Halakhah

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam J. Zohar
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Normative System ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rabbinic Law ◽  
The Way

The central ideal of rabbinic Judaism is that of living by the Torah, that is, God’s teachings. These teachings are mediated by a detailed normative system called halakhah, which might be translated as ‘the Way’. The term ‘rabbinic law’ captures the form of halakhic discourse, but not its range. Appropriate sections of halakhah have indeed served as the law of Jewish communities for two millennia. But other sections relate to individual conscience and religious observance and are enforceable only by a ‘heavenly court’. Although grounded in Scripture, halakhah’s frame of reference is the ‘oral Torah’, a tradition of interpretation and argument culminating in the twenty volumes of the Talmud. God’s authority is the foundational norm, but it is only invoked occasionally as superseding human understanding. Indeed, the rabbis disallowed divine interference in their deliberations, asserting, in keeping with Scripture, that Torah is ‘not in heaven’ (Bava Metzia 59b, citing Deuteronomy 30: 12). Given the lack of binding dogma in Judaism, halakhic practice has often been regarded as the common denominator that unites the Jewish community. The enterprise of furnishing ‘reasons of the commandments’ (ta’amei ha-mitzvot), central to many thinkers in Judaism, accordingly reveals a great diversity of orientations. These range, in medieval Judaism, from esoteric mystical doctrines to Maimonides’ rational and historical explanations; and among modern writers, from moral positivism to existentialism.

Pastoral Perspectivism: A View from Altai

Inner Asia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludek Broz
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Single Idea ◽  
The Way

AbstractOne of the characteristic aspects ofViveiros de Castro’s perspectivismis the relative rather than absolute character of subject/object positions. In the Altaian context, animals are not attributed with subjectivity in the way found in Amazonian cosmologies. Still, the subject position is not particular to humans: the landscape is populated by masters of a both human and nonhuman kind. The terminological division of animals into wild (a?dar-kushtar) and domesticated (mal) in Altaian language is analogical to the human/animal division in Amazonia. Wildness and domesticity thus become relative categories defined with reference to the idiom of the master. What is wild for a human master is domesticated for a nonhumanmaster. Here, the common denominator is a sort of ‘livestock-morphism’:what for the human hunters looks like a deer is a cowfrom the point of view of the forest masters. If conducted improperly, hunting is thus analogous to livestock theft – morality transcends perspectivism in Altai. Exploring this ‘pastoralist perspectivism’ leads to questions about subjectivity and agency, ethics and ownership. The discussion is finally placed ‘into perspective’ by showing thatAltaians do not operate with a single idea of the animal and human–animal relationship.

How American Industry is Attacking the Problem of Materials Handling

1953 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-140
Author(s):  
James R. Bright
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
American Industry ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Materials Handling ◽  
Activity Cost ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Way

Materials handling is one of the fundamental activities of mankind, and the common denominator of all industry, yet it has been relatively neglected by engineers and managers generally. In the United States realization is growing that materials handling accounts for the largest single activity cost in much of manufacturing and distribution. Although many individuals are fully conscious of this, companies differ widely in this recognition and in the way they are trying to improve their materials handling activities. The aims of this lecture are to clarify the major objectives of a materials handling programme; to show how progressive companies are organizing for materials handling; to describe the scope of the good materials handling programme; the type of individuals to be placed in charge; the authority and responsibilities to be delegated to them, and the ways in which these activities co-ordinate with, and contribute to, other aspects of the plant. Techniques of analysing materials handling problems and the characteristics of basic materials handling devices are presented briefly. Some fifteen significant trends in American materials handling practice will be discussed and briefly illustrated by case examples.

scholarly journals Hannah Arendts politikforståelse og menneskesyn – Foreningen af eksistenstænkning og republikanisme

2018 ◽  
pp. 103-116
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Pahuus
Keyword(s):  
Common Denominator ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Way

In this article, Arendt’s philosophy is put forward as both republicanism and existentialism. The common denominator is the concept of judgment as the way in which political individuals take into account the perspective of fellow acting and thinking human beings. In presenting Arendt’s philosophy of public speech and public judgment, this contribution argues that there is no tension between acting and thinking in Arendt’s philosophy. They are both ruled by a critical faculty by which we are aware of the communicability and universality of our reasons for intervening, imagining and judging other people’s lives.

Kant on the Way to His Own Philosophy of Logic

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaping Lu-Adler
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Logic ◽  
Applied Logic ◽  
Transcendental Logic ◽  
Pure Logic ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
The Common ◽  
Proper Science ◽  
The Way

This chapter considers how Kant, from the mid-1760s through the mid-1770s, navigated between existing accounts of logic before finding his own voice. It highlights two breakthroughs that would contribute most to his mature theory of logic. The first breakthrough concerns Kant’s division of logic into two essentially different though complementary branches: a logic for the learned understanding and one for the common human understanding (to make it healthy), precursors to “pure logic” and “applied logic” respectively. This distinction not only marks a clear departure from the Leibnizian-Wolffian take on the relation between artificial and natural logics, but also pays homage to the humanist and Lockean practices of emphasizing certain ethical dimensions of logic. The second breakthrough is the emergence of “transcendental logic” from Kant’s efforts to secure metaphysics—particularly the first part thereof, ontology—as a proper science.

Hotspots in Psychology – 2020 Edition

2020 ◽  
Vol 228 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Michael Bošnjak ◽  
Nadine Wedderhoff
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Research Synthesis ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
The Common ◽  
Meta Analyses

Abstract. This editorial gives a brief introduction to the six articles included in the fourth “Hotspots in Psychology” of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie. The format is devoted to systematic reviews and meta-analyses in research-active fields that have generated a considerable number of primary studies. The common denominator is the research synthesis nature of the included articles, and not a specific psychological topic or theme that all articles have to address. Moreover, methodological advances in research synthesis methods relevant for any subfield of psychology are being addressed. Comprehensive supplemental material to the articles can be found in PsychArchives ( https://www.psycharchives.org ).

Motives of espionage against ones own country in the light of idiographic studies

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Michalak
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
The Common

Motives of espionage against ones own country in the light of idiographic studies The money is perceived as the common denominator among people who have spied against their own country. This assumption is common sense and appears to be self-evident truth. But do we have any hard evidences to prove the validity of such a statement? What method could be applied to determine it? This article is a review of the motives behind one's resorting to spying activity which is a complex and multifarious process. I decided to present only the phenomenon of spying for another country. The studies on the motives behind taking up spying activity are idiographic in character. One of the basic methodological problems to be faced by the researchers of this problem is an inaccessibility of a control group.

The Problem of the Typology of Rationality in Muslim Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Lukashev
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
The Common ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Muslim Culture

The typology of rationality is one of major issues of modern philosophy. In an attempt to provide a typology to Oriental materials, a researcher faces additional problems. The diversity of the Orient as such poses a major challenge. When we say “Oriental,” we mean several cultures for which we cannot find a common denominator. The concept of “Orient” involves Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and other cultures, and the only thing they share is that they are “non-Western.” Moreover, even if we focus just on Islamic culture and look into rationality in this context, we have to deal with a conglomerate of various trends, which does not let us define, with full confidence, a common theoretical basis and treat them as a unity. Nevertheless, we have to go on trying to find common directions in thought development, so as to draw conclusions about types of rationality possible in Islamic culture. A basis for such a typology of rationality in the context of the Islamic world was recently suggested in A.V. Smirnov’s logic of sense theory. However, actual empiric material cannot always fit theoretical models, and the cases that do not fit the common scheme are interesting per se. On the one hand, examination of such cases gives an opportunity to specify certain provisions of the theory and, on the other hand, to define the limits of its applicability.

The Sephardic Voice of Elias Canetti

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
Maria Esformes
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Social Critic ◽  
Elias Canetti ◽  
Intellectual Autobiography ◽  
The Way

One of the most fascinating memoirs to appear in recent years is that of Elias Canetti, recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature. his three-volume spiritual and intellectual autobiography is a complex and insightful rendering of his personal background and his creative development as a novelist, philosopher, and social critic. However, Canetti's autobiography is much more than a compelling account of the development of a great artist – it is a portrait of the tragic character of an entire era that witnessed the destruction of cultures and the way of life o many Jewish communities throughout Europe.

Causality Then and Now

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Karen Harding
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Mechanical Model ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Way

Ate appearances deceiving? Do objects behave the way they do becauseGod wills it? Ate objects impetmanent and do they only exist becausethey ate continuously created by God? According to a1 Ghazlli, theanswers to all of these questions ate yes. Objects that appear to bepermanent are not. Those relationships commonly tefemed to as causalare a result of God’s habits rather than because one event inevitably leadsto another. God creates everything in the universe continuously; if Heceased to create it, it would no longer exist.These ideas seem oddly naive and unscientific to people living in thetwentieth century. They seem at odds with the common conception of thephysical world. Common sense says that the universe is made of tealobjects that persist in time. Furthermore, the behavior of these objects isreasonable, logical, and predictable. The belief that the univetse is understandablevia logic and reason harkens back to Newton’s mechanical viewof the universe and has provided one of the basic underpinnings ofscience for centuries. Although most people believe that the world is accutatelydescribed by this sort of mechanical model, the appropriatenessof such a model has been called into question by recent scientificadvances, and in particular, by quantum theory. This theory implies thatthe physical world is actually very different from what a mechanicalmodel would predit.Quantum theory seeks to explain the nature of physical entities andthe way that they interact. It atose in the early part of the twentieth centuryin response to new scientific data that could not be incorporated successfullyinto the ptevailing mechanical view of the universe. Due largely ...

The Tropes of Jewish/Muslim Difference

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia Egorova
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Communal Violence ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

The chapter explores how notions of Jewish and Muslim difference play out in the history of communal violence in independent India. In doing so it will first interrogate the way in which trajectories of anti-Muslim ideologies intersect in India with Nazi rhetoric that harks back to Hitler’s Germany, and the (lack of) the memory of the Holocaust on the subcontinent. It will then discuss how the experiences of contemporary Indian Jewish communities both mirror and contrast those of Indian Muslims and how Indian Jews and the alleged absence of anti-Semitism in India have become a reference point in the discourse of the Hindu right deployed to mask anti-Muslim and other forms of intolerance.

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