Murdoch University
The Krishna Somers Foundation presents the year’s inaugural lecture.
The lecture will be given by
Emeritus Professor Horst Ruthrof.
Please come to the lecture, enjoy debating with Horst and drink some excellent wine
(or orange juice).
Abstract
The paper asks the question whether the attacks on the symbols of capitalism and military power are the main goal of Osama bin Laden’s jihad or whether there are deeper reasons for Islamist outrage. In doing so, I sum up the standard interpretation and add what I regard as a significant omission in the critique of Islamism. I suggest that since al-Qaeda’s fatwas all point to the ultimate goal of the re-establishment of a pan-Islamic religious polity, the umma under a cleansed caliphate, we must address the likely impact of the ‘universal grammar’ of the Boolean bitstream, the most recent form of instrumental reason, on totalitarian cultural hierarchisation.
Emeritus Professor Horst Ruthrof is the author of five major books and innumerable articles. His most recent essay, ‘The Fourth Critique,’ appeared in the highly respected journal New Literary History (2004). He is presently working on a paper ‘Modernity: The Splitting of Reason.’
