Keith Lehrer
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198236658
- eISBN:
- 9780191679322
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198236658.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book offers an original philosophical view of principal aspects of the human condition, such as reason, knowledge, wisdom, autonomy, love, consensus, and consciousness. Three unifying ideas run ...
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This book offers an original philosophical view of principal aspects of the human condition, such as reason, knowledge, wisdom, autonomy, love, consensus, and consciousness. Three unifying ideas run through it. The first is that what is uniquely human is the capacity for metamental ascent, the ability to consider and evaluate first-order mental states (such as beliefs and desires) that arise naturally within us. A primary function of this metamental ascent is the resolution of personal and interpersonal conflict, essential to such central human goods as wisdom, autonomy, and consensus. The second unifying idea is that we have a system for such reflective evaluation which yields acceptance (in relation to beliefs) or preference (in relation to the objects of desires). The third unifying idea is that there are ‘keystones’ of evaluation in this system: loops of trustworthiness that are themselves supported by the structure that they hold together. Self-trust is the basis of our trustworthiness, on which reason, knowledge, and wisdom are grounded.Less
This book offers an original philosophical view of principal aspects of the human condition, such as reason, knowledge, wisdom, autonomy, love, consensus, and consciousness. Three unifying ideas run through it. The first is that what is uniquely human is the capacity for metamental ascent, the ability to consider and evaluate first-order mental states (such as beliefs and desires) that arise naturally within us. A primary function of this metamental ascent is the resolution of personal and interpersonal conflict, essential to such central human goods as wisdom, autonomy, and consensus. The second unifying idea is that we have a system for such reflective evaluation which yields acceptance (in relation to beliefs) or preference (in relation to the objects of desires). The third unifying idea is that there are ‘keystones’ of evaluation in this system: loops of trustworthiness that are themselves supported by the structure that they hold together. Self-trust is the basis of our trustworthiness, on which reason, knowledge, and wisdom are grounded.
Keith Lehrer
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198236658
- eISBN:
- 9780191679322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198236658.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter argues that the keystone loop at Estavayer can, with an increase of arches, connect and integrate without limit. From the perspective of a given arch, the other arches may seem ...
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This chapter argues that the keystone loop at Estavayer can, with an increase of arches, connect and integrate without limit. From the perspective of a given arch, the other arches may seem problematically rife with the potential for conflict. But the mathematical loop holds them together, supported by them as it supports them. The most important feature of the loop becomes clearer as we think of the arches multiplying to fill the space between them. For then it becomes clear that keystone loop is only a part of the arches and not anything separate from them. Within the mathematical loop we find the unity of perspectives, the unity of individual and society, of mind and body. In consciousness we find a loop of metamental ascent and objective descent to yield our knowledge of the content of thought and, hence, of acceptance and preference.Less
This chapter argues that the keystone loop at Estavayer can, with an increase of arches, connect and integrate without limit. From the perspective of a given arch, the other arches may seem problematically rife with the potential for conflict. But the mathematical loop holds them together, supported by them as it supports them. The most important feature of the loop becomes clearer as we think of the arches multiplying to fill the space between them. For then it becomes clear that keystone loop is only a part of the arches and not anything separate from them. Within the mathematical loop we find the unity of perspectives, the unity of individual and society, of mind and body. In consciousness we find a loop of metamental ascent and objective descent to yield our knowledge of the content of thought and, hence, of acceptance and preference.
Melchisedec TÖrÖnen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296118
- eISBN:
- 9780191712258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296118.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Discusses Maximian spirituality from a Trinitarian viewpoint. The question of movement in the Godhead is discussed, as well as the mystical ascent of the human person to the vision of God the Trinity ...
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Discusses Maximian spirituality from a Trinitarian viewpoint. The question of movement in the Godhead is discussed, as well as the mystical ascent of the human person to the vision of God the Trinity (signified in Scripture by the three angels visiting Abraham). The fulfilment of this ascent is the realization of the imago Trinitatis in the soul of the deified person (signified in Scripture by the person of Abraham).Less
Discusses Maximian spirituality from a Trinitarian viewpoint. The question of movement in the Godhead is discussed, as well as the mystical ascent of the human person to the vision of God the Trinity (signified in Scripture by the three angels visiting Abraham). The fulfilment of this ascent is the realization of the imago Trinitatis in the soul of the deified person (signified in Scripture by the person of Abraham).
Ernest Sosa
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195169720
- eISBN:
- 9780199786343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195169727.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This essay lays out the rationale for two principles — ascent and closure — and shows how they imply further principles of exclusion and of the criterion. These principles lead to the “Pyrrhonian ...
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This essay lays out the rationale for two principles — ascent and closure — and shows how they imply further principles of exclusion and of the criterion. These principles lead to the “Pyrrhonian Problematic”, which foundationalism and coherentism attempt to solve, and also to the clash of intuitions between internalists and externalists. It is argued that the kind of knowledge that externalists and foundationalists claim differs from the kind of knowledge that internalists and coherentists claim, and which Pyrrhonists doubt. This distinction between kinds of knowledge is traced back to Descartes’s distinction between cognitio and scientia. If this is correct, externalism and internalism might both be correct, and Pyrrhonism might turn out to be compatible with externalism.Less
This essay lays out the rationale for two principles — ascent and closure — and shows how they imply further principles of exclusion and of the criterion. These principles lead to the “Pyrrhonian Problematic”, which foundationalism and coherentism attempt to solve, and also to the clash of intuitions between internalists and externalists. It is argued that the kind of knowledge that externalists and foundationalists claim differs from the kind of knowledge that internalists and coherentists claim, and which Pyrrhonists doubt. This distinction between kinds of knowledge is traced back to Descartes’s distinction between cognitio and scientia. If this is correct, externalism and internalism might both be correct, and Pyrrhonism might turn out to be compatible with externalism.
Candida R. Moss
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199739875
- eISBN:
- 9780199777259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739875.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines the martyrs’ rapid ascent to heaven following death and the roles that the martyrs play in the afterlife in heaven. In opposition to the ordinary dead, martyrs quickly ascend — ...
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This chapter examines the martyrs’ rapid ascent to heaven following death and the roles that the martyrs play in the afterlife in heaven. In opposition to the ordinary dead, martyrs quickly ascend — by various routes — to heaven and participate in a number of activities similar to those of the exalted Christ. It argues that, rather than assuming that martyrs serve in a similar capacity as angels in heaven, it is possible to view the martyrs’ participation in a heavenly banquet, judgment scenes, and role as heavenly intercessor as analogous to the roles of Christ. This suggests that the question of the martyrs’ identity is more complicated than is usually assumed.Less
This chapter examines the martyrs’ rapid ascent to heaven following death and the roles that the martyrs play in the afterlife in heaven. In opposition to the ordinary dead, martyrs quickly ascend — by various routes — to heaven and participate in a number of activities similar to those of the exalted Christ. It argues that, rather than assuming that martyrs serve in a similar capacity as angels in heaven, it is possible to view the martyrs’ participation in a heavenly banquet, judgment scenes, and role as heavenly intercessor as analogous to the roles of Christ. This suggests that the question of the martyrs’ identity is more complicated than is usually assumed.
Jose Luis Bermudez
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195159691
- eISBN:
- 9780199849598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195159691.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
Forms of thinking that involve thinking about thought are only available to creatures participating in a public language. Thoughts can only be the objects of further thoughts if they have suitable ...
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Forms of thinking that involve thinking about thought are only available to creatures participating in a public language. Thoughts can only be the objects of further thoughts if they have suitable vehicle and the only suitable vehicle is public language sentences. These language-dependent cognitive abilities range from second-order reflection on one's own beliefs and desires and the capacity to attribute thoughts to others to the ability to entertain tensed thoughts and to deploy logical concepts. Many of these language-dependent cognitive abilities, however, have primitive analogues that do not involve intentional ascent and hence are available at the nonlinguistic level. This chapter considers the practical implications this has for the scope and limits of nonlinguistic thought. The chapter explores the question: what types of thinking are in principle unavailable to nonlinguistic creatures? There are two types of intentional ascent, which might be termed explicit and implicit intentional ascent respectively.Less
Forms of thinking that involve thinking about thought are only available to creatures participating in a public language. Thoughts can only be the objects of further thoughts if they have suitable vehicle and the only suitable vehicle is public language sentences. These language-dependent cognitive abilities range from second-order reflection on one's own beliefs and desires and the capacity to attribute thoughts to others to the ability to entertain tensed thoughts and to deploy logical concepts. Many of these language-dependent cognitive abilities, however, have primitive analogues that do not involve intentional ascent and hence are available at the nonlinguistic level. This chapter considers the practical implications this has for the scope and limits of nonlinguistic thought. The chapter explores the question: what types of thinking are in principle unavailable to nonlinguistic creatures? There are two types of intentional ascent, which might be termed explicit and implicit intentional ascent respectively.
Graham Priest
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199263301
- eISBN:
- 9780191718823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263301.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
This chapter defends the view that the semantic paradoxes are bona fide sound arguments. It states a set of conditions sufficient for contradiction and then defends the view that natural language ...
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This chapter defends the view that the semantic paradoxes are bona fide sound arguments. It states a set of conditions sufficient for contradiction and then defends the view that natural language satisfies these conditions (or if not these, then others which have the same effect). The upshot of the discussion is that the putative solutions to the paradoxes betray a pattern which not only gives strong inductive evidence that the paradoxes cannot be solved, but also indicates why not. Tarski, Kripke, truth value gaps, the T-scheme, extended paradoxes and semantic ascent are discussed.Less
This chapter defends the view that the semantic paradoxes are bona fide sound arguments. It states a set of conditions sufficient for contradiction and then defends the view that natural language satisfies these conditions (or if not these, then others which have the same effect). The upshot of the discussion is that the putative solutions to the paradoxes betray a pattern which not only gives strong inductive evidence that the paradoxes cannot be solved, but also indicates why not. Tarski, Kripke, truth value gaps, the T-scheme, extended paradoxes and semantic ascent are discussed.
Frisbee C. C. Sheffield
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286775
- eISBN:
- 9780191713194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286775.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter explores Socrates argument for the proper activity of eros: philosophical activity. Since eudaimonia is the aim of all eros and its proper end (telos), our choice of good must be one ...
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This chapter explores Socrates argument for the proper activity of eros: philosophical activity. Since eudaimonia is the aim of all eros and its proper end (telos), our choice of good must be one that will satisfy this desire: it must be a good whose possession no longer requires us to ask of the agent what she wants in pursuing it, something desired for its own sake, a final good. It is argued that the issue that structures the division of the productive activities of different desiring agents into the lower and higher mysteries is what we might term a division of ends. The desiring agents of the lower mysteries pursue things that are chosen for the sake of something higher, whilst the desiring agent of the higher mysteries pursues that which is chosen for its own sake. The chapter goes on to give some content to this idea, and argues that contemplation of a supremely valuable object — the Form of beauty — satisfies the criterion for being a final good. Contemplative activity is not desired for anything beyond itself, and it is a secure good in the sense that it is true, and a state of the agent's own soul, not dependent on external events for its possession. It is also the fulfilment of our nature and godlike.Less
This chapter explores Socrates argument for the proper activity of eros: philosophical activity. Since eudaimonia is the aim of all eros and its proper end (telos), our choice of good must be one that will satisfy this desire: it must be a good whose possession no longer requires us to ask of the agent what she wants in pursuing it, something desired for its own sake, a final good. It is argued that the issue that structures the division of the productive activities of different desiring agents into the lower and higher mysteries is what we might term a division of ends. The desiring agents of the lower mysteries pursue things that are chosen for the sake of something higher, whilst the desiring agent of the higher mysteries pursues that which is chosen for its own sake. The chapter goes on to give some content to this idea, and argues that contemplation of a supremely valuable object — the Form of beauty — satisfies the criterion for being a final good. Contemplative activity is not desired for anything beyond itself, and it is a secure good in the sense that it is true, and a state of the agent's own soul, not dependent on external events for its possession. It is also the fulfilment of our nature and godlike.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise ...
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This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise (“Dilmun”) and its difference from the Jewish paradise is described. The philosophical Judaism of Philo of Alexandria is outlined. There follows discussion of images of heaven in the sayings and parables of Jesus, and in particular the idea that heaven is within us. St. Paul's account of the spiritual, risen body is discussed, and St. John's account of the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem.Less
This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise (“Dilmun”) and its difference from the Jewish paradise is described. The philosophical Judaism of Philo of Alexandria is outlined. There follows discussion of images of heaven in the sayings and parables of Jesus, and in particular the idea that heaven is within us. St. Paul's account of the spiritual, risen body is discussed, and St. John's account of the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Kevin van Bladel
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195376135
- eISBN:
- 9780199871636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376135.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Over the course of many centuries, one Arabic author after another borrowed different materials from earlier works and synthesized them together to form new accounts of the ancient life and ...
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Over the course of many centuries, one Arabic author after another borrowed different materials from earlier works and synthesized them together to form new accounts of the ancient life and significance of Hermes Triplicate-in-Wisdom. The early identification of Hermes with the prophet Enoch connected Hermes with stories of Enoch's heavenly ascent. After Abū Maʿšar, Ismāʿīlī missionaries used Hermes as their example of a prophet who revealed the sciences. The widely read Book of the Apple, a 10th-century adaptation of Plato's Phaedo, expresses a similar view of Hermes. After the 11th century, Hermes found esteem among philosophers, rather than among just astrologers and alchemists, partly because he was included in two influential gnomologia that played the part of histories of science, the Ṣiwān al-ḥikma and al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik's Muḫtār al-ḥikam. Hermes was more generally famous thereafter among Arabic scholars as the prophetic founder of the sciences and philosophy. The innovative as-Suhrawardī (d. ca 1191) helped to make Hermes especially renowned among later philosophers and Ṣūfīs. The sum result of these and other developments is that Hermes came to be accepted very widely by Arabic scholars as the prophet Enoch-Idrīs, who had revealed the sciences on the basis of his experiences in a heavenly ascent to the celestial spheres, where the angels taught him astrology and other secrets.Less
Over the course of many centuries, one Arabic author after another borrowed different materials from earlier works and synthesized them together to form new accounts of the ancient life and significance of Hermes Triplicate-in-Wisdom. The early identification of Hermes with the prophet Enoch connected Hermes with stories of Enoch's heavenly ascent. After Abū Maʿšar, Ismāʿīlī missionaries used Hermes as their example of a prophet who revealed the sciences. The widely read Book of the Apple, a 10th-century adaptation of Plato's Phaedo, expresses a similar view of Hermes. After the 11th century, Hermes found esteem among philosophers, rather than among just astrologers and alchemists, partly because he was included in two influential gnomologia that played the part of histories of science, the Ṣiwān al-ḥikma and al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik's Muḫtār al-ḥikam. Hermes was more generally famous thereafter among Arabic scholars as the prophetic founder of the sciences and philosophy. The innovative as-Suhrawardī (d. ca 1191) helped to make Hermes especially renowned among later philosophers and Ṣūfīs. The sum result of these and other developments is that Hermes came to be accepted very widely by Arabic scholars as the prophet Enoch-Idrīs, who had revealed the sciences on the basis of his experiences in a heavenly ascent to the celestial spheres, where the angels taught him astrology and other secrets.
Carol Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199281664
- eISBN:
- 9780191603402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199281661.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The ‘revolution’ in Augustine’s thought effected by his reading of the Platonists in 386 led to two seemingly antithetical emphases: a philosophical emphasis on the immutable, eternal, incorruptible ...
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The ‘revolution’ in Augustine’s thought effected by his reading of the Platonists in 386 led to two seemingly antithetical emphases: a philosophical emphasis on the immutable, eternal, incorruptible God who must be sought by moving away from bodily, temporal, mutable reality on the one hand; and a thoroughly Christian emphasis on the Creator God who has drawn human beings from nothing, and upon their absolute contingency upon Him on the other. It is argued that Augustine’s early thought can only be rightly understood when it is seen within the creative tension set up by these two apparently polarized ideas, and that it is here that his characteristic theology of a transcendent Creator and of fallen humanity’s complete and absolute dependence upon Him emerges. This chapter focuses on the ‘philosophical emphasis’ by elucidating Augustine’s early arguments for Christianity as the ‘true philosophy’, the various ways in which Augustine describes the ascent of the soul to God, the relation between faith (authority) and reason, and by comparing the early Soliloquia and Confessiones 10. It demonstrates that his ‘philosophical’ reflection is fundamentally and intrinsically Christian.Less
The ‘revolution’ in Augustine’s thought effected by his reading of the Platonists in 386 led to two seemingly antithetical emphases: a philosophical emphasis on the immutable, eternal, incorruptible God who must be sought by moving away from bodily, temporal, mutable reality on the one hand; and a thoroughly Christian emphasis on the Creator God who has drawn human beings from nothing, and upon their absolute contingency upon Him on the other. It is argued that Augustine’s early thought can only be rightly understood when it is seen within the creative tension set up by these two apparently polarized ideas, and that it is here that his characteristic theology of a transcendent Creator and of fallen humanity’s complete and absolute dependence upon Him emerges. This chapter focuses on the ‘philosophical emphasis’ by elucidating Augustine’s early arguments for Christianity as the ‘true philosophy’, the various ways in which Augustine describes the ascent of the soul to God, the relation between faith (authority) and reason, and by comparing the early Soliloquia and Confessiones 10. It demonstrates that his ‘philosophical’ reflection is fundamentally and intrinsically Christian.
Katerina Deligiorgi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199646159
- eISBN:
- 9780191741142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646159.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian ...
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Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian orientation for the theory of autonomy presented in the main body of the book and a preliminary characterization of autonomy in terms of ‘the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will’ (Groundwork 4:431). The chapter outlines the epistemic, psychological, metaphysical, and substantive normative commitments that make up this composite picture of autonomy and shows how the notion of nomos or ‘law’ within autonomy offers the best clue to understanding the full range of this complex concept.Less
Chapter 1 is introductory; it aims to locate the central concepts, ideas, and questions that arise in the context of current debates about autonomy. This chapter provides the basic Kantian orientation for the theory of autonomy presented in the main body of the book and a preliminary characterization of autonomy in terms of ‘the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will’ (Groundwork 4:431). The chapter outlines the epistemic, psychological, metaphysical, and substantive normative commitments that make up this composite picture of autonomy and shows how the notion of nomos or ‘law’ within autonomy offers the best clue to understanding the full range of this complex concept.
Keith DeRose
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564460
- eISBN:
- 9780191721410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564460.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Language
Contextualism is shown to avoid certain problems, and to thereby gain an important advantage over subject-sensitive invariantism, by its ability to respect ‘intellectualism’, the thesis that ...
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Contextualism is shown to avoid certain problems, and to thereby gain an important advantage over subject-sensitive invariantism, by its ability to respect ‘intellectualism’, the thesis that questions concerning whether subjects' true beliefs amount to knowledge turn exclusively on features of those subjects' situations that are truth-relevant, in that they affect how likely it is that the belief is true, and by its related ability to avoid sanctioning very implausible-sounding ‘Now you know it; now you don't’ claims. The ‘fallacy of semantic descent’, by which it is held against a theory that it has a certain implausible implication, when the theory's actual implications are instead higher-level claims, is exposed, to disarm resistance to contextualism based on such confusions.Less
Contextualism is shown to avoid certain problems, and to thereby gain an important advantage over subject-sensitive invariantism, by its ability to respect ‘intellectualism’, the thesis that questions concerning whether subjects' true beliefs amount to knowledge turn exclusively on features of those subjects' situations that are truth-relevant, in that they affect how likely it is that the belief is true, and by its related ability to avoid sanctioning very implausible-sounding ‘Now you know it; now you don't’ claims. The ‘fallacy of semantic descent’, by which it is held against a theory that it has a certain implausible implication, when the theory's actual implications are instead higher-level claims, is exposed, to disarm resistance to contextualism based on such confusions.
Gordon Kipling
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117612
- eISBN:
- 9780191671012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117612.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
While abundant examples of striking single Third Advent pageants can be found in royal entries throughout Europe, only in England does one find a consistent preference for civic triumphs devoted in ...
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While abundant examples of striking single Third Advent pageants can be found in royal entries throughout Europe, only in England does one find a consistent preference for civic triumphs devoted in their entirety to the dramatization of the soul's judgment and apotheosis. The repeated use of Third Advent triumphs throughout the fifteenth century in London in part reflects the authority of a particular form which first took shape in the reign of Richard II. From the perspective of medieval drama, these Third Advent triumphs assume a further importance. In structure and imagery they offered dramatic possibilities that the other advents we have so far examined do not offer nearly so well. The entry of the sovereign could follow a wide spectrum of patterns, ranging from the confident, triumphal ascent of Christ, to the qualified ascent of a queen who must offer her ‘account and reckoning’, to a dream vision allegory fraught with scholastic philosophy.Less
While abundant examples of striking single Third Advent pageants can be found in royal entries throughout Europe, only in England does one find a consistent preference for civic triumphs devoted in their entirety to the dramatization of the soul's judgment and apotheosis. The repeated use of Third Advent triumphs throughout the fifteenth century in London in part reflects the authority of a particular form which first took shape in the reign of Richard II. From the perspective of medieval drama, these Third Advent triumphs assume a further importance. In structure and imagery they offered dramatic possibilities that the other advents we have so far examined do not offer nearly so well. The entry of the sovereign could follow a wide spectrum of patterns, ranging from the confident, triumphal ascent of Christ, to the qualified ascent of a queen who must offer her ‘account and reckoning’, to a dream vision allegory fraught with scholastic philosophy.
Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard, and Michael B. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226209135
- eISBN:
- 9780226209272
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226209272.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter explores the relationship between poetry and prose (or discursivity) in the writings of John of the Cross. Other aspects of this relationship are beauty versus history and the gift of ...
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This chapter explores the relationship between poetry and prose (or discursivity) in the writings of John of the Cross. Other aspects of this relationship are beauty versus history and the gift of the Word versus the “work of the negative” (Hegel). Certeau’s hypothesis is that in the case of John of the Cross it is a question of “articulating time with what escapes it.” The result is a specific kind of spiritual history: the relationship between history and “that which speaks” (i.e., spirit). Poetry, unlike discursive prose, is originary (sui generis). Hence the eight prose chapters “expounding” the eight verse stanzas of Ascent of Mount Carmel are not to be thought of as a “commentary” in the modern literary sense. The same applies to the Spiritual Canticle, which makes up the subject matter of the bulk of this chapter, with particular emphasis on the Prologue.Less
This chapter explores the relationship between poetry and prose (or discursivity) in the writings of John of the Cross. Other aspects of this relationship are beauty versus history and the gift of the Word versus the “work of the negative” (Hegel). Certeau’s hypothesis is that in the case of John of the Cross it is a question of “articulating time with what escapes it.” The result is a specific kind of spiritual history: the relationship between history and “that which speaks” (i.e., spirit). Poetry, unlike discursive prose, is originary (sui generis). Hence the eight prose chapters “expounding” the eight verse stanzas of Ascent of Mount Carmel are not to be thought of as a “commentary” in the modern literary sense. The same applies to the Spiritual Canticle, which makes up the subject matter of the bulk of this chapter, with particular emphasis on the Prologue.
M. D Litwa
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300242638
- eISBN:
- 9780300249484
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300242638.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The purpose of this book is to show why and how (what later became) the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast, a history-like “feel” that remains vitally important for many Christians ...
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The purpose of this book is to show why and how (what later became) the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast, a history-like “feel” that remains vitally important for many Christians today. This aim is worked out by in-depth comparisons with other Greco-Roman stories that have been made to seem like history (mythic historiography). Instead of using these comparisons to justify genetic links between texts, Litwa uses them to show how the evangelists dynamically interacted with Greco-Roman literary culture, felt the pressures of its structures of plausibility, and responded by using well-known historiographical tropes. These include the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, staged skepticism, and so on. This study is the most sustained and thorough comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology (not just Homer and Euripides) of the past fifty years. Its innovation is to show that the gospels were not perceived as myths (or mythoi), but as histories (records of actual events).Less
The purpose of this book is to show why and how (what later became) the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast, a history-like “feel” that remains vitally important for many Christians today. This aim is worked out by in-depth comparisons with other Greco-Roman stories that have been made to seem like history (mythic historiography). Instead of using these comparisons to justify genetic links between texts, Litwa uses them to show how the evangelists dynamically interacted with Greco-Roman literary culture, felt the pressures of its structures of plausibility, and responded by using well-known historiographical tropes. These include the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, staged skepticism, and so on. This study is the most sustained and thorough comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology (not just Homer and Euripides) of the past fifty years. Its innovation is to show that the gospels were not perceived as myths (or mythoi), but as histories (records of actual events).
Thomas Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264263
- eISBN:
- 9780191734816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264263.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter looks at three different ways that evolutionary science developed from the 1880s onwards to give rise to some quite different visions of altruism—including those which featured in two of ...
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This chapter looks at three different ways that evolutionary science developed from the 1880s onwards to give rise to some quite different visions of altruism—including those which featured in two of the best-selling non-fiction works of the 1890s. Henry Drummond’s The Ascent of Man (1894) provided a theistic version of human evolution dominated by motherhood and altruism. Benjamin Kidd’s Social Evolution (1894) endorsed August Weismann’s rejection of the inheritance of acquired characteristics and consequently argued that increased altruism could only be guaranteed by the cultural impact of religion rather than by heritable moral improvements in the race. Nonetheless, advocates of eugenics continued to put forward proposals for how to achieve moral progress through selective human breeding. Despite their scientific and political differences, these writers all agreed about the desirability of altruism and shared the hope that it might somehow be increased.Less
This chapter looks at three different ways that evolutionary science developed from the 1880s onwards to give rise to some quite different visions of altruism—including those which featured in two of the best-selling non-fiction works of the 1890s. Henry Drummond’s The Ascent of Man (1894) provided a theistic version of human evolution dominated by motherhood and altruism. Benjamin Kidd’s Social Evolution (1894) endorsed August Weismann’s rejection of the inheritance of acquired characteristics and consequently argued that increased altruism could only be guaranteed by the cultural impact of religion rather than by heritable moral improvements in the race. Nonetheless, advocates of eugenics continued to put forward proposals for how to achieve moral progress through selective human breeding. Despite their scientific and political differences, these writers all agreed about the desirability of altruism and shared the hope that it might somehow be increased.
Todd W. Reeser
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226307008
- eISBN:
- 9780226307145
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226307145.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Although Ficino becomes the most important reader of Plato in early modern Europe, he never provides any kind of explicit reading strategy or methodology to follow for dealing with sexuality. But at ...
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Although Ficino becomes the most important reader of Plato in early modern Europe, he never provides any kind of explicit reading strategy or methodology to follow for dealing with sexuality. But at the same time, Ficino does not entirely ignore the question of hermeneutics either. Rather, he employs his own Neoplatonic philosophical apparatus as a kind of hermeneutic model, and the process of the ascent of the soul provides an interpretive framework for rereading Platonic sexuality. Simply put, Ficino’s approach to the content of Plato’s thought also serves as his approach to reading sexuality. The overlap between hermeneutical and philosophical questions in Ficino’s Platonic Theology and in his Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love suggests that the ascent of the soul also implies an ascent of the text cleansed of impurities such as same-sex sexuality. Ficino’s medical works reveal how medical principles such as bleeding and purging are closely related to textuality. If Ficino considers Platonic sodomy a “contagion,” it is in part so that he can cure it in his rendition of the philosopher’s corpus. The role of the female body in this process of ascent is also treated.Less
Although Ficino becomes the most important reader of Plato in early modern Europe, he never provides any kind of explicit reading strategy or methodology to follow for dealing with sexuality. But at the same time, Ficino does not entirely ignore the question of hermeneutics either. Rather, he employs his own Neoplatonic philosophical apparatus as a kind of hermeneutic model, and the process of the ascent of the soul provides an interpretive framework for rereading Platonic sexuality. Simply put, Ficino’s approach to the content of Plato’s thought also serves as his approach to reading sexuality. The overlap between hermeneutical and philosophical questions in Ficino’s Platonic Theology and in his Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love suggests that the ascent of the soul also implies an ascent of the text cleansed of impurities such as same-sex sexuality. Ficino’s medical works reveal how medical principles such as bleeding and purging are closely related to textuality. If Ficino considers Platonic sodomy a “contagion,” it is in part so that he can cure it in his rendition of the philosopher’s corpus. The role of the female body in this process of ascent is also treated.
Keith Lehrer
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198236658
- eISBN:
- 9780191679322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198236658.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter turns to the existential thesis, the thesis of the priority of autonomy of choice in the keystone loop of acceptance and preference. Autonomous choice is the point at the centre of the ...
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This chapter turns to the existential thesis, the thesis of the priority of autonomy of choice in the keystone loop of acceptance and preference. Autonomous choice is the point at the centre of the loop. At this point, we must remember the role of metamental ascent in acceptance and preference. What is important to the argument is to recall that the human mind not only contains sensations, thoughts, and desires, it also contains something beyond those states. It contains metamental states of acceptance and preference evaluating first-order beliefs and desires. What is special about human mentality is our capacity for metamental ascent and the conceptually explosive consequences thereof.Less
This chapter turns to the existential thesis, the thesis of the priority of autonomy of choice in the keystone loop of acceptance and preference. Autonomous choice is the point at the centre of the loop. At this point, we must remember the role of metamental ascent in acceptance and preference. What is important to the argument is to recall that the human mind not only contains sensations, thoughts, and desires, it also contains something beyond those states. It contains metamental states of acceptance and preference evaluating first-order beliefs and desires. What is special about human mentality is our capacity for metamental ascent and the conceptually explosive consequences thereof.
J. P. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269991
- eISBN:
- 9780191683855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269991.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, World Religions
Dionysius argues (in the conclusion to The Divine Names) that apophasis is an ascent towards the divine, involving not merely the intellect but the entire soul; and that the writers of scripture ...
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Dionysius argues (in the conclusion to The Divine Names) that apophasis is an ascent towards the divine, involving not merely the intellect but the entire soul; and that the writers of scripture prefer it (to kataphasis) because of its ability to bring the soul entirely beyond the sphere of human life and thought and to unite it as far as possible with the divine. Despite the undeniable involvement of the intellect in the exegesis of scripture, Dionysius' apophasis takes us beyond the intellect. In The Celestial Hierarchy, Dionysius links apophasis with another scriptural technique, ‘unlike likeness’. Here the difference between apophasis and kataphasis is sharpened. A brief analysis of Dionysius' explicit comments about apophasis shows, first, the nature of the ascent embodied in apophasis, and its relation to the various types of negation and symbolism; second, the notion of ecstasy and its relation to the ascent; third, the role in the ascent of the intellect — and the concept of ‘unknowing’ and of the personality as a whole.Less
Dionysius argues (in the conclusion to The Divine Names) that apophasis is an ascent towards the divine, involving not merely the intellect but the entire soul; and that the writers of scripture prefer it (to kataphasis) because of its ability to bring the soul entirely beyond the sphere of human life and thought and to unite it as far as possible with the divine. Despite the undeniable involvement of the intellect in the exegesis of scripture, Dionysius' apophasis takes us beyond the intellect. In The Celestial Hierarchy, Dionysius links apophasis with another scriptural technique, ‘unlike likeness’. Here the difference between apophasis and kataphasis is sharpened. A brief analysis of Dionysius' explicit comments about apophasis shows, first, the nature of the ascent embodied in apophasis, and its relation to the various types of negation and symbolism; second, the notion of ecstasy and its relation to the ascent; third, the role in the ascent of the intellect — and the concept of ‘unknowing’ and of the personality as a whole.
