Digital Commons Network^™

Christianity's Paradox: Chesterton After Kierkegaard, Peter Murphy

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton was a leading intellectual of the British Edwardian age and one of the important social and religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His trademark was paradox. He wrote in defense of the imagination and the corralling of opposites, oppositions, contradictions, and bountiful inconsistencies. The article explores Chesterton’s views on faith, religion, God, Christianity, Islam, modernity, change, and progress. It locates him in a philosophical stream that sees laughter and comedy as a religious disguise, paradox as a creative force, and the imagination as a necessary complement of reason. This is framed by a discussion …

Paul Ricoeur's Anthropology Of Forgiveness, Guillermo R. Dionisio

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In his philosophical anthropology Paul Ricoeur sees man’s innate goodness, despite his propensity for evil, ramifying into many capacities, among them, forgiveness. The capacity to forgive, for Ricoeur, lies between the paralysis of the power to act due to human fault, and the possible lifting of this incapacity through the separation of the offending agent from his or her evil deeds. But if forgiveness obtains in isolating offenders from their evil deeds, their self-understanding, sense of responsibility, and identity might become distorted and inaccurate, and would make us question whether forgiveness should be horizontal, that is, conditional; or vertical, that …

The Practice Of Hermeneutics: The Legal Text And Beyond, George H. Taylor

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This article attempts to show the continuing practical relevance of hermeneutics through the example of legal interpretation. The article begins with the very concrete nature of legal hermeneutics that forms everyday legal practice—the interrelation of meaning and application— and expands at a more theoretical to show how legal hermeneutics, and hermeneutics more generally, offers what Ricoeur calls an interpretive “choice in favor of meaning.” The choice in favor of meaning underscores the restorative character of hermeneutics that legal hermeneutics can epitomize. The article concludes with some of the challenges facing contemporary legal hermeneutics.

Between Struggle And Peaceful Dialogue: An Overture To Honneth And Ricoeur On Recognition, Paolo A. BolañOs

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In this article I offer an overture to further discussions about the relationship between the German critical theorist, Axel Honneth, and the French philosopher of dialogue, Paul Ricoeur, specifically on their insights on the ethics of recognition. First, I define critical theory through the three normative resources suggested by Max Horkheimer in order to contextualize my reading of Honneth and Ricoeur, both of whom adhere to the politico-practical content of critical theory. Second, I briefly outline the Honneth–Ricoeur debate/dialogue in order to show the philosophical link between them. Third, in separate sections, I schematically discuss the basic features of their …

An Epic Vision Of Christianity, Olivier Abel

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In the late 1950s Paul Ricoeur wrote a programmatic essay on his vision of Christianity. Out of this essay could be gleaned an epic tone that has seemed to turn inaudible. This article seeks to make such epic tone audible. First, it situates the context out of which the epic strand in Ricoeur’s “theology” has emerged and asks why he would even dare to speak of theology as epic. Second, the article dwells on the kind of reader, author, and character the epic genre generates and asks who is capable, not only of reading and heeding the epic, but also …

Cognitive Ethology, Animals And Society, And The American Sociological Association, Arnold Arluke

Animal Sentience

Griffin’s The Question of Animal Awareness (1976) and Animal Minds (2001) enabled and emboldened other disciplines to expand their research to include non-human animals. The creation of a dedicated section on human-animal relationships in sociology’s national professional organization is but one example.

Resilience Of A Palestinian University Instructor Surviving War: A Grounded Theory Study, Hassan El-Nabih, Sadek Firwana

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

This qualitative study addressed the devastating impacts of war on civilians by giving voice to a Palestinian university instructor who had a life-threatening experience during the Israeli aggressive war on the Gaza Strip in 2014. The data for the study were gathered from two different sources: (i) a narrative written by the instructor shortly after his recovery and (ii) a semi-structured interview conducted with him three years after this harrowing event. In order to explore and theorize the salient themes in the data, we adopted a three-phase grounded theory methodology. The initial coding phase yielded 30 important codes, which were …

University Of New Hampshire 2024-2025 Faculty Senate Xxix - November 25, 2024 Minutes Summary, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas & Minutes

No abstract provided.

Creative And Sustainable Unh Gifts That Keep On Giving This Holiday Season, Robbin Ray

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Curriculum Potential Of The Welsh Word Cynefin By Examining Its New Materialist And Contemplative Pedagogical Resonances, Dylan Adams

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Cynefin is a key word in the new curriculum for Wales. Yet it is a word that is difficult to define. It has no direct English translation and originates from Welsh hill farming where it was used by farmers to describe how sheep would form a mysterious attachment to different parts of common land. Subsequently, it has come to be associated with a person’s relationship to a place, where they feel at home. This article examines how the concept of cynefin potentially resonates with posthumanist and contemplative pedagogical perspectives. In doing so, it aims to answer the question, “how could …

Cultivating Coastal Communities: An Exploration Of Synergies And Tradeoffs To The Colocation Of Stormwater Ponds And Urban Agriculture In Tampa Bay, Estenia Ortiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultivating resilience in coastal communities such as Tampa Bay is becoming increasingly important as urbanization continues to fuel complex environmental and social challenges further exacerbated by sea level rise, habitat degradation, and more intense storm events. Food and water systems are particularly vulnerable under these circumstances, jeopardizing residents’ quality of life. This research explored the nexus of stormwater detention ponds and urban agriculture, namely community and residential gardens, this research reveals factors to consider in the colocation of these systems to build local community resilience and protect waterways.

Focusing on East Tampa, a historic Black community in Florida, and the …

“It’S Essential We Learn How To Grow For Ourselves”: The Legacies Of Black Gardening In Racialized Food Systems., Funmi Odumosu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I aim to investigate the impact of food racism on Black communities, with a specific focus on the importance of gardening in combatting food apartheid and fostering holistic connections to nature and community in school-aged children. Inequitable access to major retail supermarkets and unequal distribution of healthy food options are intentionally occurring patterns in the food spaces of predominately Black communities. These food system inequities exacerbate a lack of consumption and potential consequences on the health and well-being of children of color particularly during critical physical and cognitive developmental periods.

Many solutions to these inequities entail implementing …

Narratives Of Resilience: The Power Of Creative Expression And Community Support During Familial Incarceration, Alana Alexander

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existing literature stresses that the far-reaching effects of mass incarceration extend beyond prison walls, profoundly shaping familial experiences. Despite this, families remain consistently overlooked in criminal justice discourse, leading to heightened stress and diminished resilience. This thesis is a program review of a community-based program, referred to here as the Storytelling, Creativity, and Care (SCC) program, to protect the confidentiality of its participants and activities. The SCC program integrates neuroscience and narrative theory to explore how storytelling influences cultural perceptions, shapes lived experiences, and supports psychological and physiological healing. Additionally, this work investigates the socio-political narratives that perpetuate stigma and …

Rethinking Human-Autonomy Teamwork In The Context Of Design And Robotic Fabrication, Iremnur Tokac Celikyay, Caja Thimm, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan

Human-Machine Communication

The integration of autonomous agents in design is challenging due to its unstructured nature. The increasing focus on human-robot interaction (HRI) is driven by its potential to address this issue, enabling human-robot teams to effectively manage creative design tasks. This paper aims to identify interactive processes among the agencies of humans, robots, and materials. We explore how HRI can shift robotic fabrication from a linear deterministic process to an iterative co-creation one. Through reflective analysis of robotic fabrication studies, we illustrated how interaction interfaces can distribute agency among humans, robots, and materials while negotiating the design intent with material and …

Between Autonomy And Automation: Mapping Practices Among Syrian Delivery Drivers In Beirut, Blake Atwood

Human-Machine Communication

This article studies the tension between autonomy and automation as it is experienced by Syrian refugee food-delivery drivers who work on the Toters app in Beirut, Lebanon. Central to this study are the freedom narratives these drivers construct, which reflect their ambivalent relationship with digital labor platforms. These narratives highlight how the algorithmic nature of the Toters app provides opportunities for self-employment and flexible work, crucial for refugees facing employment barriers and limited physical and social mobility in Lebanon. However, in these narratives, the drivers’ sense of autonomy is also often compromised by the app’s increasing automation, which imposes surveillance …

Rethinking Autonomy In The Digital Age: Between Human Exceptionalism, Hybridity And Conviviality, Anne Hoss

Human-Machine Communication

In the humanities and social sciences, there is a long tradition of discourses on the relationship between automats and human autonomy. Socio-technological transformation processes of the past decades have revitalized related discussions. At the same time, based on ideas of either human exceptionalism or hybridity, current debates tend to focus on ontological questions and comparisons between humans and machines. This paper aims to widen recent discursive foci by introducing Ivan Illich’s work which highlights institutions, power structures, and the social shaping of technology as key factors of humanartifact relations and autonomous action. It will be argued that Illich’s approach contributes …

Roger Haight, S.J., Christian Spirituality For Seekers: Reflections On The Spiritual Exercises Of Ignatius Loyola, And Spirituality Seeking Theology, Pasquale T. Giordano

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Roger Haight, S.J., Christian Spirituality for Seekers: Reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, and Spirituality Seeking Theology

How Are We To Think About The Knowledge That We Should Know?, RaúL Fornet-Betancourt

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

As a precondition of philosophical dialogue among different cultures, this essay forwards a series of questions regarding the epistemological presuppositions of the current dominant knowledge culture, which is characterized by a capitalistic, technological, and colonial ethos. By stating its presuppositions, situating these in the historical context of its development, and drawing their consequences, the essay opens up the possibility of overcoming this dominant ethos of knowledge through the recuperation of epistemological plurality by way of exchanges among a multiplicity of knowledge cultures. The essay proposes that it is philosophy’s task today to resist the dehumanization of knowledge by asking what …

How Does A Foreign Religion Thrive In An Indigenous Culture? A Comparative Study Of The Spread Of Foreign Religions In The Chinese-Speaking Cultural Sphere, Wei-Ding Tsai

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Religion can be considered, on one hand, to be a human practice dependent on its own culture. On the other hand, religion is also a system of beliefs with a dogmatic character. Because religion has the tendency to preserve its cultural form, it therefore encounters a paradoxical problem of adaptation when it spreads within a foreign cultural area: How can an extending religion retain both its own cultural core as well as be adaptable and modifiable, in order to be accepted by other foreign cultures? Through a comparison of the history of the spread of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam within …

The Search For Authentic Understanding And The Birth Of Radical Hermeneutics, Tran Van Doan

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This paper argues that it is the human search for authentic understanding that gives birth to radical hermeneutics, and not the reverse. Radical hermeneutics in the "contemporary" sense begins with Martin Heidegger's critical reinterpretation of Immanuel Kant's answer to the question of "What is the man?" (Was ist der Mensch?), and continues with his reflection on Being as the foundation of hermeneutics. Hans-Georg Gadamer has developed Heidegger's thesis into what he termed philosophical hermeneutics, while Jacques Derrida seized Heidegger's Kehre as the momentum to launch a typically Nietzschean interpretation, that is, to "return" to understanding in its genetic stage. Despite …

Becoming-Religion: Re-/Thinking Religion With A.N. Whitehead And Keiji Nishitani, Kenneth C. Masong

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The dynamism of religion is unveiled only within the metaphysical grounding of an ontology that accommodates the philosophical preference of “becoming” as an ultimate category of reality. The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that is presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing and evolving. What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that …

"Transcendence" Between Anthropology And Metaphysics: A Concept In Need Of Rethinking, Lorenz B. Puntel

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

"Transcendence" Between Anthropology and Metaphysics: A Concept in Need of Rethinking

Queering The Relationship Between Research, Researcher And Research Participant: Procedural Ethics, Relational Ethics, And Inverted Hierarchies, Val Meneau

The Qualitative Report

Ethics committees (ECs) typically base their decisions on established assumptions about the impact of the research process, the researcher and the participant on each other, which my doctoral research project failed to meet. This paper discusses the challenging clash between my experiences as a queer scholar doing fieldwork and the expectations of my EC. I argue that queer feminist ethnography complicates the established assumptions concerning the impact of the research process, researcher, and participant on each other. In doing so, I argue that we need models of this relationship that allow us to capture its complexity, for example in the …

Tale Of Transitions: Experiences Of A First-Year Ph.D. Asian Student In America, Aakash Kumar

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnographic account narrates my transition as a first-year Ph.D. student at Texas A&M University, USA. Employing Kurt Lewin’s Change Model, I have structured my narrative around three phases: (a) unfreeze, (b) change, and (c) refreeze. The unfreeze phase details the process of unlearning, adjusting to American academic practices, and the initial cultural shock intensified by homesickness. The change phase describes embracing a new identity, integrating into campus and cultural life, and overcoming academic challenges. Lastly, the refreezing phase involves consolidating new beliefs, perspectives, and skills, solidifying the transition to becoming a more confident and competent scholar. This autoethnographic account …

Why Is Fish Welfare Still So Neglected?, Caroline M. Maia

Animal Sentience

Oldfield & Bonano (O&B) address an important problem in the field of fish welfare, one that calls for greater attention from scientists and practitioners. O&B show that fish welfare, particularly at the psychological level, is under-investigated. They focus mainly on zoos and aquaria, but their concerns extend also to other domains, including fish farming. Fish are sentient animals; priority should be given to their welfare in all environments where they are under human care.

From Birmingham To Angkor Wat: Demarcations Of Contemporary Cultural Studies, E. San Juan Jr.

Kritika Kultura

The radical inspiration of Cultural Studies has been betrayed, declares E. San Juan, Jr. In this timely essay, he argues that this betrayal springs from the postmodernist temperament, the “metaphysical turn,” of contemporary Cultural Studies. By exaggerating “the possibility of liberation over the established fact of domination,” Cultural Studies has abandoned fundamental categories such as class and nation in favor of race and gender, among others. The frivolous has overcome the political: commercial icons and rituals are now fantasized to topple the very system that makes their condition possible. “In what sense can this still inchoate and contested terrain called …

Book Reviews, William S. Belko, Kenneth V. Anthony, Toby Glenn Bates, Jeffery B. Howell, Kristy Wittman Howell, Brianna Otero, Charles J. Pellegrin, Ryan P. Semmes

Journal of Mississippi History

Reviews of:

Old Southwest to Old South: Mississippi, 1798-1840 By Mike Bunn and Clay Williams (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2023.

William Barksdale, CSA: A Biography of the United States Congressman and Confederate Brigadier General Changed Everything. By John Douglas Ashton (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2021.

A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song that Changed Everything. By Ben Wynne. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2024.

Outliving the White Lie: A Southerner’s Historical, Genealogical, and Personal Journey. By James Wiggins. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2024.

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges …

Program Of The 2024 Mississippi Historical Society Annual Meeting, William "Brother" Rogers

Journal of Mississippi History

No abstract provided.

Lukas Kaelin, Strong Family, Weak State: Hegel's Political Philosophy And The Filipino Family, Anton Luis Sevilla

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Lukas Kaelin, Strong Family, Weak State: Hegel's Political Philosophy and the Filipino Family

How To Leave Modernity Behind: The Relationship Between Colonialism And Enlightenment, And The Possibility Of Altermodern Decoloniality, Britta Saal

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Starting from the fact that we all share modern history while at the same time having very different and sometimes contrasting experiences of what modernity is, I’d first like to look at the connection between colonialism and Enlightenment, because the modern norms and values developed then are still discussed very actively on the global scale. One of the major problems that constrain the transcendence of the colonial impact of these norms and values is the colonized mind. It is very clear that it is necessary to decolonize both the colonized and the colonizer’s minds. Here the project of conceptual decolonization, …