The subject of visual mnemonic devices used in the interpretation of Shakespeare's plays is marvelously treated in Frances A. Yates's book The Art of Memory (Harmondsworth: Penguin Press, 1966). She discusses Robert Fludd's memory system of theater, from his Ars memoriae (1619), based on the Shakespearean Globe Theater. In ancient Greece, orators constructed complex spatial and temporal schemata as aids in rehearsing and properly presenting their speeches.
Functioning of Language
Research on memory and language functions in the brain is being carried out at the University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development. Work is focused on individuals who are about to undergo partial lobotomies to treat intractable epilepsy. The goal is to provide a functional map of the brain.
"History remains a strict discipline only when it stops short, in its description, of the nonverbal past." (Ivan Illich and Barry Sanders, The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind, p. 3).
Derrick de Kerkhove, Charles J. Lumsden, Editors. The Alphabet and the Brain. The Lateralization of Writing. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 1988.
In this book, Edward Jones and Chizato Aoki report on the different cognitive processing of phonetic (Kana) and logographic (Kanji) characters in Japanese (p. 301).
André Martinet. Le Langage. Paris: Encyclopédie de la Pléiade, 1939.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris:Gallimard, Bibliothèque des Idées, 1945.
André Leroi-Gourhan. Moyens d'expression graphique, in Bulletin du Centre de Formation aux Recherches Ethnologiques, Paris, No. 4, 1956, pp. 1-3.
-. Le geste et la parole, Vol. I and II. Paris: Albin Michel, 1964-1965. -. Les racines du monde, in Entretiens avec Claude-Henri Rocquet. Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1982.
Gordon V. Childe. The Bronze Age. New York: Biblio and Tannen, 1969.
John DeFrances. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. 1983.
Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man. NewYork: McGraw Hill 1964.
In many of his writings, Roland Barthes suggested characteristics of the oral and visual culture. The distinction between the two preoccupied him.
Klingon is a language crafted by Marc Okrand, a linguist, for use by fictional characters. The popularity of Star Trek explains how Klingon spread around the world.
By eliminating sources of ambiguity and prescribing stylistic rules, controlled languages aim for improved readability. They are easier to maintain and they support computational processing, such as machine translation (cf. Willem-Olaf Huijsen, Introduction to Controlled Languages, a Webtext of 1996).
An example of an artificial language of controlled functions and logic is Logics Workbench (LWB), developed at the University of Berne, in Switzerland. The language is available through the WWW.
Drawing: The trace left by a tool drawn along a surface particularly for the purpose of preparing a representation or pattern. Drawing forms the basis of all the arts.
Edward Laning, The Act of Drawing, New York: McGraw Hill, 1971.
Design: Balducinni defined design as "a visible demonstration by means of those things which man has first conceived in his mind and pictured in the imagination and which the practised hand can make appear."
"Before Balducinni, its primary sense was drawing." (cf. Oxford Companion to Art). More information is given in the references for the chapter devoted to design.
Alan Pipes, Drawing for 3-Dimensional Design: Concepts,Illustration, Presentation, London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.
Thomas Crump. The Anthropology of Numbers, Cambridge/New York:Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Referring to Yoshio Yano's article of 1973, in Japanese, entitled Communication Life of the Family, Crump writes: "…age, in the absence of other overreaching criteria, determines hierarchy: this rule applies, for instance, in Japan, and is based on the antithesis of semmai-kohai, whose actual meaning is simply senior-junior. The moral basis of the precedence of the elder over the younger (cho-yo-no-jo) originated in China, and is reflected in the first instance in the precedence of siblings of the same sex, which is an important structural principle within the family" (p. 69).
On the issue of context affecting language functions, see GeorgeCarpenter Barker, Social Functions of Language in aMexican-American Community. Phoenix: The University of ArizonaPress, 1972.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The Disuniting of America. Reflections on a Multicultural Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.
Sneja Gunew and Jan Mahyuddin, Editors. Beyond the Echo.Multicultural Women's Writing . St. Lucia: University ofQueensland Press, 1988.
Stephen J. Rimmer. The Cost of Multiculturalism. Belconnen, ACT:S.J.Rimmer, 1991.
Language and Logic
A.E. Van Vogt. The World of Null-A. 1945. The novel was inspired by a work of Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity. An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (1933).
Walter J. Ong seems convinced that "…formal logic is the invention of Greek culture after it had interiorized the technology of alphabetic writing, and so made a permanent part of its noetic resources the kind of thinking that alphabetic writing made possible" (Op. cit., p. 52). He reports on A.R. Luria's book, Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations (1976). After experiments designed to define how illiterate subjects react to formal logical procedures (in particular, deductive reasoning), Luria seems to conclude that no one actually operates in formally stated syllogisms.
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures. Paris: Alcan, 1910. (Translated as How Natives Think by Lilian A. Clave, London: Allen & Unwin, 1926.)
Lévy-Bruhl reconnects to the notion of participation that originates in Plato's philosophy and applies it to fit the so-called pre-logic mentality.
Anton Dumitru. History of Logic. 4 vols. Turnbridge Wells, Kent:Abacus Press, 1977.
In exemplifying the law of participation, Dumitru gives the following example: "In Central Brazil there lives an Indian tribe called Bororó. In the same region we also find a species of parrots called Arara. The explorers were surprised to find that the Indians claimed to be Arara themselves. […] Put differently, a member of the Bororó tribe claims to be what he actually is and also something else just as real, namely an Arara parrot" (vol. 1, pp. 5-6).
René Descartes (1596-1650), under his Latinized name Renatus Cartesius, sees logic as "teaching us to conduct well our reason in order to discover the truths we ignore" ("qui apprend à bien conduire sa raison pour découvrir les vérités qu'on ignore"). For Descartes, mathematics is the general method of science. Oeuvres de Descartes. Publiées par Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, Eds. 11 vols. Nouvelle présentation en co-édition avec le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Paris: Vrin. 1965-1973 (reprint of the 1897-1909 edition). In English, the rendition by Elizabeth S. Haldane and George R.T. Ross was published in London, Cambridge University Press, 1967.
"Logic is the art of directing reason aright, in obtaining the knowledge of things, for the instruction both of ourselves and of others. It consists of the reflections which have been made on the four principal operations of the mind: conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing" (Port Royal Logic, Introduction).
John Locke (1632-1704) was looking for simple logical elements and rules to compound them. Certainty is not the result of syllogistic inference. "Syllogism is at best nothing but the art of bringing to light, in debate, the little knowledge we have, without adding any other to it." An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (London, 1690) sets an empirical, psychologically based perspective of logic.
George Boole (1815-1864) conceived of a logical calculus, in AnInvestigation of the Laws of Thought on which are founded theMathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (London,1854),which eventually became the basis for digital computation.
Fung-Yu-lan. Précis d'histoire de la philosophie chinoise. Paris:Plon, 1952.
"It is very difficult for somebody to understand fully Chinese philosophical works, if he is not able to read the original text. The language is indeed a barrier. Due to the suggestive character of Chinese philosophical writings, this barrier gets more daunting, these writings being almost untranslatable. In translation, they lose their power of suggestion. In fact, a translation is nothing but an interpretation" (p. 35).
Chang-tzu. cf. Anton Dumitru, Op.cit., p. 13.
Kung-Fu-tzu (551-479, BCE), whose Latinized name is Confucius, expressed the logical requirement to "rectify the names." This translates as the need to put things in agreement with one another by correct designations. "The main thing is the rectification of names (cheng ming) […] If the names are not rectified, the words cannot fit; if the words do not fit, the affairs [in the world] will not be successful. If these affairs are not successful, neither rites nor music can flourish. If rites and music do not flourish, punishments cannot be just. If they are not just, people do not know how to act." The conclusion is, "The wise man should never show levity in using words;" (Lun-yu, cf. Wing-Tsit-chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963).
Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Logic in his view is thinking about thinking. The whole logical theory of the syllogism is presented in the Analytica Priora. The Analytica Posteriora gives the structure of deductive sciences. The notion of political animal is part of the Aristotelian political system (cf. Politics).
Takeo Doi. Amae no kozo. Tokyo: Kobundo. 1971. (Translated as TheAnatomy of Dependence by John Bester, Tokyo/New York: KodanshoInternational and Harper & Row,1973.)
Vedic texts, the collective name for Veda, defined as the science (the root of the word seems to be similar to the Greek for idea, or the Latin videre, to see) of direct intuition, convey the experience of the Rsis, ancient sages who had a direct perception of things. The writings that make up Veda are: Rig Veda, invocatory science; Yajur Veda, sacrificial; Sama Veda, melody; Atharva Veda, of incantation. In each Veda, there is a section on the origin of the ritual, on the meaning, and on the esoteric aspect.
Mircea Eliade. Yoga. Paris: Gallimard, 1960.
"India has endeavoured…to analyze the various conditioning factors of the human being. …this was done not in order to reach a precise and coherent explanation of the human being, as did, for instance, Europe of the 19th century,… but in order to know how far the zones of the human being go and see whether there is anything else beyond these conditionings" (p. 10).
The logic of action, as part of logical theory, deals with various aspects of defining what leads to reaching a goal and what are the factors involved in defining the goal and testing the result.
Raymond Bondon, in Logique du social (translated by David andGillian Silverman as The Logic of Social Action: AnIntroduction to Sociological Analysis, London/Boston: Routledge &Kegan Paul, 1981), gives the subject a sociological perspective.Cornel Popa, in Praxiologie si Logica (Praxiology and Logic,Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1984) deals with social action.Authors such as D. Lewis, A. Salomaa, B.F. Chelas, R.C. Jeffrey,and Jaako Hintikka, whose contributions were reunited in a volumecelebrating Stig Kanger, pay attention to semantic aspects andconditional values in many-valued propositional logics (cf.Logical Theory and Semantic Analysis, edited by Soren Stenlund,Dordrecht/Boston: Reidel, 1974).
The term culture originates in human practical experiences related to nature: cultivating land, breeding and rearing animals. By extension, culture (i.e., cultivating and breeding the mind) leads to the noun describing a way of life. In the late 18th century, Herder used the plural cultures to distinguish what was to become civilization. In 1883, Dilthey made the distinction between cultural sciences (Geisteswissenschaften, addressing the mind) and natural sciences. The objects of cultural sciences are man-made and the goal is understanding (Verstehen). For more information on the emergence and use of the term culture, see A.L. Kroeber and C. Kluckholm, Culture: a Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions, in Peabody Museum Papers, XLVII, Harvard University Press, 1952.
Ramon Lull (Raymundus Lullus, 1235-1315) suggested a mechanical system of combining ideas, an alphabet (or repertory) and a calculus for generating all possible judgments. Called Ars Magna (The Great Art), his work attracted both ironic remarks and enthusiastic followers.
Athanasius Kircher, in Polygraphia nova et universalis ex combinatoria arte detecta (New and universal polygraphy discovered from the arts of combination, Rome, 1663), tried to introduce an arithmetic of logic.
George Delgarus, in Ars signorum (The art of signs, London, 1661), suggested a universal language of signs.
John Wilkins dealt with it as a secret language (1641, Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger, and 1668, An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language).
Lotfi Zadeh introduced fuzzy logic: a logic of vague though quantified relations among entities and of non- clear-cut definitions (What is young? tall? bold? good?).
Felix Hausdorf/Paul Mongré. Sant 'Ilario. Gedanken aus derLandschaft Zarathustras. 1897. p. 7
W.B. Gallie (Peirce's Pragmatism, in Peirce and Pragmatism, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952) noticed that Peirce, "in the Pragmaticism Papers, approaches the subject of vagueness from a number of different sides. He claims, for instance, that all our most deeply grounded and in practice indubitable beliefs are essentially vague" (cf. Peirce, 5.446). According to Peirce, vagueness is a question of representation, not a peculiarity of the object of the representation. He goes on to specify that the source of vagueness is the relation between the sign and the interpretant ("Indefiniteness in depth may be termed vagueness," cf. MSS 283, 141, 138-9). Additional commentary in Nadin, The Logic of Vagueness and the Category of Synechism, in The Monist, Special Issue: The Relevance of Charles Peirce, 63:3, July, 1980, pp. 351-363.
Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1976.
-. The Extended Phenotype. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Elan Moritz, of the Institute for Memetic Research, provides the historic and methodological background to the subject in Introduction to Memetic Science.
E.O. Wilson. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge:Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1975.
Mihai Nadin. Mind-Anticipation and Chaos (from the seriesMilestones in Thought and Discovery). Stuttgart/Zurich: BelserPresse. 1991.
"Minds exist only in relation to other minds" p. 4. The book was based on a lecture delivered in January,1989 at Ohio State University.
Language as Mediating Mechanism
Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1976.
-. The Extended Phenotype. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Elan Moritz, of the Institute for Memetic Research, provides the historic and methodological background to the subject in Introduction to Memetic Science., a Webtext.
E.O. Wilson. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge:Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1975.
Mediation: a powerful philosophic notion reflecting interest in the many ways in which something different from what we want to know, understand, do, or act upon intercedes between the object of our interest, action, or thought.
G.W. Hegel. Hegels Werke, vollständige Ausgabe durch einen Verein von Freunden des Verewigten, vols. I-XIX. Berlin. 1832-1845, 1887
The dialectics of mediation includes a non-mediated mode, generated by the suppression of mediation, leading to the Thing-in-itself: "Dieses Sein ist daher eine Sache, die an und für sich ist die Objektivität" (vol. V, p. 171) (This being is, henceforth, a thing in itself and for itself, it is objectivity.) Everything else is mediated.
In all post-Hegelian developments-right wing (Hinrichs, Goeschel,Gabler), left-wing (Ruge, Feuerback, Strauss), center (Bauer,Köstlin, Erdmann)-mediation is a major concept.
Emile Durkheim. De la Division du Travail Sociale. 9th ed. Paris:Presses Univérsitaires de France, 1973. (Translated as TheDivision of Labor in Society by W.D. Halls. New York: Free Press,1984).
Michel Freyssenet. La Division Capitaliste du Travail. Paris:Savelli, 1977.
Elliot A. Krause. Division of Labor, A Political Perspective.Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
Gunnar Tornqvist, Editor. Division of Labour, Specialization, andTechnical Change: Global, Regional, and Workplace Level. Malmo,Sweden: Liber, 1986.
Marcella Corsi. Division of Labour, Technical Change, andEconomic Growth. Aldershot, Hants, U.K.: Avebury/Brookfield VT:Gower Publishing Co., 1991.
Leonard Bloomfield. Language. 1933. rpt. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 1964.
In this work, the author maintains that the division of labor, and with it the whole working of human society, is due to language.
Charles Sanders Peirce. "Anything that determines something else (its interpretant) to refer to an object to which itself refers (its object) in the same way, the interpretant becoming in turn a sign, and so on ad infinitum" (2.303). "Something which stands to somebody in some respect or capacity" (2.228).
Other sign definitions have been given: "In the language, reciprocal presuppositions are established between the expression (signifier) and the expressed (signified). The sign is the manifestation of these presuppositions," (A. J. Greimas and J. Courtés, Semiotics and Language. An Analytical Dictionary, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983, p. 296; translation of Sémiotique. Dictionnaire Raisonné de la Théorie du Langage, Paris: Classique Hachette, 1979).
According to L. Hjelmslev, the sign is the result of semiosis taking place at the time of the language act. Benveniste considers that the sign is representative of another thing, which it evokes as a substitute.
Herbert Marcuse. The One-Dimensional Man. Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.
Plato. Phaedrus, and The Seventh and Eighth Letters (translated from the Greek), with an introduction by Walter Hamilton. Harmondsworth: Penguin Press, 1973.
Regarding cave paintings, see:
Mihai Nadin. Understanding prehistoric images in the post-historic age: a cognitive project, in Semiotica, 100:2-4, 1994. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 387-405 B. Campbell. Humankind Emerging. Toronto: Little, Brown & Co.,1985.
W. Davis. The origins of image making, in Current Anthropology, 27 (1986). pp. 193-215.
Luigi Bottin. Contributi della Tradizione Greco-Latina eArabo-Latina al Testo della Rhetorica di Aristotele. Padova:Antenore, 1977.
Marc Fumaroli. L'Age de l'Éloquence: Rhétorique et 'ResLiteraria' de la Renaissance au Seuil de l'Époque Classique.Geneva: Droz and Paris: Champion, 1980.
William M.A. Grimaldi. Aristotle, Rhetoric: A Commentary. NewYork: Fordham University Press, 1980- 1988.
Rhetoric is generally seen as the ability to persuade. Using many kinds of signs (language, images, sounds, gestures, etc.), rhetoric is connected to the pragmatic context. In ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in China and India, rhetoric was considered an art and practiced for its own sake. Some consider rhetoric as one of the sources of semiotics (together with logic, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language (cf. Tzvetan Todorov, Théorie du Symbole, Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 1977). Gestures are a part of rhetoric. Quintillian, in De institutione oratoria, dealt with the lex gestus (law of gesture). In the Renaissance, the code of gesture was studied in detail. In our days of illiterate rhetoric based on stereotypes and increasingly compressed messages, gestures gain a special status indicative of the power of non-literacy-based ceremonies. The rhetoric of advertisement pervades human interaction.
George Boole (1815-1864) conceived of a logical calculus, in AnInvestigation of the Laws of Thought on which are founded theMathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (London, 1854),which eventually became the basis for digital computation.
Howard Rheingold.Virtual Reality. New York: Summit Books, 1991.
Rheingold offers a description that can substitute for a definition: "Imagine a wraparound television with programs, including three-dimensional sound, and solid objects that you can pick up and manipulate, even feel with your fingers and hands. Imagine immersing yourself in an artificial world and actively exploring it, rather than peering at it from a fixed perspective through a flat screen in a movie theater, on a television set, or on a computer display. Imagine that you are the creator as well as the consumer of your artificial experience, with the power to use a gesture or a word to remold the world you see and hear and feel" (p. 16).
In an Internet interview with Rheingold, Sherry Turkel points out that computers and networks are objects- to-think-with for a networked era. She predicts, "I believe that against all odds and against most current expectations, we are going to see a rebirth of psychoanalytic thinking" (cf. Brainstorms, http://www.well.com, 1996).
Literacy, Language, and Market
Reference is made to the works of Margaret Wheatley (Management and the New Science); Michael Rothschild (Bionomics); Bernardo Huberman (Dynamics of Collective Actions and Learning in Multi-agent Organizations); Robert Axtel and Joshua Epstein (creators of Sugarscape, a model of trade); and Axel Leijonhufvud (Multi-agent Systems), all published as Webtexts.
Transactions as extensions of human biology evince the complex nature of human interactions. Maturana and Varela indirectly refer to human transactions: "Coherence and harmony in relations and interactions between the members of a human social system are due to the coherence and harmony of their growth in it, in an ongoing social learning which their own social (linguistic) operation defines and which is possible thanks to the genetic and ontogenetic processes that permit structural plasticity of the members" (Op. cit., p.199). They diagram the shift from minimum autonomy of components (characteristic of organisms) to maximum autonomy of components (characteristic of human societies).
A Walk Through Wall Street, in US News and World Report, Nov. 16, 1987, pp. 64-65. One from among many reminiscences by Martin Mayer, author of Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Men and Money.
"Wall Street as price setter for the country dealt with much more than pieces of paper. Commodities markets proliferated. The fish market was on the East River at Fulton; the meat market on the Hudson just to the north…. The 'physicals' of all commodities markets were present…there were cotton sacks in the warehouse of the Cotton Exchange, coffee bags stored here for delivery against the contracts at the Sugar and Coffee Exchange on Hanover Square and often a smell of roasting coffee.
"In the 1950's, this was a male world-women were not allowed to work on the floor of the Stock Exchange, let alone become members. The old-timers explained with great sincerity that there was no ladies room."
The report points out that today Wall Street "sees less of the real world outside, depends more on abstract information processed through data machinery and more than ever responds to forces far from its borders."
Zoon semiotikon, the semiotic animal, labeled by Paul Mongré (also known as Felix Hausdorf).
Charles S. Peirce gave the following definitions: Representamen: a Sign is a Representamen of which some interpretant is a cognition of a mind (2.242). Object: the Mediate object is the object outside the Sign; …the sign must indicate it by a hint (Letter to Lady Welby, December 23, 1908). Interpretant: the effect that the sign would produce upon any mind (Letter to Lady Welby, March 14, 1909).
In reference to the symbolic nature of market transactions, another Peircean definition is useful: "Symbols grow. They come into being by development out of other signs…. We think only in signs…. If a man makes a new symbol, it is by thoughts involving concepts" (2.307).
The pragmatic thought is, nevertheless, inherent in any sign process. Markets embody sign processes in the pragmatic field.
Winograd and Flores state bluntly "A business (like any other organization) is constituted as a network of recurrent conversations" (Op. cit., p. 168).
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (with the assistance of Takashi Hikino)Scale and Scope. The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism.Cambridge MA/London, England: The Belknap Press of HarvardUniversity Press, 1990.
"…the modern industrial Enterprise…has more than a production function." (p. 14). Chandler further notes that "expanded output by a change in capital-labor ratios is brought about by economies of scale which incorporate economies of speed…. Wholesalers and retailers expand to exploit economies of scale" (p. 21).
James Gordley. The Philosophical Origins of Modern ContractDoctrine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Mariadele Manca Masciadri. I Contratti di Baliatico, 2 vols.Milan: (s.n.), 1984.
John H. Pryor. Business Contracts of Medieval Provence. Selected Notulae from the Cartulary of Girard Amalric of Marseilles, 1248. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1981.
ECU: In 1979, the process of European unification led to the creation of the European Monetary System (EMS), with its coin being the European Currency Unit (ECU) and the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). As a basket of European currencies, the ECU serves as a reserve currency in Europe and probably beyond. It is not the currency of choice for international transactions, and as of the Maastricht negotiations, which affirmed the need for a Community currency, the ECU was not adopted for this purpose. Although predominant weight in the basket (over 30%) is given to the German mark, the ECU is designed on the assumption that it is quite improbable that a certain currency will move in the same direction against all others. Therefore, exchange rates are statistically stabilized.
Michael Rothschild. Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem. Webtext, 1990.
Robert L. Heilbroner. The Demand for the Supply Side, in The NewYork Review of Books, June 11, 1981, p.40.
He asks rhetorically: "How else should one identify a force that debases language, drains thought, and undoes dignity? If the barrage of advertising, unchanged in its tone and texture, were devoted to some other purpose-say the exaltation of the public sector-it would be recognized in a moment for the corrosive element that it is. But as the voice of the private sector it escapes this startled notice. I mention it only to point out that a deep source of moral decay for capitalism arises from its own doings, not from that of its governing institutions."
Literacy and Education
Will Seymour Monroe. Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform. New York: Arno Press, 1971, (originally printed in 1900).
Adolphe Erich Meyer. Education in Modern Times. Up from Rousseau.New York: Avon Press, 1930.
Linus Pierpont Brockett. History and Progress of Education fromthe Earliest Times to the Present. New York: A.S. Barnes, 1860.(Originally signed "Philobiblius," with an introduction by HenryBarnard.)
James Bowen. A History of Western Education. 3 Vols. London:Methuen, 1972-1981.
Pierre Riché. Education et culture dans l'occident barbare 6-8 siècles. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1962.
Bernard Bischoff. Elementärunterricht und probationes pennae in der ersten Hälfte des Mittelalters, in Mittelalterliche Studien I, 1966, pp. 74-87.
James Nehring. The Schools We Have. The Schools We Want. An American Teacher on the Frontline. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.
Irenée Henri Marron. A History of Education in Antiquity. NewYork: Sheed and Ward, 1956.
Jacques Barzun. The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning(Morris Philipson, Editor). Chicago: The University of ChicagoPress, 1991.
The review mentioned was written by David Alexander, Begin Here, in The New York Review of Books, April 21, 1991, p. 16.
Polis (Greek) signifies settled communities that eventually evolved into cities.
The City-State in Five Cultures. Edited with an introduction by Robert Griffeth and Carol G. Thomas. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-Clio, 1981.
J.N. Coldstream. The Formation of the Greek Polis: Aristotle andArchaeology. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984.
Individual and Community: The Rise of the Polis, 800-500 BC. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Will Durant. The Story of Civilization. Vol 4, The Age of Faith.New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950.
In 825, the University of Pavia was founded as a school of law. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 by Irnevius, also for the teaching of law. Students from all over Latin Europe came to study there. Around 1103, the University of Paris was founded; by the middle of the 13th century, four faculties had developed: theology, canon law, medicine and the seven arts. (The seven liberal arts were comprised of the trivium-grammar, rhetoric, and logic-and the quadrivium-arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.) Some time in the 12th century, a studium generale or university was established at Oxford (pp 916-921).
The name university derives from the fact that the essences or universals were taught (cf. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, Micropedia, Vol. 12, 1990.
Logos: (noun, from the Greek, from the verb lego: "I say"): word, speech, argument, explanation, doctrine, principle, reason; signified word or speech.
Ratio (from the Latin "to think"): reason, rationale; signified measure or proportion.
Some of the work linking the early knowledge of the Latin and Greek heritage of European thought, especially that part shut off to Christendom in Moorish Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cairo, Tunis, Sicily, and Spain, was transmitted by the Jews, who translated works in Arabic to Latin. The Moslems preserved the texts of Euclid and works dealing with alchemy and chemistry. In 1165, Gerald of Cremona studied Arabic in Spain in order to translate works of Aristotle (Posterior Analysis, On the Heavens and the Earth, among others), Euclid (Elements, Data), Archimedes, Apollonius of Perga, Galen, works of Greek astronomy and Greco-Arabic physics, 11 books of Arabic medicine and 14 works of Arabic astronomy and mathematics from the Arabic to Latin. Beginning 1217, Michael Scot translated a number of Aristotle's works from the Arabic to Latin (cf. Will Durant, Op. cit., pp. 910-913).
Galileo Galilei. Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche (Two NewSciences: Including Centers of Gravity and Force of Percussion,translated, with a new introduction and notes, by StillmanDrake) Toronto: Wall & Thompson. 1989
-. Galileo's Early Notebooks. The Physical Questions (translated from the Latin, with historical and paleographical commentary, by William A. Wallace). Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 1977
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). In 1687, he published Philosophiae Principia Mathematica, in which he offered explanations for the movement of planets. In this work, the abstraction of force (of attraction) is constituted and a postulate is formulated: every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other with a force whose magnitude depends directly upon the product of their masses and inversely upon the square of the distance between the two.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published in 1916 his contribution as Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, in which he referred to the attraction of massive objects. The cosmic reality of such objects and of huge distances and high velocities is quite different from the mechanical universe under consideration by Galileo and Newton. Movement of planets cause the curving of space. Einstein's theory shows that the curvature of space time evolves dynamically. Newton's theory turned out to be an approximation of Einstein's more encompassing model.
John Searle. The Storm Over the University, in The New YorkReview of Books, 37:19, December 6, 1990, pp. 34-42
Mathematization: the use of mathematical methods or concepts in particular sciences or in the humanities. The conception of mathematics as a model for the sciences as well as for the humanities has been repeatedly expressed throughout history. In some cases, mathematization represents the search for abstract structures. Today mathematization is often taken to mean modeling on computer programs.
Académie Française: French library academy established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634. Its original purpose was to maintain standards of literary taste and to establish the literary language. Membership is limited to 40 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, Micropedia, Vol. 1, 1990. p. 50).
Alan Bloom. The Closing of the American Mind. How Education HasFailed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students.New York: Simon and Schuster. 1987
"Those despised millionaires who set up a university in the midst of a city that seems devoted only to what they had neglected, whether it was out of a sense of what they themselves had issued, or out of bad conscience about what their lives were exclusively devoted to, or to satisfy the vanity of having their names attached to the enterprise," (p. 244).
Bart Simpson, the main character of the animated cartoon series of the same name, created by Matt Groening. Bart was first sketched in 1987; the television series first aired in the winter of 1990.
Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores. Understanding Computers andCognition. A New Foundation for Design. Norwood NJ: AblexPublishing Corporation, 1986.
"Organizations exist as networks of directives and commissives. Directives include orders, requests, consultations, and offers; commissives include promises, acceptances, and rejections" (p. 157).
They state also: "In fulfilling an organization's external commitments, its personnel are involved in a network of conversations" (p. 158).
Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations (Translation byG.E.M. Anscombe of Philosophische Untersuchungen). Oxford: BasilBlackwell. 1984 (reprint of the 1968 edition)
If a multiple choice test in World History (given in June, 1992 at Stuyvesant High School in New York City) asks whether the Holocaust is an Italian revolutionary movement, and if Mein Kampf was Hitler's body guard or his summer retreat, why should anyone be surprised that American students show no better choices than those they are supposed to choose from?
Steve Waite. Interview with Bill Melton, Journal of Bionomics,July 1996.
Family: Discovering the Primitive Future
Statistics on family in the USA and the world are a matter of public record. The processing and interpretation of data, even in the age of electronic processing, takes time once data has been collected. The Statistical Handbook on the American Family (Phoenix AZ: The Orynx Press, 1992), for instance, deals with trends covering 1989-1990. The numbers are intriguing. Well over 85% of the adult population married by the time of their 45th birthday, but only around 60% are currently married. 10% are divorced and almost as many widowed. The general conclusions about the family are: There is a decline in marital stability with over one million children per year affected by the divorce of their parents. Less than 20% of the people see marriage as a lifetime relationship. The POSSLQ (persons of opposite sex sharing living quarters) is well over 5% of the population. The size of the average American household shrank from 3.7 persons over 40 years ago to 2.6 recently. Interracial marriages, while triple in number compared to 1970, include slightly below 2% of the population.
A.F. Robertson. Beyond the Family. The Social Organization ofHuman Reproduction. Cambridge, England: Polity Press, 1991.
Martine Fell. Ça va, la famille? Paris: Le Hameau, 1983.
Nicolas Caparros. Crisis de la Familia. Revolución del Vivir.Buenos Aires: Ediciones Pargieman, 1973.
Adrian Wilson. Family. London: Travistock Publications, 1985.
Charles Franklin Thwing. The Family. An Historical and SocialStudy. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1887.
Edward L. Kain. The Myth of Family Decline. UnderstandingFamilies in a World of Rapid Social Change. Lexington MA:Lexington Books, 1990. Herbert Kretschmer. Ehe und Familie. DieEntwicklung von Ehe und Familie im Laufe der Geschichte.Dornach, Switzerland: Verlag am Goetheanum, 1988.
André Burguière, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Martine Segalen,Françoise Zonabend, Editors. Histoire de la famille (preface byClaude Lévi-Strauss)..Paris: Armand Colin, 1986.
Family is established in extension of reproductive drives and natural forms of cooperation. Regardless of the types leading to what was called the family nucleus (husband and wife), families embody reciprocal obligations. The formalization of family life in marriage contracts was stimulated by writing.
J.B.M. Guy. Glottochronology Without Cognate Recognition.Canberra: Department of Linguistics Research, School of PacificStudies, Australian National University, 1980.
Although the processes leading to the formation of nations is relatively recent, nations were frequently characterized as an extended family, although the processes reflect structural characteristics of human practical experiences different from those at work in the constitution of the family.
Martin B. Duberman. About Time. Exploring the Gay Past. New York:Gay Presses of New York City, 1986.
Jeffrey Weeks. Against Nature. Essays on History, Sexuality, andIdentity. London: Rivers Oram, 1991.
Bernice Goodman. The Lesbian. A Celebration of Difference.Brooklyn: Out & Out Books, 1977.
Jean Bethke Elshtain. Against Gay Marriage, in Commonweal,November 22, 1991, pp. 685-686.
Brent Hartinger. A Case for Gay Marriage, in Commonweal, November 22, 1991, pp. 675, 681-686.
Not in The Best Interest (Adoption by Lesbians and Gays), in UtneReader, November/December, 1991, p. 57.
William Plummer. A Mother's Priceless Gift, in People Weekly,August 26, 1991, pp. 40-41.
Nelly E. Gupta and Frank. Feldinger. Brave New Baby (ZIFTSurrogacy), in Ladies Home Journal, October, 1989, pp. 140-141.
Mary Thom. Dilemmas of the New Birth Technologies, in Ms., May, 1988, pp. 4, 66, 70-72.
Cleo Kocol. The Rent-A-Womb Dilemma, in The Humanist,July/August, 1987, p. 37.
Marsha Riben. A Last Resort (excerpt from Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Adoption), in Utne Reader, November/December, 1991, pp. 53-54.
Lisa Gubernick. How Much is that Baby in the Window? in Forbes,October 14, 1991, pp. 90-91.
Self-sufficiency, reflecting contexts of existence of limited scale, marks the Amish and Mennonite families. The family contract is very powerful. Succeeding generations care for each other to the extent that the home always includes quarters for the elderly. Each new generation is endowed in order to maintain the path of self-sufficiency. The Amish wedding (the subject of Stephen Scott's book of the same title, Intercourse PA: Good Books, 1988), as well as the role the family plays in educating children (Children in Amish Society: Socialization and Community Education, by J.A. Hosteter and G. Enders Huntington, New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1971) are indicative of this family life.
Andy Grove. Only the Paranoid Survive. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
The CEO of Intel, one of the world's most successful companies, discussed the requirement of genetic update and his own, apparently dated, corporate genes.
Adam Smith. The Theory of Moral Sentiments (D.D. Raphael and A.L.Macfie, Editors). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature (L.A. Selby-Bigge,Editor). 2nd edition. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press, 1978.
-. Inquiries concerning human understanding and concerning the principles of morals (L.A. Selby-Bigge, Editor). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
Takeo Doi. Amae no kozo. Tokyo: Kobundo, 1971. Translated as TheAnatomy of Dependence by John Bester. Tokyo/New York: KodanshoInternational and Harper & Row, 1973.
A God for Each of Us
The following books set forth the basic tenets of their respective religions:
Bhagavad Gita: part of the epic poem Mahabharata, this Sanskrit dialog between Krishna and Prince Arjuna poetically describes a path to spiritual wisdom and unity with God. Action, devotion, and knowledge guide on this path.
Torah: the books of Moses (also known as the Pentateuch); for Chistians, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These describe the origin of the world, the covenant between God and the people of Israel, the Exodus from Egypt and return to the Promised Land, and rules for religious and social behavior. Together with the books labeled Prophets and Writings, they make up the entire Old Testament. The controversy among Jews, Roman Catholics, Eastern Christians, and Protestants about the acceptance of some books, the order of books, and translations reflect the different perspectives adopted within these religions.
New Testament: the Christian addition to the Bible comprises 27 books. They contain sayings attributed to Jesus, his life story (death and resurrection included), the writings of the apostles, rules for conversion and baptism, and the Apocalypse (the end of this world and the beginning of a new one).
Koran (al Qur'an): the holy book of the Moslems, is composed of 114 chapters (called suras). Belief in Allah, descriptions of rules for religious and social life, calls to moral life, and vivid descriptions of hell make up most of the text. According to Moslem tradition, Mohammed ascended the mount an illiterate. He came down with the Koran, which Allah had taught him to write.
I-Ching: attributed to Confucius, composed of five books, containing a history of his native district, a system for divining the future (Book of Changes), a description of ceremonies and the ideal government (Book of Rites), and a collection of poetry. In their unity, all these books affirm principles of cooperation, reciprocal respect, and describe etiquette and ritual rules.
Mircea Eliade, Editor-in-Chief.The Encyclopedia of Religion ().New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Mircea Eliade (with I. P. Couliano and H.S. Wiesner). The EliadeGuide to World Religions. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.
Eliot Alexander. The Universal Myths: Heroes, Gods, Tricksters, and Others. New York: New American Library, 1990.
P. K. Meagher, T.C. O'Brien, Sister Consuelo Maria Aherne.Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion. 3 Vols. Corpus CityPublications, 1979.
In regard to the multiplicity of religions, the following works provide a good reference:
John Ferguson. Gods Many and Lords Many: A Study in PrimalReligions. Guildford, Surrey: Lutterworth Educational, 1982.
Suan Imm Tan. Many Races, Many Religions. Singapore: EducationalPublications Bureau, 1971-72.
H. Byron Earhart. Religions of Japan: Many Traditions within OneSacred Way. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
John M. Reid. Doomed Religions. A Series of Essays on GreatReligions of the World. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1884.
Although no precise statistics are available, it is assumed that ca. three billion people acknowledge religion in our days. The numbers are misleading, though. For instance, only 2.4% of the population in England attends religious services; in Germany, the percentage is 9%; in some Moslem countries, service attendance is close to 100%. The "3-day Jews" (two days of Rosh Hashana and 1 day of Yom Kippur, also known as "revolving door" Jews, in for New Year and out after Atonement Day), the Christian Orthodox and Catholics of Christmas and Easter, and the Buddhists of funeral ceremonials belong to the vast majority that refers to religion as a cultural identifier. Many priests and higher order ecumenical workers recite their prayers as epic poetry.
Atheism. The "doctrine that God does not exist, that existence of God is a false belief" (cf. M. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 1, pp 479-480). Literature on atheism continuously increases. A selection showing the many angles of atheism can serve as a guide:
The American Atheist (periodical). Austin TX: American Atheists.
Gordon Stein, Editor. An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism.Buffalo NY: Prometheus Books, 1980.
Michael Martin. Atheism: A Philosophical Analysis. Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1990.
Jacques J. Natanson. La Mort de Dieu: Essai sur l'AthéismeModerne. Paris: Presses Univérstaires de France, 1975.
Robert A. Morey. The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom.Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1986.
James Thrower. A Short History of Western Atheism. London:Pemberton Books, 1971.
Robert Eno. The Confucian Creation of Heaven. Philosophy and theDefense of Ritual Mastery. Albany: State University of New YorkPress, 1990.
Ronald L. Grimes. Research in Ritual Studies. A ProgrammaticEssay and Bibliography. Chicago: American Theological LibraryAssociation; Metuchen NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1985.
Evan M. Zuesse. Ritual Cosmos. The Sanctification of Life inAfrican Religions. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1979.
Godfrey and Monica Wilson. The Analysis of Social Change. Based on observations in Central Africa. Cambridge: The University Press, 1968.
"A pagan Najakunsa believes himself to be dependent upon his deceased father for health and fertility; he acts as if he were, and expresses his sense of dependence in rituals" (p. 41).
References for the study of myths are as follows:
Eliot Alexander. The Universal Myths: Heroes, Gods, Tricksters, and Others. New York: New American Library, 1990.
Jane Ellen Harrison. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion.New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Walter Burkert. Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1987.
John Ferguson. Greek and Roman Religion: A Source Book. ParkRidge NJ: Noyes Press, 1980.
Arcadio Schwade. Shinto-Bibliography in Western Languages.Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Japanese Shintoism began before writing.
Hinduism: With one of the highest number of followers (ca. 650 million), Hinduism is an eclectic religion. Indigenous elements and Aryan religions, codified around 1500 BCE in the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajor Veda, Atharva Veda, Aranyakas, Upanishads, result in an amalgam of practices and beliefs dominating religious and social life in Indiat The caste system classifies members of society in four groups: priests (Brahmins), rulers, farmers, and merchants, laborers (on farms or in industry). Devotion to a guru, adherence to the Vedic scriptures, the practice of yoga are the forms of religious action. The divine Trinity of Hinduism unites Brahma (the creator), Vishna (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer).
Taoism: In the Tao Te Ching (Book of the Way and Its Virtue), one reads: "The Tao of origin gives birth to the One. The One gives birth to the Two. The Two gives birth to the Three. The Three produces the Ten Thousand Things." With some background in Tao, the poetry becomes explicit: The One is the Supreme Void, primordial Breath. This engenders Two, Yin and Yang, the duality from which everything sprung once a ternary relation is established. Tao is poetic ontology.
Confucianism: Stressing the relationship among individuals, families, and society, Confucianism is based on two percepts: li (proper behavior) and jen (cooperative attitude). Confucius expressed the philosophy on which this religion is based on sayings and dialogues during the 6th-5th century BCE. Challenged by the mysticism of religions (Taoism, Buddhism) in the area of its inception, some followers incorporated their spirit in new-Confucianism (during the period known as the Sung dynasty, 960-1279).
Judaism: Centered on the belief in one God, Judaism is the religion of the Book (the Torah), established at around 2000 BCE by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Judaism promotes the idea of human improvement, as well as the Messianic thought. Strong dedication to community and sense of family are part of the religious practice.
Islam: The contemporary religion with the highest number of adherents (almost 9000 million Muslims on record), and growing fast, Islam celebrates Mohammed, who received the Koran from Allah. Acknowledged at 610, Islam (which means "submission to God") places its prophet in the line started with Abraham, continued with Moses, and redirected by Jesus. The five pillars of Islam are: Allah is the only God, prayer (facing Mecca) five times a day, giving of alms, fast of Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
Christianity: in its very many denominations (Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, which split further into various sects, such as Baptist, Pentecostal, Episcopal, Lutheran, Mormon, Unitarian, Quakers), claims to have its origin in Jesus Christ and completes the Old Testament of the Hebrews with the New Testament of the apostles. It is impossible to capture the many varieties of Christianity in characteristics unanimously accepted. Probably the major celebrations of Christianity (some originating in pre-Christian pagan rituals related to natural cycles), i.e., Christmas and Easter, better reflect elements of unity. Christianity promotes respect for moral values, dedication to the family, and faith in one God composed of three elements (the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
Bahai of Bahá'i: ascertains the unity of all religious doctrines as these embody ideals of spiritual truth. The name comes from Baha Ullah (Glory of God), adopted by its founder Mirza Husain Ali Nuri, in 1863, in extension of the al-Bab religion. Universal education, equality between male and female, and world order and peace are its goals. The religion is estimated to have 5 million adherents world-wide.
Richard Wilhelm. I Ging; Das Buch der Wandlungen.Düsseldorf/Köln: Diedrichs, 1982.
Wilhelm states that, in the context described, Fuh-Hi emerged: "He reunited man and woman, ordered the five elements and set the laws of mankind. He drew eight signs in order to dominate the world." The eight signs are the eight basic trigrams of I Ging, the Book of Changes (which attracted Leibniz's attention).
King Frederick Barbarossa (Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire, 1123-1190). Well known for challenging the authority of the Pope and for attempting to establish German supremacy in religious matters.
Joan of Arc (1412-1431). A plowman's daughter who, as the story goes, listened to the voices of saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. Thus inspiring the French to victory over British invaders, she made possible the coronation of Charles II at Reims. Captured by the English, she was declared a heretic and burned at the stake. In 1920, Pope Benedict XV declared her a saint.
Jan Hus (1372-1415). Religious reformer whose writings exercised influence over all the Catholic world. In De Ecclesia, he set forth that scripture is the sole source of Christian doctrine.
Martin Luther (1483-1546). A priest from Saxony, a scholar of Scripture, and a linguist, who is famous for having attacked clerical abuses. Through his writings (The 95 Theses), he precipitated the Reformation.
Moslem armies defeated the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Charles Martel, at Poitiers (cf. J.H. Roy, La Bataille de Poitiers, Octobre 733, Paris: Gallimard, 1966).
Crusades: a series of military expeditions taking place from 1095 to 1270) intent on reclaiming Jerusalem and the holy Christian shrines from Turkish control.
David Kirsch poses the questions: Is 97% of human activity concept-free, driven by control mechanisms we share not only with our simian forebears, but with insects? (Today the Earwig, Tomorrow the Man? in Artificial Intelligence, 47:1-3, Jan. 1991, p. 161).
The Bible on CD-ROM is a publication of Nimbus Information Systems (1989). The CD-Word Interactive Biblical Library (1990), published by the CD-Word Library, Inc. offers 16 of the world's most used Bible texts and reference sources (two Greek texts, four English versions).
Secular god-building in the Soviet Union: Ob ateizme i religii.Sbornik Statei, Pisem i drughich materialov (About atheism andreligion. Collected articles, letters, and other materials) byAnatoli Vasilevich Lunacharskii (1875-1933), Moscow: Mysl, 1972.This is a collection of articles on atheism and religion, partof the scientific-atheistic library. See also Maxim Gorky,Untimely Thoughts (translated by Herman Erolaev). New York: P.S.Ericksson, 1966.
Ernest Gellner, Scale and Nation, in Scale and SocialOrganization (F. Barth, editor).
"Max Weber stressed the significance of the way in whichProtestantism made every man his own priest" (p. 143).
Glen Tinder. Can we be good without God? in Atlantic Monthly,December, 1989.
Michael Lewis. God is in the Packaging, in The New York TimesMagazine, July 21, 1996, pp. 14 and 16.
Lewis describes pastors using marketing techniques to form congregations. The success of the method has led to branch congregations all over the USA.
Tademan Isobe, author of The Japanese and Religion, states: "The general religious awareness of the Japanese does not include an ultimate God with human attributes, as the God of Christianity. Instead, Japanese sense the mystery of life from all events and natural phenomena around them in their daily lives. They have what might be called a sense of pathos" (cf. Web positing of August, 1996, http://www.ariadne.knee.kioto-u.ac.jp).
A Mouthful of Microwave
From a strictly qualitative perspective, the amount of food people eat is represented by numbers so large that we end up looking at them in awe, without understanding what they mean. The maintenance of life is an expensive proposition. Nevertheless, once we go beyond the energetic equation, i.e., in the realm of desires, the numbers increase exponentially. It can be argued that this increase (of an order of magnitude of 1,000) is higher than that anticipated by Malthus. On the subject of what, how, and why people eat, see:
Claudio Clini. L'alimentazione nella storia. Uomo, alimentazione, malattie. Abano Terme, Padova: Francisci, 1985.
Evan Jones. American Food. The Gastronomic Story. Woodstock NY:Overlook Press, 1990.
Nicholas and Giana Kurti, Editors. But the Crackling is Superb. An Anthology on Food and Drink by Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Bristol, England: A. Hilger, 1988.
Carol A. Bryant, et al. The Cultural Feast. An Introduction toFood and Society. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1985.
Hilary Wilson. Egyptian Food and Drink. Aylesbury, Bucks,England: Shire, 1988.
Reay Tannahill. Food in History. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.
Charles Bixler Heiser. Seed to Civilization. The Story of Food.Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Margaret Visser. Much Depends on Dinner. The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos, of an Ordinary Meal. Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.
Esther B. Aresty. The Delectable Past. The Joys of the Table, from Rome to the Renaissance, from Queen Elizabeth I to Mrs. Beeton. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978.
Maria P. Robbins, Editor. The Cook's Quotation Book. A LiteraryFeast. Wainscott NY: Pushcart Press, 1983.
The Pleasures of the Table (compiled by Theodore FitzGibbon). NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Charles Dickens. American Notes. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. (pp. 154-155). On the symbolism of food, informative reading can be found in:
Carol A. Bryant. The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food andSociety. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1985.
Lindsey Tucker. Stephen and Bloom at Life's Feast: AlimentarySymbolism and the Creative Process in James Joyce's Ulysses.Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984.
In L'aile ou la cuisse (Wing or Drumstick), a 1976 French film directed by Claude Zidi, Luis de Funés became, as the French press put it, "the Napoleon of gastronomy" fighting the barbarian taste of industrial food, seen as a real danger to the authentic taste of France.
At the initiative of the Minister of Culture, a Conseil National des Arts Culinaires (CNAC) was founded in 1989. Culinary art and gastronomic heritage were made part of the French national identity. Awakening of Taste (Le reveil du goût) is a program launched in the elementary schools. A curriculum originating from the French Institute of Taste is used to explain what makes French food taste good. The CNAC provides a nationwide inventory of local foods. A University of Taste (Centre de Goût) would be established in the Loire Valley.
Jean Bottero. Mythes et Rites de Babylone. Paris: LibrairieHonoré Champion, 1985.
Reallexikon der Assyriologie. Vol. III, Getränke (Drinks), pp. 303-306; Gewürze (Spices), pp. 340-341; Vol. VI, Küche (Cuisine), pp. 277-298. Berlin/New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1982.
La Plus Vieille Cuisine du Monde, in L'Histoire, 49, 1982, pp. 72-82.
M. Gabeus Apicius. De re conquinaria (rendered into English by Joseph Sommers Vehling, New York: Dover Publications, 1977) first appeared in England in 1705, in a Latin version, based on the manuscripts of this work dating to the 8th and 9th centuries. Apicius was supposed to have lived from 80 BCE to 40 CE. This book has since been questioned as a hoax, although it remains a reference text.
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella. De re rustica. (12 volumes on agriculture. Latin text with German translation by Will Richter). München: Artemis Verlag, 1981.
Roland Barthes. Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and Wang. 1982.(Originally published in French as L'Empire des Signes, Geneva:Editions d'Art Albert Skira, S.A.
"The dinner tray seems a picture of the most delicate order: its frame containing, against a dark background, various objects (bowls, boxes, saucers, chopsticks, tiny piles of food, a little gray ginger, a few shreds of orange vegetable, a background of brown sauce)…it might be said that these trays fulfill the definition of painting which according to Piero della Francesca is merely demonstration of surfaces and bodies becoming even smaller or larger according to their term" (p. 11).
"Entirely visual (conceived, concerted, manipulated for sight, and even for a painter's eye), food thereby says that it is not deep: the edible substance is without a precious heart, without a buried power, without a vital secret: no Japanese dish is endowed with a center (the alimentary center implied in the West by the rite which consists of arranging the meal, of surrounding or covering the article of food); here everything is the ornament of another ornament: first of all because on the table, on the tray, food is never anything but a collection of fragments, none of which appears privileged by an order of ingestion; to eat is not to respect a menu (an itinerary of dishes), but to select, with a light touch of the chopsticks, sometimes one color, sometimes another, depending on the kind of inspiration which appears in its slowness as the detached, indirect accompaniment of the conversation…." (p. 22).
The writings of the various religions (Koran, Torah, New Testament) contain strictures and ceremonial rules concerning food. For cooking and eating restrictions in various cultures, see Nourritures, Sociétés et Religions: Commensalités (introduction by Solange Thierry). Paris: L'Harmattan, 1990.
On the microwave revolution in cooking, see:
Lori Longbotham. Better by Microwave. New York: Dutton, 1990.
Maria Luisa Scott. Mastering Microwave Cooking. Mount Vernon NY:Consumers Union, 1988.
Eric Quayle. Old Cook Books: An Illustrated History. New York:Dutton. 1978; and Daniel S. Cutler. The Bible Cookbook. NewYork: Morrow, 1985, offer a good retrospective of what peopleused to eat.
In World Hunger. A Reference Handbook (Patricia L. Kutzner, Santa Barbara CA: ABC-Clio, 1991), the author gives a stark description of the problem of hunger in today's world:
"With more than enough food in the world to feed everyone, hundreds of millions of men, women, and children still go hungry" (p. ix).
It is not the first time in history that starvation and famine affect people all over the world. What is new is the scale of the problem, affecting well over one billion human beings. In June, 1974, in the Assessment of the World Food Situation, commissioned by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the situation was described in terms still unchanged: "The causes of inadequate nutrition are many and closely interrelated, including ecological, sanitary, and cultural constraints, but the principal cause is poverty. This in turn results from socioeconomic development patterns that in most of the poorer countries have been characterized by a high degree of concentration of power, wealth, and incomes in the hands of relatively small elites of national and foreign individuals or groups. […] The percentage of undernourished is highest in Africa, the Far East, and Latin America; the hunger distribution is highest in the Far East (in the range of 60%). Of the hungry, the majority (up to 90%) is in rural areas.
Data is collected and managed by the World Food Council. The Bellagio Declaration, Overcoming hunger in the 1990's, adopted by a group of 23 prominent development and food policy planners, development practitioners, and scientists noticed that 14 million children under the age of five years die annually from hunger related causes.
Among the organizations created to help feed the world are CARE, Food for Peace, OXFAM, Action Hunger, The Hunger Project, Save the Children, World Vision, the Heifer Project. This list does not include the many national and local organizations that feed the hungry in their respective countries and cities.
Science and Philosophy: More Questions than Answers
T.S. Elliot. Burnt Norton, in V. Four Quartets. London: Faber &Faber, 1936.
For information on the development of science and philosophy in early civilizations, see:
Shigeru Nakayama and Nathan Sivin, Editors. Chinese Science:Exploration of an Ancient Tradition. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.
Karl W. Butzer. Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: a Study inCultural Ecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Heinrich von Staden. Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
The Cultural Heritage of India, (in 6 volumes). Calcutta:Ramakrishna Mission, Institute of Culture, 1953.
James H. MacLachlan. Children of Prometheus: A History ofScience and Technology. Toronto: Wall & Thompson, 1989.
Isaac Asimov. Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. The Lives and Achievements of 1195 Great Scientists from Ancient Times to the Present. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1972. Fritz Kraft. Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft. Freiberg: Romback, 1971.
G.E.R. Lloyd. Methods and Problems in Greek Science CambridgeUniversity Press, 1991.
Robert K.G. Temple. China, Land of Discovery. London: PatrickStephens, 1986.
Temple documents discoveries and techniques such as row cultivation and hoeing ("There are 3 inches of moisture at the end of a hoe,"), the iron plow, the horse harness, cast iron, the crank handle, lacquer ("the first plastic"), the decimal system, the suspension bridge as originating from China. In the Introduction, Joseph Needham writes: "Chauvinistic Westerners, of course, always try to minimize the indebtedness of Europe to China in Antiquity and the Middle Ages" (p.7).
What is of interest in the story is the fact that all these discoveries occur in a context of configurational focus, of synthesis, not in the sequential horizon of analytic Western languages. In some cases, the initial non-linear thought is linearized. This is best exemplified by comparing Chinese printing methods, intent on letters seen as images, with those following Gutenberg's movable type. Obviously, a text perceived as a holistic entity, such as the Buddhist charm scroll (printed in 704-751) or the Buddhist Diamond Sutra of 868 (cf. p. 112) are different from the Bibles printed by Gutenberg and his followers. Contributions to the history of science from India and the Middle East also reveal that many discoveries celebrated as accomplishments of Western analytical science were anticipated in non-analytical cultures.
Satya Prakash. Founders of Science in Ancient India. Dehli:Govindram Hasanand, 1986.
G. Kuppuram and K. Kumudamani, Editors. History of Science andTechnology in India. Dehli: Sundeep Prakashan, 1990.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Islamic Science. Persia. Tihran: Surush, 1987.
Charles Finch. The African Background to Medical Science: Essays in African History, Science, and Civilization. London: Karnak House, 1990.
Magic, myth, and science influence each other in many ways. Writings on the subject refer to specific aspects (magic and science, myth as a form of rational discourse) or to the broader issues of their respective epistemological condition.
Richard Cavendish. A History of Magic. London: Weidenfeld &Nicholson, 1977.
Gareth Knight. Magic and the Western Mind: Ancient Knowledge and the Transformation of Consciousness. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.
Umberto Eco. Foucault's Pendulum. New York: Harcourt, BraceJovanovich, 1989.
In this novel, Umberto Eco deals, in a light vein, with the occult considered as the true science.
Jean Malbec de Tresfel. Abrège de la Théorie et des véritables principes de l'art appelé chymie, qui est la troisième partie ou colonne de la vraye medecine hermetique. Paris: Chez l'auteur,1671.
Adam McLean. The Alchemical Mandala. A Survey of the Mandala in the Western Esoteric Traditions. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1989.
Titus Burckhardt. Alchemie, Sinn und Weltbild. London: Stuart &Watkins, 1967. Translated as Alchemy. Science of the Cosmos,Science of the Soul, by William Stoddart.Longmead/Shaftesbury/Dorest: Element Books, 1986.
Marie Louise von Franz. Alchemy. An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1980.
Neil Powell. Alchemy. The Ancient Science. Garden City, NY:Doubleday, 1976.