Conceptual Parallels Research Articles

Being-Time, or How Traditional Japanese Thought Collided with Western Philosophy and Modern Physics at Hiroshima

The atom bomb that annihilated Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, proved Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Mass became energy and the classic Western dialectic of three-dimensional space and linear time was displaced by the integrated concept of spacetime. On that day, modern physics also collided with the traditional Japanese understanding that space and time are interdependent phenomena. This collision speaks to conceptual parallels relating Buddhist thought, modern Japanese philosophy, phenomenology, and the physics of spacetime. The thirteenth-century Zen Buddhist monk Dōgen said that all phenomena are made possible by the universal principle of emptiness and that our existence arises with each moment in what he termed Being-Time, where past, present, and future co-exist. The Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō, along with Tanabe Hajime and Watsuji Tetsurō, saw reality as a multi-dimensional field of space-in-time where the individual subject no longer stood apart from the objective world but instead arose dynamically as contingent activities rather than an autonomous thing. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger rejected the rational binary of subject and object in Western thought and grounded our “being” in phenomena that came from their temporal being-in-the-world rather than representing some preexisting objective reality. The physicist Albert Einstein radically rethought the dialectic of three-dimensional space and linear time, used to schematize the physical world in the West since antiquity, and theorized the relativity of spacetime, in which all phenomena occur in space in relation to their place in time. Interwoven, these intellectual threads stripped the bombing of Hiroshima of its historical inevitability. The story of human experience lost its customary sense of going <i>somewhere</i> predetermined and was revealed instead to be an endlessly discrete accumulation of moments that could go <i>anywhere</i> at every transient and directionless moment in time.

Music as incarnated beauty in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion: a neoplatonic reading

Abstract In this study I examine key conceptual parallels between J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary imagination and a Neoplatonic mythopoetic. Specifically, I discuss how Tolkien’s Silmarillion deploys a transcendental conception of Beauty that, I argue, suggests similarities with the notion of Beauty discussed by Plotinus in his Enneads. Following the scholarship of Lisa Coutras (2016) and Michael John Halsall (2020), this study analyzes key sections from Tolkien’s work to demonstrate a Neoplatonic influence. This influence, I argue, is best understood via an incarnational logic that understands musical harmony and tonal beauty to be signs that signal an ultimate transcendent source in Tolkien’s legendarium. Falling short of arguing for a direct influence of the Neoplatonic tradition on Tolkien, this study seeks to demonstrate only a plausible link between Neoplatonic sources and Tolkien’s work.

Schema Therapy and Islamic understanding of the inner world of man: conceptual parallels and ways for integration

This article is located at the intersection of Islamic Psychology, Islamic Theology, and Schema Therapy and provides a thorough investigation of the fundamental schema therapy concepts in an Islamic discourse. The paper presents a study of the basic concepts of Schema Therapy in Islamic discourse and, in particular, suggests the consideration of schemas as an analogue of the "imprints" enveloping the heart (qalb). Both the patterns and these imprints are formed in early childhood as a result of good or bad upbringing, and later, in adulthood, they develop – strengthen or weaken – as the spiritual consequences of good deeds or sins. It is proved that the development of positive schemas and the modification, weakening of negative schemas are like "polishing" or cleansing the heart to bring it into an ideal healthy state, or the so-called “qalb salim”. The notion of modes in schema therapy is examined in Islamic discourse by means of a thorough analysis of the three types (parts) of nafs, which is Russian for "soul" or "I" ("Self"). The concepts of al-nafs al-ammarah, al-nafs al-lawwamah and al-nafs al-mutma’innah as types (parts) of nafs are compared to some modes from the schema therapy model (child modes, parent modes (critics), Healthy Adult mode).The conceptualization of the relationship between the components of the nafs was substantiated by comprehending the processes of interaction between modes found within the theoretical model of schema therapy. This enabled the identification of the strategic practical tasks of both the individual spiritual process of tazkiyat al-nafs, which is Arabic for "purification of the soul," and spiritually oriented psychotherapy for Muslim clients: 1) to develop and strengthen al-nafs al-mutma'innah, providing it with knowledge and wisdom, primarily from Islamic sources, and aiming it at "leadership" among other parts of nafs in order to keep them within established boundaries and moderation, as well as to help the qalb (heart) to find peace; 2) to orient al-nafs al-lawwamah to fulfill its originally inherent functions (the requirement of abstinence from sinful behavior and performance of duties), to prevent its excessive activity and switch it from destructive criticism to constructive; 3) through reminders from an-nafs al-mutma'innah, as well as reasonable and moderate demands from an-nafs al-lawwamah to keep an-nafs al-ammarah within the boundaries established by Allah, in the "golden mean", within the framework of the Islamic principle of wasatiyyah (moderation). This should ultimately contribute to achieving a healthy heart, or qalb salim, and harmony of nafs with fitrah, that is known as the very essence of human nature.

Grammar, cohesion and the co-ordination of the “self” in a current psychotherapeutic technique

Abstract This paper aims to show how concepts and analytical methods of systemic functional linguistics can work congruently with other human practices to improve outcomes for those undergoing the suffering around loss of meaning and the absence of purposeful, self-directed experience. Based on a two-decade collaboration between linguists and psychotherapists in Sydney, Australia, and using the tools of text linguistics as developed by Michael A. K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan in systemic functional theory, the paper presents an indicative selection of intense exchanges between traumatized persons and therapists (centrally the experience of ‘Ruth’). The level by level linguistic descriptions of these exchanges offer opportunities for understanding how progress in the clinical interaction might be achieved. The descriptions can also be evaluated against the theoretical claims of psychotherapy in psychiatry – in particular, the emphasis of the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy developed in England and Australia by Robert Hobson and Russell Meares, whose characterization of disorders involves an emphasis on ‘co-ordination’ and ‘cohesion’ within frontal lobe activity of traumatized patients. In this way the paper also explores conceptual parallels and intellectual antecedents shared between the Conversational Model and Systemic Functional Linguistics, contributing to the broader intellectual history of the human sciences.

Філософія трансцендентального опору (христоцентрична битва України з лукавим)

The proposed study examines the antithetical worldview of the Ukrainian and Moscow-imperial mentalities, which is manifested in the “Diaries” of Sergei Efremov and Korniy Chukovsky and other objectively unbiased sources. In particular, a number of moral and ethical, socio-psychological constants found in various life situations by the authors of these sources are studied. Forms of their presence in diary prose as documentary evidence of the era of direct participants in the events are outlined and analyzed. It is determined that the “Diaries” of S. Efremov and Korniy Chukovsky, as well as “The Cursed Days” by I. Bunin and other sources, not only constitute a still unexplored basis for understanding the era, but also have significant potential for modern and future comparative philosophical and Ukrainian studies in the specified problem-thematic discourse. In view of this, a number of conceptual parallels were drawn between the worldviews of artists-thinkers who created in Russian, but whose worldview was in the value-semantic paradigm of Ukrainian Christocentric thinking. Based on analytical considerations, it was determined that the worldview concepts of the Ukrainian Christocentric-Christ-inheriting farming worldview are completely opposite to the worldview and the resulting aggressive-aggressive, cunning non-Asian custom, the basis of which, according to its representatives, is cynicism.

Conceptual Aspects concerning God and Salvation in the Teachings of Gnosticism and Bogomilism

the article aims, through a comparative analysis, to explicate the Gnostic and Bogomil religious-philosophical conceptual grounds for the possibility of acquiring knowledge saving man from the dualism of being. The tasks of the study are to indicate the reasons for the search for such knowledge, which provides a form of human existence that will lead man to salvation. To achieve the tasks, the study begins by establishing the connections of Gnosticism and Bogomilism with historically preceding spiritual-religious communities and their concepts, the relations with Christianity and the grounds for their designation as Christian heresies are indicated, the conceptual parallels between Gnosticism and Bogomilism in their cosmological understandings are indicated and their consequences for man, the way out is indicated, which overcomes the unnatural state of being and the subsequent opportunity available to man for union with God.

Communications, n° 103. Le Formalisme russe cent ans après

The review discusses issue No. 103 of the renowned journal of theoretical and cultural studies Communications (published in France), devoted to the centenary of Russian formalism. The same issue also celebrates the memory of Tzvetan Todorov, deceased at the time of its publication. A transcribed report by Todorov, included as a foreword to the issue, identifies three strategies for the appropriation and reception of Russian formalism: its ‘modernisation’ and positioning in a relevant context; a study of individual concepts within the bulk of theory; and, lastly, its interpretation in terms of the period’s intellectual context. The three strategies are unmistakably present in the articles collected in the issue. At the same time, the majority of the papers conform to the third strategy, placing formalism in the intellectual context of the period and drawing biographical, national, ideological and conceptual parallels with pivotal contemporary phenomena. The reviewer also compares the issue in question with another collection celebrating formalism’s centennial anniversary (published by NLO in 2017) and comments on the modern reception of formalism.

Influence Work, Resistance, and Educational Life-Worlds: Quintilian’s [Marcus Fabius Quintilianus] (35-95 CE) Analysis of Roman Oratory as an Instructive Ethnohistorical Resource and Conceptual Precursor of Symbolic Interactionist Scholarship

Despite the striking affinities of classical Greek and Latin rhetoric with the pragmatist/interactionist analysis of the situated negotiation of reality and its profound relevance for the analysis of human group life more generally, few contemporary social scientists are aware of the exceptionally astute analyses of persuasive inter­change developed by Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian.
 Having considered the analyses of rhetoric developed by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) and Cicero (106-43 BCE) in interactionist terms (Prus 2007a; 2010), the present paper examines Quintilian’s (35-95 CE) contributions to the study of persuasive interchange more specifically and the nature of human knowing and acting more generally.
 Focusing on the education and practices of orators (rhetoricians), Quintilian (a practitioner as well as a distinc­tively thorough instructor of the craft) provides one of the most sustained, most systematic analyses of influence work and resistance to be found in the literature.
 Following an overview of Quintilian’s “ethnohistorical” account of Roman oratory, this paper concludes by draw­ing conceptual parallels between Quintilian’s analysis of influence work and the broader, transcontextual features of symbolic interactionist scholarship (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Prus 1996; 1997; 1999; Prus and Grills 2003). This includes “generic social processes” such as: acquiring perspectives, attending to identity, being involved, doing activity, en­gaging in persuasive interchange, developing relationships, experiencing emotionality, attaining linguistic fluency, and partici­pating in collective events. Offering a great many departure points for comparative analysis, as well as ethnographic examinations of the influence process, Quintilian’s analysis is particularly instructive as he addresses these and related aspects of human knowing, acting, and interchange in highly direct, articulate, and detailed ways.
 Acknowledging the conceptual, methodological, and analytic affinities of The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian with symbolic interactionism, an epilogue, Quintilian as an Intellectual Precursor to American Pragmatist Thought and the Interactionist Study of Human Group Life, addresses the relative lack of attention given to classical Greek and Latin scholarship by the American pragmatists and their intellectual progeny, as well as the importance of maintaining a more sustained transcontextual and transhistorical focus on the study of human knowing, acting, and interchange.

Panentheism and the “Most Nonsensical Superstition” of Polytheism

The German philosopher K.C.F. Krause (1781–1832) found deep conceptual parallels between his panentheistic system and the Indian philosophy of Vedānta. This article critically examines Krause’s understanding of Vedānta and popular Hindu religion. I argue that while Krause was correct in viewing the mystical panentheistic doctrine of Vedānta as a precursor to his own philosophy, he was also frequently misled by unreliable translations and secondary texts. Krause, I suggest, was mistaken in characterizing the Hindu practice of image worship as “polytheism” and “idolatry,” and I contend, from a Vedāntic standpoint, that Krause’s denial of the divinity of Jesus is inconsistent with his own panentheistic metaphysics.

Платоновская «сотериология» в контексте классической йоги

Introduction. In the article, the connection between the «soteriological» aspects of philosophy of Plato and the principles of classical yoga presented in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is considered in the framework of the comparative methodology. The aim of the study is to establish conceptual parallels in the approaches of Plato and classical yoga to solving the issue of the form of the highest spiritual realization of a person. Theoretical analysis. The most common points of the contact of Plato with classical yoga in the form of a system of eight practical principles of working with the human body and psyche are presented by analogy with the eight-step yoga of Patanjali. The practice of maintaining the physical and mental health of a person, continuous nature of this practice, internal and external purity, self-control, subordination of the senses, maintaining mental peace and balance, eliminating ignorance and the practice of meditation constitute the semantic core of Plato’s «yoga system». The main position of this system is the meditative practice of achieving a higher state of consciousness. Conclusions. The practice of meditation in Plato is realized gradually and ends with the same soteriological result as the mastery of the «internal» means of yoga in the Patanjali system. The deep and complex connection between psychotechnics, philosophy and religious wisdom in the studied systems is emphasized. The study of this relationship is an important direction in modern philosophical and religious comparative studies.

What Are the Odds?

Abstract This article critiques prior epistolary analysis of the Mar Saba Clementine done by Jeff Jay in comparison with a variety of other Greek and Latin epistles. As a closer match, it brings forward Serapion’s letter on the Gospel of Peter apud Eusebius. Due to a pair of formal and conceptual parallels, combined in the Historia ecclesiastica, the article hypothesizes that Morton Smith’s discovery is a modern forgery, which he based upon Eusebius’s excerpt of Serapion in Hist. eccl. 6.12 and upon Eusebius’s paraphrase of the authentic Clement in Hist. eccl. 6.14.

Lessons learned from hepatocellular carcinoma may cause a paradigm shift in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms: a narrative review and discussion of conceptual similarities in tumor progression and recurrence

Abstract Although the natural history of recurrence/progression in patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) of the pancreas has not been studied thoroughly, the three principal mechanisms have been identified: (a) presence of residual disease at the transection margin, (b) presence of intraductal/intraparenchymal metastases and (c) development of new primary lesions. Mechanisms (a) and (b) result in metastatic lesions that are genetically related to the primary, while new primary lesions (mechanism c) are genetically distinct. Interestingly, recurrence/progression in IPMN displays conceptual parallels with the well-established paradigm of disease recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Specifically, patients with HCC may also develop recurrent tumors due to microscopic residual disease/intrahepatic metastasis which are genetically similar to the primary while the development of genetically unrelated, de novo HCC after curative-intent resection is also common. The latter has been attributed to the presence of a widespread genetic abnormality (“field defect”) in the liver (ie, cirrhosis). Given the conceptual similarities between IPMN and HCC, a pancreatic “field defect”may also be hypothesized to exist. This review does not suggest that HCC and IPMN have identical pathogeneses, but rather that they have conceptual similarities in tumor recurrence/progression; thus, lessons learned from HCC could be applied to IPMN research and subsequent management. Conceptual similarities in tumor progression and recurrence may also be observed between IPMN and other malignancies. However, HCC was selected because it is well studied and can serve as a paradigm.

Lev Vygotski et son école : de la « paléontologie du psychisme » à la « psychologie par action »

Abstract The article explores a number of conceptual parallels in the developments of L. Vygotski and “psychological linguistics” (Humboldt, Steinthal, Potebnia). Ideas from the nineteenth-century psycholinguistic current occupy a very important place in the conceptions of “psychology by action” of the psychological school of L. Vygotski and A. N. Leontiev. Therefore, the true understanding of the psychology of Vygotsky and his school, passes through these founding texts. The concept of "internal form" founds the psychology of Vygotsky and his disciples. The article shows the Humboldian origin of the notion of activity (dejatelnost) by tracing it back to the famous concept of Tätigkeit in Humboldt linguistics.

624Integrating human behaviour models with epidemiology to frame complex health problems

Abstract Focus of Presentation Health problems are complex due to multiple interactions whose outcomes are not easily predicted with traditional epidemiology methods. The problems themselves require careful evaluation. Predictive models of human behaviour are potentially powerful tools to frame health problems, especially if the models can link the attributes and behaviour of individuals with the dynamics of the social and environmental systems within which they operate. We explore this potential by proposing a framework combining two modelling approaches — social network analysis (SNA) and agent-based modelling (ABM) - with epidemiological methods. We then apply this framework to understand why measles vaccination rates are decreasing across the world. Findings These techniques allowed us to understand the etiologic implications of heterogeneity within the population, social interaction, and environmental influences simultaneously, and to explore mechanistic interactions, feedback loops, and reciprocity between exposures and outcomes. This approach allowed us to frame complex social factors of health and disease in a holistic manner. Conclusions/Implications The proposed framework allows investigators to analyse complex health problems in a holistic manner. However, both SNA and ABM, and other modelling tools, are still too compartmentalised in application, despite the strong methodological and conceptual parallels between their uses in different disciplines. Key messages A fully integrated approach is needed to understanding complex health problems, which combines modelling approaches and the disciplinary insights of epidemiology and public health.

Paul and the Image of God

Paul and the Image of God

PHILOSOPHY, SOPHISTICS AND DIALECTICS IN WESTERN AND CHINESE PHILOSOPHIC PARADIGMS

An analysis of what the concepts and practices of philosophy, dialectics, sophistics are in the context of Western and Chinese paradigms of philosophy, is suggested in the article. Western philosophic tradition is based on the so-called Antique paradigm that exceeds from the idea of attaining happiness and avoiding suffering before the face of alien threatening reality, then it passes through the so-called Abrahamic paradigm in its Christian version with its ideas of monotheism and creationism and achieves the modern scientific paradigm at last based on nature science. Dialectics appeared in the frame of the Antique paradigm; three levels may be pointed out in it: Socratic where dialectics is a method of reasoning or teaching by means of oral conversation, Platonic as an approach that considers opposites not as excluding but supplementing each other, Hegelian and later Marxist where dialectics becomes an approach based on the principle of development. They correspond approximately to the according paradigm transitions in the Occident philosophy. Traditional Chinese philosophic paradigm is organismic and its organismism is conditioned with clan structure of the traditional Chinese society where all relations between people are subdivided clearly into inner (inside of one’s clan) and outer (outside of it) ones. Traditional Chinese ethics blames anything that can break piece and harmony inside of their own group. Disputes can convince nobody, they can only affront and destroy agreement inside of the group. From here the aphoristic character of the traditional Chinese philosophy comes, that supposes using of separate aphorisms and stories in place of logical arguments and systematical expound. These aphorisms and stories fall down into one’s memory and make one to come to one’s own conclusions. If intellectual gap at transition from the Antique to the Medieval Abrahamic paradigm was connected with rereading and reinterpretation of the corresponding philosophic texts, then in China it represented only a finishing of the same, existing paradigm through its narrowing. They were different historical conditions and cultures which determined different algorithms of development but nevertheless demonstrate some conceptual parallels. Though in quite different contexts.

Viewing Emerging Human Infectious Epidemics through the Lens of Invasion Biology

Abstract Invasion biology examines species originated elsewhere and moved with the help of humans, and those species’ impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. In a globalized world, the emergence and spread of many human infectious pathogens are quintessential biological invasion events. Some macroscopic invasive species themselves contribute to the emergence and transmission of human infectious agents. We review conceptual parallels and differences between human epidemics and biological invasions by animals and plants. Fundamental concepts in invasion biology regarding the interplay of propagule pressure, species traits, biotic interactions, eco-evolutionary experience, and ecosystem disturbances can help to explain transitions between stages of epidemic spread. As a result, many forecasting and management tools used to address epidemics could be applied to biological invasions and vice versa. Therefore, we advocate for increasing cross-fertilization between the two disciplines to improve prediction, prevention, treatment, and mitigation of invasive species and infectious disease outbreaks, including pandemics.

Integrating concepts of physiological and behavioral resistance to parasites.

Conceptual parallels between physiological and behavioral forms of resistance to parasites have led to the development of terminology like "the behavioral immune system" to refer to behaviors that combat parasites. I extend this metaphor by applying findings from research on physiological resistance to generate predictions for the ecology and evolution of behavioral resistance (here, synonymous with avoidance). In certain cases, behavioral resistance may follow similar evolutionary dynamics to physiological resistance. However, more research on the nature of the costs of behavioral resistance is needed, including how parasite transmission mode may be a key determinant of these costs. In addition, "acquiring" behavioral resistance may require specific mechanisms separate from classical forms of conditioning, due to constraints on timing of host learning processes and parasite incubation periods. Given existing literature, behavioral resistance to infectious disease seems more likely to be innate than acquired within the lifetime of an individual, raising new questions about how individual experience could shape anti-parasite behaviors. This review provides a framework for using existing literature on physiological resistance to generate predictions for behavioral resistance, and highlights several important directions for future research based on this comparison.

Semiocide: An introduction to semiotics of destruction of the meaningful

The aim of this article is to expand on the concept of semiocide which, in broad terms, is the destruction of signs and semiosis. Taking its point of departure from Ivar Puura’s article on the concept, this essay attempts to find conceptual parallels and historical examples of the term, expanding its range through a critique of its original conception. Departing from the initial conservatism of Puura’s definition, the article will argue for a more diverse understanding of the term, suggesting a view that positions semiocide not just as a descriptor for lamentable losses, but also as a potential avenue for emancipatory praxis, whereby established, hegemonic and oppressive meanings can be undermined and new possibilities of representation and identity explored.

American Theodicy: The Content and Origins of the Apologia of David Bentley Hart

This paper attempts to examine an unconventional solution to the problem of theodicy proposed by the modern Orthodox theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart. The purpose of the study is to provide insights into Hart's interpretation of the issue of theodicy. The paper discusses David Hart's counterarguments regarding the most popular current-day trends in understanding the problems of theodicy in the Western world, which, in his opinion, do not provide a response to anyone inquiring about God, but only serve as further grounds for atheistic attacks on Christianity. Particular attention is paid to the positive side of the theologian's teachings, which is a daring attempt to provide a response to atheism without resorting to the rational arguments of classical theodicies. The scientific value of this work lies in identifying the conceptual parallels of David Hart's apologetic views, which enables a conclusion to be drawn about the possible Russian footprint in the philosophy of the Orthodox American. This is of particular interest in terms of the further study of the influence of Russian religious philosophy on the establishment of modern English-speaking Christian philosophers and theologians. The study employed the historical and philosophical methods of scientific knowledge, along with the so-called philosophical hermeneutics method, which enabled the philosophy of David Hart to be analyzed as a phenomenon existing in the context of modern culture and the deep meaning of his texts and relation between the principles of his philosophical system to be revealed.