Communities of port Jews and their contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World

In the late 16th century, Jews and conversos created a trading network that tied together ports in Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands. This network became the chief Dutch commercial circuit in the first quarter of the 17th century and offered benefits to Jews and conversos that were not solely economic ones. This circuit made it possible for Brazilian New Christians to return to Judaism in Amsterdam and Amsterdam Jews to establish a community in Brazil. In the process, the port Jews of Recife (Brazil) and Amsterdam became closely connected, especially after warfare closed off access to Portuguese ports in the network. Amsterdam Jews arrived in force in Recife during the 1630s, but traveled back to Amsterdam during the years 1645–54, since the Dutch colony in Brazil was shrinking and, eventually, was captured by Portuguese troops. Jews contributed commercially, financially, and militarily to this short-lived colony and were rewarded with privileges, which, for this time, were remarkable.     

Between Amsterdam and Warsaw: Commercial Networks of the Ashkenazic Mercantile Elite in Central Europe

Between the mid-eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, commercial networks of Ashkenazim in central Europe experienced major shifts. I argue that this was a transitional period between the extensive trading and credit networks of central European Court Jews in the early modern period and the rise of new Jewish banking houses across Europe in the nineteenth century. Based on examples from Amsterdam, Frankfurt an der Oder (Prussia), and Warsaw I demonstrate how Amsterdam served as a center for the provision of credit to central and, indirectly, eastern Europe until the late eighteenth century, with Jewish merchants in central European cities like Frankfurt an der Oder serving as middlemen. Relying not on far-reaching networks but rather on more regional ones, a new mercantile Jewish elite rose in Warsaw beginning around the turn of the century, creating a new financial hub in east-central Europe. I suggest that the rise of Warsaw as a new center of Jewish banking and commerce can be described as a parallel development—though one on a much smaller scale—to the rise of London and that both new centers prospered at the expense of Amsterdam.     

Book reviews

Book Information Essays on Realism and Rationalism. Essays on Realism and Rationalism Alan Musgrave, Amsterdam &; Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999, pp. xi + 367, US$83. By Alan Musgrave. Amsterdam &; Atlanta: Rodopi. Pp. xi + 367. US$83,     

Loglinear multidimensional IRT models for polytomously scored items

A loglinear IRT model is proposed that relates polytomously scored item responses to a multidimensional latent space. The analyst may specify a response function for each response, indicating which latent abilities are necessary to arrive at that response. Each item may have a different number of response categories, so that free response items are more easily analyzed. Conditional maximum likelihood estimates are derived and the models may be tested generally or against alternative loglinear IRT models.Hank Kelderman is currently affiliated with Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.We thank Linda Vodegel-Matzen of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the University of Amsterdam for making available the data used in the example in this article.     

New Essays on the Knowability Paradox

Arie L. Molenduk, Aus dem Dunklen ins Helle. Wissenschaft und Theologie im Denken von Heinrich Scholz. Mit unverouml;ffentlichten Thesenreihen von Heinrich Scholz und Karl Barth. (Amsterdam studies in theology, 8.) Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia:Rodopi, 1991. 390 pp. Hfl. 120/US $60     

A gradual spread of attention

Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands AMC, Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands The visual system has to segregate objects that are relevant to behavior from other objects and the background, if they are embedded in a visual scene. This segregation process can be time consuming, especially if the relevant object is spatially extended and overlaps with other image components, but the cause of the delays is presently not well understood. In the present study, we used a curve-tracing task to investigate processing delays during the grouping of contour segments into elongated curves. Our results indicate that contour segments that need to be grouped together are labeled with visual attention. Attention gradually spreads from contour segments that were labeled previously to other contours that are colinear and connected to them. The contour-grouping task is completed as soon as attention is directed to the entire curve. We conclude that processing delays during contour grouping are caused by a time-consuming spread of visual attention.     

Necessary Conditions for Mean Square Convergence of the Best Linear Factor Predictor

Several sufficient conditions are available for mean square convergence of factor predictors. A necessary and sufficient condition is given in the Heywood case with respect to (confirmatory) factor analysis. This condition generalizes that of Krijnen (2006) and performs better than a signal-to-noise type of condition (Schneeweiss & Mathes, 1995). The author is obliged to the reviewers for their stimulating remarks. Requests for reprints should be sent to Department of Psychology, Psychological Methods, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.     

Der Mensch in der Masse

Ohne ZusammenfassungPrivaat docent aan de Gemeente Universiteit van Amsterdam     

Like a bee on a windowpane: Heyting's reflections on solipsism

This paper presents the content of the unpublished notes that the Dutch mathematician Arend Heyting wrote in different periods of his life on solipsism and that are preserved in Heyting's archive at the University of Amsterdam. Most of the notes are quoted here and translated into English. Their study shows the originality of Heyting's reflections on a subject that was typical of his master, L. E. J. Brouwer, the father of intuitionism.     

Het Belang van de Taalkundige Psychologie

Uit de Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van buitengewoon hoogleeraar in de zedekunde en de wijsbegeerte van den Godsdienst aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, op 28 September 1939.In druk verschenen bij H. J. Paris, Amsterdam.     

逻辑、语言和哲学讲习班与研讨会综述

2011年6月13-18日,清华大学人文学院哲学系举办了逻辑、语言和哲学讲习班与研讨会。本次活动的主旨是：对逻辑学、自然语言和哲学的交叉研究领域中的一些课题进行深入的介绍,交流最新的研究成果,展示逻辑学在跨学科研究领域中的重要作用。本次活动分为两个部分：为期五天的讲习班与为期一天的研讨会。活动的参加者有：阿姆斯特丹大学与斯坦福大学的范丙申（Johan vanBenthem）教授,阿姆斯特丹大学的斯托科霍夫（Martin Stokhof）教授,哥德堡大学与斯德哥尔摩大学的威斯特斯达（Dag Westerstahl）教授,     

Philosophy of Mathematics in the Twentieth Century: Selected Essays

S. SHAPIRO (ed.), Intensional Mathematics (Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics, vol. 11 3). Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1985. v + 230 pp. $38.50/100Df.     

A narrative of absence: monumental synagogue architecture in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam

This article examines synagogue building and synagogue architecture in Amsterdam during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Dutch capital, known in local parlance as “Mokum,” took a very different path than other European capitals. While Jewish communities across Europe initiated massive building plans, the Amsterdam Jewish community reverted to building small and modest hevra synagogues (independent prayer group synagogues) and refrained from constructing a monumental house of worship. There are multiple reasons why this happened: among others, the persistent poverty among the large working class population, the small Jewish elite, a communal priority given to providing poor relief rather than initiating new building programs, the presence of two large seventeenth-century synagogues in the center of the Jewish neighborhood, and a general disinterest in creating an “architecture of emancipation.” This article presents an analysis of the Dutch case and places it within the larger context of European synagogue architecture. It also takes a close look at the Gerard Dou synagogue which was inaugurated in 1892, a hevra synagogue built in the Dutch neo-Renaissance style.     

Leven en Levensverschijnselen

Ohne ZusammenfassungDe hier volgende beschouwingen zijn gedeeltelijk ontleend aan het verslag van de drie voordrachten, door mij het vorige jaar voor de Afd. Biologie van het Genootschap ter Bevordering van Natuur-. Genees- en Heelkunde te Amsterdam gehouden.     

Coordinated cooperation and increasing competence

In 1948 Van Lohuizen emphasized the importance of cooperation among all parties, and the need to establish continuous links between the scientific, aesthetic, and political dimensions of the planning process, so the necessary knowledge, talent, and insight can be accessed as if combined in one individual, to allow high caliber performance. Similar pleas have been made elsewhere, indicating special kinds of obstacles that affect such performance. In this article these obstacles are identified and interpreted as the result of an ill-match between two approaches. According to the first, coordination and combination will be best when participant actors are modeled into well-defined roles, and their interactions coordinated via those roles. According to the second, differences should be made evident via the use of coordinating languages, leaving maximum freedom to and difference among participants, as voluntary users of those languages. Following the first approach, but not accepting its consequences as valued by the second approach, explains pleas like van Lohuizen’s. They can be fulfilled by explicating the methodology of the second approach. The article tries to provide both: the explanation and (part of the) methodology. Gerard de Zeeuw is full professor at the University of Amsterdam. He studied at the Universities of Leyden, Rotterdam and Stanford (mathematics, statistics, econometrics, psychology) and did his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam. He has published or edited 10 books and many papers, mainly about problems of improvement. Currently he is scientific director of the Center for Innovation and Cooperative Technology, and editor-in-chief of Systems Research.     

Egoisme en Altruisme

in leven hoogleeraar te AmsterdamFragment; uitvoeriger in:I. J. de Bussy,De wetenschap der moraal, Drukkerij en Uitgeverij J. H. de Bussy, Amsterdam.     

Measuring Behavior 2002 4th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research Amsterdam, The Netherlands 27–30 August 2000

Notices and Announcements

Measuring Behavior 2002 4th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research Amsterdam, The Netherlands 27–30 August 2000     

Metaphorical World Politics – Edited by Francis A. Beer and Christ'l De Landtsheer Truth, Reconciliation, and Evil – Edited by Margaret Sönser Breen

Books reviewed:
Metaphorical World Politics . Edited by Francis A. Beer and Christ'l De Landtsheer. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. 2004. 342 pp.
Truth, Reconciliation, and Evil . Edited by Margaret Sönser Breen. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V. 2004. 259 pp.     

Book Review

Stress and Health: Research and Clinical Applications. Edited by Dianna T. Kenny, John G. Carlson, F. Joseph McGuigan, and John L. Sheppard. Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, 2000, 467 pp., $68.00 (hardcover).     

The grandparent–grandchild relationship in childhood and adulthood: A matter of continuation?

This study examined whether grandparents perceive adult grandchildren as frequent and important contacts by analyzing network membership. It additionally examined whether this network membership is related to relationship intensity during childhood. Network membership was assessed in 1992 (397 grandparents, 1,594 adult grandchildren) and at the 2005–2006 follow‐up (155 grandparents, 429 adult grandchildren) from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Relationship intensity during childhood was assessed in 1992. One out of 4 grandparents identified at least 1 adult grandchild in their personal network. Adult grandchildren who had an intense relationship with their grandparents during childhood were more often in grandparents' network than others. An intense relationship during childhood promotes continuation of the relationship into adulthood and might contribute to grandparent's support potential.