Book for review: iv "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"
Don't worry this is not a chapter-by-chapter review. Having cast the stone that is Hodges' model we will skip a few times.
"Perception is always about a diagnosis of the situation in which the living being finds itself. ...... perception is always about finding one's "whereabouts" or one's "location" in life's journey." p.42.
On the features of perception, 4/4: "might be termed the breadth or width of the perceptual field." p.42.
"As pointed out above, all perception has the structure of a compact, continuous, and uninterrupted manifold. In other words, it forms what we have termed a field. But the perceptual field could contain nothing but the "bare bones" of "inert" qualia, (a manifold of simple qualities impinging themselves upon the perceiver)." p.42.
The author, Jorge de Carvalho continues another view of qualities that take place in "each given moment". This is the challenge of salience, what is significant? How to 'read' in care: the spoken, the unspoken?
Developing notes on Hodges' model as a mathematical object, Hodges' model in its basic form as a template, I'm proposing as an empty set. The structure of Hodges' model, its two axes instantiate the "bare bones". In programming/instruction terms ... Hodges' model provides INITIALISATION. A reset. This can act as a prompt for learners to acknowledge the person - the other and consider 'unconditional positive regard'. There's polarity too (p.46) and each living being lives in its own global field, in its own global 'map' - in its own geography" (p.49). Physical geography and the change 'there' is giving rise to cogeographical (a neologism?) disruption - eco-anxiety and climate-angst.
Psycho-geography: the polarity of our times?
Another note, amongst Hierocles' circles is 'reflex arc'. So many feedback loops, cascades to worry about.
As Jorge de Carvalho writes: 'what we are talking about is a very complex field of fields. ... described both as a compass rose and as a framework of concentric circles" (p.51). [There's a relay race, a torch relay in ancient terms p.54. Care is the object that is passed on. I've a dual-shaped baton to pass on.]
Care is more than perception (p.52), care presupposes a degree of activity or action. I like the acknowledgement of 'vigilant waiting' too. For me this draws in the importance of communication; Watzlawick's Five Axioms of Communication. After all, what happens to all these perceptions? There's vulnerability, fragility and care for the sheer existence and the whole content of a given being (p.56). Jorge de Carvalho, deploys a series of numbered points which helps reading. Page 60's footnote had me drawing circles, unborn at the centre: as one. But the collective unborn in another rough circle. Eachtimeness: I like this Stoic formulation through circles. Fourthly, we arrive at pure care. I'm still pondering on ".. there is no absolute either/or dichotomy between care and its opposite" (p.61). Integration is also here, an issue for modern times, a legacy problem from ancient times?
"Three fundamental aspects will be identified: (a) the need to consider self-existence from a global point of view; (b) the need for an axis for that life-view; (c) the need for correspondence between self-existence and life-view. Apparently, this structure is formal and arbitrary. Secondly, I will analyse the structure of despair. Three fundamental aspects will be analysed: (α) the requirement for a life-view which can be applied to the totality of subjective existence; (β) the requirement for an unconditioned instance of meaning; (γ) the requirement for the exclusion of the possibility of failure." p.79.
"So, a life-view needs to be stabilized, to have unity. It needs an instance that works as an axis and as a point of support. We need something to support our life" (p.83).
Braga, J. & Santiago de Carvalho, M. (Eds.), (2021) Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer.
personal courage relational - (emotional) care despair - fulfilment motivation ideals | unity - stability maps compass - orientation models - frameworks geography |
life as a whole society - community of practice external validation extrnisic motivation | sustainable development goals policy accountability failure (courage here - political convictions?) |
See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965