The article is devoted to two talented representatives of the Russian university philosophical community of the first quarter XX century: Vasily Sesemann and Ksenia Miloradovich. It’s shown that their university routes are very similar, as far as it was possible for male and female biographies of that time. The most complete list of their original works published before 1922 is given. The thematic focus of their publications and journals in which they were published is compared and the translation activity (...) is analyzed. This allows us to see that in publications names of the “youth”: Vasily Sesemann, Ksenia Miloradovich, Sergey Hessen most often are supported by famous philosophers N.O. Lossky and S.E. Radlov. Based on the material of Ksenia Miloradovich's essay about the Philosophical Society, it’s emphasized that they were acquainted with each other in the philosophical workshop. The publications of Miloradovich and Sesemann made in the genre of reviews and not previously mentioned in their personal bibliographies, were revealed. It’s also shown that two historical events: the First World War (1914-1918) and the revolution of 1917 influenced the publishing capabilities of both philosophers. Nevertheless, until 1922 they continued to be active participants in the processes of reviving philosophical publications and the philosophical society. Lives of Sesemann and Miloradovich had the pathos of the drama of political arrests that trimmed their philosophical biographies, but both managed to make their contribution to the history of Russian philosophy. The article emphasizes that the enthusiasm of their creativity and the drama of their destinies can serve as an example of vitality and loyalty to the work. (shrink)

Das vorliegende Buch ist bereits der dreizehnte Band der Reihe Roman Imperial Biographies. Sein Verfasser, der an der Boise State University (Idaho) lehrende Althistoriker Charles Matson Odahl (O.), ist seit den späten 70er Jahren durch eine Reihe einschlägiger Publikationen zu Konstantin und der Spätantike hervorgetreten.

In mediaeval Arabic belles-lettres (adab), accounts of lives are usually made up of quite short reports akhbár. These akbar are arranged in different ways, one of which is chronological order, but the compilers of such accounts apparently accord relative insignificance to chronological order. This paper examines some "biographies' compiled by al-Suli and Abú l-Faraj al-Isbaháni, showing that temporal progression can exist in a "biographical" presentation, either alone or more often combined with other ways of organising the material. It then (...) focuses on the placing of subjects' deaths in life accounts and on bow they are integrated with the rest of the material. In conclusion, 1 suggest that when temporal progression is absent in "biographical" presentations, this should be seen as reflecting a mediaeval Arabic approach to life writing which differs from modern expectations but has its own rationale. (shrink)

One of his obituarists describes Colin Ward (1924-2010) as ‘as one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century’, ‘a pioneering social historian’ and a chuckling anarchist.1 In the p...

ArgumentIn this paper I will argue that the scientific investigation of skulls and brains of geniuses went hand in hand with hagiographical celebrations of scientists. My analysis starts with late-eighteenth century anatomists and anthropologists who highlighted quantitative parameters such as the size and weight of the brain in order to explain intellectual differences between women and men and Europeans and non-Europeans, geniuses and ordinary persons. After 1800 these parameters were modified by phrenological inspections of the skull and brain. As the (...) phrenological examination of the skulls of Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm Heinse, Arthur Schopenhauer and others shows, the anthropometrical data was interpreted in light of biographical circumstances. The same pattern of interpretation can be found in non-phrenological contexts: Reports about extraordinary brains were part of biographical sketches, mainly delivered in celebratory obituaries. It was only in this context that moral reservations about dissecting the brains of geniuses could be overcome, which led to a more systematic investigation of brains of geniuses after 1860. (shrink)

Adventure -- Call -- Brother paul -- Transgression -- Two loves -- Freedom -- Interlude -- Freedom again -- Between Heidegger and Derrida -- Dancing in the void -- The advent of weak theology -- Kingdom.

Al-Jabartī, ʿAjāʾib al-āthār fī l-tarājim wa-l-akhbār. Edited by Shmuel Moreh. Max Schloessinger Memorial Series, Texts, vol. 9. 5 vols. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 2013. Pp. 2,780. $525.

When social work emerged as a profession in the first decades of the 20th century, it was strongly influenced by emancipatory motives introduced by various sociocultural and religious movements, and at the same time devoted itself to the construction and maintenance of a powerful welfare and nation state. Transnational agents and social movements promoted these processes and played a crucial role in establishing and developing national welfare systems and relevant professional discourses. This article examines the gendered construction of the social (...) work profession through the transnational history of early social work between Germany and the Jewish community in Palestine in the first half of the 20th century. By adopting a biographical approach to the specific paths of Jewish women practitioners who had been educated in German-speaking countries, immigrated to mandatory Palestine, and engaged themselves in the emerging field of social work, we will trace the construction of the profession as deeply embedded in social power relations. At the same time, we will trace its (re)construction as led mainly by female pioneers, who were concerned with emancipation, discrimination and migration. (shrink)