Women Philosophers

Emancipation and Its Significance: The Philosophy of “Ecstasy” and Contemporary Feminism. Embracing the Other

In contemporary discourse, a formidable feminist philosophy has emerged, epitomized by figures like Judith Butler and other scholars who examine "gender" as a construct within signifying and political systems that reshape and reinvent humanity in the modern world. Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-born French philosopher aligned with feminist thought, has profoundly contemplated ecstatic communities, such as the Christian church or gatherings of medieval mystics. Kristeva asserts that a fundamental flaw of the ancient polis, and ancient politics in general, was its inability to fully accept outsiders; even when assimilation occurred (the internalization of local customs), the essence of the foreigner remained evident. This inability contributed to both social and gender inequality. In contrast, the Christian ecstasy—a transcendence beyond one’s boundaries—facilitates the transformation of the other into the self, allowing for the inclusion of all outsiders and the resolution of verbal misunderstandings, as in the act of repentance, where each individual becomes a profound enigma unto themselves.

Our contemporary thinker Barbara Cassin, the creator of a sophistic history of philosophy, has noted that philosophical states such as contemplation, inspiration, or nostalgia are not merely experienced but invented. The ancient sophists first demonstrated that philosophical situations could be crafted, and while their rhetorical strategies were later dismissed by subsequent philosophy, it remains evident that one’s emotions can never be fully reconstructed. Consequently, to understand the relationship between mind and will, or any other aspect of the multifaceted human experience, one must perpetually recreate the circumstances—the "stage"—on which these faculties operate. For instance, in her work "Nostalgia," Cassin explores the constructive aspect of this sentiment: Odysseus, upon returning to Ithaca, still yearns to continue his journey, while Aeneas, longing for Troy, forges the Roman civilization; similarly, Hannah Arendt, by retaining the memory of the German language, contemplates the fate of Europe in America. Thus, nostalgia emerges as a philosophical sentiment of the incongruity of ready-made solutions, demanding a reevaluation of both the nature of thought and the nature of feeling.

Another contemporary figure, Martha Nussbaum, has sought to revive the Stoic doctrine of "eudaimonia," a positive emotional state that cultivates moderation and prudence within individuals. The Stoics believed that "eudaimonia" brings humans closer to the divine, as one rejoices in joyful events, becoming both resolute and cautious in that joy. Some historians of philosophy have disagreed with Nussbaum, suggesting that not everything around a person is joyous; hence her proposal implies a form of pretense or a vice capable of extracting joy from any situation. However, Nussbaum argues that joy should not merely be understood as satisfaction but as an event, thus implying that resolution is never wholly one’s own, while caution is equally necessary as engagement in the event itself. The limitation of ancient Stoicism lies in its failure to differentiate emotions according to various life stages; thus, it emphasized "avoiding suffering" without considering that as individuals age, the joy that overcomes suffering must be directed not only toward the present but also toward the future.

Nussbaum’s book "Not for Profit," dedicated to defending universities against economic policies, speaks not only to the fate of humanities education in the contemporary world but also addresses glory as a secular analogue to eternity. Nussbaum writes in a context where previous insinuations regarding the benefits derived from knowledge of ideal texts and historical events have lost their efficacy, as the Italian humanists' proclaimed "correction of history" through proper discourse on select events has become largely meaningless—since history itself corrects through technological means and event management. How can we salvage humanities education in a landscape where the elevated meaning evaporates rapidly from events, not solely from impressions?

According to Nussbaum, the twentieth century witnessed a significant shift: humanities knowledge began to study not only the subject but also the individual observing that subject. Whereas previously, humanities knowledge comprised a series of projects coordinating humanity's place in the world, it now seeks to align itself with an already established understanding of humanity, paradoxically finding it in realms where it seems to have been lost and evades capture through ready-made concepts. The radical turns of the twentieth century have yet to yield a unified curriculum elucidating how humanists at various times comprehended the world—the "history of the world's salvation" through the humanities. We are still incapable of even approaching a solution to this challenge.

Consequently, humanities knowledge has, for the first time in history, coincided with the "durability" defined in European culture by the genre of the novel: depicting the very disjunction of human fate from ready-made concepts while constructing a system of intuitions harmonized among the author, the hero, and the reader. The encyclopedic nature of the grand European novel serves as a "comedic" reflection of the soul’s possibilities, transforming various moods leading to knowledge into episodes of a frivolous mastery of truth.

The history of European culture reveals itself, to a significant extent, as a narrative of compensatory art: it was well-known that not everything from antiquity had survived, necessitating the invention of situational, landscape, and improvisational arts. Such arts strive to compensate for the bitterness of loss through a constant shifting of perspectives and an ongoing adaptation to the established vision of the vibrant experience of perception. Thus, monumental arts, unsuited to specific environments, fall under the category of craftsmanship—such as the making of mechanisms or jewelry—while the arrangement of environments that renders all "classical" visual, which we shall never see in the surviving ancient paintings, constitutes true art. Art begins to function not merely as a mechanism of memory but as a mechanism of light associations, resurrecting the experience of living relation to truth.

Nussbaum’s book serves as both a historical novel and a sermon. We immediately sense that the narrative is structured in a manner akin to a sermon. Unlike classical rhetoric, which embodies a dispute between humanity, objects, and fate for speech and historical initiative, a sermon presents a dual play of interpretation: initially, the interpretation is a simple retelling of a biblical text, followed by a free discourse. The same model is realized in the act of reading "to oneself," a practice unknown to antiquity, which commences with an intensified attention to the text and its reassembly while following it with one’s gaze; yet, in the second phase, it emerges as an imaginative engagement with the text, stemming from the conversation with the text echoing the dialogue with oneself. Consequently, Christian culture opens up possibilities for emulation, such as monasticism, particularly within orders that intentionally partially reproduce the Christian ideal, where this partiality enhances rather than diminishes its significance.

The theme of "the better portion," prevalent in classical literature, is supplanted by the theme of "correct emulation of the chosen portion" due to the sermon. This correct emulation manifests as a canon, akin to a proportion, in which the literal compilation of sources gives way to a second stage of imagination concerning all situations of its application. In such circumstances, every assertion requires qualification, every statement becomes an opinion, and it attains truth only when it is lived in dialogue with oneself, in the intrusion of "the self as a person" into "the self as a situation." The same applies to scientific laws: initially, observation is dissected so that it serves as evidence, and subsequently, it operates within a framework of practical conclusions, where nature morally asserts itself as the source of all goodness. Nussbaum’s work discusses every form of goodness that becomes part of the humanitarian discourse, never forgetting that it is part of a grand narrative, populated by thinkers and public figures. This very narrative transforms into a sermon that reshapes our pragmatic world.