Reading Group as part of the Praxis-CFUL activities

Working language: English

Organizers: Maura Ceci (maura.ceci.91 [at] mail.com) and João Rochate da Palma (rochatedapalma [at] gmail.com)

When: Tuesdays, from 14h00 to 16h00, according to the calendar below

Where: Sala Pedro Hispano (Department of Philosophy)

To participate, please send an e-mail to the convenors expressing your interest in taking part in the RG.

Abstract

This reading group focuses on the ever-changing and undetermined philosophical interpretation of Genealogy. We aim at studying it in regard with, firstly, Nietzsche, as the main contributor to its relevance for contemporary philosophy, and Foucault, as one of the most influential voices in the French philosophical tradition. It is mainly to these two authors that we owe the variety of interpretations regarding genealogy as a philosophical practice, a means of interpretation or a critical philosophy. Within this range of themes, the following sessions will regard the birth and development of Genealogy in its relation to History within the philosophies of Nietzsche and Foucault, the implications on their methodologies and, finally, to what ends it is applied. All these issues will be addressed chronologically, through selected excerpts of both authors and considering the broader scope of critique in which their genealogies either enter in discord or concord. Furthermore, the sessions of this reading group will build upon as preparation for a forthcoming Workshop on the same issue, to take place in June.

Program

Session 1 | 8 March 2022

Nietzsche, F. (1997). Untimely Meditations II. R.J. Hollingdale (translation). Cambridge: University Press (selected pages) [download here]

Session 2 | 22 March 2022

Nietzsche, F. (1994). On the Genealogy of Morals. Carol Diethe (translation). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (selected pages) [download here]

Session 3 | 5 April 2022

Foucault, M. (1991). “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, ” in: The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault’s Thought. Paul Rabinow (ed.). London: Penguin, pp. 76-100. [download here]

Session 4 | 26 April 2022

Foucault, M. (2003). “Lecture One: 7 January 1976,” in: Society Must Be Defended. Lectures at Collège de France 1975-76. trans. by D. Macey. New York: Picador, pp. 1-22. [download here]