The Moral Law: Derrida reading Kant

Derrida Today ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jacques de Ville
Keyword(s):  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Death Drive ◽  
The Law ◽  
As If

This essay shows how Derrida, in a variety of texts, engages directly or indirectly with the Kantian moral law, which rests on the assumption of man's autonomy vis-à-vis his natural inclinations. In the background of this analysis is Derrida's engagement with Freud, the latter having argued that the Kantian moral law is located in, and can be equated with, the superego. Derrida challenges Freud's assignation of the moral law (solely) to the superego, and suggests that what appears to Kant as the moral law and to Freud as the demands of the superego, already involve a limitation of a much more radical demand on the self: that of absolute sacrifice, and which one can understand with reference to Freud's death drive. This demand can be referred to as the law of law, that is, the law which makes of the moral law a law. Within this broader framework, the essay explores in detail Derrida's reading of Kant's notion of respect that is owed to the moral law, the notion of duty, and the formulation of the categorical imperative by Kant in terms of an ‘as if’.

From Container to Claustrum: Projective Identification in Couples

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Projective Identification ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intimate Partners ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
As If

This paper is a contribution to the growing literature on the role of projective identification in understanding couples' dynamics. Projective identification as a defence is well suited to couples, as intimate partners provide an ideal location to deposit unwanted parts of the self. This paper illustrates how projective identification functions differently depending on the psychological health of the couple. It elucidates how healthier couples use projective identification more as a form of communication, whereas disturbed couples are inclined to employ it to invade and control the other, as captured by Meltzer's concept of "intrusive identification". These different uses of projective identification affect couples' capacities to provide what Bion called "containment". In disturbed couples, partners serve as what Meltzer termed "claustrums" whereby projections are not contained, but imprisoned or entombed in the other. Applying the concept of claustrum helps illuminate common feelings these couples express, such as feeling suffocated, stifled, trapped, held hostage, or feeling as if the relationship is killing them. Finally, this paper presents treatment challenges in working with more disturbed couples.

„Rzymski” Żyd – nieznana twórczość Romana Brandstaettera

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Dariusz Konrad Sikorski
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Role Model ◽  
The Self ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Law

Summary After 1946, ie. after embracing Christianity, Roman Brandstaetter would often point to the Biblical Jonah as a role model for both his life and his artistic endeavour. In the interwar period, when he was a columnist of Nowy Głos, a New York Polish-Jewish periodical, he used the penname Romanus. The ‘Roman’ Jew appears to have treated his columns as a form of an artistic and civic ‘investigation’ into scandalous cases of breaking the law, destruction of cultural values and violation of social norms. Although it his was hardly ‘a new voice’ with the potential to change the course of history, he did become an intransigent defender of free speech. Brought up on the Bible and the best traditions of Polish literature and culture, Brandstaetter, the self-appointed disciple of Adam Mickiewicz, could not but stand up to the challenge of anti-Semitic aggression.

Kant on the Ground of Human Dignity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Apaar Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Human Constitution ◽  
The Law

Abstract Kant interpreters have contrasting views on what Kant takes to be the basis for human dignity. Several commentators have argued that human dignity can be traced back to some feature of human beings. Others contend that humans in themselves lack dignity, but dignity can be attributed to them because the moral law demands respect for humanity. I argue, alternatively, that human dignity in Kant’s system can be seen to be grounded in the reciprocal relationship between the dignity of the moral law and the dignity inherent in the human constitution. The latter includes the dignity of personhood, construed as rational inner purposiveness, and the dignity of giving oneself the law and striving to follow it.

Rereading Rape in the Critical Canon

differences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-160
Author(s):  
Erin A. Spampinato
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Rape Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Criminal Conduct ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
As If ◽  
Physical Outcomes

This essay identifies what the author terms “adjudicative reading,” a tendency in literary criticism to read novels depicting sexual violence as if in a court of law. Adjudicative reading tracks characters’ motivations and the physical outcomes of their actions as if novels can offer evidence, or lack thereof, of criminal conduct. This legalistic style of criticism not only ignores the fictionality of incidences of rape in novels, but it replicates the prejudices inherent in historical rape law by centering the experiences of the accused character over and against the harm caused to the fictional victim of rape. By contrast, the “capacious” conception of rape proposed here refuses to locate rape in a particular bodily act (as the law does), rejects the yoking of rape’s harms to a particular gender, and understands various forms of violence as equally serious (rather than creating a hierarchy of sexual assault, as current legal conceptions tend to do).

scholarly journals PREWEDDING PHOTO PROCESSION AND THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY IN THEM

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 246
Author(s):  
Aulil Amri
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
The Family ◽  
Marriage Contract ◽  
The Law ◽  
Husband And Wife ◽  
As If

In Islamic law, pre-wedding photos have not been regulated in detail. However, pre-wedding photo activities have become commonplace by the community. It becomes a problem when pre-wedding is currently done with an intimate scene, usually the prospective bride uses sexy clothes and is also not accompanied by her mahram when doing pre-wedding photos. Even though there have been many fatwas and studies on the limits of permissibility and prohibition in the pre-wedding procession.The results show that the pre-wedding procession that is carried out by the community in terms of poses, clothes, and also assistance in accordance with Islamic law, the law is permissible. However, it often happens in the community to take photos before the marriage contract with scenes as if they are legally husband and wife and the bride's family knows without prohibiting, directing, and guiding them according to Islamic teachings. In this case the role of the family is very important, we as parents must understand the basis of religious knowledge and how to instill religious values in our children since childhood is the key to this problem dilemma.

Testing the Egocentric Mirror-Rotation Hypothesis

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 373-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius Muelenz ◽  
Matthias Gamer ◽  
Heiko Hecht
Keyword(s):  
Virtual World ◽  
Experimental Setup ◽  
Mirror Surface ◽  
Localization Task ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Egocentric Bias ◽  
The Law ◽  
Spatial Locations ◽  
As If

AbstractAlthough observers know about the law of reflection, their intuitive understanding of spatial locations in mirrors is often erroneous. Hecht et al. (2005) proposed a two-stage mirror-rotation hypothesis to explain these misconceptions. The hypothesis involves an egocentric bias to the effect that observers behave as if the mirror surface were rotated by about 2° to be more orthogonal than is the case. We test four variants of the hypothesis, which differ depending on whether the virtual world, the mirror, or both are taken to be rotated. We devised an experimental setup that allowed us to distinguish between these variants. Our results confirm that the virtual world — and only the virtual world — is being rotated. Observers had to perform a localization task, using a mirror that was either fronto-parallel or rotated opposite the direction of the predicted effect. We were thus able to compensate for the effect. The positions of objects in mirrors were perceived in accordance with the erroneous conception that the virtual world behind the mirror is slightly rotated and that the reconstruction is based on the non-rotated fronto-parallel mirror. A covert rotation of the mirror by about 2° against the predicted effect was able to compensate for the placement error.

opinion. It surely makes more sense to construe the words ‘so liable’ in s2(1) as merely referring to the general existence of damages under s2(1), which had formerly only existed in respect of fraudulent misrepresentation rather than as importing all the rules of fraud into what is, at root, a negligence action. In Smith New Court Ltd v Citibank NA, Lord Steyn at the very least raised a critical eyebrow. ‘The question is whether the rather loose wording of [s 2(1)] compels the court to treat a person who was morally innocent as if he was guilty of fraud when it comes to the measure of damages. There has been trenchant academic criticism of the Royscott case: see Richard Hooley ... (1991) 107 LQR 547. Since this point does not directly arise in the present case, I express no concluded view on the correctness of the decision in Royscott’. Of course, fact that fraud rules on damages and remoteness of loss apply to an action under s2(1) does not mean that all the rules applicable to actions for deceit are also applicable. For example, there may be different rules for the purposes of limitation of actions. Much of the law in relation to damages for fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations have been reviewed recently by the House of Lords in Smith New Court Securities Ltd v Citibank NA (originally Scrimgeour Vickers Ltd and Another). The case concerned the losses caused by the dramatic fall in

1995 ◽  
pp. 717-717
Keyword(s):  
House Of Lords ◽  
General Existence ◽  
The Law ◽  
Limitation Of Actions ◽  
Dramatic Fall ◽  
As If

Vicarious gestures of participation

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Sruti Bala
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Processes ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Performance Projects ◽  
As If

Chapter IV follows two conceptually inspired performance projects by the Amsterdam-based Lebanese artist Lina Issa, Where We Are Not (2009) and If I Could Take Your Place? (2010 – ongoing). These works explore the question of what it means to take someone else’s place, to participate in someone’s life by doing something on their behalf, in the mode of ‘as if’. By analysing how this vicarious participation unfolds, the chapter foregrounds the spectatorial parameters of participation. The theorization of participation calls for an interweaving of the aesthetic with the social or political. Issa’s playful performances of standing in for others point to larger questions of what it means to participate in collective processes of imagining selfhood. The chapter suggests that the solidarity in the gesture of vicarious participation lies not so much in recognizing the so-called ‘other’ or in celebrating differences, but rather in being willing to dispossess oneself of the fixity of one’s ideas of the self, a potentially transformative gesture.

Wuthering Heights and the Relics of the Epistolary Novel

2019 ◽  
pp. 180-208
Author(s):  
Jeanne M. Britton
Keyword(s):  
Racial Difference ◽  
The Self ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Wuthering Heights ◽  
Epistolary Novel ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Epistolary Fiction ◽  
As If

This chapter argues that a novelistic version of sympathy negotiates transitions between oral, written, and printed texts in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The mode of vicarious narration that earlier chapters locate in the decline of epistolary fiction culminates in a logic of epistolarity that justifies this novel’s narrative form. Brontë’s novel also transforms Enlightenment conceptions of sympathy through the shared identity between Heathcliff and Catherine, which returns to the extremes of familial proximity and racial difference that trouble Enlightenment notions of sympathy: Heathcliff could just as easily be Catherine’s brother or a racial “other.” After explaining that she has “watched and felt” Heathcliff’s sorrows, Catherine declares “I am Heathcliff.” This assertion suggests an assimilation of radical otherness or a complete mirroring of the self in the familial other, as if to annihilate, through the experience of shared suffering, the boundary that separates sibling from stranger.

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