Annual Conference of the Eric Voegelin Gesellschaft

ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ERIC VOEGELIN GESELLSCHAFT

UNIVERSITISÀ DI TRIESTE – UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

University of Trieste Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5.

The deformation of language in politics and the critical role of literature today and in the work of Eric Voegelin

The relationship between politics and reality is controversial. On one point there is universal consensus: reality is mediated by language and in particular political reality.  In Eric Voegelin, the significant relationship between political language and reality is central in his analysis of the language of the Third Reich as a paradigmatic example of how language can distort reality. The distortion of language is also a feature of contemporary society. In The New Political Science, Voegelin criticizes Western society’s reaction to war, which would merely express “disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intentions, manifestos and appeals to world public opinion, and condemnation of enemies as aggressors” to the point of proposing outlawing war. These are “magical operations in the dream world” which do not conceal high ideals or noble aspirations so much as the pernicious loss of a sense of reality due to what the author calls a real moral and intellectual corruption that has language as its specific object.

A most important resource to combat the corruption of language is, for Voegelin, literature. In particular, certain authors, such as Stefan George, Robert Musil, Heimito von Doderer, Albert Camus, Herman Broch, Thomas Mann, Paul Valery, George Santayana, and Henry James, precisely because of their sensitivity to language, have proved to be the most dangerous and effective opponents of the distorted language of politics. At a time when reality principle seems to have been lost, and the distortion of language, empowered by digital forms of communication, has reached limits perhaps never known before, bringing attention to this aspect of Voegelin’s work, pursues two important goals: first, to investigate in depth Eric Voegelin’s thought in this regard by examining the authors who have contributed most to denouncing the distortions of language and restoring reality, and second, to test Voegelin’s theoretical reflection in its ability to interpret current phenomena of language transformation and reflect on the role literature can still play.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ERIC VOEGELIN GESELLSCHAFT

UNIVERSITISÀ DI TRIESTE – UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

I) Friday, Oct. 4, 2024: Political language and its relationship to reality

3.00 p.m.: Opening Remarks (Prof. Parotto, Dr. Bergbauer)

3.30 p.m.: Prof. Francesca Santulli: Rhetoric and discourse in the public arena: the linguistic representation of political myths

4.05 p.m.: Prof. em. Arpad Szakolszai: The stealing of reality: trickster languages in political power

4.40 p.m.: Dr. Marius Benta: Subtle Shades of Unreality: Voegelin, Schutz, and the Problem of Modernity

5.15 p.m.: Break

5.30 p.m.: Dr. Joan Okonski: Voegelin reads Santayana. Expanding philosophical horizons with the a-dogmatism of literature

6.05 p.m.: Dr. Shaban Zanelli: From the Scienza Nuova to the New Science of Politics. Vico and Voegelin on the language of Nations

6.40 p.m.: Discussion

8.00 p.m.: Dinner in a nearby restaurant

II) Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024: Important 20th century writers for Eric Voegelin

9.00 a.m.: Dr. William Petropulos: Stefan George, Eric Voegelin, and Plato

9.35 a.m.: Prof. em. Klaus Vondung: Literature and the Apocalypse: Hermann Broch and Eric Voegelin in the Nineteenthirties

10.10 a.m.: Prof. Clemens Pornschlegel: Voegelin’s relationship to literary modernism (Kraus, Broch, Musil) 

10.45 a.m.: Eberhard von Lochner: Die Bed. von Thomas Mann für Leben und Werk von Eric Voegelin (E: The meaning of Thomas Mann …)

11.20 a.m.: Break

11.35 a.m.: Dr. Carol B. Cooper: Albert Camus’ role as philosopher and traces of his thought in Voegelin’s intellectual development

12.10 p.m.: Prof. David Walsh: Truth and Representation as the Original Language of The New Science of Politics

12.45 p.m.: Discussion and conclusive remarks

Chairs: Fri. = Bill Petropulos, Sa. = Harald Bergbauer

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