Showing papers on "Theme (narrative) published in 1992"

The KL-ONE family

Abstract: The knowledge representation system KL-ONE has been one of the most influential and imitated knowledge representation systems in the Artificial Intelligence community. Begun at Bolt Beranek and Newman in 1978, KL-ONE pioneered the development of taxonomic representations that can automatically classify and assimilate new concepts based on a criterion of terminological subsumption. This theme generated considerab interest in both the formal community and a large community of potential users. The KL-ONE community has since expanded to include many systems at many institutions and in many different countries. This paper introduces the KL-ONE family and discusses some of the main themes explored by KL-ONE and its successors. We give an overview of current research, describe some of the systems that have been developed, and outline some future research directions.

The Uses and Utility of Ideology: Some Reflections

Abstract: Without wishing to commit the etymological fallacy in the understanding of a word's meaning, I would like first to comment on the traditions of usage of the term ideoloqv, a theme elegantly announced in Woolard's introductory discussion of "issues and approaches." As is well known, it was Antoine Louis Claude Comte Destutt de Tiacy (1754-1836) who invented the term, in that naturalizing move of the French Enlightenment rendition of l,ocke (or, to be sure, Condillocke) that sought to understand human "nature." Ideology was proposed as that special branch of zoology that recognizes the condition of humans, we animals who have ideas as the content of what we should call our minds. Central here is the fact that any ideas more developed than physiological sensations are dependent on such ideas'being clothed in signs, the organization of which by some systematic grammar allows the discursive xpression of a logical faculty of mind. Hence, for Destutt de Tiacy, there is the general scientific field of ideology proper, the science of ideas, of which the subfield of grammar studies the signiffing externalizations, as it were, in structured systems of articulated signs, and the subfield of logic the modes of rationality oriented to truth and certitude of inferential states of mind (i.e., formation and combinatorics of ideas). Such a science would, for its propounder, also allow us to diagnose and understand "the causes of incertitude and flogical] error," thus presumably leading to an amelioration of the human condition vis-d-vis its natural mental faculties. It is particularly interesting, therefore, to see the fate of this term, proposed as a formation parallel to any of the other "-ologies" of a systematic scientific outlook. It has obviously become a word that now denotes a part or aspect of Destutt de Tiacy's very object of investigation, and in many appearances has the specifically "pejorative" use to pick up on Jane Hill's invocation of Raymond Geuss (1981: 12-22) that presupposes we know certain ideas to be dubious, in error, and

The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction

Abstract: For the Greeks and Romans, the Earth's furthest perimeter was a realm radically different from what they perceived as central and human. The alien qualities of these "edges of the Earth" became the basis of a literary tradition that endured throughout antiquity and into the Renaissance, despite the growing challenges of emerging scientific perspectives. This survey reveals that the Greeks, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Romans, saw geography not as a branch of physical science but as an important literary genre. The tradition described by Romm emerged in Homer and Hestiod, whose imaginative geography defined the Earth by giving it boundaries - the river Ocean, the Pillars of Heracles, and other mythical forms of circumscription. Other Greek authors developed exotic literary landscapes by filling these "limits" with idealized human societies and bizarre or monstrous animal life, while the Romans adapted the concept of perimeters to goals of imperial conquest. As Hellenistic and Roman voyages of exploration failed to confirm the fancied landscapes, the tradition came to be seen as one in which invented narratives had masqueraded as truths. As a result, some of late antiquity's most daring innovations seized on geography as a theme for prose fiction, and the explorer's log became an important antecedent of the early modern novel.

Citizenship and Political Identity

Abstract: It is through the question of political identity that I have decided to approach the theme of this conference on "identity." More precisely, I intend to ask the following question: "What kind of political identity should a project of 'radical and plural democracy' aim at constructing?" and I am going to argue that such a project requires the creation of new political identities in terms of radical democratic "citizens."

Feminizing the Fetish: Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the Century France

Abstract: Shoes, gloves, umbrellas, cigars that are not just objects-the topic of fetishism seems both bizarre and inevitable. In this venturesome and provocative book, Emily Apter offers a fresh account of the complex relationship between representation and sexual obsession in turn-of-the-century French culture. Analyzing works by authors in the naturalist and realist traditions as well as making use of documents from a contemporary medical archive, she considers fetishism as a cultural artifact and as a subgenre of realist fiction. Apter traces the web of connections among fin-de-siecle representations of perversion, the fiction of pathology, and the literary case history. She explores in particular the theme of "female fetishism" in the context of the feminine culture of mourning, collecting, and dressing.

Justification by Faith: The Origin and Development of a Central Pauline Theme

Abstract: This study offers a fresh analysis of the place which "justification by faith" held in Paul's life and thought by reexamining Paul's conversion and his letter to Rome. It challenges the "new perspective on Paul" (Dunn), while providing a historical and theological description of Paul's understanding of forensic justification.

Rough Music Reconsidered

Abstract: IN 1988 I had the honour to be invited to deliver the Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture to the Folklore Society. It was with some trepidation that I selected a theme to which Katharine Briggs made her own contribution and which has long interested members of this Society, from whose work I have learned a good deal. The present paper corresponds largely, though not entirely, to the lecture given on that occasion (a tape of which is in the Society's Library); it is an abbreviated version of the chapter on 'Rough Music' in my recent book Customs in Common (Merlin Press, 1991).

Common Themes in the Work of Gilbert White and John Dewey: A Pragmatic Appraisal

Abstract: Gilbert White has had a profound influence on natural resources and hazards research, but the philosophy that guides his work has not been clearly defined. White's approach has broad affinities with the pragmatic tradition of American social thought, most notably with the work of john Dewey. This paper compares four major themes in the work of White and Dewey: the precariousness of existence, the pragmatic conception of inquiry, learning from experience, and discourse and democracy. For each theme, I show how similarities and differences between White and Dewey can help to clarify controversies within geography, and directions for future research.

Posthistoire: Has History Come to an End?

Abstract: History, be it Fukuyama's liberal democracy or Baudrillard's hyperreality, according to a number of pundits, has reached the end of the line. Yet these heated debates are themselves profoundly ahistorical, for the conception of posthistoire, "the end of history", has been a recurrent theme since the late 19th century. Lutz Niethammer, Germany's leading radical historian, here uncovers this intellectual history of disillusion and resignation. Tracing the idea of history's end back to Nietzsche and Spengler, he examines its manifestations in the views of writers in France and Germany, particularly during the interwar years. Many were thinkers of the Right; Ernst Junger, Jacques Doriot and Arnold Gehlen. Others, above all Alexandre Kojeve, belonged to the Left. But whether they pinned their hopes on the nation or the proletariat, they shared a common response to the "failure" of the masses to fulfil a prescribed role. They all conflated the apparent collapse of a particular historical project with the collapse of history of itself. A central theme is the reaction of intellectual elites to the rise of mass culture and the crises of mass movements. Niethammer offers an alternative in the approach of Walter Benjamin, who, despite his critiques of technological mass civilization, refused to deny the fact that people make and transform history. For all those who stil refuse to believe that human history has ground to a standstill, Posthistoire should be interesting reading. Subject is currently at the centre of political and intellectual debate, provoked by publication of Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man". Will appeal to the large general and academic audience built up by Fukuyama's book. This book is the first comprehensive left critique of the "end of history". Will be read by the political left, and be required reading of apologists of the concept of any political hue.

Special Delivery: Epistolary Modes in Modern Fiction

Abstract: Though letter writing is almost a lost art, twentieth-century writers have mimed the epistolary mode as a means of reevaluating the theme of love. In "Special Delivery," Linda S. Kauffman places the narrative treatment of love in historical context, showing how politics, economics, and commodity culture have shaped the meaning of desire. Kauffman first considers male writers whose works, testing the boundaries of genre and gender, imitate love letters: Viktor Shklovsky's Zoo, Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," Roland Barthes's" A Lover's Discourse," and Jacques Derrida's "The Post Card." She then turns to three novels by women who are more preoccupied with politics than passion: Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook," Alice Walker's "The Color Purple," and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." By juxtaposing these "women's productions" with the men's "production of Woman," "Special Delivery" dismantles the polarities between male and female, theory and fiction, high and low culture, male critical theory, and feminist literary criticism. Kauffman demonstrates how all seven texts mercilessly expose the ideology of individualism and romantic love; each presents alternate paradigms of desire, wrested from Oedipus, grounded in history and politics, giving epistolarity a distinctively postmodern stamp.

And the View from the Shore: Literary Traditions of Hawai'i

Abstract: This groundbreaking study of a little-explored branch of American literature both chronicles and reinterprets the variety of patterns found within Hawaii's pastoral and heroic literary traditions, and is unprecedented in its scope and theme. As a literary history, it covers two centuries of Hawaii's culture since the arrival of Captain James Cookin 1778. Its approach is multicultural, representing the spectrum of native Hawaiian, colonial, tourist, and polyethnic local literatures. Explicit historical, social, political, and linguistic context of Hawaii, as well as literary theory, inform Stephen Sumida's analyses and explications of texts, which in turn reinterpret the nonfictional contexts themselves. These "texts" include poems, song lyrics, novels and short fiction, drama and oral traditions that epitomize cultural milieus and sensibilities.Hawaii's rich literary tradition begins with ancient Polynesian chant and encompasses the compelling novels of O.A. Bushnell, Shelley Ota, Kazuo Miyamoto, Milton Marayama, and John Dominis Holt; the stories of Patsy Saiki and Darrell Lum; the dramas of Aldyth Morris; the poetry of Cathy Song, Erick Chock, Jody Manabe, Wing Tek Lum, and others of the contemporary "Bamboo Ridge" group; Hawaiian songs and poetry, or mele; and works written by visitors from outside the islands, such as the journals of Captain Cook and the prose fiction of Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, and James Michener. Sumida discusses the renewed enthusiasm for native Hawaiian culture and the controversies over Hawaii's vernacular pidgins and creoles. His achievement in developing a functional and accessible critical and intellectual framework for analyzing this diverse material is remarkable, and his engaging and perceptive analysis of these works invites the reader to explore further in the literature itself and to reconsider the present and future direction of Hawaii's writers.

Some Notes on Analyzing Wagner: "The Ring" and "Parsifal"

Abstract: Example la sketches the Tarnhelm motive from Das Rheingold as first heard; ex. lb sketches the modulating middle section of the Valhalla theme, again as first heard. For many years I had sensed some underlying relation between the two passages, without being able to put my finger on it. In my recent book, Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations, I tried to work out a suitable relationship using networks of Klang transformations. Figure 1 reproduces figure 8.2 from the book.' There is a misprint: what is incorrectly written as "(G ,-)" on the left of figure la should be written as "(G ,-)." The bracketed harmonies on the figure are understood as interpolated transformational stages in the networks. LT signifies Riemann's Leittonwechsel transformation: the two notes spanning the minor third of a triad are preserved, while the third note moves a semitone to form a new triad of the opposite mode. The transformation SUBM makes a given triad the submediant in the key of the transformed triad. I was eager to assert SUBM between the opening and final harmonies of figure la; this made me assert B major, but not B minor, to be functional at the end of ex. la. (Wagner uses both major and minor harmonizations in the course of the Ring and Tristan.) In the book (p. 178), I say that exs. 2a and 2b "make visually clear a strong functional relationship" between the two passages, "a relationship which it is difficult to express in words." The relationship is difficult to express because the analysis is bad. It is bad for at least three methodological reasons that I can spot. Criticism (a): There is no point asserting "a strong relationship" without being able to 19th-Century Music XVI/1 (Summer 1992). ? by The Regents of the University of California.

Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918

Abstract: On the surface, it seems that the history of science and technology in Canada suffers from a lack of heroes and drama: after all, most world - altering inventions and discoveries seem to have occurred elsewhere, as ground - breaking change seems to have been imported rather than indigenous. Yet this misses the point. Much recent British and American scholarship de - emphasizes concepts of "discovery" and "invention" in favour of new models in which scientific and technological change is a gradual, socially conditioned transformation with few actual points of revolutionary change. One writer disputes the occurrence of intentional discovery, arguing instead in favour of a strict process of natural selection: all ideas or hypotheses are serendipitous, mere random generation; unfit variations are eliminated, for example, within the scientific community; fit variations become discoveries through confirmation by the community. As such, "individual scientists do not, in fact, cannot, make a scientific discovery," he argues; "scientific knowledge is a socially produced knowledge."(f.1) The real drama, it could be argued, is in the interplay between scientific concepts and society and how both are mutually transformed.As the essays in Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada's Past indicate, science and technology in Canada have been profoundly shaped by their social, cultural and economic contexts. Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada's Past is a sampling of essays drawn from the first 10 years of the journal Scientia Canadiensis, aimed at high school and university readers. As with other such collections, the quality of papers varies: some are marred by prosaic writing and analysis, but others are more exciting while most have the virtue of introducing readers to prevalent themes among historians of Canadian science and technology.Discussions of the influences of nationality and colonialism are especially prominent within the collection. In his paper"Between Two Empires: the Toronto Magnetic Observatory and American Science Before Confederation," Gregory Good contends that national values shaped the institutional character and purpose of the Toronto observatory. English staff used the observatory to seek scientific fellowship with their American neighbours, but for Americans, the observatory primarily offered opportunities for observations on British territory. In his paper, "Colonialism and the Truncation of Science in Ireland and French Canada During the Nineteenth Century," Richard Jarrell repeats familiar themes, blaming "internal colonialism" for making French Canadians and Irish "inward - looking societies," financially and socially unwilling to imbed science within their culture. However, in his study of the French - Canadian botanist Louis - Ovide Brunet, the entomologist Leon Provancher and the geologist J.C.K. Laflamme, Raymond Duschene suggests that "colonial" dependence, and Quebec's place on the periphery internationally, had far less impact on these scientists' status than accidents of personal career and the differing characteristics of research and publication within varying fields.Canada's technological performance has been a favourite theme among historians of technology. Douglas Baldwin's all too brief account of technological innovation in the Cobalt mining region disputes contentions that technological development in Canada has been a history of failed opportunities. Chris de Bresson uses the emergence of the mass production Bombardier snowmobile as an exceptional case study in analyzing Canada's failure, despite economic prosperity, to develop an energetic, capital - intensive high technology sector. De Bresson rejects traditional explanations such as capital shortage, Canada's vast geographic distances, domination by foreign multinationals, timid banking practices and Canada's small market size. He instead targets failure to move beyond custom and batch - oriented manufacturing to mass production, and crucially, the tendency towards Canadian adoption of technical systems from abroad, thus resulting in limited "indigenous manufacturing know - how" and vulnerability "to quick imitation by low cost producers" (192). …

Animals, Archetypes, and Popular Culture: Tales from the Tabloid Press

Abstract: This paper characterizes the portrayal of animals and human-animal relations in one genre of American popular culture—the “supermarket” tabloid press. A total of 789 animal-related stories and photographs in 82 issues of four tabloid magazines were analyzed according to theme. The items fell into nine categories in which animals were portrayed as objects of affection, saviors, threats, victims, things to be used, sex objects, imaginary and mythological beings, surrogate humans, and objects of wonder. It is argued that these themes represent archetypes reflecting the roles that animals have had in human cultural and psychological life since the historical origins of our species.

The construction of the self: An evolutionary view

Abstract: Contemporary research on the construction of the self emphasizes the products rather than the process of self-development. Borrowing from the writings of William James and contemporary views of natural selection, we propose a model ofevolutionary self-construction. Grounded in the principles of evolution and the philosophy of pragmatism, evolutionary self-construction proposes a process that guides the seeking of “truth” inpossible selves. According to this view, the self develops in response to uncertainty reduction with the “correct” self identified via the “sentiment of rationality.” Selves presently identified as correct are considered to be “instruments of action” that facilitate the interaction between an individual and the environment. Selected selves can then be developed to one’s best advantage and presented in an optimal fashion. This model helps organize contemporary frameworks around a common theme and embraces affect as a central component in the development of the self.

Passion as "confused" perception or thought in Descartes, Malebranche, and Hutcheson.

Abstract: A curious feature of the Cartesian theory of the passions is their characterization as "confused" thoughts or perceptions. The contrast to the "clear and distinct ideas" which Descartes took as the basis of rational thinking is obvious; yet there is much more to the intrinsic "confusion" of sense perception and passion. The present essay considers three works which develop this notion, Descartes's Les Passions de l'Ame (1649), Malebranche's De la Recherche de la Verite (1674-75/1712), and Hutcheson's Essay on the Nature of the Passions and Affections (1728/1742). One implication of this use of "confused" is that it is the very relation of passion to sensation, or alternatively the very involvement of the body (in an agitation of animal spirits), that makes passion an obstacle to human knowledge and autonomy. In his insistence on confusion Descartes is reviving a theme of classical philosophy, giving it a new definition and application. The theme takes on further new senses and uses in Malebranche and Hutcheson. I They all acknowledge the necessity of passion, however, implicitly recognizing the virtues of "confusion."

The Function of Suffering in Philippians

Abstract: This closely argued and thoughtful book offers a fresh and nuanced understanding of the function of the suffering theme in Philippians. A comprehensive survey of previous readings of Philippians is followed by a clear outline of the principles and practice of rhetorical criticism with particular reference to the study of letter-structure. The book concludes by considering in detail the shape and function of the theme of suffering in each of the rhetorical sections of the letter as identified by the author.

Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens

Abstract: Jens Jensen was one of America's greatest landscape designers and conservationists. Using native plants and "fitting" designs, he advocated that our gardens, parks, roads, playgrounds, and cities should be harmonious with nature and its ecological processes-a belief that was to become a major theme of modern American landscape design. In Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens, Robert E. Grese draws on Jensen's writings and plans, interviews with people who knew him, and analyses of his projects to present a clear picture of Jensen's efforts to enhance and preserve "native" landscapes.

VO2max--new concepts on an old theme.

Abstract: This symposium "VO2max--new concepts on an old theme" is dedicated to the memory of Hermann Rahn, whose inspiration has led many young investigators to explore new horizons. In the debate on factors limiting VO2max at altitude Hermann Rahn stimulated further discussion between those camps supporting the central circulation as limiting VO2max and those proposing a peripheral diffusion limitation.

The Fate of the Elephant

Abstract: Noted wildlife biologist and author Chadwick provides a comprehensive exploration of the natural history and modern fate of the world's elephants, centered around the theme that "we are discovering a creature greater in many ways--and more like us--than we had ever imagined it to be. Even as we are destroying it". Annotated bibliography.

Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text

Abstract: Introduction: the poem and its author Langland's immediate poetic context "Discourse" schematic structure of the poem. Part 1 The first vision - prologue and passus I: literary "Truthe" theological "Truthe" social "Truthe". Part 2 The first vision - passus II-IV: personification allegory mede and social "Truthe" mede and legal "Truthe". Part 3 The second vision: passus V-VII: ecclesiastical satire theological themes - the reward of works, a wage or a gift? conclusion - the crisis of justice. Part 4 The third vision - passus VIII-XII: structure as determined by psychology style theme the inner dream - fortune, lewtee, scripture, Trajan deconstruction imaginatyf. Part 5 The fourth vision - passus XIII-XIV: educational transitions poetic transitions social transitions. Part 6 The fifth vision - passus XV-XVIII: Anima - the whole soul Anima and the Church Anima and charity - Langland's historical sense of the self and of charity the inner dream. Part 7 Visions six, seven, and eight - passus XVIII-XX: the sixth vision, passus XVIII the seventh vision, passus XIX - Will's Biblical "Reading" and the liturgy, the Apostolic Church and its crafts the eighth vision, passus XX.

Roman verse satire

Abstract: New Surveys in the Classics are annual supplements to the journal Greece & Rome, published by OUP on behalf of the Classical Association. Each New Survey takes a systematic look at a larger theme in classical art and society, offering an accessible overview suitable for the general reader as well as the student. In this issue Susan H. Braund surveys Roman verse satire from its origins to its apogee in the work of Lucilias, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal.

Old Testament theology : essays on structure, theme, and text

Abstract: In these essays, Walter Brueggemann addresses the necessity for thinking about the shape and structure of Old Testament theology-and for the impact such thinking can have on the larger issues of contemporary life. Brueggemann draws on the work of persons from all disciplines and incorporates them in a seminal way in his theology. The work of persons in theology, psychology, the social sciences, politics, and the like often provides heuristic possibilities and even basic models for talking about the Old Testament. The Old Testament is seen to be something that has intelligible and significant worldly connections.

Empowerment: A theme for the 1990s

Abstract: (1992). Empowerment: A theme for the 1990s. Local Government Studies: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 18-26.

On Manly Courage: A Study of Plato's Laches

Abstract: Walter T. Schmid offers the first original interpretation of the "Laches "since Hermann Bonitz in the nineteenth century in the only full-length commentary on the "Laches "available in English.Schmid divides the book into five main discussions: the historical background of the dialogue; the relation of form and content in a Platonic dialogue and specific structural and aesthetic features of the "Laches; "the first half of the dialogue, which introduces the characters and considers the theme of the education of young men; the inquiry with Laches, which examines the traditional Greek conception of military courage; and the inquiry with Nicias in which two nontraditional conceptions of courage are mooted, one closely associated with the sophistic movement in Athens, the other with Socrates himself. Furnishing a detailed paragraph-by-paragraph reading that traces Socrates ongoing quest for virtue and wisdoma wisdom founded in the action of a whole human lifeSchmid conclusively shows how and why the "Laches "fills an important niche in Plato s moral theory."