Original Science: Nature Deconstructing Itself

Derrida Today ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Two Cultures ◽  
Current Configuration ◽  
Human Exceptionalism ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Positive Science ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Non Local ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Vexed Question

This article explores Derrida's suggestion in Of Grammatology that deconstruction might be considered a positive science. The implication here is that ‘no outside of text’ does not evoke an enclosure whose limits can't be breached, an enclosure that discovers human exceptionalism in linguistic and technological capacities. Instead, this sense of a system and its involvements (différance) is already entangled in any ‘atom’ of its expression, whereby ‘no outside of text’ can be read as ‘no outside of Nature’. The logic that informs and justifies the conventional separations between nature and culture, ideation and matter, and human and non-human, are thereby confounded; the dimensions of efficacy, as well as the vexed question of intention appear as non-local (systemic); and the very notion of language – what it is and how it works – is distributed in ways that give rise to the same quandaries that surround the quantum problematic. Indeed, at the end of this meditation the difference between the humanities and the sciences, especially in its current configuration as the impasse of ‘the two cultures’, can no longer be sustained.

scholarly journals End-of-Dinner Food Offering: A Three-Way Contrastive Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-269
Author(s):  
Rong Chen ◽  
Chunmei Hu
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Food Offering ◽  
The City ◽  
Freedom Of Action

Abstract This paper presents a three-way contrastive study of the structure of the end-of-dinner food offering event – hosts asking guests to eat more food when the latter have indicated that they have finished eating – across three population groups: Chinese residents of the City of Xi’an as of 1995 (as reported in Chen, 1996), American residents of Southern California as of 2019, and Chinese residents of Xi’an as of 2019. It is found that, in 2019, Americans living in Southern California only infrequently offer their guests more food at the end of a dinner, while the Chinese residents of Xi’an (the Xi’an Chinese) offer their guests food much less often than in 1995, although still more frequently than their American counterparts. The difference observed between the Chinese and American groups is attributed to the different notions of politeness that are held in the two cultures: the Xi’an Chinese still maintain elements of hospitality and warmth as key notions of politeness, in a similar way to Libyan Arabic speakers, as discovered by Grainger, Mansor and Mills (2015), while the offering behaviour of Southern Californians is motivated by the respect they hold for another person’s freedom of action. The noticeable change in the way food is offered at the end of a Chinese dinner between 1995 and 2019 – which can be seen to be a process of ‘deritualisation’ (Kádár, 2013) – is due to the influence of Western cultures. The significance of our work thus goes beyond the understanding of both food offering in Chinese and Chinese politeness: it adds to the scant literature on the structure of the offering event across cultures and places Chinese politeness in the context of other languages; it brings insights from language contact into the field of pragmatics, a decades-long research paradigm; and it demonstrates the value of diachronic contrastive pragmatics, a direction that will no doubt aid the advancement of contrastive pragmatics in particular and, as a consequence, pragmatics in general.

Olwid, Or the Beginnings of Polish Postcolonialism

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 446-460
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Szewczyk-Haake
Keyword(s):  
Human Values ◽  
World War ◽  
Common Humanity ◽  
German Expressionism ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Postcolonial Criticism ◽  
The World ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
The Difference ◽  
New Interpretation

Summary This article presents a postcolonial interpretation of Olwid’s (Witold Hulewicz’s) book of poems Flame in Hand (Płomień w garści, 1921). His poetic ‘fragments’ describing the experience of the World War are remarkably similar to the poetry of German expressionism. Whereas previous critics treated this similarity as a proof of the derivative, unoriginal nature of the Poznań expressionism, this article claims that Olwid’s was a deliberate attempt to start a rapprochement between the Polish and the German culture. After decades of colonial dependence the breakthrough of 1918 the two cultures had a chance to resume a dialogue of equals with the expressionist poetics as a new footing. Hulewicz tones down the difference between the hegemon and the victim in the spirit of the expressionistic search for common humanity. To that end he also develops a new interpretation of the Polish Romantic tradition. His endeavours mark him out as a precursor of postcolonial criticism, and more specifically that type of postcolonialism which uses the emancipatory strategy as a means to the creation of a ‘truly free man’. That high goal is pursued not because of a commitment to cosmopolitanism but in the name of absolute human values.

scholarly journals Ethics and Fragmented Knowledge in McEwan's Solar: Implications for Big History

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Tatiana de Freitas Massuno ◽  
◽  
Daniel Barreiros
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Disciplinary Perspective ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Big History

This essay is a reflection on the consequences and outreach of the “two cultures” (as conceived by C. P. Snow) that resorts to a reading of McEwan’s acclaimed novel Solar. Michael Beard, the main character, is a Nobel Laureate who, at a very young age, gained recognition, and who then spent most of his adult years wasting his ingeniousness on futile and personal pursuits. He is unable to understand the ethical and humanitarian implications of his gained knowledge. Even though he ends his career by trying to address the problem of climate change, he does so in a detached manner, as though human and nonhuman lives were not implicated in this Earth phenomenon. At the root of it all lies an assumption that nature and culture belong to distinct ontological spheres. Hence, we aim at investigating how Beard’s worldview can be read as a symptom of epistemological assumptions that no longer serve us. This article explores the ethical implications of a rigid disciplinary perspective in a moment of global urgency – the Anthropocene –, and how Big History can help to narrow the gap between different forms of human knowledge. It also makes brief remarks on how Big History should avoid the ethical perils represented by the idea of a “grand unifying theory of the past” by assuming a permanent and coherent critical stance on its methods and concepts.

The Two Cultures: Mashing Up Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anupriya Ankolekar ◽  
Markus Krozsch ◽  
Denny Vrandecic
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Web ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Two Cultures

Building Cultural Bridges Between China and India

2021 ◽  
pp. 097133362199045
Author(s):  
Dharm P. S. Bhawuk
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural Psychology ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
China And India ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Social Behaviours

Employing one of the established theories from cross-cultural psychology and sociology, first it is shown that both China and India are collectivist cultures. Then the Chinese and Indian worldviews are compared to highlight fundamental similarities between the two cultures. Finally, it is shown how self-cultivation is emphasised in both China and India. Effort is made to show how ideas presented by Confucius and Lao Tsu are captured in the Indian culture and social behaviours. A number of issues are raised for the development of indigenous knowledge from multiple perspectives using various paradigms and methodology. It is hoped that the special issue and this article will stimulate researchers to bridge Chinese and Indian psychologies which may pave the path towards peaceful prosperity.

scholarly journals Immigration and Multiculturalism in Italy: The Religious Experience of the Peruvian Community in the Eternal City

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Verónica Roldán
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The World ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Popular Religiosity

The present study on the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome belongs to the area of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. In this article, I analyze the devotion of the Peruvian community in Rome to “the Lord of Miracles”. This pious tradition, which venerates the image of Christ crucified—painted by an Angolan slave—began in 1651 in Lima, during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Today, the sacred image is venerated in countries all over the world that host Peruvian immigrant communities that have set up branches of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles. I examine, in particular, the cult of el Señor de los Milagros in Rome in terms of Peruvian popular religiosity and national identity experienced within a transnational context. This essay serves two purposes: The first is to analyze the significance that this religious experience acquires in a foreign environment while maintaining links with its country of origin and its cultural traditions in a multilocal environment. The second aim is to examine the integration of the Peruvian community into Italian society, beginning with religious practice, in this case Roman Catholicism. This kind of religiosity seems not only to favor the encounter between the two cultures but also to render Italian Roman Catholicism multicultural.

I See Myself through My Avatar: Evidence from East Asia and North America for Acculturated Effects on Virtual Representation Preference

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunwoo Yoon ◽  
Patrick T. Vargas
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Future Research ◽  
East Asians ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
North Americans ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Quasi Experiment

In the present research we argue that avatars, as identity containers, can mirror people’s self-concepts. Research in cultural psychology suggests that East Asians tend to be more tolerant of contradictions and that they more easily adjust their self-concepts in accordance with changing contexts compared to North Americans (see Heine 2001). We therefore assume that preferred forms of avatars among East Asians and North Americans are different because of this self-concept variability across cultures. We conducted a quasi-experiment to explore how people in the two cultures differently evaluate two forms of avatars, human-like and cartoon-like avatars, in terms of likeability and preference. We found that East Asians rated cartoon-like avatars more favourably than North Americans. Moreover, compared to North Americans, East Asians preferred cartoon-like avatars to human-like avatars for their hypothetical avatars to play games. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.

Trust in the Workplace: The Role of Social Interaction Diversity in the Community and in the Workplace

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Cui ◽  
Ilan Vertinsky ◽  
Sandra Robinson ◽  
Oana Branzei
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Collectivistic Cultures ◽  
Capital Development ◽  
The Impact

Extending the literature on social capital development in the community, this article examines the impact of diverse social interactions (in the community and the workplace) on the development of social trust in the workplace, and investigates whether their effects differ in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Using survey data collected in Canada and China, the authors find that the diversity of one’s social interactions in the community is positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, and this relationship is not significantly different between the two cultures. Diversity of one’s social interactions in the workplace is also positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, though only in collectivistic cultures.

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