The Sentimental Self

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-560
Author(s):  
Joseph Kupfer
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Self ◽  
Object A ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

Sentimentality is usually thought of as a mild vice. Unlike such vices as cruelty, dishonesty, or contemptuousness, sentimentality appears to affect only the individuals who have it, and then, not very adversely. So what if we indulge our taste for prematurely dying heroines or stoic, sweet-natured children? Shedding a tear or feeling a diffuse affection does not seem to hurt anyone, not even ourselves. But because of its impact on the self, sentimentality is a more serious vice than might be suspected.Regardless of the immediate object of our sentimental gaze, the self is also sentimentalized. The self is not only the subject engaged in sentimentalizing activity, but also its mediated object. A sentimentalized sense of self discourages activity and keeps us from dealing with the world directly. The distortion of and absorption in the self is dangerous for sentimental individuals and those with whom they interact. To see why, we must examine the structuring of perception, thought, and emotion which makes up sentimentality. Our inquiry will be sharpened by reference to literary depictions which reflect or encourage sentimental response. Versing us in the ways of sentimentality, some literature may generate our everyday patterns of sentimentalized thought and feeling.

Delving into Horror

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 135-150
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
Definition Of

The springboard for this essay is the author’s encounter with the feeling of horror and her attempts to understand what place horror has in philosophy. The inquiry relies upon Leonid Lipavsky’s “Investigation of Horror” and on various textual plunges into the fanged and clawed (and possibly noumenal) abyss of Nick Land’s work. Various experiences of horror are examined in order to build something of a typology, while also distilling the elements characteristic of the experience of horror in general. The essay’s overall hypothesis is that horror arises from a disruption of the usual ways of determining the boundaries between external things and the self, and this leads to a distinction between three subtypes of horror. In the first subtype, horror begins with the indeterminacy at the boundaries of things, a confrontation with something that defeats attempts to define it and thereby calls into question the definition of the self. In the second subtype, horror springs from the inability to determine one’s own boundaries, a process opposed by the crushing determinacy of the world. In the third subtype, horror unfolds by means of a substitution of one determinacy by another which is unexpected and ungrounded. In all three subtypes of horror, the disturbance of determinacy deprives the subject, the thinking entity, of its customary foundation for thought, and even of an explanation of how that foundation was lost; at times this can lead to impairment of the perception of time and space. Understood this way, horror comes within a hair’s breadth of madness - and may well cross over into it.

scholarly journals Affective Pre-Givenness and Accumulation of Oneself

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-49
Author(s):  
Anatolii S. Sharov
Keyword(s):  
Effective Communication ◽  
The Self ◽  
Genetic Phenomenology ◽  
Passive Synthesis ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

Based on the analysis of the previously unpublished heritage of Eh. Husserl, the so-called “Bernau-manuscripts” in the horizon of genetic phenomenology, a holistic consideration of subjectivity from the affectively pre-given to the Self as a collection of the self is outlined. Passive synthesis and passive genesis are analysed at the level of sensuality, which refers to the pre-predicative experience of affеction and genetically precedes the thematic correlation between the subject and the world. The accumulation of one’s own Self takes place in onto-reflexive processes through effective communication. Where the Self itself is the identical center, the pole with which the entire content of the stream of experiences is correlated.

James and Hume

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumiko Inukai
Keyword(s):  
Critical Point ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ordinary Sense ◽  
Discrete Elements ◽  
Temporal Continuity ◽  
The World ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Pure Experience ◽  
The Subject

James contends that the rejection of conjunctive relations in experience leads Hume to the empirically groundless notion of discrete elements of experience, which James takes as the critical point that differentiates his empiricism from Hume’s. In this chapter, I argue that James is not right about this: Hume not only allows but employs experienced conjunctive relations in his explanations for the generation of our naturally held beliefs about the self and the world. There are indeed striking similarities between their accounts: they both use the relations of resemblance, temporal continuity, constancy, coherence, and regularity, and the self. Also, objects are constructed out of basic elements in their systems—pure experience and perceptions, respectively. Although collapsing the inner and outer worlds of the subject and object into one world (of pure experience for James and of perceptions for Hume) may seem unintuitive, this is exactly what allows them to preserve our ordinary sense of our experiences of objects.

Ethics of security: A genealogical introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-71
Author(s):  
Andrea Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The Self ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Ethical Dimension ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Pierre Hadot

This article analyses the set of ethical questions underlying the emergence of the modern politics of security, as articulated, in particular, in the work of Thomas Hobbes. An ethic is here understood – in line with its ancient philosophical use and the interpretation advanced by authors such as Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot – as a domain of reflections and practices related to the cultivation and conversion of the self ( askēsis, metanoia). The article aims to demonstrate that, besides attending to the physical safety of the state and its citizens, modern apparatuses of security are also crucially implicated in the formation of their subjects as ethical and autonomous individuals. To substantiate this thesis, the article first illustrates how, since the first appearance of the term in the vocabulary of Western thought – and in Seneca’s work in particular – theories of security have been intimately tied to the cultivation of the self. It thus interprets Hobbes’s reflections on the subject as the upshot of a substantive, if implicit, re-articulation of Seneca’s ethic of security, by focusing on the two authors’ respective understandings of (a) autonomy, (b) the world, (c) ascesis, and (d) politics. Overall, it is suggested that the differences between the two authors testify to a wider political-historical shift: in modern regimes of governmentality, the ethical dimension of security no longer defines the rightful exercise of political power, but rather appears as an object of social and economic governance.

scholarly journals From self to identity: a metaphysical shift

2020 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 16036
Author(s):  
Nikolay Rybakov ◽  
Natalya Yarmolich ◽  
Maxim Bakhtin
Keyword(s):  
Information Society ◽  
Selection Procedure ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Complete Loss ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modern Information ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the problem of identity realization in the modern information society. The authors analyze the concept of identity in comparison with the concept of self, reveal the features of the manifestation and deformation of identity, and explore ways to generate multiple identities. The study of the concept of identity is based on the worldview principles inherent in different epochs. An attempt is made to give a complete (holographic) picture of identity, and the question is raised about the criteria for distinguishing genuine identity from non-genuine (pseudo-identity). The relationship between the concepts of "I" and self is studied, identification is presented as a process of predication of "I". In the structure of identity, such features as constancy and variability are distinguished. On this basis, the classical and non-classical identities are distinguished and their characteristics are given. It is shown that the breakup of these components into independent parts results in the complete loss of the object's identity, which leads to its disintegration and death. It is shown that in the conditions of fluid reality, identity turns from a stabilizing factor into a situational one, which encourages the subject to constantly choose an identity. The conditions of transformation of identification into a diffuse process that loses the strict unambiguous binding of the subject to something fixed and defined are considered. Due to this, the identity of the subject is "smeared" all over the world. As a result of this process, the subject loses the need to identify itself with anything: it "collapses" into itself. As a result, there is a contradiction of identification: the multiplicity of identities gives the subject a huge choice between them, at the same time due to the diffusion of identity (its smearing around the world) the selection procedure itself loses its meaning. But if the identity is lost, there are problems with the self, so it turns out to be the end of the existence of the person himself. Therefore, in all the transformations of identities in the modern world, it is important that it is preserved.

scholarly journals MF Husain’s Hindi Autobiography Em. Ef. Husain kī kahānī apnī zubānī

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Consolaro
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Cultural Artefact ◽  
The World ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Subject

Drawing from Elizabeth Grosz’s notion of the body as a socio-cultural artefact and the exterior of the subject bodies as psychically constructed, and Rosi Braidotti’s concept of nomadic identities, in this article I introduce world-renowned Indian painter MF Husain’s verbal and visual autobiography Em. Ef. Husen kī kahānī apnī zubānī as a series of sketches of a performative self, surfing the world in space and time. Bodies and spaces are envisioned as “assemblages or collections of parts” in constant movement, crossing borders and creating relationships with other selves and other spaces. People and places become a catalyst for manifestations of the self in art – MF Husain being foremost a painter – and eventually also in literature. I look for strategies that MF Husain uses in order to construct or deconstruct the self through crossings and linkages. I try to investigate how the self is performed inside and outside private and public spaces, how the complex (sometimes even contradictory) relationship between self and community is portrayed, and how this autobiography does articulate notions of (imagined) community/ies, nationalism, transnational subjectivity, nostalgia.

scholarly journals I overthink—therefore I am not: Altered Sense of Self in Depersonalisation Disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Ciaunica ◽  
Casper Hesp ◽  
Anil Seth ◽  
Jakub Limanowski ◽  
Karl Friston
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Mental Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Physiological Abnormalities ◽  
Sensory Attenuation

This paper considers the phenomenology of depersonalisation disorder, in relation to predictive processing and its associated pathophysiology. To do this, we first establish a few mechanistic tenets of predictive processing that are necessary to talk about phenomenal transparency, mental action, and self as subject. We briefly review the important role of ‘predicting precision’ and how this affords mental action and the loss of phenomenal transparency. We then turn to sensory attenuation and the phenomenal consequences of (pathophysiological) failures to attenuate or modulate sensory precision. We then consider this failure in the context of depersonalisation disorder. The key idea here is that depersonalisation disorder reflects the remarkable capacity to explain perceptual engagement with the world via the hypothesis that “I am an embodied perceiver, but I am not in control of my perception”. We suggest that individuals with depersonalisation may believe that ‘another agent’ is controlling their thoughts, perceptions or actions, while maintaining full insight that the ‘another agent’ is ‘me’ (the self). Finally, we rehearse the predictions of this formal analysis, with a special focus on the psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that may underwrite the phenomenology of depersonalisation.

scholarly journals Ecosocial Philosophy of Education: Ecologizing the Opinionated Self

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jani Pulkki ◽  
Jan Varpanen ◽  
John Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Problems ◽  
Epistemic Humility ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
Flexible Boundaries

AbstractWhile human beings generally act prosocially towards one another — contra a Hobbesian “war of all against all” — this basic social courtesy tends not to be extended to our relations with the more-than-human world. Educational philosophy is largely grounded in a worldview that privileges human-centered conceptions of the self, valuing its own opinions with little regard for the ecological realities undergirding it. This hyper-separation from the ‘society of all beings’ is a foundational cause of our current ecological crises. In this paper, we develop an ecosocial philosophy of education (ESPE) based on the idea of an ecological self. We aspire to consolidate voices from deep ecology and ecofeminism for conceptualizing education in terms of being responsible to and for, a complex web of interdependent relations among human and more-than-human beings. By analyzing the notion of opinions in light of Gilles Deleuze’s critique of the ‘dogmatic image of thought,’ we formulate three aspects of ESPE capable of supporting an ecological as opposed to an egoistic conception of the self: (i) rather than dealing with fixed concepts, ESPE supports adaptable and flexible boundaries between the self and the world; (ii) rather than fixating on correct answers, ESPE focuses on real-life problems shifting our concern from the self to the world; and (iii) rather than supporting arrogance, EPSE cultivates an epistemic humility grounded in our ecological embeddedness in the world. These approaches seek to enable an education that cultivates a sense of self that is less caught up with arbitrary, egoistic opinions of the self and more attuned to the ecological realities constituting our collective life-worlds.

Surviving a natural disaster as a semiotic reformation of the self and worldview

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimrod L. Delante
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Social Consciousness ◽  
The Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Symbolic Images ◽  
Natural Calamity

Abstract Theoretically, this study is framed within the semiotic tradition of communication theory, which theorizes communication as the intersubjective mediation by signs. Methodologically, this study is guided by Peirce’s semiotic ideas, especially his writing about the commens and commind, or the sign and the object, and the power of a community (constitutive of the self as researcher and the self as one with participants) as the final interpretant performing the process of sensemaking. Results showed how the survivors of a natural calamity symbolically interacted with such calamity, and how this led to a reformation of the way they view themselves and the world. The survivors’ symbolic images captured in narratives, in sketches and drawings, and in poetry helped them to reframe their sense of self and their worldview by believing in common sense and intuition, and by valuing the power of courage, initiative, preparedness, hope, and resilience. An unfortunate irony emerged in their symbolic interaction with the disaster such that their sinning and self-inflicted blame made them think they were worthy of punishment. Nonetheless, this unfortunate irony will change if the survivors continue to reflect on their civic roles, interrogate their environmental and political contexts, and expand their awareness and social consciousness. As these unfold, the survivors will be able to accomplish empowerment, emancipation, and an independent mind.

scholarly journals Thinking Fantasies: Visions and Voices in Medieval English Secular Writing

2020 ◽  
pp. 91-116
Author(s):  
Corinne Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
The Self ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Creative Potential ◽  
Dream Vision ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychological Models ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Dream Theory

AbstractThe creative engagement with visions and voices in medieval secular writing is the subject of this essay. Visionary experience is a prominent trope in late medieval imaginative fiction, rooted in long-standing literary conventions of dream vision, supernatural encounter and revelation, as well as in medical, theological and philosophical preoccupations of the period. Literary texts repeatedly depict supernatural experience of different kinds—dreams and prophecies, voices and visions, marvels and miracles, otherworldly and ghostly visitants. In part, such narratives respond to an impulse towards escapism and interest in the fantastic, and they have typically been seen as non-mimetic. Yet they also engage with serious ideas concerning visionary experience and the ways in which individual lives may open onto the supernatural—taking up the possibilities suggested both by dream theory and by the theological and psychological models of the period. Examples drawn from a range of Middle English romances and from Chaucer’s romance writing demonstrate the powerful creative potential of voices and visions. Such experiences open onto fearful and fascinating questions concerning forces beyond the self and their intersections with the processes of individual thinking, feeling and being in the world, from trauma to revelation to romantic love.

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