‘Ac si ignis elementaris ibi arderet’: Richard Rolle’s Elemental Love

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Physical World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Physical Elements ◽  
Fourth Member

Abstract The ‘sensuous’ imagery of Richard Rolle’s Incendium Amoris is typically regarded as spiritual metaphor—albeit a very material-seeming one. However, the trio of spiritual sensations Rolle explores at length in this work (fervor, dulcor, and canor) has a more precise, systematic connection with the physical world via the theory of the four terrestrial elements—a cornerstone of medieval natural philosophy. Through his imagery and descriptions, as well as his own reported actions and reactions, Rolle sets up the burning of fervor as a spiritual mirror of physical fire, the breath of canor as air, and the flowing sweetness of dulcor as water. The fourth member of this elemental system, representing earth, is the human soul that experiences one or more of the other elements of God’s love. The resemblance between these spiritual and physical elements is so pervasive, and Incendium exploits it so effectively, that Rolle must carefully and repeatedly specify that they are not, in fact, the same thing. Describing the ineffable through these concrete natural phenomena offers a useful framework for understanding a complex spiritual concept; however, through the idea that elements can transform into one another, it also offers a way of conceptualizing how the devout soul may be fully enveloped in God’s elemental love.

Anaximenes (6th century BC)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard McKirahan
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Greek Philosopher ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Primary Substance ◽  
The Universe

The Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus followed Anaximander in his philosophical and scientific interests. Only a few words survive from his book, but there is enough other information to give us a picture of his most important theories. Like the other early Presocratic philosophers he was interested in the origin, structure and composition of the universe, as well as the principles on which it operates. Anaximenes held that the primary substance – both the source of everything else and the material out of which it is made – is air. When rarefied and condensed it becomes other materials, such as fire, water and earth. The primordial air is infinite in extent and without beginning or end. It is in motion and divine. Air generated the universe through its motion, and continues to govern it. The human soul is composed of air and it is likely that Anaximenes believed the entire kosmos (world) to be alive, with air functioning as its soul. Like other Presocratics, he proposed theories of the nature of the heavenly bodies and their motions, and of meteorological and other natural phenomena.

MUNDANE MIRACLES IN AWADH. ENCOUNTERS WITH THE REVEALED AND THE HIDDEN

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-140
Author(s):  
Maxim B. Demchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Local People ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Mughal Empire ◽  
The Public ◽  
British Raj ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Other World ◽  
Better Than

The sphere of the unknown, supernatural and miraculous is one of the most popular subjects for everyday discussions in Ayodhya – the last of the provinces of the Mughal Empire, which entered the British Raj in 1859, and in the distant past – the space of many legendary and mythological events. Mostly they concern encounters with inhabitants of the “other world” – spirits, ghosts, jinns as well as miraculous healings following magic rituals or meetings with the so-called saints of different religions (Hindu sadhus, Sufi dervishes),with incomprehensible and frightening natural phenomena. According to the author’s observations ideas of the unknown in Avadh are codified and structured in Avadh better than in other parts of India. Local people can clearly define if they witness a bhut or a jinn and whether the disease is caused by some witchcraft or other reasons. Perhaps that is due to the presence in the holy town of a persistent tradition of katha, the public presentation of plots from the Ramayana epic in both the narrative and poetic as well as performative forms. But are the events and phenomena in question a miracle for the Avadhvasis, residents of Ayodhya and its environs, or are they so commonplace that they do not surprise or fascinate? That exactly is the subject of the essay, written on the basis of materials collected by the author in Ayodhya during the period of 2010 – 2019. The author would like to express his appreciation to Mr. Alok Sharma (Faizabad) for his advice and cooperation.

Hugh of St Victor, Dominicus Gundissalinus and the Place of the Mechanical Arts in Medieval Architectures of Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol 153 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-318
Author(s):  
Alexander Fidora ◽  
Nicola Polloni
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The One ◽  
Mechanical Arts

This contribution engages with the problematic position of the mechanical arts within medieval systems of knowledge. Superseding the secondary position assigned to the mechanical arts in the Early Middle Ages, the solutions proposed by Hugh of St Victor and Gundissalinus were highly influential during the thirteenth century. While Hugh’s integration of the mechanical arts into his system of knowledge betrays their still ancillary position as regards consideration of the liberal arts, Gundissalinus’s theory proposes two main novelties. On the one hand, he sets the mechanical arts alongside alchemy and the arts of prognostication and magic. On the other, however, using the theory put forward by Avicenna, he subordinates these “natural sciences” to natural philosophy itself, thereby establishing a broader architecture of knowledge hierarchically ordered. Our contribution examines the implications of such developments and their reception afforded at Paris during the thirteenth century, emphasising the relevance that the solutions offered by Gundissalinus enjoyed in terms of the ensuing discussions concerning the structure of human knowledge.

Double Standards?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Scafi
Keyword(s):  
Human Soul ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Sexual Imagery ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Medieval Christianity ◽  
The Church

Examining the criticism of the Islamic idea of heaven in medieval Christianity sheds light on the development during this period of the Christian understanding of human marriage as a sacrament of God’s love. For Christians it was marriage that gave full meaning and dignity to sex, and it was precisely the bridal imagery that distinguished their use of sexual imagery from the simplistic sensual renderings of heaven found in Islamic writings. The resemblance between the sacrament of marriage and the divine exemplar was more than a mere analogy: the physical union of a man and a woman within marriage was an actual embodiment of the sacred union between Christ and the Church, Mary and Christ, God and the human soul.

Interaction of Internet Addiction with FoMO

2022 ◽  
pp. 116-133
Author(s):  
Müge Bekman
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Internet Addiction ◽  
Physical World ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Citizenship ◽  
Digital Identity ◽  
Digital Plane ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Day By Day

This study shows that digital media increases internet addiction and FoMO due to the impact of digitalization. As digitalization expands day by day and becomes a platform that can be addressed in its needs such as socialization, people's dependence on the internet is also increasing. Currently, digitalization also uses digital citizenship and digital identity as auxiliary elements. Without digital citizenship and digital identity, the impact of digitalization will also decrease. Digital citizenship and digital identity separate people from the normal and physical world and involve them in the digital plane. In this process, internet addiction is exposed due to the need to socialize, and individuals become even more dependent for socializing reasons. FoMO, on the other hand, is another indicator that addiction is growing. FoMO is increasing digital needs as there is a fear of missing out on the processes that are happening. As a result, internet addiction and FoMO are directly proportional to the increase in digital citizenship and digital identity.

Being

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-74
Author(s):  
José Filipe Silva
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Human Soul

The chapter is divided into three main sections covering Kilwardby’s work on natural philosophy. The chapter starts with the basic issues of composition of corporeal substances and proceeds to consider the question of the nature of composition (versus simplicity) of the human soul. It also attempts to understand Kilwardby’s philosophical commitments underlying his involvement in the Oxford Prohibitions of 1277. Particular attention is paid to the notion of matter and simplicity that offers cues to the identification of the view(s) Kilwardby may be targeting in this event. In this chapter, I also show the nature of the events surrounding the 1277 Oxford Prohibitions in such a way that it makes clear that Kilwardby was not and could not be acting alone or even at his own initiative. Rather, the claim is that he was probably spearheading a philosophical and theological movement of opposition to certain interpretations of Aristotelian ideas, especially in natural philosophy. The final section of the chapter offers Kilwardby’s account of the nature of celestial change and the relation between celestial motion and time.

A Liminal Artifact of an Uncommon Nature

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subrata Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Turing Machine ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Physical World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Symbol Manipulation ◽  
Physical Machine ◽  
Essential Nature ◽  
Alan Turing ◽  
The One

The story so far has been a narrative about the development of two very contrasting types of computational artifacts. On the one hand, Alan Turing conceived the idea of a purely abstract and formal artifact—the Turing machine—having no physical reality whatsoever, an artifact that belongs to the same realm of symbols and symbol manipulation, as do mathematical objects. On the other hand, the major part of this narrative has been concerned with a material artifact, the computer as a physical machine that, ultimately, must obey the laws of physics—in particular, the laws governing electromagnetism and mechanics. This was as true for Babbage’s machines (which were purely mechanical) as for Hollerith’s tabulator, as true for the electromechanical machines, as for the Harvard Mark I and the Bell Telephone computers, as true for the ABC and the ENIAC, as for the EDSAC and the Manchester Mark I. Beginning with the EDVAC report, and especially manifest in the development of the first operational stored-program computers, was the dawning awareness of a totally new kind of artifact, the likes of which had never been encountered before. Philosophers speak of the ontology of something to mean the essential nature of that thing, what it means to be that thing. The ontology of this new kind of artifact belonged neither to the familiar realm of the physical world nor the equally familiar realm of the abstract world. Rather, it had characteristics that looked toward both the physical and the abstract. Like Janus, the Roman god of gates, it looked in two opposite directions: a two-faced artifact—which, as we will see, served as the interface between the physical and the abstract, between the human and the automaton; a liminal artifact, hovering ontologically between and betwixt the material and the abstract (see Prologue, Section IV ). So uncommon was this breed that even a name for it was slow to be coined. During the Cambridge conference in England in 1949, we find a session devoted to programming and coding.

Introduction

Love Divine ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jordan Wessling
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Present Book ◽  
God's Love ◽  
The Creation

This Introduction sets forth the structure of Love Divine: A Systematic Account of God’s Love for Humanity and places this book within its wider academic context. An overview of the book’s chapters is provided and it is explained how these chapters constitute an attempt to trace certain foundational issues related to God’s love, specifically as that love concerns the creation, redemption, and deification of humans. In addition, two general features of the contemporary academic landscape are highlighted, one philosophical the other theological, in the effort to underscore ways in which the present book on God’s love for humans speaks to and potentially enhances current discussions in theology and the philosophy of religion.

Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Osler
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Void Space ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Empiricist Theory ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
European Thought

Pierre Gassendi, a French Catholic priest, introduced the philosophy of the ancient atomist Epicurus into the mainstream of European thought. Like many of his contemporaries in the first half of the seventeenth century, he sought to articulate a new philosophy of nature to replace the Aristotelianism that had traditionally provided foundations for natural philosophy. Before European intellectuals could accept the philosophy of Epicurus, it had to be purged of various heterodox notions. Accordingly, Gassendi modified the philosophy of his ancient model to make it conform to the demands of Christian theology. Like Epicurus, Gassendi claimed that the physical world consists of indivisible atoms moving in void space. Unlike the ancient atomist, Gassendi argued that there exists only a finite, though very large number of atoms, that these atoms were created by God, and that the resulting world is ruled by divine providence rather than blind chance. In contrast to Epicurus’ materialism, Gassendi enriched his atomism by arguing for the existence of an immaterial, immortal soul. He also believed in the existence of angels and demons. His theology was voluntarist, emphasizing God’s freedom to impose his will on the Creation. Gassendi’s empiricist theory of knowledge was an outgrowth of his response to scepticism. Accepting the sceptical critique of sensory knowledge, he denied that we can have certain knowledge of the real essences of things. Rather than falling into sceptical despair, however, he argued that we can acquire knowledge of the way things appear to us. This ‘science of appearances’ is based on sensory experience and can only attain probability. It can, none the less, provide knowledge useful for living in the world. Gassendi denied the existence of essences in either the Platonic or Aristotelian sense and numbered himself among the nominalists. Adopting the hedonistic ethics of Epicurus, which sought to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, Gassendi reinterpreted the concept of pleasure in a distinctly Christian way. He believed that God endowed humans with free will and an innate desire for pleasure. Thus, by utilizing the calculus of pleasure and pain and by exercising their ability to make free choices, they participate in God’s providential plans for the Creation. The greatest pleasure humans can attain is the beatific vision of God after death. Based on his hedonistic ethics, Gassendi’s political philosophy was a theory of social contract, a view which influenced the writings of Hobbes and Locke. Gassendi was an active participant in the philosophical and natural philosophical communities of his day. He corresponded with Hobbes and Descartes, and conducted experiments on various topics, wrote about astronomy, corresponded with important natural philosophers, and wrote a treatise defending Galileo’s new science of motion. His philosophy was very influential, particularly on the development of British empiricism and liberalism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document