Lust, Desire, Hope. Dante and the Problem of Love (Inf. V; Purg. XVII–XVIII; Purg. XXVI)

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaia Gubbini
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Courtly Love ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Moral Structure

AbstractThe article reconstructs the ‘strategy’ used by Dante in the Commedia for solving the problem of love: moving from lust (Inf. V), to the possibility of controlling natural desire through free choice (Purg. XVII-XVIII), to the role of hope in the pursuit of divine love, abandoning cupiditas and embracing caritas (Purg. XXVI). This trajectory is identified through lexical, rhyme-related, and thematic connections. It begins and ends with the first and the last sinners Dante encounters during his journey: Francesca and Arnaut Daniel - both condemned for their lust. The article also explores the reflections of Dante on the previous romance literature dealing with love, providing in particular a more convincing explanation of the presence of Arnaut Daniel - whose courtly love poetry was grounded on the theme of hope - at the end of Purgatory, the supernatural realm of Hope. Moreover, the investigation is set in the context of Dante’s philosophical and theological background - confirming with new elements the coexistence of his Augustinian imagery with the Thomist moral structure of the Commedia.

scholarly journals The universal force of free choice any

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 5-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veneeta Dayal
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Existential Statement

This paper adds to the ongoing debate about the quantificational status of English FC any. It argues that any is a universal, though its universality is such that it can be conjoined with an existential statement. This is established by showing, first of all, that various properties that are amenable to a universal account of FC any remain elusive in recent accounts that treat it as an indefinite. Secondly, it presents a detailed description of supplementary/numeral any, cases in which any occurs with an indefinite. Such cases have been assumed to provide evidence for the indefinite-any view but an explicit semantics for the constructions is given, showing that any invariably contributes universal quantificational force. Existential force always comes from other elements. The paper also discusses alternative formulations that preserve the key insights of the universalist position and the role of cross-linguistic variation in the study of FC items.

El parecer de Agustín del amor como gracia, en la controversia con Juliano de Eclana

Augustinus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-142
Author(s):  
Mathijs Lamberigts ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Decisive Factor ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Pelagian Controversy

During the Pelagian controversy, the precise relation between grace and free will was an important issue. Augustine emphasized the priority of grace over human beings’ free will after the Fall. Pelagians such as Julian of Aeclanum were of the opinion that such view annihilated human beings’ free will. Throughout history, time and again, scholars belonging to different schools and denomina­tions have discussed this issue at length. In this article, we concentrate on Augustine’s view on love as grace during his debate with Julian. We argue that one should broaden the scope of this question and pay attention to the role of divine love as an important and decisive factor with regard to the proper activity of grace in the redemption and liberation of human beings. Thinking the relation between human beings and God in terms of love is a help in order to overcome the unfruitful grace-freewill antinomy. In fact, such approach does justice to both the Scriptural sources of Augustine’s position and the bishop’s spiritual view on the topic under consideration.

scholarly journals El intérprete de los deseos de Ibn ʿArabī y la vita nova de Dante Alighieri

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Paredi
Keyword(s):  
Dante Alighieri ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Courtly Love ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Spiritual Quest ◽  
Islamic Mysticism

Resumen: El presente artículo se propone comparar y llevar a dialogar El Intérprete de los deseos de Ibn ʿArabī y la Vita Nova de Dante Alighieri bajo tres aspectos profundamente presentes a lo largo de los escritos: el concepto de Ausencia, de Memoria y de Indefinido. Según el presente análisis, la búsquedade la Amada en las dos obras presupone la Ausencia y valora la Presencia como meta final del Amante; en segundo lugar, el vacío causado en la Memoria, por la ausencia de Niẓām y de Beatrice, se llena con evocaciones y recuerdos; finalmente, es el Indefinido espacio-temporal lo que permite a las dos obras de ser tan universales, sin otras referencias concretas que la Amada o, aún más, labúsqueda espiritual misma.Palabras clave: Sufismo. Mística Islámica. Ibn ʿArabī. Dante Alighieri. Memoria. Ausencia. Presencia. Deseo divino. Amor cortés. Amor divino.Abstract: The following article aims to compare and to bring into dialogue the Interpreter of Desires by Ibn ʿArabī and the Vita Nova by Dante Alighieri, under three aspects which are deeply represented in these two works: the concept of Absence, of Memory and Indefinite. According to this analysis, the quest for the Beloved, in both works, implies the Absence and values the Presence as the finalaim of the Lover; secondly, the void caused by the absence of Niẓām and Beatrice is fulfilled by the mnemonic faculty, thanks to evocations, souvenirs and memories; lastly, the space-time indefiniteness allows the works to be considered universal. No other concrete references are found except the Beloved and her Spiritual Quest in itself.Key words: Sufism. Islamic Mysticism. Ibn ʿArabī. Dante Alighieri. Memory. Absence. Presence. Divine Desire. Courtly Love. Divine Love.

scholarly journals Outcome contingency selectively affects the neural coding of outcomes but not of tasks

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wisniewski ◽  
Birte Forstmann ◽  
Marcel Brass
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Maintenance Phase ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

AbstractValue-based decision-making is ubiquitous in every-day life, and critically depends on the contingency between choices and their outcomes. Only if outcomes are contingent on our choices can we make meaningful value-based decisions. Here, we investigate the effect of outcome contingency on the neural coding of rewards and tasks. Participants performed a reversal-learning paradigm in which reward outcomes were contingent on trial-by-trial choices, and performed a ‘free choice’ paradigm in which rewards were random and not contingent on choices. We hypothesized that contingent outcomes enhance the neural coding of rewards and tasks, which was tested using multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data. Reward outcomes were encoded in a large network including the striatum, dmPFC and parietal cortex, and these representations were indeed amplified for contingent rewards. Tasks were encoded in the dmPFC at the time of decision-making, and in parietal cortex in a subsequent maintenance phase. We found no evidence for contingency-dependent modulations of task signals, demonstrating highly similar coding across contingency conditions. Our findings suggest selective effects of contingency on reward coding only, and further highlight the role of dmPFC and parietal cortex in value-based decision-making, as these were the only regions strongly involved in both reward and task coding.

scholarly journals A Bakhtinian Reading of John Donne’s Parody Poem “The Bait”

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Refaat Alareer ◽  
Noritah Omar ◽  
Hardev Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
John Donne ◽  
Courtly Love ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Love Poetry

While conventional critics seek the comic aspect of parody, modernist critics credit parody with questioning mainstream literary trends and subverting literary production. For instance, Mikhail Bakhtin believes in parody’s power to create “a decrowning double” by turning the official worldview up-side-down. For experimental poets like John Donne, parody transcends mere comical imitation into a serious practice. Donne, having lived in the heyday of the Renaissance with its overemphasis on decorum and courtly love, sought refuge in parody to resist and disturb existing norms of versification and offer an alternative worldview. This paper examines John Donne’s parody poem “The Bait” in the light of Bakhtin’s concept of parody as a decrowning double. The analysis shows that not only had Donne resorted to parody to criticize the society, but he also employed it to undermine established rules of poetry. The study concludes that Donne used parody to create an important platform to liberate poetry from dominant modes of versification, invite readers, often by means of defamiliarisation, to reconsider their stance and literary taste, and promote experimental styles; thus, Donne transcends the norms of prevalent courtly love poetry once and for all. 

Locality, Distance, and Troubadour Song in the Second Crusade

2020 ◽  
pp. 188-224
Author(s):  
Rachel May Golden
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Courtly Love ◽  
Musical Object ◽  
The Voice

Troubadour song has been explored as an expression of courtly love and early vernacular song creation, even mythologized as a brief flowering of a romanticized Occitanian golden age. However, troubadour songs also importantly act as expressions of place and provide indices of contemporaneous regional communities and identities. Contemporary with the Second Crusade, the troubadour songs Pax in nomine Domini by Marcabru and Lanqan li jorn by Jaufre Rudel employ circularity, dialectic, and movement as ways of expressing place and creating a sense of near versus far. These songs should not be understood as only fixed texts; rather in sounding, transmission, and the enacting of motion they move through new environments and assume new agency as they travel. Troubadour songs of the Second Crusade thus transcend the role of fixed musical object to mediate between the position of composer-poet, the voice of the performer, and the reception of distant listeners.

Hamlet as Poet

2020 ◽  
pp. 174-237
Author(s):  
Rhodri Lewis
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Poetic Fiction

This chapter focuses on Hamlet's imagination and his accomplishments as a poet. It begins with the love poetry that Hamlet writes for Ophelia. The chapter then turns to consider the before, during, and after of Hamlet's attempt to adapt The Murder of Gonzago with a view to catching Claudius's conscience and unkennelling his guilt. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Hamlet responds to the lead player's speech in the person of Aeneas; to the advice offered by Hamlet to the players; to the central role of the imagination both in seeing ghosts and in creating works of poetic fiction; to the action of the play-within-the-play and the dumb show that precedes it; and to the language and assumptions through which Hamlet convinces himself that The Mousetrap has been a forensic success. As will become clear, William Shakespeare allows Hamlet to delineate his beliefs about the nature of poetic endeavour at unusual length. Crucially, one is also allowed to judge the ways in which Hamlet applies these beliefs in practice; in so doing, a series of disjunctions emerge between the theoretical and practical discourses of humanist poetics.

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