German Scholars Research Articles

The Rise of Sociology

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, German scholarship represented a model that deeply inspired sociologists across the United States. It is therefore surprising that the institutionalization of sociology within American universities took place much earlier and faster than in their German counterparts. This raises the question as to how these different pathways towards formal academic establishment of the discipline might be explained. A comparative analysis suggests the answer lies in the diverging conceptions of what constituted “sociology” at the time, set against the background of tensions between abstract social theory and policy-relevant empirical research in the context of social reform.

The Information Turn in Modeling People and Society: Early German Work

The concept of is now so all-pervasive that few turn their attention to the origin and (initially slow) evolution of the concept as a basic element in science, technology, computing, and even, these days, the social sciences and humanities. Indeed, anyone who considers the development of the notion of information is likely to be restricted to a few great names such as Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, or the famous series of Macy Conferences on cybernetics, systems thinking, and related topics. Yet there is a fascinating, and rarely told, pre-history. This paper considers early attempts by German scholars at viewing individuals and societies from what, in retrospect, can be considered an information point of view. Specific areas examined by such scholars are the dilation of the pupil of the eye, a general proto-cybernetic approach to the human body, and feedback in organisms and the state. Such early work was not widely known by later German cyberneticists of the 1940s onwards, but it gradually came to inform their ideas: see in particular Henn [1].

Umberto Eco’s Theory of Interpretation as Textual Cooperation: Application to Legal Interpretation

German scholars make a distinction between the subjective theory of legal interpretation (to get to know the legislator's will) and the objective theory of legal interpretation (to get to know the meaning of law), used in combination in legal practice.81 When finding a place for Eco's theory between them, it should be emphasised that Eco's model analyses not the intentions of the author, but the directives of the text. Text as a generative scheme and a syntactic-semantic-pragmatic grasp82 of its internal structures determines its interpretation. Accordingly, the law directs its reader. The model Reader is thus inscribed in the text. As introduced in a practical way in the current article, at all levels of actualised content – discursive, narrative, actantial and ideological – the peculiarity of law text is that the Model Reader is helped to actualise the right structures, stimulated by the author (legislature). The reader's ability to recognise codes and subcodes, to actualise the narrative structures of fabula, topic and frames, and the capacity to recognise ideological structures is directed by the text at all levels. Knowing this, and keeping it in mind, helps lawyers to interpret laws with maximum adherence to the text. Therefore it is possible that, in parallel to traditional interpretative canons, lawyers to try to take into account Eco's schema, which reminds them of their duty to be led by the text. The central question for juridical interpretation – uniformity – is assured by the ability of a text to create its Model Reader's competence. This is why the outcome should be more in accordance with the rule of law. Legal interpretation is, as a practical matter, an act of power83 and therefore should not be totally unconstrained. Eco's semiotic theory reminds us that each norm, in a similar way to a sign, contains a set of instructions84 for interpretation. These aspects of cooperation between the author and the reader – textual strategy that leads to partnership between the reader and the author85– consolidate the rule of law in interpretation of law-texts, a key point made by Umberto Eco. Turning back to the starting point concentrating particularly on the research potential of law and literature, I agree with Dunlop, who has suggested that research ‘about’ law will inevitably address much bigger questions than research ‘in’ law.86 It may be that the strongest benefit of Eco's interpretive account is highlighting totally different aspects as juridical interpretative theory. Differentiating discursive, narrative, actantial and ideological levels in law and finding a set of instructions from each of these levels makes the peculiarities of legal texts evident. At the same time finding meaning in a text in methodologically different ways helps to broaden the view of lawyers and may therefore have a self-reflectory as well as educative effect.

Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 55

Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 55

Bereday and Hilker: origins of the ‘four steps of comparison’ model

ABSTRACTThe article draws attention to the forgotten ancestry of the four steps of comparison model (description – interpretation – juxtaposition – comparison). Comparativists largely attribute this to George Z. F. Bereday [1964. Comparative Method in Education. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston], but among German scholars, it is mostly attributed to Franz Hilker [1962. Vergleichende Pädagogik. München: Max Hueber]. Who, then, is the rightful author of the model? This article attempts to answer this question. The methodological approaches of the two authors will be compared and contextualised in respect to their academic lives, especially through the 1950s and 1960s. Hilker and Bereday both referred to each other's publications on several occasions, which indicates a close communication between them. In contrast to the Anglophone dominance of scientific journals today, their way of practising comparative education was multilingual. Their cooperation with the nascent national academic associations of those times is also examined. Finally, the epistemological characteristics of the four steps model, including its limitations, and value for the field of comparative education today, are evaluated.

Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

Yale’s James Whitman jumps straight into academic controversy with his new book outlining how the lawyers of the Third Reich modeled their anti-Jewish race laws on older Jim Crow era laws in the United States. Prior American and German scholars had previously tackled this hypothesis with mixed results—some dismissing the idea or playing it down, others acknowledging some limited influence. After plumbing primary sources from the Nazi government, however, Whitman goes much further and plants his flag squarely in the influence camp. The sources, read soberly, paint a different picture. Awful it may be to contemplate, but the reality is that the Nazis took a sustained, significant, and sometimes even eager interest in the American example in race law. They most certainly were interested in learning from America . . . . Nazi references to American law were neither few nor fleeting . . . . (4) Regretfully, as one looks backward, this assertion may not be overly surprising. But Whitman doesn’t stop there; he goes on to assert that America’s race laws were sometimes even too much for Hitler’s lawyers!

The Romanesque Bronze Doors at Gniezno Cathedral Church: Some New Remarks

Among many Romanesque bronze doors in Europe the old entrance doors of the metropolitan cathedral in Gniezno, in the North Poland, are exceptional. For over a century many historians and historians of art have been trying to understand and explain its iconographic phenomenon. The Polish, Czech and German scholars have so far been unable to identify with any conviction, either the iconographic models or artistic provenance of the workshop. There were suggested some connections of the alleged bishop patrons to France and there were emphasizes technological possibilities of foundry workshops at the Meuse Valley. This “Meuse hypothesis” based mainly on historical suggestions became established as a certainty. However, it is important to emphasize the significant difference between the creator of the composition and of the craftsman who cast the bronze door. Years ago only Lech Kalinowski pointed out some general formal similarities to the North Italian sculpture. The purpose of this paper is to develop Kalinowski’s suggestions and to emphasise the puzzling similarities between details of Gniezno doors and some Emilian works executed by Master Wiligelmo da Modena and Master Nicolò. The concept of Italian relationship from Emilia province seems to be better for the comparative analysis than relationship with Meuse Valley based mostly on historical context. Crucial here is the additional, parallel analysis of the portal decoration in Czerwinsk Abbey.

(Mis)reading the Market? The Publishing Business and Theory Transfer

This article explores the difficulties involved in theory transfer in the humanities from Germany to the English-speaking countries as they appear from the perspective of the publishing industry. Drawing on interviews with publishing professionals in Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom, it considers the relationship between academic, commercial, and broader cultural trends. Structural differences in academe and the publishing industry on both sides of the Atlantic are shown to lead to conflicting expectations, while an unequal language barrier seems to work against German scholars and publishers. Thus programs on the part of political and industry bodies in Germany to support the translation and publication of German scholarship have proved vital. Yet beyond such institutional considerations, fostering a broader understanding of an interest in contemporary German culture, as a context in which theory might be understood, remains a challenge.

The Anonymity of Siegfried Kracauer

This article investigates the role of names, naming, and anonymity in the career and reception history of Siegfried Kracauer. A signature motif of his life and writings, the notion of anonymity is ambivalent, signaling both invisibility and success. The article traces this motif from its treatment in Kracauer's novel Ginster to the role the author ascribes to it in his correspondence with Theodor W. Adorno, to the posthumous fate of his works on both sides of the Atlantic. A comparative reception history shows the different valences of Kracauer's name in German and Anglo-American scholarship, particularly in the history of film studies. The article situates the trope of anonymity at the heart of Kracauer's oeuvre, where it helps define a nonsovereign subject in response to modernity.

Professional Training of Computational Linguists at the University of Stuttgart

Abstract The paper deals with the aspects of professional training of specialists in computational linguistics by the example of the University of Stuttgart. First of all, we have attempted to define the essence of the terms “applied linguistics” and “computational linguistics” based on the views of Ukrainian and foreign scholars. We have found out that there is an obvious inconsistency in using these terms as Ukrainian scholars view it as a science related to practical application of linguistic achievements with the use of the latest technologies, whereas abroad they believe that computational linguistics is aimed at developing strategies for researches on natural languages. However, applied linguistics is related to language teaching methodology. We have concluded that German scholars view computational linguistics as a cognitive science that attempts to most successfully apply the achievements of linguistics in practice. Based on the view, German universities develop curricula that encompass theoretical and practical aspects of computational linguistics to prepare modern specialists able to comprehend the complexity of the field and be willing to adapt to challenges of a globalized world. Consequently, we have described the peculiarities of the programmes of a Bachelor of Science in Machine Language Programming and a Master of Science in Computational Linguistics. We have defined that duration of the programmes is traditional - three and two years respectively. Their structure comprises obligatory and elective courses, including Computer Science, Mathematics and Linguistics. In addition, future specialists may develop key professional competences attending seminars and colloquiums, participating in research projects, etc. It has been indicated that the list of electives involves those subjects aimed at enhancing future specialists’ skills in linguistics as well as computer science, yet they are entitled to suggest what they are interested in even if such courses are not included. We have also suggested that rather perspective are further studies on the essence of the terms “applied linguistics” and “computational linguistics” based on the research findings of scholars all over the world.

The Date of the Council of Serdica

The precise date of the Council of Serdica is so important because it is essential for establishing the chronology of numerous events in fourth-century Christianity, and thus for reconstructing its overall history and developments. Unfortunately, this date has been under debate for nearly two centuries. Traditionally, the council was dated to 347 C.E., but discoveries in the 18th and 19th centuries led scholars to favor first 344 and then 343. In the early 20th century, Eduard Schwartz inaugurated a new stage in the debate when he argued for 342. In his wake, most French, Italian, and English-speaking scholars argued for 343, whereas most German-speaking scholars followed Schwartz's authority and endorsed 342. In 1974, Marcel Richard advanced a novel argument in favor in 342 that appeared to cement this date for its advocates. Recently, however, 343 appears to be the preferred date even in German scholarship. After more than a century of debate, it seems, a consensus has been reached. This essay offers the most comprehensive reassessment of this debate to date to see if it really should be considered concluded. It re-examines all the evidence and all the arguments made in support of one date or another, in particular those of Schwartz and Richard, and argues that the case for the Council of Serdica's having been held in the autumn of 343 should be considered conclusive; thus, the lengthy debate can rightly be closed.

The digitization of the Wundt estate at Leipzig University.

Wilhelm M. Wundt (1832-1920) was one of the most important German scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries and famously founded the first institute for experimental psychology in Leipzig in 1879. Wundt's institute established a teaching and research facility that attracted a large number of students from all over the world and contributed greatly to the development of modern psychology. Until now, the relatively poor indexing and documentation as well as the difficulty in accessing the Wundt estate has prevented a widespread and comprehensive investigation and consideration of these documents. The digitization project described in this article has rectified these problems and will hopefully provide a valuable source for students and researchers interested in Wundt's work. (PsycINFO Database Record

Logic Diagrams in the Weigel and Weise Circles

From the mid-1600s to the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were two main circles of German scholars which focused extensively on diagrammatic reasoning and representation in logic. The first circle was formed around Erhard Weigel in Jena and consists primarily of Johann Christoph Sturm and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; the second circle developed around Christian Weise in Zittau, with the support of his students, particularly Samuel Grosser and Johann Christian Lange. Each of these scholars developed an original form of using geometric diagrams in logic. In this paper, I will trace the historical notes of John Venn and other modern logicians back to the original works published in the Weigel and Weise circles and describe the development of using geometric figures for logical reasoning and representation in that period of time.

Averroes, Kant and the Origins of the Enlightenment: Reason and Revelation in Arab Thought

Averroes, Kant and the Origins of the Enlightenment: Reason and Revelation in Arab Thought

Public spheres, counter public spheres ... and proletarian public spheres: the case of Facebook group of the Hellenic Halyvourgia S.A. strikers in Greece 2011-2012

The 9-month strike in Hellenic Halyvourgia S.A. marked the first period of social struggles against austerity policies in Greece and was embraced by a huge solidarity movement both at national and international level. During that time the only digital voice of the strikers was a Facebook group that, even created more than a year before, became a vivid gathering of the strikers, their relatives and people in solidarity, even some counter strikers. The paper exa mines the visual and text data of the Facebook group during the nine months of the strike and focuses both to the subjects, the members of the group and to the discourse pronounced by them. The question that rises from that and similar researches is whether cyberspace, and SNS in particular, could serve for the formation of a community of struggle and, furthermore, to what German scholars Negt and Kluge once called a ‘proletarian public sphere’.

Jeszcze o propozycji zakotwiczenia w kodeksie karnym kryteriów obiektywnego przypisania skutku

More on the proposal to include in the Criminal Code criteria of objective attribution of effectPolish jurists writing about criminal law as well as the case-law of the Supreme Court clearly display a growing acceptance of objective effect attribution. In German scholarship this theory has an extensive literature and fairly long history going back to the 1930s R. v. Honig. It owes its subsequent development to C. Roxin as well as numerous authors of German-language studies. In the Polish literature interest in the premises of the so-called Zurechnungslehre began much later, but it now has a substantial group of supporters. Some of them, however, including Prof T. Kaczmarek, oppose the proposal by the Criminal Law Codification Commission to introduce into the Criminal Code regulations indicating the need to apply the criteria of objective attribution of effect when determining whether a prohibited act is an act with criminal consequences. These authors point out that the catalogue of normative grounds for effect attribution is still debatable and the explanation of the criteria of objective effect attribution should better be left to jurists and case-law. Indeed, the German literature is far from any uniformity in the catalogue of criteria of objective effect attribution, with some authors rejecting objective attribution and looking for other concepts. This does not mean that these authors question the need to apply normative criteria when determining the causation of effect described in criminal law. However, the situation is different when it comes to Polish jurists and case-law. Opponents of objective effect attribution often highlight the advantages of applying the “simple” and “reliable” theory of equivalence of conditions and assume that the scope of necessary conditions may then be limited by the principle of guilt. Such a stance does not only denote a rejection of the assumption of objective eff ect attribution. It also fails to include conclusions stemming from other important concepts from the history of criminal law e.g. From studies conducted by K. Engisch or H. Welzl. At the same time it denotes a challenge to the findings from the now commonly accepted theory of norms and leads to a situation in which a court verdict sends a wrong message about the legal opinion on the wrongfulness of the analysed act. It would, therefore, seem useful to include in the Criminal Code a regulation which, without specifying in detail the various criteria of objective effect attribution, would point to the need to carry out a normative selection of causal links. Such a role could be played by a concise norm drawing on the so-called basic formula of objective attribution, a norm well-known to jurists.

Maletzke Model of Mass Communication in the Network Education

This article based on the Malletzke model of mass communication, the author analyzed the influence factors under the water and introduces this theory into the network education who hopes to help know more about the inner feature of teachers and students. Malletzke model of mass communication is the German scholars Malletzke present this model in his book Psychology of mass communication in 1963.It theoretically describe the communication activities between audience and disseminators under the limit of social psychology factors during the mass communication process.

Neighbours Reinventing the Wheell or Learning from Each Other? - The Belgian Administrative Loop and Its Constitutionality: A Comparison to the German Debate

This paper compares the reasoning of the Belgian Constitutional Court in its judgment on the federal and the Flemish ‘administrative loop’ to arguments that have been debated amongst German scholars with regard to their national system on the correction of procedural errors in light of the German Constitution. The paper shows how fundamental rules of constitutional law are interpreted differently in neighbouring states, and it highlights the desirability of an intensified comparative scholarly discourse on the correction of procedural errors during administrative litigations.

Entre la traducción y la historia. El enfoque funcionalista en el trabajo del historiador en el ejemplo de la traducción del tratado „Discurso sobre la forma de reducir la disciplina militar a mejor y antiguo estado”

Between translation and history. The functionalist approach of translation in historical investigation in the study of Discurso sobre la forma de reducir la disciplina militar a mejory antiguo estadoThis paper analyses the possibilities of application of some elements of translation studies into historical investigation. When analyzing a historical source, a historian works also as a translator and often, unaware of this, changes the meaning of the original information, that will eventually reshape the results of his final results [?]. History as a science does not use the language separated from the original terms for example concerning institutions, laws, religions, therefore the risk of mistake in the process of decoding the source is serious, as emphasized by Marc Bloch. The functionalist approach in translation, presented by German scholars Christiane Nord and Hans J. Vermeer and the theory of equivalence by Eugene Nida, prove helpful in the historical analysis of Spanish 16th-century military treatise Discurso sobre la forma de reducir la disciplina militar a mejor y antiguo estado. Using the military charges and early modern military law as examples, we can see how translation studies can improve the fidelity of historical analysis of sources.

John A. McCarthy; Stephanie M. Hilger; Heather I. Sullivan; Nicholas Saul (Editors). The Early History of Embodied Cognition, 1740–1920: The Lebenskraft-Debate and Radical Reality in German Science, Music, and Literature. (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 189.) 357 pp., bibl. Leiden: Brill, 2016. €99 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article FreeJohn A. McCarthy; Stephanie M. Hilger; Heather I. Sullivan; Nicholas Saul (Editors). The Early History of Embodied Cognition, 1740–1920: The Lebenskraft-Debate and Radical Reality in German Science, Music, and Literature. (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 189.) 357 pp., bibl. Leiden: Brill, 2016. €99 (cloth).Gabriel FinkelsteinGabriel Finkelstein Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreVitalism is back. From the dissertations of Michael Dettelbach, Maria Trumpler, Stuart Strickland, and Silvia Waisse-Priven, to the surveys of Peter Reill, Roselyne Rey, and Jessica Riskin, to the biographical studies of Anne Harrington, Ken Caneva, and Robert Richards, to the edited volumes of Guido Cimino, Robert Brain, and Sebastian Normandin, historians have attempted to rescue this venerable idea from the enormous condescension of biology. In similar fashion, The Early History of Embodied Cognition presents a collection of papers from a conference on German Romanticism with the aim of soliciting literary investigations of “the historical contours of the soul-body-mind inquiries of the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries” (p. 8) in Germany.The editors—John A. McCarthy, Stephanie M. Hilger, Heather I. Sullivan, and Nicholas Saul—divide the essays into four sections. In the first part, “Establishing Parameters: Lebenskraft and Artifact,” which covers the period before 1800, Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth reviews the relationship between medical theories of pneuma and literary expressions of gender, sexuality, and romance, Ingo Uhlig explains the meaning of a natural historical cabinet in Halle, and Brian I. McInnis compares the teachings of two eighteenth-century physiologists. The next section, “Blood, Nerves, Resonance,” concentrating on the first half of the nineteenth century, includes an article in which James Kennaway recounts how German scholars drew connections between music and the mind. Also in this section, Alexis B. Smith traces the theories of the Romantic physicist Johannes Ritter in the writings of E. T. A. Hoffmann, Alice A. Kuzniar interprets homeopathy as a form of vitalism, and Ann C. Schmiesing discusses the Brothers Grimm’s obsession with blood. In the third part, “Fitness and Fitting In,” which runs through the 1920s, Nicholas Saul reveals a Gothic face to Max Nordau’s stories, Stephanie M. Hilger unpicks the tangle of genders in a memoir of Wilhemine intersexuality, and Cate I. Reilly delves into the Romantic roots of Alfred Döblin’s crime fiction. Finally, in a section that addresses contemporary concerns, “The Lebenskraft-Debate Recast: The Posthuman and Radical Mediation,” Heather I. Sullivan reads Goethe as anticipating the age of the Anthropocene, and Monica Ledoux offers an apology for homeopathic hospitals.The essays offer interesting readings of German culture. It would have helped, however, if the contributors had been a little less innocent of the research on their topics. The opening remarks of John McCarthy (one of the editors) on the case of the schizophrenic Daniel Paul Schreber cites a work from a psychoanalyst published in 1974 but fails to mention better-known studies by Elias Canetti, Zvi Lothane, and Eric Santer; similarly, his history of vitalism draws heavily from Alfred Noll’s “slim essay collection” (p. 28) of 1914 but overlooks later treatments by Georges Canguilhem, Charles Wolfe, and Adelheid Voskuhl. More troubling is the volume’s methodology. For all its advocacy of the virtues of wholeness, reciprocity, and embodiment, it generally avoids placing its topics in historical context. Instead, it describes the history of vitalism in terms of textual influence, with different versions of the idea recurring at regular intervals of time. In the right hands this approach is illuminating, as when Brian McInnis traces Blumenbach’s Bildungstrieb and Soemmering’s Lebenskraft to the Haller’s notions of irritability and sensibility (p. 111). Other times it stirs up a good deal of confusion, as when Alexis Smith compares Ritter and Hoffmann (parallel Romantics), their interests in synaesthesia (parallel senses), and Hoffmann’s various pseudonyms (parallel people; p. 152). Analyzing printed texts is fine for the purposes of establishing literary genealogies, but historians tend to worry about motive and reception, which is why they emphasize actors and their audiences—the human sides of cultural production. The Early History of Embodied Cognition unquestionably advances Romantic literary scholarship. It just might have advanced it further. Notes Gabriel Finkelstein’s biography of Emil du Bois-Reymond received an Honorable Mention at the PROSE Awards, was shortlisted for the John Pickstone Prize (awarded by the British Society for the History of Science to the best scholarly book in the history of science), and was named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science as one of the Best Books of 2014. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 108, Number 1March 2017 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690695 © 2017 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.