Matthew Gildersleeve

This article combines the works of Nussbaum, Habermas, and Heidegger in a critique of non-therapeutic genome editing for human enhancement. The objections presented by Habermas in his The Future of Human Nature are extended and strengthened. We outline how ‘enhancement’ editing is a form of objectification. We agree with Habermas that therapeutic uses of genome editing are permissible but disagree with those who advocate for genetic enhancement technology. This is supplemented with Heidegger’s view on technology where we demonstrate that genetic enhancement can be a form of technological enframing which objectifies and interferes with the self-understanding, freedom, autonomy, and possibilities of the edited person. Instead, we argue that genetic enhancement objectification should be ‘released’ from the unborn child through an appreciation of Heidegger’s Gelassenheit, allowing each human the freedom and opportunity to fully realise and grow into their unconcealed place and home in the world rather than it being made for them.

This paper aims to emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach that may be able to account for tthe results in haptic feedback studies and to describe a framework for future research to achieve optimal surgical performance in haptiic feedback robotic surgery. Specifically, the value of integrating and unders standing the sensorimotor weighting mechanisms underlyin ng laparoscopic performance will be highlighted to develop future design, traiining and use of haptic feedback robotic surgery devices. TThe results presented in this study show that the sagittal distance estimate betw ween touched positions on the upper limb can be systematiccally biased by manipulating the touched position on the arm, although the s sagittal separation remains unaltered (12.7 cm). These resuults are somewhat surprising regarding the participants apparent neglect of proprioceptive input which would indicate limb position following changes in elbow and shoulder joint angles and muscle length. If the participant was optimizing the use of their proprioceptive input it would be expected that movement of the limb would translate into a commputation to maintain the status quo of the perceived separation of the probe and button. These results suggest that reporting tactile separaation may be more difficult across limbs compared to withiin one limb and that sensory cues about tactile position (touched body segment and the distance from anatomical landmarks) outweigh joint angle/muscle length positional information.

This article discusses important considerations in the development and use of neurotechnology, particularly referring to brain–computer interfaces and neurofeedback, which some authors have claimed can create a posthuman subjectivity. It provides a psychoanalytic critique to outline the power over the mind and body that comes with neurotechnology and the need for a critical attitude to ensure that this power is recognized and attenuated. Furthermore, it details how ideology is relevant to neurotechnology and how it functions through fantasy, modern capitalism, and the superego injunction to enjoy! Specifically, the authors show that neurotechnology could feed into an ideology of biopolitics that may use human neurodata and neuromodulation as a more intimate, powerful way of managing individuals. This article also emphasizes the importance of symptomatic reading, which identifies lapses or omissions in neurotechnology narratives to unmask hidden meanings to better address the ethical dimensions of neurotechnology. This is particularly significant when considering research that demonstrates the phenomenon of neurohype, where laypeople, academics, clinicians, and others can get carried away with the promises of neuroscience

Jung’s paper ‘Synchronicity – an acausal connecting principle’, defining the phenomenon as a ‘meaningful’ coincidence depending on archetypal activation, was published in 1952, together with a conceptually related piece by physicist and Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Pauli entitled, ‘The influence of archetypal ideas on the scientific theories of Kepler’. Slavoj Žižek, in The Indivisible Remainder: On Schelling and Related Matters, suggests that, in contrast to any notion of a ‘pre-modern Jungian harmony’, the main lesson of quantum physics was that not only was the psychoanalytic, empty subject of the signifier constitutively out-of-joint with respect to the world, but that the Real in itself was already incomplete, out-of-joint, ‘not-all’. Yet while Žižek frequently tries to separate Jung from his own ontology, this paper shows that his ontology is not as different as he suggests. Consistent with our earlier publications on Jung and Zizek, a closer investigation reveals an underlying congruence of both of their approaches. In this paper we show that this affinity lies in the rejection by both Jung and Žižek of the ideology of reductive materialism, a rejection that demonstrably draws on quantum physics in similar ways. While Jung posits an inherently meaningful universe, Žižek attempts to salvage the freedom of human subjectivity by opposing his Lacanian ‘dialectical materialism’ to reductive materialism.

This book reviews Foucault's philosophy on power and ethics to investigate the possibility of restructuring freedom available to the subject. Foucault's Kantian inspired view of critique as an art of voluntary inservitude, of reflective indocility is applied to biopolitics, bioethics, artificial intelligence, and bureaucracy. This work of freedom is a process of self-creation where the subject seeks to rearrange power relations and open possibilities for autonomy and agency. This book shows how the critical attitude identifies limitations of power to open the possibility for transgression as an escape from normalized submission. This involves revealing and exposing unrecognised forms of power influencing the subject to enable new ways to think differently. Psychoanalysis combined with Foucault is also shown to enhance an understanding of power relations and the task of an ethics of freedom. This is then integrated with a philosophy of place to better understand the relationship between home, self-creation, ethics, and freedom. The book outlines that Foucault's philosophy has important relevance to the writings of Heidegger, Lacan, Aristotle, Jung and Arendt which is essential reading for students and professionals of politics, ethics, phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

The purpose of this article is to retrieve the work presented in on the transcendent function and complexes as well as an ontological interpretation of Jung’s work on the Rosarium Philosophorum to project a new meaning of the phenomenology and ontology of the transcendent function. This article enables complexes and the Rosarium Philosophorum to be understood in connection to the ontology of the transcendent function that was presented in. This article can hermeneutically retrieve the transcendent function because when complexes and the Rosarium Philosophorum are explained ontologically they unconceal new possibilities that were not available in. By retrieving the transcendent function in this way, this article will explain more detail of the phenomenological and ontological meaning of the transcendent function which will include complexes and the Rosarium Philosophorum.

In this article, we review genetic determinism and highlight how our earlier research on the philosophy of place can contribute to a better understanding of genomics and ongoing debates about genetic modification. We show how place can undermine any philosophy of genetic determinism. By using our philosophy of place, our investigation contributes to a call for a turn for humanity toward a “collective being-at-home-in-the-world”, instead of being estranged from place which genetic determinism actively promotes. We also utilise cinema studies research of the film GATTACA to conceptualise how place and genetic determinism contrast. Our examination is intended to contribute to ongoing discussions about genetic determinism as they play out in the media, in education and influence discrimination. Fundamentally, we show why scholars in this area should consider place alongside genetic determinism in their future investigations.

In this paper I integrate the work of a number of philosophers to clarify some psychological issues that can arise in human existence when a conflict of intrapersonal or interpersonal desires arises. This paper utilises the work of Deleuze, Freud, Jung, Heidegger, Hegel and Nietzsche to provide a conceptual framework as to how mental disturbances can arise if unconscious desires cannot be satisfied due to the experience of a resistance from a conflicting or opposing desire. This paper argues that the phenomenal experience of a conflict of desires can be unconcealed in moments of un-readiness-to-hand and from the awareness of the psychophysiological experience of stress or angst. The work that is presented, results in the conclusion that it is fundamentally necessary to embrace Nietzsche’s idea of the ‘will to power’ to overcome these difficulties and to achieve personal individuation and authentic wellbeing. This advice is in contrast to an inauthentic choice of depending on the use of Freudian defence mechanisms to conceal a conflict of desires from consciousness. A detailed theoretical example of the process involved in the resolution of a conflict of desires through self-transcendence is specifically informed by the ideas of Nietzsche and Jung

This book discusses the philosophy of place and the implications for understanding ourselves authentically. It sets out to investigate this by providing a review of the phenomenological and humanistic views of place as background reading for the chapters that follow. This contributed book offers unique chapters from international scholars on place in relation to individual philosophers such as Nietzsche, Sloterdijk, Foucault, as well as more broad areas of research including Ecology, Ontogenesis, Bioethics and Metaphysics. The book then presents an integration of the arguments of the contributing authors to give a better and fresh insight to the relationship between place and self. This fusion of chapters amplifies each to show how they all have an important contribution to an expanded understanding of place and self. This combination of topics as well as each author's view of place makes this book an important contribution to the literature. The book is intended for philosophers but would also be of interest to a general audience.

In this article, we highlight the importance of psychoanalysis and the Heideggerian concept of 'place' for each respective domain of inquiry. In particular, the writings of Jung and Lacan can unconceal and reveal new dimensions of Jeff Malpas's work on place. Alternatively, Malpas can extend the work of these psychoanalysts by showing new dimensions of their ideas through an analysis of 'place'. Ultimately, this article sets up a number of possibilities for future research through this novel interaction and engagement between the philosophy of place and psychoanalysis. One of these possibilities is in genomics and genetic determinism, which we briefly acknowledge throughout.

Currently there is an unattached link between the study of social influence in experimental psychology and bad faith in the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. The methods of psychology and philosophy differ significantly and can be integrated into a unified whole to provide enhanced insight into a topic of investigation compared to what can be achieved separately in each of these disciplines. The goal of this paper is to review the social influence literature with the aim of expositing, integrating and synthesising the findings with Sartre’s analysis of bad faith and authenticity. As a result, this paper aims to uncover the scientific findings that provide clarification to the findings of bad faith in Sartre’s existential philosophy. Precisely, this paper will provide concrete and descriptive empirical examples of the experimental causes and conditions that appear to be identified by participants as a reason to act in bad faith. Specifically, this paper provides evidence that bad faith appears to arise when an individual believes she should be accurate or affiliated with the group. An analysis of the concepts that are necessary to understand bad faith will also be reviewed to uncover the arguments that provide clarification to understanding conformity found in the social influence literature. This paper will benefit both psychologists and philosophers by bridging these two fields of investigation. Further work with the integration of these findings into existential psychotherapy is encouraged and described throughout.

In this article, we highlight the importance of psychoanalysis and the Heideggerian concept of ‘place’ for each respective domain of inquiry. In particular, the writings of Jung and Lacan can unconceal and reveal new dimensions of Jeff Malpas’s work on place. Alternatively, Malpas can extend the work of these psychoanalysts by showing new dimensions of their ideas through an analysis of ‘place’. Ultimately, this article sets up a number of possibilities for future research through this novel interaction and engagement between the philosophy of place and psychoanalysis. One of these possibilities is in genomics and genetic determinism, which we briefly acknowledge throughout.