A critique of freedom and equality

The study of historiography is undergoing a revolution akin to that which took place in the history of political thought in the 1960s, and the work of J.G.A. Pocock is central to both. Pocock's continuing exploration, in Barbarism and Religion (1999-), of the intellectual contexts of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is central to this enterprise, and this essay situates the origins of his own work within a pre-‘Cambridge School’ Cambridge and its experience of what might be called the Butterfieldian moment. That was marked by a desire to treat religion seriously as a driving force in history; and the same concern is applied here to further understanding an eighteenth-century controversy in which history and religion were dramatically involved, and which profoundly affected Gibbon's own historical and religious views. The work of Conyers Middleton and John Jortin is critically examined from this perspective. These preludes to Gibbon lead to a series of postludes examining the particular contexts in which Victorian and twentieth-century historians and writers, from Henry Hart Milman to Evelyn Waugh, variously appreciated and interpreted Gibbon. The whole is to be seen as a reflexive engagement with Pocock's vitally illuminating studies in eighteenth-century historiography.     

Henry Herbert Donaldson’s (1857–1938) contribution to an organized approach to the experimental study of the mammalian central nervous system

ABSTRACT

This article shows that the academic and research careers of Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857–1938) were directed to provide basic information about the growth of the vertebrate nervous system and to provide standards and the means to make such research efficient. He earned the reputation of making the albino rat a standard laboratory animal. His academic career began when he was an undergraduate at Yale University in 1875 and concluded with his death as Professor and Head of the Department of Neurology at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology of the University of Pennsylvania in 1938. During that period, pivotal experiences occurred, including research in physiological chemistry with Chittenden at the Sheffield School at Yale, graduate study at Johns Hopkins University, postgraduate study in Europe, and professorial positions at Clark University and the University of Chicago. It was at Johns Hopkins University that Donaldson learned about the need for physiological, anatomical, and psychophysical research and about the techniques to allow such research. It was at Clark University that he had first-hand and detailed experience with the anatomy of the brain of a deaf-blind-mute woman, as he attempted to correlate her sensory deficits with her brain development. It was at Clark University that he clearly recognized the need for standardization in neurological research. At the University of Chicago, he developed administrative skills and began a coordinated research effort to delimit the growth of the nervous system. It was at Chicago that he learned that the albino rat could be a reasonable subject for such research. It was also at Chicago that he was able to formulate ideas about the future organizational needs of human neuroanatomy. It was at the Wistar Institute that his research program and his professional career matured. He organized a research effort to elucidate the growth of the nervous system. He contributed to the coordination of neurological research in the United States and Europe. It was while at the Wistar Institute that he became well-known for making the albino rat a standard laboratory mammal—a convenient living material for research.     

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Flinders Petrie was one of the earliest excavators to recognise that all archaeological material had research potential, and pursued a whole range of artefact types as the key to understanding past cultures. But what impact did the way in which he excavated have on the rate at which objects were discovered, and the condition in which they were found? And how important was it to him that the objects he acquired were closely linked to the physical and chronological landscape of his sites? This article looks at Petrie's field practices to try and answer some of these questions, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between Petrie and his workforce, his object collection policies, and some of the failings experienced in recording object provenance. These issues are critical to those who wish to make use of these objects to answer current questions about the ancient Near East—because it is only by understanding the way in which this material was recovered that we can begin to judge how it should be used in the present day.     

The failure to formulate a national science policy: Israel's Scientific Council, 1948–1959

This article analyzes the failure to formulate a national science policy in Israel's early years by tracing the administrative genealogy of the Scientific Council (1948–59), which was established to manage and coordinate civil applied scientific research in Israel. The failure of the council is analyzed as part of wider debates concerning the future of the academic and scientific research systems and the implementation of Israeli state ideology (mamlakhtiyut) in this period. The story of the council sheds light on important aspects of the formation of Israeli higher education and scientific research institutions and on the close but complex relations between science and politics in the early years of the state.     

刘少奇与中国人民大学的创建

中国人民大学是刘少奇在秘密访苏期间提出创办的,得到了斯大林和毛泽东的支持。刘少奇直接领导并亲自主持筹建中国人民大学,出席开学典礼并发表了重要讲话。在刘少奇的悉心指导下,中国人民大学成为学习和宣传马克思列宁主义、毛泽东思想的坚强阵地,也是高校马克思主义政治理论课教师的培训基地;在办学中既学习了苏联经验,又注意理论联系实际;结束了旧中国工农无法受高等教育的历史,培养了大批的工农干部;学制灵活,办学形式多样。中国人民大学的创办为国家建设培养了大批人才,为高校改革起了示范作用,不仅具有鲜明的时代性,而且对新中国高等教育发展产生了深远的影响。     

清华简《尹诰》研究

清华大学藏简《尹诰》篇是失传了的《咸有一德》,但不是古文《尚书》中的《咸有一德》,非常重要,其内容目前可以基本疏通。由其内容来看,其中已经有建立在"君权天授"、"天人合一"基础上的民本思想,这是孟子思想的源头。从其内容上也可以说明清华简《尹诰》篇不伪,其史料价值非常珍贵,古文《尚书》中的《咸有一德》则确系伪书。     

《金縢》初探

传世的《金縢》篇虽然是经,但是后来有学者对于其内容、年代、解释等有不同的意见,乃至认为它是伪书或写定时代很晚。最近公布的清华大学藏简中,有内容与之相应的篇章,为解决有关的问题提供了新材料。将两者进行细致的比较可以发现,传世本和竹简本《金縢》是同源异流的关系,二者在流传过程中可能都经过了不同程度的改变。这一点,对于认识《金縢》的一些问题是有帮助的。     

浙江大学西迁照片小考简

一幅约70年前摄于贵州湄潭的照片（文中照片1）近些年被多部以浙大西迁为题的文本所采用,但照片中两位人物的名字注记各不相同,时间说明也有误、,本文通过文献资料的分析,事件脉络的梳理,相关人物照片的比对,指出这张历史照片中人物和时间注记的错误所在及产生的原因,并作出符合历史真实的结论,以免对该照片的误读和错用。     

A new athyridacean brachiopod from the Carboniferous of Rawdon Vale,New South Wales

Rawdonia nasharae gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Carboniferous Carsonville and Berrico Creek Formations at Rawdon Vale, N.S.W. Rawdonia is distinguished from other athyridaceans by: the possession of a smooth brachial valve; a cardinal process which is rod-like, bordered by extensions of the socket plates, and has an alveolus or pit at the base; the lack of a cardinal plate; and the lack of well-defined dental plates. In New South Wales Rawdonia nasharae ranges from the Delepinea aspinosa Zone to the Rhipidomella fortimuscula Zone.     

The role of Finland in the Swedish national and war economies during Sweden's period as a great power

The primary goal of this article is to present anti-Semitism as the underlying reason for the rejection of Israel-Jakob Schur's PhD dissertation at the University of Helsinki and at Åbo Akademi University in the late 1930s. The article analyzes the different stages of the processes and the ideological background and motives underpinning the rejections. Schur's antagonists were right-wing professors, some of whom sympathized with National Socialism and/or maintained contacts with eminent German anti-Semitic ideologues. The article analyzes the rhetoric of the written statements, which contain ideas of Christian anti-Semitism as well as other anti-Jewish stances. Moreover, the article demonstrates that Schur was regarded as an alien element in the Finnish academe, and the topic of his research – circumcision – was considered non-national from the perspective of Finnish science.