ON THE ELUSIVENESS OF CONTEXT

How can we decide the pertinent context in which a given object of historical study should be examined? This question has long puzzled historians. In the field of intellectual history, the Cambridge contextual school represented by Quentin Skinner triggered a series of methodological debates, in part relating to its opaque notion of context; critics have argued that a satisfactory answer to the question—how to recover a relevant context—has yet to be given. This article tackles why the question has continued to elude us. The article demonstrates that it is simply impossible to propose a practical set of guidelines on how to reconstruct a correct context because the identification of the relevant context is presupposed in the logical structure of inference in historical inquiries; identifying a relevant context is logically antecedent to the inquiry. In order to show this, the article deploys Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of inference. Thus the article submits that Skinner conceptualized his method as what Peirce called “abduction,” which specifically seeks authorial intention as an explanatory hypothesis. This observation entails two ramifications in relation to the notion of context. One is that context in Skinner's methodology operates on two levels: heuristic and verificatory. Confusing the two functions of context has resulted in a futile debate over the difficulty of reconstructing context. The other ramification is that abduction always requires some sort of context in order to commence an inquiry, and that context is already known to the inquirer. Any attempt to reconstruct a context also requires yet another context to invoke, thus regressing into the search for relevant contexts ad infinitum. The elusiveness of context is thus inherent in the structure of our logical inference, which, according to Peirce, always begins with abduction.     

AMALGAM TINNING OF CHINESE BRONZE ANTIQUITIES*

This paper investigates the question whether or not amalgam tinning was used for the plating of bronze objects in pre‐Han and Han dynasty China. The relevant literary sources are reviewed and amalgam tinning is characterized experimentally with regard to its micro‐structure and residual mercury content using metallography and electron microprobe analysis. Examination of a tinning sample from a Warring States dagger previously assumed to be amalgam tinned demonstrates that this was probably not the case, but that a trace of mercury found in the plating is likely to be the result of contamination.     

消费社会下商业地理研究的新取向

二十世纪二、三十年代以来,在实证主义和行为主义的影响下,商业地理学研究多聚焦于空间结构与边界、商业活动的区位与业态、商业活动中人的行为等经典领域。九十年代之后,网络经济的快速发展和大数据的应用,使实体商业与电子购物的关系、消费者行为的空间分析等主题,成为新的研究焦点,并积极推动商业地理在研究内容和研究方法上的革新。伴随着消费力量在现代社会的崛起,商业地理所关注的商业空间和活动,不仅被消费地理从社会文化的视角进行诠释,而且在主题上扩展至更为多元的消费实践和社会关系网络。人本主义、新马克思主义、结构主义等流派的思想,也被广泛用于消费空间的解读。在一个更为广阔的社会背景和更贴近日常生活的框架下,商业地理将不局限于对物质层面的关注,而是处于一个更加开放的知识体系之中。     

THE SHAPIRA COLLECTION

Abstract

Khirbet es Safsafeh was occupied during the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age and flourishe<;lduring the Israelite period, from the time of the settlement of the tribes up to and during the days of the monarchy. During the Exile the place was abandoned, and was again occupied from the first century A.D. till the eight century A.D. During all these periods the site was an agricultural settlement but also a strongpoint on the route connecting Galilee and Gilead with Ephraim and Judah. It may be supposed that the name Endor was transferred by the villagers when they moved to a new location on the slope of Jebel el Jurus, 1 km. away, in the hope that the name would protect them.

There are many places in Palestine where the ancient name was transferred by the Arabs from the original site, to a new one: Cp. the transferring of the name ‘Gezer’ to ‘al Jizri,’ or ‘Eglon’ to ‘Sheikh Ajlan’ or ‘Rehob’, in the Beisan valley to Sheikh er Rihab one mile south of Tell es Sarim.