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On The Genealogy of Morals
... Historical narratives are patterns of imagined genealogies that can be reimagined through diverse rhythmic frameworks. Genealogical approaches-as seen in Nietzsche's works-unveil how historical claims often serve as instruments of power and identity (Nietzsche, 1997(Nietzsche, [1887). These genealogies reveal that history is not a foundational constraint but an interpretive construct shaped by relational dynamics. ...
... Historical narratives are patterns of imagined genealogies that can be reimagined through diverse rhythmic frameworks. Genealogical approaches-as seen in Nietzsche's works-unveil how historical claims often serve as instruments of power and identity (Nietzsche, 1997(Nietzsche, [1887). These genealogies reveal that history is not a foundational constraint but an interpretive construct shaped by relational dynamics. ...
This paper explores the relational and dynamic nature of time and history, challenging foundationalist and essentialist perspectives. Drawing on insights from Leibniz, ancient Indian philosophy, and modern thinkers like Ernst Mach and Julian Barbour, it argues that time is an abstraction derived from change and history a negotiated field of interpretations. By examining concepts such as genealogical sequencing, relational inertia, and historical dialectics, the essay proposes frameworks like General and Special Historical Relationalism to reimagine temporal and historical narratives. It highlights the interplay of relational diversity in shaping civilizational progress, aligning with philosophical traditions that emphasize harmony and interdependence. This perspective offers a pathway to rethink historical and temporal constructs in social sciences and humanities, fostering a deeper understanding of the dynamic interrelations that underpin human existence.
... The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844Nietzsche ( -1900 argued that deeply held cultural presuppositions must be uncovered through analysis (Ricoeur, 1970). When something does not merely surround us, but partly defines us, we tend to develop blind spots that prevent understanding (Nietzsche, 2012). Consequently, it is sometimes easier to understand other historical eras or cultures because their perspective differs from ours. ...
... At the same time, need satisfaction will not necessarily lead to contentment. The accountability of humans is also concerned with confronting life, as it is -also the inevitable unpleasant sides of living (Nietzsche, 2012). ...
... 3). On the one hand, Nietzsche's ([1887] 1969) Genealogy of Morals takes no moral or ethical stance but attempts to objectively chart what has been propounded as 'moral' by others over time. ...
In recent decades, anthropology has been characterized by an experiential turn that connects scholarship increasingly with practical application, on the one hand, and critical reflexivity, on the other. This article throws these trends into historical relief by synoptically considering past emphases in anthropology from the 1830s through the present. These prior developments contextualize recent trends vis-à-vis long-term patterns and permutations in the history of anthropology. In significant respects, current trends reprise in newly critical and reflexive ways aspects of anthropology that were prominent when it was first becoming a scholarly discipline in the mid-nineteenth century. Anthropology's present experiential turn is especially important as our field faces an increasingly uncertain future into the mid-twenty-first century, including dire challenges of funding for new anthropological research and teaching positions, and the risks of being deprofessionalized.
... The difference is that state punishment (theoretically at least) limits revenge to only one, rather than endless cycles of "reciprocal violence" (2005,16). Nonetheless, the "justice" that undergirds the criminal justice system is based on revenge-on the generation of community through scapegoating and expulsion, whether temporary or permanent (Dubber 2018;Nietzsche 2003). State punishment legitimates this desire for revenge by subsuming it (in a watered-down form) under the mantle of punishment. ...
Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s argument that liberal law is founded on and preserved through violence and on Hannah Arendt’s and Frantz Fanon’s ideas on the unpredictability of violence, this article uses the term penal violence to highlight the violence of lawful (state) punishment and the overlaps between different forms of lawful state violence and extralegal/extrajudicial violence. Focusing on South Africa, I argue that there is an ever-present possibility of law’s (legal) violence transgressing its own fictitious boundary (of reasonableness and nonviolence) and spiraling into unlawful (excessive and visible) violence. Adopting a multiscalar spatiotemporal approach to analyze extralegal violence by civilians in informal settlements, by the police when they engage in unlawful violence, and by prison wardens when they inflict excessive violence inside prisons, I emphasize the connections between law and violence, those between punishment and vengeance, and the malleability of violence.
... For Baudrillard (1993: 127) ours is a "culture of death": by being silenced, 15 Let us put aside the problematic reference to "primitive society". Elsewhere Freerks (2022) has argued that Baudrillard's genealogical narrative concerning "primitive symbolic exchange" is similar to Nietzsche's (2007) reference to "blond beasts" in On the Genealogy of Morals. Baudrillard's notion of symbolic exchange is a figure of speech to enable us to make sense of what we do and what we believe. ...
In his article, Attoe (2023a) claims that the African conception of death presupposes the meaninglessness of life and in the first section of this article, I outline Attoe’s strong pessimistic approach to meaning in light of our mortality. In my second section, I suggest that Frankl’s comments about the permanence of the past offer a different approach to the meaning of life in light of our mortality. In tune with Frankl’s idea that when we die our completed lives endure as part of the past, I touch upon some of the literature on the “digital afterlife.” Specifically, I look at how the digital age reconfigures our understanding of modernity’s rupture between living and dying, the living and the hereafter. In light of Frankl, I also go on to draw on Deleuze’s reading of the concept of “duration” (la durée) and the latter’s idea of a “world memory” to consolidate my point against Attoe’s reductively presentist and individualist approach to the meaning of life. Returning to the African tradition in my last section I argue that death does not take anything away from the meaning of life as Attoe claims and the strength of the African tradition is that it is based on the ambivalence between life and death. In the process, I refer to Baudrillard’s concept of “symbolic exchange” along with his genealogy of the exclusion of death in modernity. I take a cross-cultural approach by intertwining individual representatives of the African philosophical tradition with Western ones. Against Attoe’s individualist stance, I take a relational approach and I pay close attention to social practices and myths, because maintaining a connection between the living and the dead, subject and objects as well as acknowledging the symbolic sphere of the “ancestors” is significant. When we focus exclusively on “how to live” as Attoe (2023a: 13) suggests we should, this does not in my view profit life. Although life is shielded from death it must end in death, a death now devoid of symbolic meaning. In the footsteps of Nietzsche, Baudrillard’s symbolism of exchange contests all forms of self-preservation, as a limit to life-affirmation.
... Figures like Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Nietzsche have explored fashion's role in social imitation, modernity, and the temporal nature of taste. Despite often viewing fashion as irrational or superficial, philosophical discussions provide valuable insights into fashion's more profound societal implications and role in shaping human behaviour and interactions (Smith, 1759;Kant, 1790;Nietzsche, 1887). ...
Fashion pedagogy, an emerging field within fashion studies, plays a critical role in contemporary culture by integrating elements of body education, expression, and socio-economic values. This paper explores the epistemological foundations of fashion pedagogy through a comprehensive review of the current scientific literature. We address the multifaceted relationship between fashion pedagogy and body education, highlighting how this discipline influences and reshapes people's perceptions of body image and self-expression within informal education. The interplay between fashion pedagogy and capitalist values is also examined, revealing how fashion education reflects and critiques prevailing economic ideologies, promoting a more conscious engagement with fashion as a form of cultural production. Furthermore, this study delves into the interdisciplinary nature of fashion pedagogy, which draws upon diverse fields such as art, aesthetics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and business to enrich learning experiences and outcomes. The paper also reviews how fashion pedagogy can be implemented within the curricula of higher education institutions, emphasizing innovative teaching methods that foster critical thinking and creativity. Through an analysis of various educational models and practices, we identify key trends and challenges that influence the effectiveness and relevance of fashion pedagogy in today’s educational landscape. This paper argues that fashion pedagogy is significant in educating about fashion and fostering critical awareness among students about its broader social, cultural, aesthetic, and economic implications. It is a pivotal tool for empowering students to navigate and influence the evolving dynamics of contemporary culture through informed and thoughtful fashion practice.
... The Utility of Nietzsche's Philosophy for Philosophical Counseling 259 (an escape into a narcotic true world) and true-world philosophies, as similarly nihilistic (he equates "stimulants and brandy" to a "forgery in ideals") 41 because both obscure the real world's suffering and detach users, through fantasy, from inherent meaning-and the central element to much of of Nietzsche thinking is the notion of fantasy-which I believe lies at the core of all addiction dynamics. 42 Bernard Reginster interprets Nietzsche's view of suffering as a crucial component of his concept of the "will to power, " in contrast to the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's "will to life. ...
This article explores the potential utility of certain features of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical concepts for philosophical counselling. Central to the philosophical counseling process is philosophical counsellors applying the ideas of philosophers or philosophical system to inspire, educate, and guide their counselees in dealing with life problems. For example, the philosophical practice methodology of Logic-based Therapy, developed by American philosopher Elliot Cohen, provides a rational framework for confronting problems of living, where the counselor helps the counselee find an uplifting philosophy that promotes a guiding virtue to act as an antidote to unrealistic and often self-defeating conclusions derived from irrational premises. I present the argument that Nietzsche’s analysis of suffering, is one such uplifting philosophy which can be of utility to philosophical counselors. According to Bernard Reginster, suffering forms the bedrock of Nietzsche’s life-affirming concept of the ‘will to power.’ Nietzsche’s notion of the will to power radically alters our conception of, and the significance we assign to suffering, where the will to power is best understood as an individual’s desire for the activity of overcoming resistance. Nietzsche’s analysis implies that the fundamental human impulse is not to avoid suffering, but rather to embrace suffering as an unavoidable existential given of life itself: the meaning to be found in suffering is tantamount to affirming life itself.
... First, although Isin, like many others, is embracing what Foucault calls genealogy (2019Foucault calls genealogy ( [1971), Isin and others, including Foucault, are creating advantageous histories of some sophistication and counteracting rote authoritative narratives that see the present as a necessary imperative of previous generations, at least if we credit Nietzsche's own heuristics in which he clearly is attacking genealogists and promoting history (Historie) instead (Nietzsche, 1997(Nietzsche, , 2011Stevens, 2003). Second, BP, in addition to its explications of political communities typologized as Polis, Civitas, Christianapolis, Eutopolis, and Metropolis, grounds metaclaims about group conflict on work in the social sciences. ...
This essay contrasts the trajectory of Engin Isin's work since Being Political (2002) with a very different intellectual path pursued among scholars of a younger generation. Isin moves away from his initial critiques of citizenship and 10 years later proposes “citizenship without frontiers,” a way of understanding emancipatory interventions of active citizens in opposition to state violence. During this same time frame, other political theorists began to reject “citizenship” entirely. Whereas, Isin's oeuvre since Being Political incorporates the principles of creativity and resistance of “being political” into a more expansive concept of “citizenship,” other theorists began denouncing citizenship as of a piece with colonialism, capitalism, and neoliberalism. Such reactions expressly rejected efforts to recuperate citizenship for causes that oppose domination and oppression. This essay analyzes arguments antagonistic to citizenship claims through the lens of Isin's work, focusing in particular on competing views on nativism, Indigeneity, and nationality. The Conclusion considers recent examples of activist citizens and citizens without frontiers pursuing political solidarities along the lines Isin proposes.
This chapter examines the establishment of the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) and its alignment with Öcalan’s concept of democratic confederalism. It critically explores the KCK’s Social Pact (KCKSP), emphasizing its role in reframing the Kurdish struggle from nation-building to a purportedly transnational democratic framework. The chapter investigates the KCK’s formation, its strategic alignment with the Turkish state, and its efforts to reshape Kurdish political aspirations. Through this analysis, it reveals how the KCK, while claiming to challenge nation-state structures, simultaneously legitimizes and reproduces them.
The main specific topics addressed in this chapter include (1) the difference between aggregated data and per-person metrical data; (2) the unavoidable presence of intentionality in either kind of data; (3) problems of addressing the dynamics of intentionality with already aggregated data; (4) the futility of some debates about the category, “symbolic interaction”; (5) the unavoidable utilities of abstraction when modeling per-person actions and outcome; (6) the impacts of both habituations and institutional forms in social processes; (7) contrasting models of explanation in wake of, first, Newtonian mechanics, then Hume’s demonstration of an inevitable perceptual gap, followed by the failure of Kant’s proposed bridging solution as the relevance of the Newtonian model became increasingly restricted; and (8) the powers of stochastic models relative both to welters of contingency and uncertainty in social processes and to Kant’s categorical imperative.
This article “Resonance of Veneer Theory in Lord of the Flies” explores how William Golding's Lord of the Flies depicts the tension between natural human instincts and the civilizational forces. The novel presents a case on human nature, aligning with the veneer theory. The idea is that beneath the thin facade of societal order lies the potential for savagery. Drawing on the philosophical insights of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Friedrich Nietzsche, the article examines how the novel excavates human beings’ descent into savagery. Hobbes's notion of the "war of all against all," Rousseau's critique of societal degeneration, and Nietzsche's "will to power" provide a theoretical framework for this study. The article argues that the novel critiques the illusion of innate human goodness. By drawing parallels with religious mythology and contemporary power dynamics, the article highlights the relevance of Lord of the Flies in understanding the delicate balance between order and chaos in human societies.
Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar as reflexões de Nietzsche sobre raça em duas etapas. Ele começa atribuindo a Nietzsche uma espécie de formalismo racial, que é primeiramente caracterizado (em contraste com as teorias raciais baseadas no sangue, que eram muito mais populares em sua época) e depois avaliado (em suas vantagens e deficiências teóricas e normativas). O formalismo racial de Nietzsche permitiu que ele resistisse, por um lado, a uma posição meramente reducionista ou até mesmo eliminativista (posição que era de se esperar devido à sua inclinação cética) e, por outro lado, ao fascínio ideológico das explicações e classificações materialistas, com seus mitos autocomplacentes de pureza racial e coisas do gênero. Ao mesmo tempo, o formalismo de Nietzsche comunica uma indiferença em relação aos povos e tribos – para não mencionar os indivíduos - que constituem o componente material da raça e que é de uma arrogância desconcertante. Essa indiferença encontra sua expressão mais notória em suas referências ocasionais ao cultivo racial como exercícios de cultivo seletivo [Züchtung]. Ao modelar o cultivo de raças com base na domesticação de animais, ele dá a entender que os receptores da forma cultural são meros animais, que seriam anteriormente destituídos de qualquer forma relevante de cultura e educação. Apesar de condenar o nacionalismo mesquinho e a xenofobia que motivavam teorias rivais, ele produz uma teoria alternativa de cultivo racial que é igualmente problemática por razões morais. Depois de discutir o formalismo racial de Nietzsche, o artigo transita para a sua segunda etapa, que aborda a estreita conexão entre raça e cultivo corporal, ou seja, o tópico da incorporação racial. O que está em jogo aqui é o trabalho único de aculturação, que permite que alguns povos e nações adquiram o status de uma raça genuína ao equipar os corpos individuais de seus membros com um conjunto confiável de instintos, aos quais eles podem recorrer pré-refletidamente para suas disposições mais básicas de incorporação. Esse conjunto de instintos e disposições constitui a microestrutura do corpo “invisível”, cuja dinâmica Nietzsche tenta descrever no que o artigo chama de sua abordagem proto-fenomenológica da incorporação racial.
How can the AI-enabled attention economy be resisted so that our capacities for reflective self-direction are sustained? Grounding itself in Aristotle’s moral philosophy and contemporary neuroscience, this chapter explores how to develop the dispositions, habits, and skills needed to safeguard human agency. These dispositions, habits, and skills, which enable both self-leadership and service, can be cultivated employing the same mechanisms of behavior design that are deployed in the attention economy to hijack attention and erode agency.
First articulated more than 250 years ago, deterrence remains a central theory in criminology and continues to be the bedrock of the vast bulk of criminal justice policy. But few updates to the original theory of deterrence have been made, and crime-based punishment has only grown tougher, resulting in a historically unprecedented growth in imprisonment and an even greater reliance on deterrence to justify all kinds of punishment. These changes have occurred despite consistent or strong evidence to show that such punishments actually deter crime. In this book, renowned criminologists Daniel P. Mears and Mark C. Stafford provide an in-depth understanding of the classical account of deterrence theory, its limitations, and a reconceptualized version that establishes a more complete and powerful picture of how legal punishments can deter crime. Thorough and corrective, Comprehensive Deterrence Theory gives readers a new way of thinking about and understanding legal punishment.
Ethical issues are the stuff of psychotherapy, and in fact Freud envisaged the process as one in which an unexamined, irrational and oppressive conscience gives way to one more benignly rooted in reason.
Therapists endeavour to be non-judgemental and, indeed, are no more qualified to pass judgement on others than anyone else; do they nevertheless learn anything about ethics from their disciplined listening?
The same question was asked after the war about the persecution of the Jews and other minorities, and it’s a very live issue again, faced as we are by movements like ISIS, or Putinism in Russia, that cause great suffering in the name of religious or moral regeneration - a bewildering paradox that David Astor, former editor of The Observer called ‘the scourge’.
Can psychotherapy throw any light on it, or contribute any ideas as to how we might contain, if not prevent, the barbarism it sanctions? Can it offer any insights into a different, more inclusive kind of ethics, and if so, can we glean any guidance from it as to how we might further it?
These are the questions the author explores, drawing on psychoanalytic thinking on these issues for over a century and illustrated by his work with individuals over four decades.
The Knight’s Tale presents patriarchal sovereignty in the figure of Theseus, who exercises his power through the capacities of homo faber (man the tool user and craftsman). This fashioned political realm is seductive; however, Hannah Arendt argues that the transformation of the political realm through homo faber’s work creates an anti-politics that survives through a Stoic illusion of freedom. Arendt’s work allows us to recognize why Theseus’s use of the capacities of homo faber to master Arcite and Palamon never truly arrives at its intent since it thrives through the suppression of what Arendt denotes as the human political condition: plurality. I argue that reading Emelye’s prayer and the negotiation of Chaucer’s gods through Arendt allows us to understand how sovereignty is a weaker exercise of man’s capacities than speech and action which, following Arendt, operate within the non-sovereign reality of human life.
Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of "will to power" stands as a cornerstone of his philosophy, yet its interpretation remains a contentious issue. Among the various proposed interpretations, the ontological, metaphorical, and psychological perspectives each offer distinct understandings of this complex concept. While definitively establishing the "correct" interpretation is challenging due to the complexities of Nietzsche's writing and expression, this essay argues that the psychological interpretation aligns more effectively with the core tenets of his thought. The essay begins by providing a concise overview of the metaphysical, metaphorical, and psychological interpretations of "will to power." Acknowledging the inherent uncertainty in interpreting Nietzsche's ideas, it argues that the psychological interpretation, emphasizing the "will to power" as an intrinsic human drive for self-overcoming and growth, resonates more strongly with the broader themes of Nietzsche's philosophy, particularly perspectivism. Furthermore, the essay delves into the ethical implications of the psychological interpretation. It addresses concerns that this interpretation might endorse oppression and autocracy as necessary outcomes of the "will to power." Through careful analysis, the essay demonstrates how the psychological interpretation, when understood accurately, does not inherently support such harmful practices. In contrast, it highlights how this interpretation, emphasizing self-mastery and individual responsibility, can potentially contribute to moral development and a pursuit of excellence. Finally, the essay emphasizes the importance of understanding the foundational concepts of his philosophy, such as perspectivism, for accurately interpreting his ideas. By prioritizing evidence-based analysis and nuanced understanding, we can navigate the complexities of Nietzsche's thought and appreciate its enduring relevance in contemporary discussions about ethics, individual responsibility, and the pursuit of a meaningful life.
This chapter introduces the core themes of the book, providing background on the cases studied and elucidating key concepts. It examines the narratives and emotions of ethno-religious and political diaspora groups originated from Turkey (Armenians, Kurds, Alevis, Kemalists, Gülenists and Erdoğanists) and now live in Australia, focusing on their experiences of collective victimhood, competitive victimhood and intergroup emotions in relation to other Turkey-originated diaspora groups. The chapter argues that, while in power, dominant groups driven by competitive victimhood often exhibit indifference towards the victimhood of other groups. This dynamic reflects how ressentiment can perpetuate cycles of oppression and antagonism. However, this pattern can shift when powerful groups find themselves in opposition. In such scenarios, they may become more attuned to the grievances of other groups, particularly if they perceive themselves as victims of the current regime or seek to form broader coalitions to challenge the prevailing power structure.
Muchos afirman que vivimos en la era de la ira. La ira, el odio e incluso el resentimiento parecen prevalecer en todas las capas sociales y en todos los países, y marcan una atmósfera de conflicto, desunión, fragmentación y anomia social en una época de cambios significativos. Las transformaciones sociales globales que estamos presenciando parecen ser la base de este fenómeno histórico, en el que los vínculos de solidaridad y unión entre individuos y pueblos tienen una influencia disminuida en el comportamiento de los individuos y los grupos. Las grandes transformaciones siempre van acompañadas de un gran sufrimiento, así como de esperanza y expectativa. A menudo vemos más lo que se pierde que lo que se gana, porque lo que se pierde es bien conocido y visible, mientras que lo que se ganará en el futuro es incierto, poco claro para la mente de nadie, a menudo una consecuencia inesperada de acciones conscientes que se afirman en el corto plazo y pueden conducir a un empeoramiento pero también a una mejora en la forma en que vivimos en el mundo.
This article explores the literary significance of cannibalism and cannibalistic motifs in the Hebrew Prophets. Occasionally, the texts describe cannibalism outright; more frequently, they use cannibalism as a literary motif to negotiate transgression, alterity, or anxiety over incorporation. Cannibalism, while a powerful symbol, is never fully stable. It is used to signify extreme suffering, to negotiate relations of power, to indulge readers’ sadism, and to explore the ‘contact zone’ with foreign peoples. It also offers a model for rethinking the composition of the prophetic literature. Prophetic textuality can also be understood as a cannibalistic process: prophets and texts cannibalize earlier texts and prophecies; a prophetic book, like a cannibal’s, is constituted of pieces taken from other (textual) bodies. The cannibal is significant because it illuminates the working of a number of significant categories. The article explores these questions across the prophetic corpus, with particular attention to the book of Jeremiah.
Worship is central to the lives of billions of people worldwide. Yet, despite the recent flourishing of analytical philosophy of religion, there has been very little attention paid to the philosophical questions raised by worship. This book is the first volume to explore the philosophy of worship. Written in a clear style that eschews unnecessary technical jargon, it considers the metaphysical, ethical, and psychological issues associated with worship, among them: What, if anything, is the point of worship? What, if anything, makes a being worthy of worship? Can worship hold value for atheists? What, if anything, might be wrong with idolatry? These questions, and more, sit at the heart of this book. With contributions from world renowned philosophers and important early career voices, this volume sets the agenda for future work in the philosophy of worship.
Drew M. Dalton’s, The Matter of Evil, engages the history of philosophical pessimism, speculative realism, and ethics with the goal of finding a material absolute to ground contemporary philosophical theory. Dalton advocates for entropy as this absolute, giving rise to a philosophy of “unbecoming.” Being faithful to Kant’s critical project and the consequent limitations placed on human reason, Dalton rejects the kinds of nihilism, quietism, and fideism that so often emerge in the wake of Kant’s discoveries. Despite the collapse of metaphysical absolutes in Western philosophy, Dalton believes that ethical responsibility can still be grounded in the law of entropy. Tracing the latest developments in biology, chemistry, and physics, Dalton draws from philosophical pessimism and speculative realism to show that there is no escaping entropy. Everything that exists will unravel and the universe will eventually die. Yet, instead of bringing us to the brink of despair, Dalton champions an ethics that fights back against unbecoming and works to alleviate unnecessary suffering on a social and political level.
Alasdair MacIntyre’s moral approach is ranked among the very important formulations in contemporary philosophical ethics. Yet, MacIntyre and his commentators have overlooked basic requirements of teleological ethical theories (end- or goal-oriented ethical theories). In the article, we will see just where MacIntyre has erred in constructing his Aristotelian-Thomist teleological moral approach, the most fundamental error being his failure to pursue and develop ultimate ends. MacIntyre’s moral approach, which heroically attempts to combine basic ancient and medieval foundational elements while assigning social practices a prominent role in shaping moral thinking, fails to provide a determinate teleological justificatory foundation.
In M. Night Shyamalan’s 2017 Split, the Beast, one of the many personalities of the character suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder played by James McAvoy, advocates the superiority of “The Broken”, as he argues those who know pain are “the more evolved”. The character comes to reject normalcy, which he associates with impurity: “The impure are the untouched, the unburned, the unslain”. As such, this character, who turns out to be a villain in Shyamalan’s superhero trilogy initiated by Unbreakable (2000) and concluded by Glass (2020), acts as a mouthpiece for the director’s own ambivalent fascination with the corruption of the mind – mental illness and senescence are central themes of The Village (2004), Split or The Visit (2016) – and of the body – from The Sixth Sense (1999) to Old (2021). This article aims at exploring this fascination. In it, I argue that Shyamalan’s films both develop and reflexively question the ethical implications of a Nietzschean view of corruption seen as a gateway to greatness.
Deafness has taken us to very dark places. Hyper-individualisation and confirmation bias are common mechanisms used to flatten the other’s complexities into a mirror. To enclose ourselves in narcissistic bubbles where the ideal self (Lacan, 1938) can be accommodated without risk. These bubbles are communities without noise, in which everyone agrees, everyone communicates clearly. But these bubbles, just like soap ones, are precarious. They are imaginations of a relationship with the other that does not exist. That is why they are frequently bursting. They are extremely sensitive, made of a clear extra thin membrane that distortedly reflect what is inside and what is outside.
Listening to the other is to burst the bubble. It is to relinquish the alleged ability to acquire information about the other’s thoughts, feelings, or activities without incorporating this other. It is to open oneself to the complexity of the other through the word, to the possibility of creating a third between me and them.
We tend to take listening as a given. Hearing is indeed a physical attribute, but listening takes practice. It requires time and attention. Usually, while listening, we are already thinking about where we agree, where we disagree, or what we will say in response. The focus is on the self not on the other. But genuinely listening is to give power to the other. We tend attribute power to the ability to talk, not to the ability to listen. We choose our leaders based on their speaking skills, not their listening skills. We learn, practice, judge, and reward speech and forget to value listening. But a momentary respite from all the pervasive noise can be powerful. To think of who we are giving our power of listening can potentially trump a quest for sound and fury. It can be a chain reaction in which each person who is genuinely listened to feels naturally inspired to listen to the next. Thus, creating more bridges of dissimilarity than walls, which seems to me to be the future of any relationship we can think of building with the other.
This book offers a sustained scholarly analysis of Gadamer's reflections on art and our experience of art. It examines fundamental themes in Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics such as play, festival, symbol, contemporaneity, enactment, art's performative ontology, and hermeneutical identity.
The Arctic has often been viewed as a region insulated from broader global conflicts, a concept known as ‘Arctic exceptionalism’. However, Russia’s full‑ scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has challenged this notion, leading to growing tensions and increased militarisation. This study uses a poststructuralist framework to analyse the Arctic strategies published by Western Arctic states between 2006 and 2024, treating these strategies as key speech acts that construct political meaning. Discourse analysis, facilitated by AntConc software, examines how Western Arctic states frame Russia and how these narratives have evolved. The findings reveal a shift from portraying Russia as a cooperative partner to an increasingly militarised and expansionist actor. This shift reflects contrasting approaches – Western states focus on multilateralism and international law, while Russia emphasises sovereignty and military power. The poststructuralist approach highlights how discourse actively constructs Arctic political realities, influencing power dynamics and regional stability. Future Arctic governance depends on resolving broader political tensions, but meaningful re–engagement with Russia remains uncertain. Sustaining multilateralism and adherence to international law will be crucial to counter destabilising narratives and support a cooperative and peaceful Arctic.
Шляхом уважного прочитання тексту ми спробуємо довести, що твір Жадана робить свій внесок у постмодерний дискурс пам’яті в европейській літературі, і продемонструвати, як формальну структуру роману, що відповідає сучасній концепції літературного твору, ефективно врівноважують постмодерні культурні та соціальні реалії, які просочують текст гетерогенністю та радикальним багатоголоссям суперечливих пам’ятей та дискурсів. Основна теза дослідження полягає в тому, що «Ворошиловград» розвиває концепцію пам’яті як подорожі, що має спокутну якість і допомагає реконструювати ідентичність із сучасної реалістичної перспективи, і водночас підважує це твердження, заперечуючи можливість ґранд-наративу в умовах постмодерну.
In Shakespeare's King Lear, the protagonist’s journey from powerful monarch to vulnerable beggar serves as a profound exploration of identity and transformation. This paper examines Lear’s metamorphosis, focusing on how his shifting sense of self reflects broader themes of authority, vulnerability, and human frailty. At the outset, Lear defines his identity through his royal power and relationship with his daughters, but his misguided decisions lead to his downfall, initiating a process of personal and psychological unraveling. The Fool and Lear’s madness serve as pivotal moments, forcing him to confront the discrepancy between self-deception and self-awareness. Stripped of his kingdom and family, Lear’s transformation into a beggar marks a profound shift in his understanding of identity. In the absence of external markers of power, Lear gains insight into his own humanity, recognizing the universality of suffering and the impermanence of authority. Ultimately, this paper argues that Lear’s tragic transformation is not just a loss of status but an awakening to self-knowledge. His death, while tragic, represents the completion of his transformation, as he gains a deeper understanding of love, humility, and the fragility of human existence. Through this process, King Lear offers a poignant meditation on the nature of identity and its complex, often fragile, formation.
This is a book about the mindlessness of AI, which is preventing the achievement of human-level intelligence in machines. Essentially the problem arises from the limited scope of expertise possessed by researchers in the AI industry. While the existing expertise in computer science and neuroscience is essential, it is not sufficient for the development of AGI. The vital missing component is the science of LIFE-DYNAMICS. This book explores this new science and provides a realist theory of the mind for a mindless AI, together with a new test of AGI—the DYNAMIC-STRATEGIST TEST. “Paradox of a Mindless AI” provides the Strategic Roadmap to AGI.
Throughout history, some of the most influential thinkers and creators have turned inward, using introspection as a tool to navigate the complexities of their own minds and to illuminate universal truths about the human condition. In The Mirror Within: How Great Minds Psychoanalyzed Themselves to Understand the Human Psyche, we explore how figures such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Sylvia Plath, Hermann Hesse, Michel Foucault, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Anaïs Nin used self-psychoanalysis to confront inner conflicts, uncover hidden motivations, and fuel their groundbreaking works. Through methods ranging from systematic dream analysis to literary experimentation and poetic introspection, these individuals delved into themes of identity, isolation, creativity, and mental health. Their journeys not only transformed their personal lives but also shaped psychology, literature, and philosophy. This paper examines their methods, insights, and enduring influence, offering inspiration for contemporary readers to embark on their own paths of self-discovery and intellectual growth.
Keywords: self-psychoanalysis, introspection, human psyche, Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, Woolf, Kafka, Plath, Hesse, Foucault, Rilke, Nin, identity, creativity, mental health, isolation, literary analysis, philosophy, psychology. 39 pages.
This paper examines the realist explanation of situations of war, mainly in the context of the rise of cosmopolitan ideals. The paper is an effort to recover the variable-based model to explain an event. Here, the effort is to understand the validity of the realist explanation of new wars. Realist explanations presuppose the importance of both power and dominance as independent variables. The paper examines dominance as the driving force behind cosmopolitan war. The major questions addressed here are: To what extent ‘dominance’ as an independent variable explain the pursuit for cosmopolitan wars? Is it possible to understand such a drive for cosmopolitan values as a prerequisite for attaining power in the international system? Can a cosmopolitan position be concomitant with a general realist aversion to norms and morality? Through a detailed analysis of various positions deriving from the realist perspective, the paper concludes that realism as a theoretical position and dominance as a variable fails to account for the rise of cosmopolitan wars.
The role of emotions in politics is drawing increasing scholarly attention. Yet, despite this heightened interest, the ways in which politicians concretely appeal to emotions of their target audience are still blurry. Let aside how they do so in different contexts. This article focuses on an affect that is frequently mentioned as the key driver explaining the electoral appeal of populist radical right-wing parties (PRRPs): resentment. In that respect, several authors have used the term “the politics of resentment,” even though the exact definition of resentment often remains unclear. In this article, we theorize what resentment precisely is and how it is used politically, and hypothesize how it is mobilized in different ways by PRR parties in different contexts. Empirically, then, we employ content analysis to study a corpus of party documents of PRRPs in three West and two East European countries from 2004 onwards and identify three types of resentment mobilized by the radical right: (1) redistributive resentment; (2) recognitory resentment; and (3) retributive resentment. Despite being expressed in a more heterogeneous way than we theoretically expected, these forms of resentment share important commonalities that, we argue, can help to better understand the electoral appeal of radical right-wing parties.
We describe what contempt is, what its characteristics are, what elicits contempt, and why it is a point of no return. We also discuss contempt for groups, political parties and the whole systems, and what consequences this has. Despite its negative nature and social consequences, contempt can be functional. Finally, we discuss how we can appropriately react to expressions of contempt.
Contemporary scholars have separated artificial intelligence (AI) from utilitarianism, which represents instrumental rationality, and have shifted toward the Responsibility and Virtue Ethics of practical rationality. The Strong and Weak Accountability AI embodies abstract freedom and presupposes human nature; however, the collective policies formed by it often conflict with individuality, being either unchangeable or ineffective in shaping individuality. Without addressing inherited structural drawbacks or challenging oppressive social norms, it is difficult to expect a Virtue AI to promote an established good life. This article proposes AI, through the instrumental rationality embodied in utilitarianism, broadens the conditions for understanding moral purposes. AI should be viewed as a tool, rather than the ultimate solution. Prioritizing history does not lie in contemplating the potential crisis posed by machines manipulating agents, but rather in highlighting the reality of whether AI’s specific feedback to humans is open, transparent, and consonant with human rights. Utilitarianism AI presents morally open structures that are manifested through social adjustments, the physical realm of emotional conflicts, and the physiological foundations underpinning self-motivation.
How have Western nongovernmental experts used remote sensing to make public knowledge about Iran’s nuclear program? This article recounts several episodes in which experts and journalists congregated around satellite images to uncover hidden nuclear objects in Iran. Drawing from the theoretical tradition of co-production, I describe this recurrent collective experience as an imaginative exercise that can both coordinate and transform diverse communities of knowledge. I outline common temporal and thematic structures that define these episodes, and illuminate the role of commercial satellite imagery as material anchor that threads distributed imaginings together such that broadly-shared experience and sensibility can emerge. I argue that these collective imaginative practices have fomented civic-epistemic closure, not around affirmative nuclear facts or beliefs about Iran, but around a set of persistent questions about the ‘possible military dimensions’ of its nuclear past. I close by exploring the broader political effects of this form of recursive inquiry within the global nuclear order.
This book extract contributes to the literature by inter alia (1) identifying societal justification as incentivizing torture, (2) disclosing man’s innate cruelty and habitual recourse to elective disassociation as facilitating its unperturbed discharge and (3) deeming moral realization its universal panacea.
This chapter will firstly analyse the crisis that currently faces prisons in England and Wales, the USA, and globally, to ascertain the causes of the extraordinarily high levels of mental health problems of those who are incarcerated, when compared to the general population. Secondly, barriers that Mental Health In-Reach Teams (MHIRTs) have experienced in trying to provide equivalent mental health care services for prisoners will also be discussed by McNeil. The punitive discourse of the prison environment clashes with the nurturing discourse propagated by MHIRTs. Thirdly, this chapter will provide a Foucauldian critique of the prison environment. McNeil will apply Foucault’s concepts of panopticism, power/ knowledge and governmentality to argue that such an environment is inadequate for rehabilitating prisoners, as it destroys prisoners’ mental health and well-being.
This paper aims to show that the traditional problem of evil can be logically dissolved by a more thorough analysis of what love (Agape, Eros, Philia) and evil actually are. When investigated this analysis reveals that they are manifestations and evaluations of power dynamical relations leading to a conclusion that it would be logically impossible for God to be all-loving and at the same time prevent evil as all-loving constitutes an unlimited, unjudgmental, empowerment and good and evil are simply evaluations or perspectives on that power use. To stop evil God would have to disempower in some way and that would not be Agape and thus logically impossible as Agape is part of the very nature of God. This paper reveals the “form” of good to be empowerment and the “form” of bad/evil to be disempowerment.
It was argued Chap. 1 that the constrained agency of elite migrant-artists has been an under-researched area. This means that there are, in fact, many unanswered provocative questions about the life and work of global elite migrants. While they belong to the category of informants whom scholars view as ‘challenging’. They are highly visible, dependent on their networks and, therefore extremely vulnerable because of their potential exposure to the public and also because of severe network sanctions. They are both privileged and vulnerable. And as noted by the famous French novelist of the nineteenth century Honoré de Balzac, it is not easy to describe in one word ‘the splendor and miseries’ of someone so controversial. Therefore, the question that I would like to ask in this chapter is what would be the best way to study the lives of global elite migrants and the ontogenesis of their migrant agency with the purpose to make their voices heard and their ‘splendors and miseries’ visible. What would be the best way to think about them as professionals, migrants and real people, with all their social skills, ambitions, moments of success but also fears and insecurity? The answer is interpretive biography. Here in this chapter, I, therefore, introduce the method of interpretive biography, explain its nuances and analytical procedures, and justify its application to my case.
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