scholarly journals RATIONAL AND IRRATIONAL IN THE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF ANCIENT RUSSIA

Author(s):  
V. V. Dolgov

The article is a polemical answer to the work of D. V. Puzanov, dedicated to the way of thinking in the culture of the early Russian Middle Ages. According to the author, a specific way of thinking was cultivated in the ancient Russian intellectual community. This way of thinking was characterized by mysticism, irrationalism and an appeal to the concept of “miracle”. At the same time, in ancient Russian sources one can find characters thinking rationally. These are the heroes of The Tale of Bygone Years and the Kiev-Pechersk Paterikon: Voivode Yan Vyshatich, Boyar Vasily and Prince Gleb. Their method of thinking is far from the methodology of modern scientific thinking, but it can also be considered rational. This is the main polemical idea of the author, directed against the conclusions of D. V. Puzanov, who believes that the similarity of medieval "rationalism" with real rational thinking is only superficial.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lindsay

Telling people about research is just as important as doing it. But many competent researchers are wary of scientific writing, despite its importance for sharpening scientific thinking, advancing their career, obtaining funding for their work and growing the prestige of their institution. This second edition of David Lindsay’s popular book Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words presents a way of thinking about writing that builds on the way good scientists think about research. The simple principles in this book will help you to clarify the objectives of your work and present your results with impact. Fully updated throughout, with practical examples of good and bad writing, an expanded chapter on writing for non-scientists and a new chapter on writing grant applications, this book makes communicating research easier and encourages researchers to write confidently. It is an ideal reference for researchers preparing journal articles, posters, conference presentations, reviews and popular articles; for students preparing theses; and for researchers whose first language is not English.


Author(s):  
Horace Walpole

‘Look, my lord! See heaven itself declares against your impious intentions’ The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction. It inaugurated a literary genre that will be forever associated with the effects that Walpole pioneered. Professing to be a translation of a mysterious Italian tale from the darkest Middle Ages, the novel tells of Manfred, prince of Otranto, whose fear of an ancient prophecy sets him on a course of destruction. After the grotesque death of his only son, Conrad, on his wedding day, Manfred determines to marry the bride–to–be. The virgin Isabella flees through a castle riddled with secret passages. Chilling coincidences, ghostly visitations, arcane revelations, and violent combat combine in a heady mix that terrified the novel's first readers. In this new edition Nick Groom examines the reasons for its extraordinary impact and the Gothic culture from which it sprang. The Castle of Otranto was a game-changer, and Walpole the writer who paved the way for modern horror exponents.


Author(s):  
Greti Dinkova-Bruun

This chapter examines the relationship between a text and its glosses, using examples from the later Middle Ages. It discusses interlinear glosses, marginal glosses, catena commentaries, as well as the layout of glosses. It argues that medieval glossing represented a new way of thinking and an important method for engaging with the literary and scholarly tradition.


1975 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet L. Nelson

To know what was generally believed in all ages, the way is to consult the liturgies, not any private man’s writings.’ John Selden’s maxim, which surely owed much to his own pioneering work as a liturgist, shows a shrewd appreciation of the significance of the medieval ordines for the consecration of kings. Thanks to the more recent efforts of Waitz, Eichmann, Schramm and others, this material now forms part of the medievalist’s stock in trade; and much has been written on the evidence which the ordines provide concerning the nature of kingship, and the interaction of church and state, in the middle ages. The usefulness of the ordines to the historian might therefore seem to need no further demonstration or qualification. But there is another side to the coin. The value of the early medieval ordines can be, not perhaps overestimated, but misconstrued. ‘The liturgies’ may indeed tell us ‘what was generally believed’—but we must first be sure that we know how they were perceived and understood by their participants, as well as by their designers. They need to be correlated with other sources, and as often as possible with ‘private writings’ too, before the full picture becomes intelligible.


2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Margaret Harvey

It is often forgotten that the medieval Church imposed public penance and reconciliation by law. The discipline was administered by the church courts, among which one of the most important, because it acted at local level, was that of the archdeacon. In the later Middle Ages and certainly by 1435, the priors of Durham were archdeacons in all the churches appropriated to the monastery. The priors had established their rights in Durham County by the early fourteenth century and in Northumberland slightly later. Although the origins of this peculiar jurisdiction were long ago unravelled by Barlow, there is no full account of how it worked in practice. Yet it is not difficult from the Durham archives to elicit a coherent account, with examples, of the way penance and ecclesiastical justice were administered from day to day in the Durham area in this period. The picture that emerges from these documents, though not in itself unusual, is nevertheless valuable and affords an extraordinary degree of detail which is missing from other places, where the evidence no longer exists. This study should complement the recent work by Larry Poos for Lincoln and Wisbech, drawing attention to an institution which would reward further research. It is only possible here to outline what the court did and how and why it was used.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-111
Author(s):  
Nasiba Norova ◽  

Introduction. The article discusses the poetic innovations, formal and stylistic peculiarities in the work of the talented poet Usmon Kuchkor. The poet's “muqarnas” are analyzed. The second half of the twentieth century and the period of independence have a special significance with Uzbek poetry, its charm, new tones and visual features. Methodological and formal research, the renewal of artistic thinking, the human heart and spiritual experiences, the vivid depiction of emotions form the basis of this poetry. In this, the importance of artistic thinking in particular is immeasurable. As the literary critic N. Rakhmonov noted: "The multifaceted and multilayered phenomenon - the concept of artistic thinking is a specific product of philosophical, ethical and political views, manifested in the way of thinking of the artist" [7,4]. Methods.


Author(s):  
Sekou Toure

Most of the books of Islamic Creed found in Islamic heritage are characterized by their presentation of theology from the perspective of a particular sect out of the major Islamic sects. This methodology has given rise to serious and detrimental problems that affect the ummah (Muslim nation) up until this day, and from it stems the issues that divide the ummah. It is thus apparent that it is incapable of presenting the issues of theology from the perspective of that unites the Muslims. It is true that this methodology had been sound at one point during which it had to be applied; it had been the means of expression in dialogues and the way to answer questions related to pertinent matters of the time, as well as to address urgent new issues at that particular time. However, the goal of teaching Islamic Creed in this time of ours academically in specific is not based upon the instabilities and issues that it had once driven it. Hence, it is necessary to change the approach, methodology, and discourse to suit the change in impetus to and the goal of authoring such books, as well as the change in the general way of living of the people and their way of thinking. It is also worth noting that the universal moral principles associated with such changes do not necessarily contradict religion. This review undertakes a new book attempting to respond to a challenge resulted out of the classical discourses and arguments in presenting Islamic worldviews, and hence the reality of so-called Ahl Sunnah Wal Jama’ah


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