Self-transformation and Spiritual Exemplars

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Victoria S. Harrison ◽  
Rhett Gayle

This paper focuses on the process of self-transformation through which a person comes to embody the ideal of her religion’s vision of the divine, as far as that ideal is expressible in a human life. The paper is concerned with the self as the subject of religious commitments, traits, religious aspirations and religiously inspired ideals. The self-transformative journey that people are invited to undertake poses a number of philosophical and practical difficulties; the paper explores some of these difficulties, concentrating on those that arise in connection with the notion of potential future selves. This paper suggests that imaginative reflection upon exemplary individuals provides one way through these difficulties, for these individuals can show us what it looks like when someone achieves, or draws close to, the ideal.

Adam alemi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Dina Kazantseva ◽  

The essence of personality potential is one of the important characteristics of understanding a person as an integral being, creating an individual space of personal aspirations and values. The origins of the problem under consideration in various forms are present in the philosophical reflections of many researchers and have a long history. Even Socrates, Plotinus, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas drew attention to the deep foundations and spiritual essence of man, to the presence of virtues in a state of potential stagnation, to the need for their development in order to achieve the ideal of perfection. N. Kuzansky, S. L. Frank, P. I. Tillich noted the presence of latent force unfolding in time in living beings, the rejection of the self and introduction into something higher, the correlation of the divine and the human, the interconnection of things and events, etc. The modern world actualizes the solution to the problem, creating conditions for a deeper understanding of the potential, consideration of its integrity and the essential foundations of maximum realization. The crisis in all spheres of human life, economic, political, social, requires a quantum leap in understanding the potential and building, on the basis of modern studies of the phenomenon, new projects for transforming reality. In this regard, understanding the historical aspect of studying the logic of the genesis of potential makes an invaluable contribution to solving this problem. Understanding the depth of philosophical thought in a historical retrospective about the origin, emergence and existence of potential will allow you to connect the past and the present, as well as qualitatively advance into the future.


Author(s):  
Gitanjali Kapila

Using the conceptual framework of the mirror-stage established by Lacan to describe the initial anchoring of the subject, this paper seeks to interrogate the mirror as the locus of a secondary elaboration of the hero’s journey which follows its traditional articulation adumbrated by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. If the goal of the classic hero as Campbell suggests is to exit the nursery which represents the subject’s entrapment in Oedipal triangulation, this study posits that the successful selfrelease of the hero from the nursery simply sees him entering another nursery where the hero’s world is conceived of as a series of infinitely nested nurseries without exit. The mirror and its binding capture become the exemplary point of departure for the secondary elaboration of the journey for which, it turns out, the black heroine is the ideal adventurer. It is no wonder then that Jordan Peele’s Us is replete with mirrors functioning as cinematic signifiers for the portals effecting the subject’s displacement not towards an outer world of aggressive fathers and unobtainable ideal mothers; but, rather into a proximate encounter with the self, one precipitated by the mirror where the goal of the journey –the one that can only be revealed by the black heroine– is the apprehension of the “cipher of [her] moral destiny” and the unfathomable cartography of her true exit.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 825-833
Author(s):  
Sheng-Pin Kuan ◽  
Hsien-Mo Liao ◽  

The development and promotion of quality related knowledge and technology is not developed independently, it would be developed accompany with the necessary requirements in politics, economy, industrial, and technology of community, society, region, country, and whole world. Everything should observe the world’s status, see the surrounding situation, know the people's thinking, then can understand the future trends, grasp the precise situation. The principle of the operation of an organization should be based on the trend, to obtain the advantages of future development, and then we can do something meaningful. In March 2018, before returning to Taiwan from the holiday of Jingzhou, the author visited the cousin Shipping family for a few days in Wuhan. During the period, we went to the “Wuhan Uprising Military Government Site” next to the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan. After returning to Taiwan, based on our own memory and some literatures, we compiled a list of some important events that occurred in the past 70 years of cross-strait political and economic development. The term “Quality Revolution” first appeared at the Standing Committee of the State Council of China on May 11, 2016, referring to a series of reforms aimed at increasing consumer varieties, improving product quality, creating well-known brands and upgrading people’s consumer demand. Taking steps in all sectors to improve quality, we will work toward meeting the highest international standards, encourage the spirit of workmanship, and launch a “Made in China Quality Revolution”. At this moment, the China proposed the “Made in China Quality Revolution”, which inspired the author’s inner world’s hope, and thus expanded it into the “Chinese Way Quality Revolution”. When we discuss the issue of economic and social development of a country, with quality as its topic, it will get less controversy in ideology. The quality of the subject to the “essence of substance” requirements are precise and accurate; to the “process of business” focus on efficiency, effectiveness and value; to the “conduct oneself” emphasis on words and deeds should be consistent; to the “quality of life” pursue the balance of production, ecology and life; to the society “Datong (The Ideal World)” is our dream. Under the guidance of the above-mentioned quality issues, quality professionals are engaged in scientific research, technological development, and application promotion to improve the quality of human life. There will be many projects that can be carried out, especially the establishment of “The Chinese way TQM” and carry out “The Chinese way Quality Revolution”.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Limei Jiang

This essay attempts to demonstrate the logic of Zhuangzi in his different attitudes toward “debate on big and small” by bringing into discussion the two versions of translation in the English languages, which provide a new approach to analyze the difference in the controversial commentaries on Zhuangzi. This essay points out that the ideal of “free and easy wandering” is a type of positive pleasure. By means of rational thinking and imagination, one’s searching for the external values is turned into the internal pursuit for wisdom in the transformation of things. Zhuangzi’s theory of transcendence not only provides the subject with multi-perspectives, but also substitutes the self-identity with self-value. Through the interaction between self-awareness and self-reaction, the subject can be unified with the great Dao through purposive activities. However, Guo Xiang’s commentary cancels the necessity of self-cultivation and negates the purposefulness of the subject, which underestimates the value of Zhuangzi’s construction of transcendence.


Author(s):  
Yaroslav Vladimirovich Maltsev

The subject of this research is the philosophy of the Tyumen philosopher Yuri Mikhailovich Fyodorov – a representative of the Tyumen philosophical tradition, who focused on the problems of ethics, namely practical implementation of the ethical in the context of development of the North and establishment of a new society from fundamentally different individuals. Tyumen philosophers were concerned with the question of how to form a single moral essence out of the agonistic society. For solving this problem, Yuri Mikhailovich Fyodorov turned to Neo-Platonism, cosmism, and Russian religious philosophy, as well as paid particular attention to the question of elevation of human to a moral entity. The ways for such subjectification proposed by Fedorov are examined in this article. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the philosopher is not widely known, as well as in the emphasis on the process of subjectification, epimeleia heautou in interpretation of M. Foucault, or the self-nurturing practices. It is illustrated that creativity, freedom, kindness and love are the key practices of self-nurturing which Y. M. Fyodorov indicated as the procedures of subjectification. From his perspective, these four concepts are the goal and practice for an individual, who seeks to surpass his own foundations. The philosophy of Y. M. Fyodorov aims to substantiate the unity of man with man, man with being; as well as attach meaning, value and vector to human life; contra pose something genuine, profound and eternal to the concepts that deprive an individual of the right to power over himself and the right to the long-term existence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Ainul Fithriyah

The variety of thoughts about the optimal attainment of human self and the satisfaction of human life is what may have made Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1868) deny all worldly phenomena. He saw that the world was full of suffering. Humans, as the supreme product of the basic activities of the world, are in fact the most unfortunate creatures. Therefore, humans will be able to achieve happiness when they are able to kill passions and cravings. Studies on the optimal achievement of humans and the meaning of human life from the two figures above, are still important and beneficial to do. Because the concept of the ideal human being is a model and example for us that we can emulate or maybe we can make it happen if we feel fit and believe in the truth. But the question might arise, is it still relevant to study the thoughts of long-dead figures such as Ibn Arabi and Neitzsche? in the opinion of the author, the study of their thinking is still relevant. Because in their thoughts are contained eternal pearls, and because of the peculiarity of each thought. This is evident if we pay attention today, where the thoughts of the two figures are still the subject of study in various countries, both in the West and the East. The works that examine Nietzsche's thoughts about the Ubermensch man include the work of Chairul Arifin, entitled The will to power: Briedrich Nietzsche. This book discusses Nietzsche's views on human beings and his anti-theism. These two thoughts are then connected by the author of this book with Nietzsche's main thought, namely the will to power. And in one of its chapters, the book also examines the concept of Ubermensch Nietzsche. Another work that addresses Nietzsche and Nietzsche's main ideas, including Ubermensch in a separate chapter is Nietzsche by St Sunardi. Besides that, there are other books. Of the books mentioned above and others to the best of the author's knowledge, there has never been found a work that specifically compares Ibn Arabi's insan kamil concept and Nietzsche's Ubermensch concept.


MELINTAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59
Author(s):  
Konrad Kebung

This paper presents Foucault’s philosophical thinking on the constitution of the subject as the peak point of all his works from his early writings through his last writings, lectures, and seminars. All his works therefore can be summarized as a technology or a constitution of the self. To Foucault, this particular “self” should be seen as a result of a work of art that is ordered and engraved creatively and continuously. This “self” is seen as a mode of being which is unique, historical and contextual as well. This process Foucault calls an aesthetic of existence. This paper also shows Foucault’s own perspectives on the various radical and extreme movements that often times bring forth a lot of calamities to human life. Using his aesthetic of existence, he tries to look into such problems critically and presents some possible opportunities to minimize or even to erase all kinds of radicalizations and extremisms. Humankind should be able to care of him/her self and therefore he/she should be able to care for others.


Kultura ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Velimir Popović

The so-called "postmodern turn" has produced a sense of turmoil in contemporary philosophy and the humanities, subverting the Western mind and provoking doubts in its existence, sense of meaning and purpose. It disputes almost all basic premises of modernity. For example, notions such as: the self, the subject, imagination, became a target of vicious attacks by postmodern thinkers. Counter to the modern notion of the subject, the postmodern subject lacks an essential core of identity: it is fragmented, decentered, in the process of perpetual change or disintegration. A "thinking and reflecting" subject who looks inward to inspect the self is denied, as neither such an interiorized being that examines, conceptualize and interacts with others, nor interiority as such, exist. The subject is nowadays advised to search outward for the ways to interact with the social world, because this a privileged way of construing one's self. In similar fashion, imagination is obliterated and devoid of its creative powers. The "imaginary", as a reference to an impersonal entity, is substituted for the notion of imagination. While the latter stands for an "author" or "creator" who produces or creates images, the former is nothing creative in itself. The outcome is that, in the postmodern theory, the imagination is seen as an obsolete mental ability which is deposed of its power to create meaning. My intention in this paper is not to reanimate the modern notions of the self, the subject and imagination, but rather to consent with the postmodern verdict and proceed onward. It is my intention to build a post-postmodern notion of the self. The purpose of my paper is to introduce a post-Jungian account of the importance that the narrative and imagination have in human life for the constitution of subjectivity and the self.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey L. Guenther ◽  
Kathryn Applegate ◽  
Steven Svoboda ◽  
Emily Adams

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-214
Author(s):  
Олена Савченко

У статті розглядається рефлексивна компетентність як інтегративне особистісне утворення, що формується в ході набуття суб’єктом рефлексивного досвіду при застосуванні різних форм рефлексивної активності, спрямованих на розв’язання визначених рефлексивних задач. У структурі рефлексивної компетентності оцінно-мотиваційний компонент виконує наступні функції: оцінку форм рефлексивної активності та її результатів, прогнозування можливих змін у процесі розв’язування проблемно-конфліктних ситуацій, визначення пріоритетних завдань подальшого розвитку себе як суб’єкта рефлексивної активності. На когнітивному рівні функціонує система критеріїв оцінювання власних форм рефлексивної активності, яка характеризується ступенем когнітивної складності, що відображає рівень диференціації та інтеграції системи. Функціонування оцінно-мотиваційного компонента на метакогнітивному рівні забезпечує система здібностей до прогнозування власної активності. Особистісний рівень представлений системою життєвих задач на саморозвиток, які стимулюють суб’єкта докладати зусилля щодо розвитку в себе певних якостей, формування певних вмінь та знань. Розрізненість елементів компонента є індикатором незавершеності процесу формування його внутрішньої структури, низький рівень інтеграції окремих складових не дозволяє системі ефективно компенсувати недорозвинені елементи. Найбільшу вагу у внутрішній структурі оцінно-мотиваційного компонента має показник сформованості системи здібностей до прогнозування власної активності, що підтверджує системотвірну функцію структур метакогнітивного рівня. In the article the reflective competence is seen as an integrative personal formation which develops in the process of acquiring of the reflective experience, when the subject is using various forms of the reflective activity for the solving of specific reflective tasks. In the structure of the reflective competence the value-motivational component performs such functions: an evaluation of forms of the reflective activity and its results, a prediction of the possible changes in the process of solving of the problem-conflict situations, a determining of the priorities for further development of himself as a subject of the reflective activity. The system of the criteria of an evaluating of the reflective activity`s forms functions on the cognitive level of the reflective competence. The level of the cognitive complexity is the basic feature of this system. The predictive abilities` system, that allows to form the expectations of the activity`s results, presents the value-motivational component on the metacognitive level. The system of the life tasks for the self-development, which stimulates the subject to make efforts to develop his own qualities, to form specific skills and knowledge, functions on the personal level. The fragmentation of the elements is an indicator of the incompleteness of the formation of the internal structure of the value-motivational component. The low level of integration of the separate elements does not allow effectively to compensate the functioning of the unformed elements of the system. The index of the formation of the abilities to predict his own activity has the greatest meaning in the internal structure of the value-motivational component. These data confirm the hypothesis about the system-forming function of the metacognitive structures that unite other structures. Thus the development of the predictive abilities will promote the increase of the abilities to the prediction of the others` behavior. An adequate assessment of other people significantly reduces the inconsistency of his own expectations and estimations of others. The development of the predictive abilities creates favorable conditions for the formation of the life tasks for the self-development to increase their value in the system of other tasks


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