In 1995,David Chalmers published in Scientific American Revue his famous essay called“The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”,where he analyses the hard and easy problems of consciousness,and objected at the same time a...In 1995,David Chalmers published in Scientific American Revue his famous essay called“The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”,where he analyses the hard and easy problems of consciousness,and objected at the same time against the“esoteric”that claim to be impossible understand consciousness.In fact,Chalmers is just presenting a position that became known from the works of Colin McGinn(The Problem of Consciousness,1991)and Owen Flanagan(The Science of the Mind,1991)as the“New Mysterianism”.According to this philosophical position,the hard problem of consciousness cannot be solved by humans(it is impossible to explain the existence of qualia).Although esotericism may refer to an exploration of the hidden meanings and symbolism in various philosophical,historical,and religious texts,the new mysterianism is however nothing more than a profound paradox,since there is no knowledge to preserve or meanings to discover.However,if this argument is true,then the esotericism is wrong.The purpose will discuss this topic through the philosophical literature produce in the last years.展开更多
The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims.Open ended interviews were conducted wit...The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims.Open ended interviews were conducted with 133 Pakistani Muslim men and women of prominent local religious affiliations.Analysis revealed a grounded theory model of Muslim fundamentalism highlighting cognitive,and social psychological processes involved.Participants saw their religion as a complete code of conduct and inferred various meanings from completeness of Islam as finalized,closed to inquiry as well as rejecting of other cultures and religious traditions.The major inter-related themes of the model were totalitarianism,closed mindedness,binary thinking,hyper-exotericism,ambiguity intolerance,authoritarianism,punitive approach,violent tendencies,labelling,diversity intolerance and paranoia or threat perceiving attitude.The interplay of these factors is discussed in the light of earlier research on fundamentalism.The research also revealed strong counter narratives to fundamentalist stance which formulated the major themes of esoteric religiosity,open mindedness,pluralism,and Islam and civil society.The study carries implications for religious education of Muslims and their socialization with believers of other religious traditions.展开更多
Cecily Swanson argues that“modernism's Gurdjieff craze in fact played a surprising role in the development of an overlooked canon of popular autobiographies:Muriel Draper's memoir,Music at Midnight;Margaret A...Cecily Swanson argues that“modernism's Gurdjieff craze in fact played a surprising role in the development of an overlooked canon of popular autobiographies:Muriel Draper's memoir,Music at Midnight;Margaret Anderson's memoir,My Thirty Years'War;and Kathryn Hulme's autobiographical novel,We Lived As Children.”Swanson reads Draper,Anderson,and Hulme because they wrote as esotericists,while she divorces the memoirs from any overt esoteric influences,contents,or aesthetics.There is no need to search further for the source of the mode of the popular autobiographies by Anderson and Draper than what of Loos's novel comes through the Peggy Hopkins Joyce/Zora Neale Hurston memoir.Marriage,Men,and Me appears near the commencement of a line of esoteric memoirs that becomes visible in the best-selling works by Draper and Anderson but then continues expansively.展开更多
Gwendolyn Brooks’s sonnet sequence,“Gay Chaps at the Bar”is written in compliance with the esoteric literary ideas of the followers of A.R.Orage.Thus each sonnet contains a verifiable intentional mistake,a series o...Gwendolyn Brooks’s sonnet sequence,“Gay Chaps at the Bar”is written in compliance with the esoteric literary ideas of the followers of A.R.Orage.Thus each sonnet contains a verifiable intentional mistake,a series of literary allusions,and an esoteric idea.These mistakes have been previously undetected.Most of the allusions have been have been overlooked by critics.The sonnets are also written in the phonetic code used by alchemists.The material that Brooks drew on for her allusions consists of works of popular culture,and literary classics,so that there is nothing erudite about her references.On the other hand,the esoteric ideas are extremely obscure.This close reading is a severe departure from readings which have treated the poems as social protest and experiments in a so-called Afro-Modernist aesthetic.The new aesthetic of“objective literature”raises many questions about the nature of art,reading,and consciousness.展开更多
Like the other“new modernisms”Afro-Modernism does not exist beyond its role as a critical catchword.The readings given to African-American texts of the modernist period have been subjected to reductive treatments th...Like the other“new modernisms”Afro-Modernism does not exist beyond its role as a critical catchword.The readings given to African-American texts of the modernist period have been subjected to reductive treatments that have overlooked many factors.In this paper I will examine an unacknowledged feature of modernist works that radically changes the understanding of many important texts.One assumption of the critics of literary modernism is that individualism is a touchstone of the movement.One sign of the inapplicability of individuality to American modernism is the occurrence of esoteric group composition.The esoteric does not come into consideration by the literary critics who have established Afro-Modernism,so it is not within the scope of those investigations that challenges to individuality have been considered.展开更多
Augusta Savage’s“Lift Every Voice and Sing”is discussed as a composite work showing influences from ancient Egyptian musical instruments,surrealism,August Rodin,and ancient Egyptian funerary and devotional sculptur...Augusta Savage’s“Lift Every Voice and Sing”is discussed as a composite work showing influences from ancient Egyptian musical instruments,surrealism,August Rodin,and ancient Egyptian funerary and devotional sculpture.The sculpture is a significant departure from the social realist sculpture of the New Deal era.“Objective”artworks like Savage’s sculpture have been overwritten by inadequate investigations.Savage approximates the shape of Rodin’s hand and arm in the sound board of her harp.A comparison of Savage’s sculpture with a concert harp shows that the kneeling figure(the foot pedal)is at the wrong end of the harp.In“objective”art mistakes are meaningful,while in“subjective”art mistakes have no useful status.The mistaken position of the kneeling figure at the front of Savage’s magical harp establishes it as the most significant aspect of the esoteric symbolism of Savage’s sculpture.Savage’s sculpture implicates A.R.Orage's esoteric intervention in history.展开更多
文摘In 1995,David Chalmers published in Scientific American Revue his famous essay called“The Puzzle of Conscious Experience”,where he analyses the hard and easy problems of consciousness,and objected at the same time against the“esoteric”that claim to be impossible understand consciousness.In fact,Chalmers is just presenting a position that became known from the works of Colin McGinn(The Problem of Consciousness,1991)and Owen Flanagan(The Science of the Mind,1991)as the“New Mysterianism”.According to this philosophical position,the hard problem of consciousness cannot be solved by humans(it is impossible to explain the existence of qualia).Although esotericism may refer to an exploration of the hidden meanings and symbolism in various philosophical,historical,and religious texts,the new mysterianism is however nothing more than a profound paradox,since there is no knowledge to preserve or meanings to discover.However,if this argument is true,then the esotericism is wrong.The purpose will discuss this topic through the philosophical literature produce in the last years.
文摘The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims.Open ended interviews were conducted with 133 Pakistani Muslim men and women of prominent local religious affiliations.Analysis revealed a grounded theory model of Muslim fundamentalism highlighting cognitive,and social psychological processes involved.Participants saw their religion as a complete code of conduct and inferred various meanings from completeness of Islam as finalized,closed to inquiry as well as rejecting of other cultures and religious traditions.The major inter-related themes of the model were totalitarianism,closed mindedness,binary thinking,hyper-exotericism,ambiguity intolerance,authoritarianism,punitive approach,violent tendencies,labelling,diversity intolerance and paranoia or threat perceiving attitude.The interplay of these factors is discussed in the light of earlier research on fundamentalism.The research also revealed strong counter narratives to fundamentalist stance which formulated the major themes of esoteric religiosity,open mindedness,pluralism,and Islam and civil society.The study carries implications for religious education of Muslims and their socialization with believers of other religious traditions.
文摘Cecily Swanson argues that“modernism's Gurdjieff craze in fact played a surprising role in the development of an overlooked canon of popular autobiographies:Muriel Draper's memoir,Music at Midnight;Margaret Anderson's memoir,My Thirty Years'War;and Kathryn Hulme's autobiographical novel,We Lived As Children.”Swanson reads Draper,Anderson,and Hulme because they wrote as esotericists,while she divorces the memoirs from any overt esoteric influences,contents,or aesthetics.There is no need to search further for the source of the mode of the popular autobiographies by Anderson and Draper than what of Loos's novel comes through the Peggy Hopkins Joyce/Zora Neale Hurston memoir.Marriage,Men,and Me appears near the commencement of a line of esoteric memoirs that becomes visible in the best-selling works by Draper and Anderson but then continues expansively.
文摘Gwendolyn Brooks’s sonnet sequence,“Gay Chaps at the Bar”is written in compliance with the esoteric literary ideas of the followers of A.R.Orage.Thus each sonnet contains a verifiable intentional mistake,a series of literary allusions,and an esoteric idea.These mistakes have been previously undetected.Most of the allusions have been have been overlooked by critics.The sonnets are also written in the phonetic code used by alchemists.The material that Brooks drew on for her allusions consists of works of popular culture,and literary classics,so that there is nothing erudite about her references.On the other hand,the esoteric ideas are extremely obscure.This close reading is a severe departure from readings which have treated the poems as social protest and experiments in a so-called Afro-Modernist aesthetic.The new aesthetic of“objective literature”raises many questions about the nature of art,reading,and consciousness.
文摘Like the other“new modernisms”Afro-Modernism does not exist beyond its role as a critical catchword.The readings given to African-American texts of the modernist period have been subjected to reductive treatments that have overlooked many factors.In this paper I will examine an unacknowledged feature of modernist works that radically changes the understanding of many important texts.One assumption of the critics of literary modernism is that individualism is a touchstone of the movement.One sign of the inapplicability of individuality to American modernism is the occurrence of esoteric group composition.The esoteric does not come into consideration by the literary critics who have established Afro-Modernism,so it is not within the scope of those investigations that challenges to individuality have been considered.
文摘Augusta Savage’s“Lift Every Voice and Sing”is discussed as a composite work showing influences from ancient Egyptian musical instruments,surrealism,August Rodin,and ancient Egyptian funerary and devotional sculpture.The sculpture is a significant departure from the social realist sculpture of the New Deal era.“Objective”artworks like Savage’s sculpture have been overwritten by inadequate investigations.Savage approximates the shape of Rodin’s hand and arm in the sound board of her harp.A comparison of Savage’s sculpture with a concert harp shows that the kneeling figure(the foot pedal)is at the wrong end of the harp.In“objective”art mistakes are meaningful,while in“subjective”art mistakes have no useful status.The mistaken position of the kneeling figure at the front of Savage’s magical harp establishes it as the most significant aspect of the esoteric symbolism of Savage’s sculpture.Savage’s sculpture implicates A.R.Orage's esoteric intervention in history.
