Intellectual History Commons^™

Alberti And Ficino, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

Leon Battista Alberti and Marsilio Ficino, though separated by twenty-nine years in age, had a close relationship as mentor and pupil. Concepts which can be found in Alberti’s De pictura (1435) and De re aedificatoria (1450) are infused in Ficino’s De amore (1469). The concepts include Alberti’s theories of armonia, lineamenti, concinnitas, ornamento, and the pyramid of light in the theory of vision. In both Alberti and Ficino, harmonies shared by the body and music are manifestations of the harmonies of the soul. Beauty in body and matter is determined by beauty in mind (mens …

Intellectual Culture: The End Of Russian Intelligentsia, Dmitri N. Shalin

Russian Culture

No group cheered louder for Soviet reform, had a bigger stake in perestroika, and suffered more in its aftermath than did the Russian intelligentsia. Today, nearly a decade after Mikhail Gorbachev unveiled his plan to reform Soviet society, the mood among Russian intellectuals is decidedly gloomy. "The intelligentsia has carried perestroika on its shoulders," laments Ury Shchekochikhin, "so why does it feel so forlorn, superfluous, forgotten"? G. Ivanitsky warns that the intellectual strata "has become so thin that in three or four years the current genocide against the intelligentsia would surely wipe it out." Andrey Bitov, one of the country's …

The Intelligentsia Without Revolution: The Culture Of The Silver Age, Andrei Ariev

Russian Culture

The most effective definition of "the intelligentsia" might read: “Russian intellectuals who are generally opposed to the government.” But even Russia’s traditionally powerful government has collapsed at times, leaving a vacuum of authority. This was precisely the historical situation at the beginning of the twentieth century. It made an indelible impression both upon thinkers, such as Rozanov, and on politicians, such as Lenin.

Jürgen Habermas And The Third Reich, Max Schiller

CMC Senior Theses

Jürgen Habermas is a preeminent European intellectual who was a German teenager during World War II. He was profoundly impacted by the devastation wrought by the Nazi regime and the social regression that it embodied. He dedicated his intellectual efforts to studying philosophy and developing a theoretical framework that demonstrates how collaboration and unimpeded dialogue are consistent with the promotion of human interest and how there exist quasi-transcendent protections against threats to modern social progress. This thesis explicates how the Third Reich, from Habermas's perspective, exemplifies violence to Habermas's model of communicative action and how we can learn to better …

T.S. Eliot's Anti-Modernism: Poetry And Tradition In The European Waste Land, John Bedecarré

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis hopes to contribute to a reconciliation of the apparent conflict between Eliot's conservative outlook and his formally innovative poetry. I do not advocate stripping Eliot of his modernist label. I would rather amend the term "modernism." This qualification is important because the modernist label carries connotations that simply do not do justice to Eliot. For example, the label implies that modernists wanted to move forward, away from the past. Eliot wanted to move backwards, partly because he felt other artists had left the past behind. In an essay introducing the early twentieth-century modernists, the Norton Anthology of British …

Exhumándo La Memoria: La Memoria Histórica Español Tras El Cine Y Los Periodicos, Jillian Kate Raftery

CMC Senior Theses

(In Spanish) The Spanish Civil war isn't over in the hearts and minds of the people of Spain; rather, it is still being fought in the ideological realm of historical memory. Originally explored in literature and film, the theme of historical memory has not only become more visible and more explicit, but has taken the leap from art and literature into the political realm to become one of Spain's most pressing political issues.

Bibliography Of Central European Women's Holocaust Life Writing In English, Louise O. Vasvári

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Sway Of The Ottoman Empire On English Identity In The Long Eighteenth Century, Emily Kugler

Department of Literature and Writing Faculty Publications

Within popular culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the intermingling of Islamic and English Protestant identity was a recurring topic of debate and anxiety in the English cultural imagination. Examining the shifting representations from Early Modern Era to nineteenth-century concepts of race, nation and empire, Sway presents the eighteenth century as a turning point in public perceptions, the moments when English subjects began to believe British imperial power was a reality rather than an aspiration. 

Bibliography For The Study Of Text And Image In Modern European Culture, Natasha Grigorian

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Aliens In Their Native Lands: The Persistence Of Internal Colonial Theory, John R. Chávez

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Totalitarian Threats And Colonial Geography: The Politics Of Defining Terrorism In Beauvoir, Camus, And Dib, Araceli Hernandez-Laroche

Re-visioning Terrorism

Can terrorism be justified as a means for social justice? Can a so-called democratic state engaged in indiscriminate bombardments of civilian populations be held accountable for terrorist acts? How is political crime different from senseless murder? Can and should genocide be defined differently from a civil war operation? Who has the right to decide for the life or death of others?

This paper compares important representations in prose and theater of moral dilemmas that plagued war-torn Europe and France during the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Algerian War. I analyze the complexities and divergences of existential writers …

Jihadis And The Use Of The Terms Terrorism And Terrorist, Aaron Zelin

Re-visioning Terrorism

Previous studies on the usage of the terms terror, terrorist, and terrorism have taken a Western perspective on how these terms should be defined and then deployed, but the viewpoint of the “terrorist” (in this case jihadis) has yet to be examined. This study analyzes how jihadis understand these terms and critically assesses their interpretation based on classical Islamic doctrine. The basis and “proof” for jihadis’ legitimization of using terror is based upon the Qur’anic verse 8:60, but when taken into context and traditional understanding, jihadis miss the mark. Yet, at the same time, when exploring the linguistic root for …

Mythological History, Identity Formation, And The Many Faces Of Alexander The Great, James Mayer

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Alexander the Great, ruler of Macedonia and conqueror of much of the eastern Mediterranean world in the fourth century BCE, figures prominently in folklore for centuries afterward.  This paper analyzes several stories about Alexander to explore the intersections among history, myth and identity.  By looking at accounts of Alexander written by Jews living in Alexandria in the Roman period, by early Byzantine Christians and by medieval Persian Muslims, I demonstrate that communities from all over the Mediterranean used myths about Alexander to redefine their identity in response to catastrophic changes.

Federalists Vs. Republicans: The Nature Of Man In A Republic 1787-1800, Benjamin J. Barlowe

Senior Honors Theses

During the early years of the American Republic known as the Federalist Era (1787-1800), a conflict arose which led to America’s first formal political parties and the formation of the two-party system. The parties’ disagreements, characterized most succinctly by the exchanges between the two party leaders, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, involved some of the most basic ideology of the American experiment. The conflicts of the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Hamiltonian Federalists set the precedent of the nature of the political atmosphere of the United States to this day.

This thesis examines the basic viewpoint of the two parties in …

Euler E271 : A Link Between Mathematics Of Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow, Sarah Ann Nelson

Honors Theses

The major focus of this departmental thesis was to complete t he first English translation of E271 Arithmetic Theorems Proven by a New Method, a mathematical treatise published by Leonhard Euler in Latin in 1761. Most importantly, E271 contains Euler's generalization of Fermat's Litt le Theorem and an exploration of the properties of (n). Altogether, this paper includes an Abstract, Introduction, Note to the Readers, Translation of Arithmetic Theorems Proven by a New Method, Epilogue, and References. More specifically, the Introduction is about the historical background of the mathematics and applications leading up to E271 and the key corresponding mathematicians. …

The Whiter Lotus: Asian Religions And Reform Movements In America, 1836-1933, Edgar A. Weir Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the influence of Asian religions and thought on various reform movements in America, including anti-slavery, labor rights, the alleviation of poverty, women's rights, and the rights of immigrants. The interactions between these two forces will be uncovered and analyzed from 1836, the year Ralph Waldo Emerson's ground-breaking work Nature was published, until 1933, the year that Dyer Daniel Lum, the last individual discussed in this work, passed away. Previous studies have demonstrated that those who incorporated Asian religions and thought into their own lives and worldviews also affixed great importance on affecting society in a positive manner. …

Wei Yuan And The Chinese Totalistic Iconoclasm: The Demise Of Confucianism In Matter And In Form, Chao Ren

Honors Projects, History

This paper attempts to explore the historical origins of the “totalistic iconoclasm” that was characteristic of Chinese intellectual history in the twentieth century. By examining Wei Yuan’s historical writings, the paper argues that the conceptual connection between the civilization of the majority Han ethnicity (“the Chinese tradition”) and the idea of a political entity of China had already broken down by mid-nineteenth century. The Qing Empire’s political adoption and control of Confucianism suffocated its intellectual creativity and thus Confucianism only existed as custom and in form. As an intellectual reaction to these political manipulations, the essentialist thoughts of the late …

Philosophy, Science, And Belles-Lettres In Syriac And Christian Arabic Literature: A Gentle Introduction And Survey, Adam C. Mccollum

HMML Lectures

It might be assumed that the genres of Syriac and Christian Arabic literature are made up exclusively (or almost so) of sacred topics (Bible, commentary, liturgy, asceticism, hagiography, theology, etc.), the writers, scribes, and readers in these communities often being monks, presbyters, deacons, and bishops. A broad look at the surviving evidence of this literature, however, shows an immense interest in subjects not directly connected to the church, monastery, or Christian life at all, among them philosophy, science, and belles-lettres. This paper offers a basic overview of these subjects as Syriac and Christian Arabic authors dealt with them, especially from …

Centennial Founders Day Keynote Address: Refocusing Our Lens: The Founding Of Connecticut College In Historical Context, Linda Eisenmann '75

Centennial Speeches

The author writes that the founding of Connecticut College in 1911 deserves its own attention, and that as a historian of education, she could tell the story while setting it within a wider context of higher education. She takes us through the founding, adding a wide-angle perspective, and ends with a speculation on why this story seems so less present than it should be in the daily life of this campus. What does the Centennial mean for how Connecticut College understands its past and its present? What value is there in examining its history bit by bit over the course …

The Lotus Sutra, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.