Academic literature on the topic 'Nicholas (Nicholas Charles) Criticism and interpretation'

AbstractThe purpose of this essay is exegesis. I explicate Nicholas Malebranche’s concept of intelligible extension. I begin by detailing how the concept matured throughout Malebranche’s work, and the new functions it took on within his metaphysical system. I then examine Gustav Bergmann’s (1956. “Some Remarks on the Philosophy of Malebranche.” The Review of Metaphysics 10(2): 207–26) “axiomatic” interpretation, as well as the criticism of it offered by Daise Radner (1994. “Malebranche and the Individuation of Perceptual Objects.” In Individuation and Identity in Early Modern Philosophy, edited by Kenneth F. Barber, and Jorge J. E. Gracia, New York: SUNY Press). I argue that Radner’s criticism of the interpretation is only partly successful; some of her objections can be met; others cannot. I then develop a novel interpretation of the concept, given insights from this dispute. I call it the “programmatic interpretation.” I argue that this interpretation coheres well with Malebranche’s famous Vision in God thesis, as well as many of his other commitments. I conclude by considering a certain pertinent objection to my proposal, summarizing the dialectic, and forcefully restating my case.

Nicholas Wolterstorff has recently defended the acceptability of the belief that God speaks and examined various implications of such a belief. This paper examines several of his major hermeneutical and epistemological thesis. Among the issues discussed are the following (i) I examine Wolterstorff's claim to ‘honour’ the results of biblical criticism, and argue that excavative biblical scholarship challenges the plausibility of various crucial assumptions necessary for believing authorial-discourse interpretation of the Bible to be possible. (ii) I dispute his peculiar view that God's speech should not be included under the rubric of divine revelation. (iii) Contrary to Wolterstorff I claim that miracles would have to play an essential role in divine discourse. (iv) I critically examine and reject his claim that – in the case he describes – ‘we are entitled’ to believe God is speaking.

The scholastic doctrine of transcendentals is inherited from Arabic philosophy to a certain extent. This dependance is clearly illustrated in the construction of the problematic of the transcendental one, which is identical with being, and of the numerical one, which is not. The scholastic discussion as a whole reproduces the major themes of Avicenna's position, then of Averroes' criticism of Avicenna. This article attempts to reconstruct the complex of questions, topics, and arguments which constitute this problematic by tracing its evolution through the analysis of anonymous sophismata and of texts by Nicholas of Paris, Roger Bacon, Albert the Great, and James of Viterbo. Two stages are distinguished: the first is centered on the distinction between the transcendental and numerical one; the second, essentially German (Dietrich of Freiberg and Berthold of Moosburg), is centered on the subordination of the Aristotelian to the Platonic concept of the transcendental one. Along the way, it is shown that, with the exception of the German philosophers, the understanding of Avicenna's position is constantly filtered through Averroes' interpretation.

Abstract This essay outlines the history of Alexandrism in the Middle Ages, focusing on the reception of Alexander of Aphrodisias in the late-medieval universities. Alexander of Aphrodisias met with severe criticism in the 13th century from William of Auvergne, Albert the Great and Thomas of Aquinas among others, but in the 14th century this attitude changed completely with John Buridan, giving way to a positive and productive adoption of his theories. The centerpiece of the controversy was Alexander's doctrine that the human soul is similar to the animal soul and hence mortal "like the soul of a dog or a donkey." Previously condemned as the absurd thesis of an outsider - wrongly so, because Alexander was perfectly in line with a long peripatetic tradition beginning with Dikaiarch of Messene and Straton of Lampsakos -, this doctrine was now considered philosophically superior to and sounder than the competing theories of Averroes and the Roman Catholic faith. In connection with this doctrine, Buridan stated that some higher species of animals have the ability to think like a man or an ape (sicut homo vel simia) and that an ape can even be said to have some reason. Buridan's interpretation of Alexander was disseminated at the universities of the 14th and 15th centuries by his many followers, including Lawrence of Lindores, Marsilius of Inghen (who defended Alexander against Albert the Great), Nicholas of Amsterdam, Biagio Pelacani of Parma and Benedikt Hesse of Kraków.

Entoptic landscape and ijereja are both works that can be considered as expanding collections of materials. They explore the spaces between composition, notation, performance and improvisation by considering all of these activities as equally 'performative'. Each work comprises a set of materials that includes scores, fixed media audio and video, recorded live performances, studio-edited performances, and performance strategies. In the case of each piece, materials created in and by previous performances go on to inform future performances of the music. As such, there can be no 'definitive' performance or statement of the works, and nor can they ever be considered finished or bounded. This is how these pieces conceive of music as an iterative process: they are intended as statements of that process. Nicholas Bourriaud (2010) identifies the creative artist as a 'semionaut': one who must navigate between signs and signifiers in order to negotiate, interpret, and create meaning. In the 'work' of music, the composer, performer and listener can all be thought of as semionauts; they take part in the same processes to create and recreate the 'work'. In my own practices I embody and enact all three of these positions, and I seek to blur the boundaries between listening, performing and composing. Contemporary artistic forms in Bourriaud's terms, then, are 'journey forms': they internalise and externalise an experience of movement through the work as a temporal and spatial territory. The music presented here offers an opportunity for the exploration of the journey form as a compositional strategy, a tool for performance and interpretation, and a framework for criticism.

The grammarian Lindley Murray (1745–1826), according to Monaghan (1996), was the author of the best selling English grammar book of all times, calledEnglish Grammarand first published in 1795. Not surprisingly, therefore, his work was subjected to severe criticism by later grammarians as well as by authors of usage guides, who may have thought that Murray's success might negatively influence the sales figures of their own books. As the publication history of the grammar in Alston (1965) suggests, Murray was also the most popular grammarian of the late 18thand perhaps the entire 19thcentury, and this is most clearly reflected in the way in which a wide range of 19th- and even some 20th-century literary authors, from both sides of the Atlantic, mentioned Lindley Murray in their novels. Examples are Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852), George Eliot (Middlemarch, 1871–2), Charles Dickens, in several of his novels (Sketches by Boz, 1836;Nicholas Nickleby, 1838–9;The Old Curiosity Shop1840–1;Dombey & Son, 1846–8); Oscar Wilde (Miner and Minor Poets, 1887) and James Joyce (Ulysses, 1918) (Fens–de Zeeuw, 2011: 170–2). Another example is Edgar Allen Poe, who according to Hayes (2000) grew up with Murray's textbooks and used his writings as a kind of linguistic touchstone, especially in his reviews. Many more writers could be mentioned, and not only literary ones, for in a recent paper in which Crystal (2018) analysed the presence of linguistic elements in issues ofPunchpublished during the 19thcentury, he discovered that ‘[w]heneverPunchdebates grammar, it refers to Lindley Murray’. Murray, according to Crystal, ‘is the only grammarian to receive any mention throughout the period, and his name turns up in 19 articles’ (Crystal, 2018: 86). Murray had become synonymous with grammar prescription, and even in the early 20thcentury, he was still referred to as ‘the father of English Grammar’ (Johnson, 1904: 365).

A Rooted Man and a Sacred PoetBy Viggo MortensenA Review of A.M. Allchin: N.F.S. Grundtvig. An Introduction to his Life and Work. With an afterword by Nicholas Lossky. 338 pp. Writings published by the Grundtvig Society, Århus University Press, 1997.Canon Arthur Macdonald Allchin’s services to Grundtvig research are wellknown to the readers of Grundtvig Studier, so I shall not attempt to enumerate them. But he has now presented us and the world with a brilliant synthesis of his studies of Grundtvig, a comprehensive, thorough and fundamental introduction to Grundtvig, designed for the English-speaking world. Fortunately, the rest of us are free to read as well.It has always been a topic of discussion in Denmark whether Grundtvig can be translated, whether he can be understood by anyone except Danes who have imbibed him with their mother’s milk, so to speak. Allchin is an eloquent proof that it can be done. Grundtvig can be translated and he can be made comprehensible to people who do not belong in Danish culture only, and Allchin spells out a recipe for how it can be done. What is required is for one to enter Grundtvig’s universe, but to enter it as who one is, rooted in one’s own tradition. That is what makes Allchin’s book so exciting and innovative - that he poses questions to Grundtvig’s familiar work from the vantage point of the tradition he comes from, thus opening it up in new and surprising ways.The terms of the headline, »a rooted man« and »a sacred poet« are used about Grundtvig in the book, but they may in many ways be said to describe Allchin, too. He, too, is rooted in a tradition, the Anglican tradition, but also to a large extent the tradition taken over from the Church Fathers as it lives on in the Orthodox Church. Calling him a sacred poet may be going too far.Allchin does not write poetry, but he translates Grundtvig’s prose and poetry empathetically, even poetically, and writes a beautiful and easily understood English.Allchin combines the empathy with the distance necessary to make a renewed and renewing reading so rewarding: »Necessarily things are seen in a different perspective when they are seen from further away. It may be useful for those whose acquaintance with Grundtvig is much closer, to catch a glimpse of his figure as seen from a greater distance« (p. 5). Indeed, it is not only useful, it is inspiring and capable of opening our eyes to new aspects of Grundtvig.The book falls into three main sections. In the first section an overview of Grundtvig’s life and work is given. It does not claim to be complete which is why Allchin only speaks about »Glimpses of a Life«, the main emphasis being on the decisive moments of Grundtvig’s journey to himself. In five chapters, Grundtvig’s way from birth to death is depicted. The five chapters cover: Childhood to Ordination 1783-1811; Conflict and Vision 1811-29; New Directions, Inner and Outer 1829-39; Unexpected Fulfilment 1839-58; and Last Impressions 1858-72. As it will have appeared, Allchin does not follow the traditional division, centred around the familiar years. On the contrary, he is critical of the attempts to focus everything on such »matchless discoveries«; rather than that he tends to emphasize the continuity in the person’s life as well as in his writings. Thus, about Thaning’s attempt to make 1832 the absolute pivotal year it is said: »to see this change as an about turn is mistaken« (p. 61).In the second main section of the book Allchin identifies five main themes in Grundtvig’s work: Discovering the Church; The Historic Ministry; Trinity in Unity; The Earth made in God’s Image; A simple, cheerful, active Life on Earth. It does not quite do Allchin justice to say that he deals with such subjects as the Church, the Office, the Holy Trinity, and Creation theology.His own subtitles, mentioned above, are much more adequate indications of the content of the section, since they suggest the slight but significant differences of meaning that Allchin masters, and which are immensely enlightening.It also becomes clear that it is Grundtvig as a theologian that is the centre of interest, though this does not mean that his work as educator of the people, politician, (history) scholar, and poet is neglected. It adds a wholeness to the presentation which I find valuable.The third and longest section of the book, The Celebration of Faith, gives a comprehensive introduction to Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity, as it finds expression in his sermons and hymns. The intention here is to let Grundtvig speak for himself. This is achieved through translations of many of his hymns and long extracts from his sermons. Allchin says himself that if there is anything original about his book, it depends on the extensive use of the sermons to illustrate Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity. After an introduction, Eternity in Time, the exposition is arranged in the pattern of the church year: Advent, Christmas, Annunciation, Easter and Whitsun.In the section about the Annunciation there is a detailed description of the role played by the Virgin Mary and women as a whole in Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity. He finishes the section by quoting exhaustively from the Catholic theologian Charles Moeller and his views on the Virgin Mary, bearing the impress of the Second Vatican Council, and he concludes that in all probability Grundtvig would not have found it necessary to disagree with such a Reformist Catholic view. Finally there are two sections about The Sign of the Cross and The Ministry of Angels. The book ends with an epilogue, where Allchin sums up in 7 points what modem features he sees in Gmndtvig.Against the fragmented individualism of modem times, he sets Gmndtvig’s sense of cooperation and interdependence. In a world plagued with nationalism, Gmndtvig is seen as an example of one who takes national identity seriously without lapsing into national chauvinism. As one who values differences, Grundtvig appeals to a time that cherishes special traditions.Furthermore Gmndtvig is one of the very greatest ecumenical prophets of the 19th century. In conclusion Allchin translates »Alle mine Kilder« (All my springs shall be in you), »Øjne I var lykkelige« (Eyes you were blessed indeed) and »Lyksaligt det Folk, som har Øre for Klang« (How blest are that people who have an ear for the sound). Thus, in a sense, these hymns become the conclusion of the Gmndtvig introduction. The point has been reached when they can be sung with understanding.While reading Allchin’s book it has been my experience that it is from his interpretation of the best known passages and poems that I have learned most. The familiar stanzas which one has sung hundreds of times are those which one is quite suddenly able to see new aspects in. When, for example, Allchin interprets »Langt højere Bjerge« (Far Higher Mountains), involving Biblical notions of the year of jubilee, it became a new and enlightening experience for me. But the Biblical reference is characteristic. A Biblical theologian is at work here.Or when he interprets »Et jævnt og muntert virksomt Liv paa Jord« (A Simple Cheerful Active Life on Earth), bringing Holger Kjær’s memorial article for Ingeborg Appel into the interpretation. In less than no time we are told indirectly that the most precise understanding of what a simple, cheerful, active life on earth is is to be found in Benedict of Nursia’s monastic mle.That, says Allchin, leads us to the question »where we are to place the Gmndtvigian movement in the whole spectmm of Christian movements of revival which are characteristic of Protestantism« (p. 172). Then - in a comparison with revival movements of a Pietistic and Evangelical nature – Allchin proceeds to give a description of a Grundtvigianism which is culturally open, but nevertheless has close affinities with a medieval, classical, Western monastic tradition: a theocentric humanism. »It is one particular way of knitting together the clashing archetypes of male and female, human and divine, in a renunciation of evil and an embracing of all which is good and on the side of life, a way of making real in the frailties and imperfections of flesh and blood a deeply theocentric humanism« (p. 173).Now, there is a magnificent English sentence. And there are many of them. Occasionally some of the English translations make the reader prick up his ears, such as when Danish »gudelige forsamlinger« becomes »meetings of the godly«. I learnt a few new words, too (»niggardliness« and »esemplastic«) the meaning of which I had to look up; but that is only to be expected from a man of learning like Allchin. But otherwise the book is written in an easily understood and beautiful English. This is also true of the large number of translations, about which Allchin himself says that he has been »tantalised and at times tormented« by the problems connected with translating Grundtvig, particularly, of course, his poetry. Naturally Allchin is fully aware that translation always involves interpretation. When for example he translates Danish »forklaret« into »transfigured«, that choice pulls Grundtvig theologically in the direction that Allchin himself inclines towards. This gives the reader occasion to reflect. It is Allchin’s hope that his work on translating Grundtvig will be followed up by others. »To translate Grundtvig in any adequate way would be the work of not one person but of many, not of one effort but of many. I hope that this preliminary study may set in train a process of Grundtvig assimilation and affirmation« (p. 310)Besides being an introduction to Grundtvig, the book also becomes an introduction to past and contemporary Danish theology and culture. But contemporary Danish art, golden age painting etc. are also brought in and interpreted.As a matter of course, Allchin draws on the whole of the great Anglo-Saxon tradition: Blake, Constable, Eliot, etc., indeed, there are even quite frequent references to Allchin’s own Welsh tradition. In his use of previous secondary literature, Allchin is very generous, quoting it frequently, often concurring with it, and sometimes bringing in half forgotten contributions to the literature on Grundtvig, such as Edvard Lehmann’s book from 1929. However, he may also be quite sharp at times. Martin Marty, for example, must endure being told that he has not understood Grundtvig’s use of the term folkelig.Towards the end of the book, Allchin discusses the reductionist tactics of the Reformers. Anything that is not absolutely necessary can be done away with. Thus, what remains is Faith alone, Grace alone, Christ alone. The result was a radical Christ monism, which ended up with undermining everything that it had originally been the intention to defend. But, says Allchin, Grundtvig goes the opposite way. He does not question justification by faith alone, but he interprets it inclusively. The world in all its plenitude is created in order that joy may grow. There is an extravagance and an exuberance in the divine activity. In a theology that wants to take this seriously, themes like wonder, growth and joy must be crucial.Thus, connections are also established back to the great church tradition. It is well-known how Grundtvig received decisive inspiration from the Fathers of the Eastern Church. Allchin’s contribution is to show that it grows out of a need by Grundtvig himself, and he demonstrates how it manifests itself concretely in Grundtvig’s writings. »Perhaps he had a deep personal need to draw on the wisdom and insight of earlier ages, on the qualities which he finds in the sacred poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, in the liturgical hymns of the Byzantine Church, in the monastic theology of the early medieval West. He needs these resources for his own life, and he is able to transpose them into his world of the nineteenth century, which if it is no longer our world is yet a world in which we can still feel at home. He can be for us a vital link, a point of connection with these older worlds whose riches he had deciphered and transcribed with such love and labour« (p. 60).Thus the book gives us a discussion - more detailed than seen before – of Grundtvig’s relationship to the Apostolic Succession, the sacramental character of the Church and Ordination, and the phenomenon transfiguration which is expounded, partly by bringing in Jakob Knudsen. On the background of the often observed emphasis laid by Grundtvig on the descent into Hell and the transfiguration, his closeness to the orthodox form of Christianity is established. Though Grundtvig does not directly use the word »theosis« or deification, the heart of the matter is there, the matter that has been given emphasis first and foremost in the bilateral talks between the Finnish Lutheran Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. But Grundtvig’s contribution is also seen in the context of other contemporaries and reforming efforts, Khomiakov in Russia, Johann Adam Möhler in Germany, and Keble, Pusey and Newman in England. It is one of Allchin’s major regrets that it did not come to an understanding between the leaders of the Oxford Movement and Grundtvig. If an actual meeting and a fruitful dialogue had materialized, it might have exerted some influence also on the ecumenical situation of today.Allchin shows how the question of the unity of the Church and its universality as God’s Church on earth acquired extreme importance to Grundtvig. »The question of rediscovering Christian unity became a matter of life and death« (p. 108). It is clear that in Allchin’s opinion there has been too little attention on this aspect of Grundtvig. Among other things he attributes it to a tendency in the Danish Church to cut itself off from the rest of the Christian world, because it thinks of itself as so special. And this in a sense is the case, says Allchin. »Where else, at the end of the twentieth century, is there a Church which is willing that a large part of its administration should be carried on by a government department? Where else is there a state which is still willing to take so much responsibility for the administration of the Church’s life?« (p. 68). As will be seen: Allchin is a highly sympathetic, but far from uncritical observer of Danish affairs.When Allchin sees Grundtvig as an ecumenical theologian, it is because he keeps crossing borders between Protestantism and Catholicism, between eastern and western Christianity. His view of Christianity is thus »highly unitive« (p. 310). Grundtvig did pioneer work to break through the stagnation brought on by the church schisms of the Reformation. »If we can see his efforts in that way, then the unfinished business of 1843 might still give rise to fruitful consequences one hundred and fifty years later. That would be a matter of some significance for the growth of the Christian faith into the twentyfirst century, and not only in England and Denmark« (p. 126).In Nicholas Lossky’s Afterword it is likewise Grundtvig’s effort as a bridge builder between the different church groupings that is emphasized. Grundtvig’s theology is seen as a »truly patristic approach to the Christian mystery« (p. 316). Thus Grundtvig becomes a true all-church, universal, »catholic« theologian, for »Catholicity is by definition unity in diversity or diversity in unity« (p. 317).With views like those presented here, Allchin has not only introduced Grundtvig and seen him in relation to present-day issues, but has also fruitfully challenged a Danish Grundtvig tradition and Grundtvigianism. It would be a pity if no one were to take up that challenge.

In the years after 1919, Heidegger began to call for a “deconstruction” (Abbau) or “destruction” (Destruktion) of Western intellectual traditions in an attempt to “save culture.” He proposed that the “deconstruction” and “destruction” of intellectual traditions should proceed from a re-examination of the original Greek interpretation of Being, which had been misunderstood completely and utterly trivialized. From hereon, he began to articulate Being within the sphere of the world; Being as unveiled and revealed in Dasein. But the investigation of Being did not stop in Being and Time. The meaning of Being lies in occurrence, that is, that the gods are not extant characters, but rather figures of remembrance and expectation. Only in dasein’s moment of existential longing can god be really empty of any claim and intention. This opens us to the “Last God” of the Contributions. References Dreyfus, Hubert and Mark Wrathall, eds. A Companion to Heidegger. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Gelven, Michael. A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time. Chicago: Northern Illinois University Press, 1989 Guignon, Charles, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Gray, J. Glenn. “Heidegger’s Being” in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 49, no. 12, 1992. Heidegger, Martin. Basic Writings. David Farrell Krell, ed. New York: Harper San Francisco, 1992. __________. Being and Time. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson, trans. Oxford: Blackwell, 1962. __________. Contributions to Philosophy: From Enowning. Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly, tr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. __________. Introduction to Metaphysics. Gregory Fried and Richard Polt, tr. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. __________. Parmenides. Andre Schuwer and Richard Rojcewicz, tr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. __________. The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Albert Hofstadter, trans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. __________. The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude. William McNeill and Nicholas Walker, trans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. __________. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. William Levitt, tr. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1977. Hemming, Laurence Paul. Heidegger’s Atheism: The Refusal of a Theological Voice. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. Lawler, James. “Heidegger’s Theory of Metaphysics and Dialectics” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 35, no. 3, 1975. Marion, Jean-Luc. God Without Being. Thomas A. Carlson, tr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991. Nicholson, Graeme. Illustrations of Being: Drawing Upon Heidegger and Upon Metaphysics. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1992. Polt, Richard. Heidegger: An Introduction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Rosenstein, Leon. “Mysticism as Preontology: A Note on the Heideggerian Connection” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 31, No. 1, 1978. Scott, Charles, Susan Schoenbohm, Daniela Vallega-Neu, and Alejandro Vallega, eds. Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

This paper attempts to provide an account of Gadamer’s conception of truth. Due to this, I attempt to venture in a path that has not been fully explored. I argue that Gadamer’s conception of truth has an anamnetic character for the following reasons: First, Gadamer views truth as an event – a disclosure or uncealment of what is hidden within the being- is part of the structure of understanding without such truth happening will not occur. Second, I will show that Gadamer’s view of truth is inseparable from his view of dialectic and understanding as these are necessary conditions of the possibility of conversation primarily characterized by his account on the hermeneutic experience, language, and tradition. Third, by looking at other salient Gadamerian concepts such as the four guiding concepts of humanism, language, understanding, and conversation, the link between truth and anamnesis is fully completed. These concepts are necessary to substantiate and support my view that indeed truth has an anamnetic character. However, I should be clear that my attempt to elucidate the anamnetic character of truth is not tantamount to trying to provide an account of the nature of truth for it is one thing to give an account of the nature of truth and another to simply provide a characterization of it. The paper will be divided into three sections. The first section will discuss Plato’s view of anamnesis and his influence to Gadamer’s thought. The second section will be on Gadamer’s conception of truth and lastly, the concluding remarks. References Ackrill, John L. Essays on Plato and Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Cooper, John M. (ed). Collected Works of Plato. Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1997. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of the Later Writings. Edited by Richard E. Palmer. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2007. ____________________. Truth and Method, 2nd edition. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Continuum, 1998. ____________________. “On the Scope and Function of Hermeneutical Reflection.” Continuum 8, 1 & 2 (1970). ____________________. “The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem.” In The Hermeneutic Tradition: From Ast to Ricoeur. Ed. Gayle L. Ormiston. New York:SUNY Press, 1989. ____________________. Gadamer in Conversation: Reflections and Commentary. Edited by Richard Palmer. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003. Scott, Dominic. Plato’s Meno. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Vlastos, Gregory. Studies in Greek Philosophy, vol. II. Edited by Daniel W. Graham. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995. Secondary Sources Alcoff, Linda. “The Case for Coherence.” In The Nature of Truth. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001. Ambrosio, Francis J. “Dawn and Dusk: Gadamer and Heidegger on Truth.” Man and World, 19 (1986): 21-53. Barthold, Lauren Swayne. “The Truth of Hermeneutics: The Self and Other in Dialogue in the Thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer.” Ph.D. Diss., Graduate Faculty of Political Science of the New School of Social Research, 2002. Brickhouse, Thomas C. and Nicholas D. Smith. “Socrates’ Elenctic Mission.” In OxfordStudies in Ancient Philosophy vol. IX. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Chiurazzi, Gaetano. “Truth is More than Reality: Gadamer’s Transformational Concept of Truth.” Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011): 60-71. Di Cesare, Donatella. Gadamer: A Philosophical Portrait. Translated by Niall Keane Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007. Frede, Michael. “Plato’s Arguments and the Dialogue Form.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Methods in Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues. Edited by James C. Klagge and Nicholas D. Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Gerson, Lloyd P. Ancient Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Gettier, Edmund. “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” Analysis vol. 23, no. 6 (June 1963): 121-123. Glendinning, Simon. The Idea of Continental Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Grondin, Jean. Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1994. _____________. The Philosophy of Gadamer. Translated by Kathryn Plant. Chesham: Acumen Publishing, 2003. _____________. “Gadamer’s Basic Understanding of Understanding.” In Cambridge Companion to Gadamer, ed. Robert J. Dostal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Heidegger, Martin. The Essence of Truth, trans. Ted Sadler. Maiden Lane, New York: Continuum, 2002. Inwood, Michael. “ Truth and Untruth in Plato and Heidegger.” In Heidegger and Plato: Toward Dialogue. Edited by Catalin Partenie and Tom Rockmore. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2005. Kahn, Charles. “ Plato on Recollection.” In A Companion to Plato. Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Kraut, Richard. “Introduction to the Study of Plato”. In The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Edited by Richard Kraut. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ______________. “Plato.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2017 Edition. Accessed December 2, 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=plato. Kidder, Paulette. “Gadamer and the Platonic Eidos.” Philosophy Today 39 no. 1 (1995): 83-92. Kirkham, Richard L. Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001. Leibniz, G.W. Discourse on Metaphysics, XXVI. Translated by P.G. Lucas and L. Grint. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1953. Lynch Michael (ed.). The Nature of Truth. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001. Müller, Anja. “The Rediscovery of Truth.” M.A. Thesis. University of Glasgow, 1998. Palmer, Richard E. Hermeneutics. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969. Rosen, Stanley. “Heidegger’s Interpretation of Plato.” In Essays in Metaphysics. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1970. Rowe, Christopher. “Interpreting Plato.” In A Companion to Plato. Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Schmidt, Lawrence K. Understanding Hermeneutics. Durham: Acumen, 2006. Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. Edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne. New York: The Free Press, 1978. Young, Charles M. “The Socratic Elenchus.” in A Companion to Plato, Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Fra Angelico's fresco cycle of the lives and martyrdoms of SS. Stephen and Lawrence in the Chapel of Nicholas V (1447-49) communicate in a style which seems to be rhetorical in the sense that they employ numerous strategies which appear to aim at persuading viewers of the truth of the ideological notions the frescoes convey. This fact encourages one to consider the specific pressures which the context of the frescoes' production may have exerted. Commissioned by a pope who had the training of a professional humanist - and who, as a humanist, had interest in the efficacy of rhetoric - these frescoes convey their messages with a persuasive pictorial 'eloquence1 which, in some respects, corresponds to or plays off on humanist definitions of eloquence. The following study attempts to explain what messages these frescoes were meant to communicate, and how their manner of communication is rhetorical. The rhetorical style becomes a method of conveying old ideas in new ways, and may have made the messages more resonant in the context in which they were meant to function. A paucity of primary documentation on the frescoes makes this type of evaluation difficult. Problems in identifying the frescoes' intended audience and working on the troublesome ground between the rhetorical nature of written and pictorial texts also complicates this' investigation. Nevertheless, by considering the problems and aims of Nicholas Vs pontificate, and by closely examining the subject matter, organization, and expression of the frescoes, some indication as to their probable function may be gained.
Arts, Faculty of
Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of
Graduate

M.Tech. (Fine Art)
In this study, I explore the way in which materials and biomorphic forms are used in selected artworks to convey aspects of gendered and cultural identity constructs. This is done with specific reference to Nicholas Hlobo’s work and to the artwork I produce as part of the practical component of my research. I have chosen Hlobo’s installation Izithunzi (2009) because it is a pertinent example of the way in which he uses biomorphic form and typifies his use of materials, both of which have some similarities to my work. Although Hlobo’s use of materials is widely discussed in the available literature on his work, little has been written on his use of biomorphic form. To address this gap in the literature, I look specifically at how Hlobo uses biomorphic form in Izithunzi to represent what I argue to be the hybridity of his gendered and cultural identity. In the practical component, I present a series of sculptures made from second-hand furniture, polystyrene, concrete, plastic, stuffing, fabric, thread, steel pipe and fibreglass. As Hlobo does in Izithunzi, I consciously make reference to biomorphic forms.

Text in English
Most Xhosa people experience the condition of feeling dislocated and confused when choosing a spiritual belief between Christianity and Xhosa ancestral traditions. This study uses the concept of diaspora to describe the mental dislocation that people whose culture has changed experience. This study is based on the phenomenon of diaspora as a state of identity in the contemporary cultural identity of amaXhosa, the people of the Eastern Cape Province, by exploring the interrelationship between the key concepts, namely, identity, culture, land, and home as they relate to ancestral worship and Christian practice. Two installation artworks by Bill Viola and Nicholas Hlobo were selected for a comparative analysis under the spectacle of Xhosa ancestral tradition. In this study, I seek to understand how identity is constructed within a particular geographical and ideological culture and how self-identity can be constituted through the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of cultural histories. Touching on notions of mediation, altar, and dislocation, this study uses Martin Buber’s concept of I AND THOU to weave the key concepts together.
Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
M.A. (Visual Arts)