Elyse Purcell

SUNY Oneonta, Philosophy, Faculty Member

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Address: Secretary-Treasurer
American Philosophical Association - Central Division
Philosophy Department
SUNY Oneonta

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Papers by Elyse Purcell

Iris Marion Young’s city of difference

Ethics and Mental Health: An Intercultural Approach

While the “Western” biomedical narrative led to great breakthroughs, it does not address adequate... more While the “Western” biomedical narrative led to great breakthroughs, it does not address adequately cultural expressions of certain pathologies and to adjust for cultural differences. This present article provides the moral reasons for adopting an alternative intercultural model of mental health against the colonizing tendencies of the “Western” biomedical narrative.

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Iris Marion Young’s city of difference

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City

The Crisis of Subjectivity: The Significance of Darstellung and Freedom in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Sandman”

Philosophy and Literature, 2016

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Testimony, Memory and Solidarity across National Borders: Paul Ricoeur and Transnational Feminism

Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies

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Torn Flesh: Julia Kristeva and the Givenness of the Stranger

Religion and the Arts, 2010

The lived body—or the flesh—in phenomenological thought, has always served to locate the individu... more The lived body—or the flesh—in phenomenological thought, has always served to locate the individual unity of personhood, or perceptual experience, or at least one’s objective unity in the lived world. It has been what makes me “who” I am, my individuating facticity. Jean-Luc Marion, in particular, describes the capacity of the flesh to exceed all forms of phenomenological manifestation as a saturated phenomenon. The aim of this essay is to question this status of the flesh by way of an investigation into the work of Julia Kristeva’s account of the foreigner and maternity. It is argued that the status of the flesh as an individuating process is rather a dividing process, which is mediated through my relation to the other. A new Kristevan ethic is sketched.

Iris Marion Young's City of Difference

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City, 2020

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Testimony, Memory and Solidarity across National Borders

In many ways, globalization created the problem of representation for feminist solidarity across ... more In many ways, globalization created the problem of representation for feminist solidarity across the borders of the nation state. This problem is one of presenting a cohesive identity for representation in the transnational public sphere. This paper proposes a solution to this problem of a cohesive identity for women's representation by drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur. What these women seem to have in common are shared political aims, but they have no basis for those aims. This paper provides a basis for these aims by turning to Ricoeur's work on collective memory from Memory, History, Forgetting. The paper concludes that it is the shared testimony through narrative hospitality, which can provide a foundation for a social bond for those with common political aims. More specifically, this common knowledge provides a justification for the representation of women and their allies in the transnational public sphere. Résumé: De différentes manières, la globalisation a créé un problème de représentation pour la solidarité féministe au-delà des frontières de l'Etat-nation. Ce problème consiste à présenter une identité cohérente en vue d'une représentation dans la sphère publique transnationale. Cet article propose une solution à ce problème de la constitution d'une identité cohérente pour la représentation des femmes en s'appuyant sur l'oeuvre de Paul Ricoeur. Ce que ces femmes semblent avoir en commun, ce sont des objectifs politiques partagés, mais elles ne disposent pas de bases pour ces objectifs. Cet article fournit une base à ces objectifs en faisant appel au travail de Ricoeur sur la mémoire collective développé dans La Mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli. L'article conclut que c'est le témoignage partagé à travers l'hospitalité narrative qui peut contribuer à fonder un lien social pour ceux qui ont des objectifs politiques communs. Plus spécifiquement, cette connaissance commune fournit une justification à la représentation des femmes et de leurs alliés dans la sphère publique transnationale.

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Ethics and Mental Health: An Intercultural Approach

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, Special Issue: Epistemic Injustice... more Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, Special Issue: Epistemic Injustice in Practice, V. 15, (2016), pp. 115-138.. Over the last half century, mental health practioners have adopted a " Western " biomedical narrative that conceptualizes mental health conditions as " diseases of the brain. " While this narrative has led to great breakthroughs in pharmacological drugs, it has been unable to address adequately particular cultural expressions of certain pathologies and to adjust for cultural differences. Considered philosophically, this present article argues that the biomedical narrative also commits injustice by silencing the lived world of the patient. There is, however, an overlooked alternative model of mental health that has been successful in promoting human flourishing: the integrated model of mental health, which incorporates indigenous approaches to health promotion. The primary aim of this paper, then, is to provide the moral reasons for adopting this alternative model of mental health in global healthcare. This new integrated alternative creates a space for the patient's " voice " and maintains a self-reflective approach, capable of challenging the practices and colonizing tendencies of the " Western " biomedical narrative.

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Disability, Narrative, Moral Status

Disability Studies Quarterly Vol 36, No 1 (2016) - The present essay aims to respond to recent ar... more Disability Studies Quarterly Vol 36, No 1 (2016) - The present essay aims to respond to recent arguments which maintain that persons with severe cognitive impairments should not enjoy the full moral status or equal dignity as other “cognitively-able” humans. In the debate concerning moral standing and worth, philosophers Singer and McMahan have argued that individuals with certain impairments should not be granted full moral status and therefore, by extension, should not be awarded the same inviolability as humans without cognitive impairments. In response, I argue that an overlooked social ability – the capacity to narrate – provides grounds for the full moral status of individuals with severe cognitive impairments, and thus provides a defense and support for individuals with such “disabilities” to play a robust role in moral action and contribution to human living.

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The Crisis of Subjectivity: The Significance of Darstellung and Freedom in E.T.A. Hoffman’s ‘The Sandman

Journal of Philosophy and Literature, Vol 40, No 1 (April 2016), pp. 44-58. E.T.A. Hoffman’s work... more Journal of Philosophy and Literature, Vol 40, No 1 (April 2016), pp. 44-58. E.T.A. Hoffman’s work has been largely unrecognized in philosophy. The aim of this paper is to correct this oversight by an examination of his presentation of subjectivity in “The Sandman.” The presentation of the subject reached a point of crisis with Kant and thus, became the central question for German Romanticism. This crisis prompted a “will to system” first taken up in “The Earliest System Program of German Idealism” in which the spirit of philosophy is captured through literary depiction. I argue that a possible resolution to this crisis is presented in “The Sandman,” therefore establishing Hoffman’s philosophic interest.

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Oppression’s Three New Faces: Rethinking Iris Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression” for Disability Theory

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Narrative Ethics and Vulnerability

4 4 | N a r r a t i v e E t h i c s a n d V u l n e r a b i l i t y Journal of French and Francop... more 4 4 | N a r r a t i v e E t h i c s a n d V u l n e r a b i l i t y Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy | Revue de la philosophie française et de langue française Vol XXI, No 1 (2013) | http://www.jffp.org | DOI 10.5195/jffp.2013.575 5 4 | N a r r a t i v e E t h i c s a n d V u l n e r a b i l i t y Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy | Revue de la philosophie française et de langue française Vol XXI, No 1 (2013) | http://www.jffp.org |

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Books by Elyse Purcell

Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being

Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being, 2021

What do we owe our future children? How do advances in biomedical science bear on these obligatio... more What do we owe our future children? How do advances in biomedical science bear on these obligations? How do capitalist incentives distort their execution? Advances in biotechnologies for human enhancement and designer babies appear to offer us new hope to control the fragility of human living. Some philosophers have argued that we have a moral imperative to use them, especially to eliminate disabilities.

Elyse Purcell offers an opposing view, one guided by existential insights and Marxist reflections. Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being explores the effect global capitalism may have on the selection of traits for our future children and how the commercialization of these technologies may lead to the elimination of bodily diversity. Although philosophers have addressed the possible widening between the haves and have-nots, this book considers the role oppression and exploitation may play in enhancing bodies for profit. As a challenge to the global economy of debility, Purcell proposes the Solidarity view, which embraces human vulnerability and embodied difference. By reflecting on facets of the human condition, the Solidarity view challenges us to reject our conception of the good life as human perfection, and instead reconceive of the good as one’s self-realization through the interdependent mutual recognition and co-belonging with others.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793624116/Engineering-Perfection-Solidarity-Disability-and-Well-being

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Elyse Purcell

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