Online research in philosophy

This paper studies the media phenomenon of “public intellectual” in China and tries to show it entails not only the result of the intervention of mass production of cultural field by the small scale production of intellectual field, but also the necessity of acquiring symbolic capital on behalf of the dominant class of the political-economic field. The engagements of Chinese public intellectuals are socially divided rather than publicly oriented, and the media field under the domination of the political-economic field working (...) as a cultural intermediary inclines to support neo-liberalist discourses about them. Bourdieu’s theories of champs, Habitus and capitals are applied to analyze the media phenomenon of public intellectuals in Chinese context and the paper addresses this question in three aspects. First, the emergence of public intellectuals in the mass production of cultural field and how its power relationship with different champs including media field and political-economic field threatens the autonomy of intellectual for public engagement. Second, the competitions of accumulating capitals by intellectuals in the media field and social field, and how it affects their unified engagement. Third, how the practice of Habitus by public intellectuals on the media either improve or declines their competition for symbolic capitals, and the potential antagonism caused by the dislocation of the practice of their habitus with some groups’ positions in the social field. This paper uses mainly ethnography and textual analysis to study the public intellectuals’ media program and text, and online research is applied to study the audience reaction in the social field. (shrink)

REVIEW of Nicolae Râmbu (editor-in-chief). Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 9, no. 1 (2012), 258 pages. E-ISSN: 2065-5002; ISSN: 1584-1057.

Based on phenomenological perspectives on embodied communication and con-textuality, this paper contributes to a more integral understanding of the constitutive role of communicating in organising and organisations. Relating to the recent turn towards interpreting emergent communication as constitutive for organisation, the paper shows the supplementing role of advanced phenomenology of the body, embodiment and inter-corporeity as well as creative expression for transcending the materialist-idealist dualism and interpreting relational communication. After presenting a phenomenological understanding of embodied communication the status of language (...) as a living process is discussed. Then communication is interpreted as embodied, intentional and responsive practice and as such being part of a specific contextuality in organizations. Finally the process of “inter-communicating” and further implications will be discussed. (shrink)

India has been known for its diverse cultures and communities. But in the contemporary economic and social setup where global cultural and economic ideologies dominate markets, media and every aspect of the social life, the paper asks if the notion of cultural diversity is intact in the contemporary India. Culture is certainly not static but what about diversity, is it transforming as well alongside as cultures around the world assimilate, as many argue? Does the profit driven market and media logic (...) nurture diversity? In investigating cultural diversity, the paper argues that diversity is in the process of mainstreamisation as a result of similarisation of consumption of products, meanings and messages resulting in the reduction and simplification of diversity, as one is becoming the simulation of the other. It concludes that Indian society is in rapid transition from a diverse society to a post-diverse society which presents us with both unprecedented challenges and possible opportunities. (shrink)

The importance of the visual aspects of the fantastic reverberates even into theory, as shown by several researchers throughout the last decades. These researchers distinguished themselves from their predecessors, whose definition of the fantastic implied mainly an involvement of the intellect. From the many forms it takes, we will concentrate in this article on the thematic level of the text, or, more precisely, on the use of the mirrors and other forms of reflection as a form of exploration of the (...) self in the fantastic tales of the Belgian writer Thomas Owen. Vision becomes more than a common way of perceiving reality for the writer’s characters, now looking to shed a new light on the unknown and offering an insight on things beyond reason. (shrink)

In English, as in many other languages, male-gendered pronouns are sometimes used to refer not only to men, but to individuals whose gender is unknown or unspecified, to human beings in general (as in ―mankind‖) and sometimes even to females (as when the casual ―Hey guys‖ is spoken to a group of women). These so-called he/man or masculine generics have come under fire in recent decades for being sexist, even archaic, and positively harmful to women and girls; and advocates of (...) gender-neutral (or nonsexist) language have put forward serious efforts to discourage their use. Have they been successful, and to what extent? In this paper, I review some of the main arguments in favor of abolishing sexist male generics. I then present three studies tracking the use of he/man terminology in academic, popular, and personal discourse over the past several decades. I show that the use of these terms has fallen dramatically in recent years, while nonsexist alternatives have gradually taken their place. We may be paying witness to the early stages of the ultimate extinction of masculine generics. (shrink)

The aim of the current research was to determine the extent to which blogs serve as a public arena, wherein discourse conditions of equality, mutuality, and symmetry are amplified. Research questions were tested through a convenience sample from audience members (N=103) of the most popular sporting blog in Israel, and involved online surveys and an in-depth interview with the blog writer. Findings illustrate the process of forming a social community (virtual settlement/virtual community) through discussion and engagement, to a large extent (...) similar to the ideal speech situations presented by Habermas. Indeed it seems that everyone is entitled to converse and engage in discourse; each person has the right to raise questions, question any claims made in the discourse and make any claim that comes to mind. Findings indicate that: specific topics receive disproportionate coverage, debate often leads to an overlapping collection of conversations and not to a single discussion, and not all topics are subjected to rational debate. (shrink)

REVIEW OF Raţiu, Mara. Arta ca activitate socială: avatarurile discursului filosofic asupra artei contemporane (Art as Social Activity: The Avatars of Philosophical Discourse on Contemporary Art). Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2011.

Gianni Vattimo, the Italian philosopher and politician, has argued that the end of colonialism and imperialism and the rise of the society of mass communication have contributed to the emergence of the postmodern. Modernity‘s unilinear conception of history is no longer possible in the face of multiple cultures and subcultures coming to the microphone across countries in the West. This article considers this view in the light of the problematizing comments made by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek on the nature of (...) culture – that it is something people do not take seriously and therefore people do not regard science as a culture. If science is apart from culture, then modernity can continue as the grand narrative of the increasing rationalisation of humankind as shown by the emancipating effects of science expressed through technology. Resources from Vattimo‘s broader philosophical programme are drawn upon to argue that not taking culture seriously is a postmodern condition and that science is cultural. (shrink)

A particular dimension of democracy has been deprived of attention in both theoretical approaches and empirical research: the case of culture as referring to arts and popular culture. Drawing on examples of how the political role of arts and other forms of culture was acknowledged and exploited at various moments in the history of European societies, the article discusses the ways in which culture is important to “democracy as lived experience” playing a key role in the functioning of democratic societies. (...) Moreover, advancing the thesis that new sources of common identity, democracy and political unity can be found in the European culture, the paper represents a contribution to the framework that clarifies the role of culture – serious or popular – in the current process of forging a European identity. Finding theoretical support in the European literature, cultural policies elaboration, relevant official discourses and statistics elaborated at the European level, the article demonstrates that the answer to the question of European identity will be provided significantly by the European culture as an open space that must be constantly redefined. (shrink)

Theatre translation is usually seen as a more elaborate dimension of literary translation because the text being translated is considered to be just one of the elements of theatre discourse. When translating a play, the translator should always adapt for performance the text he or she is recreating and be aware that a performer will deliver the lines. The translator, then, must take into account both the pragmatic and the semantic expressiveness of the word and remember that they are always (...) at work simultaneously. I will take examples both from my personal experience and from remarkable cases in point of how a good translation may affect an audience reception of a foreign play and I will show that it is primarily through a pragmatic approach that it is possible to obtain an awareness of what is the most appropriate way of rendering the original text. (shrink)

If one would attempt to answer the Derridean question “How to avoid speaking?” one would be placing one’s self in the middle of the confrontations between deconstruction, phenomenology, and negative theology. Derrida discusses this troubling question: how could we speak in universal language of the secret experience of singularity, be it according to the religious mystical vision or to the silent phenomenological intuition? This paper accounts for the discussion firstly from the viewpoint of the deconstructivist critique that Derrida applies to (...) negative theology and, secondly, from the viewpoint of his debate with Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenological enquiry. We show that Derrida’s point no longer credits the promise of an immediate presence beyond the universal intelligible structures of language, as is given in phenomenological intuition or in the vision of mystical revelation, and therefore places us upon a frail and undecidable border between the secret of our singular experience and universal language. (shrink)