Novelty Wins, “Straight Toward Objective” Loses! or Book Review: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, by Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman

Experiments in evolutionary artificial intelligence demonstrate that progress toward an important, difficult goal is not best achieved by attempting to go directly toward that goal, but rather, by rewarding novelty

Mythology In Sulalatus Salatin: A Moral Responsibility In Fulfulling The King\u27s Vision

The Sulalatus Salatin is clearly a form of historical literature that contained a lot of stories, myth, especially during the period pre-Melaka until the existence of Melaka itself.The objective of this study is to identify the mythological aspect and its kinship with the king\u27s authority. The research will use cultural theories. Mythology has always been connected with the tales of gods which always have a kinship with the constituents of faith.This element usually associated with the beginning of a race or ancestral root of an individual, especially royalties which were invariably tied to the extraordinary & peculiar tales.In the essence, mythology is the tale of the origins which encompasses the roots of blood line, the name of a place, the arrival of Islam, etc. In the context of societal belief, mythology is not just something respectable, but the mythical event was thought to actually took place and studied as something sacred.This clearly proves that myth has already existed even before the emergence of Tun Seri Lanang as the author of Sulalatus Salatin. Therefore, this research is produced with the aim to observe the mythological elements in the text of Sulalatus Salatin and the role of its story as a moral duty in fulfilling the King\u27s wishes

Wittgenstein, Modern Music, and the Myth of Progress

Georg Henrik von Wright was not only the first interpreter of Wittgenstein, who argued that Spengler’s work had reinforced and helped Wittgenstein to articulate his view of life, but also the first to consider seriously that Wittgenstein’s attitude to his times makes him unique among the great philosophers, that the philosophical problems which Wittgenstein was struggling, indeed his view of the nature of philosophy, were somehow connected with features of our culture or civilization. In this paper I draw inspiration and courage from Von Wright’s insistence that trying to understand Wittgenstein in relation to his times is a philosophic task in its own right in order to probe into a relatively obscure region in Wittgenstein’s thought: his relation to the music of his times. It is a topic, on which Von Wright, and most other prominent Wittgenstein scholars, have said very little, but it is also one, which Wittgenstein himself attested was so important to him that he felt without it he was sure to be misunderstood. I offer textual and historical evidence in support of my claim that, parallel to Wittgenstein’s exposure to Spengler’s Decline of the West in 1930, he was also introduced to the music theory of Heinrich Schenker, which helped him to articulate, partly by way of critique, a complex and unique position concerning the modern music of his times, which exhibits his rejection of what Von Wright later dubbed ‘the myth of progress’. As Von Wright observed in other regions of Wittgenstein’s work, he believed also with regards to the arts and to music in particular, neither in a brilliant future nor in the good old days. I argue that Wittgenstein actually made a distinction between three kinds of modern music: (a) bad modern music, which is clearly a case of confusing means for ends, the hallmark of the myth of progress, as Von Wright observed; (b) vacuous modern music, which embodies some sort of diffidence, a difficulty to see through the omnipresence of what Von Wright called (following Habermas) a ‘colonialization’ of reified measures of progress; (c) good modern music, a paradoxical notion for Wittgenstein, which betokens the unlikely yet possible striving to penetrate through what appears as dissolution of the resemblances which unite this culture’s ways of life by rendering this condition as expressible and intransitively understandable. In the context of this third category, I offer an interpretation of Wittgenstein’s complex remarks on the music of Gustav Mahler, which palpably show that the problem of good modern music and the problem of philosophizing in the time of civilization were one and the same in Wittgenstein’s mind. I conclude that, with regards to Von Wright’s own critical view of the modern myth of progress, we can learn from Wittgenstein that progress in the realm of art is closely aligned with the ideal of the perfection of man, yet transcending a social or political context. It is the ideal of cultural cohesion: affinity that the arts show to other human practices and cultural artifacts of its period. Wittgenstein’s tentative notion of good modern music (and its circumscription by his notion of the music of the future) may show its true colors when viewed in the context of Von Wright’s plea not to abandon work for progress as a critical task

A fair-tale for grown-ups: Christian orthodoxy in the theology of C.S. Lewis

This thesis investigates C.S. Lewis as one of the most successful Christian apologists of this century. It begins by looking at his influence as part of a movement of lay orthodoxy in the twentieth century, and examining some of the reasons for the emergence of that movement. In the context of this discussion, several key influences are explored. Charles Williams and G.. Chesterton are examined as contemporaries who helped shape Lewis' specifically Christian theology, Edwyn Bevan as an influence on his philosophy of God, Baron von Hugel as a beacon of light in the Modernist crisis, and Rudolf Otto as the primary source of Lewis' synthesis of the rational and the non-rational in his theology. The thesis then goes on to explore three areas where Lewis had a distinctive contribution to make to modern orthodox belief The first of these is the assertion that , he was making an attempt to resurrect Romanticism in some form in theology, in contrast to such figures as Kari Barth, for whom Romantic philosophy was part of the entire problem of the Liberal enterprise. The second area is the regaining of a Christian imagination concerning the life to come and of the doctrines of Heaven and Hell. It will be argued that Lewis' doctrine of Transposition offers suggestions as to an alternative to self-defeating reductionism in this area of Christian thought. The third area is Lewis’ engagement with the ideas and philosophies of his day, and in particular his hostility towards Scientific Materialism. This will be examined through his use of the literary - genre of Utopia/Dystopia to critique materialist and relativist positions. His work will be explored alongside two examples of the genre - H.G. Wells and Yevgeny Zamyatin - to place him in the context of the discussion of possible human fixtures of his time. The thesis will argue that C.S. Lewis was the foremost exponent of a group of lay Christians who were concerned to restate orthodox Christian belief in the modem context. It will argue that Lewisian orthodoxy was a credible and complex construct which encompassed the rational and the non-rational, the moral and the numinous, the intellect and the imagination. Ultimately it will argue that Lewis offers theological suggestions as to the solution of the lost unity of heart and mind - the "dissociation of sensibility" - which the Romantics sought

Ronald Reagan and the mythology of American history

The concept of myth has been central to the interpretation of President Ronald Reagan. This is a complex and ambiguous association. Myth is variously defined, referring to fable and falsehood as well as symbolic narratives of memory and identity. It is also variously applied, to Reagan’s character, ideology, communication and legacy. Reagan’s relationship to American mythology has been incompletely defined, and is in need of a synthesis which shows the connections between its different facets and processes, while identifying the problems of such an approach. Analysing the extensive literature on Reagan, using his public papers and published writings, and based on original research at the Reagan Presidential Library and at Stanford University, this thesis considers the presence and functions of American myth in Reagan’s presidency in five distinct ways. Firstly, I look at the mythic narratives of Reagan’s life in his biography. Secondly, I define his own perception of American history. Thirdly, I describe his distinctive, but constrained engagements with national commemoration. Fourthly, I explore the politicised historical interpretations of two central events of his presidency, the end of the Cold War, and the Iran/Contra affair. Lastly, I examine how his presidential library works to define his varied meaning in American history and mythology. The thesis concludes by surveying Reagan’s meaning in twenty-first century America, and the tension between his national and partisan symbolism. Reagan built a reputation on his successful appeals to American myth, memory and identity and maintains a charged and contested symbolism. This association and this success have become the definitive factor of his image as his own mythology emerges in American national culture

Irish Renaissance (Chapter Seven of Other Renaissances: A New Approach to World Literature)

Excerpt: Critics have several names for the movement that took place in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. Each name seems to suggest a different interpretation of the events at that time, and each interpretation, in turn, reflects a different idea of Ireland’s relationship with the rest of the world. The Irish Revival, a term most often used to discuss the literary movement, implies that the greatness of a people can be resuscitated after it has been nearly lost, and is thus a term in keeping with a nationalist agenda. The Celtic Twilight, a term coined by W. B. Yeats, is a more sentimental and mystical rendering that suggests the illumination and reinterpretation of a previously underappreciated culture, and is a term in keeping with the transition from a romanticized concept of tradition to a modernist consciousness. The Irish Renaissance seems to be the term currently used most often, a term that appears to acknowledge the colonial (and postcolonial) implications of Irish history. Implying rebirth and renewal, a new beginning rather than a resuscitation, the term “renaissance” carries plenty of political resonance especially when deployed to refer to a movement that coincides with the various cultural elements of nationalism beyond literature. In fact, the use of “renaissance” seems to conflate the events that move from nationalism, through modernity, to postcolonialism. There is, then, a certain tension in the ways these terms are deployed, particularly when we examine the terms against each other and against the way “renaissance” is used traditionally