Human Ideas Research Articles

The ‘uncanny sense of self’, Solution Focused Practice and a theoretical re-thinking of ‘the self’ in psychotherapy1

In an age where the proliferation of progressive Westernised medicine, philosophy and outcome-orientated psychotherapy march into all of our media-saturated lives, it is difficult to believe that a counter-argument could challenge the seemingly reasonable and core concept of ‘the self’. Yet, there is an alternative philosophy called Social Constructionism with an emerging associated therapy approach called Solution Focused Therapy that views ‘the self’ very differently from the mainstream humanistic essentialism ideas about selfhood. Solution Focused Therapy shares a pedigree with narrative and systems approaches to counselling, with a primary consideration being the fluid nature of identity and the possibility of re-authoring alternative stories. This article aims to re-think some of the primary issues associated with the perceived centrality of selfhood in psychotherapy and to consider a ‘different ending’ and choose ‘different characters’ in a story which allows for a ‘rethinking of possibilities’. Employing the sentiment of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and his ‘uncanny sense of self’, the authors use some ideas from Hong Kong residents to help pick their way through the most poignant concepts to conclude that there is still a lot of re-thinking to do.

Akupunktur und Schmerz – eine Historie in 3 Teilen: Teil 1: Geschichte des Schmerzes und der Akupunktur vom Altertum bis ins lange 19. Jahrhundert

Background The issue ‘pain’ has preoccupied mankind from the very beginning. Still, this individual phenomenon, which depends on physical, emotional, spiritual, and cultural factors, has yet to be fully understood, but is of vital interest. Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most effective means of pain therapy. In its theory, it provides an interface for body, emotion, mind, and culture. Aim By portraying and analyzing the historical evolution it will be shown that a modern understanding of both pain and acupuncture can lead to an integrative therapeutic approach, and that acupuncture – due to its physiological concepts and its idea of man – can lead to an all-encompassing approach in pain therapy. Methods In-depth study of literature, long-time practical experience in the therapy of acute and chronic pain, intensive study of acupuncture in historical context, as well as practical, own clinical and basic research, and knowledge in medical history as well as sinology, thereby joining the competences of two university institutes. Results The first part analyzes the history from ancient times up to the 19 th century. It is found that within the course of history, the interpretation of pain has always been a synthesis of individual sensation and cultural, philosophical concepts in both the Eastern and Western world, and that by the time of the 16 th century, both worlds had come to influence each other. In the 18 th and 19 th centuries, acupuncture experienced its first heyday in Europe, which came to an abrupt ending due to the pharmacological breakthrough discoveries of potent analgesics, both in Europe and in China. Discussion The rationalization of the concepts of pain in the historical course from ancient times until the 19 th century, and its dissociation from the individual lead to an increase in reputation of modern pharmacological pain therapy over acupuncture, both in Europe and the East. It may be postulated that still today, the results of this historical process stand in the way of the evolution of a much needed, all-encompassing approach including biological, psychological, and sociological factors. It would be necessary to establish an effective theoretical system integrating scientific findings while at the same time paying tribute to the subjectivity of pain. The following parts trace the development of the understanding of pain, modern pain therapy, and various approaches by acupuncture in the 20 th and 21 st centuries in order to finally, using a model, show a way out of this dilemma.

On the Affiliation of Phenomenology and Ordoliberalism: Links between Edmund Husserl, Rudolf and Walter Eucken

This paper explores the various personal and intellectual links between Edmund Husserl, Rudolf and Walter Eucken. Our interdisciplinary approach gives an insight into Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology, Walter Eucken’s Ordoliberalism as well as in the interdependency between phenomenology and economics for which Rudolf Eucken’s philosophy of intellectual life plays an important role. Particular affiliations between phenomenology and economics can be found in the following topics: epistemology, the idea of man, the comprehension of liberty and the importance of legal or social orders, institutional rules and frameworks of regulations.

La idea de hombre en José Gaos

The idea of man in Jose Gaos could be explained taking in account two essential axes that make an inter-relationship between them and define man substantially: 1) antinomy love-hate-emotions and motions-expression and 2) reason-thought-language. The first is “the condition of possibility” of the second, being the element more suitable and radical that allows man to think concepts. The emotions and motions impose conditions over his will and determine the moral being that is. The man is a unity, but at the same time, is an oscillation between opposites that make him take consciousness of his individuality, from the others, his historicity and intersubjectivity. The Gaos proposal is an important contribution to the anthropological reflection of the moment, because of the analysis categories that offers, of undeniable value, to the better understanding of suitable aspects of the being and acting of the Latino American man.

Post-Humanism and the Origin of Dante’s Universality: With Special Reference to Canto 1 of The Paradiso

Sangjin Park If we can say that Dante’s universality surpasses European universalism, it will be because it does not exclude the Other. What matters now is whether otherness can be maintained or not when we undertake a study of Dante’s universality in the context of a humanism developed Eurocentrically, to what extent it can be maintained, and how. I argue that Dante’s literature provides us with a solution to this impasse. It does so including the ‘other’ reader in the literary process while allowing the reader to maintain his or her otherness. This is possible insofar as Dante’s literature possesses the capacity of opening itself to the heterogeneous other by continually negating and de-homogenizing itself. Certainly, this capacity provides the power to sustain his literature’s universality. The idea of man as a contradictory in the context of literature, particularly in relation to the problem of ‘ineffability’, is indispensable for understanding Dante’s literary enterprise to pursue and include otherness. The tripartite symmetry among the writer, the pilgrim and the God in the first canto of the Paradiso, through the process of repeated surpasses that it operates, leads us to understand positively the concept of man as a contradictory being. Furthermore, the “trasumanar” simultaneously implies transcendence and non-transcendence of man. The writer Dante is the center of the Commedia; however, he is also the non-center or the center to operate the orbit of de-centering in his literary enterprise. This is so because he builds a ceaseless transversal communication with the Other wherein he negate ceaselessly his status as the center of the

The ‘Babylonian captivity’ of Petracco di ser Parenzo dell’Incisa, father of Francesco Petrarca

This article focuses on the discovery of two unedited notarial instruments preserved among Westminster abbey muniments and compiled by Petracco di ser Parenzo dell’Incisa, father of the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca. The two documents are dated February and April 1310 and prove that Petracco was working at Avignon earlier than it has been thought until now and in contrast with the claims of his son Francesco, who states that his family moved to Avignon between 1311 and 1312. The documents also highlight the connections between Petracco and the merchant company of the Frescobaldi, who traded at the papal curia in the early fourteenth century. The company employed a number of exiled Florentine Bianchi, who were interested in humanist ideas and classical texts, forming the first humanist circle at Avignon under the patronage of Cardinal Niccolo da Prato, who also became one of the patrons of Francesco Petrarca.

Humanism and its critiques in nursing research literature

This paper raises for debate the issue of how humanist ideas have been taken up by nurse scholars, particularly in research literature. Many nurses from the mid-1970s onwards have described and promoted humanism as an appropriate philosophical basis for nursing practice and research. This has been partly in an attempt to sharply differentiate the profession from medicine, and later, managerialism, which have been represented as reductionist and failing to adequately respond to the whole patient. A summary of definitions of humanism and critiques of humanism in broad philosophical literature is followed by an examination and critique of literature appearing in PubMed published within nursing scholarship from 1976 to 2007 which discusses or promotes humanism in nursing practice or research. Writers have attempted to enhance the importance of nursing by associating it with the humanistic project of accepting responsibility for realizing our human potential. They have promoted a version of research which is qualitative and centres on understanding individual lifeworlds of research participants because of a strong valuing of the experiences and perspectives of the individual. Much of the literature on this topic describes this humanism in dualistic contrast to medico-scientific reductionism and objectivity. Some of the presentations of humanistic nursing lack rigour and can be seen as doing little more than reproducing professional ideology. Scholars and others in the field of nursing could take the trouble to submit these ideologies to proper scrutiny.

Das Personalitätskonzept Pavel Florenskijs

Pavel Florenskij’s (1882–1937/summarily executed in GULAG) conception of the personality is connected to considerations of antinomies. The personality remains trapped in contradictions and gains completion only in relation to the Absolute, whereas the individual, the sociological entity, is metaphysically neutral. Florenskij attempts to link the individual and the personality by means of the concept of substance (ousia). “In man ούσια and ύπόστασις exist together. Ousia (…) posits the Individual and in society endows him with form as a self-sufficient centre. The hypostasis, by contrast, is the personal idea of Man”. For Florenskij personality evinces an epistemological analogy to other central terms in his philosophy, in particular Truth and Love as well as to his theory of language and symbols. For him, each personality comprises a distinctive principle growth (a notion evidently taken from the idealistic morphology of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) that determines its growth potential.

Genetics and the Value of Life: Historical Dimensions

The value of life can be viewed from moral, biologic, and economic perspectives. In connection with the development of genetics, each of these perspectives has gained importance throughout history. Whereas agricultural genetics has always been directed towards having an economic impact, from the beginning genetics research in humans has focused on all dimensions of the value of life. Today, health insurance, employers, politicians, and public health scientists view genetics research as one of the key disciplines to predict costs and economic values of human beings. However, the reasoning cannot go without considering biologic health risks and moral values to the same extent. This paper examines the historical dimensions of current debates surrounding genetics and the value of life. Thus, the paper is conceptual and offers a heuristic model and analytical categories for answering the question, “what is so intriguing about genetics that it can be closely connected with different value concepts,” although the consideration of the moral, biologic, or economic value of life may lead to completely different ideas of man and society. A special emphasis will be placed on the use of genetics for the purposes of the eugenics movement. During the heyday of eugenics, the economic value of life changed the understanding of the moral value, as well as the biologic value of life by referring to genetic principles. It will be argued that an intended intertwinement of the different dimensions of the concept of “value” on the one hand increased the impact of genetics as a key discipline of the eugenics movement, and on the other hand had a lasting impact on debates about the economic usefulness of genetics as a predictive, prophylactic medical discipline.

The heat-balance integral method by a parabolic profile with unspecified exponent: Analysis and benchmark exercises

The heat-balance integral method of Goodman has been thoroughly analyzed in the case of a parabolic profile with unspecified exponent depending on the boundary condition imposed. That the classical Good man's boundary conditions defining the time-dependent coefficients of the prescribed temperature profile do not work efficiently at the front of the thermal layers if the specific parabolic profile at issue is employed. Additional constraints based on physical assumption enhance the heat-balance integral method and form a robust algorithm defining the parabola exponent . The method has been compared by results provided by the Veinik's method that is by far different from the Good man's idea but also assume forma tion of thermal layer penetrating the heat body. The method has been demonstrated through detailed solutions of 4 1-D heat-conduction problems in Cartesian co-ordinates including a spherical problem (through change of vari ables) and over-specified boundary condition at the face of the thermal layer.

Enhancing Teachers' Motivation to Apply Humanist Information Technology Innovations

This article focuses on the following issue: How can we build a training and support system that would enhance the motivation and capacity of teachers for high-quality implementation of information technology innovations guided by humanist ideas? That is, a system that would not only increase teachers' motivation to apply Humanist Information Technology Innovations (HITI), but would also enhance their capacity and will to apply the program in a way that is true to its spirit and does not neglect its more challenging and complex goals. First, the author presents basic obstacles that are likely to undermine the motivation of many teachers to learn and apply HITI. Second, the author presents two principles of interventions addressing these obstacles. Third, the author presents the actual plan and structure of a training and support system that would enhance the motivation and capacity of teachers for high-quality implementation of HITI. Fourth, the author presents evidence from an intervention utilizing the training and support system described above. The article ends with some thoughts on the type of relationship the author develops with teachers during his work with them. This part is mainly descriptive, but also has some normative implications.

Journey to the Headwaters: Bartolomé de Las Casas in a Comparative Context

This essay compares the theological orientation of Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484–1566) with those of two other notable colonial Latin American ecclesial figures: Toribio de Benavente Motolinía (1494/95–1565), and Juan Vasco de Quiroga (1477/78–1565). An examination of the experiential and theoretical epistemological sources of their theological orientations reveals the influence of different temporal, social, and geographic experiences as well as of their common and distinctive intellectual formations. Their understandings of and activities in the New World reflect these epistemological influences. The data demonstrate that Las Casas’s theological orientation was primarily prophetic in his quest for justice for the Indigenous and drew from Thomism and Scripture; Motolinía’s was predominantly millenarian in his ardor to establish the New Jerusalem and mirrored the Franciscan Spirituals’ tradition; Quiroga’s was principally utopian in his approach to Christianize, civilize, and educate the Indigenous as well as employed Christian humanist ideas. A summary analysis argues that the prophetic dimension of Las Casas’s theological orientation is further differentiated from that of his two contemporaries by its universalist character and its dynamic development during the course of his lifetime.

Уявлення населення України стосовно життєво-вікових практик особистості: гендерний аспект

On the basis of data of the European social study for 2006-2007, the author analyzes the ideas of men and women of the comprehension of such notions as “adultness”, “mid-age”, and “old age”, as well as the ideas of the importance of the occurrence of certain events during the life which are essential or are not for the attainment of a definite life-age stage of the development of a person.

The “Shirt-Weenie”

ERVING GOFFMAN Is one of the most im portant sociologists of the twentieth century. Popular textbooks in sociology (e.g., Gid dens, Duneier, and Appelbaum 2005; Ma cionis 2007) and social psychology (e.g., Aronson, Wilson, and Akert 2006; Cahill 2007; DeLamater and Myers 2007) devote large sections and entire chapters to Goff man's ideas concerning the presentation of self, face-work, the management of stigma and framing, among others. However, with the exception of Brown (2003), no pub lished teaching articles or notes exist that offer in-class teaching techniques concern ing Goffmanian sociology. We feel that sociology instructors need more teaching techniques concerning Goffmanian sociol ogy in order to enliven the material and make it relevant to students' ordinary be haviors and everyday lives. To this end, we discuss in this note the teaching technique we call the shirt-weenie demonstration. We found this demonstration helpful in teaching social psychology undergraduates the power of face-work and tact in influenc ing and structuring their own individual behavior.

The sociology of policy-making in the modern state

The article asks how we can best understand policy-making processes, and how a sociology of policy-making might proceed. Specific consideration is given to policy intent and how that can be known given the collective nature of policy-making and the assumption that intent is what individuals rather than groups possess. I inquire into various sociologies of social systems and social action as well as liberal humanist ideas about the individual and rational action, asking what they offer for understanding policy intent. The contributions of the post-foundationalists and network theories are also examined in this light. Attention is given to the work of Norbert Elias, and it is argued that his `personal pronouns as figurational model' in conjunction with discourse analysis provides a basis for developing a sociology of policy-making that acknowledges human agency and the collective and social nature of policy-making.

Scientific literacy: A Freirean perspective as a radical view of humanistic science education

AbstractIn this article, a rationale for advancing a new idea in humanistic science education is developed from a Paulo Freire perspective. Paulo Freire developed a well‐known approach to adult literacy based on his humanistic ideas through the dialogical process. From Freirean educational principles, the idea unfolds that a Freirean humanistic science education perspective is a political commitment to sociopolitical action, considering conditions of oppression in society. Although some humanistic science education approaches to school science have incorporated a sociopolitical perspective, it is showed that not all of them necessarily focus on the political purpose of transforming oppressive conditions in society as stressed by Paulo Freire. From this Freirean humanistic perspective, an approach to science education is then highlighted, which implies the introduction of socially relevant themes and socioscientific issues, the establishment of a dialogical process in classroom, and the development of sociopolitical action. Hence, a Freirean perspective of science education is presented as a radical view of scientific literacy. Some implications of a Freirean approach to science education are outlined at the end of the paper. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 93: 361–382, 2009

Gender issues and Confucian scriptures: Is Confucianism incompatible with gender equality in South Korea?

AbstractKorean Confucianism has been described as “the enemy of feminism”: feminists often argue that Confucianism is the source of the patriarchal society. Feminist scholars have produced significant works about Confucianism's role in preserving the idea of women's subordination to men; they argue that the idea of men's superiority to women is embedded in Confucian philosophy. In this article I will examine whether Confucian philosophy is responsible for women's subordination to men in such Confucian texts as Naehun, The Book of Change, The Book of Poetry, and The Analects. Naehun was written by the mother of King Sǒngjong in 1475, for the purpose of the Confucian education of Korean women; I will look also at other, related, Confucian texts used for Korean women's education. Confucian classics such as The Book of Change, The Book of Poetry and Confucian Analects will be included in the analysis to investigate whether Confucianism legitimizes women's subordination tomen. In the analysis of these Confucian classics, I will focus on the ongoing debate between scholars of Confucianism and feminism in Korea today.

What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology.

Positive and humanistic psychology overlap in thematic content and theoretical presuppositions, yet positive psychology explicitly distances itself as a new movement, despite the fact that its literature implicitly references its extensive historical grounding within humanistic psychology. Consequently, humanistic psychologists both celebrate diffusion of humanistic ideas furthered by positive psychology, and resent its disavowal of the humanistic tradition. The undeniably close alignment of these two schools of thought is demonstrated in the embracing of eudaimonic, in contrast to hedonic, conceptions of happiness by positive psychology. Eudaimonic happiness cannot be purely value-free, nor can it be completely studied without using both nomethetic and idiographic (i.e., quantitative and qualitative) methods in addressing problems of value, which identifies positive psychology clearly as a humanistic approach, despite its protestations.

Human beings, technology and the idea of man

Since ancient times philosophy has dealt with the relation between technology and man. Nowadays this is especially true in the context of the philosophy of technology. Technology is interpreted as an anthropological constant to construct an environment in which man can survive. Acting in the field of technology is to act rationally with a purpose, i.e., in the framework of a means-end relation, and it is employed for coping with “experiences” (Widerfahrnisse) by means of using tools. Like technology, language can be reconstructed as a symbolic form and thus as a technological means, as a tool so that the employment of metaphors can also be described as an employment of tools. Using technology has effects on man as well as on his self-image. Thus, philosophy of technology creates different ideas of man, which have to become subject to ethical discourses.

Et skabelsesteologisk perspektiv på Danne-Virke

Et skabelsesteologisk perspektiv på Danne-Virke