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...
| Auteur principal: | |
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| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Fachgebiet für Religionswissenschaft im Fachbereich 11, Philipps Universität Marburg
[2020]
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| Dans: |
Marburg journal of religion
Année: 2020, Volume: 22, Numéro: 2, Pages: 1-19 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Portugal
/ Colonisation
/ Brésil
/ Description
/ Métonymie
/ Scientificité
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| Classifications IxTheo: | AB Philosophie de la religion KBR Amérique Latine VA Philosophie |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Portuguese colonization
B para-scientific B Brazil B words and things B Analogy B ontolgy B figurative language |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Résumé: | 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 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Marburg journal of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8297 |