The Unexpectedness of Events: GDR-Born Academics on Becoming Historians after 1989–1990

Thirty years ago, on October 3, 1990, two German states became one. The academy, however, had a long way to go before it could begin to make a similar claim. The relatively swift dismantling of the “Wall on the ground” did not occasion an equally swift dismantling of the so-called “Wall in the head,” especially within the historical field in the new Federal Republic. Young scholars from the “Workers’ and Peasants’ State” launched their careers as professional historians in a profoundly different political and social context than the one into which they had been socialized. Few would describe this new academic constellation as “unified.” This forum developed, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the events of 1989–1990, as an attempt to understand the ways that having lived through a world-historical transition has impacted the work of historians from the former German Democratic Republic. It explores the ways these scholars’ experiences—lived experiences of a necessarily transnational kind of history—have shaped their appreciation of the project of history: its form, its purpose, its promises, and its limits. It considers the ways the academy in the new Federal Republic did and did not make room for these scholars and their historiographical perspectives. It reflects on the power of culture, politics, and memory on conceptualizations of the past. To engage with these themes, Central European History's editor invited Jennifer Allen (Yale University) to convene a forum. She invited Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (University of California, Berkeley), Christina Morina (Universität Bielefeld), and Patrice Poutrus (Universität Erfurt) to participate.

O ato de fé como dinamismo de conversão

O presente artigo pretende esboçar uma teologia da fé cristã, a partir da relação entre ato de fé e dinamismo de conversão. Se a conversão implica a orientação do ser humano para a sua verdade e para a verdade de todo o processo histórico-social, outro tanto pode ser dito do ato de fé. Partindo desse pressuposto, o autor elabora uma análise do ato de fé como constituição do sujeito e das relações sociais, por distinção em relação às pretensões modernas de auto-fundamentação e aos efeitos nihilistas da pós-modernidade. Assim sendo, a fé constitui um modo de fundamentação da identidade pessoal e social, a partir de um outro e para um outro. Daí resultam as incontornáveis dimensões teológica, eclesial e pragmático-social do ato de fé, sem as quais não seria autêntico dinamismo de conversão nem de salvação.Abstract: The objective of the present article is to outline a theology of the Christian faith focusing in particular on the relationship between the act of faith and the dynamics of conversion. If conversion implies guiding the human being towards his/her truth and towards the truth of the entire historical-social process, a similar claim can be made about the act of faith. On this assumption, the author analyses the act of faith viewing it as the constitution of the subject and of social relations that contrast with the modern pretensions of self-justification and the nihilist effects of post-Modernity. Thus, the faith becomes the basis for a personal and social identity that starts in the other and goes towards the other. From this arise the unavoidable theological, ecclesial and pragmatic-social dimensions of the act of faith without which it would not be the genuine source of energy for conversion and salvation.

Afterword

The afterword, “Learning to Imagine What We Know” attempts to articulate a material poetics, rather than a metaphysics, of the mind in extremis, at the places where life, time, representation, and knowledge can go no further. Deleuze, in “The Simulacrum and Ancient Philosophy,” contends that “the atom is that which must be thought, and that which can only be thought.” Angus Fletcher, in the chapter “Marlowe Invents the Deadline,” makes a stunningly similar claim: “Time, finally, can only be thought.”Impossible Desire recognizes the elusive hymen, too, as a conceptual morsel that fuses sexual and epistemological conquest. It demarcates, and arouses a desire to transcend, the limit point of human knowledge. But this erotically charged search for knowledge occurs, for the carpe diem poet, in the absence of teleology. He recognizes no promise of full revelation, and only a perpetually receding horizon of further things unknown. Despite this, he uses poetry to create unlikely but capacious domains for the unthinkable, an aspiration identified as an act of world-making. As George Steiner puts it, “deep inside every ‘art-act’ lies the dream of an absolute leap out of nothingness, of the invention of an enunciatory shape so new, so singular to its begetter, that it would, literally, leave the previous world behind.” The conclusion of Impossible Desire locates this ontological leap in carpe diem poetry’s attempt to expand the increments of existence within the interstices of poetry, ultimately the only mortal place wherein one can make “this one short Point of Time/… fill up half the Orb of Round Eternity.”

Teologia e ciência

O diálogo entre teologia e ciência se dá no nível da episteme própria de cada uma delas e no da vida pessoal do cientista e do teólogo. O embate de teologia e ciência acontece de longa data, mas compreendido de maneiras diferentes. Santo Tomás põe com clareza o problema da relação entre fé e razão e, concomitantemente, entre teologia e ciência. A modernidade trouxe virada importante em tal relação. Passou-se de uma teologia que pensava tudo saber, para uma ciência com a pretensão de dominar todo o real. Mais: avançou-se para o mundo da prática com o desenvolvimento da tecnologia com idêntica reivindicação de tudo poder fazer. Em face da ciência que tudo sabe e da tecnologia que tudo pode a teologia tem palavra a dizer a partir de sua fonte: a revelação. O diálogo torna-se mais viável no momento atual diante de uma ciência e de uma tecnologia que começam a perceber os próprios limites. E todas elas – teologia, ciência e tecnologia – conscientes de suas insuficiências, mas também de suas possibilidades, têm amplo campo de mútuo questionamento e enriquecimento.Abstract: The dialogue between theology and science happens at the level of the appropriate episteme of each one of them and in the personal life of the scientist and of the theologian. The battle between theology and science has been happening for a long time but has different interpretations. Saint Thomas explains clearly the problem of the relationship between faith and reason and concomitantly between theology and science. Modernity brought an important turn about in that relationship. We went from a theology that thought it knew everything to a science that had the pretention to control reality. And more: we advanced towards the world of practice with the development of technology that had a similar claim of being able to do everything. In the face of the science that knows all and of the technology that can do all, theology has a word to say from its source: the revelation. The dialogue becomes more viable at the present moment with a science and a technology that begin to perceive their own limits. And all of them – theology, science and technology – are aware of their insufficiencies but also aware of their possibilities and have a broad area for mutual questioning and improvement.

Reasons and Ability

This chapter argues that there can be a reason for a person to perform an action only if this person can perform this action. The chapter gives three arguments for this claim: the argument from crazy reasons, the argument from tables and chairs, and the argument from deliberation. It also discusses several replies to these arguments. The chapter rejects three alternatives to this claim, argues that four counterexamples to this claim fail, and argues that a similar claim is true of reasons for belief. It ends by showing that these claims can help us to distinguish deontic judgments from evaluative judgments.

CAN LIBERTARIANS GET AWAY WITH FRAUD?

In this paper I argue that libertarianism neither prohibits exchanges in which consent is gained through deceit, nor does it entail that such exchanges are morally invalid. However, contra James Child’s (1994) similar claim, that it is incapable of delivering these verdicts, I argue that libertarians can claim that exchanges involving deceitfully obtained consent are morally invalid by appealing to an external theory of moral permissibility.

Medico-ethnobotanical Claims used against Gastrointestinal Disorders by Different Tribes of Assam, India

ABSTRACT Aim The present communication deals with some newly reported Medico-ethnobotanical claims used for the treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders like blood dysentery, chronic dysentery, diarrhea, and cholera by using medicinal plants documented during field survey since last 3 years. Materials and methods Field surveys were conducted in different locations of Assam where many folk healers were interviewed for documentation of Medico-ethnobotanical information. The reported plants are collected, identified, and specimens are preserved. Results Nine different tribes and communities of Assam are newly recorded to use 30 medico-ethnobotanical claims for the concerned purpose, while use of similar claims is already reported elsewhere by other tribes of different regions; the other tribes using similar claim are highlighted. Out of total 47 medicinal plant specimens documented, 10 medicinal plants were recorded for 11 single formulations, 39 medicinal plants for 19 compound formulations, and among these 2 medicinal plants are repeated for both compound and single formulations. Conclusion Ethnic societies are still depending upon the medicinal plants for the treatment of various diseases including gastrointestinal disorders. Further scientific investigations are needed for validation of these folk claims. Clinical significance Cross-cultural study along with other tribes was done and highlighted against enumeration for further validation of folk claims. How to cite this article Bora D, Mehmud S, Baruah D, Bharali BK, Rath C, Mangal AK, Joseph GVR. Medico-ethnobotanical Claims used against Gastrointestinal Disorders by Different Tribes of Assam, India. J Drug Res Ayurvedic Sci 2017; 2(3):175-182.

Fighting the Uneven Battle

This chapter describes Chambers's efforts to enforce Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in restaurants, motels, and other places of public accommodation, against attempts to circumvent the new law's broad reach, confirmed by an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Charlotte YMCA argued for a "private club" exemption under Title II, but quickly abandoned that claim and agreed to desegregate when Chambers filed suit. Chambers also sued the Raleigh YMCA, which sought to prevent desegregation of its exercise facilities on a similar claim notwithstanding that the YMCA's officers had desegregated their cafeteria and rental lodging. After a loss at trial before an unsympathetic U.S. District Court judge, Chambers and LDF won an unqualified victory on appeal before the Fourth Circuit. Chambers also prevailed in a suit to open Moore's Barbecue Restaurant in New Bern to black customers despite Moore's claim to have arranged his business affairs so as to be free of any connection to "interstate commerce," a key element of the Supreme Court's basis for upholding Title II. Here, Chambers overcame a hostile federal judge who willingly ignored a fundamental judicial canon by repeatedly communicating privately about the case with Moore's attorney.

Urban infrastructure is not a tree: Integrating and decentralizing urban infrastructure systems

In his original 1965 article, Christopher Alexander argued that master planned cities ultimately failed because the designs elaborated followed a tree structure as opposed to a more desirable semilattice structure present in organic cities. In this article, I argue that a similar claim can be made with urban infrastructure systems planning. As cities expanded and became increasingly complex in the 20th century, the responsibility to plan and design urban infrastructure was distributed to separate agencies that seldom communicate and coordinate with one another. In the global context to make cities more sustainable and resilient, a better integration of infrastructure systems may hold much potential. After recalling Alexander’s main concepts, I examine how current infrastructure systems are naturally interdependent. I then discuss the role of integration, by notably proposing an integration-decentralization matrix, with four quadrants, illustrated by using practical examples. The quadrants are current paradigm, siloed distribution, localized integration, and integrated decentralization. Overall, a better integration of urban infrastructure can offer significant benefits to a city, and it may be time to seriously revisit our current urban infrastructure systems planning practice.

Arithmetic Certainty

This chapter considers the idea that we have certainty in our basic arithmetic knowledge. The claim that arithmetical knowledge enjoys certainty cannot be extended to a similar claim about number theory “as a whole.” It is thus necessary to distinguish between elementary number theory and other, more advanced, levels in the study of numbers: algebraic number theory, analytic number theory, and perhaps set-theoretic number theory. The chapter begins by arguing that the axioms of Peano Arithmetic are true of counting numbers and describing some elements found in counting practices. It then offers an account of basic arithmetic and its certainty before discussing a model theory of arithmetic and the logic of mathematics. Finally, it asks whether elementary arithmetic, built on top of the practice of counting, should be classical arithmetic or intuitionistic arithmetic.