N. J. Sewell‐Rutter
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199227334
- eISBN:
- 9780191711152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199227334.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter investigates the agency and decision-making processes of the mortals in tragedy on whom the weight of supernatural causation rests. It considers successively fate, mortal freedom, and ...
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This chapter investigates the agency and decision-making processes of the mortals in tragedy on whom the weight of supernatural causation rests. It considers successively fate, mortal freedom, and the processes of decision, with particular emphasis on the so-called ‘decision’ scene of Eteocles in Aeschylus' Septem contra Thebas. This last phase of the investigation does not pretend to be exhaustive in itself, but rather seeks to examine certain relevant aspects of these phenomena as they present themselves to the student of familial corruption and supernatural causation. It asks how divine necessity meshes with mortal agency in certain relevant cases, and whether the former imperils the latter.Less
This chapter investigates the agency and decision-making processes of the mortals in tragedy on whom the weight of supernatural causation rests. It considers successively fate, mortal freedom, and the processes of decision, with particular emphasis on the so-called ‘decision’ scene of Eteocles in Aeschylus' Septem contra Thebas. This last phase of the investigation does not pretend to be exhaustive in itself, but rather seeks to examine certain relevant aspects of these phenomena as they present themselves to the student of familial corruption and supernatural causation. It asks how divine necessity meshes with mortal agency in certain relevant cases, and whether the former imperils the latter.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195313901
- eISBN:
- 9780199871933
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313901.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
When Souls Had Wings represents the first attempt to trace a history of “pre-heaven,” the idea that the human soul (or spirit) had an existence prior to its mortal birth. Philosophers ...
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When Souls Had Wings represents the first attempt to trace a history of “pre-heaven,” the idea that the human soul (or spirit) had an existence prior to its mortal birth. Philosophers from Plato through Leibniz and Kant to J. E. M. McTaggart, thinkers in Jewish and Christian traditions, and poets from the seventeenth century to Robert Frost have propounded a transcendent realm peopled by the souls of humans yet unborn. This book documents the presence of this idea historically and investigates its meaning for those who embrace it, the reasons for its prevalence, the literary, cultural, ideological, and theological functions that is has served, and the reasons for its demise or disappearance at various times in Western history. Preexistence, or pre-mortal existence, has been invoked to explain the human yearning for transcendence and the sublime, as well as the sensation of alienation and the indelible sadness of human existence. Preexistence has been invoked to account for why we know what we should not know, and to account for the unevenly distributed pain and suffering that are humanity's common lot. The idea suggests a reason for uncannily instantaneous bonds between friends and between lovers, and many philosophers have found in premortality the precondition for a genuinely free will. The impressive scope of the intellectual work it does, and the pantheon of thinkers who have appealed to its explanatory power, explain the resilience of an idea that at last receives here its own historical treatment.Less
When Souls Had Wings represents the first attempt to trace a history of “pre-heaven,” the idea that the human soul (or spirit) had an existence prior to its mortal birth. Philosophers from Plato through Leibniz and Kant to J. E. M. McTaggart, thinkers in Jewish and Christian traditions, and poets from the seventeenth century to Robert Frost have propounded a transcendent realm peopled by the souls of humans yet unborn. This book documents the presence of this idea historically and investigates its meaning for those who embrace it, the reasons for its prevalence, the literary, cultural, ideological, and theological functions that is has served, and the reasons for its demise or disappearance at various times in Western history. Preexistence, or pre-mortal existence, has been invoked to explain the human yearning for transcendence and the sublime, as well as the sensation of alienation and the indelible sadness of human existence. Preexistence has been invoked to account for why we know what we should not know, and to account for the unevenly distributed pain and suffering that are humanity's common lot. The idea suggests a reason for uncannily instantaneous bonds between friends and between lovers, and many philosophers have found in premortality the precondition for a genuinely free will. The impressive scope of the intellectual work it does, and the pantheon of thinkers who have appealed to its explanatory power, explain the resilience of an idea that at last receives here its own historical treatment.
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/9780199286775.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter examines Socrates' account of the aim of eros. At different points in his speech, Socrates specifies three aims of eros: the good, reproduction in beauty, and immortality. This chapter ...
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This chapter examines Socrates' account of the aim of eros. At different points in his speech, Socrates specifies three aims of eros: the good, reproduction in beauty, and immortality. This chapter argues that those three aims are, in fact, related under the more general desire for eudaimonia, the everlasting happiness characteristic of the divine. The desire for eudaimonia is the telos, the true end of all erotic striving. According to Socrates, we desire a good whose possession we believe to constitute that state, and one which can be had in an enduring way. The desire to reproduce in a beautiful environment is the characteristic activity of this desire for the good, because productive activity is the mortal approximation to the divine state. The reason why the desire for eudaimonia manifests itself in creative activity in the presence of beauty is because this is the distinctively mortal way in which it can achieve a share of divine happiness.Less
This chapter examines Socrates' account of the aim of eros. At different points in his speech, Socrates specifies three aims of eros: the good, reproduction in beauty, and immortality. This chapter argues that those three aims are, in fact, related under the more general desire for eudaimonia, the everlasting happiness characteristic of the divine. The desire for eudaimonia is the telos, the true end of all erotic striving. According to Socrates, we desire a good whose possession we believe to constitute that state, and one which can be had in an enduring way. The desire to reproduce in a beautiful environment is the characteristic activity of this desire for the good, because productive activity is the mortal approximation to the divine state. The reason why the desire for eudaimonia manifests itself in creative activity in the presence of beauty is because this is the distinctively mortal way in which it can achieve a share of divine happiness.
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780856686689
- eISBN:
- 9781800343160
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9780856686689.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Pindar's Odes, blending beauty of poetic form and profundity of thought, are one of the wonders of Ancient Greece. Composed in the first instance to commemorate athletics victories, they fan out like ...
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Pindar's Odes, blending beauty of poetic form and profundity of thought, are one of the wonders of Ancient Greece. Composed in the first instance to commemorate athletics victories, they fan out like a peacock's tail to illuminate with brilliant subtlety and imagination the human condition in general, and how our moments of heroic achievement are inevitably tempered by our mortal frailties. This edition aims to make for the first time a selection of these wonderful, but complex, poems accessible and enjoyable not only to scholars and advanced students but especially to sixth-form students and non-Classicists (including anyone interested in Pindar's influence on English poetry). While particular attention is paid to elucidating Pindar's cryptic chains of thoughts and to explaining the significance of the myths in the odes, much greater help than usual in this series is given with translating the Greek. The selection, which contains Pindar's most famous poem (Olympian 1) and two particularly charming mythical stories (in Pythian 9 and Nemean 3), illustrates Pindar's range and variety by including odes commemorating victors at each of the four major games. The book presents Greek text with translation, commentary and notes.Less
Pindar's Odes, blending beauty of poetic form and profundity of thought, are one of the wonders of Ancient Greece. Composed in the first instance to commemorate athletics victories, they fan out like a peacock's tail to illuminate with brilliant subtlety and imagination the human condition in general, and how our moments of heroic achievement are inevitably tempered by our mortal frailties. This edition aims to make for the first time a selection of these wonderful, but complex, poems accessible and enjoyable not only to scholars and advanced students but especially to sixth-form students and non-Classicists (including anyone interested in Pindar's influence on English poetry). While particular attention is paid to elucidating Pindar's cryptic chains of thoughts and to explaining the significance of the myths in the odes, much greater help than usual in this series is given with translating the Greek. The selection, which contains Pindar's most famous poem (Olympian 1) and two particularly charming mythical stories (in Pythian 9 and Nemean 3), illustrates Pindar's range and variety by including odes commemorating victors at each of the four major games. The book presents Greek text with translation, commentary and notes.
Ramie Targoff
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226789590
- eISBN:
- 9780226110462
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226110462.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This epilogue considers the twentieth century poem “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin. Larkin’s reflections on the medieval tomb for the Earl of Arundel and his wife capture many of the poignancies, ...
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This epilogue considers the twentieth century poem “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin. Larkin’s reflections on the medieval tomb for the Earl of Arundel and his wife capture many of the poignancies, and ironies, raised both by the spousal tombs discussed in this book’s Introduction, and by the scores of poems addressing the fate of love after death examined in subsequent chapters. “An Arundel Tomb” asks us to ponder above all the relationship between the artifact that survives and the love that is long past. How much of that love is actually preserved? Was the love experienced at the time in a manner at all consonant with its posthumous representation? These are among the questions posed by Larkin, questions that resonate powerfully with the history of mortal poetics this book articulates.Less
This epilogue considers the twentieth century poem “An Arundel Tomb” by Philip Larkin. Larkin’s reflections on the medieval tomb for the Earl of Arundel and his wife capture many of the poignancies, and ironies, raised both by the spousal tombs discussed in this book’s Introduction, and by the scores of poems addressing the fate of love after death examined in subsequent chapters. “An Arundel Tomb” asks us to ponder above all the relationship between the artifact that survives and the love that is long past. How much of that love is actually preserved? Was the love experienced at the time in a manner at all consonant with its posthumous representation? These are among the questions posed by Larkin, questions that resonate powerfully with the history of mortal poetics this book articulates.
John Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199567904
- eISBN:
- 9780191721717
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567904.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The first part of this chapter provides detailed analyses of the arguments comprising fragment 8's Way of Conviction. Parmenides here develops his necessary being ontology by demonstrating what what ...
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The first part of this chapter provides detailed analyses of the arguments comprising fragment 8's Way of Conviction. Parmenides here develops his necessary being ontology by demonstrating what what must be must be like. The modal interpretation makes it possible to see that Parmenides is in fact entitled to the inferences he draws here, given his natural presumption that what is and cannot not be—that is, what must be—exists and is what it is both temporally and spatially. The latter part of the chapter analyses the error ascribed to mortals at the point of transition from the Way of Conviction, as well as the foundations of Parmenides' cosmology in the latter part of fragment 8 and fragment 9, before addressing the problem of Parmenides' conception of the relation between what must be and the rest of the cosmos's population.Less
The first part of this chapter provides detailed analyses of the arguments comprising fragment 8's Way of Conviction. Parmenides here develops his necessary being ontology by demonstrating what what must be must be like. The modal interpretation makes it possible to see that Parmenides is in fact entitled to the inferences he draws here, given his natural presumption that what is and cannot not be—that is, what must be—exists and is what it is both temporally and spatially. The latter part of the chapter analyses the error ascribed to mortals at the point of transition from the Way of Conviction, as well as the foundations of Parmenides' cosmology in the latter part of fragment 8 and fragment 9, before addressing the problem of Parmenides' conception of the relation between what must be and the rest of the cosmos's population.
Gareth Wood
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199651337
- eISBN:
- 9780191741180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199651337.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter looks once more at the ways in which Browne's work, and specifically the fifth chapter of Hydriotaphia have provided Marías with a literary touchstone and vocabulary to describe loss, ...
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This chapter looks once more at the ways in which Browne's work, and specifically the fifth chapter of Hydriotaphia have provided Marías with a literary touchstone and vocabulary to describe loss, memory, and forgetting. This is explored through a detailed close reading of his ghost story ‘Cuando fui mortal’, a story in which intertextual borrowings from Browne appear. Marías's interest in ghost stories is also contextualized in his generation's predilection for literary genres which are traditionally associated with children—comic strips, supernatural fiction, swashbuckling adventure stories. Discussion draws on La infancia recuperada by Marías's contemporary Fernando Savater, in which the latter theorizes and explores this fascination. The chapter looks at borrrowings from Marías's other fiction, including Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí.Less
This chapter looks once more at the ways in which Browne's work, and specifically the fifth chapter of Hydriotaphia have provided Marías with a literary touchstone and vocabulary to describe loss, memory, and forgetting. This is explored through a detailed close reading of his ghost story ‘Cuando fui mortal’, a story in which intertextual borrowings from Browne appear. Marías's interest in ghost stories is also contextualized in his generation's predilection for literary genres which are traditionally associated with children—comic strips, supernatural fiction, swashbuckling adventure stories. Discussion draws on La infancia recuperada by Marías's contemporary Fernando Savater, in which the latter theorizes and explores this fascination. The chapter looks at borrrowings from Marías's other fiction, including Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí.
Anthony Quinton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199694556
- eISBN:
- 9780191731938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694556.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter addresses the question of how definite and how important the distinction between humans and nonhuman animals is. It begins with a survey of the very varied and often very close relations ...
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This chapter addresses the question of how definite and how important the distinction between humans and nonhuman animals is. It begins with a survey of the very varied and often very close relations between them. It then discusses the ideas that men have souls; that men are, or that most of them, at any rate, sometimes or even often are, truly free agents, moved by will and not merely by instinct, on the one hand morally responsible for what they choose to do and, on the other hand, because of their freedom, not to be made predictable and manipulable by having their conduct explained by their nature and circumstances together with laws of human and social science; and that men alone are the appropriate objects of direct moral consideration, the only bearers of rights, the only moral ends in themselves. The chapter asks whether the actual differences between men and animals give an adequate foothold to the exclusive status accorded to human beings. It argues that in no case is the total exclusion of animals from the respect and consideration men are accustomed to giving themselves justified, although the differences that really exist between men and animals can be reasonably argued to have some qualifying consequences for the morality of our treatment of the latter. If that is right, there are, in the case of each of the interesting ideas involved, two possibilities. Either we can conclude that animals too have immortal souls, free wills, and moral rights. Or we can conclude that since they do not, we also do not.Less
This chapter addresses the question of how definite and how important the distinction between humans and nonhuman animals is. It begins with a survey of the very varied and often very close relations between them. It then discusses the ideas that men have souls; that men are, or that most of them, at any rate, sometimes or even often are, truly free agents, moved by will and not merely by instinct, on the one hand morally responsible for what they choose to do and, on the other hand, because of their freedom, not to be made predictable and manipulable by having their conduct explained by their nature and circumstances together with laws of human and social science; and that men alone are the appropriate objects of direct moral consideration, the only bearers of rights, the only moral ends in themselves. The chapter asks whether the actual differences between men and animals give an adequate foothold to the exclusive status accorded to human beings. It argues that in no case is the total exclusion of animals from the respect and consideration men are accustomed to giving themselves justified, although the differences that really exist between men and animals can be reasonably argued to have some qualifying consequences for the morality of our treatment of the latter. If that is right, there are, in the case of each of the interesting ideas involved, two possibilities. Either we can conclude that animals too have immortal souls, free wills, and moral rights. Or we can conclude that since they do not, we also do not.
John Parker
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780691193151
- eISBN:
- 9780691214900
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691193151.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African History
This book is the first detailed history of death and the dead in Africa south of the Sahara. Focusing on a region that is now present-day Ghana, the book explores mortuary cultures and the ...
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This book is the first detailed history of death and the dead in Africa south of the Sahara. Focusing on a region that is now present-day Ghana, the book explores mortuary cultures and the relationship between the living and the dead over a 400-year period spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. The book considers many questions from the African historical perspective, including why people die and where they go after death, how the dead are buried and mourned to ensure they continue to work for the benefit of the living, and how perceptions and experiences of death and the ends of life have changed over time. From exuberant funeral celebrations encountered by seventeenth-century observers to the brilliantly conceived designer coffins of the late twentieth century, the book shows that the peoples of Ghana have developed one of the world's most vibrant cultures of death. The book explores the unfolding background of that culture through a diverse range of issues, such as the symbolic power of mortal remains and the dominion of hallowed ancestors, as well as the problem of bad deaths, vile bodies, and vengeful ghosts. The book reconstructs a vast timeline of death and the dead, from the era of the slave trade to the coming of Christianity and colonial rule to the rise of the modern postcolonial nation. With an array of written and oral sources, the book richly adds to an understanding of how the dead continue to weigh on the shoulders of the living.Less
This book is the first detailed history of death and the dead in Africa south of the Sahara. Focusing on a region that is now present-day Ghana, the book explores mortuary cultures and the relationship between the living and the dead over a 400-year period spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. The book considers many questions from the African historical perspective, including why people die and where they go after death, how the dead are buried and mourned to ensure they continue to work for the benefit of the living, and how perceptions and experiences of death and the ends of life have changed over time. From exuberant funeral celebrations encountered by seventeenth-century observers to the brilliantly conceived designer coffins of the late twentieth century, the book shows that the peoples of Ghana have developed one of the world's most vibrant cultures of death. The book explores the unfolding background of that culture through a diverse range of issues, such as the symbolic power of mortal remains and the dominion of hallowed ancestors, as well as the problem of bad deaths, vile bodies, and vengeful ghosts. The book reconstructs a vast timeline of death and the dead, from the era of the slave trade to the coming of Christianity and colonial rule to the rise of the modern postcolonial nation. With an array of written and oral sources, the book richly adds to an understanding of how the dead continue to weigh on the shoulders of the living.
Mary Anne Warren
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198250401
- eISBN:
- 9780191681295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198250401.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter discusses the ethics of abortion. It identifies two weaknesses inherent in approaches to the ethics of abortion that focus exclusively upon the nature of the foetus, and the moral status ...
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This chapter discusses the ethics of abortion. It identifies two weaknesses inherent in approaches to the ethics of abortion that focus exclusively upon the nature of the foetus, and the moral status this is thought to imply. In the first place, the moral status of embryos and foetuses cannot be determined solely through a consideration of their intrinsic properties, as most of the unicriterial approaches require. Their unique relational properties are also relevant; in particular, their location within and complete physiological dependence upon the body of a human being who is (usually) both sentient and a moral agent. These relational properties have to be considered in determining the moral status that may reasonably be ascribed to foetuses. The second, and closely related, problem with the exclusively foetus-centred approaches to the ethics of abortion is that the moral status of foetuses is not all that is relevant to the moral permissibility of abortion. The moral status of women is also at stake, as is the ability of the human species to maintain population levels that can be sustained, and that will not deprive posterity of the resources necessary for good lives.Less
This chapter discusses the ethics of abortion. It identifies two weaknesses inherent in approaches to the ethics of abortion that focus exclusively upon the nature of the foetus, and the moral status this is thought to imply. In the first place, the moral status of embryos and foetuses cannot be determined solely through a consideration of their intrinsic properties, as most of the unicriterial approaches require. Their unique relational properties are also relevant; in particular, their location within and complete physiological dependence upon the body of a human being who is (usually) both sentient and a moral agent. These relational properties have to be considered in determining the moral status that may reasonably be ascribed to foetuses. The second, and closely related, problem with the exclusively foetus-centred approaches to the ethics of abortion is that the moral status of foetuses is not all that is relevant to the moral permissibility of abortion. The moral status of women is also at stake, as is the ability of the human species to maintain population levels that can be sustained, and that will not deprive posterity of the resources necessary for good lives.
Cicely Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- November 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198570530
- eISBN:
- 9780191730412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198570530.003.0039
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Palliative Medicine Research
This 1999 article from The Hospice Journal, again explores the theme of hospice development and reiterates that this is a history born out of the experience of listening to patients. It goes on to ...
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This 1999 article from The Hospice Journal, again explores the theme of hospice development and reiterates that this is a history born out of the experience of listening to patients. It goes on to make the important point that the basic principles of this system of care must be worked out and interpreted in different settings, wherein they bring ‘new possibilities of humanising life as well as death’. It was because a number of people took time to listen to patients and families facing mortal illness that the Hospice Movement has grown world-wide since it began in the 1960s. The addition of new skills in pain and symptom control, the understanding of the problems faced by families, and the need for research and teaching has brought the old traditions in care and caring into the present day.Less
This 1999 article from The Hospice Journal, again explores the theme of hospice development and reiterates that this is a history born out of the experience of listening to patients. It goes on to make the important point that the basic principles of this system of care must be worked out and interpreted in different settings, wherein they bring ‘new possibilities of humanising life as well as death’. It was because a number of people took time to listen to patients and families facing mortal illness that the Hospice Movement has grown world-wide since it began in the 1960s. The addition of new skills in pain and symptom control, the understanding of the problems faced by families, and the need for research and teaching has brought the old traditions in care and caring into the present day.
Chris Yogerst
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496829757
- eISBN:
- 9781496829801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496829757.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Hollywood counsel Wendell Willkie made it clear that Hollywood opposed Nazism. Regarding the industry’s opinion towards Germany, Willkie explained, “We make no pretense of friendliness to Nazi ...
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Hollywood counsel Wendell Willkie made it clear that Hollywood opposed Nazism. Regarding the industry’s opinion towards Germany, Willkie explained, “We make no pretense of friendliness to Nazi Germany and the ruthless invasions of other countries by Nazis…we abhor everything which Hitler represents.” As Senator Gerald Nye outlined films he felt were problematic, Willkie asked why Nye was not attacking the authors of the source material. The investigation began on September 9th, 1941, and did not get off to a good start for the isolationist Senators. It was found out that Nye had not actually watched the films he was calling out as dangerous. The questioning that exposed Nye’s ignorance came from a junior senator, Ernest McFarland of Arizona.Less
Hollywood counsel Wendell Willkie made it clear that Hollywood opposed Nazism. Regarding the industry’s opinion towards Germany, Willkie explained, “We make no pretense of friendliness to Nazi Germany and the ruthless invasions of other countries by Nazis…we abhor everything which Hitler represents.” As Senator Gerald Nye outlined films he felt were problematic, Willkie asked why Nye was not attacking the authors of the source material. The investigation began on September 9th, 1941, and did not get off to a good start for the isolationist Senators. It was found out that Nye had not actually watched the films he was calling out as dangerous. The questioning that exposed Nye’s ignorance came from a junior senator, Ernest McFarland of Arizona.
Elizabeth Minchin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199280124
- eISBN:
- 9780191707070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280124.003.06
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Rebukes and protests are a useful test of asymmetry in Homeric society. Rebukes appear to reflect social hierarchies that are similar in many respects to hierarchies in our own world: men or gods of ...
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Rebukes and protests are a useful test of asymmetry in Homeric society. Rebukes appear to reflect social hierarchies that are similar in many respects to hierarchies in our own world: men or gods of higher status address rebukes to men or gods of lower status; women of higher status to women of lower status; older people to their juniors; men to women; gods to mortals. The most vigorous speech form normally used by women is the protest, a reactive mode that makes no claim for power. But speech does not simply reflect status, it also realizes it, in the real world and the world of the imagination. The speech-preferences that Homer attributes to his various characters therefore both reflect and realize their status vis-à-vis others.Less
Rebukes and protests are a useful test of asymmetry in Homeric society. Rebukes appear to reflect social hierarchies that are similar in many respects to hierarchies in our own world: men or gods of higher status address rebukes to men or gods of lower status; women of higher status to women of lower status; older people to their juniors; men to women; gods to mortals. The most vigorous speech form normally used by women is the protest, a reactive mode that makes no claim for power. But speech does not simply reflect status, it also realizes it, in the real world and the world of the imagination. The speech-preferences that Homer attributes to his various characters therefore both reflect and realize their status vis-à-vis others.
Stephen R. L. Clark
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198242369
- eISBN:
- 9780191680458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198242369.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter discusses three fears and, consequently, appeals to the work of poets as well as scientists and philosophers. It also refers to gods, demons, and fairies. The first fear is that what ...
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This chapter discusses three fears and, consequently, appeals to the work of poets as well as scientists and philosophers. It also refers to gods, demons, and fairies. The first fear is that what occurs is not to be influenced by us, but instead rolls on regardless of our mortal plans. The second fear is that even if one of our actions does affect the world, it is not originally ours, and the third is that the very same things happen again and again, without hope of novelty or tangential escape.Less
This chapter discusses three fears and, consequently, appeals to the work of poets as well as scientists and philosophers. It also refers to gods, demons, and fairies. The first fear is that what occurs is not to be influenced by us, but instead rolls on regardless of our mortal plans. The second fear is that even if one of our actions does affect the world, it is not originally ours, and the third is that the very same things happen again and again, without hope of novelty or tangential escape.
Stephen McDowall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622090842
- eISBN:
- 9789882207318
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622090842.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Qian Qianyi's essay “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” was written as a supplementary piece to a set of poems made about the mountains, and the essay was based on Qian's trip in 1641 (the ...
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Qian Qianyi's essay “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” was written as a supplementary piece to a set of poems made about the mountains, and the essay was based on Qian's trip in 1641 (the xinsi year). Jonathan Chaves has emphasized that the essay contained two different styles. The first represented a narrative part that provides a detailed account of Qian's journey, while the second part, the lyrical part, draws attention to the major sites that Qian visited. A further distinction was made between the two parts through pointing out the differences in their metre. However, part of the essay proved to be problematic in terms of external textual evidence. After reconstructing the skeletal form through examining available sources, it is revealed that Cheng Jiasui served as an important mortal presence in the essay.Less
Qian Qianyi's essay “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” was written as a supplementary piece to a set of poems made about the mountains, and the essay was based on Qian's trip in 1641 (the xinsi year). Jonathan Chaves has emphasized that the essay contained two different styles. The first represented a narrative part that provides a detailed account of Qian's journey, while the second part, the lyrical part, draws attention to the major sites that Qian visited. A further distinction was made between the two parts through pointing out the differences in their metre. However, part of the essay proved to be problematic in terms of external textual evidence. After reconstructing the skeletal form through examining available sources, it is revealed that Cheng Jiasui served as an important mortal presence in the essay.
Diane Miller Sommerville
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469643304
- eISBN:
- 9781469643588
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643304.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter surveys the long nineteenth century with an eye toward assessing how suffering and suicidal activity during the Civil War ushered in cultural and religious changes in ideas about suicide ...
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This chapter surveys the long nineteenth century with an eye toward assessing how suffering and suicidal activity during the Civil War ushered in cultural and religious changes in ideas about suicide and the importance of those changes in laying groundwork for a new Confederate identity. The psychological crisis that grew out of the Civil War remapped the cultural, theological, and intellectual contours of the region. The scourge of war-related psychiatric casualties altered long-held axioms about suicide yielding a more tolerant, nuanced understanding of self-destruction as a response to suffering, one that found expression in sympathy and compassion for suicide victims. More routinely, denunciations of suicide were replaced with compassionate resignation. The writings of fire-eater Edmund Ruffin’s about suicide -- on the suicide of Thomas Cocke in 1840 and his own suicide note in 1854 -- are a window into how southerners thought about self-murder. His more tolerant views toward suicide before the war were out-of-step with most, but by war’s end more and more southerners dissented from rigid religious doctrine that cast self-murder as a mortal sin and came to share his view that sometimes circumstances justified death by one’s hand.Less
This chapter surveys the long nineteenth century with an eye toward assessing how suffering and suicidal activity during the Civil War ushered in cultural and religious changes in ideas about suicide and the importance of those changes in laying groundwork for a new Confederate identity. The psychological crisis that grew out of the Civil War remapped the cultural, theological, and intellectual contours of the region. The scourge of war-related psychiatric casualties altered long-held axioms about suicide yielding a more tolerant, nuanced understanding of self-destruction as a response to suffering, one that found expression in sympathy and compassion for suicide victims. More routinely, denunciations of suicide were replaced with compassionate resignation. The writings of fire-eater Edmund Ruffin’s about suicide -- on the suicide of Thomas Cocke in 1840 and his own suicide note in 1854 -- are a window into how southerners thought about self-murder. His more tolerant views toward suicide before the war were out-of-step with most, but by war’s end more and more southerners dissented from rigid religious doctrine that cast self-murder as a mortal sin and came to share his view that sometimes circumstances justified death by one’s hand.
Ramie Targoff
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226789590
- eISBN:
- 9780226110462
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226110462.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter focuses on the most extreme and uncompromising expression of mortal poetics in the early modern period: the carpe diem lyric. This classical genre was entirely missing from the ...
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This chapter focuses on the most extreme and uncompromising expression of mortal poetics in the early modern period: the carpe diem lyric. This classical genre was entirely missing from the Petrarchan canon—it was clearly incompatible with the idea that love would endure for all eternity—but it surfaced with renewed energy, and with an entirely different resonance, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the English carpe diem lyric, poets like Herrick and Marvell made a conscious and decisive break with the Christian metaphysics that structured their culture’s attitude toward death. There could be no mention of the soul’s eventual journey to heaven within a poem that urges an immediate seizing of the present; there could be no deferral of joy within a poem that imagines this day as the lovers’ only chance for bliss. Carpe diem poetry always depended upon a strictly physical basis for love, but this physical basis became all the more pronounced once the idea of spiritual transcendence was actively rejected. What emerged was an embrace of the present whose intensity and poignancy was built upon the full recognition of what mortal love left behind.Less
This chapter focuses on the most extreme and uncompromising expression of mortal poetics in the early modern period: the carpe diem lyric. This classical genre was entirely missing from the Petrarchan canon—it was clearly incompatible with the idea that love would endure for all eternity—but it surfaced with renewed energy, and with an entirely different resonance, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the English carpe diem lyric, poets like Herrick and Marvell made a conscious and decisive break with the Christian metaphysics that structured their culture’s attitude toward death. There could be no mention of the soul’s eventual journey to heaven within a poem that urges an immediate seizing of the present; there could be no deferral of joy within a poem that imagines this day as the lovers’ only chance for bliss. Carpe diem poetry always depended upon a strictly physical basis for love, but this physical basis became all the more pronounced once the idea of spiritual transcendence was actively rejected. What emerged was an embrace of the present whose intensity and poignancy was built upon the full recognition of what mortal love left behind.
Marc Redfield
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231232
- eISBN:
- 9780823241118
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231232.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Geoffrey Nunberg observes that “terror is still more amorphous and elastic” than terrorism, evoking “both the actions of terrorists and the fear they are trying to engender.” The sheer fact that this ...
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Geoffrey Nunberg observes that “terror is still more amorphous and elastic” than terrorism, evoking “both the actions of terrorists and the fear they are trying to engender.” The sheer fact that this word means “fear” means that the “war on terror” slogan can claim rich and multiple genealogies and echoes. Freud calls panic (Panik) the “collective fear” (Massenangst) that accompanies the disintegration of a group when its leader, its common ego ideal, is shattered. Panic not only demonstrates the contagiousness of emotion in a group setting but also what one might call emotion's impersonality. The “war on terror” names a frantic desire to curtail the exposure to futurity that makes us the mortal beings we are.Less
Geoffrey Nunberg observes that “terror is still more amorphous and elastic” than terrorism, evoking “both the actions of terrorists and the fear they are trying to engender.” The sheer fact that this word means “fear” means that the “war on terror” slogan can claim rich and multiple genealogies and echoes. Freud calls panic (Panik) the “collective fear” (Massenangst) that accompanies the disintegration of a group when its leader, its common ego ideal, is shattered. Panic not only demonstrates the contagiousness of emotion in a group setting but also what one might call emotion's impersonality. The “war on terror” names a frantic desire to curtail the exposure to futurity that makes us the mortal beings we are.
Michael Ainger
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195147698
- eISBN:
- 9780199849437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195147698.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter deals with the works of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan on The Wicked World and The Light of the World. The structure of The Wicked World is similar to that of Thespis: instead of a ...
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This chapter deals with the works of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan on The Wicked World and The Light of the World. The structure of The Wicked World is similar to that of Thespis: instead of a theatrical group arriving on Olympus and changing places with the gods, three mortal men are exchanged with their fairy counterparts. The resulting confusion is only undone when the men return to earth and the fairies return to their former state of happiness, without mortal love, but wiser than before. What raised eyebrows over The Wicked World was Gilbert's treatment of love—“mortal love,” as he called it—the cause of most of the problems in the world. When it was allowed to enter fairyland it caused jealousy and enmity among the blameless fairies. Gilbert's view of the world was regarded by many as cynical. In contrast to Gilbert, Sullivan enjoyed a public persona that was above controversy.Less
This chapter deals with the works of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan on The Wicked World and The Light of the World. The structure of The Wicked World is similar to that of Thespis: instead of a theatrical group arriving on Olympus and changing places with the gods, three mortal men are exchanged with their fairy counterparts. The resulting confusion is only undone when the men return to earth and the fairies return to their former state of happiness, without mortal love, but wiser than before. What raised eyebrows over The Wicked World was Gilbert's treatment of love—“mortal love,” as he called it—the cause of most of the problems in the world. When it was allowed to enter fairyland it caused jealousy and enmity among the blameless fairies. Gilbert's view of the world was regarded by many as cynical. In contrast to Gilbert, Sullivan enjoyed a public persona that was above controversy.
William Robert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231652
- eISBN:
- 9780823237203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231652.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
What does it mean to be called “human”? How does this nomination affect or effect what it means to be called “divine”? This book responds to these related questions in intertwined explorations of the ...
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What does it mean to be called “human”? How does this nomination affect or effect what it means to be called “divine”? This book responds to these related questions in intertwined explorations of the passionate trials—examinations, tests, and ordeals—of Antigone and Jesus. Impelled by her love of the impossible, Antigone crosses uncrossable boundaries, transgresses norms of kinship and mortality, confounds distinctions of nature and culture, and, in the process, unearths and critiques the sexism implicit in humanism. Antigone thus disrupts humanist traditions stretching from Sophocles to Martin Heidegger—traditions that would render her subhuman or inhuman. She survives these exclusions and engenders a new mode of humanity, one that destabilizes classic oppositions of life and death and affirms mortal finitude in the face of the future's unforeseeability. This new mode of humanity offers a new way of considering Jesus, whom Christianity identifies as human and divine. Building on his reading of Antigone, the author, through a close reading of Mark's gospel focused on Jesus' cry of abandonment from the cross, shows that to refigure humanity is also to refigure divinity and their relation. In the first extended treatment of Jean-Luc Nancy's Corpus in English, the author draws on the theoretical insights of Jacques Derrida and Nancy to propose an innovative account of Jesus' humanity and divinity—one that can contribute to religious understandings of embodiment and prayer and can open avenues of inquiry into tragedy, sexual difference, posthumanism, and politics. By pairing Antigone and Jesus and engaging the work of Judith Butler, Simone Weil, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Dominique Janicaud, this book constructively participates in interdisciplinary conversations at the nexus of religious, philosophical, literary, and gender studies.Less
What does it mean to be called “human”? How does this nomination affect or effect what it means to be called “divine”? This book responds to these related questions in intertwined explorations of the passionate trials—examinations, tests, and ordeals—of Antigone and Jesus. Impelled by her love of the impossible, Antigone crosses uncrossable boundaries, transgresses norms of kinship and mortality, confounds distinctions of nature and culture, and, in the process, unearths and critiques the sexism implicit in humanism. Antigone thus disrupts humanist traditions stretching from Sophocles to Martin Heidegger—traditions that would render her subhuman or inhuman. She survives these exclusions and engenders a new mode of humanity, one that destabilizes classic oppositions of life and death and affirms mortal finitude in the face of the future's unforeseeability. This new mode of humanity offers a new way of considering Jesus, whom Christianity identifies as human and divine. Building on his reading of Antigone, the author, through a close reading of Mark's gospel focused on Jesus' cry of abandonment from the cross, shows that to refigure humanity is also to refigure divinity and their relation. In the first extended treatment of Jean-Luc Nancy's Corpus in English, the author draws on the theoretical insights of Jacques Derrida and Nancy to propose an innovative account of Jesus' humanity and divinity—one that can contribute to religious understandings of embodiment and prayer and can open avenues of inquiry into tragedy, sexual difference, posthumanism, and politics. By pairing Antigone and Jesus and engaging the work of Judith Butler, Simone Weil, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Dominique Janicaud, this book constructively participates in interdisciplinary conversations at the nexus of religious, philosophical, literary, and gender studies.
