More, Morton, and the Politics of Accommodation

1970 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Thomas More ◽  
The Real ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Academic Philosophy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

In the private conversation of close friends this academic philosophy is not without its charm, but in the council of kings, where great matters are debated with great authority, there is no room for these notions …. But there is another philosophy, more practical for statesmen, which knows its stage, adapts itself to the play in hand, and performs its role neatly and appropriately. This is the philosophy which you must employ.This trimmer's prescription, with its blast of the breath of experience over the unguarded optimism of theory, is crucial to an understanding of More's Utopia and an appreciation of its unity. Was Thomas More seriously recommending the accommodational approach to politics here put forward by the fictional “More” in Book I of the Utopia, and what was the relationship between this approach and the ideal state described in Book II?The various answers given to these questions can be seen as hinges on which the various interpretations of the Utopia have turned. The accommodational argument stands at the crux of the debate on counsel, which takes up almost the whole of Book I. Upon the interpretation of this debate can depend the view taken of More's intention in depicting the fictional society of Utopia, and involved in this interpretation is the knotty problem of whether the real More's opinions are voiced by Hythlodaeus or by the fictional “More.”An examination of the two approaches most frequently adopted will reveal the importance of the problem. The first approach is that which sees the real More's views as expressed by the fictional “More” of the Utopia.

Pyrrho and Pyrrhonism

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Gowans
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Sextus Empiricus ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Emotionally Troubled ◽  
The World ◽  
Pyrrhonian Skepticism ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

The chapter argues that Pyrrho and ancient Pyrrhonian skepticism (specifically, Sextus Empiricus) are plausibly interpreted as accepting a self-cultivation philosophy, though in somewhat different senses and with some qualification. For both, the existential starting point is an emotionally troubled life rooted in beliefs about the world, and the ideal state of being is a life of tranquility without these beliefs and guided by appearances. It is difficult to say what spiritual exercises Pyrrho thought were needed to achieve the ideal state: perhaps learning his philosophy and habituating ourselves to follow it. However, for Sextus, employment of skeptical arguments was the primary exercise. Since neither Pyrrho nor Sextus supposed we could make assertions about the specific nature of things, neither had a philosophy of human nature in a straightforward sense. Nonetheless, presentations of their outlooks betray some perspective on this (e.g., about the relationship between absence of belief and tranquility).

,,Ein Vorhof zum Paradies". Das Czernowitz-Bild in der deutsch-jüdischen Literatur

2006 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-226
Author(s):  
Anna-Dorothea Ludewig
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Place ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe present research on Czernowitz focuses mostly on the 20th century and on the works and memoirs of Holocaust survivors. But Czernowitz was at its cultural and economical height at the end of the 19th century, and it was during that time that the myth of the ,,ideal city" was established. This essay stresses the importance of that time period for understanding the ,,Czernowitz myth," and it analyzes the relationship between the ,,real" place Czernowitz and the literary topos of a ,,sunken city" (Rose Ausländer).

PLATO ON VIRTUE IN THEMENEXENVS

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70
Author(s):  
Federico M. Petrucci
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Moral Issue ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
The Real ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Strict Reading ◽  
The Ideal

TheMenexenusis usually described as a ‘riddle’ or ‘puzzle’. The difficulties it poses have given rise to a multitude of exegeses, revolving around two antithetical readings. On the one hand, some scholars tend to consider the dialogue an ironic critique of Athenian democracy and/or of democratic rhetoric. According to this perspective, Plato expressed this criticism through a paradoxical and somehow feverishepitaphios(the ironic reading). On the other hand, some scholars consider the funeral oration to be quite serious. According to this perspective, Plato aimed at reforming the genre and at introducing his theory of the ideal stateorhis theory of virtue (the strict reading). In this paper I will be moving beyond these standard readings in an attempt to supplement them by identifying the real moral issue behind theMenexenus.

scholarly journals Thinking and behaving “Otherwise”: An anthropological enquiry into utopia, image and ethics

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Roberto Franzini Tibaldeo
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Hans Jonas ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The word “utopia” was coined by Thomas More and refers to the unreal and ideal state described in his Utopia, first published in 1516. Following the example of Plato’s Republic, More as well as other thinkers and writers of the 16th and 17th century reflect on the political relevance of utopia and provide unique accounts of ideal, just, and perfect “no places”, as paradigms and standards of social, political, and religious reformation of the coeval world. However, the political significance of utopia relies on a basic anthropological feature, which incidentally is already underlined by More: the relationship between imagination and experience. This means that: 1) the human being’s “eidetic” freedom is characterised by the inseparable relationship between imagination, reflection, experience and action; 2) utopia is capable of disclosing the transformative and normative features related to the human being’s constitution; 3) utopia can be fruitfully used to motivate human will and mobilise support for human flourishing. In this article I endeavour to show that among contemporary philosophers it is Hans Jonas who most fully develops the anthropological significance of utopia by investigating the very relationship between imagination and experience, and by underlining how the eidetic and reflective constitution of the human being leads to ethics. As a further goal, I wish to highlight that the anthropological relevance of utopia can shed light on our imaginative and ambivalent nature, and provide a practical and educational basis for the achievement of an “ethics of images” for the current digital era. For this purpose I shall draw on the thinking of Marie-José Mondzain and Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, among other scholars.

Utopian History

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance Furey
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Imaginary World ◽  
The Real ◽  
Alternative Future ◽  
Fredric Jameson ◽  
Working Out ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThis paper analyzes how the "new" genre of Utopia (nominally invented by Thomas More in the sixteenth century) historicizes in a way that is not, strictly speaking, tied to history. More builds his imaginary world using details culled from life in sixteenth-century England, and Utopia—a fictional island society—is itself a commentary on the values and politics of More's society. This dual focus on the real and the ideal explains why this prosaic genre has intrigued so many commentators, notably Fredric Jameson, who (I argue) has written repeatedly about Utopia as a way to think through the unresolved implications of his own injunction to historicize. Working out of a commitment to historical materialism, Jameson has found it difficult to articulate hope for an alternative future that is itself appropriately historicized and not naively utopian. Analyzing More and Jameson in tandem thereby illuminates the theoretical dilemmas involved in critiquing history.

Joshua Kates, Essential History: Jacques Derrida and the Development of Deconstruction (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2005), 352pp, $29.95 (USD), ISBN 10: 0810123274, ISBN-13: 978-0810123274

Derrida Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-133
Author(s):  
Gary Banham
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Real ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This book promises a ‘radical reappraisal’ (Kates 2005, xv) of Derrida, concentrating particularly on the relationship of Derrida to philosophy, one of the most vexed questions in the reception of his work. The aim of the book is to provide the grounds for this reappraisal through a reinterpretation in particular of two of the major works Derrida published in 1967: Speech and Phenomena and Of Grammatology. However the study of the development of Derrida's work is the real achievement of the book as Kates discusses major works dating from the 1954 study of genesis in Husserl's phenomenology through to the essays on Levinas and Foucault in the early 1960's as part of his story of how Derrida arrived at the writing of the two major works from 1967.

Thomas More in the Subtext of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Henry VIII

Moreana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (Number 163) (3) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Clare M. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Henry Viii ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Dominant Theme ◽  
Sir Thomas More ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Since the dominant theme of the play is that of “The King’s Great Matter” (his divorce of Katherine and marriage to Anne) it would be difficult for a viewer or reader not to think of Thomas More as the play unfolds, so much was he involved in this event. But Sir Thomas More—which also had Shakespeare among its authors—was not approved by the Master of the Revels, and the playwrights no doubt wished to avoid a similar rejection. A solution for them was to suggest More in the subtext, particularly since his cult was by then well established. This article studies the relationship of the absent More to several of the characters present on stage.

KONSTRUKSI ISLAM DALAM KEKUASAAN NEGARA

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Aini Musyarofah
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Social Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Society ◽  
Ideal Form ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Islamic Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

The relationship between Islam and state raises a controversy that includes two main groups;formalists and substantialists. Both of them intend to achieve a good social condition which is inaccordance with Islamic politics. The ideal form of good society to be achieved is principallydescribed in the main source of Islamic law, Al Qur’an and As Sunnah, as follows. A form of goodsociety should supprot equality and justice, egalitarianism, and democracy in its social community.The next problem is what the needed methods and instruments to achieve the ideal Islamic politicsare. In this case, the debate on the formalization and substance of Islamic teaching is related to therunning formal political institution.Each group claims itself to be the most representative to the ideal Islam that often leads to anescalating conflict. On the other hand thr arguments of both groups does not reach the wholeMuslims. As a result, the discourse of Islam and state seems to be elitist and political. As a result,Both groups suspect each other each other and try to utilize the controversy on the relationshipbetween Islam and state to get their own benefit which has no relation with the actualization ofIslamic teaching.

The Republic

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-229
Author(s):  
Dominic Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Individual Justice ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter presents a reading of Plato’s Republic. The Republic is among Plato’s most complex works. From its title, the first-time reader will expect a dialogue about political theory, yet the work starts from the perspective of the individual, coming to focus on the question of how, if at all, justice contributes to an agent’s happiness. Only after this question has been fully set out does the work evolve into an investigation of politics—of the ideal state and of the institutions that sustain it, especially those having to do with education. But the interest in individual justice and happiness is never left behind. Rather, the work weaves in and out of the two perspectives, individual and political, right through to its conclusion. All this may leave one wondering about the unity of the work. The chapter shows that, despite the enormous range of topics discussed, the Republic fits together as a coherent whole.

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