Thomas Windisch Problème fondamental de la tradition philosophique occidentale, la justification de l’existence du mal dans le monde est un thème inépuisable pour le philosophe. Particulièrement d’actualité au moment où les effets directs et indirects de la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19 n’épargnent personne, la forme de ce questionnement a évolué au fil des révolutions philosophiques. Le présent article tente de se replacer à la fin du xviiie siècle pour prolonger la parole du poète Friedrich Hölderlin à partir d’une réinterprétation du (...) mal kantien. En adoptant une perspective à la fois philosophique et littéraire, il est possible de démontrer comment le concept d’unité, compris à l’aune du Beau, se révèle en tant que cause irrémédiable, mais justifiée, du mal vécu par l’humain. À partir de son roman Hypérion, Hölderlin nous proposerait une théodicée tacite qui, sans renier les critères épistémologiques de la philosophie kantienne, lui échapperait, autant qu’à toute justification exclusivement philosophique de l’existence du mal tentée depuis la modernité. (shrink)

Existe-t-il dans l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur, comme on l’a dit, une forme de dissymétrie entre le champ de la métaphore et celui du récit? Dès La métaphore vive, la référence à Northrop Frye et à Nelson Goodman va permettre de ressaisir pleinement l’unité de la sphère poétique. La métaphore vive et Temps et récit sont alors présentés comme deux ouvrages jumeaux. Paul Ricœur explique notamment que la poésie lyrique a, elle-même, le pouvoir de produire une “mise en intrigue,” et, (...) qu’en ce sens, “le sentiment articulé par le poème n’est pas moins heuristique que la fable tragique.”, 309.) En suivant certaines références faites dans ces deux livres jumeaux – où peut se lire la dialectique entre “découvrir et créer,” “trouver et projeter” –, il est alors possible de faire apparaître un fil conducteur des analyses où s’annonce, à titre de perspective, une pensée générale de l’acte créateur. L’œuvre d’art y devient expérience, épreuve d’une conception “tensionnelle” de la vérité, dialectique entre “expérience d’appartenance” et “pouvoir de distanciation.”. (shrink)

These two impreseive volumes are a Festschrift for Otto Pöggeler’s sixtieth birthday. The contributors come from Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and the United States; and their tipics range from Hölderlin to Derrida with Hegel and Heidegger as the most prominent foci.

Depuis 2001, France Culture et l'Université libre de Bruxelles, l'une des plus prestigieuses universités d'Europe, se sont associées pour organiser tous les ans un colloque international francophone sur les sujets qui font question dans le monde contemporain. Alors que l'éclatement et la spécialisation des savoirs semblent avoir totalement fragmenté notre connaissance ; alors que les rationalités philosophiques et scientifiques, la poésie et l'expérience mystique semblent s'être séparées dans des domaines irréductibles si ce n'est même opposés, il a semblé intéressant, (...) dans un effort transdisciplinaire qui réunissait, entre autres, physiciens, psychologues et philosophes, de s'interroger sur une unité globale de la connaissance. Celle-ci implique-t-elle l'unité essentielle de l'être humain, ou l'unité du monde dans lequel nous sommes plongés - ou éventuellement même ces deux unités elles-mêmes réunifiées? (shrink)

La poésie lyrique de Hâfez s'élève au niveau de la plus exigeante méditation philosophique. L'amour, qui est son foyer, n'y désigne pas une affection ou une passion de l'âme. Il fait écho à la théologie de l'amour qui s'est construite en islam au croisement du néoplatonisme avicennisant et du soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabî. Pour Hâfez, l'amour est ce qui de Dieu apparaît dans l'homme. Ses affres sont le mystère de la théophanie. Le ghazal est une fenêtre sur l'ontologie de la (...) théophanie et sur l'amphibolie du réel qu'elle induit. Il opère, dans la matière des figures qu'il sollicite, la coalescence des ordres de la réalité et des formes de la perception. Il révèle les ressources du sensible quand il devient cette réalité subtile lestée d'une matière transmuée. La poésie de Hâfez dévoile les paradoxes du réel, immanent et transcendant, sensible et intelligible, pour nous mettre sur la voie du paradoxe fondamental : le paradoxe de Dieu, qui est caché et apparent, et le paradoxe de la révélation, qui confère des noms et des attributs à une essence insondable. Ce faisant, elle côtoie les discours de la religion et de la philosophie. Le poète, en dévoilant le sens vrai de la révélation, devient le rival du religieux. Il trouve son site en un lieu défriché et balisé par le philosophe. Hâfez exprime dans l'unité et l'équilibre parfait du poème d'amour la théologie et l'ontologie que le philosophe formule dans des concepts abstraits. Il parachève le projet que la philosophie réalise partiellement et maladroitement. The lyrical poetry of Hâfez is in the upright position of the most accurate philosophical meditation. Its focus, which is love, is neither affection nor a passion of the soul. Love, in this place, is the matter of the theological theory of love born in Islam at the crossing of the Neo-Platonism of Avicenna and the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabî. According to Hâfez, Love proceeds from God and is made manifest in man. To endure the suffering of love is the secret of God's self-revelation. The ghazal uncloses the ontology of God's self-revelation and the ambiguous signification of the reality signified by it. By the modes of the poetical expression, divine realities and forms of perception are coalescing, and what the sensible supplies gets clearly visible. Hâfez's poetry unveils the paradox of divine reality, being both immanence and transcendence, intelligible and sensible. By this way, we are led to the essential paradox: the paradox of God, who is both hidden and evident, that is the paradox of revelation: the Essence is unknown, and yet it admits names and attributes. Thus, poetry joins with religion and philosophy. The poet unveils the true signification of revelation and thereby competes with the devout. He dwells in a place closely examined by the philosopher. Hâfez makes known the theological and ontological matters of abstract concepts of philosophy in the unity and perfect equilibrium of the poem. The poet brings to the end the philosopher's purpose, which the philosopher is unable to accomplish. (shrink)

En commençant les Essais de Théodicée par un Discours de la conformité de la foi avec la raison, Leibniz montrait que l'enjeu fondamental de sa confrontation avec Bayle était l'unité de la vérité. Pour produire un discours rationnel sur Dieu, ses attributs, sa providence, il était indispensable de répondre à celui qui disqualifiait par avance tout essai de justification de Dieu par la raison, en affirmant son impuissance radicale à établir des vérités solides et son divorce d'avec la foi. L'opposition (...) entre les deux auteurs est révélatrice de deux conceptions distinctes de la raison, de la nature du mystère religieux et de la connaissance que nous pouvons en avoir. Deux interprétations du « triomphe de la foi » apparaissent : l'une qui fait de la soumission à la parole révélée l'acte « raisonnable » du chrétien conséquent, l'autre qui n'y voit que le succès de la raison elle-même, triomphant des « apparences ». By starting the Essays of Theodicy with a Dissertation on the Conformity of Faith with Reason,, Leibniz showed that the fundamental issue of his confrontation with Bayle was the unity of truth. To produce a rational discourse on God, His attributes, and His providence, it was essential to respond to him rejected in advance through any attempt to prove God reason, affirming reason's radical inability to establish solid truths and its divorce from faith. The opposition between the two authors reveals two distinct conceptions of reason, of the nature of religious mystery and of the knowledge that we may have of all this. Two interpretations of the « triumph of faith » become apparent: for one, submission to the revealed word is the « reasonable » act of the consistent Christian, whereas for the other there is nothing to be seen but the success of reason itself -victorious over all « appearances ». (shrink)

Typically, existentialist analyses of “America” have been limited to North America (more specifically, the United States). I argue that developing an adequate framework for existentially analyzing America requires a turn to Mexican existentialism. In Emilio Uranga’s and Jorge Portilla’s writings, we discover new conceptual tools for understanding Americanness as such. These thinkers help us imagine an account of American being that does not restrict itself to the United States by using the concepts of existentialism to describe the crises their neighbors (...) to the north as well as they themselves face. American existence has been historically characterized by a convergence (oftentimes clash) of disparate races, ethnicities, languages, cultures, religions, and identities. As history unfolded, this convergence led to various existential crises across the Americas. Whereas the US American way of life is marred by a blustering, naïve, and purposeless misuse of freedom that disregards the other, the existential crisis the Mexican lives is characterized by “accidentality” and “zozobra.” Despite these important differences, all existentialists, and the Mexican existentialists of the Hyperion Group especially, remind us that there is a common way to overcome the various existential crises plaguing the Americas, and that is to exercise freedom in a purposeful, communally conscious manner. (shrink)

Offers the first comprehensive survey of Mexican existentialism to appear in English. This book examines the emergence of existentialism in Mexico in the 1940s and the quest for a genuine Mexican philosophy that followed it. It focuses on the pivotal moments and key figures of the Hyperion group, including Emilio Uranga, Luis Villoro, Leopoldo Zea, and Jorge Portilla, who explored questions of interpretation, marginality, identity, and the role of philosophy. Carlos Alberto Sánchez was the first to introduce and emphasize the (...) philosophical significance of the Hyperion group to readers of English in The Suspension of Seriousness, and in the present volume he examines its legacy and relevancy for the twenty-first century. Sánchez argues that there are lessons to be learned from Hyperion’s project not only for Latino/a life in the United States but also for the lives of those on the fringes of contemporary, postmodern or postcolonial, economic, political, and cultural power. (shrink)

Grains de poussiere dans un rayon de soleil... poesie du discontinu que la lumiere de l'entendement met a jour, verite du mobile et du minuscule: l'atomisme de Democrite porte, assurement, a rever. A l'aide des nombreux temoignages et fragments reunis par Diels et Luria, J. Salem a souhaite retrouver l'unite d'inspiration qui dut presider a cette oeuvre encyclopedique. Il est tout a fait possible de distinguer l'immense silhouette de Democrite dans maints textes de l'Antiquite: aussi est-il fort tentant de reconstituer (...) le systeme de pensee de celui que Seneque a tenu pour le plus subtil de tous les Anciens. (shrink)

Malebranche et Leibniz affirment que Dieu a créé le meilleur des mondes possibles. Mais ces mondes possibles remplissent des fonctions argumentatives sensiblement différentes dans leurs théodicées respectives. S’ils s’accordent tous deux pour définir l’ordre d’un monde par la généralité de volontés divines, ils ont toutefois des conceptions distinctes de son unité. Les mondes malebranchiens peuvent exister dans le même espace alors que la maximalité des mondes leibniziens empêche une telle possibilité. Ces deux modes de composition des mondes règlent différemment le (...) choix divin. Ainsi, les mondes malebranchiens visent uniquement à prouver la perfection de ce choix, tandis que les mondes leibniziens permettent également d’en démontrer la liberté et la contingence. (shrink)

En dépit de témoignages explicites d'auteurs anciens, auxquels des historiens modernes ont fait confiance, la date tardive du Phèdre ne fait plus de doute. Ce résultat est dû aux études stylistiques bien plus qu'aux travaux d'exégèse. Quand il s'agit de définir le sens et le but du dialogue ou de démêler les liens qui le rattachent aux autres dialogues ou à des écrits contemporains, on est loin d'aboutir à un accord. Platon veut-il simplement établir le programme d'une rhétorique philosophique pour (...) faire pièce à l'action envahissante des écoles de rhétorique ? Vise-t-il plus spécialement telle ou telle doctrine rhétorique ? Vu les points de contact avec des écrits d'Isocrate, d'Alcidamas et d'autres, a-t-il peut-être voulu trancher certaines questions brûlantes, intervenir en conciliateur ou en arbitre ? Le fait est que l'examen dialectique se termine à la p. 272b par la récapitulation et la réponse définitive à la question posée p. 258d et reprise p. 259e. Alors que le débat portait sur le logos en tant que discours écrit ou prononcé, Socrate introduit dans la finale la notion du logos de l'âme pour répondre aux objections de Phèdre. Alors qu'il a prouvé (261e-262b) la nécessité de la connaissance de la vérité, peu importe de quel genre de discours il s'agit, il revient en arrière pour discuter à nouveau la théorie de la vraisemblance de Tisias appliquée au seul genre judiciaire. Pourquoi, après chacune des objections (273d-274a, 278bc) répéter la conclusion finale et reprendre coup sur coup le problème de l'œuvre écrite, qu'il avait expédié en passant, p. 257d-258d ? Au terme de cette dernière diversion, Socrate oppose à la philosophie les techniques spéciales qui lui sont subordonnées : législation, poésie, éloquence. Est-ce peut-être dans ce message destiné à Lysias et doublé d'un message analogue à Isocrate que Platon a voulu nous donner la clef de l'œuvre ? Le Phèdre été conçu comme un drame parfait axé sur la mission et la condamnation de Socrate et cette structure lui donne son sens et son unité. Le cœur, c'est la péripétie et cette „reconnaissance” dans laquelle le daimonion ouvre les yeux de Socrate. Ecoutant son daimonion, il embrasse ses dieux à lui, son Eros, et dès lors sera traité d'impie par le jury. Les politiques, les poètes et les orateurs impuissants à appuyer leurs paroles (par la philosophie) (273c) deviendront ses accusateurs, et c'est Socrate qui, ignorant leur éloquence, sera impuissant à se défendre. On lui reprochera de corrompre la jeunesse. C'est que son discours ici se termine par cette prière significative : „Accorde-moi... d'être, plus encore qu'à présent, en crédit auprès des beaux garçons” (257a trad. Robin). Bref, la scène du Phèdre est le prélude, ou, si l'on veut, la contre-partie du drame de 399. Quel est le rôle de Lysias ? Exactement le même que dans la République et le Clitophon. Contrairement à son frère Polémarque (257b) il ne pense que politique et barreau, une politique qui en définitive adopte les principes de violence de Thrasymaque (Rép. I et Phèdre 266c). Dans une soi-disant Défense de Socrate, il a répondu à Polycrate en ramenant toute l'affaire sur le plan purement politique et en reniant le verdict de 399, imputable à l'absence d'une défense efficace. Soucieux du relèvement de la démocratie, il désire reléguer à l'arrière-plan l'affaire de 399, faire oublier les griefs religieux et peut-être tendre la main aux Socratiques, pour, ainsi, passer à l'ordre du jour. Or, se prêter à cette manoeuvre, pour Platon, c'est renier son maître. Que reproche-t-il à Lysias ? De tourner le dos à la Philosophie en médisant d'Eros. Et nous apprenons en finale, pour mettre fin à toute équivoque, qu'Isocrate n'échappe pas à ce même reproche. Mais tout cela se situe à l'arrière-plan. Dans la trame du Phèdre, celui qui est directement accusé d'impiété, celui qui s'accuse lui-même, c'est Socrate. S'il n'y avait vu clair, s'il avait quitté ce lieu sacré après un succès oratoire sur un thème imposé par Lysias, il aurait renié ses daimonia ; il aurait trouvé grâce auprès des hommes, mais serait justiciable des dieux (242d). Dans ce cas le drame, le vrai drame du Phèdre, n'aurait pas eu lieu et Socrate aurait échappé à son arrêt de mort. (shrink)

Originally titled Frontières de la poésie (1935), This book by Jacques Maritain, whose philosophical writings read as interestingly as a novel, will be welcomed by all who are seeking a better understanding of the art of our time. The book delves into Maritain's thoughts on the nature and subjectivity of art and poetry. As a philosopher, Maritain attempts to define the two concepts, describing art and poetry as "virtues," and as primarily concerned with beauty. Rather than focus on aesthetic (...) theory, Maritain examines the concepts at a more tangible level, including a discussion of how they are made. The principles established with such precision and brilliance in his earlier work "Art and Scholasticism," which has had such a deep influence on contemporary artists, are successfully put to the test in illuminating the creative works of such diverse artists as Rouault, Marc Chagall, Gino Sevirini, and Arthur Lourie. Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher and political thinker. He was born in Paris in 1882, where he spent most of his life. His father was a prominent lawyer and his mother the daughter of a statesman. He attended the Sorbonne to study philosophy and natural science, and after marrying, he and his wife converted to Catholicism. It was after this he became a well-known scholar of St. Thomas Aquinas and Thomistic philosophy. He published widely on philosophical and political thought, and by the 1930s, he was an established thinker in the Catholic community. After the outbreak of WWII, Maritain relocated to the United States, where he taught at Princeton University and Columbia University. Later in life, he and his wife returned to France, where he continued to write and study Catholic scholarship until his death in 1973. (shrink)

La vie des abeilles de Maeterlinck est un ouvrage à la fois scientifique et littéraire, non pas parce qu’il appartiendrait à la science par son exactitude et à la littérature par son style, mais en ce qu’il invite à penser l’unité des deux domaines. Les aspects littéraires de l’ouvrage (beauté de l’écriture, usage des images, de l’analogie, etc.) ne sont pas des accessoires, mais des outils indispensables à l’élaboration d’un authentique savoir sur les abeilles, c’est-à-dire un savoir qui reconnaît la (...) part d’inconnu et le mystère qui subsistent en dépit de toutes les explications physiques et mécaniques que l’on peut par ailleurs donner des phénomènes observés. Etre scientifique, dans cette perspective, c’est-à-dire donner à connaître, c’est donc être littéraire. Cette conception de la science repose en dernière instance sur une conception philosophique de l’univers comme un tout où toutes choses sont reliées, unies, par des relations d’analogies, ce qui fonde et justifie l’emploi d’un style symboliste. (shrink)

C'est un truisme de le dire: tout un abîme sépare l'esthétique classique de l'esthétique symboliste. La première s'en tient à une poésie définie comme imitation des actes humains pour donner les exigences du drame, du lyrisme et de l'épopée. Le langage y demeure Pinstrument du poète. Les symbolistes au contraire remettent en cause la nature même de la poésie. Ils ne se demandent plus si l'imitation de la nature doit être physique ou psychologique, si le drame doit obéir (...) aux trois unités, si la poésie doit être personnelle ou impersonnelle. Toutes ces questions leur semblent secondaires, car elles négligent la nature de la poésie. Et comme cette nature réside pour eux dans le langage, lédtude de la parole va désormais sollicter les peines des chercheurs. De fait, linguistes et philosophes portent si loin leurs lumières dans ce domaine que les arts poétiques d'Horace et de Boileau semblent des données primaires devant leurs recherches. Est-ce à dire que tout soit merveille dans les études qui tombent de leur plume? qu'il faille mettre Racine aux oubliettes et que les pré-décesseurs se soient mépris quand ils traçaient la carte du pays des Muses? Non pas. Les analyses, profondes sans doute, ne sont pas toutes à rctenir. Elles tiennent parfois des positions périlleuses et font des prestiges d'acrobatie pour garder l'équilibre. Mais les questions sont nettes et permettent de saisir les côtés inadmissibles de leurs thèses. Ce qui est déjà indiquer une solution. Grâce à leurs travaux, il est possible dès lors d'entreprendre une étude sur l'origine du langage poétique pour se demander si ce langage est naturel ou conventionnel. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy of Music Education Review 13.1 (2005) 111-114 [Access article in PDF] Response to Elvira Panaiotidi, "The Nature of Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts in Music Education" Janice Waldron Michigan State University Elvira Panaiotidi makes a strong case that MEAE and praxialism represent, respectively, the poesis and praxis strands of the Aristotelian conception of art and that, consequently, one cannot conclude that the two accounts are ontologically incompatible. At this (...) point I wish only to respond to an implication which I believe may be present and discuss its relevance. That is that the search for ontological explanations has historically preceded (or at least should precede) the development of music education theory. A brief look at the historical record indicates that the development of music education theory seems to have been dominated by the search for axiological more than ontological explanations. Panaiotidi lists both aspects as integral parts of the theoretical kernel, however, the need to justify music education in terms of value has, at least in the United States, apparently preceded any search for meaning.Michael Mark recounts a report of the Boston School Committee in 1837, at which certain arguments of Aristotle were invoked in order to persuade the commitee of the value of music instruction.1 The entire transcript of that meeting amounts to a polemic about the value of music, resulting from its supposed effects on the spirit, character, or health, yet the record is devoid of any discussion of what might actually constitute music.2 Marie McCarthy describes how the search for aesthetic foundations over a century later was fostered by a need to "explain [music education's] importance in the curriculum."3 Of the scholars of this period, Abraham Schwadron in particular was quite explicit in articulating how his theory of aesthetics was motivated by what he considered an appalling inability for music educators to validate their field's existence.4This is not to imply that the authors of our current philosophies were not searching for or failed to provide strong ontological arguments for music education or to insist that they have always framed the question: What is valuable about music? as the question: What is music? in order to address these ideological [End Page 111] and political pressures. I am merely suggesting that the search for ontological explanations has generally followed the search for value. The historical pattern is one of reaction to various pressures, followed by the eventual development of an aesthetic philosophical framework which was intended, directly or indirectly, to respond to those pressures. The magnitude of such pressures to justify the place of music in the curriculum would seem to differentiate music education paradigms from those of the social sciences and humanities, of which, the author asserts, they are hybrids. Combined with the marked differences in social and political pressures which are found in various times and places in America, it would also account for the emotional tone of the debate, to which the author also alludes. Presumably, such emotion results not only from various scholars' attachments to their ontological beliefs, but from the practical consequences which occur when a theory is ultimately rejected or implemented at the classroom level, based on its perceived ability to define what is valuable in music education.Although this differentiation is subtle and does not detract from the strength of Panaiotidi's central argument, it has implications for the eventual implementation of any unitary theory. Specifically, if we accept that, ontologically speaking, praxialism and aestheticism are two sides of the same coin, it is likely that the argument will simply transform into an axiological question concerning which side is more valuable, a fact to which the author also alludes. Considering past evidence, the overriding concern for value justification may make implementing any unitary theory difficult, regardless of the benefits that could potentially be gained through such a "balanced music education." Consider, for example, that a unitary theory would be less susceptible to ideological use because of its breadth. In other fields such as literature or science, this would be a... (shrink)

ABSTRACTSome people might argue that there are already too many different documents, guidelines, and regulations in bioethics. Some overlap with one another, some are advisory and lack legal force, others are legally binding in countries, and still others are directed at narrow topics within bioethics, such as HIV/AIDS and human genetics. As the latest document to enter the fray, the UNESCO Declaration has the widest scope of any previous document. It embraces not only research involving human beings, but addresses broader (...) concerns in medicine and healthcare. The UNESCO draft declaration has some minor weaknesses, but on the whole, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. One weakness is that some items in the draft are stated in a way that is too restrictive, thereby appearing to rule out legitimate activities. A strength of the Declaration is that it is relatively brief, yet at the same time contains sufficient detail to make it something more than a rehearsal of mere pieties. As the most recent of the numerous bioethics and human rights documents, the UNESCO draft draws on many of the earlier documents and also includes some of the most recent thinking about ethical norms and obligations. Perhaps its greatest strength lies not in details of the principles or their implementation, but rather in its stature as an international declaration issued by a United Nations organization. (shrink)

Since UNESCO launched its Culture of Peace Programme, it has helped mobilize people from all walks of life and from all continents to support the transformation from a culture of war and violence to a culture of pace. This is a report of the Programme's actions.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ PathU.S. Conference of Catholic BishopsCatholics and Buddhists brought together by Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the San Francisco Zen Center, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met 20-23 March 2003 in the first of an anticipated series of four annual dialogues. Abbot Heng Lyu, the monks and nuns, and members of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association hosted the dialogue at the (...) City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California. The community had transformed their Confucius Hall into a chapel, with a large, newly constructed wooden cross on a wall above an altar facing out from a raised platform, so the Catholic delegation would have a space for worship. A special poster announcing the theme of the conference, "Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ Path," showing a Buddhist dharma wheel at one foot of a bridge and a Celtic cross at the other foot, had been created by the hosting community.The daily schedule for the dialogue did not interfere with the monastic routine at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which included early morning chanting (4:00-5:00 am), daily rituals in the Buddha Hall, and the single large meal for monastics before noon to which all participants were invited. Catholics and Buddhists meeting in the dialogue began each day with an optional forty-five minutes of quiet sitting together in the monastery meditation hall, each following their own form of meditation and prayer. There was a Eucharist on Friday and Saturday evenings for the Catholics and to which the Buddhists were invited, and additional meals of breakfast and supper throughout the meeting at the City's Jyun Kang Restaurant.Fourteen Buddhists and fourteen Catholics participated in the formal discussions. Each participant spoke on what it means to them to follow Christ or the way of the Bodhisattvas or enlightened beings. In addition to speaking, each participant distributed a short passage, usually from a traditional text, on this topic. Several passages from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo and the Gospel of John were among those shared by the group. Other passages shared were taken from the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Shurangama Sutra and from the other gospels and the writings of Zen master HakuinZenji, the Dalai Lama, Korean Zen Master I-sahn Hye-yeon, the teachings of Master [End Page 247] Hsuan Hua, Shantideva, Origen, St. Ignatius, St. Benedict, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross, and Chiara Lubich. A minute of silence separated the fifteen-minute segments for each presentation. With so large a group, most of the time in the formal sessions involved listening to series of presentations; however, during discussion periods the participants asked several challenging questions of one another.Some participants noted the tension they felt between belonging to a particular religious group and the need to let go of any consequential narrowness. The goal of the discussion was to promote understanding of the differences and similarities between Christianity and Buddhism. At one point, the participants noted several concerns about mutual enrichment: whether Buddhist methods can be separated from Buddhism and Christian methods from Christianity, and what specific aspects of Christian practice truly enrich Buddhists and which Buddhist practices likewise enrich Christians. Several times participants discussed their understanding of terms such as transformation, grace, the incarnation and the passion of Jesus, discernment of spirits, prayer, Buddha-nature, and related terms. There was consensus that Buddhists and Catholics can practically help one another regarding mental cultivation and religious precepts. They expressed this consensus in their choice of the topic forthe next dialogue, "Transformation of Hearts and Minds: Chan/Zen-Catholic Approaches to Precepts."The group agreed to reconvene in 2004 to respond to six presentations, three from each side, on different aspects of this topic.Chairing the sessions were Rev. Heng Sure for the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton for the San Francisco Zen Center, and Bishop John Webster for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Their three organizations are the sponsors of the Northern California Chan/Zen-Catholic Dialogue. Chan and Zen are respectively the Chinese and Japanese terms for the meditation school... (shrink)

Doctoral programs at U.S. universities play a critical role in the development of human resources both in the United States and abroad. This volume reports the results of an extensive study of U.S. research-doctorate programs in five broad fields: physical sciences and mathematics, engineering, social and behavioral sciences, biological sciences, and the humanities. Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States documents changes that have taken place in the size, structure, and quality of doctoral education since the widely used 1982 editions. This (...) update provides selected information on nearly 4,000 doctoral programs in 41 subdisciplines at 274 doctorate-granting institutions. This volume also reports the results of the National Survey of Graduate Faculty, which polled a sample of faculty for their views on the scholarly quality of program faculty and the effectiveness of doctoral programs in preparing research scholars/scientists. This much-anticipated update of such an essential reference will be useful to education administrators, university faculty, and students seeking authoritative information on doctoral programs. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the analysis of features of functioning of the digital government in the Chinese State in the first decades of the 21-st century and the perspectives of its further development. In this work the authors give a brief description of the essence of phenomenon of digital government in general. The article explores the specific features of this process in the People’s Republic of China in the third millennium. This research examines the influence of functioning of e-government (...) bodies in Сhina on the internal political situation in the country – taking into account such aspects as building a dialogue between authorities and society, perfection of the public service system providing the Chinese citizens with essential public goods, the merits and the demerits of China’s online government are taken into account. This article examines such significant factors in the development of e-government in China as the impact of the global situation at the present stage on international politics and the country’s information security system. This article analyzes the features of the relationship between the Chinese authorities and media corporations operating on the Internet market of the Middle Kingdom, and studies the reasons for the contradictions between them. The study also comprehended strategy of the authorities of the People’s Republic of China in matters of information security of the state, including the active use of Chinese hackers in network conflicts with Western countries, and the actions of special units of the Chinese armed forces created to counter foreign cyber terrorism. (shrink)

This paper proposes a framework to access information based on a narrative structure of documents. This framework consists of two processes. The one is to decompose existing documents into smaller units. The other process is combining unit components into a new story taking on a new meaning based on a context. In this paper, a narrative structure for documents is modeled as follows. A story corresponding to a document is regarded as a sequence of scenes. A scene is a chunk (...) of sentences. A sentence is mapped into a set of terms in the sentence. Decomposition process gives two mechanisms to decompose a story into scenes. Composition process shows four patterns to connect scenes. Both techniques to decompose/compose a story are based on the notions of term dependency and term attractiveness. This paper also showes visualization tools to express the narrative structure for documents. Word Colony overviews content of a story as a directed graph representing the relation among term dependency. Topic Sequence is also directed graph to show the sequence of scenes along a story plot. The basis of these visualization techniques is the notions of term dependency and term attractiveness. They show the variety of understandings of the same documents. (shrink)

This paper will suggest a mapping for human dynamics to see where emerging digital technology currently and could further affect the dynamics of the human, technological and natural, and the cultural forms that define them. Emerging technology will be seen to reveal and surpass the limitations of human measures built on human abilities and perception. and the social structures that are derived from them. The formation of this conceptual mapping is based on the premise that digital technology has the ability (...) to better relay and hence refine dynamics working at points where culture is created and necessitated in our perception of a shared reality. Technology thus alleviates the layering, representation, labelling, and reification notions of culture that are based in human perceptual limitations. Information as referential will be seen against the tendency of technology to offer succinct mediation and direct actions as a format for any change and application with refined cultural constructions. The mapping presents a notion of homeostasis or more bereft of balance at the point where the proximal dynamics of the unit, that is, the individual, is closely supported by the technology with a changing orientation to the dynamics of a natural environment. The notion of a person as an individual is also reconsidered in terms of technology and how this changing definition is part of how we conceptualize a balanced world. Nonlinear mapping rendered in a complex will be introduced to align these mixed dynamics. Complex is here defined as a concurrence of dynamics evident in shifts of change that act as a whole and where each action affects the whole. As measures are revealed so, too, will be the source of notions of linearity and nonlinearity; mapping; point of view as a basis of complexity; and evolutionary theory as a function of a labeling of cultural dynamics. (shrink)

Background: Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948, human rights as set out in government documents have gradually changed, with more and more power being transferred to individual. Objectives: The aim of this article is to analyze how the position of the patient in need of care is constructed in Norway’s renamed and revised Patients’ and Service Users’ Rights Act (originally Patients’ Rights Act, 1999) and published comments which accompanying this legislation (...) from the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Service. Research design: A constructivist design was used, and Fairclough’s critical discourse approach was adopted to analyze the text of the Patients’ and Service Users’ Rights Act and comments. Findings: The analysis identified three discourses: (a) political discourse, containing ethical discourses about priority and economy, in which patients are constructed as powerless individuals; (b) expert discourse, containing a theme about patients’ trust in the healthcare team and its knowledge, in which patients are constructed as helpless individuals lacking knowledge; and (c) patient participation and patient autonomy discourse, containing ethical discourses about decision-making, in which patients are constructed not only as individuals with needs and rights but also as “troublesome.” Conclusion: Dominant paternalistic discourses in the legal text validate the power of medicine, the healthcare system, and heath personnel over the needs, rights, participation, and autonomy of the patient. (shrink)

The articles collected in this volume have their origin in an international workshop dedicated to “Experience and Knowledge Structures in Arabic and Latin Sciences.” Specialists from Great Britain, France, Denmark, Spain, Morocco, the United States, and Germany gathered in Berlin in 1996 in the context of an interdisciplinary research project on the history of mechanical thinking at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. The workshop initiated a process of discussion focused on problems of the intercultural transmission and (...) transformation of knowledge. The present double issue is an outcome of this ongoing discussion. (shrink)

Introduction: Globally, vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies, affecting nearly half the world's population. The objective of this survey was to assess and compare the knowledge about vitamin D and the perceived state of health in Emirati and international tourist female students in Dubai, UAE. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that took place in universities in Dubai, UAE. This survey consisted of 17 multiple choice questions. The first part of the survey assessed levels of supplementation, (...) diet and UV exposure. Another section evaluated the participants’ self-assessed state of health regarding vitamin D testing, symptoms related to vitamin D deficiency and general welbeing. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS statistics for windows version 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results: 105 respondents were Emiratis and 65 were international students. The average age was 21, with an average BMI 23.3. Almost one-third of each group reported using Vitamin D supplements once weekly. The majority of both groups reported rarely getting tanned. Almost all participants reported regular consumption of Vitamin-D rich foods. In both groups, more than half reported consuming milk and cheese regularly and up to one-third reported consuming fish in a regular manner. Although more than half of the students rated their health as good; more than two-thirds reported experiencing muscle pain; only half reported having their blood Vitamin D levels measured once; half reported experiencing problems with concentration and more than three-quarters reported experiencing bad mood in the past month. The prevalence of these symptoms was almost similar across different categories of vitamin D supplementation, tanning habits, dietary intake, or nationality. No statistically significant differences were noted between the 2 groups. Conclusion: more Emirati students were aware of the association between vitamin D and osteoporosis than International tourist students (40% vs. 21.9%, respectively; p<0.05). On the other hand, both groups had lower knowledge about the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and depression, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hypertension, and the optimal vitamin D level; however, no statistically significant differences were noted regarding this knowledge of Emiratis and international students. (shrink)

Peaceful protests and strikes are a basic human right as stated in the United Nations’ universal declaration on human rights. But for doctors, their proximity to life and death and the social contract between a doctor and a patient are stated as the reasons why doctors are valued more than the ordinary beings. In Pakistan, strikes by doctors were carried out to protest against lack of service structure, security and low pay. This paper discusses the moral and ethical concerns pertaining (...) to the strikes by medical doctors in the context of Pakistan. The author has carefully tried to balance the discussion about moral repercussions of strikes on patients versus the circumstances of doctors working in public sector hospitals of a developing country that may lead to strikes. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Ananda Abeysekara contends that democracy, along with its cherished secular norms, is founded on the idea of a promise deferred to the future. Rooted in democracy's messianic promise is the belief that religious—political identity-such as Buddhist, Hindu, Sinhalese, Christian, Muslim, or Tamil—can be critiqued, neutralized, improved, and changed, even while remaining inseparable from the genocide of the past. This facile belief, he argues, is precisely what distracts us from challenging the violence inherent in postcolonial political sovereignty. At the same time, (...) we cannot simply dismiss the democratic concept, since it permeates so deeply through our modernist, capitalist, and humanist selves. In _The Politics of Postsecular Religion_, Abeysekara invites us to reconsider our ethical-political legacies, to look at them not as _problems_, but as _aporias_, in the Derridean sense-that is, as contradictions or impasses incapable of resolution. Disciplinary theorizing in religion and politics, he argues, is unable to identify the aporias of our postcolonial modernity. The aporetic legacies, which are like specters that cannot be wished away, demand a new kind of thinking. It is this thinking that Abeysekara calls mourning and un-inheriting. Un-inheriting is a way of meditating on history that both avoids the simple binary of remembering and forgetting and provides an original perspective on heritage, memory, and time. Abeysekara situates aporias in the settings and cultures of the United States, France, England, Sri Lanka, India, and Tibet. In presenting concrete examples of religion in public life, he questions the task of refashioning the aporetic premises of liberalism and secularism. Through close readings of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Butler, and Agamben, as well as Foucault, Asad, Chakrabarty, Balibar, and Zizek, he offers readers a way to think about the futures of postsecular politics that is both dynamic and creative. (shrink)

In this study, we tested the feasibility of conducting quantitative assessments of patients’ experiences with care in the intensive care unit (ICU), in regard to treatment with respect and dignity. Patients completed the Patient Dignity Inventory, Collaborate, and selected domains from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems Survey. Family members were additionally surveyed using the Family Satisfaction in ICU Care questionnaire. Overall, patients reported high levels of satisfaction in terms of nurses and doctors treating them with courtesy (...) and respect; however, physical aspects of care were reported to be more problematic. While this pilot study suggests some target areas for improving treatment with respect and dignity, the findings are limited since many patients were unable to participate in the survey. Future work should be directed at developing new measures that are easier to administer in this setting. (shrink)

The topic of my dissertation is satire. This seems to excite many people, and over the past four years I have heard many variations of a similar refrain: “Oh, wow. You’re studying satire? That’s very topical. You must have a lot of material to work with.” There is a way in which this is true, though I suspect in a way that diverges from the way that most of my interlocutors believed. I suspect that the material they imagined me to (...) be working with was the output of Donald Trump, first a candidate for and now holder of the office of President of the United States. That is not the material I find interesting. More interesting to me is their statement. It evinces a number of beliefs that I find interesting, chief among them that Trump makes the current period particularly apt for satire, as if a doddery and incompetent ruling class is somehow a recent phenomenon. And I suspect that underneath this belief in the aptness of satire is a belief in the power of satire. Satire is somehow how people are going to strike back at the vice-governed fools who rule us. Those beliefs are the material I want to work with. This is my interest in satire, then: not so much what it is about satire that makes it powerful, but what is it about satire that makes people think it is powerful? And what is it about satire that makes people think it is powerful when there is pretty powerful evidence that it is not? Unfortunately, here is where I run into the problem that in a very important way I do not have a lot of material to work with. There is not an awful lot on satire within the analytic tradition: outside of a few references to satire, analytic discussions of satire are limited to two short articles. Accordingly, I have taken the task of my dissertation to be to create an account of satire that helps to bring forward why satire is a thing that people can imagine to be powerful, that they can imagine to be politically effective. My dissertation will effectively have two halves, one where I build my account and one where I begin to apply it. The purpose of applying my account, which will comprise the final two chapters, will not be to show its implications so much as how it can be used. My goal will not so much be to give definitive answers about the nature of satire, but rather to give a demonstration of how my account facilitates engaging questions about the role of satire in social and political context. (shrink)

Purpose: To show the convergences between Josef Mitterer's non-dualizing way of speaking and actor-network theory. Method: Comparative analysis of Mitterer's non-dualizing philosophy and actor-network philosophy. Findings: Profound convergences between the two accounts may lead to a unified account that could redefine traditional philosophical problems. Benefits: The paper extends the range of Mitterer's non-dualizing philosophy and actor-network theory enabling both to face new problems. Among them, extended non-dualizing philosophy may undergo empirical investigations.

Institutional differentiation has been one of the central concerns of sociology since the days of Auguste Comte. However, the overarching tendency among institutionalists such as Durkheim or Spencer has been to treat the process of differentiation from a macro, "outside in" perspective. Missing from this analysis is how institutional differentiation occurs from the "inside out, "or through the efforts and struggles of individual and corporate actors. Despite the recent efforts of the "new institutionalism" to fill in this gap, a closer (...) look at the literature will uncover the fact that (1) it has tended to conflate macro-level institutions and meso-level organizations and (2) this has led to a taken for granted approach to institutional dynamics. This article seeks to develop a general theory of institutional autonomy; autonomy is a function of the degree to which specialized corporate units are structurally and symbolically independent of other corporate units. It is argued herein that the process by which these "institutional entrepreneurs" become independent can explain how institutions become differentiated from the "inside out." Moreover, this article offers five dimensions that can be operationalized, measuring the degree to which institutions are autonomous. (shrink)