Category Archives: Suffering

Conference Presentation: Art Speaks the Unspeakable: Suffering of the World in Aesthetic Expression or L’art dit l’indicible: souffrance du monde dans l’expression esthétique

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I presented at the International Network of Philosophy of Religion conference which took place in Perugia, Italy on June 11, 2024. It was a wonderful conference connecting with old friends and meeting new ones. The location was beautiful overlooking several small cities including Assisi (where St. Francis was from).

Here is a picture from the back of the hotel.

The conference is both in French and English so I wrote my abstract in both. And like last time, I read my paper in English but read the longer quotations in the original French.

Title: Art Speaks the Unspeakable: Suffering of the World in Aesthetic Expression

Abstract. Responding to the discussion on solitude and tragedy (the “extra-phenomenal”), at our last conference, and reflecting on the crisis of our created world, for this conference, this paper looks to the power of art to speak into the silent spaces of deep suffering. Because there are events where no human language — not even the language of phenomenology — can offer us a satisfying response, art has an ethical obligation to speak to us in the midst of personal and global suffering. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s idea that art emerges out of silence, I will first offer further proof for why it is that art must speak of suffering. Next, I will describe how art fulfills this obligation due to its facility with the vocabulary surrounding suffering, for example, death and brokenness, as seen in illustrations from the art of the French existentialists, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Lastly, I will present what art says to us in suffering to demonstrate its indispensability; for the uncompromising message of aesthetic expression reveals to us the fullness of reality, the hard and the good, unlike anything else.

L’art dit l’indicible: souffrance du monde dans l’expression esthétique

Le résumé. Répondant à l’échange sur la solitude et la tragédie (le “Hors-phénomène”), lors de notre dernière conférence, et réfléchissant sur la crise de notre monde créé, pour cette conférence, cet article se penche sur le pouvoir de l’art de parler dans les espaces silencieux de la souffrance profonde. Parce qu’il y a des événements où le langage humaine — même le langage de la phénoménologie — ne peut pas nous offrir une réponse satisfaisante, l’art a une obligation éthique de nous dire quelque chose au milieu de la souffrance personnelle et globale. Faisant appel à l’idée de Maurice Merleau-Ponty selon laquelle l’art émerge du silence, j’offrirai tout d’abord une preuve en plus du fait que l’art doit parler de la souffrance. Ensuite, je décrirai comment l’art remplit cette obligation par sa richesse de vocabulaire du domaine de souffrance, par exemple, la mort et le monde cassé, comme le montrent les illustrations des arts des existentialistes français, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre et Albert Camus. Et enfin, je présenterai ce que l’art nous dit dans la souffrance pour démonter sa nécessité ; car le message intransigeant de l’expression esthétique nous révèle la plénitude de la réalité, du dur et du bien, contrairement à toute autre chose.

Seminar Presentation: Revelation in Suffering: The Merits of a Phenomenological Approach

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I was accepted to participate in a Seminar and Conference this summer on Phenomenology and Revelation. It was an amazing 10 days at a retreat center in Long Island, New York with excellent presentations and deep conversations.

Here is a picture of the sunset at the retreat center overlooking the bay.

Abstract: No matter what angle we try, whether it is philosophical, theological or even practical, it is very difficult to make sense of suffering. Easy answers may suffice at first, but once we walk through a tragedy of our own or are exposed to some real suffering in the wider world, we are no longer satisfied and are compelled to search for something better. Although many perspectives can aid us in this, phenomenology offers a response to suffering that actually takes into account the magnitude and depth of the experience. This is because a phenomenological approach demonstrates concretely — not abstractly — how revelation is experienced in the midst of suffering in ways other approaches cannot do. More often, we focus on how revelation is something given prior to suffering in order to aid us in enduring it such as the promise of the land that the Israelites were given before they had to wander in the desert for forty years. Or we may think of revelation as a reward given after suffering such as the blessings that Odysseus receives after his long faithful journey through many hardships to return to his family. While these are important contributions to understanding revelation and suffering, phenomenology takes a radical stance by designating suffering as a mode of revelation itself. To illustrate this, I will first offer a phenomenological sketch of suffering, next describe what kind of revelation is available in suffering and conclude by arguing for the merits of drawing on phenomenology to establish the unique role that revelation plays in suffering.

Conference Presentation: Reimagining the Relationship between Suffering and Disability with Merleau-Ponty and Kierkegaard

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I had the opportunity to present at the International Merleau-Ponty Circle in Washington D.C. on November 11, 2022. I was so excited that the theme of the conference was disability. The conference was titled: FITS AND MISFITS: RETHINKING DISABILITY, DEBILITY, AND THE WORLD WITH MERLEAU-PONTY.

Here is an abstract of my paper:

Equating the experience of suffering with the experience of disability runs contrary not only to a general understanding of human life, but also to a thoughtful approach to disability. To assume that disability is the same as suffering is certainly to misunderstand disability, as many others have shown. But, as I will argue, to assume that disability is the same as suffering is also to misunderstand suffering. Could it be that our incorrect view of suffering impacts the way that we see disability? I propose that, in order to understand the role that suffering may play in disability, we need to rethink what we mean by suffering and what kind of suffering could be present in disability.

To do so, I will briefly present some of the difficulties — philosophical, social, and practical — that are found in even discussing a relationship between suffering and disability. Second, drawing on Merleau-Ponty and Kierkegaard, I will argue for an expanded view of suffering where the good of suffering is not found in a future result, but in its placement in the present world and in its manifestation of joy in the present moment. Third, I will apply this expanded notion of suffering to disability in order to suggest what a reimagined relationship might look like between disability and suffering. While this new relationship is not meant to be universal nor comprehensive for all areas of disability, it does provide a helpful vocabulary that adds to a rich phenomenological account of disability.