Rethinking Non-self

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tse-fu Kuan
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chinese Translation ◽  
Buddhist Text ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe

Scholars have pointed out that the arguments for not-self (anatt?, or “non-self”) recurring in the Buddhist texts are meant to refute the “self” (?tman) in the Upani?ads. The Buddha’s denial of the self, however, was not only pointed at Brahmanism, but also confronted various ?rama?ic trends of thought against Brahmanism. This paper investigates the extant three versions of a Buddhist text which records a debate between the Buddha and Saccaka, an adherent of a certain ?rama?ic sect, over the relationship of the self and the five aggregates (khandha). There exist divergences among the three versions in regard to the account of this debate. The account in sutta 35 of the Majjhima Nik?ya is generally consistent with that in s?tra 110 of the Sa?yukta ?gama in Chinese translation, whereas s?tra 10 of Chapter 37 of the Ekottarika ?gama in Chinese translation tells a very different story. Judging from Saccaka’s title, Niga??haputta, and his background as given in the Pali commentary, he was an adherent of Jainism. This paper demonstrates that Saccaka’s view, which was refuted by the Buddha, as stated in the two similar versions has nothing to do with Jainism, but rather it is an “invention” created by distorting Brahmanical thought. This “invention” has led the Pali commentaries and contemporary scholars to interpret the ‘self’ denied by the Buddha as what comes under one’s mastery or control, and to understand the statement “Each of the five aggregates is not self” in the Buddhist texts as denying the idea that each of the five aggregates can be seen as what comes under control. This, however, misses the point. The mainstream thought in India at that time conceived the ‘self’ or the essence of the individual or of the universe as a ‘controller’, and it is this concept that the Buddha exerted all his energy to overturn. Therefore, the account in those two versions of the text apparently has some mistake. As to the Ekottarika ?gama version of the text, Saccaka’s view as stated therein is very different from what is found in the above two versions. An examination of this version shows that the views rebutted by the Buddha are very similar to those of the ?j?vikas. Since the Buddhist texts frequently confuse the ?j?vikas with the Jains (Niga??ha), it is very likely that Saccaka was actually an adherent of the ?j?vika faith and that this discourse is meant to criticize the ?j?vika doctrines. Since the Ekottarika ?gama version seems to make better sense, this version may be fairly close to the original account, while the other two versions have considerably deviated from the original. By comparing these three versions of the text, I also attempt to explore some important issues regarding the sectarian development of Buddhism, and to shed some light on the unique values of the Chinese Ekottarika ?gama, which is, in terms of sectarian affiliation, significantly distant from the Pali Majjhima Nik?ya and the Chinese Sa?yukta ?gama that belong to two closely related schools.

scholarly journals The spectrum of subjectal forms: Towards an Integral Semiotics

Semiotica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (235) ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Sebastián Mariano Giorgi
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Integral Model ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Collective Dimension

AbstractWhat is the relationship between consciousness and semiosis? This article attempts to provide some clues to answer this question. For doing it, we explore the application of the Integral model to semiotics; that is to say, the metatheory that integrates the inside, the outside, the individual, and the collective dimension, on one hand and, on the other hand, the levels of development, states and types of consciousness. Our principal hypothesis is that the semiosis depends on the “subjectal” form where the self is located temporarily or permanently. To validate it, we analyze the way in which the universe of meaning changes between the self located below the subject (as a form), and the self located beyond of it. According to the Integral semiotics point of view outlined here, the relationship between consciousness and the meaning has to do with the reduction or expansion of the subjectal spectrum, and the trajectory of the self along of it.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Walden
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The book’s epilogue explores the place of musical portraiture in the context of posthumous depictions of the deceased, and in relation to the so-called posthuman condition, which describes contemporary changes in the relationship of the individual with such aspects of life as technology and the body. It first examines Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to view how Bernard Herrmann’s score relates to issues of portraiture and the depiction of the identity of the deceased. It then considers the work of cyborg composer-artist Neil Harbisson, who has aimed, through the use of new capabilities of hybridity between the body and technology, to convey something akin to visual likeness in his series of Sound Portraits. The epilogue shows how an examination of contemporary views of posthumous and posthuman identities helps to illuminate the ways music represents the self throughout the genre of musical portraiture.

Self, Indian theories of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Rukmani
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Spiritual Energy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Ultimate Principle ◽  
Ultimate Nature

Hindu thought traces its different conceptions of the self to the earliest extant Vedic sources composed in the Sanskrit language. The words commonly used in Hindu thought and religion for the self are jīva (life), ātman (breath), jīvātman (life-breath), puruṣa (the essence that lies in the body), and kṣetrajña (one who knows the body). Each of these words was the culmination of a process of inquiry with the purpose of discovering the ultimate nature of the self. By the end of the ancient period, the personal self was regarded as something eternal which becomes connected to a body in order to exhaust the good and bad karma it has accumulated in its many lives. This self was supposed to be able to regain its purity by following different spiritual paths by means of which it can escape from the circle of births and deaths forever. There is one more important development in the ancient and classical period. The conception of Brahman as both immanent and transcendent led to Brahman being identified with the personal self. The habit of thought that tried to relate every aspect of the individual with its counterpart in the universe (Ṛg Veda X. 16) had already prepared the background for this identification process. When the ultimate principle in the subjective and objective spheres had arrived at their respective ends in the discovery of the ātman and Brahman, it was easy to equate the two as being the same spiritual ‘energy’ that informs both the outer world and the inner self. This equation had important implications for later philosophical growth. The above conceptions of the self-identity question find expression in the six systems of Hindu thought. These are known as āstikadarśanas or ways of seeing the self without rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Often, one system or the other may not explicitly state their allegiance to the Vedas, but unlike Buddhism or Jainism, they did not openly repudiate Vedic authority. Thus they were āstikadarśanas as opposed to the others who were nāstikadarśanas. The word darśana for philosophy is also significant if one realizes that philosophy does not end with only an intellectual knowing of one’s self-identity but also culminates in realizing it and truly becoming it.

Psychoanalysis and analytical psychology: a paradoxical relationship

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Trevi
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Psychology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Theory ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Psychoanalysis and analytical psychology have a paradoxical relationship which suggests their complementarity. First, the hypothesis that Jung's first aspiration was to create a vast and inclusive psychology able to comprehend psychoanalysis as a specific case is made and explored through Jungian typological theory and complex theory. Then, under the feature of opposition, it is argued that analytical psychology developed a new idea of the relationship of the individual in relation to the culture as a complex process co-determining the imaginal life of the individual together with his personal infant vicissitudes. Thus, a complex and paradoxical image describes the relationship between analytical psychology and psychoanalysis, where each of them represents a containing horizon for the other and at the same time a germinal nucleus that is contained in each by the other.

The Tolstoy Connection in Bakhtin

PMLA ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caryl Emerson
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Reader ◽  
Death In Literature ◽  
Binary Model ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Mikhail Bakhtin's work on Dostoevsky is well known. Less familiar, perhaps, is Bakhtin's attitude toward the other great Russian nineteenth-century novelist, Leo Tolstoy. This essay explores that “Tolstoy connection,” both as a means for interrogating Bakhtin's analytic categories and as a focus for evaluating the larger tradition of “Tolstoy versus Dostoevsky.” Bakhtin is not a particularly good reader of Tolstoy. But he does make provocative use of the familiar binary model to pursue his most insistent concerns: monologism versus dialogism, the relationship of authors to their characters, the role of death in literature and life, and the concept of the self. Bakhtin's comments on these two novelists serve as a good starting point for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Bakhtinian model in general and suggest ways one might recast the dialogue between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky on somewhat different, more productive ground.

The Individual and Society

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bevir
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Mutual Dependence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

What is the relationship of the individual to society? This paper argues it is one of mutual dependence. Individuals cannot hold beliefs or perform actions other than against the background of particular social structures. And social structures only influence, as opposed to restricting or deciding, the beliefs and decisions of individuals, so social structures can arise only out of performances by individuals. The grammar of our concepts shows it is a mistake to postulate a moment of origin when either individuals or social structures must have existed prior to the other. Our concepts of an individual and a social structure are vague, and this allows for their existence being dependent on one another.

scholarly journals Cossos en reclusió i cavant. Experiències i representacions emblemàtiques sobre la persona

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Jordi Morell Rovira
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Common Practices ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the relationship of the person with the hole through both literal and metaphorical situations. On the one hand, it points up the body in seclusion and suspended in a time interval, as in the case of the accident at the mine in San José (Chile) or works by artists like J. Wall, G. Schneider or R. Ondák. In this way, opposed feelings evoke the experiences of waiting and/or punishment, which are explanatory of a confined body or a hole. Literature, cinema and art deal with these events from multiple aspects, which become existential allegories about the individual. On the other hand, the act of digging gains prominence as a symbol of work, but also of the absurd. Recalling the ambivalence that may suggest a person making a hole, this article carries out a drift through works by artists of different generations and contexts, such as C. Burden, M. Heizer, F. Miralles, Geliti, S. Sierra, F. Alÿs, M. Salum, X. Ristol or N. Güell. A series of clearly performative or conceptual works, where the act of digging, drilling, burying or unburying become common practices that show the diversity of meanings and intentions.

Empires within and without: the conquest of the self and the Florentine avant-garde

Modern Italy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Bertrand Marilier
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Intellectual Formation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Intense Debate

This article examines the relationship of the young Giovanni Papini to the notion of imperialism. The period of Papini's intellectual formation was a time of intense debate among the Italian intelligentsia concerning imperialism and its relationship to nation and culture. He joined the conversation with a distinctive interpretation of the idea, one that could at once make him heir apparent to the tradition of Umbertian nationalism, while also rejecting the positivist slant of his forebears. William James's porous conception of the subject and Papini's sense of his own fragmented subjectivity provided the ground for a psychological understanding of imperialism: one that relied on knowledge and appreciation, which translated into literature at the individual level, and into culture at that of the nation. Ultimately, however, disappointments abroad, the demands of nationalist politics, and Papini's own avant-garde posture, led him to abandon his intellectual empire in favour of a more concrete one.

Sex Differences in Self-Esteem and Parental Behavior

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mimi Milner Elrod ◽  
Sedahlia Jasper Crase
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Parental Behavior ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mothers And Fathers ◽  
Parental Treatment ◽  
Paper And Pencil ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship of reported behaviors of both mothers and fathers to the self-esteem of 4- and 5-yr.-old children, with the sex of the child as a variable, was examined. With this intention, the following questions were asked: (1) Do parents behave differently toward boys and girls? (2) Does parental treatment of boys and girls relate to children's self-esteem? (3) Does one sex have higher self-esteem than the other? 49 boys and 45 girls were tested for self-esteem; a paper-and-pencil inventory was used to assess their parents' behavior. Parents indicated that they behaved differently toward boys and girls as follows: fathers interact more with sons than with daughters; mothers interact more with daughters than do fathers but also interact more with sons than do fathers and interact more similarly with boys and girls than do fathers. The data also indicate that some behaviors of mothers are significantly related to high self-esteem in girls while similar or even the same behaviors of fathers are significantly related to low self-esteem in boys and girls. Boys had higher self-esteem than girls.

In the openness of “own” being (on the example of Leo Tolstoy’s novel ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’)

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Kasavina
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Existential Anxiety ◽  
Terminal Stage ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Boundary Situation

The article considers the work of Leo N. Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyich in the context of the concept of boundary situations by K. Jaspers; the phenomena of “intercession in death”; one’s own and non-own Being-toward-death by M. Heidegger; the stages of personal acceptance of death which were identified by E. Kubler-Ross on the basis of psychotherapeutic work with incurable patients. The situation of Ivan Ilyich shows the position of a person in the face of existential anxiety and threats of loneliness, a sense of meaninglessness, despair, actualized by the boundary situation of death. The dynamics of the state of the novel’s protagonist is interpreted as the formation of “one’s own Being-towards-death”, which has the character of being in relation to “one’s own ability of being” (M. Heidegger). Presence is completely surrendered to itself, essentially open to itself. Loneliness acts as a way to open existence. In the openness of presence for the individual the world opens itself, the other and others in their unique way of being. Ivan Ilyich experiences this before his death as an epiphanic phenomenon, which unfolds the destiny of the personality, leading it beyond the limits of only his or her life and suffering. The interaction of the protagonist with others is considered from the perspective of the problems identified by E. Kuebler-Ross in the relationship of doctors, relatives and patients in the terminal stage of their illness and the transition to the acception of their own finiteness, which acquires the character of historicity.

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