Machiavelli's scientific method: a common understanding of his novelty in the sixteenth century

This paper argues that Machiavelli's method, his inductive and comparative use of history and experience for political analysis, and his fashioning of historical-political analysis as ‘science’, played an important and still unrecognised role in his reception in the sixteenth century. It makes the case that Machiavelli's inductive reasoning and stress on historia and experientia offered a model for scientific method that open-minded sixteenth-century scholars, eager to understand, organise and augment human knowledge (scientia), could fit to their own epistemology. By focusing on the question of method—a crucial issue for sixteenth-century contemporaries—the paper offers more than a key to the understanding of Machiavelli's positive reception. It also helps in apprehending the crucial importance of Lucretius to Machiavelli's scholarship; the role of the late Renaissance fascination with historia in his reception; and the breadth of appropriation of his method exactly in the decades when anti-Machiavellianism became official politics all over Europe. These claims are sustained through the cases of Machiavelli's early translators and promulgators; the French legal humanists and historiographers; the Swiss, Italian and French scholars engaging with medicine, Paracelsism and astronomy; the authors of political maxims from all over Europe; and finally Francis Bacon.     

The Golgi Stain: Invention,Diffusion and Impact on Neurosciences

The black reaction, invented in 1873 by Camillo Golgi (1843-1926), was the first technique to reveal neurons in their entirety, i.e. with all their processes. This important development passed unnoticed at first and only received wide international attention after a long delay. The Golgi stain was widely employed for almost thirty years and was directly responsible for major advances in our knowledge of the microscopic anatomy of the nervous system, as well as in other fields of study. In the hands of other researchers, the black reaction provided vital evidence that helped to establish the neuron theory. The Golgi stain was almost forgotten in the period between the two World Wars, but the introduction of the electron microscope to neurocytological research revived its use around the middle of the twentieth century. Today, the black reaction is still used extensively not only in combination with electron microscopy, but also as an autonomous technique in studies on the evolution, ontogeny, and organization of the nervous system.     

ON THE RESOLUTION OF H/V MEASUREMENTS TO DETERMINE SEDIMENT THICKNESS,A CASE STUDY ACROSS A NORMAL FAULT IN THE LOWER RHINE EMBAYMENT,GERMANY

In recent years, H/V measurements have been increasingly used to map the thickness of sediment fill in sedimentary basins in the context of seismic hazard assessment. This parameter is believed to be an important proxy for the site effects in sedimentary basins (e.g. in the Los Angeles basin). Here we present the results of a test using this approach across an active normal fault in a structurally well known situation. Measurements on a 50 km long profile with 1 km station spacing clearly show a change in the frequency of the fundamental peak of H/V ratios with increasing thickness of the sediment layer in the eastern part of the Lower Rhine Embayment. Subsequently, a section of 10 km length across the Erft-Sprung system, a normal fault with ca. 750 m vertical offset, was measured with a station distance of 100 m. Frequencies of the first and second peaks and the first trough in the H/V spectra are used in a simple resonance model to estimate depths of the bedrock. While the frequency of the first peak shows a large scatter for sediment depths larger than ca. 500 m, the frequency of the first trough follows the changing thickness of the sediments across the fault. The lateral resolution is in the range of the station distance of 100 m. A power law for the depth dependence of the S-wave velocity derived from down hole measurements in an earlier study [Budny, 1984] and power laws inverted from dispersion analysis of micro array measurements [Scherbaum et aL, 2002] agree with the results from the H/V ratios of this study.     

吉林省区域核心城市可持续发展能力的定量化研究

本文选取吉林省9个地区的核心城市,进行可持续发展能力的定量化研究。提出了针对吉林省核心城市的可持续发展能力评估的5个方面49个指标,分别采用指数化方法与因子分析法对吉林省区域核心城市可持续发展能力进行测度。经对比分析,最后确定以指数化方法的研究结论作为吉林省区域核心城市可持续发展能力的测试结果,并对结论进行了定性分析。     

21世纪国土规划的理论探讨

该文结合国土规划性质及地位的探讨,针对国土规划的特点,笔者认为,进行跨学科的综合研究是解决国土规划重大问题的现实途径,其中,国土资源安全理论和城乡融合理论以及动态规划理论等是进行国土规划的理论支柱。在此基础上,指出国土规划的目标应是一个多层次、多目标的目标组合,应采取理论指导、专家论证与实践相结合的技术路线,最后提出了未来国土规划的研究趋向。     

商业地理研究的理论与方法回顾

归纳国外商业地理研究的理论和方法:传统商业地理学分①人类生态学的模式,对商业中心及商圈(腹地)形态进行定性划分,②社会物理学派的模式,研究商圈的定量测定与比较,③中心地理论,建立商业中心及商圈的等级体系;现代商业地理学方法上把行为地理学、时间地理学、结构主义地理学的研究方法应用到商业地理研究中来,并且和中心地理论相结合。概括和归纳我国二十几年来商业地理的研究现状,对比国外。论述我国商业地理研究的趋向:①CBD及主要商业中心的规划研究,②商业地理学的人本化,③研究商业的连锁经营对商业地理发展的影响,④研究虚拟空间和虚拟商业,⑤研究中外商业地理比较,⑥研究传统理论下商业地理细化研究和动态,⑦研究商业地理信息系统的应用研究。     

西方社会科学研究范式与中国旅游本土化研究

研究方法是旅游研究者顺利开展旅游研究的必备工具,具体的研究方法又受到特定的研究范式的制约,中国的旅游研究者在努力掌握各种研究方法时,往往对其背后的方法论和研究范式缺乏了解,从而限制了研究水平的提高。本文认为,中国旅游研究者要想提高研究水平,必须首先系统理解西方的科学哲学思潮和研究范式,在此基础上,再采用本土化和跨文化的研究策略。