Inadequate pain control, especially in older adults, remains a significant issue when caring for this population. Older adults, many of whom experience multiple acute and chronic conditions, are especially vulnerable to having their pain seriously underassessed and inadequately treated. Nurses have an ethical obligation to appropriately treat patients’ pain. To fulfill their ethical obligation to relieve pain in older patients, nurses often need to advocate on their behalf. This article provides an overview of the persistent problem of undertreated pain in (...) older adults and explores how nurses can meet this ethical duty through the application of Beauchamp and Childress’ three principles of beneficence. (shrink)

Concerns regarding corporate ethics have grown steadily throughout the past decade. In order to remain competitive, many organizational leaders are faced with the challenge of creating an ethical environment within their organization. A model is presented showing the process and elements necessary for the institutionalization of organizational ethics. The transformational leadership style lends itself well to the creation of an ethical environment and is suggested as a means to facilitate the institutionalization of corporate ethics. Finally, the benefits of using transformational (...) leadership are demonstrated through the components of a psychological contract, organizational commitment, and ethical culture to institutionalize organizational ethics. (shrink)

As genetic and genomic research has progressed since the sequencing of the human genome, scientists have continued to struggle to understand the role of genetic and socio-cultural factors in racial and ethnic health disparities. Recognition that race and ethnicity correlate imperfectly with differences in allele frequency, environmental exposures, and significant health outcomes has made framing the relationship between genetic variation, race, ethnicity, and disease one of the most heated debates of the genome era. Because racial and ethnic identities reflect a (...) complicated mix of social and genetic factors, critics have argued that use of racial and ethnic categories as analytical variables in biomedical research lacks rigor, leads to potentially dangerous stereotyping in medical practice, and sends harmful messages of innate racial difference to the broader public.Concerns over the current lack of diversity in human genetic and genomic studies have developed in parallel to discussions of the appropriate use of racial and ethnic categories during the research process. (shrink)

Algorithms are powerful because we invest in them the power to do things. With such promise, they can transform the ordinary, say snapshots along a robotic vacuum cleaner’s route, into something much more, such as a clean home. Echoing David Graeber’s revision of fetishism, we argue that this easy slip from technical capabilities to broader claims betrays not the “magic” of algorithms but rather the dynamics of their exchange. Fetishes are not indicators of false thinking, but social contracts in material (...) form. They mediate emerging distributions of power often too nascent, too slippery or too disconcerting to directly acknowledge. Drawing primarily on 2016 ethnographic research with computer vision professionals, we show how faith in what algorithms can do shapes the social encounters and exchanges of their production. By analyzing algorithms through the lens of fetishism, we can see the social and economic investment in some people’s labor over others. We also see everyday opportunities for social creativity and change. We conclude that what is problematic about algorithms is not their fetishization but instead their stabilization into full-fledged gods and demons – the more deserving objects of critique. (shrink)

In this essay, I trace the development of Julia Kristeva's theory and practice of “the subject in procession trial” from her semiotic works of the 1960s to her psychoanalytic writings of the 1970s and 1980s. I read Kristeva's exploration of this “subject in procession trial” as contributing to a postmodern feminist ethics.

© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved.Cell walls of grasses, including cereal crops and biofuel grasses, comprise the majority of plant biomass and intimately influence plant growth, development and physiology. However, the functions of many cell wall synthesis genes, and the relationships among and the functions of cell wall components remain obscure. To better understand the patterns of cell wall accumulation and identify genes that act in grass (...) cell wall biosynthesis, we characterized 30 samples from aerial organs of rice at 10 developmental time points, 3-100 d post-germination. Within these samples, we measured 15 cell wall chemical components, enzymatic digestibility and 18 cell wall polysaccharide epitopes/ligands. We also used quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to measure expression of 50 glycosyltransferases, 15 acyltransferases and eight phenylpropanoid genes, many of which had previously been identified as being highly expressed in rice. Most cell wall components vary significantly during development, and correlations among them support current understanding of cell walls. We identified 92 significant correlations between cell wall components and gene expression and establish nine strong hypotheses for genes that synthesize xylans, mixed linkage glucan and pectin components. This work provides an extensive analysis of cell wall composition throughout rice development, identifies genes likely to synthesize grass cell walls, and provides a framework for development of genetically improved grasses for use in lignocellulosic biofuel production and agriculture. (shrink)

This book assesses how Vatican II opened up the Catholic Church to encounter, dialogue, and engagement with other world religions. Opening with a contribution from the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, it next explores the impact, relevance, and promise of the Declaration Nostra Aetate before turning to consider how Vatican II in general has influenced interfaith dialogue and the intellectual and comparative study of world religions in the postconciliar decades, as well as the contribution (...) of particular past and present thinkers to the formation of current interreligious and comparative theological methods. Additionally, chapters consider interreligious dialogue vis-à-vis theological anthropology in conciliar documents; openness to the spiritual practices of other faith traditions as a way of encouraging positive interreligious encounter; the role of lay and new ecclesial movements in interreligious dialogue; and the development of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. Finally, it includes a range of perspectives on the fruits and future of Vatican’s II’s opening to particular faiths such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. (shrink)

As nursing moves towards a holistic approach to care, its publications on sexuality have proliferated. 'Sexuality' and 'Gender' are concepts which are extremely difficult to define. While sex refers to the physical differences of the body, gender concerns the psychological and sociocultural differences between females and males. This distinction between sex and gender is fundamental, since many differences between females and males are not biological in origin. And, when a person's gender and sex fall together in accordance with social norms, (...) it may not necessarily be a similar correlation for every individual. The nature of these similarities is essentially threefold. First, Thomas, Savage and Webb accept that there should be a nursing definition of sexuality. In different ways they acknowledge and refer to it as an integral part of a person's being and self concept. Secondly, the authors underline some of the complexities and difficulties nurses have defining and dealing with it in professional relationships as well as on the level of self reflection, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. Thirdly, all three surveys show why such difficulties prevail, and go on to make suggestions for change in nursing interventions and training. This article summarizes these contributions and discusses the ethical problems which nurses face in dealing with the sexuality of their patients. Pendant que les soins deviennent plus complet, les publications sur la sexualité se sont multipliés. Sexualité et genre sont des idées qui sont difficiles à définir. Pendant que 'sexualité' fait allusion aux différences entre les corps, 'genre' regarde les différences psychologiques et socioculturelles entre femmes et hommes. Cette distinction entre sexualité et genre est fondamentale, puisque beaucoup des différences entre femmes et hommes ne sont pas d'origine biologique. Et quand le genre et la sexualité d'une personne sont en accord avec les normes sociaux, il n'y a toujours pas une même correlation pour chaque individu. La nature de ces ressemblances est triple: premièrement, Thomas, Savage et Webb acceptent qu'une définition pour infirmiers/ères de las sexualité devrait exister. De plusières manières ils l'acceptent, et en réfèrent comme à un part total de l'être et idée de soi de la personne. Deuxièmement, les auteurs soulignent quelques-unes des difficultés et complexités que les infirmier/ères rencontrent dans leurs relations professionnelles aussi bien que dans leurs reflexions, compréhensions, attitudes et convictions personelles. Troisièmement, les trois études montrent pourquoi ces difficultès continuent encore, et suggèrent des changements en interventions et formation professionnelle. L'article-ci résume ces contributions et discute les problèmes éthiques des infirmier/ères vis-à-vis de la sexualité de leurs malades. Weil sich die ganzheitliche Pflege vermehrt, vermehren sich auch die Veröffentli chungen über Sexualität. Sexualität und Geschlecht sind Begriffe, die sehr schwierig zu beschreiben sind. Sexualität bezieht sich auf die physikalischen, und Geschlecht auf die psychologischen und kulturellen Unterschiede zwischen Frauen und Männern. Diese Unterschiede zwischen Sexualität und Geschlecht sind grundsätzlich, denn viele Verschiedenheiten zwischen Frauen und Männern haben keinen biologischen Ursprung. Wenn die Sexualität und das Geschlecht einer Person zusammen fallen mit den gesellschaftlichen Normen, bedeutet es noch nicht, dass es sich für alle solche Leute auf das selbe hinbezieht. Das bedeutende dieser Aehnlichkeiten ist dreifach: erstens, Thomas, Savage und Webb akzeptieren dass es eine Definition der Sexualität für die Krankenpflege geben sollte. Auf verschiedene Arten bestätigen sie sie, und weisen auf das Wesen der Person und deren Selbst-Vorstellung als etwas Vollständiges hin. Zweitens, diese Autoren betonen die Verwicklungen und Schwierigkeiten, die das Krankenpflegepersonal hat mit der Sexualität in beruflichen Beziehungen wie auch in persönlichem Nachdenken, Einstellungen und Ueberzeugungen. Drittens, alle drei Ueberblicke zeigen warum solche Schwierigkeiten weiterhin bestehen, und machen Vorschläge für Aenderungen in Pflegeeingriffen und Unterricht. Dieser Artikel fasst diese Beiträge zusammen und diskutiert die ethischen Probleme die das Krankenpflegepersonal hat mit der Sexualität der Patienten. (shrink)

After his father passed away, James Nolan's mother gave him a box of materials that his dad had kept private. To Nolan's complete surprise, the contents revealed the role his grandfather had played as a doctor in the Manhattan Project. Dr. Nolan, it turned out, had been a significant figure. A talented radiologist, he cared for the scientists on the Project, helped organize the safety and evacuation plans for the Trinity Test at Alamogordo, escorted the "Little Boy" bomb from Los (...) Alamos to Japan, and was one of the first Americans to enter the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The documents set Nolan on a hunt for more information about his grandfather and more generally about the conflicted role that medical personnel played in the early years of atomic testing. The result is a compelling history of the dawn of the atomic age as seen through the eyes of men and women torn between their duty and desire to win the war and their oath to protect life. Nolan follows his grandfather and medical colleagues as they seek to maximize safety while serving leaders determined to minimize delays, and as they consider the ethics of ending the deadliest of all wars with the most lethal of all weapons. The result, Nolan shows, was a very human pattern of caution, co-optation, and complicity. A vital and vivid account of a largely unknown chapter in atomic history, Delivering Little Boy is also a profound meditation on the professional and moral dilemmas that ordinary people face in extraordinary times. (shrink)

PLATO’S Protagoras is composed of three distinct frames. The outer frame consists in Socrates’ brief discussion with an unnamed companion. The remainder of the Protagoras is willingly narrated by Socrates to the companion, from memory of course, and apparently right after the main action. The inner frame consists in Socrates’ dialogue with Hippocrates. Roused before dawn by the impetuous young man, Socrates leads Hippocrates to reflect on the wisdom of his enthusiastic desire to study with Protagoras. This is a (...) classic and successful little example of Socratic dialogue. He then takes Hippocrates to meet Protagoras; the bulk of the dialogue—call it the innermost frame—consists in Socrates’ exchanges with Protagoras. Hippocrates does not utter a word in this part of the dialogue, though it is initiated at his request and seems undertaken by Socrates for his benefit. (shrink)

The context shows that the intention of the lines was to bring out the surpassing beauty of a certain girl and its value to the chorus as a whole. When the Pleiades rise up the sky, they are followed by a star that far outshines them all: Sirius. In Alcman's image, then, the Pleiades should correspond to the chorus and Sirius to the girl. The point of opdpiaiis that the comparison is not chosen at random, but suggested by something to (...) be seen during the current ceremonies: the Pleiades rise up the sky before dawn when we carry the plough, with Sirius down below them, and they seem like a rival group. There is no reference to Ortheia, and no rival chorus. We may translate: ‘For the Pleiades range themselves against us, before dawn, as we bear the plough through the ambrosial night, bringing Sirius up with them as they do.’. (shrink)

This Festschrift for Professor Baron's sixtieth birthday displays an astonishing variety of interests on the part of his former students, from the sociological study of the American conservative Rabbinate to the correspondence of Tobias ben Moses and the New York cloakmakers' strike of 1910. Essays of philosophic interest are Bokser's "Morality and Religion in the Theology of Maimonides," Hahn's "Wellhausen's Interpretation of Israel's Religious History," Blau's "Tradition and Innovation," and Ben-Horin's "Toward the Dawn of History". The volume includes an (...) extensive bibliography of Baron's writings. --L. S. F. (shrink)

This paper describes the implications of the transition from Ontology conceived as fundamental metaphysical logos to ontologies construed as postmodern historical applications of this, and then, finally, to Trans-Ontology as the ultimate, futuristic innovation of Transhumanism. If modernity counts as the key shift that has occurred in our living and understanding of the world since the dawn of history, postmodernism seems to be the record of a transition from the absolute Grand Narratives of modernity to a scenario consisting of (...) polycentric, equally justified narratives. Thus, the historical failure of the old Ontology, in the form of monarchy, absolutism, monotheistic religions, Eurocentrism, and nationalism, entails the plurality of approaches and diversity of flexible transformations of ontologies. Yet such a purportedly liberating evolution is encountered en route to the likewise postmodern trans-humanist impulse that aims at a complete transformation of the traditional human essence by means of a theurgist, miraculous, Trans-Theological technology. The latter’s goal is to normalize the arrival of a paradoxically innovative universe, where transhuman beings will rebuild the world, and re-essentialize it. Ultimately, this universal integralism will be based on an ever-growing ludic character, coupled with a mathematically scheduled playfulness, aiming at a transformed, fully integrated and manageable entity. (shrink)

There is a longstanding debate about genetics research into intelligence. Some scholars question the value of focusing on genetic contributions to intelligence in a society where social and environmental determinants powerfully influence cognitive ability and educational outcomes. Others warn that censoring certain research questions, such as inquiries about genetic differences in intellectual potential, compromises academic freedom. Still others view interest in this subject as a corollary to a long and troublesome history of eugenics research. The dawn of a new (...) era in genome sequencing as a commodity will sustain scientific interest in the genetics of intelligence for the foreseeable future, but deep‐rooted challenges threaten the scientific merit of the research. The use of imprecise definitions of study populations, the difficult nature of studying the environment, and the potential of researcher bias are inextricably linked with concerns about the trustworthiness and utility of research in this area. Leadership by the genetics community is essential to ensure the value and trustworthiness of these studies. (shrink)

In 1934, Karl N. Llewellyn published a lively essay trumpeting the dawn of legal realism, "On Philosophy in American Law." The charm of his defective little piece is its style and audacity. A philosopher might be seduced into reading Llewellyn’s essay by its title; but one soon learns that by "philosophy" Llewellyn only meant "atmosphere". His concerns were the "general approaches" taken by practitioners, who may not even be aware of having general approaches. Llewellyn paired an anemic concept of (...) philosophy with a pumped-up conception of law. Llewellyn’s "law" included anything that reflects the "ways of the law guild at large" - judges, legislators, regulators, and enforcers. Llewellyn argued that the legal philosophies implicit in American legal practice had been natural law, positivism and realism, each adopted in response to felt needs of a time. We must reckon with many other implicit "philosophies" to understand the workings of the law guild, not the least of which has been racism. Others, maternalism and paternalism, my foci here, persist in American law, despite women’s progress toward equality. Both maternalism and paternalism were strikingly present in a recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, Gonzales v. Carhart, upholding the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. (shrink)

Fichte was at the height of his philosophical activity and influence during the last decade of the eighteenth century in Jena. It was during this period that he developed his idea of a Wissenschaftslehre or a “science of knowledge.” A Wissenschaftslehre is an ongoing investigation by subjects of their subjectivity which may be captured only imperfectly in medias res in the form of a written document, but which is crucially not identical with any written philosophical text. So Fichte distinguishes between (...) Wissenschaftslehre and its presentations. In the Jena period Fichte completed two such presentations. The first, the Grundlage der gesammten Wis-senschaftslehre [WL], contains the famous analysis of the preconditions for consciousness in terms of the posits of I and not-I and their reciprocal limitation. Fichte became dissatisfied with his treatment of the central problems in the 1794 version and began working on a second version in 1796. Only two introductions and the first chapter of this new presentation appeared in print. Due to his dawning belief that philosophy was appropriately done solely in oral or dialogic form and the psychic toll of the “atheism controversy” that led to his dismissal from Jena in 1799, by the early 1800's Fichte abandoned plans to publish the entire second presentation. Lectures on the entire second presentation given in 1796-9, the Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo [WLnm], are preserved, however, in two sets of student notes. The importance of the discovery of these notes is difficult to overestimate. WLnm develops new and more convincing positions on such fundamental issues as the nature of subjectivity, the unity of reason, and the relation between self-consciousness and intersubjectivity that greatly enhance Fichte's historical status and his relevance to contemporary debates on a variety of philosophical concerns. (shrink)

Riassunto: Questo lavoro mira a un confronto tra la psicologia morale di Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche e l’approccio socio-intuizionista al giudizio morale proposto da Jonathan Haidt. Questo confronto metterà in luce somiglianze notevoli tra i due modelli. Il lavoro intende inoltre chiarire quali implicazioni Nietzsche trae dalla sua descrizione della psicologia umana e quali cambiamenti di prospettiva egli esorta a operare rispetto alla comprensione di noi stessi come “esseri morali”. Parole chiave: Giudizio morale; Sviluppo morale; Intuizionismo; Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche; Jonathan Haidt (...) The Dawn of Moral Psychology. Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology and some Recent Empirical Investigations: Comparing Nietzsche’s moral psychology and the social intuitionist approach to moral judgment proposed by Jonathan Haidt, this paper reveals remarkable similarities between the two models. It also clarifies what implications Nietzsche drew from his description of human psychology and the perspective changes these entail for understanding ourselves as “moral beings”. Keywords: Moral Judgment; Moral Development; Intuitionism; Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche; Jonathan Haidt. (shrink)

L'A. s'inquiète au sujet du tour que prend le projet de la déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme depuis quelques années, notamment dans son recours croissant au domaine international. Il expose la vision de 1948 de ce projet, puis prend en compte le fait que la protection familiale se déconstruit pour enfin envisager le rôle des catholiques dans le projet des droits universels des droits de l'homme.

삶은 상처이자 치유의 과정이다! 일상으로 소환한 인문학에서 찾은 삶과 행복의 기본과 원칙 ◎ 도서 소개 인문학의 두 번째 질문, “어떻게 살 것인가?” 고은, 용타, 김상근, 최인철, 차드 멩 탄… 최고의 지성 12인의 상처를 극복하고 공생하는 방법! 존재의 본질에 대한 논의를 잇는 근원적 물음, 어떻게 살 것인가. 삶의 황폐화와 사회 가치의 퇴색, 현실 문제에 대한 근원적인 해결책의 부재로 현대인들은 인간과 삶, 죽음에 대한 근원적인 물음을 품기 시작했다. 그 물음 끝에 탄생한 『어떻게 살 것인가』는 2014년 가을 플라톤 아카데미가 주최한 동명의 대중강연을 엮은 (...) 것으로, 누적 6만 명 이상 청중들의 열광적인 호응을 불러일으켰다. 1부에서 김상근, 한명기, 조성택, 석영중, 황현산, 고은은 인류의 역사 속에 우리 삶의 이정표를 세우는 작업을 통해 너를 살피고 나를 다스리는 지혜를 설파한다. 2부에서 손봉호, 박승찬, 차드 멩 탄, 최인철, 용타, 이강호는 상처를 견디며 행복하게 살아가기 위한 고민을 통해 삶은 상처를 치유하는 과정이라고 역설한다. 삶과 행복의 기본과 원칙이 현실에 닥친 슬픔과 혼란을 극복하고 함께 앞으로 나아갈 수 있는 힘이며, 황폐해진 개인의 삶과 희미해진 사회적 가치를 극복할 수 있는 해답임을 역사와 철학, 종교와 문학 등 인문학 여러 분야를 넘나들며 증명한다. ◎ 출판사 서평 상처 입은 사회, 우리는 어떻게 살아야 할까? 공생하는 삶에 대한 12가지 실천적 철학 나는 누구인가, 어떻게 살 것인가, 어떻게 죽을 것인가. 현대인들이 잊고 살지만, 인생에서 가장 중요한 질문이다. 개인의 삶이 점점 황폐해지고 사회 가치가 희미해지는 요즘, 이러한 근원적인 물음은 우리 삶에 더욱 중요해졌다. ‘인간’을 탐구하고 ‘인생’을 공부하는 학문인 인문학 열풍이 거세진 것도 이와 같은 이유다. 그 물음 끝에 탄생한 『어떻게 살 것인가』는 2014년 가을 플라톤 아카데미가 주최한 동명의 대중강연을 엮은 것으로, 누적 6만 명 이상 청중들의 열광적인 호응을 불러일으켰다. 마치 눈앞에서 듣는 것처럼 고은, 용타, 김상근, 최인철, 차드 멩 탄 등 이 시대를 대표하는 지성 12인이 전하는 삶의 지혜와 인문학적 통찰이 뜨거운 감동과 함께 생생하게 전달된다. 우리 일상에 맞닿은 사례들을 중심으로 삶의 본질을 탐구하며, 위대한 고전과 사상가들의 핵심 메시지를 깊이 있고 흥미롭게 분석했다. 독자들은 이 책을 통해 ‘어떻게 살 것인가’라는 삶의 근원적인 물음에 명쾌한 해답을 얻을 수 있을 것이며, 흔들리고 방황하는 삶에 용기와 철학을 정립할 수 있을 것이다. 행복한 삶을 향한 역사, 철학, 종교, 문학의 성찰 어떻게 살 것인가에 관한 질문은 반드시 ‘행복’이라는 대답으로 이어진다. 역사, 철학, 종교, 문학 등 다양한 시각으로 삶의 방법을 분석한 우리 시대 최고 지성 12인이 상처를 극복하고 함께 행복하게 살아갈 수 있는 방법을 이야기한다. 개인과 사회가 서로 신뢰할 때 우리의 삶은 여유로워지고 사회는 안전해진다. 1부에서는 인류의 역사 속에 우리 삶의 이정표를 세우는 작업을 통해 너를 살피고 나를 다스리는 지혜를 배운다. 대한민국 사회를 ‘아포리아’ 시대로 규정하며 위기를 극복할 수 있는 지혜를 고대 그리스에서 찾은 김상근, 『징비록』에 담긴 역사적 기록을 통해 세계 격변의 시기에 우리가 취해야 할 자세를 고민하는 한명기, 원효의 화쟁사상을 통해 시민의 지혜와 대화의 중요성을 강조한 조성택, 톨스토이의 『안나 카레니나』를 바탕으로 몰입, 소통, 죽음 세 단계의 성장하는 삶을 이야기한 석영중, 주체로서의 나와 타자로서의 나를 소통시키는 시(詩)의 힘을 통해 잘 사는 법을 전한 황현산, 극심한 갈등 속 자기중심적 삶에서 벗어나 세계사적 의미의 통합을 이룰 것을 주장한 고은 시인을 통해 산다는 문제가 공생에 관한 논의로 확장되는 것을 경험한다. 2부에서는 상처를 견디며 행복하게 살아가기 위한 고민을 통해 삶은 상처를 치유하는 과정이라고 역설한다. 우리가 행복하지 않은 이유로 지나친 경쟁심과 불공정한 규칙을 꼽으며 정직하게 나와 타인의 행복과 이익을 함께 추구하는 것이 우리가 지켜야 할 자존심이자 원칙이라고 전하는 손봉호, 나의 ‘홀로서기’와 타인과의 ‘함께 걷기’를 통해서 고통을 넘어서는 희망을 찾을 수 있다는 대안을 제시한 박승찬, 감성지능을 개발하기 위한 세 단계인 주의력 집중, 자기 인식, 정신 습관을 통해 행복의 비법을 전한 차드 멩 탄, 행복을 마음이 아닌 몸과 연결 지어 일상에서 행복을 느낄 수 있는 방법을 찾아나가는 최인철, ‘나, 모두의 행복, 마음 천국, 관계 천국, 세상 천국’이라는 다섯 가지 원리를 통해 나를 이해하는 것에서부터 세계 평화가 시작함을 이야기한 용타, 준비하고 실행하는 삶, 주인공이 되는 삶, 기본과 원칙을 중시하고 만남을 소중히 하는 삶이라는 삶의 다섯 가지 실천을 제시한 이강호를 통해 우리는 어떻게 사는 삶이 행복한 삶인지 다시 한번 숙고하게 된다. 인문학의 목소리로 전하는 인간의 삶과 행복, 기본과 원칙은 현실에 닥친 슬픔과 혼란을 극복하고 함께 앞으로 나아갈 수 있는 힘을 전한다. 황폐해진 개인의 삶과 희미해진 사회적 가치를 극복할 해답을 인문학에서 찾았다. ◎ 본문 중에서 만약 인문학적 성찰이 ‘나는 누구인가’에만 머무른다면 그것은 매우 이기적인 일일지도 모르겠습니다. 인문학은 자기 성찰에서 출발해 이웃과 세상 사람들, 그리고 사회 속에서 행동하고 실천하는 작업까지 이어져야 합니다. 그렇기에 인문학은 반드시 두 번째 질문인 ‘어떻게 살 것인가’로 나아가야 합니다. (14쪽) 『징비록』은 조선 선조 때 영의정을 지낸 서애(西厓) 류성룡이 집필한 임진왜란(壬辰倭亂)의 전란사입니다. 제목인 징비(懲毖)는 『시경(詩經)』 「소비편(小毖篇)」의 “예기징 이비후환(豫基懲 而毖後患)”, 즉 내가 경계함은 후환을 삼가기 위함이라는 구절에서 한 글자씩 따왔습니다. (…) 그는 임진왜란 당시의 참담한 상황을 기록하면서, 동시에 난이 일어나기 이전의 일도 기록해 그 원인이 어디에 있었는지를 밝히려고 했습니다. (31~32쪽) 세상의 중심에 서서 세상을 이어주는 것이 바로 인문 정신이며 시민의 지혜라고 생각합니다. 시민의 지혜로 세상을 바라볼 때, 논쟁이 화쟁적 대화로 이어질 때, 갈등과 분쟁은 더 이상 문제 상황이 아니라 더 큰 진리가 드러나는 에너지요, 기회가 될 것입니다. (97쪽) 톨스토이는 ‘어떻게 살 것인가’라는 질문에 대한 답을 작품을 통해 보여주게 되는데요, 그 답은 바로 ‘성장’입니다. 성장이란 인간이 끊임없는 성찰과 학습을 통해 자기완성에 도달하는 과정입니다. 톨스토이는 성장에 대해 “끊임없이 보다 나은 사람이 되어가는 것”이라고 이야기합니다. (99~100쪽) 개인의 사소한 사정은 더더욱 표현하기 어렵습니다. 사회적인 문제들을 표현하기 위해서는 연대도 가능하고 협력도 가능합니다. 그러나 자기 안에 있는 문제는, 실제로 모든 사람들이 똑같이 느끼고 있음에도 불구하고 연대가 불가능하고 협력도 어렵습니다. 바로 그 사이에 다리를 놓고 협력할 수 있도록 해주는 것이 문학입니다. 또한 그것들을 표현할 말을 만들어내고, 그것들을 표현하기 위해 어떤 특별한 세계를 개발하고 또 그것들을 전파할 수 있도록 약속하는 것이 문학입니다. 그리고 그 문학의 전위가 바로 시(詩)이며, 시가 바로 그 일을 합니다. (135쪽) 아내가 “삶은 상처다”라고 아주 멋진 말을 하더군요. 그리고 삶은 상처를 치유하는 과정이라고 덧붙였습니다. 일상은 늘 상처를 만들고 상처와 만나고 그 상처를 조금씩 치유해주고 가라앉혀주는 것이라고요. 진짜 삶은 누구에 의해 혹은 누구의 규범과 교훈에 종속되어 노예로 사는 것이 아니라 자기 자신으로 살아가는 것입니다. (…) 실존의 존엄성을 우주의 그 누구도 모독할 수 없습니다. (154~155쪽) 우리는 우리의 행동이 어떤 경로를 거쳐 어떤 결과를 가져올지 알아야 하고, 그 결과에 따른 책임도 져야 합니다. 그것이 오늘날 우리에게 필요한 윤리입니다. 그러려면 선한 동기만이 아니라 지식도 있어야 하고, 능력도 있어야 합니다. (185쪽) 고통을 극복하기 위해서는 누구도 자신의 고통을 이해해주지 못한다는 사실을 받아들여야 합니다. 기대할수록 상처는 더욱 커집니다. 고통은 홀로 맞서야만 하는 주관적인 체험입니다. 그렇더라도 고통에 빠진 사람 옆에서 함께 걸어주십시오. 그러면 내가 고통스러울 때 그 사람도 나와 함께 걸어줄 것입니다. 이런 홀로서기와 함께 걷기를 통해서 우리는 고통을 넘어서는 희망을 찾을 수 있습니다. (219쪽) 행복의 비법은 바로 이것입니다. 먼저 마음을 고요하게 해보세요. 그러면 에너지가 필요 없는 기쁨의 세계로 나아갈 수 있습니다. 그리고 자기 인식 능력을 발전시켜서 번뇌로부터 벗어나세요. 마지막으로 친절과 자비를 베풀고 이를 습관화합니다. 이 모든 과정이 훈련을 통해 얼마든지 가능합니다. (238쪽) 단백질, 탄수화물, 지방이 몸을 움직이는 3대 영양소라면, 자유와 유능감과 관계는 영혼을 숨 쉬게 하는 3대 영양소입니다. 그러므로 행복한 삶을 산다는 것은 이 세 가지 에너지를 지속적으로 공급받는 것이라 할 수 있습니다. 그리고 이런 에너지는 당연히 마음 관리에서 나옵니다. 저는 신체활동이나 일상의 여러 활동을 통해 얼마든지 영혼에 에너지를 공급할 수 있다는 이야기를 하려 합니다. (248쪽) 행복한 삶을 위한 원리를 정리하면 ‘나는 모두의 행복을 위해 수심하여 마음 천국 이루고, 화합하여 관계 천국 이루고, 작선하여 세상 천국 이루리라’입니다. 우리 모두가 이 원리만 지키고 살아도 가정의 평화, 세계의 평화, 우주의 평화를 이룰 수 있습니다. (273쪽) 매일 아침, 우리에게는 똑같은 태양이 떠오릅니다. 그리고 똑같은 시간이 주어지지요. 태양과 시간을 어떻게 자기 것으로 만들어가느냐에 따라 각자의 삶이 달라질 것입니다. ‘Every dawn is a new beginning.’ 매일마다의 아침은 또 하나의 새로운 시작입니다. 여러분은 어떤 삶을 원하십니까? (297쪽). (shrink)

This book presents a synthetic view of the intellectual variants of negative theology at the dawn of modern times. It attempts to grasp the diversity of ideas in ontology, epistemology and semeiotics which evolved through readings of pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

Three years of work with more than twenty scientists and high-level specialists: here are revealed the modern proofs of the existence of God. For almost four centuries, from Copernicus to Freud via Galileo and Darwin, scientific discoveries have accumulated in a spectacular way, giving the impression that it was possible to explain the Universe without the need to resort to a god. Creator. And so it was that at the beginning of the 20th century, materialism triumphed intellectually. In a way (...) as unexpected as it is surprising, the pendulum of science has swung back in the other direction, with incredible force. The discoveries of Relativity, quantum mechanics, the expansion of the Universe, its thermal death, the Big Bang, the fine tuning of the Universe or the complexity of living things, have followed one another. This new knowledge came to dynamite the certainties anchored in the collective spirit of the 20th century, to the point that we can say today that materialism, which has never been just a belief like any other, is on the way to become an irrational belief. In a language accessible to all, the authors of this book retrace the history of these advances in a fascinating way and offer a rigorous overview of the new proofs of the existence of God. At the dawn of the 20th century, believing in a creator god seemed to oppose science. Today, wouldn't it be the opposite? An invitation to reflection and debate. (shrink)

International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, Vol. 196. -/- Introduction, S. Hutton; Nicholas of Cusa : Platonism at the Dawn of Modernity, D. Moran; At Variance: Marsilio Ficino Platonism And Heresy, M.J.B. Allen; Going Naked into the Shrine:Herbert, Plotinus and the Consructive Metaphor, S.R.L.Clark; Commenius, Light Metaphysics and Educational Reform, J. Rohls ; Robert Fludd’s Kabbalistic Cosmos, W. Schmidt-Biggeman; Reconciling Theory and Fact:The Problem of ‘Other Faiths’ in Lord Herbert and the Cambridge Platonists, (...) D. Pailin; Trinity, Community and Love: Cudworth’s Platonism and the Idea of God, L. Armour; Chaos and Order in Cudworth’s Thought, J-L. Breteau; Cudworth, Prior and Passmore on the Autonomy of Ethics, R. Attfield; Substituting Aristotle: Platonic Themes In Dutch Cartesianism, H. van Ruler; Soul, Body, And World: Plato’s Timaeus And Descartes’ Meditations, C. Wilson ; Locke, Plato and Platonism, G.A.J. Rogers; Reflections on Locke’s Platonism, V. Nuovo; The Platonism at the Core of Leibniz’s Philosophy, C. Mercer; Leibniz and Berkeley: Platonic Metaphysics and ‘The Mechanical Philosophy’, S. Brown; Which Platonism for which Modernity? A Note on Shaftesbury’s Socratic Sea-Cards, L. Jaffro; Platonism, Aesthetics and the Sublime at the Origins Of Modernity, D. Hedley. (shrink)

Books reviewed in this article: The Bible and Postmodern Imagination: Texts Under Negotiation. By Walter Brueggemann. In the Throe of Wonder: Intimations of the Sacred in a Post‐Modern World. By Jerome A. Miller. Interpreting Hebrew Poetry. By David L. Petersen and Kent Harold Richards. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, Volume I: Aαρωυ‐Eυωχ. Edited by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneiders. The Secretary in the Letters of Paul. By E. Randolph Richards. Revelation. By Wilfrid J. Harrington. Conversion to Christianity: Historical and (...) Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation. Edited by Robert W. Hefner. The Metaphor of God Incarnate. By John Hick. Disputed Questions in Theology and the Philosophy of Religion. By John Hick. The Nature of God. By Gerard J. Hughes. The Animals Issue: Moral Theoy in Practice. By Peter Carruthers. Philosophy and Theology in the Middle Ages. By G. R. Evans. Modalities in Medieval Philosophy. By Simo Knuuttila. Da Descarres a Spinoza: Percorsi della teologia razionale nel seicento. By Maria Emanuela Scribano. Tra Descartes e Bayle: Poiret e la teodicea. By Gianluca Mori. Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical. By Anthony Rudd. Kierkegaard on Art and Communication. Edited by George Pattison. Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan Volume 10: Topics in Education. Edited by Robert M. Doran and Frederick E. Crowe. A Theology of Reconstruction: Nation‐building and Human Rights. By Charles Villa‐Vicencio. Religious Methods and Resources in Bioethics. Edited by Paul F. Camenisch. Theological Developments in Bioethics. Edited by Andrew Lustig et al. Marriage in the Western Church: The Christianization of Marriage During the Patristic and Early Medieval Periods. By Philip L. Reynolds. Marriage in the Early Church. Translated and edited by David G. Hunter. The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art. By Thomas F. Mathews. A History of Religion in Britain: Practice and Belief from Pre‐Roman Times to the Present. Edited by Sheridan Gilley and W. J. Sheik. The Conversion of Henri IV: Politics, Power and Religious Belief in Early Modern France. By Michael Wolfe. English Polemics at the Spanish Court: Joseph Creswell's ‘Letter to the Ambassador from England’, The English and the Spanish Texts of 1606. Edited by Albert J. Loomie. (shrink)

Establishing acceptable norms of behavior and consistent standards of conduct has been part of the human enterprise since the dawn of time. Without principles of ethics and the moral rules that affect individual behavior, humankind would plunge into a state of chaotic indifference, insecurity, and unending fear. But while few question the need for moral guidance, a growing number of people believe that the only ethic worth considering must rest on a biblical foundation. Is morality dependent upon God and (...) "revealed truths" found in scripture? Must this claim be accepted without question lest we risk the torment of eternal damnation for questioning it? Without critical evaluation and careful scrutiny, there is little hope of distinguishing truth from unfounded belief. How valuable is the Bible as a source for ethical truth? Do the scriptures truly have the insight needed to guide humankind safely through the moral dilemmas of modern society? What constitutes a biblical ethic? Should the Bible be construed as the only basis for moral teaching? Is it really the final authority on moral issues, or are there secular alternatives that can serve as guides to acceptable conduct within the human community? A distinguished group of social philosophers, biblical scholars, and ethicists met at the University of Richmond, Virginia, under the aegis of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and its Biblical Criticism Research Project, to address these and related questions. The essays in this provocative work demonstrate a diversity of perspective and breadth of insight that will shed much needed light on the nature of ethics. The contributors to this volume include: Robert S. Alley, Joe Edward Barnhart, Joseph L. Blau, Frank E. Eakin, Jr., Lewis S. Feuer, Joseph Fletcher, Theodor H. Gaster, James H. Hall, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Paul Kurtz, Gerald A. Larue, John Priest, Ellis Rivkin, Richard L. Rubenstein, and Richard Taylor. (shrink)

Resenha da obra: HORKHEIMER, Max. Crepúsculo: Notas alemãs (1926-1931). Tradução e apresentação de L. P. de Caux. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2022 [1926-1931]. Financiamento: FAPESP 2020/01051-1 Resumo: Esta resenha ressalta a importância da tradução da coletânea de aforismos Crepúsculo [Dämmerung], escritos entre 1926 e 1931, para promover a discussão sobre o pensamento de Max Horkheimer no Brasil. Neste conjunto de breves notas, reflexões sobre o cotidiano se unem a juízos sobre o pensamento filosófico e a política de seu tempo. Tendo (...) publicado as notas apenas em 1934 e sob um pseudônimo, Horkheimer exibe ali uma rara abertura sobre a sua concepção do marxismo, bem como espelha as contradições de seu tempo. Em face à infinidade de caminhos de leitura abertos devido ao caráter não sistemático destes aforismos, esta resenha aborda, de modo não exaustivo, alguns pontos de continuidade em relação aos seus ensaios publicados nos anos 1930, agrupando e aproximando a discussão sobre temas como a moral, a compaixão, a metafísica, a religião, entre outros. Palavras-chave: Max Horkheimer; Teoria Crítica; Materialismo; Marxismo; Autoritarismo Dawn: themes from a young Max Horkheimer Abstract: This review emphasizes the importance of the translation of the collection of aphorisms Crepúsculo [Dämmerung], written between 1926 and 1931, in promoting discussion about Max Horkheimer's thought in Brazil. In this collection of brief notes, reflections on everyday life are combined with judgements on the philosophical thought and politics. Publishing the notes only in 1934 and under a pseudonym, Horkheimer displays a rare openness about his conception of Marxism and mirrors the contradictions of his time. Given the abundance of possible paths opened by the non-systematic nature of these aphorisms, this review addresses, in a non-exhaustive way, points of continuity in relation to his essays published in the 1930s, grouping and bringing together the discussion on themes such as morality, compassion, metaphysics, religion, among others. Keywords: Max Horkheimer; Critical Theory; Materialism; Marxism; Authoritarianism Crepúsculo: temas de un joven Max Horkheimer Resumen: Esta reseña destaca la importancia de la traducción de la colección de aforismos Crepúsculo [Dämmerung], escrita entre 1926 y 1931, para promover el debate sobre el pensamiento de Max Horkheimer en Brasil. En esta colección de breves notas, las reflexiones sobre la vida cotidiana se combinan con juicios sobre el pensamiento filosófico y la política de su época. Habiendo publicado las notas sólo en 1934 y bajo seudónimo, Horkheimer muestra una rara transparencia sobre su concepción del marxismo, además de reflejar las contradicciones de su época. Ante la infinidad de caminos de lectura abiertos por el carácter no sistemático de estos aforismos, esta reseña aborda, de manera no exhaustiva, algunos puntos de continuidad en relación con sus ensayos publicados en la década de 1930, agrupando y reuniendo la discusión sobre temas como la moral, la compasión, la metafísica, la religión, entre otros. Palabras clave: Max Horkheimer; Teoría Crítica; Materialismo; Marxismo; Autoritarismo Data de registro: 16/04/2024 Data de aceite: 25/09/2024. (shrink)

La Décennie des Nations unies pour les femmes (1975‑1985) a coïncidé avec une brève période d’ouverture au cours de la guerre froide, lorsque les nations nouvellement décolonisées semblèrent avoir le dessus, ayant pris le contrôle de l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies et de plusieurs agences de l’ONU, où elles promouvaient l’idée d’un nouvel ordre économique international. Cet article examine brièvement deux réseaux d’intellectuelles activistes basées dans le Sud qui ont émergé à la fin de cette décennie. L’Association des femmes africaines (...) pour la recherche et le développement (AFARD/ AAWORD), créée en 1977, a démontré qu’il était possible de réorienter radicalement les programmes de développement vers le bienêtre et la durabilité plutôt que vers la productivité et la croissance. L’association Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), fondée en 1984, partageait les objectifs de l’AFARD et en incluait quelques-unes des membres, mais elle reflétait un nouveau contexte de la guerre froide où le développement s’est réorienté vers des solutions néolibérales. (shrink)

Every student of English-speaking analytical metaphysics is taught that the early twentieth century philosophical debate about truth confronted the correspondence theory, supported by Russell, Moore, the early Wittgenstein and, later, J.L. Austin, with the coherence theory advocated by the British Idealists. Sometimes the pragmatist conception of truth deriving from Dewey, William James, and C.S. Peirce is regarded as a third player. And as befits a debate at the dawn of analytical philosophy, the matter in dispute is normally taken to (...) have been the proper analysis of the concept.No doubt this conception nicely explains some of the characteristic turns taken in the debate. Analysis, as traditionally conceived, has to consist in the provision of illuminating conceptual equivalences; and illumination will depend, according to the standard rules of play, on the analysans’ utilizing only concepts which, in the best case, are in some way prior to and independent of the notion being analyzed — or, if that's too much to ask, then concepts which at least permit of some form of explication which does not in turn take one straight back to that notion. (shrink)

continent. 1.2 (2011): 136-140. In early 2011, Cow Heavy Books published The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature , a compendium of catalog 'blurbs' for non-existent desired or ideal texts. Along with Erinrose Mager, I edited the project, in a process that was more like curation as it mainly entailed asking a range of contemporary writers, theorists, and text-makers to send us an entry. What resulted was a creative/critical hybrid anthology, a small book in which each page opens (...) to a new iteration of textual desire. These texts explore the material possibilities of the book. Somewhat parallel to the call of N. Katherine Hayles who, in her book Writing Machines , urges literary theorists to take up the practice of Medium Specific Analysis (to account for the way the medium in which it is presented conditions or at least bears on a literary text). I see in the imagined works of The Official Catalog a call for the innovative writers of today to become Medium-Responsive. This would mean thinking through the specific (materially constrained) possibilities offered by the media in which texts are presented, and in thinking of the literary text as a kind of art in the greater context of other arts and the book as a medium situated within the context of many other media. In doing so, the contemporary writer refutes the chorus of critics who lament the death of the book by consistently reinvigorating literary innovation. The following are selections from The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature that show possible paths for (thinking about) new writing that engages with its medium. —Ben Segal, Editor THE CUBE Even the most radical non-linear texts have tended to exploit or subvert only the sequential possibilities of print—from the continuous loop of Joyce's Finnegans Wake to the shuffled cards of Marc Saporta's Composition No. 1 —but The Cube takes such multiplicities to an entirely new level. Set in a grid, the book's words can be read conventionally, across the page, as well as down each column—with either route making complete grammatical sense. But they can also be read as stacked strata and mined like lexical core samples through the layered pages of the book. Each path tells the same story from a different perspective (the narrative, naturally, hinges on the potential outcomes of a throw of cubed dice). By opening up the z-axis to reading in this way, The Cube recognizes the book as a three-dimensional sculptural space. Taking its lead from Armand Schwerner's (If Personal) and Raymond Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes , The Cube reads like a experiment by Christian Bök precision printed by Emily McVarish. Craig Dworkin is the editor, most recently, of The Consequence of Innovation: 21st Century Poetics (Roof Books, 2008), The Sound of Poetry/The Poetry of Sound , with Marjorie Perloff (U. Chicago Press, 2009), and Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing , with Kenneth Goldsmith (Northwestern UP, 2010). He teaches at the University of Utah. HE GOES In He Goes , we read notes, letters and e-mails from a scholar father to his novelist daughter. We read of the father's musings on Beckett, on Pinter, on Anne Frank; his description of a woman hanging laundry from a line. We read about his journey toward dying, followed by a brief, third person account of his death, and his obituary. Then a long series of blank pages that demand to be read in real time, non-sentence by non-sentence, blank page by blank page. Finally—and it is here that this peculiar little book begins to soar—the dead father writes to his as-of-yet-still-living daughter. He does not write from death. He does not write from life. The words unprint, unstamp, unkindle. Still, they require no translation. The father "writes" (for lack of a better word) about the serendipitous, the commonplace; he recommends another book. He jokes. He asks his daughter how her stomach is. He says forget about presence in absence, darling; screw words as memorial and the guys in garbage cans and loss as redemption and I can't go on I must go on. He goes, "Love, Fodder." He goes, "incidentally." He goes, "I thought you might like to know." Elizabeth Graver is the author of a story collection, Have You Seen Me? , and three novels: Unravelling ; The Honey Thief ; and Awake . Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , and Prize Stories: the O. Henry Awards . She teaches at Boston College. THE PAPER ARCHIVIST A stunning package and a triumph of imagination, The Paper Archivist at times looks to be less a book than an abstract expressionist painting. Softly bound, its contents unfold to a single sheet of uneven thickness and texture—a canvas splattered with colored lines, stickers, broken sentences, and nonsense pictographs. But by following the directions to fold, dip, smell, rub, scratch, and tear the sheet according to the contingencies of the weather and using only the objects at hand, the reader slowly brings the forces hidden in the noise into a glorious sculptural convergence, processing a different story and shape each time. This is the rare book that continues to stir, whirl, and pop on every new reading. Sean Higgins blogs at BOMBlog where he is responsible for the column Volumes and Territories, as well as Ghost Island , a fledgling collaborative intellectual collective. THE SLOW BOOK The Slow Book , written by an anonymous author at the dawn of literacy, on a minor planet (otherwise notable only as the source of that exceptionally hardy, not very tasty grain called “shef” sowed on hostile planets as an early step to colonization), and encoded into a series of punctures on a strip of copper coiled inside a clever device, something between a player piano and an old-fashioned film projector, is being released into print, as was the author’s intention, at a rate of one word per century (local time). Each word is, across the Forty Galaxies, agreed to be uncannily apt for the century in which it appears—even “of,” in a century during which the highest value was attached to fidelity, whether to ideals, worlds, or romantic love; even “the,” which governed two centuries, one extraordinarily materialistic, during which advances in propulsion and navigation accelerated the exchange of exceptional objects between the remotest planets of the Forty, and one in which the central concern, both of philosophers and the common man, was whether, in an age of rapidly proliferating hypothetical worlds, anyone or anything concretely existed at all. Even those words published long before interstellar contact can be seen in retrospect to have transgalactic pertinence. As a result, attempts to abstract the machine from its publishers, Hobson & Hui, in order to “predict the future” for insight or gain by “fast- forwarding” the copper strip have been many and ingenious. While, in centuries of skepticism (“maybe”), or of unrest (“go”) the book has been nearly forgotten, in others it seems to haunt every thought, every deed, despite the fact that the subject of The Slow Book is still unclear. So far only a few sentences exist in print; everyone knows them, can quote them, offer the standard exegeses and assorted heresies; yet certainties are the stuff of adolescence; mature readers are forced to acknowledge that these sentences are probably only a preamble to the main argument. They contain no proper nouns, nor can we identify any definite theme. There is even disagreement about their tone, whether coolly ironic, as some insist, or ardent. The appearance of an unusual grammatical case, sometimes called the future pluperfect continuous, used to describe events that at some future point will have always been true (but are not yet)—hitherto known to appear only in the synthetic dogmas of the Thanatographical Society, and in certain highly circumscribed religious contexts—has suggested to some scholars that the Slow Book was originally intended for ritual use, but the proximity of the usage to a term designating a small hand plow that, as Pott and Mielcke have convincingly shown, would have borne a distinctly obscene double meaning in its culture of origin in the author’s time, argues otherwise. It is likewise unclear whether the situation that seems to be—with teasing incompleteness—sketched out in these few lines is intended as an illustration of general principles, a case study, a dramatic scene, or an extended metaphor. In short, we have no idea what The Slow Book is about. In our own time, we believe that it is almost certainly a work of fiction, but that may be because we live in the century of “if”. In each age, perhaps, we see the book we most need to read. Some have dared to suggest that the metal strip is blank until, with millennial fanfare, it advances into its new position, that no ur-text exists, that the book itself is brought into being—written—by our need. But that is exactly the sort of thing we would believe, in 7645. Shelley Jackson is the author of the story collection The Melancholy of Anatomy , the novel Half Life , and hypertexts including Patchwork Girl . The recipient of a Howard Foundation grant, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2006 James Tiptree Jr Award, she has also written and illustrated several children's books, including The Old Woman and the Wave ; Sophia, the Alchemist's Dog ; and Mimi's Dada Catifesto . Her stories and essays have appeared in Conjunctions , McSweeney's , The Paris Review , and Cabinet Magazine . In 2004 she launched her project SKIN , a story published in tattoos on 2095 volunteers. THE BOOK OF SOUNDS The Book of Sounds is just that: a book of sounds made when letters are construed in new ways to bring forth out of the alphabet new forms of speech. A book meant to be read out loud, The Book of Sounds is not unlike Laurie Anderson's O Superman or Brian Eno's Music for Airports in its attempt to make music out of the most primary and simplest of methods. It breaks language down to its barest bones and makes out of the page a drum that has never before been beaten upon. Peter Markus is the author of a novel, Bob, or Man on Boat (Dzanc Books) as well as two books of short fiction, Good, Brother and The Singing Fish , both of which were published by Calamari Press. A new collection of stories, We Make Mud , is now available from Dzanc Books. PARADISE OF THE BLIND by Celan Solen Although the reclusive Celan Solen published his first and only book in 1963—paying out-of-pocket for a limited edition of the slim collection No One May Have the Same Knowledge Again —he remained in American obscurity for almost three decades. In 1992 a micro-press in Istanbul brought out No One in Turkish. A German translation followed in 1995. Soon it became clear in literary circles Solen was a world-class (if highly unclassifiable) artist—lyrical, dense, enigmatic—who could undo the conventional short story in 397 words by inventing impossible worlds housed in impossible whirls (in “Small Sadnesses,” a single chartreuse tree frog in Borneo unknowingly holds time together by its very presence in the universe, while each letter of its tale refers, not to itself, but to the one preceding it in the alphabet). By his disappearance last year, Solen was considered master by a generation of writers and critics (except, alas, for those gentlemen in the Swedish Academy). Imagine, then, that generation’s delight at the discovery, locked away in the author’s safe-deposit box, of his second and final composition. Had Lynch’s Lost Highway been book instead of film, and had it been penned by Beckett at his least certain, revised by Barthelme at his most formally deranged, and typeset by Derrida at his most semiotically catastrophic, the result might have been something like Paradise of the Blind : interlacing narratives of a man composed of borrowed organs (whose most cheerless and difficult to locate, god, could only have been invented by an empty heart), a nonexistent medieval painting blamed for the ruin of future hope, and the spread of a philosophy that holds earth a mistake constantly recurring in the dream of a fish lying on the floor of the Atlantic (if the fish wakes, our world winks off)—all contained in a text packed with typed-over passages, torn postcards, poems that can be deciphered only when held up to a mirror, pages ornamented with trompe-l'œil paperclips and coffee stains and buzzing houseflies, some busy with illegible runes that dissolve when exposed to light, three that smell like roses or lemons (depending on whether a man or woman is reading), two that stain with the bloody fingerprints of the those who handle them, one that ignites when brushed with breath, thirteen sewn from baby skin, one that moans when touched, and one that screams—yet all without mass, unimaginable, and invisible. Lance Olsen is author of more than 20 books of and about innovative fiction, including, most recently, the novels Calendar of Regrets (2010) and Head in Flames (2009). He teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah. SUPERSTRUCTURE! by Barbara D'Albi As soon as I opened the third drawer of Barbara D'Albi's wooden novel, everything became hopeless. Now in Ithaca, there was no going back. And it wasn't just the intricate series of shelves, hinged doors and locked drawers which D'Albi layered into the book, no, lo, I was constructed anew by the story. Who else but D'Albi to imagine a God who becomes a carpenter and gets killed?! And makes it good! You want stories? D'Albi is a skyscraper, built with planes and levers. Momentarily I wondered where I could shelve this book, and then I thought: no matter; I couldn't put it down. Adam Robinson lives in Baltimore, where he runs Publishing Genius. He is the author of Adam Robison and Other Poems and Say, Poem. 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The subject of the study is the period of Russian symphonic music of the 1960s. A new generation of "sixties" composers has entered the Soviet music scene, imperiously declaring themselves with bright creative achievements, fresh and modern musical language. The epoch of the turning point dictated a new reality, required new artistic thinking, generated diverse creative ideas. The panorama of Russian music was quite colorful, many things in art appeared and disappeared very rapidly, stylistic pluralism, lost at the dawn (...) of Soviet power, returned to the music scene. Special attention is paid to the works of composers of the Leningrad school — S. Slonimsky, Y. Falik, L. Prigozhin and V. Gavrilin. All of them opened new stylistic horizons and absorbed into their sound orbit the main trends of modern music, including the conquests of the Western avant-garde.  The scientific novelty of the work consists in the fact that the author examines the bright and original works of young Leningrad authors in the context of stylistic and linguistic innovations of the 1960s. The article analyzes the role and place of "Sixties" composers in the struggle for "new music". The main conclusion of the article is the idea that the period of musical renewal of the 1960s under consideration turned out to be extremely saturated with the most complex and diverse problems: ideological, general aesthetic, musical style. S. Slonimsky, Y. Falik, L. Prigozhin, V. Gavrilin became undisputed leaders in the renewal of Russian music of the second half of the twentieth century, and their works-"symbols" fully reflected the intense search of the post-war generation of Soviet composers. (shrink)

The Reveries sur la nature primitive de l'homme are one of the important books of the dawn of the nineteenth century. In this text, Senancour limns an image of the world in accordance with the scientific thought of his time. It is a disenchanted image, dominated by mechanical necessity, and in it the distinction between good and evil no longer holds. God is absent; the world is not his creation. And Senancour expresses no regret:Everything in nature is indifferent, for (...) everything is necessary: all is beautiful, for all is determined. The individual is nothing, as a being apart: his cause and his end lie beyond him. Only the whole exists absolutely, invincibly, with no other cause, with no other end beyond itself, with no laws but those of its nature, with no other product than its permanence…. The beautiful, the true, the just, evil, and disorder exist only for the weakness of mortals…. The same earth contains happy orchards and ruinous volcanoes. The villain triumphs, the hero dies; the orchard withers, the volcano is snuffed out; one and the same destruction devours both the animate and the inanimate, shrouded in the same oblivion; and in a world reborn, there remains not a trace of what was abhorred or deified in a bygone world. (shrink)

"Peter Iver Kaufman is admirably and ideally qualified to undertake this project of reading More on politics in the light of Augustine on politics. In vigorous, well-paced prose, he tackles an important and original subject." —_Marcia L. Colish, Frederick B. Artz Professor of History, emerita, Oberlin College_ _“Incorrectly Political_ will attract readers not only because it is written with the author's characteristic flair and liveliness, but also because of his established capacity to bridge centuries of Western thought and history. Written (...) at the dawn of the new century, this book acquires deep resonance from the events unfolding around the world, circumstances to which Augustine’s and More's complex thoughts on political possibility still speak. If ever a study of such hoary figures from the Christian past deserved the label 'timely,' it is surely this one.” —_Kevin Madigan, Harvard University Divinity School_ Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries and Thomas More in the sixteenth were familiar with the deceits and illusions that enabled even the most vile rulers to shore up their dignity and that gave repressive regimes an inviolability of sorts. Both men knew the politics of their times, both were involved in politics, and both were at one time politically ambitious. Augustine needed and made good use of government's powers of coercion and damage control in his struggle against the Donatists. The clear advantages of political protection and correction preoccupied More in his battle against Martin Luther. Both later changed their minds and believed, finally, the political imagination, based as it is on a desire for power, always and inevitably leads to devastation and suffering. Peter Iver Kaufman explains how and why we have failed to appreciate Augustine's and More's profound political pessimism, reintroducing readers to two of the Christian tradition's most enigmatic yet influential figures. Each had been disturbed by the reach of his own political ambitions—as by those of contemporaries. Each knew that government was useful—yet always deceitful. And each wrote a classic—widely read to this day, Augustine's _City of God_ and More's _Utopia,_as well as abundant correspondence and polemical tracts to explain why government on earth might be used, though never meaningfully improved. (shrink)

Biography of Habermas -- Critical theory -- Habermas and his works -- An assessment of the impact of Habermas -- Conclusion.