®
![Magazine Logo](masthd.jpg)
The Torch Magazine,
The Journal and Magazine of the
International Association of Torch Clubs
For 92 Years
A Peer-Reviewed
Quality Controlled
Publication
ISSN Print 0040-9440
ISSN Online 2330-9261
Spring
2018
Volume 91, Issue 3
![](Chocolate.jpg)
Woman Pouring Chocolate
Reflection
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
(I am human, and consider nothing that is human alien
to me)
--Terence, Roman playwright, 2nd century BCE
Articles for the Spring
2018 Issue
- How Sweet it Is:
From the Mountains of Mexico to the
Streets of New York
by Carole
Levin
This
essay discusses the history of
chocolate: how it was valued by
the Mayans and Aztecs, brought
to Europe by the Spanish
conquerors, and eventually came
to England, where it was
believed to have a range of
medicinal purposes. We will also
see the forward thinking of some
chocolate manufacturers who
cared not only for the product,
but also for those who produced
it. A pdf
file of the article can be
found here.
- Charles Darwin:
The Formative Years (1809-1831)
by Harry Wistrand
It
is widely, but not quite justly,
assumed that the ideas Charles
Darwin used to develop the
concept of evolution by natural
selection, published in The
Origin of Species in 1859,
emerged while he was voyaging on
the Beagle in the Galapagos
Islands. Scholars who have
studied Darwin's life have
recently brought our attention
to the ways his upbringing, his
nature, and the serendipitous
events of his educational period
contributed to the development
of his theory. A
pdf file of the article can be
found here.
- Promoting the
General Welfare: Preaching vs.
Policy
by Roland Moy
It
is seventy-seven years
since the 1941 State of
the Union address
introduced a pivotal
understanding of the
four human freedoms
fundamental for American
democracy: freedom
of speech and
expression; freedom of
worship; freedom from
want; and freedom from
fear. These many
years later, we are
still confronted with
issues involving all
four, but this paper
focuses on concurrent
developments of opposing
sides of the question
whether "freedom from
want" is an appropriate
governmental undertaking
in pursuit of the
constitutional mandate
"to promote the general
welfare." A pdf
file of the article
can be found here.
- Consciousness
by William House
Consciousness
is one of the most
perplexing concepts
people have struggled
to understand and
explain. In this
paper, the
etymological history
of the word
consciousness will be
examined, along with
some prominent
experimental facts, a
bit of the pertinent
neurophysiology, and
some important
theoretical positions.
A
pdf file of the
article can be found
here.
- Mars Fever
by Charles Darling
"The first human
footfalls on Mars will flag a
momentous, historic milestone"
wrote astronaut Buzz Aldrin and
space journalist Leonard David in
"Making Footfall on
Mars." In the next ten
to thirty years, fulfilling a
dream as old as the idea of space
travel, at least one permanent
base will be established on
Mars. This essay studies
symptoms of "Mars Fever": unmanned
orbiters and landers, overcoming
enormous planetary problems, space
flight dangers, and eventual
colonization of the fourth planet.
A pdf file
of the article can be found
herer.
- The German
Physicians Who Had a Pact with the
Devil
by Theodore E. Haas
Prior
to 1939, anatomists of
scientific and educational
excellence in Germany were
selected for the most
prestigious chairs in Berlin and
Munich. From 1939 on,
research funding went only to
projects serving the war effort.
The new Nazi supervision
provided an abundance of bodies
for dissection. The Reich
Ministry of Justice coordinated
distribution of the bodies of
executed persons, and families
were often not able to have the
bodies of their loved ones
returned for burial. The
author discusses the pathology
of power and believes that the
story of Faust sheds light on
what happened. We still
say of those who compromise with
Evil, telling themselves their
ultimate object is Good, that
they have made a "Faustian
bargain." The physicians who
thought they could advance
scientific knowledge while
collaborating with the
atrocities of the Third Reich
made a pact with the
Devil. A pdf
file of the article can be found
here.
- Growing Up in
Nazi Germany
by Claudia Martin
The recent
events in Charlottesville
involving Klan members and
neo-Nazis who swung swastika
flags were almost incredible
to me. I grew up in Nazi
Germany and experienced the
racial, nationalistic, and
militaristic delusions brought
about in a poverty stricken
population, whose hope focused
with quasi-religious fervor on
a new German nation, free of
the fetters of the punishing
Versailles Peace Treaty and
restored to its previous
boundaries. Several millions
of Germans became enthusiastic
and dedicated "National
Socialists." Today, there is
again a rise of dictatorships,
of tyrants using the social
inclinations of the human
animal to form group identity
and fervor. To create this
fervor, they also need an
imminent enemy outside the
group. Their fervor leads to
mass killings, justified by a
delusional, supposedly sacred
cause. The author's
personal experiences reinforce
horror which happens when war
is waged. A pdf file
of the article can be found
here.
An EBSCO Publication
Go to the Home
Page
|
|