Donovan Irven

Today's a good day to read my work on Sartre, Beauvoir & existentialism - like this piece on metaphysics, epistemology, & pragmatism in @erraticusmag Reminder I'm available to talk existential philosophy on your podcast, webinar, website! erraticus.co/2020/08/24/pra…

Coming back from a hiatus with this series about Zen Buddhism & the role it plays in my life. If you’ve wondered where I’ve been these past few months, your answer is here in @erraticusmag

@futurehaspassed I know @andrewiliadis had also worked on Simondon & knows a thing or two about Deleuze, so may have some insight into that connection as well

@futurehaspassed I think Dan’s experience at Chicago definitely set him off on a “guy that explains Deleuze to you without dumbing down” path, which he began to find frustrating & is moving out of with more recent interest in Phil of tech or psychology for instance

I feel like Deleuze is deeply, deeply, influenced by Simondon that a lot of his metaphysics is just a development of S's. He just takes the project further with an insertion of medieval metaphysical debates. In many ways both are medieval style metaphysicians dealing with science

@futurehaspassed I think Dan Smith talks about causation in “Deleuze, Kant, and the Theory of Immanent Ideas”…

Are there any papers on Deleuze and causation? ofc broad topic

Here's the dissertation: docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/… Descartes stuff is in chapter 2.

In my 2016 dissertation I argued that Descartes had an "emplaced"/embodied theory, used Ed Casey's work to show that this was widely recognized by the Modernists, citing Pirandello & Rilke as examples. I published parts of that arguments in 2018: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

@unconscioushh Nudging me to actually get into the New Essays was among Dan Smith’s better bits of advice

Leibniz is severely underrated. Good on Deleuze for keeping him in the fold

Imagine having the whole thematic breadth & scope of Lord of the Rings open for you to discuss & this casting stuff is what you choose to spend your so-called “critical” thoughts on I guess the most thought provoking thing remains the same as it ever was…

@RealTomatoSoup @alexxguss @noetic_emetic Thank you friend! That is kind - I’ll have a bunch of things coming out kinda slow drip over the next months so ignore the current lull in posting

@alexxguss @DonovanIrven cause he does great work and actually engages in a meaningful way on here. @noetic_emetic for being the meme god.

Our two-part Special Topics course on Husserl's Formal and Transcendental Logic will commence Wednesday, September 7th, at 9 AM EST 😎 Attached is the syllabus. Please reach out if you are interested in joining our Study Group!

@WriteToRebel 2666, Roberto Bolano The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil

I’m considering getting really into long novels. Recommend me some absolute doorstops, provided there are no swords on the cover

That same year, the university’s president took a pay raise almost equal to my entire yearly salary

I took a $5,000 pay cut after my first year teaching in higher ed because the school would not renew my VAP position & bumped me to “lecturer”, basically demoting me for no reason other than “we do not want to pay you any more than we have to”

Looks like I may be starting a new job in a sector who’s reputation is one of notoriously underpaying & I’ll still make more starting out than I did any year in higher ed

@SIUChasmite It’s ok! I’m still going to write and produce research & so on. But I think it’s better for me to be done with all the trauma higher ed has put me through. Some people have totally turned their backs, written me off, but not everyone & not who really matter in my own estimation

@DonovanIrven I'm sorry. I'm still here if you need to talk/correspond.

The labor rights of contingent faculty and grad students

@SIUChasmite Annie Dillard is quite a bar & one I would encourage you to strive for above everyone else you’ve mentioned (in terms of her mastery of writing as a technique)

@DonovanIrven I'm toying around w writing a book called Restoring the Soul: Healing After Leaving Christianity. Or something to that effect. It's a lot of baby James and Dewey and some pragmatic naturalism without being argumentative. I want it to read like Tillich, Merton, or Annie Dillard.

@SIUChasmite I no longer see a future in which I am faculty anywhere in higher ed

@DonovanIrven I understand. I gave up part way and won't tell you what I did, but I left philosophy for a whole year and did other work.

@SIUChasmite I’m not applying to jobs in higher ed any more

@DonovanIrven MFA jobs in terms of writing?

@SIUChasmite I have not met him but always good to know there’s fellow travelers out there between the genres

@DonovanIrven have you ever met Aaron Simmons? Aaron is preparing a manuscript of Continental philosophy meets philosophy of religion meets hiking. He does these sort of books, and I can put you in contact if you need introductions. Sounds very similar. He's also a Kierkegaard scholar.

@SIUChasmite I’ve always written fiction as a major part of my philosophical project & it’s one among many reasons I have no home in higher ed

@SIUChasmite I was solicited for an existentialism book that we’re still trying to pin down the exact angle on. Appalachia Existential - Sartre & Beauvoir in the mountains, something that can highlight the anti-colonial stuff in their thought in addition to the usual themes