Rethinking Transcendence: Heidegger,Plessner and the Problem of Anthropology

Abstract

In times of the Anthropocene, we are in need of philosophical anthropology, revisiting the question concerning the human condition. I suggest rethinking what one may call ‘human transcendence’ in terms of a responsivist paradigm. Drawing on Heidegger and Plessner, the idea is that we should think of the eccentric or ecstatic position of the human in terms of something we undergo, instead of it being a human capability or something we do. It is a gift, emplacing us to the time-space of responsive embodied existence. The paper will follow this agenda in five steps. Having introduced what I take to be the challenge for a timely ontology, I will unfold the problem entailed in the very idea of philosophical anthropology according to Heidegger. I then focus on Heidegger’s (hidden) rapprochement to Helmuth Plessner’s anthropology, recalling Plessner’s analysis of laughter as a bodily expression displaying the ‘eccentric positionality’ of the human. I suggest rephrasing this kind of transcendence in a responsivist paradigm: Humans are responsive beings.     

Laughing and Weeping,Cheerfulness and Depression: A Study of Moods Among College Students

Abstract

The relationship between relative deprivation and ethnic attitudes was investigated in a stratified random sample of 361 Blacks and 120 Afrikaans-speaking Whites. Apart from variables related to relative deprivation, a number of other variables such as biographical information, conservatism, and the experience of justice were also measured and included in multiple regression analyses to predict the ethnic attitudes of the subjects. The results indicate that the variables of academic qualification, the experience of justice, and the experience of economic deprivation significantly explained the ethnic attitudes of the black subjects. Among the white subjects a generalized attitude toward outgroups significantly explained some of the variance of the attitude scores.     

Development of the Crying Proneness Scale: Associations Among Crying Proneness,Empathy, Attachment,and Age

Crying is a unique form of human emotional expression that is associated with both positive and negative evocative antecedents. This article investigates the psychometric properties of a newly developed Crying Proneness Scale by examining the factor structure, test–retest reliability, and theoretically hypothesized relationships with empathy, attachment, age, and gender. Based on an analysis of data provided by a Dutch panel (Time 1: N = 4,916, Time 2: N = 4,874), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that crying proneness is a multidimensional construct best characterized by four factors called attachment tears, societal tears, sentimental/moral tears, and compassionate tears. Test–retest reliability of the scale was adequate and associations with age, gender, empathy, and attachment demonstrated expected relations. Results suggest that this scale can be used to measure crying proneness, and that it will be useful in future studies that aim to gain a better understanding of normal and pathological socioemotional development.     

Live Theater and the Limits of Human Freedom

This paper argues that there is a relationship between the structure of live theater and the question of whether human beings have free will, and that the practice of live theater and the pursuit of philosophical certitude regarding free will are both constructive human experiences coalesced around roughly the same set of sensations.     

Common Sense and the Theory of Human Behaviour

I offer an analysis of Reid's notion of the will. Naturalism in the philosophy of action is defined as the attempt to eliminate the capacity of will and to reduce volition to some class of appetite or desire. Reid's arguments show, however, that volition plays a particular role in deliberation which cannot be reduced to some form of motivation present at the time of action. Deliberation is understood as an action over which the agent has control. Will is a higher-order mental capacity enabling us to control our own attitudes, decisions and actions. Reid investigates several distinct forms of this control. I conclude with some remarks about the relation between Reid's arguments about the function of the will and his moral rationalism.     

The Gender Pay Gap: Challenging the Rationalizations. Perceived Equity, Discrimination, and the Limits of Human Capital Models

A gender gap in earnings has proven both persistent and universal. This paper relies mainly on U.S. data, but a gap between women’s and men’s earnings exists in every country. There is a continuing debate as to the extent to which the gap reflects merely the inevitable and reasonably fair result of differing work patterns and behaviors by women and men or the impact of employment discrimination against women. The human capital approach, in which various explanatory variables are used to shrink the perceived size of the gap, is often used to argue that much of the gap is due, not to discrimination, but to differing investments in employment by women and men. However, neither “investments” nor “outcomes” can be assessed in gender-neutral ways and the model’s underlying notion of rational choices made against the backdrop of a gender-neutral playing field is flawed. Discrimination appears to be entwined with gendered work patterns and behaviors; many of the human capital “explanatory” variables themselves require explanation. Understanding the gap requires recognition of the limitations of human capital models, and a willingness both to take a more sophisticated approach to such models, and to think beyond this approach.     

Religious Symbolism at the Limits of Human Engagement

This article explores the triadic semiotics of C.S. Peirce as a resource for the interdisciplinary dialogue between science and theology. His pragmatic theory of interpretation was explicitly linked to a non-dualistic metaphysics and epistemology, and avoids the temptation to treat religious symbolism reductionistically. This philosophical model can facilitate dialogue across disciplines about questions of ultimate religious significance in a way that overcomes some of the pernicious dualisms that reinforced the popular imagery that science and theology are (at worst) enemies in warfare or (at best) indifferent and irrelevant to one another.     

A Quantum Cognition Analysis of Human Behaviour by Hardy’s Non-locality Argument

Axiomathes - Quantum cognition is an emerging field making uses of quantum theory to model cognitive phenomena which cannot be explained by classical theories. Usually, in cognitive tests, subjects...     

Discussions on Child Development: A Consideration of the Biological,Psychological, and Cultural Approaches to the Understanding of Human Development and Behaviour. Volumes I and II Edited by J. M. Tanner and B. Inhelder

Self-esteem and peer relationships are such interconnected phenomena that the self-evaluation may be viewed, in large measure, as the inner experience of the esteem in which one is held by one's peers. The ability to have successful peer relations, which validates one's sense of personal worth, depends on positive self-esteem. This article provides a review of the relevant research literature of the last ten years, but it is of interest that discussions of the relationship between self-esteem and peer relations date back to William James, and include Sullivan, Cooley, and Piaget.

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state, … Shakespeare Sonnet 29