Existentialism in the Works of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf

2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Geula Elimelekh
Keyword(s):  
Human Existence ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Prison Literature ◽  
Philosophy And Literature ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy ◽  
Modern Era

This article examines existential themes in three of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf’s novels: The Trees and the Murder of Marzūq, East of the Mediterranean and Here and Now or East of the Mediterranean Revisited. The innovation of existentialist literature lies in the strength with which it describes alienation in the modern era, the meaninglessness of life and the pursuit of truth and absolute values. Munīf’s characters reflect the central themes of existentialist philosophy and literature. Like the protagonists of Sartre and Camus, they are aware of the absurdity of human existence and attempt to rebel against it, though often rebellion leads them to death and obscurity. Munīf’s works, some of which belong to the unique Arabic prison literature sub-genre, highlight individuality and authenticity in his characters and portray other issues that preoccupy Western existentialist writers: anxiety and distress, fear of death, loneliness, alienation and moral decline. In Munīf’s literary world the existentialist fate is inevitable. However, most of his leading characters do not give up and do not succumb to fate, but fight against it in body and spirit. Across the spectrum of his writings, Munīf’s indomitable, yet highly human figures live and die lives committed to the existential ideals of freedom and authenticity, because they are aware that if they give up the struggle, all hope for a better future is lost.

scholarly journals THE PROBLEM OF FINITENESS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE IN UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-104
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Yatchenko, Oksana Oliinyk Volodymyr Yatchenko, Oksana Oliinyk ◽  
Volodymyr Yatchenko, Oksana Oliinyk Volodymyr Yatchenko, Oksana Oliinyk
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Philosophy And Literature ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Painful Feeling

The article analyzes the existential problems of life, death and immortality in Ukrainian folklore (based on Ukrainian fairy tales). In the corpus of Ukrainian folk tales there are widely used topics, which in European philosophy and literature are called "tragic foundations of human existence" - awareness of the inevitability of death in the earthly existence of man, the search for forms of individual immortality. In Ukrainian fairy tales there is a dual attitude of the individual to the inevitability of his own death. On the one hand, there is the motive of reconciliation with the fate of human destiny, and in order to relieve the painful feeling of one's own finitude, the instruction on the higher meaning of the existence of death is forced. Death is justified because it appears as the prevention of the absurdity of infinite human existence or as an obstacle to the debauchery of the whims and dangerous wishes of the individual, or ultimately as the punishment of people for violating the commandments of the Supreme Spiritual Creature. In other words, death appears in a number of fairy tales as the expression of the highest world justice. At the same time, death mostly appears in fairy tales as an objectified pagan idea of Death as a concrete living creature with its whims, sympathies and weaknesses. The problem of finding ways to achieve immortality is traced in Ukrainian fairy tales in two ways. Most often, this search unfolds in the plane of the victory of the hero of the fairy tale over death, or through the imprisonment of death, or through the marriage of the hero to a divine being. This is a very common motive in the tales around the world. Less common is the motive of achieving immortality through the moral self-improvement of the hero, his compliance to the moral commandments of God. This is already a reflection in fairy tales of the influence of Christianity on the spiritual world of the ancestors of modern Ukrainians.

scholarly journals The Decorative Orientations in the Mediterranean Architecture and its Influence on the Development of Cultural Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Sara Hukmat ◽  
Havva Arslangazi Uzunahmet
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Architecture

This paper attempts to describe the different orientations in architectural decoration that arose as a result of human existence and its relation to his environment. Throughout history, decoration has been a bridge connecting the building to the environment, connecting people with history and culture. And it has been an instrument of the local identity of the building and the whole environment within the framework of the idea of sustainability, which consists of three foundations (economic, environmental and cultural). Within this texture in this study, decorative details and patterns are evaluated, in order to understand the effects of factors on cultures. From one culture to another, it is discussed in connection with the comparison of the Moorish and Greek decoration. As a result, this study has determined decorative orientations in the Mediterranean architecture and its influence on sustainable development. Keywords: Decoration, Cultural Sustainability, Style, Identity, Greek, Moorish

scholarly journals Six Thinkers in Search of the Author

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-67
Author(s):  
Ekaterina B. Kriukova ◽  
Oxana A. Koval
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophy And Literature ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
Literature And Philosophy ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Modern Era

The article presents a survey of the 20th century intellectual quests related to the problem of the author and her status. The question of authorship becomes a key issue in the modern era for both philosophy and literature. On the one hand, both fields reflect upon the authorship as their own intrinsic principle, on the other hand, both literature and philosophy question the privileged position of the author as the sole meaning-maker. The undertaken comparison of the original interpretations of the prominent 20th century thinkers allows us: (1) to demonstrate how the ideological content of the concept itself has changed, the author being labeled as a co-participant, producer, collective subject, function within discourse, non-reader, and witness; (2) to introduce different strategies of understanding the author’s figure, depending on the chosen point of view; (3) to trace the logic of the transition from the modern to the postmodern through the explication of relations between the author and the character (M. Bakhtin), the author and his work (W. Benjamin), the author and popular culture (T. Adorno), the author and the discourse (M. Foucault), the author and the letter (M. Blanchot), and the author and the Other (G. Agamben).

scholarly journals WOMEN´S PERCEPTIONS OF MENOPAUSE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE MEANING OF LIFE AND THE CULTURE O FEAR

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-21
Author(s):  
FLOR IVETT REYES GUILLÉN
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Culture Of Fear ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, an analysis of the results found in a research whose objective was to know the perceptions of women about menopause and its relationship with the culture of fear is presented. Information was obtained through structured interviews. The analysis focused on the recognition of its importance and the presence of fear before this stage of life. Likewise, the results were analyzed in relation to the importance of the meaning of life as the goal of human existence, without forgetting the relationship of this theme with fear. Fear was an agent of control of our aspirations and the identification of our scope. Important results were obtained in relation to both the fear of old age and the fear of death. A group of women under the age of forty and a group of women over the age of 40 years were interviewed. The young women who participated in the study expressed fear of death, and they are saddened to leave unfinished projects; while the fear reflected by older women generates that same sadness but directed only to the purely familiar aspects.

scholarly journals The problem of human transformation and the criteria of "good" and "evil" in meta-anthropology and transhumanism

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-72
Author(s):  
Natalia Terletska
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Human Transformation ◽  
Good And Evil

From the position of meta-anthropology, at the article are analyzed the values of being: the value of the archetypes of good, freedom, love, unity of freedom and love, as well as the value of such an existential as the meaning of human existence.The value of the sense of being is analized in a research from such points of view as: life not only for the sake of self-preservation and minimization of suffering, but also for the development, holistic harmonious realization by a humanity of such qualities that make a person capable not only for the consumering of the benefits of civilization, but also becoming a creator of culture, seeking for the harmony of spiritual, soul and physical needs, the ability to express empathy and to overcome the existential problems of despair and fear of death, remaining a human creator, maintaining traditional human values and existentials, such as love and freedom.The value of the archetypes of good, freedom, love and the criteria of good and evil are analyzed in the field of such existentially important concepts as free will and the human right for the traditional and sacred values.The study focuses on the important theme of the loss of criteria of good and evil, which, as a rule, is proposed by transhumanism, having a basis for this in the philosophy of the postmodern era, as well as the search for ways out of the existential, spiritual, soul and moral-ethical crisis in order to preserve the human values.The theoretical basis of the study was the work of philosophers of different periods, studies of psychologists and psychoanalysts, including contemporary, recent work of domestic researchers in meta-anthropology, as well as recent work of foreign representatives of transhumanism.There is made a conclusion that the preserving the existantials of the culture in human existence is impossible without maintaining the traditional criteria of good and evil in the context of sacred transcendental values.

scholarly journals The Concept of Spiritual Humanism in Mulia Sadra’s Philosophi: an Analysis Study of the Existence of Modern Humans

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 697-704
Author(s):  
Hidayatul Qoriah ◽  
Nurul Khair
Keyword(s):  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Freedom Of Will ◽  
Mulla Sadra ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
Western View ◽  
Modern Era

This paper is a review of Mulla Sadra's thought library about the concept of spiritual humanism and its significance to human existence in the modern era. This paper aims to find out the meaning, principles, and nature of humanism in Mulla Sadra's views through his main work entitled al-Asfar al-Arba'ah and some research on Mulla Sadra's philosophical thinking. By using philosophical descriptive analysis, it can be concluded that the concept of Mulla Sadra's humanism is studied and explored through the discourse of the soul. The implication, humans know and realize the existence of immaterial aspects in their existence is perfect. In addition to knowing that there is a material aspect to human existence, the humanism concept in Mulla Sadra's view is to criticize the views of western philosophers, such as Jean Paul Sartre and Fredrich Nietzsche who view human existence based on material awareness. As a result, human existence is seen through the material side. The implication, human awareness is limited. In the modern era, the majority of people understand their existence as offered by western philosophers, so that the majority of people do not have awareness in realizing and knowing their existence, as they should. In addition, the views of western philosophers on material awareness in human existence cause freedom of will. Freedom of will in the western view causes dehumanism, because it prioritizes emotional aspects and passions in increasing human existence. The results of this paper to provide solutions in raising awareness of human existence, especially regarding the meaning, principles and nature of humanists in the modern era. The more aware humans are of humanist meaning and nature, the higher human existence will be. The implication, humans can reach the level of perfection in themselves without any restrictions. From these various explanations, the author hypothesizes that the concept of spiritual humanist Mulla Sadra can increase human existence and provide solutions to the crisis of human existence in the modern era.

Existentialising existence theory and expanding the sociology of existential milestones

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-48
Author(s):  
David Inglis
Keyword(s):  
Culture Industry ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Existence Theory ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Generational Theory ◽  
General Account ◽  
Significant Life ◽  
Empirical Sociology ◽  
Existentialist Philosophy

This paper responds to the ‘existence theory’ proposed by Baert, Morgan and Ushiyama. It considers their proposals in light of two main thematics: the general account of human existence, and the more empirical sociology of existential milestones. Both elements are appraised in light of existentialist philosophy and earlier attempts at ‘existentialist sociology’. It is suggested that the authors engage with generational theory, and also give an account of the commodification of significant life-stages by the milestones culture industry.

Trade in the Mediterranean in the Early Modern Era: A Brief Review of the French Literature

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Labat Saint Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
French Literature ◽  
French Language ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter is a guide to the wide selection of French-language publications for those who wish to research four major topics of French maritime history: Marseilles and trade in the Mediterranean; corsairing and its effect on trade; trade relations with provinces of the Ottoman Empire; and the nature of the goods traded within France and the Mediterranean.

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