Aesthetic cultivation and creative ascesis: Transcultural reflections on the late Foucault

Human Affairs ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Heubel
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Theory Formation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Theoretical Structure ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

AbstractFoucault’s understanding of the history and contemporary significance of ascetic practices or exercises of cultivation (ascesis) differs significantly from attempts which consider the renewal of asceticism in spiritual or even religious terms. This paper tries to show that he thought about related problems from the perspective of aesthetic cultivation. The first part will discuss his analysis of sexuality within the broader context of his theory-formation and elaborate on the theoretical structure of his concept of self-cultivation. In the second part I will situate the idea of creative ascesis in a broader historical context. The third part will provide a preliminary perspective on the transcultural significance of relating Foucault and contemporary Chinese philosophy.

The Making of a Cause Lawyer

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Meierhenrich
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Nazi Era

This chapter provides the biographical and historical context necessary for understanding Fraenkel and his time. The analysis is organized into three sections: his early years, the Weimar Years, and the Nazi years. In the first section, I trace Fraenkel’s upbringing in a secular household influenced by the so-called Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah; explore the origins of his life-long predilection for social democracy; and recount the intellectual effects of his military service in World War I. In the second section, I reconstruct Fraenkel’s education and socialization as a young lawyer and interpret Fraenkel’s most important Weimar-era writings. I explicate the roles they played in preparing the ground for the writing of The Dual State. In the third section, finally, I commence my analysis of Fraenkel’s Nazi-era thought and conduct up until his escape to freedom in 1938.

Women’s Liberation and the Agrarian Question: Insights from Peasant Movements in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-40
Author(s):  
Archana Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Agrarian Question ◽  
The Third ◽  
Peasant Movements ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores some questions arising from recent debates on patriarchy and capitalism. The focus is on the role of women in communist-led peasant movements in India and the implications of such struggles on the project of women’s emancipation. The first section lays out a framework for discussing the interface between class consciousness and the anti-patriarchal project, whereby patriarchy is located within the structural contradictions arising out of the contestations within the process of accumulation. The second section documents the historical context, focusing on the relationship between land reforms and social transformation in semi-feudal and early capitalist contexts, and analyzes the extent to which communist-led struggles are anti-patriarchal in character. The third section turns to the participation of women in the contemporary struggles of both agricultural workers and peasant movements and underlines the new emerging dialectics between women’s and peasant organizations under a neoliberal state and with deepening agrarian distress.

Desire for Self-healing

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 317-335
Author(s):  
Ngar-sze Lau
Keyword(s):  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Self Healing ◽  
Core Knowledge ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Core ◽  
Physical Suffering ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Core Practice ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Abstract This practice report describes how Chinese meditators understand the “four foundations of mindfulness” (satipaṭṭhāna, sinianzhu 四念住) as a remedy for both mental and physical suffering. In the tradition of Theravāda Buddhism, satipaṭṭhāna is particularly recognized as the core knowledge for understanding the relationship between mind and body, and the core practice leading to liberation from suffering. Based on interviews with Chinese meditation practitioners, this study develops three main themes concerning how they have alleviated afflictions through the practice of satipaṭṭhāna. The first theme highlights how practitioners learn to overcome meditation difficulties with “right attitude.” The second theme is about practicing awareness with “six sense doors” open in order to facilitate the balance of the “five faculties.” The third theme explores how practitioners cultivate daily life practice through an understanding of the nature of mind and body as impermanent and as not-self. This paper details how these themes and embodied practices of satipaṭṭhāna constitute ways of self-healing for urban educated Buddhists in the contemporary Chinese context.

scholarly journals Kreatywność za drutem kolczastym: archeologia i sztuka okopowa z pierwszowojennego obozu jenieckiego w Czersku (woj. pomorskie)

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 105-136
Author(s):  
Dawid Kobiałka
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Special Category

This article discusses the results of archaeological and anthropological research concerning material remains of a prisoner of war camp in Czersk (Pomeranian province, Poland) (Kriegsgefangenenlager Czersk). In the first part, I sketch a broader historical context related to building and functioning of the camp in forests around Czersk between 1914–1919. After that, the role and meaning of  archaeological research on such type of archaeological sites are presented. In the third part, I focus on a very special category of the camp heritage which is called trench art. The last part of this paper is a case study where an assemblage of objects classified as trench art that was found at the camp is described and interpreted. This text aims at highlighting the value of such prisoners and camp’s heritage. Such material culture is a material memory of extraordinary prisoners’ creativity behind barbed wire. It makes one aware of how every piece of trash, rubbish was re-cycled during day-to-day life behind barbed wire.

The Institutional Struggle

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Labor Relations ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The Third

Chapter 9 continues the investigation into the labor-capital balance of power, addressing the third of the three planes of struggle, that of institutional struggle. Focusing on the labor courts in a historical context, the chapter asserts that the courts are on the defensive, accused of being too “biased” in labor’s favor, as too “ideological” in contrast to the Finance Ministry’s “objective expertise”. It argues that attempts to limit the labor courts’ power act de facto to undermine collective labor relations. The labor courts, then, are on the front line of attempts to undermine organized labor by weakening the institutions and frameworks within which it operates.

Mao, Lin Biao and the Fifth Encirclement Campaign

1980 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 250-280
Author(s):  
Chi-hsi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The Face ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

In more respects than one, the Fifth Encirclement Campaign launched by Chiang Kai-shek in 1933–34 against the Jiangxi Soviet may be considered as an important landmark in contemporary Chinese history. From a purely military standpoint, in view of its scope and the particular means used, it is undoubtedly the first modern Chinese campaign. General Jacques Guillermaz points out, quite rightly, that “the methodical nature of the operations, the importance given to fire power and logistical resources, and the tactical use of large and small units all bring the Fifth Campaign closer to certain phases of the 1914–18 war than to traditional Chinese civil wars.” Precisely because of its scope and its methodical nature, the Fifth Campaign, rather than the first four, led Mao, after the Long March, to evolve a theory of guerrilla warfare which “has broken out of the bounds of tactics to knock at the gates of strategy.” This theory, applied first of all to the war against Japan and later to the Third Revolutionary Civil War, was to change the face of China.

scholarly journals Sosio-historiese konteks en temas in drie Joodse apokaliptiese geskrifte

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Nel
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Apocalyptic Literature ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
High Age

The socio-historical context and themes in three Jewish apocalyptic writings Exile changed the Jewish world view. Before the exile this world view could be characterised as static and unchanging. However, the orderly world was threatened by powers of chaos, God guaranteed that order would be upheld. During the exile the view originated that history would end in a new future when salvation would come for some Jews. Salvation was regarded as consisting of health, high age and peace. On the basis of this changed world view apocalyptic writings of the third and second centuries BC developed. Apocalyptic literature pretended to reveal the true interpretation of the prophets’ message. The assumption was that what happened in heaven determined what would happen on earth. God revealed what was happening in heaven to the apocalypticist. The setting was domination by foreign powers and the wish to be free. Apocalyptic literature was pessimistic about the chances to be saved from the foreign powers of history, and foresaw an end to history and the known world. In the final confrontation God would defeat Satan and his powers and this would lead to the final transformation of the world.

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