Presenter: Darcy Burgin (Confirmation milestone)
In seeking to “decentre” the subject, metaphysically and epistemologically, Antihumanism has lost ground for a politics. The reduction of subjectivity to an effect of power has problematized the development of a political normativity, theory of agency, and an epistemology of resistance. Contemporary political theorist Diana Coole has shown how Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the subject’s reflexive embodiment within a generative (Antihuman) flesh provides solutions to these problems. Political ethics, agency, and an interrogative approach to lived experience are here grounded in the subject’s intertwining with power. However, we now need to rethink praxis or political being on this basis. Given the complex imbrication of the subject and extra-subjective forces, what does it mean to be political?
Venue
St Lucia campus