The System of Absentology in Ontological Philosophy
The System of Absentology in Ontological Philosophy

Author: Adam Lovasz

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-09-23

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1443816558

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This volume deals primarily with absentology, an ontological and social-scientific epistemological mode, dedicated to the analysis of absence. The book is drawn by manifestations of absence wherever they may be encountered. It deals with three terms, ‘the shadow economy’, ‘corruption’ and ‘pollution’, while constructing a non-realist ontology predicated upon the emptiness of all predicates, as expounded by certain strands of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. According to the absentological viewpoint, there is nothing outside, beyond, below or above relations. Relations exist on their own, enchained within an immense, infinite regress, opening and closing upon one another. Absentology is, by consequence of its nonattachment to phenomena, a form of social inquiry fundamentally alien to each and every social form, and it abandons any illusions about the possibility of an escape from the realm of relationality. This book will appeal to students and academics interested in ontological philosophy.

Updating Bergson
Updating Bergson

Author: Adam Lovasz

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1793640823

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Over the past few decades, there has been a renewal of scholarly interest in the work of Henri Bergson (1859–1941). At once a commentary and a stark re-evaluation of Bergson’s philosophy, Updating Bergson: A Philosophy of the Enduring Present argues that time should be thought of as a hierarchy of simultaneous durations, the shifting reality of which can be revealed by the philosophical method of intuition. A duration is a perpetually dynamic flow situated in the now. Put simply, for Bergson, change is the substance of things. Nothing exists apart from alteration. Adam Lovasz analyzes Bergson’s philosophy of time, encompassing the three basic types of duration—material, organic, and subjective—and also touches on themes such as relativity, evolution, the problem of materialism and idealism, and the topic of free will. Lovasz connects key questions addressed by Bergson to contemporary scientific debates and paradigms. Shedding new light on the various aspects of Bergson's philosophy, this book is both a provocation and an invitation to think in terms of the enduring present, rather than committing ourselves to a dead past or an absent future.

Agnotology
Agnotology

Author: Robert Proctor

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 9780804759014

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"This volume emerged from workshops held at Pennsylvania State University in 2003 and Stanford University in 2005"--P. vii.

The Emptiness of Emptiness
The Emptiness of Emptiness

Author: C. W. Huntington

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780824817121

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The Emptiness of Emptiness presents the first English translation of the complete text of the Madhyamakāvatāra (Entry into the Middle Way) a sixth century Sanskrit Buddhist composition that was widely studied in Tibet and, presumably, in its native India as well. In his lengthy introduction to the translation, Huntington offers a judiciously crafted, highly original discussion of the central philosophy of Mahāyāna Buddhism. He lays out the principal ideas of emptiness and dependent origination not as abstract philosophical concepts, but rather as powerful tools for restructuring the nature of human experience at the most fundamental level. Drawing on a variety of Indian and Western sources, both ancient and modern, Huntington gradually leads the reader toward an understanding of how it is that sophisticated philosophical thinking can serve as a means for breaking down attachment to any idea, opinion or belief. All of this on the Buddhist premise that habitual, unreflective identification with ideas, opinions, or beliefs compromises our appreciation of the ungraspable miracle that lies at the heart of everyday, conventional reality. The author shows how the spiritual path of the bodhisattva works to transform the individual personality from a knot of clinging into a vehicle for the expression of profound wisdom (prajñā) and unconditional love (karuṇā).

Geographies of the University
Geographies of the University

Author: Laura Suarsana

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-08

Total Pages: 670

ISBN-13: 9781013273100

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This open access volume raises awareness of the histories, geographies, and practices of universities and analyzes their role as key actors in today's global knowledge economy. Universities are centers of research, teaching, and expertise with significant economic, social, and cultural impacts at different geographical scales. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries offer original analyses and discussions along five main themes: historical perspectives on the university as a site of knowledge production, cultural encounter, and political interest; institutional perspectives on university governance and the creation of innovative environments; relationships between universities and the city; the impact of universities on national and regional economies and cultures; and the processes of internationalization through student mobility, the creation of education hubs, and global regionalism in higher education. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Tracing the Inoperative
Tracing the Inoperative

Author: Adam Lovasz

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2016-03-21

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9781523321391

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This book seeks to introduce a new philosophical concept: Non-Oriented-Ontology. Our lives are pervaded by a sense of absence. This new discipline of philosophy seeks to make the presence of absence truly tangible through a variety of examples. From Bible-burning Zimbabwean Christians to junk DNA, misbehaving prep boys to black holes, 'Tracing the Inoperative' paints a complex picture of the various absences that surround us, and attempts in the process to construct a mode of interpretation that would be adequate to fully grasping the sheer amount of absence we find ourselves surrounded with, while also striving to transmit an understanding of events that makes us capable of embracing these many and diverse forms of emptiness. In the final instance, the best way to fill absence is to accept the invitation of the black hole and enter into its realm, a world that resembles our own in more ways than one...

Updating Bergson
Updating Bergson

Author: Adam Lovasz

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2021-05

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9781793640819

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This book argues for an actualist and presentist reading of Bergson's philosophy of time. Instead of the past or future, what matters is the self-realization of diverse durations. Through both philosophical and interdisciplinary means, Adam Lovasz actualizes Bergson's work and brings it into dialogue with contemporary scientific debates.

Eco-Phenomenology
Eco-Phenomenology

Author: Charles S. Brown

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0791487288

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This groundbreaking collection explores the intersection of phenomenology with environmental philosophy. It examines the relevance of Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas for thinking through the philosophical dilemmas raised by environmental issues, and then proposes new phenomenological approaches to the natural world. The contributors demonstrate phenomenology's need to engage in an ecological self-evaluation and to root out anthropomorphic assumptions embedded in its own methodology. Calling for a reexamination of beliefs central to the Western philosophical tradition, this book shifts previously marginalized environmental concerns to the forefront and blazes a trail for a new collaboration between phenomenologists and ecologically-minded theorists.

Imagining Karma
Imagining Karma

Author: Gananath Obeyesekere

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-11-11

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 9780520936300

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With Imagining Karma, Gananath Obeyesekere embarks on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small-scale societies of West Africa, Melanesia, traditional Siberia, Canada, and the northwest coast of North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As Obeyesekere compares responses to the most fundamental questions of human existence, he challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about death, cosmology, morality, and eschatology. Obeyesekere's comprehensive inquiry shows that diverse societies have come through independent invention or borrowing to believe in reincarnation as an integral part of their larger cosmological systems. The author brings together into a coherent methodological framework the thought of such diverse thinkers as Weber, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. In a contemporary intellectual context that celebrates difference and cultural relativism, this book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of "family resemblances" and differences across great cultural divides.