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From an anthropological to an ontological pluralism

A lecture by Philippe Descola organized by the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences and CEFRES, in cooperation with the French Institute in Prague.

Where: Conference Room, Jilská 1, Prague 1
Language: English

Abstract

The key concept and methodological tool of Lévi-Straussian structural anthropology is the group of transformation. A structure, understood as a system of contrastive oppositions, only acquires an analytical dynamism thanks to its capacity to organize the transformations between the models of a same group of phenomena. For a structure to be differentiated from a mere system, then, invariant relations must be brought to light between the elements and the relations of different sets so that each of these is connected to another by the means of a transformation. However, there are different ways to conceive a structural transformation in anthropology. The lecture will explore some of them, particularly those used by the lecturer in his book Beyond Nature and Culture (2013), and will build on these results to approach the epistemological consequences of apprehending ontological pluralism as a group of transformation.

Philippe Descola graduated in philosophy from the École normale supérieure of Saint-Cloud and in ethnology from the University Paris X and EPHE. Since 2000, he has been professor at the chair in Anthropology of nature at Collège de France and he supervises the research laboratory on social anthropology (Collège de France, EHESS, CNRS). Renowned for his groundbreaking work on comparative anthropology of the relationships between human and non-human beings, he is the co-author of Nature and Society (Routledge, 1996), with G. Pálsson, and of the Dictionnaire de l’ethnologie et de l’anthropologie (PUF, 1991). He is the author of several major works attempting to transcend the traditional dualism between nature and society such as Beyond Nature and Culture (Par-delà nature et culture, 2005).
Read more on Philippe Descola

Friend, Writer, Zionist: the Quest for Kafka’s Judaism in Hugo Bergman’s Writings

A lecture by Enrico Lucca (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig) in the frame of the seminar on Modern Jewish History of the Institute of Contemporary History (AV ČR) and CEFRES in partnership with the Masaryk Institute (AV ČR).

Where: CEFRES library, Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Prague 1
When: from 5 pm to 6:30 pm
Language: English

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and Hugo Bergman (1883-1975) have been classmates and very close friends until their first years of university. Yet, Bergman started to write on Kafka only very late in his life, dedicating to him a number of essays–both in Hebrew and in German–scattered in small journals and published in the last years of his life. By analyzing both the story and the vicissitudes of their friendship as well as Bergman’s later insights into Kafka’s work, the talk will try to get a sense of the meaning of Kafka and his figure in Bergman’s intellectual biography.

French-Czech Workshop in History

Thursday, May 7th 2015, from 9:10 at the CEFRES

Alain de LIBERA, Professor at Collège de France

will hold a lecture on « Philosophical Archeology and Deconstruction »

and a seminar: “Subject and Action. Philosophical Anthropology and Christology”

Within the frame of the French-Czech workshop in History organized by Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague in collaboration with CEFRES.

French Tradition of Philosophy of Body and Life

Organized by the Institute of Philosophy (Department of Contemporary Continental Philosophy) of the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic, an international conference will deal with  the French Tradition of Philosophy of Body and Life. The conference seeks to shed light on its history: from its birth in Descartes’s and Maine de Biran’s works, to its many variations in the philosophy of Bergson, Canguilhem, Ruyer, and Merleau-Ponty, and to its revival within phenomenology and its main critics, such as Deleuze, Ricoeur and Foucauld, who helped shifting the core question from body to life. Gathering several–mostly French and Czech–specialists, the conference thus aims at revealing through what path philosophy of body turned into a “tradition”, if not an obsession of French philosophy, leading to a specific questioning of sciences, ethics, power, and gender studies.

French pragmatism and the renewal of contemporary sociology

Time & Venue:

  • 15 December, 16.30-18.30: Room 212, FSV UK, Hollar Building, Prague;
  • 16 December, 9.00-15.00: Conference room, CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague

Organizers: Paul Blokker (FSV UK) and Nicolas Maslowski (Warsaw University), with CEFRES
Partners : Institute of Sociological Studies (FSV UK), Department of Historical Sociology (FHS UK), CEFRES and CCFEF UW—Center for French Civilization and Francophone Studies of Warsaw University
Language: English

Program

Thursday 15 December
Time: 16.30-18.30
Venue: Room 212, Hollar Building

Opening, keynote lecture: “CRITICALLY DIFFERING IN A COMMON CITY. Arts of human cohabitation and urban composition in a comparative perspective” by Prof. Laurent Thévenot.

Friday 16 December
Time: 9.00-15.00
Venue: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3

9:00 – 10:30 Panel 1

  • Chair: Clara Royer
  • Pavel Barša – “Sociology of Emancipation between unmasking and modelling
  • Paul Blokker – “Justifications for Law in the Plural”
  • Yuliya Moskvina – “Legality and legitimacy in the civil polity. Example of urban movements”
  • Petra Beránková – “Justifying political activism in the Czech Republic: A battle over the right activism”

10:30-11:00 – Coffee break

11:00-12:30  Panel 2

  • Chair: Paul Blokker
  • Nicolas Maslowski, Warsaw University – “Love and justice in international relations”
  • Simon Smith – “In search of argumentatively strong moments in newspaper-hosted online discussion”
  • Olga Gherghiev, Charles University – “Exploring the sociological dimension of the World Trade Organization: how the norms are created”
  • Csaba Szaló – “The role of aesthetics in the critical moment: From speech and concern to commitment”

12:30-13:30 Lunch break

13:30–15:00 Panel 3

  • Chair: Nicolas Maslowski
  • Dino Numerato – “Critical actors and criticized institutions: the case of football fan activism”
  • Tereza Stöckelová – “Latourian variations: between sociology and arts”
  • Jakub Mlynář – “Ethnomethodological roots of French pragmatic sociology (and their coalescent sprigs)”
  • Ivana Rapošová (co-authored with Adam Gajdoš) – “Juggling Grammars, Translating Common-place: Justifying an Anti-Liberal Referendum to a Liberal Public”
  • Adam Gajdoš  – “Common-place lost or regained? Urban remembering of ethnic cleansing and the different ways it is made common and good”

See the abstracts of the speakers here

Abstract

French pragmatic sociology will be the main theme in the workshop on “French pragmatism and the renewal of contemporary sociology”, held on 15 and 16 December, and organized by the Institute of Sociological Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences), the Department of Historical Sociology (Faculty of Humanities), Charles University, Center for French Civilization and Francophone Studies (Warsaw University) and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES).

Pragmatic sociology – as a distinct, new type of French social science – probably became most well-known in the global academic community because of the publication in English of the landmark publication by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, On Justification. Economies of Worth, in 2006 (original: 1991, Editions Gallimard).  On Justification is, however, probably best understood as a ‘travail d’étape’ , an intermediate stage in a much larger and highly original social-theoretical enterprise, to which evermore scholars in a variety of disciplines contribute (e.g. historians, anthropologists, economists) in a range of research endeavours. The workshop will explore the fundamentals of this approach and the insights it has brought, and still brings, to contemporary sociological and interdisciplinary research. The upshot is to explore the rich potentialities of pragmatic sociology and to discuss its relevance and usage in Czech sociology.

Read the call for papers for the workshop.

French ANR call 2015 – Hosting High-level researchers

The French National Research Agency has just published the second edition of the “Hosting High-Level Researchers” call. This funding instrument dedicated to individuals and open to all scientific fields enables “junior” or “senior” researchers from any country to carry out an ambitious research project in a reputed institution in France. The ANR funding is designed to help French laboratories fulfill their role as host and researchers to conduct their research.

See the description of the program on the site of the French National Research Agency.

See the 2015 call