The electrical excitability of the brain: toward the emergence of an experiment

In 1870, Eduard Hitzig and Gustav Fritsch performed experiments on dogs by which they were able to produce movement through electrical stimulation of specific parts of the cerebral cortex. Contemporaries regarded the experiment as a milestone in the controversially discussed issue of cerebral localization of functions even though this experiment came as a surprise to the community of experimental physiologists who had rejected localization for several decades after the antiphrenological work of the physiologist Pierre Flourens. In this article, I will argue that the context in which this experiment emerged was not so much the French localization debate of the 1860s but rather practical demands in clinical medicine, notably in electrotherapy. At the time of the experiment, Hitzig worked as a medical practitioner in Berlin and was interested in an anatomical and physiological explanation of the specific symptoms of one of his patients. The unpredictable outcome of this interest was the discovery of the electrical excitability of the cortex. Whereas experimental physiologists dominated the discussion on cerebral localization in Germany before 1870, the situation shifted after the publication of Fritsch and Hitzig's paper. Concrete medical necessities forced the discussion about localization and it was mainly due to the authority of clinical physicians that the localization of mental qualities in the brain became a cornerstone of brain research.     

战后中国对越政策的演变——以中国国民党对越党派工作为中心的探讨

战后中国国民党对越党派工作先后经历了以“越南亲华党派”、“越南独立同盟”、“保大”为工作重心的三个阶段。通过对战后中国国民党对越党派工作的考察,我们可以看出,从扶植对象的选择上看,意识形态并未成为其抉择取舍的“一元”标准。随着越南内部情势、中国国内和整个国际形势的变化,中国自身的国家利益与国力、越南内部各党派的实力,以及法方对越政策的演变,均成为中方研商对越方针时所考量的重要因素。从工作方式上看,战后中国国民党对越党派工作以道义声援和暗中策动越南内部各党派合作为主。拒绝实力援越。从实施效果看,中方对越方针落在纸面上的颇为全面周到,而在具体实施过程中则大打折扣。之所以如此,有时是因越南局势瞬息万变而主动放弃,但更多情形则是因方针本身的内在矛盾、对越工作机构之间的相互掣肘和国内国共争斗的日趋激烈等因素而无从、无力实施。     

民族区域自治制度的完善与发展

胡锦涛在十七大报告中强调要坚持和完善民族区域自治制度等三大社会主义民主制度。民族区域自治翩度是党的第一代领导集体在新民主主义革命和社会主义建设中确立的,党的十一届三中全会后,在新的历史条件下,我们党与时俱进,不断推陈出新,完善和发展了民族区域自治制度。     

Evolution as context-driven actualisation of potential: toward an interdisciplinary theory of change of state

Abstract

It is increasingly evident that there is more to biological evolution than natural selection; moreover, the concept of evolution is not limited to biology. We propose an integrative framework for characterising how entities evolve, in which evolution is viewed as a process of context-driven actualisation of potential (CAP). Processes of change differ according to the degree of non-determinism, and the degree to which they are sensitive to, internalise and depend upon a particular context. The approach enables us to embed phenomena across disciplines into a broad conceptual framework. We give examples of insights into physics, biology, culture and cognition that derive from this unifying framework.     

Suffering in Silence: The Political Aesthetics of Pain in Antonine Art

Abstract

In this paper, two striking representations of screaming or shouting male barbarians, one on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome and the other on the Pannonian tombstone of the Roman legionary C. Septimus, are analysed and discussed in detail. These two disturbing and provocative images of suffering are situated in the broader context of institutionalised violence in Roman society, as reflected in certain kinds of judicial punishments and in the games in the arena, and of depictions of pain and suffering in other contexts, both ancient and modern.     

Review Article: On the Completion of A History of the Crusades

HARRY W. HAZARD and NORMAN P. ZACOUR, eds. A History of the Crusades : Volume VI: The Impact of the Crusades on Europe. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. Pp. xxiv, 703. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Donald E. Queller     

Emphasising the Positive: The Critical Role of Schlegel's Aesthetics

In its relationship with that which might be considered to exist beyond the perceived limits of philosophical discourse—for the sake of brevity let us call it the Absolute—Early German Romanticism tends to be presented either as mystically positivistic and therefore wholly unphilosophical, or as philosophically informed and committed to a sort of critical antifoundationalism that offers, at best, a negative non-relation to the Absolute. Naturally enough, these two opposing positions give rise to opposing reconstructions of Romantic aesthetics. Whilst broadly in agreement with the latter interpretation, this article argues, in relation to Friedrich Schlegel, that in the rush to establish the philosophical credentials of Frühromantik, some of its complexity has been jettisoned and along with it a more accurate understanding of the guiding spirit of Romantic aesthetics. Drawing on Fichte and Walter Benjamin, it will be argued that Schlegel's notion of the Wechselerweis is intended to bridge the ideal and the real in a positive experience of negation and that his much-vaunted aesthetics amounts to an attempt to develop a philosophico-literary form that would be able to express or, rather, perform precisely this.     

在西部大开发中 推动甘肃文物事业全面发展

甘肃有着大量珍贵的历史文物和遗迹 ,由于历史原因和各种条件的制约 ,文物工作存在的困难和问题较多。西部大开发战略为甘肃文物事业的发展提供了难得的历史机遇。文物部门将在有效保护好文物资源的前提下 ,更加充分地进行合理利用 ,使文物保护与旅游紧密结合 ,为发展经济服务。     

宋代的自然观察:审美、解释与观测兴趣的发达

本文以地理学为核心,从知识兴趣的角度对宋代的自然观察及其解释方法进行了考察,发现在宋代学者中,不仅以山水游赏为目的的审美性自然观十分发达,更积极地观察、观测各种自然地理现象。尤为突出的是,在当时的学者中间,从客观的角度探索自然并解释自然并非个别案例,而具有一定的普遍性。另外,甚至有部分学者抛开形而上的讨论,积极地对长期观测的自然现象进行归纳总结,表现出了浓厚的经验实证思想。虽然这表明当时的自然知识累积与发展出现了新的方向,但是它们并没有得到突破性的发展,其主要原因或在于这些新的因素并没有能够真正地改变儒学知识分子认识自然的基本方式。     

Dithyrambs and Ploughshares: The Cycle of Creation and Criticism in Nietzsche's Aesthetics

Pairing Thus Spoke Zarathustra with On the Genealogy of Morality foregrounds tensions between artistic creation and critical interpretation in Nietzsche's work. From The Birth of Tragedy to his genesis of the concept, Will to Power, Nietzsche describes the real, or “what is,” in terms of a creative, form-giving force. We might therefore read Zarathustra—a linguistically experimental, richly allegorical, self-reflexive, modernist prose poem—as the pre-eminent, artistic mode of philosophical expression, at least for Nietzsche. But Zarathustra is followed by a sober Abhandlung (treatise), which professes a scientific goal of “getting to the bottom of things” by uncovering the contingency, origin, and fabricated nature of supposedly eternal, “given” values. These instantiations of Nietzsche-the-artist and Nietzsche-the-critic suggest art's “double” or contradictory nature—a nature that accents its kinship with philosophy. Zarathustra and the Genealogy, read together, hint that the destruction of idols—or de-constructive, critical interpretation more generally—is not just supplemental to, but a necessary moment within the aesthetic itself.