Anne Sauka
I am a docent and senior researcher at the University of Latvia, Department of Philosophy and Ethics.
I study materially embedded genealogies of the body and the environment, with a focus on seeking affirmative ethicalities for environmental humanities.
I have written both topic-centered reflections such as “Selfhood in Question: The Ontogenealogies of Bear Encounters” (2022), or “Shopping for Meaning: Tracing the Ontologies of Food Consumption in Latvia” (2022) that reflect on the relations with wildlife and food, as well as theoretical reflections on the significance of situated knowledges, such as “Breaching the Dialectic with Situated Knowledges: the Case of Postsocialist Naturecultures” (2023).
Persistent within these contributions is the theme of selfhood in a processual and new materialist context that forms the main arch of my publications. With this focus in mind, I work towards the combination of first-person experiential approaches (such as embodied critical thinking and eco-phenomenology) with an ontogenealogical approach of (re) visiting mythologies and ontologies that co-constitute lived materialities today.
I study materially embedded genealogies of the body and the environment, with a focus on seeking affirmative ethicalities for environmental humanities.
I have written both topic-centered reflections such as “Selfhood in Question: The Ontogenealogies of Bear Encounters” (2022), or “Shopping for Meaning: Tracing the Ontologies of Food Consumption in Latvia” (2022) that reflect on the relations with wildlife and food, as well as theoretical reflections on the significance of situated knowledges, such as “Breaching the Dialectic with Situated Knowledges: the Case of Postsocialist Naturecultures” (2023).
Persistent within these contributions is the theme of selfhood in a processual and new materialist context that forms the main arch of my publications. With this focus in mind, I work towards the combination of first-person experiential approaches (such as embodied critical thinking and eco-phenomenology) with an ontogenealogical approach of (re) visiting mythologies and ontologies that co-constitute lived materialities today.
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Papers by Anne Sauka
By exploring human attitudes toward the return of bears to their habitats in Latvia and Europe, this paper explores the dialectic of normality and exceptionality regarding the ontogenealogies of “nature”. While “normality” is often associated with “nature” and human is understood as the (often violent) “state of exception”, civilization is also simultaneously the “norm” that is supposed to be threatened by the “exception” of the wilderness. This paper aims to show that both conceptualizations demonstrate the dialectic of normality and exceptionality itself as the accepted norm, based on a substance ontology that institutes human exceptionalism, which raises doubt when faced with a processual understanding of the self. Thus, the paper first addresses the main functioning understandings of “nature” and demonstrates how the two seemingly contradictory dialectics of normality and exceptionality can coexist simultaneously.
Then, the paper turns to the notion of abject, exploring the threatening rift between the human self and the world via the notion of abject. Finally, the article evokes the example of Covid-19 deniers, comparing the threat of the virus with the fear of bears in context with the abjection processes, and argues for a recognition of the felt, affectual abject as a vehicle for critically reexamining human exceptionalism and the processuality of the self.
contemporary society as a consequence of
Western dualist thought paradigms and
ontologies, via Gilles Deleuze’s concept of ‘reactive
nihilism’ following the colloquial murder of
God. The article then explores processual and
new materialist approaches in the understanding
of the lived and carnal self, arguing for immanent
and senseful materiality as an ethical platform
for religious, environmental, and societal solidarity
for tomorrow. For the theoretical justification
of the processual approach in understanding
the enfleshed self, the article employs John
Dupré’s processual approach in the philosophy
of biology, as well as Astrida Neimani’s critical
posthumanism, and contextualizes these considerations
with Erich Fromm’s ethical distinction of
being and having.
Books by Anne Sauka
The turn to embodiment has sparked the development of new methodologies within phenomenology, pragmatism, and cognitive science. Drawing on Eugene Gendlin’s philosophical work on felt understanding, and Francesco Varela’s enactivist approach, contributors explore innovative embodied thinking methods such as Focusing, Thinking at the Edge, micro-phenomenology, and mindfulness practices. They demonstrate the practical applications of these methods in research, teaching, and learning, highlighting their liberating and empowering potential for researchers and students. In an age marked by information overload and societal polarisation, methods of embodied thinking provide an innovative edge to critique, complementing more traditional approaches to critical thinking with listening skills and reflexive care.
This book shows how heeding the essential, yet often overlooked, embodied grounds of critical and creative thinking can deepen and strengthen each of research, teaching, and learning. It will interest philosophers of education and educators in higher education in particular, as well as researchers and postgraduate students from philosophy, and the cognitive and social sciences, who are curious about how embodied thinking can enrich research, teaching, and learning.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
By exploring human attitudes toward the return of bears to their habitats in Latvia and Europe, this paper explores the dialectic of normality and exceptionality regarding the ontogenealogies of “nature”. While “normality” is often associated with “nature” and human is understood as the (often violent) “state of exception”, civilization is also simultaneously the “norm” that is supposed to be threatened by the “exception” of the wilderness. This paper aims to show that both conceptualizations demonstrate the dialectic of normality and exceptionality itself as the accepted norm, based on a substance ontology that institutes human exceptionalism, which raises doubt when faced with a processual understanding of the self. Thus, the paper first addresses the main functioning understandings of “nature” and demonstrates how the two seemingly contradictory dialectics of normality and exceptionality can coexist simultaneously.
Then, the paper turns to the notion of abject, exploring the threatening rift between the human self and the world via the notion of abject. Finally, the article evokes the example of Covid-19 deniers, comparing the threat of the virus with the fear of bears in context with the abjection processes, and argues for a recognition of the felt, affectual abject as a vehicle for critically reexamining human exceptionalism and the processuality of the self.
contemporary society as a consequence of
Western dualist thought paradigms and
ontologies, via Gilles Deleuze’s concept of ‘reactive
nihilism’ following the colloquial murder of
God. The article then explores processual and
new materialist approaches in the understanding
of the lived and carnal self, arguing for immanent
and senseful materiality as an ethical platform
for religious, environmental, and societal solidarity
for tomorrow. For the theoretical justification
of the processual approach in understanding
the enfleshed self, the article employs John
Dupré’s processual approach in the philosophy
of biology, as well as Astrida Neimani’s critical
posthumanism, and contextualizes these considerations
with Erich Fromm’s ethical distinction of
being and having.
The turn to embodiment has sparked the development of new methodologies within phenomenology, pragmatism, and cognitive science. Drawing on Eugene Gendlin’s philosophical work on felt understanding, and Francesco Varela’s enactivist approach, contributors explore innovative embodied thinking methods such as Focusing, Thinking at the Edge, micro-phenomenology, and mindfulness practices. They demonstrate the practical applications of these methods in research, teaching, and learning, highlighting their liberating and empowering potential for researchers and students. In an age marked by information overload and societal polarisation, methods of embodied thinking provide an innovative edge to critique, complementing more traditional approaches to critical thinking with listening skills and reflexive care.
This book shows how heeding the essential, yet often overlooked, embodied grounds of critical and creative thinking can deepen and strengthen each of research, teaching, and learning. It will interest philosophers of education and educators in higher education in particular, as well as researchers and postgraduate students from philosophy, and the cognitive and social sciences, who are curious about how embodied thinking can enrich research, teaching, and learning.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.