Thus Spoke Zarathustra... the conference!

The second Philosophy Portal conference starts next weekend

Mark your calendars! Next weekend, all weekend, October 29th and October 30th, I will be hosting a conference focused on Friedrich Nietzsche’s classic Thus Spoke Zarathustra. TO ATTEND SIMPLY USE THE ZOOM LINKS PROVIDED ON THE CONFERENCE HOME PAGE: https://philosophyportal.online/thus-spoke-zarathustra-2022

This mythical text can be interpreted as an invitation to contemplate the meaning of the Earth as the Overman. However, it can also be interpreted as an invitation to contemplate the difference between an enlightened being and an enlightened leader. Throughout Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra himself is in a deep inner struggle, trying to come to terms with his own teachings on the spiritual metamorphoses, and learning how best to sacrifice himself, or bestow himself, for the future overcoming of humanity itself.

This conference will set out to investigate this dynamic: what does it mean to be a leader today? How does a spiritual teacher relate and communicate his own processual metamorphosis, including all of the cracks and negativities, the incompletions and the impossibilities? How to really stand up and into the role of a leader given the non-relation at the core of existence itself?

For my part, I will be presenting on a paper titled “Spirit’s Logic: Zarathustra as Becoming of Being-Nothing Towards an Other Becoming.” Here I will not be focusing on Nietzsche’s personal life, but rather the fantasy of Zarathustra, and the meaning of its mythical role in self-mediation. Here I am deeply inspired by my readings of Hegel, and seek to demonstrate the way Hegel’s logic of a becoming that contains being-nothing, can be applied in a dramatic and embodied form, to the performativity of Zarathustra. Not only is Zarathustra, at the very start of the text, a form of becoming that contains being-nothing, but it is this very capacity to contain being-nothing, that allows him to wrestle with deeper depths (dark midnights) and higher heights (bright noons).

Thus, the fantasy of Zarathustra not only dispels the illusion of a clinging to an Other-Worldly God, he also dispels the illusion of a tranquil and peaceful enlightenment in stillness. What we get, instead, is a form of enlightenment that works deeper tension and struggle. Zarathustra is not a being that opts for the peace and calm, but rather seeks to learn what he must confront in himself, all those sleepless nights, to not only become an an enlightened self-relation, but an enlightened self-other relation. Of course, what is required is an even deeper internalisation of the non-relation, of the nothing, which involves a type of intimate partner conflict with being, something, itself. This meta-narrative, I will argue, structures the “other becoming” which opens to us in Nietzsche mythical work. Moreover, the fact that most of 20th century philosophy sets Nietzsche up as an opposition to Hegel, means that there is a lot at stake in interpreting the character of Zarathustra, as embodying the very logic of spirit that Hegel set forth as his life’s work (i.e. the Science of Logic).

However, my work will be far from the only or central work. There is such a range and depth of ideas that will be on display, I think I may get dizzy. You can find the complete schedule, as well as the Zoom links to attend, below:

To attend, simply use the Zoom links listed on the conference home page: https://philosophyportal.online/thus-spoke-zarathustra-2022

Hope to see some of you on the other side!