The purpose of this article is to advance our understanding of meaning of life through the lens o... more The purpose of this article is to advance our understanding of meaning of life through the lens of what orients people in their lives. Two different kinds of orientation are introduced: one content-driven and one paradox-driven. The content-driven one corresponds to how orientation is commonly understood, covering preferences, beliefs, or thoughts. Based on continental-phenomenological philosophy and in the absence of any delineation preliminary chalk lines are drawn for the paradox-driven orientation. To discuss both types of orientation in an appropriate context, a meta perspective is introduced establishing four different paradigms: the good life, disenchantment, academic professionalism and continental-phenomenology. Also, it is examined whether from the paradoxical orientation a gradient of meaningfulness (more versus less) can be explained.
While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usuall... more While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usually refers to the field of educating or guiding adults. This article reflects on a novel viewpoint and role for andragogy, taking as its starting point the broader European tradition that includes social welfare and community development. Central to its analysis is a new conception of community as moments of community that has been discreetly advanced in anthropological and continental–philosophical sources. It is argued that by contemplating and building on the great relevance of such moments andragogy can be made to play an innovative role in enabling moments of community in organizations, educational systems, neighborhoods, and society in general.
Current social and activist movements find the opportunity in social media to effectively impact ... more Current social and activist movements find the opportunity in social media to effectively impact on the agenda of governing bodies and create 'global' perceptions-it is often claimed. Content related to the social and activist movements is online, to be accessed, supported or disputed and distributed from virtually anywhere at any time, in the public sphere of the Internet. This activity allows the enlargement of social movements and would increase the empowerment in the concerned communities. The aim of this explorative study is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the Normalised Web Distance (NWD)-as defined by Cilibrasi & Vitányi (2007)-between identifying terms concerning this activism could be used to measure the progress or decline of social empowerment through the Internet. The NWD relies on the page count number of single and joint queries, which in our study have been registered using a freely available web browser (in this case Google Search) providing a time search window for temporal query results. To explore this meta-data technique, we introduce the case of a perceived Wirikuta online movement, which originated in Mexico with the aim to protect the Huichols' sacred land and water resources from open mining projects for silver ore. We conducted a small scale Internet study relating the key terms Wirikuta 1 , Huichol, and Wixarika and their co-occurrence with seven positive qualifiers (e.g. sacred land), five negative qualifiers (e.g. violence) and one neutral qualifier (table) over time, annually from 1994 till 2013. We find the accuracy of the temporal NWD-based method is limited due to-previously reported by e.g. Satoh and Yamana (2012)short-term variability and between-user variability of the search tool's page hit counts. We confirm close semantic clustering over time of traditional indigeneous identity terms of the Huichol, and observe a slight convergence of key terms to mines and less pronounced to sacred land and a divergence with respect to ancestors indicating a complex image of a tendency of empowerment.
While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usuall... more While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usually refers to the field of educating or guiding adults. This article reflects on a novel viewpoint and role for andragogy, taking as its starting point the broader European tradition that includes social welfare and community development. Central to its analysis is a new conception of community as moments of community that has been discreetly advanced in anthropological and continental–philosophical sources. It is argued that by contemplating and building on the great relevance of such moments andragogy can be made to play an innovative role in enabling moments of community in organizations, educational systems, neighborhoods, and society in general.
In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis... more In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis, not from a socio-political perspective but from a philosophical stance. This stems from a point of view that the debate and scholarship on globalization is still too often protruded by ideological and idealist arguments. These arguments posit the world as an object to think about or act upon. This thought of globalization remains stuck in formal conceptions or in a Bildungsideal rather than referring to the praxis of our being in the world. We will turn to the critical philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy to assess the condition of our existence in and forming of a global world. Following Heidegger, Nancy argues the world cannot be considered as an external object we can interpret or gain knowledge about. We will investigate what this means for a thinking of globalization.
In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis... more In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis, not from a socio-political perspective but from a philosophical stance. This stems from a point of view that the debate and scholarship on globalization is still too often protruded by ideological and idealist arguments. These arguments posit the world as an object to think about or act upon. This thought of globalization remains stuck in formal conceptions or in a Bildungsideal rather than referring to the praxis of our being in the world. We will turn to the critical philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy to assess the condition of our existence in and forming of a global world. Following Heidegger, Nancy argues the world cannot be considered as an external object we can interpret or gain knowledge about. We will investigate what this means for a thinking of globalization.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized w... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism can be used as a meta-data technique to measure evolution over time of, e.g., progress or decline of social empowerment. Design/methodology/approach The NWD between two terms has been identified as a quantitative measure for semantic proximity, ascertaining a defining relation between them. A trend analysis is made by performing on the internet a time window restrained series measurement of NWD of all combinations of key-terms and classifier-terms. Case defining key-terms, positive and negative discourse polarizing classifier-terms, and neutral classifier-terms for negative control need to be determined by discourse analysis of information on a targeted case. An example of NWD evolution from 1994 until 2013 is presented to measure the empowerment effects of the Wirikuta online movement on the Huichol ...
What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy ... more What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy of Science: From Peaceful Coexistence to Golden Age of Interdisciplinarity? (Steffen Ducheyne) Can an Understanding of How Culture Evolves Awaken a Sense of Meaning in Life? (Liane Gabora) Metaphysics and Cinema (Wim Christiaens) On The Role of Contextuality in the Integration of Worldviews (Bart D'Hooghe) Compatibility and Separability for Classical and Quantum Entanglement(Diederik Aerts, Christian de Ronde and Bart D'Hooghe) Quantum Programming (Ellie D'Hondt) Measuring Meaning on the World-Wide Web (Diederik Aerts) Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence (Diederik Aerts and Bart D'Hooghe) and other papers.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized w... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism can be used as a meta-data technique to measure evolution over time of, e.g., progress or decline of social empowerment. Design/methodology/approach The NWD between two terms has been identified as a quantitative measure for semantic proximity, ascertaining a defining relation between them. A trend analysis is made by performing on the internet a time window restrained series measurement of NWD of all combinations of key-terms and classifier-terms. Case defining key-terms, positive and negative discourse polarizing classifier-terms, and neutral classifier-terms for negative control need to be determined by discourse analysis of information on a targeted case. An example of NWD evolution from 1994 until 2013 is presented to measure the empowerment effects of the Wirikuta online movement on the Huichol ...
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progres... more ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progressive replacement attempts of this narrative by a scientific approach have generally led to a view of life as being void of meaning. However, this has not affected the quest for meaning or for an understanding of this meaning, despite an increasing societal neglect of the importance of its pursuit. This article aims to contribute to a philosophical understanding of the sense of life in the world, drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy's understanding of sense as developed in his Sense of the World. To talk of “sense” rather than of “meaning” is an unconventional choice in the field, yet both differ from one another in that sense refers to an opening as the very possibility of meaningfulness generally. This means that, to understand meaning, we must understand sense. Key to Nancy's conception of sense is the transitivity of the verb being; being traverses itself from being as non-being “to” being as existence. Nancy is concerned with the question of how to interpret the “to”, because its significance transcends its common-sense understanding as being naturally linked to “from”. In this context, the notion expressed by “to” rather refers to the spacing of duration, opening an irreducible distance where the limits touch. In order to further develop this outlook, we recast Nancy's framing as an illogical tension, contrasting and complementing it with Lévinas’ structure of “to” in his description of “representation” and “enjoyment”, developed in Totality and Infinity. The outcome is a preliminary pattern on how to grasp the provenance of sense.
What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy ... more What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy of Science: From Peaceful Coexistence to Golden Age of Interdisciplinarity? (Steffen Ducheyne) Can an Understanding of How Culture Evolves Awaken a Sense of Meaning in Life? (Liane Gabora) Metaphysics and Cinema (Wim Christiaens) On The Role of Contextuality in the Integration of Worldviews (Bart D'Hooghe) Compatibility and Separability for Classical and Quantum Entanglement(Diederik Aerts, Christian de Ronde and Bart D'Hooghe) Quantum Programming (Ellie D'Hondt) Measuring Meaning on the World-Wide Web (Diederik Aerts) Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence (Diederik Aerts and Bart D'Hooghe) and other papers.
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progres... more ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progressive replacement attempts of this narrative by a scientific approach have generally led to a view of life as being void of meaning. However, this has not affected the quest for meaning or for an understanding of this meaning, despite an increasing societal neglect of the importance of its pursuit. This article aims to contribute to a philosophical understanding of the sense of life in the world, drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy's understanding of sense as developed in his Sense of the World. To talk of “sense” rather than of “meaning” is an unconventional choice in the field, yet both differ from one another in that sense refers to an opening as the very possibility of meaningfulness generally. This means that, to understand meaning, we must understand sense. Key to Nancy's conception of sense is the transitivity of the verb being; being traverses itself from being as non-being “to” being as existence. Nancy is concerned with the question of how to interpret the “to”, because its significance transcends its common-sense understanding as being naturally linked to “from”. In this context, the notion expressed by “to” rather refers to the spacing of duration, opening an irreducible distance where the limits touch. In order to further develop this outlook, we recast Nancy's framing as an illogical tension, contrasting and complementing it with Lévinas’ structure of “to” in his description of “representation” and “enjoyment”, developed in Totality and Infinity. The outcome is a preliminary pattern on how to grasp the provenance of sense.
Worldviews, Science and Us - Redemarcating Knowledge and Its Social and Ethical Implications, 2005
This article focuses on the relation between worldviews, sciences and us. Its point of departure ... more This article focuses on the relation between worldviews, sciences and us. Its point of departure is the significant mutual influence of the Western worldview and sciences. It shows how the intertwined construction of science and worldview has modelled our conceptual selfunderstanding, our being and our acting. The issue is considered from a philosophical-anthropological stance, with due attention being given to past delineations and future alternatives. It is argued that, within the framework of the Western worldview, self-realisation is considered essential for being a human self. There is a tacit, yet conscious, agreement that the way to attain self-realisation is through the gradual development of two potentials: the rational potential and the potential for self-expression. The authors recognise that both are indispensable in forming the human self, but point out that the nature of the development of these potentials can conceptually be misinterpreted, causing 1 problems on the individual, societal and ecological levels. In order to prevent the development of the rational potential and the potential for self-expression from receiving undue emphasis, two more potentials are introduced on the conceptual level, to wit the ethical potential and the potential to be situated in and oriented towards a larger and meaningful whole. The assumption is that bringing these to the fore will also affect the very definition of self-realisation.
The purpose of this article is to advance our understanding of meaning of life through the lens o... more The purpose of this article is to advance our understanding of meaning of life through the lens of what orients people in their lives. Two different kinds of orientation are introduced: one content-driven and one paradox-driven. The content-driven one corresponds to how orientation is commonly understood, covering preferences, beliefs, or thoughts. Based on continental-phenomenological philosophy and in the absence of any delineation preliminary chalk lines are drawn for the paradox-driven orientation. To discuss both types of orientation in an appropriate context, a meta perspective is introduced establishing four different paradigms: the good life, disenchantment, academic professionalism and continental-phenomenology. Also, it is examined whether from the paradoxical orientation a gradient of meaningfulness (more versus less) can be explained.
While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usuall... more While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usually refers to the field of educating or guiding adults. This article reflects on a novel viewpoint and role for andragogy, taking as its starting point the broader European tradition that includes social welfare and community development. Central to its analysis is a new conception of community as moments of community that has been discreetly advanced in anthropological and continental–philosophical sources. It is argued that by contemplating and building on the great relevance of such moments andragogy can be made to play an innovative role in enabling moments of community in organizations, educational systems, neighborhoods, and society in general.
Current social and activist movements find the opportunity in social media to effectively impact ... more Current social and activist movements find the opportunity in social media to effectively impact on the agenda of governing bodies and create 'global' perceptions-it is often claimed. Content related to the social and activist movements is online, to be accessed, supported or disputed and distributed from virtually anywhere at any time, in the public sphere of the Internet. This activity allows the enlargement of social movements and would increase the empowerment in the concerned communities. The aim of this explorative study is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the Normalised Web Distance (NWD)-as defined by Cilibrasi & Vitányi (2007)-between identifying terms concerning this activism could be used to measure the progress or decline of social empowerment through the Internet. The NWD relies on the page count number of single and joint queries, which in our study have been registered using a freely available web browser (in this case Google Search) providing a time search window for temporal query results. To explore this meta-data technique, we introduce the case of a perceived Wirikuta online movement, which originated in Mexico with the aim to protect the Huichols' sacred land and water resources from open mining projects for silver ore. We conducted a small scale Internet study relating the key terms Wirikuta 1 , Huichol, and Wixarika and their co-occurrence with seven positive qualifiers (e.g. sacred land), five negative qualifiers (e.g. violence) and one neutral qualifier (table) over time, annually from 1994 till 2013. We find the accuracy of the temporal NWD-based method is limited due to-previously reported by e.g. Satoh and Yamana (2012)short-term variability and between-user variability of the search tool's page hit counts. We confirm close semantic clustering over time of traditional indigeneous identity terms of the Huichol, and observe a slight convergence of key terms to mines and less pronounced to sacred land and a divergence with respect to ancestors indicating a complex image of a tendency of empowerment.
While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usuall... more While andragogy varies in meaning and practice from one country and context to another, it usually refers to the field of educating or guiding adults. This article reflects on a novel viewpoint and role for andragogy, taking as its starting point the broader European tradition that includes social welfare and community development. Central to its analysis is a new conception of community as moments of community that has been discreetly advanced in anthropological and continental–philosophical sources. It is argued that by contemplating and building on the great relevance of such moments andragogy can be made to play an innovative role in enabling moments of community in organizations, educational systems, neighborhoods, and society in general.
In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis... more In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis, not from a socio-political perspective but from a philosophical stance. This stems from a point of view that the debate and scholarship on globalization is still too often protruded by ideological and idealist arguments. These arguments posit the world as an object to think about or act upon. This thought of globalization remains stuck in formal conceptions or in a Bildungsideal rather than referring to the praxis of our being in the world. We will turn to the critical philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy to assess the condition of our existence in and forming of a global world. Following Heidegger, Nancy argues the world cannot be considered as an external object we can interpret or gain knowledge about. We will investigate what this means for a thinking of globalization.
In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis... more In this article, we will scrutinize what globalization actually means when you look at its praxis, not from a socio-political perspective but from a philosophical stance. This stems from a point of view that the debate and scholarship on globalization is still too often protruded by ideological and idealist arguments. These arguments posit the world as an object to think about or act upon. This thought of globalization remains stuck in formal conceptions or in a Bildungsideal rather than referring to the praxis of our being in the world. We will turn to the critical philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy to assess the condition of our existence in and forming of a global world. Following Heidegger, Nancy argues the world cannot be considered as an external object we can interpret or gain knowledge about. We will investigate what this means for a thinking of globalization.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized w... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism can be used as a meta-data technique to measure evolution over time of, e.g., progress or decline of social empowerment. Design/methodology/approach The NWD between two terms has been identified as a quantitative measure for semantic proximity, ascertaining a defining relation between them. A trend analysis is made by performing on the internet a time window restrained series measurement of NWD of all combinations of key-terms and classifier-terms. Case defining key-terms, positive and negative discourse polarizing classifier-terms, and neutral classifier-terms for negative control need to be determined by discourse analysis of information on a targeted case. An example of NWD evolution from 1994 until 2013 is presented to measure the empowerment effects of the Wirikuta online movement on the Huichol ...
What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy ... more What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy of Science: From Peaceful Coexistence to Golden Age of Interdisciplinarity? (Steffen Ducheyne) Can an Understanding of How Culture Evolves Awaken a Sense of Meaning in Life? (Liane Gabora) Metaphysics and Cinema (Wim Christiaens) On The Role of Contextuality in the Integration of Worldviews (Bart D'Hooghe) Compatibility and Separability for Classical and Quantum Entanglement(Diederik Aerts, Christian de Ronde and Bart D'Hooghe) Quantum Programming (Ellie D'Hondt) Measuring Meaning on the World-Wide Web (Diederik Aerts) Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence (Diederik Aerts and Bart D'Hooghe) and other papers.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized w... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the temporal evolution of the normalized web distance (NWD) between significant terms concerning, e.g., a case of online activism can be used as a meta-data technique to measure evolution over time of, e.g., progress or decline of social empowerment. Design/methodology/approach The NWD between two terms has been identified as a quantitative measure for semantic proximity, ascertaining a defining relation between them. A trend analysis is made by performing on the internet a time window restrained series measurement of NWD of all combinations of key-terms and classifier-terms. Case defining key-terms, positive and negative discourse polarizing classifier-terms, and neutral classifier-terms for negative control need to be determined by discourse analysis of information on a targeted case. An example of NWD evolution from 1994 until 2013 is presented to measure the empowerment effects of the Wirikuta online movement on the Huichol ...
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progres... more ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progressive replacement attempts of this narrative by a scientific approach have generally led to a view of life as being void of meaning. However, this has not affected the quest for meaning or for an understanding of this meaning, despite an increasing societal neglect of the importance of its pursuit. This article aims to contribute to a philosophical understanding of the sense of life in the world, drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy's understanding of sense as developed in his Sense of the World. To talk of “sense” rather than of “meaning” is an unconventional choice in the field, yet both differ from one another in that sense refers to an opening as the very possibility of meaningfulness generally. This means that, to understand meaning, we must understand sense. Key to Nancy's conception of sense is the transitivity of the verb being; being traverses itself from being as non-being “to” being as existence. Nancy is concerned with the question of how to interpret the “to”, because its significance transcends its common-sense understanding as being naturally linked to “from”. In this context, the notion expressed by “to” rather refers to the spacing of duration, opening an irreducible distance where the limits touch. In order to further develop this outlook, we recast Nancy's framing as an illogical tension, contrasting and complementing it with Lévinas’ structure of “to” in his description of “representation” and “enjoyment”, developed in Totality and Infinity. The outcome is a preliminary pattern on how to grasp the provenance of sense.
What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy ... more What about Interdisciplinarity within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken) History and Philosophy of Science: From Peaceful Coexistence to Golden Age of Interdisciplinarity? (Steffen Ducheyne) Can an Understanding of How Culture Evolves Awaken a Sense of Meaning in Life? (Liane Gabora) Metaphysics and Cinema (Wim Christiaens) On The Role of Contextuality in the Integration of Worldviews (Bart D'Hooghe) Compatibility and Separability for Classical and Quantum Entanglement(Diederik Aerts, Christian de Ronde and Bart D'Hooghe) Quantum Programming (Ellie D'Hondt) Measuring Meaning on the World-Wide Web (Diederik Aerts) Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence (Diederik Aerts and Bart D'Hooghe) and other papers.
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progres... more ABSTRACT Metaphysics has long been regarded as providing meaning to the world. Subsequent progressive replacement attempts of this narrative by a scientific approach have generally led to a view of life as being void of meaning. However, this has not affected the quest for meaning or for an understanding of this meaning, despite an increasing societal neglect of the importance of its pursuit. This article aims to contribute to a philosophical understanding of the sense of life in the world, drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy's understanding of sense as developed in his Sense of the World. To talk of “sense” rather than of “meaning” is an unconventional choice in the field, yet both differ from one another in that sense refers to an opening as the very possibility of meaningfulness generally. This means that, to understand meaning, we must understand sense. Key to Nancy's conception of sense is the transitivity of the verb being; being traverses itself from being as non-being “to” being as existence. Nancy is concerned with the question of how to interpret the “to”, because its significance transcends its common-sense understanding as being naturally linked to “from”. In this context, the notion expressed by “to” rather refers to the spacing of duration, opening an irreducible distance where the limits touch. In order to further develop this outlook, we recast Nancy's framing as an illogical tension, contrasting and complementing it with Lévinas’ structure of “to” in his description of “representation” and “enjoyment”, developed in Totality and Infinity. The outcome is a preliminary pattern on how to grasp the provenance of sense.
Worldviews, Science and Us - Redemarcating Knowledge and Its Social and Ethical Implications, 2005
This article focuses on the relation between worldviews, sciences and us. Its point of departure ... more This article focuses on the relation between worldviews, sciences and us. Its point of departure is the significant mutual influence of the Western worldview and sciences. It shows how the intertwined construction of science and worldview has modelled our conceptual selfunderstanding, our being and our acting. The issue is considered from a philosophical-anthropological stance, with due attention being given to past delineations and future alternatives. It is argued that, within the framework of the Western worldview, self-realisation is considered essential for being a human self. There is a tacit, yet conscious, agreement that the way to attain self-realisation is through the gradual development of two potentials: the rational potential and the potential for self-expression. The authors recognise that both are indispensable in forming the human self, but point out that the nature of the development of these potentials can conceptually be misinterpreted, causing 1 problems on the individual, societal and ecological levels. In order to prevent the development of the rational potential and the potential for self-expression from receiving undue emphasis, two more potentials are introduced on the conceptual level, to wit the ethical potential and the potential to be situated in and oriented towards a larger and meaningful whole. The assumption is that bringing these to the fore will also affect the very definition of self-realisation.
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