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July 2, 2009
Johannes-Georg Schülein, Im Erscheinen Verschwinden. Über Differenz und Gesten der Subversion aus philosophischer Sicht, Lecture

The notion of difference is certainly one of the most well worn. At the same time it is of such universality, that it can be considered indispensable. It can be applied at any place or time when something isn’t just one and the same, where overcome identities are questioned: gender, society, life experience, political action. What – or better: how can be thought about and with difference today, given the fact that since the late 1960s this notion has been not only of inflationary use, but also the instrument for an inflationary invocation of subversion.

Starting from this question, the lecture develops a small panorama of reasoning about difference, taking sides at the end. The focus is set by series of questions that allow to encircle a certain understanding of difference. How does difference contrast with popular discourses on heterogeneity, diverseness and alterity? How does it contrast with the idea and practice of dissent and opposition – theoretically and politically? Doesn’t a perpetual celebration of the different inadvertently pervert itself into a neoliberal, nihilistic indifference? And finally: When is a thinking of difference subversive?

After a passage through classical positions on difference, the lecture will in particular turn to the outlines of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, claiming: Then, when difference acts from concealment, only revealing itself by appearing and disappearing at the same time, retreating and continually keeping itself in suspense.

Johannes-Georg Schülein is currently writing his PhD thesis on Metaphysics and Criticism with a focus on Hegel, Heidegger and Derrida.

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