Ancient Philosophy

Our lack of awareness of Being results in bewildering experience. The intrinsic inner radiance, the inner light of Being arises out of primordial luminous spaciousness, the unbound openness of unbound pure potentiality. When this primordial ground of Being is veiled and obscured by the lack of experiential awareness, we can be locked into dualistic experiences, and consequently the non-dual nature of the field of Being is experientially foreclosed. The sense of indivisibility of all phenomena and awareness is experientially foreclosed. The capacity to see into, feel into and see through the lucidity of phenomena as the very field of Being becomes foreclosed and densified. We then live contained in mind alone. There is no experience of the field of Being. Without the field of Being we easily become things and objects both to our self and to others.

Translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics I-III into Portuguese, with a few notes and introduction. The translation, which was made at 2007, is preliminary and its publication was intended to provide a didactic tool for courses as well as a provisional resource in research seminars. It needs some revision. I am currently working (slowly...) on the revision of the translation and a new revised one will surely appear at some point.

In this article, I outline a logic of design of a system as a specific kind of conceptual logic of the design of the model of a system, that is, the blueprint that provides information about the system to be created. In section two, I introduce the method of levels of abstraction as a modelling tool borrowed from computer science. In section three, I use this method to clarify two main conceptual logics of information (i.e., modelling systems) inherited from modernity: Kant's transcen-dental logic of conditions of possibility of a system, and Hegel's dialectical logic of conditions of in/stability of a system. Both conceptual logics of information analyse structural properties of given systems. Strictly speaking, neither is a conceptual logic of information about (or modelling) the conditions of feasibility of a system, that is, neither is a logic of information as a logic of design. So, in section four, I outline this third conceptual logic of information and then interpret the conceptual logic of design as a logic of requirements, by introducing the relation of " suffici-entisation ". In the conclusion, I argue that the logic of requirements is exactly what we need in order to make sense of, and buttress, a constructionist (poietic) approach to knowledge.

Recent research suggests that romantic love may be literally addictive. Although the exact nature of the relationship between love and addiction has been described in inconsistent terms throughout the literature, we offer a framework that distinguishes between a narrow view and a broad view of love addiction. The narrow view counts only the most extreme, harmful forms of love or love-related behaviors as being potentially addictive in nature. The broad view, by contrast, counts even basic social attachment as being on a spectrum of addictive motivations, underwritten by similar neurochemical processes as more conventional addictions. We argue that on either understanding of love-as-addiction, treatment decisions should hinge on considerations of harm and well-being rather than on definitions of disease. Implications for the ethical use of anti-love biotechnology are considered.

Translation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics IV and VI into Portuguese, with a few notes, experimental glossary and introduction.
The translation, which was made at 2007 (from on older version published in 2001), is preliminary and its publication was intended to provide a didactic tool for courses as well as a provisional resource in research seminars. It needs some revision. I am currently working (slowly...) on the revision of the translation and a new revised one will surely appear at some point.

This article offers a fresh critique of the work of political scientists and historians who have propagated the Eurocentric history of democracy. The paper argues that such work can be dissected and critiqued along several key lines: their reliance on a distinctly patriarchal discourse riddled with prejudices; the assertion that one can understand the history of democracy via the etymology of the word itself; and the deeply Eurocentric
roots of the study of democracy’s past embedded in the canon of Western political thought. The paper concludes by calling on contemporary political scientists and political historians concerned with the history of  democracy to be careful in re-iterating this deeply flawed history of democracy and to instead work towards a history of democracy that retrieves the silenced histories and the forgotten democratic moments that lay behind the roar of Western power.

antichità le nozioni di virtù, città, legge, anima, destino, passione, felicità nascono in ambito extrafilosofico, sul terreno dell'esperienza religiosa, politica, sociale, e trovano le loro prime espressioni culturali nei linguaggi della poesia, della tragedia e della storiografia. Mario Vegetti inizia il suo viaggio alla scoperta dell'etica antica dai versi dell'Iliade, e da lì indaga i temi della virtù, della politica, dell'anima. Man mano che procede e si susseguono le vicende storiche sono affrontati i temi della passione, del destino, della felicità e della saggezza, con particolare riferimento all'età ellenistica e romana. Maggiore spazio è dedicato ai grandi dominatori del pensiero antico, Platone e Aristotele, e a come i due filosofi hanno inteso le questioni etiche. Mario Vegetti conclude ogni capitolo con degli "epiloghi" in cui esamina brevemente il punto di vista della posterità per capire quanto, delle idee analizzate, era destinato a permanere nel dibattito etico contemporaneo e quale il significato attuale dei problemi dell'etica antica. Nella Casa dell'Anima s'aggirano le Passioni belle donne abbigliate in seta, il capo adorno di zaffiri. Dalla porta fin nell'interno della casa tutte governano le sale. Nella più grande -di notte, quando brucia loro il sangue -danzano e bevono, i capelli sciolti. Fuori dalle sale, pallide e malvestite, con abiti di un tempo fuori moda, s'aggirano le Virtù ascoltando amareggiate la festa che fanno le ubriache etere. Coi visi incollati ai vetri delle finestre osservano in silenzio, pensierose, le luci, i diamanti e i fiori della danza. C. Kavafis, Poesie segrete (1894)

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

Commented translation into Portuguese of Aristotle's Physics I-II.
Samples: preface, introduction, translation and commentaries for chapters I.1 and II.1
Tradução comentada de Física I-II para o Português.
Amostras: Prefácio, Introdução, tradução e comentários dos capítulos I.1 e II.1
(não confundir com os pré-prints preliminares publicados no IFCH-Unicamp em 1999 e 2002).
(not to confound with the preliminary pre-prints published by IFCH-Unicamp in 1999 and 2002).

Against the backdrop of the problem of the meaning of life as constructed in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, this article asks the question of what the supposed meaning(s) of the biblical character of Moses' life were assumed to be. By comparing a variety of contemporary philosophical perspectives on life's meaning with what appears to be related nascent metaphysical presuppositions in the world(s) of the biblical text, the pros and cons of reading with an anachronistic philosophical-theological metalanguage are clearly demonstrated. It is concluded that what Moses' life might have meant cannot be reduced either to a singular purpose or a unified teleology. Given the complex construction of his character's personal identity over time, the point of it all remains fragmented, plural and elusive.

Toleration is one of the fundamental principles that inform the design of a democratic and liberal society. Unfortunately, its adoption seems inconsistent with the adoption of paternalistically benevolent policies, which represent a valuable mechanism to improve individuals’ well-being. In this paper, I refer to this tension as the dilemma of toleration. The dilemma is not new. It arises when an agent A would like to be tolerant and respectful towards another agent B’s choices but, at the same time, A is altruistically concerned that a particular course of action would harm, or at least not improve, B’s well-being, so A would also like to be helpful and seeks to ensure that B does not pursue such course of action, for B’s sake and even against B’s consent. In the article, I clarify the specific nature of the dilemma and show that several forms of paternalism, including those based on ethics by design and structural nudging, may not be suitable to resolve it. I then argue that one form of paternalism, based on pro-ethical design, can be compatible with toleration and hence with the respect for B’s choices, by operating only at the informational and not at the structural level of a choice architecture. This provides a successful resolution of the dilemma, showing that tolerant paternalism is not an oxymoron but a viable approach to the design of a democratic and liberal society.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

There are many ways of understanding the nature of philosophical questions. One may consider their morphology, semantics, relevance, or scope. This article introduces a different approach, based on the kind of informational resources required to answer them. The result is a definition of philosophical questions as questions whose answers are in principle open to informed, rational, and honest disagreement, ultimate but not absolute, closed under further questioning, possibly constrained by empirical and logico-mathematical resources, but requiring noetic resources to be answered. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the consequences of this definition for a conception of philosophy as the study (or “science”) of open questions, which uses conceptual design to analyse and answer them.

Anthropocentrism, which includes assumptions like 'man has the right to dominion over the earth', 'humans are superior to animals', reality is divided into a de-spiriting animate/inanimate binary, etc., can clearly be attributed to the supremacist ontology of A.D. Worldview(s). As ) took care to note, power is not just exerted by what is said but by what is therefore not said, by what is necessarily rendered as untrue by a given regime of truth. What truth exists beyond the chains of Anthropocentrism?

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

This article is about the presence of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 331 and 323 BC. Five Babylonian texts are edited and discussed (among which fragments of astronomical diaries and the "Dynastic Prophecy", a precursor of prophecies as in Daniel 11). The impact of Babylonian wisdom (astronomy, astrology and divination) on Alexander's decisions is explored.

Paul has been regarded as being uncritical of the Roman Empire for a long time, not least because of his apparent call to obey the state in Rom 13:1-7. However, recent scholarship has questioned this assumption by pointing to "hidden criticism" in the letters of the apostle. But how can we decide, in a methodologically sound way, whether such a counter-imperial message lies beneath the surface of the text? On the basis of insights from the philosophy of science, Christoph Heilig suggests several analytical steps for examining this paradigm. He concludes that the hypothesis that we can identify critical "echoes" of the Roman Empire in Paul's letters needs to be modified for it to be maintained. In particular, concern over the danger of overt criticism and subsequent persecution do not sufficiently justify this interpretative hypothesis. Nevertheless, Heilig concludes that the search for a counter-imperial subtext in Paul could turn out to be heuristically fruitful so long as the limitations of the approach are heeded. Hence, a re-evaluation of Pauline passages in light of Paul's engagement with ideas from his Roman environment is encouraged.

This essay draws on Immanuel Kant’s concept of enlightenment as an escape from self- imposed ignorance and argues that a similar concept of enlightenment can be understood within the Muslim context as escape from self-imposed jahiliyyah, which is understood as fear to exercise reason publicly. The article advocates for ijtihad, is critical of Taqlid, and invokes Islamic sources to invest confidence in contemporary use of reason for interpreting Islam.

This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same. By taking this stance, the dissertation challenges the view found in many recent studies on Late Roman masculinity that a Christian ideal of manliness based on extreme ascetic virtues and pacifism had superseded militarism and courage as the dominant component of hegemonic masculine ideology.

Abyssinianist historiography is notorious not only for its hypostatization, anachronism and de-Africanization of everything that is of Ancient Black African civilization but also that it leaves no stone unturned to counterfeite, misappropriate, dismantle our social epistemology and make it so difficult for us to trace our (pre)history. For the old Solomonic Ethiopia and "lost Ge'ezites" narrative is no more palatable to a new generation of Ethiopians, another mystification has recently been brewing dancing around the hitherto low profile "lost" communities like "Harla". This 'community' is always ascribed the ethno-/social-archeological finds of Eastern Ethiopia of Hararqee/Hararghe, where numerous pre-historic rock arts and material cultures are found, though they are rare objects of evolutionary multi-disciplinary research. The interjection is to mystify the socio-cultural origin and significance of these resources and, this alienating epistemology has quite successfully excluded the autochthonous Cushites. It has preempted any question as to why can't they be possible agents or their traditions can't be (potential) analytical devices for understanding the mechanism that generated or the meaning and significance that underlie these arts.

This paper sets out an ambitious critique of contemporary political scientists, political historians and others concerned with the history of democracy. It argues that overwhelmingly the history of democracy relies on an overtly Eurocentric narrative that emphasizes the keystone moments of Western civilization. According to this narrative, democracy has a clear trajectory that can be traced from ancient experiments with participatory government in Greece and to a lesser extent in Rome, through the development of the British parliament, the American Declaration of Independence and the French Revolution, and then finally onto the triumphant march of the liberal model of democracy across the globe over the last 200 years, particularly under Western tutelage. Histories of democracy that focus exclusively on these events not only privilege Europe and its successful colonies, but also miss the broader human story of the struggle for and achievement of democracy.

This presents us with a distinct challenge. For those whose heritage does not include a direct link to Greek assemblies, the American Congress or the French Revolution, the 'standard history of democracy' provides a distant and exclusive narrative, which limits one's ability to embrace democracy. This paper concludes by noting that, as democracy spreads out across the world today, political scientists not only need to break down the intellectual orthodoxy that democracy has exclusively Western roots, but also to embrace a more global view of democracy as a political practise that has been present at various times and in sometimes unfamiliar ways in the complex histories and rich cultural traditions of most of the people of the earth.

Quedan rigurosamente prohibidas, sin la autorización escrita de los titulares del «Copyright», bajo las sanciones establecidas en las leyes, la reproducción total o parcial de esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, comprendidos la reprografía y el tratamiento informático, y la distribución de ejemplares de ella mediante alquiler o préstamo públicos. © UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA -Madrid, 2003 Librería UNED: C./ Bravo Murillo, 38 -28015 Madrid Tels.: 91 398 75 60/73 73. Correo electrónico: libreria@adm.uned.es

In the summer of 2013 at the Tibetan Center in Poolesville, Maryland the great Lama YangThang Rinpoche gave instruction on the practice of the great compassion, or as he described the practice, as being the practice of Absolute Compassion. The instruction was to extend the light of awareness into the world and into the cosmos. Extending the light of awareness into the present moment of a person, extending the light of awareness into the past time of the person and extending the light of awareness into the future time of the person. This truly is the great practice of the great compassion and everyone can practice this extension of the light of awareness. This very proactive praxis brings forth the light within us and fills us with the light of the field of awareness. It is great to practice this vast practice. Of course it takes a boldness of intention and passion of heart. Extending the light of our innermost awareness into the present of those we love, and into the past of those we love, and then extending the light into their future of those we love is self-liberating. The light of awareness illuminates experience, metabolizes experience, opens us into un-bound awareness, undoes fixated-ness, and brings forth luminous intensity. The light of awareness is pure potentiality. The same practice can be used with those whom we hate or dislike or whom disgust us. This practice of extending the light of awareness deepens our own experience of becoming aware of awareness. As we practice extending the light of awareness, awareness itself completely opens up for us and deepens our experience in depth and breath. In time we begin to experience the true secret of this praxis. Timeless awareness begins to be experienced by us and sustained by us. Timeless awareness is the

"This special issue of Comparative Literature Studies brings together talks, some extensively revised, others virtually unchanged, that were delivered at a conference entitled "What is Philology?" The gathering took place on Saturday, March 19, 1988 at Harvard University under the aegis of the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. The depth and breadth of interest in the conference was deeply gratifying. I had not experienced another occasion when so many scholars from different language and literature departments gathered at Harvard, and I hope that publishing the proceedings will benefit a larger community outside the University.

By way of introduction I will describe how the event originated. My description will explore a few of the reasons why an interdisciplinary conference of a dozen speakers and respondents attracted an audience of more than two hundred, and why a topic that 'may sound rarefied drew participants whose main fields of research and teaching interests ran the gamut from the most ancient Indo-European languages to the most recent African American literature. In short, I will offer tentative explanations for the urgency of the topic to students, professors, and independent scholars who engage in philology, linguistics, literary history, literary criticism, and literary theory."

The paper argues that Christological discussions in the Easter Church after the Council of Chalcedon had a considerable but largely neglected impact on philosophy. The paper narrates a story that starts with the 'classical theory' of the Cappadocian theologians of the 4th century. This theory, it is then shown, came into crisis when applied to the Christological problem. Miaphysitism and Chalcedonianism are presented as alternative attempts to modify the classical theory. In order to achieve that goal, both schools eventually develop philosophical ideas incompatible with traditional Greek metaphysics and thus anticipating much later Western developments.

In  what  sense  do  we  speak  of  the planetary university? This  essay  belongs  to  a  more  comprehensive, still  unpublished reflection  that the authors have been developing over  the  past  years  while teaching  and  doing  research in Italy  and  abroad. However,  the essay  delineates  neither  the  situation  of  single  academic institutions, nor  a  general picture obtained by induction starting  from a variety of observational data. Rather,  it  attempts  to clarify,  in  the  specific  situation in which the authors  operate,  the powers  that  act  upon  teaching  and  research  once  they  let  themselves  be  informed  by  the laws  of  the  earth  turned  into  a  planet, that is,  in the words  of  common  language, by the new order of the globalized earth.

…Ananda Coomaraswamy (henceforth AKC) saw myth as a metaphysical statement of truth to be understood. For him, the myth was always true, providing of course that the myth was genuine and not the creation of 'fallen' man. …'it must be remembered that even the myth is a symbol, a representation ('as in a glass darkly') of the reality that underlies all fact but never itself becomes fact…' [A] myth is either true or worthless… I can and do believe in the myth far more profoundly than in any historical event which may or may not have taken place… 'History' is the least convincing level of truth, the myth and the (genuine) fairy-tale the most convincing.

Back cover text: If the new fin de siècle marks a recurrence of the real, Bent Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power epitomizes that development and sets new standards for social and political inquiry. The Danish town of Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding the real workings of power, and for grasping what they mean to our more general concerns of social and political organization. Politics, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow  a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader witnesses, firsthand, the classic and endless drama which defines what modernity and democracy are and can be.

There are certain thoughts - intimations - that will seem corny, or laughable, and therefore dismissed - and only seriously absorbed into the changing mind when felt, in the shelter of the quietly moving music of the soul.
It is the function of art, and of love, to make this music heard . . . 

  It is not the music of depression - it is the way through.

This study describes the canon's inter-textual use of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal sources which come from the tradition of the Septuagint and were later utilized by the Assyrian Church of the East. These writings also improve our understanding of the exaltation of man in Christ.

Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault evaluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and bringing about, democratic social change.

While the philosophical idea of the return of revolution is becoming increasingly more popular and relevant today, the current body of literature thinking through it has tended to under-theorize and often neglect a crucial dimension of this return: the actuality of the revolution itself. This paper argues that we can locate a supplement to this problem in Deleuze and Guattari's constructivist political analysis. In particular, this paper demonstrates how Deleuze and Guattari's political analysis can help us illuminate the actuality of one of the most interesting revolutionary movements underway today: the Occupy movement.

The period between 800 to 200 BCE witnessed an intellectual and spiritual flowering that occurred more or less independently and simultaneously in Greece, the Middle East, China, and India.  Karl Jaspers designated this period of burgeoning innovation in philosophy, science, political thought, and art the “Axial Age.”  This era also saw the invention of religion.  Such a statement seems strange; after all, in addition to prehistoric evidence, ingredients of what we take to be religion—pyramids, ziggurats, statuary, tombs, sacred texts, incantations, lists of gods—have existed since at least approximately 4000 BCE.  But religion, in the sense of how we now conceive it as a belief system defined by tentative and hesitant “what if’s,” “as if’s,” and “maybe’s,” did not exist until after approximately 1200 BCE.  Of course, something like religion did exist before the twelfth century BCE, but it lacked the existentialist ache and suspicious probing of the believer.  Societies were theocentric, but they were not religious as we understand it until the first millennium BCE.  Belief, which demands a certain amount of mental labor in the form of self-persuasion, did not exist; individuals could not doubt because, as I argue below, it was psychologically impossible.  In other words, the historical birth of religious conviction required an upgraded cognition, which would eventually lead to the radiance of the Axial Age.  Why did this upgraded cognition occur? 
To answer this question, I introduce the theories of Julian Jaynes who argued that a major transition in mentalité—from a pre-conscious cognition in which individuals hallucinated divine voices (that functioned as volition) to a psychology of conscious interiority transpired in the latter part of the second millennium BCE.  Then I elaborate upon features of the Axial Age while integrating the insights of Jaynes: (1) From Divine Authorization to Self-Authorization; (2) Inventing the World Religions; (3) the Emergence of Speculative Science; (4) the Spatialization and Linearization of Time; and (5) a New Space: The Introcosm.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

This is a revised issue of REL Issue No. 1

The tomb of the manicurists Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, Fifth Dynasty, Old Kingdom Egypt, is regarded as exceptional either in its size and architecture or most noticeably in its lively portraits of intimacy between the two owners. The portraits confused the Egyptologists as being unprecedented in the Egyptian tombs. They looked for clues either in iconography or texts and came by three explanations; either they are twins, or conjoined twins, or they are in a homosexual relation. The last speculation has been passed to press and since then the issue of discovering homosexuality in ancient Egypt did not cease of popping up in books, journals, media and web-sites. This paper investigates the hidden symbolization rather than the visual interpretation. The intimate relationship shall be ascertained in view of the pictorial narrations of Predynastic Egypt. The spirituality of the scenes shall be judged by the ancient Egyptian conception of the soul. Question: Are they two or one? This question has never been raised in Egyptology and shall be answered for within the sphere of god Khnum.

"ABSTRACT:
    This study assumes the subject's pursuit of meaning is generally incapacitating and should be suspended. It aims to demonstrate how such a suspension is theoretically accomplished by utilizing Lacan's formulae of sexuation integrated with his work in discourse theory and topology.
    Part I places this study into context by examining scholarship from the established fields of hermeneutics, phenomenology, (post)structuralism, aesthetic theory and psychoanalysis in order to extract out their respective theory of meaning. These theories reveal that an historical struggle with meaning has been underway since the Reformation and reaches near crisis proportions in the 20th century. On the one hand this crisis is mollified by the rise of Heideggerian-Gadamerian hermeneutical phenomenology which questions traditional epistemological approaches to the text using a new ontological conceptualization of meaning and a conscious rejection of methodology. On the other hand this crisis is exacerbated when the ubiquitous nature of meaning is itself challenged by (post)structuralism's discovery of the signifier which inscribes a limit to meaning, and by the domains of sense and nonsense newly opened up by aesthetic theory. These historical developments culminate in the field of psychoanalysis which most consequentially delimits a cause of meaning said to be closely linked to the core of subjectivity.
    Part II extends these findings by rigorously constructing out of the Lacanian sexuated formulae a decidedly non-hermeneutical phenomenological approach useful in demonstrating the sexual nature of meaning. Explicated in their static state by way of an account of their original derivation from the Aristotelian logical square, it is argued that these four formulae are relevant to basic concerns of textual theory inclusive of the hermeneutical circle of meaning. These formulae are then set into motion by integrating them with Lacan's four discourses to demonstrate the breakdown of meaning. Finally, the cuts and sutures of two-dimensional space that is topology as set down in L'étourdit are performed to confirm how the very field of meaning is ultimately suspended from a nonsensical singular point known in Lacanian psychoanalysis as objet a. The contention is that by occupying this point the subject frees himself from the debilitating grip of meaning."

Poucos temas são tão clássicos como o da expulsão dos poetas na República de Platão. Trata-se, pois, de um tema incontornável da análise filosófica: Platão tem um lugar privilegiado na história da filosofia; a República ocupa um lugar central na reflexão platônica; a expulsão dos poetas toma boa parte da República e por séculos animou a contenda entre poesia e filosofia. Todo leitor imbuído de filosofia toma partido nesta disputa, a favor ou contra Platão: a expulsão dos poetas mostra, para uns, a natureza beligerante da filosofia; para outros, pretende simplesmente escamotear os próprios recursos retóricos de que se vale a filosofia; para outros enfim, delimita a abordagem filosófica em termos de verdade, ao passo que a estética se nutre do belo. O que quer Platão, então, com a expulsão dos poetas de sua bela-cidade? 1 Um primeiro ponto a estabelecer é que há, nesta expulsão, um traço de radicalidade que precisa ser reconhecido. Quando, no início do livro V, Sócrates menciona as três ondas que precisa esquivar, ele cita o problema do papel das mulheres na defesa da cidade, o da comunidade de mulheres e crianças e a necessidade do filósofo governar ou do governante tornar-se filósofo, sem fazer menção explícita à expulsão dos poetas. Pode-se pensar que esta ausência de menção deve-se ao fato dos poetas terem sido, nos livros anteriores, antes censurados do que expulsos, pois eles tinham sido condenados em função do conteúdo errado que veiculavam, restando, contudo, na cidade, toda arte que estivesse correta e fosse útil à boa formação moral dos cidadãos, assim como os próprios poetas. Como veremos, contudo, a censura à poesia ficará, no livro X, muito mais radical, acarretando a expulsão dos poetas, senão da cidade, pelo menos de uma posição que ocupam na cidade. O que me interessa ressaltar 1 Na expressão afetuosa com a qual Sócrates se refere à cidade ideal: hoi en têi kallipolei soi (VII 527c1). A expressão pode também ser usada como nome próprio, Bela Cidade, pois havia na Grécia antiga várias cidades com este nome (Kallipolis), e foi assim tomada no neoplatonismo.

" Those machines whose output was so great that all men might be clothed; those new methods of agriculture and new agricultural implements, which promised crops so big that all men might be fed—the very instruments that were to give the whole community the physical basis of a good life turned out, for the vast majority of people who possessed neither capital nor land, to be nothing short of instruments of torture. " (Mumford 1922, pp. 115-116, emphasis added) We grew corn at the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm gardens this year, and while the corn stalks grew to be over eight feet high they were barren. The corn grew tall, but it was unable to bear fruit because of the northerly environment it grew in. Similarly, we grew a strain of tobacco that was gifted to the gardens by a company from the US, and while the tobacco grew tall, had big, beautiful leaves, and even began to flower, it did not mature to the point of bearing its seed pods. The tobacco grew tall, but it was unable to bear fruit because of the northerly environment it grew in. Post-Industrial society can be likened to such a plant, which grew tall from the seed—from the utopian myth—of industrial society but failed to bear the fruits portended by these myths because of the environment (the Paternalist Worldview [Barnesmoore 2017a; Barnesmoore 2017b; Barnesmoore 2017c]) it grew in.