scholarly journals Travelling to improve yourself and to increase common good of humankind and your country: recommendations of Leopold von Berchtold in the context of the Enlightenement discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Kateryna Dysa

The recommendations of the Bohemian philanthropist of the late eighteenth century Leopold von Berchtold to travelers were not unique: there were others before and after. In the previous centuries other authors also tended to recommend their readers to pay attention to the economic state of foreign countries and provided them with a long list of questions they had to ask the people in the country of their destination. However, Berchtold’s recommendations were the product of his time, the age of Enlightenment, and they mentioned numerous topics and problems characteristic for that period. For instance, the author believed that self-improvement of a traveler had to begin long before the start of the trip. In Berchtold’s opinion, a traveler prepared for the journey was a kind of ideal, universal superhuman who was physically proficient, expert in all spheres of science, mechanics, economics, and medicine, who knew many languages, and was a talented artist and musician. Among the topics related to the Enlightenment, to which the author paid attention, were, for instance, patriotism of the traveler, which he understood as civil virtue, destined to improve not only his own country but also the whole of humankind. Moreover, patriotism in Berchtold’s interpretation did not contradict cosmopolitanism but rather it based itself on it. Philanthropy – which in the eighteenth century was a kind of secular religion – also featured a lot in Berchtold’s recommendations. Finally, the theme of doubt, as a basis for a critical assessment of reality and verification of authorities, pierced through the whole text of Leopold Berchtold. So did the topic of the public sphere, especially sociability and creation of social networks. The recommendations of Berchtold are thus valuable as a source that can tell a lot about the age of Enlightenment – not only about the practical side of traveling but also about the intellectual history of that period.

Author(s):  
Robert Wokler ◽  
Christopher Brooke

This chapter retraces Alasdair MacIntyre's own construal of the Enlightenment Project's trajectory in order to show how his interpretation of an intellectual tradition depends above all on his assessment of its impact. It argues that MacIntyre's Enlightenment Project is largely unreconstructed, unredeemed, and undiminished in its failure, even after substantial embellishment. His three principal works comprise an extraordinary indictment of the theoretical and practical legacy of eighteenth-century philosophy. His account projects the Enlightenment's implications and influence as they stem from its aims. He holds it to blame for some of the most sinister aspects of a morally vacuous civilization, cursed by the malediction of unlicenced Reason. His intellectual history of the period forms one of the mainsprings of his own philosophy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Mark Berry

Haydn's two great oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons (Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten) stand as monuments—on either side of the year 1800—to the Enlightenment and to the Austrian Enlightenment in particular. This is not to claim that they have no connection with what would often be considered more “progressive”—broadly speaking, romantic—tendencies. However, like Haydn himself, they are works that, if a choice must be made, one would place firmly in the eighteenth century, “long” or otherwise. The age of musical classicism was far from dead by 1800, likewise the “Age of Enlightenment.” It is quite true that one witnesses in both the emergence of distinct national, even “nationalist,” tendencies. Yet these intimately connected “ages” remain essentially cosmopolitan, especially in the sphere of intellectual history and “high” culture. Haydn's oratorios not only draw on Austrian tradition; equally important, they are also shaped by broader influence, especially the earlier English Enlightenment, in which the texts of both works have their origins. The following essay considers the theology of The Creation with reference to this background and, to a certain extent, also attempts the reverse, namely, to consider the Austrian Enlightenment in the light of a work more central to its concerns than might have been expected.


1964 ◽  
Vol 14 (53) ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
J.C. Beckett

Few periods of Irish history have been more extensively written about than the later eighteenth century: a mere list of books and papers dealing with the Volunteer movement, ‘Grattan's parliament’, the insurrection of 1798 and the legislative union of 1800 would make up a moderate-sized volume. Most of these writings are concerned, directly or indirectly, with the constitutional relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. Indeed, it might be said that this relationship is the basic theme in the Irish history of the period, even for social and economic historians; and the pattern is so well-established that it may well seem rash to assume that it can be substantially modified, or even made significantly clearer, except, perhaps, by the production of new and hitherto unsuspected evidence. Yet there is something to be said for looking again at the whole subject on the basis of our existing knowledge, not simply, as Irish historians are inclined to do, from the standpoint of Ireland, nor yet as if events in Ireland were a mere appendage to British history, but rather, as Professor Butterfield has done for one brief period in his George III, Lord North and the people, to consider Anglo-Irish constitutional relations during the late eighteenth century as part of the general political history of the British Isles.


1878 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 176-211
Author(s):  
George Harris

The Norman conquest, when William, Duke of Normandy, in the year 1066, landed in this country with a number of his chosen followers, and after killing King Harold in battle, and routing his army, established here the Norman sway, and introduced new laws and customs and manners, is one of those leading events in the history of this country by which the most important results upon its whole career, and more especially the cause of its civilization, were produced. True it is that the bulk of the people remained, and many of their institutions continued unchanged. But a great deal that was new was engrafted on the old. The native inhabitants were brought into immediate contact with the people of another country, who were not only more powerful than themselves, but who possessed different habits and pursuits and modes of thought, and who varied from them essentially in character and disposition; besides being used to a manner of living entirely varying from what they found here, and who were moreover determined, as the dominant power, to make changes in the government and institutions of the kingdom. Civilization was thus advanced by the coming in contact of the people of the two countries, and by the superior cultivation possessed by the Normans; and a very great stimulus was given to art, commerce, and national enterprise of every description. Hence, although I do not intend to give an account of the battles and political contests which occurred during their early career in this country, yet the Norman conquest is so intimately connected with, and had so important an influence on the habits, pursuits, and general condition of the people in this land, that it is absolutely necessary, in order correctly to become acquainted with the latter, to take a general survey of the former also.


1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor H. Levere

Canada as a Neo-Europe is a relatively recent construct, although the people of its first nations, the Indians and Inuit, have been here for some twelve thousand years, since the beginning of the retreat of the last ice sheets. Western science came in a limited way with the first European explorers; Samuel de Champlain left a mariner's astrolabe behind him. The Jesuits followed with their organization and educational institutions, and from the eighteenth century science was established within European Canadian culture.


Author(s):  
Ahmad S. Dallal

Replete with a cast of giants in Islamic thought and philosophy, Ahmad S. Dallal’s pathbreaking intellectual history of the eighteenth-century Muslim world challenges stale views of this period as one of decline, stagnation, and the engendering of a widespread fundamentalism. Far from being moribund, Dallal argues, the eighteenth century--prior to systematic European encounters--was one of the most fertile eras in Islamic thought. Across vast Islamic territories, Dallal charts in rich detail not only how intellectuals rethought and reorganized religious knowledge but also the reception and impact of their ideas. From the banks of the Ganges to the shores of the Atlantic, commoners and elites alike embraced the appeals of Muslim thinkers who, while preserving classical styles of learning, advocated for general participation by Muslims in the definition of Islam. Dallal also uncovers the regional origins of most reform projects, showing how ideologies were forged in particular sociopolitical contexts. Reformists’ ventures were in large part successful--up until the beginnings of European colonization of the Muslim world. By the nineteenth century, the encounter with Europe changed Islamic discursive culture in significant ways into one that was largely articulated in reaction to the radical challenges of colonialism.


1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 662-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith N. Shklar

It is well known that each age writes history anew to serve its own purposes and that the history of political ideas is no exception to this rule. The precise nature of these changes in perspective, however, bears investigation. For not only can their study help us to understand the past; it may also lead us to a better understanding of our own intellectual situation. In this quest the political theories of the 17th century and particularly of the English Civil War are especially rewarding. It was in those memorable years that all the major issues of modern political theory were first stated, and with the most perfect clarity. As we have come to reject the optimism of the eighteenth century, and the crude positivism of the nineteenth, we tend more and more to return to our origins in search of a new start. This involves a good deal of reinterpretation, as the intensity with which the writings of Hobbes and Locke, for instance, are being reexamined in England and America testify. These philosophical giants have, however, by the force of their ideas been able to limit the scope of interpretive license. A provocative minor writer, such as Harrington, may for this reason be more revealing. The present study is therefore not only an effort to explain more soundly Harrington's own ideas, but also to treat him as an illustration of the mutations that the art of interpreting political ideas has undergone, and, perhaps to make some suggestions about the problems of writing intellectual history in general.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 338-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Doshmangir ◽  
Esmaeil Moshiri ◽  
Farshad Farzadfar

Objective: To explore historically primary healthcare (PHC) development in Iran in the light of development plans before and after the Islamic Revolution. The results of this study can be used to outline the future of PHC in the Iranian health system. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the PHC development in the Iranian health system using data from relevant published and unpublished policy documents. The literature was retrieved and reviewed on the basis of predetermined inclusion criteria with no language or date restriction. The data were integrated and analyzed using content analysis. Results: During various upstream development plans, the attitude of the policy makers to PHC has been very different, resulting in fundamental differences in addressing such an important issue and the consequent outcomes. In the aftermath of Iran’s revolution, due to more understanding of PHC services importance and the principal slogans of the revolution to pay attention to villagers and vulnerable people, health policymakers paid more attention to PHC, which was not evident in previous periods. Conclusions: Despite considerable achievements in PHC, the history of PHC in Iran indicates frequent changes in planning and health provision structure. This suggests that the challenges facing the health sector today, the evolving needs and demands of the people, and population changes necessitate reinforcement and reform in the structure of the current PHC network as the main mission of Iran’s Ministry of Health.


Author(s):  
Yevhenii Vasyliev

The tragic events of the Revolution of Dignity and the hybrid war have been reflected in various stylistics and genre parameters of dramatic works. The brightest of them were included in two recent anthologies, which were prepared and published thanks to the efforts of the Department of Drama Projects of the National Center for the Performing Arts named after Les Kurbas. The first of them, “Maidan. Before and After. Anthology of the Actual Drama” (2016), has absorbed 9 plays by the authors of different generations (Yaroslav Vereshchak, Nadiia Symchich, Oleg Mykolaychuk, Neda Nezhdana, Oleksandr Viter, Dmytro Ternovyi, etc.). The completely new second anthology “The Labyrinth of Ice and Fire” (2019) also consists of 9 plays (three of which are also part of the previous anthology), which are the reflections of the modern history of Ukraine. The texts about the hybrid war, which are included in two anthologies, are the subject of our analysis. The focus is on the genre specificity of these drama works. The genre modifications of archaic genres inherent in the Ukrainian theatrical tradition (vertep, mystery) are studied in the plays “Vertep-2015” by Nadiia Marchuk and “Maidan Inferno, or On the Other Side of Hell” by Neda Nezhdana. The functioning of the documentary and epic drama (“The Chestnut and the Lily of the Valley” by Oleg Mykolaychuk, “The People and Cyborgs” by Olena Ponomareva and Dario Fertilio) is analysed. The processes of episation and lyricization are considered. The peculiarities of intergeneric diffusion and the creation of a specific genre type — lyrico-epic drama are analysed. The actual monodramas of Neda Nezhdana “The Cat in Memory of the Darkness” and “OTVETKA@ UA” are highlighted, as well as the intermedial character of the genre transformations of Igor Yuziuk’s drama “C-sharp Sixth Octave”


1995 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-162
Author(s):  
Tine Damsholt

Grundtvig’s Political TheoriesBy Tine DamsholtGrundtvig’s positive view of the Danish absolute monarchy has often been a problematic issue in today’s understanding of Grundtvig’s political ideas. It is a common view that in 1848 Grundtvig turned a political somersault, suddenly becoming a democrat after being a fervent adherent of absolutism. Quite a few have wanted either to see a break in Grundtvig’s political view or tried to explain away his apparently »undemocratic« attitude. However, if one examines Grundtvig’s basic political opinions, it is possible to establish a continuity in his political view. It is possible to see his apparent change of attitude as an expression of inevitable consequences of his idea of what were the central democratic elements in relation to the changing political situations.The analysis of Grundtvig’s view of democracy and representative government must take its point of departure in the political tradition that Grundtvig had grown up in. The ideal concept of the 18th century of absolute monarchy as the interpreter of the people’s voice is an essential background for the understanding of Grundtvig’s praise of Danish absolute monarchy in the period before and after the Danish constitution came into effect.Grundtvig’s political ideal can be epitomized as a unity of the two concepts of the King’s hand and the people’s voice, i.e. an absolute King listening to the people’s voice as it finds expression in a free debate, in writing and in speech, in an enlightened people. The enlightenment of the people is crucial to Grundtvig, and the gist of his criticism of the French Revolution is that the unenlightened mob assumed power. The folk high school, where the people is enlightened and educated to rise above narrow selfish interests to look at the common good, is thus a central part of Grundtvig’s political universe.Grundtvig also maintained this ideal after the Danish absolute monarchy was abolished in 1848. He claimed that this was the original and therefore the true Danish constitution, thus embracing the national-romantic tradition.


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