Philosophy Commons^™

Phenomenology Of Death: The Religious Dimension In The Ethical Thought Of Emmanuel Levinas, Changhyun Kim

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores Levinas’s phenomenology of death in order to unveil the religious dimension in his ethical thought through examining the political moment of the third party. I argue that death is neither a pure phenomenon transparently intelligible in the noema-noesis structure of intentionality nor a mere non-phenomenon totally irrelevant to the phenomenological investigation. Rather, death is a para-phenomenon whose unfathomable feature calls into question Levinas’s two important philosophical precedents: 1) Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology, in a methodological sense, and 2) Heidegger’s ontological interpretation of death, in a thematical sense. On the one hand, Levinas faces in the para-phenomenality of death …

Subjectivity Is No Object: Can Subject-Object Dualism Be Reconciled Through Phenomenology?, Brent Dean Robbins, Harris L. Friedman, Chad V. Johnson, Zeno Franco

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology has at times critiqued the broader psychology field for perpetrating a somewhat arbitrary Cartesian subject-object divide. Some phenomenologists claim that reframing this purported divide as an experienced phenomenon can defuse its philosophical impact. If subjective experiences are viewed as continuous with the lifeworld out of which objective phenomena are abstracted, the divide between these is revealed as a somewhat arbitrary, if useful, construction. This, in turn, challenges psychology to engage with subjective phenomena in a more substantive way. In this paper based on excerpts from a protracted email conversation held on the American Psychological Association’s Humanistic Psychology (Division …

“To See My Home Before I Die”: The Trip To Bountiful, Memento Mori, And The Experience Of Death, Margaret Sullivan

Journal of Religion & Film

This article analyzes the portrayal of death in Peter Masterson’s 1985 film The Trip to Bountiful. My claim is that the experience of death, in the film, functions as a tool both for the elderly main character’s increased self-understanding and for her conscious, ethical action. I enter this discussion through an examination of late deconstruction’s ethical turn and the argument that aporetic unknowing, if experienced and endured, leads to the chance for real, authentic action. I then demonstrate how the film depicts such an aporetic encounter with death, and do so, in large part, by focusing on the film’s final …

William J. Richardson, S.J.: Reflections In Memoriam, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Fr. William J. Richardson, S.J., was born in Brooklyn, New York on the 2nd of November, 1920. He died at the Jesuit Campion Health Center, in Weston, Massachusetts, on the 10th of December, 2016.

Leo O’Donovan, S.J., Richard Kearney, and Jeffrey Bloechl, each in different ways gathered the diffusions of mourning friends, students, colleagues, patients, and admirers of the late William J. Richardson, via email over the days leading up to and after his funeral.

As Bill was one of the founding members of the Heidegger Circle (Penn State, 1967) and was present at the first conference on Heidegger’s thought …

“Fall” And Redemption In The Thought Of Martin Heidegger And Jacques Lacan, Tyler Akers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines and develops Martin Heidegger’s concept of “falling” as a significant historical-philosophical principle. Falling, however, is primarily understood as a concept of the early Heidegger, whereas I argue that Heidegger continues to rely upon it, both explicitly and implicitly, throughout his career. Falling is a description of philosophical and Western history, known as metaphysics, and the description of man’s relationship to Being. Thus, falling relates to the most significant streams in Heidegger’s later thought, too, including the truth of Being, the death of God, the gods, the overcoming of metaphysics, and meditative thinking.

I then reinterpret the traditional …

Implications And Consequences Of Post-Modern Philosophy For Contemporary Transpersonal Studies Ii. Georges Bataille’S Post-Nietzschean Secular Mysticism, Phenomenology Of Ecstatic States, And Original Transpersonal Sociology, Harry Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The writings of the French philosopher Georges Bataille (1897-1962) offer their own contribution to the descriptive phenomenology of mystical and numinous states, as well as a version of the modern secular or this-worldly mysticism variously anticipated by Jung and Nietzsche, and a highly original sociology and social psychology of transpersonal experience, influenced by Max Weber, that helps to open an area not widely developed in recent studies. At the same time, the trauma and personal difficulties in Bataille’s life serve as a stark example of the often distortive effects of spiritual metapathologies on inner development. Bataille’s views of ecstatic states …

Humans And Nature: Finding Meaning Through Metaphysics, Justin Stone

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Before the 19th Century, natural philosophers explored the inner workings of nature and humanity using many different modes of thinking such as logic, mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. The incorporation of these varied concepts brought about a comprehensive understanding of nature and how humans relate to nature. Theories were devised from incorporeal ideas, data was gathered from the human senses, and concrete evidence was pursued to support philosophy. However, through the years from ancient times to modernity, natural philosophy slowly limited its use of revelation and metaphysics, restricting the quest for knowledge to the methodical gathering of empirical data. Science, as …

The Existential Compromise In The History Of The Philosophy Of Death, Adam Buben

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I begin by offering an account of two key strains in the history of philosophical dealings with death. Both strains initially seek to diminish fear of death by appealing to the idea that death is simply the separation of the soul from the body. According to the Platonic strain, death should not be feared since the soul will have a prolonged existence free from the bodily prison after death. With several dramatic modifications, this is the strain that is taken up by much of the mainstream Christian tradition. According to the Epicurean strain, death should not be feared since the …

Reading And Responsibility: The Grammar Of The Inexpressible And The Poiesis Of Religious Belief, Philip G. Banning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reading religious literature is generally considered to be either an "outsider's" practice useful for the determination of a culture's or individual reader's beliefs, whether of the past or present, or an "insider's" practice necessary for guidance in morality and "right" action. Both of these practices mean the text is construed as the motivation or cause of other beliefs and actions, and that the purpose or value of such texts is nothing more than identifying and promulgating certain beliefs. Understanding texts and reading in this way does not allow us to conceive of the text as a work of art and …