Michelle Boulous Walker Philosophy, Complexity, and Reading Wednesday 12 November, 3.30pm - 5.00pm Bankstown Campus, Room 3.G.27 All welcome Abstract In an age of internet scrolling and skimming where concentration and attention are fast becoming endangered skills, it is timely to think about reading and the many forms that it can take. In this paper I make the case for thinking about reading in philosophical terms. Starting with Friedrich Nietzsches call to read well… to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers, I argue that philosophy involves the patient work of thought that allows us to sink into the world. In this, philosophy resembles the work of art, the kind that both invites and implores us to take our time, to engage with the complexity of the world, and to dwell slowly in it. At its best, philosophy teaches us to read slowly; in fact, philosophy is the art of reading slowly, and this inevitably hits up against many of our current institutional practices and demands. With the help of writers as diverse as Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Virginia Woolf, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, and others, I explore the case for reading slowly, receiving impressions, encountering complexity, and opening to imagination and intensity.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 04:13:02 +0000
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