Thursday, October 30, 2014

Revel からの写真

Sunday, October 19, 2014

How the Brain Leads Us to Believe We Have Sharp Vision

Shared from Zite

 

Andrea shared with you:

 

[thumbnail]

How the Brain Leads Us to Believe We Have Sharp Vision

neurosciencenews.com - We assume that we can see the world around us in sharp detail. In fact, our eyes can only process a fraction of our surroundings precisely. In a series of experiments, psychologists at Bielefeld University have been investigating how the brain fools us into believing that we see in sharp detail. The results have been published in the scientific magazine Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Its central finding is that our nervous system uses past visual experiences to predict how blurred objects would look in sharp detail.

Zite logo

Available on the App Store.



iPadから送信

How the Brain Leads Us to Believe We Have Sharp Vision

Shared from Zite

 

Andrea shared with you:

 

[thumbnail]

How the Brain Leads Us to Believe We Have Sharp Vision

neurosciencenews.com - We assume that we can see the world around us in sharp detail. In fact, our eyes can only process a fraction of our surroundings precisely. In a series of experiments, psychologists at Bielefeld University have been investigating how the brain fools us into believing that we see in sharp detail. The results have been published in the scientific magazine Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Its central finding is that our nervous system uses past visual experiences to predict how blurred objects would look in sharp detail.

Zite logo

Available on the App Store.



iPadから送信

Monday, October 13, 2014

Insight 649

Insight 649

Castigat Ridendo Mores"(彼は風俗を嘲笑することによってそれを矯正する)
パリのオペラ・コミック座に掲げられている碑銘です。つまり、ブラック演劇演劇とは「ひとのふりみて我が振りをなおせ」ということ。


iPadから送信

裸の王様」(はだかのおうさま : Kejserens nye klæder 発音)は、デンマーク童話作家ハンス・クリスチャン・アンデルセン童話。アンデルセンの代表作の1つ。
スペインの古い伝承をアンデルセンが翻案したものである。物語の大枠は変わっていないが、元の話では王様が裸であると指摘するのは子供ではなく黒人であった。

 


あらすじ

見えもしない衣装を身にまとう王様のパレード。下着は身につけている


新しい服が大好きな王様の元に、二人組の詐欺師が布織職人という触れ込みでやって来る。彼らは何と、馬鹿や自分にふさわしくない仕事をしている者には見えない不思議な布地を織る事が出来るという。王様は大喜びで注文する。仕事場に出来栄えを見に行った時、目の前にあるはずの布地が王様の目には見えない。王様はうろたえるが、家来たちの手前、本当の事は言えず、見えもしない布地を褒めるしかない。家来は家来で、自分には見えないもののそうとは言い出せず、同じように衣装を褒める。王様は見えもしない衣装を身にまといパレードに臨む。見物人も馬鹿と思われてはいけないと同じように衣装を誉めそやすが、その中の小さな子供の一人が、「王様は裸だよ!」と叫んだ。ついに皆が「王様は裸だ」と叫ぶなか、王様一行はただただパレードを続けるのだった。
なお、日本でのタイトルは「裸の王様」であるが、絵本などでの描写は、何も身につけていない全裸、下半身のみ下着をはいているもの、右の挿絵のように上下とも下着を身につけているものなどさまざまである。

 

Amazon.co.jp: ひとりきりのとき人は愛することができる: アントニー デ・メロ, Anthony De Mello,

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%B2%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8A%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8A%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8D%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AF%E6%84%9B%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B-%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC-%E3%83%87%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AD/dp/4789604187


iPadから送信

◆孤独を生き抜く キリスト教のメッセージ◆ - insight 648

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/prittybirds/58642235.html


iPadから送信

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Insight 647

Insight 647


キルケゴールは1813年、コペンハーゲンに生まれ、コペンハーゲン大学で神学と哲学を学びました。彼は父親が幼いころ貧困から神を呪っていたこと、結婚前に妻を妊娠させたこと、という神に対する罪を背負っていた事実を知り、精神上の「大地震」を経験します。またその後には、レギーネ・オルセンとの婚約を破棄するという事件を起こしました。彼の作品はこれらの体験が大きく関わっていると言えます。事件直後ベルリンへと赴いて後期シェリングの講義を聴き、帰国後は仮名の著作を次々と発表しました。キルケゴールは『死に至る病』を書き上げたのち、デンマーク国教会への批判を展開する中、42歳でその生涯を閉じました。

 実存

「実存」という言葉はラテン語のexistentiaに由来します。事物の「本質」、「である」といった意味のessentiaに対して、事物の「存在」そのもの、「がある」を表す語として、中世末期以降使用されてきました。後期シェリングは事物の本質に対して「現実存在」の重要性を主張しましたが、キルケゴールはこれに「主体的で具体的な人間存在」という実存主義固有の意味を与えました。彼は「重要なのは私にとって真理であるような真理を見出すこと、私がそのために生き、かつ死ぬことを願うような理念を見出すことである」と述べ、「主体性が真理である」という思想を追究しました。

 実存の三段階

前期キルケゴールは「実存の三段階」を主張しました。実存は「美的実存」、「倫理的実存」、そして「宗教的実存」と弁証法的に発展してゆくのです。美的実存は、人生を享楽しようという直接性の段階です。そうした人々は、健康、富、名誉といったものを求め、才能を発展させ、己の欲望を最大限に開放することに執着します。しかしその行き着く先は絶望でしかありません。このように自己中心的で刹那的な美的実存は、己の直接性に閉じこもることで倦怠、不安に直面することとなります。こうして、人は自己の個別性を突破し、普遍的な倫理的目標を掲げる倫理的実存の段階へと至るのです。人は「よき父」「よき夫」となるべく努力します。しかし己の有限性ゆえに絶対的な倫理的要請の前に挫折をせざるを得なくなり、罪ある存在として宗教的実存へと向かってゆき、徹底した内面化によって主体的に神に関わります。そしてキルケゴールはこの段階をさらにふたつの領域に分けました。まず、内面的宗教的実存としての「宗教性A」です。これはあらゆる宗教に共通な要素ですが、しかし「絶対的逆説」としての「宗教性B」というものも存在します。宗教性Bにおいて実存は、永遠で絶対的な超越者である神が、僕の姿をまとった人間イエス・キリストとしてこの世に現れたという、歴史的「逆説」への信仰をもつのです。


『死に至る病』『あれかこれか』など

http://www.philosophy.nobody.jp/contemporary/phanomenologie/kierkegaard.html

ユーモア
【英】humor
もと体液の意。古代生理学では、体液の種類と量が人の性格や気質を決定すると考えられた。
キルケゴールは、ユーモアを倫理的実存と宗教的実存との境に置き、無限なるものの姿とした。世俗的なものは、絶対的なものの前では無意味であり、滑稽だからである。
これはユーモア一般の本質をよく表現している。ユーモアは意味がないからナンセンスなのではない。むしろ積極的に意味の破壊——空の空なるものをめざすからこそ、ナンセンスなのである。
そしてナンセンスを笑われている当の相手は、実は我々自身でもある。ユーモアが与える心温まる連帯感の源は、この共犯性にある。
皮肉が孤独な笑いとすれば、ユーモアは共笑いといえよう。皮肉屋は自らを高くし、自らを神の位置において愚者を笑うのに対して、ユーモリストは自らを低くし、自らを被造物の位置において、我々すべての不条理——そのセンスへの執着のナンセンスを笑うのである。
(講談社現代新書『現代哲学辞典』より)








iPadから送信

Saturday, October 04, 2014

Sólo quiero destacar que no recibí en ningún momen

Sólo quiero destacar que no recibí en ningún momento un informe escrito sobre la Visita Apostólica y, por consiguiente, tampoco he podido responder debidamente a él. A pesar de tanto discurso sobre diálogo, misericordia, apertura, descentralización y respeto por la autoridad de las Iglesias locales, tampoco he tenido oportunidad de hablar con el Papa Francisco, ni siquiera para aclararle alguna duda o preocupación. Consecuentemente, no pude recibir ninguna corrección paternal –o fraternal, como se prefiera– de su parte. Sin ánimo de quejas inútiles, tal proceder sin formalidades, de manera indefinida y súbita, no parece muy justa, ni da lugar a una legítima defensa, ni a la corrección adecuada de posibles errores. Sólo he recibido presiones orales para renunciar.


La verdadera unidad eclesial es la que se edifica a partir de la Eucaristía y el respeto, observancia y obediencia a la fe de la Iglesia enseñada normativamente por el Magisterio, articulada en la disciplina eclesial y vivida en la liturgia.Ahora, empero, se busca imponer una unidad basada, no sobre la ley divina, sino sobre acuerdos humanos y el mantenimiento del statu quo. En el Paraguay, concretamente, sobre la deficiente formación de un único Seminario Nacional –deficiencias señaladas no por mí, sino autoritativamente por la Congregación para la Educación Católica en carta a los Obispos de 2008. En contraposición, y sin criticar lo que hacían otros Obispos, aunque hay materia de sobra, yo me aboqué a establecer un Seminario diocesano según las normas de la Iglesia. Lo hice, además, no sólo porque tengo el deber y el derecho, reconocido por las leyes generales de la Iglesia, sino con la aprobación específica de la Santa Sede, inequívocamente ratificada durante la última visita ad limina de 2008.


iPhoneから送信

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Munus ab obsequio

Munus ab obsequio

S. Tommaso afferma che la simonia. è un'eresia, poiché eresia, se non di dottrina, di fatto, è il credere vendibile il dono dello Spirito Santo (Sum. theol. II II 100). S. Gregorio Magno nel condannare l'eresia simoniaca ne specifica le tre forme: munus a manu (donativi o denaro), munus ab obsequio (adulazione intenzionale), munus a lingua (parola insinuante per la compera dei sacri uffici).

Ecco come si dice leccaculo in latino.




iPadから送信

Shusako Endo’s iThe Golden Country/i and “the full symphony” of Catholicism | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views

Shusako Endo’s iThe Golden Country/i and “the full symphony” of Catholicism | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views

 
The CWR Blog
When threatened with petty political correctness, American Catholics should bear in mind Endo’s depiction of heroic Christian witness.
“Plunged into the boiling waters of Unzen, they hung on, believing this was the way to Paradise.  Even when they had huge rocks tied to them and were dropped into the middle of the sea, with their last breath they sang out their prayers … This is true fealty.  Even as a samurai, I have never to this day seen so great a fealty.” – Lord Tomonoga, Shusaku Endo’s The Golden Country         
In 1633 Jesuit missionary Christovao Ferriera was captured by agents of the Japanese shogunate, which had recently turned against Christianity. As a representative of the prohibited foreign religion Ferriera was then condemned to “the Pit,” a procedure described in grisly detail by scholar and priest Francis Mathy, SJ:
The victim’s body and arms and legs were tightly tied with rope and he was suspended head first into a pit filled with offal. A hole was drilled in his temple to permit the blood to fall one drop at a time, thus preventing rapid death from circulatory obstruction. This torture could be made to last several days and even an entire week before death took place. 
Ferriera did not last a week. After a few hours he emerged alive—and broken. In exchange for his life he had renounced the Faith. 
Ferriera was not, of course, the first Christian or even the first priest to deny Christ due to threats or pain. Such failures have an extensive lineage, stretching all the way back to St. Peter. But his case is rendered striking by the fanaticism he directed against the Church following his fall. Renouncing his baptism, Ferriera adopted the name of a recently executed criminal (“Sawano Chuan”) and then put his keenly-trained intellect to work constructing polemics against the Church and plots against the Christian underground. He had once been Superior General of the Jesuit order; now he became the order’s archenemy, and the author of anti-Christian works like A Clear Exposition of the False Doctrine
All this will be familiar to those who have encountered Shusaku Endo’s The Golden Country. A somewhat conflicted Japanese Catholic, Endo used his 1966 play to highlight the Faith’s multi-dimensional interaction with Japanese culture. “If I have trust in Catholicism,” he once explained, “it is because I find in it much more possibility than in any other religion for presenting the full symphony of humanity. The other religions have almost no fullness; they have but solo parts. Only Catholicism can present the full symphony.” In the case of The Golden Country, Endo’s longstanding desire to make this “full symphony” more accessible has formed the basis for a classic work of dramatic art.
The action begins in Nagasaki, where we are quickly introduced to Lord Tomonoga—middle-aged samurai, closet Christian, and one of the play’s foremost protagonists. Using his position as an official in the shogunate’s dreaded Bureau of Investigation to assist his persecuted co-religionists, Tomonoga falls under the suspicion of said Bureau’s Chief Investigator—a keen-witted, self-hating apostate by the name of Inoue. Intent on capturing Father Ferriera—who has, up till now, evaded the authorities by moving stealthily from village to village—Inoue decides to use the samurai as bait. Cornering Tomonaga, Inoue orders him to perform the fumi-e—a ritual of apostasy whereby Christian faith is denied by trampling on an icon of Christ.
As expected, Tomonaga refuses, thus outing himself. He is thrust into the pit, and Inoue publicly proclaims that his life will be spared if Father Ferriera turns himself in. After much soul-searching, Ferriera does just that, but Inoue goes back on his word, leaving Tomonaga in the pit until the samurai finally dies. Ferriera’s own turn in the pit comes, and he shocks the Christian community by giving in and performing the fumi-e for all to see. “You see,” crows Hirata, a petty Bureau official who detests all spiritual ideals, bushido and Gospel alike, “we are stronger than your God.”
Hirata feels doubly triumphant because he has entrapped Gennosuke, a young samurai who loves Tomonaga’s daughter Yuki. Though a pagan, Gennosuke has developed a soft spot toward Christianity for the sake of his devout beloved—and so treasures a crucifix she has secretly given him, even though he does not quite understand what it means. Of course crucifixes are strictly forbidden, so when Hirata discovers it he seizes the opportunity to denounce Gennosuke as a Christian sympathizer. Tied to stakes in the ocean, Gennosuke and Yuki sing hymns together until they are drowned by the incoming tide; in contrast the two apostates Ferriera and Inoue remain alive to contemplate their degradation. The play closes with the chanting of martyrs in the background, while word arrives that a new team of missionaries has infiltrated the country. By the time the curtain closes, it is evident that not even the Bureau can wipe out the Church completely.
As Lord Tomonoga most exemplifies the marriage of the Faith with Japanese culture, it is worth pointing out that the Catholic samurai is no invention of Endo’s but is rather an idealized representation of historical figures like Takayama Ukon and Bl. Melchior Kumagai Motonao. Thanks to his submission to the Gospel, Tomonaga sees the inner significance of the samurai code—the word samurai literally meaning “service to the master.” Nobility entails not privilege but duty, Tomonaga muses shortly before his death; the true aristocrat does not exploit his people, but instead seeks to set a good example for them. 
Almost as intriguing is the conflicted Chief Investigator Inoue, who calls to mind Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor. When Tomonaga refuses to perform the fumi-e, Inoue is not so much angry as sad. Convinced that Christianity is truly a glorious, enlightened teaching, Inoue is equally convinced that this teaching is incompatible with the Japanese temperament. If so, all the blood heroically shed for the sake of Japanese Christianity has been a tragic waste. Japan is not really the golden country of noble pagans described by St. Francis Xavier, Inoue tells Tomonaga with a hint of bitterness, but “a mudswamp,” one wherein “God’s shoots would not grow.” Far from being a source of triumph, Tomonoga’s eventual death only makes the Chief Investigator even gloomier, for he knows Tomonaga to be of an increasingly rare breed, a “samurai among samurai.” Now low-minded sadists like Hirata are the only people left working at the Bureau.
Except for Gennosuke, that is. An idealist, Gennosuke devotedly takes care of his widowed mother, looks up to Tomonaga, and dreams reverently of the girl he loves, and through him we get a sense of the best that pre-Christian Japan has to offer. At first he intends to carry out the fumi-e ritual to clear himself—he is not, after all, a Christian, so why shouldn’t he trample on the crucifix? But then Yuki speaks up at his trial, and in the ensuing exchange the pagan youth helps clarify the meaning of Christian martyrdom:
YUKI: Gennosuke, if you step on the fumi-e, the bond that binds our two hearts together will snap forever. This may have been made by an unknown craftsman in Nagasaki, but to me it has been all my life the most precious of all things. All my life I have adored it. If you step on it, you will go completely out of my life. Instead, step on me.
HIRATA: Oh, this is very interesting. I like nothing better than to throw mud at what is beautiful and spit on what is noble. This kind of perversion the officials of the Bureau must all have to some degree. Gennosuke, this lady is asking you to step on her face instead of on the     fumi-e.
YUKI: Hirata-dono, will you be satisfied if Gennosuke steps on me? Will that clear up your suspicions?
HIRATA: It most certainly will.
YUKI: Then, Gennosuke, please step on me. Everything that’s happened has been my fault. Step on me.
(She pauses as she waits for Gennosuke to step on her. But he cannot.)
GENNOSUKE:  I don’t know anything about the teaching of Christ. But now I see this clearly. If Yuki is to be hung in the pit, I want to be hung there too. If she is to be burned, I want to die with her.
Note that Gennosuke is hardly motivated by a commitment to love in the abstract. It is not his right to love which occupies his mind, but his commitment to his actual beloved. Likewise, Yuki could care less about some hypothetical right to practice Shinto or Buddhism or Taoism. What inspires her is not her religious freedom, but rather Christ. 
As for Father Ferriera, following his apostasy he seeks comfort, oddly enough, by comparing himself to Judas—who in Ferriera’s skewed theology was a martyr, too, insofar as Judas both suffered greatly for his actions and played a key role in bringing Christ’s work to completion. Yet Inoue will have none of it. Although deeming it his duty to war upon Christianity, the Chief Investigator is secretly disappointed by Ferriera’s failure. Hence Inoue has no patience for the rationalizations of “Sawano Chuan,” and acts as an unexpected voice of orthodoxy: “You are wrong. Stop deceiving yourself […] you are just bending the teachings of Christ to suit your weakness, trying to disguise your misery even from yourself.” Unlike the metaphysically passive Buddhist, Inoue insists firmly, the Christian acknowledges God’s gift of free will—a gift necessarily accompanied by responsibility.
Unlike Endo’s earlier controversial work Silence—a novel which dealt with much of the same material, albeit in a problematic fashion—The Golden Country offers us a vision of a robust and spiritually powerful Japanese Christianity. This comes as no surprise, given the historical source material that inspired Endo. Until the latter half of the 19th century, when authorities finally lifted their ban, the Japanese church kept alive by operating underground, patiently awaiting the day when the legendary fathers would return again from across the sea. Cut off from Rome and under constant threat of death, Japanese Christians baptized their children and taught them what they could via precious fragments of Scripture and doctrine. Need I point out the stark contrast with modern American Catholicism, which possesses far greater resources, opportunities, and liberty, yet has in most of its schools and institutions proven incapable of instilling even a minimum of respect for the Magisterium? 
For that matter, when all is said and done maybe we should even be careful about passing too harsh a judgment on Ferriera. After all, he only yielded to anti-Christian forces after having been put through torture as brutal as anything featured in a modern-day horror movie. Far milder forms of persuasion have proven effective in getting countless American Catholics to compromise with the enemy—and even, like Ferriera, to actively aid that enemy. Every time some mandarin of political-correctness tries to intimidate us with name-calling, or fines, or the prospect of getting fired, we should, instead of cowering, think long and hard of the boiling waters of Unzen, of the crucifixions at Nagasaki, of the pit where so many of our co-religionists breathed their last. Then, without rancor, we should laugh at him.
 
About the Author
Jerry Salyer

Catholic convert Jerry Salyer is a philosophy instructor living in Franklin County, Kentucky.