Within the Aristotelian tradition of the Latin Middle Ages ‘scientific knowledge’ was understood as knowledge derived from the conclusions of syllogism that deals with what is necessary and unchanging. According to Aristotle, however, the ‘arts’, which deal with doing and making, were not seen as ‘sciences’, because they deal with what is ‘contingent’. In his famous Ars lulliana Raymond Lull also wants to understand the productive ‘arts’ as demonstrative ‘sciences’ – he describes here a transcendental practical method, which is intented (...) to imitate God’s great work of art as creator. Even so, the Ars does not treat an abstract, Aristotelian science, but one that deals with creative production. Such a science should not be limited to universals, but also include the concrete individuals. Whereas the scholastics tried to take all the different disciplines as Aristotelian ‘sciences’, Lull wanted to take all the disciplines as ‘artes’. Here, therefore, it seems we have an anticipation of the change from the scientific paradigm of the Middle Ages to the arts model of the Renaissance. (shrink)

The spiritual quest of Raymond Lull is of interest to modern philosophical discourse as occupying an intermediate position between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and thus combining the features of these two eras in the history of the development of human thought. They are connected with the Middle Ages by theocentrism and traditionalism, and with the Renaissance by emphasizing the peculiar polyphony of the world, the predominance of plurality over unity, given in the autonomous dialogic space of the human (...) personality as a gradual immanentization of the presence of a transcendent deity, associated with the acceptance by man of the external world as the only possible one. This immanentization is carried out by Luli in the symbol of Love as the Unity of the Loving and the Beloved, explicating the thinker's introspection. The novelty of the work lies in the application of the teachings of A.F. Losev about the interpretive symbol, which made it possible to consider them as a special form of explication of the personality as its transcendence and simultaneous immanence, being a special form of introspection, which correlates with Lull's teaching about Love as a fluctuation in which the Beloved descends, and the Lover ascends. This contributes to the actualization of Lull's spiritual quest as an integrity, a unique eidos, in which each of the separate features of Raymond Lull's spiritual quest is realized in a special way, reflecting the intermediate position occupied by the thinker between the worlds of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The proposed model of mutual positing of the "components" of Lull's teaching allows us to show one of the possibilities for the interaction of the thinker's logical system (understanding the force, its bearer and passively perceiving its beginning) and his theologically oriented personal spiritual quest as a special kind of dynamics in which the leading role is assigned to introspection as a personal intentions, a kind of mythological sub-foundation of the actual logical dimension of the thinker's teachings. (shrink)

A partire da una sintetica ricostruzione storiografica degli studi su Raimondo Lullo, si mette in evidenza l'intreccio fra lavoro di documentazione, di edizione e di interpretazione che in questo ambito si è verificato nel corso del Novecento a partire da tre momenti essenziali: la fondazione della Maioricensis Schola Lullistica, che ha costituito il primo contesto istituzionale promotore dell'edizione critica dei testi latini; l' internazionalizzazione del progetto editoriale con l'attività del Raimundus-Lullus-Institut all'università di Freiburg i.Br.; l'ulteriore ampliamento della (...) ricerca a partire dall'uso tempestivo e meditato delle risorse elettroniche e della rete. Negli ultimi decenni questo rinnovamento del lavoro ecdotico ha prodotto, spesso – ma non solo – a opera degli stessi studiosi impegnati nelle edizioni, un'immagine per molti aspetti nuova del pensiero di Lullo e del suo interagire con la cultura del suo tempo, apportando nuovi elementi alla conoscenza del complesso contesto filosofico e teologico di inizio Trecento. A brief historiographical reconstruction of the studies on Ramon Llull highlights the link between the work of documentation, critical editing and interpretation in this area, which occurred during the twentieth century, starting from three essential moments: the foundation of the Maioricensis Schola Lullistica, the first institutional promoter of the critical editions of Lull's Latin works; the internationalization of this editorial project within the activities of the Raimundus-Lullus-Institut at the University of Freiburg i.Br.; the further expansion of research furthered by timely and thoughtful use of electronic resources and of the web. In recent decades this renovation of the ecdotic work has produced, often – yet not only – by the same scholars engaged in the editions, new facets in our understanding of Llull's thinking and of his interaction with the culture of his time, bringing new elements to our knowledge of the complex philosophical and theological context of early fourteenth century. (shrink)

This volume is a collection of the Lullian contributions to the 2012 Congress of the Societe Internationale pour l'Etude de la Philosophie Medievale (SIEPM), held in Freising, Germany, 20-25 August. The Lullian Opera constitute a philosophical mirror of the medieval tradition. The questions and interests of medieval masters played a role in the Renaissance and Early Modern period through the Lullian Art. The three parts of this volume-Knowledge, Contemplation and Lullism- are intended to show that influence, collecting the contributions of (...) well-known specialists on the Lullian works, conceived of as Opera philosophica, in different areas such as geometry, logic, methodology, or Early Modern law. The results of Lullian studies in the past 20th century and the revival of Lullian discussions at present also hold an important place. The Raimundus-Lullus-Institut in Freiburg supports this edition, and in the introduction its members place the volume in the great tradition of Lullian studies. The celebration of a Lullian meeting devoted to the relationship between medieval philosophy and the Lullian Opus at the 2012 SIEPM Congress, the recent constitution of a Lullian Section by the SIEPM-Bureau to develop projects about Llull's works as a vehicle of medieval philosophical concerns and the history of its reception, and the results collected in this volume, are a good example of the increasing relevance of Llull-studies today. (shrink)

The intuitions of Raimundus Lullus religious metaphysics are in this article explicated according to the opportunities of the convergence between the medieval and the new time philosophy. Such approach to the creativity of the thinker is possible, because his conception is one sides associated with the mystical symbolic theologism, that is typical for the medieval tradition, over sides develops Lullus the new understanding of the infinity of the world, inherent in the newtime philosophy. This opposition conditions some (...) of the features of Lullus spiritual quest. This quest connected the respect to the past, that causes the homesickness to the lost ideals, together with the progressivity – the presentation of the future. This presentiment is by Lullus expressed as the desire to change the external world. The aim of this change is the approximation of the rational theological base – the model for the real life. Lullus experiences the combination and the unrealized synthesis of this intentions as the tragedy. The acute and intensive conflict of this intentions triggers the practical atheism, when the stimulation of the external distraction of the evil leads causes the appearance and the activation of the new evil. This disaster of life is determined with some aspects of Lullus metaphysics, in that the infinity of God is realized as the infinity of the world. The infinity of the world is by Lullus given as the rational hierarchical order, leading to the creator of the world. The tragedy of life is for Lullus the marker, that emphasizes the crisis of the medieval philosophy, that was based on the revelation. This crisis discovers the land of new philosophy. This philosophy stresses the autonomy of the human personality. (shrink)

Used as the basis of the program at the Equinox Holistic Alternative School in Toronto, The Holistic Curriculum advocates for an integrative approach to teaching and learning with a focus on developing a deep connection between mind and body.

Transnational higher education (TNHE) has been characterised as a crude form of market-driven internationalisation, often targeting immobile student populations in countries with high demand for international academic degrees. In response to recent scholarship on the role of higher education internationalisation in facilitating and producing diasporic networks, this study examines its inverse: how TNHE services existing diasporic communities in situ by mobilising institutions across borders rather than student bodies. It specifically examines these dynamics within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), simultaneously host (...) to one of the largest concentrations of TNHE globally and a five million-member diasporic community of long-term, yet impermanent residents from South Asia. Drawing on interviews with South Asian students in undergraduate degree programmes at three British international branch campuses (IBCs), it explores how students perceive their IBCs as strategic sources of valuable degree capitals for enhancing employment opportunities in the UAE and securing against precarity and uncertain futures as perpetually impermanent residents. The research implicates the role of TNHE in diaspora policymaking, asking how IBCs function as an extension of a limited social contract between a diasporic community and its ‘host’ state. (shrink)

One of the important determinants of development during the transition to adulthood is the undertaking of social roles characteristic of adults, also in the area of finishing formal education, which usually coincides with beginning fulltime employment. In the study discussed in this paper, it has been hypothesized that continuing full-time education above the age of 26, a phenomenon rarely observed in Poland, can be considered as an unpunctual event that may be connected with difficulties in the process of identity formation. (...) Relationships between identity dimensions and identity statuses, and age and educational context were analyzed. 693 individuals aged 19-35 took part in the study. The participants attended three types of educational institutions: full-time university studies, part-time university studies, and full-time post-secondary school. Among the students of full-time university studies predictable dependencies, also in respect of highlevels of indicators of identity crisis and a high frequency of diffused identity occurrence, were observed. Such dependencies were not found in the group of full-time post-secondary school students. (shrink)