scholarly journals On Bergson's Reformation of Philosophy

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Ansell-Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Creative Evolution ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Limits Of Knowledge ◽  
Life Philosophy ◽  
Existing Frames ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

In this essay I focus on the text Creative Evolution (1907) and show that although Bergson intended to make a contribution to the science of biology and to the philosophy of life, the primary aim of the text is to show the need for a fundamental reformation of philosophy. Bergson wants to show how, through an appreciation of the evolution of life, philosophy can expand our perception of the universe. I examine in detail the two essential claims he makes in the text: first, that we have to see the theory of knowledge and the theory of life as deeply related; second, that there is a need to “think beyond the human condition” or human state. Indeed, Bergson conceives philosophy as the discipline that “raises us above the human condition” and makes the effort to “surpass” it. This reveals itself to be something of an extraordinary endeavour since it means bringing the human intellect into rapport with other kinds of consciousness. Moreover, if we do not place our thinking about the nature, character, and limits of knowledge within the context of the evolution of life then we risk uncritically accepting the concepts that have been placed at our disposal. It means we think within pre-existing frames. We need, then, to ask two questions: first, how has the human intellect evolved?, and second, how can we enlarge and go beyond the frames of knowledge available to us?

Reformist Ideology in the Arab World: The Cases of Tunisia and Lebanon

1975 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-546
Author(s):  
John P. Entelis
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

Ideology refers to a set of basic assumptions, both normative and empirical, about the nature and purposes of man and society which serve to explain the human condition. At the political level, it is a belief system through which man perceives, understands, and explains the universe as well as nature and the human community. Ideology also guides individual and collective action, sets forth the political goals one may seek and regulates the ways in which they may be obtained, and defines man's rights, privileges, andobligations. Finally, ideology sets the “parameters of expectations.”

scholarly journals No controverso desafio da educação inclusiva: Um convite para pensar a complexidade humana

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Roque Strieder ◽  
Arnaldo Nogaro
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Education Philosophy ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

O estudo reconhece que fazer educação inclusiva exige olhar o ser humano de modo singular em contextos multidimensionais. Nessa perspectiva chama para a discussão a fragilidade do reconhecimento das diferenças e a importância da participação da filosofia da educação como catalizadora dos debates sobre a educação inclusiva. O objetivo é investigar possíveis contribuições da filosofia da educação como desafio para uma melhor compreensão de como ações inclusivas podem ser potencializadas no universo da complexidade e das atitudes transdisciplinares. O estudo tem caráter qualitativo e busca em referenciais teóricos. Traz suportes teóricos sobre a atitude transdisciplinar e as possibilidades, no universo dessas atitudes, de uma contribuição para qualificar reflexões e ações inclusivas. Reconhece que a educação inclusiva existe em potencial e lhe falta atualização. Destaca que a transdisciplinaridade e a filosofia da educação podem conduzir as reflexões para reconhecer a complexidade da condição humana para depois olhar para o interior de si buscando compreender-se a partir do outro.PALAVRAS-CHAVEEducação inclusiva; Filosofia da educação; Transdisciplinaridade ABSTRACTThe text recognizes that to make inclusive education requires viewing thehuman  being  in  a  unique  way  in  multidimensional  contexts.  From  this perspective,  it  calls  for  the  discussion  the  fragility  of  the  recognition  of differences  and  the  importance  of  the  participation  of  the  philosophy  of education as a catalyst for discussions on inclusive education. The goal is investigate  possible  contributions  of  the  philosophy  of  education  as  a challenge  for  a  better  understanding  of  how  inclusive  actions  can  be potentialized in the universe of complexity and transdisciplinary actions. The text brings theoretical contributions on the transdisciplinary attitude and the possibilities,  in  the  universe  of  these  attitudes,  to  qualify  reflections  and inclusive actions. It recognizes that inclusive education exists in potential but it  lacks  updating.  It  highlights  that  transdisciplinarity  and  philosophy  of education can lead the reflections to recognize the complexity of the human condition  so  that  one  can  look  within  him/herself  seeking  a  better understanding from the other.KEYWORDSInclusive education; Philosophy of education; Transdisciplinarity

scholarly journals The authority of the Buddha: The limits of knowledge in medieval Indian Buddhist epistemology

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Richard Payne
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Religious Knowledge ◽  
Buddhist Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Valid Knowledge ◽  
Limits Of Knowledge ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Human Condition

Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological UnionThe Indian religious traditions, including Buddhism, are generally characterised by an understanding of the problematic character of the human condition as ignorance (avidya) instead of sin, as in Christianity.1 The centrality of ignorance in defining the problematic character of the human condition creates a dramatically different religious dynamic—a religious dynamic that is fundamentally concerned with epistemological issues rather than with moral ones. In Indian discussions of the limits of religious knowledge, the shared intellectual framework was the idea of means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa). While other religio-philosophic traditions in India accepted testimony (śabda) as an autonomous (i.e., irreducible) means of valid knowledge, Buddhist epistemologists rejected it. Having rejected the idea that testimony is an autonomous means of valid knowledge (śabdapramāṇa), an alternative explanation for the authority of the Buddha had to be created. Against this background of epistemological discussion, particular attention is given here to Dharmakīrti’s views on the authority of the Buddha as a means of valid knowledge regarding the ground of human existence, the path of religious practice, and the goal of awakening.

“Ethics” of Interval

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Petru Bejan
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
The World ◽  
Equal Distance ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

Abstract In the Christian imaginary, the ternary representation of the universe is reiterated by appealing either to the Platonic texts, or to the Stoic ones. The triadic scheme of the worlds certifies an ambiguous status of man, of an individual placed neither here nor there, by the force of some circumstances which he cannot resist. Situated at equal distance from sidereal heights - credited as having the monopoly on perfection - and from the terrifying shadows, managed in a totalitarian manner by the instances of evil, in “the world between the worlds”, he thinks of the interval as of a space of communication, filled with signs, shapes and characters, by means of which distances can be “neared, compressed and “humanised”. Each step, stage, climb or descent is perceived as a “rupture of level”, as overcoming of the human condition by assuming a trans-mundane axiological repertoire

scholarly journals Connotative Confluence: Imagery and its functions in Shakespeare’s King Lear

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-135
Author(s):  
Shazia Aziz ◽  
Rabia Ashraf ◽  
Huma Ejaz ◽  
Rafi Amir-ud-Din
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
King Lear ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

Written in the early 1600s, King Lear, an early modern tragedy with the human condition as its main premise, displays Shakespeare’s effective exploitation of complex imagery. Through various images and extended or long drawn out metaphors, Shakespeare not only comments on character, plot, action, man’s position in the universe in relation to Nature, offspring and siblings, but also addresses such questions as political legitimacy, treason, treachery, aristocracy and the relationship between land and the monarch. In a turbulent period marked by strict rules against commenting directly on politics and royalty even in the parliament, imagery also serves as advice for the monarch in the tradition of speculum principis i.e., mirror for princes literature. This paper discusses the effect and manifold functions of various imagistic techniques used in King Lear and how imagery as a stylistic tool helps the playwright to substantially expand the meanings of the play making it a timeless and universal reading not only for the learners of Literature, but also for historians, psychologists, political scientists, philosophers, economists and food theorists, to mention only a few.

scholarly journals The Sayyid Qutub and His Criticism on Western Civilization

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sharif ◽  
Tahira Basharat
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Deep Appreciation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sayyid Qutb ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Islamic Society ◽  
Human Kind

Sayyid Qutb was one of the most influential Islamic thinkers of the 20th Century. He fervently believed that Islam should govern the social, economic and political order of the society to improve the human condition and purge ills of society. He emphasizes that Islam must combat any system that usurps God’s sovereignty by giving man power over other men. Qutb argued that a key characteristic in the Islamic society was social justice that did not exist in the West because of its materialistic philosophy of life. He called upon the Muslims to examine Islam’s comprehensive philosophy of the universe, life and human kind. In his view, a clear understanding of the universe, and the harmony between the cosmos and life, would lead Muslims to a deep appreciation of Islam as a religion of unity, encompassing all elements of life.

The human condition as seen through Ionesco's The Chairs

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Maria Helena Lott Lage
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Eugene Ionesco ◽  
Theatre Of The Absurd ◽  
The Chairs ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

Eugène Ionesco is a writer of the "Theatre of the Absurd," a term applied to a group of writers of the 1950's and 60's who share some characteristics in their work, and who are worried with more or less the same problems. Ionesco's The Chairs, which was written in 1951, well illustrates the main concerns of this group of writers the human condition and the reality of man's position in the universe.

Death, Sin, Law, and Redemption

Nahmanides ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 103-136
Author(s):  
Moshe Halbertal
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Religious Praxis ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter explores the existential foundations of Nahmanides's worldview. It analyzes the primary elements of the human condition: death, sin, and redemption. It talks also about Nahmanides's view that humanity's fate and existential condition reflect the divine drama itself. The chapter clarifies Nahmanides's conception of the Godhead, the chain of being, and the universe. It talks about Nahmanides's Talmudic novellae that provide two references to his kabbalistic traditions. One reference concerns the difference between a vow and an oath, while the other discusses the theory of prophecy in an aggadic context. It also explains how Nahmanides's kabbalistic ideas do not shape his particular halakhic determinations, even if kabbalah more broadly supplies the internal meaning of religious praxis.

Bergson, Henri-Louis (1859–1941)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Ansell-Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
Practical Utility ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Material Reality ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
And Control ◽  
Practical Instrument

Bergson’s thinking focuses on the major questions of philosophy: What is time? What is the nature of consciousness? What is the significance of evolution? What are the sources of morality? Many readers, including prominent philosophers of the twentieth century, have admired him for the clarity, rigour, and precision he seeks to bring to bear on these topics. He has had his detractors too (the most prominent example being Bertrand Russell). Bergson’s thinking orients itself around a philosophy of life and the attempt is made to think beyond the human condition: that is, beyond our established and prevailing habits of representation. It is from the primacy that is to be accorded to life that adequate conceptions of other areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, can be developed. Such a method of thinking has to work against the most inveterate habits of the mind and consists in an interchange of insights that correct and add to each other. For Bergson such an enterprise ends by expanding the humanity within us and so allows humanity to surpass itself by reinserting itself in the whole. This is accomplished through philosophy, for it is philosophy that provides us with the means for reversing the normal directions of the mind, so upsetting its habits. According to Bergson, the human intellect has evolved as a practical instrument for manipulating material reality and its habits are fundamentally those of utility and control. By contrast, philosophy has the ‘duty’ to ‘examine the living without any reservation as to practical utility’, and it seeks to free itself from habits that are strictly intellectual (Bergson [1907] 2007a: 126).

Transition

2020 ◽  
pp. 302-312
Author(s):  
Michael Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
Fundamental Nature ◽  
Knowledge Of God ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Human Condition

The Pensées section ‘Transition from the knowledge of man to the knowledge of God’ is not so much concerned to propel an argument forward as to deepen insights already arrived at in earlier sections. Pascal stresses the radical contingency of the human condition, as manifested in our subjection to custom. He invites the reader to consider the two infinites: we are imperceptibly small in the vastness of the universe, yet there are imperceptible creatures in relation to whom we are colossal. Our fundamental nature is incomprehensible either in dualist or in non-dualist terms. There is a gulf between conscious humanity (the ‘thinking reed’) and unconscious matter. Our distinctive attribute is the power of thought, and we must cultivate this if we are to respond appropriately to our condition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document