scholarly journals Al-Ghazālī and Descartes on Defeating Skepticism

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 133-148
Author(s):  
Saja Parvizian ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
The Third ◽  
Meditations On First Philosophy ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Key Features

Commentators have noticed the striking similarities between the skep­tical arguments of al-Ghazālī’s Deliverance from Error and Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. However, commentators agree that their solutions to skepticism are radically different. Al-Ghazālī does not use rational proofs to defeat skepticism; rather, he relies on a supernatural light [nūr] sent by God to rescue him from skepticism. Descartes, on the other hand, relies on the natural light of reason [lumen naturale] to prove the existence of God, mind, and body. In this paper, I argue that Descartes’ solution is closer to al-Ghazālī’s than commentators have allowed. A close reading of the cosmological argument of the Third Meditation reveals that there is also a type of divine intervention em­ployed in the Meditations, which helps Descartes defeat skepticism. This reading may buttress the case made by some that al-Ghazālī influenced Descartes; but more importantly, it requires us to rethink key features of Descartes’ epistemology.

Hume and Proofs for the Existence of God

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bell
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Ontological Argument ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Design Argument ◽  
Theory Of Ideas ◽  
Empiricist Theory

This chapter is about Hume’s critiques of the cosmological, ontological, and design arguments for the existence of God, as proposed by Samuel Clarke and other Newtonian theologians. Clarke regarded the cosmological argument (in a form that incorporates the ontological argument) as essential to prove the uniqueness, eternity, infinity, and omnipresence of God and the design argument as essential to prove the wisdom and foresight of God. The criticisms Hume makes all depend on his empiricist theory of ideas and his revolutionary theories of causation and causal reasoning. Most of the chapter discusses these themes. The concluding section draws attention to recent research that shows two things. One is how central to Hume’s whole philosophical enterprise is his rejection of theological ideas and doctrines. The other is how this relates to his rejection of certain parts of Newtonian metaphysics.

The True Perplexity: The Guide of the Perplexed Part II, Chapter 24

1991 ◽  
pp. 159-174
Author(s):  
Tzvi Langermann
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Third ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed

This chapter focuses on part II, Chapter 24 of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, which discusses the incompatibility of the models used by professional astronomers with the basic tenets of the Aristotelian world-view. On the one hand, the epicycles and eccentrics employed by astronomers seem to violate the principle that the motion of the heavenly bodies be uniform, circular, and about a fixed centre. On the other hand, the results achieved through the use of these very devices are startlingly precise. This, Maimonides says, is the ‘true perplexity’. The chapter then looks at three aspects of this true perplexity. It also compares the views expressed in the Guide with the rules laid down in the third chapter of the ‘Laws Concerning the Basic Principles of the Torah’, which forms the first section of the Mishneh Torah. It is particularly concerned with two questions: did Maimonides consider the true configuration of the heavens to be inscrutable? And can a close reading of both texts offer any clues about this true configuration? Finally, the chapter considers the views of some of Maimonides’ followers on these questions.

Causal Principles, Degrees of Reality, and the Priority of the Infinite

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81
Author(s):  
Georgette Sinkler
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
The Third ◽  
Formal Reality ◽  
Made In ◽  
Idea Of God

Descartes’ version of the Cosmological Argument in the Third Meditation is usually considered a failure, not because its conclusion doesn't follow from its premises, but because the truth of two of its premises is doubtful. One of these premises is that the objective reality of an idea is derived from a cause in which there is at least as much formal reality; the other, that only a being that possesses the qualities normally attributed to God could be responsible for the idea of God. Typically there are two objections made in response to the first of these premises. First, we don't understand the concepts of formal and objective reality well enough to know whether or not the premise commands our assent.

scholarly journals What Did Chartism Petition For? Mass Petitions in the British Movement for Democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Chase
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
The Third ◽  
The People ◽  
Women And Children

Chartism was in effect Britain’s civil rights movement and petitioning was at its heart: it defined who the Chartists were as well as the “other” against which they were implacably opposed. Its history has been effectively narrated around its three national petitions (1839, 1842, and 1848), and its decline almost habitually and directly linked to circumstances surrounding the last of these. More than 3.3 million people signed the 1842 National Petition. Chartism’s history after 1842 is partly one of how the State learned to manage the movement in general and petitioning in particular. The question posed by the title is deliberately ambiguous: What did the Chartists petition for and, equally, why did they bother? The first issue will be answered by a close reading of the three texts (surprisingly not undertaken by previous historians of the movement). The second will answered through an analysis of the wider uses of petitioning. The third issue addressed by this article is how petitioning constructed Chartism. In every contributing locality, canvassing was a major intervention in political life. The subscriptional community created by its petitions were “the people,” a term that clearly included not only men but also women and children. This was a different and wider meaning of the term “the people” from that used by Chartism’s opponents and it was a profound departure. Petitioning shaped, articulated, and mobilized the politics of a nascent working class, “banded together in one solemn and holy league” but excluded from economic and political power.

scholarly journals Antynomie Trzeciego w myśli Emmanuela Lévinasa

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kalaga
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Binary Logic ◽  
The Third ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Excluded Middle

The ethics of Emmanuel Lévinas – the idea of asymmetrical, unconditional responsibility for and devotion to the Other – is founded on the dichotomy between the Same (I) and the Other. The objective of the article is to demonstrate that, in spite of this dichotomous foundation, Lévinas’s argument paradoxically eludes the binary logic of the Western logos. Employing the ‘close reading’ method with Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, the author shows how Lévinas’s way of thinking and the main concepts of his argument situate themselves beyond binary oppositions – in the realm of the excluded middle or, otherwise, in the realm of the Third, construed as transgression of dichotomies. The main argument is preceded by a discussion of the antinomies introduced into the I-Other relation by the appearance of the Third construed as the Third Party (le tiers).

scholarly journals Negative Hopes: Social Dynamics of Isolating and Passive Forms of Hope

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-196
Author(s):  
Sylvia Terpe
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Main Section ◽  
The Third ◽  
General Conception ◽  
The One

This article critically questions the popular idea of hope as a motivating emotion as well as the more specific idea of hope as engendering solidary ties. Both notions can be found in social movement research and will be introduced in the first section. The idea that hope is such an activating force that binds people together is challenged by reports of some survivors of Nazi concentration camps. In the second part I will turn to a selection from the writings of Tadeusz Borowski and Ruth Klüger, both of whom survived Auschwitz. They emphasize that it was (besides other factors) the prisoners’ hope that isolated them from each other and which prevented them from undertaking acts of resistance against their tormentors. In the third and main section a close reading of Friedrich Torberg's novel Vengeance is Mine will help to identify particular features of such numbing forms of hope. Although fictitious, this novel broadens our understanding of hope by revealing two social dynamics encouraging hopes that have isolating effects and that induce passivity. I will close with reflections on how these negative accounts of hope can be integrated into a general conception of hope. I suggest differentiating between two meanings of hope: the one refers to ideas of a better future, the other one to the ways by which such futures may be achieved. It is useful to distinguish these two meanings analytically in order to understand the empirically different forms of hope.

Aquinas’ Third Way Modalized

1998 ◽  
pp. 147-155
Author(s):  
Robert E. Maydole
Keyword(s):  
Modal Logic ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third

The Third Way is the most interesting and insightful of Aquinas' five arguments for the existence of God, even though it is invalid and has some false premises. With the help of a somewhat weak modal logic, however, the Third Way can be transformed into a argument which is certainly valid and plausibly sound. Much of what Aquinas asserted in the Third Way is possibly true even if it is not actually true. Instead of assuming, for example, that things which are contingent fail to exist at some time, we need only assume that contingent things possibly fail to exist at some time. Likewise, we can replace the assumption that if all things fail to exist at some time then there is a time when nothing exists, with the corresponding assumption that if all things possibly fail to exist at some time then possibly there is a time when nothing exists. These and other similar replacements suffice to produce a cogent cosmological argument.

Efficacy of some insecticide modules against major insect pests and spider population of rice, Oryza sativa L.

ENTOMON ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-262
Author(s):  
Atanu Seni ◽  
Bhimasen Naik
Keyword(s):  
Oryza Sativa ◽  
Grain Yield ◽  
Untreated Control ◽  
Insect Pests ◽  
Oryza Sativa L ◽  
Gall Midge ◽  
Stem Borer ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
Treated Plot

Experiments were carried out to assess some insecticide modules against major insect pests of rice. Each module consists of a basal application of carbofuran 3G @ 1 kg a.i ha-1 at 20 DAT and Rynaxypyr 20 SC @ 30 g a.i ha-1 at 45 DAT except untreated control. All modules differ with each other only in third treatment which was applied in 65 DAT. The third treatment includes: Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 27 g a.i ha-1, Pymetrozine 50 WG @ 150 g a.i ha-1, Triflumezopyrim 106 SC @ 27 g a.i ha-1, Buprofezin 25 SC @ 250 g a.i ha-1; Glamore (Imidacloprid 40+Ethiprole 40% w/w) 80 WG @ 100 g a.i. ha-1, Thiacloprid 24 SC @ 60 g a.i ha-1, Azadirachtin 0.03 EC @ 8 g a.i ha-1, Dinotefuran 20 SG@ 40 g a.i ha-1 and untreated control. All the treated plots recorded significantly lower percent of dead heart, white ear- head caused by stem borer and silver shoot caused by gall midge. Module with Pymetrozine 50 WG @ 150 g a.i ha-1 treated plot recorded significantly higher per cent reduction of plant hoppers (>80% over untreated control) and produced higher grain yield (50.75 qha-1) than the other modules. Among the different treated modules the maximum number of spiders was found in Azadirachtin 0.03 EC @ 8 g a.i ha-1 treated module plot followed by other treatments.

Salsa’s Unruly Audition

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ren Ellis Neyra
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Music Festival

This essay shows how salsa stimulates unruly audition. It responds to that stimulation by performing multi-sensorial poetic listening with the excessive, tender, and queer audio-visual sabores [tastes], gestures, and details of two live performances by the musicians and singers contracted to Fania in the 1970s, one in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1973 and the other in 1974 at Zaire ‘74 in Kinshasa, a music festival of Afro-Latinx, brown, and black sonic solidarity headlining the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle fight. A riot of audience ended the All-Stars’ set at the 1973 Bronx concert. Their insurgent pleasure compels us to think unruliness with salsa’s listeners, and re-imagine Latinx as a riotous movement of brown and black swerving aesthetic convergences. The essay enacts a deviant and sonically oriented close reading of Héctor Lavoe’s vocals in the song “Mi Gente” [My People], in part, for their attunement precisely to audience and playful dynamics with the band. In this song, Lavoe cries out to “anormales” [abnormals], a sign re-imagined here as an off-kilter feeling for salsa and a multi-sensorial opening for more errant ruptures.

Retroaktive Neuverhandlung

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Martin Feige
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
The Third ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Relationship

Der Beitrag widmet sich der Frage historischer Folgeverhältnisse in der Kunst. Gegenüber dem Gedanken, dass es ein ursprüngliches Werk in der Reihe von Werken gibt, das späteren Werken seinen Sinn gibt, schlägt der Text vor, das Verhältnis umgekehrt zu denken: Im Lichte späterer Werke wird der Sinn früherer Werke neu ausgehandelt. Dazu geht der Text in drei Schritten vor. Im ersten Teil formuliert er unter der Überschrift ›Form‹ in kritischer Abgrenzung zu Danto und Eco mit Adorno den Gedanken, dass Kunstwerke eigensinnig konstituierte Gegenstände sind. Die im Gedanken der Neuverhandlung früherer Werke im Lichte späterer Werke vorausgesetzte Unbestimmtheit des Sinns von Kunstwerken wird im zweiten Teil unter dem Schlagwort ›Zeitlichkeit‹ anhand des Paradigmas der Improvisation erörtert. Der dritte und letzte Teil wendet diese improvisatorische Logik unter dem Label ›Neuaushandlung‹ dann dezidiert auf das Verhältnis von Vorbild und Nachbild an. The article proposes a new understanding of historical succession in the realm of art. In contrast to the idea that there is an original work in the series of works that gives meaning to the works that come later, the text proposes to think it exactly the other way round: in the light of later works, the meanings of earlier works are renegotiated. The text proceeds in three steps to develop this idea. Under the heading ›Form‹ it develops in the first part a critical reading of Danto’s and Eco’s notion of the constitution of the artworks and argues with Adorno that each powerful work develops its own language. In the second part, the vagueness of the meaning of works of art presupposed in the idea of renegotiating earlier works in the light of later works is discussed under the term ›Temporality‹ in terms of the logic of improvisation. The third and final part uses this improvisational logic under the label ›Renegotiation‹ to understand the relationship between model and afterimage in the realm of art.

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