"Soft" Area Studies versus "Hard" Social Science: A False Opposition

Author(s): Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor

Source: Slavic Review, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring, 2007), pp. 1-19
Published by: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20060144
Accessed: 10-11-2015 07:55 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20060144?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Slavic Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARTICLES

versus

"Soft" Area Studies

A False Opposition
Loren

Graham

"Hard" Social

Science:

Kantor

and Jean-Michel

on the
criticism
of area studies has been
based
that, in
opinion
to
area studies are "soft."
to "hard" social science,
According
comparison
social science
this line of argument,
mathematics,
rig
theory,
emphasizes
from
orous methods,
and therefore
and replicability,
escapes
falsifiability
are
studies approaches
of area studies. Area
the contextualism
allegedly
or "historical," while
social science
is "rig
"cultural,"
merely
"descriptive,"
of government
Bates of the department
orous" and "scientific." As Robert
of the comparative
at Harvard
when he was president
observed
University
"Those who
Science Association,
Political
of
the
American
section
politics
seek to identify
lawful regularities
'social scientists'
themselves
consider
must
not be context
And he also noted,
bound."1
which
by implication
has
that area studies
has formed
the consensus
the academy,
"Within
in
As
Sheila
Biddle
remarked
to generate
scientific
failed
knowledge."2
so
of
American
her recent
the
"internationalization"
of
universities,
study
as atheoretical,
to dismiss
area-based
"tend
cial scientists
knowledge
than
rather
explanatory,
descriptive
methodologically
unsophisticated,
to the
So
contributions
substantial
and incapable
of making
discipline."3
on
a
themselves
cial scientists
often pride
approach
taking
quantitative
area with
in any cultural
that could,
they imply, be applied
equally good
effect.
that the best
is based on the assumption
This criticism
of area studies
one
comes
from a single cognitive
that incor
social analysis
approach,
In this ar
and
methods,
mathematics,
porates
replicability.
quantitative
and propose
that the best social analy
this assumption
ticle, we examine
the
sis should
several different
cognitive
styles, of which
incorporate
on
and
method
methods,
mathematics,
reproducibil
relying
quantitative
one.
ity is only
of mathematics.
Some quantitative
First, let us take up the question
assume
and quantitative
methods
stand
that mathematics
social analysts
the
truth. They
and form a kind of absolute
outside
social context
ignore
we
the
mathematics
also has a contextual
fact that mathematics
history;
use
is not the same as the mathe
century,
today, early in the twenty-first

Much

1. Robert

H.

Bates,

"Area

Studies

and

A Useful

the Discipline:

Political

Controversy?"

Science and Politics 30, no. 2 (June 1997): 166.

2. Robert

Bates,

"Letter

from

the President:

Area

Studies

and

Newslet

the Discipline,"

terof theAPSA 7, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 1-2.

3.
Societies

Sheila

Biddle,
Occasional

Internationalization:
Paper,

no.

56

Rhetoric

(New York,

or

2002),

Reality
69.

fAmerican

Council

of Learned

Slavic Review 66, no. 1 (Spring 2007)

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Slavic Review

used a century
of science
Ian Hack
ago. As the philosopher
people
so
as
a
often
of
of
eternal
observed,
"Mathematics,
ing
thought
body
come
as
are con
in time, and objects
into being
truths, takes place
they
structed."4 Mathematicians
and historians
of mathematics
often find that
to understand
the best way
of "coming
those moments
into being"
is
a contextual
of
Instead
mathematics
through
analysis.
being
something
area studies
untouchable
in fact this approach
is often a
by the
approach,
how mathematics
very useful way to explain
developed.
The most
ardent defenders
of quantitative
social science
often make
nature
about
the
of
science
and
mathematics
that many
assumptions
are uncertain
scientists
and mathematicians
In this crit
about
themselves.
area studies we sometimes
icism of "qualitative"
witness
social scientists
more
a few natural
to
be
"scientific"
than
scientists
and
trying
quite
mathematicians.
two different
We explore
of the roles that social influences
examples
one
in the development
of mathematics,
have played
the very
concerning
use
a
of mathematics,
and another
foundations
its
for
concerning
partic
In the first case, concerning
ular purpose.
the birth of set theory, the ques
are the
of study within
tion is raised, What
the field of
legitimate
objects
to application)?
In
mathematics
itself (without
the
second
case,
regard
How
the
should
mathematics
be
is,
relativity,
question
concerning
general
area of
to a
a
that
context
The
fact
social
applied
particular
physics?
plays
are more will
is significant,
since quite a few people
role in both examples
on the "use" of mathematics
social influences
than they are
ing to grant
on its theoretical
foundations.
For that reason we start with a controversy
over the foundations
of mathematics
that arose at the end of the nine
teenth and the beginning
of the twentieth
in France
century,
particularly
In this dispute,
and Russia.
contextual
factors were of pivotal
importance.
we examine
In our conclusion,
of this analysis
the significance
for social
to the study of society
scientists who
think that by applying mathematics
social context.
they have escaped
matics

of mathematics
about the foundations
have gone on for
the birth of the discipline,
mathematicians
have argued
or "created."
is "discovered"
Ifmathematics
about whether
mathematics
is
of its creation
then the conditions
could be of great importance.
created,
to answer
in their attempts
have differed
Mathematicians
this
greatly
two
the
but
in
modern
of
best-known
schools
of
the
times,
question,
phi
on the views of the German
have centered
math
losophy of mathematics
David Hilbert
who took a realist position,
and the
ematician
(1862-1943),
L. E. J. Brouwer
who developed
the
Dutch mathematician
(1881-1966),
most
school.5
intuitionist
mathematicians
Although
today
philosophical
the foundations
of mathe
about
agree with Hilbert,
questions
probably
be with us forever.
matics will doubtlessly
Controversies
centuries.
Since

4.

Ian Hacking,
Hilbert,
deutender Mathematiker
5. On

duction

(Amsterdam,

The

Social

see Constance
(Berlin,

44.
Mass.,
1999),
of What?
(Cambridge,
Hilbert
be
(Berlin,
1970); H. Wussing,
Biographien
see A.
On Brouwer,
Intuitionism:
An Intro
Heyting,

Construction
Reid,
1975).

1966).

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"Soft" Area Studies

versus

"Hard" Social Sciences: A False Opposition

even be arrogant,
for us to try to say which
It is unnecessary,
and would
in
is "correct." Great, but somewhat
work has been done
school
different,
for both people
in area studies and their
But it is useful
both
traditions.
to notice
that some of the world's
critics in the social sciences
significant
is necessary
for an un
that
contextualism
mathematicians
have
thought
Hermann
of the history
of their field. When
often de
Weyl,
derstanding
of the last century,
influential
mathematicians
scribed as one of the most
he found
it necessary
tried to understand
the early history of mathematics
an area studies
to
studies.
is
often for
that
of
classical
(It
adopt
approach:
was
"area
that
the
studies"
classical
Schol
studies.)
gotten
today
original
on the
to un
in
in
is
based
that
classical
studies
order
assumption
arship
derstand
the literature,
art, religion,
architecture,
politics,
philosophy,
one must
of the ancient world,
in
and mathematics
culture
study classical
one aspect of that culture,
or try to escape
not just examine
its entirety,
In the early twentieth
from that culture.
century, Weyl was very concerned
a limit that
Is infinity only an abstraction,
the concept
with
of "infinity."
or is there an actual
cannot be attained,
(This question
gave birth
infinity?
to set theory, which will be discussed
to
In
his
effort
understand
later.6)
to the classical world, when
the evolution
of the concept, Weyl
turned
the
he
And
concluded
that
the
of
Greek
concept
concept
originated.
infinity
was rooted
in Greek
and culture.
religion
Mathematics
is the science of the infinite, its goal the symbolic compre
of the infinite with human,
that is finite, means.
hension
It is the great
achievement
of the Greeks to have made
the finite
the contrast between
and the infinite fruitful for the cognition of reality. Coming from the Ori
intuition of the infinite, the apeiron, takes hold of the
ent, the religious
Greek soul. This tension between
the finite and the infinite and its con
ciliation now become
the driving motive of Greek investigation.7
as
found
it helpful
Just
Weyl
to understand
order
early Greek

to look

at Greek
culture
and religion
in infinity, so also will we find

interest

in
it

is the mathematical
of the infinite;
science
it starts from
scratch
with
theory
to the set); the
is any well-defined
collection
of objects
(the elements
belonging
can be finite
or infinite;
sets are functions;
collection
if there
between
correspondences
a one-to-one
are said to have
two sets
exists
between
the same car
correspondence
they
can be infinite).
corre
dinal
number
As an example,
(this number
any set in one-to-one
is said to be denumerable;
with
the set of integers
its cardinal
is the Hebrew
let
spondence
6.

sets. A

Set

set

a
of 0 (No)> sometimes
with
subscript
a
defined
for sets with
order
similarly
given
or ordinal
bers are any of these cardinal
numbers
ter aleph

are

and

when

compared
in close
1882

Absolute."
"actual

possible
connection
with

This

a
limit-process).
as we will
see,

the

Mathematics

der Mengenlehre,"
W.

other.

constructed

They
and even

introduction

Ordinal

"aleph-nought."
their elements.

were

numbers
num

Transfinite
various

through
introduced

by Georg
considerations

religious
of infinity

operations
Cantor
about

in
"the

in mathematics
(called
to
infinite"
of as
Aristotle,
following
"potential
thought
sets of the real line. Later,
born
the study of
from
point
to describe
sets led to
set
and classify
such
theory.
descriptive

in opposition,
Set theory was
efforts

See Jos? Dom?nquez

Modern

each

philosophical
the first mathematical

was

infinite"

with

called
between

Ferreiros, Labyrinth of Thought: A History of Set Theory and Its Role in

(Boston,

1999);

Walter

Purkert,

"Georg

Cantor

und

die Antinomien

Bulletin de la Soci?t? math?matique de Belgique 38 (1986): 313-27;

1845-1918
Purkert,
(Basel,
Georg Cantor,
7. Hermann
God and the Universe:
Weyl,

1987).
The Open World

(New Haven,

1932),

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

8.

and

Slavic Review

to take

an

area

to understand
recent
studies
approach
explo
at the be
the
of
the
end
nineteenth
and
century
"infinity."
were much
of the twentieth,
mathematicians
concerned
the
with
ginning
or
a
an abstraction,
of
whether
is
and
"infinity"
reality
question
merely
there could be more
than one kind of infinity. Mathematicians
whether
were
in a deep
crisis over the foundations
of their discipline.8
At first the
of
exist
that
different
infinities
seemed
counterintu
many
types
thought
a
the largest of all possible
itive. After
all, is not infinity
numbers,
single
to
notice
not all
mathematicians
abstraction?
that
Nonetheless,
began
to be the same. This
issue can be most
infinities
seemed
easily explained
to
two
rather
by pointing
simple examples.
can ob
If one starts counting
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 . . . ," the process
helpful
rations

of

At

set of all the

in this series,
end. The
continue
without
viously
integers
of elements.
is one example
taken together,
has an infinite number
This
ifwe look at the set of points on a segment
of a line, it also
of infinity. Now
a
has an infinite number
of elements.
definition,
By geometrical
point has
on any
no dimensions.
of points
there are an infinite number
Therefore,
a
we
of
of
Is
"in
line.
So
here
have
another
the
segment
infinity.
example
same type as the
in
series
of
numerals
of
the
the
endless
finity"
"infinity"
on a line?
is an important
there
difference
between
of points
Clearly
in the
the series of integers given above, each of the elements
them. With
count
set can be counted.
them when we say "1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
(We actually
we never
even
the task.) By contrast, we can never
6,..."
complete
though
on a segment
count
of a line the way we counted
the numerals
the points
in
series
the
in the series above. Therefore,
the
endless
"infinity"
perhaps
on a line. In the last
from the "infinity" of points
is different
of integers
mathematician
Can
the German
years of the nineteenth
century,
Georg
tor thought
"names."9 A crucial
different
so, and he gave these infinities
names
different
is the idea of "naming." After Cantor
assigned
point here
on
a
to
to different
these infinities
seemed
take
infinities,
reality that they
was
A new world of "transfinite
numbers"
had not earlier possessed.
being
next
to
of
in
the
return
the concept
created. We will
"naming"
paragraphs.
one tries to ex
Not all mathematicians
agreed with Cantor. And when
soon
it
that
of
these
becomes
clear
differences
contextual,
opinion
plain
factors were at work. Two of the most
cultural
("area studies")
important
were
the
with
these problems
who wrestled
of mathematicians
groups
con
were
and their predominant
French
and the Russians,
viewpoints
the tradition
of
within
nected with their cultures.10 The French,
operating
were
of transfinite
numbers.
Do
Cartesian
rationalism,
very suspicious
8. Hermann
10, nos.
Zeitschrift
in Sanford
found
(Princeton,

2003),

Weyl,
1-2

"?ber

Segal,
14-41.

proaches

"The

Crisis

Grundlagenkrise
A

clear
particularly
in Mathematics,"

Georg Cantor: His Mathematics

Mass.,
Cambridge,
reprint,
called
bers
is usually
K0.
10. See Loren
Graham
to Mathematics:

neue

39-79.

(1921):

L.

9. J. W. Dauben,

die

1990).

As mentioned

and

Jean-Michel
and Russia,

France

der Mathematik,"
of
exposition

Mathematische
the

Mathematicians

can

crisis

under

be

the Nazis

and Philosophy of the Infinite (1979;

above,
Kantor,
1890-1930,"

the

set

containing

"A Comparison
Isis

(March

all natural
of Two
2006):

Cultural
56-74.

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

num

Ap

versus

"Soft" Area Studies

"Hard" Social

Sciences: A False Opposition

ex
can
The Russians,
relying and
they be defined?
they really exist? How
on a tradition
Russian
Ortho
"names"
in
of
of
the
significance
panding
were much more
toward the new types of infini
doxy,
disposed
positively
also
and
ties. The debates
very heated.11
got very complex
The French who wrestled
with set theory included
Emile Borel
(1871

and Henri Lebesgue

1956), Ren? Baire (1874-1932),

(1875-1944);

they

and at
of a great and powerful mathematical
tradition,
more
than they learned
from
them. The
first they taught
the Russians
in set theory, Dmitrii
interested
Egorov
leading Russian mathematicians
came
to Paris to
Luzin
and
Nikolai
(1883-1950),
(1869-1931)
repeatedly
lived in the academic
heart
talk with their French
They usually
colleagues.
near
Pantheon.
the
of the city in the Hotel
Parisiana,
Many years later, the
remembered
the
Russian
of
the
visitors, both for their
building
concierge
to their studies and for their religiosity.
devotion

were

the inheritors

establishment
of mathematics,
The old French
by Emile
represented
new
set
the
its
resisted
with
Picard
(1856-1941),
preoccu
stoutly
theory
numbers.
Picard acidly remarked,
"Some believers
pation with transfinite
in set theory are scholastics
who would
have loved to discuss
the proofs of
and his opponent
the existence
of God with Saint Anselme
the
Gaunilon,
set
Picard
that
he
monk
of Noirmoutiers."12
could
dismiss
thought
theory
it to discussions
of religion,
the way
the Russians
by linking
exactly
it.
they could strengthen
thought
were
The Russians
the tradition
within
of Russian mysti
speculating
a
not accept.
that
the
French
feature
of
their
could
cism,
But,
thought
won out and created
a new field of
was
it
the
Russians
who
oddly enough,
set theory, and who
in the process
created
the
mathematics,
descriptive
one of the most
movements
in
School
of Mathematics,
Moscow
powerful
mathematics.
were more
to accept
the Russians
the concept
of
willing
was that some of them were
transfinite
numbers
involved with a heretical
sect of Russian
called Name Worshippers
which
Orthodoxy
(imiaslavtsy)
a great
to
a his
act
sect
of
This
ascribed
the
has
significance
"naming."13
twentieth-century
reason
One

11.

See,

J. Hadamard,

especially,

"Cinq

lettres

sur

la th?orie

des

ensembles,"

Bulletin

de la Soci?t?Math?matique deFrance 33 (1905): 261-73.

12.
aim?

"Certains

? discuter

sont

de la th?orie
des ensembles
adeptes
de
les preuves
l'existence
de Dieu,
La
de Noirmoutiers."
Emile
Picard,

avec

des scolastiques,
Saint-Anselme

et

qui auraient
son contra

le moine
science moderne
et son ?tat actuel
(Paris,
sur l'exis
extract
from
See
Anselme
de
Allocution
2.
1909),
chapter
Cantorbery,
Proslogion
tence de Dieu
et de la
suivi de sa r?futation
(Paris,
1993).
par Gaunilon
r?ponse d Anselme
see O. L. Solo
13. E. S. Polishchuk,
also
ed., Imiaslavie:
(Moscow,
2002);
Antologiia
mina
and A. M. Khitrov,
imiaslaviia:
Sbornik dokumentov
ipublikatsii
Zabytye stranitsy
russkogo
dicteur,

(Moscow, 2001 ) ;lu. Rasskazov, Sekrety imen:Ot imiaslavii

po afonskim sobytiiam 1910-1913gg.
do filosofii iazyka (Moscow, 2000); Episkop Ilarion (Alfeev), Sviashchennaia taina tserkvi:
Vvedenie

istoriiu

i problematiku

imiaslavskikh

sporov,

vols.

1-2

(St.

Petersburg,

2002);

Pravoslavnyi vzgliad na pochitanie imeniiBozhiia: Sobytiia na Afone 1913 g. (L'viv, 2003) ;Tom
Dykstra,
Hierarchs,

on Mt.
"Heresy
1912-1914"

Niviere,

"Les moines

vi?tique
Imperial

Athos:

29, no. 2 (1988):

181-94;
Russia:
The
Imiaslavie

over

Conflict

(MA thesis,
onomatodoxes
Scott

the Name

St. Vladimir's
et
M.

l'intelligentsia

Seminary,
Russe,"

Kenworthy,

Controversy"

of God

(paper,

"Church,
American

Russian
Monks
and
among
New
York,
1988); Antoine
russe et so
du Monde
Cahiers
and Society
State,
Association
for

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

in Late
the Ad

Slavic Review

that only a person

fa
with mathematics
tory and an involvement
deeply
an area
is
miliar with Russian
and
is,
(that
history
thought
likely
specialist)
to know. We will sketch out that history
here only very briefly.
over Name
became
in
the debates
Although
Worshipping
particularly
tense in the first third of the twentieth
roots
contro
the
of
the
century,
of eastern Orthodoxy
in
and can be found
versy go far back in the history
some of the
and
of
Basil
the
and
Great,
John Chrysostom,
sayings
writings
other
church figures.14 The
of "names" is an ancient
significance
leading
in
and highly
controversial
and religious
topic in mythological
thought
claim
been
The
has
made
that
the
Ptah
created
Egyptian
general.
god
we are
he conceived.15
In Genesis
that which
with his tongue by naming
told that God said "Let there be light: and there was light." In other words,
are words,
and the first
it. Names
he named
light first, and then he created
was the
verse in the
to St. John
states: "In the beginning
according
Gospel
In the Jewish
and the word was God."
and the Word was with God,
Word,
there is a be
tradition
of the Kabbala
(Book of Creation,
Zohar)
mystical
name
of
is
the
and
God
considered
lief in creation
emanation,
through
was a central
in
"names"
the
of
the
Middle
And,
significance
holy.16
Ages,
over "nominalism."17
issue in the debate
a
the holiness
of names
became
char
Controversies
about
particular
in the late nineteenth
of Russian Orthodoxy
and early twentieth
acteristic
In 1907 a monk
of the Orthodox
centuries.
Ilarion, who had ear
Church,
in Mt. Athos
in Greece,
lier spent years in a Russian monastery
published
on an
a book entitled
In theMountains
that
seized
the
Caucasus
existing
of
in Orthodox
the chanting
of the "Je
tradition
liturgy, especially
symbolic
or molitva Iisusova)
sus
it to a new
and raised
(Iisusovaia molitva,
Prayer"
In
believer
chants
the names
the
the
Jesus Prayer
prominence.18
religious
vancement

of

Slavic

and Orthodox

sionaries

Mis
"Orthodox
Clay,
P. Geraci
and Michael

November
;Eugene
Studies,
2002)
Pittsburgh,
in Robert
in Russia,
Heretics
1886-1917,"

in Tsarist Rus
and Empire: Missions,
Conversion
and Tolerance
eds., Of Religion
Khodarkovsky,
sia (Ithaca,
63-67.
38-69,
2001),
especially
S. Haugh,
14. See Georges
pt. 2, vol. 6, in Richard
Florovsky,
Ways of Russian
Theology,
trans. Robert
L. Nichols
Mass.,
ed., The Collected Works of Georges Florovsky,
(Belmont,
1987).
see Marshall
Ancient
of Memphite
15. For a modern
translation
Theology,
Clagett,
are
to
We
Science
595-602.
1:305-12,
1989),
John Mur
grateful
Egyptian
(Philadelphia,
doch
for this suggestion.
Trends
Scholem,
1995).
(New York,
Major
infewish Mysticism
Les querelles
Zenon
Nominalistic
Kaluza,
Eberle,
(Dordrecht,
1970);
Systems
et r?alistes aux confins du XTVe et du XVe si?cles (Bergamo,
? Paris: Nominalistes
doctrinales
1988).
startsev
beseda dvukh
18. The
full title of the book was Na gorakh Kavkaza,
podvishnikov
s
o vnutrennem
Hi dukhovnaia
Iisus Khristova
nashikh
serdets chrez molitvu
edinenii
Gospodom
skhimonakh
Kavkavskikh
sostavil
deiatel'nost'
gor
pustinnikov,
pustynnozhitel'
sovremennykh
con
two elder
a conversation
ascetics
between
of the Caucasus:
Ilarion
(In the mountains
16. Gershom
17. R. A.

or
of
the prayer
with
the Lord
union
of our hearts
Jesus Christ;
through
of the Caucasus
of contemporary
hermits,
by the hermit
composed
activity
and expanded
the monk
1907; 2d corrected
Ilarion)
(1st ed., Batalpashinsk,
roots of the Jesus Prayer
Pecherskaia
3d ed., Kievskaia
Lavra,
1912). The
go back
to the faith
Paul's
instructions
is often
cited as Apostle
the start of the tradition

the
cerning
the spiritual
mountains,
ed.,

1910;

inner

centuries;
ful to "pray without
ceasing"
and
there
thodox
liturgies,
quired

special

prominence,

(1 Thess.
5:17).
is an extensive
especially

after

The

tradition

literature

on

the publication

exists

in both

Catholic

of

and Or

ac
the Jesus
Prayer
classic The Way
the folklore

it. In Russia

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"Soft" Area Studies

versus

Sciences: A False Opposition

"Hard" Social

of times, until his whole

of Christ and God over and over again, hundreds
even the
a
state
in
of his
which
of religious
ecstasy
beating
body reaches
tune
to
is
in
with
the
his
in
addition
heart,
cycle,
supposedly
breathing
state
in
D.
and
described
chanted
words
(a
by J.
vividly
Salinger
Franny
a state of
to Ilarion,
the worshipper
achieves
unity
Zooey).19 According
the rhythmic
of his name. And
this dem
with God
through
pronouncing
of God
is holy
in itself, that "the
that the name
said Ilarion,
onstrates,
sam
name of God
is God"
.20
Bozhie
est'
(Imia
Bog)
At first this book was well received
in re
interested
by many Russians
views
Ilarion's
became
the
hundreds
very popular
among
ligious thought.
and his influence
of Russian monks
in Mt. Athos,
gradually
spread else
in
But the highest
in Russian
St.
where.
officials
Orthodoxy,
Petersburg
soon
to consider
of
the book not just as a description
and Moscow,
began
of prayer but as a theological
assertion.
For many
the significance
of these
even pagan pan
the adherents
of Ilarion's beliefs were heretics,
officials,
the
of
God
with God him
because
confused
theists,
symbols
they allegedly
18 May
in
the
St.
condemned
the
self. On
1913,
Holy
Synod
Petersburg
soon thereafter
Name Worshippers;
the Russian
with
the
navy,
approval
of Tsar Nicholas
II and the patriarch
of Constantinople
(who had ju
over the monasteries
sent several
to
of Mt. Athos),
risdiction
gunboats
to
unre
to
Mt. Athos
monks
the
rebellious
heel.
Over
600
forcibly
bring
were
out of their cells with fire hoses and
flushed
pentant monks
brought
to Odessa.
under
later detentions,
With
the number
grew to ap
guard
their treatment
and
1,000.21 The dissidents
proximately
strongly protested
of
obtained
further
and
reconsideration.
The
promises
investigation
Name Worshippers
in high places and the tsar him
had some defenders
on the
to be of two minds
self seemed
question.22
of the Pilgrim

(Kazan,

The

1884).

book

popularized

the prayer

and was

translated

into many

languages.
19. Salinger
tells him about

to her
has Franny
incredulous
friend
Lane,
"Well, the starets
observing
over and over
first of all. . . . If you keep
the Jesus Prayer
that prayer
saying
to just do it with
what
your
only have
lips at first?then
eventually
happens,
becomes
self-active.
I don't
after a while.
know what,
but
Something
happens
the words
and
with
the person's
and
heartbeats,
get
happens,
synchronized

again?you
the prayer
something
then you're
fect

on your

has a really
ef
tremendous,
mystical
or less. Imean
you do
point of it, more
new
and get an absolutely
outlook
of what
conception
everything's
and Zooey
in the original.
36-37,
(Boston,
1961),
Frann)?
emphasis
za
of Ilarion
and his followers
in N. K. Bonetskaia,
"Bor'ba
Logos

actually
praying
whole
outlook.

it to purify
your whole
about."
J. D. Salinger,
20. See description

without

Imean

Which
ceasing.
that's the whole

v Rossii v XX veke," Voprosyfilosofii 7 (1998): 148-69,

especially

150-51; Polishchuk,

ed.,

in the
490, emphasis
Imiaslavie,
original.
events were
21. Polishchuk,
These
479-518.
also reported
in the for
ed., Imiaslavie,
see
at Mount
A Soldier
Athos:
Monk
and
the Holy
London
press;
eign
"Heresy
Synod,"
at Mount
19 June
London
"The Mount
23 August
Times,
1913;
Athos,
1913;
Times,
"Heresy
Athos
Case: Voluntary
Exile
in Siberia,"
1913.
23 August
Times,
Heresy
to Vladimir
22. According
the Holy
the tsar to
the
Gubanov,
Synod
urged
squelch
before
it split the faith and
the nation,
but the monk
who was
heresy
Grigorii
Rasputin,
to the court,
close
tsar
defended
the Name Worshippers.
The
hesitated
but in the
evidently
end

gave

chudesa,

in to the
otkrytiia

synod.
i molitvy:

Vladimir
Dokumenty

Gubanov,

Tsar'Nikolai

(St. Petersburg,

2000).

II i novye mucheniki:
Prorochestva,
Tom Dykstra
has also written

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Slavic Review

of World
I the issue receded
the advent
War
into the back
of
the
but
until
the
end
the
tsarist
of the
adherents
ground,
regime,
were
or
to
return
to
to
forbidden
Mt.
in
Athos
reside
cities
"heresy"
major
like St. Petersburg
and Moscow.
of them retreated
to
The most
fervent
to
monasteries
where
continued
and
variant
their
propagate
they
practice
of the faith.
now
After
the Bolshevik
the Name Worshippers,
revolution,
living all
over rural Russia, were more
successful
than most
other
believ
religious
ers in
out of view of Soviet
their
authorities,
continuing
practices
political
to suppress
who were
had
trying
religion. After all, the Name Worshippers
as heretics
been
defined
and
excluded
from
the
established
already
to practice
But they continued
churches.23
their faith in secret, and by vir
tue of being out of view, they were not compromised
with
by association
some of the established
as were
the Bolsheviks,
church
leaders. The dissi
to represent
their
dents
claimed
the undefiled
"true faith,"
increasing
some
new
of
the
communist
with
opponents
religious
regime.
popularity
as late as 1983 rumors
the secret existence
in
spread about
(Amazingly,
of followers
of the dissident
faith of Name Worship
the Soviet Union
some
have asserted
that descendants
of the sect mem
people
ping,24 and
still practice
outlasted
their Soviet oppressors,
their faith to
bers, having
In Moscow
in
in
the
Caucasus
Moscow.25
and,
day, especially
recently,
recent publications
indicate
that some of the ideas of Name Worshipping
are still attractive
to intellectuals,
mathematicians.26)
especially
With

in Moscow
in Name
interested
of the intellectuals
who became
were
I
and
after
World
mathemati
before
War
leading
Worshipping
just
at Moscow
of mathematics
Dmitrii
included
cians. They
Egorov,
professor
the
Mathemati
State University
and for many
of
Moscow
years president
and two of his students,
Luzin
and Pavel Florenskii
cal Society;
(1882
eventu
Florenskii
1937). All three of these men were deeply
religious.27
a
for religious
studies and became
mathematics
priest, but
ally abandoned
Several

on Mt. Athos."
the Name Worshippers.
may have
Dykstra,
"Heresy
supported
see also Ilarion
taina tserkvi, 2:15
and 64.
Sviashchennaia
role,
(Alfeev),
Rasputin's
i
universiteta
Dmitrii
Fedorovich
"Professor
23. S. S. Demidov,
Egorov
Moskovskogo
v Rossii
v
treti XX
Istoriko-matematicheskie
2d ser., 39
imeslavie
stoletiia,"
issledovaniia,
pervoi

that Rasputin
On

(1999): 129-30.
513.
Polishchuk,
ed., Imiaslavie,
taina tserkvi, vol. 2.
Sviashchennaia
Ilarion
(Alfeev),
of Igor
well-known
the recent
26. See
mathematician,
essay by A. N. Parshin,
pupil
of the Russian
in the department
of mathematics
member
and corresponding
Shafarevich
in Polishchuk,
"Svet i slovo
of Sciences:
ed., Imi
Parshin,
imeni),"
(k filosofii
Academy
529-44.
aslavie,
24.

25.

27.
versiteta
viewpoint

uni
in Demidov,
is described
"Professor
Moskovskogo
religiosity
deep
to a
Luzin's
conversion
Florenskii
137.
Fedorovich
by
religious
Egorov,"
of P. A.
Charles
"The Influence
in various
is described
sources,
Ford,
including
on N. N. Luzin," Historia
See also
Mathematica
332-39.
25, no. 3 (August
1998):

Egorov's
Dmitrii

Florensky
"Dmitrii
Ford,
no. 2 (1991):

Egorov:
24-30.

Mathematics
Florenskii's

in Moscow,"
Mathematical
and Religion
statement
of faith
best-known
published

Stolp i utverzhdenie istiny (Moscow, 1914), published

Truth,

trans.

Boris

Jakim

(Princeton,

Intelligencer
is probably

13,
his

in English as The Pillar and Ground of the

1997).

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"Soft" Area Studies

versus

"Hard" Social Sciences: A False Opposition

a great
in mathematics
interest
and
he maintained
his life.
At the time of the Bolshevik
Florenskii
revolution,
and he was close religiously
astery town near Moscow,

science

throughout

a mon
living in
to
and intellectually
He communicated
the Name Worshipper
dissidents.
their ideas to Luzin
In the early
and translated
them into mathematical
and Egorov
parlance.
was
a
Name
there
circle
1920s
kruzhok) in Mos
(imeslavcheskii
Worshipper
cow where
the ideas of the religious
dissidents
and the concepts
of math
in
the
ematics were brought
circle
included
fifteen
together.
Participants
or sixteen
and
thinkers.
Some
mathematicians,
religious
philosophers,
times the circle met at Egorov's
and
Florenskii
pa
apartment,
presented
Here
Florenskii
the view
pers at several of these meetings.28
expounded
that "the point where
divine
and human
is 'the symbol,'
energy meet
names were
is greater
which
than itself."29 To Florenskii
that he
symbols
could
attain
full
autonomy.
thought
at the end of the nineteenth
Intellectual
and artistic Russia
century
and in the first decades
of the twentieth was preoccupied
with
the ques
tion of the significance
of symbols. The symbolist movement
affected
bal
as the names
art, and poetry,
let, music,
literature,
Igor
Sergei Diaghilev,
Andrei
Konstantin
Vasilii
Nemirovich
Stanislavskii,
Belyi,
Stravinsky,
and Vsevolod
Meierkhol'd
remind us. Now we should add the
Danchenko,
to
mathematicians
and Luzin
and their priest-friend
Florenskii
Egorov
such lists. Indeed,
there was even a connection
between
the literary and
movements.
mathematical
poet, was the son of a Mos
Belyi, the symbolist
cow mathematician,
in mathematics
at Moscow
and he majored
University
he
where
studied
under
and together
with Luzin.
Familiar with
Egorov
once wrote
an essay called
Name Worshipping,
of
"The Magic
Belyi
an
a word,
in which
he claimed,
I name
Words"
"When
I
with
object
We can ask, does
to mathe
this apply both
thereby assert its existence."
matics
is a new type of infinity, does that infin
and to poetry?
If the object
once
one
it?
has named
ity only exist
saw that the Name
Florenskii
had raised
the issue of
Worshippers
to a new
name
was to give birth to a
To
"naming"
prominence.
something
was convinced
new entity. Florenskii
was a
that mathematics
of
product
a
the free creativity of human
and
had
that
it
beings
religious
significance.
Humans
could exercise
free will and put mathematics
in
and philosophy
a
sentence
Cantor's
famous
had
perspective.
Georg
strong appeal
clearly
for Florenskii:
"das Wesen
in ihrer Freiheit"
der Mathematik
liegt gerade
of mathematics
lies precisely
in its freedom).30
Mathemati
(The essence
cians could create beings
them.
For
de
(sets) simply by naming
example,
set of numbers
are
the
such
nam
that
their
less
than 2, and
squares
fining
the set of numbers
such that their squares are
ing it "A," and analogously

28.
29.
30.

Polishchuk,
ed.,
Ilarion
(Alfeev),
Georg

Cantor,

513.
Imiaslavie,
Sviashchennaia
"?ber

tischeAnnalen 21 (1883): 545.

unendliche,

was

taina

tserkvi, 2:114.
lineare
Punktmannichfaltigkeiten,"

Mathema

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

10

Slavic Review

to bring into existence

it "B,"meant
larger than 2, and naming
(essentially
the Eudoxus-Cauchy
the real number V2.
construction)
For Florenskii,
of set theory was a brilliant
the development
example
can
of how naming
and classifying
mathematical
produce
breakthroughs.
A "set" was simply a naming
to an arbitrary mental
of entities
according
a
not
of
of
system,
types
recognition
objects. When
ontologically
existing
a mathematician
a "set"
was
to a new
created
he
it,
by naming
giving birth
new form of mathematics
was
A
mathematical
Flo
said
coming,
being.
rescue mankind
and it would
from the materialistic,
determinis
renskii,
so common
in the nineteenth
tic modes
of analysis
indeed,
century. And,
on continuous
set theory, new
discontinuous
and
insights
phenomena
in
like the development
under
the name
of the discovery
"Arithmology"
of the p-adic
1897 by Kurt Hensel
numbers
(which
impressed
strongly
and discontinuous
and Florenskii,
and their followers),
Luzin,
Egorov,
of the Moscow
functions?became
hallmarks
School
of Mathematics.
were
the French
Both
and the Russian mathematicians
with
wrestling
as an ob
what
is
the problem:
What
is a mathematical
permitted
object,
wrote
is a good definition
of such an object? As Lebesgue
ject, and what
to Borel
in 1905, "Peut-on
s'assurer
de l'existence
d'un ?tre math?ma
sans le d?finir?"
to convince
of the existence
(Is it possible
yourself
tique
.31
of a mathematical
To
Florenskii
the question
without
it?)
being
defining
to convince
was the
of
Is
it
the
existence
of
of,
yourself
analogue
possible
answer for Florenskii
him?
and
later
for
The
God without
Egorov
defining
in itself gave the object
existence.32
and Luzin was that the act of naming
The
the key to both
and mathematics.
became
Thus
"naming"
religion
to
his
and
existence
God
Name Worshippers
name,
gave
by worshipping
to
sets
existence
them.
mathematicians
gave
by naming
at the begin
around
Luzin
students
that formed
The circle of eager
was known
I
continued
the
of
War
and
World
1920s
throughout
early
ning
as "Lusitania." An indirect hint about
in the concerns
the place of religion
can be seen in the
of the group provided
of the Lusitanians
by
description
to
one of its
,33According
M.
A.
Lavrent'ev
members,
(1900-1980)
original
of Akadem
and the founder
mathematician
Lavrent'ev
(later a significant
two leaders:
in Novosibirsk)
the Lusitanians
acknowledged
gorodok
was Luzin who
Luzin.
It
told
"God-the-son"
and
"God-the-father"
Egorov
our
and
"Our
dis
of
is
the
chief
the young Lusitanians:
society,"
"Egorov
the monas
to Egorov."
in the society were given
Students
coveries
belong
Esther
the
of
tic title of "novice." Noting
Lavrent'ev's
group,
description
a strong sense of belonging
to an inner
was
"There
wrote,
clearly
Phillips
sur la th?orie
as cited
des ensembles."
lettres
in Hadamard,
"Cinq
Lebesque
seems
to be a
in his notes
At one point
Luzin wrote
daydream,
play
"Everything
moment
scribbled
Luzin
which
however,
things." At another
ing with
yield great
symbols,
of the
Archive
individu."
c'est avoir
French:
in infelicitous
but understandable
"nommer,
31.

32.

Russian
"N. N.

Academy
on
Luzin

33. M.

A.

of Sciences,
the Problems
Lavrent'ev,

no. 5 (1974): 173-78,

f. 606,
Moscow,
of Set Theory"
"Nikolai
Nikolaevich

op.

1, ed.

khr.

34. Courtesy

of Roger
1990),

paper,
January
(unpublished
Mathematical
Russian
Luzin,"

1-2,

Surveys

and Uspekhi mathematicheskikh nauk 29, no. 5 (1974): 177-82.

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Cooke,
7.
29,

"
"Soft Area Studies

versus

"Hard

"

11

Social Sciences: A False Opposition

or a secret

to Egorov's
and novices went
order."34 All the principals
a
his
and
three times
year: Easter, Christmas,
name-day
(again, the
of
The
intense
camaraderie
the
Lusitanians
"names").
among
importance
as extroverted
was described
was
and theatrical,
by Luzin, who
inspired
and who
real
devotion
students
and
among
engendered
colleagues.
on the other hand, was more
to
and formal. According
reserved
Egorov,
were
stu
in
Luzin's
chief
assistants
Lusitania
three
Lavrent'ev,
managing
was the "creator,"
each with his own function:
Pavel Aleksandrov
dents,
circle
home

Pavel

the "keeper,"
and Viacheslav
the "herald" of the
Uryson
Stepanov
on to become
went
of
three
of
these
Lusitania.
students
(All
mysteries
of note; all three, along with
their teachers
mathematicians
and
Egorov
are included
in the current Dictionary
the
Luzin,
of Scientific Biography,
most
of
deceased
authoritative
scientists
of
world
rank.35)
listing
to a number
and Luzin were very close
of leading
Although
Egorov
to them,
French mathematicians
and cited their debt
the French world
to
The French wanted
view was different.
the philosophical,
mathe
keep
of
and
their
matical,
components
separate. Mixing
psychological
thought
a bad idea. On
to the French mind,
mathematics
and religion
the
was,
was
Luzin
to
and
believed
that
mathematics
linked
reli
contrary,
Egorov
about
these links after 1917 because
gion, but they could not be explicit
of the hostile
Soviet environment.
that they could
They knew
easily get
into trouble with
if the views discussed
in the meetings
the authorities
of
circle became
the Name Worshipping
known.36 Eventually
Luzin,
Egorov,
were
and Florenskii
and persecuted
but
caught
by the Soviet authorities,
Luzin
after
in
and his students,
had made mathematical
only
particular,
in Soviet detention
in
while
(Egorov died of starvation
breakthroughs.
was
Florenskii
in
the
notorious
Solovetskii
and
1931;
imprisoned
gulag
then shot in 1937; Luzin
survived with an ideological
dressing-down.37)
34.
ory

Esther

R.

13:548-49;
36. While
dence

Nicolaevich

Mathematica

Coulston
Gillispie,
is in 8:557-59;
Egorov
in 13:35-36.
Stepanov

Luzin

1990).

"Nicolai

Phillips,
Historia

of Functions,"
35. Charles

we

a member

37.
1937.

to

Rehabilitated

language
ematics.

was

Florenskii

sentenced
and
See

ten

in 1928,

in

camps

labor

familiar
put

made

of

the The

no concrete
evi
circle, we have
We
do know
that Luzin
meetings.
move
with
the Name
Worshipping

this

on
great
emphasis
more
of an attempt

"naming."
to conceal

Luzin
his

re

then
then arrested
in 1933
released,
again
on 8 December
in Siberia.
He was executed

in 1956, he has
attention
since
then as a
of
slowly gained
philosopher
a
as an influence
on Russian
math
and, most
theologian,
recently,
in Florenskii,
The Pillar
and Ground
Gustafson,
"Introduction,"
of the
was rebuked
the
in
Communist
arrested
and
in
1929,
1930,
Egorov
by
Party
on a
he went
There
strike. Just before
his death,
he was
taken un
hunger

der guard to a hospital

arms

arrested

of

School

293.
1970
(New York,
Biography
in 17.2:11-15;
in
Uryson

of Scientific
Aleksandrov

attended
he

the Moscow

1978):

culture,
Richard

ix-xxiii.
Truth,
sent to
prison.
in the

first
years

and

(August

a leader
ever

was a friend
of Father
that he was
Florenskii,
and
that in his mathematical
research
ment,
was more
than Egorov
and probably
cautious
the Soviet
views from
authorities.
ligious
and

Luzin
3

ed., Dictionary
in 4:287-88;

was
that Egorov
or even

know
was

that Luzin

5, no.

of

the wife

Chebotarev's

hospital.
in my mother's
died

in Kazan; he died on 10 September

of

the mathematician

son G. N.
arms):

G. N.

Chebotarev
Chebotarev,

N. G.

1931.We are told that he died

Chebotarev,
"On umer

wrote,
"Iz vospominanii

who
na

was

maminykh
ob ottse,"

a doctor
rukakh"

in the

(He
in lu. B. Ermo

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

12

Slavic Review

In

and philosophical
1920s Luzin's
religious
approach
helped
in him a profound
He and his students
mathematical
originality.
a new field: the
created
the Moscow
Math
descriptive
theory of sets. And
an
ematical
School
that Luzin
and Egorov
created
caused
of
explosion
in the 1920s and 1930s that will always be remem
mathematical
research
in the history
bered
of mathematics.38
in this story, Lebesgue,
One
of the leading French mathematicians
fi
was
that
it
he
and
his
nally acknowledged
precisely
"philosophy"?what
to avoid
in mathematics?that
French
tried
Luzin
colleagues
helped
to Luzin's
In a preface
make
his innovations.
1930 book
in
published
wrote
in Paris, Lebesgue
French
that with Luzin
"mathematical
exigencies
are
one can even say
and philosophical
associated,
exigencies
constantly
fused."39
edition
of this book,
the Soviet editors
removed
(In the Russian
this statement.)
admitted
that
this
Luzin
and
Lebesgue
approach
helped
a concept
seen. Once
to find
his students
he had not
his eyes were
was astounded
of the Russian
ap
by the fruitfulness
opened,
Lebesgue
In
he
"M.
wonderment
Luzin
examines
declared,
open
proach.
questions
from a philosophical
results.
point of view and ends up with mathematical
is an originality
This
without
precedent!"40
the

stimulate

the above
after reading
section, may well
say, "OK, this
skeptic,
a
at
called
Name
have
had
certain point
may
strange group
Worshippers
in the history
in time an unusual
influence
of mathematics.
But surely this
to another
is an exception,
and a rather bizarre one at that. Can you point
an area studies
us
recent
of
of
tell
how
will
example
approach
something
mathematics?"
Our
about
the
of
is,
response
development
importance
we
to
In
order
be
abound.41
will
brief,
however,
yes, examples
present
only
The

laev, ed., Nikolai

Grigor'evich
trial in which
many
logical
and V. D. Esakov,
"'Delo

Chebotarev
of his

former

akademika

56. Luzin

1994),

(Kazan,

colleagues
N. N. Luzina'

was

turned

Istoriko-matematicheskie
2d ser., 39, no. 4 (1999):
nauki,"
issledovania,
Luzina
and B. V. Levshin,
Nikolaia
Nikolaevicha
eds., Delo akademika
N. N. Luzina,"
Vestnik AN SSSR,
A. P. Iushkevich,
"Delo akademika

to an

submitted

him.
against
v svete
stalinskoi

See

ideo

S. S. Demidov

sovetskoi
reformy
S. S. Demidov
156-70.

(St. Petersburg,
1999);
no. 4 (1989):
102-13;
in Soviet
Po
Luzin's
Case'

E. Levin,
of a Public
Academician
Alexey
"Anatomy
Campaign:
1 (Spring
A. N.
litical History,"
Slavic Review
49, no.
90-108;
1990):
v kontse
v matematiku
dialektiki
'vnedreniia'
Rozhenko,
"Opyt'

and N. M.
Bogoliubov
nachale
30-kh
20-kh

godov," Voprosyfilosofii, no. 9 (1991): 32-43.

38.
24-27;

AJlen
Smilka

(Providence,
The
Pre-Stalin

"Years Ago:
Luzin
and Egorov,"
Shields,
L. Duren,
and Peter
Zdravkovska
eds.,
"Mathematics
Alexander
;
Vucinich,
1993)
Period,"

Historia

Mathematica

26,

no.

Mathematical
Golden

Years

and Dialectics
(May

1999):

9 (1987):
Intelligencer
Mathematics
ofMoscow
in the Soviet Union:
107-24;

P. S. Aleksan

drov, Matematika v SSSR za 15 let (Moscow, 1932).

asso
sont constamment
et
39.
exigences
philosophiques
"Exigences
math?matiques
sur
in Nicolas
Henri
dire fondues."
"Pr?face,"
ci?es, on peut m?me
Luzin,
Le?ons
Lebesgue,
et leurs
xi.
les ensembles analytiques
(Paris,
1930),
applications
et aboutit
"M. Lusin
de vue philosophique
examine
les questions
d'un point
40.
ainsi
sans
ix.
? des r?sultats
"Pr?face,"
Lebesgue,
originalit?
pr?c?dent!"
math?matiques:
of Bernard
the works
Bolzano
and Georg
In the early development
of set theory,
41.
con
and
await
of whom
had
both
beliefs,
Cantor,
strong
religious
deeper
philosophical
A. D. Alexandrov,
The work
of the Russian
mathematician
and geometer
textual
analysis.
Bourbaki
also beckons.
The
mathematics
who
had
commitments,
strong
philosophical

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"
"Soft Area Studies
one

case:

other

versus

"Hard

"

Social Sciences: A False Opposition

of mathematical

the varieties

expressions

13

of general

rela

tivity theory.
nonscientists
When
concerns
often
very

discuss
their emphasis
general
relativity
theory,
of its validity
than its varieties.
the question
rather
Modern
accept general
overwhelmingly
relativity, but they have
physicists
a considerable
in
it
As the
variety of modes.
mathematically
expressed
a recent article
wrote
in
and
historian
of
David
Kaiser
in
physicist
physics
of
in
he surveyed
the
which
relativity
presentations
general
post-World
a
in Europe
War II period
and America,
"'General
relativity' became
play
field
different
which
different
of
kinds
many
upon
ing
physicists,
speaking
meant
to do
it
mathematical
could
what
languages,
renegotiate
gravita
can
tional physics."42
These
"different
kinds of mathematical
languages"
often be explained
("area studies")
by contextual
analysis.
in Russia
One
of the leading
of relativity
in the
exponents
theory
coun
in many
1950s and 1960s was V A. Fok (Fock), a physicist
honored
a
was
tries of the world.
of
Fock
defender
passionate
relativity
theory; he
once wrote
that to question
the validity of relativity
is on par with
theory
of the earth.43 However,
if one
the roundness
looks at the
questioning
to express
Fock
used
in
his
many publications,
relativity
equations
general
one will find that
are different
even
from Albert Einstein's,
in
they
though
those areas where
observable
the two
results,
general
relativity produces
The differences
are, however,
approaches
yield similar products.
signifi
cant
and they are closely
tied to Fock's philosophical
and
intellectually,
social views.44
one will
If one compares
Einstein's
and Fock's gravitational
equations,
see that
are
different.
Einstein's
takes the form:
they
distinctly

(1)
-

R^

=
~xT?v

-g*vR

Fock's

was

more

considerably

complicated:

(2)
= ?o**?s?

w?

2
How

one

does

in France
group
der Grothendieck,
similarly
42.

this difference?

explain
awaits
who

further
was

contextual
interested

examination.
in mysticism

The

points

David

Kaiser,

"Alp

is just

44.

in his

Alexan

life,

should

be

A.

Fok

a ij;?
Pedagogy,

Practice,

and

Loren

"Protiv

[Fock],

R. Graham,
22, no.

Intelligencer

the Reconstitution

of Gen

Studies in theHistory and Philosophy ofModern Physics, 29 no. 3

nevezhestvennoi

kritiki

teorii," Voprosyfilosofii, no. 1 (1953): 168-74.

ematical

mathematician

great

at many

examined.

eral Relativity, 1942-1975,"

(1998): 336.
43.

r^a?ra?

dxadx?

"Do Mathematical
3

(Summer

2000):

Equations
31-36.

Display

sovremennykh
Social

fizicheskikh

Attributes?"

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Math

14

Slavic Review

was a convinced
of a very sincere,
dedicated
sort, far
Marxist,
a Marxist
the vulgarized
form often
others.45
As
he
preached
by
to preserve
of a predictable,
wanted
the concept
science-ruled
world. He
considered
the term
he
because
theory of general
relativity unfortunate
cause
to say
it would
is
feared
in
fact,
relative," when,
people
"everything
on an absolute
was based
that of "absolute
standard,
general
relativity
renamed
Einstein's
"the the
Fock, therefore,
space-time."
actually
theory
or
of
of
As
absolute
the
Gerald
ory
"theory
gravitation."46
space-time"
was
of
historian
and
has
Einstein
out,
Holton,
science,
physicist
pointed
aware of the
was too late to
it
but
the
title
his
of
thought
change
problem,
a strong argument
new
his
Fock
could
made
be
that
theory.47
thought
terms were more
accurate
than Einstein's.
The one thing that the theory
was not, Fock maintained,
was a
of general
relativistic
the
relativity
purely
to
in
Fock
liked
his
French:
La
relativit?
"(1)
ory.
put
viewpoint
physique
n'est pas g?n?rale;
n'est pas physique"
(2) la relativit?
g?n?rale
(Physical
is not physical)
.48Echoing
is not general;
the
relativity
general
relativity
views of the German
Max
Fock
"The
Planck,
remarked,
physicist
theory of
a whole
of
that
series
earlier
considered
after
concepts
relativity,
showing
were
at the same time introduced
new absolute
absolute
relative,
actually
Fock

from

The
concepts.
Fock believed

of critics of the theory of relativity

this."49
forget
majority
a
Marxists
like
himself
have
that
would
difficulty
accepting
to
their commitment
relativistic
theory, given
objective
purely
reality and
to completely
their opposition
relativistic
of truth.50
concepts
45.
one

of

Fock

asserted

the authors

in dozens

his Marxism

(Loren
1961 and

and with

Graham)

of publications
others.
Graham

in a
discussion
of
engaged
published
and Dialectical
Mechanics
Materialism,"
"Quantum
see Fock's
in his "Comments,"
381-410;
1966):
reply
:411-13.
the fall of the Soviet Union,
when
After
1966)

in the

spring

Graham,
tember

and

both

conversations,
with Fock

met
with

with

in Leningrad
in 1966: Loren
R.

him

Slavic

Review

Slavic

Review

25, no.
25, no.

(Sep

(Sep

there was no longer

any po
to
him
who
knew
and his work
continued
people
Two years after
in 1993,
the end of the USSR,
him as an intellectual
the
describe
of Russian
is no doubt
Gennadii
Gorelik
"There
that in the 1930s
historian
wrote,
physics
to dialectical
materialism."
G. E. Gorelik,
'V. A. Fok:
Fock was already
devoted
sincerely
no.
i tiazhest'
10 (1993):
Filosofiia
92.
filosofii,"
Priroda,
tiagoteniia
in the English
translation
of the title of one of his best-known
works:
46. As reflected
trans. N. Kemmer
V. A. Fock, The Theory
(New York,
1959).
of Space, Time, and Gravitation,
Einstein
and
the Shaping
of Our
"Introduction:
See Gerald
47.
Holton,
Imagina
tember
litical

reason

tion,"

in Gerald

to affirm

Marxism,
Marxist.

and Yehuda

Holton

Elkana,

xv.
1982),
(Princeton,
Planck
As Max
commented,
than
absolute
the erroneously

spectives
48.
mental

The New

Planck,
earlier

Fock's

publications,
Fok
[Fock],

50.

"Es ist nicht

Einstein:

Albert

"The

of relativity
concept
absolute
which
assumed

Historical
is based
it has

and Cultural
on

a more

supplanted."
the same

146. Planck
Conn.,
1959),
expressed
der Neuen
for example,
Das Weltbild
1929),
Physik
(Leipzig,
kritiki
fizicheskikh
"Protiv nevezhestvennoi
sovremennykh

Science

49.

eds.,

(Greenwich,

Per

funda
Max
idea

in

18.
teorii,"

172.
Prozessen

zum

?berfl?ssig

zu unterstreichen,
ebenso

dass
ist

(d.h.
anderen

Bezugssystem
objektiv
und
alle physikalischen
to
that the relationship
emphasize
superfluous
of
is just as objective
[i.e.,
system
independent
in general).
V. A. Fock,
other
"?ber
properties

sein)
not

wie

?berhaupt

von

das Verh?ltnis

unabh?ngig

von

oder
K?rpern
unserem
Bewusst

der K?rpern"
(It is
Eigenschaften
or processes
to the reference
of bodies
as are
our
and
consciousness]
physical
der
modernen
Fragen
philosophische

Physik," Deutsche Zeitschriftf?r Philosophie, no. 6 (1955): 742.

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"
"Soft Area Studies

versus

"Hard

"
Social Sciences: A False Opposition

15

to
for gravitation
Fock wanted
within
the equations
relativity
general
he
his understanding
He
believed
that
of its deeper
reflect
meaning.
or
there are preferred
could show that even in general
relativity
privileged
A formidable
Fock devoted much
mathematician,
systems of coordinates.
over many
of his research
that in space uni
years to the task of proving
form at infinity
there is a preferred
that of har
system of coordinates,
he maintained,
monic
such a system of coordinates,
reflected
coordinates;
set up a
to
of
intrinsic
Fock
wanted
"certain
space-time."51
properties
for the curvature
of different
and
tensor, Einstein's
equations
comparison
of his equation.
the advantages
He began with
his own, and demonstrate
Einstein's
this expres
(1), given above. For Fock,
gravitational
equation
to involve
too
all of its combinations
of derivatives,
seemed
sion, with
needless
Einstein
be
kept this range of possibilities
permissiveness:
to maintain
of all the possible
he wanted
the full generality
coordi
nate
to use. But all these possibilities
choose
systems a physicist
might
to Fock, given his strong, principled
for a
seemed
irrelevant
preference
his
beloved
harmonic
coordinates.
coordinate
system,
Using
particular
some
Fock
intricate mathematical
transformed
the curva
calculations,
ture tensor to a form that would make
it especially
for expres
convenient
as
sion in harmonic
above.
coordinates,
(2)
equation
given
an
of a socio
Fock's preference
for (2) over
(1) provides
example
context
mathematical
Fock
affecting
philosophical
equations.
pointed
out that his gravitational
with Einstein's"
(2) was "compatible
equation
on the solution
and did not "impose any essential
limitation
of the latter,
narrow
to
of
down
the
class
The
coordinates."
only
serving
permissible
reason
was because
Fock preferred
harmonic
coordinates
he believed
linked to "the distribution
and motion
properties
they reflected
objective
a the
of ponderable
he believed
matter."52
he had developed
Therefore,
was
that permitted
with
solutions,
ory of gravitation
unique
compatible
was
in
Einstein's
also
and
accord
with
materialism.
theory,
philosophical
as
to general
Fock's
is still regarded
Although
approach
relativity
somewhat
it has won respect
from physicists
idiosyncratic,
internationally.
At conferences,
in the field as John Wheeler
such leaders
and Stanley
Deser
of the United
Bondi
of Great Britain,
and Andr?
States, Hermann
of France have praised
Fock's work for its originality
Lichnerowicz
and in
a discussion
with one of the authors
of this article, Wheeler
sight.53 In
are interested
in several countries
that physicists
in Fock's use of
agreed
in general
harmonic
coordinates
relativity.54
much
cause

51.

xv, xvi, 351. See also V A. Fok

[Fock],
of Space, Time, and Gravitation,
no. 4 (1955):
kovariantnosti
i otnositernosti,"
133.
Voprosy filosofii,
52. Fock, Theory
193; also see 366-75.
of Space, Time, and Gravitation,
a German
53. Siegfried
historian
and
of science,
M?ller-Markus,
philosopher
noting
a book
of
Fock's
ended
work,
up writing
leading
physicists'
praise
positively
interpreting
even
Fock's
views of general
to criticize
his original
intention
had been
relativity,
though
Fock,

Theory
odnorodnosti,

"Poniatiia

them.

See

M?ller-Markus,

Siegfried

Einstein

und

die

Sowjetphilosophie,

vol.

(Dordrecht,

1970).
54.
Ideas:

See John

Two

Wheeler's

Examples

from

response

to Loren

R. Graham,

Contrasting

Political

Cultures,"

"The Reception
in Gerald
Holton

of Einstein's
and

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Yehuda

16

Slavic Review

con
Russia
Within
itself, Fock's views on general
post-Soviet
relativity
a
to
science
have
On
Russian
tinue
influence.
29 January
1999,
newspaper
an article
Fock entitled
"On an Equal Footing with Ein
published
praising
stein."55 Among
the one who has perhaps most
consis
Russian
physicists,
to
is
A.
continued
Fock's
ideas
Academician
A.
promote
tently
Logunov,
in Protvino.
Like
director
accelerator
of the proton
synchrotron
longtime
to
of
of
rela
Fock, Logunov
theory
"theory
gravitation"
"general
prefers
In
he
his
1998
book
Relativistic
Fock's
"as
Theory of Gravity
tivity."
praised
essence
to
of
GRT
the
[General Relativity
clarify
Theory],
freeing
piration
it from

general

relativity

devoid

of any physical

meaning."56

we have
back at the two examples
(the birth of de
given
Looking
set
of mathematical
of gen
expression
scriptive
theory and the varieties
are
at the outset,
that the core questions
eral relativity) we see, as we noted
concerns
is legitimate
in mathematics
the first
what
itself;
quite different:
In the first case we have seen
the uses of mathematics.
the second
involves
set
field as descriptive
that even in such an abstract and nonapplied
theory
a
context
in
role
historical
the social
development.
played
a role in the
that social context
has played
It is probably
less surprising
out
different
work of physicists
Fock, and others) who tried
(Einstein,
ways
to express
These
dis
of using mathematics
relativity.
general
physicists
over its
not over mathematics,
but
with
each
other,
implementa
agreed
case at least, their social views
in Fock's
tion. Their
and,
philosophical
a role in this
disagreement.
played
methods
scientists who
Social
(statistics,
regres
apply mathematical
so on)
to the study of social be
and
sion analysis,
studies,
longitudinal
to un
standard
statistical
havior are in the second position,
analysis
using
can
use
be
in
of
If
influences
found
social
derstand
physicists'
society.
more
can
even
not
that
be
found
in
social
sci
it
is
mathematics,
likely
they
one uses mathemat
methods?
of mathematical
When
entists' application
For what purpose?
On what problem?
ics to study society,
the questions,
are all relevant,
and for each of these questions
In what way? and When?
is obvious.
of new
Even the introduction
of social influence
the possibility
of
the
is
influenced
with
mathematical
purpose
concepts
by
application
social conditions.
more
to try to illustrate
the in
To explore
these questions
thoroughly,
on
context
in
social
scientists
have
used
the
which
of
social
fluence
ways
a
us
to
article.
be
write
The
methods
would
separate
require
quantitative
in
the
exist
however.
Historians
of this analysis already
literature,
ginnings
Theodore
of statistics
such as Stephen M. Stigler, Lorraine
Porter,
Daston,
of
the field within
the
have explored
and Alain Desrosi?res
development
to
a social context.57
that he wanted
In his book, Desrosi?res
explained
Elkana,

eds.,

Albert

Einstein:

Historical
on

(Wheeler's
appears
p.
response
s Einshteinom,"
55. See "Naravne
Relativistic
56. A. A. Logunov,

and

Cultural

Perspectives

1982),

(Princeton,

107-36

135).
Poisk,
Theory

29 January
of Gravity

1999,
(Commack,

8.
N.Y,

1998),

65;

see

also

Logunov, The Theory of Gravity (Moscow, 2001).

57.
1900

Stephen

(Cambridge,

The History
Stigler,
Mass.,
1986);
Stigler,

M.

of Statistics:
on
Statistics

The Measurement
the Table:

The History

of Uncertainty
of Statistical

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

before
Con

"
"Soft Area Studies

versus

"Hard

"
Social

Sciences: A False Opposition

17

to its social history,

to connect
of statistics
"the
link the technical
history
two dimensions,
of the construction
of a system
economic
and cognitive,
must be based on a knowledge
of so
of equivalences."58
Any such analysis
to
their
fields.
of the sort that area studies
cial context
specialists
bring
some social scientists will say that it
After
the above analysis,
reading
on mathematics.
on an
As one commentator
puts too much
emphasis
of
draft
this
article
"What
the
social
sci
observed,
really distinguishes
early
areas studies one
use of
ence
not
from
the
is
the
necessarily
approach
of
but the reliance
standards
mathematics,
upon
rigorous methodology,
The
and
American
Political
Science
Association
evidence,
replicability.
to qualitative
has an entire membership
devoted
methods
whose
practi
no less scientific
than number
tioners
consider
themselves
crunchers."
it represents,
This observation,
and the approach
ismuch more
sophisti
cated
than the one emphasizing
methods
but it also
alone,
quantitative
from the cognitive
"no less scientific,"
suffers, as indicated
by the phrase
can inform us.
in the view that only the scientific
flaw embodied
approach
one dominant
It is based on an outdated
view of cognitive
the
psychology,
a
science
of social
like Frederick
ago when
great pioneers
generation
so
an
can
Mosteller
showed
the
contribution
such
effectively
approach
as diverse
as educational
or
to
make
achievement
topics
understanding
the determination
of the authorship
of Federalist
The
writings.59
signifi
cance of Mosteller's
was enormous
to be in
and will continue
approach
in cognitive
the future. But new developments
and the sociol
psychology
of what Howard
Gardner
ogy of knowledge
clearly show the importance
calls "different
and
cognitive
strengths
contrasting
cognitive
styles," of
uses
a lim
the social science approach,
which
very valuable,
although
only
ited range.60
maintains
Gardner
that there are multiple
and multiple
intelligences
to
valuable
In
his original
and
achievement.
approaches
understanding
seven different
work Gardner
named
of which
of
types
intelligence,
was
one.
In
his
latest
work
he has
"logical-mathematical
intelligence"
only
a naturalist
a candidate
ex
added
and
accrued
evidence
for
intelligence
one reason he thinks the
Gardner
istential
stated
that
intelligence.
origi
nal list should be expanded
else is certain just how
(neither he nor anyone
to him
of a remark made
there are) is because
many
intelligences
by Ernst
of
the
the
last
greatest
Mayr, perhaps
century. After
evolutionary
biologist
seven
re
Gardner
of
his
list
hearing
give
original
intelligences,
Mayr
never
"You
set
will
Charles
Darwin
with
the
of
intel
marked,
explain
This remark
attract
should
the attention
of so
you proposed."
ligences
cial scientists who
that
what
social
is not
science
say
really distinguishes
cepts and Methods

(Cambridge,

lightenment (Princeton,

Mass.,

1999);

1988); Theodore

Lorraine

Daston,

Classical

in the En

Probability

Porter, The Rise of Statistical Thinking: 1820-1900

The Politics
A
Rea
;
Desrosi?res,
(Princeton,
1986) Alain
of Large Numbers:
History
of Statistical
trans. Camille
Naish
Mass.,
2002).
soning,
(Cambridge,
58. Desrosi?res,
Politics
11.
of Large Numbers,
59. Frederick
Mosteller
and Daniel
P. Moynihan,
eds., On Equality
of Educational
Op
Mosteller
and David
and Disputed
;Frederick
(New York,
L.Wallace,
1972)
portunity
Inference
The Federalist
Mass.,
1964).
Authorship:
Papers
(Reading,
60.

Howard

Gardner,

Multiple

Intelligences:

New Horizons

(New York,

2006),

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

5.

18

Slavic Review

but replicability.
Evolution
has never been and still is
to be falsifiable,
has it yet been
found
yet it has pro
in our understanding
advance
of the world.61
or
The
that we draw does not diminish
conclusion
the importance
to social reality
that im
(we celebrate
utility of social science
approaches
it emphasizes
and that utility),
instead
that a true and sophisti
portance
in which we live requires multiple
cated understanding
of the world
ap
some will be
some
Some
will
be
proaches.
logical-mathematical,
linguistic,
or
will be interpersonal
and some will be deeply
contextual,
intrapersonal,
as the one we have used
in this article.
a great controversy
In view of the fact that there has recently
been
over the "social construction
we would
of knowledge,"
like to add that we
are not radical social constructivists,
who
that science
is to
believe
people
On
the contrary, we consider
sci
tally determined
by social influences.62
ence
to be the most
reliable
form of knowledge
that exists. Reality
does
we believe
set theory
matter.
Even
that descriptive
though
developed
more
we are
in
in
of
France
Russia
than
because
social
influences,
rapidly
contexts
conscious
Both
that such different
lead to similar
theories.
the
were
and the Russian
mathematicians
French mathematicians
working
on the same
and today French
and Russian
mathematicians
problems
Fock and
in set theory are very largely in agreement.
Similarly,
working
on
to
in
Russia
have
worked
mathematics
the same
applying
Logunov
as
some differences
and
elsewhere,
although
physicists
physical
problems
remain
in their use of mathematics,
their colleagues
elsewhere
their
with
are much
areas of accord with their international
than
greater
colleagues
of the general
of dissent.
All agree on the validity
their points
relativity
on the best way to express
itmathematically,
and
theory but they disagree
and
social views have
influenced
their divergent
these
philosophical
number-crunching
nor
not
replicable,
an
enormous
vided

differences.
on a
In this article we have tried to show that insisting
rigid division
area
of
and the "hard"
studies
the "soft" methods
between
specialists
is simplistic.
of social scientists
Social
whether
methods
scientists,
using
can make
or ones
methods
results,
great
yielding
replicable
quantitative
as
to the understanding
of society and politics,
contributions
they already
can also make
such contributions,
and?in
have. Area
studies
specialists
can sometimes
our
of
advance
quanti ta
understanding
addition?they
61. See also Ernst Mayr, This Is Biology: The Science of theLiving World (Cambridge,
Mass.,

1997).
See Hacking,
Social Construction
was Alan D. Sokal's
controversy
spoof
62.

the

Boundaries:

Towards

a Transformative

of What?
of social
Hermeneutics

no.

The

initial

constructivists

best-known

and

episode

in his

in
the

"Transgressing
Social
of Quantum
Text,
Gravity,"
de
revealed
that this article was a hoax

Sokal
217-52.
46/47
1996):
(Spring/Summer
in his
"A Physicist
to
science
construct"
those who
Experiments
"socially
signed
parody
Sokal's
article was
Franca
62-64.
with Cultural
Studies,"
1996):
original
Lingua
(May/June
extreme
contruc
social
in ridiculing
the views of the most
and he was correct
very clever
tivists.

The

fected

by

Noretta

basic

issue

of

the

in which
society
ed., A House
Koertge,
the

York, 1998), especially

controversy?to

what

they developed??remains,
on Sand:
Built
Exposing

extent

are

science

and mathematics

af

unresolved.
See also
however,
about Science
Postmodernist
(New
Myths

the essays by Alan Sokal and Philip Kitcher.

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"Soft" Area Studies

versus

"Hard" Social Sciences: A False Opposition

19

can lead to a
themselves.
The area studies approach
in
tive methods
deep
as
cases
of
in
it
the
the
tellectual
how
did
of
think,
people
understanding
Russian
social scientists
mathematicians
described
here. Both
and area
to be more
of
studies specialists
need
intellectual
the
contri
appreciative
can make.
the other
butions
"camp"
to understand
be nearly
It would
impossible
why Russian mathemati
so
set the
cians in the early twentieth
century
eagerly adopted
descriptive
an
awareness
of
the
without
their
time.
and
culture
of
ory
religion,
history,
to
it
be
would
the
outstand
Similarly,
nearly
impossible
comprehend
why
his form of general
in
ing Russian
physicist V. A. Fock developed
relativity
a
the middle
of
ofthat
without
his
century
knowledge
philosophical
prin
to the society
in which
he lived. Thus,
the in
ciples and their relationship
can be very
tellectual
"bite" of an area studies approach
if it is used
deep
to
in a sophisticated
We
have
tried
illustrate
that
"bite"
way.
by looking
so many
at mathematics
because
have
assumed
that
people
incorrectly
context
to mathematics.
does not apply
not
Our approach,
is
however,
to that
can
tied
Similar
contextual
illuminate
uniquely
discipline.
analysis
our
of many
of culture.
in
aspects
understanding
Just as the specialists
at the literature,
classical
studies found justification
for looking
philoso
of the ancient world
and mathematics
in a contextual
way, so
phy, politics,
can
area studies
find
similar
for
their
today's
ap
specialists
justification
to understanding
on
Such an emphasis
proach
contemporary
society.
contextualism
does not diminish
in any way the claims of social scientists
to make
contributions
social analysis;
it only dimin
by using quantitative
on such
ishes the claim
to a
that a few of them have made
monopoly
contributions.
Now
is an appropriate
time for a resurgence
of area studies
in the
United

reasons. The intellec

and for political
States, both for intellectual
are the ones we have
an area studies
tual reasons
in
this
article:
presented
can
us to understand
how
the most
think, even
approach
help
people
thinkers
like
and
and
also
mathematicians,
"rigorous"
physicists
quantita
reasons
are
tive social scientists.
The political
obvious:
it is clear
equally
that one of the reasons for the many
failures of American
political
analysts
to understand
fundamental
Islamic
and Middle
Eastern
thought
politics
is an inadequate
of the culture,
and languages
of the
knowledge
history,
can make
Islamic world. Quantitative
social scientists
contri
significant
to the needed
butions
but unless we also have area
greater understanding,
studies specialists who are thoroughly
familiar with the culture and
history
of Islam we will not get very far. And while
area studies
the need for more
the Islamic world
is particularly
clear, that same need
specialists
studying
exists for all the various
cultures
of the world,
the Slavic world.
including

This content downloaded from 37.232.76.91 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:55:46 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions