Question Of Unity Research Articles

Church Unity or Ecumenism: The Perspective of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa 1967–2022

Right-wing politics is re-emerging all over the world, challenging the church to defy this trend and be true to her nature of oneness and Catholicism. This brings to the fore the question of unity and the ecumenical spirit. It is from this understanding that this article, which is an exercise in contemporary church history, seeks to contribute to the Reformed Church scholarship in the face of the current context of mission. The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), as part of Reformed Churches, has a rich history of union. This discussion stems from the hermeneutical considerations of the reformed understanding of church unity, and particular focus is given to the UCCSA’s understanding of unity and ecumenism. After articulating what ought to be happening, the article delves into the historical considerations of the UCCSA and Church unity.

Alexander Bogdanov and the question of unity: An emerging research agenda

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a research agenda to support the recovery of Alexander Bogdanov's philosophical and systemic thinking that culminated in his magnum opus,Tektology. Our main reason for doing so is to re‐address enduring questions about the unity of science and the unity of the systems paradigm. Since the turn of the new millennium, there has been renewed interest in the ideal of the unity of science. General system theory (GST), cybernetics and complexity science are three significant intellectual sources inspiring this renewal. It is not unusual for these ideas to be grouped under the umbrella termssystems scienceorsystems thinking, which are two ways to present a singlesystems paradigm, and we will explain why its “unity” is both necessary and problematic. Bringing Bogdanov's work back to address the unity question can help us to progress toward unity in diversity.

Draw the Circle Wide

AbstractIn ecumenical missiology, the question of unity has always been a matter of concentric circles, with the call to unity extending its horizons ever outward. What began as a movement to promote greater cooperation in mission stimulated initiatives to achieve church unity, and this in turn fostered an ecumenical vision that embraced the “whole inhabited earth” – all of humanity and indeed the entire natural order. This article argues that the conditions prevailing in the early 21st century have put a premium on the most extensive expression of the ecumenical vision. Examining two seminal World Council of Churches statements on mission, Together Towards Life and “The Arusha Call to Discipleship,” it examines how the two documents have shifted thinking about mission and unity toward a vision that extends to humanity as a whole and indeed the entire creation.

The Humorous Cosmos of Paul Klee and Its Temporal Orders

Paul Klee’s artistic legacy has prompted studies that range from art history and aesthetics to philosophy, and they have now matured to the point that they require the construction of a consistent methodology. Klee’s ample talents were expressed not only in his artworks but also in his polemical and theoretical writings and in the mastery of language he exhibited in his renowned Diaries; this makes the question of unity extremely important. What holds Klee’s oeuvre of different forms and genres together, and what lies at the center of his understanding of the world and of art’s role in it? The author argues that the three major aspects of Klee’s approach to art are united by humor of a kind much like the Romantic era’s humor as it was explained by Jean Paul (literary pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 1763–1825) in his Vorschule der Aesthetik (Preschool of Aesthetics). The article then explores how humor functions as a creative principle in Klee’s art. From the artist’s placing himself between different orders of being, it follows that humor becomes a generator of creativity. In Klee’s works that placement falls between an optical and a metaphysical contact with the object (see Klee’s Ways to Study Nature). These two orders diverge primarily in their temporal aspect: the artist is suspended between flowing time and the fullness of time, or eternity. The principles Klee follows to arrange the interplay between these temporal orders in his paintings are examined. He uses the simultaneous rhythm from fields of colors and a freely drawn line that creates and organizes space. Humor as a creative and artistic principle mediates the inevitable conflict between the boundless demiurgic role assumed by the artist and the unavoidable limitations on creativity.

María Jesús Soto-Bruna (ed.), Causality and Resemblance. Medieval Approaches to the Explanation of Nature, Europaea Memoria, Reihe, I, Band: 127. Hildesheim, Zürich, and New York, Georg Olms Verlag, 2018, 182 pp. ISBN: 9783487156866. Cloth: €34.99

Causality and Resemblance. Medieval Approaches to the Explanation of Nature is an edited volume consisting of eleven articles – in both English and Spanish – on accounts of cau-sality in late classical and medieval thinkers such as Gregory of Nisa, Augustine, Eriugena, Philip the Chancellor, and Thomas Aquinas. In the introduction, Maria Jesus Soto-Bruna, the editor, explains that the theme of this collection prioritizes the question of unity and multiplicity within the cosmos. The emphasis on causality in Neoplatonic accounts on the unity and multiplicity of the Logos, Soto-Bruno explains, presents a «new perspective in medieval studies» which manifests the diverse understandings of medieval views of cau-sality, particularly within a Neoplatonic framework.

Modalization of movement: The problem of sensus communis and the limits of phenomenology

One of the most persistent problems in accounting for the constitution of subjective experience is the question of the unity of consciousness. In the phenomenological tradition this question is often approached through concepts such as ipseity, pre-reflective consciousness, ownership, and first-person perspective. Since Aristotle, the question of unity in an experiencing subject has been associated with the notion of “common sensibles” and the concept of “ sensus communis” as that which joins the proper sense modalities in a single center. In this article it is argued that both the classical and the phenomenological solutions to the problem of unity point to the central challenge of how to account for the experience of movement and it is questioned whether a phenomenology of movement gets us closer to an understanding of sensus communis as a primordial relational force in the body–world formation.

A question of unity: Institutions should weigh the risks and opportunities of unifying their athletic and academic brands

The lines between academic brands and athletic brands can be blurry. Athletic brands are enduring and ascendant, even now, as institutions embrace sophisticated narratives that amplify their academic brand. Ultimately, the value of a unified academic and athletic brand is informed by an institution’s culture, as well as its unique challenges, opportunities and aspirations. This paper presents the benefits, risks and broader considerations inherent in merging academic and athletic identities into a single unified brand.

Ciudad, bien y participación

The socio-political and metaphysical idea of participation seem to be distant and perhaps contrasting. But the ancient controversy about the names of the good (and the being) —univocal, equivocal, analogous— appears to be both metaphysical and political: having to deal with the multiplicity of the human, the question of unity and plurality of meanings cannot be dissociated from the discussion on the alternative models of human society (egalitarianism, individualism, participation).

Letters for the Blind

Letters for the Blind1 Robert S. Lehman (bio) Nowhere do things flourish which are not a combination of inert elements, and nowhere can we perceive matter as other than that constant nourishment which thought directs, regulates, and controls, but on which it is dependent. —Ferdinand de Saussure, Words upon Words In the autumn of 1798, Immanuel Kant published what was (excluding lecture notes) his final work, The Conflict of the Faculties. The latter comprises three essays, which ostensibly address the conflicts between the lower faculty of philosophy and the higher faculties of, respectively, theology, law, and medicine. Each of the three essays was written for a different purpose and at a different time (CF 7:11; 243):2 the first, completed in 1794, deals with the relationship between theology and philosophy in the modern German university; the second, probably written in 1795, addresses the progress of the human race and the possibility that this progress is visible in the positive responses of uninvolved spectators to the French Revolution; the third and final essay, written in 1796, is Kant’s philosophical reply to a recent book on The Art of Prolonging Human Life (1796) by the physician C. W. Hufeland. Kant acknowledges in his prefatory remarks that The Conflict of the Faculties was not initially conceived as a cohesive work, that only upon returning to the three essays did he recognize “their systematic unity” and the need to publish them together in a single volume “in order to prevent their being scattered” [um der Zerstreuung vorzubeugen] (7:11; 243). The systematic unity that Kant recognized has, however, seemed less certain to The Conflict’s readers. Ernst Cassirer, for example, in his 1921 study of Kant’s Life and Thought, notes that the third essay, at least, “is only superficially hooked on” (407–08). More recently, Manfred Kuehn has described the composition of The Conflict as Kant’s last attempt at “tying the bundle” of his occasional writings before age—Kant was seventy-three at the time—and illness made this project impossible (393). The result, Kuehn concludes, is a “mixed bag” (404).3 Most commentators would probably agree with Kuehn’s assessment, as evidenced by the fact that a number of the best readings of The Conflict begin by disintegrating it, ignoring its putative unity and focusing instead on one of the essays in isolation from the other two—so, we have Jacques Derrida’s “Mochlos; or, The Conflict of the Faculties,” which addresses only the first essay; and we have Jean-François Lyotard’s Enthusiasm: The Kantian [End Page 81] Critique of History, which addresses only the second. In what follows, I shall, to some extent, cleave to this disintegrative approach to Kant’s text. I am interested in the third essay: “The Conflict of the Philosophy Faculty with the Faculty of Medicine,” also titled “On the Power of the Mind to Master its Morbid Feelings by Sheer Resolution.” And I am most interested in this essay’s Postscript, which finds Kant turning from the prolongation of human life and the resistance to hypochondria—the essay’s professed foci—to the more particular matter of prolonging “literary life” by protecting the eyes of readers from blindness and other afflictions. So I want to focus on the third essay. By doing so, however, I hope to show that this essay and, more specifically, this essay’s appended insights on literary life, open not only onto the question of the systematic unity or disunity of The Conflict of the Faculties—a text that is, within the Kantian corpus, admittedly peripheral—but also onto a question of unity at the very center of Kant’s critical system: the transcendental unity of self-consciousness. The latter, Kant writes, is “that highest point to which one must affix all use of the understanding, even the whole of logic and, after it, transcendental philosophy” (CPR B134; 247). My claim is that through his reflections on reading and on literary life, Kant rehearses a conflict between the transcendental idealism that he explicitly endorses and a materialism—in this case, a kind of linguistic or literary materialism—that he rejects but never really puts to rest...

Λ book and the question of unity of Aristotle’s project in metaphysics. Critique of reduction of ontology to teology

The author critically examines Patzig?s and Frede?s interpretation of the unity of Aristotle?s first philosophy. These are the two relevant contemporary interpretation that consider the issue of unity of Aristotle?s project in Metaphysics ?immanently?, ie. which interpretate ?general? science of being qua being, and theology, a ?special? science of the divine, as a single project. Although the acceptance of the fundamental tensions of Aristotle?s project is necessary for understanding of this project in the first place, the paper tends to show that the way in which Patzig and Frede interpret the unity of Aristotle?s project in Metaphysics is not justified by its very text.

Theorizing capitalism

Contemporary reflections on capitalism as a social-historical formation build on the legacy of classical theorists and comparative analysts. To clarify the main lines of this ongoing debate, it seems useful to distinguish three dichotomies that have been central to interpretations of capitalist development. The question of unity and diversity has been most prominent in the controversies of the past few decades; its ramifications range from micro-economic research on ‘varieties of capitalism’ to less sustained discussions about the place and role of capitalism within the framework of multiple modernities. Another key distinction contrasts systemic perspectives on capitalism with historical ones. In this regard, Schumpeter’s work is particularly interesting, but as an illustration of the problematic rather than an answer to the basic questions. The notion of a spirit of capitalism is most frequently associated with Weber’s work, where the spirit appeared as the source of a dynamic to which it then fell victim. Reconsiderations of the issue have raised questions about more durable versions and more varied expressions of the spirit, less likely to be eliminated by a self-propelling dynamic. Finally, comments on the articles included in the special issue suggest that they all have something to say on all three aspects of the field, but that their most innovative content may consist in attempts to move beyond systemic models of unity.

Participation and Creation in Augustine and Aquinas

A dissertation exploring the question of unity and plurality in reality, with particular reference to the work of Colin Gunton and his critique of Augustine and Aquinas.

NEO-KANTIANISM AND GEORG SIMMEL'S INTERPRETATION OF KANT

This essay explores the development of Georg Simmel's interpretation of Immanuel Kant's philosophy in the context of neo-Kantianism and its preoccupation with the question of unity in modern diversity. It argues that the neo-Kantian movement can be divided into two periods: in the first, unity was addressed with regard to Kant's epistemology; in the second period, the main issue was the overall coherence of Kantian teaching. Simmel, who belonged to the younger generation of neo-Kantians, absorbed the conclusions of the previous generation that purged Kantian epistemology from its metaphysical foundations related to the noumenal world. Yet he did not share the views of his peers who considered Kant to be the philosopher of cultural plurality. On the contrary, he argued that Kant's system is thoroughly intellectualistic, and that ethics, aesthetics and religion within it are subordinated to logic. At the same time, his own philosophy presupposed cultural plurality akin to that of other neo-Kantians. In other words, Simmel abandoned Kant in order to develop his own version of neo-Kantianism.

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

The Commission on Faith and Order and the Second Vatican Council

Sobre a questão da unidade da ciência preeminente na Metafísica de Aristóteles: o panorama exegético contemporâneo

Res_por:Uma das questoes mais fundamentais para quem se ocupa com a Metafisicade Aristoteles e saber se a ciencia mais elevada constitui uma unica ciencia ou se o livro contem possivelmente diferentes projetos de ciencia preeminente. Neste trabalho, analisamos criticamente as posicoes dos mais relevantes interpretes acerca do tema,dedicando especial atencao aos autores que defendem a unidade da ciencia preeminente.

There are Two Different Dysexecutive Syndromes

The idea of “executive function” has become a fundamental concept in contemporary neurosciences. However, some disagreement remains around the question of unity or diversity (non-unitary) of executive functions and different points of view have been proposed. In this paper it is suggested that two major types of executive dysfunction syndromes can be separated: (a) Metacognitive executive dysfunction syndrome associated with dorsolateral frontal damage; and (b) Motivational/emotional executive dysfunction syndrome associated with orbitofrontal and medial frontal pathology. The first one is characterized by disturbances in intellectual abilities (“intelligence”), whereas the second one relates to impairments in behavioral control (disinhibition, impulsivity, etc.). Contemporary neuroimaging studies support this proposal.

The Unity and Commensurability of Pleasures and Pains

In this paper I seek to answer two interrelated questions about pleasures and pains: (i) The question of unity: Do all pleasures share a single quality that accounts for why these, and only these, are pleasures, and do all pains share a single quality that accounts for why these, and only these, are pains? (ii) The question of commensurability: Are all pleasures and pains rankable on a single, quantitative hedonic scale? I argue that our intuitions draw us in opposing directions: On the one hand, pleasures and pains seem unified and commensurable; on the other hand, they do not. I further argue that neither intuition can be abandoned, and examine three different paths to reconciliation. The first two are response theory and split experience theory. Both of these, I argue, are unsuccessful. A third path, however—which I label “dimensionalism” —succeeds. Dimensionalism is the theory that pleasure and pain have the ontological status as opposite sides of a hedonic dimension along which experiences vary. This view has earlier been suggested by C. D. Broad, Karl Duncker, Shelly Kagan, and John Searle, but it has not been worked out in detail. In this paper I work out the dimensionalist view in some detail, defend it, and explain how it solves the problem of the unity and commensurability of pleasures and pains.

The Homeric hymns: interpretative essays

Introduction : Modern scholarhip on the 'Homeric Hymns' : foundational issues / Andrew Faulkner -- Part 1. The first 'Homeric Hymn' to Dionysus / Martin West ; The 'Homeric Hymn to Demeter' : some central questions revisited / Nicholas Richardson ; The 'Homeric Hymn to Apollo' : the question of unity / Mike Chappell ; The 'Homeric Hymn to Hermes' : humour and epiphany / Athanassios Vergados ; An erotic 'Aristeia' : the 'Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite' and its relation to the Iliadic tradition / Pascale Brillet-Dubois ; The seventh 'Homeric Hymn' to Dionysus : an epiphanic sketch / Dominique Jaillard ; The 'Homeric Hymn to Pan' / Oliver Thomas -- Part 2. The collection of 'Homeric Hymns' : from the seventh to the third centuries BC / Andrew Fauklner ; Homeric and un-Homeric hexameter hymns : a question of type / William D. Furley ; The 'Homeric Hymns' as genre / Jenny Clay ; Children of Zeus in the 'Homeric Hymns' : generational succession / Nancy Felson ; The earliest phases in the reception of the 'Homeric Hymns' / Gregory Nagy ; The 'Homeric Hymns' as poetic offerings : musical and ritual relationships with the gods / Claude Calame.

Ibn Gabirol e a origem do mundo: apontamentos sobre a questão da unidade

Ibn Gabirol apresenta, em sua obra Fons Vitae, um modelo metafísico baseado no hilemorfismo universal, ou seja, na presença de matéria e de forma em todos os seres, tanto corpóreos quanto espirituais. Embora considerado um autor neoplatônico, Ibn Gabirol não explicita propriamente uma henologia, mas parte das realidades sensíveis e corpóreas em direção às mais sutis. Este artigo pretende inverter essa apresentação do autor, buscando redesenhar sua metafísica a partir da Essência Primeira até o fim da criação. Para tanto, o ponto específico analisado, ainda que de modo incipiente, é a questão da unidade e seu qualificativo uno/una, tanto na atribuição que ele faz em seu modelo ontológico, quanto nos seus aspectos lógicos.

Beyond unity in plurality: Rethinking the pluralist legacy

This article is a critical analysis of the pluralist legacy in modern political discourse. The article argues that this legacy imposes conceptual constraints on empirical and normative inquiry into current forms of human belonging and interaction, a predicament most evident today in the field of global political theory. It is argued that this is due to a lasting preoccupation in the pluralist legacy with the vexed question of unity in plurality. The article analyzes the pluralist legacy historically and conceptually, by tracing influential varieties of group theory in modern political discourse, from early British pluralism to mid-century interest group theory, to theories of participatory democracy and group identity, to recent theories of global politics. This review hopes to show how the question of unity in plurality has informed theorizing within as well as across different contexts, and where this leaves us today. To conclude, the article offers some suggestions as to what might be needed in order to move beyond the pluralist legacy, arguing that this would involve a wholesale change of perspectives on the question of unity in plurality, for the benefit of empirical and normative inquiry into current conditions in world politics.