Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof,... more Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of Marvel Characters. Inc. Superman. Batman. Green Lantern. Plastic Man, The Joker, Lois Lane, Kandor, the distinctive names and ...
<jats:p>In Latin America, philosophical analysis has been portrayed as an intellectual revo... more <jats:p>In Latin America, philosophical analysis has been portrayed as an intellectual revolution. Its avowed goal has been to replace the abstruseness and obscurantism of scholastic and metaphysical jargon perceived as typical of much of Latin American philosophy with the clarity and rigour of mathematical and scientific discourse. Arriving around the mid-1940s analytic philosophy at first met with little interest because of a shortage of its classics in translation, cultural obstacles and opposition from the more traditional, entrenched philosophies. By the 1960s it had overcome many obstacles and stimulated considerable philosophical activity, mainly in Mexico and Argentina. By the 1980s, in spite of political opposition, analysis had created an international forum for the discussion of philosophical problems. It attracted to its ranks several distinguished philosophers and scientists with philosophical interests, among them Mario Bunge (Argentina and Canada), Héctor-Neri Castañeda (Guatemala and the USA) and Francisco Miró Quesada (Peru). An ambitious translation effort was launched and several important journals were founded, such as Análisis filosófico (Philosophical Analysis), Revista latinoamericana de filosofía (Latin American Journal of Philosophy) (Argentina), Crítica. Revista hispanoamericana de filosofía (Criticism. Hispanoamerican Journal of Philosophy) (Mexico), Manuscrito (Manuscript) (Brazil) and Diálogos (Dialogues) (Puerto Rico).</jats:p>
Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin Amer... more Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin America. It asserted that all knowledge came from experience; that scientific thinking was the model for philosophizing and that the search for first causes or ultimate reason typical of religion and metaphysics, was an obsolete mode of thinking. Positivism set out to discover the most general features of experience. Its tasks were to use them to explain and predict phenomena, to develop a social science that would furnish objective grounds for moral choice and to help create the best society possible. In Latin America positivism became a social philosophy which represented a cogent alternative to romanticism, eclecticism, Catholicism and traditional Hispanic values. It offered the prospect of a secular society in which the knowledge gained from science and industry would bring the benefits of order and progress. It assumed that the social sciences had the power to improve the human condition and it demanded political action. Three main currents were in evidence: autochthonous positivism indigenous to the region and concerned with local social and political issues, social positivism derived from Auguste Comte and stressing the historical nature of social change, and evolutionary positivism influenced by Herbert Spencer and asserting the biological nature of society. Autochthonous positivism emerged in the 1830s from the influx of liberal ideas which followed the wars of independence fought on the US continent by those wishing to gain freedom from Spain. Urging an intellectual revolution, swift social change and material progress, autochthonous positivism paved the way for European positivism proper. Social positivism appeared around the 1850s and argued for the necessity of educational reforms to solve the continent’s problems. It required participation in political life and became a radical force in spite of opposition from supporters of the status quo. By the 1880s evolutionary positivism had steered the movement in a conservative direction in support of laissez-faire policies, individualism and gradual change.
Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin Amer... more Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin America. It asserted that all knowledge came from experience; that scientific thinking was the model for philosophizing and that the search for first causes or ultimate reason typical of religion and metaphysics, was an obsolete mode of thinking. Positivism set out to discover the most general features of experience. Its tasks were to use them to explain and predict phenomena, to develop a social science that would furnish objective grounds for moral choice and to help create the best society possible. In Latin America positivism became a social philosophy which represented a cogent alternative to romanticism, eclecticism, Catholicism and traditional Hispanic values. It offered the prospect of a secular society in which the knowledge gained from science and industry would bring the benefits of order and progress. It assumed that the social sciences had the power to improve the human conditio...
French work was more extensive in rural history and historical geography. This survey of the earl... more French work was more extensive in rural history and historical geography. This survey of the early Carolingian period (753-877) reflects each of his areas of interest. Verhulst saw this as a period of economic expansion that paralleled the cultural "Carolingian Renaissance." He provides a wealth of detail in separate chapters devoted to landscape and settlement, demography, agricultural production, agricultural technique, craft and industrial production, commercial organization, directions of trade, money and price movements, and the economy and the state. Much of this book, particularly in the early chapters, consists of historiographical discussions, because the literature on these topics is immense and the documentation fragmentary. Verhulst concludes that the most dynamic novelty of the Carolingian economy was the greater efficiency of agrarian institutions, as the manorial village evolved from the hamlet and generated an exchange economy. Production increase, however, was the result of reclamation of new land and extension of the three-course rotation; Verhulst rejects the notion of improvement in agricultural technology increasing food production significantly. He attributes the well-known famines of Charlemagne's period to population pressure and thus finds them a sign of economic growth. Verhulst detects cyclical movements in the Carolingian economy, which are best followed in reference to towns and trade. Some of the most vibrant passages are his discussions of Frisian commerce, the international trade in cloth, and the wine and grain trades. He is forced to concede Henri Pirenne's point that the Roman towns of southern Gaul declined sharply in the early eighth century, although not only because of the activities of the Arabs in the Mediterranean. In an argument based on broad notions of "urban," he further admits that in the Merovingian period artisanry was done "mostly in an urban context" (p. 72), but in the Carolingian Empire it was mainly rural and manorial. Thus despite the evidence of commercial activity outside the towns, he argues that "towns were even in the Carolingian period. .. the favourite location of commerce.. . Most merchants. .. lived in towns" (p. 91). Verhulst argues that the coastal emporia of the early Carolingian period, which handled mainly gift exchanges for the elite, evolved on the same sites in Charlemagne's time into genuine towns with a grid street layout, artisan production, and both regional and long-distance trade. They reached their height between 775-780 and 825. During this period the kings upgraded the silver penny. The great estates reached their greatest territorial extent at the turn of the ninth century. This coincidence of rural and urban-commercial indices suggests prosperity. The Frankish monarchy, its coin, and the towns declined after about 825 in the wake of Scandinavian attacks. Verhulst argues, however, that in the early 860s the decayed coastal emporia were succeeded by commercial portus in new or revived riverine towns of the interior. This new prosperity lasted until a new wave of Scandinavian attacks began in 879, but this time most of the interior towns survived, as the coastal places had not; albeit with a gap in settlement of 20 to 30 years. As elsewhere in his work, Verhulst emphasizes the impact of government and politics on economic activity, but his arguments have a hypothetical quality. For example, he suggests that given the extent to which aristocratic and church estates originated as royal gifts, "it may be" (p. 34) that the system was of Frankish royal origin, although studies have Book Reviews Les aides americaines economiques et militaires a la France 1938-1960: Une nouvelle image des rapports de puissance. By Gerard Bossuat. Paris: Comite pour l'histoire economique et financiere de la France, 2001. Pp. 406. This book adds to Gerard Bossuat's stature as the leading world authority on American aid to postwar Europe. The commencement date in the title, 1938, is not a typo but underscores one of the fundamental points Bossuat tries to drives home to his largely French readership. In that year, Jean Monnet, the central figure in this account, led an aircraft purchasing mission, created largely at his own behest, in a last-ditch attempt to prepare for the impending war with Germany. Its destination was the United States-a transAtlantic , officially neutral nation with far less experience in the manufacture of warplanes than his own. France's astonishing failure to mobilize economically in order to defend itself from the Nazi invaders not only exposed the hollowness of French claims to great power status, the author argues, but foreshadowed the nation's future dependence upon American material and financial assistance. Over the next 20 years it would, he demonstrates with virtuoso flair, come in many sizes and shapes, flow in an almost unbroken stream, and carry a variety of significant long-and short-term consequences. Bossuat launches his account of the war with the telling reminder that the United States both provided food to Algeria and negotiated with Britain for a partial breech in the wartime blockade. The objects of the effort were to provision unoccupied France, reinforce Vichy neutrality, and perhaps even win the Petain government over to the allied cause. The episode provided a symbolic beginning for the critical future American linkage between France and its overseas territories. Through Lend-Lease, the author proceeds, the United States later not only armed de Gaulle's Free French-while also subjecting them to American military leadership and training-but also supplied raw material, food, and machinery needed for reconstruction, a critical precedent. The subsequent 1946 Blum-Byrnes loan provided by Washington may have been disappointingly small compared to what Britain received, but, according to Bossuat, had a consequential result: negotiated by Monnet (who had also served as Lend-Lease broker between the United States and the Provisional French Government), it bound American assistance to France's economic modernization, as well as to the French Plan de Modernisation et d'Equippement, which he headed. Monnet would be closely involved in almost every subsequent grant of American assistance, military as well as civilian. The importance of his personal role is hard to exaggerate. The author notes for example that "In 1958 Monnet obtained what no premier, minister of finance or defense, or ambassador had obtained since the war in Indochina. .. a borrowing facility of $655 million," that could (though indirectly) be applied to covering the costs of the Algerian war (p. 354). Aid to Vichy, Lend-Lease equipment, and the Blum-Byrnes loan provided a mere warm-up for the Marshall Plan, which Bossuat characterizes as an unequivocally sound and essential bargain for France: for without American aid in modernizing, France would have remained hopelessly dependent on Germany, the United Kingdom, and of course the United States itself. Though he finds evidence of both American heavy-handedness and excessive French amourpropre, Bossuat reckons the Marshall Plan a diplomatic, as well as an economic success for France. Monnet failed, to be sure, in a bid to introduce indicative planning at the European level through the Organization of European Economic Cooperation. Yet, according to the author, France won acceptance of its overall strategy: sponsoring state-supported grands projets in order to shape-up the economy for future liberalization, at both the European and international levels. Bossuat might have strengthened the argument by including a discussion of the impact of the Marshall Plan on French participation in NATO, the OEEC, and the Schuman Plan.
This study shows that Martinez Moreno is a writer of the "Boom" in the Latin novels of ... more This study shows that Martinez Moreno is a writer of the "Boom" in the Latin novels of the 1960s who deserves a revival in critical attention, and proposes a new reading of his work that extends beyond political protest to a study of Dantean moral analysis -- especially evident in El color que el infierno me escondiera.
Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof,... more Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of Marvel Characters. Inc. Superman. Batman. Green Lantern. Plastic Man, The Joker, Lois Lane, Kandor, the distinctive names and ...
Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof,... more Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of Marvel Characters. Inc. Superman. Batman. Green Lantern. Plastic Man, The Joker, Lois Lane, Kandor, the distinctive names and ...
<jats:p>In Latin America, philosophical analysis has been portrayed as an intellectual revo... more <jats:p>In Latin America, philosophical analysis has been portrayed as an intellectual revolution. Its avowed goal has been to replace the abstruseness and obscurantism of scholastic and metaphysical jargon perceived as typical of much of Latin American philosophy with the clarity and rigour of mathematical and scientific discourse. Arriving around the mid-1940s analytic philosophy at first met with little interest because of a shortage of its classics in translation, cultural obstacles and opposition from the more traditional, entrenched philosophies. By the 1960s it had overcome many obstacles and stimulated considerable philosophical activity, mainly in Mexico and Argentina. By the 1980s, in spite of political opposition, analysis had created an international forum for the discussion of philosophical problems. It attracted to its ranks several distinguished philosophers and scientists with philosophical interests, among them Mario Bunge (Argentina and Canada), Héctor-Neri Castañeda (Guatemala and the USA) and Francisco Miró Quesada (Peru). An ambitious translation effort was launched and several important journals were founded, such as Análisis filosófico (Philosophical Analysis), Revista latinoamericana de filosofía (Latin American Journal of Philosophy) (Argentina), Crítica. Revista hispanoamericana de filosofía (Criticism. Hispanoamerican Journal of Philosophy) (Mexico), Manuscrito (Manuscript) (Brazil) and Diálogos (Dialogues) (Puerto Rico).</jats:p>
Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin Amer... more Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin America. It asserted that all knowledge came from experience; that scientific thinking was the model for philosophizing and that the search for first causes or ultimate reason typical of religion and metaphysics, was an obsolete mode of thinking. Positivism set out to discover the most general features of experience. Its tasks were to use them to explain and predict phenomena, to develop a social science that would furnish objective grounds for moral choice and to help create the best society possible. In Latin America positivism became a social philosophy which represented a cogent alternative to romanticism, eclecticism, Catholicism and traditional Hispanic values. It offered the prospect of a secular society in which the knowledge gained from science and industry would bring the benefits of order and progress. It assumed that the social sciences had the power to improve the human condition and it demanded political action. Three main currents were in evidence: autochthonous positivism indigenous to the region and concerned with local social and political issues, social positivism derived from Auguste Comte and stressing the historical nature of social change, and evolutionary positivism influenced by Herbert Spencer and asserting the biological nature of society. Autochthonous positivism emerged in the 1830s from the influx of liberal ideas which followed the wars of independence fought on the US continent by those wishing to gain freedom from Spain. Urging an intellectual revolution, swift social change and material progress, autochthonous positivism paved the way for European positivism proper. Social positivism appeared around the 1850s and argued for the necessity of educational reforms to solve the continent’s problems. It required participation in political life and became a radical force in spite of opposition from supporters of the status quo. By the 1880s evolutionary positivism had steered the movement in a conservative direction in support of laissez-faire policies, individualism and gradual change.
Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin Amer... more Between 1850 and the 1920s European positivism became a major intellectual movement in Latin America. It asserted that all knowledge came from experience; that scientific thinking was the model for philosophizing and that the search for first causes or ultimate reason typical of religion and metaphysics, was an obsolete mode of thinking. Positivism set out to discover the most general features of experience. Its tasks were to use them to explain and predict phenomena, to develop a social science that would furnish objective grounds for moral choice and to help create the best society possible. In Latin America positivism became a social philosophy which represented a cogent alternative to romanticism, eclecticism, Catholicism and traditional Hispanic values. It offered the prospect of a secular society in which the knowledge gained from science and industry would bring the benefits of order and progress. It assumed that the social sciences had the power to improve the human conditio...
French work was more extensive in rural history and historical geography. This survey of the earl... more French work was more extensive in rural history and historical geography. This survey of the early Carolingian period (753-877) reflects each of his areas of interest. Verhulst saw this as a period of economic expansion that paralleled the cultural "Carolingian Renaissance." He provides a wealth of detail in separate chapters devoted to landscape and settlement, demography, agricultural production, agricultural technique, craft and industrial production, commercial organization, directions of trade, money and price movements, and the economy and the state. Much of this book, particularly in the early chapters, consists of historiographical discussions, because the literature on these topics is immense and the documentation fragmentary. Verhulst concludes that the most dynamic novelty of the Carolingian economy was the greater efficiency of agrarian institutions, as the manorial village evolved from the hamlet and generated an exchange economy. Production increase, however, was the result of reclamation of new land and extension of the three-course rotation; Verhulst rejects the notion of improvement in agricultural technology increasing food production significantly. He attributes the well-known famines of Charlemagne's period to population pressure and thus finds them a sign of economic growth. Verhulst detects cyclical movements in the Carolingian economy, which are best followed in reference to towns and trade. Some of the most vibrant passages are his discussions of Frisian commerce, the international trade in cloth, and the wine and grain trades. He is forced to concede Henri Pirenne's point that the Roman towns of southern Gaul declined sharply in the early eighth century, although not only because of the activities of the Arabs in the Mediterranean. In an argument based on broad notions of "urban," he further admits that in the Merovingian period artisanry was done "mostly in an urban context" (p. 72), but in the Carolingian Empire it was mainly rural and manorial. Thus despite the evidence of commercial activity outside the towns, he argues that "towns were even in the Carolingian period. .. the favourite location of commerce.. . Most merchants. .. lived in towns" (p. 91). Verhulst argues that the coastal emporia of the early Carolingian period, which handled mainly gift exchanges for the elite, evolved on the same sites in Charlemagne's time into genuine towns with a grid street layout, artisan production, and both regional and long-distance trade. They reached their height between 775-780 and 825. During this period the kings upgraded the silver penny. The great estates reached their greatest territorial extent at the turn of the ninth century. This coincidence of rural and urban-commercial indices suggests prosperity. The Frankish monarchy, its coin, and the towns declined after about 825 in the wake of Scandinavian attacks. Verhulst argues, however, that in the early 860s the decayed coastal emporia were succeeded by commercial portus in new or revived riverine towns of the interior. This new prosperity lasted until a new wave of Scandinavian attacks began in 879, but this time most of the interior towns survived, as the coastal places had not; albeit with a gap in settlement of 20 to 30 years. As elsewhere in his work, Verhulst emphasizes the impact of government and politics on economic activity, but his arguments have a hypothetical quality. For example, he suggests that given the extent to which aristocratic and church estates originated as royal gifts, "it may be" (p. 34) that the system was of Frankish royal origin, although studies have Book Reviews Les aides americaines economiques et militaires a la France 1938-1960: Une nouvelle image des rapports de puissance. By Gerard Bossuat. Paris: Comite pour l'histoire economique et financiere de la France, 2001. Pp. 406. This book adds to Gerard Bossuat's stature as the leading world authority on American aid to postwar Europe. The commencement date in the title, 1938, is not a typo but underscores one of the fundamental points Bossuat tries to drives home to his largely French readership. In that year, Jean Monnet, the central figure in this account, led an aircraft purchasing mission, created largely at his own behest, in a last-ditch attempt to prepare for the impending war with Germany. Its destination was the United States-a transAtlantic , officially neutral nation with far less experience in the manufacture of warplanes than his own. France's astonishing failure to mobilize economically in order to defend itself from the Nazi invaders not only exposed the hollowness of French claims to great power status, the author argues, but foreshadowed the nation's future dependence upon American material and financial assistance. Over the next 20 years it would, he demonstrates with virtuoso flair, come in many sizes and shapes, flow in an almost unbroken stream, and carry a variety of significant long-and short-term consequences. Bossuat launches his account of the war with the telling reminder that the United States both provided food to Algeria and negotiated with Britain for a partial breech in the wartime blockade. The objects of the effort were to provision unoccupied France, reinforce Vichy neutrality, and perhaps even win the Petain government over to the allied cause. The episode provided a symbolic beginning for the critical future American linkage between France and its overseas territories. Through Lend-Lease, the author proceeds, the United States later not only armed de Gaulle's Free French-while also subjecting them to American military leadership and training-but also supplied raw material, food, and machinery needed for reconstruction, a critical precedent. The subsequent 1946 Blum-Byrnes loan provided by Washington may have been disappointingly small compared to what Britain received, but, according to Bossuat, had a consequential result: negotiated by Monnet (who had also served as Lend-Lease broker between the United States and the Provisional French Government), it bound American assistance to France's economic modernization, as well as to the French Plan de Modernisation et d'Equippement, which he headed. Monnet would be closely involved in almost every subsequent grant of American assistance, military as well as civilian. The importance of his personal role is hard to exaggerate. The author notes for example that "In 1958 Monnet obtained what no premier, minister of finance or defense, or ambassador had obtained since the war in Indochina. .. a borrowing facility of $655 million," that could (though indirectly) be applied to covering the costs of the Algerian war (p. 354). Aid to Vichy, Lend-Lease equipment, and the Blum-Byrnes loan provided a mere warm-up for the Marshall Plan, which Bossuat characterizes as an unequivocally sound and essential bargain for France: for without American aid in modernizing, France would have remained hopelessly dependent on Germany, the United Kingdom, and of course the United States itself. Though he finds evidence of both American heavy-handedness and excessive French amourpropre, Bossuat reckons the Marshall Plan a diplomatic, as well as an economic success for France. Monnet failed, to be sure, in a bid to introduce indicative planning at the European level through the Organization of European Economic Cooperation. Yet, according to the author, France won acceptance of its overall strategy: sponsoring state-supported grands projets in order to shape-up the economy for future liberalization, at both the European and international levels. Bossuat might have strengthened the argument by including a discussion of the impact of the Marshall Plan on French participation in NATO, the OEEC, and the Schuman Plan.
This study shows that Martinez Moreno is a writer of the "Boom" in the Latin novels of ... more This study shows that Martinez Moreno is a writer of the "Boom" in the Latin novels of the 1960s who deserves a revival in critical attention, and proposes a new reading of his work that extends beyond political protest to a study of Dantean moral analysis -- especially evident in El color que el infierno me escondiera.
Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof,... more Spiderman, The Thing, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, the distinctive names and likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of Marvel Characters. Inc. Superman. Batman. Green Lantern. Plastic Man, The Joker, Lois Lane, Kandor, the distinctive names and ...
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