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The Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series presents:
"Philosophy as Reenchantment"
Speaker: Ian Olasov (Department of Philosophy)
Monday, Dec. 15 | 12:30 - 2 p.m.
University Hall B716
Abstract: People sometimes come to philosophy looking to fill a hole in their lives left by the loss of a religious practice. While philosophy might seem like an odd sort of replacement for religion, it fits the bill in at least one way – philosophy is a source of enchantment. I will say what I take enchantment to be, and a bit about why, following Weber, one might think that the modern world is uniquely disenchanted. I distinguish four ways that philosophy might reenchant the modern world – ontological reenchantment, skeptical reenchantment, conceptual vertigo, and relational reenchantment. I describe how the first three work and offer examples of each. I argue that they are, while real, fragile in a certain sense. I give examples of relational reenchantment, and sketch some mechanisms by which it might work. I argue, tentatively, that relational reenchantment is more robust than the alternatives.
Contact:
David Balcarras | david.balcarras@uleth.ca | (403) 329-2462