In this final blog on the sublime and manifest destiny I will argue that the sublime is always at risk of leading to the violence of manifest destiny. I’ll also give more precise definitions and respond to a series of objections, referring back to the connection of manifest destiny to…
Continue ReadingCategory: Signs
Truth as the fullest: on journalism in the age of fake news
This paper on truth and process philosophy follows from my talk at The Politics of (Post) Truth conference at Cumberland Lodge in October 2018 https://www.jamesrwilliams.net/the-politics-of-post-truth/ It is also a reflection on truth and the process philosophy of signs. Truth as the fullest: on journalism in the age of fake news
Continue ReadingCull the One Percent
Cull the one percent (a suggested process against inequality) ‘Under the Company’s beneficent influence, our customs are now steeped in chance.’ With the recent report from Oxfam confirming the obscene and growing inequalities of our current societies, I wonder whether it is time to institute a solution inspired by Borges’s…
Continue ReadingDeleuze and the Sublime
Deleuze and the sublime January 29, 2019 PHI research group, Deakin University Deakin Downtown. Level 12 Tower 2 – 727 Collins Street Melbourne 3008 Australia Details 11am. James Williams (Deakin). The end of all universal values: an anarchist takedown of the sublime 12pm. Lunch 1pm. Tim Deane-Freeman (Deakin). A murmuring place: the…
Continue ReadingThe Politics of (Post) Truth
The Politics of (Post) Truth I’ll post my talk on signs and truth from this Cumberland Lodge conference later in December
Continue ReadingThe Philosophy of Events
Summer Symposium in Contemporary Philosophy The University of Bonn International Centre for Philosophy NRW The Philosophy of Events My seminars will be on signs and events (in Deleuze, Whitehead and my process philosophy of signs)
Continue ReadingComedy and Critical Thought: Laughter as Resistance
Comedy and Critical Thought, edited by Iain MacKenzie, Fred Francis, and Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone Includes my chapter on signs, diagrams and humour, ‘Diagrams of Comic Estrangement’ Draft version here
Continue ReadingBarthes, Deleuze and Peirce: Pragmatism in Pursuit of the Sign
This is my chapter from Deleuze and Pragmatism edited by Simone Bignall, Sean Bowden, Paul Patton Abstract: In this chapter I will investigate three pragmatic approaches to the sign and three associated kinds of pragmatism. I aim to demonstrate that the disruptive nature of the encounter with the sign raises…
Continue Reading