Justifying History Today

Why History? ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 304-358
Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham
Keyword(s):  
Moral Evaluation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ways Of Being

This chapter tackles rationales for History on their own merits. It assesses for coherence all of the rationales hitherto mentioned in the book, insofar as they still have any currency. Then it makes some suggestions of its own. This work is less sanguine than many about the prospects for History as Emancipation, and more optimistic than many about forms of History as Practical Lesson. History as Method has something going for it but even on its own best ethical terms it needs to be bolstered by concerns related to the content of the past rather than just to procedures for researching and writing History. History as Identity remains arguably the most important of all the substantivist rationales. It is so often at issue even when the identity question is addressed only indirectly via History as Travel, since it is difficult to get away from the matter of how one defines oneself in relation to other, different ways of being and doing. Furthermore, those historians who engage in Emancipatory History à la Foucault would be more effective if they engaged more directly in Identity History, which would mean engaging in straightforwardly normative arguments about right and wrong. Extending the discussion of normativity, the final pages of the book turn to the matter of moral evaluation by the historian, suggesting evaluation is not a category error or an anachronistic residue of the days when History was commonly seen as a fount of Moral Lessons.

Ways of Being and Time

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Being And Time ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Ontological Pluralism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Better Than

This chapter develops a version of ontological pluralism that respects two common intuitions about time: that the present moment is metaphysically distinguished but not in such a way that the past is unreal. The version of ontological pluralism developed—presentist existential pluralism (PEP)—embraces two modes of being, the mode of being that present objects enjoy and the mode of being that past objects enjoy. The author argues that this view fares at least as well, and probably better, than other views in which the present is metaphysically distinguished. The chapter also introduces another form of ontological superiority called “levels of being.”

scholarly journals Counterfactuality as a Polyphonic Assemblage. Entangled Human and Nonhuman Stories of Early Modern Sciences in Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-121
Author(s):  
Mateusz Chaberski
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Multispecies Ethnography ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Neal Stephenson ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Point Of Departure

Summary In recent science-fiction literature, we can witness a proliferation of new counterfactual narratives which take the 17th century as their point of departure. Unlike steampunk narratives, however, their aim is not to criticise the socio-political effects caused by contemporary technological development. Such authors as Neal Stephenson or Ian Tregillis, among others, are interested in revisiting the model of development in Western societies, routing around the logic of progress. Moreover, they demonstrate that modernity is but an effect of manifold contingent and indeterminate encounters of humans and nonhumans and their distinct temporalities. Even the slightest modification of their ways of being could have changed Western societies and cultures. Thus, they necessitate a rather non-anthropocentric model of counterfactuality which is not tantamount to the traditional alternative histories which depart from official narratives of the past. By drawing on contemporary multispecies ethnography, I put forward a new understanding of counter-factuality which aims to reveal multiple entangled human and nonhuman stories already embedded in the seemingly unified history of the West. In this context, the concept of “polyphonic assemblage” (Lowenhaupt-Tsing) is employed to conceptualize the contingent and open-ended encounters of human and nonhuman historical actors which cut across different discourses and practices. I analyse Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle to show the entangled stories of humans and nonhumans in 17th century sciences, hardly present in traditional historiographies. In particular, Stephenson’s depiction of quicksilver and coffeehouse as nonhuman historical actors is scrutinized to show their vital role in the production of knowledge at the dawn of modernity.

Stabilizing or Challenging Patriarchy? Sketches of Selected “New” Political Masculinities

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Myrttinen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Transitions ◽  
Ways Of Being

Although it has come under multiple attacks and pressures over the past decades, patriarchy has proven itself to be highly resilient and adaptive. However, new ways of “being men” have started to emerge over the past years that at least seemingly question dominant masculinities. I examine here four “new” forms of political masculinities: violently fratriarchal masculinities, “softer” militarized masculinities of peacekeepers, the less violent masculinities promoted by global antidomestic violence campaigns, and lastly what I term the “He4She” masculinities of international political actors. These four manifestations of political masculinities underscore on the transitional and temporal nature of gender roles and identities. All have arisen out of political and social transitions in which previously dominant notions of masculinity have been challenged. These changes, however, do not necessarily mean an end to patriarchy. Indeed, the new somewhat more egalitarian masculinities may serve to shore up and stabilize patriarchy.

Psychodynamic Counselling in a Secondary School Setting

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Margot Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transference And Countertransference ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Psychodynamic Counselling ◽  
Anxiety And Fear

ABSTRACTPsychodynanzic counselling is based upon, and informed by, psychoanalytic insights. The origins include the work of Freud, the Post Freudians, and the Object Relations school. These schools of thought embrace concepts of primitive infantile emotions and states of mind that produce overwhelming feelings of anxiety and fear and against which defences are formed to maintain a psychic equilibrium. Although these defences may have roots in the past, changes can only be effected by thinking about their significance in the present. The psychodynamic counsellor attempts to help clients make sense of their current situation by focussing on the actual dynamics of what is happening outside the counselling room with others and inside the counselling room with the counsellor: Thus, repeated and “stuck” ways of being with others are brought to light in tertms of transference and countertransference. In addition, painful and unbearable feelings are shared and contained in the relationship so that clients are more able to reflect upon and understand their own contribution to their present situation and to respond more constructively to that situation.

Kotextspezifische Semantik, Pragmatik und Wörterbuchform. Glossate in einsprachigen Wörterbüchern

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 379-487
Author(s):  
Herbert Ernst Wiegand
Keyword(s):  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Core Lexicon ◽  
Ways Of Being

AbstractBy means of a review of the use of the term gloss in the past three decades it becomes evident that the term gloss needs to be explained more precisely. After a brief discussion of the practice of lexicographic glossing it is clear that the mainreason for the use of the method of glossing lies therein that many words from the core lexicon have numerous cotext-specific senses and, for various reasons, restricted ways of being used. Because of the lack of an overview of the different types of glosses a typology of glosses with regard to their structure and topic is developed. In addition, different types of elementary and extended glosses are distinguished from sequences of glosses. Furthermore, different types of semantic glosses, e.g. semantically non-identified semantic glosses and (up to now not yet investigated) semantically identified semantic glosses with numerous subtypes as well as a variety of further types of semantic-pragmatic glosses are distinguished. The latter types have not yet been investigated although numerous subtypes can be distinguished, e.g. pragmatic- commenting semantic glosses and pragmatic-commented semantic glosses. It is furthermore shown that the functional equal post- and inner glosses have different places in a typology of lexicographic text segments because they are structurally different. For extended glosses different types of gloss segments are distinguished, e.g. pragmatic-commenting, semantic-commenting and -identifying as well as glossing gloss segments with numerous subtypes. A next section is dedicated to gloss addressing: gloss addressing, gloss-internal and gloss-excurrent gloss segment addressing are presented and different gloss accompanying addressing constellations are distinguished. All relations in which glosses occur are then investigated. Finally the different non-hierarchical as well as hierarchical gloss structures are presented.

The Moral Evaluation of Past Tragedies: A New Puzzle

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul Smilansky
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Moral Evaluation ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust

The past is full of terrible tragedies, including slavery, World War I, and the Holocaust. Morality would clearly appear to support the preference that the victims of those calamities would have lived free and peaceful lives. And yet, a puzzle or even a paradox appears to be lurking here. Moral evaluation can be either personal or impersonal, yet neither one of these two perspectives, nor any other prevalent moral evaluation of events, appears to yield the morally expected conclusion. To the best of my knowledge this puzzle has not been discussed before. If there is no way to escape this surprising conclusion, then morality appears to be much more grim and unsympathetic than we normally think.

scholarly journals Imagining Disability Futurities

Hypatia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Rice ◽  
Eliza Chandler ◽  
Jen Rinaldi ◽  
Nadine Changfoot ◽  
Kirsty Liddiard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Future ◽  
Short Narrative ◽  
Ways Of Being

This article explores twelve short narrative films created by women and trans people living with disabilities and embodied differences. Produced through Project Re•Vision, these micro documentaries uncover the cultures and temporalities of bodies of difference by foregrounding themes of multiple histories: body, disability, maternal, medical, and/or scientific histories; and divergent futurities: contradictory, surprising, unpredictable, opaque, and/or generative futures. We engage with Alison Kafer's call to theorize disability futurity by wrestling with the ways in which “the future” is normatively deployed in the service of able‐bodiedness and able‐mindedness (Kafer 2013), a deployment used to render bodies of difference as sites of “no future” (Edelman 2004). By re‐storying embodied difference, the storytellers illuminate ongoing processes of remaking their bodily selves in ways that respond to the past and provide possibilities for different futures; these orientations may be configured as “dis‐topias” based not on progress, but on new pathways for living, uncovered not through evoking the familiar imaginaries of curing, eliminating, or overcoming disability, but through incorporating experiences of embodied difference into time. These temporalities gesture toward new kinds of futures, giving us glimpses of ways of cripping time, of cripping ways of being/becoming in time, and of radically re‐presencing disability in futurity.

Alexander the Great Had Aristotle

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Paul Woodruff
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Alexander The Great ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Healthy Organization ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Do So

Leaders can emerge only under certain conditions; they need opportunities, experience, and education. Some famous leaders from the past have developed without formal education, but Alexander the Great studied with Aristotle. We should look at examples of leaders who changed the world without armies, however. Today, institutions of higher education can provide the necessary education, as well as opportunities and experience; they should do so intentionally in order to make good on their promise to students and parents. Opportunities arise inside and outside the classroom. Students should make the most of these opportunities in order to gain experience as leaders. Freedom is an essential component of opportunity for leadership, since leadership does not flourish in a strict hierarchical community. Education for leadership suits all students; there are many ways of being a leader, and in a healthy organization, every member is prepared to show leadership. Leaders need followers, of course, but good followers develop the same abilities as good leaders. This chapter outlines the main topics that the book will cover.

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