DFG Research Training Group 2686: Contradiction Studies –

Constellations, Heuristics, and Concepts of the Contradictory

DFG Research Training Group 2686: Contradiction Studies –

Constellations, Heuristics, and Concepts of the Contradictory

Festakt & Podiumsdiskussion WOC Contradictions Festival | 10 Jahre Worlds of Contradiction

On the Relevance of the Contradiction | 10 Years WOC – Contradictions Festival | Panel discussion

Other, Panel Discussion

Dr. Onur Erdur, Prof. Dr. Stephan Lessenich, Prof. Dr. Rozena Maart

11/12/2025
6:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Haus der Wissenschaft | Bremen

Panel Discussion:
Dr. Onur Erdur | Department of Cultural History and Theory & WOC Guest Professor 2025
Prof. Dr. Stephan Lessenich | Institute of Sociology, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main & Institute for Social Research
Prof. Dr. Rozena Maart | University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban & GRK2686-Mercator Fellow

Moderation:
PD Dr. Ehler Voss | Worlds of Contradiction

A complete program overview for the 10 years of WOC – Contradictions Festival, which will take place from November 10 to 14, 2025, can be found here.

Back to overview

prison of difference

“‘Contradiction is the prison of difference‘ writes the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Worlds of Contradiction asks: how can we explain and describe the world without making it more coherent and systematic than it is?”
Michi Knecht

idea of democratic critique

“If you think that acts of contradicting someone always need to point to better solutions, you haven’t really understood the idea of democratic critique.”
Martin Nonhoff

Bhabha on enlightenment and coloniality

“Homi Bhabha says about the contradiction between the ideals of the enlightenment, claims to democracy and solidarity and simultaneous colonization and ongoing coloniality: ‘That ideological tension, visible in the history of the West as a despotic power, at the very moment of the birth of democracy and modernity, has not been adequately written in a contradictory and contrapuntal discourse of tradition.’”
Kerstin Knopf

l’illusion d’une unité

“Foucault speaks of contradiction as l’illusion d’une unité.”
Ingo H. Warnke

sustained engagement

“The history of Western philosophy can be understood as a sustained engagement with contradiction.”
Norman Sieroka