Theodor Sandal Rolfsen

Theodor Sandal Rolfsen disputerer for ph.d.-graden i humaniora og samfunnsvitenskap, og vil offentlig forsvare avhandlingen "Enjoyment and Transcendence".

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Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag:

In the present thesis, I ask why immanence (the world) and transcendence (God) has often been thought to be in conflict with each other, and attempt to think their relation differently. Both are done by interpreting immanence as revolving around the phenomenon of enjoyment. I argue that the Christians of the early Church saw detachment from worldly pleasures through ascetic practice as a requirement for orienting oneself towards God. Through Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical critique of Christianity, I explore the argument for why belief in that which transcends the world necessarily leads to a condemnation of worldly life, and why Nietzsche believed that faith in transcendence is borne out of a hostility towards life. I then turn to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and his understanding of the relation between enjoyment and transcendence, which occupies the larger part of the present thesis. I track the development of his analysis of enjoyment throughout his works, and demonstrate how thinking enjoyment and transcendence in a non-oppositional way is a core aspect of his project. My worldly existence is, according to Levinas, oriented around the possibility of enjoyment and the happiness it leads to. The fact that human life has a relation to transcendence entails for him that humanity is concerned with more than happiness, namely my responsibility to other human beings. I thus learn to give away and sacrifice what I enjoy. This, however, is not opposed to enjoyment. I conclude with a discussion of how the themes of enjoyment and transcendence appears in of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s celebrated novel The Brothers Karamazov.

Prøveforelesning: Torsdag 10. november kl. 10.15-11.00.

Leder av disputas: nestleder Christine Smith-Simonsen

Komiteen består av:

  • Første opponent Professor emerita Catherine Chalier, Université Paris Nanterre
  • Andre opponent Professor James McGuirk
  • Internt medlem og leder av komiteen førsteamanuensis Michael T. Heneise, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

 

Hovedveileder: professor Espen Dahl, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

Biveileder: professor Magdalene Thomassen, VID vitenskapelige høgskole

 

 

When: 10.11.22 at 12.15–16.00
Where: SVHUM B-1005
Location / Campus: Digital, Tromsø
Target group: Employees, Students, Guests
Contact: Marie Berger Nicolaysen
E-mail: marie.n.berger@uit.no
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