scholarly journals The Thinking Body: a Study of the Architectural Ramifications of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Rendering of the Human Body's Capacities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Karan August
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Phenomenological Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind

<p>Phenomenology offers a conceptual framework that connects and strengthens the architect' s intuitive understanding of the human experience of space with the theorist's more critical approach. Phenomenology is an ideal vehicle for architectural theorists to avoid the friction between first-hand or subjective experience and generalised or abstracted accounts of experience. In this thesis I extract an account of the human experience of space that is implicit in the Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Pontys work. I consider how this understanding has been employed in architectural scholarship and practice. In particular, I argue that the human body renders the richness of space through deliberate engagement with the indeterminate and independent possibilities of the world. In other words, as the body intentionally engages with the world, it synthesises objects that create determinate spatial situations. I account for Merleau-Ponty's depiction of the body' s non-rule governed, non-reflective, normative directiveness towards spaces and elements, and label it the thinking body. Furthermore I examine how the philosophical theory of Merleau-Ponty is represented in the explicitly theoretical works of Juhani Pallasmaa. In turn I then consider how the thinking body is physically and conceptually realised in the buildings of Carlo Scarpa. Finally I find that Juhani Pallasmaa's description of the phenomenological experience of space is incompatible with Merleau-Ponty's. The strategic importance of these different accounts emerges when projecting their implications for designed space. Pallasmaa' s account points towards an architecture that prioritises sensory experiences synthesised by the mind. The design focus of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy leads to spatial practices in line with Carlo Scarpa, that are sympathetic to the causal qualities of an intentional bodily engagement with spatial situations. In accord with Merleau-Ponty I argue that human body is our medium for the world and as such creates the spatial situation we engage with from a formless manifold of possibilities.</p>

scholarly journals The Thinking Body: a Study of the Architectural Ramifications of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Rendering of the Human Body's Capacities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Karan August
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Phenomenological Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind

<p>Phenomenology offers a conceptual framework that connects and strengthens the architect' s intuitive understanding of the human experience of space with the theorist's more critical approach. Phenomenology is an ideal vehicle for architectural theorists to avoid the friction between first-hand or subjective experience and generalised or abstracted accounts of experience. In this thesis I extract an account of the human experience of space that is implicit in the Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Pontys work. I consider how this understanding has been employed in architectural scholarship and practice. In particular, I argue that the human body renders the richness of space through deliberate engagement with the indeterminate and independent possibilities of the world. In other words, as the body intentionally engages with the world, it synthesises objects that create determinate spatial situations. I account for Merleau-Ponty's depiction of the body' s non-rule governed, non-reflective, normative directiveness towards spaces and elements, and label it the thinking body. Furthermore I examine how the philosophical theory of Merleau-Ponty is represented in the explicitly theoretical works of Juhani Pallasmaa. In turn I then consider how the thinking body is physically and conceptually realised in the buildings of Carlo Scarpa. Finally I find that Juhani Pallasmaa's description of the phenomenological experience of space is incompatible with Merleau-Ponty's. The strategic importance of these different accounts emerges when projecting their implications for designed space. Pallasmaa' s account points towards an architecture that prioritises sensory experiences synthesised by the mind. The design focus of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy leads to spatial practices in line with Carlo Scarpa, that are sympathetic to the causal qualities of an intentional bodily engagement with spatial situations. In accord with Merleau-Ponty I argue that human body is our medium for the world and as such creates the spatial situation we engage with from a formless manifold of possibilities.</p>

Material Interiority in Charlotte Brontëë's The Professor

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Person ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Narrative Voice ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Human Embodiment

In The Professor (1845–– 46) Charlotte Brontëë dwells on the paradox of a material human body containing immaterial essences, such as mind, self, and soul. The novel at once dramatizes and estranges the condition of human embodiment by portraying these ethereal inner qualities with images of enclosure in a rigid carapace. Paying particular attention to sensory experiences, The Professor presents the body as the vehicle through which the exterior world and human interiors come into contact. By construing interiority in material terms, Brontëë emphasizes aspects of human experience ordinarily considered dirty and degrading, involving debased bodily functions, including masochistic sexuality. The novel invites a rethinking of prevailing approaches to masochism because it insists on the fleshy materiality of psychological entities (such as desire and conflict) that psychoanalysis usually treats as abstractions. For Brontëë relations between people are embodied even before they are gendered; the male first-person narrative voice she adopts in this work affords her the opportunity to consider the strangeness of the idea of inhabiting any body at all. The novel's vaunted attention to surveillance is consequently better understood as bodily penetration than as subjective domination.

scholarly journals Manifestasi Tuhan pada Tubuh Manusia dalam Teks Anggastya Prana

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
I Nyoman Piartha
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Light Element ◽  
The Body ◽  
Outermost Layer ◽  
Subtle Body ◽  
The World ◽  
Liquid Element ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

<p><em>The human body in the concept of Hinduism consists of three layers called Tri Sarira, namely: Sthula Sarira (body), Suksma Sarira (subtle body) and Anthakarana Sarira (causative body). Stula Sarira or coarse body is the outermost layer of the human body which is formed from the Panca Maha Buta, which consists of: Pertiwi (solid element), Apah (liquid element), Bayu (air element), Teja (heat / light element), and Akasa (ether). Suksma Sarira or subtle body which is a layer of the body that cannot be seen or touched, but is present    in mankind for example the mind. Anthakarana Sarira is a fine layer that is the cause of human life called Atman. Birth is closely related to the procurement of offspring, serves to pay birth debt. Debt in Sanskrit    is called Rna, which developed into Tri Rna, including: debt to the Gods (Dewa Rna), debt to parents or ancestors (Pitra Rna), and debt to the Rsi (Rsi Rna). In “Lontar Anggastya prana” it is told that the life of the baby while in the womb the mother is guarded and protected by Hyang Siwa / Siwatma.</em></p><em>The process of creation (uttpti) begins with interest or liking at the age of adolescence until the relationship occurs / intercourse until fertilization occurs between spermatozoid (kama petak) with ovum (kama bhang) becomes Sang Hyang Antigajati in the form of the seed of life. When a child is looking for birth, he is called Sang Hyang Siwatma. When humans are born into the world, he is accompanied by four brothers called Chess Sanak in the form of Yeh Nyom (amniotic fluid), placenta, shampoo, and blood. The Catur Sanak accompanies humans from birth as Sang Anggapati, Sang Prajapati, Sang Bhanaspati, and Sang Bhanaspatiraja, until humans die and change their designation according to human development, and continue with the depiction of God in the human body in the form of sacred characters.</em>

scholarly journals Re-engaging the spirit: engaging traditional Anishinabek healing beliefs into an architecture for addiction wellbeing centres

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madison Dozzi-Perry
Keyword(s):  
Addiction Treatment ◽  
The Body ◽  
Spiritual Awareness ◽  
Cold Environments ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Treatment Facilities ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Western Perspective

Current design practices for addiction treatment facilities reflect that of the western perspective on health, providing sterile, monolithic and cold environments. The quest for cleanliness, static and conditioned spaces robs the user of the richness of an engaging experience, isolating them into a sealed box. We further numb and anesthetize patients, disembodying them from the world and hindering their abilities to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual awareness. This disengagement of the natural, human and spiritual realms proliferates the problems facing people with addiction. This thesis proposes an engagement of Anishinabek healing and wellbeing principles to inform the design of addiction healing spaces that stimulate the users, re-engages and enhances one’s awareness and understanding of one’s self, other beings and place in the world. By incorporating these principles into design, architecture can begin to re-engage the mind, the body, the heart and the soul of people suffering from addiction wellbeing issues.

scholarly journals James Joyce and the Epiphanic Inscription: Towards an Art of Gesture as Rhythm

Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Alberto Tondello
Keyword(s):  
James Joyce ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

In Agency and Embodiment, Carrie Noland describes gesture as “a type of inscription, a parsing of the body into signifying and operational units”, considering it as a means to read and decode the human body. Through an analysis of James Joyce’s collection of Epiphanies, my paper will examine how gesture, as a mode of expression of the body, can be transcribed on the written page. Written and collected to record a “spiritual manifestation” shining through “in the vulgarity of speech or gesture, or in a memorable phase of the mind itself”, Joyce’s Epiphanies can be considered as the first step in his sustained attempt to develop an art of gesture-as-rhythm. These short pieces appear as the site in which the author seeks, through the medium of writing, to negotiate and redefine the boundaries of the physical human body. Moving towards a mapping of body and mind through the concept of rhythm, and pointing to a collaboration and mutual influence between interiority and exteriority, the Epiphanies open up a space for the reformulation of the relationship between the human body and its environment. Unpacking the ideas that sit at the heart of the concept of epiphany, the paper will shed light on how this particular mode of writing produces a rhythmic art of gesture, fixing and simultaneously liberating human and nonhuman bodies on the written page.

scholarly journals Tracing the Landscape: Re-Enchantment, Play, and Spirituality in Parkour

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 505
Author(s):  
Brett David Potter
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Ecological Consciousness ◽  
Traditional Sports ◽  
Urban Topography ◽  
Free Running ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
The Mind

Parkour, along with “free-running”, is a relatively new but increasingly ubiquitous sport with possibilities for new configurations of ecology and spirituality in global urban contexts. Parkour differs significantly from traditional sports in its use of existing urban topography including walls, fences, and rooftops as an obstacle course/playground to be creatively navigated. Both parkour and “free-running”, in their haptic, intuitive exploration of the environment retrieve an enchanted notion of place with analogues in the religious language of pilgrimage. The parkour practitioner or traceur/traceuse exemplifies what Michael Atkinson terms “human reclamation”—a reclaiming of the body in space, and of the urban environment itself—which can be seen as a form of playful, creative spirituality based on “aligning the mind, body, and spirit within the environmental spaces at hand”. This study will subsequently examine parkour at the intersection of spirituality, phenomenology, and ecology in three ways: (1) As a returning of sport to a more “enchanted” ecological consciousness through poeisis and touch; (2) a recovery of the lost “play-element” in sport (Huizinga); and (3) a recovery of the human body attuned to our evolutionary past.

The Eye is the Lamp of the Body (Matthew 6.22–23=Luke 11.34–36)

1987 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale C. Allison
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Similar Nature ◽  
Recent Contribution ◽  
Human Eye ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation

The most significant recent contribution to the understanding of Matt 6. 22–23 (= Luke 11. 34–36: Q) comes from Hans Dieter Betz. In his article on ‘Matthew vi.22f. and ancient Greek theories of Vision’ Betz claims to find in the pre-Socratics, in Plato, and in Philo the clues by which the enigmatic logion about the eye as the lamp of the body can best be elucidated. He directs attention to the following texts in particular: (1) Plato, Timaeus 45B–46A. In discussing the creation of the human body by the gods, Plato speaks of the ‘light-bearing eyes’(φωσφόραμματα), and he asserts that, within the human eye, there is a type of fire, a fire which does not burn but is, as Bury translates, ‘mild’. When we see, this fire, which is both ‘pure’ (είλıκρωές) and ‘within us’ (έντòς ὴμῶν), flows through the eyes and out into the world, where it meets the light of day. Now since like is attracted to like, the light of the eyes coalesces with the light of day, forming one stream of substance. And then, to quote Plato, ‘This substance, having all become similar in its properties because of its similar nature, distributes the motions of every object it touches, or whereby it is touched, throughout all the body, even unto the soul, and brings about the sensation which we term seeing.’ In fine, we see because we have within us a light that streams forth through our eyes.

scholarly journals Ten books

2007 ◽  
Vol 191 (6) ◽  
pp. 567-570
Author(s):  
Allan Beveridge
Keyword(s):  
Charles Dickens ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
The World ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Mind

In the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens gives his views on education. His character Mr Gradgrind believes in ‘facts’ and is suspicious of the imagination. All we need to know about the world, he maintains, can be reduced to simple facts. Dickens shows that such a philosophy leads to the impoverishment of the mind and to the weakening of ethical reasoning. Today it seems that the descendants of Mr Gradgrind are still in charge. The main psychiatric library where I work has been closed. It is argued that we can obtain all the ‘facts’ we need from the internet. The notion that books might have more to offer than prosaic detail, that they reflect the rich diversity of human experience, seems alien to the modern-day Gradgrinds.

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