This dissertation is an investigation into how St. Thomas Aquinas in De Malo situates Aristotle's account of moral development in the Nicomachean Ethics within an orthodox Christian account of sin, concentrating on the importance of Aristotle's concept of akrasia, called incontinence or weakness of will Since Aquinas's De Malo has only recently been translated into English, an analysis of that work in particular will be of interest in understanding Thomas's treatment of the problem of evil in the good world that God created. The classic Greek idea is that one who knows the good cannot act contrary to that knowledge, so knowledge, or enlightenment is the key to the truly good life. In Book VII of the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle quotes this saying of Socrates but then questions if that is true, since common sense observation seems to show that men do, in fact, act contrary to their knowledge of the good in some cases. That leads to his investigation of akrasia, or incontinence Thomas follows Aristotle in beginning with the importance of knowledge of the good, and of training and habituation in the virtues in order to live a good life. Thomas distinguishes between sins done out of ignorance, which would fit with the Socratic idea, and those done from weakness, and those done from malice. Aristotle and Plato acknowledge that there are cruel and brutish men who do evil; but they do not quite fit the definition of malice since malice involves willing that which is evil while knowing that it is evil. Furthermore, the Christian cannot ever be said to have arrived at complete goodness. He or she is always still subject to sin, or choosing the wrong course even when he knows the good and this wrong choice would be not out of ignorance or malice, but weakness The concept of the will as the active and effective power in human action is essentially a Christian, not a Greek, idea. But akrasia can be interpreted as weakness of will. Thomas investigates just how weakness of will is involved when one can be said to have knowledge of the good and then act otherwise, making distinctions between knowledge of the universal good and of the particular good, and between assent and consent to an action. Akrasia is thus the concept which Aristotle's understanding of wrongdoing has in common with a Biblical account of sin; and it functions as the link and pivot for Thomas's work of harmonizing, as far as possible, the Aristotelian ethic with a Christian one / acase@tulane.edu

The question of whether there can be a feminist philosophy of religion must necessarily address the ideas of truth and transcendence, along with their philosophic counterparts, metaphysics and epistemology. In order to answer that question, this work is an examination of the theological philosophic that has grown up around truth and transcendence that is bound and determined by custom, tradition, and fear, consequently manifests itself as unbridled dogmatism that inevitably limits our thinking and understanding. These factors, along with the effects of patriarchy and gender power dynamics found in politics, democracy, and education, serve to create a question of interrelatedness expressed in this work through the relationship between feminism, philosophy, and religion. This project undertakes an examination of those connections to allow us to understand how they create how we think, what we think, and why we think the way we do. This will be done in order to examine the opposite, which will be the primary focus of this study. The main goal is to uncover what these connections limit: ways in which we do not think, ideas which are deemed unsuitable to raise in formative ways, and the structure behind the standard, a standard which inclusive feminist philosophies of religion and theology seem to never meet or exceed. / From feminism we are made aware that what is personal is also political and philosophy provides tools for arriving at clarity in our words and thoughts. All of the ideas discussed herein create the fabric of our lives. We struggle with these ideas, not as compartmentalized entities but as an interwoven fabric that clothes our lives and our thinking. Additionally, we carry with us obligations to one another which emanate from both our rationality and our ability to understand with the heart. Consequently, the question of whether there can be a feminist philosophy of religion becomes a complex interweaving of questions that reach into the very neurosis of truth making, gender identification, and personhood creation. Thinkers discussed include John Dewey, Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Daphne Hampson, Pamela Sue Anderson, Grace Jantzen, Catharine MacKinnon, and Simone Weil.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, The Divinity School, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb 4, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-04, Section: A, page: 1152. Adviser: Margaret Sutton.

<p> Classical, scientific, and Abrahamic origin stories of knowledge establish grounds. Upon excavating these grounds, this dissertation has found repeated and entangled emphases on isolation related to a materially grounded cosmology. The core evidence for this position comes from their comparable displays of the psyche/mind/soul/spirit&rsquo;s entry into and/or imprisonment within body, the symbolic restraint of Classical and Abrahamic progenitors with stone, and the initiation of philosophy&mdash;according to Aristotle&mdash;with a theory of materialism. Symbolic interpretations of the religious myths are supported by commentary from within the respective traditions. </p><p> Following a consideration of the existential implications of a material ground and (fundamentally) isolated self-image, the work considers mythic liberations of progenitors from stone and Einstein&rsquo;s liberation of scientific traditions from material reductionism. As Einstein&rsquo;s labors included an integration of wave dynamics into the way matter is seen, Herakles&rsquo; and Christ&rsquo;s liberations of Prometheus and Adam are actuated by symbolic fluids. Later, their transcendence and atonement(s) are actuated by fluid. As is shown, Classical, Christian, and scientific knowledge narratives all contain reactions to a material ground of being contingent with the integration/imbibing of waves/fluids. The primary examples for this include the hydra-blood that freed Prometheus from stone and Herakles from life, the nectar of immortality he drank upon his death, the wine-blood of Christ that freed Adam from stone and his followers from mortality, and the form of waves and fields Einstein added to the theoretical particle. </p><p> This dissertation argues that the reason fluids have played such integral roles in the historical and symbolic transcendence of material/embodied isolation and Classical atoms (isolated matter) is because&mdash;unlike material particulates&mdash;fluids and waves are capable of union and harmony. My read of particle-wave duality is as a new foundation that challenges atomized cosmologies and worldviews leading many towards a vision of self as estranged from other. My final argument is that each of these prominent Western knowledge traditions present stories that follow a meta-narrative arc defined by an initial commitment to a materially grounded cosmology that is later enhanced&mdash;if not healed&mdash;by theoretical waves and symbolic elixirs. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Mythology, Philosophy, Science, Religion, Wave</p>

This study is an analysis of Zhiyi's interpretation of the concept of "dhyana" in his Shi chanboluomi cidi famen (An Exposition of Methods to Achieve the Stages of Meditative Perfection, hereafter, The Stages of Meditative Perfection). In the studies of Chinese Buddhism, dhyana , translated into Chinese "chan," is commonly associated with the Chan school (Chan zong ) developed in China in the seventh and the eighth century. In Zhiyi's The Stages of Meditative Perfection, however, dhyana is generally understood as the Four Dhyanas. In the "Four Dhyanas" chapter of The Stages of Meditative Perfection, Zhiyi specifically defines dhyana as "zhilin (dhyana factors)" and "gongde tsonglin (an array of meritorious qualities)." The Stages of Meditative Perfection is Zhiyi's systemization of the various dhyana methods practiced by Chinese Buddhists from the second to the sixth centuries A.D. A general sketch of The Stages of Meditative Perfection is made in the first three chapters of this study. In the first chapter I make a brief textual review and discuss some general features of this text. In chapter two, I discuss some of the important terms related to meditation practices used inThe Stages of Meditative Perfection. The third chapter is an analysis of some of Zhiyi's dhyana classification systems that appear in the first five chapters of The Stages of Meditative Perfection , which comprises Zhiyi's theoretical systemization of Dhyana-paramita . Among Zhiyi's discussion of the actual practice of the fifteen dhyana methods discussed in the sixth and seventh chapters of The Stages of Meditative Perfection, two dhyana practices, the Four Dhyanas and the Tongming guan (The Contemplation Leading to [Six] Supernormal Powers and [Three Illuminating] Insights) are the most crucial for our understanding of Zhiyi's concept of dhyana. Therefore, these two dhyana practices are selected as the subject of detailed analysis. Four aspects of Zhiyi's interpretation of dhyana will be examined in my analysis: Zhiyi's definitions of dhyana, his concepts of "Mundane Dhyana" and "Supramundane Dhyana," the role of intellect and physiology in the meditative states in Zhiyi's interpretation of dhyana, and Zhiyi's method of synthesizing practice and doctrine in his interpretation of dhyana.

No description available.

The use of "mysticism" and "mystic" as analytical terms in the social sciences is found to be problematic. Through an overview of current attempts to define the terms and a discussion of the use of the terms by representative theorists (Max Weber in sociology; Jacques Lacan in psychology) in examinations of representative "mystics" (Teresa of Avila and Meister Eckhart), the difficulties inherent in speaking psychologically and sociologically about mysticism are made clear. The identification of individuals as mystics is always tied to a political, economic, religious, and linguistic context. Any attempt to isolate elements common to an uses of the label "mystical" must take into account the motivations and cultural contexts of those who apply the labels as well as the differences in social contexts between mystical texts. Abandonment of use of the term would be premature; a better descriptive understanding may appear through an apophatic process of describing what mysticism is not.

This study analyzes the relationship of Douglas Clyde Macintosh to the time in which he lived using the concepts of irony, innocence, and myth. By employing these concepts, the author identifies four significant moves that Macintosh made to break with philosophical idealism. The author explores Macintosh's relationship to an older, reigning Ritschlian liberal theology, and the development of neo-orthodoxy by his students H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr. This Yale strand of neo-orthodoxy is relevant to the "new historicism" as described by William Dean. The author explores the relevance of Macintosh's work to the developing new historicism including neopragmatism in philosophy, radical empiricism, the American evasion of epistemology, and the role of apologetics in inter-religious dialogue. Macintosh's Yale strand of empirical theology emerges as a significant critique of the new historicist position. In response to the social, intellectual and religious crisis of modernity, Macintosh moved to recover objectivism in theology, attempted to rehabilitate the apologetic arguments for the existence of God and the reasonableness of religious belief, employed the Radical Method in theology to define and to defend an essence of Christianity, and employed the Anselmian apologetic tactic of leaving Christ aside to prove his necessity for human salvation. His use of the Ritschlian Radical Method in theology produced differences in Macintosh's and Ritschl's theological content. The author also analyzes the criticisms that H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr leveled against Macintosh. Eight reasons are presented for the eclipse of Macintosh's empirical theology in scholarship.

This dissertation presents a method for reading William Butler Yeats's A Vision. Establishing parallels between the language of A Vision and that of Jung's Psychological Types both renders A Vision comprehensible at the sentence level and identifies the classical theory of temperaments as a crucial unacknowledged influence on both Yeats and Jung. A reading of Book I of A Vision demonstrates how its cycle of lunar phases functions as a sophisticated psychological typology and reveals the underlying structure of Yeats's system.