Love as Origin of Science

Summary The approaches to the possibility of theology as science are divided roughly into three types: first, the internalist approach which rejects any attempt to verify the objective validity of revelation under the general concept of science. Second, the externalist approach which demands the verification of objective validity of revelatory truth. Third, the inclusivist approach which seeks the scientificity of theology from a hermeneutic perspective. Outlining the crucial points and limits of these approaches and replacing the question about theology as science with a theological reexamination of the possibility of science in general, this paper tries to suggest an alternative approach by establishing the possibility of scientific knowledge in general from the trinitarian perspective. Under this reformulation of the question, the philosophy of science set forth by Fichte as the most rigorous model of theory of science is critically explored. In conclusion, it is argued that the ultimate ground of all human knowledge and science consists in the eternal divine love and trust in it.

Normative Theory

The ultimate ground of Bentham’s normative philosophy was the principle of utility. It functioned for Bentham as the fundamental evaluative and decision principle and principle of institutional design. The principle combines universal consequentialism (the ultimate aim of morality is to promote the overall good of the community) with impartial hedonism (that the good of the community must be understood in terms of the subjective well-being or happiness of each considered impartially). Bentham maintained that at bottom moral judgments are expressions of approval or disapproval that appeal beyond themselves to some public matters of fact and that appeal to pleasures and pains can only serve this purpose. This essential meta-ethical requirement of publicity of moral judgment supplied the basic elements for an indirect argument for the principle of utility and the foundation of his critique of natural rights. Justice, he argued, is not opposed to utility so understood, but rather is a species of utility.

Ästhetisches Selbstbewusstsein und Urteilsvermögen in Kants Analytik des Schönen

Gemäß der üblichen Auslegung besteht Kants maßgeblicher Beitrag zur Philosophie darin, eine Position entwickelt zu haben, die das Dilemma zwischen zwei gleichermaßen unbefriedigenden Konzeptionen unseres Urteilsvermögens überwindet: der empiristischen Konzeption, der zufolge der letzte Grund des Urteilens in Akten der Empfindung zu finden ist, und der rationalistischen Konzeption, der zufolge der letzte Grund in Erkenntnissen besteht. In meinem Text konzentriere ich mich auf Kants Analyse der Schönheitsurteile und argumentiere, dass Kant in seiner Analytik des Schönen nicht einfach ein anderes Verständnis vom Begriff der Schönheit entwickelt, sondern dass er eine andere Vorstellung davon hat, was es bedeutet, ein solches Verständnis zu haben. Kants sogenannter Mittelweg stellt die Annahme infrage, dass der Philosoph oder die Philosophin den Begriff der Schönheit von außerhalb desjenigen Selbstbewusstseins untersuchen kann, das derjenige hat, der kompetent über Schönheit urteilt. Nach dieser Lesart ist Kants Darstellung der Schönheitsurteile deswegen von besonderem Interesse für die Philosophie, weil Schönheitsurteile eine Form besitzen, die die Form jener philosophischen Urteile widerspiegelt, die diese Form artikulieren. According to the standard interpretation, Kant’s major contribution to philosophy consists in his position that overcomes a dilemma between two equally dissatisfying positions on how we understand our capacity for judgments: the so-called empiricist position, according to which the ultimate ground for judgment is to be found in acts of sensibility, and the so-called rationalist position, according to which its ultimate ground is to be found in cognitions. In my paper I focus on Kant’s analysis of the judgment of beauty and argue that in his analysis of beauty Kant does not simply develop another understanding of the concept of beauty, but that his understanding of beauty manifests a different conception of ›what it means to have such an understanding‹ in the first place. Kant’s so-called middle course calls into question the assumption that the philosopher can investigate the concept of beauty from outside the self-consciousness that constitutes the capacity of his competent judgment of beauty. According to this reading, Kant’s account of judgments of beauty is of special interest to philosophy because they turn out to have a form that, in a certain respect, mirrors the form of philosophical judgments which attempt to articulate this form

Awakening of faith in Mahāyāna

The Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna (Dasheng qixinlun) is one of the most influential philosophical texts in East Asian Buddhism. It is most important for developing the Indian Buddhist doctrine of an inherent potentiality for Buddhahood (tathāgatagarbha) into a monistic ontology based on the mind as the ultimate ground of all experience. Its most significant contribution to East Asian Buddhist thought is its formulation of the idea of original enlightenment (benjue, or in Japanese, hongaku).

The Doctrine of Logos Within Ibn ‘Arabi Mystical Philosophy

There are no less than twenty-two terms which Ibn ‘Arabi uses to designate what one might call a Mohammedan Logos. References to these terms, with explanations, will be given later. The reason, why we find Ibn‘Arabi using such a large collection of terms for one thing, is twofold. In the first place, it is due to the fact that he derived his material from so many divergent sources, preserving, so far as possible, the terminology of each source. Here, e.g., he is using terms borrowed from Sufis, scholastic theologians, Neo-platonists, the Qur’an and so on. Secondly, his pantheism enables him to use the name of anything for the One Reality which is the ultimate ground of all things. The terms to below refer to different aspects of the One Reality which is now regarded as the Logos.[Tidak kurang dari sekitar 22 istilah yang digunakan oleh Ibn ‘Arabi untuk merujuk apa yang disebut sebagai “logos Muhammad”. Beberapa referensi bagi istilah tersebut dengan penjelasannya akan dijelaskan berikutnya. Terdapat dua alasan utama yang menjadikan Ibn ‘Araby menggunakan puluhan istilah untuk menyebut hal yang sama. Pertama, dikarenakan adanya fakta bahwa ia mengambil seluruh material dari berbagai macam sumber dan sebisa mungkin mempertahankan istilah dari masing-masing sumber. Dalam hal ini, ia meminjam istilah dari kelompok sufi, teolog skolastik, neo-platonis, al-Qur ’an dan yang lainnya. Kedua, panteisme-nya memungkinkan untuk memakai beragam nama sesuatu bagi satu realitas yang menjadi pusat dari segala sesuatu. Istilah-istilah yang begitu banyak merupakan aspek-aspek yang berbeda dari Realitas Yang Satu yang kini dipandang sebagai Logos.]

Translation as artistic communication in the aesthetics of migration: From nonfiction to the visual arts

In an increasingly globalized and digitalized world, where the advancement of technologies and media constructions oversimplify and manipulate public beliefs and shared knowledge, the artistic sector seems to provide new networks of solidarity, collaboration and interaction that challenge a world dominated by conflicts and cultural shocks. Against this backdrop, acts of translation within the arts bear witness to humanity and become the ultimate ground for subjective expression and fundamental reflections upon individualist attitudes against migration issues. By putting emphasis on the role of translation in its political transfer of migration into the arts, this investigation draws attention to a recent corpus of works of art that testifies to the modalities by means of which the creative cultural industries are contributing to giving voice to migration not just as transruption and memory, but as an inclusive form of movement and communication. In Notes on the Exodus by Richard Flanagan, with illustrations by Ben Quilty (2016), and in the arts installations Call Me By My Name and All I Left Behind. All I Will Discover (London, 2017), translation intervenes as an instrument of cross-cultural collaboration and solidarity, resistance and dissent, and also demonstrates to what extent stories of migration can interact within art forms and be performed as acts of translation involving processes of (re)narration and (re)framing of identities.

God as Creator of Natural Laws: On the Relation of the Absolute and the Contingent World

SummaryIn his essay on rational theology Holm Tetens broaches the issue of God’s role as creator and additionally addresses the relationship of the absolute to the contingent world in a philosophical perspective. By making this a topic, the question arises as to whether or not God’s creative activities are limited by the laws of nature. According to Tetens, God as the infinite self-conscious subject must not just considered as free from all restrictions concerning his creative activities, but rather, characterized as the absolute, he must be thought of as the ultimate ground of all beings, and therefore also as the creator of natural laws. In this article I will give a brief sketch of how this task could be tackled in philosophical terms. In doing so I will both pick up some of Tetens’ main intentions and concepts and try to explore them in some detail, as well as attempt to link them with the principle of determinacy as the main characteristic of the absolute.