In kapitalistischen Gesellschaften ist die Bedrohung eines ökonomischen Scheiterns allgegenwärtig. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit von Historiker*innen verdient der spezifische soziale Umgang mit ...scheiternden Kredit- und Schuldbeziehungen. Eric Häusler nimmt sich in einer praxisorientierten Quellenanalyse fast 600 Berner Geldstagsrödel (Konkursakten) an. Er beschreibt über 150 Jahre hinweg die Alltäglichkeit des Scheiterns und interpretiert in interdisziplinärer Perspektive den Geldstag als Verfahren, das den bedrohten Haushalten immer auch Zukunftsperspektiven eröffnete. Dieses solidarische Konkursregime weicht deutlich vom Leitmotiv des herrschenden Konkursnarrativs - Nichts als Elend! - ab.
•Electric discharge in gases was of major interest in late the 19th century.•X-rays was one of the 4 top physics discoveries within that narrow period.•Education in engineering and physics made ...Röntgen an outstanding experimentalist.•Röntgen’s self-critical and ingenious character was decisive for his discovery.
Röntgen’s discovery of a new type of radiation is the epochal event in a series of highlights of physics emerging within only a few decades of the late 19th century. As these discoveries are directly or indirectly rooting in the study of the phenomenon of electric discharge in gases a brief look at the physics scenario in the immediate pre-X-ray era is presented in the first section. Rather than just the fortune with the bold it is Röntgen’s character as a diligent, self-critical and ingenious scientist which made his discovery possible. This will be illustrated in the sections on Röntgen’s personal life and some specific details of his experiments leading to the discovery of X-rays. Finally, a short overview is given on the potential and the large variety of applications of X-rays.
Editions and translations were a major part of the work of French philosophers in the 19th century. They were not considered trivial tasks but philosophical works unto themselves. In this article, I ...show that to be considered as such, it is necessary to identify the reasons that would spark an author’s interest in the text he was publishing and the effects he expected from its publication in the philosophical field. I focus on the case of Blaise Pascal in the second half of the 19th century. My goal is to underline that the matter of Pascal’s inclusion or exclusion from the philosophical “canon” led two philosophers, who were hostile to his thought, to publish Pascal’s Pensées: Ernest Havet and Léon Brunschvicg. Their aim was not to declare themselves “against” Pascal but rather to integrate their edition of his texts into their own philosophical projects.
