43 research outputs found
AnnÀherung an Blumenbergs PhilosophieverstÀndnis
Abstract If one compares Hans Blumenberg with the dominant contemporary German-speaking characters of philosophy and heads of their own schools, Husserl, Heidegger and Adorno, then one sees that Blumenbergâs understanding of philosophy proves tobe emphatically unemphatic, withdrawn, and deeply stacked. He exchanges the big bills of those philosophies for small coins: Philosophy is attention first, thoughtfulness second, consolation third, and memory fourth. â An introduction is evidence of the reorientation that Blumenberg undertook in the 1950s with regard to his Catholic-theological and Heideggerian philosophical beginnings. This led him to redefine the modern age from one of crisis to one of overcoming the crisis
âAgainst the Dog Only a Dogâ. Talking Canines Civilizing Cynicism in Cervantesâ âcoloquio de los perrosâ (With Tentative Remarks on the Discourse and Method of Animal Studies)
Deriving its designation from the Greek word for âdogâ, cynicism is likely the
only philosophical âinterest groupâ with a diachronically dependable affinity
for various animalsâparticularly those of the canine kind. While dogs have met
with differing value judgments, chiefly along a perceived humanâanimal divide,
it is specifically discourses with cynical affinities that render problematic
this transitional field. The Cervantine âcoloquio de los perrosâ has received
scholarly attention for its (caninely) picaresque themes, its âcynomorphicâ
(Ziolkowski) narratological technique, its socio-historically informative
accounts relating to Early Modern Europe and the Iberian peninsula, including
its âzoopoeticallyâ (Derrida) relevant portrayal of dogs (see e.g., Alves,
Beusterien, MartĂn); nor did the dialogâs mention of cynical snarling go
unnoticed. The essay at hand commences with a chapter on questions of method
pertaining to âanimal narrationâ: with recourse to Montaigne, Descartes, and
Derrida, this first part serves to situate the ensuing close readings with
respect to the field of Animal Studies. The analysis of the Cervantine texts
synergizes thematic and narratological aspects at the discourse historical
level; it commences with a brief synopsis of the respective novellas in part
2; Section 3, Section 4 and Section 5 supply a description of the rhetorical
modes of crafting plausibility in the framework narrative (âThe Deceitful
Marriageâ), of pertinent (Scriptural) intertexts for the âColloquyâ. Parts 6â7
demonstrate that the choice of canine interlocutors as narrating agenciesâand
specifically in their capacity as dogsâis discursively motivated: no other
animal than this animal, and precisely as animal, would here serve the
discursive purpose that is concurrently present with the literal plane; for
this dialogic novella partakes of a (predominantly Stoicizing) tradition
attempting to resocialize the Cynics, which commences already with the
appearance of the Ancient arch-Cynic âDiogenesâ on the scene. At the
discursive level, a diachronic contextualization evinces that the Cervantine
text takes up and outperforms those rhetorical techniques of reintegration by
melding Christian, Platonic, Stoicizing elements with such as are reminiscent
of Diogenical ones. Reallocating Blumenbergâs reading of a notorious Goethean
dictum, this essay submits the formula âagainst the Dog only a dogâ as a
concise précis of the Cervantine method at the discursive level, attained to
via a decidedly pluralized rhetorical sermocination featuring, at a literal
level, specifically canine narrators in a dialogic setting
Cynicism as a Modus of Political Agency: Can It Speak to International Law?
This essay is a brief tour through the philosophical journey of cynicism as a critical ethos and modus of political agency. Against colloquial and psychological uses, all with a crippling effect, it seeks to remind of the best potential of a philosophical cynical temperament for a sense of empowered agency by revisiting its travels from ancient Athens to our time. With that history in sight, it will then in a preliminary and experimental fashion imagine some possible avenues through which international law can begin to appreciate a cynical orientation as a force for good rather than an enemy to deny, dismiss or psychologise in paralysed surrender.
Understanding the history of a cynical orientation as a mode of active engagement through social critique has an eye on the present and the future. It is to direct us toward a meaningful way to channel in the individual and collective cynical reservoir for clamming agency against exclusionary social structures. The first, essential step toward developing that temperament however, is to have clarity about cynicismâs distinctive philosophical history, filtering out destructive effects of resignation as a sensibility, apathy, disillusionment, and despair over oneâs individual alienation and social nihilism. Modest but unavoidable, it is this very first step which motivates the present essay