Alan Kim (Dartmouth College) visits Bard on Wednesday, March 28th, as part of The Difference and Media Project’s Rethinking Difference series.

IRONIZING DIFFERENCE:
LOVE, STRIFE, AND THE POLITICS OF DIALOGUE

Wednesday, March 28th

7pm

RKC 103 (Laszlo Z. Bito ’60 Auditorium)

Philosophical preoccupation with “difference” goes back to ancient times. My talk has two parts, the first metaphysical, the second practical. First, I deal with the mutual implication of difference and sameness, of separation and collection, of Love and Strife. Their relation is often figured in terms of “Justice”; we will ask what that means. Next, I discuss how these abstract terms take on concrete life in the ironic political praxis of Socrates. I close with some reflections on the relevance of irony to the rhetoric and politics of difference.

Alan Kim works in both German and ancient Greek philosophy, focusing especially on Phenomenology, neo-Kantianism, and Plato. He received his B.A. from Haverford, and Ph.D. in Philosophy from McGill University; from 1998 to 2000 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Heidelberg, where he studied both philosophy and classics. His ancient interests include Plato’s theory of forms, the structure of dialectic, and Socratic ethics. His research in German thought deals with Heidegger, neo-Kantianism, and Phenomenology.
His book, Plato in Germany: Kant – Natorp – Heidegger (Academia Verlag) appeared in 2010; He has also published articles in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Phronesis, Idealistic Studies, Internationale Zeitschrift für Philosophie, The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology, the Southern Journal for Philosophy, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He is currently working on a chapter in the forthcoming volume, The Cambridge Companion to Neo-Kantianism.

For more information, contact Ann Seaton at aseaton@bard.edu

About the Rethinking Difference series: Each semester, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Diversity Committee, and the Difference and Media Project offer a series of lectures by visiting academics who work broadly in the field of “Rethinking Difference.” This can include race, gender/gender identity, sexualities, ethnicity, or other forms of difference, with a focus on interdisciplinary, cutting edge methodology.