Philosophy and the Event? May ’68 and of the Prague Spring

Columbia University and Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences presents

Invitation

Philosophy and the Event? May ’68 and of the Prague Spring

virtual panel discussion and book presentation

April 6^th, 2021 12 – 2 pm EST

Speakers: Étienne Balibar (Columbia University, Paris X-Nanterre), Ivan Landa (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences), Jana Ndiaye Berankova (Columbia University), Michael Hauser (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences), Joe Grim Feinberg (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

Respondents: Nick Nesbitt (Princeton University), Vincent Jacques (Collège International de Philosophie), Jan Mervart (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences).

Register here: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TvzXf3kiTu-CcMw_n6t1iw

This online discussion on the philosophical heritage of the events of 1968 in France and in Czechoslovakia will be organized on the occasion of the publication of the collective volume Revolutions for the Future: May ’68 and the Prague Spring (ed. Jana Ndiaye Berankova, Michael Hauser, Nick Nesbitt). It will present a generation of scholars exploring the long-forgotten legacy of Czechoslovak Marxist thinking as well as the first-hand account of the “events of May” by the philosopher Étienne Balibar.

The essays in the volume Revolutions for the Future: May ’68 and the Prague Spring assemble a generation of French and Central European philosophers in order to work through the philosophical heritage of 1968. On the French side of the chiasmus May ’68/the Prague Spring, the book includes essays by Jacques Rancière, Étienne Balibar, Vincent Jacques, Jana Ndiaye Berankova, Reza Naderi, and Nick Nesbitt. On the Czechoslovak side of this chiasmus, the book presents seminal research on Czechoslovak left-wing thought of the 1960s by a generation of contemporary scholars affiliated to the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. It includes essays by Michael Hauser, Ivan Landa, Petr Kužel, Jan Mervart, Katarzyna Bielińska, Jan Kober, and Joe Grim Feinberg. The title of this book, “Revolutions for the Future,” implies that sometimes, we can discover future orientations by looking into the forgotten possibilities of historical events. The key to the future might as well be buried under the obliterated paths of the past. And while it is true that the “events of 1968” became a paradigmatic moment for an entire generation of philosophers and that a whole new series of philosophical concepts can be traced back to this moment, by studying them attentively, we might be able to understand our present crisis.

Revolutions for the Future: May ’68 and the Prague Spring
(ed. by Jana Ndiaye Berankova, Michael Hauser, and Nick Nesbitt)
Lyon: Suture Press, 2020
ISBN: 978-2-9569056-1-5

Invitation pdf