Academic literature on the topic 'Ontological Asymmetry'

This article contributes to the recent literature on ontological security in conflict studies by empirically investigating, through a case study of Turkey’s Kurdish issue, how ontological asymmetry complicates peace processes. Over time, all conflicts become embroiled in a set of self-conceptions and narratives vis-à-vis the Other, the maintenance of which becomes critical for ontological security. In ethnic conflicts, however, these conceptions and narratives also intersect with a fundamental ontological asymmetry, because such conflicts often pit state parties with secure existence against ethnic groups with contested status and illegitimate standing. We argue that peace processes are easier to initiate but harder to conclude in ontologically asymmetric conflicts. Accordingly, we find that during the 2009–2015 peace process in Turkey, ontological (in)security-induced dynamics presented themselves in cyclical patterns of ambitious peace initiatives receiving greater support among the Kurdish public but giving way, at the first sign of crisis, to a rapid and dramatic return to violence, which neither side acted to stem. Moreover, we underscore that ontologically asymmetric conflicts, such as Turkey’s Kurdish issue, are often characterized by a societal security dilemma, where the conditions of ontological security for one party undermine those of the other. Therefore, building consensus around a new shared peace narrative may not be possible or desirable, and a lasting solution to Turkey’s Kurdish issue depends on the development of an agonistic peace around coexisting, multiple and contestatory narratives.

AbstractAristotle holds that individual substances are ontologically independent from non-substances and universal substances but that non-substances and universal substances are ontologically dependent on substances. There is then an asymmetry between individual substances and other kinds of beings with respect to ontological dependence. Under what could plausibly be called the standard interpretation, the ontological independence ascribed to individual substances and denied of non-substances and universal substances is a capacity for independent existence. There is, however, a tension between this interpretation and the asymmetry between individual substances and the other kinds of entities with respect to ontological independence. I will propose an alternative interpretation: to weaken the relevant notion of ontological independence from a capacity for independent existence to the independent possession of a certain ontological status.

Summary The classical view of the Creator-creature relation conveys ontological asymmetry by affirming a real creature-Creator relation and a rational Creator-creature relation. But the hermeneutical implications of this view obscure the Creator-creature symmetry of biblical religion. In this article I propose a real covenant relation as a divine initiative establishing a relation within which Creator-creature intercourse is possible, actual, and real. I defend the notion of real covenant relation through a study of John 5, and I develop it theologically with reference to Reformed biblical and covenant theology. A real covenant relation preserves ontological asymmetry, vindicates religious symmetry, and affirms rather than obscures the anthropomorphic tenor of biblical revelation.

In this article I discuss several apparent counterexamples to the asymmetry of ontological dependence. These counterexamples were introduced in discussions about grounding, but they can affect every theory of ontological dependence. I show that, if one adopts metaontological pluralism (i.e., the view according to which there are many dependence relations), one has some advantages when it comes to defending the asymmetry of dependence. In Section 1, I introduce metaontological pluralism and my own version of it, which is based on Respect-of-Dependence Relations (rd-relations). I then single out five strategies to deal with apparent cases of symmetric dependence and show that two of them are only available to metaontological pluralists. In Sections 2, 3, and 4 I deal with cases of symmetric dependence by adopting these strategies. Finally, in Section 5, I anticipate and reply to three objections against my account.

This study is a cognitive semantic analysis of the conceptual metaphor of the song lyrics in Mark Forster's album Liebe S/W. The method used is descriptive qualitative. The theories used are the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) by Lakoff&Johnson (2003) as the main theory and image schema theory by Croft & Cruse (2004). The data sources in this study were taken from the lyrics of 14 German songs from the album Liebe S/W (2019) by Mark Forster. This study was carried out for the purpose of describing the characteristics of the metaphors, the types of conceptual metaphors and image schemes contained in the song lyrics in the album. Mark Forster's cognition as a singer-songwriter on the album can be seen with this study through a conceptual metaphor approach. Based on the results of the research, it is found as many as 52 data containing metaphorical expressions. Based on the analysis in accordance with Saeed's theory as a metaphor characteristic theory, it shows that there are 13 data with abstraction,15 data with conventionality, 9 data with systematicity, and 15 data with asymmetry. The ontological metaphors is the most dominant in the album. Data analysis using the Lakoff&Johnson theory shows that the conceptual metaphors are found as many as 32 ontological metaphors, 15 orientational metaphors, and 5 structural metaphors. The image schemes found are 20 containers, 4 multiplicities, 4 existences, 5 identites, 12 spaces and 1 scale. Some patterns were found based on theories, 1) metaphors with the characteristics of abstraction and asymmetry have ontological, orientational and structural conceptual metaphors with all types of image schemes. 2) metaphors with conventional characteristics only have ontological conceptual metaphor type with some image schemes, except multiplicity. 3) metaphors with systematic characteristics have ontological and orientation conceptual metaphors with image schemes, except identity and scale.

T This study discussed ontological security in the peace process and its impact on conflict transformation in southern Ethiopia conflicts. By analyzing the Garri and Borana conflict and the peace process, the study demonstrates how ethnic conflicts involving conceptions of self-narratives with ontological asymmetry deter peace initiatives. Ontological security framework and qualitative approach guided the study, which sought to interpret reality from the context of the respondents. The study used Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussions as a source of primary data and review of secondary sources. Accordingly, the study revealed that the southern Ethiopia peace process since the establishment of ethnic federalism, particularly between Garri [Somali] and Borana [Oromo], has been characterized by persistent ontological (in)security, conflicting narratives, and recurring violence, perpetuating cycle of insecurity and hindering the achievement of durable peace. Breaking this cycle requires negotiations that address the central narratives embraced by both groups, promoting mutual recognition and transforming antagonistic relationships. Embracing coexistence and constructing transformative strategies can create a mutually acceptable narrative that can challenge the established conflict narrative. The study concludes that a peaceful, stable, and mutually supportive environment can be fostered by creating a durable framework that addresses the ontological security concerns of both communities.

Gavin Lucas questions whether Ian Hodder's analysis of the ‘entanglements’ between humans and many other things necessarily assumes an inherent asymmetry. The quick answer is that it is more than likely, and we might wonder why Lucas thinks that this is a problem. The recent ‘ontological turn’ in archaeology has sought to treat the differences between all things ‘symmetrically’ and ‘without a priori subsuming them into an asymmetrical regime of radical divides’ (Olsen and Witmore 2015, 188). One such radical divide would be between living things (such as humans) and non-living things (such as hammers): it is the potential asymmetry across this divide that Lucas seems to want to avoid.

In the framework of ontological models, the inherently nonclassical features of quantum theory always seem to involve properties that are fine tuned, i.e. properties that hold at the operational level but break at the ontological level. Their appearance at the operational level is due to unexplained special choices of the ontological parameters, which is what we mean by a fine tuning. Famous examples of such features are contextuality and nonlocality. In this article, we develop a theory-independent mathematical framework for characterizing operational fine tunings. These are distinct from causal fine tunings – already introduced by Wood and Spekkens in [NJP,17 033002(2015)] – as the definition of an operational fine tuning does not involve any assumptions about the underlying causal structure. We show how known examples of operational fine tunings, such as Spekkens' generalized contextuality, violation of parameter independence in Bell experiment, and ontological time asymmetry, fit into our framework. We discuss the possibility of finding new fine tunings and we use the framework to shed new light on the relation between nonlocality and generalized contextuality. Although nonlocality has often been argued to be a form of contextuality, this is only true when nonlocality consists of a violation of parameter independence. We formulate our framework also in the language of category theory using the concept of functors.

The article presents an interpretation of Adam Zagajewski’s poem “The Kingfisher” from the 2014 volume Asymmetry in the context of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s [“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame”], whose initial words, cited in English, were used as the motto. The article reviews the motif of the kingfisher in poetry and culture. The possible readings of the poem also relate to the symbolism of colours and fire, through which its ontological and metapoetic senses are revealed.

Cette thèse porte sur les conceptions et dynamiques du pouvoir parmi les Andoque de l’Amazonie colombienne, interrogeant comment celles-ci sont façonnées et se manifestent au sein de la population autochtone, avec les entités non humaines, et avec les agents non-autochtones. En nous fondant sur la littérature portant sur la continuité entre les relations humaines et non humaines dans l’animisme et sur la familiarisation et la maîtrise en tant que modes asymétriques de socialité en Amazonie, nous définissons le pouvoir dans un cadre d’échange et l’étudions au-delà du domaine du leadership et de l’arène politique. Nous démontrons que le pouvoir se manifeste dans la capacité des agents humains et non humains à transformer des relations symétriques d’échanges de corps, de principes vitaux, de biens matériels et d’actions en relations asymétriques qui profitent à leurs efforts pour produire des personnes, tout en contrebalançant les déséquilibres adverses. Le pouvoir provient de et facilite la transformation de parents affins potentiellement dangereux en parents consanguins plus bienveillants, et se manifeste dans la capacité de refuser ou de suspendre l’échange et de participer à la transaction en tant qu’agent, plutôt qu’objet échangé. Couvrant les domaines de la politique, de l’économie, de la parenté, du mythe et du rituel, notre analyse peut être distillée à des échanges au sein de trois domaines conceptuels : ontologique, de parenté et spatial. Dans le domaine ontologique, les échanges sont enracinés dans le principe animiste d’une intériorité partagée entre des êtres aux formes corporelles distinctes. Cette intériorité conduit à une substitution réciproque par défaut de personnes d’un type pour celles d’un autre. En revanche, les individus capables se livrent à des manipulations ontologiques pour créer une asymétrie avec les non-humains en imposant un échange hétérosubstitutif, dans lequel ils compensent le gibier avec des substances végétales, ou en exploitant l’homosubstitution dans les assauts de sorcellerie, transformant les victimes humaines en proie. La manipulation ontologique est étroitement liée à l’agentivité graduée, qui devient apparente dans les pratiques et les imageries de parenté. Dans ce contexte, malgré les principes de parenté cognatique des Andoque, leurs fortes identités claniques favorisent les tentatives d’asymétrie dans les relations entre les clans. La descendance agnatique est associée à une plus grande agentivité en comparaison avec les parents non agnatiques, les non-parents et les non-humains. Chez les humains, une agentivité diminuée ressemble à des états de domination, tandis que chez les non-humains, elle peut être parallèle, mais ne pas équivaloir à l’objectification du naturalisme. Enfin, le pouvoir est ancré dans les perceptions spatiales. Les Andoque se considèrent comme les habitants du centre d’un monde orienté sur le cours du fleuve, résultant dans la division de l’espace environnant en amont et en aval. En utilisant des procédures de familiarisation et d’englobement, ceux qui vivent au centre s’appuient sur des forces et des éléments associés à la source du fleuve pour leur survie et leur prospérité parmi les centres humains et non humains rivaux. L’englobement caractérise également la relation du centre avec l’embouchure – un domaine affinal représentant les personnes non-autochtones. Ce cadre spatial encapsule des trajectoires historiques où les échanges asymétriques entre les Andoque et les agents non-autochtones redéfinissent les dynamiques de pouvoir entre les premiers et les êtres non humains. Notre recherche fait progresser les études sur le continuum relationnel humain-non humain en Amazonie, établissant le pouvoir à la fois comme le résultat et l’instrument pour un enchaînement de relations symétriques et principalement asymétriques, et démontrant l’entrelacement des dynamiques de pouvoir entre les humains et les non-humains et celles entre les autochtones et non-autochtones
This dissertation investigates the shaping and manifestation of power notions and dynamics among the Andoque of Northwest Amazonia, Colombia, through three types of entanglements: within the Indigenous population, with nonhuman entities in the Andoque territory, and with non-Indigenous agents. Building on literature on the continuity between human and nonhuman relations in animism and on familiarization and mastery as asymmetrical relational frameworks in Amazonia, I explore power beyond the realm of leadership and the public political arena, and define it within a context-transcending framework of exchange. I demonstrate that power is manifested in the capacity of both human and nonhuman agents to transform their relationships from symmetrical exchanges of bodies, vital principles, material goods, and action into asymmetrical ones that benefit their efforts to produce persons, while countering adversarial imbalances. Power stems from and facilitates the conversion of potentially harmful affinal relatives into safer, more benevolent consanguineal kin, and manifests in the capacity to refuse or suspend exchange and to participate in the transaction as its agent, rather than the transacted object. Spanning the fields of politics, economy, kinship, myth and ritual, my analysis can be narrowed into exchanges within three conceptual domains: ontological, kinship, and spatial. In the ontological domain, exchanges are rooted in the animist principle of shared interiority among beings with distinct bodily forms. This shared interiority leads to a default reciprocal homosubstitution of persons of one kind for those of another. Meanwhile, capable individuals engage in ontological manipulations to create asymmetry with nonhumans by enforcing heterosubstitutive exchange, in which they compensate for game with vegetal substances, or exploiting homosubstitution in sorcery assaults, transforming human victims into prey. Ontological manipulation is closely related to graded agency, which becomes apparent in kinship practices and imagery. Here, despite the Andoque’s cognatic kinship principles, their strong clan identities foster attempts at asymmetry in inter-clan relations. Agnatic descent is associated with higher agency over non-agnatic kin, non-kin, and nonhumans. In humans, diminished agency resembles states of domination, while in nonhumans, it can parallel—but does not equate to—the objectification seen in naturalism. Finally, power is anchored in spatial perceptions. The Andoque consider themselves as living at the center of a world axed upon the river’s course, resulting in the division of surrounding space into upriver and downriver. Using procedures of familiarization, appropriation, and encompassment, those living at the center draw upon forces, elements, and mythical figures associated with the river source for their survival and prosperity amid rival human and nonhuman centers. A similar pursuit of encompassment characterizes the center’s relationship with the river mouth—an affinal realm representing non-Indigenous people. This spatial framework encapsulates historical trajectories where asymmetrical exchanges between the Andoque and non-Indigenous agents redefine power dynamics between the former and nonhuman beings.My research pushes forward the research into the human-nonhuman relational continuum in Amazonia, establishing power as both the outcome of and the instrument for an enchainment of symmetrical and predominantly asymmetrical relationships, and revealing the interplay between power dynamics of human-nonhuman relations and those between Indigenous and non-Indigenous agents

Metaphysical orthodoxy maintains that the relation of ontological dependence is irreflexive, asymmetric, and transitive. The goal of this paper is to challenge that orthodoxy by arguing that ontological dependence should be understood as non-symmetric, rather than asymmetric. A series of cases across a wide range of ontological commitments are presented, and it is argued that each case should be understood as one in which the relation of dependence holds symmetrically. If these arguments work, however, they provide reasons to be skeptical of the way in which contemporary discussions typically lump dependence together with relations such as grounding and in virtue of, which arguably need to be understood as asymmetric. If the asymmetry of dependence is relinquished, interesting things follow for what can be said about metaphysical explanation—particularly for the prospects of explanatory holism.

Are there objects that are “thin” in the sense that their existence does not make a substantial demand on the world? First, some extant approaches to thin objects are surveyed, associated with mathematical structuralism and Fregean abstraction. The philosophical benefits of thin objects are then explained. Next, the idea of thin objects is clarified by articulating some logical and philosophical constraints that any account must satisfy in order to deliver the promised benefits. Finally, it is argued that these constraints favor an asymmetric conception of abstraction, where abstraction on “old” entities gives rise to “new” objects. This asymmetric conception allows the two sides of an abstraction principle to have different ontological commitments.

AbstractA basic intuition we have regarding the nature of time is that the future is open whereas the past is fixed. However, although this intuition is largely shared, it is not a straightforward matter to determine the nature of the asymmetry it reflects. So, in this chapter, I survey the various philosophical ways of characterizing the asymmetry in openness between the future and the past in order to account for our intuition. In particular, I wonder whether the asymmetry is to be characterized in semantic, epistemic, anthropocentric, physical, modal, metaphysical or ontological terms. I conclude that an ontological characterization of the asymmetry is to be preferred, since it is superior to the alternatives in explanatory power, intelligibility, and in how it coheres with interesting senses of openness.

AbstractAs has been argued, there are good reasons to think that, assuming physical indeterminism, the asymmetry between the ‘open future’ and the ‘fixed past’ is to be characterized as a kind of worldly unsettledness: there being facts of the matter about what happened, but not about what will happen. However, the main models of the temporal structure of the world – eternalism and presentism – do not reflect any ontological asymmetry between the future and the past. According to these models, either both the future and the past exist, or neither the future nor the past exists. So, in this chapter, I argue that we should opt for an alternative model of the temporal structure of the world – the growing block theory (GBT) – that seems better designed to accommodate the asymmetry in openness between the future and the past.

AbstractIn this conclusion, I first briefly recall the theoretical framework within which the present book was undertaken: an attempt at reconciliation of the manifest image with contemporary science. Second, I recapitulate the main obtained results; I especially insist on the fact that an ontological characterization of the intuitive asymmetry between the ‘open future’ and the ‘fixed past’ (Chap. 2), as it can be accommodated by a specific version of GBT (Chap. 3), might find some support in nascent approaches to quantum gravity (Chap. 4). Finally, I consider some new directions that could be pursued. In particular, I consider some practical significance that GBT may have with respect to moral and emotional concerns.

In today’s environment, characterized by high complexity and volatility of demand, responsiveness, quality, and timeliness in the transmission of information between all parties involved in Supply Chain operations, are critical aspects to manage. In this context, the most successful companies have developed an integrated view of the Supply Chain to improve its efficiency. The realization of these objectives is achieved through adopting Supply Chain management methods and tools appropriate to their operations, with a view to continuous improvement through data analysis and forecasting. The difficulty lies in intercepting and organising data from disparate sources, multiple data sets provide incomplete information that inaccurately represents the performance and service levels received by suppliers and offered to customers, caused by the competitive nature of different companies in wanting to keep their information confidential. For this reason, this work proposes an ontological Supply Chain model with a governance element that enables the information exchange, preventing misreporting behaviour by different companies and optimising the parameters of the entire Supply Chain. In addition to the definition of all major incoming and outgoing information flows that characterise the relationships and performance of the Supply Chain actors as individual elements and as a whole.

Within the theory of political asymmetry, this chapter provides an alternative approach to the dilemma between constructivism and realism, so that further research on the idea of a norm on modern development can be coherently addressed. The chapter depicts features and common weaknesses of fundamental contributions on both schools on IR and political science theory, to further provide an alternative approach, able to contextualize along the ontological dilemma, the development of norms on late modern social systems.

There seems to be an objective asymmetry between the past and the future. The past has already happened, and is thus settled, determinate, and ‘closed’. Instead, the future is yet to happen, and appears thus to be unsettled, indeterminate, and ‘open’. This intuitive idea gives rise to two main philosophical questions. The first one concerns statements about aspects of the future that are presently unsettled (‘future-contingent statements’) and the issue about whether they are either true or false (see Bivalence). The second question concerns the issue about whether the openness of the future consists in the fact that what exists is insufficient to determine the truth-value of future-contingent statements (for instance, because the future does not exist or because many different futures exist) and, thus, whether the future’s being open is, at the bottom, a matter of ontology. The two questions appear to be closely connected. In fact, the idea that future-contingent statements are neither true nor false seems to be motivated by the following line of reasoning: (i) the openness of the future is a matter of ontology, and so what exists is insufficient to determine the truth-value of future-contingent statements; (ii) if the openness of the future is a matter of ontology, then future-contingent statements are neither true nor false; (iii) therefore, future-contingent statements are neither true nor false. Those who embrace an ‘Aristotelian’ approach to the open future and take future-contingent statements to lack a determinate truth-value (which is often claimed to be Aristotle’s position in De Interpretatione) can accept this argument as sound. Instead, ‘Ockhamists’ (after William of Ockham’s position in Predestination, God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents) reject premise (ii) and claim that future-contingent statements are bivalent even under an ontological account of the open future. Others (such as David Lewis 1979) reject (i) and give an alternative, non-ontological account of the open future.

Abstract This chapter argues against the ‘dispositionalist’ property-driven approaches to natural modality, according to which universals are identical with, or essentially dependent upon, dispositions. It is argued that these approaches clash with the explanatory aims of the property-driven account. The alternative and underexplored view proposed is that universals are qualities which ground laws, which in turn help to ground the dispositions of things. Grounding is an asymmetric (non-causal) relationship of ontological priority, such that grounding entities generate that which they ground as a matter of metaphysical necessity. According to this grounding theory, universals stand in ‘Leibnizian’ second-order relationships of dispositional directedness. The important distinction between occurrent and dispositional predication is also discussed.