This special issue of Parrhesia has developed from the 2010 Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy’s Conference at the University of Queensland on the theme of the philosophy of affect.

In this closely argued monograph, the author examines one chapter of Plotinus’s treatise V.3 [49], titled “On the Knowing Hypostasis and That Which is Beyond.” In the fifth chapter of that work, Plotinus makes the case for asserting that knowledge is primarily or essentially self-knowledge. This is certainly not a novel claim in the history of ancient philosophy, as Kühn amply demonstrates. It is a central claim in Aristotle’s epistemology and the later Peripatetic tradition. What is of particular interest for (...) the Plotinian account of knowledge as self-knowledge is that it is made in response to a skeptical argument found in Sextus Empiricus, although it is likely that it did not originate with him. That argument attempts to pose the following dilemma for any “dogmatist” who embraces self-knowledge. Either this self-knowledge is in effect one “part” of the knower knowing another “part,” or else it is one “part” knowing not another “part,” but rather knowing “itself.” The first horn of the dilemma means that self-knowledge is not knowledge at all, since the putative knower would have to be able to show that the first “part” is representing the second part accurately. And this is something that cannot be done without the first. (shrink)

This is the second of two articles investigating the filmic representations of Jesus and the Christ-event. The first article investigated the theological and esthetic issues raised by the major works in the one hundred years' tradition of the Jesus film. The present study takes into consideration the films which approach the Jesus story and the Christ-event metaphorically, the so-called Christ-figure films. It begins with a discussion of the biblical-theological foundations for such a metaphorical representation, and then it analyses a series (...) of films which can be interpreted as adopting this approach. Jesus of Montreal is analysed as a transitional film which represents both literal and metaphorical images of Jesus, privileging, however, the metaphorical approach. The classical American western Shane is seen as shifting its content and themes away from the typical «mythical » western in order to better accommodate the Jesus and Christ themes. The filmic embodiment of the Jesus story and Christ-event in women Christ-figures is examined in two films, Babette's Feast and Bagdad Café . Then the longer original version of one of Kieslowski's Decalogue films, A Short Film about Love, is interpreted as an extended metaphor of the salvific encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Finally, Bresson's masterpiece, Au hasard Balthazar, is considered as creating in its protagonist, the donkey Balthazar, the most audacious and theologically profound Christ-figure i. (shrink)

In the one hundred years of the art of the cinema, one of the themes that repeatedly has interested film makers and audiences is the life of Christ. The many films on Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ-event raise a number of issues, both theological and esthetic. In the first part of this article, the author analyzes some of these issues, focusing precisely on the crucial decisions regarding both content and style that the film maker approaching the Jesus theme must (...) make. In the second part of the article, the author considers briefly the more important films of the early years Jesus film tradition, and then does a more in-depth analysis of the major films of the tradition: the Hollywood Jesus epics, the Jesus musicals, the scandal film of Scorsese, three important Italian productions, and finally the masterpiece of the tradition, Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew. A subsequent article is announced which will analyze the many films which approach the Jesus story and the Christ-event metaphorically. (shrink)

The plurivalent logics considered in Graham Priest's recent paper of that name can be thought of as logics determined by matrices whose underlying algebras are power algebras, where the power algebra of a given algebra has as elements textit{subsets} of the universe of the given algebra, and the power matrix of a given matrix has has the power algebra of the latter's algebra as its underlying algebra, with its designated elements being selected in a natural way on the basis of (...) those of the given matrix. The present discussion stresses the continuity of Priest's work on the question of which matrices determine consequence relations which remain unaffected on passage to the consequence relation determined by the power matrix of the given matrix with the corresponding question in equational logic as to which identities holding in an algebra continue to hold in its power algebra. Both questions are sensitive to a decision as to whether or not to include the empty set as an element of the power algebra, and our main focus will be on the contrast, when it is included, between the power matrix semantics and the four-valued Dunn--Belnap semantics for first-degree entailment a la Anderson and Belnap) in terms of sets of classical values, in which the empty set figures in a somewhat different way, as Priest had remarked his 1984 study, `Hyper-contradictions', in which what we are calling the power matrix construction first appeared. (shrink)

The present volume is the successor to Dieu sans la puissance. Dunamis et energeia chez Aristote et chez Plotin (Paris, Vrin, 2006). In that book, the author examines Aristotelian metaphysics as an ontology of act-potency (energeia-dunamis). Her conclusion is that the act that is the life of the unmoved mover is pure or complete actualization, which means that it has no further actualizations. In that case, the effect of the unmoved mover as first principle of all can only be as (...) an ideal that... (shrink)

Plato and the City is a general introduction to Plato's political thought. It covers the main periods of Platonic thought, examining those dialogues that best show how Plato makes the city's unity the aim of politics and then makes the quest for that unity the aim of philosophy. From the psychological model to the physiological definition, the reader can traverse the whole of Plato's oeuvre, and understand it as a political philosophy. The book is designed to be an undergraduate textbook (...) but will also be of interest to scholars. It is the first English translation of Platon et la cité, published in French by Presses Universitaires de France in 1997 as part of the series Philosophies, and offers English-speaking readers access to a more unifying continental European reading of Plato than is common in UK or North American scholarship. (shrink)

Rousseau preceded Sade: Rousseau (1712–1778) published most of his major works in two remarkably fecund years, 1761–17621; Sade (1740–1814) published most of his major texts between 1791 and 18012;...

Leibniz wished that his Theodicy (1710) would have as great and as wide an impact as possible, and to further this end we find him in his correspondence with Caroline often expressing his desire that the book be translated into English. Despite his wishes, and Caroline’s efforts, this was not to happen in his lifetime (indeed, it did not happen until 1951, almost 250 years after Leibniz’s death). But even though the Theodicy did not make quite the impact in England (...) that Leibniz had hoped it would, it did draw some attention from the English intelligentsia. In this paper I shall focus on two responses to the Theodicy that were made in England in the years immediately following its publication. First, I shall consider the response of Michel de la Roche and his efforts to promote the book to an English audience in 1711 (efforts which only came to Leibniz’s attention much later, in 1713). De la Roche’s response was broadly positive, though his admiration for the Theodicy was tempered by his belief that Leibniz had struggled – unsuccessfully – to reconcile free will with divine foreknowledge. Second, I shall consider the largely negative response of George Smalridge, the Bishop of Bristol, who delivered his verdict on the book in a letter to Sophie written in 1714. Leibniz subsequently wrote a point-by-point rebuttal of (most of) Smalridge’s criticisms in a letter to Caroline, conceding only one very minor point to the Bishop. As we shall see, some of the points of substance raised by de la Roche and Smalridge have loomed over the Theodicy ever since. (shrink)

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Authenticity is a formidable word, a dangerous word, a word whereby fortunes, careers, and reputations can be won or lost. But what has authenticity to do with art? The essays in this book focus on their turbulent relationship ranging across the fields of literature and the visual arts and philosophy, and covering topics as diverse as fictional biography, portraiture, copies and forgeries, war photography, letters as testimony and texts in translation. The reader encounters erasmus, Rousseau, Heidegger, Beckett, Borges, and Houellebecq; (...) engages with subjects as varied as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, da Vinci's La Belle Ferronniere, and Million Dollar Baby. (shrink)

I will not dwell overlong on the “meaning” of this story. But let me make two essential points. Plato tells us this story as though it were true: it is “a tale which, though passing strange, is yet wholly true.” Those words were to be translated into every language in the world and used to justify the most realistic fantasies. That is quite understandable, for Plato’s story started something new. With a perversity that was to ensure him great success, Plato (...) had laid the foundations for the historical novel, that is to say, the novel set in a particular place and a particular time. We are now quite accustomed to historical novels, and we also know that in every detective story there comes a moment when the detective declares that real life is not much like what happens in detective stories; it is far more complicated. But that was not the case in the fourth century B.C. Plat’s words were taken seriously, not by everyone, but by many, down through the centuries. And it is not too hard to see that some people continue to take them seriously today.As for the “meaning,” following others and together with others, I have tried elsewhere to show that essentially it is quite clear: the Athens and Atlantis of ancient lore represent the two faces of Plato’s own Athens. The former, the old primordial Athens, is what Plato would have liked the city of which he was a citizen to be; the latter is what Athens was in the age of Pericles and Cleon, an imperialistic power whose very existence constituted a threat to other Greek cities. Pierre Vidal-Naquet is director of the Centre Louis Gernet de Recherches Comparées sure les Sociétés Anciennes at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His most recent publications are the second volume of Les Juifs, la mémoire et le present , La Grèce ancienne 1: Du mythe à la raison, with Jean-Pierre Vernant , and La Démocratie grecque vue d’ailleurs . Among his works to have appeared in English are Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, with Jean-Pierre Vernant , and The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World . Janet Lloyd is a supervisor for a number of colleges in Cambridge University, where she gives classes in French language and literature. Among her more recent translations are Yves Mény’s Government and Politics in Western Europe: Britain, France, Italy, West Germany and Marie-Claire Bergère’s Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie, 1911-1937 . In progress are translations of works on Shakespeare, Pericles’ Athens, and a historical geography of France. (shrink)

La traducción al latín de la obra de Maimónides Moreh Nevukhim | Guía para Perplejos, ha sido la obra judía más influyente en los últimos milenios (Di Segni, 2019; Rubio, 2006; Wohlman, 1988, 1995; Kohler, 2017). Ésta marcó el comienzo de la escolástica, «hija del judaísmo nutrida por pensadores judíos, » según el historiador Heinrich Graetz (Geschichte der Juden, L. 6, Leipzig 1861, p. xii). Impresa por la primera imprenta mecánica de Gutenberg, su influencia en Occidente se extendió hasta el (...) Quinto Concilio de Letrán (1512-1517) « donde se instó a los eruditos a eliminar las dificultades que parecían dividir el conjunto de la teología y la filosofía (Leibniz, Teodicea, 11 ). » Durante siglos, la Guía revolucionó el currículo de estudios de la instrucción escolar al reintegrar en el ámbito de la fe las leyes del pensamiento (la cuarta de las cuales se convirtió en el principio de la razón suficiente de Leibniz). La colección completa de las notas que exponen las ideas de la Guía incluye todos los pasajes seleccionados y reescritos por Leibniz. Esta primera traducción bilingüe completa y anotada de los manuscritos originales en latín sirve como una puerta de entrada a la fe conforme a la Razón. -/- « El excelente libro del rabino Moisés Maimónides, Guía para perplejos, es más filosófico de lo que había imaginado y merece una lectura atenta. El autor, distinguido por su inteligencia filosófica, fue versado en matemáticas, en el arte de la medicina, y también en el conocimiento de las Sagradas Escrituras. » — GW LEIBNIZ, 1685. Antología de Leibniz de la Guía de Maimónides, Capítulo III. (shrink)

L'immense aventure du savoir grec est encore aujourd'hui la source essentielle à laquelle puise et revient sans cesse notre civilisation. L'ambition de ce livre, élaboré par les plus éminents spécialistes de l'Antiquité et traduit en plusieurs langues depuis sa parution initiale, est de mesurer ce que les Grecs savaient, ce qu'ils croyaient savoir, ce qu'ils ont inventé ; d'analyser le regard qu'ils ont porté sur leur civilisation et sur leurs propres entreprises intellectuelles. Il y est ainsi moins question de leur (...) histoire que de leurs historiens, de leur poésie que de leur poétique, de leur musique que de leur harmonique, car l'originalité des Grecs n'est pas tant d'avoir su beaucoup de choses que d'avoir exigé d'eux-mêmes de savoir ce qu'ils savaient, ce qu'ils disaient, ce qu'ils faisaient, ce qu'ils voulaient... (shrink)

En Ideals as Interests in Hobbes’s Leviathan, Sharon Ann Lloyd desarrolla una novedosa interpretación del problema político de Hobbes y de la solución que él elabora en El Leviatán. Lloyd se aparta de las interpretaciones estándares sobre Hobbes al sostener que el hombre hobbesiano es capaz de defender intereses transcendentales (es decir, intereses que no encajan en el esquema del deseo de autoconservación) y que la contradicción entre estos intereses constituye la principal amenaza del orden social. En contra (...) de la interpretación estándar, Lloyd afirma que el conflicto no se circunscribe al estado de naturaleza y que el problema fundamental de la teoría política de Hobbes concierne al establecimiento y el mantenimiento del orden social. De acuerdo con Lloyd, la solución del desorden social se lleva a cabo no sólo mediante estrategias realistas sino además mediante estrategias pedagógicas. (shrink)

La traduction latine du livre de Maïmonide Moreh Nevukhim | Guide des égarés, a été l'ouvrage juif le plus influent des derniers millénaires (Di Segni, 2019 ; Rubio, 2006 ; Wohlman, 1988, 1995 ; Kohler, 2017). Elle marqua le début de la scolastique, fille du judaïsme élevée par des penseurs juifs, selon l'historien Heinrich Graetz (Geschichte der Juden, L. 6, Leipzig 1861, p. xii). Imprimée par la première presse mécanique de Gutenberg, son influence en Occident s'étendit jusqu'au Vème concile du (...) Latran (1512-1517) « où les savants furent encouragés à lever les difficultés qui semblaient diviser l'ensemble de la théologie et de la philosophie — (Leibniz, Théodicée, 11 ) ». Pendant des siècles, le Guide a révolutionné le programme d'instruction scolaire en réintégrant dans le domaine de la foi les lois de la pensée (dont la quatrième est devenue le principe de la raison suffisante de Leibniz). Cette collection complète de notes qui expose les idées du Guide fournit tous les passages sélectionnés et réécrits par Leibniz. Cette première traduction complète bilingue annotée des manuscrits originaux en latin sert de porte d'entrée à la foi conforme à la Raison. -/- « L'excellent livre du Rabbin Moïse Maïmonide, le Guide des égarés, est plus philosophique que je ne l'avais imaginé et mérite une lecture attentive. L'auteur, distingué par son intelligence en philosophie, était versé dans les mathématiques, l'art médical, et aussi dans la connaissance de Saintes Écritures. » — G. W. LEIBNIZ, 1685, Anthologie de Leibniz du Guide de Maïmonide, Chapitre III. (shrink)

David Doat ,Olivier Sartenaer | : Peut-on raisonnablement penser qu’un même phénomène naturel, comme l’esprit par exemple, puisse en même temps être continu et discontinu avec les processus physico-chimiques qui conditionnent son advenue au monde ? Autrement dit, est-il possible de construire une philosophie de la nature qui rejette simultanément la dichotomie métaphysique et la pure identité, c’est-à-dire qui se situe sans contradiction sur la ligne de séparation entre le dualisme et le matérialisme ? En y répondant par l’affirmative, John (...) Dewey et Lloyd Morgan, deux pionniers respectifs du pragmatisme et de l’émergentisme au siècle dernier, ouvrirent la voie d’un nouveau naturalisme antiréductionniste. L’objectif de cet article est, d’une part, de montrer comment ces deux auteurs cherchèrent à relever ce défi en mobilisant le concept d’émergence ; d’autre part de préciser la nature des divergences d’interprétation et d’usage du concept chez Morgan et Dewey. | : Can we reasonably conceive of a given natural phenomenon, say, the mind, that can at the same time be continuous and discontinuous with the physico-chemical processes that give rise to it ? In other words, is it possible to vindicate a philosophy of nature that simultaneously rejects the metaphysical dichotomy and the pure identity, or that consistently stands on the line that separates dualism and materialism ? By answering these questions positively, John Dewey and Lloyd Morgan, respectively pioneers of 20th century pragmatism and emergentism, have opened a path towards a new antireductionist naturalism. The purpose of this paper is, on the one hand, to show how both authors have met this challenge through the use of the concept of emergence and, on the other hand, to explicate the different ways in which both authors have construed and used the concept of emergence. (shrink)

En el presente artículo nos proponemos abordar la dimensión crecientemente política en los más de treinta años de producción teórica de Judith Butler, entendiendo a Butler como unx teóricx políticx por derecho propio (Chambers y Carver, 2008) que desarrolla su propia concepción de política radical (Moya Lloyd, 2009). Aunque el foco suele estar puesto en el “giro ético” de Butler a partir de sus desarrollos sobre precariedad, sostendremos que hay un giro previo en la obra butleriana a partir de (...) su concepto de universalidad-por-venir: un “giro político” o “giro hacia lo político” a través del cual cierta diferencia ontológica entre lo político y la política ingresa en las tesis butlerianas. ¿En qué medida se puede afirmar que Judith Butler es unx políticx radical? Consideramos que sus críticas a la universalidad como trascendentalización de contenidos históricos y contingentes llevan a la teoría butleriana a un impasse en el que rechaza lo que su política requiere y que solo logra superar a su pesar: introduciendo la precari/e/dad, aquella condición socio-ontológica de apertura constitutiva, como su propio cuasi trascendental. (shrink)

This paper addresses the issue of Jacek Dehnel’s presence in Spain. On the one hand, it contains references to Spain within his works: the Francisco Goya family in the novel Saturn. Czarne obrazy z życia mężczyzn z rodziny Goya (W.A.B. Publishers, Warsaw 2011; translated into English as Saturn: Black Paintings from the Lives of the Men in the Goya Family by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Dedalus, Cambridgeshire 2012) and two maps: Ancient Spain and Modern Spain in the book Kosmografia, czyli trzydzieści (...) apokryfów tułaczych (Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw 2012). On the other hand, the paper refers to the translation of Dehnel’s works into Spanish: the novel Lala (W.A.B. Publishers, Warsaw 2006) translated by Jerzy Sławomirski and Anna Rubió as El jardín de Lala (Duomo ediciones, Barcelona 2012; translated into English as Lala by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Oneworld Publications, London 2019) and eight poems by the poet inside the volume Poesía a contragolpe. Antología de poesía polaca contemporánea (autores nacidos entre 1960 y 1980), selected and translated by Abel Murcia, Gerardo Beltrán and Xavier Farré (Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 2012). Analysis covers one of the poems from the anthology, entitled El abogado Federico G. L. dicta una citación. (shrink)

Résumé Le rapprochement de Whitehead avec le courant émergentiste, notamment Samuel Alexander, Conwy Lloyd Morgan et Charlie Dunbar Broad, met en lumière l’articulation entre la dimension processuelle de sa philosophie et son effort pour rendre compte du caractère signifiant de l’univers. Pour tous, la philosophie se doit de montrer que ce qui relève de l’esprit appartient pleinement à la nature, et n’a pas à être rejeté dans un non-lieu métaphysique. Mais, chez Whitehead, cet effort prend une tournure différente, impartiale, (...) en décentrant la notion d’« esprit » de la référence exclusive à la mentalité humaine. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Aux marges des dialogues de Platon: Essai d'histoire anthropologique de la philosophie ancienneAlessandra FussiMarie-Laurence Desclos. Aux marges des dialogues de Platon: Essai d'histoire anthropologique de la philosophie ancienne. Grenoble: Millon, 2003. Pp. 286. Paper, €27,00.The book takes its bearings from Plato's knowledge of Herodotus's and Thucydides' writings as it is witnessed in such dialogues as the Menexenus, the Timaeus, the Critias and the Laws. Plato not only indirectly (...) quotes from both authors, but also frequently plays with chronology and the relationship between historical events. What motivates Plato's interest in historical events? Is it possible to speak of a Platonic philosophy of history? Before addressing such questions, the author devotes several chapters to a very detailed and insightful study of the meaning(s) of "historiography" in Herodotus and Thucydides. The first chapter examines different contemporary views concerning Herodotus's and Thucydides' attitude towards their sources. Desclos sides with those who underlie the distance between modern theories of historical sources and ancient historical literature. The ancients had no theory of objective sources. Rather, they focused on the subjective means employed, such as the historian's own sense of sight, and his good judgment. As to the witnesses of the past, the accent was not as much on their reliability as it was on their plausibility vis-à-vis the opinions of the historian himself.Chapters II and III are devoted respectively to Thucydides' employment of the rhetorical instruments of the law courts, and to the stylistic and methodic proximity of Herodotus's Histories to the Corpus Hippocraticum. Both chapters oppose the view that the two ancient historians identify their task as "critical history," i.e., as an attempt to free the historical attitude towards facts and events from the subjective aspects of rhetoric, poetry, and religion, where persuasion and chance play a major role. Thucydides' language is rooted in the law courts. However, Desclos argues, the place he occupies in the Peloponnesian War is not that of the impartial judge—as N. Loraux and C. Darbo-Peshanski have suggested—but that of the defendant's attorney. He is much closer to Antiphon's antidikoi—whose ability he extols in VIII, 68, 1-2—than to the modern, impartial judge. The main stress of the methodological chapters in Book I of the Peloponnesian War, then, is not as much on the critical attitude that the historian must have towards his different kinds of sources, as it is on the attempt to persuade the readers that he is true to the facts, while his opponents and competitors are not. In this sense, Desclos agrees with Lloyd that we are in the presence of a "rhetoric of legitimation." According to this interpretation, then, Thucydides' text assigns his ideal reader a passive role. He is meant to be persuaded, conquered, and entirely a-critical (62).Chapter III argues that Herodotus's Histories give their ideal reader an entirely different role. Desclos focuses here on the analogy between medicine and writing, and on Herodotus's preference for Greek medicine, which uses "sweet" methods, over Persian medicine, characterized by harshness and violence. The Greek doctors' superiority ultimately resides in their ability to enroll the patients in the fight against illness. Analogously, the superiority of the Greek historian resides in his ability to accommodate his writings to the reader in such a way that the latter may become an active participant in the historical inquiry. Herodotus does not pretend to be above all opinions. He clearly states his opinions, but by treating them as such he allows the reader to take position, to be "interactive" with the written work (85). [End Page 203]This interesting analysis bears its fruits in the last chapters devoted to Plato. Desclos suggests that the anonymous and silent interlocutor in such dialogues as the Charmides, the Lysis and the Republic plays an important philosophical function, by circumscribing a dialogical empty space that the reader is invited to fill (220). This takes Herodotus's strategy a step forward, since the truly philosophical nature of the Platonic dialogue lies thereby in its openness to the reader. Unfortunately Desclos's chapters on Plato are not as... (shrink)

In recent years students of medieval literature and its history have begun increasingly to appreciate the value of their primary source materials — the manuscripts. Editors of Middle English texts are less apt nowadays, having found their “best text,” to jettison as worthless all other surviving copies and renderings of it. It is recognized that a “corrupt” text may reflect the activity of a contemporary editor, critic, or adapter rather than that of a merely careless copyist. Medieval scribes, whether professional (...) or amateur, clerical or lay, were producing works of literature for their original consumers; close examination of scribal behavior, whether it be script, spelling, or choice and ordering of material, provides insight into the way literary texts were received, understood, and disseminated. The studies of paleographer, dialectologist, textual critic, and literary historian can and should be complementary. (shrink)

We are social animals that seek to connect with others of our kind. This common thought stands in need of elaboration. In this article, I argue for three theses. First, that we pursue certain forms of communicative interaction for their own sake insofar as they are ways of connecting with another. Second, that interpersonal connection is a metaphysically primitive emotional relation which resists reductive analysis in terms of the states of individuals. And finally, that our desire for interpersonal connection has (...) a strong claim to being explanatorily and normatively prior to our desires for mutual-attachment, interpersonal belonging and approbation. (shrink)

Professor Kemp Smith in providing a new edition of Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion , embodying all the author’s additions and corrections, has given expression to the perennial interest and fascination which this work has possessed for many minds during the odd one hundred and fifty years since it was first published by Hume’s nephew. The editor himself has performed a great service by contributing an Introduction and a clear and concise summary of the Dialogues , in both of which (...) he expounds his own view as to how Hume’s discussion is to be interpreted. Hume employs three characters—Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes; and. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that we face a challenge in understanding the relationship between the ‘value-oriented’ and ‘other-oriented’ dimensions of shame. On the one hand, an emphasis on shame's value-oriented dimension leads naturally to ‘The Self-Evaluation View’, an account which faces a challenge in explaining shame's other-oriented dimension. This is liable to push us towards ‘The Social Evaluation View’. However The Social Evaluation View faces the opposite challenge of convincingly accommodating shame's ‘value-oriented’ dimension. After rejecting one attempt to chart (...) a middle course between these extremes, I argue that progress can be made if we reject the widespread assumption that the other-oriented dimension of shame is best understood primarily terms of our concern with the way we appear to others. Instead, I outline an account which treats shame as manifesting our desire primarily for interpersonal connection and which elucidates the property of shamefulness in terms of merited avoidance. (shrink)

Helga Kuhse suggested in 1985 at a session of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies in Nice, that once dehydration to death became legal and routine in hospitals, people would, on seeing the horror of it, seek the lethal injection. The strategy of legalising passive euthanasia is itself flawed. Laing argues that the Mental Capacity Bill threatens the vulnerable by inviting breaches of arts 2,3,5,8, and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Most at risk are (...) the disabled and incapacitated. Sections permitting non-therapeutic research and non consensual sterilisation are at odds with the Nuremberg Code. New third party powers to dehydrate the vulnerable permit new systemic human rights abuse of a clinical though not historically unfamiliar variety. (shrink)

Laing contends that the practice of eugenics has not disappeared. Conceptually related to the utilitarian and Social Darwinist worldview and historically evolving out of the practice of slavery, it led to some of the most spectacular human rights abuses in human history. The compulsory sterilization of and experimentation on those deemed “undesirable” and “unfit” in many technologically developed states like the US, Scandinavia, and Japan, led inexorably and most systematically to Nazi Germany with the elimination of countless millions of (...) people for their race, class, political views, sexuality, religion or disability. Biometric databases exposing one’s medical data, DNA defects, IQ, political views, while in some ways appearing socially useful, demonstrates how vulnerable humans are, not just at the hands of political malfeasors and tyrants but insurance companies, government snoopers, false friends and determined social engineers. (shrink)