scholarly journals Locke's Political Theology and the 'Second Treatise'

Locke Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 197-232
Author(s):  
Joanne Tetlow
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Objective Knowledge ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
Different Types ◽  
State Of Affairs

It is a contested issue, particularly among modern and postmodern scholars, whether political theory requires a foundation—some set of background assumptions (about the nature of existence, the nature of agency, what is of value in human life and so forth) that is fundamental to and presupposed absolutely by it. Andrew Vincent, in his book The Nature of Political Theory (2004), analyzes different types of foundations based on the assumption that they are necessary and ubiquitous. He believes this is so because as a finite being, without absolute certainty and objective knowledge, man naturally seeks a foundation, which in a comprehensive and complete sense eludes him. In other words, political theory is permanently in search of ‘foundational arguments’ that ‘are intrinsically unresolvable’. According to Vincent, ‘[w]e may not be able to identify absolutes, but neither can we avoid foundationalism’. It is the nature of our being, he suggests, that we continually ask questions that cannot be absolutely resolved. Vincent takes it to follow that the foundations upon which political theory relies are and must be ‘ordinary and multiversal, rather than extraordinary and universal’. Lacking absolute certainty, we are confronted with ‘multiple foundational problems and answers, which are not finished’. This state of affairs, he suggests, ‘is deeply irritating for some, but is quite normal and ordinary for humanity, and should become normal and ordinary within political theory.’

scholarly journals Potential of the biodegradability and characteristics of bio-plastic from microalgae residues

Algologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-92
Author(s):  
Y.C. Wong ◽  
◽  
D.N. Roma ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Infrared Analysis ◽  
Drying Process ◽  
Good Resistance ◽  
Chlorella Sp ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The University

Petroleum-based plastic has been widely used in many industries. However, it takes hundreds of years to degrade and causes widespread pollution to our environment. These problems led to the invention of bioplastics, which were comprised of natural biopolymers made from starch. The production of bioplastics from food-based starches such as tapioca and corn created competition between food and bioplastic production industries. Hence, this research study focuses on producing bioplastic from microalgae residue, which is a non-food based raw material that uses four different types of plasticizers: glycerol, sorbitol, glutaraldehyde and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Microalgae species for identification were obtained from the fish pond at the University Malaysia of Kelantan, before cultivating the species for 14 days. The microalgae residues were extracted through the centrifugation process. Three species were identified under the light microscope, Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp. and Monoraphidium sp. The production of bioplastic involved a manual stirring method using a hotplate magnetic stirrer, followed by drying the bioplastic in an oven at 60 oC. Results obtained showed that sorbitol and glycerol from microalgae are suitable to be used as a plasticizer for the production of bioplastic, however glutaraldehyde and PEG are not suitable. Bioplastics that used PEG and glutaraldehyde became cracked and brittle after the drying process. The characterization of bioplastics includes universal tensile testing machines, Fourier-transform infrared analysis and biodegradability tests being processed//undertaken on glycerol-based and sorbitol based bioplastic. Characterization of bioplastics proved that both glycerol and sorbitol have high potential for applications in daily human life. Bioplastics which used sorbitol as a plasticizer could be used in can be applied the production of plastic goods such as toys and household items due to its good resistance toward stress and minimal flexibility. Meanwhile bioplastics which used glycerol as a plasticizer could be applied to the production of plastic bags and plastic food wrap due to its elastic and flexible nature.

scholarly journals ECOSYSTEM SERVICE ASSESSMENT IN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHED BY USING TOPMODEL

AGROFOR ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke MUKAE ◽  
Koji MIWA ◽  
Hiromu OKAZAWA ◽  
Tomonori FUJIKAWA
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Water Discharge ◽  
Heavy Rain ◽  
Agricultural Watershed ◽  
Sudden Increase ◽  
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ◽  
Different Types

In Millennium Ecosystem Assessment established by the United Nations, theecosystem services (ES) provide benefits for human life as well as theenvironment. There is “regulating services” among all the supporting services. As aregulatory service, forests alleviate the flood risk after heavy rain by storingrainfall temporarily into forestlands and prevent the sudden increase in riverdischarge. The purpose of this research is to develop a hydrological modelling toassess this service in a watershed where consists of not only forestland but alsograssland. TOPMODEL is applied for the quantification. This model was inventedto forecast river discharge in watersheds where the land use is uniform. However,the model has not been applied to a watershed where agricultural and forest areaare mixed in Japan. This research aimed to develop TOPMODEL to apply to suchcomplexed land use. Because the targeted watershed is consisted of two land-usetypes, TOPMODEL was applied in each grassland and forestland. It predicted theriver discharge by combining the predicted discharge from the different types ofland calculated by TOPMODEL. The result confirmed that by developing themodel, it was able to assess the water discharge from the both grassland andforestland in a watershed. The developed model also showed the betterreproducibility of river-discharge prediction than the conventional TOPMODEL.In addition, it clarified that the forestland stores more water than grassland into theground. Therefore, the effect of flood control which is the regulatory service of ESwas assessable through the developed model.

Eric Voegelin and Representation

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-96
Author(s):  
Miguel Vatter
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Dual System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ernesto Laclau ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
Divine Transcendence ◽  
Eric Voegelin ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Electoral Representation

This chapter discusses the political theory of Eric Voegelin as the earliest example of anti-Schmittian political theology based on the rejection of sovereignty. The chapter shows how Voegelin adopts Schmitt’s suggestion that political theology turns on the idea of a non-electoral representation of political unity but rejects Schmitt’s identification of this representative with the sovereign. Voegelin instead argues that ‘democratic’ societies are characterized by a dual system of representation, where philosophical and theological representatives of the transcendent God stand above sovereign representatives. Conversely, ‘totalitarian’ societies are societies that ‘close’ themselves to divine transcendence because they see salvation as a function of enacting immanent social laws. The chapter ends with a discussion of the relation between Voegelin’s idea of non-sovereign representation and contemporary accounts of populism, especially that of Ernesto Laclau.

Love

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha C. Nussbaum
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Active Interest ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Different Levels

Love is usually understood to be a powerful emotion involving an intense attachment to an object and a high evaluation of it. On some understandings, however, love does not involve emotion at all, but only an active interest in the wellbeing of the object. On other accounts, love is essentially a relationship involving mutuality and reciprocity, rather than an emotion. Moreover, there are many varieties of love, including erotic/romantic love, friendly love, and love of humanity. Different cultures also recognize different types of love. Love has, as well, a complicated archaeology: because it has strong links with early experiences of attachment, it can exist in the personality at different levels of depth and articulateness, posing special problems for self-knowledge. It is mistake to try to give too unified an account of such a complex set of phenomena. Love has been understood by many philosophers to be a source of great richness and energy in human life. But even those who praise its contribution have seen it as a potential threat to virtuous living. Philosophers in the Western tradition have therefore been preoccupied with proposing accounts of the reform or ‘ascent’ of love, in order to demonstrate that there are ways of retaining the energy and beauty of this passion while removing its bad consequences.

scholarly journals A New Temporality of Religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 193-204
Author(s):  
Lenart Škof
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Ethical Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Prophetic Religion ◽  
Cornel West

In his insightful essay »Prophetic Religion and the Future of Capitalist Civilization« Cornel West fervently addressed a question of our abilities to imagine a more empathetic, more compassionate, and also more hospitable world, in which we could foresee, or perhaps already lay ground for a future community where the word religion would simply mean that we live our lives in the consciousness of our finitude and thus in an existential and cognitive humility. This kind of religion (not far from Dewey’s or Rorty’s ideals) would enable us to see beyond the margins of any narrow-minded religious ideology or any violent incarnation of religion. Based on these initial thoughts, we first wish to discuss two basic concepts of contemporary political theology – community and vulnerability. We shall argue that we need to offer in contemporary political theology a basic ethico-democratic response, infused with our imaginative capacity for remembrance (Benjamin, Metz) and future hope (West, Dewey, Unger). We will argue with Unger (The Religion of the Future) that we need to live through accepting an enhanced vulnerability, being shared in our democratic (and) religious communities. From this view any loss of human life and its potentials is a sign of a grave injustice, and a catastrophe from an ethical point of view. Finally, we will propose the so called reverse thesis on religion – namely that today, perhaps, we should first look at religion in its radicalized ethico-political form which only later enables us to think about its various variations and incarnations within different traditions and cultures. We will argue that it is within this newly acquired temporality of religion and its inherent ontologico-political paradox, that it is possible to imagine a future place where recurrent hope for a life is reborn and nurtured within future pluralistic / inclusivistic / democratic / post-Christian communities, based on compassion and shared vulnerability, and not any more on power, or any other form of violence.

Mastery, Dependence, and the Ethics of Authority

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Stalnaker
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Training Process ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Human Lifespan ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
Confucian Thought

This book is an analysis of expertise and authority, and examines classical Confucian conceptions of mastery, dependence, and human relationships in order to suggest new approaches to these issues in ethics and political theory. Contemporary Westerners are heirs to multiple traditions that are suspicious of authority, especially coercive political authority. We are also increasingly wary of dependence, which now often seems to signify weakness, neediness, and unworthiness. Analysts commonly presume that both authority and dependence threaten human autonomy, and are thus intrinsically problematic. But these judgments are mistaken. Our capacity for autonomy needs to be cultivated over time through deliberate practices of training, in which we depend on the guidance of virtuous and skilled teachers. Confucian thought provides a subtle and powerful analysis of one version of this training process, and of the social supports such an education in autonomy requires—as well as the social value of having virtuous and skilled leaders. Early Confucians also argue that human life is marked by numerous interacting forms of dependence, which are not only ineradicable, but in many ways good. On a Confucian view, it is natural, healthy, and good for people to be deeply dependent on others in a variety of ways across the full human lifespan. They teach us that individual autonomy develops only within a social matrix, structured by relationships of mutual dependence that can either help or hinder it, including a variety of authority relations.

The Human Predicament

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Benatar
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Human Predicament ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Individual Human

The Human Predicament engages life’s big questions. Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting, optimistic answers to these existential questions. The Human Predicament offers a less sanguine assessment and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism. It is argued that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we are. There is no point to human life as a whole, and individual human lives have no cosmic purpose. Nor is meaning the only way in which our lives are deficient. A candid appraisal reveals that the quality of life, although less bad for some people than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Death, however, is not generally the solution. It exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. It can release us from suffering but even when it does, it imposes another cost—annihilation. The human predicament is thus forged by both life and death. This unfortunate state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about immortality and suicide, which are also discussed in The Human Predicament.

Roman Civil Religion and the Question of Jewish Politics in Arendt

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 573-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Vatter ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Civil Religion

This article discusses the question of how Arendt’s mature “neo-Roman” republican political theory relates to her early . It argues that her early reflections on the problem of Jewish politics in modernity already adopt one of the main pillars of her later republican political theory, i.e., the substitution of federalism for sovereignty. The article puts forth the hypothesis that Arendt’s republicanism takes up the idea that Romans and Jews, during their republican periods, both held a “civil” conception of religion. Arendt’s conception of civil religion is analyzed in light of her readings of Virgil. The article concludes that Arendt’s mature political thought is neither “non-religious” nor contains a “political theology” but that it does put forward a civil-religious interpretation of natality and plurality.

Is “the Political” a Romantic Concept?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Campe
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Radical Constructivism ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter analyzes Carl Schmitt’s concept of the political from the vantage point of German Romanticism. For Schmitt, Romanticism wasan intellectual attitude that precluded the concept and practice of “the political.” Through an in-depth reading of a preeminent document of political thought in German Romanticism, Novalis’s Love and Faith, this chapter considers and qualifies this view, arguing that “political theology” can be understood as a reaction to the French Revolution rather than as a tradition reaching back to medieval or baroque times. This chapter also argues that Novalis’s famous essay must be seen as a precursor to Schmitt’s own political theory. Overlap exists both in the blend of conservatism and radical constructivism in Novalis and Schmitt and in the interventionist character of both men’s statements on politics. Read as a precursor to Schmitt, Novalis’s philosophy of politics also offers a meaningful critique of Schmitt’s later theories.

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