Friday, January 24, 2020

Seditious Suspicion: Toward a Hermeneutics of Resistance :: Essays Papers

Seditious Suspicion: Toward a Hermeneutics of Resistance In his book Freud and the Philosophers, the hermeneuticist Paul Ricoeur coined the phrase â€Å"the school of suspicion† to describe the method shared by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Their common intention, he claims, was the decision â€Å"to look upon the whole of consciousness primarily as ‘false’ consciousness†¦ [taking] up again, each in a different manner, the problem of Cartesian doubt, to carry it to the very heart of the Cartesian stronghold,† (Ricoeur, 33) that is, applying doubt’s caustic and destructive epistemological impulse to the internal world. Their achievement lies in the introduction of a profoundly new process of interpretation. Contrary to â€Å"any hermeneutics understood as the recollection of meaning,† (Ricoeur, 35) that is, any idea of interpretation as a ‘proper listening,’ the â€Å"masters of suspicion† saw the act of exegesis as one of deciphering, demystification. A message must be more th an simply heard; reception is not equivalent to comprehension. Signification, by this logic, is a coded affair, and without the cipher it will be received but not understood. Ricoeur makes a point to draw a sharp line between suspicion and skepticism here; there is no question that symbols have a message to convey. Suspicion is â€Å"a tearing off of masks, an interpretation that reduces disguises.† (Ricoeur, 30) Where the skeptic allows the suspicious impulse to run unchecked, suspicion works to â€Å"clear the horizon†¦for a new reign of Truth.† The radical skeptic’s childish destructiveness is untempered by a creative, inventive act: â€Å"the invention of an art of interpreting† (Ricoeur, 33). How, then, could this hermeneutics be applied to film? It seems a strange realm for the school of suspicion to find converts. The ‘suspension of disbelief’ would seem to be wholly at odds with the sharp and merciless blade of doubt. And yet, since The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, certain films, generally from the genre of science-fiction, have been whittling away at our naà ¯ve faith in the real and the reality of our neighbors. If these films were to be gathered together as a genre (and a recent spate of such movies indicates that Hollywood has begun to recognize the appeal of such a grouping), we might call it the cinema of suspicion. For the most part these movies, like Seconds or Total Recall, rarely lead us to question the very existence of reality. They almost never advocate quiescence in the face of the deceit of our senses.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Nelson Mandela Essay

In order to achieve something great, you must have desire, you must truly want it from the bottom of your heart. Born July 18, 1918, in a small town in South Africa, Nelson Mandela had the greatest passion to do anything to win his country’s independence. He fought for the rights of blacks in South Africa and for helpless people around the world. Motivated by his actions, the president of South Africa, P.W. Botha, imprisoned Mandela for twenty-seven years. When he was released in 1990, he immediately came back into the fight he had left for so long. He was elected president by the people of South Africa in 1994. His term in office ended in 1999, however, he still fought for racial equality and peace. Mandela died on December 5, 2013, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Although he has passed, his legacy still exists around the world today. Nelson Mandela should be the man of the century because he helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa and his leadership not only affected the people of his country, but also people all around the world. According to Biography in Context, at the age of 24, Mandela joined the African National Congress which was a group who worked to establish social and political rights for blacks in South Africa. Mandela’s actions in the ANC caused him to be put in prison. Mandela stated that, â€Å"his organization only wanted equal rights for South Africans of all races, and added that the only way they would show their unhappiness was by nonviolent disruptive tactics† (Contemporary Black Biography 2). The ANC became illegal causing Mandela to form the Spear of the Nation which was a group that directed sabotage actions against government installations and other symbols of apartheid. These acts of violence resulted in life in prison for Mandela. Although he was cut-off from the entire world, he never lost hope, and the people never forgot this courageous leader. On February 11, 1990, one of the most prodigious events of the year, Mandela was free for the first time in twenty-seven yea rs. In 1993, the nation was moving closer to free and  fair elections. On Election Day, in the first-ever democratic election, Mandela had been victorious, and became the first ever black president of the Republic of South Africa. During his presidency, Mandela focused on issues such as, â€Å"health, housing, education, and the development of public utilities and economic stability. The government also introduced legislation requiring workplace safety, overtime pay, and minimum wages† (Contemporary Black Biography 5). Mandela improved his countries living just in the short years that he was in office. The words that once came out of young Mandela’s mouth, â€Å"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die† (Contemporary Black Biography 3). These words show the power and passion behind the heart of Mandela. He was willing to die for the freedom of his people like Christ died for our sins. The love he had for his country was like the love a mother and father have for their children. His courage, strength, and dedication changed the world forever. Mandela’s actions were too tremendous to only affect the little country of South Africa. His actions affected many places around the world. He encouraged many people to stand up for their rights of freedom. Although people such as President Reagan, according to NBC News, said the ANC was a terrorist group and they should not be praised and represented around the world because it engaged in, â€Å"calculated terror†¦the mining of roads, the bombing of public places, designed to bring about further repression† (Robert Windrem). I, along with many other people, do not believe this is true. Mandela was only fighting for the freedom which his country deserved, fighting for the happiness of his people, and fighting for the generations to come. The actions that Mandela took were only caused by the first sight of violence from the British police. If you were being controlled, and forced to live your life the way certain people wanted, wouldn’t you do whatever you co uld to stop it? Nelson Mandela left a legacy that will last for hundreds of years. The  apartheid movement that he led in South Africa, not only affected South Africans, but also affected nations on the other side of the globe. He is a man who will stand out from any other in the past and upcoming centuries. I believe that Nelson Mandela is the man of the century because the world, today, would not be the same if he had never fought for the rights that we all deserve. Works Cited Contemporary Black Biography, . â€Å"Biography in Context.† Nelson Mandela. Contemporary Black Biography, 05 Dec 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Windrem, Robert. â€Å"NBC News.† Nelson Mandela a terrorist until 2008. NBC News, 07 Dec 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Overview of Social Phenomenology

Social phenomenology is an approach within the field of sociology that aims to reveal what role human awareness plays in the production of social action, social situations and social worlds. In essence, phenomenology is the belief that society is a human construction. Phenomenology was originally developed by a German mathematician named Edmund Husserl in the early 1900s in order to locate the sources or essences of reality in the human consciousness. It wasn’t until the 1960s that it entered the field of sociology by Alfred Schutz, who sought to provide a philosophical foundation for Max Weber’s interpretive sociology. He did this by applying the phenomenological philosophy of Husserl to the study of the social world. Schutz postulated that it is subjective meanings that give rise to an apparently objective social world. He argued that people depend upon language and the â€Å"stock of knowledge† they have accumulated to enable social interaction. All social interaction requires that individuals characterize others in their world, and their stock of knowledge helps them with this task. The central task in social phenomenology is to explain the reciprocal interactions that take place during human action, situational structuring, and reality construction. That it, phenomenologists seek to make sense of the relationships between action, situation, and reality that take place in society. Phenomenology does not view any aspect as causal, but rather views all dimensions as fundamental to all others. Application Of Social Phenomenology One classic application of social phenomenology was done by Peter Berger and Hansfried Kellner in 1964 when they examined the social construction of marital reality. According to their analysis, marriage brings together two individuals, each from different lifeworlds, and puts them into such close proximity to each other that the lifeworld of each is brought into communication with the other. Out of these two different realities emerges one marital reality, which then becomes the primary social context from which that individual engages in social interactions and functions in society. Marriage provides a new social reality for people, which is achieved mainly through conversations with their spouse in private. Their new social reality is also strengthened through the couple’s interaction with others outside of the marriage. Over time a new marital reality will emerge that will contribute to the formation of new social worlds within which each spouse would function.