March 2, 2006
by Mimi Ko Cruz

The works of philosophers Judith Butler and the late Simone De Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt will be examined March 17-18 during the 36th annual Philosophy Symposium, "Intellectual Activism: Women Pushing the Boundaries of Philosophy."

Philosophy professors from the campus and throughout the country will be providing commentary during the two-day event from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. March 17 and 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. March 18 in Portola Pavilion of the Titan Student Union.

Hannah Arendt was a German political theorist, who fearing Nazi persecution, fled her native country in 1933. She later escaped from a concentration camp and made her way to the United States, where she wrote "The Originals of Totalitarianism" in 1951. Arendt became a U.S. citizen, taught at universities throughout the country and continued to write, including "The Human Condition" and "Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess" (both 1958), "Reflections on Little Rock" (1959), "Eichmann in Jerusalem" (1963), "Men in Dark Times" (1968) and "Crisis in the Republic" (1972). She died in 1975.

Simone De Beauvoir, the French existentialist, was a prolific author of novels, biographies and essays on philosophy, politics and social issues. She is best known for her 1949 feminist masterpiece "The Second Sex," a treatise that weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology and other disciplines to show women's place in the world and to postulate on the power of sexuality. She died in 1986.

UC Berkeley professor Judith Butler is the author of "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990), "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex" (1993), "Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning" (2004), a collection of writings on war's impact on language and thought, and her latest, "Giving an Account of Oneself." Presently, Butler is working on essays pertaining to Jewish philosophy and pre-Zionist criticisms of state violence, as well as cultural and literary theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism and sexual politics.

The annual event is sponsored by the Philosophy Department, Philosophy student and alumni clubs, Continuing Learning Experience and the Inter-Club Council. For more information, call 278-5803 or visit http://hss.fullerton.edu/philosophy/Symposium.htm.

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