scholarly journals Culturing Belief

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-58
Author(s):  
Neil Levy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Belief Formation ◽  
Epistemic Dependence ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Central Paradigm ◽  
The Way

What kind of being are we? This of course is one of the oldest questions in philosophy. In earlier eras, answers were often non-naturalistic (we are animals with souls, for instance). Today, one of the oldest answers is also one of the most popular: with Aristotle, we often think we are distinguished from other animals by our rationality. This chapter suggests that another answer is at least as defensible: we are epistemically social animals. In making the case for this answer, it provides some of the background for the account of belief formation developed in the book. It highlights evidence from cultural evolution for our epistemic dependence on one another. Cultural evolution shows how human flourishing is due to cultural knowledge that escapes the grasp of individuals and that is the product of evolutionary processes. The chapter then turns to our central paradigm of a successful epistemic enterprise: modern science. It argues that science, too, owes its success to the way in which cognition is distributed across agents, groups, and even artifacts.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and Creativity. Identity Configurations

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Durac ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Way

Reflecting on human attitude towards reality, together with deciphering the emotional code that accompanies it, has configured - in time – the aesthetic universe, open to human reflection, creation, and evaluation. Aesthetics appears through the way in which consciousness reacts and capitalises upon things in nature and society, or which belong to human subjectivity, including on artistic work, which have an effect on sensitiveness due to their harmony, balance and grandeur. As a fundamental attribute of the human being, creativity is the engine of cultural evolution, meaning the degree of novelty that man brings in his ideas, actions, and creations. Aesthetical values, together with the other types of values, contribute to what society represents and to what it can become, hence motivating human action and creation. Their role is to create a state of mind that encourages the cohesion, cooperation, and mutual understanding of the society. Integrating a chronological succession of the evolution of the concepts that objectify its structure, its aesthetics and creativity, this article stresses the synergetic nature of the two dimensions of human personality, paving the way to beauty, as a form of enchantment of the human spirit.

scholarly journals The problem of nationalistic discourse in modern sociologic science

2013 ◽  
pp. 160-166
Author(s):  
A. V. Lomagina
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Social Investigation ◽  
Discursive Approach ◽  
The Way

The notion of discourse represents a major novelty in modern theory of nationalism. Discursive approach as a key method of social investigation continues to earn indisputable authority in modern science. The article is dedicated to study of nationalism as a specific social discourse and the way of cognizing and interpreting social reality.

The cultural evolution of war rituals

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Glowacki
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractThe cultural evolutionary processes outlined by Singh illuminate why ritualized behaviors aimed at controlling unseen forces and overcoming fear are common in warfare among many small-scale societies. They also suggest an explanation for the development of ritual specialists for war who are distinct from war leaders.

Style and Stylistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-211
Author(s):  
Hero Abdulrahman Mustafa ◽  
Idrees Abdulla Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Critical Literature ◽  
The Way

Style and stylistics are two critical terms, that they exceed Kurdish modern criticism in the spread of researching modern critical literature of people and modern Kurdish literature. Style is a wide range of using language, stylistics is a researchable science and it is the detail of the styles.           Modern linguistics that (Bale) invented, paves the way for the emergence of this modern science for studying style, how modern linguistics studies (speech) and likewise stylistics studies styles of speech. This research sheds light on these two terms.

Heresy and Humanity

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-32
Author(s):  
Terence J. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Biblical Sources ◽  
The Way

Abstract Something new is afoot in Erasmus’ thinking about heresy and heretics. This essay explores some fundamental shifts in the way Erasmus understands religious life that serve to alter how heresy is conceived and heretics are to be handled—including a change in emphasis from doctrine to ethics for the sake of human flourishing; an embrace of fallibility in lieu of certitude to make way for fruitful conversation between adversaries; a surprisingly strong appreciation of the historicity of everything ecclesial; and too a cautious yet ultimately ironic concession for public authorities to use force in the persecution of heretics. With these underlying moves, Erasmus’ thinking about heresy represents a significant overture to a modern and pluralistic policy toward difference and dissidence framed by a humanistic ethic retrieved from biblical sources. In the end, Erasmus leaves no room for the persecution of those deemed heretics.

Towards a Re-Definition of Government Interpreters' Agency Against a Backdrop of Sociopolitical and Cultural Evolution

2018 ◽  
pp. 238-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chonglong Gu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
Press Conference ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Global Engagement ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
The Way

The sociopolitical and cultural evolution as a result of the Reform and Opening up in 1978, facilitated not least by the inexorable juggernaut of globalization and technological advancement, has revolutionized the way China engages domestically and interacts with the outside world. The need for more proactive diplomacy and open engagement witnessed the institutionalization of the interpreter-mediated premier's press conferences. Such a discursive event provides a vital platform for China to articulate its discourse and rebrand its image in tandem with the profound changes signaled by the Dengist reform. This chapter investigates critically how political press conference interpreting and interpreters' agency in China are impacted in relation to such dramatic transformations. It is revealed that, while interpreters are confronted with seemingly conflicting expectations, in actual practice they are often able to negotiate a way as highly competent interpreting professionals with the additional missions of advancing China's global engagement and safeguarding China's national interests.

Stories from the South: A Question of Logic

Hypatia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Babbitt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Social Understanding ◽  
The South ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
The Way

In this paper, I argue that stories about difference do not promote critical self and social understanding; rather, on the contrary, it is the way we understand ourselves that makes some stories relevantly different. I discuss the uncritical reception of a story about homosexuality in Cuba, urging attention to generalizations explaining judgments of importance. I suggest that some stories from the South will never be relevant to discussions about human flourishing until we critically examine ideas about freedom and democracy, and their role in national identity, explaining the significance we give, or not, to such stories.

Richard Baxter as Philosophical Theologian

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Sytsma
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Rene Descartes ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Mechanical Philosophy ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Pierre Gassendi ◽  
The Way

This chapter argues for Baxter’s importance as a theologian engaged with philosophy. Although Baxter is largely known today as a practical theologian, he also excelled in knowledge of the scholastics and was known in the seventeenth century also for his scholastic theology. He followed philosophical trends closely, was connected with many people involved in mechanical philosophy, and responded directly to the ideas of René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, Thomas Hobbes, and Benedict de Spinoza. As a leading Puritan and nonconformist, his views are especially relevant to the question of the relation of the Puritan tradition to the beginnings of modern science and philosophy. The chapter introduces the way in which “mechanical philosophy” will be used, and concludes with a brief synopsis of the argument of the book.

45 Superstars of Science

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Daigh
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Stephen Hawking ◽  
The Way

This wonderful book contains easy to read biographies of some of the most influential people that have shaped modern science. Each biography assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader and highlights the key contributions of each of the scientists. From ancient scholars such as Pythagoras and Aristotle, to modern scientists like Stephen Hawking, this book is an excellent way for anyone interested in science to learn about many of the great scientists/thinkers that helped shape the way that we think about our world. For the trivia buff, each biography also ends with a “mini quiz” with answers in the back of the book!

scholarly journals Mutual epistemic dependence and the demographic divine hiddenness problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAX BAKER-HYTCH
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Epistemic Dependence ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
The World ◽  
Theistic Belief ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn his article ‘Divine hiddenness and the demographics of theism’ (Religious Studies, 42 (2006), 177–191) Stephen Maitzen develops a novel version of the atheistic argument from divine hiddenness according to which the lopsided distribution of theistic belief throughout the world's populations is much more to be expected given naturalism than given theism. I try to meet Maitzen's challenge by developing a theistic explanation for this lopsidedness. The explanation I offer appeals to various goods that are intimately connected with the human cognitive constitution, and in particular, with the way in which we depend upon social belief-forming practices for our acquisition of much of our knowledge about the world – features about us that God would value but that also make probable a lopsided distribution of theistic belief, or so I argue.

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