The work of the textual critic has long centered in the task of collating manuscripts, counting variants, and computing the results for the purpose of placing manuscripts in their proper text -types. This process is essential for building a critical text. However, as important as this , work may be, dealing statistically with variant readings can result in a neglect of the contribution the vari...

This essay considers the uncannily persistent figure of the Mechanical Turk, a spectre that haunts medieval theology, early modern theatre and modern philosophy alike. In all three cases, it functions as the mechanical, inhuman antitype of a futurity figured as meaningful and human. These attributes are materialized also in the Renaissance ‘mammet’ or mechanical puppet, an object whose name bea...

The problem of human improvability is as interesting for discussion as it is difficult of solution. It is essentially a problem of relatively recent origin. For the notion of progress was only generally entertained when that of evolution came to be accepted. In ancient times mankind was conceived as tossed hither and thither in the grip of fate or fortune ; while in medieval times mankind was r...