Recognising Similarity in ‘Angers’ Across History

A family-resemblance approach to categorisation, such as that developed by Wittgenstein, provides a basis for conceiving how various historical types of ‘anger’ can be recognised as similar despite their variability and lack of core defining features. Thomas Dixon’s essay applies this approach in a way that avoids radical relativism and acknowledges general human emotional capabilities. His approach may arguably be extended to commonalities between emotions of humans and animals, which would have interesting implications for the history of emotion.

Map is Not Territory, Menu is Not Meal

This article focuses on Jonathan Z. Smith’s 1978 essay, “Map is Not Territory,” in terms of its definition of religion, allegiance to anthropology and history, and avoidance of relativism. Updated to the author’s situation forty years later, it articulates the relation between map and territory as one of asymmetrical dependence governed by the rule that the concrete includes the abstract and exceeds it in value. Reading Smith’s essay in light of Donald Davidson’s “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme” provides a philosophical argument against radical relativism. Two brief aperçu about Smith frame this account.

Dialogue, Listening, and Ethics

Communication has the power to heal and to wound, to tyrannize and to liberate, to enlighten and to deceive, to inspire and to corrupt. Subjecting ideas to the scrutiny of others through engagements of difference has long been recognized as a vital resource for the fulfillment of communication’s constructive potential as well as a critically needed antidote to the corrupting influences associated with demagoguery, confirmation bias, ideological rigidity, and partisanship. Demographic shifts and technological advancements afford unparalleled opportunities for such open, deliberative engagements and related inquiries. Enriched by attentive listening, dialogic communication provides a particularly promising means of tapping these and other resources to reach across differences in pursuit of knowledge, understanding, truth, and wise discernment. Despite their potential, however, listening and dialogue face formidable obstacles. Among these are dominant narratives regarding the human condition, power imbalances, and privilege, and their implications for communication ethics. Absolutism, radical relativism, and related false dilemmas pose significant obstacles as well. A transformation of vision—from individual adversarialism to an ethic of interdependence—offers a pathway out of the thicket, enabling humanity to tap communication’s potential in shared pursuit of human flourishing across the globe.

Montaigne

This article shows how Montaigne’s Essays can clarify the problem of historical periodization by demonstrating the differences between early modern, modern, and postmodern sensibilities. These terms have arisen in the wake of disputes over Jacob Burckhardt’s interpretation of the Renaissance, offering the appearance of a more value-free alternative to his period scheme. An examination of the Essays, however, reveals that these terms are not mere chronological markers but embody crucial, normative differences. In contrast to the modern sensibility that perceives selfhood as the product of historical and cultural context, Montaigne regarded it as reflected in, rather than shaped by, his context. This early modern tendency engendered in him a form of radical relativism akin to that of postmodernism, a form of relativism that appeals to twenty-first-century readers and that can provide a new orientation in a complex world.

Belydenisgebondenheid in ’n postmoderne era

The binding to confessions in a postmodern era We are experiencing a paradigm shift between Modernism and Postmodernism in almost every sphere of life, and also in the sphere of church and theology. This paradigm shift has far-reaching consequences, especially for churches in the reformed tradition and the practice of reformed theology as far as the binding to the confessions is concerned. From the viewpoint of Postmodernism, there is no absolute truth. This applies also to Scripture. As far as their hermeneutics is concerned, they adhere to the principles of deduction as formulated by Derrida. According to these principles, a text has no intrinsic meaning but rather creates meaning. There is nothing outside the text. This leads to radical relativism. Over against the postmodern view, reformed hermeneutics maintain that Scripture is the infallible Word of God and proclaims everlasting truth. In the confessions this truth is formulated. Confessions belong to the very essence of the church. The binding to the confessions therefore applies to every member as well as all office-bearers and also professors in theology. In this regard there can be no compromise with Postmodernism.

Radicaal pluralisme en inter-traditionele conversatie

The author questions Gijs Dingemans’s account of a pluralist morality for the world by arguing that he disregards the crucial relation between basic moral rules and secondary rules and therefore overlooks the problem of the radical pluralism that follows from local interpretations of those basic rules. Showing in what ways pluralism differs from monism or dogmatism as well as from radical relativism, the author proceeds to develop some characteristics of what he calls the inter-traditional conversation between participants in differing life-view traditions.

História E Estrutura Em Maurice Merleau-Ponty E Claude Lévi-Strauss

In one of the working notes from the Visible and the Invisible, Merleau-Ponty expresses the intention of resuming his critique of Lévi-Strauss ‘s notion of Gestatung in a future version of the text. The recent publication of the notes from the course at College de France (1954-55), and particularly the first of them regarding “L ‘institution dans ľhistoire personelle et publique”, allows a more thorough understanding of that otherwise rather obscure reference. In this paper, we track Merleau-Ponty’s critique of the anthropologist’s theory of history in the courses on institution as well as in other texts of the sarne period (and particularly relevant is the reference to Les aventures de la dialectique). The French philosopher pursues a conceptual path that may move beyond the radical relativism professed by the Lévi-Strauss, which is nothing but a supplement of natural objectivism, and aims at a “ relativization of the relative”. We thus see how Merleau-Ponty focuses this question on the notion of “historical” and “social” perception, suggesting a “ perceptive” reading of the categories proposed by Lévi-Strauss. We believe that this particular phase of the merleau-pontyan reflection on history is a step of the greater importance in the theoretical path towards the ontological inquiries of his last works.