bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Issues
Authors: Duff Paul B.
Published: October 2003

An examination of the seven letters to the churches shows that most of the subjects raised (and certainly the most pressing ones) are internal, intra‐Christian issues. There is little evidence of Roman hostility. The internal issues seem to be focused in three of the churches that have split into factions, the churches at Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira. The issues that contributed to the creation of factions include wealth, poverty, ɛιδωλόθυτα (food sacrificed to idols)σ and πορνɛία (fornication).
The Rhetoric of Innuendo
Authors: Duff Paul B.
Published: October 2003

Focuses on John's rhetoric. It begins with a discussion of indirect accusation and gives examples of its use in the ancient world. The chapter next demonstrates how John constructs a dualistic narrative world and then peoples it with characters that can be compared or contrasted with one another. The chapter includes a discussion about John's use of homology and irony to reinforce the dualism of his narrative world. A discussion about the persuasive power of indirect language concludes the chapter.
Genesis as Dialogue
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Genesis is a literary unity, and is the foundation for the Pentateuch and for the entire Primary History (Genesis‐2 Kings). This unity is complex, like the human body with its many diverse parts. As with the body, no major part preexisted other parts; all came to birth simultaneously. Three features of Genesis are pivotal. (1) Genesis is encyclopedic, synthesizing literature, religion, the science of the time, and experience (2) Genesis is artistic literature. The many variations and apparent contradictions of the text reflect a unified artistic strategy. Above all, Genesis is like a series of two‐part paintings or diptychs – two accounts of creation, two of sin, two genealogies, and so on. Every piece fits, and the diverse parts set up a dialog. (3) Genesis illustrates intertextuality; its sources include extant documents, especially from Mesopotamia, from Judea (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel), and from western Asia (Homer's Odyssey). The documentary theory (JEDP) is unnecessary and misleading.
Further Evidence of Genesis's Unity
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Genesis’ literary unity has several features. It contains consistent overlapping structures including bodylike complexity and chiasms, spiraling structures with consistent patterns of expanding episodes, two great double dramas (1:1–25:18 and 25:19–ch. 50), and above all, 26 diptychs (13 in each double drama). Each diptych contains some form of complementarity, for instance, two views of creation. The diptych arrangement has sometimes been interpreted as reflecting confusion, yet it is precise. Overall, Genesis spirals from episodes to prolonged narrative, and from myth to history.
The Historical and Social Background
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

In comparison with previous empires, the Persian Empire (550–330 b.c.e.) was exceptional in size, coordination, and humaneness. Equally exceptional was the contemporary blossoming of Greek culture. Together the Greeks and Persians generated an economic and cultural continuity extending from India to Italy.
Greco‐Persian Features
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Greco‐Persian culture encouraged theological inquiry, codification of law, and a transition from epic poetry to prose historiography. Wide‐ranging pioneering histories were written by Hecataeus, Herodotus, and Hellanicus. The Primary History as a whole – the entire wide‐ranging prose history – fits well into the Persian Empire.
Verifiable Sources
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

In contrast with the documentary theory, which presumed that the sources of Genesis were lost, George Smith indicated in 1872 that source‐like material from Assyria concerning the flood story is still extant. Today it is possible to identify other extant materials that Genesis used in diverse ways. These materials include historiography, epic, prophetic books, and law.
Date, Place, and People: A Summary of Key Arguments
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Despite its distinct and archaic language, the Primary History (Genesis‐2 Kings) is best given a date in the Persian period, because: (1) Its literary genre as a whole belongs to the Persian period. (2) Its integral content reflects events that extend into the Persian period. (3) Its sources include exilic prophets. The authorship – whether by one person or by a coordinated group – was probably linked to an institution, perhaps the Jerusalem temple. Affiliation to an institution – political, religious, industrial, academic – need not mean lack of integrity.
Genesis and History
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Genesis is less and more than exact history. It is less, because in light of modern science and history, it shows virtually no knowledge of the origins of human life or of Israel. It is more, because it reveals the essence of historical existence and goes into greater depth than most historical studies.
Genesis and Psychology
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Genesis is gradually emerging as a rich source of psychology. However, some methods of studying this aspect are inadequate. The work of Eugen Drewermann is valuable but needs a broader horizon.
Genesis as a Reflection of the Complexity of Life
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

Genesis is like an encyclopedia of life. Among other features, it highlights: the founding of civilization; harmony and disharmony; blessing; marriage and family; relative roles of women and men; larger communities (ethnic groups; the world); the ambivalence of cities; the centrality of journeying; the journey's context, between creation and providence.
Genealogies: From More Disharmony to Restoration (4:17–Chap. 5)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The two sets of genealogical material (of 4:17–26 and ch. 5) bring about a dramatic expansion in Genesis’ story line. The two are complementary in their use of names and in other ways. The first portrays civilization's development and degeneration; the second, God's restorative influence. Genesis 5 takes up threads from all the preceding chapters.
Noah's Sons: The World's Mixture of Curse and Blessing (9:18–Chap. 10)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The story of Noah's three sons (9:18–29) is followed by a table of nations, which reflects features of the three sons (ch. 10). The two‐fold text (9:18–ch. 10) is framed by references to Noah and the flood, and at one level is concerned not with specific nations but with the balance between blessing and curse among humanity as a whole.
Failed Tower and Fading Family: Life's Fragmentation (Chap. 11)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The two texts in Genesis 11 – the tower of Babel (11:1–9), and the family line from Shem to Terah's death (11:10–32) – are diverse in many ways, but they also share a radical unity: they portray complementary pictures of the faltering of human institutions – the faltering of the towering city, and of the family line. There are connecting features. The fragility and death of human institutions sets the scene for the call of Abraham (Abram).
War—And Vision of a Covenant (Chaps. 14–15)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

In Genesis 14, Abram engages in a war involving many nations, and with the help of a covenant‐based alliance of brothers, he brings back his captured nephew and his possessions. In Genesis 15, God becomes a shield to Abram and makes a covenant, which involves bringing back Abram's enslaved people and their possessions, a covenant with implications for many nations. The two chapters have several points of complementarity, and together they portray a major transition in Abram. In Genesis 14, Abram is supremely courageous and unselfish, but in Genesis 15 he is afraid of the future, and he needs divine help to come outside of himself and believe.
Personal Conflict, and Vision of a Deeper Covenant (Chaps. 16–17)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

In Genesis 16, the beautiful barren Sarai finally releases what is inside her – a confused bitterness that strikes at God, Abram, and her slavegirl, Hagar. Her proposal that Abram impregnate Hagar causes tension between the two women and she drives the foreign slavegirl away. However, the Lord intervenes and brings back the foreign slavegirl, and she bears Abram a son, Ishmael. In Genesis 17, Ishmael is old enough to be circumcised; a circumcision linked to a covenant that includes foreigners (foreign slaves) and that promises new life for Sarai. Together, Genesis 16 and 17 give the concept of covenant a new depth and new inclusiveness. They also give Abram and Sarai new names – Abraham and Sarah.
Jacob's Children and Flocks (29:31–Chap. 30)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The account of the generating of Jacob's children (Genesis 29:31–30:24) is balanced by an account of the generating of Jacob's flocks (30:25–43). The children are generated in the context of the rivalry between Leah and Rachel; the flocks in the context of the rivalry between Laban and Jacob. The children carry the names of the future tribes, and the flocks have echoes of the people. Children and flocks promise well for the future.
Genealogies: Jacob Declines and Esau Prospers (35:21–37:1)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The following two texts consist essentially of genealogies – the shrunken genealogy of Jacob (Genesis 35:21–29) and the expansive genealogy of his old nemesis, Esau (36:1–37:1). The brevity of Jacob's genealogy seems to be explained by its opening: the incest of Jacob's eldest son, Reuben, with Jacob's concubine, Bilhah – an event which would have undermined the father. Jacob hears, but does nothing and says nothing. (He acts on it when he is dying, 49:3–4). For the moment, he is diminished, and his genealogy reflects it. (In better circumstances, his genealogy is longer, 46:8–27).
Prophecy and Conversion (37:2–Chap. 38)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The Joseph story, with its almost‐continuous narrative, is not substantially different from the rest of Genesis. Rather, it is like Genesis coming into bloom, and it responds to the earlier issues in Genesis. The account of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38) fits well into the narrative, reflecting the preceding chapter in many ways (see Robert Alter). The initial account of Joseph and his dreams (most of Genesis 37) is like the account of the call of a prophet – but adapted to a wisdom mode. The story of Judah is a form of conversion story. The prophetic dreams and Judah's conversion intimate the future.
Joseph: The Initiatory Trials (Chaps. 39–40)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The account of Joseph's early experience in Egypt falls easily into two complementary chapters: his resistance to seduction, leading to his imprisonment (Genesis 39); and his interpretation of dreams, leaving him still in prison, forgotten (Genesis 40). Joseph emerges as close to God, with integrity and prophetic wisdom.
Back to Egypt: The Generosity That Brings Conversion (Chaps. 43–44)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The brothers’ conversion advances in two stages. First, following a courageous decision to return to Egypt, they are reassured by a generous meal (Genesis 43). Then, when Joseph's cup is found in Benjamin's sack, Judah lays his life on the line to save the youngest brother – thus completely reversing the sinfulness that was once directed against Joseph (Genesis 44). The conversion is complete. Judah's speech (44:18–34) is long, second only to that of Abraham's servant in Genesis 24. The splendid meal implies that, as in the prophets, Joseph's form of justice is based on generosity (not on the weighing‐scale precision of the Greeks).
Jacob's Death and Burial (Chaps. 49–50)
Authors: Brodie Thomas L.
Published: October 2003

The accounts of death and burial (Genesis 49 and 50 respectively) are essentially positive. The death is dominated by a blessing; the burial by haunting beauty. Jacob's blessing (Genesis 49) distills much of Genesis and so, despite its archaic language, is best seen as composed at the same time as the book. The contrast between the burials of Jacob and Joseph (in Genesis 50) has echoes in the contrast between the fates of Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2 and 13).
Morals from Motives
Authors: Slote Michael
Published: October 2003

Since the revival of virtue ethics, most work in virtue ethics has been Aristotelian in inspiration. This book draws, however, from the virtue‐ethical tradition of British moral sentimentalism a la Hume and Hutcheson, and is also influenced by the recently articulated ”ethics of caring”. It defends an agent‐based virtue ethics that treats the moral quality of motivation as the basis for all other ethical evaluations, and the emphasis is on caring, love, and benevolence rather than the sorts of considerations that Aristotle mainly focuses on.
Morality and the Practical
Authors: Slote Michael
Published: October 2003

Is an agent‐based sentimentalist virtue ethics of caring or benevolence sufficiently action‐guiding, given the focus on the inner life rather than external factors? The answer is that such forms of ethics are not meant to be practical in this sense, because a focus on what is right or obligatory takes the agent away from a praiseworthy focus on the good of other individuals. The ideal agent is deeply connected with and directly concerned about the welfare of others, and such a person does not conscientiously worry about whether he or she is acting rightly or virtuously. This conclusion allows us to understand moral growth and moral conflict – though in a way different from the way in which the Kantian tradition, with its emphasis on conscientiousness, does.
The Structure of Caring
Authors: Slote Michael
Published: October 2003

If we think caring can be a valid basis for ethics, we need to describe further what kind of overall pattern of caring motivation is morally best. An ”inverse care law” that treats ideal caring as simply varying according to how distant in familial or personal terms someone is from the agent is considered and rejected in favor of an ideal of ”balanced caring,” according to which concern for the class of those near and dear to one is to be balanced against (not be lopsided in relation to) concern for all others taken as a class. It is argued that humans can develop such motivation naturally without having to be told that it is their obligation (or that it is virtuous) to do so.
The Virtue in Self‐Interest
Authors: Slote Michael
Published: October 2003

An agent‐based approach can also help us understand what is good for people, human well‐being. Utilitarianism reduces virtue and morality to certain relationships with human or sentient well‐being; but Stoicism and even Aristotle can be understood as having reversed this order of explanation. For the latter, virtue is the basis for understanding human well‐being. An agent‐based ethics of caring can draw on certain ideas of Plato in order to argue that the moral virtue of caring and certain nonmoral virtues such as strength of purpose help make certain experiences and ways of living count as good for us. This reversed reductionism can be called “elevationism”, and it represents a significant alternative to both dualistic (Kantian) and reductionistic accounts of the relation between moral virtue and human well‐being or welfare.
Extending the Approach
Authors: Slote Michael
Published: October 2003

Views that understand both morality and human well‐being in agent‐based terms can be called ”hyper‐agent‐based.” The present such approach treats each of the agent‐based elements of practical rationality and morality as grounding its own separate and distinctive human good (element in human well‐being). Thus, for example, the rational virtue of noninsatiability (moderation) is arguably necessary to and helps constitute appetitive goods; the rational value of strength of purpose is groundingly essential to the distinctive good of achievement/accomplishment; the courage not to deceive oneself about unpleasant facts helps constitute the human good of wisdom; and the moral virtues of (various forms of) caring underlie and help bring about what is good (for us) about love, friendship, political involvement (or civic friendship), and the like. It is argued that all human goods can be plausibly fitted into this hyper‐agent‐based view of what is good for us and that such a unified explanatory scheme is superior to a mere ”objective list,” however intuitive, of human goods.
Internalism Exposed
Authors: Goldman Alvin I.
Published: October 2003

The internalist conception of justification usually rests on an accessibility requirement: the justifiers of a belief are states of affairs to which the agent must have access, which allegedly implies that justifiers are internal to the agent. What mode of access does internalism mean to require, and what is its conception of “internal?” Various answers to these questions are examined, but all are found wanting. Restrictive conceptions of access – restricting access to introspection, for example – have the skeptical implication that beliefs in certain domains do not qualify as justified. More permissive conceptions of access fail to guarantee that justifiers are internal.
The Unity of the Epistemic Virtues
Authors: Goldman Alvin I.
Published: October 2003

A weak unity thesis about epistemic virtues holds that there is a core epistemic value – true belief – and that processes, traits, or actions are epistemic virtues by virtue of their relations with this core value. According to veritistic unitarianism, justification is a distinct epistemic value from truth but derives its value from that of true belief. This is explicit in reliabilism and implicit in many varieties of foundationalism and coherentism. Deontological evidentialism rejects veritistic consequentialism but has trouble accounting for evidence‐gathering virtues. The claim that “pragmatic” epistemic virtues are unrelated to truth is examined but found unpersuasive or readily accommodated with minor tweakings of the veritistic perspective.
Social Routes to Belief and Knowledge
Authors: Goldman Alvin I.
Published: October 2003

Social scientists often investigate the social propagation of belief, but social epistemology is interested in the social routes to true (or false) beliefs. One approach to the social propagation of belief is “memetics,” a selectionist account of belief propagation modeled on biological evolution. This chapter examines the prospects for a contagion approach to primitive cases of belief transmission, modeled on emotion transmission. However, if any such approach is to be useful for social epistemology, one must consider the truth‐conduciveness of primitive speech and acceptance dispositions. Building partly on suggestions of Thomas Reid, some possible implications of a contagion, or epidemiological model, are explored.
What Is Social Epistemology? a Smorgasbord of Projects
Authors: Goldman Alvin I.
Published: October 2003

Philosophers, sociologists of knowledge, and other academics pursue the topic of social epistemology, but often in entirely disparate fashions. “Knowledge” is usually central to social epistemology, but some investigators take “knowledge” to be mere belief or institutionalized belief, whereas others take it to be at least true belief. Radical social epistemologists dismiss traditional epistemology and view their approach as a replacement or successor subject, whereas others see social epistemology as an extension of classical epistemology. Other contrasts include differences on the nature of the “social” and differences on the role, if any, for social constructivism. Social epistemologists often view their field as a normative one, but some concentrate on rationality, others on (e.g., testimonial) justification, and still others on social practices that conduce to knowledge.
Songs of Ecstasy
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

This book is a companion volume to the author's The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal, but while The Economics of Ecstasy engages the theoretical issues of secrecy and concealment associated with the Kartābhajās — a Bengali sect devoted to Tantra, an Indian religious movement notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals, this book presents the first English translation of the sect's body of highly esoteric, mystical poetry and songs. The period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, during which these lyrics were written, was an era of change, experimentation, and transition from the older medieval styles to the new literary forms of “modern” Bengal. The original songs presented are an important part of this transitional period, reflecting the search for new literary forms and experimentation in new poetic styles. Long disparaged as an inferior, low‐class, or corrupt form of Bengali literature, these songs are concerned with contemporary social life in colonial Calcutta and with the real lives of common lower‐class men and women. With their vision of a universal “religion of humanity,” open to men and women of all classes, the Kartābhajā songs offer an alternative model of community, which made a special appeal to the working classes of colonial Calcutta. They delight in ridiculing and satirizing the foppish British rulers and pretentious upper classes, although at the same time, however, the satirical urban imagery is mingled with older Tantric connotations and employed in ingenious new ways to express profoundly esoteric and mystical religious ideas.
The Economics of Ecstasy
Authors: Urban Hugh B. , Doniger Wendy
Published: October 2003

This is a study of the Bengali Kartābhajā sect and its place in the broader movement of Tantrism, which is an Indian religious movement, notorious for its alleged use of shocking sexual language and rituals. The author looks closely at the relationship between the rise of the Kartābhajās, who flourished at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the changing economic context of colonial Bengal. Made up of the poor lower classes labouring in the marketplaces and factories of Calcutta (India), the Kartābhajās represent “the underworld of the imperial city.” It is shown that their esoteric poetry and songs are saturated with the language of the marketplace and the bazaar, which becomes for them the key metaphor used to communicate secret knowledge and mystical teachings. Not only do they employ the imagery in the market of moneylending and brokering, but also name their sect after the British East India Company, giving themselves the ironic title of the “Poor Company.” The case of the Kartābhajās opens many new insights not merely into the specific case of one Bengali cult, but also into much larger cross‐cultural and theoretical issues, including the changing role of the lower class, marginalized groups under the changing conditions of colonialism, the changing role of Tantric traditions during the period of British rule, and the topic of secrecy as a cross‐cultural category in the study of religion. The book is arranged in three parts: I. The Secret Marketplace: Historical Origins and Socioeconomic Contexts; II. The Power of Secrecy: Esoteric Discourse and Practice; and III. The Liability of Secrecy: Secrecy as a Source of Scandal and Slander, Elitism, and Exploitation.
Introduction
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

The phenomena of secrecy and esotericism remain among the most persistent and pervasive, yet poorly studied and misunderstood aspects of the history of religions. The field of South Asian studies is no exception to this trend, although it has generated a growing interest in the role of secrecy in Indian traditions, and specifically in the texts and rituals of Tantrism. However, Tantric studies have hardly made any inquiry into the real historical and social contexts in which Tantra is practised, have not looked at any of the broader comparative issues involved in the study of esoteric traditions, and have yielded little critical reflection on the historical construction of the category of Tantrism. This book aims to address these issues through the study of one specific esoteric and secret sect: that of the Kartābhajās or “Worshippers of the Master,” which spread throughout Calcutta (Bengal, India) in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and still has some living and practising representatives. The first half of this introduction provides a general background on the Kartābhajās and their importance for the scholarly imagining of Tantrism, and the study of esoteric traditions as a whole; the second half engages the larger theoretical snarls inevitably involved in the study of something that is supposed to be secret.
The Religion of Man (Mānuṣer Dharma)
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

Like the economic field of the late eighteenth century, the religious world of early colonial Bengal was also a vast “bazaar,” a marketplace of spiritual goods, both genuine and fake, in which traders from all lands haggled and bartered; amidst this teeming market, with its host of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and other competing factions, the Kartābhajā sect would emerge as perhaps the most successful of the various minor sects that spread among the lower classes. It is argued in this chapter that not only did the Kartābhajās emerge at a key locus and critical historical moment but they also represented a profound transformation within the older Sahajiyā tradition, which was especially well suited to this changing social context, and which offered a highly marketable set of spiritual commodities. The primary appeal of the Kartābhajās, and the main reason for their striking growth and success, lay in their remarkable capacity for synthesis; their tradition represents a rich bricolage (a method of borrowing elements from a variety of different “exoteric” traditions, while weaving them into a new esoteric synthesis that transcends them) of diverse elements, operating on at least three levels, which are examined in each of the three sections of this chapter. First, on the religious level, the Kartābhajās skilfully combine elements of esoteric Sahajiyā Tantric teachings, more orthodox Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theology, a strong element of Sufism, and even a degree of Christian influence; second, on the social level, the Kartābhajās bring together members of all classes and social factions, rejecting caste distinctions and proclaiming the divinity of all human beings; and third, on the gender level, the Kartābhajās offered a new social space in which men and women could mix freely, even providing new opportunities for women in roles of spiritual authority. The result is a rather ingenious religious fusion – or “subversive bricolage,” which skilfully adapts and reconfigures elements from a wide range of sources – a kind of poaching or pilfering by poor lower‐class consumers in a dominated religious market that demanded the subtle use of secrecy, both, as a tactic of appropriation, and as a key social strategy or way of life.
The Poor Company
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

The three sections of this chapter examine the unique use by the Bengali Kartābhajā sect of mercantile imagery in their Mint Language, first in the general metaphor of the “marketplace of the world,” second, in their unusual use of terminology drawn from the East India Company, and finally in their ingenious appropriation of the metaphors of the “Poor Company” and the “Mad Company.” The primary focus is on the economic dimensions of Kartābhajā esoteric songs. This is by no means intended to be a kind of “vulgar economism” or a simplistic reduction of religious language to material interests. To the contrary, it is argued that the social agents are not the only people capable of deploying religious myths and rituals in order to express more concrete economic or political motives, religious actors are also capable of appropriating very secular, economic, and political discourse while transforming it into a profound bearer of deeper religious or spiritual ideals.
Secret Bodies
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

The role of secrecy is looked at as a practical and ritual strategy. It is argued that the esoteric practices and ecstatic techniques of the Kartābhajās involve a key strategy of deconstructing and reconstructing the human body; their aim is to dismantle or dissolve the ordinary socialized body of the initiate, along with the conventional social hierarchy itself, and to create in its place a new, divinized (spiritualized) body, which is in turn reinscribed into an alternative social hierarchy, with its own relations of authority and power. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the relationship between the body and the social body in mainstream Bengali culture, as well as the ritual sacraments used to inscribe the physical body into the greater Bengali social hierarchy. Next, the role of initiation and bodily practice within the Kartābhajā tradition is discussed as it serves to deconstruct the conventional socialized body, and to create in its place an alternative, liberated body. Finally, an examination is made of the attempt of the Kartābhajās to construct not simply an alternative body, but an entire alternative identity or secret self – the “supreme” or ultimate identity, which is at once freed from the bonds of labor and servitude in the exoteric social hierarchy, while at the same time it is inscribed into a new hierarchy of power within the Kartābhajā sect itself.
The Stinking Fruit in the Garden of Love
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

This chapter engages the more problematic side of Kartābhajā secrecy as a source of scandal and embarrassment – above all, with regard to Tantric sexual practices, and the corresponding “meta‐strategies” of self‐censorship, concealment, deodorization, and disguise, which esoteric traditions must often employ in order to protect themselves. After a brief summary of the history of the debate surrounding parakīyā love (intercourse with another man's wife) in the Tantric Vaiṣṇava and Sahajiyā traditions, an examination is made of the rise of the Bengali Kartābhajā sect within the context of colonial Bengal, and of their highly enigmatic songs describing the “stinking fruit” of parakīyā love. The chapter concludes by suggesting that this basic ambivalence at the heart of the Kartābhajā tradition opens up a number of larger questions for the study of Tantra in Bengal. First, it demonstrates the ways in which Tantric traditions are deeply rooted in real social, political, and cultural conditions and the ways in which these traditions change historically, creatively adapting in the face of changing circumstances; second, it raises the critical question of censorship – the central ambivalence surrounding Tantra and the constant attempts to mask, suppress, or eradicate any elements smacking of scandal or immorality; and last, and perhaps most important, the Kartābhajās also raise the question of the very definition of Tantra itself – i.e.,, how certain groups come to be identified (or attacked) as “Tantric,” and how the term Tantra has come to be constructed in the popular and scholarly imaginations.
The Economics of Ecstasy
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the more problematic aspects of Kartābhajā secrecy as a potential strategy of elitism and economic exploitation. The central ambivalence over religion and economics at the very heart of the Kartābhajā sect tradition – its simultaneously liberating and exploitative character – is nowhere more apparent than in the infamous festival (melā) held each spring in Ghoshpara. As the most public and popular side of this tradition – what might be called the exoteric side of an esoteric tradition – the melā was widely discussed throughout nineteenth‐century Bengal, and was notorious both because of the unusual degree of freedom from ordinary social constraints that it allowed and because of the seeming crass commercialism and vulgar profiteering that went on among its organizers. As an alternative social space, the melā is a temporary event in which normal social boundaries and religious laws do not apply, a time when those who normally have little symbolic capital can suddenly rise to new status and social power, and normal social relations are turned topsy‐turvy; at the same time, the melā also has a very pronounced economic dimension, and the primary beneficiaries are not the poor lower classes but, rather the Kartās (boss or head men) and Mahāśays (regional gurus). It is noted finally that the Kartābhajā tradition also opens up a number of illuminating insights into the heterogeneous world of colonial Bengal, and perhaps into some broader questions of colonial studies as a whole.
Conclusions and Comparative Comments
Authors: Urban Hugh B.
Published: October 2003

The conclusion then zooms back out once again, to review the larger implications of this study of the Kartābhajā sect. These are (in order from the most specific to the most general and comparative) the implications for: the study of colonial Bengal; Tantric studies (as embodied and historicized Tantra); and the study of esoteric traditions (uninitiated understanding). Reflections are then given on the general problem of secrecy, discourse, and authority. Finally, the author voices the hope that the approach taken in the book might have some broader comparative implications for the study of secrecy in other cultures (cross‐cultural studies).
A Persian Philosopher
Authors: Chittick William C.
Published: October 2003

The majority of Muslim philosophers were Persian speakers, but they wrote their works in Arabic so that all Muslim scholars would be able to benefit. Kâshânâ (Bâbâ Afdal) was an exception to this general rule because he wrote mainly in Persian for his own students, who were not well trained in the Islamic sciences. He considered philosophy a spiritual discipline whose goal was to transform the soul, actualize the intelligence that lies at the root of the cosmos, and achieve perfect virtue. His careful attention to the Persian language produced not only remarkably beautiful prose but also deep insights into the concrete meanings of Arabic technical terms that had become too abstract to convey their original meanings. He wrote six books, translated five treatises from Arabic into Persian, abridged the introduction of Ghazâlî's Kîmiyâ‐yi sa`âdat, addressed six letters to disciples, composed 30 essays, and authored a good deal of poetry, mostly quatrains.
Background Texts
Authors: Chittick William C.
Published: October 2003

Bâbâ Afdal drew inspiration both from Greek writings in Arabic and from the writings of various Muslim thinkers. This chapter provides excerpts from his Persian translations of the pseudo‐Aristotelian Liber de Pomo, Aristotles’ De anima, and the Hermetic Fountain of Life. Also included is a full translation of his abridgement of Ghazâlî's introduction to Kîmiyâ‐yi sa`âdat (The Alchemy of Felicity), which provides a straightforward introduction to basic philosophico‐religious concepts such as soul, spirit, heart, body, God, this world, and the next world.
Writings on Practice
Authors: Chittick William C.
Published: October 2003

Includes translations of a number of Bâbâ Afdal's works that stress the importance of engaging in the philosophical quest for the sake of perfecting one's soul, actualizing the intellect, achieving a sound moral character, and attaining salvation. Included are six essays, 60 quatrains and other poems, and six letters addressed to disciples. The letters represent rare instances in Islamic philosophical literature in which a philosopher demonstrates his concern for training his disciples in extremely personal terms.
Writings on Theory
Authors: Chittick William C.
Published: October 2003

Includes translations of 10 essays, several quatrains, 4 complete treatises, and excerpts from two others. The first treatise, Makings and Ornaments of Well‐Provisioned Kings, provides a mirror for princes presented in terms of perfecting the soul through the realization of the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm and the actualization of the virtues. The Book of the Everlasting describes the origin of the soul and its return to God and, uniquely among the treatises, cites proof‐texts from the Koran. The Rungs of Perfection analyzes the soul in terms of being, perception, and the faculties and offers a systematic map of the stages whereby one can achieve full actualization of selfhood and linkage with the divine light. The Book of the Road's End provides a more technical discussion of many of the issues dealt with in the other three treatises. The chapter concludes with excerpts from The Clarifying Method, an important treatise on logic.
Theory and Elucidation
Authors: Weiner Joan
Published: October 2003

Weiner argues in her essay that Frege explicitly acknowledged the necessity for what he called “elucidations” of his primitive notions. Such elucidations consist of hints, metaphors, and allusions, all of which resist being translated into the language of his logic and so cannot be characterized as objective by Frege’s lights. Weiner argues that Frege held that there is something about the understanding and communication of logic that cannot be argued for or perhaps even stated. On Weiner’s view, far from relying on an unfounded rationalist confidence in the correctness of his logic, Frege, like the early Wittgenstein, is consistently self conscious and self-critical about the standpoint from which essential requirements for rationality are to be articulated. In addition, Weiner provides a non-psychologistic account of elucidation as an activity, by reference to a reading of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, which Weiner takes as a model of how changes in attitude, not reducible to changes in beliefs expressible in begriffsschrift, can be objectively effected.
Bolzano, Frege, and Husserl on Reference and Object
Authors: Føllesdal Dagfinn
Published: October 2003

Husserl’s notion of the intentional object may be compared and contrasted with Bolzano’s and Frege’s views on the reference of linguistic expressions, especially since Bolzano was a main influence on the development of Husserl’s views. Føllesdal responds to David Bell’s criticisms of Føllesdal’s earlier readings of Husserl on reference, directedness, and the notion of a determinable object x. He argues that Husserl’s treatment of indexicals and reference is in some ways more insightful than the treatments of either Bolzano or Frege. To preempt the charge that Husserl’s philosophy forwards a naïve, overly mentalistic model of the mind and its expressive capacities, Føllesdal mentions that Husserl developed a thought experiment nearly identical to the well-known Twin Earth scenario later framed by Hilary Putnam to criticize internalist, mentalistic theories of meaning. Føllesdal argues that Husserl was ahead of his time in trying to account for the semantics of indexical and demonstrative terms, partly under the influence of Brentano. This study shows that the opposition between so-called continental and so-called analytic philosophy is not historically as well-grounded as many have supposed.
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.
Heidegger's Response to Skepticism in Being and Time
Authors: Minar Edward H.
Published: October 2003

Section 43 of Heidegger’s Being and Time attempts to demonstrate that external world skepticism is self-defeating. Crucial to this effort is the claim that Dasein is Being-in-the-world, that we are always already involved with external things. Does starting with this phenomenological claim beg the question against the skeptic? No, because Heidegger is contesting the obviousness of the skeptic’s starting point, his depiction of our relation to the world. The essay shows that this strategy renders the skeptic’s demand for justification of Heidegger’s own description of Dasein as Being-in-the-world illegitimate and that charging Heidegger’s phenomenological response to skepticism with idealism is empty.
Tolerance and Analyticity in Carnap's Philosophy of Mathematics
Authors: Friedman Michael
Published: October 2003

This essay is an interpretation of Carnap’s principle of tolerance in his 1934 Logical Syntax of Language, as expressed in his philosophy of mathematics. Friedman argues that Carnap’s deepest philosophical motivation was to offer scientifically minded philosophers an intellectual responsible, undogmatic way out of their philosophical perplexities. Carnap’s dream of replacing dogmatic metaphysical dispute with the construction of formalized languages failed, for interesting reasons internal to the development of logic. Carnap hoped to provide a purely formal characterization of the intuitive distinction between questions which concern the real natures of objects and those which merely concern alternative ways of speaking. Yet in relying on Gödel’s arithmetization of syntax to formulate a language-relative distinction between synthetic and analytic truth, Carnap’s Syntax philosophy foundered on the incompleteness theorem, for that result shows that there is in principle no wholly formal (philosophical neutral) way to survey the logical consequences of each and every alternative theory of mathematics. This left Carnap with no way to formulate his principle of tolerance neutrally.
“The Defensible Province of Philosophy”: Quine's 1934 Lectures on Carnap
Authors: Hylton Peter
Published: October 2003

Hylton argues that some of the characteristic concerns of Quine are already in place by the 1930s. Hylton examines Quine’s 1934 Harvard lectures on Carnap, his first attempt to explain Carnap’s logical syntax program to an American audience. By pointing out tensions within the exposition the young Quine offered of Carnap’s views, Hylton shows how these lectures already point toward Quine’s subsequent disagreements with Carnap over the analytic/synthetic distinction. Hylton finds that in these lectures Quine departs from exposition because of a philosophical discomfort with Carnap’s assumption that our actual, pre-analytic, language contains a set of implicitly given definitions or rules from which the category of the a priori arises. Moreover, Quine also fastidiously departs from Carnap in trying to avoid assuming that our language contains a distinction between the a priori and the empirical. In the context of an exposition of Carnap’s program, this invites a question Quine was soon to ask: what sort of explanation of a given sentence’s truth could Carnap’s notion of “analytic” possibly provide? Hylton argues that Quine’s later well-known holism about meaning, his famed denial of empiricism’s second reductionist dogma—that “each meaningful statement is equivalent to some logical construct upon terms which refer to immediate experience”—was not the sole or primary philosophical factor shaping Quine’s differences with Carnap. Hylton’s examination of the origins of Quine’s differences with Carnap shows that what is fundamentally at stake is the very conception of what counts as a philosophical explanation.
Non‐Negotiable Demands: Metaphysics, Politics, and the Discourse of Needs
Authors: Scheman Naomi
Published: October 2003

Scheman discusses the history of analytic philosophy in America juxtaposing Cora Diamond’s Wittgensteinian critique of metaphysics (or of philosophical “requirements”) with Nancy Fraser’s use of Habermas and Foucault to develop a discourse of needs. Examining the of problems of philosophy from historical context in the analytic tradition in post–World War II America, Scheman critically examines Cornel West’s interpretation of American pragmatism as a resolute evasion of moral and political engagement, arguing that analytic philosophy did answer to particular cultural needs given the politics of that time. She then shows how arguments over the mind-independence of reality, the transcendence of moral standards, and the idea of privileged access may, despite their history, form a crucial and indeed inevitable part of a politically aware, morally engaged conception of philosophy, as useful for the disenfranchised as for those who benefit from the current arrangements of society.
Silences Noises Voices
Authors: Cavell Stanley
Published: October 2003

In these reflections Cavell touches on three themes not previously developed in his writings. First, two ideas of silence beyond the voices in Wittgenstein’s Investigations: the idea that philosophy maintains silence, because its virtue is responsiveness to the words of others rather than the provision of theses, and the idea of the silence in which philosophical problems end. Cavell links the second to the idea of the deaths of philosophical attempts to escape the ordinary that one finds in the Investigations, thereby reading Wittgenstein as discovering philosophy as learning how to die. Second, Cavell situates his inheritance of Wittgenstein, Emerson, and Thoreau in an insistence in not forcing an overcoming of the split within philosophy itself, a split he epitomizes in two myths of philosophical reading: philosophy as requiring reading everything (Heidegger) and as requiring reading nothing (Wittgenstein). Finally, Cavell ruminates on the charges of indecorous self-indulgence brought against his writings. He locates this as a reaction to his willingness to recognize, even to cultivate, the unconscious in his philosophical writing, and to acknowledge psychoanalysis as posing an intellectual competitor to the aspirations of philosophy.
Long Decimals
Authors: Hart W. D.
Published: October 2003

Real numbers have decimal expansions. If we add to the first order theory of real numbers the supposition that there is a natural number different from, and so greater than, each (standard) natural number, then we get more places for digits, longer decimals, and more reals. When nonzero digits occur only in 10 (to the n)th place for n non-standard, we have an infinitesimal. Descartes assumed there is a one-one order-preserving correspondence between the points on a line and the reals. How might space differ, and could we tell if we needed infinitesimals (and their infinite reciprocals) to impose co-ordinates? In the region consisting of points only finitely far from a given point, we would have a model for all of solid Euclidean geometry except the uniqueness of parallels, and there could be an infinite gold nugget that does not fill space.
Formal Losses
Authors: Sacks Gerald E.
Published: October 2003

Sacks argues against the value of introducing formal precision in mathematics. Intuitive concepts, such as computability, can be the source of fruitful insights as well as worked with in proofs, without formalization. Moreover, formal recasting of these notions makes them less tractable to mathematical experience.