The Cannibali That We Are: For a Bioethics of Food

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-275
Author(s):  
FABRIZIO TUROLDO

AbstractIs it possible to trace the contours of a bioethical reflection on nutrition? The present study tries to do so, relying on the metaphorical and symbolic value that food often takes. Indeed, eating does not mean just getting sufficient nutrition, because through the offer and exchange of food, people recognize and welcome each other. In this sense we are all, in some way, cannibals, because in eating, we eat the other, even if the introjection of the other is only symbolic and not literal, as in the case of actual cannibals. Eating habits are also very rooted in various cultures and sometimes resist migratory flows to a greater extent than language and religion do. Consequently, the disgust for, or the refusal of, other people’s food may be an indicator of a more general rejection of the diversity of other people. The conclusion reached by this study is that eating is taking care of the self and of the other and, therefore, as Jacques Derrida observes, it is necessary to “eat well” and also “eat the good.”

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 895-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Aparecida Baggio ◽  
Alacoque Lorenzini Erdmann

The aim of this qualitative study was to comprehend the relationships of the care of the self, of care of the other, and of care "of the us" in the different dimensions of care, through an educational/reflexive/interpretative process with nursing professionals in a University Hospital, using the complexity perspective. The data were collected through workshops and submitted to content analysis. The following categories emerged: reflecting upon the meaning of care of the self, care of the other, and "of the us" for the "I - human being", and for the "I - nursing professional"; and reflecting and (re)constructing the meanings of the relationships of care for the self, care for the other, and care "for the us". The care "for the us" is an emerging theme, in construction, and impels a concern for the collective, as well as remits to the comprehension of the multiple and unending phenomenon of constant movement among the beings and between them and their environment, modifying, altering, and causing to be altered the networks of existent relationships.


2016 ◽  
Vol XIV (2) ◽  
pp. 184-184
Author(s):  
Kornelija Kuvač-Levačić

By using the concept of the Self as the human personality in its totality, as defined by Carl Gustav Jung and furthered by P. Ricoeur (the theory of narrative identity, the Self defined as an identity constructed by narrative configuration, the dialectics of the discovery of the other in one’s own Self and one’s own Self in the Other), this work will focus in the analysis of metaphors which express the Self of the auto-diegetic narrator as can be found in the autobiographical discourse of Vesna Parun. The corpus of this research is to be found in selected texts from her volume Noć za pakost. Moj život u 40 vreća (2001). From the first chapter of this volume [which consists of the following works of autobiography and essays: Poljubac života (1993), Do zalaska sunca hodajući za kamilicom (1958), Pod muškim kišobranom (1986)] the reader comes to realise that, for this author, the writing of autobiography is itself a problem of self-expression and that she had constantly deferred it, while, on the other hand, feeling a great compulsion from within to do so. This sense of paradox finds its reflection in some of the constitutive elements which can be found in her autobiographical discourse. In the relationship between literature and reality, which is something which the genre of autobiography questions in its own way, the author noticeably distances herself from the mere documentary transmission of factual information from her life. A reflection of this can be seen in the negation of a strict chronology of events and confessions, as she makes recourse to a technique which uses collage and appears fragmentary; furthermore, here prose here has a lyrical quality, negating "metaphor as a literary device" and transforming it into "literature as metaphor". The autobiographical prose of Vesna Parun is especially dense with metaphor, and it can be concluded that it expresses her Self. Attention is directed here to three metaphors in particular – the umbrella, which can be both "masculine" and "feminine", a map of the world, on the wall of every house in Vesna’s community, as well the sack, which is followed by the symbolic number 40, as many in which she could fill her life in. Besides the metaphors mentioned here, what will be proposed here is that in the autobiographical discourse of Vesna Parun literature itself is presented as metaphor of her Self, appearing to the reader as significantly (auto)meta-textual.


Author(s):  
Robin Whelan

This chapter reconsiders the relationship between the Vandal kings and the Nicene Church, which has often been seen as an obstacle to effective Vandal rule. The self-portrayal of Nicene bishops as martyrs suffering in an age of heretical persecution—and the self-portrayal of Hasding dynasts as pious defenders of true (Homoian) Christianity—seems to commit them to mutual antagonism. Yet both parties also had interests in compromises, which are revealed by recurrent interactions between bishops and the court at Carthage. Even as they decried heretical Vandal tyranny, Nicene bishops petitioned their rulers to improve their church’s lot, using obsequious courtly language and the appropriate bureaucratic channels to do so. Vandal kings sometimes granted these petitions; even when refused, the possibility of compromise was retained for as long as possible. The result was tacit or even explicit acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the other parties, whether as rulers or Christian authority figures.


Author(s):  
Wendy Beth Hyman

“Saying No and Saying Yes” turns at last from the speaker of the erotic invitation to its imagined auditor: the figure being invited to “seize the day.” Persuasion poets, of course, never expect acquiescence—the motif would hardly exist if ladies were easily seduced. However, Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Milton’s A Maske are among those longer works that make room for very demonstrable acts of refusal, and both do so within an explicitly moral, Protestant context: Spenser via his knight Guyon (hearing Acrasia’s song in the Bower of Bliss), and Milton through his virginal and unnamed Lady responding to the libertine Comus. Despite some obvious similarities between these encounters, the two poets imagine remarkably different responses to the voluptuous invitations they feature. Spenser’s Guyon responds not with his putative virtue, Temperance, but vehement rage to Acrasia’s invitation in the Bower—becoming an agent of the very materialist forces he repudiates. Milton, on the other hand, imagines a place for chastity that is not built upon a sequestration of the self, but a willingness to seek, and find, trial. He thereby provides a model for perhaps the most “impossible” thought experiment of all, one in which a woman participates as an intellectual and rhetorical equal, and in whom eloquence, chastity, and desire can coexist. Milton thereby utilizes the trope to turn it on its head, constructing within it a forum for a proto-feminist articulation of agency and voice.


Author(s):  
Reiko Shindo

This chapter examines how the various ways of dealing with the mismatch between visibility and audibility help one to imagine a social space centred on the failure of communication, or untranslatability. To do so, it considers the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy, Bonnie Honig, and Slavoj Žižek. Nancy theorises community in relation to failed communication, whereas Honig and Žižek focus on uncertainty as a key affective device to discuss the link between community and unintelligibility. Built on their works, the chapter develops an understanding of belonging centred on a gothic mode of relationality where people relate to one another based on ‘not knowing’ others let alone themselves. Unlike a traditional form of belonging to a community where people search commonality through intelligible communication between the self and the other, the gothic mode of belonging is realised in people's own inability to translate their voice, in the failure to achieve intelligibility.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (46) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Fernando Gimbo

Trata-se de mostrar como a ideia de “cuidado de si” deve ser compreendida a partir de um tensionamento caracterizado por um duplo movimento: por um lado, a afirmação da autoafecção como condição do processo de subjetivação; por outro lado, a necessidade de inscrever tal ipseidade no quadro mais amplo das pesquisas genealógicas centradas nas práticas de assujeitamento e dominação. Com isso, o objetivo é sugerir como o problema fundamental do último e inconcluso momento da obra de Foucault é a necessidade de repensar as condições de gênese do sujeito. Para tanto, o artigo é divido em dois momentos: primeiramente, recuperamos uma autocrítica realizada ao final da década de 70, quando, ao introduzir em suas análises o conceito de governamentalidade, Foucault une a temática do governo sobre os outros ao problema do governo de si. Em segundo lugar, analisar estrategicamente o tema da confissão (l’aveu) como exemplo do reconhecimento dessa dimensão autoafectiva da subjetividade dentro de relações de poder e assujeitamento. A partir disso, é possível assinalar certas consequências críticas em torno de uma certa “ética do cuidado de si” que seria própria ao pensamento foucaultiano. [This article aims to show how the idea of “care of the self" must be understood from the tension of a double movement: on the one hand, the affirmation of an auto-affection as a condition to a process of individuation. On the other hand, the need to incorporate such ipseity to the broader framework of genealogical research focused on the subjugation and domination practices. Thus, my goal is to suggest how the initial problem that runs through Foucault’s later works is the need to rethink the conditions of subjectivity genesis. Therefore, the article is divided into two parts: firstly, I recover Foucault’s self-criticism performed at the end of the 70s, when he introduces in his analysis the concept of governmentality. Secondly, I strategically analyze the theme of confession (l'aveu) as an example of recognizing this auto-affectivity dimension of subjectivity even within power relations. Finally, I point out certain possible consequences of such exposure on the theme of ethics in Foucault's thought.]


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