Nerven‐Saiten‐Stimmung. Zum Wandel einer Denkfigur zwischen Musik und Wissenschaft 1750–1850

‘Stimmung’. The Career of a Concept in Music and Science between 1750 and 1850. The German word ‘Stimmung’ originally refers to the musical praxis of tuning instruments. Whereas the English concepts of ‘tonus’ and ‘atunement’ used to describe the physical status of the body developed independently from the psychological ‘mood’, ‘Stimmung’ was used metaphorically in both physiology and psychology in the discussed period. This leads to various interrelations between the areas of knowledge involved. The paper investigates these on a synchronic and diachronic level. By concentrating a) on the analogy between musical strings and nerve fibres within the framework of a mechanistic conception of the body and b) on the metaphoric use of ‘Stimmung’ as a psychological concept describing the general mood of an individual, it becomes evident that the different metaphorical adaptations do not only have consequences within the specific area of knowledge, but also lead to distinct interpretations of musical effect. The second half of the paper concentrates on the diachronic development of ‘Stimmung’ in physiology and analyses the shifts within the semantic field of the metaphor occurring during the transformation from a mechanical to an organic conception of the body. On a theoretical level the emphasis lies on the conceptual potential of vague metaphors and the function of marginal metaphors in periods of theory change. In this context the results question Thomas Kuhns theory of an abrupt, gestaltlike change of theory by emphasizing the importance of continuous shifts within the semantic fields of vague metaphors.     

Visual images in Luigi Galvani's path to animal electricity

The scientific endeavor that led Luigi Galvani to his hypothesis of "animal electricity," i.e., of an electricity present in a condition of disequilibrium between the interior and the exterior of excitable animal fibers, is reviewed here with particular emphasis to the role played by visual images in Galvani's path of discovery. In 1791 Galvani formulated his model of neuromuscular physiology on the base of the image of a muscle and a nerve fiber together as in a "minute animal Leyden jar." This was the last instance of a series of physical models that accompanied Galvani's experimental efforts in the search of a theory capable of accounting for the electric nature of nerve conduction in spite of the many objections formulated in the eighteenth century against a possible role of electricity in animal physiology.     

Creation,Virginity and Diet in Fourth-Century Christianity: Basil of Ancyra’s On the True Purity of Virginity

Shaw explores the connections between dietary theory, Christian ascetic fasting, gender and the ideology of virginity in late antiquity, especially as represented in the fourth-century treatise on virginity by Basil of Ancyra. With its remarkable attention to the practicalities of embodiment and sexual renunciation, Basil’s treatise is distinctive in its genre. After discussing Basil’s treatise of creation, the nature of male and female sexual attraction and physiology, the control of bodily passions and the value of ascetic fasting for reducing desire, Shaw sets these topics in the context of ancient medical theory, gender and the theology of paradise.     

I.M. Sechenov (1829 - 1905) and the scientific self-understanding for medical sciences

There is no discussion about the historic relevance of I. Sechenov for physiology and neurosciences as the "father of Russian modern physiology". But he is relevant for modern natural science too because of his basic epistemological and ontological work. He did not accept the up to now basic paradigm of "Ignorabimus" which can be seen as the reason to exclude even the generalizable aspects of individuality, creativity and spontaneity from natural science. He developed techniques for empirical based science to deal with materialistic and idealistic aspects of the comprehensive person the "ignoramus" according to the actual stay of knowledge and the acceptable ontologies. He demonstrated that ontologies ("paradigms") can be used as tools according to the given problem which should be solved. So Sechenov can be seen as a precursor of the so efficient philosophical positions of Einstein and Th. Kuhn. The stay of the art in physiology and neurosciences changed since the time of Sechenov dramatically. Therefore the philosophical positions of the 19th century should be discussed. Maybe this is indispensable for the needed linkage between materialistic and idealistic aspects of a person. For this the proposals of Sechenov are helpful up to now but nearly unknown. There is no discussion about the historic relevance of I. Sechenov as the "father of Russian physiology." But he is relevant for modern natural science too because of his epistemological and ontological work. He did not accept the up to now basic paradigm of "Ignorabimus" that can be seen as the reason to exclude even the generalizable aspects of individuality, creativity, and spontaneity from natural science. He demonstrated that ontologies ("paradigms") and epistemology can be used as tools according to the given problem. So Sechenov can be seen as a precursor of the so efficient philosophical positions of Einstein and Th. Kuhn. The state of the art changed dramatically. Therefore, the philosophical positions of the nineteenth century should be questioned. Maybe this is indispensable for the needed link between materialistic and idealistic aspects of a person as a whole. In this respect the proposals of Sechenov are helpful for medical science in the twenty-first century too but nearly unknown.     

杨凤岗的美国华人宗教研究述评

介绍了杨凤岗博士关于美国华人改信基督教动因研究、“叠合身份”理论与美国华人教会中的多重身份构建研究、教会中的第二代美国华人文化认同等问题研究的学术成果与观点;论述了其理论成就与贡献;也对其研究中存在的诸如“叠合身份”理论的时效性、教会潜在的社会和经济功能、美国华人宗教研究中的阶级因素等问题进行了分析探讨。     

奥运与旅游相互促进的功能及方式——基于常规旅游价值链与全面营销导向的研究

本文在分析奥运作为全球特大型事件旅游对举办国或举办地具有的集聚性、不确定性、一次性影响特点与常规旅游对接待国或接待地具有平稳性、可持续性影响特点的基础上,运用国内外经验验证说明了奥运特大型事件旅游与常规旅游之间具有重要的互补性与互促性功能,并运用常规旅游价值链与全面营销理论进一步研究说明了如何充分发挥这种互补性与互促性功能的具体方式.     

Reclaiming A. D. Gordon's deep eco-nationalism

This study seeks to add to the burgeoning literature on the relations between nationalism and environmentalism by examining the ideas of A. D. Gordon (1856–1922). Gordon is not well-known outside the realm of Zionist scholarship. Nonetheless, a close re-examination of his ideas reveals that Gordon offers a hybrid brand of deep eco-national theory that frames traditional deep ecological themes within a general theory of nationalism. Whereas Gordon's theory introduces the ‘nation’ as a central notion to deep ecology thought, at the same time, it adds an ecological dimension rarely taken into account in theories of nationalism. This analysis further shows that although Gordon's pioneering eco-national theory had high potential for bridging between the two disciplines, it eventually faded into obscurity like eco-national ideas elsewhere. As Jewish national independence came into view, Gordon's distinctive eco-nationalism was overshadowed by anthropocentric-based Zionist politics.     

Rediscovering Australian federalism by resurrecting old ideas

The federal organisation of government in Australia is one of the least understood aspects of the Australian political system. Despite the durability of federal structures, federal theory in Australia remains largely underdeveloped. Aside from a few scholars who have persistently analysed the federal process, federalism in Australia has received attention as an outmoded system with little scope for distinguishing the benefits to be gained from understanding how government is organised. But where Australian federal theory has languished, American federal theory has flourished. This paper borrows some of the major ideas which have influenced analyses of government functions in the American ‘ system and posits them against analyses of Commonwealth and State government functions in Australia.     

Localization of Language Function in the Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century the method of identifying pathology in patients with aphasia has fluctuated between localizing and holistic theories. The practical localization of sensation and voluntary movement became a clinical commonplace in the beginning of the century, but the mental component of aphasia made its localization controversial. In Paris before the war, Pierre Marie made the localization of aphasia the centerpiece of his personal feud with Jules Dejerine. After the war Konstantin von Monakow used the phenomenon of recovery from aphasia to support his holistic views of localization. Henry Head, in a 1926 study that remains influential today, took a neo-Jacksonian approach to localization and the physiology of language. Kurt Goldstein led the postwar anti-localizationists, asserting that physicians must look after the whole person and that brain function was inherently unified. Norman Geschwind reflected 1960s physiological thought in analyzing aphasia as a type of disconnection of distinct functional areas. In the twenty-first century the localization of aphasia remains dependent on theory, with competition between holistic and localizing ideas.     

Biological and Epistemological Models of Localization in the Nineteenth Century: From Gall to Charcot

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the localizationist doctrines became closely associated with the memory trace paradigm. The analysis of the texts dealing with the localization and the nature of ‘the loss of articulated speech’ (motor aphasia) by Bouillaud, Lordat, Dax, Broca, Trousseau, Baillarger, Charcot and Wernicke shows how the biological paradigm of localization presented by Gall and based on the notion of organ-function correspondence was transformed into a model based on localizable memory traces. This change resulted in the theoretical unification of the mechanisms of motor and non-motor forms of aphasia. These forms, which the earlier authors tended to separate in their analyses of the underlying mechanisms, were now regarded as involving similar mechanisms related to the loss of mnestic images. The crucial step in this development was taken by Broca who presented the hypothesis that the faculty of coordination of speech movements, which according to his predecessors was the faculty lost in motor aphasia, was actually an intellectual faculty and a specific form of memory, and motor aphasia consequently a selective kind of amnesia. Theorists like Charcot and Wernicke generalized this idea into a comprehensive theory of the nature of localization based on the notion of memory traces. Thus, the localization of function was reduced to the localization of representations. Instead of biological paradigms, this model of localization is rooted in the epistemological tradition of psychology represented by Locke and Condillac, who were primarily interested in the problem of representation. In physiology, this approach usually resulted in attempts at localizing representations instead of functions.     

复兴党民族主义原初理论初探

复兴党民族主义原初理论是中东民族主义的重要组成部分,它在塑造叙利亚和伊拉克地区政治体系、区域经济结构、民族文化格局过程中发挥了举足轻重的作用。原初理论的基本主张是"统一"、"自由"和"社会主义"。作为一种影响深远的民族主义,原初理论对阿拉伯民族的思想、文化、价值观念及生活方式等都产生了深刻的影响。但是,原初理论本身是一个具有多重结构和功能的复合体,加之在中东特有的政治文化环境中存在许多变量,因而在复兴党政治实践中,也出现一些背离或扭曲原初理论的做法。     

The computation of ELF radio wave fields in the Earth-ionosphere duct

Evaluation of ELF radio wave fields using the mode theory requires the computation of Legendre functions. Four different representations of the Legendre functions in terms of hypergeometric series have been programmed for computation on a microcomputer. By an appropriate choice of series for given values of the propagation constant and distance from the source, only a few (typically eight) terms are needed to calculate the Legendre functions with a precision of six decimal digits.     

Galen and the ventricular system

This paper examines the anatomy and physiology, together with the pathophysiology, of the ventricular system of the brain, as it was understood by arguably its greatest exponent in Western Antiquity, Galen. According to him, the purpose of the ventricles was to elaborate, store and distribute psychic pneuma, the motive force of Galenic neurology, throughout the nervous system. However, impressive as the delineation of the ventricular system is, the details of this distribution are not forthcoming from Galen. Finally, I discuss the ventricles as the site of intellect, a notion only tentatively advanced by Galen, but cast into dogma by his successors. For all the mistakes Galen made in anatomy and physiology, the study of the ventricular system reveals a mind not dissimilar to our own.     

Walter Rudolf Hess (1881-1973) and his contribution to neuroscience

The present account includes a brief life history of Walter Rudolf Hess (1881-1973) and a review of his major neurophysiological contributions. Hess belonged to the nearly extinct generation of great universalists among students of human physiology. He began his scientific work in hemodynamics and ophthalmology, then studied the functional organization and regulation of circulation and respiration and developed a number of highly sophisticated instruments which fostered his international reputation. By electrically stimulating the brain of the unanesthetized, freely moving animal he explored the functional organization and localization of the cat diencephalon in terms of autonomic, extrapyramidal motor functions, and instinctive behavior, e.g. hunger, thirst, fear, and rage. His thoughts on biological order led him to consider the problems of psychic forces. He was convinced of the close correlation of behavioral research and neurophysiology and believed that neuronal patterns determine the content of consciousness without providing clues concerning the transformation of such patterns into subjective experience.     

Problems in the Building of Mathematical Models for Geographic Systems

Some basic concepts and principles of general systems theory applicable to geographical systems are formulated. A geosystem is viewed from the point of view of the controllable processes that convert it from one state to another and insure its self-regulation and stability. Since geographical systems derive energy from the surrounding environment and use it for their physical-chemical and biological functions, the structural elements of such systems behave thermodynamically like automata performing irreversible processes, and the laws of thermodynamics can therefore be applied to the functioning of such systems. A mathematical apparatus is demonstrated for the study migratory flows of mass and energy in geographical systems.     

Highland Lodge,Kilkelly, County Mayo: An Autobiographical Sketch

Fragments of neurology can be found in the oldest medical writings in antiquity. Recognizable cerebral localization is seen in Egyptian medical papyri. Most notably, the Edwin Smith papyrus describes hemiplegia after a head injury. Similar echoes can be seen in Homer, the Bible, and the pre-Hippocratic writer Alcmaeon of Croton. While Biblical writers thought that the heart was the seat of the soul, Hippocratic writers located it in the head. Alexandrian anatomists described the nerves, and Galen developed the ventricular theory of cognition whereby mental functions are classified and localized in one of the cerebral ventricles. Medieval scholars, including the early Church Fathers, modified Galenic ventricular theory so as to make it a dynamic model of cognition. Physicians in antiquity subdivided the brain into separate areas and attributed to them different functions, a phenomenon that connects them with modern neurologists.