英语泛读教程4 unit 17 Philosophy

• Metaphysics • Traditional branches of metaphysics include cosmology, the study of the world in its entirety, and ontology, the study of being.
Intuition: Husserl /Bergson/ Schopenhauer/Fromm/ Hegel Transcendentalist

• Throw light on : • brighten /clarify
• infliction [in'flikʃən] • n.1. the act of imposing something (as a tax or an embargo) • 2. an act causing pain or damage • 3. something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness he's not a friend, he's an infliction
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renunciation [ri,nʌnsi'eiʃən] n. 1. rejecting or disowning or disclaiming as invalid 2. the state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favor of opposing beliefs or causes) • 3. an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned • 4. the act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.)
Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. Believes in intuition/self –reliance
Philosophy
transcendentalism幻灯片 8
• Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality .existence ,knowledge, values, reason, mind and language. • Etymology:The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek, φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom
• Plato (427–347 BC) combined rationalism with a form of realism. The philosopher's work is to consider being, and the essence (ousia) of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mindindependent "forms", that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of senseperception.
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reprobate ['reprəubeit] n.a person without moral scruples V.1. reject (documents) as invalid 2. abandon to eternal damnation God reprobated the unrepenting sinner • 3. express strong disapproval of These ideas were reprobated
Transcendentalism was in many aspects the first notable American intellectual movement. Rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant (and of German Idealism more generally), Vedic(veda吠陀经) thought, various religions • a reaction against 18th Century rationalism, John Locke's philosophy of Sensualism, and the predestinationism of New England Calvinism
• However, sexual domination and submission do not require either restraint or the infliction of pain. • 然而，性统治与性服从并不需要任何“束缚”或施以疼痛。 • The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell. • 对道学家来说，出于善意而使用残酷手段是件快乐的事，这就 是他们发明地狱的理由。 • War is (or should be) a matter of national survival, of accepting casualties and the infliction of suffering to avoid annihilation. • 战争是（或应该是）国家生存的问题，是为了避免灭亡施加的 痛苦。
• Areas of inquiry : Logic Epistemology MetaphysicsMoral and political philosophy, Aesthetics • Epistemology • (Skepticism is the position which questions the possibility of completely justifying any truth • Empiricism is the emphasis on observational evidence via sensory experience over other evidence as the source of knowledge. ) • Rationalism is the emphasis on reasoning as a source of knowledge. . Rationalism claims that every possible object of knowledge can be deduced from coherent premises without observation.
• Methodology: philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.
• 1. N-UNCOUNTThe renunciation of a belief or a way of behaving is the public declaration that you reject it and have decided to stop having that belief or behaving in that way. (对信仰或行为方式的) 放弃; 抛弃[also N in pl] • 例： The talks were dependent on a renunciation of terrorism. 会 谈以放弃恐怖主义为前提。 • 2. N-UNCOUNTThe renunciation of a claim, title, or privilege is the act of officially giving it up. (对声明、官衔、特权等的)正式放弃 • 例： ...the renunciation of territory in the Mediterranean. ...对地中 海领土的放弃。 • 3. N-UNCOUNTRenunciation is the act of not allowing yourself certain pleasures for moral or religious reasons. (因道德或宗教原 因)克己; 自我克制 • 例： Gandhi exemplified the virtues of renunciation, asceticism, and restraint. 甘地体现了克己、禁欲和自我约束的美德。