Papers by Rachel Bath
Puncta, 2021
One defining claim that critical phenomenologists make of the critical phenomenological method is... more One defining claim that critical phenomenologists make of the critical phenomenological method is that description no longer simply plays the role of detailing the world around the describing phenomenologist, but rather has the potential to transform worlds and persons. The transformative potential of the critical phenomenological enterprise is motivated by aspirations of social and political transformation. Critical phenomenology accordingly takes, as its starting point, descriptions of the oppressive historical social structures and contexts that have shaped our experience and shows how these produce inequitable ways of being in the world (Guenther 2020, 12). For example, critical phenomenologists have provided rich descriptions of marginalized lived experience, particularly racialized experience (Ngo, 2017; Yancy, 2017), dis-abled experience and experiences of illness (Lajoie and Douglas, 2020; Toombs, 1993), gendered experience (Beauvoir, 2009; Salamon, 2010), and so forth. What...
When a significant other dies, our lives can be shattered and our worlds upended. We may find tha... more When a significant other dies, our lives can be shattered and our worlds upended. We may find that we no longer know how to make sense of our experiences or how to engage in our practical activities. Nothing can be as it was before because the world as we once knew it has ended, and we are no longer the same persons we once were. Nonetheless this ending opens up something new because the death of the other changes the possibilities of our lived world. A phenomenological analysis of the phenomena of grief and bereavement reveals that while bereavement undermines meaning as such, there is nonetheless something existentially meaningful about the experience in general. Insofar as bereavement is a disorienting, disruptive event, it opens us to our openness by asking us to respond differently, and responding differently can recuperate us from the event by transforming us and our worlds.
future? In order to respond to this question, I will first address literature on grief in order t... more future? In order to respond to this question, I will first address literature on grief in order to contextualize my discussion of anticipatory grief and to show how a philosophical analysis of the anticipatory structure of this form of grieving addresses a gap in the literature. I will then provide a personal description of my lived experience of anticipatory grief. Following this, I will explicate Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theories of temporality and subjectivity, as well as his concepts of trauma and intentional arc, so that I can apply these theories to my descriptive example in order to reveal how the anticipatory structure of anticipatory grief can inform a subject’s personal perception of their future. Ultimately I will argue that anticipatory grief is an experience that has the capacity to traumatize one’s structure of personal time. Whether or not this occurs will depend upon how one accomplishes their existence in the taking up of a situation in the present m...
Thesis Chapters by Rachel Bath
This dissertation recuperates marginalized philosopher Edith Stein’s philosophy of personal becom... more This dissertation recuperates marginalized philosopher Edith Stein’s philosophy of personal becoming to intervene in contemporary debates in feminist and critical phenomenology. To effect this intervention, the first three chapters of the dissertation develop a three-part systematic treatment of personal becoming as it is variously figured in the thought of Edith Stein. First, I argue that we as psycho-physical individuals are formed by the world and by lived experience through various material, psychical, and spiritual forces. Our personal character is produced (and revised) by the way formation, as a set of ongoing processes, realizes the inner and outer circumstances of our lives; thus, our subjectivity is always revisable, emergent, and contingent. Second, I show that we are not passively shaped by experience but self-form according to our values and based upon what we learn about ourselves through empathic experiences with others. This self-formative activity has an ethical dimension that is fulfilled when we become our fullest selves by unfolding our souls, which provide the innate core of who we are. Third, I demonstrate the role of gender and education in Stein’s account of personal becoming. I argue that while Stein’s vision of gendered development promisingly entails unfolding our gendered essence (masculine or feminine) in highly specific and personal ways throughout our lives, she compromises her account with a vision of girls’ education that encourages girls to develop so-called ‘feminine’ traits that ultimately encourage self-displacement, submissiveness to men, and complicity with the oppression of other girls and women. In the fourth and final chapter, I draw on elements from Stein’s philosophy of personal becoming to identify and ameliorate shortcomings in feminist and critical phenomenology. Feminist and critical phenomenologies both seek to produce social, cultural, and political change in individuals and in the world, but neither methodology has sufficiently addressed how individual or systematic change is affected. I argue that Stein’s understanding of motivated value change is a crucial supplement that illustrates how individuals can integrate and mobilize changing social and political values; thus, this concept can be used to help feminist and critical phenomenologies realize their transformative aim.
Teaching Documents by Rachel Bath
Course Description:
The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have stated that “the unex... more Course Description:
The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This is often interpreted to mean that self-knowledge is a prerequisite for living a fulfilling life. Indeed, the motto, “know thyself,” has defined both the Western philosophical project and philosophical accounts of personal identity for over two millennia. However, contemporary psychologists and philosophers now indicate that the pursuit of self-knowledge is misguided at best or impossible at worst.
In this course we will evaluate our intuitions about personal identity against historical and contemporary philosophical accounts of personal identity. To do so, we will often employ thought experiments (including but not limited to teletransportation, cloning, brain transplants, death, and social media presentation). In this regard, students will learn how to explore the implications of the following questions: Who are you? What makes you you? Are you the same person today as you were five years ago? How do the events of your life and your relationships with others shape your identity? To what extent are you responsible for the person you become, and, if at all responsible, to what extent can you participate in your own self-formation?
In our first module we will compare modern and contemporary theories of self to establish what is at stake in a philosophical examination of who we are. Students will learn common vocabulary for talking about personal identity, as well as develop the skills to analyze, critique, and synthesize various philosophical arguments. The second module will address the question of what matters for who we are, including our social identities (ex. gender, race, etc.) and the way we present ourselves to others and to ourselves. In this regard, students will learn to evaluate some of the most identity-defining dimensions of their life. In the third module we will examine some moral concerns about selfhood, including the moral value of self-knowledge and self-deception, as well as our responsibility for who we become.
Course Description:
We find ourselves in moral situations every day: from what we eat, to the ... more Course Description:
We find ourselves in moral situations every day: from what we eat, to the clothes we wear, the brands we support, the media we use, and the ways we engage with other living beings. But how can we determine how to best respond to these situations? How do we discern ‘good’ responses from ‘bad’ responses? What do we owe others and how should we behave towards other people, including those we don’t know? Why should we be moral at all?
In this course we will explore a variety of tools and resources that can help us make sense of moral situations and determine the best way for us to respond. In this course, ethics will be considered in a practical light, and we will develop strategies for living morally. While we will consider ethical theories at length in this course, we will also see that they are but one tool necessary for living in a way that makes a difference in ethical situations. We will judge the value of ethical theories not just by their philosophical coherence but for how they play out in action, what kinds of tools they offer us in concrete situations, and the kind of picture they present of the moral life. Together we will develop and practice ethical thinking.
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Papers by Rachel Bath
Thesis Chapters by Rachel Bath
Teaching Documents by Rachel Bath
The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This is often interpreted to mean that self-knowledge is a prerequisite for living a fulfilling life. Indeed, the motto, “know thyself,” has defined both the Western philosophical project and philosophical accounts of personal identity for over two millennia. However, contemporary psychologists and philosophers now indicate that the pursuit of self-knowledge is misguided at best or impossible at worst.
In this course we will evaluate our intuitions about personal identity against historical and contemporary philosophical accounts of personal identity. To do so, we will often employ thought experiments (including but not limited to teletransportation, cloning, brain transplants, death, and social media presentation). In this regard, students will learn how to explore the implications of the following questions: Who are you? What makes you you? Are you the same person today as you were five years ago? How do the events of your life and your relationships with others shape your identity? To what extent are you responsible for the person you become, and, if at all responsible, to what extent can you participate in your own self-formation?
In our first module we will compare modern and contemporary theories of self to establish what is at stake in a philosophical examination of who we are. Students will learn common vocabulary for talking about personal identity, as well as develop the skills to analyze, critique, and synthesize various philosophical arguments. The second module will address the question of what matters for who we are, including our social identities (ex. gender, race, etc.) and the way we present ourselves to others and to ourselves. In this regard, students will learn to evaluate some of the most identity-defining dimensions of their life. In the third module we will examine some moral concerns about selfhood, including the moral value of self-knowledge and self-deception, as well as our responsibility for who we become.
We find ourselves in moral situations every day: from what we eat, to the clothes we wear, the brands we support, the media we use, and the ways we engage with other living beings. But how can we determine how to best respond to these situations? How do we discern ‘good’ responses from ‘bad’ responses? What do we owe others and how should we behave towards other people, including those we don’t know? Why should we be moral at all?
In this course we will explore a variety of tools and resources that can help us make sense of moral situations and determine the best way for us to respond. In this course, ethics will be considered in a practical light, and we will develop strategies for living morally. While we will consider ethical theories at length in this course, we will also see that they are but one tool necessary for living in a way that makes a difference in ethical situations. We will judge the value of ethical theories not just by their philosophical coherence but for how they play out in action, what kinds of tools they offer us in concrete situations, and the kind of picture they present of the moral life. Together we will develop and practice ethical thinking.
The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is said to have stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This is often interpreted to mean that self-knowledge is a prerequisite for living a fulfilling life. Indeed, the motto, “know thyself,” has defined both the Western philosophical project and philosophical accounts of personal identity for over two millennia. However, contemporary psychologists and philosophers now indicate that the pursuit of self-knowledge is misguided at best or impossible at worst.
In this course we will evaluate our intuitions about personal identity against historical and contemporary philosophical accounts of personal identity. To do so, we will often employ thought experiments (including but not limited to teletransportation, cloning, brain transplants, death, and social media presentation). In this regard, students will learn how to explore the implications of the following questions: Who are you? What makes you you? Are you the same person today as you were five years ago? How do the events of your life and your relationships with others shape your identity? To what extent are you responsible for the person you become, and, if at all responsible, to what extent can you participate in your own self-formation?
In our first module we will compare modern and contemporary theories of self to establish what is at stake in a philosophical examination of who we are. Students will learn common vocabulary for talking about personal identity, as well as develop the skills to analyze, critique, and synthesize various philosophical arguments. The second module will address the question of what matters for who we are, including our social identities (ex. gender, race, etc.) and the way we present ourselves to others and to ourselves. In this regard, students will learn to evaluate some of the most identity-defining dimensions of their life. In the third module we will examine some moral concerns about selfhood, including the moral value of self-knowledge and self-deception, as well as our responsibility for who we become.
We find ourselves in moral situations every day: from what we eat, to the clothes we wear, the brands we support, the media we use, and the ways we engage with other living beings. But how can we determine how to best respond to these situations? How do we discern ‘good’ responses from ‘bad’ responses? What do we owe others and how should we behave towards other people, including those we don’t know? Why should we be moral at all?
In this course we will explore a variety of tools and resources that can help us make sense of moral situations and determine the best way for us to respond. In this course, ethics will be considered in a practical light, and we will develop strategies for living morally. While we will consider ethical theories at length in this course, we will also see that they are but one tool necessary for living in a way that makes a difference in ethical situations. We will judge the value of ethical theories not just by their philosophical coherence but for how they play out in action, what kinds of tools they offer us in concrete situations, and the kind of picture they present of the moral life. Together we will develop and practice ethical thinking.