Title: Contradiction and Experience in Husserl, Priest, and Deleuze
By Corry Shores (METU, Philosophy)
Date: Thursday, October 24; 2024
Time: 1630-1800
Room: H232
Abstract: James Kinkaid’s recent article “What Would a Phenomenology of Logic Look Like?” opens new directions for applying logic, including non-classical logics, to philosophical studies of experience. Following upon Kinkaid’s work, we will ask the question: do we ever experience true contradictions? To answer this, we begin with Edmund Husserl’s analysis of “doubt” in his famous mannequin illustration, where we simultaneously hold two contradicting perceptions. However, Husserl here is not strongly dialetheist because for him these are exceptional cases, and consciousness soon consistencies the contradiction. Next, we will consider Graham Priest’s studies of experience. His strongest case for experiential contradictions is the “psychological dialetheia” of being simultaneously both attracted to and repulsed by one and the same thing, for instance, a gruesome traffic accident. Yet these are also exceptional cases. Lastly, we will examine Gilles Deleuze’s studies of cinema to consider the possibility that every instant of temporalized experience is one of true contradiction. Were this so, contradiction would be inherent to nearly all experience, giving us even stronger phenomenological motivation to adopt non-classical logics.
About the speaker: Corry Shores teaches Philosophy at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. He works primarily on Gilles Deleuze, phenomenology, and the philosophy of art. He authored the book The Logic of Gilles Deleuze: Basic Principles (Bloomsbury, 2021), along with several articles and book chapters on contemporary philosophy. His most recent publication is a chapter in Joker and Philosophy: Why So Serious? (Wiley-Blackwell, 2024), entitled “Ha-Ha-Ha! I’m Going to Die! Laughing at Death with Joker, Jerry, and Deleuze.”
