1. Parasites, principles and the problem of attachment to place.
- Author
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Raffel, Stanley H.
- Subjects
PRINCIPLE (Philosophy) ,PARTICULARITY (Aesthetics) ,SOCIAL action ,SOCIOLOGY ,HUMAN behavior - Abstract
This article is concerned with exploring the idea of places as providing persons with nourishment. This version of person-place relations is displayed in a paper by McHugh and, in provocative fashion, in Michel Serres's analysis of the human condition as a parasitic one. Unlike McHugh, Serres combines his analysis of parasites with a concern that principled actors may be insufficiently attached to places. His views are revealed in his interpretations of works by Molière and Plato. By reinterpreting these works, I try to suggest that Serres's well-founded scepticism as to the level of commitment of principled actors to the places that, as he rightly points out, are nourishing them, may not apply to the sub-set of principled actors who deserve to be called particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
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