Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane's experiment in press freedom: A quantitative evaluation through media system dependency

ABSTRACT

The relatively isolated circumstances of colonial Australia provide a natural laboratory for examining the establishment of press freedom there in 1824. A quantitative content analysis of newspapers from 1821 to 1825, guided by media system dependency (MSD) theory, suggests publishers were more concerned with exploiting the end of their dependence on the government as censor than with addressing their remaining dependence on the government as a well-funded advertiser. Findings also reveal considerable variation among publications and between colonies. The analysis also demonstrates the value of MSD theory in historical research.     

Dying for the fatherland: Thomas Abbt's theory of aesthetic patriotism

This article aims to dissect Thomas Abbt's (1738–1766) theory of aesthetic patriotism as laid out in his On Dying for the Fatherland (1761) and his prize-essay On Mathematical, Metaphysical and Moral Certainty (1763). Aesthetic idioms, such as the emphasis on the intrinsic pleasure from the order and beauty of virtue, had been invoked throughout the eighteenth century to vindicate the morally optimistic view of humanity against the sceptical vision of an exclusively utility-centred mankind. In the post-Montesquieu debates on the moral foundations of modern politics, German-speaking authors in particular, from both republics (Switzerland) and monarchies (Prussia), appropriated the aesthetic idioms in order to reject those theories which grounded patriotism in some sort of self-interest or proclaimed it redundant in modern society. Thomas Abbt was one of the most prominent representatives of this intellectual position. Combining the general emphasis of Shaftesbury on the role of aesthetic appreciation in moral and political agency with the more specific German Baumgartenian analysis of ‘beauty’ as a central principle in human ‘empirical psychology’, Abbt argued that patriotism in modern monarchies could be grounded in an aesthetic passion of enthusiasm generated through sensuous examples of great virtue. The example of a king fighting for his country on the battlefield could inspire monarchical subjects to follow his example as well as regenerate patriotism among them. Abbt was adamant that patriotism based on aesthetic foundations had to be supported and stabilised by a pervasive patriotic culture of remembrance and emulation of dead heroes through the fine arts, as well as by a system of meritocratic honour in the army.     

Sir Granville Beynon

During my active career as the head of the Max-Planck-Institute for Aeronomy, I had many occasions of a most fruitful cooperation with Sir Granville Beynon. I remember three of them especially well.     

Sir Granville Beynon and URSI

Sir Granville Beynon has contributed much to the activities of URSI. Some memorable moments are recalled here.     

Sir Granville Beynon and EISCAT

Sir Granville Beynon worked increasingly to enable the European Incoherent Scatter Observatory, EISCAT, to be established in Northern Scandinavia. Here, some specific recollections are brought to mind before they are forgotten.     

班克斯爵士与中国

班克斯爵士(Sir Joseph Banks,1743-1820)何许人也?熟悉英国近代科学史的人一定知道,从1778年开始到辞世四十多个寒暑间,他一直出任英国最高学术机构皇家学会(Royal Society)的主席,此时段也标志着从18世纪的"品鉴赏玩"之风到19世纪"格物致知"的科学态度的过渡.     

Occipitalization of the atlas with reference to its embryological development

A skull is described from the St Bride's collection in which the atlas is fused to the occiput. The mechanism of occipitalization or assimilation is described in the light of the embryological development of the upper axial skeleton.     

Sir Edward Grey and Austria-Hungary

ABSTRACT

Although in terms of their bilateral relations the ‘traditional friendship’ between Great Britain and Austria-Hungary was no mere phrase, in general political terms British policy in the last decade before the War was characterised by Grey's determination to cultivate the ententes with France and Russia and to do nothing to upset that division of Europe into two balancing groups (with Austria-Hungary firmly in the German camp) which he saw as the best guarantee of peace. Even though the Austrians gradually recovered from the shock of the Bosnian Crisis, in which Grey had come forward against them as Russia's chief supporter, and though the British for their part came to see in Austria-Hungary a useful element of stability in the Near East, Grey's attempts to uphold the unity of the Concert in the Balkan Wars were in the end vitiated by his overriding concern to avoid offending his Entente partners. Indeed, as the crisis deepened in the last year of peace, he took refuge in an increasingly abstentionist attitude, the objective effect of which - and herein, it is here argued, lies Grey's responsibility - was to intensify Vienna's desperation and loss of faith in the Concert that soon proved fatal to peace.