Reality and Culture : Essays on the Philosophy of Bernard Harrison.
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More than being a volume about the philosophy of Bernard Harrison, this volume is about how Harrison conceptualizes the creation of the human world. One might be tempted to classify Harrison as a major voice in many diverse discussions-philosophy of literature, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, color studies, epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, philosophy of culture, Wittgenstein, antisemitism, and more-without recognizing a unifying strand that ties them together. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Harrison contests and destabilizes a persistent and misleading alignment of culture with subjectivity-whether found in unexamined distinctions between nature and culture or appearance and reality. His general aim has been to undermine the belief that human culture deals in smoke and mirrors, and that the only realities are those of extra-human nature. He emphasizes the paraxial foundation of meaning, and argues that the creative inventions of language and culture are as real as any extra-linguistic reality. While granting the existence of extra-human reality, he holds it to be, in itself, conceptually unorganised, but nevertheless cognitively accessible by way of sense-perception and physical manipulation. This volume offers new critical essays that examine Harrison's corpus, written by distinguished voices in philosophy and literary studies. It bridges many of the abysses of conflicting opinion opened by the culture wars of the past half-century. Importantly, it includes an opening essay by Harrison that elucidates the unifying strand running through his variegated philosophical writings, and concludes with a chapter in which he replies to and reflects on the other critical essays herein.
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1 online resource (294 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789401210669 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Wittgenstein on the human spirit /
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Wittgenstein on the Human Spirit provides a new understanding of Wittgenstein's discourse as an insightful philosophy of culture, pursued through self-reflection. It offers an edifying perspective on the conceptual underpinnings of culture as a shared expressive spiritual form of life. The ideas investigated in it are highly relevant for discussions in philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology, and cultural studies. The book embraces three studies: The Spirit of Jews , The Spirits of Culture and Civilization , and The Common Spirit of Human Beings . The first discusses Wittgenstein's remarks about Jews, focusing on their place within his philosophical thinking, self-reflection, and European discourse about culture and Jews. It shows how overcoming the anti-Semitic attitude implicit in them set off the major change in his philosophy. The second discusses Wittgenstein's reflections on the "deterioration of culture" in the modern period, showing how they are related to his remarks about following rules. The third discusses Wittgenstein's insights regarding the symbolic nature of myth, magic and religion. It suggests that modern human beings and those of ancient cultures possess a common expressive spiritual nature. This enables us to understand expressive practices in other cultures without interpretation. Nonetheless religious belief during the modern period is problematic.
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1 online resource (xii, 276 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-259) and index. :
9789401207928 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Das Multiversum der Kulturen : Beiträge zu einer Vorlesung im Fach 'Interkulturelle Philosophie'an der Erasmus Universität Rotterdam /
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In den 'Orolegomena' wird vom Herausgeber der Durchbruch zu einer konsequenten Konzeption der interkulturellen Philosophie dargestellt. D. Tiemersma untersucht, wie Merleau-Ponty durch eine Auseinandersetzung mit kulturanthropologischen Forschungen zu einer Erweiterung des Bewußtseinsbegriffs und der Rationalitätskonzeption gelangt. Die Ansprüche einer interkulturellen Philosophie werden von J. Hoogland von einer Habermas'schen Position aus kritisch überprüft. A.W. Prins interpretiert Heideggers 'Angang der interkulturellen Auseinandersetzung' trotz anders lautenden Äußerungen dieses Autors als einen wichtigen Beitrag zur interkulturellen Philosophie. Für einen Aufweis der inneren Affinität zwischen japanischem Denken und einigen neonietzscheanischen Philosophen bezieht sich H. Oosterling auf Bataille, Barthes, Foucault, Lyotard und Derrida. Aus feministischer Perspektive wendet sich J. van den Oord der Frage der Universalität der Menschenrechte zu. In der Absicht, den Universalitätsanspruch der westlichen Demokratieform zu kritisieren, konfrontiert F. Uyanne afrikanische und westliche Demokratie-Konzeptionen. C. Jacobs beschreibt den interkulturellen Dialog, der in einigen wichtigen Kunstausstellungen in New York und Paris stattgefunden hat. Nachdem E. de Schipper tiefgehende Zweifel am hier beschrittenen Weg zur interkulturellen Philosophie ausgesprochen hat, werden zum Schluß in einer 'Replik' der Herausgebers noch einmal einige Ausgangspunkte des Projekts klargestellt.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004455795
9789042001084
A Meaningful Life amidst a Pluralism of Cultures and Values : John Lachs's Stoic Pragmatism as a Philosophical and Cultural Project /
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There is a growing concern about living a meaningful life among those living in different contexts of cultural diversity, be it the American melting pot, the union of European nations, the multiculturally globalized, the multiformity of tribalism of various stripes, and the fashionable cyber bubbles of opinion and commentary that drive the outlooks of millions of uninformed consumers. This book argues for a wisdom that incorporates a reference for both knowledge and self-knowledge, as well as life experience and cultural traditions that have stood the test of time, all contributing to a framework in which we can navigate our lives.
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1 online resource (266 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004680050
Parasite: A Philosophical Exploration /
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Parasite presents the ethico-biological problem of parasitism in a metaphorical and artistic fashion. In this book, philosophers explore the film using sources such as the ancient satirist Lucian's De Parasito, Nietzsche's "the vengeance of the weak," Dostoyevsky's "Underground," or Marxism, among others.
Parasite is a philosophically interesting film because it presents the ethico-biological problem of parasitism in a metaphorical and artistic fashion. Michel Serres, in his book called The Parasite , holds that parasites are not in fact useless, but that they establish communications between different spheres and are thus able to transform large-scale organisms. Parasites import coincidences, activate defence systems, and establish new links with the host. In this book, philosophers explore the film from various angles: using the ancient satirist Lucian's De Parasito , Nietzsche's concept of "the vengeance of the weak," Dostoyevsky's "underground," Marxism, and many more.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004521513
9789004515628
Diversity in the structure of Christian reasoning : interpretation, disagreement, and world Christianity /
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Diversity in the Structure of Christian Reasoning examines the effect of Christian commitments on rationality. When Christians read scripture, traditions supply concepts that shape what counts as normal, good, and true. This book offers an account of how different communities produce divergent readings of the Bible. It considers two examples from World Christianity, first a Bakongo community in central Africa, and then a Tamil bishop in southern India. Each case displays a relation between tradition and reason that reconfigures the hermeneutical picture developed by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. To see what transpires when readers decide about a correct interpretation, this book offers theologians and scholars of religion a fresh strategy that keeps in view the global character of modern Christianity.
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1 online resource (x, 242 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004298057 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Intolerance, polemics, and debate in antiquity : politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation /
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In Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity scholars reflect on politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation in the ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and early-Islamic world. They enquire into the boundaries between debate, polemics, and intolerance, and address their manifestations in both philosophy and religion. This cross-cultural and inclusive approach shows that debate and polemics are not so different as often assumed, since polemics may also indicate that ultimate values are at stake. Polemics can also have a positive effect, stimulating further cultural development. Intolerance is more straightforwardly negative. Religious intolerance is often a justification for politics, but also elite rationalism can become totalitarian. The volume also highlights the importance of the fluency of minorities in the dominant discourses and of their ability to develop contrapuntal lines of thought within a common cultural discourse.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004411500
Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism : The Tradition of Segnature, Indigenous and Trans-cultural Shamanic Traditions in Italy /
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Shamanism is thriving as an exotic import and a hidden native tradition in Italy today. This ethnographical work uncovers two faces of Italian shamanism. The first is trans-cultural shamans who creatively adapt rituals and beliefs from indigenous cultures worldwide. Second, extensive fieldwork shows how regional folk magic practices of segnatori and segnatrici constitute a little-known but enduring form of native Italian shamanism. By documenting these parallel worlds, contemporary magic workers appear to be the heirs of ancient local healing traditions. Offering rare insights into vernacular religion, this book vividly portrays shamans' past and present on the Italian peninsula.
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1 online resource (220 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004694187
The anti-landscape /
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There have always been some uninhabitable places, but in the last century human beings have produced many more of them. These anti-landscapes have proliferated to include the sandy wastes of what was once the Aral Sea, severely polluted irrigated lands, open pit mines, blighted nuclear zones, coastal areas inundated by rising seas, and many others. The Anti-Landscape examines the emergence of such sites, how they have been understood, and how some of them have been recovered for habitation. The anti-landscape refers both to artistic and literary representations and to specific places that no longer sustain life. This history includes T. S. Eliot's Wasteland and Cormac McCarthy's The Road as well as air pollution, recycled railway lines, photography and landfills. It links theories of aesthetics, politics, tourism, history, geography, and literature into the new synthesis of the environmental humanities. The Anti-Landscape provides an interdisciplinary approach that moves beyond the false duality of nature vs. culture, and beyond diagnosis and complaint to the recuperation of damaged sites into our complex heritage. This is the first volume in the new series Studies in Environmental Humanities .
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1 online resource (217 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401211697 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion, politics and law : philosophical reflections on the sources of normative order in society /
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Modern, liberal democracies in the West living under the rule of law and protection of human rights cannot articulate the very values from which they derive their legitimacy. These pre-political and pre-legal preconditions cannot be guaranteed, let alone be enforced by the state, but constitute nevertheless its moral and spiritual infrastructure. Until recently, a common background and horizon consisted in Christianity, but due to secularisation and globalisation, society has become increasingly multicultural and multireligious. The question can and should be raised how religion relates to these sources of normative order in society, how religion, politics and law relate to each other, and how social cohesion can be attained in society, given the growing varieties of religious experiences. In this book, a philosophical account of this question is carried out, on the one hand historically from Plato to the Enlightenment, on the other hand systematically and practically.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047425380 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The plant contract : art's return to vegetal life /
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The Plant Contract argues that visual and performance art can help change our perception of the vegetal world, and can return us to nature and thought. Via an investigation into the wasteland, robotany, feminist plants, and nature rights, this phytology-love story investigates how contemporary art is mediating the effects of plant-blindness, caused by human disassociation from the natural world. It is also a gesture of respect for the genius of vegetal life, where new science proves plants can learn, communicate, remember, make decisions, and associate. Art is a litmus test for how climate change affects human perception. This book responds to that test by expressing plant-philosophy to a wider public, through an interrogation of plant-art.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004360549 :
2213-0659 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
History as a theological issue /
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These days no one believes in the redemptive essence of history (Lyotard). The individual of today lives without culture, history, social engagement and moral norms (Lasch). It is in this intellectual climate that History as a Theological Issue has been written. Nico Bakker analyses seminal conceptions of history from the past and from our day, and compares them with the newest notions of history in biblical and systematic theology. In so doing he engages in conversation with thinkers from Augustine to Popper, along with many others. His thinking is informed in particular by the work of Barth, Pannenberg, and the Dutch reformed theologians Miskotte and Breukelman. Of central significance is his ability to apply basic theological notions to culture. In this way he connects the present-day crisis of culture with the permanent alienation of church and Christianity from its own origins in the scriptures. Now that since the 1950s a new awareness structure is beginning to emerge (Gebser), the author considers that theology is in need of a radical rethink. History as a Theological Issue is written primarily for theologians, historians, biblical critics and philosophers of religion and is recommended reading for all who are seriously interested in the present-day crisis of culture and in the widespread alienation from the Bible, Church and Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-294) and indexes. :
9789004397354
Friendship : a central moral value /
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Friendship was recognized as a central moral value in the classical period, but it was dismissed from medieval, modern, and twentieth century moral theories. This book argues that this dismissal is unjustifiable. The validity of this claim is established in four steps. First, it proposes the concept of moral paradigm. This concept enables us to explore the source of moral value and to provide a criterion for the evaluation of the adequacy of moral theory. Second, the book explains why medieval, modern and twentieth century moral theorists neglected friendship as a central moral value in their analysis of moral behavior and why this neglect was unjustifiable. Third, it explains why the classical moral philosophers viewed friendship as a central moral value. Fourth, it argues that friendship is an ontological need, therefore, a necessary condition of the moral life. This need is implicitly recognized in the moral paradigms that underlie the moral theories of the medieval, modern, and twentieth century moral theories. Accordingly it cannot be neglected in the process of moral theorizing.
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1 online resource (233 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401207256 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Integrated truth and existential phenomenology : a Thomistic response to iconic anti-realists in science /
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Integrated Truth and Existential Phenomenology: A Thomistic Response to Iconic Anti-Realists in Science relates an existential phenomenology to modal reasoning. By this reasoning, rooted in a consciousness of phenomena in themselves, a Thomistic realism is advanced wherein scientific inquiry yields objective truth and presupposes a causal principle. This principle, as an inferably true modality, strictly implies a first cause. And this cause as a supreme norm, causally created human nature as it ought to be. So with no naturalistic fallacy, a naturalistic ethics is inferred from our psycho-biological nature that also informs art and politics. Politics, as the institutionalization of ethics, is inferable from ethical prescriptions that are as certifiably true as the descriptions of science that inform it.
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1 online resource (xxiii, 169 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-158) and index. :
9789004299757 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Touching Philosophy, Sounding Religion, Placing Education /
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This book redefines religious studies as a field in which a plurality of disciplines interact. A social science when understood as a body of knowledge, religion is also marked by discovery, appreciation, orientation, and application-an interplay of the arts and sciences. Teaching religious studies involves the question of the occupation of territories and disentangling occupation from violence.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004458703
9789042011632
Participatory Learning : Religious Education in a Globalizing Society /
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In many respects children and youths receiving religious instruction in our culture resemble extraterrestrial beings doing an orientation course. Religion and religiosity are unknown quantities which they have hardly encountered at home. Religion seems something else, something greater. This book is a study of the foundations of religious education, centered around six concepts: religion in a globalizing society, religious tradition, religion, the religious self, learning through participation and interreligious learning.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047402121
9789004130012
Thomas Vaughan and the Rosicrucian Revival in England : 1648-1666 /
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In the first book-length study of Thomas Vaughan (1621-1666), Thomas Willard builds on recent scholarship in Western esotericism to show that his curious books offer much more than the lively quotations extracted from them. Treating more than alchemy and the Hermetic tradition, they develop themes from the synthesis of alchemy, magic, and Christian cabala, associated associated with the Rosicrucian movement that Vaughan introduced to English readers. His books respond to a moment in history when the breakdown in book censorship during the English Civil War allowed books with radical ideas to circulate, while political upheaval in the universities created audiences for new ideas. This book will be of interest to students of early modern religion, philosophy, science, and culture as seen by an intelligent and eloquent outsider.
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Thomas Vaughan's challenging books on alchemy, magic, and other esoterica make better sense in the context of the Rosicrucian ideas he introduced to English readers in the seventeenth century. This is the first scholarly book on his life, sources, writings, and subsequent influence. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004519732
9789004519725
Virtual reality : the last human narrative?.
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Is virtual reality the latest grand narrative that humanity has produced? Our civilization is determined by a shift from an "original event" to a virtual "narrative". This concerns not only virtual reality but also psychoanalysis, gene-technology, and globalization. Psychoanalysis transforms the dream into a narrative and is able to spell out the dream's symbols. Gene-technology narrates dynamic, self-evolving evolution as a "gene code". Discourses on "globalization" let the globe appear as once more globalized because reproduced through narrative. Finally, reality itself has come to be narrated in the form of a second reality that is called "virtual". This book attempts to disentangle the characteristics of human reality and posthuman virtual reality and asks whether it is possible to reconcile both.
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1 online resource (242 pages) :
9789004302303 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jonathan Sacks : universalizing particularity /
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This volume features the thought and writings of Jonathan Sacks, one of today's leading Jewish public thinkers. It brings together an intellectual portrait, four of his most original and influential philosophical essays, and an interview with him. This volume showcases the work of Sacks, a philosopher who seeks to confront and offer solutions to the numerous problems besetting Judaism and its confrontation with modernity. In addition, the reader will also encounter an important social philosopher and proponent of interfaith dialogue, who articulates how it is possible to cultivate a culture of civility based on the twin notions of the dignity of difference and the ethic of responsibility. Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from September 1991 to September 2013 and a member of the House of Lords since 2009.
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1 online resource (xiii, 147 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-147). :
9789004249813 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.