The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno's Philosophy

The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno's Philosophy
Author: Leo Catana
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351892452

Through the concept of contraction, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) endeavoured to explain the relationship of God to his Creation in a way that conformed with his pantheistic view of nature as well as his heterodox view of man’s relationship to God. The concept of contraction is twofold. In the ontological sense it denotes the way in which the One, or God, descends to multiplicity. In the noetic sense it accounts for the ways in which the individual human soul ascends towards God through a reversed process of contemplation. Bruno denied the efficacy of the several psychical, psychological and medical states traditionally thought to aid contemplation and noetic ascent towards God. In his view the only means was philosophical contemplation, the use of memory being one important form. Philosophical contemplation elevated the mind from the fragmented multiplicity of sense impressions to an understanding of the principles governing the sensible world. This publication is the first book-length study dedicated to concept of contraction in Bruno’s philosophy. Moreover, it explores his sources for this concept. Traditionally Ficino’s translation of Plotinus, dating from the second half of the fifteenth century, has been seen as a key source to the Neoplatonism informing Bruno’s philosophy. In The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno’s Philosophy another Neoplatonic source is considered, namely the pseudo-Aristotelian Liber de Causis (Book of causes), which has not yet been examined in the context of Renaissance Neoplatonism. This work, probably written in Arabic in the ninth century, was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and remained well known to many late Medieval and Renaissance philosophers. Catana argues that this work may have prepared for Ficino’s translation of Plotinus, and that in some instances it provided a common source to Renaissance philosophers, Bruno and Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) being conspicuous examples discussed in this book.

The Historiographical Concept 'System of Philosophy'

The Historiographical Concept 'System of Philosophy'
Author: Leo Catana
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2008-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 904743336X

Jacob Brucker (1696-1770) established the history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline in the 1740s. In order to separate this new discipline from other historical disciplines, he introduced the historiographical concept ‘system of philosophy’. The historian of philosophy should use this concept as a criterion of inclusion of past philosophies, and as an ideal form of exposition. The present book describes the origin of this historiographical notion, its implicit Protestant assumptions, and it traces the concept’s impact upon the methods of history of philosophy and history of ideas, as developed over the following centuries. Finally, it discusses the concept’s strenghts and weaknesses as a historiographical tool, arguing that it ought to be given up.

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno
Author: Paul Richard Blum
Publisher: Brill
Total Pages: 135
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401208298

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was a philosopher in his own right. However, he was famous through the centuries due to his execution as a heretic. His pronouncements against teachings of the Catholic Church, his defence of the cosmology of Nicholas Copernicus, and his provocative personality, all this made him a paradigmatic figure of modernity. Bruno’s way of philosophizing is not looking for outright solutions but rather for the depth of the problems; he knows his predecessors and their strategies as well as their weaknesses, which he exposes satirically. This introduction helps to identify the original thought of Bruno who proudly said about himself: “Philosophy is my profession!” His major achievements concern the creativity of the human mind studied through the theory of memory, the infinity of the world, and the discovery of atomism for modernity. He never held a permanent office within or without the academic world. Therefore, the way of thinking of this “Knight Errant of Philosophy” will be presented along the stations of his journey through Western Europe.

Magic and Memory in Giordano Bruno

Magic and Memory in Giordano Bruno
Author: Manuel Mertens
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004372679

In Magic and Memory in Giordano Bruno Manuel Mertens unravels the enigmatic knot between the mnemonic treatises and the magical writings of the sixteenth-century Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno. Since long the magical orientation of the Brunian art of memory has been a preoccupation for Bruno scholars (like Paolo Rossi, Frances Yates and Rita Sturlese). This serious study of the philosophical underpinnings of both Bruno’s mnemonic treatises and his writings on magic shows that Bruno believed his mnemonic method could prevent demons from corrupting the cognitive process. Mertens’s focus on Bruno’s idea of deification through memory and the philosopher’s view on fiery heroic spirits points to a surprisingly literal reading of the heretic’s last words.

SOCRATES

SOCRATES
Author: Farough Fakhimi Anbaran
Publisher: Saurabh Chandra, Socrates Scholarly Research Journal
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2015-06-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

SOCRATES is an international, multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary refereed and indexed scholarly journal produced as par of the Harvard Dataverse Network. This journal appears quarterly in English, Hindi, Persian in 22 disciplines. About this Issue: This issue of Socrates has been divided into three sections. The first section of this issue is Language & Literature- English. The first article of this section tends to illustrate how, in spite of all those failures, Oedipus can be a hero.The second article of this section aims to explore artificial intelligence within the area of popular science fiction novels and films, which incorporates the fantasy of techno-salvation in the near future of singularity through overcoming the carbon limitations of human, fusing essence of spirituality with technology as well as extending spiritual beliefs into technological faith. The third article of this section deals with Comparative Poetics. It claims that the emergent plurivocal conversation of a comparative poetics that includes Middle East will open new horizons to our cross-cultural perspective. The second section of this issue is Philosophy. The first article of this section argues that we ought to make a concerted effort to promote intrinsic value in education.The philosophical novel, when written, taught, or read playfully, has potential to furnish this intrinsic value, thereby offering a promising way of seizing the moment in education. The second article of this section explores the systematic relationship in the work of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) between his monadology, his metaphysics as presented in works such as De la causa, principio et uno, the mythopoeic cosmology of Lo spaccio de la bestia trionfante, and practical works like De vinculis in genere. The third article of this section argues for the synthesis of the Internalism and Externalism theory of justification. It is the opinion of the paper that since both internalist and externalists legitimately seeks the epistemic quest for certainty, both are important epistemologically. The third section of this issue is Economics, Commerce and Management. The Paper of this section analyzes different monetary and non-monetary factors influencing the poverty level. The analyze is based on data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey and using structural equations model.

Giordano Bruno: Philosopher of the Renaissance

Giordano Bruno: Philosopher of the Renaissance
Author: Hilary Gatti
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351933647

Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake in Rome in 1600, accused of heresy by the Inquisition. His life took him from Italy to Northern Europe and England, and finally to Venice, where he was arrested. His six dialogues in Italian, which today are considered a turning point towards the philosophy and science of the modern world, were written during his visit to Elizabethan London, as a gentleman attendant to the French Ambassador, Michel de Castelnau. He died refusing to recant views which he defined as philosophical rather than theological, and for which he claimed liberty of expression. The papers in this volume derive from a conference held in London to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Bruno's death. A number focus specifically on his experience in England, while others look at the Italian context of his thought and his impact upon others. Together they constitute a major new survey of the range of Bruno's philosophical activity, as well as evaluating his use of earlier cultural traditions and his influence on both contemporary and more modern themes and trends.

Journal of Early Modern Studies: Volume 5, Issue 1 (Spring 2016)

Journal of Early Modern Studies: Volume 5, Issue 1 (Spring 2016)
Author: Vlad Alexandrescu
Publisher: Zeta Books
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2016-06-01
Genre:
ISBN: 6066970291

The Journal of Early Modern Studies is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal of intellectual history, dedicated to the exploration of the interactions between philosophy, science and religion in Early Modern Europe.

The Mountain Mystery

The Mountain Mystery
Author: Ron Miksha
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2014-08-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781497562387

Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.

Incarnate Earth

Incarnate Earth
Author: Matthew Eaton
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2023-03-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000834263

Incarnate Earth reimagines the doctrine of Incarnation by extending the unity between Creator and creation beyond Jesus to the entire world. In dialogue with contemporary theologies of deep incarnation and the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, the author argues that the face of Christ is encountered in the cruciform demand for justice embodied in the creaturely finitude and vulnerability that grounds ethics. Central to this vision is a recognition that the religious role-functions at the heart of Jesus’ life—the revelation of God and the redemption of the world—are performed throughout the physical world, irreducible to humanity or one heroic representative of the species. Thus, the human encounters the divine Christ in and as the face of any vulnerable thing—animal, vegetal, elemental, or otherwise—not as a transcendent being mediated through humanity. The radical nature of this reimagination necessitates renewed discussions of ecological and animal ethics, calling for compassionate care for all vulnerable bodies insofar as this is possible. It will be of interest to scholars of Christian theology and the philosophy of religion, particularly those focused on ecotheology, religious naturalism, and environmental ethics.

The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast

The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast
Author: Giordano Bruno
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2024-06-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1487552041

Published in London in 1584, The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast is Giordano Bruno’s first work of moral philosophy. It is dedicated with a long Explicatory Letter to Elizabeth I’s most cultured courtier, Sir Philip Sidney. It is a book about moral reform, expelling the beasts of evil, and putting virtues in their place. Its theme is presented as an allegorical drama in which ancient myths assume modern meanings questioning the ways in which moral and religious reform have been conceived in both the ancient world and the cultures of Renaissance Europe. This new Italian text, based on the original printed text of 1584 held in the British Library, presents a less modernized version than those presently available, while maintaining a modern page format. The aim is to provide a text closer to the sound of Bruno’s original mix of classical Tuscan Italian and Neapolitan dialectical forms. This edition also presents a new translation designed to render Bruno’s complex and baroque Italian into easily readable modern English. Hilary Gatti introduces The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, underlining Bruno’s meta-literary reflection on the nature of allegory and myth as well as the dramatic structure of his text. Drama, philosophy, and religion combine in this work to give an epic dimension to the perennial cosmic battle between evil and good.