Astrology, Magic, and Optics: Facets of John Dee's Early Natural Philosophy

1977 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 632-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas H. Clulee
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Form ◽  
Scholarly Attention

John Dee (1527-1608) has received increasing scholarly attention since the completion in 1952 of I. R. F. Calder's massive dissertation, ‘John Dee Studied as an English Neoplatonist,’ and with the publication of Peter French's John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus, Dee's career and works should be fairly familiar. Prior to Calder's study, John Dee's press had been none too good, and serious scholars have labored under the burden of demonstrating Dee's place within some important intellectual tradition, so that he might be rescued from the opinion, based upon his penchant for occult studies, that he was ‘… the sport, the laughing-stock and die pray of daemons,’ or, in more modern form, ‘a rather silly man.’

Vesalius and the Reading of Galen's Teleology*

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy G. Siraisi
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Intellectual Tradition ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Experience ◽  
Ancient Texts

Sixteenth-century approaches to the world of nature remained resolutely bound to ancient texts. Hostility to the medieval past, new theories, new experiences, and new information were evidently abundantly present. But medieval predecessors were far more likely to be criticized for failure to understand ancient authority than for slavish dependence on it; dissatisfaction with intellectual tradition was apt to express itself in form of a call for return to the ideas of ancients who preceded the standard school authors in time; and in every branch of natural philosophy, natural history, and medicine, examination of the writings of ancient Greek authors was a major, perhaps the major, part of the task of the investigator. Innovators — some of them very bold and some very eccentric indeed — reworked, recombined, and criticized the ancients, or measured their teachings against modern experience; but they seldom ignored them.

scholarly journals The origins of modern cross-cultural European interpretations of Chinese philosophy. New thoughts on China in the work of G. W. Leibniz

Human Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Břetislav Horyna
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
The World ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Contribution ◽  
Mutual Agreement

AbstractLeibniz was not the one to discover China, as far as Western culture was concerned. His historical contribution lies in the fact he presented Europe and China as two distinct ways of contemplating the world, as fully comparable and resulting in types of societies at the same high institutional, economic, technological, political and moral level. In this sense he saw China as the “Europe of the Orient” and as such susceptible to investigation by the same tools of natural philosophy which Leibniz knew from the environs of European scholarship. He was the first representative of the classical school of European philosophy to knowingly reject Eurocentrism. Leibniz followed the intentions of learned missionaries in his understanding of the Christian mission as a cultural and civilisational task, a search for mutual agreement and connections, in favour of a reciprocal understanding.

The river fans out: Chinese fiction since the late 1970s

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRY Y. H. ZHAO
Keyword(s):  
Western China ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Religious Consciousness ◽  
Chinese Fiction ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Artistic Quality ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Mao Era

The 25 years of the post-Mao era of Chinese fiction is divided into two distinct stages: the pre-1989 period, and the post-1989 period. If this division is true about almost everything else in China, it is especially true with literature. This is because literature had been used as a lethal weapon for political struggle by Mao before and during his regime, and this tradition, though strongly challenged in the post-Mao era, still lingers, though in very different forms now and much watered down. Even the recent trends of art for art's sake, or for the sake of entertainment, or for the sake of religious consciousness, could also be read as political gestures, and are indeed treated as such by Chinese literary officialdom, and also by Western China experts. Despite the fact that Chinese fiction has been highly politicized, this paper will examine, as much as possible, the development of fiction as an art. Only the artistic quality can support my argument that recent novels from China deserve not only more scholarly attention but also more reader appreciation than they have hitherto received around the world.

Curious Readers: The Bodleian’s Book of Curiosities as a Fatimid View of the World Through Ottoman Eyes

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-424
Author(s):  
Boris Liebrenz
Keyword(s):  
Political Environment ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Ottoman History ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Geographical Context

Abstract An illustrated cosmographical and geographical manuscript at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, known as the Book of Curiosities, has recently seen a rare confluence of public and scholarly attention. It is widely regarded as one of the outstanding Arabic works of geography, with stylistically idiosyncratic maps and a text that can be traced back to Egypt in the Fatimid period. However, few concrete facts are known about the history of this unique artefact. This article will identify and analyse the traces left by some of its previous owners and thus unlock the Ottoman history of this Fatimid work. By placing it in a concrete temporal and geographical context, we are better able to envisage the intellectual, social, and political environment in which this book could make sense to its owners and readers.

Kazuo Ohno's World from Without and Within. By Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno. Translated by John Barrett. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004; pp. 344. $34.95 paper.

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-317
Author(s):  
Kurt Wurmli
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
The West ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Inside View ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata are recognized as the most influential creators of the contemporary Japanese dance form known today as butoh. Since its wild and avant-garde beginnings in the late 1950s, butoh has evolved into an established and appreciated art form throughout the world. Despite its popularity and strong influences on the international modern dance world, butoh only recently became an accepted subject for academic research in Japan as well as in the West. With the new opening of butoh research centers and archives—such as the Ohno Dance Studio Archives at BANK ART 1929 in Yokohama, the Kazuo Ohno Archives at Bologna University in Italy, and the Hijikata Tatsumi Archives at Keio University in Tokyo—serious scholarly attention has been given to the art of butoh's founders. However, the lack of firsthand sources by butoh artists reflecting their own work still poses great limitations for a deep understanding of the art form. Kazuo Ohno's World from Without and Within is not only the first full-length book in English about the master's life and work, but also offers a rare inside view of butoh.

scholarly journals A defense of the modern, high-tech redneck on reality TV: Why the world loves Duck Dynasty and its resulting redemptive representation of Rednecks

SURG Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Sarah McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Reality Tv ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Television Studies ◽  
Southern Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Tv Show ◽  
Modern Form

This article uses key terms and concepts from Television Studies to “close read” the reality TV show Duck Dynasty in its visual form. This article questions not only how Duck Dynasty represents rednecks, but also how the representation of the “redneck” is understood by the TV audience. It explores the success of Duck Dynasty as a reality TV show and argues that it redeems “rednecks” from Hollywood’s previous portrayals of the overly caricatured redneck stereotype. The Robertsons have the ability to convey truth – even if it is through a partially fake/mediated realm – and what they actually represent is a more subdued, modern form of redneck identity in comparison to classic Hollywood depictions. However, viewers cannot trust reality TV to wholly or singularly inform how they understand other social groups despite how “real” reality may appear on reality TV shows. Instead of viewing the redneck jokes and portrayal on reality TV as offensive, Duck Dynasty’s jokes and portrayals can be powerful tools for exposing the absurdity of the stereotypes previously perpetuated by Hollywood and can help subvert them. Keywords: Duck Dynasty; Duck Commander; Buck Commander; Robertson; redneck (representations of); reality TV; television studies; hillbilly; Southern culture; stereotypes; sitcom; American dream; American television

scholarly journals India and overseas Indians in Ceylon and Burma, 1946–1965: Experiments in post-imperial sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Raphaëlle Khan ◽  
Taylor C. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract Despite the existence of a large Indian diaspora, there has been relatively little scholarly attention paid to India's relations with overseas Indians after its independence in 1947. The common narrative is that India abruptly cut ties with overseas Indians at independence, as it adhered to territorially based understandings of sovereignty and citizenship. Re-examining India's relations with Indian communities in Ceylon and Burma between the 1940s and the 1960s, this article demonstrates that, despite its rhetoric, independent India did not renounce responsibility for its diaspora. Instead, because of pre-existing social connections that spanned the former British empire, the Government of India faced regular demands to assist overseas Indians, and it responded on several fronts. To understand this continued engagement with overseas Indians, this article introduces the idea of ‘post-imperial sovereignty'. This type of sovereignty was layered, as imperial sovereignty had been, but was also concerned with advancing norms designed to protect minority communities across the world. India’s strategy to argue for these norms was simultaneously multilateral, regional, and bilateral. It sought to use the United Nations, the Commonwealth, and the 1947 Asian Relations Conference to secure rights for overseas Indians. As those attempts failed, India negotiated claims for citizenship with governments in Burma and Ceylon, and shaped the institutions and language through which Indians voiced demands for their rights in these countries. Indian expressions of sovereignty beyond the space of the nation-state, therefore, impacted on practices of citizenship, even during the process of de-recognition in Asia.

Bacon’s Novum organum

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Elodie Cassan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
The Way

Dan Garber’s paper provides materials permitting to reply to an objection frequently made to the idea that the Novum Organum is a book of logic, as the allusion to Aristotle’s Organon included in the very title of this book shows it is. How can Bacon actually build a logic, considering his repeated claims that he desires to base natural philosophy directly on observation and experiment? Garber shows that in the Novum Organum access to experience is always mediated by particular questions and settings. If there is no direct access to observation and experience, then there is no point in equating Bacon’s focus on experience in the Novum Organum with a rejection of discursive issues. On the contrary, these are two sides of the same coin. Bacon’s articulation of rules for the building of scientific reasoning in connection with the way the world is, illustrates his massive concern with the relation between reality, thinking and language. This concern is essential in the field of logic as it is constructed in the Early Modern period.

Artifacts of Expansive Learning in Designing a Web-Based Performance Assessment System

2010 ◽  
pp. 210-251
Author(s):  
Hanne Mawhinney
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Expansive Learning ◽  
The World ◽  
Performance Assessment System ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Recent evidence of the adoption of technologically mediated systems of knowledge management as part of the trend to accountability in the Institutions of Higher Education around the world has been widely disseminated in World Bank and UNESCO reports, and the effects of assessment driven accountability on preparation programs extensively debated in scholarly communities. Less scholarly attention has been paid to the institutional effects of the technology enhanced performance assessment evidentiary demands on university programs undergoing review by national accrediting bodies. The lack of scholarly attention is addressed by presenting a case study examining the institutional dynamics of accreditation review experienced by faculty in one department that offered graduate programs leading to certification for education leaders. Drawing from institutional analysis (Scott, 2008a, 2008b) a conceptual framework is established in a discussion of conditions of enactment of the regulative, normative and cognitive facets of the institutional dynamics evident in the implementation ecology of accountability systems. The case study analysis outlines four phases of development of the essential elements of a web-based assessment system, and describes the questions raised by faculty about performance evidence, the assessment of that evidence, and the nature of measures of program outcome effectiveness. Classic theories of organizations fail to fully explain the concerns and questions that were raised by faculty. In contrast, Engeström’s (1999, 2001, 2008) theory of expansive learning grounded in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) provides insights into faculty responses to questions raised by the criteria for program review established by the accrediting body. Artifacts of expansive learning evident in the development of a performance assessment system can be viewed as reflecting institutionalization of regulative, normative, and cognitive dimensions of the emergent evaluative state of leadership preparation around the world. Implications are suggested for understanding the development of information technology (IT) enhanced knowledge management systems (KMS).

The Nature of Data

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Rob Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Computational Science ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Technical Point ◽  
Scientific Innovation ◽  
The World ◽  
Theoretical Science ◽  
Term Data ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the nature of data from an etymological, philosophical, and technical point of view. Data is derived from the Latin dare, meaning 'to give'. In general use, however, data refers to those elements that are taken. Technically, what is understood to be data are actually capta (derived from the Latin capere, meaning 'to take'); those units of data that have been selected and harvested from the sum of all potential data. It is no coincidence that the use of the word 'data' emerged during the Renaissance. At this time, there was a flourishing of scientific innovation with respect to philosophy, equipment, and analysis that led to new discoveries and theories across the academy and new inventions in business, and transformed the world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of the term 'data' extended from mathematics and natural philosophy to economics and administration. In the 20th century, data came to mean any information stored and used in the context of computing, and its uses multiplied beyond science and administration. The chapter then looks at four dominant scientific paradigms centred on epistemological approaches: experimental science, theoretical science, computational science, and exploratory science. What this discussion reveals is that not only is data manufactured, but the approach to and process of manufacturing has changed over time.

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