Copula: The Logic of the Sexual Relation

Hypatia ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-114
Author(s):  
Robyn Ferrell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Difference ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physical Assault ◽  
Sexual Relation ◽  
Heterosexual Relationships ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
The Right

This paper argues that the slogans “A Woman's Right to Choose” and “The Personal is the Political” typify different traditions within feminist thinking; one emphasizing rights and equality, the other the unconscious and the personal. The author responds to both traditions by bringing together mind and body, and reason and emotion, via the figure of the copula. The copula expresses an alternative model of identity which indicates that value can be produced only in relation.Let us say that the problem is violence. At its most naive: how can the sexual relation, which is supposedly full of love, be violent?I mean the sexual relation in its resonances and ambiguity—to indicate the relation between the sexes, and the relation between lovers. In no way can the relation be confined to love, either heterosexual or homosexual, since it is often a contest. It cannot be reduced solely to a social relation, because in one of its aspects it addresses the most intimate subjectivity.In a certain feminist lifestyle advocacy, those women who are in same sex relations avoid sexual violence by avoiding men, and those who are in heterosexual relationships strive to find the “right kind”—that is, relationships of respectful and supportive love—rejecting all signs of aggression, from sexist disparagement and emotional cruelty to sexual humiliation and physical assault, as “abuse.”Strangely, this dichotomy does not explain the proximity of passion and aggression, whether in love between men and women or in same-sex relationships between feminist women. As rational counsel, it resists the important sense in which the erotic is, and is even valued as, the excess of the rational. And as an analysis of the oppression of women it defeats itself, for to insist on masculinity as violence itself, and/or on the sexual relation as properly governed by reason, seems to miss the point of both love and feminism.Stranger still, feminisms, which set out to address and redress the oppression of women, have become rivalrous themselves. Are these aggressions a legacy of the intellectual world they must take place in (but if so, why is the academic world so full of passion, when it so thoroughly divorces ideas from affects?). Have we overlooked an aspect of the relation between sisters? Feminism has not addressed the question of aggression in feminism as anything more than contamination.Perhaps, after all, the thing that feminism has not yet successfully addressed is love. The “battle between the sexes” has not rendered the ambivalence of the heterosexual relation. As a species of theory, feminism has relished the rigor of distinction and has not found it easy to tolerate the proximity of opposites.And yet, in evoking the body, some feminisms approach closer to this difficulty. It remains to take up the relation between the body and the concept more thoroughly, in order to find out whether sexual difference could ever be philosophical.

Jean-Luc Nancy and the Extension of the Mind

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-362
Author(s):  
Rona Cohen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Sexual Relation ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Point Of Departure

This essay explores Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophical return to Cartesian philosophy, specifically to Descartes’s preoccupation with the relation of mind and body, as a fertile ground from which to develop an ontology of the body in (1992). It explores Nancy’s reasons for revisiting the Cartesian thinking framework, which on the face of it, is of little value to an ontology of the body. I argue that Descartes’s impasse in accounting for both mind/body dualism and their union constitutes Nancy’s point of departure in constructing an ontology of the body in , thereby transforming Descartes’s impasse into a productive aporia, in the Derridean sense of the term. To fully understand the significance of the notion of “relation” in Nancy’s’ philosophy, I turn to his reading of Lacan’s famous aphorism “there is no sexual relation” and explore its ontological implications.

WHAT IS SEX? AN INTERVIEW WITH ALENKA ZUPANČIČ

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Oedipus Complex ◽  
Heterosexual Relationships ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Pleasure Principle ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Ontological Problem

In her latest book What is Sex? (MIT Press, 2017) Alenka Zupančič avoids such tiresome topics as heterosexual relationships or the gender binary (and gender altogether) and instead cogently explains sexual difference, the elusive “beyond” of the pleasure principle, infantile sexuality, the materiality of signifiers, the hole in being, the non-coincidence of truth and knowledge, primal repression, passion, the event, and the political importance of psychoanalysis. Sex for Zupančič is an ontological problem, co-extensive with a disturbance in reality, a signifying gap and structural impediment. Sex is attached to that which cannot be fully known or embodied and is therefore directly related to the unconscious. Subjectivity emerges from within the fault entailed in signification, as does surplus enjoyment. Important here, too, is the well-worn notion, but with a twist, that there is no reality prior or external to discourse. Zupančič reminds us that nature is not a pure and full presence before the arrival of the human but an object produced by and for science. The Real is an effect of language: the signifier invades the signified and alters it from within. Finally, and perhaps most mind-blowingly, the human in her formulation is not that which is merely in excess of the animal (dressing it up in language and culture, let’s say) but, rather, an unfinished and dysfunctional dimension: humanity as a veil that simultaneously points and gives form to animals’ ontological incompleteness. The interview covers these complex ideas as well as other pressing matters: the disappearance of the hysteric, the desert of the post-oedipal (the only one who managed to escape the Oedipus complex, Lacan noted, was Oedipus himself), and the status of love at the end of analysis.

scholarly journals Extending What We Can Talk About

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Rod Sandle
Keyword(s):  
Ludwig Wittgenstein ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Scientific Context ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Donald Winnicott

Spirit has often been separated from body and mind and treated as not amenable to scientific study. A big influence in this regard was Ludwig Wittgenstein who, in 1922, came to the conclusion that the language of science was not able to talk about the mystical, saying, “There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself; it is the mystical” (p. 90). With the development of the science of the human mind and human relationships, spirit is perhaps becoming more amenable again to study. Alexander Lowen (1988) brought the concept of “spirit” under scientific and therapeutic observation through the concept of bio-energy, working with the body as well as the mind. Donald Winnicott (1953, 1960), through the idea of transitional phenomena, placed the language of the mystical in a psychodynamic and scientific context. Alan Schore (2012) has provided a neurophysiological way of talking about how the unconscious process contributes to human development through relationship. Patanjali’s Yogasutra, compiled 2,000 years ago, covers similar ground in a way which remains useful and relevant and which helps in understanding the distinction between mind and body and spirit. Waitara Tēnā ia anei i te nuinga o te wā wehea ai te wairua mai i te tinana me te hinengaro, ā, meatia ai kāre e whaiwāhi hai kuapapa mātai hinengaro. I te tau 1922, ka puta te whakataunga a Ludwig Wittgenstein kāre e taea e te reo pūtaiao te kōrero mō te tūāhu, arā, ko tāna, ‘Āe ra hoki! Kāre he kupu hai whakaahua. Koianei tōna tohu atua’ (w. 90). Kua whaneke ake nei te taiao o te hinengaro me te whakawhanaungatanga, kua rata haere pea te wā wānanga wairua. Nā Alexander Lowen (1998) i mau te ariā ‘wairua’ ki raro i te tirohanga mātai hinengaro mātai haumanu mā te ariā pūngao koiora, mahiatahitia nei te tinana me te hinengaro. Nā Donald Winnicott (1953, 1960), i whakauru te reo ā-wairua ki roto i te horopaki mātauranga pūtaiao, whakahihiko hinengaro. Kua homai e Alan Schore he ara kōrerohanga mātai whaiaroaro mō te hatepenga mauri moe ki te whanaketanga o te tangata puta mai i te whakawhanaungatanga. He rite tonu te papa pōtaea e tā Patanjali Yogasutra, i whakaemihia rua mano tau ki muri, ā, e hāngai tonu ana e whai hua tonu ana hoki me te āwhina i te mātauranga whai haere i te rangatiratanga o te hinengaro te tinana me te wairua.

Variations of the Mixed Discourse

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Jaquet
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Shed Light

Lastly, on the basis of this definition, the author shows how affects shed light on the body-mind relationship and provide an opportunity to produce a mixed discourse that focuses, by turns, on the mental, physical, or psychophysical aspect of affect. The final chapter has two parts: – An analysis of the three categories of affects: mental, physical, and psychophysical – An examination of the variations of Spinoza’s discourse Some affects, such as satisfaction of the mind, are presented as mental, even though they are correlated with the body. Others, such as pain or pleasure, cheerfulness (hilaritas) or melancholy are mainly rooted in the body, even though the mind forms an idea of them. Still others are psychophysical, such as humility or pride, which are expressed at once as bodily postures and states of mind. These affects thus show us how the mind and body are united, all the while expressing themselves differently and specifically, according to their own modalities.

Our Bodies, Whose Property?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Human Organs ◽  
Property Owners ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right

No one wants to be treated like an object, regarded as an item of property, or put up for sale. Yet many people frame personal autonomy in terms of self-ownership, representing themselves as property owners with the right to do as they wish with their bodies. Others do not use the language of property, but are similarly insistent on the rights of free individuals to decide for themselves whether to engage in commercial transactions for sex, reproduction, or organ sales. Drawing on analyses of rape, surrogacy, and markets in human organs, this book challenges notions of freedom based on ownership of our bodies and argues against the normalization of markets in bodily services and parts. The book explores the risks associated with metaphors of property and the reasons why the commodification of the body remains problematic. The book asks what is wrong with thinking of oneself as the owner of one's body? What is wrong with making our bodies available for rent or sale? What, if anything, is the difference between markets in sex, reproduction, or human body parts, and the other markets we commonly applaud? The book contends that body markets occupy the outer edges of a continuum that is, in some way, a feature of all labor markets. But it also emphasizes that we all have bodies, and considers the implications of this otherwise banal fact for equality. Bodies remind us of shared vulnerability, alerting us to the common experience of living as embodied beings in the same world. Examining the complex issue of body exceptionalism, the book demonstrates that treating the body as property makes human equality harder to comprehend.

ANALISIS YURIDIS NORMATIF PUTUSAN PERKARA MAHKAMAH AGUNG KONSTITUSI RI No. 004/PUU-II/2004

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Doni Budiono
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Military Justice ◽  
State Administration ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Rules ◽  
The Right ◽  
Tax Court

The  authority  of justice in Indonesia  is executed by  the Supreme Courts and  the  justice  boards/body under the Supreme Courts, including  the general  justice, religious affairs justice, military justice,  state administration  justice,  and  the Constitution Court. According to  certainty in  the Act of  Tax Court, Article1, clause  (5),  tax  dispute   refers to the legal dispute arising in the  taxation  affairs between the  tax payer or the  body  responsible for the  tax with   the government   executives  ( Directorate General of Tax) as the consequence of   the issue of  the decree for the  appeal  to the Tax  Court in accordance with the  tax Act, including the  charge  against the  execution of collection   in accordance with the  Act of Tax Collection by force. The  formation of Tax Court is  designed by  the Executives, in this case, the  Department of Finance, specifically  the Directorate   General  of Tax  which has the right to issue  law  more technical about  tax accord to Article 14,  letter A,  President Decree  no. 44  year 1974,  concerning the  basic  organization of the Department.  Based on  it,  it  is clear that  in addition to execute the government  rules and policy,  this body  has to execute judicial   rules and policy. This is against the  principles of  Judicative  Power/Authority in Indonesia,  which   clearly states that this body  should be under the Supreme Court.   Therefore. It is suggested that   the Act  No UU no.14 Year 2012 concerning  Tax Court   be revised  in accordance with the system of  Power Division  of Justice  as  stated in 45 Constitutions.

Homosexuality in K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams: Demythologising the Imaginings and Universalising the Reality

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adetunji Kazeem Adebiyi-Adelabu
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Black African ◽  
Sex Preference ◽  
National Allegory ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Sex Orientation ◽  
The Right

Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams offers an extensive treatment of homosexuality, a preoccupation which, until recently, is rare in black African fiction. On this account, as well as its depth and openness, the work has attracted some critical attention. It has been read from a masculinity perspective, as a coming-out novel, as a national allegory, as a work that challenges the notion of fixed sexuality, as a work that normalises same-sex sexuality, and so forth. Unlike these studies, this article examines the representation and disquisition around same-sex preference in the novel, with a view to demonstrating how some myths about homosexuality are exploded in the groundbreaking work, and showing that the narrative could also be apprehended as intellectual advocacy for the right to same-sex orientation.

Ayurveda dietary guidelines during Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1477-1481
Author(s):  
Ishwari Gaikwad ◽  
Priyanka Shelotkar
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Dietary Guidelines ◽  
The Body ◽  
Daily Regimen ◽  
Web Page ◽  
Healthy State ◽  
Health Disorders ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

The current world situation is both frightening and alarming due to the massive disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The next few days are censorious as we need to be very precautious in our daily regimen as well as dietary habits. Ayurveda offers knowledge about food based on certain reasoning. Indecent food custom is the chief cause for the rising development of health disorders in the current era. In classical texts of Ayurveda, the concept of diet explained well, ranging from their natural sources, properties and specific utility in pathological as well as physiological manner. In this work, the review of the relevant literature of Ahara (Diet) was carried out from Charak Samhita and other texts, newspapers, articles, web page related to the same.  Every human being is unique with respect to his Prakriti (Physical and mental temperament), Agni (Digestive capacity), Koshtha  (Nature of bowel) etc. For that reason, the specificity of the individual should be kept in mind. Ahara, when consumed in the appropriate amount at the right moment following all Niyamas (Guidelines) given in Ayurveda texts, gives immunity and keeps the body in a healthy state during pandemics such as Covid-19. Ultimately, this will help the human body to maintain its strength for life. This article reviews the concept of diet viz. combination of foods, their quantity and quality, methods of preparation and processing, which are to be followed during pandemics and are essential in maintenance and endorsement of health and preclusion of diseases.

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