DOCSLIB.ORG

HEGEL the CONSUMMATE NEOPLATONIST Philip Stanfield

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
HEGEL the CONSUMMATE NEOPLATONIST Philip Stanfield HEGEL THE CONSUMMATE NEOPLATONIST Philip Stanfield !i The Sparring Antennae Galaxies ‘The counter-thrust brings together, and from tones at variance comes perfect attunement, and all things come to pass through conflict.’ Heraclitus, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus, LXXV !ii ‘…it is the inner which stirs us; we are in the case of one who sees his own reflection but not realising whence it comes goes in pursuit of it.’ Plotinus, The Enneads, V.8.2 ‘I therefore openly avowed myself the pupil of that mighty thinker…The mystification which the dialectic suffers in Hegel’s hands by no means prevents him from being the first to present its general forms of motion in a comprehensive and conscious manner. With him it is standing on its head. It must be inverted, in order to discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell. In its mystified form, the dialectic became the fashion in Germany, because it seemed to transfigure and glorify what exists. In its rational form it is a scandal and an abomination to the bourgeoisie and its doctrinaire spokesmen, because it includes in its positive understanding of what exists a simultaneous recognition of its negation, its inevitable destruction; because it regards every historically developed form as being in a fluid state, in motion, and therefore grasps its transient aspect as well; and because it does not let itself be impressed by anything, being in its very essence critical and revolutionary.’ Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, Postface to the Second Edition 1873 ‘…not a single professor of political economy, who may be capable of very valuable contributions in the field of factual and specialised investigations, can be trusted one iota when it comes to the general theory of political economy. For in modern society the latter is as much a partisan science as is epistemology. Taken as a whole, the professors of economics are nothing but learned salesmen of the capitalist class, while the professors of philosophy are learned salesmen of the theologians.’ Vladimir Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism: Critical Comments on a Reactionary Philosophy, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975, 321-322 !iii Processed in a sick convict culture that as much prides itself on toadying to the interests of first British and now U.S. capital (to the Americans who fought for and won their independence from the British) – from the skirts of Mother Britannia to the coat-tails of Uncle Sam – as it is a racist bully in its region. A culture overseen by ideologues who claim to be the upholders of the highest values of secularism but in fact whose function is to never lose control of the ideas and whose treacherous, thieving elements, in addition to their greed, are ruthless in pursuing that end and by vicious, vindictive authoritarians, protected by their mates and their system. Australians, know your place and all will be well. A people who have everything and yet, basking in their ‘decency’ - the narrow bounds of which belief are used so effectively to control them - so readily behave, personally and through their representatives, far worse than as though they have nothing. Ask the first Australians. Ask the mere handful of refugees trying to find safety here, including those fleeing from devastation participated in by Australians. Ask the elderly. Till the end of my life I will salute Jørn Utzon for his bigness of spirit and vision that ‘laid-back’, ‘down to earth’ (cynical) Australians are so suspicious of, that so provokes them (despite the now obligatory student-recruitment blather to the contrary pumped out by competing universities), resulting in his fleeing from this nation and for refusing to ever be drawn back by the embarrassed provincial rabble (still attempting to demean his Opera House by proposing to raise petty cash from sleepovers in it – why not in St Mary’s or Parliament House, symbols of the authority so reassuring to Australians?) that his departure exposed. 22.11.2017 !iv Email to the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Sydney 21.04.15 Hello Professor Benitez, Last semester my pursuit academically of a most profound influence on Western culture which I have focused on for the previous thirty two years came to an end, with my failure to complete and submit my Honours thesis on the mystic Hegel. That focus, an obsession, has dominated my life at the expense of all else - it is what I have lived for. I send you this email to explain why I failed to submit my thesis and in so doing to emphatically reject any shame associated with that failure, particularly after more than three decades of total commitment, and to raise with you an immeasurably greater failure by academic philosophers, a failure which I have struggled against for the entirety of that period at both this university and UNSW. When I began my first degree in 1982 at the then City Art Institute (now the College of Fine Arts, UNSW) I quickly came to see that there was something seriously lacking in the theory of art being taught, that it was superficial and incorrect. I also believed that whatever it was that was missing from the tuition and literature pervaded Western culture and when recognised, would be the basis for an entire cultural re-reading, an honest re-reading. I wrote a long essay which I titled ‘The Poverty of Art’ in which I attempted to work out what that influence was and serialised it in the student publication. The only response was when I was asked on one occasion by the editor what I thought of her reduction of the font size to such a degree that the text could not be read. Since then this interest has become an obsession, one that has, until the decline of that stage of capitalist ideology known as postmodernism when a slowly increasing number of academics began looking for something ’new’, gone against the ideological grain - as an overt example, when I was in 3rd year Fine Arts at this university in 1988 my tutor warned me to stop writing as I was doing otherwise ‘they’ would come down on me. I went into the Honours year with that threat hanging over my head. In 1992 I began a Masters by research thesis titled ’Neoplatonism and the Cubist Aesthetic' at CoFA. For three years, in breach of the regulations, the College failed to provide me with a supervisor. I was patronised with the appellation ‘autodidact’ and advised to read a beginners book on philosophy by an academic who I was told was an ‘expert' on Plato, who refused to supervise me and who, on my asking him, admitted total ignorance of an entire subject area of a chapter in that book he recommended to me, by Danto - a chapter on neurophilosophy. This was during the heyday of postmodernism - itself suffused with mysticism. !v I went to the main campus of UNSW and also came to this university looking for supervision from academic philosophers or at least some support, someone who could help me. On 08.01.93 I met with George Markus who didn’t like what I was saying regarding the impact of mysticism on Western culture and told me that he didn’t ‘support my project’. On 05.04.93 I met with David Armstrong who kindly suggested that I ‘start at the beginning’. Both of them showed not the slightest awareness of the fundamental significance of mysticism in Western culture to the present. I had similar experiences meeting with Philip Cam (30.11.92) and Peter Slezak (07.12.92) at UNSW. Slezak said he thought ‘we had finished with idealism’. In 1998 you approved my attending your course on Plato and Aristotle (which I paid to do because my eventual supervisor at CoFA would not authorise my attending the course). I did not submit my essay for it because my supervisor was putting increasing pressure on me to complete my thesis. In your lecture on 05.03.98 you said ‘There are strains of mysticism in Plato’ and in your lecture on 12.03.98 you said that Plato tried to get under the language to the real things. At the end of that lecture I asked you “What can you say about the concepts of ‘contemplation’ and ‘intuition’ in regard to Platonism and Neoplatonism?” You replied ‘It is an awfully big question. It requires a long answer.’ You acknowledged that you did not know much about Neoplatonism. Disgusted with my experiences at CoFA over years, culminating in the refusal of my supervisor and his partner, the course co-ordinator, contrary to all the supporting evidence, to allow me to upgrade to a PhD, I left the course. After so many years, I was not prepared to do a partial thesis. I wanted to give up on my vision because it had cost me so much but I could not - I had made significant headway in understanding what this influence was and is in Western culture and I have never lost sight of either its significance or potential. As a way of resuming my commitment, I enrolled in courses at the Centre for Continuing Education and the WEA, particularly courses run by Kerry Sanders. In those courses covering a wide range of philosophers, I argued for the influence of mysticism, particularly Neoplatonism, in Western culture and philosophy. Not only did Sanders show not the slightest knowledge of Neoplatonism (in her University Preparation Course on the two dates allocated for her tuition of Neoplatonism she never even mentioned it), she spectacularly expressed the standard academic hostility to it in her class on 22.05.08 when, in quoting Derrida’s denial in response to a question regarding the influence of Neoplatonism on his philosophy, she added slowly, with emphasis, ‘you complete fuckwit’.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Special Issue on the Concepts of Contradiction and Unity of Opposites
    World Journal of Education and Humanities ISSN 2687-6760 (Print) ISSN 2687-6779 (Online) Vol. 2 No. 2, 2020 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjeh Special Issue On the Concepts of Contradiction and Unity of Opposites Prof. Zhiyong Dong1* 1 Northwest University, P. R. China * Prof. Zhiyong Dong, Northwest University, P. R. China Received: October 10 18, 2019 Accepted: October 22, 2019 Online Published: October 30, 2019 doi:10.22158/wjeh.v2n2p182 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/wjeh.v2n2p182 1. Contradiction In Chinese language, the concept of contradiction first refers to the phenomena that people make the two things, which could not be the true things at the same time, as the true things at the same time, that is, to make two opposite and conflict opinions as the correct opinions at the same time. For example, there is a story in ancient China. It is said that a person is selling weapons on the street. He says that his spears could thorn through any thing at one time. Then he says that his shields can keep out any thing at another time. An onlooker asks him what would happen if he use your spear to thrown your shield. Then the person could not answer. (Note 1) This kind of phenomena are called contradiction in formal logic in Chinese language. From this example we can see that it is quite easy to make the phenomena of contradiction in the sense of formal logic, when people make the results of different processes of thinkings as the phenomena and matters to begin a new process of thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED Why Life Comes in Opposites?
    2 H AVE YOU EVER WONDERED why life comesin opposites?Why everything you value is one of a pair of opposites? Why all deci- sions are between opposites? Why all desires are based on opposites? Notice that all spatial and directional dimensions are opposites: up vs. down, inside vs. outside, high vs. low, long vs. short, North vs. South, big vs. small, here vs. there, top vs. bottom, left vs. right. And notice that all things we consider serious and important are one pole of a pair of opposites: good vs. evil, life vs. death, pleasure vs. pain, God vs. Satan, freedom vs. bondage. So also, our social and esthetic values are always put in terms of op- posites: successvs. failure, beautiful vs. ugly, strong vs. weak, intelligent vs. stupid. Even our highest abstractions rest on opposites. Logic, for instance, is concerned with the true vs. the false; epistemology, with appearance vs. reality; ontology, with being vs. non-being. Our world seemsto be a massive collection of opposites. This fact is so commonplace as to hardly need mentioning, but the more one ponders it the more it is strikingly peculiar. For nature, it seems, knows nothing of this world of opposites in which people live. Nature doesn't grow true frogs and false frogs, nor moral trees and immoral trees, nor right oceans and wrong oceans. There is no trace in nature of ethical mountains and unethical mountains. Nor are there even such things as beautiful speciesand ugly species-at least not to Nature, for it is pleased to produce all kinds.
    [Show full text]
  • The Wisdom of the Unsayable in the Chinese Tradition Karl-Heinz Pohl
    3 The Wisdom of the Unsayable in the Chinese Tradition Karl-Heinz Pohl Concerning Eastern teachings such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, there is often widespread confusion about how these are to be classified—as religion or as philosophy. This problem, however, is culturally homemade: the distinction between religion and philosophy based on European cultural tradi- tions often does not apply when we leave our culture behind. Thus, the Eastern teachings, which are often referred to as “wisdom religions” (e.g. by Hans Küng), are either religion and philosophy or neither religion nor philosophy; whichever way you prefer ideologically. As is well known, there is a certain “family resemblance” (as Wittgenstein would put it) between Daoism and Buddhism. There is, however, very little that connects these Asian philosophies and religions with the European tradition emanating from Greco-Roman and Christian thought. This does not mean that their philosophemes would be fundamentally alien to the Europeans: at most they do not belong to the European mainstream. So the family resemblance could certainly be extended to certain European philoso- phers and schools: There is in Europe a tradition—from the pre-Socratics through the apophatic theology and mysticism of the Middle Ages to existen- tialism and philosophy of language of modernity—that has very much in common with Daoism and Buddhism. Hence, a blend of selected passages from Heraclitus (cf. Wohlfart 1998: 24–39), Neo-Pythagoreanism, Sextus Empiricus, Gnosticism, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Nicholas of Cusa, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, Montaigne, Hegel (cf. Wohlfart 1998: 24–39), Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Derrida, et al.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relativity of the Unity of Opposites
    RELATIVITY OF THE UNITY OF OPPOSITES 185 essence of the doctrine and would open the door to mech­ anism, relativism, teleology, and modern neo-Hegelianism. Indeed the mechanists also, as we know, are ready to admit that" all flows, all changes." But" flows and changes" in CHAPTER V their understanding is only a quantitative process, the actual elements remaining unchanged. And the relativist not only admits that " all changes, all flows," but makes THE RELATIVITY OF THE such change absolute, including within it our own know­ UNITY OF OPPOSITES AND THE ledge. Thus every kind of stability in objective phenomena ABSOLUTENESS OF THEIR is swept away, becoming but a subjective appearance. Our knowledge is held to be limited and distorted in its very CONFLICT nature so that it does not even reflect truly the creative flow ofreality. The teleologically inclined bourgeois thinker also admits IN THE FOR E W 0 R D to the first volume of Capital Marx that" all flows, all changes." But he goes on to affirm wrote: that this flow, this change, is nothing else than the path to " In its rational form dialectic is a scandal and an the realization of ever more perfect forms, the tendency abomination to the bourgeoisie and its doctrinaire spokes­ towards which is deeply seated in life itself, that movement men because while supplying a positive understanding is determined by those ideal forms in which the imminent of th~ existin~state ofthings, it at the same time furni<;hes purposes of life reside. an understanding of the negation of that state of things, There are other eclectic points of view, as, for instance, and enables us to recognize that that state of things will the theory that history shows an alternation of stable and inevitably break up; it is an abomination to them be­ revolutionary epochs, the first characterized by definiteness, cause it regards every historically ?evdoped soci~ form stability and self-identity of the processes found in it, the as in fluid movement, as traDSlent; because It lets.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Non-Duality in Śaṅkara and Cusanus
    Comparative Philosophy Volume 12, No. 1 (2021): 98-110 Open Access / ISSN 2151-6014 / www.comparativephilosophy.org https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2021).120109 THE CONCEPT OF NON-DUALITY IN ŚAṄKARA AND CUSANUS JEROME KLOTZ ABSTRACT: When comparing diverse philosophical traditions, it becomes necessary to establish a common point of departure. This paper offers a comparative analysis of Advaita Vedānta Hinduism and esoteric Christianity, as represented by the two highly celebrated figures of Śaṅkara and Nicholas Cusanus, respectively. The common point of departure on which I base this comparison is the concept of “non-duality”—a concept that is fitting for at least two reasons. First, it is general enough to encompass both traditions, pervading the work of each figure, and thus allowing for a kind of “shared language.” Second, it is specific enough to identify a set of core and well-defined principles amenable to systematic study, chief among which are the notions of (1) the “Absolute” as an infinite unity that transcends all determinations (“no-thing”) and exceeds all oppositions (“not-other”), and (2) the world as an ontologically ambiguous “reflection” that simultaneously hides and manifests its meta- ontological Principle. In drawing these connections, I hope to show how the concept of non- duality provides the possibility for a mutual understanding among diverse traditions at the philosophical level. Keywords: Advaita Vedānta, metaphysics, mysticism, Nicholas Cusanus, non-duality, Śaṅkara 1. INTRODUCTION The concept of “non-duality” is not the exclusive possession of any one philosophical system. On the contrary, it can be found—mutatis mutandis—within religio- philosophical traditions the world over: from Philosophical Daoism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, and Advaita Vedānta Hinduism in the East, to Kabbalistic Judaism, esoteric Christianity, and mystical Islam in the West.
    [Show full text]
  • Dewey and the Empirical Unity of Opposites Author(S): James W
    Dewey and the Empirical Unity of Opposites Author(s): James W. Garrison Source: Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Fall, 1985), pp. 549-561 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40320113 . Accessed: 28/04/2014 18:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:57:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JamesW. Garrison Deweyand the. EmpiricalUnity of Opposites i This paper concentrates on a single paragraph in John Dewey's Experience and Nature, one that introduces an importantand vital principle for the developmentof his thought. Although this principle is well known to Dewey scholars, its full significancehas not always been adequately appreciated. In writingthis paper I hope to establish this theme as crucial to a proper understandingof Dewey's empirically groundednaturalistic metaphysics. II The paragraph in question occurs in the context of Dewey's re- buttal of those philosophies intent on "denying to the universethe characterof contingency.
    [Show full text]
  • 紀要19号A(P99-107).Pdf
    愛知工業大学研究報告 99 第四号A 昭和59 年 ORIENTAL NOTHINGNESS Kohei Kohei KOKETSU 東洋的無 瀕旗康兵 ln ln this short paper ，1 would like to explain briefty about th 巴 philosophy of Nishida ，Tanabe ， Nishitani Nishitani and Hisamatsu. World ，" "Goethe's Metaphysical Background" and 1. 1. NISHIDA'S PHILOSOPHY OF ABSOLUTE "The Unity of Opposites." The first of these analyzes the the Mind which contains all reality according to NOTHINGNESS Mahayana though t. The title ， "The lntelligible World ，'" refers to the images and concepts present Although Kitaro Nishida (1870 時 1945) is one of ]apan's ]apan's greatest Zen Buddhist philosophers ， his idiom within the Mind. According to Nishida ， the Mind is and style of thought-organization are difficult for composed of four separate levels ，each supported by West 巴rn readers to follow. the next ， in the same way ， to use his words ， as a fine kimono is lined with silk. From the outermost level to Typical Typical of Mahayana Buddhism is his empha- the innermost ，we have: the Universal of ]udgment ， sis sis on the contradictory aspect of phenomeno th 巴 Universal of Self-consciousness ， the Universal of logical logical reality ，which is finally "nothingness" or the lntelligible W orld ， and then a level called "voidness. "voidness. "ー. Everyone who is familiar with Nothingn 巴ss. One fundamental aspect of Nishida's lndian lndian and Buddhist philosophy knows the philosophy is that being supported by or having a difficulty difficulty of rendering into Western terms and "place" in the Universal of the mind is a necessary concepts concepts those Oriental views which are ascetical prerequisite for the state of "being.
    [Show full text]
  • Henderson Thesis
    Apophatic Elements in the Theory and Practice of Psychoanalysis: Pseudo-Dionysius and C.G. Jung by David Henderson Goldsmiths, University of London Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 I declare that the work in this thesis is my own. David Henderson Date: 2 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the help I have received from my supervisors over the time I have been working on this project: Robert Burns believed in the value of the original proposal and accompanied me in my exploration of the work of Dionysius and neoplatonism. Brendan Callaghan supported me when I was in the doldrums and was wondering whether I would reach port. Roderick Main gave me encouragement to finish. He read my work intelligently and sympathetically. I regret that I did not have the opportunity to discuss my research with him at an earlier stage. This work is dedicated to Susan. 3 Abstract This thesis identifies apophatic elements in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis through an examination of Pseudo-Dionysius and C.G. Jung. Pseudo-Dionysius brought together Greek and Biblical currents of negative theology and the via negativa. The apophatic concepts and metaphors which appear in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius are identified. The psychology of Jung can be read as a continuation and extension of the apophatic tradition. The presence of neoplatonic themes in Jung’s work is discussed, as well as his references to Pseudo-Dionysius. There is a thorough examination of Jung’s discussion of opposites, including his reception of Nicholas of Cusa’s concept of the coincidence of opposites.
    [Show full text]
  • The Presocratic Philosophers
    IV The Natural Philosophy of Heraclitus (a) The great account When, in his lectures on the history of philosophy, Hegel came to Heraclitus, he was moved to an extravagant effusion: ‘Here we see land! There is no proposition of Heraclitus which I have not adopted in my logic.’ A prominent opponent of Hegelianism is no less effusive: Heraclitus’ fragments, far from adumbrating teutonic dialectics, reveal ‘a thinker of unsurpassed power and originality’, a Greek Wittgenstein.1 The truth is that Heraclitus attracts exegetes as an empty jampot wasps; and each new wasp discerns traces of his own favourite flavour. The existence of such diverse interpretations of Heraclitus’ philosophy will sow the seeds of despair in the mind of any honest scholar; and that luxuriant plant receives nourishment from a consideration of the history and nature of Heraclitus’ text. We do possess over a hundred fragments from Heraclitus’ pen; but many of them have reached us through the labours of two early Christian fathers: Clement of Alexandria saw Heraclitus as a pagan prophet of the Last Judgment; and Hippolytus of Rome made him, for polemical purposes, the spiritual father of Noetus’ Monarchian heresy. Moreover, Heraclitus had earned the dubious benefits of popularity even before his Christian renascence; for Cleanthes the Stoic had attempted to give a stamp of authority to the teachings of his master Zeno by deriving them from the ancient doctrines of Heraclitus (Diogenes Laertius, IX. 16=22 A 1).2 We see Heraclitus reflected in the distorting glasses of patristic
    [Show full text]
  • Pre-Socratic Philosophy: Beginning Phase PHIL301 Prof. Oakes Winthrop University Updated: 8/29/12 3:13 PM
    Pre-Socratic Philosophy: Beginning Phase PHIL301 Prof. Oakes Winthrop University updated: 8/29/12 3:13 PM From their precursors - As we have seen, the Pre-Socratics appeared against a backdrop of anthropomorphic supernaturalism. o Hesiod’s Theogony provides an expression of this kind of view. - This is not to say that such a worldview is either nonsensical or useless; nor is it without similarity in its general form to the thought of the Pre-Socratics. o There are conceptual affinities giving Hesiod’s account some logical sense. o Even if technically ineffectual, a pervasive anthropomorphism results in a familiarized and therefore less frightening world experience. o And although anthropomorphic and therefore almost certainly false, some explanation is offered for the origin, nature, and behavior of the world. Recall, for example, the early appearance of Eros as a proto- philosophical principle of change. A new genius - It is striking that little precedes the Pre-Socratics that anticipates their revolution. o Although the early Greek world was far from isolated geographically, there is little evidence to suggest that nearby cultures could have provided the primary impetus away from Hesiod’s worldview. o The Babylonians brought astronomy to the Greeks. o The Egyptians had developed mathematics and commerce. o But nowhere else do we see the thorough-going naturalism and rationalism that evolves in Greece. - Several sources of the development of philosophy may be identified. o First, there is the competitive nature of the Greeks, evident in their many agonies, competitions in art, song, dance, theater, and physical prowess. The dialectical method may be construed as a competition in which truth is the prize.
    [Show full text]
  • "THIS SELF IS BRAHMAN": WHITMAN in the LIGHT of TKE UPANISHADS Nand I Ta Nau Ti Yal Mcgill University, Montreal Septem
    "THIS SELF IS BRAHMAN": WHITMAN IN THE LIGHT OF TKE UPANISHADS Nand i ta Nau ti yal McGill University, Montreal September . 1996 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Nandita Nautiyal 1996 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington OnawaON K1A ON4 ON KIA ON4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fjlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in ths thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantid extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. TABLE OF CONTENTS TabIe of Contents Abstract Résumé Acknowledgements Chapter One Introduction Chapter Two East or West? Chapter Three Four Stances of the "Self" in Whitman's Poetry and States of Consciousness in the Upanishads Chapter Four Sorne Features of Upanishadic "SelF and ParalleIs with Whitman Chapter Five Contradiction in Whitman and the Upanishads Chapter Six Conclusions No tes Bibliography ABSTRACT This thesis examines the reasons why Walt Whitman has been a "puzzle" to literary critics for well over a century.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unity of Opposites: a Dialectical Principle Author(S): V
    S&S Quarterly, Inc. Guilford Press The Unity of Opposites: A Dialectical Principle Author(s): V. J. McGill and W. T. Parry Source: Science & Society, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Fall, 1948), pp. 418-444 Published by: Guilford Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40399913 . Accessed: 28/04/2014 18:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. S&S Quarterly, Inc. and Guilford Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Science &Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:44:38 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE UNITY OF OPPOSITES: A DIALECTICAL PRINCIPLE v. j. MCGiLLand w. t. parry INTRODUCTION the unityof opposites and otherdialectical prin- ciples have sufferedvarious "refutations," and certaininter- ALTHOUGHL prêtât ions and misapplicationshave quite properlybeen laid to rest,dialectic is verymuch alive today. The Platonic-Aris- toteliantradition continues, and both the Hegelian and the Marxian dialectichave manyfollowers. The unityof opposites,which Lenin describedas the mostimportant of the dialecticalprinciples,1 states thata thingis determinedby its internaloppositions. The principlewas firstput forwardby the Milesian philosophers of the sixthcentury B.C., and by theircotemporary, Heraclitus of Ephesus.It held its own throughcenturies of philosophicalthought, though it took differentforms which were seldom clearly distin- guished.
    [Show full text]