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Radboud University Press

In Praise of Ambiguity

  • Christina Schües (author)
Chapter of: Purple Brains: Feminisms at the Limits of Philosophy

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Metadata
TitleIn Praise of Ambiguity
ContributorChristina Schües (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.54195/HSOV8373_CH05
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
PublisherRadboud University Press
Published on2024-05-16
Long abstractChristina Schües, in her chapter, “In Praise of Ambiguity,” goes into the concept of ambiguity in the work of Simone de Beauvoir especially, building on Vasterling’s work, which demonstrates that interrelating the work of Arendt, Beauvoir, and Merleau-Ponty enriches phenomenological and hermeneutic research. Schües argues in line with Simone de Beauvoir and Maurice Merleau-Ponty that human existence is inherently ambiguous. She understands ambiguity as a non-universal ontology between self and other, deception and freedom, immanence and transcendence, and non-knowledge and knowledge. Her aim in the essay is to show that this irreducible ambiguity is also found in cases of inhibited intentionality and transgressive intentionality. The former is related by Iris Marion Young to women who have internalized the rules of not taking their space, while the latter is ascribed, for instance, to persons with dementia whose so-called “challenging” behavior may transgress their own space, intruding upon someone else’s. An understanding of these different ways of embodiment and interactions with the person’s environment requires a phenomenological approach that recognizes and explores the fundamental ambiguity of the human condition.
Keywords
  • de Beauvoir
  • Merleau-Ponty
  • embodiment
  • intentionality
  • Young
  • transcendence
  • phenomenology
  • existence
  • self and other
Contributors

Christina Schües

(author)

Christina Schües is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science Studies at the University of Lübeck and she is an Honorary Professor at the Institute for Philosophy and Art Sciences at Leuphana University, Lüneburg. Her research explores the intersection between phenomenology, the life sciences and the political, and theories of peace. She is known for her work on natality and her present research explores strategies of immunization, ignorance, and indifference. Her recent publications include Genetic Responsibility in Germany and Israel (Colombia UP 2023), “Phenomenology and the Political – Injustice and Prejudges” (2018), “Vulnerability and Trust” (2020), and “La transcendance et les difficultés de l’ambiguïté” (2022).