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Welcome to the website of the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, an independent teaching and research school dedicated to Continental thought. Please browse the tabs above to find your way around the site. To return to the front page of the site, click the Home tab.

The MSCP is an institution dedicated to scholarly, extensive and engaged readings of key figures and texts in the history of modern European thought and contemporary discourse. Our aim is to bring this work to bear on significant events as they occur in our contemporary context, reflecting on them philosophically. Regular teaching sessions, research activities and conferences are all elements in our attempt to ask questions of our broad socio-cultural context, and our place in it today.

The MSCP is housed in the School of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.

Click here for an introduction to the MSCP, its origins and background blip

The members of the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy are people committed to the dissemination of Continental thought, and the promotion of its study, from across Australia and in some cases overseas.

Our Members Page provides a list of MSCP members along with information about their research interests and current projects.

MSCP Members can access the admin site here blip

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy has as one of its central focuses the teaching of the many traditions of continental European philosophy, and its roots in the more general history of Western philosophy. The courses that the MSCP runs do not involve any assessment, or any demonstrated prior knowledge in the topic in question. They require only an interest in engaging in a careful and rigorous fashion with the material under discussion.

MSCP teaching sessions are run in the two vacation breaks in the university calendar, in January/February and in June/July. A list of the previous courses run in the MSCP are available here.

The current Evening School 2008 program can be found hereblip

The MSCP website includes a number of textual resources, including

blip conference proceedings;
blip the proceedings of the intensive research days, published online as resources on specific philosophical points of debate or contemporary concern;
blip occasional translations.

Collected here under the title of Propositions are also the texts of a series of debates had in writing by members of the MSCP on a variety of topics, a collection which will grow over time.

All of the texts published on these websites remain the sole copyright of their authors. Our online texts are found here blip

A list of links to external philosophical resources on the Web can be found here.

This page provides visitors to the MSCP website with links to philosophy texts, online philosophy encycopaedias and other philosophical organisations and institutions operating in Melbourne.

Online philosophy texts are available in the public domain for most publications prior to the 20th Century. For the most part these texts are in the mother tongue of the philosopher in question, as translations have come about later, and those which do exist are usually regarded as outdated. Nevertheless, sites such as wikisource provide texts of the great thinkers in history to assist in an engagement with philosophy today.

We are always keen to add links to this page. Please email admin@mscp.org.au with any suggestions blip

The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy

Postal Address
Department of Philosophy
Old Law Quad
University of Melbourne VIC 3010
AUSTRALIA

The MSCP Office (staffed part-time)
Room 146 of the Old Law Quadrangle,
Phone (03) 8344 3889
Fax (03) 8344 4280 (address to the MSCP)

The MSCP is a not-for-profit organisation, and our ABN is 16 828 471 413

For any questions about upcoming events, enrolments or general enquiries, email admin@mscp.org.au. Contact the Convenor of the MSCP at convenor@mscp.org.au. For website related queries please email webadmin@mscp.org.au 

To keep up to date with MSCP events, but also other events concerned with Continental philosophy in Melbourne, please subscribe to our mailing list by clicking here. Aside from certain important MSCP announcements or late-breaking news, the mailing list will deliver a digest of current news once a week.

The MSCP does not distribute your contact details to anyone, and your email address will only be used for the purposes of distributing information about Continental philosophy blip

 

ANALYTIC VS CONTINENTAL? RAPPROCHEMENT?

A MINI-CONFERENCE

DETAILS

Date: Friday 11th July–Sunday 13th July, 2008

Venue:

Friday:
Lecture theatre (in basement), Storey Hall (Building 16), RMIT University City Campus, 342 Swanston St, Melbourne.
Saturday: Multi-purpose Room, Level 4, Building 28, RMIT University City Campus, address as above.
Sunday: Multi-purpose Room, Level 4, Building 28, RMIT University City Campus, address as above.

To view a map of RMIT University City Campus, please click here.

Registration: Click here for a copy of the registration form (pdf format)

Fees:  Student/Unwaged: $40  |  Academic/Waged: $80  |  AAP conference attendee: free

More details: Contact Dr Jack Reynolds

FRIDAY - 11 July

FRIDAY
12 – 1.55pm
OPENING & GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THE ‘DIVIDE’ AND ITS FUTURE

Chaired and introduced by Dr Jack Reynolds (La Trobe University/MSCP) and Dr James Chase (University of Tasmania)

“Inert Monotypes and Reactive Stereotypes: Tensions and Antagonisms in the Analytic and Continental Divide” : Bryan Cooke (University of Melbourne/MSCP) and Dr David Rathbone (University of Melbourne/MSCP)



FRIDAY
2.35 - 3.30pm
"The Possibility of German Idealism after Analytic Philosophy: Brandom, McDowell and Beyond" : Prof. Paul Redding (University of Sydney)



FRIDAY
3.30 - 5pm
'CONTINENTAL' PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS

Chaired and responded to by Dr James Chase (University of Tasmania)

“A Formalist Platonism in Alain Badiou’s Philosophy of Mathematics”: Jonathan Roffe (University of Tasmania, La Trobe University)

“Mathematics as model in Deleuze’s Philosophy of Difference” : Dr Simon Duffy (University of Sydney)



FRIDAY
5 – 8.30pm
LANGUAGE & LOGIC

Chaired and responded to by Prof. Frank Jackson (La Trobe/Princeton)

“Reasoning about Reasoning: Methodology in the Philosophy of Logic”
: Prof. Edwin Mares (Victoria University at Wellington)

“The Picture and Its Captives: Wittgenstein and the Tasks of Philosophy”
: Matthew Abbott (University of Sydney)

“Dummett on Analytical Philosophy”
: Dr George Duke (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“Coercive Theories of Meaning, or Why Language Shouldn't Matter (So Much) to Philosophy”
: Dr Charles Pigden (University of Otago, NZ)

“How to Say Nothing: The Carnap/Heidegger Debate” : Sean Ryan (University of Melbourne/RMIT/MSCP)


FRIDAY
8.30 – 10pm

Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy sponsored nibbles and drinks

Venue: Caffeine AT Re Vault, Swanston St, City.
Food supplied by Druids.


SATURDAY - 12 July

SATURDAY
9.15am – 12.15pm

MARXISM, CRITICAL THEORY & THE ‘POSITIVIST DISPUTE’ RECONSIDERED

Chaired by Dr Pieter Duvenage (Monash University, South Africa)

“The Poverty of Dialogue: Reflections on the Dialogic Dimensions of the Positivist Dispute”
: Liam Magee (RMIT University)

“Transcending the Given: Adorno and Popper's Conceptions of Science, Counterfactual Ideals and Critique”
: Nicole Pepperell (RMIT University)

“Habermas' Critique of Pragmatism: From the Positivist Dispute to the Debate with Brandom”
: Andrew Montin (Macquarie University)

“Continental-analytic; analytic-continental: Critical theory and situating the divide” : Dr Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University/MSCP)


SATURDAY
1.00 – 4.30pm

STYLE & METHOD

Chaired by Dr Ashley Woodward (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“On the Possibility of a Phenomenology for Everyone” : Dr Felicity Joseph (University of Melbourne)

“Why Did Plato Write Dialogues? Heideggerian ‘Ways’ Versus Analytic ‘Works’ about Plato”
: Craig Barrie (Monash)

“Science-Fiction and Literary Thought Experiments”
: Mary Jean Walker (Macquarie University)

“The Dreariness of Aesthetics Revisited and Revised: Hermeneutics Meets Naturalised Philosophy” : Dr Jenny McMahon (University of Adelaide)


SATURDAY
5.00 – 8.00pm

ENLIGHTENMENT, ROMANTICISM & EXPRESSIVISM: KANT, ROUSSEAU & BEYOND

Chaired by Dr Marion Tapper (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“Ideality and Embodiment in Kant”
: Dr Philip Catton (University of Canterbury, NZ)

“Rousseau and the Origins of Auto-Critical Philosophy”
: Philip Quadrio (Macquarie University)

“Brandom, Taylor, Expressivism”
: Assoc. Prof. Nick Smith (Macquarie University)

“Recognition as an Ethical and Ontological Concept” : Dr Heikki Ikäheimo (Academy of Finland/University of Frankfurt/Macquarie University)


SATURDAY
EVENING

CONFERENCE DINNER – VENUE TBA


SUNDAY - 13 July

SUNDAY
9.30am – 12pm

PERSONAL & SOCIAL IDENTITY

Chaired by Bryan Cooke (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“From Mind to Spirit: Brandom's Shift from Kant to Hegel” : Gilles Bouche (University of Melbourne)

"Conceptualizing Race: Where the Analytic/Continental Divide Breaks Down”: Dr Peter Gratton (University of San Diego, USA)

“Comparing (and merging) Luhmann and Badiou: Some Remarks on Normal and/or Exceptional Agency” : Dr Alessio Moretti (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and University of Nice)


SUNDAY
1 – 2.30pm

LIFEWORLD, SCIENTISM & TECHNOLOGY: HUSSERL & STIEGLER

Chaired by Dr George Duke (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“The Responsibility Between Us and Stiegler's Aporias of Technicity”
: Prof. Hugh J. Silverman (SUNY, Stonybrook, USA)

“Husserl’s Critique of the Technisation of Science” : Peter Woelert (University of NSW)


SUNDAY
2.30 – 4.45pm

MISCELLANEOUS

Chaired by James Garrett (University of Melbourne/MSCP)

“Absence” : Prof. Max Deutscher (Macquarie University)

“Feminist Standpoint Theories: Analytic and Continental Perspectives” : Prof. Gertrude Postl (Suffolk College/University of Vienna)

“The Status of Transcendental Arguments” : Dr Ashley Woodward (University of Melbourne/MSCP)



SUNDAY
5.15 – 7.15pm

ETHICS & FORGIVENESS

Chaired and responded to by Assoc. Prof. Chris Cordner (University of Melbourne)

“Putnam, Levinas and Ethics”
: Prof. Andrew Benjamin (Monash University)

“Arendt and Derrida on Forgiveness” : Prof. Andrew Brennan (La Trobe University)