Dualism

The suppression of color is a common mood in the Far Eastern aesthetic experience, which is best represented by the brush-ink Chinese painting. Influenced by the Taoist and Confucian philosophical doctrines, it reflects the traditional principles of loneliness, poverty, and simplicity. Visualizing the Chinese traditional dualism, the black and white system goes beyond an artistic style and resembles a state of contemplation which invites to complete unity with nature. The final goal is self-annihilation in the light of the principle of non-expression.

This article tries to find a way out of the epistemological problem and the self-body question in Cartesian dualism in light of Mulla Sadra Shirazi's philosophy. There are possibilities in Sadra's thought which make achieving this objective possible. The argument develops in three steps to bring into focus the subject, the object, and knowledge. Concerning the subject, Mulla Sadra's philosophy demonstrates that self/soul and body are unified through modal boundedness (tqyid-i al-sha'ni) which is called existential objectivity in which the self-body duality makes no sense. In his discussion on the object, Shirazi points out that philosophical truths such as necessity, causality, oneness, and so on are unified to the external being and the objective reality in an integrative way (taqyid-i al-indimadji) having existential objectivity. Regarding knowledge, Mulla Sadra emphasizes the existential character of knowledge rather than its essentiality. Therefore, the existence or the existential unity between the knower, the known, and the knowledge overcome the self-body and self-external world cleavages. Because of its unity with the body, the self is present in the external world and perceives the world or the external facts, and then some ideas of the external worlds will appear in mind.

When studying Henri Bergson's works, one can understand that as he proceeds from theoretical philosophy to applied philosophy, he criticizes deterministic view in favor of freedom and establishes foundations of this attitude. He is of the view that by obtaining true knowledge, we would achieve practical purposes including dynamic religion, open society and, more importantly, freedom. Bergson establishes his epistemological and metaphysical foundations in a way that he provides an appropriate base for the realization of freedom in open society. This study attempts to interpret Bergson's idea about freedom in light of his dualistic system, and by referring to the place of freedom within the dualistic system, it also attempts to explain Bergson's conception of freedom and show how and why freedom would be realized. Furthermore, this paper seeks to show that freedom would be realized by disregarding the wrong parts of Bergson's dualism in relation to dynamic religion, with the help of intuitive knowledge which takes duration into account and in an open society, while closed society, static religion and the epistemological attitude which rely on intelligence and have a spatial approach to time would hinder the occurrence of freedom. Thus the cognitive basis of conceiving free will is considered in the light of a dualistic approach in which the positive side (life) realizes the freedom, while the negative side (matter) causes determinism.

In his attempt, to make plausible the Christian doctrine of Atonement, Richard Swinburne faces many objections. One objection has been that no sense can be made of the belief that life is a gift. This is because humans have no responsibility to God and no subsequent need to atone to God for wrongdoing. One way out of this objection requires belief in a soul. This paper, based on descriptive analytics, outline Swinburne’s Atonement theory to give a flavor of what depends on the belief that life is a gift from God. Then categorize and present the objections Swinburne faces. As for the objection it will focus on, and also provide its remedy and suggest that the remedy is quite digestible from an Islamic perspective.

According to a widely held view in the philosophy of mind, property dualism is a respectable theory whereas substance dualism need not be taken seriously. This paper argues that property dualism, as it is usually understood, is incoherent. The commitments that are meant to lead to property dualism actually lead to substance dualism. The argument presented here adds weight to David Chalmers’ suggestion that the serious nonphysicalist options are in fact various kinds of panpsychism and substance dualism. Along the way, I offer an account of the substance/property distinction, argue against the existence of substrata as distinct from substances and properties, and describe a new position that I call ‘transcendent panpsychism’. I identify some reasons why philosophers of mind might have overlooked the incoherence of property dualism and finish with some thoughts on the significance of my conclusion for developmental psychology.

The present article aims to analyze Ann Pancake’s Strange as this Weather Has Been through the lens of ecofeminist theories. The study explores the connections between women and nature by focusing on three key areas: inherent affinity and dualism, agency and intrinsic values, and conflict with technology. The article addresses how the novel expresses and upholds ecofeminist concepts and how the female characters challenge the male-dominated power structure by participating in the ecofeminist movement through their actions and words as Earth's guardians. Greta Gaard’s ecofeminist ideas form the theoretical foundation of this research. The article highlights how the primary female characters in the novel exhibit a profound bond with their land and work to safeguard it as guardians of the Earth, embodying resilience, empowerment, and an enduring spirit, and manifest self-confidence and a deep connection with nature. Through this affinity, they portray a sense of belonging and identity with nature. It laments that technology, which is manipulated in capitalist and patriarchal ideologies, treats nature merely as a commodity. The narrative also showcases and criticizes the dire environmental and societal consequences of mountaintop removal mining as a harmful technological practice in Appalachia, which, on a macro level, stands for the world.