scholarly journals Understanding Dante’s Comedy as Virtuous Friendship

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Matthew Rothaus Moser
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Dante Alighieri ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Spiritual Journey ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Religious Transformation ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Vision Of God

As Dante explains in his epistle to Can Grande, the purpose of the Comedy is to move the reader from a state of misery to a state of happiness. The poet himself testifies that the poem was written as a work of moral philosophy oriented to the achievement of happiness, eudaimonia: the beatific vision of God. Moreover, Dante insists on his poem’s efficacy to affect in its readers a similar moral and religious transformation as that which the poem represents through the narrative journey of the pilgrim. To put it another way, Dante represents his poem’s relationship to its reader as a kind of virtuous friendship. This essay sets forth a model for teaching Dante’s poem as an experiment in virtuous friendship that can transform the classroom into a workshop for the philosophical and religious quest for happiness. This involves teaching the text with an eye not only to the content and style of the poem but also to the performative and participatory demands of the text. Beginning with this framework, this essay works out pedagogical strategies for teaching the Comedy as a form of virtuous friendship extended over the centuries between Dante Alighieri and the contemporary reader. Chiefly, I explore ways Dante makes his readers complicit in the pilgrim’s own moral and spiritual journey toward the virtue of hope translated into the practice of prayer through a close, pedagogical reading of Inferno 3, Purgatorio 5, and Paradiso 20. I explore ways that Dante’s use of surprise, shock, misdirection, appeal to mystery, and retreat to silence creates a morally significant aporia of knowledge that serves as a laboratory for readers’ own virtuous transformation. I end with a critical assessment of the challenges involved in understanding the Comedy as virtuous friendship.

Nietzsche and Contemporary Ethics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Normative Authority ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
Principal Parts

Nietzsche is one of the most subversive ethical thinkers of the Western canon. This book offers a critical assessment of his ethical thought and its significance for contemporary moral philosophy. It develops a charitable but critical reading of his thought, pushing some claims and arguments as far as seems fruitful while rejecting others. But it also uses Nietzsche in dialogue with, so to contribute to, a range of long-standing issues within normative ethics, metaethics, value theory, practical reason, and moral psychology. The book is divided into three principal parts. Part I examines Nietzsche’s critique of morality, arguing that it raises well-motivated challenges to morality’s normative authority and value: his error theory about morality’s categoricity is in a better position than many contemporary versions; and his critique of moral values has bite even against undemanding moral theories, with significant implications not just for rarefied excellent types but also us. Part II turns to moral psychology, attributing to Nietzsche and defending a sentimentalist explanation of action and motivation. Part III considers his non-moral perfectionism, developing models of value and practical normativity that avoid difficulties facing many contemporary accounts and that may therefore be of wider interest. The discussion concludes by considering Nietzsche’s broader significance: as well as calling into question many of moral philosophy’s deepest assumptions, he challenges our usual views of what ethics itself is—and what it, and we, should be doing.

Diigo, Collaborative Knowledge Acquisition, and Social Networks of Graduate-Level Coursework

2014 ◽  
pp. 293-310
Author(s):  
John Fenn
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
Graduate Level ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Collaborative Tool ◽  
The University ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter offers description and reflexive insight into the multiple ways the authors has used Diigo as a collaborative learning tool in courses associated with the Master's of Arts Management degree program at the University of Oregon. The author discusses the particular attributes of the Diigo platform when it comes to finding, sharing, and collectively exploring online resources, paying close attention to where Diigo sits on the landscape of social networking sites. Drawing on a handful of examples across two graduate-level classes, the author also details the kinds of assignments and pedagogical strategies into which the author has woven Diigo as a collaborative tool. The chapter concludes with a critical assessment of the ways in which Diigo resonates with ideas of networked learning by foregrounding collaboration and participation in educational settings.

Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Osler
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Void Space ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Empiricist Theory ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
Natural Philosophers ◽  
European Thought

Pierre Gassendi, a French Catholic priest, introduced the philosophy of the ancient atomist Epicurus into the mainstream of European thought. Like many of his contemporaries in the first half of the seventeenth century, he sought to articulate a new philosophy of nature to replace the Aristotelianism that had traditionally provided foundations for natural philosophy. Before European intellectuals could accept the philosophy of Epicurus, it had to be purged of various heterodox notions. Accordingly, Gassendi modified the philosophy of his ancient model to make it conform to the demands of Christian theology. Like Epicurus, Gassendi claimed that the physical world consists of indivisible atoms moving in void space. Unlike the ancient atomist, Gassendi argued that there exists only a finite, though very large number of atoms, that these atoms were created by God, and that the resulting world is ruled by divine providence rather than blind chance. In contrast to Epicurus’ materialism, Gassendi enriched his atomism by arguing for the existence of an immaterial, immortal soul. He also believed in the existence of angels and demons. His theology was voluntarist, emphasizing God’s freedom to impose his will on the Creation. Gassendi’s empiricist theory of knowledge was an outgrowth of his response to scepticism. Accepting the sceptical critique of sensory knowledge, he denied that we can have certain knowledge of the real essences of things. Rather than falling into sceptical despair, however, he argued that we can acquire knowledge of the way things appear to us. This ‘science of appearances’ is based on sensory experience and can only attain probability. It can, none the less, provide knowledge useful for living in the world. Gassendi denied the existence of essences in either the Platonic or Aristotelian sense and numbered himself among the nominalists. Adopting the hedonistic ethics of Epicurus, which sought to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, Gassendi reinterpreted the concept of pleasure in a distinctly Christian way. He believed that God endowed humans with free will and an innate desire for pleasure. Thus, by utilizing the calculus of pleasure and pain and by exercising their ability to make free choices, they participate in God’s providential plans for the Creation. The greatest pleasure humans can attain is the beatific vision of God after death. Based on his hedonistic ethics, Gassendi’s political philosophy was a theory of social contract, a view which influenced the writings of Hobbes and Locke. Gassendi was an active participant in the philosophical and natural philosophical communities of his day. He corresponded with Hobbes and Descartes, and conducted experiments on various topics, wrote about astronomy, corresponded with important natural philosophers, and wrote a treatise defending Galileo’s new science of motion. His philosophy was very influential, particularly on the development of British empiricism and liberalism.

scholarly journals Libertà e contingenza della fruizione beatifica nello scotismo del primo ’300

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Alliney
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Main Interest ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
The Will ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Way

Este estudo tem como objeto a recepção da teoria scotista da vontade no início do século 14. Interesse precípuo é o modo como autores, sobretudo franciscanos, a partir das Universidades de Paris e de Oxford, discutiram sobre a possibilidade de uma escolha livre ou de um ato da própria vontade, por parte dos bemaventurados, quando da visão de Deus. Para tanto, pressuposições gerais da teoria scotista da vontade são apresentadas, bem como as inovações dos filósofos influenciados por Scotus. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Teoria scotista da vontade. Visão beatífica. Liberdade. Influência do pensamento scotista no século 14. ABSTRACT This study aims to analyse the reception of Scotus’s theory of will in the beginning of the 14th Century. The main interest is the way some authors, specially Franciscan thinkers, departing from the Universities of Paris and Oxford, discussed about the possibility for the blessed of a free choice or an act of the will itself concerning the vision of God. For this purpose, general pressupositions of Scotus’s theory of will shall be presented, as well as the innovations of those philosophers influenced by Scotus. KEY WORDS – Scotus’s theory of will. Beatific vision. Freedom. Influence os Scotistic thought in the 14th Century.

scholarly journals For Society – Against Morality?

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Leist
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Fundamental Level ◽  
Moral Content ◽  
David Copp ◽  
The Individual

AbstractMorality and society in moral philosophy are rarely brought into direct contact, at least not at a fundamental level of justification. David Copp develops an account of practical and moral rationality that could constitute a radical change. According to Copp moral theory has tobe ‘society-centered’ rather than focussing on the individual. This article is devoted to the moral content and structural features of a socially centered moral theory, and along those lines to its critical assessment. Concluding, it will seek to present an argument why moral philosophy ought not place society at the centre of its view.

scholarly journals ‘Upright, Whole, and Free’: Eschatological Union with God

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Kevin Timpe
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Dante Alighieri ◽  
Divine Comedy ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Divine Will ◽  
Union With God

In the closing canto of the Purgatorio in his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri describes the souls preparing to enter heaven as “new, remade, reborn, … perfect, pure, and ready for the Stars [i.e., heaven].” But what exactly would it mean for a human soul to be morally perfect and in perfect union with the divine will? Furthermore, if the soul fit for heaven is perfectly united with God, what sense does it make to think that individual retains their free will? In this talk, I assume a number of Christian claims about the Beatific Vision and argue that not only do the souls fit for heaven retain their freedom, but that they are in sense ‘more free’ despite their inability to do certain actions.

The Vision of God: Kenneth Kirk – a critical appreciation

Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Stephen Platten
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theology ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Vision Of God

A critical assessment of Bishop Kenneth Kirk’s classic book The Vision of God and its reception within, and influence upon, Anglican moral theology.

scholarly journals ’To Behold its Own Delight’: The Beatific Vision in Irenaeus of Lyons

Perichoresis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
Brian J. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Face ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
High Level ◽  
Main Ideas

Abstract The aim of this essay is to give a high-level overview of Irenaeus’s beatific vision, and to suggest that for him, the beatific vision has a temporal dimension (now and future) and a dimension of degree (lesser now, greater in the future). His beatific vision is witnessed as it intersects with at least four main ideas in his writing—the Trinity, anthropology, resurrection, and his eschatology. Irenaeus famously held that ‘the glory of God is living man, and the life of man is the vision of God’ (AH 4.20.7), which speaks to the reality of seeing God in the present, but he could also look forward in anticipation to beholding the face of God in the resurrected body in the new creation. What made the latter possible is the gradual beholding of God in the present that makes one prepared to see God’s glory in the future. Additionally, the visio Dei is Trinitarian. We behold God in Christ, since God the Father is invisible, and it is the Holy Spirit who prepares us incrementally to see God.

scholarly journals Christ Our Light: The Expectation of Seeing God in Calvin’s Theology of the Christian Life

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Carsten Card-Hyatt
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Commentaries ◽  
Vision Of God

AbstractThe beatific vision plays a prominent role in the history of Christian ethics. Reformed ethics has an ambiguous relationship to this history, on two counts. First, it offers some qualified critiques of the role of vision in ordering ethical understanding, and second, on some accounts, Reformed ethics shares some responsibility for the loss of transcendence in the modern world, and the narrowing of the ethical field that has resulted from this loss. This essay argues that the vision of God in John Calvin’s understanding of the Christian life offers resources to defend a Reformed ethics from some recent detractors. Further, it provides a constructive contrast with the role of eschatology in a prominent strand of 20th century ethics. This argument is sustained through a close reading of Calvin’s biblical commentaries on the role of theophanies and the promise of the vision of God, and of Book III, chapters 6-10 of the Institutes.

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