In this biographical essay, I survey the life and time of Sophie Abosede Olayemi Oluwole as a student, scholar and researcher in African philosophy. I show how she emerged as one of the first women to obtain a PhD and subsequently attained the rank of professor of African philosophy in Africa. I show that it was J.B. Danquah who first introduced her to African philosophy which was later to become the main focus of her research. I argue that in (...) the course of a research inAfrican philosophy spanning almost four decades, Oluwole gave the most incisive philosophical interpretation of the Yoruba Ifa Corpus which climaxed in her comparison of Greek Socrates and Yoruba Ò ̣rúnmìlà. Employing the method of conversational thinking, I will discuss Oluwole’s works in African philosophy and conclude by contending that due to her work on Ifa corpus, Oluwole can be credited with the discovery of what is now known and studied as ancient Yorubaphilosophy. (shrink)

The second issue of Ordo IV of the Amsterdam edition of the Latin texts of Erasmus comprises the Querela Pacis and Erasmus’ Latin translations of some of Plutarch’s Moralia . The Complaint of Peace deals with peace and war, and the tension between love of one’s country and St. Paul’s admonishment to unity in Christianity.

When Demosthenes brought Aeschines to trial on a charge of malfeasance as an ambassador, he made what seems now the astonishing declaration in connection with Aeschines' acting of the part of Creon in Sophocles' Antigone: ⋯στε γ⋯ρ δ⋯που το⋯θ' ὅτι ⋯ν ἅπασι τοῖς δρ⋯μασι τοῖς τραγικοῖς ⋯ξα⋯ρετ⋯ν ⋯στιν ὥσπερ γ⋯ρας τοῖς τριταγωνισ ταῖς τὺ τοὺς τυρ⋯ννους κα⋯ τοὺς τ⋯ σκ⋯πτρ' ἔχοντας εἰσι⋯ναι. Until the last generation this was taken at face value as indicating that of the three actors presenting a (...) tragedy the third was regularly assigned the part of royalty. But that the title rôle in such plays as Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus or an important character such as Creon in the Antigone should have been entrusted to the third ranking actor is incredible. How is the discrepancy to be explained? (shrink)

David Hume has described his theory of causation as the ‘chief argument’ of his Treatise of Human Nature. The broad lines of that argument are well known, and need not be detailed here. Hume’s conclusion is that causation is not a ‘power’ in the cause but a ‘felt compulsion’ in the mind—an expectation that a certain event will be followed by a certain other event of the type habitually associated with the first in our experience. Both events are perceptions; the (...) first is an impression, the second a believed idea: and causation is the association of the two. Furthermore, Hume not only expresses his notion of causation in terms of the theory of impressions and ideas; he also argues to it by means o/this theory. (shrink)

Creativity of Ivan Vyshensky is one of the outstanding ideological and artistic phenomena of the end of XVI - beginning of XVII century. Closely linked to the events of the time, she witnessed the arrival in the Ukrainian spiritual culture of the artist, who put all her talent in defense of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Although, to be more specific, Ivan Vyshensky's person would be more right to recognize the apologist of the foundations of ancient Ukrainian Orthodoxy, whose spokesmen strongly opposed the (...) measures connected with the preparation, proclamation and implementation of the Orthodox-Catholic Union in the territory of the Commonwealth. The problem, it is known, turned out to be so significant and complex that it divided the Ukrainian ethnic group at the time of its active national self-awareness into two denominationally opposing camps. In such circumstances, the "Russian faith" and the Orthodox Church as a whole became the subject of special affection, the most touching place, its national banner and slogan, "or, as A. Richinsky noted, signs of nationality. It is understandable that dignitaries, including church and religious ones, also had denominators of Orthodox Catholic unification. Therefore, the attempt to objectify the view of the need for church-religious union within the framework of the Commonwealth, as well as to improve the understanding of those initial principles, which were guided by Ivan Vyshensky, requires an expansion and deepening of thematic expositions. In this sense, the task of the proposed article we would like to reduce to a brief analysis of the polemical works of anti-union content of the late XVI - early XVII centuries, that is, the time when Ivan Vyshensky lived and created, and which in one way or another will help them to comprehend their congruence or contradiction artist's credo. (shrink)

This fully revised new edition re-establishes Paul Griffiths's survey as the definitive study of music since the Second World War. The disruptions of the war, and the struggles of the ensuing peace, were reflected in the music of the time: in Pierre Boulez's radical reforming of compositional technique and in John Cage's move into zen music, in Milton Babbitt's settling of the serial system and in Dmitry Shostakovich's unsettling symphonies, in Karlheinz Stockhausen's development of electronic music and in Luigi Nono's (...) pursuit of the universally human, in Iannis Xenakis's view of music as sounding mathematics and in Luciano Berio's consideration of it as language. The initiatives of these composers and their contemporaries opened prospects that have continued to unfold. This constant expansion of musical thinking since 1945 has left us with no single history of music. Paul Griffiths's study accordingly follows several different paths, showing how and why they converge and diverge. In addition to the composers mentioned above, others whose music is discussed include Steve Reich, Jean Barraque, Elliott Carter, Olivier Messiaen, Gyorgy Kurtag, Harrison Birtwistle, and Gyorgy Ligeti. Publication and recording details are given for the works of all these composers and many others. (shrink)

The Brest Union of 1596 is a topic that has for many centuries aroused wide discussions both in the Ukrainian environment and among those of other cultures interested in the history and modern life of Ukraine. This landmark event in Ukrainian history is assessed from different points of view: from the position of a scientist who tries to be objective and rise above the "malice of the day", a politician who cannot avoid the dictates of a congregation, a church activist (...) who upholds the purity of the faith of adherents of a particular denomination., The “average bread consumer,” who ultimately has to reap its benefits. It is no wonder, then, that the range of assessments is also extremely broad, from unconditional acceptance to the categorical denial of everything related to church union. (shrink)

A new line of self projection magazines that started blooming in Lagos, Nigeria, about the mid-1990s defined itself by filling almost completely every issue with photographs that depict politicians, businesspeople, sports and show business stars enjoying fruits of their extraordinary achievements on festive occasions. The magazine’s cozy coverage of the rich and famous irks a lot of serious cultural and literary critics who believe that this style resembles praise singing too closely. This paper, unlike mainline criticisms of the pictorial magazines, (...) takes praise singing to be a serious subject. Its central proposition is that the Nigerian magazine culture embraced these magazines because they have successfully translated into photography the panegyric tendency that pervades popular, self-projection arts in the underlying Yorùbá cultural environment of southwestern Nigeria. The sub-genre of Yorùbá panegyric that the magazines rework into the photographic medium is oríkì bọ̀rọ̀kìnní, or praise chants of the eminent. The paper analyzes sample issues of Ovation magazine to outline ways of placing contemporary African cultural forms in a long perspective and to propose an example of how inter-mediality operates today in popular cultures. In the concluding section, the essay proposes that a “poetic” understanding of photography, as opposed to “theatricality” and or melancholic substitution, represents the best way to think about the type of festive portraiture practiced in Ovationand its imitators. (shrink)