scholarly journals Some Thoughts on the Role of the Critical Intellectual in Contemporary Germany

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
German Society ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Current Usage ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
On Line ◽  
The One

The paper starts by relating the notion of the "critical intellectual" to the notion of "agent of social change" on the one hand, and to other potential types of agents of change on the other: women in revolt, artists, exiles and queer agencies. Proceeding to a brief characterisation of the socio-cultural and political context "Germany", we shall explore some meanings of attributes such as post-modern and consumer for contemporary German society and culture, arguing that these are cultural and economic terms, which denote current forms of expression for what continues to be a capitalist economy and a bourgeois democracy. One recurrent question will be what the contours might be of the figure of the "critical intellectual" under present day conditions. This is followed by a brief sketch of the meanings of "kritische(r) Intellektuelle(r)" in a historical ("geistesgeschichtlicher") perspective, mainly from the enlightenment onwards. We shall move on to a methodologically very different, but complementary, perspective, which is the consideration of current usage of the term with the help of large-scale electronic corpora of spoken language and an on-line search on the web. As we shall see, an important share and quality of the relevant meanings of a term lies in current usage, which may or may not be directly related to what we know from the history of ideas and/ or etymology. I shall then use examples from my own professional field of work for an exploration of what the role of a critical intellectual in a German context might be, discussing the field of natural language technologies. These examples will illustrate the fact that such a role has to involve participation in, rather than exclusively detached contemplation of, the sphere of production. They will also show that the role of the critical intellectual is, indeed, a locus of contestation in several respects. We finally broaden our perspective into a wider set of questions relating to the role of the critical intellectual, in German (and other) contexts. One of these questions will revolve around the notions of "values" and "ethics": Do we assume that the role of the critical intellectual is inherently connected to some systems of values, either in the sense of the enlightenment, and/or Marxism, and/or some other Weltanschauungs-system, or else do we believe that the position of a critical intellectual could be defined within some entirely market-driven ideology? Is there something like "truth", "progress" or "justice", other than what is successful on the market? Another one of these questions will focus on whether we can identify some force that motivates change in societies, and cultures, and what the role of the critical intellectual might be vis-à-vis such a force. One of our arguments here will be that among such forces may well be "contradictions", that this category of "contradiction" is in no way exhausted by the category of "difference" as currently debated. It will be argued, finally, that whereas the figure of the "critical intellectual", as we have tried to sketch it here, may be situated in a German context, its essential characteristics defy any attempts at claiming it for any one particular culture.

NURTURING OF CHILDREN THROUGH DRAMA AND THEATRE: THE CASE OF INTWASA KOBULAWAYO PERFORMANCES

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Vimbai Moreblessing Matiza
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Dramatic and theatrical performances have a long history of being used as tools to enhance development in children and youth. In pre-colonial times there were some forms of drama and theatre used by different communities in the socialisation of children. It is in the same vein that this article, through the Intwasa koBulawayo performances, seeks to evaluate how drama and theatre are used to nurture children and youth into different developmental facets of their lives. The only difference which this article will take into cognisance is that the performances are done in a different environment, which is not the one used in the pre-colonial times. Although these performances were like this, the most important factor is the idea that children and youth are socialised through these performances. It is also against this backdrop that children and youth are growing up in a globalised environment, hence the performances should accommodate people from all walks of life and teach them relevant issues pertaining to life as they live it now. Thus the main task of the article is to spell out the role of drama and theatre in the nurturing of children and youth through socio economic and political development in Intwasa koBulawayo festivals.

scholarly journals Ernst von Leyden (1832–1910): a pioneer in making oncology a respected medical discipline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Voswinckel ◽  
Nils Hansson
Keyword(s):  
International Association ◽  
German Society ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Medical Discipline ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Socialists ◽  
New Research ◽  
German Physician

Abstract Purpose This article presents new research on the role of the renowned German physician Ernst von Leyden (1832–1910) in the emergence of oncology as a scientific discipline. Methods The article draws on archival sources from the archive of the German Society of Haematology and primary and secondary literature. Results Leyden initiated two important events in the early history of oncology: the first international cancer conference, which took place in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1906, and the founding of the first international association for cancer research (forerunner of today's UICC) in Berlin in 1908. Unfortunately, these facts are not mentioned in the most recent accounts. Both had a strong impact on the professionalization of oncology as a discipline in its own right. Conclusion Although not of Jewish origin, von Leyden was considered by the National Socialists to be “Jewish tainted”, which had a lasting effect on his perception at home and abroad.

“Russian” Spengler and the Destiny of World History in Russian Philosophy in the Beginning of the 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
Vladimir A. Kudryavtsev ◽  
Alexandra I. Vakulinskaya
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Russian Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Factor ◽  
In The Beginning

This article deals with the history of Russian philosophers ‘acquaintance with the ideas of O. Spengler, set forth in his work “The Decline of the West”. The authors point out that the initial orientation of Russian thought towards Historiosophy, problems of history and ontology became the key factor of Spengler’s popularity in Russia. The article considers and analyzes critical and methodological approaches to the theory of cultural and historical types by O. Spengler and N. Ya. Danilevsky within the framework of Russian philosophical thought. The authors pay attention to the ideological influence of the United States as the country which adheres to the ideas of the Enlightenment, as well as to German thinkers, who visited this country in the early twentieth century. It is concluded that the global scenario of the human civilization development, that used to be the mainstream of its formation before the events of the beginning of this year, is unsuitable and untenable. The authors insist on the important role of the theory of cultural and historical types supported and developed by Russian emigration representatives, and focus on the importance of the religious factor in the process of cultural revival.

scholarly journals Authorial Self and Modernity as Reflected in Diaries and Memoirs. Three 19th-Century Hungarian Case Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Béla Mester
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One

Abstract The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities are well-known facts of the intellectual history. The present paper intends to analyze a special form of the creation of modern individual character; it is the self-creation of the writer as a conscious personality, often with a clearly formulated opinion about her/his own social role. There will be offered several examples from the 19th-century history of the Hungarian intelligentsia. This period is more or less identical with the modernization of the “cultural industry” in Hungary, dominated by the periodicals with their deadlines, fixed lengths of the articles, and professional editing houses on the one hand and the cultural nation building on the other. Concerning the possible social and cultural role of the intelligentsia, it is the moment of the birth of a new type, so-called public intellectual. I will focus on three written sources, a diary of a Calvinist student of theology, Péter (Litkei) Tóth, the memoirs of an influential public intellectual, Gusztáv Szontagh, and a belletristic printed diary of a young intellectual, János Asbóth.

A ‘milky mass’ and ‘uniform material’: white marble in eighteenth-century French discourses on sculpture and geology

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
Marthe Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Grain Size ◽  
Denis Diderot ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
White Marble ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Network

Knowledge of the materiality of stone during the Enlightenment expanded following the exploration of mineralogical structure, to alter ideas about taxonomy and challenge the role of rocks in the history of the earth. Close studies of the material of marble sculpture generated expertise on grain size, surface varieties and stone deposits. This mode of reception became intertwined with contemporary controversies about the age of the earth. This article focuses on both French sculpture and geological discourses of the eighteenth century to reveal an international and interdisciplinary network centring on protagonists such as Denis Diderot, Paul-Henri Thiry d’Holbach and Étienne-Maurice Falconet; through these figures, debates can be connected concerning both geology and art theory. Within these contexts, the article discusses the translation processes between these artistic and geological interests.

More Lessons to Learn: Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology and Alternative Archives of Social Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Andreas Langenohl
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Alternative Archives

Abstract Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology has been written with the intention to offer lessons from the historical trajectory of economic redistribution in societies the world over. Thereby, the book suggests learning from the political-economic history of ‘social-democratic’ policies and societal arrangements. While the data presented speak to the plausibility of looking at social democracy, as understood by Piketty, as an archive for learning about the effects of redistribution mechanisms, I argue that the book, or future interventions might profit from integrating alternative archives. On the one hand, its current line of argumentation tends to underestimate the significance of power relations in the international political economy that continued after formal decolonization, and thus form the flip side of social democracy’s success in Europe and North America. On the other hand, the role of the polity might be imagined in a different and more empowering way, not just-as in Piketty-as an elite-liberal democratic governance institution; for instance, it would be interesting to explore the archive of the French solidaristes movement more deeply than Piketty does, as well as much more recent interventions in economic anthropology that deal with ‘economic citizenship’ in the Global South.

Music Transcendent and Sublime

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip V. Bohlman
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Universal History ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Form Of Expression

The translations in Song Loves the Masses close with Herder’s final large-scale essay on music, published in 1800 as a chapter in Kalligone, the culmination of his aesthetic work. With this late essay Herder, a polemic against his former teacher, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), reveals the extent to which he has moved into a fully aesthetic domain in his concern for the universal history of humanity. Embodying the subjectivity of song and singing, music acquires the force of transcendence, and it therefore aspires to the Enlightenment ideals of the sublime. In Herder’s “On Music,” human beings are endowed with a degree of understanding that allows them to perceive the traits that make music unlike any other form of expression.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter extends the book’s insights about nature, technology, and nation to the larger history of the modern period. While the modern nation loses its grip as a locus of identity and analysis, attempts to understand the operation, disruption, and collapse of continental and global infrastructures continue to mix the natural and the machinic in ways that define them both. Those vulnerabilities emphasize large-scale catastrophe; historiographically, they mask the crucial role of small-scale failures in the experience and culture of late modernity, including its definition of nature. Historical actors turned the uneven geographical distribution of small-scale failures into a marker of distinctive local natures and an element of regional and national identity. Attending to those failures helps not only situate cold-war technologies in the larger modern history of natural and machinic orders; it helps provincialize the superpowers by casting problematic “other” natures as central and primary.

Governance Mechanisms in Web 2.0

2011 ◽  
pp. 180-196
Author(s):  
Christopher Goldspink
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Wiki Technology ◽  
Linguistic Cues ◽  
History Of ◽  
On Line ◽  
Governance Processes

This chapter documents the findings of research into the governance mechanisms within the distributed on-line community known as Wikipedia. It focuses in particular on the role of normative mechanisms in achieving social self-regulation. A brief history of the Wikipedia is provided. This concentrates on the debate about governance and also considers characteristics of the wiki technology which can be expected to influence governance processes. The empirical findings are then presented. These focus on how Wikipedians use linguistic cues to influence one another on a sample of discussion pages drawn from both controversial and featured articles. Through this analysis a tentative account is provided of the agent-level cognitive mechanisms which appear necessary to explain the apparent behavioural coordination. The findings were to be used as a foundation for the simulation of ‘normative’ behaviour. The account identifies some of the challenges that need to be addressed in such an attempt including a mismatch between the case findings and assumptions used in past attempts to simulate normative behaviour.

Social Self-Regulation in Computer Mediated Communities

2010 ◽  
pp. 1932-1946
Author(s):  
Christopher Goldspink
Keyword(s):  
Self Regulation ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Wiki Technology ◽  
Linguistic Cues ◽  
History Of ◽  
On Line ◽  
Governance Processes

This article documents the findings of research into the governance mechanisms within the distributed on-line community known as Wikipedia. It focuses in particular on the role of normative mechanisms in achieving social self-regulation. A brief history of the Wikipedia is provided. This concentrates on the debate about governance and also considers characteristics of the wiki technology which can be expected to influence governance processes. The empirical findings are then presented. These focus on how Wikipedians use linguistic cues to influence one another on a sample of discussion pages drawn from both controversial and featured articles. Through this analysis a tentative account is provided of the agent-level cognitive mechanisms which appear necessary to explain the apparent behavioural coordination. The findings are to be used as a foundation for the simulation of ‘normative’ behaviour. The account identifies some of the challenges that need to be addressed in such an attempt including a mismatch between the case findings and assumptions used in past attempts to simulate normative behaviour.

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