scholarly journals Towards Modern Greek Consciousness

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Loukia Droulia

<p>This paper deals with the subject of Modern Greek consciousness which can be said epigrammatically to have its starting point in the Provisional Constitution of Greece ratified by the Assembly of Epidaurus in January 1822. For it was then necessary that two crucial questions be answered, namely who were to be considered as citizens of the new state about to be created and what regions it covered. The attempt to find answers to these questions necessarily led to the re-examination of the Greek nation's historical course over the millenia.</p><p>For this purpose the terms that express the concepts which register the self-definition of a human group and their use over time, are here examined as well as the links that formed the connection between the groups of Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians who, as a result of historical circumstances, had until then been geographically scattered. One solid link was the unbroken use of their common language; the "ancestral culture" was the other definitive element which had a continuous though uneven presence throughout the centuries. Finally the "place", having preserved the same geographical name, "Hellas", through the centuries although its borders were certainly unclear, now took on a weighty significance as regards the conscious identification of the historical land with the new state that the Greeks were struggling to create in the nineteenth century. These and other factors contributed to the acceptance by the Greek nation of the nomenclature <em>Ellines, Ellada</em> which were unanimously adopted during the Greek war of Independence, instead of the terms <em>Graikoi, Romioi, Graikia</em>.</p>

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 135-150

The springboard for this essay is the author’s encounter with the feeling of horror and her attempts to understand what place horror has in philosophy. The inquiry relies upon Leonid Lipavsky’s “Investigation of Horror” and on various textual plunges into the fanged and clawed (and possibly noumenal) abyss of Nick Land’s work. Various experiences of horror are examined in order to build something of a typology, while also distilling the elements characteristic of the experience of horror in general. The essay’s overall hypothesis is that horror arises from a disruption of the usual ways of determining the boundaries between external things and the self, and this leads to a distinction between three subtypes of horror. In the first subtype, horror begins with the indeterminacy at the boundaries of things, a confrontation with something that defeats attempts to define it and thereby calls into question the definition of the self. In the second subtype, horror springs from the inability to determine one’s own boundaries, a process opposed by the crushing determinacy of the world. In the third subtype, horror unfolds by means of a substitution of one determinacy by another which is unexpected and ungrounded. In all three subtypes of horror, the disturbance of determinacy deprives the subject, the thinking entity, of its customary foundation for thought, and even of an explanation of how that foundation was lost; at times this can lead to impairment of the perception of time and space. Understood this way, horror comes within a hair’s breadth of madness - and may well cross over into it.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efthymios Kaltsounas ◽  
Tonia Karaoglou ◽  
Natalie Minioti ◽  
Eleni Papazoglou

For the better part of the twentieth century, the quest for a ‘Greek’ continuity in the so-called revival of ancient drama in Greece was inextricably linked to what is termed and studied in this paper as a Ritual Quest. Rituality was understood in two forms: one was aesthetic and neoclassicist in its hermeneutic and performative codes, which were established and recycled – and as such: ritualized – in ancient tragedy productions of the National Theatre of Greece from the 1930s to the 1970s; the other, cultivated mainly during the 1980s, was cultural and centred around the idea that continuity can be traced and explored through the direct employment of Byzantine and folk ritual elements. Both aimed at eliciting the cohesive collective response of their spectators: their turning into a liminal ritual community. This was a community tied together under an ethnocentric identity, that of Greeks participating in a Greek (theatrical) phenomenon. At first through neoclassicism, then through folklore, this artistic phenomenon was seen as documenting a diachronic and essentially political modern Greek desideratum: continuity with the ancient past. Such developments were in tune with broader cultural movements in the period under study, which were reflected on the common imaginings of Antiquity in the modern Greek collective – consciousness – a sort of ‘Communal Hellenism’. The press reception of performances, apart from being a productive vehicle for the study of the productions as such, provides indispensable indexes to audience reception. Through the study of theatre reviews, we propose to explore the crucial shifts registered in the definition of Greekness and its dynamic connections to Antiquity.


Philosophy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (b. 1762–d. 1814) is the first representative of what has been called “German idealism.” He precedes both Schelling, who was considered his disciple until their final break, and Hegel. Regarded as a disciple of Kant in 1793, Fichte nevertheless reproached him for not having succeeded in founding the content of his philosophy on an absolute principle. His primary purpose is therefore to make philosophy into a rigorous science. Fichte therefore begins to elaborate in 1794 on what he calls the “Science of Knowledge” (Wissenschaftslehre; WL). He tirelessly proposes new versions of this Science of Knowledge, insisting through the repetition of the title, on the permanence of his initial motivation: to find an absolute foundation for knowledge. The versions of Fichte’s Science of Knowledge (a dozen in total, distinguished by their date: 1794, 1801, etc.) reflect the most general and abstract level of philosophical thought. This first level of philosophy, which is the most general and abstract, is called by Fichte “first philosophy.” The second level corresponds to theoretical philosophy (or the philosophy of nature) and practical philosophy (or ethics as developed, for example, in his Systems of Ethics, in 1798). The third level represents the “particular sciences,” which study more specific and concrete fields, including subdisciplines such as biology and physics, or “natural right” (i.e., “theory of right”) and philosophy of religion. Finally, a fourth level is constituted by the so-called popular writings, aimed at a public of nonphilosophers, for example, The Vocation of Man, The Way Towards the Blessed Life, and Addresses to the German Nation. The contrast between the clear and literary language of these popular writings and the arid abstraction of the Sciences of Knowledge has often been emphasized. Fichte’s body of work seems to pose a problem of continuity for many commentators. Are the multiple versions of Science of Knowledge compatible with each other? To this question, the answer is more often than not a negative one. Fichte’s commentators divided these versions into two or, sometimes, three periods. The vast majority of interpretations assert that Fichte’s thought evolved over time. Such a change is more often expressed as the passage from a doctrine of what is finite (the subject, the “Self”) to a philosophy of absolute (God, Being). The problem of this evolution has become one of the most difficult aspect of interpreting Fichte’s thought.


1991 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert J. M. Hermans

Recent developments in self‐research show the self to be increasingly conceived as an organized and highly dynamic phenomenon. In combination with the arguments presented in the preceding article, these developments are a good reason for adopting a method in which the psychologist and the subject work together in the study of the self: The self‐confrontation method and the theory on which it is based—valuation theory—are presented as an example of such an approach. This method construes the self as an organized process of valuations, a valuation being any unit of meaning that the person finds of importance in thinking about his or her life. Formulated in the language of the person him‐ or herself; these valuations and how they develop over time are considered in a dialogue between the psychologist and the subject. For the purposes of demonstration, two phenomena that are not easily observedare discussed here: (a) the existence of an imaginal figure not visibly present but functioning as a signifcant other in the person's daily life, and (b) the presence of a character in a recurring dream, which later gets included as an integral part of the self: Finally, the present approach is briefly discussed as representing a constructivist view of personality psychology.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 349-363
Author(s):  
Alice Pugliese

Summary A phenomenological approach to anthropology should not propose a static definition of man, but inquire into specific human motivations, which never occur isolated. Therefore, the autonomy-dependency connection is presented as a possible human motivational ground. The notion of autonomy, presented with reference to the Kantian idea of the self-determining reason and to the Husserlian account of self-constitution, reveals in itself elements of dependency. On the other side, the notion of vulnerability and reliance is displayed through different approaches of Gehlen, MacIntyre and Toombs in order to illustrate dependency not as a mere capitulation of the subject, but as one of its intrinsic possibilities, which does not exclude autonomous will.


1871 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-312
Author(s):  
Blackie

On the subject of accent and quantity as elements of human speech, there has been such an immense amount of confusion, arising from vague phraseology, that in renewing the discussion nothing seems more necessary than to start with a careful and accurate definition of terms; and that a definition not taken from books, and the dumb bearers of a dead tradition, but from the living facts of nature, and the permanent qualities belonging to articulated breath. Now, if we observe accurately the natural and necessary affections of words in human discourse, considered merely as a succession of compact little wholes of articulated breath, without regard to their signification, we shall find that all the affections of which they are capable amount to four. Either (1), the mass of articulated breath which we call a word, is sent forth in a comparatively small volume, as in the case of a common gun, or it is sent forth in large volume, as in the case of a Lancaster gun; this is a mere affair of bulk, in virtue of which alone it is manifest that any word rolled forth from the lungs of a Stentor must be a different thing from the same mass of sound emitted from a less capacious bellows. In common language this difference is marked by the words loud and low.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr.Sc. Lucia Novakova

Self-definition of ancient Greeks was created under the influence of socio-historical events, reflecting both, the relationship between Hellenes themselves and attitudes towards others. Greek wonder as a selfgenerated process yielded to a growing awareness that the drive towards advancement, observed in certain regions of Greece, was probably not possible without the external impetus of an extensively integrated Mediterranean world (Rollinger 2006, 197-226). The influencing factors for self-definition of ancient Greeks were a shared myth of descent, a shared territory, and a shared sense of history. Many scholars assume, that a sense of Greekness among Dorians, Ionians, Aiolians and others was finally crystallized throughout the number of military conflicts in which they were involved during the Classical period. Its seems probable that Athens played a major role both in the invention of the barbarian concept and in the substitution of cultural for ethnic criteria in the self-definition of Greeks. In their self-definition, Greeks seem to be deliberately stylized as antinomy to what they considered  to be typical for others. Similarly, as a response to the strong pressure from the Persians, the national awareness of the Anatolians was formed. Interestingly, in some cases local ethnic groups had chosen cultural elements that had been associated with Greeks or Persians for their self-definition.


Author(s):  
V. S. Lazarev

Introduction. In the first part of the article, an attempt was made to trace some of the evolution of the concept of a “document”, which is now understood as any material object that can be used to obtain the information necessary for a person. In the second part, assuming that such an interpretation of the concept of a “document” is fruitful for possible reconsideration of viewpoints on the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics, a number of definitions of the objects of these three “metrices” have been examined with a speculative “inlining” the new meaning of the term “document” to the definitions of objects.Materials and methods. Comparative analysis of the viewpoints of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics that were expressed in some examples of definitions of these scientific fields; speculative “inlining” the new meaning of the term “document” in them; consideration the meanings of the objects of “metrices” altered as a result of the mentioned “inlining”.Results. It is shown how noticeably the understanding of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics can be revised as the result of the use of the updated “broad” interpretation of the concept of a “document” and how much the interpretations of the objects of bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics can be even closer in their meanings than previously was recognized.Discussion and conclusion. Such a comparative analysis of the objects of the “metrices” might be helpful for identifying both similarities and differences among bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics. This is important, since the awareness of them is an obvious starting point for the mutual enrichment of “metrices” with knowledge and concepts. A more complete and detailed analysis of representations of the objects of the “metrices” in comparison with the updated “broad” interpretation of the concept of the “document”, as well as a comparison of the methodological components of “metrices” is the subject of further research.


Author(s):  
Emma Lo

The influence and spread of traditional Balinese music over time and across regions has been conducted through a number of different channels. In addition to locally-focused efforts, cultural transfer has also contributed to the preservation of traditional Balinese arts. From the self-interested, strategic support of gamelan music by Japanese occupational forces to the global experimental music scene today, Balinese arts have been shared, supported, translated, and appropriated in various ways by a number of different actors to political, artistic, and commercial ends. Building on Michel Espagne’s definition of cultural transfer and Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of cultural mobility, this paper aims to outline different modes of cultural transfer (or “bridges,” as Espagne would say), with explicit attention to power dynamics and multi-way flows of influence. Several key historical and contemporary examples of the transfer of traditional Balinese music will be discussed in an effort to better understand the relationship between cultural transfer and preservation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 236-256
Author(s):  
Maria Alexandra ◽  
Gago Da Câmara ◽  
Helena Murteira ◽  
Paulo Simões Rodrigues

The digital re-creation of a past city represents more than a mere depiction of its historical awareness; it also represents its imaginability. In retrospect, the imaginability of the city corresponds to the outcome of various perceptions that we have acquired of it over time, and which currently confers us with a certain degree of accuracy in its readability. The imaginability of the city is therefore a determining factor in virtually re-creating the latter and subsequently converting it into a memoryscape. This theory can be validated by the specific case study of Lisbon, Portugal, which has during the last few years been the subject of at least four projects that sought to virtually re-create the city’s past. Despite presenting themselves distinctively with different technological applications, the four projects held the same starting point; the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (a major disruptive event in its history), and were all focused on presenting the cityscape that was lost as a result. Lisbon’s iconography from the sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century (drawings, engravings, and paintings) was used as crucial data.


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