinson, A New Perspective Author: Nick Earls Reviewed by Michael Scully
The Geo-logic of Immanence: Anselm Kiefer’s, Erdzeitalter, 2018
In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari discuss the earth as a relationship between the flow... more In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari discuss the earth as a relationship between the flows of a plane of consistency, on the hand, and processes of geological strata formation, on the other. Anselm Kiefer’s, Die Erdzeitalter, is a 17-foot high sculpture shaped from a seemingly random pile of unfinished canvases and random objects that range from dried sunflowers to books made of lead. Seen through the lenses of Deleuze and Guattari’s geo-logics of immanence, Kiefer’s installation appears as a project of territoriality – i.e., a living being’s campaign to establish rhythms and coordinate flows within its environmental milieu.
Foucault's disciplinary society and his notion of panopticism are often invoked in discussions re... more Foucault's disciplinary society and his notion of panopticism are often invoked in discussions regarding electronic surveillance. Against this use of Foucault, I argue that contemporary trends in surveillance technology abstract human bodies from their territorial settings, separating them into a series of discrete flows through what Deleuze will term, the surveillant assemblage. The surveillant assemblage and its product, the socially sorted body, aim less at molding, punishing and controlling the body and more at triggering events of in-and exclusion from life opportunities. The meaning of the body as monitored by latest generation vision technologies formed from machine only surveillance has been transformed. Such a body is no longer disciplinary in the Foucauldian sense. It is a virtual/flesh interface broken into discrete data flows whose comparison and breakage generate bodies as both legible and eligible (or illegible).
For those familiar with Machiavelli’s texts, Foucault’s interpretation of Macchiavelli in his 197... more For those familiar with Machiavelli’s texts, Foucault’s interpretation of Macchiavelli in his 1978 lecture series Sécurité, Territoire, Population is surprising. Although Machiavelli figures prominently in five of the thirteen lectures, Foucault treats Machiavelli as if he were the author of only one book—The Prince—and his reading treats this complex text as if it covered only one topic: how to guarantee the security of the Prince. Clearly Foucault did not intend his interpretation of Machiavelli as a close exegesis. Other discussions of Foucault’s treatment of Machiavelli have acknowledged the role Machiavelli plays in these lectures and even note the inadequacy of the interpretation given by Foucault, but most commentators do not pursue Foucault’s reading further. This investigation is not concerned with whether Foucault got Machiavelli right. Rather, Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli is noteworthy because it is partial and incomplete in a way reminiscent of Foucault’s reading of Hobbes in, Il faut défendre la société. This fragmentary character of Foucault’s inscription of Machiavelli as a forerunner of the history of biopolitique allows an innovative reading of the Florentine that connects Machiavelli’s thinking, however indirectly, on a trajectory that encounters, for instance, Foucault’s analysis of populations, the police state, and even his reading of liberalism during the 1978-1979 lectures. My argument here is that the specific way Foucault’s inscribes Machiavelli in the history of gouvernementalité, while seeming to reject him, in fact acts to resuscitate, and thereby relay, a reading of Machiavelli as a thinker who articulates encounters among political practices engaged within a horizon of radical immanence.
<strong>Call for Submissions</strong> Fall 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities a... more <strong>Call for Submissions</strong> Fall 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities and Technology Review</em> We are happy to announce the call for submissions for the 2017 edition of <em>The Humanities and Technology Review</em>. The <em>HTR</em> is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that explores the impact of technology on human life from a broad range of perspectives. We welcome papers that investigate the cultural interaction of the humanities, science, engineering, and technology. The theme for this year's journal is, <em>Morality and Creativity in a Technological Age</em>. Possible themes for submissions include the ethics of coding technologies; the ethics of gene technology and human engineering; the use of GMOs and questions of food security, along with papers that address how changes in technology carry implications for social and political thought. All papers examining vital issue areas at the juncture of technology and society will be considered. For submission guidelines see: http://htronline.weebly.com/guidelines-for-authors.html Deadline for submissions: June 30th, 2017 <br> Please send submissions and questions to Dr. Sean Erwin at <strong>Serwin@barry.edu</strong>
Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2020
Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli... more Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli’s position on the freedom of political agents. Some scholars like Roecklin (2012) and Rahe (2007, 2008) argue that Machiavelli was a determinist based on Machiavelli’s rejection of the clinamen; others argue with Brown (2010, 2013, 2015) and Morfino (2006, 2011) that Machiavelli’s affirmation of Lucretian natural principles left room for the freedom of agents. However, this paper takes a different approach by arguing that Machiavelli successfully resists identification with either of these positions. I argue here that Machiavelli affirms a notion of agency that reflects the influence of the Lucretian notion of mixed bodies where human actions emerge from an irreducible multiplicity of subjective and objective factors. I also argue that Machiavelli structures the narratives describing the actions of his agents in a way that supports interpreting their actions as both contingent and neces...
reformulation of certain postures . . . in respect of masculinity and male sexuality” (102– 03). ... more reformulation of certain postures . . . in respect of masculinity and male sexuality” (102– 03). AlthoughWong asserts the tradition is inextricably linked tomasculine personas, space is given here to consideration of works by Louise Labé, Aphra Behn, and Margaret Cavendish, and so may act as a prompt for further scholarship concerning the influence of the basium tradition on women’s writing from this period. Moving on to discussion of early modern European texts, Wong demonstrates how a view of “the continental scenery” (201) forms a crucial backdrop to an interpretation of English vernacular works. Briefly proving the basium tradition’s influence on Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, Wong’s weight of focus in chapter 7 confirms its more significant impact on Drummond’s vernacular imitations of European antecedents, and in the works of the Neo-Latin Scottish poets Buchanan, Ayton, and Leech. As discussion moves on to the “Sophistication of the English Kiss” (chapter 7), we are reminded that although “early modern drama is full of kisses . . . few stage kisses betray close kinship with the lyrical basium” (255). As such, Wong touches only briefly on Shakespearean drama before moving on to a fuller discussion of Venus and Adonis, which is “patently though subtly” informed by the Secundan basium tradition (261). Through the exploration of CatullanSecundan influences on the works of Shakespeare, Campion, Jonson, Donne, Cowley, and Stanley, in this chapter, Wong is able to develop new insights into the reading of specific works through the lens of the basiummotif, while also demonstrating the weight of repetition and reiteration that forms the basis of a literary practice based on principles of imitatio. Indeed, with this study, Wong aims to demonstrate the “value of attending closely to those aspects of literature which are most generic, imitative and repetitive” (xvii). The Poetry of Kissing succeeds in focusing on the minutiae of motif, while maintaining a broad appeal. Here the novice may learn the value of attending to the detail for a better understanding of the whole; and the seasoned scholar is encouraged to return to well-known texts, to explore the new perspectives that may be afforded when proper account is taken of Neo-Latin contexts.
This article examines Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his 1978 lecture series, Sécuri... more This article examines Foucault’s interpretation of Machiavelli in his 1978 lecture series, Sécurité, territoire, population. I argue that Foucault’s interpretation in these lectures deliberately misrepresents Machiavelli. This misrepresentation allows him to develop later traditions in political thought in a way that precludes any importance Machiavelli might have had for the concerns of these later authors. Further, thorough analysis of Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli uncovers a common thread between the two authors. For Machiavelli, the political is a space articulated by an immediacy of princes to peoples and generated from the fold formed by the difference between the qualities of the political humors. For Machiavelli, this difference of the humors—unstable and porous as it is—between those who desire to dominate and those who desire not to be dominated is immanent to the political. Read from this perspective Foucault’s critique of the tradition in anti-Machiavellian literatur...
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2010
... As Skinner states: [Machiavelli] may have been thinking in particular about the misfortunes o... more ... As Skinner states: [Machiavelli] may have been thinking in particular about the misfortunes of his native city, which undoubtedly suffered a ... On the other hand, Machiavelli dedicates the Discorsi to Zanobi and Cosimo Buondelomonte, both of whom he addresses as potential ...
Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli... more Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli's position on the freedom of political agents. Some scholars like Roecklin (2012) and Rahe (2007, 2008) argue that Machiavelli was a determinist based on Machiavelli's rejection of the clinamen; others argue with Brown (2010, 2013, 2015) and Morfino (2006, 2011) that Machiavelli's affirmation of Lucretian natural principles left room for the freedom of agents. However, this paper takes a different approach by arguing that Machiavelli successfully resists identification with either of these positions. I argue here that Machiavelli affirms a notion of agency that reflects the influence of the Lucretian notion of mixed bodies where human actions emerge from an irreducible multiplicity of subjective and objective factors. I also argue that Machiavelli structures the narratives describing the actions of his agents in a way that supports interpreting their actions as both contingent and necessary.
Fall 2019 edition of The Humanities and Technology Review. with transhumanism as the main theme.... more Fall 2019 edition of The Humanities and Technology Review. with transhumanism as the main theme. Contains two articles by Albert Antosca and Christopher England and book reviews by Ryan Marnane and Michael Scully.
Table of Contents Technological Re-Enchantment: Transhumanism, Techno-Religion, and Post-Secular Transcendence Albert R. Antosca
Three Visions of the Human Future: Transhumanist, Conservationist, and Nietzschean Christopher England
Book Reviews The Environmental Humanities: A Critical Introduction Authors: Robert S. Emmett and David E. Nye Reviewed by Ryan Marnane
William Robinson, A New Perspective Author: Nick Earls Reviewed by Michael Scully
The Geo-logic of Immanence: Anselm Kiefer’s, Erdzeitalter, 2018
In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari discuss the earth as a relationship between the flow... more In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari discuss the earth as a relationship between the flows of a plane of consistency, on the hand, and processes of geological strata formation, on the other. Anselm Kiefer’s, Die Erdzeitalter, is a 17-foot high sculpture shaped from a seemingly random pile of unfinished canvases and random objects that range from dried sunflowers to books made of lead. Seen through the lenses of Deleuze and Guattari’s geo-logics of immanence, Kiefer’s installation appears as a project of territoriality – i.e., a living being’s campaign to establish rhythms and coordinate flows within its environmental milieu.
Foucault's disciplinary society and his notion of panopticism are often invoked in discussions re... more Foucault's disciplinary society and his notion of panopticism are often invoked in discussions regarding electronic surveillance. Against this use of Foucault, I argue that contemporary trends in surveillance technology abstract human bodies from their territorial settings, separating them into a series of discrete flows through what Deleuze will term, the surveillant assemblage. The surveillant assemblage and its product, the socially sorted body, aim less at molding, punishing and controlling the body and more at triggering events of in-and exclusion from life opportunities. The meaning of the body as monitored by latest generation vision technologies formed from machine only surveillance has been transformed. Such a body is no longer disciplinary in the Foucauldian sense. It is a virtual/flesh interface broken into discrete data flows whose comparison and breakage generate bodies as both legible and eligible (or illegible).
For those familiar with Machiavelli’s texts, Foucault’s interpretation of Macchiavelli in his 197... more For those familiar with Machiavelli’s texts, Foucault’s interpretation of Macchiavelli in his 1978 lecture series Sécurité, Territoire, Population is surprising. Although Machiavelli figures prominently in five of the thirteen lectures, Foucault treats Machiavelli as if he were the author of only one book—The Prince—and his reading treats this complex text as if it covered only one topic: how to guarantee the security of the Prince. Clearly Foucault did not intend his interpretation of Machiavelli as a close exegesis. Other discussions of Foucault’s treatment of Machiavelli have acknowledged the role Machiavelli plays in these lectures and even note the inadequacy of the interpretation given by Foucault, but most commentators do not pursue Foucault’s reading further. This investigation is not concerned with whether Foucault got Machiavelli right. Rather, Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli is noteworthy because it is partial and incomplete in a way reminiscent of Foucault’s reading of Hobbes in, Il faut défendre la société. This fragmentary character of Foucault’s inscription of Machiavelli as a forerunner of the history of biopolitique allows an innovative reading of the Florentine that connects Machiavelli’s thinking, however indirectly, on a trajectory that encounters, for instance, Foucault’s analysis of populations, the police state, and even his reading of liberalism during the 1978-1979 lectures. My argument here is that the specific way Foucault’s inscribes Machiavelli in the history of gouvernementalité, while seeming to reject him, in fact acts to resuscitate, and thereby relay, a reading of Machiavelli as a thinker who articulates encounters among political practices engaged within a horizon of radical immanence.
The panoptic architecture described by Michel Foucault in, Discipline and Punish (1976), has been... more The panoptic architecture described by Michel Foucault in, Discipline and Punish (1976), has been a dominant paradigm in surveillance studies since its inception as an organized field of inquiry in the 1970s. However, over the last decade this paradigm has come under increasing criticism. As Kevin Haggerty (2006) states: “Foucault continues to reign supreme in surveillance studies and it is perhaps time to cut off the head of the king.” An increasing number of commentators argue that the model of the panopticon fails to account for the programmed character of smart surveillance technology. They argue that these technologies do not seek to discipline behaviors as much as they aim to route bodies through different surveillance environments by events of in and exclusion on the basis of massive searches of databases.
Seeking a paradigm better able to account for the relationship between software algorithms with big data, some commentators have turned to Deleuze and his 1992 critique of Foucault in the, “Postscript on Societies of Control”. They frequently adopt Deleuze’s notion of the rhizomatically structured, surveillant assemblage, as a model better adapted than the panopticon to account for the capabilities of today’s digital networks.
In this paper I argue that Deleuze’s notion of the surveillant assemblage may in fact be better adapted to account for the networked character of electronic surveillance than Foucault’s panopticon. However, I argue that Foucault himself was very aware of the limits of panopticism and that his contribution to surveillance studies must not be limited to that model alone. During his 1978 lectures, Sécurité Territoire Population, Foucault introduced a new paradigm – les dispositifs de sécurité. This paradigm exceeds the panoptic paradigm and overlaps with Deleuze’s model in four important ways: 1) security mechanisms operate at the level of populations (both human and non-human) and do not depend on closed spaces like the prison, classroom and barracks in order to function. 2) Security mechanisms function in tandem with disciplinary regimes. This allows Foucault to account for the fact that the disruptive effects of electronic surveillance networks do not replace disciplinary spaces. In fact they capture disciplined bodies in the process of virtualizing them. 3) The security mechanism is a non-hierarchical form of governance. Those engaged in the activity of electronic surveillance are as much subject to surveillance as those whom they observe. 4) For Foucault and Deleuze, the ‘meaning’ of the security mechanism is a function of both the intended and the unintended effects of the system. This gives the paradigm the flexibility to explain the significance of both false positives and false negatives in the routine functioning of surveillance networks.
The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy is happy to announce its first ever stand alo... more The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy is happy to announce its first ever stand alone conference.
The Society invites proposals for individual presentations or sessions on any topic(s) or figure(s) in medieval or renaissance philosophy.
Please submit presentation and session proposals to John Peck, jpeck3@nd.edu, by February 1st 2020.
Attached is a call for papers for a session being proposed for the Renaissance Society of America... more Attached is a call for papers for a session being proposed for the Renaissance Society of America, 2020 (April 2-4, Philadelphia):
(Mis)Reading the Past: Medieval and Renaissance Political Terms and their Modern Meaning
Submissions are due August 11th (2019) to Andrea Polegato (apolegato@csufresno.edu). Attached is the CFP with the session details.
The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy will sponsor several panels at the 2019 annua... more The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy will sponsor several panels at the 2019 annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in Toronto, March 17th to 19th, 2019. We welcome proposals on any relevant theme, but we are especially interested in the following topics: · Medieval and Renaissance accounts of language. · The transmission of Medieval and Renaissance authors in Early Modernity. · Discussions of critical receptions of Medieval and Renaissance authors and the interpretive effects these readings engendered. · Themes linked to work on Machiavelli and Lucretius and their transmission. Please download the attached CFP for more information.
Call for Articles and Book Reviews for the Fall 2018 volume of the Humanities and Technology Revi... more Call for Articles and Book Reviews for the Fall 2018 volume of the Humanities and Technology Review. The deadline has been extended to July 1st 2018. For more information: https://htronline.weebly.com/call-for-papers.html
We are happy to announce the call for submissions for the 2017 edition of The Humanities and Tech... more We are happy to announce the call for submissions for the 2017 edition of The Humanities and Technology Review. The HTR is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal that explores the impact of technology on human life from a broad range of perspectives. We welcome papers that investigate the cultural interaction of the humanities, science, engineering, and technology. The theme for this year's journal is, Morality and Creativity in a Technological Age. Possible themes for submissions include the ethics of coding technologies; the ethics of gene technology and human engineering; the use of GMOs and questions of food security, along with papers that address how changes in technology carry implications for social and political thought. All papers examining vital issue areas at the juncture of technology and society will be considered.
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Table of Contents
Technological Re-Enchantment: Transhumanism, Techno-Religion, and Post-Secular Transcendence
Albert R. Antosca
Three Visions of the Human Future: Transhumanist, Conservationist, and Nietzschean
Christopher England
Book Reviews
The Environmental Humanities: A Critical Introduction
Authors: Robert S. Emmett and David E. Nye
Reviewed by Ryan Marnane
William Robinson, A New Perspective
Author: Nick Earls
Reviewed by Michael Scully
Table of Contents
Technological Re-Enchantment: Transhumanism, Techno-Religion, and Post-Secular Transcendence
Albert R. Antosca
Three Visions of the Human Future: Transhumanist, Conservationist, and Nietzschean
Christopher England
Book Reviews
The Environmental Humanities: A Critical Introduction
Authors: Robert S. Emmett and David E. Nye
Reviewed by Ryan Marnane
William Robinson, A New Perspective
Author: Nick Earls
Reviewed by Michael Scully
“Foucault continues to reign supreme in surveillance studies and it is perhaps time to cut off the head of the king.”
An increasing number of commentators argue that the model of the panopticon fails to account for the programmed character of smart surveillance technology. They argue that these technologies do not seek to discipline behaviors as much as they aim to route bodies through different surveillance environments by events of in and exclusion on the basis of massive searches of databases.
Seeking a paradigm better able to account for the relationship between software algorithms with big data, some commentators have turned to Deleuze and his 1992 critique of Foucault in the, “Postscript on Societies of Control”. They frequently adopt Deleuze’s notion of the rhizomatically structured, surveillant assemblage, as a model better adapted than the panopticon to account for the capabilities of today’s digital networks.
In this paper I argue that Deleuze’s notion of the surveillant assemblage may in fact be better adapted to account for the networked character of electronic surveillance than Foucault’s panopticon. However, I argue that Foucault himself was very aware of the limits of panopticism and that his contribution to surveillance studies must not be limited to that model alone. During his 1978 lectures, Sécurité Territoire Population, Foucault introduced a new paradigm – les dispositifs de sécurité. This paradigm exceeds the panoptic paradigm and overlaps with Deleuze’s model in four important ways: 1) security mechanisms operate at the level of populations (both human and non-human) and do not depend on closed spaces like the prison, classroom and barracks in order to function. 2) Security mechanisms function in tandem with disciplinary regimes. This allows Foucault to account for the fact that the disruptive effects of electronic surveillance networks do not replace disciplinary spaces. In fact they capture disciplined bodies in the process of virtualizing them. 3) The security mechanism is a non-hierarchical form of governance. Those engaged in the activity of electronic surveillance are as much subject to surveillance as those whom they observe. 4) For Foucault and Deleuze, the ‘meaning’ of the security mechanism is a function of both the intended and the unintended effects of the system. This gives the paradigm the flexibility to explain the significance of both false positives and false negatives in the routine functioning of surveillance networks.
The Society invites proposals for individual presentations or sessions on any topic(s) or figure(s) in medieval or renaissance philosophy.
Please submit presentation and session proposals to John Peck, jpeck3@nd.edu, by February 1st 2020.
(Mis)Reading the Past: Medieval and Renaissance Political Terms and their Modern Meaning
Submissions are due August 11th (2019) to Andrea Polegato (apolegato@csufresno.edu). Attached is the CFP with the session details.
· Medieval and Renaissance accounts of language.
· The transmission of Medieval and Renaissance authors in Early Modernity.
· Discussions of critical receptions of Medieval and Renaissance authors
and the interpretive effects these readings engendered.
· Themes linked to work on Machiavelli and Lucretius and their transmission.
Please download the attached CFP for more information.