Diderot, the Self, and the Science of Dreaming

2021 ◽  
pp. 212-232
Author(s):  
Charly Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dream State ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter presents Denis Diderot’s philosophy of the self in light of debates over the neuroscientific turn in historical research. Recent literature features an ideal of self-ownership that the history of philosophy shows to be radically contingent. Situating Diderot’s articles on dreaming and distraction in the Encyclopédie within the context of eighteenth-century theological and medical reflections on the self’s command over its ideas and actions, the chapter interrogates the relationship between science, philosophy, and religion. The dream state fascinated Diderot precisely because its structure and content allowed his contemporaries to reflect upon the fate of the human subject in a materially determined world.

What Have the Historians Ever Done for Us?

2018 ◽  
pp. 18-35
Author(s):  
Hans-Johann Glock
Keyword(s):  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
History Of Analytic Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship between substantive philosophy and the history of philosophy, using the debate about analytic philosophy’s attitude towards the history of the subject as a guide to a more general assessment of historicism. While studying the past is not essential to substantive philosophy, it is useful. But it also harbours risks, as pointed out by thinkers as diverse as Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. These risks are discussed by looking at four recent historicist trends within analytic philosophy: precursorism, the general ‘reflective turn’ towards the history of philosophy, the more specific ‘historical turn’ towards the history of analytic philosophy, and the self-reflective concern with the historiography of analytic philosophy. The chatper conclude that the benefits of doing philosophy historically outweigh the drawbacks; in any event, even if the history of philosophy were irrelevant to substantive philosophy it would still be a respectable discipline.

The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume II

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Degree Of Acceptance ◽  
Missionary Societies ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
British State ◽  
The Relationship

This volume charts the development of protestant Dissent between the passing of the Toleration Act (1689) and the repealing of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828). The long eighteenth century was a period in which Dissenters slowly moved from a position of being a persecuted minority to achieving a degree of acceptance and, eventually, full political rights. The first part of the volume considers the history of various Dissenting traditions inside England. There are separate chapters devoted to Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers—the denominations that traced their history before this period—and also to Methodists, who emerged as one of the denominations of ‘New Dissent’ during the eighteenth century. The second part explores the ways in which these traditions developed outside England. It considers the complexities of being a Dissenter in Wales and Ireland, where the state church was Episcopalian, as well as in Scotland, where it was Presbyterian. It also looks at the development of Dissent across the Atlantic, where the relationship between Church and state was rather more loose. The third part is devoted to revivalist movements and their impact, with a particular emphasis on the importance of missionary societies for spreading protestant Christianity from the late eighteenth century onwards. The fourth part looks at Dissenters’ relationship to the British state and their involvement in campaigns to abolish the slave trade. The final part discusses how Dissenters lived: the theology they developed and their attitudes towards Scripture; the importance of both sermons and singing; their involvement in education and print culture; and the ways in which they expressed their faith materially through their buildings.

scholarly journals Garin and Cassirer: Historiography and Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saverio Ricci
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
History Of

Abstract The relation between Garin and Cassirer is still an insufficiently investigated topic, here proposed also in light of their personal connections and documents. This relation represents an important episode in the Nachwirkung of Cassirer in Italy. Garin was deeply influenced by Cassirer’s historical research and philosophical thought, in the shaping of his own research fields and in the methodological debates about the history of philosophy.

scholarly journals Affective Aporetics: Complementary Contradictions in the Interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche

PhaenEx ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
NANDITA BISWAS MELLAMPHY
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
The Self ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Karl Jaspers ◽  
Place Holder ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

In 1971, Wolfgang Müller-Lauter introduced his study of Nietzsche as an investigation into the history of modern nihilism in which “contradiction” forms the central thread of the argument. For Müller-Lauter, the interpretive task is not to demonstrate the overall coherence or incoherence of Nietzsche’s philosophy, but to examine Nietzsche’s “philosophy of contradiction.” Against those such as Karl Jaspers, Karl Löwith and Martin Heidegger, Müller-Lauter argued that contradiction is the foundation of Nietzsche’s thought, and not a problem to be corrected or cast aside for exegetical or political purposes. For Müller-Lauter, contradiction qua incompatibility (not just mere opposition) holds a key to Nietzsche’s affective vision of philosophy. Beginning with the relationship between will to power and eternal recurrence, in this paper I examine aspects of Müller-Lauter’s account of Nietzsche’s philosophy of contradiction specifically in relation to the counter-interpretations offered by two other German commentators of Nietzsche, Leo Strauss and Karl Löwith, in order to confirm Müller-Lauter’s suggestion that contradiction is indeed an operative engine of Nietzsche’s thought. Indeed contradiction is a key Nietzschean theme and an important dynamic of becoming which enables the subject to be revealed as a “multiplicity” (BGE §12) and as a “fiction” (KSA 12:9[91]). Following Müller-Lauter’s assertion that for Nietzsche the problem of nihilism is fundamentally synonymous with the struggle of contradiction experienced by will to power, this paper interprets Nietzsche’s philosophy of contradiction in terms of subjective, bodily life (rather than in terms of logical incoherences or ontological inconsistencies). Against the backdrop of nihilism, the “self” (and its related place holder the “subject”), I will argue, becomes the psycho-physiological battlespace for the struggle and articulation of “contradiction” in Nietzsche’s thought.  

Sacrificing for

On Sacrifice ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Halbertal
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Potential Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Self Transcendence

This chapter analyzes how the movement of the self to self-transcendence has been articulated in different ways in the history of philosophy. In his phenomenology of the sacrificial aspect of political violence, Paul Kahn observes that the double aspect of sacrifice—self and other—continues to this day. The chapter considers the potential relationship between self-sacrifice and violence in war by briefly analyzing the laws of war. In addition, it studies how origin narratives of states and political or religious communities sometimes refer to heroic sacrifices performed by the founding generation. A past sacrifice can become a binding political constraint on present-day politicians. With the burden of an earlier sacrifice, the issue is not about withdrawing from a losing situation and maximizing utility but is instead a concern about retroactive desecration.

Alla ricerca di una storia dell'ambientalismo italiano: il contributo di Giorgio Nebbia e Franco Pedrotti

2009 ◽  
pp. 303-317
Author(s):  
Luigi Piccioni
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
World War ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Italian Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

- The birth of Italian environmental history in the late 80s is due to the works and research of professional and non-professional historians. Its recent growth, fed for the first time by young researchers, and its gradual institutionalization could take place neglecting or even ignoring the numerous and sometimes excellent studies published by non-professionals. The cases of the merceologist Giorgio Nebbia and the botanist Franco Pedrotti appear exemplary in this regard. Both of them being eminent scholars in their own fields and pioneers of the italian environmentalist movement, they dedicated a considerable part of their scientific production to historical research. Nebbia has devoted himself to the history of the relationship between society, commodities and natural resources and to the story of "ecological contestation" while Pedrotti has re- searched mainly in the fields of protected areas and in post 2nd World War Italian environmentalism. This essay aims to highlight the contribution given by Nebbia and Pedrotti to Italian studies in the field of environmental history and to the spread of interest in this subject.Parole chiave: Italia; storiografia; storia ambientale; ambientalismo; aree protette; archivi.Key words: Italy; historiography; environmental history; environmentalism; protected areas; archives.

scholarly journals Hoe kan God dit toelaat? ’n Bibliologiese verryking van die teodiseevraagstuk uit ’n vergelyking tussen Openbaring en 4 Esra

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (2/3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Du Rand
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Intertestamental Literature

How can God allow it? A bibliological enrichment of the theodicy issue from a comparison between the Book of Revelation and 4 EzraIn the process of understanding and defining the relationship between God and man, the theodicy issue frequently floats to the surface. A long strand in the history of philosophy and theology has addressed itself to the task of reconciling God’s omnipotence and benevolence with human suffering and the existence of evil. Some of the philosophical and theological views are represented in this article. According to reformed scholarly presentation, theodicy should seriously take into account the soteriological and eschatological hermeneutical views. This is confirmed by the Old Testament, intertestamental literature and the New Testament. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the apocryphal 4 Ezra which puts surprising views about theodicy on the table.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin E. H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
General Overview ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Thought ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Conceptual Relationship

This Introduction takes a broadly focused, global, and comparative view of the concept of embodiment, focusing particularly on some of the ways it has been interpreted outside of the history of European thought. It also provides a general overview of the central concerns and questions of the volume as a whole, such as: What is the historical and conceptual relationship between the idea of embodiment and the idea of subjecthood? Am I who I am principally in virtue of the fact that I have the body I have? Relatedly, what is the relationship of embodiment to being and to individuality? Is embodiment a necessary condition of being? Of being an individual? What are the theological dimensions of embodiment? To what extent has the concept of embodiment been deployed in the history of philosophy to contrast the created world with the state of existence enjoyed by God? What are the normative dimensions of theories of embodiment? To what extent is the problem of embodiment a distinctly western preoccupation?

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