Conference Aim

The conference will focus on: 1) Reflections on the relationship between self-knowledge and knowledge in philosophy and performance; 2. A deconstruction of commonplace academic conference-based interactions in order to search for the relationship between performative and content components of philosophical expression. 

We would like to open a free space for a variety of expression formats, and for an experimental dimension of the event.

The Main Topic of the Conference

(1)

The imperative of “Gnothi seauton” has survived to this day as a possible trace of the transition from the world of myth to the world of philosophy. On one hand, this maxim does not offer any completed and unquestionable account of the world and of humans’ place in it, as we are accustomed to from mythological narratives; on the other, however, it is not yet a statement belonging to philosophical ethics as we understand it, such as Kant’s categorical imperative.

On closer inspection, the appeal to “Gnothi seauton” leads to a number of questions: Does self-knowledge belong to the field of philosophy, at all? How is philosophy, with its claim of universality, related to self-knowledge, which is performed as an entirely individual enterprise? Or is it precisely the other way round? Is it that only with self-knowledge does philosophy achieve its value?  And why is it that the Delphic Oracle exhorts us to know ourselves, and not others? Or is it that the path to real understanding of others leads only through knowing ourselves first?

 (2)

The conference will provide its participants space to avoid some of the typical behavior that can be observed so often in standard academic interactions. During their contributions the presenters will not simply read their fixed texts, but express their thought-out meditation without that support. As for the lectures’ settings, they may choose not only a standard conference room, but also a theater stage or the cozy attic at the Theater On the Balustrade.

Such a conference format is also associated with the conference’s theme itself. It is relevant to ask what the relationship is between self-knowledge and habit, and whether we are able to discover something in the communication itself when we are delivering an impromptu lecture, or what impact the presentation format has on the lucidity and intelligibility of the ideas for the others and for us as well. 

Submissions

Please send your proposals for 20- to 60-minute-long presentations associated with the conference’s theme to the following e-mail address: alicekoubova@seznam.cz, no later than March 15, 2014. Diversity of submission formats is most welcome (lectures, speeches, dialogs, moderated discussions, performances), as is diversity of approaches (systematic philosophy, artistic research, theater studies, historic analysis, personal reflection). In your application, please, write your name, title, submission format, length of the contribution, the language in which you intend to deliver your presentation, and any requirements you may have concerning the venue. 

We shall inform you on the submission’s reception by March 30, 2014.

Website: http://web.flu.cas.cz/filosofievexperimentu/nopaper/