Mimesis: Philosophy of Meaning and Making Sense

Description

Mimesis is a central concept in western culture. Stemming from the world of arts, this originally ancient Greek concept means, among other things, imitation and following, but also translating, reproducing, depicting, reciting, representing, impersonating, counterfeiting, performing. This course focuses on mimesis as a meaning constructing relationship. Meaning is taken here as a connective relationship between something meaning-demanding and something meaning-giving.

Meaning relationships are investigated in six themes: exemplars, empathy, resilience, forgiveness, humanism, and philosophy. The philosophical sources drawn from in this course are the works of phenomenologists Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas and René Girard.

Humans are creatures of meaning. We constantly give and receive meaning; we live in meanings. Seeing this thing as a computer screen, feeling my dryness as thirst, enjoying a meal, falling in love with someone, using a lie as an argument, condemning this case as theft, forgiving someone a wrongdoing, considering that political party as a threat – just a few random examples of meaning relations. These examples alone show that meaning arises (is found or made) through interpreting-as, through judgments. These can be descriptive judgments (or facts): in front of me is a glass of water; that football player is offside – or normative judgments: that act is despicable; this music is beautiful; my situation is unpleasant; here is someone in need. Both descriptive and normative judgments can be more or less debatable: was it offside or not; is what I did transgressive; when is war justified?

In every interpretation or judgment, something meaning-demanding is connected to a meaning-giving. Meaning-demanding is usually something particular, for example an object, an action, a practice, a situation, an event, a phenomenon, a feeling, an opinion, a work of art. That particular matter is connected to a meaning-giving: something more general, for example a concept, a rule, a law, a norm, a value, an ideal, a tradition. Meaning-demanding and meaning-giving are not separate entities in themselves: meaning is constructed as the connection between them.

In this course, meaning relationships are investigated in six themes: exemplars, empathy, resilience, forgiveness, humanism, and philosophy.

Sources

The philosophical sources drawn from in this course are the works of phenomenologists Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas and René Girard.

Literature

• IJsseling, S. (1997). Mimesis: On appearing and being. Kok Pharos Publishing House.
• Duyndam, J. https://betekenislab.nl/publications-(en). A choice of papers from this website (TBA).

Schedule

Monday, July 7^th, 2025 

• 10 am – 12am        Inspirational meanings through exemplary persons

Creative mimesis: finding a creative-mimetic relationship with an exemplary person or role model.

• 12 am – 1 pm         Lunch break
• 1 pm – 3 pm           Practicum: “Tell me who are your exemplars, I’ll tell your who you are”
• 3 pm – 4 pm           Follow-up discussion

Tuesday, July 8^th, 2025

• 10 am – 12am        Empathy. Empathy is taken here as completive mimesis: an empathic relationship completes the experiences of the other.
• 12 am – 1 pm         Lunch break
• 1 pm – 2 pm           Walking tour
• 2 pm – 4 pm           Resilience. Resilience is understood as mimetically bouncing back: resiliently responding to heteronomous pressure, threat, or adversity.

Wednesday, July 9^th, 2025

• 10 am – 12am        Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a healing kind of mimesis: an interpersonal relationship damaged by fault can be restored when one forgives the other for the guilt of the violation
• 12 am – 1 pm         Lunch break
• 1 pm – 3 pm           Practicum: Who do you want to forgive for what? For what do you want to be forgiven?
• 3 pm – 4 pm           Follow-up discussion

Thursday, July 10^th, 2025

• 10 am – 12am        Humanism. Humanism is critical mimesis: (self-)critically responding to cultural manifestations (including politics and religion) that have become taken for granted or dogmatic.
• 12 am – 1 pm         Lunch break
• 1 pm – 3 pm           Philosophy. Thinking mimesis: critically constructive understanding the being of reality, that is, reflectively apprehending or resonantly hearing. Positive signal: intellectual catharsis.
• 3 pm – 4 pm           Final considerations and conclusion

Friday, July 11^th, 2025

• Individual oral exams (depending on the number of students: oral exams in pairs)

Lecturers

Prof. dr. Joachim Duyndam, University of Humanistic Studies

Target audience

Affinity with theory and philosophy

Tags

• philosophy
• Phenomenology
• Meaning
• Meaning making
• exemplars
• empathy
• Resilience
• forgiveness
• humanism