Rekonstruksi Identitas Naratif Ricoeurian Etnis Tionghoa melalui Ingatan Kudus Volfian demi Indonesia yang lebih Baik

In Indonesia’s history as a nation, Chinese ethnicity has been victimised, especially during the transitions of power occured in this nation. Among others, the incidents are the 1965 tragedy which signifies transition from “Orde Lama” to “Orde Baru”, and the May 1998 riot which signifies transition of power from “Orde Baru” to Reformation Order. Referring to the incidents, this article analyses the roots of the problem and sees the possibilities to prevent them to happen again. The author of this article presents an argument and a suggestion as follows. First, Chinese ethnicity has become the victim because of a ‘dark’ narration that constructs a narrative identity of the ethnicity as a victim or a wounded self—this dark narration seems to justify the discriminative actions directed to the Chinese individuals. Second, one can respond to this problem by reconstructing a Ricoeurian narrative identity as the form and a Volfian sacred memory as the content, in order to transform the Chinesse narrative identity from a victim or a wounded self into a survivor or a healing self.

Chronicles - April 2020

'Chronicles' is a journal column of "MELINTAS" which contains information about the various events, congresses, conferences, symposia, necrologies, publications, and periodicals in the fields of philosophy and theology.

Pandangan Axel Honneth tentang Keadilan sebagai Institusionalisasi Kebebasan dalam Relasi Pengakuan

This article explores Axel Honneth’s normative reconstruction of social liberty as discussed in his book, Freedom’s Right. Honneth’s argument is complex. On one side, he believes that justice can ultimately only be judged in terms of the ideals actually institutionalised in that society. On the other side, he insists that contemporary theories of justice that are guided almost exclusively by the legal paradigm is a theoretical folly. In the first part, this article presents Honneth’s critical reading of the differences between negative and reflexive models of freedom. Then it discusses the ideas of democracy as reflexive cooperation of the ‘we’ in relation to the concept of social freedom. It then reviews Honneth’s argument on justice as institutionalised freedom. The author compares Honneth’s account of solidarity with Enrique Dussel’s views in the fourth part of this article. The conclusion shows that social freedom cannot be realised without a pedagogical process in this exclusion age, and that this process might enlarge the individuals’ horizon of solidarity as future citizens.

Menjadi Bahagia di Jalan Dao (道): Kebahagiaan Sejati menurut Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi, 莊子)

In the last decade, scientists in almost all disciplines often elaborate happiness using interdisciplinary approaches, metodologies, and measurements, both quantitative and qualitative. Beside scientific approaches, one can also explore this topic from the viewpoint of speculative and phenomenological thinking. This viewpoint describes the experiences of happiness by realising empirical and rational knowledge as well as esoteric consciousness of reality as such. It is Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), whose thoughts elaborate cognitive and intuitive sides of human mind, who offers a philosophy in order to bring forward an awareness of reality as itself. Chuang Tzu argues for a realisation of conjunction of both cognitive and intuitive capabilities of human mind, as well as its rational and mystical sides. The realisation of both natural capabilities brings about conditions for modern people’s experience of happiness.

Saussure and the Political Potential of Language

Although the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure is widely recognised as the forerunner of structuralism, it is often treated in the humanities and social sciences today as a stepping stone toward more sophisticated, generalised semiotics and theories of discourse. As a result, social and political implications of Saussure’s original conception of language have frequently been underestimated. Drawing from the classic lecture Course in General Linguistics and the fragmented notes collected in Writings in General Linguistics, this article offers a reconstruction of the social and political dimensions that were present, albeit in an inchoate form, within Saussure’s own theorisation. To act as a foil to the reconstructed Saussurean position, this article calls upon an essay that charts the historical development of the concept of discourse authored by Ernesto Laclau, who is perhaps the most politically oriented thinker among the many inheritors of the Saussurean legacy.

Tatapan Medusa dan Okularsentrisme: Budaya Visual dan Persoalan Sinema Kontemporer

This article presents some fundamental matters in visual culture. Philosophy has been grappling with important issues of image and ocularcentrism. These matters have shaped and brought impacts on the world’s visual culture. On the one hand, an image with all its possible interpretations today tends to be captured as an object and not so much as something that is at the same time plural and moving. On the other hand, people’s way of seeing tends to be blurred by the ocularcentrism. This might be a crucial problem that brings significant implications on one of the most important aspects of human life, that is, art activity, and particularly on cinema. The author of this article invites the readers to be aware of the negative inclinations around the issues of image and ocularcentrism. Some of the important challenges in the cinematic world are how people continually reformulate their experience of an image and how the ocularcentrism character in our visual culture can be positioned in the heart of the matter. In an effort to respond to these challenges, one can approach philosophy in a different way in order to refresh his or her way of seeing that might have been tiresome and cloudy.

Chronicles - December 2019

'Chronicles' is a journal column of "MELINTAS" which contains information about the various events, congresses, conferences, symposia, necrologies, publications, and periodicals in the fields of philosophy and theology.

Hospitalitas Menurut Amos Yong dan Falsafah Hidup Orang Basudara untuk Dialog Interreligius

This article aims to explore hospitality as the basic character needed in developing interreligious dialogues. The underlying idea is that every religion has its particular characteristics of hospitality that can be valuable to start an effective dialogue. The author discerns the local wisdom phrased as hidup orang basudara as one of the chracteristics of the Moluccan hospitality that can be used to develop interreligious dialogue in Molucca, Indonesia. By drawing insights from the derriderian concept of “true hospitality” that surpasses ‘friendship’, hospitality model is offered as a better alternative in the praxis of building interreligious dialogue. This model is also considered more relevant to the people of Molucca, especially among the Christians and the Muslims, during the post-conflict period. The concept of hospitality is in line with some of the Moluccan local wisdoms that are explored in this article as well. In order to embark on the journey of reconciliation, people are invited to go beyond friendship, that is, towards living together as brothers and sisters.

Studi Kebencian: Analisis Komparasi Pemikiran Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) dan K. H. Ahmad Dahlan (1868-1923)

This qualitative research explores the theme of hatred, which has become a new interdisciplinary field called hate studies and which still requires academic contributions from different disciplines. The author uses the perspective of religious studies as well as peace and conflict studies, in which the phenomenon of hatred is examined in a descriptive-comparative way from two Islamic movement figures, namely Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) in Turkey and K. H. Ahmad Dahlan (1686-1923) in Indonesia. Comparison of thoughts and movements of these two Islamic figures is significant within the framework of ‘Muhammadiyah’. Muhammadiyah is part of the nation’s strength that has been actively involved in national political movement and in the nation-building process through “Amar Ma'ruf Nahi Munkar” preaching since 1912 in Indonesia. Ahmad Dahlan's progressive thoughts were confronted with hate incidents from religious and community leaders because they were considered contradictory to the Islamic tradition and religion. This article compares the thoughts of Said Nursi and Ahmad Dahlan in how hatred was transformed into nonviolent practices. It shows a different perspective in criticising as well as complementing various nonviolent ways and peacebuilding movements today. This perspective offers contribution to the Islamic movements and the Muhammadiyah in responding to the challenges of plurality, nonviolence, and peace in Indonesia.

A Turn to Liturgy in Contemporary Political Theology

Contemporary development of Christian political theology has been marked, among others, by a turn to liturgy. At first glance, such a turn might be easily associated with the sound principle of the inextricable connection between vita activa and vita contemplativa. The turn to liturgy, therefore, aims to affirm that mystics (the life of prayer) and politics (social engagement) should go hand in hand. However, does this classical idea stand as the sole reason for the turn to liturgy in the contemporary discussion in political theology? In this article, the author argues that while this classical argument still provides part of the answer to that question, the turn to liturgy in contemporary political theology to a considerable extent deals with the question of self-definition of the Church in exercising its political engagement. The turn to liturgy insists that the Church is inherently political, and thus its political significance is not defined by its relationship with the politics of the state alone. On the contrary, the political nature of the Church and its political role wells up from its identity as the sign and instrument of the Kingdom of God. As such, in its political engagement, the Church ought not to be considered merely as a social or voluntary organization.