https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/8371 Wed, 27 May 2026 02:43:28 GMT 2026-05-27T02:43:28Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146467 Title: Bodies in motion Abstract: What might it mean to be a body, or to feel at home in one’s own body? One might begin by drawing a border or limit between oneself and another, or by tracing a perimeter that would, at once, demarcate the manner in which a given body would take up space. Might not the act of drawing a border permit the possibility of its own undoing? Through movement, a body undoes itself as soon as it is asked to be held in place. [excerpt] Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146467 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146261 Title: Passionate encounters : Alphonso Lingis on community, alterity, and politics Authors: Young, Niki Abstract: This article explores the underexamined political dimensions of Alphonso Lingis’ philosophy, with a focus on his understanding of community, alterity, and passion as a possibility for political action. I show how Lingis’ work departs from liberal individualism in order to emphasize “community” as a condition for political engagement rooted in the ethical imperative evoked by the singularity and suffering of others. I then present a speculative account of Lingisian politics which builds on the possible reasons for his admiration of revolutionary figures such as Gandhi and Ché Guevara as exemplars of a passionate, compassionate, and dynamic political praxis. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146261 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145536 Title: Pathologies of passion Authors: Young, Niki Abstract: In this paper, I aim to clarify and expand Alphonso Lingis’ understanding of impassioned states by showing how society pathologises passion through the language of emotions, there by obscuring the excesses that are constitutive of life. I proceed by first analysing how modernity reconfigures disruptive passions into manageable emotional states that sustain regularity, utility, and calculative models of the self. Second, I elaborate six interrelated properties of passion while systematically contrasting the latter with culturally coded emotions. Finally, I briefly examine how literature, theatre, cinema, and media narratives disclose the contingent, irrational forces that shape individual lives. I conclude that pathologising passion is not a neutral diagnostic gesture but a deeply philosophical operation that props up a shallow, needs-based conception of agency, and I argue instead for a philosophical practice that attends to impassioned ruptures and shared festive intensities as indispensable revelations of the real forces that contour both individual and collective existence. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145536 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144530 Title: On the derivation of an ought from an Is : the stakes of Alphonso Lingis’ moral realism Authors: Young, Niki Abstract: On the Derivation of an Ought from an Is: The Stakes of Alphonso Lingis’ Moral Realism – In this paper, I construct a systematic approach to Alphonso Lingis’ take on the «is/ought problem», namely the question of whether it is possible to derive normativity from being or moral imperatives from facts. I show that his solution to the problem involves the three-pronged system. First, Lingis is shown to be a champion of realism in his recognition that beings themselves throw their weight around by issuing directives for action. Second, I show how sensibility’s subservience to the demands of the imperative is not enough, since one must also be able to appropriate and channel its force via what Lingis terms passionate states. Finally, I explore how the investment in an object of passion brings the intrinsic importance of the thing to the fore in order to guide the subject toward the investment of excess energies. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144530 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z