Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse ...
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Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse characters in Hell who are forced to spend eternity together. The play explores the nature of human relationships, how people deceive one another and deceive themselves. Sartre’s conclusion is “Hell is other people”.Less
Sartre’s No Exit is a conscientiously trite play that explores some profound truths about what Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) calls Being-for-Others. No Exit presents us with three perverse characters in Hell who are forced to spend eternity together. The play explores the nature of human relationships, how people deceive one another and deceive themselves. Sartre’s conclusion is “Hell is other people”.
Charles Conti
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263388
- eISBN:
- 9780191682513
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263388.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion
How can we, or should we, talk about God? What concepts are involved in the idea of a Supreme Being? This book is about the search to reconcile modern metaphysics with traditional theism — focusing ...
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How can we, or should we, talk about God? What concepts are involved in the idea of a Supreme Being? This book is about the search to reconcile modern metaphysics with traditional theism — focusing on the seminal work of Austin Farrer, who was Warden of Keble College, Oxford, until his death in 1968, and one of the most original and important philosophers of religion of this century.Less
How can we, or should we, talk about God? What concepts are involved in the idea of a Supreme Being? This book is about the search to reconcile modern metaphysics with traditional theism — focusing on the seminal work of Austin Farrer, who was Warden of Keble College, Oxford, until his death in 1968, and one of the most original and important philosophers of religion of this century.
Christopher M. Cullen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195149258
- eISBN:
- 9780199785131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149258.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Bonaventure rejects any sort of fundamental dualism between good and evil. He argues that, “a first and absolute evil does not and could not exist because the very notion of First Principle implies ...
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Bonaventure rejects any sort of fundamental dualism between good and evil. He argues that, “a first and absolute evil does not and could not exist because the very notion of First Principle implies supreme plenitude”. Bonaventure follows Augustine in distinguishing between natural and moral evil, or, to use the terminology from Augustine's On Free Choice (De libero arbitrio), the evil of penalty (malum poenae) and the evil of guilt (malum culpae). The former is an evil we suffer, while the latter is a privation of righteousness that we cause. The evil of penalty is just and comes from divine providence.Less
Bonaventure rejects any sort of fundamental dualism between good and evil. He argues that, “a first and absolute evil does not and could not exist because the very notion of First Principle implies supreme plenitude”. Bonaventure follows Augustine in distinguishing between natural and moral evil, or, to use the terminology from Augustine's On Free Choice (De libero arbitrio), the evil of penalty (malum poenae) and the evil of guilt (malum culpae). The former is an evil we suffer, while the latter is a privation of righteousness that we cause. The evil of penalty is just and comes from divine providence.
John Richardson
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198239222
- eISBN:
- 9780191598319
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019823922X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
I develop a Heideggerian response to the central traditional problem in epistemology—whether we can have (objective) knowledge of the external world. I introduce the main philosophical terms and ...
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I develop a Heideggerian response to the central traditional problem in epistemology—whether we can have (objective) knowledge of the external world. I introduce the main philosophical terms and claims of Being and Time, and try to use this system to amplify the book's brief and elusive treatments of that problem. Because Heidegger's early system is crucially ‘existential’, it gives a critique of epistemology from an existential stance—or an existential epistemology. This critique claims to ‘dissolve’ or ‘undermine’ that traditional problem, by showing how it is misguided or misformed. Heidegger's ultimate argument is that the problem rests on a mistake about time, or about the temporal character of reality, and of humans—Dasein—in particular. Heidegger thinks this mistake infects not just epistemology, but our whole theoretical stance, how we try to go beyond our ‘everyday’, pre‐theoretical understanding. But his point is not to return us to that ‘everydayness’, but to improve our thinking by turning it into a ‘phenomenology’, which—by Heidegger's existential twist—amounts to the same thing as authenticity. My three chapters focus respectively on these three basic stances—everydayness, epistemology, and phenomenology.Less
I develop a Heideggerian response to the central traditional problem in epistemology—whether we can have (objective) knowledge of the external world. I introduce the main philosophical terms and claims of Being and Time, and try to use this system to amplify the book's brief and elusive treatments of that problem. Because Heidegger's early system is crucially ‘existential’, it gives a critique of epistemology from an existential stance—or an existential epistemology. This critique claims to ‘dissolve’ or ‘undermine’ that traditional problem, by showing how it is misguided or misformed. Heidegger's ultimate argument is that the problem rests on a mistake about time, or about the temporal character of reality, and of humans—Dasein—in particular. Heidegger thinks this mistake infects not just epistemology, but our whole theoretical stance, how we try to go beyond our ‘everyday’, pre‐theoretical understanding. But his point is not to return us to that ‘everydayness’, but to improve our thinking by turning it into a ‘phenomenology’, which—by Heidegger's existential twist—amounts to the same thing as authenticity. My three chapters focus respectively on these three basic stances—everydayness, epistemology, and phenomenology.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Camus’ novel, The Plague, breaks from the focus on individual experience to talk about solidarity and the experience of being with other people. The titular plague has been interpreted as a metaphor ...
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Camus’ novel, The Plague, breaks from the focus on individual experience to talk about solidarity and the experience of being with other people. The titular plague has been interpreted as a metaphor for the Nazi occupation, but it is interpreted here much more generally and more philosophically as the nature of human mortality and “the Absurd”. The novel also gives us Camus’ clearest statement about the significance of what Sartre calls “Being-for-Others”.Less
Camus’ novel, The Plague, breaks from the focus on individual experience to talk about solidarity and the experience of being with other people. The titular plague has been interpreted as a metaphor for the Nazi occupation, but it is interpreted here much more generally and more philosophically as the nature of human mortality and “the Absurd”. The novel also gives us Camus’ clearest statement about the significance of what Sartre calls “Being-for-Others”.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Sartre’s Being and Nothingness is one of the great books in philosophy of the 20th century. One of the most excerpted and most discussed sections of that book is the chapter on “Bad Faith”. Sartre’s ...
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Sartre’s Being and Nothingness is one of the great books in philosophy of the 20th century. One of the most excerpted and most discussed sections of that book is the chapter on “Bad Faith”. Sartre’s analysis centers on the twin concepts of facticity and transcendence and the complex relationship of the two. He also suggests that bad faith may be inescapable, a thesis seriously challenged here. This chapter also examines Sartre’s famous examples of bad faith in considerable detail.Less
Sartre’s Being and Nothingness is one of the great books in philosophy of the 20th century. One of the most excerpted and most discussed sections of that book is the chapter on “Bad Faith”. Sartre’s analysis centers on the twin concepts of facticity and transcendence and the complex relationship of the two. He also suggests that bad faith may be inescapable, a thesis seriously challenged here. This chapter also examines Sartre’s famous examples of bad faith in considerable detail.
Paul F. Lurquin and Linda Stone
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195315387
- eISBN:
- 9780199785674
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315387.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter describes the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection. In particular, it explains the notion of fitness, which underlies the concepts of descent with modification and the ...
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This chapter describes the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection. In particular, it explains the notion of fitness, which underlies the concepts of descent with modification and the appearance of species categorized into clades. It shows that descent with modification is a much better evolutionary theory than the “Great chain of being” model, which implies that evolution is driven toward the production of more perfect and complex life-forms. Finally, it explains how the science of genetics strongly supports evolution through the notions of mutation, gene frequencies in populations, and drift.Less
This chapter describes the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection. In particular, it explains the notion of fitness, which underlies the concepts of descent with modification and the appearance of species categorized into clades. It shows that descent with modification is a much better evolutionary theory than the “Great chain of being” model, which implies that evolution is driven toward the production of more perfect and complex life-forms. Finally, it explains how the science of genetics strongly supports evolution through the notions of mutation, gene frequencies in populations, and drift.
Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199281701
- eISBN:
- 9780191713088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281701.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The central question of this chapter is how Plotinus accounts for the fact that two seemingly quite different kinds of plurality arise at the level of Intellect: a duality of subject and object of ...
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The central question of this chapter is how Plotinus accounts for the fact that two seemingly quite different kinds of plurality arise at the level of Intellect: a duality of subject and object of thought and a plurality within the object of thought. It is proposed, with support from some central passages, that for him the thought of Intellect is first‐personal in the sense that its basic form is ‘I am F’. It is further argued that this kind of thought involves the merging of the two kinds of plurality, which coincide in the self‐thought characteristic of Intellect.Less
The central question of this chapter is how Plotinus accounts for the fact that two seemingly quite different kinds of plurality arise at the level of Intellect: a duality of subject and object of thought and a plurality within the object of thought. It is proposed, with support from some central passages, that for him the thought of Intellect is first‐personal in the sense that its basic form is ‘I am F’. It is further argued that this kind of thought involves the merging of the two kinds of plurality, which coincide in the self‐thought characteristic of Intellect.
Stephen E. Lahey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195183313
- eISBN:
- 9780199870349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183313.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The second important element of Wyclif’s philosophical program is his metaphysics, which is an important response to Ockhamist conceptualism. Walter Burley had challenged Ockhamist ontology with a ...
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The second important element of Wyclif’s philosophical program is his metaphysics, which is an important response to Ockhamist conceptualism. Walter Burley had challenged Ockhamist ontology with a vivid realist metaphysics, and Adam Wodeham had been an important Oxford defender of Ockhamism in the years prior to Wyclif; both figure importantly in the philosophical context of Wyclif’s philosophy. Wyclif’s ontology arose from his logic, which was not in itself a departure from Aristotelian logic; what characterizes Wyclif’s innovation is his “propositional realism,” interpreting all reality in the form of propositions. He formulated his philosophy of Being as such, and his understanding of the Divine Ideas and their relation to Universals in creation, in light of his belief in an isomorphism between language and reality. The central idea behind the following chapters is that Wyclif’s theological vision is best understood in terms of this propositional realism.Less
The second important element of Wyclif’s philosophical program is his metaphysics, which is an important response to Ockhamist conceptualism. Walter Burley had challenged Ockhamist ontology with a vivid realist metaphysics, and Adam Wodeham had been an important Oxford defender of Ockhamism in the years prior to Wyclif; both figure importantly in the philosophical context of Wyclif’s philosophy. Wyclif’s ontology arose from his logic, which was not in itself a departure from Aristotelian logic; what characterizes Wyclif’s innovation is his “propositional realism,” interpreting all reality in the form of propositions. He formulated his philosophy of Being as such, and his understanding of the Divine Ideas and their relation to Universals in creation, in light of his belief in an isomorphism between language and reality. The central idea behind the following chapters is that Wyclif’s theological vision is best understood in terms of this propositional realism.
Juan Manuel Garrido
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239351
- eISBN:
- 9780823239399
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239351.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
The unprecedented proliferation of discourses and techniques concerning the living being has left philosophy in a stupefying situation. We no longer know what phenomenon deserves to be called “life,” ...
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The unprecedented proliferation of discourses and techniques concerning the living being has left philosophy in a stupefying situation. We no longer know what phenomenon deserves to be called “life,” and we no longer know how to ask the question “what is life?” The traditional way of understanding life as self-appropriating and self-organizing process of not ceasing to be, of taking care of one's own hunger, is challenged. This challenge entails questioning fundamental concepts of metaphysical thinking, namely, time, finality, and above all being and existing. In this study, the author proposes some basics elements for the question concerning life through readings of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida; through the discussion of scientific breakthroughs in thermodynamics and evolutionary and developmental biology; and through the re-examination of the notion of hunger in both its metaphysical and its political implications.Less
The unprecedented proliferation of discourses and techniques concerning the living being has left philosophy in a stupefying situation. We no longer know what phenomenon deserves to be called “life,” and we no longer know how to ask the question “what is life?” The traditional way of understanding life as self-appropriating and self-organizing process of not ceasing to be, of taking care of one's own hunger, is challenged. This challenge entails questioning fundamental concepts of metaphysical thinking, namely, time, finality, and above all being and existing. In this study, the author proposes some basics elements for the question concerning life through readings of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida; through the discussion of scientific breakthroughs in thermodynamics and evolutionary and developmental biology; and through the re-examination of the notion of hunger in both its metaphysical and its political implications.
Lawrence Danson
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198186281
- eISBN:
- 9780191674488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186281.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter analyses Oscar Wilde's essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism, which highlights how apparent polarities become the permanently unsettled stuff of Wildean paradox. It considers the essay's ...
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This chapter analyses Oscar Wilde's essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism, which highlights how apparent polarities become the permanently unsettled stuff of Wildean paradox. It considers the essay's contributory discourses of politics and culture, where Wilde imagines a world, adjacent to the imaginative world of The Importance of Being Earnest, in which individual desire is fully and joyfully free. The chapter also discusses Wilde's prison letter entitled De Profundis.Less
This chapter analyses Oscar Wilde's essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism, which highlights how apparent polarities become the permanently unsettled stuff of Wildean paradox. It considers the essay's contributory discourses of politics and culture, where Wilde imagines a world, adjacent to the imaginative world of The Importance of Being Earnest, in which individual desire is fully and joyfully free. The chapter also discusses Wilde's prison letter entitled De Profundis.
George Pattison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588688
- eISBN:
- 9780191723339
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588688.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy ...
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Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy of Martin Heidegger and identified with the position he called ‘onto-theology’. Heidegger's critique was repeated and radicalized in so-called postmodern thought, to the point that many theologians and philosophers of religion now want to talk instead of God as ‘beyond Being’ or ‘without Being’. Against this background, ‘God and Being’ attempts to look again at why the ideas of God and Being got associated in the first place and to investigate whether the critique of ontotheology really does require us to abandon this link. After exploring how this apparently abstract idea has informed Christian views of salvation and of the relationship between God and world, the book examines how such categories as time, space, language, human relationships and embodiment affect our understanding of God and Being. The conclusion is that whilst Heidegger's critique has considerable force, it remains legitimate to speak of God as Being under certain restricted conditions. The most important of these is that God is better conceived in terms of purely possible Being rather than (as in classic Christian theology) ‘actual’ Being. This leaves open possibilities of dialogue with, e.g., non-theistic religious traditions and with science that are foreclosed by traditional conceptions. Ultimately, however, all basic religious ideas must issue from and be seen to serve the requirements of embodied love.Less
Western theology has long regarded ‘Being’ as a category pre-eminently applicable to God, the supreme Being who is also the source of all existence. This idea was challenged in the later philosophy of Martin Heidegger and identified with the position he called ‘onto-theology’. Heidegger's critique was repeated and radicalized in so-called postmodern thought, to the point that many theologians and philosophers of religion now want to talk instead of God as ‘beyond Being’ or ‘without Being’. Against this background, ‘God and Being’ attempts to look again at why the ideas of God and Being got associated in the first place and to investigate whether the critique of ontotheology really does require us to abandon this link. After exploring how this apparently abstract idea has informed Christian views of salvation and of the relationship between God and world, the book examines how such categories as time, space, language, human relationships and embodiment affect our understanding of God and Being. The conclusion is that whilst Heidegger's critique has considerable force, it remains legitimate to speak of God as Being under certain restricted conditions. The most important of these is that God is better conceived in terms of purely possible Being rather than (as in classic Christian theology) ‘actual’ Being. This leaves open possibilities of dialogue with, e.g., non-theistic religious traditions and with science that are foreclosed by traditional conceptions. Ultimately, however, all basic religious ideas must issue from and be seen to serve the requirements of embodied love.
Svetla Slaveva-Griffin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195377194
- eISBN:
- 9780199869572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377194.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter examines the relationship of Substantial Number and all intelligible entities: Absolute Being as “unified number;” Intellect as “number moving in itself”; beings as “unfolded number;” ...
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This chapter examines the relationship of Substantial Number and all intelligible entities: Absolute Being as “unified number;” Intellect as “number moving in itself”; beings as “unfolded number;” and the Complete Living Being as “encompassing number.” A closer examination reveals that the four aspects of substantial number correspond to Plato’s primary kinds of rest, movement, otherness, and sameness respectively. The chapter concludes that the properties of substantial number enact the above four primary kinds, while the fifth primary kind, that of being, is the common denominator which represents them all. This conclusion also elucidates the relationship of substantial number with the One and Soul, as Plotinus does not identify them with a particular property of number. Since the properties of substantial number order Intellect on the inside and since both the One and Soul stand on the outside of Intellect, they do not inherit a particular property of number. Substantial number is an ontological expression of the One “beyond Being,” which does not possess any particular characteristic. Soul, however, as an image of Intellect, possesses all the properties of substantial number.Less
This chapter examines the relationship of Substantial Number and all intelligible entities: Absolute Being as “unified number;” Intellect as “number moving in itself”; beings as “unfolded number;” and the Complete Living Being as “encompassing number.” A closer examination reveals that the four aspects of substantial number correspond to Plato’s primary kinds of rest, movement, otherness, and sameness respectively. The chapter concludes that the properties of substantial number enact the above four primary kinds, while the fifth primary kind, that of being, is the common denominator which represents them all. This conclusion also elucidates the relationship of substantial number with the One and Soul, as Plotinus does not identify them with a particular property of number. Since the properties of substantial number order Intellect on the inside and since both the One and Soul stand on the outside of Intellect, they do not inherit a particular property of number. Substantial number is an ontological expression of the One “beyond Being,” which does not possess any particular characteristic. Soul, however, as an image of Intellect, possesses all the properties of substantial number.
Mary Bruce Webb, Kathryn Dowd, Brenda Jones Harden, John Landsverk, and Mark Testa (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195398465
- eISBN:
- 9780199863426
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398465.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families, Health and Mental Health
The landmark National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) study represents the first effort to gather nationally representative data, based on first-hand reports, about the well-being ...
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The landmark National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) study represents the first effort to gather nationally representative data, based on first-hand reports, about the well-being of children and families who encounter the child welfare system. NSCAW's findings offer an unprecedented national source of data that describe the developmental status and functional characteristics of children who come to the attention of child protective services. Much more than a simple history of placements or length of stay in foster care, NSCAW data chart the trajectory of families across service pathways for a multi-dimensional view of their specific needs. The NSCAW survey is longitudinal, contains direct assessments and reports about each child from multiple sources, and is designed to address questions of relations among children's characteristics and experiences, their development, their pathways through the child welfare service system, their service needs, their service receipt, and ultimately, their well-being over time. The topics covered in this book are key to child welfare practice and policy, but are also of compelling interest to other child service sectors such as health, mental health, education, and juvenile justice. The authors of chapters in this volume are esteemed researchers within psychology, social work, economics, and public health. Together they represent the future of child welfare research, showcasing the potential of NSCAW as a valuable resource to the research community, and providing glimpses of how the data can be used to inform practice and policy.Less
The landmark National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) study represents the first effort to gather nationally representative data, based on first-hand reports, about the well-being of children and families who encounter the child welfare system. NSCAW's findings offer an unprecedented national source of data that describe the developmental status and functional characteristics of children who come to the attention of child protective services. Much more than a simple history of placements or length of stay in foster care, NSCAW data chart the trajectory of families across service pathways for a multi-dimensional view of their specific needs. The NSCAW survey is longitudinal, contains direct assessments and reports about each child from multiple sources, and is designed to address questions of relations among children's characteristics and experiences, their development, their pathways through the child welfare service system, their service needs, their service receipt, and ultimately, their well-being over time. The topics covered in this book are key to child welfare practice and policy, but are also of compelling interest to other child service sectors such as health, mental health, education, and juvenile justice. The authors of chapters in this volume are esteemed researchers within psychology, social work, economics, and public health. Together they represent the future of child welfare research, showcasing the potential of NSCAW as a valuable resource to the research community, and providing glimpses of how the data can be used to inform practice and policy.
George Pattison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588688
- eISBN:
- 9780191723339
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588688.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Starting from contemporary debates about the existence of God, the Introduction argues that these would be improved by considering more closely what it might mean for God to be. Attention is drawn to ...
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Starting from contemporary debates about the existence of God, the Introduction argues that these would be improved by considering more closely what it might mean for God to be. Attention is drawn to Heidegger's critique of ontotheology and the impact this has had on postmodern philosophy of religion and theology. However, it is argued that before simply accepting that the metaphysics of Being is of no continuing value we should reflect on why Christian tradition found the linkage of ideas of God and being so compelling. These observations are followed by reflections on the general method and approach of the enquiry.Less
Starting from contemporary debates about the existence of God, the Introduction argues that these would be improved by considering more closely what it might mean for God to be. Attention is drawn to Heidegger's critique of ontotheology and the impact this has had on postmodern philosophy of religion and theology. However, it is argued that before simply accepting that the metaphysics of Being is of no continuing value we should reflect on why Christian tradition found the linkage of ideas of God and being so compelling. These observations are followed by reflections on the general method and approach of the enquiry.
George Pattison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588688
- eISBN:
- 9780191723339
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588688.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
In surveying the identification of God and Being in the Western theological tradition particular emphasis is placed on the use of Exodus 3 and the self-naming of God as ‘I am who I am’. The ...
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In surveying the identification of God and Being in the Western theological tradition particular emphasis is placed on the use of Exodus 3 and the self-naming of God as ‘I am who I am’. The soteriological force of ontological language is explored with particular reference to Augustine and his vision of life in time as falling away from true Being into nothingness and death. In this perspective only the God who is who He is in unchanging self-sameness can save. A modern reworking of this theme can be seen in, e.g., the theology of Paul Tillich. But can the God who is Being Itself be known in any meaningful sense? The problems of the Thomist answer to this question are explored with reference both to apophatic theology and Gilson's oaccount of the relationship between the known essence and the existent being.Less
In surveying the identification of God and Being in the Western theological tradition particular emphasis is placed on the use of Exodus 3 and the self-naming of God as ‘I am who I am’. The soteriological force of ontological language is explored with particular reference to Augustine and his vision of life in time as falling away from true Being into nothingness and death. In this perspective only the God who is who He is in unchanging self-sameness can save. A modern reworking of this theme can be seen in, e.g., the theology of Paul Tillich. But can the God who is Being Itself be known in any meaningful sense? The problems of the Thomist answer to this question are explored with reference both to apophatic theology and Gilson's oaccount of the relationship between the known essence and the existent being.
George Pattison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588688
- eISBN:
- 9780191723339
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588688.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Love seeks emobodiment, but this is not to be understood in the sense of explaining mental life as a mere epiphenomenon of physiological states. Rather, the body is construed as the body of lived ...
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Love seeks emobodiment, but this is not to be understood in the sense of explaining mental life as a mere epiphenomenon of physiological states. Rather, the body is construed as the body of lived experience as interpreted by, e.g., Merleau-Ponty. This interpretation affirms—or at least, leaves open—the possibility of an experience of transcendence towards God in the heart of embodied life itself. The phenomena of trembling and weeping are used to exemplify how such an interpretation might proceed. The question of Being is thus seen to become a matter of the stake we place on our own embodied life in the world and, it is argued, this also provides the measure for whatever level of Being we attribute to God: to affirm God as Being is to affirm the seriousness of our stake in our own dealings with God.Less
Love seeks emobodiment, but this is not to be understood in the sense of explaining mental life as a mere epiphenomenon of physiological states. Rather, the body is construed as the body of lived experience as interpreted by, e.g., Merleau-Ponty. This interpretation affirms—or at least, leaves open—the possibility of an experience of transcendence towards God in the heart of embodied life itself. The phenomena of trembling and weeping are used to exemplify how such an interpretation might proceed. The question of Being is thus seen to become a matter of the stake we place on our own embodied life in the world and, it is argued, this also provides the measure for whatever level of Being we attribute to God: to affirm God as Being is to affirm the seriousness of our stake in our own dealings with God.
George Pattison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588688
- eISBN:
- 9780191723339
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588688.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Classical Christian theology limits what can be known of Being by embodied beings to being that has not fully actualized its potentiality. Is our knowledge of divine Being, then, merely a possible ...
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Classical Christian theology limits what can be known of Being by embodied beings to being that has not fully actualized its potentiality. Is our knowledge of divine Being, then, merely a possible knowledge or knowledge of a possibility? For classical theism, however, a God whose Being is merely possible is a God who, in a sense, is not and thinking of God in terms of possibility results in nihilism. This is explored in relation to the concept of ‘the field of nihility’ (K. Nishida) and Derrida's discussion of the Platonic khôra. Here the question of Being and of God arrives at a point of undecidability. In this situation we may choose to live our lives in the world as sheer facticity or gratefully to experience existence as a gift, but neither compels assent. Perhaps it is precisely this freedom of interpretation—this possibility—that is the gift of Being.Less
Classical Christian theology limits what can be known of Being by embodied beings to being that has not fully actualized its potentiality. Is our knowledge of divine Being, then, merely a possible knowledge or knowledge of a possibility? For classical theism, however, a God whose Being is merely possible is a God who, in a sense, is not and thinking of God in terms of possibility results in nihilism. This is explored in relation to the concept of ‘the field of nihility’ (K. Nishida) and Derrida's discussion of the Platonic khôra. Here the question of Being and of God arrives at a point of undecidability. In this situation we may choose to live our lives in the world as sheer facticity or gratefully to experience existence as a gift, but neither compels assent. Perhaps it is precisely this freedom of interpretation—this possibility—that is the gift of Being.
Lee Braver (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029681
- eISBN:
- 9780262330008
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029681.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was ...
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How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was never published, or perhaps even written? Some of the world’s leading Heidegger scholars offer answers to these questions, shedding new light on the central ideas of the book along the way. If we understand what the third Division would have said, we can understand the book as a whole better. If we can see why he didn’t write it, we can appreciate his later work anew.Less
How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was never published, or perhaps even written? Some of the world’s leading Heidegger scholars offer answers to these questions, shedding new light on the central ideas of the book along the way. If we understand what the third Division would have said, we can understand the book as a whole better. If we can see why he didn’t write it, we can appreciate his later work anew.
Paul P. Biemer, Kathryn L. Dowd, and Mary Bruce Webb
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195398465
- eISBN:
- 9780199863426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398465.003.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families, Health and Mental Health
This chapter presents the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) design features that inform the subsamples and measures used for analysis in all the chapters that follow. It ...
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This chapter presents the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) design features that inform the subsamples and measures used for analysis in all the chapters that follow. It shows that NSCAW has contributed to the body of child welfare knowledge by availing researchers of relatively objective data about children's characteristics and functioning, data that can serve as an assessment of service need, which in turn enables researchers to compare that need with services actually received.Less
This chapter presents the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) design features that inform the subsamples and measures used for analysis in all the chapters that follow. It shows that NSCAW has contributed to the body of child welfare knowledge by availing researchers of relatively objective data about children's characteristics and functioning, data that can serve as an assessment of service need, which in turn enables researchers to compare that need with services actually received.
