Author: Associate Professor, Humanities

Thoughts following Presidential Debate

^{Here are some initial thoughts from Dr. Mijuskovic following the Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on June 27, 2024.}

Essentially, my theoretical work stems from a single principle and paradigm of human self-consciousness. “All human beings are intrinsically, cognitively, reflexively, and emotionally lonely.” The solution to loneliness is twofold. It is “constituted” by empathy, the mutual sharing of feelings, meanings, and affection between two human beings; and intimacy, the mutual sharing of trust, respect, and values (Ben Mijuskovic, “The Role of Empathy as a Path to Intimacy,” Paedagogia Christiana: Being Alone Together, Torun, Poland: Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, 2/46, 2020).

But what we are often unaware of is that loneliness produces anger; we feel rejected, and narcissistically wish to hurt others, sadistically, indiscriminately, and cruelly, as for example in the case of Elliot Rogers in Isla Vista and the Columbine teenagers; and at other times racially and nationally as in the case of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin in the Second World War (Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism) and today Putin and Trump.

Trump’s powerful MAGA appeal to his supporters is predicated on his narcissism and sadism; that is what is motivating his fans. It is also what is currently fueling the passions of national narcissistic and sadistic movements in Europe as well.

^{Logical and Philosophical References}

Leibniz versus Schopenhauer: The best of all possible worlds (Monadology) against the worst of all possible Worlds (The World as Will and Representation): good versus evil.

Leibniz>free will, spontaneity + the unconscious and reason; World Optimism versus Schopenhauer>qualitas occulta + the subconsciousness, and egoism: World Pessimism

Leibniz on freedom and goodness

Schopenhauer on egoism and evil

Schopenhauer’s influence on Freud

In Schopenhauer’s view, the will to life and the will to death are continually in conflict within the ego.

According to Freud, his views on the aggressive and destructive instinct can be summarily indicated in his earlier writings within the context of his reflections on sadism…The second class of instincts are not so easy to point to; in the end he came to recognize sadism as its representative…Once we have admitted the idea of fusion of the two classes of instincts with each other, the possibility of a ‘defusion’ of them forces itself upon us. The sadistic component of the sexual instinct would be a classic example of an instinctual fusion; and the sadism which had made itself independent as a perversion would be typical of a defusion…We may pause for a moment over this pre-eminently dualistic view of instinctual life. Two processes are constantly at work [and in conflict with each other] in a living substance operating in contrary directions, one constructive or assimilatory and the other destructive or dissimilatory. May we venture to recognize the two [conflicting] directions taken by the vital processes, the activity of our two instinctual impulses, the life instincts and the death instincts. We have unwittingly steered our course into the harbor of Schopenhauer’s philosophy. For him death is the ‘true result and to that extent the purpose of life,’ while the sexual instinct is the embodiment of the will to live.

Freud on narcissism and sadism (Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Civilization and Its Discontents, The Ego and the Id, The Interpretation of Dreams, The Future of an Illusion, etc.

Cf. Ben Lazare Mijuskovic, The Philosophical Roots of Loneliness and Intimacy: Political Narcissism and the Problem of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) and Theories of Consciousness and the Problem of Evil in the History of Ideas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Thanks to Olivia Sagan for “Organized Loneliness and Its Discontents”

We would like to appreciate Olivia Sagan for incorporating three works by Dr. Ben Mijuskovic in her article “Organized Loneliness and Its Discontents” recently published in the first edition of Diversity & Inclusion Research. In this thematic survey of loneliness research, Sagan recognizes a central argument of Mijuskovic in the context of philosophical giants Aristotle, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger.

Justice cannot begin to be done to this canon here, but readers are pointed to Ben Lazare Mijuskovic, . . . whose assertion that we are all, a priori, ‘necessarily, universally, and innately lonely’ (Mijuskovic, 2005, p. 23) is explored in detail through a psychological, philosophical and literary lens.
https://doi.org/10.1002/dvr2.12008

Praise for Theories of Consciousness

Check out the latest edition of Philosophy in Review volume 44 including praise for Theories of Consciousness and the Problem of Evil in the History of Ideas.

Mijuskovic’s recent publication is “his finest work to date for its humanity, compassion, and purpose.”

Ben Lazare Mijuskovic. Theories of Consciousness and the Problem of Evil in the History of Ideas. Palgrave Macmillan 2023. 211 pp. $119.99 USD (Hardcover 9783031264047); $39.99 USD (Paperback 9783031264078).

Ben Mijuskovic expands his life work in the eighth major publication of an interdisciplinary series examining layers and relationships of consciousness and loneliness within philosophical, psychological, and literary contexts. This latest installment includes refreshingly personal dimensions of his family history in Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Yugoslavia from turn of the twentieth century, throughout World War I, and in the aftermath of World War II. Mijuskovic’s grandfather and father negotiated complex political relationships with notable figures like Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, King Peter II of Serbia, and President Tito of Yugoslavia. When addressing his philosophy of evil and psychology of narcissism, Mijuskovic’s calculated autobiography offers a unique study in human depravity and suffering with both oppressed and oppressor in view. The current conflict in Ukraine and the Balkans with Russia stems from the unresolved dynamics and power struggle Mijuskovic’s mother and father survived upon arriving to the United States in the late 1940s. Theories of Consciousness ventures into unfamiliar territory for the author in this exploration of his family history from an ethical stance. His career and numerous publications in philosophy of mind and psychology ground this work in most Existential and personal ways. In sum, this work constitutes his own theory of consciousness and struggle with the problem of evil. As a student and avid reader of Mijuskovic, Theories of Consciousness and the Problem of Evil in the History of Ideas is his finest work to date for its humanity, compassion, and purpose.

Palgrave Macmillan Release April 2023

Dr. Mijuskovic has recently released another installment published by Palgrave Macmillan titled Theories of Conscious and the Problem of Evil in the History of Ideas. In this book, Ben Lazare Mijuskovic uses both an interdisciplinary and History of Ideas approach to discuss four forms of intertwined theories of human consciousness and reflexive self-consciousness (Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, and Hegel; Schopenhauer’s subconscious irrational Will; Brentano and Husserl’s transcendent intentionality; and Freud’s dynamic ego). Mijuskovic explores these theories within the context of psychological issues, where the discussion is undergirded by the conflict between loneliness and intimacy. He also explores them in the context of ethics, where the dynamic is between the values of good and evil. The book historically traces these issues in both a personal as well as a political framework.

Palgrave MacMillan Release January 2023

Dr. Ben Lazare Mijuskovic has another installment in The Philosophical Roots of Loneliness and Intimacy to open the New Year.

In this book, Mijuskovic combines Kant’s theory of reflexive self-consciousness with Husserl’s transcendent principle of intentionality to describe the distinctive philosophical, psychological, and sociological roots of loneliness and intimacy. He argues that loneliness is innate, unavoidable, and constituted by the structure of self-consciousness itself.

Check it out on Palgrave Macmillan’s official site for details.