In this paper,we are looking at a philosophical approach on creation and evolution.We try to search for the possibility of an evolution in Augustine theological thought and Thomas Aquinas’works.St Augustine thinks th...In this paper,we are looking at a philosophical approach on creation and evolution.We try to search for the possibility of an evolution in Augustine theological thought and Thomas Aquinas’works.St Augustine thinks that Earth received from God a capacity to produce plants,Thomas Aquinas claims a progressive development of plants’species in their characteristics.Concerning animals,Augustine thinks that water received the capacity to produce fishes and marine animals.In his worldview,he takes account of spontaneous generation.During the modern period,the theologians no more understood perspectives about a progressive creation:God created each living species in a Linnaean sense.An Augustinian rereading removes the opposition between evolution and creation.展开更多
This paper develops an Augustinian response to political problems diagnosed by Michel Foucault＇s analysis of modem power. Foucault argues that power in the modem age is not repressive but creative. Instead of prohibi...This paper develops an Augustinian response to political problems diagnosed by Michel Foucault＇s analysis of modem power. Foucault argues that power in the modem age is not repressive but creative. Instead of prohibiting acts, political power disciplines and normalizes subjects. Foucault＇s alternative consists in practices of aesthetic self-creation not linked to transcendent or natural order. Within Augustine＇s account of the purposive nature of love and desire, however, lies an implicit critique of Foucault＇s ethic of aesthetic self-creation. Augustine＇s eudaimonism allows him to resist the process of normalization. Augustine provides an alternative to both modem political practice and a Foucauldian practice of aesthetic self-creation.展开更多
In the paper a little known large 4-folio map of the territory of the later US states Virginia and Maryland is introduced. The map, which was surveyed and composed between 1660 and 1670, is exceptional from several po...In the paper a little known large 4-folio map of the territory of the later US states Virginia and Maryland is introduced. The map, which was surveyed and composed between 1660 and 1670, is exceptional from several points of view: the vast impenetrable territory covering a strip of land of about 700 × 400 km was mapped by one man, Augustin Herrman “Bohemian” (as he called himself) and by his crew during 10-year surveying and trigonometric measurements. It seems that this extraordinary map belongs among the first geodetically surveyed maps of the American territory. In 1960 altogether 5 copies of the map, complete in four parts, were known in British, French and American Libraries and map collections.展开更多
This paper demonstrates how much the forest was used by medieval writers as a symbolic space where critical events take place deeply affecting their protagonists. The forest motif can be found in the works of St. Augu...This paper demonstrates how much the forest was used by medieval writers as a symbolic space where critical events take place deeply affecting their protagonists. The forest motif can be found in the works of St. Augustine as well as in Dante＇s Divina Commedia （ca. 1308-1321）, and then in a plethora of other texts. Here the author examines more closely the symbolic meaning of the forest as a mysterious, dangerous, yet also spiritual location in Wolfram von Eschenbach＇s Titurel （ca. 1220） and then in two 15th-century prose novels： Thtiring von Ringoltingen＇s Melusine （1456） and the anonymous Fortunatus （1509）. Each time we recognize how much the poets placed their central figures one in the forest where their life takes a major turn. Recognizing this intriguing function of the forest as a metaphor and symbol, we can employ the modern interest in and fascination with the forest as a refuge from the destruction of the natural environment through modem civilization as segue to attract students to the study of medieval literature once again.展开更多
In Confessions,Augustine positively recollects three ascensions that he had experienced ten years earlier.Searching himself in memory,he makes self an object of rational study and thus manifests that he is still influ...In Confessions,Augustine positively recollects three ascensions that he had experienced ten years earlier.Searching himself in memory,he makes self an object of rational study and thus manifests that he is still influenced by neo-Platonism even after he had been in the Catholic church for a decade.The ascension of self is in the high part of the soul,which fittingly returns to the Intellect and in turn to the One for an ultimate reunion,since the soul descends from the Intellect which emanates from the One.Among the faculties of the soul,Augustine focuses on memory,which is an internal seeing and hearing.In Christianity,the salvation of a sinner comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit.In contrast to the Enneads by Plotinus,this paper analyzes unsolved problems of Augustine,such as saving faith and a distinction between the intelligible world and the spiritual world.展开更多
I The Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures speak often about the role ＂the past＂ plays in shaping individual and communal character, life, perception, morality and purpose. In both Christianity and classical ...I The Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures speak often about the role ＂the past＂ plays in shaping individual and communal character, life, perception, morality and purpose. In both Christianity and classical Confucianism, memory, rite and tradition are each accorded a central place in preserving and interpreting the past as a dynamic force in the present. The first part of this paper studies points of thematic similarity in Christian and Confucian interpretation of memory, rite and tradition. In the second part of the paper, however, critical points of divergence are addressed; for behind the formal similarities lie deeper intellectual, relational and moral differences in understanding the nature and function of ＂the past＂ in determining both the present and the future. Comparative literary analysis provides a rich resource for contemporary application of the Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures to discussion of cultural memory and global harmony. The comparative reading of ＇texts＇ also provides an important point of access for understanding the role literature itself plays in determining the form, content and power of memory, ritual and tradition in both Confucianism and Christianity.展开更多
The analysis outlines John Deely’s commitment to Augustine’s implications for a valueladen semiotic understanding of postmodern inquiry.Deely’s value-laden project centers on semiotic signification and semiosis.His...The analysis outlines John Deely’s commitment to Augustine’s implications for a valueladen semiotic understanding of postmodern inquiry.Deely’s value-laden project centers on semiotic signification and semiosis.His work announces the inexorable link between semiotic theory and the search for understanding that matters.He uplifts the importance of engaging signs via context and relational association,uniting ethics and semiotics.Deely’s orientation shaped his inquiry on biosemiotics,semioethics,and ongoing discussions of Augustine.My inquiry centers on Deely’s explication of value-laden signs that illuminate Augustine’s understanding of existence,comprehended as God’s world.Thus,I explore Deely’s value-laden semiotic mission through an examination of Augustine’s God-filled background narrative assumption.展开更多
文摘In this paper,we are looking at a philosophical approach on creation and evolution.We try to search for the possibility of an evolution in Augustine theological thought and Thomas Aquinas’works.St Augustine thinks that Earth received from God a capacity to produce plants,Thomas Aquinas claims a progressive development of plants’species in their characteristics.Concerning animals,Augustine thinks that water received the capacity to produce fishes and marine animals.In his worldview,he takes account of spontaneous generation.During the modern period,the theologians no more understood perspectives about a progressive creation:God created each living species in a Linnaean sense.An Augustinian rereading removes the opposition between evolution and creation.
文摘This paper develops an Augustinian response to political problems diagnosed by Michel Foucault＇s analysis of modem power. Foucault argues that power in the modem age is not repressive but creative. Instead of prohibiting acts, political power disciplines and normalizes subjects. Foucault＇s alternative consists in practices of aesthetic self-creation not linked to transcendent or natural order. Within Augustine＇s account of the purposive nature of love and desire, however, lies an implicit critique of Foucault＇s ethic of aesthetic self-creation. Augustine＇s eudaimonism allows him to resist the process of normalization. Augustine provides an alternative to both modem political practice and a Foucauldian practice of aesthetic self-creation.
文摘In the paper a little known large 4-folio map of the territory of the later US states Virginia and Maryland is introduced. The map, which was surveyed and composed between 1660 and 1670, is exceptional from several points of view: the vast impenetrable territory covering a strip of land of about 700 × 400 km was mapped by one man, Augustin Herrman “Bohemian” (as he called himself) and by his crew during 10-year surveying and trigonometric measurements. It seems that this extraordinary map belongs among the first geodetically surveyed maps of the American territory. In 1960 altogether 5 copies of the map, complete in four parts, were known in British, French and American Libraries and map collections.
文摘This paper demonstrates how much the forest was used by medieval writers as a symbolic space where critical events take place deeply affecting their protagonists. The forest motif can be found in the works of St. Augustine as well as in Dante＇s Divina Commedia （ca. 1308-1321）, and then in a plethora of other texts. Here the author examines more closely the symbolic meaning of the forest as a mysterious, dangerous, yet also spiritual location in Wolfram von Eschenbach＇s Titurel （ca. 1220） and then in two 15th-century prose novels： Thtiring von Ringoltingen＇s Melusine （1456） and the anonymous Fortunatus （1509）. Each time we recognize how much the poets placed their central figures one in the forest where their life takes a major turn. Recognizing this intriguing function of the forest as a metaphor and symbol, we can employ the modern interest in and fascination with the forest as a refuge from the destruction of the natural environment through modem civilization as segue to attract students to the study of medieval literature once again.
文摘In Confessions,Augustine positively recollects three ascensions that he had experienced ten years earlier.Searching himself in memory,he makes self an object of rational study and thus manifests that he is still influenced by neo-Platonism even after he had been in the Catholic church for a decade.The ascension of self is in the high part of the soul,which fittingly returns to the Intellect and in turn to the One for an ultimate reunion,since the soul descends from the Intellect which emanates from the One.Among the faculties of the soul,Augustine focuses on memory,which is an internal seeing and hearing.In Christianity,the salvation of a sinner comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit.In contrast to the Enneads by Plotinus,this paper analyzes unsolved problems of Augustine,such as saving faith and a distinction between the intelligible world and the spiritual world.
文摘I The Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures speak often about the role ＂the past＂ plays in shaping individual and communal character, life, perception, morality and purpose. In both Christianity and classical Confucianism, memory, rite and tradition are each accorded a central place in preserving and interpreting the past as a dynamic force in the present. The first part of this paper studies points of thematic similarity in Christian and Confucian interpretation of memory, rite and tradition. In the second part of the paper, however, critical points of divergence are addressed; for behind the formal similarities lie deeper intellectual, relational and moral differences in understanding the nature and function of ＂the past＂ in determining both the present and the future. Comparative literary analysis provides a rich resource for contemporary application of the Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures to discussion of cultural memory and global harmony. The comparative reading of ＇texts＇ also provides an important point of access for understanding the role literature itself plays in determining the form, content and power of memory, ritual and tradition in both Confucianism and Christianity.
文摘The analysis outlines John Deely’s commitment to Augustine’s implications for a valueladen semiotic understanding of postmodern inquiry.Deely’s value-laden project centers on semiotic signification and semiosis.His work announces the inexorable link between semiotic theory and the search for understanding that matters.He uplifts the importance of engaging signs via context and relational association,uniting ethics and semiotics.Deely’s orientation shaped his inquiry on biosemiotics,semioethics,and ongoing discussions of Augustine.My inquiry centers on Deely’s explication of value-laden signs that illuminate Augustine’s understanding of existence,comprehended as God’s world.Thus,I explore Deely’s value-laden semiotic mission through an examination of Augustine’s God-filled background narrative assumption.
