The Image as Sovereign Body in Modernity
Other
Whether in democracy or courtly monarchy the place of the sovereign is an "empty place", an irrational cipher on which the rational, positivist law is based. Using the framework of Lacan's four discourses, and drawing on modern and contemporary art to show how these various approaches are embodied…
Colin Klein (ANU/UIC): The Penumbral Theory of Masochistic Pleasure
Other
Being whipped, getting a deep-tissue massage, eating hot chili peppers, running marathons, and getting tattooed are all painful. Sometimes they’re also pleasant— or so many people claim. Masochistic pleasure consists in finding such experiences pleasant in addition to, and because of, the pain.…
Brentyn Ramm (ANU): Dimensions of reliability in phenomenal judgement *Midterm Review*
Other
Introspection is not always reliable. I don’t always notice when I’m grumpy, or that my visual field lacks acuity at the periphery. I am often uncertain about the phenomenal character of my emotions. Philosphers also disagree about the phenomenology of thought and visual perspective. Schwitzgebel (…