Research Seminar in Post-Kantian European Philosophy, 2019/2020
Unless otherwise stated, Post-Kantian European Philosophy Research Group seminars take place on Tuesdays, 5:30–7:30pm in Room S0.11 (ground floor of Social Studies). All welcome. For further information, please contact tbc
Postgraduate Work in Progress Seminar
Mostyn Taylor Crocket鈥檚 鈥�Towards a Genealogy of Modernity: Time and History in Althusser, Balibar and Foucault鈥�.
Abstract
In this paper I investigate the possibility of a genealogical study of modernity. Foucauldian genealogy is an important historical approach but is one that has, I argue, been unable to properly analyse what I call combinatory phenomena (e.g. modernity or capitalism). I suggest that this inability stems from genealogy鈥檚 rejection of totalization. I claim that turning to Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar鈥檚 contributions to Reading Capital can provide us with a way of understanding 鈥榗ombinatory phenomena鈥� which does not lapse into a totalization. I show how their critique of traditional historical periodization and their theory of 鈥榟eterogenous temporalities鈥� allows us to understand the social formation as constructed out of multiple times and histories. Finally, I show how this can serve as the theoretical basis of a method which investigates the connections between genealogies in producing 鈥榗ombinatory phenomena鈥�, taking Foucault鈥檚 genealogies as my examples.