scholarly journals Memory, embodiment, ethics: In conversation with Wentzel van Huyssteen’s work on theological anthropology

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vosloo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Key Features

This article focuses on Wentzel van Huyssteen’s work on theological anthropology, attending especially to his emphasis on the temporal and narrative dimension of personal identity. In this regard, Van Huyssteen draws on the thought of Paul Ricoeur, including his view that memory is the gateway to the self. With this in mind, the first part of the article highlights some key features of Van Huyssteen’s engagement the last decade or two with the question what it means to be human, namely the affirmation of interdisciplinarity, embodiment and vulnerability. The argument is put forward that Van Huyssteen’s work invites and displays the need to uphold the interconnections between embodiment, memory, vulnerability, imagination and empathy. It is furthermore claimed that his constructive proposals ‘in search of self’ should be seen as inextricably connected with its crucial ethical and theological motivation and contours.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article focuses on the South African theologian Wentzel van Huyssteen’s work on theological anthropology. He is internationally renowned, and this article discusses key features of his views and brings it into conversation with the work of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur and perspectives from memory studies. As such, it presents a novel engagement that can enrich systematic theological discourse.

On historical injustice and the art of forgetting

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vosloo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Church History ◽  
Historical Injustice ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
The Relationship

This article asks whether it is responsible to introduce and/or cultivate the language of forgetting against the backdrop of South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past.  In writings originating from contexts permeated by memories of historical injustice, the call, and more specifically the duty, to remember and the implied need to fight against forgetting are rightfully emphasised.  But how are we to evaluate what some scholars see as a discursive shift from “memory” to “forgetting” in memory studies?  With this question in mind, this article first considers some possible arguments for giving greater prominence to the notion of forgetting in our memory discourse.  This is followed by a section that reiterates the “critique of forgetting,” drawing also on some examples from 20th century South African political and church history. In the final section, the article considers, in conversation with Paul Ricoeur, whether we should view the relationship between an art of memory and an art of forgetting as symmetrical or asymmetrical.

scholarly journals Opaque Selves: A Ricœurian Response to Galen Strawson’s Anti- Narrative Arguments

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-89
Author(s):  
Kristofer Camilo Arca
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenology ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Epistemic Access ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Galen Strawson

As narrative conceptions of selfhood have gained more acceptance within various disciplines including philosophy, psychology, and the cognitive sciences, so too have these conceptions been critically appraised. Chief among those who are suspicious of the overall viability of ‘narrative identity’ is the philosopher, Galen Strawson. In this paper, I develop five arguments underlying Strawson’s critique of narrative identity, and respond to each argument from the perspective of the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricœur. Though intuitive, I demonstrate that none of Strawson’s arguments are cogent. The confrontation between these two figures highlights a deep conceptual disagreement about our epistemic access to the self, which has thus far gone unrecognized in the Anglo-American discussion, so that it raises a new problem for the metaphysics of personal identity.

scholarly journals Identidade pessoal e ética em Paul Ricoeur: da identidade narrativa à promessa e à responsabilidade

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-62
Author(s):  
Cláudio Reichert do Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
The Self ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Over Time

This paper presents the problem of personal identity in the light of Paul Ricœur’s theories in Time and Narrative and Oneself as Another. This work also discusses briefly the philosophical positions that affirm what Ricœur characterizes as identity: the permanence in time (sameness), contrary to the identity that is changeable and diverse over time (ipseity), which is in line with his thesis of narrative identity. Then the limitation of the narrative is examined so as to account for the problem of personal identity before the possible “erasure” of the self in the narrative field and his/her maintenance in the ethical field with the concept of promise. Finally, this paper discusses the approximation which Ricœur appraises of the concept of promise as speech act and as the power of promise, and the relation to the concept of responsibility that results from that.

scholarly journals Creolization and the Production and Negotiation of Boundaries in Breyten Breytenbach's Recent Work

Nordlit ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Hein Viljoen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
South African ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South

Much of the South African poet Breyten Breytenbach's work has been concerned with borders. In this article I examine borders and creolization in three important poems from Nine landscapes of our time bequeathed to a beloved (Nege landskappe bemaak aan 'n beminde, 1993), Paper flower (Papierblom, 2002) and The wind-catcher (Die windvanger, 2007). The link between creolization and boundaries is the poet's conception of identity and freedom. As is often the case the boundaries of the self are questioned as the poet permutates the central concepts. Crossing boundaries entails entering into dialogue not only with the self but also with the mother tongue itself and with a variety of other artists and writers. In other words, in Breytenbach's work an abrogation and appropriation of the own tradition ("erfgoed") as well as of material from others, other places and other traditions occur. In these three case studies in particular it is clear how the poet stretches and deforms boundaries as part of his poetic project to concretize a dynamic freedom.

scholarly journals Self-perceived employability among undergraduate students at a South African university

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doret Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
Managerial Implications

Orientation: South Africa has been suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment since 2008. The youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the South African labour market and unemployment amongst the youth is considered one of the most critical socio-economic problems in South Africa. Increasing one’s employability is essential to securing employment and enhancing one’s well-being.Research purpose: This study aimed to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university.Motivation for the study: Currently, there is a scarcity of published research on the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at higher education institutions in South Africa.Research approach/design and method: The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used. Convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. Data were collected through a web-based survey, using a standardised coded questionnaire that consisted of a five-point Likert-type scale.Main findings: The results indicated that the respondents were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills and knowledge to become a successful citizen and employee.Contribution/value-add: The study shed light on the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university and consequently contributes to the existing literature on employability in the South African context.

scholarly journals From Demonic Faith to Redemptive Faith: The Ambiguity of Faith in the Intersection of Religion and State Violence

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 268
Author(s):  
Wonchul Shin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
The South ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Religion And State

This paper aims to examine the ambiguity of faith in the intersection of religion and state violence. I pay attention to the state-operated system of apartheid in South Africa and critically analyze the Afrikaner community’s faith that motivated and justified vicious state violence against people of color. I name this faith demonic faith and present two key features of demonic faith in the South African case: idolatrous absolutization and destructive dehumanization. I also examine how the Afrikaners’ demonic faith came to its existence through the complex dynamics of their existential anxieties, desires, and distorted ways to fulfill the desires. I then argue for the ineffaceable possibility of redemptive faith, and theoretically construct how two features of redemptive faith, consisting of courage and empathy, could have empowered the Afrikaners to break the shackles of demonic idolatry and destruction. Redemptive faith is tragically paired with demonic faith, but truth serves as a key criterion to guide us in this tragic ambiguity of faith.

scholarly journals Identidade Narrativa e Identidade Pessoal. Uma Abordagem da Filosofia de Paul Ricoeur

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (33) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Sara Margarida de Matos Roma Fernandes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Physical Traits

This article has the double goal of reflecting on the concept of narrative identity in Paul Ricoeur’s Thinking and of evaluating its contribution to the resolution of the general problem of personal identity. Accordingly, this article will develop the following thesis: 1) narrative identity results from a permanent dialectic between character (sameness, Idem) and selfhood (constancy, Ipse), that is, between subject’s power to relate continuously to himself during all his life through narrative mediation and subject’s psychological and physical traits; 2) personal identity is the continuous ethical and aesthetical (self)recreation and narrative identity brings perfectly together these two domains.

scholarly journals Exporting ‘The Cotter's Saturday Night’: Robert Burns, Scottish Romantic Nationalism and Colonial Settler Identity

Romanticism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89
Author(s):  
Sarah Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South ◽  
Saturday Night ◽  
Cultural Baggage ◽  
The Way ◽  
At Home

A Scottish literary icon of the nineteenth century, Burns's ‘The Cotter's Saturday Night’ was a key component of the cultural baggage carried by emigrant Scots seeking a new life abroad. The myth of the thrifty, humble and pious Scottish cottager is a recurrent figure in Scottish colonial writing whether that cottage is situated in the South African veld or the Otago bush. This article examines the way in which Burns's cotter informed the myth of the self-sufficient Scottish peasant in the poetry of John Barr and Thomas Pringle. It will argue that, just as ‘The Cotter’ could be used to reinforce a particular set of ideas about Scottish identity at home, Scottish settlers used Burns's poem to respond to and cement new identities abroad.

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