Al-Sirr al-Maktūm is one of the most compelling theoretical and practical accounts of astral magic written in the post-classical period of Islamic thought. Of central concern to its reader is to understand why the great philosopher-theologian, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d.606/1210) should have written it. The occult practices described therein are attributed to the Sabians, a historical group who lived in Harrān in Upper Mesopotamia. Representing the last vestiges of Ancient Mesopotamian paganism during the early Islamic period, their religion involved the veneration of the seven planets, which they believed were ensouled celestial beings and the proximate causes of all sublunary change. By means of such astrolatry they were able, remotely, to change reality in ways which defied the customary pattern of causation in this world. The main focus of al-Rāzī‘s treatment of their practice is a long ritual during which the aspirant successively brings under his will each of the seven planets. On completion of the ritual, the aspirant would have transcended the limitations of his human existence and his soul would have attained complete perfection. This thesis will argue that for al-Rāzī, the Sabians constituted a heresiological category, representative of a soteriological system which dispensed with the need for the Islamic institution of prophethood. It relied instead on the individual‘s ability, by means of spiritual discipline and intellectual rigour, to attain noetic connection with the celestial souls. In so doing, the Sabian adept not only gains occult knowledge and power, but more importantly he realizes the ultimate aim of perfecting his soul. Al-Rāzī constructs this soteriology as a synthesis of cosmological and psychological doctrines gleaned from Avicenna, and Abū‘l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī. In this way, al-Rāzī hoped to state as succinctly as possible the intellectual challenges to which any systematic theological defence of the Islamic faith must answer if it is to triumph over rival systems of thought.

This thesis explores Darwin's life in London in the context of the social relationships he formed there. Recent studies have highlighted the paradox between his speculative work, with its dangerous associations with political radicalism and infidelity, and his intense desire for social respectability, evidenced by his determination to shun controversy and by his retirement to the security of family life in the Kent countryside. How Darwin coped with the tension arising from this mismatch of intellectual radicalism and social conservatism has not been explained; it is widely assumed that it was a major factor in prompting his prolonged and frequent attacks of debilitating illness. The problem is addressed here by looking at the support Darwin drew from the friends he made in London. His experiences during the Beagle voyage had led him to focus on philosophical issues which had not previously troubled him. Having returned to England, he deliberately chose to surround himself with friends who were not afraid to adopt heterodox positions on religion and society; in their company his personal anxieties were assuaged and he could pursue new ideas with enthusiasm. These friends had specialist knowledge in subjects which had a close bearing on Darwin's theories. His relationship with them throws light on issues such as how the debate about religion influenced his evolutionary thinking, and the nature of the contribution made to it by Malthus. The esteem in which they were held, notwithstanding their intellectual radicalism, explains how Darwin was able to find in their company the self-confidence to develop his iconoclastic conclusions. His identification with them, and their contribution to the intellectual re-evaluation of the 1830s and 1840s, helps to account for the wide acceptance of Darwin's views, published twenty years later, when the social ideology being formulated in his youth had become the prevailing orthodoxy of mid-Victorian England.

During the past two decades intellectual historians and cultural scholars studying the history of Renaissance medicine have come to different conclusions about the persistence of the classical tradition and the influence of innovation. Where historians see strong continuities in the vocabulary, internal logic, and intellectual culture of Aristotelianism and Galenism into the sixteenth century, new historicists and cultural materialists regard the early modern body as a site where classical and modern medical discourses compete. Their narrative of cultural formation emphasizes discontinuity and instability in the classical synthesis emerging in the seventeenth century, and they argue that this transition underlies a fundamental shift in how literary culture treats the body and the self. This dissertation takes issue with the discontinuity model of Renaissance historiography by arguing that medical humanism sought to recover the medical tradition and establish a progressive medical culture, not by rejecting the scholastic medical synthesis, but by invoking its content and its internal contradictions while maintaining its continued engagement with empirical innovation. The Paracelsian response to Galenism attacked ancient philosophy at its roots in the system of elemental qualities, yet Paracelsian chemical philosophy reproduced features of the analogical philosophy underlying Galenic diagnosis and therapy. In turn, the well-intentioned efforts of English medical humanists to bring about curricular reform in medical education had the unintended effect of promoting vernacular popularizations of medicine used by practitioners lacking access to elite education. Furthermore, in his effort to assert the diversity and particularity of human ability, Juan Huarte revisits a venerable (but still vulnerable) distinction between the doctrine of immortality and the organic powers of the soul. Finally, the instability of Lady Macbeth's sex brings into question the possibility of a regime of self-discipline premised upon the gender assumptions of humoral thought, yet we cannot understand her desire for self-control without also understanding her humoral body. These explorations question the historiographical assumption of discontinuity underlying the early modern period by emphasizing the role of scholastic ideas in the formation of medical culture in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

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論文(碩士)--香港中文大學, 1968. / Manuscript. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-291). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 1968.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Johannesburg, 2017 / Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics has been ascribed a conservative position in relation to textual interpretation. I wish to explore what effect radical texts (texts which challenge Gadamer’s definitions of textuality) have upon philosophical hermeneutics. I chose to work with Watt by Samuel Beckett and Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs because both texts challenge assumptions surrounding meaning and understanding, two key facets of philosophical hermeneutics. Both novels illustrate the effect of fragmented historical horizons upon the interpretative process. This observation is accessible through Gadamer’s descriptive theory and allows the interpretation of both Watt and Naked Lunch to engage with the meta-hermeneutic concerns in both avant-garde texts. The close-reading of both novels will illustrate how they challenge Gadamer’s notion of play between horizons, and I will show this to be productive for both interpretative understanding as well as responding to Gadamer’s critics. It is my contention that Gadamer’s theoretical description offers a unique way to read Watt and Naked Lunch but crucially, philosophical hermeneutics is indelibly changed by an interaction with these two novels. / XL2018

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John Millar's historical works have not, since the era of their original publication, been viewed as such by their principal commentators. Though Millar's Discourse on the Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771) has received acclaim for its perceived sociological value, his intended masterwork, An Historical View of the English Constitution (1803) has been almost completely neglected by contemporary scholarship. The intent of this paper is threefold: first, by viewing Millar in the historiographical context of late Enlightenment Britain, Millar's texts become recognizable as they were when they were first read, that is, as works of history. Restoring Millar to this context, a time when sophisticated new modes of historical writing were being developed to explain the modern world, also reveals the origins and nature of Millar's characteristic "conjectural" or "philosophical" approach to the study of the past. Secondly, a methodological analysis of Millar's major works and his unpublished "Lectures on Government" will provide insight into how Millar's conjecturalism was reconfigured to fit different subjects, purposes, and generic norms. Third, a survey of Millar's reception in the early nineteenth century will illustrate how rapidly and how profoundly the perceptions of Millar's historiographical approach changed from laudatory to dismissive. Millar is thus revealed not only as a historical writer, but one who was dedicated to a sophisticated, systematic program of historical inquiry.