Philosophy of Smile: Beyond the Border
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Course code: Candidate name: BO303P - OP2 Sultanbaeva Iuliia Title Philosophy of smile: beyond the border Date: 15.11.2016 Total number of pages: 119 Acknowledgements All way of writing this thesis, reflection and understanding of the ideas presented in this thesis is not only the reflection of my subjective understanding of the philosophy of smile but also of others. There would be no my understanding without the help and participation of others. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to my dear people who have helped and have supported me in writing of this work. The professor Jan Selmer Methi (UIN) is my thesis supervisor. Jan Methi gave me helpful feedback on my thinking of the whole thesis. He encouraged me and challenged much of my thinking. The professor Andrei Sergeev (MASU) provided me with the insightful and useful challenges to my thinking. The professor Viggo Rossvær (UIN) also encouraged me. The Ass. Professor Andrei Kopylov (MASU) provided me new thoughts about the developing the idea of the philosophy of language.Viggo Rossvær (UIN), our tutor Peter Utnes (UIN), Ass. Professors Inna Ryzhkova (MASU) and Alexandra Burtseva (MASU) and Professor Boris Sokolov (SPbU) gave me useful suggestions and ideas. Also, I thank all our lecturers who gave us the lectures and seminars within the Joint Degree Master in Borderology. My classmates of the programme in Borderology gave feedback on the ideas of my two essays (Appendix 1, 2). My Mother encouraged me. Having studied the programme, having exceeded all my borders and having discovered myself as another, I appreciate having this opportunity to acquire new knowledge of myself within this useful and fruitful Master Degree programme in Borderology. Thank you very much! i Abstract The master thesis is devoted to the study of the philosophy of smile. The philosophy of smile is a description of the relevant life of a smile in the Border zone. To be more precisely, this is a description of the life of smile as one language. It is possible to find out and describe dynamics of the development of the life of smile as one language, studying the smile as one language. It occurs only in the dialogical environment. A dialogical environment is a place, where language can live and develop. In this work this dialogical environment is as the Border zone, consisted of Russian and Norwegian cultures. I have studied the dynamics of life of smile as one language in this cultural dialogical environment. In parallel with it, I have changed my attitude and my thinking. These changes consecrate within the context of the thesis in details. I have found out that I began to relate to both smile language, and two cultures differently. Another relation appeared in the case when a smile started to be studied not only as one language but also as a symbol (a mediator). To reach it, I have carried out a reflection on two essays, presented in the first and second year of study within the Master Degree Programme in Borderology. By a reflection on the essays I have a new thinking and understanding of the concepts of one’s own, another and a smile as a mediator. Thus, as a part of the research of master thesis, having begun to study a concept of smile as one language, I have also revealed for myself and have described new concepts in the thesis: the concept of one’s own, and the concept of other. In the master thesis, it presented the ‘trinity’ of the relationship between one’s own, one’s own object and other. It leads to the new thinking, new description and understanding of the philosophy of smile. Key terms: philosophy of smile, the concept of smile, language, Norwegian culture and Russian culture, abduction, dialogue, One’s own, exceeding oneself, “the Other”, other, border, Border zone, Borderology. ii Table of contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... i Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.0 Chapter 1 Six Borders of reflection on the concept of smile within culture ........................ 3 2.0 Chapter 2 Philosophy of culture ......................................................................................... 16 2.1 The concept of culture .................................................................................................... 16 2.2 Value-sense content of culture ....................................................................................... 17 3.0 Chapter 3 Philosophy of smile within culture .................................................................... 20 3.1 Intercultural understanding of the concept of smile ....................................................... 20 3.2 Smile as a concept or as an appearance .......................................................................... 25 4.0 Chapter 4 Methodology of study ........................................................................................ 26 4.1 Three Categories for understanding of the concept of smile known as one language ... 26 4.2 The study of language in the Bakhtin’s philosophy of language ................................... 28 4.3 The theory of abduction in the study of smile as one language ..................................... 34 4.4 The correlation between Bakhtin’s and Peirce’s theory in the study of smile as one language ............................................................................................................................... 40 5.0 Chapter 5 Five Borders of reflection on the Data of the experience of research of the concept of smile ....................................................................................................................... 44 6.0 Chapter 6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 63 7.0 Chapter 7 Glossary ............................................................................................................. 67 References ................................................................................................................................ 68 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................................... 93 iii Introduction Let us imagine the situation. It is a return to one of my memories. I am a baby. The baby, who was born several months ago, is not able to speak yet. My mother and my father are looking at me, are talking with me, but I keep silent and do not speak. Patiently the parents are waiting when I start talking. And at these moments of expectation suddenly the baby give a smile to the parents. And the world for parents is changed. They are full of light and purity, seeing the open smile of their baby. An open dialogue has occurred, has not it? My parents can have a feeling that I as a baby understand them. They are happy to the baby’s smile and continue to have a universal dialogue with me through the language as the smile. They carry on dialogue on the base of love and understanding. Now let us imagine the next situation. I have become an adult person. I have my own individual values and senses, have my own attitude and understanding of the universe. I have learnt to have a dialogue with different people with the use of not only language of smile, but also ‘language’ of speech. In my growing up the influence of the speech is much more than there is the power of smiles in the constructive conversation. I come up in the world and begin to carry on dialogue. What dialogue is it? My dialogue is not always open and is not always organised by understanding. I face with the initial problems of understanding and misunderstanding in the dialogue. There is the another world than it was when I was a baby and used only the language of smile for carrying on dialogue. However, in this growing, there is my own development. I as an adult person begin to have a dialogue, and the smile does not play the main role in the language of the dialogue. In this case, the smile is only a mediator between me and others. In this actual dialogue, the smile demands to be determined as a concept, to be understandable in itself in the dialogue. However, due to the dialogical environments are different, the understanding will also be different. For instance, I, having my own ideas about the value-sense content of my culture within a concept of smile, can have another understanding, than others, who also have their own points of view of the value-sense content of their culture within a concept of smile. Thus, there can be a conflict between two different processes of understanding of the concept of 1 smile in the dialogical environment. At this moment I am staying on the border of one’s own (Sergeev 2016, 2015, 2011; Sergeev and Sokolov 2015) and “the Other” (Sergeev 2016, 2015, 2011; Sergeev and Sokolov 2015; Rossvaer 2015) understanding. Now I am in the Border Zone. This Border Zone is “an Arena for Exceeding Oneself” (Methi 2015, p. 213-223).