Ontological excess and metonymy in early-modern descriptions of Brazil: an amodern para-scientific approach to nature
This essay relies on and furthers a hypothesis advanced in previous research: that the well-known eccentricities to be found in the early-modern corpus of the Portuguese colonizers of Brazil—its references to entities like monsters and demons, its bizarre descriptions, and odd classification systems...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Fachgebiet für Religionswissenschaft im Fachbereich 11, Philipps Universität Marburg
[2020]
|
| In: |
Marburg journal of religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 22, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-19 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Portugal
/ Colonialism
/ Brazil
/ Description
/ Metonymy
/ Scientific nature
|
| IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism KBR Latin America VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
Portuguese colonization
B para-scientific B Brazil B words and things B Analogy B ontolgy B figurative language |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This essay relies on and furthers a hypothesis advanced in previous research: that the well-known eccentricities to be found in the early-modern corpus of the Portuguese colonizers of Brazil—its references to entities like monsters and demons, its bizarre descriptions, and odd classification systems—can be explained in view of a certain style of thinking, addressing a specific ontological concern. Ontology emerges here as a structural differentiating factor between radically distinct kinds of approach to reality, and the notions of excess and metonymy help us to characterize the specificity of a cognitive enterprise which, in its several manifestations, is literary-religious rather than scientific-empirical. Our perspective tends to challenge communicative models trying to address the difference between religious and scientific discourses merely on the level of the content and truth-values of their belief systems. Moreover it covers significantly visual culture, which helps us to present Brazilian colonial literature on a broad canvas. This paper is one of a collection that originated in the IAHR Special Conference “Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change”, held at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology on March 1-2, 2012. For an overall introduction see the article by Ulrika Mårtensson, also published here. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1612-2941 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Marburg journal of religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8297 |