A Key to Dutch History

Many people know the stories behind the tulip mania in the 17th century and the legacy of the Dutch East India Company, but what basic knowledge of Dutch history and culture should be passed on to future generations? A Key to Dutch History and its resulting overview of historical highlights, assembled by a number of specialists in consultation with the Dutch general public, provides a thought-provoking and timely answer. The democratic process behind the volume is reminiscent of the way in which the Netherlands has succeeded for centuries at collective craftsmanship, and says as much about the Netherlands as does the outcome of the opinions voiced. The Cultural Canon of the Netherlands consists of a list of fifty topics from Dutch culture and history, varying from the megalithic tombs in the province of Drenthe and Willem of Orange to the Dutch constitution and the vast natural gas field in the province of Groningen. These fifty topics act as a framework for understanding and even studying Dutch culture and history. The canon should lead to further understanding and deepening of our knowledge of our past and act as an inspirational source for pupils, students and the public at large

Beheer van duinbossen : verslag veldwerkplaats - duin en kust, PWN Waterleidingbedrijf Noord-Holland, Castricum, 4 juni 2010

De variatie in bostypen wordt in het jonge duinlandschap vooral bepaald door twee belangrijke factoren: water en kalk, zo vertelt Patrick Hommel (Alterra). Natte bossen die permanent onder invloed staan van het grondwater (broekbossen) zijn altijd erg zeldzaam geweest in de duinstreek. Vochtige bossen die in het winterhalfjaar regelmatig onder water lopen, waren vroeger - vooral in het middenduin - veel algemener. Het waren lage bossen (of hoge struwelen!) met veel zachte berk in de boomlaag en een zeer soortenrijke kruidlaag met veelal een hoog aandeel van watermunt. Door verdroging en de daarop volgende verzuring zijn deze bossen sterk van karakter veranderd en de oorspronkelijke soortenrijkdom krijg je waarschijnlijk ook niet meer teru

The periphrastic perfect in Ancient Greek: a diachronic mental space analysis

In the present article, I apply Fauconniers mental spaces theory to the diachronic analysis of the Ancient Greek periphrastic perfect. I argue that the periphrastic construction started out as a resultative perfect, with FOCUS and EVENT located in the same mental space. I show that, contrary to what is sometimes believed, the construction was not limited to a purely stative meaning, but underwent the cross-linguistically attested semantic shift from resultative to anterior, whereby an additional non-FOCUS EVENT-space was constructed. In fourth-century Classical Greek, we witness the further extension of the periphrastic construction with regard to semantics, morphology and discourse context. I close the article with some remarks on the possible aoristicisation of the periphrastic perfect

Aristotle on the Matter for Birth, Life, and the Elements

This essay considers three case studies of Aristotle’s use of matter, drawn from three different scientific contexts: menstrual fluid as the matter of animal generation in the Generation of Animals, the living body as matter of an organism in Aristotle’s On the Soul (De Anima), and the matter of elemental transformation in Generation and Corruption. I argue that Aristotle conceives of matter differently in these treatises (1) because of the different sorts of changes under consideration, and (2) because sometimes he is considering the matter for one specific change, and sometimes the matter for all of a thing’s natural changes. My account allows me to explain some of the strange features that Aristotle ascribes to the matter for elemental transformation in Generation and Corruption II. These features were interpreted by later commentators as general features of all matter. I argue that they are a result of the specific way that Aristotle thinks about the transmutation of the elements

From Craft to Nature: The Emergence of Natural Teleology

A teleological explanation is an explanation in terms of an end or a purpose. So saying that ‘X came about for the sake of Y’ is a teleological account of X. It is a striking feature of ancient Greek philosophy that many thinkers accepted that the world should be explained in this way. However, before Aristotle, teleological explanations of the cosmos were generally based on the idea that it had been created by a divine intelligence. If an intelligent power made the world, then it makes sense that it did so with a purpose in mind, so grasping this purpose will help us understand the world. This is the pattern of teleological explanation that we find in the Presocratics and in Plato. However, with Aristotle teleology underwent a change: instead of thinking that the ends were explanatory because a mind had sought to bring them about, Aristotle took the ends to operate in natural beings independently of the efforts of any creative intelligence. Indeed, he thought that his predecessors had failed to understand what was distinctive of nature, namely, that its ends work from the inside of natural beings themselves