Tradition and Scripture

1967 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-337
Author(s):  
C. F. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Human Existence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Time

Tradition in either of its two senses—the act of handing on (generally verbally), and what is handed on—is a particular instance of a law of human existence that men live in dependence on one another and by the processes of giving and receiving. So a sociologist can write, ‘If we are able to speak of real tradition, we must find the past spontaneously taken into account as the meaning of the present, without any discontinuity of social time, and without any consideration of the past as irrelevant’ (M. Dufrenne, quoted by P. Congar, Tradition and Traditions, p. 264, n. 1). ‘If democracy’, wrote Chesterton, ‘means that I give a man a vote even though he is my chauffeur, tradition means that I give a man a vote even though he is my great-great-grandfather’. What is handed on, however, is not existence of a purely biological kind, to remain always what it has been or to change very slowly over a space of aeons. Except in primitive tribes even tradition is not simply passed on as something static and timeless, and it is received by men who, though themselves in time, are not totally time-bound or restricted by what they receive. They believe themselves to be capable of significant action which is more than the repetition and reproduction of what has gone before. They are able to grasp a span of time and to call it history; they believe themselves to have a history, and they write history.

Acta Fluens – Generatives Handeln und Improvisation im Jazz

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Davide Sparti
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Obwohl jede menschliche Handlung mit einem gewissen Grad an Improvisation erfolgt, gibt es kulturelle Praktiken, bei denen Improvisation eine überwiegende Rolle spielt. Um das Risiko zu vermeiden, einen zu breiten Begriff von Improvisation zu übernehmen, konzentriere ich mich im vorliegenden Beitrag auf den Jazz. Meine zentrale Frage lautet, wie Improvisation verstanden werden muss. Mein Vorgehen ist folgendes: Ich beginne mit einem Vergleich von Improvisation und Komposition, damit die Spezifizität der Improvisation erklärt werden kann. Danach wende ich mich dem Thema der Originalität als Merkmal der Improvisation zu. Zum Schluss führe ich den Begriff affordance ein, um die kollektive und zirkuläre Logik eines Solos zu analysieren. Paradigmatisch wird der Jazzmusiker mit dem Engel der Geschichte verglichen, der nur auf das Vergangene blickt, während er der Zukunft den Rücken zugekehrt hat, und lediglich ihr zugetrieben wird. Weder kann der Improvisierende das Material der Vergangenheit vernachlässigen noch seine genuine Tätigkeit, das Improvisieren in der Gegenwart und für die Zukunft, aufgeben: Er visiert die Zukunft trotz ihrer Unvorhersehbarkeit über die Vermittlung der Vergangenheit an.<br><br>While improvised behavior is so much a part of human existence as to be one of its fundamental realities, in order to avoid the risk of defining the act of improvising too broadly, my focus here will be upon one of the activities most explicitly centered around improvisation – that is, upon jazz. My contribution, as Wittgenstein would say, has a »grammatical« design to it: it proposes to clarify the significance of the term »improvisation.« The task of clarifying the cases in which one may legitimately speak of improvisation consists first of all in reflecting upon the conditions that make the practice possible. This does not consist of calling forth mysterious, esoteric processes that take place in the unconscious, or in the minds of musicians, but rather in paying attention to the criteria that are satisfied when one ascribes to an act the concept of improvisation. In the second part of my contribution, I reflect upon the logic that governs the construction of an improvised performance. As I argue, in playing upon that which has already emerged in the music, in discovering the future as they go on (as a consequence of what they do), jazz players call to mind the angel in the famous painting by Klee that Walter Benjamin analyzed in his Theses on the History of Philosophy: while pulled towards the future, its eyes are turned back towards the past.

Die Ausnahme bei Christian Garve und Søren Kierkegaard

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-288
Author(s):  
Sabine Ackermann
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fear And Trembling

AbstractAlthough people have established rules to secure their life and values, they seem to search—and to have searched, time and again, in the past—for exceptions to those rules, and this for different purposes. The article compares two concepts of exception, suggested by Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling and by Garve in his Treatise on the Connection between Moral and Politics, respectively. A systematic-critical analysis shows certain intersections between their specific ways of handling the proposed exception. Garve’s concept of exception requires an original status naturalis between countries to increase happiness, and this is claimed by an established sovereign ruling with trust in God for his people. By contrast, the exception of Kierkegaard’s teleological suspension of the ethical turns out, precisely by being based on an individual’s relationship with God, to be incommensurable with purportedly universal social, ethical and political standards. This notwithstanding, both conceptions build on the notion of a human existence, which is subject to and ultimately dependent upon no one except the immortal God.

scholarly journals Pamięć w kulturze teraźniejszości

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Tarkowska
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Media ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Social Time ◽  
Media And Communication

One of the most substantial interdisciplinary topics in the study of contemporary culture is change in social time, which is expressed in the compression of time (and space) and changing relationships between the past, present, and future. Research and analysis situate the present in an exceptional position in contemporary culture, providing us with the term ‘culture of the present.’ At the same time, however, we are dealing with a phenomenon labeled the ‘explosion of memory’—an astounding multidirectional and multifaceted rise in interest in the past. It is therefore worthwhile to investigate the structures and mechanisms of collective memory, as well as how the past is defined in contemporary culture, from the perspective of time as a social and cultural phenomenon. Questions should be asked regarding the mechanisms that unite the dominance of the present in culture with a rising interest in the past. The perspective of social time reveals that the ‘culture of the present,’ the current dominating forms of memory intensification, and the heightened awareness of the past, are influenced by the same or similar factors. These include new media and communication technologies, as well as consumption and popular culture, which change the structure of time, condense the time horizon, alter the manner in which the past is experienced, and modify the mechanisms of collective memory.

All Boundaries Are Lost: Travel, Fragmentation and Interconnection in Virginia Woolf

2016 ◽  
pp. 105-132
Author(s):  
Sam Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Between The Acts ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
A Site

Woolf’s childhood was characterised by contrasts between urban and rural, movement and belonging, past and future, domesticity and the outdoor landscape. These influences are evident in her work’s balance between nostalgic reflection and an acceptance of the inexorable transience of human existence and sensation. Woolf is interested in the ways in which new developments in travel and technology can defamiliarise us, and reveal interconnections with other beings. Her attentiveness to the sedimentary layering of the past within rural landscapes is applied to her reimagining of the urban environment; Woolf inverts urban-rural associations, and portrays the metropolitan world as a site within which both fragmentation and interconnection are made explicit. That sense of interconnection also extends to nonhuman animals in Between the Acts (1941). Ultimately, this portrayal of a world in which all experience and activity is part of a ‘work of art’ underlies the theme of unity in Woolf’s final novel; but that theme nonetheless remains balanced by the novel’s exploration of dispersal and fragmentation.

Questioning the Presence of the Past

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
Thomas Kriza
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
World View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Truth Claim ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Pierre Hadot

Abstract This paper questions the contemporary turn towards horizons of existential meaning going back to antiquity especially in the shape of a turn to religion by pointing to crucial differences between antique conceptions of thought and their modern revivals. Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault interpret antique thought as spiritual exercises to perfect human existence, exposing an inherent existential relevance and connection to a peculiar conception of truth. I argue that because of these ties to a truth claim deeply alien to the modern scientific world-view, antique horizons of existential meaning cannot be revived within modern frames of thought. Their contemporary presence is more likely the expression of the deeply ambivalent modern relationship to premodern horizons of existential meaning, rather than a genuine revival.

Bursting the Bubble: A Case of Secondary Infertility

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (03) ◽  
pp. 179-182
Author(s):  
Parul Wadhwani ◽  
Soma Sharma ◽  
Gyanda Wadhwani
Keyword(s):  
Single Dose ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Secondary Infertility ◽  
Homeopathic Treatment ◽  
Homeopathic Remedy ◽  
Pooled Data ◽  
The Past

AbstractInfertility has been a major medical and social preoccupation since the dawn of human existence and women have always been the symbol of fertility. A 34-year-old woman presented with inability to conceive for the past 2.5 years. A single dose of indicated homeopathic remedy helped her conceive during the following month. In contrast with the fertility specialists, homeopathic treatment addresses the entire underlying bio–psycho–social dimension under a single roof. Publication of a collective pooled data may help us establish this beyond doubt, for the benefit of incomplete families!

scholarly journals ISLAM DAN KONSERVASI SUMBER DAYA ALAM

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Eko Budi Minarno
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽  
The Creation

<p class="Bodytext5">Among the various crises, worrying enough is the start of the scarcity of some Natural Resources (SDA), especially from unrecoverable groups such as petroleum, metals and minerals. And by often ignoring the needs of other living beings as well as the needs of future generations. If then comes a crisis with respect to this SDA, which is affected negatively human finally. SDA is needed by humans in the past, present and future. The threat to the existence and sustainability of natural resources is just the same as the threat to human existence and survival. The conservation of natural resources, which is essentially the management of natural resources, is an absolute must and is the main responsibility of human being as the Caliph of this earth. There are three main tasks for human beings related to the conservation of natural resources including al Intifa '(nurture and utilize), al I'tibar (think, be grateful, explore the secrets of nature), and al Islah (preserve and deliberate sustainability for the benefit of people, and the creation of harmony of life nature of Allah's creation.</p><p> </p><p>Di antara berbagai krisis, yang cukup mengkhawatirkan adalah mulai terjadinya kelangkaan beberapa Sumber Daya Alam (SDA) terutama dari kelompok yang tidak terpulihkan seperti minyak bumi, logam, dan min­eral. Dan dengan sering mengabaikan kebutuhan makhluk hidup yang lain maupun kebutuhan generasi yang akan datang. Kalau kemudian muncul krisis sehubungan dengan SDA ini, yang terkena darnpak negatif akhirnya manusia juga. SDA sangat dibutuhkan oleh manusia dimasa lalu, sekarang dan yang akan datang. Ancaman terhadap keberadaan dan kelangsungan SDA sama saja artinya dengan ancaman terhadap keberadaan dan kelangsungan hidup manusia. Konservasi SDA yang berintikan pengelolaan SDA, adalah suatu hal yang mutlak harus dilaksanakan dan menjadi tanggung jawab utama manusia sebagai khalifah di bumi ini. Ada tiga tugas utama bagi manusia berkaitan dengan koservasi SDA meliputi al Intifa’ (memelihara dan mendayagunakan), al I’tibar (memikirkan, mensyukuri, menggali rahasia alam), dan al Islah (memelihara dan sengaja kelestarian untuk kemslahatan umat, serta terciptanya harmoni kehidupan alam ciptaan Allah SWT.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Klassikern: To Meet the Needs of Today’s Audience

1970 ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
John Kinard
Keyword(s):  
Human Existence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Minority Cultures

If museums are to meet the needs of the man of today and tomorrow, they must involve themselves in every area of human existence. This is a responsibility that challenges their most creative resources. Instead they stand accused on three points: failing to respond to the needs of the majority of people;failing to relate the knowledge of the past to the grave issues confronting us today or to participate in meeting those issues; andfailing to overcome not only their blatant disregard of minority cultures but their outright racism, which is all too apparent in what they collect, study and exhibit and in whom they employ. 

The Antiquarians

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Grand Tour ◽  
The Past ◽  
Roman Coins ◽  
The World ◽  
Thomas Browne ◽  
Private Collections

“Time we may comprehend,” wrote the English physician Sir Thomas Browne in 1643. “’Tis but five days older than ourselves.” Browne’s view of the past encompassed the Greeks and Romans and a humankind created by God in the Old Testament. Also in the seventeenth century, Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh in Ireland used the long genealogies in the Scriptures to calculate that the world had been created on the evening of October 22, 4004 B.C. Thus, according to Christian dogma, the entire span of human existence was a mere six thousand years. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the study of the past fell into oblivion. Babylon reverted to desert; Petra slumbered in its secluded canyon. Ancient ruins of any kind were a curiosity, often thought to be the work of giants. With the Renaissance came a renewed interest in classical learning and in the remains of ancient civilizations. Thomas Browne and his English contemporaries were steeped in knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance was an age of collectors and scholars, of acquisitive cardinals and nobles who flocked to Mediterranean lands and returned laden with antiquities for their private collections and for what were then known as “cabinets of curiosities.” Soon, a stream of young travelers followed in their footsteps to Italy, taking what became known as the “grand tour” as part of their education (see Chapter 3). Such often frivolous travelers became the first archaeological tourists, but not necessarily the most perceptive. By 1550, it was fashionable to be an antiquary, a collector or student of ancient things. But only the wealthiest traveler could afford a grand tour and could pay for classical treasures. The less affluent indulged their passion for the past at home, collecting Roman coins and inscriptions and, above all, traveling the countryside in pursuit of what the English schoolmaster William Camden (1551–1623) called “the backward-looking curiosity.” This open-ended inquisitiveness took Camden and his contemporaries to eroded burial mounds on windy uplands, to ancient fortifications in Denmark, and to the mysterious stone circles known as Stonehenge.

Temporality, the Gift, and Being Born

Being Born ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 210-236
Author(s):  
Alison Stone
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Gift

This chapter explores how birth bears on the temporality of human life. Temporally, lived human existence is future-oriented towards death and past-oriented towards birth. When we take our natal orientation towards the past into account, we see that when we project forward and create meaning we are always extending inherited horizons that we have received in and from the past. The chapter also considers whether birth can rightly be said to be a gift given to us by our mothers. Although that view has problems, thinking of birth as a gift illuminates some connections between our natality and the relational setting of our ethical lives and obligations. Finally, the chapter sums up the book’s main theses about how human existence is shaped by the fact that we are born.

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