by Brian Massumi, MSH Invited Professor

With the support of the Ecole doctorale de philosophie (ED1)

In Ontopower: War, Powers, and the State of Perception (2015) Brian Massumi analyzed the Bush era military doctrine of preemption as an "operative logic" – a kind of self-driving abstract machine enfolded in the social field as a reactivatable tendency. Attention was given to the diffusion of this dynamic from the battlefield to the domestic front through the figure of threat. This talk revisits the operative logic of preemption in its contemporary incarnations, with an emphasis on newly emergent variations permeating the social field.

Brian Massumi is a Canadian philosopher from the University of Montreal. He is the author of many books, among which: Ontopower. War, Powers, and the State of Perceptions (Ontopouvoir. Guerre, pouvoirs, perception, Les Presses du réel 2021), The Power at the End of the Economy (L’économie contre elle-même, Lux 2017), Agitations. Capitalisme et plus-value de vie (Météores, 2024).

Tuesday 18th June 2024, 6pm - 8pm

Auditoire K.4.601
Campus du Solbosch
Building K - Level 4 - Room K.4.601
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50
1000 Bruxelles

Free entrance, without registration

Contact: creg@ulb.be