Kierkegaard After the Genome : Science, Existence and Belief in This World

235 Pages·2017·2.49 MB·English

by  Jaarsma

Kierkegaard
After the Genome
Science, Existence
and Belief in This World
Ada S. Jaarsma
Kierkegaard After the Genome
Ada S. Jaarsma
Kierkegaard After
the Genome
Science, Existence and Belief in This World
Ada S. Jaarsma
Department of Humanities
Mount Royal University
Calgary
AB, Canada
ISBN 978-3-319-57980-1 ISBN 978-3-319-57981-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57981-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940212
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For Katja and my mother,
both reasons for belief in this world.
A
cknowledgements
This book emerged out of many conversations, public and private, over
many years. Thanks and appreciation to friends and colleagues who
reflected on this project with me: Anna Mudde, Jane Dryden, Joshua
St. Pierre, Alexis Shotwell, Aimi Hamraie, Nadine Atwell, Ed Mooney,
Raja Singh, Abrahim Kahn, Steven Engler, Kit Dobson, Morny Joy, Tim
Stock, Martin Shuster, David Kangas, Lochlann Jain, Cressida Heyes and
Chloë Taylor. Careful readers of chapter drafts include: Tara Pedersen,
Rachel Jones, Emily Anne Parker, Namrata Mitra, Suze Berkhout, Katja
Pettinen, Emily Hutchison and Kyle Kinaschuk.
Every chapter stems in part from daily conversations with Katja
Pettinen—extending over years and enriching my life so fully—about the
existential resonances of evolutionary theory and science studies. These
conversations, in turn, reflect the fiercely cross-disciplinary discussions that
Katja has been conducting for even longer with Myrdene Anderson: discus-
sions about anthropology and philosophy, and systems theory and biosemi-
otics. “Can anthropology be philosophy?” asks Eduardo Viveiros de Castro
in Cannibal Metaphysics. I am so grateful that the import of this question—
and its motivating force in my intellectual endeavors—has been opened up
to me thanks to these discussions.
In addition, I’m indebted to the soulful poets and writers who edified,
illuminated and otherwise supported the writing of this book: Noelle
Oxenhandler, Alexis Shotwell, Lindy Patterson, Brent Hammer, Clare
Marie Myers, Nathan Fawaz, Kaitlin Rothberger, Laura Grant, Andres
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Lequerica, Carmen Nielson, Emily Hutchison, Katherine Binhammer,
Dianne Chisholme, Chloë Taylor, Emily Anne Parker, Lissa Skitolsky,
Kenna Olsen and, of course, Ely Shipley. Of especial note is Tara
Pedersen with whom I have exchanged writings since early grad-school
days; she lent such witty and astute ballast to this project. Martin Shuster
provided support for the whole endeavor. Namrata Mitra’s keen sense of
the philosophically comedic bolstered the project in countless ways. It’s
hard to imagine working on this book without the research assistance of
Kyle Kinaschuk, whose acuity about pedagogy and its absurdist, at times
magical, potential has sharpened my thinking immensely.
Many friends shared pedagogical reflections with me, and some of
these stories appear in Chap. 5. Humming through the manuscript are
insights and citations from David Kangas, whose brilliant and compelling
interpretations of Kierkegaard spurred me onto the path of a material-
ist encounter with Kierkegaard. David is the reader whose lively skepti-
cism I most covet, and since his passing in September 2016 this book has
gained an elegiac meaning for me. Stephen Seely reminded me of the
passage on Kierkegaard in Deleuze and Guattari’s What is Philosophy?,
a suggestion that transformed the project at an early and pivotal time.
Peter Finlan shared invaluable insights about yoga practice, teaching
and training. María del Rosario Acosta suggested that I think more care-
fully about the limitations of existentialism’s resonances with epigenetics,
a prompt I continue to muse over. Patricia Pardo met with me several
times to discuss the theoretical and pragmatic aspects of universal design
in learning. Alexis Shotwell introduced me to the Buddhist slogan “Even
the antidote needs to be self-liberating” (not to mention the wonderful
“Stop being so predictable”). Suze Berkhout’s collaborations on placebos
and their effects fed back into my placebo and epigenetic reflections in
wonderful ways.
My family is loyal and supportive beyond measure. I thank my brother
Dave for unceasing technical and design expertise. And I thank my
mother for embodying the kind of creative approach to religious life that
sparked many of this book’s preoccupations.
I presented early drafts of this project at the following venues and
gatherings, for which I am grateful for the lively and productive con-
versations they provided me with: the Kierkegaard Religion and
Culture group at the American Academy of Religion; Diverse Lineages
of Existentialism; the Kierkegaard Circle at the University of Toronto;
the University of Alberta Philosophy lecture series and the University
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
of Calgary Religious Studies lecture series; Towson University’s annual
philosophy colloquium; and meetings of philoSOPHIA, the Society for
Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, the Canadian Philosophical
Association, the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, and the
Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy. In addition, participation
at the 2015 Summer Research workshop, “Genocide and Agency: The
Nation State and the National Citizen Subject,” at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack and Morton Mandel Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies contributed significantly to the develop-
ment of research presented in Chap. 3. An earlier version of Chap. 4
appears in Gender and Education’s special issue, “Shifting Education’s
Philosophical Imaginaries” 28(2) 2016. I thank Kate Charlesworth
for permission to include her gorgeously smart cartoon, “Let it be a
placebo,” in Chap. 4.
Research for this book was supported by Mount Royal University in
the form of two internal research grants, two learning inquiry grants, a
grant from the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,
and a sabbatical.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Sex, Secularity and Belief in This World 19
3 The Existential Stakes of Epigenetics 45
4 Placebos and the Materiality of Belief 87
5 Tomatoes in the Classroom 139
6 Is Science Post-secular? 171
Index 223
xi
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 4.1 “Let it be a placebo” 107
xiii