National
Workshop
on
Radical
General Semantics
(Based
on The Book of Radical General Semantics)
15, 16, 17 December 2017
Balvant
Parekh Centre For General Semantics and Other Human Sciences
Baroda,
Gujarat
at
National
Institute of Science and Technology
Berhampur,
Orissa
The eleventh annual
national workshop of Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other
Human Sciences will be organized in collaboration with The National Institute
of Science and Technology on the theme, “Radical General Semantics” during
15-17 December 2017 at The National Institute of Science and Technology,
Berhampur, Odisha. The Workshop will use The Book of Radical General Semantics
as the study material. The author of the book, Gad Horowitz and the editor,
Shannon Bell will conduct the workshop.
The Workshop will be
based on Parts I-V of The Book of Radical
General Semantics. However, for the benefit of participants with little
experience with General Semantics, we shall begin with a video lecture which reviews
Alfred Korzybski’s Structural Differential, the path breaking invention that
brings General Semantics into being: A three dimensional structure that differentiates
and relates the ‘event level’ (‘what is going on’ or ‘wigo’), the ‘object
level’—abstracted from the event—where living beings see, hear, feel, smell,
taste, move, grow old and die, and the ‘label levels’—abstracted from the
object—where human beings construct meaning in language. We demonstrate how to
work with the structural differential, including a discussion of the central
General Semantics notions of ‘consciousness of abstraction’ and nonidentity. Sanity
requires non-identification of these levels. Label is not object, object is not
event.
We then engage with
Part III of The Book of Radical General Semantics – “The Devices of General
Semantics”. In this session we focus on the first of these devices – the Index
– which facilitates liberation from the domination of experience by
generalizations, concepts, etc., bringing into view the uniqueness, the singularity
of each and every person and happening.
We then focus on the
relevant sections of Chapters 5 and 6 of Part II, to consider the method of
Contemplative Photography as a mode of opening ‘the eye of innocence’ in
attending to the object level. Participants will have the opportunity to do
contemplative photography on their own.
Next we introduce the
‘non-elementalistic’ devices – quotes and hyphens – which enhance our
appreciation of the interdependence and relationality of all goings on, leading
to methods of locating personal responsibility and personal achievement in biosocial
space.
We then introduce work
with the ‘meta-model’, a set of devices for enriching and clarifying verbal
communication, concentrating on four of its eleven linguistic patterns.
Time permitting, we
conclude with a viewing and discussion of a brief video lecture on ‘time
binding’, the human species-specific characteristic par excellence, and its
relation to non-human dimensions of life.
The Workshop Faculty
Gad Horowitz,
Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada.
Horowitz does political theory from a series of shifting locations:
Canadian political
culture, psychoanalysis, Buddhism, Judaic scholarship, and general semantics.
His books include:
Canadian Labour in
Politics (University of Toronto Press, 1968),
Repression: Basic and
Surplus Repression in Psychoanalytic Theory: Freud, Reich and Marcuse
(University of Toronto Press, 1977),
Difficult Justice:
Commentaries on Levinas and Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2006),
“Everywhere They Are
in Chains”: Political Theory from Rousseau to Marx (Nelson Canada, 1988).
Gad Horowitz taught
General Semantics at the University of Toronto since 1985. His course is
available in video format at https://vimeo.com/channels/423528. In November
2013 he served as resource person for the VII National General Semantics
Workshop at Saurashtra University, Rajkot. Workshop videos are available at
https://vimeo.com/channels/1267984. In December 2016 he served as resource
person for the X National General Semantics Workshop at Doon University, Derhadun
India.
Shannon Bell is a
Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, Canada http://www.yorku.ca/shanbell/.
Her books include:
Fast Feminism (2010),
Reading, Writing and
Rewriting the Prostitute Body (1994),
Whore Carnival (1995),
Bad Attitude/s on
Trial coauthored (1997, rereleased 2017);
The Book of Radical
General Semantics co-edited (2016),
Subversive Itinerary:
The Thought of Gad Horowitz, co-edited (2013) and
New Socialisms
co-edited (2004).
In November 2013 she
served as co-facilitator for the VII National General Semantics Workshop at
Saurashtra University, Rajkot. In December 2016 she served as co-facilitator
for the X National General Semantics Workshop at Doon University, Derhadun
India.
Registration
The Workshop is open
to scholars from various disciplines, preferably humanities and social
sciences. The registration fee for the workshop is Rs. 1500/ which may be sent
through a bank draft or cheque favoring 'Balvant Parekh Centre GS & OHS'
payable in any bank in Baroda. The fee will take care of lunch and tea, and a copy
of the study material, The Book of Radical General Semantics, which will be
sent to each registered participant by post. You may also do a direct bank
transfer and the account details would be provided upon request. The
registration fee does not include the cost of accommodation in Berhampur and is
non-refundable. Those interested in participating in the Workshop are required
to send their applications (with full name, designation & institutional
affiliation, address to which the book has to be sent, phone number and email)
and registration fee before November 15, 2017 to the coordinator of the
workshop, Bini B.S. Outstation participants who need accommodation in Berhampur
are requested to contact the convener, E. Raja Rao. The participants have to
make their own travel arrangements.
For details, contact:
E. Raja Rao
(Convener)
Former Professor
Department of English
Berhampur University,
Odisha
Phone: +91 9437186841
Email: derridae@gmail.com
Bini B. S.
(Coordinator of the
Workshop)
Academic Fellow,
Balvant Parekh
Centre for General
Semantics and
Other Human Sciences
C-302, Siddhi Vinayak
Complex
Behind the Railway
Station Faramji
Road, Baroda–390007
Phone: 0265-2320870
(O)
Email: binisajil@gmail.com
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