Ontological Difference Research Articles

The sacred unbound

Dissonances between human expectations and actual experiences of sacred presence and actions—as materialized in unexplained deaths, diseases, deadly possessions, and repudiated rituals—are sites where insubstantial sacralities are not only made real but also agentic. Refusing human attempts to relate to it through choreographed rituals and voluntary offerings, this sacred asserts its own agenda. To make inscrutable sacralities ethnographically accessible, I propose the twin pivots of (1) insatiability and (2) excess—attributes of presence, appetite, and attitude—which embody a repudiation of anthropocentric signification. Decentering human intentions and actions allows for the excavation of an uncanniness intrinsic to the sacred. This forces a confrontation with the limits of anthropological epistemologies, language, and authority. Privileging instances when the sacred eludes epistemological capture to assert its own irrepressible and enigmatic vitality, this article strives to—not explain away radical ontological differences but—make room for an uncanny metaphysics amid ethnographic theorizing.

The Strife of World and Earth as an Articulation of the Ontological Difference

ABSTRACT In a passage from the addendum to “The Origin of the Work of Art” often ignored in the secondary literature, Heidegger expands on how art institutes the unconcealment of the truth of Being with reference to the ontological difference—the difference between Being and beings which cannot rely on the comparison of predicates for clarification. The relationship between art and the ontological difference is not immediately obvious and lacks further explication in Heidegger’s other texts. This paper argues that there are two fundamental elements to the ontological difference that Heidegger focuses on that can be used to elucidate art as a strife of world and earth: “the Nothing” [das Nichts] outlined in “What is Metaphysics?” (1929) and world-projection described in The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics (1929–30). Understanding these two elements of the ontological difference (world-projection and the Nothing) as present together in the event of unconcealment (aletheia) thereby clarifies for the notorious concepts of earth, world, strife, and rift (Riß) that characterize the work of art. Recourse to the ontological difference as an explanatory mechanism for conceptualising Heidegger’s philosophy of art is a useful way of avoiding common issues in the prevailing literature that will be laid out below.

The Call of the Origin: On Christology, Conversion, and Peregrine Identity in Reiner Schürmann’s Early Work on Meister Eckhart

ABSTRACT In 1969, Reiner Schürmann submitted a thesis to the Dominican school of theology Le Saulchoir. It was titled Peregrine Identity: The Concept of Detachment in Meister Eckhart’s German Sermons. Three years later, Schürmann published Wandering Joy, his celebrated book on Eckhart. In this article, we examine four aspects of the earlier study that cannot, as such, be found in the later one: (1) the specifically Christological dimension of Eckhart’s teaching of detachment; (2) a logic of conversion at work in Eckhart and St. Francis; (3) Schürmann’s hermeneutics of the symbol; and (4) the practical outcomes of Heidegger’s ontological difference as it is inflected by what Schürmann calls wandering or ‘peregrine’ difference. We aim to show how the questions and issues raised in Schürmann’s thesis remain vital for all those readers of Eckhart who seek to restore their own existence to its essential freedom.

Patočkova neskorá filozofia v kontexte duchovnej krízy súčasnej spoločnosti

In Patočka´s philosophy of history, especially in its late period, the concept of Europe, which is essentially linked to the ancient Greek idea of the care for the soul, hast its firm place. The idea of the care for the soul undergoes several metamorphoses during the history and after the disappearance of the ancient world it is according to Patočka carried further by Christianity, which is considered to be the highest rise of the human spirit after the previous decay of the ancient world. However, Patočka also speaks about the spiritual crisis of the humanity as such that in his opinion reaches its peak in the present time, in the technical and materialistic understanding of the world and in the modern and post-modern consumerism. While looking for the solutions of the current crisis, Patočka is inspired by Heidegger´s thinking, above all by the ontological difference – the difference between the Being and beings. An important phenomenon that can on an individual level become the remedy for overcoming the present materialistic. technical and strictly rational understanding of the world is for Patočka the sacrifice. The sacrifice can show the essential aspect of Being, which is much more that a sum of beings and can therefore be grasped as the philosophical expression of the divine, what Patočka clearly demonstrates at the figure of Jesus.

INFERNO OF YALTA: ДЕМОНИЗАЦИЯ ТОПОСА КРЫМСКОЙ (ЯЛТИНСКОЙ) КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ 1945 ГОДА В АНГЛО-САКСОНСКОМ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОМ ОПЫТЕ

the article discusses the technology that leads to the formation of anecrismitic pragmatic aesthetic experience. The formation of the historiography of the Anglo-Saxon horizon of vision of the events of the Yalta Conference in February 1945 is taken as an empirical material. The theory is based onthe thesis about the ontological difference in the perception of the “Yalta world” in the Soviet-Russian aesthetic experience and its Anglo-Saxon counterpart. At the same time, the procedures for harmonizing subjective experience and historical facts follow two mutually exclusive vectors: the demonization of “Yalta” in the West and the “angelization” of this event in the Soviet-Russian segment. The conclusion is made about the demonization of the Yalta topos in the Anglo-Saxon tradition through concepts related to Hades and death. Chronos is demonized by appealing to the gray timelessness of Soviet pseudo-culture. Separately, there is a line of types of a diverse demonic component inherent in the members of the Soviet delegation from and Stalin to the interpreter V. Pavlov. Recommendations are formulated to strengthen the domestic pragmatic aesthetic experience by forcing the creation of historical feature films and novels.

The Kangaroo and Emu Between Legal Worlds: Unsettling the Recognition of Difference

This article examines the complex interplay between colonial legal systems and Indigenous laws, using the legal challenges faced by Arabunna Elder Kevin Buzzacott as a focal point. Buzzacott's 2004 conviction for the reclamation of a bronze Australian coat of arms, an act he deemed a fulfillment of his legal obligations under Arabunna Law, underscores the colonial legal system's refusal to acknowledge Aboriginal laws and ways of being. The authors argue that the colonial legal framework operates as a ‘nomocidal’ regime, perpetuating physical and conceptual violence against Indigenous peoples by asserting a singular legal authority that erases ontological difference. Through analysis of the Buzzacott case, the article further exposes the colonial legal system's preoccupation with Eurocentric notions of justice, which undermine Indigenous law-ways by eschewing engagement with ontological difference in favour of a universalist claim to authority. By exploring alternative legal worlds and ontologies, the authors advocate for a decolonial approach to justice that acknowledges and respects the multiplicity of legal realities. This shift requires a re-evaluation of the legal system to accommodate ontological pluralism, moving towards a more inclusive and just legal landscape that provides space for Indigenous laws and ways of being. The article is a tribute to Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, highlighting his struggle for recognition and justice as emblematic of the broader challenges faced by Indigenous peoples in colonial legal contexts.

Концепции универсального времени и множественности времен в понимании существования прошлой реальности

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to identify and determine the dependence of ontological ideas about the existence of past reality on thinking within the framework of competing concepts of universal time and multiplicity of times. The methods of research were the representation, comparison and ontological analysis of various ideas about the essence and nature of time, synthesis and philosophical criticism of the consequences arising from competing concepts of the multiplicity of times and the concept of a single universal time in relation to the definition of ontological characteristics of past reality. The article gives a representation of several versions of the concepts of multiplicity of times, some of which are based on the theory of relativity, others proceed from ontological differences in the processes of various forms of being — being material, spiritual, personal and social. It has been shown that in some cases, in the concepts of multiplicity of times, time itself and the idea of time as a construct of the mind are mistakenly identified, which serves as the reason for the incorrect attribution of time to atypical paradoxical properties, such as inversion — the possibility of its movement to reverse, the uncertainty of the past, present and future, the variability of the past and others. The author gives critical arguments refuting ideas about the possibility of changing the places of events and states of reality in the time relationship “earlier/later,” that is, in the sequence of their appearance and disappearance, as well as incorrect opinions about the possibility of variability of the past under the influence of processes that take place in the present and have to be in the future. The study justifies the idea that a clear and unambiguous distinction between past and present objective reality is impossible from the point of view of ideas about the multiplicity of times and is possible only in the conceptual field of theories, recognizing the unity of the world and using a single scale of universal time common to processes and events, having different ontological characteristics and flowing in arbitrarily distant places of space in different inertial reference systems.

Progress of Science

A study of the relationship of trends towards specialization and universalization of scientific knowledge is most fruitful when sociological and epistemological methods are compared. Sociological methods describe the growth of scientific knowledge quantitatively as an increase in volume, whereas epistemological methods do it qualitatively in terms of an increase in the level of generalization. The sociological explanation of the specialization of researchers is based on the limited resources of the study time, the epistemological explanation of the differentiation of disciplines is in the ontological differences of the objects of research. On the contrary, epistemological universalization – the formulation of generalizing theories is conditioned by the social need to ensure the connectivity of the network of technical practices. The history of the development of natural sciences shows a tendency towards absorption of the less developed paradigms by more developed ones. In other words, scientific knowledge increases cumulatively both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

SECRET OF “ALWAYS ALREADY” (OF THE LOST TRACE OF PHENOMENOLOGY) IN DECONSTRUCTION OF DERRIDA

Based on key texts of Derrida as well as his interviews and recently published seminars the article presents a “micrological” analysis of deconstructivist thought in the context of its appeal to phenomenology of Husserl and fundamental ontology of Heidegger. Derrida begins his intellectual path with a reflection on the most important topics of Husserlian phenomenology and discovers in the descriptions of temporalization a paradoxical movement of the immanent self-deconstruction of phenomenology. It from within undermines its own basic principle of the primordial givenness of the living present to itself in its whole presence. From the point of view of Derrida’s deconstruction, the living present of self-presence of the transcendental ego, like itself, is no longer the original source of sense, meaning, knowledge and experience but rather the effect of difference. Derrida discovers the radical constitutive dependence of the present on the trace of the inevitably lost past, thus, his thought resolutely destroys the primordial nature of the present and roots it in the true “origin” as a game of delays and differences. Similarly, Derrida criticizes the project of fundamental ontology. While Heidegger conceives of the ontological difference between being and Being as the last hidden basis of any question in the discourse of metaphysics, Derrida insists that this differentiation is derived from différance as an even more primordial movement of difference. And although Derrida claims to have a more essential comprehension of the core of metaphysics compared to Husserl and Heidegger and even confidently classifies their philosophical work ones to the field of metaphysics, he continues to use the resources of phenomenological and transcendental discourse again and again, leaving them without any criticism. The most telling example here is the use of the phrase “always already” (toujours déjà, immer schon), incredibly common in the works of Heidegger and Husserl (as well as most other most famous modern phenomenologists) and accompanying most of Derrida’s texts. In this article we seek to draw attention to the mystery power of this phrase, which hides the secret of the origins of phenomenological, fundamental-ontological, transcendental, and deconstructivist discourses as such, and also to demonstrate the possibilities of self-deconstruction of deconstruction, which with new urgency returns us to the problem of defining the limits of metaphysics and the “margins of philosophy”.

Квантовая механика в контексте онтологии Хайдеггера

Aristotle was the first to notice that entity exists not only as real, but also as pos­sible. The Aristotelian concept of possibility has an insufficiently clear ontologi­cal sense. Aristotle does not ask about own Being of possibilities. For a classical thought it had no essential importance. In quantum physics the situation is differ­ent. Quantum possibilities have own action, so, it is necessary to recognize their own Being. However, it cannot be made within usual thinking, since quantum possibilities do not allow representation in terms of an entity present-at-hand. It sends us to Heidegger’s ideas. Classical philosophical thought does not notice an ontological difference between the “Being” and “Entity”; as a result “Being” is presented as “something”. Heidegger showed simplified nature of such ap­proach, however the natural sciences usually accept the specified identification. A surprising exception is the quantum mechanics. Having recognized own Being of quantum possibilities, we will see the attribute of Heidegger’s ontology. This “Being” is not “Something” and is designated by me as “Ψ-Being”. It possesses the internal temporality similar to existential time of Dasein. Also the difference between “Ψ-Being” and “Being” of Heidegger’s ontology is detected. The fact is that “Ψ-Being possesses action which is capable to change definiteness of quan­tum entity. It offers a heuristic prospect for philosophical ontology. According to Heidegger, Dasein is the existential Being of possibilities. However, these possibilities are not connected with personal definiteness. But the quantum me­chanics shows us that definiteness of “entity” (“something” or “who”) can change under the influence of “Being” that cannot be imagined in terms of “something”.

Ethical Theoretical Reflections on Social Media: Place of the Human Being in the Digital Space

Raises the problem of ethics in interpersonal relations on the Internet. The ontological difference between digital cyberspace from the real world is emphasized and the corresponding conceptual constructions of modern thinkers are derived. Relevant questions of modern philosophy are substantiated - whether there are some specific ethical relations in cyberspace, which arise directly on the Internet, how they are possible, and how they can be regulated. As a theoretical and methodological basis for answering these questions, presents Levinas’ ideas regarding ethical thinking and the principles of “real” meetings on the Internet: for-the-other , face-to-face , and existent-beyond-Being . In this context, Levinas’ conception of interpersonal and ethical relations in digital reality and the role of the Other in these relations are examined. The idea of the Other as a subject being outside, but for whom the user of the Internet is responsible, is disclosed. This type of responsibility, according to Levinas, is an ethical norm. The article shows the phenomenon of augmented reality as a type of hybrid reality, which is formed with the help of digital technology. Augmented reality superimposes virtual images on the real world so that both parties interact with each other. It is emphasized that in modern social science augmented reality technology is seen as blurring the boundaries of virtual and real, as well as true and false. The concepts of Bill Persky, Nicholas Negroponte, and Marc Prensky on digital communication and the impact of cyberspace on humans are considered. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the construction of so-called primordial ethical relationships on the Internet. An important place here is occupied by D. Barney’s theory, aimed at studying the impact of the technical characteristics of network technologies on the social interaction of people. His idea of building qualitatively new interpersonal relationships in the digital environment is emphasized. The characteristic of the virtual environment as a space without response and one-way communication is noted. In this regard, the concept of N. Luhmann about the construction employing mass media of a special illusory, symbolic space, which modern man perceives as objective reality, is substantiated. The problem of obtaining truth and objective knowledge-information is derived.

Losev’s One - Deleuze’s Many: On the Question of Ontological Difference

Losev’s One - Deleuze’s Many: On the Question of Ontological Difference

Fuller’s Clock: A Case for Legal Non-Positivism in Artefactual Theory of Law1

This article covers the traditional problems of the philosophy of law: the controversies between realism and normativism, on the one hand, and positivism and non-positivism, on the other. The author, adopting the ontological perspective of the artefactual theory of law, attempts to attain two research aims. First, he argues that artefactual theory of law paves the way towards a moderate position overcoming realism-normativism duality. Second, he advocates the thesis that the supposedly ontological difference between positivist and non-positivist views might be dispelled and described as merely conceptual. Therefore, the opposite points of view could be considered as metaphysically equivalent ways of grasping the same social reality. According to the crucial premise of the argument law is a meliorative thick concept. The essay was inspired by an analogy between the philosophy of law and the philosophy of science first discussed by Lon L. Fuller.

Ways of Self-Transcendence: On Sacrifice for Nothing and Hyperbolic Ontology

Abstract This article will take Jan Patočka’s concepts of care for the soul and sacrifice for nothing as a starting point to discuss the ontological premises of a renewed epimeleia heautou, or care of the self. I will argue that Patočka understands the ancient Good in terms of Heidegger’s ontological difference. Care for the soul thus ends up with an empty transcendence. In contrast, I will advocate a hyperbolic concept of Being. All that exists is characterized by being beyond beingness, an inner transcendence of itself. This provides new ontocosmological as well as political perspectives.

A Postcolonial MIR?

The field of music information retrieval (MIR) offers tools for the analysis of music and sound, for example in archives of historical recordings; but it has also been widely critiqued for bias toward Western music and Western epistemologies. There seems to be a gap, or even an irresolvable friction, between computer science-based MIR tools, problems, and methodologies, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, humanities-based research in music and media that examines sound from critical and postcolonial perspectives. This essay draws from sound studies and critical technology studies to propose that this is an opportune moment for interdisciplinary collaborations between humanities scholars and technologists to enhance critical analyses of music and sound. Key to such collaborations would be a consideration of ontological differences between the two approaches, such as divergent understandings of the fundamental concepts of music, genre, and difference. The essay takes several examples from the author’s research into sound and Dutch colonialism at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision media archive in order to propose some examples of how MIR’s technological tools could potentially enhance critical humanities-driven analyses of sound, perception, and colonial difference. More broadly, the essay argues, the divergences and even tensions between disciplines can be productive for scholarly reflexivity, postcolonial or anticolonial scholarship, and applications of technological tools toward social justice goals.

On Philosophical Meaning of Negative Terms in Laozi: Revolving around “Truthful Words Seem Contrary” (正言若反)

Negative terms are widespread in the text of Laozi; however, our understanding of their field, form and philosophical meaning is still unclear. In this paper, I intend to argue that the theoretical meaning of these terms first needs to be understood in terms of the proposition “Truthful words seem contrary”. In this proposition, “contrary” is the accurate meaning of negative terms. I demonstrate that the essence of the “contrary” lies in the critical reaction of xuande (dark virtue) to mingde (brilliant virtue), which is the traditional highest value. Thus, dark virtue is the theoretical foundation of the “contrary” because it is the new highest value. The “contrary” manifests itself in two forms: intuitive words (including adjectives and nouns), which are reflective, and negative words (including negative adverbs and verbs). Intuitive words represent the highest value or Being by means of the states and beings in the empirical world (I make use of the ontological difference between Being and being made by Heidegger, and so I maintain the capitalization of Being). In contrast, negative words more clearly distinguish the highest value or Being from secular values and beings in negative sentences. According to a further analysis of the relationship between affirmative and negative sentences, the latter is the universal expression of the former. All of these propositions reveal a philosophical possibility in which the diverse ways and values of the existence of all beings are affirmed and fulfilled.

Existence in its Sexual Being

In ‘Geschlecht: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference’, Derrida develops a reading of Heidegger’s ‘neutral’ term ‘Dasein’ that highlights its openness to a conception of sexual difference that is not yet binary. I explore this theme in relation to two further lines of thought. The first draws Heidegger’s remarks on Dasein’s factually concrete existence into correspondence with the European humanist tradition and the implications this reveals concerning a still binary determination of sex difference in Heidegger’s conception of existence in its sexual being. The second engages with Derrida’s own affirmation of a beyond binary conception of existence in its sexual being, a conception elaborated in this article in terms of singular sexual styles that are strictly irreducible to the organic bodily characteristics and behaviour of a living human being.

Process Metaphysics and Mutative Life: Sketches of Lived Time

Process Metaphysics and Mutative Life: Sketches of Lived Time

Tensions in describing Muslim religious practices: Insights generated from an Islamic monotheist perspective

ABSTRACT As forms of human occupation, religious practices have tended to be separated from spirituality in occupational science discussions. This paper describes the tensions we experienced in trying to situate a religious practice in Islam, namely salah (prayer), in relation to existing understandings of human occupation. We think through these tensions, drawing upon Islamic ontology and epistemology. Using a qualitative research design, we generated data using critical reflections by the first and third authors. Using their experience, and an Islamic ontology and epistemology, the co-authors analyzed and explicated the tensions experienced and identified during the academic project describing Muslim religious practices in occupational science. We use the embodiment and enactment of salah as our prominent illustrative example. The findings represent three tensions: Ontological differences through Islamic Monotheism; A fragmented and segregated view of Islam and Deen versus religion; and Tackling the dichotomy between religious and non-religious. We discuss how Islamic epistemology provides a harmonious way of capturing the fullness of religious practices such as salah. We suggest that this demonstrates a decolonial effort at focusing on viewing religious practices as occupations.

Local Ontology and Lived Experience of Fashion toward a Gulf Fashion “Sustainability”

Abstract What makes fashion “local”? What makes it “sustainable”? Can non-Western fashion locales have the same definitions of sustainability espoused by the global industry? This article reflects on a fashion “sustainability” for Bahrain and the Arab Gulf that goes beyond a focus on product. Specifically, the article explores how fashion space is used in Bahrain by different groups, as well as equity of experience and phenomenology of these spaces in Bahrain. Fashion spaces—such as the mall or souk—are primary areas of public gathering in the Gulf. Based on the results of qualitative interviews and a Delphi study, this article puts forward the example of fashion spaces and tailoring in Bahrain, where an expanded definition of use is found in Gulf fashion practice when compared to the traditional “life cycle” view used in fashion sustainability discourse. These differences in fashion ontology compared to a Western context impact what could be considered true “innovation” in the case of the Arab Gulf. For instance, cocreation through tailoring in the Gulf is culturally prevalent and a default feature of existing material culture, whereas similar notions are classified in a context of “innovation” in Western discourse. Thus it becomes crucial to explore an Arab Gulf ontology of fashion as a precursor to its “sustainability” and honest discussion of its own transformation toward sustainability.