This volume presents, for the first time, an assemblage of contributions on the philosophical dimensions of the impersonal, the multiplicity of its linguistic, social, scientific, religious and artistic perspectives, as well as initial approaches to its unified definition. Linguistic and logical impersonality The “It" in K. Kraus “Impersonality” in the subject and in events The impersonal ontology of H. Rombach Levinas on the “Il y a” Organisation in non-egological consciousness The witness of consciousness in the Vedānta traditions Anonymous self-consciousness G. (...) Deleuzes figures of the impersonal The impersonal in G. Agamben's Philosophy Formal and collective thought in Spinoza Cusanus and the person as stake in the game of life Impersonal subjectivity and the comedy of solipsism Dimensions of the impersonal in T. Nagel, E. Husserl and H. Plessner On the figure of the impersonal in the Anthropocene Language and mask in F. Nietzsche Theodoros Terzopoulos on impersonality and theatre With contributions by Michael Astroh, Eric Ebner, Eric Eggert, Rolf Elberfeld, Katrin Felgenhauer, Ralf Gisinger, Annika Hand, Stefan Lang, Robert Lehmann, Enrico Müller, Daniel Neumann, Frank Raddatz, Christian Rößner, Thomas Schmaus, Fabian Strobel and Theodoros Terzopoulos. (shrink)

The Tria Opuscula by the Late Antique Neoplatonist Proklos are accessible in full in the translation into medieval Latin by Wilhelm von Moerbeke, as well as in fragments in the Greek texts of Late Antique and Byzantine authors. Using the form of a commentary on passages, this work assesses what we can learn from these sources about the original Greek text of the three works. At the same time the commentary serves the elucidation of the first complete Greek retroversion of (...) the Tria Opuscula, which is published here. (shrink)

Drawing on decades of research found in his Case for... series, as well as new interviews and insights, investigative journalist and former atheist Lee Strobel presents clear and compelling evidence to help seekers and believers answer life's ultimate question: Is God Real?

"My road to atheism was paved by science...ironically, so was my later journey to God." Journalist and award-winning author of The Case for Christ Lee Strobel examines the idea that science isn't the enemy of faith, but that it provides a solid foundation for belief in God. New scientific discoveries point to the incredible complexity of our universe, a complexity best explained by the existence of a Creator. This six-session video study (DVD/digital video sold separately) invites participants to encounter (...) the evidence of a Creator. Join Strobel in reexamining the theories that once led him away from God. Pastors, small group leaders, and individuals seeking resources that answer tough questions about the existence of God and the claims of rationality will find compelling answers in The Case for a Creator study, investigating probing questions like: Where do science and faith overlap or agree? As a form of knowledge, what are the weaknesses of science and rationality? How much can I depend on science while still have a thriving faith? Is faith in God ever based on rationality? Sessions include: Science and God Doubts about Darwinism The Evidence of Cosmology The Fine-tuning of the Universe The Evidence of Biochemistry The DNA and the Origin of Life Designed for use with the Case for a Creator Revised Video Study 9780310699606 (sold separately). (shrink)

Hope is more than a wish. It is true. It is real. Lee Strobel's trademark investigative style gives readers the confidence to know that true, dependable hope is found in Jesus Christ and that living with hope will make a life-changing difference in people's lives each day.

White-coated scientists versus black-robed preachers -- The images of evolution -- Doubts about Darwinism : an interview with Jonathan Wells -- Where science meets faith : an interview with Stephen C. Meyer -- The evidence of cosmology : beginning with a bang : an interview with William Lane Craig -- The evidence of physics : the cosmos on a razor's edge : an interview with Robin Collins -- The evidence of astronomy : the privileged planet : an interview with Guillermo (...) Gonzalez and Jay Wesley Richards -- The evidence of biochemistry : the complexity of molecular machines : an interview with Michael Behe -- The evidence of biological information : the challenge of DNA and the origin of life : an interview with Stephen C. Meyer -- The evidence of consciousness : the enigma of the mind : an interview with J.P. Moreland -- The cumulative case for a creator -- Appendix -- Deliberations : questions for refection or group study. (shrink)

: The study of gratitude has become an increasingly important topic among psychologists to address the nature of human flourishing. Of more recent interest is how gratitude to God specifically functions within an account of human flourishing, with theologians seeking to provide a distinctively Christian account of the nature of gratitude. This article enters into the ongoing conversation by attending to Jonathan Edwards’s theological anthropology and development of natural and supernatural gratitude. In particular, Edwards’s anthropology includes within it an account (...) of how the self can, and should, enlarge to receive another in love. This “enlargement” is the creaturely mirror of God’s self-giving and is the supernatural response to the creature who has received God’s grace and been infused with divine love. As a supernatural response based on God’s action in the soul, this account of gratitude differs from its natural counterpart. On Edwards’s account, therefore, there is a need to develop studies that differentiate natural and supernatural gratitude. Furthermore, this article ends with a suggestion for a study that could pick up this task based on recent psychological studies that attend to how gratitude affects self-relation. On Edwards’s account of the enlargement of the self, as well as his notion of supernatural gratitude, there is meaningful research to be done on how these can help assess development in the formation of gratitude and human flourishing. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 2 Seiten: 705-713.

Offers a faith-based approach to science, the universe, and the development of human life.

Der vorliegende Band ist der wechselseitigen Durchdringung von exegetischen und philosophischen Anliegen in der spätantiken neuplatonischen Kommentarliteratur anhand prominenter Fallbeispiele von Porphyrios bis David gewidmet. Welche Erwartungshaltungen leiten die Kommentatoren bei der Interpretation einzelner Texte und Textstellen? Wie und warum nehmen sie zu den Gedanken, die in den von ihnen kommentierten Texten zum Ausdruck kommen, so Stellung, wie sie Stellung nehmen? Dabei bildet die Frage, welche Ansätze die Kommentatoren entwickelt haben, um das Verhältnis zwischen platonischen und aristotelischen Theorien zu bestimmen, (...) das Leitmotiv des vorliegenden Bandes. Es zeigt sich, dass die Rede von einer Harmonisierungstendenz der Kommentatoren zwar aufs Ganze gesehen berechtigt, jedoch allzu undifferenziert ist. Die Beiträge zeichnen ein facettenreiches, einzelne Kommentatoren und Kommentierungstraditionen übergreifendes Bild von der wechselseitigen Durchdringung exegetischer und philosophischer Interessen überhaupt, welche sich im Schaffen der spätantiken Kommentatoren manifestiert. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 2 Seiten: 716-726.

Contemplation is at the heart of the Christian faith, and, more specifically, is the driving mechanism of both theology and prayer. Unfortunately, theologians and writers on the Christian life have often succumbed to the temptation to utilize a “secular” or commonsensical notion of contemplation rather than one forged in the context of Christian belief. In response, this essay delineates the possibility and ground of contemplation, looking to the doctrine of God to provide the necessary contours for Christian rationality and spirituality. (...) In so doing, particular attention is paid to the work of Son and Spirit, and the truth of the Christian person who is caught up in God's work of grace. Contemplation, it is suggested, must be determined within this reality rather than a general notion of focused intellection. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the history of the concept of where in ancient philosophy. Though Aristotle was the first to recognize the concept as a topic of philosophical interest, numbering the category of where among his ten categories, it is only from late antiquity that more extensive treatments of the concept have come down to us, in Plotinus' The Genera of Being and Simplicius' Commentary on the Categories. Plotinus rejects the category of where on the ground that, on any (...) plausible understanding of locatives, the things they signify do not make up a special category. To show this, Plotinus considers three at least plausible ways to construe the semantics of locatives: they may signify either places or something in something else, or relations. The paper examines these three construals together with Plotinus' dialectical arguments and Simplicius' counter-arguments, concluding that the former, though highly illuminating, are unsuccessful and that, by and large, Simplicius is right in his defence of the category of where. (shrink)

According to the Greek Commentators in late antiquity, Aristotle's Categories is primarily concerned with simple expressions in so far as they signify things. But what is it for a simple expression to signify a thing? As for (non-empty) singular terms, it is safe to say that they denote things. But what about general terms? How do they signify things? The question is crucial to the theory of the Categories , since, as is argued in the first section of this paper, (...) there is some truth in the Commentators' thesis that (part of) the Categories aims to elucidate the signification of simple expressions, including general terms. Of course, various prima facie plausible accounts of how general terms signify things are available; the second section discusses the basic assumptions which underlie them. A detailed analysis of Cat. 2a19-34 in the third section shows that the Categories ' account is two-fold: On the one hand some general terms denote things (among the latter, the most prominent are τα καθ' υπoκειμενoυ λεγoμενα). What is denoted by a given general term does not stand in any relation to the objects falling under the term but is something that they are . Some general terms, on the other hand, connote things. What is connoted by a general term is a property which the objects falling under the term are related to by virtue of having it (τα εν υπoκειμενω oντα are such properties). (shrink)