scholarly journals The use of hebel in Ecclesiastes: A political and economic reading

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel K.T. Biwul
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Personal Observation ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Negative Behaviour

A hermeneutical cloud still dominates ongoing discourse on the meaning and application of הֶבֶל (hebel), a crucial weaving thread in the book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew Qoheleth, presumably the disguised author, proposes the theological ideology of hebel as the totality of human existence in this book. What does Qohelethintend to achieve by asserting and dismissing everything in human experience as hebel (vanity, meaningless, worthless, not beneficial, absurd and enigma)? This article proposes a political and economic reading of Ecclesiastes, holding that the author, from personal observation, saw and addressed life from the point of view of ivory tower aristocrats who sought to control their environment by every means to their benefit. It suggests that a political and economic reading of Ecclesiastes locates another perspective on Qoheleth’s purposes for the use of hebel. As such, it argues that the Qoheleth uses hebel as a literary rhetorical device as an evaluative grid to critique and indict the negative behaviour of the politically powerful and the wealthy, to caution against the reckless abuse of political and economic power to their benefit by those who live in privilege in society, and lastly to give counsel for an appropriate application of such privileged power for the good of society vis-à-vis the transitory, transient and unpredictable nature of human existence.

scholarly journals Shifting frontiers of transcendence in theology, philosophy and science

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius W. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Epistemological Structure

This article dealt cursorily with developments in theology, philosophy and the sciences that have contributed to what one might call horizontal transcendence. The premise is that humans have evolved into beings that are wired for transcendence. Transcendence is described in terms of the metaphor of frontiers and frontier posts. Although the frontiers of transcendence shift according to the insights, understanding and needs of every epoch and world view, it remains transcendent, even in its immanent mode. Diverse perceptions of that frontier normally coexist in every era and we can only discern a posteriori which was the dominant one. Frontiers are fixed with reference to the epistemologies, notions of the subject and power structures of a given era. From a theological point of view, encounter with the transcendent affords insight, not into the essence of transcendence, but into human self-understanding and understanding of our world. Transcendence enters into the picture when an ordinary human experience acquires a depth and an immediacy that are attributed to an act of God. In philosophy, transcendence evolved from a noumenal metaphysics focused on the object (Plato), via emphasis on the epistemological structure and limits of the knowing subject (Kant) and an endeavour to establish a dynamic subject-object dialectics (Hegel), to the assimilation of transcendence into human existence (Heidegger). In the sciences certain developments opened up possibilities for God to act in non-interventionist ways. The limitations of such an approach are considered, as well as promising new departures – and their limitations – in the neurosciences. From all of this I conclude that an immanent-transcendent approach is plausible for our day and age.

Das Jahr 1913 in Geschichte und Gegenwart

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gangolf Hübinger
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Avant Garde

AbstractWhile the year 1913, seen from a modern point of view, is considered a monument to the literary and artistic avant-garde, it was in fact primarily a year when knowledge of the human experience was reordered and was considered by intellectual contemporaries as the ‘Age of Compilations’. In this introduction to the topic both perspectives on the year 1913 are compared. At the same time, ‘Syncronoptic Historiography’s’ claim of establishing a new link between literature and history is scrutinized.

scholarly journals Loodus tuleb tagasi: delfiinid ja saurused. Libauudistest, photoshop-muistenditest ja meemidest koroonakarantiini ajal

Mäetagused ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
Eda Kalmre ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Social ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Positive Effect

The article follows the narrative trend initiated by the social media posts and fake news during the first months of the corona quarantine, which claims that the decrease of contamination due to the quarantine has a positive effect on the environment and nature recovery. The author describes the context of the topic and follows the changes in the rhetoric through different genres, discussing the ways in which a picture can tell a truthful story. What is the relation between the context, truth, and rhetoric? This material spread globally, yet it was also readily “translated” into the Estonian context, and – what is very characteristic of the entire pandemic material – when approaching this material, truthful and fabricated texts, photos, and videos were combined. From the folkloristic point of view, these rumours in the form of fake news, first presented in the function of a tall tale and further following the sliding truth scale of legends, constitute a part of coping strategies, so-called crisis humour, yet, on the other hand, also a belief story presenting positive imagery, which surrounds the mainly apocalyptically perceived pandemic period and interprets the human existence on a wider scale. Even if these fake news and memes have no truth value, they communicate an idea – nature recovers – and definitely offer hope and a feeling of well-being.

scholarly journals CZŁOWIEK I ŚMIERĆ – MIĘDZY SEPARACJĄ A BLISKOŚCIĄ

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Piotr Ochotny
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Close Attention

The author, in his paper, pays close attention to the uncontrolled dialectics ofdeath within human existence; that which is actively experienced but passivelysustained; is the end of everything but the beginning of something new; is absolutecertainty but unpredictable uncertainty; is always and only personal for me but always and only personal for others, too. In fact, it is very difficult to explain themeaning of death from an ontological study of death: if and how death exists in thearea of human experience; if death is an immanent possibility for personal existenceor, is it introduced from outwith and occurs when we are not still living. To respondto these questions, the author proposes to use the bridging term, with which variousphilosophical positions can be qualified. This bridging term is ‘distance’ and ourdeath experience is defined as the distance between man (person acting) and hissubject (experience). The dialectical nature of this experience implies that deathmight be through an infinite separation or an infinite closeness to man. Driftingbetween those faraway shores, we can find in Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy. Herefers to death as Other (something else for man), but this does not mean that deathis strange or unknown within one’s life experience.

A residual problem in Iliad 24

1986 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Hooker
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Greek Epic ◽  
Great Poet ◽  
History Of ◽  
Single Method ◽  
Oral Theory ◽  
Satisfactory Answer ◽  
Residual Problem

The late Colin Macleod's commentary on Iliad 24 (Cambridge, 1982) has rightly received praise for its sensitivity to the nuances of Homeric language and its appreciation of the entire poem as a carefully constructed work of art. Although reluctant to accept the more radical solutions proposed by the ‘oral’ school, Macleod showed himself fully aware of the contribution made by the oral theory towards elucidating the history of the epic. Nevertheless, his commentary is concerned principally with the Iliad as we have it: a poem which is at one level a masterly re-telling of saga but at another a sublime tragedy, commiserating the sorrows inseparable from human existence and holding up for our admiration the heroes who nobly confront pain and death. I believe that much, and probably most, of the Iliad can and should be viewed in this light. The last book of all, as Macleod himself has shown, offers especially rich rewards to an interpreter who keeps in the front of his mind the overriding aims of the great poet. Yet Macleod's method, like any other single method, will never yield a fully satisfactory answer on all occasions. However the ‘definitive’ or ‘monumental’ composition of the Iliad was brought about, it formed only one stage (though from our point of view incomparably the most important stage) in the development of the Greek epic. Our Iliad cannot have been the first or the only treatment, on a large scale, of the matter of Troy.

ONE POINT OF VIEW: Face to Face with Tomorrow

1980 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 4-5
Author(s):  
Shirley A. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Face To Face

History and human experience do not really sort themselves into neat ten-year packages, but somehow the turn of a decade causes us habitually to take stock. Nowhere is this more evident than in the popular media which have been busily reviewing the seventies and speculating about the eighties for months now.

In the End, Love

2021 ◽  
pp. 178-213
Author(s):  
George Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Intercessory Prayer ◽  
Modern View ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
The Relationship

Christian faith in love characteristically believes that love is not conquered by death. Yet modern philosophy (e.g. Heidegger) proposes death as a limit to human existence. Noting the proximity of love and death in human experience, the chapter explores how the idea of an afterlife has been replaced by that of an eternal now in modern thought, as in Hegel and Schleiermacher, but also in modern atheism. The challenge of developing an authentically modern view is sharpened by a discussion of the relationship between death and love in Heidegger. This leads back to further reflection on human solidarity, with reference to the doctrine of the community of saints and intercessory prayer. Under the conditions of historical existence this remains a messianic possibility that can best be spoken of in the mode of the poetic, bringing about hope in a return to ontological rootedness.

A Philosophy for Human Existence

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Phenomenological Reduction ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Individual ◽  
Abstract Ideas ◽  
Being There ◽  
Being And Becoming

This chapter identifies the classical philosophical concepts with which existentialism is concerned—being, non-being, and becoming, existence, and essence. It shows how existentialist philosophers transform these abstract ideas to consider the concrete existence of the human individual from a subjective point of view. Starting from Whitman’s recognition of the here and now, and proceeding through Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Beauvoir, it is demonstrated how traditional philosophical categories first conceived by ancient philosophers echo through the existentialist movement. Kierkegaard’s rejection of idealist rationalism, Nietzsche’s retrieval of Heraclitus’s theory of becoming, Heidegger’s understanding of the human being as Dasein or “being there,” Sartre’s notion of “existence precedes essence,” and Beauvoir’s comparison of existentialist conversion to the phenomenological reduction are discussed in light of existentialist affirmation of the transience and particularity of the human self.

Sleep and dreams of the blind

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Marzenna Zaorska
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Being ◽  
General Perspective

One can risk a statement that the problem of sleep has been of interest almost since the dawn of human existence. It remains interesting up until now, not only because of a thread of mystery, but also from the strictly scientific point of view and in order to get closer to the understanding the phenomenon of human being. The issue of sleep inpeople who were born blind seems equally significant and fascinating,. Therefore, the article presents the dilemma of sleep both from a general perspective and alsoin the context of dreams of people who were born blind. Four adults (two women and two men) experiencing the consequences of being blindfrom birth took part in the study.

Estimation of Least Loss Power Contracts in a Deregulated Environment

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thukaram Dhadbanjan ◽  
Vyjayanthi Chintamani
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
System Security ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Transmission Losses ◽  
Real Power ◽  
Load Location ◽  
Power Contracts

An economic power contract agreement can be entered into by transacting with the cheapest generator. However, from the generation-load location and transmission systems point of view, this may not always be the desired contract, as selecting only the cheapest generator may sometimes lead to transmission bottlenecks. This paper presents the most desired way to select a generator and its Mega-Watt (MW) generation schedule while forming contracts, which results in minimised losses. The approach is based on a concept called the Relative Electrical Distance (RED), which uses the information of the relative distances between the generator and load buses in its analysis. With this information, the value of Desired Generation Schedule (DGS) can be obtained. The generators are scheduled as per DGS and real power flows are traced and each generator’s load and loss sharing proportions are computed. The power contracts formed based on DGS will ensure better system security, better voltage profiles and also result in minimised transmission losses. With the allocation information, transmission basic and transmission supplementary charges are estimated. Illustrative case studies are carried out on a sample 6 bus and IEEE 39-bus systems.

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