On Biotic and Geomic Factors in the Formation of the Natural Enviornment

The author, a landscape scientist, defends the view that inert nature, which he calls geoma, exerts a far more powerful impact on the formation of the natural environment than living nature, or the biota. In his view the total environment is shaped by biotic modification of the basic geomic environment. Most biotic modifications are unstable and reversible and last only as long as the biological plant and animal community that produces them. However, some biotic modifications are irreversible and leave a trace even after the disappearance of the biocenosis. Both reversible modifications (microclimate, snow cover, runoff, etc) and irreversible changes (rock weathering, the formation of hardpan, some soil elements) are discussed with particular reference to the impact of a forest community on the geomic environment.     

When one heart can speak to another: the role of tenderness in Rousseau’s theory of passions

The aim of this paper is to show how tenderness (attendrissement) plays a key role in Rousseau’s theory of emotion. A deeper analysis of tenderness will shed light on the complex dynamics of Rousseau’s conception of the passions, which appears to be one of the principal means of understanding both the transition from the homme de la nature to the homme de l’homme and the development of human morality in the latter. Furthermore, the concept of attendrissement allows us to view from an unfamiliar, original standpoint a central problem of Rousseauian ethics, which has been debated, particularly in recent literature, namely that of recognition. Tenderness, thanks to its authentic and spontaneous nature, is able to retain the principles of the law of nature – pity and love of the self – while elevating them to an ethically superior height. For this reason, it might be considered a positive fulfillment of amour-propre capable of eliminating the pathological and competitive aspects that connote, from a historical but not constitutive point of view, the reciprocal interdependence of consciences.     

The Mainland Chinese market for nature tourism in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Nature tourism has been emerged as an ecologically sensitive form of tourism in developed and developing countries. A large influx of tourists would have both benefits and adverse impacts on these destinations. With an increasing influence of Chinese market in many destinations and tourism activities worldwide, it is important to understand the perceptions and preferences of Chinese tourists toward natural attributes so that proper approaches to destination planning and marketing can be derived to better attract these segments of tourists and sustainably manage tourism resources. The results of an empirical study of a sample of Mainland citizens (n = 430) to Hong Kong's nature areas show that (1) they exert a high degree of interest in participating in nature tourism; (2) female and older people are more interested in visiting natural environment; (3) these potential nature tourists from China prefer going to places in association with sea views, and engaging in photo-taking, non-commercial activities and less artificial elements; and (4) the nature tourism attributes form two factors related to aspects of educational needs and relaxation (an experiential factor), and nature-oriented but also convenient (a functional factor). These considerations can lead to the development of ecotourism products that are better suited to meeting the interests of mainland Chinese tourists, while also enriching the host experience.     

Xing: The Discourse of Sex and Human Nature in Modern China

In Modern Chinese, xing is the character most commonly used to denote sex, gender and sexuality. However, the character was a specialist Confucian term originally meaning ‘human nature’ in Classical Chinese, and only came to signify both sex and human nature in the early twentieth century. This usage was invented by Japanese intellectuals in the late nineteenth century for their translations of sexological texts from Europe, in which they encountered the concept of sex as a natural drive and the fundamental core of individuals. This article investigates the convoluted linguistic career of xing, and argues that in China in the 1920s, sex/xing became the point of anchorage for a new politics, which naturalised sex, legitimised talk about reproduction and desire, and made imperative the intensification of the production of scientific knowledge on sex (and by extension ‘human nature’). It is emphasised that the history of xing in China in the 1920s is not just a curiosity or appendage to more ‘mainstream’ history of sexuality; rather, it is impossible to appreciate the global nature of modernity without a thorough understanding of the circulation of sexual ideas.     

Anti-Machiavellism as constitutionalism: Hermann Conring's commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince

In his Animadversiones on Machiavelli's The Prince (1661), Hermann Conring, one of the most famous of the early modern German professors of politics, further developed the constitutional reading of Machiavelli's The Prince, following in the footsteps of Bodin and the German political theorists of the previous generation such as Arnisaeus, Contzen, and Besold. For Conring, Machiavelli's exaggerated analysis of tyranny and his heavy emphasis on popular liberty offered not so much a realist political science but a dangerous prelude to the monarchomachic theory of popular sovereignty and a fatalistic concession to sin. Conring, a committed Aristotelian with Arminian sympathies, preferred a more empirical constitutional analysis (and a theory of the state) which did not favor any particular faction of the state (i.e. the people over the nobility) as the unique source of stability or instability and which explained the necessity for wickedness as the result of poor constitutional design rather than a realistic view of human nature and fate.     

从环境的历史到环境史——关于环境史研究的一种认识

By and large, there are three kinds of research on environment: the history of environment as a field of natural history studies, the history of environment as within the scope of history of society studies, and environmental history as the study of the relationship between human and nature. The methodological perspective of the relationship between humanity and environmental distinguishes the third from the previous two. From this perspective, when we probe the mutual effects between human and nature, we will stress on their interactions. The new era and the realities of contemporary society foster the rise of environmental history, which has not only theoretical values but also practical significance. Translated from Xueshu Yanjiu 学术研究 (Academic Research), 2006, (9):12–22     

Hiriira Spatiotemporalities: Mapping Oromo Women’s Liberation in Post-Imperial Berlin

In September 2020, Oromo women marched through the streets of Berlin, Germany, demanding recognition for their struggle. This protest march, called a Hiriira in the Oromo language, offers a case study into the entanglements between settler colonial Ethiopia, Germany’s post-empire, and the forces of oppression which link them. This paper uses the spatiotemporal reckonings generated from the Hiriira perspective to understand violence and elucidate the practices of resistance that have emerged despite it. These contrasting ways of viewing space and time are expressed through the tension between imperial spatialising, a way of knowing the world that is imperial and oppressive in nature, and geography guraacha, a Black and Blackened way of knowing space with a particularly Oromo perspective. The result is a type of mapping, tracing the Hiriira route across Berlin while describing the histories that shadow these streets, and the pathways towards liberation that Oromo women are organising.     

Jeremiah's new covenant: Jer 31, 31-34

Abstract

Old Testament texts are proof of how, for centuries, the attitude of the people towards the nations was a matter of debate.

This controversy, which is disputed in the context of diverse subjects, is even debated within the texts by different redactors. His evident that the background of the debate is not so much theological as social in nature

Neither particularists nor universalists could establish a natural relationship with people of the nations. Such a relationship is perceived only here and there between the lines where the focus is on everyday life

The debate between the advocates of particularism and those of universalism continues in the early Christian church     

The Use of Information Theory in the Modeling of Natural Systems

Systems investigated by geographers include components of inert nature, living organisms and social phenomena. The use of information theory makes it possible to overcome some of the problems involved in the modeling of systems consisting of such a diversity of elements, particularly the problem of a single system of units. The building of inductive models of natural systems is designed to identify the programs of behavior of natural complexes, which in the original systems are merged with structure. An example of such an inductive model is the model of the structure of a southern tayga landscape system. It was built by identifying information relationships between 160 elements on the basis of the equation: J_AB = H_A+H_B—H_AB, where J_AB is the amount of transmitted information, and H_A, H_B, H_AB are the entropies of the receiver, of the transmitter and their joint entropy. The model interrelated a number of properties of soils, unconsolidated sediment, groundwater, relief, plant cover and microclimate. An analysis of the model yielded the hierarchical structure of the system, the main information flows, and the location of the nodes that generate and accumulate information. An attempt was made to calculate the information content of particular elements from the point of view of the system as a whole and the mean rates of information transmission between elements.     

Authors and Authoritarianism in Central Asia: Failed Agency and Nationalising Authoritarianism in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

Abstract

This paper aims to reconstruct widely accepted concepts of the top-down authoritarian nature of Central Asian politics in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan through a comparative study of the pro-democratic movements that emerged in the late 1980s. By analysing data from interviews with the cultural elites of the late Soviet perestroika period and data on the indigenous nationalist movements such as Erk, Zheltoksan, Birlik and others, we question why such nationalist movements did not “survive” or emerge as a significant political platform as promised in post-independence Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and why they failed to change the political outlook of one party rule or the dominance of one nationalising regime. Furthermore, we analyse how such nationalist movements had an opportunity to turn into semi-democratic movements but failed to transform after their agenda (arguably, independence) was achieved, leaving “communists-turned-nationalists” to continue their policies in newly formed countries. Thus, the paper also looks at how these cultural elites eventually contributed to the local “authoritarianism” and lack of plurality in views and identifications.     

Clarifying divine discourse in early modern science: divinity,physico-theology,and divine metaphysics in Isaac Newton’s chymistry

Isaac Newton, like many of his contemporaries, appears to have distinguished between the practice of divinity, founded on divine revelation, and philosophical considerations of God derived from the study of nature. This article evaluates these distinct modes of divine discourse through a close reading of the chymical content of Newton’s optical writings and his correspondence with Thomas Burnet regarding Genesis. Newton’s chymical exploration of divine activity in the natural world in Query 31 to the Opticks (1704) seems independent from Scripture in its physico-theological demonstration of God from natural phenomena and its divine metaphysical reliance on a priori concepts of God to establish principles of nature. Nonetheless, the sensorium analogy by which he explored divine agency in nature drew directly from the biblical doctrine of the imago Dei. Moreover, Newton used his chymical understanding of nature to access the natural-philosophical realities behind the accommodated words of the Mosaic creation account.     

Mammalian Microfaunal Remains from Khonkho Wankane (Late Formative Period), Mollo Kontu (Middle Horizon Period) and Pukara de Khonkho (Late Intermediate Period) in the Bolivian Altiplano

Paleoecological and taphonomic analysis of the mammalian microfauna from three Bolivian altiplano sites is presented: Khonkho Wankane [Late Formative period; number of identified specimens (NISP) = 1019], Mollo Kontu (Middle Horizon period; NISP = 610) and Pukara de Khonkho (Late Intermediate period; NISP = 165). The following species, all of which are present in this region today, were identified: Akodon boliviensis (Bolivian grass mouse), Andinomys edax (Andean mouse), Auliscomys sublimis (Andean leaf‐eared mouse), Cavia porcellus (guinea pig/cuy), Chinchilla chinchilla (chinchilla), Ctenomys leucodon (white‐toothed tuco‐tuco), Eligmodontia puerulus (Andean gerbil mouse), Galea musteloides (common yellow‐toothed cavy), Lagidium viscacia (vizcacha), Neotomys ebriosus (Andean swamp rat),and Oligoryzomys destructor (destructive pygmy rice rat). Some direct human involvement with the deposition of some of the larger species (Cavia porcellus, Chinchilla chinchilla, Ctenomys leucodon and Lagidium viscacia) was noted, although C. porcellus was identified only from a single element from Mollo Kontu. Most deposition was likely due to natural in‐burrow deaths and other natural attrition of these species. No significant shift in environment during the occupation of these sites was detected. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The greatest deception: fiction,falsity and manifestation in Spinoza’s Metaphysical Thoughts

ABSTRACT

“The first meaning of true and false”, writes Spinoza in a neglected passage of the Metaphysical Thoughts, “seems to have had its origin in stories”. Ideas are true when they “show” us things as they are; they are false when they do not, when they are fictional. In this essay, I argue that what appears at first sight to be a simple assertion of a correspondence theory of truth in fact opens onto broad historical transformations in the nature of meaning that reshaped the very atmosphere of truth: the emergence of a new kind of fictionality, transformations in the sense of logical interpretation, and ultimately transformations in the structures and sources of the natural light, that “clarity” which constitutes for Spinoza, as for Descartes, an indispensable criterion for certainty.     

Whence nationalism?

ABSTRACT. There is widespread agreement that nationalism emerged in the historical fountainheads of modernity, and was subsequently diffused outwards. Contrary to that, there is a long standing view that nationalism precedes modernity even in the broadly accepted cradles of both modernity and nationalism, such as England or France, neither of which was modern when it engendered nationalism. Besides, some emergent nationalisms ran concurrent with their English or French counterparts, with little evidence of having been spawned by diffusion. Such early or protonationalisms often sprang from resistance to foreign conquest, putting in doubt the invention‐diffusion hypothesis. I am therefore suggesting that nationalism has not emerged in few societies, but in many, and that it was engendered by social interactions, not by a particular social formation. While nationalism emerges within society, its genesis occurs in‐between social groups and societies, making it a product of their interactions. That makes it u‐topic, its cradles socially diverse, and its conception interactional, not gestational.     

‘It was entirely his fault’: constructing white masculinities and the Haga Man assaults in Umeå, Sweden 1998–2006

Several cases of single repeat offenders in urban space have raised public concern in Sweden during recent decades. Few studies have been conducted on the consequences of the ‘hostage situations’ that emerge when one individual offender causes fear and affects a large group of people in a specific place. The concern of this article is to examine consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon: the case of a serial rapist operating between 1998 and 2006 in Umeå, a medium-sized Swedish city. The article focuses on the construction of white masculinities among male respondents in Umeå during the time of the attacks. I examine how men positioned themselves in relation to the public image of the offender as a ‘normal Swede’ and how they related to women's increasing fear of violence in urban space. Three prominent constructions of masculinity emerged from the research data: the dangerous stranger, the suspect and the protector. These three constructions of masculinity were not clear-cut and did not ‘belong’ to specific men – several of the interviewees articulated various forms of masculinities but stressed them in different ways depending on, for instance, age and/or ethnicity/race. I conclude that men largely positioned themselves as protectors as a strategy to distance themselves from the perpetrator (the image of the ‘normal Swedish man’ performing the rapes) and to ensure that they would not be perceived as suspects. However, men largely perceived that women's increased fear of crime was ‘one man's fault’ and broader issues about gendered power relations in space were not raised.     

On Not Reading The Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service

This essay focuses on Garnet Wolseley’s controversial war instruction manual, The Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service (1869). While the Pocket-book’s contribution to discussions of reading and soldiers’ education has carved out a significant place for it in Victorian military history, in its day it was constantly contested and undermined by contradictory representations, as a book much talked about but little read. This essay is an exercise in tracing these eccentric reception histories, as an acute reminder that books may well have vibrant intellectual lives without actually being read. To examine the literary and material circulation of the Pocket-book in the late nineteenth century, it draws on archival research in the Macmillan Archive and Wolseley’s private papers to discuss the genesis of the text not just as a compendium of information but also as an object that is handled, carried, and exchanged. I juxtapose these considerations with episodes in the representation of the Pocket-book: in an anti-war pamphlet; an anonymous satirical drawing found in Wolseley’s personal scrapbooks; and in Kipling’s short stories about British soldiers in colonial South Asia. In all of these, the Pocket-book is characterized as a dubious, even dangerous text – one that was neither read, nor should be. The examples demonstrate three of the different trajectories through which the Pocket-book emerged as an unread book in the Victorian imagination: through encouragements not to read, rejection, and misappropriation.     

Mold-deteriorated archaeological Egyptian papyri: Biodeteriogens,monitoring the deterioration,and treatment approach

Fungi play a critical role in the deterioration of ancient papyri due to their organic and hygroscopic nature. Fourteen fungal species belonging to five genera—Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Penicillium, Talaromyces, and Ulocladium—were isolated and identified from 20 Egyptian papyrus artifacts located at the Grand Egyptian Museum—Conservation Center (GEM-CC). The biodeterioration mechanism was evaluated by two analyses: cellulase enzyme activity and acid production assay. The isolated fungus P. lanosum showed potent biodeterioration power as it exhibited the highest enzymatic activity and could produce acid as well. Four different analyses were performed to assess the entity of the biodeterioration phenomenon: scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, colorimetry, and pH measurements. The analyses demonstrated considerable changes in surface morphology, chemical structure (mainly represented by oxidation and hydrolysis of infected papyrus samples), darkness of the papyrus samples (ΔE 3.84–7.33), and pH (which dropped to 5.2 in the case of A. niger-infected sample. This article builds a preliminary perception for monitoring the biodeterioration of archaeological papyri and a trial for in vitro treatment to prevent further degradation, which may lead to loss of our valuable artifacts over a prolonged period.     

Editorial I

Communication strategies emphasize concerns for content (what is said) and process (the way things are said). Scientists have a responsibility to communicate the findings of their research, enhancing prospects that their insights can meaningfully inform management practice. When used effectively, principles from geomorphology provide critical guidance for environmental management. Three key geomorphic messages are outlined here: Respect diversity through communicating spatial and temporal controls upon landscape character and behaviour; Work with nature in conveying the range of behaviour of any given system; and Be proactive by determining the trajectory of landscape change. Uptake of geomorphic understanding reflects, among many factors, our ability to communicate findings clearly. In communicating these messages, different approaches are likely to prove more effective when addressing differing audiences, whether school/university classes, stakeholders, managers, politicians, or the broader community. Collective approaches to learning through dialogue are encouraged as they promote deeper learning, prospectively enhancing the uptake of geomorphic understanding, thereby promoting healthier environmental futures.     

Science in reflection

The predication of the eternal law served as premise and and foundation for the existence of the law of nature in the classical/medieval intellectual inheritance of Thomas Hobbes and his contemporaries. Unlike them, he makes no mention of the eternal law in his early writings, The Elements of Law Natural and Politic, and On the Citizen. His triple use of the expression eternal law of God in Leviathan is ambiguous and misleading. Instead , he is one of the first writers in English to assert the eternity of the law of nature. He does that by invoking a biblical-based expression, verbum aeternum. In On the Citizen, and its exegetical, theological identification with Christ, to establish that claim. In Leviathan he repeats his declaration that the law of nature is eternal nine times, spread across more than five Chapters and twelve hundred pages. Four of them are equivalently excised from the Latin Leviathan and the others remain brief assertions, unanalyzed and undefended, rendering their effect incidental and perfunctory. He also abandons the expression verbum aeternum (as well as eternal word, which he never uses).     

The Interplanetary Dialectic: Freedom and Equality in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed

In his most recent work, Homeless and at Home in America, Peter Lawler diagnoses our country's twin intellectual impulses, libertarianism and Darwinism, as expressions of the modern, disjunctive soul; torn between the desire to conquer nature for the sake of individual autonomy and the inclination to scientifically deprivilege ourselves as merely another part of nature, many Americans have managed to incoherently embrace a kind of libertarian sociobiology. Lawler attempts to demonstrate that each perspective promises only a partial view of the truth and that a deeper anthropology that properly includes both our natural inclinations and our eros to transcend nature can be accounted for by what he calls a "Thomistic Realism." The theoretical crux of this Thomistic realism is a "science of theology" that articulates the relation between reason and revelation, navigating between the mutual exclusivity espoused by Leo Strauss or any decisive theoretical synthesis. The purpose of this article is to fully explain the meaning of Lawler's science of theology and the extent to which it is influenced by but ultimately departs from Strauss's view.