Life.

Youth.

Abelard, originally called "Pierre le Pallet", was born in Le Pallet, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Nantes, in Brittany, the eldest son of a minor noble French family. As a boy, he learned quickly. His father, a knight called Berenger, encouraged Pierre to study the liberal arts, wherein he excelled at the art of dialectic (a branch of philosophy), which, at that time, consisted chiefly of the logic of Aristotle transmitted through Latin channels. Instead of entering a military career, as his father had done, Abelard became an academic. During his early academic pursuits, Abelard wandered throughout France, debating and learning, so as (in his own words) "he became such a one as the Peripatetics." He first studied in the Loire area, where the nominalist Roscellinus of Compiègne, who had been accused of heresy by Anselm, was his teacher during this period.

Rise to fame.

Around 1100, Abelard's travels finally brought him to Paris. In the great cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris (before the current cathedral was actually built), he was taught for a while by William of Champeaux, the disciple of Anselm of Laon (not to be confused with Saint Anselm), a leading proponent of Realism. During this time he changed his surname to "Abelard", sometimes written "Abailard" or "Abaelardus". Retrospectively, Abelard portrays William as having turned from approval to hostility when Abelard proved soon able to defeat the master in argument; Abelard was, however, closer to William's thought than this account suggests and William thought Abelard was too arrogant. It was during this time that Abelard would provoke quarrels with both William and Roscellinus. Against opposition from the metropolitan teacher, Abelard set up his own school, first at Melun, a favoured royal residence, then, around 1102–4, for more direct competition, he moved to Corbeil, nearer Paris.  His teaching was notably successful, though for a time he had to give it up and spend time in Brittany, the strain proving too great for his constitution. On his return, after 1108, he found William lecturing at the hermitage of Saint-Victor, just outside the Île de la Cité, and there they once again became rivals, with Abelard challenging William over his theory of universals. Abelard was once more victorious, and Abelard was almost able to hold the position of master at Notre Dame. For a short time, however, William was able to prevent Abelard from lecturing in Paris. Abelard accordingly was forced to resume his school at Melun, which he was then able to move, from, to Paris itself, on the heights of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, overlooking Notre-Dame.  From his success in dialectic, he next turned to theology and in 1113 moved to Laon to attend the lectures of Anselm on Biblical exegesis and Christian doctrine. Unimpressed by Anselm's teaching, Abelard began to offer his own lectures on the book of Ezekiel. Anselm forbade him to continue this teaching, and Abelard returned to Paris where, in around 1115, he became master of the cathedral school of Notre Dame (though the present cathedral was not yet begun) and a canon of Sens (the cathedral of the archdiocese to which Paris belonged).

Héloïse.

Distinguished in figure and manners, Abelard was seen surrounded by crowds—it is said thousands of students—drawn from all countries by the fame of his teaching. Enriched by the offerings of his pupils, and entertained with universal admiration, he came, as he says, to think himself the only undefeated philosopher in the world. But a change in his fortunes was at hand. In his devotion to science, he had always lived a very regular life, enlivened only by philosophical debate: now, at the height of his fame, he encountered romance.  Héloïse d'Argenteuil lived within the precincts of Notre-Dame, under the care of her uncle, the secular canon Fulbert. She was remarkable for her knowledge of classical letters, which extended beyond Latin to Greek and Hebrew. Abelard sought a place in Fulbert's house and, in 1115 or 1116, began an affair with Héloïse. The affair interfered with his career, and Abelard himself boasted of his conquest. Once Fulbert found out, he separated them, but they continued to meet in secret. Héloïse became pregnant and was sent by Abelard to be looked after by his family in Brittany, where she gave birth to a son whom she named Astrolabe after the scientific instrument.  To appease Fulbert, Abelard proposed a secret marriage so as not to mar his career prospects. Héloïse initially opposed it, but the couple were married. When Fulbert publicly disclosed the marriage, and Héloïse denied it, Abelard sent Héloïse to the convent at Argenteuil, where she had been brought up, in order to protect her from her uncle. Héloïse dressed as a nun and shared the nun's life, though she was not veiled.  Fulbert, most probably believing that Abelard wanted to be rid of Héloïse by forcing her to become a nun, arranged for a band of men to break into Abelard's room one night and castrate him. Roscellinus would later belittle Abelard for getting castrated. Later, Abelard decided to become a monk at the monastery of St Denis, near Paris. Before doing so he insisted that Héloïse take vows as a nun. Héloïse sent letters to Abelard, questioning why she must submit to a religious life for which she had no calling.

Later life.

In the Abbey of Saint-Denis, the 40-year-old Abelard sought to bury himself as a monk with his woes out of sight. Finding no respite in the cloister, and having gradually turned again to study, he gave in to urgent entreaties, and reopened his school at an unknown priory owned by the monastery. His lectures, now framed in a devotional spirit, and with lectures on theology as well as his previous lectures on logic, were once again heard by crowds of students, and his old influence seemed to have returned. Using his studies of the Bible and — in his view — inconsistent writings of the leaders of the church as his basis, he wrote "Sic et Non" ("Yes and No").  No sooner had he published his theological lectures (the "Theologia Summi Boni") than his adversaries picked up on his rationalistic interpretation of the Trinitarian dogma. Two pupils of Anselm of Laon, Alberich of Reims and Lotulf of Lombardy, instigated proceedings against Abelard, charging him with the heresy of Sabellius in a provincial synod held at Soissons in 1121. They obtained through irregular procedures an official condemnation of his teaching, and Abelard was made to burn the "Theologia" himself. He was then sentenced to perpetual confinement in a monastery other than his own, but it seems to have been agreed in advance that this sentence would be revoked almost immediately, because after a few days in the convent of St. Medard at Soissons, Abelard returned to St. Denis.  Life in his own monastery proved no more congenial than before. For this Abelard himself was partly responsible. He took a sort of malicious pleasure in irritating the monks. As if for the sake of a joke, he cited Bede to prove that the believed founder of the monastery of St Denis, Dionysius the Areopagite had been Bishop of Corinth, while the other monks relied upon the statement of the Abbot Hilduin that he had been Bishop of Athens. When this historical heresy led to the inevitable persecution, Abelard wrote a letter to the Abbot Adam in which he preferred to the authority of Bede that of Eusebius of Caesarea's "Historia Ecclesiastica" and St. Jerome, according to whom Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, was distinct from Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens and founder of the abbey, though, in deference to Bede, he suggested that the Areopagite might also have been bishop of Corinth. Adam accused him of insulting both the monastery and the Kingdom of France (which had Denis as its patron saint); life in the monastery grew intolerable for Abelard, and he was finally allowed to leave.  Abelard initially lodged at St Ayoul of Provins, where the prior was a friend. Then, after the death of Abbot Adam in March 1122, Abelard was able to gain permission from the new abbot, Suger, to live "in whatever solitary place he wished". In a deserted place near Nogent-sur-Seine in Champagne, he built a cabin of stubble and reeds, and a simple oratory dedicated to the Trinity and became a hermit. When his retreat became known, students flocked from Paris, and covered the wilderness around him with their tents and huts. He began to teach again there. The oratory was rebuilt in wood and stone and rededicated as the Oratory of the Paraclete. Abelard remained at the Paraclete for about five years. His combination of the teaching of secular arts with his profession as a monk was heavily criticized by other men of religion, and Abelard contemplated flight outside Christendom altogether. Abelard therefore decided to leave and find another refuge, accepting sometime between 1126 and 1128 an invitation to preside over the Abbey of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys on the far-off shore of Lower Brittany. The region was inhospitable, the domain a prey to outlaws, the house itself savage and disorderly. There, too, his relations with the community deteriorated.  During this time, however, Abelard came back into contact with Héloïse. In April 1129, Abbot Suger of St Denis succeeded in his plans to have the nuns, including Héloïse, expelled from the convent at Argenteuil, in order to take over the property for St Denis. Héloïse had meanwhile become the head of a new foundation of nuns called the Paraclete. Abelard became the abbot of the new community and provided it with a rule and with a justification of the nun's way of life; in this he emphasized the virtue of literary study. He also provided books of hymns he had composed, and in the early 1130s he and Héloïse composed a collection of their own love letters and religious correspondence. Lack of success at St Gildas made Abelard decide to take up public teaching again (although he remained for a few more years, officially, Abbot of St Gildas). It is not entirely certain what he then did, but given that John of Salisbury heard Abelard lecture on dialectic in 1136, it is presumed that he returned to Paris and resumed teaching on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève. It is presumed his lectures included logic, at least until 1136, but were mainly concerned with the Bible, Christian doctrine, and ethics. Then he produced further drafts of his "Theologia" in which he analyzed the sources of belief in the Trinity and praised the pagan philosophers of classical antiquity for their virtues and for their discovery by the use of reason of many fundamental aspects of Christian revelation.  At some point in this time Abelard wrote, among other things, his famous "Historia Calamitatum". This moved Héloïse to write her first Letter; the first being followed by the two other Letters, in which she finally accepted the part of resignation, which, now as a brother to a sister, Abelard commended to her. Sometime before 1140, Abelard published his masterpiece, "Ethica" or "Scito te ipsum" (Know Thyself), where he analyzes the idea of sin and that actions are not what a man will be judged for but intentions. During this period, he also wrote "Dialogus inter Philosophum, Judaeum et Christianum" (Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian), and also "Expositio in Epistolam ad Romanos", a commentary on St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, where he expands on the meaning of Christ's life.

Conflicts with Bernard of Clairvaux.

Abelard was to face, however, another challenge which would put a final end to his teaching career. After 1136, it is not clear whether Abelard had stopped teaching, or whether he perhaps continued with all except his lectures on logic until as late as 1141. Whatever the exact timing, a process was instigated by William of St Thierry, who discovered what he considered to be heresies in some of Abelard's teaching. In spring 1140 he wrote to the Bishop of Chartres and to Bernard of Clairvaux denouncing them. Another, less distinguished, theologian, Thomas of Morigny, also produced at the same time a list of Abelard's supposed heresies, perhaps at Bernard's instigation. Bernard's complaint mainly is that Abelard has applied logic where it is not applicable, and that is illogical. Amid pressure from Bernard, Abelard challenged Bernard either to withdraw his accusations, or to make them publicly at the important church council at Sens planned for 2 June 1141. In so doing, Abelard put himself into the position of the wronged party and forced Bernard to defend himself from the accusation of slander. Bernard avoided this trap, however: on the eve of the council, he called a private meeting of the assembled bishops and persuaded them to condemn, one by one, each of the heretical propositions he attributed to Abelard. When Abelard appeared at the council the next day, he was presented with a list of condemned propositions imputed to him.  Refusing to answer to these propositions, Abelard left the assembly, appealed to the Pope, and set off for Rome, hoping that the Pope would be more supportive. However, this hope was unfounded. On 16 July 1141, Pope Innocent II issued a bull excommunicating Abelard and his followers and imposing perpetual silence on him, and in a second document he ordered Abelard to be confined in a monastery and his books to be burned. Abelard was saved from this sentence, however, by Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny. Abelard had stopped there, on his way to Rome, before the papal condemnation had reached France. Peter persuaded Abelard, already old, to give up his journey and stay at the monastery. Peter managed to arrange a reconciliation with Bernard, to have the sentence of excommunication lifted, and to persuade Innocent that it was enough if Abelard remained under the aegis of Cluny. Abelard was treated not as a condemned heretic, but as a revered and wise scholar. He spent his final months at the priory of St. Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saône, before he died on 21 April 1142. He is said to have uttered the last words "I don't know", before expiring. He died from a combination of fever and a skin disorder, most likely scurvy.

Disputed resting place/lovers' pilgrimage.

Abelard was first buried at St. Marcel, but his remains were soon carried off secretly to the Paraclete, and given over to the loving care of Héloïse, who in time came herself to rest beside them in 1163.  The bones of the pair were moved more than once afterwards, but they were preserved even through the vicissitudes of the French Revolution, and now are presumed to lie in the well-known tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery in eastern Paris. The transfer of their remains there in 1817 is considered to have considerably contributed to the popularity of that cemetery, at the time still far outside the built-up area of Paris. By tradition, lovers or lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt, in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love.  This remains, however, disputed. The Oratory of the Paraclete claims Abelard and Héloïse are buried there and that what exists in Père-Lachaise is merely a monument, or cenotaph. According to Père-Lachaise, the remains of both lovers were transferred from the Oratory in the early 19th century and reburied in the famous crypt on their grounds. Others believe that while Abelard is buried in the tomb at Père-Lachaise, Heloïse's remains are elsewhere.

Philosophy and theology.

Philosophical thought.

The general importance of Abelard lies in his having fixed more decisively than anyone before him the scholastic manner of philosophizing, with the object of giving a formal, rational expression to received ecclesiastical doctrine. Though his particular interpretations may have been condemned, they were conceived in essentially the same spirit as the general scheme of thought afterwards elaborated in the 13th century with approval from the heads of the Church.  He helped to establish the ascendancy of the philosophical authority of Aristotle which became firmly established in the half-century after his death. It was at this time that the completed "Organon", and gradually all the other works of the Greek thinker, first came to be available in the schools. Before his time, Plato's authority was the basis for the prevailing Realism. As regards his so-called Conceptualism and his attitude to the question of universals, a discussion can be found in the 1911 "Encyclopædia Britannica" article.  Outside of his dialectic, it was in ethics that Abelard showed greatest activity of philosophical thought. He stressed the subjective intention as determining, if not the moral character, at least the moral value, of human action. His thought in this direction, anticipating something of modern speculation, is remarkable because his scholastic successors accomplished least in the field of morals, hardly venturing to bring the principles and rules of conduct under pure philosophical discussion, even after they were made fully aware of Aristotle's great ethical inquiries.  Regarding the unbaptized who die in infancy, Abelard—in "Commentaria in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos"—emphasized the goodness of God and interpreted St. Augustine of Hippo's "mildest punishment" as the pain of loss at being denied the beatific vision ("carentia visionis Dei"), without hope of obtaining it, but with no additional punishments. His thought contributed to the forming of Limbo of Infants theory in the 12th–13th centuries.

Later influence.

Abelard was an enormous influence on his contemporaries and the course of medieval philosophical thought, but he has been known in modern times mainly for his connection with Héloïse. Only one of his strictly philosophical works, the ethical treatise "Scito te ipsum", had been published before the 19th century, in 1721. It was only with the publication by Cousin in 1836 of the collection entitled "Ouvrages inedits d'Abelard" that Abelard's philosophical work began to be studied more closely. Cousin's collection gave extracts from the theological work "Sic et Non" ("Yes and No") which is an assemblage of what Abelard saw as opposite opinions on doctrinal points culled from the Fathers as a basis for discussion. The collection also includes the "Dialectica, "and commentaries on logical works of Aristotle, Porphyry and Boethius. Two works published by Cousin and believed at the time to be by Abelard, the fragment "De Generibus et Speciebus "(published in the 1836 collection), and also the psychological treatise "De Intellectibus" (published separately by Cousin in "Fragmens Philosophiques", vol. ii.), are" "now believed on upon internal evidence not to be by Abelard himself, but only to have sprung out of his school"." A genuine work, the "Glossulae super Porphyrium", from which Charles de Rémusat gave extracts in his monograph "Abelard" (1845), was published in 1930. The fascinating hypothesis of Abaelard's influence on Menasseh Ben Israel and Spinoza has been developed by Robert Menasse and first published in his essay "Enlightenment as Harmonious Strategy" edited by "Versopolis" in 2018.

Notes from Pope Benedict XVI.

During his general audience on 4 November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI talked about Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard to illustrate differences in the monastic and scholastic approaches to theology in the 12th century. The Pope recalled that theology is the search for a rational understanding (if possible) of the mysteries of Christian revelation, which is believed through faith — faith that seeks intelligibility ("fides quaerens intellectum"). But St. Bernard, a representative of monastic theology, emphasized "faith" whereas Abelard, who is a scholastic, stressed "understanding through reason".  For Bernard, faith is based on the testimony of Scripture and on the teaching of the Fathers of the Church. Thus, Bernard found it difficult to agree with Abelard and, in a more general way, with those who would subject the truths of faith to the critical examination of reason — an examination which, in his opinion, posed a grave danger: intellectualism, the relativizing of truth, and the questioning of the truths of faith themselves. Theology for Bernard could be nourished only in contemplative prayer, by the affective union of the heart and mind with God, with only one purpose: to promote the living, intimate experience of God; an aid to loving God ever more and ever better.  According to Pope Benedict XVI, an excessive use of philosophy rendered Abelard's doctrine of the Trinity dangerously fragile and, thus, his idea of God. In the field of morals, his teaching was vague, as he insisted on considering the intention of the subject as the only basis for describing the goodness or evil of moral acts, thereby ignoring the objective meaning and moral value of the acts, resulting in a dangerous subjectivism. But the Pope recognized the great achievements of Abelard, who made a decisive contribution to the development of scholastic theology, which eventually expressed itself in a more mature and fruitful way during the following century. And some of Abelard's insights should not be underestimated, for example, his affirmation that non-Christian religious traditions already contain some form of preparation for welcoming Christ.  Pope Benedict XVI concluded that Bernard's "theology of the heart" and Abelard's "theology of reason" represent the importance of healthy theological discussion and humble obedience to the authority of the Church, especially when the questions being debated have not been defined by the magisterium. St. Bernard, and even Abelard himself, always recognized without any hesitation the authority of the magisterium. Abelard showed humility in acknowledging his errors, and Bernard exercised great benevolence. The Pope emphasized, in the field of theology, there should be a balance between architectonic principles, which are given through Revelation and which always maintain their primary importance, and the interpretative principles proposed by philosophy (that is, by reason), which have an important function, but only as a tool. When the balance breaks down, theological reflection runs the risk of becoming marred by error; it is then up to the magisterium to exercise the needed service to truth, for which it is responsible.

The letters of Abelard and Héloïse.

The story of Abelard and Héloïse has proved immensely popular in modern European culture. This story is known almost entirely from a few sources: first, the "Historia Calamitatum; "secondly, the seven letters between Abelard and Héloïse which survive (three written by Abelard, and four by Héloïse), and always follow the "Historia Calamitatum" in the manuscript tradition; thirdly, four letters between Peter the Venerable and Héloïse (three by Peter, one by Héloïse). They are, in modern times, the best known and most widely translated parts of Abelard's work.  It is unclear quite how the letters of Abelard and Héloïse came to be preserved. There are brief and factual references to their relationship by 12th-century writers including William Godel and Walter Map. It seems unlikely, however, that the letters were widely known in this period. Rather, the earliest manuscripts of the letters are dated to the late 13th century. It therefore seems likely that the letters sent between Abelard and Héloïse were kept by Héloïse at the Paraclete along with the 'Letters of Direction', and that more than a century after her death they were brought to Paris and copied. At this time, the story of their love affair was summarised by Jean de Meun in his continuation to "Le Roman de la Rose".  Their story does not appear to have been widely known in the later Middle Ages, either. There is no mention of the couple in Dante; Chaucer makes a very brief reference in the Wife of Bath's Prologue (lines 677–8), but no more. One of the first people to show a deeper interest in the couple appears to have been Petrarch, who owned an early 14th-century manuscript of the couple's letters. This silence on what is today seen as a particularly touching story is perhaps surprising, given the Renaissance ideal of courtly love – but it is possible that the story of Abelard and Héloïse could not be appropriately fitted into the ideals of the lover's devotion to the chaste and unattainable lady.  The first publication of the letters, in Latin, was in Paris in 1616, simultaneously in two editions. These editions gave rise to numerous translations of the letters into European languages – and consequent 18th- and 19th-century interest in the story of the medieval lovers. In the 18th century, the couple were revered as tragic lovers, who endured adversity in life but were united in death. With this reputation, they were the only individuals from the pre-Revolutionary period whose remains were given a place of honour at the newly founded cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris. At this time, they were effectively revered as romantic saints; for some, they were forerunners of modernity, at odds with the ecclesiastical and monastic structures of their day and to be celebrated more for rejecting the traditions of the past than for any particular intellectual achievement.  The "Historia" was first published in 1841 by John Caspar Orelli of Turici. Then, in 1849, Victor Cousin published "Petri Abaelardi opera", in part based on the two Paris editions of 1616 but also based on the reading of four manuscripts; this became the standard edition of the letters. Soon after, in 1855, Migne printed an expanded version of the 1616 edition under the title "Opera Petri Abaelardi", without the name of Héloïse on the title page.  Critical editions of the "Historia Calamitatum" and the letters were subsequently published in the 1950s and 1960s.  At various times in the past two hundred years, it has been suggested that not all the letters are genuine. Questions were first raised in 1806 by Ignaz Fessler, and were renewed by J. C. Orelli in 1844 and Ludovic Lalanne in 1855, who all suggested that the letters might simply be a literary fiction. Doubts were raised at intervals in the succeeding decades. More recently, John Benton hypothesised (in 1972) that the entire letter collection might have been forged in the late 13th century, or by Abelard himself (a position Benton had reverted to by 1979). In the aftermath of reaction to Benton's thought, though, scholars have become more confident in asserting the genuine nature of the letters.  According to historian Constant Mews, "The Lost Love Letters of Héloïse and Abelard", 113 anonymous love letters found in a 15th-century manuscript represent the correspondence exchanged by Héloïse and Abelard during the earlier phase of their affair. These are not to be confused with the accepted "Letters of Abelard and Héloïse" which were written nearly fifteen years after their romance ended.

Music.

Abelard was also long known as an important poet and composer. He composed some celebrated love songs for Héloïse that are now lost, and which have not been identified in the anonymous repertoire. Héloïse praised these songs in a letter: "The great charm and sweetness in language and music, and a soft attractiveness of the melody obliged even the unlettered".  Abelard composed a hymnbook for the religious community that Héloïse joined. This hymnbook, written after 1130, differed from contemporary hymnals, such as that of Bernard of Clairvaux, in that Abelard used completely new and homogeneous material. The songs were grouped by metre, which meant that it was possible to use comparatively few melodies. Only one melody from this hymnal survives, "O quanta qualia".  Abelard also wrote six biblical "planctus" (laments):  In surviving manuscripts these pieces have been notated in diastematic neumes which resist reliable transcription. Only Planctus VI was fixed in square notation. Planctus as genre influenced the subsequent development of the lai, a song form that flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries.  Melodies that have survived have been praised as "flexible, expressive melodies [that] show an elegance and technical adroitness that are very similar to the qualities that have been long admired in Abelard's poetry."

References.

Attribution:

Peter Abelard (; or "Abailardus";, ; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian, and preeminent logician. His love for, and affair with, Héloïse d'Argenteuil has become legendary. The "Chambers Biographical Dictionary" describes him as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th century".

Pierre Abélard, latinsky Petrus Abaelardus, (1079 Le Palett u Nantes – 21. dubna 1142 klášter Saint-Marcel u Chalon-sur-Saône) byl francouzský raně scholastický logik, filozof a teolog, jeden ze zakladatelů středověkého scholastického myšlení, zejména zavedením dialektiky a metody disputace (přesné dialektické umění rozlišování). Jeho životní vztah s žačkou Heloisou se stal legendárním.


Synopsis.

The song deals with subject of homesickness and alienation, as well as the negative aspects of the band's nearly year long previous tour and personal problems that Smith and other band members were going through in that period. At the same time the chorus suggests the idea that one should move beyond past troubles and look forward. The original working title was "Golden Years", as can be heard on numerous Somewhere on Tour bootlegs.  The cover depicts the band mascot Eddie's point of view as he flies a time machine. Only a part of Eddie's face is seen, as a reflection in a screen. According to artist Derek Riggs, this is because the band did not want to reveal the mascot in his new cyborg guise until the album was released a few weeks later. As with the "Somewhere in Time" album sleeve, the single cover also features the TARDIS from the BBC series Doctor Who. Riggs describes the illustration as "a duffer. It's a technical illustration of a keyboard of a time machine, with Eddie reflected in the window, because it was the only thing we could think of that wouldn't give Eddie away".  The promotional video features black-and-white footage of the band playing the song in a studio in Frankfurt, West Germany, mixed with various scenes from band's previous promotional videos, together with clips of off-show activities during the World Slavery Tour.  "Wasted Years" is featured in the video game "Rock Band".

B-sides.

The b-side "Reach Out" was sung by Adrian Smith, with regular lead singer Bruce Dickinson providing backing vocals. This song was previously performed live by Nicko McBrain and Smith's side project The Entire Population of Hackney.  The demential song "Sheriff of Huddersfield" is about Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood's decision to move to Los Angeles and buy a house in the Hollywood Hills. Apparently he had trouble adjusting to the LA lifestyle and often complained to the band about it. Smallwood was unaware of the composition until it was released on the single, as the band had kept it secret from him. The song opens with the spoken line "We're on a mission from Rod", a parody of the tagline for The Blues Brothers, "We're on a mission from God". Later, a similar comedy piece called "Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be", again mocking Smallwood, was released as an unlisted untitled b-side ("Space Station No. 5"'s epilogue) in the "Be Quick or Be Dead" single.

Composition.

The song is composed in the key of E minor. Adrian Smith plays the guitar solo.

Live performances.

"Wasted Years" is one of three tracks from "Somewhere in Time" that have been played on more than two concert tours, the other two being the album's second single, "Stranger in a Strange Land", and "Heaven Can Wait". It was featured on Somewhere On Tour, Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour, Real Live Tour (only on few dates), The Ed Hunter Tour, Somewhere Back in Time World Tour and Maiden England World Tour. It was the final song of the group's encore set on The Book of Souls World Tour, the first time it has ever been part of an encore performance.  Janick Gers played the solo on Real Live Tour due to Smith leaving Iron Maiden in 1990. He also played all Smith's guitar parts on few dates of Ed Hunter Tour, while Smith was absent. In current Iron Maiden line-up shows (since 1999), Smith's trademark intro riff is doubled by Gers.  During Somewhere On Tour years, the band used to lip-sync the track on various TV shows. The most famous recording comes from Germany, where Maiden swapped instruments on stage while the song was "performed", as a humorous protest to lip-syncing.

Personnel.

Production credits are adapted from the 7-inch vinyl cover.

"Wasted Years" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It is the band's fourteenth single released and the first from their sixth studio album, "Somewhere in Time" (1986). It is the only song on the album that features no synthesizers. Released in 1986, it was the first single solely written by guitarist Adrian Smith, who also sings backing vocals. It reached number 18 in the UK Singles Charts.

Wasted Years je singl britské heavy metalové kapely Iron Maiden vydaný roku 1986 a natočený v klasické sestavě Dickinson/Harris/Murray/Smith/McBrain. Kromě titulní Wasted Years je zde známá také skladba "Reach Out" nazpívaná poněkud netradičně kytaristou Adrianem Smithem. Singl vydaný 6. září 1986 se nakonec v britském žebříčku umístil na 18. pozici.


Form and content.

Aristotle's work on aesthetics consists of the "Poetics," "Politics" (Bk VIII) and "Rhetoric". The "Poetics" is specifically concerned with drama. At some point, Aristotle's original work was divided in two, each "book" written on a separate roll of papyrus. Only the first part – that which focuses on tragedy and epic (as a quasi-dramatic art, given its definition in Ch 23) – survives. The lost second part addressed comedy. Some scholars speculate that the "Tractatus coislinianus" summarises the contents of the lost second book. Some other scholars indicate that "tragedy" is a very misleading translation for the Greek "tragoidos", which seems to have meant "goat-song" originally.

Form.

The table of contents page of the "Poetics" found in Modern Library's "Basic Works of Aristotle" (2001) identifies five basic parts within it.

Content.

Aristotle distinguishes between the genres of "poetry" in three ways:  Having examined briefly the field of "poetry" in general, Aristotle proceeds to his definition of tragedy: Tragedy is a representation of a serious, complete action which has magnitude, in embellished speech, with each of its elements [used] separately in the [various] parts [of the play] and [represented] by people acting and not by narration, accomplishing by means of pity and terror the catharsis of such emotions.  By "embellished speech", I mean that which has rhythm and melody, i.e. song. By "with its elements separately", I mean that some [parts of it] are accomplished only by means of spoken verses, and others again by means of song (1449b25-30).  He then identifies the "parts" of tragedy:  He offers the earliest-surviving explanation for the origins of tragedy and comedy: Anyway, arising from an improvisatory beginning (both tragedy and comedy—tragedy from the leaders of the dithyramb, and comedy from the leaders of the phallic processions which even now continue as a custom in many of our cities) [...] (1449a10-13)

Influence.

The Arabic version of Aristotle's "Poetics" that influenced the Middle Ages was translated from a Greek manuscript dated to some time prior to the year 700. This manuscript, translated from Greek to Syriac, is independent of the currently-accepted 11th-century source designated "Paris 1741." The Syriac-language source used for the Arabic translations departed widely in vocabulary from the original "Poetics" and it initiated a misinterpretation of Aristotelian thought that continued through the Middle Ages. "Paris 1741" appears online at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France).  Arabic scholars who published significant commentaries on Aristotle's "Poetics" included Avicenna, Al-Farabi and Averroes. Many of these interpretations sought to use Aristotelian theory to impose morality on the Arabic poetic tradition. In particular, Averroes added a moral dimension to the "Poetics" by interpreting tragedy as the art of praise and comedy as the art of blame. Averroes' interpretation of the "Poetics" was accepted by the West, where it reflected the "prevailing notions of poetry" into the 16th century.  Recent scholarship has challenged whether Aristotle focuses on literary theory per se (given that not one poem exists in the treatise) or whether he focuses instead on dramatic musical theory that only has language as one of the elements.  The lost second book of Aristotle's "Poetics" is a core plot element (and the “macguffin”) in Umberto Eco's bestseller novel, "The Name of the Rose".

Aristotle's Poetics (; ; c. 335 BC) is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. In it, Aristotle offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (a term that derives from a classical Greek term, ποιητής, that means "poet; author; maker" and in this context includes verse drama – comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play – as well as lyric poetry and epic poetry). They are similar in the fact that they are all imitations but different in the three ways that Aristotle describes:

Poetika (, ve starším překladu jako "O básnictví") je spis řeckého filosofa Aristotela, ve kterém se zabývá klasifikací dramatu (zejména tragédie, komedie) a poezií. Účelem komedie je vyvolat smích, zatímco účelem tragédie jsou city a poučení (na antických slavnostech se jí věnovaly tři dny, zatímco komedii jeden).


Background and live bootlegs.

Deep Purple "Mk II" formed in July 1969 when founding members, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, organist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice recruited singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover to progress from their earlier pop and psychedelic rock sound towards hard rock. They began touring extensively, becoming a well received live band, and had recorded several shows either to broadcast on the radio or listen to privately. However, they had rejected the idea of releasing a live album commercially as they believed it would be impossible to reproduce the quality and experience of their stage act on an LP.  Consequently, there was a demand for bootleg recordings of the band. The most notorious of these was an LP entitled "H Bomb", recorded at Aachen on 11 July 1970, which led to a subsequent court case when Virgin Records' Richard Branson was prosecuted for selling it. An article in "Melody Maker" that examined the bootleg phenomenon claimed that "H Bomb" was the best selling one at that time. This success, along with albums from other artists such as the Who's "Live at Leeds" and the Rolling Stones' "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" convinced the band that an official live album would be commercially successful. At the time, Glover told "Sounds" magazine that "there are so many bootlegs of us going around, if we put out our own live set, it should kill their market."

Tour and recording.

By 1972, Deep Purple had achieved considerable commercial success in Japan, including several hit singles, so it made sense to tour there. Three dates were booked; the Festival Hall, Osaka on 11 and 12 May, and the Budokan, Tokyo on 16 August, though these were later changed to 15 and 16 August, and 17 August respectively due to an earlier US tour being rescheduled. The dates sold out almost immediately, and consequently the Japanese arm of the band's label, Warner Bros. Records, wanted to record the tour for a live album to be released in the country. The band eventually agreed to the idea, but insisted if it was going to be released, they wanted it to be done properly. Gillan recalled, "we said we would have to OK the equipment, we wanted to use our own engineer and we would have the last say on whether the tapes were released". The band enlisted producer Martin Birch, who had worked on previous studio albums, to record the shows onto an 8-track recorder so they could subsequently be mixed.  The band's live setlist had been revamped at the start of the year, immediately after recording the album "Machine Head", and that album made up a substantial proportion of new material. Although the setlist remained the same for most of the year, opening with "Highway Star" and closing with "Lazy" and "Space Truckin'", the band's musical skill and structure meant there was sufficient improvisation within the songs to keep things fresh. The original intention was the stage act would be used for about a year before being dropped, but Gillan and Glover both resigned from the band in June 1973. When this line-up reformed in 1984, the 1972 setlist made up a significant amount of material performed in concert. The band arrived in Japan on 9 August, a week before the tour started, to a strong reception, and were greeted with gifts and flowers. Birch was not confident that the recording quality would be satisfactory, since the equipment supplied by Warner Bros. did not have any balance control and that the recorder's size did not appear big enough on sight to capture a commercial quality recording. The band were uninterested in the end result, concentrating on simply being able to deliver a good show. Subsequently, Lord noted that he felt this attitude meant the spontaneity of the performances and interplay between the band members was captured well.  The second gig in Osaka was considered to be the stronger of the two, and indeed this show made up the bulk of the released LP. Only one song, "Smoke on the Water" from 15 August show was used, and this may simply have been because it was the only gig that Blackmore played the song's opening riff as per the studio album.  The band considered the gig at Tokyo on 17 August to be the best of the tour. Glover remembered "twelve or thirteen thousand Japanese kids were singing along to 'Child in Time'" and considered it a career highlight, as did Gillan. At the venue, a row of bodyguards manned the front of the stage. When Blackmore smashed his guitar during the end of "Space Truckin'" and threw it into the audience, several of them clambered past fans to try and retrieve it. Blackmore was annoyed, but the rest of the band found the incident amusing. The gig was not as well recorded as the Osaka shows, though "The Mule" and "Lazy" were considered of sufficient quality to make the final release.  There were no overdubs on the album. Lord claimed once in a magazine interview that a line from "Strange Kind of Woman" had to be redubbed from a different show after Gillan had tripped over his microphone cable, but no direct evidence of this was found when the multitrack tapes were examined. According to Lord, the total budget for the recording was only $3,000 ().

Release.

The band did not consider the album to be important and only Glover and Paice showed up to mix it. According to Birch, Gillan and Blackmore have never heard the finished album. The band did not want the album to be released outside Japan and wanted full rights to the tapes, but it was released worldwide anyway.  The album was released in the UK in December 1972, with a special offer price of £3.10, the same as a typical single LP from that period. It reached number 16 in the charts. The cover was designed by Glover and featured a colour photo of the band on the front and rear covers, and black and white photos in the inside gatefold. The release in the US was delayed until April 1973, because Warner Bros. wanted to release "Who Do We Think We Are" first. They were motivated into releasing it due to a steady flow of UK imports being purchased, and it was an immediate commercial success, reaching number 6 in the charts. Warner Brothers also released "Smoke on the Water" as a single, coupling the live recording on "Made in Japan" with the studio version on "Machine Head", and it reached number 4 in the "Billboard" charts. A recording of "Black Night" from the Tokyo gig, one of the encores that was not on the album, was released as the B-side to the single "Woman from Tokyo" in Europe, and as a single in its own right in Japan.  The Japanese release was titled "Live in Japan" and featured a unique sleeve design, with an overhead stage shot of the band, a selection of photographs from a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and an insert with lyrics and a hand-written message from each band member. The first pressing came with a 35mm film negative with photos of the band which buyers could develop into their own prints. The sleeve notes claimed that the recording only contained the Tokyo gig, though in fact it was musically identical to the version released in the rest of the world. Phil Collen, later to play in Def Leppard, was in the audience for the Rainbow gig as captured on the sleeve.  In Uruguay, the album was released in 1974 as a single LP (with just the first two sides) on Odeon Records. It used a simplistic sleeve design unlike any other release, with a rising sun on the cover.

Reception.

The band as a whole had mixed feelings about the album. Gillan was critical of his own performance, yet was still impressed with the quality of the live recording. Paice gave a very positive impression, suggesting that the shows were some of the best the group had performed, and the album captured the spirit of them well. Lord listed it as his favourite Deep Purple album, saying, "The band was at the height of its powers. That album was the epitome of what we stood for in those days."  The response from critics was favourable. "Rolling Stone"'s Jon Tiven wrote that ""Made in Japan" is Purple's definitive metal monster, a spark-filled execution... Deep Purple can still cut the mustard in concert". Subsequently, a readers' poll in the magazine declared the album to be the sixth best live album of all time, adding the band have performed "countless shows since in countless permutations, but they've never sounded quite this perfect."  Recent reviews have been equally positive. "Allmusic"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s William Ruhlmann considered the album to be "a definitive treatment of the band's catalog and its most impressive album". Rock author Daniel Bukszpan claimed the album is "widely acknowledged as one of the greatest live albums of all time". "Goldmine" magazine said the album "defined Deep Purple even as it redefined the concept of the live album." Deep Purple author Dave Thompson wrote "the standing of Deep Purple's first (and finest) live album had scarcely diminished in the quarter-century since its release".

Reissues.

The original LP was a steady seller throughout the 1970s and remained in print. The first reissue on CD was in 1988 which contained the complete double-LP on a single CD.  The 8-track tapes of the three shows were carefully put in storage by Warner Bros. Japan for future use. For the album's 21st anniversary in 1993, Deep Purple author and archivist Simon Robinson decided to enquire via the band's management if the tapes could be located. He discovered the entire show had been recorded well, including all the encores. In July, Robinson and Darron Goodwin remixed the tapes at Abbey Road Studios for an expanded edition, that was then mastered by Peter Mew in September. To compromise between including as much of the shows as possible and setting a realistic price that most fans would accept, they decided to release a 3-CD box set, titled "Live in Japan". This included all of the three main shows except for two tracks already available on the original album. In their place were two previously unreleased encores.  Robinson subsequently oversaw a new reissue of the original album in 1998 on CD, that was also remastered by Mew. This version contained an extra CD with three tracks that had been left off the 1993 set. The colour scheme of the cover was reversed to show gold text on a black background. The remastered "Made in Japan" has further edits to make a contiguous performance, making it shorter than the original release. At the same time, a limited edition of 4,000 double LPs was released on purple vinyl, while in Spain, EMI added the studio versions of the tracks making up the original album to the second CD.  In 2014, Universal Music announced that the album would be reissued in a number of formats in May. The deluxe option is a set of four CDs or 9 LPs containing a new remix of the three concerts in full, a DVD containing previously unseen video footage, a hardback book and other memorabilia. The original LP was reissued in 180g vinyl as per the original release with the original 1972 mix, with the audio available for digital download through popular providers.

Cover version.

On 13 January 2006, progressive metal band Dream Theater played the original album in its entirety at Kokusai Forum in Tokyo, and also on the 15th at NHK Hall in Osaka. Both performances were recorded, and the latter of the two shows has been released through the band's YtseJam Records label. It was mixed for release by Glover.

Track listing.

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice except where indicated.

Live in Japan 3CD set.

Titles already released on "Made in Japan" are in bold.  Recorded in Osaka on 15 August 1972  Recorded in Osaka on 16 August 1972  Recorded in Tokyo on 17 August 1972

Personnel.

Taken from the sleeve notes:

Made in Japan is a double live album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded during their first tour of Japan in August 1972. It was originally released in December 1972, with a US release in April 1973, and became a commercial and critical success.

Made in Japan je živé album hard rockové skupiny Deep Purple, které bylo nahráno během tří nocí v Osace a Tokiu. Většina skladeb pochází z alba Machine Head. Bývá označováno za jedno z nejlepších živých alb 70. let.


Recording.

"Who Do We Think We Are" was recorded in Rome in July 1972 and Walldorf near Frankfurt in October 1972, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.  "Woman from Tokyo", the first track recorded in July, is about touring Japan for the first time (e.g. the lyric "Fly into the Rising Sun"). The only other track released from the Rome sessions is the outtake "Painted Horse". The rest were recorded in Frankfurt after more touring (including Japan, which yielded "Made in Japan"). The group, riven with internal strife, struggled to come up with tracks that they agreed upon. Members were not speaking to each other and many songs were finished only after schedules were arranged so they could record parts separately.  Of "Mary Long", Gillan said: "Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford were particularly high-profile figures at the time, with very waggy-waggy finger attitudes... It was about the standards of the older generation, the whole moral framework, intellectual vandalism – all of the things that exist throughout the generations... Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford became one person, fusing together to represent the hypocrisy that I saw at the time."  Ian Gillan left the band following this album, citing internal tensions – widely thought to include a feud with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. However, in an interview supporting the Mark II Purple comeback album "Perfect Strangers", Gillan stated that fatigue and management had a lot to do with it: Added Jerry Bloom, editor of the book "More Black than Purple": Roger Glover was fired shortly after Gillan's decision. The last Mark II concert in the 1970s before Gillan and Glover left was in Osaka, Japan on 29 June 1973.

Album title and artwork.

The original album artwork has many quoted articles from newspapers. One of them is from magazine "Melody Maker" of July 1972, where drummer Ian Paice remarks:

Release.

Despite the chaotic birth of the album, "Woman from Tokyo" was a hit single and other songs picked up considerable airplay. Fans bought the album in record numbers. In the US, for example, it sold half a million copies in its first three months, achieving a gold record award faster than any Deep Purple album released up to that time.  It hit number 4 in the UK charts and number 15 in the US charts. These numbers helped make Deep Purple the best selling artist in the U.S. in 1973 (with the release of "Made in Japan" and the prior acclaim for "Machine Head" helping much as well).  In 2000 "Who Do We Think We Are" was remastered and re-released with bonus tracks. The last bonus track is a lengthy instrumental jam called "First Day Jam", that features Ritchie Blackmore on bass. Roger Glover, the group's usual bassist, was absent, allegedly lost in traffic.  In 2005 Audio Fidelity released their own re-mastering of the album on 24 karat Gold CD.

Reception.

The album received mixed reviews. Ann Cheauvy of "Rolling Stone" reviewed the album negatively and comparing "Who Do We Think We Are" to Deep Purple's breakthrough album "In Rock" wrote that the former "sounds so damn tired in spots that it's downright disconcerting" and "the band seems to just barely summon up enough energy to lay down the rhythm track, much less improvise." In a retrospective critical review, Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic expresses the same opinion and writes that apart from "Woman from Tokyo", the album's songs are "wildly inconsistent and find the band simply going through the motions", although he does praise "Rat Bat Blue". On the contrary, reviewer David Bowling writes in the Blogcritics site that "Who Do We Think We Are" "is one of the band’s strongest and stands near the top of the Deep Purple catalogue in terms of quality", providing "some of the best hard rock of the era".

Who Do We Think We Are is the seventh studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1973. It was Deep Purple's last album with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover until 1984’s "Perfect Strangers".

Who Do We Think We Are je sedmé studiové album skupiny Deep Purple, zároveň je to poslední album klasické sestavy (Mk II). Co se týče zvuku, navazuje na album Machine Head, avšak deska už neměla takový úspěch; jediná skladba, která se významněji prosadila je "Woman from Tokyo".


Life.

Avenarius attended the Nicolaischule in Leipzig and studied at the University of Zurich, Berlin, and the University of Leipzig. At the University of Leipzig, he received the Doctor of Philosophy in 1868 with his thesis on Baruch Spinoza and his pantheism, obtained the habilitation in 1876 and taught there as "Privatdozent". One year later, he became professor at the University of Zurich. He died in Zurich in 1896.

Work.

Avenarius believed that scientific philosophy must be concerned with purely descriptive definitions of experience, which must be free of both metaphysics and materialism. His opposition to the materialist assertions of Carl Vogt resulted in an attack upon empirio-criticism by Vladimir Lenin in the latter's "Materialism and Empirio-criticism".  Avenarius' principal works are the famously difficult "Kritik der reinen Erfahrung" ("Critique of Pure Experience", 1888–1890) and "Der menschliche Weltbegriff" ("The Human Concept of the World", 1891) which influenced Ernst Mach, Ber Borochov and, to a lesser extent, William James.  He taught Anatoly Lunacharsky and was also influential on Alexander Bogdanov and Nikolai Valentinov.

Family.

Avenarius was the second son of the German publisher Eduard Avenarius and Cäcilie née Geyer, a daughter of the actor and painter Ludwig Geyer and a (step-)sister of Richard Wagner. However, there are speculations in science that her father was the biological father of Richard Wagner too. Richard's brother, Ferdinand Avenarius, led the cultural organization Dürerbund and belonged to the initiators of a culture reform movement in Germany. Wagner was Avenarius' godfather.

Notes.

See John Deathridge, "Introduction" p. XXXIII in Richard Wagner. "The Family Letters of Richard Wagner", University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Richard Ludwig Heinrich Avenarius (19 November 1843 – 18 August 1896) was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism.

Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius (19. listopadu 1843 Paříž – 18. srpna 1896 Curych) byl německo-švýcarský filozof, zakladatel a jeden z předních představitelů empiriokriticismu. Působil jako profesor na Univerzitě v Curychu.


History.

SITD was founded by Jacek and Lau in the Ruhr Area of Germany. In the next three years they self-produced and released their first two albums, "mourning country" (1996) and "Atomic" (1999). In 1999, Lau left the band to be replaced by Thomas Lesczenski. In 2001, André Sorge joined the band and they toured with VNV Nation and XPQ-21 on the "Futureperfect" tour. In 2001, SITD also released their largest hit single to-date, "Snuff Machinery", which made liberal use of sampled dialogue from the German dub of the film "8mm", a 1999 US thriller dealing with snuff films. Sorge left the band by the end of the year.  In 2002, SITD released their first EP album, "Snuff EP" under the record label Accession Records and performed at the Zillo Festival.  In 2003, Francesco D'Angelo joined SITD and they released the EP "Laughingstock" and then the full-length album "Stronghold". "Stronghold" reached the 2nd Position in the Top Album National category for 2003 on the Deutsche Alternative Chart (DAC). They also performs at two major festivals: M'era Luna and Infest.  In 2004, they performed at the Zillo Festival (with Skinny Puppy), and the "Elektronisches Hilfswerk Charity Tour" with VNV Nation, Combichrist and NamNamBulu.  In 2005, they released the "Coded Message:12" album as well as the EPs "Richtfest" and "Odyssey:13". The band went on their Coded Message tour, and performed once again at the "Zillo" and "M'era Luna" festivals, as well as support act on VNV Nation's "Formation Tour". By the end of the year they were in 3rd Position in the Top Single Act National category for 2005 on the Deutsche Alternative Chart (DAC).  In 2007, they featured as one of two acts (alongside Painbastard) on the double EP "Klangfusion Vol.1". This was a prelude to the band's 3rd full-length album "Bestie:Mensch". The limited edition of this album featured a 2nd CD compiling a number of remixes SITD had assembled for other bands over the years. In 2008 the band remixed two songs from Industrial Metal group Eisbrecher's "Sünde" album "This is Deutsch" and "Kann denn Liebe Sünde Sein".  In 2010, they toured with VNV Nation on their Faith, Power, and Glory tour.

SITD, stylised [:SITD:], is a German EBM and industrial band founded in 1996 by Carsten Jacek and Thorsten Lau as Shadows in the Dark.

SITD (často značeno jako [:SITD:]) je německá electro-industriální hudební skupina založená v roce 1996 v německém Porúří Carstenem Jackem a Thorstenem Lauem. Zkratka znamená "Shadows In The Dark" (česky Stíny v temnotě). Lau posléze z kapely odešel a nahradil jej Thomas Lesczenski.


Simplified overview.

Informally, a predicate is a statement that may be true or false depending on the values of its variables. It can be thought of as an operator or function that returns a value that is either true or false. For example, predicates are sometimes used to indicate set membership: when talking about sets, it is sometimes inconvenient or impossible to describe a set by listing all of its elements. Thus, a predicate "P(x)" will be true or false, depending on whether "x" belongs to a set.  Predicates are also commonly used to talk about the properties of objects, by defining the set of all objects that have some property in common. So, for example, when "P" is a predicate on "X", one might sometimes say "P" is a property of "X". Similarly, the notation "P"("x") is used to denote a sentence or statement "P" concerning the variable object x. The set defined by "P"("x") is written as {"x" | "P"("x")}, and is the set of objects for which "P" is true.  For instance, {"x" | "x" is a positive integer less than 4} is the set {1,2,3}.  If "t" is an element of the set {"x" | "P"("x")}, then the statement "P"("t") is "true".  Here, "P"("x") is referred to as the "predicate", and "x" the "placeholder" of the "proposition". Sometimes, "P"("x") is also called a (template in the role of) propositional function, as each choice of the placeholder "x" produces a proposition.  A simple form of predicate is a Boolean expression, in which case the inputs to the expression are themselves Boolean values, combined using Boolean operations. Similarly, a Boolean expression with inputs predicates is itself a more complex predicate.

Formal definition.

The precise semantic interpretation of an atomic formula and an atomic sentence will vary from theory to theory.

In mathematical logic, a predicate is commonly understood to be a Boolean-valued function "P": "X"→ {true, false}, called a predicate on "X". However, predicates have many different uses and interpretations in mathematics and logic, and their precise definition, meaning and use will vary from theory to theory. So, for example, when a theory defines the concept of a relation, then a predicate is simply the characteristic function (otherwise known as the indicator function) of a relation. However, not all theories have relations, or are founded on set theory, and so one must be careful with the proper definition and semantic interpretation of a predicate.

Predikát je v logice takové jazykové sdělení (výraz), o němž má po obsahové stránce smysl tvrdit, že je buď pravdivé (označuje se slovem true nebo číslicí 1), nebo nepravdivé (označuje se slovem false nebo číslicí 0).


Early life.

Bokassa was born on 22 February 1921, as one of 12 children to Mindogon Bokassa, a village chief, and his wife Marie Yokowo in Bobangui, a large M'Baka village in the Lobaye basin located at the edge of the equatorial forest, then a part of colonial French Equatorial Africa, some southwest of Bangui. Mindogon was forced to organise the rosters of his village people to work for the French Forestière company. After hearing about the efforts of a prophet named Karnu to resist French rule and forced labour, Mindogon decided that he would no longer follow French orders. He released some of his fellow villagers who were being held hostage by the Forestière. The company considered this to be a rebellious act, so they detained Mindogon, and took him away bound in chains to Mbaïki.

Military career.

While serving in the Second "bataillon de marche", Bokassa became a corporal in July 1940, and a sergeant major in November 1941. After the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, Bokassa served with an African unit of the Free French Forces and took part in the capture of the Vichy government's capital at Brazzaville. On 15 August 1944, he participated in the Allied forces’ landing in Provence, France, in Operation Dragoon, and fought in southern France and in Germany in early 1945, before Nazi Germany was toppled. He remained in the French Army after the war, studying radio transmissions at an army camp in the French coastal town of Fréjus.  Afterwards, he attended officer training school in Saint-Louis, Senegal. On 7 September 1950, Bokassa headed to Indochina as the transmissions expert for the battalion of Saigon-Cholon. Bokassa saw some combat during the First Indochina War before his tour of duty ended in March 1953. For his exploits in battle, he was honored with membership of the "Légion d'honneur", and was decorated with "Croix de guerre". During his stay in Indochina, he married a 17-year-old Vietnamese girl named Nguyễn Thị Huệ. After Hué bore him a daughter, Bokassa had the child registered as a French national. Bokassa left Indochina without his wife and child, as he believed he would return for another tour of duty in the near future.  Upon his return to France, Bokassa was stationed at Fréjus, where he taught radio transmissions to African recruits. In 1956, he was promoted to second lieutenant, and two years later to lieutenant. Bokassa was then stationed as

Rising tensions.

Dacko's government faced a number of problems during 1964 and 1965: the economy experienced stagnation, the bureaucracy started to fall apart, and the country's boundaries were constantly breached by Lumumbists from the south and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army from the east. Under pressure from political radicals in the "Mouvement pour l'évolution sociale de l'Afrique noire" (Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa or MESAN) and in an attempt to cultivate alternative sources of support and display his ability to make foreign policy without the help of the French government, Dacko established diplomatic relations with Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China (PRC) in September 1964.  A delegation led by Meng Yieng and agents of the Chinese government toured the country, showing communist propaganda films. Soon after, the PRC gave the CAR an interest-free loan of one billion CFA francs (20 million French francs). The aid failed to subdue the prospect of a financial collapse for the country. Widespread political corruption by government officials and politicians added to the country's list of problems. Bokassa felt that he needed to take over the CAR government to solve all the country's problems—most importantly, to rid the country from the influence of communism. According to Samuel Decalo, a scholar of African government, Bokassa's personal ambitions played the most important role in his decision to launch a coup against Dacko.  Dacko sent Bokassa to Paris as part of the country's delegation for the Bastille Day celebrations in July 1965. After attending the celebrations and a 23 July ceremony to mark the closing of a military

Coup d'état.

Dacko left the Palais de la Renaissance early in the evening of 31 December 1965, to visit one of his ministers' plantations southwest of Bangui. An hour and a half before midnight, Captain Banza gave orders to his officers to begin the coup. Bokassa called Izamo at his headquarters and asked him to come to Camp de Roux to sign some documents that needed his immediate attention. Izamo, who was at a New Year's Eve celebration with friends, reluctantly agreed and travelled to the camp. Upon arrival, he was confronted by Banza and Bokassa, who informed him of the coup in progress. After declaring his opposition to the coup, Izamo was taken by the coup plotters to an underground cellar.  Around midnight, Bokassa, Banza, and their supporters left Camp de Roux to take over the capital. After seizing the capital in a matter of hours, Bokassa and Banza

Early years of regime.

In the early days of his regime, Bokassa engaged in self-promotion before the local media, showing his countrymen his French army medals, and displaying his strength, fearlessness and masculinity. He formed a new government called the Revolutionary Council, invalidated the constitution and dissolved the National Assembly. He called it "a lifeless organ no longer representing the people".  In his address to the nation, Bokassa claimed that the government would hold elections in the future, a new assembly would be formed, and a new constitution would be written. He also told his countrymen that he would give up his power after the communist threat had been eliminated, the economy stabilized, and corruption rooted out. President Bokassa allowed MESAN to continue functioning. All other political organizations were barred from the country.  In the coming months, Bokassa imposed a number of new rules and regulations: men and women between the ages of 18 and 55 had to provide proof that they had jobs, or else they would be fined or imprisoned. Begging was banned. Tom-tom playing was allowed only during the nights and weekends. A "morality brigade" was formed in the capital to monitor bars and dance halls. Polygamy, dowries, and female circumcision were all abolished. Bokassa also opened a public transport system in Bangui made up of three interconnected bus lines through the capital city as well as a ferry service on the Ubangi river, and subsidized the creation of two national orchestras.  Despite the changes in the country, Bokassa had difficulty obtaining international recognition for his new government. He tried to justify the coup by explaining that Izamo and communist Chinese agents were trying to take over the government and that he had to intervene to save the CAR from the influence of communism. He alleged that Chinese agents in the countryside had been training and arming locals to start a revolution, and on 6 January 1966, he dismissed the communist agents from the country and cut off diplomatic relations with China. Bokassa also believed that the coup was necessary in order to prevent further corruption in the government.  Bokassa first secured diplomatic recognition from President François Tombalbaye of neighboring Chad, whom he met in Bouca, Ouham. After Bokassa reciprocated by meeting Tombalbaye on 2 April 1966, along the southern border of Chad at Fort Archambault, the two decided to help one another if either was in danger of losing power. Soon after, other African countries began to diplomatically recognize the new government. At first, the French government was reluctant to support the Bokassa regime, so Banza went to Paris to meet with French officials to convince them that the coup was necessary to save the country from turmoil. Bokassa met with Prime Minister Georges Pompidou on 7 July 1966, but the French remained noncommittal in offering their support. After Bokassa threatened to withdraw from the franc monetary zone, President Charles de Gaulle decided to make an official visit to the CAR on 17 November 1966. To the Bokassa regime, this visit meant that the French had finally accepted the new changes in the country.

Rule during the 1970s.

In 1971, Bokassa promoted himself to full general, and on 4 March 1972 declared himself president for life. He survived another coup attempt in December 1974. The following month, on 2 January, he relinquished the position of prime minister to Elisabeth Domitien, who became the first woman to hold the position. He had earlier appointed the CAR's first female government minister, Marie-Joséphe Franck, in February 1970. Over time, Bokassa's domestic and foreign policies became increasingly unpredictable, leading to another assassination attempt at Bangui M'Poko International Airport in February 1976.

Foreign support.

Muammar al-Gaddafi aided Bokassa. France also lent support. In 1975, the French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing declared himself a "friend and family member" of Bokassa. By that time France supplied its former colony's regime with financial and military backing. In exchange, Bokassa frequently took Giscard on hunting trips in Central Africa and supplied France with uranium, which was vital for France's nuclear energy and weapons program in the Cold War era. Bokassa restored ties with PRC and visited China in 1976.  The "friendly and fraternal" cooperation with France—according to Bokassa's own terms—reached its peak with the imperial coronation ceremony of Bokassa I on 4 December 1977. The French Defence Minister sent a battalion to secure the ceremony; he also lent 17 aircraft to the new Central African Empire's government, and even assigned French Navy personnel to support the orchestra. The

Proclamation of empire.

In September 1976, Bokassa dissolved the government and replaced it with the "Conseil de la Révolution Centrafricaine" (Central African Revolutionary Council). On 4 December 1976, at the MESAN congress, Bokassa converted back to Catholicism and instituted a new constitution that transformed the republic into the Central African Empire (CAE), with himself as "His Imperial Majesty" Bokassa I. Bokassa was formally crowned on 4 December 1977.  Bokassa's full title was "Emperor of Central Africa by the will of the Central African people, united within the national political party, the MESAN". His regalia, lavish coronation and regime of the newly formed Central African Empire were largely inspired by Napoleon I, who had converted the French Revolutionary Republic of which he was first consul into the First French

Overthrow.

Repression.

By January 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after food riots in Bangui led to a massacre of civilians. The final straw came between 17 April and 19 April, when a large number of elementary school students in Bangui and elsewhere in the country were arrested after they had protested against paying for and wearing

Operations Caban and Barracuda.

Operation Caban began on the evening of 20 September, and ended early the next morning as the first phase of Bokassa's overthrow. An undercover commando squad from the French intelligence agency SDECE, joined by the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment, and secured Bangui M'Poko International Airport

Fall of the empire.

By 00:30 on 21 September 1979, the pro-French Dacko proclaimed the fall of the Central African Empire and the restoration of the Central African Republic under his presidency. David Dacko remained president until he was overthrown on 1 September 1981 by André Kolingba. Bokassa, who was visiting Libya on a state visit at the time, fled to Ivory Coast where he spent four years living in Abidjan. He then moved to France where he was allowed to settle in his Chateau d'Hardricourt in the suburb of Paris. France gave him political asylum

Later life.

Exile and return.

Bokassa had been tried and sentenced to death "in absentia" in December 1980 for the murder of numerous political rivals. He returned from exile in France on 24 October 1986. Bokassa was immediately arrested by the Central African authorities as soon as he stepped off the plane and was tried for

Trial.

Bokassa's trial began on 15 December 1986, taking place in the "Palais de Justice" in Bangui. Bokassa hired two French lawyers, François Gilbault and Francis Szpiner, who faced a panel modelled on the French legal system, composed of six jurors and three judges, presided over by High Court Judge Edouard Franck. The trial by jury of a former head of state was unprecedented in the history of post-colonial Africa, where former dictators had previously been tried and executed following show trials.  In another regional innovation, access to the trial was granted to the public; this meant that the courtroom was constantly filled with standing-room-only spectators. There were live French-language broadcasts by Radio Bangui and local TV news crews broadcast all over the country, as well as neighbouring French-speaking African countries. The trial was listened to and watched

Imprisonment and release.

On 29 February 1988, President Kolingba demonstrated his opposition to capital punishment by voiding the death penalty against Bokassa and commuted his sentence to life in prison in solitary confinement, and the following year reduced the sentence to 20 years. With the return of democracy to the Central African Republic in 1993, Kolingba declared a general amnesty for all prisoners as one of his final

Legacy.

In 2010, President François Bozizé issued a decree rehabilitating Bokassa and calling him "a son of the nation recognised by all as a great builder". The decree went on to hold that

Titles, styles and honours.

Style.

"His Imperial Majesty Bokassa the First, Apostle of

Jean-Bédel Bokassa (; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996), also known as Bokassa I, was a Central African political and military leader who served as the second president of the Central African Republic and as the emperor of its successor state, the Central African Empire, from his Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état on 1 January 1966 until overthrown in a subsequent coup in 1979.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa (22. února 1921, Bobangua – 3. listopadu 1996, Bangui) byl voják a politik, druhý prezident a posléze samozvaný císař-diktátor (jakožto Bokassa I.) Střední Afriky. Násilnosti, za které jeho bizarní diktatura nese odpovědnost, byly v září roku 1979 ukončeny invazí zvláštních jednotek francouzské armády a tajné služby DGSE. Bokassa poté uprchl do exilu ve Francii, avšak po sedmi letech se vrátil do země, kde byl uvězněn a posléze odsouzen k smrti za zločiny (mj. se hodně přetřásala i obvinění z kanibalismu), které spáchal. Tehdejší prezident mu však udělil milost, takže nebyl popraven; nakonec se roku 1993 díky všeobecné amnestii dostal na svobodu a zemřel v poklidu v hlavním městě země.