Darwin-L Message Log 40: 1–44 — December 1996

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

Darwin-L was an international discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences, active from 1993–1997. Darwin-L was established to promote the reintegration of a range of fields all of which are concerned with reconstructing the past from evidence in the present, and to encourage communication among scholars, scientists, and researchers in these fields. The group had more than 600 members from 35 countries, and produced a consistently high level of discussion over its several years of operation. Darwin-L was not restricted to evolutionary biology nor to the work of Charles Darwin, but instead addressed the entire range of historical sciences from an explicitly comparative perspective, including evolutionary biology, historical linguistics, textual transmission and stemmatics, historical geology, systematics and phylogeny, archeology, paleontology, cosmology, historical geography, historical anthropology, and related “palaetiological” fields.

This log contains public messages posted to the Darwin-L discussion group during December 1996. It has been lightly edited for format: message numbers have been added for ease of reference, message headers have been trimmed, some irregular lines have been reformatted, and error messages and personal messages accidentally posted to the group as a whole have been deleted. No genuine editorial changes have been made to the content of any of the posts. This log is provided for personal reference and research purposes only, and none of the material contained herein should be published or quoted without the permission of the original poster.

The master copy of this log is maintained in the Darwin-L Archives (rjohara.net/darwin) by Dr. Robert J. O’Hara. The Darwin-L Archives also contain additional information about the Darwin-L discussion group, the complete Today in the Historical Sciences calendar for every month of the year, a collection of recommended readings on the historical sciences, and an account of William Whewell’s concept of “palaetiology.”

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DARWIN-L MESSAGE LOG 40: 1-44 -- DECEMBER 1996
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DARWIN-L
A Network Discussion Group on the
History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

Darwin-L@raven.cc.ukans.edu is an international network discussion group on
the history and theory of the historical sciences.  Darwin-L was established
in September 1993 to promote the reintegration of a range of fields all of
which are concerned with reconstructing the past from evidence in the present,
and to encourage communication among academic professionals in these fields.
Darwin-L is not restricted to evolutionary biology nor to the work of Charles
Darwin but instead addresses the entire range of historical sciences from an
interdisciplinary perspective, including evolutionary biology, historical
linguistics, textual transmission and stemmatics, historical geology,
systematics and phylogeny, archeology, paleontology, cosmology, historical
anthropology, historical geography, and related "palaetiological" fields.

This log contains the public messages posted to Darwin-L during December 1996.
It has been lightly edited for format: message numbers have been added for ease
of reference, message headers have been trimmed, some irregular lines have been
reformatted, and some administrative messages and personal messages posted to
the group as a whole have been deleted.  No genuine editorial changes have been
made to the content of any of the posts.  This log is provided for personal
reference and research purposes only, and none of the material contained herein
should be published or quoted without the permission of the original poster.
The master copy of this log is maintained on the Darwin-L Web Server at
http://rjohara.uncg.edu.  For instructions on how to retrieve copies of this
and other log files, and for additional information about Darwin-L and the
historical sciences, connect to the Darwin-L Web Server or send the e-mail
message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu.

Darwin-L is administered by Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu), Center for
Critical Inquiry in the Liberal Arts and Department of Biology, University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A., and it
is supported by the Center for Critical Inquiry, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, and the Department of History and the Academic Computing Center,
University of Kansas.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:1>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sun Dec  1 13:43:24 1996

Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 14:43:10 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: List owner's monthly greeting
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

Greetings to all Darwin-L subscribers.  On the first of every month I send
out a short note on the status of our group, along with a reminder of basic
commands.  For additional information about the group please visit the
Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu).

Darwin-L is an international discussion group for professionals in the
historical sciences.  The group is not devoted to any particular discipline,
such as evolutionary biology, but rather seeks to promote interdisciplinary
comparisons across the entire range of fields concerned with historical
reconstruction, including evolution, historical linguistics, archeology,
geology, cosmology, historical geography, textual transmission, and history
proper.  Darwin-L currently has more than 600 members from more than 35
countries.

Because Darwin-L does have a large membership and is sometimes a high-volume
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     INFO DARWIN-L

To post a public message to the group as a whole simply send it as regular
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I thank you all for your continuing interest in Darwin-L and in the
interdisciplinary study of the historical sciences.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Dr. Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)  |  Darwin-L Server
Cornelia Strong College, 100 Foust Building  |   http://rjohara.uncg.edu
University of North Carolina at Greensboro   |  Strong College Server
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.      |   http://strong.uncg.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:2>From farrar@datasync.com Sat Nov 30 23:51:08 1996

From: Paul Farrar <farrar@datasync.com>
Subject: Re: reconstructing Q
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 23:51:22 -3000 (CST)
Cc: ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu

Jeremy,

There is a list specializing in this, too. ioudaios-l at Lehigh deals
with Judaism around the 1st century, and also covers early Christianity.
Ask this question there and you'll get an earfull, and maybe a flame war!
Many leading specialists on that era (as well as a few loquacious cranks,
unfortunately) are on that list. Many are off at the Society for Biblical
Literature meeting in New Orleans, this week. List is at

ioudaios-l@lehigh.edu

Subscribe at

listserv@lehigh.edu

Paul Farrar
Naval Oceanographic Office

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:3>From Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de Fri Nov 29 01:51:24 1996

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 20:58:32 +0100 (MET)
From: Eugene Leitl <Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
To: mghiselin@casmail.calacademy.org
Cc: darwin-l@RAVEN.CC.UKANS.EDU
Subject: Re: DARWIN-L digest 713

On Wed, 27 Nov 1996 mghiselin@casmail.calacademy.org wrote:

>           Economics as a Natural Science
>
>           The goal of economics, like that of every other science, is
>           the understanding of the natural world.  The aspect of the
>           natural world that it seeks to understand is anything that
>           has to do with resources.  Control of the economy is of no
>           more interest to economists than control of birds is of
>           interest to ornithologists.  And no less.  Like biology,

Understanding without control is a sterile discipline. Even biology
currently experiences a paradigm change from the purely descriptive
fields, as taxonomy & Co towards the engineering-inspired ideal of
"Controlling Life".

Such a constructive attitude, especially towards establishing basic
machinery for stabilizing and/or controlling the future course of
the global economy would have noticeable humanitarian impacts.

The window of predictability needs not be large to allow cybernetic
access. (Of course, impact of other market players, in possession
of similiarly powerful palantiri, will negate all dampening impact,
since inserting positive autofeedback loops in the course of pursuing
their egoistic interests).

'gene

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:4>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sun Dec  1 14:28:54 1996

Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 15:27:37 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Re: reconstructing Q
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

Asking about textual transmission, Jeremy Ahouse writes:

>The Dec 1996 issue of the Atlantic monthly has an informative cover story on
>the project to reconstruct the Q document. Q is a hypothetical 1st century
>Greek text that served as the literary source for the Christian gospels....
>The article mentions several methods used for recovering/reconstructing the
>text, by looking at shared passages in later texts. This sounds similar to a
>cladistic problem of polarizing traits to infer ancestral character states.
>Though here there is no obvious outgroup and cladistic methodology usually
>starts with the polarized traits and then recovers the nested connections.

I don't know about the Q project specifically, but I have worked with some
text people on similar problems.  They tend to be comfortable working with a
variety of transmission assumptions that systematists working on phylogeny
are not always comfortable with; this is because the mechanics of copying,
etc., are very well understood, as are the particular ways in which copying
errors occur.  (Text scholars have names for all sorts of copying errors;
some are "errors of the eye" made when copying visually, others are "errors
of the ear" made when copying by dictation, etc.)  Errors are by definition
derived states, since the archetype is assumed to have been linguistically
meaningful -- a nonsense error cannot have been the ancestral state.

There is a bibliography on "trees of history" on the Files page of the
Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) that has references for many
of these topics.  A particularly good introduction to textual transmission
for evolutionary biologists is:

  Cameron, H. Don.  1987.  The upside-down cladogram: problems in manuscript
    affiliation.  Pp. 227-242 in: Biological Metaphor and Cladistic
    Classification: An Interdisciplinary Approach (H. Hoenigswald & L.
    Weiner, eds.).  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

I'm also pleased to mention a paper I coauthored with Peter Robinson that
has recently appeared:

  Robinson, Peter M. W., & R. J. O'Hara.  1996.  Cladistic analysis of
    an Old Norse manuscript tradition.  Research in Humanities Computing, 4:
    115-137.  Oxford: Clarendon Press.

This latter paper doesn't specifically address the question of polarity
determination that Jeremy asks about, though; it is more of an introduction
to phylogenetic ideas for textual scholars.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)      |
Cornelia Strong College, 100 Foust Building  |  http://rjohara.uncg.edu
University of North Carolina at Greensboro   |  http://strong.uncg.edu
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.      |

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:5>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sun Dec  1 15:01:01 1996

Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 16:00:57 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: History, control, etc.
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

Eugene Leitl writes:

>Understanding without control is a sterile discipline. Even biology
>currently experiences a paradigm change from the purely descriptive
>fields, as taxonomy & Co towards the engineering-inspired ideal of
>"Controlling Life".

This is certainly a common view among experimentalists in many branches
of science, but it is one that I suspect a lot of people on Darwin-L would
disagree with, as it negates their whole object of study.  Indeed, we
might be tempted to describe the situation in just the reverse way, saying
that what molecular biology is now doing is transforming itself from a
descriptive (=functional/experimental) discipline to a truly historical
discipline by recognizing that the most challenging intellectual problems
all lie in systematics and evolution.  (A mildly polemical but friendly
jibe intended here.)

Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield in their fine book _The Discovery of
Time_ (1965), a work that should be of interest to all Darwin-L people,
describe the age-old conflict between experimentalists and historians in
this way:

  [T]he scientific priority and superiority sometimes claimed for physics
  -- as laying the intellectual foundations, first for chemistry, and
  subsequently for physiology and even psychology -- depends on our taking
  up an abstract, Platonizing point of view.  When, by contrast, our search
  for understanding forces us to look at Nature in a more historical,
  Aristotelian light, the 'peck-order' is reversed: the science of
  paleontology first achieved maturity, followed by geology, zoology,
  and chemistry, and physics is still in its infancy.

Perhaps this difference in perspecitve has to do with individual reseachers'
temperaments and is irreconcilable.  It certainly is an ancient and
widespread division in scientific and scholarly world, though, and one
which is not widely enough recognized.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)      |
Cornelia Strong College, 100 Foust Building  |  http://rjohara.uncg.edu
University of North Carolina at Greensboro   |  http://strong.uncg.edu
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.      |

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:6>From YTL@vms.huji.ac.il Mon Dec  2 04:02:37 1996

Date: Mon,  2 Dec 96 11:27 +0200
From: <YTL@vms.huji.ac.il>
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Text Transmission

My impression of late is that people who work in the transmission of medieval
Hebrew and Arabic texts have abandoned the idea of drawing stemmata, in the
attempt to identify the supposed *Vorlage* and then tracing its subsequent
transmission. Here is what Resianne Fontaine has to say, in the introduction
(p.xxix) to her edition of Samuel ibn Tibbon's Hebrew translation of
Aristotle's Meteorology (published in 1995):

"I have attempted numerous times to establish a stemma, but in the final
analysis I rejected all of them, since none of them could be said with
probability, let alone with certainty, that it represents the true state of
affairs."

In her note ad loco, Fontaine cites one historian who calls the establishment
of stemmata for Hebrew manuscripts "une vache sacree", and a librarian who
says that for most medieval Arabic texts, a stemmata is "an unattainable
ideal."

Tzvi Langermann
Microfilm Institute
National Library
Jerusalem

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:7>From tbh@tesser.com Mon Dec  2 19:06:02 1996

Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 18:06:21 -0700
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
From: tbh@tesser.com (T. B. Harms)
Subject: Re: History, control, etc.

Bob O'Hara,

>Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield in their fine book _The Discovery of
>Time_ (1965) [write...]
>
>  [...]When, by contrast, our search
>  for understanding forces us to look at Nature in a more historical,
>  Aristotelian light, the 'peck-order' is reversed: the science of
>  paleontology first achieved maturity, followed by geology, zoology,
>  and chemistry, and physics is still in its infancy.

It occurs to me that the increased interest within physics toward cosmology
may count as an attempt to obtain a historical vision within the field.

Tracy Bruce Harms                                        tbh@tesser.com
Boulder, Colorado
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from
falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the
Government from falling into error."
                               -- Justice Robert Jackson
                                   American Communication Association
                                   v. Douds, 343 U.S. 306,325,  1952

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:8>From charbel@ufba.br Wed Dec  4 10:09:56 1996

Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 14:01:54 -0300 (GRNLNDST)
From: Charbel Nino El-Hani <charbel@ufba.br>
To: Darwin-L <Darwin-L@raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Lakatos on Bacon (fwd)

I have found in a footnote of a Imre Lakatos' paper (Changes in the
Problem of Inductive Logic) a remark which intrigued me. Lakatos claims
that "Francis Bacon was an inconsistent and confused thinker, and a
rationalist".
I have not read all the works of Bacon, but, as far as I know, his
view of science can be a dated one, but I do not consider him neither
inconsistent nor confused. But this is not my point, for it can be simply
a matter of opinion. What really intrigues me is Lakatos' remark that
Bacon is a rationalist, when he is often thought of as one - or even the
main - founder of classical empiricism!
As I understand it, the distinction between the empiricist and the
rationalist branches of classical epistemology is relative to the issue
of the sources of knowledge: for an empiricist, the natural light of
experience was the only source of knowledge; rationalists admitted other
sources, such as faith or reason (Descartes, for instance). This is,
indeed, the way Lakatos himself differentiate them.
But, if I have distinguished these branches in a due manner, Bacon must
be considered an empiricist. In *Novum Organum*, for example,we find him
repeatedly  emphasizing the necessity of founding knowledge on experience,
and nothing more, and criticizing all speculative maneuvers, both in the
field of inference and in the construction of concepts. Hence, how can
he be considered a rationalist?
On the other hand, I regard Lakatos as one of the best historians and
philosophers of science this world ever had. So, I would like to
understand why he claimed that Bacon was a rationalist. Maybe it is the
smoke of some fire I do not know. Unfortunately, he did not include in
the footnote any reference, so I have no clues for his reasons.
Maybe someone in the discussion group could enlighten me in this issue.

Best Regards,
Charbel

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Charbel Nino El-Hani <charbel@ufba.br>
    Department of General Biology
        Institute of Biology
  Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
#######################################

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:9>From GRANSOM@ucrac1.ucr.edu Wed Dec  4 14:02:04 1996

Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 12:02:02 -0800 (PST)
From: GREG RANSOM <GRANSOM@ucrac1.ucr.edu>
To: DARWIN-L@RAVEN.CC.UKANS.EDU
Subject: reference on 'genological' study of history of political economy

Historical sciences include the science of the evolution
and/or advance of knowledge/disciplinary efforts.  I pass along
this reference from the History of Economics Society list as
possibly of interest of those involved in the scientific study of
the evolution of ideas through time.

Greg Ransom

Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 14:11:11 -0500
From: "Ross B. Emmett" <emmer@Corelli.Augustana.AB.CA>
Subject: HES: Bibliographic note
Sender: owner-hes@cs.muohio.edu
To: hes@cs.muohio.edu

=================== HES POSTING =======================

I came across the following article recently, and thought I would post
notice of it here, since it will not appear in any of the usual indices
that historians of economics use. The article is a Foucaultian genealogy
of political economy at the end of the eighteenth century.

Meuret, Denis. 1993. A political genealogy of political economy. In
_Foucault's New Domains_, ed. Mike Gane and Terry Johnson, 49-74.
London: Routledge.

The essay begins:

"To do the genealogy, rather than the history, of political economy
involves attempting to understand how, at a given moment, it succeeded in
organising the production of truth, rather than recounting its progress
towards scientific rigour or the way in which it followed the development
of the economy itself.
To what Michel Foucault called a *savoir* and what Paul Veyne calls a
'programme of truth', genealogy does not pose the question of the
truthfulness of what it says. By rediscovering how, against what other
discourses, it succeeded in imposing itself, it addresses the question of
the pertinence of the truth it constructs."

Ross

Ross B. Emmett                Editor, HES and CIRLA-L
Augustana University College
Camrose, Alberta CANADA   T4V 2R3
voice: (403) 679-1517   fax: (403) 679-1129
e-mail: emmer@corelli.augustana.ab.ca  or  emmett@augustana.ab.ca
URL: http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~emmer

============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============
For information, send the message "info HES" to lists@cs.muohio.edu.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:10>From mblsalt@jer1.co.il Thu Dec  5 10:29:49 1996

Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 18:03:40 -0800
From: david bloch <mblsalt@jer1.co.il>
Organization: mbl engineering
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Economics, prediction, narration [&salt]

DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu wrote:
> It is clear that there are a number of similarities (both sociological and
> substantive) between economics and evolutionary biology.  I wonder, though,
> if anyone has made a point-by-point comparison as we made here on a number of
> occasions between historical linguistics and evolutionary biology.  Let me
> venture a small beginning; by keeping it small at the start we might be able
> to make progress while avoiding generalizations that are too facile.  One of
> the principal phenomena of evolution is the adapation of organisms to their
> environments.  Is there a specific phenomenon in economics that corresponds
> to evolutionary adaptation?
--------------------------------------------------

May I submit that "Common salt" fits this bill,
 http://www.geocities.com/~salt/index.html

--
Given that:
a: physiological: The human [and animal] body requires a minimum
                  of 5 to 10 grams/day of salt, and is equal in
                  importance
                  to water, - but far more difficult to source [prior to
                  the Industrial Revolution.]
b: economic:      With the advent of an agricultural society the
                  individual consumption rose to 150 gram/day
                  [particularly for dehydrating meat/protein] making
                  it a commodity periodically valued "above money"
                  and even 'hallmarked' money itself [hal:Greek=salt]
                  [today in the USA per capita consumption
                  is over 500 grams/day ]
c: political:     Prior to the industrial revolution, the supply
                  and sourcing of salt, was to say the least,
                  dependant on highly organised tradition, and behaviour
                  and its uses even evolved into pagan ritualism
                  and then into today's numerous religious 'flavours'

If this sounds facile - please see a simple/primitive internet
presentation at
                  http://www.mbl.co.il/salt.htm

=================================

        SALT ARCHIVE
TEL:972-3-5464578     FAX:972=3=5464569
E-MAIL  -               mblsalt@ibm.net
   http://www.mbl.co.il/salt.htm
        reply to:  David Bloch

MBL - SOLIDS LIQUIDS SEPARATION ENG Ltd
POB 33647 - TELAVIV  61000    -  ISRAEL
TEL:972-3-5464578     FAX:972=3=5464569
E-MAIL  -               mblsalt@ibm.net
   http://www.mbl.co.il/separate.htm
        reply to:  David Bloch

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:11>From ggale@CCTR.UMKC.EDU Thu Dec  5 16:10:43 1996

Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 16:10:53 CST
From: ggale@CCTR.UMKC.EDU
To: CADUCEUS@BEACH.UTMB.EDU, darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu,
        HOPOS-l@ukcc.uky.edu, HPSST-L%QUCDN.bitnet@vm42.cso.uiuc.edu,
        STS@CCTR.UMKC.EDU, HASTRO-L@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU, htech-l@sivm.edu,
        galileo@unimelb.edu.au, MEDSCI-L%BROWNVM.bitnet@vm42.cso.uiuc.edu
Cc: BILL@TWINEARTH.WUSTL.EDU, LEIBNIZ@CCTR.UMKC.EDU
Subject: New NSF Intersidciplinary Program

From: Ed Hackett, NSF
To: Members of the Science and Technology Studies Community

***NEW NSF PROGRAM IN LEARNING AND INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS***

There is a new NSF initiative in learning and intelligent systems:
understanding and enhancing the ability to learn
and create.  It is a foundation-wide initiative to fund
interdisciplinary, collaborative research on that topic, particularly
research that would not be funded by any existing program.  Basically,
the research must span large areas of science--biology and computing,
for example--so as to fall outside the scope of a single NSF
directorate.

Unfortunately, the deadlines on proposals are close.
The program announcement may be found at:

www.nsf.gov/lis.

via George Gale/ www.umkc.edu/sci-stud.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:12>From WirtAtmar@aol.com Sat Dec  7 22:27:19 1996

Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 23:27:13 -0500
From: WirtAtmar@aol.com
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Lakatos on Bacon (fwd)

Charbel Nino El-Hani writes:

>  I have found in a footnote of a Imre Lakatos' paper (Changes in the
>  Problem of Inductive Logic) a remark which intrigued me. Lakatos claims
>  that "Francis Bacon was an inconsistent and confused thinker, and a
>  rationalist".
>
>  I have not read all the works of Bacon, but, as far as I know, his
>  view of science can be a dated one, but I do not consider him neither
>  inconsistent nor confused. But this is not my point, for it can be simply
>  a matter of opinion. What really intrigues me is Lakatos' remark that
>  Bacon is a rationalist, when he is often thought of as one - or even the
>  main - founder of classical empiricism!
>
>  As I understand it, the distinction between the empiricist and the
>  rationalist branches of classical epistemology is relative to the issue
>  of the sources of knowledge: for an empiricist, the natural light of
>  experience was the only source of knowledge; rationalists admitted other
>  sources, such as faith or reason (Descartes, for instance). This is,
>  indeed, the way Lakatos himself differentiates them.

Letting Bacon speak for himself, it is clear that he would neither classify
himself as a strict empircist nor as a rationalist, but rather as one who
clearly sees the value in both points of view and hopes for their eventual
unity. That's not a position of confusion, and it certainly doesn't seem to
be in Bacon's case. Rather it is the viewpoint almost every modern scientist
would strongly argue. Bacon writes:

"The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the
reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But
the bee takes the middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of
the garden and field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.
Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy (science); for it neither
relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the
matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and
lay up in the memory whole, as it finds it, but lays it up in the
understanding altered and disgested. Therefore, from a closer and purer
league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such
as has never been made), much may be hoped" [Francis Bacon, Novum Organum,
Liberal Arts Press, Inc., New York, p 93.]

Wirt Atmar
atmar@aics-research.com
atmar@fmnh.org
wirtatmar@aol.com

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:13>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Dec  9 10:31:24 1996

Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 11:30:47 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 9 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 9 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1652: AUGUSTUS QUIRINUS BACHMANN, also known as RIVINUS, is born at Leipzig,
Germany.  After medical study Leipzig and Helmstedt, Rivinus will settle in
Leipzig to practice medicine and lecture at the University of Leipzig.  He
will be best remembered for his work in botanical systematics, and in his
_Introductio Generalis in Rem Herbariam_ (1690) he will anticipate many
features of the later work of Tournefort and Linnaeus.

1667: WILLIAM WHISTON is born at Norton, England.  Whiston will study
mathematics at Cambridge University and will work as an assistant to Isaac
Newton, eventually succeeding Newton as Lucasian Professor.  The two will
become estranged over a dispute about Biblical chronology, and Whiston will
eventually take up residence in London after being expelled from Cambridge.
In his principal work, _A New Theory of the Earth, From its Original, to the
Consummation of all Things_ (London, 1696), Whiston will attempt to reconcile
astronomy with the Biblical account of creation, and will propose that the
Noachian flood was caused by a comet which struck the Earth, driving it from
its original circular orbit and releasing great volumes of subterranean water:
"not the vast Universe, but the Earth alone, with its dependencies, are the
proper subject of the Six Days Creation: And...the Mosaick History is not a
Nice, Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of
the whole; but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos, each
successive day, as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that
while would naturally have contained."

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:14>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Dec 10 18:45:32 1996

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 19:45:20 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 10 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 10 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1911: JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER dies at Sunningdale, England.  Hooker was the
leading systematic botanist and phytogeographer of his day, and had overseen
with Charles Lyell the first publication of the evolutionary theories of
Darwin and Wallace.  His extensive travel in the southern hemisphere and in
Asia led to the publication of _Flora Antarctica_ (1844-1847) and _Flora
Indica_ (1855), among many other works.  Hooker became consistent advocate
of evolution following the publication of the _Origin of Species_ in 1859,
and succeeded his father, William Jackson Hooker, as director of the Royal
Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1865.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:15>From witkowsk@cshl.org Tue Dec 10 08:42:52 1996

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 09:42:39 -0500 (EST)
To: Darwin-L@raven.cc.ukans.edu
From: witkowsk@cshl.org (witkowski)
Subject: text analysis program

This may not be quite right for this group but it has such diverse
interests that I am sure someone can help. I want to do some very simple
word counting in short documents - counting all the times a word appears -
how many "and"s, how many "or"s, etc. It wouold be nice if the words could
also be counted by type - how many nouns? how many pronouns?  Does anyone
know of such a program (that will run on MacOS)? Thank you.

Jan A. Witkowski, Ph.D.

Banbury Center
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
PO Box 534
Cold Spring Harbor NY 11724-0534

(516) 549-0507
(516) 549-0672 fax
http://www.cshl.org/admin/pubaff/Banbury

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:16>From brainlink@huskynet.com Wed Dec 11 07:23:55 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 08:18:16 -0500
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
From: "b.l." <brainlink@huskynet.com>
Subject: Re: text analysis program

Re: text analysis program

I recommend that you use the Perl scripting language because of its
"simplicity" in comparison with other languages. Accordingly, I have listed
the essential sites and cites for you below:

(1) Mac internet software
http://www.msilink.com/~browning/index.html

(2) MacPerl
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/perl/nixnix.html

(3) Word counting program
"Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days (First Edition)" one of the few accessible
books for newbies NOT brutally criticized by Perl (UNIX) gurus who
(usually) love only the O'Reilly books on Perl (see http://www.perl.org/).

In "Teach Yourself...", see "Day 5", page 160 "Splitting a Sting into a
list" for a simple word counting program and see "Day 6", page 198 "Using
Command-Line Arguments as Values" for a word search and counting program
(for "counting by type").

Please note that the page numbers and "chapters" that I have given you are
from the first edition; the second edition on Perl5 is currently being sold
in book stores and may or may not have the same pagination.

(4) Parts of speech program
This is not simple (i.e., few will take the time to write this program for
you) and you probably want to put your question to a more specialized list
(where someone has already written it and will share it with you). For this
you can write to:

 Subscription Address: almanac@ruby.oce.orst.edu - comp.lang.perl
 Submission Address: PERL-USERS@ruby.oce.orst.edu

Dan Gold, Brain Link Inc., brainlink@huskynet.com

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:17>From dslavin@emory.edu Wed Dec 11 05:35:22 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 06:35:04 -0500
From: dslavin@emory.edu
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: DARWIN-L digest 722

> I want to do some very simple
> word counting in short documents - counting all the times a word appears -
> how many "and"s, how many "or"s, etc. --snip--Does anyone
> know of such a program (that will run on MacOS)? Thank you.

What an interesting question!  If you are using Word Perfect or
Microsoft Word ver. 5 or higher, you can write a macro in basic to count
the instances of a particular "string," which can be one word or a
phrase.

Here is a kludge, if you don't feel like programming:

Chose the "Replace" function from the menu of your word processor.  In
Word, it is Edit, Replace.

For the "Find" field, type in the word or phrase you want to find.  In
the "Replace" field,  type the SAME word or phrase.

Then chose "Replace All."

The program will replace the word you want to count with the same exact
word and give you a message such as "23 replacements made".

That tells you that the word appeared 23 times!  (PS - I suggest that
you save your document first in case you accidently replace your word
with something that is incorrect.

Please feel free to contact me at the address below if I can be of any
help.

Devorah Slavin
dslavin@emory.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:18>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Dec 11 10:53:06 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 11:52:56 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Proceedings: Nomenclature in the 21st Century (fwd from TAXACOM)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 14:22:00 EST
From: jr19 <James_L_REVEAL@UMAIL.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Proceedings: Biological Nomenclature in 21st Century

Proceedings of A Mini-Symposium on
BIOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE IN THE 21st CENTURY

http://www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html

Edited by James L. Reveal

We are pleased to announce the above electronic publication.

Introduction

In the fall of 1995 the University of Maryland adopted a policy on electronic
publications, treating them as equivalent to printed matter. This, coupled
with the importance of the subject, combined to produce these Proceedings
(http://www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html) of a mini-symposium on biological
nomenclature in the 21st century held at the University of Maryland on 4
November 1996 under the sponsorship of the BEES faculty and the College of
Life Sciences (http://www.life.umd.edu/). With the assistance of seminar
coordinators, Dr. Kenneth P. Sebens and Dr. Charles B. Fenster, I was
permitted to invite Dr. Dan H. Nicolson, Dr. John McNeill, Dr. Richard K.
Brummitt and Dr. Kevin de Queiroz to examine the importance of codes of
scientific nomenclature in the 21st century. In September, abstracts of the
four invited speakers were published electronically and requests were made
for commentaries.

Prompt publication was made possible by the timely submission of
contributions from the four speakers and three individuals who sent
commentaries. To the numerous biologists who took time to review each of
the manuscripts rapidly, and each of the contributors who responded to the
reviewer's remarks promptly - all done electronically - I am most grateful.
This is particularly noteworthy because the usual payment for such labor,
a copy of the final published work, is not the same in this case.

The future of archieving electronic publications is uncertain. Therefore,
individuals are encouraged to make hardcopies of each paper and place them
in libraries for future reference. Furthermore, an electronic version is
being archived by the University of Maryland, and others wishing to do so
are herein granted permission.

With the formal publication of the Proceedings, others wishing to present
comments are urge to do so through TAXACOM.

The effort has been a learning exercise. The product is not entirely
satisfactory, but the task has been interesting and the technology is
improving rapidly. The future of the electronic world, like nomenclature in
the next century, will be intriguing even if it all seems uncertain.

The included papers:

*Introduction
---Opening Remarks by James L. Reveal
---Original Abstracts
*Chapters
---Chapter 1. Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? by Dan H. Nicolson
---Chapter 2. The BioCode: Integrated biological nomenclature in
the 21st century? by John McNeill
---Chapter 3. Quite Happy with the Present Code, Thank You by R. K. Brummitt
---Chapter 4. A Phylogenetic Approach to Biological Nomenclature as an
Alternative to the Linnaean Systems in Current Use by Kevin de Queiroz
*Chapter 5. Commentaries:
-----Commentary 1. Biological Nomenclature by Piero Delprete
-----Commentary 2. Biological Nomenclature by David Frodin
-----Commentary 3. Two Codes in a Dual System? No Thanks by Gea Zijlstra
---Chapter 6. Solutions for Biological Nomenclature by James L. Reveal

Papers presented here should be cited in the following manner:

de Queiroz, K. 1996. "A phylogenetic approach to biological
nomenclature as an alternative to the Linnean systems in
current use." In: J.L. Reveal, ed. Proceedings of a mini-
symposium on biological nomenclature in the 21st century.
University of Maryland: www.life.umd.edu/bees/96sym.html.

James L. Reveal
Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland,
College Park, Maryland 20742-5815, U.S.A.
2 December 1996
jr19@umail.umd.edu

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:19>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Dec 11 11:03:21 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:02:33 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Computers and history teaching (fwd from HUMANIST)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

  [1]   From: Pamela Cohen <pac@rci.rutgers.edu>                 (170)
        Subject: CAAH Digest - 6 Dec 1996 to 7 Dec 1996

[Forwarded from the CONSORTIUM OF ART AND ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
<CAAH@PUCC.BITNET>, Kelly Woestman <kwoestma@clandjop.com>,
originally from James B. Schick <jschick@mail.pittstate.edu>
_History Computer>Review_ (xpost H-Survey)]

-------------------

For the Spring 1997 issue of _History Computer Review_, I'd  like to gather
the advice of as many teachers of history as  possible on two questions:

1) What *software* still needs to be invented, developed, or  made
available, so you can do a more effective job of teaching  college history?

2) What *websites* need to be developed to help you as a  teacher of
history?

Be as specific as you can be about what this software or website  would do
and how you think they should operate.  If I get a  sufficient number of
good responses, I will collect the best ones to appear in the Spring issue.

My hope is to stimulate the creative juices of any programmers  looking for
a new assignment or software gurus (are you reading  this Bill Gates?)
desiring to make a positive impact on higher education.

Just to get the subject going, I'd like to offer a half-dozen of my  own
musings in each category. While I will focus on the first  course in
American history, you should understand that any  history, any time is
acceptable and that the target audience could  be any level from
undergraduate non-majors to graduate history  students.

Software:

1) The papers of all the Founders in one source, in searchable  form so that
a teacher or student requesting responses to the  Boston Tea Party could
find out what all of them thought  quickly and easily. This would be useful
for research papers as  well as classroom use.

2) A world map (with subsets of regions, nations) which you  could:  a)
animate by either tracing a route or entering reference  points for a
journey, as for an explorer's route of march; b)  establish new lines of
demarcation to show the shifting political  boundaries through time; c) zoom
to modern terrain maps and/or satellite photos showing ground features and
superimpose either  those routes or boundaries upon them.

3) 3D renderings of James Fort, Martin's Hundred, Plimoth  Plantation,
Williamsburg, and other excavated sites or  reconstructions of early
American settlements, plus individual  houses/buildings still remaining from
those times, so that  students could virtually "walk through" the past.  I
would also  like to be able to call up various historic events which took
place  at those places:  the Massacre of 1622, the peace conference with
Massasoit, the meeting of the House of Burgesses when Patrick  Henry
proposed his seven resolutions regarding the Stamp Act,  accusations in
Salem, Massachusetts, and other such events.

4) Collections of colonial/early national artifacts from the  Smithsonian,
Winterthur, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and  regional/local historical
museums, so I could "furnish" a typical  Virginia planter's mansion, Puritan
saltbox home, trapper's  cabin, teepee, wigwam, Conestoga wagon, and other
habitations.   After I selected the location of these things (selecting from
a list),  I could click and drag to "place" them where I wanted.

5) Helicopter overviews of battle scenes and routes (Oregon  Trail, Paul
Revere's ride, the National Road, Burgoyne's army  marching down from
Canada, and Gettysburg, for instance), so I  could show my students the
route as it is today.  This could be  connected to battle re-enactments
viewed from above --  mirroring analytical maps found in accounts of the
battle -- and ground level.

6) All state census returns (population and agricultural census,  plus
special tallies) in a format similar to that of _The Great  American History
Machine_ and fully as useful as that software.   Probably should be in a
format which could be read and cross- referenced by GAHM.

Websites:

1) Maps:  any map, any time -- historical by date, region, country.

2) Conversion:  you would simply enter the date, country,  currency, and
amount, and you'd get two types of results -- the  approximate value in
today's dollars and a comparison to wages  and goods of the time and in
nearby countries.

3) Interpretations:  select from dozens of key events and display
videoclips of historians briefly explaining their interpretation of  the
event, plus full citations, mini-historiographical essay.

4) Music:  enter the date, country, and listen to music currently in  vogue,
together with a brief analysis of the history of music of  that time.

5) Faces:  enter a name and if it's in the database, you will have a
selection of paintings, drawings, photographs, and/or videoclips  showing
this individual.

6) Places:  provide the time period and country, and get a display  of the
best places to see the material culture of that time:  historic  sites,
museums, recreations, plus still photographs and motion  video, paintings
from the time, and the like.  Plus links to the sites for times, location,
and so forth, plus books giving similar  information.

What would *you* like?  I must have your responses by *January 20th* at the
very latest.  Send them directly to me at  jschick@pittstate.edu.  And thank
you for your participation.

Feel free to cross-post this.

--  Dr. James B. M. Schick - History Computer Review
Pittsburg State University - Pittsburg, Kansas 66762
jschick@pittstate.edu - fax: 316-232-7515 - phone:
316-235-4317

-------------------

Pamela Cohen
Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities
169 College Avenue,  New Brunswick NJ  08903
phone:  (908) 932-1384 / fax:  (908) 932-1386
http://www.ceth.rutgers.edu
pac@rci.rutgers.edu

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:20>From HANSS@sepa.tudelft.nl Mon Dec  9 03:35:21 1996

From: "Hans-Cees Speel" <HANSS@sepa.tudelft.nl>
Organization:  TU Delft
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 10:47:33 MET
Subject: Re: Economics, prediction, narration

>>I wonder, though,
>>if anyone has made a point-by-point comparison as we made here on a number of
>>occasions between historical linguistics and evolutionary biology.  Let me
>>venture a small beginning; by keeping it small at the start we might be able
>>to make progress while avoiding generalizations that are too facile.  One of
>>the principal phenomena of evolution is the adapation of organisms to their
>>environments.  Is there a specific phenomenon in economics that corresponds
>>to evolutionary adaptation?

On these issues:
-on evolutionary economy and biology a lot is written,

on linguistics and 'evolution' I recently red some papers by Martti
Nyman from Finland:

Is the Paradigm Economy Principle relevant?
Journal of Linguistics 23, 1987, 251-267. (*)
Language change and the 'invisible hand'.
Diachronica 11, 1994, 231-258.(*)

those are two I like with other references between economy and
linguistics. There are more though.

But maybe there is more I do not know about.

greetings
Hans-Cees

Theories come and go, the frog stays [F. Jacob]
-------------------------------------------------------
|Hans-Cees Speel School of Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and management
|Technical Univ. Delft, Jaffalaan 5 2600 GA Delft PO Box 5015 The Netherlands
|telephone +3115785776 telefax +3115783422 E-mail hanss@sepa.tudelft.nl
http://www.sepa.tudelft.nl/~afd_ba/hanss.html featuring evolution and memetics!

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:21>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Dec 12 00:30:45 1996

Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 01:30:32 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 12 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 12 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1731: ERASMUS DARWIN born at Elston Hall, near Nottingham, England.  Following
study at St. John's College, Cambridge, Darwin will establish a medical
practice at Nottingham, and then at Lichfield.  His long poem, _The Botanic
Garden_ (1789-1791), will meet with limited success, but his more substantial
_Zoonomia_ (1794-1796) will become famous for its adumbration of his grandson
Charles's later work in evolution: "Would it be too bold to imagine, that all
warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament...with the power of
acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations,
sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing the faculty of
continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down
those improvements to its posterity, world without end!"

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:22>From mayerg@cs.uwp.edu Wed Dec 11 11:56:12 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 11:56:01 -0600 (CST)
From: Gregory Mayer <mayerg@cs.uwp.edu>
Subject: Re: Proceedings: Nomenclature in the 21st Century (fwd from TAXACOM)
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu

This might start an argument, but I think electronic publication of this
sort is a terrible idea, and I'm sorry to hear that so respected an
institution as the University of Maryland considers them equivalent.

Gregory C. Mayer
mayerg@cs.uwp.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:23>From YD23@MUSIC.FERRIS.EDU Wed Dec 11 12:41:45 1996

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 96 13:42:24 EST
From: "Loesch, Robert W." <YD23@MUSIC.FERRIS.EDU>
To: <darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: text analysis program

I know of no program that will do exactly what you wish, but
you may be able to have one written in the now ancient language,
SNOBOL.  Perhaps other have better ideas.
R.W. Loesch
Assoc. Prof., Communication
Ferris State University

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:24>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Dec 14 00:14:37 1996

Date: Sat, 14 Dec 1996 01:14:33 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 14 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 14 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1873: JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ dies at Cambridge, Massachusetts.  As a
young naturalist in Swizerland, France, and Germany, Agassiz did foundational
work in paleontology and historical geology, and in his _Etudes sur les
glaciers_ (Neuchatel, 1840) he presented the first comprehensive theory of
the Ice Age.  Following his emigration to the United States he established
the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University in 1859, and later
contributed to the founding of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
The poet James Russell Lowell will hear of Agassiz's death while travelling
in Italy, and will eulogize him in the _Atlantic Monthly_:

                       ...with vague, mechanic eyes,
          I scanned the festering news we half despise...
          When suddenly,

          As happens if the brain, from overweight
            Of blood, infect the eye,
          Three tiny words grew lurid as I read,
          and reeled commingling: Agassiz is dead!

                                 ...the wise of old
          Welcome and own him of their peaceful fold...
          And Cuvier clasps once more his long lost son.

          We have not lost him all; he is not gone
          To the dumb herd of them that wholly die;
          The beauty of his better self lives on
          In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye
          He trained to Truth's exact severity;
          He was a Teacher: why be grieved for him
          Whose living word still stimulates the air?
          In endless file shall loving scholars come
          The glow of his transmitted touch to share.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:25>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Dec 19 20:05:52 1996

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:05:47 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 19 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 19 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1815: BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON dies at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Barton was
one of the first professional botanists in the United States, and published
the first American textbook on the subject, _Elements of Botany_, in 1803.
While serving as professor of natural history, botany, and materia medica at
the University of Pennsylvania, Barton amassed the largest natural history
library and herbarium of his day.  He had hoped to publish a complete flora
of North America in collaboration with Thomas Nuttall, but was not able to
complete it before his death.

1861: NIKOLAI IVANOVICH ANDRUSOV is born at Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine).
Andrusov will study geology and zoology as a student at Novorossiysk
University, and will travel extensively in Russia and central Europe
collecting fossils.  He will marry Nadezhda Genrikhovna Schliemann, daughter
of the archeologist Heinrich Schliemann, in 1899, and six years later will
become professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Kiev.
Andrusov will be best remembered for his many geological and zoological
investigations of the Black Sea region.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:26>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Dec 19 20:38:41 1996

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:38:37 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Book review on early excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The exemplary net journal _Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews_ recently
published an interesting review of _Rediscovering Antiquity: Karl Weber
and the Excavation of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae_ by Christopher
Parslow.  It is available at:

  gopher://gopher.lib.virginia.edu:70/00/alpha/bmcr/v96/96-12-10

and may be of interest to Darwin-L readers.  Weber was a Swiss scholar
who served as an engineer in the Italian army, and first visited Herculaneum
in 1750.  While many excavators of the time were only concerned with quick
recovery of valuables, Weber was apparently one of the first people to take
a genuinely comprehensive historical interest in the sites.

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:27>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Dec 19 20:48:52 1996

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:48:47 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Internet Latin course (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 12:47:43 -0200
From: Pilar Rivero <pilar@humanas.ufpr.br>
Subject: latin course via internet
To: darwin@iris.uncg.edu

NOTICE!
The departament of classics (Federal University of Parana, Brazil) and the
departament of Sciences of Antiquity (Zaragoza University, Spain), have
organizated an introductive course of latin via internet. The course starts
the 9th jannuary 1996. Subscribtions are opened to 1st jannuary.

Informations about this course:
http://www.humanas.ufpr.br/delin/classic/latim/esp/interlat.htm

clssics home-page:
http://www.humanas.ufpr.br/delin/classic/classic.htm

alessandro@coruja.humanas.ufpr.br
pilar@coruja.humanas.ufpr.br (to 18/12/96)
pilar.rivero@msf.unizar.es (from 20/12/96)

Please, help us to difund this notice. Thanks.
M. Pilar Rivero

pilar@coruja.humanas.ufpr.br
pilar.rivero@msf.unizar.es

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:28>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Wed Dec 18 09:12:13 1996

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 10:11:35 -0500
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu (Darwin List)
From: "Jeremy C. Ahouse" <ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu>
Subject: FYI book

DarwinL,
	just came across a book you all should know about.

	Darwin, Charles (1996) On Evolution: The development of the Theory
of Natural selection. ed. by T. F. Glick and D. Kohn. Hackett Publ. Co. pp.
356. $9.95 - This collection ranges across Darwin's writings to pull out
morsels focused on natural selection and evolutionary mechanisms and has a
little Malthus and Wallace as appendices. At 356 pgs for $10 it is a deal.

	I also noticed that Darwinism Evolving is out in paper for $20.
This book would certainly make a good text for a seminar, even if you don't
agree with the thrust of the last few chapters.

	Jeremy

        Jeremy C. Ahouse
        Biology Department
        Brandeis University
        Waltham, MA 02254-9110
ph:     (617) 736-4954
fax:    (617) 736-2405
email:  ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu
web:    http://www.rose.brandeis.edu/users/simister/pages/Ahouse

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:29>From dslavin@emory.edu Thu Dec 19 13:16:32 1996

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 14:15:56 -0500
From: dslavin@emory.edu
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: [Fwd: Prince Charles, Science, & Islam!]

This Reuters article was posted to STS today.  Can a member of the group
confirm is this statement is real?
--
Devorah Slavin
dslavin@emory.edu

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:51:10 CST
From: system@CCTR.UMKC.EDU
To: STS-LIST@CCTR.UMKC.EDU
Subject: Prince Charles, Science, & Islam!

Original Post: <bouzid@slu.tr.unisys.com>

Subject: Prince Charles urges West to learn from Islam

      By Lyndsay Griffiths

    LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuter) - Prince Charles has lashed out at materialism,
science and other scourges of modern life, saying Britain treated tradition
like a ``socially unacceptable disease.''

    ``Modern materialism, in my humble opinion, is unbalanced and
increasingly damaging in its long-term consequences,'' the heir to the
British throne said Saturday. ``Science has tried to assume a monopoly, even
a tyranny, over our understanding.''

    Scientists had tried to take over the natural world from God with
``sombre and horrifying'' consequences, he said, citing the recent outbreak
of so-called Mad Cow disease in Britain.

    ``We are only now beginning to gauge the disastrous results of this
outlook...Indeed, tradition is positively discriminated against -- as if it
were some socially unacceptable disease.''

    Charles' critique of modern life was published in the opinion pages of
Saturday's Times newspaper, once considered the keeper of old-fashioned
British values. It said the prince delivered his remarks in person on Friday
to a private meeting of executives, academics, civil servants and religious
leaders.

    As he waits to ascend to the throne, Charles has become known for
emptying his heart on a whole host of matters, whatever the consequences.

    Known for his adoration of the old and outspoken views on everything from
modern architecture to ``proper'' English to plant rearing, Charles has
raised eyebrows time and again by pushing his pet projects and lambasting his
pet hates.

    In his latest diatribe, Charles -- a practising Anglican -- also urged
the West to learn from Islam and adopt a more holistic approach to life.

    ``Everywhere in the world, people are seemingly wanting to learn English.
But in the West, in turn, we need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to
learn once again with our hearts, as well as our heads,'' Charles said.

    The prince regularly takes advice from religious leaders and had first
expressed his sympathies with Islam in 1993. But this was his strongest
statement yet on the subject as he urged a renewed ``sense of the sacred'' in
daily life.

    Citing a ``loss of meaning'' in Western life, he said Britain should
learn from Moslems how to integrate their spirituality with modernity.

    ``I feel that we in the West could could be helped to rediscover the
roots of our understanding by an appreciation of the Islamic tradition's deep
respect for the timeless traditions of the natural order,'' said Charles.

    Reuters/Variety

15:44 12-15-96

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:30>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Dec 21 10:50:46 1996

Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 11:50:42 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 21 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 21 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1773: ROBERT BROWN is born at Montrose, Scotland.  Following medical study
at Edinburgh and military service as a surgeon's mate, Brown will be appointed
naturalist on board the _Investigator_ which will leave England to survey the
coasts of Australia in 1801.  Brown will return in 1805 with thousands of
botanical and zoological specimens and drawings, and will spend the next five
years describing nearly 2000 new species of plants from these collections.
He will become librarian to the Linnean Society in 1806 and curator of Joseph
Banks's private library and herbarium in 1810, and Alexander von Humboldt will
call him "botanicorum facile princeps".  Following Banks's death in 1820,
Brown will transfer Banks's collection to the British Museum and will become
the Museum's first Keeper of Botany.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:31>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Dec 23 00:56:09 1996

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 01:56:04 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 23 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 23 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1749: MARK CATESBY dies at London, England, aged 66.  Catesby was born in
Essex, England, and from 1712 to 1719 lived with his sister in the Virginia
colony.  The plants Catesby collected during his stay in America brought him
to the attention of a number of prominent naturalists, including Sir Hans
Sloane, and Catesby was commissioned to return to America specifically for
the purpose of natural history exploration and collecting.  From 1722 to 1726
he traveled through South Carolina, Florida, and the West Indies, and upon his
return he published the acclaimed _Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and
the Bahama Islands_ (1731-1743).  This work will be used later by Linnaeus
as the source for his descriptions of the North American bird fauna.

1790: JEAN-FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION is born at Figeac, France.  While still a
boy at the Imperial Lycee in Grenoble, Champollion will become fascinated
by Egyptian hieroglyphs and will devote himself to their decipherment.  He
will study Arabic, Chinese, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit,
and Syriac, and will come to believe that Coptic is the modern descendant of
the language of the ancient Egyptians.  His breakthrough in decipherment will
come in the 1820s with study of the Rosetta Stone, a trilingual Greek, Coptic,
and hieroglyphic inscription discovered by Napoleon's expeditionary forces in
1799.  Champollion will correctly realize that some of the hieroglyphic signs
are phonetic, some syllabic, and some ideographic, and his first decipherment
will appear in 1822 in the monographic "Lettre a M. Dacier a l'alphabet de
hieroglyphes phonetiques."  His _Precis du systeme hieroglyphique des anciens
Egyptiens_ will follow two years later.  Champollion will die in Paris at the
age of 41, reportedly from exhaustion after returning from an expedition to
Egypt.

1810: EDWARD BLYTH is born at London, England.  Although his mother will
encourage him to enter the ministry, natural history will be Blyth's favorite
study from a young age.  While in his twenties, Blyth will publish a series
of important papers on organismal variation that Darwin will later study with
care, among them "An attempt to classify the 'varieties' of animals, with
observations on the marked seasonal and other changes which naturally take
place in various British species which do not constitute varieties" (_Magazine
of Natural History_, 8:40-53, 1835).  In 1841 Blyth will be appointed curator
to the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and will move from England to India,
where will be remembered as one of the founders of Indian zoology.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:32>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Dec 23 01:03:59 1996

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 02:03:54 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: CFP: Conference on time and literary criticism (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

THE CRITICISM OF THE FUTURE

JULY 11-12, 1997, UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY

An international conference seeks participants to debate the
temporalities of criticism.

Confirmed Speakers:
Professor Geoffrey Bennington (University of Sussex)
Professor Thomas Docherty (University of Kent at Canterbury)

'Every conception of history is invariably accompanied by a certain
experience of time which is implicit in it, conditions it, and thereby
has to be elucidated. Similarly, every culture is first and foremost a
particular  experience of time, and no new culture is possible without
an alteration in this experience. The original task of a genuine
revolution, therefore, is never merely to "change the world", but also -
and above all - to "change time".  (Giorgio Agamben)

'Time is everything, man is nothing; he is at most the carcass of time.'
(Karl Marx)

In an essay entitled "Time Today", Jean-Frangois Lyotard argues that
modernity is in part predicated on a conception of time in which the
"future" is always already given. The subject of modernity operates in
the manner of the Leibnizian God, the "consummate archivist" who
"conserves in complete retention the totality of information
constituting the world". The future, for this subject, is already known,
already mapped according to a narrative of progress and a project of
emancipation. What is lost in this project, argues Lyotard, is precisely
time itself, the openness to an *event*  which has not already been
anticipated and recorded in the "archive" which constitutes, for this
kind of thought, the only possible future (that is, no future at all).

For theory in its institutionalized forms, time is essentially an empty
and homogeneous continuum which proceeds toward a future which, given
the static, "archival" conception of temporality with which it operates
is already a knowable and quantifiable datum. In this sense, modern
criticism is "the criticism of the future", a criticism which posits and
appeals to a future conceived as the final term in the static continuum:
past-present-future.

Time, for Western philosophical thinking, is persistently the object of
a certain conserving and stockpiling impulse; it is that which must be
saved or gained in the name of a posited emancipatory future. This
conception of temporality informs the modern theoretical project, in
terms of an impulse toward *speed*.  Speed is the defining
characteristic of those discourses which we have come to call
theoretical, and of the criticism to which they give rise.

This conference seeks to address the question of how we might begin to
rethink our conceptions of theory in the light of an altered
understanding of the temporality of thought and criticism, to *slow
down* the critical process precisely in order that we might open
ourselves to the "criticism of the future" (in the other sense of the
genitive).

Possible topics include:

The Time of Criticism
The Criticism of Time
Time and History
Time and Narrative
Criticism and Tradition
Criticism as Avant-Garde
The Speed of Criticism
Paul Virilio
The Futures of Criticism
Criticism and the Contemporary
Critical Moments, Critical Events
Allegory
The Sublime
Cinematic Time
Criticism and Apocalypse
Now
Then

Send abstracts (300-350 words) by Friday 11 April 1997, to:

Brian Dillon,
School of English,
Rutherford College,
University of Kent at Canterbury,
Canterbury,
Kent CT2 7NX,
UK.

E-mail: bgd1@ukc.ac.uk

Dialling code for Canterbury: 01227 (UK) or +44 1227 (international)
Tel: 764000 switchboard
Fax: 827001

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:33>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Fri Dec 20 09:36:34 1996

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 10:27:26 -0500
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu (Darwin List)
From: "Jeremy C. Ahouse" <ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu>
Subject: textbooks?

Dear DarwinL,

	What are your favorite textbooks for evolutionary biology and why?

	Thanks,

		Jeremy

        Jeremy C. Ahouse
        Biology Department
        Brandeis University
        Waltham, MA 02254-9110
ph:     (617) 736-4954
fax:    (617) 736-2405
email:  ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu
web:    http://www.rose.brandeis.edu/users/simister/pages/Ahouse

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:34>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Dec 24 11:58:01 1996

Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 12:57:57 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 24 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 24 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1856: HUGH MILLER dies at Portobello, Scotland, a suicide.  One of the great
geological writers of the early nineteenth century, Miller's graceful prose
earned fame for his many books, including _Scenes and Legends from the North
of Scotland_ (1835), _The Old Red Sandstone_ (1841), and also _Foot-Prints of
the Creator; Or, the Asterolepis of Stromness_ (1847): "We learn from human
history that nations are as certainly mortal as men.  They enjoy a greatly
longer term of existence, but they die at last; Rollin's History of Ancient
Nations is a history of the dead.  And we are taught by geological history, in
like manner, that _species_ are as mortal as individuals and nations, and that
even genera and families become extinct.  There is no _man_ upon the earth at
the present moment whose age greatly exceeds an hundred years; -- there is no
_nation_ now upon earth (if we perhaps except the long-lived Chinese) that
also flourished three thousand years ago; -- there is no _species_ now living
upon earth that dates beyond the times of the Tertiary deposits.  All bear the
stamp of death, -- individuals, -- nations, -- species; and we may scarce less
safely predicate, looking upon the past, that it is appointed for nations and
species to die, than that it is 'appointed for _man_ once to die.'"

1868: ETIENNE-JULES-ADOLPHE, DESMIER DE SAINT-SIMON, VICOMTE D'ARCHIAC drowns
in the Seine river in Paris, a suicide.  Following a short military career for
which he received a life-time pension, d'Archiac turned to geology and became
one of the leading stratigraphers in Europe.  In addition to many research
papers on paleontology and stratigraphic correlation, d'Archiac published a
nine-volume _Histoire des Progres de la Geologie_ from 1847 to 1860, and
served several times as president of the Societe Geologique de France.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:35>From dslavin@emory.edu Tue Dec 24 05:08:36 1996

Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 06:08:15 -0500
From: dslavin@emory.edu
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: RE: Emergent Illness Fellowships at Emory University

Happy New year to all!  The following announcement is for a rather
unusual fellowship which may be of interest to DARWIN-L members.  I
would also appreciate any suggestions as to where it should be
cross-posted.

Devorah Slavin
dslavin@emory.edu

-------------------------------------------------------
EMORY UNIVERSITY - DECEMBER, 1996
--------------------------------------------------------
Emergent illness, from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to HIV/AIDS, not only
challenges the scientific community to find treatments, but prompts
sufferers and their caretakers to challenge the authority and expertise
of medical specialists. Formal scientific scholarship co-exists with,
and is frequently questioned by, that of lay persons searching for
knowledge and explanations of their own illness.

Emory University's Center for the Study of Public Scholarship and the
Center for the Study of Health, Culture and Society invite application
for four Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships offered in conjunction with
our program on "Emergent Illness, Public Scholarship."

Applicants are welcome both from within and without the academic
community, and the fellowships provide an excellent opportunity for
patient
advocates and community organizers to participate in a fresh
understanding of emergent illness.

Applicants should be nearing completion of a project that they will
finish during their semester at the Center, which might range from
traditional academic projects such as an article or book manuscript to
films, videos, teaching modules or curricula, artworks, or pieces of
proposed legislation. The Center is also interested in promoting the
creation of documents that can serve as operating guidelines or
institutional memories for activist and community organizations that may
not have the resources to produce such materials.

Applications are due February, 1997.

For more information, please visit the CSHCS website at:

http://www.emory.edu/CSHCS

or e-mail

Devorah Slavin - dslavin@emory.edu
The Center for the Study of Health, Culture and Society
Emory University

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:36>From mayerg@cs.uwp.edu Tue Dec 24 12:58:30 1996

Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 12:58:14 -0600 (CST)
From: Gregory Mayer <mayerg@cs.uwp.edu>
Subject: Re: December 24 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu

Is there something about stratigraphy that inclines a practitioner to
suicide?

Gregory C. Mayer
mayerg@cs.uwp.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:37>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Dec 24 22:54:09 1996

Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 23:42:51 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Follow-up to electronic publication announcement
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 18:16:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Kevin de Queiroz <MNHVZ082%SIVM.BITNET@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU>
Subject: Re: Proceedings: Nomenclature in the 21st Century (fwd from TAXACOM)
To: Darwin-L <darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu>

I wonder if Dr. Mayer would be willing to tell us why he thinks electronic
publication is such a terrible idea.  I haven't yet decided what I think
about it, and therefore, would like to hear the reasons behind his
negative remarks.

Kevin de Queiroz

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:38>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Dec 25 00:40:48 1996

Date: Wed, 25 Dec 1996 01:40:43 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 25 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 25 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1642: ISAAC NEWTON is born at Woolsthorpe, England.  Following study at
Cambridge University, from which he will graduate in 1665, Newton will make
revolutionary breakthroughs in astronomy and mathematics, and after his death
in 1727 he will be remembered as the principal founder of modern physical
science.  Newton's work in physics, however, will constitute only a fraction
of his output, and he will devote almost as much time to studies of Biblical
chronology as to mathematics.  Believing that the ancient Temple of Solomon
was a divinely-inspired model of the cosmos as a whole, Newton will teach
himself Hebrew and attempt to calculate the exact length of the ancient cubit
so that he can reconstruct the Temple's plan from Ezekiel's description of it
in the Bible.  Among Newton's many historical writings will be _The Chronology
of Ancient Kingdoms Amended: To Which is Prefix'd, A Short Chronicle from the
First Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the
Great_ (London, 1728), and also _The Original of Monarchies_: "Now all nations
before they began to keep exact accompts of time have been prone to raise
their antiquities & make the lives of their first fathers longer than they
really were.  And this humour has been promoted by the ancient contention
between several nations about their antiquity.  For this made the Egyptians &
Chaldeans raise their antiquities higher than the truth by many thousands of
years.  And the seventy have added to the ages of the Patriarchs.  And Ctesias
has made the Assyrian Monarchy above 1400 years older than the truth.  The
Greeks & Latins are more modest in their own originals but yet have exceeded
the truth."

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:39>From straker@unixg.ubc.ca Wed Dec 25 00:58:41 1996

Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 22:58:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Stephen Straker <straker@unixg.ubc.ca>
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: December 24 -- Today in the Historical Sciences

> Is there something about stratigraphy that inclines a practitioner to
> suicide?

I thought, sadly, that it might have something more to do with christmas
eve.

Stephen Straker             straker@unixg.ubc.ca

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:40>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Dec 27 00:46:34 1996

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 01:46:22 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 27 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 27 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1831: His Majesty's Ship _Beagle_, Robert Fitzroy commanding, sets sail
from Plymouth, England, for South America, after having been beaten back for
several days by unfavorable winds.  Charles Darwin will write in his diary:
"A beautiful day, accompanied by the long wished for E wind. -- Weighed anchor
at 11 oclock & with difficulty tacked out. -- The Commissioner Capt Ross
sailed with us in his Yatch. -- The Capt, Sullivan & myself took a farewell
luncheon on mutton chops & champagne, which may I hope excuse the total
absence of sentiment which I experienced on leaving England. -- We joined
the Beagle about 2 oclock outside the Breakwater, -- & immediately with every
sail filled by a light breeze we scudded away at the rate of 7 or 8 knots an
hour. -- I was not sick that evening but went to bed early."  The Beagle will
return five years later having circumnavigated the globe.

1839: "My first child was born on December 27th, 1839," Charles Darwin will
write in his _Autobiography_, "and I at once commenced to make notes on the
first dawn of the various expressions which he exhibited, for I felt convinced,
even at this early period, that the most complex and fine shades of expression
must all have had a gradual and natural origin."

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:41>From mayerg@cs.uwp.edu Fri Dec 27 10:47:59 1996

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 10:47:56 -0600 (CST)
From: Gregory Mayer <mayerg@cs.uwp.edu>
Subject: Re: Follow-up to electronic publication announcement
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu

> I wonder if Dr. Mayer would be willing to tell us why he thinks electronic
> publication is such a terrible idea.  I haven't yet decided what I think
> about it, and therefore, would like to hear the reasons behind his
> negative remarks.
>
> Kevin de Queiroz

I am happy to respond to Kevin de Queiroz's request for the reasons
behind my opinion.  I will set them out briefly, and perhaps
incompletely, because I am writing this on a quick trip into the office
(no modem at home).  My concerns may be grouped under the headings of
ephemerality and quality.  Not all electronic publications will suffer
from these defects equally.  The publication to which Kevin contributed,
for example, seemed to have a normal review process.  However, I
increasingly see people referring "to my paper on such and such", and
then give some website address; I am much more concerned about these.

Ephemerality: The exponential increase in the scientific literature has
led to the production of much "gray" literature: supposed documents which
may be hard to find, difficult to reference (and therefore difficult to
direct others to), and of unknown quality (see below).  Electronic
publications seem to be a part of this growing nebulous area of
literature.  Journals and monographs on paper seem to come into existence
briefly, and then disappear, with many even first rate libraries not
having copies.  Electronic publication makes it even easier for
publications of vague source and uncertain future to come into
existence.  Publications on paper can also, of course, have these
characteristics, but the "activation energy" which must be overcome to
make a paper publication puts a damper on the production of ephemeral,
inaccessible literature.  There is also, I fear, a danger that even
responsibly produced electronic publications may not be permanently
archived.  Web users know how often pages change, files are deleted, and
information once present lost.  Perhaps some electronic equivalent of the
library will develop, but I do not know of one yet.

Quality: Many electronic publications are self-published, or provide no
way of knowing how or if they may have undergone a review process.  They
are thus the modern equivalent of the vanity press.  As with electronic
libraries, institutions and reputations may eventually develop, so that we
may easily distinguish the review status of an electronic publication in
the same way we can distinguish a book published on paper by, say,
Cambridge University Press from a stack of mimeographed sheets.  A second
aspect of quality is that of illustration.  For work in certain fields,
for example paleontology, high quality photographic illustration is
important.  Although we may anticipate the day when the average user may
be able to download and printout photo-quality images (and I mean
low-speed fine-grained, not Kodacolor point and shoot), that day has not
yet arrived.

As a problem unique to a particular field, but one near and dear to many
on the list, including Kevin and myself, publication in systematics has
rules requiring paper publication for certain types of publications.

I could perhaps elaborate further, but I need to go, and this provides
some idea of my reasons.  I am most concerned about the proliferation of
papers supposedly published on the web with no evident review, and with
no strong reason for thinking they'll be available next month, when the
author changes his site, or gives it up altogether.

Gregory C. Mayer
mayerg@cs.uwp.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:42>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Dec 30 01:09:26 1996

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 02:09:18 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: December 30 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

DECEMBER 30 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1705: GEORG WOLFGANG KNORR is born at Nuremberg, Germany.  At the age of
eighteen Knorr will become an apprentice engraver, and will spend much of
his life writing and publishing finely-illustrated natural history works.
His most important volume will be the encyclopedic folio _Sammlung von
Merckwurdigkeiten der Natur und Alterthumern des Erdbodens_ (_Collection
of Natural Wonders and Antiquities of the Earth's Crust_) (1755).

1723: AUGUSTUS QUIRINUS RIVINUS dies at Leipzig, Germany.  Trained in medicine
at the universities of Leipzig and Helmstedt, Rivinus became a lecturer in
medicine at Leipzig in 1677.  He devoted most of his energies to the study of
materia medica and botany, and the precise characterizations he gave of many
plant groups in his _Introductio Generalis in Rem Herbariam_ (1690) and his
series _Ordo Plantarum_ (1690-1699) anticipated the later floral studies of
Linnaeus and Tournefort.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:43>From witkowsk@cshl.org Fri Dec 27 12:04:10 1996

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 13:04:06 -0500 (EST)
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
From: witkowsk@cshl.org (witkowski)
Subject: THE CRITICISM OF THE FUTURE

I can't help but wonder... is this a parody in the style of Alan Sokal?

From Darwin digest 728:

******
THE CRITICISM OF THE FUTURE

JULY 11-12, 1997, UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY

.......For theory in its institutionalized forms, time is essentially an empty
and homogeneous continuum which proceeds toward a future which, given
the static, "archival" conception of temporality with which it operates
is already a knowable and quantifiable datum. In this sense, modern
criticism is "the criticism of the future", a criticism which posits and
appeals to a future conceived as the final term in the static continuum:
past-present-future.

Time, for Western philosophical thinking, is persistently the object of
a certain conserving and stockpiling impulse; it is that which must be
saved or gained in the name of a posited emancipatory future. This
conception of temporality informs the modern theoretical project, in
terms of an impulse toward *speed*.  Speed is the defining
characteristic of those discourses which we have come to call
theoretical, and of the criticism to which they give rise.....etc.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<40:44>From eheite@dmv.com Sat Dec 28 06:44:02 1996

From: eheite@dmv.com
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 07:49:57 -0500
To: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Follow-up to electronic publication announcement

Kevin de Queiroz wrote

>> I wonder if Dr. Mayer would be willing to tell us why he thinks electronic
>> publication is such a terrible idea.  I haven't yet decided what I think
>> about it, and therefore, would like to hear the reasons behind his
>> negative remarks.

To which Mayer replied, in part:

>I am happy to respond to Kevin de Queiroz's request for the reasons
>behind my opinion.

<parts deleted>

>Ephemerality: The exponential increase in the scientific literature has
>led to the production of much "gray" literature: supposed documents which
>may be hard to find, difficult to reference (and therefore difficult to
>direct others to), and of unknown quality (see below).  Electronic
>publications seem to be a part of this growing nebulous area of
>literature.

<parts deleted>

>Quality: Many electronic publications are self-published, or provide no
>way of knowing how or if they may have undergone a review process.

For my part, I agree with both arguments. Electronic publishing, in its
present form, is ephemeral and unreliable gray literature. A refereed
journal, or a book from a reputable publisher, is a definitive statement.

But most scholarship has limited shelf-life.

A select few brilliant works will be important for a century or more, but
most of what we produce is superseded within decades. New ideas circulate
at conferences, symposia, and beer halls. Next year, they will be old
ideas. It has always been thus. Nothing could be more ephemeral than
conference handouts, but we cite them all the time.

Our electronic world of global developing ideas can't tolerate the years of
delay inherent in  traditional scholarly publication, which is
technologically obsolescent. We need a coherent, reliable, and archival
medium for circulating ephemera. We need a medium that allows us to throw
ideas out for peer review, even if the finished paper isn't ready for peer
review.

There always will be a need for the permanent medium of printed journals
and books, but we also need electronic symposia and cyber beer halls, where
ideas and new research circulate and mature freely and quickly. If I may
cite a personal example, my wife and I have posted a paper on our personal
home page, asking for comments. The paper was delivered at a small
conference and will be part of a larger report that will be seen by perhaps
500 subscribers, five years hence. In the interim, our posting provides an
opportunity for us to interact with potentially hundreds of people who
might provide input, insight, and discussion.

Until our final report is published, our colleagues may cite the posted
version of the paper, and it can be useful during a period when it would
normally have been unavailable to the profession.

A posting should be cited like any other personal communication or
ephemera, as long as one can identify the location of a permanent copy or
forthcoming publication.

The problem, as I see it, is the need for a permanent copy, or an audit
trail of ideas. Mayer is correct in this respect, but for my part, I am
willing to accept  electronic "publication" on exactly the same footing as
an oral presentation at a conference. I can't accept an electronic
publication as a substitute for a book from a university press. Herein lies
the difference.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Darwin-L Message Log 40: 1-44 -- December 1996                              End