This book argues the case for a foundationalist ethics centrally based on an empirical understanding of human nature. For Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, “an ethics formulated on the foundations of anything other than human nature, hence on anything other than an identification of pan-cultural human realities, lacks solid empirical moorings. It easily loses itself in isolated hypotheticals, reductionist scenarios, or theoretical abstractions—in the prisoner’s dilemma, selfish genes, dedicated brain modules, evolutionary altruism, or psychological egoism, for example—or it easily becomes itself an ethical system over and above the ethics it formulates,” such as the deontological ethics of Kantian categorical imperatives, the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, or the ethics of care. Taking her cue from Hume, especially his Treatise on Human Nature, where he grounds “the moral sense” in human nature seen as always in tension between the natural tendencies of selfish acquisitiveness and sympathy for others, Sheets-Johnstone pursues her phenomenological investigation of the natural basis of human morality by directing her attention, first in Part I, to what is traditionally considered the dark side of human nature, and then, in Part II, to the positive side. The tension between the two calls for an interdisciplinary therapeutic resolution, which she offers in the Epilogue by arguing for the value of a moral education that enlightens humans about their own human nature, highlighting both the socialization of fear and the importance of play and creativity.

The Roots of Morality

Politics & Social Sciences

Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine

Philosophy

Penn State University Press

The Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies

Open Court Pub. Co

This interdisciplinary work demonstrates, by steadfast attention to corporeal matters of fact, how the concept of power and of power relations is rooted in bodily life, in animate form. It first shows how Foucault's "optics of power" is Sartre's "The Look" writ large, and proceeds to explain how optics of power are undergirded by a "power of optics" which has its roots in our primate evolutionary heritage. The exploration of an evolutionary genealogy leads in turn into extended examinations and exemplifications of corporeal and intercorporeal archetypes. Moving easily through biological, anthropological and psychological domains, and informed by keen philosophical reflection, "The Roots of Power" aims to show how the personal and political are fundamentally joined in the body, that is, how the political defines us both as creatures of a natural history and as culturally - and individually - groomed bearers of meaning. Sheets-Johnstone assesses the complex of topics that progressively surfaces such as females' being receptive "year-round", male threat/female vulnerability, Sartre's characterisation of females' being "in the form of a hole", and proposed relationships between aggression and sex.

Open Court

The Roots Of Thinking

In this ground-breaking interdisciplinary study about conceptual origins, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone shows that there is an indissoluble bond between hominid thinking and hominid evolution, a bond cemented by the living body. Her thesis is concretely illustrated in eight paleoanthropological case studies ranging from tool-using/tool-making to counting, sexuality, representation, language, death, and cave art. In each case, evidence is brought forward that shows how thinking is modeled on the body-specifically, how concepts are generated by animate form and the tactile-kinesthetic experience. Later chapters critically examine key theoretical and methodological issues posed by the thesis, Sheets-Johnstone demonstrates in detail how and why a corporeal turn in philosophy and the human sciences can yield insights no less extraordinary than those produced by the linguistic turn. In confronting the currently popular doctrine of cultural relativism and the classic Western metaphysical dualism of mind and body, she shows how pan-cultural invariants of human bodily life have been discounted and how the body itself has not been given its due. By a precise exposition of how a full-scale hermeneutics and a genetic phenomenology may be carried out with respect to conceptual origins, she shows how methodological issues are successfully resolved.

The Roots of Thinking

Temple Univ Pr

In this ground-breaking interdisciplinary study about conceptual origins, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone shows that there is an indissoluble bond between hominid thinking and hominid evolution, a bond cemented by the living body. Her thesis is concretely illustrated in eight paleoanthropological case studies ranging from tool-using/tool-making to counting, sexuality, representation, language, death, and cave art. In each case, evidence is brought forward that shows how thinking is modeled on the body-specifically, how concepts are generated by animate form and the tactile-kinesthetic experience. 
Later chapters critically examine key theoretical and methodological issues posed by the thesis, Sheets-Johnstone demonstrates in detail how and why a corporeal turn in philosophy and the human sciences can yield insights no less extraordinary than those produced by the linguistic turn. In confronting the currently popular doctrine of cultural relativism and the classic Western metaphysical dualism of mind and body, she shows how pan-cultural invariants of human bodily life have been discounted and how the body itself has not been given its due. By a precise exposition of how a full-scale hermeneutics and a genetic phenomenology may be carried out with respect to conceptual origins, she shows how methodological issues are successfully resolved.

Temple University Press

The phenomenology of dance [paperback] Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine [Jan 01, 1979]… 0903102528

The phenomenology of dance

Dance Books

The Phenomenology of Dance

When The Phenomenology of Dance was first published in 1966, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone asked: “When we look at a dance, what do we see?” Her questions, about the nature of our experience of dance and the nature of dance as a formed and performed art, are still provocative and acutely significant today. Sheets-Johnstone considers dance as an aesthetic mode of expression, and integrates theories of dance into philosophical discussions of the nature of movement. Back in print after nearly 20 years, The Phenomenology of Dance provides an informed approach to teaching dance and to dance education, appreciation, criticism, and choreography. In addition to the foreword by Merce Cunningham from the original edition, and the preface from the second edition, this fiftieth anniversary edition includes an in-depth introduction that critically and constructively addresses present-day scholarship on movement and dance.

Putting Movement into Your Life: A Beyond Fitness Primer is both playful and serious, bridging both popular and scholarly texts. It is engagingly written with two reflective stopping posts-- Ponderabilia--per chapter that offer slow food for thought on a diversity of topics related to the immediate topic in the text. The book is definitely NOT an exercise book or a self-help book, but a book about movement that breaks new ground in lively and creative ways while remaining anchored in everyday life. In so doing, it answers to the growing attempt by numerous individuals, organizations, and businesses to promote health by promoting movement.

Putting Movement into Your Life: a beyond fitness primer

Religion & Spirituality

New Age & Spirituality

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Drawing on natural history and phenomenological accounts of kinetic phenomena, particularly the phenomenon of self-movement, this text addresses the topic of animate form and the significance of animation. It also addresses methodological and foundational issues at length. The text draws on previous examinations and analyses of movement, including: Aristotle's recognition of motion; the common notion of movement as a change of position; present-day materialists' trivializations of movement as mere output; kinesthetically-tethered accounts of the qualia of movement; and the pan-human phenomenon of learning to move oneself.

The Primacy of Movement (Advances in Consciousness Research)

John Benjamins Publishing Company

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sheets-Johnstone, Maxine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Roots of Morality

The Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies

The Roots of Power: Animate Form and Gendered Bodies

The Roots of Thinking

The Roots Of Thinking

The phenomenology of dance

The Phenomenology of Dance

The Phenomenology of Dance

Putting Movement into Your Life: a beyond fitness primer

The Primacy of Movement (Advances in Consciousness Research)