Jeff Malpas

Putting Space in Place: Philosophical Topography and Relational Geography

Space is a concept that is central to geographical thinking. Yet, relatively little attention has been given to exploration of the concept of space as such, and this is so outside of geography no less than within it. Beginning with an examination of the ‘relational’ view of space that now seems dominant in geography as well as many other areas of the social sciences (and which is often presented as an elucidation of space itself), this paper explores the concept of space as it stands in connection with time and place, making particular use of the notions of boundedness, extendedness, and emergence while also shedding light on the idea of relationality. The aim is to outline a different mode of theorizing space than is to be found in much of contemporary geography and social theory—one that also draws geographical thinking into the domain of ‘philosophical topography’.

New accounts : Towards a reframing of social accounting

Abstract This paper is a speculative and exploratory essay on the emerging field of social accounting. In essence, the paper explores whether the fact that most social accounting has, traditionally at any rate, being promulgated by accountants might be a partial explanation for its self-disciplining limitations and, arguably, its weak inroads into discourse and practice. Through the lens of Erik Olin Wrights work, the paper reconsiders the potential of the social accounting project(s) and argues for the importance of accounts as a means of interstitial transformation as a complement to the traditional privileging of accounts directed towards symbiotic transformations.

New Media, Cultural Heritage and the Sense of Place: Mapping the Conceptual Ground

If we are to explore the real possibilities and limits of new media as it stands in relation to cultural heritage and the sense of place then it is important to be clear on the conceptual ground on which any such exploration must stand. This essay aims to map out some of the ground that may be relevant here, and to clarify some of the concepts that are at issue. In so doing, it also opens up an examination of the connection between place and heritage, and the possible threats and opportunities that new media seems to offer in regard to this connection.

Speaking the truth

Suspicion regarding the notion of truth is a characteristic feature of much contemporary thought. Often this suspicion is based in a view that takes truth to be a notion associated with a discredited view of knowledge or with an oppressive and exclusionary politics. That the very possibility of knowledge, and so of our access to the truth, can be put in question and that truth itself always operates within a political dimension are not, of course, claims that can be denied. Nor can it be denied that knowledge, truth and power are closely tied together. But these considerations should prompt us to a reappraisal of the notion of truth that sees it as more, not less, significant. This paper is an attempt to begin such a reappraisal and to attend, not merely to the truth. Speaking the truth is not something the successful achievement of which can, in every case, be guaranteed in advance; yet neither is it something that we can abandon or ignore.

Perspectives on Human Dignity: A Conversation

Foreword - The Honourable William Cox AC RFD ED, Governor of Tasmania Acknowledgements Introduction to a Conversation - Jeff Malpas and Norelle Lickiss I. The Concept of Human Dignity 1. Human Dignity and Human Worth - Daniel P. Sulmasy 2. Human Dignity and Human Being - Jeff Malpas 3. On Human Dignity: Fragments of an Exploration - Norelle Lickiss 4. Two Conceptions of Dignity: 5. Honour and Self-determination - Andrew Brennan and Y.S. Lo 6. Human Dignity and Charity - Rosalind Hursthouse 7. Human Dignity: Functions and Meanings - Doron Shultziner 8. A Brief History of Human Dignity: Idea and Application - Milton Lewis II. Human Dignity in Context 9. A Journey towards Understanding: True and False Dignity - Christina Mason 10. The Question of Human Dignity: Doubts and Loves and a Whisper from Where the Ruined House Once Stood- Veronica Brady 11. Human Dignity: A Borderline Heretical Response - Stuart Blackler 12. Giving the Past its Dignity - Greg Dening 13. Dignity and Indignity - Nicholas Tarling 14. Human Dignity and The Law - Sir Guy Green 15. On the International Legal Aspects of Human Dignity - Don Chalmers and Ryuichi Ida 16. Doing Justice to Dignity in the Criminal Law - Julia Davis 17. Human Dignity: The New Phase in International law - Michael Tate 18. Dignity and Health - Martin Tattersall 19. Human Dignity: The Perspective of a Gynaecological Oncologist - Neville F. Hacker 20. The Social Origins of Dignity in Medical Care at the End of Life - Nicholas Cristakis 21. Dying with Dignity: The Story Reveals Its Meaning - Jack Coulehan Bibliography.

The weave of meaning: holism and contextuality

Context and meaning are notions inseparably tied together. Yet although appeal to context would seem inevitable in any discussion of meaning and understanding, the notion seems to be resistant to any attempt to render it in precise and non-question-begging terms. Context may be ubiquitous, but it is also opaque. This paper explores the notion of context in general, arguing that an understanding of context is essential for any attempt to elucidate the structure and possibility of meaning. Moreover, while the contextual character of meaning is seen to imply a form of holism about meaning, it also requires that any such holism be understood in a way that is realised only in relation to particular settings or ‘locales’. In this respect, contextuality not only gives rise to holism, but also constrains it, thereby pre-empting certain objections that are sometimes advanced against holistic approaches to meaning.

Material Objects, Identity and the Home: Towards a Relational Housing Research Agenda

Abstract Although it is understood that the home constitutes one of the ways that individuals articulate a sense of self-identity, housing researchers have largely focussed on the symbolic meaning of home. In our paper, we seek to extend the field of housing studies by exploring the relational effects of the home. Our two key arguments are the following: first, the objects have effects that are independent of our awareness of them, and second, the formation of self is constituted in relation to the material world rather than through a separated interiority. We begin our paper with a number of observations about research on the home and the ways that sociologists and anthropologists have viewed the significance of material objects. In the main part of our paper, we draw upon Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time to illustrate our arguments. In the conclusion, we consider how Proust’s novel might be used as a resource for a more extensive ‘relational’ housing research agenda

Human Dignity and Human Being

The question of human dignity is surely inseparable from the question of what it is to be human. This seems to be most obviously so inasmuch as the concept of human dignity is closely related to the idea of human worth-to attend to human dignity is to attend to the value or significance that belongs to human being (this alone is a reason why the concept of human dignity cannot be discarded), but to attend to this is already to presuppose an understanding of the nature of human being, of what human being is.

Constituting the Mind: Kant, Davidson and the Unity of Consciousness

Both Kant and Davidson view the existence of mental states, and so the possibility of mental content, as dependent on the obtaining of a certain unity among such states. And the unity at issue seems also to be tied, in the case of both thinkers, to a form of self-reflexivity. No appeal to self-reflexivity, however, can be adequate to explain the unity of consciousness that is necessary for the possibility of content- it merely shifts the focus of the question from the unity of consciousness in general to the unity of self-reflexivity in particular. Through a comparison of the views of Kant and Davidson on these matters, the nature of the unity of consciousness is explored, in relation to both the idea of the unity of the self and the unity that would seem to be required for the possibility of content. These forms of unity are seen to be indeed connected, and to be grounded, in Davidson and perhaps also in Kant, in organized, oriented, embodied activity .

Space and sociality

To what extent is our being as social creatures dependent on our having a grasp of sociality? Is a purely solipsistic space, a space that can be grasped without any grasp of the existence of others, possible? These questions are examined and the possible connection between space and sociality explored. The central claim is that there is indeed an intimate relation between the concept of space and the idea of the social: that any creature that has a grasp of the concept of space must also be a creature that has a grasp of sociality in the sense of having a grasp of itself as one creature existing alongside a multiplicity of other creatures.