Setting the Scene: Latour, Jameson, Ihde and Bergson

Cognition and the Image of Affection: Instrumentation, Realism and Technology

This seminar introduces the topic of the 2014/2015 Transtechnology Research seminar series in which we aim to focus on ‘affect’ by triangulating three key concerns that emerged from the 2013/2014 seminar series and the researcher’s individual practices.

Prof. dr. Michael Punt will start with reflections on Bruno Latour’s Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern (2004) and Frederic Jameson’s The Antinomies of Realism (2013). Dr. Hannah Drayson will follow on with a discussion of ‘instrumental realism’ as it was addressed by Don Ihde in Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology (1991). Dr. Martha Blassnigg will lead into the plenary discussion with reflections on the term and conception of ‘affect’ in the cross-over between philosophy and psychology, in particular with reference to Henri Bergson?s explorations in Matter and Memory (Matière et Mémoire 1896). This seminar series intends to provide a critical framework for these interventions which we hope to situate in an overarching consideration of technologies of mediation during the forthcoming academic year.

Recommended Reading:

Ihde, Don. 1991. Instrumental Realism: The Interface between Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology. Bloomington: Indinana University Press.
Download PDF of Introduction

Jameson, Fredric. 2013. The Antimonies of Realism. London: Verso
Download PDF of chapter two

Latour, Bruno. 2004. Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry (30). pp. 225-48
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Bergson, Henri. 1986. Matter and Memory. Transl. Nancy Margaret Paul and W. Scott Palmer. London: George Allen and Unwin (1911). Available online at: http://www.reasoned.org/dir/lit/matter_and_memory.pdf