Gastvortrag Philosophie
Montag, 24. 11. 2025
14:15
Kunstuniversität Linz, Domgasse 1, DOEG 21

Mirt Komel (Universität Ljubljana)
ATOMS AND DESIRE. A lecture on Democritus (in englischer Sprache)

The lecture will be dealing with Democritus‘ atomism and its influence on modern materialism, especially focusing on the issue of hapticisim. Namelly, it will try to adress the question of how does the concept of touch structure the materiality of the atoms, with all its consequences for modern materialistic interpretations from Karl Marx to Althusser, Deleuze, Badiou. In the last part it will work through Democritus‘ singular concept of den in order to put forward a psychoanalytical theory of touch as a lacanian objet petit a, i.e. touch as an object-reason-of-desire.

Mirt Komel, PhD, is a philosopher and writer, professor of modern philosophy and literature, member of the Cultural Studies department at the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana), researcher at the Peace Institute in Ljubljana, co-founder of the international Hegelian association Aufhebung, and author, among other scientific monographs, also of Osma umetnost : estetika videoiger („The Eight Art : Aesthetics of Videogames“).