Embodiment and Grief; Rules and Algorithms
An essay by Kate Warlow-Corcoran; an event with Lorraine Daston and Audrey Borowski
Dear all,
Your Sunday Read
“The Problem of Philosophical Deflection”: An Essay by Kate Warlow-Corcoran
A significant feature of our human situation is that we are, at times, anxiously confronted by the limits of our current conceptual life to undertake certain kinds of sense-making activity. Philosophy, therefore, ought to help us to make sense of such moments of anxiety – not by presenting an illusory picture of transcendent knowledge, but by adequately representing the richness and complexity of human experience.
This beautifully-written essay by Kate Warlow-Corcoran looks to thinkers like Iris Murdoch, Cora Diamond, J.M. Coetzee, and Matthew Ratcliffe, and at phenomenological accounts of grief and embodiment, to critique philosophical illusions of control over a world that often defies our comprehension, arguing instead for the role of philosophy as a generative, sense-making project. You can read Kate’s essay here.
Monday Event: 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm UK
“Rules and Algorithms”
Lorraine Daston in conversation with Audrey Borowski
Since ancient times, algorithms have been one of several definitions of rules, but by no means the only or even the most prominent one. Lorraine Daston’s 2022 book, Rules: A Short History of What We Live By, traces the rise of rules of algorithms in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This event will be a discussion of the book, prefaced by a brief introduction to its themes, with special emphasis on the rule-as-algorithm and its alternatives. You can find out more and register here.
This event is part of the “AI and the Digital” series. This series explores how AI and other digital technologies are influenced by concepts of the human and how they can be designed to be responsible, socially just and ecologically sustainable.
Ending
The Philosopher is unfunded and relies on your support to keep doing the work we do. Through becoming a supporter via Patreon, you can get all our print issues sent to you, enjoy priority access and discounted rates for our groups/classes, join philosophical discussions with our editorial team, and more. The income we generate via Patreon helps us to keep our events series free and to pay our contributors. You can find out more and become a member here.
Wishing you all a lovely Sunday, wherever you are.
Andie Cook and Anthony Morgan
Newsletter Team