HDS Scholarly Articles
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This collection provides open access to peer reviewed scholarly articles authored or co-authored by faculty, staff, and students of the Harvard Divinity School. All material in the repository is also harvested by search engines (such as Google Scholar) and Open Archives Initiative data harvesters.
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Publication The Philosophical Theology of Jaiva Dharma(2023) De Sena, WesleyThe Sanskrit word dharma can be understood variously, but it mainly pertains to that which sustains one’s connection with one’s eternal nature. This is the gist of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s book Jaiva Dharma. To talk about one’s eternal nature implies that one also has a temporary nature. In his book, Bhativinoda attempts to explain, by its very title, the dharma of a living entity, the jīva. In other words, it attempts to explain what is that of the jīva that sustains its connection with its eternal nature. A Jīva is a living entity suitable to live across both spiritual and material realms. It can have both a noumenal and a phenomenal nature.Publication Lonely Among Loners(2013) De Sena, WesleyPublication Zoroastrian Responses to the Problem of Evil: Seven Approaches Discussing Dualism and Monotheism(2023) De Sena, Wesley“Is Zoroastrianism Dualist or Monotheistic?” is an article in which Boyd and Crosby present two dualist and four monotheist responses to that question. The authors submit these six versions to philosophical scrutiny according to the way they manage the problem of evil. Ultimately, the authors opt for a seventh response – their response, which they find more plausible than the previous six other options and meets their criterion of philosophical scrutiny to a better extent. In this paper, I will present the seven versions the authors describe and ask which one responds better to Epicurus’ formulation of the abovementioned problem of evil. I am subjecting the seven versions to Epicurus’ formulation because it is formulated as questions that demand answers. Thus, Epicurus’ formulation provokes an active engagement with its questions. I argue that although Boyd and Crosby’s version does have a philosophical advantage over the others, it cannot guarantee the salvation of humankind given that their view makes it possible to think of the world as an increasingly better place, which humankind might not want to let go of altogether.Publication Publication Heidegger's Task of Thinking(2023) De Sena, WesleyPublication Jain Syllogisms for and against Liberation for Women.(2023) De Sena, WesleyPublication Contraries and Contradictories: The Identity and Nature of Lady Conway’s Creature that Endures through Time(2022) De Sena, WesleyOne of the central problems in Anne Conway’s metaphysical philosophy is answering the question: what is the identity and nature of the creature than endures through time? There are two basic ways of interpreting Conway’s answer to this question. One interpretation is that the identity is that of a soul, and its nature is material. This is the interpretation taken by Emily Thomas. Another interpretation is that a created spirit is the identity, and its nature is also material. This is the interpretation taken by Rozemond and Simmons. In this paper, I present an interpretation that is a version of Thomas’ thesis. It claims that the identity of Conway’s creature that endures through time is the soul. However, my interpretation goes beyond Thomas’ thesis and against Rozemond and Simmons in that the nature of the soul cannot be strictly material, thus possibly immaterial. This thesis relies on what I call “the contrary thesis,” as applied to Conway’s metaphysical philosophy.Publication Enoch Lost and Found? Rethinking Enochic Reception in the Middle Ages(BRILL, 2023-02-06) Reed, Annette YoshikoPublication Socrates’ Four Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul in the Phaedo: Informal Fallacies, Ambiguities, and Overall Inconsistency(2022) Sena, WesleyIn this paper, I argue that none of Socrates’ four arguments for the immortality of the soul can prove it to be immortal. All that the four arguments amount to is an inference to the best explanation. However, this inference to Socrates’ best explanation builds up on a series of informal fallacies and ambiguities, leading to inconsistencies in his overall four-fold argument. The fallacies, ambiguities, and inconsistencies will become clear as we navigate Socrates’ four arguments for the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo.Publication Not Against Interpretation(2012) De Sena, WesleyIn "Against Interpretation," published in 1966, Susan Sontag argues against specific approaches to interpreting an artwork that reduces it to an exploration of its content. Sontag claims that an interpretation tries to squeeze more meaning into the content than is already there in the form of the artwork. Hence, Sontag claims, an interpretation of content devalues the sense of form. Sontag asserts that the content consists of the "prescriptive" (12) ideas of an artwork that enable a viewer to arrive at an artist's "picture of reality" or "statement" (4) through an interpretation of its form. In turn, form is the "descriptive" (12) elements of the painting - such as figures, colors, and lines - that should be, in and of themselves, enough to evoke a response in the viewer. Sontag considers this response to the form of the artwork the evocation of its "thing" - the experience of the artwork as it is. It is this individual and unmediated experience of art she considers the stuff of magic, claiming that an interpretation transforms a possibly "incantatory, magical" (3) experience of the artwork into a "portentous" interpretive one. Therefore, Sontag urges viewers to curtail the inclination to interpret the "content" of an artwork so that they can experience its magic - such that it provokes a magical experience (14).