COMET III: Catherine Malabou – Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity
Who: Researchers and (research) master students in philosophy or adjacent fields.
When: 15:00-17:00 on June 16, June 30, and July 14
Where: On campus at Radboud University, Nijmegen. Precise location is shared upon registration.
How: Each session discusses two of the six book sections, which participants read before convening.
Register by sending an email to arjen.kleinherenbrink [at] ru.nl. There is room for 14 participants (first come, first served)
Publisher’s blurb Ontology of the Accident:
In the usual order of things, lives run their course and eventually one becomes who one is. Bodily and psychic transformations do nothing but reinforce the permanence of identity. But as a result of serious trauma, or sometimes for no reason at all, a subject’s history splits and a new, unprecedented persona comes to live with the former person – an unrecognizable persona whose present comes from no past and whose future harbors nothing to come; an existential improvisation, a form born of the accident and by accident. Out of a deep cut opened in a biography, a new being comes into the world for a second time.
What is this form? A face? A psychological profile? What ontology can it account for, if ontology has always been attached to the essential, forever blind to the aléa of transformations? What history of being can the plastic power of destruction explain? What can it tell us about the explosive tendency of existence that secretly threatens each one of us? Continuing her reflections on destructive plasticity, split identities and the psychic consequences experienced by those who have suffered brain injury or have been traumatized by war and other catastrophes, Catherine Malabou invites us to join her in a philosophic and literary adventure in which Spinoza, Deleuze and Freud cross paths with Proust and Duras.
The COMET study group is convened by the Center for Contemporary European Philosophy (CCEP) at Radboud University.
To register for this group, please contact the study group coordinator through the e-mail below.
Coordinators
Dr. Arjen Kleinherenbrink (arjen.kleinherenbrink@ru.nl)
Associate professor in metaphysics and philosophical anthropology| Program coordinator ‘Philosophy, Politics and Society’ | Radboud University Nijmegen
Upcoming activities of this group
Past activities of this group
Topic & aim
Serious interest in metaphysics has surged among continental philosophers since the turn of the millennium. There is now a rich and growing body of literature – often associated with labels such as Speculative Realism, New Materialism, and New Realism – dedicated to classical as well as new metaphysical questions.
This study group aims to explore that literature, one book at a time.
Set-up & practicalities
When Biweekly on Fridays, 15:00-17:00, starting April 14.
Where On campus at Radboud University, Nijmegen. Exact location t.b.a.
How Each session discusses two chapters that participants read in advance.
Who Researchers and (research) master students in philosophy or adjacent fields.
Register To participate, register by sending an email to arjen.kleinherenbrink [at] ru.nl. There is room for 14 participants. First come, first serve.
OZSW members who belong to this group
| Member | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Westerink, Herman | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| Kleinherenbrink, Arjen | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| Al-Bayaty de Ridder, Julée | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| Govers, Laura | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| Guven, Irem | Leiden University |
| Pompstra, Coen | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| Kappé, Suzanne | University of Amsterdam |
| Pulles, Rik | Radboud University Nijmegen |
Other people who belong to this group
Anna Ernst, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, Nino Babutsidze, Davi de Vor, Marleen van Haalen, Ties van Daal, Max Schmermbeck, Tom den Uijl, Kelly Janssen, Esmee van den Wildenberg
