Anna Cornelia Ploug defends her PhD dissertation

Come and hear Anna Cornelia Ploug defend her PhD thesis on Concrete Concepts: The Logic of Problems in Post-Hegelian French Philosophies
 

You can follow the defense online on Zoom:
https://ruc-dk.zoom.us/j/63284871897?pwd=RDNPUGxCTUpBTEFUaGs5Q3VHeXNCQT09

The PhD defense will be in English.

Abstract

Contemporary theory yearns for concreteness. Across the board of the theoretical humanities, we find methodological aspirations marked by a strong commitment to concretising theoretical concepts and evading the abstract realm of detached and universal thought. However, current attempts at reaching the concrete by means of privileging singularity and immediacy or by reference to concrete objects often end up prey to abstract thought themselves. Taking seriously the desire for concreteness, this thesis intervenes in the metaphilosophical discussion of theory development by advancing a methodological examination of concrete concepts drawing on Hegel’s account of concreteness as a mode of thinking rather than a quality pertaining to external things. The thesis argues that because concrete thinking is at its core a question of logical form, concept formation in the critical humanities should be approached through a dialectical method of problem articulation.

I advance the thesis that because concrete thinking is at its core a question of logical form, the method with which we ought to approach theory development in the critical humanities is the dialectical practice of problem articulation.

1. Stop inventing new concepts – decenter creative knowledge production as the goal of concrete theory development in favour of a critical reorganisation of actually existing categories
2. Problems need to be thought in negative and even contradictory terms in order to be effective for scientific concept formation in transdisciplinary theory development
3. The concrete is neither to be found in the singular, immediate ”lived experience” nor by reference to empirical reality – it is a question of historically engaged logical form
4. Based on the model of Beauvoir’s Hegelian analysis of The Little Mermaid, feminist theory ought to pursue a project of emancipation rather than equality in order to accomplish itself as critique
5. The methodological is political: I advocate a dialectical and reproductive rather than affirmative and innovational conceptual politics
    

Supervisors and assessment

Assessment committee:

• Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Business Management and organization, Roskilde University
• Tuija Pulkkinen, Professor, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki
• Kimberly Hutchings, Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of London

Supervisors:

• Main Supervisor:  Esther Oluffa Pedersen, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Arts - Roskilde University
• Secondary supervisor: Andreas Beck Holm, Associate Professor, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University 

Reception

Reception from 16.00.

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