Rational Spirituality and Divine Virtue in Plato

Rational Spirituality and Divine Virtue in Plato

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  • Author: Michael LaFargue
  • Publisher: State University of New York Press
  • ISBN: 1438460260
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 286

Describes a Platonic personal spirituality based on reason that is readily accessible to people today. Michael LaFargue presents an important and accessible aspect of Plato’s legacy largely overlooked today: a variety of personal spirituality based on reason and centered on virtue. Plato’s Virtue-Forms are transcendent in their goodness, ideals that Platonists can use to improve character and become like God so far as is humanly possible. LaFargue constructs a model of inductive Socratic reasoning capable of acquiring knowledge of these perfect Virtue-Forms, then scales back claims about these Forms to what can be supported by this kind of reasoning. This is a critical theory, but also a pluralistic one that accommodates modern cultural diversity. A how-to chapter provides detailed descriptions of the rules of Socratic reasoning basic to this spirituality, which any interested individual can practice today. LaFargue supports his interpretation by a close reading of the Greek text of key passages in Plato’s dialogues. The work also undertakes a broader philosophical consideration, discussing the philosophical foundations proposed for this Platonism in relation to the thought of G. E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Richard Rorty. Michael LaFargue is former Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Asian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His books include The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Commentary; Tao and Method: A Reasoned Approach to the Tao Te Ching; and Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, all published by SUNY Press.


Sculpting the Self

Sculpting the Self

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  • Author: Muhammad Umar Faruque
  • Publisher: University of Michigan Press
  • ISBN: 0472132628
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 329

Sculpting the Self addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of self and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical and mystical thought. Alongside detailed analyses of three major Islamic thinkers (Mullā Ṣadrā, Shāh Walī Allāh, and Muhammad Iqbal), this study also situates their writings on selfhood within the wider constellation of related discussions in late modern and contemporary thought, engaging the seminal theoretical insights on the self by William James, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault. This allows the book to develop its inquiry within a spectrum theory of selfhood, incorporating bio-physiological, socio-cultural, and ethico-spiritual modes of discourse and meaning-construction. Weaving together insights from several disciplines such as religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, critical theory, and neuroscience, and arguing against views that narrowly restrict the self to a set of cognitive functions and abilities, this study proposes a multidimensional account of the self that offers new options for addressing central issues in the contemporary world, including spirituality, human flourishing, and meaning in life. This is the first book-length treatment of selfhood in Islamic thought that draws on a wealth of primary source texts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Greek, and other languages. Muhammad U. Faruque’s interdisciplinary approach makes a significant contribution to the growing field of cross-cultural dialogue, as it opens up the way for engaging premodern and modern Islamic sources from a contemporary perspective by going beyond the exegesis of historical materials. He initiates a critical conversation between new insights into human nature as developed in neuroscience and modern philosophical literature and millennia-old Islamic perspectives on the self, consciousness, and human flourishing as developed in Islamic philosophical, mystical, and literary traditions.


Advancement in Ancient Civilizations

Advancement in Ancient Civilizations

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  • Author: Harald Haarmann
  • Publisher: McFarland
  • ISBN: 1476640750
  • Category : History
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 245

Traditional scholarship on how ancient civilizations emerged is outmoded and new insights call for revision. According to the well-established paradigm, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. Following the cliche of ex oriente lux ("light from the East") all major achievements of humankind spread from the Middle East. Modern archaeology, cultural science and historical linguistics indicate civilizations did not originate from a single prototype. Several models produced divergent patterns of advanced culture, developing both hierarchical and egalitarian societies. This study outlines a panorama of ancient civilizations, including the still little-known Danube civilization, now identified as the oldest advanced culture in Europe. In a comparative view, a new paradigm of research and a new cultural chronology of civilizations in the Old and New Worlds emerges, with climate change shown to be a continual influence on human lifeways.


Socrates Digital™ for Learning and Problem Solving

Socrates Digital™ for Learning and Problem Solving

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  • Author: Salisbury, Mark
  • Publisher: IGI Global
  • ISBN: 1799879577
  • Category : Computers
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 383

There is a tremendous need for computer scientists, data scientists, and software developers to learn how to develop Socratic problem-solving applications. While the amount of data and information processing has been accelerating, our ability to learn and problem-solve with that data has fallen behind. Meanwhile, problems have become too complex to solve in the workplace without a concerted effort to follow a problem-solving process. This problem-solving process must be able to deal with big and disparate data. Furthermore, it must solve problems that do not have a “rule” to apply in solving them. Moreover, it must deal with ambiguity and help humans use informed judgment to build on previous steps and create new understanding. Computer-based Socratic problem-solving systems answer this need for a problem-solving process using big and disparate data. Furthermore, computer scientists, data scientists, and software developers need the knowledge to develop these systems. Socrates Digital™ for Learning and Problem Solving presents the rationale for developing a Socratic problem-solving application. It describes how a computer-based Socratic problem-solving system called Socrates Digital™ can keep problem-solvers on track, document the outcome of a problem-solving session, and share those results with problem-solvers and larger audiences. In addition, Socrates Digital™ assists problem-solvers in combining evidence about their quality of reasoning for individual problem-solving steps and their overall confidence in the solution. Socrates Digital™ also captures, manages, and distributes this knowledge across organizations to improve problem-solving. This book also presents how to build a Socrates Digital™ system by detailing the four phases of design and development: understand, explore, materialize, and realize. The details include flow charts and pseudo-code for readers to implement Socrates Digital™ in a general-purpose programming language. The completion of the design and development process results in a Socrates Digital™ system that leverages artificial intelligence services from providers that include Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Amazon. In addition, an appendix provides a demonstration of a no-code implementation of Socrates Digital™ in Microsoft Power Virtual Agent.


Religious Platonism

Religious Platonism

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  • Author: James Kern Feibleman
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1134112777
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 216

In Plato’s Laws is the earliest surviving fully developed cosmological argument. His influence on the philosophy of religion is wide ranging and this book examines both that and the influence of religion on Plato. Central to Plato’s thought is the theory of forms, which holds that there exists a realm of forms, perfect ideals of which things in this world are but imperfect copies. In this book, originally published in 1959, Feibleman finds two diverse strands in Plato’s philosophy: an idealism centered upon the Forms denying full ontological status to the realm of becoming, and a moderate realism granting actuality equal reality with Forms. For each strand Plato developed a conception of religion: a supernatural one derived from Orphism, and a naturalistic religion revering the traditional Olympian deities.


Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals

Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals

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  • Author: Richard Bodeus
  • Publisher: SUNY Press
  • ISBN: 9780791447277
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 392

Bodeus argues that Aristotle is more closely aligned with popular Greek religion than is usually thought, and attention to the ethical and political writings reveals more about Aristotle's resources for conceiving the gods than study of his theoretical works.".


Christian Ethics

Christian Ethics

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  • Author: Adolf Wuttke
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Christian ethics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 404


Christian Ethics Two Volumes in One Revised

Christian Ethics Two Volumes in One Revised

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  • Author: Dr. Adolf Wuttke
  • Publisher: Lulu.com
  • ISBN: 1773563742
  • Category :
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 530


Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association

Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association

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  • Author: American Philosophical Association
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 196

List of members in v. 1-


Infinity, Faith, and Time

Infinity, Faith, and Time

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  • Author: John Spencer Hill
  • Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
  • ISBN: 9780773516618
  • Category : Literary Criticism
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 224

Infinity, Faith, and Time is an exploration of Renaissance literature and the importance of a powerful tradition of Christian-Platonist rational spirituality derived from St Augustine and Nicholas of Cusa. John Spencer Hill argues that this tradition had