Hermeneutics

The Second Annual Transpersonal Research Colloquium (TRC) was held in Northampton, UK on September 15-16, 2016. This document is the final program with presenters abstracts, bios, and contact information. For further information, see www.transpersonalresearchnetwork.com.

This paper discusses the role of things in the framework of the materiality of Nazi camps. It analyzes different dimensions of thing affordances and argues that the assumption of objects being used in ways of a "canonical affordance" risks to dangerously distort the cruel reality of the camps. Re-interpreting these assemblages also encounters a different problem, the "componentiality" of modern materiality. A consideration of different dimensions of thing affordances and their complex relation to componentiality ends in a style of interpretation that is close to Paul Ricoeur's "hermeneutics of suspicion".

After defining hermeneutics as the systematic and justified revelation of a meaning, I will try to demonstrate in my paper that John Dewey's theory of inquiry is a type of hermeneutics. I consider that Dewey's hermeneutics is highly comprehensive, since it also examines the meanings which man creates when interpreting nature. In order to prove it, I will analyse the novel "Baltagul" [The Hatchet] written by a famous Romanian writer, Mihail Sadoveanu, trying to show that both the main character, Vitoria Lipan, in her detective investigations, and the hermeneut, who – at a different level – looks for the hidden meaning of the novel, follow the same Deweyan " pattern of inquiry " .

This book shows how a masterpiece of experimental cinema can be interpreted through hermeneutics of the film world. As an application of Ricœurian methodology to a non-narrative film, the book calls into question the fundamental concept of the film world. Firmly rooted within the context of experimental cinema, Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man was not created on the basis of a narrative structure and representation of characters, places and events, but on very different presuppositions. The techniques with which Brakhage worked on celluloid and used frames as canvases, as well as his choice to make the film without dialogue and sound, exhort the interpreter to directly question the philosophical language of moving images.
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030124250

Die Übersetzungshermeneutik hat sich in den letzten Jahren weltweit zu einer äußerst dynamischen Forschungsrichtung entwickelt. Übersetzungstheoretische Publikationen mit her-meneutischem Schwerpunkt sind nicht nur zahlenmäßig angestiegen, sondern haben auch ihre traditionelle Eingrenzung auf das literarische Übersetzen aufgesprengt. Die Fachübersetzung, die audiovisuelle Übersetzung und der Dolmetschvorgang sind ebenfalls Gegenstand hermeneutischer Untersuchungen geworden. Auch stehen sie im Zeichen einer ausgesprochen interdisziplinären Offenheit und beziehen Erkenntnisse aus der Linguistik, der Philosophie, der Kommunikationswissenschaft, der Rhetorik, der Theologie und neuerdings auch den Kognitionswissenschaften in den hermeneutischen Diskurs mit ein.
Die vorliegende Arbeit erkundet die Grundlagen der sich im Umbruch befindenden Übersetzungshermeneutik. Sie legt in einem ersten Vorstoß zu einer zugleich entwicklungsgeschichtlichen wie auch systematischen Bestimmung eine Rekonstruktion dieser Forschungsrichtung anhand repräsentativer Beiträge vor. Die detaillierte Analyse dieser Hauptdimensionen fördert den klassischen Kern der Übersetzungshermeneutik zutage und weist zugleich indikativ auf ihre neueren Entwicklungen hin.

Article based on a presentation given at the Thomas Latinus - Thomas Graecus. Thomas Aquinas and His Reception in Byzantium International Conference held at the Hellenic Library of Athens (Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center) in Dec. 15-16 2017, co-organized by The Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London.

The paper, which is a summery of a larger research project, investigates Dubai in the period of 1971 to 2010, tracing the city’s historical and urban development in relation to its architectural and social identity. It argues that Dubai’s architectural product is largely a symptom of alienation and fragmentation, and signals the presence of a complex dual system.  First is Dubai’s highly iconic architecture and second is the function of Western culture, which the city holds as an ideal image to build upon. Even though Dubai posits many challenges to its resident population, the paper concludes that any attempt to promote a more communicative architecture in the city must address its particular historic and social construct, where the goal is “to understand the phenomenon itself in its unique and historical concreteness [and] understand how this man, this people, or this state is what it has become or, more generally, how it happened that it is so.” (Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 4)

Quentin Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University College London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on early modern political thought and is a founder of the so-called ‘Cambridge School’ of the history of political thought.

This interview, conducted by Teresa Bejan with Professor Skinner at his home in London in March 2011, is our longest yet. We’ll be publishing it in two parts: the first on Prof. Skinner’s research and method is below, and the second, on his own intellectual context, will follow in December.

Addendum: Footnote 24 on page 590 should be to pages 88-89 of the following:

Martin Heidegger. Bremen and Freiburg Lectures: Insight into That Which Is and Basic Principles of Thinking. Translated by Andrew Mitchell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.

""The  article deals  with the  works  of Farid-al-Din  ‘Attar  (12–13  c.),  a  great  Sufi poet  who
played an important role in the formation of the Sufi literary tradition and Persian poetry. Attar
was the creator of the Sufi mathnawi poetic form, in which the philosophical basis and mystical
practices of Sufism are not presented by being plainly defined or by a description of the mystical
experience of the author, but are rather “shown” by means of a skillfully constructed sequence of
various  stories  and  parables.  The  article  addresses  problems  of  interpretation,  translation  and
commenting,  as  well  as  the  biographical,  philological,  metaphysical,  and  poetical  aspects  of
‘Attar’s  creative  work,  by  means    of  which  it  is  possible  to  see  beyond    the  surface  level  of
entertaining stories into the deeper levels of meaning.
Keywords:  Persian  poetry,  Sufism,  Farid-al-Din  ‘Attar,  spiritual  journey,  hermeneutics,
translation, commentary""

A reading of modern poetry can be fetched here, focusing upon the Heideggerian Phenomenology: Paul Celan's works, which serves here as an object of observation for the researcher, streams our thought and insight through the combined works of Martin Heidegger that reflect a modern philosophically emphasising method of understanding, revealing the mysterious veil of writing.

The hermeneutical tradition represented by Yorck, Heidegger, and Gadamer has distrusted Dilthey as suffering from the two sins of modernism: scientific “positivism” and individualistic and aesthetic “romanticism.” On the one hand, Dilthey’s epistemology is deemed scientistic in accepting the priority of the empirical, the ontic, and consequently scientific inquiry into the physical, biological, and human worlds; on the other hand, his personalist ethos and Goethean humanism, and his pluralistic life- and worldview philosophy are considered excessively aesthetic, culturally liberal, relativistic, and subjective. This essay involves two tasks in response to this negative evaluation of Dilthey that has shaped our current understanding of his philosophical project; first, an interpretation of the issues at stake in Heidegger’s reception of and struggles with Dilthey. These issues touch upon language, historicity, and the nature of hermeneutics. Second, by pursuing this task in light of Guignon’s interpretation of Dilthey and Heidegger, I hope to question and challenge the “overcoming” of Dilthey’s epistemic and life-philosophical hermeneutics in the “ontological” or “philosophical” hermeneutics of Heidegger.

As hundreds of so-called "psychotherapies" have been foisted onto the public, all claiming to treat "mental illness," newer understandings of how the human brain actually works and the processes which drive the formations of mentation that we refer to as "the mind," demand a reassessment of what exactly we are referring to by the term "mental illness" and what kinds of intervention would be feasible in both the prevention of and recovery from cognitive and behavioral disorder. A fundamental process in the formation of an individual's mentation is the associations of experience. These associations not only account for constructive behavior, but can also lead to deleterious or negative behavior, suggesting that some associations are negative and therefore the negative behavior can be remolded through contrasting positive associations; however, to understand what this really means and how it works, we must start at the beginning and define what exactly is this negative behavior that we refer to by the term "mental illness." One of the most important axioms of life so simply but profoundly phrased by Oscar Wilde, is that "the truth is rarely pure and NEVER simple" (emphasis mine). Nothing can ever be explained by simple sound bites – oversimplification is just another word for misrepresentation – so to understand, we must truly engage the subject, and to engage the subject, we must first and foremost clearly define what it is that we are seeking to understand. In this case, it demands that we understand what exactly is mental illness.

The Structure of Iki and the Listening to the Voice of Being. Reflections
on Language between Shūzō Kuki and Martin Heidegger
This essay aims to establish the possibility of a dialogue between different
linguistic and aesthetic experiences: are Western culture and Japanese
culture able to grasp the same essence of language and of artistic
experience? Is there a profound identity, typical of every culture, that
renders a genuine dialogue between civilizations impossible? This article
will attempt to answer these basic questions by analysing Heidegger’s
essay entitled Between a Japanese and an Inquirer, contained in the collection
of writings On the Way to Language. This dialogue involves Heidegger
(the “Inquirer”) and Tomio Tezuka (the “Japanese”) and starts
with a reference to the Japanese notion of iki. The first part of this essay
is therefore dedicated to the analysis of this concept, which is described in Shūzō Kuki’s masterpiece The structure of iki. In the second part, the
article refers to Heidegger’s distinction between verbal language and
language as the “house of being”. Through investigating pivotal notions
such as hermeneutics, Lichtung, alétheia, and the “ringing of silence”
(Geläut der Stille), the final goal of the essay is to explore the possibility
of a common listening to the language of being beyond any cultural difference.
The conclusion will show how in the Japanese expression Koto
ba and in the German expression Die Sage the silent essence of the preverbal
language seems to shine almost in the same way for the “Japanese”
as for the “Inquirer”.

A prior study of a congregation in Winter Haven, Florida revealed an overlap in perceived, ideal qualities of clergy and lay leaders of the church. However, these qualities were limited to exclusively shepherding and teaching roles. Through preaching a 5-week sermon series, this project began to shape a vision of shared ministry and leadership in this local church among clergy and laity alike. The series used the APEST model of Ephesians 4, taken from the missional hermeneutic of Alan Hirsch. The project assessed the emergence of an inchoate understanding of the missional imperative through ethnographic data, gathered in a sermon roundtable, and surveys collected congregationally.

This work is concerned with some basic problems which historical criticism poses to biblical interpretation. The first chapter deals with historical criticism in relation to problems of the text’s historical distance and contemporary significance. Certain key figures from the field of philosophical hermeneutics are briefly introduced (Schleiermacher, Gadamer, Hirsch, Ricoeur), but attention is also paid to the ways how historical criticism was actually practiced (Wellhausen, Mowinckel). It is maintained that historical criticism is a tool in interpretation and does not impede possible appropriation of the text by those who read it with deep affection.

The second chapter faces historical criticism as a theological problem, which has become most apparent in the inerrantist milieu and which was more or less successfully answered by canonical approaches. A special attention is given to the canonical approach of Brevard Childs, which is understood against the backdrop of Barth’s doctrine of the Word of God and Frei’s view of biblical narratives. A special attention is given to distinction between approaches of Brevard Childs and James Sanders. It is maintained that Sanders’ canonical criticism provides better interpretive platform, because it wants to address the needs of contemporary interpretive communities through a self-aware historical critical enterprise.

The third chapter takes up the problem of violence in the book of Joshua and the problem of theological meaning of the exodus story. Biblical theological insights of James Sanders, James Barr, and Walter Brueggemann are applied. An eye is kept also on Pixley-Levenson debate and it is maintained that traditions of the exodus and conquest must be understood together as literary devices which invite communities of faith to freedom. As a result of the present research, historical criticism is presented as a hermeneutical tool which can help to rescue text’s significance for the contemporary communities of believers.

DE LA COMUNICACIÓN HUMANA COMO PRÁCTICA CULTURAL COMUNICACIÓN Y CULTURA Enfrentar en términos teóricos el problema de la comunicación humana exige, en primer lugar, entenderla como una práctica social inserta en contextos culturales específicos y, en segundo lugar, pensar a la cultura como una construcción simbólica, o mejor, como una compleja articulación de redes simbólicas (Cassirer 1997 [1944]; Geertz 1997 [1973]).

The aim of this study is to question in what sense the hermeneutic thought that emerged in the context of critics of positivism can be related to Islamic thought or in which channel the paths of these two ways of thinking can intersect. First of all, in order to make this investigation more understandable, a historical and methodological analysis and comparison of two different intellectual media such as positivist and hermeneutic, which are active in today's truth debates, will be made.
The purpose of this analysis and comparison is to emphasize that philosophical hermeneutics, which takes various discourses of truth seriously in the global world and makes it the main goal to reduce subjectivity as much as possible by establishing a dialogue between the different interpretations revealed by this diversity, cannot be ignored in the context of Islamic thought. As a matter of fact, hermeneutic thought, which has the basic problem of correctly reaching, understanding and interpreting the meanings underlying the texts, and Islamic thought seem to have a common problem. While making sense of this common problem, hermeneutic thought's investigation of the truth from the concrete existential world of life rather than objective and ideal questioning draws our attention to the medium where Islamic thought's paths intersect with hermeneutic thought. The positivist method tries to place the investigation of truth in an ideal and objective context by examining the practical life world of man within the framework of fixed, unchanging and quantitative criteria. Contrary to this context, hermeneutic thought, on the other hand, prioritizes different interpretations and interpretations that do not ignore the qualitative context of the truth inquiry, emphasizing the temporal character of the truth inquiry, based on the inevitability of change in practical life.
We claim that how Islamic thought can be positioned in these two different methodological attitudes in truth debates can be reconsidered in the context of the hadith on his return from a battle, the Prophet said: “We are finished with the lesser jihad; now we are starting the greater jihad.” In the context of this claim, the main argument of this study is to emphasize that the investigation of truth, which is based on the moral responsibility of the individual in the concrete human life, is more important and essential than the search for ideal and objective truth in Islamic thought. In the global World, the idea of dialogue between different truth discourses and the moral confrontation that takes place on the axis of this dialogue are priority and important. It is argued that moral confrontation contributes to the updating of the current methodologies of Islamic thought and can provide the opportunity to be productively involved in the solution of global common problems.

In the time that Paul wrote Corinthians, sexual immorality was fueled by the abundance of pagan temples and pagan worshiping rituals. In this assignment I will discuss Paul’s answers on ethical questions about marriage, sex and divorce, and how these issues were complicated by the pagan influences.

One of the challenges faced in post-secondary jazz education across the GTA is finding qualified instructors who are familiar with dialogical methods for teaching African American jazz histories. More specifically, finding and hiring African American instructors whose musical genealogy can be delineated from “black” oral/aural histories and can draw from these historicities. Unless the narratives of this music are unpacked, analyzed and taught from its internal elements, which embodies the symbiosis and synthesis of African American dance, theatrics, poetics and American black English that encapsulates the “African American-ness” in jazz, then there remains a risk that this folk music will become more and more diluted. Consequently, it is my belief that current music educators across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) should consider alternative methods of pedagogy if students are to understand the historicity— the historical authenticity of this African American folk music. The idea for this study originated from my observation of a lack of “African American-ness”—African American narratives not being used as a pedagogical tool in post-secondary jazz curricula across the GTA. Therefore, this multi-case study will lead to the creation of an alternative curriculum that incorporates new teaching methods based on African American narratives. Dr. Barry Harris is one such educator who incorporates new teaching methods based on African American narratives. Therefore, I seek to unpack and analyze the musical and social upbringing that contributed to African American jazz pianist and educator Dr. Barry Harris’  primary contribution to jazz education, which is his concept of movement, while also expanding upon it.  When these antecedents of Harris’  concept of movement have been analyzed, they will use them as a compliance for the cultivation and filling in of gaps in post-secondary jazz curricula across the GTA.

A quick overview of Israel’s history reveals a tendency among Israel to continually sway away from the original purposes of their covenant with Yahweh, that is, to be “a holy people to Himself” (Deut. 28:9).  Hosea’s life and prophetic ministry focused on bringing much-needed spiritual and social transformation to the nation of Israel by urging people to return to the original Mosaic covenant. The main argument of this study states that the prophet’s utterance in Hos. 4:1–19 should be understood as a reinforcement of the covenant made between Yahweh and his people. With this is mind, this paper seeks to analyze the overall message of Hos. 4:1–19 in order to (1) identify in the text both explicit and implicit references to the covenant stipulations as well as curses resulting from the covenantal disloyalty, (2) explore the social dimensions of spiritual transformation based on Smith’s model of the social construction of reality, and (3) draw some hermeneutical principles established by the text for contemporary audience.

If we turn from Kant’s definition of prejudice in the 'Critique of the Power of Judgement' to that of Gadamer in 'Truth and Method', then a fundamental difference between them becomes apparent. Whereas Kant calls on us in the spirit of the Enlightenment to liberate ourselves from blind submission to prejudices, Gadamer speaks of prejudices as 'conditions of understanding' that constitute 'the historical reality of … being' (TM, 289).Thus, Gadamer, in contrast to Kant, attaches a positive meaning to the notion of prejudice.

Against the background of these contrasting conceptions of prejudice, I will argue that Gadamer's critique of reflecting judgement can be refuted through a precise analysis of Kant's concept. Starting with the distinction between determining and reflecting judgement, I will offer a more detailed explanation of the aesthetic principle underlying reflecting judgement (section 2). Then I will elucidate Gadamer's critique of Kant in terms of his notion of the hermeneutic circle (section 3), and go on to argue that Kant's conception involves a more innovative and reflexive component than that of Gadamer (section 4). In conclusion, I will offer some critical remarks on hermeneutics which will show that the methodology informing Gadamer's model is too conventionalist. It binds the subject to unquestionable traditional stipulations with regard to content and validity and is thus at odds with the principles of the Enlightenment.


Link to the paper: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110605389-017/html

The hermeneutical circle is one of the most important "doctrines" of the hermeneutical tradition. Its meaning and roots are however seldom properly understood. This encyclopedia article sorts them out and focuses on the different meanings of the hermeneutical circle for its main proponents, Heidegger and Gadamer. It argues that, contrary to popular belief, both Heidegger and Gadamer do in fact want to get out of the circle, not only into it.

APRESENTAÇÃO: Convidado pelo autor a apresentar este seu trabalho desafia- dor, achei, num primeiro momento, importante identificar o cerne de seu interesse pela filosofia de Hans-Georg Gadamer. Ao longo da leitura do texto, veio-me à memória uma formulação gadameria- na quanto à necessidade de reconquistarmos – na filosofia hodierna e contra o domínio do conceito científico – a experiência da palavra falada e de seu papel no conjunto da fundamentação de nosso sa- ber. Numa retrospectiva de 1995, Gadamer observava que a trajetó- ria das ciências ocidentais teria apostado tudo na exclusividade da teoria construtiva, fazendo dela a base legitimadora de nosso co- nhecimento. Com isto, acrescentava ele, estar-se-ia perdendo de vista a fala viva, o diálogo e sua primazia ontológica frente à refle- xão. Pois bem, é justamente contra tal unilateralidade da atenção epistemológica que a hermenêutica filosófica de Gadamer investe, advertindo quanto à necessidade de caminhar “não apenas da pala- vra ao conceito, mas igualmente de volta, do conceito à palavra”. Espírito este que, vivendo na linguagem e tendo seu espaço privile- giado no diálogo, o próprio Gadamer, enquanto intelectual e pro- fessor, representava, sem dúvida, com perfeição. Quem teve a sorte de conviver com ele – e Luiz Rohden o experimentou mais de uma vez na Universidade de Heidelberg – viu-se sempre de novo agar- rado pelo forte magnetismo dele emanado, sendo que, mesmo em sua idade mais avançada, não deixava de entregar-se inteiramente ao horizonte da linguagem falada, ao diálogo concreto com seus parceiros.
.Luiz Rohden retoma em seu trabalho exatamente este aspecto chave da obra de Gadamer, buscando contribuir para um melhor esclarecimento da experiência ontológica que, de e na linguagem, subjaz a qualquer impulso da teoria filosófica de cunho reflexionante. Acelera-se, com isto, a corrosão da pretensa soberania do sujeito conhecedor e do fetiche de objetificação – condições epistemológicas da cientificidade moderna. O caminho assim percorrido encontra sua expressão correta no subtítulo do trabalho de Rohden: entre linguagem da experiência e experiência da linguagem.
Um tal projeto é muito ousado, já que, partindo de Gadamer, Luiz Rohden pretende aperfeiçoar o pensamento de Gadamer. Daí também os seus limites. Pois, se por um lado o leitor atento aprende a lidar com uma doutrina-de-compreensão, cujo mérito principal consiste na descoberta da experiência ontológica enquanto condição imprescindível de toda reflexão (condição enraizada na experiência da linguagem viva, dentro da qual o próprio homem experimenta a si mesmo buscando seu lugar no todo), o leitor vê-se, por outro lado, abandonado a si mesmo, quanto ao questionamento das implicações éticas, ocultas num projeto de investigação todo voltado à recuperação da velha arte de perguntar socrática. Pois só seguindo essas pistas, chegaríamos a uma fundamentação ética da própria filosofia, tal como a encontramos hoje, por exemplo, em Levinas"Prof. Dr. Hans Georg Flickinger - Kassel
“Orelhas do Livro” Ainda pouco conhecida do leitor brasileiro, a obra de Gadamer está inscrita entre os grandes legados filosóficos que o séc. XX passou ao séc.XXI.
Junto com Ricoeur, na esteira de Heidegger, Gadamer ajudou a criar a chamada filosofia hermenêutica, corrente de pensamento que se revelou especialmnente fecunda, ao deitar suas raízes ontem na filosofia, hoje em diferentes disciplinas das ciências humanas, como a história e a sociologia.
Vivendo num século em que, não sem um certo excesso, a tarefa da filosofia se confundiu com o trabalho e a reflexão sobre a linguagem, gerando o famoso "linguistic turn" e outras tantas reviravoltas - semiótica, pragmática e mesmo gramática ou sintática -, Gadamer é co-autor de uma virada nos estudos da linguagem no terreno da filosofia, a "virada hermenêutica", cujos resultados estão longe de ter sido aquilatados pelos estudiosos.
Ao avaliá-los, o estudioso poderá destacar seu aspecto mais óbvio, produzido no próprio campo da hermenêutica, que com Schleiermacher e Dilthey já tinha deixado de ser uma mera "techne" refém das exegeses especiais (bíblica, jurídica e filológica) para ganhar em abrangência (de especial a geral) e assumir uma vocação cada vez mais filosófica: eis que vem o filósofo, rompe com Dilthey e Schleiermacher, desfaz os laços da hermenêutica com a psicologia e a ata com a linguagem, se não com a lingüística. Ou então, já tendo reconhecido o óbvio, poderá realçar o impacto profundo dessa hermenêutica em disciplinas filosóficas como a metafísica, a ética e a filosofia política, para além da epistemologia. Todavia, nos dois casos, como poderia o estudioso afastar o receio de que um dia a lingüística terminará por levar aquilo que, depois de outras perdas, restou à filosofia, que é  justamente a linguagem? - como antes a física em relação à filosofia da natureza e à cosmologia: paradigma do ser, hoje a biologia e as neurociências relativamente à vida e ao psiquismo: paradigma da consciência, amanhã a lingüística: paradigma da linguagem.
Preocupado com essas coisas, o leitor brasileiro terá nesse livro de Luiz Rohden uma boa introdução à obra de Gadamer, onde poderá encontrar elementos que, sopesados, lhe ajudarão a dar sua resposta a essa grande interrogação". Prof. Ivan Domingues (UFMG)
Disponível na AMAZON https://www.amazon.com.br/Hermenêutica-filosófica-linguagem-experiência-Ideias-ebook/

Charles Taylor philosophical thought as a whole can be characterised as thorough-going search for and permanent interest in a well-founded philosophical anthropology. From early on Taylor sought to elaborate a picture of human existence which is neither ignorant of scientific developments nor neglecting fundamental human experiences. In doing so, his conception of man as self-interpreting animal integrates various trends of European philosophy, among others Heidegger's theory of Dasein. The many-faceted formula of self-interpreting animal accentuates that to be human is not grounded in having a substance, rather in the process of interpreting oneself. With regard to this conception, the paper mainly focus on the distinctively human aspects and the specific human linguistic capacity as opposed to animal skills and abilities. Furthermore, I shall investigate both Taylor's relation to the hermeneutic tradition, more specifically to Heidegger and Gadamer, and to the narrative theory of personal identity. The last part of the argumentation follows Taylor's recent undertaking in his Language animal (2016) where he expanded in important aspects how and to what extent human being is embedded and intertwined with language.

Writing is an existential concept in al-Niffarī's Sufi experience, where waqfa-or standing on the ontological ṭalal (ruin) before God-is the aporia of alienation and esoteric dispersion in the journey of knowledge. This alienation is demonstrated in the theme of writing as both stylistic and linguistic tool reflecting his gnostic conception. To grasp the divine knowledge bestowed on him, and with the aim of linguistic tools, al-Niffarī crosses to al-ṣamadiyya-a state beyond all dimensions of time and place-by detaching himself from the conditions of humanity and from its logical and rational language toward a fragmented language. Al-Niffarī intends to abolish the immanent world by demolishing oppositeness; he then builds another transcendental world-the world of waqfa-through a new semantic tool: negation.

An early undergraduate piece dealing with the extent to which theological language is metaphorical. This draws on concepts of divine transcendence and immanence, creation, the imago dei and the incarnation. Biblical materials used to illustrate the argument are the narratives of creation and the tower of Babel, Job, Ezekiel's merkabah vision and the Johannine call to brotherly love (1 John 4:7-12)

In questo volume Vereno Brugiatelli prende in esame le nozioni di potere e riconoscimento elaborate da un grande protagonista della filosofia contemporanea: Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005). Muovendosi lungo il solco delle riflessioni ricoeuriane, Brugiatelli si propone di fare emergere i legami teorico-pratici tra potere e riconoscimento e di considerarli secondo l’ottica del problema della realizzazione etica. Su questa via, analizza il concetto di potere come portatore di violenza in maniera congiunta con le diverse forme di misconoscimento. Inoltre, passando per le molteplici figure della lotta per il riconoscimento, egli mette in rilievo le esperienze etiche di mutuo riconoscimento. Con questo lavoro, Brugiatelli si propone di delineare alcuni tratti di un’etica «del superamento dei conflitti» alimentata dall’idea di «realizzazione etica».

This thesis (1999) delves into Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd's hermeneutics of the Qur'an, which was, at that time, not yet systematically formulated. It tries to reconstruct his theories of text and interpretation based on his works, and gives some examples in which he implemented his hermeneutics, such as the issues of  evil forces (jinn, shayâtîn, sihr and hasad), ribâ and interest, slavery,  polygamy, and women's Inheritance. Abu Zayd's contribution to Qur'anic hermeneutics is important in developing critical Qur'anic scholarship.