Vol 10 No 2 2018 - Page 3

Doubting Descartes: How Berkeley’s Immaterialism Outshines the Cartesian System

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Rocco A. Astore

New School for Social Research. Email: Astor421@newschool.edu

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.11

Received February 23, 2018; Revised March 14, 2018; Accepted March 25, 2018; Published May 07,  2018.

Abstract:

The 17th-century Rationalist philosopher, Descartes, famously uttered “cogito ergo sum,” or “I think; therefore, I am.” (1980, 61). Although this declaration caused an irreversible shift in philosophical thought, does it genuinely capture the bond between the nature of existence and consciousness? This essay will commence with an overview of Descartes’s method of doubt, and why it led him to conclude that correct reasoning necessarily leads to certain knowledge of self and an awareness of one’s uniqueness as a substance (1980, 62-64). Next, by entering the skeptical approach of Immaterialist philosopher George Berkeley, this piece will attempt to cast uncertainty on this foundational Cartesian claim. Lastly, this paper will assert why it is that Berkeley’s “esse est percipi,” or “to be is to be perceived,” portrays the link between existence and thought more precisely than what may be Descartes’s most profound articulation.

Keywords: Descartes, cogito ergo sum, consciousness, Berkeley, esse est percipi, existence.

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Development of Global-Mindedness among College Students: a Comparative Study among the Japanese and US Students

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Yuki AMAKI

Organization for International Collaboration, Meiji University, Japan. ORCID id: 0000-0002-6794-8870. Email id: amaki@meiji.ac.jp

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.10

Received December 20, 2017; Revised March 14, 2018; Accepted March 30, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract

It is to be expected that a significant difference should exist in the development of global-mindedness between students with study-abroad experience and those with none. This study seeks to examine how U.S. college students, in comparison with Japanese college students, describe the concept of global-mindedness. The target population for this survey was current undergraduate college students in the U.S. and Japan. In the background section of the survey, I indicated each student’s year in college and whether or not she or he had studied abroad. The next section of the survey sought to measure global preparedness. 209 U.S. college students and 120 Japanese college students responded to this survey. U.S. college students and Japanese students responded in fundamentally similar ways, with some notable differences. Both characterized awareness of other cultures as an essential characteristic of globally minded adults. However, most U.S. college students indicated open-mindedness and global awareness as characteristics of global-mindedness, while many Japanese college students indicated flexibility to work on different teams and possession of foreign language skills. Japanese college students emphasized individual strength, identity, and language ability, whereas U.S. college students emphasized ability to understand other cultures. On study abroad experience, the outcomes did not show measurable differences in global mindedness between those with and those without international experience, either among Japanese or US students. This study highlights differences in the ways Japanese and U.S. college students think about their careers and the degree and kinds of global preparedness necessary to accomplish career goals.

Keywords: global careers, global-mindedness, global leaders, higher education, globalization.

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Clashing Masculinities: Amos Oz’s Panther in the Basement

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Can Bahad?r Yüce

Indiana University, 1011 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN 47405, cbyuce@indiana.edu, orcid.org/0000-0001-5904-8007. Email: cbyuce@indiana.edu

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.09

Received December 14, 2017; Revised March March 31, 2018; Accepted April 10, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

 Abstract

In Middle Eastern fiction, the East-West discourse has largely been discussed through gender representations. Amos Oz’s 1998 novel Panther in the Basement follows this pattern by offering a complex portrayal of concurrent themes regarding the creation of the modern Middle East such as nation-building and empire. The novel narrates the friendship between a Jewish boy and a British soldier. The contrast between the boy’s emerging manhood and the soldier’s deficient masculinity suggests a reading of the tension between nationalism and colonialism through the realm of gender. The boy’s manliness features represent the idealism of the emerging nation-state whereas the soldier’s vulnerable masculinity represents declining imperial colonialism. The novel’s presentation of “clashing masculinities” indicates that a variety of masculinities exist, instead of one type of masculinity. This paper explores how Panther in the Basement offers cultural criticism by deconstructing the conventional conceptualizations of gender.

Keywords: masculinity, nationalism, colonialism, cultural criticism, gender, Amos Oz, the New Man, Middle Eastern literature.

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Analyzing the “Internal Other” in English literature: Welsh Characters in J. Fowles’ A Maggot and A. Burgess’ Any Old Iron

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Zulfiya Zinnatullina1, Liliya Khabibullina2

1 Kazan Federal University, Russian Federation, Orcid: 0000-0003-1616-9911. Email: zin-zulya@mail.ru

2Kazan Federal University, Russian Federation

   Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.08

Received November 01, 2017; Revised March 03, 2018; Accepted March 10, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problem of depicting the “internal other” in English literature in the second half of the 20th century. For a long time the significance of Welsh characters as the Others was not as essential for English literature as for Irish or Scottish; however, in the second half of the 20th century the attitude to them changes, which, as we suppose, is connected with the establishment of the European Union and foregrounding of the Arthurian myth. This brings about the discussions of English works of literature of the 1980s like A Maggot (1986) by John Fowles and Any Old Iron (1988) by Anthony Burgess. In these novels one can trace particular similarities in the depiction of Welsh characters. For example, the characters have a widespread family name Jones, and also the authors depict such stereotypes of Welsh behavior as craving for alcohol and garrulousness. The narrations of both novels have certain similarities: the main characters participate in a “quest”, the consequences of which must play a significant role in the history of their nation and the world in general. All above mentioned facts argue for the specific status of Welsh characters in the English novel of the end of the 20th century and for a particular place literature allots to them not only in the national but also in the world history.

Key words: Welsh, national character, Fowles, Burgess, contemporary English literature.

Self and the Quest for Ideal Existential Space: a Study of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

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Saumya Bera1 & Soumyajyoti Banerjee2

1Assistant professor, Haldia Institute of Technology. Haldia, Dist- Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India, 721657. ORCID: 0000-0002-1198-9366. Email: berasaumya@gmail.com

2Assistant professor, Haldia Institute of Technology.

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.06

Received November 27, 2017; Revised March 28, 2018; Accepted March 31, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract:

The present study seeks to explore questions of formation, discernment and inspection of the individual identity through the exploration of existential space. This idea has been explicated through the narrative of Sal in the selected text who attempts to disembark at an understanding about the entirety of human existence. In the present study, Sal begets an identity in his mental space, which is devoid of any rootedness to his present contextual existence. This very realization drives him to go on the road in search of an ideal existential space that might resonate his own ‘self’. However, in doing so, he actually looks for an existential space to form his own identity which consequently gives birth to the conflict, the existential angst. His attempt to ‘be’ by idealizing the ‘other’ and assimilating the ‘otherness’ halts the process of formation of identity. Therefore, Sal’s imagination of ‘self’ and ‘other’ fades away in an unending loop of deference. The study intends to employ the theoretical tool of Existential Space to understand the imaginary constructs that inform the creation and evaluation of the identity of the individual.

Keywords: self, identity, quest, idealization, existentialism, space

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Maggie’s Deafening Silence: Femininity as a Masquerade in Henry James’ The Golden Bowl

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Ali Taghizadeh & Forough Emam

English Department, Faculty of Arts, Razi University, Kermanshah, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Email: altaghee@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.05

Received November 08, 2017; Revised February 06, 2018; Accepted February 15, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract                                                                                

In Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, although Maggie Verver is in love with her husband, her silence, regarding his affair, is quite enigmatic. However, in the theory of masquerade, which Joan Riviere proposed in a 1929 seminal essay, this idea was deconstructed. According to the theory of masquerade, women submit to the social codes by wearing a mask of womanliness while at the same time surreptitiously following their own phallic desires. Therefore, even their typically virtuous act of silence can be understood as a womanly disguise which is inherently a masquerade. This paper aims to analyze Maggie’s silence, despite the infidelity and betrayal shown to her by her friend and husband, in order to demonstrate how, according to Riviere, her silence and quietness are not signs of victimhood in the patriarchal society but only tactics which she consciously uses to empower herself and achieve what she wants by the end of the novel. In light of the theories of Joan Riviere, this paper intends to illustrate how (in the context of James’s narrative strategies) Maggie comes to empower herself without radically intimidating the value structure of the Jamesian patriarchal society and by the use of silence as a mask of womanliness.

Keywords: Joan Riviere, Masquerade, Henry James, The Golden Bowl

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Sacred Functions of Musical Instruments in the Creative Syncretism of Shamanistic Ritual

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Amanova Roza Aslanova1, Mukhambetova Asiya Ibadulayevna2, Dzhanseitova Svetlana Sattarovna3

1PhD in Art History, Professor at the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University. Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek. Email: rza.amanova@gmail.com.

2Sc.D in Art History, Professor at T. Zhurgenev Kazakh National Academy of Art

3Doctor of philology, Professor of Kazakh National Conservatory after Kurmangazy.

Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.04

Received November 10, 2017; Revised January 25, 2018; Accepted February 05, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract

The study explores the spiritual and worldview aspects of shaman’s ritualistic practice through the example of Central Asian Turkic tribes. We tried to show the magico-religious aspect of using the most widespread Kazakh and Kyrgyz musical instruments in the shamanic practice as a ritual that forms the artistic field in the general context of syncretic multi-element complex of shamanistic practice. This study considers the syncretism of creative principles in the shamanistic ritual, and the meanings of the sacred musical instruments (kobyz, tambourine, dombra, asatayak) used in the re shamanistic rituals of the nomadic Turkic religion – Tengrianism. The ritualistic practice of shamans is interpreted as an artistic comprehension of the world, which not only records and reflects the reality, but also bears creative and forming principles, thus becoming an integral part of culture. At that, emphasis is placed on the key role of sacred musical instruments in the shamanistic ritual. The study reveals the spiritual and symbolic meaning of each key musical instrument in the shamanistic ritual separately and in the context of the syncretic complex of the shaman’s ritualistic practice.

Ke?words: Central Asian shamanism, shamanistic ritual, storytelling, Tengrism, shaman tambourine.

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Spatial Orientations of Nomads’ Lifestyle and Culture

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Kaliakbarova Lyailya1, Smakova Zaure2, Kossanova Aigul3, Yermanov Zhanat4, Mashimbayeva Ainur5, Zhussupova Saule6

1PhD, Department of Music Education, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan. Email:  kaliakbarova.lyailya@gmail.com

2Docent, Art History, Department of Kobyz and Accordion, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan.

3Docent, Department of Folk Singing, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan.

4Associate Professor Of Conservatory, Department Of Wind And Percussion Instruments, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan.

5Docent, Social and Human Sciences, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan.

6PhD, Department of Music Education, KNC under Kurmangazy, ?lmaty, Kazakhstan.

  Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.03

Received October 14, 2017; Revised January 30, 2018; Accepted February 12, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract

The nomad’s model of the world is reasonable and rational; comprehending the universal laws, it often extrapolates its own qualities and structures to surrounding world (up to the cosmic scales). In creating the picture of a real world, the nomad endows it with meanings and values that go far beyond the ordinary everyday life. The aim of our research involves not only the depth of the study of certain aspect of historical and cultural era, but also the determination of the field of culture, where ‘everything and everyone is connected’. It involves the determination of the role of nomadic spiritual culture in the world culture; the analysis of religion of the ancient Turks Tengrism; the relationship and mutual enrichment of Tengrism with a complex, multi-element nomadic culture. Without the study of cosmogonic conceptions of nomadic world, it is impossible to comprehend the spirituality, complex worldview of the ancient Turks.

Keywords: Tengrism, nomadic, Turks, culture, worldview

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Mood Baroco, Avicenna’s proof of it, and reasoning by means of models

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Miguel López-Astorga

Institute of Humanistic Studies “Juan Ignacio Molina”, University of Talca, Chile.

Email: milopez@utalca.cl

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.02

Received November 11, 2017; Revised January 09, 2018; Accepted January 15, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract:

In several works, the mental models theory has been used in order to check whether or not some ancient logics are more related to the actual human reasoning than standard or classical logic. In this paper, I try to make further analyses in this direction. In particular, I address mood Baroco in Aristotelian logic and the proof of it by Avicenna. My conclusions refer to that, apart from the fact that it is true that the mental models theory can indicate the possible cognitive scope that can be attributed to Aristotelian logic, both the initial version of Baroco and Avicenna’s proof of that mood can also be very useful research instruments to help us explore and develop some particular aspects of the mentioned theory.

Keywords: Aristotelian logic; Avicenna; Baroco; mental models; reasoning

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New Technologies of Time Manipulation

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Javier González García

Associate Professor, Universidad de Guanajuato (México). Email: jr2000x@yahoo.es

Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.01

Received December 30, 2017; Revised March 20, 2018; Accepted March 25, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract

Narratives are tools to manipulate time. How is the narrative paradigm conveyed within a society mediated by information and communication technologies? Transmedia narratives appear, which deepen, broaden and hyperlink existing narratives, establishing a digital convergence of media and networks. In this article, two examples are developed: the blog and the video game. The new narrations are shown as adequate strategies for the promotion of social and cultural practices that lead to a new conception of collective intelligence. The new narratives show us ways to coexist and accept the times in which we live, one marked by incredible complexity.

 Keywords: Narration, transmedia, blog, videogame, complexity.

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A Trip to Middle East

Labores incorrupte vim an. Id augue populo alienum usu, has harum consectetuer ne, ne clita fuisset dignissim quo. Semper oportere

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