Movement in Repose

Qui Parle ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-49
Author(s):  
Aaron Frederick Eldridge
Keyword(s):  
Modern Concept ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Philosophical Ethic ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Point Of Departure

Abstract How does tradition, a transmission of body and language, disclose a form of life? This article takes as its point of departure Talal Asad’s methodological pivot away from the modern concept of “belief” to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of “form of life.” It elaborates the philosophical and anthropological implications of a rigorous notion of form of life through Asad’s concept of tradition and Martin Heidegger’s rereading of Aristotle’s physis. Interrupting this theoretical argument, a scene from the author’s ethnographic fieldwork with Orthodox Christian ascetics in Lebanon exemplifies the challenge (and insistence) of form of life. The article then turns to consider a powerful reading of form of life grounded in Baruch Spinoza’s theory of emanation and vitalist univocity. While echoing the concerns of this article, Spinoza’s philosophical ethic defers the central question posed by “form of life” by making the latter a world-producing apparatus. That approach to form of life foregrounds the possibility of being other than what one is, rather than the crucial question of “still experience” and its dynamic repose. The article concludes by reading this still experience alongside C. Nadia Seremetakis’s work in Greece, which details the work of stillness and memory, the deathly pain of history, as sites where the cultivation of noncontemporaneous forms of life are brought into relief.

Demos distracted

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-162
Author(s):  
Sergei Prozorov
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Being And Time ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
The Human Condition

In Chapter 5 Prozorov argues that the ontological contingency that defines democracy is accessible in our lived experience in states of distraction, characterized by the alternation between captivation and boredom. This alternation makes it possible for us to dwell within plural forms of life in a non-definitive manner, retaining our potentiality for being otherwise. He develops this argument by critically re-engaging with Heidegger’s discussion of curiosity and distraction in Being and Time. Prozorov argues that democracy is existentially experienced in the potentiality for perpetual alternation between captivation and boredom in whatever form of life we dwell in, which constitutes our lives as freeform, always manifesting the possibility of being otherwise than they are. In this manner he grounds the possibility of democratic biopolitics in the aspect of the human condition familiar and available to all, thus demonstrating its realizability.

scholarly journals The problem of theodicy and the theology of the cross

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Theology Of The Cross ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
The World ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Way

Theodicy is the attempt to justify God’s righteousness and goodness amidst the experience of evil and suffering in the world. This article discusses Karl Barth’s Christological and Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological approach to the problem of theodicy. The central theoretical argument is that the problem of theodicy poses a major hermeneutical challenge to Christianity that needs to be addressed, since it has implications for the way in which theology defines itself. Questions that arise are: What are the boundaries of theology? What are the grounds on which the question of theodicy must be asked? Is the Christian understanding of God’s omnipotence truly Scriptural? The modern formulation of theodicy finds its origin in the Enlighten- ment that approaches the problem from a theoretical framework based on human experience. This theoretical approach leads, however, to further logical inconsistencies. Theology must rather approach the problem in the same way as Scripture does, by taking the cross, resurrection and parousia of Christ as point of departure. The cross and resurrection are a sign that suffering is not part of God’s plan and at the same time an affirmation of God’s victory over suffering and evil.

Swansong biospheres: refuges for life and novel microbial biospheres on terrestrial planets near the end of their habitable lifetimes

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack T. O'Malley-James ◽  
Jane S. Greaves ◽  
John A. Raven ◽  
Charles S. Cockell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Model ◽  
Cold Trap ◽  
Sequence Evolution ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
End Stage ◽  
Micro Organisms ◽  
Host Stars

AbstractThe future biosphere on Earth (as with its past) will be made up predominantly of unicellular micro-organisms. Unicellular life was probably present for at least 2.5 Gyr before multicellular life appeared and will likely be the only form of life capable of surviving on the planet in the far future, when the ageing Sun causes environmental conditions to become more hostile to more complex forms of life. Therefore, it is statistically more likely that habitable Earth-like exoplanets we discover will be at a stage in their habitable lifetime more conducive to supporting unicellular, rather than multicellular life. The end stage of habitability on Earth is the focus of this work. A simple, latitude-based climate model incorporating eccentricity and obliquity variations is used as a guide to the temperature evolution of the Earth over the next 3 Gyr. This allows inferences to be made about potential refuges for life, particularly in mountains and cold-trap (ice) caves and what forms of life could live in these environments. Results suggest that in high latitude regions, unicellular life could persist for up to 2.8 Gyr from present. This begins to answer the question of how the habitability of Earth will evolve at local scales alongside the Sun's main sequence evolution and, by extension, how the habitability of Earth-like planets would evolve over time with their own host stars.

Wittgenstein’s Remarks Concerning the Accessibility of Foreign Cultures

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jozef Bremer
Keyword(s):  
Language Game ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Intrinsic Feature

AbstractWittgenstein (1889-1951) was highly disapproving of scholars whom he thought unable to properly acknowledge diversity amongst cultures or take due note of the enormous differences separating them from tribes living in radically heterogeneous cultural environments. The best known and paradigmatic example of his attitude to such differences is to be found in his Remarks on Frazer’s ‘Golden Bough’, where he wrote: “[…] how impossible for him [Frazer, J.B.] to understand a different way of life from the English one of his time”. But to cut a long story short, whether Wittgenstein saw this “impossibility” as an intrinsic feature of the task or not is by no means unambiguously clear. To resolve this question, I shall take as my point of departure the socio-anthropological writings of B. Malinowski (1884-1942), who spent several years amongst one of the Pacific island tribes - the Trobriands. In his “field studies”, Malinowski focused on the tribe’s “form of life”: i.e. on their belief in ritual and magic, and on how their customs interlinked with kinship and with their economy. Taking into account Malinowski’s own pragmatic conception of language and his notion of the divergent character of scientific and magical forms of belief, I then outline Wittgenstein’s notions of “language game”, “family resemblance” and “form of life”. The usage of these concepts will show in what sense Wittgenstein would have recognized the similarities within and between different cultures and human societies - but, equally, just how far we can understand a human way of life deeply different from our own.

International Criminal Courts and Normative Legitimacy: An Achievable Goal?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-783
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Achievable Goal ◽  
Point Of Departure

Like any institution, international criminal courts must be seen as legitimate. The ultimate form of legitimacy that they can aspire to is normative legitimacy, meaning that their work is morally valued even when they issue contentious verdicts. Yet how realistic is it, in practice, for international criminal courts to achieve normative legitimacy? This is the central question that underpins this research, which, as its conceptual starting point, uses Mark C. Suchman’s typology of cognitive, pragmatic and normative legitimacy. Arguing that cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy are the building blocks for constructing normative legitimacy, the article concludes by demonstrating how the so-called New Haven School offers an important point of departure for addressing the practical challenges of achieving normative legitimacy.

scholarly journals Elucidating Forms of Life. The Evolution of a Philosophical Tool

2015 ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Boncompagni
Keyword(s):  
General Attitude ◽  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Expression Form

Although the expression “form of life” and its plural “forms of life” occur only five times in Philosophical Investigations, and generally few times in his works, it is commonly agreed that this is one of the most relevant issues in Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. Starting from the analysis of the contexts in which Wittgenstein makes use of this concept, the paper focuses on the different interpretations that have been given in secondary literature, and proposes a classification based on two axes of debate: the monistic versus pluralistic interpretation, and the empirical versus transcendental interpretation. After placing some well-known readings in the resulting scheme, an attempt will be made to offer an evolutionary reading of Wittgenstein’s own ideas about forms of life. It will be argued that the empirical and plural view that seems characteristic of his writings in the Thirties, slowly appears to turn towards a monistic view, sometimes with transcendental tones, although within a pragmatic perspective. This turn remains nevertheless rooted in Wittgenstein’s general attitude towards philosophy intended as a conceptual inquiry with clarifying and therapeutic aims.

scholarly journals Forms of Life

2015 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hacker
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Philosophy Of Mathematics ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Transformation Rules ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Varied History

The phrase ‘Lebensform’ (form of life) had a long and varied history prior to Wittgenstein’s use of it on a mere three occasions in the Philosophical Investigations. It is not a pivotal concept in Wittgenstein’s philosophy. But it is a minor signpost of a major reorientation of philosophy, philosophy of language and logic, and philosophy of mathematics that Wittgenstein instigated. For Wittgenstein sought to replace the conception of a language as a meaning calculus (Frege, Russell, the Tractatus) by an anthropological or ethnological conception. A language is not a class of sentences that can be formed from a set of axioms (definitions), formation and transformation rules and the meanings of which is given by their truth-conditions, but an open-ended series of interlocking language-games constituting a form of life or way of living (a culture). Wittgenstein’s uses of ‘Lebensform’ and its cognates, both in the Investigations and in his Nachlass are severally analysed, and various exegetical misinterpretations are clarified.

scholarly journals Exploring Forms of Life in Player Development Pathways: The Case of British Rugby League

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyn Rothwell ◽  
Joseph Stone ◽  
Keith Davids
Keyword(s):  
Football Player ◽  
Rugby League ◽  
Environmental Constraints ◽  
Development Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Rugby League Player

Social, cultural, and historical constraints can influence attitudes towards learning, developing, and performing in sport. A recent conceptualization of these environmental constraints in athlete development pathways is a form of life, which describes the values, beliefs, traditions, customs, and behaviors that contribute to an athlete’s development. Although a form of life can have a powerful influence on athlete development, research exploring this relationship is limited. In this article we explore the form of life in British rugby league football player development contexts to clarify how social, cultural, and historical constraints influence the development of rugby league players in the United Kingdom. Twenty-four coaches were interviewed through individual semi-structured interviews to collect the data. Findings show how forms of life in rugby league player development pathways are established and maintained by the complex interactions between the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem that shape and guide the development of players. We recommend that player development pathways in sport underpin practice with a theoretical framework of the learning process to protect athletes from social, cultural, and historical constraints that are not conducive to their development.

Policing the war on drugs and the transformation of urban space in Manila

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bræmer Warburg ◽  
Steffen Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Intimate Connection ◽  
Metro Manila ◽  
Empirical Point ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article explores policing and urban ordering in the Philippine war on drugs. With an empirical point of departure in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Bagong Silang, a poor urban area on the outskirts of Metro Manila, the article highlights the perspective of the state police in an area that has been heavily exposed to the drug war and can be considered as one of its hot spots. It is examined how inspirations from counter-insurgency strategies are implemented in policing the war on drugs and discussed how this form of policing is negotiated and what implications it produces on the ground. In doing so, the article asks, ‘how have counter-insurgency policing strategies transformed urban space and the possibility of life in the poorer sections of Manila’? Drawing on a conceptual framework on borders, policing and the production of fear, the article argues that there exists an intimate connection between the employed policing strategies and the transformation of urban space with the potential of fundamentally reconfiguring urban sociality in areas such as Bagong Silang.

The Religion of Absolute Pragmatism: Josiah Royce and Community’s Loyalty

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Martin Stünkel
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Pragmatic Interpretation ◽  
Josiah Royce ◽  
Point Of Departure

SummaryThe article examines Josiah Royce’s contribution to the debate on a modern concept of religion. It emerges in the discussion with William James’ thinking. Taking his point of departure from a pragmatic interpretation of the notion of the absolute, Royce describes the loyalty of communities as a manifestation of unity, promoting and defining individual creativity and variability. Manifesting man’s need for salvation ‘religion’ formally represents directedness towards an absolute aim that is expressed in a creative community of interpreters.

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