LIBERAL ECONOMICS AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF SIN: CHRISTIAN AND STOIC VESTIGES IN ECONOMIC RATIONALITY

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leland Glenna
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Economic Rationality ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Ecological Problems ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe recognition that ecological problems often extend beyond nation-state boundaries has prompted environmentalists, politicians, and academics to call for and generate problem-solving discourses meant to be global in perspective. Free-market rhetoric has emerged as one of the more prominent of the global discourses, even though the free market's commodification of human beings and nature causes many environmental problems. To discredit this economic rationality, many scholars have compared it to religion. These comparisons are intriguing, but they have lacked the critical analysis necessary to appear as anything more than name-calling. This paper clarifies the definition of religion and uses it to examine the origins of economic rationality's fundamental presupposition—that greedy self-interested competition generates more social benefits than altruistic cooperation—within eighteenth-century Natural Law vs. Ecclesiastical Law debates. Despite economic rationality's adoption of sophisticated empirical methods and mathematical rigor over the past two centuries, it is a religion because it retains vestiges of the Protestant Christian and Stoic beliefs of how social life is governed by supernatural intervention when it uncritically promotes policies based on that presupposition. Recognizing economic rationality is a religion may benefit those who are striving to develop systems of governance based on democratic principles by leading to a greater understanding of economic rationality's normative attraction.

Holism, Chinese Medicine and Systems Ideologies: Rewriting the Past to Imagine the Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Scheid
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Shared Objective ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.

scholarly journals Politics and historical revisionism: Flows of relativizaton of collaborationism and normalization of „Ravna Gora antifascism“

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-177
Author(s):  
Safet Bandžović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Socialist Revolution ◽  
National Politics ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Historical Revisionism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

At the end of the 20th century, the perception of peoples and states on their own past changed profoundly in the Balkans as well, with major geopolitical changes. Its processing and instrumentalization are encouraged by the complex permeation of the global relationship between national and ideological forces and local ruling interests. Every political and ideological victory, "must find its legitimate stronghold in the past." The disintegration of the ideological paradigm and the Yugoslav state union was accompanied by a balancing of the past from the outside, in accordance with the interests of the time and dominant politics, the accelerated construction of new national identities, the outbreak of a "civil war between different memories", the reversal of consciousness. These processes in the post-Yugoslav countries, in "transitional historiography", along with the new "reduction of totality", led to "retraditionalization", to the problematic waves of historical revisionism especially related to the Second World War, the correction of the so-called historical injustices, normalization of collaborationism, nationalization and relativization of the notion of anti-fascism. National historiographies in these countries have made a turn from the former glorification of the People's Liberation Movement (NOP) to its relativization, as part of the general trend of radical "re-nationalization". None of them carried out such a "thorough confrontation with the anti-fascism" of the NOP as Serbia. Numerous historians, with the participation of parascientific formations, give legitimacy to constructions of devaluing the anti-fascist legacy and rehabilitating Quisling forces. The falsification of history has also led to the relativization of their responsibility at the expense of those who have in part confirmed themselves as anti-fascists. Revanchist historiography imposes alternative truths. There is a real consensus on the definition of "good" nationalism, which for many is "elementary patriotism". Various nationalist currents are portrayed as anti-fascist. The collaborationist forces defeated in 1945 became "misunderstood victims of historical destiny." Their actions are placed in the context of their anti-communism, promoted in reasonable national politics. Derogating from anti-fascism also led to "anti-anti-fascism". He relativizes the crimes of fascists and collaborators, re-evaluates victims and executioners. It is not common practice for "historical truths" to be written in parliaments and promulgated by law, as has happened in Serbia. Courts and parliaments cannot valorize someone’s historical role. Historical science can do that. Revisionism is based on selective forgetting and the construction of a "desirable history", it is "a reworking of the past carried by clear or covert intentions to justify narrower national or political goals." The obvious expression is "political culture in a society, that is, it speaks of the dominant political value orientations in it". Judicial rehabilitation is understood as an ideological and political measure of revision of history. A distinction should be made between the individual rehabilitation of innocent victims of persecution by the authorities after 1945 and a light revision of history. The political and ideological aspects of rehabilitation, with the support of the media and the pseudo-legal mechanism, include manipulating a number of topics to delegitimize the system that changed social, economic, political and national relations after 1945 - characteristic of monarchist Yugoslavia. In revisionist historiography, communists are treated as opponents of Serbian national interests ("red devils"), intruders in national history, and the socialist revolution as an excess. With the adoption of certain laws and the application of a whole arsenal of rhetorical means and concealment of a number of historical facts, the notion of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement in Ravna Gora was especially reworked, neglecting and relativizing his criminal practice, to make this "new anti-fascist" side a desirable "pre-communist ancestor". "authorities. This collaborationist movement is also relieved through anti-communism, it is marked as patriotic and anti-totalitarian. His rehabilitation in Serbia has multiple meanings and consequences in its social life, but also in regional relations.

Social being and cultural practices

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Ray ◽  
Julian Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
North Park ◽  
Material Things ◽  
Current Practices

Human societies are held together by relationships, conventions, traditions, institutions, and tacit understandings. These things are intangible, and while humans themselves are reproduced as corporeal beings, their societies are sustained by practical activities that continually recreate knowledge, customs, and interpersonal bonds. Just as a language would ultimately disappear if it ceased to be used as a means of communication, so the rules and routines of social life are maintained only if they are practised. The corollary of this is that societies are not fixed and bounded entities as much as arrangements that are continually coming into existence, works (if you like) that are never completed. But material things are also in flux, constantly ripening, maturing, being made, being used consecutively in different ways through their ‘lifespans’, eroding and decaying: so that the social and substantial worlds are as one in being in an unending state of becoming. Nonetheless, objects often have the capacity to endure longer than habits, rules, or affiliations. They continue to exist independently of human beings and their actions. As a result, old artefacts and places occupied in the past can serve to give structure to current practices and transactions, providing cues and prompts, or reminding us of past events and appropriate modes of conduct. Hunter-gatherers have generally lived a way of life that involves making continual reference to natural features and landmarks. Certain distinctive cliffs, hills, islands, trees, and lakes have represented places to return to, or at which to arrange meetings or encounter game. As such they will have been places of periodic resort, and were incorporated into collective history and mythology. Meanwhile, other places acquired a meaning simply because specific people camped there, or met there, or died there. During the Mesolithic in Britain, some locations seem to have been persistently returned to over very long periods of time. One example is the site at North Park Farm, Bletchingley in Surrey, which appears to have been visited sporadically over hundreds of years, although the structural evidence for this at the site was sparse, being limited to a group of fireplaces.

scholarly journals Unexpected Discoveries Should Be Reconsidered in Science—A Look to the Past?

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 3973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Foletti ◽  
Stefano Fais
Keyword(s):  
Psychotropic Drugs ◽  
Lysergic Acid ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
Otto Warburg ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
High Level

From the past, we know how much “serendipity” has played a pivotal role in scientific discoveries. The definition of serendipity implies the finding of one thing while looking for something else. The most known example of this is the discovery of penicillin. Fleming was studying “Staphylococcus influenzae” when one of his culture plates became contaminated and developed a mold that created a bacteria-free circle. Then he found within the mold, a substance that proved to be very active against the vast majority of bacteria infecting human beings. Serendipity had a key role in the discovery of a wide panel of psychotropic drugs as well, including aniline purple, lysergic acid diethylamide, meprobamate, chlorpromazine, and imipramine. Actually, many recent studies support a step back in current strategies that could lead to new discoveries in science. This change should seriously consider the idea that to further focus research project milestones that are already too focused could be a mistake. How can you observe something that others did not realize before you? Probably, one pivotal requirement is that you pay a high level of attention on what is occurring all around you. But this is not entirely enough, since, specifically talking about scientific discoveries, you should have your mind sufficiently unbiased from mainstream infrastructures, which normally make you extremely focused on a particular endpoint without paying attention to potential “unexpected discoveries”. Research in medicine should probably come back to the age of innocence and avoid the age of mainstream reports that do not contribute to real advances in the curing of human diseases. Max Planck said “Science progresses not because scientists change their minds, but rather because scientists attached to erroneous views die, and are replaced”, and Otto Warburg used the same words when he realized the lack of acceptance of his ideas. This editorial proposes a series of examples showing, in a practical way, how unfocused research may contribute to very important discoveries in science.

Criticism of Gehlen’s Theory of Instinct-Reduction and Phenomenological Clarification of the Concept of Instinct as the Genetic Origin of Embodied Consciousness

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Nam-In
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Genetic Origin ◽  
The Past ◽  
Embodied Consciousness ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Logical Sense ◽  
Living Being

AbstractIn the past 20 years, the concept of instinct has been discussed in respect to various disciplines such as evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, linguistics, ethics, aesthetics, and phenomenology, etc. However, the meaning of instinct still remains unclarified in many respects. In order to overcome this situation, it is necessary to elucidate the genuine meaning of instinct so that the discussion of instinct in these disciplines can be carried out systematically. The objective of this paper is to establish the genuine concept of instinct on the basis of a phenomenological criticism of A. Gehlen’s theory of instinct-reduction. Moreover, it seeks to show that this concept is the genetic origin of the embodied consciousness. According to Gehlen, instinct is defined as Instinkthandlung. However, this definition of instinct is problematic in the formal logical sense, since the definiendum (the instinct) is already included in the definiens (Instinkthandlung). Moreover, it faces different kinds of serious material problems. Criticizing Gehlen’s theory of instinct systematically, I will show that instinct should be redefined as “the innate living force that urges a species of living being to pursue a certain kind of object,” and I will attempt to clarify this definition of instinct in a more detailed manner by offering 11 points. Thereafter, I will argue that Gehlen’s theory of instinct-reduction has to be replaced by the theory of instinct-enlargement in human beings. Finally, I will point out that the genuine concept of instinct is nothing other than the genetic origin of the embodied consciousness.

Heidegger, Aristotle, and the Future of Art

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Khafiz Kerimov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Future ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Definition Of

The epilogue of Martin Heidegger's Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes quotes Hegel's famous judgment: “[A]rt is and remains for us, on the side of its highest vocation, something past.” With this judgment, Hegel says that art has ceased to be the vehicle of self-knowledge for human beings; Hegel proclaims the pastness of art. But the future of art is thus put into question. This is how Heidegger transforms Hegel's verdict into a question: “Is art still an essential and necessary way in which […] truth happens which is decisive for our historical existence, or is art no longer of this character?” Thus, the question of the pastness of art turns into the question regarding whether art is to be or not to be, into the question of the future of art. Hegel's judgment proclaims the pastness of art, because art is implicated with material contingency. That means that the question of the rehabilitation of art, of the future of art, is at the same time the question of the phenomenological rehabilitation of the material. What is central to this project of rehabilitation is the figure of the work of art with its own peculiar kind of materiality. Therefore, Heidegger reformulates the material of art as earth which is a source not just of contingency but also of potentiality. Yet, Heidegger does not understand art as the creation of aesthetic objects, rather, art is concerned with ποίησιϛ, with the bringing forth of beings out of the unconcealment. Such is the formulaic definition of art as τέχνη in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: “All art is concerned with the process of coming into being, and to practice art is also to consider how something capable of being or not being [τι τῶν ἐνδεχομένων καὶ εἶναι καὶ μὴ εἶναι] […] may come into being.” This formula, although it is nowhere present in the essay, is the hidden center of Heidegger's Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes – such is the claim of this essay. Heidegger returns to the ancient definition of τέχνη to place art within the parameters of history, i.e., starting history anew by introducing new beings. But every bringing forth of beings is a retrieval of the past, i.e., of the earth rich with potentiality from which alone the future can unfold. Thus, every decision concerning the future always takes up the past, i.e., the already-there of the earth.

scholarly journals Etiquette is Easy. Advice from His Excellency’s Wife

2019 ◽  
pp. 822-825
Author(s):  
Yuliia Matkovska
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Foreign Missions ◽  
Language Version ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Creative Team

The article considers the Ukrainian-language version of the book about etiquette of Iryna Filippova, the wife of a diplomat, Ambassador Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to France, the Netherlands, and Monaco. It was mentioned that the book was published with the participation of the Directorate-General for Rendering Services to Foreign Missions and the creative team of the Advertising and Publishing Department of the “Mediacenter” Directorate. It is noted that this is the third book by the author. Her previous editions of “Paris in Gift Wrappings” and “High-Heeled” were successful with readers. The definition of the term “etiquette” is given. Namely, it is indicated that these are rules and regulations that reflect the idea of decent behaviour of people in society. The ideological content of this publication can be understood from the title. It is noted that due to the unusual presentation and the “Lego” style inherent in the author of the book, the wife of a Ukrainian diplomat attracts the reader to actively listen to a pleasant story about unusual, or even comic, cases from the diplomatic social life, creating an atmosphere of private conversation over a Cup of coffee. The book covers outfits for official visits, and delicate tips for meetings and receptions, and recommendations for the consumption of extraordinary dishes, as well as interesting suggestions for choosing clothes and creating appropriate images. In addition, the writer in her publication made an excursion into the past to tell readers the historical facts of the establishment of certain etiquette norms, and also shared current ideas of the balance between ‘convenient’ and ‘representative’. It is noted that this is not a manual of etiquette or protocol instruction for beginners, but a harmonious combination of stories and memories of the author of the book. The leading idea is a sincere and tolerant attitude to those who are near. It is noted that the tips that can be found in the book will be useful in everyday life. Therefore, this publication is an indispensable adviser not only for representatives of diplomatic circles. Keywords: Iryna Filippova, etiquette, diplomat’s wife, writer, advice.

scholarly journals A Convegerence between Anthropology and Literature: How Reading, Writing, and Ethnography Intertwine

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Munirah AL-Gharib
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Social Life ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Reader Response Theory ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Traditional Approaches

This text examines the convergent and double-sided relationship between anthropology as an ethnological study, which of necessity uses literary language - and writing itself as a subject for ethnography. Cultural Reader-response theory shows that every text involves some participation on the reader’s part and is not a solitary unchanging object. This response will itself be a function of social and cultural relations. At the same time, cultural and social life, studied by anthropologists, only becomes explicable through language and the results of ethnographic fieldwork are always, therefore, mediated by linguistic forms. The development of literary anthropology gained momentum in the 1980s but had already germinated in the pioneering work of Levi-Strauss whose work on kinship structures in the 1940s and his study of myth turned the attention of anthropologists towards the important and neglected dimension of language. Since then it has been recognised that an anthropologist’s work is diminished if theoretical and linguistic aspects are unaddressed. and the realm of socio-anthropology has been enriched. Disciplinary and genre distinctions have become very fluid in the past few decades and many university departmental studies now blend literary criticism with culture studies, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, folk discourses, and hermeneutics. While a standard definition of one of any two terms may be possible, it may not always be practical. Therefore, the definition of these two terms—anthropology and literature—needs to be updated from time to time to reflect ongoing developments and the advancements taking place in various fields. In particular, it is evident that coinciding with the linguistic turn’ in English literature studies, the discourse of anthropology has become permeable. A broad ‘literary anthropology’ can become possible as a science only if it maintains a dialogue between ideas, actions, and texts. The results and conclusions of this study substantiate the inseparable and interdependent relationship between two traditional approaches to investigating man as a social being.

scholarly journals Order, Disobedience and Power in Kieslowski’s Dekalog

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
Janet Barış
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Common Element ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ten Commandments ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

The Dekalog series, comprised of ten films made by Kieslowski in 1989-90 for the Polish TV, inspired by the Ten Commandments (Decalogues) in the Torah, treats the goodness and innocence of human beings, as well as the evilness and anxiety. Generally, as a common element in all films of the series, appears the triangle of order-submission-disobedience and the power field becomes a tide moving back and forth between different characters. According to Foucault, power is perceived differently today, compared to the past. In the earlier times, power was perceived to be the rulership of a king over its subjects, while today, different types of power exist. Foucault argues that the punishment directed towards the body before is now directed to the soul. The discourse in the Ten Commandments that directs people what to do and what not overlaps the Foucauldian definition of power and the punishment of the soul. This phenomenon appears in every film of the series differently, through the characters and the plot. This article’s objective is to examine Kieslowski’s Dekalog series through the relationship between order, submission and power, and to discuss the effects of this relationship over the characters.

scholarly journals La melancolía aristotélica en "Nadie me verá llorar" de Cristina Garza

2014 ◽  
pp. 487
Author(s):  
Ainhoa Segura Zariquiegui
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of

Los seres humanos siempre nos hemos sentido fascinados por la difusa línea que divide la locura y el sentido común. Es la lucha entre racionalidad e irracionalidad. Es por ello que mi proyecto se basa en este tema. Se trata de investigar sobre la locura, anteriormente denominada melancolía. La reflexión tiene como marco la novela de la autora mexicana Cristina Garza titulada Nadie me verá llorar. Esta obra está ambientada en el México positivista de Porfirio Díaz. Los personajes que recorren la novela se posicionan entre la racionalidad y la irracionalidad. Para analizar más pormenorizadamente las características de los protagonistas, se ha utilizado la obra aristotélica que trata de la melancolía. Gracias a esta obra, se puede observar cómo las características ancestrales de los melancólicos se sitúan, en este caso, en el México finisecular. Human beings have been always fascinated by the line that divides the madness and the common sense. This is the fight between rationality and irrationality. That is why my project involves this topic basing my researched in the definition of melancholic named in the past as madness. From the beginning of the humanity people look at their selves trying to understand how their mind works looking for the distinction of reality and unreality. Lunacy has been a malefic character but also due to the enigmatic characteristics, has trace of greatness. This paper continues this research upon the differences, the uncommon. I based my paper in a historical development of the analysis of the melancholic from the ancient times with Aristotle and Plato until two of the most relevant writers of the Latin-American literature, Cristina Garza specially in her novel Nadie me verá llorar (No one will see me cry). My researched rests in the Aristotle´s treaty titled The man of genius and the melancholic because is, with Plato, the philosopher that gave form to that feeling of amazed facing it to the magnanimity and the despicable of the mental illness. The genius man has always been located between these limits, such as the painter Bacon or Beethoven. These thin line make them fall or slip in one or the other face of the melancholic. How can you get hooked by this theme? How could you not follow the way of those who came before us trying to find the answer?

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