Paul and the Plea for Contingency in Contemporary Philosophy: A Philosophical and Anthropological Critique

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 625-656
Author(s):  
Sofya Gevorkyan ◽  
Carlos A. Segovia
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
First Century ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Parallel Lines ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Biocultural Evolution ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Anthropological Critique ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint

AbstractOur purpose in this study – which stands at the crossroads of contemporary philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies – is to assess critically the plea for radical contingency in contemporary thought, with special attention to the work of Meillassoux, in light, among other things, of the symptomatic presence of Pauline motifs in the late twentieth to early twenty first-century philosophical arena, from Vattimo to Agamben and especially Badiou. Drawing on Aristotle’s treatment of τύχη and Hilan Bensusan’s neo-monadology (as well as on the network biology of David George Haskell, Scott Gilbert’s holobiont hypothesis, and Terrence Deacon’s teleo-dynamics), we ask what is missing in such plea, from a theoretical standpoint. Next, we examine the relation between radical contingency and worldlessness in dialogue with Leroi-Gourhan’s theory of biocultural evolution, Lévi-Strauss’s structural anthropology, Pierre Clastres’s ethnography, Heidegger’s philosophy of language, and contemporary authors like Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Patrice Maniglier. These two parallel lines of inquiry help us explore what radical contingency, in turn, prevents us from thinking: the intersection of ontology, cosmopolitics, and modality.

Continuing Visions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Social Activism ◽  
William Blake ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ridley Scott ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Protest Group ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Dead Man

The questions that drove Blake’s American reception, from its earliest moments in the nineteenth century through to the explosion of Blakeanism in the mid-twentieth century, did not disappear. Visions of America continued to be part of Blake’s late twentieth- and early twenty-first century American legacy. This chapter begins with the 1982 film Blade Runner, which was directed by the British Ridley Scott but had an American-authored screenplay and was based on a 1968 American novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It moves to Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film, Dead Man and Paul Chan’s twenty-first century social activism as part of a protest group called The Friends of William Blake, exploring common themes of democracy, freedom, limit, nationhood, and poetic shape.

Dewey and Pragmatist Feminist Philosophy

2017 ◽  
pp. 270-290
Author(s):  
Lisa Heldke
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Feminist Epistemology ◽  
First Century ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Small Field ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Late Twentieth

John Dewey’s record as a feminist and an advocate of women is mixed. He valued women intellectual associates whose influences he acknowledged, but did not develop theoretical articulations of the reasons for women’s subordination and marginalization. Given his mixed record, this chapter asks, how useful is Dewey’s work as a resource for feminist philosophy? It begins with a survey of the intellectual influences that connect Dewey with a set of women family members, colleagues, and students. It then discusses Dewey’s influence on the work of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century pragmatist feminist philosophers. Dewey’s influence has been strongest in the fields of feminist epistemology, philosophy of education, and social and political philosophy. Although pragmatist feminist philosophy remains a small field within feminist philosophy, this chapter argues that its conceptual resources could be put to further good use, particularly in feminist metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory.

Doing Things with Legal History

2018 ◽  
pp. 922-940
Author(s):  
Alfred L. Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Support Property ◽  
Late Twentieth

This chapter discusses the role of historical analysis in property law. The history of property has been used to offer support for property rights. Their long history makes the distribution of property look normal, indeed natural and something that cannot or should not be challenged. However, historically in the U.S there have been competing visions of property. From the Progressive era onward especially, the history of property has been used to show the unequal distribution of property and to offer an alternative vision that expands the rights of non-owners of property. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the history of opposition to feudalism and protection of the rights of non-owners was used to protect the rights of non-owners. Thus, the history of property has been a tool of judges and legislators to support property rights and it has also been, less frequently, a tool of critique.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Drew Massey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
First Century ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
General Perspective

The chapter introduces the general perspective from which I consider the music of Thomas Adès from the beginning of his career up until The Exterminating Angel. Broadly speaking, I frame a consideration of his work as a dialectic, but also synthesis, of a variety of different themes in music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In particular, I orient the reader by briefly considering Adorno’s notion of a Musique Informelle, alongside a theory of cultural production for the twenty-first century known as “metamodernism.” While neither one of these frames of reference totally captures the dynamics of the music that I seek to explore in the chapters that follow, they provide a useful point of departure for considering why Adès’s music has attracted the attention that it has.

Religion, Place, and Mountaintop Removal

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D. Witt
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
First Century ◽  
Strip Mining ◽  
Appalachian Studies ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Critical Regionalism ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter examines the historical development of anti-mountaintop removal activism in Appalachia in the early twenty-first century. The chapter first examines how twenty-first-century groups such as Mountain Justice emerged out of decades of localized activism against strip mining in the area. It then outlines the theoretical influences from Appalachian studies and religious studies that have shaped this discussion of religion and place in Appalachia, including studies of Appalachian history and development, critical regionalism, and approaches to “lived religion.” Based on these theoretical concepts, the remainder of the book explores multiple religious threads in the re-imagining of Appalachian place by anti-mountaintop removal activists in light of a physically transformed topography.

The Frontiers of the European Union. By Malcolm Anderson and Eberhard Bort. New York: Palgrave, 2000. 235p. $65.00.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-876
Author(s):  
Erik Jones
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
European Union ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
First Century ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Geographic Boundaries ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Economic Nature

The “borderless world” is an early twenty-first century cliche, particularly in Europe. Overlapping processes of globalization and regional integration have done much over the past decades to alter the political and economic nature of geographic boundaries. As a result, the tendency is to anticipate a fundamental deterritorialization of politics and economics. However tempting, it would nevertheless be hazardous to rush to judgment. Through a series of overlapping case studies—essays, really—Malcolm Anderson and Eberhard Bort demonstrate that frontiers remain important both within the European Union (EU) and without. Politics and economics continue to be rooted in geography despite the transformations of the late twentieth century. This is true not only in practical terms but also in relation to individual and group identities. As the authors suggest, “there remains in Europe a highly developed sense of territoriality” (p. 11).

GLASS MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

Tempo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (289) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunter Coblentz
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Twenty First Century

AbstractThis article serves as an introduction to the twentieth- and twenty-first-century musical practices that have made use of glass instruments and objects. Emphasis is placed on those practices that use glass in a raw, acoustic manner, and those that take advantage of the precision with which glass can be tuned. First, a general history of glass music is presented, followed by an overview of the physical and acoustic aspects pertaining to the material that are relevant to those composers wishing to integrate glass into their works. Finally, the composers, performers and instrument builders who have made significant use of glass in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries are surveyed.

How Taste Is Made

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Bégin
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
First Century ◽  
Environmental Equity ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
Food Writing

This concluding chapter argues that the New Deal food writing does not provide lessons on how to eat better, nor a cause to dismiss it as a bigoted or failed nation-building attempt. Rather, it offers a reminder that contemporary anxieties about the sensory, political, environmental, social, and moral consequences of the global industrial food system, as well as the drive toward the celebration of local traditions and knowledge, are not a late-twentieth and early-twenty-first-century affair but part of a longer historical trend. New Deal food writing offers tools to better understand the challenges of establishing sustainable, pleasurable, and equitable food systems. This is not to disparage efforts at changing industrial foodways, but to emphasize how social and sensory histories of food can create spaces for debates about social, cultural, and environmental equity challenges.

Comparative Legal Families and Comparative Legal Traditions

2019 ◽  
pp. 422-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Patrick Glenn
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
First Century ◽  
Static State ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
System A ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Common ◽  
Legal Normativity

For much of the twentieth century, comparatists have divided the world into ‘legal families’ (such as the civil law, the common law, socialist law, etc.) and assigned each (national) legal system a place in one of them. The chapter argues that this taxonomic enterprise has largely remained at the descriptive state, entailed a misleading division into fixed categories, and that is has failed to produce real comparison between laws. It is also too static, state-centred, and Euro-centric to be workable under conditions of late twentieth and early twenty-first century globalism. It should be replaced by the paradigm of ‘legal traditions’ which not only emphasizes the evolving nature of law, but also avoids dividing the world into clearly separated groupings. Instead, a ‘legal traditions’ approach focuses on the fluidity, interaction, and resulting hybridity of laws, thus facilitating their comparison. As it is not tied to Western-style national legal systems, it can easily capture the laws of the whole world, including the increasingly important non-state forms of legal normativity. Since the chapter was written by the late H. Patrick Glenn over a decade ago, the editors added a postscript bringing the reader up to date on the scholarship on, and the debate about, legal families and traditions.

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