Deleuze, Heidegger, and Temporality

Kim Su Rasmussen 범한철학회 2015 汎韓哲學 Vol.78 No.3

This paper argues that Deleuze is best understood as a highly unorthodox member of the hermeneutic tradition. Here, I understand the term hermeneutics in a broad sense, which includes the mainstream tradition of hermeneutics as well as the more radical branch of hermeneutics described by Ricoeur as a school of “suspicion.” More specifically, in this paper I seek to outline how Deleuze, on one hand, is influenced by Heidegger’s analysis of existential temporality in Sein und Zeit (1927), and, on the other hand, how he differs from Heidegger’s analysis of temporality. The outcome is Deleuze’s unique “hermeneutics of becoming.”

Questions of Self-Cultivation : Foucault, Lukes, and Power

Kim-Su Rasmussen 대동철학회 2017 大同哲學 Vol.79 No.-

이 논문의 목적은 주체성의 생산으로서의 규율권력 개념을 강조하면서 감시와 처벌(Discipline and Punish)의 주요 논증을 재구성하는 데 있다. 그것은 감옥의 역사에 대한 푸코의 풍부하면서 세밀한 연구의 일부를 재구성하는 것이다. 이러한 재구성은 푸코의 권력 개념에 대한 스티븐 루크스의 비판적 논의를 배경으로 한다. 이 글은 전반적으로 루크스의 비판적 논점들에 동의하고 있을지라도, 규율권력에 대한 푸코의 개념화와 주체성에 대한 규율권력의 형성적 영향은 현대 미학에서 매우 중요하게 남아 있다. 푸코의 주체화로서의 권력 개념은 저항, 자율성, 효과적인 자기 함양에 관해 의문을 제기하는 것이다. This paper reconstructs the major argument of Discipline and Punish, emphasizing the notion of disciplinary power as a production of subjectivity. It reconstructs some of the richness and detail of Foucault’s study of the history of the prison. This reconstruction forms the backdrop to a discussion of Steven Lukes’ critique of Foucault’s notion of power. Although the paper is generally sympathetic towards some of Lukes’ points of critique, Foucault’s conceptualization of disciplinary power and its formative impact on subjectivity remains vitally important for contemporary aesthetics. The Foucauldian notion of power as subjectivation raises the questions of resistance, autonomy, and effective self-cultivation.

Contested Modernity and Cultural Studies: Economy, Epistemology, and Postmodern Culture

Kim Su Rasmussen 범한철학회 2019 汎韓哲學 Vol.92 No.1

This paper argues that postmodernism is not the end of something, as many theorists would have it, a cultural formation that follows something called modernism; rather, postmodernism is the early articulation of a new era of contested modernity. The paper seeks to advance this argument by analyzing the intertextual relation between Edward Hopper’s “The Nighthawks” (1942) and Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982). Furthermore, this intertextual relationship is reflected epistemologically in a discussion of Lukacs’s notion of realism and Ricoeur’s notion of utopia. The era of multiple or contested modernity is a consequence of the rapid economic modernization of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and other countries in the region. It signals a new era, in which being advanced or modern is not the monopoly of the West. The paper outlines a three-level model of cultural analysis, where an economic development (contested modernity) is reflected in epistemology (realism and utopia), which informs the cultural domain (postmodern culture). The relationships between the three levels are fluid, dynamic, and multidirectional.

Prefiguration: Gadamer, Matisse, and the Hermeneutic Circle

Kim Su Rasmussen 범한철학회 2016 汎韓哲學 Vol.80 No.1

This paper argues that the hermeneutic circle implies at least four modalities, four modes of prefiguration, which concern the specific content and direction of the preunderstanding involved in our acts of interpretation. These modes of prefiguration cannot simply be reduced to metaphysical assumptions, but imply explicit or implicit assumptions concerning the creative artist, the formal object, the historical context, or the intertextual relations of the work. In an extended discussion of Matisse’s “The Joy of Life,” the paper seeks to demonstrate what these four modalities of the hermeneutic circle imply for our interpretive practice.

The Apocalyptic Imagination: Nature, Enlightenment and the Genre of Disaster Films

( Kim Su Rasmussen ),( Eli Park Sorensen ) 21세기영어영문학회 2011 영어영문학21 Vol.24 No.2

In this article, we want to investigate the cultural significance of disaster, and more broadly the contemporary apocalyptic imagination from aesthetic, political and philosophical angles. The apocalyptic imagination is in many ways an effect of what Horkheimer and Adorno labelled the dialectic of enlightenment, which represents the gradual, down-spiralling movement of enlightenment thought toward a point of disaster. The ruthless technological exploitation of the world`s natural resources has created a context for Adorno and Horkheimer`s theory which has made it all the more actual; what makes Adorno and Horkheimer`s thesis so compelling today is above all that for the first time in the history of human being it is as if there is nothing genuinely natural left today. Insofar as nature has lost its potency, the postmodern individual has been emancipated from the traditional source of collective anxiety. At the same time, however, the postmodern individual has also lost one of its fundamental motivations for banding together; if nature no longer poses a vital threat there is little reason for the individual to curtail his or her interests under that of the collective. It is in this context that the imagination of disaster takes on a renewed cultural significance. We explore this renewed cultural significance through Roland Emmerich`s eco-disaster movies, arguing that in our compulsion to produce and consume fantasies of disaster hides a utopian gesture of remembering, a desire to reclaim memories of a future social order that in our present world has long been forgotten, vanished.

Radical Finitude: Heidegger and the Hermeneutics of the Self

Kim Su Rasmussen 범한철학회 2015 汎韓哲學 Vol.76 No.1

This paper analyzes the notion of “care” (Sorge) in Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit (1927). Human beings, according to Heidegger, are fundamentally beings that care for their own existence. The first part of the paper analyzes the textual structure of Sein und Zeit. Subsequently, the paper analyzes the notion of care as a description of the most fundamental existential structure of human beings. Finally, in the third part, the paper focuses on a particular yet extremely important feature of care, namely its structural relationship to its own end, its finitude, its death. This is what Heidegger calls “Being-towards-Death” (Sein-zum-Tode). In the conclusion, the paper broadens the perspective and briefly compares Heidegger’s notion of care with some of the alternative visions of human beings in modern philosophy.

Culture,Literature ; The Psychiatrist and the Revolutionary: Frantz Fanon`s Critique of Colonial Discourse

( Kim Su Rasmussen ),( Eli Park Sorensen ) 경희대학교 글로벌인문학술원 2011 비교문화연구 Vol.24 No.-

This article offers a reflection on Frantz Fanon`s diagnosis and analysis of French colonialism in Algeria. We will attempt to demonstrate that there is a concrete and clear connection between Fanon as the psychiatrist diagnosing the devastating effects of the French colonial system, and his subsequent political involvement in the Algerian revolution. This is not to say that each part does not contain valuable insights in their own rights, but rather to stress that without being read together, as a whole, one would miss a significant element in the understanding of the importance Fanon`s thought subsequently came to play in the emancipation struggles of the colonized worldwide. Furthermore, we argue that it is crucial to understand the intimate connection between Fanon`s psychiatric work, his diagnosis of colonial mental disorders, as well as diagnosis of the colonial system as such, and then his political engagement, in order to understand the particular context in which he favourably discusses the use of violence in the name of fighting against the oppressive system of colonialism. Above all, we argue that Fanon`s critique of colonialism continues to spark controversy because it still represents the most powerful and incisive analysis of, as well as answer to, the troubled relationship between the blessed and the wretched of the earth.

Achilles and the Tortoise ― Gadamer's Concept of Understanding

KIM Su Rasmussen 대동철학회 2015 大同哲學 Vol.71 No.-

이 논문은 가다머의 ‘이해’ 개념에 초점을 둔 것이다. 가다머는 『진리와 방법』(1960)에서 이해를 ‘지평의 융합’으로 규정한다. 이는 가다머의 철학적 입장을 한편으로 슐라이어마허로부터 딜타이까지의 해석학적 전통과, 다른 한편으로 환원적 과학주의와 명백하게 구별할 수 있게 해주는 핵심적 개념이다. 첫 번째와 두 번째 절은 『진리와 방법』에 나타난 이해 개념을 상세히 분석한다. 그러나 본 논문의 주된 주장은 『진리와 방법』의 출간 이후 이해에 관한 가다머의 개념화에 분리된 변화가 발생한다는 데 있다. 그러한 변화는 특히 『나는 누구이며 너는 누구인가?』(1973/1986)의 첼란의 시에 대한 응답에서 발생한다. 이것이 세 번째 절의 핵심 주제이며, 이는 『진리와 방법』의 이해 개념에 대한 앞 절의 분석을 기반하고 있다. 이 논문은 수정된 이해 개념이 연접(conjunctive)에서 이접적인(disjunctive) 형태로 전환된 것이라고 제안한다. This paper focuses on Gadamer's concept of understanding. In Wahrheit und Methode(1960), he defines understanding as a "fusion of horizons". This is a key concept, which clearly demarcates his philosophical position against other positions, including the older hermeneutic tradition from Schleiermacher to Dilthey on one hand and against reductive scientism on the other. In the first and the second part, the paper seeks to analyze in detail the concept of understanding in Wahrheit und Methode. The main argument of this paper, however, is that there occurs a discrete change in Gadamer's conceptualization of understanding after the publication of Wahrheit und Methode. This change occurs specifically in response to Celan's poetry in the book Wer bin Ich und Wer bist Du?(1973/1986). This is the main topic in the third section of this paper, which builds on the previous analysis of understanding in Wahrheit und Methode in order to analyze Gadamer's later revision. The revised notion of understanding, this paper suggests, marks a shift from a conjunctive to a disjunctive form of understanding. This paper focuses on Gadamer's concept of understanding. In Wahrheit und Methode(1960), he defines understanding as a "fusion of horizons". This is a key concept, which clearly demarcates his philosophical position against other positions, including the older hermeneutic tradition from Schleiermacher to Dilthey on one hand and against reductive scientism on the other. In the first and the second part, the paper seeks to analyze in detail the concept of understanding in Wahrheit und Methode. The main argument of this paper, however, is that there occurs a discrete change in Gadamer's conceptualization of understanding after the publication of Wahrheit und Methode. This change occurs specifically in response to Celan's poetry in the book Wer bin Ich und Wer bist Du?(1973/1986). This is the main topic in the third section of this paper, which builds on the previous analysis of understanding in Wahrheit und Methode in order to analyze Gadamer's later revision. The revised notion of understanding, this paper suggests, marks a shift from a conjunctive to a disjunctive form of understanding.

Transnational Trauma: Reading Adoption in Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life

Kim Su Rasmussen(서길승) 한국현대정신분석학회 2010 한국라깡과현대정신분석학회 학술발표대회 프로시딩 Vol.2010 No.12

Antinomy of Abstraction: On Pollock's “Number 5” (1948)

Kim Su Rasmussen 범한철학회 2016 汎韓哲學 Vol.82 No.3

This paper proposes a retro-modernist interpretation of Pollock’s painting “Number 5” (1948). The paper rejects the view that abstraction forms a simple dichotomy with figurative representation; instead, abstraction is seen as an inherently ambiguous quality, inviting contradictory interpretations that form an antinomy of abstraction. Here, the paper employs the notion “antinomy” in a sense loosely based on Kant’s theory of transcendental illusions in the Critique of Pure Reason. The antinomy concerns sensibility. The thesis maintains that the canvas presents raw sensory intuitions without or prior to their discursive mediation in terms of concepts, principles, or categories. The painting, on this view, explores the forms of sensibility, in particular the non-representational significance of undetermined flat surfaces. The anti-thesis states that raw sensuous intuitions are always already prefigured by multiple layers of effective history. Accordingly, the painting signifies through its implicit dialogue with the inherited tradition. This antinomy of abstraction cannot be resolved or integrated into a higher synthesis; yet, it provides a hermeneutic grid for a retro-modernist interpretation of Pollock’s “Number 5.”