The Ancestry of Wisdom Literature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kynes
Keyword(s):  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Careful Scrutiny ◽  
The Common ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

In order to identify the origins of the modern scholarly Wisdom tradition, this chapter evaluates the purported early “vestiges” of the category. These are (1) early views on the structure and order of the canonical books; (2) the association of a group of books with Solomon; (3) the ancient recognition of shared traits between books; and (4) the title Wisdom applied to several texts. This evidence does not, however, justify the common assertion that the Wisdom category has an ancient pedigree. To the degree that a category approaching the modern one existed at all, its contents and definition differed significantly, making it both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the current category. This indicates that Wisdom as we know it is instead a modern invention, and the accuracy of its depiction of ancient phenomena therefore merits more careful scrutiny than it has yet received.

Utilitarian Strategies in Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Utilitas ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Careful Scrutiny ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
The Common ◽  
Utilitarian Theory

The argument of this paper is part of a general defence of the claim that Bentham's moral theory embodies a utilitarian theory of distributive justice, which is developed in his Civil Law writings. Whereas it is a commonplace of recent revisionist scholarship to argue that J. S. Mill had a developed utilitarian theory of justice, few scholars regard Bentham as having a theory of justice, let alone one that rivals in sophistication that of Mill. Indeed, Gerald J. Postema in his bookBentham and the Common Law Tradition, argues that Bentham had no substantial concern with the concept of justice, and that what analysis of the concept there is in Bentham's thought is unlike the utilitarian theory of justice to be found in chapter five of J. S. Mill'sUtilitarianismAlthough Postema's interpretation is not the only one that will be addressed in this paper, it serves as an important starting point for any rival interpretation of Bentham's ethical theory for two reasons. Firstly, it is the most comprehensive and most penetrating discussion of Bentham's utilitarian theory, drawing as it does on a wide variety of published and unpublished materials written throughout Bentham's career. Secondly, it is interesting in this particular context because the contrast that Postema draws between Bentham's and Mill's theories of justice depends upon a particular reading of Mill's theory of justice and utility which is derived from recent scholarship and which is by no means uncontroversial. As part of the defence of the claim that Bentham had a sophisticated theory of distributive justice, it will be argued in this paper that the contrast drawn between Bentham and Mill does not stand up to careful scrutiny, for insofar as Mill's theory of justice can be consistently defended it is not significantly different from the utilitarian strategy that Bentham employed for incorporating considerations of distributive justice within his theory. This is not to claim that there are not significant differences between the theories of justice of Bentham and J. S. Mill, but it is to claim that whatever technical differences exist between their theories, both writers saw the need to incorporate the concept of justice within utilitarianism. Therefore, rather than showing that Mill is an interesting thinker to the extent that he abandons his early Benthamism, by demonstrating how close Mill's theory of utility and justice is to that of Bentham, it will be possible to argue that Bentham employed a sophisticated and subtle utilitarian theory that was responsive to the sort of problems which occupied Mill a generation later.

scholarly journals Rousseau’s General Will

Poliarchia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 59-92
Author(s):  
Giovanni Caporioni
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Political Community ◽  
External Influence ◽  
The European Union ◽  
General Will ◽  
Careful Scrutiny ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Austerity ◽  
The Common

The advance of populist parties in the European Union can be interpreted as the sign of an expanding “frustration” about representation in a political sphere oppressed by economic austerity. In this context, the modern philosophical roots of an alternative conception of democracy, based on direct participation, appear to be worth of a careful scrutiny. This paper focuses on the notion of the General Will as described in The Social Contract. After a critical review of the antithetical conceptions of the General Will suggested by Rousseau, a coherent interpretation is proposed, obtained through an analysis of the text taken as a “self- -sufficient” unity: the General Will is pure “ambition” for an unknown common good, shared by all the members of a political community. However, it is argued that the participatory “machinery” of General Will is fundamentally incapable of resolving three serious problems that undermine the foundations of Rousseau’s ideal “République”, namely, 1. How the citizens can identify the common good without errors; 2. How the citizens can develop an ethical dimension by themselves, without any external influence; 3. How single individuals, seen not as active citizens but as passive subjects of the State, can protect themselves from the abuses of power.

The Roots of Solomonic ‘Wisdom’ in the Pre-exilic Period (Focusing on Proverbs)

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-111
Author(s):  
Katharine J. Dell
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
Relationship Of

The concern of this chapter is to explore the possibility of a vibrant and living wisdom tradition in the pre-exilic period. Whilst this used to be a ‘given’ of scholarship, the tendency towards later and later dating in recent scholarship has led to the need to reaffirm such ideas. Three approaches are taken—first a literary-historical one; second a theological one, and finally a comparative one. The focus is on the book of Proverbs, since it is arguments on the relative dating of parts of Proverbs that are of major concern, as well as the wider issue of whether the thought-world of wisdom was in the consciousness of early Israelites. It is found that there is a closer relationship of ‘wisdom literature’ to mainstream Yahwism than has often been thought with the key theological theme of God as creator providing an essential link. Links of the theological outlook of Proverbs with other parts of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and with the ancient cultures of the ancient Near East confirm these conclusions.

E-technology and information sharing in child welfare: Learning from the English experience

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Connolly ◽  
Christopher Hall ◽  
Sue Peckover ◽  
Sue White
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
British Government ◽  
Technology Initiative ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Careful Scrutiny ◽  
Significant Interest ◽  
The Common ◽  
Professional Interventions

The use of e-technology as a way of improving communication and collaboration across services in child welfare has generated significant interest in recent years. The Information Sharing and Assessment (ISA) is an e-technology initiative that has been introduced by the British Government as an attempt to promote better information sharing between professionals, early identification and multi-professional interventions. This article looks at one aspect of ISA, the introduction of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). It considers some of the issues relating to the introduction and use of the CAF, and discusses some of the ways in which systems of child welfare may learn from the English experience. While acknowledging the potential for e-technology to strengthen practice developments in child welfare, it emphasises the need for careful scrutiny of new developments to ensure that they do not have negative, unintended consequences.

Recent Trends in the Study of Early Jewish Wisdom Literature: The Contribution of 4QInstruction and Other Qumran Texts

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Goff
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

This essay reviews major trends in the study of the Qumran texts commonly identified as wisdom literature. Among these texts, 4QInstruction and the so-called book of Mysteries have received the most attention. These compositions are making a significant contribution to our understanding of the Jewish wisdom tradition during the late Second Temple period. A key achievement of recent scholarship on the Qumran wisdom literature is the recognition that Early Jewish sapiential texts could draw on traditions that have little to do with the older wisdom of Proverbs, including in particular apocalypticism and the Torah. The Dead Sea Scrolls illustrate that there is a wide range of diversity among the Early Jewish wisdom texts.

scholarly journals Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Interpretation

2021 ◽  
pp. 140-154
Author(s):  
Arjen Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

This article argues that wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls is not a continuation of the biblical Wisdom tradition. What we see in the scrolls is rather a reinterpretation of biblical Wisdom Literature within new conceptual frameworks and within the broader context of the interpretive culture of Second Temple Judaism. One of the main aspects of this new version of wisdom is that it is hidden and not available to just anyone. The emphasis on mystery and the hidden structures of time is shared by Wisdom texts from Qumran and from the Hellenistic world. Wisdom is omnipresent across Jewish traditions as it is integrated with Torah, revelation, and prayer. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has made clear how deeply embedded wisdom was across genres and traditions.

The Personified Wisdom in the Wisdom Literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Peter Schäfer
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
The Third ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The World ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
The Universe

This chapter analyzes the wisdom tradition in the biblical Book of Proverbs, which goes back around the third century BCE. Wisdom emerged prior to the creation of the world, before the universe had taken on its final form. The chapter emphasizes that Wisdom is to be understood as a person and even enthroned on a cloud throne in heaven. But in contrast to Proverbs, Wisdom comes forth from the mouth of God and is obviously God's word, which is nevertheless interpreted as a person, since she lives in heaven, sits on a throne, compasses the heavenly and earthly vaults, and rules over the land, seas, and all people. The chapter also talks about Wisdom or the holy spirit as gifts from God to the righteous person.

The Relation of the Minor Prophets to the Wisdom Tradition(s)

2021 ◽  
pp. 212-224
Author(s):  
John L. McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Wisdom Tradition ◽  
Isolated Point ◽  
Minor Prophets

This essay analyzes the commonalities between the Minor Prophets and biblical Wisdom Tradition(s). After briefly addressing whether Proverbs, Job, and Qoheleth constitute a unified “Wisdom Literature” whose writers are distinct from the authors of other bodies of First Testament literature, this essay outlines three methodological criteria for identifying influence from one corpus to the other. Rather than examine every (often isolated) point of contact between the two groups of books, the essay discusses clusters of wisdom elements in Hosea, Jonah, and Habakkuk that point to wisdom influence in each, as well as some prophetic elements in Proverbs and Job. Each book has adapted material from the other body of literature to its own purposes.

Proverbs

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Sandoval ◽  
Joseph McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
New Era ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Relative Neglect ◽  
The Many ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

Up to 2000, it was common to hear of the relative neglect of the study of Proverbs and Wisdom literature in biblical studies. Those days are over. Since about 1970, in fact, study of the Israelite Wisdom tradition, and the Book of Proverbs in particular, a leading exemplar of that tradition, has exploded. There is no longer any shortage of introductory texts, commentaries, and specialized monographs on Proverbs. The watershed moment is usually traced back to the publication of Gerhard von Rad’s Weisheit in Israel (1970). Von Rad lent his considerable weight as a “senior statesman” of biblical criticism to the study of Proverbs and the Wisdom literature, producing a masterful and provocative monograph, to which scholars still, almost in obligatory fashion, often situate their work. The same year, William McKane published his important and much-discussed commentary. Yet even before 1970, there were significant signs of life in Proverbs and Wisdom studies. In 1965 both McKane and R. N. Whybray each published significant works, and 1968 saw the appearance of Hans-Jürgen Hermisson’s important monograph and Michael Fox’s study of the religion of Proverbs. The relative lack of attention to Proverbs in the mid-20th century is usually attributed to the fact that its status as a species of ancient Near Eastern “international” Wisdom literature, which did not much concern itself with leading Hebrew Bible/Old Testament themes such as the Exodus and Covenant, was well established soon after Budge’s publication of the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope in 1923. As a result, Proverbs and Wisdom studies often took a backseat to the study of other biblical books and themes, especially those whose leading religious ideas were of much significance to the many scholars concerned with biblical theology. By 1963, however, Brevard Childs had famously announced, perhaps prematurely, the demise of the biblical theology movement, and the stage was set for a new era in Proverbs studies with the appearance of Gerhard von Rad’s seminal text.

scholarly journals “И престол его утвердится Правдою”: Концепция «праведного правления» в древней Ирландии (“And his throne will be upheld by justice”: The Concept of Righteous Ruling in Early Ireland)

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 40-63
Author(s):  
Maxim Fomin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Christian Morality ◽  
The Common

The article describes the concept of righteous ruling survived in the early Irish wisdom-literature. Mainly concerned with such texts as De duodecim abusivis saeculi, Audacht Moraind, and Tecosca Cormaic, the good deal of attention is devoted to the concept of iustitia regis and fír(inne) flathemon. Being the central principle of the wisdom-texts genre, its descriptions represent an elaborate exposition of the characteristics of a righteous ruler. The author focuses on such topics as the creative consequences of the just ruling and the destructive consequences of the unjust one, both in Hiberno-Latin and in Early Irish sources. The ethical notions pertinent to the texts of the genre are also dealt with. They are not necessarily Christian, although the modern scholarship tends to connect the “righteous ruler” concept exclusively to the Christian morality.  Drawing to the conclusion, the author brings some light on the problem of the concept’s origin and its genesis, its Christian editing and its synthetic (native Irish-cum-Christian) character. The final passages are devoted to the fate of the concept of the righteous ruler developed by the Irish clerical scribes in the works of the authors of the Carolingian Europe and those of the early medieval Kiev Rus. The analogies and ideas outlined were not necessarily borrowed from the common source: their provenance in the sources, such as The Life of Charles the Great by Einhardt and The Instruction by Vladimir the Monomachus, may obtain a cultural typological character.

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