What is a woman? And what does it mean to be a feminist today? In her first full-scale engagement with feminist theory since her internationally renowned Sexual/Textual Politics (1985), Toril Moi challenges the dominant trends in contemporary feminist and cultural thought, arguing for a feminism of freedom inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Written in a clear and engaging style What is a Woman? brings together two brand new book-length theoretical interventions, Moi's work on Freud and Bourdieu, and (...) her studies of desire and knowledge in literature. In the controversial title-essay, Toril Moi radically rethinks current debates about sex, gender, and the body - challenging the commonly held belief that the sex/gender distinction is fundamental to all feminist theory. Moi rejects every attempt to define masculinity and femininity, including efforts to define femininity as that which 'cannot be defined. In the second new book-length essay, 'I am a Woman', Toril Moi reworks the relationship between the personal and the philosophical, pursuing ways to write theory that do not neglect the claims of the personal. Setting up an encounter between contemporary theory and Simone de Beauvoir, Moi radically rethinks the need, and difficulty, of finding one's own philosophical voice by placing it in new theoretical contexts. A sustained refusal to lay down theoretical or political requirements for femininity, and a powerful argument for a feminism of freedom, What is a Woman? is a deeply original contribution to feminist theory. (shrink)

For the second edition of her landmark study of Simone de Beauvoir, Toril Moi provides a major new introduction discussing current developments in Beauvoir studies as well as the recent publication of papers and letters by Beauvoir, including her letters to her lovers Jacques-Laurent Bost and Nelson Agren, and her student diaries from 1926-7.

People are typically poor at telling apart truthful and deceptive statements. Based on the Unconscious Thought Theory, it has been suggested that poor lie detection arises from the intrinsic limitations of conscious thinking and can be improved by facilitating the contribution of unconscious thought. In support of this hypothesis, Reinhard, Greifeneder, and Scharmach (2013) observed improved lie detection among participants engaging in unconscious thought. The present study aimed to replicate this unconscious thought advantage using a similar experimental procedure but with (...) an important improvement in a key control condition. Specifically, participants judged the truthfulness of 8 video recordings in three thinking modes: immediately after watching them or after a period of unconscious or conscious deliberation. Results from two experiments (combined N = 226) failed to reveal a significant difference in lie detection accuracy between the thinking modes, even after efforts were made to facilitate the occurrence of an unconscious thought advantage in Experiment 2. The results imply that the unconscious thought advantage in deception detection is not a robust phenomenon. (shrink)

This radically original book argues for the power of ordinary language philosophy—a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell—to transform literary studies. In engaging and lucid prose, Toril Moi demonstrates this philosophy’s unique ability to lay bare the connections between words and the world, dispel the notion of literature as a monolithic concept, and teach readers how to learn from a literary text. Moi first introduces Wittgenstein’s vision of language and theory, which refuses (...) to reduce language to a matter of naming or representation, considers theory’s desire for generality doomed to failure, and brings out the philosophical power of the particular case. Contrasting ordinary language philosophy with dominant strands of Saussurean and post-Saussurean thought, she highlights the former’s originality, critical power, and potential for creative use. Finally, she challenges the belief that good critics always read below the surface, proposing instead an innovative view of texts as expression and action, and of reading as an act of acknowledgment. Intervening in cutting-edge debates while bringing Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell to new readers, Revolution of the Ordinary will appeal beyond literary studies to anyone looking for a philosophically serious account of why words matter. (shrink)

I must confess that I found [Calvin] Bedient’s account of Kristeva’s theories quite shocking. Since, on the whole, critical essays rarely upset me, my own reaction was quite puzzling to me. What is there in Bedient’s prose to unsettle me so? It certainly can’t be his style or tone: he has produced a perfectly even-tempered essay. Refraining from imputing selfish or dishonest motives to the theorist he wants to disagree with, Bedient never argues ad feminam, and takes much trouble lucidly (...) to explain why he disagrees with Kristeva. There is every reason to commend him for his honest style of argumentation. There can be no doubt that his essay is produced purely by his concern to take issue with a theory he truly believes to be incapable of accounting for the way in which poetry—and particularly modern poetry—actually works.What causes my unease must therefore be something else. It may of course be the fact that Bedient’s account of Kristeva’s theory of language in Revolution of Poetic Language is wrong. His is not a somewhat skewed, or slanted, or one-sided presentation of her views, but—as far as I can see—a total misreading. Briefly put, Bedient’s mistake consists in taking Kristeva’s account of the sentence process in language for a complete theory of poetic language. He does not seem to have noticed Kristeva’s account of the symbolic, her repeated insistence that language—the signifying process—is the product of a dialectical interaction between the symbolic and the semiotic, or even her definition of the “thetic.” Toril Moi, professor of comparative literature at the University of Bergen and professor at Duke University, is the editor of The Kristeva Reader and the author of Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory . Her most recent book is Feminist Theory and Simone de Beauvoir. (shrink)

This essay first tries to answer two questions: Why did the question of the woman writer disappear from the feminist theoretical agenda around 1990? Why do we need to reconsider it now? I then begin to develop a new analysis of the question of the woman writer by turning to the statement `I am not a woman writer'. By treating it as a speech act and analysing it in the light of Simone de Beauvoir's understanding of sexism, I show that (...) it is a response to a particular kind of provocation, namely an attempt to force the woman writer to conform to some norm for femininity. I also show that Beauvoir's theory illuminates Virginia Woolf's strategies in A Room of One's Own before, finally, asking why we still should want women to write. (shrink)

Posty do druziv (cherez saĭt "Filosofii︠a︡ v Ukraïni) z sela Shevchenkovoho -- Buty i prahnuty -- Asymetrii︠a︡ butti︠a︡ -- Karl I︠A︡spers "Prosvitlenni︠a︡ ekzystent︠s︡iï. Dosvid prochytanni︠a︡ -- Peremyslyty vse.

Social inequalities are partly caused by habitual organizational practices. In this vein, to overcome those, organizations now need to develop new organizational capabilities aimed at enhancing their attention towards societal issues. In our study, we apply the theory of mindfulness to explain how it may help organizations overcome habitual organizing that fuels social inequalities. Guided by the microfoundational perspective of organizational capability, we conceptualize individual characteristics, processes, and structures that collectively form mindfulness capability for social justice. We perceive it as (...) an organizational capability that reflects the extent to which an organization possesses a collective social justice awareness, i.e., awareness of the impact on social justice in society through its organizational practices. We argue that, when adopted by organizations, mindfulness, by increasing the awareness of the organizational impact on society, helps notice, examine, and question the correctness of taken-for-granted organizational practices. From our perspective, this new capability will lead to changes in organizational practices that fuel social inequalities. Our study contributes to the literature on sustainable organizational development and mindfulness research in organizations. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed. (shrink)

The number of people who survive critical illness is increasing. In parallel, a growing body of literature reveals a broad range of side-effects following intensive care treatment. Today, more attention is needed to improve the quality of survival. Based on nine individual stories of illness experiences given by participants in two focus groups and one individual interview, this paper elaborates how former critically ill patients craft and recraft their personal stories throughout their illness trajectory. The analysis was conducted from a (...) phenomenological perspective and led to the meaning structure; a quest to find oneself after critical illness. In this structure, illness represented a breakdown of the participants’ lives, forcing them to develop a new understanding of themselves. Despite acute illness, they felt safe in hospital. Coming home, however, meant a constant balancing between health and illness, and being either in or out of control. To gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ narratives of survival, the meaning structure was developed from a phenomenological life world perspective, Heidegger’s concept of homelikeness and Arthur Frank’s typologies of illness narratives. In conclusion listening to and acknowledging the patients’ lived experiences of critical illness may support the patient efforts to establish the newly defined self and hence be vital for recovery. Phenomenology is one approach facilitating care tailored to the patients’ lived experience of critical illness and its aftermaths. (shrink)

1 Mathematical practice: a short overview This volume is a collection of essays that discuss the relationships between the practices deployed by logicians and mathematicians, either as individuals or as members of research communities, and the results from their research. We are interested in exploring the concept of 'practices' in the formal sciences. Though common in the history, philosophy and sociology of science, this concept has surprisingly thus far been little reflected upon in logic...

1 Mathematical practice: a short overview This volume is a collection of essays that discuss the relationships between the practices deployed by logicians and mathematicians, either as individuals or as members of research communities, and the results from their research. We are interested in exploring the concept of 'practices' in the formal sciences. Though common in the history, philosophy and sociology of science, this concept has surprisingly thus far been little reflected upon in logic...

1 Mathematical practice: a short overview This volume is a collection of essays that discuss the relationships between the practices deployed by logicians and mathematicians, either as individuals or as members of research communities, and the results from their research. We are interested in exploring the concept of 'practices' in the formal sciences. Though common in the history, philosophy and sociology of science, this concept has surprisingly thus far been little reflected upon in logic...

En identifiant l’ ego et la substance, Descartes affirme qu’il subsiste par lui-même et qu’il est le support des modes de la pensée, conformément aux deux caractères reconnus à la substance. Sans interroger la signification de cette équivalence, la présente étude examine la manière dont la postérité, de Locke et Malebranche jusqu’aux Lumières, récuse les principales affirmations qu’implique le dire cartésien. L’ ego se libère d’une substance devenue inutile autant qu’invisible. Les nouvelles figures du moi incarnent à leur manière la (...) mutation, si ce n’est la crise de la métaphysique. Un motif originairement cartésien (le fait que la substance ne nous affecte pas immédiatement), explique paradoxalement la récusation du cartésianisme lui-même. (shrink)

Dans la doctrine cartésienne du Cogito, ergo sum, on peut dégager deux idées : l’idée d’une vérité indépendante, fournissant d’elle-même des preuves suffisantes d’authenticité ; l’idée d’une évidence vécue dont toute la force tiendrait à la conscience plus ou moins riche et plus ou moins précise que le moi pourrait prendre de sa réalité intime. L’interprétation cartésienne du moi flotte entre le moi qui se définit par la pensée et le moi qui se définit par l’expérience. Kant, inspiré lui aussi (...) par le désir de résoudre au moyen d’une même notion le problème de la vérité et celui du sujet, est amené à la construction de l’aperception transcendantale ou de la conscience tout court, construction qui, à tout bien considérer, se révèle comme conception d’un moi dépersonnalisé.La « psychologie de la connaissance », élaborée par Richard Hônigswald, élude ces ambiguïtés. Elle est une branche de l’arbre néo-criticiste et veut ramener au même point la logique et la psychologie. Elle rejette l’hypothèse du moi transcendental ; elle insiste, au contraire, sur la réciprocité des rapports du sujet, de l’expérience vécue et de l’objectivité ; elle affirme une solidarité et une interdépendance réelles entre la notion de «validité » d’une part, et celle du moi psychologique, de l’autre. (shrink)

Un des résultats anthropologiques importants du matérialisme de Diderot et de sa critique du finalisme est la description du moi comme irréductiblement multiple. Nous analysons dans cet article les raisons et les conséquences d’une des formulations que Diderot a donnée de cette idée de moi-multiple: « C’est le rapport constant, invariable de toutes les impressions à cette origine commune qui constitue l’unité de l’animal. [...] C’est la mémoire de toutes ces impressions successives qui fait pour chaque animal l’histoire de sa (...) vie et de son soi ». (shrink)

Un des résultats anthropologiques importants du matérialisme de Diderot et de sa critique du finalisme est la description du moi comme irréductiblement multiple. Nous analysons dans cet article les raisons et les conséquences d’une des formulations que Diderot a donnée de cette idée de moi-multiple : « C’est le rapport constant, invariable de toutes les impressions à cette origine commune qui constitue l’unité de l’animal. […] C’est la mémoire de toutes ces impressions successives qui fait pour chaque animal l’histoire de (...) sa vie et de son soi ».One of the most important anthropological results of Diderot’s materialism and his critique of finalism is the description of the self as multiple. This paper attempts to understand the causes and consequences of one of the author’s expressions of this idea of a multiple self : « It is the unvarying constant relation of all impressions to this common origin which constitutes the animal’s unity […]. The memory of all these successive impressions is for every animal the story of his life and his self. ». (shrink)

Descartes semble s’être donné plus d’un but dans le passage du morceau de cire de la seconde Méditation. L’un est de dire quelles propriétés des corps sont claires et distinctes ou appartiennent à leur essence. Un autre est de montrer en quoi le moi pensant est « mieux connu » que les choses matérielles bien que, contrairement aux corps, il ne puisse être représenté par les sens ou à l’aide de l’imagination. Il fait également des remarques importantes à propos du (...) rôle de l’entendement, par opposition à celui des sens, dans notre connaissance aussi bien de l’esprit que des corps. La question traitée dans ce qui suit est celle de savoir quel est son but premier. Celui-ci, d’après l’inter- prétation que je vais défendre, a égard non pas à notre conception des corps mais, comme dans le reste de cette Méditation, à celle de l’esprit considéré comme une substance pensante.Descartes seems to have several purposes in mind in the well known " piece of wax passage " of the second Meditation. One is to state which properties of material things are clear and distinct, or belong to their essence. Another is to show that the thinking self is " better known " than material things, although, unlike bodies, it is not something which falls under sense or imagination. In addition, he also makes some important points concerning the role of the understanding, as opposed to the senses, in our knowledge of the mind and of bodies. The question I wish to pose in this paper is : What is Descartes’ main goal ? According to the interpretation I will defend, his first concern relates not to our conception of bodies but, as in the rest of this Meditation, to our conception of the mind as a thinking substance. (shrink)

Alstin, Zac The increasing support that euthanasia is gathering in South Australia with a new euthanasia bill about to be passed is discussed. Some of the implicit and explicit challenges and pressures that the introduction of such a bill will pose are highlighted.

Le pari de cet ouvrage est d'explorer les facettes multiples à travers lesquelles se donne le soi. Parler de soi plutôt que de moi implique une rupture franche avec les philosophies qui placent le sujet humain en position fondatrice. Le soi est encore moins une « chose » mais un mode d'être ; le soi n'est pas une donnée mais une conquête dont le devenir est en partie indéterminé. C'est donc sous le signe des épreuves qu'il faut penser les variations (...) phénoménologiques et herméneutiques sur le soi. Si la philosophie reste la discipline dominante des réflexions qui parcourent les contributions du volume, l'originalité de cet ouvrage est d'offrir en même temps au lecteur d'autres variations par lesquelles se décline le soi. (shrink)

La photographe, vidéaste, plasticienne et dessinatrice Michèle Magema analyse sa pratique artistique, marquée par l’exil et l’appartenance à des territoires multiples. La métamorphose, le Tout-Monde, l’état de postcolonie, la monstration du corps féminin : autant de motifs de son travail artistique. Oyé Oyé est une installation mêlant images de défilés du temps de Mobutu et reconstitution par l’artiste des codes gestuels imposés aux écoliers sous la dictature. Under The Landscape reproduit et interroge les frontières politiques du Congo. Evolve revient sur (...) la catégorie coloniale d’« évolué ». Rappelle-moi de ne pas oublier nos territoires rêvés interroge le « retour au pays natal » de l’artiste, après plus de trente ans d’absence. Michèle Magema définit son travail comme une création de fiction, une exploration des relations entre le Congo, la France et la Belgique, une étude des effets politiques du monde globalisé sur les individus. (shrink)

Moi, je, ego, personne, individu... autant de termes par lesquels nous désignons le sujet substantiel que nous croyons être. Seulement, peut-on trouver en nous une quelconque unité singulière et constante? Notre identité est-elle réellement constituée de mêmeté, d'ipséité et de continuité? Contre toute attente, certains philosophes osèrent en douter, mais c'est surtout le Bouddha, au VIe siècle avant notre ère, qui fit peser les plus graves soupçons sur notre prétendue subjectivité. Si le sage indien ne nia pas l'existence de notre (...) moi empirique, il remit en cause l'idée qu'il s'agissait d'une substance. Le moi existerait donc sans pour autant être réel. Comprendre la nature de cet ego permettrait dès lors de se libérer des souffrances qu'il engendre. Il en va ainsi de notre bonheur... (shrink)