African Sculpture

Africa ◽  
1928 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eckart von Sydow

At first sight this sub-title may appear somewhat paradoxical, for what could be in greater contrast than the things denoted by the words ‘primitive’ and ‘European’? On the one hand, civilization with its highly developed technical methods in everything practical and theoretical, on the other, the world of simplicity in all practical activities. There—a mighty movement of expansion, irresistibly drawing into its sphere of influence all primitive life, to transform or destroy it, and in either case to make what remains of the primitive peoples and their countries do it service; here—vain resistance against the superior strength of the European, or the doubtful attempt to conform to European ideals. In the face of successful colonization by the cultured races of Europe, the last thing to be expected was any influence on Europe by the primitive peoples. Nevertheless, such an influence certainly exists, and that in the realm of art. After the period of realistic Impressionism in the last decades of the nineteenth century, a strong movement flowed through the art world of Europe, finding its most permanent expression as Futurism in Italy, Cubism in France, and Expressionism in Germany. This movement in Germany, in opposition to Realism, made it one of its principles to observe and express not the external but the interior world, while in France the desire for bold drawing of a decorative character prevailed. Both tendencies culminated in an art movement which felt for the primitive works of art a sympathy due to a sense of relationship: the Cubist appreciated their inherent architectural character, and the Expressionists the mystic emotional content.

2020 ◽  

Whereas democracy still seemed to be triumphantly sweeping the world before the turn of the century, today it finds itself under immense pressure, not only as a viable political system, but also as a theoretical and normative concept. The coronavirus crisis has underlined and accelerated these developments. There are manifold reasons for this, above all the fundamental changes the state and society have undergone in the face of globalisation, digitalisation, migration, climate change and not least the current pandemic, to name the most significant of them. This volume analyses the changes to democracy in the 21st century and the crises it has experienced. In doing so, the book identifies where action is needed, on the one hand, and investigates appropriate, up-to-date reforms and the prospects for politics, political communication and political education, on the other. With contributions by Ulrich von Alemann, Bernd Becker, Frank Brettschneider, Frank Decker, Claudio Franzius, Georg Paul Hefty, Andreas Kalina, Helmut Klages, Uwe Kranenpohl, Pola Lehmann, Linus Leiten, Dirk Lüddecke, Thomas Metz, Ursula Münch, Ursula Alexandra Ohliger, Veronika Ohliger, Rainer-Olaf Schultze, Peter Seyferth, Hans Vorländer, Uwe Wagschal, Thomas Waldvogel and Samuel Weishaupt


2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wise

Whether through its association with 1789 or 1830, with the German labor movement of the nineteenth century, or the fight against fascism in the twentieth, the stirring sound of the national anthem of France is familiar to us all.1(And film buffs everywhere have a powerful image of this last association thanks to the unforgettable depiction of the song inCasablanca.) Less well known is that this famous song, though feared during the 1790s as the terrorist “chant” of the guillotine,2also provided René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt with the ingredients, and a ready-made dramaturgical recipe, for inventing a new theatrical genre.3With its simple division of the world into vulnerable, imperiledenfantson the one hand, and powerful, plottingtyranson the other, and its demand that the latter be killed, “La Marseillaise” may well have helped to stoke the fire of the Terror and certainly helped legitimize its violence. But in terms of its plot, characters, and politicomoral thought, even in terms of its diction and spectacle,4“La Marseillaise” also laid down the dramaturgical rules for playwriting in revolutionary Paris, showing the father of melodrama how to make for the happiness of theenfants de la patrie—those in the audience and those on the stage.


2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
VALESKA HUBER

This article analyses the proceedings of eight International Sanitary Conferences which were convened between 1851 and 1894 to address the danger that cholera epidemics posed to Europe. These conferences are examined in the context of the intellectual and institutional changes in scientific medicine and in the light of the changing structure of internationalist endeavours that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. The article shows that the International Sanitary Conferences were as much spaces of co-operation as they were arenas where differences and boundaries between disciplines, nations, and cultures were defined. Furthermore, it seeks to shed light on a broader tension of the period. On the one hand, the fact that the world was growing together to an unprecedented extent due to new means of transportation enabled Europeans to establish and expand profitable commercial and colonial relations. On the other hand, this development increased the vulnerability of Europe – for example to the importation of diseases. The perception that the world was becoming increasingly interconnected was thus coupled with the need for controllable boundaries. The conferences attempted to find solutions as to how borders could be secured without resorting to traditional barriers; like semipermeable membranes they should be open for some kinds of communication but closed for others.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Petrilli

Abstract As she worked through the nineteenth century Victoria Welby elaborated a fascinating theory of translation based on her theory of sign and meaning, which she designated with the term significs. This means to say that, on the one hand, Welby’s theory of translation took account of the vastness and variety of the world of signs, therefore of the unbounded nature of translative-interpretive processes which cannot be limited to the mere transition from one language to another. The condition for interlingual translation in the human world is the larger context where translative processes converge with life processes and maybe push beyond in what would seem to be an unbounded cosmic dimension. On the other hand, that Welby should have related her translation theory to her theory of sign and meaning also implies that she founded her translation theory in a theory of value recognizing the inevitable importance of the latter when translating within a single language as much as across different languages in a plurilingual and intercultural world. Ultimately, in the properly human world, to translate means to interpret, that is, to translate transfiguring and transvaluating significance.


Author(s):  
Claudia Suely Ferreira Gomes ◽  
Maria das Graças Gonçalves Vieira Guerra ◽  
Emilia Maria da Trindade Prestes ◽  
Adriana Valeria Santos Diniz

O pensamento pedagógico de Paulo Freire, revelando ser a educação dialógica uma questão essencial para uma maior leitura crítica da realidade, continua inspirando pedagogos/as, filósofos/as e sociólogos/as da educação de diferentes contextos, como forma de responder aos questionamentos e desafios das realidades emergentes, nas dimensões educativa, política e social da práxis pedagógica. A atualização do seu pensamento inspira este artigo guiado pelo seguinte questionamento: Como, em um mundo multicultural, se revelam, de forma atualizada as ideias de Freire, tendo como arcabouço pedagógico e político o diálogo? A partir de fontes documental-bibliográficas, utilizando uma abordagem descritiva, o estudo realizou uma reflexão teórica sobre a reinterpretação do pensamento educativo de um dos pensadores mais citados em diferentes fontes de referência, no mundo na área das ciências humanas, no país e no exterior. No Brasil, as teorias baseadas no diálogo e na participação, oriundas de Paulo Freire, se por um lado se tornaram objeto de crítica e de perseguição; por outro, diante de uma situação de crise e de desalento, vem sendo adotadas e defendidas, com maior vigor, como uma vertente da inclusão e de democracia. Por fim, o artigo defende que a perspectiva pedagógica de Paulo Freire continua vigente, na busca de um mundo plural em que se demanda reconhecimento e autonomia. El pensamiento pedagógico de Paulo Freire, que revela que la educación dialógica es una cuestión esencial para una mayor lectura crítica de la realidad, sigue inspirando a pedagogos, filósofos y sociólogos de la educación de diferentes contextos, como una forma de responder a las preguntas y desafíos de las realidades emergentes, en las dimensiones educativas, políticas y sociales de la praxis pedagógica. La actualización de su pensamiento inspira este artículo guiado por la siguiente pregunta: ¿Cómo, en un mundo multicultural, se revelan las ideas de Freire de manera actualizada, teniendo como marco pedagógico y político el diálogo? A partir de fuentes documentales-bibliográficas y con un enfoque descriptivo, el estudio realizó una reflexión teórica sobre la reinterpretación del pensamiento educativo de uno de los pensadores más citados en diferentes fuentes de referencia, en el mundo de las ciencias humanas, en el país y en el extranjero. En Brasil, las teorías basadas en el diálogo y la participación, originales de Paulo Freire, se han convertido, por un lado, en objeto de crítica y persecución; por otro lado, ante una situación de crisis y desánimo, se han adoptado y defendido con mayor vigor como una vertiente de inclusión y democracia. Finalmente, el artículo defiende que la perspectiva pedagógica de Paulo Freire sigue vigente, en la búsqueda de un mundo plural en el que se exija reconocimiento y autonomía. Paulo Freire's pedagogical thought, which reveals that dialogical education is an essential issue for a greater critical reading of reality, continues to inspire pedagogues, philosophers and sociologists of education from different contexts, as a way of responding to the questions and challenges of emerging realities, in the educational, political and social dimensions of pedagogical praxis. The updating of his thinking inspires this article guided by the following question: How, in a multicultural world, are Freire's ideas revealed in an updated way, having dialogue as a pedagogical and political framework? Based on documentary-bibliographic sources and with a descriptive approach, the study made a theoretical reflection on the reinterpretation of the educational thought of one of the most cited thinkers in different reference sources, in the world of human sciences, in the country and abroad. In Brazil, the theories based on dialogue and participation, original to Paulo Freire, have become, on the one hand, the object of criticism and persecution; on the other hand, in the face of a situation of crisis and discouragement, they have been adopted and defended with greater vigor as an aspect of inclusion and democracy. Finally, the article argues that Paulo Freire's pedagogical perspective is still valid, in the search for a plural world in which recognition and autonomy are demanded.


1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Israeli

In the process of opening up China, the French representatives, like their other Western counterparts, came into contact with the Chinese mandarins who represented a culture and world view that were almost totally foreign to them. Part of the daunting task of preservin their country's glory and pursuing its interests, was to try and comprehend the world they were attempting to engage. They arrived in China with an intellectual luggage replete with stereotypes and misconceptions about the Chinese, on the one hand, and on the other hand they were committed to their mission civilisatrice in China which was to help the Chinese save themselves from themselves.


Author(s):  
Karol Berger

The Ring, though many years in gestation (1848-74), was essentially the fruit of Wagner’s politically most radical anarchist period concurrent with and immediately following the mid-century revolts. The nineteenth century was obsessed by the Myth of Revolution, the myth that was one of that century’s two most baleful legacies to the one that followed (the other one was the Myth of Nation). In Wagner’s tetralogy this obsession found its arguably grandest artistic expression. Inspired by Feuerbach, Proudhon, and Bakunin, it is a poem intoxicated by the orgy of destruction of the old world in which humans compete for power and riches and by the hopeful anticipation of the world to come, the world of spontaneous solidarity and love—an anarchist utopia.


1934 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-204

The most notable happening in the history of thought in the latter half of the nineteenth century is that there came surging through the world then, almost simultaneously, two great waves of thought: the one originated by Darwin, the other by Pasteur. The effects of these two movements of thought were very different. That originated by Darwin brought intellectual illumination and nothing more. That derived from Pasteur brought, in addition, material benefit. Pasteur’s first biological enquiries—those on spontaneous generation—and his researches on beer, wine, and vinegar, showed how to hold off putrefaction and control fermentation; and the further extensions of this work to disease gave us preventive inoculation. It was in connexion with Pasteur’s work on microbic diseases that Roux’s name first became famous.


1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 345-363
Author(s):  
Andrew Levine

Until quite recently, political philosophers routinely ignored nationalism. Nowadays, the topic is very much on the philosophical agenda. In the past, when philosophers did discuss nationalism, it was usually to denigrate it. Today, nationalism elicits generally favorable treatment. I confess to a deep ambivalence about this turn of events. On the one hand, much of what has emerged in recent work on nationalism appears to be on the mark. On the other hand, the anti- or extra-nationalist outlook that used to pervade political philosophy seems as sound today as it ever was, and perhaps even more urgent in the face of truly horrendous eruptions of nationalist hostilities in many parts of the world. What follows is an effort to grapple with this ambivalence. My aim will be to identify what is defensible in the nationalist idea and then to reflect on the flaws inherent in even the most defensible aspects of nationalist theory and practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (3 SELECTED PAPERS IN ENGLISH) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Siwicka

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 56 (2008), issue 3. In his Meditations, the Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius very often resorts to the motif of passing and transitory nature of human life. On the one hand, this permanent and pessimistic motif may be interpreted as a certain kind of spiritual exercise, practised not only by Stoics. On the other hand, we cannot exclude that this is a manifestation of the author’s personal views and experiences. Marcus often touched upon the topic of death, a fact that was not necessarily an expression of his fear of what was inevitable since, according to the Stoic doctrine, death belongs to the immutable order of the world and is congruous with nature, hence it is completely ac­ceptable. Marcus Aurelius is rather afraid of the transitory nature of the moment that we are given. He stresses that life “is passing away” each day and, at the same time, he is tormented with the lack of time that must be filled with good and respectable behaviour, with life in conformity with reason, or the deity. Marcus Aurelius is not frightened by death itself, but by the possibility to lose control over one’s life, loss of consciousness, and the ability to reflect (in case of an illness or old age). He also firmly stresses the importance of favours that we may and should render to others, which besides properly forming one’s soul, are the goal of human life.


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