Narrative Philosophy Research Articles

The worldview of the pilgrim and the foundation of a confessional and narrative philosophy of education

In this article, we explore the worldview of the pilgrim and how it relates to the drama of human existence. The worldview of the pilgrim is the starting point in our explorations of the postmodern conundrum and interrelated subjects such as epistemology, ethics, religious symbolism, hospitality and practical life strategies from a narrative and confessional perspective. These elaborations will serve the ultimate goal of this article, which is to contribute to the philosophy of education (including educators and educationists) and consequently to equip individuals with skills and substantial knowledge that would allow them to understand, define and pursue their own life goals as well as to participate with integrity in their community as full-fledged, responsible citizens.

África, modernidad, libertad

The paper is focused on highlighting some choice samplings from modern European philosophical narratives of “emancipation” and showing how they frame Africa, and the world beyond Europe, into a subordinate position in need of “beneficent” conquest. The paper will argue that, to undo this frame the formerly colonized must articulate their own sense of history, in and through which they can enter our contemporary world on their own terms. It will argue this point by articulating what it takes to be a central concern of contemporary African philosophy, i.e., the systematic undermining of Western hegemonic narratives while—and concurrently—formulating a stance cognizant of the varied, incommensurable, historical and cultural actualities that are, and constitute, our shared human existence. The focus of the paper is thus to explore the possible, beyond the demise of colonialism, in the hope of catching-sight-of a truly postcolonial future.

Narrative philosophy of religion: apologetic and pluralistic orientations

Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in narrative both in certain areas of philosophy and in the study of religion. The philosophy of religion has not itself been at the forefront of this narrative turn, but exceptions exist—most notably Eleonore Stump’s work on biblical stories and the problem of suffering. Characterizing Stump’s approach as an apologetic orientation, this article contrasts it with pluralistic orientations that, rather than seeking to defend religious faith, are concerned with doing conceptual justice to the range of possible human perspectives, both religious and nonreligious. By discussing various examples, the article makes a case for narrative philosophy of religion, especially in its pluralistic form.

Spy Films and Intellectual Alienation

The article analyzes spy films as examples of alienation within modern office life. It shows how intellectual socialization within this type of life can lead to a corruption of a person’s moral capabilities. The article studies this corruption process with a focus on how the moral person, in this case the fictional spy character, uses her intellect in relation to other mental faculties and in relation to the person’s own biographical experience of time. With reference to Plato and Hannah Arendt, the article shows that the professional use of intellect has an active and a passive quality. It is passive in so far as the person acquires it gradually, through training. It is active on the other hand, since the person willingly submits to this training. The moral stakes of these spy narratives thus concerns the choice to become a certain kind of person by subjecting oneself to a certain type of intellectual training. Memory forms an entry into this question of choice in all the examined films, hence memory is also at the centre of my analysis. This psychological mode of interpretation is inspired by Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of narrative.

Understanding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

Abstract This article re-examines China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) taking into account historical and philosophical narratives. It assumes that the BRI has crucial strategic implications; in particular, that it is not as altruistic as claimed but rather a self-interested proposal aiming to restore China’s grandeur and influence. The Chinese Dream (中國夢) and the concept of Tianxia (天下), ‘all under heaven’) are discussed to illustrate how the initiative is ‘marketed’. It ends with an interpretation of the impacts that the BRI might have on other parts of the world.

Philosophical Narratives of Suffering

The sort of meanings which suffering is depicted with influence both individual experiences of and social responses to it. In contemporary research, these meanings have been explored via mapping out individual narratives on illness and suffering, and by locating common typologies underlying them. Much less emphasis has been placed on philosophical narratives on suffering and the manner in which they both echo and strengthen culturally common Western meanings concerning human travails. The paper takes its impetus from here and examines three distinct philosophical narratives on suffering presented by Emmanuel Levinas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Simone Weil. Moreover, it investigates the cultural influences behind them, ranging from Homeric tragedies to Medieval Christianity and Holocaust portrayals. The suggestion is that analysing philosophical narratives facilitates moral comparisons between the varieties of cultural meanings given to suffering. This, again, enables one to locate the societal and political consequences that narratives of suffering have on how we approach, for instance, vulnerability and disability.
 Keywords: suffering, philosophy, narratives, Levinas, Nietzsche, Weil, vulnerability, disability

Ricoeur's narrative philosophy: A source of inspiration in critical hermeneutic health research.

Patient-centred care has gained ground in health service following a health policy initiative aimed at changing the paternalistic culture towards one with more patient involvement. Development of knowledge relating to people's lived experiences of illness is important in this context. Literature in the field of health science describes methods for exploring what is at stake for people affected by illness, and the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur has been a significant source of inspiration. Especially, Ricoeur's interpretation theory has been construed and applied in different, often schematic, methodological variations, whereas his narrative philosophy is a little used source of inspiration. Health science has been characterized by a biomedical awareness of method and the idea that there is a direct and immediate path to patients' experiences, a viewpoint that can be traced back to Descartes and the philosophy of subjectivism. Opposed to Descartes, Ricoeur says that we are already embedded in a world of traditions and meanings over which we have no control. According to Ricoeur, we leave traces when we express ourselves, and traces are formed by the world of meanings and traditions to which we belong. Often, the sense in the traces is hidden, making it impossible to directly understand individual's experiences. Reflection on an individual's lived experiences must take place via the narratives in which the individual expresses themselves. The centrepiece of Ricoeur's narrative philosophy is the threefold mimesis, which is an approach to understanding the meaning of peoples' lived experiences. The philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer plays an important role in Ricoeur's theory of interpretation, although he has criticized Gadamer for failing to include one dimension in his philosophy; he finds this dimension in Habermas' ideology critique. Ricoeur's ideology critique is absent in health science research, which is why it has been made a focal point in this article.

Postmodern Architecture between the pillars of philosophical discourse and architectural practice

Postmodern arguments, formed a critic case of what modernity brought in several levels. Postmodern practice was considered as a proactive case having amorphous concepts and features to what entiled as an intellectual trends postmodern philosophically and intellectually. But, what postmodernism architecture broughts in it essence, was not isolation from the intellectual context and entrepreneurship case, and it was not disconnecting from the intellectual and philosophical era of that period. Lliteratures and philosophical argument precede what (Robert Venturi) and (Charles A Jencks) had brought, albeit it was closer to critics and correction the path of modernity from crystallizing a direction that exceeds modrinity to what follows.
 In this context, the research's aim had been determined by: (investigating the philosophical depth and intellectual arguments for postmodernism, and them implications in the architectural practice comparing to the philosophical narratives, and then determine the reflection of that in the architectural technology practice). For achieving the aim of the research, the research was initiated to discuss the intellectual foundations of the postmodernism by discussing the philosophical propositions constitutive and the crystallized, first. And then discuss the propositions of postmodernism in architecture, secondly. And discuss the presence of thought in the technological practice as influential and affected. And then the research reached the most important general and particular conclusions of the postmodern trends and its reflection in architecture, and then to reached the comparative conclusions for each of the philosophical and architectural propositions, and then to determining a reflection all of that in the architectural technological practice directions.

‘The Story Continues …’ Schelling and Rosenzweig on narrative philosophy

ABSTRACTIn my essay, I analyze Schelling’s and Rosenzweig’s commitment to the narrative philosophy as a unique method of telling a philosophical story. I want to understand what such “philosophical story” means and how it differs from the conceptual approach, here represented by Hegel. I also want to see how it connects with Schelling’s another project continued by Rosenzweig, of doing “positive philosophy”: in what way does positivity imply narrativity? Is this a necessary implication? And, last but not least, I want to explore the theological dimension of the narrative project. I perceive Schelling’s, and then Rosenzweig’s goal as an attempt to oppose Hegel’s double manoeuvre of sublation – of temporal contingency and religion – by returning to the narrative which recovers the actuality of both elements and sees the necessary connection between them. The living experience of history is strictly linked to the religious stories telling the life of the “living God,” who is emphatically not the “God of the system.” Theosophy and its narrative way of creating a suspense and then inscribing it into a metaphysical drama which plays itself out on the arena of history reveals the deep connection between living historical temporality and religious imagery.

Against Individualism, For Individuality: The Emersonian Henry Rosemont, Jr.

Against Individualism, For Individuality:The Emersonian Henry Rosemont, Jr. Roger T. Ames (bio) Introduction Henry Rosemont, Jr., in his Against Individualism (2015) has mounted a compelling argument that foundational individualism in its various iterations has become a malevolent ideology implicated in and aggravating many of the pressing problems of our time. The overall thrust of his thesis can be stated rather simply. The industrial democracies and most of the rest of the world are dominated by a corporate capitalism the interests of which are served largely by a procedural justice grounded in a foundational individualism that compounds the benefits of a few and marginalizes the possibility of realizing a distributive justice for the many. Hence, the more that academic and political forces are successful in defending and indeed championing the morality that grounds individualism and procedural justice, the less likely we will be able to make gains in social justice. Or put another way, when viewed from a perspective that gives primacy to distributive justice, individual freedom for an elite and privileged few is being purchased at the expense of social justice for an increasing number of the world's peoples. I join Rosemont in common cause here in accepting his argument that a default individualism constitutes a major underlying and entrenched [End Page 7] conceptual problem that is exacerbating our current human predicament. Indeed, this default individualism is appealed to first in defining what it means to be a moral person, and then is extended as determinate of what it means for this putatively moral person to act justly. This foundational individualism with its roots deep in the Western philosophical narrative dilutes our sense of moral responsibility by allowing us to an important degree to describe, analyze, and evaluate individual persons—psychologically, politically, and morally—in isolation from others. The presupposition that defines persons ideally as free, autonomous, rational, and properly self-interested individuals is ubiquitous in much if not most of modern Western moral and political philosophy. And yet this putative foundational individual is not only an ontological fiction, but moreover, because an individual so defined provides the moral and political justification for an increasingly libertarian economic and political system, this fiction has become an insidious one. Indeed, it can fairly be argued that it is this same libertarian economic system justified as it is by appeal to individual liberty and autonomy that, far from being the cure for the world's ills, has come to aggravate and to exacerbate the disease itself. Rosemont quite rightly rails against this now default ideology of individualism as a noxious fantasy. But his project, far from being simply negative and deconstructive, offers us a robust Confucian alternative: he avers that the Confucian notion of a role-bearing, relationally constituted person provides us with a substantially different way of conceiving of the human social, moral, and religious experience. In introducing the notion of Confucian role ethics Rosemont rejects the idea that human beings are in any way complete outside the association they have with other people. But does he go too far in claiming that apart from our roles we are nothing? This claim is easily and often misunderstood as a negation of the individual. But as we will see with the Confucian conception of relationally constituted persons, to say that persons are irreducibly social is not to deny the integrity, uniqueness, and diversity of human beings; on the contrary, it is precisely to affirm these conditions. Such individuality, far from being exclusive of personal roles, is the emergent identity one has consolidated through the virtuosity achieved within these relations. In order both to clarify and again to reinforce Rosemont's advocacy for the Confucian relationally constituted conception of person as an alternative to a foundational individualism, I want to bring John Dewey's radical conception of an emergent, irreducibly social "individuality" into the conversation. An exchange between Confucianism and Dewey on what it means to become fully a person will hopefully bring some illumination to both. We will find that for both Dewey and Confucianism, while mere association is a given, flourishing families and communities are what we are able to make of this facticity as the highest human achievement. [End...

Arts, Virtue and Character: Perspectives from Philosophy and Psychology

: In today’s world, the tendency to live constantly connected to a virtual digital space makes it difficult to have an ambiance that fosters paused reflections. Often times, one needs to make a conscious effort to stop and think if one recognises the importance of reflections for making the deliberated choices needed for self-development. For many people, a break from the frenzy of activities is facilitated by arts, such as narratives and music. Interestingly, more than just means of entertainment, the arts can be important catalysts for learning processes. Ancient philosophers affirmed that music is helpful in education to virtue as it tempers the emotions of a child to raise it towards the good. However, such high regards for art and music in character formation is often forgotten today.From the perspective of contemporary narrative philosophy, each action or choice which builds up into the habit is best understood as part of a continuous narrative. One understands the self better when considering it as the protagonist of a narrative moving from a beginning towards an end, guided by chosen goals which are good for the acting subject. Additionally contemporary psychologists acknowledge the role of the arts in character formation. This conceptual paper brings together ideas from psychology and philosophy in order to explore the role of some forms of art in character development. The appreciation of the on-going construction of the plot of one’s life-story guided by the intrinsic goods that promote human flourishing (including aesthetic experiences), may serve as a foundation for understanding the importance of coherence and unity of life for building character.

ФІЛОСОФІЯ ІСТОРІЇ В КОНТЕКСТІ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНОЇ (НАРАТИВНОЇ) ФІЛОСОФСЬКОЇ ТРАДИЦІЇ

The authors consider the problem of the disciplinary status of linguistic (narrative) philosophy of history. The problem is examined in the context of analysis of its basic assumptions, which have been described in the works of A. Danto and F. R. Ankersmit. This philosophical tradition mainly developed in the first half of the twentieth century as a reaction to the impossibility of empirical verification of the scientific adequacy of the theoretical concepts of the regularities of historical development, which were established within the classic philosophy of history. Rejection of the gnosiological problematics lies on the basis of linguistic (narrative) philosophy of history. Also the notion of a fact is replaced by the notion of interpretation of a fact on the basis of narrative. The study of meanings and values of these narratives is based on language as the ontological Foundation of consciousness.According to A. Danto the scientific failure of the theory (concept) of the historical process lies in the impossibility of assessment by the researcher of the entire length of the process, especially of the stage of completion (the «end of history»). The observer does not know the final result of the whole process. Therefore, the observer can not estimate the value and meaning both of a process as a whole and its individual stages. Thus, the conclusion is that the history as a series of past events cannot be the subject of the philosophy of history. Only the interpretation of history in the philosophical studies and narrative representations can be the subject of the philosophy of history.According to F. G. Ankersmit «past» and «history» by themselves do not have narrative structure. The researcher also doesn’t have a set of rules of language translation of the past into the language of modernity. These rules would allow to compare the historical narrative with the «past».Thus, in the context of linguistic tradition the «philosophy of history» transforms into the «theory of historical narrative». This theory only logically analyzes the existing historiographical narrative. In fact, this position does not replace the basic methodological approach of classical philosophy of history to the study of reality (a theory based on the uncertainty of the outcome of the process). Only the subject of study is changed: the historical process is replaced by a historical narrative (not the source of the study of history but its interpretation).This approach can be used for the formation of historical consciousness, but it is unsuitable for real historical research. At the same time in the frames of classical philosophy of history a series of methodologies have been recently created. These methodologies allow to use empirical research methods and build it on the basis of concepts. These concepts find a complete confirmation with the help of an independent group of historical sources. So, today, as a result of repeated empirical evidence the concepts of cliometrics, revolutionary crises, and historical development as a result of adaptation of society to changing conditions of existence are finally created. These concepts were developed on the basis of the methodology of historical materialism. At the same time a linguistic (narrative) philosophical tradition only explains the basic foundation of own methodology and criticizes the methods of the opponents. Predictive capability of the methodology of narrative philosophy of history doesn’t enable to adequately use it in a real historical research, although this methodology has been successfully used for the formation of a historical consciousness, including professional surrounding. Therefore, at the present stage of development of the philosophy of history, linguistic tradition as the methodology of the research is much less promising than the methods developed on the basis of classical historical materialism.

Utopies des Lumières

The cover art for Utopies des Lumières is quite simple but very effective, just like the texts that the collection contains. The cover is mostly plain, but it includes a fragment of Thomas More's map of the island of Utopia. Inside, six chapters of varying length and interest are divided into three parts dealing mostly with three questions that are also integral to the concerns of the genre of utopia as defined by More: Where is utopia? What does utopia bring? What can it accomplish?Indeed, part 1 consists of a discussion of the geographic question of utopia captivatingly prompted by the chapters by Peter Fitting (21–33) and Kate Turner (35–49). Both chapters reinforce the role of imagination, but while Fitting's analysis focuses on three narratives that present fantastic journeys to the center of the Earth, anticipating sci-fi fiction, Turner's attention goes to two plays in which the protagonists visit the Moon flying hot air balloons, an invention of the eighteenth century that was soon claimed as a symbol not only of utopia but also of politics (37). Whether underground or in the air, utopia needed more space to accomplish its promises, but what promises were these?The pragmatics of utopia lead readers into the second part of the collection, in which one can find the central chapters by Laurent Versini (53–76) and Renata Tyszczuk (77–106). They both focus their research on a book rather neglected in the huge body of studies concerning utopia: L'Entretien d'un Européen avec un Insulaire du Royaume de Dumocala (1752), written by Stanisław Leszczyński, who, among other things, was king of Poland between 1704 and 1709 and duke of Lorraine, a place for his utopian experiments. While Versini compares Leszczyński's “philosophical narrative” (58) and his decisions as ruler of Lorraine in broad terms, Tyszczuk devotes herself particularly to an interesting analysis of Leszczyński's “architectural utopia” (81). Also, while Tyszczuk repeatedly labels Leszczyński's text as a utopia, Versini peremptorily states that it is not a utopia, although it resembles one (75). This contradiction may cause some confusion among the readers of both chapters.Part 3 begins with a chapter penned by Antoine Hatzenberger, editor of the collection. It is the longest chapter in the volume (109–39), and it focuses on Rousseau's philosophical thought and the landscape utopia of Clarens. It provides the book with a coherent progression, since it resumes the discussion of Leszczyński's thought while comparing it with Rousseau's. Finally, the volume is brought to a conclusion with a short essay by Éric Puisais (141–50) on Léger-Marie Deschamps, another neglected name amid the utopian writers of the Age of Enlightenment.

Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp by Jin Y. Park

Reviewed by: Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp by Jin Y. Park Jungshim Lee (bio) Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp, by Jin Y. Park. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2017. 262 pages. $65.00 hardcover. Jin Y. Park's book presents new horizons for the study of women and Buddhism through the life and thoughts of a Korean Zen Buddhist nun, Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971). Women's role and participation in Buddhism have been subjected to biases and distortions in society, with the move to religion often being labeled as failure or escapism. The Buddhist community and scholarship have also neglected women as the agents of history. This skewed perception has been partly corrected by recent studies of Buddhist nuns, but nuns' pre-monastic lives in society are still seen as holding little value. Against this backdrop, Park transforms the dissonances between women and Buddhism into strings of resonance, interaction, and synergy. It is her philosophical perspective that explores "how and why women engage with Buddhism" (pp. 1 and 184) and highlights how their meaningful interactions open up new modes of philosophy termed as "a narrative philosophy and a philosophy of life" (p. 15). Her effort shifts women and Buddhism from the margin to center stage, ultimately challenging the male/Western-dominated academic philosophy. It is no coincidence that Park adopts a format of biography, instead of the usual abstract and theory-based framework of philosophy, as the best way to explore the distinctiveness of Kim Iryŏp's life- and narrative philosophies. The first half of her book pays attention to Kim's early life as a writer and activist for the women's liberation movement, whereas the second half delves into Kim's late Buddhist thought and practice as a Korean Zen Buddhist nun. Although her discussion is divided into two parts, this does not mean separation and opposition between Kim's early [End Page 99] (women-centered) and late (Buddhism-centered) lives. She argues for Kim's life-long interest in and quest for "searching for the self and freedom" (pp. 2, 72, 84, and 108) shared by both early and late lives. Her main concern is also to trace the formation, evolution, and completion of this existential philosophy along Kim's move from feminism to Buddhism. According to Park, Kim's existential philosophy starts with her childhood experience of the deaths of her family. The impermanence and ambiguity of life and death and the ensuing sense of loss, loneliness, and misfortune are seen to have traumatized her and cast a shadow over her life (Chapter 1). Existential philosophy evolved into her feminist philosophy as a liberalist New Woman preached and practiced, which especially emphasizes "individualism in women's liberation" (p. 8). Kim's New Theory of Chastity is discussed as an important text in which she claimed women's personality, agenthood, and independence, challenging the traditional concept of chastity and redefining feminine sexuality for women's sake (Chapter 2). Park argues, however, that Kim "felt the limitations of women's movements and sought a new way to express her identity and freedom" (pp. 9–10)—Korean Zen Buddhism. The hwadu meditation that Kim concentrated herself on as a Zen Buddhist nun is seen to have led her to focus on the Buddhist theory of the non-self. With this notion, Park argues, she finally found an advanced form of liberated selfhood, which was to liberate herself from the small self (according to Park, socially constructed identity, daily existence, and a false concept of identity) and to become the great self (according to Park, the unbounded self, existence in its entirety, and an individual liberated from dualism) (Chapter 5). Kim's journey in search of self and freedom is seen to have been completed with Buddhism. The most remarkable aspect of Park's discussion is her effort to place Kim's life and Buddhist philosophy in the broad contexts of the global New Women phenomenon, on the one hand, and of Korean Zen Buddhism, on the other. To understand the philosophical background of Kim's feminist life, Park considers two more liberalist Korean New Women...

Readers for Style 2017–2018

As you may have noticed from the masthead, I have been elected by the English Department at Northern Illinois University to become the new Editor of Style. While this role is new, I have been associated with this journal since the mid-1980s in one capacity or another: Book Review Editor; Co-Editor (with Prof Harold Mosher); Guest Editor of two special issues (Literary Character, 24.3, 1990; and Family Systems Therapy and Literature 31.2, 1997); Editorial Board Member; and now, Editor. I assume this new position with a certain amount of trepidation, given the talent and dedication of those editors who have gone before me (see list on page 1), but I intend to carry on their tradition of publishing the best work available in literary matters. My retired colleague, Craig Abbott, had done a wonderful editorial job for the last year or so, but he is planning to move and en prendre a son aise on the East Coast USA; consequently, he is turning the job over to me as publishes this issue, #41.1 (spring 2007). My own first major task has been a relatively easy one: completing work start by Prof. Abbott in seeing to fruition a guest-edited issue (41.2 Summer 2007) titled Style in Fiction, edited by Profs. Geoffrey Leech and Mich Short from Lancaster University in the UK. This special number contains essays focusing on linguistics and literature, including David Hoover's stylometry analyses of the writings of Henry James, as well as essays by Professors Geoffrey Leech, Barbara Dancygier, Elena Semino, David Hoover, Catherine Emmott, Anthony Sanford, Eugene Dawydiak, and Mick Short. Our next issue (41.3 Fall 2007), will be a general number, and the types of essays therein will look familiar to Style's long-time readers. has traditionally considered articles that analyze stylistic and related issues in literature and that propose and discuss methods and theories of analyzing and evaluating and language-related features. The journal has also welcomed arguments about genre/period/author styles, as well as essays devoted to theories of literature, linguistics and literature, literary conventions, andnarratology. In addition, now welcomes contributions employing the new psychologies: cognition, bio-evolutionary psychology, family systems, and human development -in literary study. Furthermore, the editors will be pleased to consider submissions on pedagogy generally as they relate to the teaching of literature and of the humanities. Contributions may draw from such fields as literary criticism, critical theory, linguistics, philosophy of language, rhetoric, narrative, and composition studies as well as the varieties of psychologies and pedagogies that have recently become familiar to those engaged in the study of literature, in all cases, remains most interested in such essays as they remain close to the text. In addition to the matters discussed above, I also want to do something about a long-standing complaint I have had regarding the way the profession, through its literary journals, goes about disseminating ideas. I have noticed and have experienced myself a sense that, once an article has been published, it tends, all too often, to go into a kind of humanistic void where who-knows who reads it, or argues with it, much less employs it in his/her own work? Worse, how many readers discard it (or perhaps even disdain it) and so never think of it again. Hence, much of what every journal editor must do is gently to suggest to some contributors (and not necessarily junior authors) that they are, as it were, reinventing the typewriter because they have not adequately surveyed many of the ideas already published in other places. …

The Ladder by Alan Michael Parker

Reviewed by: The Ladder by Alan Michael Parker Leah Miranda Hughes Alan Michael Parker. The Ladder. Tupelo Press, 2016. Some literary voices hit a tone that can be identified by only a few words, like playing “Name That Tune” with just a few lines, and Alan Michael Parker projects one of those voices. From his distinctive gang of Vandals to sundry romances to verbal calculations, the poet manages a smart and frank philosophical voice throughout eight collections of poems. The Ladder, named the best book of 2016 in North Carolina with the NC Poetry Society’s notable Brock-Campbell Award, sounds as true to Parker as ever from the first note. The Ladder begins with the perfect epigraph, lines from Puccini’s poet Rudolfo in La Boheme: “What do I do? I write. And how do I live? I live.” A reader might view Parker’s collection with the opera in mind: a poor but happy, artistic life, the poet’s lover romantically dying in his arms, proving that art and love fill living with value. Parker begins the collection gathering the leaves of “this life the next life,” settling in to “Give a Little Talk on Singing.” This poem reveals a narrative philosophy that Parker and Puccini’s Rudolfo obviously share, for the poet, to write is to live. Illustrative of the struggle inherent in living (not to mention creating art), Parker’s narrator sings only begrudgingly. With a dry, discontented humor, the poems scan the horizon from offering prayers for daily living to making demands of God. What is enough? What to remember? What wishes to make? The collection gestures towards a potential reset at a midpoint as opposed to a midlife crisis. In the middle years of his life, the narrator of the title poem gets a grass sack “to start [a] new life.” Parker would use the ladder contained in his grass sack to “climb down from ambition.” Does the reader suppose that the speaker indicates a realization or expectation: To not expect so much? To descend from some height reached? To negotiate the expected anticlimax of a plot diagram in any given narrative? The Old Testament tells the story of Jacob’s Ladder: as Jacob flees for his life, his murderous brother Esau close on his heels, he dreams of a ladder that angels ascend and descend with God standing alongside. It is the gate to heaven. An old spiritual memorializes the story, one still sung as a hymn in the South today to remind the choir and congregation that “we are climbing…higher higher” everyday. In fact, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie further popularized the song in folk music, bringing the Old Testament tale to a celebration of the steady daily human struggle of living in this world. [End Page 50] Through hair, X-rays, the moon, hotel rooms, and postcards, Alan Michael Parker also celebrates a person’s daily wrestling with life. With a keen eye on some inevitable end, the poems convey a sense of hope and home from the self-professed curmudgeonly singer. Parker brings clever diction and even more witty parallels, observations, and speculations to pull the extraordinary out of the ordinary. In each volume, Parker has an emotive house pet representing domestic love. In this collection, the dog misses “you,” an infamous use of second person, so much that he learns regretful, wistful, simple and sincere phrases in a multitude of foreign languages. These dogs and cats often extend gracious compassion, fetching the reader a heartbreaking moonful of amour or affection. Alan Michael Parker’s collection The Ladder keeps alive his distinctive voice over time. The poems convey honest statements with humor, yet, deepen in sincerity, with pretense or bluff stripped away for the reader to sit at the center of experiences such as burying a relative, going through the airport, taking a swim, turning 50. To illustrate, one of Parker’s speakers would steal a work of art, a Matisse representing hope, but not burn it to cover up the crime. Another speaker will ponder the eternal to come at peace with the ephemeral nature of a full head of hair. Such vulnerable honesty creates heartbreakingly beautiful poems...

M. Speransky’s philosophical-legal conception and its impact on perspectives of the modern international political community development

In the article the socio-philosophical analysis of the influence of classical philosophical-legal model of development of the world politics on international relations is held. Such phenomena as law, international law are considered in the context of moral imperatives and presented in numerous historical and philosophical narratives. This approach involves the fact that the modern world is changing rapidly, but classic teachings remain intact.

História, romance e a "narrativa filosófica" no iluminismo britânico

Resumo Este artigo articula alguns argumentos relativos à função das narrativas historiográfica e romanesca no século XVIII. Sugere-se que elas compartilhavam alguns elementos-chave - notadamente, um mesmo propósito pedagógico-civilizador e um conjunto de dispositivos retóricos comuns - que conformavam o que se poderia chamar de "narrativa filosófica". Seguindo essa premissa, toma-se o "iluminismo britânico" - entendido como um programa político-social letrado, matriz para a produção e a circulação de textos de caráter historiográfico, ensaístico e romanesco no século XVIII - como base para um exame do contexto letrado setecentista e de textos de autores contemporâneos como David Hume e Henry Fielding.

After the Solidarity and Consensus Debates: Habermas, Rorty and Fraser as Pragmatist Sources for Activist Dialogical Art

This paper poses a relationship between pragmatist understandings of intersubjective communication and long-term “dialogical art” practices promoting social change. Art historian Grant Kester contends that two dialogical art projects by Suzanne Lacy and Austrian Art collective WochenKlausur reflect Habermas’ theory of communicative action through which the “better argument” is universally validated. Kester simultaneously acknowledges such projects inculcate non-competitive modes of intersubjective exchange that appear contrary to Habermas. I look at the “philosophical narrative” debates between Richard Rorty and Habermas to suggest that Rorty’s eschewal of Habermasian rationalization in favor of affective modes of contingent solidarity, taken with Nancy Fraser’s understanding of enmeshed public/private discourse in the context of feminist counterpublics, draws out the political-ethical orientation of activist dialogical art practices.

Towards living within my body and accepting the past: a case study of embodied narrative identity.

This narrative case study, created from several qualitative sources, portrays a young woman's life experiences and an eight yearlong therapy process with Norwegian Psychomotor Physiotherapy (NPMP). It is analyzed retrospectively from an analytical angle, where NPMP theory is expanded with Løgstrup's phenomenology of sensation and Ricoeur's narrative philosophy. Understanding Rita's narrative through this window displayed some foundational phenomena in a singular way, illuminating embodied experiences in inter-subjective relationships in movement, sensation and time entwined. It illustrates how traumatic life experiences may cause pain, suffering and ruptured narratives with fragmented physical and sensuous reactions, chaos and loss of temporal coherence with consequences for a person's sense of identity. Rita's narrative also illuminates how intersubjective interaction has healing potentials when there is time and space for trust to emerge and to support new bodily-based experiences. Embodied sensuous experiences in present time may help clarify past and present and support chronology in narration and the sense of identity. With this exemplary case study, we argue that Løgstrup's and Ricoeur's thinking may add valuable perspectives to understanding suffering and healing processes in the field of embodied therapies like NPMP.