Truth and Method in Unification Thought: A Preparatory Analysis

Size: px
Start display at page:

Download "Truth and Method in Unification Thought: A Preparatory Analysis"

Transcription

1 Truth and Method in Unification Thought: A Preparatory Analysis Keisuke Noda Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy Unification Theological Seminary New York, USA Abstract This essay gives a preparatory analysis on the concept of truth in Unification Thought (UT). The essay begins a question of the circularity of truth raised by Plato. The examination leads to UT s view that truth exists in human mind as implicit knowledge shown in the concept of individual embodiment of truth in UT ontology. The essay explains why the truth is hidden and how it is disclosed. For the former question, it introduces a set of perspectives: creation and restoration. For the latter question, another set of perspectives: inward (internal, the self) and outward (external, the world). These two sets of ideas form a broad framework of methodologies in various sciences and religion. The essay also analyses two-fold manifestation of truth in UT: symbolic and imagery. The analysis leads to the reason why truth in mind can accord with the truth in the world, why language, which is conditioned by social cultural contexts, and logical, mathematical reasoning in mind can be a proper description of the outer world. The unity of truth in ideas and reality is explained by UT concept of logs, which explains a background for the correspondence theory of truth. It also explains why language is the primary method of capturing and expressing truth. Ⅰ. Circularity of Truth A. Plato s Question concerning the circularity of truth Plato s question is this. Suppose one does not have truth in any form and that is the reason why one seeks for truth. The, how can one determine what one finds is truth or not? If one has no criterion of truth, one certainly cannot make the judgment. But, on the contrary, if one has truth, why does one have to seek for it?

2 Plato s answer is a theory of recollection. One s soul already know truth. But it is buried deep in the soul when the soul entered into a body. Bodily desires clouded the soul and made it difficult to see it. So the knowledge is a recollection of what one already knew but has forgotten. The purification of the soul thus became the task to attain truth knowledge. Socrates, Plato s teacher and mentor, described his role as midwife. Midwife does not give a baby to a pregnant mother but only helps her to deliver a baby. The metaphor explains that a teacher can only awaken the person to truth, and help him or her to see what he or she already has. A. Concept of Individual Embodiment of Truth in UT UT (Unification Thought) conceptualizes the presence of truth by an ontological concept of individual embodiment of truth. Every being, be it a human or non-human, individual embodiment of truth. From UT perspective, every being is a manifestation of truth which is ultimately originated in God. A human being has implicit understanding of truth and the quest for truth is a process of bringing implicit understanding of truth to explicit understanding. 1 Here, a question arises. If it is hidden, is truth hidden? How is truth disclosed? 1. Concealment and Disclosure of Truth Concealment or hidden-ness means that one does not have clear conscious understanding of truth. UT explains it from a set of ideas, creation and restoration. How is the truth disclosed? UT answers with another set of ideas, inward (subject, to the self) and outward (object; to the world). These two sets of ideas form a broader framework within which truth seeking activities are carried out. Disciplinary endeavors including sciences and religion are performed within this framework. A. Creation and Restoration If one knew truth, one does not have to seek for it. If one is totally detached from truth or has nothing to do with truth, one may not even think of and seek for truth. UT views a human life as a process of discovering and embodying truth. A life can becomes a quest for 1 This definition of truth is also found in Heidegger. He defined it as aletheia, which means disclosedness, an event of uncovering. For him, philosophy is an activity to make implicit understanding explicit.

3 the meaning and the quest drives one to seek and find truth. In between the hiddenness and discovery/embodiment lie the meaning of human activities. Discovery, surprise, and awakening make a life exciting, full of surprise, and joyful. This is the original or natural process of human growth. Here is another question. Does a human being live and exist in un-truth? Does one exist in in-authentic, estranged, distorted manner? Since Plato, authenticity of the state of human existence has been questioned. This question has been central to religious traditions. Plato understood it as a struggle between the soul and bodily desires. Existentialists such as Kierkegaard and Jaspers grasped despair, anxiety, and the feeling of loss as symptoms of the loss of authentic state of being. How to restore the authenticity of human existence was the theme of their philosophical endeavors. UT conceptualizes the return to the authentic or original state restoration. Thus, a quest for truth is a process where two kinds of orientations, creation and restoration, are intertwined. The search of truth in some disciplines have a stronger inclination to restoration aspect, and others to the natural or original aspect. Self-justification: indication of the presence of truth From UT perspective, pre-presence of truth in a human being cannot be changed or altered. This fact is exemplified by phenomena of self-justification. A human being tries to justify his or her actions regardless of what those actions are. It is an inherent nature of human being to try to justify one s actions. This inclination to the good cannot be removed or eradicated even if one tries. Because it cannot be removed at will, it can reorient the self again and again to the good. 2 Moral or ethical education is an attempt to cultivate a potential the person already has. It is essentially persuasion. Understanding here basically means that one is awaken to or is opened up to truth one already has. Moral education ultimately relies on the presence of an orientation to the good in the person. This orientation to the good is what one cannot eradicate and it is transcending the self. B. Inward (subject; to the self) and Outward (object; to the world) 2 Plato viewed the good as transcending the world. Because it is transcendent the self, one cannot eradicate it no matter how one hard one attempts. A degree of concealment of the orientation to the good in each person varies.

4 A quest for truth has two orientations: one is inwardly or to the self and another is outwardly or to the world. Religion and science (physical science) are two prime examples. In religion, one examines the self, when one seeks for truth. Even in cases one does not consciously seek truth inwardly toward the self, the seeker s status is cannot be ignored or placed outside of the question. A seeker s existential status is always at stake. In religion, religious practices are required to open one s eyes. Furthermore, one not only seeks to discover the truth but also seeks to embody truth. One tries to become a substantial manifestation of truth. In Christian tradition, Jesus did not say I have a truth but instead I AM the truth. Truth is embodied. In natural sciences, in physical sciences particular, one attempts to detach and exclude oneself and directs the studies toward the world or phenomenal object. One takes by-stander s position and objectively observes the subject matter. The relationship between the self and truth is thus different in religion and science. Thus, UT conceptualizes this distinction in truth as internal truth and external truth respectively. 3. Ways of Disclosing Truth A. Religion and Science Truth in religion is internal or subjective in a qualified sense. It does not mean that truth in religion is individual subjective feeling in mind nor one s speculation. It is subjective in the sense that truth is disclosed through the mediation of the self or cognitive subject. The state of being of the subject who seeks for truth is at stake. The subject who seeks for truth is necessarily involved in the quest, and affects what is disclosed. Nevertheless, it is a quest for unbiased, universal truth. Methodologies in discipline, both in science and religion, were established in order to avoid mere opinions, speculations, and illusions. In religion, hermeneutics, practices, and rituals were historically established by each religious tradition and community. In science, research methodologies and norms of research have been historically established by research communities. 3 Two sets of factors form the framework of a research: creation and restoration, inward (subjective; self) and outward (objective; the world). These two sets of elements are intertwined. How and to which degree each factor operates is determined by the subject 3 Thomas Kuhn conceptualized historically and socially determined norms of research as paradigm. He pointed out that natural science has social, historical, and hermeneutical dimension.

5 matter. For example, physics considers the creation or natural aspect of phenomena and takes outward quest. Whereas, in psychiatric sciences, both creation and restoration aspects are considered and both inward and outward quests are taken. B. Correspondence in Truth Here is a question. We observe phenomena of the world and theorize them. We unconsciously employ logic imbedded in our thought process and try to construct a consistent theory. How can our mechanism of thought be in accord with the reality of the world? Why and how do we know that the reality is mathematically constructible and rationally explicable? How can the constructs of mind be in agreement with the reality? This is a question of epistemology and it will be fully discussed in the section of epistemology. Nevertheless, some clarification is necessary. The question can be also seen as a question of the correspondence between ideas and reality. There are several theories of truth and correspondence theory of truth is one of major theories. How does UT answer this question? This question is further extended to a question of the relationship between language and reality. Although truth cannot be fully expressed by language, language is a primary method of capturing and describing truth. Language is conditioned by cultural, historical contexts and it can be incommensurable. 4 How can historically conditioned language be the primal method of capturing and describing truth which implies universality? These two questions seem to be separate. Yet, in UT, both questions fall under the question of logos. C. Disclosure of Truth in the Individual Embodiment of Truth: Logos, Symbol (language) and Image UT presupposes two theses. 5 First, God created the world as His substantial object. Second, there are two forms of substantial object, substantial object in image and substantial object in symbol. These theses require a discussion about God, His relationship with the world, and others. They will be discussed in ontology. 4 Incommensurability thesis arises from Thomas Kuhn arguments on paradigm. When two paradigms do not have a common standard by which one can compare, two paradigms are said to be incommensurable. 5 UT presupposes other theses such as God s existence, the existence of the spirit world, and others. Each is a topic to be explored separately.

6 UT views a human being as a being divine natures are fully manifested in sensible forms. Other beings in nature are beings divine nature are manifested in symbolic forms. We can notice that one divine truth is manifested in two different degrees and levels. UT holds that the one truth originated in God is manifested in diverse symbolic forms and sensible imageries. UT further holds that God created the world through the mediation of logos. Just like DNA of human genes, logos is the fundamental information source which forms each being by determining its shapes and sensible appearances. Logos is thus individuated truth which can be manifested in mathematical and linguistic forms and sensible contents. Symbolic disclosure of truth: the mathematical and language The mathematical and the linguistic are primary symbolic representations. The mathematical is the most fundamental form that is present at all phenomena including the religious and the artistic. As we can see in mathematical logic, human discourse has mathematical structure, and religious rituals contain mathematical symbolism. They show how broad and pervasive the mathematical is. Language is also a symbolic representation of beings. Language is a social, cultural, and historical construct. Although what we can capture and express by means of language is limited, 6 language is the primary method to grasp and express truth. Logos is pre-linguistic word by which God created all beings. Logos lies as the basis of all beings and language is the closest way to describe it. The possibility of language is limited by semantic and syntactic rules. These rules are unique to each language and culturally historically conditioned. Languages may be incommensurable and may have only family resemblance. Richard Rorty, in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, defined philosophical cognition not as a reflection of the reality like a mirror image of the reality. He took a pragmatic position, and defined it in terms of its usefulness in social contexts. He detached a perspective of truth from ontology and attempted to define philosophy and truth by social utility. UT, however, approaches truth from ontological perspective. Logos is the underlying principles and design of all beings in the world. Orders and relationships among beings are pre-determined by logos, which is God s primary plan and design for each being. Language 6 Religious traditions such as mysticism and Zen are keen to the understanding of the limit of language. Zen, for example, established practical methodologies to reach the Enlightenment by means of non-linguistic methods such as meditation and Koan (rationally inconceivable questions).

7 is a mechanism to grasp, and express logos. A human being can re-construct a world within a linguistic space. Such acts as naming, calling, answering, and understanding is human endeavor to organize the world within a linguistic sphere. Disclosure of truth by means of Images: five senses and images In Christian terms, a human being is created in the image of God. That is what embodiment of truth in image means. This concept also means that divine truth is manifested in a human being in sensible forms such as colors, shapes, textures, smells, sounds, and others. Truth is thus embodied. Meanings in language are manifested through mutual reference within linguistic system. In image, meanings are directly delivered to the recipient. For beings in nature, who do not have highly sophisticated language, sensible contents are the primary elements of communication. Movements, sounds, colors, smells, and touch are used as quasi-linguistic element. A human being has highly developed mechanism to manifest the invisible as the visible. A primary example is facial expression. Facial expression reveals subtle feelings such as joy, sadness, fear, anger, hope, disappointment, and hatred. 7 The linguistic and the sensible are intertwined. Language makes human experiences stable and communicable. It also discovers meanings of beings and uncover hidden truth. Conclusion UT conceptualizes all created beings as individual embodiment of truth. This concept explains UT view that all beings in the world are manifestation of divine truth. UT distinguishes human beings and all other beings in nature in terms of a way and a degree of its manifestation. A human being is a manifestation of truth in image and all others are a manifestation of truth in symbol. The divine truth is logos, a pre-linguistic divine Word, which defines the identity and essence of each being. It lies deep inside of human mind internally as implicit knowledge and it is also the truth which makes each being in the world. This mechanism is the basis for the correspondence of ideas and reality, a correspondence theory of truth. A quest for truth takes place within two sets of axes: creation and restoration; inward to the self and outward to the world. These two axes are intertwined and each discipline takes a different path according to the subject matter. For example, physical sciences pursue truth in natural states of phenomena without consideration of the existential status of the 7 Ekman, Paul. Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. New York: Times Books, 2003.

8 person who studies. In religions, inquirer s existential status or one s internal relation to truth is at stake for one s pursuit of truth. A quest for truth in religion is directed towards both creation and restoration aspects. Pursuit of truth in psychiatric sciences also involves both creation and restoration aspects. The task of clarifying the relationship between truth and methods points to a series of questions. Among others, a question of hermeneutics will be the next to be explored. All human inquiries, be it scientific research or religious practice, involve interpretation. Even God s revelation requires a proper interpretation. But, to determine which interpretation is right, we have to have a criterion by which we can judge interpretations. Here is again a circularity. To find truth, we need to have a right interpretation. But, to choose the right interpretation, we need to have a criterion. A question of hermeneutics includes a question of revelation, history, and language. A task of clarifying concept of truth in UT thus is led to the nest topic, a question of hermeneutics.

A Comprehensive Critical Study of Gadamer s Hermeneutics

A Comprehensive Critical Study of Gadamer s Hermeneutics REVIEW A Comprehensive Critical Study of Gadamer s Hermeneutics Kristin Gjesdal: Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xvii + 235 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-50964-0

More information

Heideggerian Ontology: A Philosophic Base for Arts and Humanties Education

Heideggerian Ontology: A Philosophic Base for Arts and Humanties Education Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education ISSN: 2326-7070 (Print) ISSN: 2326-7062 (Online) Volume 2 Issue 1 (1983) pps. 56-60 Heideggerian Ontology: A Philosophic Base for Arts and Humanties Education

More information

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2d ed. transl. by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (London : Sheed & Ward, 1989), pp [1960].

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2d ed. transl. by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (London : Sheed & Ward, 1989), pp [1960]. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2d ed. transl. by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (London : Sheed & Ward, 1989), pp. 266-307 [1960]. 266 : [W]e can inquire into the consequences for the hermeneutics

More information

Philosophical Background to 19 th Century Modernism

Philosophical Background to 19 th Century Modernism Philosophical Background to 19 th Century Modernism Early Modern Philosophy In the sixteenth century, European artists and philosophers, influenced by the rise of empirical science, faced a formidable

More information

The Teaching Method of Creative Education

The Teaching Method of Creative Education Creative Education 2013. Vol.4, No.8A, 25-30 Published Online August 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.48a006 The Teaching Method of Creative Education

More information

that would join theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) and practical philosophy (ethics)?

that would join theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) and practical philosophy (ethics)? Kant s Critique of Judgment 1 Critique of judgment Kant s Critique of Judgment (1790) generally regarded as foundational treatise in modern philosophical aesthetics no integration of aesthetic theory into

More information

Pierre Hadot on Philosophy as a Way of Life. Pierre Hadot ( ) was a French philosopher and historian of ancient philosophy,

Pierre Hadot on Philosophy as a Way of Life. Pierre Hadot ( ) was a French philosopher and historian of ancient philosophy, Adam Robbert Philosophical Inquiry as Spiritual Exercise: Ancient and Modern Perspectives California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA Thursday, April 19, 2018 Pierre Hadot on Philosophy

More information

Hear hear. Århus, 11 January An acoustemological manifesto

Hear hear. Århus, 11 January An acoustemological manifesto Århus, 11 January 2008 Hear hear An acoustemological manifesto Sound is a powerful element of reality for most people and consequently an important topic for a number of scholarly disciplines. Currrently,

More information

SUMMARY BOETHIUS AND THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS

SUMMARY BOETHIUS AND THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS SUMMARY BOETHIUS AND THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS The problem of universals may be safely called one of the perennial problems of Western philosophy. As it is widely known, it was also a major theme in medieval

More information

Ontological and historical responsibility. The condition of possibility

Ontological and historical responsibility. The condition of possibility Ontological and historical responsibility The condition of possibility Vasil Penchev Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Institute for the Study of Societies of Knowledge vasildinev@gmail.com The Historical

More information

Notes on Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful

Notes on Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful Notes on Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful The Unity of Art 3ff G. sets out to argue for the historical continuity of (the justification for) art. 5 Hegel new legitimation based on the anthropological

More information

206 Metaphysics. Chapter 21. Universals

206 Metaphysics. Chapter 21. Universals 206 Metaphysics Universals Universals 207 Universals Universals is another name for the Platonic Ideas or Forms. Plato thought these ideas pre-existed the things in the world to which they correspond.

More information

The Debate on Research in the Arts

The Debate on Research in the Arts Excerpts from The Debate on Research in the Arts 1 The Debate on Research in the Arts HENK BORGDORFF 2007 Research definitions The Research Assessment Exercise and the Arts and Humanities Research Council

More information

Necessity in Kant; Subjective and Objective

Necessity in Kant; Subjective and Objective Necessity in Kant; Subjective and Objective DAVID T. LARSON University of Kansas Kant suggests that his contribution to philosophy is analogous to the contribution of Copernicus to astronomy each involves

More information

INTRODUCTION TO NONREPRESENTATION, THOMAS KUHN, AND LARRY LAUDAN

INTRODUCTION TO NONREPRESENTATION, THOMAS KUHN, AND LARRY LAUDAN INTRODUCTION TO NONREPRESENTATION, THOMAS KUHN, AND LARRY LAUDAN Jeff B. Murray Walton College University of Arkansas 2012 Jeff B. Murray OBJECTIVE Develop Anderson s foundation for critical relativism.

More information

HERMENEUTIC PHILOSOPHY AND DATA COLLECTION: A PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK

HERMENEUTIC PHILOSOPHY AND DATA COLLECTION: A PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK Association for Information Systems AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) AMCIS 2002 Proceedings Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) December 2002 HERMENEUTIC PHILOSOPHY AND DATA COLLECTION: A

More information

By Maximus Monaheng Sefotho (PhD). 16 th June, 2015

By Maximus Monaheng Sefotho (PhD). 16 th June, 2015 The nature of inquiry! A researcher s dilemma: Philosophy in crafting dissertations and theses. By Maximus Monaheng Sefotho (PhD). 16 th June, 2015 Maximus.sefotho@up.ac.za max.sefotho@gmail.com Sefotho,

More information

Mind, Thinking and Creativity

Mind, Thinking and Creativity Mind, Thinking and Creativity Panel Intervention #1: Analogy, Metaphor & Symbol Panel Intervention #2: Way of Knowing Intervention #1 Analogies and metaphors are to be understood in the context of reflexio

More information

Postmodernism. thus one must review the central tenants of Enlightenment philosophy

Postmodernism. thus one must review the central tenants of Enlightenment philosophy Postmodernism 1 Postmodernism philosophical postmodernism is the final stage of a long reaction to the Enlightenment modern thought, the idea of modernity itself, stems from the Enlightenment thus one

More information

High School Photography 1 Curriculum Essentials Document

High School Photography 1 Curriculum Essentials Document High School Photography 1 Curriculum Essentials Document Boulder Valley School District Department of Curriculum and Instruction February 2012 Introduction The Boulder Valley Elementary Visual Arts Curriculum

More information

Philosophy in the educational process: Understanding what cannot be taught

Philosophy in the educational process: Understanding what cannot be taught META: RESEARCH IN HERMENEUTICS, PHENOMENOLOGY, AND PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY VOL. IV, NO. 2 / DECEMBER 2012: 417-421, ISSN 2067-3655, www.metajournal.org Philosophy in the educational process: Understanding

More information

Felt Evaluations: A Theory of Pleasure and Pain. Bennett Helm (2002) Slides by Jeremiah Tillman

Felt Evaluations: A Theory of Pleasure and Pain. Bennett Helm (2002) Slides by Jeremiah Tillman Felt Evaluations: A Theory of Pleasure and Pain Bennett Helm (2002) Slides by Jeremiah Tillman Introduction Helm s big picture: Pleasure and pain aren t isolated phenomenal bodily states, but are conceptually

More information

Surface Integration: Psychology. Christopher D. Keiper. Fuller Theological Seminary

Surface Integration: Psychology. Christopher D. Keiper. Fuller Theological Seminary Working Past Application 1 Surface Integration: Current Interpretive Problems and a Suggested Hermeneutical Model for Approaching Christian Psychology Christopher D. Keiper Fuller Theological Seminary

More information

CHAPTER IV RETROSPECT

CHAPTER IV RETROSPECT CHAPTER IV RETROSPECT In the introduction to chapter I it is shown that there is a close connection between the autonomy of pedagogics and the means that are used in thinking pedagogically. In addition,

More information

Kęstas Kirtiklis Vilnius University Not by Communication Alone: The Importance of Epistemology in the Field of Communication Theory.

Kęstas Kirtiklis Vilnius University Not by Communication Alone: The Importance of Epistemology in the Field of Communication Theory. Kęstas Kirtiklis Vilnius University Not by Communication Alone: The Importance of Epistemology in the Field of Communication Theory Paper in progress It is often asserted that communication sciences experience

More information

Any attempt to revitalize the relationship between rhetoric and ethics is challenged

Any attempt to revitalize the relationship between rhetoric and ethics is challenged Why Rhetoric and Ethics? Revisiting History/Revising Pedagogy Lois Agnew Any attempt to revitalize the relationship between rhetoric and ethics is challenged by traditional depictions of Western rhetorical

More information

Conceptual Change, Relativism, and Rationality

Conceptual Change, Relativism, and Rationality Conceptual Change, Relativism, and Rationality University of Chicago Department of Philosophy PHIL 23709 Fall Quarter, 2011 Syllabus Instructor: Silver Bronzo Email: bronzo@uchicago Class meets: T/TH 4:30-5:50,

More information

SocioBrains THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF ART

SocioBrains THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF ART THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF ART Tatyana Shopova Associate Professor PhD Head of the Center for New Media and Digital Culture Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts South-West University

More information

Edward Winters. Aesthetics and Architecture. London: Continuum, 2007, 179 pp. ISBN

Edward Winters. Aesthetics and Architecture. London: Continuum, 2007, 179 pp. ISBN zlom 7.5.2009 8:12 Stránka 111 Edward Winters. Aesthetics and Architecture. London: Continuum, 2007, 179 pp. ISBN 0826486320 Aesthetics and Architecture, by Edward Winters, a British aesthetician, painter,

More information

Is Genetic Epistemology of Any Interest for Semiotics?

Is Genetic Epistemology of Any Interest for Semiotics? Daniele Barbieri Is Genetic Epistemology of Any Interest for Semiotics? At the beginning there was cybernetics, Gregory Bateson, and Jean Piaget. Then Ilya Prigogine, and new biology came; and eventually

More information

Kant: Notes on the Critique of Judgment

Kant: Notes on the Critique of Judgment Kant: Notes on the Critique of Judgment First Moment: The Judgement of Taste is Disinterested. The Aesthetic Aspect Kant begins the first moment 1 of the Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment with the claim that

More information

Interdepartmental Learning Outcomes

Interdepartmental Learning Outcomes University Major/Dept Learning Outcome Source Linguistics The undergraduate degree in linguistics emphasizes knowledge and awareness of: the fundamental architecture of language in the domains of phonetics

More information

UNIT SPECIFICATION FOR EXCHANGE AND STUDY ABROAD

UNIT SPECIFICATION FOR EXCHANGE AND STUDY ABROAD Unit Code: Unit Name: Department: Faculty: 475Z022 METAPHYSICS (INBOUND STUDENT MOBILITY - JAN ENTRY) Politics & Philosophy Faculty Of Arts & Humanities Level: 5 Credits: 5 ECTS: 7.5 This unit will address

More information

HEGEL S CONCEPT OF ACTION

HEGEL S CONCEPT OF ACTION HEGEL S CONCEPT OF ACTION MICHAEL QUANTE University of Duisburg Essen Translated by Dean Moyar PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge,

More information

TRAGIC THOUGHTS AT THE END OF PHILOSOPHY

TRAGIC THOUGHTS AT THE END OF PHILOSOPHY DANIEL L. TATE St. Bonaventure University TRAGIC THOUGHTS AT THE END OF PHILOSOPHY A review of Gerald Bruns, Tragic Thoughts at the End of Philosophy: Language, Literature and Ethical Theory. Northwestern

More information

Department of Philosophy Florida State University

Department of Philosophy Florida State University Department of Philosophy Florida State University Undergraduate Courses PHI 2010. Introduction to Philosophy (3). An introduction to some of the central problems in philosophy. Students will also learn

More information

Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education

Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education The refereed journal of the Volume 9, No. 1 January 2010 Wayne Bowman Editor Electronic Article Shusterman, Merleau-Ponty, and Dewey: The Role of Pragmatism

More information

Phenomenology Glossary

Phenomenology Glossary Phenomenology Glossary Phenomenology: Phenomenology is the science of phenomena: of the way things show up, appear, or are given to a subject in their conscious experience. Phenomenology tries to describe

More information

TERMS & CONCEPTS. The Critical Analytic Vocabulary of the English Language A GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL THINKING

TERMS & CONCEPTS. The Critical Analytic Vocabulary of the English Language A GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL THINKING Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. BENJAMIN LEE WHORF, American Linguist A GLOSSARY OF CRITICAL THINKING TERMS & CONCEPTS The Critical Analytic Vocabulary of the

More information

In Concepts and Transformation: International Journal of Action Research and Organizational Renewal, 2:3, pp , 1998.

In Concepts and Transformation: International Journal of Action Research and Organizational Renewal, 2:3, pp , 1998. In Concepts and Transformation: International Journal of Action Research and Organizational Renewal, 2:3, pp.279-286, 1998. Review Essay ACTION RESEARCH AS HISTORY-MAKING Review of: Charles Spinosa, Fernado

More information

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at Response: Divergent Stakeholder Theory Author(s): R. Edward Freeman Source: The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1999), pp. 233-236 Published by: Academy of Management Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/259078

More information

Introduction SABINE FLACH, DANIEL MARGULIES, AND JAN SÖFFNER

Introduction SABINE FLACH, DANIEL MARGULIES, AND JAN SÖFFNER Introduction SABINE FLACH, DANIEL MARGULIES, AND JAN SÖFFNER Theories of habituation reflect their diversity through the myriad disciplines from which they emerge. They entail several issues of trans-disciplinary

More information

On The Search for a Perfect Language

On The Search for a Perfect Language On The Search for a Perfect Language Submitted to: Peter Trnka By: Alex Macdonald The correspondence theory of truth has attracted severe criticism. One focus of attack is the notion of correspondence

More information

Scientific and Research Ethics. Seminar 6: Interpretation

Scientific and Research Ethics. Seminar 6: Interpretation Scientific and Research Ethics Seminar 6: Interpretation Upcoming seminars (homepage) So far Last week: meaning We have (among others): Distinguished between different concepts of meaning Made a demarcation

More information

Kant, Peirce, Dewey: on the Supremacy of Practice over Theory

Kant, Peirce, Dewey: on the Supremacy of Practice over Theory Kant, Peirce, Dewey: on the Supremacy of Practice over Theory Agnieszka Hensoldt University of Opole, Poland e mail: hensoldt@uni.opole.pl (This is a draft version of a paper which is to be discussed at

More information

KANT S TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC

KANT S TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC KANT S TRANSCENDENTAL LOGIC This part of the book deals with the conditions under which judgments can express truths about objects. Here Kant tries to explain how thought about objects given in space and

More information

Brandom s Reconstructive Rationality. Some Pragmatist Themes

Brandom s Reconstructive Rationality. Some Pragmatist Themes Brandom s Reconstructive Rationality. Some Pragmatist Themes Testa, Italo email: italo.testa@unipr.it webpage: http://venus.unive.it/cortella/crtheory/bios/bio_it.html University of Parma, Dipartimento

More information

Anam Cara: The Twin Sisters of Celtic Spirituality and Education Reform. By: Paul Michalec

Anam Cara: The Twin Sisters of Celtic Spirituality and Education Reform. By: Paul Michalec Anam Cara: The Twin Sisters of Celtic Spirituality and Education Reform By: Paul Michalec My profession is education. My vocation strong inclination is theology. I experience the world of education through

More information

AESTHETICS. Key Terms

AESTHETICS. Key Terms AESTHETICS Key Terms aesthetics The area of philosophy that studies how people perceive and assess the meaning, importance, and purpose of art. Aesthetics is significant because it helps people become

More information

Understanding the Cognitive Mechanisms Responsible for Interpretation of Idioms in Hindi-Urdu

Understanding the Cognitive Mechanisms Responsible for Interpretation of Idioms in Hindi-Urdu = Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 19:1 January 2019 India s Higher Education Authority UGC Approved List of Journals Serial Number 49042 Understanding the Cognitive Mechanisms

More information

A Process of the Fusion of Horizons in the Text Interpretation

A Process of the Fusion of Horizons in the Text Interpretation A Process of the Fusion of Horizons in the Text Interpretation Kazuya SASAKI Rikkyo University There is a philosophy, which takes a circle between the whole and the partial meaning as the necessary condition

More information

Spatial Formations. Installation Art between Image and Stage.

Spatial Formations. Installation Art between Image and Stage. Spatial Formations. Installation Art between Image and Stage. An English Summary Anne Ring Petersen Although much has been written about the origins and diversity of installation art as well as its individual

More information

Ithaque : Revue de philosophie de l'université de Montréal

Ithaque : Revue de philosophie de l'université de Montréal Cet article a été téléchargé sur le site de la revue Ithaque : www.revueithaque.org Ithaque : Revue de philosophie de l'université de Montréal Pour plus de détails sur les dates de parution et comment

More information

Mixed Methods: In Search of a Paradigm

Mixed Methods: In Search of a Paradigm Mixed Methods: In Search of a Paradigm Ralph Hall The University of New South Wales ABSTRACT The growth of mixed methods research has been accompanied by a debate over the rationale for combining what

More information

Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction SSSI/ASA 2002 Conference, Chicago

Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction SSSI/ASA 2002 Conference, Chicago Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction SSSI/ASA 2002 Conference, Chicago From Symbolic Interactionism to Luhmann: From First-order to Second-order Observations of Society Submitted by David J. Connell

More information

Ideological and Political Education Under the Perspective of Receptive Aesthetics Jie Zhang, Weifang Zhong

Ideological and Political Education Under the Perspective of Receptive Aesthetics Jie Zhang, Weifang Zhong International Conference on Education Technology and Social Science (ICETSS 2014) Ideological and Political Education Under the Perspective of Receptive Aesthetics Jie Zhang, Weifang Zhong School of Marxism,

More information

Seven remarks on artistic research. Per Zetterfalk Moving Image Production, Högskolan Dalarna, Falun, Sweden

Seven remarks on artistic research. Per Zetterfalk Moving Image Production, Högskolan Dalarna, Falun, Sweden Seven remarks on artistic research Per Zetterfalk Moving Image Production, Högskolan Dalarna, Falun, Sweden 11 th ELIA Biennial Conference Nantes 2010 Seven remarks on artistic research Creativity is similar

More information

MODULE 4. Is Philosophy Research? Music Education Philosophy Journals and Symposia

MODULE 4. Is Philosophy Research? Music Education Philosophy Journals and Symposia Modes of Inquiry II: Philosophical Research and the Philosophy of Research So What is Art? Kimberly C. Walls October 30, 2007 MODULE 4 Is Philosophy Research? Phelps, et al Rainbow & Froelich Heller &

More information

Philosophy of Science: The Pragmatic Alternative April 2017 Center for Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh ABSTRACTS

Philosophy of Science: The Pragmatic Alternative April 2017 Center for Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh ABSTRACTS Philosophy of Science: The Pragmatic Alternative 21-22 April 2017 Center for Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh Matthew Brown University of Texas at Dallas Title: A Pragmatist Logic of Scientific

More information

Ideograms in Polyscopic Modeling

Ideograms in Polyscopic Modeling Ideograms in Polyscopic Modeling Dino Karabeg Department of Informatics University of Oslo dino@ifi.uio.no Der Denker gleicht sehr dem Zeichner, der alle Zusammenhänge nachzeichnen will. (A thinker is

More information

Content. Philosophy from sources to postmodernity. Kurmangaliyeva G. Tradition of Aristotelism: Meeting of Cultural Worlds and Worldviews...

Content. Philosophy from sources to postmodernity. Kurmangaliyeva G. Tradition of Aristotelism: Meeting of Cultural Worlds and Worldviews... Аль-Фараби 2 (46) 2014 y. Content Philosophy from sources to postmodernity Kurmangaliyeva G. Tradition of Aristotelism: Meeting of Cultural Worlds and Worldviews...3 Al-Farabi s heritage: translations

More information

What counts as a convincing scientific argument? Are the standards for such evaluation

What counts as a convincing scientific argument? Are the standards for such evaluation Cogent Science in Context: The Science Wars, Argumentation Theory, and Habermas. By William Rehg. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. Pp. 355. Cloth, $40. Paper, $20. Jeffrey Flynn Fordham University Published

More information

The Humanities as Conversation and Edification: On Rorty s Idea of a Gadamerian Culture

The Humanities as Conversation and Edification: On Rorty s Idea of a Gadamerian Culture 1 The Humanities as Conversation and Edification: On Rorty s Idea of a Gadamerian Culture Marc-Antoine Vallée (Université de Montréal) [Published in : M.J.A. Kasten, H.J. Paul & R. Sneller (ed.). Hermeneutics

More information

Introduction and Overview

Introduction and Overview 1 Introduction and Overview Invention has always been central to rhetorical theory and practice. As Richard Young and Alton Becker put it in Toward a Modern Theory of Rhetoric, The strength and worth of

More information

REVIEW ARTICLE IDEAL EMBODIMENT: KANT S THEORY OF SENSIBILITY

REVIEW ARTICLE IDEAL EMBODIMENT: KANT S THEORY OF SENSIBILITY Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 7, no. 2, 2011 REVIEW ARTICLE IDEAL EMBODIMENT: KANT S THEORY OF SENSIBILITY Karin de Boer Angelica Nuzzo, Ideal Embodiment: Kant

More information

Aristotle on the Human Good

Aristotle on the Human Good 24.200: Aristotle Prof. Sally Haslanger November 15, 2004 Aristotle on the Human Good Aristotle believes that in order to live a well-ordered life, that life must be organized around an ultimate or supreme

More information

What Can Experimental Philosophy Do? David Chalmers

What Can Experimental Philosophy Do? David Chalmers What Can Experimental Philosophy Do? David Chalmers Cast of Characters X-Phi: Experimental Philosophy E-Phi: Empirical Philosophy A-Phi: Armchair Philosophy Challenges to Experimental Philosophy Empirical

More information

PHILOSOPHY PLATO ( BC) VVR CHAPTER: 1 PLATO ( BC) PHILOSOPHY by Dr. Ambuj Srivastava / (1)

PHILOSOPHY PLATO ( BC) VVR CHAPTER: 1 PLATO ( BC) PHILOSOPHY by Dr. Ambuj Srivastava / (1) PHILOSOPHY by Dr. Ambuj Srivastava / (1) CHAPTER: 1 PLATO (428-347BC) PHILOSOPHY The Western philosophy begins with Greek period, which supposed to be from 600 B.C. 400 A.D. This period also can be classified

More information

The Existential Act- Interview with Juhani Pallasmaa

The Existential Act- Interview with Juhani Pallasmaa Volume 7 Absence Article 11 1-1-2016 The Existential Act- Interview with Juhani Pallasmaa Datum Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/datum Part of the Architecture Commons Recommended

More information

Studia Philosophiae Christianae UKSW 49(2013)4. Michigan Technological University, USA

Studia Philosophiae Christianae UKSW 49(2013)4. Michigan Technological University, USA Studia Philosophiae Christianae UKSW 49(2013)4 Michael Bowler Michigan Technological University, USA mjbowler@mtu.edu An Existential Conception of Culture Abstract. This paper articulates an existential

More information

The aim of this paper is to explore Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to

The aim of this paper is to explore Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to 1 Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore Kant s notion of death with special attention paid to the relation between rational and aesthetic ideas in Kant s Third Critique and the discussion of death

More information

Page 1

Page 1 PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION AND THEIR INTERDEPENDENCE The inter-dependence of philosophy and education is clearly seen from the fact that the great philosphers of all times have also been great educators and

More information

SYMBOLIZATION AND DIALOGUE OF CULTURES: SEQUEL OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL TRADITION

SYMBOLIZATION AND DIALOGUE OF CULTURES: SEQUEL OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL TRADITION SYMBOLIZATION AND DIALOGUE OF CULTURES: SEQUEL OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL TRADITION Elena Zvonova Associate Professor Moscow State Pedagogical University Russian Federation The Semiotic Society of America

More information

CHAPTER TWO. A brief explanation of the Berger and Luckmann s theory that will be used in this thesis.

CHAPTER TWO. A brief explanation of the Berger and Luckmann s theory that will be used in this thesis. CHAPTER TWO A brief explanation of the Berger and Luckmann s theory that will be used in this thesis. 2.1 Introduction The intention of this chapter is twofold. First, to discuss briefly Berger and Luckmann

More information

Emerging Questions: Fernando F. Segovia and the Challenges of Cultural Interpretation

Emerging Questions: Fernando F. Segovia and the Challenges of Cultural Interpretation Emerging Questions: Fernando F. Segovia and the Challenges of Cultural Interpretation It is an honor to be part of this panel; to look back as we look forward to the future of cultural interpretation.

More information

Chapter 2: The Early Greek Philosophers MULTIPLE CHOICE

Chapter 2: The Early Greek Philosophers MULTIPLE CHOICE Chapter 2: The Early Greek Philosophers MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. Viewing all of nature as though it were alive is called: A. anthropomorphism B. animism C. primitivism D. mysticism ANS: B DIF: factual REF: The

More information

Sidestepping the holes of holism

Sidestepping the holes of holism Sidestepping the holes of holism Tadeusz Ciecierski taci@uw.edu.pl University of Warsaw Institute of Philosophy Piotr Wilkin pwl@mimuw.edu.pl University of Warsaw Institute of Philosophy / Institute of

More information

Fractal Narrative About the Relationship Between Geometries and Technology and Its Impact on Narrative Spaces

Fractal Narrative About the Relationship Between Geometries and Technology and Its Impact on Narrative Spaces From: German A. Duarte Fractal Narrative About the Relationship Between Geometries and Technology and Its Impact on Narrative Spaces August 2014, 396 p., 44,99, ISBN 978-3-8376-2829-6 Fractals suggest

More information

observation and conceptual interpretation

observation and conceptual interpretation 1 observation and conceptual interpretation Most people will agree that observation and conceptual interpretation constitute two major ways through which human beings engage the world. Questions about

More information

Lecture 3 Kuhn s Methodology

Lecture 3 Kuhn s Methodology Lecture 3 Kuhn s Methodology We now briefly look at the views of Thomas S. Kuhn whose magnum opus, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), constitutes a turning point in the twentiethcentury philosophy

More information

The Body in its Hermeneutical Context

The Body in its Hermeneutical Context Sakiko Kitagawa 1. Dialogue as Formation of the Between Martin Heidegger s A Dialogue on Language from 1953/54 has been discussed from a variety of perspectives. 1 On the one hand, it is especially the

More information

PH 360 CROSS-CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY IES Abroad Vienna

PH 360 CROSS-CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY IES Abroad Vienna PH 360 CROSS-CULTURAL PHILOSOPHY IES Abroad Vienna DESCRIPTION: The basic presupposition behind the course is that philosophy is an activity we are unable to resist : since we reflect on other people,

More information

Leverhulme Research Project Grant Narrating Complexity: Communication, Culture, Conceptualization and Cognition

Leverhulme Research Project Grant Narrating Complexity: Communication, Culture, Conceptualization and Cognition Leverhulme Research Project Grant Narrating Complexity: Communication, Culture, Conceptualization and Cognition Abstract "Narrating Complexity" confronts the challenge that complex systems present to narrative

More information

POLSC201 Unit 1 (Subunit 1.1.3) Quiz Plato s The Republic

POLSC201 Unit 1 (Subunit 1.1.3) Quiz Plato s The Republic POLSC201 Unit 1 (Subunit 1.1.3) Quiz Plato s The Republic Summary Plato s greatest and most enduring work was his lengthy dialogue, The Republic. This dialogue has often been regarded as Plato s blueprint

More information

Aristotle (summary of main points from Guthrie)

Aristotle (summary of main points from Guthrie) Aristotle (summary of main points from Guthrie) Born in Ionia (Greece c. 384BC REMEMBER THE MILESIAN FOCUS!!!), supporter of Macedonia father was physician to Philip II of Macedon. Begins studies at Plato

More information

A Comparison of the Aesthetic Approach of Hans- Georg Gadamer and Hans-Urs von Balthasar

A Comparison of the Aesthetic Approach of Hans- Georg Gadamer and Hans-Urs von Balthasar University of Dayton ecommons Marian Library/IMRI Faculty Publications The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute Spring 2005 A Comparison of the Aesthetic Approach of Hans- Georg Gadamer

More information

Published in: International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29(2) (2015):

Published in: International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29(2) (2015): Published in: International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29(2) (2015): 224 228. Philosophy of Microbiology MAUREEN A. O MALLEY Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014 x + 269 pp., ISBN 9781107024250,

More information

THE SOCIAL RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY

THE SOCIAL RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY THE SOCIAL RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY Garret Thomson The College of Wooster U. S. A. GThomson@wooster.edu What is the social relevance of philosophy? Any answer to this question must involve at least three

More information

SOULISTICS: METAPHOR AS THERAPY OF THE SOUL

SOULISTICS: METAPHOR AS THERAPY OF THE SOUL SOULISTICS: METAPHOR AS THERAPY OF THE SOUL Sunnie D. Kidd In the imaginary, the world takes on primordial meaning. The imaginary is not presented here in the sense of purely fictional but as a coming

More information

CRITICAL CONTEXTUAL EMPIRICISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

CRITICAL CONTEXTUAL EMPIRICISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 48 Proceedings of episteme 4, India CRITICAL CONTEXTUAL EMPIRICISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION Sreejith K.K. Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India sreejith997@gmail.com

More information

The Kantian and Hegelian Sublime

The Kantian and Hegelian Sublime 43 Yena Lee Yena Lee E tymologically related to the broaching of limits, the sublime constitutes a phenomenon of surpassing grandeur or awe. Kant and Hegel both investigate the sublime as a key element

More information

Intersubjectivity and Language

Intersubjectivity and Language 1 Intersubjectivity and Language Peter Olen University of Central Florida The presentation and subsequent publication of Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge in Paris in February 1929 mark

More information

Vinod Lakshmipathy Phil 591- Hermeneutics Prof. Theodore Kisiel

Vinod Lakshmipathy Phil 591- Hermeneutics Prof. Theodore Kisiel Vinod Lakshmipathy Phil 591- Hermeneutics Prof. Theodore Kisiel 09-25-03 Jean Grodin Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics (New Haven and London: Yale university Press, 1994) Outline on Chapter V

More information

Intelligible Matter in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lonergan. by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB

Intelligible Matter in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lonergan. by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB Intelligible Matter in Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lonergan by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB In his In librum Boethii de Trinitate, q. 5, a. 3 [see The Division and Methods of the Sciences: Questions V and VI of

More information

Foucault and Lacan: Who is Master?

Foucault and Lacan: Who is Master? Foucault and Lacan: Who is Master? Cecilia Sjöholm Lacan s desire The master breaks the silence with anything with a sarcastic remark, with a kick-start. That is how a Buddhist master conducts his search

More information

Steven E. Kaufman * Key Words: existential mechanics, reality, experience, relation of existence, structure of reality. Overview

Steven E. Kaufman * Key Words: existential mechanics, reality, experience, relation of existence, structure of reality. Overview November 2011 Vol. 2 Issue 9 pp. 1299-1314 Article Introduction to Existential Mechanics: How the Relations of to Itself Create the Structure of Steven E. Kaufman * ABSTRACT This article presents a general

More information

Relational Logic in a Nutshell Planting the Seed for Panosophy The Theory of Everything

Relational Logic in a Nutshell Planting the Seed for Panosophy The Theory of Everything Relational Logic in a Nutshell Planting the Seed for Panosophy The Theory of Everything We begin at the end and we shall end at the beginning. We can call the beginning the Datum of the Universe, that

More information

The Value of Mathematics within the 'Republic'

The Value of Mathematics within the 'Republic' Res Cogitans Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 22 7-30-2011 The Value of Mathematics within the 'Republic' Levi Tenen Lewis & Clark College Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.pacificu.edu/rescogitans

More information

WHAT S LEFT OF HUMAN NATURE? A POST-ESSENTIALIST, PLURALIST AND INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT OF A CONTESTED CONCEPT. Maria Kronfeldner

WHAT S LEFT OF HUMAN NATURE? A POST-ESSENTIALIST, PLURALIST AND INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT OF A CONTESTED CONCEPT. Maria Kronfeldner WHAT S LEFT OF HUMAN NATURE? A POST-ESSENTIALIST, PLURALIST AND INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT OF A CONTESTED CONCEPT Maria Kronfeldner Forthcoming 2018 MIT Press Book Synopsis February 2018 For non-commercial, personal

More information

Action Theory for Creativity and Process

Action Theory for Creativity and Process Action Theory for Creativity and Process Fu Jen Catholic University Bernard C. C. Li Keywords: A. N. Whitehead, Creativity, Process, Action Theory for Philosophy, Abstract The three major assignments for

More information