Ashley Woodward – SCCP – Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy

Salvaging a Housing Fragment

by Ashley WoodwardUpcoming Events 20 November 2025No Comments

Lucy Benjamin (University of Edinburgh) 4-6pm, Wednesday 26 November Room 2G12, Dalhousie Building And online via Teams: Philosophy Research Seminar Lucy Benjamin | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams All welcome, and no need to book. Abstract: Hannah Arendt offered a divisive account of political life, staging action, the product of spontaneous and collective action as political, …

The “Imaginary Organism” and Turing’s Delicate Art

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 11 November 202520 November 2025No Comments

of Non-Linear Modelling Sara Franceschelli (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon) 3-5pm, Wednesday 12 November Room 3G05 (Lecture Theatre 2), Dalhousie Building University of Dundee City Campus And online via Teams: Philosophy Research Seminar Sara Franceschelli | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams Abstract I will propose a reading and interpretation of Turing’s famous 1952 article “The Chemical Basis …

“Naked Nature and the Use of Naked Protest by Environmental Activists”

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 9 October 202511 November 2025No Comments

Oisin Keohane (Dundee) 3-5pm, Wednesday 15 Oct Dalhousie 2F14 Or online via Teams: Philosophy Seminar Oisin Keohane | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams Abstract My talk aims to be the first to create a dialogue between Hadot’s work on the idea of naked nature and Agamben’s work on the relationship of grace to nature via nudity. …

HE SNAKE AND THE EARTH’S SIN: PLANETARY TECHNOLOGY, REPRESENTATION, AND THE GLOBE’S SEDUCTIVE CURVE

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 1 October 202513 October 2025No Comments

Ole Thijs (Wageningen University & Research) 3-5pm, Wednesday 1 October Dalhousie Building, Room 2F14 University of Dundee, City Campus And online via Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Mzc1N2NkMTctYTdhNi00YTBmLWFhYTQtODNlNTE3ZWFiYWI3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22ae323139-093a-4d2a-81a6-5d334bcd9019%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22dcf53963-b25a-46a1-ba80-04a103704cc5%22%7d Abstract: With the advent of geo-engineering and ‘sustainable’ technologies (GESTs), technology is taking a uniquely reflexive turn. In order to address the impacts that earlier, goal-oriented technologies have had on the …

Thomas Nail (University of Denver)

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 16 April 20251 October 2025No Comments

‘Chaos and the Birth of Form’ 4pm, 23 April Dalhousie Building 2F14 University of Dundee Or online Form has occupied the very top of the great chain of being throughout nearly all ancient and modern thought. In much of this tradition, however, form ultimately has no birth. And yet, birth is precisely what defined the …

Yuk Hui, ‘After Organic Form’

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 5 March 202513 October 2025No Comments

4pm, Dalhousie 2F15 Or online here. In the 18th century, criticism of mechanism led to a new discourse on the organic form, largely inspired by research in the natural sciences. The most significant exploration of this concept can be found in Kant’s Critique of Judgment, where he proposed an alternative model based on organic structure and …

Sha Xin Wei (Arizona State University)

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 27 January 202516 April 2025No Comments

Textural Sensemaking 4.30 – 6 pm Wed 29 January 2025 Dalhousie LT2, University of Dundee Or online here. A seminar for the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy. Sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the AHRC project Energy: A Philosophy of Practice. Lightning… distinguishes itself from the black sky but must also trail it …

Research Seminars 2024-5

by Ashley WoodwardPhilosophy Speaker Series 6 January 20256 January 2025No Comments

Unless otherwise indicated, seminars are held 4:40 – 6:00pm Wednesdays, both in person (Room 2F15, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee) and online (links will be posted below). 25 Sept Gregory Cajete (U of New Mexico), ‘Native Science and the Laws of Interdependence’ 9 Oct Dominic Smith (U of Dundee), ‘Programme without Transmission: The Translatability of …

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Nicholas Davey ‘On the Virtues of Subjectivism’

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 29 November 202411 January 2025No Comments

Nicholas Davey (Professor Emeritus, University of Dundee) 4:30pm, Wednesday 4 December Dalhousie Building, Room 2F15, University of Dundee A seminar for the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy. Funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. All welcome. Link for online streaming on Teams: Abstract Unless hermeneutical thinking can establish a robust philosophical justification for what is …

Information and Its Support: The Simondon-Stiegler Controversy

by Ashley WoodwardPast Events 22 October 202429 November 2024No Comments

Ashley Woodward (University of Dundee)

4:30-6:00pm, Wednesday October 30

Dalhousie 2F15

All welcome!

The notion of information has had an uncomfortable place in the reception of Gilbert Simondon’s work. While clearly being central to his thought, many interpreters have largely ignored or side-lined it. In some of his last writings, Bernard Stiegler, one of Simondon’s most illustrious inheritors, directly attacked Simondon’s notion of information. This paper aims to unpack and address this criticism. The crux of Stiegler’s critique is that Simondon implies an idea of information independent of any support. According to Stiegler, the ultimate implication is that Simondon’s notion of information does not allow us to account for the inherent dangers of calculative information theory which have led to all the problems of contemporary computational capitalism. The paper offers a qualified defence of Simondon’s notion of information.

Ashley Woodward is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Dundee. His research project Transforming Information excavates the history of philosophy of information in neglected traditions with an eye to contemporary problems.