Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1908–61)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Landes
Keyword(s):  
Applied Sciences ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Philosophical Methodology ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–61) was a key figure in twentieth-century French philosophy and one of the principal proponents of existential phenomenology. Through his subtle and wide-ranging descriptions of lived and embodied experience, particularly in his major text Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Merleau-Ponty made significant contributions on a variety of topics, including behaviour, perception, habit acquisition, language, expression, history and politics. His broader interests in the philosophical consequences of these descriptions led him to address many classical philosophical problems (for example, freedom, temporality, the relation of the soul and body, ontology, etc.). Perhaps his most lasting contribution was in directing philosophical inquiry to the role of the lived body in the operative structures of meaning across all human experience. This aspect of his work has been a starting point for contemporary studies of embodiment in both philosophy and other disciplines, from new approaches in cognitive science to phenomenological contributions in performance studies, gender studies and applied sciences. Merleau-Ponty’s interests evolved throughout his career, leading to a greater engagement with structuralism in the early 1950s and to a more explicit attempt to answer ontological questions about nature and philosophical methodology in the late 1950s. At the time of his death in 1961, Merleau-Ponty was developing a phenomenological ontology in a manuscript that was published posthumously as The Visible and the Invisible (1964). He argued that human experience is marked by a certain reversibility in that we are at once subjects and objects, touching and touched, seeing and seen. Our bodies are both of the world and open to the world; we are a node or a moment in the flesh of the world. For Merleau-Ponty, in this unfinished ontological project the notion of ‘flesh’ appears to name an ontological principle or element by which a folding back occurs via a self-reflexive experience and thus the spacing takes place where experience and being can appear.

Od kultury popularnej do geopolityki popularnej

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (297) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Jarosław Macała
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Order ◽  
Popular Geopolitics

A large portion of geopolitical research of the last decades, especially geopolitical criticism, undertakes the concept of the importance of culture, value and identity in explaining the relation between the space and politics, which was an aspect underappreciated by classical and neoclassical geopolitics. It might be assumed that the currently growing role of popculture and mass-media in our lives lead to the establishment of a kind of a “cultural order”, a particular filter that decides on the perception of the world and, consequently, geopolitics. This article relates to this issue as it deals with the meaning of popular culture in contemporary geopolitical research, mostly accentuated by popular geopolitics. This review briefly analyses what popular geopolitics is, how to sketch its research area, stages of development, applied definitions and research methods. The starting point is the assumption that the hegemonic structure of geographical/geopolitical thinking that the elites are trying to impose on the society by using popcultural artifacts may, in fact, be reconstructed thanks to popular geopolitics studies. It shows the scale and reach of resistance towards such imaginations as displayed by the non-elites, who also reach for symbols, texts and images from popular culture. Such circumstances allow to observe either legitimizing or debunking a particular view of the world and geopolitics.

Being Able to Survive and Thrive

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
David L. Blustein
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Entire Spectrum ◽  
Boston College ◽  
The World ◽  
Work Volition ◽  
Psychology Of Working

This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the ways in which the needs for survival and power intersect with working. Beginning with an overview of Maslow’s need hierarchy (which indicates the need for survival is fundamental to our existence) and the psychology-of-working framework, vignettes from the participants from the Boston College Working Project provide an in-depth perspective about the complex ways that striving for survival intersects with relationships, financial security, and thriving. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of time perspective and work volition in relation to the need to survive. The chapter makes clear that the drive for survival is an essential aspect of being alive in the world. Creating opportunities for people to meet this integral aspect of human experience, naturally, is a challenge that requires the best of our inner spirits and a commitment to nurturing the needs of the entire spectrum of people in our communities.

Intuition and Inquiry

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-296
Author(s):  
Anand Vaidya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Philosophical Methodology ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry

Recent work in philosophical methodology by experimental philosophers has brought to light a certain kind of skepticism about the role of intuitions in a priori philosophical inquiry. In this paper I turn attention away from a priori philosophical inquiry and on to the role of intuition in experimental design. I argue that even if we have reason to be skeptical about the role of intuition in a priori philosophical inquiry, we cannot remove intuition from inquiry altogether, because appeals to intuition are essential for experimental design.

scholarly journals Contingencies of Value: Devices and Conventions at a Design School Admission Test

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Malou Strandvad
Keyword(s):  
Economic Sociology ◽  
Assessment Criteria ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Admission Test ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries ◽  
Aesthetic Values

Based on a study of the admission test at a design school, this paper investigates the contingencies of aesthetic values as these become visible in assessment practices. Theoretically, the paper takes its starting point in Herrnstein Smith’s notion of ‘contingencies of values’ and outlines a pragmatist ground where cultural sociology and economic sociology meet. Informed by the literature on cultural intermediaries, the paper discusses the role of evaluators and the devices which accompany them. Whereas studies of cultural intermediaries traditionally apply a Bourdieusian perspective, recent developments within this field of literature draws inspiration from the so-called ‘new new economic sociology,’ which this paper adds to. While the admission test is easily described as a matter of overcoming “subjective” aesthetic evaluations by means of “objective” and standardized assessment criteria, the paper does not accept this storyline. As an alternative, the paper outlines the contingencies of values which are at play at the admission test, composed of official assessment criteria and scoring devices together with conventions within the world of design, and set in motion by interactions with the objects that applicants submit.

scholarly journals Rural Landscape as a Value of Cultural Heritage

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Wieruszewska
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Rural Space ◽  
A Value ◽  
European Landscape Convention ◽  
The World

The Author – ethnologist and anthropologist of culture – defends the thesis that rural landscape is an important component of cultural heritage. Virtual “cyberspaces” as - sume the role of an alternative life environment. Physical space loses the basis for explaining the world and for shaping human experience. The degraded rural cultural landscape is the proof of erroneous conceptions and rural space gathers the effects of a deficit of sensibility to “long continuance”. In opposition to postmodernist assessments the Author objects to the attempts at destabilising culture. Culture is significant. The protection of rural landscape as a particularly sensitive and valuable quality has a sense. In the conclusion of her article the Author suggests that a more thorough humanistic reflection is needed to make it possible to optimally implement the recommendations of the European Landscape Convention.

scholarly journals An artistic landscape of the newest kazahkstani novel

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (Extra-B) ◽  
pp. 149-154
Author(s):  
Rezeda Mukhametshina ◽  
Kadisha Nurgali ◽  
Svetlana Ananyeva
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
National Image ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception ◽  
The World ◽  
Subjective Factor ◽  
Points Of View

In the context of the new bi- and polylingual picture of the world, the novel continues to hold leading positions as the leading genre of prose. The Kazakh novel generalizes the aesthetically immanent factors of identity and is created in the Kazakh and Russian languages. Ethno-national identity is important for both the author and the characters. The modern phenomenology of perception actualizes not only the role of the anthropological turn, but also the role of the subjective factor - the reader. Comparative analysis allows you to look at the novel from different conceptual points of view. Transnational tendencies are intensely manifested in the work of prose writers. The search for answers to the most important questions of our time, the challenges of globalization contributes to the disclosure of the ethnocultural world. Opposition one's own/other, one's/another's allows to convey the national attitude and reveal the national image.    

Edith Stein's Contribution to Critical Phenomenology: On Self-Formation and Value-Modification

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Rachel Bath ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
Historical Structures ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Critical Phenomenology ◽  
Self Formation ◽  
Ways Of Being

One defining claim that critical phenomenologists make of the critical phenomenological method is that description no longer simply plays the role of detailing the world around the describing phenomenologist, but rather has the potential to transform worlds and persons. The transformative potential of the critical phenomenological enterprise is motivated by aspirations of social and political transformation. Critical phenomenology accordingly takes, as its starting point, descriptions of the oppressive historical social structures and contexts that have shaped our experience and shows how these produce inequitable ways of being in the world (Guenther 2020, 12). For example, critical phenomenologists have provided rich descriptions of marginalized lived experience, particularly racialized experience (Ngo, 2017; Yancy, 2017), dis-abled experience and experiences of illness (Lajoie and Douglas, 2020; Toombs, 1993), gendered experience (Beauvoir, 2009; Salamon, 2010), and so forth. What is common across these accounts is the assumption that these descriptions provide means of enacting political change. First, they illuminate the existence of oppressive structures and their effects upon us, our possibilities, and our relations. Second, through increasing awareness they begin to denaturalize the oppressive historical structures that “privilege, naturalize, and normalize certain experiences of the world while marginalizing, pathologizing, and discrediting others” (Guenther 2020, 15). Third, through strategic responses (e.g., hesitation in Alia Al-Saji’s work), they produce new possibilities of action and experience, which initiates the process of creating different ways of being in the world (Al-Saji 2014).2

The Importance of Bearing Witness

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-319
Author(s):  
Delia Popescu
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
The World ◽  
View Reconstruction ◽  
Bear Witness

This essay considers the notion of bearing witness as an analytical path for assessing and applying the legacy of Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless. Havel’s account of disempowerment is connected to the role of ideology in creating the “environment of power” as a tool that enables participation in one’s own disempowerment. Havel dissects the process of becoming powerless and then reconstructs empowerment by reflecting on the journey of the archetypal post-totalitarian subject, the greengrocer. In Popescu’s view, reconstruction is based on the mechanism of bearing witness to one’s own presence in the world and its constitutive effects on the lives of others. To bear witness requires a search for evidence of the ontological match between world, self, and human meaning. In this context, acts of dissenters are the exemplary manifestation of a potentiality that seems to reside in us all. Dissenters bear witness to alternatives—reflecting what Havel considers a baseline of humanity: the natural multiplicity of human experience.

scholarly journals Paralysed: A Systemic Functional Analysis of James Joyce’s “Eveline”

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180
Author(s):  
Monika Kavalir
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Stylistic Analysis ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World

In homage to the work of Uroš Mozetič, the paper takes as its starting point previously developed suggestions about how the language of “Eveline” conveys a picture of the heroine as a passive, paralysed character. Using Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics as a model of stylistic analysis, it investigates the contribution of both the ideational and the interpersonal metafunctions to the meaning of the text. The results extend and amend some ideas from the literature, such as the supposed prevalence of stative verbs, and suggest that while the short story as a whole predominantly uses material processes, their potential for change is mitigated by Joyce’s aspect, tense, and usuality choices. Eveline as the main character crucially has the role of a Senser, observing and internally reacting to the world around her, and even the processes in which she acts upon things and people are modalised and shown to be either hypothetical or instigated by others.

scholarly journals Concepts “mother” and “father” in the prism of Buryat, 
Russian and Chinese phraseology

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-46
Author(s):  
Soelma Ts.-D. Dashieva ◽  
◽  
Inga D. Alekseeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Kinship Terminology

The article examines the concepts “Mother” and “Father” in Buryat, Russian and Chinese phraseology, which constitute the basic and most culturally significant fragment of the linguistic picture of the world, which records the spiritual and moral experience of a person and the nation as a whole. The gender approach to the kinship terminology study significantly enriches and expands the phraseological unit boundaries containing the lexemes mother and father, which are the starting point and core of family-kinship relations. The study of the family institution seems to be especially relevant for the Buryat, Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures increasingly interacting on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia. The results of investigating the corresponding phraseological units enable to indicate the following features common for the three languages: 1) setting authoritarian family model headed by father; 2) key role of concept “Mother” having unbreakable physiological ties with child, giving love, warmth and forgiveness. Unique features include equal representation of father and mother in Buryat, dominating role of mother in Russian, absolute power of father particularly over son and strictness of mother in Chinese. Identification and understanding the universal and unique mentality features of closely contacting ethnic groups will help implement effective and competent intercultural communication.

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