Towards a history of the geometric foundations of mathematics

Many XIX^th century «geometers»—such as Bernhard Riemann, Hermann von Helmholtz, Felix Klein, Riccardo De Paolis, Mario Pieri, Henri Poincaré, Federigo Enriques, and others—played an important role in the discussion about the foundations of mathematics. But in contrast to Euclid's ideas, they did not simply identify “physical space» with the «space of the senses». On the basis of our experience in space, they intended to determine the main properties of space and put them at the very foundation of geometry. The axioms of geometry were hence based on active knowledge of space and were not aa priori, as in the case according to kantian philosophy. Moreover, in the last decade of the century some Italian mathematicians—De Paolis, Gino Fano, Pieri, and others—founded the concept of number itself on geometry, by using results of projective geometry. Arithmetic, was then founded on geometry and not reversely, as David Hilbert tried—without success—to do some years later.     

Carl Schmitt, Reinhart Koselleck and the foundations of history and politics

This article explores the intellectual relations between Carl Schmitt and the German historian Reinhart Koselleck with a focus on the inspiration that Koselleck found in Schmitt's work in the early 1950s. The article goes beyond earlier contributions in the field by illuminating how the most important discursive features that Koselleck drew from Schmitt were utilized toward a very independent intellectual project. This project concerned an attempt to revise modern political thought by means of outlining a new concept of history. Koselleck's concept of history was to depart from all utopian notions of history as a singular, unified and goal-directed process. Instead, it aimed to outline certain fundamental existential structures of the human condition and to take account of the social relations existing among human beings in order to understand (historically) and contain (politically) the potential conflict in human societies. Hence Koselleck believed that his new concept of history would lead to a more responsible foundation of political order and decision making. Following an analysis of how Koselleck developed his project in a dialogue with the work of Schmitt and a number of other scholars, first of all Friedrich Meinecke and Martin Heidegger, the article presents a brief perspective on how his new concept of history was received in the 1950s and on how it came to provide his work with a certain analytical, thematic and argumentative unity.     

Walter Taylor and the history of American archaeology

Walter Taylor’s place in the history of archaeology is well secured. Not only is he noted for his uncredited anticipation of the theoretical and methodological innovations of the 1960s and 1970s in his infamous book A Study of Archeology, but he is also well-known for committing professional suicide by short-sightedly attacking numerous key figures in American archaeology for their methodological shortfalls, and yet never publishing a report utilizing his controversial method. Although these statements have inundated the historical literature on American archaeology, they are received wisdom rather than the reality of Taylor’s contributions to the field. Many aspects of Taylor’s conjunctive approach were at odds with the stated aims of processual archaeology. Although Taylor did not live up to his critics’ (or his own) demands for a grand display of his approach, he did on several occasions demonstrate its potential. The irony of Taylor in the history of archaeology is not that he was uncredited for his prescience or that his attacks on the archaeological establishment were a naïve failure; but rather that he receives too much credit for what he didn’t do, and not enough for what he did.     

麦礼谦教授与美国华侨华人研究

要论美国的华侨华人历史研究 ,就不能不提麦礼谦教授。麦先生虽然是自学成才 ,并且大器晚成 ,但却是美国华侨华人历史研究的开拓者和奠基人之一。麦先生不仅自己积极进取 ,勇于开拓美国华侨华人研究的新领域 ,而且充满一个历史学家经世致用的人文情怀 ,乐于用自己所学服务社会     

美国历史上的土地测量制度

土地测量是美国公地处理中的一项重要制度,它为地产的划分和土地的买卖提供了强有力的支持手段.土地测量在美国西部大开发过程中起到难以估量的巨大作用.美国土地测量中的村镇制度经历了村镇移植到村镇划分的嬗变过程,即由先前的人的移植变为后来纯粹的土地的划分.     

Written out of history: Contemporary Native American narratives of enslavement

The article looks at historical narratives of enslavement circulating among contemporary Native Americans. These narratives, the author argues, constitute an important element in the construction of current tribal identities as much as they are relevant for a reflection about the role played by hegemonic racial discourses in the politics surrounding ethnically-tied resources.     

The history of method and theory in the study of prehistoric puebloan pottery style in the American Southwest

The history of Americanist archaeology can be profitably approached through an examination of ceramic design studies in the puebloan region of the American Southwest. An intellectual tradition is represented throughout these studies, grounded in the assumption that ceramic design variation can be reflected, among other things, in prehistoric social groupings. Within this tradition, a number of differences in method, theory, and application can be distinguished, including (1) the classificatory systems employed, (2) the spatial and temporal scales at which ceramic design variation was studied, and (3) the potential functional role of stylistic attributes on pottery. The debates, both intellectual and social, surrounding the development of method and theory in the New Archaeology are clarified by this historical review, as are the transitions to Culture History and from the New Archaeology in the American Southwest.     

Rethinking the history of female circumcision and clitoridectomy: American medicine and female sexuality in the late nineteenth century

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was one kind of female orgasm and it was clitoral; there was also only one kind of healthy sexual instinct for a woman and it was for penetrative sex with her husband. When a woman behaved outside of this normality-by masturbating or by not responding to her husband's affections-her sexual instinct was seen as disordered. If healthy women, then, were believed only to be sexual within the marital embrace, what better way to explain these errant behaviors than by blaming the clitoris, an organ seen as key to female sexual instinct? Doctors corrected a clitoris in an unhealthy state using one of four surgeries-removing smegma or adhesions between the clitoris and its hood, removing the hood (circumcision), or removing the clitoris (clitoridectomy)-in order to correct a woman's sexual instinct in an unhealthy state. Their approach to clitoral surgery, at least as revealed in published medical works, was a cautious one that respected the importance of clitoral stimulation for healthy sexuality while simultaneously recognizing its role as cause and symptom in cases of insanity that were tied to masturbation.