Symposium 2014 on the topic: Critique and Crisis

Organizers:

The Philosophical Society of Eastern Switzerland and the Chair of Philosophy at the University of St. Gallen (Prof. Dr Dieter Thomä)

Scientific Committee:

Michael Festl (St. Gallen), Janette Friedrich (Geneva), Florian Grosser (St. Gallen), Anton Hügli (Basel), Alessandro Lazzari (Lucerne), Daniel Schulthess (Neuchâtel), Dieter Thomä (St. Gallen)

Responsible for the Symposium:

Dr Michael Festl, Dr Florian Grosser, Prof. Dr Dieter Thomä, Prof. em. Dr Armin Wildermuth

Keynote Speaker:

• Harald Bluhm (Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
• Michael Forster (Bonn/Chicago)
• Michael Hagner (ETH Zürich)
• Gunnar Hindrich (Universität Basel)
• Caspar Hirschi (Universität St. Gallen)
• Georg Kohler (Universität Zürich)
• Elif Özmen (Universität Regensburg)
• Daniel Schulthess (Universität Neuchâtel)

Argument:

The word crisis has been used extensively in recent years and applied to the most diverse areas: in politics, for example, we speak of crises of representation, of the nation-state, and even of democracy as a whole; in the social sphere, crises of the education system or the family are identified; and with regard to the environment or art, the diagnosis repeatedly points to a crisis — a term that, particularly in the field of economics, now seems to designate a normal condition.

Beyond current alarm signals, however, it can also be said that modern society is fundamentally characterized by permanent change; a change that often takes on crisis-like features. Accordingly, in modernity, the diagnosis of crisis is always accompanied by counter-discourses of stabilization and continuity.

Crisis can hardly exist without critique: since at least Reinhart Koselleck’s Critique and Crisis (1954/1959), the connection between the phenomenon of crisis as a moment of decision, as a crossroads, and critique as the art of distinction has become apparent. From an etymological perspective, every krisis marks a point at which things take a decisive turn — whether of a liberating or destructive nature.

From the perspective of the theory of knowledge, this relationship is particularly evident in the numerous turns that have shaped philosophy since the beginning of the last century; indeed, the previous Symposium of the Swiss Philosophical Society was dedicated to the anthropological turn. As Kant’s example demonstrates paradigmatically, crises or revolutions in modes of thought always also involve a critique of assumptions put forward within an epistemological framework.

The next Symposium will focus on theories of crisis themselves. On the one hand, it will address an understanding of the concepts of crisis and critique as such, as well as concepts that are more or less closely related to them: reform and revolution, tradition and restoration, decadence and catastrophe. Questions concerning criteria of distinction, clarification, and decision will also be examined.

On the other hand, systematic reflections and philosophical case studies on specific crises — political, economic, social, ecological, scientific, or aesthetic — will be considered.

Thirdly, the significance of the turn, the transformation, or the crisis within philosophy itself will be discussed. Against the background of contemporary phenomena and developments, the Symposium will ultimately also seek to (re)define the relationship between crisis and critique.