Update and some activities

Hi,

Lincoln and myself are trying to become more "relevant" (whose criterion is that?) in these times when the AIDS pandemic shows NO signs of abating. The many funerals we are witnessing are manifestations of a plague which is yet to show its true meaning. There needs to be a fundamental understanding that there is NO cure which does not mean there is no care. In this context action is obvious. I point to Lincoln's genuine academic scholarship in the case of Counselling as the Communication of Hope - (article) which you will find on Morrison's webpage www.xcelco.on.ca/~btmorrison .

www.xcelco.on.ca/~btmorrison [ Academic Links : Counseling as the Communication of Hope: constructing a philosophical framework [PDF] (Oct 7, 2005) A paper by Lincoln Michell, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy, and Volker Hooyberg, Ph.D., University of Zululand, South Africa, developing my earlier work on Ricoeur and pastoral counselling for use in the AIDS pandemic. Michell and Hooyberg are co-researchers on a project investigating new conceptions of bereavement counselling in the context of the AIDS pandemic.]


He added me as the 2nd author (he need not have done so). Also , responding to an invitation to the 9th World Congress of Semiotics, the following abstract was written:


9TH WORLD CONGRESS OF IASS-AIS
COMMUNICATION: UNDERSTANDING / MISUNDERSTANDING - The 9th World Congress of Semiotics, to be held on 11–17 June 2007 at the University of Helsinki, and at International Semiotics Institute at Imatra.

21 November 2006
Seeing connections: An enquiry into a metaphor of understanding

Abstract
This paper examines the image of understanding as the seeing of connections, the visual metaphor held to underlie both the synchronic and the diachronic dimensions of the production of meaning. The fundamentally contextual nature of understanding as historically lived experience is thus articulated. Drawing on Eco’s three criteria of interpretation – coherence, relevance and economy – the role of insightful connections is outlined. Various (diachronic) connections, such as that between Augustine and Wittgenstein concerning the concept of “language as naming” are highlighted and briefly analysed. A pragmatic residue of this Augustinian influence is also observed in the thinking of the later Wittgenstein, where the meaning of a word is viewed as its function in the language game in which it occurs. A further notable contribution from Augustine is the element of autobiography, as an individual’s reflection on the historical formation of understanding. While the latter illustrates the synchronic dimension of understanding, his doctrine of illumination (as a “flash of insight”) may be regarded as typifying its synchronic aspect. The crucial notion of time itself also receives attention in Augustinian philosophy. Another formative connection explored is that between Kandinsky, his inductive method and the Bauhaus movement, on the one hand and Herbert Zettl, who single-handedly pioneered the field of media aesthetics, on the other. According to Zettl, it is the purpose of media aesthetics – through the structures it articulates to facilitate “seeing” – to illuminate the infinite wonder of being human, or as he puts it, “to make visible the invisible”. The latter notion is clearly suggestive of the metaphor of understanding we examine. The interesting role of Zettl’s own mentor, Leo Lowenthal, in the former’s history of understanding is noted as a further illustration of the visual metaphor of understanding. More specifically, it is argued that Lowenthal’s seminal article on biography in the media offers a classical treatment of this metaphor. A final “connection of understanding” is examined in the visit of the late German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer, to the University of Zululand, South Africa (where the authors currently teach) in 1980 and his (hermeneutical) encounter with African philosophy.

Volker Hooyberg & Lincoln Michell , University of Zululand , South Africa


Thanks

Volker