Przybrany ojciec. Czesław Miłosz w Chinach

Czesław Miłosz remains among the most important foreign authors and literary authorities for Chinese poets. Initially received in China with distrust and uncertainty, then portrayed in the official state discourse of romantic-revolutionary literature as the bard of socialism, Miłosz became the spiritual father of the younger generation affected by the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square Massacre, a witness of the age, and a symbol of intellectual independence and resistance against totalitarianism. After a period of reading Miłosz in terms of ethical and political categories, Chinese reviews and literary texts in the 2010s and 2020s increasingly refer to Miłosz as philosophical and metaphysical poet. This article analyses Miłosz’s reception in China, paying attention to the historical, cultural, and linguistic factors that shaped the assimilation of his work and the values he brought to Chinese poetry.

Researching and practicing ARTIVISM through field-crossing: an innovative method for collaborative research

While collaborative research has mainly focused on the relationship between researchers and research partners in the field, several recent works have contributed to reflecting on the relationships between researchers of various backgrounds and roles, and the challenges and benefits of teamwork. While conducting the ERC-funded ARTIVISM project, I have continued to rethink the ways research can be conducted collectively, especially when starting from a multi-sensory approach and by applying apprenticeship and audio-visual techniques. I developed the method of field-crossing, which allows the researcher to regularly contrast perspectives and perceptions, and which helps researchers regain emotional and intellectual independence after an intensive, year-long period of fieldwork as and among artivists. The article shows how field-crossing allows its practitioners to reflect in an innovative way on their positioning in a field, open new perspectives, integrate surprises and disruptive and unexpected developments, and cope with inner and collective conflicts. Finally, collective feedback sessions about text and image publications (comics, films) with the artivists are not only part of our ethical approach but also serve as elicitation sessions which reflect the complexity of field relations and individual and collective perspectives among and between field-crossers and artivists.

Locke’s Authoritarian Education

Locke’s pedagogy follows from his political and epistemic theory, counterposing an authoritarian pedagogy against limited formal parental authority. In light of his fears about the power of public opinion, Locke argued that personal authority in childhood was necessary for intellectual independence in adulthood, and the personal authority of parents was required to shield children against competing authorities in society. Locke’s account of human development reveals that the intervention of a unitary, personal authority to direct the will at the beginning is necessary for the will to be self-directing afterward. The inward-directed Lockean family forms a counterforce against the prevailing fashions outside. The private guidance of familial and pedagogical authority in childhood is a fence against the potential dangers of Locke’s political philosophy. His pedagogy argues that a state grounded in equality and individual liberty requires a hierarchical, authoritarian family to sustain itself.

Ravad of Posquières: A Programmatic Essay

This chapter focuses on Ravad of Posquières, 'the greatest of Maimonidean critics'. Ravad's Hassagot were a sparsely disseminated work. Throughout the medieval period, when Ravad's influence was both massive and decisive, his glosses on the Mishneh Torah were little known and of less influence. It was Ravad's commentaries that first broke free from the geonic moorings, and it was these exegetical works that heralded the intellectual independence of Europe. His work was less definitive than Rashi's and far less comprehensive, but more original. It was his almost unparalleled capacity to confront talmudic texts unaided, to wrest their meaning single-handedly, that allowed Ravad to penetrate into those areas where no commentarial tradition was available — halakhic midrashim, tractates Kinnim, and 'Eduyot — and to range far and wide over the Yerushalmi and the Tosefta.

Sir Thomas Tresham and the Christian Cabala

The Christian Cabala, a Christianised version of Jewish mysticism originating in Renaissance Italy, reached England in the early sixteenth century and was met with a variety of responses from English Catholics in the Reformation period. While ‘cabala’ was used as a slur by both Protestant and Catholic polemicists, Robert Persons drew positively from the work of the Italian cabalist Pietro Galatino, and in 1597 Sir Thomas Tresham, then a prisoner at Ely, described in detail a complex cabalistic design to decorate a window. While the Christian Cabala was only one source of inspiration for Tresham, he was sufficiently confident in his cabalistic knowledge to attempt manipulations of names of God in his designs for the window at Ely and to insert measurements of cabalistic significance in the gardens on his Lyveden estate. Persons’s and Tresham’s willingness to draw on Christian cabalism even after its papal condemnation suggests the intellectual independence of English Catholics, who were prepared to make use of esoteric traditions to bolster their faith. The evidence for experiments with cabalism by a few English Catholics highlights the need for further re-evaluation of the significance of esoteric traditions within the English Counter-Reformation and the eclectic nature of post-Reformation English Catholic mysticism.

Peranan BUMDesa dalam Meningkatkan Kemandirian Ekonomi Desa

BUMDesa is an elaboration of the vision of national development that is the realization of a sovereign, independent, and personality based on mutual cooperation. In the Province of Bali only 65% ??of the villages have BUMDesa. BUMDesa is expected to be a driving force for the village economy. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of BUMDesa in increasing the economic independence of the village. The population in this study are all village-owned enterprises in the Province of Bali. The location of the study was conducted in Gianyar Regency. The sample collection technique uses purposive sampling. Data collection techniques are carried out through questionnaires. Data analysis techniques using multiple linear regression. This research proves that partially, economic independence has a positive role in BUMDesa in Gianyar Regency. Intellectual independence has a positive role in BUMDesa in Gianyar Regency. And organizational independence has a positive role in BUMDesa in Gianyar Regency. Together economic independence, intellectual independence and organizational independence have a positive role in BUMDesa in Gianyar Regency. Keywords: BUMDesa; Economic Independence.

Tocqueville on Intellectual Independence, Doubt, and Democratic Citizenship

Some contend that politics functions best when deference is given to tradition and authoritative community norms, while others argue for the importance of independent thought and doubt about received sources of authority. Insight into this question can be found in the work of Alexis de Tocqueville. While Tocqueville is often taken to regard the doubt characteristic of intellectual independence solely as a pathology, I show that he also saw it as a potential precursor to conversation, a stimulus to self-assured conviction, and a counter to distortionary abstractions. Nonetheless, Tocqueville also elaborates the destructive outcomes of too much doubt and intellectual independence. I identify the ways in which he seeks to discipline and educate the drive to independent thought so as to attain its benefits without falling victim to its pathologies. In doing so, I demonstrate the ways in which Tocqueville can be a guide to navigating the perennial tension between intellectual inquiry and authoritative community norms.

Africa’s challenges in the OA movement: risks and possibilities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of the open access (OA) movement on the African continent, and if there is any financial or moral exploitation by dominant “foreign” world powers. OA provided the African intellectual community with a tool to prove its academic prowess and an opportunity to display cultural and intellectual independence. OA publishing is prone to abuse, and some in Africa have sought to exploit the OA boom to profit from non-academic activity rather than use this tool to glorify Africa’s image and diversity on the global intellectual stage. These issues are explored in detail in the paper. Design/methodology/approach The authors broadly assessed literature that is related to the growth and challenges associated with OA, including the rise of OA mega journals, in Africa. Findings African OA journals and publishers have to compete with established non-African OA entities. Some are considered “predatory”, but this Jeffrey Beall-based classification may be erroneous. Publishing values that African OA publishers and journals aspire to should not equal those published by non-African publishing entities. Africa should seek solutions to the challenges on that continent via Africa-based OA platforms. The budding African OA movement is applauded, but it must be held as accountable as any other OA journal or publisher. Originality/value African scholars need to reassess the “published in Africa” OA image.

Richard Whately

Richard Whately (1787-1863) is an intriguing figure in John Henry Newman’s development. Through his mentoring and academic support, he taught the gifted young Newman to think for himself. But intellectual independence came at a price. After a close relationship in the mid-1820s, Newman began to steer a course of his own. In the tumultuous early 1830s, their friendship foundered, as they clashed over key theological issues: the authority of the church, the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of revelation, and the reasonableness of religious belief. Newman had come to think that Whately's theology endangered orthodox Christianity. This conviction shaped his later opposition to other Oriel Noetics, who thought like Whately. Despite their conflicts, Newman drew on Whately's work in logic and rhetoric to formulate his own theory of the relation between faith and reason.