scholarly journals Bearing the Burdens we (don’t Tend to) Bare

Author(s):  
Ashley John Moyse

AbstractThe burdens of older life, during what Peter Laslett calls the fourth-age, exaggerate feelings of fear and desire while resourcing despair. Some such burdens are borne from human corporeality. Others are socially constructed and afflict older persons further. A typology of burdens is introduced, identifying reflexive, transitive, and accusative burdens. The reflexive dirge of the person grieving their losses of competence, self-sufficiency, and independence includes a transitive counterpart, where a person’s self-perceived burden includes also the sense that one has become a burden to others. The accusative burden is experienced when persons are marked by others, catastrophically, as a burden. Regardless, these burdens must be given attention while attending to the ideations that prioritise independence but risk despair. Thus the relation between burdened self-image, despair, and late modern and policy preoccupations with independence will further focus such attention. Specifically, the prominence of independence in narratives of successful ageing will be interrogated, while inviting theological reflection on the reality of dependence and the nature of bodily life, together. That the Christian theological tradition teaches that human beings are bodies and are mutually dependent presses back against dogmas that prioritise independence and other icons of discrete subjectivity. Pointing toward Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s understanding of vicarious representative action, the reader is invited to consider again the kind of language in policy and for practice that might humanise persons in exchanges of responsible care(giving) and mutual dependence throughout the life course.

Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

Help towards understanding the human and religious functions of tradition comes from such sociologists as Peter Berger, Anthony Giddens, and Edward Shils. Tradition by Shils continues to illuminate how, although human beings modify inherited beliefs and change traditional patterns of behaviour, the new always incorporates something of the past. Shils takes a global view of tradition; it embodies everything individuals inherit when born into the world. It is through tradition that new members of society begin to identify themselves. The bearers of tradition may be not only official but also ‘learned’ and ‘ordinary’. Shils dedicates many further pages to changes in traditions and the forces leading to these changes. What sociologists like Giddens say about globalization also affects theological reflection on tradition. Surprisingly, the very few theologians who have published on tradition have ignored the sociologists.


Apeiron ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Diaco

AbstractThe present study provides an analysis of Socrates’ account of the first polis in Republic 2 as a thought experiment and draws attention to the fact that Socrates combines both explanatory and evaluative aspects in his scenario. The paper further shows how the analysis of the city of pigs as a thought experiment can explain the lack of pleonexia by saving both the letter of the text, according to which there are no “pleonectic” desires in the city of pigs, and the fact that the first polis is nonetheless concerned with human beings. For, in contrast to the account offered by Glaucon earlier in Book 2, Socrates highlights our needs and lack of self-sufficiency as well as our compatibility with an advantageous and happy life in a community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Brendan Hyde

There has been a revived interest Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Notions emanating from his philosophy concerning the human person and that human beings together create and sustain phenomena through social practice speaks of a relational ontology that has relevance for contemporary education. This article argues that such ontology needs to be considered alongside the epistemological concerns of education. From Hegel’s writing, five interdependent ideas are delineated which have relevance for a relational ontology appropriate for contemporary education ‐ consciousness, self-consciousness, social space, recognition and identity. From these, three propositions for a social ontology of education ‐ learning as a socially constructed activity, learning as the formation of identity and learning as recognition ‐ are posited and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 2450-2457
Author(s):  
Madhumita Das ◽  
P.B Kar Mahapatra

Health is a complete state of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being. Every human being will reach the ultimate success of their life when they are full of Intellect. So, Ayurveda has been playing a great role in providing health to personal and the public from the very inception of human civilization. From the ancient era, many herbs were mentioned in Ayurveda which help in the promotion of the intellect of human beings. Acharya Charaka has mentioned in Charaka Chikitsa Rasayana Chapter some Medhya Rasayana herbs which help to in- crease our Medha (intellect), Improve Grahana Sakti (power of perception), Smriti (power of recalling), Agni (power of digestion and metabolism), Varna (complexion) and Svara (voice). Medhya Rasayana drugs improve mental faculties and mental function with the help of their properties. The present article reviewed different Ayur- vedic Classics of Samhita Period, Sangraha Period, Nighantu Period, Late Modern Period and of Contemporary Period to collect the information’s regarding the pharmacodynamics of drugs and their therapeutic uses to furnish here within a methodical manner for better understanding of their therapeutic efficacy of this drug by the scholars of this field. Through the review of the literature regarding Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), Sankhapuspi (Convolvulus pluricaulischois), Jatamanshi (Nardostachys jatamansi) it has been observed that these drugs are potent Medhya(intellect) with the properties as mentioned in this article. Keywords: Medha, Intellect, Brahmi, Sankhapuspi, Jatamanshi.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-228
Author(s):  
Simeon Zahl

This article argues for the dogmatic rather than just ethical significance of the biotechnological enhancement of human beings. It begins by reflecting on the close theological connections between salvation, sanctification, and affective and bodily transformation in light of the fact that affects and desires are in principle manipulable through biotechnological enhancement. It then examines the implications of this observation for questions of moral responsibility, asking whether biotechnological enhancement can be viewed as a kind of means of grace. The conclusion argues that theological reflection on the relationship between affects, soteriology and bioenhancement reveals limitations of the emphasis on embodiment in recent Christian theology.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 651
Author(s):  
Ashley Moyse

Hope is needed for persons confronting the limits of human life, antagonised by the threats of death. It is needed also for those health and medical professionals constrained by the institution of medicine, determined by market metaphors and instrumental reasoning. Yet, despair can masquerade as hope for such persons when functional hoping for particular outcomes or aims proves futile and aimless. The following will examine such masquerades, while giving attention to particular expressions of autonomy, which persist as fodder for despair in our late modern milieu. The late classical account of Hercules and his death, as well as contemporary reasons for soliciting medical assistance in dying, will focus on the diagnostics of despair, while a Christian account practicing presence, and of hope as a concrete posture enfleshed by habits of patience, among other virtues, will point toward counter-narratives that might sustain persons in times of crisis and enable persons’ flourishing as human beings, even unto death.


2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra de Souza Melo ◽  
Emília Campos de Carvalho ◽  
Nilza Teresa Rotter Pelá

We interviewed 20 patients staying at a hospital unit, by means of a data collection instrument that is based on the eclectic model, with a view to characterizing the biological, psychological and sociocultural aspects involving human sexuality which are affected in patients with onco-hematological diseases. The research complied with ethical requirements for studies involving human beings. The results revealed that these clients presented problems related to biological aspects, mainly with respect to the phase of sexual desire (60% of the sample), sexual excitation (75%) and orgasm (75%). The psychological aspects related to sexual self-image were affected in 60% of the sample; problems related to social aspects (85%) were mainly due to the fear of acquiring an infection as a result of the low immunity provoked by the disease and treatment. These clients demonstrated alterations in their sexual function and in the way they expressed their sexuality.


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