Michael Ing's The Dysfunction of Ritual in Early Confucianism is the first monograph in English about the Liji--a text that purports to be the writings of Confucius' immediate disciples, and part of the earliest canon of Confucian texts called ''The Five Classics,'' included in the canon several centuries before the Analects. Ing uses his analysis of the Liji to show how early Confucians coped with situations where their rituals failed to achieve their intended aims. In contrast to most contemporary interpreters (...) of Confucianism, Ing demonstrates that early Confucian texts can be read as arguments for ambiguity in ritual failure. (shrink)

Inge Eidsvåg har skrevet 12 bøker som speiler livets faser på ulike måter. Denne gangen konfronterer han seg selv og leserne med livets avslutning. Forfatteren har selv rundet 70 år, og dødens horisont rykker stadig nærmere. Hvilken innvirkning har dette på hvordan vi tenker på livet og døden? Omtalen er utarbeidet av BS.

I. Egner, “The role of topos in the use of a Wobe particle”.In the paper I am trying to show how a speaker using the particle {ie271-1} in his utterance calls upon a contextual assumption that can be formulated as a topos.After formulating a working hypothesis according to which the particle {ie271-2} signals to the hearer that the speaker's utterance is justified, I use English and Wobe paraphrases of the examples quoted in order to make explicit that justification.Wobe paraphrases given (...) by the informant suggest that in using {ie271-3} the speaker calls upon t contextual assumption that he feels is relevant in the speech situation. To the extent that this assumption is based on common sense knowledge, it seemed appropriate to use Ducrot's notion of topos to formulate it, e.g. (T) [The deeper one gets into the bush, the fewer white people he meets].One of the examples quoted calls attention to the fact that the topos called upon by way of {ie271-4} may or may not be validated, i.e. confirmed in the speech situation.Finally, the validation or non-validation of a topos seems to determine the illocutionary value of a wh-question containing {ie271-5} as request for information or request for explanation respectively. (192 words). (shrink)

_The Worship and Love of God_ is one of the most unusual writings of Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. A "poetical novel," it dramatizes the Creation and examines the life of Adam and Eve as the first truly united couple. Considered Swedenborg's last work before he embarked on his visionary period, the manuscript was left unfinished by its author and published only after his death. Inge Jonsson, one of the world's leading scholars on Swedenborg's works, offers a scholarly (...) look into a neglected literary achievement. He examines this unique work from the perspective of sources and influences. The literary genre f hexaemeron, ancient and modern philosophy, and scientific discoveries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries come into play in Swedenborg's richly imagined and beautifully articulated world. Yet _The Worship and Love of God _also offers an intriguing glimpse into Swedenborg's future as a biblical exegete and revelator. (shrink)

This book is about the necessity, and even value, of vulnerability in human experience. In it, Michael Ing brings early Chinese texts into dialogue with questions about the ways in which meaningful things are vulnerable to powers beyond our control; and more specifically, how relationships with meaningful others might compel tragic actions.

ON MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY presents a concise overview of the key elements of medieval philosophy, this practical and affordable philosophy text will help you understand and identify key ideas so that you can easily succeed in this course. With coverage of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions, this volume aims to draw attention to the implications of medieval philosophy for the present age.

This volume contains the seminal articles that define the influence of Aquinas within legal philosophical thought. A comprehensive reference for those new to the field, it covers such topics as the relation of virtue to law, the common good, natural law, natural rights and property rights; together with social and political issues like abortion, feminism, homosexuality, environment, civil disobedience and just war. Attention is devoted to the new natural law theory and its limitations, as well as the place of historical (...) context in the recovery of social thought. (shrink)

We investigated whether mathematicians typically agree about the qualities of mathematical proofs. Between-mathematician consensus in proof appraisals is an implicit assumption of many arguments made by philosophers of mathematics, but to our knowledge the issue has not previously been empirically investigated. We asked a group of mathematicians to assess a specific proof on four dimensions, using the framework identified by Inglis and Aberdein (2015). We found widespread disagreement between our participants about the aesthetics, intricacy, precision and utility of the proof, (...) suggesting that a priori assumptions about the consistency of mathematical proof appraisals are unreasonable. (shrink)

What do mathematicians mean when they use terms such as ‘deep’, ‘elegant’, and ‘beautiful’? By applying empirical methods developed by social psychologists, we demonstrate that mathematicians' appraisals of proofs vary on four dimensions: aesthetics, intricacy, utility, and precision. We pay particular attention to mathematical beauty and show that, contrary to the classical view, beauty and simplicity are almost entirely unrelated in mathematics.

Ce texte est tiré de I. Baxmann et al., Arbeit und Rhythmus – Lebensformen im Wandel, Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2009, p. 15-36. La traduction en a été assurée par Anthony Liébault et déjà mise en ligne par la revue Agôn. Nous remercions Inge Baxman de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. L'époque moderne et la critique de la conception séculaire du travail « Travailler, c'est danser ». Voilà ce que prétend Karl Bücher, économiste allemand originaire de Leipzig, (...) dans son ouvrage de 1896 intitulé - 1er XXe siècle – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Mathematical explanations are poorly understood. Although mathematicians seem to regularly suggest that some proofs are explanatory whereas others are not, none of the philosophical accounts of what such claims mean has become widely accepted. In this paper we explore Wilkenfeld’s suggestion that explanations are those sorts of things that generate understanding. By considering a basic model of human cognitive architecture, we suggest that existing accounts of mathematical explanation are all derivable consequences of Wilkenfeld’s ‘functional explanation’ proposal. We therefore argue that (...) the explanatory criteria offered by earlier accounts can all be thought of as features that make it more likely that a mathematical proof will generate understanding. On the functional account, features such as characterising properties, unification, and salience correlate with explanatoriness, but they do not define explanatoriness. (shrink)

The well known Bell experiment with two actors Alice and Bob is considered. First the simple deduction leading to the CHSH inequality under local realism is reviewed, and some arguments from the literature are recapitulated. Then I take up certain background themes before I enter a discussion of Alice’s analysis of the situation. An important point is that her mind is limited by the fact that her Hilbert space in this context is two-dimensional. General statements about a mind’s limitation during (...) a decision process are derived from recent results on the reconstruction of quantum theory from conceptual variables. These results apply to any decision situation. Let all the data from the Bell experiment be handed over to a new actor Charlie, who performs a data analysis. But his mind is also limited: He has a four-dimensional Hilbert space in the context determined by the experiment. I show that this implies that neither Alice nor Charlie can have the argument leading to the CHSH inequality as a background for making decisions related to the experiment. Charlie may be any data analyst, and he may communicate with any person. It is argued that no rational person can be convinced by the CHSH argument when making empirical decisions on the Bell situation. (shrink)

To build a front against neoliberalism, those in the alter-globalisation movement work across perceived divides. Such transversal openness, however, has not been embraced fully within the academic sphere, even though theoretical coalitions are also important for developing a life-affirming societal ethos. Meaningful opportunities for theoretical bridging do exist, particularly where alternative value systems, hitherto isolated, can be drawn into the wider global dialogue on societal futures. In this spirit, this article offers some transversal reflections on materialist ecofeminism, and one such (...) marginalised value system: the African ethic of ubuntu. (shrink)