Perception and Evaluation: Aristotle on the Moral Imagination

Dialogue ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Hankinson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Imagination ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Rational Action ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Mental Imaging ◽  
Broad Interpretation

In recent years, Aristotle's treatment of the imagination has become the subject of renewed interest. A pioneering paper by Malcolm Schofield argued that, far from being the rag-bag of widely separate and more or less unrelated concerns that it had previously been generally taken to be, phantasia was, for Aristotle, a ‘loose-knit family concept’ covering all aspects of what Schofield labelled ‘non-paradigmatic sensory experience’. With that conclusion I am more or less in agreement, although only on the condition that ‘sensory’ be given a suitably broad interpretation. My purpose in this paper is to tease out, in a necessarily limited and circumscribed manner, the implications of a proper understanding of Aristotle's developed concept of deliberative imagination, phantasia bouleutikê, for his moral theory and his account of rational action, and to indicate ways in which this is related to his accounts of mental imaging in the rest of the Parva Naturalia.

After Arminius

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. McCall ◽  
Keith D. Stanglin
Keyword(s):  
Primary Sources ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
System Building ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
Important Position

“Arminianism” was the subject of important theological controversies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it maintains an important position within Protestant thought. What became known as “Arminian” theology was held by people across a swath of geographical and ecclesial positions; it developed in European, British, and American contexts, and it engaged with a wide range of intellectual challenges. While standing together in their common rejection of several key planks of Reformed theology, proponents of Arminianism took various positions on other matters. Some were broadly committed to catholic and creedal theology; others were more open to theological revision. Some were concerned primarily with practical concerns; others were engaged in system building as they sought to articulate and defend an overarching vision of God and the world. The story of this development is both complex and important for a proper understanding of the history of Protestant theology. However, this historical development of Arminian theology is not well known. In this book, Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin offer a historical introduction to Arminian theology as it developed in modern thought, providing an account that is based upon important primary sources and recent secondary research that will be helpful to scholars of ecclesial history and modern thought as well as comprehensible and relevant for students.

Ο 'Αγαθός As ΌΔυνατός in the Hippias Minor

1981 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roslyn Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Intentional Agent ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Unintentional Action ◽  
Hippias Minor ◽  
Better Than

This paper is an attempt so to construe the arguments of the Hippias Minor as to remove the justification for regarding it as unworthy of Plato either because of its alleged fallaciousness and Sophistic mode of argument or because of its alleged immorality. It focuses, therefore, only on the arguments and their conclusions, steering clear of the dialogue's dramatic and literary aspects. Whereas I do not wish to deny the importance of these aspects to a proper understanding of the dialogue – on the contrary, in a dialogue so heavily laden with irony and caricature, these aspects are necessarily more significant than they are in other dialogues – I do think there is something to be gained from concentrating on the arguments themselves. Although there can be little doubt that Socrates is up to something in the Hippias Minor, the task of determining just what he is up to can only be simplified by clarifying the arguments first.The Hippias Minor has traditionally been thought to contain two independent arguments, each having its own paradoxical conclusion. The first argument begins, it is said, when Hippias characterizes the two Homeric heroes Achilles and Odysseus as the true man (⋯ ⋯ληθ⋯ς) and the false man (⋯ ψευδ⋯ς) respectively. Through its discovery that both the false man and the true man have δύναμις, it results in the paradox that the false man and the true are identical. The second argument, on this view, leaves the subject of ⋯ ⋯ληθ⋯ς and ⋯ ψευδ⋯ς and compares instead all sorts of agents in intentional and unintentional action. Finding that the intentional agent is in every case better than the unintentional, the argument concludes that the intentional evil-doer is also better than the unintentional. Viewing the dialogue as thus containing two distinct topics treated in two self-sufficient arguments is perhaps not the best way to understand it.

Are Information Technologies So Dangerous for Written Culture?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asya Syrodeeva
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Sociocultural Diversity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Broad Interpretation

One of the factors that determines the current lifestyle is technology, which persistently draws the world into competition for new means and practices. As the subject of these processes, our contemporary not only takes an active part in them, but also reflexes a lot about his/her own impact. Although technology is ambivalent and multivector in its development, the humanitarian role of protecting the history of human experience, as well as creating the updated versions of cultural practices is not alien to it. Inspired by the broad interpretation of the writing practices proposed by J. Derrida, the author of the article shows how important it is for the understanding of technology not to be overloaded with alarmism. Information technologies have a democratizing effect on social life by offering new tools and formats for the writing. In particular, they support on a personal level the freedom of self-realization, while on a public scale — sociocultural diversity and interaction.

Situating Feminist Theologies Phenomenologically

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Peckruhn
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

Chapter 2 investigates the manner in which feminist theologies employ experience as a source for theology, particularly sensory experience. It highlights scholarly work that seeks to overcome body-mind dualisms by appealing to perception and analyzes where and how these attempts fall short. Perception in the theological works surveyed is either conceived in an empiricist or intellectualist fashion, which upholds the very body-mind dualism sought to move beyond. The chapter proposes that we are our bodies, and we experience the world as we are in the world through our bodies, as body-subjects. This leaves no room for an ontological separation of the subject “I” and the body of the subject.

scholarly journals The Scepticism of Descartes’s Meditations

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-279
Author(s):  
James Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Euclidean Space ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Controlling Factor ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Will ◽  
Aristotelian Science ◽  
The Subject

What I’m suggesting is that the model for Descartes’s defence of Renaissance science would be Aquinas’s own defence of thirteenth-century Aristotelian science, except that the coherence of the will took on the role of the consistency of concepts, as the controlling factor in the analyses of all types of science. As a result, the new science would incorporate the awareness of Platonic ideas and the divisibility of Euclidean space as equally valid input into a dialectical knowledge of sensory experience. You can read the early arguments to doubt the reality of sensory experience and reason as a way of dividing out the experience of the will in affirming or denying an object’s nature, as the subject for subsequent inquiry.

scholarly journals The Doctrine of Trinity and its Implications for Contemporary African Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
ISAAC BOAHENG
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
African Society ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Theology

The doctrine of Trinity is key to human understanding of the character and nature of God. A proper understanding of this doctrine has the potential of deepening one’s rela-tionship with God and with other human beings. This doctrine embodies the biblical sto-ry and also informs Christian soteriology. In spite of its relevance, the doctrine of Trini-ty remains one of the most complex and misunderstood doctrines in Christianity. The challenge is how to reconcile the affirmation that “there are three distinctly fully divine Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)” with the fact that “there is only one true God.” The paper briefly examines this doctrine from the perspective of biblical and historical theology and explores how its teaching should inform relationships within the African society. This is a literature-based study that uses data from books, theses, journal arti-cles, Bible commentaries, among others as its sources. The methodology used comprises qualitative analysis of biblical data on the subject of Trinity and the African worldview of human society. The study revealed that the divine Trinity underscores unity in diver-sity and therefore that contradicts any form of egotistic individualism that leads to the destruction of communion and of life. Therefore, Christians must develop and promote a communal worldview of life through an appreciation of their diversity. The main con-clusion is that human society will be improved if people appreciate human diversity and then learn to live in peace and harmony in spite of their differences. The paper contrib-utes to scholarship by contextualizing the doctrine of the Trinity for the needs of the Af-rican society which shows diverse cultural traditions.

scholarly journals Seguir regras e significado: o argumento cético-semântico revisitado

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-173
Author(s):  
Vinicius De Faria dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Saul Kripke ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Skeptical Paradox ◽  
Proper Response ◽  
The Way

No presente artigo proponho-me a reconstruir, o mais claramente possível o “paradoxo cético” a partir do modo como apresentado por Saul Kripke em seu Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982). Seu argumento sustenta que não há fatos ou razões que justifiquem nosso emprego de termos como dotados de significados. Para tanto, interponho as distinções que julgo pertinentes à adequada compreensão do tema, formulando os requisitos necessários à sua adequada resposta, a saber, o ontológico, o normativo e o da identificação extensional no tempo. Ao final, contrasto o ceticismo ora objeto de análise com sua versão epistemológica clássica. AbstractIn the present paper I propose to rebuild as clearly as possible the “skeptical paradox” from the way presented by Saul Kripke in his Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982). His argument maintains that there are no facts or reasons justifying our use of terms as having meaning. Therefore, I interpose the distinctions that I consider relevant to the proper understanding of the subject and I formulate the requirements necessary for its proper response, namely the ontological, the normative and the extensional identification in time. Finally, I contrast semantic skepticism with its classical epistemological version.

scholarly journals Lexical Variants of Fixed Word Combinations in Political-Social Press Releases

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (26) ◽  
pp. 34-43
Author(s):  
Joanna Bryła-Lech
Keyword(s):  
Source Material ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Base Form ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

Fixed word combinations and their modifications are frequently used by journalists in press releases of a political and/or social profile. Analyzing the source material gathered from “Gazeta Wyborcza” in 2001, I found many lexical variants of phrasemes and proverbs.The most interesting modifications appeared in the headlines. This article describes a few such examples.Fixed word combinations make it easier for senders of political-social announcements to express their thoughts indirectly. They can be used to convey irony, mockery, or aversion towards a person or the subject of the statement in a veiled way. The proper understanding (i.e., in accordance with the sender’s intentions) of such a constructed announcement often requires some intellectual effort from the reader. It is a kind of game. Interpreting the metaphorical sense causes a relationship to form between the participants of the communicative process.Changeable modifications appear as a result of the replacement of one component by a different word, which from the sender’s point of view is more attractive than the one in the base form (Bąba 1989, p. 54). This leads to the appearance of so-called lexical variants. Most frequently, these units are not fixed in the Polish language, but are created especially for the needs of a certain text. They enable the meaning of a phraseme or proverb to be matched to the content of the article, which constitutes the context of its usage. They usually narrow the meaning.The modified phrasemes and proverbs attract the reader’s attention, convincing him of the sender’s views. The language of politics and the media is the language of manipulation and persuasion. Fixed word combinations are very important language devices that facilitate an effective influence on the reader/receiver.

scholarly journals Expanding the Meaning of the Term “Document” as a Possible Factor of Reconsideration of the Objects of Bibliometrics, Scientometrics, and Informetrics. 2. Old Definitions of the Objects of “Metrices” in the Context of the New Definition of the Term “Document”

2020 ◽  
pp. 226-242
Author(s):  
V. S. Lazarev
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Broad Interpretation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Scientific Fields

Introduction. In the first part of the article, an attempt was made to trace some of the evolution of the concept of a “document”, which is now understood as any material object that can be used to obtain the information necessary for a person. In the second part, assuming that such an interpretation of the concept of a “document” is fruitful for possible reconsideration of viewpoints on the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics, a number of definitions of the objects of these three “metrices” have been examined with a speculative “inlining” the new meaning of the term “document” to the definitions of objects.Materials and methods. Comparative analysis of the viewpoints of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics that were expressed in some examples of definitions of these scientific fields; speculative “inlining” the new meaning of the term “document” in them; consideration the meanings of the objects of “metrices” altered as a result of the mentioned “inlining”.Results. It is shown how noticeably the understanding of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics can be revised as the result of the use of the updated “broad” interpretation of the concept of a “document” and how much the interpretations of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics can be even closer in their meanings than previously was recognized.Discussion and conclusion. Such a comparative analysis of the objects of the “metrices” might be helpful for identifying both similarities and differences among bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics. This is important, since the awareness of them is an obvious starting point for the mutual enrichment of “metrices” with knowledge and concepts. A more complete and detailed analysis of representations of the objects of the “metrices” in comparison with the updated “broad” interpretation of the concept of the “document”, as well as a comparison of the methodological components of “metrices” is the subject of further research.

Moral Philosophy and Moral Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Subject ◽  
Moral Position ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Alternative Understanding

This is a work in moral philosophy and its ambition is to contribute to a renewed understanding of moral philosophy, the role of moral theory, and the relation between moral philosophy and moral life. It is motivated by the belief that the lack of a coherent answer to the question of the role and status of moral philosophy and the theories it develops, is one of the most important obstacles for doing work in moral philosophy today. The first part of the book untangles various criticisms of the dominant view of moral theories that challenges the explanatory, foundational, authoritative, and action-guiding role of these theories. It also offers an alternative understanding of moral theory as descriptions of moral grammar. The second part investigates the nature of the particularities relevant for an understanding of moral life, both particularities tied to the moral subject, her character, commitments, and moral position, and particularities tied to the context of the subject, her moral community and language. The final part marks a return to moral philosophy and addresses the wider question of what the revised conception of moral theories and the affirmation of the value of the particular mean for moral philosophy by developing a descriptive, pluralistic, and elucidatory conception of moral philosophy. The scope of the book is wide, but its pretensions are more moderate, to present an understanding of descriptive moral philosophy which may spur a debate about the status and role of moral philosophy in relation to our moral lives.

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