This Week:

• 03/19 7:00 pm, Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group, Emmanuel Levinas “Ethics and Infinity,” East End Book Exchange.
• 03/20 4:30pm, Phenomenology & Religion Reading Circle, Emmanuel Levinas “Ethics and Infinity,” Library 402a, Duquesne University.
• 03/21 7:00pm, Time, Truth, and Thought, Public Lecture by Daniel W. Smith (Purdue), Rockwell Hall Room 502, Duquesne University.

Abstract: Deleuze famously defined philosophy as an activity that consists of the formation or creation of concepts. This paper will examine three intersecting themes that follow from this conception of philosophy. First, concepts are themselves given a temporal character, and the paper will begin by examining Deleuze s theory of time. Second, this new conception of time puts the traditional concept of truth ( in all times and in all places ) in crisis not at the level of its content ( truth changes with time ), but rather at the level of its form: the form of time takes the place of the (universal) form of the true.  The false is thereby given a power of its own. Finally, we will examine the theory of thought that motivates Deleuze s conception of philosophy. The fundamental theme of the paper is that, for Deleuze, truth is no longer a timeless universal to be discovered, but a singularity to be created (in time).

Tags: Daniel W. Smith, Deleuze, Duquesne University, East End Book Exchange, Levinas, Phenomenology