Showing papers on "Meaning of life published in 2000"

The physics of consciousness : the quantum minds and the meaning of life

Abstract: How quantum physics will explain the nature of reality and the human mind.. }For decades, neuroscientists, psychologists, and an army of brain researchers have been struggling, in vain, to explain the phenomenon of consciousness. Now there is a clear trail to the answer, and it leads through the dense jungle of quantum physics, Zen, and subjective experience, and arrives at an unexpected destination.In this tour-de-force of scientific investigation, Evan Harris Walker, a pioneer in the science of consciousness, describes the outcome of his fifty-year search for the true nature of reality. Drawing on a deep knowledge of quantum physics and Zen philosophy, Walker shows how the operation of bizarre yet actual properties of elementary particles support a new and exciting theory of reality, based on the principles of quantum physics; a theory that answers questions such as What is the nature of consciousness, of will? What is the source of material reality? and What is God?Clearly written in non-technical, lyrical prose, The Physics of Consciousness is more than just the explanation of a scienceit is a new vision of life. }

On the psychology of meaning of life 1

Abstract: ing of life? How can meaning of life be defined? How can meaning of life be empirically measured? Which results do studies about meaning of life provide? Which perspectives does the concept of meaning of life provide for psychology? The text is divided into five sections. The first section focuses briefly on important positions concerning the meaning of life theme. The second looks into the definition of meaning of life. The third section reviews empirical approaches to measuring meaning of life. Meaning of life and well-being are addressed in the fourth section. The fifth, and final, section presents a summary and perspectives.

Pluralism in Philosophy : Changing the Subject

Abstract: This original and ambitious book aims to change how we think about good lives. The perennial debates about good lives-the disagreements caused by conflicts between scientific, religious, moral, historical, aesthetic, and subjective modes of reflection-typically end in an impasse. This leaves the underlying problems of the meaning of life, the possibility of free action, the place of morality in good lives, the art of life, and human self-understanding as intractable as they have ever been. The way out of this impasse, argues Kekes, is to abandon the assumption shared by the contending parties that the solutions of these problems can be rational only if they apply universally to all lives in all contexts. He believes that solutions may vary with lives and contexts and still be rational. Kekes defends a pluralistic alternative to absolutism and relativism that will, he holds, take philosophy in a new and more productive direction.

PROFILES IN TOXICOLOGY Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology

Abstract: Paracelsus, Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, the “father of chemistry and the reformer of materia medica,” the “Luther of Medicine,” the “godfather of modern chemotherapy,” the founder of medicinal chemistry, the founder of modern toxicology, a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, and Nicholas Copernicus, was born near or in the village of Einsiedeln near Zurich, Switzerland, on 10 or 14 November 1493. His father, Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim, “was the impoverished scion of a noble family of Suabia.” He was a physician and an alchemist who “had married a Swiss girl and practised medicine on the pilgrims’ road that leads to the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln.” In 1502, following the death of his mother, the family moved to the mining town of Villach in Carinthia in southern Austria, where the father became the municipal physician and also taught chemistry. The father combined his interests in chemistry and medicine with his patients’ experiences in the mines and in the smelting plants and became an expert in occupational medicine. The young Paracelsus, headstrong, stubborn, and independent, grew up in a home environment where chemistry and biology were paramount and he learned a great deal from his father, who became his role model. He decided he wanted to be a physician/chemist like his father. Paracelsus grew up during a period of Renaissance humanism when most intellectuals and scholars became enchanted with antiquity, with old manuscripts, with ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Latin writers, philosophers, physicians and scientists. Answers were sought in these old writings. There was an utter fascination with things old. Medicine turned to (rediscovered) Galen, the “Prince of Physicians.” But there was another school that was developing during this period, and this was the school of the naturalists who sought truths, including divine truths, in the study of nature and in man’s relationship to the macrocosm. Which approach would be appealing to young Paracelsus? Paracelsus studied at a number of universities in Europe, receiving his baccalaureate in medicine in 1510 and his doctorate in 1516 from the University of Ferrara. It was at this time that he assumed the name Paracelsus (para: beside, beyond, and Celsus: a famous Roman physician). His stubbornness had evolved into a rebellious spirit and he began to challenge the system of medicine including teaching and practice. He was disenchanted with universities and noted that “The universities do not teach all things.” To broaden his knowledge, to learn more, and to gain experience, he traveled throughout Europe, the British Isles, Egypt, and the Holy Land; he was exposed to the latest developments in chemistry and medicine. He became an itinerant physician/surgeon. He returned to Villach in 1524 as the municipal physician and remained there until 1527. During that time, and as a result of his wanderings in search of knowledge, he contemplated many fundamental issues such as the meaning of life and death, health and the causes of disease (internal imbalances or external forces), the place of humans in the world and in the universe, and the relationship between humans (including himself) and God. This led to the development of a Paracelsian approach to medicine and a unique philosophy and theology. He was a free thinker, an iconoclast, and a theosophist. He became a reformer (hence the term the “Luther of Medicine“), a scientist, and a mystic. He tried to convince the members of the medical profession and the medical faculties (who conspired against him) and the public about the importance of chemistry in medicine and other concepts, but most refused to listen. “He yelled his message at them and became more and more bitter and aggressive.” For example, in 1527, he accepted the position of municipal physician in Basle. This also involved lecturing at the University of Basle, considered then (as now) a privilege. Because of his fame, his lectures were well attended. His disenchantment with the teaching of medicine at the university and with the practice of medicine reached its climax on 24 June 1527, St. John’s Day, when he publicly burned the standard medical textbooks of the day (e.g., Avicenna, Galen). He challenged the reigning medical experts and lost. This eventually led to his leaving the university and the city of Basle—a frustrated and angry free 1 For correspondence via fax: (804) 285-1401. E-mail: toxpro@aol.com. TOXICOLOGICAL SCIENCES 53, 2–4 (2000) Copyright © 2000 by the Society of Toxicology

Existential Questions of the Elderly

Abstract: Objective: To prove the actual understanding of aging by younger and older people. For this purpose two surveys have been conducted. Results: Old age poses important existential challenges, namely coming to terms with the transitory character of life, coping with the approach of death and parting, enduring illness and suffering, being confronted with the question of the meaning of life and ultimate religious questions, and, finally, managing problems of loneliness, anxiety and depression. Conclusion: The life of the elderly requires an enhanced ability to respond to the fundamental questions of existence, because this loom ever larger during old age and contribute considerably to its inherent problems. The paper concludes with some remarks on an appropriate existential attitude to be adopted by the doctor in discussions with the elderly patients.

Schopenhauer on the ethics of suicide

Abstract: The concept of death is of special importance in Schopenhauer's metaphysics of appearance and Will. Death for Schopenhauer is the aim and purpose of life, that toward which life is directed, and the denial of the individual will to life. Despite his profound pessimism, Schopenhauer vehemently rejects suicide as an unworthy affirmation of the will to life by those who seek to escape rather than seek nondiscursive knowledge of Will in suffering. The only manner of self-destruction Schopenhauer finds philosophically acceptable is the ascetic saint's death by starvation. Here the individual will to life is so completely mastered as to refuse even the most basic desire for nourishment, and thereby passes into nonexistence in complete renunciation of the individual will. Schopenhauer's attitude toward suicide nevertheless embodies an inconsistency. If, as Schopenhauer believes, the aim of life is death, and death is an unreal aspect of the world as appearance, then there appears to be no justification why the philosopher should not rush headlong into it - not to affirm the will to life in an abject effort to avoid suffering, but in order to fulfill life's purpose by ending it for distinctly philosophical reasons immediately upon arriving at an understanding of the appearance-reality distinction.

The Meaning of Life in the World Religions

Abstract: Aslen ruhban sınıfının bir üyesi, yaşlı bir piskopos olan Kenneth Cragg, dünyanın çeşitli ülkelerinde akademik ve kilise-idarî pozisyonlar almış, Müslüman-Hıristiyan ilişkilerinde otorite sayılan, emekli olduktan sonra bile bu alanlarda etkinliğini sürdüren bir isim. Alanında öncü ve otorite sayılan ve ilk kez 1956 yılında basılan bu eserin, 2000 yılında ilavelerle üçüncü baskısı yapıldı. Eserinin birinci ana kısmında birçok Batılının hidayetine vesile olan ezanı İslam inancı ve kimliğinin bir şiarı olarak gören yazar, onda temsil olunan İslamın amentüsünü ve bireysel ve toplumsal hayata nasıl yansıdığını tafsil ediyor. Öncelikle ezanda özetlenen tevhid inancının kulluk şuurunu ve İslamî kimliği nasıl biçimlendirdiği, Müslümanların dünyaya bakışını nasıl belirlediği işleniyor. İdeal, mükemmel bir Müslüman olarak Hz. Peygamber’in dinin inşasında ve Müslümanlara rehberlikteki anlamı ve rolü açıklandıktan sonra “İslam ibadet fenomenolojisi” diyebileceğimiz bir açıdan tevhid inancına dayalı kulluk görevlerinin dünya ile ahireti birbirine bağlayan derin sembolik anlamları üzerinde duruluyor. Bölümün sonunda ise Cragg, sosyolojik bir açıdan inancın toplumsal-kültürel hayatın çeşitli düzeylerine nasıl yansıdığını vukufla işliyor. Vukufla, çünkü, yazar bu konuda azami derecede empatik olmayı başarabilen nadir isimlerden biri. Kitabın bu birinci ana kısmı, İslamı içeriden empatik bir şekilde anlamaya ve anlatmaya adanmış. Çünkü verimli bir diyalogun öncelikli gereği birbirini tanımaktır.

Reflexivity and Social Embeddedness in the History of Ethical Philosophies

Abstract: If one looks at the long-term history of philosophy, not only in the European West but in the world, one sees that ethical philosophies develop in a very different pattern than epistemology and metaphysics. Value questions arise early in the forming of intellectual networks, and they are generally the most important questions in their appeal to lay audiences. The most common amateur conception of philosophy is such discussion as ‘what is the meaning of life?’ or ‘how ought one to act?’ Nevertheless, in overviewing the history of philosophical networks, value-questions are much less prominent in shaping the direction of intellectual change than are arguments over cosmology, metaphysics, and epistemology. Once formulated, value-stances have tended to remain static for very long periods of time, compared to the long series of shifts in epistemology and metaphysics.

Meaningful care. A multidisciplinary approach to the meaning of care for people with mental retardation

Abstract: Introduction: Meaningful care concepts and content. Section One: Experience of Meaning from a Family Perspective. 1. A Parent's Search for Meaning in Family Life F.M. Young. 2. Parents' Experiences of Meaning J. Stolk, H. Kars. Section Two: Meaning, Worldview and Care. 3. Meaning of Life and Meaning of Care: A Jewish Perspective R. Evers. 4. Meaning of Life and Meaning of Care: A Christian Perspective T.A. Boer. 5. Mental Retardation and the Quest for Meaning: Philosophical Remarks on 'The Meaning of Life' in Modern Society H.S. Reinders. Section Three - Meaning in Medical Care. 6. Meaning in Medical Care for People with Mental Retardation: Some Remarks from the Dutch Context R. Seldenrijk. 7. Medical Technique and our Coping with Suffering: Prenatal Diagnosis as an Example U. Eibach. 8. Meaningfulness and Meaninglessness in Neonatology D. van Bruggen. 9. Parents' View on the Prevention of Handicaps J. Stolk, H. Kars. Section Four: Experience of Meaning in Daily Care. 10. Timeful Friends: Living with People with Mental Retardation S.M. Hauerwas. 11. Experience of Meaning in Human Encounter P.A. de Ruyter. 12. Experience of Meaning in Daily Care for People with Mental Retardation J. Stolk. Index. Contributors.

Parents’ Experiences of Meaning

Abstract: The birth of a child who has a handicap is a great disappointment for parents. Their baby does not meet the expectations that they developed during the past nine months. What they value in their lives and parenthood has been tossed in the air. Parents may face emotional problems and difficulties in the upbringing of their child with mental retardation. They may also be confronted with fundamental questions regarding the meaning of life of their child and of their own lives as parents.

In Search of the Meaning of Life: A Study of the Ideas of Senior Compulsory School Pupils on Life and its Meaning in an Experiential Learning Context

Abstract: The author discusses personal philosophies of life and an educational experiment carried out in the upper secondary school in Sweden. Data on older secondary school pupils’ views on the meaning of life was collected during lessons in which the researcher acted as teacher, and then carried out an analysis. The ideas of the pupils can themselves form part of religious education as well as having potential to provide links between the experience of pupils and material from the world's religious traditions.

The Logic of Christian Theology and the "Right to Die"

Abstract: The logic of Christian faith challenges most of the claims made by those who affirm a right to die, including Nazi claims. Whereas right-to-die proponents view life as a possession with which we can do whatever we like, the Christian tradition treats life as a trust held on behalf of God. The purpose of life is not to serve our desires but to serve God. While the Chris- tian tradition challenges the claim that all suffering is meaningless and needs to be ended, it urges compassion for those afflicted with undeserved and unexplainable sufferings, using Christ's participation in the human condition as its model.

Pastoraat in rousmart as bewuste kommunikasie van die emosies van rousmart 1

Abstract: New meaning of life within grief. From the perspecive of pastoral care and counselling, one often finds that people experience a lack of meaning in their lives when confronted with grief. Thesalvation through Jesus Christ, and the way it is incorporated in one's life, doesn't bring existential hope and meaning any more. This article attempts to give new meaning to an old discussion of "grief" the conscious and unconscious mind, aswell as the emotions of grief, in such a way that new meaning of life within grief becomes a spiritual way of living, a life coram Deo.

Life and death : metaphysics and ethics

Abstract: Metaphysics as Prolegomenon to Ethics (Joel Kupperman) The Meaning of Life (John Kekes) In Defense of a Common Ideal for a Human Life (E. M. Adams) Can the Dead Really Be Buried? (Palle Yourgrau) Later Death/Earlier Birth (Christopher Belshaw) Death and the Psychological Conception of Personal Identity (John Martin Fischer and Daniel Speak) Thick and Thin Selves: Reply to Fischer and Speak (Frederik Kaufman) The Termination Thesis (Fred Feldman) The Evil of Death Revisited (Harry S. Silverstein) Death and Asymmetries in Normative Appraisals (Ishtiyaque Haji) Appraising Death in Human Life: Two Modes of Valuation (Stephen E. Rosenbaum)"For Now Have I My Death': The "Duty to Die" versus the Duty to Help the Ill Stay Alive (Felicia Ackerman) Taking Life and the Argument from Potentiality (Roy W. Perrett) Privatizing Death: Metaphysical Discouragement of Ethical Thinking (John Woods) Justifications for Killing Noncombatants in War (F. M. Kamm) Capital Punishment and the Sanctity of Life (Philip E. Devine) Aesthetics: The Need for a Theory (Mary Mothersill) Contributors

Meaning of Life and Meaning of Care: A Christian Perspective

Abstract: In this contribution, we will review the quest for meaning in the lives of people with mental retardation, and of the meaning of care, in light of what I conceive to be some key concepts of the Christian tradition. This tradition is complex and therefore not always unequivocal. As I will argue, however, the degree of unanimity and consensus is larger than the amount of dissensus. I commence with some remarks about what we do when we ask questions about the meaning of life, and I will especially point to the action-guiding intention of such questions (section 2). Next, I explore some other theoretical questions, such as whether meaning is formulated “bottom-up,” “top-down,” or dialectically (section 3). The connection between meaning and experiences of meaning and the question to what degree issues about meaning are different for people with, and without mental retardation, is addressed in section 4. Although all sections are written on the backdrop of a Christian worldview, section 5 addresses the Biblical basis for such an approach more thematically. This chapter ends with some conclusions.

Godsbegrippe en die funksie van metafore in die rousmartproses 1

Abstract: Grief, metaphors and images of God. This article atempts to give new meaning to the discussion of "grief," "metaphors's" and "images of God" in such a way that new meaning of life within grief becomes a spiritual way of living, a life coram Deo. It is argued that the task of the pastor should be to communicate the different images of God on a conscious level so that the person undergoing counselling could develop the ability to evaluate his or her own images of God, which had been subconscious, on to a conscious level, in order to live the hope in Jesus Christ as an eschatological and pneumatical happening.

Sharers in Divine Nature: 2 Peter 1:4 in Its Hellenistic Context

Abstract: This book offers a theological study of an expression unique in biblical literature concerning the purpose of life: “that you might become sharers in divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Following an analysis of the text-immanent features in 2 Peter 1:1—11, the study delineates comparable notions of “sharers in divine nature” in selected writings that were current in the first century and contrasts these with 2 Peter. The comparative material includes the writings of the Old Testament, Josephus, Philo, Plutarch, Stoicism, Pauline Christianity, and other New Testament letters. A constellation of ideas is identified in 2 Peter 1:1—11 that informs the meaning of “sharers in divine nature.” By faith a person gains knowledge of Christ, which grants to the Christ believer two distinct but inseparable divine attributes: the moral excellence of Christ, exhibited with progressive clarity by the Christian, and, attendant upon the first, the immortality of Christ, with an escape from the decay caused by desire. The parousia consummates the Christ believer’s share in both aspects of divine nature. This idea cluster—knowledge of the divine enabling acquisition of divine virtue ensued by divine incorruption—is found to pervade the Jewish and non-Jewish writings here considered. Similarities of structure are observed particularly in Philo and Plutarch. Structural resemblances are detected again in Paul along with the additional presence of several formal parallels. These observations allow the conclusions that 2 Peter 1:4 alludes to a widely-held nexus of ideas, that Middle Platonic thought exerts some influence on 2 Peter 1:4, but that a more direct and tangible affinity exists with Paul.

Meaning of Life and Meaning OF Care

Abstract: In this contribution, we will review the quest for meaning in the lives of people with mental retardation, and of the meaning of care, in light of what I conceive to be some key concepts of the Christian tradition. This tradition is complex and therefore not always unequivocal. As I will argue, however, the degree of unanimity and consensus is larger than the amount of dissensus.

Meaning of Life and Meaning of Care

Abstract: Judaism is a religious system, and thus approaches questions about the meaning of life for people with mental retardation from a religious perspective. Even in the oldest sources (Mishna, Oral Studies, 200 CE; Talmud, about 500 CE), people with mental retardation were relieved from all accountability in a civil judicial sense, and, in a religious sense, exempted from having to follow the religious commandments and prohibitions of the Torah (Bible).

Meaningful Care: Concepts and Content

Abstract: It is crucial for the quality of care of people with mental retardation that care providers experience their work as meaningful. A complexity, however, is the fact that this care is divided amongst a range of professions. This book addresses issues of meaning (meaning of care and meaning of life) from all the different professional perspectives involved. Such a multidisciplinary approach is unique and has never before been followed. The book contains the results of a series of interviews in which parents of people with mental retardation were asked what they conceive to be meaningful care. The results are placed in relation to experiences and conceptions of professional caregivers. Moreover, the study analyzes the cultural, philosophical, and theological significance of the concept, `meaningful care'. Finally, the book explores the relevance of this concept for practical professions such as medical care, social work, educational psychology, pedagogic counseling, and pastoral care. Scholarly depth is combined with experiential knowledge of professional practice. Hence, this book is an outstanding source of reflection for all those who work professionally with people with mental retardation.