SECOND NATURE AND SPIRIT: HEGEL ON THE ROLE OF HABIT IN THE APPEARANCE OF PERCEPTUAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Hegel's discussion of the concept of “habit” appears at a crucial point in his Encyclopedia system, namely, in the transition from the topic of “nature” to the topic of “spirit” (Geist): it is through habit that the subject both distinguishes itself from its various sensory states as an absolute unity (the I) and, at the same time, preserves those sensory states as the content of sensory consciousness. By calling habit a “second nature,” Hegel highlights the fact that incipient spirit retains a “moment” of the natural that marks a limitation compared to “pure thought” but that also makes perceptual consciousness possible. This makes Hegel's account analogous in important respects to John McDowell's “naturalism of second nature.” But Hegel's account of habit can be seen as a version of a Kantian synthesis of the productive imagination—and hence presupposes a given material that can become one's own by means of habit. This does not mean that Hegel falls into the Myth of the Given, but it does suggest that an appropriate account of second nature might be committed to something McDowell wants to deny: that nonconceptual states of consciousness play a role (even if not a justificatory role) in perception.     

UNREFLECTIVE ACTION AND THE ARGUMENT FROM SPEED

Hubert Dreyfus has defended a novel view of agency, most notably in his debate with John McDowell. Dreyfus argues that expert actions are primarily unreflective and do not involve conceptual activity. In unreflective action, embodied know‐how plays the role reflection and conceptuality play in the actions of novices. Dreyfus employs two arguments to support his conclusion: the argument from speed and the phenomenological argument. I argue that Dreyfus's argumentative strategies are not successful, since he relies on a dubious assumption about concepts and reflection. I suggest that Dreyfus is committed to a minimal view of conceptuality in action.     

ON THE THERAPIST'S YEARNING FOR INTIMACY

From the beginning of clinical psychoanalysis, analysts have been at risk of succumbing to yearnings for intimacy and contact that are stirred up by the heat of the analytic encounter. Recently, as theoretical developments have encouraged us to create moments of meeting (Stern et al. 1998) and have urged us to tolerate the feelings stimulated by enactments, these risks have increased. The author points out that foregoing the realization of this yearning within the analytic relationship and the resultant mourning for the loss of a fantasy or illusion carries a heavy personal price tag for the therapist.     

CHRISTIAN AND BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVES ON NEURO PSYCHOLOGY AND THE HUMAN PERSON: PNEUMA AND PRATITYASAMUTPADA

Abstract. Recent discussions of the mind‐brain and the soul‐body problems have been both advanced and complexified by the cognitive sciences. I focus explicitly here on emergence, supervenience, and nonreductive physicalist theories of human personhood in light of recent advances in the Christian‐Buddhist dialogue. While traditional self and no‐self views pitted Christianity versus Buddhism versus science, I show how the nonreductive physicalist proposal regarding human personhood emerging from the neuroscientific enterprise both contributes to and is enriched by the Christian concept of pneuma (spirit) and the Buddhist concept of pratityasamutpada (codependent origination).     

TOWARDS A POSTMODERN CONCEPTION OF METAPHYSICS: ON THE GENEALOGY AND SUCCESSOR DISCIPLINES OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Postmodernism in philosophy holds that traditional philosophy has come (or should come) to an end, and that it must be succeeded by something else, such as "thinking" (Heidegger), empirical science (Quine), linguistic therapy (Wittgenstein), or an "attempt to prevent the conversation of the West from attaining the secure path of science" (Rorty). Clearly, the claim to be postmodern presupposes a view of traditional philosophy, of its characteristics, and of its genesis. In this essay, such a view will be developed, and its consequences for our conception of philosophy will be discussed. The view defended here is different from those of Heidegger and Rorty. For ease of exposition the discussion will refer to Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.     

THE POLITICS OF INTIMACY: (RE)THINKING 1984

The year 1984 is deeply ingrained in the collective Sikh memory. The attack on the Sri Harmandir Sahib and the subsequent pogrom in Delhi fundamentally challenged the manner in which the Sikh population in India and the diaspora engaged with the state. Indeed, these two events represented the culmination of a first phase of a war that began in the 1970s and continued well into the 1990s with the clearest effect on the Sikhs in Punjab. Nevertheless, 1984 continues to evoke a series of questions that are addressed in this paper. It examines how lives become precarious and grievable as well as how societies descend into barbarism. Finally, it seeks to understand how we memorialise grievable lives.     

THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION AND MODERN SCIENCE

Abstract. In contrast to Christian theology that has ignored science, this essay suggests that a credible doctrine of God as creator must take into account scientific understandings of the world. The introduction of the principle of inertia into seventeenth-century science and philosophy helped change the traditional idea of God as creator (which included divine conservation and governance) into a deist concept of God. To recapture the idea that God continually creates, it is important to affirm the contingency of the world as a whole and of all events in the world. Reflecting on the interrelationship of contingency and natural law provides a framework for relating scientific theories of a universal field, the concept of emergent evolution, and the theological concept of eternal divine spirit active in all creation.     

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY: TRANSSEXUALITY,PSYCHODYNAMICS AND THE MODERN NHS

This paper describes a psychodynamic understanding of transsexualism and some related implications for NHS services. Following a brief literature review the author describes a series of clinical vignettes that tease out psychically important transsexual dilemmas. Specifically, themes of conflict with authority, idealization of destructive solutions and learning to live with regret are explored. Finally a psychological differentiation of transsexual issues is suggested as potentially helpful for future service development.