A Powerful Antidote, a Strange Camel and Turkish Pepper: Iberian Science, the Discovery of the New World and the Early Modern Czech Lands

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 214-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Černá
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
New World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Information Network ◽  
Central European ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
European Science ◽  
The One ◽  
Czech Lands

This article analyses the reception of knowledge about new world nature, and, more specifically, the reception of Iberian scientific knowledge of nature in the Americas, in the early modern Czech lands. It shows how the process of the reception of information about nature in the new world differed among the urban classes, intellectuals and the nobility; particular attention is paid to herbals, cosmographical works and travel reports. On the one hand, the study reveals that the efforts of Central European intellectuals to interpret new world nature were limited by the lack of necessary data and experience, which led to some misinterpretations and simplifications. On the other hand, it shows these Central European scholars to be fully-fledged members of an information network, whose works share many of the same characteristics as Iberian and, in general, early modern European science.


scholarly journals Jak możliwa (do pomyślenia) jest dobrowolna niewola? O nowożytnych formach rządzenia, ideologii i spektaklu władzy

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Mateusz Falkowski
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Etienne De La Boetie ◽  
The One ◽  
Voluntary Servitude

The article is devoted to the famous The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de La Boétie. The author considers the theoretical premises underlying the concept of “voluntary servitude”, juxtaposing them with two modern concepts of will developed by Descartes and Pascal. An important feature of La Boétie’s project is the political and therefore intersubjective – as opposed to the individualistic perspective of Descartes and Pascal – starting point. It is therefore situated against the background of, on the one hand, the historical evolution of early modern states (from feudal monarchies, through so-called Renaissance monarchies up to European absolutisms) and, on the other hand – of the political philosophy of Machiavelli and Hobbes.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
Oliver Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Performance Practices ◽  
Early Modern Theatre ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the implications the turn-taking approach for our understanding of early modern performance practices. On the one hand, Shakespearean dialogue is full of subtle effects of timing and sequence that would seem to call for careful rehearsal and a detailed knowledge of the script. On the other hand, everything we know about early modern theatre suggests it was performed with minimal rehearsal by actors who did not necessarily know when, or from where, their next cue would arrive. This apparent mismatch I call ‘the performability gap’. The question is how it can be bridged. The explanation provided by Simon Palfrey and Tiffany Stern—that Shakespeare’s plays are designed to make artistic capital from their own under-rehearsal—does not entirely solve the problem. The second half of the chapter speculates about how else we might account for the gap.

Scientific realism and antirealism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Fine
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Empirical Adequacy ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Dual Character ◽  
Objects Of Knowledge ◽  
The One ◽  
Independent Existence

Traditionally, scientific realism asserts that the objects of scientific knowledge exist independently of the minds or acts of scientists and that scientific theories are true of that objective (mind-independent) world. The reference to knowledge points to the dual character of scientific realism. On the one hand it is a metaphysical (specifically, an ontological) doctrine, claiming the independent existence of certain entities. On the other hand it is an epistemological doctrine asserting that we can know what individuals exist and that we can find out the truth of the theories or laws that govern them. Opposed to scientific realism (hereafter just ‘realism’) are a variety of antirealisms, including phenomenalism and empiricism. Recently two others, instrumentalism and constructivism, have posed special challenges to realism. Instrumentalism regards the objects of knowledge pragmatically, as tools for various human purposes, and so takes reliability (or empirical adequacy) rather than truth as scientifically central. A version of this, fictionalism, contests the existence of many of the objects favoured by the realist and regards them as merely expedient means to useful ends. Constructivism maintains that scientific knowledge is socially constituted, that ‘facts’ are made by us. Thus it challenges the objectivity of knowledge, as the realist understands objectivity, and the independent existence that realism is after. Conventionalism, holding that the truths of science ultimately rest on man-made conventions, is allied to constructivism. Realism and antirealism propose competing interpretations of science as a whole. They even differ over what requires explanation, with realism demanding that more be explained and antirealism less.

Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and Arabic Science

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 289-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Schramm
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Court Life ◽  
The One ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Contemporary Approach

The article argues that Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and his court played a unique role in the transfer and diffusion of Arabic science (with its Greek, Hebrew and Christian elements). Scientists at the court translated and elaborated upon it. Moreover, there existed a two-way traffic of scientific knowledge between Frederick and his court scholars, on the one hand, and several oriental courts and their scientists on the other hand. Thus the reader gains a view of Frederick's scientific activities from the Arab perspective, too.Frederick's contribution to the existing biological sciences of his time was his “Book of Falconry”, which was exceptional in the then contemporary approach and methods employed in those fields. Even in this treatise on falconry, Frederick drew upon the fund of knowledge of Arab practitioners. This chain of arguments concerning Arabic science is situated within the setup of Frederick's oriental political practice and sumptuous court life.

scholarly journals UTOPIA/WUTUOBANG AS A TRAVELLING MARKER OF TIME

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
LORENZO ANDOLFATTO
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
New World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Late Qing Fiction ◽  
The One ◽  
Li Ruzhen

Abstract This article argues for the understanding of ‘utopia’ as a cultural marker whose appearance in history is functional to the a posteriori chronologization (or typification) of historical time. I develop this argument via a comparative analysis of utopia between China and Europe. Utopia is a marker of modernity: the coinage of the word wutuobang (‘utopia’) in Chinese around 1895 is analogous and complementary to More's invention of Utopia in 1516, in that both represent attempts at the conceptualizations of displaced imaginaries, encounters with radical forms of otherness – the European ‘discovery’ of the ‘New World’ during the Renaissance on the one hand, and early modern China's own ‘Westphalian’ refashioning on the other. In fact, a steady stream of utopian conjecturing seems to mark the latter: from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom borne out of the Opium wars, via the utopian tendencies of late Qing fiction in the works of literati such as Li Ruzhen, Biheguan Zhuren, Lu Shi'e, Wu Jianren, Xiaoran Yusheng, and Xu Zhiyan, to the reformer Kang Youwei's monumental treatise Datong shu. Altogether, these sketches of utopia provide an imaginary counterpoint to the co-produced regimes of historicity whose genealogies are being traced in this issue.

„Ein Arzneibuch für alle Rezepte“ (Paolo Mattia Doria)

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-494
Author(s):  
Gisela Schlüter
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Other ◽  
General Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Summary „A pharmacopoeia for any prescription“ (Paolo Mattia Doria).Machiavelliana after 1700 Recent research has gained many new insights into Machiavelli’s influence on Early Modern European political history. This article focuses on a so far little researched, but decisive stage in the history of Machiavelli’s influence, namely Paolo Mattia Doria’s treatise „La Vita Civile“ (1709/10; further editions in the 18th century), which was written in Naples, a centre of the Early European Enlightenment. In a peculiar mixture of anti-machiavellism that is inspired by Platonic thought and allegiance to Machiavellian ideas, Doria follows the structure and texture of Machiavelli’s „Il Principe“. The political treatise is still coloured by humanist ideas and includes a speculum principis („L’Educazione del Principe“). Despite the similarities, Doria criticizes Machiavelli’s amoral analysis of power politics and postulates, with reference to Machiavelli’s „Discorsi“, an ideal republic or a principality of virtue with a virtuous ruler (principe virtuoso) at the top. In the course of his analysis, Doria re-moralizes Machiavelli’s morally neutral, praxeological concept of virtù. The treatise reflects the fork in the history of Machiavelli’s influence both on a general level and in its details: the ambivalence of „Il Principe“ as political advice for the successful and unscrupulous prince on the one hand but, on the other hand, as an exposure of unscrupulous power politics, written modo obliquo by the passionate Republican whom Rousseau, for example, wanted to see in Machiavelli.

scholarly journals Of Prophecy and Piety: Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus between al-Farabî and Erasmus

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Michiel Leezenberg
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Moses Maimonides ◽  
The One

In this contribution, I discuss some less well-known premodern and early modern antecedents of Spinoza’s concepts and claims in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. On the one hand, I will argue, Spinoza’s notion of prophecy owes more to Moses Maimonides than to any Christian author; and through Maimonides, Spinoza may be linked to the discussion of prophecy in The Virtuous City by the tenth-century Islamic philosopher al-Farabî. Spinoza’s concern with prophecy as a popular formulation of the Divine Law may be fruitfully seen in the light of these two authors. On the other hand, Spinoza’s notion of pietas has arguably been shaped by a number of early modern authors from the Low Countries, including Thomas a Kempis and Erasmus: it does not consist in merely obeying the law, but also has a clear devotional and theist dimension of love for God and for one’s neighbors. As such, it may be associated with recent ideas on philosophy and spiritual exercises. These findings have a number of non-trivial implications for Spinoza’s place in the rise of modern, academic Western philosophy. I will discuss these implications in the context of Pierre Hadot’s influential views on philosophy as a way of life and Michel Foucault’s notion of spirituality.

scholarly journals “The One” “to Rule the Other” Translations: Comparative Analysis of the Turkish Translations of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit from an Intertextual Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Tuğçe Elif Taşdan ◽  
Aslı Özlem Tarakçioğlu
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
New World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Imaginary World ◽  
Lord Of The Rings ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is one of the most outstanding British authors and the creator of an imaginary world called “the Middle Earth”. Tolkien’s novels prominent with a new world and a fictitious language have become quite popular worldwide. However, the fictitious words and expressions in Tolkien’s novels are challenging for the translators since the equivalents of these words may not be found in the target language. Çiğdem Erkal İpek, the translator of The Lord of the Rings, is the first Turkish translator taking the responsibility of transferring Tolkien’s fictitious concepts into Turkish. During this transfer, she invented new fictitious concepts which are not used in the target language. By this way, The Lord of the Rings (Yüzüklerin Efendisi in Turkish) has become one of the most popular novels in Turkey. On the other hand, The Hobbit, Tolkien’s another novel about the Middle Earth, was translated into Turkish by a different translator. Since the above-mentioned two novels narrate the events occurring in the same imaginary world, a consistency may be expected in the translated versions of these books in terms of fictitious words and expressions. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the similarities between the Turkish translations of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit within the scope of intertextuality in terms of the transfer of fictitious language in Tolkien’s novels. Accordingly, the examples of fictitious words and expressions selected from these novels will be examined from the perspective of intertextual relations among the translated texts. By this way, the study will argue whether a translated text can go beyond the scope of the intertextuality and whether the translation can become a source text for future intertextual references in the target literature.

Between systematization and rationalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 204-216
Author(s):  
Raf Van Rooy
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

Chapter 16 discusses further evidence for the systematization and rationalization of the language / dialect distinction in the period 1650–1800, the age of rationalism and the Enlightenment. On the one hand, a kind of dialectological tradition emerged. The study of regional variation became a subfield of philology, albeit never an autonomous one; occasionally, it even now received the label of dialectologia, apparently introduced in 1650. For the first time, philologists presented dissertations on dialectal diversity that were no longer exclusively focused on the Greek dialects. On the other hand, scholars adopted more rational attitudes towards the conceptual pair. Some chose to supplement the binary contrast with new concepts. Others advocated distinguishing more clearly between different interpretations of the language / dialect distinction. Confusion persisted, however, throughout the early modern period. The first vocal sceptic of the conceptual pair was Friedrich Carl Fulda, who made it painfully clear how arbitrary and imprecise the distinction actually was.

Les aspects philosophiques de la théologie selon Jean Duns Scot

1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-446
Author(s):  
Michal Chabada
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Practical Science ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Franciscan Spirituality ◽  
The One

Theologians of the 14th C. agreed that theology is scientific knowledge based upon the truths of revelation. But the very introduction of Aristotle's and aristotelian philosophy into theology turned out to be problematic. Above all, it was questionable to integrate theology—as a science based on revelation—within the aristotelian framework of sciences. This problem is difficult for Scotus in two ways. On the one hand, he uses the concepts elaborated in greek philosophy, but, on the other hand, his franciscan spirituality compels him towards the opposite solution. Scotus only has the Aristotle's division of theoretical and practical sciences at his disposal to determine the character of theology, and he chooses to classify theology as practical science. Scotus is pouring “new wine” of Christian revelation into “old wineskins” of greek philosophy, the fact causing noticeable problems when interpreting many Scotus' ideas and views.

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