My article on the need for pragmatism to be metaphysically inventive is now published in Nóema (No.13, 2022). Many thanks to the editorial board and readers for their comments and support. Fantastic Pragmatism (PDF) Introduction: pragmatism as fantastic, metaphysical and self-critical The everyday sense of pragmatic involves ideas of sensible…
Continue ReadingCategory: General
Claire Colebrook on Time and Autopoiesis: Semiology of Autopoiesis IV
The three concepts of autopoiesis, equilibrium and homeostasis function in all these domains: neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, social theory and future studies. These concepts all presuppose a certain understanding of time, and suggest – as I state in the title to this essay – that the organism has…
Continue ReadingAutopoiesis and Time: Deleuze’s Timed Logic V/Semiology of Autopoiesis III
We can think of autopoiesis as resistance to the imposition of external time. The autonomy of an autopoietic process implies independence from transformational pressures by times outside the process. Autopoiesis should block external time from supplanting the internal time of the process. It could be objected that everything is resistant…
Continue ReadingDiagrams of Shame
Five threads pull through a diagram of the UK, as a smiling Minister signs away the lives of asylum seekers. Shame, care, disregard, mendacity and racism are twisting countries in opposed directions. Shame and care are much the stronger strands. They bind people together and are reinforced whenever and wherever…
Continue ReadingGraphic Events: a Realist Account of Graphic Design
I have a two-part interview on design, graphics and my process philosophy of signs in James Dyer and Nick Deakin’s new book on graphic design Graphic Events: a Realist Account of Graphic Design. Their collected volume introduces ground-breaking and disruptive theories and practices of design. My process philosophy of signs…
Continue ReadingThey can remove a monument, but they can’t erase the sign
2021 has been a year for removing and reassessing monuments around the world, from statues of slave traders to memorials for an uprising. One of the aims of state sponsored removals has been to eliminate a physical memento in order to obliterate the events it stood for. That aim can…
Continue ReadingThe Danger of Group Signs: Philosophy and Covid-19
In the first year of the pandemic, there were many types of sign associated with Covid-19: warning signs; names; national symbols; new indicators for numbers and trends; orders; images; and instructions. However, when I wrote about Covid-19 and signs in 2020, I failed to predict the dominance of a particular…
Continue ReadingStep Right Up
Step Right Up (Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations) The Egalitarian Sublime: a Process Philosophy is out in paperback this May. Edinburgh University Press will give you 30% off with the code PAPER30 if you buy direct from them
Continue ReadingFantastic pragmatism
[Discussion paper for Philosophy as a Method of Thinking Practices: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Post-Structuralism in the Light of Pragmatism, Università degli Studi di Milano, 10 Feb 2021] The argument of this paper is a tautology: To be fantastic, pragmatism must be fantastic But tautologies are vulnerable to the multiple and…
Continue ReadingRisky Signs: Philosophy and Covid-19
In an earlier post, I discussed the politics of the restrictions of freedom during the Covid-19 pandemic in Tom Sorell’s new interpretation of Hobbes. Here, I consider the risks involved in the use of signs during the pandemic. Communication about Covid-19 and political responses to the pandemic have been dominated…
Continue Reading