Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technica... more Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technical language, and considers its larger philosophical implications: electro-chemical doping and its application in semi-conductor technology. The word ‘doping’ derives from Latin dotare, for ‘to endow,’ or ‘to bestow.’ How to think of this strange practice, which is the giving of dispositions that are to condition what will be recorded as data? Today, we find a constitutive asymmetry between reading and writing not only when dealing with text and interpretation, but also in every situation where data is being recorded and (dis)played. This third volume of the Metalithikum series pays attention to this irritating phenomenon that thwarts the categorical distinction between the natural and the human sciences. It contains articles on a.o. a digital architectonics, on the creative becoming of musical notation, on the joint origin of signs for numbers and letters, on languages as philological objects and media studies as an epistemological field, on luxuriation in food and beverage design based on artificial photosynthesis, on Mallarmé’s number-that-cannot-be-another, on mastership vis-à-vis of chance, and on the role of cryptography in the baroque notion of a line. ON THE METALITHIKUM SERIES Technology is not simply technology, it changes character over time. We suggest there is a twin story to that of the Neolithikum. We call it Metalithikum and postulate that it has always accompanied the former. It concerns the symbolics of the forms and schemes humans are applying for accommodating themselves within their environment. We assume that the protagonists of this twin story, the symbolics of those forms and schemes, are also not simply what they are but change character over time. After Printed Physics (2012) and Domesticating Symbols (2013), this book is the third volume based on the Metalithikum colloquies organized once a year, where distinguished personalities from a broad range of architecture-related fields come together to discuss particular technical developments that are economically significant and philosophically interesting. The colloquies are organized by the applied virtuality theory-lab at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich.
This essay argues for a convergence between, on the one side, Foucault’s characterization of the ... more This essay argues for a convergence between, on the one side, Foucault’s characterization of the care of the self as a way of overcoming the traps of anthropological sleep, and on the other side, Deleuze’s characterization of initiating becomings as a way of fleeing the traps of organization, a line of flight, becoming becoming. This convergence is defended on the basis of a Bergsonian ontology of becoming, and in particular, Bergson’s opposition to what he calls the retrograde motion of truth. One result of this convergence is that a Wittgensteinian approach to the sense of life floats to the surface. A kind of mysticism.
Page 1. Relativism as Reductio GORDON CF BEARN Introduction Many philosophers believe that the re... more Page 1. Relativism as Reductio GORDON CF BEARN Introduction Many philosophers believe that the relativistic consequences of a philo? sophical theory are sufficient to refute that theory. The reason relativism is treated as ...
... At this stage, no belief can any longer be simply reasonable or not, it is only reasonable re... more ... At this stage, no belief can any longer be simply reasonable or not, it is only reasonable relative to contingent, local criteria of rationality. One of relativism's first offspring is a form of antirelativism, which can't help remind-ing one of GE Moore. ...
The essay characterizes an anthropological impasse of political philosophy dividing those in a mo... more The essay characterizes an anthropological impasse of political philosophy dividing those in a more liberal tradition from those in a more Hegelian tradition, and then it proceeds to sketch a political philosophy without any human or anthropological content. I rely on Foucault's notion of parrhesia to activate such a political philosophy, and I rely on the philosophical life of the Cynic to make parrhesia possible. Finally by invoking exercises of ascent and of descent, I suggest that this kind of political philosophy can not only solve the anthropological impasse of political philosophy, but also in practice , it can cool hateful passions and warm cold hearts.
Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technica... more Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technical language, and considers its larger philosophical implications: electro-chemical doping and its application in semi-conductor technology. The word ‘doping’ derives from Latin dotare, for ‘to endow,’ or ‘to bestow.’ How to think of this strange practice, which is the giving of dispositions that are to condition what will be recorded as data? Today, we find a constitutive asymmetry between reading and writing not only when dealing with text and interpretation, but also in every situation where data is being recorded and (dis)played. This third volume of the Metalithikum series pays attention to this irritating phenomenon that thwarts the categorical distinction between the natural and the human sciences. It contains articles on a.o. a digital architectonics, on the creative becoming of musical notation, on the joint origin of signs for numbers and letters, on languages as philological objects and media studies as an epistemological field, on luxuriation in food and beverage design based on artificial photosynthesis, on Mallarmé’s number-that-cannot-be-another, on mastership vis-à-vis of chance, and on the role of cryptography in the baroque notion of a line. ON THE METALITHIKUM SERIES Technology is not simply technology, it changes character over time. We suggest there is a twin story to that of the Neolithikum. We call it Metalithikum and postulate that it has always accompanied the former. It concerns the symbolics of the forms and schemes humans are applying for accommodating themselves within their environment. We assume that the protagonists of this twin story, the symbolics of those forms and schemes, are also not simply what they are but change character over time. After Printed Physics (2012) and Domesticating Symbols (2013), this book is the third volume based on the Metalithikum colloquies organized once a year, where distinguished personalities from a broad range of architecture-related fields come together to discuss particular technical developments that are economically significant and philosophically interesting. The colloquies are organized by the applied virtuality theory-lab at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich.
This essay argues for a convergence between, on the one side, Foucault’s characterization of the ... more This essay argues for a convergence between, on the one side, Foucault’s characterization of the care of the self as a way of overcoming the traps of anthropological sleep, and on the other side, Deleuze’s characterization of initiating becomings as a way of fleeing the traps of organization, a line of flight, becoming becoming. This convergence is defended on the basis of a Bergsonian ontology of becoming, and in particular, Bergson’s opposition to what he calls the retrograde motion of truth. One result of this convergence is that a Wittgensteinian approach to the sense of life floats to the surface. A kind of mysticism.
Page 1. Relativism as Reductio GORDON CF BEARN Introduction Many philosophers believe that the re... more Page 1. Relativism as Reductio GORDON CF BEARN Introduction Many philosophers believe that the relativistic consequences of a philo? sophical theory are sufficient to refute that theory. The reason relativism is treated as ...
... At this stage, no belief can any longer be simply reasonable or not, it is only reasonable re... more ... At this stage, no belief can any longer be simply reasonable or not, it is only reasonable relative to contingent, local criteria of rationality. One of relativism's first offspring is a form of antirelativism, which can't help remind-ing one of GE Moore. ...
The essay characterizes an anthropological impasse of political philosophy dividing those in a mo... more The essay characterizes an anthropological impasse of political philosophy dividing those in a more liberal tradition from those in a more Hegelian tradition, and then it proceeds to sketch a political philosophy without any human or anthropological content. I rely on Foucault's notion of parrhesia to activate such a political philosophy, and I rely on the philosophical life of the Cynic to make parrhesia possible. Finally by invoking exercises of ascent and of descent, I suggest that this kind of political philosophy can not only solve the anthropological impasse of political philosophy, but also in practice , it can cool hateful passions and warm cold hearts.
Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technica... more Symbolizing Existence selects one particular concept from the torrid wasteland of purely technical language, and considers its larger philosophical implications: electro-chemical doping and its application in semi-conductor technology. The word ‘doping’ derives from Latin dotare, for ‘to endow,’ or ‘to bestow.’ How to think of this strange practice, which is the giving of dispositions that are to condition what will be recorded as data? Today, we find a constitutive asymmetry between reading and writing not only when dealing with text and interpretation, but also in every situation where data is being recorded and (dis)played. This third volume of the Metalithikum series pays attention to this irritating phenomenon that thwarts the categorical distinction between the natural and the human sciences. It contains articles on a.o. a digital architectonics, on the creative becoming of musical notation, on the joint origin of signs for numbers and letters, on languages as philological objects and media studies as an epistemological field, on luxuriation in food and beverage design based on artificial photosynthesis, on Mallarmé’s number-that-cannot-be-another, on mastership vis-à-vis of chance, and on the role of cryptography in the baroque notion of a line.
ON THE METALITHIKUM SERIES Technology is not simply technology, it changes character over time. We suggest there is a twin story to that of the Neolithikum. We call it Metalithikum and postulate that it has always accompanied the former. It concerns the symbolics of the forms and schemes humans are applying for accommodating themselves within their environment. We assume that the protagonists of this twin story, the symbolics of those forms and schemes, are also not simply what they are but change character over time. After Printed Physics (2012) and Domesticating Symbols (2013), this book is the third volume based on the Metalithikum colloquies organized once a year, where distinguished personalities from a broad range of architecture-related fields come together to discuss particular technical developments that are economically significant and philosophically interesting. The colloquies are organized by the applied virtuality theory-lab at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich.
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ON THE METALITHIKUM SERIES
Technology is not simply technology, it changes character over time. We suggest there is a twin story to that of the Neolithikum. We call it Metalithikum and postulate that it has always accompanied the former. It concerns the symbolics of the forms and schemes humans are applying for accommodating themselves within their environment. We assume that the protagonists of this twin story, the symbolics of those forms and schemes, are also not simply what they are but change character over time. After Printed Physics (2012) and Domesticating Symbols (2013), this book is the third volume based on the Metalithikum colloquies organized once a year, where distinguished personalities from a broad range of architecture-related fields come together to discuss particular technical developments that are economically significant and philosophically interesting. The colloquies are organized by the applied virtuality theory-lab at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich.