scholarly journals Qinghua School of Logic and the Origins of Taiwanese Studies in Modern Logic

Asian Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-250
Author(s):  
Jan Vrhovski
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Logic ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Other ◽  
Republican China ◽  
Modern Logic ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Mou Zongsan ◽  
The One

The article investigates the early thought of Mou Zongsan and Yin Haiguang, two important founding fathers of Taiwanese philosophy, who contributed significantly to its formation as an academic discipline in the two decades following 1949. The article reveals how their ideas related to modern logic originated from the so-called “Qinghua School of (Mathematical) Logic”. Herewith, the article tries to provide a platform that can be used to answer the questions of continuity and succession between the studies of modern logic as conducted at the most progressive (modernised) universities in late Republican China (especially Qinghua University) on the one side, and the formation and development of studies in logic in post-1949 Taiwan, on the other.

scholarly journals Mysticism and/in the Old Testament: Methodological orientation and a textual example

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Lombaard
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mission History ◽  
The One ◽  
Interpretative Framework

This contribution is the second in a series on methodology and Biblical Spirituality. In the first article, ‘Biblical spirituality and interdisciplinarity: The discipline at cross-methodological intersection’, the matter was explored in relationship to the broader academic discipline of Spirituality. In this contribution, the focus is narrowed to the more specific aspect of mysticism within Spirituality Studies. It is not rare for Old Testament texts to be understood in relationship to mystical contexts. One the one hand, when Old Testament texts are interpreted from a mystical perspective, the methods with which such interpretations are studied are familiar. The same holds true, on the other hand, if texts in the Old Testament, dating from the Hellenistic period, are identified as mystic. However, African mission history has taught us that the Western interpretative framework, based on ancient Greek philosophical suppositions (most directly the concepts rendered by Plato and Aristotle) and rhetorical orientations, is so strong that it transposes that which it encounters in other cultures into its terms, thus rendering the initial cultural understandings inaccessible. This is precisely the case too with Old Testament texts dating from pre-Hellenistic times, identified as mystic. What are the methodological parameters required to understand such texts on their own terms? In fact, is such an understanding even possible?

scholarly journals PETER COMESTOR'S LECTURES ON THE GLOSSA “ORDINARIA” ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN THE BIBLE AND THEOLOGY IN THE TWELFTH-CENTURY CLASSROOM

Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 203-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER ANDRÉE
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Traditional Account ◽  
Glossa Ordinaria ◽  
The One ◽  
Alternative Understanding

The traditional account of the development of theology in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is that the emerging “academic” discipline of theology was separated from the Bible and its commentary, that the two existed on parallel but separate courses, and that the one developed in a “systematic” direction whereas the other continued to exist as a separate “practical” or “biblical-moral” school. Focusing largely on texts of an allegedly “theoretical” nature, this view misunderstands or, indeed, entirely overlooks the evidence issuing from lectures on the Bible — postills, glosses, and commentaries — notably the biblical Glossa “ordinaria.” A witness to an alternative understanding, Peter Comestor, master and chancellor of the cathedral school of Paris in the second half of the twelfth century, shows that theology was created as much from the continued study of the Bible as from any “systematic” treatise. Best known for his Historia scholastica, a combined explanation and rewrite of the Bible focusing on the historical and literal aspects of sacred history, Comestor used the Gloss as a textbook in his lectures on the Gospels both to elucidate matters of exegesis and to help him deduce doctrinal truth. Through a close reading of Comestor's lectures on the Gospel of John, this essay reevaluates the teaching of theology at the cathedral school of Paris in the twelfth century and argues that the Bible and its Gloss stood at the heart of this development.

The Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources: A Philosophical Analysis of the Halakhic Sources

AJS Review ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Sokol
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Real Thing ◽  
Medical Resources ◽  
The Real ◽  
Jewish Ethics ◽  
The One

What is Jewish ethics? Is there a distinct academic discipline under the rubric of “Jewish studies” or “Jewish philosophy” which can properly be called “Jewish ethics”? The answer to these two related questions is more elusive than one might think. Indeed, it has recently been argued that there really is no such thing as Jewish ethics at all. On the one hand, if a principle of action is truly ethical, then it must be universal, and if it is universal, it cannot be distinctively Jewish. On the other hand, if Jewish ethics is really halakhah in disguise, as so many writers in the field of medical ethics, for example, seem to believe, then why bother with the disguise if one can get the real thing?

scholarly journals Whither Neurotheology?

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 634
Author(s):  
W. R. Klemm
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
Theories Of Evolution ◽  
The One ◽  
The Big Bang

Human culture has modernized at a much faster pace than has theology and religion. We are at the point where many moderns apparently think that religion is losing relevance. Satisfying the need for relevance and ecumenical harmony requires more reasoned and mature approaches to religion. Science is one of those secular activities that seems to undermine religious faith for many people. Unlike the sciences that give us the Big Bang, relativity, quantum mechanics, and theories of evolution, neuroscience is the one science that applies in everyday life toward developing a faith that promotes nurturing of self and others. Modern neuroscience and the mental health understanding that it creates can contribute to satisfying this need. Neuroscience and religion have numerous shared areas of concern, and each worldview can and should inform and enrich the other. Neuroscience may help us understand why we believe certain religious ideas and not others. It helps to explain our behavior and might even help us live more righteous and fulfilled lives. Religion can show neuroscientists areas of religious debate that scientific research might help resolve. New educational initiatives at all levels (secondary, seminary, and secular college) can provide a way to integrate neuroscience and religion and lead to religious perspectives that are more reasoned, mature, satisfying, and beneficial at both individual and social levels. Neurotheology is an emerging academic discipline that seems to focus on integrating neuroscience and theology. About only 10 years old, neurotheology has not yet consolidated its definition, ideology, purpose, or scholarly or applied strategies. Acceptance by the scholarly community is problematic. This manuscript raises the question of whether neurotheology will survive as a viable discipline and, if so, what form that could take.

The Age of the Sign: New Light on the Role of the Fourteenth Century in the History of Semiotics

Dialogue ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludger Kaczmarek
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Success ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
History Of ◽  
Getting Lost ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

Semiotics, the age-old investigation of signs, is still striving for acknowledgement as a scientific (and academic) discipline. Though the ‘linguistic turn’ in the philosophical disciplines seemed to be followed by a ‘semiotic turn’ in many sciences during the 1970s, efforts were not crowned by great success. When seen from a certain distance, a definition of semiotics as a discipline can only be obtained from its history. Research into the sources of the human pre-occupation with signs, and with concepts or conceptions of signs, is really desirable and even necessary when a field of considerable scientific interest at the brink of being awarded the rank of a discipline runs the risk of getting lost between the unificationism of the Morris-type and the elegance of pseudo-mathematical empty classificationism (such as demonstrated in the late Max Bense's Stuttgart School) on the one side, and profitable exploitation of the sign's popularized design qualities on the other.

Set theory, different systems of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Potter
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Mathematical Logic ◽  
Set Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Class Theory ◽  
Iterative Conception ◽  
The One ◽  
Limitation Of Size ◽  
As If

To begin with we shall use the word ‘collection’ quite broadly to mean anything the identity of which is solely a matter of what its members are (including ‘sets’ and ‘classes’). Which collections exist? Two extreme positions are initially appealing. The first is to say that all do. Unfortunately this is inconsistent because of Russell’s paradox: the collection of all collections which are not members of themselves does not exist. The second is to say that none do, but to talk as if they did whenever such talk can be shown to be eliminable and therefore harmless. This is consistent but far too weak to be of much use. We need an intermediate theory. Various theories of collections have been proposed since the start of the twentieth century. What they share is the axiom of ‘extensionality’, which asserts that any two sets which have exactly the same elements must be identical. This is just a matter of definition: objects which do not satisfy extensionality are not collections. Beyond extensionality, theories differ. The most popular among mathematicians is Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZF). A common alternative is von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel class theory (NBG), which allows for the same sets but also has proper classes, that is, collections whose members are sets but which are not themselves sets (such as the class of all sets or the class of all ordinals). Two general principles have been used to motivate the axioms of ZF and its relatives. The first is the iterative conception, according to which sets occur cumulatively in layers, each containing all the members and subsets of all previous layers. The second is the doctrine of limitation of size, according to which the ‘paradoxical sets’ (that is, the proper classes of NBG) fail to be sets because they are in some sense too big. Neither principle is altogether satisfactory as a justification for the whole of ZF: for example, the replacement schema is motivated only by limitation of size; and ‘foundation’ is motivated only by the iterative conception. Among the other systems of set theory to have been proposed, the one that has received widespread attention is Quine’s NF (from the title of an article, ‘New Foundations for Mathematical Logic’), which seeks to avoid paradox by means of a syntactic restriction but which has not been provided with an intuitive justification on the basis of any conception of set. It is known that if NF is consistent then ZF is consistent, but the converse result has still not been proved.

What Is a Science of Religion?

Philosophy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-503
Author(s):  
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Emile Durkheim ◽  
Shared Reality ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Local Identities ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
The One

AbstractModern sociology and anthropology proposed from their very beginnings a scientific study of religion. This paper discusses attempts to understand religion in this ‘scientific’ way. I start with a classical canon of anthropology and sociology of religion, in the works of E. B. Tylor (1832–1917), Max Weber (1864–1920) and Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Science aims to be a discourse that transcends local identities; it is deeply cosmopolitan. To offer a local metaphysics as its basis would produce a discourse that was not recognizable as a contribution to the cosmopolitan conversation of the sciences. So, a science of religion cannot appeal to the entities invoked in any particular religion; hence the methodological atheism of these three founding fathers. This cosmopolitan ideal, the calling of the scientist, on the one hand, and the concern to understand the ideas of other cultures, on the other, can pull in different directions. Understanding requires us to appeal to our own concepts but not to our own truths. In the explanations, though, truth – the universal shared reality – has to matter, because the scientific story of religion has to work for people of all faiths and none, precisely because it is cosmopolitan. Not everything we call a religion will have historical Christianity's laser-like focus on ontological truth-claims. But as long as there are people making truth-claims in the name of religion, there will be the possibility of a tension between the very idea of a science of religion and some of the multifarious collections of beliefs, practices and institutions that make up what we now call ‘religions’.

scholarly journals Indian Sociology at the Threshold of the 21st Century: Some Observations

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
K. L. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Social Conditioning ◽  
The One

Initially, Indian sociology was influenced by colonialism and indology. After Independence, Indian sociology moved towards indigenisation on the one hand and critical examination of the Western theories, concepts and methods of study on the other. Indigenisation and use of regional texts, sources and observations weakened the Western impact on Indian sociology. The idea of the founding fathers of Indian sociology provided a plural and multidimensional thrust to sociology in India. Debates on Indian sociology became intense after Louis Dumont argued for a fit between indology and the present-day Indian society (sociology). In response to Dumont’s view, Yogendra Singh provides a fivefold classification of approaches and signifies Indian sociology through a synthesis of empiricism and analytical vision. The main contributions to explain Indian sociology have been made by Ramkrishna Mukherjee and Yogendra Singh. Mukherjee talks of ‘modernisers of Indian sociology’ and Singh looks for ‘social conditioning’ of Indian sociology.

Introduction

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Runciman
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Other ◽  
The One ◽  
British Sociology

For many years, sociology in Britain has been pulled in two opposite directions, by those on the one side who want to make it into a branch of science and those on the other side who want to make it into a branch of literature. There is another two-way pull to which British sociology has been, and continues to be, subjected. This is the vertical pull exerted in one direction by those who want to give sociology its autonomy by taking it up into an intellectual space of its own where the irreducibly ‘social’ is safely detached from psychology (let alone biology) and in the other direction by those who think that sociology can be fully established only if it is firmly grounded in psychology or biology (or preferably both). Despite all these disagreements and tensions, British sociology as a recognized academic discipline does not appear to be at serious risk of being undermined by irreconcilable differences of principle or purpose.

scholarly journals Commensality, society and culture

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 528-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Fischler
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lower Prevalence ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Social ◽  
Prevalence Of Obesity ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Attachment

The founding fathers of the social sciences recognized commensality as a major issue but considered it mostly in a religious, sacrificial, ritualistic context. The notion of commensality is examined in its various dimensions and operations. Empirical data are used to examine cultural variability in attitudes about food, commensality and its correlates among countries usually categorized as ‘Western’ and ‘modern’. Clear-cut differences are identified, hinting at possible relationships between, on the one hand, cultural attachment to commensality and, on the other hand, a lower prevalence of obesity and associated health problems involving nutrition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document