For the creation of the overall video on the basis of the activities in the frame of the 1st International Biennale on Practical Philosophy, titled “Philosophy in Praxis. The philosophical gesture: political, ethical, educational, artistic engagements” [//practphil-biennale.aegean.gr/b…], organized in Rhodes by the “Laboratory of Research on Practical Philosophy” (L.R.P.Ph.) [http://practphilab.aegean.gr/], on April 27-29, 2018.

The following music sources were used:

• Libertango in Berlin Philharmonic Hall
• 2cellos – thunderstruck official video
• Ara Malikian Tour 15. Misirlou (Pulp Fiction Theme)

Jean-Luc Nancy
Professeur émérite, Université de Strasbourg

Keynote Speech

1^st International Biennale on Practical Philosophy
Philosophy in Praxis. The philosophical gesture: political, ethical, educational, artistic engagements

«Laboratory of Research on Practical Philosophy» (L.R.P.Ph.)

Rhodes, 28 of April 2018

About Philosophy as Practice
(Video footage: summary of transcription)

Following the Kantian thought regarding pure reason – that it is practical in its own right – we have to say that philosophy is in its essence and on the whole a praxis. Pure reason desires the unconditional & orders itself to act according to it. Praxis: not a work production, but a transformation of the acting subject. In the first place, philosophy is the disposition towards a non- divine unconditional. Since the unconditional is divine, attitude is regulated by the divine. Without god we have to reshape or rephrase the unconditional.

This is the first praxis of philosophy:To create the unconditional.

Plato calls it “the good” and its praxis is the politeia. Aristotle calls it “god” (in a non-religious sense) and its praxis is the theoria. Theory as practice is the fundamental praxis. Without it praxis is regulated by a certain law. Therefore, philosophical praxis is the search for a law. But this law cannot be established: it ought to be unconditional.

Thus, in Spinoza there is no human freedom but a desire of yours to become an acting subject yourself , a subject that participates in “gods or natures” life. As a result, “ethics” substitute “philosophy”. An Ethics that has to do with affects in so far as they increase (or not) this sense of acting. Even in Spinoza the decisive driving force is the idea of autonomy. 

But the history of philosophy has become that of knowledge, and therefore, of an action regulated according to the “real” rather than the “good”.

[Translation: Prof. Elena Theodoropoulou]

For the synthesis of the opening video of the 1st International Biennale on Practical Philosophy, under the title: “Philosophy in Praxis. The philosophical gesture: political, ethical, educational, artistic engagements” [//practphil-biennale.aegean.gr/], organized in Rhodes by the “Laboratory of Research on Practical and Applied Philosophy” (L.R.P.A.Ph.)