Nikolas Kompridis

Nikolas Kompridis (/kəmˈpriːdiːz/; born 1953) is a Canadian philosopher and political theorist. His major published work addresses the direction and orientation of Frankfurt School critical theory; the legacy of philosophical romanticism; and the aesthetic dimension(s) of politics. His writing touches on a variety of issues in social and political thought, aesthetics, and the philosophy of culture, often in terms of re-worked concepts of receptivity and world disclosure—a paradigm he calls "reflective disclosure".

Nikolas Kompridis

1953 (age 70–71)

Canadian

Contemporary philosophy

Western philosophy

Continental philosophy
Critical theory

Australian Catholic University

Aesthetics
Democratic theory
Political theory
Romanticism

Reflective disclosure, receptivity

Politics, aesthetics and receptivity[edit]

The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought (2014) is a collection of essays, edited by Kompridis, which explores the connections between aesthetics and democratic politics. The book takes as its starting point a statement by Jacques Rancière (who is also a contributor), that "politics is aesthetic in principle."^[13]

A musician by training, Kompridis has frequently married an interest in aesthetics with other philosophical concerns. Among others, he has authored papers on topics including the philosophy of music under conditions of cultural pluralism ("Amidst the Plurality of Voices: Philosophy of Music after Adorno"^[14]), on the relation between receptivity, recognition, and literature ("Recognition and Receptivity: Forms of Normative Response in the Lives of the Animals We Are"^[15]—which engages with prior debates about J. M. Coetzee's novel, The Lives of Animals, as well as debates in critical theory on recognition); and on "The priority of receptivity to creativity," a paper that explores Russell Hoban's novel, The Medusa Frequency.^[16]

Kompridis has lectured on film, on the relationship between cultural memory, diversity, and the arts,^[17] and has discussed music and philosophy with his former teacher, the composer Martin Bresnick, in a discussion broadcast on ABC's Big Ideas program.^[18]

In 2011, Kompridis guest-edited and contributed to a special issue of the journal Ethics and Global Politics on "A Politics of Receptivity".^[19]

. 2006. Cambridge: MIT Press, 337 pp. (ISBN 026211299X, ISBN 978-0-262-11299-4)

Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future

(ed.) 2006. London: Routledge, 304 pp. (ISBN 0415256445, ISBN 978-0-415-25644-5)

Philosophical Romanticism

(ed.) 2014. New York, London: Bloomsbury, 320 pp. (ISBN 144118516X, ISBN 978-1-441-18516-7)

The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought

Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture. June 11, 2014.

"The Right to the Human Condition: Arendt, Normativity, and Utopian Politics" (video).

Ryerson University, Toronto. June 6, 2012.

"Secularism, Public Reason and the Limits of Translation" (video).

. Conversation with composer Martin Bresnick, with performances by pianist Lisa Moore. ABC Radio. June 1, 2012.

"Music and Philosophy after Modernism"

. Three lectures by Stathis Gourgouris, including responses by Kompridis. University of Western Sydney. May 21, 23 & 25, 2012.

“Secular Criticism as Poetics and Politics”

Special issue of Ethics and Global Politics, Vol 4, No 4 (2011). Edited & with contributions by Kompridis.

"A Politics of Receptivity".

Australian Museum, Sydney. Sept. 11, 2010.

Biodiversity and the Arts: "The memory of loss" (video).

Parrhesia, No. 8, 2009.

"Technology's Challenge to Democracy: What of the human?" (PDF).

Macquarie University. December 9, 2008.

"Reason, Reflective Disclosure and Democratic Politics" (audio).

University of Tasmania. December 8, 2008.

"Romanticism and Reanimation" (audio).

"The Post/Human Condition" conference, Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, University of Auckland. December 3, 2008.

"Technology's Challenge to Democracy" (video).

York University Y-File. March 20, 2007.

Nikolas Kompridis