Online research in philosophy

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Text in context; 3. From human being to discourse on matter?: the three-fold quest for wisdom, goodness, and God - and the root of life in desire; 4. Root desire and the Empedoclean grounding element as love; 5. From Divine Will to Divine Irada : on the mistaken scholarly rejection of Ibn Gabirol's emanation; 6. Iradic Unfoldings: Ibn Gabirol's Hylomorphic Emanationism and the Neoplatonic Tripart Analysis; 7. Matter revisited; 8. Neoplatonic cosmo-ontology as apophatic (...) response and as prescription for human living (methodological reappraisal, 1); 9. Transcendental grounding, mytho-poetic and symbolic transformation, and the creation of new worlds with words (methodological reappraisal, 2); 10. Embroidering the hidden. (shrink)

This study shows how, in its overall ability to shed light on the vexing complexity of human being, Maimonides’ discourse on matter—treated via metaphors or seen as itself a metaphor—emerges as a venerable guide, pointing the careful reader to the most important truths about perfected humanity within the Guide of the Perplexed. After examining and harmonizing Maimonides’ dual metaphors of matter (matter as the married harlot and the woman of valor) in this way, I show how metaphor as a literary (...) form is itself an illustration of matter’s positive role in the life of the soul. Following upon this consideration of the importance of metaphorical discourse, I end by briefly suggesting how the metaphysics of matter may itself quite generally be characterized as a kind of metaphor. (shrink)