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James R Williams

Honorary Professor of Philosophy
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Category: General

General, Process philosophy, Signs

Diagrams of Shame

Post By James Williams 14th June 2022

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…

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General, Process philosophy, Signs

Graphic Events: a Realist Account of Graphic Design

Post By James Williams 8th June 2022

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…

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General, Process philosophy, Signs Hong Kong, monuments, remembrance, slave trade

They can remove a monument, but they can’t erase the sign

Post By James Williams 24th December 2021

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…

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General, Process philosophy, Signs Covid-19, Epidemiology, Group signs

The Danger of Group Signs: Philosophy and Covid-19

Post By James Williams 17th November 2021

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…

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General, Process philosophy, Sublime

Step Right Up

Post By James Williams 14th May 2021

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

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General, Process philosophy

Fantastic pragmatism

Post By James Williams 3rd February 2021

[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…

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General, Process philosophy, Signs

Risky Signs: Philosophy and Covid-19

Post By James Williams 3rd July 2020

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…

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General

Attempt to Close UWE Philosophy

Post By James Williams 22nd June 2020

I was external examiner for Philosophy at the University of the West of England in Bristol for a number of years. The proposal to close philosophy at the institution goes against all my experience of a high quality degree that has helped many students to flourish. It is taught by…

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General, Process philosophy, Sublime

Is There a Virtual Sublime?

Post By James Williams 28th April 2020

[Text and images for a talk on the virtual sublime at Ulster University, April 29, 2020. The talk itself became virtual due to global pandemic] A virtual sublime? Why ever not? The second question should guide any response to the confident dismissal of this or that as sublime, but it…

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General, Sublime

The Egalitarian Sublime, Chapter 1

Post By James Williams 8th April 2020

The argument from my 2019 book on the sublime is that the sublime always has effects leading to inequalities. Given here in final draft form, The first chapter of the book introduces a succinct version of the argument, its critical consequences and how an anarchist approach to the sublime can…

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Recent blog posts

  • Diagrams of Shame 14th June 2022
  • Graphic Events: a Realist Account of Graphic Design 8th June 2022
  • Deleuze’s Timed Logic IV: Passive to the Past 10th March 2022
  • Semiology of Autopoiesis (II) 23rd February 2022
  • They can remove a monument, but they can’t erase the sign 24th December 2021

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autonomy Baudrillard Covid-19 Deleuze Epidemiology Ginzburg Group signs history Hong Kong Kracauer logic Maturana memory Method Microhistory monuments Pragmatism remembrance semiology slave trade Sloterdijk speculative realism Sublime teleology time unity Varela vitalism William James

About James Williams

James is Honorary Professor of Philosophy and member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University.

 

Navigation

  • Home
  • Research Topics
    • Signs
    • Varia
    • Deleuze
    • Lyotard
    • Sublime
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Recent posts

  • Diagrams of Shame
  • Graphic Events: a Realist Account of Graphic Design
  • Deleuze’s Timed Logic IV: Passive to the Past
  • Semiology of Autopoiesis (II)
  • They can remove a monument, but they can’t erase the sign
  • Semiology of Autopoiesis (I)
  • Matter and Sense in Gilles Deleuze’s Logic of Sense: Against the ‘Ism’ in Speculative Realism
  • The Danger of Group Signs: Philosophy and Covid-19
  • Deleuze’s Timed Logic (III) Tested to Destruction
  • Step Right Up

Contact Info

  • Currently based in Scotland and France
  • hello@jamesrwilliams.net
James R Williams | © www.jamesrwilliams.net 2022
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