scholarly journals Covid-19: Pandemonium in our time

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bergquist ◽  
Laura Rinaldi

While pandemonium has come to mean wild and noisy disorder, the reference here is to John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost and the upheaval following Lucifer's banishment from Heaven and his construction of Pandæmonium as his hub. Today's avalanche of conflicting news on how to deal with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) brings to mind the Trinity nuclear bomb test with Enrico Fermi estimating its strength by releasing small pieces of paper into the air and measuring their displacement by the shock wave. Fermi's result, in fact not far from the true value, emphasised his ability to make good approximations with few or no actual data. The current wave of Covid-19 presents just this kind of situation as it engulfs the world from ground zero in Wuhan, China. Much information is indeed missing, but datasets that might lead to useful ideas on how to handle this pandemic are steadily accumulating.

Author(s):  
Joanna Rzepa

This chapter offers a historical account of the presence of Paradise Lost in translation and Polish literature, especially how the poem’s reception in Poland has been shaped by complex modes of linguistic and cultural transfer. The chapter explores the historical and political contexts in which Paradise Lost was translated into Polish, discusses the most important actors involved in its publication, and analyses the strategies employed by the translators. It demonstrates that the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century translators of Milton, who worked at a time when Poland had lost its political sovereignty, focused specifically on the form of the poem, presenting models for a modern Polish epic poem that could help sustain Polish cultural identity. The focus of the twentieth-century translators, who lived through the world wars, shifted from the form to the rich imagery of Milton’s poem, in particular his exploration of the themes of vanity, destruction, and exile.


Author(s):  
Dilan Tuysuz

John Milton, in his epic poem Paradise Lost, describes the expulsion of Adam and Eve from heaven, leading to the beginning of the oldest struggle. However, the representation of the devil in Milton's work, which is considered responsible for all evil in the world, is striking. The fact that Milton's devil's temptation has taken precedence over the story of expulsion of Adam and Eve is similar to Batman being overshadowed by the evil character Joker. Batman, who has many virtues and positive qualities as a superhero, has not impressed the audience as much as wicked Joker. But what makes the bad characters attractive to the reader/audience in Milton's Satan and the Joker? Is the Joker mentally ill? Is there a rebellion like the Satan's behind the Joker's malicious actions or is it possible to talk about a different motivation? The aim of this chapter is to explore the answers to these and similar questions by taking a journey through the psychology of evil. Thus, it will be possible to understand whether our admiration of bad characters is a reflection of the darkness within us.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (22) ◽  
pp. e2101350118
Author(s):  
Luca Bindi ◽  
William Kolb ◽  
G. Nelson Eby ◽  
Paul D. Asimow ◽  
Terry C. Wallace ◽  
...  

The first test explosion of a nuclear bomb, the Trinity test of 16 July 1945, resulted in the fusion of surrounding sand, the test tower, and copper transmission lines into a glassy material known as “trinitite.” Here, we report the discovery, in a sample of red trinitite, of a hitherto unknown composition of icosahedral quasicrystal, Si61Cu30Ca7Fe2. It represents the oldest extant anthropogenic quasicrystal currently known, with the distinctive property that its precise time of creation is indelibly etched in history. Like the naturally formed quasicrystals found in the Khatyrka meteorite and experimental shock syntheses of quasicrystals, the anthropogenic quasicrystals in red trinitite demonstrate that transient extreme pressure–temperature conditions are suitable for the synthesis of quasicrystals and for the discovery of new quasicrystal-forming systems.


2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Vargo

The improbable course of Thomas Cooper'slife (1805–1892) – from shoemaker and autodidact, to school teacher, to Methodist circuit rider, to Chartist activist, to prison poet, and finally to working-class lecturer and editor – encapsulates the tensions and contradictions of Victorian self-help. Fiercely devoted to projects of self-education and improvement, as an apprentice craftsman in Lincolnshire, Cooper memorizedHamletand significant portions ofParadise Lost, and taught himself Latin, French, and some Hebrew. The publication ofThe Purgatory of the Suicides, the epic poem for which he is best known, made Cooper a minor celebrity in the world of middle-class literary reformers, who praised his artistic and educational accomplishments. The novelist and Christian socialist Charles Kingsley discerned in his heroic commitment to “the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties” an alternative to political militancy and loosely basedAlton Locke, the story of a disillusioned Chartist hero's spiritual redemption, on Cooper's own life (Collins 3–4). Samuel Smiles, the Scottish reformer and author ofSelf-Help, celebrated Cooper's writing as part of a national culture which could help heal the country's social and economic divisions, arguing that his literary achievements placed him in “the same class as Burns, Ebenezer Elliot, Fox, the Norwich weaver-boy, to say nothing of the Arkwrights, Smeatons, Brindleys, Chantrys, and the like, all rising out of the labour-class into the class of the thinkers and builders-up of English greatness” (Smiles 244).


Author(s):  
Г.К. Рысбаева ◽  
Ш.Б. Бәйнеш

Аннотация: Бул макалада араб, перси, түрк тилдеринен кабыл алынган кудай («алла», «теңир») темасына байланыштуу когнитивдик фразеологизмдери иликтѳѳгѳ алынган. Учурда жалпы адамзаттык деңгээлде дүйнѳ таанууга тиешелүү дүйнонүн тилдик элеси маселеси жана филологиялык түшүнүктѳрдүн катарына кирет. «Тил –ойлоо –дүйнѳ» триядасында «Дүйнѳнүн тилдик элеси, дүйнѳнүн концептуалдык элеси» маселелерин изилдѳѳ азыркы тил илиминдеги актуалдуу маселелердин алкагына кирет. Дүйнөнүн тилдик элеси –тил маселесинде борбордук орунду ээлеген адамга тиешелүү тилдик формада жана структурада реалдуу болмуштун ѳзгѳчѳ ыкмада чагылдырылышы, элестелиши макалада кеңири сөз болот. Түйүндүү сѳздѳр: антропонимдер, тотемизм, анимизм, семантика, адам аттары,дүйнѳнүн образы, культтук сѳздѳр. Аннотация: В статье рассматриваются антропонимы арабско-персидского происхождения, посвящённые культу Бога («Құдай», «Алла», «Тәңірі»), а также связанные с ними когнитивные фразеологизмы в тюркских языках. В настоящее время рассмотрение языковой картины мира в общечеловеческих понятиях познания мира, являются философским и филологическим понятиями. Исследование «Языковой картины мира» и «Концептуальной картины мира» в триединстве «Язык-мышление-мир» является одной из актуальных проблем современного языкознания. Языковая картина мира - специфический для данного языка способ отражения и представления действительности в языковых формах и структурах в ее отношении с человеком, который является центральной фигурой языка. Ключевые слова: антропонимы, тотемизм, анимизм, семантика, имена людей, образ мира, культовое слово. ABSTRACT: The article deals with anthroponomy of the Arab-Persian origin that are devoted to the cults of the God, and related to them cognitive phraseologies in Turkic languages. The main cognitive concepts that are reflected in the national Turkic in verbal parasitological units from lingo-cultural and ethno linguistic aspects are analyzed. Now consider the language picture of the world in general human cognition in the unity of the world model, and with the same conceptual view of the world is a philosophical and philological concept. The study «Language world» and «Linguistic Map of the World» in the trinity «Language-thought-world» is one of the urgent problems of modern linguistics. Language world - a specific method for the language of reflection and representation of reality in language forms and structures in its relation with the person who is the central figure of the language. Keywords: anthroponyms, totemism, animism, semantics, names of people, image of the world, cult word.


Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle

In recent years the economy has become globalized. Globalization is the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and culture facilitated by innovations in transportation and communication technologies. This chapter examines the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on Catholic social teaching. It looks, in particular, at Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Pope Benedict criticizes how the current global economy exploits and excludes vulnerable populations around the world. Caritas in Veritate further develops the communio framework initiated by John Paul II and proposes that the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity provides a model for the shape globalization should take, recognizing unity in the midst of diversity. The chapter also looks at how Catholic social thought itself is globalizing, examining in particular the work of Mary Mee-Yin Yuen from Hong Kong and Stan Chu Ilo from Nigeria.


Author(s):  
Samuel Lebens

Hassidic idealism is the view that the world and everything in it (even you and I) exist only in the mind of God. To be is to be part of God’s dream, or the story that God is telling. This chapter argues that Hassidic idealism, coupled with an understanding of the philosophy and semantics of fiction, allows us to generate a distinctive solution to ‘the problem with sefirot.’ The sefirot are the attributes of God, as the Kabbalistic tradition understands them. The problem with the sefirot is that, as they are classically understood, belief in them seems to collapse into polytheism. The problem is analogous to certain problems facing the Christian belief in the Trinity. This chapter proposes an original Hassidic solution to this problem that relies upon various insights about fictions within fictions, and fictions that include their authors as a character.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy G.A. Ive

This article sets out what it calls the ‘scholastic dilemma’ about whether God’s relation to the world is necessary or contingent – the former is based on a view of God primarily as intellect and the latter on a view of God primarily as will. In his dictum, Deus legibus solutus est sed non exlex, John Calvin rejects both these positions. The trinitarian basis for this dictum was spelt out more fully by later Calvinistic thinkers, including Abraham Kuyper and Cornelius van Til. Implicitly for Calvin and explicitly for Kuyper and Van Til, the love of the Persons of the Trinity for one another is the basis for God’s covenantal trustworthiness in his dealings with the world. Recognising this trinitarian basis allows us to conceive of God as at once faithful in his dealing with the world, and yet not dependent on the world for his existence. This has profound and far-reaching implications for our understanding of society, including the universal and institutional church and a recognition of the priority of relationships, both theoretically and practically.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter John Worsley

Robson in 1983 and 1988 in his reconsideration of the poetics of kakawin epics and Javanese philology drew readers’ attention to the importance of genre for the history of ancient Javanese literature. Aoyama in his study of the kakawin Sutasoma in 1992, making judicious use of Hans Jauss’s concept of “horizon of expectation”, offered the first systematic discussion of the genre of Old Javanese literary works. The present essay offers a commentary on the terms which mpu Monaguna and mpu Prapañca, authors of the thirteenth century epic kakawin Sumanasāntaka and the fourteenth century Deśawarṇana, themselves, employ to refer to the generic characteristics of their poems. Mpu Monaguna referred to his epic poem as a narrative work (kathā), written in a prakṛt, Old Javanese, and rendered in the poetic form of a kakawin and finally as a ritual act intended to enable the poet to achieve apotheosis with his tutelary deity and his poem to be the means of transforming the world, in particular to ensure the wellbeing of the readers, listeners, copyists and those who possessed copies of his poetic work. Mpu Prapañca described his Deśawarṇana differently. Also written in Old Javanese and in the poetic form of a kakawin—he refers to his work variously as a narrative work (kathā), a chronicle (śakakāla or śakābda), a praise poem (kastawan) and also as a ritual act designed to enable the author in an ecstatic state of rapture (alangö), and filled with the power and omniscience of his tutelary deity, to ensure the continued prosperity of the realm of Majapahit and to secure the rule of his king Rājasanagara. The essay considers each of these literary categories.


Author(s):  
David. T. Williams

The emergence of the Charismatic movement has generated a new awareness and interest in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, but has also brought a realisation that there is a still-neglected Person of the Trinity, the Father. Part of the reason for this lies in the historical development in the doctrine of the Trinity, which led to a belief that external actions of God are not differentiated between the Persons, and also in the fact that the Father only generally acts in the world by Son and Spirit, so has no clear role. It seems natural to attribute creation to the Father, but even here, the Bible sees the Son as the actual creator. Nevertheless, the Father can be seen as the source of the concepts and means behind the material; interestingly there are hints of this in classical Greek thought and other faiths. This is ongoing, perhaps particularly in the evolutionary process of the world. Thus, paralleling the incarnation, the Father is present in the material universe, as its ethos. He can also be seen to be affected by creation, sharing in its nature in his kenōsis, and in its suffering. Creation then inspires a sense of wonder not only from its existence, extent and nature, but from its interactions and underlying concepts; this is worship of the Father. Sin is then when this is overlooked, or when actions disrupt it; these are an offence to the Father.


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