Continental Philosophy Research Articles

The Challenge of a “Paradoxology”

This article takes as its starting point the central place given to contradiction by Hermann Goldschmidt in his book Contradiction Set Free, and it compares his approach with that of the philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch. At the same time as Goldschmidt, Jankélévitch also assigned a central role to contradiction in thought, so much so that he often referred to his own philosophical method as “paradoxology.” For him, as for Goldschmidt, paradox is the driving force behind thought that is always on the move. This article presents the main features of Jankélévitch’s paradoxology and illustrates it with two themes: forgiveness and Jewish identity. By highlighting this proximity between Goldschmidt’s approach and that of Jankélévitch, I suggest that they are both part of a more general movement in continental philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century, one of whose main challenges was to rethink philosophical rationality in depth.

The Oxymoron of the Vienna Circle

It is argued that the legacy of the Vienna Circle played a very important role in the intellectual quest of modern philosophy. No matter how the concept of logical positivism is buried by “continental philosophy”, or ideologically motivated philosophers, or even the latest initiatives of the contemporary philosophy of science, the scientific worldview remains invariant. The traditions of the work of logical positivists remain relevant both for the development of modern philosophy of science and as guidelines indicating the way to get rid of the idle talk (“meaninglessness”) of political slogans and manifestos.

Editorial for Topical Issue “Happiness in Contemporary Continental Philosophy”

Editorial for Topical Issue “Happiness in Contemporary Continental Philosophy”

ADAM BEDE – OVERCOMING EGOISM THROUGH SUFFERING

George Eliot wrote under the influence of continental philosophers, especially Ludwig Feuerbach and Auguste Comte. Both philosophers claim that the crucial problem of the individual is egoism, which can be transcended by means of sympathy and contact with others. According to Feuerbach and Comte, loyalty to family and community is the best way to transform initial egoism into altruism. This research is aimed at dealing with the issue of egoism in Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede. The three main characters are analysed through the prism of the ethical concept of Feuerbach and Comte. The paper argues that at the beginning of the novel Adam Bede, Arthur Donnithorne and Hetty Sorrel symbolise different aspects of egoism. Adam and Arthur succeed to transcend their egoism through deep suffering, which is viewed as an instrument of moral development. Although critics often cite Hetty Sorrel as a typical representative of unredeemed egoism, this paper argues that she matures through suffering. The beginning of her transformation is marked by the confession of her crimes, which is the initial stage of redemption. However, with the exception of a few characters, the society of Hayslope treats her as an outcast, unable to even attempt to understand and forgive her. Still, although the importance of suffering and attachment to family are underlined in Adam Bede, the novel implies that altruism should not be equated with self-sacrifice. The protagonists, Dinah and Adam succeed in attaining personal fulfillment that is not inconsistent with the common good, that is, a certain reconciliation of egoism and altruism is accomplished.

THEORETICAL PREREQUISITES OF THE FORMATION OF THE PHENOMENON OF POST-TRUTH IN THE SPACE OF METAMODERN

The phenomenon of post-truth is studied in the context of the metamodern cultural paradigm based on its oscillatory specificity, as an oscillation between the values of the modern and their denial by the postmodern, where the modern acts as a strategy, and the postmodern as a tactic of worldview-philosophical realizations. The purpose of the article is to identify the theoretical prerequisites for the formation of the post-truth phenomenon in the information field of metamodern culture. The worldview characteristics of metamodernism are defined in the study as oscillation, individualization, atopy, ‘new sincerity’ which create grounds for the flourishing of post-truth in the mosaic picture of the information space. The study presents the prerequisites for the formation of post-truth in the era of metamodernity, which are determined by the formation of the theory of truth in the continental philosophy of the 20th century and the total digitalization of the information space that is formed according to the non-linear principle of rhizome thinking. The analysis of foreign and domestic literature records an increase in interest in the research issues of metamodern, while determining the dominance of the artistic aspect of the modern cultural age in accordance with the ‘neo-romantic turn’. The study of the phenomenon of post-truth requires the activation of research on the part of political metamodern and its interpretations in the context of digitalization of the information space. The theoretical prerequisites for the formation of the phenomenon of post-truth are the rethinking of the criteria of truth in the phenomenology of E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, А. Arend, as well as epistemological studies of postmodernism represented by the views of W. Benjamin, G. Deleuze, A. Badiou and J. Lacan. On the basis of postmodern skepticism and nihilism regarding the possibilities of understanding the absolute truth, conditions are formed for replacing truth with truth which is allowed in the form of free interpretations as a prerequisite for the emergence of the phenomenon of post-truth. Against the background of the philosophical search for truth and the tendency to subjectify the methodology of its discovery, postmodernity contributes to the separation of the concept of truth from the philosophical concept of truth and forms the basis for the legitimization of post-truth as an oscillating position of the metamodern between truth and falsehood.

The study of Aristotle in the Aristotelian Society in the 1970s as an indicator of the special historico-philosophical style of British Philosophy

The article aims to present the study of Aristotle’s teaching on consciousness and soul conducted by the well-known contemporary scholar of ancient philosophy, Jonathan Barnes, as an example of a certain historical-philosophical style that emerged within British analytic philosophy as a whole and within the Aristotelian Society in particular during 1970-1980s. It is shown that the development of the historical-philosophical style within the Aristotelian Society at this time continues the tradition of slow reception of ideas from continental philosophy, which was noted already in the early period of Society emergence and development. This is explained by certain theoretical isolation that had developed by this time in British philosophy, which had its imprint on historical-philosophical studies and is expressed in the application of conceptual analysis and the inclusion of its results into the modern philosophical context. Although Barnes considers Aristotle’s teaching on consciousness and soul through the prism of contemporary versions of physicalism and dualism, the question of what role the Aristotelian teaching plays for them remains unanswered. The author puts forward the thesis that in this case, J. Barnes’s analysis of the Aristotelian problem of consciousness and soul appears less productive than the previously developed approaches in scholasticism and phenomenology in the continental history of philosophy.

Why Ancient Monism Matters Today: Heidegger and Plato’s Sophist

Abstract: Ancient monism matters today because it reveals an alternative answer to a problem faced by ontology “after the death of god,” namely, how to distinguish between good and bad actions after the disappearance of transcendence. The modern answer in Continental philosophy was systematized by Heidegger and consists in positing that the everyday is permeated by instrumentality whereas there is a different kind of action that is noninstrumental, such as art or the thinking of being. By contrast, ancient monism holds that all actions are instrumental and employs on a typology of action that relies on the distinction between techne and phronesis . Recognizing a different answer from the dominant Heideggerian one has the potential to renew the conception of the ethical and the political in Continental philosophy.

The Transgression of the Limits of Husserlian Phenomenology by Edith Stein: Deepening William Tullius’s Insights

Abstract: Ancient monism matters today because it reveals an alternative answer to a problem faced by ontology “after the death of god,” namely, how to distinguish between good and bad actions after the disappearance of transcendence. The modern answer in Continental philosophy was systematized by Heidegger and consists in positing that the everyday is permeated by instrumentality whereas there is a different kind of action that is noninstrumental, such as art or the thinking of being. By contrast, ancient monism holds that all actions are instrumental and employs on a typology of action that relies on the distinction between techne and phronesis . Recognizing a different answer from the dominant Heideggerian one has the potential to renew the conception of the ethical and the political in Continental philosophy.

Chronic Pain and Time - A Theoretical Analysis.

When theoretically discussing pain, the distinction between acute and chronic pain is not always taken into consideration. By contrast, informed by the pain medicine distinction between acute and chronic pain, the present theoretical paper analyses the phenomena of chronicity and chronification in the pain setting. Philosopher Fredrik Svenaeus and his paper The phenomenology of chronic pain: embodiment and alienation (Continental Philosophy Review 2015;48:107-122) is used as a dialogue partner. Three aspects, relevant for clinicians, are discussed: (1) the distinction between emotion and mood, arguing that the process of chronification entails pain evolving from the former to the latter; (2) chronification as a process in which the pain patient becomes aware of his/her temporality, both the past and the future coming to the fore (as opposed to severe acute pain in which only the present counts, ie, getting rid of the pain now); (3) the acquisition of a pain-related narrative identity, interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs being described as helping patients regain a narrative identity that is not dominated by pain or by a fruitless chase after pain relief. Chronic pain reminds us of our temporality and of the narrative character of our lives.

The meaning of attachment: Cruel intensions

In this commentary, I address some of the assumptions of a geography focused on teleological promises. Ben Anderson presented attachment as a kind of relation with special endurance and significance, differentiating it from relations which may be entangled. As a result, the power of attachments lies in one's aspirations: they may turn abstract objects into proximal objects. I am responding to two emphases of the concept: on meaning and on sensuous attachment. I revisit Anderson and subsequent commentaries by Cockayne and Ruez, Coleman, Rose and Zhang plumbing their shared theoretical roots in Lauren Berlant and Michel Foucault for connective tissue. I refer casually to the rich literature in analytic philosophy on meaning. Caveat lector that there exists a lengthy debate on ‘belief–desire’ in philosophy and psychology about whether these affects alone may cause human action or if they need an external object: how can we know what we want if we do not know about it? For lack of space and geography, I will not cover this topic, and furthermore I am not bridging the chasm between analytic and continental philosophy; but both present methodological difficulties to attachment-as-placemaking.

European madness 1910-1980: lessons for today from Alastair Morgan's Continental Philosophy of Psychiatry: The Lure of Madness.

In Continental Philosophy of Psychiatry: The Lure of Madness Alastair Morgan surveys the contributions of a loosely conceived school of psychiatrists, philosophers and social theorists to understanding and responding to madness during the years 1910-1980. Taking my cue from him, I highlight some of the contributors discussed in Morgan's book and reflect that although madness may be difficult or even impossible to articulate effectively in discourse it remains a 'limit experience' which demarcates and illuminates the contours of other thinking and being, including reason and activism. I discuss social and cultural factors that have dulled clinicians' sensitivities to the sounds of madness in recent decades and advocate the need for a reappraisal of our expertise and for a new activism today. What may at first appear as a failed clinical-philosophical tradition remains of professional relevance in today's rapidly transforming circumstances of practice both as inspiration and as cautionary tale.

Two Versions of Meaning Failure: A Contributing Essay to the Explanation of the Split Between Analytical and Phenomenological Continental philosophy

Two Versions of Meaning Failure: A Contributing Essay to the Explanation of the Split Between Analytical and Phenomenological Continental philosophy

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: School of Philosophy – Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: School of Philosophy – Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle

Students as victim-survivors: the enduring impacts of gender-based violence for students in higher education

ABSTRACT Despite the massive global scale of gender-based violence, little attention has been given to its significance in mediating student-victim-survivors’ experiences of higher education. We draw on and extend recent feminist theorizations of trauma as ‘durational’ to consider the significance of gender-based violence as a society-wide problem yet also integral to higher education equity initiatives, where the enduring impacts of gender-based violence for student-survivors is usually absent as an area of concern. In this article we draw on interview data from a qualitative study which explored how university student-victim-survivors of gender-based violence experienced participating in higher education. Participants challenges relating to lasting stress and anxiety, an undermined sense of capability, and difficulties meeting deadlines and academic expectations. These findings show the broader problem of gender-based violence should be viewed as a significant equity issue requiring an expanded approach to current higher education violence prevention efforts (Bacon [2022]. “The Intersubjective Responsibility of Durational Trauma: Contributions of Bergson and Levinas to the Philosophy of Trauma.” Continental Philosophy Review 55 (2): 159–175. doi:10.1007/s11007-021-09556-7).

Detection of words versus good old counting: A note on Mizrahi and Dickinson, “The analytic‐continental divide in philosophical practice”

AbstractIn a recent Metaphilosophy article, Moti Mizrahi and Michael Dickinson argue against characterizing the divide between analytical and continental philosophy as a divide in the use of arguments. This hypothesis is rejected on the basis of a text‐mining approach. The present paper argues that the results they extracted do not answer the questions they set out to answer as well as would have been possible. This is due to Mizrahi and Dickinson's choice to disregard duplicate occurrences of argument word pairs, their main indicator for the occurrence of arguments in articles. This paper reconstructs their method by now also counting duplicates. A small corpus (n = 436) of recent (2015–2021) analytical and continental articles is used to rerun the experiment; the results oppose Mizrahi and Dickinson's and suggest that arguments (as operationalized by Mizrahi and Dickinson) occur more in analytical articles. The paper argues that part of the discrepancy derives from the specific methodological choices they made.

The Resilient Stain. Book review of The Three Sustainabilities: Energy, Economy, Time

This article is a book review of The Three Sustainabilities: Energy, Economy, Time (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) by Allan Stoekl. The book marks a new contribution to the critical theory of ecology by one of the translators of the writings of George Bataille. The article situates the book in relation to Stoekl’s previous theorization of postsustainability, and considers its insights with regard to recent accounts of systems theory, energy humanities, continental philosophy and literature. The author considers how the spectre of extinction governs Stoekl’s theorization of three interleaved versions of sustainability.

Justice Can Never Arrive: The Opening of the Call to Social Justice in Qualitative Inquiry

Most qualitative social justice research is guided by a critical theory–based understanding of justice, which conceives of justice as something that can be achieved, made present. For Derrida, however, justice can never arrive, be present; it is in fact impossible. Justice always exceeds our specific expectations of the future. Derrida’s second definition of deconstruction, which deals with the unstable relationship between justice and law, is examined, followed by a discussion of the deconstructibility of the law and the undeconstructibility of justice. Derrida’s concept of justice is ontological, whereas critical theory’s concept of justice is epistemological. For Derrida, and continental philosophy in general, however, epistemology has its ultimate basis in ontology. An important implication of Derrida’s concept of justice for critically informed qualitative social justice research is that justice cannot function as a guiding principle or ideal. Thus, the call to justice is an infinite one that researchers can never satisfy.

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION AND EARLY MODERN NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY

AbstractNoting that the doctrine of the general resurrection attracted renewed attention after the Reformation, and after the atomist revival led to the displacement of traditional hylomorphism by alternative matter theories, this article surveys the ways in which the resurrection was discussed by leading natural philosophers in seventeenth‐century England. These include discussion of how bodily resurrection might be possible, what resurrected bodies will be like; as well as the nature of living conditions after the resurrection. It is indicated that the resurrection seems to have played a much less prominent place in the writings of natural philosophers than the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and other issues of natural theology. Reasons for this lack of prominence are tentatively offered, chiefly focusing on its unsuitability for combatting the perceived atheism of the time. It is hoped that this preliminary survey might inspire others to extend the survey, especially to cover Continental philosophers.

Philosophical health and wuxing ontology.

In recent years, a new form of health has emerged, namely philosophical health. This novel concept is part of the philosophical counseling movement and relies on the philosophical method called the SMILE-PH interview, which draws heavily from continental philosophy, including phenomenology. Reflecting on the link between health and philosophy brings us to an ancient healthcare tradition that actively relies on philosophy: Chinese healthcare and its founding wuxing, or five phases ontology. The aim of this study is to interpret philosophical health from the standpoint of wuxing ontology. We used the multiple meanings of the five phases to interpret the six concepts of SMILE-PH interview method. Then, we monitored how applying the SMILE-PH involves a parent phase triggering for the counselee. Last, we focused our analysis on the triggered phase and conceptualized them into philosophical health. The SMILE-PH topics are located in a specific phase, namely the Metal phase (xin), which is described by the concepts of connection, existence, identity, meaning in one's life, and spirituality. The one-phase structure of SMILE-PH fosters the triggering of its parent phase: the predominant Metal phase character of the SMILE-PH interview will promote the appearance of Earth phase answers. Conceptualizing the Earth phase into philosophical health adds the following aspects to the latter: emotional stability, the feeling of plenitude, and sharing without a transactional mindset. We obtained a clear perspective of the place of SMILE-PH in wuxing ontology and added a new layer to philosophical health. The other phases of wuxing ontology remain to be tested and integrated into philosophical health.

Resistance Comes First: Pirate TV as Postmedia Activism

Resistance Comes First:Pirate TV as Postmedia Activism Joseph Sannicandro (bio) HACKED TRANSMISSIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND CONNECTIVE ACTIVISM IN ITALY BY ALESSANDRA RENZI University of Minnesota Press, 2020 HACKED TRANSMISSIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND CONNECTIVE ACTIVISM IN ITALY BY ALESSANDRA RENZI University of Minnesota Press, 2020 A brash "self-made" billionaire with no previous political experience is elected to the nation's highest office, buoyed by a rising tide of populism. Sophisticated manipulation of the media stokes xenophobia and resentment toward elites. The chattering classes decry declining press freedom and the hyperpolarization of society, while supporters seem happy to toss a monkey wrench into national politics as usual. While this farce may now be familiar to American readers, the tragedy began for Italians in 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi first took office as prime minister. Berlusconi continued to dominate Italian politics through 2011 and whose specter still hangs over Italy even now, always seemingly one clever joke and a smile away from the news cycle. More important than Forza Italia, the center-right political party he founded prior to his first election, is Berlusconi's control of Mediaset, Italy's largest mass media company. The Economist calculated that, while in office, Berlusconi had "wielded influence over some 90% of Italy's broadcast media," the primary source of news for a majority of Italians.1 Berlusconi took advantage of the media liberalization that followed the widespread popularity of pirate radio during the 1970s, epitomizing the appropriation of resistance that would characterize his political career. But the politicization of the media in Italy certainly [End Page 194] did not begin with Berlusconi's conflicts of interest. Already in 1967, Umberto Eco recognized that "a country belongs to the person who controls communications,"2 and Italian activists have never ceased to make media production a prime terrain of contestation.3 In Hacked Transmissions, Alessandra Renzi provides a timely reflection on how activists challenged Berlusconi's media dominance. Through an immersive and historically thorough (auto)ethnography, Renzi explores the case of Telestreet, a decentralized network of pirate micro-TV stations that turned television into a collaborative epistemological practice with those marginalized by the media—not "representing" everyday life but incubating and organizing resistance through connective practices of coproduction. Renzi's genealogy of Telestreet finds its roots in the pirate radio movement of the 1970s, stretching through twenty-first-century digital television and social media. Telestreet intentionally describes its practice as connective rather than collective, making for a clever means of continuity that downplays what could otherwise become a technologically deterministic narrative. Renzi's intervention is not guided by the novelty of new media, but she instead carefully emphasizes "how people come together, work together, and change with technology" (4). The interrogation of connectivity extends to the study's method, as well as to its form. Hacked Transmissions "lays out a collaborative research methodology that puts processes of subjectivation at the center and attends to an ethics of connection and care" (2). One might not be surprised to find such language in an ethnography drawing upon fifteen years of participation, yet the conditions of activist research present unique challenges that necessitate such deep imbrication. Hacked Transmissions consists of an introduction, eight article-length chapters, and a short epilogue, a perhaps unconventional structure linked by what Renzi terms a "social movement energetics" (14). Coursing through multiple terrains of struggle, this focus on energy offers Renzi a way into the narrative that centers on neither specific individuals nor technologies. Renzi makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of activist media, while those not already predisposed to Continental philosophy will still find much of interest in her qualitative research. Her method of co-research benefits from the use of anecdote, personal stories, and a plethora of heterogeneous voices. The history of Telestreet's transformation from [End Page 195] "Indymedia-style to social-media-based production" has many commonalities to the experiences of other transnational media activists, while bringing to bear the unique contributions of Italian theory to the study of media, which Renzi articulates as connective activism, composition, and hacking (4). Many have argued that Italy is a political laboratory whose developments often anticipate those elsewhere in Europe and beyond...