The Philosophical Underpinnings of Social Constructionist Discourse Analysis Although discourse analysis emerges as a multi-faceted research method reflecting various schools of thought, disciplines and approaches, it is possible to pinpoint some meta-theoretical issues or fundamental assumptions common for most of them. This article aims to investigate different philosophical aspects and theoretical foundations that inform discourse analysis, such as the interplay between epistemological and ontological dimensions or the definition of language itself. Because space does not allow an in-depth discussion of all (...) the theoretical orientations collectively contributing to the development of social constructionist discourse analysis, this paper focuses on poststructuralist, constructivist, and social realist positions, and also attempts to trace the roots of social constructionism in linguistic philosophy, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Hopefully, this article will provide the opportunity to develop meta-theoretical reflections on discourse analysis, thus striking the balance between the philosophy, methodology and practice. (shrink)

The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology has long occupied a position amongst Edmund Husserl’s writings of almost singular renown and influence. It is easy to see why this should be so. The Crisis offered the reading public its first glimpse of a new Husserl, or at least one strikingly different in tone, mode of presentation, and thematic emphasis from the Husserl of Ideas I or Cartesian Meditations. In a seeming reversal of the Augustinian dictum that Husserl used to (...) close Cartesian Meditations,“Noli foras ire, in te redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas.” The Crisis looks outward rather than within, toward the body, history, the intersubjective community, and an analysis of the life-world, arguably Husserl’s most enduring philosophical contribution and the one with which The Crisis is most closely associated. And these concerns are framed against a backdrop o .. (shrink)

The current studies have revealed that there are some similarities between the philosophical foundations of Sohrab Sepehri’s poems and some phenomenological notions. The essence of Sepehri’s message as well as that of phenomenologists is that human being should discover himself or herself through his or her pure cognitive nature, and not from science or books. Following a descriptive and content analysis approach, in this study, we have dealt with the phenomenological thoughts on the creation of some innovative image in Sepehri’s (...) poems. It is assumed that some of Sepehri’s images cannot be revealed just by literary analysis, and a philosophical perspective is required too. To create images like ’a mere bird’ and ’the frank sunlight’, Sepehri has resorted to some notions in phenomenology. Edmund Husserl has opened a novel area of thought called ’epoche’. It refers to a stage of cognition in which the mere self or the thoughtful self and observer suspends all his or her judgements on the existence of the world. When Sepehri pens; ’the mere bird sings.’, his goal is not just creating a foregrounded and innovative image, but indeed he attempts to give weight to a concept like ’epoche’ by his own philosophical impressions. Keywords: image, poem, Sepehri, phenomenology, epoche. 1. Introduction Sohrab Sepehri is one of the most celebrated figures of the Iranian contemporary poets. His distinct language and thought has attracted the attention of a great number of readers of poems. In this study, we have analyzed a type of his images through Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. The current studies indicate that there are some similarities as well as matches between the philosophical foundations of Sohrab Sepehri’s poems and some phenomenological notions. In effect, this study does not aim to give a thorough picture of phenomenological aspects of Sepehri’s poetry. However, in some cases a brief explanation on similarities is provided. An invitation to intuitive understanding and direct, immediate wisdom about the surrounding world and the unity of subject and object, and dealing with the essence of things constitute the main teachings of Sepehri’s poetry, teachings which go hand by hand with phenomenological notions. The gist of Sepehri’s poetry is that human being must acquire an understanding directly from nature, and not from science or books. Following a descriptive and content analysis approach, in this study, we have dealt with the phenomenological thoughts on the creation of some innovative image in Sepehri’s poems. It is assumed that there are some of Sepehri’s images and rhetorical techniques are not revealed just by literary analysis, and some domains such as philosophy are also required too. To create images like ’a mere bird’, ’the frank sunlight’, ’the mere forehead’, ’the mere instant’ and ’the white event’, Sepehry has resorted to some notions in Husserl’s phenomenology. In effect, in creating such images, Sepehri has paid attention to the idea of ’epoche’, a notion in Husserl’s phenomenology. ’Epoche’ is a stage of cognition where ’the mere I’ or ’the thoughtful and observing I’ suspends all judgements on the existence of the physical world. By saying ’The mere bird sings’, Sepehri is not merely providing an innovative and foregrounded image, but also relies on philosophical notions in order to refer to a concept like ’epoche’. 2. Findings ’Epoche’ suspends any philosophical judgment on the real world and pushes presuppositions related to a specific area to the periphery. In an expression like ’mere bird’, Sepehri comprehends bird without any sort of characteristic and feature. The idea of ’seeing in a different way’ maintains that the observer should leave all presuppositions and comprehends the world directly. Sepehri connects to the essence of bird, forgetting any distinctive idea about the bird. Relying on an idea similar to ’epoche’ he attempts to draw the attention of the reader to the very bird, without any judgment about the bird. In the poem ’There was no lake, there was a white event and nothing else’, the rest would be interpreted by the reader depending on his own life-world. Sepehri has such approach towards the world and he does not let presuppositions make us see vulture and clover flower as ugly and debased things. He recommends his readers to suspend their presuppositions on the real world. As such, sometimes philosophical perspectives provide novel images to deeply comprehend literary texts. 3. Argument It is not clear whether Sepehri had been familiar with ideas of phenomenologists such as Husserl. Maybe he was exposed to such ideas while studying in Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran, or during his trips to Europe and U.S. It would also be possible that Sepehri had acquired such ideas through Krishnamurti’s thoughts. Likewise, a personal conduct is not impossible too. The distinct wording of Sepehri has made some of his poems ambiguous in such a way that critics had to evade some images by just general remarks. Here, it is argued that the attempts made by all critics to interpret linguistic and aesthetic aspects of such images are not fully successful as Sepehri’s images are the result of his philosophical insight. His motivation to create such images was philosophical rather than literary. Most of the excellence of these images lies in his philosophical framework and his novel look to the universe. Therefore, familiarity with phenomenological thoughts could help readers to understand Sepehri’s abstract images. Images like ’mere bird’, ’absolute forehead’, ’explicit sun’, ’explicit Vodka’, ’pure spot’, ’pure things’, ’mere lands’, ’clarity of pigeons’, ’no-discount decisive presence’, and ’persistent mournful color’ are waiting for philosophical reading rather literary interpretation. It is Sepehri’s philosophical thoughts and intuitive understanding of universe and life that have made him create such images, not just a tendency to bring innovation to his poems, a tendency popular among other poets. It seems that ’look’ and ’wonder’ in Sepehri’s poetry are poetic counterparts for phenomenological suspension, and even if they do not match together completely, these two conditions follow a phenomenological suspension. A ’look’ for this poet equals ’we should wash our eyes and see in some other way’ and this would be impossible unless a phenomenological suspension is occurred whereby all presuppositions are suspended. 4. Conclusion Sepehri has followed Husserl’s recommendation let alone he has been familiar with the philosopher’s theory or not, as firstly always his consciousness involved things in the real world; Secondly, Sepehri has always escaped the conceptual thinking. Shamisa’s and Shafiei Kadkani’s explanation of Sepehri’s poems involve conceptual thinking. Thirdly, in Sepehri’s poem, world acquires authenticity as it appears, and this world is distinct from the world made in Sepehri’s mind, and the independent world which is reflected in conceptual thinking. References - Aminpour, Qeysar. Anthology of Qeysar Aminpour Poems, 3rd Edition, Tehran, Morvarid Publishers. - Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics Of Space., Canada: The Orion Press. - Baraheni, Reza. Gold in Copper, First Edition, Tehran: Author. - Bell, David. Husserl’s Thoughts,, First Edition, Tehran, Markaz Publishing Company. - Hoghooghi, Mohammad. Our Contemporary poetry Sohrab Sepehri, 13th Edition, Tehran: Negah Publishers. - Hosseini, Saleh. Silen Lilies: An Overview of Sohran Sepehri’s Poetry, 5th Edition, Tehran: Niloufar Publishers. - Husserl, Edmund. Cartesian Meditations, 2st Edition, Tehran: Ney Publishers. - Lyotard, Jean-Francois. Phenomenology, 1st Edition, Tehran: Ney Publishers. - Moran, D., money, T. The Phenomenology Reader, New York: Routlrdge. Norberg- Schulz, c. Architeture: Presence, Language, Place, Milan: Akira. - Rashidian, Abdolkarim. Husserls in context of his works, 2nd Edition, Tehran: Ney Publishers. - Sepehri, Sohrab. Eight Books. 36th Edition, Tehran: Tahoori Publishers. - Shafiei Kadkani, Mohammad Reza. Imagery in Persian Poetry, 9th Edition, Tehran: Negah Publishers. - Shamlou, Ahmad. Anthology of Works, First Book: Poems, 4th Edition, Tehran: Negah Publishers. (shrink)

My interests lie in consideration of conceptions of authenticity and inauthenticity from the perspective of ethical theories which conceive of the good for man with reference to human nature and concomitant beliefs regarding the most appropriate realisation of human capacities. Here, I find particular interest in the philosophical styles embodied by the existentialist and Lebensphilosophie movements. Such approaches sit outside the traditional frames of reference provided by deontological and utilitarian approaches to ethical reasoning and yet do I shall argue, share (...) significant similarities with ancient aretaic styles of ethics. Here, I take Aristotle to represent those aspects of ethical thought which are quintessentially of this period of intellectual history. I find not merely points of comparison but a fruitful way in which to re-examine the thought of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Scheler, Heidegger and Sartre with reference to styles of ethical enquiry which place primacy upon an objective conception of happiness which centres upon the appropriate realisation of human capacity understood with reference to Aristotle's Function Argument. I argue that phenomenological analysis shares a conception of self-perspicuity in which the agent reflects upon the full contents of their conscious experience. By this means, certain self-delusions which impede entry into the ethical life, may be removed. Additionally, whilst Aristotle's 'non-law' conception of ethics shares with existentialist thought an understanding of the human situation and its normative concerns in isolation from dualistic and theistic metaphysical speculation, such philosophy is still able to provide clear and objective ethical standards - standards often lacking within existentialism. For instance, whilst Nietzsche's pronouncement of the 'death of God' signals the death also of Christian morality, we find that such philosophy is not without normative implications and in fact can be derived to a large degree from assent towards a radical and more severe ethical self-discipline. Indeed, central certainly to the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre is an understanding of the role of self-deception in the human condition. Here a useful distinction may be made between those types of self-deception which may be understood as structural that is to say which are representative of an essential characteristic of human being at the abstract level - and those types of self-deception which may be described as 'motivated' or 'psychological' which relate to more specific types of self-deceptive engagement. I believe it is useful to examine both Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre through the lens of such interpretation, I find for instance that it is of use to examine the early Sartre as having a purely structural interpretation of bad faith (described by Jeanson as 'natural' bad-faith) whilst moving towards a psychological account in his later work, an account which has more specific moral implications with the possibility of 'willed conversion' to authenticity (Santoni). Additionally with Nietzsche, we also find a similar distinction between a self-deception which is in some sense preconditional and a motivational account of self-deception in which the agent infused with ressentiment falsifies reality in favour of subjective needs which are ultimately destructive of life-enhancement. In this sense the vicious individual can be said to have achieved merely a false optimum, and moreover, false from an objective standpoint. (shrink)