scholarly journals Positioning Ethos in/for the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction to Histories of Ethos

Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Baumlin ◽  
Craig Meyer

The aim of this essay is to introduce, contextualize, and provide rationale for texts published in the Humanities special issue, Histories of Ethos: World Perspectives on Rhetoric. It surveys theories of ethos and selfhood that have evolved since the mid-twentieth century, in order to identify trends in discourse of the new millennium. It outlines the dominant theories—existentialist, neo-Aristotelian, social-constructionist, and poststructuralist—while summarizing major theorists of language and culture (Archer, Bourdieu, Foucault, Geertz, Giddens, Gusdorf, Heidegger). It argues for a perspectivist/dialectical approach, given that no one theory comprehends the rich diversity of living discourse. While outlining the “current state of theory,” this essay also seeks to predict, and promote, discursive practices that will carry ethos into a hopeful future. (We seek, not simply to study ethos, but to do ethos.) With respect to twenty-first century praxis, this introduction aims at the following: to acknowledge the expressive core of discourse spoken or written, in ways that reaffirm and restore an epideictic function to ethos/rhetoric; to demonstrate the positionality of discourse, whereby speakers and writers “out themselves” ethotically (that is, responsively and responsibly); to explore ethos as a mode of cultural and embodied personal narrative; to encourage an ethotic “scholarship of the personal,” expressive of one’s identification/participation with/in the subject of research; to argue on behalf of an iatrological ethos/rhetoric based in empathy, care, healing (of the past) and liberation/empowerment (toward the future); to foster interdisciplinarity in the study/exploration/performance of ethos, establishing a conversation among scholars across the humanities; and to promote new versions and hybridizations of ethos/rhetoric. Each of the essays gathered in the abovementioned special issue achieves one or more of these aims. Most are “cultural histories” told within the culture being surveyed: while they invite criticism as scholarship, they ask readers to serve as witnesses to their stories. Most of the authors are themselves “positioned” in ways that turn their texts into “outings” or performances of gender, ethnicity, “race,” or ability. And most affirm the expressive, epideictic function of ethos/rhetoric: that is, they aim to display, affirm, and celebrate those “markers of identity/difference” that distinguish, even as they humanize, each individual and cultural storytelling. These assertions and assumptions lead us to declare that Histories of Ethos, as a collection, presents a whole greater than its essay-parts. We conceive it, finally, as a conversation among theories, histories, analyses, praxes, and performances. Some of this, we know, goes against the grain of modern (Western) scholarship, which privileges analysis over narrative and judges texts against its own logocentric commitments. By means of this introduction and collection, we invite our colleagues in, across, and beyond the academy “to see differently.” Should we fall short, we will at least have affirmed that some of us “see the world and self”—and talk about the world and self—through different lenses and within different cultural vocabularies and positions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Zofia Sawaniewska-Mochowa ◽  
Vilija Sakalauskienė

The Lithuanian and Polish linguistic legacy of Antanas Juška from a twenty-first-century perspectiveThis article presents the assumptions of new research on the legacy of Antanas Juška, recorded in Lithuanian and Polish. We assume that the forgotten works of this bilingual author from Lithuania, mainly translation dictionaries, are an underestimated study material for interdisciplinary research. They are particularly important for understanding the rich conceptualisations of the world by two collective subjects, Poles and Lithuanians, co-existing in Lithuania under the Russian partition. We have formulated two research hypotheses: (1) the bilingual dictionaries authored by Antanas Juška, who was a Catholic priest, are not only a valuable source of knowledge about the state of the Polish and Lithuanian languages in the nineteenth century, but above all specific cultural texts which form part of the social discourse of their time and place, and thus carry relevant ethnolinguistic and ethnocultural information; (2) bilingual dictionaries as a genre had an impact on the crystallisation of Lithuanian national awareness and the strengthening of cultural identity of Lithuanians in the second half of the nineteenth century.Juška’s linguistic legacy will be jointly studied by Polish and Lithuanian researchers from different perspectives, applying the tools and methods available in twenty-first-century humanities.I. In the ethnolinguistic and ethnohistorical paradigm: in view of the hypothesis that bilingual dictionaries constitute a narrative about the world and its historical time, we extract linguistic data that will enable us to capture the lexical and conceptual symmetry and asymmetry between the linguistic woldview of Poles and Lithuanians in the context of the crystallisation of Lithuanian national awareness.II. In the comparative perspective: (1) we will present Juška’s lexicographic legacy against the background of the Lithuanian and Polish lexicographic tradition; we will confront the lexicographic practice and the macro- and microstructure of his dictionaries with important works of Lithuanian lexicography and contemporary dictionaries recording colloquial, dialectal and regional vocabulary of various sub-regions of Lithuania; (2) we will compare the Polish material recorded in Juška’s translation dictionaries with dictionaries of the general, dialectal and regional Polish language from Lithuania; (3) we will answer the question whether the introduction of Russian translations into the Lithuanian-Polish dictionary published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg was merely a political requirement stemming from the political situation and censorship, or whether these translations complement the meanings of the Polish and Lithuanian entries.III. In the sociolinguistic and communication aspect: language contact and multilingualism, and the attendant processes of borrowing, mixing and “combining” vocabulary among users of the regional Polish language and spoken Lithuanian.Our research draws the attention of linguists to old, underestimated texts. It also indicates the cognitive value of linguistic analysis open to history, ethnology and identity studies. By studying Juška’s linguistic legacy in the context of modern scholarship, we introduce it into the sphere of collective life of Lithuanians and Poles. In this way, we create a plane for a better mutual understanding which will foster the overcoming of negative national stereotypes. Litewska i polska spuścizna językowa Antoniego Juszkiewicza (Antanasa Juški) z perspektywy XXI wiekuW artykule przedstawiamy założenia nowych badań spuścizny Antoniego Juszkiewicza (Juški) zapisanej w języku litewskim i polskim. Wychodzimy z założenia, że zapomniany dorobek Juszkiewicza, autora dwujęzycznego z Litwy, złożony głównie ze słowników przekładowych, jest niedocenioną bazą materiałową do prowadzenia interdyscyplinarnych badań, a zwłaszcza do poznania bogactwa konceptualizacji świata przez dwa podmioty zbiorowe, Polaków i Litwinów, współegzystujących na Litwie w sytuacji zaboru rosyjskiego Przyjmujemy dwie hipotezy badawcze: 1) słowniki dwujęzyczne, skonstruowane przez księdza katolickiego A. Juszkiewicza, są nie tylko cennym źródłem wiedzy o stanie języka polskiego i litewskiego w XIX wieku, lecz przede wszystkim swoistymi tekstami kultury, wpisującymi się w dyskurs społeczny czasu i miejsca oraz nośnikami relewantnych informacji etnolingwistycznych i etnokulturowych; 2) słowniki dwujęzyczne jako gatunek tekstu oddziaływały na krystalizowanie się narodowej świadomości litewskiej i umacnianie tożsamości kulturowej Litwinów w drugiej połowie XIX wieku.Spuścizna językowa Juszkiewicza będzie odczytana wspólnie przez badaczy polskich i litewskich na nowo z różnych perspektyw, z wykorzystaniem narzędzi i metod, jakie daje nam humanistyka XXI wieku:I. W paradygmacie etnolingwistycznym i etnohistorycznym: zgodnie z przyjętą hipotezą, że słowniki dwujęzyczne są swoistą narracją o świecie i czasie historycznym, będziemy ekscerpować z nich dane językowe, które pozwolą nam uchwycić symetrię i asymetrię leksykalno-pojęciową między językowym obrazem świata Polaków i Litwinów w sytuacji krystalizowania się litewskiej świadomości narodowej;II. W perspektywie komparatystycznej: 1) ukażemy spuściznę leksykograficzną Juszkiewicza na tle tradycji leksykograficznej litewskiej i polskiej; skonfrontujemy warsztat leksykograficzny oraz makro- i mikrostruktury słowników A. Juszkiewicza z ważnymi dziełami leksykografii przekładowej litewskiej oraz współczesnymi słownikami rejestrującymi słownictwo potoczne, gwarowe i regionalne różnych subregionów Litwy; 2) porównamy materiał polski zarejestrowany w słownikach przekładowych Juszkiewiczów ze Słownikiem języka polskiego tzw. wileńskim, Słownikiem gwar polskich J. Karłowicza, ze słownictwem współczesnej polszczyzny gwarowej na Litwie; 3) odpowiemy na pytanie, czy wprowadzenie tłumaczeń rosyjskich do wydanej przez Imperatorską Akademię Nauk w Sankt Petersburgu części słownika litewsko-polskiego, mające w sytuacji zaborów podłoże polityczne, wniosło uzupełnienia znaczeń haseł polskich i litewskich;III. W aspekcie socjolingwistycznym i komunikacyjnym: w kontekście kontaktów językowych i zachodzących w sytuacji wielojęzyczności procesów zapożyczania, mieszania i „uwspólniania” słownictwa między użytkownikami polszczyzny regionalnej i mówionego języka litewskiego.Nasze badania kierują uwagę lingwistów na teksty dawne, niedocenione, wskazując, jak ważne poznawczo efekty można uzyskać w ich analizie, gdy otwieramy językoznawstwo na historię, etnologię, naukę o tożsamości. Włączając spuściznę lingwistyczną A. Juszkiewicza w obszar współczesnej nauki, wprowadzamy ją zarazem w sferę życia zbiorowego Litwinów i Polaków. Stwarzamy tym samym płaszczyznę do lepszego zrozumienia siebie nawzajem i przewartościowania negatywnych stereotypów narodowych.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Claire Colebrook

There is something more catastrophic than the end of the world, especially when ‘world’ is understood as the horizon of meaning and expectation that has composed the West. If the Anthropocene is the geological period marking the point at which the earth as a living system has been altered by ‘anthropos,’ the Trumpocene marks the twenty-first-century recognition that the destruction of the planet has occurred by way of racial violence, slavery and annihilation. Rather than saving the world, recognizing the Trumpocene demands that we think about destroying the barbarism that has marked the earth.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-119
Author(s):  
VLADIMIR GLEB NAYDONOV

The article considers the students’ tolerance as a spectrum of personal manifestations of respect, acceptance and correct understanding of the rich diversity of cultures of the world, values of others’ personality. The purpose of the study is to investgate education and the formation of tolerance among the students. We have compiled a training program to improve the level of tolerance for interethnic differences. Based on the statistical analysis of the data obtained, the most important values that are significant for different levels of tolerance were identified.


Author(s):  
Berthold Schoene

This chapter looks at how the contemporary British and Irish novel is becoming part of a new globalized world literature, which imagines the world as it manifests itself both within (‘glocally’) and outside nationalist demarcations. At its weakest, often against its own best intentions, this new cosmopolitan writing cannot but simply reinscribe the old imperial power relations. Or, it provides an essential component of the West’s ideological superstructure for globalization’s neoliberal business of rampant upward wealth accumulation. At its best, however, this newly emergent genre promotes a cosmopolitan ethics of justice, resistance. It also promotes dissent while working hard to expose and deconstruct the extant hegemonies and engaging in a radical imaginative recasting of global relations.


The world faces significant and interrelated challenges in the twenty-first century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines the relationship between human rights and three of the largest challenges of the twenty-first century: conflict and security, environment, and poverty. Technological advances in fighting wars have led to the introduction of new weapons which threaten to transform the very nature of conflict. In addition, states confront threats to security which arise from a new set of international actors not clearly defined and which operate globally. Climate change, with its potentially catastrophic impacts, features a combination of characteristics which are novel for humanity. The problem is caused by the sum of innumerable individual actions across the globe and over time, and similarly involves risks that are geographically and temporally diffuse. In recent decades, the challenges involved in addressing global and national poverty have also changed. For example, the relative share of the poor in the world population has decreased significantly while the relative share of the poor who live in countries with significant domestic capacity has increased strongly. Overcoming these global and interlocking threats constitutes this century’s core political and moral task. This book examines how these challenges may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and seeks to reassess our understanding of human rights in the light of these challenges. The analysis considers both foundational and applied questions. The approach is multidisciplinary and contributors include some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate. The authors not only include leading academics but also those who have played important roles in shaping the policy debates on these questions. Each Part includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations human rights system on the challenges under consideration.


Author(s):  
Jon Stewart

In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel treats the religions of the world under the rubric “the determinate religion.” This is a part of his corpus that has traditionally been neglected, since scholars have struggled to understand what philosophical work it is supposed to do. The present study argues that Hegel’s rich analyses of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Egyptian and Greek polytheism, and the Roman religion are not simply irrelevant historical material, as is often thought. Instead, they play a central role in Hegel’s argument for what he regards as the truth of Christianity. Hegel believes that the different conceptions of the gods in the world religions are reflections of individual peoples at specific periods in history. These conceptions might at first glance appear random and chaotic, but there is, Hegel claims, a discernible logic in them. Simultaneously a theory of mythology, history, and philosophical anthropology, Hegel’s account of the world religions goes far beyond the field of philosophy of religion. The controversial issues surrounding his treatment of the non-European religions are still very much with us today and make his account of religion an issue of continued topicality in the academic landscape of the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
James Lee Brooks

AbstractThe early part of the twenty-first century saw a revolution in the field of Homeland Security. The 9/11 attacks, shortly followed thereafter by the Anthrax Attacks, served as a wakeup call to the United States and showed the inadequacy of the current state of the nation’s Homeland Security operations. Biodefense, and as a direct result Biosurveillance, changed dramatically after these tragedies, planting the seeds of fear in the minds of Americans. They were shown that not only could the United States be attacked at any time, but the weapon could be an invisible disease-causing agent.


Science ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 341 (6147) ◽  
pp. 746-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffery L. Dangl ◽  
Diana M. Horvath ◽  
Brian J. Staskawicz

Diverse and rapidly evolving pathogens cause plant diseases and epidemics that threaten crop yield and food security around the world. Research over the last 25 years has led to an increasingly clear conceptual understanding of the molecular components of the plant immune system. Combined with ever-cheaper DNA-sequencing technology and the rich diversity of germ plasm manipulated for over a century by plant breeders, we now have the means to begin development of durable (long-lasting) disease resistance beyond the limits imposed by conventional breeding and in a manner that will replace costly and unsustainable chemical controls.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Parker ◽  
Chang-Yau Hoon

Abstract Scholarly predictions of the secularization of the world have proven premature. We see a heterogeneous world in which religion remains a significant and vital social and political force. This paper reflects critically upon secularization theory in order to see how scholars can productively respond to the, at least partly, religious condition of the world at the beginning of the twenty first century. We note that conventional multiculturalism theory and policy neglects religion, and argue the need for a reconceptualization of understanding of religion and secularity, particularly in a context of multicultural citizenship — such as in Australia and Indonesia. We consider the possibilities for religious pluralism in citizenship and for “religious citizenship”. Finally, we propose that religious citizenship education might be a site for fostering a tolerant and enquiring attitude towards religious diversity.


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