Simon Critchley at TU
Guest Lecturer for Theory Underground's Intro to Theory - Announcement, Bio, Further Reading
Eleven years ago I took on Being and Time. I’d already tried and failed a couple of years prior. This time, with the help of Dr. Stewart Gardner, I was able to get through it. Gardner had, as optional reading on the syllabus, some of Simon Critchley’s articles. I found these really helpful — even more so than I had found Hubert Dreyfus’ famous lectures on YouTube. Since that time I have published work on B&T, it was essential to my M.A. thesis and the development of timenergy theory, and I taught a whole course on it at TU.
Critchley also teaches across the continental canon and I especially like his work on Levinas. So you can imagine how honored and excited I am, then, to announce that he is joining us today at 10 AM Pacific. (Join Link on Membership Profile at the TU site)
Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. See you there!?
If you’re unable to join on time, no worries! The lecture will be available as a part of my Intro the Theory course which features other amazing guest lecturers. And in the meantime, you can check out this conversation with Simon here:
TMI if you want to keep reading:
A quick bio
Simon Critchley (b. 1960) is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He came up through the British continental scene, with a PhD from Essex on the ethics of deconstruction in Levinas and Derrida and an earlier MA at Nice on Heidegger and Carnap. His work runs across continental philosophy, ethics, political theory, and the relationship between philosophy and literature, with Levinas a recurring center of gravity. He has written more than twenty books, on everything from Greek tragedy and suicide to David Bowie, football, Shakespeare, and how philosophers die, and for years he co-edited The Stone, the New York Times philosophy column that put serious thinking in front of a general readership.
His new book, Heidegger Thinking: ‘Being and Time’ Explained, is a long-form walk through of every concept in Being and Time, written to be understandable and usable for intelligent, curious laypeople, and timed for the 2027 centenary of the book’s publication. I’m really looking forward to this one.
What Simon has never done is anything like what he’s doing today, i.e. give a guest lecture for a post left working class theory hub based on a regenerative farm in North Idaho of all places.
His public writing, a sampler
The Stone and other pieces at the New York Times:
What Is a Philosopher? (May 16, 2010). On the philosopher as a provocateur who questions societal norms and truths. https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/what-is-a-philosopher
Why I Love Mormonism (September 16, 2012). Critchley on Mormon theology as a unique and often overlooked religious challenge in contemporary discussions. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/why-i-love-mormonism
Abandon (Nearly) All Hope (April 19, 2014). A critique of excessive hope in politics and life, arguing for a more grounded reckoning with disappointment. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/abandon-nearly-all-hope
There Is No Theory of Everything (September 12, 2015). A critique of the pursuit of unified theories in science and philosophy, in favor of the value of particulars over abstractions. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/there-is-no-theory-of-everything
To Philosophize Is to Learn How to Die (April 11, 2020). How facing death philosophically can lead to liberation and survival amid crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/covid-philosophy-anxiety-death.html
What Would David Bowie Do? (January 9, 2021). On the fifth anniversary of Bowie’s death, how his music reflects dystopian realities and offers paths to transcendence. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/opinion/what-would-david-bowie-do.html
Shakespeare Foreshadowed Our Current Malaise (June 23, 2022). Connecting themes in Hamlet to modern existential concerns about reality and perception. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/special-series/hamlet-reality-philosophy.html
Life Doesn’t Need a Narrative Arc (June 12, 2023). On the self as fragmented rather than a coherent story, challenging the idea of life as a structured tale. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/special-series/life-doesnt-need-a-narrative-arc.html
The Guardian, “Being and Time” series (2009), an eight-part walkthrough of Heidegger that pairs well with our own Heidegger track:
Part 1: Why Heidegger matters (June 8, 2009). Introducing Heidegger as a pivotal figure despite his Nazi affiliations, and why grappling with Being and Time matters. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/05/heidegger-philosophy
Part 2: On ‘mineness’ (June 15, 2009). Human existence as defined by personal engagement with the question of being. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/15/heidegger-being-time-philosophy
Part 3: Being-in-the-world (June 22, 2009). How Heidegger inverts Descartes by positing that we are inherently embedded in the world rather than separate from it. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/22/heidegger-religion-philosophy
Part 4: Thrown into this world (June 29, 2009). Thrownness, where we find ourselves already situated in a world, and the questions of freedom that follow. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/29/religion-philosophy
Part 5: Anxiety (July 6, 2009). Anxiety as the mood that detaches us from everyday life and opens free self-reflection. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/06/heidegger-philosophy-being
Part 6: Death (July 13, 2009). Being-towards-death as a liberating confrontation with finitude that shapes authentic existence. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/13/heidegger-being-time
Part 7: Conscience (July 20, 2009). Conscience as a silent call that pulls us from inauthentic social immersion back to authentic selfhood. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/20/heidegger-being-time-critchley
Part 8: Temporality (July 27, 2009). Time as unified by future, past, and present, rooted in human finitude. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/27/heidegger-being-time-philosophy
Thanks for reading!