Existentialism

Ljóðabókin LENGIST Í TAUMNUM kom út haustið 2014 á vegum WOW — útgáfuneindar, sem í kjölfarið lagði upp laupana.

„Lengist í taumnum er frumlegt verk, margslungið og djúpt. Það er stórstreymi í textanum sem er fullur af skringilega samansettum orðum sem vekja og næra.“

— Kari Grétudóttir á menningarvefritinu Starafugl
(https://starafugl.is/2014/taumhald-a-thegnum-um-lengist-i-taumnum-eftir-snorra-pal/)

La actual crisis de la Iglesia en Chile posee orígenes bastante delimitados y fácilmente reconocibles, las soluciones también, pero tienden a ser elucubraciones pastoralistas que quedan solo en buenas intenciones. En la realidad pastoral de la primera región de Chile se encuentra la festividad en honor a la Virgen del Carmen que se levanta como un verdadero manantial de fe en el desierto, sus elementos paradigmáticos se presentan dentro de la religiosidad popular como una suerte de salvavidas para miles de fieles del norte de Chile. Interesante es notar que la fe católica en la fiesta tiraneña pareciera no percibir atisbos de crisis, la cual presenta interesantes elementos de reflexión pastoral para lograr nuevos métodos para superar la situación actual.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) remains one of the most challenging, influential and controversial figures in the history of philosophy. The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to his most difficult ideas, including the will to power and the affirmation of life, as well as his treatment of truth, science, art and history. An accessible introduction sets out the nineteenth-century background of Nietzsche's life and work. Individual chapters are devoted to significant texts such as The Birth of Tragedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morality. Other chapters explore major influences such as Wagner and Schopenhauer, as well as examining Nietzsche's reception and investigating his enduring and often divisive legacy. The volume will be valuable for readers seeking to enhance their understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy and of his role in the development of Western thought.

I argue that the apparently exclusive choice between Suits’ utopia of gameplay and death by suicide is a false dilemma, one which obscures a ‘third way’ of positive boredom. Further, I offer a deeper reading of the internal logic of Suits’ utopian vision, identifying two different temporal phases of his utopia. At time U1, just after the founding of Suits’ techno-Cockaygne, the Alexandrian condition affects ‘freshmen’ utopians by producing a state of existential meaninglessness and thereby conceivably motivating utopian suicide. At time U2, however, sufficient time will have passed for the surviving ‘sophomore’ utopians to adopt marvelous, meaning-generative utopian games as a tool for defeating the Alexandrian condition and thus realizing Suits ‘ideal of existence’ in a utopia of gameplay.

One of the foremost antiphilosophers in the history of philosophy would be Ludwig Wittgenstein. He was said to be disturbed by Nietzsche’s hostility towards Christianity, not really because he was a professed Christian. Alain Badiou interprets Wittgenstein’s use of “Christianity” here as referring to the meaning of life or the sense of the world. Being disturbed by Nietzsche’s hostility to Christianity, therefore, is being disturbed by a hostility to the meaning of life. Yet Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus renders the meaning of life ineffable—which constitutes his antiphilosophical, archi-aesthetic act.

Badiou, however, deliberately limits this analysis to the Tractatus. He believes that the Philosophical Investigations is an unfinished work and that it is already the work of a sophist. The antiphilosophy in the former work is seen as absent in the latter. However, this paper will argue that the Philosophical Investigations renders the meaning of life ineffable as well, thereby constituting the continuation of the antiphilosophical archi-aesthetic act of the Tractatus. Instead of drawing out the meaning of life from the meaningful via a picture theory, the Investigations now limits the bounds of sense via the language game. What is deemed ineffable outside the language game—the meaning of life, the sense of the world—is now limited to a pure showing. The archi-aesthetic act is therefore present in the Investigations as it permeates the whole of the Tractatus. In Wittgenstein’s special sense, the Tractatus is indeed “Christian” and this paper will now attempt to “Christianize” his later work, the Philosophical Investigations.

This paper was presented in the first International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life held in Hokkaido University in Japan.

El pensamiento sobre la persona humana puede convertirse en una farsa, una mentira que pretende ser verdadera, cuando reduce la dificultad del desarrollo de la persona como una elección de sí misma a definiciones o categorías fáciles de manipular lógicamente. Por lo que en este trabajo se propone que para valorar a la persona humana en su dignidad se le debe pensar como un ensayo-en la noción elaborada por Montaigne-es decir, tomando en cuenta la dificultad de ser sí mismo como una relación de espíritu encarnado y la dialéctica de la elección de sí mismo como espíritu que define el desarrollo pleno de la persona humana. En donde el pensador debe situarse, como la persona misma a la que piensa, en situación de elegir la posibilidad de la revelación de sí mismo en la acción. La elección de sí mismo es elegirse en la condición propia humana en la cual debemos reconocer por un lado lo que ya nos determina y por otro el vínculo que ello puede tener con un horizonte indeterminado de posibilidades, tanto de la propia persona como del mundo con el que se relaciona, así elegirse a sí mismo es recibirse en la posibilidad de la revelación. Para ello se trata primero la idea de la dificultad de ser persona en Emmanuel Mounier y segundo la dialéctica de la elección de sí mismo como ha sido planteada por Kierkegaard. Palabras claves: elección, libertad, persona, sí mismo.

A difícil tarefa de se tornar-se pessoa humana em Emmanuel Mounier e em Søren Kierkegaard entre o julgamento e a farsa de ser si mesmo Resumo: O pensamento sobre a pessoa humana pode converter-se numa farsa, numa mentira que pretende ser verdadeira, quando reduz a dificuldade do desenvolvimento da pessoa como uma eleição de si mesma a definições ou categorias fáceis de manipular logicamente. Por isso, esse trabalho se propõe que para valorizar a pessoa humana em sua dignidade, se deve pensá-la como um ensaio-na elaborada noção de Montaigne-por assim dizer, levando em conta a dificuldade de ser si mesmo como uma relação de espírito encarnado e a dialética da eleição de si mesmo como espírito que define o desenvolvimento pleno da pessoa humana. Onde o pensador deve situar-se como a pessoa mesma que pensa na situação de eleger a possibilidade da revelação de si mesmo na ação. A eleição de si mesmo é escolher-se na situação própria humana na qual devemos reconhecer por um lado o que já nos determina e por outro o vínculo que ele pode ter com um horizonte indeterminado de possibilidades, tanto da própria pessoa como do mundo com o qual ela se relaciona, assim, escolher-se a si mesmo é receber-se na possibilidade da revelação. Para isso, trataremos primeiro da ideia de ser pessoa em Emmanuel Mounier e em segundo da dialética da eleição de si mesmo como proposta por Kierkegaard. Palavras-chave: eleição, liberdade, pessoa, si mesmo.

El artículo analiza el impacto de la filosofía existencialista sartreana en dos novelas tempranas de Kenzaburo Oé: La presa (1957) y Arrancad las semillas, fusilad a los niños (1958). La clase intelectual japonesa de la posguerra recibió con entusiasmo las premisas de este sistema filosófico francés, si bien el existencialismo hubo de adaptarse a las condiciones culturales y religiosas japonesas, de raigambre budista y sintoísta. En esta ocasión, en un ejercicio de literatura diferencial, analizamos cómo Oé filtra en su literatura elementos de su tradición cultural cuando asimila el existencialismo sartreano, pues incluye imágenes de la naturaleza y de la sexualidad, más acordes con el componente vitalista del sintoísmo que con la filosofía sartreana.

Empathy is a term used to denote our experience of connecting or feeling with an Other. The term has been used both by psychologists and phenomenologists as a supplement for our biological capacity to understand an Other. In this paper I would like to challenge the possibility of such empathy. If empathy is employed to mean that we know another person’s feelings, then I argue that this is impossible. I argue that there is an equivocation in the use of the term ‘empathy’ which conditions the appropriation of the Other as we think that we know how the Other feels. To claim that we do know an Other’s feelings – or any kind of their intentional experience – means to appropriate their experience through our own. I will first reveal the equivocal use of the term ‘empathy’ and, then, I will explore Husserl’s use of the term. In Husserl, the understanding of an Other as empathy is only partial. I shall conclude by reiterating a thesis from philosophy of existence and feminist theory according to which to know another person comes from creating a community with them and not because we have a biological structure that can mirror each other’s feelings.

It seems logical to argue that mobile computing technologies are intended for use "on-the-go." However, on closer inspection, the use of mobile technologies pose a number of challenges for users who are mobile, particularly moving around on foot. In engaging with such mobile technologies and their envisaged development, we argue that interaction designers must increasingly consider a multitude of perspectives that relate to walking in order to frame design problems appropriately. In this paper, we consider a number of perspectives on walking, and we discuss how these may inspire the design of mobile technologies. Drawing on insights from non-representational theory, we develop a partial vocabulary with which to engage with qualities of pedestrian mobility, and we outline how taking more mindful approaches to walking may enrich and inform the design space of handheld technologies.

Citation:
Parisa Eslambolchilar, Mads Bødker and Alan Chamberlain (2016) “Ways of Walking: Understanding Walking’s Implications for the Design of Handheld Technology via a Humanistic Ethnographic Approach”. in Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments - Human-Technology Choreographies: Body, Movement and Space, a special issue. DOI: 10.17011/ht/urn.201605192618

An introduction to the blind-spot in medicine: human existence is systematically left out of healthcare. Two stories are told that introduce this blind-spot. The first is that of Kurt Goldstein, the WWI German neuropsychiatrist who describes a crisis in modern medicine. The second is that of Médard Boss, a WWII Swiss neuropsychiatrist that finds that medicine has trained him poorly to treat problems of meaning and existence. Time is spent differentiating existential health psychology from health psychology and complementary or alternative medical models.