bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Defeaters and Defeat
Authors: Plantinga Alvin
Published: October 2003

In this and the next three chapters, I deal with proposed defeaters for Christian belief. In this chapter, I begin with a brief examination of the nature of defeaters. I then turn to projective theories of religious belief, such as those of Freud, Marx, and Durkheim, which propose to explain theistic and other religious beliefs in terms of our projecting into the heavens something like an idealized father. I argue that such theories do not in fact constitute a defeater for Christian belief, and, in so doing, examine and respond to some suggestions to the contrary due to Philip Quinn.
Two (Or More) Kinds of Scripture Scholarship
Authors: Plantinga Alvin
Published: October 2003

Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to some of the issues raised by contemporary historical biblical criticism, arguing that contemporary historical biblical criticism does not serve as a defeater for Christian belief. After a brief discussion of the divine inspiration of Scripture, I distinguish and examine two different kinds of Scripture scholarship: (1) traditional biblical commentary and (2) historical biblical criticism (also called “higher criticism,” “historical criticism,” “biblical criticism,” and “historical critical scholarship”). Historical biblical criticism (HBC) is an effort to look at and understand the biblical books from a standpoint that relies on reason alone (not faith), i.e., it is an effort to determine from the standpoint of reason alone what the scriptural teachings are and whether they are true. I discuss three different types of HBC and briefly point out some of the tensions between HBC and traditional Christianity: as Van Harvey remarks, “So far as the biblical historian is concerned. . .there is scarcely a popularly held traditional belief about Jesus that is not regarded with considerable skepticism.” I then argue that none of the varieties of HBC provides a defeater for Christian belief, either because (a) they begin with unsupported assumptions that are contrary to Christian belief, or because (b) they ignore sources of warranted belief that Christians believe they have (like faith and the interior instigation of the Holy Spirit) and fail to give good arguments that Christians do not have such sources of warranted belief.
Postmodernism and Pluralism
Authors: Plantinga Alvin
Published: October 2003

Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to postmodernism and religious pluralism. Some of the claims that can be plausibly labeled “postmodern” are claims that conflict with Christian belief; in the first section of this chapter, I examine some of these claims. Among other things, I inquire as to whether Christian belief is defeated by (1) an argument from the historically conditioned character of religious and philosophical belief, or by (2) the view, often associated with Richard Rorty, that human beings construct the truth. After arguing that neither (1) nor (2) provide a defeater for Christian belief, I examine the question of whether a defeater for Christian belief can be found in the fact of religious pluralism, the fact that the world displays a bewildering and kaleidoscopic variety of religious and antireligious ways of thinking, all pursued by people of great intelligence and seriousness. I then consider and respond to two such proposed defeaters, the second of which involves the charge that there is a sort of egoism, arrogance, or arbitrariness in accepting Christian belief given the fact of religious pluralism; in doing so, I look in some detail at an argument Gary Gutting gives for this charge.
Suffering and Evil
Authors: Plantinga Alvin
Published: October 2003

Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I consider in this chapter the question of whether knowledge of the facts of evil (i.e., knowledge of the amount, variety, and distribution of suffering and evil in the world) constitutes a defeater for theistic and Christian belief. In the first section of the chapter, I focus on versions of the evidential argument from evil, which claims not that the existence of God and the existence of evil are logically incompatible, but only that the facts of evil offer powerful evidence against the existence of God. I first examine two such arguments due to William Rowe and then turn to one due to Paul Draper; I argue that all three fail. In the second section, I consider what we might call a nonargumentative defeater based on suffering and evil; essentially, the claim at issue here is that one who is properly sensitive and properly aware of the sheer horror of the evil displayed in the world will simply see that no being of the sort God is alleged to be could possibly permit it. After exploring and responding to this claim, I close with a brief look at some relevant themes in the Book of Job.
Jains in the World
Authors: Cort John E.
Published: October 2003

Jains in the World presents a detailed fieldwork‐based study of Jainism, focusing on the Svetambar Murtipujak Jains of north Gujarat. The book explains the institutional structures that make up Jain society and gives a comprehensive exposition of the major facets of Jain practice. Separate chapters present descriptions of temple worship and the connected Jain understandings of divinity, interactions between laity and mendicants (monks and nuns), involving both the lay gifting of food and relations based on lay devotion and mendicant grace, ascetic and dietary practices, and the many festivals and observances that make up the Jain religious year. The portrait of the Jains that emerges in this book is radically different from that found in earlier text‐based studies of the Jains. The author invokes the concept of ideology to explain why the earlier portrait has been so consistent and seemingly unchanging, and also why it differs from the lived experience of Jainism. An ideology describes the way ideologues argue that the world should be, and so serves as a powerful normative guide to both conduct and thought. Jains in the World explores the dynamic and creative interaction in Jainism between an explicit ideology of the path to liberation, with its denigration of worldly involvement, and an implicit, symbolically expressed realm of value the author terms ”well‐being” (similar to what other scholars of India have termed ”auspiciousness”), which emphasizes the worldly benefits that come from Jain practice. The book therefore advances a theory and an example of how ideologies (explicit formulations of the nature of the world and proper conduct within the world) and religious values (implicit systems of meaning that are not explicitly formulated, and therefore do not receive the same attention in either insider or outsider depictions of the tradition, but which are nonetheless central to religious self‐identity) interact within a religious tradition. While the discussion focuses on the Jains, the theoretical issues of how an explicitly enunciated religious ideology and an implicitly enunciated realm of value interact within the Jain world have theoretical implications for the broader fields of religious and cultural studies.
Going to the Temple
Authors: Cort John E.
Published: October 2003

The defining ritual activity of the Svetambar Murtipujak Jains of Patan is image‐worship, conducted in temples to images of the Jinas. The chapter gives detailed explanations of both the prescribed ideals and the actual practice of image‐veneration (caitya‐vandan), the eightfold image‐worship (murti‐puja), and viewing (darsan). To understand the intentions of the worshipers, one must also understand both Jain devotion (bhakti) and Jain theology. The Jains posit that God – the sum total of liberated souls – resides in infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite bliss, and infinite power, but at the same time embodies a total lack of desire that results in his being inactive in the world. Jains therefore understand worship to ”work” through a process of meditative self‐reflection rather than the intervention of a divine being.
Gifting and Grace
Authors: Cort John E.
Published: October 2003

The world‐renouncing monks and nuns – the mendicants of the Jain tradition – are the living examples of the path to liberation. This chapter details their daily practice, which revolves around practices designed to reduce the karma that binds them to suffering and rebirth. The mendicants are also teachers of the laity, and so are expected to deliver frequent sermons on religious topics. The mendicants are dependent upon the laity for food, and the gifting of food provides Jain laity the opportunity to increase their meritorious karma (punya) and wear away sinful or demeritorious karma (pap). Jains understand that this process is accentuated if the layperson expresses great devotion (bhakti) to the mendicants, who in return shower their grace upon their lay devotees.
Remembrance and Celebration
Authors: Cort John E.
Published: October 2003

Provides a detailed description of the many festivals that constitute the Jain religious year. The most intense period of community observance is the four‐month rainy season retreat (caturmasa), when all mendicants must cease their travels and reside in one place, thereby allowing for extended interaction with the laity. One high point of the retreat is Paryusan; it involves the public recitation of the Kalpa Sutra (which contains biographies of the Jinas, the history of the early mendicant lineages, and the basic mendicant rules), the celebration of Mahavira's birth, and rituals of expiation for all the karmically harmful deeds, words, and thoughts of the previous year. The other high point is the new year festival of Divali (Diwali), when Jain merchants start their annual account books, and all lay Jains engage in rituals designed to ensure a maximum of worldly well‐being for the coming year.
Ideologies and Realms of Value
Authors: Cort John E.
Published: October 2003

Summarizes the previous discussions of well‐being in Jainism, and analyzes the way the religious lives of the Jains give expression to a symbolically expressed religious value. The chapter shows how we can see a ”family” of well‐being values (similar to what other authors of South Asia have termed ”auspiciousness”) in Jain belief and practice, as expressed in the goddess Laksmi (Lakshmi), and concepts such as kalyan (”welfare”), subh (”good, auspicious”), punya (”merit”), and mangal (”auspicious, holy”). In conclusion, the chapter argues that to study only world‐renunciation aimed at liberation from the world is insufficient for a full understanding of Jainism as lived religious experience, for Jain practices and beliefs are equally concerned with living a full, rich life in the world.
“You've Got Me Blowin', Blowin' My Mind” Eliminativism
Authors: Levine Joseph
Published: October 2003

Given the tenacity of the problem, and the otherwise overwhelming support for materialism, the idea that conscious experience is just an illusion – the doctrine of eliminativism – is considered seriously. Two versions of eliminativism are considered: a straight version and one that is combined with representationalism. It is argued that neither version can adequately accommodate our first‐person cognitive access to our own conscious experience, as our substantive and determinate conceptions of qualia would not be possible if qualia themselves were unreal.
“Purple Haze, All Around” Consciousness and Cognition
Authors: Levine Joseph
Published: October 2003

The complex relationship between intentionality and consciousness is explored. First, various zombie puzzles are considered that tend to throw doubt on the pro‐qualia position. In response, it is argued that the nature of our cognitive relation to our own conscious experience cannot be assimilated to that of our cognitive relation to other objects and properties. The problem of “duality” is explored – that conscious experiences seem to include both act and object of awareness – and the notion of a phenomenally constituted concept or judgment is introduced. Finally, it is argued that no currently available materialist theory can account for these features of first‐person cognition.
The Presentation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 1 Kings 12–2 Kings 17
Authors: Sweeney Marvin A.
Published: October 2003

Scholars have long recognized the historiographical contention of the Deuteronomistic History that the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed because it followed in the sins of its first king, Jeroboam ben Nebat. Jeroboam's idolatry in setting up the golden calves for worship at the sanctuaries at Beth El and Dan provides the rationale for the destruction of northern Israel in 2 Kings 17, and appears to provide the basis for the Josianic edition's view that northern Israel was destroyed for its idolatry. An analysis of the narratives concerning the northern kingdom points to an underlying current of concern with northern Israel's tendency to reject righteous Davidic rule in its efforts to assert control over the other tribes. Such a concern supports the contention that the portrayal of the northern tribes originally functioned within an early Hezekian edition of the DtrH that called for the restoration of righteous Davidic rule over the rebellious northern Israel, but they were later reworked to support the Josianic view that the northern tribes were idolatrous and needed to return to YHWH.
Deuteronomy
Authors: Sweeney Marvin A.
Published: October 2003

Most scholars contend that the book of the Torah found in Josiah's Temple restoration is a form of Deuteronomy and that the laws of Deuteronomy underlie Josiah's reform and the historiographical principles of the Deuteronomistic History. Many scholars maintain that Deuteronomy is of northern origin because it lacks reference to Jerusalem or the house of David. But an analysis of Deuteronomy, particularly its interest in centralizing worship at the one place that YHWH chooses and its portrayal of Levitical control of the king, indicates Josianic interests in centralizing worship in Jerusalem and portraying the Davidic king as a righteous monarch. Overall, Deuteronomy appears to represent a Josianic revision of earlier Israelite law that was designed to justify Davidic rule over the north.
Isaiah
Authors: Sweeney Marvin A.
Published: October 2003

Study of the book of Isaiah has tended to focus on the reconstruction of the “authentic” words of the eighth‐century prophet and the exile or postexilic redaction of his book. Nevertheless, considerable evidence has been mounting of a Josianic or Assyrian redaction of the book of Isaiah that was designed to support Josiah's reform in the aftermath of the collapse of Assyrian power. Redaction‐critical analysis of key texts in Isaiah 5–12; 14–23; 27; 28–32; and 36–37 points to evidence for the Josianic redaction of the Isaian tradition.
Habakkuk
Authors: Sweeney Marvin A.
Published: October 2003

Study of the book of Habakkuk has tended to emphasize its condemnation of Judeans and its postexilic setting. A literary analysis of the structure of the book and its contents, however, indicates that it addresses the problem of theodicy in the aftermath of Josiah's death, insofar as it identifies the wicked as the Babylonians. Habakkuk's dialog with YHWH is designed to demonstrate that YHWH brought the Babylonians to subjugate Judah and that YHWH would ultimately overthrow the Babylonian oppressors.
On Interpreting Frege on Truth and Logic
Authors: Shieh Sanford
Published: October 2003

This essay analyzes a controversy between a recent, revisionary style of interpretation of Frege's conception of the relation between logic and semantics and the received interpretation that it opposes. I argue that, properly understood, the revisionary interpretation, especially that of Thomas Ricketts, differs less from such established interpretations as that of Dummett than the proponents of the former have claimed. However, the arguments underlying the revisionary interpretation have suggestive consequences for the idea of a foundation of logic.
Logical Objects in Frege's Grundgesetze, Section 10
Authors: Ruffino Marco
Published: October 2003

In this paper, I discuss three main issues concerning Frege's arguments in Grundgesetze, Section 10. (1) I argue against the view according to which Frege's procedure is insufficient to guarantee that names of extensions (or, more generally, names of value‐ranges) are really referential. (2) I discuss whether Frege meant to include other kinds of objects besides truth‐values and value‐ranges in the range of first‐order variables of his logical system. Finally, (3) I challenge the view according to which Frege's decision to make some stipulations concerning the identity of value‐ranges is incompatible with his alleged Platonism. Central to my approach is an elucidation of Frege's views on logical objects.
Section 31 Revisited
Authors: Weiner Joan
Published: October 2003

In Section 31 of his Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, Frege argues that all the simple names in his logical notation have Bedeutung. Most contemporary philosophers have found Frege's argument deeply mysterious. While the argument is certainly difficult to interpret, I argue that its apparent fallaciousness and circularity are largely artifacts of the standard interpretation. On that interpretation, the early sections of Grundgesetze are meant to set out a metatheoretic (proto‐soundness) proof, and Section 31's burden is to establish the basic case of an inductive proof that all Begriffsschrift expressions have Bedeutung. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting the metatheoretic proofreading; for it conflicts with many of Frege's actual statements in these sections. I offer a reading that fits Frege's statements, and one upshot is a new understanding of Section 31 on which its argument is neither fallacious nor circular.
Wittgenstein's Understanding of Frege
Authors: Goldfarb Warren
Published: October 2003

Frege and Russell were the most significant influences on the young Wittgenstein, but the relative weight of their impacts is less clear. Some interpreters (Geach, Diamond, Ricketts) have claimed for Frege an influence far surpassing that of Russell. I cast doubt on this claim, by reviewing the evidence we have of Wittgenstein's pre‐Tractatus understanding of Frege. Wittgenstein did eventually come to some views more like Frege's than Russell's; I suggest it was his own thinking rather than direct influence from Frege that led him in this direction.
Frege and Early Wittgenstein on Logic and Language
Authors: Macbeth Danielle
Published: October 2003

According to Frege, logic is a science and its laws are truths like any others. According to Wittgenstein, the laws of logic contrast with truths in being sinnlos, without sense. The Wittgensteinian conception is generally regarded as a much‐needed corrective to Frege's view, but, as I show, this assessment rests on a misunderstanding of Frege's (mature) distinction between the Sinn and the Bedeutung of an expression. Frege's mature conception of a logical language is not a confused precursor of Wittgenstein's Tractatus conception, but instead a rigorous, and deeply illuminating, alternative to that later view.
Truth Before Tarski
Authors: Diamond Cora
Published: October 2003

I start from Hans Sluga's paper “Truth before Tarski”, in which he argues that the establishing of Tarski's approach to truth brought loss as well as gain to analytic philosophy: what was lost was our understanding of the problem of truth. To recover what was lost, he says, we must examine the variety of pre‐Tarskian views. My paper picks up that task and focuses on Wittgenstein's Tractatus. I interweave ideas borrowed from Thomas Ricketts, P. T. Geach, Warren Goldfarb, Peter Hylton, and Juliet Floyd, and thereby try to explain the relation between Wittgenstein's conception of sense and his view of truth.
Number and Ascriptions of Number in Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Authors: Floyd Juliet
Published: October 2003

Wittgenstein's treatment of number words and arithmetic in the Tractatus reflects central features of his early conception of philosophy. In rejecting Frege's and Russell's analyses of number, Wittgenstein rejects their respective conceptions of function, object, logical form, generality, sentence, and thought. He, thereby, surrenders their shared ideal of the clarity a Begriffsschrift could bring to philosophy. The development of early analytic philosophy thus evinces far less continuity than some readers of Wittgenstein, from Russell and the Vienna positivists to many contemporary readers of the Tractatus, have supposed.
Wittgenstein and the Liberating Word
Authors: Ostrow Matthew B.
Published: October 2003

I argue that the Tractatus’ central distinction between what can be said and what can only be shown must be treated within the context of what I call a “dialectical” approach to the text. Rather than attempting to determine, in general, whether Wittgenstein holds that there are ineffable features of reality, or whether such a notion is to be described as nonsense, I seek to show that this issue cannot be settled apart from an understanding of the nature of the fundamental question that the Tractatus is concerned to characterize. The second half of the paper then serves to clarify that question through a detailed consideration of part of the picture theory.
Rastafari
Authors: Edmonds Ennis Barrington
Published: October 2003

Since its emergence in the margins of 1930s Jamaican society, Rastafari has moved to the forefront of Jamaican popular culture. This transition has been occasioned by Rastafari's own internal dynamics, by the gradual shift from a more conflict‐ridden relationship to rapprochement between the movement and the wider society, and by the ability of the movement to insert itself in the cultural life of the society. With regard to its internal development, Rastas have evolved a dynamic social ethos with informal social relationships facilitated through a network of “houses” and “mansions,” a highly developed view of the world expressed in a variety of symbols, and period ritual activities that initiate and confirm individuals in the principles and ethos of Rastafari. The relationship between Rastafari and the wider society has evolved from outright confrontation in the early years of the movement, to a more accommodating posture in the 1960s, to a more aggressive cooptation and use of Rastafarian symbols in the 1970s, and finally, to a positive embrace of Rastafarian contribution to the indigenous culture and the commodification of the Rastafarian image and symbols for “culture tourism” since the 1980s. Rastafarian influence on Jamaica's indigenous culture is quite pervasive, but the most celebrated influence has been on reggae, Jamaican popular music, made famous around the world by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Third World, and others. Though Rastafari does not have the centralized institutions that Max Weber regarded as necessary for routinization, the factors outlined above have contributed to its entrenchment in the fabric of Jamaica's cultural life.
Boethius
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

This book provides, for the first time, a philosophical study of the whole range of Boethius's writings (except his textbooks on music and arithmetic): the commentaries and monographs on logic, the Opuscula sacra (short treatises on theology) and the Consolation of Philosophy. It also offers a reassessment of Boethius as a philosopher. Boethius, Marenbon argues, was not merely of importance in transmitting ancient Platonism and Aristotelian logical doctrines of the late ancient Platonic schools to the Latin Middle Ages, but was also a subtle and interesting original thinker. In his Opuscula sacra, he makes innovations in the theological method that would mould medieval thinking. The Consolation both directly tackles problems such as the compatibility of human free will and divine prescience and providence, and through its complex use of the dialog form, probes the relation between philosophy and religious belief, Christian and pagan.
Boethius's Project
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

Examines Boethius's translations of logical texts by Aristotle and Porphyry, and his commentaries on them. It sets out Boethius's interpretation of the Aristotelian Categories, his response to the Problem of Universals, his semantics, and his first answer to the problem of free will and divine prescience. It argues that Boethius made an important decision to go against the trend of logical commentary in his period and return to Porphyry's strongly Aristotelian approach.
The Logical Textbooks and Topical Reasoning
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

Discusses Boethius's logical monographs: his treatises on division, on categorical syllogisms, and most importantly, his works on the theory of topical argument and on hypothetical syllogisms. The theory of topics, as developed in late antiquity and known almost entirely through Boethius, concerns the devising of arguments that rest on obvious general principles but are not, in their basic formulation, formally valid deductions. In his work on hypothetical syllogisms, Boethius seems to take account of Stoic propositional logic, but in fact, he does not properly grasp its principles. This chapter shows how Boethius's logical mongraphs fit with the Aristotelianizing approach of his commentaries.
The Opuscula Sacra
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

Gives detailed analyzes of Boethius’ five short theological treatises. In particular, it examines the use of Aristotelian physics in the treatise written against the Nestorian and Monophysite views on Christology, the discussion of how far Aristotle's Categories can be used in talking about God and in analyzing the Trinity, and the ontological scheme, and argument about abstraction set out in Treatise III. Boethius is presented as an important innovator in theological method.
TheConsolation
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

Addresses the argument of Boethius's masterpiece, the Consolation of Philosophy. It shows that Boethius, the author, juxtaposes a complex view of happiness in which it is vulnerable to fortune, with a monolithic view in which it is identified with the highest good – God. It also considers the treatment of divine providence and how it can be reconciled with the existence of chance and with human freedom.
Boethius's Influence in the Middle Ages
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: October 2003

Examines the vast influence of Boethius in the Middle Ages, in logic, theology, and through the Consolation of Philosophy – in philosophy more broadly – and in literature. Among the authors discussed are Abelard, William of Conches, Gilbert of Poitiers, Alan of Lille, Aquinas, Jean de Meun, and Chaucer.
Psychology and Personal Identity
Authors: Olson Eric T.
Published: October 2003

Most philosophers agree that some sort of psychological continuity is necessary or sufficient for us to persist – the Psychological Approach to personal identity. Some implications of this view are sketched. The Biological Approach, by contrast, says that our identity, over time, consists in brute biological continuity.
Why We Need not Accept the Psychological Approach
Authors: Olson Eric T.
Published: October 2003

Most arguments for the Psychological Approach are based on the conviction that anyone who got your psychological features would be you. The possibility of fission proves this conviction false. Those who think that identity has no practical importance will find it even more difficult to argue for the Psychological Approach.
Was I Ever a Fetus?
Authors: Olson Eric T.
Published: October 2003

The Psychological Approach implies that none of us was ever an early fetus, for none of us is in any way psychologically continuous with an early fetus. This raises several problems. There follows a discussion of when we do come into being.
The Biological Approach
Authors: Olson Eric T.
Published: October 2003

This chapter discusses what an animal or an organism is and what it takes for one to persist. Following Locke and van Inwagen, it is proposed that an animal persists as long as its biological life continues. The Biological Approach is then distinguished from the bodily criterion of personal identity.
Alternatives
Authors: Olson Eric T.
Published: October 2003

Discusses three claims that have been assumed in previous chapters: that we exist; that there is such a thing as absolute numerical identity; and that we are not composed of temporal parts. One could avoid many of the book's arguments by denying any one of these claims.
Singing to the Goddess
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kālī and Umā. The poems — many of which are presented here for the first time in English translation — were written from the early eighteenth century up to the contemporary period. They represent the unique Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Śāktism) as it developed over this period. The author's lucid introduction places these works in their historical context and shows how images of the goddesses evolved over the centuries. The lively translations of these poetic lyrics evoke the passion and devotion of the followers of Kālī and Umā and shed light on the history and practice of goddess worship.
Introduction
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This introduction to the book has five sections. These cover discussion of: the pathways to Bengali Hindu Śākta poetry (sources, precedents, and influences); the 164 compositions by 37 representative poets for the goddesses Kālī and Umā that are included in the book; family resemblances — the Śākta Padavali (collected poems to the goddess — a genre of poetry focussed on Kālī and Umā) as bhakti (devotional attitude) poetry; the challenges and choices in designing an anthology; and notes on transliteration, translation, and word definition.
The Poems
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

Translations of ten Bengali Hindu Śākta poems are presented, each prefaced by an explanatory introduction. The poems are: Kālī among the corpses: poems of battle; The cosmic goddess of transformation; The magician's daughter and her playful deceptions; “What kind of mother are you?” Cries of complaint; Petitioning the compassionate; “Oh my mind!”: instructing the self; Prioritizing paths: Tantra, devotion, and ritual; The experience of Kuṇḍalinī yoga; In defiance of death; and Adoring the daughter: Āgamanī and Vijayā poems for Umā.
Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are lyrics directed to the goddesses Kālī and Umā, beginning with those of the first of the Śākta lyricist devotees, Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775) and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), and continuing up through those of the gifted poet Kājī Najrul Islām (1899–1976). The author has used extensive research from primary historical texts as well as from secondary Bengali and English source materials. She places the advent of the Śākta lyric in its historical context and charts the vicissitudes over time of this form of goddess worship, including the nineteenth‐century resurgence of Śāktism in the cause of nationalist politics. The main theme of the book is the way in which the images of the two goddesses evolved over the centuries. Kālī is sweetened and democratized over time, and much of her fierce, wild, dangerous, and bloody character disappears as she is increasingly seen as a compassionate and loving divine mother to her children. Umā, for her part, is gradually transformed from the gentle and remote wife of Śhiva to the adored daughter of Bengali parents, increasingly humanized and colored with regional Bengali characteristics. The book is arranged in two main parts: I, The lives and contexts of Śākta poets; and II, The changing genre of Śākta poetry. The author's translations of the poems on which this book is based appear in Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal (OUP, 2000).
The Historical Background in Bengal
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

A detailed look is taken at the historical context of eighteenth‐century to nineteenth‐century Bengal (India) as background to the following study of the Hindu Śākta poets. Its various sections cover: the rise of the zamindaris (wealthy landowner estates) in late Mughal Bengal; the Mārāṭhā raids (the Mārāṭhās were the princely and military classes of the former Hindu kingdom of Maharashtra); the expansion of British power; the famine of 1770; zamindaris and British policies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; zamindari patronage of the arts; why Śākta poetry now?; and the nouveaux riches of Calcutta and the place of Śākta poetry.
“Born in Rāmprasād's Line to Revive Bhakti”: Sādhaka Kamalākānta
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This is a study of the Bengali Hindu Śākta poet Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), a sādhaka (one who engages in spiritual austerities, often Tantric). He is regarded as the second‐ranking figure (in chronology as well as talent) of the Śākta Padāvalī (a collection of short sung verses or padas of the Śākta persuasion) genre, and most of his biographers depict him as following the example of Rāmprasād Sen both poetically and in lifestyle. The three stages in the progression of ideas and modes of presentation in the Bengali biographical literature on Kamalākānta are examined, with quotations from his poetry. An account is also given of efforts to commemorate his life through buildings and monuments in the Burdwan area, and of another site associated with him at Baj Baj (south of Calcutta). Three case studies are then presented that chart changes in the depiction of Kamalākānta over time, and finally some historical judgments made of him are revisited.
Inheritors of Tradition: Floating in the Śākta Stream
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This chapter is mainly a study of the literary heirs of the Hindu Śākta poets Rāmprasād Sen and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya in Bengal. These are divided into two groups — Śākta poets before 1857, those from the mid‐nineteenth century to the present. There are only a few of these whose biographies are full enough to afford a comparison with Rāmprasād and Kamalākānta, but a common theme of the biographies is indifference to the world. The next part of the chapter addresses recent biographies of certain Bengali Śākta sādhakas (those who engage in spiritual austerities, often Tantric) whose life stories resemble those of Rāmprasād and Kamalākānta more clearly than those of most of the poets already examined. Following on from this, an examination is made of women poets in the Śākta tradition, and finally the best representatives of Śākta “pastness” are examined.
Setting the Literary and Ritual Scene in Eighteenth‐Century Bengal
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

Introduces the textual and ceremonial influences on the emerging Hindu Śākta literature in eighteenth‐century Bengal. It traces the Sanskrit and Bengali textual precedents, and Vaiṣṇavism. It then looks at the ritual and devotional practices of the era.
Conclusion: Bhakti's Balm in Bengal
Authors: McDermott Rachel Fell
Published: October 2003

This concluding chapter has three aims. These are: to recapitulate and comment upon the nuances of the relationship between bhakti (or the devotional attitude) and Tantra as it is expressed in Bengal; to offer some conceptual and theoretical models that may help to explain the rise of this poetry tradition and its (at least partial) success in taming, humanizing, and universalizing Kālī and Umā; and finally to place these softened goddesses of the Bengali Śākta poets in an all‐India context by highlighting similarities and differences between their travels and those of other Hindu and Buddhist deities.
Agency and Deontic Logic
Authors: Horty John F.
Published: October 2003

Develops deontic logic against the background of a rigorous theory of agency in branching, or indeterministic, time. It is often assumed that the notion of what an agent ought to do can be identified with that of what it ought to be that the agent does. The book provides a framework in which this assumption can be formulated precisely and shown to be mistaken. In its place, it offers an alternative account of what agents ought to do that relies on an analogy between action in indeterministic time and choice under uncertainty, as it is studied in decision theory. This alternative account is then related to issues involving conditional obligation, group obligation, act utilitarianism, and rule utilitarianism.
Conditional Oughts
Authors: Horty John F.
Published: October 2003

The notion of what an agent ought to do is refined to yield a notion conditional obligation, representing what the agent ought to do under various circumstances. Patterns of reasoning in the conditional deontic logic are explored. In contrast to the dominance account developed earlier, a competing notion of orthodox act utilitarianism is formulated.
Group Oughts
Authors: Horty John F.
Published: October 2003

The notion of what an agent ought to do is generalized to yield a notion of what groups of agents ought to do. Relations among the obligations governing groups and subgroups are explored, as well as the connections among different species of individual act utilitarianism, group act utilitarianism, and rule (or cooperative) utilitarianism.
Strategic Oughts
Authors: Horty John F.
Published: October 2003

The notion of what an agent ought to do at a moment is generalized to yield a notion of what the agent ought to do over extended periods of time. This requires us to develop the notion of a strategy as a function from moments to actions available at those moments and appropriate notions of strategic dominance. A strategic ought operator is introduced and used to analyze the debate between actualists and possibilists concerning the ways in which an agent's obligations depend on his or her future actions.
Spirituality as Passion
Authors: Solomon Robert C.
Published: October 2003

Spirituality requires passion and engages the emotions. However, emotions are not dumb feelings. They are or can be insightful, caring engagements with the world. Love, erotic love, lies at the heart of spirituality and serves as a secular model. Reverence, which is more than respect but less than worship, is an ancient virtue that brings together many of the passions of spirituality.
Spirituality as Cosmic Trust1
Authors: Solomon Robert C.
Published: October 2003

Spirituality involves trust, a broader concept than the Judeo–Christian notion of faith. Authentic trust is an emotional matter, based in relationships, and well aware of the possibility of betrayal. It is undermined by envy and resentment but encourages forgiveness.
Spirituality, Fate, and Fatalism
Authors: Solomon Robert C.
Published: October 2003

For millennia, and in many cultures, spirituality has been bound up with fatalism, the powerful sense that our lives are not in our own control and that whatever happens must happen. Fate and fatalism are distinct notions. Fatalism need not require agency or attach responsibility. Fate and fatalism are attempts to give meaning to the world, to see the world in a certain kind of order. Luck is not the same thing. Luck is a denial of any such order. Gratitude is the proper response to good luck as well as to fate.
Looking Forward to Death?1
Authors: Solomon Robert C.
Published: October 2003

Death has always been an obvious part of life, but we find it easy to deny death because it touches most of us so rarely. But there are many ways of denying death, including philosophical postures that evade the real issues in favor of logical puzzles. Epicurus introduced one such puzzle many years ago when he declared “death is nothing.” But death is also fetishized in contemporary culture. What is missing from most philosophical accounts is a sense of the social dimension of death.
The Self in Transformation: Self, Soul, and Spirit
Authors: Solomon Robert C.
Published: October 2003

The self or soul has always been one of the central concerns of both philosophy and religion, but self and soul have always been evasive. Descartes defines the modern dilemma of selfhood and raised “the mind–body problem,” but there are alternative perspectives on the self or soul that do not raise any such problem. The self or soul is ultimately social, and spirituality, in part, consists of embracing this larger sense of soul.
Introduction
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

The first part of this introduction discusses the scope of the study presented in the book, starting by examining the different approaches to divinity that may be taken--regarding it as distinct from human, looking at it etymologically, listing and studying individual deities, and taking a large-scale comparative approach that ventures a typology. The book attempts to combine all four of these approaches in examining the major indigenous conceptual structures that ancient Ugaritic and Israelite societies used to construct their religious reality. An outline is given of the contents of the ten chapters before going on to address various issues in discussing monotheism and polytheism, problems with the use of the term “Canaanite” (which is used widely in scholarly studies but largely avoided in this book as it is thought to be misleading), and the cautions that are needed when considering highly specific historical statements concerning what deities were and did and what ancient peoples believed and acted upon.
Anthropomorphic Deities and Divine Monsters
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

This first chapter diagrams the basic contrast between anthropomorphic deities and monstrous divine creatures. Here the Assyriologist F. A. M. Wiggermann has provided a very helpful typology, which, modified for Ugaritic literature, helps to sketch the religious mapping of the cosmos; based on this typology, three zones are proposed--centwe, periphery, and beyond the periphery, which are primarily expressed in terms of space and place. These correspond, respectively, to home and foreign, what is experienced by humans and what is beyond human experience; in accordance with this scheme, deities inhabit “near” places whereas monsters and demonic forces do not. There is also a division between home (and foreign) deities who meet human need and functions, and divinities or monstrous forces on the periphery, who pose a threat or destruction. Further, benevolent deities are often rendered anthropomorphically or as domesticated animals, whereas destructive divinities appear as monstrous or as undomesticated species.
Pluralities, Pairings, and Other Divine Relations
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Chapter 4 discusses different sorts of divine intersections or interrelations, including pluralities and pairings of deities within the divine household, where there are additional relationships centered on one or two figures. These relationships are explored to illustrate further the root metaphor of the family for Ugaritic divinity. After this survey of relations among the Ugaritic deities, the final section of the chapter explores alterations of divine relations within the presentation of divinity in ancient Israel.
The Traits of Deities
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

This chapter asks what characteristics deities generally share, or, put differently, what terms do the texts use to express what deities are? It collects and analyzes labels and statements about deities to answer the fundamental question of what a deity was considered to be. Ancient Middle Eastern literatures generalize about the characteristics and actions of deities abstracted from religious tradition and experience (“second-order discourse”), and chapter 3 has already shown how the Ugaritic texts stress the idea of the deities as a divine royal family bound by social hierarchy and family ties. This chapter examines four other common features of deities: strength and size, body and gender, holiness, and immorality. Each of these traits is addressed in turn, first in Ugaritic literature and then in Israelite texts.
The Life and Death of Baal
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

A particularly unusual case of divine death is examined in this chapter; this exception is the god Baal, who is considered to be a classic example of Sir James George Frazer’s category of “dying and rising gods.” The methodology and viability of Frazer’s claim is addressed as it has been applied to Baal of Ugarit. Here the author has been influenced by Jonathan Z. Smith’s massive critique of Frazer's category of dying and rising gods, as well as by recent studies on ritual and myth. The chapter also ventures a constructive step in the interpretation of Baal’s death: if Baal is not to be regarded as a dying and rising god, what is the significance of his death and return to life? Finally, it looks briefly at the mythology of death and the god of Israel.
Landscapes of the Soul
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

This book is at once both a work of sociology and a work of ethical and religious philosophy. As a work of sociology, it contributes to the ongoing debate over secularization by documenting an alienation from the sacred at the level of emotion. Shows that even many religious Americans are emotionally estranged from the God they say they believe in, from any larger moral purpose, from the very meaning of life itself. As a work of moral and religious philosophy within a broad communitarian tradition, it calls our attention from moral procedure to moral purpose or moral idealism. Argues that moral purpose and coherent personal identity only return to us when we emotionally and defensibly reconnect with the cosmos at some sacred level. It accordingly makes an appeal for our reenchantment or resacralization of the world, for our self‐critical reorientation toward ultimate truth.
Introduction
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Sets out the book's concerns with moral purpose, personal identity, and objective truth. These concerns arise out of a social context of postmodernity and moral relativism. Moral purpose, the chapter argues, derives from ultimate concern.
The Caterpillar's Question
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Against postmodern antihumanism, this chapter argues that human persons are ontologically coherent selves. Coherence of identity only emerges, however, when we lift our gaze from social space to moral space and metaphysical space.
The Further Geography of the Soul
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Explores the importance to our sense of self of moral commitment and moral ontology. A pivotal role is attributed to the moral emotions that connect us to moral values and ideals. These relate to our sense of the good.
The Emotional Detachment from the Sacred
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Argues that through a felt lack of religious experience, many Americans are emotionally detached from the sacred. Whereas religious ethics ought to be the inspired emulation of God's perceived goodness, religious ethics too often degenerate into divine command theory, where ethical rules are followed simply because they have been commanded by God. This emotional estrangement from the sacred has been an overlooked element in the secularization debate.
The Meaning of Life
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Very religious people, it is found, are likely to feel that they know what the meaning of life is. While others generally believe firmly that life has meaning, they deny knowing what the meaning is. There is thus a pervasive sense of moral purposelessness. Among Christians, there is also a banality of goodness, which involves the routinization of Jesus’ ethic from a charismatic, supererogatory ideal to the less demanding, banal “golden rule.” The process involves a social flattening out of supererogation.