Metaphysical Worldview Research Articles

‘African Time’ is un-African

The idea of African time has become very ubiquitous among Africans to the extent that Africans themselves have come to accept it as a way of life. This phenomenon has become so destructive to Africans in their various life’s activities; ranging from work places, social gatherings, religious activities to even keeping appointments with government functionaries. Time wasting and mismanagement has therefore been viewed as an African phenomenon that acts as a serious impediment to Africa’s development. Adopting the philosophical methods of analysis and hermeneutics, this work argued that the concept of African time does not have African origin and that such an idea is a foreign imposition on Africans and it is a furtherance of colonialism in Africa and on Africans. This is because Africans in traditional metaphysical worldview are very religious and would always keep to time since they are conscious of the consequences of late coming in their appointments with the supra-sensible beings in African ontology. We therefore concluded that we must reinvent Africa’s originality on punctuality while conscientiously dropping the colonially imposed African time. That way, Africans would reenact their real identity and tackle any development challenges associated with time wasting. Keywords: African time, worldview, African ontology, punctuality, African identity

What, After All, Is Margolis’ Problem With Weitz’ Definition of Art?

This article analyzes Joseph Margolis’ criticism of Morris Weitz’ definition of art with an eye to sorting out where, precisely, their differences lie. In particular, it focuses on their differing ideas of what an “open” and “closed” definition of art amounts to and what sort of entity art is. It concludes with the suggestion that differences in metaphysical worldview, rather than differences in how they view what kinds of entities should count as art, account for the discrepancy in their views.

The Metaphysical Analysis of the Chinese Taoism of Immortality: Case Study on Continuity and Changes of Ancient Excavated Jade Artifacts

Taoist philosophy and metaphysics show an important role in ancient and modern Chinese society with its thinking about the value and meaning of life and has become an important resource for both traditional Chinese philosophy and modern. This article discusses the concept of immortality in Taoism from the point of view of metaphysics. The goal was to metaphysically analyze the symbolism of the immortality of jade artifacts found during archaeological excavations. The object of the study is the Taoist symbolism of the immortality of ancient jade artifacts, the subject is the continuity of Taoist symbols. The article is intended to expand knowledge in this direction. The author gives an idea of the metaphysical system of jade culture, at the same time considering Taoism from the point of view of metaphysics, as well as religion and an indispensable attribute of everyday life. Based on the analysis of 20 jade artifacts, the main characteristics of the symbols of Taoist immortality were revealed. The author comes to the conclusion that the theme of Taoist immortality, expressed in jade artifacts, accompanied the evolutionary process of inheritance, continuation, change and universal life and in a certain way influenced it. In different historical periods, people understand the Taoist thought of immortality in different ways, use different practices in different ways, regulate jade mining, so in different historical periods for Taoism, jade culture is a different form, reflecting the aesthetics of the characteristics of the ancient Chinese era and the pursuit of eternal thought and continuation of Taoism. The conclusions are discussed in three aspects: 1) the embodiment of the metaphysical worldview system of Taoism using the theme of "eternal life" and "immortality" in popular culture; 2) the embodiment of the metaphysical system of the ideology of jade culture; 3) takes into account the analysis of the continuation and change of the process of mutual integration of Taoist and jade culture. Thus, from the perspective of man and soul, the universality of the continuation of Taoism in jade can be clarified in order to fill the academic gap in this field.

The ‘General Theory 4.0’ research programme: macroeconomics when Keynes eventually escapes Debreu and meets Ulysses and Einstein

Abstract In this paper, I propose a new research programme, the ‘General Theory (GT) 4.0’, aimed at restoring the academic influence of Keynes, against many contemporary misunderstandings, by defending his view that macroeconomics is an autonomous discipline with respect to standard theory. This paper focuses on two specific, complementary lines of defence. The first is to show that the metaphor of ‘Ulysses’ journey home’ for understanding Keynes, recently proposed in the literature, provides an intuitive, plastic representation of his major autonomy claims. The second is to suggest that such claims are not ad hoc, but in tune with the postulates of a scientific revolutionary paradigm, such as the relativity theory, reflecting the fact that Keynes and Einstein—despite obvious differences in their respective domains—shared the same ontology, the metaphysical world view of time and epistemology.

THE PROBLEM OF PROOF IN EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE

The article presents arguments about the problem of proof in science. This problem was raised in antiquity at the time of Plato and Aristotle. At present, science uses a wide range of evidence, but not all of them meet the requirements of adequacy and consistency. Proof is often associated with belief and belief in the truth of a proposition. Therefore, the term “proof” is not defined unambiguously and a pluralistic approach is preferable to it, including not only scientific, but also metaphysical worldview. The article continues the author's analysis of the concept of information as the content of the laws of the external world, which is revealed to people after they adapt their bodily and “mental” sense organs to it. It is substantiated that not a single single worldview can become a rationale for explaining the whole picture of the material Universe and, moreover, the metaphysical being.

John Burnside. Ed. by Ben Davies

John Burnside. Ed. by Ben Davies. New York; London: Bloomsbury Academic (Contemporary Critical Perspectives), 2020. 166 pp. $90.00. ISBN 978–1–3500–3697–0. Many critics have voiced the opinion that John Burnside is a key figure among those writers who maintain an ecologically-focused vision throughout their work. Such gestures at canonization have now been given formal weight by Bloomsbury Academic, which dedicated a volume to Burnside in their series ‘Contemporary Critical Perspectives’. The volume spares no effort; editor Ben Davies has recruited some notable literary authors alongside distinguished Burnside scholars to give detailed and compelling scholarly attention to the many facets of his prose and poetry. Citing abundantly from his dreamy yet inch-perfect prose, Peter Childs argues that Burnside expresses his Gnostic vision abstractly via descriptions of physical details such as bodily pain or sensual perception. Also focusing on his metaphysical worldview, Jan Wilm concludes that the awareness of dead spirits or God’s presence is provisional in Burnside’s poetry: the supernatural, for him, is always ‘almost’ perceptible. Wilm claims that since Burnside is interested in the boundaries of existence, it is the indeterminacy of the relationship between humans and other creatures that provides the underlying tone of his poems. Several other aspects of Burnside’s textual world are also investigated in depth: Alexandra Campbell probes the paradox between violence and familiarity, which is a central concern in his prose; Ruth Cain aims to clarify the sociopathic traces of his prose from a Lacanian standpoint; while Julian Wolfreys sets out to interpret his motifs of crossing, continuity and transformation in a subjective essay. Monika Szuba’s informed study calls on Heidegger to shed light on Burnside’s notion of homeliness in a geographical and linguistic sense. Also relying primarily on Heidegger but proceeding from definitions of the pastoral, Tom Bristow’s essay moves heavy philosophical equipment to untangle Burnside’s ecologically-themed poems. David Borthwick tackles the otherworldly and Unheimlich presences in Burnside’s verse. The volume ends with an informal interview conducted with the writer by Ben Davies and a useful, fifteen-page long Further Reading section. This marvellous collection will significantly contribute to our better understanding of John Burnside’s diverse ecological interests: it is required reading for Burnside scholars and strongly recommended to everyone whose research concerns ecological themes in contemporary British and Scottish literature. [https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqac011]

Akan Religious Ontology and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana

Abstract In this paper, using ethnographic field data from three indigenous Akan communities, we show that Akan religious ontology about the natural world provides a formidable resource and framework for managing the environmentally destructive tendencies of the human being. We further prove that while these ontologies about the natural world emerge from the intense religiosity of the Akan and the metaphysical worldview of the indigenous Akan, they contain strong environmental ethical norms and values worth resourcing for environmental sustainability in Ghana. We, consequently, argue that significant attention ought to be paid to these religious ontologies—beliefs, norms and practices—of the indigenous Akan, as an effective means of achieving environmental sustainability. We, therefore, propose the resourcing and adoption of indigenous religious ontologies on the natural world that have the potential of informing and enhancing environmental policies and initiatives towards environmental sustainability in Ghana.

Toward an Ecologically Harmonious Modernity: Nature Writing in Contemporary Chinese Ethnic Minority Children's Literature

Zhongguo dangdai shaoshu minzu ertong wenxue yuanchuang shuxi [A contemporary Chinese ethnic minority children's literature series] is a collection of ten novels published in 2017 describing the life of young children from a variety of ethnic minorities. Ethnic minorities in China generally live in rural areas and hold holistic and animistic world views. While this series contains abundant descriptions of distinctive landscapes and animals, these natural elements are not meant to be mysterious or sacred, but a tangible part of everyday life. The nature writing in the series plays with new possibilities and manifests a shift from a transcendent and metaphysical worldview to one that is epistemologically imminent and empirical, which suggests the new generation's readiness to embrace modernity in an ecologically harmonious way.

J. Mcdowell and Accusation of Idealism - critique about metaphysical implication and world-view in Mind and Wolrd - Lee

J. Mcdowell and Accusation of Idealism - critique about metaphysical implication and world-view in Mind and Wolrd - Lee

«Yo, Olga Orozco». La multiplicidad, la unidad primordial y el eterno retorno en la composición poética de Olga Orozco (1920-1999)

La composición poética de Olga Orozco se caracteriza por la homogeneidad de su estilo, así como de su correlato filosófico. Se considera que, para ello, la arquitectura discursiva de la obra orozquiana se configura de manera análoga a su contenido. En este, la visión metafísica del mundo que tiene Orozco se sostiene sobre la idea de unidad primordial, un estado anterior de la materia, cuya pérdida fundamenta la búsqueda perpetua de la autora. Por consiguiente, en el presente trabajo se analizará la interrelación entre la multiplicidad como rasgo temático y condición del sujeto poético y la repetición como recurso representativo, que, a su vez, refuerza el tema del eterno retorno o de la no direccionalidad del tiempo.

Acknowledging Animal Rights: A Thomistic Perspective

In this article, I show how it is possible, working from a Thomistic perspective, to affirm the existence of animal rights. To start, I show how it is possible to ascribe indirect rights to animals—in particular, the indirect right to not be treated cruelly by us. Then, I show how it is possible to ascribe some direct rights to animals using the same reasoning that Aquinas offers in defending the claim that animals have indirect rights. Next, I draw on elements of Aquinas’s metaphysical worldview in order to buttress the claim that animals have direct rights. I then respond to an attempt to ground the ethical treatment of animals, but not direct rights for animals, in natural law. In conclusion, I affirm that it is permissible to use animals to further the human good so long as in doing so we respect the direct rights that they possess.

The World View of Dialectical Dualist: The Dialectical Relation View of the Subjective World and the Objective World

Science is theories divided into many branches. Philosophy is the whole theory without branches, it is the most abstract theory. The main function of philosophy is to provide people with a holistic world view, a rational belief, the ultimate standard of value and the ultimate standard of truth. The world view provided by philosophical ontology is the world view of the whole, which embraces all valuable but maybe not objective and real things. The physical world view is one part of the metaphysical world view. The objective world includes material and Tao. Tao includes relations and laws. The subjective world includes Xin, Xing, Qing, Yi and thought products. Xin means the thought. Xing refers to the human nature, needs and interests. Qing includes emotion, feeling and vision. Yi means people’s attitude, will, perseverance and decision-making. Thought products include knowledge, hypotheses, myths, lies, arts, religion, prejudice, and so on. The subjective world is part of the objective world. And the objective world we think and say is part of the subjective world. It is the objective world 2, not the objective world 1. In fact, what we call the objective world 1 is also what we think and what we say, and also a part of the subjective world. The objective world and the subjective world are the dialectical unity of layer upon layer nesting and infinite circulation. The abstract way of understanding is the colored glasses that we have to wear. Abstraction inevitably brings contradiction.

Re-thinking Folkloristic Subjectivity as Queer Spiritual Discourse in Saif-ul-Malook

The intersection of folk narratives with queer spirituality presents an ontological displacement of subjectivity triggered by an inquiry towards the nature of identity. Decentering of identity to the extent of modification of the self into a trans-human relationship mediated through love between a fairy and a man is a queer spiritual experience which creates anti-normative spaces hitherto celebrated in folklores. This paper explores societal oppressive apparatuses fore-grounded in assertive religious discourse forcing people to seek reliance against such faith-based norms in folkloristic tradition and to create spaces where their sexuality is celebrated rather than condemned. Saif-ul-Malook is the folk narrative in the regional literature of Punjab by Mian Muhammad Bukhsh (1830-1907). It describes the love tale of a Prince with a fairy. Positioning queer subjectivities amidst a metaphysical worldview is an attempt of resorting to inner conflict of self through gender and sexuality. By separating spirituality as sociological discourse from discursive religious practices, our paper investigates queer spirituality in different folkloristic forms on experiential standards than that of belief systems.

Comparative Metaphysics and Theology as a Scientific Endeavor: A Ruist (Confucian) Perspective

Understood as being nothing more than fallible assumptions about the boundary conditions of an inquisitive worldview, this article seeks to argue that metaphysics and theology can, in fact, be pursued as a scientific endeavor. If we broaden our understanding of how perceived realities furnish feedback in order to refine preestablished human discourses, Ruist (Confucian) metaphysics and theology especially can be recognized as being historically pursued as a science by its own right. Eventually, the distinction of Western and Ruist traditions of metaphysics and theology, as well as the imperfections in each of them, speaks to the need of mutual learning for constructing a more robust metaphysical worldview in the twenty-first century.

Beyond Making and Unmaking: Re-Envisioning Sacred Art

This paper engages with predominantly Eastern Orthodox thinkers in reassessing the conditions under which sacred art may be possible today. The sacred has both ontological and cultural aspects. An artwork is sacred, firstly, by virtue of partaking of transcendent realities; and secondly, by being embedded in a worldview which allows the work to be made and received as sacred. Drawing on the thought of Philip Sherrard, the paper suggests that current conditions are characterised by cultural forgetting and the loss of such a metaphysical worldview. This paper proposes that the possibilities of sacred art must be rediscovered from within the practices of particular arts; and that this goes hand in hand with the rediscovery of a sacred ontology and of a Christian understanding of freedom. The paper will follow David Bentley Hart in affirming a theological understanding of freedom—as the orientation towards, and the attainment of communion with, ontological goods—against the prevalent postmodern and ultimately nihilistic notion of freedom as spontaneous volition. It is crucial, therefore, to also identify those transcendent goods towards which art may fruitfully be directed. In this light, the paper proposes the need to revise our concepts of matter, form, and, above all, beauty.

Four Books for the Price of One

Four Books for the Price of One

Beyond Sigmund Freud's <i>Totem and Taboo</i> vision for the future - the omnipotence of thought

In 1913, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) developed in his book Totem and Taboo, general ideas about humankind's evolution over the ages. He postulated three stages for humankind's evolution from prehistoric times up to the present and differentiated between a first phase of animism and magic, a second religious and a third phase of scientific paradigms. Only hundred years after Freud postulated his ideas, humankind is entering a fourth phase which, to everybody's surprise, again is an animistic-holistic paradigm. This time, however, this new paradigm is based on concepts and ideas from science, i.e., quantum physics and the theory of self-organisation. Corresponding to the scientific developments, a new metaphysical worldview was also presented by A Course in Miracles, which for the first time in history, is in complete agreement with the new scientific theories of quantum physics and self organisation and presents an entirely new world view for the coming ages.

Beyond Sigmund Freud's <i>Totem and Taboo</i> vision for the future - the omnipotence of thought

In 1913, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) developed in his book Totem and Taboo, general ideas about humankind's evolution over the ages. He postulated three stages for humankind's evolution from prehistoric times up to the present and differentiated between a first phase of animism and magic, a second religious and a third phase of scientific paradigms. Only hundred years after Freud postulated his ideas, humankind is entering a fourth phase which, to everybody's surprise, again is an animistic-holistic paradigm. This time, however, this new paradigm is based on concepts and ideas from science, i.e., quantum physics and the theory of self-organisation. Corresponding to the scientific developments, a new metaphysical worldview was also presented by A Course in Miracles, which for the first time in history, is in complete agreement with the new scientific theories of quantum physics and self organisation and presents an entirely new world view for the coming ages.

Anthropocentrism, African Metaphysical Worldview, and Animal Practices: A Reply to Kai Horsthemke

Abstract In his recently published book Animals and African Ethics, Kai Horsthemke (2015) makes two important and related claims. The first is that most African metaphysical, religious, and ethical positions and perspectives on animals are anthropocentric. Second, he states that if there are one or more principles of duties regarding other animals derivable from these positions and perspectives, they are at best “indirect duties.” In this article, I critically engage with these claims in the context of the ontological beliefs and ethical standpoints that flow from anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. I argue that the African metaphysical worldview and African practices on animals are not anthropocentric. The nub of my argument is that a closer examination of African practices on animals and one dominant African metaphysical worldview—one that Horsthemke engages with in the book—presents us a different conclusion, one that suggests that the worldview and practices are conceivably biocentric or ecocentric rather than anthropocentric.

Norwid, Heine, Gautier i początki modernizmu

Norwid’s affiliations with symbolism and modernism that were obvious to Juliusz Gomulicki have been lately questioned. Instead of exposing the resemblances between his poetry and prose and the literary innovations of his French, early modernist contemporaries, Polish Norwid-specialists have (with a few exceptions) focused on his roots in the native Polish tradition. This paper compares funerary motives in Norwid’s oeuvre (Black Flowers, Chopin’s agony and death) with the treatment of similar motives in the oeuvre of Theophile Gautier (a highly poetical description of Heinrich Heine’s „Matratzengruft”). Not surprisingly, Norwid’s description makes it possible to establish a link with sacred history, while Gautier – who was an excellent poetical craftsman – uses religious images and motives for “ornamental” purposes. Norwid’s “metaphysical” approach to death is reminiscent of Charles Baudelaire’s practice, who juxtaposed worn-out religious imagery with non-religious objects and situations in order to represent a metaphysical worldview a rebours in which God is not present but absent. As a Christian poet, Norwid was, in a certain sense, more anachronistic than Baudelaire, but on the other hand, his literary juxtapositions of sacred and profane motives are even more daring than the French poet’s representations of this conflict between tradition and modernity