A New Interpretation of Hume's ‘Of Miracles’

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Slupik
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
New Interpretation

It has often been suggested (1) that according to Hume it is impossible in principle for testimony to prove a miracle, and (2) that an indispensable element in Hume's argument is the claim that a miracle is by definition a violation of the laws of nature. I argue that both (1) and (2) are mistaken, and that, once Hume's ‘Of Miracles’ is viewed in a proper historical context, it emerges that Hume's argument against miracles is considerably different from what is usually supposed.

Hobbes's Political Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.P. Martinich
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Apparent Conflict

Hobbes’s Political Philosophy: Interpretation and Interpretations extends a position first explained in The Two Gods of Leviathan (1992). Hobbes presented what he believed would be a science of politics, a set of timeless truths grounded in definitions. In chapters on the laws of nature, authorization and representation, sovereignty by acquisition, and others, the author explains this science of politics. In addition to the timeless science, Hobbes had two timebound projects: (1) to eliminate the apparent conflict between the new science of Copernicus and Galileo and traditional Christian doctrine, and (2) to show that Christianity, correctly understood, is not politically destabilizing. The strategy for accomplishing (1) was to distinguish science from religion and to understand Christianity as essentially belief in the literal meaning of the Bible. The strategy for accomplishing (2) was to appeal to biblical teachings such as “Servants, obey your masters,” and “All authority comes from God.” Criticisms of the author’s interpretations are the occasion for (a) fleshing out Hobbes’s historical context and (b) describing the nature of interpretation in dialogue with opposing interpretations by scholars such as Jeffrey Collins, Edwin Curley, John Deigh, and Quentin Skinner. Interpretation is updating one’s network of beliefs in order to re-establish an equilibrium upset by a text. Interpretations may be judged according to prima facie properties of good interpretations such as completeness, consistency, simplicity, generality, palpability, and defensibility.

Problematic “Idiosyncrasies”: Rediscovering the Historical Context of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Science of Form

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Research Program ◽  
International Research ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Organismal Biology ◽  
Private Correspondence ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
International Research Program

ArgumentD’Arcy Thompson has often been portrayed as a loner. His science of form has frequently been labeled anachronistic, idiosyncratic, and unconnected to his contemporary biology. This article aims to challenge this interpretation. Thompson's representation as a loner did not lie in the idiosyncrasies of his science, but in our own historiography. Through the use of unedited archival sources, this study shows that Thompson's biology was well-connected to an international research program – a program mainly shared by developmental biologists, physiologists, and morphologists. In addition, this article also aims to propose a new interpretation of Thompson'sOn Growth and Form. Drawing on his private correspondence and published sources, the paper re-contextualizes the contents and conclusions of Thompson's seminal work. We will see that Thompson defended a particular kind of organismal biology. The bio-science he supported stemmed not only from Aristotle's zoology or Pythagorean mathematics, but had many allies among twentieth-century naturalists.

scholarly journals The Myth of Batman: Intra- and Interdiscursive Transformations

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-88
Author(s):  
Arina A. Kutovaia ◽  
Ekaterina V. Mikhailovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Basic Constituent

The study focuses on the multimodal discourse of the superhero Batman which is viewed as both a corpus of texts about Batman and a process of their development in various media, such as comics, animation, film, video games. Since the launch of the 1930s’ comics, the discourse has been incessantly developing, getting more and more intertwined with technology and new technology-based arts and industries. The evolution of the discourse can also be accounted for by the changing needs of the audience, as well as the shifts in the audience itself. At present, Batman discourse is comprised of a vast number of media texts, which intersect and influence each other. Each of these presents a new interpretation of the myth, based on the reesthetisization of basic constituent codes. The research aims to cover some aspects that define Batman as a cultural phenomenon of today, such as Batman as part of contemporary mythology and its relatability to the contemporary historical context, authorship in both the multimodal discourse and its media subdiscourses, intertextual and interdiscursive transformations.

scholarly journals Adrian Pushkin: Perm experience of the bureaucratic messiahship

2021 ◽  
pp. 164-171
Author(s):  
A.V. Bushmakov ◽  
S.V. Riazanova
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Folk Narratives ◽  
Solovetsky Monastery

This paper presents to the reader’s attention a unique case of a local “messianic” prophecy which combines features of folk religious movements and principles of functioning of the bureaucratic machine. The manuscripts of civil servant and merchant Adrian Pushkin, who lived in the 19th century in the city of Perm (Kama region, West-ern Ural), are considered as a variation of development of popular religion which includes a messianic-apocalyptic narrative. This places the provincial clerk closely to founders of the alternative to the official Orthodox discourse movements in the Russian Empire, as well as new religious movements of the later period. The aim of this paper is to determine the place and the role of Pushkin’s revelation in the religious space of that historical period. The main sources of the research are local archival documents which include business correspondence, personal letters, photographs, also documents related to Pushkin’s psychiatric examination and his subsequent expulsion to the Solovetsky Monastery, letters and family photos of the “prophet”, and service notes. The research method is based on the phenomenological approach with elements of hermeneutical analysis. The new revelation was founded on biblical text well known to the Perm messiah, and its content was provided by the social and historical context. The targeted audience for the new prophet was the middle strata of the society, comfortable for him. The preferred way of communication involved the tools of the bureaucratic system of pre-revolutionary Russia. The development of the new interpretation of Christian teaching was based on individual choice of the revelator and mediated by already initiated processes of secularization of public life. Traditional narratives and imagery of the sacred books of the Orthodox tradition were placed by the messiah-bureaucrat in the context of local space of the region and the country, and were interpreted through realities of personal life. Open criticism of the official Church was combined with a complex of mythological ideas. The main accents of the prophetic text were apocalyptic and chiliastic, related to the personal and professional crisis experienced by the author. The latter was triggered by the abolition of serfdom and destruction of the habitual environment and self-realization system. The style and con-tent of Pushkin’s text represent a mixture of theological concepts and elements of folk narratives based on the biblical tradition. As a result of the textual development, the signature myth was formed, rooted formally in Chris-tian dogmas and associated with folk religious culture.

scholarly journals The October Revolution as the Passion of Christ: Boris Pasternak’s Easter Narrative in Doctor Zhivago and Its Cultural Contexts

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 461
Author(s):  
Svetlana Efimova
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Russian History ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Condensed Representation ◽  
Cyclical Time ◽  
Historical Cycles ◽  
New Interpretation

This article offers a new interpretation of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago in the cultural and historical context of the first half of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the interrelationship between religion and philosophy of history in the text. Doctor Zhivago is analysed as a condensed representation of a religious conception of Russian history between 1901 and 1953 and as a cyclical repetition of the Easter narrative. This bipartite narrative consists of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ as symbols of violence and renewal (liberation). The novel cycles through this narrative several times, symbolically connecting the ‘Easter’ revolution (March 1917) and the Thaw (the spring of 1953). The sources of Pasternak’s Easter narrative include the Gospels, Leo Tolstoy’s philosophy of history and pre-Christian mythology. The model of cyclical time in the novel brings together the sacred, natural and historical cycles. This concept of a cyclical renewal of life differs from the linear temporality of the Apocalypse as an expectation of the end of history.

scholarly journals The Ramses III's inscription and the Trojan War: towards the historiography of the discussion

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 644-661
Author(s):  
A. V. Safronov
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Epic Tradition ◽  
Trojan War ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Greek Epic ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
First Time

The article discusses the translation and interpretation of lines 51-52 from the Medinet Abu inscription, which dates to the 5th year of the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III. For the first time, this inscription drew the attention of the Soviet classicist Vadim Tsymbursky (1957-2009). In 1994 he suggested that lines 51-52 comprise a mention of the Trojan War. However, Tsymbursky did not read Ancient Egyptian and therefore he was not in a position to bring forward a sufficient argument to confirm his suggestion. Russian scholars in the recent years have produced a series of expert studies regarding the topic in question, which, however, have neither confirmed nor rejected the Tsymbursky hypothesis. In 2006, and subsequently in 2019, the author of the present article examined de visu the inscription in question and offered a new interpretation: “(51) Northern foreign lands trembled in their bodies, namely: peleset, teker [and tursha], (52) whose own land was ravaged. Their souls approached their end”. The author puts the Egyptian message into a clear historical context and justifies the possibility to compare the contents of these lines with the Greek epic tradition of the Trojan War.

scholarly journals Os sistemas jurídicos inteligentes e o caminho perigoso até a teoria da argumentação de Robert Alexy / The intelligent legal systems and the dangerous way to the argumentation theory of Robert Alexy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 437
Author(s):  
Vinícius Almada Mozetic
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Argumentation Theory ◽  
Legal Argumentation ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Context Variables ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Intelligent Systems Technology ◽  
False Idea

RESUMO: A hermenêutica jurídica da tecnologia é resultado da complexidade que se dá por meio de um processo de interpretação daquilo que é influenciado pela tecnologia, não somente e diretamente nos textos, mesmo que virtualizados, mas dos casos tecnológicos baseados em contexto históricos variáveis sob a falsa ideia de eficiência que toma conta do judiciário brasileiro; um caminho que não seja percorrido apenas por um relativismo jurídico, mesmo porque as pré-interpretações desses textos virtuais continuam possibilitando uma nova interpretação e aplicação de uma lei, mesmo que por sistemas jurídicos inteligentes, os quais estão sempre condicionadas a arbitrariedades. Palavras-chave: Sistemas inteligentes; tecnologia; argumentação jurídica. ABSTRACT: The legal hermeneutics of technology is the result of the complexity that occurs through a process of interpretation. It is influenced by technology, not only and directly in texts, even if virtualized, but of technological cases based on historical context variables under the false idea of efficiency. A path that should not be traversed only by a legal relativism, even as the pre-interpretations of these virtual texts continue to make possible a new interpretation and application of a law, even by intelligent legal system, which are always conditioned to arbitrariness. Keywords: Intelligent systems; Technology; legal argumentation.

scholarly journals Transition Trauma Metaphor in Transgender Narrative

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alla Martynyuk
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Transition Experience ◽  
New Interpretation

This study combines methodological tools of conceptual metaphor theory and narrative psychology with theoretical assumptions of the intersubjective psycholinguistic approach to meaning to explore instantiations of transition narrative metaphors in 16 TED talks given by transgender people and posted on the TED platform within the period between January 2013 and July 2020. The speakers are aged from 20 to 70; 8 males and 8 females; 2 black and 9 white Americans, 2 Filipinos, 1 black South-African, 1 Puerto Rican, and 1 white Australian. The study offers a new interpretation of narrative metaphor based on the intersubjective model of meaning. Within this model, narrative metaphor is conceived as extended conceptual metaphor instantiated in a number of multimodal metaphoric expressions made coherent by the textual, social, cultural, and historical context of the narrative, but primarily by its interactive situational context, which includes the audience into the narrative through empathy and gives them power to change the narrative. The research reveals that all the 16 analysed narratives rest on the TRANSITION IS CONTEST narrative metaphor that represents a conflict between positive self-evaluation of transition by a transgender individual and its negative evaluation / unacceptance by the society, which makes transition a traumatic experience. The density of words and phrases instantiating the CONTEST metaphor in the 16 narratives varies from 2,5 to 3 % which means that they are key linguistic expressions of the narratives. The CONTEST metaphor provides a deeper insight into transgender transition compared to the JOURNEY/TRAVEL metaphor found to represent transition experience in existing cognitive linguistic and transgender studies. The JOURNEY/TRAVEL metaphor fails to grasp the intersubjective and, consequently, traumatic nature of transition experience. The results of the research suggest that narrative as well as narrative metaphor can be given a more accurate interpretation if they are approached from the intersubjective perspective, which reflects their true nature as socially and culturally shaped interactive phenomena. 

scholarly journals A New Interpretation of Otzi, the Iceman

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. p156
Author(s):  
Gustav N. Kristensen
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Treatment Method ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
New Interpretation

China is the home of acupuncture, but the origin of this treatment method is unclear. The discovery of Ötzi is a milestone in the discussion of acupuncture and has led to a new interpretation of cause and effect. An interpretation, according to which Europe is the pioneer ahead of China. The literature distinguishes between “a form of acupuncture” and “acupuncture”. This distinction is superfluous in a historical context.

scholarly journals Giants or Geniuses? Monumental Building at Mycenae

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
Barbro Santillo Frizell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Related Subject ◽  
Building Technology ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation

ln this paper I will focus on some aspects of the history of building technology, a neglected field in archaeology. The related subject is the monumental tholos tombs of Bronze Age Mycenae, and I will argue that a fuller understanding of the building procedure is necessary to interpret the monuments in their historical context. A new interpretation of their function and role in the royal propaganda is proposed.

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