scholarly journals Gray Mass: a Critical Engagement with John Gray's Political Philosophy and the Role of Christian Eschatology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Benjamin David Arcus
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Modus Vivendi ◽  
The World ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
Political Philosopher

<p>Contemporary political philosopher John Gray has recently asserted: “modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion.” Gray demonstrates how the roots of modern political violence can be traced back to Christianity. Furthermore, he sees Utopianism, “the Enlightenment project”, anthropocentrism and any notion of human meaning as all originating in the Christian notion of “salvation”. Gray argues that all of these ideas are disproven by values pluralism – the idea that human life consists of an incommensurable range of values. Gray is also critical of human beings technological appropriation of the world and the ecological crisis that this consciousness has precipitated. Gray claims that all forms of universalism are mistaken because they privilege a particular set of values at the expense of others. Gray offers a modus vivendi as a political construct that can appropriate the insights of values pluralism, without privileging any particular set of values. Despite considering Christianity (and its offspring) illusory, Gray asserts that the “myth of human meaning” is a “necessary illusion”; it is one that human beings cannot live without. Gray’s argument, however, is beset with inconsistencies, including an implicit teleology, despite his explicit rejection of all teleology, and the tendency of his thought toward nihilism, undermining his proposal of a modus vivendi. In his own constructive proposal Gray inadvertently privileges values of peaceful coexistence and human flourishing. His own political vision has some similarities with the Christian vision of the ideal human life. Christian eschatology is examined through the work of Jürgen Moltmann, and the values of hope and love are highlighted as the ethical consequence of Christian eschatology, as opposed to the violence that Gray claims has been generated from it. Moltmann’s thought also reveals the resources present in a theological perspective that are able to resolve some of the contradictions between individuality and sociality and between human beings and nature. This has significant implications for the ecological crisis, which is also one of Gray’s central concerns. Finally, Martin Heidegger’s concept of Gelassenheit is examined as a point of common ground between Gray’s thought and a theological approach to the world of politics and nature.</p>

scholarly journals Gray Mass: a Critical Engagement with John Gray's Political Philosophy and the Role of Christian Eschatology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Benjamin David Arcus
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Modus Vivendi ◽  
The World ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
Political Philosopher

<p>Contemporary political philosopher John Gray has recently asserted: “modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion.” Gray demonstrates how the roots of modern political violence can be traced back to Christianity. Furthermore, he sees Utopianism, “the Enlightenment project”, anthropocentrism and any notion of human meaning as all originating in the Christian notion of “salvation”. Gray argues that all of these ideas are disproven by values pluralism – the idea that human life consists of an incommensurable range of values. Gray is also critical of human beings technological appropriation of the world and the ecological crisis that this consciousness has precipitated. Gray claims that all forms of universalism are mistaken because they privilege a particular set of values at the expense of others. Gray offers a modus vivendi as a political construct that can appropriate the insights of values pluralism, without privileging any particular set of values. Despite considering Christianity (and its offspring) illusory, Gray asserts that the “myth of human meaning” is a “necessary illusion”; it is one that human beings cannot live without. Gray’s argument, however, is beset with inconsistencies, including an implicit teleology, despite his explicit rejection of all teleology, and the tendency of his thought toward nihilism, undermining his proposal of a modus vivendi. In his own constructive proposal Gray inadvertently privileges values of peaceful coexistence and human flourishing. His own political vision has some similarities with the Christian vision of the ideal human life. Christian eschatology is examined through the work of Jürgen Moltmann, and the values of hope and love are highlighted as the ethical consequence of Christian eschatology, as opposed to the violence that Gray claims has been generated from it. Moltmann’s thought also reveals the resources present in a theological perspective that are able to resolve some of the contradictions between individuality and sociality and between human beings and nature. This has significant implications for the ecological crisis, which is also one of Gray’s central concerns. Finally, Martin Heidegger’s concept of Gelassenheit is examined as a point of common ground between Gray’s thought and a theological approach to the world of politics and nature.</p>

scholarly journals Gandhian Model of Community Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Bharat Prasad Badal
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mahatma Gandhi ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Great Leader ◽  
The World

 Gandhian Model of Community Development (GMCD) is a sustainable development model for governments in the central, provincial, and local levels of democratic federal countries in the world by the scientific analysis of Gandhian ideology in a specified community. Community Development is a method, a strategy, and a campaign to uplift human life settlements and to solve the community problems from a simple local perspective. The human settlement with local communal acceptance, local norms, and values, environmental protection, help and cooperation, trusteeship, health, education, sanitation, training, transportation, marketing, etc. are the major components of the Gandhian Model of Community Development. The global acceptance with local initiation, norms, knowledge and practices in the positive changes on human life is Gandhian Community Development. It is the core ideological view of the great leader of south Asia-Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi is also pronounced as second Buddha of the world. The main objective of the study is to develop a Gandhian Model of Community Development with the incorporation of thoughts and ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi. The study is the collection of Gandhian ideology with a programmatic model for the future development of the human being specified within the boundary with the specified indicators of the Gandhian Model of Community Development. It is a hermeneutic and historical interpretation of three universal truths- Generation, Operation, and Destruction for the liberation of human beings from a sustainable development strategy guided by Mahatma Gandhi. His ideas are herminuted in contemporary sustainable community development. In conclusion, the Gandhian Model of Community development is a model having Balance Sheet of Production and Consumption within the specified municipality and Gandhian Development Indicators for human liberation or development toward ultimate freedom.

The Sphere of the Human

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-322
Author(s):  
Helmuth Plessner ◽  
J. M. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Psychological Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Way

“Centric positionality” is a form of organism-environment relation exhibited by animal forms of life. Human life is characterized not only by centric but also by excentric positionality—that is, the ability to take a position beyond the boundary of one’s own body. Excentric positionality is manifest in: the inner, psychological experience of human beings; the outer, physical being of their bodies and behavior; and the shared, intersubjective world that includes other human beings and is the basis of culture. In each of these three worlds, there is a duality symptomatic of excentric positionality. Three laws characterize excentric positionality: natural artificiality, or the natural need of humans for artificial supplements; mediated immediacy, or the way that contact with the world in human activity, experience, and expression is both transcendent and immanent, both putting humans directly in touch with things and keeping them at a distance; and the utopian standpoint, according to which humans can always take a critical or “negative” position regarding the contents of their experience or their life.

3. Animals and the environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-47
Author(s):  
Damien Keown
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Meat Eating ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The Buddha

Is Buddhism truly an ‘eco-friendly’ religion? ‘Animals and the environment’ examines the implications of Buddhist teachings such as that human beings can be reborn as animals and vice versa. While the Buddhist ‘sublime attitudes’ such as kindness and compassion seem at first to favour animals to a greater degree than we find in Christianity, human life still takes precedence in the hierarchy of living beings. Rules about plant life are unclear, with Buddhist writers acknowledging the beauty of both the wilderness and civilization. Vegetarianism is largely seen as a morally superior diet, but meat-eating was common at the time of the Buddha and is widely practised by monks today. Buddhist attitudes toward the natural world are complex and are to some extent overshadowed by the belief that the world as we know it is fundamentally flawed.

scholarly journals Divinity, Noēsis, and Aristotelian Friendship

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-29
Author(s):  
John A. Houston
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Other Minds ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Rational Nature ◽  
Living Together ◽  
The World ◽  
Virtuous Activity

Aristotle's NE X claim that the best human life is one devoted to contemplation (theoria) seems in tension with his emphasis elsewhere on our essentially political nature, and more specifically, his claim that friendship is necessary for our flourishing. For, if our good can be in principle realized apart from the human community, there seems little reason to suggest we 'need' friends, as he clearly does in NE VIII & IX. I argue that central to Aristotle's NE X discussion of contemplation is the claim that our chief good accords with whatever is 'most divine' in us, viz. our rational nature (NE 1177b2-18). Thus, the best human life involves the excellent exercise of our rational capacities. I distinguish two ways in which human beings flourish through exercising their rationality. The first is in the activity of theoria. The second, I argue, can be found in the virtuous activity of complete friendship (teleia philia). For Aristotle the truest form of friendship is an expression of rationality. It is characterized not merely by our living together, but conversing, and sharing one another's thoughts (NE 1170b12-14). Examining Aristotle's notion of a friend as 'another self (alios autos), I argue that through friendship human beings come to better know themselves and the world in which they live. Complete friendship involves a (uniquely human) second-order awareness of oneself in another, and through this awareness our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live is enriched, confirmed, and enjoyed through the presence of other minds. Thus, the highest form of Aristotelian friendship is an intellectual activity through which we attain an analogue of the divine contemplation of the unmoved mover, thereby living with respect to what is most divine in us, but doing so in accordance with our uniquely rational-political nature.

Of Iron Cages, Double Binds, Epistemological Crises, and Environmental Destruction

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 358-379
Author(s):  
Anthony O. Balcomb
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
The World ◽  
Prediction And Control ◽  
Epistemological Crises ◽  
And Control

The Western worldview, otherwise known as the modern worldview, has its origins in ancient Greek culture and its best known analyst and critic is Max Weber. Weber described the rationalization processes by which it came about as involving the disenchantment of the world, the disengagement of the autonomous self from the world in order to become its central agent, the objectification of the cosmos and the bureaucratization of all aspects of human life with the intention of mastery and control. This has led to what Weber called the Iron Cage in which modern human beings find themselves, unable to escape the alienation that such disengagement has brought about but equally unable to find an alternative. The exploitative nature of the western project is the basic cause of the contemporary destruction of the environment. Gregory Bateson probes more deeply into the alienating influences of the modern worldview which he says is based on its inability to understand the world holistically, which will inevitably lead to the world’s destruction. At the heart of this condition is his theory of the double bind. His advocacy for a more holistic understanding of the world resonates with postmodern critics in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, and theology, all of whom are advocating engagement, vulnerability, and participation as opposed to separation, prediction, and control.

Human Rights

Philosophy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Stewart Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Widespread Agreement

There is an enormous range of contemporary and rapidly expanding literature on human rights that pervades almost every area of human life. This entry cannot do justice to all of these areas and would inevitably fail to cover all aspects of the philosophy of human rights. Here, the goal is more modest: offering a primary overview of the thorny literature and many vital human rights issues that can become increasingly complex and muddled. The concept of human rights, however, came to particular prominence in the 20th century after World War II, due to the atrocities (e.g., genocide against the Jews) committed by the Nazis. Since then, the idea of human rights has become profoundly influential in many different fields such as ethics, applied ethics, political philosophy, political sciences, law, international law, medicine, and public health. This has led to the formation of a new area in philosophy called “the philosophy of human rights.” The very idea of human rights, however, is older and can be traced back to early religious ideas and the notion of natural rights in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Generally speaking, human rights are primarily universal moral norms that bind all people in all places at all times independently of any legal recognition. Whether there is a widespread agreement that all human beings have human rights simply because they are human beings is a matter of debate. However, there is currently no common ground with regard to the moral and legal justification or the ontological and epistemological status of human rights. Human rights are primarily universal moral rights and, secondly, international legal rights observed and enforced by nation-states. Despite major caveats concerning the theoretical foundations of human rights, most scholars nonetheless hold the view that there is a vital consensus on the practical importance of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (cited under Modern Documents), is the most important human rights document and contains at least seven groups of basic rights: security rights, due process rights, liberty rights, political rights, equality rights, social welfare rights, and group rights.

Preserving the world for Christ

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Common Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

AbstractThe practices, habits and convictions that once allowed the inhabitants of Christendom to determine what they could reasonably do and say together to foster a just and equitable common life have slowly been displaced over the past few centuries by new configurations which have sought to maintain an inherited faith in an underlying purpose to human life while disassociating themselves from the God who had been the beginning and end of that faith. In the end, however, these new configurations are incapable of sustained deliberations about the basic conditions of our humanity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology provides important clues into what it takes to make and keep human life human in such a world. The first part of this essay examines Bonhoeffer's conception of the last things, the things before the last, and what binds them together. He argues that the things before the last do not possess a separate, autonomous existence, and that the positing of such a breach has had disastrous effects on human beings and the world they inhabit. The second part looks at Bonhoeffer's account of the divine mandates as the conceptual basis for coping with a world that has taken leave of God. Though this account of the mandates has much to commend it, it is hindered by problematic habits of interpretation that leave it vacillating between incommensurable positions. Bonhoeffer's incomplete insights are thus subsumed within Augustine's understanding of the two orders of human society set forth in City of God.

Pedagogika wobec problematyczności bytu ludzkiego. O konfliktach w życiu człowieka

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2 (252)) ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Rumianowska
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Existential Philosophy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Complex Mechanisms

The purpose of the article is to outline the problem of widely understood conflicts in human life from the perspective of existential philosophy. Without questioning the importance of psychological research on complex mechanisms underlying conflicts, the author points to the issue of the problematic nature of human existence, the category of freedom, the problem of the authenticity of being and the sense of meaning. In the second part of the paper, the essence of educational process in the context of experiencing difficulties and conflicting situations by human beings has been introduced. The necessity of taking into account the problem of being oneself and constituting a human being in relation to himself, the world and others has been presented.

Existential Philosophy and Psychotherapy Ethics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyon ◽  
Thomas Heidenreich
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Existential Philosophy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Authentic Life

This chapter introduces five central concepts of existential philosophy in order to deduce ethical principles for psychotherapy: phenomenology, authenticity, paradoxes, isolation, and freedom vs. destiny. Phenomenological perspectives are useful as a guideline for how to encounter and understand patients in terms of individuality and uniqueness. Existential communication as a means to search and face the truth of one’s existence is considered as a valid basis for an authentic life. Paradoxes that cannot be solved are characteristic for human existence and should be dealt with to turn resignation into active choices. Isolation is one of the “existentials” characterizing human life between two paradox poles: On the one hand we are deeply in need of relationships to other human beings; on the other hand we are thrown into the world alone and will always stay like this, no matter how close we get to another person. Further, addressing freedom and destiny as two extremes of one dimension can serve as a basis for orientation in life and also for dealing with the separation between responsibility and guilt.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document