Sympathetic science: analogism in Brazilian ethnobiological repertoires among quilombolas of the Atlantic forest and Amazonian ribeirinhos

Background Drawing on Phillipe Descola’s comparative analysis of ontological regimes across cultures, this article identifies analogism guiding ethnobiological repertories among two distinctive traditional tropical forest communities in Brazil. Methods We carried out participant observation, semi-structured interviews and informal dialog with 48 individuals, among quilombolas of the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil and ribeirinhos of the Amazon. Results We documented 60 traditional practices governed by analogical principles, comprising hunting, ethnomedical practices, food taboos, and other interactions with non-human entities. We also identify and classify the analogical principles reported in the field data. Based on this classification, we address the phenomenological dimension of the ethnobiological repertoires and discuss the epistemological and ontological foundations of this form of reasoning. We also hypothesize on the role of analogism shaping ethnobiological repertories more generally in Brazil. Conclusion The heuristic model we apply—articulating phenomenology, epistemology and ontology—could prove valuable in ethnobiology and the emerging field of “anthropology beyond the human.”

Social Phenomenology as a Factor of Self-organization of Democracy

The study investigates the self-organizational bases of democracy. The author proves that social phenomenology is the self-organizational basis of democracy. The main idea of the article is that the self-organization of democracy has a phenomenological dimension. It is established that the self-organization bases of democracy are such structural elements of social phenomenology of democracy as social feelings – voluntariness, responsibility, openness, respect, tolerance, solidarity, honesty, humanness, trust, devotion to the ideals of democracy and sacrifice for them. It is substantiated that the elements of social phenomenology of democracy are such values as egalitarianism, rule of law, freedom, justice, the plurality of values, democratic competition, civic peace and cooperation. It is shown that the social phenomenology of democracy is the basis for support of such democratic institutions and procedures as a division of branches of power, fair and free elections, the secrecy of the ballot, deliberation, control over government and multiparty system.

Implementation of Louis Lankford’s techniques in analysis of the work of Egon Schiele “Levitation” (1915)

The subject of this research is the work of the Austrian expressionist painter Egon Schiele “Levitation” (1915). Emphasis is placed on the phenomenological dimension of this work, for which was adapted and implemented the methodology of American phenomenologist Louis Lankford. This technique allows analyzing the work of visual art using the art criticism and phenomenological means simultaneously.  It includes five successive stages: receptiveness, vectoring, bracketing (phenomenological analysis), interpretive analysis, and synthesis of acquired information. The research is of interdisciplinary nature, combines the methods of art criticism and methods of philosophical science. The conclusion is made that Lankford’s methodology allows analyzing the works of visual art from phenomenological perspective, being adjusted to the composition under review. This case requires the increased role of audience in post-artistic communication. At the same time, special attention should be given to the body as a medium for the information contained in the painting, and to the information received and interpreted by the audience.

LEGAL PLURALISM AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: INTRODUCTORY NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE TWO CONCEPTS.

This study is based on the dialogue between legal pluralism and international development, which shapes the daily lives of much of the world population, in particular those who live in emerging or developing States and are subject to programmes of international technical assistance. Due to a number of factors, this dialogue is required to, on a practical level, harmonise diametrically opposed onto-epistemological legal dimensions. From the epistemological point of view, the phenomenological dimension of this study will allow us to analyse the conceptual and scientific evolution of both legal pluralism and international development, accompanying the development of the underlying legal theory which, in cycles, has seen moments of convergence and divergence, and of tension and distension, over the last seven decades. Having as background the case study of Timor-Leste this work also looks at the practical consequences that certain options will give rise to in building a State and its systems of justice within the framework of legally plural societies.

The Surplus of Signification: Merleau-Ponty and Enactivism on the Continuity of Life, Mind, and Culture

This paper provides a critical discussion of the views of Merleau-Ponty and contemporary enactivism concerning the phenomenological dimension of the continuity between life and mind. I argue that Merleau-Ponty’s views are at odds with those of enactivists. Merleau-Ponty only applied phenomenological descriptions to the life-worlds of sentient animals with sensorimotor systems, contrary to those enactivists who apply them to all organisms. I argue that we should follow Merleau-Ponty on this point, as the use of phenomenological concepts to describe the “experience” of creatures with no phenomenal consciousness has generated confusion about the role of phenomenology in enactivism and prompted some enactivists to ignore or turn away from phenomenology. Further, Merleau-Ponty also emphasizes the stark distinction between the vital order of animals and the human order to a greater degree than many phenomenologically inspired enactivists. I discuss his view in connection with recent research in developmental and comparative psychology. Despite the striking convergence of Merleau-Ponty’s visionary thought with the most recent findings, I argue that he somewhat overstates the difference between human experience and cognition, and that of our closest animal kin. I outline a developmental-phenomenological account of how the child enters the human order in the first years of life, thereby further mitigating the stark difference between orders. This results in a modified Merleau-Pontian version of the phenomenological dimension of life-mind continuity which I recommend to enactivism.

Between Construction and Immediacy

This chapter begins with a discussion of emptiness and introduces two broad streams of interpretation of the import of negation. The “enframed” interpretation emphasizes the value of language and thought in the discovery of ultimate truth, while the “unenframed” interpretation emphasizes the way that language and thought impede this discovery. Both interpretations claim to represent the view of Madhyamaka, the middle way between the extremes of essentialism and nihilism. The Geluk tradition of Madhyamaka emphasizes the interpretation of emptiness as an absence of true existence, yet its meaning is also participatory and performative, since the meaning of emptiness is to be cultivated through meditation. In Mind-Only and Yogācāra-inflected traditions like the Kagyü and Nyingma, the experiential or phenomenological dimension of emptiness is emphasized, whereby emptiness is inclusive of a participatory (or cognitive) orientation and is not typically framed as an object or solely the (object-ive) nature of things.

FACT Is a Fact of Both Life and Art

After expressing my enthusiasm for Murray Smith’s Film, Art, and the Third Culture, I offer a critical discussion focused upon the place of the experiential-phenomenological dimension in Smith’s naturalized aesthetics. I look closely at two films, Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011) and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013), in relationship to Smith’s claims about the qualia filmmakers impart to their creations and the highly specific states of mind, emotional and otherwise, that they manage to express and to evoke in viewers.

Shame and passion: The affective governing of young unemployed people

This study investigates how young, well-educated, unemployed people are governed and how they govern themselves through affective capacities, focusing here on shame and passion. The empirical material consists of field observations made at an unemployment fund and in-depth interviews with 33 young unemployed people in the Danish welfare state. Inspired by governmentality studies including recent contributions concerning affectivity, I analyse how affect, emotions, and feelings are pivotal instruments of governmentality. On the one hand, unemployed people are encouraged to cultivate a passion for their profession and display this passion in their quest for a job. On the other hand, they are encouraged to feel ashamed for receiving unearned money from the state. The study applies the theoretical framework from governmentality studies and combines it with concepts in Ahmed (2014) in order to unfold the affective sides of governing young unemployed people. The study contributes theoretically by developing Ahmed’s idea of “sticky emotions” in an explicit psychological manner by identifying an embodied and a phenomenological dimension. It concludes that shame and passion influence unemployed people differently in relation to their subjective life courses as well as in relation to their social and societal circumstances and that people deal with the stickiness of unemployment shame in different ways. Some get rid of it by sticking it to other unemployed groups and some by dis-identifying with their formal status and instead conducting themselves as freelancers. The study begins to fill in the gap of how the more diffuse sides of governing can be made psychologically identifiable and in doing so it sheds light on the intimate relationship between politics and psychology.