批评还是理解——历史学家的态度

在当历史学家对待过去的历史、现在的历史、未来预期发生的历史时,应该持有什么样的态度?批评历史还是理解历史,这是历史学家在撰写历史时始终面临的重大难题。本篇中主要解决历史学家的态度,并列举了具有代表性的历史学家的观点,阐述批评的合理性运用和理解的科学性解答,两者应该区别看待并有利结合起来,梳理出既真实又科学的历史,对未来历史的科学研究有很深远的指导意义。     

历史事实:史学家建构过去的图景

中外历史哲学界对“历史事实”存在严重的争论,主要问题是关于历史事实的应用范围与含义上的分歧。其实,“历史事实”只能限制在历史认识论的范围内才有意义,而历史事实与史料中的事实也不能等同。从历史学家与“历史事实”的关系来看,历史事实依历史学家的存在而存在,“历史事实”是史学家建立的关于过去的图景,是一个关于过去历史实际的知识体系。     

《历史的辉格解释》与巴特菲尔德对历史真实性的追求

《历史的辉格解释》是巴特菲尔德史学立场两面性的集中体现,作者对辉格派的历史学家做了诸多批判。巴氏认为辉格的历史解释的背后,实际是一种"为了当下而研究过去"的主张,巴特菲尔德虽然一直强调遵循历史事实,但是仍然难以完全否认历史学家主体情感体验的重要性。作者的骑墙态度是他的求真精神未贯彻到底,从而几乎使他落入虚无主义陷阱的批评者。但是同时也说明历史学本事的复杂性,因此在反应历史事实时,历史学家必须有所抉择。     

历史教学中引用“热点”问题的有效途径

历史讲述着人类的过去,它不能再现,也不会重演。然而,历史又是过去与现在永不休止的对话,是我们了解社会,理解变化与延续的唯一途径。历史与现实同属于一个不可分割的时间链条。历史曾是活生生的“现实”,现实也会转瞬即成“历史”。在现实生活中,我们遇到的很多问题,尤其是人们普遍关注的一些“热点”问题,它们的形成不是瞬间的,而是有着各自的历史渊源。我们常常需要“以史为鉴”,通过借鉴历史的经验,来反省自我、完善自我和超越自我;通过借鉴历史的经验,来加深对现实的理解,把握事物的本质,从而科学地预见未来。     

中国古代民俗美学新学科导论

民俗阐释美学历史文献和民间传说中有大量对民俗事象的文化审美性阐释。阐释都有一个思路:即不是力图通过解释来重建民俗原貌,也不是在民俗事象所由产生的历史环境中去理解,而是把民俗事象看作一种开放性结构,从现实需要、生活美学理想、个人理论建构去理解、阐释它的历史美学意蕴。如孔子讲尸祭之俗:“祭祀之有尸也,宗庙之主也,示民有事也,修宗庙,敬祀事,教民追孝也。”     

"历史会重演论"新说

英国哲学家柯林武德云:“一切历史皆思想史。”其意谓理解过去之历史,不仅要明了过去之事实,尤须理解过去人们之思想。诚哉斯言!征诸人类历史,思想之历史恒扮演人类文明史先行者角色,亦最能承受历史风雨之冲刷而沉积于历史最底层。思想史之活跃,或表征一个时代急遽变革,或象征一个时代稳定与繁荣。显然,思想史不论作为一门独立学科言,还是作为一个历史研究专门领域言,其重要性和意义均无须烦言。鉴此,我们特组织本期笔谈。这组笔谈文章,就内在含量言之,也许颇为有限:或通过历史重演论之本真诠释,欲令世人于重温历史中获得新启示;或通过修辞视野下思想史研究中语境与修辞战略之研究,以冀于思想史方法论方面有所创获,并能与国际学术进行一定形式的对话;或通过业已成形的新文化史研究,尤其是自下而上的品质及其与思想史研究之内在关联的分析,召唤思想史研究超越精英阶层、迎接大众时代之到来;或通过对思想史研究之伟大传统、意识形态特征以及研究方法和价值取向的多元性的探讨,寻求西方思想史研究本土化进程多元均衡、和谐发展之可能性。内含固属有限,然诚如英国历史学家爱德华·H.卡尔所言:历史学家“掌握过去,理解过去”,乃欲“把它当做理解现在的一把钥匙”。通过有限的论议,寻求一种以史喻今、探求真理和“理解现在”的效果,或许正是思想史方法与理论研究之真义所在。本期笔谈若能对于思想史真义之探寻有些许助益,则于愿足矣。     

修辞视野下的思想史研究

英国哲学家柯林武德云:“一切历史皆思想史。”其意谓理解过去之历史,不仅要明了过去之事实,尤须理解过去人们之思想。诚哉斯言!征诸人类历史,思想之历史恒扮演人类文明史先行者角色,亦最能承受历史风雨之冲刷而沉积于历史最底层。思想史之活跃,或表征一个时代急遽变革,或象征一个时代稳定与繁荣。显然,思想史不论作为一门独立学科言,还是作为一个历史研究专门领域言,其重要性和意义均无须烦言。鉴此,我们特组织本期笔谈。这组笔谈文章,就内在含量言之,也许颇为有限:或通过历史重演论之本真诠释,欲令世人于重温历史中获得新启示;或通过修辞视野下思想史研究中语境与修辞战略之研究,以冀于思想史方法论方面有所创获,并能与国际学术进行一定形式的对话;或通过业已成形的新文化史研究,尤其是自下而上的品质及其与思想史研究之内在关联的分析,召唤思想史研究超越精英阶层、迎接大众时代之到来;或通过对思想史研究之伟大传统、意识形态特征以及研究方法和价值取向的多元性的探讨,寻求西方思想史研究本土化进程多元均衡、和谐发展之可能性。内含固属有限,然诚如英国历史学家爱德华·H.卡尔所言:历史学家“掌握过去,理解过去”,乃欲“把它当做理解现在的一把钥匙”。通过有限的论议,寻求一种以史喻今、探求真理和“理解现在”的效果,或许正是思想史方法与理论研究之真义所在。本期笔谈若能对于思想史真义之探寻有些许助益,则于愿足矣。     

西方思想史研究在中国的本土化问题

英国哲学家柯林武德云:“一切历史皆思想史。”其意谓理解过去之历史,不仅要明了过去之事实,尤须理解过去人们之思想。诚哉斯言!征诸人类历史,思想之历史恒扮演人类文明史先行者角色,亦最能承受历史风雨之冲刷而沉积于历史最底层。思想史之活跃,或表征一个时代急遽变革,或象征一个时代稳定与繁荣。显然,思想史不论作为一门独立学科言,还是作为一个历史研究专门领域言,其重要性和意义均无须烦言。鉴此,我们特组织本期笔谈。这组笔谈文章,就内在含量言之,也许颇为有限:或通过历史重演论之本真诠释,欲令世人于重温历史中获得新启示;或通过修辞视野下思想史研究中语境与修辞战略之研究,以冀于思想史方法论方面有所创获,并能与国际学术进行一定形式的对话;或通过业已成形的新文化史研究,尤其是自下而上的品质及其与思想史研究之内在关联的分析,召唤思想史研究超越精英阶层、迎接大众时代之到来;或通过对思想史研究之伟大传统、意识形态特征以及研究方法和价值取向的多元性的探讨,寻求西方思想史研究本土化进程多元均衡、和谐发展之可能性。内含固属有限,然诚如英国历史学家爱德华·H.卡尔所言:历史学家“掌握过去,理解过去”,乃欲“把它当做理解现在的一把钥匙”。通过有限的论议,寻求一种以史喻今、探求真理和“理解现在”的效果,或许正是思想史方法与理论研究之真义所在。本期笔谈若能对于思想史真义之探寻有些许助益,则于愿足矣。     

"自下而上":当代西方新文化史与思想史研究

英国哲学家柯林武德云:“一切历史皆思想史。”其意谓理解过去之历史,不仅要明了过去之事实,尤须理解过去人们之思想。诚哉斯言!征诸人类历史,思想之历史恒扮演人类文明史先行者角色,亦最能承受历史风雨之冲刷而沉积于历史最底层。思想史之活跃,或表征一个时代急遽变革,或象征一个时代稳定与繁荣。显然,思想史不论作为一门独立学科言,还是作为一个历史研究专门领域言,其重要性和意义均无须烦言。鉴此,我们特组织本期笔谈。这组笔谈文章,就内在含量言之,也许颇为有限:或通过历史重演论之本真诠释,欲令世人于重温历史中获得新启示;或通过修辞视野下思想史研究中语境与修辞战略之研究,以冀于思想史方法论方面有所创获,并能与国际学术进行一定形式的对话;或通过业已成形的新文化史研究,尤其是自下而上的品质及其与思想史研究之内在关联的分析,召唤思想史研究超越精英阶层、迎接大众时代之到来;或通过对思想史研究之伟大传统、意识形态特征以及研究方法和价值取向的多元性的探讨,寻求西方思想史研究本土化进程多元均衡、和谐发展之可能性。内含固属有限,然诚如英国历史学家爱德华·H.卡尔所言:历史学家“掌握过去,理解过去”,乃欲“把它当做理解现在的一把钥匙”。通过有限的论议,寻求一种以史喻今、探求真理和“理解现在”的效果,或许正是思想史方法与理论研究之真义所在。本期笔谈若能对于思想史真义之探寻有些许助益,则于愿足矣。     

浅论历史与现实的关系

本文作者在学习《邓小平文选》的基础上阐发了关于历史与现实关系的个人见解。文章认为,历史与现实既有区别又有联系,两者是不应割断的。历史与现实之间不是任何一方面的单向运动,而是从历史到现实和从现实到历史的双向的相对运动,根据过去认识现在,根据现在了解过去。历史不单纯是对过去发生的事实的简单描述,而是历史学家从现实角度对过去发生事情所作的选择和评价。现实对历史研究的影响,既表现为生活在现实中的历史学家由于阶级的局限必然对历史产生不同的认识和观点,也表现为他们不能不受到自己生活的那个时代的局限。作者指出,要正确认识和处理历史与现实的关系,必须反对实用主义历史观和客观主义历史观。这两种倾向都与历史唯物主义格格不入、背道而驰的。马克思主义史学应该并敢于公开申明历史研究应当与现实相结合,为现实斗争服务。     

Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography

This article examines how the practice of learning geography, and the arenas in which knowledge-making takes place, can be usefully positioned within changing histories of the discipline. It contends that networks of action – understood through the intersection of social sites, subjects and sources – present a conceptual framework and narrative focus for the re-consideration of specific episodes from geography's past. The interventions made here are informed and illustrated by a 'small story' about the doing of geography. Based on different personal accounts, the story revives a series of events, encounters, dialogues and images dating back to the winter of 1951 at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland. This educational institution in the Cairngorm mountains offered children from urban areas the opportunity to learn field studies and the skills of 'outdoor citizenship'. Initially, the focus falls on Margaret Jack, a 14-year-old field-course participant. Her learning experiences are traced through personal letters, a diary and a field journal dating from that time, and her recent recollections of this event. Margaret's account dovetails with the story of her field studies instructor, Robin Murray. Robin's role is traced through his learning experiences as a geography undergraduate at Aberdeen University, and the recent recollections of Catriona Murray, his wife.     

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht,Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as ‘the economy’ hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between ‘merchants’ and ‘non-merchants’. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.     

Two radiocarbon dates for freshwater shells from hierakonpolis: Archaeological and geological interpretations

Shells of two species of freshwater bivalve (Unio willcocksi Bullen Newton and Etheria elliptica Lamarck) from the predynastic Gerzean (Nagada II) Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis, Egypt have given dates of 5000±90 bp for the tomb, and 12,900±120 bp for an episode of Nile terrace accumulation (correlated here with the Sahaba-Darau aggradation event). The archaeological and geological significance of these results is discussed, together with an outline of problems associated with radiocarbon dating of shell. Comparisons are made with the few other radiocarbon dates available for the Predynastic period in Egypt and possible reasons for the presence of shells in the tomb are considered.     

Some chronological implications of a fossil molluscan assemblage from a neolithic site at Brook,Kent, England

The later post-glacial history of a valley in the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent, is described, based on molluscan stratigraphy, archaeological evidence and radio-carbon dating. Differences in size and colour banding, respectively, of fossil and living representatives of two species of land snails, Pomatias elegans (Müller) and Cepaea nemoralis (L.), are correlated with climatic change during the post-glacial period. The problems of the use of fossil shells of these species as samples for radiocarbon dating are discussed.     

China's Dynamic Industrial Sector: The Internet Industry

A Singapore-based economic geographer explores and analyzes the spatially uneven evolution of the Internet industry in China, arguing that the country's immense regional disparity in the provision of Internet services is best explained by the interplay of place- and path-dependence. The author demonstrates how the highly uneven regional endowments in relevant industrial and entrepreneurial resources have led to the substantial and persistent regional imbalance within China's emerging "new economy." His initial survey of the country's 100 leading Internet content providers (firms), identified from a listing of ca. 11,700 commercial websites, is selectively augmented to reflect an increase of over 70 million Internet users in 2007, reaching a total of 253 million in June 2008, and thus overtaking the United States as the world's largest Internet market. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L10, L86, O30. 6 figures, 1 table, 53 references.     

The 1911 International Exposition in Rome: architecture, archaeology, and national identity

This paper discusses the 1911 International Exposition in Rome and illustrates how this patriotic celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian Sate utilized symbolic landscapes of architecture and archaeology to promote nationalist sentiments of italianità and romanità centered on the young capital of Rome. Through modern art exhibitions at the Valle Giulia, scientific conferences at the Castel Sant’Angelo, archaeological exhibits on the Roman Empire in the Baths of Diocletian, and regional Italian pavilions in the Piazza d’Armi, exposition officials offered a complex representation of Italian national identity that was modern yet ancient, cosmopolitan yet bucolic, European yet regional, and imperial yet developing.     

The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great – The Need for Medical Analysis: Reply to Commentaries

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. By elucidating the nature of his death, we can better interpret various aspects of Alexandrian history. Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome. It would therefore be of significance to note that one of the greatest leaders in history who conquered much of the then known world may have been suffering from a physical disability.     

Hospital Drama: Visual Theatres of the Medical Rendezvous from Asylum to Hospital with Reference to Specific Works by Anna Furse

Abstract

This paper is informed by Furse’s practice as a theatre maker in two fields of output that are connected by two factors: first, the presence of the woman patient — hysteric/subfertile respectively — within the clinical gaze; second, the significance of the womb to each pathology. In the treatment of each (explored in Furse’s theatre), lens based technologies play their part, whilst the cultural and medical can be seen to have overlapped to produce specific meaning with regard to Her body and its spectacularity. The article presents an overview of some of the key issues in precisely how the woman’s body becomes spectacular within this prosthetic medical gaze and how the medical — and theatrically designed spaces to represent these — become meaningful and potent proxemics that in turn inform medical/ theatrical spectatorship. Overarching nineteenth-century protocols at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris (where Furse’s Augustine (Big Hysteria) is set) to contemporary imaging technologies used in the treatment of subfertility with Assisted Reproduction Technologies (the topic of her Art of A.R.T. projects), it examines the way in which photography develops through cinema to X-Ray, ultrasound and then 3D/4D ultrasound to ‘capture’ the woman’s body in ways by which she becomes muted and exposed. These occular technologies that extend the gaze, first to an exterior subject and then, eventually, traversing the flesh without knife, lend specific performativity to the ‘patient’ women, within the context of hysterias and reproductive impairments respectively. Finally, issues of suspension of disbelief are addressed. The spectator’s faith in the screen-based image of Her spectacular body is interrupted in Furse’s work, which is also keenly interested in the effect of such imagery on the woman’s sense of Self. The historical and cultural leaps in this article argue that there is indeed a trajectory through the history of medical imaging since the first application of photography to anatomy to the more advanced scoping technologies of medical imaging today, and that in each era, the production of these images remain fraught with cultural implications.     

The Death of Alexander the Great – A Spinal Twist of Fate

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from an unknown cause. Physical depictions of this historical figure reveal the likelihood of a cervical scoliotic deformity. This is substantiated with the medical history and is correlated with his untimely death. For the first time, it is concluded that Alexander’s death may have ensued from the sequelae of a congenital scoliotic syndrome.