This article examines the de facto rule of Johann Friedrich Struensee from 1770 to 1772 in Denmark, in which an effort was made to implement administrative reforms inspired by the ideas of French materialism and Prussian cameralism. Metaphors, particularly mechanical ones, had an important role in Struensee's attempt to legitimize his actions. Based on theoretical premises first presented by Hans Blumenberg, this article investigates two issues: first, how explicit and implicit mechanical and machine-like metaphors were used by Struensee to indicate the ideal architecture of the Danish absolutist state in the 1770s; and second, how his opponents made use of the same metaphors to describe what they saw as Struensee's illegitimate reach for power.
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In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 May 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 94–116 (23 total)
Welcome to the Machine
Artificial Intelligence on Screen 1
Rebekah Brammer
complex relationship with intelligent machines—their uses, dangers, and coexistence with us—that really fuels our interest in AI on screen. The Ultimate Machine: Robot Workers Robot workers depicted on screen (which, as opposed to the robotic devices
Oili Pulkkinen
Newtonian science and mechanics left an important imprint on the Scottish Enlightenment. Even though the usage of mechanical metaphors, especially that of a “state machine” per se, were rare in Scottish philosophy, its conception of the human, animal and political bodies as mechanisms that function according to regular principles, or laws, helped to shape many of the theories that have now become popular in various fields of Scottish studies. Most research in these fields focus on the conceptions of history related to theories of economic advancement. In this article the author suggests that the theories produced in the Scottish Enlightenment were also nuanced attempts to describe how historical mechanisms operate.
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 May 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 48–70 (23 total)
The Machine of State in Germany
The Case of Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (1717–1771)
Ere Pertti Nokkala
The aim of this article is to explore the different uses of the state-machine metaphor in Germany during the 1750s and 1760s. It focuses on the debate around the ideal state and especially on the views of one central writer, Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (1717-1771). It has been argued that in this debate the functionality of the state was measured according to the efficiency and simplicity of the machine and that the best form of state was that which provided the fastest and most precise implementation of the final cause (happiness) and encountered the fewest obstacles on its way. At the time, unlimited monarchy arose as the form of government that best fitted this description, with Fredrick II and Justi being usually referred to as the ideologues of this mechanical authoritarian order, often described as “enlightened absolutism.” However, the author argues that Justi's position in this debate must be reconsidered since his writings show that he never denied the possibility of constructing a complex state-machine based on the separation and balance of powers. In fact, he was an admirer of England's mixed government as described by Montesquieu. Ironically, then, the author who most contributed to the dissemination of the state-machine metaphor in Germany was also the one whose usage of it was most exceptional.
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 May 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 71–93 (23 total)
Inside the global teaching machine
MOOCs, academic labour and the future of the university
Michael A. Peters
capitalism where social media has become the dominant culture and I refer to the trope ‘Inside the Global Teaching Machine’ to chart historically emergent elements beginning with industrial stimulus-response (SR) industrial psychology in the 1920s (Sidney
In Learning and Teaching
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2016
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 66–88 (23 total)
Daniel Tröhler
This article investigates the development of new teaching ideologies in the context of the technocratic ideology of the Cold War. These ideologies did not simply vanish after 1989. The catchwords were “programmed instruction” and “teaching machines”, accompanied by the promise that all students would make efficient learning progress. Although Eastern and Western states fought the Cold War over political ideologies, their teaching ideologies (perhaps surprisingly) converged. This may explain why neither the apparent failure of these educational ideologies nor the end of the Cold War led to the modification of the ideologies themselves, but rather to the modification of devices serving the ideologies.
In Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–19 (19 total)
‘If these machines could talk…’
Experts, cigarettes and policymaking in Turkey
Ebru Kayaalp
Inspired by the studies of Bruno Latour, the article aims to illustrate the ways in which policymaking is being made within a ‘heterogeneous network’ of humans and non‐humans. Through an analysis of a controversy, it argues that the policymaking process is a more complicated and multidimensional process, which cannot be simply comprehended within the framework of predetermined roles and structures. Specifically, the article ethnographically investigates the policymaking practices of the Turkish tobacco regulatory agency, which was established in 2002 in return for a loan provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Nov 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 479–491 (12 total)
The Subte as Looking Machine into the City
Moebius' Trajectory through Buenos Aires
Araceli Masterson-Algar
Moebius (1996) is the first cinematographic production of the “Universidad del Cine” of Buenos Aires. It is the collective project of forty-five film students under the general direction of Gustavo Mosquera. The film narrates the mysterious disappearance of a subway train along the last addition to its underground network: the “línea perimetral.” In search for answers, a topologist named Daniel Pratt initiates an allegorical journey into Moebius, a subway trajectory that is timeless but includes all times. This article explores the role of Moebius' subway as a metaphor to understand the urban. Drawing from Buenos Aires' urban history this filmic analysis ties the Subte to Buenos Aires' processes of capital accumulation and unveils the fissures of its modern spaces.
SIMON REID‐HENRY
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Feb 2007
- Article Type:
- Book Review
- Pages:
- 123–125 (2 total)
Yasushi Uchiyamada
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Feb 2004
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 3–23 (20 total)