This title will be available soon. But we can understand Descartes’ premise of equality far more basically and radically, not as an assertion of fact, but as a presuppositional act: equality is a supposition we must make in advance. For it has nothing to do with the socially acquired capacity of reason (in which we are unequal, and about which we disagree). Equality pertains to a presupposition of reason. It does not refer to a capacity of reason that we possess, but to the potential for practical training in reason, for its acquisition. In that and that alone—in this potential—are we ...

Philosophical thoughts by birds, drawn and put into words by the artist. „Birds“ was inspired by Jim Goldberg’s „Rich and Poor“, a collection of photographs of rich and poor Americans, each with a handwritten statement by the subject, thereby creating a heart gripping portrait of the USA. It was a logical step to have an ornithologist (a fictional ornithologist) portrait birds in a similar way, for they have just as much to say about the human condition. If people would only listen. “I have no idea what people think of me, I don’t think much of them, that’s for sure. Life is a bitch for ...

The arrow arrives at its destination with a clamor, its blackness marking the arrival of thought from the outside: thought as problem, thought as sabotage.

Episode 21: Breaking the Waves (Disputaziuns Susch, The Magicians of the Mountains) The third episode in the series of chapters from Disputaziuns Susch, an annual conference scheme hosted by Art Stations Foundation CH and Grazyna Kulczyk, has Elisabeth Bronfen looking at Virginia Woolfe’s ‘Breaking the Waves’ and comparing Woolfe’s feeling of ‘walking a tightrope over nothingness’ to Heidegger’s notion of individual existences as ‘being thrown’ into the world. Also the horizon (see episode two) is returning to the debate. Disputaziuns Susch, from the beginning in 2017, has been a multi-disciplinary annual endeavor, bringing together scholars and artists, philosophers and authors, neuroscientists and ...

On life and her work.

“The dark forest theory generalizes on a cosmic level the entropic nature of communication. Its trees grow roots everywhere. We patrol the forest, listening for each other’s steps, all of us hunter and prey… In this forest, one better stay silent or prepare for conflict.”

What is consciousness? What is it like to feel pain, or to see the colour red? Do robots and computers really think? For that matter, do plants and amoebas think? If we ever meet intelligent aliens, will we be able to understand what they say to us? Philosophers and scientists are still unable to answer questions like these. Perhaps science fiction can help. In Discognition, Steven Shaviro looks at science fiction novels and stories that explore the extreme possibilities of human and alien sentience.

Published: March 2011 Design: Joseph Miceli and Lina Ozerkina Published by: Tulips & Roses, Brussels Format: 16 x 24 cm, 32 pages, soft cover, stapled, B&W offset printing Number of copies: 300 Price: 5€

Roland Barthes despaired of keeping a diary.Too boring. Too frustrating. The diary disease, he called it. But there was one point of interest, and that had to do with re-reading an entry several months or years later.This could provide pleasure due to the awakening of a memory not in what was written but in “the interstices of notation.” For instance, on re-reading the entry relating his having to wait for a bus one disappointing evening on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, he recalls the grayness—“but no use trying to describe it now, anyway, or I’ll lose it again instead ...

This set of five pamphlets documents a seminar given recently by Alexander R. Galloway at the Public School New York, a self-organizing educational program where class ideas are generated by the public. “French Theory Today” explores a new generation of French voices—Catherine Malabou, Bernard Stiegler, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Quentin Meillassoux, and François Laruelle—whose work has, to varying degrees, only recently emerged in the English-speaking world. Each night of the seminar consisted of a lecture followed by questions from and discussion with class participants. As Galloway suggests in the online class proposal, the goal was “not to set in aspic a ...

Bruno Latour discusses climate change, science, denialism and philosophy with Hank Scotch, W.J.T. Mitchell and Dipesh Chakrabarty.

Glass Bead is a research platform and a journal concerned with transfers of knowledge across art, science and philosophy, as well as with their practical and political dimensions. It was conceived and is run by Fabien Giraud, Jeremy Lecomte, Vincent Normand, Ida Soulard and Inigo Wilkins. We are artists, art historians and theorists based in Paris and London. Glass Bead’s project is defined by its two distinct yet interconnected activities: Journal and Research. Research comprises the organization of private and public Events (workshops, conferences), an Audio Research Program (made of the recording of the talks of the events and of special interviews), and ...