Individualism in Twelfth-Century Religion. Some Further Reflections

1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Past ◽  
Emergence Of Institutions ◽  
Western Civilisation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time

In an article in the last number of this JOURNAL, Caroline Walker Bynum drew attention to the way in which historians during the past few decades have written of the twelfth century in terms which would once have been thought more appropriate to the fifteenth. We have become used to hearing about the twelfth-century renaissance, about the classical revival and the growth of humanism and about the discovery of the individual. The period has been credited with a rapidly growing awareness of the regularity of the natural order and with an increased confidence in the power of reason. The idea has now been widely accepted that the twelfth century saw the emergence of institutions and sensitivities which were to become characteristic of western civilisation, but which previously did not exist or played only a subordinate cultural role. It is then, as R. R. Bolgar has expressed it, that we can discern for the first time the lineaments of modern man. This is obviously not to say that the attitudes displayed were the same as those in subsequent centuries; it would be absurd to look for the humanism of the fifteenth century, the rationalism of the eighteenth, or the individualism of the nineteenth, in the writings of Cistercians or magitri. Some phrases will strike us by their modernity, but the context of thinking is usually different in important ways from our own. The question is not whether there is a cultural identity between the twelfth century and the modern world, for there obviously is not, but whether in the twelfth century we can discern elements of respect for humanity, reason and individuality which were largely lacking during the preceding five hundred years, and which were to have a lasting impact on the growth of.western culture.

Did the Twelfth Century Discover the Individual?

1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Walker Bynum
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Standard Textbook ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Self Examination

Did the twelfth century discover the individual? For a number of years now medievalists have claimed that it did. Indeed, over the past fifty years, in what Wallace Ferguson calls ‘the revolt of the medievalists’, scholars have claimed for the twelfth century many of the characteristics once given to the fifteenth century by Michelet and Burckhardt. As a result, standard textbook accounts now attribute to the twelfth century some or all of the following: ‘humanism’, both in the narrow sense of study of the Latin literary classics and in the broader sense of an emphasis on human dignity, virtue and efficacy; ‘renaissance’, both in the sense of revival of forms and ideas from the past (classical and patristic) and in the sense of consciousness of rebirth, and historical perspective; ‘the discovery of nature and man’, both in the sense of an emphasis on the cosmos and human nature as entities with laws governing their behaviour and in the sense of a new interest in the particular, seen especially in the ‘naturalism’ of the visual arts around the year 1200. In the past fifteen years, however, claims for the twelfth century have increasingly been claims for the discovery of ‘the individual’, who crops up–with his attendant characteristic ‘individuality’—in many recent titles. In the area of political theory, Walter Ullmann has seen the individual emerging in the shift from subject to citizen. Peter Dronke, Robert Hanning and other literary critics have argued for the emergence of the individual both as author and as hero of twelfth-century poetry and romance. And, in the area of religious thought, R. W. Southern, Colin Morris and John Benton have called to our attention a new concern with self-discovery and psychological self-examination, an increased sensitivity to the boundary between self and other and an optimism about the capacity of the individual for achievement.

A University Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Willetts
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
University Education ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

Universities have a crucial role in the modern world. In England, entrance to universities is by nation-wide competition which means English universities have an exceptional influence on schools--a striking theme of the book. This important book first investigates the university as an institution and then tracks the individual on their journey to and through university. In A University Education, David Willetts presents a compelling case for the ongoing importance of the university, both as one of the great institutions of modern society and as a transformational experience for the individual. The book also makes illuminating comparisons with higher education in other countries, especially the US and Germany. Drawing on his experience as UK Minister for Universities and Science from 2010 to 2014, the author offers a powerful account of the value of higher education and the case for more expansion. He covers controversial issues in which he was involved from access for disadvantaged students to the introduction of L9,000 fees. The final section addresses some of the big questions for the future, such as the the relationship between universities and business, especially in promoting innovation.. He argues that the two great contemporary trends of globalisation and technological innovation will both change the university significantly. This is an authoritative account of English universities setting them for the first time in their new legal and regulatory framework.

The identity of the Kyrgyz: a historical and social study (Part 1)

2021 ◽  
pp. 380-389
Author(s):  
ŞENGÜL ÇEBİ İSRA
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Study ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Common Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Common Heritage ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Identity is the expression of an individual's self-definition and self-positioning. It gives the answer to who a person is and what his worldview is. It is the definition of being and belonging. It is the explanation of what the individual is, both socially and psychologically. It is clear that identity, which is the focus of our research, is a concept related to belonging, what we have in common with some people and what differentiates a person from others. Based on this definition, it can be stated that identity is characterized by sharing certain things and, on the basis of these common points, a person is differentiated from other groups of people and approaches a group to which he feels belonging. In this understanding, identity is determined not by the norms that characterize the culture of a particular period, but by the existence of a community of people who share a common heritage, such as language and history: “… our identities reflect common historical experiences and common cultural codes that provide us as «a people» with stable, unchanging and permanent frames of reference and meaning under the changing distinctions and changes of our true history.» Accordingly, we can define the Kyrgyz identity through «a common culture, a common history and a kind of collective real identity shared by all members of the clan». However, the Kyrgyz identity accepts cultural identity as a reality belonging to both the future and the past. In this direction, the Kyrgyz identity is a positioning formed within the framework of historical and cultural discourses. In the light of this information, in this study, we will reveal the historical roots of the Kyrgyz identity.

scholarly journals King Edgar's charter for Pershore (AD 972)

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 31-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Single Sheet ◽  
First Time ◽  
Important Evidence

AbstractS 786 is one of the so-called Orthodoxorum charters, a group of documents which provide important evidence about the Anglo-Saxon chancery, the development of charters in the tenth century, and the history of Pershore Abbey and the tenth-century Benedictine reforms. The document has therefore received a great deal of attention over the past century or so, but this attention has been focussed on the surviving tenth-century single sheet, and so a second, significantly different version of the text has lain unnoticed. This second version is preserved in a copy made by John Joscelyn, Latin Secretary to Archbishop Matthew Parker. Among the material uniquely preserved in this copy are Old English charter bounds for Wyegate (GL), Cumbtune (Compton, GL?) and part of the bounds probably for Lydney (GL), as well as a reference to a grant by Bishop Werferth of Worcester. In this article both versions of the document are discussed and are published together for the first time, and a translation of the single sheet is provided. The history of the two versions is discussed in some detail, and the text of a twelfth-century letter which refers to the charter is also edited and translated.

scholarly journals Moss species diversity in the glacial cirques of the Polish Karkonosze Mts. and its changes during the 20th century

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Fudali
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Herbarium Specimen ◽  
Moss Species ◽  
Full List ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Floristic Data ◽  
First Time ◽  
Individual Objects

Abstract Bryo-floristic data from the 19th century and the first decade of the 21th century were compiled and compared to find trends in moss flora transformations during the analysed period. The total number of moss species reported from the glacial cirques in the Polish part of the Karkonosze Mts. amounted to 229 (230 taxa) and the comparison showed 49% of species replaced; 68 taxa were not refound and 45 were reported for the first time. But it seems highly probable that a great number of “newcomers” occurred only in the past and were omitted or overlooked by the 19th century researchers. 23 species among those persistent during the 20th century were found presently in no more than half of the previous localities, so they seem to demand care as probably threatened. Full list of taxa recorded from the individual objects in the studied period, including results of herbarium specimen revision, is provided.

SCRIPT WITHOUT BUDDHISM: BURMESE INFLUENCE ON THE TAY (SHAN) SCRIPT OF MÄNG2 MAAW2 AS SEEN IN A CHINESE SCROLL PAINTING OF 1407

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-176
Author(s):  
Christian Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Rare Case ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Writing System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

This article substantiates for the first time that Tay (Shan) script was written on a Ming dynasty scroll dated 1407. In the past, Tay scholars have assumed that early Tay script exhibited uniquely Tay characteristics from the outset, and only gradually acquired Burmese features after the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The data presented here demonstrates beyond doubt that the Tay borrowed heavily from the Burmese script to create their writing system before the fifteenth century. It also shows that the 1407 Tay script resembled the Ahom script more than the lik6 tho3 ngök6 script, and on the basis of this similarity concludes that lik6 tho3 ngök6 was not the progenitor of Tay scripts, as previously thought, and that the Ahom script preceded it.The impact of Burmese script on the Tay writing system from the outset raises the broader issue of borrowing from Burman culture during the Pagan and early Ava periods. The Tay of Mäng2 Maaw2 and surrounding polities turned to Pagan and Ava for a written script, but shunned Theravada Buddhism, the religious apparatus that we assume always accompanied the spread of writing. Their adoption of a writing system stands out as a rare case of script without Buddhism in northern continental Southeast Asia. To the Tay, Pagan and Ava were dominant political powers worthy of emulation, and the adoption of their writing system attests the magnitude of its influence. It is hypothesized that such borrowing arose out of Tay aspirations for self-strengthening their polities, possibly in an endeavour to rival the Burman monarchy. Tay script emerged in an age when the Burman language had just become predominant among the elites of Pagan and early Ava. Two features of this case stand out. First, the Tay borrowed at a time when Burmese script was relatively novel and still the preserve of the Burman elite, a fact which reinforces the notion of borrowing for prestige value as well as practical utility. Second, the Tay gravitated towards the northern parts of Pagan and Ava, rather than the southern areas where Mon language retained predominance in inscriptions.

scholarly journals Why do we reject the wisdom from the past? Reflections on the practical dimension of values in historical education

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Skotnicka-Palka ◽  
◽  
Marek Białokur ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Educational Values ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The Past ◽  
Authority Figures ◽  
Historical Education ◽  
The Individual ◽  
History Classes

In times of rapid changes and large amounts of information, a lot of people, especially the young, attach no importance to the past. This is despite the fact that historical education develops intellectually and spiritually, building the identity of the individual and the nation and helps to understand problems of the present. Historical education is the totality of the various elements of education and knowledge which is connected with the transfer of achievements of our ancestors and the evolution of attitudes. In historical education these values occupy an important place. History allows us to understand the behaviour of other people, their emotions and needs. It is very important in history to respect norms and principles of tolerance and democracy. The values of historical education build the authority of and respect for rulers, reinforce a sense of connectedness with one’s homeland, the place of birth and residence. Historical education teaches young people values such as responsibility for their actions, it mobilizes them to work for their environment and creates the need for role models and figures of authority figures. We should remember that the education of young people in history classes helps them function in the modern times and surrounding reality. A history teacher should implement the students to participate in the modern world by showing and shaping the educational values of well thought-out and accurately matched examples from the past to the age of the students. These issues, based on the statements of valued researchers, are addressed in the presented article.

(Re-)Making Space for a New Culture of Art: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Clavan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Centers ◽  
The Past

Despite its headlong rush onto the modern world scene, China is a country that has long been cut off from the mainstream of cultural activity in the world. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in its visual arts and its venues for presenting this work. Starting from almost nothing, the People’s Republic has opened literally thousands of new museums in the past two decades. Among these is a large and intriguing subset consisting of industrial and commercial buildings repurposed for use as art venues. This study explores a number of these re-makings in three of China’s major cultural centers: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Although the repurposed spaces are often architecturally interesting and sometimes even dramatic, the overall effect is unusually derivative. Profit motives, at both the public and private levels, also play a significant role in the long-term success of the projects. As a result, this new attempt at providing and promoting a new art culture has limitations for making China a new focus of world attention in this arena. More importantly, repurposing historic and otherwise historically significant buildings for art reveals how such spaces can at the same time both enhance and confuse the issue of cultural identity within a heretofore predominantly closed society.

Considerations with regard to Hereditary Influence

1863 ◽  
Vol 8 (44) ◽  
pp. 482-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Maudsley
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Fact ◽  
The Future ◽  
Giordano Bruno ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time

Although the axiom ex nihilo nihil fit may unquestionably in strict logic be pronounced to be a pure assumption, for as much as it is not impossible that an enlarged experience may sometime furnish us with an instantia contradictoria, yet it is plainly necessary within the compass of human knowledge to consider it an established truth. Within human ken there is, indeed, no beginning, no end; the past is developed in the present, and the present in the prediction of the future; cause produces effect, and effect in its turn becomes cause. Dust is man, and to dust he returns; the individual passes away, but that out of which he is created does not pass away. The decomposition of one compound is the production of another, and death is an entrance into a new being. This is no new truth, although modern science is now for the first time making good use of it; the earlier Grecian philosophers distinctly recognised it, and it has many times been plainly enunciated since their time. “All things,” said Empedocles, “are but a mingling and a separation of the mingled, which are called birth and death by ignorant mortals.” Plato expressed himself in like manner; and the plain statement of the truth was one of the heresies of the unfortunate Giordano Bruno. The imagination of Shakspeare, faithful to the scientific fact, traces the noble dust of Alexander till it is found stopping a bung-hole, and follows imperious Caesar till he patches a hole to keep the wind away. The immortality of matter and of force is an evident necessity of human thought.

scholarly journals MULTICULTURALISM AS AN ALTERNATIVE A CULTURAL ORIENTATION TO EDUCATION IN THE ASPECT OF CULTURE AS THE AXIOLOGICAL FOCUS

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 383
Author(s):  
Rinat Suzanne ◽  
Liana Nathalie
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Variation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Cultural Self ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Diverse Groups

Multiculturalism occurs naturally when a society is willing to accept the culture of immigrants. Multiculturalism has been defined as a method whereby culturally diverse groups are accorded status and recognition, not just at the individual level, but in the institutional structures of the society. Multiculturalists’ perspectives have had a deep influence in the social sciences, and particularly in the field of education. Although it aims to improve society, multiculturalism has been criticized for adopting an essentialist approach to culture, because the calling for the appreciation and recognition of cultural variety. To achieve a situation in which culture has no exclusive value requires reevaluation of the concepts of culture and identity as accepted in the West over the past few centuries, examining epistemological and ontological conceptions and how they shape political and social organizations reflected in the nation-state. Just as culture is soft, permeable and dynamic, so too is the cultural self and its identity. If multiculturalism seeks a solution to distinctions that engender problems in a modern world in which many cultures are situated in one social space, we maintain that such distinctions are problematic and even erroneous. Modernity did not give rise to a multiplicity of cultures but rather to extensive cultural and social variation.

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