The Artful Politics of Trauma: Rancière’s Critique of Lyotard

Author(s):  
Tina Chanter

Just as Rancière challenges the absolute difference between politics and art, he resists the absolutization of the other that he sees as characteristic of the ethical turn in contemporary aesthetics. The tendency of Lyotard, however, remains turning alterity into the unrepresentable, the unassimilable, and the unthinkable. Its consequences are precisely what Rancière forebodes with the appropriation of the sublime: For all its talk of art witnessing that which is unrepresentable—and the holocaust as the unrepresentable per se—the ethical turn only manages to rejoin a discourse of purism. If everyone is traumatised, what specific meaning remains for trauma? This chapter explores the context of Rancière’s critique of Lyotard, particularly regarding the attenuation of any sense to trauma that accumulates a privileged status for its singular event; it subsequently interrogates the generalization of trauma to such an extent that one evacuates it of any significance.

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kas Saghafi

In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan's poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in which the departure of the world is announced. Delving into the ‘origin’ and ‘history’ of the ‘conception’ of the world, this paper suggests that, for Derrida, the end of the world is determined by and from death—the death of the other. The death of the other marks, each and every time, the absolute end of the world.


2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-143
Author(s):  
Bernadette Collenberg-Plotnikov

›Ikonen‹ sind heute nicht mehr nur die Ikonen der christlichen Kirche, sondern vor allem die Ikonen der modernen Massenkultur. Beide Arten von Ikonen werden in der neueren Kunstreflexion aufgegriffen: Kunst gilt entweder, verstanden als Erbin der religiösen Ikone, als Phänomen, das Absolutes in singulärer Weise anschaulich er- fahrbar macht. Oder aber die Kunst gilt umgekehrt lediglich als Klasse in der Welt der säkularen Ikonen. Demgegenüber wird im Beitrag erstens die These vertretenwerden, daß die neuere Kunst sowohl Aspekte transzendenter als auch immanenter Ikonen umfaßt. Zugleich ist es aber, so die zweite These, für unser Kunstverständnis charakteristisch, ein theoretisches Kontrastverhältnis zwischen Kunst und Ikone an- zunehmen. Dieses gründet auf einer spezifischen Reflexivität der Kunst, durch die sie sich von der Ikone beiderlei Art kategorial unterscheidet. Today, the word ›icon‹ usually no longer refers to the icons of the Christian church, but to the icons of the modern mass-culture. Both sorts of icons play a key-role in the recent discussion about art: Either art is supposed to be a descendant of the religious icon, a phenomenon that gives us a singular visual experience of the Absolute. On the other hand, art is supposed to be just one class among others in the wide world of the secular icons. In contrast to these two positions this essay contends that modern art comprehends aspects of transcendent as well as of immanent icons. Furthermore, it argues that at the same time it is characteristic for our notion of art to suppose a contrast between art and icon. This contrast is based on a specific reflectivity of art, which marks a categorical difference between art and both sorts of icons.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Lukashev

The typology of rationality is one of major issues of modern philosophy. In an attempt to provide a typology to Oriental materials, a researcher faces additional problems. The diversity of the Orient as such poses a major challenge. When we say “Oriental,” we mean several cultures for which we cannot find a common denominator. The concept of “Orient” involves Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and other cultures, and the only thing they share is that they are “non-Western.” Moreover, even if we focus just on Islamic culture and look into rationality in this context, we have to deal with a conglomerate of various trends, which does not let us define, with full confidence, a common theoretical basis and treat them as a unity. Nevertheless, we have to go on trying to find common directions in thought development, so as to draw conclusions about types of rationality possible in Islamic culture. A basis for such a typology of rationality in the context of the Islamic world was recently suggested in A.V. Smirnov’s logic of sense theory. However, actual empiric material cannot always fit theoretical models, and the cases that do not fit the common scheme are interesting per se. On the one hand, examination of such cases gives an opportunity to specify certain provisions of the theory and, on the other hand, to define the limits of its applicability.


Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Karl Shankar SenGupta

This essay examines the idea of kenosis and holy folly in the years before, during, and after the Holocaust. The primary focus will be Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, though it also will touch upon Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Demons and the ethics of the Lithuanian-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, speaking to their intersecting ideas. Dostoevsky, true enough, predates the Shoah, whereas Grossman was a Soviet Jew who served as a journalist (most famously at the Battle of Stalingrad), and Levinas was a soldier in the French army, captured by the Nazis and placed in a POW camp. Each of these writers wrestles with the problem of evil in various ways, Dostoevsky and Levinas as theists—one Christian, the other Jewish—and Grossman as an atheist; yet, despite their differences, there are ever deeper resonances in that all are drawn to the idea of kenosis and the holy fool, and each writer employs variations of this idea in their respective answers to the problem of evil. Each argues, more or less, that evil arises in totalizing utopian thought which reifies individual humans to abstractions—to The Human, and goodness to The Good. Each looks to kenosis as the “antidote” to this utopian reification.


The barometer, here alluded to, may in some measure be consi­dered as two separate and independent barometers, inasmuch as it is formed of two distinct tubes dipping into one and the same cistern of mercury. One of these tubes is made of flint glass, and the other of crown glass, with a view to ascertain whether, at the end of any given period, the one may have had any greater chemical effect on the mercury than the other, and thus affected the results. A brass rod, to which the scale is attached, passes through the framework, between the two tubes, and is thus common to both : one end of which is furnished with a fine agate point, which, by means of a rack and pinion moving the whole rod, may be brought just to touch the surface of the mercury in the cistern, the slightest contact with which is immediately discernible; and the other end of which bears the usual scale of inches, tenths, &c.; and there is a separate vernier for each tube. A small thermometer, the bulb of which dips into the mercury in the cistern, is inserted at the bottom : and an eye­piece is also there fixed, so that the agate point can be viewed with more distinctness and accuracy. The whole instrument is made to turn round in azimuth, in order to verify the perpendicularity of the tubes and the scale. It is evident that there are many advantages attending this mode of construction, which are not to be found in the barometers as usu­ally formed for general use in this country. The absolute heights are more correctly and more satisfactorily determined ; and the per­manency of true action is more effectually noticed and secured. For, every part is under the inspection and control of the observer; and any derangement or imperfection in either of the tubes is imme­diately detected on comparison with the other. And, considering the care that has been taken in filling the tubes, and setting off the scale, it may justly be considered as a standard barometer . The pre­sent volume of the Philosophical Transactions will contain the first register of the observations that have been made with this instru­ment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao-Ming Wang ◽  
Cheng-Chang Yang ◽  
Lih-Hsing Hsu ◽  
Eddie Cheng

A graceful labeling of a graph with q edges is a labeling of its vertices using the integers in [0, q], such that no two vertices are assigned the same label and each edge is uniquely identified by the absolute difference between the labels of its endpoints. The well known Graceful Tree Conjecture (GTC) states that all trees are graceful, and it remains open. It was proved in 1999 by Broersma and Hoede that there is an equivalent conjecture for GTC stating that all trees containing a perfect matching are strongly graceful (graceful with an extra condition). In this paper we extend the above result by showing that there exist infinitely many equivalent versions of the GTC. Moreover we verify these infinitely many equivalent conjectures of GTC for trees of diameter at most 7. Among others we are also able to identify new graceful trees and in particular generalize the ?-construction of Stanton-Zarnke (and later Koh- Rogers-Tan) for building graceful trees through two smaller given graceful trees.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Asher ◽  
Silky Chotai ◽  
Clinton J. Devin ◽  
Theodore Speroff ◽  
Frank E. Harrell ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVE Prospective longitudinal outcomes registries are at the center of evidence-driven health care reform. Obtaining real-world outcomes data at 12 months can be costly and challenging. In the present study, the authors analyzed whether 3-month outcome measurements sufficiently represent 12-month outcomes for patients with degenerative lumbar disease undergoing surgery. METHODS Data from 3073 patients undergoing elective spine surgery for degenerative lumbar disease were entered into a prospective multicenter registry (N2QOD). Baseline, 3-month, and 12-month follow-up Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores were recorded. The absolute differences between actual 12- and 3-month ODI scores was evaluated. Additionally, the authors analyzed the absolute difference between actual 12-month ODI scores and a model-predicted 12-month ODI score (the model used patients' baseline characteristics and actual 3-month scores). The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for ODI of 12.8 points and the substantial clinical benefit (SCB) for ODI of 18.8 points were used based on the previously published values. The concordance rate of achieving MCID and SCB for ODI at 3-and 12-months was computed. RESULTS The 3-month ODI scores differed from 12-month scores by an absolute difference of 11.9 ± 10.8, and predictive modeling estimations of 12-month ODI scores differed from actual 12-month scores by a mean (± SD) of 10.7 ± 9.0 points (p = 0.001). Sixty-four percent of patients (n = 1982) achieved an MCID for ODI at 3 months in comparison with 67% of patients (n = 2088) by 12 months; 51% (n = 1731) and 61% (n = 1860) of patients achieved SCB for ODI at 3 months and 12 months, respectively. Almost 20% of patients had ODI scores that varied at least 20 points (the point span of an ODI functional category) between actual 3- and 12-month values. In the aggregate analysis of achieving MCID, 77% of patients were concordant and 23% were discordant in achieving or not achieving MCID at 3 and 12 months. The discordance rates of achieving or not achieving MCID for ODI were in the range of 19% to 27% for all diagnoses and treatments (decompression with and without fusion). The positive and negative predictive value of 3-months ODI to predict 12-month ODI was 86% and 60% for MCID and 82% and 67% for SCB. CONCLUSIONS Based on their findings, the authors conclude the following: 1) Predictive methods for functional outcome based on early patient experience (i.e., baseline and/or 3-month data) should be used to help evaluate the effectiveness of procedures in patient populations, rather than serving as a proxy for long-term individual patient experience. 2) Prospective longitudinal registries need to span at least 12 months to determine the effectiveness of spine care at the individual patient and practitioner level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-46

Abstract Remains of the grand platform in the locus of Huangchengtai at Shimao site in Shenmu, Shaanxi was discovered and excavated during the 2018–2019 season. The south-eastern corner and southern buttress of the platform were revealed. The locations of the other three sides of the buttresses were also preliminarily confirmed. As many as 70 stone carvings were discovered from multiple contexts, including the surface of the southern buttress, the floor of the corridor, as well as the debris of the southern buttress inside the corridor. The relative chronology of this platform and stone carvings cannot be later than the late Longshan period. The absolute date ranges from 2000 BCE to 1800 BCE. Fieldwork performed at the grand platform encourages multiple archaeological discussions, including the settlement layout within the Huangchengtai area, the nature of the settlement, and its role as the core of the Shimao site.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-681

Decisive interventions, like vaccines, can be quite inexpensive. But commercial organizations make money by selling commodities; they cannot produce and sell "health" per se. The most profitable commodities are those embodying the "half-way" technologies, for those with the means to pay for them-again and again and again. Vaccines, on the other hand, "may never prove as enticing as drugs for pharmaceutical makers. They can be quite expensive to develop, and they produce less income-repeated refills not required ... "


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nestler

Transcendence and immanence are two terms used to differentiate two realities, one of transcending worldly experience and the other of an inner-worldly experience. In scholastic theology (kalām), a respective distinction is being made regarding the image of God, whereby transcendence (tanzīh) is set against anthropomorphism (tašbīh) to solve the problem of how to deal with Quranic expressions that attribute human – formal or essential – characteristics to God. Also, in mysticism, the notion of transcendence and immanence of God plays a central role, for instance, in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī. He mainly discusses this distinction in the chapter of Noah in Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (“The Bezels of Wisdom”), regarding knowledge of God. He rejects a pure theology of transcendence as it describes only a part of the divine reality. However, he points out that even though His immanent reality can be experienced, it is not comprehensible, because it is unlimited. Both realities interlock through the idea of the Oneness of Being or Unity of Existence (waḥdat al-wuǧūd), because ‘in reality’ they are nothing else than God. Ibn al-ʿArabī illustrates this ontological dependency by the example of Noah’s legend, by showing that the prophet supported the belief of the absolute transcendence of God, which was unacceptable for his people, not because they negated God’s existence, but because they had an immanent image of God. Accordingly, Ibn al-ʿArabī interprets the divine punishment, instead of misfortune, as immersing in the sea of knowledge of God. In this way the soul becomes a place of manifestation or a mirror of the divine reality.


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