JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS最新文献

Abstract:

The paper deals with the expression "God is able to make a calf from a tree-trunk"—a very popular phrase in medieval treatises, especially in the context of God's omnipotence. Its attestations are thoroughly documented and considered, contexts discussed, and attributions examined. It is argued that the attribution to Anselm of Canterbury is false and late. It is claimed that the phrase goes back to a popular saying as attested by William of Conches, Peter Comestor, and ps.-Bonaventurian Ars concionandi. Thus, it is a rare example of a rustic proverb used in scholastic debates as a standard scholarly argument.

Abstract:

In 1963, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published the first volume of its long-awaited cultural and scientific history of mankind. First announced in 1948, the History of Mankind was envisioned as a comprehensive, universal human history, from the evolution of Homo sapiens to the middle of the twentieth century. This article uses editorial conflicts over the site of the cradle of the human species to explore the position of scientific knowledge in world history writing and to examine tensions between different national traditions of expertise at a moment of political and scientific transition.

Abstract:

Classical pragmatism has often been branded as being primarily a new theory of truth. Using F.C.S. Schiller's response to an article written by F.H. Bradley, I show that, in fact, a certain theory of thought is the essential point of pragmatism according to Schiller as well as John Dewey and William James. I go on to argue that without taking this theory of thought into account we cannot properly understand the British reception of classical pragmatism in the early 1900s. I illustrate the significance of this contention by criticizing the responses to pragmatism given by Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore.

Abstract:

This review essay explores recent historical and anthropological literature on the emergence and development of transcultural psychiatry in the second half of the twentieth century. It examines how postcolonial psychiatry attempted to remove itself from its erstwhile colonial frameworks and strove to introduce new concepts and paradigms to make itself relevant in the context of decolonization and postwar reconstruction. The essay looks at both continuities and discontinuities between colonial and post-colonial transcultural psychiatry, asking how the recent surge of scholarly literature in this field engaged with these issues. It also aims to identify the most important avenues for future research.

Abstract:

Scholars have long recognized the importance of liberty in Milton's early prose, but they tend to center their analysis on republicanism. Although he would go on to express republicanism, Milton's early tracts tie liberty to English political and legal traditions rather than classical ones. Milton, in his early tracts, utilizes the language of the ancient constitution and the common law as he centers liberty on the property and bodies of English citizens, thus framing liberty in distinctly English terms. Additionally, Milton's early prose accepts the power of the monarch, revealing Milton's initial commitment to the existing political structure.

Abstract:

Cicero's political thought is pervaded by analogies of private law that helped him to overcome philosophical difficulties. One serious difficulty was the demand of natural law that property must be owned by the one capable of managing it. This posed a problem to that most remarkable piece of property of all: the res publica. While incapable of managing it, the people was the only theoretically possible owner of the res publica. The legal concept "guardianship" offered a solution. In Cicero's writings the minor, guardian, and object under care demonstrably correspond to the Roman people, the magistrates, and the res publica.

This article offers a new interpretation of anti-colonial constitutional thought of the mid-twentieth century. Historians and political theorists have long viewed the circulation of democratic constitutions at the moment of decolonization in terms of the diffusion of electoral, parliamentary government. This article argues against such a "parliamentary" reading of anti-colonial democracy by examining the political thought of Indian Marxist thinker M. N. Roy (1887-1954). I reconstruct Roy's writings on anti-parliamentary forms of popular sovereignty through the 1940s. Further, I situate Roy's democratic theory as a response to understandings of political representation within the Indian national movement.