scholarly journals Learning to Circumvent the Limitations of the Written-Self: The Rhetorical Benefits of Poetic Fragmentation and Internet ‘Catfishing’

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Punschke Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Composition Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Internet Culture ◽  
Moral Accountability ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

One of the most complex relationships we have to convey as humans is the written identification of that which we call the self. Despite the fact that we are multifaceted beings, contemporary lingual limitations often force the perception of the individual as a definitive entity through three fundamental normative communication standards: authority, authenticity and moral accountability. This essay examines the resulting paradoxes of writerly identity in relation to these constructs, and simultaneously proposes that the way to rectify such issues is to embrace disparate identity performances of writings past and present.Using research from multiple disciplines, including sociolinguistics, literary theory, and composition studies, this essay asserts that there is a great deal to be learned from the practices of two unlikely genres of written communication— Specifically, it draws a parallel between current internet culture and poetics, as the phenomenon of “catfishing” (or creating and portraying complex fictional identities through online profiles) parallels earlier Modernist acts of fragmentation through poetry. Therefore, this paper argues that although their motives may differ considerably, both endeavours are useful rhetorical performances in that they provide a practical framework for circumventing common lingual identity traps. Ultimately, it suggests that these unconventional perspectives of the “impersonal” in and through writing can help us to (re)approach the methodology of lingual identification and those written performances of the self (professional and everyday) that may not properly serve us.

The Vulnerability of Integrity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. K. Ing
Keyword(s):  
Social Value ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
Value Conflict ◽  
Value Conflicts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Confucian Self ◽  
The Way

This chapter begins with a description of the Confucian self and then discusses the porous nature of this self with regard to the connections and boundaries that are seen to exist between the individual and others. The majority focuses on integrity, which is explained in terms of de德‎. The notion of de德‎ highlights the charismatic aspects of integrity such that integrity in an early Confucian context is understood as a power to motivate others to perform their roles in relationships. This power is obstructed or weakened in situations of irresolvable value conflict. De德‎ is a social value associated with the way in which moral actions enable the realization of the self, which is partially constituted by relationships. Integrity, as such, is vulnerable to irresolvable value conflicts and unfortunate situations because in those circumstances moral action is impeded such that meaningful relations cannot be maintained.

Perspective on the Psychology of Self

1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul H. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The Self ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Internal Organization ◽  
Motivational Variable ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

The present perspective on the psychology of self developed out of a search for an adequate conception of the person to round out an incompleteness in a model of friendship. After a review of five major points of disagreement among self theorists, a perspective is presented which distinguishes between the self as an identifiable entity and the specific attributes the individual regards as characteristic of that entity. Processes are proposed by which the person comes to develop a conception of himself as an identifiable entity, and the way in which his self-attributions, i.e., conceptions of what that entity is like, develop and change. A key motivational variable is the individual's concern with the well-being and worth of the entity identified as self. This key variable not only has important implications for the internal organization of self-attributes but also is manifest in four behavioral tendencies that provide a motivational link between the self and dyadic and person-group relations.

scholarly journals La dualitude comme identité mystique chez Henry Corbin

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Daniel Proulx ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Mundus Imaginalis ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

"Henry Corbin is the creator of many neologisms. The term imaginal, related to the phrase mundus imaginalis, is probably the best known among them. Few researchers have come to realize that the term dualitude is also a Corbinian neologism. By first exploring the historical origin of the term in Corbinian thought, I propose then to explain the metaphysical role given by him to the term, but also the way in which the concept ensures the coherence of “mystical identity”. As a matter of fact, Corbin places at the heart of “mystical identity” the principle of dualitude of the Self and the Ego. For Corbin, the metaphysical structure of monotheistic angelology rests on this principle and allows a personal relationship between the individual and the divine."

Escaping Possessive Individualism

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-206
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Bromley
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Evolutionary Economics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Managerial Capitalism ◽  
Evolutionary Science ◽  
Possessive Individualism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

Contemporary economics stands implicated in the triumph of possessive individualism. In viewing the individual as nothing but a utility-maximizing consumer, economic theory offers apologetics for the self-interested tendencies that imperil personhood. Managerial capitalism reifies the acquisitive urges embedded in contemporary economics. As the defects of managerial capitalism become apparent, escape seems impossible. This mental barrier persists because economics is not an evolutionary science. An economy is always in the process of becoming, and yet economic theory denies this “becoming” to consumers whose tastes and preferences are assumed to be unchanging—and none of our business. The escape requires an evolutionary economics that recognizes the individual as constantly engaged in a process of experiencing life and necessarily adapting to it. In that dynamic process, individuals are also crafting their own future. An evolutionary economics can help light the way as societies seek escape from the grip of possessive individualism.

Sternenpolitik

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-85
Author(s):  
Christian Reidenbach
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
Physical Description ◽  
French Academy ◽  
Collective Interaction ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Way

Abstract Fontenelle’s dual role as a representative of the Modernes as well as the perpetual secretary of the French Academy of Sciences explains his hesitation in making any public statements about politics. Nevertheless, this article identifies within his best-known Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds a liberal interpretation of the heavens that is supported by the metaphorical transfer between political semantics and the field of cosmology. The idea of this liberality flourishes in the gallant dialogue between two protagonists (the marquise and the philosopher), unfolds within the context of an opening, expert scientific discourse, and is reflected through the physical description of a commerce among celestial vortices. Thus, different aspects of the political within the Conversations are examined - starting from the self-understanding of the individual all the way up to the idea of an egalitarian universe that is characterised by collective interaction.

How algorithms see their audience: media epistemes and the changing conception of the individual

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1176-1191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eran Fisher ◽  
Yoav Mehozay
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

The rise of digital media has witnessed a paradigmatic shift in the way that media outlets conceptualize and classify their audience. Whereas during the era of mass media, ‘seeing’ the audience was based on a scientific episteme combining social theory and empirical research, with digital media ‘seeing’ the audience has come to be dominated by a new episteme, based on big data and algorithms. This article argues that the algorithmic episteme does not see the audience more accurately, but differently. Whereas the scientific episteme upheld an ascriptive conception which assigned individuals to a particular social category, the algorithmic episteme assumes a performative individual, based on behavioral data, sidestepping any need for a theory of the self. Since the way in which the media see their audience is constitutive, we suggest that the algorithmic episteme represents a new way to think about human beings.

scholarly journals Arrested and Arresting: Intermedial Images and the Self-Reflexive Spectator of Contemporary Cinema

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Hajnal Király
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Systematic Effect ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
Cultural Experiences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Film Viewing ◽  
Affective Dimensions

AbstractThe paper departs from the assumption that while the analysis of the systematic effect that popular cinema (genres like melodrama, horror or action movies) has on its spectators has been largely discussed by film theorists, little has been written on the affective dimensions of arthouse cinema. The lasting effect of visually compelling films on the individual spectator’s emotions has been addressed only sporadically by cognitive film theory, film phenomenology and aesthetics. Therefore, the author proposes to bring together terms and concepts from different discourses (film and literary theory, intermediality studies and empirical psychological research of the literary effect) in order to elucidate how intermedial, painterly references in midcult and arthouse films mobilize the associative dimensions of film viewing and may have an impact on spectatorial self-reflexion and emotional growth. Moreover, films that rely on the associative power of still(ed) images, painterly references bring into play the personal and cultural experiences of the viewer. As such, they can be effectively used in professional and cultural sensitivization.

Hierarchical switching in a multi-dimensional task space is not induced by specific task cues

2001 ◽  
Vol 209 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kleinsorge ◽  
Herbert Heuer ◽  
Volker Schmidtke
Keyword(s):  
Specific Task ◽  
Task Space ◽  
Basic Pattern ◽  
Task Representation ◽  
Switching Mechanism ◽  
Factorial Combination ◽  
Individual Task ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

Summary. When participants have to shift between four tasks that result from a factorial combination of the task dimensions judgment (numerical vs. spatial) and mapping (compatible vs. incompatible), a characteristic profile of shift costs can be observed that is suggestive of a hierarchical switching mechanism that operates upon a dimensionally ordered task representation, with judgment on the top and the response on the bottom of the task hierarchy ( Kleinsorge & Heuer, 1999 ). This switching mechanism results in unintentional shifts on lower levels of the task hierarchy whenever a shift on a higher level has to be performed, leading to non-shift costs on the lower levels. We investigated whether this profile depends on the way in which the individual task dimensions are cued. When the cues for the task dimensions were exchanged, the basic pattern of shift costs was replicated with only minor modifications. This indicates that the postulated hierarchical switching mechanism operates independently of the specifics of task cueing.

Reverence, Revision and Creaturely Life: Whitehead’s Political Theology of Enjoyment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Marovich
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Actual Entity ◽  
Symbolic Code ◽  
Strategic Motivation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

‘The art of free society’, A.N. Whitehead declares in his essay on symbolism, is fundamentally dual. It consists of both ‘maintenance of the symbolic code’ and a ‘fearlessness of [its] revision’. This tension, on the surface paradoxical, is what Whitehead believes will prevent social decay, anarchy, or ‘the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows’. Bearing in mind Whitehead’s own thoughts on the nature of symbolism, this chapter argues that the figure of the creature has been underappreciated in his work as a symbol. It endeavors to examine and contextualize the symbolic potency of creatureliness in Whitehead’s work, with particular attention directed toward the way the creature helps him to both maintain and revise an older symbolic code. In Process and Reality, ‘creature’ serves as Whitehead’s alternate name for the ‘individual fact’ or the ‘actual entity’—including (perhaps scandalously, for his more orthodox readers) the figure of God. What was Whitehead’s strategic motivation for deploying this superfluous title for an already-named category? In this chapter, it is suggested that his motivation was primarily poetic (Whitehead held the British romantic tradition in some reverence) and so, in this sense, always and already aware of its rich symbolic potency.

Vérités et Mensonges

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-224
Author(s):  
Erik Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Self ◽  
Faithful Representation ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Concrete Reality ◽  
Hermeneutic Process ◽  
The Way

This is a survey of some of the problems surrounding imperial panegyric. It includes discussions of both the theory and practice of imperial praise. The evidence is derived from readings of Cicero, Quintilian, Pliny, the Panegyrici Latini, Menander Rhetor, and Julian the Apostate. Of particular interest is insincere speech that would be appreciated as insincere. What sort of hermeneutic process is best suited to texts that are politically consequential and yet relatively disconnected from any obligation to offer a faithful representation of concrete reality? We first look at epideictic as a genre. The next topic is imperial praise and its situation “beyond belief” as well as the self-positioning of a political subject who delivers such praise. This leads to a meditation on the exculpatory fictions that these speakers might tell themselves about their act. A cynical philosophy of Caesarism, its arbitrariness, and its constructedness abets these fictions. Julian the Apostate receives the most attention: he wrote about Caesars, he delivered extant panegyrics, and he is also the man addressed by still another panegyric. And in the end we find ourselves to be in a position to appreciate the way that power feeds off of insincerity and grows stronger in its presence.

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