Metaphysical Terms Research Articles

The Global Rise and Fall of Religious Conflict

This article examines the rise and fall of religious violence, exploring how “cosmic war” [a metaphysical battle between good and wrong that occurs on a transcendental level] narratives are employed by various religious groups to justify violence. By analyzing case studies such as the conflict between Hamas and Israel, the Khalistan movement in India, and ISIS in Iraq, the paper argues that “cosmic war” frames conflict in metaphysical terms, elevating them beyond mere political struggles. The study also investigates the conditions under which these violent movements lose their momentum and the role of moderate authorities in mitigating such conflicts.

Christian Love And Whitehead’s Poetic God

Whitehead uses the term God along two lines of thought: to make a typology of religion – i.e., a typology of how divinity is understood in each type of religion (Religion in the Making) – and to formulate his own philosophy in terms of metaphysics (Process and Reality). I propose a comparison between the concept of Christian Love and the meaning, in each of these two contexts, of the term God. In this way I want to investigate whether God, as he appears in Whitehead’s philosophy, maintains a relationship with the way divinity appears in Christianity, particularly when it is defined as Christian Love.

UKRAINIAN ALLUSIONS IN HISPANIC AMERICAN LITERATURE: FROM MAZEPA TO PUTIN

The article offers a brief overview of some works written in Latin American countries from the late 19th to the early 21st century, which contain references to Ukrainian realities, but have not hitherto become the object of literary criticism from this angle. This oversight is regrettably common to literary studies both on the Latin American and the Ukrainian side. Thus, three writers from Mexico, one from the Argentine and one from Nicaragua have never been examined from this point of view, wheras the literary presence of Ukraine in that area of the world lies outside the scope interest of Latin American scholarly research. The figure of the Ukrainian leader Stepán Mazepa, which appears in two poems – Trilogy and Lamentation of the Voluptuous – by the outstanding Mexican author Amado Nervo, parallels the way it is conceived of by several 19th-century European writers (including Victor Hugo), being treated in rather metaphysical terms, with as good as no regard for the Ukrainian national and historical context. The Jewish Gauchos, a novel by the Argentine writer Alberto Gerchunoff, includes some fond memories of the author’s childhood spent in Ukraine, as well as a condemnation of the oppression of the Jews by the Russian tsarism. Taking his hint from A. Gerchunoff, the prominent Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío makes in his Canto a la Argentina a general mention of the Jews of the Russian Empire who were able to resettle in that country. A sophisticated investigation of some enigmas of the Second World War by the Mexican Ignacio Padilla led the author, in his detective novel Amphitryon, to an original appraisal of the Civil War in Russia, with sympathies expressed towards the Ukrainians’ aspirations for independence. The Mexican Jorge Zepeda Patterson, whose novel Milena or The most beautiful femur in the world bears a clear reference to the initial stage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, seeks to unmask the deep secrets of the international sex racket mafia as one of the dirty faces of big politics, especially on the side of Russia.

Parmenide e l’Uovo argenteo degli Orfici in Simplicio, Damascio e Proclo

When commenting on Aristotle Ph. 1.3, 187a1, Simplicius in Ph. 1.3, 146, 29–147,2 establishes an equivalence between the shining «silver egg» (ὤεον ἀργύφεον) of Orpheus (fr. 70 Kern) and the Parmenidean being or, rather, one of the determinations with which Parmenides, in the section of his Poem devoted to the so-called Way of Truth, indicates the ἐόν, i.e., «resembling the mass of a well-rounded sphere» (εὐκύκλου σφαίρης ἐναλίγκιον ὄγκωι – DK 28 B 8.43). The equivalence established here is found in the great digression about Parmenides (in Ph. 142, 28–148, 24), where Simplicius puts forward an interpretation of Parmenides that identifies the Parmenidean being-one (τὸ ἓν ὄν) with the intelligible (τὸ νοητόν), which, in another passages of the same commentary, is also qualified with the metaphysical concept of “unified” (τὸ ἡνωμένον) that is taken from Damascius. The aim of the present paper is to trace back the Neo-Platonic assumptions of this identification. In particular, we will focus on Damascius Pr. 2.55.40, 14–19 and 3.123.160, 1–3 Westerink, since these passages contain insights into the Orphic theology that is referred to as “usual”, “common” or “rhapsodic”, as well as a contextual “translation” of various Orphic concepts (e.g. ὤεον ἀργύφεον) in terms of Neo-Platonic metaphysics. The metaphysical transposition of the mythical image of the silver egg goes back, however, to Proclus (in Ti. 1.428, 8–9), who assumes the identity between Plato’s being (“being in the primary sense”, τὸ πρώτως [...] ὄν) and the Orphic egg (ταὐτὸν τό τε Πλάτωνος ὂν καὶ τὸ Ὀρφικὸν ὠόν). One cannot, at the same time, exclude a priori the possibility that the Orphic motif of the silver egg circulated in the Magna Graecia of Parmenides already from at least the 6th century BC. It is possible, as Colli hypothesised, that already Ibycus (who certainly knew Orpheus, fr. 25 Page) betrays a certain knowledge of it in fr. 4.4–5 Page, where we find the expression ἐν ὠέωι ἀργυρέωι. This article demonstrates that Proclus and Damascius embedded the Orphic concept of ὤεον ἀργύφεον into their Neo-Platonic metaphysics by showing its potential for speculative order.

Hope Against Hope: Abraham Cowley and the Metaphysics of Poetry

Abstract: In a poem to his friend Richard Crashaw, Abraham Cowley offered a critique of hope in ostentatiously metaphysical terms. He thus initiated an exchange, "On Hope," whose philosophical tenor offers new insights on the dialectic between poetry and metaphysics in seventeenth-century England. Following Cowley's lead, this essay explores the principle of hope in metaphysical poetry. It reads his poem against the metaphysical tradition, from Aristotle to Theodor Adorno, to clarify its engagement with the Aristotelian notion of potentiality. And it shows how, even in writing against hope, Cowley's poetry can think, and hope, in ways that metaphysics cannot.

Hume, Substance, and Causation: A Solution to a Nasty Problem

Abstract: Louis Loeb has identified a “nasty problem” in connection with Hume’s theory of meaning. The problem is that Hume seemingly claims we lack ideas corresponding to key metaphysical terms, such as terms like “substance” and “necessary connection,” but he then proceeds to explain why philosophers believe in the existence of entities denoted by such terms. In short, Hume seems motivated to explain belief in the existence of certain entities, despite his claiming we have no ideas corresponding to them. In this paper, I strive to solve the problem by noting the important role of clear and distinct perception in his thought. In particular, I argue Hume only wishes to deny that we have clear and distinct ideas of substance and necessary connection, and not that we altogether lack any idea of substance and necessary connection, traditionally conceived.

Intellectual Education in the Qur'anic Perspective (Analysis of the Qur'an Surah Ali Imran Verses 190-191)

This research is motivated by the importance of using reason as a means of gaining knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary for the mind to get a good sense education for usefulness in accordance with the understanding of the concept of mind education contained in Ali Imran's letter verses 190-191. This research aims to find out the meaning of reason in an Islamic perspective and analyze the concept of reason education in the perspective of the Al-Qur'an Surah Ali Imran verses 190-191. This research is a descriptive qualitative research study of libraries (library research), by collecting data from various related sources and then analyzing it to draw conclusions. Research studies show that the meaning of reason in the Islamic perspective is a tool used for the thinking process. In this context of thinking, reason has a very important role, because it is able to achieve understanding, knowledge and awareness through stages that are scientific, empirical and philosophical. All of these processes are carried out on the basis of the Al-Qur'an and hadith, with the aim of advancing human life in this world. Meanwhile, the concept of intellectual education in the Al-Qur'an, Ali Imran verses 190-191, emphasizes the importance of using reason to reflect on and understand the signs of the greatness of Allah SWT. which is clearly seen in His creation. In this verse, Allah SWT. calls on people who have reason to observe the universe and the changes that occur in it as proof of His existence and power, both in terms of metaphysics, cosmology, ethics and aesthetics using the tafakkur and tazakkur methods. So that through this concept, perfect reason can be realized according to Islamic teachings.

ANALOGY BETWEEN THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENCE AND THE RELATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF COMPLETE SUPPLY

The paper analyzes the analogy between the principle of total absorption in the relational theory and the principle of equivalence in the general theory of relativity. Using the formulation of these principles in metaphysical terms allows us to conclude that the supercategory of relational particles manifests itself in dynamics as a self-consistent absolute absorber. Questions of interpretation of leading actions in the theory of direct interparticle interaction are considered. It is shown that the strict symmetry of the Fokker action with respect to retarded and advanced actions can be violated when the processes of particle creation and annihilation are taken into account.

An Explanatory Framework for Legal Grounding

The objective of this article is to provide an explanatory framework for legal grounding. Grounding, understood in recent years as a metaphysical determination, has proved to be a fruitful object of inquiry for legal theorists trying to explain the thesis about the relationship between social facts and legal facts in metaphysical terms. However, the debate on the use of the notion of grounding in the philosophy of law lacks a concise and precise differentiation of the various assumptions behind grounding that philosophers have recently discussed. This article offers a prospect for analysis of a debate about grounding of legal facts and an interpretation of focal terms in light of recent metaphysical debates.

The Emergence of a Theatrical Science of Man in France, 1660–1740

The Emergence of a Theatrical Science of Man in France, 1660–1740

Whence Deep Realism for Everettian Quantum Mechanics?

`Shallow' and `deep' versions of scientific realism may be distinguished as follows: the shallow realist is satisfied with belief in the existence of the posits of our best scientific theories; by contrast, deep realists claim that realism can be legitimate only if such entities are described in metaphysical terms. We argue that this methodological discussion can be fruitfully applied in Everettian quantum mechanics, specifically on the debate concerning the existence of worlds and the recent dispute between Everettian actualism and quantum modal realism. After presenting what is involved in such dispute, we point to a dilemma for realists: either we don't have the available metaphysical tools to answer the deep realist's demands, and realism is not justified in this case, or such demands of metaphysical dressing are not mandatory for scientific realism, and deep versions of realism are not really required.

On Metaphysical Necessity: Essays on God, the World, Morality, and Democracy

On Metaphysical Necessity: Essays on God, the World, Morality, and Democracy

Schopenhauer and religion: Translating myth into metaphysics

The article assesses Arthur Schopenhauer’s reinterpretation of religious myths, particularly those of Christianity, in terms of his philosophical system, and applies his ideas to the mythical cosmology of shamanistic and animistic religions. Schopenhauer, a 19th-century Romantic philosopher, although an atheist himself, took religious myths very seriously, translating them into the terms of his metaphysical system. His view was that Roman Catholicism, for him the true form of Christianity, shared the pessimism and the focus on suffering of Hinduism and Buddhism, rather than the alleged optimism of Protestantism, Judaism and Islam, excepting the myth of the Fall. For Schopenhauer, this pessimism was evident in the central symbol of Christianity, the figure of the crucified Christ. Schopenhauer put forward his ethic of compassion (and asceticism), aligning him, despite his atheism, with the altruistic ethics of the major world religions. The article also explores the extent to which Schopenhauer’s philosophy as, arguably, a form of panpsychism can be applied to shamanistic and animistic religions. While Schopenhauer translated religious myths into his metaphysical terms – based ultimately on Kant’s distinction between phenomena (things as they appear) and noumena (things as they are) – his understanding of the noumenon as the universal will to life was itself an explanatory myth for an essentially unknowable reality. Therefore, the attempt of Schopenhauer’s philosophy to translate myth into metaphysics in turn contained a myth at its very core. Nonetheless, the article argues that Schopenhauer’s argument may satisfy those dissatisfied with materialism’s shortcomings yet not willing to subscribe to a supernatural order.Contribution: The article applies to shamanism and animism the neglected philosopher Schopenhauer’s method of interpreting religious myths in terms of his metaphysical system, relating this very briefly to current philosophical debates on panpsychism.

Mental disorders as processes: A more suited metaphysics for psychiatry

ABSTRACT In this paper I argue that thinking in terms of process metaphysics and seeing the mind and mental disorders as processual in nature allows for a more complete understanding of mental disorders than is allowed by non-processual frameworks, while it also allows us to incorporate what we currently know about them. In addition, it can address problems in psychiatry that arise when we ask the wrong kinds of questions that naturally arise within a non-processual metaphysical framework. In this paper I address the problems of reductionism, essentialism and dualism.

Anticipation, abolition, possibility: on riots, networked communication, and listening

ABSTRACT This paper considers the riots and protests that irrupted around the world in the wake of the killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020. It examines the politics of noise and listening in relation to the growing calls for abolition, asking how we can listen to, and for, an abolitionist imperative. The paper contextualizes the riot as a form of struggle that responds to the crises produced by capitalism in its circulatory phase, specifically the production of racialized surplus populations that are subjected to intensive forms of policing. The riot is figured as a politics of immanence that suggests what Ashon T. Crawley calls ‘otherwise possibilities’. The paper tracks the historical conditions that give rise to riots and follows the noise in the street into platform media and back again in order to theorize the riot as a distinct form of struggle that is organized as well as contagious. Turning to the sonicity of the riot, the noise of this collective formation is figured in metaphysical terms as that which accounts for transformation and possibility – an originary turbulence with no single point of origin that foregrounds the relationality of the world. The paper then elaborates on listening as a crucial modality for generative collectivity and solidarity, developing an abolitionist conception of listening that attunes to relationality of noise and foregrounds anticipation and possibility.

Al-Ghazali’s Metaphysical Philosophy of Spiritualism In The Book Of Ihya ‘Ulumuddin

This article tries to explore al-Ghazali’s views regarding philosophy—particularly metaphysical philosophy, and its influence on the establishment of al-Ghazali’s teachings as stated in the book ihya ʻulumuddin. The method used in this research is descriptive-qualitative method, and is included in the literature research (library research). The process of collecting data in this study is to make observations, in the sense of tracking various references that have relevance to the focus of the study, both from books, articles, and so on that function to support these data. The data analysis technique used in this research is the method of content analysis. In this analysis, the process of selecting, comparing, combining, and sorting information obtained from related data sources will be carried out to obtain valid inferences. From the studies conducted, it can be seen that: 1) Regarding the existence of God, al-Ghazali rejected the philosophical ideas of atheism (ad-dahriyun) and naturalism (al-thabi’iyun) as a whole. 2) al-Ghazali accepted the philosophical thought of divinity (ilahiyun), in several respects as a whole—for example logic, physics, mathematics, etc., and in terms of metaphysics, al-Ghazali accepted with certain conditions—in accordance with the texts of the Qur’an and hadith. 3) Al-Ghazali’s partial disagreement with metaphysical philosophers, such as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi is because both of them have collided with the principal “norms” in religion. 4) His refusal formed al-Ghazali’s thought structure which is presented in several of his works—including in the Book of ihya ʻulumuddin.

Philosophy

As Andrea Nightingale notes in her persuasive new monograph, scholars often seem reticent to acknowledge the theological context within which Plato develops his metaphysics. By analysing and emphasizing the language of divinity applied to the forms, soul, and cosmos across four dialogues, the Symposium, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and Timaeus, Nightingale builds a case for rehabilitating Plato's status as a fundamentally ‘theological philosopher’. She argues that the tendency to sideline Plato's theological thinking compromises our reading of the dialogues: ‘To understand his philosophy, we need to locate his ideas in the context of Greek religious discourses and practices’ (8). Nightingale achieves this in two ways. The first is by offering brief but useful explanations of key Athenian rituals and belief sets, such as the Eleusinian Mysteries, epiphany, and Orphism. The second is by analysing allusions to and adaptations of these practices and ideas within the dialogues. Her conclusion is that, via his explanation of knowledge, psychology, and metaphysics in terms of the divine, Plato develops a novel conception of human beings, and philosophers in particular, in terms of their relation to the divine.

SPIRITUALITAS DALAM PERSPEKTIF TASAWUF DAN NEUROSAINS: RELASI KOMPLEMENTER ATAU KOMPARTEMEN?

Academic debates about spirituality have been going on for a long time with varied narratives. Sufism, as one who also discussed it, presents a view of spirituality in terms of Islamic metaphysics and meta-psychological understanding in the paradigm of interconnection between creation and the Creator. Meanwhile, Neuroscience, as a new science developed from the findings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) regarding the nerve function of the human brain, presents a different view and tends to be rational, logical, and materialistic. This paper is a comparative study that discusses how the two sciences describe their explanations of spirituality. This literature research observes a number of relevant references, the latest research results, some debates in several forums, and then dissects it using critical discourse analysis. The results obtained indicate that there is a contradictory explanation on the one hand or a (separate) compartment between the meaning of spirituality in the Sufism perspective and the Neuroscience point of view. On the opposite side, there are several research efforts that elaborate spirituality in Sufism to have a complementary relationship (complementary) with Neuroscience. Even so, there is a kind of narrative impression that forces the concept of spirituality according to Neuroscience to support the conception of spirituality in the view of Sufism. As a follow-up discussion regarding this matter, it can be seen that there is a kind of research tendency that is testimonial and seeks confirmation of the initial assumptions of their research and builds arguments based on their tastes of knowledge.

SPIRITUALITAS DALAM PERSPEKTIF TASAWUF DAN NEUROSAINS: RELASI KOMPLEMENTER ATAU KOMPARTEMEN?

Academic debates about spirituality have been going on for a long time with varied narratives. Sufism, as one who also discussed it, presents a view of spirituality in terms of Islamic metaphysics and meta-psychological understanding in the paradigm of interconnection between creation and the Creator. Meanwhile, Neuroscience, as a new science developed from the findings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) regarding the nerve function of the human brain, presents a different view and tends to be rational, logical, and materialistic. This paper is a comparative study that discusses how the two sciences describe their explanations of spirituality. This literature research observes a number of relevant references, the latest research results, some debates in several forums, and then dissects it using critical discourse analysis. The results obtained indicate that there is a contradictory explanation on the one hand or a (separate) compartment between the meaning of spirituality in the Sufism perspective and the Neuroscience point of view. On the opposite side, there are several research efforts that elaborate spirituality in Sufism to have a complementary relationship (complementary) with Neuroscience. Even so, there is a kind of narrative impression that forces the concept of spirituality according to Neuroscience to support the conception of spirituality in the view of Sufism. As a follow-up discussion regarding this matter, it can be seen that there is a kind of research tendency that is testimonial and seeks confirmation of the initial assumptions of their research and builds arguments based on their tastes of knowledge.

Polish-Soviet War in Film and Cinema: A New Perspective Based on the Films For You, O Poland (1920) and Miracle on the Vistula (1921)

The Polish-Soviet War, particularly the Battle of Warsaw (13–25 August 1920), soon became a subject of legend and myth. Irrespective of its fundamental political significance, the defeat of the Red Army was glorified as salvation for both Poland and Europe in military, ideological and metaphysical terms. Conducted beyond academia, the narrative was forged mainly by veterans, the Catholic Church and various forms of literature and art. Due to government subsidies, documentary and feature films also conveyed a normative notion of these dramatic events and their participants.
 This article focuses on cinematic works like Dla Ciebie, Polsko [For You, o Poland, PL 1920], and Cud nad Wisłą [The Miracle on the Vistula, PL 1921] produced in order to commemorate the war between the Poles and the Bolsheviks. Taking the iconic turn, this article scrutinises the cinematic self-portrait of the Polish nation that had already been ‘imagined’ as a bulwark of European culture in the East by earlier literary works. Spotlighting protagonists who were given a place in the pantheon of national heroes, it also asks about those who were denigrated or marginalised like women and Jews. Finally, using quantitative methods and Geographical Information System (QGIS) as a tool, the article juxtaposes the maledominated, ethnically and confessional homogeneous ‘imagined nation’ with the film entrepreneurs and actual cinema audiences characterised by their diversity.