Thinking the Absolute:
Speculation, Philosophy and the End
of Religion
June 29th – July 1st 2012,
Liverpool Hope University
Keynote speakers
Catherine
Malabou
Iain Hamilton
Grant
Levi Bryant
Ray Brassier
‘The
contemporary end of metaphysics is an end which, being sceptical, could only be
a religious end of metaphysics.’
Quentin
Meillassoux, After Finitude. An Essay on
the Necessity of Contingency (London: Continuum, 2008), p.
Meillassoux
identifies the ‘turn to religion’ in contemporary continental philosophy with a
failure of thinking. The Kantian refusal to think the absolute leads to scepticism
about reality in itself. Ironically, this lends itself to ‘fideism’, the
decision to project religious meaning on to the unknowable beyond. According to
Meillassoux, a philosophy obsessed with mystery becomes the accomplice of
irrational faith. The solution is to find ways of once more thinking the absolute
in its reality, severed from its dependence upon a knowing subject, or upon
language and social norms. At the same time, new possibilities for thinking
religion (exemplified by Meillassoux’s own Divine
Inexistence) are emerging.
This conference
invites proposals which critically consider this speculative turn in philosophy
and its implications for thinking about religion. To what ‘end’ is speculation
leading? Does it simply announce the closure of religion and its subordination
to a philosophy of the absolute, nature or the ‘All’? Can it open new lines for
a philosophy of religion which is not wedded to the Kantian horizon? Is
speculation itself open to Kierkegaardian critique as yet another move to
position and reduce ethical and religious claims, sacrificing the future on the
altar of abstract possibility? Does renewed attention to the canon of
speculative idealism offer a way beyond the impasse between relativism and
dogmatism?
The organisers
welcome proposals which examine the roots and extensity of recent speculative
thinking, and which critically consider its impact – direct and indirect - on
philosophy of religion. Relevant thinkers and themes might include Quentin
Meillassoux on God and the absolute, Alain Badiou’s ontology, Catherine Malabou
on Hegel and plasticity, Francois Laruelle’s ‘future Christ’, Iain Hamilton
Grant on Schelling’s Naturphilosophie
and the thinking of the All, Ray Brassier’s nihilism. However, we are
particularly looking for contributions which creatively use or depart from the
speculative turn to offer original insights into the nature and content of the
field.
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