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Philosophy Postgraduates

Paolo Bolanos

Degree: PhD
Thesis topic:  Between modernity and difference: Nietzsche and Adorno on the ethics of thinking
Supervisor: Dr. Robert Sinnerbrink
Associate Supervisor: Dr Jean-Philippe Deranty
Scholarship: Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (EIPRS) and International Macquarie University Research Scholarship (iMURS)

My current research is all about the relation between the thoughts of two German philosophers who are often mistaken to be anarchists, Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Adorno.  Although it is easy to feign indifference to the relationship between these two thinkers, on the basis of the common reception of Adorno's philosophy, that is, the Hegelian/neo-Marxist reading, I find striking affinities between these two thinkers and I'm particularly interested in their similar critiques of Modern culture, as well as their preoccupation with style as a form of philosophical "praxis."  In an attempt to contextualize a point of departure from which a critique of Modernity can follow through, it is indispensable to set some points of convergences, strong links between Nietzsche and Adorno, which will provide a framework for my thesis.  I see the Adorno-Nietzsche relation as resembling a helix: each philosopher represents a line which at some point meets the other and at another instance separates itself from the other.  Regardless of constant meeting and separation, the helix directs itself into a single trajectory.  The thrust of the study is not to highlight the points where these two lines separate and, in effect, would eviscerate the helix's structure.  On the contrary, the study will be premised on strong, albeit elective, affinities between Nietzsche and Adorno.

I finished my BA in Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas (Manila, Philippines) and I did my MA in Philosophy at Brock University (Ontario, Canada).  I also teach philosophy at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas and currently on study leave.  I have recently co-founded an online journal of philosophy called KRITIKE (www.kritike.org).   

I began my PhD research here in Macquarie on April 2006 and, hopefully, will complete my research by the end of 2009.

Selected publications

• (Forthcoming) "Nietzsche, Spinoza, and the Ethological Conception of Ethics," in Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy vol. 11 (2007). (http://www.ul.ie/~philos/)
•  "The Critical Role of Art: Adorno between Utopia and Dystopia," in KRITIKE: An Online Journal of Philosophy vol. 1, no. 1 (June 2007), 25-31. (www.kritike.org)
• "Hegel and the Pathologies of Freedom," in Cogito vol. IV, no. 1 (New Series 2006), 37-43.
• "Deleuze's Sense of 'Sense' and Nietzsche's Nomadic Thinking," in Unitas vol. 79, no. 3 (September 2006), 569-580.
•  "Derrida on the Case of Language and the Politics of Writing," in ad Veritatem vol. 3, no. 2 (March 2004), 445-457.
• "The Quest for Peace Amidst the Death of God: Perspectives on Nietzsche's Philosophy of Affirmation and Camus's Ethics of Solidarity," in Hingowa vol. VIII, no. 2 (March 2003), 1-14.
• "Nietzsche's Critique of Nihilism and the Possibility of the Eternal Recurrence as Moral Imperative," in ad Veritatem vol. 2, no. 2 (March 2003), 537-558.
• "The Psychology of Emancipation as Groundwork for Nietzsche's Secular Humanism," in Unitas vol. 76, no. 3 (March 2003), 119-148.
• "Putting Nietzsche into Context: Toward a Philosophy of Man," in Unitas vol. 75, no. 3 (September 2002), 374-408.

Selected conference papers from 2006-present

• "Style, Critique, and Art: Some Notes on the Nietzsche-Adorno Relation," delivered at the International Higher Degree Research and Honours Conference (2 October 2007, Macquarie University).
• "The Critical Role of Art in Adorno," delivered at the Critical Theory in Crisis? Postgraduate Conference (30 November - 1 December  2006, Macquarie University).
• "Utopia or Dystopia?  Coming to Terms with Adorno's Negative Dialectics," delivered at the New Horizons in Social Inclusion Postgraduate Workshop (6 October 2006, Macquarie University).
• "How to Think with Nietzsche and Spinoza (Wandering with Gilles Deleuze)," delivered at the Wandering with Spinoza 2006 Conference (13-15 September 2006, Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne).