[PhilosophyEvents] Philosophy Speaker Series: Kenneth Williford (UT Arlington)

[Dan Hicks]

Hello philosophers and friends of philosophy!

UCM Philosophy will be having our first speaker of the Fall semester next Friday, Kenneth Williford from the University of Texas at Arlington:

Kenneth Williford
Emptiness, Luminosity, and Radical Freedom: An Opinionated Overview of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness
Friday, October 23, 3:30-5pm
COB1 105

This talk offers an overview of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, perhaps the most popular of the three original magna opera of Existential Phenomenology. The overview will be centered around the three fundamental characteristics of consciousness or being-for-itself, according to Sartre: its insubstantiality or "emptiness" (manifest in its basic intentionality and parasitic relation to being-in-itself); its reflexivity or "luminosity" (its pre-reflective acquaintance with itself); and its spontaneity (or self-determining "Cartesian freedom") in virtue of which it is not trapped by the causal order and establishes its own system of norms effectively ex nihilo. From this vantage point we'll cast a glance at all the usual Sartrean themes: Personhood, Temporality, Embodiment, Intersubjectivity, Bad Faith, and Projects (derived and "original"). I'll highlight some insights and limitations of Sartre's Existential Phenomenology and close by drawing some lessons for contemporary approaches to consciousness.

This event is free and open to the public. If you’re a student at another school or community college faculty, please contact me directly (dhicks4 at ucmerced.edu<mailto:dhicks4 at ucmerced.edu>) and we can pay for your parking.

Be well,
DH

-----
D. Hicks
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
University of California, Merced

Pronouns: they/them/their

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