scholarly journals Kant, Nietzsche and the idealization of friendship into nihilism

2013 ◽  
Vol 54 (128) ◽  
pp. 401-417
Author(s):  
Paul van Tongeren

Is friendship still possible under nihilistic conditions? Kant and Nietzsche are important stages in the history of the idealization of friendship, which leads inevitably to the problem of nihilism. Nietzsche himself claims on the one hand that only something like friendship can save us in our nihilistic condition, but on the other hand that precisely friendship has been unmasked and become impossible by these very conditions. It seems we are struck in the nihilistic paradox of not being allowed to believe in the possibility of what we cannot do without. Literary imagination since the 19th century seems to make us even more skeptical. Maybe Beckett provides an illustration of a way out that fits well to Nietzsche's claim that only "the most moderate, those who do not require any extreme articles of faith" will be able to cope with nihilism.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Scerri

<span>The very nature of chemistry presents us with a tension. A tension between the exhilaration of diversity of substances and forms on the one hand and the safety of fundamental unity on the other. Even just the recent history of chemistry has been al1 about this tension, from the debates about Prout's hypothesis as to whether there is a primary matter in the 19th century to the more recent speculations as to whether computers will enable us to virtually dispense with experimental chemistry.</span>


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Akmal Hawi

The 19th century to the 20th century is a moment in which Muslims enter a new gate, the gate of renewal. This phase is often referred to as the century of modernism, a century where people are confronted with the fact that the West is far ahead of them. This situation made various responses emerging, various Islamic groups responded in different ways based on their Islamic nature. Some respond with accommodative stance and recognize that the people are indeed doomed and must follow the West in order to rise from the downturn. Others respond by rejecting anything coming from the West because they think it is outside of Islam. These circles believe Islam is the best and the people must return to the foundations of revelation, this circle is often called the revivalists. One of the figures who is an important figure in Islamic reform, Jamaluddin Al-Afghani, a reformer who has its own uniqueness, uniqueness, and mystery. Departing from the division of Islamic features above, Afghani occupies a unique position in responding to Western domination of Islam. On the one hand, Afghani is very moderate by accommodating ideas coming from the West, this is done to improve the decline of the ummah. On the other hand, however, Afghani appeared so loudly when it came to the question of nationality or on matters relating to Islam. As a result, Afghani traces his legs on two different sides, he is a modernist but also a fundamentalist. 


1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (03) ◽  
pp. 369-388
Author(s):  
H. Alimen

Between the two wars, studies on the Quaternary were scarcely in favor in France. However. from the beginning of the 19th century recent terrains had held the attention of our country’s eminent geologists, and later that of the prehistorians, and starting in the 1850s these terrains were given the first chronological classifications based, on the one hand, on the evolution of Mammals. and on the other hand, on the succession of prehistoric civilizations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Catana

Abstract This article critically explores the history and nature of a hermeneutic assumption which frequently guided interpretations of Plotinus from the 18th century onwards, namely that Plotinus advanced a system of philosophy. It is argued that this assumption was introduced relatively late, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that it was primarily made possible by Brucker’s methodology for the history of philosophy, dating from the 1740s, to which the concept of a ‘system of philosophy’ was essential. It is observed that the concept is absent from Ficino’s commentary from the 15th century, and that it remained absent in interpretations produced between the 15th and 18th centuries. It is also argued that the assumption of a ‘system of philosophy’ in Plotinus is historically incorrect—we do not find this concept in Plotinus’ writings, and his own statements about method point in other directions. Eduard Zeller (active in the second half of the 19th century) is typically regarded as the first to give a satisfying account of Plotinus’ philosophy as a whole. In this article, on the other hand, Zeller is seen as having finalised a tradition initiated in the 18th century. Very few Plotinus scholars have examined the interpretative development prior to Zeller. Schiavone (1952) and Bonetti (1971), for instance, have given little attention to Brucker’s introduction of the concept of a ‘system of philosophy’. The present analysis, then, has value for an understanding of Plotinus’ Enneads. It also explains why “pre-Bruckerian” interpretations of Plotinus appear alien to the modern reader; the analysis may even serve to make some sense of the hermeneutics employed by Renaissance Platonists and commentators, who are often eclipsed from the tradition of Platonism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Rahimah Hamdan ◽  
Arba’ie Sujud

This paper was aimed at identifying the guidance to parenting that emerged in the first Malay autobiography, the Hikayat Abdullah, and subsequently, to analyse those instructions on parenting in the context of the traditional Malay society of the 19th century. The recognition accorded to Abdullah Munshi as the Father of Modern Malay Literature has attracted various reactions from scholars. Some scholars regard Abdullah Munshi as the one who brought renewal to Malay literature through his courageous criticism of the customs and culture that had been in practice for generations. On the other hand, there are scholars who disapprove of that recognition being given to him and who consider Abdullah Munshi’s criticisms in his works as a deviation from the reality expressed in previous works. Nevertheless, not a single study has suggested that perhaps Abdullah Munshi firmly emphasized those criticisms with the intention of providing some sort of guidance. Hence, by analysing certain texts in the Hikayat Abdullah and by reviewing the evidence from the perspective of Swettenham (1895), who objectively evaluated the thinking and culture of the Malay community, this study was able to rectify the image of Abdullah Munshi, who, all this while, was considered to be pro-British because of his harsh criticism of the Malay community. Moreover, those criticisms were meant to provide guidance for the family institution, especially for parents. This indirectly proves that Abdullah Munshi took a serious view of parenting and believed that improvements were necessary to produce a dignified and civilized generation. In conclusion, the autobiography, the Hikayat Abdullah, was not just a new form of writing that deviated from the conventions of traditional Malay literature, but was the fruit of the wisdom of the author that was meant to benefit his readers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 137-162
Author(s):  
Thomas Eich

This paper analyzes the so-called Ibn Masʿūd ḥadīth (see below) on two levels: the specific wording of the ḥadīth on the one hand and a significant portion of the commentation written about it since the 10th century until today on the other. This aims at three things. First, I will show how the ḥadīth’s exact wording still developed after the stabilization of the material in collections. Although this development occurred only on the level of single words, it can be shown that it is a reflection of discussions documented in the commentaries. Therefore, these specific examples show that there was not always a clear line separating between ḥadīth text and commentaries on that text. Second, the diachronic analysis of the commentaries will provide material for a nuanced assessment in how far major icons of commentation such as Nawawī and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī significantly influenced following generations in composing their respective commentaries. Third, I will argue that in the specific case study provided here significant changes in the commentation can be witnessed since the second half of the 19th century which are caused by the spread of basic common medical knowledge in that period.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Palavestra

Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina by the end of the 19th century, presided by Benjamin Kallay, the Empire’s Minister of Finance and governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, strived to gain wider international justification for its years’ long project of “civilizing” Bosnia and Herzegovina, or particular “historizing” of this proximal colony. In the summer of 1894 the Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Herzegovina organized the Congress of Archaeologists and Anthropologists in the Landesmuseum in Sarajevo. The aim of the Congress was to inform archaeologists and anthropologists about the results of archaeological investigations in the country, and to seek their advice in directing further work. The wider ideological, political, as well as theoretical context of this congress, however, was much more complex and layered, with the aim to present the constructed image of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of tamed and civilized European Orient of rich past and luxurious folklore. The participants of the Congress discussed the archaeological and anthropological data presented to them by the hosts, including the specially organized excavations at Butmir and Glasinac. It is interesting to analyze, from the point of view of the history of archaeological ideas, the endeavours of the participants to adapt the archaeological finds before them to the wishes of the hosts, and, on the other hand, to their favoured archaeological paradigms dominant at the time.


Author(s):  
Beloglazov I.A. ◽  
Biryukova N.V. ◽  
Nesterova N.V.

The authors of the work analyzed the sources that characterize the influence of absinthe on human culture. Absinthe, an alcoholic drink containing wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.), was banned in the early 20th century due to unusual properties attributed to the side effects of drinking this alcohol. This review contains information about the history of the drink. On the one hand, absinthe left its mark in the culture as a “muse” for the creators, remaining forever imprinted in the works of various types of art, on the other hand, it became the main enemy for the most part of society because of the harmful properties that was characterized by researchers of the 19th century.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Lieven D’hulst

The metaphors of centre and periphery tend to reduce the complexity of language relations and interlingual exchanges that are featured by multilingual societies. At a crucial point of multilingual Belgium’s evolution, i.e. during the 19th century, exchanges between its two major languages, namely French and Flemish, offer a suitable angle to capture the processes of centralisation and peripherisation of both languages. Translingual practices, including translation, are at the heart of these processes. On the one hand, they sustain continuous attempts to impose and maintain the centrality of official French in the legal and administrative domains; on the other hand, they nurture counterbalancing claims for recognition and officialisation of Flemish as an equal language. This contribution puts focus on three major aspects of interlingual exchange: the design and management of Belgian translation policies, the asymmetric translation flows between French and Flemish vs. Flemish and French, and the emancipatory efforts of Flemish and its modest effects, notably in the literary domain.


Author(s):  
Jesper Brandt Andersen

Jesper Brandt Andersen: Curious case reports in the works of the Danish physician and anatomist Thomas Bartholin Scattered through the voluminous authorship of the Danish physician and anatomist Thomas Bartholin (1616–1680), famous for his discovery of the lymph vessels in the early 1650s, case reports can be found, for which Bartholin was criticized and accused for verbosity and lack of scientific judgment by contemporary scholars and later medical historians. In this article 15 such case reports, mainly from the work Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum 1654–1661, are presented, analyzed and perspectivated. It is concluded, that much of the criticism, especially the one submitted by the posteriority and especially during the era of positivism by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and the one concerning observations made by Bartholin himself, is unjustified. When practising science himself Bartholin felt responsible for reproducing his observations correctly and trustworthy, and he was not satisfied by making conclusions on the basis of knowledge handed over by others. The author of this article has not succeded in finding one single example indicating that Bartholin doesn’t reproduce his own observations correctly and truthfully. On the other hand there are in his authorship numerous examples of case reports originating from others, which he either didn’t believe himself or at least doubted. When he published case reports originating from other people, he didn’t feel responsible for the truthfulness. His purpose bringing these case reports was to present his reader for new and interesting matter, to entertain his reader, to arouse his reader’s curiosity and to challenge his reader’s own judgment. Thomas Bartholin was one of the most excellent, diligent and passionate intermediaries of scientific matter of his time, and as a scientist he was characterized by openness. Often he was among the first to recognize, verify and publish new knowledge.


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