ABSTRACTWe investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 found percepti...

In many ways the whole of contemporary thought reduces to the search for new middle terms, such as 'desire', 'will to power', 'language', and "difference', to mediate, displace, or evade the classical philosophical dualisms, such as being and nonbeing, ideality and reality, mind and matter, is and ought. These dualisms--set up by the ancients, pursued by the moderns, and bequeathed to us contemporaries by their failures--are Kearney's target. His aim is to overcome them through the notion of figuration. This term--as (...) well as the book's title--suggests an aesthetic orientation, but it is quite deliberately conceived as no mere substitute for the term 'imagination'. While Kearney does argue that the distinction between the imaginary and the real is a distinction ultimately of greater significance than the distinction between being and nonbeing, he also shows that the imaginary, classically conceived, has always taken second place to the real, and thus has always reproduced rather than overcome the insupportable difficulties of classical metaphysics. Figuration, by contrast, is not to be conceived in opposition to the real, but as a "comprehensive creativity," determining all fields of signification, such as the aesthetic, practical, ontological and ethical. It must be understood functionally, as the activity of an "always new ludic metamorphosis," the reciprocal play of new and old. Thus, like Merleau-Ponty's notion of "the flesh," it has great plasticity and at the same time yields specific insights. (shrink)

Richard Detsch - Heidegger: L'Introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie. Autour des séminaires inédits de 1933-1935 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44:4 Journal of the History of Philosophy 44.4 673-675 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Reviewed by Richard Detsch University of Nebraska at Kearney Emmanuel Faye, Heidegger: L'Introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie. Autour des séminaires inédits de 1933–1935. Paris: Albin Michel, 2005. Pp. 567. Paper, e29.00. Faye, who is a lecturer at the University of (...) Paris X–Nanterre and an authority on Descartes, goes perhaps farther than any other Heidegger critic in seeing a corpus of philosophic works filled with the "danger" of disseminating Nazi ideas . Indeed, he considers Heidegger's works "as destructive and dangerous for contemporary thought as the Nazi movement was for the physical existence of the exterminated peoples" . With this kind of hyperbole, Faye pushes the limits of critical, academic discourse beyond what can normally be accommodated. He has thereby rendered suspect the contributions of any number of Heidegger scholars who do not view the Heideggerian corpus as a danger to the thought processes of their students. Faye stands, of course, in a critical tradition that he credits.. (shrink)

Uno de los fenomenólogos de la nueva generación que sigue la línea de Husserl, Heidegger, Marion y Lévinas es Richard Kearney. Este filósofo irlandés, católico, propone una cuarta reducción fenomenológica, esto es, volver al eschaton enraizado en la existencia cotidiana: encontrar la voz y el rostro de lo más alto en lo más bajo. Es como la realización de aquella idea heideggeriana de que “Sólo aquello del mundo que es de poca monta llegará alguna vez a ser cosa.” . (...) En el lenguaje cotidiano, en la vida diaria, se encuentra una posibilidad de superar el escepticismo, la indiferencia y el hastío del mundo vuelto consumo y del hombre convertido en pieza del mercado. En el encuentro cara a cara se da la posibilidad de una revelación que hace de la relación con el otro, y especialmente con el extranjero, un maravillarse y nos implemente una duda, una sospecha y una desconfianza. (shrink)

This article will discuss anatheist imagination in Kearney’s work. With the help of a poem by Sharon Olds, it will make a case for the sacramental – or anatheist – play between immanence and transcendence as a crucial motif to interpreting Kearney’s philosophy. Firstly, illustrating that the sacramental opens the door to a more embodied and carnal understanding of Kearney’s hermeneutics. Secondly, drawing on insights from my research, I’ll argue in a short history of anatheist imagination that there’s a continuity (...) between the sacramental and Kearney’s early work on the hermeneutics of the possible. Finally, the article concludes with some considerations on the philosophical and/or theological character of Kearney’s emphasis on the sacramental imagination as a hermeneutic stance. (shrink)

This essay argues that Richard Kearney’s philosophical work has something important to say to phenomenological psychology and, in turn, has something important to learn from it. It begins by highlighting a movement of return after deconstruction, consistent throughout Kearney’s oeuvre, that emerges clearly in the recently published Imagination Now collection—which contains some of Kearney’s most important writings. It then shows how this movement is a fundamentally therapeutic endeavor. A quick review of several recent volumes about Kearney’s work makes clear (...) how his philosophy suggests an embodied and not simply a linguistic approach to therapy. As such, a certain phenomenological psychology is revealed as being implicitly operative in Kearney’s work. The essay then ends by highlighting three possible benefits of having phenomenological psychologists engage with Kearney’s work: a revaluation of the non-cognitive aspects of subjective constitution, a renewed look at the role of both the narrative and carnal dimensions in psychological research and psychotherapy, and an even more enhanced socio-cultural role for phenomenological psychology. (shrink)

The article considers a particular case of Richard Kearney's characteristic hermeneutical exploration of `the possible' as an `imaginative' way of casting light upon philosophical issues. This particular case is his recent hermeneutical and phenomenological consideration of `Otherness' in the context of philosophy of religion. This consideration, strongly influenced by philosophers such as Heidegger, Levinas, Ricoeur and Derrida, is developed in two of his recent works Strangers, Gods and Monsters and The God Who May Be . The article examines how (...) he seeks to navigate an interpretation of divine otherness as an ethical appeal which escapes the dilemma of a God either so transcendent as to be anonymous or so immanent as to be a mere projection. It outlines how, rejecting onto-theology in favour of eschatology, Kearney envisages the divine as an ethically enabling possibility. This possibility, he claims, enables us to achieve, beyond our own intrinsic resources, an ethical order of justice and love through which the kingdom of God — the God Who May Be — is accomplished. There is a co-relativity between the divine as enabling possibility and humanity which accomplishes this possibility. It investigates the way in which Kearney seeks to legitimize, within a phenomenological frame of reference, an experiential affirmation of this conception of divine transcendence as eschatological possibility. It argues that this phenomenological consideration needs to be qualified and complemented by certain metaphysical considerations which Kearney disputes. Key Words: eschatology • ethics • God • hermeneutics • metaphysics • Otherness • phenomenology • possibility. (shrink)

This paper examines a recent trilogy of books by Richard Kearney collectively entitled 'Philosophy at the Limit'. Kearney is perhaps best known to the wider academic world because of his publications on, and dialogues with, Contemporary European Philosophy. In the first of these books, On Stories, Kearney, in common with many contemporary thinkers seeks to push back the frontiers of philosophy to include all forms of narrative such as literature, film, theatre as well as other disciplines such as biblical (...) studies and psychoanalysis. What distinguishes Kearney's approach from others is that his writings embody a concern for the ethical. The second work, The God Who May Be is perhaps the more interesting of these books, philosophically speaking. Here Kearney sheds new light on an old question and challenges many of the traditional theistic conceptions. Finally, in Strangers, Gods and Monsters we have a contemporary reflection on the notion of ‘otherness’. In all, these three books contain an interesting and engaging presentation of some of the central themes under discussion in the continental tradition. (shrink)

Review of Richard Kearney and Kascha Semonovitch (eds.), Phenomenologies of the Stranger: Between Hostility and Hospitality.

Wrestling and arguing with God: between insider and outsider African perspectives -- Introduction to Richard Kearney's intellectual autobiography: where do you come from, Richard Kearney? -- Where I speak from: a short intellectual autobiography -- Phenomenology in South Africa: an indirect encounter with Richard Kearney -- Transcendence and anatheism -- Response to Richard Kearney's Anatheism: Anatheism and holy folly -- Kearney between poles: is too much lost in the middle? -- Strangers, Gods and Africa: in dialogue (...) with Richard Kearney on Otherness -- Approaching the threshold: hospitality as a pedagogical wager in the work of Richard Kearney -- God-talk, the biblical prophets and Richard Kearney -- 'Strange' theology: engaging with Richard Kearney -- Trinitarian theology and Richard Kearney's anatheism: an engagement -- After God but behind the Cross: the procession as a way to re-encounter God in a culture beyond classical liturgy -- Touch gives rise to thought: Paul Ricoeur and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela on mutual recognition and carnal hermeneutics -- Towards hospitality between enemies -- Across oceans: a conversation on otherness, hospitality and welcoming a strange God. (shrink)

Who or what comes after God? In the wake of God, as the last fifty years of philosophy has shown, God comes back again, otherwise: Heidegger's last God, Levinas's God of Infinity, Derrida's and Caputo's tout autre, Marion's God without Being, Kearney's God who may be.

After reviewing the recent publications of Richard Kearney, appearing between 2017 and 2021, including an anthology of his essential writings over his career, and covering topics such as hospitality, God, religion, anatheism, theopoetics, hermeneutics, and touch, there follows a critical engagement with Kearney's work, one that sets out in particular how, despite the very considerable overlap in our work, as fellow travelers in continental philosophy of religion and hermeneutics, our positions differ on what we mean by God and by (...) welcoming the tout autre. (shrink)

In recent years, Richard Kearney has emerged as a leading figure in the field of continental philosophy, widely recognized for his work in the areas of philosophical and religious hermeneutics, theory and practice of the imagination, and political thought. This much-anticipated--and long overdue--study is the first to reflect the full range and impact of Kearney's extensive contributions to contemporary philosophy. The book opens with Kearney's own "prelude" in which he traces his intellectual itinerary as it traverses the three imaginaries (...) explored in the volume: the dialogical, the political, and the narrative. The interviews that follow the first section allow readers to listen in on conversations between Kearney and some of the most interesting and respected thinkers of our time--Noam Chomsky, Charles Taylor, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricouer, and Martha Nussbaum--as they reveal new and unexpected aspects of their thought on stories and mourning, ethics and narrative, terror and religion, intellectuals and ideology. The next section, on the political imaginary, looks at Kearney's distinctive contribution to the political situation in Ireland and in Europe more generally; and in the last, on narrative, writers including David Wood, Terry Eagleton, and Mark Dooley focus on Kearney's novels as instances of narrative theory put into literary practice. Concluding with Kearney's postscript, an essay on "Traversals and Epiphanies in Joyce and Proust," the volume comes full circle, encompassing the full extent of Richard Kearney's engagement and offerings as a philosopher. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of Richard Kearney’s attempt at re-imagining God post-metaphysically. In the context of a continental dialogue on the topic, Kearney has responded to onto-theology with a hermeneutic and phenomenologically informed attempt to rethink God post-metaphysically. This eschatological understanding of God is expounded in the article and is placed in relation to Kearney’s more recent concept of Anatheism. The article closes with a few remarks on what may be gained by Kearney’s work, as well as outlining (...) a few critical questions. (shrink)

A book review of Richard Kearney and Jens Zimmerman, eds., Reimagining the Sacred: Richard Kearney Debates God.

Prominent Irish philosopher Richard Kearney’s notion of ‘carnal hermeneutics’ is introduced by applying it to a case study of a recent event that took place at one of South Africa’s university campuses. The narrative assists in illuminating some of the core principles of carnal hermeneutics and illustrates the applicability of carnal hermeneutics as a ‘diagnostic caring for lived existence’. In the process, an analysis is also given of the event in question, which is connected to what has widely been (...) labelled as ‘blackface’. In conclusion, the contextual, philosophical, ethical, and theological implications of carnal hermeneutics are explored with an eye on theological praxes in South Africa today. Keywords: Carnal Hermeneutics; Hermeneutics; Flesh; Body; Richard Kearney; Merleau-Ponty; Ricoeur; Blackface. (shrink)

For over twenty years, Richard Kearney has insisted that theology must not follow traditional metaphysical itineraries along paths that offer perspectives on God as Being Itself, or as Pure Act, or as causa sui. Instead, it should chart avenues that lead through the poetics of imagination, past the synthesizing dynamics of narrative, and toward the destination of God as a God that privileges potentiality over actuality. In constant dialogue with deconstructive and postmodern theories, Kearney has developed an "onto-eschatological hermeneutics" (...) of the "God Who May Be" that presents a post--metaphysical, perhaps even more biblical, interpretation of God as divine possibility. This paper investigates Kearney's "onto-eschatological" poetics of God as it relates to his imaginative theological method and to the Pauline notion of kenosis as the risk of divine love. It concludes by associating Kearney's theopoetics with Kierkegaard's idea of repetition as a cipher for understanding the kinetics of the God Who May be as an alternative to the traditional metaphysical structures of God as a static "I Am Who I Am." /// Desde há mais de vinte anos que Richard Kearney vem insistindo em que a teologia deveria deixar de seguir os itinerdrios metafísicos tradicionais, ou seja, deveria deixar para trás os caminhos metafísicos que oferecem perspectivas sobre Deus enquanto Ser-mesmo, Acto Puro, ou causa sui. Em vez disso, a teologia deveria antes seguir caminhos orientados por uma poética da imaginação, para além da dinâmica sintetizadora da narrativa e em direcção a uma noção de Deus que privilegia a potencialidade sobre a actualidade. Num diálogo constante com as teorias desconstructoras e pós-modernas, Richard Kearney desenvolveu uma "hermenêutica ôntico-escatológica" do "Deus que pode ser", hermenêutica essa que nos oferece uma interpretação pós-metafísica, talvez mesmo mais bíblica, de Deus como divina possibilidade. O presente artigo investiga a poética "ontico-escatológica" de Deus em Richard Kearney, ou seja, o modo como ela se relaciona quer com o seu imaginativo metodo teológico quer com a noção paulina de kenose enquanto risco do amor divino. O artigo conclui com o estabelecimento de uma relação de proximidade entre a teopoética de Richard Kearney e a ideia kierkegaardiana de repetição enquanto cifra, relação essa que nos permite compreender o movimento próprio do "Deus que Pode Ser" enquanto alternativa às estruturas metafísicas tradicionais e o modo como estas perspectivam Deus a partir do estático "Eu Sou Quern Sou". (shrink)

Review of the books : Murray E. Littlejohn, Imagination Now. A Richard Kearney Reader. Richard Kearney and Melissa Fitzpatrick, Radical Hospitaly. From Thought to Action. Richard Kearney, Touch. Recovering our Most Vital Sense.

Richard Kearney’s new book, Touch: Recovering Our Most Vital Sense, has come as a way of illustrating the paradoxes of our times, most deeply felt as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Have a look...

What meaning does the theological notion of discernment have in a postsecular cultural condition? Three levels of the meaning of postsecular are distinguished: first, the ‘postsecular’, as a notion that characterises a cultural condition, mainly in Western society, full of diverse religious expressions; second, ‘postsecularity’, as a reflective model for interpreting religious expressions and behaviour; and third, ‘postsecularism’, as a cultural-philosophical or theological programme. After elucidating the concept of the postsecular, we consider some key elements in discernment, investigating the subject, (...) the nature and the object of discernment. We then turn to Richard Kearney’s Anatheism as a fine example of how the notion of discernment receives a new usage in postsecular reflection. We ponder upon his idea of discernment as ‘prereflective carnal response to the advent of the Other’ and reflect upon its meaning for postsecular thinking. The concluding section offers a consideration of the meaning of Kearney’s interpretation of discernment for judgement in postsecular culture. (shrink)