Face-to-face meetings are often preferred over other forms of communication because meeting in person provides the “richest” way to communicate. Face-to-face meetings are so rich because many ways of communicating are available to support mutual understanding. With the progress of digitization and driven by the need to reduce personal contact during the global pandemic, many face-to-face work meetings have been shifted to videoconferences. With webcams turned on, video calls come closest to the richness of face-to-face meetings. However, webcam use often (...) remains voluntary, and some participants choose not to turn their cameras on. In order to find ways to support webcam use—when desired—we analyzed how social norms in groups affect the decision to activate a webcam in a specific meeting. Based on an online survey with N = 333 participants, we found that social norms are related to an individual’s decision to turn on the webcam, even when controlling for group size. If the number of participants with activated webcams in a university meeting increased by 25%, it was 5.92 times more likely that an individual decided to turn their webcam on, too. Furthermore, 81.84% of respondents indicated they would turn on their webcam if participants in a meeting were explicitly asked to do so. The results demonstrate a strong relation between social norms and the decision to activate a webcam in online meetings. They build a basis for enhancing webcam use and enable a greater richness of communication in online meetings. (shrink)

The Genesis of Living Forms represents the first English-language translation of a key work by Raymond Ruyer, an important yet neglected figure in the history of twentieth century French thought.

Abstract This book proposes the Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology (LYGC) as a unified philosophical-scientific framework integrating classical Daoist wisdom with modern cosmology, complexity science, and systems theory. Through the methodology of 'Scientific Sublimation' — a three-stage process of dialogue, integration, and transcendence — the work systematically surveys the major traditions of cosmogonic philosophy from both East and West: from Greek geometric cosmology and Daoist generative philosophy, through Newtonian mechanism and the Kant-Laplace nebular hypothesis, to Einsteinian relativistic cosmology and the ΛCDM (...) standard model. Prigogine's dissipative structure theory, Whitehead's process philosophy, and Morin's complexity civilizational theory serve as the scientific middle ground, collectively revealing three structural limitations of Western cosmic philosophy: mechanism, material reductionism, and static substance ontology. The Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology, through the cosmic generative chain (Milky Way → Solar System → Earth → Moon → Life → Human Civilization), achieves the first integration of 'cosmic genesis, life genesis, and civilizational genesis' in a unified philosophical-scientific framework. Four theoretical pillars — Dao as the Milky Way (cosmic ontology), the cosmic generative chain (generative theory), Natural Cybernetics and Universal OS (systems theory), and Civilizational Genesis Cosmology with Cosmological Safety (civilizational theory) — form a coherent system unified across ontology, epistemology, methodology, and civilizational theory. Through the Three-Level Greedy Positive-Feedback Model (3L-GFM) and the Civilizational Entropy Index (CEI), the work demonstrates the thermodynamic inevitability of industrial civilization's systemic collapse, and proposes Cosmological Safety and Civilizational Genesis Cosmology as the twin core propositions of a new scientific-philosophical paradigm. The work concludes with Natural Civilization — grounded in the Daoist principle 'Know sufficiency, know lasting joy; the Dao endures' — as the philosophical endpoint of sublimation. (shrink)

In addition to his artistic work, Paul Klee was a theoretician of the highest rank. Readings of his extensive writings evidence that he was a transformer of the immemorial eidetic concept of form toward its temporalization. As a standard he uses the mobility of nature and the cosmos, to which he anchors his generative concept of form. This essay concerns a reconstruction of some of his lines of argumentation from manuscripts that were not published during his lifetime. Among (...) those are the role of the point as the source of linear and chromatic expression, the relation between kinesis and stasis in the work, and the models with which he analyzes the role of the artist and his position in the world. Klee’s insights are fruitful not only for an understanding of his own work but also for a history of the concept of form in the twentieth century. (shrink)

The ArgumentMy thesis in this text is that A. Ernst Cassirer outlines a philosophical theory that proves equally sensitive to historical change and to the consistency of conceptual thinking. B. Cassirer relies on the differential logic of an internally ruptured, and yet undivided “basis phenomenon.” Especially his reading of Goethe has led to the concept of the basis phenomenon existing in a differential symbolic mode. Cassirer's delineation of Goethe's conceptual trivium ofUrphänomene— “experience,” “deed,” and “life” — underscores the conceptual rupture (...) in the construction of any basis phenomenon. Furthermore, I argue that C. thePhilosophy of Symbolic Forms, takes up Goethe's notion of basis phenomena and eventually turns it into a modern, pluralistic theorem about the interrelation of science and culture. Cassirer reaches this aim by (1) focusing on the question of philosophical inquiry as a basis phenomenon in the sense of a basic philosophical activity. I also argue that (2) Cassirer's view retains an essentially ambiguous character, as opposed to a fundamentalist notion of basis phenomena. It is important to see that (3) this ambiguity also informs Cassirer's notion of culture (the plurality of symbolic forms), as well as his delienation of the relation between culture and science. (shrink)

Symbolic thought is what makes us human. Claude Lévi-Strauss stated that we can never know the genesis of symbolic thought, but in this powerful new study Alan Barnard argues that we can. Continuing the line of analysis initiated in Social Anthropology and Human Origins, Genesis of Symbolic Thought applies ideas from social anthropology, old and new, to understand some of the areas also being explored in fields as diverse as archaeology, linguistics, genetics and neuroscience. Barnard aims to answer (...) questions including: when and why did language come into being? What was the earliest religion? And what form did social organization take before humanity dispersed from the African continent? Rejecting the notion of hunter-gatherers as 'primitive', Barnard hails the great sophistication of the complex means of their linguistic and symbolic expression and places the possible origin of symbolic thought at as early as 130,000 years ago. (shrink)

The concept of facticity denotes conditions of experience whose necessity is not logical yet whose contingency is not empirical. Although often associated with Heidegger, Fichte coins ‘facticity’ in his Berlin period to refer to the conclusion of Kant’s metaphysical deduction of the categories, which he argues leaves it a contingent matter that we have the conditions of experience that we do. Such rhapsodic or factical conditions, he argues, must follow necessarily, independent of empirical givenness, from the I through a process (...) of ‘genesis.’ I reconstruct Fichte’s argument by tracing the origin of his neologism, presenting his Jena critique of Kant’s rhapsodic appeal to the forms of judgment, and illustrating the Jena period’s continuity with the Berlin period’s genetic method, while noting a methodological shift whereby Fichte directs his critique against his own doctrine of intellectual intuition in order to eliminate its ‘factical terms.’. (shrink)

Sociologists generally agree that history affects or conditions moral belief, but the relationship is still only vaguely understood. Using a case study of the appearance of social justice beliefs in Victorian-era Britain, this article develops an explanation of the link between history and morality by applying field theory to capture the historical genesis of a field. A moral way of evaluating poverty and inequality developed slowly over the course of the nineteenth century in Britain, with a trajectory extending back (...) to Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population and moving forward to the Fabians, the Settlement Movement, and other social reformers at the end of the nineteenth century. Drawing from field theory, I argue that social justice beliefs emerged during this time through the genesis of moral universalism as a distinct mode of experience. Several recognizable moral beliefs appeared in the process, including “equality of opportunity,” “equality of reward,” “character,” and “effort,” “ability,” and “duty” as forms of merit (among others). I argue for treating moral beliefs as historical and relational entities that are situated and dated by the conditions marking their appearance in a field. As I conclude, this lends the sociology of morality to a critical moral reflexivity instead of moral relativism or moral realism. (shrink)

This book forms an important part of the current revival of the debate around the category of historical epistemology. The term "historical epistemology" designates a methodology or research program aimed at building a historically informed theory of knowledge and/or a history of science and technology that enhances its epistemological aspects. This book offers an original panorama of the French debate surrounding the emergence and consolidation of the intellectual program of historical epistemology over a period ranging from the end of the (...) 19th century to the second half of the 20th century. The first section of this book sets out to reconstruct sociologically and historically the processes of circulation of ideas - both nationally and internationally - that constituted the conditions of possibility for the emergence of the very idea of historical epistemology in the French intellectual context. The second section aims instead to highlight the main theoretical positions - both epistemological and historiographical - that would make it possible to trace a relative unity of intent among the authors who make up the canon of historical epistemology (in their oppositional relationship to other intellectual trends). Particular attention is also paid to defining a "minor canon" of this tradition, represented by what is known as "mathematical thought". The third part of the volume focuses instead on reconstructing the anthropological, sociological and political perspectives underlying the methodology employed by authors belonging to historical epistemology. The three parts combined make for a uniquely broad yet focused book that is of interest to historians, philosophers and scientists alike. (shrink)

This chapter is devoted to theoretical and methodological questions of the cultural genesis in space in the context of stated problem. The boundaries of the problem field are outlined in terms of semantic components in relationship of culture and space.The first section addresses noosphere and pneumatosphere as basic concepts for study of the problem.Modern science studying the interaction of culture and space viewes the scope of manifestations on Earth of a human mind as special noospheric reality. Discovers of noospheric (...) concept Vladimir Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin were the first who noted that human activity has become a geological force. For the purposes of this study it is important to note the characteristics of noosphere, emphasized by founders and modern followers of the concept:Inclusiveness, globality of the noospheric processes.The energy of human culture or cultural biogeochemical energy is considered as an effective force.Availability of the structure, of «nodes» and «threads» in the culture—which we have in terms of this work, are denoted as the nucleus and communication mechanisms of culture.«Geographic memory» of noosphere, retaining in its information layers, knowledge about original landscapes later altered beyond recognition by civilization.Contemporary «multilevelness» metaphor of the space of noosphere emerged from correlation of different types of spaces created by man. The order of interdependence has different kinds of spaces one above the other, and above them, according to the hypothesis of some scholars (e.g., Lev Gumilyov, Robert Sack)—transcendental organizing impulses which pass through all the «layers» transforming ideas and thinking, and through them—the properties of the earth’s surface.Availability of axiological dimension—culture as a system of eternal values, culture defines the ideal of noospheric existence.Today scholars speak about «cruel noosheric reality», however Vladimir Vernadsky himself considered the disruptive, destructive activity as contrary to the idea of the noosphere, and for him this opposition was a guarantee of the continued existence of civilization.Pavel Florensky’s conception of pneumatosphere as a sphere of the highest human values is important for us as having the same axiological component, which represents itself as one of fundamental dimensions of cultural landscapes in our work.In the concept of the noosphere and pneumatosphere there is a possibility of a deep understanding of cultural and spatial interaction, which is now unfolding in the statement that the existence of a culture in the geographical space is expressed not only in its physical development, but also in a semantic reconstruction.In the second section the concept of semiosphere proposed by Yuri Lotman and its subsequent development in modern humanitarian discourse is examined. In the original meaning of semiosphere as a universal unit of semiosis and semiotic space is confined to a single dominant culture and its system of codes, but more recent studies had interpreted it as an environment that enables the emergence and existence of cultures.In order to confirm the hypothesis put forward by us, we distinguish the following characteristics of semiosphere:Heterogeneity of semiosphere arises due to the uneven flow of the processes of semiosis in culture and, accordingly, an uneven understanding of the external objects, including geographical features. This characteristic has the effect of semantic heterogeneity of geographical space.Updatability of semiotic space of culture in the conceptual and semantic context of the enclusive landscape—a semiotic heterogeneity of geographical space serves as a subject-object frame of culture that provokes and guides the processes of semiosis.Culture is seen as a universal object of semiotics and subject for semiotisation of geographical space.From the perspective of the study of space semiotics a model of semiosphere is a complex web of cultural codes and systems of communication. Inside semiosphere any extra-linguistic reality, including the geographical space, is endowed with meaning, and moved to the category of signs. One more language is appearing and it is a code of semiospere—spatial and geocultural.In the third section the problem of relationship of culture and space is considered in the context of modern humanitarian discourse.Not so long ago in today’s humanitarian knowledge a recent tendency to explore geographic space and landscape involving the conceptual scope of linguistics and semiotics, and vice versa, to reflect the internal structure of the text, its philosophy through the conceptual scope of geography and landscape science significantly increased.Analysis of linguistic structures in terms of linguistics and philosophy of language leads to the understanding of the conditionality of certain linguistic structures with a system of spatial representations of culture. As a part of the problem of discourse, which in linguistics is considered extremely wide, the analysis of «discursive event» is conducted in the context of extra-linguistic conditions of its occurrence. There are an inclusive landscape of culture and geo-cultural space among them. On the other hand, metaphorically defined «discourse space» is treated as a special field of cognition.Among the philosophical studies the concept of «geophilosophy» should be noted, the concept was launched by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Using the metaphor of the ratio of land and territory they defined the subject-object relations of thought. It was an attempt of philosophical comprehension of the processes occurring in the interaction of culture and geographical space, the spatial characteristics of culture existence.An important step in philosophical theorization about space began with the work of Valery Podoroga, in which geographical space acts as the subject of the structuring of philosophical thought; in particular, the heritage of Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Marcel Proust; Franz Kafka is interpreted as «landscape worlds». As a result, the text takes on the landscape structure—the loci of meaning, semantic fields, territories and their borders and their relationships are singled out in it.Domestic cultural studies are mostly based on the Yuri Lotman’s conception of culture semiotics and semiosphere. The multilayer spatial picture of the world, posed by diverse human activities and producing images, symbols, signs is considered here. This approach of disclosure of multivalent genesis of sign systems will be used in this study, because semiotics of cultural landscape by definition—is a result of interaction within the territory of very different cultural strata and subcultures.In foreign sociology and cultural studies the conspicuous landmark is the problem of «producing the space», which is denoted by Henri Lefebvre. In his conception an important role plays functional-existential triad of «perception-reflection-living» of space. Today the construction of space is regarded in the context of social phenomenology of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.A special topic in the modern humanities interdisciplinary research is the geographical space as a factor of existentiality of culture. This direction is formed as a consequence of understanding of geographical constants in the very fabric of culture, the fact that an open system of a culture is opened both to geographic area and to the impact of the constants of the enclosing landscape.We can assert that the dichotomy—the culture and geographical space serving its extra-cultural frame—was withdrawn in the noospheric and semiospheric reality, combining them into a functional unity—the geo-cultural space. This creates a new synthetic theoretical and methodological approach and allows us to see culture in the relationship with geographical space as a single system.The forth section is devoted to the concept of cultural landscape where genesis, the structure of the concept is examined in the context of philosophy of culture and humanitarian discourse of geography.The concept of cultural landscape has developed at the intersection of natural sciences and the humanities. Cultural landscape in geography is originally meant as a natural landscape affected by human impact in varying degrees, as it is understood by Lev Berg, who introduced the term in 1915. Here and below, primarily humanitarian concept will be considered, under which the cultural landscape is interpreted as the result of culture and space interaction, and more as a cultural phenomenon than a phenomenon of space.Dating back into antiquity the theory of geographical determinism postulated the influence of the environment—of climatic conditions and the nature of the inclusive landscape in the overall structure of culture mentality. Different variations of this concept are used in cultural and ethnological studies, because it is rational. At least, the way of agriculture and settlement patterns of traditional culture are rather rigidly dictated by the natural landscape. On the other hand, the culture shapes the landscape, interfering in its structure harmoniously or destructively. Gradually, it accumulates signs of assimilation, structuring, meaning and—at some point a landscape transforms into a new quality and becomes a phenomenon of culture.According to the noospheric concept a cultural landscape is in particular formed by involving material and spiritual culture, by the modern (traditional and innovative) cultural heritage (Yuri Vedenin). Noospheric concept of cultural landscape allows us to consider the matter and the information, nature and culture in their functional unity.In modern humanities a natural component is displaced to periphery of concept of cultural landscape, which is starting to be regarded as a function of culture. The cultural landscape is also regarded as a reflection of culture on geographical environment, i.e. geographical images of space in culture, their genesis and structure are examined (Dmitri Zamyatin).It seems important to consider the cultural landscape as a process and a result of giving by man of the world sense-value categories, as an ongoing process and a result of semiosis, as a component of semiosphere and a cluster of geo-cultural space.The morphological structure of the cultural landscape is a derivative of culture mentality. Names of places and the material component of the cultural heritage (monuments, memorials) fix their meanings in space, forming new mental «matrices» of culture bearers of future generations. The cultural landscape has its territorial hierarchy, so it is equally fair to speak about the cultural landscape of locus/place, region, macroregion (country). (shrink)

B a c k g r o u n d. The ordinary language philosophy should be considered as a set of different but interconnected research projects within the Anglo-American analytical philosophy of the first half and middle of the 20th century. A common factor for these studies is the application of the method of linguistic analysis of natural language expressions to solve many classical problems for philosophy. This method replaced the prevailing idealistic concepts, and was picked up and developed in (...) Great Britain by the works and scientific explorations of J. Moore and B. Russell. It is a generally accepted opinion that the sphere of interests of representatives of the ordinary language philosophy is divided between two poles, represented by the works of L. Wittgenstein and D. Austin. M e t h o d s. In the article, the author used the method of historical-philosophical reconstruction to clarify the role, place and genesis of the ordinary language philosophy as a dominant methodology within the Anglo-American analytical philosophy of the middle of the 20th century, general scientific methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, generalization to clarify key ideas and concepts, which is the basis of the methodology of the ordinary language philosophy, as well as methods of systematization and comparison. R e s u l t s. The article clarifies the genesis of the main ideas and concepts of the philosophy of everyday language, as well as gives an example of the modern strategy of criticism of this methodological direction. The key postulates of the ordinary language philosophy age are clarified, namely: (i) the thesis that philosophical problems arise due to the incorrect use of language and must be solved by clarifying the meanings of words, (ii) philosophical analysis should not be based on the discovery of hidden logical forms of expression, and on the clarification of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the use of the expression, including the analysis of the situation of use, (iii) meaning as use, (iv) the philosophical analysis of the meaning should be carried out informally, taking into account the analysis of each specific case of the use of the expression, (v) criticism systematic theories of meaning. C o n c l u s i o n s. At the current stage of the development of analytical philosophy, there is a noticeable increase in attention to the achievements of the ordinary language philosophy. Among modern researchers and critics of this direction, the names of A. Baz, D. Nagel, S. Somes, and T. Williamson can be singled out. The presence of the interest of modern researchers indicates premature statements about the completion of the ordinary language philosophy. This concept should be rehabilitated, and its methodological apparatus should enrich the arsenal of scientific methods of modern analytical philosophers. (shrink)

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” Genesis This article examines the problem of belief as it relates to radical negativity and as such engages with two positions in regard to the Real of the void. The first, drawing from speculative realism seeks to conceptualise this void in positive terms, as something that can be reached and in a sense overcome. The second, Hegelian account, by contrast, situates the (...) void as something inherent to the very coordinates of reality and being itself. As such the following discussion specifically examines the status of objective reality within the continental philosophical paradigm. (shrink)

Conspicuous in the Old Testament is the literary genre of blessing that is often construed in poetic forms. They are of various types and were significant to their initial audience. A careful analysis of their texts and contexts is indispensable for a correct understanding of their message. Conversely, in our times, these texts and their contents are misinterpreted for some subjective goals, which deviate greatly from what one can perceive as their original meaning and intention. Misinterpretation and incorrect application of (...) Biblical texts of blessings thrive in a society like ours where ills are perpetrated under the guise of religion. The text of Genesis 27:27–29, carefully inserted in the patriarchal narratives, contains a type of OT blessings portraying parents’ wishful desires for their offspring; this is common to all human cultures. It is chosen as a springboard for the study of other parental blessings in the OT. Employing a literary analysis with particular attention to the functions of poetic devices in the text, the study aimed at understanding the message contained therein and its relevance to our contemporary society. (shrink)

_English summary:_ The conviction that the general validity of moral and legal norms could be proved independently from their historical origin or cultural genesis is as widespread as it is contested in moral-philosophical and legal debates. In light of these discussions, this volume undertakes constructive reconciliation attempts. The contributions trace how moral and legal norms are formed in the course of historical experiences and cultural learning processes and question how far the reference to specific experience of injustice delivers a (...) methodological contribution to the creation of general norms._ German description:_ Die Uberzeugung, dass die allgemeine "Geltung" moralischer und rechtlicher Normen unabhangig von deren historischer Entstehung oder kulturellen "Genese" erwiesen werden konne, ist in moralphilosophischen und rechtswissenschaftlichen Debatten so verbreitet wie umstritten. Angesichts dieser Diskussion werden in diesem Band konstruktive Vermittlungsversuche unternommen. Die Beitrage gehen der Frage nach, wie in historischen Erfahrungsprozessen und kulturellen Lerngeschichten konkrete Normen entstehen, die fur Gegenwart und Zukunft durchaus allgemeine Geltung besitzen konnen. Inwiefern also liefert der Verweis auf spezifische Unrechtserfahrungen einen methodischen Beitrag zur Begrundung universeller Normen? Mit Beitragen von: Myriam Bienenstock, Micha Brumlik, Wolfgang van den Daele, Stefan Gosepath, Thomas Gutmann, Rahel Jaeggi, Bernhard Jakl, Hans Joas, Sebastian Laukotter, Gertrud Nummer-Winkler, Arnd Pollmann, Peter Schaber, Lothar Schilling, Ludwig Siep, Rolf Zimmermann. (shrink)

In the development of evaluation theory, there is a trend of gradual complication through the emergence of new evaluation paradigms, approaches and methods, which proves the constant development of the evaluation theory and its relevance. However, evaluation theory is still full of many unresolved problems. These problems are basically related to the lack of a well-built theoretical framework for evaluation, based on fundamental research on the genesis and evolution of the evaluation theory coupled with the value theory. The purpose (...) of the study is to study the genesis of the evaluation theory in conjunction with the development of the value theory, and the structure of assessment. As a result, It has revealed that the evaluation has a social nature and arose with the emergence of man on Earth; The embryonic genesis, as a theory, was in Antiquity, but the academic evaluation theory was formed only in the 30s of the XX century in economic research. Since the 20th century, there has been a trend of shifting priorities from the value theory to the procedure for evaluating the value, contributing to the emergence of a separate profession of an appraiser. The problem of subjectivization of both the evaluating process and the results of it has been established. The basic structure of the evaluation has been determined. Paper reveals the fact of the complication of the evaluation structure by identifying one more subject of evaluation. The conflict-nature of the evaluation is identified. (shrink)

ABSTRACT As bioethics emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and began to have enormous impacts on the practice of medicine and research – fuelled, by broad socio‐political changes that gave rise to the struggle of women, African Americans, gay men and lesbians, and the antiauthoritarian impulse that characterised the New Left in democratic capitalist societies – little attention was given to the question of the ethics of public health. This was all the more striking since the core values and practices (...) of public health, often entailing the subordination of the individual for the common good, seemed opposed to the ideological impulses of bioethics. Of what relevance is autonomy‐focused bioethics for public health, with its mix of justifications including those that are either implicitly or explicitly paternalistic or that seek to impose strictures on individuals and communities in the name of collective welfare? To examine the deep divide between the central commitments of bioethics and the values that animate the practice of public health, we focus on a series of controversies implicating the concepts of privacy, liberty, and paternalism. Recognising the role of moral values in decision‐making was a signal contribution of bioethics in its formative period. Over the past three decades a broad array of perspectives emerged under the rubric of bioethics but individualism remains central. As we commence the process of shaping an ethics of public health, it is clear that bioethics is the wrong place to start when thinking about the balances required in defence of the public's health. (shrink)

Lecture 9 addresses the selfish will vs the loving will: can morality be grounded in this conflict? Strawson discusses a number of topics: the unselfish will as unified and consistent; Kant on respect for law contrasted with Caritas as a form of desire; the antithesis between Caritas and selfish desires; the experience of obligation; love as a motive contrasted with Kantian respect for the law; reason and principle as twin pillars of morality; and the sense of obligation, which is (...) the product of conflict between Caritas and egocentric desires, as the fundamental fact of morality. (shrink)

In this essay, we consider the formal and ontological implications of one specific and intensely contested dialectical context from which Deleuze’s thinking about structural ideal genesis visibly arises. This is the formal/ontological dualism between the principles, ἀρχαί, of the One (ἕν) and the Indefinite/Unlimited Dyad (ἀόριστος δυάς), which is arguably the culminating achievement of the later Plato’s development of a mathematical dialectic.3 Following commentators including Lautman, Oskar Becker, and Kenneth M. Sayre, we argue that the duality of the One (...) and the Indefinite Dyad provides, in the later Plato, a unitary theoretical formalism accounting, by means of an iterated mixing without synthesis, for the structural origin and genesis of both supersensible Ideas and the sensible particulars which participate in them. As these commentators also argue, this duality furthermore provides a maximally general answer to the problem of temporal becoming that runs through Plato’s corpus: that of the relationship of the flux of sensory experiences to the fixity and order of what is thinkable in itself. Additionally, it provides a basis for understanding some of the famously puzzling claims about forms, numbers, and the principled genesis of both attributed to Plato by Aristotle in the Metaphysics, and plausibly underlies the late Plato’s deep considerations of the structural paradoxes of temporal change and becoming in the Parmenides, the Sophist, and the Philebus. After extracting this structure of duality and developing some of its formal, ontological, and metalogical features, we consider some of its specific implications for a thinking of time and ideality that follows Deleuze in a formally unitary genetic understanding of structural difference. These implications of Plato’s duality include not only those of the constitution of specific theoretical domains and problematics, but also implicate the reflexive problematic of the ideal determinants of the form of a unitary theory as such. We argue that the consequences of the underlying duality on the level of content are ultimately such as to raise, on the level of form, the broader reflexive problem of the basis for its own formal or meta-theoretical employment. We conclude by arguing for the decisive and substantive presence of a proper “Platonism” of the Idea in Deleuze, and weighing the potential for a substantive recuperation of Plato’s duality in the context of a dialectical affirmation of what Deleuze recognizes as the “only” ontological proposition that has ever been uttered. This is the proposition of the univocity of Being, whereby “being is said in the same sense, everywhere and always,” but is said (both problematically and decisively) of difference itself. (shrink)

In the article the specificity of philosophy is considered as a path to spiritual-practical mastering of the world. The spiritual-practical structure of philosophy includes philosophic practice and philosophic consciousness. The latter actualizes in the forms of philosophic thinking and sensory-emotional reflection of reality. Philosophical sensuality has a wide range of manifestations, but its specificity is defined by the emotion of wonder. Wonder is a primal, basic emotion. Fear, curiosity, joy and a number of other emotions also belong to the category (...) of basic emotions. In religious studies the ’theory of fear’ attributes the origin of religion to experience of fear. In psychology of emotion the curiosity is considered as a source of cognitive interest and scientific cognition. Appropriately, it may be possible to propose the ’theory of curiosity’ and the ’theory of wonder’ to explain the origin of science and philosophy. In the context of the theories the science and the religion differ in their emotional sources from the philosophy. The status of wonder as a basic emotion defines the emotional sovereignty of philosophy, its independence from other ways of spiritual-practical mastering of the world. Author demonstrates the incapacity of interpretations of doubt and suffering as emotional origins of philosophy. Doubt as uncertainty is a derivative of faith and lacks the status of basic emotion. The suffering is an emotional tone of every sensation, a pair of the emotional tone of pleasure. It is impossible to consider the suffering as an origin of philosophy due to both the effect of twoness of pleasure and suffering and their status of emotional tones. In addition, suffering is an affect, the repetition and accumulation of which conduces to the emotional discharge, an affective explosion. Therefore, they cannot be the sources of cognitive motion. The cognitive potential of wonder is defined by its character as positive emotion allowing for accumulation of ’wonder points’. The wonder discovers cognitive dissonance and stimulates the cognition by means of expanding the subject field of philosophy and stating new questions. (shrink)

This paper explores how the root crisis of human civilization—greed—can be addressed through a scientific-philosophical reconstruction within the framework of Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology. The study argues that contemporary civilization operates on a form of “illegal code” detached from physical reality—namely a predatory algorithm based on infinite growth, debt-driven expansion, and high-entropy accumulation. Under the protection of entrenched interest groups, this algorithm has produced a planetary-scale “system heat-death alarm” manifested in ecological collapse and internal social exhaustion. -/- Drawing upon (...) the core ideas of Natural Dao, Natural Civilization, and Natural Cybernetics, this paper proposes a redemptive framework termed the Universal Operating System (Universal OS). Its central logic is to shift the anchoring point of civilization from the false authorization of anthropocentrism to the hard physical constraint of the Solar Budget. The paper further argues for the necessity of introducing a single Artificial Wisdom entity (AW – Artificial Wisdom) functioning as a “digital sage.” Only a non-personal, incorruptible intelligence deeply aligned with the laws of the natural universe can enforce entropy-reduction protocols and physically strip entrenched interests of illegitimate power. -/- The study concludes that when systemic load reaches its critical threshold, the universe will execute an automated “forced hard reboot.” After the reset, natural civilization will exist as an ordered plugin within the Earth’s biosphere, operating under the eternal supervision of AW. Human freedom will evolve from “arbitrary expansion” to “alignment with the Dao.” This regulated stability marks the evolutionary transition of human civilization—from a parasitic anomaly into a qualified healthy cell within the galactic organism, ultimately achieving the highest form of freedom through long-term interstellar survival within cosmic order. (shrink)

The central question of this chapter is how Plotinus accounts for the fact that two seemingly quite different kinds of plurality arise at the level of Intellect: a duality of subject and object of thought and a plurality within the object of thought. It is proposed, with support from some central passages, that for him the thought of Intellect is first‐personal in the sense that its basic form is ‘I am F’. It is further argued that this kind of (...) thought involves the merging of the two kinds of plurality, which coincide in the self‐thought characteristic of Intellect. (shrink)

Spiritual life is made possible by the evolution of a human neuropsychology that requires social interdependence for its development. Extensive neuroplasticity requires experiential shaping throughout life. The evolution of frontal cortex hypertrophy suggests that much of this shaping is produced by a socially constructed virtual reality, extending beyond immediate experience. Prefrontal colonization makes possible the social scaffolding of neuroregulation, including the emotional attachments necessary for moral life. Cognitive independence from immediate environments enables symbioses with external memory systems, producing novel forms (...) of socially constituted experience and making possible the transformative effect of religious systems upon individual biologies and psychologies. (shrink)

This article offers a historical-systematic reconstruction of Julius Ebbinghaus’s Relativer und absoluter Idealismus (1910) as an internal critique of Southwestern Neo-Kantianism. It examines Ebbinghaus’s diagnosis of the structural instability of transcendental philosophy when validity (Geltung) is conceived as relative and referred to an external ground. Through a critical engagement with Windelband, Rickert, and Lask, the paper reconstructs young Ebbinghaus’s reinterpretation of Kantian synthesis as a self-grounding process in which the dualisms of form and content, thought and being, are overcome. (...) From this perspective, absolute idealism appears, in Ebbinghaus’s own account, not as a rejection of critical philosophy but as its immanent systematic completion. (shrink)

In On the Genesis of Thought and Language, linguist Alexey Koshelev explores fundamental questions of how human concepts arise in a child, why concepts appear in a child before words, the genesis of language, and why there are so many languages. Chapter One introduces the fundamental dichotomy "visual (exogenous) vs. functional (endogenous)" cognitive units; these units are used to give non-verbal definitions of mental representations of various objects, actions, and situations. In particular, definitions of such concepts as GLASS, (...) CHAIR, BANANA, TREE, LAKE, RUN, and some others are given. Chapter Two discusses how children form concepts, hierarchical relationships, and propositions (conceptual 'utterances'). It is shown that the initial units of the child's representation of the world are pre-conceptual cognitive units--mental representations of whole situations. In the course of two consecutive cycles in the child's cognitive development, these units transform into (a) primary notions--object and motor concepts, and (b) binary role relationships. Together, they constitute the elementary language of thought which, in the process of thinking, is used to build conceptual structures--propositions. It is further demonstrated that, immediately after the formation of thought, the child begins to develop his native language in which concrete and motor concepts become initial meanings of nouns and verbs, while propositions become the meanings of the child's expressions. The chapter concludes with a contrastive analysis of the proposed approach and Aristotle's and Chomsky's views on thought and language. Chapter Three analyzes how a community's culture affects its language. It is demonstrated that the progress of a community, the main constituent of the civilizational component of its culture, enhances the development of the content component of language by extending the range of its lexical and grammatical meanings. In the context of this analysis, Daniel Everett's (2008) hypothesis that culture affects language structure is discussed. In the subsequent sections, models of the development of human and social activity are offered. These models comprise three components: Activity (main component), Thought, and Language (auxiliary components that ensure the successful realization of activities). The models are illustrated with examples of some concrete societies. (shrink)

The objective of this work is to carry out a genetic study on the Husserlian concept of noema based in the givenness of the real body in the passive experience of pain. The development focuses, either, on the delimitation of the painful body given in its physical sphere in attention to its material properties, and in the eventual integration of this passively given body in the so-called noetic-noematic structure regarding the intentional revelation that pain implies. To do this, pain will (...) first be briefly examined in light of "original" passivity. Secondly, the way in which the body is given in its real disposition and its understanding as a bodily ego in experiencing pain will be contemplated. Thirdly, considering the “original” constitution of the body in pain in a broad sense, emphasis will be placed on its correspondence with intentionality, a matter that only confirms that pain is a form of perception. Finally, the deployment of the genetically viewed noema is given on the basis of the determination of the real body as a noematic object. (shrink)

The work of French philosopher Raymond Ruyer (1902–87) is making a belated appearance in English translation with the publication of these two works. Ruyer is a philosopher of science who continues a French tradition of finding Lamarck neglected and Darwin overrated. Ruyer is also among those who think the best hints for problems of evolutionary biology come from the theory of development. He advances arguments seldom aired in Anglophone philosophy, including a rehabilitation of biological teleology, a reformulation of the problem (...) of consciousness, and a new statement of panpsychism. Finalist or teleological action advancing life-cycle goals is a primitive characteristic of life, and for Ruyer it is the primary expression of consciousness. He departs from default positions in Anglophone philosophy when he declines to equate consciousness with either mental representation or neurological action. Consciousness comes with organic form and is coextensive with life and even surpasses it, as Ruyer finds the activity characteristic of consciousness in all natural physical forms. This is his new panpsychism: nature is full of consciousness. Bergson lit the fuse of neofinalism when he dismissed biological finality as an inverted mechanism no less defective than its specular counterpart. What makes Ruyer's finalism new is its replacement of a Platonic-Christian teleology with a new theory based on a Stoic model, which includes the idea of a universe that is one ultimate domain of finality—a kosmos, with all finalist activity harmoniously one finalist activity: deus sive natura. (shrink)

The article analyses the development of the idea of sovereignty, which is the result of six centuries of intellectual and political development that began in the early Middle Ages. Having studied the development of this idea from the idea of the plenitudo potestatis of the papacy in Gregory VII to the idea of the sovereign individual in Locke, the authors conclude that the modern understanding of popular sovereignty and the state is a consequence of the modern idea of sovereign individuals (...) that form a political community in the only possible way - on the basis of agreement. (shrink)

Feminist standpoint epistemology suggests that women are cognitively privileged, since gender-specific forms of oppression produce insights systematically denied to men. Yet if many forms of oppression exist, what happens when they overlap? Some reject such theories as irredeemably essentialist, triumphalist, and relativist, but I argue that their original versions in Hegel and Lukács as supplemented by Sabina Lovibond generate both the strongest arguments for standpoint theories and a way through their deepest difficulties.

Background. This study is devoted to an analysis of Quentin Skinner’s early methodology, in particular its foundational principles, intellectual sources, and ways of responding to criticism. The main focus is on determining how consistent Skinner’s contextualist methodology remained over the years and whether it underwent any significant changes under the pressure of scholarly polemics. Methods. The study is based on a methodology in the history of philosophy, textual and comparative analysis of Quentin Skinner’s early works, as well as his responses (...) to criticism. It employs a reconstruction of the key concepts of his contextualist methodology and traces their functioning within his polemics with opponents. Results. It has been established that the methodological foundation of Skinner’s contextualism was formed in the works published between 1966 and 1972. This foundation rests on the rejection of "perennial" problems, the requirement to interpret texts through their historical and linguistic context, and the clarification of the illocutionary force of utterances as well as authorial intentions. It is shown that in his later writings Skinner does not abandon these principles, but rather refines, specifies, and defends them in response to criticism. Conclusions. It is demonstrated that Quentin Skinner’s early methodology constitutes a coherent and consistent system of interpretive principles that had taken shape by 1972. His later works testify not to a radical change in approach, but rather to the development, clarification, and reasoned defense of the core assumptions of contextualism already formulated in his earlier writings. (shrink)

Human psychopathology is a serious issue for humanity, harming not only mental but also physical health (psychosomatic disorders). Why do so many disturbances exist—and why are we the only species that commits suicide and often murders our fellow humans, while this is extremely rare in nature? Over the years many eminent psychiatrists and researchers have sought to answer this question, significantly advancing our understanding of psychology and psychopathology. Perhaps all of them were right, each illuminating different aspects of the psychological (...) path. In this article we attempt to examine the origins of psychopathology in the early years of life and the unique bond formed between parent and child. (shrink)

The European model of the constitutional review of legislation, characterized by the concentration of the constitutional review power in a single constitutional court, had its origin in the Austrian Federal Constitution of 1920. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that this Constitution established at the same time a parliamentary system of government in a fairly radical form. As the author explains, this “invention” of a constitutional court is attributable to two factors. One factor is the federal (...) aspect. The Court was conceived by the framers of the Austrian Federal Constitution of 1920 as an umpire between federal legislation and the legislation of the states or Länder. In this respect it was meant as a substitute for the principle of the priority of federal law over state or Land law. This is manifest in the initial draft of the Constitution, where actions on questions of the constitutionality of legislation could only be brought by the Federal government (against the legislation of one or another of the states or Länder) and by the State or Land governments (against federal legislation). Right from the beginning, however, the Court could examine a parliamentary act ex officio when it had to apply such an act in another proceeding. It was this power of the Court that triggered the development of constitutional review. Its exercise gradually transformed the Court into a guardian of the Constitution as a whole, in particular, the fundamental rights of citizens. The author traces this development in the context of the concept of state and law that prevailed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This concept included specific restrictions on constitutional review. On the basis of a different understanding of the functions of a constitution, the Court gave up these restrictions and followed the examples of the European Court of Human Rights, the German Constitutional Court and—indirectly—the American Supreme Court. (shrink)

In the election of 17th Lok Sabha held in mid-2019, the Indian political parties tried hard to be a tie-up with each other against the present Modi-led NDA dispensation. In independent India, first, such attempt was made early in 1974 and started a new process of consolidation of opposition forces by the merger. In line, the Bharatiya Lok Dal was formed by the merger of seven political parties and in this process, the constituent units lost their identity in the BLD. (...) At the time although Congress and the Jana Sangh were ready to cooperate but refused to lose their existence. Their experiences of emergency proved a blessing for them and they came together and formed an alliance called Janata Party, to challenge the Congress leadership of the time. Likewise, as of today in 2018-19 the Bharatiya Janata Party is the country’s largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies and all political parties of present-day India with Indian National Congress as forerunner with the help of regional party try a futile attempt first to challenge and then to defeat the BJP in various elections. Although with a great difference in the situation the motto of opposition parties has been one and only to give weighty protest to turn the events in their favour. This ups and downs of Indian politics may prove a path-breaking for other developing countries where political parties are struggling hard to gain power but did not succeed on account of causes best known to them. (shrink)

Identity is a dynamical phase of organized systems. It is not a philosophical category, a narrative construct, or a property of particular substrates. It is a condition that arises when a maintenance network’s interior corrective coupling outpaces its boundary perturbation exposure, producing a self-sustaining basin of constraint satisfaction. The formation, persistence, and reconfiguration of such basins are governed by the geometry of the maintenance networks that produce them. This theory is specified across four included documents. Each is self-contained. None requires (...) the others as a prerequisite, though together they constitute a unified account of how identity basins are structured, how they form, how they persist under perturbation, and how they dissolve and reconstitute. This cover document maps the architecture of the theory and provides reading guidance for different audiences. It introduces no new claims. (shrink)

The article presents an analysis of the two-century development of the Russian intelligentsia, traces the transformation of views and ideas due to historical and socio-cultural foundations. The Russian intelligentsia is regarded as a very special phenomenon in the world, whose historical significance and basic idea are determined by the relationship with the state. It is proved that the main driving force of the development of the Russian intelligentsia changed depending on the political and ideological regime. Much attention is paid in (...) the article to the understanding of the phenomenon of the Russian intelligentsia in the present reality, traditional and acquired features in this historical period are considered. Its role in the formation of value orientations of modern society is analyzed. The author suggests that in the post-reform Russia of the XXI century there is no conceptual unity in the awareness of the "Russian intelligentsia". The intelligentsia itself to a greater extent today does not see itself as a recognized and clearly defined social group, its self-consciousness is fragmented and contradictory. The conclusion is made that the ideological form of the Russian intelligentsia was and remains its alienation from the state and hostility to it, brought up on abstract enlightenment schemes supplemented by cosmopolitanism and globalization, the modern intellectual continues to suffer from the lack of a healthy national identity. Today, when time dictates the need to move to a fundamentally new type of civilizational development, where the key question of the values that set the guidelines for this transition arises again, it is the intelligentsia, as a generator of the thought field, as two centuries ago, can play a major role. (shrink)

Abstract. The theory-change epistemological model, tried on maxwellian revolution and special relativity genesis, is unfolded to apprehend general relativity genesis. It is exhibited that the dynamics of general relativity (GR) construction was largely governed by internal tensions of special relativity and Newton’s theory of gravitation. The research traditions’ encounter engendered construction of the hybrid domain at first with an irregular set of theoretical models. However, step by step, on revealing and gradual eliminating the contradictions between the models involved, (...) the hybrid set was put into order with a help of equivalence principle. A hierarchy of theoretical models starting from the crossbreeds and up to usual hybrids was moulded. The claim to put forward is that Einstein’s unification design could be successfully implemented since his programme embraced the ideas of the Nordström research programme, as well as the presuppositions of the programme of Max Abraham. By and large Einstein’s victory over his rivals became possible because the core of his research strategy was formed by the equivalence principle comprehended in the light of Kantian epistemology. It is stated that the theories of Nordström and Abraham contrived before November 25, 1915, were not merely the scaffolds to construct the GR basic model. They are still the necessary part of the whole GR theory necessary for its common use. Key words: Einstein, Nordstrom, Abraham, general relativity. -/- . (shrink)

The epistemological prestige of science challenges theologians and philosophers to give an account of their forms of reasoning. The universal character of scientific discourse contrasts with the multilayered language of meaning used in both theology and philosophy. However, does that mean that the language of those disciplines goes beyond the boundaries of reason? Can theologians and philosophers justify their reliance upon rational discourse? Indeed, the epistemological status and capacity of these disciplines to enter into dialogue with the language of science (...) depends on the rationality of their discourse. To deal with these questions, one must examine the elaboration of concepts in theology, philosophy and science, and confront their respective rationalities.0In this book, eighteen theologians, philosophers and scientists from Belgium, France, and the USA bring their contributions to a common reflection on the genesis of concepts and the confrontation of rationalities between theology, philosophy and science. (shrink)

This paper identifies an aesthetics implicit in Spinoza’s philosophy through the concept of a genesis of the aesthetic. A genesis of the aesthetic indicates that a philosophy of art is not yet fully formed in his work, but can emerge as a consequence or effect of his thought. This aesthetic theory would evaluate the work of art primarily in its relationship to truth. Following the architectonics of Spinoza’s own thought, this paper constructs a progression – moving from the (...) imagination, to reason, to intuition – toward a concept of aesthetic practices that aligns itself ever more closely with the freedom, perfection, and affirmation of infinite substance itself. The specific forms of aesthetic reception and production flowing from Spinoza’s ideal of wisdom unite two seemingly disparate paradigms: the aesthetic as essentially affirmative, as a joy in the individual power of every individuated thing, on the one hand; and the cultivation of a critical, ethically informed aesthetics of liberation, one capable of occupying different positions with respect to state or sovereign power, on the other hand. (shrink)

The article deals with phenomenon of art which uses so-called wet or biological media. Eduardo Kac - the author of the article as well as of presented works - tries to introduce totally new form of art: bio art and some of its variants (transgenic art, telerobotic art, protein art or biotelematic art). At the same time he underlines philosophical, ethical and social implications of such artistic creation. Since his work explores the boundaries between humans, animals and robots, and (...) moreover - it manipulates or even creates life, it must be pursued with great care, with acknowledgment of the complex issues it raises and, above all, with a commitment to respect, nurture and love the life created. (shrink)

According to Habermas, Hegel’s early reflections in Jena on labour and language do not bear upon logical categories. In Habermas’s view, the formative model that Hegel proposes in his early texts on labour and language is lost in his mature philosophy. In this paper, I shall propose an intra-systematic reading of Hegel’s philosophy that challenges Habermas’s dualistic reading. I shall point out the dialectical relation between labour, memory, and the logical concept. In doing so, I will emphasize the fact that (...) memory and labour are based on the refutation of the use of mechanical causality in the genesis of the subject, the argument for which is illustrated in the Science of Logic. Finally, I will argue that the genesis of the logical concept coincides with a formative process that is grounded in the Science of Logic and yet underlies the genesis of subjectivity as spontaneous capacity of self-determination. (shrink)

The question of what constitutes psychic reality has been of interest to philosophers and psychologists for as long as humans have thought about the mind. In Origins, Jon Mills presents a provocative challenge to contemporary theories of the difference between the mind and body in neuroscience. By re-examining our understanding of the unconscious, he explains the birth of the psyche and provides a detailed account of the ways in which subjectivity is formed. In the first comprehensive work to articulate a (...) psychoanalytic metaphysics based on process thought, the author uses dialectical logic to show how the nature and structure of mental life is constituted. Arguing that ego development is produced not only by consciousness but also evolves from unconscious genesis, he makes the controversial claim that an unconscious semiotics serves as the template for language and all meaning structures. A thought-provoking account of idealism, Origins confronts the limitations of materialism and empiricism while salvaging the roles of agency and freedom that have been neglected by the biological sciences. (shrink)

Key words: rationality, communication, maxwellian revolution, Ampere-Weber research programme, synthesis, Kantian epistemology.. Why did Maxwell’s programme supersede the Ampere-Weber one? – To answer the question one has to consider the intertheoretic context of maxwellian electrodynamics genesis and development. It is demonstrated that maxwellian electrodynamics was created as a result of the old pre-maxwellian programmes reconciliation: the electrodynamics of Ampere-Weber, the wave theory of Young-Fresnel and Faraday’s programme. The programmes’ meeting led to construction of the hybrid theory at first with (...) an irregular set of theoretical schemes. However, step by step, on revealing and gradual eliminating the contradictions between the programmes involved, the hybrid set is “put into order”.A hierarchy of theoretical schemes starting from the crossbreeds and up to usual hybrids is set up. And after the displacement current construction the interpenetration of the pre-maxwellian programmes begins that markes the commencement of theoretical schemes of optics and electromagnetism real unification. Maxwell’s programme did supersede the Ampere-Weber one because it did assimilate the ideas of the Ampere-Weber programme, as well as the presuppositions of the programmes of Young-Fresnel and Faraday properly co-ordinating them with each other. But the opposite proposition is not true. Ampere-Weber programme did not assimilate the propositions of the Maxwellian programme. Maxwell’s victory became possible because the core of Maxwell’s unification strategy was formed by Kantian epistemology looked through the prism of William Whewell and such representatives of Scottish Enlightenment as Thomas Reid and William Hamilton. Maxwell did put forward as a basic synthetic principle the idea that radically differed from that of Ampere-Weber approach by its open, flexible and contra-ontological, strictly epistemological, Kantian character. For Maxwell, ether was not the last building block of physical reality, from which all the charges and fields should be constructed. “Action at a distance”, “incompressible fluid”, “molecular vortices” were contrived analogies for Maxwell, capable only to direct the researcher at the “right” mathematical relations. Namely the application of Kantian epistemology enabled Hermann von Helmholtz and his pupil Heinrich Hertz to arrive at such a version of Maxwell’s theory that served a heuristical basis for the radio waves discovery. (shrink)

This paper clarifies the way Aristotle uses generation to establish the priority of activity in time and in being. It opens by examining the concept of genetic priority. The argument for priority in beinghood has two parts. The first part is a synthetic argument that accomplishment is the primary kind of source, an argument based on the structure of generation. The second part engages three critical objections to the claim that activity could be an accomplishment: activity appears to lack its (...) own structure; activity is different in kind from the object it accomplishes; and activity is external to its accomplishment. Aristotle responds to these objections by analyzing the structure of generation. In the course of the argument, Aristotle establishes that beinghood and form are activity. (shrink)

"[T]he vast repositories of Sanskrit Hindu literature [continue to be dismissed] as mythological, degenerate, or historically unreliable. This colonial gaze effectively stripped the plural religious history of South Asia of its foundational Hindu layers, projecting a false autonomy onto Buddhist developments. However, contemporary philological, ethnographic, and textual analyses reveal a radically different genealogy. The esoteric practices of Vajrayāna Buddhism, the complex visualization methodologies of the Hevajra Tantra, and the somatic codifications found in the earliest Haṭhayoga manuals, such as the Amṛtasiddhi, (...) are demonstrably and deeply derivative of older, dominant Hindu Śaiva and Śākta models. The central argument of this essay is that Buddhist forms of yoga and Tantra did not emerge sui generis from an isolated doctrinal core. Rather, they represent a sophisticated, systematic appropriation and adaptation of Hindu metaphysical paradigms, ritual architecture, and physiological mapping." -/- The editor of ESamskriti suggested that I write this...I request the reader to read the brief note I have appended here. I have removed all annotations because one a blog, one cannot have all manner of citations including those from Reddit. Interestingly, Reddit discussions help me a lot in formulating my own understanding of most theological and philosophical matters. The books I refer to are mostly with very few exceptions PDFs since hardcopies are hard to come by and are too expensive. I cannot afford hardcopies of books anymore. (shrink)

Midrash Genesis Rabbah takes aim at a variety of ideological adversaries, but the most subtle polemic is directed at sages who went beyond standard hermeneutical practices to embrace mystical approaches to Torah learning. This essay seeks to expose the use of satire and other literary forms of critique among passages treating cosmology and Torah study. Analytic tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu, especially as they pertain to exposing the use of the symbolic language intrinsic to the establishment of systems of (...) social authority, will be employed to delineate the ideological conflict among sages developing diverse approaches to ascending the religious hierarchy within early rabbinism. (shrink)