Realism, Radical Constructivism, and Film History

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-199
Author(s):  
Nick Redfern ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Film History ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Radical Constructivism ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Nature Development ◽  
Viable Approach

As a technology and an art form perceived to be capable of reproducing the world, it has long been thought that the cinema has a natural affinity with reality. In this essay I consider the Realist theory of film history out forward by Robert C. Allen and Douglas Gomery from the perspective of Radical Constructivism. I argue that such a Realist theory cannot provide us with a viable approach to film history as it presents a flawed description of the historian’s relationship to the past. Radical Constructivism offers an alternative model, which requires historians to rethink the nature of facts, the processes involved in constructing historical knowledge, and its relation to the past. Historical poetics, in the light of Radical Constructivism, is a basic model of research into cinema that uses concepts to construct theoretical statements in order to explain the nature, development, and effects of cinematic phenomena.

Using Sources In History Teaching

2021 ◽  
pp. 54-67
Author(s):  
Seema S.Ojha
Keyword(s):  
Deductive Reasoning ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
History Teaching ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Teaching History ◽  
The World ◽  
Source Materials

History is constructed by people who study the past. It is created through working on both primary and secondary sources that historians use to learn about people, events, and everyday life in the past. Just like detectives, historians look at clues, sift through evidence, and make their own interpretations. Historical knowledge is, therefore, the outcome of a process of enquiry. During last century, the teaching of history has changed considerably. The use of sources, viz. textual, visual, and oral, in school classrooms in many parts of the world has already become an essential part of teaching history. However, in India, it is only a recent phenomenon. Introducing students to primary sources and making them a regular part of classroom lessons help students develop critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills. These will be useful throughout their lives. This paper highlights the benefits of using primary source materials in a history classroom and provides the teacher, with practical suggestions and examples of how to do this.

Making History: Chan as an Art Form

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Cole
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday World

This chapter highlights several important elements at work in the process of writing history. The first thing to see is that writing history represents a doubling of reality: in addition to the everyday world that one lives in, where one's senses are engaged in a fluid and continuous manner, the writer of history works to evoke scenes and events that, though invisible, can be made to appear to the reader as integral parts of reality, albeit in the past. Put this way, one can appreciate how the skills needed to write history reflect the growing human ability to artify the world. Why this matters for understanding Chan literature is that one wouldn't be far wrong in describing Chan as a gradually solidifying set of literary gestures designed to enhance—and organize—the present, by carefully designing and curating images of an imaginary past.

scholarly journals War Peace and Art

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 497
Author(s):  
Hakan Pehlivan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Wars Of Religion ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Art Practices ◽  
The World

The world is going to a darkness without end. War, nationalism, discrimination and various conflicts tearing people. They are forced to migrate. Chemical weapons are being used. The children are being killed. Environmental disasters are happening. Boundary walls are built. The wars of religion are at the door. Kin hate seeds are being planted and transferred to future generations. Nationalism is on the rise. We are losing our desire to live together. Despite this, peace and tranquility in our surroundings are our greatest desires and we are right. Civil society should do something to stop it. In this sense, artists are the strongest propagandists. To support peace, art practices have become more important than the past. The artist's initiative is used both to rehabilitate society and to eliminate prejudices. Many international plastic art form is exemplified in this study. Complementary arts workshops, public artworks are examples of these. In addition, the results obtained from the workshop of Turkish Greek artists are presented with preliminary results and related examples.

A Realist Foreign Policy for the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Rosato ◽  
John Schuessler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Minor Powers

What kind of policy can the United States pursue that ensures its security while minimizing the likelihood of war? We describe and defend a realist theory of foreign policy to guide American decision makers. Briefly, the theory says that if they want to ensure their security, great powers such as the United States should balance against other great powers. They should also take a relaxed view toward developments involving minor powers and, at most, should balance against hostile minor powers that inhabit strategically important regions of the world. We then show that had the great powers followed our theory's prescriptions, some of the most important wars of the past century might have been averted. Specifically, the world wars might not have occurred, and the United States might not have gone to war in either Vietnam or Iraq. In other words, realism as we conceive it offers the prospect of security without war. At the same time, we also argue that if the United States adopts an alternative liberal foreign policy, this is likely to result in more, rather than fewer, wars. We conclude by offering some theoretically-based proposals about how US decision makers should deal with China and Iran.

scholarly journals HISTORICAL REALITY IN THE LIGHT OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

2020 ◽  
pp. 144-152
Author(s):  
R.Yu. Rakhmatullin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Valid Argument ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Radical Constructivism ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Constructive Realism ◽  
The Past

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the thesis «historical reality as a narrative». The relevance of the article determines the place of historical knowledge as the most important ideological tool formalizing the national and civilian identity. The originality of the article lies in an attempt to find a middle ground between radical constructivism and realism whilst explaining the phenomenon of «historical reality». Research methodology — constructivism. This methodology leads to following results: 1. Historical reality is always a construct that has an author with his political, moral, religious or other beliefs. Based on this, it should be taken into consideration that other researchers establish different and even alternative historical realities. Therefore, the story will remain as a multitude of competing stories. 2. The reference to historical facts as a proof meaning the correspondence of the narrative to the described event is not a valid argument. There are the following reasons for this: a) any story originated in the past is limited to a certain number of facts. Meanwhile, there are always some unknown facts that can significantly change the picture of historical reality; b) historical reality made of fact selection depends on the researcher and the goals he pursues; c) falsification of facts is often used in historical sources. 3. Every honest researcher creates his own narrative out of real-life events and characters, which makes it possible to assert his objectivity and the incorrectness of the radical constructivism methodology. But even the most honest researcher has personality traits that can be reflected on his work, which gives grounds to claim that realism is wrong. Therefore, the truth still lies somewhere in the middle and being represented by moderate constructivism or constructive realism.

scholarly journals Historical thinking and family historians: Renovating the house of history

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Emma Shaw ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Public Pedagogy ◽  
Australian Study ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Family history research, as a multi-billion-dollar industry, is one of the most popular pastimes in the world with millions of enthusiasts worldwide. Anecdotally regarded by some in the academy as being non-traditional, family historians are changing the historiographic landscape through the proliferation and dissemination of their familial narratives across multiple media platforms. Learning to master the necessary research methodologies to undertake historical work is a pedagogic practice, but for many family historians this occurs on the fringe of formal education settings in an act of public pedagogy. As large producers of the past, there have been many important studies into the research practices of family historians, where family historians have been shown to draw upon the research methodologies of professional historians. Paradoxically, little attention has been paid to how these large producers of historical knowledge think historically. This paper reports on interview findings from a recent Australian study into the historical thinking of family historians. Drawing on Peter Seixas’ (2011) historical thinking concepts as a heuristic lens, this research finds that some family historians, despite being largely untrained in historical research methodologies (Shaw, 2018), display the theoretical nuances of the history discipline in (re)constructing and disseminating their familial pasts.

We Dance for Knowledge

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Māhealani Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Exotic Dancers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Many

Every year, for hundreds of thousands of tourists, seeing “real Hawaiian hula” in a hotel or in a packaged lū'au setting is standard fare. Commonplace too is receiving one's introduction to hula through any of the many competitions that take place annually in Hawai'i and, with increasing frequency, throughout the world. Still others find hula marketed for its exercise benefits, peddled as the latest fitness fad in gyms and malls across the country. But is hula the allure of exotic dancers evoking prurient responses from tourists, one moment tantalized by undulating hips only to be teasingly chastised the next to “keep your eyes on the hands”? Is it the crisp, impeccably synchronized movement danced before panels of judges at the several hula competitions that mark the year for many hula hālau? Is hula the movement, the meaning conveyed through the movement, or the full context out of which movement casts itself into an art form that inspires passion and perpetuates a traditional way of living?For Mary Kawena Pukui, credited with helping to bring the rich traditional context of hula into the present, hula is “a general name for many types of Hawaiian folk dances” (1942/1980, 70). Pukui's laconic description says everything, and nothing. Everything because hula is the unique dance of the Hawaiian people. Everything because despite the homogenizing influence of hula competition, which has brought only a limited range of the vast hula repertoire to the public's attention over the past thirty-five years, hula encompasses many different styles and types of dances. But it says nothing because hula simply cannot be reduced to Hawaiian folk dance. Hula is a moving encyclopedia inscribed into the sinews and postures of dancers' bodies. It carries forward the social and natural history, the religious beliefs, the philosophy, the literature, and the scientific knowledge of the Hawaiian people.

scholarly journals Den musikalske etik

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Nanette Nielsen1
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Musical Engagement ◽  
Scholarly Discourse ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Selection Of

Music studies and philosophy have over the past few years seen increasing interaction: music scholars have found inspiration in philosophical topics and methods, and philosophers have engaged enthusiastically with the world of music, for example by using the art form to gain new insight into topics such as emotion, consciousness, and ethics. This scholarly interaction continually presents new and exciting interdisciplinary avenues through which both music studies and philosophy can develop and grow. While drawing on a selection of recent literature and approaches, this article accounts for (what I call) ’musical ethics’ and discusses what music might bring to scholarly discourse about ethics. Instead of viewing music as a philosophical ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, I suggest that a more fruitful strategy is to approach music and musical engagement as a philosophical opportunity through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With a focus on examples of film music, I argue that musical ethics can uncover important facets of what it means to be both human and humane.

A basic introduction to image processing using NIH-Image as a model

1994 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 392-393
Author(s):  
John Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Image Acquisition ◽  
Digital Instrument ◽  
Novice User ◽  
Nih Image ◽  
The Past ◽  
Digital World ◽  
The World ◽  
Instrument Control

Advances in camera technology and digital instrument control have meant that in modern microscopy, the image that was, in the past, typically recorded on a piece of film is now recorded directly into a computer. The transfer of the analog image seen in the microscope to the digitized picture in the computer does not mean, however, that the problems associated with recording images, analyzing them, and preparing them for publication, have all miraculously been solved. The steps involved in the recording an image to film remain largely intact in the digital world. The image is recorded, prepared for measurement in some way, analyzed, and then prepared for presentation.Digital image acquisition schemes are largely the realm of the microscope manufacturers, however, there are also a multitude of “homemade” acquisition systems in microscope laboratories around the world. It is not the mission of this tutorial to deal with the various acquisition systems, but rather to introduce the novice user to rudimentary image processing and measurement.

On the Symbolism of Rain in A Farewell to Arms

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Tool ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Farewell To Arms

This paper critically analyzes the symbolic use of rain in A Farewell to Arms (1929). The researcher has applied the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis as a research tool for the analysis of the text. This hypothesis argues that the languages spoken by a person determine how one observes this world and that the peculiarities encoded in each language are all different from one another. It affirms that speakers of different languages reflect the world in pretty different ways. Hemingway’s symbolic use of rain in A Farewell to Arms (1929) is denotative, connotative, and ironical. The narrator and protagonist, Frederick Henry symbolically embodies his own perceptions about the world around him. He time and again talks about rain when something embarrassing is about to ensue like disease, injury, arrest, retreat, defeat, escape, and even death. Secondly, Hemingway has connotatively used rain as a cleansing agent for washing the past memories out of his mind. Finally, the author has ironically used rain as a symbol when Henry insists on his love with Catherine Barkley while the latter being afraid of the rain finds herself dead in it.

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