Deconstructing Dante: How things fall apart in the Paradiso

2021 ◽  
pp. 001458582110215
Author(s):  
Glenn A Steinberg
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Us Guidance ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Recent Commentary ◽  
Literal Truth ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Things Fall Apart ◽  
The Difference

Much recent commentary on Dante’s Commedia focuses on Dante’s truth claims in the poem. Indeed, Teodolinda Barolini has proposed that “the fundamental question for all readers of Dante’s poem” is “How are we to respond to the poet’s insistence that he is telling us the truth?” I propose that the poem itself gives us guidance as to the seriousness of its claims to literal truth. It does so by actively deconstructing its own meaning at critical junctures. I look at several such moments of deconstruction, but I argue that the first few cantos of the Paradiso in particular provide a reflection on the difference between reality and fiction. Early in the Paradiso, Dante draws attention to the metaphoric nature of his poem and reminds his reader, through his character’s own actions, that metaphor is not reality. In this way, Dante implies that we should not take the narrative particulars of his poem too literally but should treat metaphor as metaphor rather than as mimesis.

Consistency with Clinical Experience versus Sound Theory: A Response to Rosik

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-228
Author(s):  
Christine M. Comstock
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Experience ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Sound Theory ◽  
Literal Truth ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Negative Feelings

Psychoanalytic tradition of relating to an observing ego makes it unnecessary to conceptualize the Internal Self Helper as paranormal. It is not clear how Rosik conceptualizes the ISH with respect to theological considerations and expectations. Underlying assumptions he makes about the patient in his case study fit better with clinical experience and client self-report than with sound theory. How he views his patient is important, that is, whether she is seen as (a) separate selves, entities, “people,” or alters in one body, or as (b) one whole person but with a fragmented sense of herself. The difference in viewpoints raises significant questions. There is danger in accepting a patient's self-report as literal truth, since (s)he may confuse functional with structural truth, thereby further confusing the clinical picture. Patients with abusive backgrounds are apt to internalize some of the abusive attitudes and negative feelings they experienced in their homes while growing up. Are the perceptions of an ISH held by Rosik's patient her own or those she believes her therapist holds or wants to hold? The ISH is an interesting but as yet not well defined or understood phenomenon which calls for ongoing integrative discussion in the professional community.

scholarly journals Accuracy of Ultrasound-Guided Pudendal Nerve Block in the Ischial Spine and Alcock’s Canal Levels: A Cadaveric Study

Pain Medicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2692-2698
Author(s):  
Béatrice Soucy ◽  
Dien Hung Luong ◽  
Johan Michaud ◽  
Mathieu Boudier-Revéret ◽  
Stéphane Sobczak
Keyword(s):  
Pudendal Nerve ◽  
Ischial Spine ◽  
Ultrasound Guided ◽  
Us Guidance ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Alcock’S Canal ◽  
The Difference ◽  
One Year ◽  
Musculoskeletal Us ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Background Blockade of the pudendal nerve (PN) using ultrasound (US) guidance has been described at the levels of the ischial spine and Alcock’s canal. However, no study has been conducted to compare anatomical accuracy between different approaches in targeting the PN. Objective To investigate the accuracy of US-guided injection of the PN at the ischial spine and Alcock’s canal levels. This study also compared the accuracy of the infiltrations by three sonographers with different levels of experience. Subjects Eight Thiel-embalmed cadavers (16 hemipelvises). Methods Three physiatrists trained in musculoskeletal US imaging with 12 years, five years, and one year of experience performed the injections. Each injected a 0.1-mL bolus of colored dye in both hemipelvises of each cadaver at the ischial spine and Alcock’s canal levels under US guidance. Each cadaver received three injections per hemipelvis. The accuracy of the injection was determined following hemipelvis dissection by an anatomist. Results The injections were accurate 33 times out of the total 42 attempts, resulting in 78% accuracy. Sixteen out of 21 injections at the ischial spine level were on target (76% accuracy), while the approach at Alcock’s canal level yielded 17 successful injections (81% accuracy). The difference between the approaches was not statistically significant. There was also no significant difference in accuracy between the operators. Conclusions US-guided injection of the PN can be performed accurately at both the ischial spine and Alcock’s canal levels. The difference between the approaches was not statistically significant.

scholarly journals Verdad y metáfora: una aproximación pragmática

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (95) ◽  
pp. 71-102
Author(s):  
Eduardo Fermandois
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Literal Truth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Creative Role ◽  
General Truth

What does the (possible) truth of a metaphor consist in? The first part of this paper is a critical analysis of the following model: A metaphorical statement is true if and only if it somehow leads to the recognition of literal truths. This model of metaphorical truth as indirect literal truth is not utterly inadequate, but it fails to account for certain central features of the metaphorical: the openness of the interpretation of living metaphors, the phenomenon of the so called metaphorical chains (or nets), the non-propositional aspects of many metaphors, and the active, creative role of the interpreter.In the second part I develop an alternative model, based on: a) a pragmatist methodology with respect to the truth-issue in general (truth without representation), b) Goodman's concept of rightness, c) the difference between saying and showing, and d) the idea, that a good metaphor creates a new context which not only allows us to say something new concerning the topic in question, but which allows us to treat the topic in a new manner.

The Need to Seek for God

2020 ◽  
pp. 267-296
Author(s):  
Michael Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Absence Of Evidence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Hiddenness Of God ◽  
Supreme Being

Given the foregoing reasons for taking the Christian option seriously, Pascal argues that the non-believer should, as a matter of sheer self-interest, seek for God; that is, in the first instance, investigate the truth-claims of Christianity. Atheists’ dismissal of these claims, he argues, rests on a misunderstanding of the claims themselves. Christianity preaches that God is hidden (as a result of the Fall, before which he made himself clearly known to human beings). This notion is discussed in the light of the argument by J. L. Schellenberg that the hiddenness of God, that is, the absence of evidence of God, constitutes grounds for affirming his non-existence. Pascal emphasizes the difference between Christianity and deism, a purely philosophical belief in a supreme being. Although God is hidden, it is in our interest to seek for him, as Pascal explains on the basis of his theory of probability. Different theories as to the placing of this appeal to self-interest (at the very beginning of the Apology, or halfway through) are evaluated.

On the Difference Between a Pupil and a Historian of Ideas

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Edward Green
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Cambridge School ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract This essay takes up the fundamental question of the proper place of history in the study of political thought through critical engagement with Mark Bevir’s seminal work, The Logic of the History of Ideas. While I accept the claim of Bevir, as well as of other exponents of the so-called “Cambridge School,” that there is a conceptual difference between historical and non-historical modes of reading past works of political philosophy, I resist the suggestion that this conceptual differentiation itself justifies the specialization, among practicing intellectuals, between historians of ideas and others who read political-philosophical texts non-historically. Over and against the figure of the historian of ideas, who interprets political thought only in the manner of a historian, I defend the ideal of the pupil, who in studying past traditions of political thought also seeks to extend and modify them in light of contemporary problems and concerns. Against Bevir, I argue that the mixture of historical and non-historical modes of learning, in the manner of the pupil, need not do damage to the historian of ideas’ commitment to scholarship that is non-anachronistic, objective, and non-indeterminate.

Women and Buddhist Philosophy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Y. Park
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Secular World ◽  
Buddhist Teaching ◽  
The Difference

How and why do women engage with Buddhist philosophy? This is the fundamental question that Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp proposes to answer through discussions of Kim Iryŏp’s (1896–1971) life and philosophy. With her Christian background and feminist activist perspective, Kim Iryŏp offers a creative interpretation of Buddhist philosophy as a system of thought that engages with lived experience. Continuing to focus on gender discrimination, suffering, and discontent in the secular world, Iryŏp explores the Buddhist teaching of absolute equality, in which individuals are conceived as free beings with infinite capability. She employs Buddhism to answer her existential questions, including the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the ultimate value of existence. Moving beyond current Buddhist scholarship on gender, Women and Buddhist Philosophy asks whether women’s way of engaging with Buddhist philosophy, in particular, and philosophy, in general, differs essentially from the familiar patriarchal mode of philosophizing. The author claims that in Iryŏp’s engagement with Buddhist philosophy, the difference is visible and can be identified with narrative philosophy and lived experience, as opposed to abstraction and theorization. This distinction, the author suggests, is also applicable to the difference between Asian and Western philosophies.

scholarly journals What is in a name? Does the difference between onto-theology and theo-ontology direct the way from eco-theology to theo-ecology? Specific Russian theological perspectives

2022 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Buitendag
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Theological Aesthetics ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Rules Of The Game

I approach this venture of figuring out the correct terminology to understand reality through the prism of two distinctive Russian Orthodox theologians, Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944). The lens I apply mainly to their works is their respective understanding of cosmology, that is, ontology and epistemology. Therefore, I concur with Grenz to abandon the term ‘onto-theology’ and qualify the inverse as a Trinitarian theo-ontology. This honours the intimate connection between knowing and being, and prevents the bifurcation between fidelity and rationality. Mutatis mutandis, the same applies to ‘eco-theology’. This inversion reminds one of Hans-Urs von Balthasar, who bartered the concept of an aesthetic theology for theological aesthetics. Turning this question around would advance our dialogue with the sciences as the common denominator of the discourse is rather nature (creation) discerned from an acknowledged a priori (as all cognition do). In other words, the term theo-ecology is proposed.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The purpose study is not ecological but rather an asyndetic use of the terminology about the science and religion dialogue, with reference to the nomenclature of ecology and theology. All observation terms and sentences are theory-laden. Religion can be viewed as a linguistic framework that shapes the entirety of life and thought. Truth claims should focus on the grammar (or rules of the game) and not the lexicon when expressive symbolism is employed. 

Implications of the WTP–WTA Disparity for Benefit–Cost Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Hammitt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Willingness To Accept Compensation

Differences between estimated willingness to accept compensation (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) that are larger than can be explained by standard economic theory raise questions about which measures should be used for benefit–cost analysis (BCA). These differences do not create a new problem but accentuate an existing one: the fact that the Kaldor–Hicks compensation test is ambiguous when its two components conflict. This conflict is more likely when the difference between WTA and WTP measures of a change is large. In many cases, the same individuals receive benefits and incur costs from a policy change and their preferences for the policy cannot depend on whether they ask whether their WTP for the benefit exceeds the cost they will incur or their WTA to forgo the benefit exceeds the cost they will save. In cases where benefits and costs are incurred by different people, it seems more useful to evaluate the fundamental question – whether the benefits to some justify the harms to others – than to obscure this question through a technical debate about valuation measures.

The Paradoxical Nature of Difference

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Rölli
Keyword(s):  
Natural Tendency ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Difference

In this short chapter Deleuze formulates the thesis that no philosophy begins without presuppositions. He questions the presumably natural tendency of thought to seek truth. He makes visible, beneath the natural empirical habits of perception, the transcendental experience of signs and simulacra. In this sense, the difference that subtly influences everything lies between the transcendental and the empirical and relativises truth claims.

scholarly journals A “Stranger” Researching Narratives in Southern Slovakia: Hungarian Minority Research by an Anthropologist Who Is Not “At Home”

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Yuko Kambara
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Minority Research ◽  
At Home

AbstractThis paper considers methodological questions regarding cultural/social anthropological research in multiethnic fields. Specifically, I attempt to reconsider the possibility of anthropological research by a “stranger” based on a research that I—a Japanese anthropologist—conducted in southern Slovakia. Anthropology originally developed as the study of other cultures; in some European countries, however, most anthropological research is conducted by anthropologists who are “at home”. For Slovak and Hungarian researchers, the Hungarian minority has been a common research target; therefore, many inhabitants, both ethnic Hungarians and Slovaks, have already experienced social research as subjects. Some interviewees get use to present a narrative expressing how they think about a certain topic. This research condition points to a fundamental question in the interviews of anthropological research. In this paper, therefore, my research experience is described to analyze reflexively my research position in the field.In fact, it is difficult to theoretically define the boundary between “at home” and “stranger”; the difference depends on the context of each study. Anthropologists need to interpret their narratives by considering the results of participant observation and reflexivity in the research. “Stranger” anthropologists might have the advantage of noticing informants’ reflexivity in their narratives. This discussion can, in turn, become part of an ongoing process by which inhabitants’ interactions with researchers create new master narratives in the field.

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