Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Organizational Unit
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Religious Studies
First Advisor
Sandra Lee Dixon
Second Advisor
Sarah Pessin
Third Advisor
Andrea L. Stanton
Fourth Advisor
Naomi Reshotko
Keywords
Interpretation, Maimonides, Metaphor, Ricoeur
Abstract
Ambiguous language haunts countless fields of human inquiry. The solution to its confounding nature has repeatedly been to reduce language to its face-value, launching an endless search for the right meaning. This paper aims to examine two thinkers who reveal language to be a more complicated matter. Paul Ricoeur and Moses Maimonides demonstrate the importance of language’s complexity through close examinations of metaphor. While we find different understandings of metaphor, reflecting different metaphysics within each author’s study, both Ricoeur and Maimonides contribute to the notion that language’s complexity is not to be eliminated through literal readings, but engaged to open up depths of understanding. For the lived religious experience, this means commitment to scripture as the word of God does not require a fundamentalist reading of it. Likewise, in the implementation of philosophical principles, the search for appropriate application need not require a search for and return to original meaning.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Claire E. Molk
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
62 p.
Recommended Citation
Molk, Claire E., "Windows into the Unseen the Power of Metaphor as Revealed by Paul Ricoeur and Moses Maimonides" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1811.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1811
Copyright date
2020
Discipline
Religion, Philosophy, Metaphysics