Philosophical Writings Research Articles

Kulturkritik på økologisk grundlag – Villy Sørensens naturbegreb

In the Danish philosopher Villy Sørensen’s writings an ecological cultural criticism is articulated that is of relevance for the current debate on the relationship between nature, criticism and politics. This article investigates Sørensen’s critique of modern culture which is perceived as a culture without a common goal. It is argued that Sørensen in his philosophical writings presents a solution to the cultural crisis, namely the articulation of a concept of nature that can serve as the foundation for a culture and a society with a unifying goal, namely the utopia that Sørensen articulates in Oprør fra midten [Revolt from the Centre] from 1978.

Golden Places, Aesthetic Spaces

Golden Places, Aesthetic Spaces

The concept of sport in the race of theoretically-methodological forms of sports management - anthropology, ontology and art-therapy

The urgency of the study is that the concept of sport in the perspective of the basic schemes of anthropology, ontology and art therapy and the conditions of its formation is analyzed. The concept of sports in the perspective of the perspective of the basic schemes of anthropology, ontology and art therapy is the result of the formation of a sports man, tempering the human body and achieving his sporting results. Formulation of the task - sport management is the basis of the formation of a society in which the demand is sport as an economic, social and cultural phenomenon of a globalized society. This type of society requires the development of the concept of a variety and its interweaving in the cultural practice of sports management . Analysis of recent research and publications. We rely on authors who investigated sport as a phenomenon that acts as a factor in the formation and development of personality. The problem of individual self-determination as a philosophical problem is considered in the philosophical writings of S. Kierkegaard, K. Yaspers, M. Heidegger, J. P. Sartre, A. Kamyu and E.Fromma. Selection of unexplored parts of the general problem - conceptualization of the concept of sport as an object and subject of sports management. At the core of the study is the conceptualization of the basic schemes of anthropology, ontology and art therapy in the system of interdisciplinary space as a factor for the formation of a tempered and integral sports personality. Formulation of the problem - the use of approaches, in particular anthropologic, ontological and art therapeutic, which allowed considering sport as an important economic, a social and cultural phenomenon, aimed at the formation of a sports man as a cohabitant. Presenting main material . The place and role of the concept of sport as a new scientific direction and discipline of sport management are analyzed. The basis of sport management is the development of a sports person, the use of anthropological, ontological and art-therapeutic grounds for forming the integral end of a sports person. It was investigated that creativity, game and sport are universal functions of the person, which lead to the implementation of various forms of identity of the affirmation and development of the human body, which determine the formation of a sports person. It is determined that sports management forms a model for expanding the influence of sport on all spheres of society's life. The essence of sport as the main determinant of influence on the development of sports personality is revealed. Conclusion - the concept of sports is outlined in the perspective of the basic schemes of anthropology, ontology and art therapy, which is based on the affirmation of the sports dominant and its cultivation in sport management

Leitura e Escrita colaborativa na aula de Filosofia utilizando Grupos do Facebook e Google Docs

O presente trabalho é parte de uma pesquisa de doutorado em Educação, cujo principal objetivo é compreender quais os limites e possibilidades de aprender e ensinar a Ler e Escrever em Filosofia no Ensino Médio utilizando as Tecnologias Digitais. Neste trabalho é trazido um relato de experiência realizada com uma turma de terceiro ano do ensino médio de uma escola pública no Sul do Brasil no início do ano de 2017. Neste experimento foram utilizadas as ferramentas de Grupo do Facebook e Google Docs para ensino e aprendizagem de Leitura e Escrita em Filosofia. Como procedimentos, foram utilizados: o estudo experimental e survey. A metodologia para trabalho de leitura de texto filosófico teve como inspiração a obra de Rodrigo (2014) que em seu livro: “Filosofia em sala de aula”, sugere o trabalho com um método que privilegia o procedimento analítico composto por três etapas: 1) Esclarecimento semântico e conceitual; 2) Estruturação lógica do raciocínio; 3) Visão sintética do texto. Além destas três etapas, foi proposta uma quarta que consiste na produção escrita dos estudantes utilizando o Google Docs e o Grupo do Facebook. O texto escolhido para este experimento o “ Discurso do Método” de René Descartes (1996), primeira e segunda partes. Pôde-se concluir que, apesar das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos alunos na parte de leitura, interpretação e escrita do texto filosófico, as ferramentas serviram como suporte dinamizador e possibilitador da aprendizagem colaborativa e de uma escrita mais dinâmica dentro deste contexto cada vez mais virtual em que estamos todos inseridos. Desta forma, percebeu-se que as dificuldades não concentram-se nas ferramentas que utilizamos, mas sim na questão do contato com os exercícios de Leitura e Escrita que precisam ser incorporados no cotidiano das aulas de filosofia e que pode ser potencializado pelas ferramentas das Tecnologias Digitais.

Sharing the burden: A neutral approach to socioecological theory.

The socioecological model (SEM) is a popular collection of controversial models purporting to explain mating systems in terms of ecological and social parameters. Despite its guise of objectivity, several of its hypotheses assume Victorian gender stereotypes of active, competing males heedlessly sowing their seeds, and cautious, passive females, imprisoned by greater costs of reproduction and their consequent resourceߚdependence. We enter this debate by taking a previously neglected explanatory approach borrowed from species theory. According to the Recognition Concept of sexual species, the unit of reproductive success/fitness is irreducible to fewer than two integrated subparts (minimally a male and a female). Phyletic changes in mating systems logically effect changes in fertilization systems, leading to reproductive isolation. We take our primary assumption of the average equivalence of female and male contributions to successful reproduction from the writings of the natural philosopher, Antoinette Blackwell. We revisit the SEM with its contradictions and extrapolations, and develop a genderߚneutral alternative hypothesis termed SpecificߚMate Contact (SMC), centered on two fundamental mating strategies: sexual animals may behave as synchronous mateߚattractors or asynchronous mateߚseekers, generating four possible mating system combinations (monogamy: two attractors; promiscuity: two seekers; polygyny: male attractor and female seeker; polyandry: female attractor and male seeker). Our approach predicts all known primate mating systems using a neutral (nonߚsexist) principle. The approach is also neutral in the sense that it does not invoke either competition or cooperation: fertilization success is considered a posteriori and males and females are coߚadapted to this end rather than cognitively cooperative.

Literary Forms of Argument in Early China eds. by Joachim Gentz and Dirk Meyer

Reviewed by: Literary Forms of Argument in Early China eds. by Joachim Gentz and Dirk Meyer Erica F. Brindley (bio) Literary Forms of Argument in Early China. Edited by Joachim Gentz and Dirk Meyer. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Pp. ix + 354. Cloth $163.00. ISBN 978–90-04–29160-7. Literary Forms of Argument in Early China examines the functions of rhetorical markers and devices as well as the patterns and larger modes structuring various styles of early Chinese argumentation. The nine contributors to the volume each present tight analyses of specific compositional or literary aspects of persuasion, hoping to demonstrate how an unabashed focus on the formal elements of philosophical writing might come to the aid of, or even more drastically alter and transform, philosophical interpretation. The volume includes essays by the following nine scholars, who are at once a mixture of philologists, textual and literary specialists, and intellectual historians: Rudolph Wagner, Andrew Plaks, David Schaberg, Joachim Gentz, Christoph Harbsmeier, Martin Kern, Michael Nylan, Wim De Reu, and Dirk Meyer. A quick glance over the names of the contributors reveals that eight of the nine contributors are male. I will speak more to the implications of such an arrangement later, but first it is important to outline the many insights presented in the volume despite this obvious lack of female voices. The book is organized according to what the editors identify as three dominant modes of analysis: 1) the analysis of specific markers in argumentation, 2) the analysis of structural patterns and their role in argumentation, and 3) the analysis of "macro modes of persuasion" wherein literary forms become woven into larger philosophical messages (p. 20). These are fine-grained distinctions that seem to rely on the relative size of the textual component being analyzed, proceeding from analyses concerning the smallest of textual units such as the initial fu, in Rudolph Wagner's piece, to analyses of entire chapters in the Zhuangzi by Wim De Reu and Dirk Meyer. The organization of the book, as with most of its chapters, emphasizes not philosophical meanings or their implications, but the formal structure of how arguments are presented in the textual corpus and what such a structure has to say about the hermeneutics of philosophical argumentation. The introduction is engaging and well-written. The editors, Joachim Gentz and Dirk Meyer, describe their work as largely formalistic, functionalist, and structuralist (p. 18), situating the volume within a broader context of structural linguistics and performance studies on the one hand, and the specific [End Page 1] contributions of scholars such as Herbert Fingarette, Rudolph Wagner, and Michael R. Broschat on the other. Gentz and Meyer also provide a very broad intellectual framework, background, and justification for the work. They highlight the well-known claim (to some, a complaint), that Chinese argumentation lacks the rigor of formal logic as understood in the West since ancient Greek times, and is more analogical and aesthetic in orientation, often invoking correlative rather than deductive reasoning. After a discussion of classical Greek debates involving the distinction between philosophy and poetry in Plato's works, the editors conclude by insisting that the so-called "poetic" elements of classical Chinese philosophy should be understood as an integral part of the philosophical texture and meaning of Chinese arguments. In other words, the aesthetic and literary elements of ancient Chinese philosophical writings cannot be discarded or ignored, as they are vital to the very essence of the arguments being made. This is an important claim that implicitly and justly criticizes certain philosophical approaches that artificially, and in many cases to the detriment of the arguments being made, discount the literary elements in philosophical writings. For lack of space, I will not discuss all the arguments presented by the nine contributors here. However, I would like to raise a few examples to underscore some of the ways in which the volume explores the performative and literary contexts of ancient Chinese philosophical argumentation. In David Schaberg's piece on Laozian tetra-syllables, we learn how tetra-syllables were common types of verses that extended well beyond the Daodejing itself. Such pithy phrasings were likely performed in an esoteric context (to a ruler) with only one...

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ ОБРАЗА ИИСУСА ХРИСТА В ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ А. БЛОКА: ОТ РАННЕЙ ЛИРИКИ К ПОЭМЕ "ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ"

We present the analysis the image of Jesus Christ in the early lyric poetry and the final chapters of the poem “The Twelve” by A. Blok from the point of view of Orthodox spiritual thought. The study allows us to conclude that the poet, despite the specific creative manner of symbolism, very accurately conveys in his early works not only the crisis perception of the world, typical of society at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also a deep personal insight into the essence of Orthodox faith. As a result of comparing the image of Christ in the analyzed lyric works with the final image in the poem “The Twelve”, which received many different interpretations in critical literary practice, as well as the writings of philosophers and theologians, we conclude that Alexander Blok with his fine poetic ear and spiritual vision, astonishing accuracy portrayed the moral emptiness of people who had created an idol for themselves from a false idea. The element of destruction, the whirlwind of snow, which gave rise to the “tender” image of the false Christ, in fact poses a mortal danger to the human soul.

Disciplinary Matters in the Hypatia Controversy

The problem that was thrown up during the Hypatia controversy is a systemic one. I argue that objections to Tuvel's essay regarding its exclusion of perspectives from marginalized points of view should be re-framed as a disciplinary wide issue. I show some ways in which the universal applicability and vantage point often assumed in canonical writings in philosophy, specifically on history and personal identity, emerge from specific contexts and points of view. I demonstrate what is at stake in recognizing the particularity of these contexts. I find that the false dichotomy between seemingly interested “Social justice” scholarship and disinterested inquiries into truth, which I hold perpetuates the disciplinary conditions that produced the Hypatia controversy.

Coleridge and Contemplation ed. by Peter Cheyne

Religion & Literature 146 Wordsworth’s, all part of a single edifice, all of it founded on the Wesleyan revival in one way or another. Brantley’s greatest stretch is in a brief section that originally appeared as an article in Studies in Romanticism, “Keats’s Method” (1983). Here Brantley examines “how far Keats’s allegiance to induction combines with his Methodist-like, and hence equally experiential, allegiance to the ‘holiness of the Heart’s affections’” (267). Some of the claims for Keats as a thinker inspired by Wesleyan theology go farther than most critics would allow, such as a section where lines from Endymion are read as “evangelical in tone” (270). But Brantley is careful not to make a claim for Keats as a believer, or a poet engaged in any extended engagement with Christian doctrine or ideas. Rather, he sees him as a man of his time responding to the influence of Wesley in the intellectual air and points to places in his poetry where this becomes manifest. Transatlantic Trio is divided into four series of essays that provide context and that cover British and American authors. The most attention is given to Emily Dickinson, her skepticism, and her “quarrel with God.” Four series of reviews put Brantley into dialogue with other scholars who have published on the same questions. What emerges is a rich, convincing argument , simultaneously accretive and dialectical in method. Brantley shows the dialectics between writers of the Romantic period, between those writers and Locke and Wesley, and finally between himself and his contemporaries. It is a virtuoso performance, as much an act of curating as writing. The new writing in the prologue and epilogue ties the text together and makes clear that Transatlantic Trio is not a series of disconnected essays, but a sustained argument, and one that is at least as relevant for studies of Romanticism now as it was when Brantley began working on it four decades ago. Christopher Flynn St Edward’s University Coleridge and Contemplation Edited by Peter Cheyne Oxford University Press, 2017. xxii + 332 pp. $90 hardcover. The editor of this excellent contribution to Romantic studies, Peter Cheyne, characterizes Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “something of an omnimath , a Renaissance man of the Romantic era” (7). Indeed, many of the BOOK REVIEWS 147 authors in this robust collection of insightful essays contend that Coleridge scholarship has a place, or many places, outside of the English department. What emerges from these pages also strengthens the case for the literary value of Coleridge’s religious and philosophical writings, which are only infrequently assessed prior to his poetry in literary studies, thereby underscoring the necessity of multidisciplinary treatments of his thought. As the title makes clear, this book’s organizing claim is that contemplation is an essential term in Coleridge’s theory of mind. Not only does contemplation crown Coleridge’s order of the mental powers found in his marginalia, it also challenges the assumption that “Imagination” is the kernel and starting point for scholarly discussions of Coleridge. The eighteen chapters of Coleridge and Contemplation are organized into four principal sections. Part I (“Poetics and Aesthetics”) sets the precedent for the rest of the essays in book: contemplation for Coleridge transcends mere passive receptivity or meditation, nor can it be severed from the active life. Part II treats the importance of contemplation to Coleridge’s worldviews on science, ethics, and politics. Part III is devoted to Coleridge’s metaphysical investigations and multilayered theories of contemplation and metaphysical knowledge. Rounding out the collection, the essays on Coleridge’s philosophy of religion in Part IV drives home the claim, made by Mary Warnock in the book’s preface and reiterated at several junctures throughout the volume, that through contemplation rooted in “Will,” “Reason,” and faith—the “threefold I” of Coleridge’s theory of personal identity discussed in Suzanne Webster’s chapter—Coleridge strives to move beyond the limitations of dualistic contradictions in the philosophy of his peers (vii; 304). Operating from this assumption embraces a holistic approach to Coleridge’s life and thought by uniting the phases of Coleridge’s early intellectual life—gifted but directionless Cambridge profligate, Pantisocratic radical, tortured poetic genius—with his influential...

Hoe word ik gelukkig?

Summary This article offers an introduction to Cicero’s philosophical writings in general and his Tusculan Disputations in particular. Two passages from this treatise are part of the set texts for the Dutch final school exam Latin in 2018 (1.96-104 and 5.57-62). After introducing Cicero philosophus, it offers a synopsis of the Tusculan Disputations and a selective discussion of the aforementioned passages, with some suggestions for the classroom.

The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue by Jacqueline Broad

Reviewed by: The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue by Jacqueline Broad John A. Dussinger Jacqueline Broad. The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue. Oxford: Oxford, 2015. Pp. v + 205. $70. In his Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions (1711), Mandeville acknowledged that both men and women possess souls but because of the fundamental difference of their bodies have different mental capacities: “This delicacy as well as imbecility of the Spirits in Women is Conspicuous in all their actions, those of the Brain not excepted: They are unfit both for abstruse and elaborate Thoughts, all studies of Depth, Coherence, and Solidity that fatigue the Spirits, and require a steadiness and assiduity of thinking.” Nevertheless, he goes on to observe that “where the Advantages of Education and Knowledge are equal, they exceed the Men in Sprightliness of Fancy, quickness of Thought and off-hand Wit.” Two years earlier his first English pamphlet, The Virgin Unmask’d (1709), had rendered the ironic dialogue of a spinster advising her niece against ever marrying because of the male’s legal power to deny her any personal freedom under that contract and instead urging her to pursue an education to find independence and happiness. If Mandeville was not impressed by Mary Astell’s prowess as an original thinker, he may have admired her vigorous attack on the oppressive marriage system when writing this dialogue. In her philosophical writings, Astell, however, demonstrates the “steadiness and assiduity of thinking” that women’s natural disposition supposedly lacks. Some thirty years since Ruth Perry’s pioneering investigation of this writer’s unique feminist role, Ms. Broad’s scrupulously researched monograph presents a holistic account of Astell’s oeuvre, one that engages fundamental questions in theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and morality as well as her Tory and High Church politics. As the subtitle implies, the unifying focus is on Astell’s concern with guiding women through a male-dominated world to reach a fulfilling moral judgment and “lasting happiness.” Although mainly allowing Astell’s ideas to come forth within their historical context, Ms. Broad also reminds her readers of their present-day significance and eventually connects them to such recent feminists as Marilyn Friedman (2000), ending her book with a brief postulate about Astell’s theory of freedom. The seven chapters with a thematic title are as follows: “Knowledge,” “God,” “Soul and Body,” “Virtue and the Passions,” “Love,” “Marriage,” and “Moderation.” While patiently recounting her epistemology, Ms. Broad explains that Astell was not an empiricist but fundamentally a rationalist, omitting the senses as a basis of knowing, and adhering [End Page 54] to Descartes’s method of judgment but excluding his radical skepticism about received ideas, including religious faith. The chapter on “God” is almost embarrassingly orthodox in its ontological arguments from Norris and Malebranche and its cosmological arguments based on appealing to a higher cause. If not a metaphysical certainty, we are told, it is at least a moral certainty that the Bible is the word of God because to doubt it would result in “a most untenable and unreasonable position.” In contrast to this rather conventional epistemology and theology, chapter 5, “Virtue and the Passions,” suddenly comes alive while protesting the old assumption about Astell’s dualism: she “acknowledges that her fellow women must learn to negotiate practical moral situations as embodied subjects—as a substantial union of soul and body—and not just disembodied minds.” That said, it may be almost mischievous to ask whether Astell herself would ever accept being embodied with any male, whatever the circumstances. On the contrary, as in Norris’s moral theology, Astell eschews creaturely love while devoting herself wholly to God: “When a man allows his desires to tend toward his fellow mortals, ‘all is unhinged and falls into disorder. . . .’ “ Again, this “distinctly Augustinian approach to the topic of love” does not bode well for any “normal” heterosexual relationship that is the basis of traditional marriage. Given her whole emphasis on mind over body, Astell ignores the murky problems of sexual desire in women as well as in men and finally opts for a marriage arrangement based on friendship and equal...

Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy and Representation by Silvia G. Dapía

Reviewed by: Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy and Representation by Silvia G. Dapía Rolando Pérez Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy and Representation Routledge, 2016 by Silvia G. Dapía The interest in Borges in the United States developed sometime in the early 1980s. Though most of his writings for which he is known, like Ficciones and The Aleph, preceded the so-called Latin American Boom, his work primarily gained recognition during the years of the "Boom." However, in contrast to Boom generation writers like García Márquez and Julio Cortázar, Borges, a self-avowed "conservative" was not a politically engaged intellectual. The "revolutionary" aspect of his writings was wholly aesthetic. He was viewed as a writer, who had chosen metaphysical, speculative thought over politics. And this is the Borges that Silvia G. Dapía captures so well in her deeply profound monograph, Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy and Representation (2016). For example, Schopenhauer's "concept of the will and the illusory nature of the individual" gave Borges, writes Dapía, the means "to deny the existence of the independent individual and, with it, any reflection on historical responsibility" (170). And it was precisely this kind of social disengagement that some of us in Spanish departments found so exasperating about Borges, particularly in the years following Argentina's repressive Dirty War. Now, in Continental philosophy departments, the reception of Borges was quite different. Borges was associated with other philosophical writers like Robbe-Grillet and Italo Calvino, who dealt with post-meta-physical, linguistic, constructivist notions of the world. Continental philosophers like Deleuze and Foucault wrote on Borges in new and suggestive ways that turned an otherwise politically "conservative" writer into a philosophical postmodern thinker. Consequently, it was this philosophical Borges that those of us who were also philosophers found so appealing and thought-provoking about his work in the early 80s. Yet it is important to acknowledge from the outset, that there has always been not just one but many "Borgeses" that complement and contradict each other in ways that break with the law of non-contradiction, as in "The Garden of Forking Paths." And this is the admirable virtue of Dapía's beautifully written Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy and Representation, wherein the Argentine writer is treated not so much as a philosopher, but rather philosophically. And this is particularly important in light of the fact that Dapía places Borges, not amid Continental philosophers (who have always had a close connection to literature), but rather amongst "post-analytic philosophers" like Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, Donald Davidson, Arthur Danto, and Nelson Goodman. As she declares in the "Introduction," her use of post-analytic philosophy does not imply "that Borges was interested in pursuing the problem of representation" as an analytic philosopher. The goal is "to read Borges philosophically." [End Page 307] And this is what she does by intercalating the ideas contained in Borges' short stories, essays, and poems with certain concepts of post-analytic philosophy that have to do with the nature of reality vis-à-vis the study of metaphysics and epistemology. Moreover, since the conversation here is not between science and philosophy, which would necessitate a mathematical and experimental approach, but rather between literature and philosophy, the major focus of Dapía's book is the question of "representation." As such, then, I will attempt to summarize for the reader, the way the author frames the various dialogues between Borges and each philosopher, and will argue that Dapía's book is a major and unique contribution to Borges studies, in that it points to certain notions in Borges without which it is nearly impossible to understand what prima facie seem to be literary reiterations of language games. That, to a great extent has do with Borges' (Kantian) notion of reality, and his use of irony, as well as his notion of writing as an "invention" of reality, and its impact on the question of "the Other" in anthropological terms. And here a quick return to the history of modern philosophy may help us to appreciate the encounter, as presented by Dapía, between Borges and Rorty. As is...

The Aging Human Body as a Biological or Sociocultural Reality: A Study Based on the Writings of Select Christian Philosophers and Research on the Elderly

EMILIA KRAMKOWSKA, dr, socjolog, adiunkt w Zakładzie Socjologii Edukacji i Gerontologii Społecznej Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, członek zespołu badawczego w projektach międzynarodowych dotyczących problematyki przemocy wobec starszych kobiet oraz krajowych, podejmujących tematykę gerontologiczną; autorka i współautorka ponad 40 publikacji (artykułów, raportów monografii) z zakresu problematyki socjologicznej i gerontologicznej; zainteresowania naukowe: socjologia starości, gerontologia społeczna, socjologia ciała.

The Theology of Sergius Bulgakov by Robert F. Slesinski

Reviewed by: The Theology of Sergius Bulgakov by Robert F. Slesinski Harry Moore Robert F. Slesinski. The Theology of Sergius Bulgakov. (New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2017. 280 pp. The past twenty years have witnessed a remarkable surge of interest in the theology of Fr. Sergei Bulgakov. Robert F. Slesinski's The Theology of Sergius Bulgakov is thus a timely addition to this particular inter-denominational renaissance. Slesinski has not only demonstrated an unmatched understanding of Orthodoxy's most eclectic and highly speculative theologian, but has brought a wealth of critique to the fore. Having already established himself as a specialist in Russian religious thought with his doctoral thesis on Pavel Florensky, Slesinski now turns to Florensky's more systematic yet controversial contemporary, delving deep into his elaborate and often perplexing theological reflections. After a short biographical outline of Bulgakov's development as a theologian, chapters 2 and 3 deal with his thoughts on Divine Wisdom and their key points of contention. Slesinski first outlines the historical development of Sophiology with reference to Florensky and Vladimir Solov'ev, before presenting Bulgakov's own original conception of Sophia as "a principle that engenders the transformation of society from within" (47). Sophia's multi-faceted existence is accurately distilled in these chapters; this includes Sophia as Divine–Human mediator, as natural beauty, as human creativity, as the "world-soul," and as the "proto-image of all creation" (53), with the latter idea receiving more detailed examination in chapter 10, "A Sophiological Conception of Creation." Some of the more traditional weaknesses in Bulgakov's thought are also discussed here, such as its determinism and impersonalism, along with the well-known accusation that Sophia is simply a "fourth hypostasis" (50). Specific attention is paid in the opening chapters to the notion of Sophia as an organic teleological principle in contrast to a mechanical, causal principle, one that Slesinski ascribes to Cartesian philosophy. Most importantly however, Slesinski launches a sustained attack on Bulgakov's "especially impoverished" view of causality (150). Contra Bulgakov, he maintains that the category of causality is not simply mechanical, but is in fact a "primary datum of experience," and eventually equates the sophianic creative act to a scholastic causa exemplaris (56). However, the decisive theoretical grounding for Bulgakov's rejection of causality, as established by Vladimir Solov'ev in his influential philosophical writings, is unfortunately not included in the debate. The following four chapters (4–8) examine Bulgakov's "Little Trilogy." The discussion here reveals the theologian's striking originality in the areas of Angelology, Mariology, and the study of John the Forerunner. In a similar vein to earlier treatments of these more devotional texts, the analysis is dominated by Catholic–Orthodox polemic. Slesinski's arguments here tend to focus on areas of confessional dispute such as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (85–104) and the veneration of Saint Joseph (80–84). On the whole, Slesinski is convinced that Bulgakov has deeply misunderstood Catholic teachings, specifically the work of Thomas Aquinas. He claims that the Russian theologian postulates a "gross caricature of Catholic theology" (126). However, the author does not dwell on this caricature and instead attempts a "catholicization" of Bulgakov, not only by drawing specific attention to his early "flirtations with Catholicism" (31), but by asserting that his theology actually aligns with areas of Aquinas' Summa Theologica, more specifically concerning the Creator as the principle of the world's being, and the Holy Spirit as the "bridge of Love" (200). Most interestingly, Slesinski rethinks the Immaculate Conception as itself [End Page 217] a sophianic dogma (172). However, in some places the susceptibility of Bulgakov's Orthodox theology to this "catholicization" is surely overstated. For example, Slesinski's assumption that "Catholics and Orthodox subscribe to the same ontological understanding of sanctification" (95) overlooks the specificities of the Orthodox understanding of Theosis, and the typically Orthodox disputes surrounding Gregory Palamas and Barlaam of Seminara. Furthermore, the question as to whether the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception would reduce the significance of the incarnation is not addressed. The following three chapters (9–11), along with chapters 13 and 14, focus on the "Greater Trilogy," and introduce the reader to Bulgakov...

Mind Mapping and Philosophy in Junior High School: A Comparative Study of Initial Philosophical Writing in Classes of 8th Grade Pupils Used and Unused to Philosophically Directed Discussion

This study compares the written production of 8th grade junior high school pupils in two conditions. Four experimental classes used to philosophically directed discussion (PDD) in the classroom were asked, as part of a teaching program (Philo & Carto), to implicitly link pictorial items in selected cultural heritage artworks (Brueghel, Niki de St Phalle, Magritte, etc.) to their ideas discussed collectively in philosophical discussions. The pupils in three control classes, with no prior experience of philosophical discussions, were shown the same artworks and asked for their impressions in art classes. We compared how philosophy entered written communication in the two conditions. By sorting the types of rough notes (outlines of ideas) produced by the pupils into seven categories using an inductive approach, we found that the PDD classes produced more conceptual and better organized rough notes than the controls, that distanced themselves less from the artwork and so produced conceptually poorer notes. These findings argue for formalizing the theoretical and practical basis of the Philo & Carto teaching program. Our conclusion discusses the limitations of the study and suggests some further research directions.

Decanonized Reading: Intellectual Humility and Mindfullness in Reading Canonical Philosophical Writings

Decanonized Reading: Intellectual Humility and Mindfullness in Reading Canonical Philosophical Writings

Securing the Foundations: Karol Wojtyła's Thomistic Personalism in Dialogue with Natural Law Theory

Securing the Foundations:Karol Wojtyła's Thomistic Personalism in Dialogue with Natural Law Theory Petar Popoviß Introduction Any attempt to exhaustively present the contributions of Karol Wojtyła's Thomistic personalism as elaborated in his pre-pontifical philosophical writings to the theory of natural law is surely not a task that can be easily reduced to a summary overview of Wojtyła's ready-made arguments. In his writings, John Paul II did not, in fact, reflect extensively on the topic of "natural law" as an immediate object of his philosophical enquiries. We can find only a few explicit references to it in his 1969 magnum opus The Acting Person, while a substantial philosophical argumentation on this subject in the immediate textual context of these references is virtually nonexistent. In his only philosophical text explicitly dedicated to the topic of natural law, entitled "The Human Person and Natural Law,"1 also from 1969, a more extensive elaboration on brief references to St. Thomas Aquinas's definitions of natural law is completely absent. Even in his later pontifical documents, John Paul II hardly ever extensively referred to natural law in its classic Thomistic formulation until his 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor.2 However, such a notable absence of explicit references [End Page 231] to natural law did not discourage Kenneth L. Schmitz, the author of one of the most significant studies of Wojtyła's philosophical project, from repeatedly highlighting the importance of Wojtyła's "personalist approach to natural law" and of his underscoring the "personal dimension within the metaphysics of natural law."3 How can an author who is so reluctant to avail himself of classical natural law discourse be, at the same time, celebrated as an important contributor to its more adequate comprehension? In this paper, we will aim to postulate that Wojtyła enters into an enriching dialogue with the Thomistic theory of natural law, in both its classical and its contemporary formulations, on a specific systematic level that does not directly engage the classic elements of natural law theory (such as natural inclinations, first precepts of natural law, etc.). We will show that Wojtyła, rather, grounds his most important contributions to this theory within the framework of his specific methodology of Thomistic personalism,4 which he held to be essential [End Page 232] to secure more completely the foundations5 that natural law and its adequate understanding offer to the moral and legal normative "grammar" of the humanum. The Personalistic Value of the Human Act as the Immediate Conceptual Context of Wojtyła's Contributions to Natural Law Theory In order to present Karol Wojtyła's contributions to natural law theory, we will first have to delimit the immediate conceptual context of his arguments on the topic. In his writings, he touches upon the topic of natural law in three distinctive ways. First, he sometimes only incidentally refers to some general topics of natural law theory while pursuing his personalistic line of argumentation, only to arrive at the already firmly established conclusions within the theory itself.6 Second, he sometimes, though seldom, explicitly refers to the concept of "natural law" (Polish: prawo naturalne) in order to invoke elements of the classical theory of natural law and to touch upon elements of his philosophical contribution to the theory from the perspective of Thomistic personalism.7 Finally, Wojtyła, at times, and without explicitly invoking the [End Page 233] term, provides arguments that represent his genuine, more developed contributions to the theory of natural law from his own specific philosophical perspective of Thomistic personalism. The first approach to the concept of natural law is not taken into consideration in this paper, while the second has already been thoroughly researched at length by other authors.8 Instead, this paper seeks to present the key elements of Wojtyła's third approach to the understanding of natural law—namely, his arguments on the enriching potential of viewing natural law from the perspective of the analysis of the personalistic value of the human act as the immediate object of philosophical analysis. We have elaborated at greater length on Wojtyła's concept of "the personalistic value of...

Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Contemporary Theory by Jonathan B. Edelmann

Reviewed by: Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Contemporary Theory by Jonathan B. Edelmann Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad (bio) Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Contemporary Theory. By Jonathan B. Edelmann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. 251. isbn 78-0-19-964154-3. Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Contemporary Theory is a conceptually ambitious book, because it seeks to articulate a program and a position so novel that there is scarcely any extant literature to draw on. The reader with a background in the study of Hinduism and Indian philosophy is likely to be puzzled by the juxtaposition of topics indicated by the title of the book. But what Jonathan Edelmann is setting out to do is to create an area of work in the study of Hindu thought that is almost entirely missing in comparison to the work that has been done on Christianity (and to a lesser extent on other religious traditions): how should a person or community committed to a particular sacred narrative and transcendental reality engage with the methods, epistemic processes, findings, and truth claims of contemporary science? Part of the puzzlement is over the choice of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the locus of the Hindu worldview in this dialogue. It would be understandable if one were to think that the systematic philosophical writings of Vedāntins of various schools—a Vedānta Deṣika or a Madhusūdana Sarasvati—were more appropriate because of their self-evident objective of developing a single coherent position on devotion, epistemology, metaphysics, and action. But Edelmann suggests (although he does not explicitly argue for his choice of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa) that this text offers a "world-view" that can be compared to "contemporary Darwinism," being a comprehensive existential position. For him, this text "is a devotional crystallization" of "Vedic, Upaniṣadic, Vedāntic, Tantric, and Indian philosophical thought, such as Sāṃkhya and yoga" (p. 1), a sort of maximal textual realization of how to think and exist in a God-given world. Although the Bhāgavata Purāṇa is in fact important to all the many Vaiṣṇava traditions, Edelmann's remarks throughout the book point to an approach to it through the Gauḍiya stream of Vaiṣṇavism. When he talks of a Bhāgavata Theory [End Page 648] of Knowledge, it turns out that in fact the text by itself does not explicitly offer one; rather, within its capacious bounds it adverts didactically to philosophical ideas that Edelmann can then trace back, in a way broadly influenced by Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava teachers, to more explicit arguments in Nyāya, Vedānta, and other systems. This is entirely consistent with the Gauḍiya intepretation of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as a compendious statement of doctrine, but it would have helped for this methodology to be made explicit in order to not be vulnerable to an unsympathetic critic, who might quibble at the presumption of a historical and philosophical relationship between the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and, say, the Nyāya Sūtras. The other part of the puzzle will have to do with "biology," by which, it turns out, Edelmann mostly means evolutionary biology. But, in fact, for much of the book, even evolutionary biology stands in for a discussion of the larger implications of modern and contemporary science itself, for it is that which is juxtaposed with the Bhāgavata Purāṇa's treatment of "nature" or "world." With this in mind, my remarks will mostly concern the scientific episteme as a whole. Edelmann starts with an introduction to the framework of the book, on the relationship between religion and science, the nature of a worldview, and the two worldviews that he wants to bring into dialogue, the biological/scientific and the Bhāgavata. The first chapter provides an overview of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and an outline of the contemporary evolutionary reading of Darwinian theory. Chapter 2 sets up the tensions between the ontology of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and contemporary physicalism, and, taking a cue from some Christian responses to physicalism, suggests...

Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit

It is an often mentioned and well-known fact, that Cicero was the closest to Petrarch among the greatest of the ancient world. This is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that he quotes him for countless times, often very long, and that in the Rerum familiarium libri XXIV, which was inspired by Cicero, in the letter group called by the summarizing title Antiquis illustrioribus collection, two epistles are addressed only to him. Almost without exception, Petrarch selects in his moral philosophical writings one work of Cicero as a starting point, and elaborates his own thoughts reflecting on the antique predecessor's views. In my presentation, I outline some of these, and with its help I try to present the “friendship” that spans thousands of years.

Det är inte enbart frågan om nomenklatur: Naturvetenskap och estetik

This article discusses the way humans value nature, with a focus on the way they value nature aesthetically. Of particular interest are the values of children and adolescents and the role of aesthetics in scientific studies. The discussion is based on philosophical writings, especially aesthetic sources, and current environmental education empirical research. Our aim is to show the necessity the science lessons have of an unambiguous aesthetic dimension. With flexible teaching methods that partly take place outdoor, the students' own values and aesthetic experiences become a prompting starting point for understanding humankind’s role in nature.