The Naked Goddess: Pornography and the Sacred

Abstract

In this article it is argued that contemporary forms of pornography represent an assault upon important sacred traditions which venerated female generative power and saw sexuality as a means of participating in the divine. The pornographic representations of the feminine in Western culture are part of systems of domination which not only support the abuse of women but also the colonization of peoples and the exploitation of nature. A celebration of the sexual cosmologies, which can still be found in cultural performances and ritual acts, is a means of countering this domination. So too is the process of speaking from the vulva; reclaiming the female genitals as a source of intelligent power that both manifest in and signify the creative forces that animate the universe.     

Naked in the Public Square

Responding to Rawls?? pleas in Political Liberalism against appeals to comprehensive doctrines, be they religious or metaphysical, I argue that such constraints are inherently illiberal??and unworkable. Rawls deems political proposals inherently coercive and judges everyone in a democracy a participant in governance??thus, in effect, complicit in state coercion. He seeks to limit the sweep of his exclusionary rule to core questions of rights. But in an individualistic and litigious society like ours it proves hard to draw a firm boundary around issues that raise core (constitutional) questions. The standards Rawls proposes seem oppressive in effect, their likeliest yield, a kind of doublethink, encouraging many citizens to cloak their deepest normative concerns in neutered language. I worry about the means by which Rawls?? ??overlapping consensus?? might be attained, and about the exclusion (as metaphysical) of policy proposals in behalf of broadly conceived human goods. I find it suppositious in Rawls to presume the innocence of seemingly secular arguments while placing in the stocks the religious appeals critical to many, along with old and new metaphysical arguments that may seek to bridge the gap between religious and secular appeals.     

The Right to be Publicly Naked: A Defence of Nudism

Res Publica - Many liberal democracies have legal restrictions on nudism. This article argues that when public nudity does not pose a health threat (which it seldom does), such restrictions are...     

Mediated Exhibitionism: The Naked Body in Performance and Virtual Space

Mediated exhibitionism is the phenomenon of amateur performers exposing their nude bodies on the Internet, and includes the exchange of nude images by email, text message, webcam, electronic bulletin board, and other means of digital communication. Although mediated exhibitionism has its foundation in live performance and traditional media forms, its potential as a means for broadening the aesthetics of the body and offering a form of resistance to social control is magnified by the interactive quality of the Internet. Conversely, new aesthetic ideals have been established and resistance to social control has been challenged by the very technology which made resistance possible. A series of websites catering to mediated exhibitionism were investigated.     

Full‐Frontal Morality: The Naked Truth about Gender

This paper examines Harold Garfinkel's notion of the natural attitude about sex and his claim that it is fundamentally moral in nature. The author looks beneath the natural attitude in order to explain its peculiar resilience and oppressive force. There she reveals a moral order grounded in the dichotomously sexed bodies so constituted through boundaries governing privacy and decency. In particular, naked bodies are sex‐differentiated within a system of genital representation through gender presentation—a system that helps constitute the very boundaries between the public and private.     

Torture in the Naked Public Square

Is torture ever ethically permissible? O’Donohue et al. (2014) argued that there are situations in which it is not only morally permissible but actually morally obligatory to torture a prisoner. Arrigo, DeBatto, Rockwood, and Mawe (2015) wrote a critical reply; O’Donohue et al. (2015) have responded. Yet to date, the specifically ethical weaknesses of the O’Donohue et al. position have not been examined; no argument against torture has been offered, nor have the lessons of the CIA’s secret program been taken into account. The present article moves the discussion forward on all three fronts. A case against torture is offered on pragmatic grounds.     

中国古代至上神--天帝的起源

按照宗教发生学的规律,人类宗教的起源,大约经历了前万物有灵论与万物有灵论两个阶段,最后,随着至上神的起源而进入成熟发展阶段。各民族的宗教和世界宗教都是在这个基础上发展起来的。中国宗教作为唯一原生形态的大文化的一部分——即原生宗教,更是这种发展规律的最典型形态。故揭示中国至上神——天帝的起源发展过程,不但对于理解中国宗教,而且对于理解整个中国文化,都将有着重要的价值和意义。本文试图在前人的基础上,侧重从《山海经》的角度做一点探源性研究,以就正于专家学者。     

关于宋仁宗谈禅的问题

宋仁宗曾经与多位禅师探讨禅理,留下记载较多的是与德章及怀琏的交往答对。仁宗与德章禅师交往较早,该时他已具有一定的禅知识;与怀琏的交往稍晚,但正是在这一时期,仁宗在禅理见解上取得较大进展。     

基于儒家文化的“帝王相”之民间意象的首次探索

本研究通过评价不同性别二态线索和吸引力的面孔图片来考察儒家文化下人们心中帝王面孔形象。采用FaceGen Modeller 3.1操作面孔性别二态线索,并通过PhotoShop CS5合成面孔材料。研究发现:被试认为女性化的男性面孔比男性化的男性面孔更具"帝王相";低吸引力的女性化男性面孔比高吸引力的女性化男性面孔更具"帝王相";不同性别被试之间的评价无显著差异。上述结果显示,在儒家文化影响下,人们偏好具有女性化面孔特点的帝王。     

秦始皇帝的东方情结

“君临天下”后的秦始皇帝,对东方齐地有着一种特殊的感情：对齐文化的狂热和对齐人的复杂心理凝结成了始皇帝心中的特殊情结。这一情结是由秦文化自身的主观原因和齐文化的客观原因共同作用的结果．即两种异质文化矛盾、融合所致。在这一情结作用下齐文化的精髓成为秦代文化的新鲜血液．也完成了自身由区域文化向一统文化的转变。     

隋炀帝与道教

隋炀帝对于道教多半是抱着功利主义目的。他关注道教,一是欲借助于道教为其政权效力,故想方设法拉拢延揽高道,给予其较高的政治地位,又调解缓和道佛关系,使道教不至于在政治上特别地感到压抑,然而他对道教的利用最终是失败的,道教中人积极参加了隋末改朝换代的政治活动,为其政权的崩溃作了大量的舆论宣传。二是大业中期,乃他崇重道术的高峰期,他借助于道教方术填补荒唐无耻的私生活,把道士作为宫廷的点缀品,任用道士作斋醮科仪为其祈福。但对于道教文化事业的建设特别是道经的搜集整理,他还是作了一些有益的工作。     

论周代后妃在王室经济中的地位与作用

周王后妃不仅仅是皇帝宫廷的宠幸玩物，也不全是奢侈性后宫消费群体。事实表明，以周王王后为首，后妃们主要以蚕织生产监管者的身份参与到王室经济中，从而在其中扮演着重要的经济角色。此外，她们不仅身负为王室生产创造增殖财富的经济职责，而且通过蚕织生产已间接介入到诸如以命服制加强专制王权的政治活动中，是周王力求控制支配经济体制为王朝政治服务企图的实际执行者，因此设置尽可能多的后妃是符合周王利益的。     

Naked Subjectivity: Minimal vs. Narrative Selves in Kierkegaard

In recent years a significant debate has arisen as to whether Kierkegaard offers a version of the “narrative approach” to issues of personal identity and self-constitution. In this paper I do not directly take sides in this debate, but consider instead the applicability of a recent development in the broader literature on narrative identity—the distinction between the temporally-extended “narrative self” and the non-extended “minimal self—to Kierkegaard's work. I argue that such a distinction is both necessary for making sense of Kierkegaard's claim that we are ethically enjoined to become selves, and can indeed be found in Either/Or and the later The Sickness Unto Death . Despite Kierkegaard's Non-Substantialism, each of these texts speaks (somewhat obliquely) of a “naked self” that is separable from the concrete facticity of human being. In both cases, this minimal self is linked to issues of eschatological responsibility; yet the two works develop very different understandings of “eternity” and correspondingly divergent accounts of the temporality of selfhood. This complicates the picture of Kierkegaardian selfhood in interesting ways, taking it beyond both narrativist and more standard neo-Lockean models of what it is to be a self.     

台湾及东南亚地区的玄天上帝信仰——以武当山现存碑石、匾额为中心的考察

玄天上帝,即道教尊奉的真武神。自宋真宗封真武为灵应真君之后,真武得到了宋元明三代皇室的尊崇,其信仰迅速遍及全国,香火极盛。入清以后,真武在官方祀典中的地位逐渐衰减,但在民间仍有着极大的影响力。一、信仰概述台湾地区的真武信仰是由大陆移民传入的,其中主要是福建移民。     

玉皇科仪及其文化内涵

玉皇大帝是一个家喻户晓的尊神 ,在一般民众心目中 ,他是天庭总管 ,实际上的最高神。不过 ,玉皇崇拜初起于道教 ,他在道教中的地位是居于三清之下的第一尊神。而且 ,道教又以系统的经书 ,完整的崇拜科仪 ,向社会展示着自己的教义。道教对于玉皇崇拜的内容和形式 ,都具有自己的特点。这些特点的形成 ,是中国文化长期演变的结果 ,具有相当深厚的文化内涵。若要了解玉皇大帝崇拜所映示的中国文化的种种素质和特点 ,主要应当研究道教对他的解释和祭祀、祈求诸科仪。然后再及于民间对玉皇崇拜方式以及相应的观念 ,因为相对而言 ,这些民间的风俗 ,…     

《周易》与《黄帝内经》

中医学理论体系的形成,与中国古代哲学有密切的联系。尤其是《周易》的自然哲学对中医学理论的奠基之作《黄帝内经》影响巨大,自古即有医易同源之说。《周易》对《内经》之影响是多方面的,本文仅选择阴阳、变易、时位中、象数,来探讨二者之间的关系。阴阳导源于《周易》,《内经》在医学方面作了发展;《内经》对变易运动、时位中概念的吸收,使中医学呈现出有别于西医学的民族特色;象数是中医学建立理论体系的方法。