Collaging the Posthuman into the Postnatural

Collage – that somewhat old-fashioned sounding word, revolutionary in the arts in the early 20th century – remains a powerful and omnipresent creative and interpretive strategy throughout all media, and much philosophy, over one-hundred years later. The value of collage theory to a wide range of topics is derived by recognizing literal or figurative gaps and seams between components, and the conceptual contested space between them. Such ideas are useful when considering characteristics of the posthuman and the postnatural. By tracing collage, the posthuman, and postnatural through several topics in the arts and sciences, unexpected commonalities can be found. The (post) human body threads through these topics: a body of irreversible chimerality, interpenetrating and entangling larger physical, psychological, and cultural environments. At that point the line between the posthuman and postnatural becomes murky at best. That ambiguity raises questions of ethics. The perspective found within one particular ethical response is surprisingly resonant with collage.

Care ethics

This chapter explores care ethics. This approach emphasises the importance of supporting caring relationships. The ethical response to a situation is informed by the relationships between the people involved. This means that care ethics tends to avoid hard rules and advocates an approach that takes into account the specifics of the situation.

A digital Gesell chamber: adjustments for professional practices in social isolation

The aim of this study was to show the migration process, due to the covid-19 pandemic, of the psychotherapist training program provided by a psychological care center from a real Gesell chamber to a digital version. The method used was action-research with self-study from the practitioners and supervisor whom reported their experiences with this new mode of working. An informed consent was given to students and participants explaining the implications of the process and its limitations, as well as the intention to publish findings. As results: the digital Gesell chamber presented some technical difficulties; however, it was a useful and ethical response to continue with the training program, with broad benefit for users. What is more, it presented communication advantages that allowed the reflective group to intervene without interruption. In conclusion: the use of the digital chamber was an alternative that eased the supervision of practitioners as well as the optimal performance of psychological care during social isolation.

Derrida, Heidegger and Industrial Agriculture: The Holocaust, Suffering and Compassion

Martin Heidegger notoriously linked industrial agriculture and the Holocaust in a lecture given at Bremen while he was still banned from teaching under denazification measures. What has largely been overlooked is that Derrida also compared the two: in 1997, in an address given at the third Cerisy conference devoted his work. This apparent repetition will be understood within the broader framework of his reading of Heidegger and, in particular, with what the latter says concerning technology. It will be argued that while Derrida views industrial agriculture as a series of technical issues, each demanding of particular attention, Heidegger sees its only as an instance of Technik. Most significantly, while the latter’s philosophy offers no resources for treating it as demanding an ethical response, for Derrida our relation to animals should be guided by compassion.

A Critical Analysis of Neurological Theories on Empathy in Healthcare

Some employ neurological theories of empathy to train medical students and to explain why care work is emotionally exhausting. I argue, however, that these theories develop conceptual and methodological confusion that creates a reductive and misdirected focus in patient-centered care. Neurological theories on empathy do not help us understand patient-centered care, nor do they help us understand why care work can be exhausting. By discussing examples of care work, I argue that empathic attentiveness to patients is a dialogical ethical response to the whole person and takes place in daily care settings of working, helping, and responding to each other.

Bariatric surgery

This chapter is divided into three parts: it gives an overview of bariatric surgery, describes contemporary bariatric procedures and outcomes, and proposes a framework for a rational and ethical response to patients’ needs. The author is not a plastic surgeon: accordingly, individual body contouring procedures are not discussed.

To be, or not to be? The role of the unconscious in transgender transitioning: identity, autonomy and well-being

The exponential rise in transgender self-identification invites consideration of what constitutes an ethical response to transgender individuals’ claims about how best to promote their well-being. In this paper, we argue that ‘accepting’ a claim to medical transitioning in order to promote well-being would be in the person’s best interests iff at the point of request the individual is correct in their self-diagnosis as transgender (i.e., the distress felt to reside in the body does not result from another psychological and/or societal problem) such that the medical interventions they are seeking will help them to realise their preferences. If we cannot assume this—and we suggest that we have reasonable grounds to question an unqualified acceptance in some cases—then ‘acceptance’ potentially works against best interests. We propose a distinction between ‘acceptance’ and respectful, in-depth exploration of an individual’s claims about what promotes their well-being. We discuss the ethical relevance of the unconscious mind to considerations of autonomy and consent in working with transgender individuals. An inquisitive stance, we suggest, supports autonomous choice about how to realise an embodied form that sustains well-being by allowing the individual to consider both conscious and unconscious factors shaping wishes and values, hence choices.

From Anthropocentrism to Care for Our Common Home: Ethical Response to the Environmental Crisis

Purpose of the study is explication of ethical and existential conditions of realization of human responsibility for the protection and recreation of the environment on a scale of the common world with all the other living beings. The crisis of the environment is the crisis of human morality. For responsible environmental management, it is necessary to form the ecological consciousness of society and reinterpret the anthropocentrism on the ethical foundations. The theoretical basis of the research is the analysis of ethical and existential dimensions of understanding of the human environment ranging from the sphere of the home and the natural environment to the dimension of the common world of people and all the entities. The work clarifies the genesis of the concept of home from the ancient "oikos", household to the idea of home as a "hub", a base for mental and physical mobility in the contemporary technosphere. Correspondent to the transformation of the living world of mankind is the concept of communication and universal discourse of norms and values of human coexistence of J. Habermas, К.-О. Apel, D. Böhler, W. Kuhlmann, and others. The domain of the ecological consciousness and behaviour also requires motivation at the level of human feelings, beliefs, and convictions, which is represented by the philosophic and religious thought of H. Jonas, O. Leopold, K. M. Меуеr-Abich, A. Naess, the pope Francis, and others. As the result, the study proves the relevance of the concept of care about the common home based on the recognition of the value of the existence of all beings. Originality. The study explicates the genesis and meaning of the ethos of the common home with values of love, care, openness, solidarity, freedom, and responsibility which is proved to be the ethical and existential condition of the solution of the environmental crisis. The traditional anthropocentrism is reinterpreted towards the duty of people to be the centre of the responsibility for the existence of all beings that requires both reason and care. Conclusions. The ethics of care for our common home completes the moral duty of people as providers of the universal discourse who represent the interests of all beings. Concern for the preservation of the human environment and of all creation makes it possible for humanity to realize its universal responsibility in the world. The contemporaneous science and religious thought modify anthropocentrism to the holistic ethical understanding of human’s mission to be responsible for all beings.

James Baldwin and the “Lie of Whiteness”: Toward an Ethic of Culpability, Complicity, and Confession

This article is an attempt to draw on James Baldwin’s depiction of white identity as the “the lie of whiteness” to tease out a nascent ethics that centers the role of genuine, honest confrontation with this so-called “lie.” In order to connect the dots between excavation of Baldwin’s lie of whiteness and the provinces of religious ethics, we will explore the role that truth-telling plays in the form of something like a religious notion of confession, limiting our engagement with confession to an honest and genuine encounter with culpability and responsibility through truth-telling. The analysis will be guided by several questions: how might a genuine reckoning with the reality and prevalence of what Baldwin intimately describes about whiteness and its connection to anti-black racism be understood morally? How might this confrontation with the truth be understood in relation to a religious concept like confession, as defined above? Finally, how might this process of confrontation further expose the machinations of Baldwin’s “lie of whiteness” and, in so doing, offer an ethical response that includes culpability and complicity? In so doing, this article seeks to begin sketching out an ethics of the role of confession in the struggle against the evils of anti-black racism, through direct engagement with Baldwin’s description of the “lie of whiteness.”