scholarly journals SEMIOTICS OF GESTURE: PERFORMATIVE CONCEPTUALISM

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (49) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliia Meliakova ◽  
Inna Kovalenko
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
The Body ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Problem setting. This article poses the problem of understanding and applying performance as a conceptual model of the functioning of an individual in a modern multi-layered reality. The study presents an analysis of popular actionist practices and the further development of the pure action ontology. The performance serves as an approbation of the dynamism technique and the principle of action in social, digital and artistic actions. Recent research and publications analysis. The assertion of the principle of dynamism and activity in the modern cultural space explains the popularity of performative topics in a parallel scientific and philosophical discourse. At the same time, the bulk of works on performance relates to the field of theory and methodology of art. These are the works of such authors: G. Elshevskaya, E. Krylova, E. Andreeva, J. Kostincova, D. Filippova, Andrey and Yaroslava Artemenko, H. Petrovsky, S. Levitt, H. Downey and J. Sherry, A. Eckersley and C. Duff. G  Reingold, M. Cuellar-Moreno and J. Antonio Cubas-Delgado, A. Loskutov, O. Novoselova and E. Kurbanova and others have studied dynamic models of bodily expressiveness in social practices, including in the information space of culture and communication. In turn, the American philosophers J. Butler, J  Dean and G. Standing develop the concept of performance in relation to political actionism. They view the gatherings of social rights agents as a performative practice of their relationship to power. Paper objective. The aim of the study is to review and theoretically analyze modern creative practices of the subject's bodily expression in the field of art, politics, law and digital communication, as well as to further substantiate the methodological role of the performative concept in modern culture. Paper main body. Today's popular installations, happenings, flash mobs and challenge explicates the very essence of modern human existence in the world. Art zones and other creative social spaces (workshops) use direct body language in their functioning and, at the same time, are highly attractive and effective in today's youth environment. Silent actions demonstrate the limited possibilities for a person to manifest themselves, despite the large number of rights, freedoms and technical means to improve life. Defective self-presentation expresses the one-sided and limited nature of the subject's existence in the social, legal, political and cultural space today. The natural change of technological structures, cultural eras and political models in the world irreversibly modifies a person, his environment and the possibilities of self-realization in it. The creative space of action allows to express the conceptual ontological principle of modernity – the break between the physical and the semantic, the act and the commentary, the action and the word, the body and corporeality. In a stratified reality, a person cannot maintain integrity. His verbal-symbolic being is separated from the physical (body); they express themselves and communicate autonomously and independently. Desocialization and the dominance of virtuality led to the dismemberment and impoverishment of many human functions, in particular the localization of his speech and actions. Therefore, performance is becoming an irreplaceable alternative way of self-realization of the silent body. While language remains a way of being a person as an agent of the information environment. Conclusions of the research. Thus, the study refers to the art experience of bodily subjects as a manifestation of their anthropological authenticity, social significance, legal usefulness, epistemological activity and political will.

scholarly journals CONSPIRACY THINKING IN THE DYNAMICS OF MODERN CULTURE: CHARACTERISTICS AND FEATURES OF MANIFESTATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (48) ◽  
pp. 82-109
Author(s):  
Інна Ігорівна Коваленко ◽  
Едуард Анатолійович Кальницький
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vector Model ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Political Mythology

Problem setting. One of the distinguishing features of the modern era is the marginal and dubious nature of explanations of complex social realities. Cognitive and symbolic specifics of conspiratorial thinking, marked by a sense of predictability, regularity and explicit simplicity, contribute to the development and dissemination of political mythology. Recent research and publications analysis. In recent decades, concepts have been actively used in the body of social science works: paranoid style, conspiratorial narrative, power discourse, unstable ontologies, crisis of production of meanings, conspiratorial worldview. The latest scientific search takes place in the context of abandoning the strict framing of conspiracy theories in favor of a pluralistic approach that combines epistemic, existential and social dimensions of the subject. Paper objective.  The aim of the article is to try to identify the features of conspiracy in the latest conditions of cultural development. Paper main body. The article shows the features of modern conspiracy theories in terms of its paradoxical stability, information and cognitive attractiveness. It is emphasized that the conspiracy discourse determines the peculiarities of the conspiratorial mentality, influencing, in particular, the existential aspects of human life. The consequences of the influence of conspiracy theories can be not only feelings of alienation from politics or radicalization of society, but also the blurring of semantic boundaries between conspiracy theories and more respectable forms of socio-political criticism. Such features make it possible to distinguish positive and critical understandings of conspiracy theory, as well as to outline the main vectors in further theoretical studies of conspiracy theories. Among the distinctive features of conspiratorial meaning formation are the cultural-temporal universality, the paradoxical combination of irrational and rationalist ways of perception, and others. The peculiarities of conspiratorial thinking in comparison with the radical-constructivist specifics of the explanation of the world, as well as in the communicative-narrative logic are analyzed. The difference between conspiratorial meaning formation and the picture of the world in unstable ontologies is shown. Differentiated conspiracy narrative and political imagination. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of agency in the context of a multi-vector model of social organization. Conclusions of the research. The dynamics of the multifaceted study of conspiracy correlates with the growing awareness that conspiratorial narrative tends to grow significantly and affect society and culture. The stability and success of the conspiracy narrative is ensured by the realization of the claim to "correct" understanding, which makes it quite convincing, and therefore in demand. Conspiracy theories, manifested in various ways of agent communication, range from simple conspiracy through complicity to structural prejudices and ideologies.

Platonism, Early and Middle

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dillon
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
The World ◽  
Intermediary Role ◽  
The One ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy

Platonism is the body of doctrine developed in the school founded by Plato, both before and (especially) after his death in 347 bc. The first phase, usually known as ‘Early Platonism’ or the ‘Early Academy’, ran until the 260s bc, and is represented above all by the work of Plato’s first three successors, Speusippus, Xenocrates and Polemo. After an interval of nearly two centuries during which the Academy became anti-doctrinal in tendency, doctrinal Platonism re-emerged in the early first century bc with Antiochus, whose school the ‘Old Academy’ claimed to be a revival of authentic Platonism, although its self-presentation was largely in the terminology forged by the Stoics. The phase from Antiochus to Numenius is conventionally known as Middle Platonism, and prepared the ground for the emergence of Neoplatonism in the work of Plotinus. Its leading figures are Antiochus, Eudorus, Plutarch of Chaeronea, Atticus, Alcinous, Albinus, Calvenus Taurus and Numenius. Its influence is also visible in major contemporary thinkers like the Jewish exegete Philo of Alexandria and the doctor Galen. Like Neoplatonism, Early and Middle Platonism were founded on a very close reading of the text of Plato, especially the Timaeus, often facilitated by commentaries, and further supplemented by knowledge of his ‘unwritten doctrines’. However, Early and Middle Platonists did not develop nearly so elaborate a metaphysics as the Neoplatonists, and there was a much greater concentration on ethics. Most Middle Platonists regarded Aristotle as an ally, and incorporated significant parts of his thought into Platonism, especially in ethics and logic. Some were Neo-Pythagorean in tendency, and most claimed in some sense to be able to trace Platonic thought back to Pythagoras. The Platonists developed the dualism of the One (an active, defining principle) and the Indefinite Dyad (an indeterminate, material principle), bequeathed by Plato, especially through his oral teachings. These eventually emerged as, respectively, God and matter, supplemented by the Platonic Forms, which Middle Platonists typically identified with God’s thoughts. The world-soul was distinguished from the demiurge or creator, who was in turn either distinguished from or collapsed into the primary divinity, a supreme intellect. Some, notably Plutarch, postulated in addition a counterbalancing evil world-soul. As regards the human soul, Plato’s division of it into a rational plus two irrational parts was maintained, along with his doctrine of transmigration. There was also an increasing focus on the intermediary role played by daemons in the functioning of the world. In ethics, most Middle Platonists came to effect an assimilation between Plato’s and Aristotle’s views. All agreed with Plato and Aristotle, against the Stoics, that as well as moral there are also non-moral goods, such as health and wealth. While there was a consensus that the latter are not necessary for happiness, some, notably Antiochus, defended the view that non-moral goods are indispensable, at least to supreme happiness. In addition, Aristotle’s doctrine that virtue lies in a ‘mean’ became a central feature of Platonist ethics. As for the ‘goal’ or ‘end’ (telos) of life, this came from the first century bc onwards, perhaps starting with Eudorus, to be specified by Platonists as ‘likeness to God’. Finally, the issue of determinism was, in the wake of Hellenistic philosophy, recognized as important by Middle Platonists, who defended the existence of free will. Platonism never developed its own logic, but adopted Peripatetic logic, including both syllogistic and the theory of categories, both of which, it was claimed, had been anticipated by Plato.

scholarly journals MNEMOTECHNIC OF PAIN: BETWEEN SUFFERING AND ENJOYMENT

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The Ideal

The article analyzed the problem of mnemotechnic of pain in the context of the historical transformation of thinking from archaic bodily practices of graphism of pain to the modern culture of anesthesia. The conceptual knot, which forms pain, suffering, memory, procedures of designation and enjoyment, is defined. Subject is defined to be central that goes beyond the opposition/dialectic of myth and reason. This allows us to turn to the premythic and to analyze the graphism of pain as the basis of human existence in the context of the formation of individual and collective memory. In the meantime, the myth is interpreted as an attempt to portray the labeled physical bodies of the world, given the distinction between them. The formation of relations of power is associated with the establishment of a correlation between sign and pain, which makes it possible to understand of pain as the basis of social memory. On the other hand, the historical-philosophical subject is distinguished, according to which the bodily topical of the perceptions and the metabodily topic of concepts are distinguished. The metaphysical shift laid down by the ancient philosophers transforms mnemotechnic into practice, which constantly takes into account the distinction between the sensual (physical) and the supersensual (spiritual), the ideal and the real, the true and the false, the one and the plural, being and non-existence. Mnemotechnic, which constitutes the metaphysical world, excludes the body as a matter of memory, leaving the pain beyond the added significance. Probably, it is possible to link the excesses of Sade’s search for enjoyment and cases of dramatic erosion of man to naked bodility, which captures the outbreaks of violence and torture in the century. In the end, it transforms modern culture into a culture of anesthesia, a culture of memory as an anesthetic, directed against the repetition of pain. Nevertheless, at the same time, it causes new pleasures to seek pain.

Diplomatic service of the European Union

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Okladnaya ◽  
Ivan Yakovyuk ◽  
Victoria Dyadyk
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
External Action ◽  
The Body ◽  
Main Body ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
European Diplomacy

Problem setting. Today the European Union interacts with the whole world and represents the interests and values of the European community far beyond one continent. Carrying out such activities provides for the existence of effective institutions for its implementation, which today are the European External Action Service and the European Uniondelegations around the world. It significantly differs from the classical manifestations of diplomacy, which determines the relevance of research into the establishment and development of the European Union diplomatic service. Moreover, understanding the process of formation and features of European Union diplomacy is interesting for domestic researchers of European Union law given the pro-European aspirations of Ukraine. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Certain aspects of this topic have been studied by suchdomesticscientistsas F. Baranovsky, M. Hnatyuk, O. Grinenko, O. Gladenko, M. Entin, O. Opanasyuk-Radlinska, E. Ryaboshtan, D. Tkachenko, O. Turchenko, Y.Sergienko, V. Streltsova, G. Utko, O. Fisun, V. Tsivaty, V. Shamraeva, O. Shapovalova, etc. Target of research is to research the basic preconditions and features of the establishment and development of the European Union diplomatic service and its functioning in today’s conditions. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the study of the main prerequisites and features of the establishment and development of the diplomatic service of the European Union. The authors paid attention to the coverage of the status, competence and procedure for sending the first representations of the Communities abroad, in particular the delegations of the European Commission. The changes made by the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Lisbon treaties on foreign policy are analyzed as well. All the reforms implemented by these treaties were aimed primarily at making the European Union more effective and coordinated in the international arena, and finally resolved the issue of the institutionalization of the body that deals with the European Union diplomatic service. So now it has the status of the European External Action Service and successfully performs its functions in the current conditions. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The modern European Union diplomatic service is the result of a long process of formalization and institutionalization of a whole set of its foreign policy bodies. The development of the European Union representation system shows that the spread of its representative activities has become global, as well as the dynamic transformation of the content of its goals to interact with the world in order to implement its foreign policy. However, despite the current and rapid dynamics of development and evolution of this institution, the question remains whether the European External Action Service is the final option for the external design of the European Union diplomatic service, or whether it will be another step in the process of building pan-European diplomacy.

Naturalistic and Phenomenological Theories of Health: Distinctions and Connections

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Svenaeus
Keyword(s):  
Biological Function ◽  
Central Element ◽  
The Body ◽  
Basic Difference ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
The One ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Health Theory

AbstractIn this paper I present and compare the ideas behind naturalistic theories of health on the one hand and phenomenological theories of health on the other. The basic difference between the two sets of theories is no doubt that whereas naturalistic theories claim to rest on value neutral concepts, such as normal biological function, the phenomenological suggestions for theories of health take their starting point in what is often named intentionality: meaningful stances taken by the embodied person in experiencing and understanding her situation and taking action in the world.Although naturalism and phenomenology are fundamentally different in their approach to health, they are not necessarily opposed when it comes to understanding the predicament of ill persons. The starting point of medical investigations is what the patient feels and says about her illness and the phenomenological investigation should include the way diagnoses of different diseases are interpreted by the person experiencing the diseases as an embodied being. Furthermore, the two theories display similarities in their emphasis of embodiment as the central element of health theory and in their stress on the alien nature of the body displayed in illness. Theories of biology and phenomenology are, indeed, compatible and in many cases also mutually supportive in the realm of health and illness.

scholarly journals Modernitetens modsigelser. Konfigurationskonflikter og samfundstænkning i Grundtvigs »Om Mennesket i Verden«

1998 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
Henning Eichberg
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Contradictions of Modernity. Conflicting Configurations and Societal Thinking in Grundtvig's »The Human Being in the World«A Worm - a God. About the Human Being in the World. Ove Korsgaard (ed.). With contributions of Niels Buur Hansen, Hans Hauge, Bosse Bergstedt, Uffe Jonas and Knud Bjarne Gjesing. Odense Universitetsforlag 1997.By Henning EichbergIn 1817, Grundtvig wrote »Om Mennesket i Verden« which can be regarded as a key to the understanding of his philosophy and psychology, but which is difficult to place in relation to his later folkelig, societal engagement. A recent reedition of this text together with some actual comments by Grundtvig researchers is an occasion to quest deeper about this relation.However, it is not enough to ask - as Grundtvig research has done for a long time - what Grundtvig wanted to say, but his text can be regarded as a document of how modem orientation in the world is characterized by conflicting linguistic and metaphorical patterns, which sometimes may tell another story than intended.On the one hand, Grundtvig's text speaks of a lot of dualistic contradictions such as life vs. death, light vs. darkness, truth vs. lie, God vs. devil, human fall vs. resurrection, body vs. spirit, nature vs. history and time vs. eternity. In contrast to the author's intention to produce clarity and lucidity - whether in the spirit of Christianity or of modem rationality - the binary constructions give rather a confusing picture of systematical disorder where polarity and polemics are mixed, antagonism and gradual order, dichotomy and exclusive either-or, paradoxes and dialectical contradictions. On the other hand,Grundtvig tries again and again to build up three-pole imaginations as for instance the threefold human relation to time, space and truth and the three ages of spiritual seeing, feeling and conceptualization resp. of mythology (childhood), theology (youth) and history (adult age). The main history, Grundtvig wants to tell in his text, is built up around the trialectic relation of the human being to the body, to the spirit and to itself, to the living soul.The most difficult to understand in this relation seems to be what Grundtvig calls the spirit, Aanden. Grundtvig describes it as Aandigt Samfund mellem Menneske og Sandhed, »the spiritual community between the human being and the truth«, and this may direct our attention towards samfund, meaning at the same time association, togetherness and society. Aanden is described by threefold effects - will, conscience and faith, all of them describing social relations between human beings resp. their psychological correlate. The same social undertone is true when Grundtvig characterizes three Aande-Livets Spor (»traces of spiritual life«): the word, the history and love. If »the spirit« represents what is larger or »higher« than the single human being and what cannot be touched by his or her hand, then this definition fits exactly to society or the sociality of the human being. Social life - whether understood as culture, social identity or folk (people) - is not only a quantitative sum of human individuals, but represents another quality of natural order. Thus it has its logic that Grundtvig places the human being in between the realms of minerals, plant and animal life on the one hand and the »higher« order on the other, which can be understood as the social existence.In this respect, the societal dimension is not at all absent in his philosophy of 1817. However, it is not enough to state the implicite presence of sociality as such in the earlier Grundtvigian thinking before his folkelig break-through. What was the sociality, more concretely, which Grundtvig experienced during the early modernity? In general, highly dichotomous concepts are dominating the modem discourse as capitalism vs. feudalism, materialism vs. idealism, modernity vs. premodemity, democracy vs. absolutism or revolution vs. restoration; Grundtvig was always difficult to place into these patterns. Again, it might be helpful to try a trialectical approach, transcending the dualism of state and market by civil society as a third field of social action. Indeed, it was civil society with its farmers' anarchist undertones which became the contents of Grundtvig's later folk engagement.

scholarly journals A review of the health implications of heavy metals and pesticide residues on khat users

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert M. Oyugi ◽  
Joshua K. Kibet ◽  
John O. Adongo
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Food Chain ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Health Implications ◽  
The World

Abstract Background There is an exponential rise in the use of farming chemicals in agricultural practices ostensibly to increase food production. The chewing of fresh khat leaves and shoots has spread across the world from ancient khat producing regions in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Khat is a well-established socialization substance with stimulating characteristics. In this work, we have reviewed the deleterious impacts of several heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, iron in the khat plant and their health impacts. Survey on the health complications of farming chemicals used in khat production is also presented. Main body of the abstract The toxic effects of heavy metals and farming chemicals in plant matter such as khat leaves are a serious health concern. Heavy metals including cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), for instance, bio-accumulate in the body and the food chain as precursors for disease. It has been established that blood that has lead levels of 40–60 ug/dL is a precursor for serious health illnesses such as cardiac arrest and cancer. On the other hand, cadmium is reported to bind itself onto metallothioneins hence forming cadmium–metallothionein complex that is transported to all body organs causing deleterious cell damage. The entry of farming chemical into the food chain especially via the chewing of contaminated khat has been known to contribute to health problems such as cancer, hypertension and liver cirrhosis. khat is branded a ‘substance of abuse’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of the adverse health risks it causes to humans. Relevant articles published between 2010 and 2021, and archived in PubMed, Google Scholar, Medley, Cochrane, and Web of Science were used in this review. Short conclusion The health implications of heavy metals and farming chemicals arising from the consumption of contaminated khat shoots are a serious concern to the khat chewing community. Consequently, there is need to develop better farming practices that may minimize the absorption of heavy metals and farming chemicals by the khat plant. Information presented in this review is also important in sensitizing policy makers to advance control measures towards safer khat farming practices.

scholarly journals The One with the Feminist Critique: Revisiting Millennial Postfeminism with Friends

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 692-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Hamad
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Feminist Criticism ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
A Site

In the aftermath of its initial broadcast run, iconic millennial sitcom Friends (NBC, 1994–2004) generated some quality scholarship interrogating its politics of gender. But as a site of analysis, it remains a curious, almost structuring absence from the central canon of the first wave of feminist criticism of postfeminist culture. This absence is curious not only considering the place of Friends at the forefront of millennial popular culture but also in light of its long-term syndication in countries across the world since that time. And it is structuring in the sense that Friends was the stage on which many of the familiar tropes of postfeminism interrogated across the body of work on it appear in retrospect to have been tried and tested. This article aims to contribute toward redressing this absence through interrogation and contextualization of the series’ negotiation of a range of structuring tropes of postfeminist media discourse, and it argues for Friends as an unacknowledged ur-text of millennial postfeminism.

scholarly journals УСПІШНІСТЬ ОБДАРОВАНОЇ ЛЮДИНИ У КОНТЕКСТІ ЇЇ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ ІЗ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНИМ СЕРЕДОВИЩЕМ

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Георгій Балл
Keyword(s):  
Social Memory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Objective Criterion ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

У статті окреслено теоретико-методологічні засади дослідження взаємодії обдарованої людини із соціокультурним середовищем, виокремлено характеристики цієї взаємодії, від яких залежить успішність людини. Обґрунтовано тезу, за якою об’єктивним критерієм такої успішності має бути внесок людини у буття, до якого вона залучена. На першочергову увагу заслуговують внески до культури як до системи носіїв соціальної пам’яті та соціально значущої творчості. Показано можливості, що їх надає для аналізу досліджуваної взаємодії поняття адаптації, трактованої за П’яже як єдність процесів акомодації й асиміляції. Наголошено на тому, що для збагачення культури мотиваційні та інструментальні ресурси обдарованих людей мають бути зосередженні не лише на створенні культурних продуктів, але й на такій комунікації з середовищем, яка забезпечить їх реальне впровадження у культурний простір. Обдарований творець культурного продукту має уникнути двох небезпек: нехтування комунікацією із середовищем, з одного боку, та підпорядкування звуженим і збоченим моделям адаптації, з іншого. The article outlines theoretical and methodological foundations of studying the interaction of a gifted person with his/her socio-cultural environment. The characteristics of this interaction which influence a person’s successfulness are specified. The author argues that a person’s contribution to the world to which that person is attached should be an objective criterion of such successfulness. Primary attention should be paid to a person’s contributions to the culture as to the system of carriers of social memory and socially significant creativity. The author shows possibilities which are offered for the analysis of the investigated interaction by the concept of adaptation interpreted, according to J.Piaget, as the unity of processes of accommodation and assimilation. The author insists that, for enriching the culture, motivational and instrumental resources of gifted people should be focused not only on the creation of cultural products, but on the communication with the environment as well, such communication providing them with a real presence in the cultural space. A gifted creator of a cultural product should avoid two dangers, that are: neglecting the communication with the environment, on the one hand, and subordinating to narrowed and perverted models of adaptation, on the other hand.

scholarly journals The Worldwood of the Cinematic Image

Phainomenon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
José Manuel Martins
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Essential Condition ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
General Relevance ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Human Flesh ◽  
Textual Support

Abstract A close analysis of the specifically cinematographic procedure in Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Dream’ Crows reveals it as an articulated and insightful philosophical statement, endowed with general relevance conceming ‘natural’ perception, phenomenological Erlebnis, mechanical image and aesthetic rapture. The antagonism between the Benjarninian lineage of a mechanical irreducibility of the cinematic image to anthropocentric categories, and the Cartesian tradition of a film-philosophy still relying on the equally irreducible structure of the intentional act, be it the one of a deeply embodied and enworlded counsciousness, in accounting for the essential structure of film and spectator (and their relation), i.e., the antagonism between the decentering primacy of the image and the self-centered primacy of perception, cannot be settled through a simple Phenomenological shift from occularcentric, intentional counsciousness to its embodyment ‘ in-the-world’ as yet another carrier of intentionality. Still it remains to be explained what is it in the mechanical image that is able to so deeply affect the human flesh, and conversely, to what features in the human bodily experience is its mechanical other, the fascinating image, so successfuly adressing? It should be expected from the anti-Cartesianism of both the early and the late Merleau- Ponty the textual support for an approach to the essential condition of passivity in movie watching, that would be convergent with Benjamin. The Chapter ‘Le sentir’, in Phénoménologie de la perception, will offer us the proper guide to elucidate what we are already perceiving and conceiving in Kurosawa’s film, where the ex-static phenomenological body of the aesthetical contemplator ‘ enters the frame’ like the Benjaminian surgeon enters the body and like the painter - and always already like our deepest levei of ‘sensing’, previously to any act of cousciousness - ‘just looses himself in the scene before him’. The Polichinello secret of cinema watching is nonetheless too evident to be seen, and that is where Phenomenological description and reduction are still required.

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