Things

Things
Author: Carolyn Korsmeyer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190904879

Things: In Touch with the Past explores the value of artifacts that have survived from the past and that can be said to embody their histories. Such genuine or real things afford a particular kind of aesthetic experience-an encounter with the past-despite the fact that genuineness is not a perceptually detectable property. Although it often goes unnoticed, the sense of touch underlies such encounters, even though one is often not permitted literal touch. Carolyn Korsmeyer begins her account with the claim that wonder or marvel at old things fits within an experiential account of the aesthetic. She then presents her main argument regarding the role of touch-both when literal contact is made and when proximity suffices, for touch is a fundamental sense that registers bodily position and location. Correct understanding of the identity of objects is presumed when one values things just because of what they are, and with discovery that a mistake has been made, admiration is often withdrawn. Far from undermining the importance of the genuine, these errors of identification confirm it. Korsmeyer elaborates this position with a comparison between valuing artifacts and valuing persons. She also considers the ethical issues of genuineness, for artifacts can be harmed in various ways ranging from vandalism to botched restoration. She examines the differences between a real thing and a replica in detail, making it clear that genuineness comes in degrees. Her final chapter reviews the ontology that best suits an account of persistence over time of things that are valued for being the real thing.

Sensing the Past

Sensing the Past
Author: Mark Michael Smith
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520254954

"Smith's history of the sensate is destined to precipitate a revolution in our understanding of the sensibilities that underpinned the mentalities of past epochs."--David Howes, author of Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory "Mark M. Smith presents a far-ranging essay on the history of the senses that serves simultaneously as a good introduction to the historiography. If one feels in danger of sensory overload from this growing body of scholarship, Smith's piece is a useful preventive."--Leigh E. Schmidt, author of Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality "This is a masterful overview. The history of the senses has been a frontier field for a while now. Mark Smith draws together what we know, with an impressive sensory range, and encourages further work. A really exciting survey."--Peter N. Stearns, author of American Fear: The Causes and Consequences of High Anxiety "Who would ever have guessed that a book on the history of the senses--seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling--could be informative, thought-provoking, and, at the same time, most entertaining? Ranging in both time and locale, Mark Smith's Sensing the Past makes even the philosophy about the senses from ancient times to now both learned and exciting. This work will draw scholars into under-recognized subjects and lay readers into a world we simply but unwisely take for granted."--Bertram Wyatt-Brown, author of Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South "Mark M. Smith has a good record of communicating his research to a broad constituency within and beyond the academy . . . This will be required reading for anyone addressing sensory history."--Penelope Gouk, author of Music, Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth Century England "This is a fine cultural history of the body, which takes Western and Eastern traditions and their texts quite seriously. Smith views a history of the senses not only from 'below' but places it squarely in the historical imagination. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers."--Sander L. Gilman, author of Difference and Pathology

Touching the Past

Touching the Past
Author: Marijke J. van der Wal
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-07-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027271771

The study of ego-documents figures as a prominent theme in cutting-edge research in the Humanities. Focusing on private letters, diaries and autobiography, this volume covers a wide range of different languages and historical periods, from the sixteenth century to World War I. The volume stands out by its consistent application of the most recent developments in historical-sociolinguistic methodology in research on first-person writings. Some of the articles concentrate on social differences in relation to linguistic variation in the historical context. Others hone in on self-representation, writer-addressee interaction and identity work. The key issue of the relationship between speech and writing is addressed when investigating the hybridity of ego-documents, which may contain both “oral” features and elements typical of the written language. The volume is of interest to a wide readership, ranging from scholars of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology and social history to (advanced) graduate and postgraduate students in courses on language variation and change.

The Touch of the Past

The Touch of the Past
Author: R. Simon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2016-04-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1137115246

In Roger Simon's new collection based on ten years of research, the respected scholar reminds us that historically traumatic events simultaneously summon forgetting and remembrance in unique ways. The Touch of the Past explores the ways in which remembrance, consciousness, and history affect how students learn and educators teach. Simon examines how testimonies of historic events influence learning and how communities deal with collective memory. A serious contribution to the research in education and memory and trauma studies from a top philosopher in the field.

Pat the Bunny

Pat the Bunny
Author: Dorothy Kunhardt
Publisher: Golden Books
Total Pages: 18
Release: 2001-05-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307120007

The timeless children's classic full of interactive fun—a perfect gift for new babies and first birthdays. For generations, Pat the Bunny has been creating special first-time moments between parents and their children. One of the best-selling children’s books of all time, this classic touch-and-feel book offers babies a playful and engaging experience, all the while creating cherished memories that will last a lifetime.

The Medieval Book

The Medieval Book
Author: Barbara A. Shailor
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780802068538

Originally published by Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 1988.

Getting Medieval

Getting Medieval
Author: Carolyn Dinshaw
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 1999-09-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780822323655

DIVHow medieval texts represent and reproduce normative heterosexual identities./div

The Deepest Sense

The Deepest Sense
Author: Constance Classen
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0252094409

From the softest caress to the harshest blow, touch lies at the heart of our experience of the world. Now, for the first time, this deepest of senses is the subject of an extensive historical exploration. The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch fleshes out our understanding of the past with explorations of lived experiences of embodiment from the middle ages to modernity. This intimate and sensuous approach to history makes it possible to foreground the tactile foundations of Western culture--the ways in which feelings shaped society. Constance Classen explores a variety of tactile realms including the feel of the medieval city; the tactile appeal of relics; the social histories of pain, pleasure, and affection; the bonds of touch between humans and animals; the strenuous excitement of sports such as wrestling and jousting; and the sensuous attractions of consumer culture. She delves into a range of vital issues, from the uses--and prohibitions--of touch in social interaction to the disciplining of the body by the modern state, from the changing feel of the urban landscape to the technologization of touch in modernity. Through poignant descriptions of the healing power of a medieval king's hand or the grueling conditions of a nineteenth-century prison, we find that history, far from being a dry and lifeless subject, touches us to the quick.

History in the Plural

History in the Plural
Author: Niklas Olsen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857452967

Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006) was one of most imposing and influential European intellectual historians in the twentieth century. Constantly probing and transgressing the boundaries of mainstream historical writing, he created numerous highly innovative approaches, absorbing influences from other academic disciplines as represented in the work of philosophers and political thinkers like Hans Georg Gadamer and Carl Schmitt and that of internationally renowned scholars such as Hayden White, Michel Foucault, and Quentin Skinner. An advocate of “grand theory,” Koselleck was an inspiration to many scholars and helped move the discipline into new directions (such as conceptual history, theories of historical times and memory) and across disciplinary and national boundaries. He thus achieved a degree of international fame that was unusual for a German historian after 1945. This book not only presents the life and work of a “great thinker” and European intellectual, it also contributes to our understanding of complex theoretical and methodological issues in the cultural sciences and to our knowledge of the history of political, historical, and cultural thought in Germany from the 1950s to the present.

Touching the Void

Touching the Void
Author: Joe Simpson
Publisher: Direct Authors
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2012-12-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0957519303

The 25th Anniversary ebook, now with more than 50 images. 'Touching the Void' is the tale of two mountaineer’s harrowing ordeal in the Peruvian Andes. In the summer of 1985, two young, headstrong mountaineers set off to conquer an unclimbed route. They had triumphantly reached the summit, when a horrific accident mid-descent forced one friend to leave another for dead. Ambition, morality, fear and camaraderie are explored in this electronic edition of the mountaineering classic, with never before seen colour photographs taken during the trip itself.