Ancient Quarrels, Modern Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Hayes ◽  
Jan Wilm
Keyword(s):  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
Academic Writer

At its heart, what Socrates called the ‘ancient quarrel’ between literature and philosophy turns on whether literature should be thought of as a useful supplement to philosophy, or whether it is in some sense a rival form of discourse. In this introductory chapter we orient readers in the contemporary contexts for this debate, and define why Coetzee’s fiction is a particularly salient way of exploring its parameters and its limits. Mindful that the boundaries between literature and philosophy are as much institutional as they are intellectual, here we situate Coetzee as an academic writer, and explain why this is important in understanding the particular way his work challenges disciplinary boundaries.

Introduction

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Billings
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Emotional Effect ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
Human World

This introductory chapter provides an overview of tragedy. Tragedy is the most philosophical of art forms. However, tragedy has not always been philosophical in the same way. Around 1800, tragedy's way of meaning underwent a major shift, with broad consequences for thought on literature and philosophy. Through the eighteenth century, tragedy had been considered primarily in rhetorical terms as a way of producing a certain emotional effect, but since 1800 it has more often been considered in speculative terms as a way of making sense of the human world. It is only since around 1800 that works of art have been considered in such philosophical and often metaphysical terms. Greek tragedy played a leading role in this development, as the foundation for elaborating a concept of “the tragic” that extended far beyond an aesthetic context, encompassing history, politics, religion, and ontology.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Karen Polinger Foster
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Western Scholarship

This introductory chapter presents two new directions in Western scholarship that coincide with the study of human relationships with flora and fauna in gardens and zoos. The first grew out of increasing interest in natural history in its broadest sense, with investigation into such topics as the intersection of science and art, and the societal and personal motivations behind the collection of specimens, living and not. Historians of botanical and zoological gardens, for their part, were now considering the evolution of planting schemes, display architecture, public access, and popular expectations, as well as the psychology of interaction with the strange and wonderful. The second direction was a byproduct of globalization. Here, museums led the way by mounting exhibitions that transcended disciplinary boundaries to demonstrate influences and linkages across time and space. Thought-provoking juxtapositions illuminated the myriad ways in which communities reflected, absorbed, reinterpreted, and sometimes rejected the exotic. Ultimately, among the book’s unifying themes is the pervasive, persistent notion that exotic flora and fauna were essential elements in creating and ordering perfect, microcosmic worlds.

Philosophy and Poetry

Philosophy ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 36 (136) ◽  
pp. 74-76
Author(s):  
Karl Britton
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Four Quartets ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
Direct Acquaintance ◽  
Theory Of Meaning ◽  
Imaginative Literature ◽  
Essay On Man

Professor Brett has some direct acquaintance with a Joint Honours Degree in English Literature and Philosophy: and it is therefore on the basis of his own experience (as well as Coleridge's) that he warns us that poetry and philosophy are “difficult pursuits for any man to combine” (p. 79). This book has an introductory chapter and a short epilogue which deal in a philosophical way with meaning in poetry and in imaginative literature generally and with the nature of critical interpretation.In the four middle chapters the author gives his account of four well-known and much discussed poems: Lycidas, the Essay on Man, the Ancient Mariner and the Four Quartets. One could imagine these chapters presented independently as interpretations and discussions of the literary and historical background of the poems: but they certainly illustrate Mr. Brett's theory of meaning in poetry and this provides a certain unity. Parts of Chapter I were first published by the author in Philosophy (July 1952). What is new is the particular application of the theory to didactic and discursive poetry. To this is now added a discussion of rival theories of interpretation: first, the view expressed by Wimsatt and Beardsley in “The Intentional Fallacy” (Sewanee Review, 1946 and 1949); and, second, the views expressed by Miss Kathleen Raine in her essay on Blake (British Book News, Supplement, 1951).

Introduction: Policing and Security Frontiers

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Randy K. Lippert ◽  
Kevin Walby
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Specific Meaning

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the idea of the ‘next frontier’ in criminology and in studies of policing and security. The book's understanding of the frontier theme has threefold, overlapping meanings. First, frontier means the edge and realms beyond conventional policing and security thinking and practice. Second, frontier refers to how these forms of policing and security are taken up by scholars in ways beyond or across clear-cut disciplinary boundaries. Third, the frontier has a specific meaning in colonial countries such as Canada and Australia, where state formation involved violence and assimilation targeting Indigenous people. Criminology should be pushed to the edge of its current understandings to theorise and examine the shifting landscapes of policing and security practice. When criminology arrives at the edge and adopts the notion of frontier, it reveals previously hidden or less elaborated insights about policing and security provision.

Introduction: Plato’s Nightmare

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Marmysz
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Objective Reality

This introductory chapter examines the “problem” of nihilism, beginning with its philosophical origins in the ideas of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. It is argued that film is an inherently nihilistic medium involving the evocation of illusory worlds cut loose from objective reality. This nihilism of film is distinguished from nihilism in film; the nihilistic content also present in some (but not all) movies. Criticisms of media nihilism by authors such as Thomas Hibbs and Darren Ambrose are examined. It is then argued, contrary to such critics, that cinematic nihilism is not necessarily degrading or destructive. Because the nihilism of film encourages audiences to linger in the presence of nihilism in film, cinematic nihilism potentially trains audiences to learn the positive lessons of nihilism while remaining safely detached from the sorts of dangers depicted on screen.

Introduction: Exploring Russian nationalisms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pål Kolstø ◽  
Helge Blakkisrud
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Part Structure

Russian societal nationalism comes in various guises, both ethnic and imperialist. Also Putin’s rhetoric is marked by the tensions between ethnic and state-focused, imperialist thinking. Noting the complex interplay of state nationalism and societal nationalism, this introductory chapter examines the mental framework within which Russian politicians were acting prior to the decision to annex Crimea. The chapter develops a typology of Russian nationalisms, surveys recent developments, and presents the three-part structure of this book: official nationalism, radical and other societal nationalisms, and identities/otherings. It concludes that after the annexation of Crimea, when the state took over the agenda of both ethnic and imperialist nationalists in Russia, societal nationalism finds itself at low ebb.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Woloch
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Women Reformers ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Feminist Organization ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Women's Bureau

This introductory chapter provides an overview of single-sex protective laws. The longevity of protective laws rests in part on reformers' bifocal defense. The goal of such laws, their proponents claimed, was to compensate for women's disadvantages in the labor market and to serve as the linchpin of a larger plan to achieve wage-and-hour standards for all employees. This double-planked rationale—though contradictory—proved versatile and enduring; it suited constituents with varied priorities. Protective laws' longevity also rested on effective social feminist organization and, after 1920, on the federal Women's Bureau. In retrospect, single-sex protective laws were an unwieldy means to achieve egalitarian ends—or what women reformers of the 1920s called “industrial equality.” However, critics charged that the laws failed to redress disadvantage and even compounded it. Protection's supporters also confronted developments they could not anticipate and shifts in attitude they could not foresee.

Bringing Moral Culture into the Fray

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conflict ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Moral Culture ◽  
Social Scientific Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Basic Level

This introductory chapter briefly presents the conflict in Yellowstone, elaborates on the book's theoretical argument, and specifies its substantive and theoretical contributions to the social scientific study of environment, culture, religion, and morality. The chapter argues that the environmental conflict in Yellowstone is not—as it would appear on the surface—ultimately all about scientific, economic, legal, or other technical evidence and arguments, but an underlying struggle over deeply held “faith” commitments, feelings, and desires that define what people find sacred, good, and meaningful in life at a most basic level. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

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