In this article the advent of Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology is described as a reaction against the predominantly phenomenological bias of French philosophy in the post-war years as well as against the old humanism of existentialism which seemed parochial both in its confinement to a specific tradition of western philosophy and in its lack of interest in scientific approach. Nevertheless, the paradigm of structural anthropology cannot be equated with the field of structuralism, which became a very contestable form of intellectual (...) fashion. The reception of Lévi-Strauss's theory in the English-speaking world carried on both the same enthusiasm and the same distortions and simplifications, to the extent that in the course of anti-structural criticism, the main thrust of the epistemological approach of Lévi-Strauss seems to have been lost, to the collective detriment of social sciences and anthropology. (shrink)

The book falls into three parts each of which focuses on one author and the ways in which pluralism manifests itself in his particular genre.

This article examines the semantic changes of the term ‘mahā-sammata’ in the later Pāli texts and inscriptions, focusing on the legitimation of the Mahāvihāra’s authority in the isle of Laṅkā. (In this paper, ‘later’ does not have any chronological meaning. It only means the texts, which are philosophically based on the Tipiṭaka.) In the Buddhist Canon, the combination of ‘mahā’ with ‘sammata’ tells us that one was chosen by the people based on their needs. In this manner, it was sometimes (...) translated to the plural form as ‘land-guardians’ in the Chinese translations. The meaning of it, however, was changed to the legendary name of the first king in the later texts from various Buddhist schools. According to them, the term ‘mahā-sammata’ is regarded as a king named Mahāsammata who ruled people in the beginning of this present era. Furthermore, the Buddha is described as a descendant of the king Mahāsammata in the later texts. Based upon the regal and deific status conferred upon Mahāsammata, the later Pāli texts, namely Commentaries (Pāli Aṭṭhakathā) and Chronicles (Vaṃsa), and the Sri Lankan inscriptions, established the legendary lineage for the political rulers who patronised the Mahāvihāra fraternity. The rulers, as the ideal religious leaders of Dhammadīpa, were inserted into the lineage of Mahāsammata in the texts and inscriptions, elevating the rulers, who were devotees for the Mahāvihāra fraternity, to the status of the Buddha. It holds that the righteous rulers, whom Mahāvihāra approved as a member of the lineage, are the same as the Buddha (or Bodhisatta). The advent of Mahāsammata in the Theravāda tradition is sequentially related to the authority of the Mahāvihāra fraternity. (shrink)

There can be little doubt that informatics and communication technologies have transformed, and some would say rendered problematic, not just such ways of thinking about relations and authenticity between human subjects, but also the very question of the possibility of such relations, especially given the global phenomenon of simulation, social media, avatars, and technologically mediated communication at almost every point of our personal, interpersonal and professional relationships in the digital age. The following questions will be explored: What are the changes (...) to and effects of ICTs on our communicative relations in the 21st century? Is it still possible to speak of authentic interpersonal encounters in the light of the emergence of informatics and communication technologies and their proliferation in the digital age, in the paths opened up by thinkers like Buber and Heidegger (for example, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2002A, 2002B, 1998, 1984, 1982, 1976A, 1976B, 1973, 1971, 1967, 1966, 1955, among many others)? And what should one do, given the acceleration and intensification of the advent of technologism in our time? (shrink)

During Advent we prayerfully consider how Jesus was born to save us from death through his incarnation, death, and resurrection. Remembering this in light of your own death can change your life. Mememto mori or "remember your death" is a phrase long associated with the practice of remembering the unpredictable and inevitable end of one's life. This book is the latest in a series of books by Sr. Theresa Alethia Noble, FSP, that explores the traditional Christian practice of meditation (...) on death in light of Christ. This book will help you to connsider the four Last Things: death, judgment, hell, and heaven in the context of Advent. -- Adapted from back cover. (shrink)

This essay contends that the ascendancy of Western liberalism after the Enlightenment worked catalytically on the development of both the Industrial Revolution and a modern agrarianism based on the widespread dispersal of small-scale property ownership. Due to power dynamics, however, as well as the liberal faith in inevitable progress, agrarian thought has remained a marginal concern in Western politics, economics, and education. Although the agrarian philosophical tradition in the United States was created by the same liberal rhetoric and argumentation that (...) gave birth to industrialism, the two world views hinged on vastly different interpretations of the same concepts. One aim of this essay is to sort out these differences and examine their implications for a contemporary reconsideration of agrarian thought. (shrink)

This paper explores the use of chemical symbolism in works by the new media artist Sonya Rapoport, with a focus on the pivotal Cobalt series from the late 1970s. These works, drawings on computer printouts generated by research at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, respond to experiments in nuclear chemistry. They mark the beginning of three productive decades in which Rapoport produced a variety of images related to chemistry in her work. She states, “I looked for authentic research projects that were (...) interesting to me, preferably with captivating pictorial subject matter. Then came the creative chaotic process of resolving a cohesive product that combined scientific research with art concept.” Rapoport had an unusual degree of access to scientific materials through her husband, organic chemist Henry Rapoport, a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. At the time of production, these works were outside mainstream art world interests and they have received little critical attention. This paper examines the development of Rapoport’s images and places her use of chemical references in context in her lifetime of work. (shrink)

This article is intended to be both an analysis, and also an account: that of a generation of young citizens, to which I belong, which is both enthusiastic about and worried by recent advances in genetics. In the modern world mind set evolves very rapidly. In the late 1960s women demanded ‘a baby when I want!’ The right to contraception followed. Then, in the early 1970s, another slogan was heard: ‘a baby if I want.’ Shortly afterwards, a woman's right to (...) abortion was recognized. Now, new demands are increasingly being synthesized as: ‘a baby of the kind I want.’ The spectre of eugenics is slowly and insidiously being reborn at the heart of democracy. (shrink)

In the context of an issue of Common Knowledge dedicated to instances of experimental scholarship and to discussion of them, this contribution by a social historian of medieval England sets out to demonstrate that an empirical alternative to tendentious and interpretive historiography, despite all claims to the contrary, is possible and valuable. In this monograph-length article, the texts of selected documents in the Adair Family Collection are set forth, often verbatim, and, though minutely contextualized, are subjected to only the lightest (...) analysis. Scant thematic cues organize this in-depth exploration of the wills, deeds of purchase, quitclaims, rentals, indentures, receipts, charitable bequests, and other legal and commercial transactions of John Tasburgh I, his wife Margery, John Tasburgh II, his wife Olive, and their families, dependents, assigns, and parishes. Peripheral attention is paid to the better-known John Hopton and to the family of John Paston I, II, and III. Richmond's own readings of texts and circumstances appear largely in the form of questions, as if he were writing marginalia for his own later use while reading. Thus, the historian does all the archival work necessary for readers to arrive at their own hypotheses about how rurality related to urbanity in fifteenth-century Suffolk and, perhaps, also about the meaning of the word urbane. (shrink)

The recent coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic pushed almost all institutions to adopt online and virtual education. The uncertainty of this situation produced various questions that perplexed educationists regarding what implications the pandemic would have on educational institutions, especially regarding how the switch to online education would impact the behavior and performance of students. The vast importance of this matter attracted the attention of researchers and served as the motivation for this research, which aims to resolve this confusion by studying the (...) use of mobile learning among students for educational purposes during the COVID-19 period. This study also examines how this situation has affected student learning behavior and performance in the higher education setting. This research is based on collaborative learning theory, sociocultural learning theory, and ML theory. This quantitative research employed the convenient sampling technique to collect data through structured questionnaires distributed to 396 students of higher education institutions who carry a mobile device. This study used descriptive and inferential statistics to make the data more meaningful. Structural equation modeling with AMOS software was used for hypothesis testing. The results showed that ML was a significant and positive predictor of SP and LB. Moreover, student LB partially mediated the relationship between ML and SP. The findings suggest that the academic performance of students can be enhanced by building a ML environment that aligns with the LB of students. Nevertheless, content suitable for ML must be developed, and future research should be conducted on this topic. (shrink)

A great deal of attention has been paid to Petrus Iohannis Olivi’s last great work, his Apocalypse commentary. Less has been paid to his earliest writings. Here I want to address two aspects of those earlier works that rank among Olivi’s more interesting ideas. The first is the notion of Christ’s three advents in history: first in the flesh, then in the spirit, and finally in judgment. I mentioned those three advents years ago in my book on Olivi’s Apocalypse commentary, (...) but only briefly. Here I want to look more closely at the original context in which the three advents appeared.Second, I intend to examine the connection between the three advents and another of Olivi’s important ideas, that of the double... (shrink)

Biosemiosis is a process of choice-making between simultaneously alternative options. It is well-known that, when sufficiently young children encounter a new word, they tend to interpret it as pointing to a meaning that does not have a word yet in their lexicon rather than to a meaning that already has a word attached. In previous research, the strategy was shown to be optimal from an information theoretic standpoint. In that framework, interpretation is hypothesized to be driven by the minimization of (...) a cost function: the option of least communication cost is chosen. However, the information theoretic model employed in that research neither explains the weakening of that vocabulary learning bias in older children or polylinguals nor reproduces Zipf’s meaning-frequency law, namely the non-linear relationship between the number of meanings of a word and its frequency. Here we consider a generalization of the model that is channeled to reproduce that law. The analysis of the new model reveals regions of the phase space where the bias disappears consistently with the weakening or loss of the bias in older children or polylinguals. The model is abstract enough to support future research on other levels of life that are relevant to biosemiotics. In the deep learning era, the model is a transparent low-dimensional tool for future experimental research and illustrates the predictive power of a theoretical framework originally designed to shed light on the origins of Zipf’s rank-frequency law. (shrink)

Eschatology is where Christian hope comes into focus. Because both the “second coming” and the ultimate reign of God can be associated with bizarre expectations, the temptation is to tame these biblical themes or work around them in both preaching and worship. Classical liturgies and lectionaries new and old encourage second thoughts and deeper reflection.

With the development of the Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification offered through the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, the practice of clinical ethics has taken a decisive step into professionalization. Like other clinical consulting services that have trod this path—chaplaincy, genetic counseling, social work, case management, and so on1—clinical ethics started with academic and fellowship training programs and has identified a set of standards of practice....

This chapter presents the text of a lecture on Gaelic advent and expansion in medieval Scotland given at the British Academy's 2009 Sir John Rhŷs Memorial Lecture. This text reviews the evidence for Gaelic's arrival and expansion in the various different regions of Scotland in the Middle Ages and evaluates the different ways in which toponymic data can usefully be interpreted to inform our notion of the process of expansion. It argues that, contrary of received views, the twelfth and (...) thirteenth centuries remained periods of expansion for the Gaelic language. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag lädt zur Beschäftigung mit dem Advent ein. Er knüpft zum Einstieg bei einem für dieses Vorhaben geeigneten Advents- und Weihnachtslied an: bei Alle Jahre wieder. Das Gedicht, das diesem populären Lied zugrunde liegt, entpuppt sich im Gegenlicht der religionsphilosophischen Einlassungen von Jean-Luc Nancy und Giorgio Agamben als kompaktes poetisches Pendant zu einer Theologie des Advents, die getragen wird von der Struktur eines dem Erscheinen zuvorkommenden (Heran-)Kommens und die in dieser prozessierenden Präsenz (man könnte auch sagen: (...) dieser Ereignishaftigkeit) eine Grundfigur des (christlichen) Lebens erkennt. (shrink)

To ward off Advent sentimentality, preachers and church musicians need to find theologically robust approaches to proclaiming the simultaneously sobering and glorious eschatological themes of Advent. Classical Christian doctrines, brought to life by theologically astute contemporary hymnwriters, offer many promising angles of vision for worshipers, preachers, teachers, and theologians.

(1993). Print-culture and the advent of nationalism. State-patriotism and the problem of nationality in the popular culture of the printing press during the period of “Vormärz” in Denmark. History of European Ideas: Vol. 16, No. 4-6, pp. 467-475.

This makes three main interpretative points about the progression from perception to universals described in 'Posterior Analytics' II.19: (1) The noun "'aisthesis'" as used in the chapter may refer not to the act of perceiving but to perceptual contents retained in memory. (2) An 'empeiria' (experience) should be understood as a capacity to generate expectations about new members of an unconceptualized kind based on memories of other members of the kind. (3) The famous rout analogy is a metaphor for the (...) perfection of such a capacity into a concept that can underwrite demonstrative knowledge (rather than mere expectation). (shrink)

This volume argues that the Hegel system is not closed, but open to the future. The conclusion is convincing, although it may not have required as arduous an exposition as Hoffmeyer gives it. His prose as well as the usually solid substance of what he says is reminiscent of Hegel’s Logic, whose sections bearing on his conclusion he analyzes closely. One of the interesting aspects of his book is that Hoffmeyer argues against Hegel’s own explicit exposition to establish his conclusion. (...) Hegel, we know, asserts the Logic to be God’s eternal essence before the creation of nature and history as deployed in time. The essence of the absolute is what has been, but precisely for that reason it is a temporal process withdrawn into itself. But this essence is also the power or potential for such process unfurling itself anew and in unforeseen ways. I take this to be the apparent meaning of Hegel, not a revision of him as Hoffmeyer suggests. Newly appearing self-determined attainments manifest ever more fully an essence that has always been. Yet if we reject determinism, there are countless possible past essences of countless possibly different presents. If the absolute essence which has been expresses itself in World War II, it acquires posthumously the property of always having been capable of doing so. The indetermination of the present results in a change of the essential past into the potential for this rather than that. (shrink)

The cyclical nature of the church's timekeeping means that the sacred story begins anew at Advent, inviting the church to place the coming of the Christ child in a cosmic context in which even time is redefined by God's anticipated in-breaking into the world. Advent is the season of new beginnings and new hopes in its anticipation of the dawning of God's new age.

The season of Advent provides a unique opportunity for Christians to employ art and visual elements in worship. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and, more hesitantly, Protestant churches have variously encouraged believers to see in part what one day they will see face to face.

A Cultural History of Aramaic: From the Beginnings to the Advent of Islam. By Holger Gzella. Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 111. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Pp. xv + 451. $363.

The investigation of condensed matter transformations hinges on the precision of free-energy calculations. This article charts the evolution of molecular simulations, tracing their development from the techniques of the early 1960s, through the emergence of free-energy calculations toward the end of the decade, and leading to the advent of umbrella sampling in 1977. The discussion explores the inherent challenges and limitations of early simulational endeavors, such as the struggle with accurate phase-space sampling and the need for innovative solutions like (...) importance sampling and multistage sampling methods. Taken together, the initial hurdles and subsequent adoption of advanced techniques exemplify the leap from analytical methods to effective computational strategies that enabled more reliable simulations. Further analysis of this narrative reveals the methodological breakthroughs as well as the setbacks that transformed the theoretical and practical understanding of condensed matter phenomena. A follow-up study will examine the shifts in free-energy calculations from the late 1970s into the 1980s. (shrink)

This paper concerns the reformulation by British expatriates and the first generation of English-speaking Indian intellectuals of the key ideas of European constitutional liberalism between 1810 and 1835. The central figure is Rammohan Roy, usually seen as a of Hinduism. Here Rammohan's thought is set in the context of the Iberian and Latin American constitutional revolutions and the movement for free trade and parliamentary reform in Britain. Rammohan and his coevals created a constitutional history for India that centred on the (...) institution of the panchayat, a local judicial body. While some expatriates and Indian radicals discussed or for the country as early as the 1830s, Rammohan himself argued for constitutional limitations on the Company's power and Indian representation in Parliament. Under liberal British government, he believed, an Indian public would emerge, empowered by service on juries and the operations of a free press. (shrink)

Often celebrated as a model of development in Africa, Botswana nonetheless endured a severe HIV epidemic. This article describes the singularity of the Botswana experience in facing AIDS and creating the widest possible access to antiretroviral medications for its citizens. Through exploration of different sets of actors and the construction of their ethics of treatment, it is possible to examine how free and universal access was created within the national antiretroviral program. This article underscores the importance of the site and (...) the local dynamics in the advent of an ethics of access to treatment for Botswana citizens. At the intersection of national citizenship, pharmaceutical philanthropy, and biomedical collaborations, Botswana is an exemplary case (one of the first and unique in its kind) of global health programs for access to drugs in which patients' rights are tied to science and pharmaceutical development. As such it also bears some limitations and concerns over its sustainability. (shrink)

ArgumentIn this paper I study the engagement of German ornithologists with the Collared Dove, a bird species of Asian origin that spread massively throughout Central Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. Never before had the spread of a single species attracted so much attention from European ornithologists. Ornithologists were not only fascinated by the exotic origin of the bird, but even more so by the unprecedented rapidity of its expansion. As it is argued in the paper, the advent of (...) the bird created an outstanding opportunity for ornithologists to study the process of biogeographic range expansion. The paper traces how knowledge on the dove's expansion took shape in the social, discursive, and material practices of a large-scale observation campaign of German ornithologists. The paper also argues that ornithologists’ observation practices have contributed to the construction of a benevolent cultural image of the Collared Dove. This sets the case of the Collared Dove apart from many recent debates in which newly arriving species have been framed as a threat to biodiversity. The paper contributes both to a historical understanding of scientific fieldwork as well as of the role of scientific knowledge in the shaping of cultural meanings of animals. (shrink)

우리에게 익숙한 용어가 되어버렸고 또한 주목받는 화두 가운데 하나가 4차 산업혁명 (4IR; fourth industrial revolution) 이라고 할 수 있다. 이 4차 산업혁명의 특징 가운데 하 나가 인공지능(AI; artificial intelligence)의 등장이다. 이 논문은 인공지능을 조선조 성리 학의 집대성자인 이황의 핵심철학인 리 와 결부하여 해석하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 인공 지능은 인간이 했을 경우에 사람들이 지능적이라고 받아들일 행동을 할 수 있는 컴퓨터 프 로그램이나 기계를 창조한다는 것이 주요한 개념이다. 이황은 주희철학을 비판적으로 수 용하면서도 계승 발전시킨다. 그 가운데서도 리동(理動)ㆍ리발(理發)ㆍ리도(理到)가 핵심 적 명제이다. 이황은 리동에서 (...) 주희가 제안한 리의 동정(動靜)을 리가 움직인다는 것에 초 점을 두었다. 리발은 인간의 심성을 세밀하게 고찰하여 리의 발동성을 인정하는데, 이는 인간의 선한 도덕적 감정을 고수하고자 한 것이다. 리도는 사물의 인식방법을 물격(物格) 의 의미를 부각한 것이다. 이 논문은 인공지능사회에서 어렵고 난해한 성리학의 이론 가운데 '리'의 철학적 내용을 연구와 사유를 통하여 명쾌하게 설명하려는 하나의 시론이라고 할 수 있다. 그리하여 '리'가 갖는 적용양상들이 다양함에도 불구하고 지금까지 이 분야의 연구가 아직 미흡하다고 판단되기 때문에 시론적 의미에서 시도하는 것이다. 특히 성리학 의 중요한 이론인 '리' 를 가지고 이황의 입장을 분석하는 동시에 논리와 이론을 세워 다중 모델을 그려낸다면 도래할 인공지능시대에 유효한 기능을 하리라 본다. (shrink)