Common Knowledge

Bynum, C. W.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2817937

In this guest column, the medieval historian Caroline Walker Bynum uses her recent experiences as a hospital volunteer advocate for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in New York City to meditate on the progressive politics of her younger days in the 1960s, on her current doubts about the efficacy of political action, and on the virtue of silent listening. the sixties volunteer advocacy sexual assault domestic violence listening

Almeida, A.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2817949

In this guest column, the author argues against Wittgenstein's aphorism that the human body is the best picture of the human soul. Such a picture, she shows, would have to include all that a person is, in some sense, inseparable from. Drawing from Plato's analogy between city and soul, and from Socrates's description of a luxurious city, this piece argues that what we are inseparable from are mostly things and persons that our body can go on without. To the extent that such things and persons, and the relationship in which we stand to them, are distinct from our bodies, what we are inseparable from is also a sign that we are not self-sufficient creatures. Thus, the piece concludes, inseparability is evidence of the species' gregariousness, and the body is only one among many tokens of a person's soul. Wittgenstein inseparability soul body gregariousness

Andersen, W.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2817961

Perl, J. M.;Forsdyke, S.;Davis, C.;Lebow, R. N.;Friedman, Y.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2817989

In this introduction to part 2 of the Common Knowledge symposium “Peace by Other Means,” the journal's editor reflects on the difference between the contributions to parts 1 and 2. Whereas the first installment concentrated on ethnography, the second focuses on the peacemaking repertoire of the Greco-Latin tradition, whose basis is psychological. That tradition is characterized by its refusal of wishful thinking about human nature and, in particular, by its doubt about claims that human drives other than thumos — the rage for self-aggrandizement — motivate the initiators of wars. Given this assumption about motive, the Greco-Latin tradition tends also to regard negotiations based on the rational discussion of material interests as unlikely to succeed. Success requires symbolic and ritual gestures — acts of self-humiliation on the part of those apparently with the greatest power — by which thumos is propitiated and pacified. Most of the introduction considers cases of such settlements, including two contemporary efforts at ritual peacemaking, a successful one by Queen Elizabeth II in Ireland and an unsuccessful one by Pope Francis in the Middle East. peacemaking ritual self-humiliation thumos Greco-Latin psychology

Forsdyke, S.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818001

This article examines a dramatic story about a slave rebellion on the island of Chios and argues that such stories were the medium through which masters and slaves negotiated compromise between the slaves' desire to be free and the masters' desire to control their slaves. This interpretation arises from a recognition of the complexity of a story that on the one hand celebrates the triumphs of a heroic slave over his masters, but on the other hand suggests that such resistance can be contained if masters treat their slaves humanely. Numerous parallels are drawn with contemporaneous and later historical societies involving compromises between subordinate groups and those who would control them. Finally, the article demonstrates that religious cults could be a medium for negotiating a middle ground, and that the story of the slave hero on Chios illustrates this function by making the slave the object of cultic worship by both masters and slaves. slavery slave revolt ancient Greece slave culture hero cult conflict resolution

Davis, C.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818013

The great Roman historian Livy describes a radical attempt at conflict resolution in his version of the story of the Horatii. The warring cities of Rome and Alba agree to settle their differences by pitting two sets of triplets against each other in a battle to the death. Two of the Roman champions, the Horatii, are killed, but the remaining brother wins the day for his city. In a further twist, he then goes on to kill his sister when he finds her grieving for one of the dead Alban brothers, to whom she was betrothed. Although guilty of a dreadful crime, by the will of the people the murderer is spared because of his services to the state. In the version of the story dramatized by the seventeenth-century French playwright Pierre Corneille, it is rather the Roman king who saves the surviving Horatius by deeming that his heroism places him above the law. This article considers whether the interests of the state can offset private crimes, as appears to be the case in the versions of the story told by both Livy and Corneille; and it concludes by referring to Livy's continuation of the story, which shows the resolution of the conflict to be short-lived. Livy Pierre Corneille Rome ancient history Horatii conflict resolution

Lebow, R. N.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818025

This contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Peace by Other Means” argues that the drive for self-esteem, achieved by gaining honor or standing, has been a root cause of violent conflict and war throughout history and that peace-making that does not take account of what the Greeks called thumos is bound to fail. Using an original data set of all wars since 1648 (the Peace of Westphalia) involving great or rising powers, the essay shows how wars associated with honor, standing, and revenge, all expressions of thumos , far outnumber those caused by security or material concerns. At the same time, it is argued, diplomacy and the theory of international relations have turned increasingly toward belief that conflicts are resolved only by negotiation based on the rational consideration of material interests. The author concludes that conflict resolution needs to rethink its presumptions in comparison with those of Greco-Latin literature and philosophy. thumos self-esteem honor great powers war

Friedman, Y.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818037

Crusaders and Muslims each applied to their conflict in the Latin East a doctrine of holy war. Although so ideological a stance toward each other would seem to preclude peacemaking efforts, some 120 treaties were signed between parties to the conflict during the two-century Latin presence in the Holy Land (1097 – 1291). Explored here is how each party overcame this incongruity between ideology and praxis and sought a “small peace,” which is temporary and practical, rather than “great peace,” which is a final settlement. Features of these peace-making efforts examined here include the temporal nature of the treaties, the need for a pretext for making peace, gestural language and public ceremonies, gift giving, meal sharing, and oath taking that demonstrate familiarity with one's opponent's beliefs. Also considered is the interplay between state and nonstate entities in peacemaking endeavors and how it reflected the balance of power in the medieval Latin arena. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the shifting historical circumstances that ended medieval peacemaking in the East. holy war jihad peacemaking Crusades Latin Kingdom

Wiegers, G.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818117

Bellos, D.;

2015 Common Knowledge

doi: 10.1215/0961754X-2818201