Mathematicians and the Nation in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century as Reflected in the Luigi Cremona Correspondence

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Millán Gasca
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
Dominant Tendency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
National Membership ◽  
The French Revolution

ArgumentUp until the French Revolution, European mathematics was an “aristocratic” activity, the intellectual pastime of a small circle of men who were convinced they were collaborating on a universal undertaking free of all space-time constraints, as they believed they were ideally in dialogue with the Greek founders and with mathematicians of all languages and eras. The nineteenth century saw its transformation into a “democratic” but also “patriotic” activity: the dominant tendency, as shown by recent research to analyze this transformation, seems to be the national one, albeit accompanied by numerous analogies from the point of view of the processes of national evolution, possibly staggered in time. Nevertheless, the very homogeneity of the individual national processes leads us to view mathematics in the context of the national-universal tension that the spread of liberal democracy was subjected to over the past two centuries. In order to analyze national-universal tension in mathematics, viewed as an intellectual undertaking and a profession of the new bourgeois society, it is necessary to investigate whether the network of international communication survived the political, social, and cultural upheavals of the French Revolution and the European wars waged in the early nineteenth century, whether national passions have transformed this network, and if so, in what way. Luigi Cremona's international correspondence indicates that relationships among individuals have been restructured by the force of national membership, but that the universal nature of mathematics has actually been boosted by a vision shared by mathematicians from all countries concerning the role of their discipline in democratic and liberal society as the basis of scientific culture and technological innovation, as well as a basic component of public education.

Nation and Generation in A Tale of Two Cities

PMLA ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert D. Hutter
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Generational Conflict ◽  
The Past ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Critical Model ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Critical Methods ◽  
The French Revolution

A Tale of Two Cities, the French Revolution becomes a metaphor for the conflicts between generations and between classes that preoccupied Dickens throughout his career. Dickens uses a double plot and divided characters to express these conflicts; his exaggerated use of “splitting”—which the essay defines psychoanalytically—sometimes makes A Tale of Two Cities‘ language and structure appear strained and humorless. We need to locate A Tale of Two Cities within a framework of nineteenth-century attitudes toward revolution and generational conflict by using a combination of critical methods—literary, historical, psychoanalytic. This essay relates the reader's experience to the structure of the text; and it derives from Dickens’ language, characterization, and construction a critical model that describes the individual reader's experience while explaining some of the contradictory assessments of the novel over the past hundred years.

Politics and power: the Triumph of Jacobinism in Strasbourg, 1791–1793

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Gough
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Civil Strife ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Annus Mirabilis

One of the recurrent challenges to the historian of the French Revolution is that of interpreting the transition from the liberalism of its early years to the centralized dictatorship of the Terror. Why did the constitution of 1791, that remarkable legislative achievement which stood for so long as a model to nineteenth-century liberal reformers, collapse within a year of its enactment? How did the individual and political liberties guaranteed by that constitution become submerged so rapidly under the flood of repressive legislation during the Year II? What made the impressive façade of theannus mirabilisof 1790 crumble into political dissension from the summer of 1791 onwards, revealing the stark realities of religious conflict, war, insurrection and civil strife? Whether one regards this transition as the unfortunate consequence of a succession of political accidents or as the inevitable result of deeply rooted social conflict, the role of Jacobinism in the process is fundamental, for it provided both the personnel and the ideology that was to dominate political life throughout the Terror. As Michelet was one of the first to point out, Jacobinism underwent several transformations during the five years of its existence as a formal political movement, moving decisively to the left after the secession of the Feuillants in July 1791 and again with the expulsion of the leading Girondins in the following autumn, until it reached its final and most characteristic stage only at the height of the Terror, during Year II.

УКРАЇНОЗНАВЧИЙ ОСВІТНІЙ ЧИННИК В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МАСОВОЇ КУЛЬТУРИ

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Character Trait ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Individual

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.

The Revolutionizing of the Revolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
French Government ◽  
Thing In Itself ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

In 1792, the French Revolution became a thing in itself, an uncontrollable force that might eventually spend itself but which no one could direct or guide. The governments set up in Paris in the following years all faced the problem of holding together against forces more revolutionary than themselves. This chapter distinguishes two such forces for analytical purposes. There was a popular upheaval, an upsurge from below, sans-culottisme, which occurred only in France. Second, there was the “international” revolutionary agitation, which was not international in any strict sense, but only concurrent within the boundaries of various states as then organized. From the French point of view these were the “foreign” revolutionaries or sympathizers. The most radical of the “foreign” revolutionaries were seldom more than advanced political democrats. Repeatedly, however, from 1792 to 1799, these two forces tended to converge into one force in opposition to the French government of the moment.

Britain: Republicanism and the Establishment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Established Order ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
At Home

This chapter focuses on England during the revolutionary decade. It argues that in Britain and Ireland, as in Eastern Europe, it was counter-revolution that prevailed. The net effect of the revolutionary decade was to demonstrate, or to consolidate, the strength of the established order. The very lengths to which the established order went, however, in dealing with disaffection (or what was called “sedition”) offer a measure of the magnitude of the discontents. The men who ruled England were not the sort to be frightened by witches. The British governing class was neither timid, foolish, intolerant, nor especially ruthless when unprovoked. That Englishmen of this class became fearful of unrest at home, intolerant of ideas or organizations suggesting those of the French Revolution, repressive in Britain, and deliberately terroristic in Ireland can be taken as evidence of the reality of something of which, from their own point of view, they had reason to be afraid. In England as elsewhere there was a contest between democrats and aristocrats.

The Glut of Doctors in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France

1977 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D. Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Success Story ◽  
The West ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
History Of ◽  
Great Attraction ◽  
The French Revolution

The history of the professions in the West since the French Revolution is a success story, a triumph, but not always an easy one. From the beginning of the nineteenth century in continental Europe the professions had a great attraction as careers presumably open to talent, but the demand for professional services developed more slowly than interest in professional careers and more slowly than the schools that supplied the market. Lenore O'Boyle has drawn attention to this discrepancy and the revolutionary potential of the frustrated careerists produced by it.

scholarly journals The Crisis of Japanese Identity in the 21st Century and Watsuji Tetsurō’s Ethics

Asian Studies ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristýna VOJTÍŠKOVÁ
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Japanese Identity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

 According to some thinkers, in the 21st century, the Japanese society is facing a crisis of values. The postmodern approach to the individual and society may be one of the causes of this problem. In this point of view, an inadequate grasp of the relationship between the individual and the society seems to play an important role. The problem of this relationship was elaborated by the early 20th century philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō who endeavoured to re-define the role of an individual in the society. This paper attempts to examine the contemporary problem of Japanese identity from the perspective of Watsuji’s conception of interpersonal relationships. 

Taste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Weir ◽  
Jane Desmarais
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The French Revolution

This article examines the confluence of cuisine and the culture of decadence by first describing the difficulty of identifying any type of food as inherently “decadent” in physiological terms. After acknowledging that the meaning of “decadence” depends on moral, social, and aesthetic contexts, the article focuses on the dissemination of aristocratic tastes in food following the French Revolution, when chefs who had formerly cooked for nobility opened their own restaurants; on the development of the idea of the gourmand subsequent to the publication of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s Physiologie du Goût (The Physiology of Taste, 1825); on Charles Baudelaire’s decadent response to Brillat-Savarin in Les Paradis Artificiels (Artificial Paradises, 1860); on the role of Roman history in the development of popular conceptions of decadent cuisine; and on J.-K. Huysmans’s surprisingly limited interest in “decadent dining” in À rebours (Against Nature, 1884), despite his use of elaborate food metaphors to describe the literature of decadence.

Private Crime, Public Madness

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Étienne Balibar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Penal Code ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Recent Version ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter attempts to clarify the questions raised by the relations between madness and justice, with reference to the heritage of the French Revolution. It also assesses the distinction between crime and madness and their respective treatments in public and private spheres. Indeed, what prompts current discussions on the function of the psychiatrist in the courtroom or on the role of judgments of civil capacity in the treatment of mental illness, is yet again the perspective offered by the reframing of the Penal Code (including the famous Article 64, which makes “insanity”—or, in the more recent version, “psychic or neuro-psychic disturbance”—into the principal operator of the nullification of a crime or a delict, either in its juridical reality or in its penal consequences).

scholarly journals Is Lack of Morality an Explanation for the Economic and Financial Crisis? A Catholic Point of View

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-418
Author(s):  
Klára Katona
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Integral Element ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Economic Thinking

AbstractBefore 2008, several studies provided empirical evidence of a positive correlation between the functions of financial intermediation and economic growth. In 2008, the financial crisis shook trust in this correlation. Several studies found that comprehensive and fundamental changes were needed in the entire financial market. Attention focused on the role of morality as an essential and integral element of the economy, arguing that without a moral attitude at the individual and institutional levels, the whole system necessarily runs into crisis. Among the moral interpretations of the economy, which are concurrently based on philosophical tradition and religious doctrine, the Catholic Church has presented some of the most consistent and unified teachings related to such questions over time, but the effect on economic thinking is less than what relevance and other merits justify. Catholic social teaching suggests morality and the economy are inseparable and highlights the moral interpretation of economic discrepancies. By analyzing theoretical and empirical evidence, this paper assesses the economic validity and legitimacy of Catholic thought about the immanent role of ethics in the economy and the financial crisis.

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