Tim Howles

'The Different Modes of Existence' by Étienne Souriau
Translated by Erik Beranek and Tim Howles
With an introduction by Isabelle Stengers and Bruno Latour
Published December 2015

Exploring the aesthetic depths of the various modes of existence by one of France’s most heralded but forgotten thinkers of existential pluralism.

What relation is there between the existence of a work of art and that of a living being? Between the existence of an atom and that of a value like solidarity? These questions become our own each time a reality is established—whether it is a piece of music, someone we love, or a fictional character—and begins to take on an importance in our lives. Like William James or Gilles Deleuze, Souriau methodically defends the thesis of an existential pluralism. There are indeed different manners of existing and even different degrees or intensities of existence: from pure phenomena to objectivized things, by way of the virtual and the surexistent, to which works of art and the intellect, and even the very fact of morality, bear witness. Existence is polyphonic and, as a result, the world is considerably enriched and enlarged. Beyond all that exists in the ordinary sense of the term, it is necessary to allow for all sorts of virtual and ephemeral states, transitional realms, and barely begun realities, still in the making, all of which constitute so many “inter-worlds.”

Etienne Souriau was one of France’s most influential post-war thinkers. From Gilles Deleuze to Bruno Latour, Souriau’s philosophy of aesthetics has begun to be re-discovered by a variety of thinkers in contemporary discussions on art and life.

A translation of a March 2015 opinion piece published by Latour in the French newspaper 'Le Monde', in which he proposes a civilizational rupture caused by the Anthropocene and exposed by anthropological artefacts. This paper is also available on Latour's website at http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/2015-3-LEMONDE-ANTHROPO-GB.pdf.

A translation of a January 2015 opinion piece published by Latour in the French newspaper 'Le Monde', in which he argues that, albeit unwittingly, we Moderns have bequeathed a worldview to these terrorists that is characterised by metaphysical hegemony. The article provides an important elaboration of the [REL:POL] crossing from Latour's AIME project. This paper is also available on Latour's website at http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/618.

A translation of a 2014 opinion piece published by Latour in the French newspaper 'Le Monde', in which he outlines his interpretation of the human condition in light of the Anthropocene. This paper is also available on Latour's website at http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/14-11-ANTHROPO-transl-GB.pdf

Although rarely appreciated, the literary and philosophical influence of the poet, essayist. and editor Charles Péguy (1873-1914) on the work of Bruno Latour has been considerable. In this essay, originally published in French in 2014 on the occasion of the centenary of Péguy’s death in the initial phases of the First World War, and translated for the first time here, Latour offers a reevaluation of his significance. Having analyzed Péguy as a reader of his own historical situation, Latour challenges the contemporary reader to Péguyist forms of textual engagement in the face of the spatio-temporal deflations of 'le monde moderne'.

The essay includes a Forward drawing out some of the implications of Péguy’s thought for Latour’s own intellectual project.

This paper offers a new methodological approach to the study of the atonement theology of French anthropologist and philosopher René Girard. In particular, it charts a genealogy of Girardian atonement theology as it has interacted with other thinkers since the publication of 'Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde' in the mid-1970s. This genealogy centres on three themes: first, Girard’s reading of the Epistle to the Hebrews and his understanding of the sacrificial economy of the cross; second, the implications of the concept of positive mimesis and its re-calibration by Girard into a doctrine of imitatio Christi; and third, Girard’s diagnosis of the progressive-historical unfolding of the kingdom of God in dialogue with Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo. By means of such interactions it is proposed that Girard’s thought has assumed an increasingly self-aware and discriminating perspective on the mechanism of its own atonement theology.

This paper applies the mimetic theory of French anthropologist and philosopher Rene Girard to the contemporary situation of eating disorders. Comparing data from medical research and incorporating the testimonies of those suffering with anorexia nervosa, it seeks to unravel the competitive impulse that fuels that most paradoxical of events:  conspicuous non-consumption in the midst of an entrenched consumer society. Finally, it brings this into dialogue with the Christian tradition, a tradition that has on occasion celebrated immoderate food restriction (in the form of anorexia mirabilis and the self-starvation of the saints), but a tradition that also promises a wholescale reformulation of human desire as the only antidote to the escalation of the thinness imperative of our time. (Paper currently under submission).

This paper advances the claim that J. L. Heiberg's little-known 1841 play 'En Sjœl efter Døden' ('A Soul After Death') in fact serves as an important literary influence on Soren Kierkegaard's conception of original sin. It provides an analysis of a number of references to the play in Kierkegaard's published corpus and private journals.

This paper argues that the concept of the ‘single individual’, which is the most basic unit addressed by Kierkegaard’s religious authorship, is misunderstood if it is not taken as first mediated by a plurality. The siglum that Kierkegaard provides for this plurality is the crowd. Thus, the authentic self before God that Kierkegaard calls his contemporaries within Danish Christendom to become is represented by the journey of a ‘single individual’ into and then out of a crowd. In mapping this journey, the paper uses the concept of ‘undifferentiation’ as supplied by the mimetic theory of René Girard, in which the motivation for human action within a crowd is demonstrated as being debased and deformed. Finally, by means of this hermeneutical tool, a recent reading of Kierkegaard’s religious authorship by Simon Critchley (2012) is challenged and corrected.