After defining the characteristics of ideological knowledge and knowledge based on research, the experimental work on illusory correlations, serial effects, difficulties in ‘grasping counterexamples’ and prejudiced pseudo-knowledge is reported. This proves how ideology can develop from the very functioning of the cognitive processes (perception, thought) when it is not kept under critical scrutiny. The difference between ideological and scientific thought reflects the different social conditions behind the production of the two types of knowledge. The production of scientific knowledge is regulated by specific rules such as the logic of the experimental method and empirical references, and is animated by a depressive attitude (“I am responsible for matters within the confines of rules set by the research community’) while the propositions of ideology are antiempirical, shy away from counterexamples, are confusional, and are underpinned by an attitude that is potentially maniacal and omnipotent. The ideological factors that can have an effect on professional research are listed and it is shown how the results of this, once controlled, lose all ties to the ideology they may have been inspired by, to the extent that they constitute another sphere that is completely autonomous and independent.

During the past 30 years, the growth of the larger urban centres, which has been steady since the beginning of urbanization, ceased to be regular and general. Third World cities continued their evolution during the 1960s and 1970s. It was different for Western cities, especially in North America and Northern Europe, where a period of decline or stability occurred for about 15 years, between 1965 and 1980. In order to qualify this emerging trend, Brian Berry coined the word counterurbanization in 19761 During the 1980s, many demographers expected a generalization of this phenomenon, i.e. an accelerated decline of major urban centres all over the developed world but it did not occur. It is this problem that is addressed here.

Science is an intregal part of culture, which moves in the medium of symbols and interpretations. In its epistemic form science also consists of symbolic constructions and interpretations. These make neither themselves nor the world that they describe definite. The driving force behind science and behind scientific culture (which in a deeper understanding are only one) is a research imperative whose efficiency results in the formation of a Leonardo-World, i.e. the modern world as the work of homo faber.

Urbanization is interpreted in terms of four populations. In the beginning were the night time dwellers and the workers. New elements include city users and metropolitan businessmen. This new population is changing the social and physical shape of the city and creating a second generation metropolis.

Language and logic are inseparably intertwined in the European intellectual tradition. It has not always been an easy relationship. There have always been issues of substance whether the two were friends or foes. Today computation is a part of the equation, and we are seeing the development of a new discipline of computational linguistics. But meaning in language is more than the combinatorial properties of signs. We note some limitations of the current technology and put forward some observations on the broader topic of grammar and mind.

Due to a false feeling of superiority, Europe has gravely underestimated and not developed sustainable relations with the new world power that has emerged in Pacific Asia. A first step to change the situation was taken at the Asia-Europe Summit in Bangkok in March 1996. But much remains to be done to avoid future confrontations. Overseas education is one field that has hitherto been neglected in Europe. To pave the way for a better dialogue and partnership, the academic field should be utilised on a long-term basis to improve the social, cultural and intellectual framework for enhanced political and economic interaction between Asia and Europe.

A dramatic increase in volumes of commodity flow during the latter part of the 20th century reflects the fulfilment of postwar ideals of economic growth, but also imply serious challenges to the social and ecological integrity of places and regions. The record of imports and exports of food and energy products for Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden during the 1960–90 period illustrate some of the built-in contradictions between rhetoric and reality. Those very societies which proclaim definitions of sustainable development as the harmonization of economic, social and ecological values demonstrate—at national scales—ways of life which, according to these criteria, are not sustainable. Calorie counting at national and regional scales might offer useful catalysts for reflection on theoretical as well as practical dimensions of sustainable development.

The Kingdom of Poland, in a federal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became, in the 15th and 16th centuries, an important power in Central Europe. The Polish civilization took the side of the West but still remained open to another Europe. The Commonwealth—in the English of the day—was a constitutional and parliamentary alternative to Western absolutism and Eastern despotism. The multi-ethnic and multi-religious identity of the Commonwealth was ensured by law. This pax Jagellonica had latent weaknesses in politics, both internal and external.

European rural landscapes and settlements have been subject to dramatic changes since the beginning of industrialization, and traditional forms and scenarios, parts of our cultural heritage, are disappearing at an accelerating rate. However, the image of traditional settlements still forms part of national and regional identities. The paper gives a birds' eye view of the major rural landscape zones in Europe in their traditional and modern outlook.

In 1874 the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen sent a request to Edvard Grieg to have him compose music for a stage production of his ‘dramatic poem’ Peer Gynt. Grieg's immediate response was positive, and a happy collaboration between the two artists was established, the result of which was the premiere of Ibsen's drama with Grieg's music at the Christiania Theatre in the Norwegian capital in February of 1876. The history of Grieg's work, the first performances in Scandinavia, the editions of the score, and finally the 26 individual musical pieces of Peer Gynt are described in this paper.

Research on stress and gender carried out in the author's laboratory over two decades is reviewed. Problems related to stress in women's and men's everyday life have been approached by combining concepts and methods from the behavioural, social and biomedical sciences, using neuroendocrine and cardiovascular measurements as indices of the pressures to which women and men are exposed. Special attention has been given to men and women in leadership roles. Results are reported from studies concerned with balancing demands from work and family, the dilemma of the dual-career couple, and women managers' difficulty unwinding after work. On the basis of the results it is suggested that while women in high-grade positions have higher stress levels than their male counterparts, they have a wider repertoire of stress-management strategies and, hence, cope more effectively.

Two major contrasts between Western and Eastern thought are discussed. Eastern people put a value on long-term thinking. They do not regard the search for certainty as important but accept multiple interpretations as simultaneously valid.

Science can no longer be an ivory tower. It cannot ignore the effects of its application nor its environmental consequences.

The increase of the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases since the beginning of the industrial era, and the climatic change that it may trigger, are not subjects of public awareness, even though the evidence that the change has already been observed is still debated. The intensive research carried out in the last few decades to reduce the uncertainty in prediction has led to better identification of the other mechanisms able to influence the climate. The purpose of this paper is to present, in a simplified manner, these other sources of climate forcing, which may be responsible for a climatic variability superimposed on the long term one caused by the increase of the greenhouse gases and which may hide and even counteract its effects.

Systems studied by science are generally characterized by a hierarchy of levels with different dimensions. Continuous moving up and down these scalar levels is needed for understanding. In biology, the science of the very complex, application of simple general rules is rarely—if ever—sufficient. Thus, conceptual reductionism is not possible As in fractals, where scaling does not affect the structures emerging, similar extraordinary complexity appears on each scalar level. Thus, scaling down is not reductionism. The need for continuous scaling up and scaling down not only requires integration of specialists but also reincarnation of generalists.

The memory of the German occupation in the Netherlands has been rather tenacious, compared to neighbour-countries. This can be explained by some specific features of Dutch history and society and by the long period of an undisturbed neutrality and peace. The traditional religious and political pluralism and tolerance generated a culture of political introspection and a strong belief in the universal validity of moral values, which was extremely ill prepared to meet the Nazi-system of brute force and terror.

Aggression, in the sense of behaviour intended to harm others, is phenomenologically and causally different at different levels of social complexity. Aggression by one individual towards another depends largely on individual aggressiveness, although other propensities also are important. At the group level, factors relating to the special properties of groups become relevant. War is best considered as an institution, with individuals acting according to the rights and duties associated with their roles in that institution. Some factors that help maintain war as an institution are considered.

During the last 40 years or so there has been an exponential growth in our knowledge of biology and medicine and, within this period, several discoveries stick out as particularly important. The opening salvo for all later revolutionary developments was the clarification of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in the early 1950s. Another milestone was the breaking of the genetic code by Holley, Khorana and Nierenberg in the 1960s. Nowadays, most people know that DNA is made up from a double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid, where the genetic information is laid down in the sequence of the DNA building blocks, the nucleotides. Genes, as we now know, are in principle nothing other than sections of the chromosomal DNA harbouring, in the sequence of contiguous nucleotide triplets, the genetic information for the synthesis of proteins, as a rule one protein per gene.

The first pure drugs from plant sources were obtained early in the 19th century. Magendie saw them as the basis for the development of a scientific pharmacopoeia based exclusively on pure compounds and, by 1821, had produced the first textbook of pharmacology based on strict scientific principles.

Recent events have seen a tendency for large states to break up, in opposition to the consolidating processes which were general when small states became merged in much of Europe—although this process can be considered as still continuing in the European Union. At the same time there has been a growth of multinational companies which cut across such power groupings.