Mediating Humanism and Scholasticism in Longobardo's “Resposta breve” and Ricci's Reading of Confucianism

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 498-527
Author(s):  
Daniel Canaris
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Matteo Ricci ◽  
Ancient Texts

The “Resposta breve” (Brief response, 1623–24) by Niccolò Longobardo was one of the most controversial documents ever penned in the Jesuit China mission. Longobardo criticized the use of indigenous Chinese vocabulary by Matteo Ricci to express Christian concepts as a perilous accommodation to diabolical monism. This article proposes a close reading of how Longobardo employed Scholastic, humanist, and Chinese sources to critique Ricci's disregard for the neo-Confucian interpreters in his reading of ancient Confucianism. It argues that Longobardo's polemic with Ricci was not theological in nature but reflected his distrust of philology in reconstructing the original meaning of ancient texts.

scholarly journals Stiegler, Foucault, and Epictetus

Symposium ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-77
Author(s):  
Kurt Lampe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
History Of Technology ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Frame Work ◽  
Interpretive Frame ◽  
Premiere Partie ◽  
Ancient Texts

Why does Bernard Stiegler speak of “this culture, which I have named, after Epictetus, my melete?” In the first part of this article, I elucidate Stiegler’s claims about both Stoic exercises of reading and writing and their significance for the interpretive questions he has adapted from Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. In particular, I address the relations among care for oneself and others, the use of material technologies, and resistance to subjection or “freedom.” In the second part, I consider the merits and limitations of Stiegler’s comments about reading and writing in Stoicism, with particular attention to Epictetus. We will see that Stiegler’s interpretive frame-work casts considerable light on ancient texts and contexts, on the condition that it be combined with close reading of ancient texts and engagement with specialist scholarship. Finally, in the conclusion, I will suggest that the history of technology in Epictetus’s time contributes to a debate about Stiegler’s theories.Bernard Stiegler signale à plusieurs reprises l’importance des exercices stoïciens de lecture et d’écriture. Dans la première partie de cet article, j’essaye de clarifier ces assertions et d’expliquer leur lien aux oeuvres de Michel Foucault et de Jacques Derrida. Il s’agit en particulier des rapports entre le souci de soi et d’autrui, l’usage des techniques et des matériaux et la résistante à la soumission ou à la « liberté ». Dans la deuxième partie, je considère les mérites ainsi que les limites des remarques de Stiegler sur la lecture et l’écriture au sein du stoïcisme, en portant une attention particulière à Épictète. Le point du vue stieglerien donnera de nouvelles significations à quelques passages des oeuvres d’Épictète, à condition qu’il soit conjugué à une lecture attentive d’études spécialisées et de textes anciens. Je conclurai, dans la troisième partie, en proposant que l’histoire des techniques à l’époque d’Épictète pourrait alimenter un débat à l’égard des théories de Stiegler.

Erasmus' Biblical Humanism

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 119-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. L. Jarrott
Keyword(s):  
History Of Thought ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Zeal ◽  
Ancient Texts

Behind the humanists’ battle cry ‘ad fontes’ lies a long and laborious endeavor to get at the original meaning of the ancient texts with all the admittedly limited philological tools at their disposal. In his work on the Bible Erasmus was spurred to this effort by a religious zeal which is too seldom associated with the author of the Praise of Folly. Yet one of his most important contributions to the history of thought was his use of a humanistic method for the interpretation of scripture.

scholarly journals SIMULIAKRAI NIEKUR NEBUVO IŠĖJĘ

Problemos ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 116-131
Author(s):  
Kristupas Sabolius
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Direct Reading ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Texts

Šiame straipsnyje į simuliakrų problemą pažvelgiama be Baudrillard’o tekstų tyrimų. Nagrinėjant antikinętermino reikšmę ir taikant jo analizei fenomenologinę optiką, mėginama išsiaiškinti, ką reiškia realybės ir vaizduotės priešprieša. Pastebima, kad epikūriečių ir stoikų phantasia sampratoje egzistuoja vaizduotės ir tikrovės sampyna, dėl kurios tikrovė ab origine yra apraizgyta neišpainiojamu fiktyvumo koreliatu. Šiuo požiūriu išvedama paralelė su Husserlio eidetine žiūra ir dėl jos pasiekiamu Erfüllung. Iškeliama hipotezė, kad ne statiškai, bet dinamiškai suvoktas pasaulio ir sąmonės homegeniškumas pasiekiamas tik vaizduotės ištekliais. Tai patvirtina ir naujausi fenomenologiniai tyrimai, kurie nagrinėdami„silpnųjų pamėklių“ (weak phantasmata) fenomeną atskleidžia, kaip vaizduotė aktyviai veikia kiekviename suvokime.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: simuliakras, vaizduotė, tikrovė, Erfüllung, silpnosios pamėklės (weak phantasmata)Simulacra have Always PrecededKristupas Sabolius SummaryThis paper focuses on the problem of simulacra avoiding the direct reading of Baudrillard’s work. Reconsidering original meaning of the term in the ancient texts and drawing the parallels with phenomenological contexts, it strives to gain the new meaning for the juxtaposition between the reality and illusion (or imagination). The concept of Epicurean and Stoic Phantasia contained the intrinsic intertwining of reality and simulacra, due to which reality ab origine presented itself as a correlate of fiction and truth. The similar structure could be identified in the eidetic way of knowledge, which phenomenology finds through the task of Fulfillment (Erfüllung). According to this research, by virtue of eidetic seeing based on imaginings, the dynamic homogeneity of the conciosousness and the world can be re-established. This tendency is also endorsed by the analysis of so-called ‘weak phantasmata’, ellucidating the active role which imagination takes in every perception.Keywords: simulacra, imagination, reality, Erfüllung, weak phantasmata.

Ethics and Economies of Art in Renaissance Spain: Felipe de Guevara’s Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos*

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-112
Author(s):  
Alejandra Giménez-Berger
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Spanish Economy ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Intrinsic Values ◽  
Ancient Texts

AbstractThe Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos (Commentary on Painting and Antique Painters) by the humanist Felipe de Guevara stands as the first art treatise of its type produced in Renaissance Spain. Critical studies underscore the reliance on ancient texts in spite of significant divergences from the sources. Philological studies of near-contemporary texts and a close reading of the author’s extant writings provide an alternative framework for understanding these transformations. Through the appropriation of ancient texts, Guevara calls for the practical overhauling of the Spanish artistic system. The text addresses the art of painting as having both transcendental and intrinsic values, focusing on its formative capabilities and virtue ethics as the most important for the former, and its role in the larger Spanish economy for the latter.

Sadomasochistic dynamics inside and outside the consulting room

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Carine Minne
Keyword(s):  
Main Function ◽  
Acting Out ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Life Threatening

This article will illustrate sadomasochistic dynamics as they arise within the consulting room and highlight the main function of perversions. Although the term “perversion” can be considered outdated, or worse, pejorative, if used in its original meaning, it remains the most appropriate term to describe the plight of certain patients who suffer from a specific sexualised form of acting out. One aim of the perversion is to attempt to reverse an earlier trauma by turning that passive experience, often not consciously remembered, into an active one. The patient suffering from a perversion replaces unwanted or unbearable historical affects with current actions that are sadomasochistic, sexually exciting, and highly gratifying, albeit temporarily, thereby keeping the patient’s mind far away from the desolation of the initial trauma. At times, the actions patients are driven to for survival are paradoxically life-threatening. I will briefly refer to the difficulties of the countertransference in working with perverse patients.

Stolen from the Snows: John Kinsella as Poet and as Fiction Writer

CounterText ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-238
Author(s):  
Nicholas Birns
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Artistic Identity ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Fiction Writer

This piece explores the fiction of John Kinsella, describing how it both complements and differs from his poetry, and how it speaks to the various aspect of his literary and artistic identity, After delineating several characteristic traits of Kinsella's fictional oeuvre, and providing a close reading of one of Kinsella's Graphology poems to give a sense of his current lyrical praxis, the balance of the essay is devoted to a close analysis of Hotel Impossible, the Kinsella novella included in this issue of CounterText. In Hotel Impossible Kinsella examines the assets and liabilities of cosmopolitanism through the metaphor of the all-inclusive hotel that envelops humanity in its breadth but also constrains through its repressive, generalising conformity. Through the peregrinations of the anti-protagonist Pilgrim, as he works out his relationships with Sister and the Watchmaker, we see how relationships interact with contemporary institutions of power. In a style at once challenging and accessible, Kinsella presents a fractured mirror of our own reality.

‘Nothing is simply one thing’: Woolf, Deleuze and Difference

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-474
Author(s):  
Beatrice Monaco
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Prose Poetry ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Similar Model ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
To The Lighthouse

This paper explores some key texts of Virginia Woolf in the context of Deleuzian concepts. Using a close reading style, it shows how the prose poetry in Mrs Dalloway engages a complex interplay of repetition and difference, resulting in a remarkably similar model of the three syntheses of time as Deleuze understands them. It subsequently explores Woolf's technical processes in a key passage from To the Lighthouse, showing how the prose-poetic technique systematically undoes the structures of logical fact and rationality inscribed in both language and everyday speech to an extremely precise level.

Resonance in Dhvani Aesthetics and the Deleuzian Logic of Sensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Srajana Kaikini
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Sanskrit Poetics ◽  
Comparative Framework ◽  
Time Image

This paper undertakes an intersectional reading of visual art through theories of literary interpretation in Sanskrit poetics in close reading with Deleuze's notions of sensation. The concept of Dhvani – the Indian theory of suggestion which can be translated as resonance, as explored in the Rasa – Dhvani aesthetics offers key insights into understanding the mode in which sensation as discussed by Deleuze operates throughout his reflections on Francis Bacon's and Cézanne's works. The paper constructs a comparative framework to review modern and classical art history, mainly in the medium of painting, through an understanding of the concept of Dhvani, and charts a course of reinterpreting and examining possible points of concurrence and departure with respect to the Deleuzian logic of sensation and his notions of time-image and perception. The author thereby aims to move art interpretation's paradigm towards a non-linguistic sensory paradigm of experience. The focus of the paper is to break the moulds of normative theory-making which guide ideal conditions of ‘understanding art’ and look into alternative modes of experiencing the ‘vocabulary’ of art through trans-disciplinary intersections, in this case the disciplines being those of visual art, literature and phenomenology.

On the Primacy of Matter: Neoplatonism Right-Side Up

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Tritten
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
After Effect ◽  
The One

This chapter provides a close reading of Schelling’s early commentary on Plato’s Timaeus and then contrasts this reading with Neoplatonism’s, particularly Proclus’, understanding of this same text. While Neoplatonism views being according to a hierarchy of degradation or descent, with matter at the bottom, Schelling affirms that being potentiates itself into higher and greater degrees of order such that matter is not the last but the first. He is able to do this, however, only by rejecting the Platonic notion of participation. For Schelling, the participating acquires an independence from the participated so that an effect can be greater than its cause and, moreover, the effect exerts a retroactive after effect on the cause. The identity of a cause or antecedent is only constituted in and through its consequents. If matter is said to process from the One, then matter, in turn, is the consequent condition of the identity of the One as one rather than as many.

Transformation and Education in GDR Youth Literature: A Script Theory Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Jean E. Conacher
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Script Theory ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Youth Literature

Youth literature within the German Democratic Republic (GDR) officially enjoyed equal status with adult literature, with authors often writing for both audiences. Such parity of esteem pre-supposed that youth literature would also adopt the cultural–political frameworks designed to nurture the establishment of socialism on German soil. In their quest to forge a legitimate national literature capable of transforming the population, politicians and writers drew repeatedly upon the cultural heritage of Weimar classicism and the Bildungsroman, Humboldtian educational traditions and Soviet-inspired models of socialist realism. Adopting a script theory approach inspired by Jean Matter Mandler, this article explores how directive cultural policies lead to the emergence of multiple scripts which inform the nature and narrative of individual works. Three broad ideological scripts within GDR youth literature are identified which underpin four distinct narrative scripts employed by individual writers to support, challenge and ultimately subvert the primacy of the Bildungsroman genre. A close reading of works by Strittmatter, Pludra, Görlich, Tetzner and Saalmann reveals further how conceptual blending with classical and fairy-tale scripts is exploited to legitimise and at times mask critique of transformation and education inside and outside the classroom and to offer young protagonists a voice often denied their readers.

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