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The Nature of Things
... More often, on the contrary, it is Religion breeds Wickedness and that has given rise to wrongful deeds. (Lucretius 2019, 2015 In d'Aragona's dialogue, this differentiation between the reasoning of philosophy and the faith of theology is introduced via the question of God's infinity. Before diving into this discussion, Tullia asks Varchi: "favellate voi nella vostra domanda come teologo o come filosofo?" ...
... In the same vein as Lucretius d'Aragona also highlights the necessity of sensual experience for any higher understanding of the world. In Book 1, Lucretius (2019Lucretius ( , 2015 rhetorically asks: "quid nobis certius ipsis / sensibus esse potest, qui vera ac falsa notemus?" (What is more certain than our senses to tell the false from real?) (lines 699-700) and in Book 4, focused specifically on the experience of love, he continues this argument: ...
... This desire can only be temporarily satisfied, but never completely. The closeness of this argument to Lucretius (2019Lucretius ( , 2015 is evident, as he explains: (2004), impress differently on the world, making it clear that the sensory aspects of love are essential to any human's possibility to live and learn about the world. Hence, a little later, Tullia continues this defence of bodily desire by calling upon its natural cause, which is central to Lucretius too: ...
... Recent historical scholarship has demonstrated the extent of the philosophical influence of Epicurean thought on thinkers in Renaissance Florence, which was stimulated in particular by the rediscovery of Lucretius's (2001) first-century BCE text, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) (Brown 2001(Brown , 2010Palmer 2014). Machiavelli's participation in this trend has now been well established: he had carefully transcribed De rerum natura, and was familiar, in addition, with some of the work of Marcello Adriani, in particular his 1497 lecture Nil admirari (Brown 2010: 68-87). ...
... At this point, let us return briefly to Machiavelli's debt to Lucretius, who notes in De rerum natura that every organism possesses certain intrinsic powers and tendencies, the former spontaneously desiring the expression of these powers and tendencies as a natural mode of being: 'The fact is that every creature is instinctively conscious of the purpose for which it can use its particular powers' (Lucretius 2001(Lucretius : V.1033(Lucretius -1034. I have argued that for Machiavelli one of the few non-tedious elements of human nature is ambition: all individuals, regardless of the particular direction and object of their creative desire, seek to impose themselves on the world through the venting of their ambitious energies. ...
Recent scholarship on the political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli has demonstrated the extent to which the latter's republicanism is of a populist type, and a potentially important resource for contemporary democratic theory. Although work has been produced on the constitutional form of the Machiavellian republic, less effort has been made to articulate the theoretical assumptions upon which the advocacy of such a republic is ethically grounded. Here, I attempt to locate the democratic ethical imperative in the affirmation of a fundamental human difference. Influenced by the Epicurean tradition, Machiavelli's natural philosophy considers material entities as absolute singularities lacking internal teleological direction, their movement the productive result of contingent encounters. One cannot assume a natural or pre-social identity of desire between persons. Democracy is the ethically preferred regime because it is the one that is capable of facilitating the expression of this human uniqueness.
... See Lindsell (1937) for a critical reconstruction of the botanical and geographical references of Theocritus' work). The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius reports of the use of olive trees as markers to delimit borders in intercropped fields of hills and valleys, thus referring explicitly to their spatial function in the landscape (Lucretius, 1924(Lucretius, , 5.1373(Lucretius, -1378. ...
... Lastly, plant association is a recurrent theme in the written sources, clearly expressing the awareness of cross-species interactions at the ecosystemic level. We have already mentioned the strategic use of olive trees as boundary markers and wind protectors for other crops (Lucretius, 1924(Lucretius, , 5.1373(Lucretius, -1378Cato the Elder, in Cato and Varro (1934), 6.1-6.3), and their intercropping with underneath crops used as fertilizers (Columella, 1941, 5.9.11-12). Muslim authors give precise indications about the most suitable plant associations for the olive: first of all for the wild olive, playing the pollinator role (Ibn al-'Awwām Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, 1983, p. 541); (Ferrara, 2022 and Focus Groups) and their spatial patterns are remnants that can still be seen today (Ferrara & Wästfelt, 2021). ...
Seasonal cycles in plants and animals drive key timings of human practices in an agrosystem like the best time for harvest, planting, or pruning. Within the framework of historical phenological studies, we attempt a reconstruction of the olive (Olea europaea L.) phenology along millennia. Thanks to its extraordinary longevity, the olive tree is a living proxy from the past and embodies a still uncollected long-term memory of ecological behaviors. A cultural keystone species, olive cultivation has more and more played a crucial role for biodiversity conservation, livelihood of rural communities and their enrooted cultural identity in the whole Mediterranean. By compiling traditional phenological knowledge from historical written sources and oral traditions, and using it as historical bio-indicator of the linkage between human ecological practices and seasonal changes of plant behavior, we compiled a monthly ecological calendar of the olive tree covering the last ∼2800 years. As a case study, we chose a special place: Sicily, unique for its position in the Mediterranean, geomorphology and legacies in the form of cross-temporal accumulated eco-cultures. Such a sui generis ecological calendar provides an additional case study to explore the intertwining of plant behavior and human adaptation strategies and the interplay between cultural diversity, ecological disturbance and phenological stability. All of this, in turn, can inform action for the present and future sustainable management of these millennial trees.
... In fact, knitting is thought to have its origins in the Middle East in pre-Christian times, and it may have derived from the knot work that seafarers used to create fishing nets (Burnham, 1972;Rutt, 1987). Even Lucretius (2007) in De Rerum Natura writes that nature forced men rather than women to spin wool because men were more adept in this art. The Middle Ages saw the creation of knitting guilds, which were men-only labor unions with structured apprenticeship systems that supported male knitters who worked professionally to provide knitted fabric and garments for sale (Bucior, 2013). ...
... They are not very young of course, aged 25 years and over, fans of street art . . . This recalls, on one hand, the large male presence in the domain of street art and, on the other, memory of a distant past when men used to knit (Bucior, 2013;Lucretius, 2007;Macdonald, 1990). Furthermore, in addition to men, the initiative also saw the spontaneous involvement of children, particularly during the final installation of the knitted pieces in the cathedral square. ...
The aim of this article is to explore urban knitting as a worldwide social movement, rather than solely a kind of “inoffensive urban graffiti” made with knitted fabric. Building on the available literature and original research, the article argues that this movement weaves together elements from craftivism, domesticity, handicraft, art, and feminism. It then explores a specific urban knitting initiative, called “Mettiamoci una pezza” (“Let’s patch it”), carried out in L’Aquila, Italy, 3 years after the earthquake that devastated the city in 2009. To analyze the sociopolitical aspects of this initiative, a series of qualitative research studies was conducted over time, to which were added semistructured interviews with the initiative’s local organizers. The findings show that the initiative in L’Aquila clearly exhibits the five original features of the urban knitting movement that emerge from the literature as being characteristic of this movement.
... In fact, knitting is thought to have its origins in the Middle East in pre-Christian times, and it may have derived from the knot work that seafarers used to create fishing nets (Burnham, 1972;Rutt, 1987). Even Lucretius (2007) in De Rerum Natura writes that nature forced men rather than women to spin wool because men were more adept in this art. The Middle Ages saw the creation of knitting guilds, which were men-only labor unions with structured apprenticeship systems that supported male knitters who worked professionally to provide knitted fabric and garments for sale (Bucior, 2013). ...
... They are not very young of course, aged 25 years and over, fans of street art . . . This recalls, on one hand, the large male presence in the domain of street art and, on the other, memory of a distant past when men used to knit (Bucior, 2013;Lucretius, 2007;Macdonald, 1990). Furthermore, in addition to men, the initiative also saw the spontaneous involvement of children, particularly during the final installation of the knitted pieces in the cathedral square. ...
This entry introduces the reader to various media effects of mobile communication devices. The special focus is on mobile phones. The entry begins with a presentation of media effects on communication practices, on users, as well as on interlocutors and bystanders. It continues by analyzing the reverse effects of users on the redesign of mobile media. Lastly, the issues of how mobile communication is connected to social and geographical surroundings and how the use of mobile communication devices is related to the social structures of society are addressed. The entry concludes with a discussion of the media effects of mobile communication in the future.
... For if they were not apt to incline, all would fall [caderent] downwards like raindrops through the profound void, no collision would take place and no blow would be caused amongst the first-beginnings: thus nature would never have produced anything. 23 His use of the Latin declinare and clinamen are literal translations of Epicurus's Greek word parenklisis, with klisis meaning "angle" or "slope," of which Michel Serres so lucidly explained the connection to Leibniz's linking of the smallest in the form of the infinitesimal and the slope in the form of the tangent. 24 The smallest possible element, the atom, makes the smallest possible deviation from the straight trajectory of the fall, the swerve, "at times quite uncertain and uncertain places," to then link up by conjunction, coniuncta, which is a direct translation of the term symbebēkota, coincidences. ...
By slowly dissolving the contrast between necessity and chance we arrive at Leibniz’ Principle of Sufficient Reason, which we trace back to his ideas on sufficient grace. Doing so, the world of things falling and befalling starts to become the engine of appearances and images, something we initially find in Lucretius, then in Virilio and Baudrillard. Why is it that the media crave accident? Because in phenotechnology only the transfer to images counts, not the breaking with the final cause of technical objects. From the perspective of media, nothing goes wrong. The media constitute a realm of technical grace, the gentle force that makes brutal events happen.
... While certainly incorrect from an evolutionary perspective, Lucretius captured the human fascination with bird-song by suggesting, in his De rerum natura, that "[m]en whistled to imitate the warbling notes of birds a long / Time before they could lift their voices in melodious song / Pleasing to the ears." (Lucretius, 2007(Lucretius, , 192, lines 1379(Lucretius, -1381. As the most closely connected art form, music celebrates birds' vocalisations, as in the output of composers such as Messiaen, whose work draws extensively from, and attempts in part to replicate, bird-song (Kraft, 2000;Schultz, 2008;H. ...
Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music by Steven Jan is a comprehensive account of the relationships between evolutionary theory and music. Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory, and vice-versa.
Comprised of seven chapters, with several musical examples, figures and definitions of terms, this original and accessible book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationships between music and evolutionary thought. Jan guides the reader through key evolutionary ideas and the development of human musicality, before exploring cultural evolution, evolutionary ideas in musical scholarship, animal vocalisations, music generated through technology, and the nature of consciousness as an evolutionary phenomenon.
A unique examination of how evolutionary thought intersects with music, Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music is essential to our understanding of how and why music arose in our species and why it is such a significant presence in our lives.
... While no heaven or hell awaits the secular soul, non-existence can appear no less formidable. We need to recall, as did the Roman poet Lucretius (De Rerum Natura) that the period of our non-existence before birth was nothing to fear, so why should the period of our non-existence after death be any worse (Lucretius, 2007)? ...
... Looking at this work helped me to see the potential connections between theoretical texts around the nature of time and becoming that were a staple of my graduate school life (Nietzsche, 1997;Deleuze and Guattari, 1987;Connolly, 2002;Brown, 2001;Lucretius, 1995) and my work on the accelerating pace of political events. That Boccioni's work avoided being polemical in any direction, but instead simply attempted to interrogate the affective and phenomenological aspects of social acceleration helped give me a vision of what a more complex and nuanced account of speed might look like. ...
Simon Glezos is a leading social and cultural theorist of time. He has published several journal articles on temporality, and two robust monographs on the matter: The Politics of Speed (Routledge, 2012) and the recent Speed and Micropolitics (Routledge, 2020). In this interview, we will look back on his celebrated works on speed and politics. In doing so, I also get his opinion on current issues that affect the time-politics bond today. The interview seeks to examine the topicality of the acceleration theory through the voice of one of its more original authors, having in mind current socio-political phenomena such as pandemic deceleration, social malaise (both global and local), energy challenges, and the revitalization of old nationalisms. -- Simon Glezos es un destacado teórico social y cultural del tiempo. Ha publicado varios artículos en revistas sobre la temporalidad y dos sólidas monografías sobre el tema: The Politics of Speed (2012) y Speed and Micropolitics (2020). En esta entrevista avanzaremos una breve retrospectiva sobre sus célebres trabajos sobre velocidad y política. Al hacerlo, hemos recogido su opinión en temas de actualidad relevantes que afectan al vínculo tiempo-política hoy. La entrevista examina la actualidad de la teoría de la aceleración a través de la voz de uno de sus autores más originales, teniendo en cuenta fenómenos sociopolíticos contemporáneos como la desaceleración pandémica, el malestar social (tanto global como local), los retos energéticos y la revitalización de los viejos nacionalismos.
... 34 (Lucretius, 1997) 35 (Konstan, 2018) 36 (Eigen & Larrimore, 2006) There is considerable irony here for the so called Copernican revolution was driven in part by heretical sun worshippers and Isaac Newton spent more time experimenting with alchemy than on what would today be called 'natural sciences' . There is also a sub-text in reconfiguring 37 Epicureanism as an emerging 'modern' worldview as that allows for the claim that these views originated in the Europe of the Enlightenment and that non-Europeans were not capable of discovering these principles. ...
This paper evaluates the origins of the study of history from the practice of astrology as a form of giving meaning to human events. It then explores how with the rise of Newtonian mechanics astrology began to decline and the connection between history and the sacred was severed. Then entered Kantian philosophy which reintroduced a grand design to human history and re established the connection between history and the sacred but with a twist. Kant’s history was one of racist providence with the ultimate goal of the survival of the white race with the destruction of all other races. This is fully documented.
... There were some ancient philosophers who put forward materialist views, particularly in ancient Greece and Rome. (For example, the poetical tract The Nature of Things by the Roman poet Lucretius [2007] described the universe as a giant machine and explained mental and physical phenomena in terms of tiny elementary particles.) Similarly, some scientists began to adopt a materialist metaphysics as early as the 17th century (Ferrer, 2014), but materialism arguably only started to become a prevalent metaphysical paradigm in Western culture towards the end of the 19th century. ...
The issue of whether it is possible to separate science and metaphysics is discussed, with reference to William James and the writings of quantum physicists. The metaphysical framework of scientific materialism is analysed and some of its key assumptions are identified. It is suggested that these assumptions are becoming increasingly untenable, as is evident by the advocacy of post-materialist science by some contemporary scientists. The main appeal of transpersonal psychology to students and practitioners is arguably its lack of allegiance to a materialist metaphysics. Rather than allying itself to the metaphysical paradigm of naturalistic science or attempting to bracket out metaphysics, transpersonal psychology should operate openly within the framework of post-materialistic science. Rather than distancing itself from areas such as near-death studies and parapsychology, it should embrace and cooperate with them, sharing the same post-materialist perspective. Transpersonal psychology should not attempt to reduce itself to fit into mainstream psychology but to try expand mainstream psychology to include its concerns and principles. In a laudable attempt to pursue a more scientific approach, some transpersonal theorists have arguably swung too extremely away from essentialism/perennialism and metaphysics. It is hoped that a more balanced approach may be found, incorporating more nuanced and phenomenological forms of perennialism, and more cautious metaphysical claims.
... 12-14). As a Latin scholar at Radcliffe, one of the first books that Keller was fortunate to obtain in Braille was Lucretius's (2001) On the Nature of Things-a work that greatly impressed her. "Lucretius's philosophical poem," she later observed, presented "a startling close approach to our atomic age" (Keller, 1955, p. 96). ...
En introduction a des extraits de son ouvrage The world I live in cet article souligne l'importance de l'approche de Helen Keller (1880-1968) dans la comprehension des rapports entre l'homme et la nature. Aveugle et sourde, Helen Keller a developpe une connaissance du monde a travers le toucher. Philosophe et socialiste engagee, elle n'a cesse de denoncer la pauvrete, ainsi que les atteintes a l'environnement et a la sante occasionnees par la cupidite des hommes
... Take for example the experience of romantic love. Lucretius (2007) shows that too often individuals idealize their lovers due to a complex fear of death: we idealize our lovers as immortal gods with the intention of ultimately possessing them so that, by association, we may achieve immortality (pp. 138-143). ...
This article reviews Epicurean philosophy to expose Freud's drive theory as overly quantitative and lacking a qualitative dimension. Epicurean philosophy is congruent with fundamental premises in psychoanalysis, and contributes a qualitative and quantitative theory of pleasure. Moreover, Epicurean philosophy is compatible with fundamental tenets within relational psychoanalysis, indicating that drive theory is relevant-and possibly constitutive-to the relational perspective. After reviewing Epicurean philosophy, the article returns to Freud's conceptualization of drive. Arguments are made against Freud's hypothesis of a death drive, insofar as Freud believed that organisms are motivated by the pursuit of pleasure in an isolated individualistic manner. The article maintains that a critical exploration of Epicureanism challenges our tendency to equate classical drive theory with material reductionism. This carries significant implications for contemporary psychoanalysis and its interpretation of the drives.
... Verily, I guess, because The Sun is new, and of a recent date The nature of our universe, and had Not long ago its own exordium. [27] Neglecting here its cosmological context of arguing for a finite past age of the universe, this passage indicates an oftneglected aspect of Fermi's paradox: it is not enough to somehow remove all ATCs from our past light cone, we also need to erase their more durable and potentially detectable achievements in order to reproduce the empirical "Great Silence" [28]. On Earth, the very existence of the fascinating discipline of archaeology tells us that cultures (and even individual memes) produce material records significantly more durable than themselves. ...
We critically assess the prevailing currents in the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), embodied in the notion of
radio-searches for intentional artificial signals as envisioned by
pioneers such as Frank Drake, Philip Morrison, Michael Papagiannis and
others. In particular, we emphasize (1) the necessity of integrating
SETI into a wider astrobiological and future studies context, (2) the
relevance of and lessons to be learnt from the anti-SETI arguments, in
particular Fermi's paradox, and (3) a need for complementary approach
which we dub the Dysonian SETI. It is meaningfully derived from the
inventive and visionary ideas of Freeman J. Dyson and his imaginative
precursors, like Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, Olaf Stapledon, Nikola Tesla
or John B. S. Haldane, who suggested macro-engineering projects as the
focal points in the context of extrapolations about the future of
humanity and, by analogy, other intelligent species. We consider
practical ramifications of the Dysonian SETI and indicate some of the
promising directions for future work.
Opsomming Die mens het denke as ’n werktuig geskep om te vergoed vir die verlies van sy natuurlike instinkte en sy aard as ’n natuurlike wese. In die eerste artikel van hierdie tweeluik, “Hans Blumenberg se filosofiese antropologie”, word hierdie toedrag van sake in meer diepte bespreek. Hierdie (tweede) artikel bespreek hoedat denke om dieselfde redes evolueer as waarom dit ontstaan het. Die mens se legitimasie van homself word deur nuwe ervarings aan onstabiliteit onderwerp, en hy moet sy idees dan aanpas om weer sluiting te kry. Volgens Blumenberg is denke metaforologies en sistemies, en dit is ook die lyne waarlangs denke evolueer. Die soort denke wat my onderwerp is, is die breëbasis- maatskaplike denke wat die verloop van die geskiedenis bepaal. Daar is ook ander soorte denke, soos die estetiese, maar die metaforologiese en sistemiese is die basis van alle denke. In terugskoue het die evolusie van denke afsonderlike tydperke by die (Europese) mens opgelewer, en elke tydperk word deur ’n eie “werklikheidsbegrip” getipeer. Laasgenoemde is ’n bestaanslogika wat ’n tydperk kenmerk. Dit verskil van tydperk tot tydperk. Die Moderne Tyd en sy latere iterasie, die laatmoderne, is die mees onlangse tydperk. Die kapstok van my bespreking is die verskil tussen sekularisasie as verklaring van hoe denke evolueer (met essensie as kenmerk) en Blumenberg se eie model van funksionaliteit (met reokkupasie as kenmerk). Hierdie onderskeid het groot implikasies vir enige begrip van die geskiedenis en vir menslike selfverklaring. Blumenberg se fokus is op die Europees gelewerde moderniteit, maar kennis hiervan bied histories-strukturele aanwysers vir ontologieë wat die Europese slegs aansny of deels daarbuite val, en nog op soek is na hulle eie makrogeskiedenis. Kennisname van die metaforologiese aard van alle kennis, die diep-historiese oorlewerings wat sistemies daarin vaardig is, en hoe reokkupasie eerder as essensie die basis van alle kennis is, kan sulke maatskaplike ontologieë met hulle samestellingspogings en selfverklarings begelei. Die doel van hierdie artikel – as my eie ekstrapolasie op Blumenberg – is om ’n milieu aan te bied wat ’n bydrae ter vergelyking vir alternatiewe moderniteitstudies kan bied, hoewel laasgenoemde self nie die onderwerp van hierdie artikel is nie. Blumenberg skets die mens as ’n behoudende wese wat die oorlewing van die spesie eerste stel. Hierdie aspek kan oorlewing egter strem as ontologieë wyd uiteenlopende bestaanlogikas het maar dieselfde samelewing of streek deel. Die artikel betoog dat die verrekening van die aard van alle kennis en die evolusie van kennis – strukture wat gemeenskaplik aan alle ontologieë is – die mens met sy eerste doel, gemeenskaplike oorlewing, kan help. Terwyl dit gemeenskaplike oorlewing eerste plaas, kan dit veelvuldige selfverklarings wat naas mekaar en interagerend bestaan, ook moontlik maak. Trefwoorde: Aristoteles; Augustinus; Hans Blumenberg; Giordano Bruno; Darwinisme; Epikurus; eskatologie; essensialisme; evolusie; fenomenologie; funksionaliteit; Martin Heidegger; Kopernikus; kosmologie; Karl Löwith; metaforiese; Middeleeue; mitologie; moderniteit; mythos/mite; Friedrich Nietzsche; ontologie; sekularisasie; teorie; wetenskap
When ancient Greek heritage was rehabilitated in the Renaissance, its students were first and foremost aspiring humanists, and, almost as a rule, men. An early exception was Ippolita Maria Sforza (1445–88), the eldest daughter of the Duke of Milan, Francesco I Sforza. I argue that she not only studied the Greek language but also acted as a patron of Greek studies. Sforza's double role is confirmed by two Greek grammars dedicated to her and connected to the Byzantine migrant Constantine Lascaris. These documents reveal how Sforza probably studied the language, and how she was imagined as a student.
A Cultural History of Plants in Antiquity covers the period from 10,000 BCE to 500 CE. The period witnessed the transition from hunter-gatherer subsistence to the practice of agriculture in Mesopotamia and elsewhere, and culminated in the fall of the Roman Empire, the end of the Han Dynasty in China, the rise of Byzantium, and the first flowering of Mayan civilization. Human uses for and understanding of plants drove cultural evolution and were inextricably bound to all aspects of cultural practice. The growth of botanical knowledge was fundamental to the development of agriculture, technology, medicine, and science, as well as to the birth of cities, the rise of religions and mythologies, and the creation of works of literature and art.
The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Plants presents the first comprehensive history of the uses and meanings of plants from prehistory to today. The themes covered in each volume are plants as staple foods; plants as luxury foods; trade and exploration; plant technology and science; plants and medicine; plants in culture; plants as natural ornaments; the representation of plants.
Growing empirical evidence has revealed the central role of death anxiety in numerous mental health conditions. Given this, there is a significant need for treatments which specifically address fears of death. Whilst such treatments have only recently been developed within clinical psychology, the discipline of philosophy has a long history of offering valuable perspectives on death which may ameliorate this fear. In particular, we propose that the philosophy of Stoicism, which originated in ancient Greece and influenced the early development of cognitive and behaviour therapy (CBT), is of particular benefit to clinicians seeking to address death anxiety. We present a summary of Stoic philosophy and its arguments concerning death. Through integrating the ideas of Stoicism, we argue that current treatments for death anxiety would benefit from directly integrating Stoic perspectives on death. Lastly, we review evidence which suggests that cultivating attitudes to death which are consistent with Stoic philosophy may be associated with reduced death anxiety. We conclude that an awareness of Stoic philosophy has the potential to guide and improve CBT treatments for fears of death. Further research is needed in order to confirm whether treatments centering on Stoic perspectives on death lead to significant reductions in death anxiety.
The Acts of the Apostles describes – sometimes in rather colorful details – signs and wonders wrought by the apostle Paul. Can this portrait of the apostle be corroborated based on his own letters? Or do we have to conclude that contemporaries of the apostle paint a more or less hagiographic picture of Paul’s miraculous activities? What is the place of miracles surrounding Paul and wrought by him within the whole of his life and mission? A survey of Paul’s letters allows us to get a view of how the apostle sees the function of signs, wonders, and mighty works within the dynamics of the proclamation of the gospel. Viewed in this way, the possible difference between information based upon Paul’s own communication and that of his contemporaries about him appears to decrease. A clearer picture of the part miracles play within the whole of Paul’s mission may also help to rethink modern and post-modern worldviews from a biblical perspective.
Bilgeliğin sözle değil eylemle edinildiğini düşünen Stoacılar, felsefeyi yaşama sanatı olarak
tanımlarlar. Stoacı bilgenin doğaya uygun eylemleriyle bir sanat eserine dönüştürdüğü yaşamı, dingin ve çetin bir ruhu gerektirir. Yanılgılardan ve tutkulardan uzak bilgece yaşamın bir sanat eseri olarak düşünülmesi ilk bakışta mümkün görünmeyebilir. Günümüz ayrımlarıyla yaklaşıldığında Stoa felsefesinde estetik yaşantının özerk olmadığı ve estetiğin müstakil bir disiplin olarak kuramsallaştırılmadığı da rahatlıkla söylenebilir. Bununla birlikte güncel ayrımlar ve kavramlarla Antikçağ kuramlarına yaklaşmak, kestirme ve yanlış sonuçlara neden olabilir. Bu tehlikenin bertaraf edilebilmesi ve yaşama sanatının tam da Stoacıların iddia ettiği gibi estetik ve politik bir yaşama işaret ettiğinin temellendirilebilmesi için ilk kaynaklara, erken dönem Stoacı filozoflara dönülmelidir.
Estetik, etik ve politik bir yaşamın Stoacı yaşama sanatında içerildiği iddiasında olan bu çalışmada, felsefeyle yakından ilişkili olan “sevme sanatı”na odaklanılmaktadır. Çünkü Stoacı yaşama sanatı -halen rağbet görmesine rağmen-, çağdaş yazarların kapsamlı incelemelerine konu; özgün kuramlarına da ilham olan “eski” bir meseledir. Oysa tutkusuz bilgenin sevme sanatındaki ustalığı, oldukça dikkat çekici özellikleri açığa çıkarır ve çeşitli olanakları tartışmayı sağlar. Bu nedenle bu yazıda erken dönem Stoa felsefesinin sevme sanatı olarak adlandırdığı ilişki biçimi ile bu sanatın yetkinliği olan sevme erdemi ele alınmakta; bunlar aracılığıyla Stoacıların etik, estetik ve politik bir yaşamı bir arada nasıl düşünebildikleri incelenmektedir.
In addressing the Lucretian symmetry problem, the content-based approach attends to the difference between the contents of the actual life and those of relevant possible lives of a person. According to this approach, the contents of a life with an earlier beginning would substantially differ from, and thus be discontinuous with, the contents of the actual life, whereas the contents of a life with the same beginning but a later death would be continuous with the contents of the actual life. In this paper, I examine two versions of the content-based approach: the identity account and the preference account. The identity account holds that, in the sense of identity which is relevant to the evil of nonexistence, the subject of the actual life, though identical to the person in the life with a later death, is distinct from the subject of the life with an earlier beginning. The preference account maintains that, given one’s attachments to actual particulars, a life with an earlier beginning is not rationally preferable to one’s actual life, whereas a life with a later death is. I argue that each version of the content-based approach is implausible, while discussing some of the complications that face each of them.
Following Freud’s admission of his own ‘dependence on Spinoza’s doctrine’, the present paper extends psychoanalytic discernment of a bright line from Baruch Spinoza’s natural philosophy across the evolution of natural and social sciences to Freud’s development of psychoanalysis and forward, to contemporary psychoanalytic thinking. The lens through which these developments unfold is a close reading of Spinoza’s first, incomplete methodological statement, the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect. Tracking both the developing form and textual literary context from which this Spinozan inquiry proceeds, we recognize specific anticipations of contemporary psychoanalytic phenomena.
Deleuze, who criticizes the basic foundations and conceptual framework of Western
metaphysics and defines his philosophical orientation as "reversing Platonism", refers to
a point inside the tradition to overcome the problem. This ‘point’ is the Stoicism that
reversed Platonism in the first and radical way in the history of philosophy. Stoicism has
opened up the hierarchical structure of the Platonic concept of being and it has also
provided a reassessment of the nature views of pre-Socratic philosophers. According to
Deleuze, Stoicism, which brings the Platonic ideas down and whereas brings the
interwoven depths of the inner pre-Socratic world to the surface at the point of removing
the being/becoming duality, offers a solution from within the metaphysical tradition.
At the point of debating the basic categories of Western metaphysical tradition and the
functioning of these categories, rather than pointing to a field opposite to tradition, it is
precisely the purpose of this study to trace a possible one from within the tradition. In
accordance with this purpose, the subject of the study will be physics, which is one of the
basic parts of the Stoic philosophy. Therefore, the parts of the study consist of physics,
“something”, “existent (existence)”, and “universal order” in parallel to the design of
“reality”, “being (essence)”, and the “universe” of traditional metaphysics. In the first
chapter, the scope and limits of the physics will be determined by emphasizing the
importance of the physical investigation in terms of Stoic philosophy; in the next three
chapters the focus will be on the details of the physics whose boundaries are defined in
terms of subject and period. Hereby, it will be attempted to show to what extent the Stoic
physics differs from the traditional metaphysics and what kind of ontology it could
provide in proportion to these differences. In the conclusion chapter, the possibilities
offered by the Stoic philosophy for metaphysical dilemmas and problems will be
discussed and so conclusions will be tried to be drawn about what an intervention, coming from within the tradition, to metaphysical tradition might mean.
The intensification of anthropogenic influences on the biosphere calls for the creation of new mythologies grounded in symbiopoiesis, the rhizomatic co-formulation of self and world through fractal entanglement. The convergence of art and science proposes a transformative framework for the synthesis of both novel human narratives, as well as generative relational ontologies that allude to the possibility of symbiotic futures; Futures in which human freedom exists in harmony with the flourishing of biotic Earth. This paper is my undergraduate thesis, as well as a proposal for future work at the intersection of biodesign and the environmental humanities
Around the world, the twenty-first-century secondary classroom is based on growing cultural diversity. Educators that employ a culturally responsive curriculum with a proposed framework of existential pedagogy for secondary education seek to promote the academic success of culturally diverse learners. It is argued in this paper that in culturally responsive curriculum, existential pedagogy holistically engages the learner to critically reflect on how knowledge is constructed within cultures while exploring what it means to exist as an individual person in a diverse world. As a result, culturally diverse classrooms begin to understand the human experience in a more significant context and explore existential concerns through cultural differences. Existential pedagogy is integral for multicultural secondary educators and students to work for social justice by bridging the gaps between cultural differences.
Whether mental states are limited to conscious experience or encompass unconscious states was arguably the single most important and divisive question to confront psychology at its inception as a science. Both psychology and philosophy of mind changed radically as a result of the ensuing debate, from understanding mind as synonymous with consciousness in the nineteenth century to the present understanding of mind as unconscious representational states realized in brain tissue. The puzzle is: By what arguments, were these transformations justified? Freud’s philosophical argument for the existence of unconscious mental states, excavated and reconstructed in this book, is proposed as a “missing link” that provides a possible rationale for the transformations of psychology and philosophy of mind.
The Syfy television series The Expanse (2015-) transposes a form of combined and uneven development from Earth to the solar system, making the human reality of life lived in space a central concern. The Expanse envisions a colonized solar system, replete with a United-Nations-controlled Terra and Luna, a military dictatorship on Mars, and a densely populated asteroid belt. This essay proposes that The Expanse offers an image of a worlds-system, by which we mean an interplanetary system of capital accumulation that reproduces the structure of twentieth-century geopolitical-economy at the level of the solar system. At one and the same time, The Expanse imagines a new cycle of accumulation founded in the planetary system and premised on ecological crisis on Earth and it provides a re-narration of the end of the cycle of accumulation that has been called the long twentieth century or the American century, which exasperated the climate crisis in the first instance. The Expanse is a pivotal narrative that promises a new interplanetary cycle of accumulation and its decline all at once, a fantasy of continuity that simultaneously dramatizes the contemporary crisis of futurity.
Atheology is the intellectual effort to understand atheism, defend the reasonableness of unbelief, and support nonbelievers in their encounters with religion. This book presents a historical overview of the development of atheology from ancient thought to the present day. It offers in-depth examinations of four distinctive schools of atheological thought: rationalist atheology, scientific atheology, moral atheology, and civic atheology. John R. Shook shows how a familiarity with atheology's complex histories, forms, and strategies illuminates the contentious features of today's atheist and secularist movements, which are just as capable of contesting each other as opposing religion. The result is a book that provides a disciplined and philosophically rigorous examination of atheism's intellectual strategies for reasoning with theology. Systematic Atheology is an important contribution to the philosophy of religion, religious studies, secular studies, and the sociology and psychology of nonreligion.
This book presents a multidisciplinary perspective on chance, with contributions from distinguished researchers in the areas of biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, genetics, general history, law, linguistics, logic, mathematical physics, statistics, theology and philosophy. The individual chapters are bound together by a general introduction followed by an opening chapter that surveys 2500 years of linguistic, philosophical, and scientific reflections on chance, coincidence, fortune, randomness, luck and related concepts.
A main conclusion that can be drawn is that, even after all this time, we still cannot be sure whether chance is a truly fundamental and irreducible phenomenon, in that certain events are simply uncaused and could have been otherwise, or whether it is always simply a reflection of our ignorance. Other challenges that emerge from this book include a better understanding of the contextuality and perspectival character of chance (including its scale-dependence), and the curious fact that, throughout history (including contemporary science), chance has been used both as an explanation and as a hallmark of the absence of explanation. As such, this book challenges the reader to think about chance in a new way and to come to grips with this endlessly fascinating phenomenon.
Systematicity theory—developed and articulated by Paul Hoyningen-Huene—and scientific realism constitute separate encompassing and empirical accounts of the nature of science. Standard scientific realism asserts the axiological thesis that science seeks truth and the epistemological thesis that we can justifiably believe our successful theories at least approximate that aim. By contrast, questions pertaining to truth are left “outside” systematicity theory’s “intended scope” (21); the scientific realism debate is “simply not” its “focus” (173). However, given the continued centrality of that debate in the general philosophy of science literature, and given that scientific realists also endeavor to provide an encompassing empirical account of science, I suggest that these two contemporary accounts have much to offer one another. Overlap for launching a discussion of their relations can be found in Nicholas Rescher’s work. Following through on a hint from Rescher, I embrace a non-epistemic, purely axiological scientific realism—what I have called, Socratic scientific realism. And, bracketing the realist’s epistemological thesis, I put forward the axiological tenet of scientific realism as a needed supplement to systematicity theory. There are two broad components to doing this. First, I seek to make clear that axiological realism and systematicity theory accord with one another. Toward that end, after addressing Hoyningen-Huene’s concerns about axiological analysis, I articulate a refined axiological realist meta-hypothesis: it is, in short, that the end toward which scientific inquiry is directed is an increase in a specific subclass of true claims. I then identify a key feature of scientific inquiry, not generally flagged explicitly, that I take to stand as shared terrain for the two empirical meta-hypotheses. And I argue that this feature can be informatively accounted for by my axiological meta-hypothesis. The second broad component goes beyond mere compatibility between the two positions: I argue that, in want of a systematic account of science, we are prompted to find an end toward which scientific inquiry is directed that is deeper than what systematicity theory offers. Specifically, I argue that my refined axiological realist meta-hypothesis is required to both explain and justify key dimensions of systematicity in science. To the quick question, what is it that the scientific enterprise is systematically doing? My quick answer is that it is systematically seeking to increase a particular subclass of true claims.
Having critiqued Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion as the nearest thing to an Anglophone manifesto for atheists, I now turn to Michel Onfray’s French equivalent, the highly popular Traité d’athéologie (2005), to critique it in a comparable manner. Whereas Dawkins, in the tradition of Darwinian evolutionism, extols a virtually hypostatized Natural Selection as a surrogate for God, Onfray wants to take the French Enlightenment and the French revolutionary impetus to their logical conclusions and makes a supreme virtue out of good sense, rationality and intelligence. Onfray is an advocate not only of atheism, but his own form of hedonism, anarchism and aesthetic cynicism. As usual, I will maintain that any atheistic position must fall back on the ‘ultimacy’ of its protagonists’ own arguments, and once again it can be established that in Onfray’s case his platform statement is full of inaccuracies and misunderstandings, logical slides and internal inconsistencies, and injections of angry irony and personal emotion that weaken his case. As usual, I simply concentrate as a scholar of religious questions on the argumentative backing and relative weight of Onfray’s case against religion (especially the three major monotheisms), and as an historian of ideas I will attempt to explain Onfray’s manifesto against the background of the Frenchman’s whole philosophical opus, especially his ongoing work Contre-histoire de la philosophie (2004–).
The archetypal Neo-Confucian philosopher, Zhu Xi (1130–1200), worked out a compelling summation of Confucius’ humanistic ethics, centered on Ren (humaneness, humane) practice and cultivation. Faced with competing philosophies and religions, Zhu Xi strove to deepen and broaden Confucius’ ethics and core teaching of Ren. He drew on Zhou Dunyi’s “Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Polarity” to lay a naturalistic foundation for Confucius’ ethics, and on Zhang Zai’s “Western Inscription” to affirm the consanguinity between cosmos and humanity. He opened his “Treatise on Humanity” by linking Ren with the pervasive cosmic impulse to create, thus showing that the Way of Ren is not limited to the proper conduct of human affairs but springs from a pervasive beneficent creative impulse in the world. Zhu Xi also worked out a justification for Confucius’ Humanistic ethics centered on Ren cultivation and practice. This justification supports a sort of relational Humanistic ethics, the East Asian counterpart to Kant’s justification of an individual centered Humanistic ethics. Taken together, Zhu Xi’s mature comments and reflections on the formation of a moral exemplar (junzi) show that he, like Kant, set forth several conditions for the moral worth of ethical agency, decision, and action. For Kant, the moral agent must will to act from duty out of respect for reason (the Moral Law) which underlies the Golden Rule as the Categorical Imperative. Zhu Xi’s account is more practical and less theoretical than Kant’s. Zhu Xi’s aspiring moral exemplar undertakes his learning, cultivation, and practice in the spirit of reverence. Such reverence not only assures the concentration and seriousness of his dedication but purifies his mind-heart (xin) such that he becomes increasingly discerning of Heavenly pattern (tianli), which in turn sharpens his sense of appropriateness (yi). This deeper discernment also catalyzes his moral determination of will (zhuzai) to form within and to anchor his motivation to live by Ren, humanity. As Kant’s model incorporates the role of love and the Golden Rule, Zhu Xi’s centers on the cultivation of Ren and Confucius’ formulation of the Silver Rule, which are grounded in love and empathy. These teachings express a deeply emotional, relational, yet still rational form of Humanism that shows promise for a more salient Humanism by underscoring the unity of cosmos, nature, and humanity in a moral-ethical perspective.
This paper seeks to explore the nature of evil in respect to the ethics of Epicurean philosophy presented in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. Drawing on atomic physics and its complete corporeal physicality, Epicurean philosophy produces an ethical system in which the highest good is defined in terms of maximum pleasure both in the body and in the mind. Evil, therefore, must be anyting that detracts from that state of pleasure. It may be further categorized as either natural or human evil. However, it is the evils induced by the misunderstood nature of both the gods and death that are the most harmful to a peaceful state of mind. It is Lucretius' goal to root out these evils and, in doing so, establish the peace of the gods in the mind of the human.
This paper focuses on an understudied aspect of Hobbes's natural philosophy: his approach to the domain of life. I concentrate on the role assigned by Hobbes to the heart, which occupies a central role in both his account of human physiology (which he names ‘vital motion’) and of the origin of animal locomotion (‘animal or voluntary motion’). With this, I have three goals in mind. First, I aim to offer a cross-section of Hobbes's effort to provide a mechanistic picture of human life. Second, I aim to contextualize Hobbes's views in the seventeenth-century debates on human physiology and animal locomotion. In particular, I will compare Hobbes's views with the theories put forth by Harvey, Descartes, the Galenic, and Peripatetic traditions. Also, I will show that Hobbes was receptive to advances within contemporary English physiology and chemistry. Third, by means of a comparison with Descartes, I advance some hypothesis to explain why Hobbes indentified the heart, and not the brain (as was increasingly common in his day), as the organ originating animal locomotion. In this regard, I trace out some possible implications of Hobbes's views on human physiology and locomotion for his psychology and political philosophy.
This paper is a criticism of the theory according to which the primary aim of literature is to give pleasure, and literature does not teach anything new to human beings. The paper first attempts to place the triad literature-pleasure-ethics in a wide context of literary-critical and rhetorical debates that span centuries, from the Antiquity to the modern times. Then it proceeds to a critical examination of this doctrine of the primacy of pleasure over ethics in literature. In the end, it posits that there is no opposition between pleasure and ethics: literature only delights as it instructs. But inasmuch as ethics is the core layer, and pleasure the surface layer of literature, the former overrides the latter, and so reading involves moving from the outside to the inside of a work.
This article proposes a theory and practice of embodied intelligence in the built environment that has been precipitated by an age of advanced biotechnological developments, which enable us to design and engineer with living systems. The idea of ‘intelligence’ used in this article is not based on a human understanding of the concept but rather as a distributed, responsive material not dissimilar to primitive cellular organisms such as slime moulds. Yet designing and engineering with living systems as responsive matter whose embodied ‘intelligence’ is distributed and networked – rather than central and hierarchical – is a very different kind of undertaking to working with machines. By taking an experimental approach, my work aims to explore emerging ‘natural computing’ approaches to assist with thinking about the performance of lively materials capable of primitive decision-making operations, which may be of value to design practices such as Bio Design. Notably, embodied intelligence may offer a different way of understanding the issue of sustainability in the built environment in which the longevity of material integrity – and therefore reduction in building maintenance – may be enhanced by simple ‘decisions’. Rather than evaluating building performance through industrial definitions, which looks to material and energy conservation, embodied intelligence engages the capacity of our buildings to support the processes of life and so, increases the fertility of our homes and cities.
This essay invites readers to consider how exclusions operate in the framing of history. In conventional historical thought, agency was accorded only to the limited few. Marginals, ranging from third world nations to subaltern groups of all types, were excluded from the making of history. The task of recuperating the historicity of marginals has been underway now for decades. As I hope to suggest in this essay, however, we have yet to restore historicity to the original subalterns: the peoples of the Paleolithic. The field of medieval studies, curiously enough, is implicated in their exclusion. In the developmental narratives that emerged early in the twentieth century, medieval Europe was presented as the point of origins from which modernity sprang. To the extent that medievalists continue to reaffirm the prehistoricity of the Great Before, they instantiate the very same historical exclusion that modernists currently impose on the Middle Ages.
‘Wilderness’ is often seen as a (biophysical) ideal state in contemporary debates on ecological restoration. We ask what is left of relationships with ‘wilderness’ in present-day Western societies by drawing on a case study of the Hoge Veluwe National Park, the Netherlands. A brief history of wilderness interpretations is constructed as a backdrop to the analysis of the Veluwean land use history. Herein, wilderness aspects are conceptualised as ‘paradise-like’ or ‘hell-like’, thus providing insight into the origins, limits and dynamics of contemporary wilderness concepts. We conclude that the concept of wilderness is inherently paradoxical, and argue that wilderness paradoxes should be not be ignored, but acknowledged and valued in conservation practices.
The modern concept of adaptation is quite unlike is ancient cognates. Like other partly-scientific concepts, it has changed its meaning through time partly through scientific discoveries. This chapter traces some of the changes. The ancient Greek concept was refuted by developments in seventeenth and early-eighteenth century natural philosophy. Discoveries in physics, stemming from Newton, made early views of adaptation untenable. Biological discoveries of the early nineteenth century, followed by Darwin’s evolutionary writings, again refuted many traditional concepts. The varying approaches to evolution in the 20th century led to more controversies regarding adaptation, both conceptual and factual. If we recognize the variety of early opinions that are now abandoned, we may be more modest about the certainty of our own views ... at least those of this morning.
We hereby consider the problem of detectability of macro-engineering projects over interstellar distances, in the context of Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Freeman J. Dyson and his imaginative precursors, like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Olaf Stapledon or John B. S. Haldane, suggested macro-engineering projects as focal points in the context of extrapolations about the future of humanity and, by analogy, other intelligent species in the Milky Way. We emphasize that the search for signposts of extraterrestrial macro-engineering projects is not an optional pursuit within the family of ongoing and planned SETI projects; inter alia, the failure of the orthodox SETI thus far clearly indicates this. Instead, this approach (for which we suggest a name of "Dysonian") should be the front-line and mainstay of any cogent SETI strategy in future, being significantly more promising than searches for directed, intentional radio or microwave emissions. This is in accord with our improved astrophysical understanding of the structure and evolution of the Galactic Habitable Zone, as well as with the recent wake-up call of Steven J. Dick to investigate consequences of postbiological evolution for astrobiology in general and SETI programs in particular. The benefits this multidisciplinary approach may bear for astrobiologists, evolutionary theorists and macro-engineers are also briefly highlighted.
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