scholarly journals The light of freedom in the age of enlightenment (2): England and France

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-155
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Molnar

Although the philosophy (as well as the whole movement) of Enlightenment was born in the Netherlands and England in the late 17th and early 18th century, there were considerable problems in defying the freedom. By the mid 18th century, under the influence of ?national mercantilism? (Max Weber), the freedom was perceived in more and more collective terms, giving bith to the political option of national liberalism. That is why in the second half of 18th century this two countries have been progresively loosing importance for the movement of Enlightenment and two new countries emerged at its leading position, striving for democratic liberalism: United States of America and France. However, individual freedom faced not one, but two dangers during its philosophical and institutional development in the Age of Enlightenment: on the one hand, the danger of wanishing in the national freedom, and, on the other hand, the danger of becoming unbound and (self)destructive. The emerging (national) liberalism in England in the 18th century witnessed the first danger, while the second danger appeared in the wake of the Franch revolution. The French were the first in the Modern epohe to realise that the light of freedom is to powerful to be used without considerable precaussions in the establishement of liberal civil society. Therefore, some moderation hat to be taken into consideration. The idea of humanity, i.e. human rights, was at the end found as most helpful in solving the task of preserving individual freedom, without sacrifying social bonds between free individuals.

Author(s):  
N. Klyukin

The article is devoted to the analysis of the political activities of Donald Trump as the president of the United States of America. The key political issues of the United States interaction with countries such as the China, North Korea, Russia, India and Syria. Each of the issues discussed contributes to the creation of a full-fledged image of Trump as a politician who is a tough, unprincipled leader who takes constant risks in order to achieve certain goals. Despite the number of Trump’s opponents and ill-wishers, his decisions mostly bring dividends and open up new opportunities for his country. Many experts argue that it will be difficult for Trump to maintain a leading position in the upcoming presidential election since the current president currently has rather weak approval ratings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-494
Author(s):  
Gisela Schlüter

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-378
Author(s):  
David Allen ◽  
Briony A. Lalor ◽  
Ginny Pringle

This report describes excavations at Basing Grange, Basing House, Hampshire, between 1999 and 2006. It embraces the 'Time Team' investigations in Grange Field, adjacent to the Great Barn, which were superseded and amplified by the work of the Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society, supervised by David Allen. This revealed the foundations of a 'hunting lodge' or mansion built in the 1670s and demolished, and effectively 'lost', in the mid-18th century. Beneath this residence were the remains of agricultural buildings, earlier than and contemporary with the nearby Great Barn, which were destroyed during the English Civil War. The report contains a detailed appraisal of the pottery, glass and clay tobacco pipes from the site and draws attention to the remarkable window leads that provide a clue to the mansion's date of construction. It also explores a probable link with what was taking place on the Basing House site in the late 17th and early 18th century.


2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
L. P. Hwi ◽  
J. W. Ting

Cecil Cameron Ewing (1925-2006) was a lecturer and head of ophthalmology at the University of Saskatchewan. Throughout his Canadian career, he was an active researcher who published several articles on retinoschisis and was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. For his contributions to Canadian ophthalmology, the Canadian Ophthalmological Society awarded Ewing a silver medal. Throughout his celebrated medical career, Ewing maintained his passion for music. His love for music led him to be an active member in choir, orchestra, opera and chamber music in which he sang and played the piano, violin and viola. He was also the director of the American Liszt Society and a member for over 40 years. The connection between music and ophthalmology exists as early as the 18th Century. John Taylor (1703-1772) was an English surgeon who specialized in eye diseases. On the one hand, Taylor was a scientist who contributed to ophthalmology by publishing books on ocular physiology and diseases, and by advancing theories of strabismus. On the other hand, Taylor was a charlatan who traveled throughout Europe and blinded many patients with his surgeries. Taylor’s connection to music was through his surgeries on two of the most famous Baroque composers: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). Bach had a painful eye disorder and after two surgeries by Taylor, Bach was blind. Handel had poor or absent vision prior to Taylor’s surgery, and his vision did not improve after surgery. The connection between ophthalmology and music spans over three centuries from the surgeries of Taylor to the musical passion of Ewing. Ewing E. Cecil Cameron Ewing. BMJ 2006; 332(7552):1278. Jackson DM. Bach, Handel, and the Chevalier Taylor. Med Hist 1968; 12(4):385-93. Zegers RH. The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach. Arch Ophthalmol 2005; 123(10):1427-30.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018/2 ◽  
pp. 31-53

DESIGNATION OF JUDICIAL DOCUMENTS IN THE THIRD STATUTE OF LITHUANIA AND THE ATTRIBUTES OF THEIR EVOLUTION ADAM STANKEVIČ The author of the article analyses the designation of documents drawn up and issued by the court, their conception, field of application, and place in the court procedure as presented in the Third Statute of Lithuania (TSL). In addition, an attempt is made to exhibit the changes that such documents and their designations underwent in later centuries (until the end of the 18th c.) by means of the example of the Lithuanian Tribunal. The research revealed that documents which in the sources from different periods were referred to by the same name meant different things or were simultaneously attributed several meanings. In the 17th-18th century, only part of the terms featured in the Third Statute of Lithuania were used in the judicial practice of the Lithuanian Tribunal, and with time some of them were replaced with other terms. Several terms denoting summonses (pozew, mandat, zakaz) can be identified in the TSL, and all of them were in use until the very end of the 18th century. However, a single term – dekret / decretum – was used to designate the judgement (actually, for some time there was a differentiation between the court judgement and its procedural summary, but later the generalized term for the judgement prevailed). A number of documents in the TSL are referred to as the “open letter”, however, later some of them acquired specialised names (e.g. the power of attorney). With time, there were certain changes in the context in which some of the terms were used (e.g. the term “cedule” which in the 18th century was already consistently used exceptionally in a particular situation, namely when a litigant refused to obey the order of the court and informed in writing a judicial officer of such refusal) or the terms themselves underwent certain changes (in the 18th century the term membran was substituted with the term blankiet). Part of the judicial documents mentioned in the TSL disappeared in the long run or there was a certain decrease in their significance (this is true of the reminder and adjournment documents as well as glejt (protection letter)). The examples above suggest that the Lithuanian Tribunal would sometimes issue reminders and guarantee documents, though legal acts did not explicitly provide for that. The TSL offered a number of terms hardly related with the investigation of a case, therefore in the early 18th century, with the improvement of judicial procedures, they underwent rapid changes. The procedure of the implementation of a court ruling, which underwent significant changes, is accountable for the introduction of new terms, for example, with time several terms pertaining to the notification of the litigants were used simultaneously (obwieszczenie, innotescencyja, list tradycyjny). Most probably due to the unification processes observed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century, a number of Latin origin terms were introduced in the judicial practice of the GDL, e.g. cytacyja, decyzyja, innotestencyja, plenipotencyja, obdukcyja, wizyja, inkwizycyja, weryfikacyja, kalkulacyja, tradycyja (all of them had been used in Poland but were not featured in the TSL).


Author(s):  
Nicolas Wiater

This chapter examines the ambivalent image of Classical Athens in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Roman Antiquities. This image reflects a deep-seated ambiguity of Dionysius’ Classicist ideology: on the one hand, there is no question for Dionysius that Athenocentric Hellenicity failed, and that the Roman empire has superseded Athens’ role once and for all as the political and cultural centre of the oikoumene. On the other, Dionysius accepted Rome’s supremacy as legitimate partly because he believed (and wanted his readers to believe) her to be the legitimate heir of Classical Athens and Classical Athenian civic ideology. As a result, Dionysius develops a new model of Hellenicity for Roman Greeks loyal to the new political and cultural centre of Rome. This new model of Greek identity incorporates and builds on Classical Athenian ideals, institutions, and culture, but also supersedes them.


Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.


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