Leo Treitler
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199214761
- eISBN:
- 9780191713897
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214761.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The ongoing discussions about the Homeric Question and about orality and literacy in the language arts resonate to such a degree with parallel questions as regards the history of music. These ...
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The ongoing discussions about the Homeric Question and about orality and literacy in the language arts resonate to such a degree with parallel questions as regards the history of music. These discussions are considered by way of a review of two recent books about the subject: The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology by John Miles Foley and Oral-Formulaic Theory: A Folklore Casebook, edited by John Miles Foley.Less
The ongoing discussions about the Homeric Question and about orality and literacy in the language arts resonate to such a degree with parallel questions as regards the history of music. These discussions are considered by way of a review of two recent books about the subject: The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology by John Miles Foley and Oral-Formulaic Theory: A Folklore Casebook, edited by John Miles Foley.
Jutta Schickore
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226449982
- eISBN:
- 9780226450049
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226450049.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
There is a historical trajectory in methods discourse that is worth uncovering, encompassing changes in content, in the ways in which methods discourse is incorporated in experimental reports to ...
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There is a historical trajectory in methods discourse that is worth uncovering, encompassing changes in content, in the ways in which methods discourse is incorporated in experimental reports to establish proper procedure and changes in the ways in which the experimenters utilized statements and reflections about methods to confer epistemic force on the results presented. It is this trajectory that the book captures, and the distinctions among layers of methods discourse and among descriptive and critical perspectives on methodological issues are means to this end. Methodological advancement means increasing awareness of the obstacles and limitations of experimentation: the unknown but suspected contingencies, the countless circumstances, the variations among living beings, the complexity of organic bodies, and the uncertainties related to techniques and instruments for the study of subvisible phenomena. Methodological advancement means increasing efforts to develop strategies for managing and perhaps overcoming these challenges. Methodological advancement also includes the realization that the means through which we make sense of the world might forever remain precarious.Less
There is a historical trajectory in methods discourse that is worth uncovering, encompassing changes in content, in the ways in which methods discourse is incorporated in experimental reports to establish proper procedure and changes in the ways in which the experimenters utilized statements and reflections about methods to confer epistemic force on the results presented. It is this trajectory that the book captures, and the distinctions among layers of methods discourse and among descriptive and critical perspectives on methodological issues are means to this end. Methodological advancement means increasing awareness of the obstacles and limitations of experimentation: the unknown but suspected contingencies, the countless circumstances, the variations among living beings, the complexity of organic bodies, and the uncertainties related to techniques and instruments for the study of subvisible phenomena. Methodological advancement means increasing efforts to develop strategies for managing and perhaps overcoming these challenges. Methodological advancement also includes the realization that the means through which we make sense of the world might forever remain precarious.
Robert J. Richards
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226058764
- eISBN:
- 9780226059099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226059099.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The introductory chapter considers the nature of the historical enterprise, the methodological and metaphysical assumptions that most historians implicitly endorse. The chapter argues that ...
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The introductory chapter considers the nature of the historical enterprise, the methodological and metaphysical assumptions that most historians implicitly endorse. The chapter argues that contemporary scientific theories need to be used to articulate the past, despite the reservations of some historians. Many contemporary philosophers of evolution have succumbed to a defective notion of scientific theory, so that they easily assumption that scientists today mean by natural selection what Darwin meant. The chapter concludes by pointing out the importance of the metaphors and tropes used by Darwin in the construction of his theory.Less
The introductory chapter considers the nature of the historical enterprise, the methodological and metaphysical assumptions that most historians implicitly endorse. The chapter argues that contemporary scientific theories need to be used to articulate the past, despite the reservations of some historians. Many contemporary philosophers of evolution have succumbed to a defective notion of scientific theory, so that they easily assumption that scientists today mean by natural selection what Darwin meant. The chapter concludes by pointing out the importance of the metaphors and tropes used by Darwin in the construction of his theory.
Martti Koskenniemi
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198713258
- eISBN:
- 9780191781704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198713258.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Rights are an inextricable part of contemporary domestic and international legal speech. They appear in political manifestoes and professional vocabularies and they are used to defend agendas of ...
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Rights are an inextricable part of contemporary domestic and international legal speech. They appear in political manifestoes and professional vocabularies and they are used to defend agendas of reform and retrenchment alike. The idiom of (subjective) rights has a long pedigree in Western legal and political thought. But its content and significance have varied by reference to the needs of the moment. Recently, efforts have been made to contextualize the use of rights as part of Western politics and law. This suggests viewing the expansion of rights-talk as inextricable from the globalization of Western political ideas and the universalization of typical Western preferences. This chapter examines some of those uses. The idea is not to find the “origin” of rights (for there is no such single origin) but to enquire into the meaning, power, and limits of a ubiquitous form of politico-legal speech.Less
Rights are an inextricable part of contemporary domestic and international legal speech. They appear in political manifestoes and professional vocabularies and they are used to defend agendas of reform and retrenchment alike. The idiom of (subjective) rights has a long pedigree in Western legal and political thought. But its content and significance have varied by reference to the needs of the moment. Recently, efforts have been made to contextualize the use of rights as part of Western politics and law. This suggests viewing the expansion of rights-talk as inextricable from the globalization of Western political ideas and the universalization of typical Western preferences. This chapter examines some of those uses. The idea is not to find the “origin” of rights (for there is no such single origin) but to enquire into the meaning, power, and limits of a ubiquitous form of politico-legal speech.
Annabel Brett
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198713258
- eISBN:
- 9780191781704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198713258.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
It is only by stepping out of ‘human rights’ that we can properly see what is involved in claiming them. Both our rights, and we ourselves, are the product of history, a history of language that is ...
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It is only by stepping out of ‘human rights’ that we can properly see what is involved in claiming them. Both our rights, and we ourselves, are the product of history, a history of language that is at the same time a history of politics and conflict.Less
It is only by stepping out of ‘human rights’ that we can properly see what is involved in claiming them. Both our rights, and we ourselves, are the product of history, a history of language that is at the same time a history of politics and conflict.
Clive D. Field
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198799474
- eISBN:
- 9780191839740
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198799474.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This is a major empirical contribution to the literature of secularization, both generally and in Britain, which moves beyond the now largely sterile and theoretical debates about the validity of the ...
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This is a major empirical contribution to the literature of secularization, both generally and in Britain, which moves beyond the now largely sterile and theoretical debates about the validity of the secularization thesis or paradigm. Combining historical and social scientific perspectives and approaches, the author uses a wide range of quantitative sources, many of them unpublished or otherwise neglected, to probe the extent and pace of religious change in Britain during the long 1960s. In most cases, data are presented for the years 1955–80, with particular attention being paid to the methodological and other challenges posed by each source type, in order to avoid misleading interpretations. Following an introductory chapter, which reviews the historiography, introduces the sources, and defines the chronological and other parameters, evidence is presented for all major facets of religious belonging, behaving, and believing, as well as for institutional church measures. The work particularly engages with, and (in statistical terms) largely refutes, Professor Callum Brown?s influential assertion that Britain experienced ?revolutionary? secularization in the 1960s, which was highly gendered in nature, and with 1963 the major tipping-point. Rather, a more nuanced picture emerges, with some religious indicators in crisis, others continuing on an existing downward trajectory, and yet others remaining stable. On the basis of previous research by the author and other scholars, and rejecting recent proponents of counter-secularization, the long 1960s are ultimately located within the context of a longstanding gradualist, and still ongoing, process of secularization in Britain.Less
This is a major empirical contribution to the literature of secularization, both generally and in Britain, which moves beyond the now largely sterile and theoretical debates about the validity of the secularization thesis or paradigm. Combining historical and social scientific perspectives and approaches, the author uses a wide range of quantitative sources, many of them unpublished or otherwise neglected, to probe the extent and pace of religious change in Britain during the long 1960s. In most cases, data are presented for the years 1955–80, with particular attention being paid to the methodological and other challenges posed by each source type, in order to avoid misleading interpretations. Following an introductory chapter, which reviews the historiography, introduces the sources, and defines the chronological and other parameters, evidence is presented for all major facets of religious belonging, behaving, and believing, as well as for institutional church measures. The work particularly engages with, and (in statistical terms) largely refutes, Professor Callum Brown?s influential assertion that Britain experienced ?revolutionary? secularization in the 1960s, which was highly gendered in nature, and with 1963 the major tipping-point. Rather, a more nuanced picture emerges, with some religious indicators in crisis, others continuing on an existing downward trajectory, and yet others remaining stable. On the basis of previous research by the author and other scholars, and rejecting recent proponents of counter-secularization, the long 1960s are ultimately located within the context of a longstanding gradualist, and still ongoing, process of secularization in Britain.
