James Williams to Speak in Manchester
Professor James Williams of the Philosophy programme will speak at a two-day workshop on Deleuze taking place at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in late March.
His talk will return to questions and problems in Deleuze’s philosophy of time through a critical discussion of McTaggart’s famous refutation of time.
Professor Williams explains:
"Nearly all work on McTaggart’s refutation focuses on narrow versions of his arguments about A and B series, but when we look at it in relation to Deleuze, some well-rehearsed and other little known but very important features stand out differently. For instance, both thinkers insist on the importance of events in time, on counter-intuitive ideas about reality and on differences between related series. Yet, the roots of McTaggart’s philosophy and approach to time are Hegelian and his arguments about the unreality of time are prepared in his early work on Hegel’s logic, with final aims in eternity and the absolute, and commitments to forms of logic and idealism greatly at odds with Deleuze’s work. This provides a deep opposition to Deleuze’s explicitly anti-Hegelian philosophy and to Deleuze’s radical reworking of Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal return. By considering their arguments together, it is possible to re-interpret some important Deleuzian concepts and to make others more clear. Finally, another much ignored feature of McTaggart’s argument is that it is designed to underpin and shape the practical role of philosophy. This is also true of Deleuze’s work on time, as revealed through the contrast with the Cambridge philosopher."
The event, which is free to attend, takes place from Saturday 24th March – Sunday 25th March 2012.
Further information is available on the MMU website.
Posted: 7 March 2012
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