In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Republicanism, Religion, and Machiavelli’s Savonarolan MomentMarcia L. ColishMachiavelli’s readers often take at face value his claim that Christianity has weakened Italy’s civic spirit and martial valor, leaving it open to priestcraft and foreign invasion. Some scholars see this critique of Christianity as an expression of the irreligious, immoral, neopagan, or scientific Machiavelli, making it the chief index of his modernity. 1 One subset within this group treats Machiavelli’s [End (...) Page 597] anthropology as a secularized version of Augustine on original sin, absent an Eden behind it and a redemption before it. 2 Another view of Machiavelli on religion sees him as treating religion, whatever its teachings, functionally, as an instrument promoting desirable political behavior. 3 This is why they regard [End Page 598] Machiavelli as original and modern; although Maury D. Feld notes rightly that Machiavelli is here simply imitating the ancient Roman historians, who all treat religion in just this way. 4 For some proponents of the functionalist interpretation, it does not preclude Christian belief on Machiavelli’s part. For them his brief is not against Christianity itself but against clericalism, the papacy, and Christianity as it is currently interpreted. 5 Still others recognize Machiavelli’s acceptance of signs and portents, saintly behavior and miracles, and other indices of God’s existence and action in human history. They also note Machiavelli’s praise of biblical leaders seen as divinely inspired and his inclusion of them among the founders of religions and states who head his list of heroes. 6 Going farther, some scholars argue that Machiavelli was a conventional, if not an ardent or impeccable, Christian, who joined a religious confraternity before which he preached his Exhortation to Penitence, and the apparent recipient of the last rites of his church after a deathbed confession. 7 [End Page 599]Can these conflicting assessments of Machiavelli and religion be integrated? To some extent, yes. Once, that is, we consider a number of issues not always brought to bear on this question. Machiavelli recognizes that the foreigners who have overrun Italy and deprived Florence of the republic he had served are as Christian as the Italians. At home and abroad, their Christianity has not undermined their military strength or the civic virtue Machiavelli associates with republics. Within contemporary Florence there were three kinds of republicanism on offer, for those unhappy with the Medici restoration of 1512. One group sought to restore the pre-Medici governo stretto constitution dominated by the ottimati. Their opponents defended governo largo republicanism. Machiavelli advocated this type of polity, informed by his reading of ancient history and his assessment of human nature. But another, competing version of governo largo was put forth by Girolamo Savonarola during the Dominican friar’s stormy career as de facto head of the Florentine state from 1494 to 1498. Savonarola’s republican theory combined a number of ideas that Machiavelli loathed: the appeal to the Venetian Great Council as a model, the wish to purge Florence of her sins so that she could serve as the New Jerusalem in the coming apocalypse, and the notion that governo largo was a means to these religious ends, since the more broad-based the government, the more readily could it legislate and enforce moral reform. And, far from self-destructing after the friar’s ashes had been strewn on the Arno, Savonarolan republicanism continued to draw support from a diverse and substantial group of Florentines. Equally alarming, the agents [End Page 600] of this protracted Savonarolan moment seemed to have preempted Machiavelli’s own anticlerical, antipapal, antioligarchic, and antiMedicean positions, as well as a theory of governo largo. If we foreground Machiavelli’s desire to defend his own version of republicanism by undermining the Savonarolan alternative and if we recall that he treats Christianity positively in other contexts, it becomes possible to read those passages where he criticizes Christianity as practiced in Italy as texts with an antiSavonarolan subtext. Read this way, they are not incompatible with his acceptance of Christianity as true or as politically constructive elsewhere. In approaching this topic, we should also remember the longstanding associations that bound Christianity to politics and warfare.Addressing this last point... (shrink)

Alcohol use has long been assumed to alter cognition via attentional processes. To better understand the cognitive consequences of intoxication, the present study tested the effects of moderate intoxication on attentional processing using complex working memory capacity span tasks and a change blindness task. Intoxicated and sober participants were matched on baseline WMC performance, and intoxication significantly decreased performance on the complex span tasks. Surprisingly, intoxication improved performance on the change blindness task. The results are interpreted as evidence that intoxication (...) decreases attentional control, causing either a shift towards more passive processing and/or a more diffuse attentional state. This may result in decreased performance on tasks where attentional control or focus are required, but may actually facilitate performance in some contexts. (shrink)

Projects to restore nature inevitably disrupt the plants and animals that inhabit the land to be restored. This essay addresses the significance of feral animals. Can feral animals remain in a restored nature? I argue that an answer depends on what we mean by nature and restoration. I present several different conceptions of nature and discuss what their differences mean for the goals of restoration. While the presence of feral animals is not compatible with the dualist conception of nature as (...) that which is untouched by humans, other conceptions are more accommodating. Restoration to a benchmark of nature prior to human impact is both practically and conceptually implausible, thus more analysis is needed of alternative conceptions and their impacts on domesticated and feral plants and animals. (shrink)

That alcohol provides a benefit to creative processes has long been assumed by popular culture, but to date has not been tested. The current experiment tested the effects of moderate alcohol intoxication on a common creative problem solving task, the Remote Associates Test . Individuals were brought to a blood alcohol content of approximately .075, and, after reaching peak intoxication, completed a battery of RAT items. Intoxicated individuals solved more RAT items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive (...) their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. Results are interpreted from an attentional control perspective. (shrink)

BackgroundThe Netherlands is one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal under strict conditions. This study investigates whether Dutch newspaper articles use the term ‘euthanasia’ according to the legal definition and determines what arguments for and against euthanasia they contain.MethodsWe did an electronic search of seven Dutch national newspapers between January 2009 and May 2010 and conducted a content analysis.ResultsOf the 284 articles containing the term ‘euthanasia’, 24% referred to practices outside the scope of the law, mostly relating to (...) the forgoing of life-prolonging treatments and assistance in suicide by others than physicians. Of the articles with euthanasia as the main topic, 36% described euthanasia in the context of a terminally ill patient, 24% for older persons, 16% for persons with dementia, and 9% for persons with a psychiatric disorder. The most frequent arguments for euthanasia included the importance of self-determination and the fact that euthanasia contributes to a good death. The most frequent arguments opposing euthanasia were that suffering should instead be alleviated by better care, that providing euthanasia can be disturbing, and that society should protect the vulnerable.ConclusionsOf the newspaper articles, 24% uses the term ‘euthanasia’ for practices that are outside the scope of the euthanasia law. Typically, the more unusual cases are discussed. This might lead to misunderstandings between citizens and physicians. Despite the Dutch legalisation of euthanasia, the debate about its acceptability and boundaries is ongoing and both sides of the debate are clearly represented. (shrink)

Even though it is often presumed that the use of technology like medication administration technology is both safer and more effective, the importance of nurses' know‐how is not to be underestimated. In this article, we accordingly try to argue that nurses' labor, including their different forms of knowledge, must play a crucial role in the development, implementation and use of medication administration technology. Using three different theoretical perspectives (‘heuristic lenses') and integrating this with our own ethnographic research, we will explore (...) how nursing practices change through the use of medication technology. Ultimately, we will argue that ignoring (institutional) complexity and the various types of important knowledge that nurses have, will seriously complicate the implementation of medication administration technology. (shrink)

This article deals with six aspects of analogical thinking in mathematics: 1. Platonism and continuity principle or the “geometric voices of analogy” (as Kepler put it), 2. analogies and the surpassing of limits, 3. analogies and rule stretching, 4. analogies and concept stretching, 5. language and the art of inventing, 6. translation, or constructions instead of discovery. It takes especially into account the works of Kepler, Wallis, Leibniz, Euler, and Laplace who all underlined the importance of analogy in finding out (...) new mathematical truth. But the meaning of analogy varies with the different authors. Isomorphic structures are interpreted as an outcome of analogical thinking. (shrink)

Natural sciences and natural philosophy of the Jesuits are based on theology. At least the concept of God is an integral part of their theoretical structure. Examples are taken from Rudjer Boskovic, Honoré Fabri and Nicolaus Cabeus. In fact, the Jesuits, e.g. Theophil Raynaud, dealt with natural theology as the spiritual foundation of knowledge independent of revelation. But natural theology, as in Raimundus Sabundus, has an anthropocentric and hence moral dimension: it links knowledge with religion. ‘Ignatius of Loyola influenced decisively (...) the Jesuits’ concept of science and its relationship to religion through his Spiritual Exercises in which meditation and religious practice are developed into a technique and a scientific approach to faith. (shrink)

The paper considers the development of physics‐teaching at the universities of Königsberg (founded 1544) and Helmstedt (founded 1576). The question is: How many teachers of physics professed Aristotelianism and how long? and why did most of them reject Copernicanismus? The paper suggests that Melanchthon, not only the founder of early German philosophy ‘was also the propounder of a form of, modern Aristotelianism’ which proved very valuable in mediating between theologians and philosophers on the one side and between philosophers and experimentalists (...) on the other side. (shrink)

Dutch science flourished in the late sixteenth and in the seventeenth century thanks to the immigration of cartographers, botanists, mathematicians, astronomers and the like from the Southern Netherlands after the Spanish army had captured the city of Antwerp in 1585, and thanks to the religious and the socio‐economic situation of the country. A strong impulse for practical scientific activities started from the Reformation, mainly thanks to its anti‐traditional attitude, which had an anti‐rationalistic tendency. Therefore, in the Northern Netherlands there was (...) no ‘warfare’ between science and religion and the biblical arguments leading to Galileo's condemnation were not used.Although the growth of the exact sciences and of technology in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries in Protestant cirles may be partly attributed to the expansion of trade, industry, navigation and so on, this does not explain why there was also at the same time a great interest in subjects as botany and zoology, which had no immediate economic utility. There were discussions about Copernicanism and Cartesianism. So a number of astronomers and theologians rejected the earth's movement on scientific and religious grounds, but there were also those who did not reject the Copernican system on biblical grounds. In the seventeenth century there was much discussion between science and religion in the Northern Netherlands, but that discussion was not followed by censure by the Church of the State. In the Republic there was a large amount of intellectual freedom in the study of the natural sciences, thanks to practical and ideological considerations. In the eighteenth century the seventheenth century tension between science and religion changed into a physicotheological natural science. It was believed that investigations into the workings of nature should lead to a better understanding of its Creator. So Bernard Nieuwentijt in his well‐known book: The right use of‐world views for the conviction of atheists and unbelievers (1715) intended to prove the existence of God on the basis of teleological arguments. (shrink)

Due to lacking reliable sources almost no details were available on the educational journey of the joung Descartes. Moreover, contradictions in several publications resulted in the doubt, whether these events, which are so important for the history of science, ever hapened at all. Folowing careful and comprehensive research at the City Archives Ulm, the Hessian City Archives Darmstadt and the Bavarian State Library in Munich the author found evidence that René Descartes met the mathematician and master fortress builder Johann Faulhaber (...) in Ulm.1 Now, the first summary of Descartes' travel report can be given based on further findings (in reliable sources) and corroborated by numerous facts. (shrink)

Usually one reads that after the foundation of scientific journals the journal article took the place of scientific correspondence. It is shown here that periodicals did not replace the letter, but only supplemented it. Norms were developed for the journal article such that (in short) only the „context of justification”︁, not the „context of discovery”︁, could be discussed. Any scholar who wanted to participate in the „discussion out of which science arises”︁ had to resort to the letter; the reading of (...) journals did not suffice. — This circumstance is illustrated in particular by the example of quantum theory and by Wolfgang Pauli. (shrink)

У статті автор намагається проаналізувати репрезентацію релігійно-антропологічних ідей в творах представників релігійно-філософської думки в Україні кінця XVI – початку XVII століть. Їх погляди були зумовлені експансією католицизму та особливостями міжконфесійного протистояння. Відзначається, що з міркувань відстоювання православних візантійських та давньоруських традицій представники реформаційної ідеології у своїх творах презентували позиції щодо захисту віри предків від інокультурних впливів, збереження національних культурних цінностей шляхом звернення до основних положень Святого письма, першопочаткової структури християнського вчення, православних києворуських духовних традицій та цінностей. Особливо виразно вони (...) виявились у богословських вченнях релігійно-філософської школи «острозьких традиціоналістів» (Острозький та Дерманський культурно-релігійні осередки). Автор відзначає, що найвідомішими представниками цього напряму в Україні були Василь Суразький, Іван Вишенський, Йов Почаївський, Йов Княгиницький, Віталій із Дубно. Вони вважали, що досягнути божественну істину можливо тільки через вивчення й практичне застосування творів східної патристики, а також – за допомогою активних внутрішніх пошуків духовного розуму, який повинен керуватися біблійними знаннями. Прикметно, що полемісти, представники ранньомодерної української релігійно-філософської та політико-культурної еліти, акцентували на внутрішній філософії мудрого розуму, в якому поєднано божественне та людське. Вони прагнули бути прикладом праведного буття для сучасників, втілюючи його принципи у своє життя та пов’язуючи його з чернечим подвижництвом. Автор доходить висновку, що філософсько-антропологічні погляди представників традиціоналізму розвивались в контексті парадигми християнського неоплатонізму, яка виражалась у ідеях ісихазму. (shrink)

У статті розглядаються філософсько-теологічні надбання періоду XVI–XVII століть на теренах України. Зроблено висновок, що в цей час відбулося переосмислення філософської думки, зсув від богопізнання до підкреслення важливості пізнання людини та визнання її самоцінності. Зокрема, виникла школа традиціоналізму з корінням в православній візантійсько-древньоруській традиції, що виступала як опозиція латинізованому католицизму. Автор здійснює філософський аналіз поглядів Василя Суразького-Малюшицького та Івана Вишенського. Перший підкреслює недосяжність Бога та акцентує на містичному пізнанні, другий вбачає Бога у внутрішній суті людської душі та визначає шлях до (...) самовдосконалення через самопізнання. Додаткові концепції подають ігумен Йов Почаївський, Йов Княгиницький, Ісакій Борискович і Віталій з Дубно, які акцентують на важливості духовного розвитку через молитовну безмовність і аскетичний спосіб життя. Стефан Зизаній висловлює раціоналістичні погляди на есхатологію, відкидаючи існування чистилища та інших післясмертних реалій. Касіян Сакович розглядає душу як акт фізичного тіла, що взаємодіє з божественною сутністю через благодать та богоподібність. Загалом, у XVI–XVII столітті в православ’ї спостерігаються тенденції до збереження релігійно-містичної традиції та розрізнення аспектів зовнішнього та внутрішнього в людині. Основний акцент був спрямований на бачення ключового елементу шляху до спасіння у чернечому подвижництві. (shrink)

Во второй части статьи доказывается необоснованность обвинений Канта в адрес Тетенса, согласно которым Тетенс занимался эволюцией понятий и игнорировал проблему объективной значимости понятий. Хотя свой метод Тетенс называл «наблюдающим», понятие «наблюдающий» он использовал настолько широко, что мы вправе назвать его метод феноменологическим: начав с анализа смысла высказываний, он заканчивает выявлением оснований объективной значимости наших знаний. И как метафизик, и как методолог Тетенс ближе к Лейбницу, чем эмпиризму. Критика Тетенсом эмпиризма более последовательна, чем трансцендентальный критицизм Канта.