Kilofilm: Annotated References for the State of the Unit documentary film

Cahiers de doléances

Updated July 20, 2021

1.2 Excerpts from cahiers. There are many cahiers online, probably because so many were typeset and printed, to be used in Versailles. Cahiers de doléances is usually abbreviated "C.d.d.". 1.3 The translation of this passage used in the film comes from both Eric Becker and Nicole Faurant. "On ne connaît point ni le poids ni la mesure des boisseaux avec lesquels les messieurs seigneur perçoivent leur rentes. Tel seigneur a un boisseaux qui contient six mesures, et l'autre contient 7, autre 8. Il ne s'agit que de changer de paroisse, le boisseau n'est plus le même. Les villes voisines ont chacune leurs mesures, ce qui embrouille le débiteur, et même fort souvent le marchand. -- 5- Cdd. Angers (Saint-Michel-du-bois-de-Chanveaux) https://www.metrodiff.org/wp/metrologie/a-de-la-metrologie/les-cahiers-de-doleances-de-1789-poids-et-mesures/ 1.4 True that this was the first time they could voice an opinion? Seems so. More from the way communication worked, and from how the government was generally set up. There were deputies, but the King was still the sovreign. 1 What about censorship? Not too bad. Wasn't so bad. Early censorship was more for accuracy (medical texts) than sedition. That changed notably from 1789 to 1799, From Lèse-Majesté to Lèse-Nation: Treason in Eighteenth-Century France G. A. Kelly. Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr. Jun., 1981), pp. 269-286) 1 Lèse -majéste—criticizing the King From Lèse-Majesté to Lèse-Nation: Treason in Eighteenth-Century France. G. A. Kelly. Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr. Jun., 1981), pp. 269-286 (18 pages) https://doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.2307/2709320 :"y a M. Bernardi, "lawyer of the Parlement of Aix," and a third whose authorship is uncertain. These works agree in reserving the supreme punishment to unabashed instances of lese-majeste; in Brissot's words: "subversion of the French form of government ... attacks against the sacred person of the King ... sedition, revolt,"29 to which is often added delivery of portions of French territory to an 27 Ibid., XII, xiii. 28 The items are bound and published by the Academie de Chalons-sur-Mame (1781). 29 Jacques-Pierre Brissot, "Tableau proportionnel des peines et des delits" (Chalons, 1781), "Les moyens d'adoucir les peines," 54. This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Fri, 02 Apr 2021 18:20:00 UTC All use subject to https TREASON IN 18TH-CENTURY FRANCE 279 enemy, as, for example, in the "tableau proportionnel" appended to the Bernardi Discours. Bernardi concludes that since these high crimes "essentially concern the state and the nation ... [attacking] its liberty, property, and political existence" or "its internal tranquillity and its government, of which the Sovereign is chief and his children the [future] hope, "30 the following punishment shall be applie" Dsicusses that by 1780: "opinion among the commons. The progress of the debate over lese-majeste is well illustrated by three learned papers delivered before the Academy of Chalons-surMarn"…"If we were to summarize the discourses of Chalons, we would note principally that they called for (1) a separation of religious offenses from the crime of lese-majeste, amounting to a plea for religious toleration; (2) an elimination of lesser offenses such as counterfeiting and smuggling from the definition of the crime; (3) a condemnation of the "tyrannical" use of lese-majeste (cf. Richelieu against Cinq-Mars, the example used by Montesquieu); (4) adequate safeguards for freedom of speech and writing; and (5) a separation between the notion of treason against the king's person and other forms of treason against the public weal, "public" and "royal" having become distinct. In brief, lese-majeste was now virtually reduced to conspiracy or revolt against the state, regicide, or attempted regicide, a great abbreviation of the crimes catalogued in the Encyclopedie." page 279 "qu'est-ce c'est le tiers etat?" No doubt the pamphlet of Sieyes is doctrinaire and uncompromising for its time.36 At the same moment, the cahiers flooding into the provincial capitals and thence to Versailles (documents which Louis XVI is supposed never to have examined) bespeak the love and respect of the people and their hope in his person. The majesty of the monarch is clutched to the bosom of a large part of the nation up to and indeed after Louis's death. But from 1789 on, much has changed. The most militant law-makers in Versailles (after 12 October in Paris) have shipwrecked the old conception finally, after seventy years of attrition. "Sa Majeste" is still the form of address; but court ceremonial is adapted to new needs. Even those constitutionals who most cherish monarchy are well aware that if there is to be majesty or if the monarch is to have majesty, that quality mus …" y of the French people . . . great brilliance should accompany his eminent dignity." 39 "A king," writes Lanjuinais, the Breton deputy who evolved swiftly in a conservative direction, "is a magistrate, but the primary and most necessary of magistrates, especially in a widespread country (empire) like France; he is the head of a family holding it together, a center of unity without which there would be only a disorderly heap of uncoordinated tribes ... he is the vital support of the people, the cornerstone of our social edifice."40 In these statements old images mingle with venturesome constructions. But it is clear that the king's majesty has become reflected light and his fatherhood a kind of geographical fix…? 1.5 None of the modern poll types are what the cahiers was doing (predictive, base opinion, etc.) page 108 : T1: Base Opinion Polling: The pollster measures the basic attitudes and preferences of the American public. T2: Predictive Polling: Simultaneously or based on the earlier poll, the pollster assesses how the public would respond to various measures and the packaging of the president’s upcoming policy moves. T2,3,4: Strategic and Substantive Advice: The pollster interprets the public’s responses for the president. T3: Policy Outputs: The president’s decisions are experienced, either directly or through the media, by the public. T4: Evaluation Polling: The pollster measures how the public responded to the policy output. T5: Inoculation Polling: The pollster assesses how effective various tactics and policy moves by the opposition party or candidate would be and how best to combat them. Note: “Polling” can include random sample surveying, focus groups, and panel studies. 1 Pasted_Graphic_13

(Source: Chapter Title: The Promise and Peril of Presidential Polling: Between Gallup’s Dream and the Morris Nightmare Chapter Author(s): Jeremy D. Mayer and Lynn Kirby Book Title: Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Government? Book Editor(s): STEPHEN J. WAYNE Published by: Georgetown University Press. (2004) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2tt686.12 ) 1.6 As a form of collecting public opinion: What forms can "polling" take? “Polling” can include random sample surveying, focus groups, and panel studies . (page 108) "Instead, he hoped to replace the then current and flawed means of assessing the popular will—such as tallies of letters to politicians, newspaper editorials, and assessing crowd reactions on the stump. (Source: Chapter Title: The Promise and Peril of Presidential Polling: Between Gallup’s Dream and the Morris Nightmare Chapter Author(s): Jeremy D. Mayer and Lynn Kirby Book Title: Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Government? Book Editor(s): STEPHEN J. WAYNE Published by: Georgetown University Press. (2004) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2tt686.12 ) " The appraisal of crowd size at political rallies, predictions about election turnout or voter returns, results of straw polls, sales figures for political paraphernalia (e.g., buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers)," ( Herbst, Numbered Voices) " The appraisal of crowd size at political rallies, predictions about election turnout or voter returns, results of straw polls, sales figures for political paraphernalia (e.g., buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers)," ( Herbst, Numbered Voices) 1.7 Quantified aspects of polling unlike cahiers (page 2) INTRODUCTION "Yet the opinion poll is not the only instance of quantification in the realm of politics. The appraisal of crowd size at political rallies, predictions about election turnout or voter returns, results of straw polls, sales figures for political paraphernalia (e.g., buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers), and other such estimates all represent the intersection of two dominant ideological forces in American public life—science and democracy. Quantitative techniques for expressing and measuring public opinion are attractive because of their “objective” and seemingly decisive nature, as well as their ability to account for a multitude of individual opinions. Political leaders, pollsters, journalists, interest groups, and members of the public have been increasingly drawn to these methods of estimating public opinion because numerical data tend to communicate authority: The data provide, in theory, an undistorted portrait of the common man's convictions. Although academics and the occasional journalist question the validity of quantitative public opinion figures, there is little question that they carry great weight in political discourse." "Quantitative descriptions of popular opinion serve two very distinct, though intertwined, functions: We quantify in order to act in the most efficient manner possible, but also to communicate authority in public debate. Numbers are used to accomplish immediate and sometimes very private goals, but they are also widely used for their symbolic power." (page 3) ( Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. By Susan Herbst. ) 1.8 Quantified poll results are easy to measure. Measurement, and uniformity often leads to efficiency. Introduction (page 3) We quantify in order to act in the most efficient manner possible, but also to communicate authority in public debate. Numbers are used to accomplish immediate and sometimes very private goals, but they are also widely used for their symbolic power. At times we count opinions in order to gain knowledge about public preferences. At other times, however, we use such data to communicate popularity or legitimacy. This study describes the relationship between these twin functions of numbers—instrumental and symbolic—throughout American political history. ( Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. By Susan Herbst. ) (page 8) The appeal of quantification in the past is easy for us to understand, since the benefits we derive from counting are so conspicuous in our own lives. Counting demands uniformity of measurement, and uniformity often leads to efficiency. Patricia Cline Cohen has argued that numbers were valuable to American colonists because they permitted a variety of comparisons. By enumerating, one could compare distances between locales, the weights of various commodities, or the climates in different regions. Many forms of quantification make the world seem less chaotic. By calculating how much people purchase during a particular season, the patterns of the tides, or the rate of mortality, one creates the illusion of an orderly environment. ( Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. By Susan Herbst. ) Although enumeration itself has a very long history, the practice of applying numbers to social problems and topics has its roots in the late seventeenth century. In Great Britain, a variety of individuals tabulated statistics about the population —birth and death ( Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. By Susan Herbst. ) "Quantification and Rationality" (page 9) Among the most thorough practitioners of political arithmetic was John Sinclair, who produced a twenty-one volume work titled The Statistical Account of Scotland during an eight-year period beginning in 1791. Sinclair asked clergymen throughout Scotland to report on a large number of items, from the number of parishioners and their occupations to the types of disease commonly found in their regions. He also asked a few opinion questions, such as “Are the people [in your parish] fond of a military life?” and “Are the people {[disposed] to humane and generous actions; to protect and relieve the shipwrecked?” Sinclair believed “statistics” to be “an inquiry into the state of a country, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantum of happiness enjoyed by its inhabitants, and the means of its future improvement.” (page 9) In subsequent years Sinclair's study served as a model for scores of political elites, who sought to improve the state of their nations through quantification. As Theodore Porter points out, the “statists” of the nineteenth century were liberals who associated calculation with progressive social reform. These men found the stability of birth, death, and marriage rates impressive, since regularity could make human activity easier to understand and predict." In the mid-nineteenth century, a Belgian named Adolphe Quetelet applied the “law of large numbers” to the study of society, in search of regular patterns of activity." ( Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. By Susan Herbst. ) 1.9 Other notable large-scale statistical survey is the Statistical Accounts of Scotland . While the scale (national) and time period (1791) are similar to the some circumstances of the cahiers, the Accounts differ from the cahiers in many ways. For example, the question format, rather than freeform statements from the cahiers respondents. Another is that there wasn't a particular problem needing solutions. Accounts was more a snapshot of measurables like births, and rivers, rather than collective problem-solving. (Searchable online from University of Edinburgh, https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/home ) “The Statistical Account joined Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (published in 1776) and the Encyclopaedia Britannica (first published in Edinburgh between 1768 and 1771), on the bookshelf. Many other nations, from the Irish to the Swiss followed, but few could match the disciplined and engaging clarity of Sir John and his army of ministers. These detailed parish reports provided then and now quite extraordinary, even revolutionary, ways of looking at the world, hence their excitement as a source for historians.” —‘Scotland Statistics and Happiness’ by Professor R J Morris, Professor T C Smout and Professor C W J Withers " In 1790, Sir John sent structured questionnaires to over 900 parish ministers, covering the whole country. This contained 160 questions in 4 sections, namely: Geography and topography, Population, Agricultural and Industrial production, Miscellaneous questions … Attempts at getting an accurate picture of the geography, people and economy of Scotland had been attempted in the 1620s and 1630s, using the network of about 900 ministers of the established Church of Scotland . The time and resources involved, not to mention the troubled times of the Civil Wars , led to limited results." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_Accounts_of_Scotland 1.10 It is ironic, or indicative, of the lack of quantified approaches to public opinion in the 18th century French monarcy. The Quantifying Spirit covers many ways the new spirit showed itself: new mechanical devices, new areas science, and new professions. But the non-uniformity in the responses has been quite a challenge for researchers to accurately and confidently draw conclusions. "Although historians have carefully documented the rise of quantification and statistics, sociologists view these developments as evidence of a larger trend toward instrumental thinking. Counting people, calculating mortality rates, and systematically assessing the living conditions of the populace all evince a desire to routinize processes of observation. As time progresses, some scholars argue, social action tends toward increasing systematization or “rationalization.”17 Individuals and organizations create more and more standard operating procedures for accomplishing goals, because these procedures are thought to enable a degree of control: If one can routinize a set of practices in order to complete a task, he or she experiences a sense of mastery over that task." (pg 12) (Source: Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. Susan Herbst. 1993.) 1.11 Another paper about a mass public opinion activity occured in Britain in 1937. The MO project of Britain involved people going out and talking, and watching from the POV of a paid outsider. It was a research and art project, not a direct response to the monarch's call for opinions. However, it was more like living the life of the respondents. "This essay examines an early alternative to polling, Mass-Observation (M-O), that dramatically reported on the nuances, contradictions, and passions of public opinion during some of the most extraordinary times in British history. Between the Abdication Crisis of 1937 and the start of World War II, M-O’s combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, along with its emphasis on the cultural context of public opinion, produced a richer, more textured, and more deliberative rhetoric of public opinion than the Gallup poll’s survey techniques. In the process, M-O foreshadowed many of today’s scholarly trends, including the reflexive turn in social research, increased skepticism about the knowledge claims of science, and the emergence of more public scholarship. "g, Mass-Observation (M-O)" "” No longer does public opinion mean ideas tested in public discourse, as it did in classical democratic theory. In the Age of Polling, public opinion refers to the confıdential and anonymous opinions of a small sample of people responding to closed-ended questions framed by political elites" (page 410) "In the Age of Polling, public opinion refers to the confıdential and anonymous opinions of a small sample of people responding to closed-ended questions framed by political elites." An alternative to polling is what the essayist calls Mass-Observation. "M-O assessed British public opinion on the Great Depression, the abdication of King Edward VIII, Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, and Great Britain’s entry into World War II. It even served as a semioffıcial barometer of public morale during the war itself, exploring public perceptions of wartime propaganda and the opinions of ordinary citizens on everything from wartime rationing to the latest dance craze." (page 410) "…a poll’s fındings depend heavily on the rhetorical art of question wording…In short, polling is a rhetoric of science that denies its rhetoricity. (page 412) (Source: The Road Not Taken in Opinion Research: Mass-Observation in Great Britain, 1937–1940 Author(s): J. Michael Hogan Source: Rhetoric and Public Affairs , Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 2015), pp. 409-440) 1.12 The call for the cahiers demanded deliberation, which Mansbridge claims is important to a "good democracy." "Deliberative Polls are the gold standard today in several respects. They are strongest in representativeness, very strong on outcome measurement, and equal to any other in balanced materials, policy links, and the quality of space for reflection." (Source: Deliberative Polling as the Gold Standard. Author(s): Jane Mansbridge Source: The Good Society , Vol. 19, No. 1 (2010), pp. 55-62) 1.13 The development of the cahiers has similarities to a New England Town Hall meeting, but differences also. The cahiers were written with deliberation from the villagers, but there was not an immediate vote of the villagers on the issue(s) at hand. The cahiers were to be used at the national level. There was maybe one "legislature" (the deputy). The "executive branch" would have been King Louis XVI. "But of the 312 towns in the commonwealth, 261 of them, including Ashfield, still make laws and appropriate money at a meeting where all adult citizens legally resident in town are eligible voters, with an equal vote.1 Each small town in New England is unique.2 Those that have preserved a town-meeting form of government practice it differently. In some towns, there is usually just one annual town meeting; others have special town meetings fairly frequently. Some places hold town meeting on a Saturday in the springtime; others do it on a weeknight in late winter or early summer. In some towns the annual meeting lasts one full day; in others it can go on for several evenings. Some town meetings are primarily run by a moderator, who exercises a great deal of discretion over the order of business and determines who may speak and for how long; for others the select board is the major player, preparing the articles on the warrant and setting the agenda, and participation in the meeting is governed by rules long established. In one town, voters may elect a long list of officials; in another, far fewer. Some towns vote for each line item in the budget a voice vote, a show of hands, or a written ballot, counted on the spot); others vote for budgets by secret ballot, on the day of town meeting but not at the meeting itself.3 Indeed, in a given town, the practice may vary from one year to the next, depending on the issues that arise and the people who hold office. Ashfield’s basic structure and practices are fairly typical for a town of its size in New England. Its proceedings at town meeting are under the control of an elected town moderator, who has broad discretion over the conduct of the proceedings, subject to being overridden by a vote of the town meeting.4 There have been a few significant changes in the structure of local government in Ashfield since the eighteenth century. One of the most important, which I will be discussing in chapter 6 along with other reforms instituted in Ashfield during the 1990s, was the addition of an independently elected finance committee to monitor the select board and provide town meeting with an alternative set of proposals for the annual budget (the select board prepares the budget in the warrant). There have been other innovations, too, but none of them fundamental. We have not departed far from the institutions and procedures established in the eighteenth century. If we were to compare the government of Ashfield to the standard American model, we might say that town meeting is the legislature, the select board is the executive, and there is no local judiciary." (Source: Chapter "Becoming Ashfield" of book Town Meeting—Practicing Democracy in Rural New England. Donald L. Robinson Published by: University of Massachusetts Press. (2011) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk5g5.6 1.14 Do the cahiers qualify as public opinion? But the "many" individuals was the whole country, not merely the 1000 people who answered the phone that day. "More recently, students have been able to agree substantially on a number of distinguishing marks of public opinion. A list of characteristics, which is still one of the best, was given by Floyd Allport more than twenty years ago. Ref4 ( He noted that public opinion involved verbalization and communication among many individual s, that some widely known issue was always involved , that public opinion represented action or a readiness for action by individuals who were aware that others were reacting to the same situation , and that it was ordinarily a transitory phenomenon . Other writers have pointed out that a majority is not necessarily involved, that public opinion must be distinguished from norms and customs , and that the effectiveness of public opinion in bringing about change depends on the political and societal context in which it operates. In spite of a considerable measure of agreement on these and other char acteristics of public opinion, social scientists have been unable either to link these characteristics together into a theoretical framework or to offer a satisfactory definition of the phenomenon they are attempting to describe. Having rejected the "collective mind" explanation, which provided a theoretical basis for public opinion study even if one that was manifestly incorrect, students have been left without any concept that adequately serves to interrelate the various observed aspects of the phenomenon. This gap has been pointed out with increasing frequency. In the twentieth anniversary issue of this journal a number of authorities noted that especially during the past two decades progress in measuring and describing various aspects of public opinion has greatly outstripped conceptualization. (Source and citations: Reference # 4"Casoward a Science of Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, January 1937. Referenced work: The Public Opinion Process Author(s): W. Phillips Davison Source: The Public Opinion Quarterly , Summer, 1958, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Summer, 1958), pp. 91-106 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2746642 ) 1.15 Where are there gaps in the cahiers? The nobles of Normany abstained in protest. Bishops could write their own, as privileged persons 1.16 Are the cahiers credible? Generally yes, because Shaprio's text analysis doesn't reveal a lot of word-for-word plagiarism of "model" or template cahiers. Also, the demands are often terribly specific, like "no Lord's pigeons devastating our crops". They were also expensive to make: meet and have discourse, print, proofread, then distribute copies, and it was the King's request which was expected to be obeyed. 1.17 The specific cahiers read by the curator, Annick. http://www.archives.cg19.fr/telechargements/Les%20cahiers%20de%20dol%C3%A9ances%20du%20Bas-Limousin%20en%201789.pdf Cahier de doléances de l’ordre du Tiers–État du bailliage de Nemours pour les États–Généraux de 1789 - Archives Nationales - C-21 d,112 - (1).jpg https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6216940f/f345.item.r=nemours%20bailliage%20cahiers%20de%20dol%C3%A9ances%201789 1.18 Le même titre — https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titre_au_milli%C3%A8me#:~:text=Le%20titre%20au%20milli%C3%A8me%20est,alliage%20qu'il%20compose ).&text=En%20France%2C%20le%20milli%C3%A8me%20remplace%20le%20carat%20depuis%201995. https://data.bnf.fr/fr/11943523/france__etats_generaux__1789__--_cahiers_de_doleances/ 1.19 Annick: "C'est d'ailleurs ce qui va être supprimé lors de la nuit du 4 août avec d'autres privilèges. Et c'est dans ces termes là que beaucoup, dans les cahiers de doléances du tiers état s'est exprimé, c'est à dire dénoncer ce privilège spécifique. 1.20 Gun parts, March 19, 1791 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k135166x/f2.item Rapport on Gun plates 1791 " Rapport fait à l'Académie royale des sciences, le... 19 mars 1791, d'un mémoire important de M. Blanc sur la fabrication des armes de guerre... [Signé : Le Roy, Laplace, Coulomb, Borda.] Le Roy, Jean-Baptiste (1720-1800). Auteur du texte " "L'industrie des armes portatives à Saint-Étienne,1777-1810. L'inévitable mécanisation?" by Jérôme-Luther Viret In Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine 2007/1 (no 54-1) , pages 171 à 192 This modern article gives their report in context: https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-histoire-moderne-et-contemporaine-2007-1-page-171.htm#re62no62 1.21 Framing document of the metric system March 19, 1791 Rapport fait a l'académie royale des science Rapport sur le choix d'une unité de mesure : lu à l'Académie des sciences le 19 mars 1791 ([Reprod.]) / Assemblée nationale ; [réd. par Borda, La Grange, La Place... [et al.] le 19 mars 1971

Psychostasia

Back to top 1. L_0269 - psychostasia I present several famous images of weighing, starting with the Book of the Dead , which according to British Museum curator John Taylor is the first time in human history that weighing represents the moment of deciding what happens a person's soul after the death of their body. The term psychostasia "weighing of the soul" comes from Greek: soul + balance. Emily Vermeule adds another aspect, "The psychostasia is a supernatural confirmation of the inevitable, just as in Egypt it had been the external sign of the judgment already made by the habits of a man's life." (Source: Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry by Emily Vermeule, page 160) 1.1 "the imagery of weighing spread" — Tracing the imagery from Egyptians to Greeks (then inevitable to the Romans) Specifically regarding the trail of psychostasia in cultures, one reference (the name is forgotten to me, thus is useless) claimed that it was started by single European artist who had traveled from Europe to Egypt and brought back and popularized the imagery of weighing as the last judgment. My classes in art history make me skeptical that only one artist copied something so famous as the Book of the Dead, to such great success that everyone else copied that particular artist. Instead I prefer to rely on the amount of exchange between the Greeks and Egyptians in the arts and in commerce. I asked Ian Rutherford, and Professor of Greek at the University of Reading, who organized in conference in 2007 titled "Contacts between Ancient Egypt and Greece", http://www.reading.ac.uk/GraecoAegyptica/ . "That is is reasonably well documented, and more plausible. I don't think psychostasia is discussed in Greco-Egyptian Interactions. Nothing comes to mind. Emily Vermeule set Greek psychostasia and the Egyptian weighing of the heart alongside each other in her book on death (p.160?), so the possibility of Egyptian background is certainly known." Professor Rutherford's memory was correct, and page 160 we find: "…If they [two daimons] are gambling for a man’s soul it is a different image for the same theme as the psychostasia or kerostasia, the testing of the last moment of a man's destiny…In the Iliad the image of the scales of destiny, with keres in the scale pans, signaled a major duel—Achilles and Hektor—or a general shift in the fortunes of battle (VIII.69, XVI.658, XXII. 209). In late archaic and classical art the weighing of destiny, psychostasia , was in practice limited to the duel of Achilles and Memnon described in the Aithiopis. [Ref 22] It marked the moment when Achilles' physical superiority was already visible. The psychostasia is a supernatural confirmation of the inevitable, just as in Egypt it had been the external sign of the judgment already made by the habits of a man's life. If Zeus watches, or Hermes holds the balance, it is not because they need the sign, but because an immortal presence is proper at important deaths." And on page 76 of Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, Emily Vermeule describes some differences in the representations of psychostasia : " The image of the weighing of the dead has been altered, clearly, from the Egyptian motif of weighing an individual against an abstract principle of virtue, toward a more competitive principle of weighing one fighter against another, while the element of the Devourer has been absorbed into the individual ker ; the theme is fairly rare in Greece and is mythologically restricted, but it does seem to have been linked originally to several other rich and picturesque elements of Egyptian eschatology absorbed and transformed in the Hellenic imagination." In her 2016 Bachelor's thesis, Rebecca Georgiades at the University of Sydney lists several Greek artifacts depicting a version of psychostasia. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/17970/Rebecca_Georgiades-Georgiades_R_thesis_2016.pdf;jsessionid=FCF6F54C21EAA6143E0857FC07CD894C?sequence=1 1.2 Comparing the god Mercury to St. Michael I also found this reference, returned from a keyword search of "Book of Dead St Michael Weighing Souls psychostasia". This author, James Hall, gives a specific instance, of a Greek depiction of Mercury weighing teenie soldiers to determine who will win the battle. Which reminds me of my next-door neighbors as kids, playing with their little soldiers. Perhaps they were determining the soldiers' fates in the same way, but rather than based on mass, based on paint-chipiness. Hall highlights several instances of Mercury's activities which as similar to Anubis and to St. Michael. For example in the Glossary, on page 377: " psychostasia 'Weighing of a soul.' One of the roles of Mercury as conductor of souls to the underworld, also of St Michael at the Last Judgement." The interested reader may also wish to read an earlier references listed in Hall's book: M. P. Perry, ‘On the psychostasia in Christian Art, Burlington Magazine, XXII, 1912-13, pp.94ff and 208ff; also L.F. A. Maury, ‘Recherches sur l’origine des représentations figurées de la psychostasie”, Revue Archacologique, 1844. 2. Notre Dame de Paris We filmed this after the vote on the New SI in Versailles, November 2018. 2.1 Summary of images This is a nice review of the people, events and symbols depicted on Notre Dame de Paris. The psychostasia imagery ("The Last Judgment") is over the main entrance. https://frenchmoments.eu/west-facade-of-notre-dame-cathedral-paris/ 2.2 West Portal: "The Last Judgment" The images of the Last Judgment are typically situated on the west façades. You can verify this yourself, by visiting churches in Europe. The altar is typically on the east end , and you can verify this with aerial photos.

Hilbert and CODATA Back to top

1 Episode 5: Fundamental Constants 1. L_0582 "And then I give them one of these cards." Barry Taylor The cutoff date for accepted data was at the close of 31 December 2018, and the new set of values became available on World Metrology Day, 20 May 2019, at http://physics.nist .gov/constants , a website of the Fundamental Constants Data Center of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. 2. L_3050 " I mean, who knows how many people, the man in the so-called, Man in the Street, what does he know about the triple point of water?" [1] The 1973 Least‐Squares Adjustment of the Fundamental Constants. J.Phys.Chem.Ref.Data 2 (1973) 664. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3253130 [2] CODATA at 45 YEARS: The Story of the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) From 1966 to 2010. David R.Lide and Gordon H.Wood. (2010) https://www.codata.org/uploads/CODATA@45years.pdf [3] "The first man on the street" — tracing a famous Hilbert quote (1900) back to Gergonne (1825). J. Barrow-Green, R. Siegmund-Schultze. Historia Mathematica 43 (2016) 415-426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2016.08.005

Cyphering Books - "the implemented curriculum" follows daily w&m

In Episode 7, I interview Professors Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements, who teach and research the history of math education at Illinois State University. They have published several books about their findings from analyzing about 800 cyphering books, self-written schoolbooks dating from 1607-1861 in the US, Britain, and Europe. In the onscreen discussion, Ken and Nerida talk about in Colonial times a working knowledge of business math and reading and writing "could get you a job."

I see parallels with today, where an understanding of quantum concepts can help you get a good job in the next years. "NSF expands quantum education to students nationwide in collaboration with industry, academic leaders" (August 05, 2020): "In the coming decades, quantum systems are poised to drive our nation's industrial base, economic strength and national security," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "Achieving that vision requires a workforce educated and trained in quantum information science and engineering. Through close collaboration with academia, industry, and partner agencies, the National Q-12 Education Partnership will increase the technical literacy of students, expanding inclusion and broadening participation for a future workforce that will bring benefits to all of us." The quantum concepts, like decimal math in the 1700s, originate in high science then appear in such infrastructure as weights and measures, and then of course are covered in school curricula.

For details about the math education revealed in cyphering books, see Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861: The Central Role of Cyphering Books (2012)

Ken and Nerida's knowledge of how math was learned over hundreds of years helped them to identify a leaf from Abraham Lincoln's own cyphering book. Abraham Lincoln’s Cyphering Book and Ten other Extraordinary Cyphering Books (2014)

The problem which Nerida walks me through was made more difficult for me with the pounds-shilling-pence currency units. I was curious what gas pumps looked like in the UK before the 1971 switch to 100 pence per pound, and found this 1930s photo of an attendant with a gas pump in the Edinburgh city of Liberton.

If you zoom way in, you can see the shillings and pence dials for the gas pumped. But I can't tell what the fraction of gallons the machine displays -- 1/10 or something like 1/16th for a pint.