Il est encore paradoxal de reconnaître aux livres des Chroniques le statut d'œuvre littéraire. Longtemps considéré comme de « piètre fiabilité » par rapport au récit parallèle des livres de Samuel et des Rois, ces livres apparaissent aussi sans originalité littéraire par rapport notamment à l'art consommé des récits des livres de Samuel. Dans le sillage de l'Art du récit biblique, de Robert Alter, Ph. Abadie tente de faire ressortir la richesse et la variété des procédés d'écriture qui font du (...) livre des Chroniques une œuvre littéraire véritable. Celle-ci tient fondamentalement à un projet global que révèlent et confirment des « unités kérygmatiques » structurantes et l'ordonnancement de grands ensembles selon divers procédés : technique de répétition et système de périodisation chronologique notamment.It is still paradoxical to recognize the statute of literary work for the books of Chronicles. Long time considered as of “poor reliability” in comparison with the parallel history of the books of Samuel and Kings, these books also seem to be without literary originality in comparison with, notably, the consummate art of the narratives in the books of Samuel. In the wake of “The Art of Biblical Narrative” by Robert Alter, Ph. Abadie tries to bring out the richness and the variety of the writing procedures that make the book of Chronicles a truly literary work. It fundamentally holds to a global project that reveals and confirms some “kerygmatic unities,” structuring and ordering great ensembles according to diverse procedures: especially a technique of repetition and system of chronological periodisation. (shrink)

This article proposes a periodisation of the narrative work of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Two meta-literary notions guide the first period: that of an absolute text and that of a text governed by chance, in which the former is linked to the Kabbalah and the latter to Gnosticism. The next period, which is the focal topic of this study, is governed by the notion of figure in the biblical sense of the term. Borges introduces this notion in his 1949 (...) essay "The Mirror Of Enigmas" that summons texts by Léon Bloy, Thomas de Quincey and Novalis. Through these influences, Borges sketches a figurative poetics whose apocalyptic character situates the work thus produced in the indecision between the eschatology and the scatology. (shrink)

This article responds to a critical research challenge in Medieval philosophy scholarship regarding the internal periodisation of the register. By arguing the case for ‘post-scholasticism’ as an internal period indicator (1349–1464, the era between the deaths of William of Ockham and Nicholas of Cusa), defined as ‘the transformation of high scholasticism on the basis of a selective departure thereof’, the article specifies a predisposition in the majority of introductions to and commentaries in Medieval philosophy to proceed straight from 1349 (...) to 1464, understating 115 years of pertinent Medieval philosophical discourse. It is argued that in the modern account of Medieval philosophy, this understatement is manifested in either a predating of Renaissance philosophy to close the gap between 1349 and 1464 as far as possible or in proceeding straight from 1349 to Renaissance philosophy. The article presents five unique philosophical themes from this delicate period, indicating that ‘post-scholasticism’ was indeed a productive period in late Medieval philosophy, which should not be bypassed as an inconsequential entrance to Renaissance philosophy. The period 1349–1464 should accordingly be appreciated for its idiosyncratic contributions to the history of ideas in the late-14th and early-15th centuries, with reference to the political intensification of the via moderna, the pivotal separation of philosophy and theology and the resulting independence of the natural sciences, in res critique of institutions, transforming pragmatics and the rise of philosophical materialism. Contribution: This article contributes to methodological development in Medieval philosophy by responding to a critical research challenge regarding the internal periodisation of the later Middle Ages. Arguing the case for ‘post-scholasticism’ as an internal period indicator (1349 to 1464 in Medieval philosophy, the article presents unique philosophical themes from the period, indicating that it was a productive stage in late Medieval philosophy which should not be bypassed as an inconsequential entrance to Renaissance philosophy. (shrink)

Why is it that we watch _Mad Men_ and think it represents a period? Flashes of patterned wallpaper, whiskey neat, babies born that are never mentioned, contact lining for kitchen drawers, Ayn Rand, polaroids, skinny ties, Hilton hotels, Walter Cronkite, and a time when Don Draper can ask ‘What do women want?’ and dry old Roger Sterling can reply ‘Who Cares?’ This essay explores the embrace of period detail in _Mad Men_ finding it to be both loving and fetishistic, and (...) belonging, like all period film, to the politics of the present. (shrink)

Goethe’s religiosity appears at the same time profoundly sincere yetescaping confessional labels. It has been claimed that Goethe was Christian,theist, mason, and even a pagan. Our work aims at studying Goethe’sreligiosity throughout his life, and in particular in his relationship with Islām.Of all religions Goethe studied and interacted with, Islām is remarkably absentfrom literary critic, yet he elaborated it throughout his life. We will proposea periodisation which divides his relationship with Islām into four stages, inwhich specific religious themes echo (...) in his letters and works, most of whichhave not been pointed out before, such as in the Faust. Finally, we will discussour findings in the context of religious studies scholarship, and approach theissue of what can Goethe suggest for the meaning of a European Islām today. (shrink)

Lady Mary Shepherd argued for distinctive accounts of causation, perception, and knowledge of an external world and God. However, her work, engaging with Berkeley and Hume but written after Kant, does not fit the standard periodisation of early modern philosophy presupposed by many philosophy courses, textbooks, and conferences. This paper argues that Shepherd should be added to the canon as a Scottish philosopher. The practical reason for doing so is that it would give Shepherd a disciplinary home, opening up (...) additional possibilities for research and teaching. The philosophical reason is that her views share certain features characteristic of canonical Scottish philosophers. (shrink)

The common periodisation in Ash‘ari kalām is Ibn Khaldun's distinction between the early and late periods over al-Ghazālī. Although some consider this as an artificial and unrealistic periodisation, we do not think so. For, it is not possible to understand and make sense of the logic and necessity of periodisation without knowing what exactly distinguishes these periods from each other and what kind of great differences and changes occurred in the latter period. The most important factor that (...) distinguishes the theological activities of the two periods is undoubtedly the Peripatetic philosophy that left its mark on the second period. The direct relationship established by the Ash‘ari theologians of the late period with philosophy has been the source of many changes in theology. These changes have manifested themselves in many areas from the understanding of method in theology to the theory of definition, from the use of evidence to the theories of nature, intellect and soul, most importantly from the notion of the Omnipotent God (al-Fā‘il al-Mukhtār) to the metaphysics of possibility-necessity, and from the cosmology of substance-accident to al-umūr al-‘āmma as the main subject-matter of metaphysics. Finally, the changes in the process that started with al-Ghazālī and evolved with Fakhruddīn al-Rāzī brought theology to the brink of philosophization, and at the end of the process, theology turned into a universal (metaphysical) discipline. This situation naturally led to a convergence between the metaphysical thought and theological thought. It is one thing to say that theology is the most honourable and supreme science, and it is another to reveal that it is universal. In this context, al-Ghazālī declared and substituted the Islamic theology as a religious universal discipline for the first time. Actually, this substitution has a hidden philosophical/metaphysical meaning and message. Al-Ghazālī 's characterisation of theology as a universal science can also be interpreted as a challenge to both the sciences of the field it belongs to and the sciences outside itself, with its disciplinary encompassing and priority for theology. It should not be forgotten that theology, while confronting and coming to terms with philosophy and metaphysics, integrating with the subjects it has taken into the field of study, on the other hand, it has to maintain and protect the religious character it belongs to and represents. (shrink)

„Posocializmas“, „pokomunizmas“, „transformacija“ ir kiti semantiškai susiję žodžiai turi laikinumo atspalvį. Akademikai ir politikos formuotojai suvokė, kad šis laikotarpis bus sunkus eiliniams gyventojams. Svarstoma, kad Lietuvoje transformacijos laikotar­pis baigėsi – pavyzdžiui, 2004 m., šaliai įstojus į ES ir NATO. Tačiau nežinome, kada šis laikotarpis pasibaigė žiūrint iš Lietuvos gyventojų perspektyvos (jeigu apskritai pa­sibaigė). Todėl šiame straipsnyje siekiama atsakyti į klausimą, kokie su transformacija susiję periodai arba lūžiai išryškėja (jeigu išryškėja) socialinėje atmintyje. Straipsnyje laikomasi periodo definicijos, pagal kurią jis turi ribas (...) laike ir pavadinimą, suvokiamas kaip homogeniškas. Kokybiniai interviu, 2021 m. vasarą surinkti Panevėžyje, Jonavo­je ir kaimuose aplink šiuos miestus, analizuojami taikant refleksyviąją teminę analizę (RTA). Daroma išvada, kad transformacija yra glaudžiai įsipynusi į dabartinį Nepri­klausomybės laikotarpį. Viena vertus, kai kurie tyrimo dalyviai pasakojo apie „per­ versmo“, „suirutės“ laiką, kartais jį lygino su pokariu. Kita vertus, atmintyje kur kas ryškesnis bendras atkurtos Nepriklausomybės laikotarpis: jis suvokiamas kaip daug­maž homogeniškas laipsniškos kaitos laikas, kurį įmanu palyginti su stambiu periodu prieš esminį lūžį – sovietmečiu. (shrink)

This article aims to contribute to the debate on the short- to medium-term political implications of the 2001 Argentine crisis. The bulk of the argument deals with the criticism of the notion of 'reinvention of politics'. The article presents the theoretical premises and empirical data which sustain this proposal. It is argued that in order to appreciate the political innovation brought about by the events of December 2001, it is important first to consider the political, social and economic forms of (...) capitalist transformations and crises that shaped them. Secondly, to locate this event in historical perspective, as a constitutive node within a non-teleological continuum of resistance. Thirdly, to view capitalist crises as presenting open opportunities for the reinvention of the forms of resistance, and to underscore that reinvention occurs as a result of simultaneous struggles against capital and for self-affirmation and recognition. By using examples of organisational innovation and social intervention by the piquetero movement it is suggested that December 2001 led to new practices or facilitated the development of existing forms of collective action that have often been overlooked by those disappointed by the ensuing political developments. The article also discusses the problem of periodisation, addressing the relationship between Marxism and the use of data produced by non-Marxist researchers, and calls into question the adequacy of Cartesian rationality for understanding December 2001 and the meaning of political change in Argentina. (shrink)

Although her contemporaries considered Willa Cather a traditionalist and thus antimodernist, encouraged by her critical statement that the world “broke in two in 1922 or thereabouts,” recent critical engagements with the author have looked to recover and emphasise her novels’ less obvious modernist tendencies. A snapshot of her writings in and about 1922 complicates both narratives. It is challenging to read Cather’s April Twilights and Other Poems (1923) as modernist in the wider context of 1922’s avant-garde formal innovations. For that (...) reason, it offers a productive vantage point from which to revisit and rethink Cather and many other women writers’ problematic or “backwards” relationship to modernism. Subverting modernism’s emphasis on forward-oriented models of artistic development, Cather’s collection depicts a writer's expanding authorial range, identity, and legacy through careful self-revision. Her conception of artistic development and periodisation at this point was directly influenced by the philosopher Henri Bergson, whose notions of time and “creative evolution” she cited in her 1922 Alexander’s Bridge preface. We argue for April Twilights and Other Poems to be read as an act of literary revisitation, where the temporal interface between older and newer poems conveys modernism’s uneven developments as a story that is told stylistically. Taken as a whole, Cather’s collection narrates the uneven processes through which many women writers responded to unfolding notions of authorship, periodisation, and literary modernity in the early twentieth century. This revisitation thus offers a timely test case of the extent to which modernism can (or cannot) be recognised as form, or approach, or period. (shrink)

This essay examines several works that contribute to an understanding of the nature of contemporary Chinese capitalism and its historical development. Core issues include the character of the bureaucracy, which has had a distinctive relationship to capital formation, and the character of the working class. The periodisation of Chinese capitalism and the relation between the pre- and post-reform periods are pressing political and analytical concerns. This essay suggests the advantages of a clearer focus on the dynamics of depoliticisation in (...) understanding the transition. The contemporary left-intelligentsia in China has in large part pinned its hopes on achieving some form of ideological hegemony within theccp, maintaining that it still operates within its revolutionary tradition. This represents a questionable strategic gamble. Acknowledging the important contributions made by Au’s book and other recent characterisations of China’s political economy from the left, this essay suggests that there remains much to be done. (shrink)

This paper provides one of the many ways of doing historiography, specifically concerning Indian philosophy. After making some general observations on the limitations of a historian and a historiographer in general—it would provide a brief analysis of the historiography of Indian philosophy by looking at the recent attempts at periodization. The development of 'Indian philosophy' as a label to a concept, issues concerning the use of darśana for its representation, and reeking it as a space of strange intellectual landscape by (...) contemporary scholars are discussed subsequently. While using historiography implicitly as a methodological tool, an attempt is made to probe into the contemporary conception of Indian philosophy. Though it doesn’t claim to provide any determinate conclusions regarding either periodization or conceptualization of Indian philosophy, the paper emphasizes the need to probe these concerns further and the need to use a historiographical approach to such a study. (shrink)

Dividing time into separate epochs is fundamental to historical research. However, while periodisations reflect particular interpretations of political, economic, social, and cultural developments, they often rely on the concept of ‘modernity’ as a foundation. This nexus between modernity and periodisation is well-established yet deeply problematic. Pre- or non-modern times and spaces are deemed deficient and backward, as not yet modern. This bias extends to colonial and postcolonial regions, where Western historical paradigms were imposed to interpret political and social realities. (...) Confronting these biases unveils how historians conceptualize space and time and highlights the normative assumptions embedded within different forms of periodisation. However, simply expanding the scope or timeframes of research alone does not address the dilemma. Historians do well to historicise this nexus and develop alternative approaches to writing history. The intricate relationship between periodization and modernity forms the intellectual starting point of this special issue. Originating from dialogues between medieval and modern European history, this issue aims to critically reevaluate classical periodisation models and explore alternative paradigms. By integrating contributions from scholars of medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary European history, this issue bridges previously separated debates, promotes a comprehensive understanding of historical temporalities and challenges established historiographical norms. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to critically examine the model of historization of Ukrainian philos-ophy of the second half of the 20th century proposed by Vasyl Lisovyi in his article «Ukrainian philosophical thought of the 60–80s of the 20th century». The criticism consists of the following points: (1) the formulation of the subject of study in Li-sovyi's article is conceptually and empirically problematic; (2) Lisovyi’s periodisation of Ukrainian philosophy of the 20th century does not reflect the aspects specific (...) to philosophy; (3) the impossibility of representing phenomena, events and significant relations between them within the model due to a number of unjustified simplifications (e.g. ones concerning political and cultural contexts, trends in dialectical-materialist philosophy); (4) due to the schematisation of the period through the confronta-tion of binary oppositions, the model loses the specifics of the processes in the philosophy of that period and is unable to explain the further development of philosophy; (5) the use of temporally and spatially indefinite clichés (e.g. «speculative thinking»). Special attention is paid to Lisovyi's view of the relationship between dialectical materialism and Hegel's philosophy. It is proved that, at least from standpoint of modern Hegelean studies, Hegel's philosophy does not meet the criteria for criticism of dialectical materialist philosophy and "speculative thinking" that Lisovyi puts forward as those that should be inherent in Hegel's own philosophy. To conclude, the author claims that Lisovyi's model cannot be used as a complete working approach in contemporary studies of the history of Ukrainian philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. However, this model presents scholars with two fruitful methodological principles: (1) the principle of "equal safety" / "equal threat"; (2) the principle of balance in evaluating the achievements and losses of philosophy under totalitarianism. Thus, Lisovyi’s model should be considered as an important resource for the current search for an effective model of historicisation of the relevant period. (shrink)

This chapter captures an open discussion about the collaborative work on two defining Miles Davis commercial recordings: 1957’s Miles Ahead with Gil Evans and George Avakian and 1986’s Tutu with Marcus Miller and Tommy LiPuma. Drawing upon the expertise of the authors as a contemporary composer-orchestrator and a popular-music media and cultural researcher, the chapter explores ideas of collaboration, orchestration and the black aesthetic in these seminal recordings. The standard story of jazz genius sits uncomfortably with Davis’ long history of (...) collaboration, and the periodisation of Davis’ career distances the working methods of one historically located recording from another that privilege a grand narrative about decline in Davis’ music. The chapter shows that Davis’ working relationships with both musical orchestrators like Evans and Miller and record company executives Avakian and LiPuma reveal important insights into the way Davis articulated his music through his exploration of a black aesthetic. (shrink)

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems continue their rapid advancement, a framework for contextualising the major transitional phases in the development of machine intellect becomes increasingly vital. This paper proposes a novel chronological classification scheme to characterise the key temporal stages in AI evolution. The Prenoëtic era, spanning all of history prior to the year 2020, is defined as the preliminary phase before substantive artificial intellect manifestations. The Protonoëtic period, which humanity has recently entered, denotes the initial emergence of advanced foundation (...) models exceeding human capacities within specialised domains. The forthcoming Mesonoëtic epoch is anticipated to commence with the advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), potentially facilitated by quantum computing capabilities. Ultimately, the Kainonoëtic age is posited to begin upon the rise of superintelligent systems, likely catalysed by an AGI undergoing recursive self-improvement. This novel period taxonomy provides a structured conceptualisation for the key milestones in the evolution towards advanced artificial intellect. This classification framework offers significant value across various disciplines, researchers and stakeholders in the AI landscape, by providing a clearly defined chronological nomenclature. AI policy-makers and regulators will find it instrumental in crafting stage-appropriate policy and legal interventions. Scientists and academics will benefit from a standardised terminology in the approach to AI periodisation, facilitating unambiguous communication and collaborative research. Finally, this proposed taxonomy can serve as an accessible tool for public understanding, offering a clearer roadmap of AI development that can inform open discourse and decision-making. (shrink)

‘Creative Involution’ posits something of a philosophical genealogy, a line of flight that has neither need for nor interest in the periodisation of Modernism, a line of which Beckett (even reluctantly) is part. Murphy, among others, is deterritorialised as much as Beckett's landscapes are, and so he/they become a ‘complexification’ of being that manifests itself in Beckett not as represented, representative or a representation, since so much of Beckett deals with that which cannot be uttered, known or represented, but (...) whose image the works (and its figures) have become, a thinking through of negativity, becoming, and multiplicity through non-Newtonian motion, of being as becoming, where every movement brings something new into the world, but in something of a reverse Darwinism that moves from complex to simple organism, from Murphy to Worm, or Watt to Pim, or among the nameless figures in the short prose, a ‘becoming-animal’, in something not so much of a creative devolution but rather a ‘neoevolution’, or to adopt another term from Deleuze and Guattari, an ‘involution’, which ‘is in no way confused with regression’ (1987: 238), becomings creating nothing less than new worlds. Writing casually to his post-war confidant Georges Duthuit on 26 July 1951, Beckett noted in the midst of gardening chores, ‘Never seen so many butterflies in such worm-state, this little central cylinder, the only flesh, is the worm’ (2011: 271). The observation comes after the writing but before the premiere performance of Waiting for Godot in which Gogo tells Didi, ‘You and your landscapes! Tell me about the worms!’ (1954: 67). Such ‘becoming-animal always involves a pack, a band, a population, a peopling, in short a multiplicity’ (1987: 239), Deleuze and Guattari tell us. For Beckett it defines creativity as well, only possible through such un-tethered selves or beings, amid the generation of varieties and differences, accessible through moments of deterritorialisation, characterised by, ‘A fearsome involution calling us toward unheard-of becomings’ (240). (shrink)

This paper will investigate patterns of historical periodisation with regard to public intellectual work. It will begin with a focus on educational studies and with a specific case study of the Centre for Applied Research in Education (CARE) at the University of East Anglia. The case study will highlight the roles of leading public intellectuals such as Lawrence Stenhouse and explore the genre of applied research. The notion of applied research in education explicitly sought to connect the project of (...) public education and social justice with research which was applied to these projects In this way, in an idealised form, the public intellectual and applied researcher would offer aid and sustenance, which would enhance and energise the overall project of public education for all By exploring a case study of an institution and the associated research genre I hope to elucidate the relationship between educational studies and the public intellectual and also to examine the changing prospects for such work over different historical periods. Part of the task is to delineate the changing ‘windows of opportunity’ for public intellectual work. And as we shall see, Brief Encounters are a reasonable characterisation of such patterns of possibility Using the case study as an entry point the paper goes on to discuss broader questions about public intellectuals’ prospects. These questions are embedded in the discussion of some of the work of Sandel on market societies, and Applebaum on changing patterns of democratic engagement. The paper concludes with a commentary on contemporary and future prospects for public intellectual engagement. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the intellectual output of the internees held captive as ‘enemy aliens’ on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. Looking at their interactions with local and national knowledge communities, including some Methodist priests who were responsible for introducing the internees to British political culture, it analyses how the social environment of internment created common intellectual experiences, which in turn led members of this involuntary community of displaced German-speaking scholars to form particular conceptions of (...) Englishness in the postwar era. This case study is placed in the context of wider debates about periodisation, the relationship between land-based, oceanic and other site-specific perspectives on the British Isles, as well as the entanglements between liberty and encampment in European and global contexts. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Millennium Jahrgang: 13 Heft: 1 Seiten: 37-40.

José Victorino Lastarria (1817–1888) was one of Chile's leading nineteenth-century pensadores, or public intellectuals in the tradition of the French philosophes. In a first synthesis of Latin American political thought, published in 1965, Leopoldo Zea considered him to be a prime example of a romantic liberal who gradually adopted positivist ideas, and this has remained the prevailing scholarly opinion. However, a closer look at Lastarria's intellectual trajectory shows that such a periodisation is too simplistic and underestimates the plurality and (...) authenticity of the region's political thought within the broader context of Western European liberal culture. (...) The author argues that Karl Krause’s spiritualism and practical social theory moderated both Lastarria’s doctrinaire liberalism during the 1840s and his Comtean positivism from the late 1860s. All his life, Lastarria remained a liberal, both capitalised and with regard to his unshakable belief in his people’s intellectual emancipation and the need for constitutionally guaranteed individual rights. The Chilean’s journey from a spiritual liberalism to a Krauso-Positivism, united by libertarian ideals, proved to be emblematic for cultural and political nation-builders who would follow him in other countries of the region at the end of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

This chapter provides a synthesis of the ‘Reformation of Common Learning’, which progressively developed from Peter Ramus’s pedagogy in the mid-sixteenth century to the work of the Moravian Comenius in the mid-seventeenth. The essay stretches the traditional periodisation and disciplinary boundaries often applied to reformation studies. By implication, it calls into question the understanding of a seventeenth-century ‘post-reformation’ era, a point underscored by mid-seventeenth-century writers such as Milton who spoke of reform as a continuous process. The wider intellectual currents (...) that were contemporaneous to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theological developments become essential to understanding the reception of reformation. (shrink)

Marxist notions of the origins of capitalism are still largely structured by the famous debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. This essay suggests that that tradition of historiography locates capitalism too late and sees it in essentially national terms. It argues that capitalism began, on a European scale, in the important transformations that followed the great revival of the eleventh century and the role played by mercantile élites in innovating new forms of business organisation. However, with this starting (...) point, it becomes important to bring Islam into the picture in a central way, since the Mediterranean was the common heritage of many cultural and religious groups. Islam shaped the tradition of early capitalism both by preserving monetary economy and through its own precocious development of the partnership form. The essay periodises this early capitalism into a 'Mediterranean' and an 'Atlantic' phase, and concludes by looking briefly at the ways in which merchants dominate labour. (shrink)

This article is a response by the author to the contributions to the Historical Materialism symposium on Allegory and Ideology. The reply is framed in terms of the different theoretical strategies through which the articulation of ‘Marx’ and ‘Freud’ has been carried out, namely the precarious syntheses of Freudo-Marxism, the homological method pioneered by Lucien Goldmann, and the theory of allegorical levels and transcoding explored in Allegory and Ideology. It critically engages with the openings and challenges posed by the various (...) contributions to the symposium, focusing in particular on matters of periodisation, and concluding with a reflection on how a theory of allegorical levels can be complemented by a materialist understanding of the ‘category’. (shrink)

This essay surveys 50 years of essays and books by art historian Terry Smith, arguing that his encounters with conceptual art and Australian Aboriginal art inform a concept of contemporaneity that has emerged in his writing in the twenty-first century as a description of the historical zeitgeist. The rise of contemporary art since the 1990s enables a thinking about a state of contemporaneity that describes a coevality of difference across geographies and states of duration. These durations correspond to the vast (...) inequalities and irreconcilabilities of global life, the ontological and material strata by which capital implicates human beings across nations, times and spaces. While modernity and postmodernity were periodising concepts that emerged from combinations of economics, literary studies, sociology and geography, contemporaneity arises from art history. The discipline's phenomenal methods, its attention to sensual and visual experience, makes it ideal for thinking about the mediated experience of the twenty-first century. (shrink)

Modernity, that amorphous and perhaps unhappy creation of periodisation, is both a mystery and a problem (in the sense of providing exis...

Sartre remains an exemplary case for the sociology of intellectuals because of the unique way that he combined a prominent role in public life with achievements as a philosopher, novelist and playwright. Sartre's success has been examined by Patrick Baert through the lens of his theory of positioning, according to which specific actions and events serve to give a writer the edge in unfolding social games of recognition. This article argues that Baert's scepticism about Sartre's motives spills over into unwarranted (...) cynicism and that this is made possible by methodological ambiguity surrounding the role of intentions in positioning theory. Baert's narrow periodisation of Sartre's success, and his insinuation that in the immediate post-occupation period Sartre betrayed his earlier philosophical ideas in pursuit of public attention are both rejected. At the same time the discussion finds that, detached from Baert's negative interpretation of Sartre, the idea of positioning may have potential for further development. (shrink)

There has long been a tension in Fredric Jameson’s work regarding the extent to which it is possible or warranted to develop transhistorical categories for literary interpretation across of the whole of the capitalist mode of production. In my contribution to this symposium, I take up the problem of how Jameson’s Allegory and Ideology participates in such questions in its consideration of periodisation and narrativisation through the particular construction of allegory, from the early modern age to our financial present.

Volume 10, Issue 1, March 2019, Page 85-90.

ABSTRACT: In this article, we propose an alternative Foucauldian reading of Martin Luther’s thought and early Lutheranism. Michel Foucault did not mention the Reformation often, although he saw it as an amplification of pastoral power and the governing of people’s everyday lives. We aim to fill the gap in his analysis by outlining the disciplinary and biopolitical aspects in Luther and early Lutheranism. Therefore, we also contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the birth of biopolitics, which, we argue, predates Foucault’s (...) periodisation. Our approach to tackling these questions is three-pronged. First, we establish the context by highlighting a few Reformation-era examples of the conceptual opposite of biopower, namely, sovereign power. Second, we scrutinise the disciplinary aspects of early Lutheranism, underscoring the fact that disciplinary institutions appear to subject people to new models of behaviour. Third, we describe the biopolitical under-currents in Luther’s thought and its early reception. We argue that the reformer’s views on issues such as marriage and poor relief appear to carry a biopolitical significance before the alleged birth of biopolitics. (shrink)

How should we conceptualise a philosophical tradition retrospectively defined and continuously shaped by contemporary scholarship? This paper addresses this philosophy-of-historiography question by focusing on Xuanxue, a significant yet underdeveloped domain of Chinese philosophy centered on the corpus of the Wei-Jin (魏晉) Period (220–589 CE) and beyond. Scholarly conceptions of Xuanxue have long been bound by entrenched themes, the ‘Daoist’ label, and rigid periodisation. In contrast, this paper situates Xuanxue within both its historical milieu and the context of ongoing modern (...) interpretations. Drawing heuristically from Wang Bi’s (王弼, 226–249 CE) conceptual interdependence between Name (ming 名) and Actual Situation (shi 實), I propose a new method (HPE) for evaluating Xuanxue conceptions with three criteria: Historical embeddedness, Plurality, and Evolvingness. This research thus offers a philosophically reflexive model for Xuanxue studies and the broader field of cross-cultural philosophy, demonstrating how ancient traditions can be engaged as dynamic intellectual projects. (shrink)

In Russia, philosophy of religion, likewise religious studies, only managed to claim their name, let alone their right for self-realisation, as late as the early 1990s. The article represents an attempt to elicit the maximum possible number of primary methodological accounts, conceptual divergences and discussions pertaining to both the domain of understanding and that of studying the phenomenon of religion and the variety of religious expression, as well as methods of establishing the actual interdisciplinary relations between religious studies and the (...) philosophy of religion, with their disciplinary scope defined, on the one hand, and contiguous scientific disciplines and worldview discourses on the other. (shrink)

Responding to the provocative phrase ‘The Age of Grammatology’, I propose to question the notion of ‘age’, and to interrogate the powers or forces, the dynameis or dynasties attached to the interpretative model of historical periodisation. How may we think the undeniable actuality of the event beyond the sempiternal history of ages, and beyond the traditional, onto-teleological chain of power, possibility, force or dynamis that undergirds such history?

In “Wittgenstein on Grammar, Theses and Dogmatism,” Peter Hacker addresses what he takes to be misconceptions of Wittgenstein's philosophy with respect to (1) the periodisation of his thought and to what should properly be counted as part of his work; (2) his conception of grammar since the Big Typescript (1929–33); and (3) his conception of philosophy as grammatical investigation. I argue that Hacker's restrictive conception of what ought to be considered part of Wittgenstein's philosophy and his conservative view of (...) Wittgensteinian grammar are unjustified and prevent him from appreciating the revolutionary importance of On Certainty for epistemology. Finally, while agreeing that Wittgenstein views philosophy as grammatical elucidation, I suggest some reasons for the resistance that this view has generated. In “Wittgenstein on Grammar, Theses and Dogmatism,” Peter Hacker deals with three of the “many misunderstandings, misrepresentations and misinterpretations of Wittgenstein's philosophy” (2012, 1); the first of which concerns “the periodisation of Wittgenstein's thought”; the second, the supposition that what Wittgenstein called “grammar” in PI differed fundamentally from, and was more limited than, his conception of it when he was writing the Big Typescript; and the third, the claim that what Wittgenstein took to be grammatical statements are, in fact, dogmatisms, theories or doctrines inconsistent with his meta‐philosophical remarks in PI. I address each of these concerns seriatim. (shrink)

The text was originally a conference speech. In principle, it was prepared for teachers of philosophy and people interested in philosophy, therefore it has the character of an essay and only to a small extent refers to the literature of the subject. However, I am deeply convinced of the validity of the thesis that I propose in it, even if they may seem only to a small extent supported by references to the state of research. -/- Synthetical studies take a (...) special place in the research on the history of ancient philosophy. They demonstrate the existing perspective by performing a selection and arrangement of the material, presenting the periodisation, accentuating and determining what is “philosophically significant.” This article points out that despite the great progress made in detailed research that has taken place over the last few decades, the general framework of development of philosophy, derived from Hegel’s thought, has remained unchanged for two centuries. Hegel’s perspective has instilled a certain pattern that encompasses a whole series of debatable solutions. These include (1) development of a certain understanding of what “philosophy” is and thus separating it from a wide spectrum of literature, rhetoric, medicine, and religion; (2) introduction of a dubious periodisation (e.g. the distinction between the Presocratic period and Socrates’ breakthrough in the form of a departure from the philosophy of nature and return to ethical considerations; (3) adoption of philosophy of Plato and Aristotle as the apex of thought. The author highlights the need to change the approach to the history of ancient philosophy and modify the existing paradigm. He calls for paying greater attention to the intertextual element and to the fact that the assessment of originality and relevance of preserved works is falsified due to the disappearance of comparative material. The proposal to establish a new reconstructive paradigm is based on the belief that during further research on ancient philosophy it would be advisable (1) to expand the research perspective and enrich it with the fields of education, medicine, the great sphere of literature, the spheres of fine arts and music, (2) to focus more on the issue of transmission and reception of texts thanks to which it is possible to deepen and extend the reconstructed context of philosophical discussions, (3) to come to the realisation that the abstract character of description, connected with all the syntheses of the philosophical thought in antiquity lead to its oversimplification and impoverishment by presenting it out of the context and depriving of what is individual and specific for a particular thinker. (shrink)

This paper develops the arguments in a previous paper on periodisation in comparative historical contexts by the same author in BJES (vol.42, no.3, September 1994, pp. 261-272).

This paper examines some of the problems of periodisation that arise in attempts to compare historical developments in the education systems of two or more countries.

The source basis of the article is composed of pope John Paul’s II encyclicals – Laborem exercens (1981), Solicitudo rei socialis (1987), Centesimus annus (1991), Fides et ratio (1998), the Apostle’s Letter Tertio Millennio adveniente (1994) as well as the interview with priest cardinal Karol Wojtyla given to Vittorio Possenti on 21st of June 1978 in Mediolan. I shall separate the following issues:1) relations of concepts: social teaching of the Church, social doctrine of the Church and catholic social teaching; 2) (...) relation theory – practice from the point of view of social doctrine of the Church; 3) social doctrine of the Church versus ideology; 4) in what sense may we talk about the historism of social doctrine of the Church?; 5) periodisation of the development of social doctrine of the Church. (shrink)

The concepts of globalisation and of neoliberalism are symptomatic of the transformations which have taken place in the way the question of social critique has been addressed. The contemporary period has witnessed the emergence of a protocol of social analysis in which political inquiry is linked to historical diagnosis, drawing on the categories of historical periodisation and of economic analysis. The debate is thus, to a certain degree, shifted to the terrain of Marxism. As for the latter, it is (...) confronted with a new set of theoretical and political challenges. (shrink)

The history of Darwinism has been reconstructed and interpreted by historians, philosophers, and biologists. This could be seen as a pluralistic view of history. However, in the field of biology, a version of Darwinism privileged from an anachronistic perspective, mainly based on works of authors such as Ernst Mayr, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins has been defended. Historically, this tradition has emphasised the “scientific” elements of Charles Darwin’s proposal to the detriment of an authentic understanding of these ideas’ development (...) in the context of Victorian England. This vision has resulted in the philosophical and social implications of Victorian science being uncritically taken up by biologists in their continued defence of Darwin’s role in contemporary biology.Against this background, in recent years there has been an increased effort to revise the grand narratives that have guided the study of the history of evolutionary biology and the resulting historiographies. In this regard, our contribution focuses on the visual metaphor of the “tree” of life. It is in our interest to study the ontological and epistemological commitments that systematists have with this image, given the recent discussion on whether this figure is indeed the best representation of the evolutionary process.In this essay we turn our attention, not to the current scientific, historical, and philosophical debates about the Tree of Life, but to the tree as a concept and tradition for having entailed distinct epistemic and ontological commitments in the different periodisations of evolutionary biology, such as the Darwinian Revolution, the Modern Synthesis, and novel proposals, that need to be examined. (shrink)

Rendering a model of medieval “Diagrammatic Eloquence” characterises a broader interpretation of scientific and philosophical figurative production, reflecting on the visual discourse and its theoretical framework within the context of the liberal arts. A remarkable example is the use of diagrams to simulate the spatiotemporal conception of nature, revealing the sequence of time, the observer’sspatial positions and the experience of physical phenomena. Some visualisations are truly “mental experiments” disseminated in different language contexts and recovered by diverse sources. That model appeals (...) to “Eloquence” because it develops a perspective on visual discourse based on the medieval division of sciences andthe experience of nature, involving argumentative approaches on the principles of knowledge. Each discipline of the liberal arts employed visual tools and wasrepresented in images that included allusions to the observation of nature and its relationship to logical and metaphysical notions that explained physical motion. The first available data on time sequences was the movement of the sun and moon, which marked the periodisation of sacred calendars. Gathering astronomical phenomena according to their relations with time and motion was represented through circles and tables. Those diagrams, as powerful visual tools, were complex figures applied by other disciplines, such as ethics, theology, and logic, which used circles to represent and compile conceptual relationships. The volvelles, or dynamic circles, that represented the temporal sequences of physical movements, became diagrammatic models for other disciplines, which used them as vehicles for theoretical explanations. In these, visual perception and conceptual hypotheses shaped premodern demonstrative science, highlighting the power of visualisation in schematizing our understanding of physical phenomena. (shrink)

In 2018, the first full year of the Trump presidency, it became abundantly clear that the transatlantic relationship had entered a period of intense discord, causing a series of pessimistic reports and commentary in the mainstream Anglo-American media. With this as the starting point, the article re-examines the study of the ‘transatlantic’ as a region. It engages with thinking of time (periodisation), space (scale), and discipline (methodology) in order to question standard assumptions and open up new avenues for research, (...) identity-formation, and emancipatory commitment. (shrink)

This article shines light on the interconnectedness of reproductive labour and Latin American literature through two Chilean novels that explore the relationship between peripheral capitalism and domestic servitude: José Donoso's The Obscene Bird of Night and Diamela Eltit's Mano de Obra. The study of these texts allows for a periodisation of the reproductive sphere under different phases of capitalist accumulation, and exposes an association between the literary treatment of domestic service and the achievement of highly experimental narratives in Latin (...) America. My reading of Obscene goes beyond viewing this novel as postmodernist fiction, by showing how its nightmarish poetics are a consequence of the transformation of the oligarchic household vis-a-vis the collapse of systems of bonded labour in the 1960s. Whereas the prose of Obscene provides a harrowing descent into the intimate connections between master and servant at the moment of their decline, Mano de Obra unveils a surgical prose capable of expressing the new impersonality of social reproduction in the subsequent neoliberal period. Of special interest to this analysis is how Eltit suggests that even the proletariat household can recreate exploitative patterns of domestic servitude to guard against complete immiseration. Three main conclusions result from this reading. First, Latin American fiction is an important literary archive from which capitalism's exploitation of the reproductive sphere can be excavated. Second, Latin American literature shows formal uniqueness when representing domestic service in the periphery. Lastly, fictional representations of domestic service help us understand the institution not as remnant of previous modes of production, but as capitalist strategy for the reproduction of social forces that underpay the cost of life-making processes. (shrink)

This article recognises that any attempt to theorise the first wave globally must specify the use of the term ‘global’, so as not to elide the specificity of local differences, and must critically account for how feminist struggles among postcolonial, indigenous women are intertwined with a resistance to a history of colonialism and racial domination. While more than a demand for equal access to the symbolic order on the basis of gender alone, Western feminists must study carefully the cultural and (...) gender implications of work by indigenous women in postcolonial contexts which do not easily fit into familiar theoretical paradigms that mimic the development of Western feminism, given the heterosexist biases of Western feminism historically. To what extent does the very form of historicisation of feminist struggles in the West repeat the colonising gesture when attempting to historicise the struggles of women in postcolonial contexts where the three waves of feminism as an organising framework, however loosely constructed, are transplanted to locations where they did not emerge historically? Through an examination of feminist work coming out of southern Africa, the article argues how attention to affective and erotic bonds between women in Lesotho provides a critical response to the heterosexist biases of African cultural nationalism, as well as to the colonising tendencies of feminist and queer enquiry in the West that do not account for the primacy of the performativity of sexual expression rather than its discursive naming as a precise sexual identity. The article concludes by asking for a reconceptualisation of the temporality of feminism not limited to its periodisation in the West, but informed by the specificities of feminist struggles locally and globally, including erotic autonomy as a viable praxis of decolonisation and a heightened self-reflexivity about the imperialist gestures guiding the production of (feminist) history and scholarship. (shrink)

This special issue of Isonomia showcases a selection of papers presented at the Triennial Conference of the SILFS (Italian Association for Logic and Philosophy of Sciences) held at the University of Urbino on 4-7 September 2023. A capital event in the association’s life, the Triennial Conference also represents a unique venue for researchers in the field to present their work, share their ideas, and interact with the larger community of scholars, as well as with unusually wide audiences of academics and (...) non-academics. Then, as happens very frequently, the quality and originality of the papers presented encourages the organisers to output a volume of proceedings, and this has also been the case this time. The topics addressed by the authors mainly revolve around five research clusters: 1) cognitive sciences and AI (ACCIAI, ALFIERI-FLERES-RAFFA, BIANCHINI, GALLI), 2) general philosophy of science (ALAI, CRUPI, MARCACCI), 3) philosophy of physics (FANO, GIANNETTO, ROMANO), 4) philosophy of mathematics (PICCOLOMINI D’ARAGONA), 5) the philosophy of other sciences (CARLINI). But this classification, done for internal purposes, is far from being exhaustive and definitive, as several papers will also meet the descriptors for more than one cluster. This is hardly surprising, given the deeply interdisciplinary character of the issues tackled by the authors in their contributions. As editors of this collection, we pride ourselves on having selected works that reflect researchers’ unwavering interest in the discipline’s core topics (scientific reasoning, prediction and confirmation, paradigms, the philosophy of relativity and of quantum mechanics) as well as works on topics arising in nascent, but already thriving, areas such as the philosophy of AI and environmental philosophy. Overall, we believe that the contributions in this volume testify to the vitality of our disciplines, and to their constant evolution, in a way which is not always, if ever, made perceptible by other kinds of scientific publications. In what follows, we describe in further detail the contents of each contribution. Vincenzo Crupi’s paper, Logical predictivism: How to fix use-novelty and vindicate the Copernican Revolution, challenges the claim that the gradual preference for Copernicanism over the Ptolemaic system was the consequence of ‘epistemic luck’. Through introducing a view called logical predictivism, hinged, in turn, on a re-evaluation of the notion of ‘use-novelty’, Crupi maintains that there are solid grounds to assert that, in fact, Copernicus’ views instantiated a more sound and successful scientific methodology than Ptolemy’s. In his article, Mercury’s perihelion anomaly as a use-novel confirmation of general relativity, Vincenzo Fano reassesses the notion of ‘use-novel onfirmation (prediction)’ in philosophy of science by reviewing Alai’s definition of the concept and using Mercury’s perihelion anomaly in general relativity as a case study. Fano argues that, although Mercury’s perihelion anomaly fits quite well with Alai’s rendition of the notion, not all aspects of Einstein’s reasoning about, and use of, Mercury’s perihelion example straightforwardly and automatically fall under the criteria laid out by Alai. With Flavia Marcacci’s paper, Novel “Old Facts”, Old “Novel Facts” and the Periodisation as an Epistemological Practice, we go back to the issue of the nature and essence of the Copernican revolution. Marcacci crucially argues that the debate on how much the latter thrived on the use of facts, be they “old” or “new”, is considerably restructured by carefully looking at the periodisation of the discoveries of the relevant pieces of evidence, a fact hardly taken into account, and one should add, almost invariably neglected, by the debate in the last few decades. Enrico Giannetto’s Whitehead’s Relational Special Relativity. A Natural Philosophy of Time discusses a reformulation of Einstein’s special relativity due to Alfred North Whitehead. A vigorous opponent of the belief in the independent reality of space-time, Whitehead construed physical reality originally as being based on a succession of temporal events, something which ultimately led him to produce the purely relational version of special relativity discussed in the paper. Mario Alai reviews various objections to the No-Miracle Argument (NMA) and the refinements it has undergone in order to fend them. A recent objection is that, when put in a probabilistic form, the argument commits the “base-rate fallacy”: that the probability of a startling novel prediction is antecedently very low, but very high in the light of a hypothesis H, does not significantly raise the conditional probability of H. This is because, given the empirical underdetermination of hypotheses, the prior probability that H is true is negligible. Alai answers that the prior probability of hypotheses is not negligible, because in science they are not chosen randomly, but gradually generated bottom-up with strong empirical constraints and rigorous top-down controls. Antonio Piccolomini d’Aragona’s paper, A note on a Kuhnian-Lakatosian reading of the debate between realism and constructivism in logic, aims to offer a new account of the opposition between constructivism and realism in mathematics. The former is taken by Piccolomini to instantiate Lakatos’ notion of “research programme”, whilst the latter seems to better fit in with Kuhn’s notion of “paradigm”. This helps the author to bring to the fore the main conceptual opposition between these two philosophical orientations, namely, between the rigidity of realism and the flexibility of constructivism. The paper also contains an examination of the issue, central to both the Lakatosian and the Kuhnian approach, whether “revolutions” really take place in mathematics. In Getting Even with Cognitive Science, Alessandro Acciai and Alessio Plebe probe the epistemological stakes of importing the methods of empirical psychology to study Neural Language Models (NLMs). They argue that borrowing methods from experimental psychology can be useful to carry out the investigation of NLMs’ “minds”, and, as a consequence, also to advance the study of mind, in general. In Robots and Global Challenges: What We Need to Question for a More Sustainable Robotics, Ilaria Alfieri, Antonio Fleres and Maria Raffa reframe the notion of sustainability in robotics through taking into consideration three fundamental questions concerning the environmental and social dimensions of robots. More specifically, the authors challenge prevailing assumptions about robotic embodiment, assess active inference as a computational framework for more sustainable implementations, and consider ethical concerns through the lens of social robotics for sustainability. Francesco Bianchini’s paper, Evaluating and measuring intelligence in Neural Language Models: a methodological approach, proposes a new methodological approach to assessing AI systems – especially LLMs – in the context of user interaction. The paper also raises fundamental questions about AI evaluation and the development of new analytical frameworks for AI systems which may focus on their capabilities and on the theoretical and practical grounds for classifying them as intelligent. Stefano Carlini’s, Umwelt and cities: Explanatory and Pragmatic Usefulness, uses Jakob von Uexküll’s notion of Umwelt to assess the impact of urbanization on cities. The author first presents the “selectionist” and the “constructionist” interpretations of the concept, then proceeds to show that both integrate into the notion of urban ecology and finally clarifies how this integration is useful to understand urban fauna’s behaviour. Carlini’s proposal also has practical consequences, insofar as it aims to formulate strategies of intervention for the management of urban species. Giovanni Galli’s article, Scientific Realism and Understanding with Deep Learning Models, examines the value of scientific realism in the context of the use of deep learning models (DLMs) for scientific understanding. The author defends a deployment realism framework: when AI models are reliable and accurate in practice, their success justifies a belief in the reality of the entities and processes they predict. Galli also advocates the role of AlphaFold DLMs as powerful tools for scientific inquiry, and claims that their ability to “understand” may merely be a consequence of their predictive power. Davide Romano, in Multi-Field as a determinable, defends the view that the multi-field – a realist interpretation of the wave function in quantum mechanics – is a determinable, namely, a physical object characterized by indeterminate values with respect to some properties. The paper then proceeds to suggest that the multi-field can also be characterized in terms of a determinable-based, object-level, account of metaphysical indeterminacy. (shrink)

Alain Badiou’s theory of the subject has consistently opposed a vision of History as meaning and totality, for the sake of an internal, subjective and discontinuous grasp of the periodisation of political “sequences.” This article examines the theoretical trajectory that leads Badiou to dislocate the historical dialectic, generating a comprehension of political time which is no longer bound to an ordered matrix of expression and development; it also considers Badiou’s relation tovarious strands of anti-humanist anti-historicism and tackles the theoretical (...) tensions that inhere in his disjunction of nature and history. The article concludes by discussing the effect of Badiou’s notion of periodisation on the very historicity and mutability of his own philosophical apparatus, and the immanent threat posed to his thinking of the event by an ‘absolute historicism.’. (shrink)