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2011 Arthur O. Lovejoy Lecture: The Gold Seal of 57 CE and the Afterlife of an Inanimate Object
- Journal of the History of Ideas
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 73, Number 3, July 2012
- pp. 351-369
- 10.1353/jhi.2012.0029
- Article
- Additional Information
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This essay operates on the assumption that objects can inspire thought, and thought can generate debate, and the consequences of that debate can be of ontological importance. Thus, the inanimate object plays no “conscious” role in engendering ideas, but humans invest in it a range of meanings which can reach levels of great cultural and historical significance. The object in question is a golden seal, presently on display in the Fukuoka City Museum in Japan.