An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which i... more An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which is a response to Martin Heidegger's 1964 essay of the same name. It was to be published in the special issue of Philosophy World Democracy entitled 'The Other Beginning of Philosophy'. The essay makes the point that philosophy, even that of Heidegger and Nancy, always involves the positing of the transcendental conditions of things. It concludes by arguing that this is even true of Stanley Cavell's "perfectionism".
You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline... more You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline in the national newspaper The Australian that read 'Believe It or Nor, Donald Trump Looks Likely to be the Next President'. The article that follows begins by making the point that the popularity of the current President Joe Biden has declined markedly since the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a series of domestic policy stumbles. Meanwhile Trump remains the presumptive and uncontested Republican nominee for the next election and his popularity remains the same amongst the Party's base, despite the Capitol Hill riots that took place after he contested the result of the last election. And recent polling suggests that, if a vote between Biden and Trump were held today, Trump would win in a landslide, thus reversing the outcome of the recently held 2020 election.
An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which i... more An essay on Jean-Luc Nancy's 2021 essay 'The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking', which is a response to Martin Heidegger's 1964 essay of the same name. It was to be published in the special issue of Philosophy World Democracy entitled 'The Other Beginning of Philosophy'. The essay makes the point that philosophy, even that of Heidegger and Nancy, always involves the positing of the transcendental conditions of things. It concludes by arguing that this is even true of Stanley Cavell's "perfectionism".
You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline... more You could have woken up in Australia in lockdown on 9 October 2021 to be confronted by a headline in the national newspaper The Australian that read 'Believe It or Nor, Donald Trump Looks Likely to be the Next President'. The article that follows begins by making the point that the popularity of the current President Joe Biden has declined markedly since the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and a series of domestic policy stumbles. Meanwhile Trump remains the presumptive and uncontested Republican nominee for the next election and his popularity remains the same amongst the Party's base, despite the Capitol Hill riots that took place after he contested the result of the last election. And recent polling suggests that, if a vote between Biden and Trump were held today, Trump would win in a landslide, thus reversing the outcome of the recently held 2020 election.
A commemoration of Indigenous activist and writer Sam Watson and his part in the creation of the ... more A commemoration of Indigenous activist and writer Sam Watson and his part in the creation of the CityCat Project
A review of the National Gallery of Victoria's Andy Warhol Ai Wei Wei exhibition, 11 December 201... more A review of the National Gallery of Victoria's Andy Warhol Ai Wei Wei exhibition, 11 December 2015-24 April 2016.
An analysis of Justin Barton and Mark Fisher's audio-essay 'On Vanishing Land' (2013), taking up ... more An analysis of Justin Barton and Mark Fisher's audio-essay 'On Vanishing Land' (2013), taking up the notion of the "eerie" in it and contrasting it to melancholy.
Originally delivered at 'Five Centuries of Melancholia' conference, University of Queensland Art Museum, 4 September 2014.
Catalogue entry for exhibition “The effect that is propagated is not from the communication of sp... more Catalogue entry for exhibition “The effect that is propagated is not from the communication of speech but from the displacement of discourse”, held at Neon Parc Gallery in Melbourne, June 24-August 13 2016
Essay on Melbourne artist Elizabeth Newman on the occasion of her exhibition at Neon Parc Gallery... more Essay on Melbourne artist Elizabeth Newman on the occasion of her exhibition at Neon Parc Gallery in June 2016.
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Papers by Rex Butler
Originally delivered at 'Five Centuries of Melancholia' conference, University of Queensland Art Museum, 4 September 2014.