Descartes and Pascal: A Study of Likenesses

PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 542-565
Author(s):  
Robert J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Total View ◽  
Favorable Comment

Of all the commonplace antitheses of literary history none seems more solidly justified than that which opposes Descartes to Pascal. Critics, depending upon their prejudices, have taken sides with either Pascal or Descartes, with either religion or reason. Pascal, whose total view seems more comprehensive, has received the lion's share of favorable comment. To many, his wider awareness, allowing for reason and more-than-reason, makes Descartes appear insufficient and incomplete. The little religion in Descartes is seen chiefly as an excrescence, or a strategic back-tracking: Descartes, seeing the dangerous implications of his rationalism, attempts the always unhappy marriage of Faith and Reason, one he regards as at best a mariage de convenance. Pascal, on the other hand, with his divorce of Faith and Reason, is on “le véritable chemin.” In short, Descartes pays the lip-service to Religion which Pascal pays to Reason.

Peter Chaadaev

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-46
Author(s):  
Teresa Obolevitch
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Russian Philosopher ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 4 examines the topic of the relationship between faith and reason in the thought of Peter Chaadaev, recognized as the first original Russian philosopher. He treated faith and reason as two reliable paths representing feeling (of a temporary nature) and reasoning (which is more constant and stable) respectively, and both leading to God. Opposed to materialism and the newly found positivism, he tried to build a harmonious correlation between faith and natural science. It is argued that, according to Chaadaev, faith is the first stage of cognition but, on the other hand, it demands the confirmation of reason. Therefore, theology and science are complementary disciplines.

scholarly journals Presupposing, Believing, Having Faith

Sophia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Miguel Gómez Rincón
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

Abstract This paper traces the borders between presupposing, believing, and having faith. These three attitudes are often equated and confused in the contemporary image of the historically and culturally situated character of rationality. This confusion is problematic because, on the one hand, it prevents us from fully appreciating the way in which this image of rationality points towards a dissolving of the opposition between faith and reason; on the other hand, it leads to forms of fideism. After bringing this differentiation into sharper focus, a concept of faith in turn will come into view which challenges contemporary forms of fideism, to the extent that it embraces the possibility of examining and evaluating  our systems of beliefs and basic presuppositions. This examination has nothing to do with justification or verification but rather with a sort of confrontation and discernment of the trust we have in what we take for granted.

VIII.—Contemporary Opinion of Poe

PMLA ◽  
1921 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Killis Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Special Study ◽  
University Of Virginia ◽  
The South ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Sir Walter Raleigh ◽  
The University

Although Poe is now all but universally acknowledged to be one of the three or four literary geniuses that America has produced, there was a period immediately following his death when few writers in America were willing to concede to him any extraordinary merit beyond that of an exceptionally gifted artist. It has sometimes been held that Poe was similarly neglected even before his death. Thus, so distinguished a scholar as Professor Sir Walter Raleigh, of Oxford, in a letter addressed to the celebrators of the Poe centenary at the University of Virginia (1909), makes the statement that Poe was “barely recognized while he lived.” Baudelaire, who did more than any other to light the flame of Poe's reputation abroad, believed that Poe was cruelly neglected by his fellow-countrymen, and most other Frenchmen have, I believe, adopted much the same view. In America, too, there has long existed a tradition that Poe was but little appreciated during his lifetime,—a tradition that has flourished especially at the South, though it has not been confined to the South. On the other hand, some of the ablest of those who have made a special study of Poe have held that this tradition is without any substantial basis in fact. The lamented Professor Charles F. Richardson, for instance, in one of the most sympathetic and discriminating essays that we have on the Southern poet, asserts that it is “a serious mistake” to assume that Poe was unpopular in his own day. And Professor W. P. Trent, a no less eminent authority on our literary history, has recorded the belief that “Poe is no exception to the rule that the writers who really count began by counting with their contemporaries.”

Governmental Attempts to Regulate the Stage after the Jeremy Collier Controversy

PMLA ◽  
1923 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-174
Author(s):  
Joseph Wood Krutch
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Marked Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Difference Of Opinion ◽  
Complete Failure ◽  
The Government

Although Jeremy Collier's attack on the drama of his time and the subsequent “reform” of the stage in the direction of propriety and dullness have been regarded ever since as commonplaces of literary history, the relation between them has never been adequately investigated, and about this the greatest difference of opinion still exists. Ward declares: “In truth the position in which he [Collier] stood … had been proved impregnable. From this time forward a marked change became visible in the attitude of the Court, the Government, and a section at least of the ruling classes, towards the stage, and its own consciousness of the purposes and restrictions proper to the exercise of its art.” On the other hand, Mr. Whibley asserts: “The poets bowed their knee not an inch in obedience to Collier. They replied to him, they abused him, and they went their way… . The pages of Genest … make evidence the complete failure of Collier's attack.”

The comparative context and methodology of literary history in Hanuš Jelínek’s Histoire de la littérature tchèque

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Miloš Zelenka
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Synthetic Work

Abstract The paper evaluates the importance of the French-written Histoire de la littérature tchèque I–III [The History of Czech Literature] (1930–1935) by Hanuš Jelínek (1878–1944), a leading expert and authority on French–Czech cultural relations. His synthetic work destined for French readers and completed outside the modern methodological context of the 1930s draws on Ernest Denis’ concept of Czech literary development as the ‘literature of struggle’ against the German element, while its composition is inspired by Arne Novák’s history written in German, and his expository method follows in the footsteps of his mentor Jaroslav Vlček. Therefore, Jelínek conceives literary development as a continual motion of ideas within an aesthetic form, as a subject-stratified, multi-layered story unified by the central outlook enabling him on the one hand to emphasise the nationally defensive aspect of Czech literature, and, on the other hand, to present it through parallels and illustrative examples within the European perspective. Jelínek’s Histoire, supplemented with a number of his own translations of Czech authors, is a particular narrative–historical genre – the epitome of the young Czech nation’s cultural policy and an archetype of cordial relations between the Czechoslovak and French cultures.

scholarly journals T.T. Cloete as literary critic, theorist and literary historian (Part 2): T.T. Cloete as theorist of literary history

Literator ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Van Coller
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Literary Work Of Art ◽  
The One ◽  
Literary System

It had already been stated that Siegfried Schmidt (in Hjort 1992) discerned four ‘roles’ within the Literary System, that of literary production, dissemination, reception and literary processing. According to this definition, T.T. Cloete, the well-known author and critic, had played all of these roles. In this second part of a two-part article the focus is on Cloete as a literary historian and in particular on his theoretical (methodological) perceptions pertaining to literary history. It is abundantly clear that in all of his different roles a historical awareness was always present. For Cloete the literary work of art was inbedded in a historical timeframe which imposed hermeneutical imperatives on the critic; on the other hand the literary work of art is present in the here and now and accessible to any skilled reader. One of the objectives of this study is to argue that there was thus an implied dichotomy in Cloete’s thinking on literary history. On the one hand there had been a relativistic view that positioned literary texts in the past, and on the other hand a normative view that implied that certain texts (due to inherent qualities like integration and complexity) could gain a certain permanence. In the last part of this article-true to the narrative approach, an implied confrontation with Cloete’s (methodological) views of literary history lead to a personal standpoint as a confrontation with the self (cf. Sools 2009:27). This explication of a personal view on the writing of a literary history (as an implied homage to Cloete) concluded the article.

From 'Ā'esha to Nur Jahān: The Shaping of a Classical Persian Poetic Canon of Women

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Direct Effect ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Women Poets ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe eighteenth century witnessed an interest in Persian women poets and attempts were made by writers of tazkeras to create a female canon of poets. The cultural shift in the Iranian-Indian interface at this time had a direct effect on the writing of Persian literary history that, on the one hand, resulted in the desire to maintain a universal vision regarding the Persianate literary past, exemplified by such writers as Vāleh Dāghestāni in Riāz al-sho' arā', and on the other hand, witnessed the increasingly popular move towards a more local and parochial version of the achievements of poets, as seen in Āzar Bēgdeli's Ātashkada and other writers of biographical dictionaries. The tri-furcation of the literary tradition (Iran, Turan [Transoxiana], India) complicated the way the memory of women poets would be accommodated and tazkera writers were often unencumbered by issues of nationalism and linguistic purity on this subject. However, ultimately the project of canonization of classical Persian women poets was a failure by becoming all inclusive.

scholarly journals Racjonalny charakter wiary według św. Augustyna

Vox Patrum ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 427-440
Author(s):  
Tomasz Kaczmarek
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
The Other ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Mystery Of God

According to St. Augustine Faith and Reason are intertwined, overlapping each other, but without excluding each other. In this way the faith is perme­ated by the intellect and it is founded on the authority of the reason, that is essential for in-depth „knowledge”. On the other hand, „knowledge” – rea­son is irreplaceable to „believe”. In such a context two very characteristic of our author’s statements can be seen: Crede ut intelligas, and intellige ut credas! The call of the blessed of Hippo: Intellectum valde ama! can also be included in it. It is a meaningful fact that there is not known a single case in which the Augustinism would split up the reason with the faith. An absolute Christocentrism of Augustine is present in the background of the discussion about the faith and the reason: speculation is not a goal in itself, but it only serves to get closer to the mystery of God and the mystery of a man in Christ. The reason and the faith (the authority) are two factors of getting to know the truth. One can speak of a kind of gnoseological dualism. The faith is the ac­ceptance of the truth because of the authority of the witness. Knowledge leads to the possible conclusions and the faith gives certainty and consistency.

scholarly journals Odisej kao prototip junaka bajke

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1.) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bacalja ◽  
Goran Pavel Šantek
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Literary Characters ◽  
The One

Homer's epics had significant influence on the development of narratives. In literary history Homer's opus was regarded as the beginning of literature in European cultural realm. On the other hand, one of the most important literary characters in the Antiquity was "Odysseus – the one that starts an extraordinary sequence of literary heroes in the following centuries". This paper deals with Odysseus' ordeals – from Troy to Ithaca, which influenced the formulation of paradigm of fairytale hero's actions. Ordeals are marked by obstacles that are placed by gods, and in fairytales those are typical actions of heroes who overcome obstacles in order to achieve justice or undo the wrong. The authors select the motives from the Odyssey that are integrated into the narrative structure of the fairytale. Those motives are based on mythological perception of life and world.

Faith and Reason in the Thought of St. Augustine

1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Cushman
Keyword(s):  
Personal History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Scientific Reason ◽  
Wide Acceptance ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
To Receive

Christianity boldly asserted that the eternal Logos had been manifested in the personal history of Jesus called Christ. Once this claim began to receive wide acceptance, the older ways of philosophizing characteristic of the classical ages were shaken. On the one hand, Christians affirmed positively that God had drawn nigh, disclosing himself in history to those who believed. On the other hand, they held that, apart from reliance upon this divine disclosure, the efforts of scientific reason to apprehend God were pitifully inadequate and perverse.

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