John McCumber
(Germanic Languages), UCLA

Philosophy and Theory:
Reshaping the Debate

4:00pm, 306 Royce Hall

please click here to download this paper
(the paper is a pdf file; please go to http://www.adobe.com to download free Adobe Acrobat Reader software if needed)

McCumber describes the “philosophy-theory debate” as the recent squabbling between those, from Habermas across to Quine, who uphold traditional values such as reason, truth, and clarity, and those, from Nietzsche to Derrida, who question or even mock those values. His paper considers and rejects three ways of construing this debate: in epistemological, ontological and political terms. It is instead, he argues, a debate about how thought should respond to time. Traditional philosophy, searching for “truth,” restricts thought to the present tense. Hegel, by contrast, shows us how (and why!) to talk about the past without just saying true things about it, and Heidegger and Derrida show us how to open up futures. This view, he suggests, enables “philosophers” and “theoreticians” to stop squabbling and start coooperating.

John McCumber is Professor of Germanic Languages at UCLA, and has taught at Norhwestern University, The Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, and the University of Michigan—Dearborn. Along with numerous articles on the history of philosophy, he has authored five books, including Metaphysics and Oppression (Indiana, 1999, winner of a Choice book award), and Time in the Ditch: American Philosophy and the McCarthy Era (Northwestern, 2000). From 1994-96 he held the Koldyke Distinguished Teaching Professorship at Northwestern University.

This is the second seminar of our year-long series, the Ends of Theory. This series is a forum for discussion of the role and aims of theory in the humanities and social sciences today. For the purpose of the seminars, theory will be defined broadly as any sustained reflection on the basic methodological and substantive assumptions of a discipline or disciplines. The format may include formal papers, readings distributed in advance, or informal debate, as announced. Each seminar will be led by a UCLA faculty member whose current work addresses significant issues of a theoretical nature. The seminars are generally small, and lively interaction between seminar leaders and audience can be expected.

EVENT REGISTRATION

Reservations are not required; however, seating is limited. Parking is available on the UCLA Campus for $7.00. Please see an attendant at any parking information kiosk to be directed to the closest available lot to this venue.

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