https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/33623 2026-04-14T20:09:25Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/20885 Title: Hegel's subject, Lacan's mirror Abstract: The relation of Jacques Lacan to Sigmund Freud is in many ways similar to that of G.W.F. Hegel to Immanuel Kant. Both saw themselves as being devout followers of their theoretical masters, duty-bound to retrieve the spirit of their teachings in the face of interpretative errors and, perhaps most controversially, the failure of the masters themselves to grasp the radically original nature of what they proposed. In Lacan’s view, the problem with the then-prevalent reductionist reading of Freud, which was often used to critique his theories, is exemplified in what Lacan identifies as a mistranslation in the James Strachey translation of Freud’s works: the translation of both the German instinkt and the German trieb to ‘instinct’. Such a mistranslation eliminates the distinction between the merely animal instinct and the solely human drive (Evans 1996, s.v. drive), whilst Lacan’s unorthodox reading of Freud is founded on the emphasis that he places on this distinction. Whilst Hegel sought to save Kant from the thing-in-itself which rendered its knowledge purely subjective (Hegel 2015, secs. 40-60; Lumsden 2014, p. 86), Lacan seeks to save Freud from “explaining the human in terms of the non-human … the danger [being] that the peculiarly human will somehow be lost in the reducing glass,” 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/20884 Title: Review: Straw Dogs by John Gray : nihilism, scepticism, and determinism, oh my! Abstract: Review of the book by John Grey, published in 2002 titled Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. This book is mostly centered around the idea of anthropocentrism; the idea that even though humans are animals, yet they have a meaningful history where they have progressed from ignorance to enlightenment. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/20876 Title: Zen Buddhism, Wabi-Sabi and the Japanese tea ceremony Authors: Zammit, Gabriel Abstract: In this paper, we shall be considering the branch of Japanese aesthetics that is termed Wabi-Sabi, as well as various examples of its embodiment, one of which is the ceremony of tea. Both Wabi and Sabi, amongst others, are distinct aesthetic principles in themselves, and before examining their coming together we shall discuss them individually. This treatment, cursory as it might be, would nonetheless be incomplete without a short exposition of the guiding principles that underpin Wabi-Sabi and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities in general, namely those of Zen Buddhism. We shall conclude by examining the position that Wabi-Sabi occupies in the lives of the contemporary Japanese. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/20875 Title: 'I cannot imagine myself not [being] a writer ...' : an interview with Kenneth Wain Abstract: Kenneth Wain is a full professor at the University of Malta. He has served as Head of Department and Dean of the Faculty of Education, sitting on the University Senate and MATSEC Board. He currently teaches political and moral philosophy, beside philosophy of education, at the University of Malta. He is the author of several books chapters in books, academic articles in international peer-reviewed journals, poem~ and short stones. Some of his publications include Philosophy of Lifelong Education (1987), Theories of Teaching (1992), Value Crisis (1995), The Learning Society in a Postmodern World (2004), On Rousseau (2011), Democracy without Confession (2013, with John Baldacchino), Does it matter who speaks? (2014) and, most recently, Between Truth and Freedom (2015). 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z