Melanie A Dunne

This paper will be examining the question of the animal in continental philosophy through the lens provided by Franz Kafka (1883-1924) in The Metamorphosis. It will start off by giving a brief overview of the anthropocentric position of traditional philosophy, which became somewhat fixed within the ideals of the Enlightenment. This paper plans on addressing how literature and Kafka can succeed in going beyond the bounds of reason to show how humans treat nonhumans as Other. Contemporary continental philosophies from Derrida and Žižek argue for a reconsideration of the truths that humans hold in contemplating the abyss between human and nonhuman others. Literature can hold a mirror to philosophy where the limits of truth and reason need to be overcome. Written in Prague in 1912, Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a novella in which Gregor Samsa wakes from his troubled dreams transformed. The protagonist, Gregor, reflects on his condition and place in the world. Gregor 'lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections.' 'It was no dream,' writes Kafka. 1 Late for his daily commute, Gregor contemplates his

Psychoanalytic theory describes human behaviour as primarily unconscious and coloured by emotion. Behaviour is seen by psychoanalysis as just a surface characteristic and presumed to be unconscious, or outside the awareness of the individual. 1 The goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to make the unconscious conscious. This is achieved through analysing the symbolic meanings of our dreams, defence mechanism in behaviour and the deep inner workings of the mind. This Essay will argue that creativity/play leads to healthier psychological integration and regulation of the self, promoting individuation. Firstly, a brief history of the development of the unconscious mind is given. This is followed by Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious which the statement 'I am not entirely myself' initiated from. Carl Jung's theories of the unconscious move beyond Freud's. Jung's theories are discussed in relation to the thematic focus that creativity and play allow for the discovery and integration of the unknown parts of the self through unconscious processes. The writings of psychiatrist Donald Winnicott further enhance the argument of the expressed need for creativity and play throughout our lives. Throughout the ages, philosophers, poets and academics have written on the advice of the Delphic oracle: 'Know thyself'. It was in cartesian philosophy that the idea of the mind originated. By 1900 four functions of the unconscious had been described. Ellenberger, in his book The Discovery of the Unconscious, states that these functions were conservative, dissolutive, mythopoetic and creative. Conservative was where the unconscious stores memories, often inaccessible to voluntary recall. Dissolutive, here the unconscious contains habits, once voluntary, now automatised, and dissociated elements of the personality, which may lead a 'parasitic existence'. Mythopoetic was when the unconscious constructs narratives and fantasies that appear mythic or religious in nature. And creative, where the unconscious serves as the matrix of new ideas. 2 Modern psychology views the mind as having many compartments that work both independently and holistically.

This essay will be examining how the philosophies of truth, history and justice may provide a new modality in relation to the current political impasse. It will start off by reviewing the Enlightenment philosophies of truth, and how the meaning of truth changed. To address the topic of truth, Kant's reflective judgment in the Critique of Judgment will be analysed. Kierkegaard's understanding of truth in 'Subjective Truth, Inwardness; Truth is Subjectivity,' will then be explored. Nietzsche's essay On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense 1873, shows his stand on truth. How our history can be used to influence our future decisions and judgments are considered using Nietzsche's The Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life. Derrida essay 'Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundations of Authority,' deals specifically with justice. Through this essay, the influences of Kant, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche will be assessed in Derrida's philosophy of justice. This essay will conclude on how Derrida is correct in that we can never ultimately determine whether a decision will be just or unjust. In justice we must always be positive, uphold our responsibility to the Other and hold on to 'perhaps'.

This paper will be examining Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) term of ‘inner sense’ which first appeared in the Critic of Pure Reason (1781).  This paper will argue that Inner sense is what Kant meant by the ordering of our thoughts and awareness of experience through the pure intuition of time.  The methodology follows from Kant’s opening lines in the critique, followed by analyzing his statement that time is inner sense.  We turn to Rosenburg and McDowell, who offer an important account of the distinctions Kant makes between inner and outer sense.  Kant had a clear view of what inner sense is, however in the first critique it is a little abstract.  The puzzle of working out what inner sense is, involves identifying what inner sense is not.  My thesis statement is that inner sense is the faculty of the mind that makes nostalgia and an appreciation of aesthetics and the sublime possible.  Inner sense is self-affection, a subjective ordering of one’s experiences as they are inwardly affected.

This essay will argue that American philosopher Richard Rorty is correct in his argument that 'human rights foundationalism is outmoded' in his article 'Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality'. In support of this statement, this essay will define foundationalism to show that we cannot justify human rights in this grounding. In showing that reason alone does not promote human rights, this essay takes a brief look back at the history and development of human rights. Rorty quotes Rabossi 'Stop trying to get behind or beneath this fact' in the discussion on why rights culture needs to move forward and Rorty offers us an alternative position. The proposed alternative is that we concentrate our energies instead on sentimental education. We may even reach 'a vision of a new, democratic world', what Rabossi calls 'the human rights phenomenon', according to Rorty. Richard Rorty, at an Oxford Amnesty lecture given in 1993, argues that 'human rights foundationalism is outmoded.' 1 Peter Singer gives us a definition of foundationalism; 'Foundationalism is the view that systems of belief are justified in virtue of the logical relations that obtain between beliefs that require justification, and other beliefs that themselves are in no need of justification.' 2 In Rorty's first book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979) he says, 'to know is to represent accurately what is outside the mind'.3 The beliefs of Descartes, Locke, and Kant in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, which were representational, are now considered outmoded. The reason for this is that if we continue using philosophy as a search for the truth of knowledge as the relation between humanity and our reality, and as justifications for our moral actions, the philosophical arguments could go on forever. We may never discover an absolute truth and we must give up what Nietzsche called 'metaphysical comfort' in order to progressively move forward.4

In the history of Western philosophy, before Heidegger, we see that the question of the animal was not given much thought, or perhaps deliberately ignored. Many prominent philosophers had maintained an anthropocentric position, in which the status of the animal is lower than that of humans. The question of the animal in modern continental thought is founded on Heidegger's acknowledgement of the animal being. This essay uses the shark species to analyse the progression of the question of the animal from Heidegger to modern day philosophers. The Cartesian tradition held that animals do not have souls and therefor do not feel pain.

How the notion of freedom is conceptualised concerning specific accounts of others or intersubjectivity in the philosophy of Hegel and Foucault. This essay will be examining how the notion of freedom is conceptualised in relation to specific accounts of others, or intersubjectivity. It will start by addressing how Continental philosophy has developed complex accounts of our awareness of others, that of intersubjectivity. This first part of this essay will consider how Hegel constructs his theory of intersubjectivity in 'System of Ethical Life' and Phenomenology of Spirit (1807). Hegel's writings in these texts are based on the writings of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling in particular.

Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) is an Irish artist, hailed as a European master.  Over the last sixty years, many have wondered about the meanings of his late works.  As Yeats’ work is not a direct representation of objects or life, this dissertation asks if the late works in art and literature, display that he was an existential artist.  This research adds a new dimension to Yeats’ and places the late works within the philosophical movement of his time, existentialism.  Samuel Beckett stated that Yeats’ work deals with the ‘issueless predicament of existence’.  Building on the work of Beckett, Pyle, Armstrong, Sharkey and others, this research is an important contribution to the understanding of Yeats’s work within the context of European art and Continental philosophy.  Through following the flow of ideas from Paris to Ireland and back in the 1930s and 1940s, specific influential relationships are identified.  This research shows how Heidegger’s phenomenological existentialism is foundational to understanding the nature of being human or ‘to be’ as evident in Yeats’ masterpieces.  This research considers Heidegger’s philosophy as laid out in Being and Time (1927), Contributions to Philosophy from Ereignis (1936-38), and The Origin of a Work of Art (1935-36).  Themes suggested from Yeats’ late works include authenticity, truth, time, death and freedom.  While many of Yeats’ masterpieces in the late works are discussed in this dissertation, Night has Gone (1947) and On through Silent Land (1951) are discussed at length.  We know from previous studies that Yeats often mirrored his writing with his art.  This dissertation makes references to Yeats’ plays: The Rattle (1933), Deathly Terrace [n.d.] and The Silencer (1933-1939).  However, late works are examined mostly as a body of work to discern meaning and to give a comprehensive overview of Yeats as an existential artist.

This essay will be examining Merleau-Ponty’s chapter on ‘Sensing’ in his book Phenomenology of Perception, 1945.  It will start by introducing Merleau-Ponty and his influences in both philosophy and psychology.  To address the topic of ‘sensing’, this essay will concentrate on Merleau-Ponty’s perception as a creative process between the embodied subject and sensible world within the phenomenal field.  This essay will refer to Edmund Husserl who influenced Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology.  Martin Heidegger’s Origin of a Work of Art is used to show how Merleau-Ponty’s expand this concept.  Immanuel Kant’s notion of the sensible intuitions is discussed, and we discover that his theory of the purposiveness of nature may be a key in Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perception.  This essay argues that Merleau-Ponty’s work on ‘sensing’ is perhaps the most fully inclusive theory to date across a multitude of disciplines.

'Fine art' is a living phenomenon determined by the purposiveness of nature. 'Fine art' [schöne Kunst] contains a determination that arranges itself in accordance with the purposiveness of nature in Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) philosophy. This implies that 'fine art' is a living phenomenon, having a life of its own beyond its initial creation. In the Critique of Judgement 1790, Kant states that our aesthetic appreciation lies in the faculty of reflective judgment. What Kant incorporates into the third critique is that reflective judgment allows for the creation of new meaning in the face of the beautiful, the sublime, and 'fine art'. This paper will start by examining how Kant had previously set up the regulative ideal in his architectonic system which runs throughout his late philosophy. The purpose of this paper will be to show how Kant brings about a genuine unity between freedom and nature. This unity allows for the requisites for 'fine art' to synthesis with the purposiveness of nature. Kant extends this regulative in the third critique to show how judgment allows for new concepts that were previously unconceived by the understanding. In analysis of the requisites for 'fine art', we will discover how rules of reason harmonise and evolve through genius to originality.

Writing on Blanchot's prose, Derrida argues that there is a "disturbing complicity between fiction and testimony." Through Derrida's deconstruction of 'The Instant of My Death,' we discover a suspension between a work of fiction and an autobiographical testimony. The distinction between fiction and testimony is ordinarily clear and concise. Fiction is a work of literary art that allows for free play of the imagination. The creation of a work of fiction is a circular motion between the writer and the work, the result of which is literature. In a work of fiction, it is possible to testify to the subjective particulars of 'My' death. Certainty, truth, or concepts are not required for an aesthetic appreciation of fiction. Fiction allows us to see the possible in that which is ordinarily judged as impossible. A work of fiction, therefore, can create its own meaning.

Medard Boss’ approach to analysis of dreams stems from his Daseinsanalysis theory.  Dreams, just as waking life, discloses a truth about the existence of the individual.  Boss’ approach to phenomenological psychology was inspired by his earlier study in psychoanalysis while training for his medical degree.  However, although Boss felt that the method Freud used was useful in dealing with clients, he disagreed with the underlining theory.  Daseinsanalysis, based on Heidegger’s ontology, naturally rejects notions of ‘the unconscious’ as it does not appear as a phenomenon in consciousness.  The manifest dream speaks for itself, disclosing an existential truth to the being who questions their being. Daseinsanalysis’ approach to dreams can be discovered and implemented by anyone who has an interest in understanding the core of their inner life and how they can fulfill their potential in the world.