Communication is a joint activity and the success of linguistic exchanges often relies on people saying the same thing and, thus, conveying the same message. In the 2013 edition of the Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship Lecture, Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Eros Corazza will discuss and highlight the importance of the notion of same-saying and how it can be accommodated when interlocutors express first person (de se) thoughts.

2013 Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship Lecture
Eros Corazza
Department of Philosophy
Saying the same and first person thoughts
Monday March 11, 2013 at 4:30 p.m.
Dunton Tower 2017

Corazza

 Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship

Each year, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences awards the Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship to one of its outstanding faculty members, in order to facilitate the completion of a major research project that requires significant release time.

The Fellowship was established in 1979 by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in memory of Marston LaFrance, former Professor of English and Dean of Arts at Carleton University. Each year, the recipient presents a seminar or public lecture on some aspect of the research conducted while on the LaFrance Fellowship.

Please RSVP to Nick Ward

Sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Jacques Ellul

Randal Marlin, Adjunct Professor, Department of Philosophy, has recently been elected Vice-President of the International Jacques Ellul Society (IJES) by the IJES Board of Directors, January 9, 2013, for a two-year term.

The IJES connects people from various fields who share an interest in maintaining and extending the legacy and work of Jacques Ellul.

Ellul (1912-1994) was a French sociologist, political theorist, historian, professor of law, and an expert in biblical studies, philosophy of technology and philosophical study of propaganda.  Ellul, who is recognized as a prophetic voice regarding the growth of technology and the illusion that political power would suffice to curtail its harmful effects, was also an early community activist on ecological matters, and acted as a member of the resistance during the German occupation.  Marlin shares many similar research and community interests as Ellul, and though Marlin has retired from full-time teaching, his inquiry into topics including propaganda, free speech and communication ethics, prevails.

These shared interests with Ellul are not a coincidence – Marlin spent a year studying with Ellul in 1979-80.  During this time, he sat in on all of Ellul’s courses at France’s University of Bordeaux (Bordeaux is also Ellul’s hometown).

“My interest in Ellul has always been in his sociological thinking about technology – ‘la technique,’ encompassing more than ‘technology’ – and propaganda,” explains Marlin.  “I have been led to see how his theological and other writings interconnect with his sociological, political and ethical thinking.  David Gill, the current President of IJES, speaks of all of Ellul’s books as like chapters of one much larger work. The truth is that each work sheds light on the others and it is worth the effort to read more widely among Ellul’s writings than simply the book or books fitting one’s immediate interests.”

2012 marked the centenary of Jacques Ellul’s birth.  In hounour of this, a conference was held at the University of Bordeaux.  Marlin was thrilled to attend.

“Returning to Bordeaux in 2012, I found it useful to compare notes with others who had likewise had personal encounters with him (Ellul).  French interest in Ellul has blossomed since his death, probably because his political stances offended sacred cows dear to both Right and Left while he was still alive… The Bordeaux conference was especially interesting to me as I got to know many of a whole new generation of younger Ellul scholars, as well as members of his immediate family.”

Marlin has always been an active contributor to the IJES mandate, and has a number of Ellul articles in press.  His entry for Propaganda in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of War (November, 2011) refers heavily to Ellul.  Recently, Marlin also reviewed a book titled Générations Ellul, by Frédéric Rognon, a professor of religion at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Strasbourg.

Randal Marlin

“In this remarkable book Rognon gives biographical sketches of sixty different scholars around the world, along with brief sketches of their work and interviews where he posed very probing questions, recording and publishing their answers. Although the book was in French, I wrote a review of it in English, scheduled for publication in the Ellul Forum, published twice yearly by the International Jacques Ellul Society.”

The current issue of the Jacques Ellul Society Publication (Fall 2012), has contributions by seventeen almost entirely English-speaking scholars, including an entry from Marlin: Reflections on Jacques Ellul on the Centenary of His Birth.

In his new found position as Vice-President, Marlin plans to aid in coordinating events and conferences for the IJES.  He has hopes to one day, even hold a conference at Carleton University.

For those interested in learning more about Jacques Ellul, please visit: www.jacques-ellul.org

Since 2009, a faculty and student research exchange between the philosophy departments at the University of Delhi and Carleton has seen many academics travel to collaborate on research and teaching.

This exchange included a workshop series, the first held at Carleton and two in Delhi. The workshops explored what can be learned from various philosophical traditions – mainly Hindu, Buddhist and contemporary analytical philosophy. Another Carleton workshop is planned stage on intercultural understanding of human rights.

Drydyk’s book explores whether global ethics and worldwide co-ordinated actions are possible given the diversity of moral outlooks around the world, and whether we can expect people to reach the same conclusions if they are starting from such different premises.

The philosophy society was in danger of extinction until a group of students revived it.

Jonathan Courtney, Zachary Shefman and Craig Stewart were among the students who revitalized the fading Carleton University Philosophy Society (CUPS). They enlisted seven volunteers to serve as members of the executive team and developed services to help their fellow students.

“One program is our discussion group that we hold almost every Tuesday of the month,” explained Shefman, a fourth year philosophy major. “Here professors and students give presentations on ideas of interest to them. It provides an opportunity to meet the department’s faculty in a social setting.”

In addition to the events, CUPS also offers a peer mentoring program for students grappling with the subject matter introduced in their classes, among these two core courses, Issues in Theoretical Philosophy and Issues in Practical Philosophy.

“We have the system set up to match me with anyone who needs help in fields I feel competent tutoring in,” said Courtney, an MA student and the society’s president, is also one of the tutors.  The tutoring sessions will be counted toward Courtney’s co-curricular record, but they also satisfy a more personal drive.  “It helps me to feel a real connection and a sense of community with the other students in the program.”

Mary Renaud, a fourth-year philosophy major and TA said the mentoring program has been flooded with offers from students who are interested in volunteering to mentor their peers.

Renaud, Shefman and Courtney say the department has fostered a tight-knit community of students and professors who are united in their passion for the ancient discipline.

“I think when you love something, you want to do it, to spend time around it, and to spend time with others who love it,” explains Renaud.

All plan to pursue further graduate studies in philosophy.

Randal Marlin recently returned from the mountains of Costa Rica, where he taught a three-week course at the UN-mandated University for Peace.

Part of the university’s M.A program in Media, Peace and Conflict Studies examines the use of propaganda. Marlin, an adjunct professor of philosophy, wrote the book on the subject – literally.

When the program’s director, Alvero Sierra read Marlin’s book, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, he extended an invitation to participate in the course delivery.

Situated on a mountain, amidst coffee-plantations, the campus could not seem more remote. Yet, Marlin arrived to find a microcosm of internationalism with 23 students representing diverse countries and cultures including India, Colombia, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Jordan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Iraq, Bangladesh, the U.S. and Canada.
Marlin began the course by defining and presenting a history of propaganda. The class then analyzed techniques and examined the ethical issues connected with their use.

“The students’ essays revealed to me to an extent I hadn’t realized, how very pervasive in the western world is the use of xenophobia as a propaganda tool to boost the political fortunes of the party making use of this propaganda,” said Marlin. He cites examples in the Netherlands, Norway, and France, in which aspiring politicians or even leaders, campaigned on anti-immigration policies or singled out immigrant populations with derisive language.

Examples of the misuse of propaganda were not limited to the present or to the west. One student described how the Congress Party of India silently dismantled Gandhi’s policies following his death, all the while, praising his leadership.
The experience has led Marlin to develop an interest in the impact the Cold War and current political leadership has had in dividing and maintaining the Korean culture into north and south.

“I am specifically interested in uncovering the deceptions used by political leaders to maintain their power.”

The Canadian Psychoanalytic Society is the national organization of psychoanalysts in or from Canada who are members of and thereby licensed by the International Psychoanalytic Association. The IPA was founded by the British members of Freud’s group in 1910. Most Canadian psychoanalysts are physicians or clinical psychologists. Some are social workers and a small number are members of faculty in the humanities and social sciences. 

The president-elect is selected by National Council every two years according to a complex formula designed to ensure that both official languages and all regions are represented over the space of a number of years. The term is two years as president-elect, two years as president, and two years as past-president.

Jay Drydyk and Gordon Davis, professors of philosophy at Carleton University, along with Professor Sonia Sikka of the University of Ottawa, initiated the project to address research interests the three departments share.

“A major topic of common interest is multiculturalism, both in public policy and in intellectual life, including the question of the scope for cultural pluralism in the humanities, and in philosophy in particular,” said Davis.  All three departments have identified common interests in ethics, political theory and comparative philosophy.  Collaborating researchers will compare differences and similarities in traditional and contemporary understandings of relations between ethics, religion, philosophy and political ideology in each cultural context.

The new agreement provides graduate students in philosophy with the opportunity to participate in an exchange program.  Students from the University of Delhi (DU) are able to spend a term studying at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.  Conversely, graduate students in philosophy from Ottawa may take graduate courses at DU in India.

Faculty members representing DU and Carleton will also develop research collaborations.  Last summer, Carleton University hosted a conference on campus attended by speakers from both India and Canada, featuring comparative approaches to ethics and ethical theory.  A second conference on these themes was held this February at DU.  Drydyk and Davis plan to expand this network of scholars via web-based collaborations, as well as conferencing and graduate teaching at DU.

The Brown University scholar, who joined Carleton’s department of philosophy as an assistant professor last July, says there hasn’t been a lot of research on this subject and he hopes to narrow the gap.

Matheson explains that one can know a lot about a person, but that this doesn’t necessarily add up to knowing the person. “I know a lot about our present Queen, for example,” he notes, “but it would be bizarre of me to claim to know her, as I might claim to know one of my close acquaintances. So what makes for the relevant difference?” The question bears important connections, he thinks, to various issues in his areas of specialization, which include privacy, human dignity, testimony, and social epistemology.

It’s easy to get the sense that life in our current society, with its wealth of informational networking technologies such as email and the Internet, has dramatically increased our knowledge of persons, and thereby the valuable interpersonal relationships typically carry. But Matheson is not so convinced. There’s a real danger, he thinks, that life in the networked society might be bringing with it a dramatic rise in such things as our mere knowledge of information about persons to the exclusion of the knowledge of persons themselves. “If we fail to be sensitive to the distinctive nature and worth of the knowledge of persons,” as he puts it, “the expansion of our knowledge about persons might lead us to become increasingly blinded to persons themselves.”

Students will have a chance to learn more about Matheson’s philosophical views and queries this year: In addition to a senior seminar on the knowledge of persons in the Winter Term (PHIL 4230), he will be teaching Critical Thinking in the Fall Term (PHIL 2003) and a full-year course in the History of Philosophy (PHIL 1600).

But this is not to say that philosophy is “ivory tower” in the pejorative sense of the term, according to David Matheson, a newly appointed assistant professor in the department of philosophy. “The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus famously insisted that when philosophy fails to enrich our day-to-day lives, its value disappears,” Matheson notes. “I think he was right. The key, though, is not to abandon the traditional hallmarks of philosophical inquiry, like the special interest in more abstract issues, but to keep in mind that they are to be taken seriously precisely because they hold the promise of helping us better understand the problems that confront us all beyond the ivory tower.”

Matheson completed his doctoral studies at Brown University, with a focus on the branch of philosophy dealing with knowledge, epistemology. Since then he has sought to keep in mind the importance of bringing his background in epistemology to bear on issues beyond the ivory tower.

Consider, he suggests by way of example, a puzzling phenomenon about life in our contemporary society: “With the rise of such networking technologies as the Internet over the past two decades, our ability to connect with each other in various ways has dramatically increased. Yet the evidence suggests that interpersonal connection in its most valuable forms-intimacy and close friendship-has not correspondingly increased. In fact, the evidence suggests that it has decreased. Why should that be so?”

A plausible explanation worth exploring, Matheson suggests, can be derived from his recent work on the knowledge of persons. “Knowing another person seems distinct from merely knowing information about that person. The hope is that by getting clearer about the general principles involved in knowing a person, in contrast with merely knowing information about a person, we will be in a better position to understand why it is that the rise of the networked society has not brought with it a corresponding increase in such things as close friendship. Close friendship requires knowledge of persons; mere knowledge of information about persons won’t do the trick. With the rise of the networked society, we may well be seeing an explosion of mere knowledge of information about persons that is crowding out the more valuable knowledge of persons itself.”