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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 11-19-2019 3:00 PM The Amphibian, Melioristic Agenda for Dividuals: Tropological Oscillations versus Tropological Settlements Donatas Sinkunas The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Tumanov, Vlad The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Donatas Sinkunas 2019 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Sinkunas, Donatas, "The Amphibian, Melioristic Agenda for Dividuals: Tropological Oscillations versus Tropological Settlements" (2019). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6758. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6758 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Amphibian, Melioristic Agenda for Dividuals: Tropological Oscillations versus Tropological Settlements Abstract Some people often identify themselves too strongly with one particular belief system. Others, throughout their lives, travel from one belief system to another without necessarily weaving their experiences and gained bodies of knowledge in a complementary manner. This thesis discusses different frequencies and principles of this sort of settlements or oscillations. I argue that it is impossible to believe in perfectly purist ideologies that would not deviate from their putative, pre-established, holistic inner order. Through multiple literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples it is shown that people are of dividual (not individual) nature. That is to say, potentially we contain multiple dividual poles such as hedgehog versus fox, character versus author/agent, and different levels of authorship/agency, and a very large number of tropologies – a small, coherent system of different tropes that revolve around one axial trope – such as noise, silence, laughter, etc. Our level of authorship/agency depends on how often we oscillate between different dividual and tropological poles and how close is our relationship with them. These terms also allow us to look at the problem of determinism and free will from a slightly different conceptual angle. This may pose two traditional questions: (i) Why act at all, if we are tropologically conditioned? (ii) What could be constructive principles for action? This thesis argues that even though we are incapable of controlling and predicted the consequences of people’s actions (entropology), we may still follow the principle of melioristic, amphibian, tropological and dividual oscillations and hope for serendipitous outcomes. Examples and cases from the areas of literature, arts, philosophy, and cultural studies used in this thesis seek to provide a rich conceptual framework and gain new synthesized perspectives. Comparisons of old and new intellectual production helps us understand why tropological and dividual oscillations are inevitable and more desirable than tropological and dividual settlements. ii Keywords Tropology, entropology, dividuality, polylogical consciousness, hedgehog, fox, characterhood, authorship/agency, noise, silence, laughter. iii Summary for Lay Audience Some people often identify themselves too strongly with one particular belief system. Others, throughout their lives, travel from one belief system to another without necessarily weaving their experiences and gained bodies of knowledge in a complementary manner. That is to say, at different times they may hold very different, contradictory, and perhaps even opposite ideas. Naturally, this affects the perception of one’s personal identity. Too often in literature, politics or philosophy, we tend to oversimplify the understanding of who we are by putting ourselves in one or another firm category. Then, we cannot re-contextualize ourselves or the ideas we hold and look at them in a different light. I call this phenomenon tropological settlement. In this thesis, I advocate the idea of tropological oscillations. This means that there are no pure, well- established, holistic ideologies and that we constantly oscillate between different ideas even if we do not notice it. Through multiple literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples it is shown that people are of dividual (not individual) nature. This means that we consist of many selves, not one particular self. I demonstrate this by showing how we tend to oscillate between the poles such as hedgehog versus fox, character versus author/agent, and different levels of authorship/agency. Moreover, I also analyze how certain popular contemporary tropes such as noise, silence, and laughter impact the way we think, speak, act, and conceptualize our identity. These terms also allow us to look at the problem of determinism and free will from a slightly different conceptual angle. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Summary for Lay Audience ............................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Introduction .................................................................... 1 1.1 Tropologically Conditioned Thinking ....................................................... 3 1.2 Abstract Immanent Tropologies: Confusion of Confusions and The Mark and the Void ................................................................................................... 20 1.3 Two Modes of Thinking: Mode 1 and Mode 2 ....................................... 33 1.4 Entropology: Re-justifying Our Actions ................................................. 41 1.5 Dividuality: Polylogical Mind and the Oscillations between Different Tropological Poles ............................................................................................ 57 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 79 2 Dividual Oscillations between the Poles of Hedgehog and Fox, Character and Author; Different Levels of Authorship/Agency .............................................................. 79 2.1 The Dividual Tensions between the Tropological Poles of Hedgehog and Fox .. ................................................................................................................. 80 2.2 The Dividual Tensions between the Tropological Poles of Character and Author/Agent .................................................................................................... 89 2.3 Different Levels of Authorship: Level 1 ............................................... 102 2.4 Different Levels of Authorship: Level 2 ............................................... 116 2.5 Different Levels of Authorship: Level 3 ............................................... 126 v 2.6 Different Levels of Authorship: Level 4 ............................................... 138 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................... 148 3 Tropological Settlements: Noise, Silence, and Laughter. Tropes We Live by ....... 148 3.1 Tropological Settlements: Noise ........................................................... 150 3.2 Tropological Settlements: Silence ......................................................... 155 3.3 Laughter as an Antidote to Tropological Settlements ........................... 172 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................... 185 4 Practicing Tropological Oscillations and Dividual Expansion through Perspectivism and Polylogical Cultural Works ...................................................................................... 185 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 196 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................................ 209 vi Chapter 1 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Introduction Isaiah Berlin (1998), although playfully, classified philosophers and writers into two categories: foxes and hedgehogs. Since then, this classification has been appropriated, modified, and used in a myriad of different contexts. Philip Tetlock (2005), for instance, argues that foxes outperform hedgehogs when it comes to providing good judgements about future events. Ronald Dworkin (2011), on the contrary, advocates a hedgehog-like approach towards the interpretation of one’s moral convictions. According to him, the reflective, introspective, and conscientious hedgehog-like moral agents should not behave at their whim but instead achieve a coherent interpretation of moral convictions. Thus, Dworkin rather praises than criticizes hedgehog-like qualities. In this dissertation, I will avoid dividing

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