Being Moral Isn’t Quite Enough

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Seyeong Hanlim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Susan Wolf

Attempts to define morality or stress its importance are the center of ethical debates that aim to provide guidance for human life. Deviating from this goal, Susan Wolf shines a light on the significance of “nonmoral virtues” by discussing how a moral saint’s life, too immersed in morality, could be lacking in other spheres. She states that a moral saint’s life would be unattractive or dull, as one is not able to value or pursue nonmoral activities such as the arts or cooking due to one’s commitments under moral sainthood. I challenge this argument, which belittles moral sainthood in an attempt to give more credit to nonmoral qualities in life, by arguing that nonmoral virtues could be necessary and valuable for a moral saint in carrying out her duties.

scholarly journals Being Moral Isn't Quite Enough

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Seyeong Hanlim
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Susan Wolf

Attempts to define morality or stress its importance are the center of ethical debates that aim to provide guidance for human life. Deviating from this goal, Susan Wolf shines a light on the significance of “nonmoral virtues” by discussing how a moral saint’s life, too immersed in morality, could be lacking in other spheres. She states that a moral saint’s life would be unattractive or dull, as one is not able to value or pursue nonmoral activities such as the arts or cooking due to one’s commitments under moral sainthood. I challenge this argument, which belittles moral sainthood in an attempt to give more credit to nonmoral qualities in life, by arguing that nonmoral virtues could be necessary and valuable for a moral saint in carrying out her duties.

scholarly journals Arts and Environmental Conservation: Study of Kentrung Art in Jepara

2020 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 07002
Author(s):  
Alamsyah ◽  
Siti Maziyah
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Old People ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient People ◽  
Nature Preservation ◽  
The Times

Kentrung art is one of arts that exist on Jepara coast. This is a speech art played by two people using beaten instruments such as terbang or tambourines. Kentrung is not only a fiction for entertainment, but also contains a pasemon (parable) or human life symbols. This art center is located in Ngasem village, Batealit, Jepara. Kentrung proponents are elderly or old people (wong lawas) who activate kentrung art in Jepara. Old people is as a representation of ancient people or the people who do not following the times. As the older person, one of their life view is to respect nature preservation. Their respect for the environment is reflected in the activities that are often asked to perform in earth alms events considered at the time of alms and the insertion of kentrung stories that are often delivered between the plays that are being performed. Even though it is not dominant, love expression of the performer and the arts towards the environment is seen in the insertion of the stage.

God, Indian conceptions of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibajiban Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Summum Bonum ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

In the Ṛg Veda, the oldest text in India, many gods and goddesses are mentioned by name; most of them appear to be deifications of natural powers, such as fire, water, rivers, wind, the sun, dusk and dawn. The Mīmāṃsā school started by Jaimini (c.ad 50) adopts a nominalistic interpretation of the Vedas. There are words like ‘Indra’, ‘Varuṇa’, and so on, which are names of gods, but there is no god over and above the names. God is the sacred word (mantra) which has the potency to produce magical results. The Yoga system of Patañjali (c.ad 300) postulates God as a soul different from individual souls in that God does not have any blemishes and is eternally free. The ultimate aim of life is not to realize God, but to realize the nature of one’s own soul. God-realization may help some individuals to attain self-realization, but it is not compulsory to believe in God to attain the summum bonum of human life. Śaṅkara (c.ad 780), who propounded the Advaita Vedānta school of Indian philosophy, agrees that God-realization is not the ultimate aim of human life. Plurality, and therefore this world, are mere appearances, and God, as the creator of the world, is himself relative to the concept of the world. Rāmānuja (traditionally 1016–1137), the propounder of the Viśiṣṭādvaita school, holds God to be ultimate reality, and God-realization to be the ultimate goal of human life. The way to realize God is through total self-surrender to God. Nyāya theory also postulates one God who is an infinite soul, a Person with omniscience and omnipresence as his attributes. God is the creator of language, the author of the sacred Vedas, and the first teacher of all the arts and crafts.

‘Where Does It Hurt?’: Genocide, the Theatre and the Human Body

1998 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Skloot
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Arts

Our desire for a humane future, for a future diminished in violence and enhanced in human possibility, insists that every means possible be used to warn and work against genocidal activity. Political scientists, historians, psychologists and others have their disciplinary agendas when they seek to sound the genocidal alarm, and to prevent the eruption of wholesale slaughter. I am concerned with the arts and how they contribute to moving us ‘toward the understanding and prevention of genocide’, specifically how the art of theatre can be used for the purpose of creating a world less violent and more protective and supportive of human life.

scholarly journals PERSPEKTIF HUKUM ISLAM TENTANG SENI

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Darmiko Suhendra
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Sound Art ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Work Atmosphere ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

Art is defined as the expertise to disclose or express ideas and thoughts a esthetics, including the ability and imagination to realize the creation of objects or the work atmosphere capable of inflicting a sense beautiful. Art is diverse and most of it always questionable in terms of Islamic law. In general, the art divided into two: first, sculpture, painting and drawing. And second, sound art. The main problem in sculpture, painting and drawing is if the object of animate beings, because on the one hand there are numbers of hadith that prohibit making images that are either raised or incurred and three dimensions. While on the other hand it has been commonly done in the community, especially in the natural environment that is fertile and rich with a variety of animals created by God as our State that inspired the artists. In addition, the sculpture on the side can be an expression of sheer beauty, it also has benefits for lessons and so on. Furthermore, sound art is a universal cultural phenomenon, practiced by many nations. In the time of the Prophet himself has been known to sing and play music. In terms of general principles of religious teachings that sound art including mu'amalat dunyawiyyah category. Restrictions on the arts (sculpture, painting, drawing, and sound) for their prudence of Muslims. Prudence was intended that they do not fall to the things that are contrary to the values of Islam which is the focal point at that time. Art as an aesthetic manifestation of the spirit of monotheism and not a waste of money but the art necessary for the improvement of human life, promotion of the dignity and the dignity and refining the soul and the mind. If so the purpose of art, then it is possible that the skill and sunnah favor, not against it.

Nose and Identity

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (04) ◽  
pp. 367-371
Author(s):  
Egbert Huizing
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Arts

AbstractThis article explores the significance of the nose in daily human life. It presents examples of how a person's nose may dominate his/her life, how it is used as a nickname, considered an expression of his/her character, and may be a symbol of pride and wisdom. Also, examples from the literature and the arts are discussed. Cutting off the nose is the most severe humiliation as it deprives a person from his/her identity. In some cases in history the nose has been a means of identification.

The Third Culture

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-160
Author(s):  
Oskar Gruenwald ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Unity In Diversity

This essay explores a new conceptual paradigm for bridging the gulf separating what C. P. Snow called The Two Cultures--science and the humanities. Central to this rainbow paradigm is a more unified, holistic, and integral understanding of human life in society. A fruitful science-theology dialogue presupposes a much broader context of a revitalized Third Culture which weaves together insights from all the arts and sciences, social sciences and humanities. The essay thus invokes the incarnational dimension of man as God's creation and truth as the Logos or ultimate Reality. The conclusion follows that a new lingua franca--a more felicitous conceptual understanding focusing on man as the missing link-requires integrative insights across all disciplines. Such an integral vision of what it means to be fully human reflects a sapiential, existential, and eschatological challenge of unity in diversity, that is, a truly human culture or a culture of cultures.

scholarly journals OVERVÅGNINGSNARRATIONER - OVERVÅGNING SOM FIGUR OG FORMGREB I SAMTIDSROMANEN

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (110) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Kristin Veel
Keyword(s):  
Information Overload ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Contemporary Fiction ◽  
Narrative Fiction ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Modern Fiction ◽  
The Impact

SURVEILLANCENARRATIONS. SURVEILLANCE AS SUBJECT AND FORM IN THE CONTEMPORARY NOVELWithin recent years surveillance has simultaneously become a pervasive topic of public debate, a growing academic field in its own right and an increasingly popular theme in the arts and popular culture. This article argues that there are significant insights to be gained on the impact of surveillance on our cultural imagination from looking at the ways in which contemporary fiction employs surveillance as a literary trope. By exploring the ways in which surveillance is portrayed in three recent novels, Ulrich Peltzer’s Teil der Lösung (2007), Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost (2007) and Tim Lott’s The Seymour Tapes (2005), respectively it is shown how surveillance is used not only as a central theme, but also as a vehicle for literary reflections on modes of representation.The point of departure is the identification of information overload as a shared challenge for narrative fiction and surveillance tech niques. The amount of information we encounter daily has increased dramatically over the last couple of decades, not least due to tech nological developments that have led to significant changes in the ability to store, access and communicate information. This is a challenge with which both contemporary fiction and surveillance tech niques seem forced to deal: narrative fiction has to negotiate the increasing amount of information available in everyday life if it is to reflect on the conditions of human life in the contemporary 21st century. Likewise, surveillance today is to a large degree about distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information – gigabytes and gigabytes of data or CCTV footage are of little use if we do not know what to look for. Surveillance thus problematises some of the key issues that contemporary fiction faces in relation to representation. This explains why looking at novels which directly occupy themselves with surveillance provides an inroad to understanding the contemporary, representational challenges of modern fiction and of life in a surveillance society.The main aim of the article is thus to point to the implications of contemporary surveillance tech nology on a cultural and aesthetic level, which can be likened to the ways in which the shock aesthetics and montage tech nique of the early 20th century are coupled with the experience of the modern city. In this way, we can begin to understand further the impact of the increasing integration of surveillance in our everyday lives on our way of experiencing, understanding and representing the world.

Science and Humanity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
To Come ◽  
Science Educators ◽  
The Relationship

This volume offers an in-depth presentation of the structure of science and the nature of the physical world, with a view to showing how it complements and does not replace other types of human activity, such as the arts and humanities, spirituality and religion. The aim is to better inform scientists, science educators, and the general public. Many think that science can and does establish that the natural world is a vast machine, and this is the whole truth of ourselves and our environment. This is wrong. In fact, scientific models employ a rich network of interconnecting concepts, and the overall picture suggests the full validity of further forms of truth-seeking and truth-speaking, such as art, jurisprudence, and the like. In fundamental physics, the equations that describe physical behaviour interact in a subtle symbiotic way with symmetry principles which describe overarching guidelines. The relationship between physics and biology is similar, and so is the relationship between biology and the humanities. Darwinian evolution is an exploratory mechanism which allows richer patterns and truths to come to be expressed; it does not negate or replace those truths. The area of values, of what can or should command our allegiance, requires a different kind of response, a response that is not completely captured by logical argument, but which is central to human life. Religion, when it is understood correctly and done well, is the engagement with the idea that we have a meaningful role to play, and much to learn.

WHO WANTS TO BE A SAINT?

Think ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (42) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Gregory W. Dawes
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Moral Person ◽  
Moral Duties ◽  
Susan Wolf

Susan Wolf famously argued that a saintly life – one totally dedicated to moral concerns – would be ‘a life strangely barren’. It would mean neglecting many activities that make human life worthwhile. But her argument assumes that our moral duties are simply duties to others, that a perfectly moral person would always act selflessly. It may be, however, that we also have duties to ourselves, which include the cultivation of so-called ‘non-moral’ virtues. On this view, morality is pervasive, relating to all features of a human life, and has architectonic status, being capable of shaping all that we do.

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