Spinoza on Action and Immanent Causation

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55
Author(s):  
Stephen Zylstra
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Apparent Conflict

AbstractI address an apparent conflict between Spinoza’s concepts of immanent causation and acting/doing [agere]. Spinoza apparently holds that an immanent cause undergoes [patitur] whatever it does. Yet according to his stated definition of acting and undergoing in the Ethics, this is impossible; to act is to be an adequate cause, while to undergo is to be merely a partial cause. Spinoza also seems committed to God’s being the adequate cause of all things, and, in a well-known passage, appears to deny categorically that God is capable of undergoing. How then can God also be the immanent cause of all things, as Spinoza claims? On the basis of a close reading of the passage in question, I argue that Spinoza actually distinguishes between two senses of undergoing. An immanent cause undergoes not by being a partial cause but rather by being the metaphysical subject of its effect. While this sense of undergoing has its roots in scholasticism, Spinoza’s willingness to attribute such a capacity to undergo to God is idiosyncratic and reveals important ways in which his understanding of essence, perfection, and causation differs from the scholastic model.

Dostoevsky and the Word “Jew”: A Quantitative Analysis of F.M. Dostoevsky’s Greatest Novels

Libri ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yigal Nirenberg ◽  
Gila Prebor
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Distant Reading ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Great Writer ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The relationship of F.M Dostoevsky with Jews attracted the attention of numerous scholars throughout the years, many of whom attempted to grapple with the views of the great writer and their origin. In this article we will attempt to show this relationship by analyzing six of Dostoevsky’s greatest novels, written through the entirety of his career. We are analyzing these novels using Distant Reading in conjunction with Close Reading, tools that are commonly used in the field of digital humanities, which enabled us to show visually the extent of F.M. Dostoevsky’s engagement with this topic. The study poses two research questions: 1. To what extent did the writer use the more denigrating term “Zhid”? 2. Can we see a correlation between the writer’s portrayal of Jews with the definition of Anti-Semitism as it was known during his era? The obtained results show that there is clearly a correlation between the definition of anti-Semitism as it was understood at the time of Dostoevsky and the “Jew” as depicted in his novels, as the financial motif is paramount in the depiction of Jews as this is the central topic in 49% of the negative sentences in which the word “Jew” appears, with 59% of these sentences classified as stereotypes. The negative financial stereotype constitutes 32% of the entire corpus. In addition, we found the term “Zhid” is commonly used by the writer, a variation of which constitutes 75% of the total terms used to depict Jews.

scholarly journals Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s “The Task of the Translator” in Light of His Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism1

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
James St. André
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Definition Of

Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator,” the most widely cited twentieth century philosophical statement on translation, is commonly seen as one of the most opaque and misunderstood essays in the field. This paper uses a close reading of Benjamin’s doctoral thesis, “The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism,” to throw light on his thoughts on translation. I argue that the German Romantics’ definition of art, and art’s relation to criticism, are crucial to understanding why Benjamin conceived of translation as an “afterlife” of the work of art, why he believed that translatability is an innate quality of the work of art, and why he speaks of translation as moving the work of art onto a higher plane. I read Benjamin’s own essay on translation as a sort of “criticism” which seeks to “translate” the philosophical ideals of the Romantics, and thus give them an afterlife, and then reflect upon the implications for translation studies today.

scholarly journals La donna è mobile : Mujeres errantes en la ficción turística de Chile y Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Lie
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Travel Writing ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
American Women ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Creative Production

This article offers an exploration of the creative production of women writers and filmmakers who engage with tourism as a setting for fictional imaginaries. Centering on recent fiction from Chile and Argentina, it examines how tourism has infused new energy into the withering genre of travel writing, opening up a space for the expression of female subjectivities in a field previously dominated by men. Through close reading of works by Uhart, Katz, Scherson and Jeftanovic, it explores how these Latin American women challenge Michel Onfray’s definition of travel literature.

Citizenship and the Remains of Partition(s) in South Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-65
Author(s):  
Priya Kumar
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Illegal Migrant ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Sans Papiers

This essay considers the fraught issue of clandestine migrations from East Pakistan/Bangladesh into India through a close reading of Prafulla Roy's Bengali short story “Stateless.” By drawing attention to the Indian state's slippery construction of the “illegal migrant” and to the increasingly constricting definition of Indian citizenship, I argue that the “illegal Bangladeshi” is a deeply unstable category, open to misuse and translation by different state actors/agencies. “Stateless” enables us to imagine the precarious existence of the sans papiers as de facto stateless persons and illustrates the importance of citizenship as legal status for those who don't have it.

Palestinian Midrash

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lital Levy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Hebrew Poetry ◽  
Palestinian Arab ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Relationship Of

This chapter turns to the Hebrew poetics of Palestinian Arab writers. It presents a close reading of poetry by Anton Shammas and his contemporaries Salman Masalha and Na'im 'Araidi. It argues that their poetry offers us a different window onto the question of Hebrew writing in a Palestinian hand. It reads their Hebrew verse as a poetics formed between languages, cultures, and national traditions, replacing the hermeneutics of antithesis (Palestinian or Israeli? Israeli or Jewish?) with one of “in-betweenness.” Furthermore, the chapter moves away from debating the identitarian definition of Hebrew to explore the nuanced relationship of Palestinian writers with Hebrew's cultural heritage and with the traditional Jewish modes of reading and interpretation embedded therein. Through an analysis of allusion and metalinguistic discourse in Palestinian Hebrew poetry, it illustrates the intertextual practice called “Palestinian midrash.”

scholarly journals Toward a Theology of the Imagination with S.T. Coleridge, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 238
Author(s):  
David Russell Mosley
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Sacramental Imagination ◽  
Definition Of

While many authors continue to use terms like Christian Imagination or Sacramental Imagination, few seek to define what the term imagination means. In this paper, the author presents his findings based on a close reading of S.T. Coleridge, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Rather than relying either on the definition of imagination as the ability to hold images in one’s head, or the definition by which is meant creativity, this paper puts forward a synthesis of the positions of the three authors listed above. In the end, this paper concludes that the imagination is inherently connected to the divine act of Creation, which aids in clearing away the lenses of sin and familiarity.

scholarly journals Zelig jako docufiction

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (30) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Hendrykowski
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Precise Definition ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Moving Images ◽  
Documentary Fiction ◽  
Moving Pictures ◽  
Definition Of

This close-reading analysis and interpretation examines the original form of Woody Allen’s masterpiece Zelig (1983). The author combines a film studies approach with an investigation of epistemological and semiotic reflections on moving images. The author emphasises that more than three decades ago Allen gave to a wide audience a critical, sceptical and ironic vision of the “documentary” (esp. regarding the “truth”) status of moving pictures. This study also introduces also important terminological distinction between “mockumentary” (“fake-documentary”) and a contrasting category, that is, “documentary fiction” (also called “docufiction”), giving an instructive and precise definition of both.

scholarly journals The Heroine Concept in a Filipino Graphic Narrative

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Estrella T. Arroyo
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Real Character ◽  
World War ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
The Real ◽  
Graphic Narrative ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Pop Literature

This study explored the concept of “HEROINE” in the context of “Darna,” a Filipino graphic narrative written by Mars Ravelo that was first published on May 13, 1950 by Filipino Komiks. Extracted from the 27 episodes of “Darna” are realities of experience as well as innuendos related to the real character of Darna, the super heroine. Further, the study delved into a deeper meaning of heroine beyond its lexical meaning. As a result, the researcher formulated her own definition of “HEROINE” as “Humaneness and Equanimity in Reimagining Optimistic, Iconic, Novel, and Empowered” persona, which led to the findings that, indeed, Darna has reached her apotheosis as a superheroine. These insights were not fathomed had it not been for the researcher’s focus on close reading, application of Expressive Realism, and “Argustic” reading. Keen eyes are needed to enjoy reading a graphic narrative which is both visual and verbal. The study proved that in Philippine society, Darna is the most accepted, loved and idolized Filipino icon as savior of a devastated and crippled society after World War II. Lastly, it is aimed that this humble analysis will put itself into the realm of a body of Pop Literature and the Humanities. 

scholarly journals Reconceptualization of National Spaces: A Close Reading of Bharati Mukherjee’s selected novels with Gloria Anzaldúa´s Nueva Conciencia Mestiza

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shilpi Gupta ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Gloria Anzaldua ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Bharati Mukherjee ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
American Immigrant ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Definition Of

In 1997, Bharati Mukherjee, a renowned diaspora woman writer, stated in an interview, “I am an American, not an Asian American.” Since then, she has been virulently attacked for defining herself as an American by the writers of her original homeland and her diaspora compatriots. However, with this statement, Mukherjee challenged the diaspora writing and took a solid move to redefine the diaspora through her life and novels. Her novels also considered her autobiographical notes, demonstrate a new diaspora identity that is fluid and transforming. Her latest diaspora writing has challenged the quintessential diaspora identity, gender structure, definition of home, and host land. The paper will do a close reading of her four novels, The Tiger’s Daughters (1971), wife (1975), Jasmine (1989), and Desirable Daughters (2002), to see the transition from being a Bengali Indian expatriate in Canada, Asian American to American Immigrant. In the paper, her four novels are divided into two phases- expatriate and immigrant, which show different writing styles, different psychology behind the narration, and transition in her definition of the nation. This discussion will employ the theory of Nueva Conciencia Mestiza given by Gloria Anzaldúa to comprehend the reconceptualization of national spaces from the perspective of diaspora women.

Marxism and Biology

Bioaesthetics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strathausen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Marxist Philosophy ◽  
Louis Althusser ◽  
Darwinian Theory ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
Proper Definition ◽  
Definition Of

The second chapter on “Marxism and Biology” begins with a succinct account of the volatile relation between Marxist philosophy and Darwinian theory from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. This history informs my close reading of the hitherto ignored, yet seminal dispute in 1968 between the Marxist Louis Althusser and the biologist Jacques Monod on the proper definition of science and its relevance for modern politics and human cultural evolution.

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