Following Marc Richir and others, László Tengelyi has recently developed the idea of Sinnereignis (meaning-event) as a way of capturing the emergence of meaning that does not flow from some prior project or constitutive act. As such, it might seem to pose something of a challenge to phenomenology: the paradox of an experience that is mine without being my accomplishment. This article offers a different sort of interpretation of meaning-events, claiming that in their structure they always involve what the late (...) Heidegger called “measure-taking” (Maß-nehmen)—that is, an orientation toward the emergence of normative moments thanks to which what apparently eludes phenomenology becomes accessible in its inaccessibility. This is shown, first, on the example of conscience in Sein und Zeit and then on the example of the poetic image (Bild) in Heidegger’s later essays. (shrink)

Both in the Netherlands and in Britain, practices of ‘life story work’ have emerged in nursing for persons with intellectual disabilities. The narrative approach to care and support may at the same time be considered as an attempt to compensate for the ‘disabled authorship’ of many persons with intellectual disabilities and as a sign of controversy with standard practices of diagnosis and treatment that tend to neglect the personal identities of both clients and care givers, their particular historical and relational (...) contexts and their spiritual needs. This paper argues that narrative ethics not only offers an appropriate moral framework for practices of life story work, but that these practices are a narrative ethics in action. Starting with an account of the concept of ‘life story work’ as it has been introduced in nursing practices in the field of intellectual disability, the paper explains its relationship with key characteristics of narrative ethics. The teleological dimension in narrative ethics and in practices of life story work sparks off a dialectic process of understanding of the client and self‐understanding of the care giver. It also invites a respect for life in its openness toward the future and presupposes an openness toward other possible versions of the life narrative. The phenomenological and hermeneutic‐interpretative methodologies in narrative ethics aim at a ‘sudden moment of intimacy’ in relationships of nurses and clients. The ‘epiphany’ of this essential moment of recognition, insight and engagement cannot, however, be brought about by methodology. (shrink)

This article refers on a recent discussion with the question of the relationship between individual memory and collective history. It is claimed a constitutive role of memory in history. This thesis is examined on the basis of the question according to the value of the autobiography as a historical source. It is shown here that a reference to the collective history is already guaranteed in the relationship between memory and narrative. Four observations shall justify the arguments, they concern the role (...) of intuition in historical narrative, the relationship between historical actor and his deeds, the transcendence of memory, and the role of fiction in the historical narrative. The last observation leads at the end on the role of fantasy in the historical memory. (shrink)

Esta contribución elabora la concepción del “Un-zuhause-sein” en Heidegger en su relación con la experiencia del exilio, como es descripta por Mario Benedetti. En la experiencia del exilio, cuando se quiebra la familiaridad tranquilizadora con el mundo, se accede al «fenómeno más original desde el punto de vista ontológico existenciario» de la absoluta negación del estar en casa. Mientras la angustia despertada por la soledad fáctica conduce a una ruptura con el mundo cotidiano, el extrañamien-to nos desnuda y nos revela (...) al mundo en su inhospitalidad originaria. Es la angustia la que tanto abre a este modo de ser originario y propio del “ser ahí”, la que hace patente su ser-en-el-mundo, la que lo singulariza y lo aísla de los demás seres. El exilio, como experiencia paradigmática de la in-hospitalidad, demuestra que la experiencia del Un-zuhause-sein es un rasgo ontológico-existencial del Dasein. (shrink)