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Feminist Approaches to the Intersection of Pragmatism and Continental Philosophy
Given the occasional confusion of the colloquial and the philosophical senses of the term "pragmatism" and the slipperiness of the term "continental" (or "postmodern") philosophy, a word about the two fields is in order before turning to feminist approaches to their intersections. The so-called classical period of American philosophy, best known for its creation of American pragmatism, was developed in the United States from the late nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century by figures such as Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, John Dewey, William James, Alain Locke, George Herbert Mead, Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, and Alfred North Whitehead.[1] Waning in popularity after the Second World War, American pragmatist philosophy experienced a revival in the 1970s, often credited to the "neo-pragmatist" work of Richard Rorty (see especially Rorty 1979), that continues today. Far from being an anti-theoretical position that champions level-headed practicality as is sometimes thought, pragmatist philosophy stresses the dynamic relationship between theory and practice and especially the value of each for transforming the other. It seeks to undermine other sharp dichotomies as well, including those between body and mind, subject and object, ends and means, and nature and culture. Viewing knowledge as a tool for enriching experience, pragmatism tends to be pluralistic, experimental, fallibilist, and naturalistic. Rejecting the quest for absolute certainty, it takes a meliorist attitude that human action sometimes can improve the world.
Pragmatism's emphasis on experience, developed in the wake of Darwin's evolutionary theory, perhaps best distinguishes it from other philosophical fields. Pragmatism demands that philosophy grow out of and test its merits in the "soil" of lived experience. This is not to abjure abstraction, but rather to insist that philosophy deal with the genuine problems of living organisms, not the artificial problems of an academic discipline. It is important to realize, however, that pragmatists understand the concept of experience as "double-barrelled," in James's words (James quoted in Dewey 2000, 463). Experience refers not only to the so-called "subjective" experience of a living being, but also to the "objective" world that is experienced by it. Biology and evolutionary theory teach that plants and non-human animals cannot live apart from the environments that feed and sustain them. Pragmatist philosophy incorporates this lesson by insisting that all of experience, including human experience, needs to be understood as an interaction between organism and environment. Functional distinctions can be made between the two, but for pragmatism, no sharp dichotomy between them exists.
Somewhat ironically, the concept of continental philosophy is a creation of philosophers in the United States who focus on the work of post-Enlightenment European thinkers, especially those in France and Germany. While the range of European figures studied by continental philosophers is too large and varied to list comprehensively here, one could say that it begins with nineteenth century theorists such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche; continues with twentieth century thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Louis Althusser, Walter Benjamin, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Jacques Lacan, Jean-François Lyotard, Herbert Marcuse, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre; and extends into the twenty-first century with contemporary writers such as Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Julia Kristeva, and Luce Irigaray.
Since the specific fields represented by these theorists range from genealogical philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and critical theory to deconstruction, hermeneutics, post-structuralism, and psychoanalytic philosophy, the label "continental" must be understood more as an umbrella concept than a precise term. Nevertheless, contemporary continental philosophies can be seen as sharing a suspicion of what Lyotard (1984) has called "grand narratives," which are accounts of the world and human existence that (attempt to) legitimate and provide them with meaning from a position external to them. Some examples of grand narratives under attack by continental philosophers include the idea that facts and values are sharply opposed to one another, the assumption that the self is essentially unified, and the belief that the pursuit of knowledge is for its own sake rather than driven by particular human interests. A rejection of grand narratives does not entail the inability to make distinctions, such as those between fact and value, knowledge and politics, insider and outside, and thing and process. It instead means understanding those distinctions as made from a particular perspective and within a particular context, and remaining open to the criticism and possible rejection of them if they fail to serve the purposes for which they were selected. Uncovering the failings and internal inconsistencies of the grand narratives of the Western world, continental philosophy thus attempts to construct a way of doing philosophy that resists appeal to absolute and unquestionable starting points, methods, or concepts. Its outlook tends to be historical and perspectival, emphasizing the co-constitutive relationship of power and social-political location, on the one hand, and knowledge and truth, on the other.
In its perspectival, historical, and contextual approaches to philosophy, continental theory finds significant points of contact not only with American pragmatism, but also with much of contemporary feminist philosophy. In general and especially when influenced by continental and pragmatist philosophy, feminist philosophy can be seen as targeting the grand narratives of patriarchy and male privilege, arguing that many of the so-called objective and universal truths of philosophy are instead pronouncements made from a particular -- that is, male-biased -- point of view. Above all, as this essay will reveal, the dual impact of continental and pragmatist philosophy contributes to a feminism that challenges the philosophical construction of sharp dichotomies and opposed binaries. Such a challenge is feminist because even when dualisms do not explicitly refer to women, gender, or sexuality, they tend to be implicated in and to produce male privilege.
In spite of many affinities between pragmatist, continental, and feminist philosophy, there currently are very few feminists whose work is recognized as explicitly incorporating both of the other traditions. Instead, what one generally finds is a handful of feminists well known for working out of a continental tradition who also, but in a less recognized fashion, draw from pragmatist themes and figures. In what follows, I discuss four themes that emerge in the work of feminists customarily associated with continental philosophy to illuminate the particular way that each combines pragmatist and continental thought. I then close with suggestions of additional resources for feminists interested in the intersection of pragmatist and continental philosophy and suggestions of possible future directions that the young field might take.
The Quests for Certainty and Purity
The Evolutionary Becoming of Spatiality and Materiality
Technoscientific Hybridity and Fetishism
The Semiotic Construction of Sexual Subjects
Additional Resources and Future Directions
One of philosophy's responses to the presence of flux and change in the world has been to seek stability in the fixed and unchanging. Another has been to try to rigidly order and compartmentalize that which is ambiguous or indeterminate. These quests for certainty and purity have been the concern of pragmatist and continental feminists because of their endorsement of traits seen as masculine and their corresponding rejection of those viewed as feminine. Given western culture's association of women with the impure, ambiguous, and disorderly, the quest to free philosophy from those characteristics has been a simultaneous attempt to flee from everything associated with the feminine.
In The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture, Susan Bordo criticizes the "'flight from the feminine'" that has resulted from philosophy's quests for certainty and purity (1987, 118). She argues that in the wake of work by Richard Rorty, Michel Foucault, and feminist historians and philosophers of science such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Sandra Harding, philosophy cannot easily sustain its anti-cultural and non-historical accounts of the world. Adopting Rorty's metaphor of "the mirror of nature" (1979) to criticize philosophy's self-conception as a neutral reflection of what is given in the world,[2] Bordo provides a psychocultural analysis of the development of that mirror in the work of René Descartes. Rorty's Nietzschean and Deweyan approach to philosophy understands it as a form of cultural therapy, that is, as a way to improve or "cure" the "illnesses" of contemporary society. Similarly, The Flight to Objectivity brings together feminist concerns and psychoanalytic tools to identify western culture's Cartesian "disease." Bordo's diagnosis is that Cartesian anxiety in the face of epistemological doubt is in fact an anxiety due to separation from an organic universe conceived of as female.
Taking seriously the experiential bases of Descartes's skepticism, Bordo identifies the epistemological problem over which Descartes obsessed to be that of psychological corruption, which threatens to make it impossible to know how and when to trust one's felt sense of conviction when one believes something to be true. Drawing on Dewey's analysis in The Quest for Certainty (1988) and the anthropological work of Mary Douglas, Bordo argues that an absolutist quest for purity is a common response to anxiety over the messiness and ambiguity of the world. Moreover, she explains that the quest for purity during times of high cultural anxiety is correlated with an increase in male social domination. As anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday's cross-cultural findings demonstrate, male domination within a culture tends to be at its most extreme when that culture experiences itself as being in too much flux (Bordo 1987, 111). For Bordo, Descartes's response to historical changes such as the cultural and scientific revolutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Martin Luther's reformation movement and Copernicus's heliocentricism, was to attempt to establish a firm division between confusion and order, the impure and the pure, the ambiguous and the certain, the body and the mind, and the "dirty" from the "clean." Descartes thus can be thought of as the quintessential "dirt-rejecter" of Western philosophy (1987, 82). As Bordo argues, the mark of Cartesianism is not so much its claims to neutral objectivity as it is its "passion for intellectual separation, demarcation, and order" (1987, 77, emphasis in original). Given western culture's long-standing association between reason, the orderly mind, and masculinity, on the one hand, and emotions, the messy body, and femininity, on the other, Descartes' rejection of flux for order was at the same time a privileging of the (culturally constituted) masculine over the (culturally constituted) feminine.
Dewey once claimed that a felt sense of "insecurity generates the quest for certainty" (Dewey 1988, 203). Following up on that claim, Bordo argues that the problematic genius of Descartes was to find a way to convert his anxiety in the face of the impure and ambiguous into the confidence and certitude of objectivity. As Bordo explains, "Where there is anxiety, there will almost certainly be found a mechanism against that anxiety" (Bordo 1987, 75). Descartes took that which produced dread -- the perceived barrenness of a mechanistic world -- and turned it into an advantage, into that which makes objectivity, and thus also certainty, possible. In defense against the painful anxiety he felt about the process of separating from the organic whole of the universe, Descartes effectively declared that he willed and welcomed such a separation. His defense, in other words, can be seen as a reaction-formation to a painful loss. Tracing the historical and cultural masculinization of thought and the corresponding reconception of nature as dead and mechanical rather than organic and alive, Bordo demonstrates how what was lost was the previous cultural conception of a "female cosmos and 'feminine' orientation towards the world" (1987, 100). Descartes's method of achieving absolute certainty thus is as much a "flight from the feminine" historically and culturally associated with the organic and fluid, as it is the creation of a new epistemological criterion of and method for objectivity.
Space is often thought of as relatively static in comparison with the dynamism of time. Time moves forward, we often say, while space is commonly conceived as merely an empty gap that passively rests between, for example, the walls of a house or the beams of a bridge. What would it mean, however, to question this dualistic opposition of space and time? What if space were also thought of as dynamic and moving? And what impact would this revised conception of space have on philosophical ideas about the bodies that inhabit space? As some feminists have argued, rethinking spatiality as becoming, rather than as static being, can help philosophy rethink bodily life and materiality in dynamic ways as well. Given the long-association of women with bodies and materiality, moreover, the reconceptualization of the latter has important implications for women and feminism.
In Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space (2001), Elizabeth Grosz explores these conceptual questions about space, time, and materiality by working in the intersections of architecture and philosophy. Engaging in "conceptual or philosophical [rather than concretely architectural] experiments," she forces architecture to examine the importance of temporality and sexuality for practices of building and making and attempts to render both architecture's and philosophy's concepts of space more dynamic and fluid (2001, xviii). Grosz argues that architecture is problematic from a feminist perspective because it largely has ignored questions of sexual and racial differences. Not putting enough women's bathrooms, relative to men's, in concert halls, auditoriums, and other public buildings that draw large numbers of people is one simple example of this neglect. Yet it also can be seen in the more complex ways that spaces are gendered and raced. How, for example, does architecture contribute to raced and racist urban spaces by aiding the gentrified rebuilding of inner cities, a process that tends to displace poor, non-white populations for the benefit of middle class white people? Architecture's neglect of questions such as these is a serious matter for Grosz. Nonetheless, she argues that as a kind of liminal point between culture and nature, the field of architecture also presents an ideal opportunity for feminists to trouble many of the absolutized binary categories that often plague philosophy: inside and outside, self and other, and subject and object, to name just a few. It might also help philosophy "think of itself more humbly as a mode of producing rather than as a mode of knowing or intellectually grasping or mastering concepts, moving [philosophy] closer to everyday life and its concerns, which would be good for [it]" (2001, 6). As a self-proclaimed "outsider" to architecture -- a term used playfully given that she will smudge the lines between inside and outside -- Grosz thus traverses the boundaries between architecture and philosophy to address questions of materiality and becoming that might produce changes in the lived experience of spatiality.
Grosz is interested in a philosophy that would integrate dynamic and productive notions of change and time into that of space. On her view, such integration would help both architects and philosophers think of space in dynamic and creative, rather than static and worn-out ways. According to Grosz, such a philosophy requires above all "pragmatic models" (2001, 120). With the term "pragmatic," Grosz includes thinkers in both the traditions of American and continental philosophy who operate with a "self-consciously evolutionary orientation" (2001, 169). This "philosophical pragmatism meanders from Darwin, through Nietzsche, to the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Henri Bergson, and eventually through various lines of descent, into the diverging positions of Richard Rorty, on the one hand, and Gilles Deleuze on the other" (2001, 169). Positioning herself within this lineage, Grosz affirms "pragmatist philosophers who put the questions of action, practice, and movement at the center of ontology" (2001, 169). Doing so allows them, for example, to "understand[d] the [inorganic] thing as question, as provocation" for organic life (2001, 169; emphasis in original). This would be to take becoming and an evolutionary openness to the future various seriously for it would dare to think of the so-called inanimate, static thing as continuous with animate, dynamic, organic -- including human -- life. Doing so would operate with the distinction between animate and inanimate in order to show their interactions. It would acknowledge that the animate and the inanimate exist as poles on a continuum, where differences shade into one another rather than stand starkly apart.
In questioning conventional boundaries between thing and non-thing, Grosz's goal is not to completely collapse all distinctions between binary categories, but rather to complicate their relationships so that new possibilities might open up. Likewise, the purpose of her work is not to urge the attempt to live in a world of total flux -- as if such a thing were possible. Following James, Grosz instead insists that the "teeming flux of the real" must be rendered into discrete objects and that human beings are not able to choose not to do so (2001, 179). What she adds, however, is that philosophy and architecture need to recognize that categories for objectifying the world do not fully capture it in all its complex multiplicity and that there is a residue that remains. This residual excess is not in rigid opposition to objects and categories; rather it and the world of flux are continuous with the world of discrete objects, in dialogue and movement with them. To think the relationship between flux and object as Grosz would have philosophers do is to think the thing as she has described it: as a fluid "point of crossing" rather than as a static fixity (2001, 171).
Grosz does not often provide explicit details about how such a "philosophical pragmatism" might benefit feminism. Indeed, as she says of herself in an interview that composes chapter one of the book, "I feel sure that in order to keep my feminist work alive I have to keep it at bay, at a bit of a distance" (2001, 26). In the context of the entire book, however, one can understand her distanced feminism as another functional "outsider" to both philosophy and architecture that, like all outsides, forces those positioned within the inside to really "think" (2001, 64; emphasis in original). In the example of her own work, Grosz claims that she had to move away from her earlier work on the body (Grosz 1994) because she had "worked to death" the topic. Moving to the field of architecture has allowed her to approach the question of materiality in a fresh way (2001, 26). Making that move, Grosz offers feminists an example of how to get some distance from and thus gain a new perspective on familiar feminist concepts so that fresh insight into them is possible. Grosz thus provisionally preserves the distinctions between continental and pragmatist philosophy, architecture, and feminism in order to enable the "infection by one side of the border of the other [and] a becoming otherwise of each of the terms thus bounded" (2001, 65).
Technology and science have had and continue to have an enormous impact on the contemporary world. The weapons, medicines, automobiles, electronics, and other goods they produce have been both beneficial to and problematic for human and non-human animal life. Important to understanding the particular impact of technology and science is to focus not just on their products, however, but also on the processes by which those products come into existence -- and, moreover, not only the mechanical, but also the social processes as well. The products of contemporary technoscience are hybrid compilations of material goods, human labor, and social relations that often are oppressive. As such, they cannot be understood if they are conceived of as mere things, abstracted away from their social contexts. Doing so interferes with the ability to ask questions about whom technoscience benefits and whom it exploits or otherwise harms.
Much of Donna Haraway's work stresses the importance of asking these questions. In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991), Donna Haraway introduces the figure of the cyborg, an "impure" creature who scrambles orderly divisions between the natural and artificial/technical, and the human and the non-human/animal. Continuing her exploration of "ontological confusing bodies" in Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouseTM: Feminism and Technoscience (1997, 186), Haraway speaks as a cyborgian "modest witness" to contemporary technoscience, at once both implicated in and suspicious of its processes and products. Extending her earlier insights into how humans "polish an animal mirror to look for ourselves" (1991, 22), Haraway criticizes the way that science takes nature as a static given, congealing and obscuring social relations such that they can be taken as decontextualized things-in-themselves.
For Haraway, Western culture is extremely fetishistic, mistaking "a fixed thing for the doings of power-differentiated lively beings" (1997, 135). To analyze the web of economic, psychological, and philosophical threads that compose this fetishism, Haraway appeals to the work of Marx, Freud, and Whitehead. Economically, socio-technological relations often are taken to be commodities whose value is intrinsic rather than the product of the labor and practices of organic life. Hand-in-hand with this politico-economic fetishism goes a psychological denial of this substitution that makes the "mistake" of taking things for processes very difficult to recognize. Finally, wound up with these two strands is the philosophical error that misunderstands concrete, relational processes as fixed, simple abstractions (1997, 147). All three threads of this fetishism are bound up in, for example, the computer chip, which is incredibly valuable and necessary to late capitalist, technological society. Locating its value in pieces of metal and plastic and electronic codes, however, we lose sight of the historical and labor processes that produce and sustain the computer's existence. A product of World War II, the computer was developed to help calculate artillery trajectories so that bombs would be more effective (read: destroy more property and kill more people). Today, computer chips and mother boards often are produced by Asian women in the U.S. and various third-world countries, who are seen as especially appropriate for such jobs because of their "Oriental" nimble finger work and attentiveness to small details (1991, 154, 177). When we fetishize the chip, we are incapable of seeing this "final appropriation of women's bodies in a masculinist orgy of war" (1991, 154). That is to say, we render ourselves incapable of understanding how the materials, processes, and concerns of a highly militarized, technoscientific culture shape the world and our very selves.
The process philosophy of Whitehead subtly provides crucial support for Haraway's analysis of fetishism and, indeed, much of her critique of technoscience. As Haraway explains in a footnote to Modest_Witness (1997, 297n21), Whitehead has been important to her work since at least her days as a graduate student, and she believes that the general thrust of his ideas can be discerned in a great deal of feminist science studies and philosophy of science. For Whitehead, everything in the world is a "concrescence of prehensions," prehensions being the grasping or feeling of one thing by another in their on-going relations of becoming (1997, 47). A concrescence of prehensions, then, is a growing together of processes of becoming that allows some relations to function as a unified, distinct thing, or "actual entity." What Whitehead calls the fallacy of misplaced concreteness occurs when abstract logical constructions -- such as the notion of a thing's primary qualities or of its simple location in space-time -- are (mis)taken for the concreteness of processual, actual entities. The effect of this mistake, in Haraway's terms, is the fetishization of things. Allying herself with Whitehead, Haraway emphasizes the prehensional "reachings into each other in the tissues of the world" (1997, 147) -- for example, genes, computer chips, fetuses, OncoMouseTM -- that are the concrete, actual materials of Western technoscience.
Although she argues against fetishism, it would be misleading to conclude that Haraway is thus also arguing "for" the ontologically messy hybridity that results when one gives fetishism up. Neither, however, is Haraway "against" hybridity. Both of these positions are too categorical for the issue at hand. In Haraway's view, hybridity presents possible dangers and potential benefits alike and thus must be examined in its various particularities. Haraway's task, thus, is to pragmatically ask, "for whom and how [do] these hybrids work?" (1997, 280 n1) Who benefits, for example, from OncoMouseTM, the mouse with human genes for developing breast cancer that has been developed and trademarked by DuPont? This question not only points to the issue of human beings' taking "noninnocent responsibility" for the use of non-human animals as research tools (1997, 82). It also points to questions about environmental toxins, environmental racism, and the availability and affordability of health care for African American women in light of their increasing death rates from cancer while those of white women remain the same (1997, 113). Asking questions such as these would help enable contemporary technoscience to engage in practices of "witnessing," that is to "stan[d] publically accountable for, and psychically vulnerable to [its] visions and representations" (1997, 267). For Haraway, such accountability would open up the possibility that technosciences "knowledge products" might at the same time be "freedom projects" as well (1997, 269).
In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir famously claimed that "[o]ne is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" (Beauvoir 1989, 267). Contemporary pragmatist feminist and continental feminist philosophers generally agree with this claim, rejecting the notion that the category of woman (and man) and the conception of femininity (and masculinity) are simply given in nature. As a result, some have explored the role of social institutions -- such as the media, the work place, and education -- in creating the particular type of gendered, sexual subject called "woman." Others have focused on the inner mechanisms of this process, so to speak, asking how the unconscious desires of women are constituted such that their psychical lives contribute to their gender and sexuality. These two approaches need not be seen as antithetical, however. An understanding of how women are constituted as sexual subjects is perhaps best achieved by exploring the intersection of the social "outside" and the psychical "inside" in the formation of subjectivity.
Teresa De Lauretis's work takes this intersectional approach, allying feminism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, and film criticism to explore the formation of women's subjectivity and desire in relation to social and material reality. In Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), de Lauretis develops the concept of experience as a process by which the subject is semiotically and historically constructed, arguing that one becomes a woman in and through the practice of signs in which women live. In The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse Desire (1994), she continues her exploration of these issues by focusing specifically on "perverse" formations of sexuality, by which she means forms of sexuality that challenge normative heterosexuality and especially lesbian sexuality. In each of these books, de Lauretis draws on the pragmatist semiosis of Peirce to explore the dynamic juncture between "inner" and "outer" worlds, private and public fantasies, and individual experience and social meaning, especially as they construct sexual subjects.
Semiotics is a term created by Peirce to "designate[s] the process by which a culture produces signs and/or attributes meanings of signs" (de Lauretis 1984, 167). Semiotics thus is a theory of how meaning is created through processes of interpretation. These processes are so important to Peirce that he goes so far as to claim, "my language is the sum total of myself; for the man [sic] is the thought" (Peirce 2000a, 67). This is not a reduction of the human to a narrowly construed language, however. Rather, the claim is that to understand who or what a person is, one must understand the processes of interpretation in which she and her various communities are engaged. This last point helps brings out the particularly pragmatist aspect of Peirce's semiotics. For Peirce, the semiotic processes that constitute the individual are always grounded in community, history, and materiality. To understand the interpretative constitution of the self, one must understand the various "external" environments that contribute to it.
According to de Lauretis, an important reason to turn to Peirce is precisely that his theory returns body and history to the subject of semiosis.[3] For Peirce, semiosis is an unlimited process, but that does not mean that it is an infinite regression of signs merely circulating back on themselves. Rather, as de Lauretis explains, in their address to someone -- and for Peirce, because they are inherently communal, signs always address someone -- signs create other signs that are the "significate effects" of the first signs. Peirce calls these sign-effects "interpretants," and the particular type of interpretant that interests de Lauretis is the one that Peirce calls "logical" because it takes up or makes sense of the emotion and energy of the other type of interpretants. The logical interpretant is a modification of a person's habits, "habit" used pragmatically by Peirce to mean a tendency or disposition to a certain manner or style of acting. Thus for Peirce, although unlimited, semiosis nevertheless always results in the temporary "resting places" of one's habits of acting and thinking -- "temporary" because a person's modified habits will contribute to the production of new signs, which will then feed into the on-going process of meaning-creation that will yet again modify subjects by producing additional habit changes. Thus on Peirce's account -- and this is of utmost importance to de Lauretis -- signs have their effect in historical, bodily matter and are not narrowly linguistic.
De Lauretis faults Julia Kristeva for operating with just such a narrow (mis)understanding of the semiotic subject (1984, 171).[4] Representing one trend of poststructuralist semiotic theory for de Lauretis, Kristeva's approach is at once valuable because of its psychoanalytic appreciation of the body and the unconscious, and problematic because of its narrow understanding of linguistics and thus its neglect of the social aspects of meaning-creation. The other trend of postructuralist semiotic theory, represented by Umberto Eco, appreciates the social side of semiosis but omits exactly what psychoanalysis includes: the non-conscious elements of human existence. A similar division, and thus a similar set of problems, can be found between the work of Freud and Foucault, according to de Lauretis. In his focus on sexuality, Freud offers a "privatized view of the internal world of the psyche" while Foucault's account of sexuality is "eminently social" (1994, xix-xx). Thus, for de Lauretis, feminists who seek to understand the semiotic creation of sexual subjects are presented with a problematic choice built on an exclusive binary: either the sexual subject is socially constituted but lacks a psychic interior (Eco and Foucault) or the sexual subject has psychic depth but lacks rich connections with the world external to it (Kristeva and Freud).
Peirce's advantage is that he attends to both sides of the internal-external divide, furnishing "the link between semiosis and reality, between signification and concrete action" (1984, 175). And yet, for de Lauretis, Peirce's work is not sufficient by itself because it lacks a well-developed notion of the unconscious. Thus de Lauretis's self-appointed task is to negotiate the problems and promises of all these approaches by means of a pragmatist semiotics, creating a "theoretical overlap" (1984, 168) between Kristeva's internalist and Eco's externalist semiotics, as well as between Freud's privatized and Foucault's social sexual subject. Put another way, de Lauretis joins Freud with Peirce -- admittedly "even stranger bedfellows than Marx and Freud" (1984, 215 n31) -- to explore how the semiotic junction between psychic interior and social exterior produces the unconscious habits that create sexual subjects.
In some of her most recent work (2000), de Lauretis makes clear that although semiosis is ongoing and although the habits it produces are always open to future changes, habit-change is not necessarily or always for the better nor can it easily (if at all) be controlled. In dialogue with Vincent Colapietro (2000) on how to understand Peirce's logical interpretant, de Lauretis argues that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to deliberately direct the significate effects of semiosis. In her view here -- which appears to diverge somewhat from her earlier emphasis on Foucault's concepts of self-analysis and self-exercise as Peircean "'deliberately formed, self-analyzing habit[s]'" (Peirce quoted in de Lauretis 1994, 312) -- the juncture of psyche and social that takes root in unconscious habits is not amenable to conscious efforts to transform it. Rather than being deliberate and reflective, changes to habit tend to be random (at least from the point of rational consciousness) and are relentlessly subject to all sorts of deformations, compulsions, and other neurotic symptoms (2000, 172-73). The semiotic construction of sexual subjects thus can be seen as perverse not only in that it can defy heterosexual conventions but also in that it resists the efforts self-knowledge and self-directed transformation.
Compared to continental feminism, pragmatist feminism is a small field.[5] It is growing, however, and as it does so, the chances that more work on the intersections of feminism, pragmatism, and continental philosophy will be produced also increase. To date, the common thread that loosely unites feminist cross-fertilizations of continental and pragmatist philosophy is its criticism of oppositional, exclusionary binaries. In this closing section, I outline other possible threads for future work that draw on additional resources available in pragmatist feminist and feminist continental philosophies.
(a) Bodies and Embodiment
For over a decade, understanding the relationship between embodiment and gender, race, and sexuality has been an important topic for continental feminists, especially Susan Bordo (1993), Judith Butler (1990 and 1994), Elizabeth Grosz (1994), and Gail Weiss (1999). In Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism and Feminism (2001), Shannon Sullivan engages Butler's and (to a lesser degree) Bordo's work, along with that of Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, and Dewey, to argue for a feminist conception of bodily life as transactional. Sullivan presents bodies as dynamically constituted in and through relationships with their political, social, material, and other environments, and she does so for the purpose of exploring which bodies transactional processes benefit and harm and thus whether those processes should be embraced or transformed by feminists and others.
Ladelle McWhorter's recent book Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization (1999) does not explicitly appeal to pragmatist philosophy, but its affinities with pragmatist methods and concerns can be drawn out. McWhorter argues that the value of Foucault's philosophy should not be judged by the truth (or falsity) of what it says, a method of evaluation that relies upon what Rorty (1979) calls "the mirror of nature." In its place, McWhorter asks feminist and other readers of Foucault to pragmatically judge his work on what it does, that is, on the transformative impact that it has on their lives. Using her own life as a text, McWhorter "takes an experience of reading Foucault's works as [her] point of analysis" (1999, xix) and demonstrates the feminist-friendly effects of Foucault's particular account of bodies, pleasures, and the formation of sexual subjects.
(b) The Concept of the Other
The concept of the Other offers a potential site for productive discussion and disagreement between feminist, pragmatist, and continental philosophers. As Charlene Haddock Seigfried notes, "[p]ragmatists tend to celebrate otherness by seeking out and welcoming difference as an expression of creative subjectivity" (1996, 267). The optimistic tone that pragmatism often takes toward alterity is markedly different from that of Julia Kristeva's claim that one is always other to oneself: "Foreigner: a choked up rage deep down in my throat.By recognizing him within ourselves, we are spared detesting him in himself" (1991, 1). Contemporary pragmatist feminists have tended to be more skeptical than most canonical pragmatists of the category of the Other because they recognize it as a means of domination. Yet, influenced by pragmatism, those feminists tend not to construe the Other in as alienating and foreboding way as Kristeva does. Pragmatist and continental philosophy thus presents feminists with a variety of resources for thinking through the benefits and dangers of different conceptions of the Other, including the role of the Other in the constitution of both self and community.
(c) Refiguring the Future: The Unconscious Imaginary
In psychoanalytic terms, the imaginary is the collection of (largely) unconscious fantasies and images that shapes both individual subjects and their worlds. In different ways, the work of both Donna Haraway and Luce Irigaray seeks to reveal the male privilege and domination contained within the current imaginary so that a space for a different sort of imaginary might be opened for the future. Although Irigaray is the better known for it, both she and Haraway appropriate the image of the speculum in this process, appealing to the gynecological mirror as an "instrument for rendering a part accessible to observation" (Haraway 1997, 197) and revealing how the feminine instrument is not itself reflected in its work of mirroring others (Irigaray 1985). While Haraway "excavate[s] something like a technoscientific unconscious" (1997, 151), Irigaray investigates the psychoanalytic "science that still cannot make up its mind" about "woman, science's unknown" (1985, 15, 13). Their work thus offers interesting resources for uncovering a patriarchal culture's blind spots and transforming its unconscious imaginary, as well as raises important questions about the role that science can or should play in feminist theorizing of the future.[6]
(d) Freedom and Slavery: Expanding the Canon
The expansion of the canon of "classical" American philosophy to include more than white men opens up new possibilities for feminist intersections of continental and pragmatist philosophy. Cynthia Willett's The Soul of Justice: Social Bonds and Racial Hubris (2001) is a good example of one such possibility. In her latest book, Willett critically intersects G.W.F. Hegel and Luce Irigaray (among others) with the "visionary pragmatism" (2001, 175) of African-American thinkers such as Toni Morrison and Patricia Hill Collins to present an account of freedom based in social bonds. Rejecting modernity's and psychoanalysis's account of separation as crucial to the formation of subjectivity, Willet draws on accounts of slavery to show how the destruction of erotic connections through the violence of separation results in social death. With this account, Willett suggests how an expanded understanding of American pragmatism that includes black women can combine with continental philosophy to produce a feminist and anti-racist libratory theory that appreciates the constitutive role that desire plays in social relationships.
(e) The Limits of Feminist Intersections of Pragmatist and Continental Philosophy
One of the effects of Nancy Fraser's work in social and political philosophy and critical theory has been to raise questions about the benefit to feminists of drawing upon certain strands of continental philosophy. For example, Fraser finds value in the theories of thinkers such as Foucault, Bourdieu, and Habermas (among others) because their notions of discourse include a rich array of historically embedded social practices (1997, 151-152). By contrast, Fraser claims that "feminists should have no truck with the versions of discourse theory that they attribute to [Jacques] Lacan [and] only the most minimal truck with related theories attributed to Julia Kristeva" (1997, 151). This is because Fraser views Lacan and Kristeva as reducing the variety of forms of human communication to language narrowly understood as a symbolic system. Given the variety of continental theories that feminists might engage, Fraser argues that what is needed is a "pragmatics model" (1997, 155). Also called "neo-pragmatism" by Fraser (in Benhabib, et. al. 1995, 167), such a model would allow feminists to separate the wheat from the chaff in continental philosophy and incorporate the best it has to offer into feminist theory (1997, 208). Fraser thus uses pragmatism as a method by which to discriminate between different continental theories, and in so doing, raises the broader question of the relative advantages and disadvantages for feminism of intersecting pragmatist and continental philosophy.
This list of possible topics in the area of feminist intersections of pragmatist and continental philosophy certainly is not comprehensive, nor are the possibilities contained within it fully fleshed out. That work awaits others interested in this new field. The forms that it will take remain to be seen and are eagerly awaited.
Beauvoir, Simone de. 1989. The Second Sex. Trans. H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books.
Benhabib, Seyla, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, and Nancy Fraser. 1995. Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge.
Bickford, Susan. 1993. "Why We Listen to Lunatics: Antifoundational Theories and Feminist Politics." Hypatia 8(2): 104-23.
Bordo, Susan R. 1987. The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
-----. 1993. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.
-----. 1993. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex." New York: Routledge.
Colapietro, Vincent. 2000. "Further Consequences of a Singular Capacity." In Peirce, Semiotics, and Psychoanalysis. Eds. John Muller and Joseph Brent. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins UP.
De Lauretis, Teresa. 1984. Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.
-----. 1994. The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse Desire. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.
-----. 2000. "Gender, Body, and Habit Change." In Peirce, Semiotics, and Psychoanalysis. Eds. John Muller and Joseph Brent. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins UP.
Dewey, John. 1988. The Quest for Certainty. Volume 4 of John Dewey: The Later Works: 1925-1953. Ed. Jo Ann Boydston. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
-----. 2000. "Experience and Philosophic Method." In Pragmatism and Classical American Philosophy. Ed. John Stuhr. New York: Oxford UP.
Fraser, Nancy. 1990a. "Solidarity or Singularity? Richard Rorty between Romanticism and Technocracy." In Reading Rorty. Ed. Alan Malachowski. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
-----. 1990b. "From Irony to Prophecy to Politics: A Response to Richard Rorty." Michigan Quarterly Review 30(2): 259-66.
-----. 1997. Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist" Condition. New York: Routledge.
Gatens-Robinson, Eugenie. 1991. "Dewey and the Feminist Successor Science Project." Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, 27(4): 411-34.
Grosz, Elizabeth. 1994. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.
-----. 2001. Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space. Forward by Peter Eisenman. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Haraway, Donna J. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.
-----. 1997. Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouseTM: Feminism and Technoscience. New York: Routledge.
Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
Kristeva, Julia. 1986a. "The System and the Speaking Subject." In The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. New York: Columbia UP.
-----. 1986b. "From Symbol to Sign." Trans. Se�n Hand. In The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. New York: Columbia UP.
-----. 1991. Strangers to Ourselves. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia UP.
Kruse, Felicia. 1991. "Luce Irigaray's Parler Femme and American Metaphysics." Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, 27(4): 451-464.
Leland, Dorothy. 1988. "Rorty on the Moral Concern of Philosophy: A Critique from a Feminist Point of View." Praxis International 8(3): 273-83.
Lovibond, Sabina. 1992. "Feminism and Pragmatism: A Reply to Richard Rorty." New Left Review 193: 56-74.
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN.
McKenna, Erin. 2001. The Task of Utopia: A Pragmatist and Feminist Perspective. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
McWhorter, Ladelle. 1999. Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Moen, Marcia. 1991. "Peirce's Pragmatism as a Resource for Feminism." Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, 27(4): 435-450.
Peirce, Charles Sanders. 2000a. "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities." In Pragmatism and Classical American Philosophy. Ed. John Stuhr. New York: Oxford UP.
-----. 2000b. "What Pragmatism Is." In Pragmatism and Classical American Philosophy. Ed. John Stuhr. New York: Oxford UP.
Rorty, Richard. 1979. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton UP.
-----. 1991. "Feminism and Pragmatism." Radical Philosophy 59: 3-14.
-----. 1993. "Feminism, Ideology, and Deconstruction: A Pragmatist View." Hypatia 8(2): 96-103.
Schultz, Bart. 1999. "Comment: The Private and Its Problems -- Pragmatism, Pragmatist Feminism, and Homophobia." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 29(2): 281-305.
Seigfried, Charlene Haddock. 1996. Pragmatism and Feminism: Reweaving the Social Fabric. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sullivan, Shannon. 2001a. "Guest Editor's Introduction." Special Issue on Pragmatism and Feminism. Journal of Speculative Philosophy 15(2): 69-73.
-----. 2001b. Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism, and Feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.
Weiss, Gail. 1999. Body Images: Embodiment as Intercorporeality. New York: Routledge.
Willett, Cynthia. 2001. The Soul of Justice: Social Bonds and Racial Hubris. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
Wilson, Catherine. 1992. "How Did the Dinosaurs Die Out? How Did the Poets Survive?" Radical Philosophy 62: 20-26.
Bergson, Henri | Darwinism | Descartes, René | Dewey, John | feminism, approaches to: continental philosophy | feminism, approaches to: intersection of analytic and continental philosophy | Foucault, Michel | Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich | James, William | Nietzsche, Friedrich | Peirce, Charles Sanders | process philosophy | Rorty, Richard | Whitehead, Alfred North
Shannon Sullivan
sws10@psu.edu


Beemster cheeses are made by a farmers coop in The Netherlands that has been making delicious tasting cheeses for over a century. Beemster Goat cheese, aged for 4 months, has a wonderfully clean, sweet taste and smooth texture. Decidedly different from fresh chèvre, this cheese is sure to please even those who are not goat cheese connoisseurs, making it the perfect introductory cheese for consumers new to the goat category.


text:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of multiple projects, in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh on December 27, 2021.
Modi presides over ground breaking ceremony of Himachal Pradesh Global Investors' Meet
NetIndian News Network
Mandi, December 27, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the second ground breaking ceremony of the Himachal Pradesh Global Investors' Meet today in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.
The meet is expected to give a boost to investment in the region through projects worth around Rs 28,000 crore.
He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of hydropower projects worth over Rs 11,000 crore. Some of the hydropower projects are the Renukaji Dam project, Luhri Stage 1 Hydro Power Project and Dhaulasidh Hydro Power Project. He also inaugurated the Sawra-Kuddu Hydro Power Project.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Union Ministeri Anurag Singh Thakur were among those present on the occasion.
In his address, Modi said "ease of living" of the people of the country was one of the foremost priorities of his government with electricity playing a big role. The hydro-power projects reflect India's commitment to eco-friendly development.
"When the Shree Renukaji Dam project on the Giri river is completed, a large area will be directly benefited. Whatever income is generated from this project, a large part of it will also be spent on development here," he said.
The Prime Minister talked about the speed with which India was meeting its environment related goals.
"In 2016, India had set a target to meet 40% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030. Every Indian will be proud that we achieved this goal in November this year itself.
"The whole world is praising India for how the country is accelerating development while saving the environment. From solar power to hydro power, from wind power to green hydrogen, the country is working continuously to make full use of every resource of renewable energy," he added.
On the elimination of single-use plastic, he said the government was aware of damage caused to the mountains by plastic. Along with the nationwide campaign against single-use plastic, the government was also working on plastic waste management.
"Tourists also have a huge responsibility in keeping Himachal clean, free of plastic and other waste. Plastic has spread everywhere, plastic going into rivers, we have to make efforts together to stop the damage it is causing to Himachal," he added.
The Prime Minister praised the growth of the pharmaceutical sector in Himachal Pradesh. "If India is called the pharmacy of the world today, then Himachal is the force behind it. Himachal has helped not only other states but also other countries during the Corona global pandemic.
"Himachal outshines the rest in providing the vaccine to its entire adult population. Those who are in the government here are not immersed in political selfishness, but have devoted their full attention to how every citizen of Himachal gets the vaccine," he added.
The Prime Minister reiterated the government's recent decision to change the marriage age of girls. "We have decided that the age of marriage of daughters should also be the same as the age at which sons are allowed to marry. The marriage age being raised to 21 years for daughters will give them full time to study and they will also be able to make their career,"
Referring to the recent announcements about new vaccination categories, he said the government was working with utmost sensitivity and caution, keeping in mind every need. Now the government has decided that even children between the ages of 15 and 18 will be vaccinated from January 3.
The health sector people, frontline workers, have remained the country's strength in the fight against COVID-19 for the last two years. The work of giving a precautionary dose to them will also start from January 10. Elders above 60 years who already have serious diseases have also been given the option of precaution dose on the advice of doctors, he added.
The Prime Minister mentioned that the government was committed to work with the mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Prayas. "Every country has different ideologies, but today the people of our country are clearly seeing two ideologies. One ideology is of delay and the other of development. Those with the ideology of delay never cared about the people living in the hills," he said.
Because of this, there was a delay of many years in the work of the Atal Tunnel. The Renuka project also got delayed by three decades. He stressed that the commitment of the Government was only for development. He said the work of the Atal Tunnel was completed and the road connecting Chandigarh to Manali and Shimla was also widened.
Noting that Himachal was home to a large number of defence personnel, he touched upon the steps taken by the government for the welfare of defence personnel and veterans.
"In every household in Himachal Pradesh, there are brave sons and daughters who protect the country. The work done by our government to increase the security of the country in the last seven years, the decisions taken for the soldiers, ex-servicemen, have also benefited people of Himachal immensely," he added.
Global Investors' Meet

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tips on giving up drinking: Since I have given up drinking I have noticed there have been a few people who have asked me "How did you do it?" Most people admire me, think I am completely crazy, or think I am now quite boring. Overall I mostly receive incredulous stares of disbelief.
I am not bothered by how I am perceived as I know I am making the right choice for me. I have spent so many nights out, had so many shots of this and bottles of that, had so many tortuous hangovers, that finally I have decided enough is enough. Giving up drinking for me has been the biggest catalyst for change in so many areas of my life. I hope that I can encourage and motivate you to consider taking a break from drinking or thinking differently about alcohol. Recently my perspective of drinking has completely changed. Our social and daily drinking culture I felt has become a form of collective narcolepsy, in which we want to avoid our own realities. Not face the real issues, hide them under the rug, get that head back under the doona, do you know that feeling? I guess because most people are unhappy with their day to day lives. And a lot of people use alcohol to forget their problems, or at least put them on hold for the time being. Trust me, I know all about this feeling! I lost all my family in 4 short years, had relationship breakdowns and had numerous meltdowns. Debilitating moments when I couldn't work, couldn't face the world, sometimes couldn't even do more than lie on the ground and cry. Yes it was that bad! Alcohol was a very good friend during this time. I would drink to get drunk, to forget, to escape my over thinking and never ending internal chatter, and to temporarily feel better about my very bleak situation. But now I am emerging as a different person, renewed, a metamorphosis into a healthier happier and smarter woman. And I really love these changes.
1. Become very good friends with soda water. I love it. And there are no calories. I add a slice of lemon or if you want something sweeter choose any cordial. My current favourites are blackcurrant and peach iced tea.
2. At the start, avoid going to places where you know people will be drinking. Your resolve may not be so strong in the early days. I actually tried to give up a few times, and lapsed back to daily drinking and bingeing. Removing yourself from temptation will help.
3. Go to bed early. If you are in bed by 9 or 10pm you will naturally wake up early, and feel quite refreshed. Your sleeping patterns will improve and become more regular, because guess what? They don't blow out every weekend til 4am due to that massive night out on the turps!
4. Remember books? I love reading. I can read 5 books at once and I still want more. Go to your local library, join up, it's free. Take out all sorts of random books, anything that interests you either non-fiction or fiction. Biographies can be very inspiring. Also choose some on giving up drinking, overcoming addiction and any other self help book you think might be useful. There is so much good stuff out there! And it will really help. And now you can read before bed because you're not smashed!
5. Get back into sport. Swim, run, walk, join a gym, join a club, go to a dance class, go cycling, do a yoga class. Find some physical sweaty activity that you like doing, or think you might like if it's been awhile since you broke a sweat. Try roller-skating; remember how fun that used to be? And guess what? You can go out at night and drive there because you're not tanked by 630pm anymore!
7. Think about who you spend your time with. This might be tricky and brutal, but if you are hanging out with friends who only want to go to the pub to socialise it might be time to mix it up and make some new healthier friends. People who go to pubs generally want to drink. I feel now that pubs are pretty oppressive and depressing. Most people there have addiction issues, alcohol being the obvious one.
8. My final tip; believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it! Believe you are worth making these changes and becoming a better person and that you really do have the power and self control to say no to drink. For me, once I had made the switch in my mind set, I was done. To be honest in the first month I really only felt like a drink 2 or 3 times, and mostly this was in a social setting like a bar or fancy restaurant. So in the early day's just remove yourself from all places you would associate with having a drink. That's my tip!
1. You will lose weight. Guaranteed. I have lost 5 kg in 6 weeks, so far! There is so much sugar in alcohol; I was knocking back sweet ciders and diet cokes and Malibu's like nobody's business! And piling on the weight. My excess fat is definitely starting to fall off.
2. You will have more money. In fact if you spend $200 a week on drinking, on average, some I know would be double that just on a weekend, that's $10'400 a year. Enough money to take an around the world trip! Or upgrade your car, or do whatever you want really!
3. You get smarter. Seriously. My brain was so mushy and fuzzy most days. I would forget words, people's names, and just felt like my brain was functioning really poorly. I feel so much better in brain health, my memory is better, my recall sharper, and look I am writing a blog now! That's pretty smart!
4. You will have more energy. Oodles and noodles of energy. I am naturally very energetic but I experienced a huge change when I eliminated alcohol. I wake in the morning and want to get outside for a run. How annoying am I?
5. You will be more motivated. Alcohol is a depressant and man was I depressed! It really does have a way of keeping you down and making you feel like a huge inactive, vegetating sloth. It is actually a known depressant and I find it accentuates whichever feelings you have. So if you're feeling a little flat, it will make you feel extremely flat as a tack; if you're up, it could take you manically up hyperactively high, which usually has poor consequences associated. Just think poor decision making, impulsivity. Need I say more?
6. You will eat better. When you are more energetic, you exercise more, and then you want to eat better because you exercised and you don't want to spoil all that hard work. And now you don't binge out on kebabs and pizzas and chips and other high fat foods after a massive night out slaughtering yourself. Because you are tucked up in bed sleeping soundly sober!
7. You will become a more interesting person. Suddenly you have more free time on your hands, and with all this energy and ability to drive because local area. I have trips planned overseas, interstate, camping, road trips, and day trips, hot air ballooning, boat trips. Now that all sounds pretty interesting right? You too can plan amazing activities and explore nature in your surroundings. The key is get back to nature, and enjoy parks, beach, forest, lakes, anything in nature really. It's all pretty awesome, and really makes you feel amazing.
I hope that my article has really helped you think about drinking and will help you if you are deciding to take a break from the bottle. Let me know how you go and what part of the journey you are on!
Remember it is always the darkest before the light of dawn.


text:
Pei Ying aims to fight smart against bigger and stronger opponents
Monday, 14 Aug 2017
by s. ramaguru
KUALA LUMPUR: For taekwondo exponent Lian Pei Ying, size doesn't matter.
The pint-sized kyorugi (combat) fighter in the finweight below 46kg category is expected to face much bigger and stronger opponents at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
But the 19-year-old is unfazed as she has a plan to overcome them.
"There is no way I can match them in size. They tower over me and able to throw me off rhythm by their sheer size.
"So, I have to come up with a different style of fighting. The trick is to fight smart to outwit them. I am also counting on surprises to win my matches," said the 1.52m tall Pei Ying after a training session at the NSC gymnasium yesterday.
Pei Ying has been targeted to reach the final.
To date, it has been a good year for the Form Six student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Petaling Jaya.
She won the National Championships in January and then emerged champion at the Asean Taekwondo Championships in March.
Pei Ying is confident of a good showing, especially after the two-month training stint in South Korea.
"The training was tough but we benefited greatly. Now, I feel more confident. It has also toughened me up mentally," she said.
For Pei Ying, she is not overawed despite competing in her first SEA Games.
"It's a good chance for me to improve and prove that I have the potential to be a champion at South-East Asian level. I'm not under any illusion of the task ahead of me. But I will give it my best shot just like everyone else in the team," said Pei Ying.
Taekwondo offers 11 golds – five in poomsae (pattern) and six in kyorugi. The competition will start on Aug 26 at the KLCC Exhibition Hall,
Tags / Keywords: SEA Games 2017 , taekwondo , SEA Games , Malaysia


text:
George W. Bush Administration Was Trying to Cause End of the World With 'Apocalyptic' Christians, Claims MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow
CP U.S. | Monday, November 11, 2013
By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter | Monday, November 11, 2013
Rachel Maddow. | (Photo: Screen Grab via MSNBC)
MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow concluded on a segment of her show last Friday that the administration of former President George W. Bush was trying to bring about the end of the world.
Maddow's conclusion comes from criticism of a recent announcement in a report in Mother Jones last week highlighting that the former president is expected to be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute.
The report describes the organization as: "a group that trains people in the United States, Israel, and around the world to convince Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The organization's goal: to 'restore' Israel and the Jews and bring about the second coming of Christ."
Citing a 2004 Village Voice article by Rick Perlstein, Maddow pointed out that the Jews for Jesus group was one of two Christian groups that consulted with the Bush administration's Near East and North African Affairs director Elliott Abrams about foreign policy in the Middle East using the Bible as a guide to discuss matters concerning Israel.
It reads in part:
Claiming to be "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza might enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and Solomon's temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth.
Abrams attempted to assuage their concerns by stating that "the Gaza Strip had no significant biblical influence such as Joseph's tomb or Rachel's tomb and therefore is a piece of land that can be sacrificed for the cause of peace."
Three weeks after the confab, President George W. Bush reversed long-standing U.S. policy, endorsing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank in exchange for Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
"It was more than just news, it was actually kind of scary that the George W. Bush administration, when we learned how policy toward that part of the world was being made inside the Bush White House," said Maddow.
"These groups wanted the Bush administration to make sure that the borders of Israel lined up exactly with what they thought the Bible said it needed to be in order to bring about the apocalypse," she explained.
In light of the history of the group with the Bush administration, Maddow said it was not surprising that he would be speaking at the group's fundraising event.
"It's an amazing thing," Maddow said. "I mean, everybody's religious beliefs are their own, and by definition in this country, nobody's religious beliefs are better than anyone else's."
On those grounds of personal freedom, Maddow argued that it is perfectly OK for anyone to subscribe to the Jews for Jesus theology. It becomes problematic, she said, when those views are imposed in national foreign policy.
"It does, however, become a news story and conceivably a matter of some debate when your belief that that's what you're supposed to do is driving U.S. foreign policy toward that theological aim," said Maddow.
"And when the people who make foreign policy in this country are consulting with you about what the United States ought to do abroad, then yes, yes, yes, that is news," she explained.
She noted that she couldn't wait for the national archives to take control of the Bush Presidential Library.
"We'll finally get an actual exhibit or a diorama or something about that part of the Bush foreign policy, where it wasn't just an accident that we were almost bringing about the end of the world, it was the point!" she said.
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
'No Telephone Makes Call in US Without Leaving Record With NSA,' Says Edward Snowden; Supporters Rally Against NSA Saturday
NSA Denies Obama Knew of Spying on Merkel; Report Says Her Phone was Bugged for 10 Years
'Jewish People Need to Accept Jesus,' Urges Chosen People Ministries President
Dutch Christian Group Spends $30,000 on 36-Foot-Tall Star of David, Menorah; Predicts Return of Jesus
Messianic Jewish Group Stirs Controversy Announcing George W. Bush as Speaker at Annual Banquet, Then Removes President from Event Page
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What is causing this ? How do I correct this. Can anyone help since he is on vacation ?
-----------(0) Is there something I missed or is this something that he will have to fix?
Read the post where this TSRE version is one more time.
Paste this .exe file into an existing TSRE installation and rename the "0.695" directory to "0.696" in the tsre_appdata directory.
Further investigation The appdata changed itself to .0696 Do I have the wrong version of previous release? While your instructions were clear they are not clear as to what current TSRE build to use prior to the current experimental release. As you can see 0.696 is in the tsre_appdata... I did follow and re read about 4 times BEFORE posting(If I can figure it out before asking I will not ask) but still Im not getting anywhere. So therefore I posted. Please advise. Marek- I appreciate your posting but when I read it about 4 times before I dont need it posted again!
Last edited by cnwfan; 10-24-2018 at 09:51 AM.
If you start up the new level before renaming the 0695 directory TSRE creates a 0696 directory but it's empty. This is because the new version can't download the contents (yet) as Goku said. If you want to keep a 0695 directory as well then just copy its contents to the 0696 one and then start up TSRE 06963.
Thank you, I wish a better detailed explanation of what version to download if one didn't have (link) and a better description of how to install because how I read it it really didn't make sense to me other then changing a folder name.
type of instructions for those of who need it.
Shot my self in the foot one way to many folders! All is good.


text:
British Equestrian Federation investing in youth and the future
Last week, Sophie Wells, Janet Horswill, Jo Swain, Hannah Biggs and Charlie Hutton joined coaches from British Eventing and British Showjumping for the first workshop of the inaugural British Equestrian Federation (BEF) Youth Pathway Coaching Programme.
Developed in collaboration with the equestrian Olympic and Paralympic disciplines and funded by Sport England, the Youth Pathway Coaching Programme is a new programme for the BEF and has been designed to give coaches currently working within the youth pathways more insight into the holistic approaches to athlete development, that nurtures potential from a young age, and promotes their health and well-being.
The group of 14 met up for their first workshop at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire where they were introduced to their coach mentors and learnt more about what they will be covering over the course of the 18 month programme.
David Hamer, BEF's Head of Performance Pathways said: "This programme is specifically focusing on a young athlete's development. We are very good at developing technical skills throughout the pathway so we have designed this programme to also equip coaches with the skills and knowledge to develop a young person's self-efficacy and self-determination. The programme will also provide them with more depth of understanding about how the key stages in cognitive and physical development effect young people so they can recognise how to adapt training environments to suit them."
David Hamer introduced the programme by giving a presentation on the challenges of coaching 'Generation Z' and how the young person of today has a hyper connected view of the world. This was followed by Fred Bergendorff delivering a key note presentation on his coaching journey and how it has shaped his philosophy as a coach.
"This is fantastic opportunity to learn how we can better support young people," said Fred. "For an athlete it might not necessarily be about finishing first, second or third at a competition – it may be more about learning how to stay in the sport for a long time."
Coaching and Coach Development consultant and coach mentor Nicky Fuller spoke to the group about building their personal brand and identifying their coaching values; alongside her fellow mentors, Jane Booth who developed the coaching structures at the Professionals Golfers' Association, and Colin Wilson, who is experienced in coach mentoring across an number of sports.
British Eventing Pony Team coach, Jonquil Hemmings was one of the coaches who were inducted on the programme.
Jonquil commented: "I've been doing the Pony [Team coach] job for 20 years and the people that I now work with within the system have changed hugely."
"I think expectations of parents and athletes have changed and so I feel it is important that we, and me particularly, keep up with the thoughts and processes of current research so you keep developing yourself to be a better coach."
More information on the programme and which athletes have been inducted can be found here.
Article Source: British Dressage News
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Scientists have uncovered the structure of the protein complex that assembles the tiny hair-like strands that cover the outside of bacteria. Called pili, these 'hairs' allow bacteria to group together and stick to human cells to cause infection -- and are therefore a key target for a new generation of antibiotics.
Published in Nature, scientists at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (a joint institute between University College London (UCL) and Birkbeck) have revealed the structure of a complex protein called FimD that acts as an assembly platform for the pili of cystitis bacteria. The structure of the FimD protein means scientists can see the process of pili assembly, from individual protein subunits to complete structures, for the first time.
Pili are tiny hair-like strands on the outside of bacteria that help them to link together in groups. In the case of cystitis, pili allow bacteria to attach themselves to the wall of the bladder, leading to bladder cells engulfing the bacterium. Once the bacteria have invaded the bladder cells, they escape traditional antibiotic treatment and lie dormant, making recurrent infections very common.
Scientists believe that antibiotics could be developed that disrupt the FimD protein, and therefore the production line of pili proteins. The UCL/Birkbeck group, together with collaborators in the U.S., have already discovered small molecules able to interfere with pilus biogenesis. Without their pili, bacteria cannot attach to each other or the host, making infection much less likely.
Professor Gabriel Waksman from the UCL Research Department of Structural and Molecular Biology and the Birkbeck Department of Biological Sciences, who led the research, says, "Cystitis is one of the most common gram negative bacterial infections; it can also be extremely painful and surprisingly hard to treat especially repeat infections. Pili are a prime target for a new breed of antibiotics to target cystitis and other conditions, as without pili bacteria are unable to attach themselves to each other or the walls of human cells, and therefore much less likely to cause serious infections."
The usher protein coordinates the ordered assembly of pilus subunits, i.e. the growth of the pili. This research, funded by the Medical Research Council, has isolated and crystallised the usher protein in cystitis bacteria, FimD, while it's bound to the chaperone/subunit combination.
The structure of FimD provides insights into pilus biogenesis because it unravels the entire mechanism of subunit polymerization and transport across the outer wall of the bacteria. "Scientists have been working for a number of years to work out the how pili are assembled. This is the first view of the transportation and assembly of pili in action," says Waksman.


This Safari begins after a pick up from the airport or hotel by our representatives. Further, we will proceed to Aberdares located in Central Kenya adjacent to the famous Mt. Kenya national park. On this day we will arrive in time for lunch at the Aberdares country club.
In the afternoon we will proceed to the lodge where the night is spent. Similarly, this place is where a procession of wild animals visit the floodlight waterhole and salt licks, Elephants, Rhino, buffalo, giant forest hog and many other species are commonly seen. Moreover, our thrilling wildlife view will happen here, have dinner and overnight at the Arch or Treetop Lodge in Aberdare National Park.
On the second day, after breakfast, we will head north to Samburu National Park, where we will arrive there in time for Lunch. Thereafter lunch, we will have full afternoon game drive in this rugged, famous, and hot park.
Finally, after the exciting game drive, we will enjoy dinner and overnight at a Lodge or a Camp in or around Samburu National Park.
On this spectacular safari day, we will begin with an early game drive in search of early morning wildlife. After morning game drive we will proceed for breakfast and continue to explore Samburu Safari via a game drive. In the afternoon we will have lunch and rest at lodge or visit to Samburu village between meals.
Later proceed for an evening game drive. Here you may be lucky to see the rare species of the Grevy's Zebra and Somali Ostrich among the big five in the evening game. After this busy day, we will have dinner and overnight at a Lodge or a Camp in or around Samburu National Park.
After breakfast, we will enjoy the last game drive to capture the best for the last and proceed to Lake Nakuru national park. However, on the way, we will have a stopover at the Thompson's falls the biggest fall in Kenya. We will arrive at Nakuru National park in time for lunch.
After lunch, we will proceed for an afternoon game drive in the best of Nakuru national park. Nakuru national park is a world renowned for its masses of flamingos and is often referred to as the "pink lake".
After early breakfast, we will enjoy morning game drive as you proceed to Lake Bogoria National Reserve. We will arrive in time for a ready lunch. After lunch, we will proceed for an afternoon game viewing. The park is famous for flamingos that carpet the lake, as well as hot springs/geysers.
Bogoria National reserve also has plenty of wildlife including the rare greater Kudu – most likely the only place you will see them. We will further have a rare chance to tour surprising natural occurrences on springs. Later we will head for dinner and overnight at a Lodge or a Camp in or around Bogoria national reserve.
After breakfast, we will proceed for a morning game view then check out for Nairobi. After arrival in Nairobi and time allows, you will have a chance to enjoy an optional visit to the carnivore restaurant.
Carnivore, you will experience succulent African meals tour Karen Blixen or city tour. Later you will be dropped off at the airport or your preferred destination.
Can I have this package for my two kids? I love it but need the confirmation.
Hello friend, the package is favorable to children and comfortable for you and your two kids.
We will be glad to have you on our tour team and so let's proceed to confirm the package. Thank you again.
Price can be lower based on the number of people in the package and services required.


text:
Q: maven super pom's profile properties inheritance at child poms at my project there is 2 profiles and each profile has one property.
But I could not use master's properties at child's resources.
Here is described clearly but it seems that there is only one pom file and the sample shown at there is not an multi-module maven project.
All I want to do is use this properties at spring level like changing the location of properties file.
 <profile>
        <id>p1</id>
        <properties>
            <properties.location>file:/apps-core1.properties</properties.location>
        </properties>
    </profile>
 <profile>

 <profile>
        <id>p2</id>
        <properties>
            <properties.location>file:/apps-core2.properties</properties.location>
        </properties>
    </profile>
 <profile>

and I want to use "properties.location" at every pom file I had, either main-resources or test-resources.
here is the spring usage
<context:property-placeholder location="\${properties.location}" />

A: i got it working with a multi-module project with:

*

*parent pom with <modules /> config and your profiles

*module pom with following config
<build>
   <resources>
      <resource>
         <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
         <filtering>true</filtering>
         <includes>
            <include>**/*.xml</include>
         </includes>
      </resource>
   </resources>
</build>

see maven resources and filtering

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


You want a good letter of recommendation, but you're not sure who to ask. We have some people who may have some experience with that.
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Property providing a means to filter Pods based on available capabitilies. See [[SoftLayer_Network_Pod/getAllObjects]] to filter for Pods with specific capabilities. See [[SoftLayer_Network_Pod/getCapabilities]] to retrieve capabilities of a specific Pod.
The unique name of the Pod. See [[SoftLayer_Network_Pod (type)]] for details of the name's construction.


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I got this head a few weeks ago and it was pretty quiet, especially on the clean channel. Now it it has become quite noisy of late on clean and more on dirty (expected since higher gain). I changed out the preamp tubes, but that didn't help. Would the power tubes be the culprit? I don't have 4 matching el84's to replace them at the moment. Just wanted to check before I order if they are possibly the cause. It's loud static with some popping/cracking.
I'm assuming your going straight into the amp and have tried a couple of different leads and guitars and still the same issue?
I only say this as recently my new Rocker 15 was intermitendly fading out then back in in volume ... I thought if was a tube issue but then identified it was actually caused by the power supply to one of the pedals!
If it effects both channels it's quite likely to be the power tubes, if it is a tube problem.... Which it most likely is, so certainly the thing to check first.
You don't say how old or how much use the tubes have had... I'm guessing you bought it used.
You don't need 4 el84s to diagnose the issue you only need one, replacing one at a time then at least you will know it is a tube. Using the amp briefly with a none matched tube is not going to do it anyharm. If it's not a tube then you may not need to buy any......although the issue may be more expensive to fix.
Be sure to check the 12at-7 for the effects loop as well.
And whilst you can check that it is a power valve with just one spare EL84 as Ronnie suggested, if that is the issue, you will need to replace the whole set with a new matched quad.
Thanks for the suggestions! I swapped around preamp tubes and power tubes and the amp simply lost volume on both channels and I couldn't get it fixed with any of my tubes. Off to the amp tech it went today!


text:
New Pinhead Actor Revealed For Hellraiser: Judgement
Pinhead is back again to torment fresh souls on earth in a new film, but the iconic horror villain won't be performed by Doug Bradley, who played the Lead Cenobite in the Hellraiser film series for quite some time now. We have a fresh new face in town, so keep on reading.
Dimension Films previously re-launched the horror series with a different actor for Pinhead in Hellraiser: Revelations, which turned out to be a complete flop with the fans. Apparently, the studio at the time just wanted to hold unto to the franchise, so they produced pure crap with terrible makeup effects. However, also scarred it for good without Bradley, in my opinion. Will it be the same case with Hellraiser: Judgment? Let's hope not because we all still want to see the franchise do extremely well in the horror scene. And it sounds like it has potential since director Gary Tunnicliffe is attached to the Cenobite project and has a new unique vision for Hellraiser: Judgement that will feature A Nightmare On Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp in a role.
In addition, Hellraiser: Judgement will also feature a bunch of crazy new Cenobites, including a fresh face to take on the role of Pinhead. That's right! Pinhead will be played by Paul T. Taylor, an actor with experience both on the stage and in front of the camera. According to Tunnicliffe, Taylor will bring "more than a hint of Peter Cushing and Ralph Fiennes" to the role of Pinhead.
At the moment, the horror film is deep into production, which will include Feast director John Gulager as "The Assessor" and Mike J. Regan as Chatterer, as well as Damon Carney, Randy Wayne, Alexandra Harris, Diane Goldner, Andi Powers, Jeff Fenter, Helena Grace Donald, and Grace Montie.
Stay tuned to Yell! Magazine for much more Hellraiser updates to come.
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« Alexx Densley & Sam Bishop Can "LURE" This Otter ANYWHERE!
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The fabric line (in the Dresden Plate) is "Holiday Flourish 6" by Peggy Toole for Robert Kauffman Fabrics. I had some leftover scraps from another Christmas project. I bought the yardage in Lancaster 4 years ago.
Peggy Toole has a red and silver line out now that is just beyond gorgeous! You can find her fabric on Etsy.
When I find a fabric that I find appealing, I research the designer. I get a lot of information from Instagram. I follow several fabric designers. For instance, I found a "quilt along" from the Fat Quarter shop and the fabric line that they used is just delish! It's called "Strawberry Fields Revisited" by Fig Tree & Co by Moda.
This is a picture of my finished Crossroads Quilt Along. I hope to have someone from the guild quilt it for me.
I started looking at the other lines by Fig Tree designer Joanna Figueroa and they all coordinate beautifully! She has a new line out called Farm House and it has black backgrounds and is so, so gorgeous.
I'm currently working on a "churn dash & stars" quilt using several of her lines. I do things kind of unconventional. I find fabric first, and then try and find a pattern. Sherry Burkins says she's just the opposite. Ha!
Thank you, Alice, for sharing your beautiful work and thought process behind your designer fabric selections! You certainly inspire us.


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