Die Deutschlandreise des René Descartes

Due to lacking reliable sources almost no details were available on the educational journey of the joung Descartes. Moreover, contradictions in several publications resulted in the doubt, whether these events, which are so important for the history of science, ever hapened at all. Folowing careful and comprehensive research at the City Archives Ulm, the Hessian City Archives Darmstadt and the Bavarian State Library in Munich the author found evidence that René Descartes met the mathematician and master fortress builder Johann Faulhaber in Ulm.¹ Now, the first summary of Descartes' travel report can be given based on further findings (in reliable sources) and corroborated by numerous facts.     

Gulliver meets Descartes: early modern concepts of age-related memory loss

Age-related memory loss was a marginal issue in medical discussions during early modern times and until well into the second half of the 17th century. There are many possible explanations: the lack of similar traditions in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, insufficient physiological and morphological knowledge of the brain, and the underlying conflict between idealistic and materialistic perspectives on the functions of the soul and the conditions of these in old age. After these boundaries had been pushed back by the influence of Cartesianism and Iatromechanism, the problem of age-related memory loss was increasingly regarded as a physical illness and began to receive more attention. This trend first occurred in medicine, before spreading to the literary world, where the novel "Gulliver's Travels" is one clear and famous example.     

Descartes and the pineal gland in animals: a frequent misinterpretation

René Descartes presented a number of reasons for his choice of the pineal gland as a logical place for the soul to interact with the physical machinery of the body. It is often stated that one of his reasons was that he believed animals do not have pineal glands, whereas humans alone possess a soul and this small structure. This is a misinterpretation of Descartes. The philosopher knew that barnyard and other animals possess pineal glands, having seen this with his own eyes. His point was that the pineal is unique in humans only because of a special function - acting as the seat for the rational soul.     

Descartes and the pineal gland in animals: A frequent misinterpretation

Abstract

Rene Descartes presented a number of reasons for his choice of the pineal gland as a logical place for the soul to interact with the physical machinery of the body. It is often stated that one of his reasons was that be believed animals do not have pineal glands, whereas humans alone possess a soul and this small structure. This is a misinterpretation of Descartes. The philosopher knew that barnyard and other animals possess pineal glands, having seen this with his own eyes. His point was that the pineal is unique in humans only because of a special function — acting as the seat for the rational soul.     

Charcot in contemporary literature

Charcot and his medical observations remain an enduring topic of scientific study in neurology, but he is also the topic of modern literary works. This essay examines the depiction of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) as a character in late-twentieth-century literature as an index of the contemporary nonmedical literary public's interest in neurology and Charcot. It focuses on three contemporary works that involve Charcot as a central figure with comparison between primary source documents and the rendered context, character development, and plot lines of these literary works. The two French novels [Slumbers of Indiscretion and Dr. Charcot of the Salpêtrière] and one American play [Augustine (Big Hysteria)] approach Charcot and neurology with differing levels of historical accuracy. All create a figure of authority, each with a different coloration of the balance between power and its abuse. Two focus almost exclusively on his work with hysteria and inaccurately amplify Charcot's concern with symbolic sexual conflict as the origin of hysteria and fictionalize more extensive interactions with Freud than historical documents support. The three works demonstrate that Charcot retains an enduring fascination with an enigmatic personality, a controversial career, and a pivotal role in the development of studies involving the brain and behavior. Neurologists should not look to these works as replacements for more seriously composed historical studies, but as enrichments anchored in the imaginative possibilities of Charcot and his fin de siècle era.     

Körpergefühl und Raumvorstellung: Leonardo und Descartes

“Experience and the conception of the world in science in transition to modern times” is the general subject. There are two different points to be made clear, i.e. 1. That the conception of the world had to be made imaginable by art before it could be taken over by science. The central perspective dates back to about three centuries before the time Descartes developed the co-ordinate system. 2. Furthermore it should be taken into account that it was first of all due to the lead of the painters (especially in the Italy of the Quattrocento’) that the possibility of making experiences had changed. In a space opened by a perspective view and seemingly thus appearing as measurable even the painted figures acquire a new reality. Due to his anatomic studies Leonardo could treat the natural movement of the figures shown in his paintings. It was the artists who first of all investigated optics and anatomy before relations could be measured with the aid of scientific methods ami before quantities — instead of qualities — could become the base of unbiased science, as called for by Galilei in 1623.     

茅台酒与当代名人

《茅台酒与当代名人》反映茅台酒与中国当代名人主要是毛泽东一身与茅台酒的有关故事。折射出毛泽东利用茅台酒为其政治服务以及他对此酒的钟爱。     

Security and alienation in contemporary China

Barlow, Tani E., and Donald M. Lowe. Chinese Reflections: Americans Teaching in the People's Republic. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1985. xviii + 250 pp. including index. $17.95 cloth.

Yue Daiyun, and Carolyn Wakeman. To the Storm: The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. xxv + 405 pp. including index. $17.95 cloth.     

Mapping contemporary Catholic politics in Italy

This editors’ introduction opens a special issue of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies on the topic of ‘Mapping Contemporary Catholic Politics in Italy’. It briefly identifies the political, sociological and ideational changes that have occurred in Catholic politics since the collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana party, and introduces the contributions to the special issue, highlighting the common threads and the important divergences in their analyses.     

呵护我们的过去就是保护我们的未来

天灾和人祸,如影子一样一直伴随着人类短暂的明史。劫后余存不多的化遗产,作为人类之所以为人的历史印迹,我们应该珍之、宝之、爱之,永远爱惜它、保护它。然而,现实中不时发生的损毁、糟蹋物古迹的事件,总让我们这些明的后代羞愧难当,无颜再见列祖列宗。