For a long time, the simplicity of the Physio logus stories impeded any serious attempt to understand its function. They evoke the fables of Aesop and other “sto-ries with a moral” that are often read to children. Such stories seem to have didactic but otherwise no real intellectual value and little historical significance or influence. The editor of the facsimile of the Physio logus in Ber…
From the 15th century onwards, when European mariners, explorers, and settlers started in situ observations and descriptions of tropical marine fauna, they were relying on their own eyes, mental preconceptions, as well as previously acquired knowledge. In fact, they had their own mindsets, belief systems, and understandings of the world to cope with. And the same happened with European naturali…
Both concerns and proposed solutions changed considerably in the course of Ruth Harrison’s life. While the influence of her vegetarian par-ents and Quaker beliefs loomed large over Harrison’s own campaigning, the decades after 1945 saw many older forms of civic activism and think-ing about animals’ place in society change. Economically and intellectu-ally, pre-war welfare arrange…
This open access book studies breath and breathing in literature and culture and provides crucial insights into the history of medicine, health and the emotions, the foundations of beliefs concerning body, spirit and world, the connections between breath and creativity and the phenomenology of breath and breathlessness. Contributions span the classical, medieval, early modern, Romantic, Victori…