History of Russian Thought Essay Example for Free

History of Russian Thought Essay Russian political and social thought remains a mystery to many historians, often insisting that Russia neatly follow western European categories of development and thought. Rejecting this odd sort of Euro-centrism is the first task of the intellectual historian, and from this point of view has Walicki made his career as the west’s premier historian of Russian political theory. Given the fact that this book is 467 pages, it is not this review’s intention to summarize the contents of this work, but rather to concern itself with method and the approach to this complex and ill-understood subject. A good place to start might be the basic class distinctions in Russian society. It is no accident that the book begins with two highly related objects: the rise of â€Å"enlightenment† thought under Catherine II (the Great) and, concomitant with this rise, the development of an elitist, aristocratic opposition to the crown. This start of some sort of Enlightenment-based criticism of monarchy derives both from western sources, that specifically of Montesquieu, as well as ancient Russian sources, that specifically of the ancient boyar duma, or elite assembly of the land. Hence, the stage is set for the remainder of the book: the constant fluctuation, often confusing, between modern, western models of political critique pleasantly seasoned with large doses of ancient political institutions. It is never made clear, and it is likely impossible to make clear, which element took center stage, the â€Å"west† or the ancient institutions. Among the Russian Slavophiles, major critics of Peter the Great and his western reforms, it is made clear. The Slavophiles, a specifically mystic, and Christian movement, almost Rousseauian in its basic social theory, based their approach on the criticism of the crown on the ancient Russian institutions of the peasant commune, the boyar Duma and the ancient piety of the Russian Church. Hence, early on, Walicki crates a typological distinction that defines the entire work: that between the more or less western-style, liberal rejection of monarchical absolutism, and a more peasant-based and communal criticism of the centralization of royal power. Neither approach rejects monarchy per se, but they criticize the development of the Petrine state, that is the centralized, expensive, militarized and bureaucratic absolutism introduced into Russia by Peter the Great as incompatible with Russian traditions. In terms of this typology, the most extreme of the first group might be the Decembrist movement, especially in the radical masonic societies of Paul Pestel. Unlike many historians, Walicki refuses to ignore the powerful part played by Masons in 18th and 19th century Russian history. The Decembrists, like nearly all opposition movements in the mid 19th century, was both Masonic and aristocratic, having few roots among the common people. Ultimately, Pestel rejected monarchy altogether, demanding an aristocratic based popular assembly elected by full and universal suffrage without property qualifications. He promised Poland its independence, and even became the first Russian Zionist, holding that Jews who refused to assimilate into the new Russia would be sent to Palestine to create a new Jewish nation with government assistance. He was joined in the revolutionary effort by the Society of United Slavs, also aristocratic and military based, who fought with Pestel over ideological concerns, chief of which was the place of old Russian institutions in the new society. The United Slavs, slightly less radical then Pestel’s organization, sought to base the new democratic order on the old Russian institutions of the duma and collective farming arrangements. Now, while the Decembrists ultimately failed, largely due to internal divisions and their lack of understanding of Russian conditions, the real significance of these movements was to give the aristocracy a public program run by semi-secret organizations, in the Decembrist case, military societies. The very fact that these groups were wealthy and aristocratic proves their limitations, and does show, as Walicki insists, that there is no distinction between class and political ideology, since political ideology was largely dictated by class status, at least in the sense that Russian nobles viewed themselves as heir to old Russia rather than to Petrine Russia. But just what they meant by â€Å"old Russia† is another story, and itself is a powerful subtext to this work. The approach to Freemasonry in Russia is worth a review in itself. Rarely dealt with in a serious way, the Masons are depicted by Walicki as the last refuge of the old aristocracy both accepting and rejecting the western Enlightenment. The failure in this otherwise excellent section is whether or not the public statements of the Masonic organizers were truly the belief of the order, or were simply exoteric utterances of the â€Å"initiated† speaking to a â€Å"backward† society. Nevertheless, Masonry (and Walicki holds that these were mostly funded by foreign sources) became a sort of pseudo-religion for the alienated old aristocrats long pushed out of power by the distant, upstart Petersburg bureaucracy. It is clear that the Masons were strictly clubs for the wealthy, sought to usher in a new â€Å"golden age† of history and looked down upon finance. These rather odd confluences of ideas simply tell us what little the Masons ere willing to speak about in public, or, even more, the fact that the aristocracy was using Masonry to challenge the organization of the Petersburg bureaucracy. Either way, masonry was a means whereby the old aristocracy could organize their forces and pool resources, but whether there was a political program that was basically agreed upon is another matter. Pestel’s group came the closest. It is rare that the western Enlightenment is imported wholesale into Russia. In fact, Pestel is an exception in that regard. At first, the famed Russian polemicist Peter Chaadaev held that western Europe should be imported to Russia, since, as he became famous for saying, â€Å"Russia has no history. Chaadaev made himself infamous in Russia by holding that there was no â€Å"Russian history† until Peter the Great made elite Russia European, slyly assuming that historical nations are European, technically advanced and based on baconian scientific models of administration. But his fascination with such things faded early on in his career, as both the revolutionary fervor of France and the dominance of the bourgeois repelled him. For Chaadaev, â€Å"Old Europe† was that of the medieval aristocracy rather than the modern, revolutionary bourgeois. Later figures like Alexander Herzen began their own careers with the same approach, only to actually live in England and France in exile, eventually returning to Russia with a loathing for European fashions and political ideologies. But all of these distinctions can be brought under our original methodological heading: the aristocratic opposition to the crown and the forms that this upper class agitation can take. The problem with this approach is that it leaves out the peasantry as a politically active part of the population. The fact that Walicki has no reference to the Old Believers and their strict, Russian Orthodox anarchism that numbered about 20 million followers by the middle of the 19th century is a major, glaring fault in the work itself. But, without saying so explicitly, this work seems to revolve around the aristocracy and the modes that their opposition to the Petrine state took over time. But the positive side to this approach is that it proves, contrary to typical courses in political theory, that radicalism in Russia was an upper class phenomenon and had few roots with the peasants, who were inclined to the Old Belief. Class status here meant that the higher one found oneself in the economic or aristocratic hierarchy, the more you were inclined to oppose the state (which itself, was based on a service bureaucracy rather than the old aristocracy) and the more one was to lean to radical theories of either economics or politics. The smattering of detail this review offers seeks to suggest that the aristocratic splits in Russian society are responsible for the development of its political ideas. Even more, if a thesis of this work can be found, this is likely it. Masonry, materialism, communitarianism, and even Marxism (though much later) all stem from the various battles among aristocratic and otherwise upper class factions. What they had in common was that they were wealthy, urban and sought to bring about a semi-utopia by force and revolution, bringing the â€Å"dark masses† to a â€Å"true knowledge† of their destiny and social importance. Hence, all of these movements opposed the monarchy in one sense or another. With very few exceptions, these movements all began rather enamored with western ideas, only to be repelled by them once actual contact with westerners became a fact. But the enlightenment was not rejected, only dressed in Russian clothing. Only the Leninists broke this mold, importing Marxism from Germany with few modifications, without the slightest concession to Russia as a cultural entity. The very fact that Leninism was so bizarre in Russian history shows how alien it was from currents of even the most radical thought in Russia and hence, how it was forced to impose itself by violence. What seems to link all Russian radical ideas together is that they were not Leninists, in the sense that they all looked to Russian tradition for the germs of radical institution-building. Hence, one can conclude by holding that Russian radicalism sought to build enlightenment ideas on old Russian institutions. A project destroyed by Lenin, largely never to be revived.

The Platonist Tradition and the Ordering of Knowledge Essay -- Educati

The Platonist Tradition and the Ordering of Knowledge ABSTRACT: I argue that the contemporary crisis in education — that nothing appears valid as a discipline unless it has a utilitarian value — may be challenged from the perspective of the Platonist tradition. The ascent through philosophy to the vision of Beauty in itself in Plato's Symposium affirms the perception of beauty or nobility as the ultimate end and value of all knowledge. Marsilio Ficino's adaption of Plato in the Renaissance articulates a more metaphysical ascent which broadens the objects of knowledge in order to include the cosmos and the arts as well as philosophy. Together, these two accounts provide a foundation for understanding the ordering of all knowledge toward the end of the perception of beauty or nobility. There is no dichotomy between the sciences and the humanities: there is only a hierarchy of disciplines according to a scale of metaphysical nobility. The sciences, the arts, history, and philosophy are the steps toward knowledge of Beauty in itself. They constitute a vision of liberal education that is not utilitarian, but whose value must be understood precisely through the moral concept of nobility that is the end of such an education. In embracing the concept of beauty or nobility, liberal education affirms the value of life itself. The task of education today is beset increasingly by utilitarian pressures. Mathematics and the sciences seem to be of little interest in themselves, valued only for the Cartesian goal of making humanity the "masters and possessors of nature." (1) The arts are despised, and history and literature simply dismissed—for these require not only reading with care, but the perception of significance within the daunti... ...tary VI. 4, p. 112. (12) Ibid. V. 2, p. 86. Pulchritudo is Ficino's word for "beauty." (13) Ibid. V. 6, pp. 93-94. (14) Ibid. VII. 15, p. 172. (15) On this development, see Kristeller, "The Modern System of the Arts," in Renaissance Thought and the Arts, pp. 163-227. (16) Alberti, On Painting, trans. Cecil Grayson, ed. Martin Kemp (London: Penguin, 1991), p. 71; On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Rykwert, Leach, and Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988), p. 303. (17) See the selections in Elizabeth G. Holt, ed., A Documentary History of Art, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 2: 74-86, 141-46. (18) On the importance of narrative, see MacIntyre, After Virtue, pp. 215-16. (19) Aristotle, The Politics, I, 1-2, 1252 a1 - 1253 a35. (20) See G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, especially the Introduction.

They Say I Say

Tardiness in Schools [Name of the writer] [Name of the institution] Table of Contents Chapter 13 Introduction3 Problem of the Study3 Research Hypothesis and Questions4 Significance of the Study4 Scope and Delimitation5 Chapter 26 Related Literature6 Research paradigm7 Definition of Terms8 Chapter 39 Research Design9 Procedure9 Population9 Description of Subjects9 Instrumentation10 Statistical Treatment10 References11 Chapter 1 Introduction The behaviors of the student have a negative impact not only on the learning education system but on the nation too.The students who bunk for the school for a short or large part of the day called tardiness or the entire of the day called truancy not only harm academic failure, but give to the rising number of students who negatively impact the standing of the educational system as well as nation. The negative effect not only influence schools by deterring educational leaders from effectiveness and helpful educational plan with stability and exclus ive of information breaks for the students, but also puts requirements on society to determine how they will help students and their families with emotional and social requirements.This study explored the medical, economic, social, emotional and psychological causes for the tardiness of student in a middle school background (Leigh & Lust 2008). Tardiness of student is an important aspect in measuring if the student will become at threat. Without interference, tardiness behaviors of students regularly result in severe emotional and social issues. There is consideration that a major number of students of middle school are misplaced by school, demonstrating up late, and going outside from school during school timings for a diversity of educational, emotional, and social causes.Problem of the Study The problem statement of the study is to explore the connection between the school and work tardiness in students of middle school. School workers, school staffs, parents, and personals who o bserve this information will have an enhanced understanding of tardiness of school, associated school deviant actions, and punctuality in a middle school setting. Research Hypothesis and Questions Truancy, frequent nonattendance, and Tardiness behaviors are important forecasters of the students turning to be at hazard.These in danger students, in accordance of the reports, become engaged in delinquent behaviors to have a negative impact on not only these students themselves, but also on the society, educational system and nation as well. Questions The research questions are: Â ·What seems to be the basic reasons of extreme tardiness behaviors? Â ·How do these students of middle school elaborate repeated tardy behavior? Â ·What effect does staff of school consider the tardiness on student behavior? Why? Â ·What types of behaviors direct to tardiness? Why? Â ·What are the connections of severe tardiness? What sorts and types of programs seem to be successful for use in treating t he problem of increased tardiness? Significance of the Study The issue has significance for the educationalist, suffering families who are concerned in consideration why various students are persistently miss, and late for the school and how educationalists can have a constructive pressure on the students, they are accountable for and take them into class on time. The study on tardiness of the student is one of the important elements in knowing early on a child who might turn out to be at risk.Such endangered students are creating the option to come up to school late or do not mention it owing to the conditions and behaviors they have discovered themselves in, whether by option or an effect of situation. These behaviors students and are adversely influencing the schools of nation, and the students are endangered for reducing out of school. Scope and Delimitation Scope The study is about the number of students concentrate school late after an event with parents. These adverse connect ions with parents can regularly become customary for families, ensuing in the student gathering supplementary tardy days all through the school year.The hazard with these kinds of connections with parents is that students turn out to be usually tardy all through their childhood. Delimitation 1. The outcomes are surrounded to the students in the rural area school. 2. Not all local workers of school contributed in the research. 3. Not all students participating selected to be in the research. 4. The student sampling is moderately homogenous. Chapter 2 Related Literature Edgier (2007) stressed the adverse impact of tardiness by defining that the students have to be present and involved to learn.Perceptive the causes that pupils are late for school, the activities associated with this occurrence, and the force it has on students’ education and expansion is vital owing to the pessimistic consequences that effect from students who are lost class time. Tardy students are probable to turn out to be middle school withdrawals; consign irrelevant crimes; or develop into Student truancy, common student non-attendance, and tardiness carry on to be a main problem confronting American educational structure.In tackling the dilemma of truancy, it is showed what the middle schools system is performing to fight tardiness and truancy in the middle schools. The study affirmed that the concern of student tardiness is one of the primary symptoms of a student turning to be a student who is endangered. Researchers are supported to observe truancy and are confronted to identify truancy more widely, permitting researchers to deal with the obstacle students practice by gone all or a number of the school day. Scott (2010) defined the actions one-school system executed to decrease tardiness.A helper principal in fact visits a home of the student if such student does not arrive to school on time. The management concentrates not only on the student’s behavior who come to late s chool but also on his parents who do not observe no matter which wrong with their children arriving to school late. One of the most annoying concerns in contemporary’s schools is tardiness?. Students practice a harmful effect when the students become tardy. Tardiness not only influences the pupil who is tardy, but also has an influence on the school surroundings, teachers, and further students, as well as the school all together (Leigh & Lust 2008).Instructional time and force are pessimistically impacted by the students who become late; these students can turn out to be engaged in delinquent manners in unverified areas of the school. In this condition, there is chance for hostility, harassment, damage, and misbehavior. These types of behaviors can take over into the class and additional influence the learning setting. Extensive tardiness is a symbol that there is a main dilemma-taking place with the child at the instant or in the history.One of the main notions that instruct ed this research and given imminent into processes schools can take to control student tardiness was got from Ekstrom Goertz Pollack & Rock (2006)’ work on the morals of care. Formerly this significant association has been created, the cares will better appreciate and be better prepared to sustain, help, and direct the persons they are educating. Research paradigm While there is vast research on school tardiness and absence, no research in the literature review assessed the direct connection between students and tardiness behavior in middle school.The main purpose of this study is to gather quantitative data to observe if school tardiness can forecast the tardiness. The secondary objectives are to a) contrast the tardiness, absence and GPA records of the students to the middle school student sampling, b) resolve if the students at diverse are parallel to each other, c) observe if chosen demographics force school tardiness and unnecessary nonattendance, d) inspect the connecti on of school tardiness and unnecessary nonattendance in the middle school population. Definition of TermsTardy/Tardiness: Be late for whichever quantifiable duration of time passed the affirmed or planned start time for school. Truant: A usual truant ways a student who is not present from school devoid of a satisfactory reason for element or all of five or more days on which school is owned throughout a school section. Unexcused absence: Not presence or demonstrating up for class as also not gets a suitable rationale as elaborated by the school for the nonattendance, for example funeral, illness, vacation, or accepted school action. Chapter 3 Research Design This is the experimental study employing control and experimental factions to assess one of the purposes. Tardiness, unnecessary nonattendance and GPA information from middle school students are contrasted to the similar variables for the enduring middle school population. Procedure Information gathered on the middle school samp ling and the subgroup of students will be assessed. Successive results, outline, conclusions and recommendations will be merged with suitable workers of the school in the study.Population The population researched was middle students who concentrate a rural middle school in south-central Wisconsin. The school area faces presently over 500 square miles and gives somewhat more than 2,000 pupils from 4 years old throughout middle school. Description of Subjects At the time the research will begin, they had a full amount of 44 students. All 44-student students from the enduring four students are accepting letters calling them to contribute in the study.Instrumentation To test a hypothesis SPSS will be used in this regard in which excel and SPSS software’s are to be used. Statistical Treatment The students were raised to offer time records from March 30 to June 7, which was the previous week of the year of school. Uncertain nonattendance and tardiness concerns have a direct effect on schools and serve up as early on caution signs to researcher that there is a dilemma in the life of child. References Ediger, M. (2007).School Dropouts, Absenteeism, and Tardiness, Counseling. Ekstrom, Ruth, Goertz, M. , Pollack, J. , & Rock, D. (2006). Who Drops Out of High School and Why? Findings from a National Study. Teachers College Record Volume 87 Number 3, pp 356-373. Leigh, J. P. , & Lust, J. (2008). Determinants of employee Tardiness. Work and Occupations: An International Sociological Journal, 15(1), 78-95. Scott, C. A. (2010). Junior high school tardy lock out (RC017912). Florida: Nova University.

Vapor Pressure Definition

Vapor Pressure Definition: pressure vapor solid liquid phase pressure solid liquid Return to the Chemistry Glossary Index