1 Can the subaltern speak? In 1988, the Indian philosopher Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak asked this question in an homonymic essay in which she investigated the relations between Western ...poststructuralist criticisms of the metaphysical subject and the representation of non-Western people (Spivak 1988 2008, 109–30). According to Spivak one of the occurring problems was that contemporary Western intellectuals tried to speak on behalf of the suppressed, thereby unwittingly and imperceptibly reinscribing, co-opting, and rehearsing neocolonial imperatives of political domination, economic exploitation, and cultural erasure.
How then can the subaltern—or “the other”—speak? How can she or he be understood
The Ethical as a Stage STEPHEN NORTHRUP DUNNING
Kierkegaard's Dialectic of Inwardness,
07/2014
Book Chapter
Although Kierkegaard wrote many edifying discourses that treat one or another aspect of the ethical life, it is in the writings of the pseudonym Judge William that the notion of the ethical as a ...stage is developed. The Judge is credited with volume II ofEither/Or,¹ comprising two long letters to A, “Aesthetic Validity of Marriage” and “Equilibrium Between the Aesthetical and the Ethical in the Composition of the Personality,” and supplemented by “Ultimatum,” which is purportedly a copy of a sermon written by a priest and friend of the Judge; and “Various Observations about Marriage, in Reply to Objections,”
The Ethical Self JOHN W. ELROD
Kierkegaard and Christendom,
07/2014
Book Chapter
The concept of neighbor is so central to Kierkegaard’s second literature that it is impossible to understand other key concepts in this literature without constant reference to it. The concepts of ...freedom, law, duty, love, willing the good (purity of heart), not willing the good (double-mindedness), self-deception, repetition, equality, God, action, conscience, suffering, ethics, and religion are all allied with the notion of neighbor in the second literature. Indeed, another way of expressing Kierkegaard’s negative reaction to his own age is to say that he perceived it as having lost the notion of the other as neighbor. His writings in
Previous study of exchange by marketing scholars has emphasized events and conditions leading to and the outcomes of exchange interaction. However, limited attention has been directed toward the role ...of ethics and law in exchange. The emerging perspective of relational exchange suggests the importance of these foundations. The authors examine the interrelationship of contract law and ethics for building and sustaining marketing exchanges. They explore dimensions of ethical exchange and offer managerial and research implications.
Jonas Barish’sThe Antitheatrical Prejudiceis rightly considered a classic of modern scholarship. Carefully compiling the various strands of antitheatrical thought, Barish exposes and analyses its ...vicissitudes and implications. Caustic wit animates his evaluation of the literature produced by the “legions of hard-shelled, mole-eyed fanatics” who could find nothing of value and yet much danger in the theater: “an unmistakable crackpot streak runs through much of it,” he observes—a remark that is exemplary of virtually all that is said about this grim literature.³ But the consensual dismissal of anti-theatricality to which Barish’s sense of humour appeals, also leads to
Questions whether the discourse of community tends to deny full participation to people who differ from the consensual values of the majority. Argues that participation in an ethical discourse ...community must be guided by an ethics that directs people to value their differences. Reviews critiques of community. Presents an alternative discourse. (HB)
Introduction Nicholas J. Long; Henrietta L. Moore
Sociality,
12/2012
Book Chapter
What would an anthropological theory of human sociality look like post-Strathern, post-affect theory, and post-actor-network theory (ANT)? It would certainly need to take on board the important ...insights and critiques that such paradigms have offered – but should also move beyond them to address their weaknesses. It would need to be able to account for the tremendous variety of forms that can be assumed by the sociality of humans – if not other entities – a variety that appears to be ever-burgeoning as new innovations in science and technology allow human beings to extend their imaginative and practical reach. It would need to
The main purpose of the present study is to explore how the ethical relationship between teacher and student in the classroom can be described and understood from the approach of the French ...philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. I also examine the theoretical concepts that can be derived from Lévinas’ ideas in order to be able to interpret the manner in which this ethical relationship manifests itself in the classroom. The empirical data was generated through observation of the kind often found in ethnographical studies like microanalyses using a variety of digital techniques. I also made use of direct observation and stimulated recall interviews in close connection with the classroom events. The study was carried out at two Swedish schools and the focus was placed on classroom practice and ethical communication in the classroom. Facial expressions, eye contact, gestures and other non-verbal communication was of great interest. Through microanalysis of classroom interaction I have attempted to uncover what exists under the surface of the classroom communication in more detail. According to Lévinas, ethics is understood as a relation of the infinitive responsibility to the Other person. In a pedagogical context, we may speak of the ”first meeting” face-to-face before any categorization of the other individual is formulated. The key concepts are Saying (in relation to the Said), the Other, the Face, asymmetrical relationships and alterity. In their encounter with the empirical data collected, the concepts have been freighted with edagogical significance. These original ethical thoughts of Lévinas, much of which challenge what has previously been taken for granted, can provide new insight into educational work. This investigation has provided other insights into the ethical dimension of education, especially as the teacher-student relationship is concerned. The close connection between vulnerability and interdependence in the teacher-student relationship, and communication as self-exposure, are important findings that can help teachers and pedagogues to understand the ethical dimension of the educational encounter with the student. Throughout the study, a relational ethical perspective has been developed as an alternative interpretative tool for analyzing and reflecting upon the teacher-student relationship.
In the Introduction, I argued that the ways in which we experience ‘everyday’ ethics as limited, fragmented and exceeding theory pointed to a problem with approaching ethics as a task of theory and ...application. In response to the specific ways in which this problem is manifest in poststructuralist approaches to Politics and IR, I have suggested that this approach is closely linked to the problem of foundations and that by putting ethical foundations into question, both ethics and politics are refigured as practices emerging at the limits of theory.This makes the formulation of a ‘more responsible politics’, a task undertaken by the authors considered in Chapter 1, difficult if not impossible. In particular, if ethics and politics cannot be separated in the first place, then deducing one from the other becomes deeply problematic. In fact, I have argued, the force of such an attempt distorts and limits readings of key poststructuralist thinkers in such a way that the radical potential of their reformulation of the ethico-political in terms of response and relation is unrealised. The theoretical point of departure for my project, then, has been to develop a reading of these thinkers where such an attempt is resisted. Once the opposition between ethics and politics is displaced, a series of other oppositions onto which this maps are also opened up for interrogation: same/Other, conditional/unconditional, face/Third, transcendence/immanence, universal/particular and singular/plural. The approach I have taken has been to trace the ways in which these oppositions are disrupted in the work of Levinas, Derrida and Nancy.
