Tetens, Johann Nicolaus (1736–1807)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunter Zoller
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Second Career ◽  
Moses Mendelssohn ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
German School ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
School Philosophy ◽  
The Mind

Tetens was a German philosopher, mathematician and physicist, with a second career as a Danish government official, who was active in Northern Germany and Denmark during the second half of the eighteenth century. Together with Johann Heinrich Lambert and Moses Mendelssohn, Tetens forms the transition from the German school philosophy of Leibniz, Wolff and Crusius to the new, critical philosophy of Kant. Tetens’ philosophical work reflects the combined influence of contemporary German, British and French philosophical currents. His main contribution to philosophy is a detailed descriptive account of the principal operations of the human mind that combines psychological, epistemological and metaphysical considerations. While showing a strong empiricist leaning, Tetens rejected the associationist and materialist accounts of the mind, favoured in Britain and France, and insisted on the active, spontaneous role of the mind in the formation and processing of mental contents.

scholarly journals The existential role of women in The Flies and the dirty hands, by Jean Paul Sartre

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (137) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Majed Jamil NASIF ◽  
Ridha Thamer BAQER
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Politics And Literature ◽  
Dirty Hands ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
The Family ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Second World

          The freedom and the existential engagement represent two essential notions in the mind of the writer Jean-Paul Sartre. It has been presented in a good and clear way by his philosophy or, in a clearer way, by his artworks. More specifically, the two plays of this author, The Flies and the dirty hands, are the mirror that reflects these twos existential notions.           These two plays are the perfect testimonies for the two important periods in the XXth century: before and after the Second World War. These two periods vary in so far, the human mind, politics and literature as are concerned. This variation has followed the historical and the political changes in the world in general and in France in particular.           Even if The Flies and the dirty hands are considered like two different existential dramas, but each one completes the other. The first drama evokes a human mind but, indirectly, another political one, whether the other play evokes the inverse. Oreste and Hugo, the two heroes of our study plays, are the superior heroes who try to save humanity of slavery and submission to injustice. Sartre and his audience place their hopes in these two heroes who search for the freedom through their existential engagement.           In the other hand, the female characters have played an affective role in the dramatic action in the two plays. By its freedom and its existential engagement, the female condition, according to Sartre's vision, searches for proving his human existence and revolting against the authority of the family, the society and the humanity. 

Hamann, Johann Georg (1730–88)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Beiser
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Friedrich Schlegel ◽  
Sturm Und Drang ◽  
German Enlightenment ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Mind

Hamann was one of the most important critics of the German Enlightenment or Aufklärung. He attacked the Aufklärung chiefly because it gave reason undue authority over faith. It misunderstood faith, which consists in an immediate personal experience, inaccessible to reason. The main fallacy of the Aufklärung was hypostasis, the reification of ideas, the artificial abstraction of reason from its social and historical context. Hamann stressed the social and historical dimension of reason, that it must be embodied in society, history and language. He also emphasized the pivotal role of language in the development of reason. The instrument and criterion of reason was language, whose only sanction was tradition and use. Hamann was a sharp critic of Kant, whose philosophy exemplified all the sins of the Aufklärung. Hamann attacked the critical philosophy for its purification of reason from experience, language and tradition. He also strongly objected to all its dualisms, which seemed arbitrary and artificial. The task of philosophy was to unify all the various functions of the mind, seeing reason, will and feeling as an indivisible whole. Although he was original and unorthodox, Hamann’s critique of reason should be placed within the tradition of Protestant nominalism. Hamann saw himself as a defender of Luther, whose reputation was on the wane in late eighteenth-century Germany. Hamann was also a founder of the Sturm und Drang, the late eighteenth-century literary movement which celebrated personal freedom and revolt. His aesthetics defended creative genius and the metaphysical powers of art. It marked a sharp break with the rationalism of the classical tradition and the empiricism of late eighteenth-century aesthetics. Hamann was a seminal influence upon Herder, Goethe, Jacobi, Friedrich Schlegel and Kierkegaard.

Beckett and the Cognitive Method

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bernini
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
Modeling Technology ◽  
Dialogic Interaction ◽  
The Mind

How can literature enhance, parallel or reassess the scientific study of the mind? Or is literature instead limited to the ancillary role of representing cognitive processes? Beckett and the Cognitive Method argues that Beckett’s narrative work, rather than just expressing or rendering cognition and mental states, inaugurates an exploratory use of narrative as an introspective modeling technology (defined as “introspection by simulation”). Through a detailed analysis of Beckett’s entire corpus and published volumes of letters, the book argues that Beckett pioneered a new method of writing to construct (in a mode analogous to scientific inquiry) “models” for the exploration of core laws, processes, and dynamics in the human mind. Marco Bernini integrates models, problems, and interpretive frameworks from contemporary narrative theory, cognitive sciences, phenomenology, and philosophy of mind to make a case for Beckett’s modeling practice of a vast array of processes including: the (narrative) illusion of a sense of self, the hallucinatory quality of inner speech, the dialogic interaction with memories and felt presences, the synesthetic nature of inner experience and mental imagery, the developmental cooperation of language and locomotion, the role of moods and emotions as cognitive drives, the layered complexity of the mind, and the emergent quality of consciousness. Beckett and the Cognitive Method also reflects on how Beckett’s “fictional cognitive models” are transformed into reading, auditory, or spectatorial experiences generating through narrative devices insights on which the sciences can only discursively or descriptively report. As such, the study advocates for their relevance to the contemporary scientific debate toward an interdisciplinary co-modeling of cognition.

scholarly journals Johna Locke’a koncepcja wychowania moralnego

2019 ◽  
pp. 161-175
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Raniszewska-Wyrwa
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
John Locke ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Blank Slate ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Educational Thinking

John Locke was an English philosopher, doctor and politician who also contributed to the developmen of educational thinking. His school experiences, as well as those acquired in the role of a teacher, were the impulse behind his deliberations on education. The letters to Edward Clarke, forming an answer to Clarke’s request that he guide his children’s upbringing, provided the opportunity for him to present them. The content that Locke included in his letters was, in time, repeated in Some Thoughts Concerning Education. The ideas on descent and the limits of human cognition presented in his philosophical works are closely related with his views on education. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke stated that the human mind at the moment of birth is a blank slate (tabula rasa), which through life is filled by experiences. As a result, he attributed much importance to education – it is an integral part of the process of filling the mind with content, and through this shaping the person. Locke stressed that most people are “good or bad, beneficial or not as a result of their education”. He was convinced that there is an unbreakable connection between three areas of education: the moral, mental and physical. Of those three he considered moral education as the most important. He stressed that the aim of education is to guide a person in such a way that enables them to control their aspirations, desires and affections with the mind – and that such skills are the basis of virtue. According to Locke, without virtue and self-discipline it is difficult to act in a reasonable way. He recognised people’s individualism, so he recommended that the methods of education should be fitted to the abilities of the child. He called for the replacement of orders and prohibitions with explanation, habituation, understanding and experience. A child needs to be taught, among other things, to appreciate truth, honesty, respect for others, kindness and restraint from cruelty towards people and animals. According to Locke, this should lead to correct shaping of moral character.

An Inquiry into Thomas Jefferson's Ideas of Beauty

2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Hafertepe
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Standard Of Taste ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Good Proportion

A careful reading of eighteenth-century aesthetics provides a view of Thomas Jefferson's thinking about art and architecture quite different from the existing scholarly paradigm. Jefferson owned, read, and quoted Enlightenment philosophy and criticism, most notably that of Henry Home, known as Lord Kames. Far from privileging reason over emotion, these philosophers held that all people are created with innate senses of beauty and morality, as well as a rational faculty. Because of the sense of beauty, certain qualities in objects can inspire the idea of beauty in the mind; other ideas of beauty are comparative, requiring use of the rational faculty. Jefferson's aesthetic theory was informed by his understanding of the human mind, which led to an architecture rooted in good proportion and to didactic paintings rooted in history ancient and modern. As with other Enlightenment thinkers, Jefferson endorsed the entire classical tradition, admiring not only the architecture of ancient Rome and modern Paris but also of Palladio and the French Baroque. Similarly, he admired the work of minor Baroque painters as well as the neoclassicism of Jacques-Louis David. Nor was Jeffersonian classicism nationalistic; rather, he endorsed the Enlightenment concept of a universal and uniform standard of taste.

scholarly journals Harmonization of the Human Heart, Mind and Hand

Illuminatio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-161
Author(s):  
Mustafa Cerić
Keyword(s):  
Human Heart ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Parallel Lives ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

The focus of this article is a reflection on the nature of the human heart (al-qalb), human mind (al-‘aql) and human hand (al-yad). The heart is the place of emotion - love or hate; the mind is the place of thought - right or wrong; the hand is the tool of power – justice or injustice. So, the question may be asked, what is the tipping scale for the heart from love to hate; what makes the mind to think right or wrong; and what causes the hand to do justice or injustice? Then, what is the role of faith/religion in harmonizing the human heart, mind and hand? How can the Sīrah, the way of the life of the messenger of God, teach the human heart to love, the human mind to thing right and the human hand to act justly? What can man learn from the parallel lives and trials of the early aṣḥāb, the Prophet’s companions, and their immediate tābi’ūn, the followers? Here, the article introduces the way of life of two aṣḥāb: ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbās and Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal and one tābi‘un: Al-Qāḍī Shuraikh ibn Al-Ḥārith Al-Kindī, to show that the heart is not a pump that drives the blood, but it is the blood of love that drives the heart to love; that the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but the light to be kindled; and that the hand is not a tool to be abused, but a means to be used for justice. The author aims to open the way for a critique of the pure faith of Muslims. Indeed, the Muslims need to examine their faith in a serious way to find out the right exit from the current crisis of the relationship between their heart, mind and hand. Where is the pure faith of Muslims? Is it in their heart only? Is it in their mind only? Is it in their hand only? How can the Muslims connect these three into a coherent whole for the good of humanity? The good examples from the Sīrah might provide us with the right answer to these questions provided that the Muslims open their hearts, employ their minds and educate their hands. This article is trying to guide them to that direction.

Seeking Truth

2022 ◽  
pp. 97-120
Author(s):  
Arthur Shelley
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Interactionism ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
American Mind ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Living Process

Truth is a living process playing out in each human mind/brain. That is, your truth is the sum of your own knowledge and experiences. One person's “truth” can be regarded as just another perspective in others' eyes. Absolute truths are difficult to define, especially in the social aspects of human interactions. This chapter provides a foundational understanding of truth as a changing target relative to self. The role of the Mediasphere is explored in terms of its influence on creating a collective societal reality, a collective consciousness. Specific attention is given to the importance of symbolic interactionism – consistent with the knowledge capacity explored in terms of neuroscience findings on how memories are stored in the mind/brain. To better understand what is happening in today's environment, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and brainwashing are explored in terms of their relationship with truth, and the attack on the American mind is addressed. An addendum includes three tools for breaking the pattern of untruths: truth searching, rhythm disruptor, and humility.

Imagination, in modern philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Cottrell
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Standard View ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

In the modern philosophical period, the imagination (sometimes called the ‘fancy’) is standardly seen as a faculty for having mental images, and for making non-rational, associative transitions among such images. This standard view forms a common core of many modern philosophers’ theories of the imagination. Different philosophers elaborate upon it in different ways: for example, some add that there is a close connection between the imagination and the brain; some, that the imagination interacts with the passions in important ways; and some, that the imagination plays a crucial role in explaining how we create artworks and how we appreciate the aesthetic properties of things. The modern period saw several important controversies among philosophers who share the standard view of the imagination. Perhaps most importantly, Descartes, Arnauld and Nicole, Spinoza, and Leibniz argue that in addition to the faculty of the imagination, we have a faculty of pure intellect or pure understanding, while Hobbes, Gassendi, and Hume deny this. Other important controversies concern the relationship between imagination and reasoning, and the role of the imagination – if any – as a source of modal knowledge, that is, knowledge of what is possible rather than merely actual. Late in the eighteenth century, Reid and Kant criticized the standard view. Reid claims to disagree with his predecessors about the association of ideas and about the nature of mental images. (However, it is unclear whether he interprets his predecessors correctly; some of his objections may miss their mark.) For his part, Kant agrees with the standard view that the imagination is a faculty for having and associating mental images. But he argues that these reproductive functions of the imagination take place in the human mind thanks to different, productive functions of the imagination that earlier philosophers did not recognize. His account of these productive functions of the imagination plays a central role in his epistemology and aesthetics.

Thinking Interactively

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Paris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Biological Psychiatry ◽  
Neural Connections ◽  
The Past ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
The Mind

The human mind favors linear thinking, with single causes leading to single effects. Thinking interactively is much more difficult. Understanding mental disorders as due to chemical imbalances or abnormal neural connections is tempting. However, it is wrong to view the neural level as more “real” than measures of the mind. This kind of thinking pays lip service to psychosocial factors but loses sight of the important role that life events play in the etiology of mental disorders. In the past, psychotherapists were just as blindly linear in their thinking. They made broad generalizations, oversimplifying the role of life experiences, sometimes attributing all psychopathology to adverse events in childhood. In parallel with the reductionism of biological psychiatry, these models failed to consider the complexity of pathways from risk factors to outcomes. A more scientifically valid view is that mental disorders arise from complex interactions between genetic vulnerability and psychosocial adversity.

scholarly journals Rousseau et Diderot, deux postures de légitimation face à l'espace public

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Anne Elisabeth Sejten
Keyword(s):  
Original Writing ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Salon Culture ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Intellectual Integrity

The quarrel between Rousseau and Diderot – these inseparable friends only to become enemies – constitutes a legendary topos of philosophical breaks-ups over-shadowed by wicked slander. If Rousseau’s famous Letter to d’Alembert in 1758 traces his growing disagreement with the inner circle of encyclopaedists, further confrontations seem lost in mean accusations that discredit both sides. However, when digging a little deeper in the texts on both sides, it is not only possible to reconstruct different views about philosopher’s morality, but also to relate to the complex nature that characterised the public sphere in eighteenth century France. The purpose of this paper is exactly to examine the respective positions of Rousseau and Diderot as distorted voices in a society, in which the public sphere was actually more private than public. The first part of the study draws on the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas’ seminal work on the transformation that affected the public sphere along European bourgeois countries in quite different ways during the eighteenth century. French salon culture and its essentially private spaces urged Rousseau and Diderot to invent original writing strategies in order to justify themselves. The second and major part of the paper, accordingly aims at analysing their literary choices, Rousseau in reinventing the autobiographical approach, Diderot by writing on the Roman stoic philosopher Seneca. Both philosophers are extremely aware of the need to protect their philosophical legacy and, in doing so, each is eventually playing the role of the contra-model of the other when facing the question of moral and intellectual integrity.  

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