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...
1. VerfasserIn: | |
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Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Veröffentlicht: |
Fachgebiet für Religionswissenschaft im Fachbereich 11, Philipps Universität Marburg
[2020]
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In: |
Marburg journal of religion
Jahr: 2020, Band: 22, Heft: 2, Seiten: 1-19 |
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen): | B
Portugal
/ Kolonialismus
/ Brasilien
/ Beschreibung
/ Metonymie
/ Wissenschaftlichkeit
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IxTheo Notationen: | AB Religionsphilosophie; Religionskritik; Atheismus KBR Lateinamerika VA Philosophie |
weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Portuguese colonization
B para-scientific B Brazil B words and things B Analogy B ontolgy B figurative language |
Online Zugang: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Zusammenfassung: | 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. |
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ISSN: | 1612-2941 |
Enthält: | Enthalten in: Marburg journal of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8297 |