Monthly Archives: March 2012

Levinas and the Sophistic Virtue of “Deception”

I’m reading this passage across Latour’s insistence upon chains of translations (Pandora’s Hope) and Susan Jarratt’s explication of Gorgias notion of Apate (deception) as virtue); Levinas, from his interview with Philippe Nemo: A radical reflection, obstinate about itself, a cogito … Continue reading

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New Media Production

This fall I will be piloting a New Media Production class for our PhD program. This aims to be different from my usual “read a colossal amount of theory” approach to graduate courses; the emphasis will be on that final … Continue reading

Posted in holmevik, kalman, new-media, new-media-class, rice, stolley, ulmer | Comments Off on New Media Production

Latour, Levinas, Vitanza, a Rhetoric of Obligation

A quick threading of my last few posts: Levinas, from the later essay “God and Philosophy” (a rather remarkable essay that integrates so much of Levinas’s career–the discussion of insomnia from Time and the Other, the insistence upon (un)saying the … Continue reading

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Response: “Ignorance is Strength”

Here’s another post coming from a Facebook prompt. QV pointed me towards Krugman’s column “Ignorance is Strength” in today’s NYT. My response: There is so much to say in response here. First: I do think the turn, in the humanities … Continue reading

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Messiness as a Virtue

I’m re-reading Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous today for my New Media class and really appreciating his chapter “Messiness as a Virtue.” Two passages worth sharing (i.e., remembering): Simplicity was the only reasonable strategy before we developed machines that can handle … Continue reading

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Question and Answer

On Facebook, someone asks: “Come on people, is it so hard to have manners?” I would say “yes” because having manners rests on a recognition and prioritization of the other person. So much of our contemporary technological life aims at … Continue reading

Posted in davis, ethics, face-to-face, levinas, rhetoric | Comments Off on Question and Answer