Famous Pupil Research Articles

Brecht's Criticisms of Aristotle's Aesthetics of Tragedy

An ancient debate in aesthetics centers on the role of art and the emotions in moral and intellectual education.1 Does emotional engagement with the characters in drama help or hinder our critical intellectual reflections on the characters and situations represented by the work? Plato is famous for his suggestion in Republic X that the emotions tragedy evokes in the audience members makes them intellectually disabled and leads them morally astray. This criticism of an emotional response to tragedy is not shared by Plato's most famous pupil, who values tragedy precisely because it elicits emotions that operate in conjunction with a cognitive understanding of ourselves and the world. This is the interpretation of Aristotelian aesthetics recently presented by scholars Martha Nussbaum and Stephen Halliwell.2 Both independently suggest that tragedy, on Aristotle's view, engages both the understanding and the emotions through representations that call for genuine, independent reflection on our related possibilities. This interpretation of Aristotle is striking when compared with the criticism of Aristotelian theater offered a number of years ago by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht criticizes the aesthetic tradition initiated by Aristotle for its preference for dramatic narratives that please but do not instruct or provide real learning about the source of human suffering. Brecht attacks Aristotelian catharsis as a kind of opium of the masses, arguing that empathizing with characters prevents viewers from reflecting critically on the social causes of human suffering.3 Brechtian aesthetics is itself receiving criticism from those who argue that Brecht mistakenly assumes that emotion and reason cannot both be part of an integrated aesthetic response.4 I believe these criticisms of Brecht miss the essential points of Brecht's critique of Aristotelian aesthetics.5 In what follows I argue that Brecht is correct to find fault with Aristotelian aesthetics, for critical thinking in relation to drama and an account of the role of the emotions in a critical approach to drama are essentially not accounted for in Aristotle's discussion. While critical of Aristotle's aesthetics, I note a key legacy of Aristotelian aesthetics: the important role that emotions play in our identifications with characters and situations depicted in art. Brecht's critique of Aristotle's aesthetics will be stronger if we can locate Brecht's complaints more specifically in Aristotle's text, something that Brecht himself failed to do. So I shall reconstruct Brecht's critique as criticisms aimed at a plausible interpretation of Aristotle's text. My interpretation of Aristotle focuses on a rather neglected aspect of his theory: his requirement for preferred tragic plot patterns and character. I focus on two aspects of Aristotle's account: (1) his view that plots must feature the individual error (or hamartia) of a morally admirable protagonist, and (2) his view that engaging with the thoughts and feelings of the tragic protagonist is central to responding to tragedy. I argue that these practices, as Aristotle describes them, do not permit drama that is socially critical unless a playwright supplements them with other devices that link the action of the protagonist with a larger social nexus. These supplemental devices are the

The Songbook Gospel Movement in Arkansas: E. M. Bartlett and the Hartford Music Company

TODAY, FEW REMEMBER THE HARTFORD MUSIC COMPANY of Hartford, Arkansas, although some have heard of its most famous pupil, Albert Brumley, author of I'll Fly Away and many other fixtures in the American popular/religious music canon. Among a dwindling number of the faithful, however, the company's central figure, E. M. Bartlett, remains a towering figure. His Victory in Jesus has been heavily anthologized, and there is no doubt that between 1920 and 1950 the Hartford Music Company was one of the hottest things going in the heartland of published music. Its musical institute trained hundreds of teachers and musicians each year. The company's songbooks sold up to 100,000 copies annually during the 1930s.1 At the center of a vast network of music teachers, students, musicians, convention singers, and songwriters, Hartford helped the flourish in the South between the world wars. The grew out of the popular religious musical expression and entrepreneurship of the nineteenth century. The Hartford Company's most influential predecessors included the RuebushKieffer Music Company of Virginia and the Showalter Music Company of Georgia. Named for their founders, these companies published books that included both traditional, folk-oriented religious songs and new compositions, which were often written specifically for these publications. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the newer songs, whose style owed more to northern urban revival and popular secular songs-with their diatonic (eight note scale) melodies and sweet triadic harmonies-began outnumbering the traditional ones, which often had favored pentatonic (five note) scales and the more open, stark harmonies characteristic of singing books like the Sacred Harp.2 The newer songs came to be written in fairly complex four-part lines, reflecting the influence of the music conventions, their trained singers, and four-part harmony. They resembled what is commonly known today as the quartet-dominated country or southern sound, most closely associated with white rather than African-American performers and audiences. This music is best termed songbook gospel because of the prevalent influence of the companies, whose musical publications, primarily annual and biannual songbooks, and educational activities trained several generations of teachers, singers, and songwriters. The organized, educational nature of the companies' activities can legitimately be termed a movement. In the first half of the twentieth century these companies' music and influence literally blanketed the South. By teaching huge numbers of people to read and write music, company schools and conventions represented a kind of literacy program. The term movement is also appropriate because the activities that constituted the world were representative of the religiously conservative, largely rural subculture that characterized large portions of the region. The Stamps-Baxter Music Company of Dallas, for instance, became virtually a household word in the American South. Music companies like Hartford need to be recognized as salient cultural signifiers not only of social continuity but of social change in the twentieth-century South. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the South and its border states were still largely rural and agricultural but were beginning to reflect the growing influence of the industrial city and its newer communication technologies. These companies and their music bridged older and newer ways of life. The sentiments of their songs reflected traditional family and spiritual values. But the songs were also the products of a vast, mass production-oriented commercial enterprise, which utilized the latest available technology (large-scale printing, radio, and sound recording) and foreshadowed an urbanized, mobile, media-saturated society. For example, the Vaughan Music Company, which traced its roots to the nineteenth century, claimed to have operated the first radio station in Tennessee. …

BARTOLUS OF SASSOFERRATO AND FREE CITIES

Abstract‘Well are ye called the Free People.' – BagheeraBARTOLUS of Sassoferrato (1314–1357) is as famous to legal historians and specialists in the history of political ideas as he is unkown outside those areas of research. His obscurity is owed not to his mind but to his genre: the commentary on Justinian'sCorpus Iuris Civilis, and the occasional monograph of more systematic yet still legalistic lineaments. Of the thousands of lawyers who studied, taught and applied Roman law from its rediscovery in the late eleventh century to the end of the middle ages, there are perhaps three or four who command universal respect, some of whom we shall encounter in what follows. Only Bartolus radiates the nimbus of genius. In the realm of political ideas, he has – perversely, perhaps – best been served by Anglophone historiography, beginning with the classic study published in 1913 by C.N.S. Woolf, continuing by way of Walter Ullmann's numerous articles and most recently subjected to a full-scale analysis by Joseph Canning in his study of the ideas of Bartolus' most famous pupil, Baldus de Ubaldis (d. 1400).

Charcot and Duchenne: of mentors, pupils, and colleagues.

In the history of medicine, there have been notable mentors, famous pupils, and celebrated colleagues. Seldom, however, have two renowned physicians simultaneously been mentors, pupils, and colleagues to each other, as was the case with Jean-Martin Charcot (Fig. 1) and Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (Fig. 2). Notwithstanding a 19-year difference in age and the fact that each was a well-published neurological scientist in his own right, these investigators developed a multifaceted relationship which served to reciprocally foster their separate vocations, enhance their mutual endeavors, and enrich the field of neurology. This study examines the teaching, learning, and scientific sharing that uniquely marked the careers of Charcot and Duchenne.

Geregtigheid, billikheid en waarheid in Platoniese en hedendaagse perspektief: Antieke waardes in Suid-Afrikaanse konteks

Justice, fairness and truth In Platonic and contemporary perspective: ancient values in South African contextThe concept of justice (dikaiosyne) in the thought of Plato was only one of the four cardinal virtues described by him, the others being wisdom (sophia), restraint (sophrosyne) and courage (andreia). Justice was inevitably linked with fairness or equity (epieikeia), a concept more fully developed by Plato's most famous pupil, Aristotle. It was likewise associated with the concept of truth (aletheia) as a virtue and as part of a purifying process. Later generations ofphilosophers, from Cicero to Rawls, were fascinated by such Platonic and Aristotelian thought, although they interpreted it in various ways. In a changing world many ancient values are as relevant today as they were in the distant past. They are basic to fundamental human rights, which have become so prominent in modern times. They are essential ingredients of peace and reconciliation, as amply recognised in South Africa, which has only recently joined the community of democratic nations and is dependent on instruments, such as its new Bill o f Rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to achieve transformation.

'The Truth Is Over There'

'The Truth Is Over There'

William Cullen and the Eighteenth Century Medical World

William Cullen (1710-1790) was a distinguished Scottish physician of the 18th century. He was a ship's surgeon and a practitioner in his hometown of Hamilton. Later he taught at Glasgow and Edinburgh. He had a large consultant practice not only in Scotland but also in England and Europe. He taught chemistry and medicine and wrote several books. He had such distinguished contemporaries as Adam Smith and such famous pupils as Joseph Black, discoverer of carbon dioxide ("fixed air"), and William Withering, who discerned foxglove's medicinal properties. Cullen was generous, sympathetic, modest, and well liked. All these attributes and accomplishments should have been enough to earn him a safe place in the history of medicine. History, though, is an unforgiving judge, and it accords a much more prominent position to Cullen's contemporaries Smith, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Benjamin Franklin, and Benjamin Rush. This may be so because Cullen "discovered nothing; no

Richard Rufus of Cornwall and the Tradition of Oxford Theology

Bridges the gap in our knowledge of theological developments in the 13th century between Robert Grosseteste, founding father of the Oxford Schools, and Duns Scotus, their most famous pupil.

The Age of Miracles: Medicine and Surgery In the Nineteenth Century

Guy Williams in<i>The Age of Miracles</i>has crafted a fascinating account of major advances and discoveries in the 19th century that have profoundly affected current health care. The book begins with a well-known figure, the anatomist John Hunter, and the contributions of some of his famous pupils, such as Edward Jenner and his monumental work on smallpox. The difficulties of investigation and teaching are highlighted by accounts of the "body snatchers" who provided material for dissection culminating in the Anatomy Act of 1832, which ensured a "sufficient supply of cadavers" in Britain. The chapter on anesthetics is pleasantly thorough and details all the important events connected with this remarkable discovery that freed human beings from the agonies of surgery. "Going to hospital" in the early 19th century was a decision not taken lightly and generally was avoided at all costs by those who could be operated on and otherwise

Rise and fall of the German University Eye Clinic in Prague

The German University in Prague was founded in 1348 by the German Emperor Karl IV. However, it was not until 1808 that an eye clinic was established there, by Johann Nepomuk Fischer; the clinic was incorporated into the university in 1820. Fischer retired in 1847 and was succeeded by Ferdinand Arlt, though not as professor in ordinary. Fortunately, the chair in Prague was offered to Arlt before he had definitively accepted a call to Leipzig. During the period 1856 to 1883 Ferdinand Ritter von Arlt held the chair of ophthalmology in Vienna, an ophthalmic center of high repute. One of his most famous pupils was Albrecht von Graefe, of Berlin. Josef von Hasner directed the Prague Eye Clinic from 1856 to 1883, followed by Hubert Sattler (1886-1891). Isidor Schnabel was professor in Prague from 1891 to 1895, before going to Vienna. His successor, Wilhelm Paul Czermak, directed the Prague Eye Clinic from 1895 to 1906. He was followed by Isidor Schnabel's most outstanding pupil, Anton Elschnig, a Styrian by birth, who held the chair from 1907 to 1933. Under Elschnig's guidance the Prague University Eye Clinic reached a high international standard. Professor Elschnig retired in 1933 and died in Vienna in 1939 following a street accident. Elschnig's successor was his former assistant Jaroslav Kubik; he had to relinquish the chair after the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia because his wife was Jewish.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

FERDINAND SAUERBRUCH (1875-1951)--THORACIC SURGEON.

Ferdinand Sauerbruch, the most famous pupil of von Mikulicz, was one of the most respected as well as one of the most fearsome surgeons of Central Europe in the first portion of the 20th century. He contributed heavily to the development of techniques which made the thoracic cavity as surgically approachable as the abdominal cavity a generation earlier. Ferdinand was born of humble parents in Barmen, Germany. His father, who died of pulmonary tuberculosis two years after his birth, was the technical manager of a textile factory; subsequently, his grandfather Hammerschmidt, a master shoemaker, became his guardian. Ferdinand's early years, as recounted in his autobiography, had more bitterness and frustration than happiness, which may have been reflected by his unusual adjustment to a highly successful professional career.¹ Sauerbruch studied the natural sciences at the University of Marburg, found them uninteresting, and transferred to the University of Leipzig to begin

Optical rotatory dispersion of polypeptides and proteins

“THE invention in 1866 of the Bunsen burner inhibited the more laborious study of rotatory dispersion by making it almost too easy to work with the nearly monochromatic light of the sodium flame, and in this way brought to an end the fertile era which Biot had inaugurated half a century before.” Thus wrote Lowry in his classical study of optical rotatory power. l As a matter of fact, during the time of Biot and his famous pupil, Pasteur, nearly all studies of optical activity were associated with measurements of optical rotatory dispersion. It was indeed most unfortunate that much valuable information was lost in later years through the extensive use of the sodium lamp by almost all the workers in this field. Within the last five years, however, we have witnessed an increasing interest in the optical rotatory power, both theoretically and experimentally. With the availability of commercial spectropolarimeters, the optical rotatory dispersion studies have experienced a rebirth, and have already yielded many fruitful findings as a result of new developments. On the one hand, this technique has been extensively applied to the structural studies of organic compounds, as evidenced by the beautiful work of Djerassi et al. * Of equal importance are the applications of optical rotatory dispersion to the study of polypeptide and protein conformations. It is at the latter aspect that the present paper will be aimed. Already the vast interest in this field has resulted in the appearance of several excellent reviews.3-6 A monograph on synthetic polypeptides has also been published which describes in detail the work of the English school. 7 Therefore (and taking into consideration the limits of time and space imposed upon me) it seems superfluous to discuss recently publishd work; nor is it necessary to describe the work of some of the distinguished participants present at this symposium. Rather, we will limit our brief review to some of our early work, which I, myself, had the good fortune to observe closely. Some of the older proposals and interpretations will also be re-examined in view of later developments.

British Medicine and the Göttingen Medical School

IN a recent paper (Bull. Hist. Med., 14, 449; 1943) Prof. Max Neuburger remarks that during the eighteenth century inadequate facilities for teaching and research prevented most of the medical schools in Germany from furthering either medical training or scientific research. On the other hand, the medical school at Vienna and the Medical Faculty at Göttingen were remarkable exceptions, and owed their celebrity to two famous pupils of Boerhaave, namely, Gerhard van Swieten at Vienna and Albrecht v. Haller at Göttingen. George II, who founded the University of Göttingen in 1734, invited Haller to fill the vacant chair of medicine, which included anatomy, surgery and botany. Haller had previously spent some time in London, where he made the acquaintance of several English physicians and surgeons such as Sir Hans Sloane, John Pringle and William Cheselden, and frequently quoted British writers, notably Stephen Hales, John Mayow and Thomas Willis, in his own works. During the seventeen years when he resided at Göttingen, he exercised a great influence on the University, being responsible for the erection of an anatomical theatre, a botanical garden and a lying-in institution. He also founded a scientific society of which he was the first and permanent president, and a scientific journal to which he made more than a thousand contributions. Between 1739 and 1744 he completed the six-volume edition of Boerhaave's "Institutiones", for which he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society. He was also author of numerous other works on anatomy, physiology, medicine, surgery and botany. In 1739 he was appointed physician in ordinary to George II, who conferred a knighthood upon him and made him one of his consultant physicians. Owing to reasons of health, he left Göttingen for Berne in 1753. Many of Haller's successors at Göttingen, as Prof. Neuburger points out, had studied in London. Among them may be mentioned Roederer, Sömmering, Thomas Young and Blumenbach.

Lieut.-Commander J. R. de la H. Marett

LIEUT.-COMMANDER JOHN RANULPH DE LA HAULE MARETT, R.N., of H.M.S. Glorious, presumed killed in action, was, like his father, Dr. R. R. Marett, rector of Exeter College, Oxford, a student of anthropology, though he approached the subject from a somewhat different angle. Like his father, however, he had a bold pioneer spirit, and was not afraid to collect and review the specialized contributions of many others with the view of showing what came of the synthesis, and what problems were raised in the whole effort to understand man, his race, culture, and environment. Like his father again, he held that all specialized contributions, including his own, must be judged in the light of their relation to the whole complex of studies. Many famous pupils of Dr. Marett will recall this constant attention to great problems and main issues, and those who knew his son, including his former teachers, will remember in him the same flair for formulating and planning the line of approach and possible solution. To the father has been given the fullness of time to show the value of his attitude to life. To the son, this longer time has been denied, but to those who knew his work, there has been ample promise of great fulfilment and much valuable and stimulating achievement.

Memorial to Thomas Tompion

ON Saturday, April 1, a plaque in memory of Thomas Tompion, the clockmaker, was unveiled in St. Mary's Church, Northill, Bedfordshire, where he was born in 1639, and simultaneously a wreath was laid on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1713. The plaque is the gift of the Clockmakers' Company and was unveiled by the Master, Mr. B. Kettle, the address at the service being delivered by the Archdeacon of St. Albans, the Ven. A. H. Parnell. At the ceremony at the Abbey, Sir Francis Newbolt, the Deputy Master of the Clock-makers' Company, said Tompion was honoured by the Company as one of its greatest Masters. So great was his mechanical genius and incessant industry that he was appointed clockmaker to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich at its foundation. He was a brilliant craftsman and made practical the theoretical inventions of others. He left English watches and clocks the finest in the world and the admiration of his brother artists. The grave Tompion lies in, it may be remarked, also contains the remains of his famous pupil and successor, George Graham, who died in 1751. The slab now to be seen in the Abbey, on which Graham's remarkable skill is referred to, was removed in 1838 and a small lozenge-shaped stone substituted. Thanks, however, to Dean Stanley, the original was replaced in 1866.

Statement and Inference.

John Cook Wilson, Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford from 1899 to 1915, swung British philosophical opinion away from Idealism and towards Realism. Cook Wilson used careful attention to the grammatical form of language - including verbal stress and context - as the method of investigating the foundations of human knowledge. The result was a neo-Aristotelian notion of substances that are directly known to us in perceptual experience. He explained the difficulties of perceptual illusion by appealing to Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities. Although he published little in his lifetime, Cook Wilson's teaching had a huge influence on generations of Oxford students. His more famous pupils included Gilbert Ryle and J.L. Austin. Today, there are clear signs of a reawakening of interest in Cook Wilson, especially in the recent writings of John McDowell and Timothy Williamson. This interest centres around Statement and Inference, Cook Wilson's single major publication. Published posthumously in 1926, it consists of his collected journal articles, lectures, manuscript remains, correspondence and a memoir.

Book Review: Laura Bridgman, Dr. Howe's Famous Pupil, and What He Taught Her

Book Review: Laura Bridgman, Dr. Howe's Famous Pupil, and What He Taught Her