L’art, entre jouissance et utopie selon Emmanuel Levinas

This text aims to show how, in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, the moment of jouissance is constitutive of the selfhood of the ego and conditions the very possibility of a sensitivity to the other man, and so the possibility of the ethical relation itself. These considerations on the enjoyment invited us to think artistic creation and poetry as a way to respond to anesthesia of our sensibility through knowledge, which is a characteristic of western thought for Emmanuel Levinas.

THE WOMAN IN THE NOVELS OF SAAD MOHAMMED RAHEEM

Women suffered - and as soon as they were removed - from the sway ‎of the patriarchal society, the domination of men over them and their ‎denial of achieving their independence, and the failure to take their ‎opinion on fateful decisions such as marriage, education, and work, ‎and that the novels of (Saad Muhammad Rahim) shed light on these ‎problems and other inferiority of their role. In public life, in addition ‎to the appearance of women in the society of novels (the research ‎material) in a stereotypical manner, as these novels did not give a ‎good space for women - Arab and Western - thought, literature and ‎culture, while his body recorded the presence of femininity in the ‎presence of a valuable cultural sting, revealing the patriarchal view ‎Towards the woman‎.

Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe: Extended Essay on the Book

Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe takes us back to his seminal text on “Necropolitics” translated and published in the US in 2003. At this point, 40 years after Foucault’s Biopolitics, Mbembe was re-theorizing biopolitics through a necro (death) horizon, which turned out to be a robust conceptual shift from Western thought. Not much else is explicitly said about necropolitics in the titular book, which comes 17 years after the seminal text that had a significant impact on the theory and practice of philosophy, politics, anthropology, and esthetics. Mbembe presents the layers of forms, modes, and procedures of the necropolitical working through contemporary neoliberal global societies. It is therefore not surprising that Mbembe makes reference to theory in forms, form is the way to redefine or rephrase content, and “who should live and who must die” is currently the beginning. But how this is done in the 21st century, what are the methods and procedures to implement this central act in neoliberal global democracy —that is the task of this book.

The Question of Being: Greece, India and China

One of the main features of the European perception of reality is that it is understood in terms of Parmenides’ wondering that “there is Being”. This concept is crucial for the Western tradition. In Western thought, the issue of Being is presented in pairs with two possible opposites: becoming and non-being. In this article, the concept of Being as it is presented in the Ancient Greek thought will be presented in comparison with similar concepts in Indian and Chinese traditions. The main aim of the paper is to outline the peculiarities and importance of each tradition.

Connecting feminist, antiracist, and animal politics: A bridge too far?

In the past decade, animal and antiracist politics are on the rise in the Netherlands and Belgium. Both integrate feminism into their political practice, albeit in divergent ways. Nevertheless, their core concerns are generally viewed as antithetical on a conceptual, normative, and politically practical level. This paper explores the extent to which feminist, antiracist, and animal concerns are (in)commensurable. Coupling the ecofeminist analysis of dualism developed by Val Plumwood with recent developments in black studies advanced by Claire Jean Kim and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, processes of animalisation and dehumanisation are scrutinised. It is demonstrated that the onto-epistemological categories of gender, race, and animality connect on the level of being subjected to the logic of domination exemplary of Western thought (1), and on the level of being the abject yet constitutive Others of the normative category of ‘the human’ (2). Subsequently, to build bridges between feminist, antiracist, and animal advocacy movements, it is argued that animal advocates need to critically question the assumption of ‘human privilege’ and stop using slavery analogies, while feminists and antiracists should aspire to divest from human supremacy. A new approach to collective liberation in the Low Countries is needed, one that acknowledges the interconnectedness of gender, race, and animality alike.

Colloquium 5 Anger and Our Humanity: Transhumanists Stoke the Flames of an Ancient Conflict

This paper presents Stoicism as, in broad historical terms, the point of origin in Western thought of an extreme form of rational essentialism that persists today in the debate over human bioenhancement. Advocates of “radical” enhancement (or transhumanists) would have us codify extreme rational essentialism through manipulation of genes and the brain to maximize rational ability and eliminate the capacity for emotions deemed unsalutary. They, like Stoics, see anger as especially dangerous. The ancient dispute between Stoics and Aristotle over the nature and permissibility of anger has contemporary analogues. I argue that, on the merits, this controversy should, finally, be put to rest in Aristotle’s favor. Beyond its philosophical assets, Aristotle’s perspective meshes well with “appraisal theory” of emotion in psychology and corresponding discoveries in neuroscience. What’s more, consideration of the ongoing struggle to achieve full racial equality in the United States supports the view that anger at this ongoing gap between λόγος and ἔργον is legitimate, and has a constructive role to play in furthering liberal democracy. As we are well positioned to retire the Stoics’ legacy regarding anger, all the more should we eschew transhumanists’ proposal to implement their position biologically, at which point debate over the nature and worth of anger would be permanently moot.

Being Human: Androids, Humans, and Identity in “Red Dwarf”

One of the more popular transhumanist ideas is the belief that technology will allow for the transfer of human personality into a machine or cyborg body. Additionally, some transhumanists believe that this transfer could happen with few to no problems, and that such a transfer would result in a definite improvement of the human species. The episode “DNA” from the humorous British science-fiction television series Red Dwarf presents a story that challenges this idea of the easy transfer of personality. The story of the android who gets his wish to become human allows the writers to invert the common belief in Western thought that being human is inherently better than being an imitation of a human, and that technologically upgrading human bodies will produce “better” humans. By inversion, the program presents the idea that clearer and more ethical thinking is needed regarding technological enhancement, and not the utopian visions of many transhumanists.

Philosophical Truth and Buddhist Wisdom For a Dialogical Dialogue

This essay offers a ‘dialogical dialogue’ between the philosophical and the Buddhist experiences. The first is represented by the philosophy of pure difference and pure positive, which shows how even truth, which characterises Western thought, is based on axiological assumptions, in particular that of the pure positive. The second is represented by Buddhist wisdom, specifically that explained by M. Raveri in his essay on Buddhism within Japanese society in the first centuries of the last millennium. Contradictions and conflicts, that seem to prejudice Buddhist conception and practice, appear instead, in the gaze of pure difference, as the true path that can lead humans to salvation.

Elucidating Afrocentricity as a contemporary theoretical stance through 'epistemic disobedience'

The use of Afrocentricity as a contemporary theoretical lens has triggered remarkable debate among African scholars. There is growing contestation among African intellectuals on the future of knowledge construction in the wake of the collapse of colonization in Africa. The contestation on the applicability of the Afrocentricity as a theory is largely triggered by the assumed superiority of Western thought. One of the major proponents of Afrocentricity Melefe Kete Asante has prompted an interesting question ‘Why have Africans been shut out of global development?’ The question attracts the need for African scholarship to take into consideration a context based theoretical standpoint and methodology. Nevertheless, the quest for a purely African based thought is clashed by postmodernists who contend that there is no such thing as “Africans” because there are many different types of Africans and all Africans are not equal. It is from this standpoint that this paper seeks to position Afrocentricity as a fundamental theoretical perspective in African scholarship. Afrocentricity is considered to be a catalyst of change whose goal is to restore the African understanding of the world. As such, through what some scholars have termed “epistemic disobedience” which is a form of epistemic revolt in favour of decolonisation of thought, this paper provides a critical analysis of the relevance of Afrocentricity as a theoretical standpoint.