In my first chapter, I investigate how, according to Hesiod in his Works and Days, one achieves prosperity and well-being, namely by not provoking Zeus who “punishes those whose actions harm justice.” I suggest that the moral and practical elements of Hesiod’s teachings may be conceived of in similar terms of maintaining a disposition whereby one is content to possess resources proportionate to one’s level of activity and needs. In the second chapter, I examine how the conceptions of limit and proportion elucidated in my first chapter feature in medical texts. I investigate Alcmaeon’s description of health and disease in terms of a political distribution of power. A body, according to Alcmaeon, is healthy when its qualities are equally proportioned (isonomia) and one does not dominate (monarchia) the whole mixture (krasis). Alcmaeon describes health as the proportionate blending of qualities which formulates the definition of health as the equality of shares of powers and anticipates Hippocratic humorism. Hippocratic humorism, like the traditional, magicoreligious model of health, conceives of health similarly to Alcmaeon, in terms of a proper proportion and balance. In my third chapter, I investigate Plato’s conception of the soul and of justice. I explicate Plato’s conception of the soul as discussed in his Republic, Phaedrus, and Laws, and suggest that a similar view of the soul and of justice, as a proper proportion of internal constituents, persists. I then apply this view of justice as the proper proportion of parts to the polis and argue that disproportion within a polis leads to stasis – a disease of a political body. In conclusion, I argue that Greek medical, ethical, and political thought share a conceptual framework and are predicated on notions of balance, proportion, and equilibrium. Prosperity, bodily health, justice of the soul, and justice of the city are conceived of in similar terms of a proper proportion. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Greek medical authors are obviously interested in the nature of health and disease, but the repeated mention of health and disease in epic poetry, philosophy, and political thought is more surprising. Hesiod writes that Zeus punishes the entire city of an unjust man with plague because he harms Justice. Plato refers to injustice as a disease of the soul, and justice as a soul in good health. Euripides, in his Herakles, writes that Thebes itself was sick with stasis. These authors indicate that the Greek conception of health was conceived of in broad terms which were applied to other spheres, such as ethics and politics. But what are these terms? What is the basic conceptual framework that underlies Greek medical, ethical, and political thought that allowed authors to apply similar metaphors of health and disease to these different spheres? In this thesis, I suggest that underlying Greek medical, ethical, and political thought is the same conceptual framework of proportion, balance, and equilibrium.

This important book seeks to dispel the myth that humanism and humanists were unique to the Italian Peninsula during the Fifteenth Century.

During the early 1830’s, the nascent American Antislavery Society needed support at the local level. This thesis argues that college and seminary students were a crucial demographic that helped garner support for, and spread, abolitionism. Examining the proliferation of radical abolitionism at three locations, Lane Seminary, Andover Theological Seminary, and Amherst College, reveals that students developed intellectual and moral arguments to justify their abolitionist sentiments. Typically, student abolitionists rhetorically battled with faculty, administration, and other students, who all supported colonization, over competing solutions to the problem of slavery. At all three locations, faculty and administration sought to suppress student abolitionism for a number of reasons, chief among them was the adherence to contemporary racial prejudices. Despite faculty restrictions, student abolitionists remained active in the movement in various capacities and were pivotal actors that helped spread abolitionism. Centering these locations in the historical narrative of the antebellum era illuminates the power dynamics at institutions of higher learning and how concepts of race, freedom, citizenship, and free speech were intellectually debated. In turn, students were resolved to engage with the foremost problem facing society, racial slavery, and believed immediate emancipation and racial equality were the solutions. This history complicates the current trend in the historiography that focuses on the complicity of America’s universities with the institution of racial slavery and reveals that the history of student activism in the United States can be traced back to antebellum era campuses.

In March of 1992, Marion Goldwasser, a teacher at Carroll County High School in Virginia, came under fire for her use of the book, The Floatplane Notebooks, in her classroom. A local preacher and several parents objected to six pages which contained sexual content. Over the next three months, residents throughout Southwest Virginia entered into a debate over the merits of the book, and more broadly the purpose of education. This debate roughly divided into three camps with different perspectives not just on how to proceed, but on the very nature of the controversy itself. These camps were those who felt the controversy was primarily about the censoring of books, those who were primarily concerned with the proper procedure by which the book should be reviewed, and those who saw the book as a moral affront to religious, Christian values. These disputes remained intractable throughout the controversy reflecting underlying disagreements about the ethical role of state power, the public nature of public schools, and the connection between power and knowledge. By understanding these underlying intellectual causes for the intractability of censorship disputes, historians can engage other academics and the public on this important issue. Engagement can take multiple forms, including writing in handbooks designed to help educators deal with such controversies, writing amici curiae briefs on relevant First Amendment cases, and encouraging a broader and more lucid public discussion on censorship and free speech. / Master of Arts / Marion Goldwasser was a high school teacher in Carroll County, Virginia in 1992. That year, she taught a book called The Floatplane Notebooks in her classroom. A parent and a local preacher objected to her use of the book because they did not like its sexual references. They demanded that the book never be used again and that the school board fire Goldwasser. The teacher, the preacher, the school board, and the community debated what to do for four months. Finally, Superintendent Oliver McBride ended the controversy by compromising and allowing the book to be used for advanced senior classes but not junior classes. This controversy matters because it tells us something about censorship controversies in general. They have been going on for a long time and are likely to continue. People disagree about when the government should get involved. They disagree about why we have public schools. They disagree on who should make decisions for the classroom and how the media talks about censorship. Historians need to understand this. When they do, they can help the public become more informed on the issue of censorship.

The following is a chronologically ordered internal intellectual history of Michel Foucault. The objective of this analysis is to determine whether or not Foucault provides a viable critical social theory of bourgeois society. In order to examine this topic, I trace the development of Foucault’s thought during his early, pre-archaeological stage, his archaeological stage, and his genealogical stage. I frame Foucault’s stages as attempts to overcome Kant’s subject/object division—or the paradox that man operates as both a meaning-giving subject and an empirical object—that one encounters in discourses pertaining to the social sciences. Foucault’s pre-archaeological stage is characterized by two humanistic modes of thought: hermeneutics and phenomenology. Hermeneutics involves the interpretation of historical events in pursuit of existential meaning. By contrast, phenomenology seeks to uncover meaning in subjective experience. After the publication of Mental Illness and Psychology, Foucault rejects hermeneutics and phenomenology on the grounds that the search for meaning through interpretation will inevitably obscure truth under endlessly multiplying interpretations. Neither method offers a coherent resolution to the subject/object division. Foucault’s archaeological method attempts to overcome the subject/object division by studying the relationships—or patterns appearing in language—between empirical observations. Archaeology does not account for the truth-value associated with codified empirical observations (or statements). In other words, archaeology studies the language patterns comprising claims to objective truth. Archaeology consequently assumes a relativistic and objective position that escapes the subject/object division. However, this method suffers from internal instabilities; the rules governing language pertaining to empirical observation are objective, yet the analysts are themselves a product of these rules. This contradiction casts doubt up archaeology’s claim to objectivity. Foucault’s genealogical method does not seek to resolve Kant’s subject/object division; rather, genealogy embraces the notion that the interaction between subject and object remains unknowable. Genealogy, therefore, retains archaeology’s relativistic stance regarding claims to truth while forgoing the former method’s pursuit of objective analysis. During his genealogical stage, Foucault directs his attention away from language patterns and toward the interaction between power and knowledge. Foucault conceptualizes power as a multidirectional, decentralized, and self-perpetuating force that manifests itself as the material result of interpersonal, institutional, and society-level conflicts. Knowledge complements power by defining normal and abnormal behavior. In doing so, knowledge establishes the cognitive field comprising the individual’s self-concept. Genealogy is an analytic of the power/knowledge interaction; the method provides a relativistic means of conceptualizing the reciprocal influence between force relations and discourses. While genealogy does not constitute an objective critical theory, the method has a concrete basis in the form of the positive manifestations of the power/knowledge interaction. Based on my assessment of the above methods, I conclude that genealogy is a viable social theory. Moreover, Foucault consistently deconstructs narratives comprising bourgeois society. From this recurrence it is apparent that Foucault is a para-Marxist; he provides a critique of bourgeois society and attempts to test the limits of individual experience within that society. This conclusion supports the continued relevance of Foucauldian analysis in the social sciences.

This investigation into the origin of a collection of nineteenth century lanternslides revealed evidence of the social, intellectual and cultural importance of various scientific societies in Oxford, and the contributions made by those involved, particularly the creator of the lanternslides, H. M. J. Underhill, (1855–1920). Evidence gathered from primary sources showed a fluidity of relationships between the supposed ‘town and gown’ in late nineteenth century Oxford which consisted of a community of citizens, amateurs and academics, all of whom were linked by a growing interest in the real and mythological British past. Following a discussion of the key intellectual and social influences in Britain during the latter half of the nineteenth century, including the implications of the emerging evidence of an ancient human past, the thesis focuses on individual case studies. They illustrate the roles of overlooked or neglected individuals whose work contributed to the growth of today’s discipline of British prehistory. Several people, now forgotten, including Underhill were contemporaries of Arthur Evans and Edward Tylor whose social circumstances made it easier for them to become prominent academics. The results of this research indicate that a new approach is required in the history of archaeology; one that would draw attention to the vital contributions made by forgotten or overlooked individuals, societies and popular publications. Further attention to these issues will shed new light on the way that prehistoric archaeology moved from an antiquarian pastime to an academic discipline between 1850 and 1900.

Between 1830 and 1914 in Britain a dramatic modification of the reputation of Edmund Burke (1730-97) occurred. Burke, an Irishman and Whig politician, is now most commonly known as the 'founder of modern conservatism' – an intellectual tradition which is also deeply connected to the identity of the British Conservative party. Indeed, the idea of 'Burkean conservatism’ – a political philosophy which upholds ‘the authority of tradition', the organic, historic conception of society, and the necessity of order, religion, and property – has been incredibly influential both in international academic analysis and in the wider political world. This is an intellectual construct of high significance, but its origins have not hitherto been understood: insofar as it has been considered at all, it has been typically seen as the work of Cold War American conservatives. In contrast, this thesis demonstrates that the transformation of Burke into the 'founder of conservatism' was in fact part of wider developments in British political, intellectual, and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing from a wide range of sources, including political texts, parliamentary speeches, histories, biographies, and educational curricula, this thesis provides a properly contextual history of political thought. It shows how and why Burke's reputation was transformed over a formative period of British history. In doing so, it bridges the significant gap between the history of political thought as conventionally understood and the history of the making of political traditions. The result is to show that, by 1914, Burke had been firmly established as a 'conservative' political philosopher and was admired and utilised by political Conservatives in Britain who identified themselves as his intellectual heirs. This was one essential component of a conscious re-working of 'C/conservatism', especially from the mid-1880s, which is still at work today.

<p>I examine the central influence of anti-Catholicism upon the construction of English Canadian nationalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Anti-Catholicism provided an existing rhetorical and ideological tradition and framework within which public figures and other Canadians communicated their diverse visions of an ideal Canada. The study of anti-Catholicism problematizes the rigid separation that many scholars have posited between a conservative ethnic nationalism and a progressive civic nationalism. Often times these very civic values were inextricable from a context of Britishness. Hostility to Catholicism was not limited only to the staunchly Anglophile Conservative party; indeed the importance of anti-Catholicism as a component of Canadian nationalism lies in its presence across the political and intellectual spectrum. Catholicism was perceived to inculcate values antithetical to British traditions. It was a medieval faith that stunted the “natural” development of its adherents, preventing them from becoming responsible citizens in a modern democracy. The concentration of Catholicism in Quebec further inflamed many in Canada who saw French Canadian Catholics as anachronistic barriers to a united, democratic and modern Canada.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The concept of community is highly problematic in the German context. ‘Gemeinschaft’ plays only a minor role in post-1945 philosophical writing, arguably as a result of the abuse of the concept by the National Socialists (‘Volksgemeinschaft’). Two of the major contemporary social philosophies in the German language, those of Jürgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann, are deeply critical of ‘community’. Habermas rejects ‘community’ that has not been purified by a rational filter (as opposed to what he conceives of as the ideal ‘Kommunikationsgemeinschaft’). Luhmann rejects the concept outright, arguing that it is simply ‘alteuropäisch’ (i.e. based on out-of-date philosophical assumptions), and that it has no place in the description of modern society. In contrast to these prominent dismissive positions, I argue that the concept of community is an underrated one. First, Habermas relies more heavily on the concept of community than his focus on the ‘Lebenswelt’ makes us believe. I characterise his conception as a ‘transformation’ of systems theory, because his social philosophy partly adopts systems theory, while complementing it with the aspect of ‘community’. Second, I argue that contemporary cultural theoreticians (for example, Peter Sloterdijk) take systems theory as a starting point for developing ultimately communitarian social philosophies. The concept of community proves crucial as supplementation and balancing of systems-theoretical elements in contemporary thinking. Once this transformative role is recognised, a purely historical treatment of the concept of community – one which, as in Luhmann’s systems theory, sees no place for it in present or future theory – begins to look premature.

This study seeks to contribute to a growing discussion about Islamic intellectual endeavours in the Middle Periods, providing new evidence from the genre of anti-innovation tracts (anti-bid‘a tracts) that has hitherto received relatively little modern scholarly attention. Specifically, this thesis examines tradition and innovation in Islam during the Mamluk period (648/1250 – 922/1517) through the lens of two jurists and their anti-innovation tracts. Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737/1336) was a Mālikī from North Africa who wrote Madkhal al-shar‘ al-sharīf. Ibn al-Naḥḥās (d. 814/1411), by contrast, was a Shāfi‘ī (and former Ḥanafī) from Damascus, who wrote a tract contained within his Tanbīh al-ghāfilīn, a work concerned with the duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong, and with naming and briefly discussing various sins and innovations. Ibn al-Ḥājj’s and Ibn al-Naḥḥās’ anti-innovation tracts are studied here for the first time in their own right, together with English translations of representative passages of their work that allow the reader to gain a direct impression of them. In addition to this, this thesis makes three unique arguments. First, anti-innovation tracts should be read as prescriptive yet flexible examples of furū‘. Second, the authors of the tracts investigated here, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās, were both ‘outsiders’ to Mamluk Egypt, who used this genre to define and regulate correct Muslim practices, in less formal ways that were both new and continuous with earlier thinking. Ibn al-Ḥājj’s programme - urging fledgling scholars, in almost encyclopaedic fashion, to know about and teach against innovative practices - was more important for him than addressing the topics of intention and innovation that feature in the full title of his work. Ibn al-Naḥḥās is an interestingly obscure figure. In an abbreviated and direct style, he urged non-specialists in Mamluk lands to censure innovations, and even to prevent them. Third, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās conceived of loyalty to their legal school in ways that require us to expand the terms of modern scholarly debates about such loyalty. This study contributes to the relatively recent, and fast-growing, literature on the Mamluk period in general, and its legal literature in particular. It supports a recent perspective on the Mamluk period, by illustrating the continuity and evolution of legal thinking during this period, which is both predicated upon, and differs substantially from, earlier periods of Islamic history. and deserves study in its own right.