This collection explores the ethical and epistemic role of touch in the history of philosophical ... more This collection explores the ethical and epistemic role of touch in the history of philosophical scepticism with a focus on Platonism, German Idealism, and Continental Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.
This chapter identifies two contrasting methodological
reductions utilized in philosophical scept... more This chapter identifies two contrasting methodological reductions utilized in philosophical scepticism: withdrawal/doubt [R–]; immersion/attention [R+]. Moving toward a feminist ethics grounded in phenomenological scepticism, Aumiller explores how reduction relates to experiences of personal and global uncertainty such as a pandemic. Reduction involves our entire embodied being, challenging how we are fundamentally in touch with the world. How we respond to being disrupted makes all the difference.
Another Gaze: A Journal for Film and Feminism, 2021
A roundtable discussion on two films about hands, by Maria Lassnig and Ayesha Hameed
"Touching i... more A roundtable discussion on two films about hands, by Maria Lassnig and Ayesha Hameed
"Touching involves collapsing the distance between two people, while holding open a space for our own convictions and uncertain desires. In order for touching to yield intimacy, all parties connected by touch must give themselves over to the risks of this paradox...To be touched risks being altered. Lassnig shows how holding oneself open for intimacy can lead to annihilation. Yet it is a risk she chooses to take, insisting at the same time on self-preservation and expansion" —Rachel Aumiller
Apuleius’s The Golden Ass presents curiosity as the protagonist’s downfall, yet ultimately recode... more Apuleius’s The Golden Ass presents curiosity as the protagonist’s downfall, yet ultimately recodes curiosity as the single virtue through which the human soul achieves not only immortality but joy. I identify Apuleius’s treatment of curiosity as falling into the categories of erotic and nonerotic. The union of Eros and the curious human soul suggests that one who is erotically curious can take pleasure in her devotion to one, precisely because she has eyes for the beauty of many.
From Augustine's drive toward an imaginary time before speech to Marx's drive toward an imaginary... more From Augustine's drive toward an imaginary time before speech to Marx's drive toward an imaginary time after speech as we know it, we learn that we are always already bound by our mother tongue. When Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother tongue, he makes explicit the intertwined fantasy of escaping the mother's touch. I explore the theological and political underpinnings of twentieth-century psychoanalytic framings of the touch of language upon our skin, leading to Derrida's specific fantasy of the lick of the mother tongue. In the Confessions, Augustine speculates that before we are aware of language, we learn our mother tongue through our mother's touch. These early lessons in language are first taught through a gentle touch: the nipple of the mother in the mouth of the infant. Language is later reinforced by a violent touch: the schoolmaster's switch. Augustine suggests that any memory of a time before the touch of language is purely imaginary. Nevertheless, his autobiography attempts to return to a time before the touch of the mother, which, for Augustine, is at once the touch of the mother tongue. ii Since our relationship to our own infancy is imaginary, our infancy neither properly belongs to our memory nor can it be properly forgotten or left behind. The fantasy of ourselves before language thus haunts us. As Augustine puts it, "Infancy did not leave me, for where could it go? And yet it no longer existed." iii Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before language. Marx later reiterates this desire as the communal fantasy of a time to come when we will forget our mother tongue. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx famously illustrates the vision of the revolution-to-come through the extended metaphor of forgetting one's mother tongue. iv The fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue is the fantasy of rearticulating
While Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before the touch... more While Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before the touch of the mother (tongue), Karl Marx articulates the communal fantasy of a time to come when we will forget our mother tongue. The fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue is the fantasy of rearticulating ourselves as individuals or a society: the fantasy of self-expression in the creation of a new shared tongue. And yet, as Marx confesses, this fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue that predetermines us is a failed fantasy. We find ourselves bound by the mother tongue, trapped between two imaginary temporalities: the time before and after the touch of language.
Jacques Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother (tongue). His lectures on Spectres de Marx and his personal autobiography “Circonfession” (or in English, “Circumfession”), both published in the early 1990s, do not explicitly speak to each other (cf. Derrida, 1993; 1991). And yet both works are possessed by the dream of a time before/after the mother tongue: a failed political fantasy confessed also as an unrealized personal obsession. Derrida responds to Marx’s analysis of our repeated failure to forget the mother tongue by turning to Augustine’s analysis of the mother’s touch: we cannot forget the mother tongue because it is licked upon our skin. Even if we could successfully destroy one political (symbolic) system in the creation of the new, the echo of the old is etched into our skin.
Marx somewhere remarks that history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce. But what for... more Marx somewhere remarks that history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce. But what forgot to add—what Hegel already knew—was that the historical doubling of tragedy and farce repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce.
Memorialization in the form of the architectural statue can suggest that our stance towards the p... more Memorialization in the form of the architectural statue can suggest that our stance towards the past is concrete while memorials in the form of repeated social activity represent reconciliation with the past as a continual process. Enacted memorials suggest that reconciliation with the past is not itself a thing of the past. Each generation must grapple with its inherited memories, guilt, and grief and self-consciously take its own stance towards that which came before it. This article considers Dominik Smole's post World War II rewrite of Antigona as an enacted memorial within the context of socialist Yugoslavia. The practice of restaging Antigona in Slovenia may be seen as the practice of meta-memorialization, which routinely returns to the past while openly weighing the dangers of awakening the unburied dead against the dangers of letting the unaddressed conflicts of the past sleep.
Yearbook of The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies , 2017
This philosophical essay interprets the epoché of ancient scepticism as the perpetual conversion ... more This philosophical essay interprets the epoché of ancient scepticism as the perpetual conversion of the love of one into the love of two. The process of one becoming two is represented in Plato’s Symposium by Diotima’s description of the second rung of ‘the ladder,’ by which one ascends to the highest form of philosophical devotion (Pl. Sym. 209e-210e). Diotima’s ladder offers a vision of philosophy as a total conversion of both the lover and the object of love (or philosopher and object of knowledge). I sug- gest that scepticism, however, is found in the frustration of Platonic ascension, which results in a partial conversion. Because the process of conversion (from the love of one to the love of One) remains suspended midway, the sceptic’s transformation is erotic—this is to say, driven by a desire that is characterised by a split (which may be identified between subject and object, between incompatible objects of desire or knowledge, or within the subject herself).
In contrast to the understanding of conversion as the transition from one (spiri- tual/intellectual/political/sexual) orientation to another, I consider how conversion operates as an epoché by splitting the timeline of an individual or community into two irresolvable, conflicting orientations. In an effort to achieve peace and unity, we may try to completely abandon the old for the new. However, remnants of our ‘former’ life tend to resurface disrupting our vision of a life that is unified by our pro- fessed beliefs. I suggest that the sceptic is one who embraces the failure of conver- sion to achieve unity. What would the life and philosophy of one who openly embra- ces such contradiction look like?
Abstract: In his 1937 lectures, Heidegger searches for Nietzsche’s initial thought of “the Moment... more Abstract: In his 1937 lectures, Heidegger searches for Nietzsche’s initial thought of “the Moment”. This paper mimics Heidegger’s pursuit of Nietzsche’s Moment by tracing Heidegger’s own early arrival at the Moment in Being and Time, published 10 years prior to his lectures on Nietzsche. Both Zarathustra and Dasein are chased in and out of an authentic relationship with the Moment by their own shadows, which disappear at midday. Dasein’s shadow is the being that is always closest-at-hand, the being in whom I lose myself in everyday care. Dasein forgets itself in inauthentically securing its identity in that which it cares for and that which it is not, darkness. Yet Dasein also confronts its own finitude in its negative double as it witnesses the daily dwindling of its shadow—the everyday passing away of time.
Keywords: Heidegger, Nietzsche, temporality, everydayness, authenticity, The Moment, the Everyone, negativity, primitivity
How do we first grasp our skin as our own?
How does our relationship to our own skin shape our s... more How do we first grasp our skin as our own? How does our relationship to our own skin shape our sense of self? What kinds of experiences take away our sense of our skin as our own? How can we reclaim our skin from the grasp of the other and restore our sense of self?
Protest, revolts, and revolutions often model themselves after successful movements from past gen... more Protest, revolts, and revolutions often model themselves after successful movements from past generations in order to gain momentum. To move forward we sometimes go backwards in history. As a result, movements that appear to break with a current social and political stage of history can reproduce the contents of that which they aim to destroy and leave behind. History enfolds on itself, making it difficult to know whether we are moving forward, backward, or walking in circles. This course pursues the theme of historical repetition in nineteenth-and twentieth-century philosophy that is in dialogue with Hegelian-Marxist thought. We will begin by studying Hegel's influence on Marx's framing of history as occurring in theatrical stages. We will pay particular attention to Marx's 1852 publication Der 18th Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte, which opens with the famous assertion that all great historical events and figures repeat themselves. Through Marx's analysis of the repetition of failed revolutions we may question the possibility of a new stage of history that breaks with the past. We will consider significant responses to a Hegelian-Marxist philosophy of history, which debate the possibility of historical repetition and historical breaks.
Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies - Workshop on Haptic Scepticism. Schedule. March 27-28, 20... more Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies - Workshop on Haptic Scepticism. Schedule. March 27-28, 2018.
This collection explores the ethical and epistemic role of touch in the history of philosophical ... more This collection explores the ethical and epistemic role of touch in the history of philosophical scepticism with a focus on Platonism, German Idealism, and Continental Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.
This chapter identifies two contrasting methodological
reductions utilized in philosophical scept... more This chapter identifies two contrasting methodological reductions utilized in philosophical scepticism: withdrawal/doubt [R–]; immersion/attention [R+]. Moving toward a feminist ethics grounded in phenomenological scepticism, Aumiller explores how reduction relates to experiences of personal and global uncertainty such as a pandemic. Reduction involves our entire embodied being, challenging how we are fundamentally in touch with the world. How we respond to being disrupted makes all the difference.
Another Gaze: A Journal for Film and Feminism, 2021
A roundtable discussion on two films about hands, by Maria Lassnig and Ayesha Hameed
"Touching i... more A roundtable discussion on two films about hands, by Maria Lassnig and Ayesha Hameed
"Touching involves collapsing the distance between two people, while holding open a space for our own convictions and uncertain desires. In order for touching to yield intimacy, all parties connected by touch must give themselves over to the risks of this paradox...To be touched risks being altered. Lassnig shows how holding oneself open for intimacy can lead to annihilation. Yet it is a risk she chooses to take, insisting at the same time on self-preservation and expansion" —Rachel Aumiller
Apuleius’s The Golden Ass presents curiosity as the protagonist’s downfall, yet ultimately recode... more Apuleius’s The Golden Ass presents curiosity as the protagonist’s downfall, yet ultimately recodes curiosity as the single virtue through which the human soul achieves not only immortality but joy. I identify Apuleius’s treatment of curiosity as falling into the categories of erotic and nonerotic. The union of Eros and the curious human soul suggests that one who is erotically curious can take pleasure in her devotion to one, precisely because she has eyes for the beauty of many.
From Augustine's drive toward an imaginary time before speech to Marx's drive toward an imaginary... more From Augustine's drive toward an imaginary time before speech to Marx's drive toward an imaginary time after speech as we know it, we learn that we are always already bound by our mother tongue. When Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother tongue, he makes explicit the intertwined fantasy of escaping the mother's touch. I explore the theological and political underpinnings of twentieth-century psychoanalytic framings of the touch of language upon our skin, leading to Derrida's specific fantasy of the lick of the mother tongue. In the Confessions, Augustine speculates that before we are aware of language, we learn our mother tongue through our mother's touch. These early lessons in language are first taught through a gentle touch: the nipple of the mother in the mouth of the infant. Language is later reinforced by a violent touch: the schoolmaster's switch. Augustine suggests that any memory of a time before the touch of language is purely imaginary. Nevertheless, his autobiography attempts to return to a time before the touch of the mother, which, for Augustine, is at once the touch of the mother tongue. ii Since our relationship to our own infancy is imaginary, our infancy neither properly belongs to our memory nor can it be properly forgotten or left behind. The fantasy of ourselves before language thus haunts us. As Augustine puts it, "Infancy did not leave me, for where could it go? And yet it no longer existed." iii Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before language. Marx later reiterates this desire as the communal fantasy of a time to come when we will forget our mother tongue. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx famously illustrates the vision of the revolution-to-come through the extended metaphor of forgetting one's mother tongue. iv The fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue is the fantasy of rearticulating
While Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before the touch... more While Augustine confesses the personal fantasy of returning to an imaginary time before the touch of the mother (tongue), Karl Marx articulates the communal fantasy of a time to come when we will forget our mother tongue. The fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue is the fantasy of rearticulating ourselves as individuals or a society: the fantasy of self-expression in the creation of a new shared tongue. And yet, as Marx confesses, this fantasy of forgetting the mother tongue that predetermines us is a failed fantasy. We find ourselves bound by the mother tongue, trapped between two imaginary temporalities: the time before and after the touch of language.
Jacques Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother (tongue). His lectures on Spectres de Marx and his personal autobiography “Circonfession” (or in English, “Circumfession”), both published in the early 1990s, do not explicitly speak to each other (cf. Derrida, 1993; 1991). And yet both works are possessed by the dream of a time before/after the mother tongue: a failed political fantasy confessed also as an unrealized personal obsession. Derrida responds to Marx’s analysis of our repeated failure to forget the mother tongue by turning to Augustine’s analysis of the mother’s touch: we cannot forget the mother tongue because it is licked upon our skin. Even if we could successfully destroy one political (symbolic) system in the creation of the new, the echo of the old is etched into our skin.
Marx somewhere remarks that history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce. But what for... more Marx somewhere remarks that history repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce. But what forgot to add—what Hegel already knew—was that the historical doubling of tragedy and farce repeats itself: first as tragedy, then as farce.
Memorialization in the form of the architectural statue can suggest that our stance towards the p... more Memorialization in the form of the architectural statue can suggest that our stance towards the past is concrete while memorials in the form of repeated social activity represent reconciliation with the past as a continual process. Enacted memorials suggest that reconciliation with the past is not itself a thing of the past. Each generation must grapple with its inherited memories, guilt, and grief and self-consciously take its own stance towards that which came before it. This article considers Dominik Smole's post World War II rewrite of Antigona as an enacted memorial within the context of socialist Yugoslavia. The practice of restaging Antigona in Slovenia may be seen as the practice of meta-memorialization, which routinely returns to the past while openly weighing the dangers of awakening the unburied dead against the dangers of letting the unaddressed conflicts of the past sleep.
Yearbook of The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies , 2017
This philosophical essay interprets the epoché of ancient scepticism as the perpetual conversion ... more This philosophical essay interprets the epoché of ancient scepticism as the perpetual conversion of the love of one into the love of two. The process of one becoming two is represented in Plato’s Symposium by Diotima’s description of the second rung of ‘the ladder,’ by which one ascends to the highest form of philosophical devotion (Pl. Sym. 209e-210e). Diotima’s ladder offers a vision of philosophy as a total conversion of both the lover and the object of love (or philosopher and object of knowledge). I sug- gest that scepticism, however, is found in the frustration of Platonic ascension, which results in a partial conversion. Because the process of conversion (from the love of one to the love of One) remains suspended midway, the sceptic’s transformation is erotic—this is to say, driven by a desire that is characterised by a split (which may be identified between subject and object, between incompatible objects of desire or knowledge, or within the subject herself).
In contrast to the understanding of conversion as the transition from one (spiri- tual/intellectual/political/sexual) orientation to another, I consider how conversion operates as an epoché by splitting the timeline of an individual or community into two irresolvable, conflicting orientations. In an effort to achieve peace and unity, we may try to completely abandon the old for the new. However, remnants of our ‘former’ life tend to resurface disrupting our vision of a life that is unified by our pro- fessed beliefs. I suggest that the sceptic is one who embraces the failure of conver- sion to achieve unity. What would the life and philosophy of one who openly embra- ces such contradiction look like?
Abstract: In his 1937 lectures, Heidegger searches for Nietzsche’s initial thought of “the Moment... more Abstract: In his 1937 lectures, Heidegger searches for Nietzsche’s initial thought of “the Moment”. This paper mimics Heidegger’s pursuit of Nietzsche’s Moment by tracing Heidegger’s own early arrival at the Moment in Being and Time, published 10 years prior to his lectures on Nietzsche. Both Zarathustra and Dasein are chased in and out of an authentic relationship with the Moment by their own shadows, which disappear at midday. Dasein’s shadow is the being that is always closest-at-hand, the being in whom I lose myself in everyday care. Dasein forgets itself in inauthentically securing its identity in that which it cares for and that which it is not, darkness. Yet Dasein also confronts its own finitude in its negative double as it witnesses the daily dwindling of its shadow—the everyday passing away of time.
Keywords: Heidegger, Nietzsche, temporality, everydayness, authenticity, The Moment, the Everyone, negativity, primitivity
How do we first grasp our skin as our own?
How does our relationship to our own skin shape our s... more How do we first grasp our skin as our own? How does our relationship to our own skin shape our sense of self? What kinds of experiences take away our sense of our skin as our own? How can we reclaim our skin from the grasp of the other and restore our sense of self?
Protest, revolts, and revolutions often model themselves after successful movements from past gen... more Protest, revolts, and revolutions often model themselves after successful movements from past generations in order to gain momentum. To move forward we sometimes go backwards in history. As a result, movements that appear to break with a current social and political stage of history can reproduce the contents of that which they aim to destroy and leave behind. History enfolds on itself, making it difficult to know whether we are moving forward, backward, or walking in circles. This course pursues the theme of historical repetition in nineteenth-and twentieth-century philosophy that is in dialogue with Hegelian-Marxist thought. We will begin by studying Hegel's influence on Marx's framing of history as occurring in theatrical stages. We will pay particular attention to Marx's 1852 publication Der 18th Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte, which opens with the famous assertion that all great historical events and figures repeat themselves. Through Marx's analysis of the repetition of failed revolutions we may question the possibility of a new stage of history that breaks with the past. We will consider significant responses to a Hegelian-Marxist philosophy of history, which debate the possibility of historical repetition and historical breaks.
Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies - Workshop on Haptic Scepticism. Schedule. March 27-28, 20... more Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies - Workshop on Haptic Scepticism. Schedule. March 27-28, 2018.
Uploads
reductions utilized in philosophical scepticism: withdrawal/doubt
[R–]; immersion/attention [R+]. Moving toward a feminist ethics
grounded in phenomenological scepticism, Aumiller explores how reduction
relates to experiences of personal and global uncertainty such
as a pandemic. Reduction involves our entire embodied being, challenging
how we are fundamentally in touch with the world. How we
respond to being disrupted makes all the difference.
"Touching involves collapsing the distance between two people, while holding open a space for our own convictions and uncertain desires. In order for touching to yield intimacy, all parties connected by touch must give themselves over to the risks of this paradox...To be touched risks being altered. Lassnig shows how holding oneself open for intimacy can lead to annihilation. Yet it is a risk she chooses to take, insisting at the same time on self-preservation and expansion" —Rachel Aumiller
Jacques Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother (tongue). His lectures on Spectres de Marx and his personal autobiography “Circonfession” (or in English, “Circumfession”), both published in the early 1990s, do not explicitly speak to each other (cf. Derrida, 1993; 1991). And yet both works are possessed by the dream of a time before/after the mother tongue: a failed political fantasy confessed also as an unrealized personal obsession. Derrida responds to Marx’s analysis of our repeated failure to forget the mother tongue by turning to Augustine’s analysis of the mother’s touch: we cannot forget the mother tongue because it is licked upon our skin. Even if we could successfully destroy one political (symbolic) system in the creation of the new, the echo of the old is etched into our skin.
In contrast to the understanding of conversion as the transition from one (spiri- tual/intellectual/political/sexual) orientation to another, I consider how conversion operates as an epoché by splitting the timeline of an individual or community into two irresolvable, conflicting orientations. In an effort to achieve peace and unity, we may try to completely abandon the old for the new. However, remnants of our ‘former’ life tend to resurface disrupting our vision of a life that is unified by our pro- fessed beliefs. I suggest that the sceptic is one who embraces the failure of conver- sion to achieve unity. What would the life and philosophy of one who openly embra- ces such contradiction look like?
Keywords: Heidegger, Nietzsche, temporality, everydayness, authenticity, The Moment, the Everyone, negativity, primitivity
How does our relationship to our own skin shape our sense of self?
What kinds of experiences take away our sense of our skin as our own?
How can we reclaim our skin from the grasp of the other and restore our sense of self?
To Register: https://www.maimonides-centre.uni-hamburg.de/en/news-container/events-and-workshops/2018-03-27-28-workshop-touch-and-doubt.html
reductions utilized in philosophical scepticism: withdrawal/doubt
[R–]; immersion/attention [R+]. Moving toward a feminist ethics
grounded in phenomenological scepticism, Aumiller explores how reduction
relates to experiences of personal and global uncertainty such
as a pandemic. Reduction involves our entire embodied being, challenging
how we are fundamentally in touch with the world. How we
respond to being disrupted makes all the difference.
"Touching involves collapsing the distance between two people, while holding open a space for our own convictions and uncertain desires. In order for touching to yield intimacy, all parties connected by touch must give themselves over to the risks of this paradox...To be touched risks being altered. Lassnig shows how holding oneself open for intimacy can lead to annihilation. Yet it is a risk she chooses to take, insisting at the same time on self-preservation and expansion" —Rachel Aumiller
Jacques Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother (tongue). His lectures on Spectres de Marx and his personal autobiography “Circonfession” (or in English, “Circumfession”), both published in the early 1990s, do not explicitly speak to each other (cf. Derrida, 1993; 1991). And yet both works are possessed by the dream of a time before/after the mother tongue: a failed political fantasy confessed also as an unrealized personal obsession. Derrida responds to Marx’s analysis of our repeated failure to forget the mother tongue by turning to Augustine’s analysis of the mother’s touch: we cannot forget the mother tongue because it is licked upon our skin. Even if we could successfully destroy one political (symbolic) system in the creation of the new, the echo of the old is etched into our skin.
In contrast to the understanding of conversion as the transition from one (spiri- tual/intellectual/political/sexual) orientation to another, I consider how conversion operates as an epoché by splitting the timeline of an individual or community into two irresolvable, conflicting orientations. In an effort to achieve peace and unity, we may try to completely abandon the old for the new. However, remnants of our ‘former’ life tend to resurface disrupting our vision of a life that is unified by our pro- fessed beliefs. I suggest that the sceptic is one who embraces the failure of conver- sion to achieve unity. What would the life and philosophy of one who openly embra- ces such contradiction look like?
Keywords: Heidegger, Nietzsche, temporality, everydayness, authenticity, The Moment, the Everyone, negativity, primitivity
How does our relationship to our own skin shape our sense of self?
What kinds of experiences take away our sense of our skin as our own?
How can we reclaim our skin from the grasp of the other and restore our sense of self?
To Register: https://www.maimonides-centre.uni-hamburg.de/en/news-container/events-and-workshops/2018-03-27-28-workshop-touch-and-doubt.html