scholarly journals Outobiografie as hermeneutiek van die self: Van Rousseau tot Le Clézio

Literator ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Snyman
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ken Bugul ◽  
Marguerite Yourcenar ◽  
Autobiographical Texts ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Individual Existence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Historical Model

Autobiography as hermeneutics of the self, from Rousseau to Le Clézio. This article investigates the hypothesis that autobiography can be regarded as a type of hermeneutics of the self. In order to achieve this, a selection of French autobiographical texts was analysed. As this study is a reworked version of an inaugural lecture, it presents an overview rather than a detailed analysis of the theories or the texts it refers to. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, generally regarded as a cornerstone of modern autobiography, was used as a point of departure for the interpretation of operations of understanding at work in autobiographical texts. The article demonstrates how the writers of the rest of the corpus of texts question Rousseau’s historical model in different ways according to more recent concepts of the self. Thus it is argued that George Perec replaces the historical model of understanding with an approach based on deciphering signs from the past; that Nathalie Sarraute combines the New Novel’s concept of the divided subject with that of tropismes in order to give a truthful representation of her childhood; and that Roland Barthes problematises the notion of language as a medium of expression of subjectivity in his ‘anti-outobiography’. This study furthermore demonstrates how Marguerite Yourcenar breaks with the anthropomorphism associated with humanism to pave the way for the realisation that the presence of the Other profoundly determines the understanding of the self. Finally, the ethics of dealing with the Other in intercultural encounters, as recorded in Ken Bugul and Jean-Marie Le Clézio’s autobiographies, is examined. The article shows how, from the 18th century onwards, literary and philosophical trends influenced the act of understanding and interpreting the individual existence and hence the nature of autobiography.

Self, Indian theories of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Rukmani
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Spiritual Energy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Ultimate Principle ◽  
Ultimate Nature

Hindu thought traces its different conceptions of the self to the earliest extant Vedic sources composed in the Sanskrit language. The words commonly used in Hindu thought and religion for the self are jīva (life), ātman (breath), jīvātman (life-breath), puruṣa (the essence that lies in the body), and kṣetrajña (one who knows the body). Each of these words was the culmination of a process of inquiry with the purpose of discovering the ultimate nature of the self. By the end of the ancient period, the personal self was regarded as something eternal which becomes connected to a body in order to exhaust the good and bad karma it has accumulated in its many lives. This self was supposed to be able to regain its purity by following different spiritual paths by means of which it can escape from the circle of births and deaths forever. There is one more important development in the ancient and classical period. The conception of Brahman as both immanent and transcendent led to Brahman being identified with the personal self. The habit of thought that tried to relate every aspect of the individual with its counterpart in the universe (Ṛg Veda X. 16) had already prepared the background for this identification process. When the ultimate principle in the subjective and objective spheres had arrived at their respective ends in the discovery of the ātman and Brahman, it was easy to equate the two as being the same spiritual ‘energy’ that informs both the outer world and the inner self. This equation had important implications for later philosophical growth. The above conceptions of the self-identity question find expression in the six systems of Hindu thought. These are known as āstikadarśanas or ways of seeing the self without rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Often, one system or the other may not explicitly state their allegiance to the Vedas, but unlike Buddhism or Jainism, they did not openly repudiate Vedic authority. Thus they were āstikadarśanas as opposed to the others who were nāstikadarśanas. The word darśana for philosophy is also significant if one realizes that philosophy does not end with only an intellectual knowing of one’s self-identity but also culminates in realizing it and truly becoming it.

scholarly journals Kierkegaard and the modern search for self

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Relational Understanding ◽  
Search For Self ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

In this article, I argue that Kierkegaard’s analysis of the self and the concept of despair introduces another approach to the self that is different from the one found in humanistic psychology. Rather than seeing the self as something organic, something universally and privately given to the individual to develop, Kierkegaard presented a dialectical and a relational understanding of the self, wherein the notion of “the other” is central. Central in Kierkegaard’s analysis in Sickness Unto Death are two modalities when it comes to despair: the despair of not willing to be oneself and the despair of willing to be oneself. Kierkegaard’s analysis of the despair of willing to be oneself can be read as a strong critique of the notion of self being constituted by itself, as argued by humanistic psychology.

Homogeneity, “glocalism” or somewhere in between?

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 288-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Cecilia de Burgh-Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Marketing Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pierre Loti ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper aims to expand current theories of globalisation to a consideration of its impact on the individual. Much work has been done on the impact of globalisation on social, political and economic structures. In this paper, globalisation, for the individual, reflects a re-conceptualisation of the Self/Other encounter. In order to explore this Self/Other dimension, the paper analyses the literary work of nineteenth-century writer Pierre Loti since his work begins to problematise this important motif. His work also provides insight into the effect on the individual when encountering the Other in a globalised context. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from literary criticism, the paper adopts an interpretive approach. Using the fiction and non-fiction work of Pierre Loti, an integrated psychoanalytical, postcolonial analysis is conducted to draw out possible insights into how Loti conceptualises the Other and is thus transformed himself. Findings – The paper finds that the Self/Other encounter shifts in the era of globalisation. The blurring of the Self/Other is part of the impact of globalisation on the individual. Further, the paper argues that Loti was the first to problematise Self/Other at a point in history where the distinction seemed clear. Loti's work is instructive for tracing the dissolution of the Self/Other encounter since the themes and issues raised in his early work foreshadow our contemporary experience of globalisation. Research limitations/implications – This paper takes a specific view of globalisation through an interpretive lens. It also uses one specific body of work to answer the research question of what impact globalisation has on the individual. A broader sampling and application of theoretical strains out of the literary criticism canon would expand the parameters of this study. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to current theorisations of globalisation in that it re-conceptualises classical understandings of the Self/Other divide. The finding that the Self/Other divide is altered in the current era of globalisation has impact for cultural and marketing theory since it re-focuses attention on the shifting nature of identity and how we encounter the Other in our daily existence.

scholarly journals The History, Landscapes, Metaphors and Ghosts Around the Concept of Specificity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Romo-González ◽  
Carlos Larralde ◽  
Abraham Puga-Olguín ◽  
Enrique Vargas-Madrazo
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Species Specificity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Epistemological Problem ◽  
Theoretical Entity ◽  
Perceived Reality ◽  
The Individual

The confusion between objects/processes and the language which describes them, leads to theories of doubtful verisimilitude about reality, inappropriate in time and even false, which distance us from the knowledge of perceived reality. In biology there are many examples of this kind of epistemological problem. Here we examine those related with specificity: a theoretical entity of enormous importance for biology and science in general.  It sinks its roots beneath the evolutionary duality species-specificity, associated with the Linnean-Darwinist tradition that explains organized life in a discrete and hierarchical way.  It conceptualizes the individual as an isolated agent fighting for survival as the foundation of a warrior vision of the immune system.  Microorganisms are understood as inferior beings which should be eliminated in accordance with the self/not-self distinction. The use of these metaphors outside of historical context traces a map that guides the recognition of the Self and of the other according to the dialectic of Western biopolitics.

scholarly journals Occupational structure of bearers of Jewish rabbinical, occupational and generic surnames

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 971
Author(s):  
Alexander Jonathan Vidgop ◽  
Nelly Norton ◽  
Nechama Rosenberg ◽  
Malka Haguel-Spitzberg ◽  
Itzhak Fouxon
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Occupational Structure ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Standard Classification ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Choice

We study choice of profession in three groups of Russian-speaking Jewish families with different occupational distributions of the ancestors. This study continues exploration of the persistence of social status of families over centuries that was initiated in recent years. It was found previously that in some cases professions remain associated with the same surnames for many generations. Here the studied groups are defined by a class of the surname of individuals composing them. The class serves as a label that indicates a professional bias of the ancestors of the individual. One group are the bearers of the class of surnames which were used by rabbinical dynasties. The other group is constituted by occupational surnames, mostly connected to crafts. Finally, the last group are generic Jewish names defined as surnames belonging to neither of the above groups. We use the self-collected database that consists of 858 and 1057 of the first two groups, respectively, and 7471 generic Jewish surnames. The statistics of the database are those of individuals drawn at random from the considered groups. We determine shares of members of the groups working in a given type of occupations together with the confidence interval. The occupational type’s definition agrees with International Standard Classification of Occupations. It is demonstrated that there is a statistically significant difference in the occupational structure of the three groups that holds beyond the uncertainty allowed by 95% confidence interval. We quantify the difference with a numerical measure of the overlap of professional preferences of different groups. We conclude that in our study the occupational bias of different population groups is preserved at least for two centuries that passed since the considered surnames appeared.

Self-Other Relationship, History and Interpretation

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arup Jyoti Sarma
Keyword(s):  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Dialogical Philosophy ◽  
Relationship History ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Ethical Intent

Abstract This paper offers a critical appraisal of Gadamer’s dialogical philosophy of the self-other relationship within the context of interpretation and historical consciousness. According to Gadamer hermeneutics is a theory of interpretation or, rather, the art of interpretation. The task of philosophical hermeneutics is to narrate an ontology of human understanding with the ethical intent of restoring to interpretation a greater sense of “integrity.” The “hermeneutic universe” belongs to the individual worldviews whose structure and content are constructed on the basis of historical precedents. Gadamer situates these precedents in historicity and the tradition of culture, which are resources for their unique interpretations. Gadamer claims that interpretative understanding encounters the other in the dialogical “play” (Spiel) of an ever-unfinished event. The self and the other belong to the horizon of historical consciousness, and it is through this common horizon that the alterity of the other comes into expression.

Social Comparison: Why, With Whom, and With What Effect?

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 159-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Suls ◽  
René Martin ◽  
Ladd Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Maximum Effort ◽  
Utility Evaluation ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relative Standing ◽  
Comparison Target

Social comparison consists of comparing oneself with others in order to evaluate or to enhance some aspects of the self. Evaluation of ability is concerned with the question “Can I do X?” and relies on the existence of a proxy performer. A proxy's relative standing on attributes vis‐à‐vis the comparer and whether the proxy exerted maximum effort on a preliminary task are variables influencing his or her informational utility. Evaluation of opinions is concerned with the questions “Do I like X?”“Is X correct?” and “Will I like X?” Important variables that affect an individual's use of social comparison to evaluate his or her opinions are the other person's expertise, similarity with the individual, and previous agreement with the individual. Whether social comparison serves a self-enhancement function depends on whether the comparer assimilates or contrasts his or her self relative to superior or inferior others. The kinds of self‐knowledge made cognitively accessible and variables such as mutability of self-views and distinctiveness of the comparison target may be important determinants of assimilation versus contrast.

scholarly journals The Mental Time Traveller: Considering the Future Consequences of Present Day Behaviours

2015 ◽  
pp. 123-127
Author(s):  
Lisa Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Subjective Time ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Future Consequences

Time cannot be outwardly intuited. These are the words of Immanuel Kant, an 18th century philosopher renowned for his contemplations of the fundamental concepts underlying the entire human experience. Central to Kant’s reasoning is the concept of subjective time, the idea that time is not only an entity to be quantified in the physical sciences, but a subjective experience which can differ across each person, rooting the individual in his or her own mental reality. We all have unique experiences of time. Two individuals can attend the same event, a concert or a party perhaps, and for one of them, time can move extremely quickly, but for the other it can drag on for what seems like an eternity. Time flies when we are having fun and enjoying ourselves, yet feels endless when we are bored or afraid. It is the lens through which we view and experience the world ...

A critical analysis of the theories and models of self-education

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Bogusław Śliwerski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Activity ◽  
Psychological Issues ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oriented Activity ◽  
Individual Self

Human behaviour researchers argue on self-education matters, which accumulate the complex of unsolved contentious problematic issues, referring to classical antinomies: freedom, socialization, and self-consciousness. There are many controversies concerning the interpretation of the self-education notion in social sciences and corresponding theories. The author of the paper presents those theories and explains approaches to self-education, as they have inspired countless pedagogical and psychological issues. Concurrently he underlines different activities, which illustrate two contrasting theoretical standpoints. The first one treats self-education as perfectio prima. It happens when the striving to perfection is realized by Socratic (“self-oriented”) model. Such an approach is the only motivation of individual activity and the aim in itself. On the other hand, the second perspective understands self-education as the Promethean (“out-oriented”) activity. In the light of its assumptions, it is a kind of spontaneous, nonintentional man’s activities aimed to transform reality out of oneself, the surrounding world, and the environment of life. Here, self-education is the perfectio secunda category, which means that the individual self-educates itself by reaching excellence per accidens. Such distinction is crucial for project constructing and empirical research questing.

A Feminist Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 194-210
Author(s):  
Anita Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Unjust Enrichment ◽  
The Individual

Because private law reaches its results by relying on demands and denials that litigants articulate, this jurisprudence will necessarily shortchange persons who lack full prerogative to say what they want and do not want. Women exemplify this category, but the contention of this chapter can be extended mutatis mutandis to other subordinated classes. The chapter sketches two protagonists of private law—the individual who complains and the individual who resists another's demand—with reference to the self-regard that each needs to defeat the other in a private law action. Next it applies gender to the famed maxim volenti non fit injuria, a jurisprudential view that understands injury to exist only if it is denounced. To support its claim of gendered unjust enrichment, the chapter reviews documented barriers to the expression of self-interested protest that reduce what private-law litigation will deliver to women.

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