Philosophy Postgraduates
Marco Crespo
marco.crespo@scmp.mq.edu.au
(02) 9850 6896
Office: W6A 732
Degree: MPhil (Part-time)
Thesis topic: A critical investigation of Martin Heidegger’s interpretation of energeia in Aristotle’s Metaphysica, and its role in the Seinsfrage
Supervisor: Dr Robert Sinnerbrink
Associate Supervisor: Dr Jean-Philippe Deranty
I am a BA graduate of Macquarie University (2000) and a BA Honours graduate of the University of Sydney (2003). The areas I studied were generally in the history of philosophy, early modern philosophy, German Idealism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, Marxist political philosophy, and contemporary European philosophy. The subject of the honours thesis is Nietzsche's diagnosis of nihilism and the eternal return of the same events.
I commenced my MPhil, part-time, at Macquarie University in 2007.
Since the beginning of Heidegger’s career in philosophy his ideas in phenomenology have drawn deeply from the works of Aristotle. In the context of the thesis research, I am interested in Heidegger’s interpretation of Aristotle’s concepts of ousia [substance], dynamis [potentiality, power, force or possibility], kinesis [movement] and finally energeia [actuality, “the presencing of what presences”, “going-on”, “in full swing” or “being already operative”]. As more and more of Heidegger’s Gesamtausgabe is published and translated into various other languages, more and more attention has been focused on his early lectures where he discusses these concepts at length. In particular, some scholars identify a unique appropriation of these notions by Heidegger in Sein und Zeit [Being and Time] where they are mapped onto the existential analytic of Dasein. However, I intend to investigate Heidegger’s retrieval and reconsideration of these Aristotelian concepts, namely dynamis, energeia and kinesis from the perspective of time, and specifically from the perspective of presence, of which Heidegger was highly critical.
Other than the thesis, figures such as Nietzsche, Foucault and Derrida are still a constant source of curiosity to me. I am keen to expand upon the work I did in the honours thesis in a PhD later down the track around Nietzsche’s Der Wille zur Macht, particularly after completing the MPhil. However, my interests in philosophy are not limited in any way and cover, in particular, the history and philosophy of modern logic.
I have lived in Sydney all my life. I enjoy going to the theatre, the visual arts, and just wandering around town.
Conference papers
- ‘A critical investigation of Martin Heidegger’s interpretation of energeia in Aristotle’s Metaphysica’, a work in progress presentation delivered at the Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference (26-28 March 2008, University of Sydney)
Other roles at Macquarie
- Secretary of the Platonic Society (2008-)
(http://au.geocities.com/platonicsociety/index.htm) - Co-editor of COGITO Journal of Philosophy, a student publication produced in association with the Russellian Society of Sydney University and the Socratic Society of UNSW (2008-)