The Confucian claim that we are not born as persons but that we must become persons highlights the importance of individual human experiences in relation to a larger global and collective network....Show moreThe Confucian claim that we are not born as persons but that we must become persons highlights the importance of individual human experiences in relation to a larger global and collective network. The way we perceive and act as persons in a society is shaped by the relationships we develop with others. This implies that the individual can never abstract himself entirely from his socio-historical context. However, the dominant interpretation of personhood seems to draw heavily on Kantian ideas, which are supposed to be in opposition with the Confucian social self. Namely, the Kantian ideal model is a free, autonomous and rational individual for whom self-legislation is the essential human achievement. In my thesis, I attempt to offer a comprehensive analysis and reconceptualization of personhood by borrowing from the Confucian notion of a relational person. Firstly, I will highlight the dominant Kantian conception of what it means to be an individual person within society. In doing so, I will depict certain characteristics of the rational individual and how they are reproduced in the process of grounding universal moral laws. Secondly, I will demonstrate that this view of personhood is to some extent problematic because it advocates an disembodied moral agent by undermining the importance of empirical and socio-historical influences. Thus, I will attempt to reconnect the individual within the social realm through the Confucian perspective on personhood. Namely, the concept of person implies the self in relation to others rather than a radical separation between them. The exemplary person (junzi) cultivates his heart-mind (xin) by developing filial piety (xiao) and benevolence (ren) which are expressed through the practice of rituals(li). These interrelated concepts depict a relational person who occupies certain roles in society based on the multiplicity and diversity of his relationships with other human beings. Finally, the important question is: To what extent is the Confucian relational self relevant in reconceptualizing the Kantian notion of personhood? I will argue that it is necessary to offer an all-encompassing view on personhood by opening up a dialogue between these two traditions. In order to do so, I will reject the presupposed fundamental dichotomy between the Kantian Western perspective and Confucianism. Comparing and connecting their main concepts allows me to expand the meaning of personhood and illustrate its complexities without completely refuting the Kantian individual or adapting the Confucian model in its totality. On one hand, Kant invites us to critically challenge past traditions and social norms by cultivating our abilities to think and reason for ourselves, while this capacity might be limited in Confucian thought. On the other hand, from the Confucian person we can learn how to understand ourselves and our connections with others in a growing social networkShow less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
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In the Roman imperial period in the region of Tongres, Cologne, and Trier the inhumation burial ritual started to be used as the dominant funerary practice and thereby replaced the cremation burial...Show moreIn the Roman imperial period in the region of Tongres, Cologne, and Trier the inhumation burial ritual started to be used as the dominant funerary practice and thereby replaced the cremation burial. This transition to the use of inhumation burials had first occurred in Rome and it had also been in use in the east of the Roman empire before inhumations were used in Rome. Therefore, interpretations of this spread in burial practices over the empire had focussed on ex oriente lux cultural diffusions from the east to the west and several explanations saw the shift to the inhumation burial in the Roman empire as the result of emulations of Rome. Other empire wide theories were centred on relating the inhumation burial practice to early Christianization, the oriental mystery religions, the Crisis of the Third Century, ethic migrations, persistent local rituals, and the maintenance of the intact body. Whereas most of these explanations interpreted the inhumation burial rite on a regional scale this research tried to also incorporate a more local approach by re-examining the developments in funerary rites in the case-study sites Tongres and Cologne (as well as a sample of other cemetery sites with early inhumation burials). As it was also aimed to study the funerary rites at the regional scale the general developments in funerary rites in the research region were described and overview maps of sites with early inhumations in the research region were presented. Furthermore, following the recent scholars’ interpretations of the inhumation burial rites in terms of the maintenance of the intact body and a possible new meaning of the burial ritual it was attempted to interpreted the inhumation burial ritual along the lines of the concept of fractal personhood (and how this could be constructed in the funerary rituals). The interpretation of the inhumation and cremation burial rituals as two diametrically opposed rites or as exclusively connected to either the individual or dividual self did not seem to correspond with the results from the research region which indicated less rigid views of what the funerary practices could look like may have been prevailing. Possibly, the newly developing urban contexts of Tongres and Cologne where many different people and ideas of funerary practices came together made these places relatively receptive contexts towards other funerary ideas. Hence, the cremation and inhumation rites can be viewed as possibilities among the variability in funerary practices, which could have been selectively used to best fit the specific social situation, aims of the burying groups, and identity of the deceased.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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A shared understanding of the world may seem to be absolutely 'true', because empirical experience may confirm its legitimacy. I illustrate and argue that such belief in an 'all encompassing truth'...Show moreA shared understanding of the world may seem to be absolutely 'true', because empirical experience may confirm its legitimacy. I illustrate and argue that such belief in an 'all encompassing truth' requires a deceptive illusion that the collective of individuals together uphold and by which each individual perpetuates her of his own deception and that of the others. This thesis discusses the results of an in depth experience with the construction of what is the 'truth' in the experience of participants in a 'cult'. This argument is then used to reflect on the origins of the life world that may underlie any certainty that academic conceptions of the world conjure up.Show less
