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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Metaphysics Of Causation In The Creation Accounts Of Avicenna And Aquinas, Julie Ann Swanstrom
The Metaphysics Of Causation In The Creation Accounts Of Avicenna And Aquinas, Julie Ann Swanstrom
Open Access Dissertations
The medieval conception of monotheistic creation is this: God voluntarily creates the universe from nothing. Endorsed by medieval philosophers, this conception of creation is in tension with their understanding of causation more generally. Each theory of causation available--Aristotelian efficient causation in which an agent acts upon a patient, and Neoplatonic emanation in which beings are produced through a series of emanations--have attractive explanatory features, but neither theory aligns perfectly with divine creation. Since God acts to create, efficient causation seems to include creating; yet, efficient causation is not causation ex nihilo. Since emanation accounts for producing being ex nihilo, it …
Methods Of Revision In Sixteenth-Century English Cycle Drama, John Case Tompkins
Methods Of Revision In Sixteenth-Century English Cycle Drama, John Case Tompkins
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation contends that guilds-folk in sixteenth-century England made their own changes to the play-texts of civic drama and that these changes remain visible to us in the manuscripts which preserve the plays. Further, it argues that the actors and pageant-makers themselves often made these revisions, rather than the civic or ecclesial authorities traditionally credited for rewriting the pageants. These changes, introduced in production and transferred into the texts, helped keep the plays vibrant and successful throughout most of the sixteenth century and reflect the practical and local concerns of their participants. This work continues the historical investigations into pageant …