Hermeneutics

Literary criticism Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory, or conversely from book reviewing, is a matter of some controversy. For example, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism[1] draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. History[edit] Classical and medieval criticism[edit] Later classical and medieval criticism often focused on religious texts, and the several long religious traditions of hermeneutics and textual exegesis have had a profound influence on the study of secular texts. Renaissance criticism[edit] Enlightenment criticism[edit] In the Enlightenment period (1700s to 1800s), literary criticism became more popular.

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (German: [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪdɛɡɐ]; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher, widely seen as a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition, particularly within the fields of existential phenomenology and philosophical hermeneutics. From his beginnings as a Catholic academic, he developed a groundbreaking and widely influential philosophy. His relationship with Nazism has been a controversial and widely debated subject. For Heidegger, the things in lived experience always have more to them than what we can see; accordingly, the true nature of being is “withdrawal”. It has been suggested[by whom?] Biography[edit] Early years[edit] The Mesnerhaus in Meßkirch, where Heidegger grew up Studying theology at the University of Freiburg while supported by the church on the understanding that he would defend their doctrine, Heidegger broke with Catholicism, and switched to philosophy. Marburg[edit] Freiburg[edit] According to historian Richard J. Post-war[edit]

Paul Ricoeur 1. Biographical Sketch Paul Ricoeur was born on February 27, 1913 in Valence, France. His mother died shortly thereafter and his father was killed in the Battle of the Marne in 1915, so Ricoeur and his sister were reared by their paternal grandparents and an unmarried aunt in Rennes. They were devout members of the French Reformed Protestant tradition. 2. Ricoeur’s first major work was meant to be in three volumes that would lay out a philosophy of the will. The first volume, Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary (1950), proposes a phenomenology of the will, while bracketing the reality of evil and its solution. Ricoeur extends his account of freedom to take up the problem of evil in Fallible Man and The Symbolism of Evil, both published in 1960. Nor does this disproportion render our existence meaningless. Though the unity of humanity is never more than a unity founded on communication, precisely because we can communicate, the differences among us are never absolute.

Eternal return Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in Indian philosophy and in ancient Egypt and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics. With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse in the Western world, with the exception of Friedrich Nietzsche, who connected the thought to many of his other concepts, including amor fati. In addition, the philosophical concept of eternal recurrence was addressed by Arthur Schopenhauer. It is a purely physical concept, involving no supernatural reincarnation, but the return of beings in the same bodies. Premise[edit] The basic premise proceeds from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is greater than zero (we know this because our world exists). Judaism[edit]

Ricoeur, Paul Paul Ricoeur was among the most impressive philosophers of the 20th century continental philosophers, both in the unusual breadth and depth of his philosophical scholarship and in the innovative nature of his thought. He was a prolific writer, and his work is essentially concerned with that grand theme of philosophy: the meaning of life. Ricoeur's "tensive" style focuses on the tensions running through the very structure of human being. His constant preoccupation was with a hermeneutic of the self, fundamental to which is the need we have for our lives to be made intelligible to us. Table of Contents 1. Jean Paul Gustave Ricoeur was born on February 27, 1913, at Valence, France, and he died in Chatenay-Malabry, France on May 20, 2005. Ricoeur served in World War II – spending most of it as a prisoner of war – and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. 2. Ricoeur has developed a theoretical style that can best be described as "tensive". 3. 4. 5. 6. Ricoeur's ethics is teleological. 7. a. b.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (German: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician. Begun as a series of essays, the original German text was composed in 1904 and 1905, and was translated into English for the first time by Talcott Parsons in 1930.[1] It is considered a founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general. In 1998 the International Sociological Association listed this work as the fourth most important sociological book of the 20th century.[3] Summary[edit] Basic concepts[edit] Religious devotion, Weber argues, is usually accompanied by a rejection of worldly affairs, including the pursuit of wealth and possessions. Weber notes that this is not a philosophy of mere greed, but a statement laden with moral language. It is particularly advantageous in technical occupations for workers to be extremely devoted to their craft. Conclusions[edit] Reception[edit]

The Cherry Orchard Play by Anton Chekhov Widely regarded as a classic of 20th-century theatre,[citation needed] the play has been translated and adapted into many languages and produced around the world. Major theatre directors have staged it, including Charles Laughton, Peter Brook, Andrei Șerban, Jean-Louis Barrault, Tyrone Guthrie, Katie Mitchell, Robert Falls, and Giorgio Strehler. It has influenced many other playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill, George Bernard Shaw, David Mamet, and Arthur Miller. Characters[edit] The spelling of character names depends on the transliteration used. Madame Lyubov Andreievna Ranevskaya – a landowner. Plot[edit] Act 1[edit] Lopakhin has come to remind Ranevskaya and Gayev that their estate, including the cherry orchard, will be auctioned soon to pay off the family's debts. Ranevskaya is enjoying the view of the orchard as day breaks, when she is surprised by Peter Trofimov, a young student and former tutor of Ranevskaya's dead son, Grisha. Act 2[edit] Act 3[edit] Act 4[edit]

The Limits of Theory: Idealism, Distinction and Critical Pedagogy in Chicago Eli Thorkelson Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago “I think questioning a structure from within is very necessary, but we don’t need to know much about history to know the difficulties it produces.” —email from Bernard Dubbeld, 19 Oct 2005. “Systems” is the name of the first class you take in graduate school, if you’re in anthropology at the University of Chicago, although the official, bureaucratic title is “The Development of Social and Cultural Theory, Parts 1 and 2.” Why devote a critical essay to a single course in graduate school, a single course in a single department, a single course that is in no clear way representative of the discipline? In the front hall of our building, Haskell Hall, there is a totem pole that someone got from the Northwest Coast—but it is a decoy. A recursive, ambivalent critical situation I am not the first to see Systems in a critical light. On one level, the essay is simply a result of my own experience in the class, which I found troubling.