THEISTIC IDEALISM ; OR, BEEKELET.* Visa quaedam mitti a Deo velut ea quae in somnis videantur. Cic. ACAD. ii.. IRELAND may claim the distinction of having..

Jon Stewart’s recent book offers an opportunity to re-explore one of the richest areas of Hegel’s cultural research during the Berlin period, the wide-ranging study of world religions developed in the second part of his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. While this treatment of world religious traditions has often been taken as out-of-date and narrowly Eurocentric, there are, as Stewart suggests, important contributions within Hegel’s developing work on pre-classical and Asian religions that remain of interest to contemporary philosophers of (...) religion, art and history. This paper compares the changes Hegel makes in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion to those in the Aesthetics lectures belonging to the same period; and examines in particular how Hegel’s view of the relation between Athens and Jerusalem changed with developing knowledge of Egyptian and other near Eastern cultures. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Veils: The Poetics of John Rawls*George Armstrong KellyPlutarch recounts in Sais, a holy place of Egypt, the image of Isis, understood by the Greeks to be a version of Pallas Athena, bore the inscription: “I am everything that has been, that is, and that shall ever be: no human mortal has discovered me behind my veil.” 1 This recalls a very different god, Yahweh, whose claim is also (...) to compress all knowledge into an eternal present and whose dwelling, in Solomon’s temple, is in a special sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, also guarded by a veil.There, one might say, the similarity ends. Yahweh is a masculine diety (“the father of his people”), though imagistically he remains a space or an absence filled by a name (“I Am That I Am”) indicative of the transcendent distance of the eternal. Isis is a female shape imaging carnal knowledge behind her veil (with its Machiavellian, Baconian temptations). Her truth, as Plutarch makes clear, is driven by desire, truth being a “desire for divinity,” “a study... and work more holy than the vow and obligation of chastity or the guarding and sealing of any....” 2 The almost certain wages, however, for the would-be ravisher is unfulfillment and death, whereas Yahweh, having become the God of the Christians, promises eternal life through the sacrifice of his only-begotten son and a truth above knowledge “that shall make you free” (John 8:32). [End Page 343]To the Semitic mind the name expressed and represented the power of the person: God was present in a special way wherever the “Name of Yahweh” was. 3 The content of the Holy of Holies, originally portable in the ancient Ark of the Covenant, was the two stone tablets of the Law received by Moses at Horeb (1 Kings 8:9). God’s presence, once installed in the Temple of Jerusalem, was represented as “a cloud [that] filled the house of the Lord” (ibid, 8:10; cf. 2 Chronicles 5:10, 13). God was cloud; knowledge was duty. Of the physical place of this indwelling principle of knowledge, Jesus said (John 2:19): “Destroy this sanctuary: within three days I shall raise it up again.” The evangelist explains that his metaphor is transferred to the new Christian idea of the word made flesh. 4 John’s gospel does not cite the rendering of the veil of the temple, but the synoptic gospels all recount that it was “rent in twain from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51, Mark 16:38, Luke 23:45) at Christ’s Crucifixion. The idea is essentially that knowledge as command and duty has been surpassed by a knowledge that is love in the crucified revelation of the Son of God. This returns us, ambiguously, to the image of the goddess Isis; for even in Hebrew scripture it is foretold: “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me” (Song of Solomon 5:7). If there is here a clear prefiguration of the fate of both Christ and the temple, there is also an echo of the likely fate of the harlot Rahab, who let Joshua’s spies into Jericho, had God not saved her from the ruin of that city (Joshua 6:17).The purpose of this essay is not to dwell on obvious imagistic and psychological attachments between wisdom and sexual knowledge, but early notice of this liaison is needed to connect the philosophical discourse on veils with motifs disclosed in figurative literature. For the veil that hides the object of desire may also hide the reality of the name or of naming; preserving the veil may be a mode of love, just as challenging it is also. For example, when John Rawls writes: “The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance. This ensures that no one is advantaged or disadvantaged in the choice of principles by the outcome of natural chance or the contingency of social circumstances,” 5 what does his image of the veil intend to convey? What exactly is on each side of this veil? From... (shrink)

I borrow this title from an English mystical text written at the end of the fourteenth century, The Veil of Unknowledge, which has long been part of my life. The explicit aim of the book is to tear away this veil of unknowledge, or to give us the means to do it ourselves. The image of the veil invites a reciprocal gesture of raising, tearing, piercing. The desire that motivates this act goes beyond the veil, toward Isis and the (...) truth, the naked figure we're endeavoring to know. Once we have cleared away the obstacles and gained a clear view of her, we—and she—are transformed. (shrink)

Taking the neuro-turn is like becoming the victim of mind parasites. It’s unwilled . You can’t see mind parasites; they make you think things without allowing you to know why you think them. Indeed, they generate the cognitive inability to be other than delighted with the circumstances of your affected cognition. It’s not as if you can take off your thinking cap and shoo the pests away. You can’t see them—or even know that you could want to. You can’t stand (...) on the outside looking in at your cognitive processes. But historically speaking, you are also inside a culture and socioeconomic order that places the legitimacy of the neuro beyond critique. And the neuro-turn does more: it delegitimizes critique itself, at least as we have known it since Marx. This essay briefly explores how we got here, what the “here” is, and what its implications are for historical critique. (shrink)

In Diderot’s philosophy, the nature of the eighteenth-century, Isis veiled, is constituted of the same substance as the metaphor, the analogy and the hieroglyph. To show that, this article takes into consideration the naturalistic inquiry on Trembley’s Hydra. This animal, which is at the heart of the philosophical interest of the period, seems to shape itself starting from the mythological imagination, but at the same time it becomes the model that, for Diderot, defines the faculty of thinking and (...) its features. The reversibility between word and image, nature and culture, representation and the represented thing provides the observation point on a philosophy – Diderot’s philosophy – that develops itself along with the human physiology and imagination, its own faculty. (shrink)

Comparing the nature encounters of Gerald Durrell with our current climate of ‘stranger danger’, health and safety neurosis, and the beguilement and blunting of the senses by technological advances presents a worrying picture of a new era of nature and culture deprivation. However, even in the most unlikely places, a rich engagement with nature can be rekindled. Central to such recovery is access to nearby nature that allows practical engagement rather than merely detached on-looking. In my conclusion I outline examples (...) where this has been made possible in the challenging settings of socially deprived urban areas. (shrink)

By resituating Alexander von Humboldt in the “working world” of mining, this essay offers a case study of the way in which industry has shaped practice and theory in the history of science. While Humboldt’s experience as a miner in Saxony and Prussia provided him a venue in which to study fossilized vegetation, revealing a fundamental link between the migrations of plants and of peoples, industrial concerns about miners’ safety inspired a study of the interplay between plants and people that (...) shaped his later articulation of the verticality of plant distribution. Moreover, the cartographic methods Humboldt employed during his American journey depended as much on drawing practices indebted to mining as they did on patterns of vertical mobility above and below the surface of the earth. These arguments ultimately encourage a departure from “Humboldtian Science,” a term that has veiled an originally Prusso-Saxon science beneath a set of Anglo-American connotations. (shrink)

It is argued that, contrary to popular pragmatist opinion, the source of epistemic normativity does not lie in the realm of practical rationality. Epistemic norms are indeed hypothetical, as the pragmatist anticipates, but he has misjudged how much their antecedent can do for him. I first consider the most general argument available to the pragmatist. I then focus on the way John Heil and Hilary Kornblith have refmed it. Kornblith’s position poses the most plausible challenge to the defender of the (...) autonomy of epistemic norms. Even at its best, however, the pragmatist argument flounders. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo mostrar a leitura heideggeriana da filosofia de Edmund Husserl a partir do tema da intuição categorial desenvolvida por este último e os seus desdobramentos na própria obra de Heidegger. Defendemos a hipótese de que ao retirar a consciência da sua abordagem tradicional, isto é, ao livrá-la do psicologismo, Husserl impulsiona Heidegger na inauguração da sua fenomenologia hermenêutica, pois a consciência deixa de ser tratada como um objeto natural e tem o seu caráter ideal destacado. (...) Desse modo, afirmamos que Heidegger, radicalizando, constrói uma interrogação que desloca o objeto da fenomenologia do campo da consciência para a existência, deixando a teoria do conhecimento, na qual se inseria Husserl, indo em direção de uma ontologia. Para tal, percorreremos por alguns conceitos centrais das Investigações Lógicas, passando em seguida para a análise dos poucos fragmentos onde Heidegger explicita a sua relação com a obra husserliana. (shrink)

Análise diacrônica das contribuições históricas expressas nos artigos científicos de pesquisadores bolsistas de produtividade em pesquisa do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, para o debate embasado em Raymond Williams no campo da Ciência da Informação, mais especificamente no interdomínio relacionado aos aspectos culturais. Apresenta a concepção adotada como fundamento do estudo, investigando a influência de Williams para as pesquisas sobre cultura na área. Identifica a produção científica dos agentes que constituem o grupo de pesquisadores de produtividade em Ciência (...) da Informação, e que referenciaram Williams. Seleciona os artigos desses autores para verificar os temas presentes nessa produção e os periódicos científicos nos quais são publicados. Analisa essas contribuições, relacionando-as entre si e com as concepções presentes na literatura pertinente. O estudo permitiu identificar uma pequena parcela das publicações pesquisadas como citante de obras de Williams, porém é possível constatar que mais da metade dos artigos que trazem o autor como referência tratam sobre cultura. A pesquisa também demonstra a inclinação de dois pesquisadores em citar as obras de Raymond Williams, considerando suas publicações correspondem quase a metade do corpus da pesquisa. Foi possível observar que a publicação dos artigos analisados se encontra dispersa entre os diversos periódicos da área. (shrink)

Literature on place makes use of concepts like authenticity and is often structured around a critique of homogeneity or placelessness. This critique is reinforced by the discourse of conservation biology with its emphasis on protecting biodiversity and condemning some non-native species. However, a common emotional response of humans, when they are displaced, is to make where they are like where they felt at home. The debate around invasive species needs careful handling for both ecological and social reasons. This paper addresses (...) a gap in that debate by taking account of the emotional involvement of humans with plants and their caring for the immediate environment through the activity of gardening. (shrink)

The picturesque is usually interpreted as an admiration of 'picture-like,' and thus inauthentic, nature. In contrast, this paper sets out an interpretation that is more in accord with the contemporary love of wildness. This paper will briefly cover some garden history in order to contextualize the discussion and proceed by reassessing the picturesque through the eighteenth century works of Price and Watelet. It will then identify six themes in their work (variety, intricacy, engagement, time, chance, and transition) and show that, (...) far from forcing a 'picture-like' stereotype on nature, the picturesque guided the way for a new appreciation of wildness—one that resonates with contemporary environmental philosophy. (shrink)

Comparing the nature encounters of Gerald Durrell with our current climate of ‘stranger danger’, health and safety neurosis, and the beguilement and blunting of the senses by technological advances presents a worrying picture of a new era of nature and culture deprivation. However, even in the most unlikely places, a rich engagement with nature can be rekindled. Central to such recovery is access to nearby nature that allows practical engagement rather than merely detached on-looking. In my conclusion I outline examples (...) where this has been made possible in the challenging settings of socially deprived urban areas. (shrink)

This paper examines the role of ethics in addressing aspects of ecological restoration in culturally-saturated landscapes. Do we have the ethical tools to respond to the complex questions that restoration poses? We can see valued landscapes, such as the English Lake District, as culturally rich or as ecologically denuded. This paper will juxtapose the demands of retaining rich cultural narratives and those of rewilding (which would allow for greater self-sustaining biological diversity and space for unrestrained nature). Using the ethical theory (...) of responsive cohesion, this paper will explore the cultural narrative vs wildness question in the context of the English Lake District. (shrink)

Reference to Merleau-Ponty's ideas surfaces in environmental thinking from time to time. This paper examines whether, and in what way, his ideas could be helpful to that thinking. In order to arrive at a conclusion I examine in detail and attempt to clarify the notions of 'Flesh' and 'Earth' in order to see if they can carry the meanings that commentators sometimes attribute to them. With a clearer outline of what he was saying in place, I suggest that the new (...) ontology that Merleau-Ponty introduces could help to transform environmental thinking, but that careful argumentation is required to show this. (shrink)

This chapter discusses the concept of the picturesque in the sense of admiring nature as “picture-like” and, consequently, inauthentic. A contrasting view regarding the interpretation of the picturesque, which is more acquiescent to the contemporary love of wildness and environmental philosophy, is presented and explored through the works of Price and Watelet. In reassessing the picturesque, six themes are identified in their works, namely, variety, intricacy, engagement, time, chance, and transition. This alternative view of the picturesque shows that, contrary to (...) the belief that it forced a “picture-like” representation of nature, it actually acted as a guide toward a new appreciation of wildness. The current interest in preserving pristine wilderness or rural landscapes represents a current interest in wild nature. (shrink)

: In this paper we discuss ethical and aesthetic questions in relation to the gardening practice of topiary. We begin by considering the ethical concerns arising from the uneasiness some appreciators might feel when experiencing topiary as a manipulation or contortion of natural processes. We then turn to ways in which topiary might cause an 'aesthetic affront' through the humanizing effects of sentimentality and falsification of nature (most often found in representational rather than abstract topiary). Our contention is that successful (...) topiary emerges through a dynamic and positive relationship between topiarist and tree, where the gardener works with nature's forms instead of in strong opposition to them. Appreciation of successful topiary, we shall argue, is marked by an experience of both the tree as a living thing and the artifice which has shaped it. (shrink)

This book provides a systematic, philosophical account of the main issues that pertain to the aesthetics of modified environments, as well as new insights concerning the generation and appreciation of landscapes and environments that fall between nature and culture, including gardens and ecologically restored landscapes.

This study examines the communication strategies employed by MeritCare's public relations staff during the fen-phen case. The ethic of significant choice was the primary lens for the study. The study revealed that MeritCare's public relations staff members believed they did, in fact, follow the ethic of significant choice. Specifically, they perceived that the biases held by staff helped maintain the public's safety as the primary issue during the fen-phen events. They also believed that their communication strategies allowed them to avoid (...) ambiguity and emotionalized language. Finally, the staff members felt that teaming with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota enabled them to influence the marketplace of ideas by capitalizing on the credible standing of Mayo Clinic. (shrink)

O nosso objetivo é propor um diálogo entre Husserl e Heidegger relacionando-os a partir da crítica que estes filósofos apresentam à investigação de viés naturalista acerca do homem, predominante na tradição filosófica. Para Husserl, o domínio do naturalismo representa a influência da Psicologia Experimental na filosofia, Heidegger, por sua vez, destaca a temática antropológica encontrada na história da filosofia. De acordo com o primeiro, o “psicologismo” acarreta na redução do homem aos seus componentes empíricos, para o segundo, o “antropologismo” equivale (...) a um processo de coisificação do homem. O “psicologismo” e o “antropologismo” são reflexões inadequadas pois equiparam o homem ao objeto natural, isto é, são reflexões que não consideram o verdadeiro sentido de ser do homem, ignorando a consciência intencional e a existência. Logo, Husserl e Heidegger compartilham a tentativa de fazer a filosofia retornar sobre aquele âmbito que compõe propriamente o homem, ou seja, ambos filósofos defendem a desnaturalização da reflexão e desenvolvem a fenomenologia como o exercício de tal retorno. (shrink)

In this article I address the imbalance in the production and circulation of knowledge in the dominant Anglo-American academic circuit, aiming to make visible feminist work in a decolonial vein carried out in Latin America, to recentre the decolonial option with regard to established postcolonial studies and to propose a way of understanding global postfeminist female subjectivity as mediated in mass media. The decolonial option offers a rich theoretical toolbox for exploring contemporary junctions of gender, race and the question of (...) representation. I propose a reworking of the concept of the ‘coloniality of gender’, and briefly discuss how Femen and the figure of the exoticised female pop icon exemplify coloniality at work. (shrink)

Este texto pretende examinar os pressupostos da Terra-gêmea-moral, argumento formulado por Terence Horgan e Mark Timmons com intenção de refutar a proposta realista naturalista da moral conhecida como realismo de Cornell. A Terra-gêmea-moral fornece alguma evidência intuitiva de que termos que nomeiam tipos morais não são designadores rígidos de propriedades naturais e que, portanto, não é possível oferecer uma definição naturalista para eles, o que deveria ser um comprometimento do realismo de Cornell. Entretanto, neste texto, procuramos demonstrar que o realismo (...) de Cornell não se compromete com relações de designação rígida entre termos para tipos morais e propriedades naturais para sustentar sua postura naturalista. Em vez da relação de identidade entre tipos morais e naturais que seria trazida pela designação rígida, o realismo de Cornell mantém apenas a tese metafísica segundo a qual tipos morais são constituídos ou realizados por propriedades naturais deixando aberta a possibilidade de múltipla realização dos tipos morais. Como o realismo de Cornell não se compromete com a tese semântica que Horgan e Timmons criticam, então a Terra-gêmea-moral não parece oferecer uma objeção à posição realista. (shrink)

Introducción: cultivar el pensamiento positivo en el ser humano es una necesidad y está relacionado estrechamente con su calidad de vida. Los estudiantes universitarios transitan por una etapa del ciclo vital individual importante, una de sus metas es lograr una profesión; tener una actitud mental optimista puede ser de gran ayuda para el alcance de sus propósitos. Métodos: se realizó una investigación de tipo descriptiva y transversal con el objetivo de determinar un sistema de acciones para alcanzar un pensamiento positivo (...) en los estudiantes universitarios desde diciembre de 2012 a julio de 2014. Se emplearon encuestas en el diagnóstico para identificar las necesidades sentidas de aprendizaje, el nivel de conocimientos sobre el tema y el estado actual de la población objeto de estudio, constituida por los 167 estudiantes del plan D de la Facultad Tecnología de la Salud de Camagüey. Se analizó la información a través del procesamiento de los datos. Se utilizaron también métodos del nivel teórico: análisis-síntesis, inducción-deducción y análisis documental. Se aplicó el consentimiento educado. Resultados: se mostró la necesidad de conocer sobre el tema y la certeza de que no muchos aplican el pensamiento positivo. Conclusiones: se reveló la necesidad de lograr una cultura de salud con la aplicación de acciones para el logro en los estudiantes del pensamiento positivo. Introduction: Nurturing positive thinking in human beings is a necessity and it's closely linked with their quality of life. University students face an important stage of their vital cycle. One of their goals is to achieve/attain a profession; that is why, to have an optimistic attitude can be of great help to reach this purpose. Methods: a descriptive and cross-sectional research was carried out in in order to determine a system of actions to develop positive thinking in university students from December 2012 to July 2014. Surveys were used in the diagnosis so as to identify the real learning necessities, the level of knowledge on the topic and the current status of the target population, which was composed by 167 students studying under curriculum D at the Health Technology School in Camagüey. The information was analyzed through the processing of data. Methods of the theoretical level were also used: analysis-synthesis, induction-deduction and documental analysis. Educated consent was obtained. Results: the necessity of knowing about this topic, as well as the certainty that not many students implement positive thinking were demonstrated. Conclusions: the necessity of acquiring knowledge on health topics was revealed through the application of actions to develop students` positive thinking. (shrink)

Through a number of examples of environmental interventions, this paper makes the claim that the unauthorised nature of some interventions is an integral part of their aesthetic quality. This does not mean that all such interventions have these qualities - only that the regulation of what can be done where and by whom could endanger the production of a rich seam of aesthetic experience, such as edginess and whimsy, and the aesthetic engagement of artists and the general public with places.

A pesquisa bibliográfica teve por objetivo analisar discursos e imagens sobre a História e Cultura Afro-Brasileiras, Africanas e Indígenas em coleções didáticas selecionadas pelo PNLD - Programa Nacional de Livro Didático. Mediante a investigação dos conteúdos das unidades temáticas dos livros e suas representações sobre o papel de brancos, negros, indígenas e mestiços para a construção da nação foi possível identificar mecanismos implícitos e explícitos da reprodução de valores da hegemonia européia e da perpetuação do mito da democracia racial. Desta (...) forma, a diversidade étnico-racial, mesmo asse gurada pelas leis 10.639/03 e 11.645/08, continua a significar um desafio histórico quanto à implementação de uma educação para as relações étnico-raciais direcionada à valorização do pertencimento étnico-racial, ao passado de luta dos ancestrais africanos e indígenas e ao combate do racismo social e institucional. (shrink)

This book explores 'difficult conversations' in feminist theory as an integral part of social and theoretical transformations. Focussing on intersectionality within feminist theory, this book critically addresses questions of power and difference as a central feminist concern, rather than assuming that the needs and experiences of elite women apply to all women. It presents ethical, political, social, and emotional dilemmas while negotiating difficult conversations, particularly in terms of sexuality, class, 'race', ethnicity, and cross-identification between the researcher and researched. Topics covered (...) include challenging cultural relativism; queer marginalisation; research and affect; and feminism and the digital realm. This book is aimed primarily at students, lecturers and researchers interested in epistemology, research methodology, gender, identity, and social theory. The interdisciplinary nature of the book is aimed at reaching the broadest possible audience, including those engaged with feminist theory, anthropology, social policy, sociology, psychology, and geography. (shrink)

Dancing with Time: The Garden as ArtJohn PowellPeter Lang. 2019. pp. 204. £45.00.