Showing papers on "Supreme Being published in 2002"

How to Prove the Existence of a Supreme Being

Abstract: This essay undertakes the task of unravelling the history of the concept of the “Supreme Being” from the beginnings of Greek philosophy to the emergence of Christianity, with a special attention to a system of argumentation meant to demonstrate the existence - and eternity - of such a being. Referred to here as the “gradation argument”, it is related to the ontological proof, and thus our inquiry belongs to the discussion about the prehistory of the latter. The key authors in the development of the argument discussed are Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Cleanthes, but I devote a short excursus to the presence of the concept of the Supreme Deity in pseudo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist authors, and to the epistemological aspect of the concept that connects it with the via eminentiae. Besides the historical inquiry, I examine the validity of the proof and propose a mathematical model that helps us to see its merits and limits.

Dualistische Gottesideen der Bantu Zentralafrikas

Abstract: The supreme being of the ethnic groups which have settled on the Congo estuary, especially the Kongo, Yombe, Kuta, Yansi, Yaka, has characteristics both of celestial and of lower, more local chthonic beings. These characteristics are sometimes understood to be feminine. Among some of these ethnic groups, especially the Yaka, Ndzaambi/Nzambi, the name of the supreme being can also be used for ancestors, Nkisi, chiefs, and the deceased. This leads to the question whether in pre-Christian times one might have thought of the supreme being not in terms of a personal being, but rather in terms of a diffuse sort of power, which was felt operative in all the great and mighty. In this case, the influence of Christianity with its biblical notions of God might have been superimposed on the traditional supreme being.

Sex and Gender: A Spectrum of Views

Abstract: Preface for Instructors. Introduction for Students. About the Editors. About the Contributors. Methodological Prologue: How Should We Think about Sex and Gender? D.H. Lawrence: A Propos of Lady Chatterly"s Lover. Janet Radcliffe Richards: The Fruits of Unreason. 1. Male and Female: Is the Distinction Natural or Conventional? Jan Morris: My Conundrum. Anthony Mastroeni: The Principle of Totality-A Possible Justification for Transsexual Surgery. Stephen B. Clark: The Universality of Sex Roles. Suzanne Kessler and Wendy McKenna: The Primacy of Gender Attribution. Richard Wasserstrom: Sex Roles and the Ideal Society. Mary Midgley and Judith Hughes: Biology, Mere and Otherwise. Roger Scruton: Sex and Gender. 2. Sexuality: The Flesh and the Spirit. Richard Mohr: The Inherent Privacy of Sex. Andrea Dworkin: Intercourse. Bertrand Russell: The Place of Sex Among Human Values. Thomas Nagel: Sexual Perversion. Richard Connell: Reproduction as the Goal of Sexuality. Niles Newton: Sexual Intercourse: Its Relation to the Rest of Women"s Sexual Role. Susan Lydon: The Politics of Orgasm. Richard Rodriguez: The Late Vicotrians. Arlene Stein: From Old Gay to New. Plato: The Ladder or Eros. 3. Reproduction: How Far Should We Try to Control It? Sallie Tisdale: We Do Abortions Here. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion. Celia Wolf-Devine: Abortion and the Feminine Voice. Rosemary Radford Ruether: Birth Control and the Ideals of Marital Sexuality. Cormac Burke: Marriage and Contraception: Donors and Surrogates. John Robertson: Collaborative Reproduction. Jean Bethke Elshtain: Technology as Destiny. Hilde Lindemann Nelson and James Lindemann Nelson: Cutting Motherhood in Two. 4. Marriage and Family: Is the Traditional Family a Good Thing? Donald Hatcher: Existential Ethics and Why It"s Immoral to be a Housewife. Sandra Bartky: Feeding Egos and Tending Wounds: Deference and Disaffection in Women"s Emotional Labor. John Rawls: Justice and the Family. Michael Sandel: Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender and the Family. Phyllis Schlafly: The Power of the Positive Woman. Jean Behtke Elshtain: Feminists Against the Family. Sylvia Ann Hewlett: When the Bough Breaks. 5. Politics: Gender in the Public Arena. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: Sex Wars: Not the Fun Kind. Alison Jaggar: Political Philosophies of Women"s Liberation. Juli Loesch Wiley: Social Feminism: Reweaving Society. Louis Katzner: Is the Favoring of Women and Blacks in Employment and Educational Opportunities Justified? Laura Purdy: In Defense of Hiring Apparently Less Qualified Women. Catherine MacKinnon: Sexual Harassment: Its First Decade in Count. Katie Roiphe: Reckless Eyeballing. Michael Novak: Men Without Women. Timothy F. Murphy: Homosex/Ethics. Andrew Sullivan: The Conservative Case for Same-Sex Marriage. Robert P. George: "Same-Sex Marriage" and "Moral Neutrality". David Orgon Coolidge: The Question of Marriage: Two Arguments. Paula Ettlelbrick: Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?. E.J. Graff: Retying the Knot. 6. Religion: Naming the Supreme Being. Mircea Eliade: The Sacredness of Nature and Cosmic Religion: Sky Gods and Mother Earth. Genesis: Chapters 1-3. Carol P. Christ: Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections. Elizabeth Johnson: Basic Linguistic Options: God, Women Equivalence. Juli Loesch Wiley: On the Fatherhood of God and Is "God the Mother" Just as Good? Richard Davis: Inclusive Language: A Christian Gay Man"s View. Susan Heine: God the Father, God the Mother, and Goddesses. Gary Culpepper: Why Christians Name God "Father". Rosemary Radford Ruether: Ecofeminism: Symbolic and Social Connections of the Oppression of Women and the Domination of Nature. Edith Black: Women in Genesis 1-3. Tamar Frankiel: Judaism and Feminine Spirituality.