Actual Course Of Events Research Articles

The “Triumph of Neoliberalism” Reconsidered: Critical Remarks on Ideas-Centered Analyses of Political and Economic Change in Post-Communism

This article offers a critical discussion of a widely popular ideas-centered interpretation of transformative processes in post-communism: the view that during the 1990s, politics in Eastern Europe was completely dominated by a particular ideology, neoliberalism, and hence observable patterns of socioeconomic change are best explained in terms of the impact of a set of ideas disseminated by international financial institutions and eagerly implemented by local elites. More often than not, such ideational analytical accounts rest on simplistic assumptions about elite behavior, demonstrably inaccurate depictions of the actual course of events in various East European countries, and acontextual forms of theorizing. The article concludes with a plea for novel approaches to the study of the role of ideas in post-communist politics, approaches that avoid the risks inherent in efforts to force evidence from the former socialist countries into preexisting “grand narratives” about the historical essence of the contemporary era.

Master of the Seas? Herbert Hoover and the Western Fisheries

Joseph E. TaylorIII Master of the Seas? Herbert Hooverandthe Western Fisheries erBert Hoover has been a slippery historical figure. He has been caricatured as the savior of Belgium or the man who sicced Douglas MacArthur on the Bonus March ers, and mythic images of him run the gamut from Great Humanitarian to bloodless misanthrope. Hoover remains a challenge to historians, however, because most Americans prefer these distortions. Po litically speaking, cardboard Hoovers are more useful for lionizing or damning policies without offeringmuch useful explanation for the actual course of events. Meanwhile, scholars divine Hoover primarily through his philosophies and context? that is, they tend to know Hoover more bywhat he said than bywhat he did and more as an exemplar of Republi can ideals and policies during the 1920s than as an individual trying to wield power. It is as though words mattered more than deeds and party more than politician. This is a poor way to understand Hoover and his times. Rather than seeing him as a grand architect or a bit player, we should view him as one ofmany actors, all of whom were significantly constrained by institutional, social, and environmental forces. One way to recapture the complexity and contradictions ofHoover's circumstances is to examine his management of the fisheries in thewestern United States during his tenure as commerce secretary during the 1920s.1 Although Hoover has been popularly portrayed as a conservation leader and champion of science, his legacy is more complex. He did tryto regulate business innew ways, but his fisheries policies more often echoed those of earlier conservationists. Even so, few historians consider Hoover a Progressive conservationist.2 In the historiography, progressive vies with laissez-faire fundamentalist, associationalist, and proto-New Dealer.3 His OHQ vol. 105, no. 1 ? 2004 Oregon Historical Society OHS neg.,CN 011502 Herbert Hoover, shown here on Oregons McKenzie River in July 1953,was an avid, life-long angler. He served as honorary president of the Izaak Walton League during the 1920s and wrote A Remedy for Disappearing Game Fishers, published in 1930, to advocate for game fish conservation. His management of the United States Bureau of Fisheries while he was secretary of commerce gave him oversight of industrial fisheries, the complexity and conten tiousness ofwhich he never fully grasped. torians' lack of consensus in this regard seems less a function of indecision or partisanship than of Hoover's protean actions. The philosophies of Hoover, Congress, and the presidential administrations during the 1920s did encourage policies that deemphasized governmental regulation of in dustries, but environmental contingencies and industry conflicts often forced less than orthodox responses.4 There is no simple way to explain how Hoover actually governed based on a deductive reading of his ideals or a Republican party platform. Similarly, although Hoover's reputation as a champion of science meshes well with his image as theGreat Engineer, a study of his oversight of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (USBF) exposes critical nuances in his conception of the proper use of science. Not all science was equal inhis eyes, and the ensuing discrepancies inbureau prac tices, largely shaped by Hoover's engineering bias for practical and ap plied approaches, made for an uneven and expensive legacy of govern ment fishery science.5 The effect of Hoover's policies on thewestern fisheries was problem atic. Paralleling his efforts to fix industries that he characterized as "sick," such as bituminous coal and lumber, Hoover tried to protect fish,mold Taylor,Master of the Seas? 41 scientific studies, and reorganize industry through an associationalist ap proach that sought what historian David Kennedy calls "a spontaneously mutualistic society inhabited by virtuous, public-spirited citizens."6 Hoover fervently wanted to reduce the size of government, and he be lieved thatmany of itsduties could be delegated to responsible members of private industry. In the fisheries, however, his efforts did not somuch create new solutions as elaborate and exacerbate existing trends.Most of the policies, legislation, and treaties that he supported followed ruts that were well worn by the time he arrived in Washington, D.C.; and because he changed little, little changed in thewestern fisheries. Hoover did help rationalize some production and distribution sectors...

The patient's narrative of suffering: a path to health?

The aim of this interpretative research synthesis was to develop a theoretical understanding of how a narrative approach in a caring conversation enables the patient to understand and find meaning in suffering, and how this in turn may be a path to health. The material consisted of 23 articles published between 1990 and 1997 in caring and nursing journals. The synthesis is summed up in a model for narrative understanding in a caring conservation consisting of three phases in which the patient is encouraged:(i) to tell stories describing why the suffering has come about, how things are at present, and what is wanted and needed; (ii)to make up a narrative of suffering that follows the actual course of events; and (iii) to reconnect to their life history, that is to reflect on the point or lesson to be learned in order to achieve a new wholeness. The model may be linked with and used in the clinical setting, and it also raises questions for further research in the area of communication in health care.

Facilities Automation on a Major University Campus: Evolution of a Utilities Management System for More than 200 Buildings

This article deals with the considerations of installing and operating a Facilities Automation System on a major university campus. It addresses a variety of issues, from the basic questions of what the system requirements are, to examples of what was actually done on one campus. This system is used more than a building automation system-it is becoming a Utilities Management system. This article is written from the perspective of the building owner, the facilities management team faced with the challenges of putting an appropriate system in place and then using it to deliver results. It also addresses the reality that technology is advancing, and addresses the transition from a 1970's vintage system to a system that can carry us into the 21st century. It poses issues to consider, and then it uses the actual course of events to illustrate one real world example.

Counterfactuals and access points

Common sense suggests that counterfactuals are capable of truth and falsity, and that their truth values depend on more than just the actual course of events. Projectivists, like Mackie, deny the first; reductivists, like Lewis, deny the second. I criticize Mackie's and Lewis's theories, thereby defending realism. There are parallel issues and positions concerning the other concepts of the natural necessity family. A realist theory may also have a positive part, consisting of an account of some of the conceptual relations within this family. I try to cast light on the counterfactual by postulating a relation of accessibility between possible worlds - accessibility at the 'point' at which an event occurs.

Comment les Mèdes ont raconté leur histoire : l’épopée d’Arbacès et le Médikos Logos d’Hérodote

Arbaces’ epic, the Median history of Ctesias until Niniveh’ fall (Diod. Sic. II 1, 21 and 23-28), and Herodotus’ Mêdikos Logos (I 95-105) are two legends used by the Medes to explain their victory over Assyria in 612 B.C. The actual course of events is changed in them by themes (i.e. the conquest of kingship in the epic, the succession of empires in the logos), which give the historical dimension and the explanation of the victory : the Median kingship, which fights for arta, had to wrest the dominion over Upper Asia from the Assyrians. If they give little information about the Medes’ past, these legends are of great import in order to understand their conception of kingship.

Adverbials of Aspectual Focus and Negation in Dutch

Abstract. In this paper two paradigms of four Dutch adverbials are discussed, the first consisting of al ('already'), al niet meer ('already no longer'), nog altijd ('still always'), and nog altijd niet ('still always not'), the second of eindelijk ('finally'), eindelijk niet meer ('finally no longer'), al bijna ('already almost') and al bijna niet meer ('already almost no longer'). These are expressions of aspectual focus in that the actual course of events is inherently opposed to possible alternatives and evaluated as slower or faster than expected. A two-dimensional graphical representation is provided for each adverbial. The relationships between the eight representations are captured in terms of five binary parameters. Each adverbial thus corresponds to a bit-string of five binary values. The various relations of opposition or negation between these eight adverbials are then defined in terms of switching bit-values. The proposed analysis rejects the duality-relationship posited between al ('already') and nog ('still'). Together with nog niet ('not yet') and niet meer ('no longer') the latter constitutes an independent paradigm of continuity-expressions fundamentally different from the focus-paradigms around al. Furthermore, basic duality notions of internal and external negation are insufficient to adequately capture the various types of negation involved in aspectual focus.

Metal in the Works of Vasilii Aksenov

Why has the search for a Soviet cultural mythology become so attractive to scholars East and West? The reasons are complex, and some have more to do with academic politics than with real advances in understanding. Nevertheless, much of Soviet reality-as constructed by both leadership and people-is better interpreted in terms of a shared cultural landscape of myths and symbols, than it is in terms of ideological systems. While Marxist ideology is unmatched for the scope of its rationalist worldview, the lacuna in its historical narrative are too conspicuous to be ignored even by ardent supporters. Leaps of faith across causal gaps demand a shift (whether conscious or unconscious) from logical exposition to a more poetic idiom. The prime example of such a gap is the one separating political and cultural revolution. When Marxism attempts to envision the actual course of events by which changes in economic conditions will lead to a change in human nature, it must resort to metaphor. Thus, the creation of the New Soviet Man is described in terms that evoke mythic archetypes: initiation, death and rebirth, apotheosis. The history of one especially prominent narrative of transformation be traced back for millennia. One finds it in Mexican creation myths, in the initiation rituals of Siberian shamans, in the religious folklore of medieval Europe, in the doctrines of both Occidental and Oriental alchemy, and throughout the symbolic lexicon of modern revolutionary movements. This is the myth of spiritual transubstantiation through metallization. Its archetypal motifs are as follows: a given metal, on the basis of its physical characteristics and the peculiarities of its extraction, is identified with the supernatural realm (or even with the flesh and bones of some divine being). Through the mediation of supernatural forces, mortal human bodies be treated by the methods used in the production of this metal, resulting in their union with the sacred element and their acquisition of its positive characteristics. The forging and tempering of human beings is a variant of the motif of initiation through ritual death and rebirth-and, in particular, that of purification by fire. Metal symbolism has thus been associated from primordial times with the universal revolutionary symbols of fire and light. Another factor explaining its attraction for the Russian revolutionaries stems from more recent history, and the split of the communists into hard Bolsheviks and soft Mensheviks, as manifested in pseudonyms such as those of Kamenev (kamen', stone), Molotov (molot, hammer), and-of course-Stalin (stal steel). Iron and steel provide the commonest epithets for the political firmness of Lenin's followers.2 The post-revolutionary economic role of these metals is reflected in their enhanced symbolic function, particularly with regard to the sacred triad of labour/warfare/suffering. Stalin's declaration that the Soviet Union can and must become a country of metal3 presumes the existence of a nation of ironjawed cadres ready to execute such a cataclysmic task. While traces of the flesh-to-metal narrative are present on every level of Soviet culture, it is, like any Bolshevik myth, rarely encountered in its explicit form. The great attraction of Marxism is its alleged scientific insight into the history and future of hitherto unanalyzable social phenomena. All that is reasonable in the human mind... will necessarily become reality, declares Plekhanov.4 This faith in the power of reason demands that Marxist ideology suppress any irrational elements, not excepting its own ruling myth-that of dialectical materialism as the antidote to all myths. Yet Marxism cannot survive without its myths and symbols, and its history is the ongoing record of their suppression and resurgence. The metallization of the body as a metaphor for the creation of the communist New Man has undergone several cycles of automatization and realization in the course of the twentieth century. …

Britische Presse und Nationalsozialistischer Kirchenkampf. Eine Untersuchung der "Times" und des "Manchester Guardian" von 1930 bis 1939 by Markus Huttner

Brittsche Presse und Nationalsozialtstischer Kirchenkampf Eine Untersuchung derTimesund des Guardianvon 1930 bis 1939. By Markus Huttner. [Veroffentlichungen der Kommission fir Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B: Forschungen, Band 67.] (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh. 1995. Pp. 814. DM 108.00.) For the past thirty years publications on German Catholic contemporary history have been appearing with impressive regularity in the magnificently produced Blue Series of documents and monographs. The Commission for Contemporary History, under the sponsorship of the doyen Konrad Repgen of Bonn, has succeeded in printing a large number of works either by his pupils or their pupils, including many dissertations of extraordinary thoroughness and length, of which Huttner's is the latest. All of them are splendidly edited; the scholarship is exemplary and exact; the footnotes, bibliographies, and indices first rate. The problems begin with the author's and the sponsor's perspectives and the shortcomings these impose. German church history is alas! still written along denominational lines. Interdenominational cross-fertilization is regrettably absent. Each group appeals primarily to its own milieu. Who else would be willing to pay the enormous price of these volumes, which in any case are presumably heavily subsidized for publication? This bias is rather obvious in the present work, which arose out of an examination of how the two leading British newspapers reported on the events of the German Church Struggle. Huttner's careful analysis of the Nazi repression of the Catholic Church, and how this was revealed in the British newspapers, gives us only half the story, despite the fact that he knows, and we know, that British readers were far more concerned about the persecution endured by the Protestant communities, especially the Confessing Church. While such limitations may be acceptable for a Ph.D. dissertation, the one-sidedness of this large volume comes over as unbalanced, even though exhaustively researched and presented in an excellently scholarly fashion. After several lengthy opening chapters showing how quickly the newly appointed Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, asserted control over the German press and silenced any reports on oppositional movements, Huttner then turns to the actual course of events, which he follows chronologically from 1933 to 1939, when British reporting perforce had to stop. He shows how the correspondents of the Times and the Manchester Guardian succeeded in evading Nazi censorship, and indeed demonstrates that they were exceedingly wellinformed, principally because of their shrewd choice of insider contacts. Not much escaped their notice. But we in fact learn little new about the actual course of the Church Struggle, which has all been extensively documented in postwar years. The most interesting features of this huge tome are Huttner's comments on the differences in perception and interpretation adopted by the two main correspondents, Norman Ebbutt of the Times until his expulsion from Germany in 1937, and E A. Voigt of the M. G., who early on retreated first to Paris and then to London, but maintained his close interest in German church affairs. Ebbutt interpreted the Church Struggle mainly in political terms, and stressed the internal conflicts between sections of the churches and the Nazi bureaucracy, whose conflicting plans in any case made for a chaotic and wayward policy. Ebbutt believed rightly that Hitler was not much interested in the details of this campaign, but none of the Nazi hierarchy were pleased by the critical tone of his reporting, especially of such scandalous events as the arrest and trial of Pastor Martin Niemoller, which aroused enormous antipathies in Britain. …

Another Century's End, Another Revolution for Higher Education

for the new institutions that were being founded and for the colleges that suddenly found themselves being turned into universities. But I also thought and I believe it more strongly now that 100 years later we may be experiencing the beginnings of another revolution. That conviction forms the core of the argument in this article. We are entering another time of great change in American higher education; just what the results will be is uncertain, because colleges and universities are so well structured to resist change. But I think it may bring us to a closing of the circle first opened a century ago with the innovation of graduate study. At that time, the research university was an entirely novel product of its era the likes of which had never been seen before on this continent. And now, 100 years lat r, the research university stands at the very center of a challenge and an opportunity. That is because, although it does not provide higher education for most of the Americans who receive an education, it does train most of those wh provide that education. If I am right about the prospect of another centuryclosing revolution in higher education, it will happen in and because of the research universities. The actual course of events will

The concept of maturity and the transformation of economic systems

In economics, ‘maturity’ essentially means that an economic system (or part of a system) is ripe to be transformed into something else or heading towards decline. In Josef Steindl's economic thinking the concept of maturity, by which he means a stage of development where the economy becomes unable to fully realize its output potential, occupies a central place. Whereas for Steindl the main causes of such maturity are endogenous, other economists such as Schumpeter, Sombart, Hilferding, Keynes, and Hansen consider stagnation to be caused primarily by exogenous factors. Various concepts and causes of maturity are compared. Contrary to expectations based on these concepts, economic development after the Great Depression has not been characterized by stagnation or transition to planned economy. Instead, the dynamics of innovation were strong enough to prevent the economy from becoming ‘mature’. It appears that the actual course of events can be better explained within Steindl's concept of maturity.

Salvaging El Salvador

Salvaging El Salvador Enrique A. Baloyra (bio) When Alfredo Cristiani, the candidate of the right-wing National Republican Alliance (ARENA), won election to the presidency of El Salvador in March 1989, many observers feared that hopes for peace and democracy in that war-torn country would have to be postponed indefinitely, if not abandoned altogether. The actual course of events, however, has belied these grim expectations. A series of wide-ranging negotiations between the Cristiani government and representatives of the leftist insurgency headed by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) began in early 1990 and culminated with a peace agreement signed in Mexico City on 16 January 1992. These talks have brought El Salvador closer than it has ever been to defusing its most explosive political problems and establishing a stable democratic system in accord with the rule of law and respect for human rights. With the mediation of the United Nations, the two sides reached agreement on a broad array of issues, including reform of the electoral and judicial systems; the demobilization and reintegration into society of the FMLN guerrillas; the reduction in size and reorganization of the armed forces; the creation of a civilian police force; and various economic and social problems (especially the issue of landownership). No one in the early 1980s could have foreseen that El Salvador's crisis of transition would end as it has, with a consensus in favor of nonviolent, democratic politics arising among the guerrillas, the armed forces, and the old oligarchy. To be sure, this consensus may spring merely from the view that democracy is a lesser or necessary evil, but that will do for now. Ten years ago, who would have believed that [End Page 70] official negotiators representing a president from ARENA-a party established by a known murderer and former deputy chief of the national security agency in order to restore "reactionary despotism" would receive support from both the armed forces and the business community for face-to-face talks with the guerrilla comandantes of the FMLN-one of the most ideologically rigid leftist insurgencies in the Western Hemisphere? Who would have thought that the two sides, with the help of the United Nations, could overcome the obstacles that perennially separated them in order to agree to a genuine-even if imperfect-peace settlement? If one is to measure what has been achieved in the El Salvador accords, it must be in light of the stunning improbability of the whole scenario. Some might wonder why the Salvadorans could not have agreed to terms sooner and thereby saved 12 years, spared 75,000 lives, and avoided the disaster of civil war altogether? It is a fair question, but one must not be too hard on the Salvadorans. It took the British over 600 years to go from the Magna Carta to an expanded franchise-along the way they could not manage avoiding Wat Tyler's Rebellion, the Wars of the Roses, the English Civil War, Cromwell's Protectorate, and "massive violence exercised by the upper classes against the lower. "~ By contrast, it took the Salvadorans "only" 60 years to go from the commercial revolution of 1870 to the collapse of the oligarchic republic in the early 1930s, and another 60 to realize that a democratic regime offers everyone the most reasonable and feasible system of mutual guarantees. The Salvadoran civil war drew in outside actors-the United States, regional influentials like Venezuela and Mexico, undeclared supporters of the rebels like Nicaragua and Cuba, and also some Western European powers-who at times threatened to overwhelm the locals with their own concerns and agendas. Some of these tried to micromanage the crisis through diplomatic and military means, but in the end it was the Salvadorans who determined their own fate. In order to judge whether the agreements of 31 December 1991, ratified in Mexico City on 16 January 1992, are likely to form an enduring basis for the consolidation of democracy in El Salvador, it is necessary to review the sociohistorical and geopolitical changes that have taken place since the dual crisis of civil war and political transition began in 1979. Transition and Civil War Basically, there were two...

Duidelijkheid over de Amsterdamse St. Lukasfeesten in 1653 en 1654

AbstractVarious sources record the St. Luke's Feasts which were held in Amsterdam in 1653 and 1654. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, the two feasts had already become confused with one another in some texts. Twentieth-century expositions drawing on these sources convey an erroneous impression of the actual course of events. This article discusses the possible causes of the confusion. The most important facts pertaining to the festivities are stated in their correct order, and a few new ideas are offered for consideration. All the known source material and relevant secondary literature are subjected to close scrutiny, and some new material is presented. The confusion which has misled so many authors in the past stems from a discussion in literary publications on Vondel in the nineteen-twenties. It is quite conceivable that the debate was fuelled by the form in which certain texts were published in the seventeenth century, and by the incorrect information about the two feasts in Houbrakcn and Wagcnaar. The feasts of 1653 and 1654 evidently differed in character. Although both were St. Luke's banquets, the accents were different. The 1653 celebrations involved painters and poets, whereas in 1654 painters and sculptors were the chief protagonists. There arc also hints that the 1654 festivities were organized on an ambitious scale. Notably the recently discovered handsome first edition of 'Broederschap Der Schilderkunst INGEWYDT Door SCHILDERS, BEELDTHOUWERS En des Zelfs BEGUNSTIGERS; Op den 21 l'an Wynmaent 1654, op St. Joris Doelen. In AMSTERDAM' endorses these suggestions.

SONIA: A knowledge-based scheduling system

The aim of this paper is to present a job-shop scheduling system designed to detect and react to inconsistencies between a scheduling plan and the actual course of events on a shop floor. More precisely, the SONIA system integrates both predictive and reactive scheduling components. A schedule management system is used to update schedule descriptions and detect inconsistencies as the scheduling components make decisions and unexpected events happen on the shop floor. Analysing components can be used to evaluate both predictive and reactive problem-solving contexts in order to choose the most appropriate actions and determine which heuristics the scheduling components should use. A control system built on a blackboard architecture coordinates the use of the various components of SONIA and adjusts their behaviour according to the problem-solving context. Preliminary experiments are made with the help of a simulator. These experiments should provide us with pieces of knowledge about the rapidity of various reactive strategies and their ability to respect various scheduling criteria.

Follow-up of the family with congenital absence of sinus rhythm

In 1960, Bacos et al 1 reported their investigation of a family with a “congenital familial nodal rhythm.” They examined 2 brothers, 1 age 50 (IV-10, Figure 1), and the other age 42 (IV-14, Figure 1), with atrioventricular (AV) junctional bradycardia and intermittent atrial fibrillation (AF). Except for an enlarged pulmonary artery, the cardiovascular examination (including cardiac catheterization) disclosed no abnormal findings. The family history suggested that the condition was inherited from their mother (III-9, Figure 1), who lived to age 71 but was known to have slow heart rate and AF during the last 20 years of her life. The survey of the remaining family performed by the investigators 1 suggested that this was a dominant autosomal trait with an extremely high degree of penetrance. The investigators suspected a congenital absence of the sinus node but recorded occasional bradycardia with P waves believed to be of sinus origin. The 2 aforementioned brothers had 2 sisters (IV-12 and IV-15, Figure 1), who also had “nodal bradycardia” in childhood and documented paroxysms of AF, with an onset late in the third decade in 1, and in the fourth decade in the other. One of the 4 siblings (IV-14, Figure 1), was not married and had no offspring, but the remaining 3 had a total of 4 daughters (V-3, 5, 6, 7, Figure 1), all of whom had slow “nodal rhythm.” One of these daughters had a son (VI-3, Figure 1), born in 1958, in whom “nodal rhythm” was suspected at birth. As a result of their family survey, Bacos et al 1 made a number of predictions regarding the expected natural course of the existing and the subsequently born members of this family. They were expected to manifest slow heart rate and regular rhythm since birth but the childhood and development were to be normal. Subsequently, they were to experience transient palpitations beginning in their late 20s or early to mid-30s, and finally to develop an established AF requiring chronic treatment. Furthermore, the prophecy offered an excellent prognosis for longevity. The present communication updates the condition of the family with this unusual disorder after 27 years and compares the actual course of events with that predicted by Bacos et al. 1

Women's preferences for and satisfaction with current procedures in childbirth—findings from a national study

A random sample of women who had recently given birth were asked about their preferences in relation to a number of obstetric procedures. Overall, the proportions of women who expressed positive preferences about the procedures were small, and generally women said they preferred not to have them. Women's views about the management of their labours were clearly related to the procedures they experienced. However, high proportions of women, regardless of their reported preferences and the actual course of events, described their labours as being managed as they liked. There is some evidence that women whose labours involved particular obstetric procedures were more likely to report depressed mood than other women. The results indicate that women's preferences about labour should, whenever possible, be taken into account.

Disinformation: An instrumentality in the propaganda arsenal

Abstract The term “disinformation” as a persuasive technique that is based on forgeries and staged events was invented by the KGB, the Soviet secret service. Although disinformation has been used by most states, the Soviets have perfected it as an instrument of public policy. Disinformation comprises two parts: a forgery or fabrication, and the publicity that accompanies it to effectuate some psychological advantage for the originator of the disinformation. It is the falsification or staged event accompanying the persuasive message that distinguishes disinformation from run‐of‐the‐mill propaganda. This article suggests that no state would resort to disinformation if the truth and the actual course of events were operating in its favor.

The Gentiles and the Gentile Mission in Luke-Acts

The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, to make a detailed study of the theme of the Gentiles and the Gentile mission in Luke-Acts. And second, to use these results as an avenue of approach to broader problems in the teaching of both Jesus and Luke. As regards Jesus, how his teaching on the Gentiles is related to his eschatology. As regards Luke, both how he sees the relationship between Jesus’ view of the Gentile mission and eschatology and how far his account of this mission in Acts squares up with the actual course of events so far as they can be deduced from the illogicalities and tensions within Acts itself and from the first-hand accounts of Paul. Jesus' attitude to the Gentiles is studied and used as a key to understanding his eschatology. Luke's presentation of Jesus’ attitude to the Gentiles is then examined, to see how far it differs from the views both of Mark and of Jesus himself. Luke's presentation of Jesus' eschatology is then considered, to see if and how he alters Jesus' eschatology to fit his presentation of Jesus' attitude to the entiles. The main sections in Acts which relate to Luke’s presentation of the Gentile mission are then examined, in order to discover both Luke's view of the Gentile mission and how close his account is to the historical facts. The main conclusions are that Jesus did not foresee a Gentile mission such as occurred after his death, a fact which is explained by his eschatology and which explains many of the problems which arose in the early stages of the Gentile mission, that Luke’s presentation of the Gentile mission and Jesus' eschatology shows him to be a pastor and a historian rather than a theologian, a point which is emphasized by a comparison with Paul, and that while Luke’s account in Acts is often misleading, he has left enough loose ends to make it a valuable historical source for the careful and critical reader.

Strategy for scientific exploration of the terrestrial planets

A strategy is presented for exploration of the inner solar system that will lead to knowledge of its origin and history. Several critical points in the evolution of the solar system are identified at which alternate evolutionary paths might have been possible. Experiments are suggested to help reveal the actual course of events at these critical points. The result is a framework relating experiments to be performed on the terrestrial planets and satellites to the major goal of determining the origin and history of the solar system. From this background, the lunar‐exploration portion of the suggested over‐all program is discussed in further detail. It is concluded that the moon offers a unique opportunity for investigating certain problems of the solar system.

Science and human values

A brief study of the generic features of science and of man's patterns of behaviour shows that there is scope for the establishment of a science in the field of human values. An essential premise to the argument is that there can be an absolute form of contingence without absolute determination of the actual course of events, the law of nature providing alternative consequences depending on the subject's choice of action.