Strategies of Critique 13: Superstition
Conference Presentation Abstracts
March 26 27 , 1 999
"Strategies of Critique" is a conference hosted by graduate students in the Graduate
Programme in Social & Political Thought at York
University. The Superstition
"Call for Papers" remains available.
Go to the Conference
Programme and Schedule page.
Revelation, Conversion and the
Hegelian Dialectic of Consciousness: Religion and Modernism
Hegel's dialectic of consciousness is structurally analogous to moments
of Christian revelation and conversion. It could be argued that the
analogy is only a superficial one, that the evolution of consciousness
is intrinsically rational, whereas revelation (of a new truth) and conversion
(to a mode of consciousness which takes that truth as its centre) depend
upon mystical experiences that are outside of (beyond, beneath) the limits
of reason. Yet the complex relationship between religion and philosophy
in Hegel's work puts pressure on this distinction. This is especially
– if not exclusively – evident in his treatment of Christianity.
In this paper I shall argue that Hegel's interpretation of Christianity
does not merely subordinate religion to philosophy, making it a ‘moment'
to be overcome in a higher form of consciousness; rather, it suggests a
reciprocal relationship between philosophical consciousness and religious
consciousness, one which makes religion philosophical and philosophy religious.
The second part of the paper will explore some questions this
dimension of Hegel's work raises about his relationship to the modern philosophical
tradition. For example, are revelation and conversion, understood for my
purposes as (Judeo)Christian experiences, antithetical to the rationalism
of the modern period. Would revelation and conversion then become superstitious,
and, if so, how would that impact on efforts to think philosophically about
religion? Taking the issue in another direction, is reason a form
of superstition or a kind of myth? Can either religion or philosophy
be privileged over one another, or is there a merging of the two, a kind
of dialectical transfiguration?
Chris Irwin Anderson, Social & Political Thought, York University
Between the Dream and
the Dialectical: A Journey into Freudian Theory's Liberatory Space
In "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and
Image," Leonard Shlain views the emergence of Freudian psychoanalytic theory
as part of a broader societal shift from language to image. Shlain's
comment prompt a reflection on the role Freudian theory has played as a
liberatory force for socially critical theorists.
This paper surveys the debates over Freud's theories; are they
of scientific or cultural dimensions? We engage Althusser's conception
of the ideological basis of identity. Fanon emerges in discussions of the
realm of therapy, wherein de-politicized examinations of the individual
are privileged over societal analyses. Lacan will provide a window to the
development of studies of the indeterminacy and malleability of gender
and sexuality. Finally, we address Flieger, who points to the dis-ease
with which conservatives approach the radical implications of Freud's legacy.
John Bracken, Annenberg
School of Communication Studies, University of
Pennsylvania
The Paranoid is Out There:
Scapegoats and Projectiles
In this paper, I will examine the discursive exile rituals performed
upon conspiracy narratives. Recent formulations of political rationality
have concerned themselves with the "problem" of political paranoia.
According to these "problematizations" (in Foucault's sense) political
paranoia's dangerous characteristic is that it exaggerates normal political
skepticism. Conspiracy theories are positioned as a threat from within:
lurking within the nation, in the heartland, among the "people." Paranoia
is thus an intolerable simulation (in Deleuze's sense of the "false pretender")
that requires exiling in order to establish the tolerable limits of rational
political skepticism. This ceremony roots out and turns elements
of "Us" into a simulation of "Us," into a "Them." These scapegoating
procedures are pre-emptive measures that establish the integrity of a regime.
How is political rationality predicated on this ritual of expulsion?
What is it about current state of politics that warrant "paranoia" becoming
a problem, and require "making politics reasonable" again?
Jack Bratich, Institute
of Communications Research, Univeristy of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
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Theophobia: The Secular Fear
of God
The Western quest for progress and eventual transcendence has found
a new articulation in the cult of the computer. Employing Durkheim's
analytic categories of the 'sacred' and the 'profane' can reveal the computer's
position as a sacred object. More extensive examination leads one
to explore the inter-relationships between the computer and the cultural
narrative of the messianic machine. While many have argued that the
Western world has undergone a process of secularisation, it seems more
accurate to suggest a shift in the focus of our religious behaviour from
the Christian churches to the machine, and in particular, the computer.
As Mumford contends, we have discovered a new, technological prophet.
Marionne Cronin, Philosophy,
York University
The Abject Junky: Death, Masochism,
and the Desubjectified Body
Someone who not only lacks any fear of hypodermic needles but who also
seeks out their use on her/his own body certainly could be considered masochistic.
Yet beyond the limits of pain and pleasure, both a junky's tracks and a
masochist's scars signify a deeper meaning of transgression, the transgressing
of taboos and the associated jouissance. While this paper works on
similarities between heroin use and masochism, the main focus centers on
a parallel between, one: junky-body images of William Burroughs' Naked
Lunch as images of the desubjectified body, "dead" in the eyes of the
Symbolic Order, a body emptied of paternal symbolic relevance; and, two:
Julia Kristeva's discussion (Powers of Horror) of the dead body
as abject-putrid, disgusting, and capable of evoking fear and horror.
Jeffrey Falla, Comparative
Literature, University of Minnesota
The Dancing Men and the Question of Code
Dialectics and Idealism:
Adorno's Critique of Hegel
Adorno always emphasizes that a radical transformation of social existence
requires in the first place a radical form of social consciousness that
has the power to see through the mystification of capitalist reality and
to think the possibility of transcending this artificially imposed limit.
Hegel's contribution is absolutely fundamental in this connection and hence
his philosophy occupies a relatively privileged position in Adorno's thought.
Like many Marxists, Adorno's relation to Hegel is equivocal. Although he
is indebted to Hegel for articulating the negative and dialectical nature
of experience, he is critical of the positive and undialectical character
of Hegel's speculative idealism. The genuinely dialectical for Adorno always
remains negative. My paper outlines the basic concepts of Hegel's description
of experience and examines Adorno's critique. An argument is developed
that defends the spirit of Adorno's Marxism while criticizing certain aspects
of his claim that Hegel cuts dialectics short.
Mark Hiller, Philosophy, York University
Hobbes on Superstition and the English
Civil War
Understanding the concept of superstition in Hobbes's political thought
has traditionally been considered as secondary in relation to the task
of ascertaining his religious views. Instead, if we examine Hobbes's
stance on superstition in its own right, we discover that he tends to equate
superstition with uncivil religion, in large part to discredit some of
the major antagonists in the English Civil War. Two superstitious,
and seditious, doctrines are focused upon: spirit and (false) prophecy.
The natural fear of ghostly spirits leads to the Papist distinction between
temporal and spiritual dominion, designed to obscure temporal ambition.
Furthermore, his interpretation of the origins and scriptural account of
prophecy exposes the threat prophecy may pose to the sovereign power, as
manifested in Presbyterian claims to prophetic inspiration. By debunking
spirit and prophecy, Hobbes politicizes superstition, which thus signifies
a shift in how superstition and religion are viewed in modern political
thought.
Simon Kow, Political Science,
University of Toronto
The Mystical Kernel within
the Rational Shell: Althusser and the Magical Moment of Supersession in
Overdetermined Contradiction
Whether we are speaking of theoretical physics, ecological theory,
or social theory, there is a fundamental point where rationality transgresses
into mysticism. In theoretical physics, for instance, the collapse
of rationality into mysticism is represented by the wave/particle debate
in quantum mechanics, while in ecological theory the mystical element is
revealed in the Gaia hypothesis. Further examples abound from Hegel's
absolute knowing and Jung's collective unconscious to, as I will demonstrate,
Althusser's overdetermined contradiction.
Despite Althusser's attempt to differentiate between Hegel's
simple contradiction and Marx's overdetermined contradiction, Althusser's
interpretative account does not address the 'actual' mechanism responsible
for supersession. In this respect, Althusser's accusation that Hegel's
dialectical system is magically transformed is itself mirrored in Althusser's
own dialectical account of supersession. Through a close reading
of Althusser's overdetermined contradiction, I will argue that at the level
of theoretical abstraction the mystical becomes the kernel encased in a
rational shell.
Guy Kirby Letts, Sociology, York
University
Adorno and the Muse
of the Dialectic
Adorno describes Negative Dialectics as a philosophy 'in which all
esthetic topics are shunned.' He does not mean by this that philosophy
has nothing to do with art, but that philosophy finds itself when it encounters
and negates the aesthetic. As Adorno describes this negation it does
not keep the magic of art at bay, but involves the active purging of an
aesthetic moment inherent to a philosophy that wishes simultaneously to
be free of it. Philosophy is essentially schizophrenic; or, it must
at least proceed with a kind of double vision. It must contain the
stringency of science to make any claim on the world, to make its critique
'valid'. Yet, at the same time, immanent critique arises out of an
intuitive moment, 'a moment of immediacy...a bonus of subjective thought
that looks beyond the dialectical structure.' This experience of
immediacy is offered to philosophy by art. The strange thing is that
philosophy is itself only when it accepts this offering, but only fully
comes around to itself once this gift has been rejected. It
needs the aesthetic as a catalyst to break through immanence and
must be autonomous of art lest it corrupts art's magic or reduces itself
to ineffability. This philosophy is one that intentionally thinks
against its own intentions--and this conscious counter-point is intuitive,
inspired. Hence, there is a certain madness to Adorno's method.
As he says, 'philosophy is the most serious of things, but then again it
is not all that serious.' Adorno's dialectic is a-mused.
Chris McCutcheon, Social & Political Thought, York University
Socialism As Superstition
Marx is famous for his critiques of "utopian" socialism as rooted in
"phantasy", as opposed to "science", and the resulting inadequacy of "utopian"
claims in answering the central question of liberation from exploitative
conditions. But despite these powerful and withering critiques it
could be argued that the emancipatory project of Marxism, including Marx's
work itself, has increasingly relied upon "utopian" imagery to motivate
and sustain its claims. This (unconscious?) reliance on utopianism
can, I believe, be usefully conceived of as socialism's version of superstition.
The question that I will address in my paper will be how this
reliance on "socialist superstition" to anchor the liberatory claims of
Marxism is both problematic and necessary given the current economic and
cultural milieu of the late twentieth century. I will briefly discuss
the works of Marx, Gramsci, Marcuse, the Situationists and Balibar in this
light, essentially arguing that memory and imagination are essential in
creating "superstitious" beliefs in the possibilities of a socialist world.
These beliefs in turn motivate action toward attempts at realizing socialist
claims such as equality, anti-racism, anti-sexism, internationalism etc.
under current conditions in anticipation of the future return/creation
of a socialist society. In this way socialism uses superstition much
more than "science" in sustaining its essential claim of formulating a
project of emancipation.
J.J. McMurtry, Social & Political Thought, York University
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Crucifixation: Inevitable
Possessions
In this presentation I will offer a reading of Augustine as he reads
the Gospel of John. It is this reading which is one of the formative
sites with which the multiplicity of spirits proper to the early church
is conflated into the unity of Spirit. The understanding of spirit,
as indwelling and possessing the body, emerging from Neo-Platonic exegesis
is that which has been transformed into the "prison of the body" (Foucault).
The rhetoric of possession and exorcism as they have emerged in recent
social theory (Cixous, Deleuze/Guattari, Foucault, Negri) is an exercise
which has as its terminus the overcoming of the somnolent body. The
desire for a wakefulness of the body, I will suggest, is only figurable
with the affirmation of an exegetical resistance to Augustine's reading
and, through it, the body as a simulacrum of the Divine Body.
John L. Meeks, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Knowing on Film
The distinctions between low and high art, mythic and rational thought,
superstition and knowledge, art house and popular movies, indicate a bifurcation
in western traditions identified with a transition from orality to literacy.
Often it is assumed that the practices associated with oral culture are
supplanted by literacy, but literacy in the west never supplanted the aesthetics
associated with oral traditions, religion, and crafts (practices often
associated with the feminine as this bifurcation is somewhat gendered).
Movie practices are, then, not a return to orality; the aesthetics associated
with craft, myth, pop culture have been practiced and developed continuously.
We may be better able to acknowledge some knowledge that relates to the
practices, deprecated as superstition, on film. In this presentation
I offer a few examples: some language practices and perception of time.
Roberta Morris, Philosophy, York University
The Superstitions
of Modern Art
This paper intends to problematize modern artistic expression in terms of its radical ambivalence
to itself, an uncertainty which finds its most indecisive moment in the advent of what has been
termed pure abstraction'. The discussion will begin with a brief discussion of certain prominent
avant-garde movements at the turn of the century in terms of their efforts to break with
institutional tradition, proceeding to question some of the inherently antinomic positions which
exist within modern artistic practices as these deny more traditional aesthetic concerns. The
presentation will conclude with an examination of the implications of such discourses of
hybridizations and dislocations as they inform postmodern deconstructive critiques of art and
generate an aesthetic which situates the artist, her work and their engagements and encounters
with the life-world at the disappearing confluence of unknowable acts of radical uncertainty.
Pierre Ouellet, Social & Political Thought, York University
Mondex, Gambling, and the Price of Money
On Repetition and the Spectre
of Gender
Freud's 1920 essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle is a speculative
investigation of the repetition compulsion and death drive. In his
reading, Derrida (1987) asks: "How can we gain access to the restance
[or the undecidable excess] of Beyond...?" One approach might
be to focus on three mythic moments within Freud's text: Little Ernst's
game of fort-da; the battle between Tancred and Clorinda (from Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered); and the division of the fantastical double-men
(from Plato's Symposium). By reading/misreading across these
moments, we begin to catch sight of an unarticulated spectre: the
half-forming/still-forming gendered subject. This ghost, Butler (1997)
tells us, is the melancholic ego - constituted through refused identifications
and lost loves. What does it mean to be a haunted text? And
what does this haunting add to our appreciation or understanding of Beyond...?
Andrew Paravantes, Sociology, York
University
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Superstition
and Uncertainty: An Epistemology of Community
Superstition and Uncertainty: an Epistemology of Community
What is at stake in superstition are the grounds and rituals of the epistemological relation:
the economy of the access to knowledge. Through Martin Heidegger's Being and Time,
the superstitious' can be read as a question of access or relation to knowledge: of communal
rituals - and thus politics. This question displaces a focus on contents,' objects,' and
foundations' as the topoi and terms of epistemological legitimacy. The space of
certainty and legitimacy is essentially - and perhaps mythically - grounded in the metaphysically
trademarked subject: an ominous superstar,' which both underwrites and is the product
of this epistemological superstore. The questions I seek to articulate, through Jean-Luc Nancy's
The Inoperative Community, relate to the intersection of epistemological access and
community. Who is produced and legitimated in epistemological economies? How do
the communal rituals of superstition relate to the space of the political? What relations between
subjectivity, history, and community are articulated in the production of knowledge? What are
the political possibilities of an uncertain relation to knowledge? The (perhaps
Heideggerian) danger in this terrain, is a mythologization of uncertainty' itself...
Joseph Rosen, Social & Political Thought, York University
Enlightened Superstition?
Althusser's Imaginary Relation
While the classical Enlightenment conceived the development of reason
as the fairly straightforward linear process of liberating humanity from
age-old errors, the advances of reason strikes later theorists, Frederic
Jameson notes, as "an infernal machine, bent on extirpating all traces
of transcendence (including critique and negativity itself)". Perhaps
the most radical recent attempt to rescue Enlightenment from its own devices
has been Althusser's structural Marxism, which attempts to rescue Marxist
critique from empirico-positivism by establishing a radical break between
ideology (as modern superstition and error), and science as theoretical
production. But in examining Althusser's project, it becomes apparent
that the value of science is thwarted by its own conditions of existence.
It is for this reason that I propose to read Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic
of Enlightenment beside and against Althusser, offering the suggestion
that while Enlightenment in its various forms would like to disregard its
own pre-history as myth, it in fact contains what Enlightenment most needs
to prevent the futile oscillation into its self-declared opposite: superstition.
Jon Short, Social & Political Thought, York University
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Go to the Conference
Programme and Schedule page.
Review the previous three Strategies' conference programmes:
Strategies of Critique X: The New Right
(1996) with abstracts.
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Strategies of Critique XI: Ends of Knowledge or the Knowledge of
Ends (1997)
Strategies of Critique xii: (in)justiced subjects
(1998)
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