Part Of My Article Research Articles

Reflections of a Troglodyte Historian of Science

For most of the twentieth century, historians of science pursued their discipline largely from the standpoint of the history of ideas (internalism), and only toward the end of the century did they expand its horizons to the social context (externalism), which now dominates the discipline. I explain how I came to accept the importance of the social context approach and then reject the claim that the history of science has been largely Eurocentric. Natural philosophy flourished in the late Middle Ages largely because the Church came to support it, rather than oppose it, and also because it became a fundamental part of the university curriculum. In the last part of my article, I consider the relations between science and religion, focusing on counterfactuals, when natural philosophers sought to show that what Aristotle regarded as naturally impossible was supernaturally possible by God's absolute power. These discussions helped lay the foundations of early modern science.

Understanding and Approaching Muslim Visibilities: Lessons Learned from a Fieldwork-based Study of Muslims in Copenhagen

Within Western nation-states such as Denmark, Islamic identities are often seen as inherently and divergently visible, an aspect that some argue is detrimental to the secular nation-state. From a research perspective, one way to nuance this position is by focusing on groups of ‘invisible’ Muslims. Another path, which I pursue here, is to situate the activism of Muslims in the historical fabric of the neighbourhood(s) in which they live, in this case the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Nørrebro. Given that Muslims and others use Nørrebro as they do, this neighbourhood has become a prominent example of the effects of multiculturalism in larger national debates, a situation affecting research engagement with the community. In the last part of my article I describe my dialogical approaches for engaging with the community, thus situating the article within wider discussions of research self-reflexivity and critical ethnography (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Madison 2005).

Aristotle on Touch

According Aristotle's On the Soul, the first and most important form of sensation which we human beings share with other animals is a sense of touch. Without touch animals cannot exist. The first part of my article presents Aristotle's teaching about the internal connection between the soul and the sensory powers, especially as regards the sense of touch. The second part consists of a collection of the classical considerations about this subject. The third part then deals with the actuality of some Aristotle's thesis about touch with reference to current research in neurophysiology on kinesthesia and haptic perception.

France, the Veil and Religious Freedom

In 2004 France banned ostentatious religious symbols – most notably the Muslim veil – from state schools across the country. French lawmakers believed this ban would encourage integration and help the country understand itself in the light of increasing religious and ethnic diversification. As the riots in the autumn of 2005 so aptly demonstrated, however, tensions remained high. Not only does this call the purpose of the law into question from a social standpoint, but once again forces us to question it in the light of human rights law. In the first part of my article I examine the history of the debate around religious symbols in state schools and look at the deliberations of the Commission called to study laïcité in a ‘new France’, the same Commission that recommended a law be crafted. On the basis of ethnographic observations, I argue that the veil is but a symbol of a larger complex of issues that have to do with the dynamics of areas of low income and high crime that are bounded spaces. In the second part of my article I look at the law banning religious symbols within the framework of human rights. I show that the right to religious manifestation is a longstanding and consistently articulated norm that has in the last ten years been limited in its scope through a wide understanding of the limitations clause. Since France based its decision on the advice and judgments of the European Court I look at, and ultimately call into question, two decisions, Refah Partisi v Turkey and Sahin v Turkey. I argue that states are given too wide a margin of appreciation and that the judgments have been driven by a narrow and incorrect view of Islam.

Historical Memory in Post-Soviet Gothic Society

The collective historical amnesia that reigns in contemporary Russia demands an explanation. In the first part of my article I will analyze the mechanisms that suppress historical memory. I will focus my attention on two historical representations of critical relevance for this matter. First, I will discuss the Western-oriented ideology of the post-Soviet intelligentsia. Second, I will analyze the functioning of the myth of the Great Patriotic War. In the second part of my paper I will address the influence of historical amnesia on contemporary Russian society. Deep distortions in moral judgments and social relations resulting from suppressed memory will be studied through an analysis of contemporary Russian fiction, especially fantasy. Finally, I will consider Russian Gothic society, which originates in historical amnesia

REVIEW ESSAY: Respect and toleration reconsidered (Under consideration: Rainer Forst's Toleranz im Konflikt: Geschichte, Gehalt, und Gegenwart eines umstrittenen Begriffs (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2003) (English translation forthcoming, Cambridge University Press))

Toleration and respect belong to those concepts that in contemporary political debates are very frequently used, but also misused. This review article is an attempt to enter these discussions and clarify the meaning of the concepts. It is done through reference to the most advanced theory on toleration today, by the German philosopher Rainer Forst. Since his approach allows for ill-considered implications, in the final part of my article I introduce arguments that question some of them. It seems too far-reaching to presuppose an ongoing process of advancement in toleration. Furthermore, one cannot argue that we have to establish a ranking in universal morality at the bottom and the particular ethicality above. Forst, however, explains toleration as a balanced conflict between universally accepted moral norms and particular ethical world-views.

Culture, Technologies and Bodies: The Technological Utopia of Living Forever

There are two parts to my discussion of the sociology of the body. I first examine, via an account of the development of anthropology and sociology, how technology and culture have historically been analysed as mediations between the scarcity of natural resources and the vulnerable human body. Technology has been crucial in providing societies with some control or dominion over nature, including therefore control over the human body, yet is often thought to involve hubris against the gods and a threat to human life. Culture, in contrast, has more usually been seen as nurturing nature, providing humans with a symbolic means of mediating and domesticating their external physical environment. Whereas culture nurtures nature, technology can so easily destroy it. In the second part of my article, I demonstrate how these conceptual distinctions have assumed new dimensions in the contemporary era and analyse these by focusing on the implications of medical technologies for longevity (for example, therapeutic stem-cell research, regenerative medicine, and new reproductive technologies). Medical technology holds out the promise of prolongevity as a new mirage of health, offering life-enhancement or the secular promise of eternal life.

Antique Lands, New Worlds? Comparative Literature, Intertextuality, Translation*

When it comes to labelling the re-writing relationship obtaining between postcolonial works of literature and their colonial predecessors, instead of speaking in terms of “influence”, which would imply a hierarchically construed historical relationship valorising the work in the “mother” culture over its postcolonial counterpart, we would do better to speak of what I will call “bound intertextuality”, something that is stricter than a mere referential use of intertextuality, yet looser than what we usually label a “translation”. Such bound intertextuality may manifest itself on all levels of the work of literature, including the use of genre. In the analytical part of my article, I try to show how Amitav Ghosh's 1992 In an Antique Land “intertextually translates” Shelley's “Ozymandias” from a postcolonial perspective.

“NOT ETHICS, NOT ETHICS ALONE, BUT THE HOLY”

ABSTRACTWhile much has been written about Levinas's conception of ethics, very little has been said about the connection between ethics and holiness in his work. Yet, throughout much of his corpus, Levinas consistently links the two. The first part of my article addresses the important distinction that Levinas establishes between the sacred (le sacré) and holiness (la sainteté). According to Levinas, several influential thinkers conflate these two categories. Holiness, Levinas suggests, represents a kind of antidote to the sacred. The second part examines the various ways that holiness is manifest in ethicality. The key, I suggest, for properly understanding the link between ethical regard and sanctification revolves around an appreciation of Levinas's frequent appeal to the notion of straightforwardness (droiture). For Levinas, the complex relations that bind the self, Other, and God, involve essential conditions of rectitude and uprightness.

The Book of Kings in Recent Research (Part II)

In the first part of my article ( CBR 4.1 [2005]), I surveyed the research conducted on various, diverse aspects of the book of Kings, starting in the early 1990s and until 2004. In this article, I will focus on research dealing with the characters appearing in the book of Kings, using this classification: kings, beginning with David; prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha; and women, including Jezebel, the widow of Zarephath, and Shunammite woman. The different studies represent current trends in Bible research today: rejection of the historical reliability of the narratives, on the one hand, and, on the other, its acceptance; male voices and female voices; and diachronic methods and synchronic methods. In addition, many scholars call for multi-disciplinary methodologies that combine, for example, literary and sociological methods.

Reply

To the Editor: I thank Mr Coffey and Dr Ross1Coffey M.J. Ross L.F. Ethics of placebos in clinical asthma trials.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2006; 117: 470Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar for their commentary on my article. They clearly enunciate a point of view which Emanuel and Miller2Emanuel E.J. Miller F.G. The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: a middle ground.N Engl J Med. 2001; 345: 915-919Crossref PubMed Scopus (285) Google Scholar have referred to as “active-control orthodoxy,” that is, the idea that placebo-controlled trials (PCTs) should never be performed for conditions for which there is “standard therapy.”2Emanuel E.J. Miller F.G. The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: a middle ground.N Engl J Med. 2001; 345: 915-919Crossref PubMed Scopus (285) Google Scholar My article is a brief refutation of this view. I agree with Coffey and Ross1Coffey M.J. Ross L.F. Ethics of placebos in clinical asthma trials.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2006; 117: 470Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar that scientific validity is not a sufficient condition for ethical clinical research, although it is a necessary condition. The first part of my article addressed why many investigators, the Food and Drug Administration, and I believe that there remain “compelling and scientifically sound methodological reason[s]” to use PCTs, despite the existence of “standard therapy.”3Onder R.F. The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: the case of asthma.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2005; 115: 1228-1234Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (10) Google Scholar An important point raised by Coffey and Ross1Coffey M.J. Ross L.F. Ethics of placebos in clinical asthma trials.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2006; 117: 470Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar is their contention that asthma patients “were actually harmed” by enrollment in PCTs because subjects randomized to a placebo arm were more likely to withdraw for “worsening of asthma.”4Coffey M.J. Wilfond B. Ross L.F. Ethical assessment of clinical asthma trials including children subjects.Pediatrics. 2004; 133: 87-94Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar This is, of course, expected if the active treatments in the PCTs are efficacious. What do Coffey and Ross1Coffey M.J. Ross L.F. Ethics of placebos in clinical asthma trials.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2006; 117: 470Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar mean when they say patients were harmed? In another article, they state that “the harm of an asthma exacerbation may be short-lived and easily reversed (minor harm) or it may lead to hospitalization or even death (major harm).”4Coffey M.J. Wilfond B. Ross L.F. Ethical assessment of clinical asthma trials including children subjects.Pediatrics. 2004; 133: 87-94Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar It would be a serious concern if patients in PCTs were suffering such “major harm” by being randomized to placebo. When one looks at the authors' data regarding reported hospitalizations, however, one finds that the rate of hospitalization for patients enrolled in placebo arms of PCTs (5 of 4398; 0.1%) was almost identical to that of patients enrolled in active-treatment arms (9 of 8867; 0.1%).4Coffey M.J. Wilfond B. Ross L.F. Ethical assessment of clinical asthma trials including children subjects.Pediatrics. 2004; 133: 87-94Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar Of 1180 children who received placebos in asthma trials, there were no reported hospitalizations.4Coffey M.J. Wilfond B. Ross L.F. Ethical assessment of clinical asthma trials including children subjects.Pediatrics. 2004; 133: 87-94Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar Finally, of all patients enrolled in PCTs, there was a 0.1% rate of hospitalization, whereas there was a 0.9% rate of hospitalization in patients enrolled in active-control and add-on trials.4Coffey M.J. Wilfond B. Ross L.F. Ethical assessment of clinical asthma trials including children subjects.Pediatrics. 2004; 133: 87-94Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar This may indicate that patients were monitored more closely, or sicker patients excluded, in PCTs. I believe that these data support my conclusion that properly designed, reviewed, approved, and monitored PCTs of asthma may safely and ethically be conducted.3Onder R.F. The ethics of placebo-controlled trials: the case of asthma.J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2005; 115: 1228-1234Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (10) Google Scholar The issues of “exacerbations” and “equipoise” both concern the question whether research subjects may be allowed to sacrifice anything to promote the purpose of the research. If the answer to this question is no, then the entire biomedical research enterprise is on dubious moral grounds. If a subject may not ethically bear the risk of being randomized for a short time to placebo, how does one ask the same subject to consent to phlebotomies, lung biopsies, bronchoprovocation challenges, or exposure to unknown risks of new immune modifying agents? If the current Declaration of Helsinki stands for barring researchers and subjects from participating in well designed, carefully monitored PCTs, then the World Medical Association should revisit this document.

Die phänomenologische Methode der Wesensschau und ihre Präzisierung als eidetische Variation

In this contribution I will discuss Husserl’s eidetic method, which is dedicated to discover the apriori structures of consciousness. The method of seeing essences of the Logical Investigations (1900) should mark the opposition of phenomenology as an apriori science of consciousness and empirical psychology. The eidetic method starts as an everyday human ability to recognize equalities in different things, but it can and must be refined to become the basic phenomenological method. In the lecture Phenomenological Psychology (1925) the eidetic method is specified as eidetic variation, which is characterized by the demand for unlimited variation of the starting example in phantasy. – The second part of my article is dedicated to critical considerations. One topic is the problematic interaction of an ideally infinite variation together with the necessary limitation of this variation (to avoid crossing the conceptual demarcations of the starting example). From this point of view questions concerning the true sense and unavoidable limitations of the eidetic method are discussed anew.

Three-dimensional lattice logic circuits, Part II: Formal methods

This paper introduces formal algebraic methods for the design of three-dimensional (3D) lattice circuits that were discussed in the first part of my article. New regular 3D logic circuits are introduced, where the application of ternary decompositions into regular three-dimensional lattice circuits is shown. Lattice circuits represent an important class of regular logic circuits that allow for local interconnections, predictable timing fast fault localization, and self-repair. The introduced design methods can be used for the automatic design of logic circuits in 3D for applications and future technologies that require such topologies.

The Cultural Burden of Architecture

Contemporary architectural discourse mostly assumes an unmediated link between architecture and culture. This is a historical assumption, however, rooted in colonial encounters when the notion of cultural difference first entered the architectural scene. In the first part of my article, I focus on a statement by Vitruvius that provides ways of thinking about architecture outside cultural identity categories. In the second part, I analyze two nineteenth-century texts to show both the cultural inscriptions of architectural discourse and their breaking points. Finally, I argue that recognizing the historicity of the relationship between architecture and culture involves problematizing architecture as an identity category as much as questioning culture as an architectural category.

Ecological Factors in Settlement Marketing Projection for Balmazujvaros

Marketing is a crucial tool for regional and local governments, and should be better employed before Hungary joins the European Union.In my article I refer to the five-step process of environmental and situational analyses indispensable for a strategic plan, which serves as the basis for a marketing concept for a settlement. Furthermore, I present the necessity of the macro, mezo and local levels of environmental analyses. This part of my article is aimed at clarifying the notion of ecological marketing. My objective is to discuss its relation to settlement marketing.The second part of my article investigated the emergence of ecological factors in settlement marketing, in its process, using the example of Balmazújváros. I presented the correlation between Balmazújváros and Hortobágy National Park, from which I investigated primarily important areas focusing on the protection and development of natural values.In the course of strategic planning and the everyday operation of the town, ecological aspects have to be highlighted, and this process needs the development of the appropriate system of institutions and relationships. Now we can only see certain elements of environmental protection in the strategic settlement planning of Balmazújváros, and we seek to further enhance this process in the future.

COMMENTARY: "Spiritual Role Modeling: The Teaching of Meaning Systems"

Oman and Thoresen (this issue) describe spiritual modeling as having a key role in traditional religiosity and contemporary spirituality. They suggest that Bandura's social learning theory could contribute to the systematic illumination of spiritual modeling and to the development of successful spiritual interventions that aim at promoting mental and physical health. The first part of my commentary supports Oman and Thoresen's claim regarding the traditional importance of spiritual modeling by describing the emphasis that has been given to it within Judaism. The second part of my article proposes that theoretical research and applied work on spiritual modeling and its relations to individual or societal well-being, require awareness of both the positive and the negative potentials of spiritual modeling. This part highlights research findings as well as historical and recent world events that exemplify possible negative potentials of spiritual modeling. Next, my commentary suggests that, considering the nature of religious and spiritual meaning systems and the nature of learning that can be done through modeling, Oman and Thoresen's suggestion to apply social learning theory to spiritual role modeling is a good one. This part also recommends the application of other social cognitive theories to the study of spiritual modeling. Finally, the commentary suggests several challenging lines for future theoretical and applied research.

Crispaciones hispánicas (Reflexiones en torno a la terapia antinacionalista de Aurelio Arteta)

This is a reply to the criticisms made by Aurelio Arteta in his article «Un nacionalista en apuros» to my essay «Manifiesto nacionalista», both published in this same journal. I answer in detail to the objections laid out by Arteta and I identify this author’s position as a kind of «counter-nationalism» (in the sense defined in my essay): Arteta has to acknowledge the empirical reality of nations (as entities different from States) and, consequently, his rejection of nationalism may only be founded on his rejection of the positive value of cultural diversity (which includes national diversity). Against Arteta, I argue that cultural pluralism, and in particular nationalism is not incompatible with a democratic spirit, nor does it imply any sort of relativism. In the final part of my article I make some brief remarks on the roots of nationalism within the Spanish State.

The ternary description language as a formalism for the parametric general systems theory: Part II

This part is a continuation of the first part of my article that was published in International Journal of General Systems , Vol. 28 (4-5), pp. 351-366. In Part II, we deal with the development of the conceptual content of the Ternary Description Language (TDL) and formalization in it the most important concepts of the Parametric General Systems Theory such as system's descriptors and system's parameters. Formal models of the 40 values of the binary attributive system's parameters are given.

Interpreting Art, Interpreting Literature

This paper compares and analyzes two of the recent accounts of the ontological status of works of art. Both demand attention not only because they represent some of the most thorough analyses of the problem, but because they have far‐reaching practical consequences for the way in which we (should) interact with works of art, and thus with works of literature. Jerrold Levinson has originally advanced his views in a 1980 essay, “What a Musical Work Is”, revising them in two subsequent versions. Gregory Currie's theory, conceived in part as a response to Levinson's proposals, is outlined in An Ontology of Art (1989), mainly in the third chapter, “Art Works As Action Types”. Although both accounts have their advantages, I argue that conceptual, intuitive, and pragmatic evidence points strongly in favour of accepting only one of them. I begin with a critique of Currie's theses, followed by a review of Levinson's proposals, which leads me to the formulation of a theory of artworks. In the concluding part of my article I apply these findings to the specifically literary‐critical context, arguing for a distinction between literary interpretations and textual readings.

Beyond Lack and Excess: Other Architectures/Other Landscapes

Familiar binary categories of architecture such as Western/regional, high style/vernacular and modern/primitive are crucial in guarding its disciplinary boundaries. In the first part of my article, by analyzing a number of paradigmatic architectural texts, I argue that notions of lack and excess are instrumental in maintaining the largely superimposed binary constructions of West/non-West and architecture/nonarchitecture. Then, through a particular reading of a non-Western site, I explore ways of rethinking the categories of architecture and non-Western beyond such binary oppositions.