This talk concerns the emergence of rationality and ultimately aims to strengthen the ontological foundations of my own account of “agent-structure” interdependence (Lobina, 2013), and my ongoing attempts to contribute to a heterodox (i.e. critical realist) organisational economics. More precisely, I argue that the problem of de-stratified rationality can be solved within critical realism.

Residents are important participants and stakeholders in destination development. Identifying factors that assist in predicting resident pro-environmental behavior (PEB) may contribute to enhanced sustainability. Based on a traditional Chinese culture, this research constructed a model of resident PEB by introducing pro-environmental destination image (PEDI) and Confucianism as the independent and moderating variables, respectively. The structural equation modeling for 402 residents indicated the model had a satisfactory level of predictive power for PEB. The results showed that: (1) PEDI positively affected residents’ (...) environmental identity, pro-environmental attitudes, and PEB; (2) environmental identity and pro-environmental attitudes completely mediated the impact of PEDI on residents’ PEB; and (3) Confucian culture had a positive U-shaped moderating effect in the relationships among these four variables. Overall, these findings advance the understanding of the formation of PEB in Confucian culture and provide theoretical and practical implications for fostering residents’ PEB. (shrink)

The University of Greenwich Generator is setting sail on a thrilling new journey of knowledge exchange with the launch of its first-ever podcast the Navigator. Crafted in collaboration with Lucien von Schomberg, Senior Lecturer in Creativity and Innovation at Greenwich Business School it promises to be an exciting platform for innovation, entrepreneurship, and thought-provoking conversation. The podcast aims to bridge the gap between academic insights and real-world issues in an easily digestible way. Through engaging conversations, listeners can expect to gain (...) valuable knowledge from industry leaders and academic experts alike. Operating on three key principles—knowledge communication, knowledge exchange, and knowledge creation—this podcast embodies the essence of the Generator's mission, inspiring, educating and fostering collaboration. The first episode explores the limitless potential of AI in today's world, unravelling its impact on business, education, and society. Guests share their profound insights, experiences, and practical advice, shedding light on how AI is shaping our future. The episode delved deep into the ethical implications but also vast potential of using AI in the future and how it will affect both education and the wider world. The episode boasts an impressive lineup of inaugural guests, including Jane Harrington, the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Greenwich, Carl Thomas, Enterprise Advisor, and founder of Audiowings, Ghislaine Boddington, Professor in Digital Immersion, and Neil Saunders, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Sciences. Together, these guests provide diverse perspectives on the future of AI at the university and beyond. (shrink)

Tourist civility is attracting growing attention from practitioners and scholars. However, the research on the effects of knowledge of civility and Taoist values on tourist civilized behavioral intentions (TCI) is incomplete. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), an expanded and integrated framework was developed to explore TCI with data from 358 domestic tourists in China. Structural equation modeling was adopted and mediation and moderation models were tested through the bootstrapping approach. The findings suggested that attitudes, subjective norms, perceived (...) behavioral control, knowledge, and Taoist values directly affected TCI. It was also found that attitudes positively mediated the connections between subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, knowledge, and Taoist values with TCI; and subjective norms negatively moderated not only the association between knowledge and attitudes but also the mediating effect of attitudes on the link between knowledge and TCI. The results confirmed that the extended TPB exerted greater explanatory power than the original model. This research provides a clearer understanding of TCI by integrating the knowledge-attitude-behavior and value-attitude-behavior models within TPB, which advances the knowledge of the underlying factors that motivate tourists toward civility, and offers a practical perspective to cultivate TCI with targeted strategies. (shrink)

Originality: The chapter make the argument that the term ‘sound art’ can be used to describe a range of creative practices that have hitherto been regarded as distinct. It does so when sound art is reconceptualised in terms of movement and temporality. This claim is supported by the unique combinations of theorists and practitioners that are forged. The chapter proposes the simultaneity of the continuous unfolding sound event, and the static significatory mode of representation as hesitation, as a combination that (...) constitute noise as a singularity. It is out of this noise that ‘the art that is made out of time’ emerges. Rigour: The chapter undertakes detailed readings of existing work in the field and combines them with new insights from contemporary art practice. It takes two opposing arguments in relation to the materiality of sound and the role of the sound artist, and rather than falling in behind either position, proposes an entirely new approach. This new approach is underpinned with reference to a range of classical philosophical positions that lend considerable weight to the argument that is developed. Significance: The author was invited to submit the chapter by the editors of the volume. The status of the other contributors is testament to the significance of the text overall. On its own the chapter allows ‘sound art’ to escape from the confines of strictly acoustic practice, and to become important within a much wider context. As such it makes a contribution to the wider ‘antiocular turn’ that is currently occurring as a theoretical movement in relation critical and aesthetic theory. (shrink)

This chapter examines Language, translation, realms of practice, and the potential for errors. Moving through the ideas of Michel Serres and Ludwig Wittgenstein it makes the argument that, whether as duplicity or ‘misunderstanding’, what we often conceive of as errors are actually vital elements in sustaining a multiplicity of eco-systems. They mark moments of creativity and contestation and must necessarily be embraced as key elements in our thinking about contemporary digital environments.

27. JAN 2023 (6-8PM)_ Growth & Climate: the ethics of design. Here we will explore how design practices can contribute to the polices and realisation of the degrowth agenda, taking in alternative models of governance and material use.

Report on the workshop event to Dave Hockham: Executive summary. On 15th June 2022 a Practice as Research Knowledge Exchange (PARKE) Workshop was held at the Bathway Theatre to explore the question: “How can we learn to love being with less?” This project explored the UN Sustainability Development Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities using a somatic co-production approach which was based on movement to music combined with the chormmunity methodology (Loper 2000) involving movement, images, and words to express feelings (...) and thoughts. 15 participants, specifically selected from a range of backgrounds and ages, took part in the workshop. Some of the participants were community group leaders, whom we intentionally invited so they could apply any learning for their own practice working with community members. The aim of the workshop was two-fold: 1. Participants explored the key question and were asked to reflect on what they can take home from the workshop to make changes in their own life (personal impact). 2. Participants were asked to provide feedback on participating in a co-creation workshop with an intergenerational and diverse group and what they could learn from this for their own current work or future work with community groups. Outcomes of the knowledge exchange (KE) workshop At the end of the workshop all participants reported to feel positive about the day and all stated they could take home from the day something ‘valuable’ (e.g. a new perspective or approach). However, one person, who is active in the sustainability movement openly questioned the value of a workshop like this in the face of a global climate crisis, yet he did agree on the workshop bringing value in questioning representations, active listening and by exploring different forms of expressions. Participants further reported on ideas on changes in their behaviour such as worrying less about technology (emails), but to experience life more physically, to pay more attention when listening and to incorporate different forms of expression when working with members of the community. The diversity of the group was perceived as a beneficial vehicle for participants to learn about new perspectives and to exchange more freely. (shrink)

Phenomenology is the contemplative study of human experience. It refers to a philosophical framework as well as a methodology that can inform educational practice and research. It seeks to reveal and understand how phenomena may be experienced as they are actually lived in the everyday world, or what some phenomenologists refer to as the lifeworld. Phenomenological philosophy suggests that everything in the lifeworld is inextricably connected in a social context, and so phenomenology aims to be more attentive to such meaningful (...) connections—or intentional relations—within lived experiences and to illuminate them as a means to deeply understand the experience of the phenomenon under focus. Phenomenology can support all aspects of education by increasing sensitivity toward the many processes and practices it involves. When used as a naturalistic research methodology with qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, it can provide authentic insight for educators to use educational technologies in ethical and socially responsible ways. (shrink)

This chapter provides a historical account of the transformation of pregnancy through philosophical theory and legal practice. What has remained seemingly consistent across history, though, is the lack of rights a pregnant woman can enjoy. Whilst it may manifest differently across time and place, unfortunately misogynistic attitudes persist, and this is reflected in the continual degrading of the gestator (and gestation), which is reinforced by certain philosophical theorising and technological advancement. We thus urge caution in making philosophical claims about the (...) epistemic transformation in pregnancy, given the epistemic (and other) injustices already faced by pregnant people. We recognise that there are transformations that occur because of pregnancy, but we argue that there ought not be with respect to the pregnant person's autonomy, agency, and control over their bodies. Through an analysis of legal cases, we can see that the practice falls out of line with the theory regarding how pregnant people are treated. But perhaps it is both the theory and the practice that need to change so as to bring them in line. How we theorise about pregnancy is intertwined with our cultural views, our technological advancements, and our medical and legal practices, requiring multi-disciplinary study for a more holistic overview. In this chapter, we contribute to this endeavour by bringing some such strands together, regarding the transformation that pregnancy is, that pregnancy makes, and that pregnancy has had historically, in philosophy, and in legal practice. (shrink)

This short movie was created by Dominique Rivoal and produced by Dr Marianne Markowski. It documents the 'Practice as Research Knowledge Exchange' (PARKE) workshop "learn to love being with less", which took place on 15th June 2022 at the Bathway theatre in Woolwich. Co-PIs for this pilot project were Dr Jaqueline Richards, Molly Wright and Kay Scorah. The project was initiated under the PARKE cafe Framework and funded as part of the University of Greenwich's Innovation fund. The project explored the (...) UN Sustainability Development Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities using a somatic co-production approach which was based on movement to music combined with the chormmunity methodology (Loper 2000) involving movement, images, and words to express feelings and thoughts. 15 participants, specifically selected from a range of backgrounds and ages, took part in the workshop. Outcomes of the workshop included renewed awareness on the importance of active listening to each other, to incorporate different forms of expression when involving different members of the community and a sense of being of value and part of something larger. (shrink)

Constructs are central to psychology. And yet, relevance and role of constructs for psychological theories, findings and practices are still debated and even questioned. What actually are constructs? Why are they so central to psychology? What is their explanatory value? (How) can we ‘measure’ constructs? And why are there so many misunderstandings and confusions about them? These are obvious questions for which many psychologists are still seeking answers—such as De Boeck and colleagues in their target article (this issue).

Assemblage theory, based on the work of Manuel DeLanda, has gained in popularity amongst social scientists. However, a very different version of the theory has now been presented by Ian Buchanan, who claims that his version has much stronger roots in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, from which the concept originates. A review of these two reveals the deep differences between them and their incompatibility, especially given the different ontologies upon which they are based. They can broadly be described (...) respectively as systems-oriented and purpose-oriented approaches. These competing versions are explored further in the context of the practice of seascape character assessment. A twin analysis of a seascape character assessment exercise is carried out, which illustrates vividly the different understandings that each assemblage theory offers. However, this also suggests that each has the potential to help develop more progressive approaches to seascape practice. The choice of approach will depend on the aim of incorporating assemblage theory into this area of practice, whether to work within the rationale of, and enhance, existing assessment (DeLanda) or to interrogate the processes by which seascapes may serve particular purposes and then shape those processes (Buchanan). (shrink)

Demonstration Environments (DEs) are essential tools for testing and demonstrating new technologies, products, and services, and reducing uncertainties and risks in the innovation process. However, the terminology used to describe these environments is inconsistent, leading to heterogeneity in defining and characterizing them. This makes it difficult to establish a universal understanding of DEs and to differentiate between the different types of DEs, including testbeds, pilot-plants, and living labs. Moreover, existing literature lacks a holistic view of DEs, with studies focusing on (...) specific types of DEs and not offering an integrated perspective on their characteristics and applicability in different contexts. This study proposes an ontology for knowledge representation related to DEs to address this gap. Using an ontology learning approach analyzing 3621 peer-reviewed journal articles, we develop a standardized framework for defining and characterizing DEs, providing a holistic view of these environments. The resulting ontology allows innovation managers and practitioners to select appropriate DEs for achieving their innovation goals, based on the characteristics and capabilities of the specific type of DE. The contributions of this study are significant in advancing the understanding and application of DEs in innovation processes. The proposed ontology provides a standardized approach for defining and characterizing DEs, reducing inconsistencies in terminology and establishing a common understanding of these environments. This enables innovation managers and practitioners to select appropriate DEs for their specific innovation goals, facilitating more efficient and effective innovation processes. Overall, this study provides a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in the effective use of DEs in innovation. (shrink)

The repercussions of Nietzsche’s idea of the death of God were not only felt in the religious sphere, but also in how we think about the meaning and place of creation and creativity in life. Agamben’s discussion of creativity as ‘inoperativity’ is the latest, important contribution to the debate, arguably initiated by Existentialism, on how the death of God relates to life as material for artistic creation. I situate Agamben’s theses on ‘inoperativity’ in dialogue with Nietzsche’s discussion of the death (...) of God and the ‘work of art without artist.’ Agamben helps us to get beyond the Existentialist interpretation of the human subject as creator of its own life (bios) by proposing an anarchic conception of giving artistic form to life (zoe) that deconstructs the position of mastery over life assigned to modern subjectivity and de-centres the idea of the human agency in the process of creation. However, Agamben’s conception of the artistic life downplays or avoids other features of Nietzsche’s thinking on the death of God and creation that are tied to animality and the divinity of nature. (shrink)

Foucault famously argued that there exists a tension between humanism and the Enlightenment project. Whereas humanism is understood as the philosophical attempt to define the essence of the human being, the Enlightenment project continuously seeks to transgress the boundaries of the human. If we agree with Foucault, then posthumanism is inscribed within this project of Enlightenment. But what is the relation between posthumanism and plant studies? The following chapter discusses the way in which the recent “plant turn” in science and (...) philosophy has further challenged our understanding of what it means to be human. It asks what plant studies has brought to current posthumanist debates and how it has perhaps reoriented these debates. (shrink)

In this article I situate Agamben’s theses on ‘inoperativity’ in dialogue with motifs drawn from Nietzsche’s discussion of the death of God and his conception of the ‘work of art without artist.’ I argue that Agamben helps us to get beyond the Existentialist interpretation of the human subject as creator of its own life (bios) by proposing an anarchic conception of giving artistic form to life (zoe) that deconstructs the position of mastery over life assigned to modern subjectivity and decentres (...) the idea of the human agency in the process of creation. However, I also suggest that Agamben’s conception of the artistic life downplays or avoids other features of Nietzsche’s thinking on the death of God and creation that are tied to animality and the divinity of nature. In the first section, “The Work of Art without Artist and the Deactivation of the Artistic Machine” I discuss Agamben’s archaeology of the work of art and his thesis that since the Renaissance, the work of art has been produced through what he calls the ‘artistic machine.’ I examine his proposal to deactivate this machine by thematizing the dimension of human life he calls ‘inoperativity,’ and what this means for his understanding of the process of creation as anthropogenesis. I also raise the question of whether, by deactivating the artistic machine, Agamben may paradoxically be re-activating what he has previously called the ‘anthropological machine.’ The second section, “The Death of God and the Death of Man,” compares and contrasts the difference between Nietzsche’s and Agamben’s accounts of anthropogenesis and the relation between animality and divinity. It argues that the death God as the death of the human being in Nietzsche leads to a naturalistic conception of creativity inspired by Greek and Renaissance art that provides some insights into how to deactivate the ‘work-artist-operation machine’ without falling into the ‘anthropological machine.’ This article concludes with a third section, “Contingency, Resistance and Self-Overcoming” on the difference between Nietzsche’s and Agamben’s conceptions of contingency and resistance in the generation of a form-of-life. For Nietzsche a form of life is generated essentially in and through a process of continuous self-overcoming. In Agamben, a form of life is constituted through a dialectical tension between creation and resistance, the artist’s potential (impersonal) and potential not-to (personal). Whereas in Agamben the contingency of creation is located within the action, in Nietzsche creation happens to the activity as an event external to it. (shrink)

Esposito distinguishes between three different and paradigmatic ways in which contemporary political thinkers from Heidegger to Agamben, through Deleuze and Lefort, have conceived the postmetaphysical assemblage of politics, being, and difference. First, the article discusses the concept of difference and negation that is employed by Esposito in his reconstruction of the positions of Heidegger and Deleuze. Second, it questions Esposito's political ontology of conflict by discussing it in relation to the views of Schmitt and of proponents of agonistic politics, which (...) may appear to be closely related to it. The study concludes by asking about the place of biopolitics in this account of political ontology and tries to address this peculiar absence of biopolitics in a text written by one of its main theorists. (shrink)

In order for society to fully realise the potential benefits offered by assistive robots, a number of ethical challenges must firstly be addressed. Crucially, it is important to enhance public understanding of the ways in which societal ethics can be used to formulate and guide the preferred behaviours of these robots, particularly in scenarios which are ethically complex. Furthermore, it is also important to ensure that the voices of end users are heard, and their input used in the development process. (...) In this paper we present EETAS, a methodology for using structured workshops to improve public understanding of assistive robot ethical complexities. We also present DEETAS, a further digital-based and design-centric methodology for engaging potential end-users who may be reluctant to take part in collaborative workshops. In support of these two methodologies we present the findings of an initial pilot study and usability study, showing an indicative trend that these processes are effective in engaging users and enhancing public understanding of the ethical complexities inherent in assistive robots. (shrink)

A dominant theme of the workplace spirituality discourse in HRD is its transformational nature which enables an organization to imbue work with purpose and meaning. Empirical studies have shown that providing meaningful work to employees enhances several indicators of organizational performance. However, this discourse ignores that such organizational interventions are shaped by capitalist power relations in which the organization is embedded. In this paper, I apply a critical theory perspective drawing from the work of Jurgen Habermas to show that workplace (...) spirituality movement has emerged in response to the loss of meanings inherent in neoliberal capitalism. However, since this movement is operating on a logic of performativity and instrumental rationality, it represents an attempt to re-orient individual subjectivity and the spiritual realm of human experience to serve capitalism. (shrink)

In early 2020, as the first of many COVID lockdowns began across Australia, a collective of feminist and queer performance scholars and artists embarked on the research project Staging Australian Women’s Lives: Theatre, Feminism and Socially Engaged Art. Our aim was to document contributions of womxn theatre makers, while conducting a feminist analysis of strategies used to deal with gender inequality and oppression, on stage and off. While pivoting to the digital and the virtual, we recognised a need to support (...) womxn theatre makers whose lives and livelihoods are thrown into further precarity by the pandemic. This paper speaks to our commitment to bringing together critical theory, arts practices and everyday life in ethical forms and encounters that make visible, recognise and express care for one another and for the work. (shrink)

Background Ethical climate refers to the shared perception of ethical norms and sets the scope for what is ethical and acceptable behaviour within teams. Aim This paper sought to explore perceptions of ethical climate amongst healthcare workers as measured by the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ), the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey (HECS) and the Ethics Environment Questionnaire (EEQ). Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis was utilised. PSYCINFO, CINAHL, WEB OF SCIENCE, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched, and papers were included if they (...) sampled healthcare workers and used the ECQ, HECS or EEQ. Ethical consideration Ethical approval was not required. Results The search returned 1020 results. After screening, 61 papers were included ( n = 43 HECS, n = 15 ECQ, n = 3 EEQ). The overall sample size was over 17,000. The pooled mean score for the HECS was 3.60. Mean scores of individual studies ranged from 2.97 to 4.5. For the HECS studies, meta-regression was carried out. No relationship was found between the country of the studies, the study setting (ICU v non-ICU settings) or the mean years of experience that the sample had. For the ECQ, sub-scales had mean scores ranging from 3.41 (instrumental) to 4.34 (law) and were all observed to have significant and substantial heterogeneity. Three studies utilised the EEQ so further analysis was not carried out. Conclusions The above results provide insight into the variability of scores as measured by the HECS, ECQ and EEQ. To some extent, this variability is not surprising with studies carried out across 21 countries and in a range of healthcare systems. Results also suggest that it may be that more local and context specific factors are more important when it comes to predicting ethical climate. (shrink)

The research presented in this paper supports claims by feminists and queer theorists that there are numerous and diverse sex/gender/desire categories (Bem, 1995). Taken from a broader digital ethnography of digital sex markets in the United Kingdom, the findings are based on ten in-depth interviews with those who identified as men or ‘gender flexible’ and who buy and/or sell sex within digital markets. The participants featured in this paper used digital sex markets as a space to explore and express non-normative/subversive (...) sexual and gender identities. Yet for many of them, these subversive acts were bounded by the market, so they were able to uphold masculine heterosexual identities outside of sex markets. The relative privacy of digital sex markets empowered them to maintain heterosexist power, reducing the social risks of stigmatisation and ostracisation associated with subversive sexual and gender identities. The thematic analysis revealed the limitations of heteronormative and homonormative labels and assumptions of sex work relations, thus, prompting the need to write this paper. Framing sex markets in narrow binary terms, as either homosexual or heterosexual markets, or research participants as customers or workers do not reflect the fluidity and diversity evident in this small yet revealing sample. The study shows multiple and fluid expressions of sex/gender/desire; and a duality in market roles as workers and/or customers amongst men engaged in digital sex markets. (shrink)

Since 2015, when the authors first wrote a chapter about the state of curation for electronic art (pointing to the absence of works significantly addressing the epistemic implications of a computational logic), artificial intelligence and wider algorithmic forms of logic have become more pervasive themes within mainstream art, with, for example, exhibitions such as ‘AI More than Human’ (2019) at the Barbican Centre, London, the increasing profile of the Lumen Prize, as well as headline grabbing events such as Christie’s auction (...) of the AI-generated painting ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy' (2018, created by GAN [Generative Adversarial Network]). The logic of computation is now, if not generally understood, a ubiquitous facet of the curatorial imaginary, begging the question: where are the alternatives and challenges to Western computation, to the Neoplatonist ideals of mathematical logic? Appraising discourse addressing the non-human and the arboreal, the authors present a radically alternative set of practices, framed as Mycorrhizal Curation, a provocative affront to human representational systems and power relations which place the human at the apex of all epistemic hierarchies, but also, the authors intend to provide a provocative challenge to the hegemony of the artworld, with shifts to models of amicable cooperation and wealth distribution. (shrink)

Curatorial discourse, especially when focusing on works of technology-reliant art, has often pinpointed the inadequate documentation of past exhibitions. This excludes non-visitors from having an integrated view over the way that the exhibits function in space and are inscribed within a wider cultural and political context. At the same time, technology itself is increasingly embedded within both exhibition practices and the creation of the works themselves, thus creating new relations between creators, curators, and the public. Recent years have seen the (...) rise of immersive technologies in museums, fairs, and festivals whilst the use of VR headsets, smartphones and apps has come to constitute common museological practice. In this context, the creation of ‘digital doubles’, i.e. computer-generated exhibitions that exist virtually after the end of the physical exhibition, could stand as an ideal documentation tool and an all-inclusive resource. Based on theoretical research and the project outcomes of the two landmark exhibitions that serve as case studies within the framework of the Beyond Matter project (Les Immatériaux and Iconoclash), this chapter explores spatial politics, the potential offered by digital models of past exhibitions and their positioning within contemporary curatorial discourse. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt, from a personal perspective, to answer how training practices are transmitted between different contexts. I will discuss my experience of training in the Meisner Technique in New Zealand, far removed from its origins in New York. I will relate this to the cultural dynamic of teaching world theatre practices within UK universities and how this highlights things that might be overlooked when we work with western traditions. I will conclude with a suggested approach that combines (...) documentation and experience of the original practice, an appreciation for the source culture as well as the context to which the training is being transmitted. I suggest that this perspective shows the original practice haunting new work, not being replicated in the new situation, but inspiring a creative and organic evolution of the practice. (shrink)

The latest collection of essays from the cutting edge of psychedelic research, based on talks given by their authors at Breaking Convention 2019, held at The University of Greenwich, London. The largest symposium of its kind, Breaking Convention features more than 120 academic presentations biennially, and is widely regarded as the foremost global platform for serious research into psychedelic science and culture. Within these pages are essays demonstrating a shift in psychedelia. Topics include sustainability, death, the shadow, archetypes, conservation, history, (...) phenomenology, war, power, madness, and the marriage of energy and matter. An eclectic collection that reflects the diverse array of speakers that present at Breaking Convention, and echoes the shifts currently occurring in psychedelia: a build up of tension before new ground is created. (shrink)

Understanding the term urban sustainability continues to dominate discourse in the built environment as societies explore how cities can be considered sustainable. Due to the increasing rate of urbanization, scholars argue that the battle for sustainability will be won or lost in cities; recognizing the crucial role that neighbourhoods can play as building blocks of urban areas. However, while the context-specificity of the several approaches to sustainability at the neighbourhood level has been recognised, no single accepted understanding of a sustainable (...) neighbourhood has emerged. This paper explores institutional stakeholders’ understanding of a sustainable neighbourhood using questionnaire data from metropolitan Lagos. This aligns with the critical realism philosophical stance which believes that knowledge can be sourced through the perception of people with respect to an underlying structure based on their reality. The findings show variations in the perceptions with institutions having similar responsibilities differing in their understanding of the concept. It was unclear why a single common understanding was missing and why certain elements were more emphasised than others even in institutions having similar roles. Further research should explore the mechanisms at play in influencing these understandings and how they may differ in various urban contexts in Sub-Sahara Africa. (shrink)

Propositions 1. The assumption that innovation can be regulated towards societally desirable outcomes cannot be maintained. 2. The inclusion of society in innovation requires active involvement of individual citizens beyond representative stakeholders. 3. The most urgent priority for science is to restore societal trust in its practice. 4. In the current research system, the pursuit of science conflicts with the pursuit of profit. 5. The commodification of personal data is morally indefensible. 6. The inclusion of philosophy as a mandatory part (...) of the education system will contribute to the creativity and resilience of the next generations. Propositions belonging to the thesis, entitled "Raising the Sail of Innovation: Philosophical Explorations on Responsible Innovation". (shrink)

This research poster summarises the findings of my recent PhD and aims to convey to a primarily midwifery audience the role of hermeneutic phenomenology in keeping the participant at the centre of research studies.

Poster presentation, aimed at a midwifery audience on the rationale of crafted stories as a data analysis adjunct with the underlying philosophy of Martin Heidegger.

This chapter examines Language, translation, realms of practice, and the potential for errors. Moving through the ideas of Michel Serres and Ludwig Wittgenstein it makes the argument that, whether as duplicity or ‘misunderstanding’, what we often conceive of as errors are actually vital elements in sustaining a multiplicity of eco-systems. They mark moments of creativity and contestation and must necessarily be embraced as key elements in our thinking about contemporary digital environments.

Originality: The chapter make the argument that the term ‘sound art’ can be used to describe a range of creative practices that have hitherto been regarded as distinct. It does so when sound art is reconceptualised in terms of movement and temporality. This claim is supported by the unique combinations of theorists and practitioners that are forged. The chapter proposes the simultaneity of the continuous unfolding sound event, and the static significatory mode of representation as hesitation, as a combination that (...) constitute noise as a singularity. It is out of this noise that ‘the art that is made out of time’ emerges. Rigour: The chapter undertakes detailed readings of existing work in the field and combines them with new insights from contemporary art practice. It takes two opposing arguments in relation to the materiality of sound and the role of the sound artist, and rather than falling in behind either position, proposes an entirely new approach. This new approach is underpinned with reference to a range of classical philosophical positions that lend considerable weight to the argument that is developed. Significance: The author was invited to submit the chapter by the editors of the volume. The status of the other contributors is testament to the significance of the text overall. On its own the chapter allows ‘sound art’ to escape from the confines of strictly acoustic practice, and to become important within a much wider context. As such it makes a contribution to the wider ‘antiocular turn’ that is currently occurring as a theoretical movement in relation critical and aesthetic theory. (shrink)

This article illustrates some typical occupational modalities of drawing by abductive processes, involving the design of ecologies through chance and discovery – perhaps through radical innovations – in architecture. First described by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, abductive processes start with an observation or set of observations, then seek to reach the simplest and most likely conclusion from those observations. To design an ecology is to design a system of parts from things, creating a new kind of contextualism. This (...) may not seem radical nor innovative, but the principle of symbiotically designing an ecology for a range of scaled interventions over time using the same context starts to become interesting. From drawing and sketching what you can see in the actual context for a design proposal, to then redrawing and composing the observational drawing in a studio, to the time taken to experience and reflect on the spaces drawn towards making physical objects from the forms resonating as the drawing develops, many modalities occupy a drawing as architecture. These could be viewed as a form of ‘possible worlds’, anticipations, opportunities to shape the drawing world and act in it. It could be of help in prefiguring the risks, possibilities and effects of the architect as the editor of situations in the architectural drawing,and in promoting or preventing broad rules of translation. Creating ethics means creating the world and acting in it, in different situations and problems. In this way, events and situations can be reinvented, either as opportunities or as risks that lead in new directions. The second part of the article describes some of the ‘26 rules for translation’ through drawing related to the design of ecologies through chance and discovery. (shrink)

This chapter explores non-philosophy as a practice of language, by examining how linguistic enunciations are grounded differently in philosophical, scientific and aesthetic contexts, and then showing how non-philosophy performs such enunciations in a new way—suspending the philosophical presupposition that language, as logos, constitutes the Being of things, and instead enacting a nonhuman subject of speech that is indiffer-ent to ontological foundations. It takes as a key reference Laruelle’s essay ‘The Tran-scendental Computer: A Non-Philosophical Utopia’, which explores the relation of conscious (...) thought to artificial intelligence—complicating the distinction between thought and computation, whilst also asserting that non-philosophy cannot be automated. In order to render the ideas in Laruelle’s discussion sensible, the chapter will take two instances of nonhuman linguistic creation as material: Alan Turing’s ‘abstract machine’, and Ron Athey’s performance work Gifts of the Spirit: Automatic Writing. Both Turing and Athey offer a model for language that is grounded in its performance; however, I argue that Athey’s automatic writing machine ultimately comes closer to realising the stranger-subject of non-philosophical thinking. Thus, by reading Athey’s work alongside Laruelle, the chapter aims to explain the latter’s notions of ‘humaneity’ and the ‘performed-without-performation’, and to demonstrate how aesthetic practice can help us to underdetermine the philosophico-scientific domination of thought. (shrink)

The Paths of Zatoichi charts the history and influence of the Japanese film and television franchise about Zatoichi the blind swordsman. The franchise is comprised of 29 films and 100 TV episodes (starring the famous Shintaro Katsu, who starred in 26 of the 29 feature films). They all follow the adventures of a blind masseur in medieval Japan, who wanders from village to village and often has to defend himself with his deadly sword skills. The first film was released in (...) 1962 and the most recent in 2010. These dates demonstrate how the franchise can be used as a means of charting Japanese cinema history, via the shifts in production practices and audience preferences which affected the Zatoichi series and numerous other film and TV texts. Zatoichi signifies a huge area of Japanese film history which has largely been ignored in much existing scholarly research, and yet it can reveal much about the appeal of long-running characters, franchises, and their constant adaptation and influence within global popular culture. (shrink)

Exploring both the intrapersonal (moral) and interpersonal (ethical) nature of death and dying in the context of their development (philosophical), Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society shows how death and dying have been and will continue to be governed in any given society. Drawing on transhumanism and discourses about posthumanity, life prolongation and digital life, the book analyses death, dying and grief via the governance of dying. It states that the bio-medical dimensions of our understanding of death and dying (...) have predominated not only the discourses about death in society and the care of the dying, but their policy and practice as well. It seeks to provoke thinking beyond the benefits of technology and within the confinements of the world transhumanists describe. This book is written for all who have an interest in thanatology (i.e. death studies) but will be useful specifically to those investigating the experiences of dying and grieving in contemporary societies, wherein technology, biology and medicine continuously advance. Thus, the manuscript will be of interest to researchers in a broad range of areas including health and social care, social policy, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and, of course, thanatology. (shrink)

Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings are subjective experiences characterised by a sudden sense of direct contact, union, or complete nondual merging with a perceived ultimate reality, the universe, “God,” or the divine. These profound transformative experiences have scarcely been researched, despite extensive anecdotal evidence suggesting their potential to catalyse drastic, long-term, and often positive shifts in perception, world-view, and well-being. The aims of this study were to investigate the phenomenological variances of these experiences, including the potential differences between SSAs and Spontaneous Kundalini (...) Awakenings, a subset of awakening experiences that the authors postulate may produce a higher likelihood of both physical and negative effects; to explore how these experiences compare to other altered states of consciousness, including those mediated by certain psychedelic substances; and understand their impact on well-being. Personality trait absorption and temporal lobe lability were assessed as predictors of Spontaneous Spiritual and Kundalini Awakenings. A mixed within and between-participants self-report survey design was adopted. A total of 152 participants reporting their most powerful SSA/SKAs completed questionnaires measuring nondual, kundalini, and mystical experience, as well as depth of ASC, and trait absorption and TLL. Spontaneous Kundalini Awakenings were found to be significantly more physical, but not significantly more negative than SSAs, and overall, both sets of experiences were perceived to be overwhelmingly more positive than negative, even in cases where the experience was initially challenging. The phenomenological distribution of SSA/SKAs was similar to other measured ASCs although greater in magnitude, and appeared most similar in distribution and in magnitude to drug-induced ASCs, particularly classic psychedelics DMT and psilocybin. Temporal lobe lability and trait absorption were found to predict the SSA/SKA experience. The limitations and implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Social psychological research on youth intergroup relations has primarily examined interactions between dichotomous groups through cross-sectional and self-report measures in single contexts. Such traditional approaches, however, are not adept to capturing the dynamic nature of intergroup relations for youth growing up in multicultural societies. In this chapter, we briefly review the existing literature on youth interethnic interactions. We next discuss some theoretical and methodological limitations of this research. We then review the handful of studies focused on youths’ behaviour in diverse (...) contexts, as well as emerging research examining youth and behavioural trajectories when moving beyond the dichotomies of Black and White. We end the chapter by proposing a new research agenda which brings youth into context and extends theoretical boundaries by drawing on a range of innovative methods. We argue this broader approach is needed if we are to truly understand the implications of growing ethnic diversity for youth. (shrink)

As argumentation theory has moved away from classical logic as a standard, sources have played an increasingly important role in the psychology of argumentation. Considering the connections between arguments and their sources is important for both descriptive and normative projects. This chapter draws together different strands of research in the psychology of argumentation and their differing views on source characteristics: namely, procedural rules, pragmatics, argumentation schemes and Bayesian Argumentation. We argue for a reconciliation of these different approaches around a probabilistic (...) notion of relevance. (shrink)

This practical guide offers an approachable introduction to doing hermeneutic phenomenological research across the health and social sciences. Grounded in real world research, it integrates philosophy, methodology and method in accessible ways, helping you realise the potential of using phenomenology to guide research. The book maps the complete research process and shows how to apply key philosophical tenets to your project, demonstrating the close relationship between philosophy and research practice. It: * Shows step-by-step how to translate philosophy into research methodology (...) and turn methodology into robust research design * Promotes advanced thinking about hermeneutic phenomenology in an easy to understand way * Focuses on applied practice, illustrating theoretical discussions with examples and case studies * Highlights the need for researchers to engage reflexively with the whole research process. (shrink)

Ana-materialism & the Pineal Eye provides a landmark interpretation of materialism, representation and the image using the Cartesian conceit of a pineal gland and its voracious sexually embedded appetites. Developing the argument via Bataille’s re-invention of the pineal gland as an all-seeing, all- devouring, eye, Golding borrows this move to envision a different analytic approach to digital forms of ‘matter’ and artificial forms of ‘life’. From her critical engagement with Bataille, Deleuze and Butler, Golding shows why the tools provided by (...) these modern, contemporary and postmodern approaches to philosophy, image, the body, indeed representation cannot fully explore, let alone develop these new forms of reality/ies except by retreating into traditional binary divides between male and female, good and evil, mother/child and so forth. Ana-materialism and the Pineal Eye introduces a much needed understanding to oddly cathected sensualities, multiversal realities, digital imaginaries with no weight, no volume, no spatiality, but ‘somehow’ making sense, and with it, creating matter, ethics, art. (shrink)

What I want to do in this paper is focus on the way in which Deleuze might be said to 'level the levels' of the Kantian philosophy. The levels which Deleuze levels are found in the distinction between the transcendentally ideal and the empirically real. Just what is at stake in these terms? If Kant's move is to insist on the sensible, we might almost want to say that it is an insistence on a matter that matters which underlies this (...) distinction of levels. 'Almost', because we have yet to understand matter or what it is 'to matter', for anything to be, as Deleuze suggests, a 'difference that makes a difference'. If, however, we were to allow that what underlies Kant's necessary insistence on the empirically real is an anti-rationalist move, a move against a 'pure thought' and in favour of a muddy, dirty thought in which the mixing up, the synthesis of concept and intuition, was the central guiding thread, then the way in which this synthesis is produced would be of crucial importance. This 'way it is produced' can be examined, at least in part, by focusing on the concept of determinability. [Introductory excerpt from the chapter]. (shrink)

This deliberately wide-ranging book addresses issues related to trust, compassion, well-being, grace, dignity and integrity. It explores these within the context of higher education, giving existential and empirical accounts of how these moral duties can be expressed within the academy and why they ought to be. The chapters range from values used in the marketing and management of institutions to their realisation in therapeutic and teacher training spaces. The book opens with a specific introduction which positions the work and outlines (...) the context of duties and obligations at play. This is followed by two distinct but related sections including chapters on theoretical issues, organisational practices and personal praxis. The first part is more abstract and theoretical, the second locates the values discussed within the practices of the university. In doing so the book encompasses a wide range of issues from multi-disciplinary and geo-political regions. The authors are a mixture of world-leading authorities on values in higher education and earlier career researchers, who are nonetheless equally passionate contributors. This mix gives the book vibrancy and offers insight which appeals to both an academic and managerial readership. (shrink)

There is an increasing pressure for leading universities to perform well in competitive global and national ranking systems. International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education studies the complexity involved in the development and upkeep of good higher education provision. Without taking anything about leadership, management, governance, administration, authority or power for granted, this book draws together international case studies relating to specific instances of leadership to analyse how they relate to critical thinking and global challenges in higher education. Using a (...) selection of global case studies, this book explores: * The extent to which critical thinking on global challenges is employed by higher education leaders * The potential for an increase in the role of critical thinking in leadership * The creative potential for critical leadership thinking to transform institutions and communities * The essential attributes of critical thinking, namely cognitive, affective and social dimensions, and * The possibility for critical thinking to contribute to the global public common good by encouraging enhanced research, teaching and public service excellence. Responding to the ever-increasing demands of the higher education climate, International Perspectives on Leadership in Higher Education is a vital resource for anyone occupying leadership positions in higher education institutions and any researchers or students looking to explore the landscape of critical thinking. (shrink)

This thesis develops a theoretical framework for articulating the experience of “community”, in a way that avoids appealing to hypostatizing identity concepts. It examines two seminal discourses of community, in the work of Georges Bataille and Jean-Luc Nancy, which attempt to grasp such a social experience departing from a philosophical ground, and it argues that each of these approaches constitutes a circular logic that places the reality of its “object” beyond the reach of signifying discourse. In order to break out (...) of this circularity, and to render the reality of community effable, the thesis adopts the posture of François Laruelle's non-philosophy, which offers a way of re-viewing the philosophical materials according to their already-given immanence, and deploying them as real. It makes an original contribution to knowledge by developing a new, non-philosophical syntax for theorizing community in a non-totalising mode. This syntax, which we name a “theatre-fiction”, is occasioned by the thematic of “spectacle” that arises recurrently in Bataille and Nancy's thinking. It entails a non-standard re-conceptualization of theatre as a model for representation, and moreover as a ground for community. On this Laruellian basis, the thesis proposes a new way of understanding the performative staging of social identity, giving community as an experience- -thought which manifests itself immanently, whilst tolerating an identity-of-the-last-instance with its concept. (shrink)

François Laruelle’s non-standard aesthetics proposes a framework for ‘conjugating’ philosophy with the arts to articulate new models of thought. This posture of thinking is posed as a defence of man against the presuppositions that ground philosophy, which conceptually overdetermine the human and condemn thought to a perpetual state of crisis. Laruelle’s epistemological approach holds a certain potential for the field of performance philosophy because it brings performance together with philosophy in a non-hierarchical arrangement that combines their respective means, producing an (...) ‘art of thought’. This article examines the effects of bringing performance into thought in this manner, by putting Laruelle’s pragmatics into practice. It enacts a non-standard re-description of two sets of theoretical materials: one ‘philosophical’, the other from ‘performance theory’. The first, a deconstruction of the performativity of human rights declarations, resonates with Laruelle’s concerns about the conceptual overdetermination of the human; however, it appeals to the Platonic scene of krisis as an alternative paradigm for presenting the human—which remains an event with a crisis-structure. The second, an aesthetic theory of performance conceived as a liminal event, has a similar structure. By articulating these materials together, I will show how terms can be extracted from performance theory and used as a means to radicalise the scene of krisis, producing a stage on which the ‘human’ can be presented in an underdetermined mode. This allows us to achieve a non-predicative theorisation of the human that eludes Hamacher, whilst demonstrating through practice the abstract procedure by which ‘performance’ is utilised in the context of non-standard aesthetics. (shrink)

The Transdisciplinary Philosophy-of-Science Paradigm for Research on Individuals builds on established concepts, approaches, and methods from various disciplines that are systematically integrated into coherent philosophical, metatheoretical, and methodological frameworks and that are further developed and complemented by novel ones. The TPS-Paradigm is aimed at supporting scientists exploring individuals to tackle the particular challenges of their field and to make explicit and critically reflect on their philosophical presuppositions, metatheories, and methodologies. The metatheoretical definition of ‘personality’ as individual-specificity is elaborated, highlighting that (...) ‘personality’ is conceived and studied differently because different paradigms focus on individual-specificity in different kinds of phenomena. Critical analyses of the field’s strong reliance on assessments methods reveal fallacies, circular explanations in ‘trait’ concepts, and the fact that taxonomic models of most of the phenomena in which individual-specificity is conceived as ‘personality’ still need to be developed. The TPS-Paradigm is therefore aimed at reviving and broadening the portfolio of methodologies that can and should be complementarily applied to comprehensively explore individuals and their ‘personality.’ Such broad paradigms are needed to enable transdisciplinary collaboration and research that embraces the complex reality of individuals and their ‘personality.’. (shrink)

Translation sits at the epicentre of the biotech era’s exponential growth. e terms of reference of this discipline are becoming increasingly unstable as humans interface with machines, become melded with them, and ultimately become a networked entity alongside other networked entities. In this brave new world, the posthuman o ers a critical perspective that allows us to liberate our thinking in new ways and points towards the possibility of a translation theory that actively engages with other disciplines as a response (...) to disciplinary hegemo- ny. is article looks at how technology has changed and is changing translation. It then explores the implications of transhumanism and the possibilities for a posthuman translation theory. Ultimately, the survival of translation studies will be contingent on the survival of translation itself and its ability to question its own subjective, posthuman self. (shrink)

In this specially commissioned volume of essays for Bloomsbury Press the editors, Professor Keith Ansell Pearson (Warwick) and Dr. Justine Baillie (Greenwich) bring together philosophers and literary and cultural theorists in an effort to radically re-think the time of modernity with respect to questions of memory, of the past, of tradition, of history, and of the new. We are especially interested in approaches that will re-examine a classic text or a neglected text in philosophy and/or theory; in essays that explore (...) the uses and disadvantages of memory for life; and in analyses that reflect on contemporary conceptions of memory and its role in our appreciation of post-modernity and after. (shrink)

Charts the themes of 'immanence' and the 'sacred' in Bataille's "On Nietzsche" in order to articulate the distinctive features of Bataille's response to Nietzsche's thought and its place in the development of his conception of the sacred. The paper also identifies and develops some critical tensions between Bataille's and Nietzsche's thought.

This paper considers the possibility of creating community within a nation haunted by colonial wars and racial enmity. It proposes that the creation of a community which fully recognised difference would require an acknowledgement of murderous deaths, and a consideration of the functioning of grief, the role of the spectre, and modes of friendship possible in the postcolonial context. Drawing on Nancy's reflection on community and Derrida's works of mourning and friendship, this paper investigates how murderous deaths, disavowal of difference, (...) and racial enmity disfigure, subvert, and destroy community. The paper explores the possibility of refiguring community through a rethinking of friendship and mourning and an acknowledgement of the dead. (shrink)

This paper sketches a critical response to Meillassoux's articulation of a 'philosophical divine' in "Spectral Dilemma" and 'The Divine Inexistence'. Reference is also made to his critical discussion of the 'return of religion' in 'After Finitude'. Meillassoux's overlooking of the religious possibilities of an ontology of contingency is highlighted and his avowals of messianism, hope and justice interrogated. The issue of the place of 'religion' within 'speculative materialism' is raised in relation to the question of how to conceive a religion (...) of immanence. (shrink)

On the assumption that religion is essentially an affective phenomenon this paper constructs an encounter between two of the most significant, seemingly diametrically opposed, critical accounts of the nature of religious feeling - those developed by Nietzsche and Otto respectively. After an exposition of these thinkers conceptions of religious feeling the paper attempts a critical evaluation of them focusing on the themes of immanence, naturalism and the linguistic and logical issues involved in the attempt to present or exhibit the 'numinous'. (...) Beyond the ultimately irreconcilable differences between Nietzsche and Otto on these matters both thinkers are acknowledged in relation to what, it is argued, is ultimately a shared aim - the articulation of a conception of 'god' in affective terms. (shrink)

The claim advanced in this paper is that the radicalisation of Kant’s project of the critique of metaphysics can be said to culminate in the fusion of two, traditionally opposed, terms - immanence and sublimity. Starting with a discussion of Kant's 'Analytic of the Sublime', the paper pursues its main claim through the reading of key texts in the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Deleuze/Guattari. It attempts to clarify the dfferent senses of the'immanent sublime' it suggests is found in the (...) texts of these different thinkers and argues that the more naturalistically inclined and orientated versions are the most rigorous. (shrink)

I shall attempt to identify some of the main features of ‘religious materialism’, as I understand it, and indicate some of the thinkers and themes within modern European thought that I have drawn upon in my effort to formulate it thus far. The philosophical stance in question consists of an odd amalgam of thinkers and ‘Schools’ within post-Kantian European philosophy that are often considered to be radically incommensurable – in broad terms, post-Husserlian phenomenology and post-Nietzschean philosophical naturalism.

This paper discusses various aspects of the thought of Nietzsche, Freud and Heidegger respectively in relation to the theme of 'anti-humanism'. It clarifies the sense the terms 'humanism' and anti-humanism have in recent philosophical debates within modern European thought and undertakes a critical evaluation of the extent to which the three thinkers under discussion can be considered to be 'anti-humanist'. The criteria of naturalism and the critique of theological and humanist values are proposed. On this basis it is argued that, (...) of the three, only Nietzsche can be said to combine both naturalism and an overcoming of the normative presuppositions of humanism. The ways in which both Freud and Heidegger retain either an attachment to humanist values or an anti-naturalist ontology are outlined. (shrink)

A critical exposition of Bataille's notion of the 'sacred' across all of his key texts. Bataille's thought is related to, and interpreted in terms of, the project of 'critique' and interrogated from the perspective of the experience of contemporary capital. The resources Bataille provides for configuring the relation between religion and capitalism are also considered. As a whole the paper provides an introduction and overview of Bataille's thought and underlines its on-going contemporary significance.

At the centre of Kant’s “Critique of Aesthetic Judgment” lies a tantalising relation, the reciprocal semblance between nature and art, upon which the entire text pivots. With this thought, Kant suggests a critically licensed blurring of some of the defining presuppositions of critical philosophy and reconfigures the ancient problematic of mimesis. This paper will offer a sketch of how some of Kant’s key successors attempt to extend his project of ‘transcendental critique’ in the field of aesthetics by exposing and challenging (...) the residual pre-critical assumptions underpinning such a conception of the relation between nature and art. The possibility thereby arises of liberating critique from the restraints of the Kantian ‘as if’ without relapsing into a pre-critical naivety. In this respect the important notion of ‘auto-poiesis’, the indigenous artistic creativity of nature, will be considered in its phenomenological and materialist guises. (shrink)

This paper offers a critique of what it terms the ‘Heideggerian-deconstructive’ reading of Kant’s “Analytic of the Sublime” and develops an alternative ‘genealogical’ interpretation of it. It is argued that the ‘Heideggerian-deconstructive’ reading of Kant’s text emphasises the ‘question of presentation’. By contrast, the concerns of the ‘genealogical’ interpretation of Kant’s sublime are affective and ‘libidinal’ in character. The underlying issue concerns the prioritisation of the orders of presentation and affectivity respectively and the balance between them in Kant’s text. The (...) paper begins with an appreciative overview of the ‘Heideggerian-deconstructive’ reading of Kant’s sublime as found in texts by Derrida, Escoubas, Lacoue-Labarthe, Lyotard, Nancy and Sallis. In the ensuing sections the ‘genealogical’ alternative is developed. It is suggested that such a ‘Nietzschean’ reading has two phases, oppositional and immanent respectively. The first phase exposes the evaluative economy of Kant’s text and identifies themes within it which endorse the constitutive values of the ‘Platonic-Christian’ tradition. Kant’s sublime appears to be a ‘moral’ response to the a-symmetry between ‘raw nature’ and the transcendent aspirations of rational-moral humanity. However, due to its oppositional character, this form of ‘genealogical’ critique does not execute a sufficiently radical critique of Kant’s text. A second, immanent form, of ‘genealogical’ reading is required. This focuses on the theme of ‘negative pleasure’ in Kant’s text and argues that it has priority over that of ‘negative presentation’. Kant’s sublime no longer appears to be ‘moral’ in orientation but advocates passionately the pleasures of a specific, non-universalisable, ‘affective-libidinal’ economy. The task arising concerns the evaluative comparison of different aesthetic sensibilities, the ‘negative pleasure’ of Kant’s sublime and the Nietzschean alternative of a ‘tragic joy’ that affirms precisely the ‘contrapurposiveness’ of ‘raw nature’ from which Kant turns away. This is a contrast between a teleological and dysteleological sublime, ‘human’ and ‘post-human’ aesthetic sensibilities. (shrink)

This paper discusses the accounts given of the nature of religious affectivity by Nietzsche, Otto and Bataille and pursues their shared claim as to the primacy of the affective dimension of religion over its conceptual, doctrinal and moral elements and to the development of a religious critique of Christianity. The first section clarifies the nature of Nietzsche’s religiosity and reconstructs his critique of Christianity from this perspective. In subsequent sections Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity is compared to both Otto’s critical defence (...) and Bataille’s ‘Nietzschean’ critique of it. Three themes are proposed as evaluative criteria for the comparative evaluation of the three thinkers undertaken. Firstly, the task of rethinking the nature of religious affectivity in ‘impersonalist’ or ‘a-subjective’ terms. Secondly, the role of the notion of ‘immanence’ in both the rethinking of transcendence given the demise of the transcendent and in a reconceiving of the critique of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, in non-oppositional terms. Thirdly, the question of the ‘autonomy of religion’ not only in relation to the ‘theoretical’, ‘moral’ and ‘aesthetic’ domains but also, ultimately, to the ‘human’ itself. In short, the thinkers considered are evaluated in terms of what they seek to formulate, namely, a radically non-anthropomorphic conception of religion. It is argued that only Bataille attains to both senses of ‘immanence’ identified in the paper in his development of a non-transcendent notion of transcendence and a critique of Christianity that finds suppressed ‘traces’ of the impersonal and a-moral force of the ‘sacred’ operative within it. (shrink)

In 'The Vitalisation of Aesthetic Form: Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Focillon, James Urpeth seeks to provide a corrective on behalf of the beautiful to this emphasis on the sublime. Urpeth takes art as a pre-eminent site for the dissolution of the 'human'and considers the implications for aesthetic theory of a thoroughgoing naturalisation of the aesthetic... Taking Kant's classic discussion as his starting point, Urpeth surveys the problematisation of Kant's account of aesthetic form via Nietzsche's critique of its metaphysical pressupositions and Heidegger's (...) concept of the 'rift-design', to the recent work of Focillon which develops a non-reductive materialist account of art and a vitalisation of aesthetic form. Urpeth's argument is that by thinking through the reciprocal determination between form and matter, Focillon provides a purely naturalist account of the aesthetic and thus deconstructs the nature/art dichotomy and the proprietory claims of the human" David Owen. (shrink)

In relation to the overall theme of the collection in which this paper appears, namely, Nietzsche and the 'future of the human' I offer a reading of Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy" to argue for the key role of art in relation to Nietzsche's project of 'overcoming the human'. It is argued that Nietzsche credits the pre-Socratic Greeks, and in particular their tragic dramas, with achieving a 'transvaluation' of the optimism/pessimism distinction and thereby promoting an overcoming of the man/nature distinction. (...) The extent to which this outlook is attained by Nietzsche in his first published work - and which aspects of it demonstrate this - is underlined in its contrast with a number of current interpretations of the work. (shrink)

Taking Heidegger's prominent critique of Nietzsche's treatment of Kant's notion of 'aesthetic disinterestedness' as a foil this paper argues that, contrary to the dominant interpretation, Nietzsche's text contain a positive and radical notion of 'aesthetic disinterestedness'. It is argued that Nietzsche's naturalistic notion of aesthetic disinterestedness is a key feature of his conception of art as natural life process that contests the boundaries, values and libidinal constitution of the 'human'. The ramifications of this for Heidegger's reading of Nietzche's aesthetics are (...) considered. The paper reviews Nietzsche's critical treatment of the notion of 'aesthetic disinterestedness' in both "The Birth of Tragedy" and the "Genealogy of Morality" and relates these to his overall vision of the relationship between art and life. (shrink)

Invited lecture by the Philosophy Department at the Northwestern University. A sustained discussion following in her work on 'synthetic life', Professor Golding discusses the relation of Mandelbrot's 'fractal geometry' aligned with Laura Marks new work, Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Geneaology of the New. Invited Speaker: Fractal Philosophy, Erotic Art and the Small matter of Enfoldment, Department of Philosophy, The Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, May 25, 2011.

This thesis is concerned to argue for a metaphysical approach to notions of personhood in contradistinction to the alternative positivist approach and this by way of a deployment of the as yet vastly under utilised resources found in the Central European metaphysical tradition. This thesis is organized into three parts. Firstly, it describes the notion of personhood that is drawn from the positivism of the British analytic tradition which can be demonstrated not to have fulfilled the criteria required for an (...) anthropology that accepts a concept of a finite self. The positivist notion of the self is seen to be reductionist, determinist and ultimately nihilistic in its apprehension of human freedom, dignity, and value. Secondly, it canvasses an alternative and specifically metaphysical anthropology found in the Western philosophical tradition as a challenge to this positivist anthropology in German modernism and idealist developments in American personalism. It examines the personalism inherent in the faith-philosophers of the post-Enlightenment and also in Schelling, Schleiermacher and Dilthey. Symbolism and story found in supernatural fiction relating to Fries and Otto’s phenomenology of religion emphasize the significance of the philosophy of the imagination in restoring the metaphysical tradition. Further investigation of phenomenology of the self in Husseri and Scheler unveils a neglected Christian personalism which is traced further in later continental modernists. Thirdly, Polish personalism, typified by its 19th Century instantiation of messianism, significantly demonstrates the profundity and diversity of this neglected tradition. The personalist metaphysics of Mickiewicz and Cieszkowski, together with its Russian and French counterparts represents an ongoing development within metaphysical anthropology which is still to achieve its apogee. This tradition maintains a foundational faith in the imago Dei quite antipathetic to its positivist competitor. The originality of the thesis, resides in a treatment of this system of ideas – little examined in the West. (shrink)

From the conference report: Sue Golding, brought together contemporary art with continental philosophy in a lecture/installation/poetic, entitled: “Tactile Philosophy: From Ars Scientifica to Ars Erotica”. In absolute darkness, with her voice amplified through a microphone, she explored the event of synthetic life on aesthetics, sensuality and science. The audience was encouraged to visualize or construct through listening, a philosophical narrative that would amalgamate the speaker’s/author’s assertions with one’s own resonances – and fears – of what it means to be human, (...) sensuous and ‘alive’ in our digital, mediated age. (shrink)

The Socratic elenchus is a method of philosophical enquiry attributed by Plato, in his dialogues, to his teacher Socrates. It is a method that uses a dialectic technique of questioning and answering to try to discover the truth of the issue under investigation. For Plato’s Socrates, the fundamental question for human beings is that of how to live, thus the enquiries he initiates concern our understanding of what it is to act ethically. In order to begin to enquire into how (...) to act in a virtuous manner, however, Socrates claimed that we must first know what virtue is. We must, that is, first understand the meaning of virtue before we can consider its application it to any particular kind of action; we must first be able to answer the question “what is x?” before considering whether a particular action or kind of action is an instance of x. This requirement leads to what is known as the ‘Socratic Paradox’: if we have to first establish what x means before we confirm or discount cases of it, then how can our enquiry ever commence; how can we begin in asking questions about x if we don’t yet know what x is? Philosophy has continued to grapple with the Socratic paradox since Plato’s formulation of it. This presentation will explain how the paradox is produced out of the elenchus and consider the ways in which Wittgenstein’s account of family resemblance sheds new light upon this age-old issue. [From the Author]. (shrink)

This essay poses the question of how to write architecture. It uses as example the writing of Virginia Woolf in the novel The Waves, aiming to show that Woolf employs a particular mode of rendering architecture through sensory means, which in turn offers a way of discussing approaches to writing architecture that are not often foregrounded in architectural discourse. This is elaborated in the context of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, which offers a useful set of conceptual tools through the (...) notions of percept and affect, and, more specifically, the ‘visions and auditions’ pertinent to language. The aim is to show that we can learn from writing methods such as Woolf’ both as observers/thinkers in architecture and as writers attempting to recast its material presence in language, while simultaneously developing a finer conceptual palette derived from philosophy. (shrink)

The concepts of mortality and finitude are central to Hegel's and Heidegger's philosophical projects. They propose that the confrontation with, or the awareness of, death awakens us to self-consciousness or to authentic existence. Yet they both focus on an individualized encounter with a death which lies in our future. This paper argues that in addition to this atomistic mode of being-towards-death there is also a certain 'feminine' relation to death which arises in being-with the dying other and grieving for those (...) who have died. This experience suggests that our death is approached in the context of the deaths of others and is immanent within life: this death is inter-relational and intrinsic rather than isolated and futural and impending. (shrink)

This work considers Karl Rahner’s theology of the person as hearer through a critical engagement with Julia Kristeva’s post-structuralist notion of the speaking subject. This offers an experimental exploration of contemporary theological understanding of subjectivity, with specific reference to ideas of relationality, and with a particular interest in the possibility of dialogue with post-structuralist ideas. From separate disciplines, with different tools and to different effects, Rahner and Kristeva reject the modernist cast of the human self. They demonstrate a common desire (...) to explore subjectivity as a notion that has been problematised. In examining the person as hearer and the speaking subject together we discover a surprising number of areas of coherence as well as those of fundamental divergence. To this end we consider our theorisits’ pre-supposed arenas for human subjectivity, their epistemologies, and the importance each gives to language and otherness. We also examine how they relate intra- and inter-relationality. For Kristeva this involves a consideration of notions of the M/Other, the semiotic and the stranger in society. With Rahner we consider the social Trinity, the self-alienation of symbolism and the concept of neighbour-love. We suggest here that Rahner both pre-empts aspects of current theological interest in subjectivity and provides important resources that are especially useful in relating theology to post-structuralist notions. (shrink)

This thesis argues for the continuing possibility of Adorno set against the backdrop of a post-modern proliferation of affects. A major theoretical contention is the concept of the subject: a sticking point within philosophy. The thesis takes this up and offers a new pathway without falling into the cliché of a renewal of Adorno’s position. Drawing on Adorno’s theoretical thoughts on the subject the thesis contends that the subject is that which by turns dissolves all eventualities or more proportionally acts (...) like a place-holder for the newly emerging: structures that cannot be explained by recourse to the laws that govern its parts. These experiential structures present a surface, resistance, or solidarity that upon closer examination dissolve back into the ephemeral. Although such structures are profligate and prolific, the thesis adopts as its major concern artworks and aesthetics. Following Adorno, a claim is made for artworks that present open-ended possibilities. They are able for example to critically challenge the dominant hegemony the profundity that all too easily sides with the oppressors of life. What philosophy, a critical tool in furtherance of the good life, a concept restaged, here takes from art is not a sense of equivalence, art and philosophy are held apart in a creative and critical tension, but the sense of yearning that animates the nonconceptual side of art which the concept negates. The yearning, being experiential, is always embodied. Its fulfilment negates the immediacies, the mere appearance of life, particularly in its systematically reflexive form. The conclusion concurs with Adorno in the thought that affinity with the object is achieved not as the resultant of identity thinking, but through the act of definite negation of identifying schema. (shrink)

My aim in this thesis is to examine Louis Zukofsky's poetry in relation to his stated objectivist principles using those principles and Zukofsky's unpublished statements as a test for his theory and practice. The first chapter introduces Zukofsky's poetic principles and examines the relationship between his work and Ezra Pound's Imagism. My aim here is to put the origins of Zukofsky's principles into an appropriate context, disputing the idea of the `objectivist' as a temporarily revivified Imagist. Chapter II examines Zukofsky's (...) earliest verse, both umpublished juvenilia and the few early poems retained for publication. These poems all predate the `objectivist' statements and a comparison is made between these poems which anticipate the poet's later technique and those which do not. The chapter culminates in a study of `Poem beginning `The'' as the first identifiably objectivist work. Chapter III is concerned with Zukofsky as editor and critic since it was in this dual role that he first expressed his poetic theory. The principles of this theory are examined in detail here and the relationship between Zukofsky's poetry and criticism closely defined. The fourth chapter examines Zukofsky's shorter poems in the light of the critical framework provided by the `objectivist principles'. Individual poems are closely examined to reveal the `mechanism' of `objectivist' poetry and to facilitate a reading of Zukofsky's long poem `A'. Chapters V and VI are concerned with the two halves of `A'. Attention is given to the poem's detailed composition and to its overall structure and movement. This analysis is guided by the overriding question of the application of `objectivist princples' to a long rather than a short poem. The final chapter reviews Zukofsky's sustained critical idiom in both poetry and prose criticism and concludes that this idiom provides a flexible but principled and consistent framework for his life's work. (shrink)

How we read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason has a huge influence on how convincing we find the parts of which it is composed. This thesis will argue that by taking its arguments and concepts in isolation we neglect the unifying architectonic method that Kant employed. Understanding this text as a response to a single problem, that of the possibility of synthetic a priori judgement, will allow us to evaluate it more fully. We will explore Kant's attempts to relate the (...) a priori and the synthetic in the Introduction, Metaphysical Deduction and Analytic of Principles of the Critique of Pure Reason. Having developed this reading at length we will be able to reassess Kant's relation to the work of Gilles Deleuze. Deleuze's critique of Kant and his tendency to make selective use of his work has so far characterised their relations. However, by reading Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in terms of its unifying method we will open up a new means of relating these two thinkers. Whilst Deleuze rejects many key Kantian concerns and concepts he embraces his methodological concern with the ability of problems to unify our thought. The problem-setting and forms of argument that emerge within Kant's architectonic method will be related to Deleuze's account of experience. This thesis will contribute to both Kant and Deleuze studies on the basis of the reading of the Critique of Pure Reason it will present. By showing how Kant's text is to be read as a whole we will be able to challenge the conclusion that the arguments he makes ultimately rely upon a notion of 'subjective origin'. The problem of accounting for 'the actual' through its relation to 'the virtual' in Deleuze's thought will be re-assessed on the basis of his newly established relation with Kant. Understanding Kant's method in the Critique of Pure Reason will be shown to strengthen both his own account of experience and that offered by Deleuze. (shrink)

This chapter discusses dialogic space theory. It will describe the philosophical and historical roots of the theory by discussing some of the work of Hegal and Karl Marx and goes on to explore Bakhtin's significant contribution to work on dialogic space theory. The chapter will discuss some contrasting contemporary applications of the theory within educational settings, including the work of Paulo Freire. Throughout this chapter democracy, politics, power and equality recur as themes which consistently challenge and problematize the essential tenants (...) of dialogic space theory when it is applied in contemporary school situations. (shrink)

Refocusing on the aural onto the skin of communication, in order to think beyond or outside of the language. A restaging of the Heideggarian 'listening' with the Deleuzean series of 'sense'.

The British Society for Phenomenology, Summer Conference, held at the University of Greenwich, 11th - 13th July 2003. The conference aimed to engender a critical dialogue between the two major critical perspectives within contemporary philosophy of religion and religious studies in the European tradition - phenomenology and naturalism. For further information see the information on Jim Urpeth's research activity on GALA.

Simone de Beauvoir's conception of temporality in her novel 'She Came to Stay' is influenced by her reading of Hegel, Heidegger and Bergson. While not explicit in the novel these influences form a background for Beauvoir's original conceptions of time that emerge in the characterisation, the phenomenological descriptions, the focalisations, and the structural devices employed. This article discusses three aspects of this temporalisation: the differing experiences of time represented by the two central characters Francoise and Xaviere; the emergence of a (...) conception of inter-subjective temporality; and the annihilation of an 'immanent' time that is associated with the final murder of Xaviere. (shrink)

Beginning and ending with Jacques Derrida's anecdote about kissing Jean-Luc Nancy, this essay traces the disparate, yet entwined, thought of Nancy and Derrida on the amorous and tactile basis of philosophy and politics. While Derrida acknowledges, via his reading of Nancy, the affective basis of the political, each develops this insight differently: Derrida analyses friendship and democracy, Nancy contentiously links love and community. Nevertheless, these differing approaches intersect via a shared debt to Levinas; with Nancy developing Levinasian love into a (...) conception of community, and Derrida transforming it into a theory of hospitality and democracy. Yet, there remains a melee of engagement and disagreement, transformation, deviation and recomposition that characterizes the exchanges between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. (shrink)

Common sense suggests that we cannot testify to our own deaths, for death terminates existence and with existence the ability to give testimony. Yet philosophers Maurice Blanchot and Sarah Kofman, and novelist Kim Scott have all, in very different contexts, attested to the experience of a death that permeates life. For Kofman, Holocaust deaths cannot be relegated to the past but rather continue to devastate the present. Blanchot's death by firing squad is not so much an event he eluded but (...) an internalized negation, awaiting the death that approaches from the outside. Scott reveals the deaths that haunt the Aboriginal survivors of massacres and eugenic assimilation policies in Australia. If, as these authors suggest, death is immanent within life, then survival is not escape from death, but its internalization. (shrink)

If nation is increasingly perceived as a less than honourable institution formed through war, invasion and geo-political territorialisation, and government is widely denounced as the site of political intrigue and the means of subjectification of citizen–voters, community appears to escape this critique and to be viewed as an idyllic formation based on bonds of affinity. However, this romancing of community is disrupted by trans-cultural and sub-cultural formations that expose the fantasy of a harmonious, homogenous community. While community is often conceived (...) as arising organically from familial, tribal or cultural similarity, or as constituted through a common history and shared cultural institutions, this totalising conception of community is interrupted by the demands of difference and heterogeneity and by a questioning of the idyll of community authenticated in myths of archaic origin. (shrink)

In this article, the staff pre-warning delay concept is developed: the time between staff becoming aware of an incident by receiving a pre-alarm, or as a result of other cues, and the raising of a general alarm. This represents the potential delay in staff response as they interpret the cues received and engage in various response behaviors before warning the population and raising a general alarm; a delay that may be procedural and/or cognitive. The theoretical basis for this concept is (...) discussed, examples of incidents involving this delay described and data from experiments and incidents examined to help demonstrate and estimate the impact and the effects upon the available safe escape time/required safe escape time calculation. Hypothetical examples of how pre-warning delay can influence required safe escape time are presented, along with a discussion of the aspects of emergency procedures that are particularly susceptible to this type of delay. A framework for understanding these susceptibilities is suggested, together with proposals for dealing with this aspect in engineering designs so as to evaluate and minimize its impact on escape time. This concept is considered important as the exclusion of a delay from the engineering design may lead to artificially optimistic results being produced. (shrink)

A critical evaluation of Heidegger's conception of natural life based on a review of recent work on the topic.