The last few days

Unisex Middleversity: where 'ethnic minority' doesn't mean Chinese students paying top-yuan for the privilege. I took a trip to London last week, passing by the campus to see some of the Dictionary of Unrepentant Terms seminar. I had terrible hayfever throughout, but was cheered somewhat by the lightheartedness of proceedings. Prof De Libera, in particular, contributed to the jocularity with odd remarks - at one point he called Prof Balibar méchant, which means 'naughty' or 'wretched'. Sadly, that comment fell on unappreciative ears.

I was there for the two talks on subjectivity. I shan't try (and inevitably fail) to summarise them here. Interestingly, Balibar was to supervise the dictionary entries concerning politics, but instead requested the opportunity to write about 'the subject', because, as he said, "I don't know much about this." It was remarkable: he is not exactly a young philosopher casting around for an area of expertise - it seems he just wanted to work on something more original than is expected of 'someone who once collaborated with Althusser'. His career was made long ago, but he wants more. What a radical notion! We might even import it over here one day (but don't bet on it).
I became increasingly amused every time Balibar mentioned "philosophy of mind", or "Davidson" or "possible worlds" (ok, that was in relation to Leibniz, but still) or when he cried out for "a comparative study of Deleuze's Logic of Sense and analytic accounts of action"... (That's enough Conference Report. Ed.)

My eyes are aching. I'm stuck in the arm-pit of Phenomenology of Perception, where Merleau-Ponty is talking about monocular and binocular vision. Naturally, when he refers to the research findings, it is necessary for me to repeat the experiment myself (this involves much squinting of the eyes, and changing focus). One experiment which I did had a quite remarkable result: stand about two yards from a plain white wall looking straight at it, and, with an outstretched arm, raise your index finger to just below your line of sight, maintaining focus on the wall. Once you can see 'in the corner of your eye', the index finger unclear and double, turn your focus to the finger completely. Not only will the finger appear to 'flesh out' or 'materialize' as it comes into focus, but you will notice that the finger actually feels like it has transformed from a phantasm into a thing. I'm almost blind from doing this over and over again.

Speaking of Merleau-Ponty, I saw Lila in London too. I am convinced she could be the next Schneider (the World War I casualty who took the 'thought' out of 'thought experiment'). After a short stop at the neurologist we walked around Camden telling each other slanderous stories about fellow students and teachers. Jolly good.

ps. Here is Zizek's diagnosis of the 'liberal communist'.