Diogenes' tub and the double bind of science and vocation in the late Middle Ages.

Intellectuals tend to cherish heroes who embody their ideal way of life. The fact that the personas of the unworldly Greek philosophers Diogenes and Crates were so popular in the late Middle Ages proves that Max Weber's Idealtypus of the "authentic man of science" (as termed by Steven Shapin) has been problematic for centuries. This finding gives cause to modify Max Weber's and Shapin's viewpoints about the loss of the "authentic man of science" due to professionalization. The development of the university as an educational institution in the High Middle Ages chained the academic once and for all to a formal training that costs time and money: investments that were expected to have reward. Soon, university-trained experts were highly appreciated by local and national authorities. By combining Frank Rexroth's and Marcel Bubert's ideas on the coming into being of an "amor sciendi" in the twelfth century Arts faculties, with David Kaldewey's and Klaas van Berkel's appeals for academic autonomy, my article argues that academics have always struggled to protect the pursuit of truth, even while they recognized its vital importance from the beginning.

Dancing with death. A historical perspective on coping with Covid-19.

In this paper, we address the question on how societies coped with pandemic crises, how they tried to control or adapt to the disease, or even managed to overcome the death trap in history. On the basis of historical research, we describe how societies in the western world accommodated to or exited hardship and restrictive measures over the course of the last four centuries. In particular, we are interested in how historically embedded citizens' resources were directed towards living with and to a certain extent accepting the virus. Such an approach of "applied history" to the management of crises and public hazards, we believe, helps address today's pressing question of what adaptive strategies can be adopted to return to a normalized life, including living with socially acceptable medical, hygienic and other pandemic-related measures.

En este artículo abordamos la cuestión de cómo las sociedades enfrentaron las crisis pandémicas, cómo intentaron controlar o adaptarse a la enfermedad, o incluso cómo lograron superar la trampa mortal de la historia. Basándonos en la investigación histórica, describimos cómo las sociedades del mundo occidental se adaptaron o salieron de las dificultades y las medidas restrictivas durante los últimos cuatro siglos. En particular, estamos interesados en cómo los recursos de los ciudadanos históricamente arraigados se dirigieron a vivir con el virus y, hasta cierto punto, a aceptarlo. Creemos que este enfoque de "historia aplicada" a la gestión de crisis y peligros públicos ayuda a abordar la urgente cuestión actual de qué estrategias de adaptación se pueden adoptar para volver a una vida normalizada, que abarque vivir con servicios médicos y de higiene socialmente aceptables y otras medidas relacionadas con la pandemia.