Meister Eckhart

CFP: The Experience of Being and Nothingness
Journal: METODO. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy
Deadline: 31/10/25
Guest Editors: Giulia Lanzirotti (Università di Padova) and Luca Zanetti (Università di Bologna)
Invited Contributors: Maria Balaska (University of Hertfordshire), Paulo Borges (Universidade de Lisboa), Richard Capobianco (Stonehill College), Francesco Cattaneo (Università di Bologna), Filippo Casati (Lehigh University), Nicoletta Cusano (Unint Roma), John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Silvia Caprioglio Panizza (University of Pardubice), Alfredo Tomasetta (IUSS Pavia)

Sometimes, we find ourselves struck with wonder and awe at the realization that, instead of nothing, there is something. A diverse array of thinkers, across both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, have offered detailed accounts of this experience, placing it at the core of their work. The purpose of this special issue is to gather philosophical reflections on the nature of this experience and its implications.
In what follows, we outline some themes that contributors may wish to explore, but we welcome all papers that focus on the experience of suddenly realizing the astonishing fact that there is something rather than nothing.
Discovering existence often evokes a sense of wonder, yet reports of this experience also reveal more unsettling emotions such as horror, anxiety, and nausea. What accounts for this variety of emotional reactions? Are there appropriate or inappropriate emotions in the face of the mystery of existence? What role do emotions play in this experience? Can one truly understand what it means for the world to be without feeling in some specific way? What is the connection, if any, between wonder at the existence of the world and philosophical wonder (Plato and Aristotle’s thauma) more broadly?
According to Wittgenstein, the experience of wonder at the existence of the world reveals the mystical—namely, the fact that the world is, as opposed to how the world is (Tractatus 6.44). This experience, in Wittgenstein’s early thought, is crucial for understanding the most fundamental aspects of ethics and aesthetics. Is Wittgenstein right? Is there a connection between ethics, aesthetics, and the experience of existence?
Heidegger refers to the “wonder of all wonders,” the revelation that beings are, which is disclosed through Angst in the experience of nothingness. What is the role of nothingness in this experience? Can the being of beings be apprehended without the contrasting revelation of nothingness? What is it like to experience nothingness?
Most philosophical inquiries into being and nothingness (e.g., Parmenides, Hegel, Heidegger) have examined these two “phenomena” together. What is the relationship between them? Can one truly grasp the meaning of being without understanding the meaning of nothingness, and vice versa? Is the notion of nothingness, as Bergson suggested, dispensable for philosophical reflection, or does it play an essential and ineliminable role in our cognitive and emotional relationship to the world?
Scheler argued that the experience of wonder at the existence of the world is possible only if certain moral preconditions are met. In his view, humility and a love for truth are necessary to strip away the taken-for-granted character we typically project onto the being of beings. Is Scheler right? What, if any, are the moral preconditions that might enhance or impede our sensitivity to the astonishing fact that there is something rather than nothing? Can there be practices to cultivate such moral preconditions? More generally, can there be practices that create the conditions for this experience to occur?
This experience has played a central role in Western philosophy. But if, as some suggest, this experience is a fundamental event in human life, then it may also play a crucial role in other philosophical and cultural contexts, albeit conceptualized differently. What, then, is the connection between this experience and other mystical experiences? Are there affinities between this experience and experiential breakthroughs in Eastern philosophies? Are there parallels between the experience of being (and nothingness) as conceptualized in the West, and the experiences of kensho or satori in Zen Buddhism? In both traditions, some form of nothingness is invoked to explain these experiential breakthroughs. Are they describing the same experience, or at least experiences belonging to the same family? If so, what does this suggest about the dialogue between Eastern and Western thought on being, nothingness, and the quest to solve the riddle of life?
Those who have lived and described this experience report that it has played a fundamental role in their lives. What are the existential implications of such an experience? What does it teach us about the meaning of life? Is there a connection between this experience and the tendency toward nihilism? What role does this experience play in education? Is there a link between this experience and human suffering? Is this experience the source of existential suffering, the remedy for it, or both?
We welcome submissions from authors within all philosophical traditions. If you are unsure whether your paper aligns with the aims of this special issue, please do not hesitate to contact us.
In addressing the topics of this special issue, each author will refer to some description of the experience of being and nothingness. While classical accounts of this experience will be referenced, we encourage all authors to also explicitly draw upon their own personal experiences.
For any question, please write to luca.zanetti10@unibo.it or to giulia.lanzirotti@unipd.it

Papers should be submitted to the following e-mail address: metodo@sdvigpress.org

Submitted papers (in English, German, French, Spanish or Italian) must follow the basic principles of Metodo and follow all Author Guidelines. The editorial board highly suggests all authors writing in a non-native language to have their texts proofread before submission. All contributions will undergo anonymous peer-review by two referees.

Alles ist immer in Allem. • Heraklit: sein Blitz hat mich, und er hat alle Menschen getroffen: oder er sollte sie alle treffen: Denn dieser Gedanke der "Einheit" ist gar kein abstrakter, kein auswendiger, gar kein autoritärer Gedanke: denn unter "Einheit" wird nicht verstanden, daß eine autoritäre Instanz diese "Einheit" herstellt und befiehlt, sondern unter "Einheit" wird je nur verstanden, daß in allem Sein es eine innere Dimension gibt, die auf eine "Einheit" verweist: Daß also in seinem ganzen Grunde alle Planten und Sterne, alle Universen und Monde, alle Atome und Moleküle, alle Strings und alle Wasserstoff-Atome in sich zusammenhängen, aus einer Erde sind, aus einer Substanz sind, aus einem Wesen sind: daß also diese ganze Welt immer in "Einem"/ im "Einen" liegt, und daß alles in dieser ganzen Welt immer aus diesem Einen kommt und daß also diese ganze Welt eine Geburt und Ausgeburt sind des Einen: und daß deshalb auch dieses "Eine" in allem liegt, und daß dieses "Eine" immer in Allem ist. Dieses "Eine" schafft und birgt in sich die Differenz: und die Differenz selber liegt schon in diesem Einen. Denn dieses Eine ist selber gar nicht abstrakt und mechanisch, sondern es ist die Installation, die Manifestation, die Multiplikation des Vielen, des Allen. Und darin aber ist dieses "Eine" immer different: Ohne diese Differenz gibt es dieses "Eine" gar nicht: sondern in diesem Einen selber liegt immer alle Differenz: also alle Sterne und alle Galaxien liegen darin, alle Monde und alle Tiere und alle Pflanzen und alle Wesen. Das Gute wie das Schlechte liegt darin: das Harte wie das Weiche. So hat ein einziger Mann, aus Ephesos, das ganze Wesen der ganzen Welt schon hinlänglich bezeichnet und begriffen: in seinem Grund-Modus, in seinem Grund-Wesen, in seinem Grund-Sein: Hen kai Pan: Alles liegt im Einen!-in Einem.

Any individual is born and registered with a category called sex and assigned at birth. It categorizes his physiological and organic construction. Unlike sex, Gender is more associated with identity shaped through social and performative acts. In light of Judith Butler’s theory of gender, this research attempts to investigate the way in which gender roles are deconstructed in postmodern plays by Harold Pinter and how the exchange of social roles contributes to the reaction of characters in the play of The Homecoming (1965) and The Birthday Party (1957). Far from being assigned or granted at birth, Judith Butler refers to Gender as a socially constructed identity that a person enacts and learns at the same time. Butler also questions the idea of two existing genders and says that gender is performed, making it flexible and shaped by society. The literary appliance of Butler’s theory on the two plays above and the analysis of the chosen characters demonstrate that the deconstruction of gender roles and their exchange, in Pinter’s literature, are not limited to biological or social roles but expend to the instinct need to dominate or to beg for emotional nurturing. In both cases, the deconstruction of gender roles is only a tool to shape a new form of identity.

This article will study one of the most fundamental principles of Islamic mysticism, Towhid, with a new and effective model (Interaction of Practical and Intellectual Faculties). Towhid has a special position in mystical texts. For a better understanding of mystical texts, clarifying the position of Towhid and its stages is necessary. Towhid is the mystic’s destination in mystical journey and mystics enumerate a number of stages for it. On the one hand, reaching the stage of Towhid depends on the “practical faculty” and Sufi achieves it with passing the stages of Mystical Journey and, on the other hand, it depends on the “intellectual faculty” and mystical vision. Therefore, for a better understanding of the Towhid attention to the interaction of intellectual and practical faculties is necessary. One of the pioneers of this topic is Jonaid Baghdadi, a thoughtful mystic and theorist belonging to the first mystical tradition (1) , who has valuable ideas on the topic. Regarding differe...

Les Recherches philosophiques sur l’essence de la liberté humaine et les sujets qui s’y rattachent (1809), texte central dans l’œuvre de Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, est une réponse aux accusations de panthéisme et par conséquent, l’occasion pour l’auteur de repenser son monisme ou « All-Einheitslehre ». Dans une tentative de réinterprétation créative du motif panthéiste évoqué par la phrase « Dieu est toutes choses », Schelling consacrera les premières pages de ses Recherches à une relecture du principe d’identité. Ici, nous tenterons d’élucider cette relecture, en accordant une attention particulière à la manière dont elle est façonnée par un certain nombre de sources plus anciennes, en particulier la théorie de l’âme du monde de Platon, la téléologie de Kant et la logique de Gottfried Ploucquet. Nous affirmerons que la théorie de l’identité de Schelling incorporera le principe de la raison suffisante comme son égal, les deux consti- tuant ce que nous appellerons « le principe du fondement ». Cela donnera lieu à la distinction fondatrice des Recherches de 1809, l’idée que Dieu a un fondement qui est en lui, mais qui ne doit pas être confondu avec lui dans la mesure où il existe. Dire que « Dieu est toutes choses », c’est décrire comment les parties et le Tout interagissent dans un système organique, ou plus précisément, comment les systèmes microcosmiques se rapportent au macrocosme global auquel ils appartiennent.

Review: Überlegungen II-VI (Schwarze Hefte 1931-1938), Martin Heidegger. Vol. 94. Ed. Peter Trawny. (Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2014).Começo e fim da filosofia Resenha de Überlegungen II-VI (Schwarze Hefte 1931-1938), de Martin Heidegger. Vol. 94. Ed. Peter Trawny. (Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 2014).

Heideggers Kritik des scholastischen Denkens firmiert unter dem Begriff der "Seinsvergessenheit". Diesem Vorwurf begegnet Hans Blumenberg in seiner Dissertationsschrift zur mittelalterlichen Ontologie. Er möchte aufzeigen, dass Heideggers Vorwurf angesichts der "Ursprünglichkeit" scholastischer Innovation unbegründet ist. Dabei gilt Blumenberg vor allem die scotische Univozitätslehre, die er im Konnex des Illuminationsgedankens interpretiert, als Ausweis "ursprünglichen Denkens". Sofern "Ursprünglichkeit" im Horizont des Mittelalters immer auch ein Ringen um die der Artikulation des christlichen Glaubens gemäße Philosophiegestalt bedeutet, kann die Frage nach der Überzeugungskraft der blumenbergschen Position gestellt werden. Vor dem Hintergrund der Relationalontologie Peter Knauers unternimmt der vorliegende Artikel eine kritische Relektüre der von Blumenberg vorgenommenen Kopplung von Univokation und Illumination im Horizont der Frage, ob das Konzept der "Gelichtetheit" auch mit einer relationalontologisch reformulierten Analogielehre vereinbar istum so ein Kriterium für die Verständlichmachung des christlichen Glaubens zu gewinnen.

In questo testo mi propongo di delineare lo statuto che il linguaggio ha nella riflessione cusaniana del De docta ignorantia; tale trattazione sarà necessaria per delucidare il ruolo fondamentale e le reciproche relazioni che teologia positiva, negativa e circolare hanno nel pensiero del Nostro.

Eine einfache technische Panne im Raumschiff von Dr. Melres führte den jungen afroamerikanischen Wissenschaftler auf eine Reise tief in die unendliche Dunkelheit, um die Kreaturen zu entdecken, die die Y-Sphäre, die Sphäre von Tassúh, der Erdkugel geformt haben, und um ihren wahren Ursprung zu enthüllen, nämlich die Manipulationen und wissenschaftlichen Experimente, die die himmlischen Kreaturen an den Erdbewohnern durchgeführt haben. In den Erzählungen und Passagen dieser Science-Fiction erfährt der Leser eine aufschlussreiche Realität zwischen dem wahren Ursprung der Schöpfung, dem Geschaffenen und dem Schöpfer, und er erhält Antworten auf die klassischen Fragen nach der Existenz göttlicher Wesen (Außerirdischer) auf anderen Planeten und mit ihren außergewöhnlich fortschrittlichen Technologien, wie sie die Menschheit und den Planeten Erde beeinflusst haben. Beobachten sie uns immer noch oder beeinflussen sie jeden Schritt in unserem Leben? Und was ist mit den bekannten Aussagen über das Ende der Welt/der Zeiten wirklich gemeint? Wird es wirklich ein kollektives Ende für die Erdenbewohner geben? Werden diese Wesenheiten, die angeblich den selbstzerstörerischen Vormarsch der Menschheit beeinflusst haben, zurückkehren, um das endgültige Urteil zu vollstrecken? Wer sind sie
und wo sind sie? Finden Sie es heraus!

Una de las resonancias mas significativas de los conceptos fundamentales del neoplatonismo es la produccion artistica contemporanea. En este trabajo se examina, en concreto, algunas obras de Anish Kapoor, que buscan poner de relieve como el artista prepara una propuesta estetica que podria ser entendida desde una perspectiva neoplatonica. Los conceptos que se entrelazan en los juegos dialecticos, como la luminosidad-oscuridad, espacio y lugar, la ausencia-presencia, la inmanencia-trascendencia, se presentan como inevitables en el analisis de la obra del creador anglo-indio. Como hipotesis general, veremos que Kapoor colabora "plasticamente" para la reverberacion de una estetica de la negatividad, como supuesto fundamental de la metafisica neoplatonica, y al mismo tiempo que la experiencia planteada y promovida por las ideas neoplatonicas - ser uno con el Uno - es, concretamente, de naturaleza estetica.

Summary Maximus’ idea of appropriation of the divine will by deified humans, in any consistent interpretation, would mean their deprivation of their own freedom – exactly in the same manner as it could be in the case of servitude to sin. Maximus’ own logic, however, was paraconsistent when applied to the case of deification (whereas not to the opposite case of the servitude to sin). A recourse to a paraconsistent deontic logic was not a uniquely Maximian tool even in the Middle Ages and could serve as an inspiring example for logicians today.

Nicola Cusano nel De beryllo (1458) ha proposto una particolare modalità di conoscenza del mondo, realizzata guardando attraverso un berillo, ovvero una lente al contempo concava e convessa. L’intelletto di colui che vi guarda attraverso può così raggiungere, per tramite del berillo, una visione secondo la coincidenza degli opposti. Tale dottrina contiene e porta a compimento la riflessione sviluppata da Cusano in altre opere, come il De visione Dei, concepito nel 1453 nel contesto del dibattito sulla visione beatifica. Cusano in quel medesimo anno aveva inoltre acquistato una copia del commento di Alberto Magno al De divinis nominibus di Dionigi Areopagita, testo da lui più volte richiamato nel De beryllo allo scopo di definire la cognitio umana. Nel presente contributo viene definito l’impiego della metafora del berillo da parte di Cusano e viene in seguito confrontato con l’analogo utilizzo della medesima metafora in Alberto Magno, Meister Eckhart, Teodorico di Freiberg e nel sermone del carmelitano Hane raccolto nel Paradisus animae intelligentis. Infine viene formulata un’ipotesi interpretativa in merito all’origine della svolta procliana presente nel De beryllo.

In this essay, I focus on Ray L. Hart’s innovative idea that Godhead is structured like a language. This hypothesis emerges in his magisterial book, God Being Nothing: Toward a Theogony, but is already present in nuce in his earlier work, Unfinished Man and the Imagination. Hart, however, does not define it that way: the allusion to Lacan who claimed that the unconscious is structured like a language is on my part intended for polemical reasons. For Lacan, any articulation (parler) of the linguistic substance of the unconscious (langage) is a betrayal and distortion of the latter: a parlêtre that creates a false symbolic order of being as merely an illusory reality. For Hart, on the other hand, the easy Gnostic condemnation of ens creatum as a distortion, falsity or nothing when compared to the hidden Real, defines the essence of nihilism as dangerously characteristic ‘of much modern and postmodern thought’ (GBN, 6). In order to avoid nihilism, Hart constitutes his Godhead as a ‘nothing that is’ (GBN, 9), but does not ex-ist until it becomes something. It does not represent an evasive Real which negates reality of all actualized being, by reducing it to a mere epiphenomenon: instead, the real is real only and insofar as ‘becomingly real-ized’ (GBN, 31). Unlike in Lacan the parlêtre is a real being constantly emerging out of the apeiron of the Godhead in the act of creatio continua: ‘indeterminate Godhead is rendered determinate God the Creator, calling forth from nothing the determinate human creature who, as image of God, preserves a residuum of indeterminacy over which she is to preside’ (GBN, 223-24). Both moments – of nothing and being – must thus be maintained and related to one another in a non-antagonistic manner: this is the poetic task of the human creature as simultaneously imago Dei and ad imaginem Verbi, reflecting both the Ungrund of Godhead and the power of the Word represented by God the determinate.

Der in sich vielfältige Begriff der Transformation greift unter anderem auch in
der Theologie des Ordenslebens. Das Grundkonzept des Lebenswegs von Ordensleuten ist davon bestimmt, in einer besonderen Weise die eigene Biographie in die Hand zu nehmen und gemäß des Evangeliums christlichen Tradition bewusst zu steuern, umzusteuern, d.h. ständige Umkehr („metanoia“) zu pflegen. Das beständige Nachjustieren im Raum der persönlichen Spiritualität, des religiösen Lebens, des Glaubens und nicht zuletzt des Theologietreibens ist zwar Aufgabe eines jeden Christen, aber die besondere Berufung zum Religiosen evoziert einen besonderen Anspruch, sich um eben jenes Nachjustieren in der Nachfolge Jesu zu bemühen. In der katholischen Tradition sind es besonders die drei evangelischen Räte der Armut, der Ehelosigkeit und des Gehorsams, die hier eine Rolle spielen und jeweils ordensspezifisch unterschiedlich hinsichtlich Schwerpunkt und Bedeutung ausgedeutet und gewichtet werden.

Chapter published in the book Filosofía y religión en la Grecia antigua. Directores Jorge Luis Gutiérrez; David Torrijos Castrillejo Editores: André da Paz; Luiz Eduardo Freitas; Pedro Mauricio Garcia Dotto. Salamanca: UPSA Ediciones; Madrid : Sindéresis.

This article deals with the distribution of dialogue lines
between two slaves in the prologue of Aristophanes’ The Knights.
There is no agreement among editors which slave utters the quote
from Euripides’ Hippolytus (Eur. Hipp. 345) and where this quote
should be located. The main question is whether it is necessary to
transpose this quote. Many editors have followed Hermann Sauppe
in transposing verses 15 and 16 (Meineke, Dindorf, Bergk, van
Leeuwen, and Hall–Geldart). In 1835 C. F. Hermann placed the
quote from Euripides after verse 18 and added it to the words of
the Second Slave (Nikias). Coulon, Sommerstein, Kraus, and Wilson published the text with Hermann’s emendation. The text presented in Wilson’s edition in fact diminishes the comical effect of
this dialogue. It seems unlikely that Aristophanes introduces the
quote from Euripides into the text with a direct foreshadowing in
a previous verse: the Second Slave says he would like to enunciate
something Euripides-like and then cites the whole verse from Hippolytus without any modification. When Euripides is quoted, his
name is normally omitted (Nub. 1165–1166 / Eur. Hec. 172–174;
Nub. 1415 / Eur. Alc. 691). The main argument for conserving the
manuscript text is the comical effect, which is connected with the
order of verses offered by codex R. The First Slave quotes Euripides, the Second Slave also wants to say something exquisite (like
Euripides) but is interrupted by the First Slave.

The relationship between God and the world, or in other words, the relationship between the infinite and the finite, is the most central concept in Renaissance philosophy and occupied the minds of the thinkers of that period. The origins of this issue, in turn, go back to the efforts of philosophers and theologians to explain the relationship between God and creation in the Bible. Nicholas Cusanus is one of the thinkers who tried to solve this philosophical-theological problem and by introducing the concept of "non-other" as a new concept of God or infinity, he added a new side to the duality of "other" and "the same". In this article, an attempt has been made to first give a report on the relationship between God and the world in philosophy, and then the special view of Cusanus and the concepts related to it, concepts such as folding and unfolding, non-otherness, coincidence of opposites, will be examined. The roots of this type of thinking will be discussed in the thought of Pseud-Dionysus and Meister Eckhart. Here it will be shown that Cusanus, considering a new type of metaphysics, i.e. metaphysics of oneness, and abandoning the traditional Aristotelian metaphysics, i.e. existential metaphysics, and according to the interpretations of Meister Eckhart about creation, and the Pseud-Dionysus about God, has neutralized the duality of other-same and created the ground for the emergence of an immanent philosophy.

Heidegger contrasts meditative thinking, which allows detachment from beings, with calculative thinking, which maintains an instrumental and interested relationship with them. In his view, the principle of reason is the main tool for dominating available things. He also embeds the Medieval essence-existence duality within this framework of causality geared towards manipulating beings, judging that the religious notion of creation failed to distance this duality from Greek essentialism. Now, by appropriating the Islamic notion of creation ex nihilo, Avicenna places an ontological indigence at the heart of the created world. He believes that a being necessary by something other than itself remains contingent in itself, even after being caused. Thus, knowledge of the cause doesn't grant dominance over the thing but fosters detachment from contingent being, recognizing its dependence on an upstream otherness. Moreover, Meister Eckhart, who according to Heidegger perfectly illustrates meditative thought, is indebted precisely to this ontological poverty established by Avicenna. In addition to describing this possible objection from Avicenna to Heidegger, the more general aim of this study is to explore the possibility of an ethical and disinterested use of the principle of reason.

https://www.nazariyat.org/en/issues/cilt-10-sayi-1/selami-varlik

En este trabajo se estudia una selección de las Rationes Equardi contenidas en una cuestión de tipo quodlibetal del maestro Gonzalo de España: “Si la alabanza de Dios en el cielo es más noble que el amor del mismo en la tierra”. Corresponde esta intervención de Eckhart al período de tiempo que este maestro pasó en París y se encuentra reunida con otras quodlibetales bajo el título de Quaestiones parisienses. Dilucidar el asunto de la quaestio suponía comparar, por un lado, dos actos virtuosos en dos grados de virtud diferente, y por otro, dos actos particulares de las potencias del alma, así como dos estados del alma, el de viador y el del que ha llegado al término del camino, que es en realidad su origen. Esta doble comparación planteada en dos perspectivas doctrinales distintas, conllevaba dificultades para alcanzar la respuesta o solución del problema. Sin embargo, Eckhart no responde directamente la cuestión planteada, sino que propone una serie de argumentos sobre la superior nobleza del intelecto, de sus hábitos y de sus actos.

Buddhism has significantly influenced the rise of Contemplative Studies and remains a key element in their advancement. The crucial importance of this tradition and its understanding of inner experiences led to postponing the exploration of other contemplative traditions. Nonetheless, it is important to
consider how various traditions can stimulate research to enhance analytical methods and increase their independence from cultural influences. Within this context, I suggest doing an initial examination of contemplative practices from the Islamic tradition -specifically Sufism -which share similarities with Buddhist traditions that are well recognized in the cognitive sciences. Based on the case study of the “Khwajagan” (Master of wisdom) and their practices still applied today, in this talk, I will seek to elucidate the questions that arise when these traditions are taken into consideration with a
multidisciplinary approach encompassing historical, anthropological, and cognitive aspects. Questions related to: (1) historical interactions between traditions; (2) framing of contemplative tradition within different cultures and how this affects contemplative practices; (3) cognitive features included in the considered contemplative tradition. Finally, I will suggest further steps to include Islamic traditions in the investigation of Contemplative Studies.

Миграции эпохи неолита и бронзы, связанные напрямую или
косвенно с распространением индоевропейцев, оказали влияние на
генофонд окраинных зон Западной Европы. В Скандинавии и на
Иберийском полуострове, местное население испытало ощутимый
вклад со стороны неолитических земледельцев, но при этом сохра- нило и высокую долю автохтонного компонента. Генофонд ирланд- ских популяций испытал воздействие 2 миграционных волн: 1) cо
стороны земледельцев эпохи неолита, 2) новых переселенцев эпохи
бронзы, которые принесли с континента восточноевропейский компонент.

This essay argues for the political-theological significance of Louis Althusser's theory of interpellation by analyzing the import of the "Christian religious ideology" in his argument. It suggests that the subject as a complex dispositif—of (self-)recognition in relation to a transcendent call, which bestows a proper name, a place in the world, and freedom in obedience—anchors both the Christian and the secular domains. In reconstructing the subject's constitutive elements, this essay argues that interpellation does not merely recruit individuals but itself acts as an operation of individuation. Moreover, the interpellative matrix of the subject works as a sorting mechanism that segregates those who cohere as subjects from those who do not. Turning to the fourteenth-century mystical figure Meister Eckhart, the essay theorizes deinterpellation as a delegitimating force against the interplays of transcendence and subjection wherever they are operative. Rather than opening the self to a transcendent call, Eckhartian deinterpellative becoming nothing affirms an anoriginary freedom detached from the entire matrix uniting interpellative transcendence and the subject.

Studying the writings of several Patristic and Medieval theologians, this paper uses Kate Bush’s song “Somewhere in Between” to structure interrelated articulations of the way of life that outplays sin and death. This “law of the Spirit” is the God-gifted game of the perpetual enjoyment of, oneness with, eternal progress in, wholeness through, and holiness like God.

Heidegger, şeylere bağlanmamaya izin veren meditatif düşünme ile onlarla araçsal ve çıkarcı bir ilişki kuran hesaplayıcı düşünme arasında bir ayrım yapar. Ona göre yeter neden ilkesi, mevcut şeylere hükmetmenin temel yoludur. O, metafiziğin varlık-mahiyet ayrımını da hazır varlık fikrine hizmet eden bu nedensellik paradigmasına indirger; zira Hristiyanlık'ın yaratma kuramı bu ayrımı Yunan felsefesinden uzaklaştıramamıştır. İbn Sînâ ise, İslâm'ın yoktan yaratma kuramını sahiplenerek, yaratılmış dünyanın özüne ontolojik bir fakirlik yerleştirir, zira her şey varlığını kendinde zorunlu varlığa borçludur. Kendinden başkasıyla zorunlu varlık, var edildikten sonra bile kendinde mümkün olma halini korur. Böylece, nedenin bilgisi, bir şey üzerinde hakimiyet kurmak yerine, onun varlığının bizatihi zorunlu varlığa bağımlı olduğunu anlayıp, ona kayıtsız ve ilgisiz kalmayı sağlar. Heidegger'in tersine, nedensel bilgi bir ontolojik yoksulluğun bilgisine dönüşür. Üstelik Heidegger'in meditatif düşünme için referans olarak sunduğu Meister Eckhart, varlık-mahiyet ayrımının sağladığı ontolojik yoksulluk fikrini İbn Sînâ sayesinde geliştirmiştir. İbn Sînâ'nın Heidegger'e yapabileceği bu itirazı ele almakla birlikte, amacımız, nedensellik ilkesinin ve genel olarak aklın etik ve çıkarsız bir şekilde kullanımının imkânını incelemektir.

Nel diciottesimo secolo il misticismo non ebbe vita facile, poiché ad esso si opponevano rispettivamente il criticismo dal lato della filosofia e la teologia protestante dal lato religioso, condannando questo approccio a rimanere una pratica esoterico-iniziatica priva di qualsiasi attenzione filosofica rilevante. Le cose cominciano a cambiare dai primi anni del diciannovesimo secolo…

Quando si prendono in analisi pensatori della portata di Eckhart e Hegel è senza dubbio
ingenuo utilizzare macrocategorie che pretendano di esaurire i loro contenuti in
compartimenti ben definiti. Sebbene le categorie di mistico, teologo e filosofo si confanno
sia ad Eckhart che a Hegel in egual misura, tuttavia, nessuna di queste tre può
legittimamente contenere il pensiero di questi due pensatori. Ciò che si intende fare in
questo scritto è mostrare in linee generali le affinità di Eckhart e Hegel muovendoci
tra le categorie sopra menzionate, mostrando i limiti di quest’ultime e cercando di
descrivere l’intenzione programmatica comune ad entrambi i pensatori che trascenda la
parzialità di una descrizione categoriale, ossia, il concetto di “Sapere come totalità”.

This study explores the interplay of apophasis and kataphasis in the negative theology of Maimonides and its influence on Meister Eckhart. In spite of Maimonides’s positing that the perfection of the human species consists of the individual rising to the level of the Active Intellect, the last of the separate intelligences, by actualizing the rational potential and escaping from the material world of generation and corruption, it seems that, epistemologically, it is not possible for an embodied human being to divest the mind completely of corporeal images in accessing truths through an allegedly imageless intellection; there is always a need for the imagination and metaphor even if it is to imagine the unimaginable and to render metaphorical the nonmetaphorical. Analogously, Meister Eckhart extolled the possibility of the naked essence of the soul finding the naked, formless essence of divine unity, the superessential being, and hence to become godlike, one must become as nothing in emulation of the divine, who possesses neither image nor form.  In the purity of the ground, there is no speech or utterance that can name God’s unnameability. The mystical path is to attain this nothingness that is  beyond the theisitic personification of God in the Trinity. Thus, Eckhart paradoxically expressed the matter in one of his sermons, "I pray to God to make me free of God." The silence that this ineffability demands must itself be voiced recurringly. The via negativa, on this score, is a process that foregoes any stasis and thus it does not portend a goal that can ever be fully realized. Transmuted into theological terms, we do not get beyond the God of theism absolutely, and indeed, the path beyond the theistic deity to the Godhead is through that deity, and in that sense, we must appreciate the constant wavering between kataphasis and apophasis. The same dynamic can be elicited from Maimonides.

Note to the reader: Because of the constraints of the word limit imposed on me, the discussion of Eckhart is much abbreviated. This insufficiency will be rectified in a revised version of this study to appear in a future monograph on apophasis and infinity in philosophical and kabbalistic sources.

“……… But because there is, monks, an unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded, therefore  an escape can be shown for  what is  born, has become, is made, is compounded”- Nirvana is not part of the flux. Nirvana is in the experience that Meister Eckhart would call “the eternal Now-, an unborn Reality- which we all can aware and experience in a time-free, effort-free and ego-free mode of consciousness. It is an escape – from duality-consciousness and from false i-dentification. Buddha would not, like our modern empiricists, identify experience with sense-experience. Nirvana is non-dual-, non-senseous experiencing and Buddha is the way to awakening-, to integral enlightenment. The Buddhist adept claim to have direct experience in Nirvana in this life without waiting for another life-span. Therefore for Buddha the conception of Nirvana is not metaphysical but empirical. “The Tatagata, O Vaccha, is from theories”.

Source from old paper collection  of letters sent by
Alfred Sorensen known as  Sunya Bhai to my father Rahdey Shiam –
Compiled  & Notes by _Rama Kant s/o Lsh  Radhey Shiam
– Author of – ‘Song of Life,’The Book of Life’, ‘Quotes of Life’ and ‘Nature and I’ in English and
‘Haiku Paheliyaan’ and ‘Haiku Ramayan’ in Hindi

This dissertation constructs a theology of divine calling in order to explore the dynamic between God and human interaction. Revelation, reason and experience are three authoritative sources of theology. When theologians decisively choose one source over the others, their preferences become the forms of their theologies. Karl Barth, A.N. Whitehead, and Meister Eckhart are three towering figures representing revelational, metaphysical and experiential forms. I construct a theology of God’s calling in light of the insights from these three figures. The contents of the three figures are studied respecting to their forms so that the multiplicity divine human interaction could be elucidated through the three distinctive perspectives derived from their forms. This dissertation studies the three thinkers and creates conservations among their related ideas so that the theologies of the three figures could mutually illuminate each other on the subject matter. A theology of divine calling is constructed by integrating the ideas from the three distinctive perspectives.

This forthcoming essay begins by examining Martin Heidegger's and Gustav Landauer's influential interpretations of Eckhart as a Lebemeister, a 'master or teacher of life'. The essay then turns to the source on which they both rely, a source that may be the earliest attestation of the use of the word Lebemeister. This source, which is little known in its complete form, is all more noteworthy as it contrasts the figure of the Lebemeister with that of the Lesemeister, the 'master or teacher of learning'. (Lese- refers literally to 'reading'; we might also say 'letters', in the sense of a 'person of letters' who possesses great learning.) Commenting on this source, the essay interrogates to what extent Heidegger and Landauer do justice to it. It concludes with a reflection on how best to label Eckhart, above all in view of the ultimate master: Jesus Christ.

The present work aims to reconstruct Plato's reception in the Romantic Era, particularly in the current known as Frühromantik or Jena Circle. In the first part we reviewed an overview of how Plato's work becomes a concern in the German language from different sources. Second, we will focus in the relevance that Platonism raises for Early German Romantic ideas. And, finally, we analyze on the work of Friedrich Schlegel and his reception of the ideas of Platonism.

El presente trabajo pretende reconstruir la recepción de Platón en la época romántica, particularmente, en la corriente conocida como Frühromantik o Círculo de Jena. En la primera parte reseñamos un panorama general de cómo la obra de Platón deviene en una preocupación en lengua alemana a partir de distintas fuentes. En segundo lugar, veremos la relevancia que suscita el platonismo para las ideas románticas tempranas. Y, finalmente, nos concentramos en el trabajo de Fr. Schlegel y su recepción de las ideas del platonismo.

A inquietude humana é um dos temas mais fundamentais dentro da antropologia agostiniana. A
vida do homem é uma tensão ao infinito que o faz viver de forma inquieta, pois apresenta uma
insatisfação consigo mesmo e, com isso, está imerso numa busca de princípios para suprir esse
sentimento de inquietação que há na sua alma, sendo chamado a voltar-se para o seu interior para
encontrar o seu fim último. A pesquisa centraliza os estudos sobre Agostinho a partir das suas
análises sobre a inquietude humana, tendo como norte o conceito antropológico de homo viator. O
homo viator é o ser cujas inquietações definem seu modo de ser, sendo por isso que o conduz a uma
busca de respostas para as suas inúmeras dúvidas e indagações sobre a sua existência.

Autobiography of a Japanese person who became a zen priest in his 30s and took up kyudo (Japanese archery) at the age of 50. It describes his 'way' through life and the many people me met 'on the way'. He offers some unique views on the philosophical aspects of kyudo in particular and life in general. Recommended for people who are still trying to find their purpose and goal in life.