War and Order

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-84
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Mara
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Political Narratives ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 2 examines how Thomas Aquinas and Niccolo Machiavelli relate war to political order. Both offer different substantive judgments and divergent methodological commitments. Aquinas’s political order is set within a comprehensive natural order that human beings should recognize and respect. Machiavelli’s is constructed by an aggressive praxis that seeks to harness human passions, always unsuccessfully. Philosophically, Aquinas depends on a theological teleology that Machiavelli rejects. If we read these texts comparatively we find that each author identifies dimensions of politics that the other overlooks. Further, their individual political narratives show the limitations of their theoretical frameworks. Comparing Aquinas with Machiavelli helps not only to reveal tensions between political philosophy’s two partners, but also to show why such tensions cannot be addressed by giving either one of these pre-eminence. These readings underscore questions about the relationship between political order and war that are muted in more contemporary analyses.

Fellow Creatures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Good For ◽  
Treat All ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

This book argues that we are obligated to treat all sentient animals as “ends in themselves.” Drawing on a theory of the good derived from Aristotle, it offers an explanation of why animals are the sorts of beings who have a good. Drawing on a revised version of Kant’s argument for the value of humanity, it argues that rationality commits us to claiming the standing of ends in ourselves in two senses. As autonomous beings, we claim to be ends in ourselves when we claim the standing to make laws for ourselves and each other. As beings who have a good, we also claim to be ends in ourselves when we take the things that are good for us to be good absolutely and so worthy of pursuit. The first claim commits us to joining with other autonomous beings in relations of reciprocal moral lawmaking. The second claim commits us to treating the good of every sentient animal as something of absolute importance. The book also argues that human beings are not more important than, superior to, or better off than the other animals. It criticizes the “marginal cases” argument and advances a view of moral standing as attaching to the atemporal subjects of lives. It offers a non-utilitarian account of the relationship between the good and pleasure, and addresses questions about the badness of extinction and about whether we have the right to eat animals, experiment on them, make them work for us, and keep them as pets.

The Life of Law and the Law of Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Naas
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Law ◽  
Written Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes a large swath of Plato’s Statesman (287b–311c) in order to ask, with “Plato’s Pharmacy” in the background, about the Stranger’s claim that law—and especially written law, since writing is the essence of law—is at once inferior to rule without law and yet, in a world without divine rulers, absolutely necessary for human governance. This chapter returns to many of the insights from Chapter 2 on the myth of the two ages, since what that myth demonstrated was the desirability and yet impossibility of an age in which a truly divine being rules over human beings and the concomitant necessity of trying to imitate that age through laws. Once again, we see that what is at issue in the relationship between the two ages, as well as in the relationship between a regime without law and a regime with it, are two different valences or valuations of life—the values of pure life, fecundity, spontaneity, and memory, on the one hand, and the values of death in life, forgetting in memory, and sterility in fecundity, on the other.

Proposals for Social Pedagogy and the Best Political Practices From the Crown of Aragon

2021 ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Rosabel Roig-Vila ◽  
Gladys Merma-Molina ◽  
Diego Gavilán-Martín
Keyword(s):  
Saint Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Analytical Line ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Crown Of Aragon ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
Ramon Llull

The authors analyze the figure of the Franciscan Francesc Eiximenis, and especially his Regiment de la cosa pública, from a reflection on medieval pedagogy and politics. Likewise, they establish meeting points between the thought, the words and the pedagogy of Eiximenis and those of other authors. So, the chapter draws a chronological-analytical line between him and other relevant figures of the 13th through the 16th centuries, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, Beatus Ramon Llull, Niccolò Machiavelli, (Saint) Thomas More, Saint Vincent Ferrer, and Joan Lluis Vives.

Predestination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
George I. Mavrodes
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Equal Condition ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Determining Factor

Predestination appears to be a religious or theological version of universal determinism, a version in which the final determining factor is the will or action of God. It is most often associated with the theological tradition of Calvinism, although some theologians outside the Calvinist tradition, or prior to it (for example, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas), profess similar doctrines. The idea of predestination also plays a role in some religions other than Christianity, perhaps most notably in Islam. Sometimes the idea of predestination is formulated in a comparatively restricted way, being applied only to the manner in which the divine grace of salvation is said to be extended to some human beings and not to others. John Calvin, for example, writes: We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or to death. (Institutes, bk 3, ch. 21, sec. 5) At other times, however, the idea is applied more generally to the whole course of events in the world; whatever happens in the world is determined by the will of God. Philosophically, the most interesting aspects of the doctrine are not essentially linked with salvation. For instance, if God is the first cause of all that happens, how can people be said to have free will? One answer may be that people are free in so far as they act in accordance with their own motives and desires, even if these are determined by God. Another problem is that the doctrine seems to make God ultimately responsible for sin. A possible response here is to distinguish between actively causing something and passively allowing it to happen, and to say that God merely allows people to sin; it is then human agents who actively choose to sin and God is therefore not responsible.

scholarly journals Theorizing Research Ethics for the Study of Psychological Phenomena from Within Relational Everyday Life

Human Arenas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Hilppö ◽  
Niklas Alexander Chimirri ◽  
Antti Rajala
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Special Section ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
The People ◽  
Current Psychological ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Common World

Abstract How to investigate psychologically relevant phenomena in the most ethical ways possible is an enduring question for researchers not only in psychology but also in adjacent fields that study human subjectivity. Once acknowledging that both researchers and the people whose lives they want to study are human beings acting in a common world, also inhabited by non-human beings, the relationship between researchers and participants touches upon fundamental questions not only about what it means to do research together, but also what it means to conduct life in this world together. This implies that questions regarding what counts as ethical conduct need to be accentuated and also profoundly re-drawn given the encompassing complexity of these relations. In this article, we will shortly review the theoretical foundations and associated problematics of the dominant view of the researcher-researched relationship in current psychological (and other) research ethics. We then present and discuss what we mean by a relational ethical position from within practice and for practice. We will also shortly introduce how the other contributions to this special section advance the theoretical debates on research ethics.

scholarly journals The Other as My Equal

Poligrafi ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (99/100) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Rasoul Rasoulipour
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Abrahamic Religions ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Great Evidence

The tremendous human capacity to “love” one another is, in my opinion, the strongest evidence both for the existence of God and for the relationship that God intends for human beings to have with God and with each other. At the same time, the human capacity for envy, hate, aggression, and violating the dignity of “other” humans is similarly great evidence that something is horribly wrong − human beings fail to maintain the intended relationship with God and each other. God’s intention does not change, but we forgetful human beings lose sight of it from time to time. This problem is at the root of human alienation from God and others that leaves us isolated, oblivious, suspicious and fearful.This paper intends to provide a framework that allows us to see the source of the problem, to explore some of the causes for human alienation from each other and creation, and to find ways to heal the gap between ourselves and the rest of God’s creation. I believe that all struggles, oppressions and sufferings result from this alienation, and a substantial mission of all religions, at least the Abrahamic religions, is to heal this divide by seeing the other as one’s equal.

scholarly journals RETHINKING THE OTHER FOR MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION – FOCUSED ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF BUBER AND LEVINAS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seungeun Choi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Ethics ◽  
The Relationship

The number of foreigners residing in Korea exceeded 2.5 million for the first time ever. As the ratio of foreigners to the total population approaches 5%, it is evaluated that Korea has actually entered a multicultural society. It is known that among the types of foreigners staying there are many young foreigners who visit Korea for the purpose of employment. The number of marriage immigrants was 16,025, an increase of 4.3% from the previous year. Of these, 82.6% were women. Entering a multicultural society in a situation where empathy for each other is insufficient can lead to social conflict. In particular, in the COVID-19 pandemic, hostility toward foreigners is more prevalent, and hatred for strangers is increasing. This study critically analyzes these social phenomena and seeks to raise the philosophical basis for multicultural education by establishing a concept with a new perspective on the other. This paper focuses on the philosophy of Buber and Levinas. By establishing 'I and You' as a meeting, Buber presented a new relationship with others. Meanwhile, Levinas emphasized human ethics and responsibility as the absolute and infinite being of the other. According to Buber, in the world there is a relationship between 'I-You' and 'I-It', and in order to live a true life, you must establish a relationship between 'I and you'. The relationship between 'I and it' is a temporary and mechanical relationship where objects can be replaced at any time by looking at the world from an instrumental point of view. However, the relationship between 'I and You' is a relationship that faces each other personally, and the only 'I' that cannot be changed with anything and the 'You' that cannot be replaced exist in deep trust. In phenomenology of otherness, Levinas intends to describe the encounter with the something outside the subject. The concepts of possession, distinctiveness and understanding are replaced by those of approaches, proximity, care and fecundity. In Korean society, a policy that seeks to use foreigners as human resources and, especially in the case of marriage immigrant women, as a solution to a society with low birthrates along with the labor force, shows how society treats others. Therefore, multicultural education must rethink the existence and dignity of human beings through the perspective of the other as asserted in the philosophy of Buber and Levinas.

Structure and History and X

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-56
Author(s):  
Nancy Levene
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract In working to understand myths, rituals, and the human beings who craft and use them, Jonathan Z. Smith involved himself in a debate located primarily in anthropology. What is one to make of cultural and linguistic differences? How do differences come to matter? Are there barriers to understanding between one culture-group-tribe and another that surpass the power of translation? Smith’s stance in this debate was partly negative. It cannot be the case that there are differences between cultures that entail ranking some higher than others. More constructively, Smith posed the question of the relationship of two approaches that shape the debate: on one side, the approach of structuralism, which seeks to identify what all cultures share, and on the other, the approach of history, which looks for anomalies and outliers, specificities and accidents. One must commit to both, he claimed. The question is, how?

Finitude, Freedom and Biomedicine: An Engagement with Gilbert Meilaender’s Bioethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-157
Author(s):  
Gerald McKenny
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
The Relationship

A fundamental theme in Gilbert Meilaender’s work on bioethical issues is the relationship between the ethical claims of finitude (that is, the biological necessity that characterizes human beings as finite creatures) and of freedom (that is, the capacity of human beings to transcend biological necessity). This article identifies two ways in which Meilaender articulates this relationship (one Niebuhrian, the other Augustinian) and proposes a third (Barthian) way which avoids the limitations of the first two ways while serving Meilaender’s purpose, which is to redress what he sees as an imbalance in favor of the claims of freedom over those of finitude in contemporary biomedicine and bioethics. The article ends by suggesting that Meilaender’s purpose would be best served by avoiding tensions between finitude and freedom as the third way does.

scholarly journals Divine and angelic cognition in St. Thomas Aquinas

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-38
Author(s):  
Predrag Milidrag
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Future Contingents ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Structural Symmetry ◽  
The One ◽  
Active Intellect

In the first part of the Summa theologiae St. Thomas Aquinas analyzes the cognition in God, angels and human beings; he does that by comparing and juxtaposing them. On the one side, the questions concerning divine cognition, such as the identity of the divine cognition and the divine substance, its nondiscursivity, its scope or future contingents are considered in the articles dedicated to the angels. On the other side, the proper characteristics of the human cognition in the part of the Summa on human soul, such as the active intellect, lack of inborn intelligible species, the inductive procedure in the abstracting from sense cognition, the cognition of the particulars, those problems are analyzed in the part on angelic cognition too. So, there is a structural symmetry of corresponding questions in the Summa on divine, angelic and human cognition.

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