Philo of Alexandria forged his theory of the soul and its passions while expositing the meaning of Torah. Though writing as a Jewish teacher and disciple of Moses, his biblical reflections display a strong orientation toward Middle-Platonic philosophy. On the topic of the soul and its passions, however, Philo also exhibits significant Stoic influence. The introduction notes Philo’s apparent incompatible use of both the complex Platonic and the monistic Stoic psychological models. After assessing the degree to which Philo understood 'passion' to be a type of Stoic impulse or opinion (chapter one), chapter two demonstrates that Philo consistently drew upon the Stoics’ depiction of all passions as irrational, excessive, and unnatural. Though Philo also joined the Stoics in condemning the passions and championing their extirpation, he is unique, even among the Stoics, in the extent and degree to which he emphasized their blameworthiness. Chapters three and four examine Philo's Stoicizing treatment of the tripartite and bipartite Platonic elements in his psychology, including Plato’s chariot metaphor and variants. In each of these areas, Philo’s key deviations are noted. Chapter four concludes by demonstrating that Philo arranged the Stoic and Platonic accounts of the soul and its passions within a biblical and spiritual narrative of spiritual progress that moves from Stoic fool to Platonic progressing soul and finally arriving at the ideal of the apatheiac Stoic sage. The outlook summarizes the results and suggests lines of further research.

This dissertation argues that, far from being incidental to al-Farabi’s political theory, the structural correspondence between the corporeal, cosmic and civil realms, constitutes one of its central tenets. The first chapter demonstrates that, according to al-FarabT, the universe displays a clear hierarchical organization (tartTb). Each one of its elements, whether material or immaterial, receives an allotted share (qusta) of existence (wujud), which reflects its ontological merit (isti’haf). As a result, each being in the celestial and sublunary realms, is fairly endowed with a proper rank (rutba) and a given function: Some elements have a serving role (khidma), while others occupy a leading position (ri’asa). The second chapter shows that the effects of this cosmic justice lead to a stratified structure in the human body. Indeed, according to al-FarabT’s strictly cardiocentric physiology, the heart rules over and directs all other subservient corporeal organs. These are, in order of importance; the brain, liver, lungs, stomach, spleen, intestines and genitalia. The third chapter examines how the structure and institutions of the virtuous city (al-madlna al-fadila) exhibit a similar hierarchy. The ideal sovereign ranks the polity’s various inhabitants in accordance with their innate or providentially endowed dispositions and acquired merit (isti’haf). As a result, the most gifted citizens occupy ruling positions, whereas the less talented members of the city are assigned a number of subordinate roles and functions. The closing chapter explores how al-FarabT frames his influential definition of civil science (’ilm al-madanT) by appealing to this structural analogy. Thus, he describes the virtuous kingly craft (mihna malikiyya fadila) in medical terms by comparing the physician’s ability to heal bodies with the supreme ruler’s capacity to govern virtuous cities.

This thesis, as an enquiry into the integral philosophy of Aurobindo and its contemporary relevance, offers a reading of Aurobindo’s key texts by bringing them into conversation with religious studies and the hermeneutical traditions. The central argument advanced is that Aurobindo’s integral philosophy is best understood as hermeneutical philosophy of religion. Such an understanding of his philosophy, offering both substantive and methodological insights for the academic study of religion, subdivides into three interrelated aims: first, to demonstrate that the power of the Aurobindonian vision lies in its self-conception as a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry into religion. Here, I argue that the structure of the Aurobindonian enquiry into religion reveals a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry. Secondly, I aim to draw substantive insights from Aurobindo’s enquiry to envision a way beyond the impasse within the current religious-secular debate in the academic study of religion. Working out of the condition of secularism, the dominant secularists demand the abandonment of the category ‘religion’ and the dismantling of the academic discipline of religious studies. Aurobindo’s integral work on ‘religion’, arising out of the Vedānta tradition, critiques the condition of secularism that undergirds the religious-secular debate. His three key texts – The Life Divine, The Human Cycle, and The Synthesis of Yoga on metaphysics, history, and yoga respectively – while building up an integral philosophy, can be used to contribute to different aspects of this debate. Finally, informed by the hermeneutical tradition and building on the methodological insights from Aurobindo's integral method, I explore a hermeneutical approach for the study of religion which is dialogical in nature. The pursuit of this threefold aim develops my central argument through the following chapters.

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This dissertation attempts to revaluate the role of Neo-Confucianism in the historical development of the Joseon dynasty, in particular in relation to the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. Japanese imperialist historians wanted to justify their colonization by emphasizing the backwardness of Joseon Neo-Confucianism, and Korean nationalist historians wanted to refute Japanese imperialist historiography by finding the seed of modernity in the late Joseon intellectual trends they labelled as Silhak, 'Practical Learning', a school of thought they argued developed in opposition to stagnant and conservative Neo-Confucianism. Despite their different agendas both groups based their research on the assumption that what Korea needed at the time was to 'modernize'. Recent research on Joseon intellectual history has attempted to move beyond the teleological question of Korean modernization, but it has largely been limited to late eighteenth century trends and certain schools of thought. This study, however, situates these intellectual developments in the longer term historical development of the dynasty, and by focusing on how Neo-Confucian intellectuals reacted to a series of dynastic challenges and formulated further Neo-Confucian ideology to overcome them. This provides a more comprehensive understanding of both the role played by Neo-Confucianism as state ideology throughout the dynasty and the reasons for why this intellectual discourse lost much of its momentum in the early nineteenth century.

This thesis explores the need for a Jewish voice in modern liberal arts education, from which it has been historically excluded. Liber arts have developed from a tradition reaching back to ancient Greece, and yet are supposedly representative of Western Judeo-Christian culture. Due to an anti-Jewish attitude amongst the Church Fathers that has prevailed for most church history, both Jews and their texts have been excluded from contributing to Western education. Great Jewish literature is almost entirely absent from the Great Books tradition, while Jewish thinkers have been left out of the university until only relatively recently. This study proposes to introduce the Jewish voice alongside the Western tradition, not in opposition, but as a peer, creating a dialogue between the two voices. Liberal arts begin with the literary arts tradition in the Jewish world, the ancient biblical and post-biblical rabbinic texts address these arts in their own distinctive way. This thesis examines the written Jewish voice through the Great Jewish texts and an authentic way of reading them through the rabbinic method of midrash, as opposed to the Western grammatical tradition. Consideration of the spoken Jewish voice looks at rhetoric in the biblical tradition, and especially among the Hebrew Prophets, who not only spoke well – like their Western counterparts – but spoke up for the voiceless. Finally, an examination of the thinking Jewish voice reveals Wisdom personified, as distinct from Greek philosophy. It is a wisdom which is inseparable from right action, justive, love and awe. The Jewish voice provides counterbalance to the dominant Western tradition, and opens the door to a dialogue in the fields of reading, speaking and thinking, which, in turn, opens the way for other traditions to join the conversation.

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The thesis studies the collaboration between Sir John Woodroffe and his Bengali friend Atal Bihari Ghose. Together they created the pseudonymous orientalist Arthur Avalon who produced a considerable volume of works on Tantra from 1913 onwards, and brought about a revolution in attitudes to this previously despised branch of the Hindu religion. Woodroffe became identified with Avalon in the public eye, but Ghose was Woodroffe's chief source of the textual knowledge in which 'Arthur Avalon' appeared to be deeply versed. I try to assess Woodroffe's own relationship to Sanskrit and to the texts, and highlight his very extensive use of secondary sources and the knowledge of other Indian people besides Ghose. The thesis also focuses on Woodroffe's social identity in Calcutta which formed the context in which he 'was' Arthur Avalon. To a very unusual degree for someone with a high position under the empire, Woodroffe the High Court Judge of Calcutta Indianized himself, sometimes wearing Indian dress in social or religious contexts, but above all absorbing the world of the Bengali intellectuals of his time, among whom his popularity was widely attested. He had his critics, but he also had an enthusiastic coterie of admirers who were attracted by his Indian nationalism, to which his Tantric studies and supposed Sanskrit learning formed an important adjunct. He can be placed, then, alongside other prominent British supporters of nationalism of the time, such as Annie Besant, Nivedita, and C.F. Andrews. But Woodroffe possibly entered even more deeply into Hinduism (for a time at least), for he is reported to have taken initiation from a Tantric guru and to have practised Tantric sdhani in some form. Best known for The Serpent Power, the book which introduced Kundalini yoga to the west, Woodroffe and Ghose turned the image of Tantra around, from that of a despised magical and orgiastic cult, into a refined spiritual philosophy which greatly enhanced the attraction of Hinduism to later generations of Westerners. This thesis also studies Avalon's 'apologetic' themes by which he made Tantra, first acceptable, then fashionable.