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20/20 Philosophers: Pierre Cassou-Noguès
Thursday, November 12, 2020 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
REGISTER HERE TO RECEIVE A ZOOM LINK TO THE EVENT
Philosophy, in the 21st century, has changed: its practices and languages are no longer those of the previous century. A turning point has been taken by new generations and thinkers from diverse origins who, more than commenting on the old masters, are taking philosophy into new fields: health, ecology, neurosciences, security warfare, non-Western thought, trans-identities, the rights of non-human living beings… Shifting the frameworks of the history of philosophy, these thinkers are also finding new audiences, through the media, in hospitals, in the theater, or through literary creation. The 20/20 Philosophers meetings give voice to this renewal of French speaking philosophical practices in the 21st century.
In this weekly series, twenty philosophers present their thoughts and redraw the landscape of contemporary philosophy:
Jean Godefroy Bidima, Florence Burgat, Pierre Cassou Noguès, Yves Citton, Yves Cusset, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Cynthia Fleury, Tristan Garcia, Frédéric Gros, Delphine Horvilleur, Yala Kisukidi, Alexandre Lacroix, Catherine Malabou, Corine Pelluchon, Isabelle Queval, Laurent de Sutter, Adèle Van Reeth, Pierre Vesperini, Aliocha Wald Lasowski, Frédéric Worms
ABOUT PIERRE CASSOU-NOGUÈS
Pierre Cassou-Noguès is Full Professor in the philosophy department at Université Paris VIII-Vincennes-Saint-Denis.
His work is based on a theoretical use of fiction. Pierre Cassou-Noguès uses fiction as a method for exploring the possible and its limits. He gives to philosophy both a speculative scope and a critical impact insofar as fiction makes it possible to consider the real in the light of the possible.
His early research concerns the role of the imaginary (dreams, fictions) in the work of scientists, such as Kurt Gödel and Norbert Wiener. He relied on the archives of these scientists to look for short stories, dreams, superstitions, which interplay with their scientific work.
In a series of works half way between theory and literature, Pierre Cassou-Nogues uses fiction order to describe and conceptualize fields that philosophers tend to ignore, or repress: wasted time, phobias, seashores… Fields that philosophers most often avoid, preferring to talk about work rather than laziness, preferring the noble Angst to this absurd fear that is phobia, or preferring to set foot on firm land, where the tree of science is rooted, rather than exploring uncertain and moving shores.
In his most recent work, he applies this philosophy-fiction to explore the forms of life and modes of subjectivation induced by contemporary technology. His last book Virusland (Cerf, 2020) analyses the lockdown as a new technological form of life which should be distinguished from the quarantine at the source of Foucault’s notion of biopower. He has also recently co-authored on a web documentary, Welcome to Erewhon, about the images of automation.
Les démons de Gödel, Paris, Point-Seuil, 2012
Technofictions, Paris, Cerf, 2019 (In French)
Virusland, Paris, Cerf, 2020 (In French)
With S. Degoutin and G. Wagon, Welcome to Erewhon, Irrévérence Films, 2019
(online in English : www.welcometoerewhon.com)
Event in English. Organized by François Noudelmann. Sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.