Metanexus:Views 2002.01.18 2132 words Parallax can be fun. Like when you are sitting in the bathtub and makingyour fingers get longer or shorter depending on the angle at which you placethem in the water. Or when you observe the amazement of a child with a strawin a glass of water. The straw may go in…
What will future historians and cultural anthropologists have to say about Western Civilization at the turn of the new millennium? If history has already ended, as Fukuyama continues to assert, they will of course have precious little to say. However, given the fact that, for better or for worse, we are still living within time…
That’s just what you won’t get with Eric G. Wilson’s essay, “In Praise of Melancholy,” published in a recent edition of The Chronicle Review. This essay is adapted from Wilson’s new book, Against Happiness, which, for his sake, I suppose I hope does not sell. Unfortunately–for him, I guess–I think it might do fairly well,…
When one considers the variety of motions in the world one might wonder: what causes such variety? Why do some bodies remain unchanging in motion, altering neither speed nor direction, while others undergo changes now and again? The box can be moved by giving it a push, and the cart by pulling it. We affect…
Any theory in science is based on certain fundamental assumptions which one agrees to accept provisionally. These assumptions constitute the hypotheses of the theory. Thus, a hypothesis is invariably the starting point of a theory in science. The term is derived from the Greek, hypo: under, and tithenia: to put. So the word means that…
Leading historians David Armitage and Jo Guldi identify a recent shift back to longer-term narratives, following many decades of increasing specialization, which they argue is vital for the future of historical scholarship and how it is communicated.