Posts & Reflections

Thoughts on philosophy and theology; helpful advice on teaching, learning, and coding.

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  • Liviu Mocan and Damien Hirst

    A few years ago I gave a talk on two pieces by Damien Hirst and the seed sculptures of Romanian artist Liviu Mocan, promising Liviu I would write it up as a short article. He has an exhibition in the beautiful Cambridge Round Church at the moment, and so it seemed the right time to come

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  • Atheism, imitation and word clouds

    I am currently preparing for a paper I have been invited to give at the Center for Contemporary European Philosophy at Radboud University, Nijmegen in September, and I am trying to refine my understanding of what is ‘imitative’ about imitative atheism. It is a journey that is taking me from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus through Aristotle’s Physics, Thomas a

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  • Thinking Equality Today: Badiou, Rancière, Nancy

    My article ‘Thinking Equality Today: Badiou, Rancière, Nancy’ has just been published in French Studies. You can click through to a PDF version from this page. The article is part of the project on humanism and anti-humanism I am working on at the moment. I argue that Badiou and Rancière both end up, despite themselves, with problematic understandings of

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  • Paul Ricoeur in Dialogue with Theology and Religious Studies

    In September I will have the great pleasure of taking part in a symposium at the University of Lund, Sweden, entitled “Paul Ricœur in Dialogue with Theology and Religious Studies.” In addition to looking forward to hearing what is set to be a fantastic array of papers, I hope to be able to contribute something to

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  • Review of Joe Hughes, Philosophy after Deleuze

    My review of Joe Hughes’ Philosophy after Deleuze has just been published in French Studies. Note: the link above gives access to the full review, whereas if you go directly to the French Studies site you are restricted to an extract.

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  • Review for NDPR – Marie-Eve Morin, Jean-Luc Nancy

    My review of Marie-Eve Morin‘s book on Jean-Luc Nancy in the Polity Key Contemporary Thinkers series has just been posted at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

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  • Quentin Meillassoux, divine inexistence and split rationality

    With a new issue of Analecta Hermeneutica just out there has been some discussion this past week of Peter Gratton’s article on Meillassoux’s ontology of divine inexistence (here, here and here, with some reaction on Gratton’s own blog, Philosophy in a time of error). The discussion put me in mind of a paper I gave way

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  • Nicholas Davey, Unfinished Worlds: Hermeneutics, Aesthetics and Gadamer – Introduction PDF

    Later this year Crosscurrents will be publishing Nicholas Davey’s important new book Unfinished Worlds: Hermeneutics, Aesthetics and Gadamer.  In addition to the blurb below, I am thrilled that Nicholas has kindly agreed for me to post here the complete introductory chapter, which is also available as a PDF.   Hans-Georg Gadamer’s poetics completely overturns the European aesthetic tradition.

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  • Rewriting the Death of the Author with Jacques Rancière

    I was pleased to hear this week that a piece I’ve written on the death of the author has been accepted by Philosophy and Literature. The article is entitled ‘Rewriting the Death of the Author: Rancièrian Reflections’ and it re-thinks the death of the author in the light of Jacques Rancière’s little essay ‘Auteur mort ou

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  • Interview with Mathew Abbott about his forthcoming book, The Figure of This World: Agamben and the Question of Political Ontology

    In a few months Crosscurrents will be publishing Mathew Abbott’s The Figure of This World, an important new book on Agamben and political ontology. I took the opportunity to put some questions to Mathew about his intentions for the book and how it develops current debates. CW: Let’s start with where this book sits in the landscape

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