HOME > Journal Current TOC
|
Journal of the History of Ideas [SJR: 0.143] [H-I: 24] [135 followers] Follow  Subscription journalISSN (Print) 0022-5037 - ISSN (Online) 1086-3222 Published by Project MUSE  [295 journals]
|
- Can the Nonhuman Speak': Breaking the Chain of Being in the
Anthropocene- Abstract: The answer is easy, the answer comes first: yes, absolutely, the nonhuman can speak. Consider animals. Of course they speak. To be precise, they communicate with each other. And, moreover, they do so to transfer information that matters to them. By these measures, they do speak, and meaningfully, and—more to the point—that makes them comparable to us. That’s the simple answer. But the question is not so simple. It challenges a powerful claim of western philosophy that speech is unique to humans, a marker of their intellectual, ethical, political, and spiritual distinctiveness. If we are no longer uniquely endowed with speech, what is left to us' At the very least, the fact that nonhuman animals share the power of ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: The answer is easy, the answer comes first: yes, absolutely, the nonhuman can speak. Consider animals. Of course they speak. To be precise, they communicate with each other. And, moreover, they do so to transfer information that matters to them. By these measures, they do speak, and meaningfully, and—more to the point—that makes them comparable to us. That’s the simple answer. But the question is not so simple. It challenges a powerful claim of western philosophy that speech is unique to humans, a marker of their intellectual, ethical, political, and spiritual distinctiveness. If we are no longer uniquely endowed with speech, what is left to us' At the very least, the fact that nonhuman animals share the power of ... Read More
- Saving the Philosopher’s Soul: The De pietate Aristotelis by
Fortunio Liceti- Abstract: In the mid-seventeenth century the Aristotelian fortress was under siege. Scientific discoveries, alternative theoretical paradigms, philological developments that further complicated debates over the corpus of the Philosopher’s works, and internal disagreements among his modern followers all conspired against the continuing vitality of this venerable tradition. Nonetheless, staunch Aristotelians were in no mood to surrender, and when in 1645 the magister Fortunio Liceti (1577–1657), an ardent follower of the Stagirite philosopher, published an apology in favor of Aristotle’s piety, the De pietate Aristotelis erga Deum et homines, he believed he had identified both the causes of the ills that afflicted his school ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: In the mid-seventeenth century the Aristotelian fortress was under siege. Scientific discoveries, alternative theoretical paradigms, philological developments that further complicated debates over the corpus of the Philosopher’s works, and internal disagreements among his modern followers all conspired against the continuing vitality of this venerable tradition. Nonetheless, staunch Aristotelians were in no mood to surrender, and when in 1645 the magister Fortunio Liceti (1577–1657), an ardent follower of the Stagirite philosopher, published an apology in favor of Aristotle’s piety, the De pietate Aristotelis erga Deum et homines, he believed he had identified both the causes of the ills that afflicted his school ... Read More
- Useful Knowledge, Improvement, and the Logic of Capital in Richard
Ligon’s True and Exact History of Barbados- Abstract: So rings the promise of enrichment that begins Richard Ligon’s True and Exact History of Barbados (1657, 1673), his description of his travels in the Atlantic world and sojourn on the island from 1647 to 1650. Even as the History entertained its readers with some of the standard fare of early modern travel writing—the strange fauna and flora, and alien customs—the text also included Ligon’s account of the Barbadian “sugar revolution” and the emergence of a planter society of great wealth founded on slavery and brutality. These observations about nature and people have made the History a valuable source of material for historians to examine the complexity of gender relations, proto-racist ideas, and the political ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: So rings the promise of enrichment that begins Richard Ligon’s True and Exact History of Barbados (1657, 1673), his description of his travels in the Atlantic world and sojourn on the island from 1647 to 1650. Even as the History entertained its readers with some of the standard fare of early modern travel writing—the strange fauna and flora, and alien customs—the text also included Ligon’s account of the Barbadian “sugar revolution” and the emergence of a planter society of great wealth founded on slavery and brutality. These observations about nature and people have made the History a valuable source of material for historians to examine the complexity of gender relations, proto-racist ideas, and the political ... Read More
- Charles Darwin’s Theory of Moral Sentiments: What Darwin’s Ethics
Really Owes to Adam Smith- Abstract: In Wealth of Nations,1 Adam Smith argued that individuals in a market economy pursue their self-interest. The more talented and industrious thrive, and the less so scratch out a more precarious existence. Yet although individuals seek only their own advantage, the economy as a whole becomes more efficient and productive. In Origin of Species,2 Charles Darwin argued that organisms compete for scarce resources. The stronger and more resourceful thrive, and the less so weaken and die. As a result, nature increases in complexity and productivity. It is unsurprising that Darwin’s theory has often been read as an apologia for laissez-faire moral codes. Smith developed a laissez-faire theory of political economy. Darwin ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: In Wealth of Nations,1 Adam Smith argued that individuals in a market economy pursue their self-interest. The more talented and industrious thrive, and the less so scratch out a more precarious existence. Yet although individuals seek only their own advantage, the economy as a whole becomes more efficient and productive. In Origin of Species,2 Charles Darwin argued that organisms compete for scarce resources. The stronger and more resourceful thrive, and the less so weaken and die. As a result, nature increases in complexity and productivity. It is unsurprising that Darwin’s theory has often been read as an apologia for laissez-faire moral codes. Smith developed a laissez-faire theory of political economy. Darwin ... Read More
- Marie Stopes’s Wonderful Rhythm Charts: Normalizing the Natural
- Abstract: In early 1913 Dr. Marie Stopes, a lecturer in paleobotany at University College, London, began to monitor daily changes in her body and mood to determine whether there existed a “normal, spontaneous sex-tide in women.”1 Aged 32 and already an internationally respected authority on plant life, fossil plants, and coal, Stopes drew on her extensive training and experience in the study of the natural world to make an original contribution to a topic long regarded by male researchers as too “obscure” to examine objectively: namely, the “phenomena of sexual periodicity” in women.2 Each month over the course of about two years, Stopes dutifully created a time chart on graph paper with handwritten annotations, entering her ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: In early 1913 Dr. Marie Stopes, a lecturer in paleobotany at University College, London, began to monitor daily changes in her body and mood to determine whether there existed a “normal, spontaneous sex-tide in women.”1 Aged 32 and already an internationally respected authority on plant life, fossil plants, and coal, Stopes drew on her extensive training and experience in the study of the natural world to make an original contribution to a topic long regarded by male researchers as too “obscure” to examine objectively: namely, the “phenomena of sexual periodicity” in women.2 Each month over the course of about two years, Stopes dutifully created a time chart on graph paper with handwritten annotations, entering her ... Read More
- Theory, Practice, and Modernity: Leo Strauss on Rousseau’s
Epicureanism- Abstract: … the root of all modern darkness from the seventeenth century on is the obscuring of the difference between theory and praxis, an obscuring that first leads to a reduction of praxis to theory (this is the meaning of so-called rationalism) and then, in retaliation, to the rejection of theory in the name of praxis that is no longer intelligible as praxis.Since at least the time of his death in 1974, commentators have debated the continuity of Leo Strauss’s work. His student Allan Bloom, for instance, memorialized Strauss by characterizing his teacher’s oeuvre as “a unified and continuous, ever deepening, investigation into the meaning and possibility of philosophy.”2 More recently, Samuel Moyn has conversely argued ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: … the root of all modern darkness from the seventeenth century on is the obscuring of the difference between theory and praxis, an obscuring that first leads to a reduction of praxis to theory (this is the meaning of so-called rationalism) and then, in retaliation, to the rejection of theory in the name of praxis that is no longer intelligible as praxis.Since at least the time of his death in 1974, commentators have debated the continuity of Leo Strauss’s work. His student Allan Bloom, for instance, memorialized Strauss by characterizing his teacher’s oeuvre as “a unified and continuous, ever deepening, investigation into the meaning and possibility of philosophy.”2 More recently, Samuel Moyn has conversely argued ... Read More
- A Thousand Warburgs
- Abstract: If we find that our accounts of an honored, pensioned-off, and then rediscovered intellectual figure are not tending toward consensus, should we consider this a problem' Certainly, some will look for signs of agreement, some intersubjectively emergent bedrock beyond “the vagaries of me and you.” What alternatives are there for those who see coincidence of opinion as only one of several legitimate goals for inquiry' Are there alternatives to the dread option where all we can say is that readers find the text they need' Perhaps one might simply say that “an origin” is a philologically specifiable constellation that brings into focus not one but many potential trajectories. The origin, then, is not some absolute ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: If we find that our accounts of an honored, pensioned-off, and then rediscovered intellectual figure are not tending toward consensus, should we consider this a problem' Certainly, some will look for signs of agreement, some intersubjectively emergent bedrock beyond “the vagaries of me and you.” What alternatives are there for those who see coincidence of opinion as only one of several legitimate goals for inquiry' Are there alternatives to the dread option where all we can say is that readers find the text they need' Perhaps one might simply say that “an origin” is a philologically specifiable constellation that brings into focus not one but many potential trajectories. The origin, then, is not some absolute ... Read More
- Notices
- Abstract: The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Prize ($2,000) for the best first book in intellectual history published in 2016: Surekha Davies, for her Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters, published by Cambridge University Press.Eligible submissions are limited to the first book published by a single author, and to books published in English. The subject matter of submissions must pertain to one or more of the disciplines associated with intellectual history and the history of ideas broadly conceived: viz., history (including the histories of the various arts and sciences); philosophy (including the philosophy of ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: The Journal of the History of Ideas is pleased to announce the winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Prize ($2,000) for the best first book in intellectual history published in 2016: Surekha Davies, for her Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters, published by Cambridge University Press.Eligible submissions are limited to the first book published by a single author, and to books published in English. The subject matter of submissions must pertain to one or more of the disciplines associated with intellectual history and the history of ideas broadly conceived: viz., history (including the histories of the various arts and sciences); philosophy (including the philosophy of ... Read More
- Contents of Volume 78
- Abstract: ... Read More
Keywords: Aristotle; Sugar; Capitalism; Darwin, Charles,; Stopes, Marie Carmichael,; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,; Warburg, Aby,
PubDate: 2017-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
- Abstract: ... Read More
