Sympathy and the Non-human: Max Scheler’s Phenomenology of Interrelation

German phenomenologist and sociologist Max Scheler accorded sympathy a central role in his philosophy, arguing that sympathy enables not only ethical behaviour, but also knowledge of animate and inanimate others. Influenced by Catholicism and especially St Francis, Scheler envisioned a broad, cosmic sympathy forming the hidden basis for all human values, with the “higher” religious, artistic, philosophic and other cultural values enabled by a more basic regard for non-human nature and insights gained from the human situation within the non-human world. Sympathy for the non-human is thus both integral and fundamental to the cultivation of other values in the development of both the human person and humanity in general. Scheler’s concept of sympathy is valuable for contemporary animal ethics because it insists on acknowledgement of and respect for difference as constitutive for the experience of sympathy. By thus allowing for sympathy to occur in the absence of complete knowledge of other subjectivities, Scheler’s phenomenology of sympathy eliminates the need for complete understanding of the consciousness of other animals as a prerequisite for interspecies sympathy. Despite their inability to completely inhabit non-human perspectives, humans can thus sympathize with other creatures. While Scheler is a foundational thinker and, to a large degree, maintains hierarchical structures contested by many contemporary animal theorists, he remains a valuable source for contemporary theory insofar as he acknowledges a “fundamental basis of connection” between species and affirms that all animal bodies are communicative. The occasioning of sympathy by gestural signification opens a path of insight that can increase human openness to non-human others. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume 7, Edition 2 September 200

Katastrofe i etika sućuti

Disasters promise to be a permanent feature of globalized, industrial society in the twenty-first century as economic divides combine with climate change to produce massive suffering and dislocation. At the same time as these global changes occur, the media landscape shifts to become fragmented and “monetized” across a variety of platforms. This article examines the impulse towards sympathy for others in this global milieu, in which it can become easy for people in developed nations to ignore the turmoil they experience through mass media. Coverage of disaster can become just another form of entertainment: in order to genuinely care for others, consumers of media must become active participants, working against the grain of information culture.Naslućuje se kako će katastrofe postati trajno obilježje globaliziranoga, industrijskog društva dvadeset i prvoga stoljeća, dok se ekonomske podjele udružuju s klimatskim promjenama u proizvodnji goleme patnje i dislokacija. Istovremeno s pojavom ovih globalnih promjena, medijski krajolik postaje fragmentiran i \u27monetiziran\u27 diljem raznolikih platformi. Ovim člankom istražuje se impuls za sućut naspram drugih u ovoj globalnoj sredini, u kojoj ljudima u razvijenim zemljama može postati lako ignorirati krize koje doživljavaju kroz masovne medije. Izvješćivanje o katastrofama može postati tek još jedan oblik zabave: kako bi uistinu brinuli za druge, konzumenti medija moraju postati aktivni sudionici koji se bore protiv struja kulture informacija

Dynamic Change of Awareness during Meditation Techniques: Neural and Physiological Correlates

Recent fndings illustrate how changes in consciousness accommodated by neural correlates and plasticity of the brain advance a model of perceptual change as a function of meditative practice. During the mindbody response neural correlates of changing awareness illustrate how the autonomic nervous system shifts from a sympathetic dominant to a parasympathetic dominant state. Expansion of awareness during the practice of meditation techniques can be linked to the Default Mode Network (DMN), a network of brain regions that is active when the one is not focused on the outside world and the brain is restful yet awake (Chen et al., 2008). A model is presented illustrating the dynamic mindbody response before and after mindfulness meditation, and connections are made with prefrontal cortex activity, the cardiac and respiratory center, the thalamus and amygdala, the DMN and cortical function connectivity. The default status of the DMN changes corresponding to autonomic modulation resulting from meditation practice

Disaster and the Ethics of Sympathy

Disasters promise to be a permanent feature of globalized, industrial society in the twenty-first century as economic divides combine with climate change to produce massive suffering and dislocation. At the same time as these global changes occur, the media landscape shifts to become fragmented and “monetized” across a variety of platforms. This article examines the impulse towards sympathy for others in this global milieu, in which it can become easy for people in developed nations to ignore the turmoil they experience through mass media. Coverage of disaster can become just another form of entertainment: in order to genuinely care for others, consumers of media must become active participants, working against the grain of information culture