Willing Evil

2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-322
Author(s):  
Henrik Lagerlund ◽  

In this article, I present two virtually unknown sixteenth-century views of human freedom, that is, the views of Bartolomaeus de Usingen (1465–1532) and Jodocus Trutfetter (1460–1519) on the one hand and John Mair (1470–1550) on the other. Their views serve as a natural context and partial background to the more famous debate on human freedom between Martin Luther (1483–1556) and Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) from 1524–1526. Usingen and Trutfetter were Luther’s philosophy teachers in Erfurt. In a passage from Book III of John Mair’s commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics from 1530, he seems to defend a view of human freedom by which we can will evil for the sake of evil. Very few thinkers in the history of philosophy have defended such a view. The most famous medieval thinker to do so is William Ockham (1288–1347). To illustrate how radical this view is, I place him in the historical context of such thinkers as Plato, Augustine, Buridan, and Descartes.

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Franz A. J. Szabo

In his great 1848 historical drama,Ein Bruderzwist im Hause Habsburg, the Austrian playwright Franz Grillparzer has Emperor Matthias utter the words that have often been applied to understanding the whole history of the Habsburg monarchy:Das ist der Fluch von unserm edeln Haus:Auf halben Wegen und zu halber TatMit halben Mitteln zauderhaft zu streben.[That is the curse of our noble house:Striving hesitatingly on half waysto half action with half means.]True as those sentiments may be of many periods in the history of the monarchy, the one period of which it cannotbe said is the second half of eighteenth century. The age of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and Leopold II was perhaps the greatest era of consistent and committed reform in the four-hundred-year history of the monarchy. What I want to address in this article are some aspects of the dynamic of this reform era, and this falls into two categories. On the one hand, there is the broad energizing or motive force behind the larger development, and on the other, there are the ideas or assumptions that lay behind the policies adopted. As might be evident from the subtitle of my article, I propose to look primarily at the second of these categories. I do so because I think while Habsburg historiography has reached considerable consensus on the first, it has not looked enough on the second as an explanatory hermeneutic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahana Bhattacharya

State-organised technical education focusing on leather production was introduced in India in the early 1900s. One of its key objectives was to change the entrenched notions about the leather industry—as a ‘traditional’ industry associated with low caste and social status. This article traces the history of this endeavour, locating it within a wider account of the history of technical education in leather production. While some common concerns affected the project in both Europe and India, there were important points of difference, as technical education in leather production in India had to negotiate factors such as the extreme stigma of hides and skins mandated by caste on the one hand, and on the other, their integration within the capitalist colonial economy and their concomitant high profitability. Decisions of who or what were to be taught, and by which pedagogical methods, were produced through these negotiations. The article explores this history through a study of two leading institutions that provided technical education in this field. It highlights how official initiatives of skilling and technical education were, in complex ways, closely mediated by, and in turn mediated their historical context, its social and economic structures, prevailing ideologies and notions of skill.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (136) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Bento Silva Santos

Resumo: O artigo comenta globalmente algumas anotações da Vorlesung não proferida – “Os Fundamentos Filosóficos da Mística Medieval” (1918-1919) – na tentativa ainda fragmentária de esboçar uma compreensão fenomenológica da experiência mística. Assim, destaco, primeiramente, as duas observações iniciais de Heidegger sobre o sentido ambíguo da formulação “fundamentos filosóficos da mística medieval” ora com base na história da filosofia (1), ora com base na abordagem fenomenológica. Em segundo lugar, optando pela mística medieval como expressão (Ausdruck) da religiosidade cristã, Heidegger estabelece uma dupla distinção: de um lado, a religiosidade se distingue tanto da filosofia da religião como da teologia; de outro lado, a separação entre o problema da teologia e problema da religiosidade cristã (2). Por fim, em função desta oposição problemática entre teologia escolástica e mística medieval, trato brevemente da permanência ambígua do esquema de pensamento da teologia cristã no Denkweg de Heidegger, que pressupõe inegavelmente suas origens católicas (3).Abstract: This article broadly discusses Heidegger’s notes for his undelivered Vorlesung - “The Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism” (1918-1919) - in a still fragmentary attempt to outline a phenomenological understanding of the mystical experience. In order to do so, I first highlight the two initial observations of Heidegger concerning the meaning of the ambiguous wording “philosophical foundations of medieval mysticism”, sometimes referring to the basis of mysticism in the history of philosophy (1), sometimes to its phenomenological approach. Second, I discuss Heidegger’s option to consider medieval mystic as expression (Ausdruck) of Christian religiousness. Thus, the author establishes a double distinction: on the one hand, religiousness distinguishes itself from both the philosophy of religion and theology, and on the other hand, the problem of theology is separated from that of Christian religiousness (2). Finally, in light of this problematic opposition between scholastic theology and medieval mysticism, I briefly deal with the ambiguous persistence of the model of thinking of the Christian theology in Heidegger’s Denkweg, that unmistakably presupposes his Catholic origins (3).


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Fitri Yuliana

Di satu sisi, penekanan modernisme pada rasionalitas dan historisitas telah menghasilkan kristologi yang kritis-objektif. Di sisi lain, pascamodernisme yang berepistemologi pluralis menghasilkan kristologi yang subjektif. Menanggapi dan menjembatani dua sisi persoalan ini, pendekatan hermeneutis redemptive-historical diajukan sebagai pendekatan alternatif injili. Pendekatan yang berpusat pada Kristus sebagai kulminasi sejarah penebusan (seperti yang disaksikan Alkitab) ini mengaitkan tiga horizon yaitu: textual, epochal, dan canonical untuk menginterpretasikan teks Kitab Suci secara holistik. Pendekatan ini menganalisis sintaksis, konteks sastra, konteks sejarah dan genre-nya (textual horizon), mengaitkannya dengan sejarah penebusan (epochal horizon), dan melihatnya dalam terang keutuhan kanon (canonical horizon). Penggabungan ketiga unsur tersebut menekankan dinamika pemenuhan janji Allah dalam kulminasi tersebut. Dengan demikian, pendekatan hermeneutis redemptive historical dapat mengarahkan orang Kristen pembacaan dan penafsiran Alkitab yang kristosentris. Kata-kata kunci: Pendekatan Redemptive-Historical, Epistemologi, Kristologi Modern Kristologi Pascamodern, Hermeneutika Injili Kristosentris On the one hand, the emphasis of modernism on rationality and historicity has produced a critical-objective Christology. On the other hand, post-modernism with a pluralist epistemology produces subjective Christology. Responding to, and bridging the two sides of this problem, the redemptive-historical hermeneutical approach is proposed as an alternative evangelical approach. The Christ-centered approach as the culmination of the history of redemption (as witnessed to in the Bible) links three horizons, namely: textual, epochal, and canonical to interpret the text of the Scriptures holistically. This approach analyzes syntax, literary context, historical context and its genre (textual horizon), links it to the history of redemption (epochal horizon), and sees it in the light of the canon (canonical horizon). The combination of these three elements emphasizes the dynamic fulfillment of God’s promises. Thus, the historical redemptive hermeneutical approach can lead Christians to read and interpret the Christocentric Bible. Keywords: Redemptive-Historical Approach, Epistemology, Modernist Christology, Post-modernist Christology, Christ-centered Evangelical Hermeneutics


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1019-1019
Author(s):  
Carl C. Fischer

FROM TIME to time Presidents of the American Academy of Pediatrics have used this means of sharing with the fellowship, thoughts which seem to them to be of mutual interest. Last year, President George Wheatley had such a message in every issue, covering a wide variety of interesting and stimulating topics. I will not plan to necessarily continue this policy of having a message for each issue, but will do so whenever the subject matter seems to warrant one. At this, the beginning of a new year for the Academy, it seems appropriate to present to the membership at large a few of the thoughts which I presented in Chicago upon my inauguration as your President. It has recently been my pleasure to reread the two little volumes sent to all Academy Fellows a few years ago, the one containing the Presidential addresses of the first 20 presidents, and the other, Dr. Marshall Pease's stimulating "History of the Academy." I heartily recommend these to any of you who might be interested in the conception, delivery and growth and development of our organization. Of first importance at this time, it seems to me, is the review of the primary objectives of our Academy as originally drawn up by Dr. Grulee and his associates more than 30 years ago. These are: "The object of the Academy shall be to foster and stimulate interest in Pediatrics and correlate all aspects of the word for the welfare of children which properly come within the scope of pediatrics."


Early China ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 159-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.E. Brashier

Overseen by hungry gods on the one hand or structured by impersonal cyclic forces on the other, the Eastern Han cosmos eluded a single consistent model accepted by everyone. Yet these cosmological perspectives were not competing arguments held by different people; they were inconsistent genres of discourse found within the same people and sometimes even within the same texts. Late Eastern Han mountain inscriptions may ritually appease sacrifice-eating gods with their hymns of praise, but they simultaneously describe the cosmos as a single pervasive system of qi-vapors, yinyang, and the five phases. How could these two models coexist?Dated to 183 C.E., the “Stele to the Spirit Lord of Baishi Mountain” (baishi shenjun bei 白石神君碑) demonstrates how certain compromise positions existed between a universe overseen by external agencies and that consisting of resonating cycles. The inscription explains why this mountain deity merited sacrifice, describes the official process in which permission to sacrifice was secured, and identifies this hungry deity as one component within ritualized systems within spatial lineages and geographic bureaucracies and so he is not recognized as an entirely free agent. In addition, the inscription systematizes him by obligating him to participate in mechanical rituals of recompense and by reducing him to a ritualized Classicist stereotype, further diminishing his independence and individuality. The stele inscription s focus on ritual demonstrates how ritual lessens any perceived inconsistency between cosmic agencies and cosmic system.This article first surveys the Han history of mountain sacrifices and mountain stelae, thereby placing the Spirit Lord of Baishi Mountain into historical context. The translation of the inscription dedicated to him follows, which for the purpose of analysis I divide into eight sections that address themes such as rituals of recompense, the generation of rain, and the transformation of the god into a Classicist hero. The conclusion summarizes how human structures such as lineage and bureaucracy fill in the gaps between these inconsistent genres of discourse human structures that result in impersonal qi-vapors becoming more human and personalized mountain deities becoming more structured.


1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-100
Author(s):  
Jens Hohensee

The events of 1989, the annus mirabilis, have led to a great demand for new research and a re-thinking of the history of Eastern Europe. Those sources which were kept from us for years are now available, at least in part. As part of this process political scientists and historians of Eastern Europe are now concerned to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and provide the answers to urgent questions. A consequence of this situation has been a veritable flood of publications, of which eight have been chosen for review here. With two exceptions these studies have deepened our understanding of the issues involved. There are clear differences between the historians on the one hand and the political scientists on the other in terms of their starting-point and the questions they ask. Whereas the historians deal descriptively with the origins, trends and structures of the last centuries and place the revolutions of 1989/90 in their historical context, the political scientists proceed analytically and place greater emphasis on social, ethnic and economic factors. This dichotomy is demonstrated in the different problematics of the books under review.


Author(s):  
Joseba Gabilondo

This article is a first attempt to elaborate a Hispanic reading and relocation of Europe and modernity in an Atlantic space/time that is neither European nor modern, and can be denominated Atlantic transmodernity (Dussel). The goal is not to refashion a more problematic Europe and modernity, even in a postcolonial fashion, by provincializing it (Chakrabarty), but rather to create a new geopolitical space, the Hispanic Atlantic, and a temporality, an Atlantic transmodernity, that turns the idea of Europe/modernity into an ideological effect produced by the geopolitics of the Atlantic. In order to do so, the article concentrates, on the one hand, on 19th-century Spanish history of the state of exception, and, on the other, on the not-so-well known history of the inception of the concentration camp in Cuba between 1896 and 1898.


2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Alfred Loader

This article argues the following thesis: The distinctive characteristics of Philipp Melanchthon’s Explicatio Proverbiorum Salomonis (1525 and following years) and the differences between the several editions or versions of it can only partly be explained by the origins of the book in Melanchthon’s teaching activities during the ferment at German universities in the course of the sixteenth century Reformation. Both the peculiarities of the commentary itself and the way several differing versions of it were tolerated alongside one another only become explicable when a theological consideration is brought into the equation. On the one hand this resides in the view of Holy Scripture shared by Melanchthon and Martin Luther, and on the other hand in the humanist notion of context that Melanchthon’s exegetical work had in common with that of John Calvin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-239

This article discusses the rhetorical characteristics of Martin Luther's texts in the first third of the sixteenth century. Two specific textual types are compared. On the one hand, we have the polemical 'Widder den newen Abgott und allten Teuffel, der zu Meyssen sol erhaben werden' (1524); and on the other, the didactic pamphlet 'Von Ordnung gotes dienst in der gemain' (1523). The following questions are addressed: 1) How do these documents convey new reformatory ideas against the Catholic mainstream? 2) How consistent are both texts in terms of rhetorical style? 3) How can the relationship between the rhetorical compositional features and the supposed intention of each document be characterised? The article concludes that dialectical patterns of thesis and antithesis structure Lutheran texts of this period. Der Beitrag untersucht rhetorische Kompositionsmuster anhand zweier Lutherschriften. Miteinander verglichen werden die Streitschrift 'Widder den newen Abgott und allten Teuffel, der zu Meyssen sol erhaben werden' (1524) und die Unterweisungsschrift 'Von Ordnung gotes dienst in der gemain' (1523). Sowohl antithetische Argumentationsschemata als auch rhetorische Muster bilden einen konstitutiven Bestandteil innerhalb der agitatorischprogrammatischen Schriften Luthers.


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