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philosophy of mind |cognitive process |embodied cognition |mind–body problem |Susan Hurley |Alva Noë |Evan Thompson

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In recent years, a central debate in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science concerns the role of the body in perception and cognition. For many contemporary philosophers, not only cognition but also perception is connected mainly with the brain, where the processing of input from the senses takes place; whereas for the proponents of ‘embodied cognition’ other aspects of the body beyond the brain, including the environment, play a constitutive role in cognitive processes. In terms of perception, a new theory has emerged which stresses perception’s active character and claims that the embodied subject and the environment, with which it interacts, form a dynamic system. Supporters of ‘enactive perception’ such as Susan Hurley and Alva Noë maintain that the physical substrate or the supervenience basis of perceptual experience and phenomenal consciousness may include besides the brain and the nervous system other bodily and environmental features. Yet, it will be argued in this paper that the interaction between the subject and the environment forms a system of causal relations, so we can theoretically interfere in the causal chains and create hallucinations, which cannot be distinguished from veridical perception, or a virtual reality as in the film Matrix (1999). This kind of argument and its related thought experiments aim to stress the primacy of the brain in determining phenomenal states, and show that the body and certain interactions with the environment have a causal, but not a constitutive or essential role, in forming phenomenal consciousness.

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Agency |Indian philosophy |action |psychophysical integrity |mental causation |karman

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The paper discusses the issue of psychophysical agency in the context of Indian philosophy, focusing on the oldest preserved texts of the classical tradition of Sāṃkhya-Yoga. The author raises three major questions: What is action in terms of Sāṃkhyakārikā (ca. fifth century CE) and Yogasūtra (ca. third century CE)? Whose action is it, or what makes one an agent? What is a right and morally good action? The first part of the paper reconsiders a general idea of action - including actions that are deliberately done and those that ‘merely’ happen - identified by Patañjali and Ῑśvarakṛṣṇa as a permanent change or transformation (pariṇāma) determined by the universal principle of causation (satkārya). Then, a threefold categorization of actions according to their causes is presented, i.e. internal agency (ādhyātmika), external agency (ādhibhautika) and ‘divine’ agency (ādhidaivika). The second part of the paper undertakes the problem of the agent’s autonomy and the doer’s psychophysical integrity. The main issues that are exposed in this context include the relationship between an agent and the agent’s capacity for perception and cognition, as well as the crucial Sāṃkhya-Yoga distinction between ‘a doer’ and ‘the self’. The agent’s self-awareness and his or her moral self-esteem are also briefly examined. Moreover, the efficiency of action in present and future is discussed (i.e. karman, karmāśaya, saṃskāra, vāsanā), along with the criteria of a right act accomplished through meditative insight (samādhi) and moral discipline (yama). (yama).

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body |philosophy of mind |intentionality |theory of emotion |correct emotion |philosophy of language |school of Brentano |intersection between literature and philosophy |soul

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How does it feel to be a worm? No doubt, it feels Kafkaesque. The metamorphosis (1915) is a story of an ordinary man, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning as an ungeheures Ungeziefer or ‘giant vermin’. Is this only a bodily change, or has his mind been transformed as well? And how do the people around him cope with this transformation? In this paper, I am going to examine these issues by using tools from Franz Brentano’s (1838-1917) and Anton Marty’s (1847-1914) philosophy of mind and language. Rumour has it that Kafka’s stories were not only products of his own troubled soul, but were also profoundly influenced by the work of these two philosophers. In my paper, I will cover the following issues: the influence of Franz Brentano on Anton Marty and a fortiori on Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who was Marty’s student in Prague (and in this way, saying something about the School of Brentano); Brentano’s and Marty’s theory of correct and incorrect emotions, and its traces in Kafka’s The metamorphosis; Marty’s philosophy of language and communication as reflected in Kafka’s writings; and Brentano’s reism in comparison to Kafka’s nominalism, on the basis of Roberto Calasso’s interpretation of Kafka.

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interpretation |Roland Barthes |theory of text |logo‑technique |thinking with body |theory of cultural practices

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The article is an attempt of the analysis and the interpretation of the categories ‘pleasure’ (Fr. plaisir) and ‘delight’ (Fr. jouissance), in the context of philosophically oriented theoretical-literary considerations of Roland Barthes, sacrificed to the mystery of experiencing of the love. The part first, referring mainly to Barthes’ works, recognises the range of the semantic field plaisir and jouissance, as categories basic for the textual language of the outstanding theoretician. The second part introduces three examples of western cultural practices which illustrate the manner of use plaisir and jouissance as the factors of textual structures.

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intentionality |Maurice Merleau‑Ponty |reversibility |dress |expression |bodily communication |public audience

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I will argue here that for many of us the act of dressing our bodies is evidence of intentional expression before different audiences. It is important to appreciate that intentionality enables us to understand how and why we act the way we do. The novel (and potentially significant) contribution this paper makes to this examination is employing clothing as a means of revealing the characteristics of intentionality. In that, it is rare to identify one exemplar that successfully captures the relationships between the cognitive and physical characteristics of its application. Nevertheless, this paper will not attempt to fully encompass the traditional approaches associated with this concept but instead employ both the early and later writings of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his claim that our lived bodies are an expressive space from which we act intentionally. In other words (and this is critical for the approach of this paper), that the manner by which we dress our bodies is likely to offer a significant means of revealing the character of intentionality in everyday life and by this, claim that clothing can communicate. Accordingly, this first-person account closely examines both the cognitive and physical experience of a simple clothing example: ‘what to wear?’ and the experience of an everyday clothing purchase in a store and its subsequent impact when the item of clothing is worn for different audiences. The ensuing discussion systematically examines the significance of marrying Merleau-Ponty’s writings with this everyday example through private and public audiences and in abstract and public spaces.

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Martin Heidegger |Design |tool |the handiness of tools |beyond practical values |bodily comfort |everyday aesthetics

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Heidegger’s notion of ‘handiness’ combines two meanings, which in my view should be separated. They both refer to ways of characterizing tools in a given culture. Every culture uses tools, and they are all used so they are ‘handy’. The question is: Handy with regard to what? Two answers come to mind. The first one suggests that handiness is typical of the aims achieved in a given culture, which are linked with that culture’s system of values. Having been fulfilled, the aims seem to disappear, but new ones emerge and the cultural values are all the time appreciated. The aims and values constitute a part of the vision of the world accepted by the members of a given cultural community. In such a context, we can understand the handiness of tools as their optimum quality in facilitating the achievement of the aims which maintain the current cultural values, and so the existence of a given culture. The second answer links handiness with fulfilling the requirements of the human body. When considering the body in terms of its biological categories (as an organism) we can bear in mind its universal characteristics such as limbs, height, differences in body measurements, etc. In such a context, Martin Heidegger’s handiness can be understood pragmatically, as the features of a tool when adjusting it to the human body. In this paper, I propose a thesis that contemporary design loses handiness of the first type, while concentrating on making tools more and more comfortable for the human body. The cultural aims and values traditionally recognized in a given culture lose their priority, or seem to be ignored. At the same time, every tool user is given a chance to develop handiness of the first type. Whether we use this opportunity or not is another problem.

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European painting |image of human body |body in art |idealization of human body

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The human body has always been one of the most important subjects for European artists. But the way it is displayed in art has varied in different epochs. In ancient Greece, a canon was constituted that proclaimed an ideal vision of the body, derived from the rules governing the universe. This idealization of the human body, neglected in the Middle Ages, was re-established in Renaissance and Classicist art. However, Renaissance artists also created another image of the human body by borrowing from patterns mainly found in nature, and started to depict their models not in an ideal but rather in a more natural shape. The new non-ideal forms of art that appeared in Mannerist art made the artists develop a much wider artistic language, which brought into being a variety of individually interpreted artistic representations of the human body. It preceded similar phenomena which became widespread in the twentieth century. Thus, the human body was not always displayed in art as strong, healthy and beautiful. On the contrary, the martyred bodies of Christ and the saints, as well as the depictions of aged, tired or ill people, also carried enormous artistic expression. A distinct problem has occurred with the ways in which corpses have been presented in art. The review concludes with a reference to the contemporary trend called Body-Art that involves various artistic activities, such as happenings and performances, where the human body is itself used as a significant work of art.

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body |Art |Bill Viola |physionomy |Aesthetics |emotion |Franz Xaver Messerschmidt |contemporary art |bodily expression

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In this paper, I am predominantly interested in interpretations of emotional states portrayed in images of the face. In particular, the interpretations which have grown around the series of busts by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, as well as those which attempt to expound Bill Viola’s video works. I will refer to aspects of physiognomy, artistic practices and aesthetics, in order to show what each of these tells us about our attitude to the body and emotions and what happens to the body while a person is experiencing an emotion. My aim is to demonstrate how the act of depicting the body, regarded as a cognitive process in an artistic medium accompanied by a special kind of aesthetic experience, becomes a means of communication which is capable of conveying a universal message and of allowing us to define our attitude to the body.

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beauty |Sanskrit literature |Indian epics |Mahābhārata |female and male attractiveness

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This paper deals with the bodily attractiveness of heroines and heroes, as described in one of the two most important epics of India. The basis for this analysis is the love stories and episodes included in the main plot of the Vanaparvan, the third book of the Mahābhārata. The stories from this book have been taken into consideration due to their numerous occurrences, which are a sufficient ground for generalizations. Many characteristic features of their protagonists are repeated in different sub-stories. Also, the images of female and male characters, princesses, queens and kings are presented and discussed in detail. The external beauty of such female heroines as Damayantī, Sāvitrī, Sukanyā, Suśobhanā and Sitā; as well as the attractiveness of two semi-goddesses, called Apsarases, are described and analysed. The names of the Apsarases discussed in the context of female beauty are Urvaśī and Menakā. Besides this, the image of an unnamed courtesan is discussed, as it is the most detailed description of a female character and probably follows the ideal of female beauty as shown in the Mahābhārata. As far as the male protagonists are concerned, the images of heroes such as Nala, Bhīma, Aśvapati, Rāma and Daśaratha are taken into consideration. The examples of male attractiveness also include features of the five main heroes of the Mahābhārata: the Paṇḍava brothers.

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gender |Japanese art |Japanese aesthetics |Kabuki theatre |the Edo period

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The connection between Kabuki theatre and Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603-1868), especially in their portraits of actors called yakusha-e, offers an exceptional opportunity to analyse perceptions of the sex of the actor: as the hero of the drama, as well as the character performed on the stage. Both phenomena flourished in the Edo period and had a crucial impact on the visual art of the time, inspiring pictures of the Floating World (Jap. Ukiyo-e). The images on Ukiyo-e woodblock prints serve as a pretext for approaching the matter of whether to portray an actor as a performer (a man) or as the character performed by him (which could also be a woman, as in the case of the onnagata actor). The author focuses on the actors’ identification with their own sex (only men appeared on the Kabuki stage) and on cases of breaking the convention between the real actor and his stage emploi. In the first part, the paper discusses the historical background of Kabuki theatre, which was invented by a woman (Izumo-no Okuni) and then after a few government edicts, was allowed to be performed on the stage only by adult men. Since the Kabuki tradition has successfully continued until today, apart from surveys of theatrical archives, the author supports her arguments by also referring to contemporary phenomena, especially the Kabuki performances she has watched in Japan (in such theatres as: Kabuki-za, Minami-za, the National Theatre in Tokyo, and Zenshin-za), and through interviews with actors and people of the theatre. In parallel, Ukiyo-e images of the Edo period are studied, with core research from the National Museum in Kraków, Poland, and its collection of Japanese woodblock prints (including over 4600 original works from the Edo Period), and with special attention paid to the yakusha-e portrait by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

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feminizm |kognitywistyka

Streszczenie

Cechą charakterystyczną dzisiejszego świata nauk najwyraźniej stała się interdyscyplinarność. Balansując między autentyczną, pogłębioną współpracą różnych dziedzin a nową etykietą dla starych metod, nie mogła ominąć również sfery badań nad płcią. W zakresie nauk poznawczych badania te do tej pory nie doczekały się konceptualizacji godzącej perspektywy biologiczne ze społeczno-kulturowymi...

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ciało |uprzedmiotowienie |przemoc |media |kino |okrucieństwo |film

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Wbrew szeroko rozpowszechnionemu poglądowi, jakoby sztuka miała za zadanie przedstawiać i realizować piękno, trzeba powiedzieć, iż poza stosunkowo krótkim okresem renesansu idea piękna rzadko wyznaczała normę i miarę aktywności artystycznej (Liessmann, 2009: 51). takiemu uproszczonemu spojrzeniu przeczy choćby społeczna wielofunkcyjność sztuki: pedagogiczna, mimetyczno‑tragiczna, religijno‑medytacyjna i wiele innych...

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identyczność |Madhyamaka |tożsamość bytu |filozofia buddyjska |Nāgārjuna |redukcjonizm

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Zagadnienie tożsamości można rozpatrywać z różnych perspektyw: logicznej, metafizycznej/ontologicznej, społecznej, kulturowej, psychologicznej. W zależności od kontekstu, w jakim stawiamy pytanie o tożsamość, będzie ono dotyczyło, tj. będzie pytało o różne rzeczy...

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kryterium |Ludwig Wittgenstein |teoria wiedzy

Streszczenie

W niniejszym artykule zamierzam przedyskutować trzy interpretacje Wittgensteinowskiego pojęcia kryterium. Zestawienie tych interpretacji pozwala — jak sądzę — lepiej zrozumieć specyfikę dociekań pojęciowych, bowiem wedle Ludwiga Wittgensteina (1889–1951) określenie treści pojęcia polega na podaniu kryteriów użycia terminu wyrażającego to pojęcie. Artykuł zakończę kilkoma uwagami na temat roli, jaką odgrywają pojęcia kryterium i reguły w filozofii austriackiego filozofa.

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prawa zwierząt |ekstensjonalizm |etyka środowiskowa |perspektywa biocentryczna

Streszczenie

Punktem wyjścia dla większości odmian etyki środowiskowej jest przekonanie, że ograniczenie zobowiązań moralnych tylko do osób ludzkich jest wyrazem egoizmu gatunkowego, który kłóci się z altruistycznymi podstawami etyki (motywacje egoistyczne przez niemal wszystkie systemy etyczne, poza hedonistycznymi, uważane są za pozbawiające czyny etycznej wartości)...

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Hannah Arendt |totalitaryzm |filozofia polityczna |Eric Voegelin

Streszczenie

Zakończenie II wojny światowej i odkrycie ogromu zbrodni hitlerowskich, a w szczególności skali Holokaustu, wyzwoliło pytanie o źródła totalitaryzmu nazistowskiego. Różnorakie próby odpowiedzi na nie wywołały ogólnoświatową, często niezwykle zażartą debatę, w której wątki społeczne, polityczne i religijne odgrywały rolę pierwszoplanową...

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sztuka |przestrzeń |Paweł Florenski

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Myśl Pawła Florenskiego, obecnie jednego z najbardziej popularnych filozofów rosyjskiego okresu srebrnego wieku, do dzisiaj nie jest w Polsce znana wystarczająco dobrze; „wciąż Florenski pozostaje najmniej znanym największym filozofem rosyjskim”...

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composition |tagmemics |win‑rhetoric |dissoi logoi |pedagogy |argumentation

Streszczenie

Despite the effort educators put into developing in students the critical writing and thinking skills needed to compose effective arguments, undergraduate college students are often accused of churning out essays lacking in creative and critical thought, arguments too obviously formulated and with sides too sharply drawn. Theories abound as to why these deficiencies are rampant. Some blame students’ immature cognitive and emotional development for these lacks. Others put the blame of lackadaisical output on the assigning of shopworn writing subjects, assigned topics such as on American laws and attitudes about capital punishment and abortion. Although these factors might contribute to faulty written output in some cases, the prevailing hindrance is our very pedagogy, a system in which students are rewarded for composing the very type of argument we wish to avoid — the eristic, in which the goal is not truth seeking, but successfully disputing another’s argument. Certainly the eristic argument is the intended solution in cases when a clear-cut outcome is needed, such as in legal battles and political campaigns when there can only be one winner. However, teaching mainly or exclusively the eristic, as is done in most composition classrooms today, halts the advancement of these higher-order inquiry skills we try developing in our students.

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contemporary art |body in art |Japanese art and culture |transcultural aesthetics |town as a museum |community based art project

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The author discusses the relationship between art and the body, as exemplified by the similarities and differences in the works of: two Japanese artists, Matsui Chie (b. 1960) and Higashikage Tomohiro (b. 1978); and the Polish artist, Mirosław Bałka (b. 1958). These examples are referred to in the context of a unique project recently conducted in Japan — the Tatsuno Art Project 2013. Held with the support of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, the project aims to present contemporary art to people from across Japan and around the globe, and to capitalize on the region’s unique cultural heritage, creating opportunities for people to communicate with local residents and making Tatsuno a more dynamic and popular place to visit. This paper considers various connections between art and the body by focusing on a selection of works included in the Tatsuno Art Project 2013: Arts and Memories. Known in past centuries as the ‘little Kyoto’ of Harima Province, Tatsuno is an atmospheric old castle town. It is mild and relatively warm all year round, with the climate of the nearby Seto Inland Sea region, said to be similar to that of the Mediterranean. Thanks to the support of numerous people, the organizers were able to hold the 2013 event which represented the culmination of their efforts over the past few years, being the largest ever in terms of scale with nine invited artists, eleven other participating artists, and one contemporary musician, for a total of 21 creators contributing works. With new spaces added to create a total of 16 venues, the community-wide project truly achieved its goal of presenting the ‘historic castle town as a museum’. The project curators were also able to strengthen Tatsuno’s international ties by inviting artists from France and Poland to take part, as well as Japanese artists residing in the UK and Spain.