1,720,983 research outputs found
A Modern in Disguise? Leo Strauss on Marsilius of Padua
Full text linkThis article analyzes Leo Strauss’s interpretation of the political thinker Marsilius of Padua advanced in the only piece that he wrote on the Italian author. At first glance, Strauss appears to characterize Marsilius as possessing an anticlerical temperament. Yet, upon deeper analysis, Strauss’s account of Marsilius presents him as a more controversial figure. First, Strauss’s analysis suggests that Marsilius’s anticlericalism actually disguises an antitheological attitude, bringing him closer to Machiavelli. Second, Strauss claims that Marsilius has an unusual notion of contemplation and “lowers his sights” prior to Machiavelli. Reading between the lines, one can see that for Strauss, Marsilius ends up being the last classical philosopher while also setting the stage for Machiavelli’s modernity in a disguised manner
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Political Representation: A Historical and Conceptual Investigation into its Polysemy
No full textPolitical Representation: A Historical and Conceptual investigation into Its Polysemy The aim of this study is to value the complexity of theoretical formulations that different traditions and authors have provided on the problem of political representation. This is achieved by relying on a text that has pioneered this kind of investigation: Hasso Hofmanns Repräsentation: Studien zur Wort- und Begriffsgeschichte von der Antike bis ins 19. Jahrhundert. Hofmanns book, originally published in German in 1974 (and translated only into Italian), has not received due attention in the contemporary debate on representation and is scarcely known in the non-German academic environment. However, its unique methodological and conceptual outlook on representation has much to contribute to the current debate on this topic. Hofmanns main objective is to draw a history and theory of representation that values the polysemy of the Latin word repraesentatio from Antiquity until the 19th century. To achieve this goal, Hofmann analyses the diverse meanings (Urbild-Abbild Dialektik, Repraesentatio Identitatis, Vorstellung, Stellvertretung, Darstellung) that have been attached to the word representation throughout its history, from its inception in the Latin world onwards. To prove the relevance of this approach for the contemporary debate, I apply Hofmanns semantic-conceptual map of representation to the study of political representation in such diverse authors as Marsilius of Padua, Carl Schmitt, Thomas Hobbes, Ernst Kantorowicz as well as contemporary authors such as Bernard Manin, Nadia Urbinati, Frank Ankersmit, John Dryzek and others. In so doing, I show that the answer to the question: what makes representation a political notion? is far from univocal. Moreover, I argue that Hofmanns interpretive lens provides an alternative approach to what is still considered the classical study of political representation in the Anglophone world: Hanna Pitkins The Concept of Representation. By critically comparing Pitkin and Hofmanns approaches to the problem of political representation, my aim is to demonstrate that Pitkins normative perspective should be revised. Pitkin argues, first, that it is possible to pinpoint a general meaning of the concept of representation as making present again and, second, that there is a general concept of political representation that is identified with substantive acting for and in which all aesthetic meanings of representation are excluded. In contrast to this approach, Hofmann stresses the polysemyc character of representation, and the impossibility of narrowing down a general meaning of the concept. Drawing on Hofmann, one can argue that the semantic richness of political representation is just as broad as that of the word representation itself and that what makes representation political varies from epoch to epoch, from author to author. As a result, the common way to look at political representation nowadays, i.e. as democratic representation, is far from the only one but constitutes, rather, just one of the numerous ways to look at this concept over time. Using Hofmanns perspective for the study of political representation also helps us show that the aesthetic meanings of representation (what Pitkin reductively defines as representation as standing for) are always and intrinsically bound up with political representation in all the authors who have theorized this concept. In contrast to Pitkin, one could argue that any meaningful concept of political representation must also include the aesthetic and symbolic meanings of representation (differently conceived as Urbild-Abbild Dialektik or Darstellung). Accordingly, it is impossible to think of political representation without accounting for its symbolic dimension as Darstellung.status: Publishe
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Mulieri (Alessandro), Serena Masolini, Jenny Pelletier [dir.]
No full textMarsilius of Padua. Between History, Politics, and Philosophy, Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, 440 p. (« Disputatio », 36). [Contient : A. Mulieri, « Introduction ». I. « Marsilius’s Sources » : Lambertini (Roberto), « Marsilius of Padua: A Reader of Aristotle’s Politica » ; Van de Voorde (Gert-Jan), « ‘‘What More do you want?’’ The Use of the Roman Trial of Jesus by Augustine and Marsilius of Padua » ; Toste (Marco), « The Early Politics Commentaries as the Missing Link between Marsilius and Arist..
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Machiavelli’s Ironic Discourse to Defend a Radical Republic
No full textThe Discourse on Florentine Affairs contains a proposal for constitutional
reform in which Machiavelli directly addresses Pope Giovanni de’ Medici.
With the aim of contributing to the recent radical republican readings of
Machiavelli, this paper argues that the best way to understand the
Discourse is to read it as an example of Machiavelli’s use of irony.
Machiavelli disguises his radical republican ideas in the Discourse with
paradoxes, omissions and implausible reforms that, though clearly
leaning towards a popular republic, are presented as part of the
oligarchic or princely option that was defended by the Medici. His
subtle critique of the Medici’s client-based politics, his implicit rejection
of the oligarchic mixed regime, his description of the institution of such
pro-popular magistrates as the Provosts and the Gonfaloniers of the
Companies of the People, make one suspect that Machiavelli is hiding a
disguised preference towards a popular, rather than a mixed, republic
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