Papers by David Leichter
Social Philosophy Today, 2019
The turn to narrative in biomedicine has been one of the most important alternatives to tradition... more The turn to narrative in biomedicine has been one of the most important alternatives to traditional approaches to bioethics. Rather than using ethical theories and principles to guide behavior, narrative ethics uses the moral imagination to cultivate and expand one’s capacities for empathy. This paper argues that by themselves narratives do not, and cannot, fully capture the range of the illness experience. But more than that, the emphasis on narrative often obscures how dominant forms of narrative discourse often operate to marginalize those whose narratives fall outside the parameters of traditional narrative forms or whose stories are occluded by structural violence and oppression. Rather, by focusing on forms of embodiment that are irreducible to narrative discursivity, this paper highlights forms of selfhood that exist outside of the narrative self.
In this dissertation, I explore the significance of remembering, especially in its communal form,... more In this dissertation, I explore the significance of remembering, especially in its communal form, and its relationship to narrative identity by examining the practices that make possible the formation and transmission of a heritage. To explore this issue I use Martin Heidegger and Paul Ricoeur, who have dedicated several of their major works to remembrance and forgetting. In comparing Heidegger and Ricoeur, I suggest that Ricoeur's formulation of the identity of a subject and a community offers an alternative to Heidegger's account. For, if Heidegger's critique of subjectivity offers the possibility of a new relationship to history and community, it nevertheless overlooks the possibility of a humanism that is not tied to a metaphysical account of subjectivity. By contrast, the positive work of remembrance can recover heretofore concealed possibilities through our being faithful to the past, and saving it from the destructive forces of time. To show how the fragility of memory preserves the past against the destructive work of time and brings with it the hope of a better future, I emphasize one specific theme-namely, the debt we owe to the dead, which opens the possibility for ethical consideration of an historical community. In this regard, this dissertation pursues two goals. The first task is to elucidate how Heidegger's and Ricoeur's phenomenological projects understand the intimate connection between remembrance and the creation of a community. The second goal of this dissertation is to show how Ricoeur is able to respond to the problems that Heidegger's ontological account of memory raises. The completion of these two tasks will contribute to a phenomenological hermeneutics of memory and forgetting.
Social Philosophy Today, 2015
Phenomenology 2010. Volume 5: Selected Essays from North America, Part 1
Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies, 2012
Collective memory has been a notoriously difficult concept to define. I appeal to Paul Ricoeur an... more Collective memory has been a notoriously difficult concept to define. I appeal to Paul Ricoeur and argue that his account of the relationship of the self and her community can clarify the meaning of collective memory. While memory properly understood belongs, in each case, to individuals, such memory exists and is shaped by a relationship with others. Furthermore, because individuals are constituted over a span of time and through intersubjective associations, the notion of collective memory ought to be understood in terms of the way that memory enacts and reenacts networks of relations among individuals and the communities to which they belong, rather than in terms of a model that reifies either individuals or groups. Ricoeur’s account can show sources of oppression and offers ways to respond to them.
This paper explores some implications of Ricoeur's conception of testimony. Testimony plays two r... more This paper explores some implications of Ricoeur's conception of testimony. Testimony plays two roles: it enables us to know what actually happened and it reveals how the past continues to be meaningful. However, these two roles generate a peculiar problem: the meaning of the past, as bearing witness, cannot be exhausted by a narrative account of what happened.
Collective memory has been a notoriously difficult concept to define. I appeal to Paul Ricoeur an... more Collective memory has been a notoriously difficult concept to define. I appeal to Paul Ricoeur and argue that his account of the relationship of the self and her community can clarify the meaning of collective memory. While memory properly understood belongs, in each case, to individuals, such memory exists and is shaped by a relationship with others. Furthermore, because individuals are constituted over a span of time and through intersubjective associations, the notion of collective memory ought to be understood in terms of the way that memory enacts and reenacts networks of relations among individuals and the communities to which they belong, rather than in terms of a model that reifies either individuals or groups. Ricoeur's account can show sources of oppression and offers ways to respond to them.
Teaching Documents by David Leichter
Course Schedule - Readings and Topics
This course is designed to enable students to critically reflect on and assess their attitudes an... more This course is designed to enable students to critically reflect on and assess their attitudes and practices about their food values by examining the social and cultural practices that influence our relationship to food and the choices that we make as a result of those choices. All of these values are extremely important to how we live our lives and how we think about the meaning of our lives. This course will give us the opportunity to explore these values and issues. In particular, we’ll discuss:
• In what ways does science – and the media representation of food and science – contribute to, and distort, our understanding of health, nutrition, and well-being?
• What are some of the environmental and social consequences of various eating habits? Do some food choices contribute to social injustice or environmental degradation?
• To what extent does the presence of these consequences generate moral obligations to adopt or abandon certain eating habits and food practices?
• What is the ethical, social, and political significance of our own cultural culinary traditions and those of other cultures and how does our identification with a set of culinary practices help develop our sense of well-being?
We’ll look at questions about individual food choices and values as well as broader questions about cultural practices and social policies in which individuals make those choices. We will do through a careful reading of philosophical texts, trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, through eating together.
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Papers by David Leichter
Teaching Documents by David Leichter
• In what ways does science – and the media representation of food and science – contribute to, and distort, our understanding of health, nutrition, and well-being?
• What are some of the environmental and social consequences of various eating habits? Do some food choices contribute to social injustice or environmental degradation?
• To what extent does the presence of these consequences generate moral obligations to adopt or abandon certain eating habits and food practices?
• What is the ethical, social, and political significance of our own cultural culinary traditions and those of other cultures and how does our identification with a set of culinary practices help develop our sense of well-being?
We’ll look at questions about individual food choices and values as well as broader questions about cultural practices and social policies in which individuals make those choices. We will do through a careful reading of philosophical texts, trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, through eating together.
• In what ways does science – and the media representation of food and science – contribute to, and distort, our understanding of health, nutrition, and well-being?
• What are some of the environmental and social consequences of various eating habits? Do some food choices contribute to social injustice or environmental degradation?
• To what extent does the presence of these consequences generate moral obligations to adopt or abandon certain eating habits and food practices?
• What is the ethical, social, and political significance of our own cultural culinary traditions and those of other cultures and how does our identification with a set of culinary practices help develop our sense of well-being?
We’ll look at questions about individual food choices and values as well as broader questions about cultural practices and social policies in which individuals make those choices. We will do through a careful reading of philosophical texts, trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, through eating together.