International conference "What Comes After?"

The international conference "What Comes After?" will bring together a group of the world's leading philosophers, social scientists and literary scholars to HSG from 11 to 13 May 2023. The public conference will provide a platform for reflection on the prefix "post" and take stock of the intellectual and political movements that have shaped the world. Title of the conference: "Making and Unmaking of the 'Post-Age'". Media professionals and the public are welcome, registration is not necessary.

Discussion on one of the most influential inventions in the humanities after 1945

Philipp Felsch, Eva Geulen, Boris Groys, Bonnie Honig, Axel Honneth, Eva Illouz, Albrecht Koschorke, Christoph Menke, Melanie Möller, Robert Pippin, Martin Puchner and Jini Kim Watson discuss the success story of the prefix "post". At this public conference in St.Gallen, the discussions will center on what is called one of the most influential inventions in the humanities after 1945. They will also explore the question of why it is so difficult for us to break away from certain patterns of thought "under the spell of the past", even though they are no longer in keeping with the times.

Do "postisms" help or hinder us in shaping our future?

The prefix appears in terms like "postmodernism", "postcolonialism", "post-heroic management" and countless other variations. But these "postisms" are marked by a disconcerting ambivalence. They promise to take a step forward, but they still carry with them what they claim to leave behind. All "postism" depends on an established vocabulary. The scholars ask whether "postisms" help us to make a connection between the past and the present, or whether they force us to look back and prevent us from facing future challenges. The speakers will explore the question of whether and how it is possible to announce an end, create a transition and start something new.

The event is organised by the Department of Philosophy of the University of St.Gallen in cooperation with SQUARE. The event will start on Thursday, 11 May 2023, at 1.30 pm, and end on Saturday, 13 May 2023, at 2 pm. You can find out exactly when and where the discussions will take place on this website: www.unisg.ch/whatcomesafter

Public panel discussion at SQUARE: War in 2023 - End of Pacifism?

Furthermore, three leading intellectuals will discuss war and peace, militarism and pacifism in the present. What about the "future of pacifism" that Bertrand Russell spoke of in 1943? Must we use the experience of the Ukraine war to bury pacifism? Does the defence democracy have to declare its open readiness for war or should it oppose the militarisation of political debate? Have people living in democracies, so to speak, forgotten war? Under what circumstances should we reject it or affirm it?

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the participants in the panel discussion have made profound and provocative statements on these topics and are looking for commonalities and differences.

The panel will include Svenja Flaßpöhler (Editor-in-Chief of Philosophie Magazin, Berlin), James Davis (Professor of Political Science with a focus on security policy, University of St. Gallen), and Christoph Menke (Professor of Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Law, University of Frankfurt). The discussion will take place on Thursday, 11 May 2023, 8 to 9.30 p.m., at SQUARE, room 11-0051, at Guisanstrasse 20 in St.Gallen. The discussion is open to the public, registration is not necessary.