Anonymous Author Research Articles

Produktives Täuschen. Dissimulatio artis zwischen Rhetorik und Philosophie

Abstract In our paper, we discuss the role of deception (apáte) in the conflict between rhetoric and philosophy. While Parmenides and Plato seek to escape the possibility of being deceived in general, their counterparts, the sophists and early theorists of rhetoric, emphasize that this is neither possible nor desirable. In contrast to their philosophical contemporaries, they do not assume a dualism of truth and deception, but rather a gradualist spectrum that contains many shades of gray. Furthermore, they emphasize a certain productivity of particular deceptions that can help us increase our imagination and prefigure possibilities of life and praxis that would not be possible without being deceived. Moreover, we ask whether and how the potential of classical rhetoric for theorizing deception can be used for a critique of deception that is aware of its own proneness to illusions. The guiding hypothesis is that rhetoric, as a technique of verbal deception, can also provide an important key for criticizing deceptive strategies. This applies in particular to the concept of dissimulatio artis, which goes back to Aristotle’s Rhetoric and had been developed further by Quintilian, Ovid, and the anonymous author of the treatise Perí hýpsous. This concept makes it possible to describe simulations of unsimulatedness in philosophy as well as in politics.

Исторические хроники постзолотоордынских государств: общее и особенное

Research objectives: To identify common and distinctive features in post-Golden Horde historiography. Research materials: Three works were used for analysis: “Tavarikh-i guzida Nusrat name” by an anonymous author, “Jami at-tavarikh” by Kadir Ali-bek, and “Umdet al-akhbar” by Abdulghaffar Kyrymi. Results and novelty of the research: Post-Golden Horde historiography developed by taking into account the traditions of writing Muslim historical works. The above-mentioned works, created in different states and in different time periods, are united, first of all, by the desire to illustrate the history of Genghis Khan and his descendants since, in the newly formed territories, historical works with their Genghisid genealogy served as a certain proof of the legitimacy of rule. Such elements as the choice of the author, keeping the canvas of events around the main character, also give commonality.

"Über den Ausgang des Heiligen Geistes": Eine Schrift eines anonymen Russen als Beilage im Brief von Simon Budny an Heinrich Bullinger vom 18. April 1563

Simon Budny (ca. 1530–1591) was a Reformed pastor who became a wellknown leader of the Anti-Trinitarian movement in Lithuania. In 1563, Budny wrote a letter to Heinrich Bullinger asking for his opinion on the filioque, which was the object of intense discussion in Lithuania. Budny enclosed a small work written by an anonymous Russian Orthodox author titled De processione Spiritus sancti that contains the main exegetical and theological arguments against the filioque (Zurich Staatsarchiv, E II 367, 231–242). This contribution includes an historical introduction, an edition, a German translation, and a text analysis. I propose that the anonymous author of this text may be the famous Russian theologian Maksim Grek (1470–1556) or one of his students, because the language, the content, the argumentation, the Biblical and Patristic proofs are similar to his Anti-Roman-Catholic works written between 1518 and 1525.

Archimedean solids in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

Several artists, artisans, and mathematicians described fascinating solid bodies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The knowledge they developed on the subject was so progressive that it is considered a milestone in the history of polyhedra. In the first part of this study we analyze, from a chronological and comparative perspective, the consistent studies developed between 1460 and 1583 on those that came to be recognized as Archimedean Solids. The authors who engaged in such studies were Piero della Francesca, Luca Pacioli, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Augustin Hirschvogel, an Anonymous Author who accomplished remarkable studies between 1538 and 1556, Wentzel Jamnitzer, Daniele Barbaro, Lorenz Stöer, Rafael Bombelli, and Simon Stevin. In the second part, we discuss how the revolutionary method of describing solid bodies with planar nets contributed to the rediscovery of the Archimedean Solids. We also present our interpretation of some of the studies by the Anonymous Author and our conclusions on his identity and influence on other authors.

Manifeste conspirationniste, Parti imaginaire, Comité invisible: a genealogy of radical critique in twenty-first-century France

ABSTRACT When the Manifeste conspirationniste was published in January 2022 it was widely assumed in France that the manifesto was the work of the same anonymous authors responsible for the radical leftist (or, for some, ‘terrorist’) pamphlets attributed variously to Tiqqun, the Parti imaginaire or the Comité invisible. This article explores this authorial hypothesis through a comparative close reading of the Manifeste conspirationniste and key works by the radical collective. The manifesto interprets the Covid pandemic as marking the logical culmination of a biopolitical apparatus that has weaponised everything from consumer electronics to the pharmaceutical industry in paranoid pursuit of the indefinite reproduction of capitalist oligarchy. Likewise, the essays of Tiqqun diagnose the thorough imbrication of military technologies, police and surveillance powers, as well as the entertainment and consumer industries in the development of what they call ‘cybernetic capitalism’. Tiqqun and the Comité invisible argue that, in a system that is dedicated to ever greater transparency (in the interests of the biopolitical disciplining of citizens), any resistance must deliberately seek out ‘zones of opacity’ by cultivating the kind of noise that won’t be recuperated as carnival, or the kind of slowness that can’t simply be rebranded as luxury. This looks forward to the Manifeste conspirationniste’s strategy of conspiracy, subterfuge and insubordination as the necessary response to an ideological apparatus that is unavoidably conspiratorial in its effects, however theoretically benign it may be in intention.

Mediumship and stylometry: Exploring a new way of attributing authorship to mediumistic writings

Stylometry is still largely unexplored for applications in attributing authorship to mediumistic writings, as outlined in the subsequent literature review. Stylometry is a statistical method for analyzing authorship with a history to detect anonymous authors, e. g., J. K. Rowling as the real author of The Cuckoo’s Calling. Modern stylometry transcends literature analysis, applying to forensic inquiries, such as plagiarism detection, online security, and group identity characteristics. Historically, stylometric research unfolds in three phases: focusing on single numerical functions, statistical methods based on word frequencies, and contemporary use of machine learning. Authorship analysis includes three primary objectives: authorship attribution, verification, and characterization. It uses mathematical linguistics, information theory, and linguistic features like vocabulary richness, word frequency, and syntactic structures. Stylometric methods reliably detect authorship in imitation scenarios (pastiche) and have now also led to adversarial stylometry, which facilitates and identifies attempts at anonymization. Distribution patterns of features such as function words or punctuation can only be detected with high computing power and appear to contain too little content or emotion to be recognized by psi abilities of mediums. Imitation on a stylometric level has not yet been achieved by professional writers and does not appear to be one of the abilities of savants either, whose left hemisphere, including speech and language, is the least developed, which is why such genuine talent cannot be assumed in mediums either. Due to its undeniable successes, its quantitative and computational approach, and its potential to investigate a wide range of research questions, stylometry therefore appears to be a desirable auxiliary science for mediumship research.

Commercial Applications of Electronic Currencies

Digital payment systems, also known as digital money, digital currency, or electronic money, have come a long way since the invention of computer-based communication systems. From the requirement of human-to-machine monetary transactions, it has evolved. E-money is a virtual cash model that is making its way in the online and virtual transfer domain. The authorization transaction is conducted through traditional banking systems between the payer and the payee, which issues e-money accounts for these transactions. After this amount is booked and stored by banks, it can be verified and transferred to payers/payees as e-money. One important challenge in this domain is to reduce reliance on the identifying authority, and the corresponding e-money transactions should be as simple and secure as cash transactions. Bitcoin – the electronic currency introduced in 2009 by an anonymous author and designed to work independently of a central authority – is unique and often considered news. This ignores the general history of electronic currencies. In 1998, Wei Dai introduced B-money, an efficient product of minimizing communication that serves as a method of fees and rewards for providing limited resources. Also in 1998, Adam Back introduced Hashcash – a currency that ties real computing costs to solve increasingly difficult computational puzzles. In 1999, Nick Szabo introduced bit gold – a product offering small chained proof of work and conducted via broadcast. David Chaum’s eCash, based on blind signatures, was a technical principle in the paper in 1983, and in 1990 with Amos Fiat and Moni Naor in addition known as related technology.

«Impressions of a jurer» by G.S.N. as a source for studying the Russian jury trial of the late XIXth century

The document Impressions of a Juror is analyzed as a personal account of an anonymous author, G.S.N., who recounted his experiences as a juror in legal proceedings in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. Both external and internal criticism of the source is conducted, facilitating the establishment of the approximate place, time, and purpose of its creation. Furthemore, the socio-psychological portrait of the author is reconstructed, considering aspects such as social affiliation, level of education, place of residence, and certain psychological characteristics. The analysis acknowledges the uniqueness of Impressions of a Juror, which not being a part of mainstream historical sources, remain a distinctive work. On the other hand, it shares characteristics inherent in other personal documents from jurors of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, particularly regarding its general character, presentation style, and the scope of covered issues. It is noted that the factual value of the source under consideration is limited, as it does not allow for the comprehensive reconstruction of the judiciary and legal proceedings in the Russian Empire, nor does it facilitate a complete understanding of the criminal cases under consideration. Despite these limitations, the conclusion is drawn that Impressions of a Juror holds cognitive value due to its provision of information not found in other historical sources. The document offers details that breathe like into the specifics that were previously only studied on the basis on normative legal texts, and official statistics. Thus while the source may not provide an all-encompassing view of the legal landscate of the Russian Empire, it contributes a unique perspective that enriches the understanding of historical proceedings.

Topical Issues of Application of Quantitative Methods in the Forensic Authorship Studies

In the conditions of modern challenges of digitalization, the problems of using stylometry for the successful solution of the tasks of forensic authorship expertise of speech works posted on the Internet are considered. Based on a comparative analysis of existing techniques and new developments in the field of automation of determining the personal parameters of an anonymous author, his idiolect and stylometric identification, it is proposed to replace the uncertain, taking into account the features of new objects. The solution to the problems is seen not in the full automation of the expert examination, but in the creation of an integrative methodology of forensic authorship examination, combining qualitative and quantitative methods of identifying diagnostically and identifiably significant signs.

‘God really hated the hypocrites’: Hypocrisy and Anti-clerical Rhetoric in the Early Lutheran Reformation

In 1524, two anonymous pamphlets were published, both professing to be letters written by a married woman to her sister, a nun. Both draw on a range of New Testament texts to express criticism of ‘the hypocrites’, a term the anonymous author uses to refer particularly to clergy and religious. This article examines how the author of these pamphlets constructed and characterized the category of the hypocrite. Drawing on the work of Hans-Christoph Rublack, the article shows that her critique is coherent with anti-clerical rhetoric found in a wide range of early Reformation pamphlets. It then compares her strictures on hypocrisy with references to hypocrisy and hypocrites in the early German writings of Martin Luther and Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt to explore the extent to which accusations of hypocrisy were entwined with anti-clerical and anti-monastic rhetoric in the early Lutheran Reformation. It concludes that while accusations against clergy and religious were often couched in terms of their hypocrisy, Luther's use of the term hypocrite was much broader, extending to all those whom he viewed as presenting themselves as ‘holier than thou’, while Karlstadt made less use of the term.

ON BOYAN AS A MINSTREL AND HIS ROLE IN MEDIEVAL RUSSIAN CULTURE

The name “Boyan” first appears in the written works of Old East Slavic literature. Boyan is referenced in the prologue of one of these sources, The Tale of Igor’s Campaign (Slovo o polku Igoreve), which is presented in Russian-speaking countries as a groundbreaking example of literary criticism that was not recognized in the 12th century. The anonymous author does not comply with Boyan’s epic narrative tradition, stating that he will sing the song in his own way. Therefore, the narrator, who desires to surpass the obsolescent rite of oral narrative and appears keen to join the contemporary trends of the time or direct them himself, chooses to criticize his predecessor. In Old Russian culture, Boyan is considered to be a wandering minstrel, a bard, and a prophet. He is also referred to as the grandson of Veles, a member of the pantheon of pagan gods and protector of musicians. The fingers of Boyan, which are associated with an ancient stringed instrument called “gusli”, are believed to be sacred and magical. A type of accordion called the “bayan” also takes its name from Boyan. This study, which focuses on Boyan, an important figure in Old East Slavic literature and folklore, aims to reveal his role in medieval culture and explore whether he was a real or fictional character. For this purpose, the study includes an evaluation of the etymology of the word Boyan and an analysis of how Boyan is depicted in literary texts. In light of the data obtained, the probability of Slavic, Scandinavian, Bulgarian, or Turkic roots of the word is evaluated. The study then delves into a wide range of evidence to provide insight into whether Boyan was a minstrel or a court singer. In conclusion, this study reveals Boyan’s significance as a folk minstrel who served as a protector of national memory and a transmitter of cultural heritage.

Configurations of Friday’s Body in the 1750s Robinsonade

The English Robinsonade as a form thrived in the 1750s, but in a variant that revealed affinities not only with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe but also Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and the imaginary voyage more broadly. A central position in this micro-tradition was occupied by Robert Paltock’s Peter Wilkins (1751), the popularity of which resulted in several fictions written in its wake, including Ralph Morris’s John Daniel (1751), William Bingfield by an anonymous author (1753), and Adolphus Bannac’s Crusoe Richard Davis (1756). These narratives explored both the Robinsonade conventions and aspects of the poetics of wonder to offer a variety of ‘Friday’ configurations, from hybrid animals to winged or feathered women. This article reads the aesthetic and ideological meanings behind these ‘strange surprizing’ character constructs.

Entailment and Truthmaking: The Consequentia Rerum from Boethius to the Ars Meliduna

In Categories 12 (14b11–22), Aristotle famously claims that [1] true sentences and reality stand in a mutually implicative relationship, and that [2] reality causes the truth of sentences but not vice versa. In this paper, I first argue that Boethius’ reading of the above passage led medieval logicians to assess [1] and [2] within the framework of a theory of consequence. Then, I consider two important questions raised by Boethius and later logicians in relation to [1] and [2], and, namely, whether the implication described in [1] really satisfies the requirement for consequence, and whether the truthmaking relation posited in [2] can be boiled down to the relation of consequence. Boethius himself, I argue, answered affirmatively to both questions and thus (much like some contemporary truthmaker theorists) committed himself to an account of truthmaking as entailment. I then consider criticisms to Boethius’ account found in the writings of William of Champeaux, two anonymous authors connected to the school of Jocelyn of Soissons, Peter Abelard, and the author of the Ars Meliduna. Here, I argue that the emergence of a concern for relevance drives the need for abandoning Boethius’ account as well as his conception of truthmaking as entailment.

SAQIFAT BANI SA`IDAH CONFERENCE A CRITICAL ANALYTICAL STUDY OF EARLY ISLAMIC NARRATIVES

The study deals with the narratives al-Saqifa conference according to six historians lived in the third and fourth centuries A.H/ ninth and tenth A.D, they are: Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar (d. 151 A.H/ 768 A.D), "Al-Sira Al-Nabawiya", Ibn Sa`ed, Muhammad ibn Manee` al-Zuhri (died 230 A.H/ 845 A.D), "Al-Ṭabaqat al-Kubra", ,Al-Balaḏeri, Ahmad ibn Jaber (died: 279A.H/892 A.D), "Ansab al-’Ashraf", Al-Ya‘qubi, Ahmad ibn Abi Ya‘qub in wahab ibn Wadih (died: 284 A.H/ 897 A.D), "Tarikh al-Ya‘qubi", the book of "Al-Imama wa Al-Siyas", to anonymous author (from the middle of the third century A.H), Al-Ṭabari, Abu Ja‘far Muḥammad ibn Jarir (died: 310 A.H/923 A.D); "Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk. The five sources of the study were chosen because they are considered among the early and important of Islamic historical sources, and their date back to different periods. In addition, they are distributed between different Muslims sects, such as Suni and Shite. The study adopts the historical method, by presenting the narratives of these historians about al-Saqifa conference and studing and analyzing their narratives and dimensions they contain which enable to know their points of view

Turkic Ethnic Realities in the Medieval Manuscript of Kipchak Origin

The purpose of our work was to analyze the ethnic realities of the Kipchak language in order to
 establish its similarities and differences with modern Turkic languages for which this medieval
 language was a proto-language. The written medieval manuscript in Arabic “Al-Tuhfa al-Zakiyya fi al-
 Lugha al-Turkiyyah” (Genuine wonder about the Turkish language) was one of the most important and
 most valuable source for studying the Kipchak language. The main feature of the work was that the
 original version was written in the Kipchak, as the anonymous author pointed out on the first page of
 the manuscript, stored in Istanbul, in the Beyazit state library. When studying objects that were far
 apart from each other in a temporary sense, such as medieval and modern languages, we used the
 comparative-historical method, and as a result concluded that in some cases there were only phonetic
 differences, while the syntactic and semantic commonality of lexical and phraseological units persisted.
 To classify ethnic realities, the statistical method of analysis was used. Ethnographic, cultural and
 mental realities testified to direct kinship and a single nomadic culture of the speakers of the languages
 of this group and provided an opportunity to restore the historical stages of the development of the
 Turkic languages from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Hyper-exegesis in Persian translations of the Qu'ran: On the Disjointed Letters as Translational Challenges

AbstractAlthough translation and commentary are often treated as distinct, separable activities in literary and intellectual history, the Persian tradition of Qur'an exegesis demonstrates that they are best understood in relation to each other. Introducing the concept of hyper-exegesis as a mode of interpretation that approximates translation, we examine the dialectical relationship between translation and commentary by focusing on how Persian exegetes have dealt with the so-called “disjointed letters” (ḥurūf muqaṭaʿāt). The disjointed letters inaugurate twenty-nine chapters (sūras) of the Qur'an. We show how six Persian translator-exegetes (the anonymous author of Tarjama-yi Tafsir-I Tabari, Isfarayini, Surabadi, Nasafi, Maybudi, and Razi) used commentary in response to their understanding of the Qur'an's inimitability. Persian translators’ confrontation with the disjointed letters are presented here as a case study of the ways in which translatability and commentary overlap and enrich each other. As a contribution to translation studies and literary theory, this research reveals how untranslatability is situated at the core of the translational enterprise, and how commentary functions as a mode of translating the ineffable.

Hebraic Influences in The Life of Lazario de Termes

The focus of this article is the impact of the Hebrew language with its literature, philosophy, biblical exegesis, and history on the sixteenth century anonymous author of The Life of Lasiloo de Termes. I assumed the task of investigating the Jewish cultural heritage embedded in this work, as my studies in Hebrew Language and Literature could contribute towards a fuller comprehension of this masterpiece. And indeed, in addition to linguistic and biblical associations, I have detected influences that appear inspired by the monumental works of medieval Jewish Spanish theologians and philosopher Crescas, Maimonides and Nahman ides in particular. I invite the reader to share and comment on this analysis.

О времени в исландских сагах: O’Donoghue H. Narrative in the Icelandic Family Saga: Meanings of Time in Old Norse Literature. L.; N.Y.; Oxford; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. 224 p.

The book under review is devoted to the time of action of the Icelandic family sagas and demonstrates how it is presented in them. Written down mainly in the thirteenth century, these sagas tell about the events of the “saga age”, a period from 930 to 1030. The anonymous author and “objective” narrator, who knows the story he tells from beginning to end, leads his listener/reader through all the vicissitudes of his story and immerses him in the temporal space of his narrative, the so-called “third time”, enabling him to judge life in the “saga age”.

«КАКИЕ МНЕНИЯ О ДЕМОНАХ У ЭЛЛИНОВ» МИХАИЛА ПСЕЛЛА (ТЕКСТ, ПЕРЕВОД И КОММЕНТАРИИ)

The publication presents a commented Russian translation of a short compilation entitled Τίνα περὶ δαιμόνων δοξάζουσιν Ἕλληνες (“What are the Hellenes’ Opinions of Demons”, Latin Graecorum opiniones de daemonibus) attributed to Michael Psellus (1018 – ca. 1078). The text is a compact overview of religious and adjacent practices of the “Hellenes”, meaning the pagan Greeks, from the Neoplatonic perspective, which goes back, eventually, to the Chaldaic Oracles, the “Bible of Neoplatonists” as Franz Cumont has named that fragmentarily extant collection of the 2nd century AD. Indubitably Michael Psellus has been strongly influenced by the Oracles, as well as by the lost commentary on this work by Proclus. Nevertheless, the attribution to Michael Psellus of the Opinions, as well as of the dialogue Timotheus, or On demons (Τιμόθεος ἢ περὶ δαιμόνων), another, somewhat more extensive essay on the same topics (demonology, sacrifices, mysteries, sorcery, magic, divination), seems to be definitively unconvincing, judging by purely formal (lingual) criteria. It would be much more plausible to attribute these writings to some students or followers of this prominent representative of Byzantine proto-Humanism, conveniently designating these anonymous authors as “Pseudo-Psellus”. The text of the Opinions allows to promptly identify many cross-references not only to Proclus, but also to other Neoplatonists (Porphyry, Iamblichus, Synesius), and the section on the mysteries almost literally borrows (though not without blatant distortions) from Clement of Alexandria’s Protrepticus. The Russian translation is based on Paul Gautier’s edition (1988), which is itself based on the oldest manuscript, Vaticanus gr. 1411 (fin. s. xiv), containing the text of the compilation (ff. 33r–34v).

Critical Notes on Pseudo-Sisbert’s Exhortatio Poenitendi

This paper discusses textual problems in an anonymous Late Latin poem entitled Exhortatio poenitendi. In his classic edition (Berlin 1914), Karl Strecker used nine witnesses. In my critical edition from 2021, I studied, collated, and classified twenty manuscripts of this poem and established a new stemma codicum; a manuscript not known to me at the time has been used in this paper. In this article I propose new conjectures absent from my edition, reject other proposals made by previous editors, and discuss lines in which either the stemma cannot be used to guide the editor in the choice of readings, the diffusion of variants is irregular, or I have made a choice different from that of previous editors. Many of the disputed passages can now be clarified in the light of two other works attributed to the same anonymous author (the Lamentum poenitentiae and the Oratio pro correptione uitae), which were published together with the Exhortatio poenitendi for the first time in my 2021 edition.