The Human Twin

1980 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
Luigi Gedda

For the geneticist, or for anyone else, to make a speech in Jerusalem means a cultural effort that is extraordinary. Like every other researcher, the geneticist must locate his scientific investigations in the context of a truth which embraces nature and the history of man. Those of us who are concerned with twin studies, however, cannot simply leave our concrete and specific field to deal with theoretical themes; rather, we must extract from our research these concepts that bridge the gap between the particular truths we seek and that total truth, which man desires in order to resolve the mystery which surrounds his existence.I would like to submit to the distinguished personalities who are honoring our Congress with their presence, as well as to my very dear colleagues, the idea that the best project for creating a link between our field of interest and the other interests of modern culture would be to survey the state of our knowledge about the personality of the human twin.Therefore, I will not talk about the application of the method of twin studies, but about the identical twin, the monozygotic (MZ) twin individual. That is, I will not talk about those dizygotic (DZ) twins like Esau and Jacob, who were different. DZ twins are, of course, real twins, and about twice as frequent as the MZ ones. But I will refer only to the twin who has another twin identical to himself, and who represents the classical model of the phenomenon of twins.

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-135
Author(s):  
Lucia Della Torre

Not very long ago, scholars saw it fit to name a new and quite widespread phenomenon they had observed developing over the years as the “judicialization” of politics, meaning by it the expanding control of the judiciary at the expenses of the other powers of the State. Things seem yet to have begun to change, especially in Migration Law. Generally quite a marginal branch of the State's corpus iuris, this latter has already lent itself to different forms of experimentations which then, spilling over into other legislative disciplines, end up by becoming the new general rule. The new interaction between the judiciary and the executive in this specific field as it is unfolding in such countries as the UK and Switzerland may prove to be yet another example of these dynamics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Allison K. Shutt

Abstract:This article reviews the history of defamation cases involving Africans in Southern Rhodesia. Two precedent-setting cases, one in 1938 and the other in 1946, provided a legal rationale for finding defamation that rested on the ability of litigants to prove they had been shamed. The testimony and evidence of these cases, both of which involved government employees, tracks how colonial rule was altering hierarchy and changing definitions of honor, often to the bewilderment of the litigants themselves. Importantly, both cases concluded that African employees of the state deserved special protection from defamation. The article then traces how the rules and ambiguities resulting from the legal logic of the 1938 and 1946 cases gave a wider group of litigants such as clerks, police, clergy, and teachers room to maneuver in the courtroom where they also claimed their professional honor. Such litigants perfectly understood the expectations of the court and performed accordingly by recounting embarrassing, even painful, experiences, all to validate their personal and professional honor in court. Such performances raise the question of how we might use court records to write a history of the emotional costs to people who used astute strategies that rested on dishonorable revelations to win their cases.


Author(s):  
Herman Mark Schwartz

Theories that the state and market are in a conflictual and binary relationship read the history of the past 30 years as a triumph of the market and a withering of the state. The underlying alleged conflict between state and market misrepresents history and reality. States and markets are commingled forms of power; each cannot exist without the other. States and markets operate on different logics and constantly mutate in response to changes in their environment. States constantly face competitive threats and need markets to generate revenue in efficient ways; market actors face competitive threats and need states to stabilize production and exchange relationships. States and market actors both need each other as a place to externalize threats to their legitimacy.


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Arpita Mitra

There has been a long-standing academic debate on the religious orientation of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṁsa (1836–1886), one of the leading religious figures of modern India. In the light of his teachings, it is possible to accept that Rāmakṛṣṇa’s ideas were Vedāntic, albeit not in a sectarian or exclusive way. This article explores the question of where exactly to place him in the chequered history of Vedāntic ideas. It points out that Rāmakṛṣṇa repeatedly referred to different states of consciousness while explaining the difference in the attitudes towards the Divine. This is the basis of his harmonization of the different streams within Vedānta. Again, it is also the basis of his understanding of the place of śakti. He demonstrated that, as long as one has I-consciousness, one is operating within the jurisdiction of śakti, and has to accept śakti as real. On the other hand, in the state of samādhi, which is the only state in which the I-consciosuness disappears, there is neither One nor many. The article also shows that, while Rāmakṛṣṇa accepted all of the different views within Vedānta, he was probably not as distant from the Advaita Vedānta philosopher Ādi Śaṁkara as he has been made out to be.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-96
Author(s):  
Markus Messling

Abstract In the New Science (1744), Giambattista Vico defined filologia as “the doctrine of all the institutions that depend on human choice” of the mondo civile. When nineteenth-century European nationalism was on the rise, supported by narratives of cultural homogeneity and specificity, philological comparatism was the state-of-the-art and it, often, legitimated the obsessions with the purity of origins and genealogies. Italy, characterized by internal plurality and its Mediterranean entanglements, is a model case. Whereas many discourses of the Risorgimento aspired to shape a new Italian nation after the classical model, Michele Amari’s History of the Muslims of Sicily (1854–1872) marked an astonishing exception. For him, going back to Islamic-Sicilian history, its literary, rhetorical and linguistic culture, meant to resume, on a higher level of incivilmento (Vico), what had been obscured by cultural decline: the spirit of freedom and equality, which Ibn Khaldūn had attributed to the Bedouins and their dynamics in history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-311
Author(s):  
Giorgio (Georg) Orlandi

Abstract The book under review serves as a significant contribution to the field of Trans-Himalayan linguistics. Designed as a vade mecum for readers with little linguistic background in these three languages, Nathan W. Hill’s work attempts, on the one hand, a systematic exploration of the shared history of Burmese, Tibetan and Chinese, and, on the other, a general introduction to the reader interested in obtaining an overall understanding of the state of the art of the historical phonology of these three languages. Whilst it is acknowledged that the book in question has the potential to be a solid contribution to the field, it is also felt that few minor issues can be also addressed.


Diacronia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Totomanova

The paper traces the history of the Histdict system, which turned into a basis for the new Electronic Research Infrastructure for Bulgarian Medieval Written Heritage, which was included into the National Research Roadmap at the end of 2020. Through this act the state declares its support to our resources, that have been so far created and supported by project funding. And of course, it is a big recognition of our efforts and achievements. On the other hand, this act coincided with two other events: the inclusion of RESILIENCE (Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies) in which Histdict is taking part, in the European Research Infrastructures Roadmap and the start of the updating and upgrading of the system. Given the situation the Infrastructure is now facing new challenges—not only the successful improvement of the services it offers, but also the inclusion of the Orthodox Cultural Heritage into European research exchange, which will promote and popularize the history and culture of Southeastern Europe.


Author(s):  
G. G. Malinetskiy ◽  
O. N. Kapelko

Humans have been approaching their cognitive limits through technological and social development, as well as widespread use of information and telecommunications systems and computers. Cognitive limits are a limiting condition of modern culture. The information and knowledge dimension is characterized by irrepressible and uncontrolled growth; it characterizes on one hand civilization itself and on the other hand every individual sphere of knowledge. In this case (when we have to process too much information), the necessary information and knowledge volume for effective action can be neither obtained, understood, nor used. This limit can also become a serious obstacle for the development of civilization, including limitations such as mineral resources, pure water, and fresh air. Overcoming this barrier can largely be accomplished through a revision of the form and content of education using an interdisciplinary approach.


1975 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 931-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuo Najita

When teaching Tokugawa intellectual history, I consistently encounter a question that is at once deceptively simple yet so difficult to respond to in a convincing and substantial way. Why do Japanese historians argue that Confucianism had an important impact on Tokugawa society, when geographical, political, and ethical realities in Japan were so vastly different from those in China? There is, of course, good reason to be perplexed, I reply, and offer a generalization or two. Tokugawa society clearly was not “Sinified” as is sometimes implied; but, on the other hand, the imprint of Confucianism on Tokugawa thought and culture was undeniably deep. Although the picture is sometimes overdrawn, Japanese historians constantly refer to Confucianism as the “rationalizing” force that transformed Japan from a religious and ascetic culture to a bureaucratic and secular one. The same historians continue to debate the intellectual merit of Tokugawa Confucianism in Japan's modern culture, for while the precise ramifications are still controversial, there is little doubt as to the depth of the Tokugawa intellectual engagement with Confucian thought and of the profound legacy of that engagement for the modern history of Japan. Unfortunately, these generalizations, although helpful, do not add up to convincing historical instruction, a realization that has invariably left me searching for more cogent lines of interpretation and more detailed characterizations of Tokugawa thought.


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