tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86486290469403373022024-03-12T21:22:14.977-07:00The ConversationA place to explore Christian history and the changing nature of the world.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-60989793031479055562012-12-21T14:11:00.001-08:002012-12-21T14:11:43.871-08:00Games that Heal: Identity and hope<h1>Video Game Characters give us Hope</h1> <p align="center"><img border="0" align="bottom" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQX1po-uOiaI2vpMeBRkmnDoNZRZN4EfwLS6kWwlxWDuyNQZsFwaA" width="252" height="200"></p> <p>I was Mario, Link, and a number of heroes in the video games of my youth. Although I knew I was literally not these pixely creations, part of them formed part of me. My actions and quests created an interesting bond with the character, and made the character more intimate. To this day, I am still a fan of the Hero of Hyrule (aka Link), and I strive to live courageously battling for the good in the world like he does. <p>Moreover, I am not alone. Part of the reason perhaps that video game characters are becoming some of the most recognizable cultural icons is because we live their stories in an incredibly intimate, and life altering way. We latch onto not only their story, but also the heroes' actions, thoughts, and feelings. While there is a danger in becoming “lost” in the virtual rewards, or over indulge in these rewards, there is some profit to be gained by living out our ideal selves in a virtual way. <p align="center"><img border="0" align="bottom" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTI9Z_qfJR0d7iEd5nra9LcbwC_XrwHiXCqaj7kRB4X0BOzDIHMmA" width="293" height="172"></p> <h2>Video Game Avatars and the Self</h2> <p>It's no secret that video games give users an alter ego experience, in fact this alter identity is so powerful that it can sometimes suck users into a world away from their daily life. However, the alter ego can also help empower the player to change the world. And in this way, games can help heal. <p>If we think about the self, there are really three forms including actual, ideal and ought. The ideal self relates to our goals and wishes, our ought relates to the sense of duty and obligation (things we should do) and the actual self is well self-explanatory. The question is whether video games can positively alter our actual selves by placing in us contexts that foster a particular kind of ideal self. A study was recently done that sought to being to answer this question. <h2>Study shows video game characters help us act out our ideal selves</h2> <p>In this recent study, around 136 20-year old male students at a University in the United States were asked to fill out a questionnaire before and after playing a video game on whether or not they would be likely to give or help out at a charity (Seung, 2011). The students who played a video gamed focused on kill or be killed, or making sure one did one's duty to survive, it was shown that the ought self was engaged, and but in doing things that did not correspond to the players hopes, or ideal self, the players often rated their experience of flow as decreased. Moreover, when students were given a game in which they were responsible for saving people using surgery, it was shown that there sense of generosity also increased as a result. Their conclusions seemed to indicate a deeper engagement with the game when players felt their avatar was acting out a similar hoped-for or ideal self (ibid). <h3>Games that help us overcome illness and injury</h3> <p align="center"><img border="0" align="bottom" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQKieAQ4QqEUJpbC8OyNu-n4q8m6NGaUaheayB0TmkmATT1q-Qr" width="192" height="187">` </p> <p>A deep connection between the players hopes and their avatar may prove an area in which patients might benefit or heal from. A recent site called <a href="http://www.superbetter.com">SuperBetter</a>, takes the notion of boss fights, personal quests, and ideal avatars to another extreme. Started by a video game designer and survivor of a traumatic brain injury, this website helps individuals set goals and connect with friends to solve all manner of problems from traumatic physical injuries to physiological issues (stress, anxiety, etc.). The broad ability for accountability from the online community, and a superhero identity that you get to take on, make <a href="http://www.superbetter.com">SuperBetter</a> a “game” that transforms players into self-efficacious healers. <p>As the trend for more interactive video games continues, the role of the hoped for or ideal self, will continue to help a wide range of players grow and flourish in the midst of online communities. The new communities, and healing programs of the next century will involve similar integrative approaches that utilized these dreams, and help players visualize their ends in order to attain healing and personal happiness. <p>Works Cited: <p><b>Seung, Annie Jin.</b> “My Avatar Behaves Well and This Feels Right: Ideal and ought selves in video gaming.” Boston College, MA, USA. Social behavior and personality, 2011, 39(9), 1175-1182. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2011.39.9.1175</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-43403520018972310462012-11-18T17:59:00.001-08:002012-11-18T17:59:32.862-08:00Games that Heal<p>I remember watching my friends play the PC game Doom as a child, and blowing away demons with semi-automatic weapons in a mad dash to the end of the level. This adrenaline-filled experience is probably something most researchers would call the induction of anti-social and aggressive behavior through play. But this is not the whole experience of video-games and many players recognize that some games which promote “pro-social” behavior (games which focus on saving humanity), can make players more empathetic human beings.</p> <p>.</p> <h1>The Positive Side of Video Games</h1> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-XaX0DWIoie8/UKmSfoSTiHI/AAAAAAAAAYs/c2Y63AnRxx8/s1600-h/farmville_ipad_screen1large-642x4815.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="farmville_ipad_screen1large-642x481" border="0" alt="farmville_ipad_screen1large-642x481" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-oqvo8iekZkw/UKmSgLkx_9I/AAAAAAAAAY0/tYo-kA4Azm4/farmville_ipad_screen1large-642x481_.jpg?imgmax=800" width="229" height="173"></a></p> <p>There is a growing body of research that shows how priming the brain to experience a pro-social behavior can actually help induce pro-social mental states. (Greitemeyer, Tobias, & Osswald, 2011:122) One example of this includes a study done in 1995 where participants were “primed” or given help-related words every day, and were more likely to exhibit helpful behavior throughout the day (ibid). Nelson and Norton (2005) found that participants primed in the category of “superhero” were more likely to help and volunteer for service. Similarly, a video game which places an individual in the role of hero, or savior, might prime the prime towards acting to help other classmates in need, thus inducing pro-social behavior (ibid).</p> <h2>How Games Heal and Harm</h2> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9B1teBdkdA0/UKmSgmA2s8I/AAAAAAAAAY8/wYT4q9E2a08/s1600-h/images2.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="images" border="0" alt="images" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-xx1YhYFNnCQ/UKmSg83yvOI/AAAAAAAAAZE/ebSrZK3zcM4/images_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a></p> <p>On the flipside of this conversation, games have also been shown to promote aggressive thoughts, affect, and behavior; priming the brain for the anticipation of negative interactions. Playing video game relative to neutral (in terms of violence) might increase hostile expectation bias (Bushman & Anderson, 2002) and state hostility and anxiety levels (ibid). These effects were explained by the <strong>General Aggression Model</strong> which claims that aggressive media contents activate an individual’s internal states, including cognition, affect, and arousal (ibid). This model however has recently been combined with GLM model or <strong>General Learning Model</strong> which basically claims exposure to media of this kind might induce both aggressive and pro-social behavior depending on the content of the game (ibid).</p> <h2>How Games Help Educators</h2> <p>Behavioral issues ranks as one of the top-most concerns for teachers leaving the Teaching profession. Moreover, it is also one of main causes of student discontentment at school. Behavior has mostly been tackled with in the form of developing a teacher-student relationship, fostering respect between both groups, and using role playing and teaching to facilitate student learning. However, the prospects of doing this combined with regular class instruction, meetings, etc. seems incredibly daunting for most instructors. Video-games that simulate and induce pro-social behavior offer the chance for instructors to give students “clinics” that might help prime their brains for good actions in the real world, without direct instruction. The burden is then placed on the student and their engagement with the virtual program rather than the teacher.</p> <h2>Examples in the Classroom</h2> <p>There are a variety of team games that can help students develop positive social relationships in the physical world. An earlier study showed the power of these pro-social games (by examining products from <a href="https://www.thegamefactory.com.au//index">The Game Factory</a>) to help students develop empathic feelings and positive relationships (Street, Hoppe, Kingsbury, and Tony Ma., 2004). However, video games which combine physical and virtual presence have great promise for helping students develop ethical behavior on and offline. Really, any game with a team or cooperative focus can help students to develop these attributes.</p> <p><img style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTpDlZvUIq5WCnjpVUHfMkIoZtAk6NR-VBK3s3caGXTQS7HO6Xi" width="165" height="113"></p> <p>Games with problem-solving components, or moral choice segments, in which players have to make choices about how to best play the game could include a classroom component where students discuss their strategies and ultimately vote on the best way to play. In this way, team-based gaming, or cooperative gaming (where students are paired) can provide opportunities for students to help each other out, build relationships and ultimately succeed in school.</p> <p><strong>Next week:</strong> </p> <p>We will explore gaming communities, and the controversy over the creation of ulterior personalities and virtual lives that replace our “ordinary” ones.</p> <p> </p> <h3>Works Cited:</h3> <p>Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Silvia Osswald. "Playing Prosocial Video Games Increases The Accessibility Of Prosocial Thoughts." Journal Of Social Psychology 151.2 (2011): 121- 128. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Nov. 2012.</p> <p>Street, Hoppe, Kingsbury, and Tony Ma. “The Game Factory: Using Cooperative Games to Promote Pro-Social Behaviour among Children.” Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, v4 p97-109 2004. University of Newcastle. School of Education, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. e-mail: ajedp@newcastle.edu.au; Web site: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/group/ajedp </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-71270073822436908292012-11-07T16:04:00.001-08:002012-11-07T16:04:49.655-08:00Learner as Player: How Video Games are Changing Education<p> </p> <blockquote> <p>“The key to learning, Negroponte’s fellow panelists agreed, is to engage children rather than simply talk at them. And one of the most effective ways of doing this is through play.”</p></blockquote> <p><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/26/educating-players-are-games-the-future-of-education/">Educating Players: Are Games the Future of Education? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network</a></p> <p>Currently, education in America is caught between two movements, the standardization craze (with national assessments) and the hope for cooperative and constructive learning where educators tap into the prior knowledge a student has mastered to help them learn. The standards movement aspires to measure student progress on a national level, while the cooperative learning model is more concerned with building bridges between concepts to enhance student learning (Bursuck & Friend, 2012). The first movement imagines the student as a product, with specific skills that can be assessed through testing. The second movement envisions the student as a participant in the construction of knowledge, and an adventurer in the journey to learn. However, games are continuing to construct a third model of the student – the learner as player, creating meaning and knowledge through play.</p> <p>There has been hope for a long time that video games would provide a natural link between student motivation and learning content. After all, video games are adept at teaching skills through play, and forcing players to want to learn more and more in order to experience a new level or ability. However, while the link seems natural, the transition is far from easy.</p> <h1 align="center">Challenges <br></h1> <p><strong><br>Questions about Effectiveness</strong></p> <p>One of the major challenges to video game use in the classroom includes skepticism regarding its effectiveness as an overall teaching tool. Some teachers have reported mixed reactions to entertainment media on the social and academic development of students according to <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/07/11techsurveys.h32.html">Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project (2012).</a> Evidence that this kind of education is more effective than more traditional methods has been scarce. At most the use of video games has been shown to increase student motivation about schoolwork, but not necessarily their ability to retain material.</p> <p><strong>Financial Issues</strong></p> <p>The same study also identified the monetary burden that teachers face when attempting to give their students games to play for learning. For example, the recent attempt to use <a href="http://minecraftedu.com/">MinecraftEDU</a> as a mod to the traditional Minecraft game (a kind of virtual lego world) for students to explore concepts about economics, problem-solving, and a range of other topics in school, requires about $20 per person to set up. If the software is bundled for all students in a typical middle school grade level this would amount to $600 per class (given 30 students per class). A subsidy has been suggested by the creator of Minecraft to help with the financial burden, but the cost still remains too high for most teachers.</p> <p><strong>Teacher Training</strong></p> <p>Because most teachers have not learned from educational games themselves, they are often at a loss in how to use games or gaming concepts effectively to teach students following evidence-based practices. Using a book requires basic knowledge that all teachers are equipped with, while using a computer program often requires training in the use of the game itself, a greater time strain for educators. As video games continue to populate schools, hopefully more educational materials will be produced that allow teachers to follow evidence-based practice in creating games, and evaluating student gaming projects.</p> <p> </p> <h1 align="center">Emerging Gaming trends in Education</h1> <h1 align="center"> </h1> <p align="left">Although there are considerable challenges to using video games in the classroom, nevertheless the model of student as player is growing ground in a number of educational initiatives inside and outside of schools.</p> <p><strong>Minecraft EDU</strong></p> <p>Minecraft EDU, (the mod mentioned above) has been enthusiastically adopted by some teachers for the use in educating students. Rather than simply taking the students on a field trip, Minecraft allows for the full customization of a working environment that all students can explore, manipulate (in some cases) and work at their own pace. Assignments become in-context assessments and reflections using the environment rather than something external to their lived experience. Because of how tangible the world is, students who have not yet developed abstract thinking to solve problems (something which occurs in the later years of high school, Bursuck & Friend, 2012) are able to directly experience important elements of these concepts through play.</p> <p>For example, one assignment created using the Minecraft EDU mod throws students into a world in which there are very few natural resources left, and the students have to interact and figure out how to solve the problem of creating a rocket and repopulating a world with forests. Another assignment allows students to go on virtual tours of ancient civilizations and explore the Hanging gardens of Babylon, Ancient China, or other features of a world through this style of immersive play and exploration.</p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:d1d9b78e-ebcc-4bdd-9c07-c5ddafd81998" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="3e9de929-22d9-4778-8ec3-fbd0e0a96b51" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eybEx960Wj4&feature=relmfu" target="_new"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/--g3d8bG3xk4/UJr3GyAqhzI/AAAAAAAAAX0/rJOdmXFRgU4/videocf23c596e1ea%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('3e9de929-22d9-4778-8ec3-fbd0e0a96b51'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/eybEx960Wj4?hl=en&hd=1\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/eybEx960Wj4?hl=en&hd=1\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"448\" height=\"252\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt=""></a></div></div><div style="width:448px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Minecraft EDU mod expert Joel explains how teachers can create worlds for students to explore</div></div> <p><strong></strong> </p> <p><strong>Kahn Academy and its derivatives</strong></p> <p>Gaining prominence in 2009, the <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">Kahn Academy</a> practically revolutionized both the gaming world and online education by applying game-like rewards for gaining proficiency in a variety of traditional school topics. Students follow a game-like model by attaining badges for each level of education. Because of these virtual awards and the way it advances students progress like leveling up, Kahn Academy has been labeled as a “gamification” resource for students. Although the practice model only includes math and science concepts, a similar “gaming” system that rewards streaks, gives virtual prizes for performance, etc. and motivates students to do better and provides an immediate boost to their self-esteem. Other sites like <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/0">Codeacademy</a> include similar rewards, streaks, and badges as a motivator to help students master material. Codeacademy is particularly successful in creating a tutorial lesson in which students get to practice and develop advanced coding skills.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ILi4elGgdRc/UJr3HZBvTwI/AAAAAAAAAX8/9gr_-o9uDZw/s1600-h/image4.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GgmYQqXsYG8/UJr3H4r6x8I/AAAAAAAAAYE/I9Y45VYmLLc/image_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" width="484" height="220"></a></p> <h1 align="center">The Future: Student as Player</h1> <p><br>Cooperative learning suggests the student is a coauthor in the creation of knowledge, not simply a bucket that is periodically filled with facts and then forced to regurgitate them. The “gamification” and gaming movements currently reverberating through the field of education suggest the learner is something also fundamentally different. He or she is an explorer in the world of knowledge-working. The learner as player manipulates existing knowledge and evaluates its efficacy in real time. Rather than simply creating, he also evaluates, tests, synthesizes and manipulates information in a transformational way. Games have this power, but not without some potential drawbacks and it has yet to be seen if games will truly transform the learner or entrap him in skinner box-like pursuit of gimmicks, badges, and meaningless “level-ups.”</p> <p>Works Cited: <br>Friend, M. & Bursuck, W. D. (2012) Including Students With Special Needs. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill.</p><!--Tim's signature--> <table border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div></tr></tbody></table> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-35948863456077232622012-10-27T14:04:00.001-07:002012-10-27T14:04:19.404-07:00State of the God Gap - Blog: Spiritual Politics<p>Down from 9% from eight years ago, this article discusses the role religion (i.e. defined by worship attendance) is playing in the presidential debate. The “gap” or worship distinction is shrinking for those who support either candidate. However, the god gap might also be an indication of the general move away from religious affiliation that the nation is currently experiencing.</p> <blockquote> <p><img alt="" src="http://www.religionnews.com/images/sized/images/uploads/blogs/mark-silk/God_Gap-120x79.jpg"></p> <p><small>http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hands_of_God_and_Adam.jpg </small></p> <p>So what's the current state of the God Gap? A good deal less robust than it was in 2008.</p> <p>Just in is a new <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/2012/Courant_UConn_1019.pdf"><em>Hartford Courant</em>/UConn poll</a> that tabulates presidential preference by frequency of (reported) worship attendence. And what we find is that frequent attenders prefer the GOP ticket (Romney/Ryan) by 51 percent to 43 percent. That's down by one-third from the 55-43 margin for the GOP (McCain/Pain) <a href="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1">in 2008</a>.</p> <p>Then there are the occasional attenders, who in 2008 preferred Obama/Biden 57-42. That margin has now been cut by nearly two-thirds, to 49-43. Finally. we have those who never darken the door of a house of worship. They strongly prefer Obama/Biden, but by a modestly smaller margin than in 2008: 61-31 compared to 67-30. </p> <p>The religious demographic that's most up for grabs this year are the truly lukewarm--those who report going to services once or twice a month. Ten percent of them are undecided--twice the proportion of the rest of the attendence cohorts. But at 14 percent of the voting population, they're also the smallest. </p> <p>What's most striking about the God Gap this year is that <a href="http://caribou.cc.trincoll.edu/depts_csrpl/RINVol7No1/GenderingtheReligion%20Gap.htm">for the first time since 1960 (!)</a> it's smaller than the Gender Gap. In 2008, women preferred the Democratic ticket to the Republican one by 13 points; the <em>Courant</em>/UConn poll show that gap now running at 17 points. In 2008, men preferred the Democratic ticket by a single point; they are now going Republican by 12 points. The differential between the two gaps was 16 points in 2008; it's now running at 29 points.</p> <p>It seems, in short, that gender is now trumping religious identity. That is, women who are more religious are finding themselves pushed away from the GOP by the Party's libertarian economics and stricter-than-ever social conservatism. Meanwhile, less religious men are moving strongly towards the GOP because they like the tough economics and think Obama's going to take away their guns.</p> <p>The trouble for the Republicans is that there are more women than men in the electorate.</p> <p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/religion-news-service/~4/hpbMtFsl_NY" width="1" height="1"> </p></blockquote> <p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/religion-news-service/~3/hpbMtFsl_NY/state-of-the-god-gap">State of the God Gap - Blog: Spiritual Politics</a> <br>Mark Silk <br>Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:28:40 GMT</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-45602075423179693472012-10-20T09:38:00.000-07:002012-10-20T09:38:07.495-07:00State of the God Gap - Blog: Spiritual Politics<br />
Down from 9% from eight years ago, this article discusses the role religion
(i.e. defined by worship attendance) is playing in the presidential debate. The
“gap” or worship distinction is shrinking for those who support either
candidate. However, the god gap might also be an indication of the general move
away from religious affiliation that the nation is currently experiencing.<br />
<blockquote>
<img alt="" src="http://www.religionnews.com/images/sized/images/uploads/blogs/mark-silk/God_Gap-120x79.jpg" />
<br />
<small>http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hands_of_God_and_Adam.jpg
</small>
<br />
So what's the current state of the God Gap? A good deal less robust than it
was in 2008.
<br />
Just in is a new <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/2012/Courant_UConn_1019.pdf"><em>Hartford
Courant</em>/UConn poll</a> that tabulates presidential preference by frequency
of (reported) worship attendence. And what we find is that frequent attenders
prefer the GOP ticket (Romney/Ryan) by 51 percent to 43 percent. That's down by
one-third from the 55-43 margin for the GOP (McCain/Pain) <a href="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1">in 2008</a>.
<br />
Then there are the occasional attenders, who in 2008 preferred Obama/Biden
57-42. That margin has now been cut by nearly two-thirds, to 49-43. Finally. we
have those who never darken the door of a house of worship. They strongly prefer
Obama/Biden, but by a modestly smaller margin than in 2008: 61-31 compared to
67-30.
<br />
The religious demographic that's most up for grabs this year are the truly
lukewarm--those who report going to services once or twice a month. Ten percent
of them are undecided--twice the proportion of the rest of the attendence
cohorts. But at 14 percent of the voting population, they're also the smallest.
<br />
What's most striking about the God Gap this year is that <a href="http://caribou.cc.trincoll.edu/depts_csrpl/RINVol7No1/GenderingtheReligion%20Gap.htm">for
the first time since 1960 (!)</a> it's smaller than the Gender Gap. In 2008,
women preferred the Democratic ticket to the Republican one by 13 points;
the <em>Courant</em>/UConn poll show that gap now running at 17 points. In 2008,
men preferred the Democratic ticket by a single point; they are now going
Republican by 12 points. The differential between the two gaps was 16 points in
2008; it's now running at 29 points.
<br />
It seems, in short, that gender is now trumping religious identity. That is,
women who are more religious are finding themselves pushed away from the GOP by
the Party's libertarian economics and stricter-than-ever social conservatism.
Meanwhile, less religious men are moving strongly towards the GOP because they
like the tough economics and think Obama's going to take away their guns.
<br />
The trouble for the Republicans is that there are more women than men in the
electorate.
<br />
<img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/religion-news-service/~4/hpbMtFsl_NY" width="1" /> </blockquote>
<a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/religion-news-service/~3/hpbMtFsl_NY/state-of-the-god-gap">State
of the God Gap - Blog: Spiritual Politics</a><br />Mark Silk<br />Fri, 19 Oct 2012
22:28:40 GMT<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-3178065657137956522012-10-18T09:45:00.002-07:002012-10-18T09:51:17.658-07:00Rise of Christian Music - Part 2<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The
meteoric rise of Christian music industry left a number of rock
singers and musicians ambivalent about their relationship with the
larger secular music culture. These artists adopted either one of
three approaches. They chose to be seperational, creating music only
for ministry, integrational by not discounting the potential for
evangelism but focusing primarily on Contemporary Christian music as
positive alternative to secular music, or transformational, viewing
music as spiritual in itself with or without ministerial purposes.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Seperational
approach</span></span></h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Bands
like XI Saves have taken a multifaceted approach to dealing with and
justifying their use of secular music in the worship of God. First,
bands like XI Saves argue that God made all things good and since he
made music ergo music is not inherently evil but something inherently
divine. They also argue that God sings to us, and we sing to him
using a variety of instruments and worship styles. Some musicians
argue to this end that one can separate the mode, music, from the
content or what is being said, i.e. the message. Excluding things
like profanity, gratuitous sex or excessive hedonism, almost any
music could have a divine quality to it. Thus, Christians can
appropriate secular culture as long as they </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>stay
true to the message</b></i></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
of Christianity.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Some
argue that Christians are also called to engage with contemporary
music to reach young people and youth culture. But others maintain
there are still limits to how Christian musicians ought to act. Some
of these boundaries or limitations include not abusing power or
status, submitting one's will to the overall vision of the band, and
not isolating themselves with a woman (i.e. using their status to
flirt or pick up girls). If Christian musicians act in accordance
with their faith, then they might be able to engage with secular
culture and not become completely “corrupted” by it. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Integrational
and Approach</span></span></h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<img height="133" src="http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/files/2011/02/Toby-Mac.jpg&sa=X&ei=HCuAUKnOHeiviQKH7YDQBw&ved=0CAkQ8wc4Cg&usg=AFQjCNExM7DQPl_51QwBHoXHc8Ynf5jTDw" width="200" />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> TobyMac,
tends to take an approach of viewing christian music positively, but
ultimately more concerned with how his identity comes out in his
lyrics.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83TjrsnlN80">Listen to Eyeon It.</a></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<img height="150" src="http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dxP9zEqABko/0.jpg&sa=X&ei=ViuAUIf5JbHmiwKH0YGQBQ&ved=0CAkQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNFAkiULJUaxHcjcpodiA6vjLw4Wqw" width="200" /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Lacrae,
a hip-hop Artist who concurrently owned first, second and seventh
slots on iTunes hip-hop chart, expressed his relation with music by
stating "I let my faith bleed out in my music.” Lacrae defines
his faith, i.e. Christianity, as an identity while hip-hop forms his
culture. In this way, his music naturally takes on his faith-based
worldview.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Transformational
Approach</span></span></h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Other
artists believe that music itself can have a healing effect
irregardless of explicit faith-based lyrics. These artists including
Lady Gaga and Kanye West have argued that worship and music are
virtually the same. Many have responded by claiming that identity, or
what is in your heart is really what infuses your music with a
particular power.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> While
all of this is interesting, it speaks to a larger trend within
popular culture to appropriate religious themes and even construct
pseudo-religious values in the wake of an overall dispersal of
dogmatic religion. For our culture today, we can see that faith-based
music, or music as faith, is the growing trend and will continue to
evolve drawing the secular and sacred crowds for each new generation.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-66485437344821012882012-10-12T14:17:00.002-07:002012-10-16T10:18:41.785-07:00The Rise of Contemporary Christian Music- Part 1 Despite a recent poll suggesting 1 in 5 Americans are no longer “religious,” Contemporary Christian Music is not only going strong, but <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/17/christian-musics-moment-how-tobymac-and-lecrae-conquered-the-countdown/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fentertainment+%28TIME%3A+Entertainment%29">compounding its influence in American popular music</a>. What gave rise to this phenomena, and how did this previously debased media form become one of the most effective forms of evangelism in the modern era? We shall explore this question in a two-part series exploring popular music in American Christianity.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
The Devil's Music</h4>
The 1950s and 1960s in America were a time of cataclysmic change including the introduction of occult and eastern traditions into mainstream music, widespread reactions and demonstrations to the government, and a general suspicion of authority that pervaded youth culture. The response of the Christian church to rock music followed a similar response towards these changes in the overall American culture: fear and suspicion. David Wilkerson wrote "The Devil's Heartbeat: Rock and Roll!" (1959) in this climate, lambasting rock and roll as an inherently immoral form of music. In addition to the content of rock music affirming immoral sexual practices, Wilkerson claimed that Rock music was also seen as unconsciously altering the minds of youth causing them to become unwitting social deviants. Others alleged during that time that there were "hidden messages" in rock music, influencing the youth to do drugs, commit crimes, etc. There was a deep fear regarding how the music itself was able to induce ecstatic and emotional states that could override human reason, leading to unnatural or even "primal" acts of debauchery (many feared that the undulations of Elvis Presley were corrupting the sexual integrity of their teenagers). Some even went so far as to allege that the rhythm and volume of rock music was destructive to the human body, citing studies done on houseplants that showed their degeneration via repeated exposure to rock music.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="2010-01-07-DevilMusic.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-01-07-DevilMusic.jpg" /></div>
<br />
You can watch this video production from 1992 that discusses some of the theological points of contention<br />
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<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Tradition of Worship</h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Old Testament God sings to us "</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(</span><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="lbsBibleRef" data-reference="Zephaniah 3.17" data-version="nasb95" href="http://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Zephaniah%203.17" style="color: #003366;" target="_blank">Zephaniah 3:17</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">). There is also a tradition of worship and the use of</span><a href="http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/rockmusic.html" style="font-family: inherit;"> instrumental accompaniment </a><span style="font-family: inherit;">throughout the Psalms that continues even into the liturgies of the early church. In this sense, there seems to be little issue with particular forms of music in the Christian tradition. However, the problem arises when many began to consider that music itself could be influential in a morally destructive way. However, some Christians began to consider that Rock music could be cleansed of these "evil" </span>influences if the music was oriented towards Godly worship and away from hedonistic music festivals, sex and drugs.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Sanitizing the Devil</h3>
Following these insights into worship music, some church worship leaders attempted to provide an alternative form of music that would offer a spiritual, sanitized form of rock for the youth to consume. In the 1960s, Evangelical churches began to incorporate non-traditional musical instruments and rock-like innovations in the liturgy leading to new kinds of music in the church. Largely Evangelical rock music has been limited to the rise of soft rock, adult contemporary, and country, however towards the end of the 1990s rap, grunge and hip hop became popular forms for expressing Christian worship.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Larry Norman - Can't Take Away the Lord</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/eMtbXqa2B3I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
Larry Norman released the album <i>Upon this Rock</i> in 1969, considered by many to be one of the first Christian Rock Albums. In this clip you can see the influence of blues, the upbeat tempo characteristic of Rock and Roll, a more guttural singing timbre and the influence of the almost ubiquitous <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzWXhAU5ZVs">4/4 rock and roll drum beat.</a><br />
<br />
Willow Creek Church was formed in 1975, and the Willow Creek Association formed in 1992 as a way to connect Evangelical pastors in new ways of reaching their local communities, utilizing different forms of music, and incorporating staging, lighting and other elements from mainstream cinema and the music industry. The WCA also began to launch a Global leadership summit to provide tools to a worldwide assortment of churches for developing their congregations in America and abroad. It has since grown to become largest networked church association in America committed to adapting the style and idiom of contemporary culture into their worship, sermons and overall message.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/g7Apv8z22Qs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Exponential Growth of Contemporary Christian Music Industry</h3>
Growth in the Contemporary Christian Music industry has been phenomenal. From $188 million in recorded music sales in 1990 to about $700 million in 2007, and has continued to grow steadily since then. In 2012, two Christian artists TobyMac and Lacrae both <a href="http://entertainment.topnewstoday.org/entertainment/article/3351071/">topped the music charts consistently</a> with <i>Eye on It</i> and <i>Butterfly Kisses</i>. Not since Amy Grant exploded onto the music scene in 2006 has there been such a resurgence in popularity in Christian music. As the music of TobyMac and Lacrae attest to, their music is often a blended form including influences from hip hop, heavy metal, punk, country, and alternative rock. Other successful artists that have broken down the divide between contemporary Christian music and secular music industry include Jars of Clay, Styper, Switch Foot, and many others.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Engaging with the Corporate World</h3>
The growth of Contemporary Christian Music Industry has been the result of a melding and merging of the corporate practices with Christian messages. Word Inc. and Sparrow Records used promotion styles borrowed from contemporary music industry to increase of distribution of Christian music, advertise artists, bands, and generally help spread such music all across the world. <i><a href="http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/">Cornerstone Festival</a></i> in Peoria, Illinois is one example of a 4-day gathering or Woodstock-like event where participants camp out and listen to Contemporary Christian Music, ask for autographs, dance and generally enjoy the music. Knott's Berry Farm also hosts a "Jubilation" concert each year which draws Contemporary Christian musicians into the mix.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1341/1048507186_55b1312ea8.jpg&sa=X&ei=WIh4UN_hDYf1iQKa94DIBg&ved=0CAoQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNHMxG0leSnW27bE_7LGhiUMYFwmxw" /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Criticisms and Justification</h3>
Because of the growing affinity between music industry, secular culture, and christian worship music, many band members have been forced to justify not only their appropriation of secular culture, but also how they navigate the tricky waters of "staying pure" to their message. usually the justification comes in three forms:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>All music comes from God</i></b></li>
</ul>
<br />
Since all things from God are good, then no form of worship is inherently evil.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>Mode vs Message</i></b></li>
</ul>
<br />
Instead, a proper Christian must modify the mode of delivery by staying true to an authentic message of Christian salvation in their lyrics. Although this continues to be the official stance of many Christian musicians, listeners have also seen that the "message" has been toned down or diluted (sometimes not even mentioning Christian words at all, or making somewhat vague references to God). This begs the question how much the "mode" has bent or constricted the "message."<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><i><b>Boundaries for Musicians</b></i></li>
</ul>
<br />
IX Saves developed a particular attitude towards dealing with female fans called the "Mackability" laws. Basically, it holds each band member to not remain alone after a rock concert in the presence of another female, nor to flirt or make advances towards one of the star-struck fans back stage. There are also boundaries for drug use, and proper actions that befit a Christian.<br />
<br />
In this way, Musicians have argued that their accommodation of secular music and some practices of the music industry have not contaminated either their worship of the Lord or their Christianity.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Next time</h4>
Response to "Hipster" faith from Christian leaders<br />
State of worship music in faith today<br />
The larger debate: When are we eating with sinners, and when are we adopting sinful habits?<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-34929411739891750292012-10-02T14:24:00.001-07:002012-10-02T19:48:44.499-07:00Road to a PhD<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="172" src="http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd051109s.gif&sa=X&ei=lzlqUP23FcGUiAKjuIDwBA&ved=0CAkQ8wc4CQ&usg=AFQjCNHqeYc4ufkPNLMoFJac3BysR-YEEA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From one of my favorites: <a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1171">http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1171</a></td></tr></tbody></table>When I graduated this past year from Claremont School of Theology, I could not escape the eerie sense of foreboding that the career I was stepping into was eroding slowly before my eyes. Working as an Adjunct Professor this semester at the local Community College, and making near-poverty wages, I am faced with the reality that the road to a PhD is not financially feasible for me (or heck for most people). This punctuates my ever-evolving search for a career, sense of identity and my dilemma with education in general.<br />
<br />
<h3>My dilemma: Forecast for fewer jobs in the near future</h3>I jumped into an MA because I was genuinely excited to learn more about the Christian faith and its implications for my personal devotion. What the degree earned me however, was neither respect in the field nor a clear path forward. Looking back, a Masters in Divinity would have given me a clearer path, but I was committed to this vision of following the academic trajectory; ie writing papers, and not necessarily working intimately in a church setting. This year, I have been discussing the next option with my professors from graduate school and outlining my concern about the job market and my prospects afterwards. To be honest, each professor has confirmed my suspicions --<b><i> a PhD in religious studies holds an increasingly <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/05/flat_jobs_outlook_for_english_and_foreign_language_positions">bleak prospect for employment</a>.</i></b><br />
<br />
Although I am fascinated by the study of religion, the PhD would set me back about 5 years and I would not most likely have a job for a few years afterwards.<br />
<br />
<h3>So, where to next?</h3>I have been pursuing an education program here at Pima Community College and things are going well. Receiving a teaching certification and working at a high school might become my chosen path. I might also begin dabbling in other aspects of education as the future is more or less in some form of direct assessment, or internet based learning (perhaps a <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/01/competency-based-education-may-get-boost">competancy-based course</a> is the beginning of such a thing). I might also receive a tenure position here at Pima Community College where I am teaching as an Adjunct Professor (although that is mostly unlikely). Or the position might transition into some sort of online component (you never know). And finally, there is this blog where I will continue to conduct and comment on research in the field.<br />
<br />
<h3>New Frontiers</h3>I am writing this post to help those who are in a similar situation. If you want to wallow in the reality of the field here is a great post to <a href="http://www.selloutyoursoul.com/2010/11/21/phd-in-english-and-life-after-grad-school/">check out.</a> When you are ready to move on, here are some tips things to learn (I'm working on these myself)<br />
<br />
<ul><li>learn basic html / Dreamweaver</li><li>learn Camastia</li><li>master Photoshop</li></ul><br />
Once you have developed these 3 skills, you can increase your marketability and hopefully land some entry-level job in sales, marketing or a non-profit. You could also try and eventually teach your own online courses or write for a growing online magazine. The horizon is actually quite open when you disentangle yourself from the mind frame that the academy (brick and mortar school) are all there is to a quality career doing what you love. Well, that is it for now. Best of luck to all fellow humanities majors!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-25866341692330518822012-09-26T21:26:00.000-07:002012-10-18T09:49:32.838-07:00The Power of Our Expectations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmR0up8LtCExL3LZKsrnVcQxmm-K3-FtLMWBH0gG0kU8fMyZWVZhghn_16tB6iJ6h5pvqm09hl45OaXc_0flvdb-D05b4HTvzc90dqyO-PKPA7VnQUqmupGiezY3zdvSA2W61nGeCbVks/s1600/url.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmR0up8LtCExL3LZKsrnVcQxmm-K3-FtLMWBH0gG0kU8fMyZWVZhghn_16tB6iJ6h5pvqm09hl45OaXc_0flvdb-D05b4HTvzc90dqyO-PKPA7VnQUqmupGiezY3zdvSA2W61nGeCbVks/s400/url.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
A recent <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/09/26/can-we-shrink-portions-and-the-obesity-epidemic-with-psychology/">article in Scientific America</a> suggests that half the battle in fighting the obesity epidemic lies in managing our expectations of how full we might feel after a meal. They suggest restaurants can also help us by changing the title of their meals to something like "just right" selections in order to subconsciously trick us into expecting to eat less and thus to lose weight.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Power of Self Persuasion</h4>
A similar technique has been used by monks for centuries to reduce their expectations and attachments to particular objects in the world. Essentially, these buddhist monks would perform naming and other <a href="http://chapelboro.com/pages/13474426.php?contentType=4&contentId=10855622/"> destructive rituals </a>to slowly change their perceptions of material things over time, and begin to let go of desire. While we might not have the same goal in mind when we attempt to curb our unhealthy eating habits, we can still use similar mind tricks to change our own expectations and slowly reform our habits.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Changing Our Expectations</h3>
If your expectation of a good workout is maintaining an elevated heart-rate for a period of time, you will notice you feel different effects post workout (and weeks afterwards) than if you simply expect to sweat or to be minimally sore. Similarly, if you expect devotional worship to be an ecstatic explosion of emoton, you might not feel satisfied or even overlook services that provide quiet moments of introspection that are necessary for meditating on the speakers message and hearing that still small voice that presses you to go deeper.<br />
<br />
So, whether it be an attempt to ward off obesity, get a better workout or reach deeper spiritual enrichment, our preconceived expectations and definitions of everyday experiences can be reshaped through the use of the mind to help us accomplish those goals for self and soul improvement.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-51167670201724366962012-09-25T13:30:00.000-07:002012-09-25T17:19:28.378-07:00Moving from Regret to Self-Compassion<img src="http://www.google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://www.dieselcrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/hope1.jpg&sa=X&ei=jhBiUO6ZE-WjiALDyoH4BA&ved=0CAkQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNHV8-6UKeNYtNkndOlwD-BVfXOGrw" /><br />
<h2><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5946107/the-regret-fallacy">The Regret Fallacy</a></h2><blockquote class="tr_bq">…"And so the only time you ever regret a decision, is if you'd rather give up every single part of your life from then until now. Now, thinking about it that way, do you regret not leaving school?<br />
"No."<br />
"And that, my friend, is the regret fallacy."</blockquote>I have struggled with regretting my decisions, especially after leaving seminary and finding minimal work and minimal appreciation for my education. After this experience, I regretted ever going into the field of religion. However, do I wish that I had never gone into seminary or pursued my passion for learning about Christianity and deepening my faith? Well no, looking back this was one of the best decisions of my life. Through seminary I was able to meet a great number of people, grow as a leader, and tackle some tough ethical and moral problems in the classroom. So <strong><em>my regret fallacy is that I loose sight of my history and no longer appreciate how my life has unfolded, imagining that I would be happier anywhere else.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em><br />
</em></strong><br />
<h3>Sin of Regret</h3>This regret fallacy is problematic from a Christian standpoint because God so often calls to us to embrace the reality of a relationship with him, and not to dwell on living in the past. This regret can seep into our lives and suck away our energy, time and passion. This past year for example, the fear of both regret and failure tormented me for sometimes days on end. There was that voice inside of myself telling me “you are not good enough, you failed and you need to change everything about who you are because you are not [insert whatever lie we think we need]”. But this voice, and the sentiment of regret, is a sin that is ultimately self-destructive.<br />
<br />
<h3>Getting past regret but steering clear of Pride</h3>A recent article in <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=self-compassion-fosters-mental-health">Scientific America</a> suggests the best way to improve mental health may not be the result of increasing one’s self confidence or pride, but their “self-compassion.” The article describes this new attitude as akin to sitting with a close friend who can take an earnest assessment of your foibles and show you that these mistakes do not define your identity. Rather than the friend (or often times parent) who sits down and lists every single reason you suck, why you made lousy decisions, and why you need to improve, the compassionate friend/self tries to place your faults in context of your overall growth. Self-compassion is not an attitude of complacency or pride, but it is a self narrative of compassion, honest feedback, and self forgiveness. <br />
<br />
<h3>Cultivating a compassionate response</h3>As I try to apply this narrative of self compassion with myself and interactions with my wife, I have started to see us both grow and become more confident people. Rather than mutually wounding each other, we are beginning to approach our faults in a way which strengthens us both. Some techniques I have learned to cultivate this compassionate attitude include:<br />
<ul><li>A daily ritual in front of a mirror where you practice letting that self-compassionate friend look at your faults as well as your strengths</li><li>If you believe in Christ, letting Jesus soothe you and trying to listen to his voice as a remark/correction for your life</li><li>Taking a 10 time-out when you are in a heated, angry moment to gather your thoughts and get at the heart of your anger, sadness or grief.</li></ul>These steps helped me, and I hope will help others to enter into a greater, more holistic and perhaps God-centered view of their lifeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-50022179687482947642012-09-24T15:54:00.002-07:002012-09-24T18:18:29.392-07:00A Webcam to Break Bad Habits?<h2>
Using Tech to help our Spiritual Disciplines</h2>
<a href="http://lifehacker.com/5945116/how-i-used-a-webcam-to-break-my-bad-habits-and-make-better-decisions">How I Used a Webcam to Break My Bad Habits and Make Better Decisions</a><br />
<br />
This article has some useful tips for how to overcome habits using webcam. It’s an interesting idea but one should not think that only the use of a webcam allows the author to break down bad habits. I think the 360-degree review that the author attempts to achieve by using a webcam to check in on his progress at night as well as a check-list to record his progress each day, is more beneficial towards his habit-breaking endeavor in general.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-45386561673987267352012-09-23T17:36:00.002-07:002012-09-25T13:32:22.690-07:00Response to "Jesus' Wife" Fragment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">
New Fragment, New Implications</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been a few days since this <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49075679/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_york_times/t/historian-says-piece-papyrus-refers-jesus-wife/#.UF94gY1lRxO">fragment</a> was made public,
touting itself originally as the “Gospel of Jesus' Wife.”
However, after the sensationalism of this fragment finally died down,
scholars have begun to look at the implications of this text for the
Christian community. Two main challenges have emerged to the claims made in this fragment,
and there are other implications which this fragment might suggest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
Challenge 1: 'Wife' refers to the Church in this
passage</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some Christian leaders have attempted to debunk the idea of Jesus
having a wife by claiming that this text in the fragment refers to the Church
metaphorically and not an actual woman. However, their claim is easily disproved because there are two more
accurate words that have been used to describe the Church as Jesus'
bride:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFEosoDSup8K-LS1x0NiocNbulmoAAre_k9KH7IoN4pElWtjg4HuGAGU1-YqNR9P3vmPtwnjJ63Ix-tVadv_Q3DEvyAkKZobSzt_oUeKLtDz1WpP46X4uJw79hlW85mP2nOjZOmN6OlnU/s1600/graphic+for+blog+post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFEosoDSup8K-LS1x0NiocNbulmoAAre_k9KH7IoN4pElWtjg4HuGAGU1-YqNR9P3vmPtwnjJ63Ix-tVadv_Q3DEvyAkKZobSzt_oUeKLtDz1WpP46X4uJw79hlW85mP2nOjZOmN6OlnU/s400/graphic+for+blog+post.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Mark 25:1-13 (Coptic Version)
the Greek word “parthenos” (meaning maiden, virgin) is used in
a parable referencing Church as the bride.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Revelation 25:7 (Coptic) the word (bride) is used to
refer to the Church. (“his bride made herself ready...”)</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In light of these references, and the fact that the Coptic
construction “pexe ic” is used most often when Jesus is talking
directly to either his disciples or other individuals, it does not
seem likely that wife here is a metaphorical reference to the Church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
Challenge 2: 'It is a forgery'</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This claim is still being debated, and I cannot comment on the chemical nature of the parchment. However, based on what has been said from the scholarly community in regards to the dating process, the text seems
to be an authentic piece from a fourth century papyri text. However some
textual analysis has suggested that the fragment borrows
substantially from different parts of the Gospel of Thomas, mixing phrases together in a deliberate fashion (giving the text a characteristically 'bad grammar'). I think the fragment is still too small
to conclude this, and philological analysis (comparing one text with
another) is notoriously more controversial and proven to be more inconclusive than carbon dating.<br />
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
In Conclusion: Does this mean Jesus had a wife?</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If proven to be a true fourth century papyri, than this
little fragment will be the first piece of evidence where Jesus
refers to his wife. At most, this text indicates that some communities
believed he had a wife, however it might also have some other
implications about early Christian communities.</div>
<ul>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
Some Christian communities may have believed Jesus took a
wife (Karen King's view, and she claims Mary Magdalene was Jesus'
wife; a belief supposedly covered up by the proto-Catholic Church).</div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
Some stories about Jesus having a wife may have been
circulated during the early centuries of Christianity (powerful
spiritual and religious leaders were known to have wives: Buddha,
Rama, David, Moses, etc.).</div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
Some may have thought Jesus left his wife, and this text
talks about that separation. Perhaps some groups believed Jesus was
forced to separate from his wife in order to fulfill his divine
calling (a similar tradition exists in Buddhism).</div>
</li>
</ul>
Given either interpretation you tend to align with, the implication of this fragment is very interesting for the future of Early Christian studies, and the discovery of more texts like this may also help elucidate one of the most theologically dynamic periods in Western history.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<h3>
</h3>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-90483223446396870102011-08-02T15:45:00.001-07:002012-09-23T17:26:36.598-07:00Tues 8-2 Matt 1:1, GenealogiesHere is the opening line of Matthew in Greek. A Translation and Commentary<br />
<div>
This is my attempt to keep up with my Greek by translation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
---------------------------------</div>
<div>
1 Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ.</div>
<div>
<div>
Nom.S N.F.Gen.S M.Gen.S - - Nom<br />
<i>genesis</i>, to come about<br />
//Book of Genealogy of Jesus Christ Son of David Son of Abraham</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
2 Ἀβραὰμ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰσαάκ, Ἰσαὰκ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰακώβ, Ἰακὼβ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν </div>
<div>
N.S V.I.Aor.Act.3.S N.M.Acu.S & V.I.Aor.Act.3.S - - & - -</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>gennaw, to beget</div>
<div>
//Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ἰούδαν καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ,</div>
<div>
- & N.M.A.Plural N.M.Gen.S</div>
<div>
//Judas and his brothers</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
3 Ἰούδας δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Φάρες καὶ τὸν Ζάρα ἐκ τῆς Θαμάρ, Φάρες δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν </div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> from F.G.S</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
//and Judas begat Perez (fares) and Zara from Tamar, and Perez begat</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ἑσρώμ, Ἑσρὼμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀράμ,</div>
<div>
// Hezron, and Hezron begat Aram</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
4 Ἀρὰμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀμιναδάβ, Ἀμιναδὰβ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ναασσών, Ναασσὼν δὲ</div>
<div>
//and Aram begat the Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahashon </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
ἐγέννησεν τὸν Σαλμών,</div>
<div>
//begat Salmon</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
5 Σαλμὼν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Βόες ἐκ τῆς Ῥαχάβ, Βόες δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωβὴδ ἐκ τῆς Ῥούθ,</div>
<div>
//and Salmon begot Boes from Rahab, and Boes begot Obed from Ruth </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ἰωβὴδ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰεσσαί,</div>
<div>
//and Obed begot Jesse</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(Mat 1:1-5 BGT)</div>
</div>
<div>
----------------------------</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The beginning of Matthew begins by giving a long history of how Jesus came about. For this particular gospel this is unique. He does not begin by discussing the first miracles of Jesus, but he gives a very earthly account of his generation. Some scholars suggested this points to the need for the humanity of Jesus to be justified. More likely, this is in keeping with a very Jewish genealogy and it lends credibility to Jesus Jewish origins for the author. Thus, this opening line points to the agenda of the author to establish the Jewishness of Jesus, and his fulfillment of the Jewish law and prophecy.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-73150788591790319462011-04-18T02:23:00.000-07:002011-04-18T02:26:46.719-07:00The DAR Initiative<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:normal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:normal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Our Community Now,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="body"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.</span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></i><span class="bodybold"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></b></span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.pilgrimplace.org/images/CSTCampus.gif&sa=X&ei=tvWMTe3LJY6asAPE_rGQCQ&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNGmVh99F6kAjXFdL-vknly1kMiVHg"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-no-proof:yes; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.pilgrimplace.org/images/CSTCampus.gif&sa=X&ei=tvWMTe3LJY6asAPE_rGQCQ&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNGmVh99F6kAjXFdL-vknly1kMiVHg" href="http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.pilgrimplace.org/images/CSTCampus.gif&sa=X&ei=tvWMTe3LJY6asAPE_rGQCQ&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNGmVh99F6kAjXFdL-vknly1kMiVHg" style="'width:300pt;height:224.25pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'" button="t"> <v:fill detectmouseclick="t"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif" title="CSTCampus"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span><img border="0" width="400" height="299" src="file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.pilgrimplace.org/images/CSTCampus.gif&sa=X&ei=tvWMTe3LJY6asAPE_rGQCQ&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNGmVh99F6kAjXFdL-vknly1kMiVHg" shapes="Picture_x0020_1" /></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">How did the initiative come about? A brief history…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span> </span>My experience at CST has been mixed. I have had a wonderful education here, but I have also experienced some disproportionate treatment in various offices. Our survey was an attempt to capture the tenure of the campus and gather other kinds of similar experiences students had voiced. In lieu of the results of the survey, we (the student council) proposed a number of ways to move forward. There were clear things that students wanted done, like improving internet access and increasing financial aid officers. But we also noticed that there was a general inconsistency of treatment from the various offices, which spoke to a greater need to shift the culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span> </span>We then proceeded to discuss how to move forward with the survey in two meetings, between student council and Committee on Community life. But what seemed to keep getting missed in these meetings was that we were really hoping to change not only specific policies, but how students were generally being treated at CST. I then met with Ruth Marston and Loraine Ceniceros to discuss moving forward with the survey. We came to the conclusion that specific persons, or specific situations did not necessarily leave us feeling disillusioned with CST, but it was a whole institutional culture which encouraged students, faculty and staff to treat each other without respect, dignity and accountability.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span> </span>We thus cited these three areas where the whole community could be improved. These areas were with regards to the Dignity, in affirming the rights and inherent worth of each person in every interaction. The second was Accountability, to assure that certain practices were documented, and that students could know how the staff/faculty was reporting back to the students. And the third was Respect which calls for a consistency of treatment, and builds on affirming the inherent dignity of each person as a human being. Because we believe these three areas are problems for the whole institution, we decided to collaborate with faculty member Karen Dalton to help us shape the statements and the vision.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span> </span>On May 15 at 10:30 in the morning student council met with the President to purpose our “DAR Initiative” to change the culture of CST. It was enthusiastically accepted by the Dean, and endorsed by the President to become (after vetting, and involvement of other staff members) a statement of institutional values in the formation of the New University. The process for review will include the three spheres of the community (students, staff and faculty) coming together to work by these 3 principles of DAR, and figuring out specifics by which we can measure tangible progress in each area.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">What kind of feedback do you need from students? </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">I ask all students to do these three things:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> * </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Stay involved (respond to emails, reply to the fbook page, meet us at Dean’s Tea)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom: .0001pt;mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> * </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Stay informed (read emails, read CSTVoice and the fbook page)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> * </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Speak out (vote in elections, spread the word about DAR but suggesting the page or asking a question, email us)<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span> </span>This initiative is intended to be a collaborative process, and we need students to be involved in the formation of the specifics of this plan. To be a part of this process join the facebook page, and submit your opinions and comments on DAR: </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/DAR-Initiative-at-Claremont-School-of-Theology/100225946731399" target="_blank"><span>http://www.facebook.com/pages</span><span>/</span><wbr><span></span><span style="float:left">DAR-Initiative-at-Claremont-S</span><span>c</span><span></span><wbr><span style="float:left">hool-of-Theology/100225946731</span><span>3</span><span></span><wbr><span style="float:left">99</span></a></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">When will it go into effect? </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">During the summer, Members of staff, faculty and students will come together to decide on specifics of the DAR initiative. Then in the fall, it will be incorporated into the new vision of the school and shared by staff, faculty, and students during orientation. (The challenge will be to not lose the student voice in deciding the specifics for how DAR is enforced)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Anything else you want the campus to know about it?</span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; ">This is not meant to be a replacement of the petition which students were asked to sign a week ago. That was a separate entity we presented to the president, and to which he responded. Those specifics are getting worked on, and timelines are already in place (and should come via email). This initiative is actually an expansion and a hope to transform the culture of CST. It is more than specific actions; it is a vision for the future, and for the creation of a collaborative environment of co-learning.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span">As I leave CST, I want to thank everyone who helped this past year. The DAR Initiative is the culmination of more than a year of hard work trying to fight for students’ rights and tackle the problems of this institution. Our work is by no means done, but this gives us a base from which to build, and it ensures students voices are part of this conversation.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p><p></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-46756624215470124362011-03-25T17:33:00.000-07:002011-03-29T23:54:37.835-07:00Short 4-7 Minute Introduction on Sunday<div>I'm not really sure what to write about this subject, but here is what I am composing as an introduction. I am going to be introducing this book sunday:</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <img src="data:image/jpg;base64,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" /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><strong><span lang="EN">Febe Armanios </span></strong><span lang="EN">is an Assistant Professor of History at Middlebury College, Vermont. Her most recent publication, <b><i>Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt</i></b> (Oxford University Press, 2011), highlights how Copts identified and distinguished themselves from other groups in Ottoman Egyptian society by turning to an array of religious traditions, such as the visitation of saints’ shrines, the relocation of major festivals to remote destinations, the development of new pilgrimage practices, as well as the writing of sermons that articulated a Coptic religious ethos in reaction to Catholic missionary discourses.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; ">Your speech can be 4-7 minutes before the lecture (around 3:00 pm) and may include your experience with Coptic studies in Claremont. For example (without limiting your choices), you may touch on course selection, how the courses fit in your study goals, resources, etc.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; "><div><br /></div><div>1) My exp with Coptic studies </div><div>Learned about the struggles with the Western Christian community during the crusades of 13th century</div><div>Learned how they struggeld to survive with their monastic way of life against the Abbasid govt with pole tax of 714 which dove into the coffers of the Egyptian monks. Also the burning of icons, and branding of the Copts during this time.</div><div>Learned how this group, and particularly arch bishops of later period fostered a real political change for the govt of Egypt.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's probably enough. I will also touch on my own interests in understanding this history and how learning about Coptic experience helps us appreciate and understand the history of Christianity in general.</div><div><br /></div><div>UPDATE:</div><div>Paper went well and I am now just waiting for feedback on my masters thesis. Wish me luck</div><div>-TIm</div><div><br /></div></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8648629046940337302.post-11332485626227676262011-03-25T14:38:00.000-07:002011-03-25T14:47:29.299-07:00Master's Thesis- feedback appreciated.<p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><br /><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><br /><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><br /><br /></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"> <span ><span ><b>The Influence of Alfarabi on the </b></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><span ><span ><b><br />Political Thought of Aquinas</b></span></span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; page-break-after: avoid"><span ><span ><i>Tracing the Development of Philosophy in the Latin West<br />and the Interaction between it and the Arabic East</i></span></span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><br /><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><br /><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"> <span ><span >Tim Urista</span></span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"> <span ><span ><br />MA Thesis 3/21/2011</span></span></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; font-style: normal; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><span ><span >Advisers:</span></span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"> <span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal">Professor Anselm Min</span></span></span></span></p><p align="CENTER" style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 0.07in; page-break-after: avoid"><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><br />Ahmed Alwisha</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 0.07in"><br /><br /></p> <h1 class="western" align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%"><a name="__RefHeading__783_304626567"></a> <span >1 Introduction</span></h1> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >1.1 Expanding the Influence of Islamic Philosophy</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>We often think of the medieval period and its scientific development as a primarily Christo- Roman phenomena given such philosophers as Boethius, Cicero and the Aristotle. While important indeed, we often overlook the importance of Islamic philosophy in not simply the retransmission of Greek philosophy to the Western world, but as developing crucial metaphysical concepts which would prove quite important in the overall history of philosophy and science in general. More importantly, where this is acknowledged such as in the works of Aquinas, we are all too often seem quick to disregard or mildly gloss over the influence of Arabic philosophy in his reception of Aristotle. But this is a crucial mistake, and there is considerable justification not only for a simple interaction but a deep and conceptual legacy found in conceptual framework of Aquinas. </span> </p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >1.2 Aruging for the influence of Alfarabi on Aquinas</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There is one crucial Islamic philosopher who perhaps has been most overlooked when considering the influence of Arabic philosophy on the political thought of Aquinas and other medieval theologians. This is the great political philosopher Alfarabi. Writing in the 10th century, it might seem that he is about three hundred years removed from more contemporary philosophers such as Avveroes, however there are three reasons which become most apparent when justifying the influence of this philosopher on Aquinas. First, one can see the historical context in which Aquinas found himself, where the great universities of Italy held copies of Islamic medical journals, and metaphysical treatises during the 13th century. Second, the literary works of Aquinas in many places bear quite similar phrasing and distinctions between the two thinkers. And finally, where these similarities cannot simply be explained by a common Aristotelian source, one can show that the conceptual nature of Aquinas work shows a great development and synthesis of some exclusively Alfarabian thought which may even lead to the development of his theory of natural law. </span> </p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >1.3 Two reasons why this matters</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There are two reasons for undertaking such a project like this, which might seem highly speculative and conjectural. First, if we can show that Islamic philosophy was at the heart of some of the great developments of Christian theology, and might even have served as a catalyst, we can show that these two religious traditions had an intimate exchange during this period. Perhaps it might even acknowledge a kind of fidelity between two contemporary enemies. Moreover, the second reason is historiographical. This kind of in depth comparison will show that the history of political philosophy is largely indebted to the Islamic community, and that the scientific legacy of Western tradition is in fundamental ways shaped by the East. In turn, this would support further justification for studying the history Islamic philosophy itself. Therefore, while this project might at first seem purely academic, it is important contribution to understanding the interaction between these two traditions which during the same period would come to a violent clash and give up on collaborative, scientific endeavors. </span> </p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >1.4Following the work of Robert Hammond</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Before we begin, it is important to acknowledge that the foundation of this comparative work was already done by Richard Hammond in his famous book </span><span ><i>the Philosophy of Alfarabi and its influence on Medieval Thought</i></span><span > (1947). This work was fundamental and some of the following comparison will draw on Hammond's insights. In that work, he brought passages from Thomas Aquinas and Alfarabi into parallel tables for comparison. However, although he showed that Aquinas obviously repeats much of the same language as Alfarabi, subsequent studies have been forthcoming to further establish the link between these two thinkers. Moreover, the "evidence" between them has perhaps been written off much in the same way Alfarabi has, as little more than a derivation of Aristotelian thought. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For this reason, I identify three problems which have prevented more serious consideration of the influence of Alfarabi on Aquinas. First, the Scholastic tradition which had a great influence on Aquinas has long disavowed its intellectual heritage to the great writings of the Islamic philosophers. Second, since Aquinas read both Alfarabi and Aristotle in translation much of the parallels which were shown by Hammond, could have been dismissed as derivative incorporation of Aristotle's work. And third, Alfarabi was considered to be little more than a thinly veiled mimicry of Aristotle and Noe Platonism in early scholarship of this discipline. Thus, these problems will be addressed in turn to show not only that Aquinas knew Alfarabi, but he drew on his own unique thought, and not simply Aristotelian tradition. </span> </p> <h1 class="western" align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2Historical Justification</span></h1> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.1House of Wisdom Movement: Islamic translation of Greek Philosophy (8th century-13th century)</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The history of Islamic Philosophy begins with the translation movement in 8th century. During this time, Persian Zoroastrians, along with Nestorian, Monophysite, and Jacobyte Christians were drawn into the fold as the Islamic empire expanded into Spain, upward into Byzantine territory, and eastward past the Caspian Sea. With the Umayyad government, this political conquest also culminated in a particular linguistic conquest with Arabic initiated as the national language of the Empire. Moreover, under the governance of the caliphate al-Mamun, a school of translation was established utilizing to full effect the works of Nestorian and Monophysite theological schools in order to begin translation of their medical and astronomic works into the national Arabic. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This initial translation movement led to an interest in Greek works of philosophy, including the revered works of Aristotle, Plato, and Platonius. According to the historian Majid Fakhry, the House of Wisdom (or Bayt al-Hikmah) is indebted to a particular dream in which Aristotle appeared before al-Mamun and engaged in a dialogue about the good of nature and then dispersed. This encounter ended with the advice of the Greek sage “to cling to the confession of unity [or monotheist creed]” (Fakhry, 11). This lead the caliph al-Mamun in the 8th ce to establish the House of Wisdom as an official institute and library for translation and research. In addition to this, he also sent out emissaries to retrieve books for translation as well as appointed officers and heads of the Institute. From this institute, great works of Greek thought would be translated and preserved including </span><span ><i>Theologia Aristotelias</i></span><span > which radically influenced the concept of the Soul in the work of al-Kindi and others. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But while this dream, and the pragmatic concerns within the Greek medical and astronomical texts, undoubtedly led to particular inquiries into Greek philosophy, there was another atmosphere within Islamic theology which created a culture willing and eager for philosophical texts about logic and human knowledge. Within Islamic theology prior to this period, there had been a growing division between the Mut’azalites and the Ahsarites on the position of human agency and God’s power. Famously, the Mu’tazalites argued that human will played certain agency in bringing about God’s will, while Asharites and Qaddarites fiercely opposed this by stating that God circumscribed even human will and action. The nature of the interaction between divine will and human will brought up complex questions about the nature of human life and the nature of being itself, for if God could circumscribe even human action, then what was the place of human action in relation to their deeds. In short, this raised the question that if human will, or human agency is relegated to God then where do we locate the role of human beings?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For these reasons we can see the interrelated and complex problem of ontology which Kalam, or Islamic theology, had begun to explore. Given that Greek philosophy, and especially Aristotle in this respect, provided systematic methodology in the form of logic for going about solving these problems, it seems that it was only a matter of time until the discovery of these philosophical texts would prompt an entire discipline devoted to the interpretation and elucidation of these philosophers. Moreover, because Greek philosophy also sought to define the realm of the soul and it’s relation to the material body it would again become not only relevant to the form of theological argumentation, but even on some of the key issues like the causality of God and nature of the soul. For these reason, it seems natural that such works would be appealing in later years, and would help “sharpen” the thinking of the early philosophers as well as help develop their own concepts of soul, cause and existence. Thus, there seemed to be a genuine hope that Greek philosophy could help provide tools to supplement theological discussions and perhaps solve some of the looming issues of the day.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Given this dual promise of philosophy, the first theologian or philosopher to truly assemble the works of Syriac translators and provide his own commentaries was al-Kindi. Al-Kindi’s work can be said to present its own unique contribution to tackling these theological questions. While al-Kindi begins by translating commentaries of Greek philosophers, he also began to develop his own ideas revolving around Qur’anic exegesis. In the Cambridge companion, Peter Adamson asserts that when “al-Kindi explains that the Qur’an (55:6) says that the heavens and trees prostrate themselves” before God, al-Kindi uses this as an opportunity to explain that the heavens are the instrument of the divine providence. Moreover when God wills something his command is “be and it is” provides al-Kindi an opportunity to argue for creation ex-nihilo or that being is brought forth from non-being, a radical opinion which draws on his conclusion about the impossibility of creation having eternal qualities. In this way, al-Kindi postulates his own theories of the universe as not being eternal, which conflicts with Islamic theology as well as some Greek philosophers and marks the beginning of Islamic journey into philosophy.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Furthermore, on the question of the role of philosophy and prophetic tradition, Adamson elucidates a subtle point in the writings of al-Kindi. While the prophet might seem to have an easier time coming at truth than the philosopher, the content of both of their knowledge is the same. While the ultimate aim of both is the same, al-Kindi according to Adamson wanted to utilize the power and coherence of Aristotelian thought in order to show how the methodologies themselves might be challenged. Such that even if the message is the same, the peripheral concerns set up the logical proofs needed to arrive at the kind of true knowledge provided by the Qur’an. Hence for the purposes of leading, guiding and presenting a coherent systematic framework connecting other disciplines and contexts, al-Kindi proved to be essential.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, while this might seem slightly straightforward, al-Kindi’s insistence on metaphysical knowledge and the causality of nature would also prove dangerous to Islamic theology. In the development of his commentaries, al-Kindi insisted that the world was of one “eternal and homogeneous cause” (Nagel, 185) which he identified with the “True One” slightly modifying the Neo-Platonic name of “The One”. This cause was to be understood as undergirding all religions as the divine Being and revealed God within Islam. And therefore everything which unfolded in the universe was a “consistent causality” such that knowing the constellation of stars and planets let one predict the future, and the whole world could be said to united under one universal soul, or overlord mind (ibid, 186). And because the universe was essentially a causality, it could be known through the intellect, of which al-Kindi defines four aspects of ‘aql. In this respect then, it raised seriously problems for future theologians because it seemed to diminish God as ultimate creator of both being and essence into a kind of inspiring force, or first cause entirely, not the kind of absent and entirely other creator who guided and shaped the entire created world without the aid of human actions, or actions of any other intellect.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Moreover, this raised a serious concern about the agency of human endeavors. For al-Kindi, while revelatory and philosophic knowledge were essentially the same, “human beings were gradually able to increase their knowledge of the world by way of the four kinds of intellect” and in this respect these techniques cultivated by examining the world had to be applied to understand the divine knowledge which was so condensed. Moreover, The philosophers did not need to depend on these revelations but rather because everything existed had its own particular and unmistakable truth according to the first cause, the essential nature of all things could be known independently and in this knowing one might reach a deep connection with God (Napel, 187). This basic understanding of God while providing a strong basis for human inquiry and human direction also introduced a very difficult link between human endeavors within the world and human endeavors to live up to the contents of revealed law. For this reason, the question of knowledge became a central tension between philosophy and theology, or between the philosopher and the theologian.</span></p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.2Short Biography of Alfarabi</span></h2> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Following al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, an Islamic philosopher born in 870 ce in Turkestan, would consider himself to be following in a tradition quite distinct from that of al-Kindi even though he would essentially elaborate on the role of the philosopher in prophetic discourse. According to David C. Reisman in the Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy chapter 4, al-Farabi did not seem to conceive of his predecessors as al-Kindhi or al-Razi. To demonstrate this, Reisman displays a quote from Alfarabi’s </span><span ><i>Rise of Philosophy</i></span><span > to with the phrase “[teaching the] rest [of the logical works] remained private until the coming of Islam [when] the teaching was transferred from Alexandria to Antioch. There it remained for a long time [until] only one teacher was left…” (Reisman, 55). Surprisingly, there is no mention of the supposed first philosopher al-Kindhi, or al-Razi in this history even though they were engaged in utilizing Aristotelian as well as Neo-Platonic ideas. While disagreement alone would not place someone outside of the bound of philosophy, the sheer absence of al-Kindi is troubling for seeing Islamic philosophy as one monolithic body advanced in a singular trajectory. </span> </p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.2.1Philosophical life</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Although little is known of the early biography of Alfarabi, the formative period for his thought occurred after his move from his home town in the district of Farab to pursue studies in Baghdad by Yu</span><span ><span style="font-style: normal">h</span></span><span >anna b. Hailan (Fahkry, 112). In the subsequent years which followed, Alfarabi made contact with "Christian clerics who traced the origin of their studies to the school of Alexandria, the pagan Platonic philosophic school of philosophy that had Christianized during the later Roman period" and the remnants of this school scattered across Central Asia (Mahdi, 1). Although heavily steeped in Neoplatonic thought of his day, in fundamental ways Alfarabi seems to reject their main tenets and opts instead for a return to "pre-Neoplatonic" and Aristotelian works for his commentaries. Moreover, he also built political philosophy which challenged Greek philosophy to “investigate and make intelligible the political order based on prophecy, revelation, and the divine law” (Mahdi, 1). He died in 950 on the road to Damascus but nevertheless he grew very influential with Ibn Sina (Aviccena) his contemporary and Avveroes. Two later thinkers who would exert a great influence on the University in the West.</span></p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.2.2Philosophical Development, Alfarabi's Writings and Commentaries</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>During his time in Baghdad under Hailin, Alfarabi became known by many as the “Second Teacher” and as the leading logician and expositor of Plato and Aristotle during his day. He was instructed in Book of Demonstration which was also known as Posterior Analytics, and in a short time he composed many commentaries on logical works which gained him incredible prestige and notoriety for his day (Fahkry, 113). Similarily, Alfarabi also made many contributions to metaphysics, politics and physics with the culminating point being his </span><span ><i>Enumeration of the Sciences</i></span><span > which provided “the most comprehensive general introduction to Aristotelianism and Platonism in Arabic” (Fahry, 114). His political work called the </span><span ><i>Attainment of Happiness</i></span><span > was also held in high esteem and Ibn Sinna, or Avicenna, also took special note of these two works. Undoubtedly Alfarabi heavily influenced the logic and political philosophy of his day, because he developed the logic of Aristotle, and further utilized practical reason in his search to understand political science and the nature of ethics. There are even reports that he maybe have developed his own school which included Avicenna, and Averroes (Glick, 171). Clearly Avicenna is indebted to the theory of universals knowledge which inform practical reason as a doctrine of Alfarabi. Thus, not only was his thought central in and around Baghdad but it spread across the divide between the Umayadd and Abbasid governments, and left a lasting impact on Islamic as well as Christian thought.</span></p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.2.3Lasting Influence</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>While his logical and political thoughts survived in the works of Avicenna and Avverroes, his </span><span ><i>Enumeration of the Sciences</i></span><span > was also circulated throughout the Latin West, and became a foundational work for understanding and classifying scientific knowledge. One of the most prolific twelfth-century translators, Domingo Gundisalvo, combined parts of Alfarabi's works on the sciences to produce a Latin pastiche called </span><span ><i>De Divisone Philosophiae </i></span><span ><span style="font-style: normal">(Glick, 171)</span></span><span >. Other research also suggested that “the text was instrumental in guiding the twelfth-century Christian translators in Toledo and elsewhere in Spain to the very books they needed as they sough togain the </span><span ><i>doctrina Arabum</i></span><span ><span style="font-style: normal">” (ibid)</span></span><span >. Moreover, the new Universities of Europe were requiring readings in these new sciences and in the “new” Aristotle (ibid). A new “Alfarbi” school was even established which include al-Tawhidi, al-Sijistani, and al-'Amri. And finally, there are also reports that he was read by the Jewish philosopher Maimonides and was still used as a reference for poltiical and scientific thought fifty years after his reception in the West. Thus what becomes clear is that not only was Alfarbi read, but his thoughts on the classification of sciences which includes of course his commentaries on Aristotle survived in the Latin West and in the libraries of the new European Universities. </span> </p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.3Heritage of Islamic thought in Europe</span></h2> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.3.1Islamic Centers of Learning: Birth of the University</span></h3> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>It has already been mentioned that Islamic medical journals and scientific treatises were integrated into the universities of the West. However, they were also incorporated into the very fabric of course learning. As Abu al-Fazl explains, during the subsequent years following the crusades, Western world became aware of the riches of Islamic philosophy and Islamic scholars. During the waning years of the Crusades, the “Islamic centers of learning, specially the Courts of Toledo, Cordova and Palermo, attracted Christian scholars” (al-Fazl, 153). There the scholars came to learn philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and medicine, all of which during the middle ages were deeply interwoven with philosophy and logical expositions of the Islamic philosophers. 9</span><sup><span >th</span></sup><span > century Spanish Christians came to these locations in droves, and so much so that Alvaro in 854 complains and deplores their attraction to Islamic culture, tradition, etc.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The availability of Latin translations of Islamic-Greco works combined with the enrollment and integration of Western thinkers into Islamic centers of learning also played a large part in the overall birth of European University. This is evident in the fact that courses in these early institutions held required courses in logic, natural philosophy, geometry, music, arithmetic, and astronomy for anyone attempting to gain qualification for one of these universities (McGrath, 2). There were four faculties, one of the arts and the other “higher ones” including medicine, law, and theology (McGrath, 2). Aristotle became the source of much “natural philosophy” for discovery into the mystery of how God's creation functioned within the world. Thus, Aristotle and scientific inquiry became the basis of a new kind of biblical revolution which included investigation and logical demonstration, this tradition known took shape in the 11/12</span><sup><span >h</span></sup><span > century as Scholasticism (Cun-Liffe Jones, 266).</span></p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.3.2Scholastic Tradition; Spread of Islamic Influence into Paris</span></h3> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>As Islamic philosophical influence spread into the University, Christianity developed two responses to both Aristotle and the Islamic philosophers. The first was a skepticism towards the tainted works of the Greek philosophers, and a strong reaction against the phenomena of “Averroism.” Many Church leaders felt that the teachings of Averroes went against the immortality of the soul (a corruption of his actual teaching) and they condemned his teachings. But there was also a strong backlash against the censorship of Averroes, by “mostly educated people” who wanted to be free of religious restrictions (Al-Joubori, 402). This second camp made up the growing Scholastic movement which sought the acquisition of truth, and the pursuit of reason to shine on the light of doctrine.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Of central importance to Scholastic pursuit was understanding the tenets of logic, and logical reasoning. As Paris became one of the paramount Universities, it began to include courses not only in mathematics and medicine, but also grammar and rhetoric (Cunliffe-Jones, 266). By 1150, the art school in Paris became the most inflectional in Northern Europe for pursuit not just for preparation in grammar studies, which had been the classical Roman model, but now for the development of logic under pressure of the growing Scholastic movement for this new science (Cunliffe-Jones, 267). Before the 15</span><sup><span >th</span></sup><span > century, “Aristotle, beginning with a long series of works, became progressively familiar to the schools and universities over a long period of two centuries (1050-1250) and as they became available they became and remained the basic text-books of all secondary education” including the curriculum in Paris (ibid, 267). Thus, the “Arabic commentaries” which came along with Aristotle also lined the shelves of the institution and became deeply integrated into the Parisian study and educational experience. For this reason, it is hard to argue that Alfarabi, the master logician who was translated and even referenced by Maimonides and other Christian authors, did not at least survive in pieces in the medieval university of Paris, and no doubt his words were carried over through the writings of Avicenna and Averroes.</span></p> <h2 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >2.4When Aquinas came to Paris</span></h2> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In order to pursue theology, Aquinas was sent by the Dominican Order to Paris, which was the intellectual center of Christendom (Kretzmann, 12). Aquinas left for a period but then returned and eventually became a Professor of theology at this institution where he would go on to compose his fundamental work on logic and natural law. However, shortly after his death, 218 of his propositions were brought under scrutiny by the bishop of Paris not only for going against philosophy but also for the apparent influences of Islamic thought (Torrell, 87: Marenbon, 377). This shows that although Aquinas was considered an incredibly important force, he did not escape the controversy nor the suspicion of Islamic influence in his thinking. But this is not actually that surprising since Aquinas makes explicit reference in </span><span ><i>Summa Thoelogica</i></span><span > to Averroes and Avicenna. However, the importance of showing this controversies is that many thought he was not simply in denial of these philosophers but picked from them and integrated their thoughts into his own.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, although it might seem easier to make the case of Avicenna or Averroes, since they were more popular contemporaries, there is still great reason to suppose that Alfarabi was also read by the voracious Aquinas. There are two reasons to support this view. First, since Alfarabi was one of the most influential writers on logic, and part of his works were translated into Latin and survived the great conflagration of books in the Spanish University, it would make sense that he would be included among the cannon of logical works that proliferated the medieval University in Paris. The fact that Paris is also quite close to Spain makes the travel of these works into the Parisian libraries not an impossibility if they survived until the 12</span><sup><span >th</span></sup><span > century. Secondly, we know that there appear to be direct quotations from the work of Alfarabi in the work of Aquinas. For instance, in the </span><span ><i>Summa Contra Gentiles</i></span><span > Aquinas writes “being itself, considered absolutely, is infinite... hence if we take a thing with finite being, this being must be limited by some other thing which is in some way the cause of that being. Now here can be no cause of God's being, since He is necessary of Himself. Therefore he was infinite being.” In Alfarabi's </span><span ><i>Political Regime</i></span><span > the semantics of this statement are nearly identical; “The uncaused being is infinite. For if He were not, he would be limited and therefore, caused, since the limit of a thing is the cause of it. But God is uncaused.”</span><sup><span ><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span > This linguistic similarity is also found in comparison to their doctrine of the immutability of God, where Alfarabi writes “God as the first cause is pure act, without admixture of any potentiality, and for this reason He is not subject to any change” in </span><span ><i>Political Regime</i></span><span >, Aquinas seems to parody this thought in the </span><span ><i>Summa Theologica</i></span><span > by stating “it is shown that God is altogether immutable... this first being must be pure act, without admixture of any potentiality for the reason that absolutely, potentiality is posterior to act... hence it is impossible for God to be in any way changeable.” Thus we can see not only was Alfarabi available for Aquinas to read in the Medieval Unviersity, but there are also syntactical indications that he actually did so.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Therefore, given the history of the spread of Islamic thought into the Western University we can build a strong case that Aquinas read Alfarabi for three reasons. It has been shown that the work of Alfarabi was foundational to Islamic philosophy and he may have developed his own school which spread his ideas to the West. His works including parts of his scientific classification were translated and even referenced by the 12</span><sup><span >th</span></sup><span > century. For these reasons he would have been included in the corpus of Islamic centers of Learning in Spain. Because these universities became the model for Western centers, we know that they took works in Logic including Aristotle and his “Arabic commentators” to make up their curriculum. And we know specifically the University in Paris was both proximate to Islamic centers of learning in Spain and rigorously employed the study of logic and filled its libraries with Islamic commentaries and Aristotelian works. And finally we even know that some sentences in Aquinas' writings bear strong similarity to Alfarabi. Thus, it is highly probable that Aquinas knew of Alfarabi and read him. Furthermore, if Aquinas read Alfarabi, this would no doubt leave a lasting impression on his thought, and we can trace this development by using Aquinas as a starting point and showing to what degree he is in accord with Aristotle and what appears to be unique to his thinking but similar or even the same in Alfarabi's work.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For this reason, the subsequent pages will trace the influence of Alfarbi on Aquinas in an area which has been in some respects overlooked, his political philosophy. While some work has been done on the metaphysics of Aristotle in relation to Avicenna or Averroes, I suggest that one of the most notable and greatest Political philosophers of Islam should be put in full comparison with Aquinas. This will show no doubt the unique contribution of Islamic philosophy but because Alfarabi incorporates his understanding of juridical law and God in his reading of Aristotle, it will no doubt also bear the hallmarks of Islamic thought. Thus we begin the discussion with the topic of government and move to natural law, comparing each thinker on this subject along the way.</span></p> <h1 class="western" align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%"><span >3Aquinas and the Theory of Government</span></h1> <h2 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >3.1Why have a government? </span> </h2> <h3 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >3.1.1Aquinas View</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>To start the discussion of politics, the preliminary questions which Aquinas deals with, is why and what purpose does a government serve. First, Aquinas tackles the question of whether or not dominion is a justified relationship between two men, and following such a relationship what would be the ultimate aim of such an institution? </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the </span><span ><i>Summa Theologica</i></span><span > I.96.3, he argues that dominion in one sense is abhorrent while in a second sense it is necessary and good. First, he argues that dominion can be understood as the relation between a master and slave, in which the slave does not “exist for his own sake” but for the use of his master. Hence, a human being's existence and consequently his desirable end (the purpose why he exists at all) is found in and through the use of his master. In essence, his value is a means to someone else's end only (Kant would also on similar grounds find slavery abhorrent). This is a sorrowful state because it means that the proper good of man is not able to be pursued, and he is forced to yield his end, and the fulfillment of his existence to another. Thus, Aquinas abhors this kind of rule.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the second more general sense, dominion is the relationship between free subjects and their master, and can be said of governing offices and citizens. These offices exercise dominion over other citizens and other workers, but the citizens are not simply a means to the fulfillment of the government's ends but the government “directs” them to the attainment of their own end. Hence Aquinas writes that this kind of dominion is justified because the master works by directing his subject</span><span ><span > “</span></span><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">either towards his proper welfare, or to the common good.” Moreover, he claims that during the “state of innocence between man and man” or the state of nature, this kind of dominion is necessary for two reasons. First, man exists as a social being and so his interaction between other men is inevitable and required by his nature. Second, people have various desires which are not always in keeping with the good of each other or the group, and consequently this requires one to have governance over the rest so as to “look after the common good” of all. In citing Augustine, Aquinas claims that this is the dutiful role of the ruler no mater how smart or how strong, not to strive for power but to look after the best interest of each member. He rules by using his powers in the interest of others.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><a name="FP_Q103_A2-p6.1"></a><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But while this view explains that dominion exists to unite and coordinate the pursuit of “proper welfare” with the interest of the “common good,” it does not really explain what these two things are. One could ask, does the good end exist in primarily a material fashion, as in wealth, property, etc. or is it something found on this earth? In response to these questions on the nature of the purpose of government, Aquinas writes in </span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><i><span style="font-weight: normal">ST</span></i></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> I.103.2.a that “the end of a thing corresponds to its beginning... therefore, since the beginning of all things is something outside the universe, namely, God, it is clear from what has been expounded above (</span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Q44, A1</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">,2), that we must conclude that the end of all things is some extrinsic good.” But, every particular good necessarily has a particular end, so the only universal end is truly good, and so a universal goodness “is good of itself by virtue of its essence.” All the other particular goods receive their goodness by participation in this final goodness, or in other words partially they grasp at goodness in their specific and temporal existence. </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Unfortunately all goods we observe including love for one's neighbor, charity, courage, etc. exist only in particularity in this universe. For instance, when you observe a charitable donation or </span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">sacrifice from one person to another, you see someone who exists here and now giving a specific and material gift to another specific person. While you might talk with both individuals and discover that this “good” is understood to be an intentional act of giving, any universal notion of good is really hard to observe from this specific instance. The human act stands within a context, for had it been rainy that day the observed “good” might not have come about. Similarly change any one of those variables, including time, mental state of the giver, type of donation and the “good” changes to such an extent that it becomes unrecognizable. There is no ultimate repeatability or stability to the variables in such an observation, and while on can infer aspects of a universal “good” from it, such an observation cannot itself be used to properly understand the nature of that universal good. Thus, we observe the twofold particularity of the good act but also we glimmer at something good which is not simply limited to that act alone but stems from an intentional display of love, and this can only be found “outside” the universe, or in an extrinsic God. </span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The government for Aquinas then exists to direct men to their proper welfare which although consisting in equitable material relations between individuals, ultimately consists in something outside this material universe, which is God. This ultimate goodness, elsewhere Aquinas describes as “happiness” must be uncreated. As he maintains in II.I.2.8.a, “happiness is the perfect good, which lulls the appetite altogether; else it would not be the last end, if something yet remained to be desired.” All created things in this world are merely good by participation in ultimate goodness which is extrinsic and divine. So, while the government's responsibility is to maintain the common good of its citizens in the material sense, and it cannot ignore that the ultimate happiness of its citizens is found through God.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, here it is important to remember the distinction made before between master-slave dominion and governor-citizen dominion. The former viewed the slave as simply a means to an end, while the second form of dominion maintains the rational freedom of its' subject to choose for itself and pursue its own welfare. Hence this is why Aquinas denies that the children of Jewish parents should be forced to be baptized against their parents will (II.III.10.12). And it is also why he maintains that Jews and heathens who have not accepted the faith should be compelled to do so (II.III.10.8). But there are limits to free will since renouncing a previous faith commitment to Christ justifies compulsion to belief (ibid). However, it seems clear that while Aquinas acknowledges the government is necessary, it serves to “direct men” to external good, which is from God and thus respects in so far as they exist as rational creatures, their willful choice to pursue such ends. Thus, the government seems to take seriously the intrinsic right of human beings to make rational decisions, but it also holds the government and governor accountable for pursuing the common good of the overall public body and just their own self interest.</span></span></span></p> <h3 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >3.1.2Contrast with Aristotle's view</span></h3> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Because Aquinas repeatedly draws parallels with Aristotle, there are many apparent similarities with regards to his view of the final end of a government, and the make up of the human being. The first of these comparisons includes how Aquinas views political government to be a natural disposition of human life. Similarly to Aquinas, Aristotle maintains that men are brought together because of certain dispositions, or instincts (Ross, 238). The instinct for self-preservation brings together master and slave, the paradigmatic representations of the soul an the body, in order to determine which work will fulfill bodily needs and to pursue it with vigor. In this respect then, both need each other but the subordinate relationship is important since it means that the master can coordinate while the activities of the slave (which is what he is naturally suited for) while the slave need not worry about why he acts, but can act perfectly (which is what he is naturally suited for). The procreative instinct also brings together men and women for the same reason. Although today this understanding of human nature is quite abhorrent, there are several ways in which he still hold to the subordination of natural bodies that seem completely honorable to us. For instance, we don't often think of the care for persons of “intellectual disability” as subordination, but we might do things against their will, or screaming, but which preserves their experience of life. Nevertheless, Aristotle maintains that our social institutions (like work, marriage, government) consist of natural instincts which separate and define its relationship.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Aristotle does clarify the types of associations which constitute life, and not all of them are qualitatively the same. First, a household is distinct from a </span><span ><i>polis </i></span><span ><span style="font-style: normal">or city</span></span><span > not simply because its size, but because of the ends to which it seeks. The primary aim of the households is to secure life itself (</span><span ><i>Politics</i></span><span >, I, ii, 1252b27ff). The </span><span ><i>polis</i></span><span > by contrast does not merely aim at preserving the bare necessities of life, but it strives for the securing the good life of its members (Coleman, 176). This means that when one lives in a </span><span ><i>polis</i></span><span >, they live by constraint under laws which promote proper moral behavior, and so while bare necessities are taken care of, the government is focused on more than simply providing this. Because it has to take account of the achieving the higher ends of life, the </span><span ><i>polis</i></span><span > relies to the highest degree on reciprocal and proportionate relations and not simply establishing equitable ones among its members (Coleman, 177). Here, Aristotle turns over what commonly is assumed to be justice, in the reciprocal eye-for an eye exchanges. Rather the response must be proportional in terms of weight to what was done. Just like in Euclidean geometry, the mean of a line is not some arbitrary number, but it weighs the side of one line with the other side thereby establishing equality and correct values. As an example, the Governor who is struck by a citizen cannot simply strike back, but he must invoke harsher punishment befitting the offense committed to his office.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Proportional quality of justice is also why Aristotle attempts to limit the number of members who make up a city. For Aristotle the size of the population should be limited by the number of available resources for the care of life. One should limit population based on “calculating the chances of mortality in the children, and of sterility in married persons” because poverty, or limited resources was the “the parent of revolution and crime” (Politics, 2.v.380). In this sense, the city must maintain a proportional relationship between the resources available to its citizens, including food, labor, jobs, and the actual number of citizens available to use these resources. Unlike Aquinas who does not qualify or limit the number of citizens required to make a function of the city, Aristotle believes that the real threat of overthrow and public revolution accompanies economic disparities and disproportionate exchanges of food and citizenry.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Finally, the understanding of what constitutes a “good” end for the government is quite different from Aquinas. It might be said that for Aristotle “sensation is an indispensable precondition of knowledge,” but this does not mean he completely understands the final end of life to be purely sensual. Rather contemplation is to be the end of life for man, but the sensations ground one's knowledge and can bring an awareness of actuality however vague. As he writes in </span><span ><i>Posterior Analytics</i></span><span >, “the states of knowledge are neither innate in a determine form [contra Socrates] nor developed from more cognitive states of mind [contra Plato], but from perception... for that is how perception, also implants the universal in us” (99b15-100b17). When we consider what is morally good, it involves this process of induction or argumentation from patterns in perception, and it seeks to define what is particular to each species. Thus, what the ultimate good is for a seed, is what is commonly observed to be its proper end, turning into a unique tree which bears a wholesome amount of fruit.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The unique quality of the seed to become tree, is what only it can do. For human beings, we share with animals the reproductive capacity as well as sensations. However, what is unique to our existence is that we have superimposed on us “a higher faculty which Aristotle here calls (</span><span ><i>ton logon ekon</i></span><span >) 'that which has a plan or rule'... [and a] sub-faculty which understands the plan, and one which obeys it” (Ross, 191). In full actuality, when we utilize the process of understanding and obeying the innate plans, we must be doing the ultimate good of human life. While contemplation might describe this kind of action which characterizes our ultimate good, it is more accurate to describe this process as the realization of our intellectual capacities, or thinking in a timeless, infinite, or self-sufficient sense. Thus, the process of thinking characterizes the final end of human life, and the ability to do this perfectly, self-sufficiently means that while not all governments can achieve this, they aim towards instilling this good in their citizens </span><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">(</span></span></span></span><em><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Pol</span></span></span></span></em><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">. I.2.1252b27–30)</span></span></span></span><span >.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In comparison with Aquinas we can see that the good of the government derives from the realization of human faculties and activities rather than cultivate the divine disposition of the human being. Aristotle places a strong emphasis on the act of thinking, whereas Aquinas stresses the visitation of God and the actualization of his presence to perfect the members of the community. Or in short, perfection of human activity such as thinking or contemplating, prepares the way for God to enter in a visitation to man's soul. Just like the sun, God is what illuminates the earth, but we cannot see the earth without proper eyes, which is our disposition. We cannot bring forth light, we can merely harvest it, and come to utilize it with our senses in order to understand the earth. But the light, which is actuality, comes from the unmitigated grace of God, and not human action per-say. For this reason, the perfect city should condition us and bring alive our capacity to see the earth, or our innate disposition for divine vision and subsequent moral judgment. Thus, the end of human life consists and derives meaning from the free act of God to visit upon us actuality and make the rock, the tree, or the goodness of life visible.</span></p> <h3 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >3.1.3Comparison with Alfarabi</span></h3> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The first most interesting thing about Alfarabi's reading of Aristolte's </span><span ><i>Politics</i></span><span > is that he distinguishes between two kinds of human needs in society. He distinguishes between people's need “to be near and associate with others in order to achieve perfection, on the one hand, and their impulse to seek shelter and to dwell near their own kind, or the other” (Galston, 148). The first innate characteristic of needing to be near to achieve perfection, is part of what constitutes human nature while the second is perhaps accidental, the result of our physical make up and association with the animal class. Along this line there appear to be two kind of perfections for the human being. The first is the “ultimate perfection” for which he came into existence to achieve, his </span><span ><i>raison d'etre,</i></span><span > and the second perfection which “renders human beings truly substantial,” a kind of material perfection. (Galston, 148). These two things come together in the human need for society, and for political association. In a sense then, human nature consists of two potential principles which need to be actualized, the potential human creature and the potential perfection of human intellect.</span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This allows Alfarabi to distinguish the function of government from Aristotle in two important respects. First, the government allows for the perfection of the human creature where “human beings come together and cooperate with the aim of becoming virtuous, performing noble activities, and attaining happiness” (Mahdi, 129). Although men are distinguished from each other by their nature, it is not as Aristotle maintains because of an essential characteristic, but it is a disposition for the virtue which sets the members of each society apart. As Mushin Mahdi notes, “the sole criterion for the rank of a citizen is the character of virtue of which he is capable and that he is able to develop through his participation in the regime and obedience to its laws” (Mahdi, 130). For this reason, no one can be said to possess virtue naturally, but they possess the disposition towards such characteristics innately.</span><sup><span ><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span > Moreover, because of this distinction the ruler functions more as a guide helping direct the “aim” of human beings, rather than a superior being by virtue of instinct. This is important distinction affords the members of the government kind of natural equality with respect to each other, even though their differences do exist. Moreover, because morality can be learned in principle it cannot be argued that it is innately driven. This is important to mention since it appears that Aquinas having the opportunity to read Alfarabi seems to make a similar distinction. </span> </p> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The second important respect that Alfarabi distinguishes the government from Aristotle is with respect to how the city provides intellectual perfection. While Aristotle maintains that universals are impregnated into the human mind by perception, and this forms the basis for understanding the ultimate end of humanity (and hence virtue), Alfarabi maintains that the human intellect has the universal scaffolding for attaining universals from a divine source. Arguably while this idea bears the mark of Neo-Platonic thought, it still shows that Alfarabi does not agree with the epistemological and moral empiricism which Aristotle maintains. Moreover, he also does not attribute the end of human life to a purely abstract formal soul. Human beings are instead endowed with something called primary principles, or the grasp of universal intelligibles from the outset “without his being aware of it and without perceiving where it comes from” (AH, I.2.10). The intelligibles are both theoretical distinct from moral or deliberative virtues, but they nevertheless ground our “certain truth” and serve however partially as our basis for demonstrative proofs towards gaining certain knowledge. Thus, the ultimate good of man is imbedded within him (a theme which will become important in Aquinas formation of natural law) but in a way that can only be realized by connecting with an extrinsic source of his intellect, i.e. God.<br /> Moreover, Alfarabi extends the proportional notion of justice which pertains to Aristotle, to talk about how the king instills morality. In Aphorism 3 of the </span><span ><i>Selected Aphorisms</i></span><span >, Alfarabi uses the analogy of the doctor to explain that just as “sickness is a deviation from the equilibrium [of the temperament of the body], so too, is the health of the city and its' uprightness an equilibrium of moral habits of its' citizens and its sickness a disparity from equilibrium in its temperament” (PW, Selected Aphorisms, 12.3). This is an interesting combination between the doctor metaphor employed by Plato, with the theory of proportion which Aristotle uses to describe and justify the limitation of city size, and explain reciprocal justice. What Alfarabi does is to modify the notion of morality from a singular substance to a mixture of traits which must be maintained in the body. Because humans are so disposed to particular kinds of traits, they do not possess any of them distinctly. This changes how one views vice, from simply doing of a particular wrong act, to the possession of a set of unbalanced traits. The act itself becomes subordinate, and so justice is relegated to the composition of internal moral states. While habituation, or the repeated practice of what are considered to be moral traits, might instill moral traits in a citizen, it is an interanl and deliberate choice to seek the moderate and mediate mental state which transforms traits into virtues. Hence the physician analogy means that Alfarabi holds that human volition is a necessary and fundamental part to the proper functioning of the virtuous city, so much so that even becomes a separate virtue which compliments morality.</span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The final similarity between Aquinas and Alfarabi is that the size of the government seems to be a hindrance to attaining the excellent city. Whereas it mattered a great deal for the economic maintenance of political order, Alfarabi simply rejects the necessity of a limited city-size. In part this a historical response to the reality of the great Islamic Empire, and its' proper functioning was almost living proof that Aristotle and Plato were wrong in maintaining specific limitations on the number of citizens within a city. But for Alfarabi this also signals an expansion of the concept of governance and human happiness. The city while it functions to coordinate members with natural dispositions for the good to work together and become truly happy, these men can exist in other ignorant cities. They can be members of the virtuous city even though they exist in a ignorant one. Thus, we can begin to see the further break down of divisions between human beings. It can be said that this is one of the first marks of a kind of universal government, and subsequently the presence of natural rights which pertain to sojourn citizens of this virtuous city. Although Aquinas perhaps drew on a combination of Augustinian principles for this understanding, nevertheless the deliberate expansion of the notion of government can be seen as a clear similarity between the two thinkers.</span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In conclusion, there seem to be a great deal of similarities between Aquinas and Alfarabi which appear to be distinct from Aristotle on the question of government. The natural state relation of human beings for both Alfarabi and Aquinas is not a question of different classes of humans with different natural instincts, but of universal humans endowed with different natural dispositions. One human is thus no more good than another, but just similarly disposed to be good. For this reason, the government exists to perfect both the material welfare of each inhabit, but fosters the development of his natural disposition for virtue through instruction. This also means that the distinction between a household and a city falls apart, because human nature shares an underlying commonality which makes the differences between the various institutions only a quantitative one. But while there might appear to be some similarities with respect to the purpose of government, there are even more striking ones with respect to the concept of law.</span></p> <h1 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >4The Ethical Foundation of Politics and the Concept of Law</span></h1> <h2 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%">4.1<span > Eternal and Natural Law</span></h2> <h3 class="western" align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span >4.1.1Reason as foundation for Law</span></h3> <p align="LEFT" style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>While we have briefly touched on the concept of law for Aquinas, there are incredibly important development</span><span >s in his thought which will come to influence the history of later Western philosophy. It revolves around his development of the category of law, and the the ethical implications which come from having an innate law which is essential to our experience of the world. But how exactly does this law function, and how does a human government pursue the good of man by taking account of these two kinds of laws?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the </span></span><span ><i><span style="text-decoration: none">Summa theologica</span></i></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"> Aquinas responds to the question of what kinds of law govern human action by claiming that there are two laws, the eternal unchanging law, and the imprint of this law on all creatures, also known as the natural law. The first kind of law, is related to practical reason initially because “l</span></span><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="text-decoration: none"><span style="font-weight: normal">aw is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting,” and for human beings, the law or “rule and measure of human acts is the reason” (</span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><i><span style="text-decoration: none"><span style="font-weight: normal">ST</span></span></i></span></span><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="text-decoration: none"><span style="font-weight: normal">, I.II.94.a). In this sense the law is analogous to how reason functions in determining human actions. Moreover, it is also providential because it comes from God and communicates the exercise of his divine will on the earth. It is also good, because it participates in something called an ontological goodness. For Aquinas there are two forms of good, transcendent being and transcendent good. In a Platonic sense, any actuality can be good simply because they participate in Being. So just simply living or doing anything even murder, “participates” in actuality or transcendent Being. In this way it is good because it is part of God's plan. But because eternal law is perfect reason, and perfect measurement of all actualities, it is more than simply ontologically good, it is morally good as well and grounds our ethical actions.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="text-decoration: none"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For this reason, the imprint of this eternal law on our minds grants us a responsibility which is different than other creatures. Other creatures merely participate in the ontological goodness of God by living, eating etc. In living as they do, they fulfill their ends and so can be said to be living in perfect accord with divine law. But the good of human beings must take account of our intentions, because by virtue of our ability to choose and weigh the world, our reason must needs conform to God's will. More specifically Aquinas writes that</span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"> “among all others the rational creature is subject to divine providence in the most excellent way, in so far as it partakes of a share of providence, by being provident both for itself and for others. Wherefore it has a share of the eternal reason, whereby it has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law...” (ST, Q 90, A. I ad I). In this way, Aquinas sets practical reason as the way in which human beings share in the divine, or eternal precepts which are alone from God. This also means that human reason is not simply a descriptive aspect of human life, but it functions in a perspective manner for human ethical action. Thus, Human practical reason functions apriori as the grounding of universal moral virtues.</span></span><sup><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></span></span></sup></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none"> <span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Here, Aquinas breaks with Aristotle who holds that moral “intuition” cannot be separated from the doing of good deeds. For Aristotle, although the ultimately good end of human life, eudomia can be perceived by speculative reasoning and theoretical argumentation, the universal moral norms which govern human living in accordance to that end are found through the “induction” or earlier mentioned perception of ordinary experience. For example, the repeated experience of the pain felt after the murder and the death of one's children can lead to the conclusion that it is morally wrong to kill an enemy's children (Bradley, 228). This kind of reasoning via induction means that the precepts of moral reasoning will involve the deliberative aspect of human reason, and the process of logical construction from observation to conclusion. However, human beings are not born with an understanding of specific universal moral norms, rather it is habituation and education which form the basis of their beliefs about “good” and “bad” which can then be verified via experience throughout an individuals life (Bradely, 230).</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><a name="politics"></a><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Although Aquinas will also hold that habituation and education are important for instilling moral virtue, he maintains that human reason has a special relation to moral virtue unlike other creatures. In </span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><i><span style="font-weight: normal">Sententia libri Politicorum, </span></i></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Aquinas writes that “the perfection of moral virtue.... consists in this: that the appetite is regulated in accordance with reason. The first principles of reason, however, are naturally implanted in us in regard to both practical and specultive matters. Therefore, just as through principles already known, a man makes himself already known by discovery, so too by acting in accordance with the principles of practical reason, a man makes himself actually virtuous” (SLE, II, 4, 1105b5, 99-106). Here, the disctinction between simply being habituated into the virtuos action, and being self realized as the virtuos and good agent with regards to the mandates of practical reason is important. There is a certain and particular divine tinge to the idea of moral habituation. Not all creatures, in their creation have the principles which make moral virtue possible. The effectiveness of becoming a good and virtuous person via habit and discipline cannot be afforded to other creatures since it does not originate in the practices themselves, but through a revelation of inherent principles.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><a name="v.xxxv-p3.1"></a><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In this respect, practical wisdom can be said to be potential in a way which is distinct in rel</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">ation to Aristotle. In the </span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><i><span style="font-weight: normal">Origins of Creatures</span></i></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">, Aquinas clarifies this distinction between human creatures and other kinds of created things. Since God is absolute actuality, which is both truth (end of act) and act itself (perfection of the efficient cause, or pure movement), every creature owes its existence to God, and relys upon God in order to share in its own becoming ie its movement. As Aquinas maintains, “every other being is being by participation” in God, who is the pure being (</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><i><span style="font-weight: normal">Of God and His Creatures</span></i></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">, Book 2,xv, 4). However, each creature operates as a mixture of potential likeness and actual likeness to the qualities of God, which are found within God to be absolute. Human beings however, are divine agents and have a different likeness to God. In Chpater XLVI, Aquinas writes that “5. Nothing else moves God to the production of creatures but His own goodness, which He has wished to communicate to other beings according to the manner of their assimilation to Himself </span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span lang="en-US">(B. I, Chap. LXXXVII)</span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">. Now the likeness of one thing may be found in another in two ways: in one way in point of natural being, as the likeness of heat is found in the body heated; in another way in point of knowledge, as the likeness of fire (perceived) is in sight or touch. In order then that the likeness of God might be in creatures in such modes as were possible, it was necessary that the divine goodness should be communicated to creatures, not only by likeness in being, but also by likeness in knowing. But mind alone can know the divine goodness. Therefore there needed to be intelligent creatures.” (ibid, XLVI, 5). The potential relation of divine likeness which constitutes humans then is the communication of divine goodness through knowledge. Our ability to acquire true knwoeldge is not something we stumble onto, rather it is the self detemonstration found in operation of reason, when we align our wills to the reason which has been imprinted within us.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thus, our being is then not only sustained by God, but our very capacity to reason contains within it the communcation of Gods divine truth. To understand natural law, is to understand that human beings in their creation are in likeness to the mind of God through the operation of their reason. If we were simply mind alone we would not “know divine goodness” since the action of knowing actually requires practical experience and hence a body. Put in a different way, through the mind the princples of law exist only potentially, but since God is the principle of actuality proper, and draws all potentialities into the fullness of being of their, the principles must culminate in action in order to become actualized. The function of the body then is to actualize the potential will and natural precepts imbedded within the human mind. In its' practial function, Aquinas can be said to claim that the mind “inuits” through the sensisble or experiential activation of this natural law, but one can be said to experience the law or discover the innate laws within themselves rather than discovering removed universal principles. In direct contast to Aristotle, Aquinas therefore maintains that morals are discovered, and the ends of human life are not “set by our prerational habituation” (Bradely, 247). </span></span></span> </p> <h3 class="western"><span >4.1.2Analogy of Reason and the Proposition</span></h3> <p><br /><br /></p> <p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><a name="internal-source-marker_0.385111854178831"></a><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>To talk about the nature of natural law, Aquinas also employs the metaphor of the proposition when he claims that the natural law is something appointed by reason, just as “proposition is a work of reason.” To unpack this analogy let’s first consider what it means to be a proposition, and what are its constituent parts. A proposition is an assertion consisting of a subject, a predicate, and a copula which joins the two together to form a new concept. Often times a copula is understood to be “is” in the proposition“Socarates is wise” but there are some instances where the copula does not necessarily signify existence, but attributes such as “Socrates is blind.” When the proposition of the first sentence is completed by the copula, it leads to an idea or new concept which joins together Socrates and wise to form the notion of “Socrates Wisdom” as a new conceptual, or middle term. Because the copula is said to assert existence it posits that “Socrates Wisdom” is actually existent and can be observed, seen, documented, etc. However, if one were to assert the proposition “Socrates is blind” this would entail the joining of an existent idea “Socrates” with a non-existent attribute, a privation of sight which is called “blindness.” Thus on the one hand, Socrates wisdom can be said to exist positively, if and only if Socrates is wise, while it cannot be said that Socrates is blind if and only if his blindness exists (this would be logical unsound). If the former can be said to be a proposition of positive existence while the later a proposition expressing partial existence, then the copula conveys two different senses of existence.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span style="background: transparent"><br /> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Aquinas response to this issue, and the reason he can use the propositional metaphor to talk about natural law is because the copula can employ different sense of existence. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Gyula Klima in her paper on the nature of the copula derives 8 senses in which Aristotle qualifies the function of the copula.</span></span></span></span></span></span><sup><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" name="sdfootnote4anc" href="#sdfootnote4sym"><sup>4</sup></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></sup><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> What can be observed from these different uses is that Aquinas takes partially existent propositions (middle terms exist as privation) to describe beings of reason, which correspond only to those objects which appear in the human mind, or simply he maintains that the copula does not function as affirming existence per say unless both terms can exist separately from the human mind. For this reason, Aquinas is able to postulate that the proposition can judge the positive existence of a concept, give it a definition, or describe the essence of a thing. Because copula acts as measure and judge in a sentence, it functions much like reason does in natural law since reason can be both the “measurer” and “measure” of natural law itself. Reason is the copula which is able to verify both the existence of a thing as well as its nonessential relation to the subject and predicate, ergo its independent existence. Just like “is” in the proposition “Socrates is Wise” leads to the creation of “Socrates' Wisdom,” which is a middle term that verifies the existence of the proposition but is independent from both terms, reason can be said to found precepts in natural law. But Moreover like a copula, reason also has a dual descriptive and normative power, such that the copula in “Socrates is wise” is both a judgment about state of being and the condition for its existence.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But in addition to reason which acts as a copula, there is also a corresponding act of human volition which further constitutes the natural law. While Aristotle might maintain that primary precepts are found in theoretical or intellectual activity alone, Aquinas claims that this is not enough to give us primary principles of natural law. In the Summa, Aquinas explores how human practical reason complicates the matter when it comes to morality:</span></span></span></p> <p class="text-body-indent"><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Therefore the first principle in practical reason is that which is based on the nature of the good which is:</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">the good is that which all things seek</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">. This therefore is the principle of law: that good must be done and evil avoided. And on this [precept] all other precepts of natural law are based so that everything which is to be done or avoided pertains to the precepts of natural law. Practical reason naturally understands these precepts to be human goods. (</span></span></span></span></span></span><em><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">ST</span></span></span></span></span></span></em><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> I.II.94.2).</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> </span></span></span></span></span></span> </p> <p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none"> <span ><span ><span ><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Morality, consists in human acts which are composed of both rational deliberation and choice. Human beings “possess this passive impressio of the eternal law in their very being, expressing itself in their natural inclinations to specific actions and goals.” (Rhonheimer, 67) For this reason, our natural inclinations pursue a appropriate actions which would tend to good , like a desire whether it be for food, or harm, as a desire is good because being good simply means being completed. Suppose we had a natural inclination to go to sleep, completing this action by actually sleeping would be good regardless of why we went to sleep. Good simply means the final end of something. But in the moral sense, good must involve something more than simply coming to the final end of that action. Unlike creatures who merely have a passive determination towards the good, we have an active one on account of our reason (Rhonheimer, 68). Through the ordering our will by the reason, we are able to achieve a good which is quite distinct from other creatures and can be said to be a moral thing. The order of our natural inclinations, or the process of our will means that we determine ourselves in a way which leads to our self-determination.</span></span></span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none"> <span ><span ><span > Hence natural law is both constituted by the operation of our reason, by being a kind of pseudo proposition, “Do that” but it also participates by being infused in eternal law.</span></span></span></p> <p align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none"> <span ><span ><span >[STILL DON'T FULLY GRASP NATURAL LAW/PRACTICAL REASON]</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br /></p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >4.1.3Aristotle on Intelligence: Syllogism, Deductive Reasoning and Induction</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the </span><span ><i>Posterior Analytics</i></span><span > Aristotle outlines his understanding of the intellect by first differentiating between demonstrative or syllogist forms of knowledge acquisition and Inductive methods. By syllogism, Aristotle means "an argument in which, certain things having been assumed, something other than these follows of necessity from their truth, without needing any term from outide" (Ross, 32). The assumption of prior knowledge in this way serves as the premise which can be combined with other premises to create combine into new propositions. For example, we can consider the mathematical the relation between two premises, the subject-predicate statement of A and B, and the predicate relation of B and C to lead to a new predicate statement A-C through inference. We can thus say that A is true of all B, and B is true of all C to lead to the inferential knowledge that A is true of all C. The predicate relationship can be changed in a myriad of ways to form a variety of other conclusions, that No A is of B, or Some B is of A, etc. But the importance of Syllogism is that it moves us from known principles which have truth in and of themselves in the pure sense, to form conclusions in an inferential manner. This process of moving from known or assumed premises to unknown without the need of a third term serves as the base for a particular and fundamental kind of knowledge which can be seen as divine. Thus, one can call this method a reasoning from universal objects to particular ones." </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Induction conversely, is a frequent tension within the work of Aristotle which challenges the knowledge arrived at from syllogistic, or demonstrative methods. For Aristotle, the inductive method appears "clearer" and more persuasive to us because it moves from particulars of experience to formulate universal claims. Induction connects one extreme with the middle term b means of the other extreme. There are two forms of Induction for Aristotle. Perfect induction which moves from two sets of particulars, which are the same length, to make universal claim and Enthymeme which infers "from probable premises or from signs (Ross, 2) by inferring causes from effects and not effects from causes" (Galston, 41). Although demonstrations most begin from non-particulars, the role of particulars also function as the base for our knowledge. A Ross points out, "Aristotle thus emphasizes the limits of perceptual knowledge, he is well aware of the part which perception plays in the growth of science. Where a sense is lacking, a science will also be lacking, since the universal truths from which science proceeds are got by induction from sense perceptions. And though we do not know the reasons of things by sense, we learn from sense. After a certain number of experiences of a fact the universal explanations dawns upon us b an act of intuitive reason" (Ross, 48). </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span >Aristotle: How we acquire knowledge</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>To explain how we acquire the first principles which make knowledge possible, Aristotle follows the movement of our perceptions. He observes that the first stage in development from sense to knowledge is perception whereby one comes to discriminate among different experiences based on a perception. One remembers these different perceptions and this forms of the basis of a particular knowledge. But the first principles of reason are quite different than this. Whereas all animals can memorize as this is an inborn trait of all creatures, there are principles of non-contradiction and other universals which seem to be intrinsic to reason itself. This is perhaps part of what Aristotle means when he claims “the perception too produces the universal in us” (Ross, 55). The important point here is that sense perception leads to our acquisition of knowledge in us, or it can be said to trigger our understanding, because after perceiving a particular thing, “we perceive in its is characters which it shares with other things. From this first element of universality we pass without a break through higher and higher reaches of universality to the highest universals of all, the 'unanalysables" (Ross, 55). Thus, the first principles come to us by the cognitive and intellectual process of generalization, and it is this highly speculative act which brings not only those universals which ground our knowledge, but that which grounds our ethics.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For this reason, we can see that what Aristotle holds to be “universal truths” actually come to man on the basis of perception, and so perception and speculative reasoning grounds his understanding of human virtue. Aquinas by contrast does not see that the process of perception presents any new knowledge of universals to the mind. Instead it is practical reason, which has embedded in its movement, primary precepts. It cannot be said that the human being possess these precepts, but the prcepts are part of the process of his natural inquisition, his natural thought. Simply by using reason, human beings come to the first principle of “do good and do no evil” which then comes to mean “do that which is the end and not that which does not lead to the end.” In this way, Aristotle can postulate knowledge, and from this process argue for moral virtue, while Aquinas sees the process of morality and theoretical supposition as part and parcel of reasoning correctly, hence they are united in what is the natural law of human beings. For Aquinas, the natural law means the unification of theoretical and volitional </span> </p> <h3 class="western" style="line-height: 200%"><span >4.1.4Alfarabi and the Acquired Intellect</span></h3> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> In comparison to Aristotle, Alfarbai also cannot be said to hold to the realization of universal principles known perceptually. Instead, Alfarabi writes that “the lawgiver does not seek to discover the conditions [of the means to his goal that are within his power] unless he has intellected them previously... [and] these things cannot beocme intelligible... unless he has previously acquired philosophy (Galston, 121). The intellect functions then as the grounding for the law giver, and to delver true human happiness. In </span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><i><span style="font-weight: normal">Siyasah al-Madaniyyah</span></i></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"> Aquinas claims that there exists an agent intellect which is a seperate susbtance from the human potential intellect. Sepcifically he claims that there is certain knowledge of intelligbles known as “primary knwoledge” which come to man “from the outset without him being aware of it and wihout perceiving how he acquired it or where it comes from” (AH. i. 1). Elsewhere, this knowledge is identified as coming from the source of that emenation of the Intellect which sets human potential thought into motion. Although this knowledge is seperate from body, it nevertheless shows that human happiness is dependent upon the transformation of his inate intellect (Galston, 61). The transformation of the potential intelligable into an actual however cannot come to man without engaging the deliberative part of the soul which makes choices, and transforms theoretical reason into practical one. What then is needed to transform the potential into the actual is habituation, or instruction which places by force of habit particular moral virtues into the human soul, and brings the intellect into actualization. Habituation in this way serves to activate what is already a potential happiness within the human person, and moral virtues can then be said to exist in a similiarly potential way.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There is another disction which Alfarbai makes between real moral virtues and accidental moral virtues when considering how habitaution works. On the one hand, regularly obeying the commands of parents or persons in authority can lead to virtue, but their action cannot be classified as virtuos action because they are done out of compliance and not true understanding. Instead, “virtuos action presuposes real virtue, and real virtue in turn, presoposes a knowledge of real happiness” which is a theoretical or activitated knwoeldge. In this way, theoretical reason “makes true virtue or excellent action” possible for Alfarabi, and thus knowledge or Truth proper can be said to activiate ethical action in a way which transforms it into moral virtue (Glaston, 65). Therefore, while ethical living might seem to be only practical, or only pertaining to doing right actions, Alfarabi maintians that the ultimate end of action, or happiness culmintates through theoretical means or the acquisition of truth.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This culmination of theoretical and practical science in ethical living is distinctive because it calls into question the traditional division of the practical and theoretical sciences (Galston, 76). This is most clearly seen in how Alfarabi discusses practical reasoning. Much like Aquinas, practical reason is not simply an inductive process but it involves the utilization of theoretical principles gained from philisophy. So while practical reason is important, it would be nothing without this kind of theoretical grounding. Moreover, this theoretical grounding of philosophy is not available to human beings except by virtue of a mediator known as the active intellect. This seperate being known as the active intellect is concevied of as perfection of the contemplative activity which has the object of its contemplation the transcendent principles. The active intellect takes the rational faculty, “which is supplied by nature” and cause it to become “intellect in act.” While in some cases this transfromation of human reason might involve a philosophical transcendence, it does not mean that the human being is seperated from living in this world. Rather, when it comes to the supreme ruler, or the king, the political arts are needed to perfect reason.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In Aquinas, one can begin to see how the principle of agent intellect postulates something called an Aquired Intellect. For Aristotle, the principle of the active intellect meant that our passive or potential intellect was in constant need of coming into being which could not be fully realized until it had become actualized. However, for Alfarabi the aquired intellect plays an intermediary role between thinking actually and the potential thinking sate. This is “human intellect in possession of the ability to think yet not actually thinking” (Davidson, 11). It is also used sometimes as state which human intellect can join with the actual intellect which is a seperate substance (Daivdson, 12). </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Moreover, the intellect is also called the “aquired intellect” and is described as that moment when the light of active intellect shines onto the “images in the human imagintive faculty,” corresponding to the potential intellect it</span></span></span></span></span></span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">self, “thereby enabling the intellect to discern what is intelligible in images</span></span></span></span></span></span><span > (Davidson, 25). But this is only one kind of explanation of the intellect. The second explanation, “the active intellect functions as a cosmic transmitter, continually broad casting all possible intelligible thoughts,and properly attuned human intellects receive intelligible thoughts directly from the active intellect” (</span><span ><span ><span ><span lang="la-VA"><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">Davison, 25). Although traces of these ideas appear in earlier greek texts, particularily in thought of Plato and Aristotle, Alfarabi expands the idea that ethical virtue is rooted in an intellect that is imprited with a higher principle within it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For this reason, the rational capacity or potential intellect when properly cultivated gives way to happiness in the absolute sense. When the human being is concerned with developing their rational capacity they are in pursuit of those noble activities which lead to true happiness. This is because like Aristotle and Aquinas, the end of human action is what we define as good. However, because Alfarabi is able to formulate the central distinction between essence and existence of a thing, the ultimate good of human life cannot simply what leads to the fulfilment of his existence, but what is essentially transforms who he is. For this reason, human good must finds its needs outside fullfillment in the earthly realm and virtues much be established which are based on the essential and external telos of humanity. </span></span></span> </p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, while principels for human virtue might be conceived in the mind, and even known upon reflection, they are not achievable by everyone and leads to stratification. There is a three tiered system in Alfarabi’s account in which the wise or philosophers “know the nature of thing by means of demonstrative proofs and by their own insights” once they have cultivated the perfection of happiness through endeavors of their reason (ibid). The second level are these followers who know the nature of things by means of demonstration presented to them by philosophers, and they are compelled to trust and accept the judgment of these philosophers (ibid). The third and final level consists of those citizens who know things by means of similitude, more or less so depending on their rank (Mahdi, 130). At the top tier, the ruler who pursues the attainment of happiness by perfecting reason so that it touches the divine truth can then rightly guide the citizens and create a virtuous city. All other regimes which do not provide occasion to inquire into the divine realm, and nurture the intrinsic human reason and desire for true knowledge, leave their citizens foolish or in the very worst case, completely unhappy and corrupt. Thus, the principles of human reason, and the endeavors of the mind.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, while the government and govener exists to enforce the virtues, he also exists in a seperate capacity, or rather a seperate kind of ruler is meant to carry out the foundation of these principles. Just like the founder of the Islamic religion, Alfarabi postulates that it is the duty of the perfect first ruler to establish these vritues as laws within his kingodm. While subsequent governers are responsible by cultivating their reason and intellect to respond to these laws, primarily it is the central infusion of moral order from the founder who sets up precepts for the next generations. However, because he is the perfect ruler he is connected intimately with the divine intellectual source of knowledge which thereby means his reason communicates the precepts of God. In this way, as the founder of laws in his country he seems to be taking the principles of law or reason which is in the active intellect and actualizing them in matter, and phyiscallizing these perfect set of moral rules into partchment and commandments. In a similar way to Aquinas then, Alfarabi bases practical moral law on the direct connection to divine law, and more importantly he sees that it is in the activity of reason itself, transforming into material substance that gives cause for human laws.</span></span></span></p> <p lang="la-VA" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%"> <span ><span ><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For both Alfarabi and Aquinas then, moral action depends upon the realization of theoretical principles, or the intellect and is rooted in something which is exstrinic to humanity itself. Whereas the communication of God's divine truth for Aquinas is called the imprinting of the eternal law into his reason, for Alfarabi this is the transformation of human intellect into actuality via the free floating agent or active intellect. However, Aquinas seems to develop this notion of actualization through our thoughts and take it one step further. What he perhaps takes from Alfarabi is that the essence of our virtue is intimately tied to our essence and not mere existence as human beings. Our essence is tied to the rational function in our life, and not simply what grounds our existential experience of the world. Hence, the good is not simply what will fulfill humanities existence, but it is what will fulfill teh essence of man, what will tap into his essential nature as distinct from merely his experience in the worl. This can only be found in the eternal law, it must be ultimately found connection of faith with Lord God.</span></span></span></p> <h1 class="western" align="CENTER" style="line-height: 200%"><span >5Conclusion</span></h1> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>It is clear that the presence and influence of Islamic philosophy in the history of Christianity deserves to be further explored. From the influence on the medieval University to Aquinas theory of natural law and practical reason, it has been argued that Alfarabi plays a role in the formation of his thought. One can see that his writings were known to be references in the medieval University and many of his teachings survived in the influence of Avicenna and Averroes. However, even more striking about the relationship between Alfarabi and Aquinas is the linguistic similarity between some direct passages in Aquinas. While one may argue that the high fidelity of certain passages to Alfarabi does not necessitate Aquinas read Alfarabi, it certainly points in that direction. And even if Aquinas read only segments of these passages, it is enough to make the case that some of the thought of Alfarabi survived and was to some extent inflectional in Aquinas.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 200%"><span ><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The contribution of Islamic political philosophy is therefore intriguing and offers a unique insight into the epistemological and moral theory of St Thomas Aquinas. We can see that his theory of government and his theory of law both develop upon the metaphysical principle of an active intellect. Even if Aquinas might not hold that such an intellect is separate from God, there is a clear understanding that human reason as such is both the foundation for moral law, as well as the measure for human action and human essence. Building on the division between essence and existence of a thing, Aquinas develops the thought of Alfarabi and Aristotle to formulate some of his most foundational theories in the subject of law. Thus, while there are other links and arguably just as important ones for his thought, we should not forget how the reception and incorporation of Alfarabi influenced his developed and helped shape in some part the history the Western tradition.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always"> <span ><u>Bibliography</u></span><span ><br />Al-ʻAllāf, Mashhad. </span><span ><i>The Essence of Islamic Philosophy</i></span><span >. M. Al-Allaf, 2003. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Al-Jubouri, I.M.N. </span><span ><i>History of Islamic philosophy: with view of Greek philosophy and early history of Islam</i></span><span >. Authors On Line Ltd, 2004. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Aristotle. </span><span ><i>The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation</i></span><span >. Bollingen series 71:2. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1995. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Coleman, Janet. </span><span ><i>A History of Political Thought: From Ancient Greece to Early Christianity</i></span><span >. Malden, Ma: Blackwell, 2000. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Davidson, Herbert A. </span><span ><i>Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect</i></span><span >. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Fakhry, Majid. </span><span ><i>A History of Islamic Philosophy</i></span><span >. 3rd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Fārābī. </span><span ><i>Alfarabi, the Political Writings: Selected Aphorisms Andother Texts</i></span><span >. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> ———<span >. </span><span ><i>Alfarabi: Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle</i></span><span >. Rev. ed. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 2001. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Galston, Miriam. </span><span ><i>Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi</i></span><span >. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1990. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Gilby, Thomas. </span><span ><i>The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas</i></span><span >. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Hammond, Robert. </span><span ><i>The Philosophy of Alfarabi and Its Influence on Medieval Thought</i></span><span >. N. Y., HOBSON, 1947. 55 P, n.d. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span >ʻIzzatī, Abū al-Faz̤l, and A. Ezzati. </span><span ><i>The spread of Islam: the contributing factors</i></span><span >. ICAS Press, 2002. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Kretzmann, Norman, and Eleonore Stump. </span><span ><i>The Cambridge companion to Aquinas</i></span><span >. Cambridge University Press, 1993. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Mahdi, Muhsin. </span><span ><i>Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy</i></span><span >. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Marenbon, John. </span><span ><i>Medieval philosophy: an historical and philosophical introduction</i></span><span >. Taylor & Francis, 2007. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Rhonheimer, Martin. </span><span ><i>Natural law and practical reason: a Thomist view of moral autonomy</i></span><span >. Fordham Univ Press, 2000. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Ross, W. D. </span><span ><i>Aristotle</i></span><span >. 3rd ed. London: Methuen & Co, 1937. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Schockenhoff, Eberhard. </span><span ><i>Natural law & human dignity: universal ethics in an historical world</i></span><span >. CUA Press, 2003. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Taliaferro, Charles, Paul Draper, and Philip L. Quinn. </span><span ><i>A Companion to Philosophy of Religion</i></span><span >. John Wiley and Sons, 2010. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span ><i>The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy</i></span><span >. Cambridge companions to philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Thomas, and Dominicans. </span><span ><i>Summa Theologica</i></span><span >. Complete English ed. Allen, Tex: Christian Classics, 1981. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Weinberg, Julius R. </span><span ><i>A short history of medieval philosophy</i></span><span >. Princeton University Press, 1964. </span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in; margin-bottom: 0in"> <span >Wippel, John F. </span><span ><i>The metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas: from finite being to uncreated being</i></span><span >. CUA Press, 2000. </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0.17in; line-height: 200%"><br /><br /></p> <div id="sdfootnote1"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote1sym" href="#sdfootnote1anc">1</a><span >The References for the comparisons between Aquinas and Alfarabi can be found in </span><span ><i>The Philosophy of Alfarabi</i></span><span > by Robert Hammond pg 25</span></p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote2"> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span ><span ><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote2sym" href="#sdfootnote2anc">2</a><span >The founder of a city however, differs slightly in this respect from subsequent rulers and other citizens because he has intimate proximity to the active intellect (that principle of actuality which reveals truth), and his foundational rules are so tied to actuality that they can be said to be the manifestations of virtue.</span> </span></span> </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote3"> <p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote3sym" href="#sdfootnote3anc">3</a><span >Some have claimed that because it has God has instilled the first precepts within our reason, the basis for which we make judgments is derived form God. As Lisska writes, “t</span><span ><span ><span style="font-style: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">he idea here is that we can derive from a metaphysical study of human nature and its potentialities and actualizations the conclusion that certain things are good for human beings, and thus that the primary precepts of the natural law bid us to pursue these things” (cf. Lisska 1996). In this sense we fall into the problem of deriving oughts from isms, or the normative fallacy. </span></span></span></span> </p> </div> <div id="sdfootnote4"> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span ><span ><a class="sdfootnotesym" name="sdfootnote4sym" href="#sdfootnote4anc">4</a><span style="text-decoration: none"><span > For a full 8 part analysis of the copula in Aquinas thought see 8, vol. 5 of </span></span><a href="http://www.uni-bonn.de/pla/EnglishPages/start.htm"><span ><span lang="zxx"><u><span style="text-decoration: none"><span ><span > </span></span></span></u></span></span><span ><span lang="zxx"><u><span ><span ><span style="background: transparent">Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy</span></span></span></u></span></span></a><span style="text-decoration: none"><span > in 2002. This small clipping does not do justice to a wonderful analysis and expansion on Aristotle's work.</span></span></span></span></p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05349153956062382551noreply@blogger.com0