Critique

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irfan Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Race Studies ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
German Enlightenment ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
Immanent Critique

The main argument of this chapter is: the Enlightenment was an ethnic project and its conceptualization of reason highly local as it pitted itself against a series of Others, Islam included. Evidently, feminist and race studies scholarship offers a critique of the Enlightenment and its universalism. A point less stressed is that the erasure of non-Western philosophy in Enlightenment thinking construed universal as only "to all," not "from all." Consequently, non-Westerners were construed as empirical objects, not thinking subjects. As it disregarded from all, Western universalism claiming that it is for all and to all could only be missionary-like, for the only option it leaves open for those not subscribing to or already within is to convert. The blueprint for conversion stemmed from Enlightenment ideas of "civilizational infantilism" of the non-West and the obligation to "better the world." To substantiate this argument, the chapter discusses the German Enlightenment and the French Enlightenment both of which reconfigured rather than erased Christianity. Building on works, among others, of Talal Asad, the chapter alternatively outlines the possibility of analyzing Islam and reason as interwoven to show how immanent critique has been central to Islamic histories and cultures.

scholarly journals The Phenomenon of Culture in the Philosophy of the French Enlightenment

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Svetlana Georgievna Gutova
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
Brain Culture

The most relevant features of the French Enlightenment are studied in the article. One of the features is ambivalence, that was expressed in most of the theoretical judgments by representatives of the era. The main ideas of the French Enlightenment are presented through the prism of the historical formation of the basic concepts: nature, human brain, culture. It is emphasized that the main achievement of the enlighteners in the cultural reformation of society was to combat religious and moral prejudices. It is noted that the value of enlighteners is in their innovative attempt to create a progressive model of cultural development based on a naturalistic and mechanical and deterministic picture of the world. The philosophical and cultural analysis revealed the internal dynamics of the enlighteners' ideas from civilizational optimism to criticism of civilizational progress. It is concluded that the philosophical and theoretical legacy of the Enlightenment, in the framework of the development of a single paradigm, is integral, logical and actually complete, that made the most use of its methodological and heuristic potential.

scholarly journals TIME THROUGH TIME: ITS EVOLUTION THROUGH WESTERN PHILOSOPHY IN SEVEN IDEAS

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (58) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Emily Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Western Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACTWhat is time? Just like everything else in the world, our understanding of time has changed continually over time. This article tracks this question through the history of Western philosophy and looks at major answers from the likes of Aristotle, Kant, and McTaggart.

Bīsotūn and the French Enlightenment

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-614
Author(s):  
DANIEL THOMAS POTTS
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transmission ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Western Iran ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
Political Service

AbstractThis study examines a little-known case of Enlightenment knowledge transmission centred on the rock-cut monument of Darius I at Bīsotūn in western Iran. It discusses a report on the monument published by the cartographer and historian Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, which originated with the Decalced Carmelite monk Emmanuel de Saint-Albert (born Jean-Claude Ballyet); who transmitted it to Isaac Bellet, a doctor involved in secret negotiations in Constantinople; who in turn sent it to Louis, Duke d'Orléans, in Paris; who passed it on to d'Anville. The collison of scholarly interest, political service and scientific personality offers a fascinating case study of the Enlightenment ‘republic of letters’ in action.

Receptacle/Chōra: Figuring the Errant Feminine in Plato's Timaeus

Hypatia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 124-146
Author(s):  
Emanuela Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Western Philosophy ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Immanent Critique

This essay undertakes a reexamination of the notion of the receptacle/chōra in Plato's Timaeus, asking what its value may be to feminists seeking to understand the topology of the feminine in Western philosophy. As the source of cosmic motion as well as a restless figurality, labile and polyvocal, the receptacle/chōra offers a fecund zone of destabilization that allows for an immanent critique of ancient metaphysics. Engaging with Derridean, Irigarayan, and Kristevan analyses, Bianchi explores whether receptacle/chōra can exceed its reduction to the maternal-feminine, and remain answerable to contemporary theoretical concerns.

A Russian Mystic Faces the Age of Rationalism and Revolution: Thought and Activity of Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin

1967 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-188
Author(s):  
Alexander Lipski
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
The World ◽  
Extreme Degree ◽  
State Of Mind

It is generally accepted that even though rationalism was predominant during the eighteenth century, a significant mystical trend was simultaneously present. Thus it was not only the Age of Voltaire, Diderot, and Holbach, but also the Age of St. Martin, Eckartshausen and Madame Guyon. With increased Western influence on Russia, it was natural that Russia too would be affected by these contrary currents. The reforms of Peter the Great, animated by a utilitarian spirit, had brought about a secularization of Russian culture. Father Florovsky aptly summed up the state of mind of the Russian nobility as a result of the Petrine Revolution: “The consciousness of these new people had been extroverted to an extreme degree.” Some of the “new people,” indifferent to their previous Weltanschauung, Orthodoxy, adopted the philosophy of the Enlightenment, “Volter'ianstvo” (Voltairism). But “Volter'ianstvo” with its cult of reason and belief in a remote creator of the “world machine,“ did not permanently satisfy those with deeper religious longings. While conventional Orthodoxy, with its emphasis on external rites, could not fill the spiritual vacuum, Western mysticism, entering Russia chiefly through freemasonry, provided a satisfactory alternative to “Volter'ianstvo.”

scholarly journals M. Heidegger: Metaphysical character of technical scientific civilisation

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Mico Savic
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
World Picture ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Paper Author

In this paper, author deals with Heidegger's account of the modern age as the epoch based on Western metaphysics. In the first part of the paper, he shows that, according to Heidegger, modern interpretation of the reality as the world picture, is essentially determined by Descartes' philosophy. Then, author exposes Heidegger's interpretation of the turn which already took place in Plato's metaphysics and which made possible Descartes' metaphysics and modern epoch. In the second part of the paper, author explores Heidegger's interpretation of science and technology as shoots of very metaphysics. Heidegger emphasizes that the essence of technology corresponds to the essence of subjectivity and shows how the metaphysics of subjectivity subsequently finds its end in Nietzsche's metaphysics of the will to power, as the last word of Western philosophy. In the concluding part, author argues that the contemporary processes of globalization can be just understood as processes of completion of metaphysics. They can be identified as a global rule of the essence of technology. On the basis of Heidegger's vision of overcoming metaphysics, author concludes that it opens the possibility of a philosophy of finitude which points to dialogue with the Other as a way of resolving the key practical issues of the contemporary world.

scholarly journals Comparative Study on Anumana and Inference of Hindu and Western Philosophy

2018 ◽  
pp. 187-191
Author(s):  
Nikhil Dongol
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
The West ◽  
The World

Philosophy is called darsanas in Sanskrit language. Hindu Philosophy is the group of darsanas that emerged in ancient Indian sub-continent which also includes present Nepal. It dates back as much earlier than the western philosophy. It includes two philosophies: Astika and Nastika. Astika includes 6 systems: Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta. Among them, Nyaya deals with logic and reasoning. According to Nyaya Philosophy, there are four means of valid reasoning (pramana) that, according to it, help one to release from suffering. They are: Perception, Inference (Anumana), Comparison and Testimony. Among them, this paper is going to illustrate on Anumana and Inference of two Philosophies and its types and kinds. It denotes the early civilizations and helps to identify how logic was developed in East as well as in the West. And it helps to distinguish how the conclusion was made on these two parts of the world. However, this article is limited to anumana of Nyaya philosophy while other 5 systems of Astika also contain anumana.

Nothing Absolute

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
First Time ◽  
Point Of Reference

Staging for the first time in extant scholarship a rigorous encounter between German thought from Kant to Marx and new forms of political theology, this ground-breaking volume puts forward a distinct and powerful framework for understanding the continuing relevance of political theology today as well as the conceptual and genealogical importance of German Idealism for its present and future. Against traditional approaches that view German Idealism as essentially a secularizing movement, this volume approaches it as the first speculative articulation of the political-theological problematic in the aftermath of the Enlightenment and the advent of secularity. Via a set of innovative readings and critiques, the volume investigates anew such concepts as immanence, utopia, sovereignty, mediation, indifference, the earth, the absolute, or the world, bringing German Idealism and Romanticism into dialogue with contemporary investigations of the (Christian-)modern forms of transcendence, domination, exclusion, and world-justification. Over the course of the volume, post-Kantian German thought emerges as a crucial phase in the genealogy of political theology and an important point of reference for the ongoing reassessment of modernity and secularity. As a result, this volume not only rethinks the philosophical trajectory of German Idealism and its aftermath from a political-theological perspective, but also demonstrates what can be done with (or against) German Idealism using the conceptual resources of political theology today.

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