生存论转向与马克思的实践哲学

生存论转向是在清理当代哲学的主题转换及其问题时,结合当代人类生存实践活动、社会结构以及文化传统的当代变迁与转型的剖析,进而形成的对当代哲学存在论转换及其方向的理论追求的创构努力。古希腊的存在(tobe)及存在论(Ontology)中所蕴含的生存及生存论的丰富内涵,被此后的实存(exsistere)及实存论取代生存主义哲学开启了生存论转向,但此转向作为一项历史性使命,绝不限于此。当代西方浓厚的语言哲学以及后现代相对主义背景表明,仅仅在西方范式下推展的生存论转向已走向终结。在这一情形下,内在地超越于西方并蕴含着人类性哲学方向的马克思的实践哲学在生存论转向中的重要意义将会彰显出来,马克思实践哲学以及其中蕴含的实践一生存论实际上有理由被看作“-3代哲学生存论转向的真正目标,只不过,在人类解放论的理论预设内,生存论转向作为人的不断生成、自我超越和创造的历史性的存在,本身就存在着一种未竟性与不可终结性。     

Analyzing Multiplicity: A Postmodern Perspective on Some Current Psychoanalytic Theories of Subjectivity

Tensions between modernism and postmodernism in psychoanalytic theory and practice are evident in the allegedly “postmodern” view of subjectivity as not unified but plural. Suggesting that a thoroughgoing postmodern clinical practice does not exist at present, I distinguish between U. S. and European models of the postmodern multiple subject and between modern and postmodern varieties of pluralism in the current psychoanalytic theorization of subjectivity in this country, proposing that all such pluralist theories are in fact mixed models. I argue that these theories do not reflect objective, essential traits of selfhood but are complexly shaped by the cultural presuppositions and intrapsychic needs of the analyst; hence attempts to theorize subjectivity with reference to science (including developmental schemas) are problematic. Because a thoroughgoing postmodern pluralism cannot accommodate such concepts as agency and authenticity or a coherent narrative of the treatment process, clinical psychoanalysis, at least at present, inevitably includes major elements of the modernist approach, in which subjectivity is seen as unified. At this time of paradigm shift between modernism and postmodernism, therefore, it is important that pluralists decenter from their theories and respect the continuing influence of modernism on psychoanalytic theory and practice.     

SCIENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE: WESTPHAL,DERRIDA, AND RESPONSIBILITY

Abstract. On the naive reading, “radical social constructivism” would be the result of “deconstructing” science. Science would simply be a contingent construction in accordance with social determinants. However, postmodernism does not necessarily abandon fidelity to the objects of thought. Merold Westphal's Derridean philosophy of religion emphasizes that even theology need not eliminate the transcendence of the divine other. By drawing an analogy between natural and supernatural transcendence, I argue that science is similarly called to responsibility in the encounter with that which lies outside its horizon of expectation. Science's rational autonomy is overcome by the heteronomy of realities that precede it. Understanding species as homeostatic property clusters is an example of nonessentialist, postmodern, and scientific realism. Science is still a vehicle for encountering natural alterity, thus decentering the relativism thought to characterize postmodernism. However, natural science must not attempt to place the whole of being at human disposal if it is to fulfill the potential of Westphal's philosophy of religion.     

African Philosophy and Postmodern Rationality

Abstract

In this essay I explore some of the ramifications that postmodernism, in its re-vision of Western rationality, holds for African philosophy. Insofar as African philosophy has associated itself with the traditional form of Western rationality, I argue that much can be gleaned by African philosophy from postmodernism's re-vision of Western rationality. The merits of such a postmodern re-vision of Western rationality for African philosophy include, an acknowledgement of alternative forms of reasoning and their accompanying cultural expressions; an insistence that knowledge production is not independent of moral and political value; a grounding of rationality in social relations; and a recognition of commitment, caring and feeling in rationality.     

Psychoanalysis in Postmodern Times: Some Questions and Challenges

As a consequence of the invitation to contribute this piece of writing, I acknowledge having a postmodern attitude, rather than subscribing to postmodernism as an ideology. The purpose behind this article is to reflect on the impact of postmodern times on psychoanalysis from the starting point of my own conception of psychoanalytic theory and practice. This article looks, in some detail, into the problem of truth in psychoanalysis, the issue of theory building in psychoanalysis in its relation to psychoanalytic practice, and the challenges for psychoanalysis as a pluralistic discipline. It repeatedly states that psychoanalysis evidences extreme theoretical and practical diversity, but no pluralism understood as an attitude and methodology of dialogue between theoretical orientations and practical approaches. The current challenge in psychoanalysis is, precisely, to go beyond postmodernism and to build a true pluralism on the basis on interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.     

后现代心理学与现代心理学的对话

当现代心理学正身处众多困境时,后现代心理学者们从新的视角和观点对其展开了攻势,因此在这近十多年里,西方心理学界充满了激烈辩论的声音。文章总结了西方心理学界围绕着后现代心理学这个话题展开的各种对话,包括心理学的认识论、研究性质、研究方法以及后现代心理学的价值等各个方面的讨论。作者在梳理这些对话的同时,对二者的观点进行了论述,其目的是为了更加深入地了解后现代心理学和现代心理学的理论建构,从而推进心理学科的深入研究。     

西方心理学中的现代主义、后现代主义及其超越

当代西方心理学中存在着现代主义取向和后现代主义取向的对立和冲突。冯特以来的西方心理学流派大多属于现代主义的范畴。现代主义的特征是：(1)重视科学的价值,强调科学的方法;(2)信奉经验主义;(3)个体的中心地位。后现代主义取向的核心是社会建构主义,其主要特征为：(1)批判的倾向,对现代心理学的理论基础进行解构;(2)把社会建构论作为认识论的基础;(3)促进心理学实践的四个转变。尽管两种倾向形成鲜明的对照,但两者也存在着一些共同的方面,从而构成了超越两者的基础。两种取向的超越需要以科学实在论作为元理论的基础,并需要双方互补、合作和开放的态度。     

The real problem for postmodernism

This essay is a critique of postmodernism and its relationship to family therapy. It is argued that the strengths of a postmodern approach (its relativism and narrative focus) are not unique but shared by traditions, modern and antiquarian, which the advocates of postmodernism now seek to displace both in the academy and the clinic. The negative baggage of accepting the emerging postmodernist orthodoxy is created, in the main, by the abandonment of a realist ontology. A variety of points are made about the relationship between postmodernism and general systems theory to highlight this point. At the end, critical or sceptical social realism is offered as a positive alternative to naïve realism or postmodernism. Some notes are made in conclusion about the implications of the essay's arguments for family therapists.     

Erikson Meets the Postmodern: Can Classic Identity Theory Rise to the Challenge?

In this article, I differentiate between 2 ways in which the postmodern is described as challenging Erikson's identity theory: postmodernity as a unique context of development and postmodernism as a critical theory of knowledge. Erikson's theory is evaluated from both perspectives. It is suggested that Erikson's writings contain significant concepts that can be used to constructively address many of the concerns of postmodernists. Erikson's concept of identity structure as a goal-oriented configuration of identity elements created through the interaction of the individual and society, coupled with his portrayal of multiple possible cultural goals and values guiding childrearing practice, are seen as key concepts with which Erikson's theory can explain and acknowledge diverse and context-sensitive structures of identity. A call is made to bring both values and cultural content back into the domain of the psychological study of identity.     

Reply to Commentaries by Crastnopol,Goldman, and Mitchell

In replying to the commentaries by Margaret Crastnopol (2001), Dodi Goldman (2001), and Stephen A. Mitchell (2001), I address the relationship of modernism to postmodernism, with emphasis on the possible conflicts between therapeutic effectiveness and the postmodern view of experience in general, and core affect in particular, as culturally constructed. I elaborate on the claim I made in “Analyzing Multiplicity” (Fairfield, 2001) that developmental schemas, however central to psychoanalysis at the present time, are vulnerable theoretically. Difficulties in bringing terms such as agency and authenticity into a postmodern paradigm are considered. In discussing some common misunderstandings of the critical approach known as deconstruction, I emphasize its ethical import and its kinship to psychoanalytic theory and practice. Special attention is paid to deconstructing the binary categorization American/not-American and to exploring the distinctively American origins of some current models of subjectivity.     

Body,thought, being-human and artificial intelligence: Merleau-Ponty and Lyotard

Abstract

This article focuses in a comparative manner on the thought of Merleau-Ponty and Lyotard with a view to lending support to Busch’s claim, that ‘existentialism’ preceded poststructuralism and postmodernism as far as criticism of certain features of modem philosophy are concerned. Attention is first given to Lyotard’s critique of artificial intelligence, especially in so far as it displays a dependence on and development of insights on the part of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological-existential understanding of human embodiment and the specificity of human perception. The focus then shifts to Merleau-Ponty in order to demonstrate the remarkable extent to which his understanding of human embodiment and related issues such as perception and creativity, paved the way for the work of, among others, Lyotard, and anticipated the critique of artificial intelligence on the part of the latter.     

A Dynamical Successor to Modernism and Postmodernism

The author introduces an emerging worldview that could affect counseling concepts and methods greatly in the relatively near future. The worldview, dynamicalism, incorporates essential features of modernism and postmodernism. It also incorporates cutting‐edge concepts from physics and philosophy. The synthesis of these ideas provides a conceptual basis for thinking about and conducting counseling in new ways.     

So like still water: A short story

Abstract

The impact of postmodern thought on traditional humanistic psychology is examined, and the conclusion is reached that the effect of the postmodern argument is to undermine the grounding principles for a moral, humane and generative society. However, by revisinoing such concepts as agency and experience in terms of the primacy of relationship, postmodernism urges us to create multiple ways of generating integrative conversation, in a way that is congenial with the deepest hopes of the humanistic tradition.     

Postmodern Thought and Christian Education

This article examines the impact of postmodern thought on Christian education. It briefly defines postmodern perspectives and their impact on reasoning in a Christian context and examines specific postmodern positions on the notion of truth and its validity or rationality. Education has been impacted by postmodern thought by an opening of thinking about the ways of knowing which include more than empirical or technical ways of knowing. Postmodernism argues that meaning is negotiated rather than being exact and limiting. As popular trends and popular culture bring postmodern thought to everyone, the impact on the thinking of Christian students and educators is examined to encourage discovery of what fits in Christian thought and what does not. The impact of what postmodern thought means and does in higher education is discussed as a challenge for all educators. A comparison in a Christian context, of modern and postmodern positions, examines what is good from modernism and what is not, as well as what is good about postmodernism in order to know what to keep and what to discard. As postmodernism opens the way for acceptance of multiple perspectives, Christian educators are challenged to examine their own systems of thought and to know how best to deliver instruction in a Christian context.     

Hope and Possibility: Advancing an Argument for a Habermasian Perspective in Educational Administration

The emergence of postmodernism has stimulateddiscourse on the potential for using reason tocreate a just society. The discourse hascaused confusion and dissension in the field ofeducational administration as scholars seek tofind a means to blend concepts inherent in themodern and postmodern. The works of JürgenHabermas provide a means of dealing with thisdilemma and have some specific applications tothe practice of educational administration.     

后现代心理治疗及其伦理问题思考

文章通过论述后现代对现代认识论和思维模式的质疑与超越,分析了后现代语境下心理治疗与现代心理治疗的差异,并关注在后现代这一新的思维模式下,心理治疗领域可能产生的伦理问题。作者指出,后现代心理治疗的不确定性、价值干预和文化介入,使心理治疗的伦理挑战被进一步复杂化,对治疗师也提出了更高要求。     

The Products of the Imagination: Psychoanalytic Theory and Postmodern Literary Criticism

This article considers some of the affinities between postmodern literary theory and the psychoanalytic theories concerned with intersubjective phenomena. Postmodern literary theory is described briefly, and it is argued that one of its major concerns is the nature of, and the political and cultural influences on, subjectivity and identity. Despite that, postmodernism generally, and literary postmodernism in particular, can be said to lack a theory of the psychological and interpersonal dimensions of the experience of self. This article contends that the more relational schools of psychoanalytic theory can provide an example of the construction of selfhood that is of importance to contemporary and postmodern literary criticism. The academy has, to a considerable extent identified psychoanalysis with the work of Jacques Lacan, but since the 1980s the work of such theorists as Jane Flax and Jessica Benjamin, building on the work of Nancy Chodorow, have increasingly opened up the possibilities of relational and object relations theory for literary studies. The relational psychoanalytic theories operate in the same epistemological universe as postmodern literary criticism, congruent with the postmodern idea of truth as constructed and relational, and selfhood as shifting, contingent, and always-in-process. Particular attention is paid to the work of Wilfred Bion, whose understanding of self provides an account both of the failure of meaning, and of the development of mind. Some examples of a relational approach to literary analysis are provided.     

Was Feyerabend a Postmodernist?

This article asks whether the philosophy of Paul K. Feyerabend can be reasonably classified as postmodernist, a label applied to him by friends and foes alike. After describing some superficial similarities between the style and content of both Feyerabend’s and postmodernist writings, I offer three more robust characterisations of postmodernism in terms of relativism, ‘incredulity to metanarratives’, and ‘depthlessness’. It emerges that none of these characterisations offers a strong justification for classifying Feyerabend as ‘postmodern’ in any significant sense. Indeed, what does emerge is that Feyerabend’s work was fundamentally informed by a humanitarian vision of the value of science that is, in fact, strikingly modern.     

Postmodernism: A Feminist Critique

In this article the author suggests that progress in philosophy can be conceived through contemporary French theories that propose a new, polysemantic way of thinking. Postmodern philosophy has tried to renew the meaning of the subject, of the subject's identity, and of language and communication. The author believes that the postmodern, feminist approach to those concepts represents significant progress in philosophy. It is, in fact, exactly in the context of feminism—conceived of not just as a women's sociopolitical or scientific activity but as a broad theoretical approach to many areas—that Western philosophy has acquired its most explicit and adequate meaning. A crucial example here is the new historicophilosophical analysis of the concept of gender. The author appeals to Lipovetsky, Lacan, Derrida, Kristeva, and other thinkers to show how postmodern feminism helps to overcome the binary vision of the contemporary world and the dichotomic composition of earlier philosophical thought.