Meeting Face to Face: C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces and the Problem of Divine Hiddenness

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-183
Author(s):  
Derek King

C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces is, among other things, a meditation on and response to divine hiddenness. The theme of hiddenness stretches throughout the work, and Orual's accusation against the gods centers precisely on the silence of the gods. Accordingly, Lewis gives a number of responses to the problem of divine silence or hiddenness in the novel. In this paper, I explore Lewis's engagement with divine hiddenness by comparing his framing of the problem, and his responses given, to divine hiddenness in modern philosophy of religion: the argument of J. L. Schellenberg and his responders. I argue that at least two of Lewis's responses in Till We Have Faces are similar to those found in this literature, despite predating Schellenberg's argument by almost fifty years, and that a third response, though different, is an important though often neglected response today.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk Lougheed

The axiological question in the philosophy of religion is the question of what impact, if any, God’s existence does (or would) make to the axiological value of our world. It has recently been argued that we should prefer a theistic world where God is hidden to an atheistic world or a theistic world where God isn’t hidden. This is because in a hidden theistic world all of the theistic goods obtain in addition to the experience of atheistic goods. I complete this line of argument by showing that theistic goods do (or could) indeed obtain in a world where God hides. In doing so I indirectly argue against proponents of divine hiddenness arguments such as J.L. Schellenberg. The correct answer to the axiological question turns out to be a solution to the problem of divine hiddenness.


This book explores the value for literary studies of relevance theory, an inferential approach to communication in which the expression and recognition of intentions plays a major role. Drawing on a wide range of examples from lyric poetry and the novel, nine of the ten chapters are written by literary specialists and use relevance theory both as an overall framework and as a resource for detailed analysis. The final chapter, written by the co-founder of relevance theory, reviews the issues addressed by the volume and explores their implications for cognitive theories of how communicative acts are interpreted in context. Originally designed to explain how people understand each other in everyday face-to-face exchanges, relevance theory—described in an early review by a literary scholar as ‘the makings of a radically new theory of communication, the first since Aristotle’s’—sheds light on the whole spectrum of human modes of communication, including literature in the broadest sense. Reading Beyond the Code is unique in using relevance theory as a prime resource for literary study, and is also the first to apply the model to a range of phenomena widely seen as supporting an ‘embodied’ conception of cognition and language where sensorimotor processes play a key role. This broadened perspective serves to enhance the value for literary studies of the central claim of relevance theory: that the ‘code model’ is fundamentally inadequate to account for human communication, and in particular for the modes of communication that are proper to literature.


Acta Classica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 340-344
Author(s):  
Suzanne Sharland
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changsheng Li ◽  
Xiaoyi Gu ◽  
Xiao Xiao ◽  
Chwee Ming Lim ◽  
Xingguang Duan ◽  
...  

There are high risks of infection for surgeons during the face-to-face COVID-19 swab sampling due to the novel coronavirus’s infectivity. To address this issue, we propose a flexible transoral robot with a teleoperated configuration for swab sampling. The robot comprises a flexible manipulator, an endoscope with a monitor, and a master device. A 3-prismatic-universal (3-PU) flexible parallel mechanism with 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) is used to realize the manipulator’s movements. The flexibility of the manipulator improves the safety of testees. Besides, the master device is similar to the manipulator in structure. It is easy to use for operators. Under the guidance of the vision from the endoscope, the surgeon can operate the master device to control the swab’s motion attached to the manipulator for sampling. In this paper, the robotic system, the workspace, and the operation procedure are described in detail. The tongue depressor, which is used to prevent the tongue’s interference during the sampling, is also tested. The accuracy of the manipulator under visual guidance is validated intuitively. Finally, the experiment on a human phantom is conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the robot preliminarily.


Author(s):  
Simon Glew ◽  
Elizabeth M Ford ◽  
Helen Elizabeth Smith

Introduction and Objectives The accuracy of conclusions based on Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) research is highly dependent on the correct selection of descriptors (codes) by users. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of filmed vignette monologues as a resource-light method of assessing and comparing how different EHR users record the same clinical scenario. Methods Six short monologues of actors portraying patients presenting allergic conditions to their General Practitioners were filmed head-on then electronically distributed for the study; no researcher was present during data collection. The method was assessed by participant uptake, reported ease of completion by participants, compliance with instructions, the receipt of interpretable data by researchers, and participant perceptions of vignette quality, realism and information content. Results 22 participants completed the study, reporting only minor difficulties. 132 screen prints were returned electronically, enabling analysis of codes, free text and EHR features. Participants assigned a quality rating of 7.7/10 (range 2-10) to the vignettes and rated the extent to which vignettes reflected real-life (86-100%). Between 1 and 2 hours were required to complete the task. Full compliance with instructions varied between participants but was largely successful. Conclusions Filmed monologues are a reproducible, standardized method which require few resources, yet allow clear assessment of clinicians’ and EHRs systems’ impact on documentation. The novel nature of this method necessitates clear instructions so participants can fully complete the study without face to face researcher oversight.


Author(s):  
Andrew Bowie

Novalis (the name is a pseudonym adopted for his published writings) was, together with Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher, the leading philosophical thinker of ‘early German Romanticism’. Until recently Novalis was regarded primarily as a poet and as the author of the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen, who wrote some philosophical work in conjunction with his writings on natural science and on the political matters of his day. In the wake of the renewed philosophical interest in the philosophy of J.G. Fichte and other German idealist thinkers, there has been a reassessment of the writings of both Schlegel and Novalis. It is now apparent that, far from being, as most commentators present them, defenders of Fichte’s ‘subjective idealism’, Novalis and Schlegel arrived at significant criticisms of Fichte’s idealism and initiated an anti-foundationalist tendency in modern philosophy which still has significant resonances today.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
Melinda Jones Ault ◽  
Ginevra Courtade ◽  
Sally A. Miracle ◽  
Amanda E. Bruce

In the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, teachers were forced to quickly determine how to deliver a free appropriate public education to their students when in-person instruction was not possible. School districts and states have a variety of ways to provide supports to their teachers. One method for providing technical assistance, professional development, consultation, and mentoring to teachers is through the use of regional cooperatives. In this Practice in Action article, two educational cooperative consultants present their experiences in supporting their teachers in the face of the pandemic. Successful strategies the cooperatives developed for teachers included providing trainings in online formats, creating an organized list of resources appropriate for online teaching, and facilitating opportunities for teachers to work together to problem solve in the era of the novel COVID-19. Challenges for teachers providing instruction for their students when schools were closed to face-to-face instruction are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (46) ◽  
pp. 9918-9923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giwoong Nam ◽  
Byunggu Kim ◽  
Youngbin Park ◽  
Seonhee Park ◽  
Jiyun Moon ◽  
...  

We report the novel regrowth method of spin-coated Mg0.25Zn0.75O films through the use of vapor-confined face-to-face annealing (VC-FTFA).


Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Cynthia R. Wallace

Theories of literary ethics often emphasize either content or the structural relationship between text and reader, and they tend to bracket pedagogy. This essay advocates instead for an approach that sees literary representation and readerly attention as interanimating and that considers teaching an important aspect of an ethics of reading. To support these positions, I turn to Katherena Vermette’s 2016 novel The Break, which both represents the urgent injustice of sexualized violence against Indigenous women and girls and also metafictionally comments on the ethics of witnessing. Describing how I read with my students the novel’s insistent thematization of face-to-face encounters and practices of attention as an invitation to read with Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil, I explicate the text’s self-aware commentary on both the need for readers to resist self-enlargement in their encounters with others’ stories and also the danger of generalizing readerly responsibility or losing sight of the material realities the text represents. I source these challenges both in the novel and in my students’ multiple particularities as readers facing the textual other. Ultimately, the essay argues for a more careful attention to which works we bring into our theorizing of literary ethics, and which theoretical frames we bring into classroom conversations.


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