Dogma

W. has finally sent off the typescript of his book. He’s read it 18 times in total; a colleague of his read it twice, it’s been proofread by a professional proofreader, by his publisher and is going out to be read again. It will be the perfect book.

W. still thinks we took a wrong turn. Badiou has got it right: philosophy is about things, not language. Our Philosophy Dogma movement has been pre-empted by Badiou’s book Infinite Thought. ‘I haven’t read anything this good for 20 years’, says W. ‘It’s the same feeling I had when I read Deleuze for the first time’.

What are we going to do now? First of all, amidst all the administrative madness, find time to draw up our Dogma rules. We came up with a few for philosophical essays when we were in Oxford a few weeks back: no quotations. No more than one proper name used once. You love the dogma rules, and not try to trick your way out of them. Tell no one in your audience about dogma.

A dogma conference: three speakers in two days. Papers circulated in advance. Audience present by invitation. Each speaker can invite five ideal interlocutors. The conference organiser pays for transport and accommodation, if possible. Maximum three people at the conference. Each speaker circulates papers in advance. There will be around 3 hours for each speaker to deliver a paper and to engage in discussion. No careerism. No big name speakers. All this is something W. has been running for some time.

A Dogma conference puts all the speakers under constraint. Rules are flexible and can change from year to year. Core rules, though remain. No more secondary commentary. No more will we appear as avatars of whatever thinker we identify with. (More of this later when the academic madness dies down.)