Jerry H. Gill – författare

Explores the thought of twentieth-century philosopher Michael Polanyi.The Tacit Mode exposes and explores the central insights in Michael Polanyi's major works. It focuses on his epistemological insights concerning tacit knowing, and explores their ramifications for philosophy, science, art, language, political theory, and religion. The notion of tacit knowledge reconstructs the modern concept of objectivity while avoiding the self-stultifying effects of "deconstructivist" postmodernism and puts Polanyi on the cutting edge of contemporary philosophy.

How is it that chimpanzees can learn to "speak" at a higher level than some so-called wolf children? What happened that day in the pumphouse, when Helen Keller suddenly grasped the meaning of words? And picture this: a father and mother who shun the advice of professionals, who doggedly force their way into the closed world of their autistic son, and who reverse his grim prognosis, revealing him to be gifted. How to explain? In this book, a philosopher combines these famous cases with a lifetime of study to examine the threshold of language--that point "between speech and not quite speech." He provides fascinating accounts of the deaf and blind Helen Keller, of chimpanzees like Washoe, and of feral children such as Victor, the "wild boy of Aveyron," putting a new spin on their stories. When does it start, he asks, that miracle most of us take for granted? Where does it come from, that uniquely human power to transform perception and action into thought and the singular activity we call speech? Here is evidence that, for chimp or child, the crucial factors in acquiring language have less to do with intellect and everything to do with social interaction.Here is confirmation that the "give-and-take, push-and-pull" of daily life forces virtually all of us to acquire language simply to live and work together. Author Jerry Gill offers no pat answers. Rather, he emphasizes imitation and reciprocity--for example, playing pat-a-cake with a baby--as essential to becoming part of a speaking community "and thereby becoming a human being." In addition, Gill gives dozens of examples to show how gesture and facial expression both create and change the meaning of language. In compelling fashion, he underscores the point that language acquisition can be fully understood only in terms of such physical and social activity. The author exposes the flaws of research focused mainly on mental processes and gives little credit to findings based upon artificially contrived experiments. With vigor, compassion, and a broad-minded humanism, these pages invite the reader to think again about how we say what we mean, how we mean what we say, and where it all starts in the first place.Valuable to students of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and anthropology, the book will also appeal to general readers who welcome an opportunity to explore familiar things in a new and entirely enjoyable way.

"e;In this timely and accessible book, Gill explores the significance of the border as a privileged place for encountering God. Drawing on the rich stories of persons and communities shaped by the unique perspective of the borderland, Gill finds in those stories the seeds of a truly American theology of liberation."e;--Roberto S. Goizueta, professor of Theology at Boston College, author of Caminemos con Jesus"e;A fresh perspective . . . placing the reality of so many in our world today with 'border-crossing' at the heart of its analysis . . . A book that calls US Christians to conversion and offers the theological tools needed to look at the reality of borders and border-crossing as a call to work for justice at the beginning of the twenty-first century."e;--Ada Mara Isasi-Diaz, professor of Ethics and Theology at Drew University

This book represents an effort to explore a pragmatic approach to the education of US citizens about the conditions and status of the US/Mexico border. It is based on those principles set forth in Paulo Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, wherein he outlines his practiced techniques of educating Third World peoples about their socioeconomic-political situations. Freire's principles have been "e;inverted"e; so as to apply to the education of First World people, thereby enabling them to understand and deal with the processes by means of which the First World peoples oppress and manipulate the peoples of the Third World. This pedagogy aims at the liberation of all people, those comprising both the Third and First World countries.

This book explores the philosophical and theological thought of Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis is a well-known and highly influential Greek writer, having authored such works as Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, among many others. This volume focuses on the over-arching themes of Kazantzakis’ work, namely the importance of the natural world, the nature of humanity, and the nature of God, by means of an analysis of his major novels and other writings. Along the way attention is given to the views of the important scholars who have interacted with Kazantzakis’s works, including Peter Bien, Darren Middleton, and Daniel Dombrowski.

This book explores the philosophical and theological thought of Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis is a well-known and highly influential Greek writer, having authored such works as Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, among many others. This volume focuses on the over-arching themes of Kazantzakis’ work, namely the importance of the natural world, the nature of humanity, and the nature of God, by means of an analysis of his major novels and other writings. Along the way attention is given to the views of the important scholars who have interacted with Kazantzakis’s works, including Peter Bien, Darren Middleton, and Daniel Dombrowski.

This book explores the philosophical/religious thought of Soren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Nikos Kazantzakis in relation to the concept of transcendence. Each of these thinkers has made a strong impact on Western religious and philosophical thought, but each from a nearly completely different angle as well as from a different national background. This comparative study therefore crosses both national and perspectival boundaries. Each of the three thinkers struggled with the notion of transcendence but in uniquely distinct fashion. The conclusion offers yet a third model, the author’s, for understanding transcendence focusing on the concept of “mediation”.

Words, Deeds, Bodies by Jerry H. Gill concentrates on the interrelationships between speech, accomplishing tasks, and human embodiment. Ludwig Wittgenstein, J. L. Austin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Michael Polanyi have all highlighted these relationships. This book examines the, as yet, unexplored connections between these authors’ philosophies of language. It focuses on the relationships between their respective key ideas: Wittgenstein’s notion of “language game,” Austin’s concept of “performative utterances,” Merleau-Ponty’s idea of “slackening the threads,” and Polanyi's understanding of “tacit knowing,” noting the similarities and differences between and amongst them.

The ancient religious thinker Tertullian asked: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”, implying that faith and philosophy have nothing to say to each other. The history of this dialogue has shaped the intellectual dialogue from the very beginning right up to the present. In this book, Jerry H. Gill has traced the dynamics of this dialogue and in the conclusion he has offered his own answer to the questions it raises.