A Hermeneutic Reading of the Works of Jiři Levý

The work of Jiři Levý, the pioneering Czech translation scholar of the 20th century, shares a lot of common ground with the (neo)hermeneutic approach in translation studies. A closer look reveals, however, a good number of differing, and even opposite stances. For chronological reasons, Levý himself cannot be regarded a member of the neohermeneutic movement in translation studies; thus, the following questions arise: 1) What is the extent of overlap between Levý’s work and that of the main representatives of the hermeneutic approach in translation studies, mainly in Germany, and 2) how can this overlap be explained? This article seeks to demonstrate the following: There are full ‘matches’ between the two approaches, including some aspects of methodological approach, the value of texts, creativity, translating as a decision process as well as Levý’s concept of perception on the one hand and the hermeneutic circle on the other. A partial overlap between the two approaches has been identified in terms of the following matters: the applicability of translation theory, the language and style of theoretical works, the application of game theory, and the focus on individuals (recipient, translator). As regards differences, these include thematic focus, the idea of a personal link between the text and its recipient, and the concept of subjectivity. The purpose of the article is to show that, rather than being a (direct) predecessor, Levý can be regarded as a precursor of the hermeneutic approach in translation studies. Hopefully, illustrating this affinity between Levý and the hermeneutic approach will foster an interest in his theory, which is marked by openness and dynamism – qualities that also abide in the hermeneutical approaches of our present time.

Reconstructing the hydraulics of the world’s first industrial complex, the second century CE Barbegal watermills, France

The Barbegal watermill complex, a unique cluster of 16 waterwheels in southern France, was the first known attempt in Europe to set up an industrial-scale complex of machines during the culmination of Roman Civilization in the second century CE. Little is known about the state of technological advance in this period, especially in hydraulics and the contemporary diffusion of knowledge. Since the upper part of the Barbegal mill complex has been destroyed and no traces of the wooden machinery survived, the mode of operation of these mills has long remained elusive. Carbonate incrustations that formed on the woodwork of the mills were used to reconstruct its structure and function, revealing a sophisticated hydraulic setup unique in the history of water mills. The lower mills used an elbow shaped flume to bring water onto overshot millwheels. This flume was specially adapted to the small water basins and serial arrangement of the mills on the slope. Carbonate deposits from ancient water systems are therefore a powerful tool in archaeological reconstructions and provide tantalizing insights into the skills of Roman engineers during a period of history that is the direct predecessor of our modern civilization.

Understanding Society at 10 Years

Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) has now been collecting a range of data from its nationally representative sample of participants for 10 years. This significant ‘birthday’ offers a moment to reflect on its contribution to sociological research, and on its current and future potential for fundamental and cutting-edge sociological analysis. While the study shares many features with other longer-standing household panel studies, including its direct predecessor the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), it incorporated from the outset distinctive features that make it particularly valuable for analysis in specific fields, including biosocial research, ethnicity and migration studies, and analyses of the interplay between environmental, social and institutional contexts and individual characteristics. Understanding Society has incorporated methodological development and innovation since its inception, which has facilitated more extensive forms of data collection.

G.A. Landau on the Twilights of Europe

In the center of the article author’s attention is the book “Twilight of Europe” by G. A. Landau, which is sometimes regarded as direct predecessor of O. Spengler’s works. The article is devoted to G. A. Landau’s views on the nature of political, social, and legal processes in Europe after the First World War. The special attention is paid to the circumstances that Landau believed to be the signs of European civilization ill-being: the collapse of empires, nationalism, and the inclusion of the masses in the political life. Accordingly, the emphasis is placed on Landau’s evaluation of such concepts as “militarism”, “empire”, “nation”, etc.

Estrabón y el clasicismo

Although different scholars have noticed the adscription of the geographer Strabo to the artistic and ideological movements of atticism and classicism, we offer a more deeper analysis of this issue, with special attention to some points that, according to us, have not been examined enough, like the relation of classicism with the fact that Strabo adopted Polybius as his direct predecessor, his positive vision of Homer or the constant references to Isocrates’ pedagogical and panhellenic ideas. We provide numerous details that, according to us, prove these facts throughout his geographical work.

Two Possible Caliphal Representations from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Sharqı̄ and Their Implication for the History of the Site

Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Sharqī was founded as a madīna by caliph Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. It is one of the largest Umayyad aristocratic settlements of the Syrian Steppe. Between 2002 and 2011, extensive fieldwork was conducted there by a Syrian-Swiss mission, with a strong focus on agricultural features and water systems, on structures with an economic role, and on vernacular architecture around the caliphal palace. Fieldwork also included the almost complete excavation of another aristocratic residence called Building E, which might have been a direct predecessor of the caliphal palace. This chapter aims at presenting up-to-date information about the plan of the latter structure, at discussing further some elements of its decoration, especially two carved stucco panels bearing caliphal representations, and at introducing new hypotheses for the history of the site in the early eighth century.

When Slow Starts to Mean Something, We Crave Fast

This chapter describes what Ashley refers to as “the glorious chaos of the 1960's,” tracing the rise and fall of the ONCE festivals as well as the various compositions he had worked on at the time, particularly his 1967 piece, That Morning Thing. Not only is it Ashley's most ambitious piece for the ONCE festival and the direct predecessor of Perfect Lives (1979), it is the source of two of his best-known early works after The Wolfman (1964) and of two of his first works to be commercially recorded. In addition, the chapter illustrates how the ONCE festival represented a kind of crunching together of serialism and conceptualism with a characteristically Midwestern disregard for consistency or ideology. Pieces based on intricate systems were common, as were pieces based on verbal instructions, the two techniques cross-fading into each other.

Counterfactuals as Strict Conditionals

This paper defends the thesis that counterfactuals are strict conditionals. Its purpose is to show that there is a coherent view according to which counterfactuals are strict conditionals whose antecedent is stated elliptically. Section 1 introduces the view. Section 2 outlines a reply to the main argument against the thesis that counterfactuals are strict conditionals. Section 3 compares the view with a proposal due to Åqvist, which may be regarded as its direct predecessor. Section 4 explains how the view differs from contextualist strict conditional accounts of counterfactuals. Finally, section 5 addresses the thorny issue of disjunctive antecedents.

ON STRONG REVERSIBILITY IN P SYSTEMS AND RELATED PROBLEMS

We consider transition P systems as originally defined in the seminal paper of Gh. Păun, where he introduced the field of membrane computing. We show that it is decidable to determine, given a P system Π, whether it is strongly reversible (i.e., every configuration has at most one direct predecessor), resolving in the affirmative a recent open problem in the field. We also show that the set of all direct predecessors of a given configuration in a P system is an effectively computable semilinear set, which can effectively be expressed as a Presburger formula, strengthening an early result in the literature. We also prove other related results.