Papers by Carl Christian Olsson
GeoHumanities, 2024
Sahej Rahal’s 2022 exhibition ANCESTORS presented findings from an alleged archaeological site to... more Sahej Rahal’s 2022 exhibition ANCESTORS presented findings from an alleged archaeological site to narrate an alien temporality inside the confines of the history museum. We reflect on how the exhibition demonstrates that encounters with appropriately narrated objects constitute a sort of “temporal heist,” forcing its observers to reconsider their present through a new temporality. By articulating the concept of a temporal heist we suggest that the Anthropocene thesis performs an analogous function. Like Rahal’s ANCESTORS, the Anthropocene narrates the mundane objects we interact with in a way that connects them, and their users and observers to a different temporality.
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2021
Responding to ideas about ‘geologizing the social’ (Clark and Gunaratnam 2017), this conceptual p... more Responding to ideas about ‘geologizing the social’ (Clark and Gunaratnam 2017), this conceptual paper reflects on the requirements for reconsidering the idea of the human in the Anthropocene context. It does so by parsing the Anthropocene conjecture taken as a predication of the Earth System through the analytic philosopher Wilfrid Sellars’ distinction between manifest and scientific images of ‘man in the world’ (2007). From this perspective, the Anthropocene conjecture is an explanatory-descriptive postulate that affords an integrated role to aggregated human activities. The upshot is shown to be the possibility of making ‘ourselves’ accountable for the state of the Earth System by inhabiting this integrated self-conception, which is dependent on our ability to enrich it with a manifest-image language of individual intentions. In conclusion, the paper suggests that questioning the conditions of projects that seek to rearticulate what humanity means in the Anthropocene is a propaedeutic exercise for doing just that. For in order to think about ourselves on Earth, there is an attendant need to discuss thinking about thinking about ourselves on Earth.
Monstrous Ontologies: Politics Ethics Materiality, Caterina Nirta, Andrea Pavoni (Eds.), 2021
Panel and Conference Organisations by Carl Christian Olsson
Unlearning Nihilism Conference / Joint Event of Royal Holloway's Centre for Continental Philosophy and The New Centre for Research & Practice / Senate House Library, 2022
Ø Call for Papers
The term “nihilism” has received conflicting definitions throughout the histor... more Ø Call for Papers
The term “nihilism” has received conflicting definitions throughout the history of modern European thought. Its first appearance is in Jacobi’s pessimism, where it is considered to be the inevitable consequence of German idealism and is defined as a horrific loss of meaning and reality. In contrast, Russian revolutionaries, feminists and anarchists found the meaning of nihilism not only in the recognition of the meaninglessness of the established powers, but above all in acts conducive to revolution. Later, many continental philosophers — following Nietzsche — understood nihilism as the establishment of values superior to and hostile to life, and hence the overcoming of nihilism became a basis for a radical critique of metaphysics and power.
Today, however, while currents such as new materialism, speculative realism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, and neo-rationalism have retained these objectives, nihilism has either been cast to the wayside or provocatively embraced with inspiration from neurobiology, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy. Nihilism can thus be conceived of as one of the inflexion points from which the continental and its beyond are to be articulated as distinct discourses. This conference will be a space to discuss, learn and unlearn how numerous manifestations of nihilism have been addressed throughout the history of philosophy.
With that being said, nihilism has always been a theme that has taken on not only conceptual but also artistic and cultural forms, a theme underlying the theory and practice of the sciences and a theme present in political, spiritual, and theological thought. Hence, by bringing together various metaphysical, aesthetical, epistemological and western and non-western theoretical perspectives, this conference is also an attempt to think about conflicting narratives of the renunciation and embrace of nihilism as a problem across disciplines.
We invite proposals for 20-minute paper presentations from researchers, scholars and practitioners working in different fields, using different interpretations of nihilism. Contributions can respond to the following themes, but also to many others:
• Historical and comparative studies in nihilism (ancient and medieval philosophy, German idealism, Nietzsche, existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction)
• Lived experience and nihilism (phenomenology of the body, spiritual techniques, Eros and Thanatos, psychoanalysis)
• Nihilism in sociology, human geography, anthropology and other social sciences
•Political philosophy and nihilism (anarchism, feminism, post-Marxist thought, capitalist realism, real abstraction, foundations of community, value of life, bio-politics, resistance and revolution, queer theory)
• Nihilism, theology, and Eastern philosophy (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, yogic and other perspectives on creation, being and nothingness)
• Post-continental thought and nihilism (new materialism, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, accelerationism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, neo-rationalism)
• Scientific theory, epistemology and nihilism (scepticism, scientific realism, information theory, cognitive sciences)
• Aesthetics and nihilism (existentialist and Russian literature, decadence and the arts)
• Analytic approaches (defining nihilism, nihilistic consequences of the pluralisation of logic)
Conference Presentations by Carl Christian Olsson
Unlearning Nihilism, 2022
Presentation at the Unlearning Nihilism Conference. The work amounts to a satirical weird story, ... more Presentation at the Unlearning Nihilism Conference. The work amounts to a satirical weird story, wondering what may happen to a thought that wants to maximize its degree of negative liberty by transforming the body on which it depends.
The presentation is part of a larger project collaging images of spherical man.
Conversations and Discussions by Carl Christian Olsson
The New Centre's Sheltering Places - Season 3 Episode 2, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOW0RPNwV0U&t=3s&ab_channel=TheNewCentreforResearch%26Practice
O... more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOW0RPNwV0U&t=3s&ab_channel=TheNewCentreforResearch%26Practice
On October 20, at 1800 CET / 12 ET, The New Centre will air the second episode of the third season of Sheltering Places titled, "Deleuze and Speculative Realism: Continuity and the Method of Reconstruction" with our guest, Arjen Kleinherenbrink, moderated by our Researchers Evrim Bayındır & Carl Olsson.
Arjen Kleinherenbrink’s recent book "Against Continuity" seeks to upend decades of scholarship on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy. In this episode Kleinherenbrink will participate in a critical discussion surrounding his groundbreaking interpretation of Deleuze, its connection with Speculative Realism and the method that brought it about. Deleuze’s work poses notorious challenges for interpreters because of its lyricism, its ever-changing vocabulary and the sheer extent of its close dialogue with the history of philosophy and other disciplines. It is perhaps as a result of these difficulties that there have been remarkably few attempts to reconstruct the heart of Deleuze’s positive philosophy.
"Against Continuity" is possibly the most ambitious such attempt to date. Kleinherenbrink portrays Deleuze’s philosophy as a Speculative Realism that is surprisingly close to the Object-Oriented Ontologies that have emerged in the last decade. According to Kleinherenbrink, Deleuze charts hidden dimensions of the real by inferring from the commitment that all relations are external to their terms. The result is a discontinuous ontology where machines are the fundamental units of ontology, each being more than the rest of the universe. In such a world, there is no hope of unveiling truth from behind a purported curtain. For there are infinitely many curtains, each of which shelters an object or machine that cannot ever be reduced to its relations.
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Papers by Carl Christian Olsson
Panel and Conference Organisations by Carl Christian Olsson
The term “nihilism” has received conflicting definitions throughout the history of modern European thought. Its first appearance is in Jacobi’s pessimism, where it is considered to be the inevitable consequence of German idealism and is defined as a horrific loss of meaning and reality. In contrast, Russian revolutionaries, feminists and anarchists found the meaning of nihilism not only in the recognition of the meaninglessness of the established powers, but above all in acts conducive to revolution. Later, many continental philosophers — following Nietzsche — understood nihilism as the establishment of values superior to and hostile to life, and hence the overcoming of nihilism became a basis for a radical critique of metaphysics and power.
Today, however, while currents such as new materialism, speculative realism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, and neo-rationalism have retained these objectives, nihilism has either been cast to the wayside or provocatively embraced with inspiration from neurobiology, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy. Nihilism can thus be conceived of as one of the inflexion points from which the continental and its beyond are to be articulated as distinct discourses. This conference will be a space to discuss, learn and unlearn how numerous manifestations of nihilism have been addressed throughout the history of philosophy.
With that being said, nihilism has always been a theme that has taken on not only conceptual but also artistic and cultural forms, a theme underlying the theory and practice of the sciences and a theme present in political, spiritual, and theological thought. Hence, by bringing together various metaphysical, aesthetical, epistemological and western and non-western theoretical perspectives, this conference is also an attempt to think about conflicting narratives of the renunciation and embrace of nihilism as a problem across disciplines.
We invite proposals for 20-minute paper presentations from researchers, scholars and practitioners working in different fields, using different interpretations of nihilism. Contributions can respond to the following themes, but also to many others:
• Historical and comparative studies in nihilism (ancient and medieval philosophy, German idealism, Nietzsche, existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction)
• Lived experience and nihilism (phenomenology of the body, spiritual techniques, Eros and Thanatos, psychoanalysis)
• Nihilism in sociology, human geography, anthropology and other social sciences
•Political philosophy and nihilism (anarchism, feminism, post-Marxist thought, capitalist realism, real abstraction, foundations of community, value of life, bio-politics, resistance and revolution, queer theory)
• Nihilism, theology, and Eastern philosophy (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, yogic and other perspectives on creation, being and nothingness)
• Post-continental thought and nihilism (new materialism, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, accelerationism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, neo-rationalism)
• Scientific theory, epistemology and nihilism (scepticism, scientific realism, information theory, cognitive sciences)
• Aesthetics and nihilism (existentialist and Russian literature, decadence and the arts)
• Analytic approaches (defining nihilism, nihilistic consequences of the pluralisation of logic)
Conference Presentations by Carl Christian Olsson
The presentation is part of a larger project collaging images of spherical man.
Conversations and Discussions by Carl Christian Olsson
On October 20, at 1800 CET / 12 ET, The New Centre will air the second episode of the third season of Sheltering Places titled, "Deleuze and Speculative Realism: Continuity and the Method of Reconstruction" with our guest, Arjen Kleinherenbrink, moderated by our Researchers Evrim Bayındır & Carl Olsson.
Arjen Kleinherenbrink’s recent book "Against Continuity" seeks to upend decades of scholarship on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy. In this episode Kleinherenbrink will participate in a critical discussion surrounding his groundbreaking interpretation of Deleuze, its connection with Speculative Realism and the method that brought it about. Deleuze’s work poses notorious challenges for interpreters because of its lyricism, its ever-changing vocabulary and the sheer extent of its close dialogue with the history of philosophy and other disciplines. It is perhaps as a result of these difficulties that there have been remarkably few attempts to reconstruct the heart of Deleuze’s positive philosophy.
"Against Continuity" is possibly the most ambitious such attempt to date. Kleinherenbrink portrays Deleuze’s philosophy as a Speculative Realism that is surprisingly close to the Object-Oriented Ontologies that have emerged in the last decade. According to Kleinherenbrink, Deleuze charts hidden dimensions of the real by inferring from the commitment that all relations are external to their terms. The result is a discontinuous ontology where machines are the fundamental units of ontology, each being more than the rest of the universe. In such a world, there is no hope of unveiling truth from behind a purported curtain. For there are infinitely many curtains, each of which shelters an object or machine that cannot ever be reduced to its relations.
The term “nihilism” has received conflicting definitions throughout the history of modern European thought. Its first appearance is in Jacobi’s pessimism, where it is considered to be the inevitable consequence of German idealism and is defined as a horrific loss of meaning and reality. In contrast, Russian revolutionaries, feminists and anarchists found the meaning of nihilism not only in the recognition of the meaninglessness of the established powers, but above all in acts conducive to revolution. Later, many continental philosophers — following Nietzsche — understood nihilism as the establishment of values superior to and hostile to life, and hence the overcoming of nihilism became a basis for a radical critique of metaphysics and power.
Today, however, while currents such as new materialism, speculative realism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, and neo-rationalism have retained these objectives, nihilism has either been cast to the wayside or provocatively embraced with inspiration from neurobiology, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy. Nihilism can thus be conceived of as one of the inflexion points from which the continental and its beyond are to be articulated as distinct discourses. This conference will be a space to discuss, learn and unlearn how numerous manifestations of nihilism have been addressed throughout the history of philosophy.
With that being said, nihilism has always been a theme that has taken on not only conceptual but also artistic and cultural forms, a theme underlying the theory and practice of the sciences and a theme present in political, spiritual, and theological thought. Hence, by bringing together various metaphysical, aesthetical, epistemological and western and non-western theoretical perspectives, this conference is also an attempt to think about conflicting narratives of the renunciation and embrace of nihilism as a problem across disciplines.
We invite proposals for 20-minute paper presentations from researchers, scholars and practitioners working in different fields, using different interpretations of nihilism. Contributions can respond to the following themes, but also to many others:
• Historical and comparative studies in nihilism (ancient and medieval philosophy, German idealism, Nietzsche, existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction)
• Lived experience and nihilism (phenomenology of the body, spiritual techniques, Eros and Thanatos, psychoanalysis)
• Nihilism in sociology, human geography, anthropology and other social sciences
•Political philosophy and nihilism (anarchism, feminism, post-Marxist thought, capitalist realism, real abstraction, foundations of community, value of life, bio-politics, resistance and revolution, queer theory)
• Nihilism, theology, and Eastern philosophy (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, yogic and other perspectives on creation, being and nothingness)
• Post-continental thought and nihilism (new materialism, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, accelerationism, afro-pessimism, non-philosophy, neo-rationalism)
• Scientific theory, epistemology and nihilism (scepticism, scientific realism, information theory, cognitive sciences)
• Aesthetics and nihilism (existentialist and Russian literature, decadence and the arts)
• Analytic approaches (defining nihilism, nihilistic consequences of the pluralisation of logic)
The presentation is part of a larger project collaging images of spherical man.
On October 20, at 1800 CET / 12 ET, The New Centre will air the second episode of the third season of Sheltering Places titled, "Deleuze and Speculative Realism: Continuity and the Method of Reconstruction" with our guest, Arjen Kleinherenbrink, moderated by our Researchers Evrim Bayındır & Carl Olsson.
Arjen Kleinherenbrink’s recent book "Against Continuity" seeks to upend decades of scholarship on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy. In this episode Kleinherenbrink will participate in a critical discussion surrounding his groundbreaking interpretation of Deleuze, its connection with Speculative Realism and the method that brought it about. Deleuze’s work poses notorious challenges for interpreters because of its lyricism, its ever-changing vocabulary and the sheer extent of its close dialogue with the history of philosophy and other disciplines. It is perhaps as a result of these difficulties that there have been remarkably few attempts to reconstruct the heart of Deleuze’s positive philosophy.
"Against Continuity" is possibly the most ambitious such attempt to date. Kleinherenbrink portrays Deleuze’s philosophy as a Speculative Realism that is surprisingly close to the Object-Oriented Ontologies that have emerged in the last decade. According to Kleinherenbrink, Deleuze charts hidden dimensions of the real by inferring from the commitment that all relations are external to their terms. The result is a discontinuous ontology where machines are the fundamental units of ontology, each being more than the rest of the universe. In such a world, there is no hope of unveiling truth from behind a purported curtain. For there are infinitely many curtains, each of which shelters an object or machine that cannot ever be reduced to its relations.