This essay provides readers with a critical analysis of the ethnographic sciences and the psychological warfare used by the British and Kenyan colonial regimes during the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion. In recent years, several survivors of several detention camps set up for Mau Mau suspects during the 1950s have brought cases in British courts, seeking apologies and funds to help those who argue about systematic abuse during the times of “emergency.” The author illustrates that the difficulties confronting (...) Ndiku Mutua and other claimants stem from the historical and contemporary resonance of characterizations of the Mau Mau as devilish figures with deranged minds. The author also argues that while many journalists today have commented on the recovery of “lost” colonial archives and the denials of former colonial administrators, what gets forgotten are the polysemic ways that Carothers, Leakey, and other social agents co-produced all of these pejorative characterizations. Kenyan settlers, administrators, novelists, filmmakers and journalists have helped circulate the commentaries on the “Mau Mau” mind that continue to influence contemporary debates about past injustices. (shrink)

Cora Ann Presley analyse dans cet ouvrage la composante féminine de la résistance des Kikuyu à la puissance coloniale qui culmine dans la révolte Mau-Mau en 1952. L'auteur nous montre comment l'implication des femmes dans ce mouvement est l'aboutissement d'un long processus par lequel elles ont progressivement conquis la scène politique, domaine traditionnellement réservé aux hommes. Les mutations sociales et politiques engendrées par le régime colonial ont profondément modifié la plac..

Cora Ann Presley analyse dans cet ouvrage la composante féminine de la résistance des Kikuyu à la puissance coloniale qui culmine dans la révolte Mau-Mau en 1952. L'auteur nous montre comment l'implication des femmes dans ce mouvement est l'aboutissement d'un long processus par lequel elles ont progressivement conquis la scène politique, domaine traditionnellement réservé aux hommes. Les mutations sociales et politiques engendrées par le régime colonial ont profondément modifié la plac...

According to Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy, capitalist relations of production rely on what Marx refers to in Capital as ‘the mute compulsion of economic relations’. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that this constitutes a distinct form of economic power which cannot be reduced to either ideology or violence, and to provide the conceptual groundwork for a systematic theory of capital’s mute compulsion.

Le Nongsang jiyao (Fondements d’agriculture et de sériciculture) fut compilé sur ordre impérial autour de 1273, sous les Yuan: c’est la plus ancienne compilation de ce type dont nous disposons. La présente contribution analyse comment les lettrés, forts du soutien impérial, ont imposé leur expertise à travers cette entreprise d’écriture. Elle aborde tour à tour: a) le contexte historique; b) la compilation et les parcours des principaux compilateurs; c) la diffusion de l’ouvrage et son influence; d) la construction d’un savoir (...) collectif. (shrink)

The introduction of the concept of capital inCapital– with the words ‘we find’ – has provoked a great deal of discussion about the precise relation between the categories of simple circulation and the concept of capital. In this article, I argue that Marx derives the concept of capital by way of an analysis of the immanent contradictions of money, and that this dialectical derivation can be understood as a conceptual movement in which the concepts of money and capital progressively change (...) their modal status. Furthermore, I examine the development of this transition to capital throughout Marx’s writings from the period 1857 to 1872, arguing that the same arguments can be found in all the relevant writings. Finally, the article provides a critical review of the literature on the transition to capital. (shrink)

THE DOUBLE INVERSION - THE CONCEPT OF FETISHISM IN THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMYKarl Marx’s critical analysis of ‘the secret of the fetishism of commodities’ – according to which the universal domination of the commodity form makes social relations appear in the form of relations between things – is today widely regarded as a central element of the critique of political economy. The concept of fetishism was generally neglected until in the 1920’s, and the debates around this concept did not (...) really take off until the 1960’s. Since then, there have essentially been two predominant interpretations of Marx’s concept of fetishism: on the one hand those who regards fetishism as an ideological phenomenon, as something that has to do with the way in which social reality is represented for and in the social agents. On the other hand there are those who insists that fetishism refers to a certain displacement or inversion at the level of social practice itself, and not its ideological representation. In this article, I review these conflicting readings in the light of a close reading of Marx’s use of the term fetish in all of his writings from the Grundrisse onwards. I argue that Marx used this term to refer to an ideological phenomenon, and that he was right in doing so. I also point out that this does not entail subscribing to a naïve view of ideology as false consciousness or class manipulation that can be abolished by enlightenment and criticism. (shrink)

FROM ESSENCE TO METABOLISM - MARX'S CONCEPTS OF WORKThe Marxist tradition is marked by a persistent conflict about the analytical as well as tactical use of the concept of labour: Is labour a trans-historical necessity, or is it rather a specific capitalist phenomenon that should be abolished along with capital and the state? The article shows how these theoretical and tactical conflicts can be traced back to certain ambiguities in the writings of Marx, taken as a whole. Furthermore, the article (...) argues that Marx’s use of the concept can be divided into three periods: In 1844, the concept of labour was a anthropological notion designating the trans-historical essence of the human being and occupying an explanatory and critical function in the critique of bourgeois society. In 1845-48, the trans-historical use of the concept disappears and gives way to a distinction between activity and labour. The latter is now conceptualised as something specific to capitalism. From 1857 onwards, Marx develops a new trans-historical concept of labour, inspired by the concept of metabolism. However, this concept does not have the explanatory and critical function that the early concept of labour had. (shrink)

The present article critically examines three aspects of Graham Priest's dialetheic analysis of very important kinds of limitations (the limit of what can be expressed, described, conceived, known, or the limit of some operation or other). First, it is shown that Priest's considerations focusing on Hegel's account of the infinite cannot be sustained, mainly because Priest seems to rely on a too restrictive notion of object. Second, we discuss Priest's treatment of the paradoxes in Cantorian set-theory. It is shown that (...) Priest does not address the issue in full generality; rather, he relies on a reading of Cantor which implicitly attributes a very strong principle concerning quantification over arbitrary domains to Cantor. Third, the main piece of Priest's work, the so-called “inclosure schema”, is investigated. This schema is supposed to formalize the core of many well-known paradoxes. We claim, however, that formally the schema is not sound. (shrink)

This article sets out to demonstrate the role of the ‘one-legged devil’, also called General Kassam. Kassam was one of the pioneer generals of the Mau Mau, a guerrilla movement that operated from the central Kenya forests as they participated in the war of liberation from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. Was Kassam a one-legged general from the word go? Methodologically speaking, the article is partially based on interviews conducted with the general before his death at the age (...) of 89 in 2011. Being an insider, Kassam helped to give an in-depth understanding of the Mau Mau war of independence by relating the role of the Kavirondo people of western Kenya in Mau Mau historiography. Were they enticed by the colonial government to abandon the idea of the armed struggle as a way of writing off colonialism? Or did the Kavirondo embrace the theology of non-violence and eventually left the central Kenya group to battle it alone? Or were the people of western Kenya dissuaded to take part in the struggle by the Christian ‘gospel of love’ that abhorred violence, leading to abandoning their colleagues from central Kenya at the last minute? Theoretically speaking, the article is largely informed by John Walton’s theory of reluctant rebels. Walton argues that rebels are always incited by the leading elites in a society that undergoes war or civil war at any given time in history.Contribution: The article contributes to growing knowledge by discussing the Mau-Mau Movement in Kenya’s quest for freedom, from the 1950s to early 1960s, to demonstrate the religious role of armed conflicts in Africa. In this case, General Kassam, a baptised Anglican Christian, whose loyalty to the ancestral pantheons drove him to the quasi-religious war of independence, is the key subject in this article. In this war of independence in Kenya, a seeming conflict between African religion and Christian religion appears as a key emerging issue. The article is relevant to the HTS Journal and the world of scholarship because it is a theo-anthropocentric piece of work which deals with God, creation, and inevitable human conflicts – all of which have answers before God. (shrink)

Nosso estudo explora a força crítica do grotesco, que teve na obra de Wolfgang Kayser abordagem pioneira, entre a literatura e a pintura. O fenômeno é anterior ao séc. XV, quando se tornou o estilo dominante de ornamentação, mas sob influência de elementos oníricos e da commedia dell’arte seria elevado à categoria estética. As observações pré-críticas de Kant sobre o belo e o sublime não equacionam grotesco e mau gosto. Victor Hugo, no prefácio de sua peça sobre Cromwel, defende o (...) grotesco, através de motivos modernos, ou seja, românticos e cristãos, ao passo que, para Jennings, “o grotesco é o demoníaco trivializado”. No Brasil colonial, Gregório de Matos Guerra inocou com suas sátiras, que bem representam o rebaixamento, traço fundamental do gênero que, de certa forma, sobrevive na atual comunicação de massas, misturado ao Kitsch. (shrink)

Both radical rebellion and humanitarian intervention aim to defend citizens against tyranny and human rights abuses at the hands of their government. The only difference is that rebellion is waged by the oppressed subjects themselves, while humanitarian intervention is carried out by foreigners on their behalf. In this paper, it is argued that the prudential constraints on war (last resort, probability of success, and proportionality) impose tighter restrictions on, or demand more of, humanitarian interveners than they do of (...) rebels. Specifically, I argue that rebels enjoy exemptions from the success principle that do not apply to humanitarians, and that rebels are not constrained by the foreseen mediated consequences of their actions ? consequences that are interceded by the agency of other parties. The same cannot be said for intervening states. If this is right, then it is possible for a humanitarian intervention to fall short of the prudential conditions of legitimate war despite being expected to accomplish no less, and to cost no more, than a rebellion which is rightly judged to satisfy these conditions. (shrink)

In this paper I draw on Thaddeus Metz’s pioneering work in African ethics, and particularly his account of the concept described by the terms ubuntu, botho, hunhu or utu, to sketch an African normative understanding of the act of rebellion against the authority of the state. Most commonly articulated in the phrase “a person is a person through other persons”, ubuntu is interpreted by Metz as a unique communitarian moral principle which can be described in its essence as the (...) claim that “actions are right, or confer ubuntu on a person, insofar as they prize communal relationships, ones in which people identify with each other, or share a way of life, and exhibit solidarity toward one another, or care about each other’s quality of life”. On the face of it, this principle appears at odds with rebellions against state authority. Following Metz, I argue, however, that a deeper grasp of this principle does, in fact, provide a justification for instances of civilian rebellion against state authority, under appropriate circumstances. (shrink)

1. T'oegye wa Hip'ok'ŭrat'esŭ ka mannagi kkaji -- 2. Taehwa e ch'amyŏ hasin pundŭl -- 3. Che 1-il. 'Kojŏn muksang' : kijon ŭi palgyŏndŭl ŭl ch'ulbalchŏm ŭro samaya -- 4. Che 2-il. 'Chonjaeron': mom an ŭi param ŭn hohŭp, mom pak ŭi param ŭn konggi -- 5. Che 3-il. 'Chŏngsŏ haengdongnon': chari ŭi ch'ai ro inhae sŏro tarŭda -- 6. Che 4-il. 'Kongburon': chonjae haji annŭn ŭisul ŭn ŏpta -- 7. Che 5-il. 'Chihaengnon': maŭm i p'yŏnhaji anŭl ttae nŭn han (...) kŏrŭm kŏrŏra -- 8. Che 6-il. 'Yulliron': kajang hullyunghan ŭihak ŭn ŭihak ŭl p'iryo ro haji ank'e hanŭn kŏt -- 9. Che 7-il. 'Chilli nŭn kat'ŭn kot e': modŭn kŏt ŭi sijak kwa kkŭt ŭn hana ida -- 10. Hip'ok'ŭrat'esŭ myŏngŏndŭl. (shrink)

This thesis aims to explain why art is the ideal agent for overcoming the absurdity and the meaninglessness of existence. The focus is Camus’ Rebellion in conjunction with Sartre’s notion of Authenticity. Together they provide an adequate answer to the fundamental questions of human existence. Together Camus’ rebellion and Sartre’s authenticity provide the necessary foundations for the overall authenticity of art, facilitating the emergence of purpose from the abyss of absurdity.

In this piece I will focus on what I think is a central aspect of Albert Camus’s thinking, embodied in the distinction he makes in The Rebel between rebel and revolutionary. His is a philosophy of rebellion and he thinks that revolutions are a distorted expression of our need to rebel against that which we cannot accept. His views should serve as a counterpoint to those who think that an all-or-nothing approach to social change is desirable. And the issue (...) here is not that embodied crudely in the reactionary /radical dichotomy. Rather, it is a defence of the need to rebel within limits, not so much to preserve the old against the threat of the new but, instead, to preserve basic human decency from the dark side of outrage, without dismissing what is crucial about outrage and emancipatory struggles. (shrink)

Rebellions and Peripheries in the Cuneiform World. Edited by Seth Richardson. American Oriental Series, vol. 91. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2010. Pp. xxxii + 109. $35.

Drawing on the perspective of causal reasoning and the social cognitive theory of moral thought and action, this study explores the mechanisms underlying the association between exposure to exploitative leadership and employee workplace deviance. The results of a time-lagged survey conducted in China reveal that exposure to exploitative leadership can evoke a moral justification process that leads to increased employee organizational and interpersonal deviance. A tendency toward hostile attribution bias reinforces the direct link between exploitative leadership and moral justification and (...) the indirect effects of exploitative leadership on employee organizational and interpersonal deviance, via moral justification. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed and potential directions for future studies are proposed. (shrink)

덜그럭 덜그럭 소란한 우리네 마음 살림살이를 깨끗하게 청소해주는 산중 큰스님을 만나다 “쩔쩔 맬 것 없이, 집착할 것도 없이, 한세상 훨훨 살아라!” ‘집안 살림’이 아무리 풍족해도 ‘마음 살림’ 부족하면 다 헛인생이다. 진짜 잘사는 사람은 쩔쩔 맬 일도 없이, 집착할 것도 없이 트인 마음으로 훨훨 살아가는 사람이 아닐까? 그런 길로 안내하는 스물일곱 산중 선승들을 만났다.“우리는 누구인가”, “어떻게 살아야 하는가”, “마음과 몸이 힘들고 어려울 때는 어떻게 해야 할까”. 저자는 오래전부터 팍팍한 세상에 필요한 ‘마음 살림살이’를 탁발하러 선승들을 찾아다녔다. 때로는 시대와 역사와 사회에 대한 촌철의 (...) 말씀을 청했고, 때로는 노스님의 살아온 이야기를 듣고 일상을 엿보기도 했다. 모든 스님들이 무더운 여름날 한줄기 시원한 소나기였다. 이 책에는 ‘염화실의 향기’라는 이름으로 경향신문에 연재한 글을 보완해 다시 쓴 것과 이후 만난 큰스님까지 모두 스물일곱 분의 이야기를 담았다. 그사이 이 세상을 떠나가신 큰스님들은 2부에 따로 모셨다. 스님들 몸은 산중에 있어서도 그 말씀은 속세를 떠나지 않았다. 어지럽고 어려운 이 세상을 향한 한 말씀 한 말씀은 송곳처럼 정곡을 찌르며 우리네 눈과 귀, 마음을 환하게 밝혀준다. 깨끗하게 비질 된 큰스님들의 ‘마음 마당’을 거닐다보면, 누구나 잃었던 마음의 본래 밝음을 되찾고, 저마다 ‘마음을 살리는 화두’ 하나씩 가슴에 품게 된다. (shrink)

베스트셀러 《왓칭》의 후속작인생의 큰 착각에서 깨어난 26년차 베테랑 기자의 놀라운 체험! ◎ 도서 소개 “나는 나를 텅 비웠는가?”이 질문 속에 모든 답이 들어 있다! 우리는 별의별 것들을 ‘내 것’으로 착각한다. 화가 나도 그것을 내 것으로 착각해 머릿속에 집어넣고 살다가 화병을 만든다. 골치가 아파도 내 것으로 착각해 머릿속에 가둬놓고 만성 두통으로 키워낸다. 욕심도 절망도 슬픔도 몽땅 머릿속에 집어넣고 다닌다. 그러다 보니 우리는 어느새 걸어 다니는 화 덩어리, 고통 덩어리, 스트레스 덩어리, 절망 덩어리가 된다. 내 안에 가득한 모든 쓸모없는 생각들을 싹 비워버리는 (...) 비밀은 없을까? 26년차 앵커이자 기자인 저자는 베스트셀러 《왓칭》이후 더욱 깊은 취재, 명상, 체험을 거쳐 두 번째 저서 《마음을 비우면 얻어지는 것들》(김상운 지음, 21세기북스)을 펴냈다. 그는 이 책을 통해 내 안에 가득 쌓인 모든 것들이 사라지는 유일한 비밀은 ‘이 모든 것들이 내 것이 아니다’는 사실을 진심으로 깨닫고 나를 텅 비우는 것이라고 말한다. 그리고 다양한 사례와 자신의 체험을 바탕으로 인생의 착각에서 깨어나는 순간, 마음이 텅 비어지면서 심신의 병과 고민과 지능의 한계 등 인생의 모든 장애물들이 저절로 텅 비어버리는 우주의 원리를 알기 쉽게 소개한다. “인생은 착각이다. 착각에서 깨어나면 고통의 감옥에서도 벗어난다.”-노벨물리학상 수상자 아인슈타인 “착각에서 깨어나면 ‘불가능’이 돌연 ‘가능’으로 바뀐다.”-물리학자, 심리학자 아놀드 민델 “텅 빈 마음은 창조의 공간이다. 무엇이든 창조한다.”-노벨물리학상 수상자 하이젠베르크 “마음을 텅 비우면 모든 병도 텅 비어버린다.”-정신의학자 스탠리 블락 마음을 비우면 비로소 얻어지는 것들 차원을 높이면 ‘불가능’이 ‘가능’으로 바뀐다텅 빈 우주엔 목표 달성에 필요한 모든 정보와 에너지가 다 들어 있다. 즉, 마음이 텅 비는 순간 우주와 접속되면서 목표 달성에 필요한 모든 걸 얻게 되는 것이다. 만일 목표가 이뤄지지 않았다면 마음을 텅 비우지 못했다는 증거다. 이처럼 진공의 세계는 우리가 아는 현실과는 전혀 다른 차원의 세계다. 아무 걸림돌도, 시간도, 거리도 없는 텅 빈 무의 세계다. 이 공간에서는 도저히 불가능하게 생각됐던 일도 돌연 가능해진다. 이른바 기적이 일어난다. 마음이 텅 비는 순간 전혀 다른 차원이 되는 것이다. 사람은 육신과 영체의 합작품육신은 일시적인 겉모습에 불과하다. 참 생명은 영체에 있다. 육신은 음식을 못 먹으면 죽지만 영체는 음식을 안 먹어도 영원히 생존하는 사랑 덩어리이기 때문이다. 사랑으로부터 지능, 생명, 에너지 등 우리가 원하는 모든 것이 흘러나온다. 생각은 되돌려주지 않으면 파리처럼 달라붙는다‘담배를 피우고 싶다’는 생각이 달라붙어 있으면 골초가 된다. ‘술을 마시고 싶다’는 생각이 달라붙어 있으면 술고래가 된다. 걸핏하면 버럭버럭 화를 터뜨리는 사람들도 원래부터 그런 게 아니다. 단지 우주에서 빌려 썼던 화를 되돌려주지 않고 머릿속에 품고 있을 뿐이다. 과거나 미래의 생각으로 머리를 가득 채우는 것 역시 불행이다. 몸은 현재에 살고 있는데 머릿속은 과거나 미래의 생각들로 가득 차 있다면 ‘나’는 둘로 쪼개져 있는 것이다. 현재의 순간에 몰입하는 것이야말로 평화의 이르는 길이다. 인생은 분명한 목적을 가진 연극이다인생도 연극이라는 사실을 분명히 깨닫는 순간, 똑같은 변화가 일어난다. 무엇보다도 ‘내 것’에 대한 집착에서 벗어난다. 내 것도, 네 것도 없다는 생각에 인생살이는 지나치게 심각히 받아들이지 않게 된다. 자신의 인생을 마치 관객처럼 바라보게 된다. ◎ 본문 중에서 텅 빈 우주에 모든 정보가 들어 있는데 나는 왜 그 정보를 마음대로 꺼내 쓰지 못하는 걸까? 주파수가 맞지 않기 때문이다. 생각해보라. 텅 빈 우주와 주파수를 맞추려면 내 마음도 역시 텅 비워야 하지 않겠는가? 하지만 마음을 텅 비우는 게 그리 쉽지 않다.내가 눈 뜨고 있는 단 한 순간도 마음이 비지 않기 때문이다. (35쪽) 상한 음식을 먹으면 배탈이 난다. 배탈은 썩은 음식을 먹지 말라는 신호다. 그걸 무시하고 계속 상한 음식을 먹으면 심지어 목숨을 잃을 수도 있다. 영혼도 우리가 위험에 빠지면 끊임없이 신호를 보내준다. 영체를 통해 몸에 보내주기도 하고 온갖 크고 작은 장애물들을 여기저기 널려놓아 하던 일을 멈추라고 경고해주기도 한다. 그 무언의 경고는 우리가 진심으로 마음을 텅 비운 채 귀를 기울여야 비로소 제대로 들을 수 있다. (125쪽) 우주에는 무수한 생각이 떠다닌다. 다만 눈에 보이지 않을 뿐이다. 눈에 보이지 않는 수많은 TV와 라디오 주파수들이 공중에 떠다니는 것과 마찬가지다. 내가 나쁜 생각에 주파수를 맞춰 증폭시키면 나쁜 생각이 내 머릿속에 가득하고, 좋은 생각에 주파수를 맞춰 증폭시키면 좋은 생각이 가득하다. 이 무수한 생각은 인생이라는 연극을 위한 소품이다. 필요할 때 빌려 쓰고 나면 반드시 우주에 되돌려주어야 한다. 되돌려주는 데에는 어떤 특별한 노력도 필요하지 않다. 그저 머릿속에 가둬놓지 않으면 스스로 알아서 되돌아간다. (162쪽) “남이 내게 던지는 독을 받을 것인가, 말 것인가?”그건 전적으로 나의 선택이다. 왜냐하면 남이 내 머릿속에 뛰어들어 독을 집어넣을 수는 없기 때문이다. 만일 엉겁결에 남의 독이 이미 내 머릿속에 들어와 버렸다면 얼른 이렇게 되뇌어라.‘독아, 나한테 날아왔니? 내 머리는 활짝 열려 있으니 우주로 되돌아가렴.’ (179쪽) 인생도 연극이라는 사실을 분명히 깨닫는 순간, 똑같은 변화가 일어난다. 무엇보다도 ‘내 것’에 대한 집착에서 벗어난다. 내 것도, 네 것도 없다는 생각에 인생살이를 지나치게 심각히 받아들이지 않게 된다. 자신의 인생을 마치 관객처럼 바라보게 된다. 그래서 셰익스피어는 “세상은 무대다. 사람들은 등장인물들이다”라고 했다. (282쪽) 프롤로그_텅 비우지 못하는 게 문제다 1장. 진공묘유: 텅 비우면 오묘한 일이 일어난다 ‘나’를 열어놓는 것이 열쇠다│‘나’는 열면 열수록 넓어진다 1. 텅 빈 우주는 모든 정보로 가득하다 ‘목표와 나는 하나다’라고 생각하라│‘나’를 열면 남의 천재성도 빌릴 수 있다│모든 답도 우주에 들어 있다 2. 텅 빈 우주는 에너지로 가득하다 ‘나’를 열면 에너지가 흘러들어온다 3. 목표 달성 직전엔 반드시 진공이 있다 차원을 높이면 ‘불가능’이 돌연 ‘가능’으로 바뀐다 2장. 육신에 대한 집착 텅 비우기 나는 몸으로 조립된 존재인가?│사람은 육신과 영체의 합작품 1. 영체는 사랑이 양식이다 사랑이 막히면 병이 난다│사랑이 끊기면 지능도 끊긴다│사랑이 끊긴 아이는 로봇이 된다│사랑이 흐르면 생명도 흐른다 2. ‘진정한 나’는 누구인가? 영혼은 무엇이든 볼 수 있다│내 영혼은 어떤 능력을 갖추고 있을까?│빛으로부터 고도의 지능도 흘러나온다 3. 영혼의 존재를 부인할 수 없는 이유 4. 영혼이 내려주는 선물 마음의 상처를 치유해준다│위험을 경고해준다│직감을 준다│사랑을 베풀게 한다│자신의 내면을 바라보게 해준다│열정에 응답한다│진심으로 일을 사랑하면 반드시 기회를 준다 3장. 생각 텅 비우기 짓눌리면 튀어 오른다 1. 나는 생각으로 조립된 존재인가? 생각은 떼어낼 수 없는가?│생각은 사실인가?│되돌려주지 않으면 파리처럼 달라붙는다│달라붙은 생각이 인생을 망친다 2. 가둬놓지 않으면 저절로 날아간다 남의 독을 왜 내 머릿속에 가둬놓는가?│내 머릿속엔 독이 들어 있진 않은가?│머리를 활짝 열어놓으면 되돌아간다 3. 틀어박힌 생각과 대화하기 4. 왜 한 가지 생각에 파묻혀버릴까? 한 가지 생각에 빠져드는 속성│고정된 생각이 고정된 인생 트랙을 만들어낸다│무수한 ‘나’가 존재한다│나와 똑같은 사람이 했다면 나도 할 수 있다 5. 생각의 선택이 운명을 만든다 고미바다 어두운 선택을 하면 어두운 운명이 된다│고비마다 밝은 생각을 선택하면 밝은 운명이 된다│할 수 있는 것만 선택하면 무엇이든 할 수 있게 된다│생각을 바꾸면 그게 바로 ‘새로운 나’다 6. 평행우주에서 내가 원하는 나 선택하기 ‘달라진 나’ 속으로 뚜벅뚜벅 4장. 물질에 대한 탐욕 텅 비우기 일체유심조│초정밀 현미경으로 보면 실제로 비어 있다 1. 텅 비어 있는데 왜 보이나? 인생은 정말 꿈인가?│인생은 분명한 목적을 가진 연극이다│나를 바라보는 관찰자는 누구인가? 2. 인생의 설계도를 훔쳐보다 어떻게 족집게처럼 미래를 알아맞힐까?│모든 것의 설계도가 존재한다?│수십 년, 수천 년 앞도 훤히 내다본다│과거도 훤히 읽어낸다 3. 인생은 연극임을 깨닫는 순간 고통은 저절로 사라진다│고유의 배역을 찾게 된다│가슴이 끌리는 일이 나의 배역이다│배역을 찾으면 최고의 능력이 나온다│때로는 잔인한 배역도 있다│겉모습은 배역을 위한 가면일 뿐│세계 최고 부자들이 얻은 교훈 4. 인생은 돌고 돈다 모든 것이 낱낱이 기록된다│인생은 단 한 번으로 끝나지 않는다│윤회에는 정말 과학적 증거가 있는가? 5. 돌고 돌며 영혼을 갈고닦는다 불완전한 신체는 나 스스로 선택한 것│모든 고통에는 숨겨진 교훈이 있다│그녀가 바로 나다│착한 며느리, 나쁜 며느리│가족으로 만난 이유가 있다│배역은 매번 달라진다│남은 나의 거울이다 에필로그 - 나의 뒷모습을 보며 살아라. (shrink)

The idea that we might be robots is no longer the stuff of science fiction; decades of research in evolutionary biology and cognitive science have led many esteemed scientists to the conclusion that, according to the precepts of universal Darwinism, humans are merely the hosts for two replicators that have no interest in us except as conduits for replication. Richard Dawkins, for example, jolted us into realizing that we are just survival mechanisms for our own genes, sophisticated robots in service (...) of huge colonies of replicators to whom concepts of rationality, intelligence, agency, and even the human soul are irrelevant. Accepting and now forcefully responding to this decentering and disturbing idea, Keith Stanovich here provides the tools for the "robot's rebellion," a program of cognitive reform necessary to advance human interests over the limited interest of the replicators and define our own autonomous goals as individual human beings. He shows how concepts of rational thinking from cognitive science interact with the logic of evolution to create opportunities for humans to structure their behavior to serve their own ends. These evaluative activities of the brain, he argues, fulfill the need that we have to ascribe significance to human life. We may well be robots, but we are the only robots who have discovered that fact. Only by recognizing ourselves as such, argues Stanovich, can we begin to construct a concept of self based on what is truly singular about humans: that they gain control of their lives in a way unique among life forms on Earth—through rational self-determination. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Rebellion and the SacredSacrifice in Camus's RebelBrian Harding (bio)René Girard has argued, in "Camus's Stranger Retried," that Camus's later novel The Fall represents a kind of novelistic conversion on Camus's part: an admission that the ethics of The Stranger were faulty. This is a criticism not only of a character (Mersault) but of the author's own views. In fact, on the Girardian reading, The Fall recognizes that Camus's (...) own activism was never purely altruistic, but partook of a kind of unstated competition, seeking to outstrip others in care for the downtrodden, and thereby prove his supremacy. Both Camus and Clamence, the lawyer in The Fall, recognize that (as Girard puts it)Mercy, in his hands, was a secret weapon against the unmerciful, a more complex form of self-righteousness. His real desire was not to save his clients but to prove his moral superiority by discrediting the judges.1The drama of The Fall is this realization and its ramifications. Beyond this, Girard argues, it represents Camus's judgment on his own work; it represents [End Page 29] the realization that his writings hitherto lacked self-criticism. Until The Fall, Camus revolted against everything but his pride, but in The Fall he turns his critical powers inward, writing the novel as a kind of auto-criticism. I think there is a lot of truth to this, and in what follows, it guides my interpretations of The Rebel.Girard's comments on The Plague suggest that he sees it as essentially "romantic" in the technical sense he gives that term. Like The Stranger, it falls into the illusion of authenticity and autonomy: Dr. Rieux stands apart from the city, paternalistically guiding it without succumbing to the infections circulating around him.2 To the extent that The Rebel is often paired with The Plague (in the same way The Myth of Sisyphus is joined to The Stranger) one might expect that the same could be said of that philosophical essay—that is, that it persists in a romantic delusion of being above or separate from the problems it diagnoses and that The Rebel's defense of the oppressed only serves to assuage the author's conscience, reassuring him that he is one of the good ones—just as did Clamence's work as a defense attorney.That expectation is, I think, only half right. The Rebel, I believe, oscillates between romantic lie and novelistic truth; Camus senses that he is not above the fray and that the very act of rebellion itself unleashes furies that one struggles to tame. Whether he has reached the full consciousness represented by The Fall is uncertain, but it is clear to me that, at times at least, this awareness rises to the surface in The Rebel. Indeed, the emergence and repression of this awareness are part of the book's fascination and flaws. The apparent inconstancy between Camus's lionization of rebellion and his profound worries about what it unleashes is rooted in this oscillation. Because of this oscillation, The Rebel is too complex a text to be treated in a paper of a reasonable length. To simplify matters, I focus on two parts whose interest to readers of Contagion will need no explanation: first, Camus's gnomic remarks on the relationship between rebellion and the sacred, and second, Camus's discussion of the killing of King Louis and the Terror. Following that, I close with some general remarks.REBELLION AND THE SACREDCamus's rebellion is intimately related to the sacred [le sacré]. To be sure, we should not assume that just because Camus and Girard use the same word that they mean the same thing by it. In fact, Camus primarily uses the term to refer to a religious sensibility without developing, for example, a theory of the violent origins of the sacred. Nevertheless, Camus seems to sense that there is a [End Page 30] connection between the sacred and violence. Moreover, it is of course impossible that Camus intended to refer to Girard's work when he alludes to the sacred. Nevertheless, if Girard is right about the meaning and function of the sacred... (shrink)

It is a supreme irony that given the requirement for rebellious creativity, organizations discourage individuality. Accordingly, these cases of creative rebellion contain the seeds of a more informed criticism of the dominant management paradigm. The conventional notion of efficiency is questioned. The concept of moral efficiency is explained. The cases examined describe and analyze: (1) Refusal to concur with the findings of an aircraft accident report that covers up senior officer management weakness. (2) Falsification of data in order to (...) overcome the dysfunctional impact of a management information system. A deconstruction of these stories suggests theoretical as well as practical tension between the dominant normative management paradigm and the manner in which an innovative perspective of individual ethics pushes toward adaptive solutions to problems that cannot be solved by orthodoxy. (shrink)

The Rebellion of Muḥammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya in 145/762: Ṭālibīs and Early ʿAbbāsīs in Conflict. By Amikam Elad. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 118. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Pp. xi + 527. $245, €176.

This article presents a broad analysis of the political economy and dynamics of social change during the first year of the Evo Morales government in Bolivia. It situates this analysis in the wider historical context of left-indigenous insurrection between 2000 and 2005, the changing character of contemporary capitalism imperialism, and the resurgence of anti-neoliberalism and anti-imperialism elsewhere in Latin America. It considers at a general level the overarching dilemmas of revolution and reform. Part III examines the complexities of the politics (...) of indigenous liberation and the political economy of the Movimiento al Socialismo government between January 2006 and January 2007. It pays special attention to the limits of reform in the hydrocarbons sector. Also explained in Part III is the formation of an autonomist right-wing movement in the eastern lowlands, and how the new Right has intervened in the process of the Constituent Assembly. The article shows how the actual Constituent Assembly set into motion by the Morales administration in 2006 differs in fundamental terms from the revolutionary assembly envisioned by leading left-indigenous forces during the cycle of revolt in the first five years of this century. (shrink)