CONTENTS - VOL. 19, NUMBER 3, September 2009
RELATIVISM VERSUS UNIVERSALISM
& ERNST HANS GOMBRICH
JÁN BAKO: Introductory:
Gombrich's Struggle against Metaphysics ... 239
NORBERT SCHNEIDER: Form of Thought and Presentational Gesture in Karl Popper and
E.H. Gombrich ... 251
KAREN LANG: "Sir Ernst Gombrich and the Barber from Tuscany" ... 259
LADISLAV KESNER: Gombrich and the Problem of Relativity of Vision ... 266
JAN MICHL: E. H. Gombrich's Adoption of the Formula Form Follows Function: A
Case of Mistaken Identity? ... 274
VARDAN AZATYAN: Cold-war Twins: Mikhail Alpatov's A Universal History of Arts
and Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art ... 289
ANDREW HEMINGWAY: E. H. Gombrich in 1968: Methodological Individualism and the
Contradictions of Conservatism ... 297
JAMES ELKINS: Ten Reasons Why E. H. Gombrich Is Not Connected to Art History ...
304
ARTICLES
AKINPELU O. OLUTAYO, AYOKUNLE O.
OMOBOWALE, JIMOH AMZAT: Privatization and the Social Value of Water in Africa
... 311
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
ROMAN MADZIA: John Dewey's Ethics:
Democracy as Experience
ABSTRACTS
INTRODUCTORY: GOMBRICH'S STRUGGLE
AGAINST METAPHYSICS
JÁN BAKO
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0037-5
E-mail: dejubaja@savba.sk
Abstract: The paper deals with E.
H.Gombrich's lifelong polemics against metaphysics in art history and the
humanities. They began in 1937 and continued up until his final (posthumous)
book The Preference for the Primitives. Analyzing the "fallacies" and
"pitfalls" resulting from metaphysical collectivism, essentialism,
expressionism, holism and relativism such as a "belief in hypostatized
collective personalities" and "style as a super-artist" or "physiognomic
fallacy", Gombrich also unmasked their ideological implications. He first
targeted nationalism and racialism, then the perils of totalitarianism and
finally all forms of relativism. Gombrich's plea for the universality of the
"canon of excellence" can be regarded not only as a defence of
humanism but also as a form of apology for the values of Western liberal
democratic society
Keywords: metaphysics; relativism;
art history; Gombrich.
Pp. 239-250
FORM OF THOUGHT AND
PRESENTATIONAL GESTURE IN KARL POPPER AND E. H. GOMBRICH
NORBERT SCHNEIDER
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0038-4
E-mail: held-schneider@t-online.de
Abstract: The paper deals with
common elements and differences in Popper and Gombrich, especially concerning
their forms of thought and presentational gesture. Among others it considers the
model of common sense which was basal for both of them as well as the
similarities of searchlight theory (Popper) and some postulates of Gestalt
psychology (Gombrich). At the end it analyses their approaches to historiography
with special focusing on Gombrich's comments on the concept of social history of
art.
Keywords: criterion of simplicity;
searchlight theory; compositional schemas; Viennese School; social history of
art.
Pp. 251-258
SIR ERNST GOMBRICH AND THE BARBER
FROM TUSCANY
KAREN LANG
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0039-3
E-mail: klang@usc.edu
Abstract: In the spirit of Sir Ernst
Gombrich, this essay uses an anecdote-a chat between Gombrich and a barber from
Tuscany-to illustrate a deeper point, namely, how cultural memory, tradition,
and a canon give rise to an implied language of culture and cultural value.
Gombrich staunchly defended tradition against relativism. By relativism, he
meant something like "radical subjectivism." To his mind, subjectivism
(in the cultural and social sense of the term) is not only impossible, since
meaning is conferred through culture and society, but it is also dangerous (in
the cultural and ethical sense of the term), since it denies the existence of
shared values. Against consensus on the one hand and radical subjectivism on the
other, Gombrich advocated a middle way: criticism and self-criticism to ensure
latitude; the search for "truth" to ensure a limited plurality of
interpretations.
Keywords: canon; cultural memory; E.
H. Gombrich; relativism; tradition.
Pp. 259-265
GOMBRICH AND THE PROBLEM OF
RELATIVITY OF VISION
LADISLAV KESNER
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0040-x
E-mail: lkesner@cultropa.cz
Abstract: The essay argues that
Ernst Gombrich's views are relevant to the critical examination of the notion of
the relativity and historicity of vision which has been widely accepted as one
of the central axioms shared by visual studies, art history and film studies.
Keywords: Gombrich; vision;
visuality; plasticity.
Pp. 266-273
E. H. GOMBRICH'S ADOPTION OF THE
FORMULA FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY?
JAN MICHL
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0041-9
E-mail: michl.nor@gmail.com
Abstract: This article is a longer
note on what is a minor problem in the oeuvre of a great art historian. Its
theme is E. H. Gombrich's use of the formula form follows function as the
summary of his commonsense approach to the problem of style change. Although I
am not sure how interesting this inquiry is in an art historical context, from
the perspective of my own field of design history and of modernist design theory,
Gombrich's adoption of the formula constitutes an intriguing problem.
Keywords: design theory; "form
follows function"; modernism; functionalism; E. H. Gombrich; H. W. Janson.
Pp. 274-288
COLD-WAR TWINS: MIKHAIL ALPATOV'S
A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF ARTS AND ERNST GOMBRICH'S THE STORY OF ART
VARDAN AZATYAN
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0042-8
E-mail: vardanazatyan@yahoo.com
Abstract: This article deals with
the "afterlife" of a methodological disagreement in the Vienna School
of Art History between the positions of Alois Riegl and Julius von Schlosser in
Mikhail Alpatov's and Ernst Gombrich's art history survey texts published during
the Cold War on different sides of the Iron Curtain. Though these surveys are
methodological antipodes, the difference itself, I argue, is possible only
within the framework of the larger art historical discourse they share. In
addition, I will draw on the radical ideological critique of Alpatov's survey
inside the Soviet Union and the case of the Stalinist survey meant to replace it,
in order to address the ideological commonality between Alpatov's and Gombrich's
surveys.
Keywords: general art history; Cold
War; Vienna School; Alpatov; Gombrich.
Pp. 289-296
E. H. GOMBRICH IN 1968:
METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF CONSERVATISM
ANDREW HEMINGWAY
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0043-7
E-mail: a.hemingway@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract: The commonalities Gombrich
affirmed between his own positions on science, politics, and art and those of
his friend Karl Popper are key to understanding both his work on the history of
style and the conservative fulminations on method he published from the early
1950s onwards. United with Popper by their shared experience of exile from
fascism, Gombrich failed to register the amateurish character of Popper's
political theory and that his aversion to notions of social determination
disabled the historian. Popper's skepticism regarding the ontological status of
social collectivities and rejection of the concept of totality reinforced
Gombrich's suspicions of holistic analysis and led him to fall back on
naturalistic descriptions of individuals acting in a social world glued together
by such commonsensical categories as "traditions" and "institutions".
In this regard he is representative of the common aversion to sociology of the
British intellectual establishment in the early Cold War.
Keywords: methodological
individualism; conservatism; philosophy of science; art history.
Pp. 297-303
TEN REASONS WHY E. H. GOMBRICH IS
NOT CONNECTED TO ART HISTORY
JAMES ELKINS
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0044-6
E-mail: jameselkins@fastmail.fm
Abstract: This is a speculative
essay on the place of E.H. Gombrich in art history. Gombrich is universally
known, and still often studied at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He is
indispensable for the historiography of the discipline. But at the same time, he
is not often cited, and his work is not usually part of the ongoing
conversations of the current state of art history or visual studies. This brief
essay questions that condition.
Keywords: art history; history of
art; Kunstgeschichte; Gombrich, E.H.; Gombrich; historiography.
Pp. 304-310
PRIVATIZATION AND THE SOCIAL
VALUE OF WATER IN AFRICA
AKINPELU O. OLUTAYO, AYOKUNLE O. OMOBOWALE, JIMOH AMZAT
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0045-5
E-mail: olutayoao@mopipi.ub.bw
Abstract: The paper assesses the
current clamor and actual privatization of water in Africa. Though this is said
to be done in view of wastage and declining access of people to water, this
paper submits that the transformation of the social value of water to economic,
is rather a continuation of capitalist quest for profit making, which eventually
is at the expense of the poor majority.
Keywords: water; privatization;
Africa; social and economic value.
Pp. 311-319
