Metaphysical Aspects Research Articles

Nursi and Iqbal on Mi‘rāj

Said Nursi (1877-1960) and Muḥammad Iqbal (1877-1938) constructed their prophetologies in light of ‘aql (reason), but they also considered the mystical and metaphysical sides of prophethood and Prophet Muḥammad as a major component of their prophetologies. Nursi’s and Iqbal’s approaches depict a thought-provoking modus towards nubuwwa (prophethood) in a highly rationalised climate. This paper critically examines Nursi’s and Iqbal’s discussions of the metaphysical dimension of Prophet Muḥammad’s ascension, known as the mi‘rāj. Nursi and Iqbal respond to the rationalists using ‘aql and kashf (spiritual unveiling) without compromising spirituality. Their choice of genre, methods and arguments in defending the spiritual dimensions of mi‘rāj, as a second aspect, of nubuwwa will be examined. This paper highlights the creative use and interplay of rational and metaphysics in Nursi’s and Iqbal’s works (particularly Ayat al-Kubra and Javidnama) as a way to respond to a rationalised climate, but also to retain the spiritual aspects of their faith and mi‘rāj in their writings. Both saw the limitations of ‘aql and therefore relied on the kashf of the literature and poetry to communicate their thoughts. Nursi’s and Iqbal’s discussions on the mi‘rāj not only depict their contribution to the metaphysical aspects of prophethood, but also illustrate the variance of Muslim scholars’ responses to rationalism and prophethood in the 20th century. The effect of Nursi’s and Iqbal’s contributions to the continuation of a belief and tradition of Islamic faith is staggering proof of their intellectual and spiritual capacity to defend an aspect of faith with ‘aql and kashf, and appeal to the heart and spirit.

Epistemology and Ethics in Neo-Confucianism

성리학의 체계에서 지식의 성격과 획득이라는 인식론적 논의는 도덕성의 성격과 획득이라는 윤리학적 논의와 불가분의 관련을 맺고 있다. 성리학의 인식론에 해당하는 격물치지론에서 격물은 사물에 나아가 사물에 내재된 理를 내 마음속의 性으로 확립하는 일로 설명된다. 이 일은 흔히 주체 바깥의 대상이 주체 안으로 들어오는 일로 생각되지만, 인식의 구체적 사태를 염두에 둘 때 이 일은 인식대상으로서의 사물과 인식주체로서의 마음이 별도로 분리되어 존재하는 상태에서 이루어지는 것이 아닌 내 마음의 이상적 형식으로서의 和가 지식에 내재된 和를 보는 일로 설명되어야 마땅하다. 즉, 성리학의 논의에서 인식은 마음과 대상이라는 이질적인 두 요소 사이의 교섭이 아니라 주관적 국면과 객관적 국면이라는 서로 다른 국면에서의 동일한 요소 사이의 교섭이다. 「중용」 수장에 나타난 性-道-敎 계열과 이를 통하여 추론되는 敎-道-性 계열은 지식교육을 통한 교육의 과정이 내 마음의 性을 확립하는 일, 더 나아가 내 마음에 天命을 품는 일이라는 점을 보여주며, 이것은 그대로 성리학적 설명에서 도덕성의 성격과 획득의 과정을 밝히는 방법이 된다.The purpose of this study is to show the inseparable relation between epistemology and ethics in Neo-Confucianism theory. The epistemology in Neo-Confucianism represented by ‘the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge’(ko-wu chih-chih, 格物致知) can be understood as the acquisition of the metaphysical aspect of human mind(性) by discovering li(理) in things. However, this can not be regarded as a relation between mind and thing that are heterogeneous, but as a relation between two homogeneous elements of cognition that are objective and subjective ho(和). According to The Doctrine of the Means, man can appropriate hsing(性) through the course of education, and naturally this is the only course that he can embrace the God(Heaven, 天命) in his mind. ‘The act of self-cultivation and governing others’(xiu-chi zhi-ren, 修己治人) represents the Neo-Confucianism ethics, and shows the expression of the metaphysical aspect of human mind that has been cultivated by ko-wu chih-chih. This reinterpretation is based on the ‘two-fold structure’ consisting of two layers of world and mind, and here the epistemology and ethics can be explained on the same foundation.

On Wittgenstein's transcendental deductions

In this paper, I aim to shed light on the use of transcendental deductions, within demonstrations of aspects of Wittgenstein's early semantics, metaphysics, and philosophy of mathematics. I focus on two crucial claims introduced by Wittgenstein within these transcendental deductions, each identified in conversation with Desmond Lee in 1930-31. Specifically, the claims are of the logical independence of elementary propositions, and that infinity is a number. I show how these two, crucial claims are both demonstrated and subsequently deployed by Wittgenstein within a series of transcendental deductions, a series which begins with extensionalism as a generalized condition of sense on propositions, and in the context of which are then derived various, further, significant and unobvious presuppositions generated by that generalized condition of sense. In addition to clearing up deductions of these two, aforementioned claims, I also elucidate deductions of the subsistence of objects, and of logical space as an infinite totality.

METAPHISICAL BACKGROUND OF TECHNOLOGY

Purpose of the article is to clarify the nature of the connection of philosophy of both metaphysics and science-technical knowledge, the technology itself. To study the problem of relations between scientific and technical thinking, and metaphysics the author tries to clarify the nature of the scientific and technical thinking, analyze the appropriateness of instrumental or ontological approaches for understanding technology and its metaphysical foundations. Methodology of this work consists of such intellectual approaches as the phenomenological, hermeneutic and comparative methods. Originality. The originality of the article is in the clear question about the metaphysical preconditions of technology, firstly made in the national literature. In addition, the author in a well-argued manner proves that the phenomenon of technology is based on the metaphysical structures of being and the human mind, despite the fact that technologies are closely related to the empirical world. Apart the well-known thesis on the relationship of technology and art, the author insists on such precondition technologies as the human's ability of the transcendence and the presence of aprior forms of space and time that are the basis of any design, in human's brainwork. Moreover, it is demonstrated that modern technology in the context of studies of quantum physics reveals a new way of being of vehicles (artifacts), that lost not only the empirical, but also practical, instrumental measurements. Conclusion. The study found that the formation of technology as a phenomenon is closely related to metaphysical structures of being and human brainwork. Particularly, the author focuses on the following assumptions technology as the person's ability to transcend and presence of mind of a priori forms of time and space. Based on these arguments, one can make conclusion about the limitations of purely instrumental (pragmatic) interpretation technology and emphasize the metaphysical premises equipment and metaphysical aspects of modern technology, and the important role of philosophy in these problems.

Relasi Agama, Magi Dan Sains Dalam Pentas Politik: Studi Kasus Bunda - Sang Penasehat Spiritual

AbstractModern political institutions that glorifies scientific approaches still open a space formetaphysical ones. In a political competition, science institutionalize itself through politicalsurvey and consultant, and metaphysical aspect ispersonified by spiritual counselors.Thisarticle focuses on the practices of a political spiritual councelor in South Sulawesi, namedBunda. Thesuccessful of Bunda in her practice as a spiritual counselor in the modern eracannot be separated from her ability to to integrate between religion, magi and science. Thisis performed by combining between the aspects of religion and magi, such as zikir ritual (zikirmappateppe’, zikir hajat, and zikir ‘sapu mata’), animal sacrificing, and employing MajelisZikir and orphasn for the zikir; and science aspect can be seen from the zikir package withmeasurable operational costs which can be varied depending on the social status of thecandidate and the number of votes needed.The costs of zikir package vary, and each has itsown consequencewhich is informed to candidate in advance.Key Words: spiritual councelor, candidate, zikir, magi, science, vote, religion.

Gāyatri as Iso-Red-Shift of Astrophysical Event

The GÄyatri, according to Vedas the ancient Indian philosophical scriptures, is a goddess deity referred to as Vedic meter to monitor and regulate sunlight-earth interaction process in all 8 directions of the sky. GÄyatri refers to two metaphysical aspects, such as cosmic energy or “Pranaâ€, as well as, Sun rise-Noon-Sun set astrophysical events on complex matter–energy interaction. The recitation of GÄyatri is believed to enhance a human individual’s bio-energy. The GÄyatri is proposed as Iso-Red Shift (IRS) astrophysical event of the Sun rays directly reaching earth, as per Santillis’ findings, revealing spectral shifts between yellow to red as 55 nm in length. As well, at the zenith a spectral shift from blue to red and up to infra red as 200 nm through Doppler Effect is evident.  The Sun rise and Sun set GÄyatri events exhibit Red wavelength Doppler Shift with maximum polarized sky light. The noon phase has Blue wavelength Doppler Shift with least polarized sky light. The IRS on-set time depends upon earth’s axis rotation, axial tilt and twilight duration varying upon aphelion and perihelion distances of earth from the Sun. The Rayleigh scattering of light rays contributes to polarized sky light intensities proportional to inverse fourth power of the scattered wavelength. The study concludes that GÄyatri  phenomenon is a universal celestial IRS astrophysical event.

Reply to Fine

As should be clear, Modal Logic as Metaphysics owes a large debt to Kit Fine’s massive contributions to technical aspects of modal metaphysics, though it also takes issue with some of his proposals...

Anti-semitism and its metaphysical origins

This book articulates a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of Jew hatred as a metaphysical aspect of the human soul. Proceeding from the Jewish thinking that the anti-Semites oppose, David Patterson argues that anti-Semitism arises from the most ancient of temptations, the temptation to be as God, and thus to flee from an absolute accountability to and for the other human being.

The Anti-metaphysical Turn in the Philosophy of Love (From the Cartesian Perinatal Perspective on Love to Diderot’s Free Love in His Supplement to Bougainville’s Journeys)

In my paper, I show how the metaphysical aspect of the earlier concepts of love faded away through the disappearance of the essential references to God as the one, omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent being of the creation of nature, physis. Although in the seventeenth century, the structure of nature was conceived roughly in Epicurean terms, this concept was thought to be in need of a completion through a parallel system of being directed by teleological causality in one way or other. A synthesis of the Epicurean-scientific and the Christian teleological worldview was the main point in the philosophical agenda. The Enlightenment period meant a radical break between this soul-centred view and a new body-centred view most of the important thinkers were persuaded of. I exemplify this radically new look at the human being-in-the-world by presenting some ideas from § 50 of Diderot’s “Thoughts on the interpretation of nature” (Pensees sur l’interpretation de la nature). Diderot attributes the faculties of feeling and thinking to all being from the tiniest molecules to the most complex beings, dispensing in this way with the typically seventeenth-century idea of God as the personal warrant of the possibility of cognition. The sentient elements’ joining other corpuscles is no more governed by an omniscient creator but by the dynamism of the process itself. This boundless, creative, dynamic fluidity of being, this newly conceived nature in continual flux seemed to be captured best by such elastic faculties as imagination or sentiment. This is one of the reasons for the overall dominance of these faculties in the French and Scottish versions of the philosophy and theory of art of Enlightenment. The consequences of all this in domain of the thinking on love will be presented by way of a reflection upon Diderot’s ideas on the mixing of human and animal species in the Dream of D’Alembert and on his ideas on “free love” in his Supplement to the voyage of Bougainville (1775/1796).

To be Excellent Society: Comparative Analysis between Western and Muslim Philosophers

The western philosophers like Karl Marx believe that society is ontologically understood in terms of physical dimension only while the Muslim philosophers such as al-Fārābī, Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, Ibn Khaldūn and Murtaḍā Muṭahharī argue that it consists of physical and metaphysical or spiritual aspects. The structure of a society along with its development and orientation can be seen and explained by its physical and metaphysical aspects. Moreover, the perfection of a society is not only based on the fulfilment of its physical needs but also on the establishment of intellectual and spiritual needs. This article aims to discuss society through Islamic philosophy’s perspective with the elaboration of social science, the reality of a society, the structure of an ideal society and its development and orientation.
 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20414/ujis.v20i1.823

Image and Global Resemblance in the Light of Hadith “Who So Imitates other People Becomes One of Them”

Today, we are going through a period when people from different countries, cities and institutions unprecedentedly resemble each other. Resemblance emerges as a magnifying phenomenon in every aspect of life. For instance, from East to West, from North to South, urbanization homogenizes in the mould of a West-centred context of culture and urban people resemble each other in socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects. In other words, cities have their own identities depending on man. Man reflects his perception of the universe and his sustaining belief of metaphysics on the cities he constructs. The aesthetic qualities of the structures of cities are the realization of this perception. A city is a living materialization of the spirit of a society, its perception of life and religion. Thus, a city is never constructed irrespective of the spiritual worlds, cultural perceptions or edifices of its dwellers. In brief, a city reflects the edifice of its dwellers as the dwellers reflect their worldviews in cities.Classical, ancient structures of cities are greatly varied in aesthetic regard, and they all reflect different worldviews through the cities I have visited extending from Europe to Far Asia. Nevertheless, today we witness that these cities are abandoned, turned into historical heritage sites as people flood into the metropolis. We also unfortunately witness that all metropolis extending from America to Europe, or from the Middle East to the Far East show a uniformed structure.Likewise, the deeds and imagery aspirations of Oriental and Occidental people also resemble. In such an atmosphere, the local cultures rooted in history become accessories and lose their historical significance and metaphysical aspects in the edifice of the society because classic architecture is a product of rich cultures, while modern cities are the design of a of engineering. As modern architecture is a perception of secular Western edifice, its cities are constructed in a similar uniformed structural identity. This destroys cultural richness of different civilizations and enriches the orchestrators of modern architecture.The reform packages offered by Western countries for the sake of modernization eradicate the differences between ancient cultures, traditions and human experiences in a socio-cultural sense and standardize the world. In this regard, Ali Bulac (2011) warns that:Structures following the model of modern Western urbanization and the structures which emerge as a result of projects or urban transformation are exact similitude. Twin cities are emerging everywhere in the world. On one side lies the diverse ancient cities of various civilizations and cultures, continuously being abandoned and derelict, and on the other are the modern, Western models of urbanization based on vertical and drawn up structure.This monotypic structuralization is undoubtedly the greatest achievement of the West. The conquest, unachievable through battles, has been accomplished through cultural assimilation. What is touted as integration with the world or global citizenship is indeed succumbing to Western codes of civilization. In the age of modernization, our minds are obscured by such slogans which condemn its opponents because of their promoted positive connotations. Homogenization within the boundaries of ontological edifices and their representations in life pose a paradox in the modern age when multiculturalism is widely discussed. In this regard, this study aims to analyze Prophet Muhammad 's (s.a.w.) warning Who so imitates other people becomes one of them , its layers of meaning and its relationship with image and resemblence.The Framework of Meaning Laid out by the HadithFirst, it should be stated that according to ulum al-hadith (hadith sciences) the hadith Who so imitates other people becomes one of them (Abu Dawud n.d. 4: 44, hadith no. 4031) is acceptable to be practised. …

Hegel on the Idealism of Practical Life

AbstractThis paper investigates Hegel’s thesis that we are, in our practical relation to the world, inherently committed to certain aspects of idealistic metaphysics. For Hegel, our practical attitude is fundamentally at odds with a naïve realism that would take the world to consist ultimately of self-contained, self-sufficient individuals whose relations to one another are fundamentally external to their identities. Hegel contends that our practical attitude is premised upon an overcoming of this mutual externality, and especially the externality which is supposed to hold between individual agent and world. It is shown that his argument hinges on conceiving of external things as inadequately individuated, as compared to living agents, and that it is precisely this ontological deficiency that conditions and motivates our action. Hegel’s discussions of morality and property ownership are appealed to in order to illustrate how we might better understand the nature and practical role of this purported deficiency.

An Essay on Metaphysical Aspects of the Origins of Understanding

An Essay on Metaphysical Aspects of the Origins of Understanding

Reflections on the Spiritual in Rothko

Much has been made of the metaphysical aspects of Mark Rothko’s abstract art, especially his classic works of the 1950s and the Seagram murals. The claims for the spirituality of Rothko’s work are by no means unique either to his art or to art in general. Indeed there are many people who probe cultural forms, such as art, in order to reflect on life and broader questions that can be classed as spiritual concerns. The “revelations” that Rothko’s classic works give rise to, as described by visitors and commentators alike, reflect this phenomenon, and, taking this view further, explain why secular institutions such as art galleries can be spaces for spiritual experience. Rothko presents an interesting case as his work can be understood as spiritual in a broadly numinous way with recourse to the concepts of the sublime and the mystical as well as reflecting aspects of his Jewish identity. The intention of this article is to discuss the different spiritual aspects of Rothko’s work, particularly of his later career, in order to argue for the coexistence of these different strands, as well as to show the progression of his ideas.

Is it possible to delete a philosophical consciousness? Metaphysical aspects of Ssearle’s neurobiological approach of free will

In an effort to adjust his theoretical comprehension to the existing natural-scientific paradigm, Searle develops neurobiological naturalism, an approach which should rely on basic facts obtained from the neuroscience researches of living organisms when solving basic philosophical problems. This paper briefly presents this view?s theory leading to the argumentation that Searle?s point of view is of metaphysical characteristics which is exactly what he was trying to avoid. The metaphysical character of Searle?s neurobiological naturalism has been seen through the problem of free will resulting from his understanding of consciousness. The argumentation is based on an analysis of the concepts, the gap and the self, as well as on possible solutions of the problem of free will (hypothesis 1 and 2).

The Classification of Thomas S. Kuhn’s Scientific Paradigms in the Interpretation by Margaret Masterman

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the multiplicity of meanings of T. S. Kuhn’s concept of paradigm in its original formulation in “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” and the less noticeable aspects of this concept: namely the sociological and the structural. Margaret Masterman’s contribution in extracting and clarifying these concepts made a significant impact on T. S. Kuhn himself. In T. S. Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” she sees at least 21 different formulations of this concept and Kuhn aceepted the criticism. Masterman introduced three aspects of paradigm, of which only one (the metaphysical) is observed by many commentators, which created an innacurate criticism of T. S. Kuhn’s position. The (1) metaphysical aspect of paradigm is expressed in such formulations as gestalt switch or a new way of seeing and means uniform cosmological obligations between scientists working within the paradigm. The (2) sociological aspect is a feature of advanced science. It is formed around existing investigative practices and helps to introduce new members into the paradigm. The (3) constructive aspect is a specific artifact which becomes a test apparatus and creates a new way of seeing a certain area of reality with which comes a new science. The constructive aspect is the most important innovation by T. S. Kuhn and allows a new way of talking about the origin of science. Keywords : philosophy of science, Thom S. Kuhn, Margaret Masterman, paradigm, origin of science. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/zz.2015.29

The Place of Subjects in the Metaphysics of Material Objects

An under-explored intermediate position between traditional materialism and traditional idealism is the view that although the spatiotemporal world is purely material, minds nonetheless have a metaphysically special place in it. One way this can be is via a special role that subjects have in the metaphysics of material objects. Some metaphysical aspect of material objects might require the existence of subjects. This would support that minds must exist if material objects exist and thus that a mindless material world is impossible. This view, labeled the subjectivity thesis by Anton Friedrich Koch, was defended by him with an intriguing, purely metaphysical argument connected to the individuation of material objects in space and time. The present paper hopes to make progress on assessing the viability of such a position. It starts by critically examining Koch’s argument for the subjectivity thesis, as well as similar arguments that give minds a central place in the metaphysics of material objects via considerations about identity and difference. It then compares these ideas to similar ones in the philosophy of time, and concludes with an outlook on whether such a position is viable and what needs to be done to fill the gaps unearthed along the way.

Simone de Beauvoir’s Theory of the Novel: The Opacity, Ambiguity, and Impartiality of Life

Abstract: Of all the existentialist philosophers, Simone de Beauvoir articulates the most compelling theory of the novel in light of her understanding of the relationship between literature and philosophy. Yet her critical work on the philosophical significance of novelistic realism have gone largely ignored by scholars, who consider her novels philosophical insofar as they explore existentialist themes and subjects. Beauvoir, in sharp contrast, argues that the form of the novel expresses metaphysical aspects of lived experience in essays such as “Literature and Metaphysics,” “An American Renaissance in France,” “What Can Literature Do?” and “My Experience as a Writer.”

Hermeneutic circle of the normative structure of science: between the professional ethos and existential experience

The article presents hermeneutic analysis of the theoretical problems of the normative structure of science. Methodological and ethical norms of scientific cognition are considered from the point of view of Gadamer’s hermeneutic onthology, where scientific norms are regarded as an important part of the hermeneutic circle, one of the important means of formation of the prestructure of understanding. In the article there have been explicated the hermeneutic features of well known theories of philosophy of science by L.Witgenstein, T.Kuhn, R.Merton and others. Special attention is payed to the metaphysical aspects of scientific methodological and ethical norms. Citations of many famous scientists are presented proving the religious origin and intentions of scientific world outlook in XIX – XX centuries.

Concepts of ‘Spiritualisme’ in Two Manuscript Essays by Albert Aubert

This is a critical analysis of two manuscript essays, dated 1840, by Albert Aubert. They concern the concept of ‘spiritualisme’, in its metaphysical sense, implying the existence of a distinct non-physical reality, as also the concept of secular ‘spiritualisme’, or ‘spiritualisme laïque’, central to the doctrinaire thought of the July Monarchy. The metaphysical aspect is analysed in terms of its historical development, in which Aubert detects a degradation of form, by comparison with the harmonious proportions of ancient Greek sculpture. The secular aspect turns on the role of ‘grands hommes’ in the post-Revolutionary context. The Napoleonic legacy leads Aubert to warn against ostentatious ambition, in favour of the pursuit of the complete man, as extolled in Greek and Roman antiquity, an attitude later reflected in the repudiation of the self-pitying hero, characteristic of second-generation Romanticism.