Luce Irigaray's Philosophy of Feminine Being : Body, Desire and Wisdom

Luce Irigaray is a Belgian-born philosopher, psychoanalyst and linguist. Irigaray s concept of woman is crucial for understanding her own work but also for examining and developing the theoretical and methodological basis of feminist theory. This thesis argues that, ultimately, Irigaray s exploration of woman s being challenges our traditional notion of philosophy as a neutral discourse and the traditional notion of ourselves as philosophizing persons or human beings. However, despite its crucial role, Irigaray s idea of woman still lacks a comprehensive explication. This is because the discourse of sexual difference is blurred by the ideas of essentialism and biologism. --- Irigaray s concept of woman has been interpreted and criticized from the perspectives of metaphysical essentialism, strategic essentialism, realist essentialism and deconstructionism. This thesis argues that a reinterpretation is necessary to account for Irigaray s claims about the the traditional woman , mimesis, the specificity of the feminine body, feminine expression and sexual difference. Moreover, any reading should account for the differences between women and avoid giving a prescriptive function to the essence of woman. --- My thesis develops a new interpretation of Irigaray s concept of woman on the basis of the phenomenology of the body. It argues that Irigaray s discourse on woman can and must be understood by an idea of existential style. Existential style is embodied, affective and spiritual and it is constituted in relation to oneself, to others and to the world. It is temporal, it evolves and changes but preserves its open unity in its transformations. Stylistic unities, such as femininity or philosophy, are constituted in and by the singulars. -- This study discusses and analyses feminine existential style as a central theme and topic of Irigaray s works and shows how her work operates as a primary and paradigmatic example of the feminine style. These tasks are performed by studying the mimetic positions available for women and by explicating the phenomenological background of Irigaray s conceptions of the philosophical method, and the lived, expressive and affective body. The critical occupation and transformation of these mimetic positions, the inquiry into the first-person pre-discursive experience, and the cultivation of feminine expressivity open up the possibility of becoming a woman writer, a woman lover and a woman philosopher. The appearance of these new feminine figures is a precondition for the realization of sexual difference. So Irigaray opens up the possibility of sexual difference by instituting and constituting a feminine subject of love and wisdom, and by problematizing the idea of a neutral and absolute subject.

Nietzsche and Montaigne: cheerful naturalism

The influence of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne on the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche has, hitherto, received scant scholarly attention. The aim of this thesis is to address this lacuna in the literature by making evident the importance of the Essays to the development of Nietzsche’s philosophy. I argue that, in order to fully appreciate Nietzsche’s thought, it must be recognized that, from the beginning to the end of his philosophical life, Montaigne was for him a thinker of the deepest personal and philosophical significance. Against the received scholarly opinion, which would see Montaigne as influential only for Nietzsche’s middle works, I contend that the Essays continue to be a key inspiration for Nietzsche even into his late and final works. Montaigne, with his cheerful affirmation of life, his experimental mode of philosophizing, and his resolutely naturalized perspective, was an exemplar for Nietzsche as a philosopher, psychologist, sceptic and naturalist. The Essays not only stimulated Nietzsche’s thinking on questions to do with morality, epistemology and the nature of the soul but also informed his conception of the ideal philosophical life. Moreover, to explore the Essays from a Nietzschean viewpoint, allows the drawing out of the more radical aspects of Montaigne’s thought, while to probe Montaigne’s impact on Nietzsche, provides insight into the trajectory of Nietzsche’s philosophy as he broke free from romantic pessimism and embraced the naturalism that would guide his works from Human, All Too Human onward.

Sentimento e reflexão : crítica da identidade nos «Fichte-studien» de Novalis

Tese de doutoramento, Estudos de Literatura e de Cultura (Estudos de Literatura e de Cultura de Expressão Alemão), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2016

Walter Benjamin and the Inhumanities: Towards a Pedagogical Anti-Nietzscheanism

The following discussion is intended as a critical intervention into recent debates about the “crisis of the humanities,” reading the symptomaticity of crisis in the medical sense of a turning point. It does so from the perspective of the work of Walter Benjamin, whose own transdisciplinary practice of thought has been characterized as a “philosophy directed against philosophy” and a “philosophizing beyond philosophy,” and stands as a model for the kind of intellectual and para-academic activity evoked here. Historically re-situating Benjamin’s famous allegory of the Angel of History from the twentieth-century context of the “crisis of culture” to the contemporary “crisis of education,” it attempts to reconstruct a dialectical understanding of pedagogization within Benjamin’s work, which is used to sketch out the contours of a critically reimagined pedagogy of the Inhumanities.

Upplysning och gränsdragning : en filosofisociologisk studie av den första generationen analytiska filosofer i Sverige

Enlightenment and boundary work: a study of the first-generation Swedish analytical philosophers from a sociology-of-philosophy perspective The history of Swedish analytical philosophy begins with the writings of Ingemar Hedenius, Anders Wedberg, and Konrad Marc-Wogau, who introduced the country to a new style of thinking that was to become the dominant mode of academic philosophizing in it from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s. The article presents a sociological analysis of how that hegemonic position was claimed and established for it in Swedish philosophy departments. In particular, the critique that Hedenius, Wedberg, and Marc-Wogau levelled in their popular writings against continental philosophy is looked upon in detail. Drawing upon Thomas Gieryn’s theory of boundary work, it is shown how the three strove for epistemic authority by demarcating their own ‘scientific’ enterprise from the ‘unscientific’ philosophy of their competitors. This quest for authority, however, was pursued not solely for its own sake: Hedenius, Wedberg, and Marc-Wogau were also all firmly committed to the ideals of enlightenment and cultural radicalism shaping the Swedish society of their time.

Filosofar em tempos de informação

This thesis reflects upon the question of how does philosophy think a particular today, which is not only a legitimate philosophical task but a determinative characteristic of philosophy in general. Today's thought follows two paths: first, an hermeneutical-phenomenological analysis of Martin Heidegger's thought with regards to his own contemporaneity; and secondly, through the analysis of the contemporary phenomenon of Information Technology which in the present work is to be considered a privileged sign of our times and distinctive of the mindfulness of philosophy. Therefore, the starting point is an investigation of Heidegger's thinking on his own era to whom facticity is a way of accessing the fundamental question of philosophy. This thesis is led by three guiding words which hold onto a perspective of unity in Heidegger s lifetime of work: 1. Technicity, 2. History, 3. Language, to thereby develop a characterization of human existence as 1. Technopolitical, 2. Technoscientific, and 3. Technological. Finally, in keeping with this triangular characterization of the human, a philosophical comprehension of our times will be established and drawn by Information Technology illustrating three of its' factual signs that are understood to be the 'Remains of Being' today: The Emptying of Speech (Language); The Emptying of Science (History); The Emptying of The Object (Technicity). Through these nowadays phenomenon, it is possible to maintain a grip on the fundamental question, precisely when the task of philosophy seems to have peremptorily lost its meaning and come to its logical end and to show how philosophizing in the information era is as possible as it is necessary.

Notas sobre o problema da explicação e da experiência no ensino da Filosofia

Apesar do esforço dos defensores do ensino da Filosofia para que essa disciplina volte a fazer parte do Ensino Médio, observamos, atualmente, seu abandono nos cursos universitários. Notamos que hoje, na sociedade normalizada e no espaço educacional, não é mais valorizado o desenvolvimento integral do pensamento, mas a transmissão de uma série de conteúdos que, supostamente, dão condições para a integração do estudante no quadro do progresso tecnológico e proporcionam sua entrada no mercado de trabalho. Circunscrevendo-se nesse contexto, neste texto pretende-se investigar o espaço em que o ensino da Filosofia se desenvolve na atualidade. Delineando os contornos de um problema que emerge nos espaços institucionais universitários onde o ensino da Filosofia ainda persiste, procurou-se evidenciar em que bases a Filosofia é ensinada. Procurou-se, ainda, compreender quais consequências os modos de compreender o ensino da Filosofia trazem para o aprendizado do filosofar. Uma consideração a que se pode chegar, a partir deste estudo, é a de que o ensino da Filosofia além de não privilegiar, e muitas vezes negar, a experiência de pensamento que o aluno pode fazer e ter com o texto filosófico, contribui para o empobrecimento dessa mesma experiência do e com o filosofar.

O que pode o filosofar no ensino fundamental: caminhos para uma educação na perspectiva emancipatória

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

O ensino de filosofia e o filosofar e a possibilidade de uma experiência filosófica na atualidade

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Ser-para-a-morte na apropriação de si em Heidegger: pressupostos para a educação

O texto ora apresentado efetiva a discussão principal dos conceitos ser-para-a-morte e si-próprio da filosofia do filósofo Heidegger, embasado no livro Ser e Tempo, tendo por intuito entender como o ser-para-a-morte implica na apropriação do si-próprio. O embasamento metodológico utilizado é o da fenomenologia-hermenêutica, criada pelo próprio autor para dar conta de suas conceituações, formando o conjunto de sua obra. A escrita é desenvolvida em três capítulos. O primeiro faz um apanhado geral sobre o pensamento de Heidegger, refazendo o percurso de seu filosofar, esclarecendo a utilização dos conceitos, por meio de exaustivas explicações, que vão desde o ser, perpassando pelo Dasein, até o ser-para-a-morte, sendo também um alicerce para as próximas etapas. Já o segundo capítulo trata mais fortemente do ser-para-a-morte no enlace com a literatura, na obra “A morte de Ivan Ilitch” de Liev Tolstói, demonstrando na experiência da personagem a apropriação de si, ao encarar a sua morte prematuramente, depois de ser interpelado pela angústia, compreendendo ser-para-amorte. No terceiro capítulo, será feita a síntese das questões debatidas com ênfase no si-próprio, concebendo os conceitos heideggerianos, como cuidado, impessoalidade, silêncio, utilizados na compreensão de uma educação em Heidegger.

O ensino de filosofia no Brasil: a sua formação discursiva no contexto universitário de 1930 a 1968

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Repensando o sentido formativo da atividade filosófica à luz do “Trabalho sobre si-mesmo” de Wittgenstein: se filosofar é trabalhar sobre si, o que se trabalha quando se filosofa?

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

El pensamiento ensayístico y la historiografía de las ideas filosóficas en una cultura bifronte : algunas consideraciones a partir de José Gaos y Carlos Astrada

En este trabajo analizamos dos momentos significativos de la historiografía de las ideas filosóficas en la problematización de la atribución de primacía del ensayo en el despliegue del filosofar hispanoamericano. Desarrollamos este enfoque en nuestra lectura de las obras de José Gaos y Carlos Astrada.