scholarly journals Freedom, Teleodynamism, Creativity

2014 ◽  
pp. 60-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Bifurcation Point ◽  
The Self ◽  
Positive Freedom ◽  
Simple Mode ◽  
The World ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Do So

After presenting a critique of both negative and positive freedom this essay pursues the relation between creativity and freedom, drawing upon Foucault, Deleuze and Nietzsche to do so.  Once you have understood Nietzsche’s reading of a culturally infused nest of drives in a self, the task becomes easier.  A drive is not merely a force pushing forward; it is also a simple mode of perception and intention that pushes forward and enters into creative relations with other drives when activated by an event.  You can also understand more sharply how the Foucauldian tactics of the self work.  We can now carry this insight into the Deleuzian territory of micropolitics and collective action by reviewing his work on flashbacks and “the powers of the false.” If a flashback in film pulls us back to a bifurcation point where two paths were possible and one was taken, the powers of the false refer to the subliminal role the path not taken can play in the formation of creative action.  As you pursue these themes you see that neither old, organic notions of belonging to the world nor do negative notions of detachment as such do the work needed.  Deleuze’s notion of freedom carries us to the idea of cultivating “belief” in a world of periodic punctuations.  The latter are essential to creativity and incompatible with organic belonging.  They are also indispensable supports of a positive politics today.

Women and Agency in Bankim’s Rajmohan’s Wife and Tagore’s The Home and The World

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manju Dhariwal ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
English Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Status Of Women

Written almost half a century apart, Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) and The Home and the World (1916) can be read as women centric texts written in colonial India. The plot of both the texts is set in Bengal, the cultural and political centre of colonial India. Rajmohan’s Wife, arguably the first Indian English novel, is one of the first novels to realistically represent ‘Woman’ in the nineteenth century. Set in a newly emerging society of India, it provides an insight into the status of women, their susceptibility and dependence on men. The Home and the World, written at the height of Swadeshi movement in Bengal, presents its woman protagonist in a much progressive space. The paper closely examines these two texts and argues that women enact their agency in relational spaces which leads to the process of their ‘becoming’. The paper analyses this journey of the progress of the self, which starts with Matangini and culminates in Bimala. The paper concludes that women’s journey to emancipation is symbolic of the journey of the nation to independence.

When the Absence of Reasoning Breeds Meaning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carey K. Morewedge ◽  
Daniella M. Kupor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
External Source ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Dream Interpretation ◽  
The Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Thoughts ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Insight Into

Intuitions, attitudes, images, mind-wandering, dreams, and religious messages are just a few of the many kinds of uncontrolled thoughts that intrude on consciousness spontaneously without a clear reason. Logic suggests that people might thus interpret spontaneous thoughts as meaningless and be uninfluenced by them. By contrast, our survey of this literature indicates that the lack of an obvious external source or motive leads people to attribute considerable meaning and importance to spontaneous thoughts. Spontaneous thoughts are perceived to provide meaningful insight into the self, others, and the world. As a result of these metacognitive appraisals, spontaneous thoughts substantially affect the beliefs, attitudes, decisions, and behavior of the thinker. We present illustrative examples of the metacognitive appraisals by which people attribute meaning to spontaneous secular and religious thoughts, and the influence of these thoughts on judgment and decision-making, attitude formation and change, dream interpretation, and prayer discernment.

scholarly journals Girls on YouTube: Gender Politics and the Potential for a Public Sphere

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Szostak
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Self ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Divide ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Insight Into

YouTube is a massively popular video streaming website. It has become so ingrained in daily consciousness that it is almost difficult to conceive of a time in which it did not exist. YouTube’s slogan is “Broadcast Yourself.” It connotes a sense of freedom to be whoever you want to be and communicate this conceptualization of the self with the world. Vlogs, or video blogs, share the same function as a traditional diary except there is no assumption of privacy since the videos are uploaded publicly. Both men and women participate in the production of these videos. However, the experience of male and female YouTubers is quite different. The following paper will explore whether YouTube operates as a public sphere in light of the gender divide that appears to have formed on the site. The four objectives of the paper are as follows: to define the concept of the public sphere, to determine the factors that have contributed to a gender divide on YouTube by analyzing the gendered use of the medium, to examine the reception of the controversial “Girls on YouTube” video by female vloggers, and to evaluate whether YouTube operates as a public sphere in light of the findings of the preceding sections. Ultimately, this paper will give greater insight into whether new media offers the possibility for women's voices to be heard or if it is simply a remediation of older patriarchal technology.

scholarly journals Metafore sebstva u autobiografskom diskursu Vesne Parun

2016 ◽  
Vol XIV (2) ◽  
pp. 184-184
Author(s):  
Kornelija Kuvač-Levačić
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Factual Information ◽  
Human Personality ◽  
The World ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Symbolic Number ◽  
Do So

By using the concept of the Self as the human personality in its totality, as defined by Carl Gustav Jung and furthered by P. Ricoeur (the theory of narrative identity, the Self defined as an identity constructed by narrative configuration, the dialectics of the discovery of the other in one’s own Self and one’s own Self in the Other), this work will focus in the analysis of metaphors which express the Self of the auto-diegetic narrator as can be found in the autobiographical discourse of Vesna Parun. The corpus of this research is to be found in selected texts from her volume Noć za pakost. Moj život u 40 vreća (2001). From the first chapter of this volume [which consists of the following works of autobiography and essays: Poljubac života (1993), Do zalaska sunca hodajući za kamilicom (1958), Pod muškim kišobranom (1986)] the reader comes to realise that, for this author, the writing of autobiography is itself a problem of self-expression and that she had constantly deferred it, while, on the other hand, feeling a great compulsion from within to do so. This sense of paradox finds its reflection in some of the constitutive elements which can be found in her autobiographical discourse. In the relationship between literature and reality, which is something which the genre of autobiography questions in its own way, the author noticeably distances herself from the mere documentary transmission of factual information from her life. A reflection of this can be seen in the negation of a strict chronology of events and confessions, as she makes recourse to a technique which uses collage and appears fragmentary; furthermore, here prose here has a lyrical quality, negating "metaphor as a literary device" and transforming it into "literature as metaphor". The autobiographical prose of Vesna Parun is especially dense with metaphor, and it can be concluded that it expresses her Self. Attention is directed here to three metaphors in particular – the umbrella, which can be both "masculine" and "feminine", a map of the world, on the wall of every house in Vesna’s community, as well the sack, which is followed by the symbolic number 40, as many in which she could fill her life in. Besides the metaphors mentioned here, what will be proposed here is that in the autobiographical discourse of Vesna Parun literature itself is presented as metaphor of her Self, appearing to the reader as significantly (auto)meta-textual.

scholarly journals The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Chad J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global Citizenry ◽  
Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some of the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this Special Issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

American slave narratives as autoethnographic paradigm

Human Affairs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-245
Author(s):  
Paul Richard Blum
Keyword(s):  
Slave Narratives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Place Of Birth ◽  
The World ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Ever since the publication of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, autobiographical testimonies were a mainstay of the abolition movement in the United States. Being or having been held as slaves and all the attendant injury is the very theme of the documents in question, which are testimonies, rather than theoretical works, because the authors maintained the first-person point of view. Since autoethnography aims at overcoming the preset mentality of the researcher in order to gain insight into what it is like to live in a particular social environment, slave narratives, beyond any abolitionist agenda, may serve as a paradigm for autoethnographic interpretation of historic sources. For an understanding of the authentic perspective of the speakers, external redactions need to be filtered out when reading those documents. On the other hand, certain tropes are worth considering (such as ignorance of the speaker’s date and place of birth or stereotypical names) because these narrative gestures indicate the state of mind of the narrator. I will propose methods for finding interpretive tools to identify the Self and the world of the slave-narrators. Such interpretation relies on the close reading of narratives as I will show by examples.

scholarly journals The (Self)portrait of a Writer: A Hermeneutic Reading of Virginia Woolf’s (Auto)biographical Writings

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Hołda
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Insight Into

Woolf’s maturing as a writer was deeply influenced by her traumatic experiences in childhood, the (in)capacitating states of mental instability, as well as her proto-feminist convictions. Long before Barthes, she toppled the traditional position of the author, and her literary enshrinement of “the other reality” reached unity with the world rather than individuality. This article ponders Woolf’s creative impulse and investigates her autobiographical writings to show the import of their impact on her fiction, which, as Woolfian scholarship suggests, can be viewed as autobiographical, too. I argue that philosophical hermeneutics sheds light on the self-portrait that emerges from Woolf’s autobiographical writings and offers a rewarding insight into her path of becoming an author. I assert that Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of subjectivity, and, in particular, his notion of narrative identity provide a route to examine how Woolf discovers her writing voice. In light of his hermeneutics of the self, the dispersed elements of the narrative of life can be seen as a possibility of self-encounter. Woolf’s writings bespeak her gradually evolving self-knowledge and self-understanding, which come from the configuration of those separate “stories” into a meaningful whole. The article also interprets Woolf’s autobiographical writings through the prism of Michel Foucault’s reflection on discourse and subjectivity, indicating that her texts instantiate his assertion of the subject’s constant disappearance.

What Truth Is

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Jago
Keyword(s):  
Liar Paradox ◽  
Final Part ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
Metaphysical Notion ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Do So

What Truth Is presents and defends a novel theory of what truth is, in terms of the metaphysical notion of truthmaking. This is the relation which holds between a truth and some entity in the world, in virtue of which that truth is true. By coming to an understanding of this relation, I argue, we gain better insight into the metaphysics of truth. The first part of the book discusses the property being true, and how we should understand it in terms of truthmaking. The second part focuses on truthmakers, the worldly entities which make various kinds of truths true, and how they do so. I argue for a metaphysics of states of affairs, which account for things having properties and standing in relations. The third part analyses the logic and metaphysics of the truthmaking relation itself, and links it to the metaphysical concept of grounding. The final part discusses consequences of the theory for language and logic. I show how the theory delivers a novel and useful theory of propositions, the entities which are true or false, depending on how things are. One feature of this approach is that it avoids the Liar paradox and other puzzling paradoxes of truth.

Skateboarding LA

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Talented People ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
The World ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Do So

Skateboarding LA is about professional street skateboarding, a highly refined, athletic, and aesthetic pursuit, from which a large number of people profit. (Skateboarding has been estimated to be a $5 billion annual industry.) Street skateboarders see the world differently because they are skating on it, and to do so they creatively interpret architectural features—ledges, banks, gaps, stairs, and handrails—in order to perform tricks. The tricks they perform are filmed and photographed and then disseminated to a global subculture via numerous platforms—videos, magazines, social media, websites. Skaters do this to increase their reputations, and hence their earnings. This ethnographic study of skateboarding, based upon over eight years of participant observation in Los Angeles, offers thick cultural description that provides outsiders some insight into the process of this complex, but mostly misunderstood subculture. The themes of this research revolve around the idea of subculture careers, subculture media, subculture enclaves, and subculture community, all of which call for a reassessment of much of the existing literature surrounding the sociological and political significance of subcultures. This detailed study of skating was facilitated by the author’s relationship to his key informant, former professional skater Aaron Snyder, who is also his younger brother. Together they show that more than petty vandalism and exaggerated claims of destruction, skateboarding creates opportunities for skaters the world over and draws highly talented people to cities where professional skateboarders congregate.

scholarly journals The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global Citizenry ◽  
Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this special issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

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