Existential Position Research Articles

Artificial Intelligence: Expected or Inevitable?

The article discusses the problem of regulating the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The genesis of AI technology is considered. It is shown that the initially accepted definition of AI as a set of methods for modeling human mental functions using computer programs does not correspond to the real focus of research studies due to insufficient knowledge and incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of higher nervous activity. In reality, we should be talking about creating a cognitive technological device. Its methods are capable of realizing all types of human creative activity without repeating or reproducing the functioning mechanisms of the human brain. If a solution to such a problem turns out to be successful, then this will entail the need for a complete revision of the existential positions of man and humanity in all spheres of life, including the value basis of modern civilization.

The power of images: hysteric symptoms as representations of the self

The diagnosis of hysteria, despite being fundamental in the birth of psychiatry, has currently been removed from nosography. This choice speaks of the renunciation by contemporary nosography of understanding psychopathological conditions as structural entities, with internal coherence and meaningfulness – which on the contrary should be reconsidered. Hysteria represents a mirror of social and cultural changes. The metamorphoses throughout history of hysterical symptoms reflect the changing interests of medicine (the greater legitimation of somatic symptoms over psychic ones) and, in general, mirror the increasing importance of images in the contemporary world. Despite its nosographical fragmentation, hysteria continues to be talked about. Phenomenologically, hysteria is described not as a diagnosis but as an existential position, freeing it from gender prejudices. Hysterical persons suffer from a hypo-sufficiency of the self, from a difficulty in feeling from within, which ends up hypertrophying the identity definitions coming from without: the gaze of others, socio-cultural stereotypes, gender models. Visibility therefore takes on a central role, and images become a vehicle to represent oneself – capable of attracting the attention of others and enchanting them. Different powers have been attributed to images throughout the history of thought: that of paralyzing, that of moving to action, that of underlining the contingency of experience. Hysterical persons embody images, generating with their symptoms a world of representations. However, what characterizes hysteria is not the symptom, but the use made of that symptom: it becomes a catalyst for the gaze of others, which allows one to assume an otherwise lacking identity-consistency. For this reason, hysterical persons are not only passively subject to their symptoms, but actively make use of them in interpersonal relations.

Renaissance as an Aesthetic Mechanism: the Renaissance and the Russian Silver Age

The object of this study is the phenomenon of renaissance in culture, the subject area is the causes and mechanism of the deployment of Renaissance processes. The problems we are starting from are the blurring of the term "renaissance" in humanitarian studies and the lack of its conceptualization from the point of view of aesthetic sensuality. One of the well – established perspectives of the Renaissance phenomenon is its generalization as a universal phenomenon. Understanding the "renaissance" as a recurring event and a feature of culture raises the question of the foundations and characteristics of the "Renaissance". The article identifies such signs from the standpoint of philosophical aesthetics, referring to the changes in the spatial-temporal concepts of the European Renaissance and the Russian Silver Age, as well as the productive consequences of this recoding. The originality of the author's approach lies in the fact that the approach to the topic is carried out through the study of historical transformations of sensuality and sensitivity, which have not yet received a detailed understanding of aesthetics. To describe cultural revivals as aesthetic processes, the concept of the "aesthetic mechanism" of the Renaissance is proposed, based on the idea of changing chronotopes. The main conclusions are that the re-symbolization of space and time, defined by I. Kant as a priori forms of sensuality, causes a change in the phenomena organized by them, and the result of changing the worldview and the existential position of the subject is the intensification of culture, which constitutes the Renaissance.

Contemporary Perspectives on Salvation

The hypothesis of this paper is based on an examination of the relationship between Christology and eschatology with soteriology, and through the analysis of their selected core concepts, it seeks to contextualize the discourse on salvation within a contemporary framework. Specifically, the study explores the terms of hope, faith, freedom, and bodily resurrection, which provide a framework for a modern approach to soteriological reality. The selected terms, when considered together, demonstrate their suitability in connecting the experiences of the contemporary individual, their existential position, and perspectives on salvation, while also drawing on rich theological traditions and Catholic doctrine. The initial research question that stemmed from the interconnection of the two treatises (Christology and eschatology) with soteriology has provided us with significant insights into various possibilities for the contemporary understanding of salvation.

Psychoterapeutic Work with The Trauma Of Immigration in Transactional Analysis Approach

This article contains the author’s reflections on how looking at emigration through the lens of traumatic experience can help expand the understanding of a client’s life script and support the client in overcoming difficulties in adaptation in a new country. The meaning of «trauma» allows us to draw an analogy between the emigration experience and those possible changes in the life script that the emigration provokes. The emigration experience can greatly contribute to regression to the Child ego state, which can also interfere with the adaptation of the client. The article considers the possible causes of regression and how this may affect the design of new decisions in the present and future. The article offers the practical experience of working with emigrants, which reflects the tendency to strengthen the driver ”Be strong”, and also explains the reasons for such behavior among respondents, participants of the experiment. The author suggests using the existential position ”I’m OK — You’re OK” as a formula for overcoming cultural difficulties of adaptation and as a lens for perceiving the difference of cultures during the process of mastering a new system of norms and rules. Awareness of the practical experience acquired through emigration can help a person overcome difficulties in adapting to a new country. The article was prepared on the basis of a speech at the MIR-TA (International Institute of Developing TA) Conference in 2023.

The Theory of Strokes from the Unconditional Position ”I’m — OK, You’re — OK” on the Example of the TV Series ”Ted Lasso”

This article presents an analysis of the theory of strokes used in the framework of Transactional Analysis, with an illustration of this theory on the example of the TV series “Ted Lasso” (2020-2023). The main character of this story uses all kinds of strokes described by Mary and Robert Goulding, and also acts as a carrier of the unconditional existential position “I’m — OK, You’re — OK”, which is healing both within the framework of human relationships and within the framework of the psychotherapeutic process. The author draws interesting parallels, noting the similarity between the group psychotherapeutic process and the work of a coach in a football team.

The Body in Question in the Existence of Hysteric Persons: A Phenomenological Perspective

The concept of hysteria, although apparently surpassed by contemporary nosographic classifications, continues to be talked about. Following Charbonneau’s attempt to de-feminize and de-sexualize hysteria, clinical phenomenology can offer a perspective which, freed from stigma and prejudices through the suspension of judgement, allows us to understand hysteria not as a diagnostic category but as an existential position. In this sense, hysteria would be based on a hypo-sufficiency of the embodied self, which is not perceived as solid and continuous and needs external confirmations of its adequacy. According to the optical-coenaesthetic disproportion hypothesis, the hypo-sufficiency of the embodied self originates from the difficulty of experiencing one’s body from the first-person perspective and from the consequent use of the gaze of others as a prosthesis to achieve a sense of selfhood and identity. Hysteric persons develop a mode of access to their corporeality mediated by visual representations – hence the theatricalization, centrality, and seductiveness of hysteric persons’ behaviour. We suggest to call “figural body” the visual apprehension of one’s body which tries to compensate for the weakness of coenaesthetic apprehension of the lived body. Over time, the figural body ends up superimposing itself on the immediate experience of the lived body. Placing itself on a representative register, this image conveys not only individual ghosts but also cultural aspects, social prejudices, gender stereotypes. Thus, the attempt to experience one’s own body with the mediation of the other’s gaze becomes an involuntary and unaware throwing of oneself into the meshes of representation that are necessarily alienating for the person. Hysterical persons remain stuck in their inability to access an experience of their body that is not figurative, alienating themselves in representations which always come from outside.

Ontological Vertigo: a natural state

Doubt and uncertainty are treated as rather abnormal in society. Disturbing states of being, for example anxiety, impostor syndrome, guilt, and confusion, are common phenomena, yet viewed as something to address with psychology, overcome with virtues, or solve with goals and preoccupations to be a good person in decent mental health. If ontological vertigo is understood as a natural state of the human position between the finite and the infinite, the logical conclusion is that human existence is disorienting and uncomfortable. This study looks at the common modes of seeking groundedness: place, status, identity, vocation, potency, meaning, and essence. Existential positions are explored for endorsements of the state of anxiety. Lastly, the authors make an argument for considering ontological vertigo as a natural state instead of seeking false senses of stability.

Metanoia Vs Paranoia – New Existential Position

Abstract Comparative analysis of metanoia not only as a psychological but a broader spiritual concept versus the paranoid existential position with the accent on the projection as a primitive defence mechanism. These phenomena were studied from phenomenological, psychodynamic, and theological points of view. The theory of personality of Christian psychotherapy and Transactional Analysis concepts are applied. The ego as a psychological apparatus limits human behaviour and actions by constant activation of defence mechanisms that often lead to psychopathology. In Christian psychotherapy metanoia as the desired level is a state of deep spiritual transformation opposite of the distorted psychological conditions.

THE U.S. WITHDRAWAL, TALIBAN TAKEOVER, AND ONTOLOGICAL (IN)SECURITY IN AFGHANISTAN

Security discussions of the Taliban’s second takeover of Afghanistan center on physical security threats, neglecting the ontological aspect related to how security entails the metaphysics of life—being, feeling alive, or having a sense of self. This article examines this ontological threat to the Afghan people to complement the security discussion and open up more avenues of dialog. I use ontological security to explain the Afghans’ behavior toward the Taliban takeover and ask how does the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan pose a security threat to urban Afghans? Why are urbanite Afghans paranoiac about the Taliban presence to the extent that some choose to die by falling from a moving aircraft? I use the ontological security analytical framework and discursive approach to finding answers. I argue that the Taliban takeover creates ontological insecurity that threatens urban Afghans’ sense of ordinary living or being in the world. Specifically, ontological insecurity creates significant and chronic uncertainties and dangers to Afghans. This is especially so regarding the urbanites with higher socioeconomic status, whose being in the world is threatened as their ordinary living conditions are likely to be contested by the Taliban. The contest is asymmetric, favoring the Taliban. Such uncertainty of existential conditions leads to mistrust of Urban Afghans’ basic sense of safety and a misrecognition of their true identity. Thus, their actions and behaviors have been consequent attempts to respond to the anxieties and risks to their existential position. This work contributes to the ontological security literature, helping fill the gap in the security discussions in international relations and serves policy relevance.

Ego na fenomenologia. Crítica de Sartre ao Ego transcendental de Husserl

This study approach the critique of the transcendental ego in phenomenology in La transcendance de l’Ego, where Sartre confronts the “consistency” of a psychic and psychophysical ego. The research is directed towards understanding how a consciousness that does not have, a priori, any egological structure ends up, as “artificial functionality” and “in interiority”, constituting it as an “object”, to then identify with him, affirming himself as being him, in a sui generis relationship of «identity and indistinction». Therefore, throughout the reflection, as he reveals what he claims to be a «pre-personal» character of consciousness, the philosopher questions the reason for this movement by which it ends up «reifying», identifying itself with the psychic ego which it itself constitutes as a transcendent object. The aim here is to approach the existential inferences – not subscribed by the reasoning that is developed –, of Sartre when he concludes that this ego is a «product» of the conscience itself, which constitutes it, projects itself and identifies with it as a subterfuge to escape its full spontaneity and freedom that are a reason for her anguish. In this context, it is thought that, due to the “doxic character” they contain, all existential positions cannot be confirmed in the light of transcendental phenomenology. The egological approach to subjectivity in Husserl’s phenomenology is considered to be a continuous process of self-appropriating unfolding. However, this does not imply an undue multiplication of “I’s”, but refers, above all, to “modalities” of a consciousness that unfolds in a multiplicity of acts and subjects.

تمثُّلاتُ التَّشيُّؤ في شعر محمد عفيفي مطر

Since the first existence of Man, he has been searching for the realization of his humanity and his existential position on this earth. Despite all his knowledge leaps, scientific and technological progress, artificial intelligence, economic revolution, and modern revolutions, which were later represented in globalization that has made the world a small village, human happiness in the West and East is in clear regression, to the extent that man is no longer in harmony with himself and separated from his society. The economical and communication revolutions have contributed to the alienation of people from their human culture, and brought an unmistakable alienation phenomenon. This is the phenomenon of reification. Perhaps what the twentieth century has produced of modernity and capitalism has not only marginalized man, but rather killed him and revived things. That is why it is not surprising that poets approach the dispossessed man, seeing him characterized by rupture and surrender, even as he achieves some immediate individual pleasure at the expense of long-term collective happiness. This paper is based on a hypothesis that it tries to test. This hypothesis is the emergence of the phenomenon of reification and its representation in the poetry of one of the modernist poets, Muhammad Afifi Mater, due to its frequent use in his poetry with a questioning philosophical vision. The research consists of two parts: the first is theoretical that explains the concept of reification. The second is procedural that tests critical theorizing because the procedural practice is the aim of testing the theory and verifying it on the studied poet.

Alterity, Alacrity, and Excess: Continental Philosophical Interpretations of the Figure of Abraham According to Franz Rosenzweig, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion

I propose a new reading of a selection of continental philosophical interpretations of the nature of existentialism after the dialogical turn. This analysis will focus on the particular case study of the biblical character of Abraham as a case in point. Philosophical treatments thereof allow for a consideration of different but connected approaches through the study and re-readings of the character of Abraham, which begin with Kierkegaard’s well-known rendition of the sacrifice of Isaac. This study will focus on interpretations since Kierkegaard, with attention to the continental philosophical trend. The four thinkers I bring, all offered critiques, and even rejections of, a purely existential position. These positions are well-known in the field. However, Existentialism is never actually overcome despite these four critiques of Kierkegaard’s model of Abraham. I will demonstrate this through an analysis of the case of interpretations of the biblical figure of Abraham, showing the ways in which Kierkegaard remains present in dialogical philosophy and even deconstructionism. For Franz Rosenzweig, his stance is relational and thus is fascinated yet ambivalent towards the readiness of Abraham to sacrifice; Emmanuel Levinas admires Kierkegaard’s emphasis on the subject/ivity (Proper Names and Difficult Freedom); Jacques Derrida admires Abraham’s passion (Gift of Death and Abraham as Other); and for Jean-Luc Marion, Abraham’s sacrifice does not present a relinquishing of self, but rather, the phenomenological act symbolises returning a Gift.

The concept of "conscience" as an ethical category

The concept of “conscience” is one of the oldest components in the axiosphere and the central factor in the moral self-awareness of the individual. This phenomenon is closely related to the features of a person’s existential position in the world. The study presents an associative model of the concept of “conscience” in the biblical cultural discourse. The semantic components of the concept are determined and its biblical meanings are considered.

The Tale of Two Seducers: Existential Entrapment in the Works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky

Abstract The present study poses a simple question, namely, what are the specific forces that might at times hinder rather than advance individual moral development? To answer this inquiry, I will investigate the writings of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, examining the two aesthetic protagonists found in their works—Johannes the Seducer and Dmitri Karamazov. I will utilise the Kierkegaardian framework of the three existential stages to illustrate that it is an over-reliance on gratification, coupled with an instrumental approach towards beings that not only prevents these two aesthetes from behaving morally, but also from even recognising the ethical perspective as a viable existential position.

DISEMBODIMENT ON THE INTERNET AS A NEW FORM OF TECHNOLOGICAL SELF-ALIENATION (BASED ON THE STUDY OF STUDENTS OF HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION)

Phenomenon of disembodiment of users of information technologies in virtual reality, in particular as a special form of self-alienation, was already noted by the first representatives of cyber culture. However, psychologists have not properly analyzed it yet, perhaps, due to the usual peripheral position of the problem of disembodiment of a physical body in psychology. In the present study we continue to develop our theoretical and empirical construct of the Disembodiment on the Internet (N.V. Kopteva, A.Yu. Kalugin, L.Ya. Dorfman) as a psychological impact of the use of contemporary information technologies in areas related to self-alienation and alienation. The construct is based on the conception of unembodiment of the mental self from the body by a British psychiatrist R. Laing, which is considered to be one of the fundamental psychiatric conceptions of disembodiment of the physical self. R. Laing’s description of the ‘detachment’ of schizoids from their own body helps understand the specifics of existential positions of embodiment - disembodiment determined by sociocultural, technological factors and choices made by individuals themselves. Our study was performed on a sample of active Internet users - students of humanitarian institutes of higher education (aged from 17 to 25 years) - with the use of the Disembodiment on the Internet diagnostic procedure. We revealed groups that differentiated in the severity of disembodiment and created their psychological portraits according to patterns of disembodiment, which include experience of unbodiliness of the virtual self, incompleteness and secondariness of the technological way of being limited by the Internet environment and Internet addiction. We also empirically detected the effects of disembodiment on the alienation of students in different aspects of their life (from who they are, from their families, in interpersonal communication, from their studies and the society) ranging from ‘vegetativeness’ to adventurism.

The Philosophical Perspective of the Poems of Maria Ajima: The Instance of Cycles

Philosophical writings and poetic rendition are both human endeavour that are universal in outlook as well as specific to indigenous societies. They are insightful discourses that contribute to learning, knowledge and sustained intellectual development of a society’s human resource. Philosophy and poetry exist in Africa’s complex of cultural mechanism and provide the foundation as well as the sustenance of Africa’s indigenous knowledge reservoir. African literature and its poetry specifically, portray perspectives of life from the experiences of the African writer who most times functions as the voice and intellectual conduit of his society. A Poetic vision of life is committed in a rendering that is philosophic and depicts shared experiences of the members of a society. Cycles by Maria Ajima is a collection of poems by a Nigerian writer. The poems provoke the reader to confront daily life issues by redressing them from the standpoint of logical reasoning, stark presentation and an existential position. The paper surmises that in this collection of poems the writer combines the aesthetic mode with a philosophic outlook that is essentially African to situate poetry as an indigenous enterprise that advances intellectual development.

Формы авторской рефлексии в лирике Г. Адамовича

The article is devoted to the consideration of forms of author’s reflection in the lyrics of Georgy Adamovich. Various ways of self-presentation of the lyrical hero are revealed, the main of which is the dialogue with the world, which, from the point of view of the hero, is on the brink of death. Within the given topic, the metamorphoses of this dialogue are traced: from youthful acceptance of the world by the hero to the rejection that reflected the poet’s existential position. The material for the study was the poems of all four poetic collections of G. Adamovich.

Невоплощенность в Интернете. Сообщение 1: теоретические основания и конструкт

Disembodiment of digital media users, known as the loss of their physical bodies in cyberspace is among the least-studied psychological consequences of the use of information technologies. In the digital era such kind of disembodiment might limit the development of a person’s individuality. That’s why in present study we aim to create its theoretical construct. The construct is based on the clinical conception of unembodiment of schizoids by the British psychiatrist R. Laing. There is an evidence to suggest that constant split between self and body, that digital media users demonstrate, creates conditions for disembodiment similar to the one of schizoids. This existential position is associated with feelings of loss of reality, self-substantiality and elusiveness of being. In the same way that the disembodiment of schizoids and inherent to it sense of self and view of the world are determined by their ‘shutupness’ in the inner world, the disembodiment of media users is determined by the extent to which their life is limited to the artificial computer environment. The theoretical construct was measured according to this hypothesis. Three measurements, which unites factors that stand against the disembodiment are presented in the article: Disembodiment as Virtualization, Preference of the Internet and their alternative Vitality of the Embodied Self.

Невоплощенность в Интернете. Сообщение 2. Психометрическая проверка инструментария

The purpose of present study is to develop and verify the questionnaire aimed at assessing the degree of unembodiment in the Internet as a consequence of using modern information technologies. The use of modern information technologies is associated with disembodiment, liberation of the Self from the body and related experiences. Immersion in virtual reality and “disembodiment” can cause the existential position of “unembodiement”, the features of which, according to the concept of the English psychologist R. Lang, are most clearly manifested in the clinic of schizoids. The study was conducted in the form of a psychodiagnostic survey, during which the reliability and validity of the developed method for assessing unembodiement on the Internet was tested. The main sample of the study was 809 people (31% of males), mostly university students, aged 17 to 25 years (M=18.73; SD=0.98). Smaller samples were used to study convergent and discriminant validity: 423, 324, 148 and 128 people. Correlations with measures of psychological consequences of Internet use, self-efficacy and life-meaning orientations reported convergent validity, and correlations with measures of intelligence and creativity reported discriminant validity. The results of principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFI=0.936, TLI=0.925, RMSEA=0.055, SRMR=0.059) confirm the construct validity of the method, which includes three subscales (Unembodiment as Virtualization, The Preference of the Internet, and Vitality of the Embodied Self) and a general scale (Unembodiment in the Internet). The one-step reliability of the scales varied from 0.7 to 0.9. The scales Vitality of the Embodied Self and The Preference of the Internet had a high level of discrimination, the scale Unembodiment as virtualization ― moderate. The developed questionnaire meets the requirements of validity and reliability and can be used to study the phenomenon of unembodiment on the Internet.