Blue Labour

I would like to draw your attention to a new intellectual movement on the (British) left that often goes under the heading of 'Blue Labour'.

The leading figure here is a London-based political philosopher - Maurice (now Lord) Glasman. Glasman's philosophical position his interesting because he is an Aristotelian - and he develops of critique of capitalism based around Arisotelian conceptions of virtue.

His views represent a critque of 'Fabian socialism', that understands socialism as techocratic state-centric transformation of society (New Labour was a Fabian project, in a small way). Fabianism is in a good deal of intellectual trouble now, but it won't go without a fight (that looks like it is just about to begin).

Blue Labour is closer to what is sometimes misleadingly referred to as 'the social entrepeneurship model' of socialism, that sees communities and mutual associations - such as the Co-op movement - as the real agents of social change.

I think that this idea is going to be important - so it is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Neil Turnbull

Conference at NTU

There will be what looks like a very interesting multi-disciplinary conference at NTU this coming June 27-28, entitled "Eco-tone 1- Object, Space, Entanglement". It will be run by David Reid from the School of Art and Design. It looks like it will have strong applied philosophical component, so it looks like it will be worth attending. I will try and get there myself if possible. Details can be found below.


http://www.insidespace.org.uk/Eco-tone/Eco-tone_1_poster.html

http://www.insidespace.org.uk/Eco-tone/Eco-tone/Eco-tone.html

Visiting Speaker

Dear All,

The Philosophy section has a visiting speaker tomorrow at 1pm in room 215 of the ICAN.

Mental Health: Extreme Sport for Thinkers. Mr Jim Bunker, NHS Healthcare Trust.

This will be of interest to anyone interested in the Philosophy of Mind, Issues surrounding mental health, and practical ethics, and place philosophy has in mental healthcare.

Philosophy Reading Group - Hegel, History and Politics

Hi Everyone

Next term we will commence a new staff-student reading group focussing upon the ideas of the highly influential Franco-Russian philosopher Alexander Kojeve. There will be three sessions in all.

Session 1: Weds April 27th - Kojeve and the End of History Debate
Session 2: Weds May 11th - Kojeve and the Nature of Philosophy
Session 3: Weds May 18th - Kojeve and the Master-Slave Dialectic

Kojeve was a very significant but often silent influence on the development of 20th century western philosophy. Much contemporary French philosophy owes a huge debt to his interesting and innovative reading of Hegel.

In the first session, Neil and Patrick will discuss Kojeve's influence on contemporary political philosophy.

Readings for the first sesssion can be obtained from the box outside my office, rm 213, on the second floor of the George Eliot building.

These sessions should be of interest to all those taking Phil 205, Social and Political Philosophy, as well as those wnating to continue with Philosophy at post-graduate level.

All sessions take place 1-2.45 in room 219.

Hopefully we will see quite a few of your there!

Cheers

Neil

Philosophy: Events Week Screening

Der Ister (The Danube) - Barrison and Ross, 2004.

Tuesday Feb 15th, 11am-2.30pm, rm. 219.


'The Ister is a 3000km journey to the heart of Europe, from the mouth of the Danube river on the Black Sea, to its source in the German Black Forest. Hailed by Scott Foundas of Variety as "a philosophical feast—at which it is possible to gorge oneself yet leave feeling elated,” the film is based on the work of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger, who in 1933 swore allegiance to the National Socialists. By joining a vast philosophical narrative with an epic voyage along Europe’s greatest waterway, The Ister invites you to unravel the extraordinary past and future of ‘the West.’
Awarded the National Research Cinemas Association (GNCR) Prize at the Marseille International Documentary Festival in 2004, and the Quebec Film Critic’s Association Documentary Prize at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, 2004' (from the film's website at www.theister.com).

Paul Virilio on philosophy and literature...

In a tv interview,

Cyberwar, God And Television: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=62

Paul Virilio asserts:
>
I always write with images. I cannot write a book if I don't have images.

I believe that philosophy is part of literature, and not the reverse. Writing is not possible without images. Yet, images don't have to be descriptive; they can be concepts, and Deleuze and I often discuss this point. Concepts are mental images.<<

Two interesting points for consideration here:

1]Writing isn't possible without images (and the concomitant remark about philosophy as part of literature!)

2]Images can be concepts--and concepts are mental images.

The notion that concepts are mental images seems at least open to debate to me, since concepts are usually seen as separate from images, based on cognition rather than pictorially imbued (?) One has a mental image of a cat, does this predate the concept of the cat, or is the mental image of the cat identical to the concept of it?? Or, can one grasp the concept of a cat without a corresponding mental image?

Hmmm

Ruth

The Human Brain Analogy

The trend, in relatively recent years has been to think of ourselves and perhaps more specifically our brains as very sophisticated computers. Prior to this, top scientific minds understood the brain as though it were some sort of very complicated clockwork mechanism. In this short article I would like to make an effort to counter this trend of anthropomorphic infatuation with our ‘highest’ technology and so posit the notion that the human brain is like a very sophisticated potato.

If you look at the facts I think you’ll agree. In terms of shape, size (admittedly that would be a large potato) and chemical composition a human brain is much more like a potato than the tiny silicon chip that can be found in any number of computational devices. I’ve had a look about online and most accounts seem to suggest that a human brain is approximately 75-80% water depending on personal circadian rhythms and that potatoes are pretty uniformly around 78%, which for me is almost close enough to cause concern. Have we all gone totally mad and fixated on this benign head tuber when it simply has nothing to do with what makes us human?

I’m bound to say it’s possible. From here it looks as though the inevitable connection between medical science and medical technology has created an overly organised view of the human body. It is quite understandable as the technology, the tools of the trade if you will, is only capable of solving a technological problem. It isn’t that they don’t work, it’s just that the problem is partly made by the solution, when the solution is to make a diagnosis in analogy.

“Yes Mr Smith, you’re a mechanic you’ll understand. You see the body’s vital organs are like a car’s engine. If they do not receive enough oxygen then the spark plugs will be unable to burn the fuel in the chamber and the engine will not run. In short Mr Smith, smoking has blocked your intake valve.”

As horribly mixed a metaphor as it is, the analogy here serves a purpose but it is technological at it’s core. Mr Smith understands the mechanical results of smoking but that is all the analogy is capable of. And the same holds true for the analogous brain-computer. There are respects when medically, the analysis of the brain as though it were a computer will be useful, however in the case of trying to comprehend human conciseness the medical analogy is simply inadequate. As is any I suppose, so I’ll have to retract my earlier statement about potatoes.