Continental Philosophy Research Group Talk (James Bahoh, Memphis)

The Continental Philosophy Research Group is pleased to welcome as guest speaker James Bahoh, an assistant professor at the University of Memphis, where he also serves as the Department of Philosophy’s director of undergraduate studies. Dr. Bahoh’s main research is in phenomenology, post-phenomenological Continental philosophy, and ontology/metaphysics in the context of German and French thought from Kant to today. He is especially interested in Heidegger and Deleuze and is a proponent of drawing on the history of philosophy to advance and address issues in 21st-century postanalytic/continental divide philosophy. He also has interests in social and political, as well as early modern philosophy.

Dr. Bahoh is author of Heidegger’s Ontology of Events (2020) and is currently working on a new book on the relation of the concept of event to the metaphysics and ontology of identity, difference, and representation. The book focuses on the theories of events advanced by Heidegger and Deleuze, and ways these theories engage Kant and post-Kantian thought. Since May 2024, Dr. Bahoh has served as Presiding Officer of the Heidegger Circle Executive Committee.

In addition to his talk on March 21, Dr. Bahoh will also be giving an all-day workshop the following day, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in JHB 418. To register for the workshop and for more information, please contact Tarek Dika.

Talk Title

Heidegger on Fundamental Principles

Talk Abstract

In this paper, I examine the role of Grundsätze or ‘fundamental principles’ in Heidegger’s critique of metaphysics and in his larger ontology. I outline his distinction between ‘positive’ and ‘radical’ modes of science to show a major problem that the ‘recuperative’ dimension of his critique of metaphysics raises: that of simultaneously differentiating between and establishing the systematic unity of metaphysics and ontology. I focus on the way key principles like identity, non-contradiction, and reason are suggested to have a foundational position in metaphysical inquiry but simultaneously an openness to deeper ontological grounding. And on this basis, I argue that these principles act as liminal concepts that help to solve the difference/unity problem.

About the Continental Philosophy Group

One of six departmental research interest groups, the Continental Philosophy Group works in the traditions of textual interpretation of human consciousness, phenomenology, and post-structuralist critical theory, among other related traditions of thought.