The Theodicy

Author(s):  
Paul Lodge

This chapter provides an overview of one of Leibniz’s longest and most important works, the Theodicy. It is argued that the Theodicy is best understood against a careful reading of the Preface, where Leibniz outlines the primary aim of the book, i.e. to provide the means by which natural theology and Leibniz’s conception of God as a being deserving of love may be maintained in the face of objections that stem from considering the nature of freedom and the so-called “problem of evil”. Due to space constraints, the chapter presents the main issues by focusing mainly on their presentation in Part1 rather than on the way in which Leibniz contrasts his views with those of with Pierre Bayle in Parts 2 and 3. It also includes a detailed discussion of the Preliminary Dissertation on the Conformity of Faith with Reason, in which Leibniz spells out his conception of the relationship between these notions.

2006 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Crawford

Long before Australia's first commercial television broadcasts in 1956, advertising agencies and advertisers had been preparing themselves for what they believed would be the greatest ever selling medium. The creation of a new outlet for advertisements was not the industry's sole cause of excitement. Having dominated commercial radio, the advertising industry looked forward to extending its influence. These dreams, however, were only partially fulfilled. While television enabled the industry to broadcast its commercial messages in a more effective way, legislation prevented it from controlling television in the way that it had with radio. This would have a significant impact on the relationship between the two industries. By examining television's impact on the advertising industry, this paper demonstrates that the medium of TV not only altered the face of advertising; it also caused a fundamental change in the structure and operation of Australia's advertising industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Desti Yuwastina ◽  
Kyrychenko Volodymyr

<p><em>Ondel-ondel</em>, initially believed to have fearsome characteristics and magical ability to ward evil spirits off, is still performed in various areas in Jakarta on particular occasions. <em>Ondel-ondel</em> was originally an ancient artwork named <em>barongan</em>. This research aims to seek a theoretical explanation of the <em>ondel</em>-<em>ondel</em> phenomenon by examining the relationship between the media and local culture. Several defining features of postmodernism are incorporated to reframe <em>ondel-ondel</em> as a form of entertainment, along with the interplay between the tradition and technology-assisted media. This paper seeks to reveal the actual meaning of <em>ondel-ondel</em> for locals and non-locals during their encounters with <em>ondel-ondel</em>. The research found (1) that<em> ondel-ondel</em> is an attempt to reinvent the way people seek entertainment in the face of changes brought about by modernity and (2) that the presence of<em> ondel-ondel</em> communicated in the virtual space generates digital traces in the form of messages contributing to the creation and the re-creation of <em>ondel-ondel</em> itself. </p>


1973 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leland J. White

The philosopher John Macmurray's specifically theological intent, contribution, and method stand strangely neglected. In the past decade theologians have argued that his philosophic work might suggest a new natural theology. Such is the case in appreciative comments by John A. T. Robinson and Thomas A. Langford. Both focus on the primacy that Macmurray accords the ‘personal’, and the bearing that this might have on an apologetic for the ‘religious dimension of life’. That Macmurray, however, might be more adequately interpreted as theologian than as philosopher only, that his philosophy itself might legitimately be considered the development of a theological position, and that finally his work might point the way toward reorientation of the relationship between theology and other human sciences will be argued in this article.


Educação ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Allan Da Silva Coelho

understand the relationship that the Indian anthropologist Veena Das articulates between pedagogy and theodicies in social legitimacy of human suffering. How the theological legitimacy of suffering constitute pedagogic fundamentals of practices that educate the body and administer the sense of living in the framework of the capitalist ethos? For Das, a theodicy, as necessary suffering, displaced from the religious to the secular uses pain and suffering as a basis for Pedagogy. In Modernity, pain and suffering are played in the symbolic universe, the configuration and adherence to modern apitalist ethos, indicating the “way of being” normal as acceptance of a moral sense to the suffering and subordination in the face of laws and institutions. It is pedagogy for subalternizar, but not always resign. Sometimes in dispute of meanings, prepares a form of resistance facing the absurdity non-sense of pain. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Zachary Case

This article reads Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy in dialogue with Euripides’ Trojan Women, synthesising a Nietzschean reading of Euripides’ tragedy with, as it were, a Euripidean reading of Nietzsche's theorisation of the tragic. It focuses on the way in which both texts confront the threat of nihilism in the face of human suffering and attempt to redeem or transfigure it. This is manifested internally and self- consciously in Euripides’ play through the actions of Hecuba and the chorus, who seem both to exhibit what Nietzsche might call a ‘pessimism of strength’, and to express Nietzsche's fundamental claim that ‘only as an aesthetic phenomenon is existence and the world eternally justified’. Yet Trojan Women ultimately resists Nietzschean theorising – a form of critical resistance which, as it will turn out, is already anticipated by Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy. More than a close study of two texts, this dialogic reading also has some big implications for thinking through the relationship between philosophy and tragedy in general.


Author(s):  
Jan-Melissa Schramm

Sacred theatrical performance has always attracted the strong scrutiny of the state. Consequently, one focus of this study is the relationship between sacred aesthetics and the law: what practices are considered in need of legal protection (or proscription), and how does that agenda change over time? But another is the way in which tradition (in this case, the long history of sacred drama in England) is constantly contested and revised, involving a profound interrogation of the extent to which the inheritances of the past shape the present or indeed the present predetermines our reading of the past. The Introduction alerts the reader to both these dynamics—the persistence of certain forms in the face of state censorship, and the ways in which that very narrative of continuity must be subject to critical scrutiny.


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Wytykowska

In Strelau’s theory of temperament (RTT), there are four types of temperament, differentiated according to low vs. high stimulation processing capacity and to the level of their internal harmonization. The type of temperament is considered harmonized when the constellation of all temperamental traits is internally matched to the need for stimulation, which is related to effectiveness of stimulation processing. In nonharmonized temperamental structure, an internal mismatch is observed which is linked to ineffectiveness of stimulation processing. The three studies presented here investigated the relationship between temperamental structures and the strategies of categorization. Results revealed that subjects with harmonized structures efficiently control the level of stimulation stemming from the cognitive activity, independent of the affective value of situation. The pattern of results attained for subjects with nonharmonized structures was more ambiguous: They were as good as subjects with harmonized structures at adjusting the way of information processing to their stimulation processing capacities, but they also proved to be more responsive to the affective character of stimulation (positive or negative mood).


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Kibbee ◽  
Alan Craig

We define prescription as any intervention in the way another person speaks. Long excluded from linguistics as unscientific, prescription is in fact a natural part of linguistic behavior. We seek to understand the logic and method of prescriptivism through the study of usage manuals: their authors, sources and audience; their social context; the categories of “errors” targeted; the justification for correction; the phrasing of prescription; the relationship between demonstrated usage and the usage prescribed; the effect of the prescription. Our corpus is a collection of about 30 usage manuals in the French tradition. Eventually we hope to create a database permitting easy comparison of these features.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Berry

Ray's most widely read book was his Wisdom of God manifested in the works of creation (1691), probably based on addresses given in the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge 20 years previously. In it he forswore the use of allegory in biblical interpretation, just as he had done in his (and Francis Willughby's) Ornithology (1678). His discipline seeped into theology, complementing the influence of the Reformers and weakening Enlightenment assumptions about teleology, thus softening the hammer-blows of Darwinism on Deism. The physico-theology of the eighteenth century and the popularity of Gilbert White and the like survived the squeezing of natural theology by Paley and the Bridgewater Treatises a century after Wisdom … , and contributed to a peculiarly British understanding of natural theology. This undergirded the subsequent impact of the results of the voyagers and geologists and prepared the way for a modern reading of God's “Book of Works” (“Darwinism … under the disguise of a foe, did the work of a friend”). Natural theology is often assumed to have been completely discredited by Darwin (as well as condemned by Barth and ridiculed by Dawkins). Notwithstanding, and despite the vapours of vitalism (ironically urged – among others – by Ray's biographer, Charles Raven) and the current fashion for “intelligent design”, the attitudes encouraged by Wisdom … still seem to be robust, albeit needing constant re-tuning (as in all understandings influenced by science).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document