Covenant Nation: The Politics of Grace in Early American Literature

The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of covenant in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek\u27s theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards\u27s Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more secular forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an overview of recent attempts to integrate theology and theory, specifically comparing Jacques Derrida and Zizek to better understand the latter\u27s theology of materialism which relies on as well as informs the Reformed Protestant covenantal dichotomy of grace and works. The second chapter establishes the complicated architecture of the covenant concept within seventeenth-century New England Reformed Protestantism, and uses church membership transcripts along with Ann Hutchinson court trial documents to demonstrate how this inherently unstable theology created unintended slippage between God\u27s grace and mankind\u27s works, resulting in a theological formulation remarkably open to Zizek\u27s analysis of political ideology. The third chapter demonstrates how Jonathan Edwards, through his ingenious counter-argument in Freedom of Will, provides a theoretical foundation for an uneasy but necessary alignment of the covenants of works and grace, releasing the subjunctive potential of grace to operate through history as a predeterminer of meaning and, potentially, freedom. In the last chapter, I argue that Emerson finally converts the covenant from a politically conceptualized theological framework for radical grace into a personal institutionalization of grace itself. Stanley Cavell\u27s exploration of Emerson\u27s constitution in light of the covenant motif demonstrates the political (im)possibilities inherent in America\u27s self-conceptions of personal liberty and civic equality. In the end, complexities inherent in the concept of the covenant, especially its creative failure to control the radical nature of grace, are determinative factors in our contradictory American egalitarian ideals

The Mind in Motion

The Mind in Motion Shayan Gates Faculty Sponsor: Galen Johnson, Philosophy The origin of most scientific disciplines can be traced back to a few philosophical insights posed by a few curious thinkers throughout time, and cognitive science is no exception.While intrigue has nearly always surrounded the human mind and its relation to the brain, validation of this relationship has not been so easy to come by, and there are still areas of contention during this time of advancement in neurological sciences and related technologies. This topic is very broad (to say the least) so I decided to confine this paper to some of the philosophers whose work I enjoyed reading most during my time at URI. In this sense, it will be somewhat of a “Greatest Hits” of my undergraduate career which, while certainly appealing to my nostalgic sensibilities, will also parlay nicely into medical school where I hope to become a neurologist. Some of the philosophers included in this project are Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, John Dewey, David Hume, John Locke, Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Renee Descartes and Plato (American Transcendentalists, Pragmatists, British Empiricists, Phenomenologists, and Rationalists). Overall, there are four topics of discussion, and they pertain to Experience, Emotion, Memory, and Imagination. These will conclude with a fifth section written in the spirit of Pragmatism, which aims to sum up the overall value or takeaway from everything that was previously said. Ultimately, the goal is to create an interesting, yet palatable, discussion about the way our minds and brains work, and how knowing these things about ourselves can work to our benefit

Emerson, Virtue, and Evil: Thoughts for a Rescue Operation

Interpretations of Emerson\u27s theme of self-reliance which generate charges that he understood neither evil nor virtue are inappropriate. A fairer reading should keep in mind the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus, which gave to Transcendentalism a dynamic emanation/return schema and to mankind a place of privilege in knowing and valuing Nature

Ramon Fernandez’s name: Notes Towards an Ecology of Culture

El propósito de estas notas consiste en examinar la cultura a la luz de las ideas de producción y de orden y mediante las figuras diversas que adopta su productor. El caso de Ramon Fernandez proporciona el ejemplo que la argumentación requiere, como lo demuestra que Walter Benjamin y Wallace Stevens lo citaran en un momento significativo de su obra.These notes deal with the examination of culture in the light of the ideas of production and order, and through the several figures of its producer. Ramon Fernadez’s case surveys the example to the argument, as the quotations of Walter Benjamin and Wallace Stevens in significant moments of their work manifest

Where Do We Find Ourselves

“Where do we find ourselves?” are Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Experience” first words. The query is the author’s starting point for a number of philosophical considerations; it’s also the point of departure for our making sense of pain, through the reading of both Emerson’s essay and James Joyce’s Ulysses. The essay hipothesises that Joyce's "We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothersinlove. But always meeting ourselves" is a commentary on Emerson's initial inquiry. The discussion evolves into a linguistic ellaboration on the verbs "find" and "meet" and invites Stanley Cavell's play on "founding" and "foundling" (This New Yet Unapproachable America) to further activate the polyssemic investigation

Mysterious Proposal

This is a mysterious proposal regarding a trio of films which harness an ‘energizing vision’ that lingers beyond the movie theatre. There is a focus on travel, memory, landscape and the internal world. I was interested in the ways in which the ephemeral experience of film may alter the way we take in the world around us; the way we process each other

海斯特·白兰的救赎之路

在《红字》中,以男性话语为中心的清教道德,对海斯特·白兰进行了“他者“排斥。然而,海斯特·白兰并没有完全成为患有“失语症“的弱势女性,通过对罪恶的内省和对迪梅斯戴尔的抚慰,白兰表现出了隐忍、勇敢和坚韧等精神。在这个过程中,海斯特·白兰逐渐成为一名具有人性光辉的救赎圣女