On the Very Idea of an Ideal Type

The concept of ideal type plays an essential role in Max Weber’s social science. Unfortunately Weber failed to explain exactly what an ideal type really is. This question cannot be answered as long as the source of the concept is not identified. We will examine some possible sources and argue that the work of the physicist and physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz is the most plausible source. Our purpose is to show that a consideration of several key essays by Helmholtz shows what Weber meant with his concept of ideal type: namely the result of a specific kind of induction

The Reexamination of Location Choices for Pyramids Complexes From the Third through the Sixth Dynasties

This dissertation is the first overview of location choices for Early Dynastic Period (2900-2545 B.C.E) and Old Kingdom (2543-2118 B.C.E) pyramid complexes since Miroslav Bárta’s 2005 article “Location of the Old Kingdom Pyramids in Egypt.” The factors that went into the decision of Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom pharaohs for the locations of their pyramid complexes is based on a variety of geological, religious, and historical contexts. An overview and analysis of the geology of the seventy-one-kilometer stretch of pyramid complexes from Abu Rawash to Meidum will be conducted. Additionally, the overall history of each site prior to the construction of their pyramid complexes will be discussed as well. While the first pyramid complex ever constructed in ancient Egyptian history comes from the Third Dynasty (2592-2544 B.C.E), many of the eight sites discussed in this dissertation: Abu Rawash, Giza, Zawiyet el-Aryan, Abusir, Saqqara, South Saqqara, Dahshur, and Meidum had a history prior to the construction of the first pyramid complex. Outside of the political histories that incorporated the Early Dynastic Period, the history of construction and monumental architecture that emerged at these sites prior to the first pyramid complex of Djoser at Saqqara will be discussed as well. Further analysis will also delve into the larger religious symbolism and veneration of the past that pharaohs portrayed in choosing a location for their complex. This includes looking at the ancient Egyptian sense of the past and how they viewed their own history. Of course, this data will lean towards the elite members of society, more specifically the pharaoh, because most surviving textual and archaeological sources on pyramid complexes dealt with the pharaoh. As this dissertation will show, the ancient Egyptian sense of the past and how a pharaoh used that past to display their power changed over the course of the almost 500 year period that made up the Old Kingdom. Together, these facets are undeniably part of larger reasons why the Third through Sixth Dynasty pyramid sites of chosen. While there are undoubtedly more reasons than what is listed, the three factors mentioned above: geological, religious, and historical, are at the forefront of the current study. With their analysis, I will provide a clearer picture of understanding the mindset of the pharaohs who built their pyramid complexes from Abu Rawash to Meidum during the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom

Comprehensive Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics, Third Edition

The Comprehensive Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics is an updated, expanded, and corrected edition of the print book published some twenty years ago by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag (Newman 1996). The outpouring of new publications on Chadic and Hausa in the ensuing years created the need for an updated bibliography. The first edition of this online bibliography was published in 2012 at Bayreuth University, the second edition in 2013 at Indiana University (http://hdl.handle.net/2022/16600), and the current third edition in 2015, also at Indiana University. This comprehensive bibliography covers all works written on Chadic and Hausa languages and linguistics dating from 1790 to the present. In addition to published books and articles, the bibliography includes unpublished Ph.D. dissertations and master's theses. The bibliography is international in scope and covers works regardless of the language in which they were written. For example, there are close to a hundred works written in Hausa. Titles of works in languages other than English, French, or German are accompanied by English translations. Russian titles in Cyrillic script are transliterated into Roman script. Book reviews are listed under the entry for the book being reviewed. A new feature of this 3rd edition is the addition of a Book Review Author Index, which indicates all the books that any individual has reviewed. Finally, the bibliography contains a section consisting of obituaries, (auto-) biographical essays, and related works on major scholars, now deceased, who have contributed significantly to Chadic or Hausa linguistics

Hydrogen in the Urban Setting - Understanding the role of hydrogen in the energy transition of Berlin through the lens of the Multi-Level-Perspective

Climate action can be seen in economic, political, cultural and social processes around the globe. Rarely are these processes more visible than in the context of sustainable urban transition. With a growing population, especially in urban areas, the question of how to sustain this growth in terms of energy production and resource use is becoming more apparent. It is clear that a sustainable transition is becoming a task for multiple actors involved in urban development. The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) provides a transition-theoretical framework in which socio-technical processes are explored at three levels - the landscape, the regime, and the niche. The dynamics within and across these levels are described with drivers and barriers to understand a transition over time. In the context of a city-state like Berlin, the MLP faces limitations that are addressed through a multi-actor approach while also acknowledging the involvement of a multi-level governance structure through local and national policy-making processes. This thesis unpacks the role of hydrogen in Berlin's energy transition by operationalizing the MLP framework and analyzing the key conditions under which hydrogen has evolved in the past. Through expert interviews complemented by document analysis I describe the conditions necessary for its diffusion into a broader implementation of the energy system. Finally, the feasibility of the theoretical framework used, to understand past and future transition processes, is discussed. My empirical analysis shows that a successful hydrogen breakthrough in Berlin requires political legislation (landscape changes) to drive additional technical advances in production, storage, and infrastructure (regime adjustments). These findings confirm the dynamic nature of the MLP framework and demonstrate its practicality when applied in an urban context, allowing exploration of future opportunities for niche technologies.Climate action can be seen in economic, political, cultural and social processes around the globe. Rarely are these processes more visible than in the context of sustainable urban transition. With a growing population, especially in urban areas, the question of how to sustain this growth in terms of energy production and resource use is becoming more apparent. It is clear that a sustainable transition is becoming a task for multiple actors involved in urban development. The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) provides a transition-theoretical framework in which socio-technical processes are explored at three levels - the landscape, the regime, and the niche. The dynamics within and across these levels are described with drivers and barriers to understand a transition over time. In the context of a city-state like Berlin, the MLP faces limitations that are addressed through a multi-actor approach while also acknowledging the involvement of a multi-level governance structure through local and national policy-making processes. This thesis unpacks the role of hydrogen in Berlin's energy transition by operationalizing the MLP framework and analyzing the key conditions under which hydrogen has evolved in the past. Through expert interviews complemented by document analysis I describe the conditions necessary for its diffusion into a broader implementation of the energy system. Finally, the feasibility of the theoretical framework used, to understand past and future transition processes, is discussed. My empirical analysis shows that a successful hydrogen breakthrough in Berlin requires political legislation (landscape changes) to drive additional technical advances in production, storage, and infrastructure (regime adjustments). These findings confirm the dynamic nature of the MLP framework and demonstrate its practicality when applied in an urban context, allowing exploration of future opportunities for niche technologies

Soviet-Yugoslav reconciliation as a basic for understanding Tito's role in Hungarian revolution of 1956.

This paper analyzes Soviet-Yugoslav relations in the context of the first major crisis between the two countries that started in 1948. The focus is on the period after Stalin’s death, which was followed by a period of detente and reconciliation. This process was not without tensions because the interests of the two countries were in opposition to one another. While the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, wanted to return Yugoslavia to the Soviet sphere of influence, Tito considered Yugoslav independence won during the conflict with Stalin as his foreign policy priority. Due to these circumstances, the Hungarian rebellion in the autumn of 1956 against the Soviet occupation was the catalyst for further development of relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR, and these relations are a necessary frame of reference for understanding the politics of Yugoslavia during this Hungarian crisis

Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics

The Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics (OBCHL), henceforth the ‘biblio’, is an updated, expanded, and corrected edition of the bibliography published some fifteen years ago by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag (Newman 1996). That biblio was built on valuable earlier works including Hair (1967), Newman (1971), Baldi (1977), R. M. Newman (1979), Awde (1988), and Barreteau (1993). The ensuing years have witnessed an outpouring of new publications on Chadic and Hausa, written by scholars from around the globe, thereby creating the need for a new, up-to-date bibliography. Data gathered for this online edition, which was compiled using EndNote, an excellent and easy to use bibliographic database program, have come from my own library and internet searches as well as from a variety of published sources. Particularly valuable have been the reviews of the earlier bibliography, most notably the detailed review article by Baldi (1997), the Hausa and Chadic entries in the annual Bibliographie Linguistique, compiled over the past dozen years by Dr. Joe McIntyre, and the very useful list of publications found regularly in Méga-Tchad. A subsequent third edition of this work can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/2022/20576

Energy Transition and Transformation. The World, the European Union and Poland

The main aim of this publication is to expose the reader to basic problems and directions of research into processes and changes in energy structures and technologies. The present work is primarily an overview with regard to a presentation of theoretical aspects of technology and energy paradigms as well as theoretical aspects of energy transitions and transformations. The reference materials that have been gathered and written up, and which concern the research problem have been supplemented with the author’s own conclusions and evaluations. The theoretical issues have been supplemented with two case studies concerned with a transformation of coal paradigms. In the former case an analysis is performed of the transformation of coal paradigm in the world and member states of the European Union, while in the latter case the analysis focuses on the transformation of coal paradigm in Poland. In both cases a long historical perspective has been adopted so as to demonstrate the main points of energy substitution or a lack thereof. The presentation of theoretical issues, which encompasses such categories as a “paradigm,” a “transition” and a “transformation” is intended to demonstrate a logical sequence between T.S. Kuhn’s concept of science, evolutionary economics, J.A. Schumpeter’s innovation studies, innovation studies within the neo-Schumpeterian trend and variants of social study of technology. The acceptance of a possibility of change of technology and energy paradigms results in referring to analyses addressing the issues concerned with energy transitions and transformations. It must be pointed out that in the source literature various terms are used to define processes and changes in the energy industry, e.g. a transition, a transformation and a revolution. Sometimes use of a specific term is made because of a methodological and theoretical position taken or because of ideological inclinations; at other times a choice of a given term is made for instrumental reasons. An intentional distinction of kinds of processes and changes can be exemplified with the typology put forward by F.G. Geels and J. Schot. It considers a reproduction, a technological substitution, a transformation, a reconfiguration and a shift with a return to stability. In a narrow sense, processes and changes in the energy industry usually come down to the issues concerned with the substitution of carriers or energy technologies, while broader approaches allow for a role of a great many factors in the processes and changes, e.g. cultural, social, institutional and political ones; also, a variety of effects of substitutions is pointed to. It is well-nigh impossible to present in the introduction all the researchers whose works have contributed to the study of processes and changes in energy structures and technologies. One part of this work makes a synthesis of the main research directions. For this purpose, use is made of earlier research papers, which have been supplemented with the author’s own conclusions. Still, it is worth naming such figures as R. Fouquet, A. Grübler, C. Marchetti, N. Nakićenović, P.J.G. Pearson, V. Smil and B.K. Sovacool. With regard to the contribution to the synthesis of the studies of processes and changes in the energy industry, it is worth mentioning the following texts: Energy transitions research: Insights and cautionary tales by A. Grübler, How long will it take? Conceptualizing the temporal dynamics of energy transitions by B.K. Sovacool, and Integrating techno-economic, socio-technical and political perspectives on national energy transitions: A meta-theoretical framework by A. Cherp, V. Vinichenko, J. Jewell, E. Brutschin, B.K. Sovacool. As for the significance of quantitative research with regard to turning points and pace of energy substitutions, it is worth mentioning a joint publication by N. Nakićenović and C. Marchetti entitled The Dynamics of Energy Systems and the Logistic Substitution Model, and another joint publication by N. Nakićenović and A. Grübler entitled The Dynamic Evolution of Methane Technologies. With regard to the contribution to the analyses considering further-reaching historical perspectives, and with regard to in-depth research into the services of end-use of lighting, transport and energy supply, it is worth mentioning texts by R. Fouquet and P.J.G. Pearson, e.g. Five Centuries of Energy Prices and Seven Centuries of Energy Services: The Price and Use of Light in the United Kingdom (1300–2000). With regard to the contribution to the synthetic approach to energy structure transformations in Europe in a further-reaching historical perspective, it is worth mentioning a publication edited by A. Kander, P. Malanima and P. Warde entitled Power to the People: Energy in Europe over the Last Five Centuries. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning V. Smil, whose works are most comprehensive and include synthetic approaches to changes in energy structures in longer time-frames and analyses of turning points and pace of energy substitutions. V. Smil is also an author of many publications which aim to introduce the reader to the subject of energy and energy technologies

Poetics of the same: a philosophical poetic recourse into sameness

PhDThis study endeavours to investigate the philosophical and poetological dimensions, the philological origins, and significant philosophical-literary representations of the Same. It also assesses sameness as a philosophical and poetological modus operandi; that is to say, it analyzes the ways in which the Same operates in different types of discourses both as an object of investigation and as an agent of (poetic) thought. The concept of the Same or the operation of sameness as the philosophical question par excellence will be considered in the development of Continental philosophy and philosophical poetics from classical antiquity to Postmodernism, and its transposition into poetry. The elaboration of the issue of sameness encompasses any philosophical inquiry which seeks to establish the essence of Being and make it susceptible to a general, unifying principle: as a search for an underlying element; for a metaphysical unity or universal, preceding division or difference and amounting to the harmony in the Universe; or for a transcendental absolute totality. Postulations of the pure conceptual difference are likewise examined as part of the elaboration of sameness, and will be viewed as indispensable for revealing the genuine plenitude of sameness. Part One traces the inception of sameness as a concept of pure identity, amounting to the harmony of the Universe by virtue of the operations of belonging (Presocratics), participation (Plato), and emanation (Plotinus), anchored in the relationships between the One and the many, between the Whole and its parts, between the Original and the copy. Part Two inquires into the limits of postulating sameness in terms of pure identity and points to two possible solutions to this problem: a philosophical-aesthetic digression from sameness (Kant and related aesthetic theories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) and the return to sameness as an absolute totality in Part Three (Schelling and Hegel). Part Four investigates the re-postulation of sameness as pure Difference (Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida), hence the entire re-organization of thought in terms of the other. Part Five analyzes the transposition of sameness from 3 philosophy into the poetic language of repetition, using Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus as its prime poetic example. It will be argued that the philosophical displacement of the Same from a concept of identity into that of difference does not amount to an abandonment of its plenitude, but rather points to the need for a precarious balance between sameness and difference, the simultaneous quest for unity and the absolute singularity of the other. This balance, it will be argued, must be sought for in every genuine creation