scholarly journals Explanation and Understanding as Methods of Historical and Biographical Cognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Mykola Bakaiev
Keyword(s):  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Biographical Research ◽  
Rational Explanation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Understanding Function

Traditionally, explanation is considered to be the method of natural sciences and understanding to be the method of humanities. However, this paper considers both to be methods of history. Namely, the author focuses on how explanation and understanding function in history in general and in biography in particular. Referring to biographical realm helps explicate the specifics of explanation and understanding as well as broaden the view about their uses in humanities. In the first part, the author refers to explanation and understanding in history as such. In particular, causal explanation (explanatory sketch by Karl Hempel) and rational explanation (history of ideas by Mark Bevir) are considered in the paper along with the relationship of hermeneutic notion of understanding with the two. The second part of the paper deals with the functioning of explanation and understanding in biographical research. Namely, it considers biographical understanding by Tilmann Habermas and Neşe Hatiboğlu as well as cases of causal and rational explanations in biographical research. In particular, it is shown that while causal explanation occurs in biography as explanatory sketch, it is not a separate distinct notion. It is also shown that rational explanation is used in biographical reconstructions in order to clarify the influence of particular events on beliefs of people. Based on the materials involved, the author demonstrates the specifics of explanation and understanding in biography compared to their usage in historical cognition in general.

Revisiting the ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’: Multiple discovery and the rhetoric of priority

2021 ◽  
pp. 095269512110192
Author(s):  
Joel Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Research Infrastructures ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Between the 1930s and the mid 1970s, it was commonly believed that in 1880 Karl Marx had proposed to dedicate to Charles Darwin a volume or translation of Capital but that Darwin had refused. The detail was often interpreted by scholars as having larger significance for the question of the relationship between Darwinian evolutionary biology and Marxist political economy. In 1973–4, two scholars working independently—Lewis Feuer, professor of sociology at Toronto, and Margaret Fay, a graduate student at Berkeley—determined simultaneously that the traditional story of the proposed dedication was untrue, being based on a long-standing misinterpretation of the relevant correspondence. Between the two, and among several other scholars who became their respective allies, there developed a contest of authority and priority over the discovery. From 1975 to 1982, the controversy generated a considerable volume of spilled ink in both scholarly and popular publications. Drawing on previously unexamined archival resources, this article revisits the ‘case’ of the so-called ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’ as an instance of the phenomenon of ‘multiple discovery’. A familiar occurrence in the natural sciences, multiple discovery is rarer in the humanities and social sciences. The present case of a priority dispute in the history of ideas followed patterns familiar from such disputes in the natural sciences, while also diverging from them in ways that shed light on the significance of disciplinary norms and research infrastructures.

Isaiah Berlin

2018 ◽  
pp. 164-184
Author(s):  
Seyla Benhabib
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Value Pluralism ◽  
Isaiah Berlin ◽  
Civic Republicanism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Judith Shklar ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes Isaiah Berlin's work, stating that the relationship of liberalism to Berlin's value pluralism remains fraught, as does the question whether value pluralism can avoid relativism. Notably, Judith Shklar and Berlin admired each other and shared a skeptical temperament as well as a dedication to the study of the history of ideas as the indispensable method of pursuing political philosophy in their time. Neither shared Hannah Arendt's conviction that the legacy of failed revolutions could only be countered by the activist civic republicanism of self-governing communities. The chapter also contextualizes the varying views of Berlin's work and persona through the prism of Max Weber's doctrine of value pluralism.

Zu den Hörern von Friedrich Schleiermachers Vorlesungen und ihren Nachschriften

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 156-234
Author(s):  
Holden Kelm
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Alphabetical Order ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article is focused on the audience and the transcripts of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s theological and philosophical lectures at the universities of Halle and Berlin between 1804/05 and 1834. It gives a summary and a characterization of the attached list, which contains in alphabetical order the known audience members and their transcripts of Schleiermacher’s lectures. The aim of this article is to advance the theological and philosophical research into the history of ideas in the early nineteenth century, esp. of Schleiermacher’s academic work, with respect to his lecture style, the (academic) biography of his audience, the relation between the spoken (lecture) and the written word (transcript), as well as the relationship of the students amongst themselves.

The relationship of the scleractinian corals to the rugose corals

Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Critical Points ◽  
Scleractinian Corals ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Rugose Corals ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Biologic Factors

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.

Meat without Animals: Outcast Objects and the Improvement of London

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Geier
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Covers the long history of the Smithfield animal market and legal reform in London. Shows the relationship of civic improvement tropes, including animal rights, to animal erasure in the form of new foodstuffs from distant meat production sites. The reduction of lives to commodities also informed public abasement of the butchers.

From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-90
Author(s):  
Dennis Michael Warren
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Medical Tradition ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The late Dr. Fazlur Rahman, Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, has written this book as number seven in the series on Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions. This series has been sponsored as an interfaith program by The Park Ridge Center, an Institute for the study of health, faith, and ethics. Professor Rahman has stated that his study is "an attempt to portray the relationship of Islam as a system of faith and as a tradition to human health and health care: What value does Islam attach to human well-being-spiritual, mental, and physical-and what inspiration has it given Muslims to realize that value?" (xiii). Although he makes it quite clear that he has not attempted to write a history of medicine in Islam, readers will find considerable depth in his treatment of the historical development of medicine under the influence of Islamic traditions. The book begins with a general historical introduction to Islam, meant primarily for readers with limited background and understanding of Islam. Following the introduction are six chapters devoted to the concepts of wellness and illness in Islamic thought, the religious valuation of medicine in Islam, an overview of Prophetic Medicine, Islamic approaches to medical care and medical ethics, and the relationship of the concepts of birth, contraception, abortion, sexuality, and death to well-being in Islamic culture. The basis for Dr. Rahman's study rests on the explication of the concepts of well-being, illness, suffering, and destiny in the Islamic worldview. He describes Islam as a system of faith with strong traditions linking that faith with concepts of human health and systems for providing health care. He explains the value which Islam attaches to human spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. Aspects of spiritual medicine in the Islamic tradition are explained. The dietary Jaws and other orthodox restrictions are described as part of Prophetic Medicine. The religious valuation of medicine based on the Hadith is compared and contrasted with that found in the scientific medical tradition. The history of institutionalized medical care in the Islamic World is traced to awqaf, pious endowments used to support health services, hospices, mosques, and educational institutions. Dr. Rahman then describes the ...

PIOPLE. INFORMATION. DEGRADATION

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Andrey Varlamov ◽  
Vladimir Rimshin
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Maximum Information ◽  
Building Models ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Link Information ◽  
The Relationship

Considered the issues of interaction between man and nature. Noted that this interaction is fundamental in the existence of modern civilization. The question of possible impact on nature and society with the aim of preserving the existence of human civilization. It is shown that the study of this issue goes towards the crea-tion of models of interaction between nature and man. Determining when building models is information about the interaction of man and nature. Considered information theory from the viewpoint of interaction between nature and man. Noted that currently information theory developed mainly as a mathematical theory. The issues of interaction of man and nature, the availability and existence of information in the material sys-tem is not studied. Indicates the link information with the energy terms control large flows of energy. For con-sideration of the interaction of man and nature proposed to use the theory of degradation. Graphs are pre-sented of the information in the history of human development. Reviewed charts of population growth. As a prediction it is proposed to use the simplest based on the theory of degradation. Consideration of the behav-ior of these dependencies led to the conclusion about the existence of communication energy and information as a feature of the degradation of energy. It justifies the existence of border life ( including humanity) at the point with maximum information. Shows the relationship of energy and time using potential energy.

Police Records

2019 ◽  
pp. 797-819
Author(s):  
Cristina Vatulescu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Media History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Police Records ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter approaches police records as a genre that gains from being considered in its relationships with other genres of writing. In particular, we will follow its long-standing relationship to detective fiction, the novel, and biography. Going further, the chapter emphasizes the intermedia character of police records not just in our time but also throughout their existence, indeed from their very origins. This approach opens to a more inclusive media history of police files. We will start with an analysis of the seminal late nineteenth-century French manuals prescribing the writing of a police file, the famous Bertillon-method manuals. We will then track their influence following their adoption nationally and internationally, with particular attention to the politics of their adoption in the colonies. We will also touch briefly on the relationship of early policing to other disciplines, such as anthropology and statistics, before moving to a closer look at its intersections with photography and literature.

Anthropological communities of interpretation for Burma: An overview

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
U Chit Hlaing
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Anthropological Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper surveys the history of anthropological work on Burma, dealing both with Burman and other ethnic groups. It focuses upon the relations between anthropology and other disciplines, and upon the relationship of such work to the development of anthropological theory. It tries to show how anthropology has contributed to an overall understanding of Burma as a field of study and, conversely, how work on Burma has influenced the development of anthropology as a subject. It also tries to relate the way in which anthropology helps place Burma in the broader context of Southeast Asia.

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