This thesis sets out to delve into literature's capacity for edification, specifically for the phenomenon known as legal alienation. Through a wide array of literary texts by authors such as Kafka,...Show moreThis thesis sets out to delve into literature's capacity for edification, specifically for the phenomenon known as legal alienation. Through a wide array of literary texts by authors such as Kafka, Camus, and Dostoevsky, we illustrate the concept of legal alienation. We then examine the unique connection between law and literature to see the way in which literature is particularly well-equipped for illuminating legal issues such as legal alienation. And finally, through a close look at Nussbaum we see the way in which literature stimulates our moral imagination, thereby allowing us keen insights into fraught moral issues.Show less
The concept of reification (from Latin res [‘thing’] and -fication, a suffix related to facere [‘to make’]) first played a prominent role in the thought of Georg Lukács and later in that of...Show moreThe concept of reification (from Latin res [‘thing’] and -fication, a suffix related to facere [‘to make’]) first played a prominent role in the thought of Georg Lukács and later in that of critical theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. For Adorno, reification is both a social phenomenon and a mode of thinking. This thesis seeks to provide a novel study of reification in synergy with Adorno’s writings on autonomous music, since music has outstanding capacities for critiquing reification. How does autonomous music offer for Adorno a possibility for knowledge and critique of reification?Show less
This project explores the relation between 20th century Italian Fascist ideology and aesthetics, investigating the influence of the latter in the development of the former. To this end relevant...Show moreThis project explores the relation between 20th century Italian Fascist ideology and aesthetics, investigating the influence of the latter in the development of the former. To this end relevant literature, speeches, manifestos, and figures are consulted . I contend that aesthetics held a significant role, directly affecting the formation and development of Fascist ideology. However, I further argue that aesthetics was not the nature of Fascism, only an important tool. Socio-political developments lead to my conclusion that aesthetics was a significant component of Fascism which imploded under political pressures in the 1930’s, becoming subservient to an ideological component best interpreted as a civic religion. As such, I dismantle the intuitive notion that aesthetics were simply reflective, with artists as coerced mouthpieces of a totalitarian regime. But I also dismantle the modern academic consensus that Fascism is inherently aesthetic – a politics of spectacle. This project therefore provides a theory on the relation of aesthetics and Fascist ideology, further illuminating the nature of Fascism and outlining how politics can be aestheticized – plus the potential dangers of this.Show less
Within the Dutch liberal democracy, a political as well as fundamental tension can be felt between the liberal democracy and Islam. One of the legal examples that can be offered in relation to the...Show moreWithin the Dutch liberal democracy, a political as well as fundamental tension can be felt between the liberal democracy and Islam. One of the legal examples that can be offered in relation to the tension between the liberal democracy and Islam, is the “Temporary Law on Counterterrorism Administrative Measures". This temporary law was put into place in order to fight threats of (Muslim) terrorism, by making it possible to (among other administrative measures) restrict the freedom of movement of a person through an area ban and / or travel ban based on the possible threat they can become, given their religious beliefs and actions (the fear of radicalisation). The question is where to draw the line between protecting society in relation to national security and restricting one’s freedom, based on religious beliefs that go against (some of) the principles of the liberal democracy. The main question of this thesis will therefore be the following: Is it justified for a liberal democracy to enforce administrative sanctions upon its citizens, based on their religious identity? In discussing the place of religion (and religious identity) within the liberal democracy, I will focus on four different approaches: the communitarian consensus, state neutrality, the human nature approach and the overlapping consensus approach. I will argue that none of these approaches offer a justified answer to how Salafi citizens can coexist peacefully with others while living according to the principles of liberal democracy. I will argue, however, that the inability of the Salafi identity to coexist with the ideals of the liberal democracy, does not necessarily justify state interference (by enforcing sanctions upon the Salafi citizens). It is important to look at the actions that follow from ones identity, in order to judge if state interference is justified. Following the three groups identified by Wiktorowicz in his “Anatomy of the Salafi Movement”, I will argue that the state is not allowed to act against purists, the state can use administrative measures to restrict politicos and is allowed to use both administrative as well as criminal measures against jihadis.Show less
Value in nature has often been studied from two perspectives, either externally or internally. Schools of intrinsic value like deep ecology have been found extreme in the past, their implications...Show moreValue in nature has often been studied from two perspectives, either externally or internally. Schools of intrinsic value like deep ecology have been found extreme in the past, their implications undesirable to humans. External perspectives like anthropocentric value judgements, for example ecosystem-service arguments, or considerations of intergenerational justice have become increasingly common and well researched. However, this thesis starts from the observation that anthropocentric value based morality does little to protect ecosystems for their own sake. Instead, it merely focuses on those parts that either appeal, service, or otherwise are useful to humans. It is especially this perception of ecosystems that lies at the root of current and past exploitation of the ecosystem. The result is nearly irreversible damage to the ecosystem. This thesis argues for pro tanto moral rights for the ecosystem, on the basis of interest-based moral considerability. I will show that previous arguments for or against the moral considerability of nature lack sufficient knowledge of ecological processes. If ecological processes are properly understood, the ecosystem can be said to have an interest. This interest, or wellbeing, is the striving towards homeostasis. This means that the ecosystem has moral considerability and is a moral patient. It is therefore eligible for moral rights. These rights-relations occur between moral agents and moral patient when there is contact. This will be explained through developing the Contact-Theory.Show less
This thesis investigates Habermas's approach to the role of religious reasons in public deliberation. A critique of Habermas's theory is developed along three lines. First, it is argued that...Show moreThis thesis investigates Habermas's approach to the role of religious reasons in public deliberation. A critique of Habermas's theory is developed along three lines. First, it is argued that Habermas's work oversimplifies religious reasons by treating 'religious reasons as a singular phenomenon. Thereby, Habermas underplaying the diversity of ways people practice religion. Second, this thesis argues that the translation of religious reasons to the language of public administration might prove harder than Habermas presents it. Third, Habermas's claim to have developed a 'postmetaphysical' theory fails to convince, as Habermas makes fundamental metaphysical assumptions. This undermines the neutral character of his account of religion in the public sphere. This thesis suggests an alternative approach may be available in the literature: instead of distinguishing between religious and non-religious reasons, we should distinguish authoritarian and non-authoritarian reasons. This preserves the deliberative spirit of Habermas's project, while more accurately filtering out the modes of reasoning that are unhelpful for advancing constructive deliberation.Show less
This thesis explores Habermas's ideas on the inherent tension between the rule of law and popular sovereignty. Habermas proposes a solution to this tension by introducing his theory of co...Show moreThis thesis explores Habermas's ideas on the inherent tension between the rule of law and popular sovereignty. Habermas proposes a solution to this tension by introducing his theory of co-originality. This thesis studies Habermas's account of the tension between facticity and validity and his proposal of how law can serve as a bridge between the two principles. This thesis also provides a critical assessment of Habermas's theory by studying two specific criticisms of Habermas's theory of co-originality. This thesis ends with the conclusion that Habermas's theory is coherent, but it is not entirely convincing.Show less
To the minds of many commentators, there appears to exist tantalising similarities embedded in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, waiting to be clarified. However, continued...Show moreTo the minds of many commentators, there appears to exist tantalising similarities embedded in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, waiting to be clarified. However, continued disagreement as to how these similarities are to be articulated, and consequently quite what they should amount to, has led some to suspect such musings to be a sophistical mirage. Additionally, further complicating their comparison is also the interpretive disagreements that have persisted in relation to the writings of both philosophers, respectively. Nevertheless, both figures are undoubtedly responsible for framing large swathes of modern philosophical thought – perhaps none more so than Kant in the course of his Critique of Pure Reason. As Putnam attests, “almost all the problems of philosophy attain the form in which they are of real interest only with the work of Kant.”1 Despite this accolade however, it can be stated with only the odd contrarian objection that in their respective attempts to establish Transcendental Idealism in the course of the Critique, and Logical Atomism through the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, that both Kant’s and Wittgenstein’s doctrines constitute technical failures. That being said, both figures also sought to change our fundamental understanding of the task of philosophy, and in this sense, their works should remain valuable points of reference in the continuing discourse on meta-philosophy. Hence, it is here considered in what sense this latter perspective of them has been retained in the contemporary reflections upon either philosopher.Show less
Het enactivisme is een benadering binnen de cognitiewetenschappen, waarvan aanhangers cognitieve processen beschouwen als lichamelijke processen die ontstaan door de wederkerige interactie tussen...Show moreHet enactivisme is een benadering binnen de cognitiewetenschappen, waarvan aanhangers cognitieve processen beschouwen als lichamelijke processen die ontstaan door de wederkerige interactie tussen het organisme en de omgeving. Enactivisten doen een poging om de cognitie- en neurowetenschappen te verreiken met ideeën uit de traditionele filosofie van de fenomenologie. In mijn onderzoek laat ik zien dat ze met deze poging in een spanningsveld terechtkomen, een spanningsveld tussen de subjectieve ervaring en objectieve meting van lichamelijke processen. Om verdieping en inzicht in het spanningsveld te bieden, onderzoek ik de verschillende epistemische waarden van beide stromingen. Zo beschouw ik dat binnen de cognitie- en neurowetenschappen het geven van causale verklaringen een belangrijke waarde is, om te kunnen interveniëren in processen. Daarnaast beschrijf ik dat binnen de fenomenologie betekenisvolle ervaring centraal staat, om terug te keren naar de dingen zelf. Ik beargumenteer dat enactivisten in staat zijn om de cognitie- en neurowetenschappen te integreren met ideeën uit de fenomenologie, op voorwaarde dat ervaring de gemeenschappelijke grond blijft waaruit onderzoek ontspringt en causale verbanden worden gezien als de stabiele eenheid van meerdere ervaringen.Show less
Patients suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develop self-narratives that are ‘too rigid’ or ‘too coherent’. Narrative therapies are developed to make the self-narrative more...Show morePatients suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develop self-narratives that are ‘too rigid’ or ‘too coherent’. Narrative therapies are developed to make the self-narrative more flexible by re-telling it (Jongedijk, 2014). However, these therapies are not as effective as some other treatments for PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). This could be explained by using the hyperreflexivity model (Fuchs, 2011) which illustrates how patients suffering from anxiety, mood- and sleep disorders overly reflect on their life. Therefore, retelling the self-narrative during narrative therapy may rather stimulate the rigidity of the self-narrative than make the self-narrative more flexible. Traumatic events and PTSD symptoms, such as flashbacks, are often experienced in a sensorial and ‘wordless’ way. Therefore, the traumatic experience and symptoms could be treated better by using narratives that include conditions of embodiment (Menary, 2008). Literature on embodied and body narratives (Gallagher & Hutto, 2017) are discussed and applied to the standard concept of narrative therapies. It will be concluded that working with a novel concept of a self-narrative that includes conditions of embodiment leads to better results in the narrative treatments of PTSD.Show less
The influential relationship between the two twentieth century philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida has profoundly challenged the way we perceive philosophy’s responsibility toward the...Show moreThe influential relationship between the two twentieth century philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida has profoundly challenged the way we perceive philosophy’s responsibility toward the other. While these philosophers in an ongoing exchange broach the question of the other’s response, there remains the question if the other can also respond to what they say. Challenging the attainability of “successful” dialogue, this thesis examines the limits of thinking the response of the other philosophically. It does this through an innovative reading of “At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am,” a remarkable text by Derrida in which he examines what it means to write a response to the works of Levinas. It shows how such a response, in view of what Levinas writes, must necessarily fail. My reading of this text shows that we must nevertheless embrace the possibility of failure, even if it means putting Levinas’s entire work at risk, since the very finitude of my own response is also what allows the other to come in and respond. Seen this way, I propose that a reading specifically aimed at the “failures” at work in Derrida’s response to Levinas can be a viable strategy not only to arrive at a better understanding of this text, but also to come up with responses of our own.Show less
There is increasing awareness of the importance of the body in psychology and philosophy of mind. Embodied accounts of the self are promising in explaining the perceived unity and continuity...Show moreThere is increasing awareness of the importance of the body in psychology and philosophy of mind. Embodied accounts of the self are promising in explaining the perceived unity and continuity characteristic of it: the body provides spatiotemporal locatedness, and embodied experience provides relationships to and interaction with the environment. Given this emphasis on the body, it is surprising to find a lack of consideration of how the embodied self persists through time: as a three-dimensional entity, or rather as a four-dimensional one with temporal parts as well as spatial parts? Conversely, in discussions on persistence over time, a purely mental approach is dominant. I set out to detail the metaphysical debate on persistence, how it is typically applied to persons, and develop a novel account merging various influential lines of thought. The result is an embodied self as a perduring, bio-processual entity.Show less
Voor iedere mens sluit de dood het leven af en blijft voordien de grote onbekende. Desalniettemin willen zowel Kierkegaard als Heidegger doorgronden wat de sterfelijkheid betekent voor een...Show moreVoor iedere mens sluit de dood het leven af en blijft voordien de grote onbekende. Desalniettemin willen zowel Kierkegaard als Heidegger doorgronden wat de sterfelijkheid betekent voor een menselijk leven dat vooralsnog niet voorbij is, maar het wel zal zijn.Show less
Over the past decade, the Netherlands has performed evidently worse in terms of gender inequality in its labour market compared to other European countries. The psychological model of implicit bias...Show moreOver the past decade, the Netherlands has performed evidently worse in terms of gender inequality in its labour market compared to other European countries. The psychological model of implicit bias, gaining popularity within the academic world as well as public discourses, is thought to account for such structural and persistent gender inequality. According to the implicit bias model, people harbour mental associations with the words ‘female’ and ‘male’, eliciting subtle forms of discrimination, with gender inequality as a consequence. It is my contention that the model of implicit bias is inadequate in order to account for structural and persistent gender inequality in the Dutch labour market. I will argue that the implicit bias model is inherently based on a dualistic ontoepistemological framework that is problematic from a feminist philosophical perspective. Grounding my arguments in the theories of the feminist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir, Donna Haraway, Judith Butler, and Linda Martín Alcoff, I will show that theories of implicit bias overlook that (1) gender knowledge cannot be viewed independently from its producer and that (2) there is no reality of gender outside of the discursive. Based on the onto-epistemological findings on gender production, established throughout my thesis, I will introduce a non-dualistic framework from which gender inequality in the Dutch labour market can and should be studied, which I refer to as gender transactionalism. In this transactionalist model, gender inequality in the Dutch labour market is understood as the continuous transaction between unequal gender knowledges and the performativity of these genders as visible within our everyday lives. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research will be discussed.Show less
