2016 Sayı 27

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11452/13121

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An antihumanist reinterpretation of the philosophy of singularity
(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2016) Bilgisel, Dilara
This article takes a close look at the discussion of singularity in Jean-Luc Nancy’s The Inoperative Community and Being Singular Plural as an attempt to negate the subject/object dichotomy and create a new context for a re-evaluation of resistance. With its aim of refuting individualistic subjectivity, the philosophy of singularity puts forward that the humanist point of view unnecessarily polarizes individuality and community. By placing a challenging scenario of antihumanism against the humanist sense of responsibility, the philosophy of singularity questions whether it is possible to do philosophy without saying ‘I’. This antihumanist stance, which replaces the ‘I’/‘other’ differentiation with Nancy’s ‘the other of another,’ chooses to strengthen the link between ontology and resistance in the notion of coexistence, beyond traditional hypotheses on immanence or transcendence. In order to discover the manifestation of coexistence within the frame of an antihumanist philosophy of singularity, this article begins with digging deep under the notion of individualistic subjectivity to show that it embodies a hollow and plastic category. Following this, Nancy’s stress on the term ‘ecstasy’ will be grounded upon the Freudian theory of drives and the concept of coexistence will be situated in a dark realm that the humanist worldview would expect in the least. And finally, against the background of this theoretical structure, values such as modesty and responsibility will be highlighted as an attempt to uncover an alternative moral consciousness that weaves itself out of an indefinite possibility lurking under the skin of the individual/community enigma.
Can fiction offer moral truth beyond truisms?
(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2016) Keki, Başak
This paper challenges Jerome Stolnitz’s view that art cannot teach us anything but merely offers truisms, which he asserts in his article “On the Cognitive Triviality of Art”. The current inquiry is limited to fiction and explores the relationship between aesthetics and morality and their cognitive and emotional implications. Employing the contemporary debates surrounding the literature, I defend the view that fiction can offer us moral truth beyond truisms through the reader’s interaction with the text as she employs her imaginative, moral and emotional faculties throughout the unique process of reading. Stolnitz’s first worry is that the cognitive value of fiction is superficial, and the “message” of a text hardly qualifies as knowledge. He bases his argument on the case that artistic truth doesn’t exist because there are no experts who could judge the epistemic status of knowledge on arts; hence there is no such thing as artistic knowledge – and without knowledge, art cannot teach us anything. Even if fiction offers certain conceptions which may evoke moral wisdom, they are already stale truisms devoid of cognitive worth. I respond to this criticism by proposing that works of fiction contain a different type of knowledge; the type of know-how rather than know-that which alludes to moral knowledge. Stolnitz’s second worry is that the moral themes contained in fiction can fit in a sentence or two, without us having to bother to read the whole text. My response is that the act of interaction with the text is an indispensable part of enhancing our emotional and moral education which helps us cultivate our moral imagination. Similar to any thought experiment in philosophical arguments, fiction helps us direct our moral attention and evaluate diverse (moral) possibilities. The process of reading allows us to acquire a moral space or distance from which we can formulate moral responses to what happens in the text. Cultivating moral judgment takes time; and it is this time consuming act of reading the text which enables us to critically engage with the text. Learning from fiction entails an internal change we undergo in our being; and the greater the literary work is, the more we can learn from it.
A discourse on the ontology of violence
(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2016) Shıtta-Bey, Olanrewaju Abdul
The sophistication and reoccurrence of violence has continued to gain increasing attention in contemporary discourse. Scholars that take interest in the study of violence have made efforts only in understanding and addressing the causes, forms, and the management mechanism. Such intellectual efforts have proved not to be sufficiently adequate as evident by the recurring decimal of violence in limitless proportion, even in places where it has been under-studied. This inadequacy has made the need for renewed interest in the study of the nature and dynamics of violence imperative. Concerned about the lack of consideration for the ontological root of violence in previous studies, this paper seeks to critically explore the ontology of violence. It aims at examining classical philosophical texts on human nature with a view to expose the ontological origin of violence and shows how such consideration is apt in the understanding, addressing, and management of violence; that is, this paper makes a case for the study of the ontology of violence as a way of addressing the lacuna currently existing in the studies on violence. Thus, it argues that this ontological study entails as a matter of necessity an understanding of human nature in relation to the subject-matter of violence. The methodology used in achieving the aim of this paper is the analytic and phenomenological approaches, that is, analysis and phenomenological examination of textual materials are employed by the study.
Requiem for the ones experiencing the tragedy of farewells: The ballad of narayama
(Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2016) Sam, Rıza; Uludağ Üniversitesi/Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi/Sosyoloji Bölümü.
The movie 'The Ballad of Narayama' is considered as one of the masterpieces of traditional cinema and of the famous director Shohei Imamura. The movie depicts a very cruel tradition to which people striving to survive in a mountain village of Japan are strictly attached. Tradition, as a founding past, is carried in the movie to the present and the future, with rituals, ceremonies and rites. Thus the community achieves a knowledge through tradition, allowing it to reproduce itself each time. However, this knowledge also manifests itself as a law-maker in the communitylife. In the examined film this law is most succulently expressed as "rule is rule, mercy is useless". In particular, persons who reach 70 years of age, are taken by their sons or close relatives to the summit of the 'Narayama Mountain' and abandoned to die. In the cultural codes of the community, such as act is one of the most important tasks and obligations to be fulfilled. Thus, abstaining from such task and obligation is considered as the greatest sin, crime and shame. At this point, the tradition serves the function as a reminder to each member of the community, of the tasks and obligations, to prevent their sins, crimes and shames. For example, in the film, although the character ‘Mother Orin’ has healthy teeth, she is continuously told by both her grandchildren and other members of the community, that she has turned 70 and must go to the summit of the 'Narayama Mountain'. In short, each member of the community exerts pressure on those who turn 70. Against this pressure, healthy persons who turn 70 "break their front teeth with stone" to give the message to their sons or close relatives, who shall carry them to the summit of the Narayama Mountain, that the time has come for the tragic task and obligation they have to fulfill. In this context, the film 'The Ballad of Narayama' can be considered as a requiem for the ones experiencing the tragedy of farewells. This study is a content analysis and evaluation of the film 'The Ballad of Narayama', specific to the tradition, making use of qualitative research methodology and using the document analysis technique.

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