Concept Of Fate Research Articles

Ambiguity

Ambiguity

Fate in early Irish texts

When writing about the concept of Fate in early Irish texts in 1910, Edward Gwynn made a distinction between the passive and the active notion of Fate. The lexical approach to this subject, which he suggested but was unable to apply, is carried out in the present study, and it brings the predominance of the passive notion to the surface. An explanation for this predominance is offered here, which takes the problems and possibilities of the reconstruction of the pre-christian past by the christian composers of early Irish literature into account.

Taipei Is Cold Tonight, or Finding Fate in Taiwanese Karaokes

Drawing on the contradictions between the lyrical modes of karaoke and the situation of karaoke performance, this article examines the role of colonial nostalgia and the vernacular concept of fate in contemporary Taiwan. Stressing that colonial nostalgia is a formal property of karaoke lyrics and performance, I attend to the relationship of karaoke to the problem of finding truth in human voices, particularly as a complication of urban life.

The Concept of Fate in Ancient Mesopotamia of the First Millennium: Toward an Understanding of Šīmtu. Jack N. Lawson

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook Reviews The Concept of Fate in Ancient Mesopotamia of the First Millennium: Toward an Understanding of Šīmtu . Jack N. Lawson Francesca RochbergFrancesca Rochberg Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 58, Number 1Jan., 1999 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/468673 Views: 8Total views on this site Copyright 1999 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Concept of Fate in Mencius

The concept of fate in Mencius is by no means a new theme in the study of ancient Chinese philosophy, for it has been addressed by a host of scholars. Nevertheless, to a great extent, this subject is still wrapped in obscurity. Particularly on the question of whether Mencius upheld the doctrine of unalterable and unpredictable fate we have hardly been given a conclusive and persuasive answer. Since the concept of fate constitutes an important part of the Mencian, and at large the Confucian, understanding of the supernatural, it is necessary to investigate this concept to answer the question with greater certainty. I intend to shed light on this issue by (1) clarifying two different concepts of fate-moral determinism and blind fate; (2) sorting out three different meanings of the term ming as used by Mencius-life, moral decree, and fate; and (3) distinguishing between two levels of fate-collective and individual. The thesis put forward in the present essay is that Mencius, who often spoke of ming in different senses on the same occasion, upheld the doctrines of both moral determinism and of blind, unalterable fate, but was prone to apply the former to collective entities and the latter to individual persons. The Mencian bilevel distinction, which is at variance with the Moist and Taoist nondistinction in this regard, exercised a profound influence on later Confucians.

Tragedy: Contradiction and Repression.

Drawing on philosophical and psychoanalytic methods of interpretation, Richard Kuhns explores modern transformations of an ancient poetic genre, tragedy. Recognition of the philosophical problems addressed in tragedy, and of their presence up through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophical texts, novels, and poetry, establishes a continuity between classical and modern enactments. Psychoanalytic theory in both its original formulations and post-Freud developments provides a means to enlarge upon and inform philosophical analyses that have dominated modern discussions. From Aeschylus' classic drama Persians to the hidden tragic themes in Merchant of Venice, from the aesthetic writings of Kant to Kleist's narrative Michael Kohlhaas, Kuhns traces the writing and rewriting of the themes of ancient tragedy through modern texts. A culture's concept of fate, Kuhns argues, evolves along with its concepts and forms of tragedy. Examining the deep philosophical concerns of tragedy, he shows how the genre has changed from loss and mourning to contradiction and repression. He sees the fact that tragedy went underground during the optimism of the Enlightenment as a repression that continues into the American consciousness. Turning to Melville's The Confidence Man as an example of Old World despair giving way to New World nihilism, Kuhns indicates how psychoanalytic understanding of tragedy provides a method of interpretation that illuminates the continuous tradition from the ancient to the modern world. study concludes with reflections on the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Each poet's celebration of the body, and the contribution of the senses to reason, perception, and poetic intuition, is seen as an embodiment of the modern tragic sensibility.

The Concept of Fate in Chinese Folk Ideology

Fate was an important concept in traditional Chinese folk culture, and in the culture of the elite. This much is uncontroversial. But what the concept was about, what it meant and how it related to class hegemony, is a matter open to dispute. The relationship of any folk ideology to the hegemonic ideology of the society is a complex one. We can perhaps best conceive this relationship as a compound of two ideal types. In the first the folk ideology is an earthy version of an elite myth, a kind of Marxian people's opiate that disguises the real nature of hegemonic relations. If the peasants believe that suffering in this world is but a prelude to glory in the next, that the Tsar really loves them but corrupt officials prevent his devotion from being realized, that landlords have a right to rents because, after all, they are supplying the land in fair exchange for the peasants' labor, folk ideology is acting in this way: It is reinforcing the hegemonic effect of the elite ideology, even when it does not actually duplicate that ideology.

The Dramatization of Determinism: A lexander of Aphrodisias' De Fato

'Determinism has many meanings, but there are, mainly and for the most part, four different kinds of problems connected with this notion', Aristotle might have said had he employed the concept of determinism. In his philosophical writings we can distinguish the following questions. (a) There is logical determinism, i.e. the necessity of the conclusions following from their premises (under this title I also want to subsume the problem of the Sea Battle)', (b) there is physical determinism, the necessity of the connection of cause and effect, (c) there is ethical determinism concerning the dependence of human action on internal ('character') and external conditions, and (d) there is teleological determinism, i.e. that everything has an end or serves some purpose. Aristotle does not always distinguish between these kinds of determinateness nor is he always consistent in his own position but it seems clear to me that he was aware of the determinist's dilemma.2 But since no radical deterministic theory comprising all these notions of determinism seems to have been proposed by any of the rival schools (pace Megaricorum) Aristotle did not have to maintain an all encompassing position. The need for a clarification of the Peripatetic position with respect to the problem of determinism and the concept of fate must have existed long before Alexander of Aphrodisias, the most important commentator on Aristotle's writings, produced the little treatise On Fate which he dedicated to the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla (terminus ante quem 211 AD). As we know from other sources,3 there raged a never ending battle about the notion of fate among the schools, a battle in which the various opponents seem to have relied on the same kind of arguments, counterarguments and examples time and again. Alexander himself does not claim originality; he professes to give only an account of the A ristotelian position (cf. 164, 13; 212,5) which he compares with and defends against the more rigid determinism of a rival school. All commentators agree that the target of Alexander's criticism must be the Stoa. Opinions differ on the question why Alexander does not mention the Stoa or any of its members. The

The logic of well being: Therapeutic narratives in Cairo, Egypt

This paper examines understandings of curative action among women in a traditional ( baladi) quarter of Cairo, Egypt. It is based on research in a mother-childhealth (MCH) clinic and the surrounding urban area. It probes healing strategies and understandings revealed in therapeutic narratives. These narratives are commentaries on disease progression, curative action and surrounding events—both relevant and irrelevant. Fragments of narratives embedded in conversation are framed by stylistic shifts; they are eventually codified into elaborated accounts which are referenced for years after the illness episode. Therapeutic narratives present a system of knowledge which mediates between the everyday experience of diagnosis and curative action and the cultural context (ethnoetiology, ethnophysiology, concepts of fate and envy). They provide a biographic and experimental context for perception and diagnosis of illness. They also facilitate transformation of diagnosis and prognosis. The article presents baladi therapeutic narratives as a specific instance of a culture-wide phenomenon of ‘tacking down’ illness episodes to make sense of them. Discussion also highlights the baladi-specific curative system with its principles of regularity and fluidity, and the baladi-specific logic of proximity, specificity, and multiplicity which organizes baladi therapeutic narratives. Cases presented demonstrate how baladi women evaluate the meaning of experience and action while recounting illness episodes and how they corroborate their curative action with past experience and community standards. Through continual re-evaluation a finely woven web of rationale evolves as a woman with a difficult problem such as delayed conception or a persistently weak child moves through curing strategies. Diagnosis is always subject to revision; explanations of what is happening are constantly generated—whether in respect of mundane activity or of the event's meaning. Narrative recounting is the locus par excellence for the aggregation of cognitions concerning a whimsical universe where baladi people's main power lies in their skill at verbal manipulation. However, it is not used in lieu of action. Narratives provide an arena for the negotiation of reality and of correct action; they do not discount reality, but make sense of it.

Arthropod Phylogeny: A Modern Synthesis

Factual evidence provided by the fields of functional morphology and of the newer functional studies of embryology using the concept of fate maps indicates that the Arthropoda are probably polyphyletic and that arthropodization has occurred at least three times, forming the phyla Crustacea, Chelicerata and Uniramia (Onychophora, Myriapoda, Hexapoda). When the latter left the sea they probably possessed a soft body and lobopodial limbs and showed incipient cephalization. Only the muscular haemocoelic mechanism of movement of the lobopodium, but not that of a parapodium, could have given rise to the jointed uniramian limbs. The three subphyla of the Uniramia are differentiated by their jaw mechanisms, associated head structure and limb-bases. The habits associated with the divergence of the four myriapodan classes account for their morphological distinctions. The five hexapod classes differ from one another in leg-base mechanisms and have probably been evolved independently from five groups of multilegged soft bodied ancestors with a head type contrasting with that of the Myriapoda. Reference is made to the great differences between arachnid adaptations of limbs, gaits, etc., to land life compared with those of the Uniramia. No new evidence is given concerning the status of the Trilobita.

The Spinning of Fate in Homer

AMONG the different concepts of fate in Homer the image of the spinning of fate in particular invites the attention of the student of religion; for an explanation of the origin and significance of the spinning of fate in Homer will lead to a better understanding of the complex workings of fate in Homeric epic. The central problem that needs to be examined here concerns the probable origin of this image. In other words, is it possible to maintain that the connection of the act of spinning with fate is solely due to the Homeric poets, or does the idea of a spinning of fate derive from popular religious belief? In order to answer these questions it is necessary to pursue two main lines of investigation. Firstly, it will be essential to examine the context in Homer where the spinning of fate occurs and, as well, to consider whether the agents who are engaged in this activity dispense a particular fate which can be granted in no other way. Secondly, from a study of the available evidence for popular religion, it will be possible to suggest the extent to which popular belief can be held responsible for shaping this image of the spinning of fate.