Paris Lectures Research Articles

Edvard Munch’s crisis in 1908 and French medicine: His doctors, treatments, and sources of information

ABSTRACT In 1908, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch—already famous for The Scream and other paintings showing sickness, despair, and suffering—put himself under the care of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, a nerve doctor in Copenhagen. Jacobson had previously attended some of Jean-Martin Charcot’s lectures in Paris, as had Knud Pontoppidan, his mentor. Munch, in turn, had long been showing signs and symptoms of an anxiety disorder and what might have been viewed as neurasthenia or hysteria. Now, he also seemed to be suffering from acute alcoholic toxicity. In this article, we explore Scandinavian psychiatry at the turn of the century; Jacobson and Pontoppidan’s connections to Paris; and how some of Munch’s treatments, most notably his electrotherapy sessions, related to therapeutics at La Salpêtrière. Additionally, various ways in which Munch learned about French medicine are examined. This material reveals how well-known and influential Charcot and his ideas about disorders of the brain and mind had become at the turn of the century, affecting not just the French physicians but also a world-famous artist and his nerve doctor in Scandinavia.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky and His Francophonic «Anthologie de la littérature ukrainienne» (1921) in Belgian and French Publications of the 20th and 21stcenturies (in Ukrainian) 7-15

Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s presence in French culture dates back to the beginning of the 20th century (a course of lectures in Paris, a review of É. Verhaeren’s drama, a 1912 Paris edition, etc.). Scholar’s most outstanding work in the context of Ukrainian-Francophone literary relations is his «Anthologie de la literature ukrainienne» (1921), which helped Francophone researchers learn about the literary heritage of Ukraine from ancient times to the 19th century. The main thesis of the article is the importance of this anthology in further acquaintance of the French speaking world with Ukrainian literature. The preface to this book written by the French linguist professor Antoine Meillet of College de France was important as it emphasized such an significant fact about the publication as «literature in Ukrainian not well known in other countries». M. Hrushevsky explained that it was only the first step of Ukrainian sociological institute which started its work on creation of the anthology of Ukrainian literature of later period. Materials from the edition of Ukrainian Sociological Institute were partly used in 1928 by the editorship of the Belgian-French magazine «La Nervie», being completed by some other samples of Ukrainian literature of the second half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20thcentury. Another fact that testifies about the importance ofHrushevsky’s anthology is that the outstanding French scholar and literary critic Roger Tisserand, the author of numerous encyclopedia articles about Ukrainian writers and the work «Life of a nation. Ukraine», referred to it more than once using some samples of Ukrainian poetry. Two excerpts from Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s edition («Galician–Volhynian Chronicle» (fragment) and «Praise to St. Volodymyr») were reprinted in Vol. 4a (1993) by the compilers of Belgian encyclopaedia «Patrimoine littéraireeuropéen» (12 vols.). A separate chapter about Mykhailo Hrushevsky and an excerpt from his foreword to the «Anthologie…» were included into Sarcelles anthology of Ukrainian literature (2004) by literary scholar Arkady Zhukovsky. The scholar described extensively Mykhailo Hrushevsky with special focus on his scholarly-research work, teaching and organization of academic life.The literary critic illustrated life and creative activity of the scholar by extracts from the preface to «Anthologie de la littérature ukrainienne…» and gave a short explanation of the issues, raised by Mykhailo Hrushevsky in his subsequent works. The material in the article about the resonance of M. Hrushevsky’s French anthology in the French speaking milieu testifies to the presence of the outstanding scholar, historian and literary critic in European culture. Such works as André Mazon’s memorable article in the Slavic journal «Le Monde Slave» (V. 12, № 1–2, 1935) and A. Joukovsky’s French language research «Mykhailo Hrouchevskyi. Sa vie et son œuvre. Paris, 1997» are of great interest.

The comparative method in Adam Mickiewicz’s etymological ideas

In the fi rst half of the nineteenth century in his Paris lectures, Adam Mickiewicz defi ned the comparative method on three different levels: 1. cultural (the comparison of civilizations), 2. literary (the comparison of literatures) and 3. linguistic (the comparison of languages). However, it was language that became the principium comparationis, serving as the poet’s point of departure in all his major comparisons. Mickiewicz studied linguistics much more thoroughly than was necessary for the preparation of the lectures at the Collège de France. In the early 1840s, he became interested in the etymology of words. He expected this to enable him to discover the secrets of Slavic history and culture. As Mickiewicz claimed, it would be impossible to achieve on the basis of Slavic architecture and art, as they hardly existed, with the exception of oral poetry: fables, hymns, and legends. As with previous Slavic enthusiasts, Mickiewicz failed in his attempts at creating a mythos of this people’s former greatness and historic destiny based on its system of beliefs, for this very system could not be reconstructed. Accordingly, he tried to derive myth from language. Mickiewicz treated linguistics as the main means of comparing the roles that Slavs and other peoples played, or were supposed to play, in their history.

Two Economies: Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park

The article presents the vision of economy as husbandry inscribed in Adam Mickiewicz’s narrative poem Pan Tadeusz. This vision opposes the modern liberal economy, which shaped capitalism in the first half of the 19th century. The issue is discussed in the context of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, as well as Mickiewicz’s own economic views, as presented in his journalistic writing and his Paris lectures. Both literary texts depict landed estates at the beginning of the 19th century: in a historically Polish territory and in England. In the latter case, we are dealing with an outline of the perspective of transitioning from traditional economy to the modern bourgeois model (connected with the colonial expansion); in the former – with an attempt to transpose traditional economy to the level of myth and with eschewing development towards capitalism.

РОМАНТИЧНА ІСТОРІОСОФІЯ А. МІЦКЕВИЧА. ЕМОЦІЇ, ПРОСТІР, ІМПЕРІЯ

The article examines A. Mickiewicz’s “Crimean Sonnets” in the context of geopolitics, anthropology, and literary imagology. Attention is focused on the phenomenon of knowing the Other, the situation of the cultural frontier of the Polish émigré poet, the founder of national romanticism, the reformer of the Polish language, the author of works about Lithuania and Ukraine, and the researcher of Slavonia. Attention is focused on the Paris lectures of A. Mickiewicz, in which Ukraine appears as the personification of the frontier, the territory of the borderland, multiculturalism, and the place of geopolitical clashes. The impor- tance of the landscape factor for the interpretation of Ukrainian history, which is closely connected with the national space and picturesque landscapes, is emphasized. The dichotomy of West and East is inscribed in the local-ethnographic context of Ukrainian everyday life, the contradictory meeting of cultures on the border. Mickiewicz’s historiosophy is connected with the steppe as a marker of Ukraine. In this connection, the concept of cultural influences of M. Hrushevskyi, his views on the steppe and the sea as extremely important concepts of the history of Ukraine are considered. «Crimean Sonnets» appear as the embodiment of steppe metaphors at various levels. It is stated that Mickiewicz’s depiction of the steppe completely breaks out of the traditional framework of landscape descriptions, sketches, and national landscapes. Special attention is drawn to the anthropological aspects of the steppe space, its close connection with emotions, mentality, artistic style. Mickiewicz’s works are considered in the context of the work of Polish poets of the Ukrainian school – B. Zaleski, A. Malczewski, S. Goszczyński. Emphasis is placed on the rhizome structure of the steppe space in the texts of Polish romanticism. This allows us to combine opposites and antinomies within the limits of artistic integrity, to read symbolic emotions and mental movements in the cultural geography. The steppe is analyzed as a national space, a metaphor of Ukrainian history, cultural geography, a landscape characteristic of style, writing, emotions, ethnopsychology.

Adam Mickiewicz and the Concept of the Ethnolinguistic Unity of the Slavs

ABSTRACT Adam Mickiewicz, the Polish romantic poet, perceived language not only as a tool for learning about the history and culture of the Slavs but also as a factor that can restore the unity of these seemingly different and dispersed peoples, who in reality have common roots and who form a single community under ethnic and civilizational considerations. Mickiewicz created the image of the Slavs’ identity in Paris lectures, when Austro-Slavism and southern pan-Slavism were slowly gaining momentum, also in reference to the process of language development and the dynamics of those changes. According to Mickiewicz, language and literature deserved to be called reliable and lasting links that connect the Slavic peoples. By proclaiming such an opinion, not only did he rise above the political divisions, but also he invalidated the sociocultural differences between the Slavs.

Dwie ekonomie: Pan Tadeusz Adama Mickiewicza i Mansfield Park Jane Austen

Two Economies: Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park The article presents the vision of economy as husbandry inscribed in Adam Mickiewicz’s narrative poem Pan Tadeusz. This vision opposes modern liberal economy which shaped capitalism in the first half of the 19th century. The issue is discussed in the context of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park as well as Mickiewicz’s own economic views, as presented in his journalistic writing and his Paris lectures. Both literary texts depict landed estates at the beginning of the 19th century: in a historically Polish territory and in England. In the latter case, we are dealing with an outline of the perspective of transitioning from traditional economy to the modern bourgeois model (connected with colonial expansion); in the former – with an attempt to transpose traditional economy to the level of myth and with eschewing development towards capitalism.

Temat słowiański w twórczości literackiej i przesłaniu pastoralnym Karola Wojtyły – Jana Pawła II

The starting point of this article is the question of whether there is a connection between the Slavic theme in the early poetry of Karol Wojtyła and the papal teaching of John Paul II addressed to the Slavic nations. The main inspirations and ideas present in Wojtyla’s juvenilia are identified through the analysis of three aspects of his poetry: the creation of the subject, the literary kinship by choice and the historiosophical ideas evoked. The results of this comparative research indicates that the author’s poetic imagination is rooted primarily in the Bible and in the works of the Polish Romantic poets. A particularly privileged place here is occupied by Cyprian Norwid, the author of the poems Promethidion and Chopin’s Piano. The concept of nations and their historical mission in the papal teaching has numerous points in common with the Slavic thoughts of Adam Mickiewicz (in his Paris lectures) and Norwid in his poetry. The threads of selected homilies and the encyclical Slavorum Apostoli testify to this.

„Tatarski czyn” Norwida między hierarchią a erupcją (semantyka, konteksty, konsekwencje)

Drawing on a scholarly polemic of the 1930s, this paper differentiates between two ways of understanding and translating Cyprian Norwid’s formula “tatarski czyn,” as ‘Tatar deed’ (from the Polish czyn) or as ‘Tatar rank’ (from the Russian chin according to the Tsarist Table of Ranks). The aim is to show how the eruptive versus the hierarchical readings of “tatarski czyn” have influenced the opinions on Norwid’s dialogic treatise Promethidion (1851) and, more generally, on his criticism of the utopian thought of Polish Romanticism and of Russian po-litics. It was Adam Mickiewicz who in the 1820s and 1830s pointed to the homonymy between czyn and chin and its potential in enacting ambivalences between the seemingly incommensurable imaginaries of eruption and hierarchy. Moreover, Mickiewicz already linked both understandings of czyn with a stereotypical Tatar, or Mongolian, “Asianness.” In this respect, Norwid’s formula is fairly conventional. What is genuinely original, however, is how Norwid turns Mickiewicz’s earlier ideas against those of the later Mickiewicz who, in his Paris Lectures on the Slavs (1840–1844), seems to glorify the “Tatar deed.” In contrast to the “bloody ladder” of Russian bureaucracy and the irrational tendency in Mickiewicz’s activism, Norwid suggests a “gradual labor” culminating in, not erupting with, the deed (Promethidion). This aspect of Norwid’s metaphorical thought is shown in a parallel reading with the philosopher August Cieszkowski who, in his Prolegomena to Historiosophy (1838), conceptualized history as a “texture of deeds” leading to institutions. Similarly, Norwid’s positive notion of the deed, i.e. his revision of Romantic activism, should be situated beyond the alternatives of eruption and hierarchy.

„Za nim rosnące pójdą plemiona / W światło – gdzie Bóg”. „Słowiański” pontyfikat św. Jana Pawła II

This article deals with the presence of issues of Slavdom in the thoughts and works of John Paul II as an expression of their roots in Polish Romantic literature. Its centre is the cult of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who, in the Pope’s view, became an expression of the universalism, Greek heritage and Christianity of the Slavic peoples. A reminder of the importance of the Solon brothers had already been mentioned in the Paris lectures of Adam Mickiewicz and in a forgotten poem by Teofil Lenartowicz. This was associated with the need for Slavs to gain self-knowledge, as demanded by Norwid, Słowacki, Mickiewicz and others. The mission of the Slavic Pope fulfils the above postulates of the Romantic poets. John Paul II recalls the identity of the Slavs and their role in the papacy and a united Europe. It restores their dignity and is an indication of their future.

The Semantics Controversy at the 1935 Paris Congress

‪The debates on semantics and its philosophical significance that took place at the 1935 Paris Congress for Scientific Philosophy are of particular historical interest for two reasons. Firstly, they are generally recognized as one of the major events to have taken place at the Congress. Secondly, and more substantially, they were to play a decisive role in the future of semantics as a field of philosophy. The discussions were initiated by Carnap, who invited Tarski to deliver two lectures in Paris. The two of them, along with Kokoszynska, were to act as the principal champions of semantics. Neurath, who wrote the summary of the discussion, raised several objections against Tarskian semantics. In particular, he feared that semantics would introduce metaphysics (in the Vienna Circle’s sense) into philosophy. As subsequent developments would prove, it would be the defenders of semantics who would win the argument. ‪

Foucault and Shakespeare: Ceremony, Theatre, Politics

AbstractFoucault only refers to Shakespeare in a few places in his work. He is intrigued by the figures of madness that appear in King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth. He occasionally notes the overthrow of one monarch by another, such as in Richard II or Richard III, arguing that “a part of Shakespeare's historical drama really is the drama of the coup d’État.” For Foucault, the first are illustrations of the conflict between the individual and the mechanisms of discipline. The second are, however, less interesting than moments when the sovereign is replaced, not with another sovereign, but with a different, more anonymous, form of power. Yet, in his 1976 Collège de France course, Society Must Be Defended, where he treats the theme at most length, he intriguingly suggests that Shakespearean historical tragedy is “at least in terms of one of its axes, a sort of ceremony, or a rememorialization of the problems of public right.” Foucault was long fascinated by the theatre, and especially its relation to political ceremony. Drawing especially on his 1972 lectures in Paris and a related presentation in Minnesota, this paper asks how we might understand the relation between ceremony, theatre, and politics in Foucault and Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare's plays, both histories and tragedies, thus demonstrate the importance of ritual and ceremony, a political theatre. Examining the disrupted ceremony of King Lear, the repeated ceremony of King John, the denial of ritual in Coriolanus, and the parody of the ceremonial in Henry IV, Part One opens up a range of historical, theoretical, and political questions.

‘It is not you who must learn civilization from other nations…’. Adam Mickiewicz on modernity and modern Western civilization

The aim of the present work is to recall the attitude towards modernity in Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), the greatest poet and thinker of Polish Romanticism. First of all, emigration writings by Mickiewicz, created in the thirties and forties of the 19th century were taken into account, in which the poet enclosed his reflections on modernity and Western civilization combined with historiosophic thought both on Polish history, the current situation and the future: The Book of the Polish Pilgrims (Paris, 1832); Dresden Forefathers’ Eve (Dresden 1832), constituting the Polish literary canon, the article O ludziach rozsądnych i ludziach szalonych published anonymously in the Paris ‘Pielgrzym Polski’ (1833, N°. 8); Pan Tadeusz (Paris, 1834) – an epic poem recognized as ‘the Polish national epic’ and Paris lectures – a series of lectures by Mickiewicz provided from 22 December 1840 to 28 May 1844 at the Paris College de France.Polish Romanticism was born out of painful disappointment with the Enlightenment, rati...

Mit fundacyjny Rzeczypospolitej w Kursie pierwszym Prelekcji Paryskich Adama Mickiewicza

The Foundational Myth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Mickiewicz’s Kurs pierwszy from Paris Lectures The article attempts to recreate Mickiewicz’s vision of Polish Medieval history in the context of the history of Slavdom as it is presented by him in the speeches from Kurs pierwszy from the Paris lectures. Invoking particular facts from the first centuries of Polish history and interpreting them in a particularly individual manner – frequently contrary to the traditional historical narrative, Mickiewicz rediscovered the foundational myth of the Commonwealth of the nobles in the history of the Piast and Jagiellonian Poland; furthermore, the whole of the Medieval period served Mickiewicz as a universal political model worthy of translation to the poet’s contemporary period. The modern christianitas state model, which Mickiewicz will later design in his writings from 1830s and 1840s, had its roots precisely in this reinterpreted political history of the Middle Ages. When discussing the past, Mickiewicz first and foremost advocated talking about the present and the future of Poland and Europe. Underscoring the strong relationship between Poland and Rome as well as the ties with Western Christendom – as it used to be done in the Middle Ages – was meant to produce a propagandist image: it attempted to demonstrate that the Byzantine-Orthodox culture could neither serve to unite Slavic peoples nor rejuvenate Europe in any way.

Natural or interactive kinds? The transient mental disorders in Ian Hacking's lectures at the Collège de France (2000-2006)

The concepts developed by Ian Hacking during his lectures at the Collège de France (2000-2006) have provided an important contribution to the debates within the field of philosophy of psychiatry. Professor at the Chair of Philosophy and History of Scientific Concepts after Michel Foucault, Hacking is the author of a reflection on the classification of mental disorders, which arises from the problem of the natural kinds. In order to explain the case studies developed in Hacking's Paris lectures, we first go back to the definition of a series of concepts, then we discuss the status of his scientific metaphors. Finally we analyze the relationship between the notions, respectively, of "transient mental illness" and "culture-bound syndrome". We emphasize that the latter derives from the Canadian transcultural psychiatry.

The place of probability in Hilbert’s axiomatization of physics, ca. 1900–1928

Although it has become a common place to refer to the ׳sixth problem׳ of Hilbert׳s (1900) Paris lecture as the starting point for modern axiomatized probability theory, his own views on probability have received comparatively little explicit attention. The central aim of this paper is to provide a detailed account of this topic in light of the central observation that the development of Hilbert׳s project of the axiomatization of physics went hand-in-hand with a redefinition of the status of probability theory and the meaning of probability. Where Hilbert first regarded the theory as a mathematizable physical discipline and later approached it as a ׳vague׳ mathematical application in physics, he eventually understood probability, first, as a feature of human thought and, then, as an implicitly defined concept without a fixed physical interpretation. It thus becomes possible to suggest that Hilbert came to question, from the early 1920s on, the very possibility of achieving the goal of the axiomatization of probability as described in the ׳sixth problem׳ of 1900.

The Report of the Paris Lecture, Reportatio IV-A by John Duns Scotus

Reviewed by: The Report of the Paris Lecture, Reportatio IV-A by John Duns Scotus Mary Beth Ingham (bio) John Duns Scotus, The Report of the Paris Lecture, Reportatio IV-A. Volume 1, Parts 1-2. Edited from manuscript and translated by Oleg V. Bychkov. Edited by R. Trent Pomplun. St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications 2016. Introduction and Bibliograpphy. Xxxi, 695 pp. In 2008, the late Allan B. Wolter, OFM worked with Oleg V. Bychkov, Ph.D. to publish a ‘safe’ version of the Reportatio IA of Franciscan Master John Duns Scotus (1266-1308). The publication of this first book of Scotus’s Commentary on the Sentences from his Paris teaching offered scholars an opportunity to follow the Subtle Doctor’s reasoning throughout his entire teaching career: from the earliest Lectura texts, through the Ordinatio teaching, to what many consider his final say on certain matters when he taught in Paris, between 1302 and 1304. While the Ordinatio claims to have been re-worked by Scotus himself, and Reportatio IA to have been ‘examined’ by Scotus, similar claims to definitive status do not appear beyond Book I. In this publication, Bychkov has joined forces with R. Trent Pomplun and, following the hermeneutic he developed with Allan Wolter, has provided a similar volume set for Book IV of the Reportatio, Distinctions 1-17. As with Reportatio IA, these volumes have the Latin text with English facing translation. The choice of manuscripts from the version marked ‘A’ by the editors of the Vatican edition assures the stylistic continuity to those used for Book I. This version appears in the Wadding-Vivès edition and is the basis for the Vatican edition of the Ordinatio. While focusing on the five manuscripts from A (Vat. Lat. 883), the editors check against other versions, namely B (Vat. Borgh. 317), C (Vat. Latin 4290), L (Oxford, Lincoln college, cod. 6), R (Rome AFR 421) as well as the Wadding-Vivès edition). Together these textual sources help to provide a clear Latin text upon which the English translation is based. This two volume set contains Distinctions 1-17 only, so it is not the complete Book IV. This is to be the work of later publications. The distinctions found here deal with Sacramental theology. After two distinctions on sacraments in general and the efficacy of the sacraments of the New Law, Scotus moves through each of the sacraments in turn, with four distinctions on baptism, two distinctions on confirmation, five distinctions on the Eucharist (including a treatment of transubstantiation) [End Page 402] and four distinctions on penance. Throughout the discussion, issues of causality, sacramental efficacy, role of the believer and the role of minister are all brought to bear as the questions reveal Scotus’s particular perspective on how divine and human causality work together and on how divine presence in the sacraments is made manifest in the created order. Bychkov and Pomplun have chosen to take up Book IV rather than Book II because this is the order in which the Books were taught. Moving from Book I to Book IV provides a conceptual whole and frame within which to consider the closing distinctions of the Sentences over against the opening distinctions from Book I that we already have in hand. The presentation of the Latin text is clear, with helpful notes to aid the reader in understanding why a certain reading was chosen rather than another. The English is highly accessible, with felicitous rephrasing of complex arguments that conveys the sense of the argument if not the literal wording. Like the earlier Reportatio IA publication, these volumes do not claim to be a critical text. The scholarly world still awaits the completion of that project. In the meantime, the use of the various manuscripts to establish the base Latin text and the helpful translation continues the project of making Scotist thought available to scholars in a ‘safe’ version that allows for comparison and contrast with earlier formulations from the Lectura and Ordinatio. The value of this third version of Scotist teaching cannot be overstated. For many scholars, like myself, who attempt to understand how Scotus is developing as a thinker and a teacher...

The Christian Art of Being Governed

Like all previously published volumes of his lectures, the content of The Government of the Living defies brief summary. It shows us Foucault in 1980 mapping out a major new phase in his work in terms that complicate our existing understanding of his unfinished project. My review looks in turn at the two parts of the course: an unusually lengthy discussion of method and heuristics, followed by a tightly focused study of early Christian regimes of truth. I suggest that the complex opening theoretical reflections in these lectures go well beyond mapping the course of the immediately following historical analysis. They need to be seen in coordination with other conceptual innovations introduced over the following years, putting a task that Foucault calls here a “history of the power of truth” on his agenda alongside, and in integral connection with the previously defined tasks of a history of governmentality and a history of the subject. A newly published discussion in Berkeley later in 1980 adds crucial context to these Paris lectures, spelling out the linkage of structures of subjectivation to governability and of penitential ascetics to pastoral power. Taken together, the later books and lectures can now be seen to establish a framework of what I suggest we can call “alethic” or “aletheological” analysis, analysing and mapping across the span of Western history the modes of engagement of life and truth, with a view to enabling a renewed analysis of the political present.

Eliot and Bergson: “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” and the Intractability of Dualism

In 1910–1911, T. S. Eliot studied Henri Bergson’s books and attended his lectures in Paris. Initially fascinated by Bergson’s ideas, Eliot experienced what he called a “conversion” to Bergsonism, but as shown by poetry and prose written during and after the lectures, he quickly became disillusioned. This essay discusses the Bergsonian claims that intrigued Eliot in the winter of 1910–1911, the skepticism revealed in “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” and other poems dated March 1911, and the critique presented in a previously unpublished lecture for the Harvard Philosophical Club in December 1913. Eliot concludes that dualism is intractable, for the material and moral realms cannot be merged. This conclusion, formative in his intellectual development, is illuminating in regard to his poetry and criticism. It is also suggestive in regard to the more general modernist motif regarding the difficulty of making connections.

The Story behind any Story: The Paris Lecture

The narratives of the world are numberless; yet, all stories may be seen as chapters of a single story. Evolutionary approaches to literary and cultural phenomena have led to a growing awareness that these literary and cultural phenomena are best accounted for within a consilient disciplinary framework. The present lecture aims to draw from the aforementioned theoretical outlook a series of conclusions relevant to narratology, in particular to the narratological conceptualization of time. Diverse cultural conceptions of big history underpin the production, the reception and the critical analysis of any specific narrative, as well as any narrativizing strategy. Herbert Spencer's philosophical work will be seen through the lens of its narratological significance, as a significant contribution in the development of our own version of big history, in the narrativization of science, and in the development of a scientific narratology.