Everyday transcendence? Robert Musil,William James,and mysticism

ABSTRACT

In the early twentieth century, as a reaction against scientific positivism, a widespread interest in mysticism developed, especially among German writers. Mystical experience in the form of ‘epiphanies' was described by the psychologist William James and explored by the novelist Robert Musil. In his novel The Man without Qualities, Musil proposes an approach to mysticism which captures the phenomenology of the experience and makes it available for scientific study without subjecting it to a religious, or any other, interpretation.     

The Origins and Ethics of Maritime Archaeology – Part II

Abstract

The institution of maritime archaeology in 2007 stands in a privileged position, uniquely placed to comment upon and engage in 'live' contemporary debates such as the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, and particularly responsible for comment upon the broader cultural impact of pending global risks such as climate change. With reference to such debates, this paper considers some possible short- and medium-term priorities for maritime archaeology.     

William James on a phenomenological psychology of immediate experience: the true foundation for a science of consciousness?

Throughout his career, William James defended personal consciousness. In his "Principles of Psychology" (1890), he declared that psychology is the scientific study of states of consciousness as such and that he intended to presume from the outset that the thinker was the thought. But while writing it, he had been investigating a dynamic psychology of the subconscious, which found a major place in his Gifford Lectures, published as "The Varieties of Religious Experience" in 1902. This was the clearest statement James was able to make before he died with regard to his developing tripartite metaphysics of pragmatism, pluralism and radical empiricism, which essentially asked "Is a science of consciousness actually possible?" James's lineage in this regard, was inherited from an intuitive psychology of character formation that had been cast within a context of spiritual self-realization by the Swedenborgians and Transcendentalists of New England. Chief among these was his father, Henry James, Sr., and his godfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, james was forced to square these ideas with the more rigorous scientific dictates of his day, which have endured to the present. As such, his ideas remain alive and vibrant, particularly among those arguing for the fusion of phenomenology, embodiment and cognitive neuroscience in the renewed search for a science of consciousness.     

The Six New Towns of the Bishops of Winchester, 1200–55

THE CHANCE DISCOVERY of a waterlogged wooden beam during the cutting of a drainage ditch led to the excavation of the timber framework of a medieval water-mill. Almost half the water-wheel survived in situ. A little 14th-century pottery was found in the wheel-pit; its structure was extremely similar to that of the approximately contemporary period I mill at Chingley.¹ The mill at Batsford was probably used for grinding grain; no trace of the mill building itself was found.     

Egypt in Rome – an introductory essay II: The Villa Adriana and the beginnings of Egyptology

Abstract

The first part of this review considered the legacy of the Egyptian goddess Isis to European civilisation and discussed obelisks and the significance of the Isaeum Campense in Imperial and later Rome. This concluding part explores the influence on later generations of the Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, describes the emergence of Egyptology as a serious scholarly discipline, and makes brief mention of the Renaissance gardens of the Villa d'Este.     

Assimilation of the Sami – Implementation and Consequences1

If it has taken 100 years to norwegianise the Coast Samis, then it will perhaps take another 100 years to make us Samis again? (Beate Hårstad Jensen (29), Dagbladet 28 July 2001)