bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Compassion in Healthcare
Authors: Hordern Joshua
Published: November 2020

This book gives an account of the nature and content of compassion and its role in healthcare. The argument considers how and why contested beliefs about political life, suffering, the human condition, time, and responsibility make a difference to ‘compassion’. While compassion appears to be a straightforward aspect of life and practice, the appearance is deceptive. Compassion is plagued by both conceptual and practical ills and needs some quite specific kinds of therapy. The first step therefore is to diagnose precisely what is wrong with ‘compassion’ including its debilitating political entanglements, the vagueness of its meaning and the risk of burn-out it threatens. With diagnosis in hand, three therapies are prescribed for compassion’s ills: (i) an understanding of patients and healthcare workers as those who pass through the life-course, encountering each other as wayfarers and pilgrims; (ii) a grasp of the nature of compassion in healthcare; and (iii) an embedding of healthcare within the realities of civic life. With this therapy applied, the argument shows how compassionate relationships acquire their content in healthcare practice. First, the form that compassion takes is shown to depend on how different doctrines of time, tragedy, salvation, responsibility, fault, and theodicy set the terms of people’s lives and relationships. Second, how such compassion matters to practice and policy is worked out in the detail of healthcare professionalism, marketisation, and technology, drawing on the author’s collaborations. Covering everything from conception to old age, and from machine learning to religious diversity, this book draws on philosophy, theology, and everyday experience to stretch the imagination of what compassion might mean in healthcare practice.
Compassion and Responsibility
Authors: Hordern Joshua
Published: November 2020

This chapter explores how responsibility, fault, and desert matter for the content of compassion with particular reference to the idea of rationing by fault, shared decision-making, and recent UK law regarding the relationship between responsibility, risk, and consent. Conceptual clarity is sought through exploring how tragedy differs from Christian theology by deploying the contrasting categories of the ‘undeserving sick’, the ‘obstinate sick’ and the ‘sad sick’, as applied to clinical communication, pastoral discretion, and mercy. The chapter considers what may be learnt for the interrelation of responsibility with compassion from the Book of Job. This analysis deepens the earlier account of second-person relatedness and compassion, by considering the category of ‘remonstration’. This is then applied to practice through a discussion of the constraints on certain forms of public and preventive healthcare. The chapter concludes by drawing on ecclesiological motifs to describe how compassionate relationships can persevere over time.
Introduction
Authors: Thomas Hugh M.
Published: November 2020

This introductory chapter lays out the historiography and notes the major questions in the field. The chapter begins with the historiography. It then describes the book’s main goals: (1) to reconstruct life at King John’s court; (2) to investigate how John’s court generated soft power for the king and how his enemies contested that power; (3) to explore the production of pleasure at the court. There follows a brief discussion of the overall administrative structure of the court, with an emphasis on its ceaseless itineration, and a description of the sources used in the book, particularly the royal records. The chapter ends with brief comments on the organization of the book.
Luxury and Material Culture at Court
Authors: Thomas Hugh M.
Published: November 2020

Material goods, above all luxuries, abounded at court. This chapter describes some key luxury goods at court, including precious textiles, gold and silver plate, and jewellery, and analyses their importance. Precious goods, above all the heavily symbolic royal regalia, underscored royal power. A luxurious material culture emphasized both unity and hierarchy at court. Gifts of precious items helped the king build loyalty and enhanced his reputation for generosity. Yet pleasure too was crucial to the love of luxury at court. People made up the court but the influence of objects on shaping court life should not be underestimated.
Food and Feasting
Authors: Thomas Hugh M.
Published: November 2020

Chapter 6 explores the purposes of fine food and elaborate feasting at court. John was noted by contemporaries for holding magnificent feasts, and his government went to great lengths to provide the best possible food and drink for the king and his close followers, including special bread, plentiful meat, spices, and imported wine, the last of which came increasingly from the Bordeaux region. Feasting was a key part of court life, featuring entertainment, the distribution of expensive clothing and other gifts, and religious activities as well as food and drink. Magnificent feasts provided John with a reputation for wealth and generosity and, because the manners of the day emphasized deference, helped reinforce his authority. Feasting was, of course, also a source of pleasure, but some of the foods consumed would displease modern people, reminding us that if gustatory pleasure is universal, it can also be culturally specific.
Demand and Supply
Authors: Morlino Leonardo , Quaranta Mario , Raniolo Francesco
Published: November 2020

In analysing attitudes and perceptions of people and political party proposals, and how we can lay the bases for searching the explanations of characteristics and level of implementation of our two values, first, we recall one of the key findings discussed in this chapter: the changes, the levels, the characteristics of the demand and elite supply of the two values are highly context- and time-dependent. Citizens’ demands and party supply are dependent on the historical trajectory and the economic situation. This partial finding shows that in the middle and long run there is a steady consistency between people’s attitudes and leader actions, on the one hand, and social, economic, cultural reality, on the other. Consequently, the requests for equality and freedom are consistent with the existing socio-economic-cultural reality. A second remark is a difference in terms of volatility/resilience between attitudes and realities. The demand and party supply of equality and freedom can be more or less volatile as reactions to the changes and uncertainties brought about by the economic situation, or other factors, such as technological changes, industrial organization developments, working conditions changes, economic mobility and the whole existing structure of external opportunities. Finally, up to now, the empirical evidence suggests that the demand for implementation of the two values seems to follow different logic and different paths. What this discussion and the related findings are pointing to is also the responsiveness seen from a more realistic perspective.
The Meaning of Self-help
Authors: Gold Andrew S.
Published: November 2020

This chapter turns to the problem of self-help. It will also address a potential interpretive objection based on Kantian moral premises. Arguably, rights of redress aren’t legitimately exercisable in a state of nature. The chapter will raise doubts about this objection, and it will suggest that individuals do sometimes have the option of unilaterally redressing the wrongs they have suffered. Where permitted, recaption of chattels and other forms of self-help indicate that private parties are able to undo wrongs while acting on their own behalf. On the view offered here, that can be a legitimate, and even desirable, feature of private law.
Standard Examples
Authors: McNamara John M. , Leimar Olof
Published: November 2020

Standard examples in biological game theory are introduced. The degree of cooperation at evolutionary stability is analysed in models that deal with situations such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma, the Tragedy of the Commons and the conflict of interest between parents over care of their common young. Several models of aggressive interactions are treated in this book. In this chapter the Hawk–Dove game, which is the simplest of these models, is analysed. Further models in the chapter deal with the situation in which individuals vary in their fighting ability and the situation in which information about the opponent is available before an individual decides whether to be aggressive. The problem of the allocation of resources to sons versus daughters has played a central role in biological game theory. This chapter introduces the basic theory, as well as a model in which the environmental temperature affects the development of the sexes differentially, so that at evolutionary stability the sex of offspring is determined by this temperature. Coordination games, alternative mating tactics, dispersal to avoid kin competition, and the idea that signals can evolve from cues are also introduced.
A feature-geometric approach to verbal inflection in Onondaga
Authors: Alboiu Gabriela , Barrie Michael
Published: November 2020

Iroquoian inflectional verbal morphology is well-documented in the descriptive literature, but has received less attention from a generative perspective, a fact this chapter sets to remedy. Most generative analyses rely on the notion of tense as a central category and assume a universal projection of a T(ense) Phrase in tensed/finite clauses. Onondaga (Northern Iroquoian), however, typically makes very little use of tense as a grammatical concept, despite the fact that it only allows for finite clauses. Instead, this language capitalizes on the notions of aspect and mood, thereby rendering the standard generative approach inappropriate. Consequently, this chapter argues that a feature geometric analysis, which does not rely on tense as a central concept, is better suited for analysing the Onondaga verbal inflectional domain where it is aspect that serves as the crucial ingredient in activating Infl.
Sentience-based event structure
Authors: Ritter Elizabeth
Published: November 2020

In Blackfoot, a Plains Algonquian language spoken in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA, sentience, rather than telicity, is a primary determinant of argument structure. Subjects of transitive verbs, non-core objects of transitive verbs (benefactives, malefactives, sources, etc.), and primary objects of ditransitive verbs are all subject to a strict sentience requirement. This chapter follows Ritter and Wiltschko (2015) in assuming that the strict sentience requirements on argument structure are part of the grammar (i.e. part of the “narrow syntax”) of Blackfoot, and formalizes sentience as a feature that is subject to selection, a feature-checking operation, much like AGREE. This proposal correctly predicts that (a) not only agents but also causers must be sentient in Blackfoot; (b) sentient objects (not bounded ones) serve as both initiators and delimiters of events; (c) like event types, nominal types are distinguished by sentience, rather than boundedness; and (d) eventiveness is correlated with sentience, rather than dynamicity.
The Tłı̨chǫ syntactic causative and non-nominal CPs
Authors: Saxon Leslie
Published: November 2020

Study of the periphrastic causative in Tłı̨chǫ has its origins in community-based research supporting a literacy manual and dictionary database. It is shown that the causative verb ats’ele ‘cause, let, do to’ takes two complements: the causee and a second expression of varying complexity that indicates the caused process or result. At its most complex, the second complement can be a clause which bears an adverbializing suffix and expresses the caused situation. Ats’ele selects a TypeP, which is independent of the higher verb in aspect, tense, and polarity. This leads to a broader range of interpretations of the relationship between causing and caused situations than is found in languages where the caused situation is expressed as a verb phrase. The complementizer used in the causative construction contrasts with a nominalizer in the language, in that it forms an adverbial clause. The facts thus provide a novel instance of non-nominal complementation.
How the Brain Makes Decisions
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

The human decision-making process is tainted with irrationality. To address this issue, this book proposes a ‘bottom-up’ approach of the neural substrate of decision-making, starting from the fundamental question: What are the basic properties that a neural network of decision-making needs to possess? Combining data drawn from phylogeny and physiology, this book provides a general framework of the neurobiology of decision-making in vertebrates and explains how it evolved from the lamprey to the apes. It also addresses the consequences, examining how it impacts our capacity of reasoning and some aspects of the pathophysiology of high brain functions. To conclude, the text opens discussion to more philosophical concepts such as the question of free will.
A Ghost in the Machine
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter describes the neurobiological approach of decision-making. Until the late 1980s, ignoring the work of experimental economists and behaviourists, electrophysiologists restricted themselves to the study of sensory and motor function, believing it to be impossible for them to access cognitive processes. In 1989, William Newsome and Anthony Movshon broke the dogma while studying the role of neurons in the medio-temporal area of the cortex (an associative visual area) in the visual discrimination of macaques. They became the first researchers who were able to correlate decision-making with a pattern of electrophysiological activity in neurons. This correlation, which they called psychometric–neurometric pairing, became the backbone of all subsequent studies into the neurobiology of decision-making. The chapter then looks at the development of functional MRI, and presents a normative approach to decision-making and learning.
Introduction to Information Transfer in the Nervous System
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter discusses the modalities of information transfer in the nervous system. The nervous system is organised around specialised cells called neurons, which work as integration units that transform all received information into new information. The neurons generate unitary electric pulses of invariant form and duration called action potentials or spikes. Neurons have an intrinsic firing frequency that is their frequency of producing spikes when they are not influenced. The chapter then considers the two major families of neurotransmitters. In general, a neuron releases only one type of neurotransmitter belonging to one of these two families. The first family is that of excitatory neurotransmitters; the neurons that release them are naturally called excitatory neurons. When they bind with postsynaptic receptors, they have a facilitating effect on the production of action potentials. Meanwhile, inhibitory neurons release neurotransmitters whose binding with postsynaptic receptors decreases the discharge frequency of the postsynaptic neuron. The chapter also describes a special family of neurotransmitters: the neuro-modulators.
The Lamprey’s Dilemma
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter focuses on the neural network, demonstrating how the principles described in the previous chapter are implemented in vertebrates, taking as a blueprint the oldest one: the lamprey. The reticulospinal neurons belong to the reticular formation located in the brainstem of the lamprey. These reticulospinal neurons act as the effector system. Apart from the peripheral input that comes back from the spinal cord, the reticular formation receives, among other things, input from the diencephalon and specifically the thalamus. This structure allows interfacing between sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, and olfactory) and the motor system. The other very important targets of the thalamus in the lamprey are the basal ganglia. The chapter then goes on to explain the diencephalic and telencephalic loops.
Learn to Earn
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter examines the relationship between rationality, reward, and learning. In order to instil rationality into the decision-making system, actions must have meaning. When studying the learning abilities of a subject, any beneficial consequence is called reward. In order for the lamprey to learn to choose one action over the other, it is necessary to introduce a reinforcement learning mechanism and a system which informs the lamprey on the outcome of its choice. The chapter then goes on to highlight the crucial role of dopamine in these processes and shows how it is implemented in the vertebrate neural network of decision-making. The effect of dopamine on synaptic transmission is evident in many physiological and pathophysiological processes, but it is the role of dopamine in learning that is important here. The chapter then considers the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area, which are closely connected to the diencephalic and telencephalic loops.
From Pallium to Cortex
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter assesses what the development of the cortex brings to the behavioural capacity of vertebrates, culminating with the theory of mind in humans. Two behavioural characteristics, related to each other, distinguish mammals from other vertebrates. The first is a period of dependence of infant mammals that can last several years. The second is play. Although the function of this activity is still debated, it is certain that it has a central role in the learning of foraging and social behaviour. Another property that is almost exclusive to mammals is the ability to recognize oneself. These specific behavioural features are correlated with a general increase in the encephalization quotient and also the ratio between the size of the telencephalon and the rest of the brain. This chapter then goes on to look at the unique capacities of humans, including language, the ability to anticipate, and consciousness.
A Hierarchy of Decision-Making
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter explores the flexibility of the neural network described in the previous chapters. It also shows that the anterior part of the brain can be subdivided into five functional loops that underlie different executive functions. These five major loops are the motor loop, the oculomotor loop, the prefrontal loop, the orbitofrontal loop, and the cingular loop. The first two circuits deal with the learning and decision-making processes of the motor domain. The prefrontal and frontal circuits are involved in cognitive processes. Finally, the cingular circuit is involved in episodic memory, regulation of emotions, and modulation of mood. Therefore, one can already see a certain hierarchical order, underpinned by anatomical realities: the mood, emotions, and personal history of the subject (the memory) will condition the cognitive functions that will influence motor behaviours. This hierarchy can be concretized by direct interactions between the different loops, of which anatomical evidence has been demonstrated several times.
Reason Under Scrutiny
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter traces the origin of rationality and addresses why Western civilization is obsessed by rationality. It also describes the neural prerequisite to exert reason. To make a rational decision is to choose the option which will be the most beneficial according to the information at one's disposal. For that, one must be able to individualize oneself, to deliberate, and to anticipate the reaction of other individuals. Humans are capable of conceiving rationality because they identify themselves as individuals and anticipate the consequences of their actions, and because they anticipate the reaction of others when they are their allies or when they are their adversaries. These three capabilities did not develop at the same time during the evolutionary process but stem from a fourth ability, without which they cannot express themselves: the capacity to construct a mental representation of the context. Without this mental representation, there is no possibility of individualizing oneself or anticipating the consequences of one's actions in the context of which one executes them.
Mirror, Mirror!
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter studies self-recognition and the capacity to mimic others underlying the capacity to learn by imitation. Brain-imaging studies conducted in humans show that self-recognition strongly involves both the hippocampus and significantly the prefrontal cortex, which are two structures more developed in certain species (covered in this chapter) compared with others. In the nineties, Giacomo Rizzolatti’s team demonstrated the existence of neurons that fire in a similar way when an animal makes a movement, or when the movement is carried out by a third individual. At first they were thought to be isolated in the motor cortex of primates, but these imitation neurons were later identified in other structures and other species and gained the generic nickname of ‘mirror neurons’. There is a very high probability that these neurons are involved in imitation learning processes because they have been found in species that practise this type of learning.
Anticipation and Utility
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter discusses the processes of anticipation and valuation underlying neural networks. It first considers the concept of delay and temporality before introducing a value system. It is accepted that the nervous system knows how to manage time. But is it able to generate anticipatory representations of the future? Since the early 1950s, experimental psychologists have observed that when a rat is involved in an experimental task involving choices, it moves its head alternately in the direction of the various possible options. They called this behaviour ‘vicarious trial and error’ because they postulated that it corresponded to behavioural evidence of the cognitive processes of anticipatory deliberation. Anticipating is one thing, but economists argue that in order to be able to choose, one must attribute utility to the different options. This utility is subjective and only reflects the subject's preference for the option, but rationality can only be defined if the different options are evaluated according to preference. This chapter then looks at the role of dopaminergic neurons in stimulus-response association processes, exploring the properties of the responses of dopaminergic neurons during learning and decision-making processes.
The Grandmaster and the Playmates
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter examines theory of mind and recalls that up to now, the human race is the only species able to predict others’ beliefs. This ability is correlated to the development of the dorsolateral part of the frontal cortex. In the thirties, British economist John Maynard Keynes found that across all financial markets, stock prices depended on the perception of market participants rather than their intrinsic value. He concluded that the best strategy for an investor is to guess what others think. To illustrate his reasoning, he chose as an example the beauty contests organized by British newspapers. Keynes proposed to standardize his approach by using a mathematical variant of the test. There is no single solution because the value depends on the level of reasoning of the majority of the group tested. Ultimately, this test confirmed that the activity of the medial prefrontal cortex was positively correlated with the level of reasoning of the subjects. This chapter then goes on to describe how the Japanese use shogi, the Japanese version of the game chess, to study the neurobiological basis of the strategic decision-making in grandmasters of the game.
The Decision-Making Engine
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter presents an upgrade of the neural network by implementing the reward prediction error. It then compares the final product with the actor-critic model and discusses the similarities and differences. Reinforcement learning algorithms, more specifically actor-critic models, are currently very successful in the field of decision-making. They are notably related to properties of dopaminergic neurons which have not yet been addressed in previous chapters. It has been demonstrated that dopaminergic neurons respond when the subject receives a reward or when the subject associates a conditional stimulus with the reward, and that this response to the stimulus is proportional to the utility function of the reward. In fact, dopaminergic neurons behave exactly like a process that computes temporal difference. The amplitude of their response when the reward is administered is proportional to the difference between the expected utility at time and the reward actually obtained at the moment, i.e. the temporal difference. This chapter then assesses whether the telencephalic loop is an actor-critic system.
Pathologies of Decision-Making
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter explores the pathophysiology of neural conditions related to the neural network of decision-making. If humans are not fully rational, they manage to pretend to be most of the time. Some individuals are distinguished by traits that influence their decision-making, such as impulsiveness, procrastination, and stubbornness. These behaviours are so common that they are not considered pathological. There are, however, cases in which the decision-making system is dysfunctional enough for this irrationality to go beyond socially acceptable norms. This is the field of neurological and psychiatric syndromes of decision-making. The chapter then examines in detail obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCDs), Tourette’s syndrome, Parkinson's disease, and hyperdopaminergic syndromes. It also describes the deep brain stimulation paradox.
Free Will?
Authors: Boraud Thomas
Published: November 2020

This chapter focuses on the issue of free will. Free will is defined as the ability to choose independently from any exogenous determinations. The seminal experiment on this subject was proposed by Benjamin Libet in the early eighties. His aim was to highlight that free will is only an illusion. This chapter describes the debate around the experiences initiated by Libet and the exact nature of the phenomenon observed. It then highlights the difference between intentionality and agency. Agency is related to who is at the origin of the action. Intentionality is related to the consciousness of acting and is therefore directly related to moral responsibility. Finally, the chapter argues that neuroscience may help but will be insufficient alone to conclude the possibility or impossibility of free will.
New Keynesians and Inflation
Authors: Tsoukis Christopher
Published: November 2020

This chapter reviews the basic tenets of the New Keynesians (NK); i.e. the school of thought that sought to preserve the insights of Keynes on the desirability of activist stabilization policy, but taking on board the methodological and other advances of the New Classicals. As markets do not clear due to price stickiness, the latter is thoroughly reviewed: causes, including ‘menu costs’, empirical evidence, and implications for price level dynamics are outlined. Other models of wage rigidity as well as new directions of NK theory are also reviewed. Furthermore, the chapter reviews inflation: its costs, causes, and recent ‘great moderation’. It concludes with a critical analysis of the NK model of inflation, and with a review of how this model of inflation can be incorporated into a baseline ‘three-equation New Keynesian model’.
Completing the Argument that Locomotion Requires an External and Unmoved Mover
Authors: Morison Benjamin
Published: November 2020

This contribution comments on Aristotle’s De Motu Animalium 4–5 (MA 4–5). In these chapters Aristotle points out, among other things, that the earth is at the centre of the universe, but the force it would take to move the earth from its position at the centre of the universe is finite. How can this result be reconciled with Aristotle’s conviction that the universe is eternal and indestructible? The contribution shows that Aristotle’s solution depends on the assumption of a mover of the universe that is unmoved, not in the universe, and no part of it. He also shows how this account of cosmic motion paves the way for Aristotle’s explanation of animal motion.
The “Moligopoly” Hypothesis
Authors: Petit Nicolas
Published: November 2020

This chapter examines the empirical validity of the moligopoly hypothesis—that is, the intuition that big tech monopolies are exposed to oligopoly competition across markets. The focus is on big tech firms’ annual filings to financial regulators as well as business analysts’ reports, market research and competitive intelligence. The data calls attention to the possibility of latent and complementary levels of competition in big tech that antitrust and regulatory decision-makers miss in their assessments of monopoly power in digital markets. This competition does not seem to originate from substitute products or services. And it seems to vary at firm level, suggesting significant heterogeneity amongst big tech firms.
Big Tech’s Novel Harms: Antitrust or Regulation?
Authors: Petit Nicolas
Published: November 2020

This chapter explores policy options for novel harms like privacy, fake news, or hate speech in digital markets. The discussion shows that the novel harms allegedly inherent in big tech firms are not strictly related to monopoly power. Regulation is thus the way forward, not competition. And consumer protection regulation is a better approach than competition spirited “utilities regulation” or revenue-sharing driven “retail regulation.”
Digital Transformation
Authors: Schildt Henri
Published: November 2020

The introductory chapter to the book The Data Imperative examines how technological advances together with a new managerial mindset are driving digital transformation. While early business information systems were often self-contained and designed to solve specific problems, contemporary systems are highly interconnected and integrated. Corporations can use data flows to coordinate diverse processes and activities across organizational and geographic boundaries. The chapter explains how digital transformation involves a systematic shift from predominant reliance on human knowledge and skills to digital data flows and smart algorithms. Artificial intelligence techniques, such as generative adversarial networks and advanced natural language processing, and 5G wireless technologies create new opportunities to replace human routines with algorithmic processing. Data will continue to break down organizational silos, enable deeper collaboration across company boundaries, and speed up the development of new services.
Augustine's City of God
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

The City of God, written in the aftermath of the Gothic sack of Rome in ad 410, is the most influential of Augustine’s works. It has played a decisive role in the formation of the culture of the Christian West. Gerard O’Daly’s book remains the most comprehensive modern guide to it in any language. The City of God has a wide scope, including cosmology, psychology, political thought, anti-pagan polemic, Christian apologetic, theory of history, biblical interpretation, and apocalyptic themes. This book, therefore, is about a single literary masterpiece, yet at the same time it surveys Augustine’s developing views through the whole range of his thought. It provides a running commentary on each part of the work. Further chapters elucidate the early fifth-century political, social, historical, and literary background, the works’s sources, and its place in Augustine’s writings. This new and extensively revised edition takes into account the abundant work, in Augustine studies and in research on late antiquity generally, in the twenty years since its first publication, while retaining the book’s focus on Augustine as writer and thinker in the Latin tradition, active at a time of rapid Christianization in a radically changing Roman Empire. It includes chapter-by-chapter suggestions for further reading, an extensive summary of the work’s contents, and a brief bibliographical guide to research on its reception. All Greek and Latin texts are translated. The book is aimed at readers of Augustine, and at the same time at a wider readership among students of late antiquity, theologians, philosophers, medievalists, Renaissance scholars, and historians of art and iconography.
The Structure of the City of God, and a Summary of its Contents
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

The chapter discusses the presentation of the themes of City in the preface to Book 1, the articulation of the work’s subdivisions in 1. 35-6, and the later summaries and anticipations of the themes and argument throughout. It demonstrates Augustine’s varied success in keeping control of the copious material. It shows that Augustine, even as late as Book 14, was uncertain about the eventual length of the work: the symmetry of Books 11–22, four books per section, was achieved in the course of its composition. The overall structure also allowed for practical publication in five codices. In the second part of the chapter, there is an extensive book-by-book summary of City’s contents.
‘Where Were the Gods?’
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

The chapter analyzes Books 1–5, which are dominated by Augustine’s polemic against Roman polytheistic religion. Book 1 functions as an overture to central themes of the work, especially the contrast between the city of God, ‘an alien among the ungodly’, and the pride and desire for domination of the earthly city; it concentrates mainly on the moral and religious issues arising from Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410. The principal themes of these books are: pagan and Christian virtues; the moral deficiencies of Roman religion and the failure of the gods to protect Rome throughout its violent and disaster-prone history; God’s providential role in the success of empires, especially the Roman Empire; arguments against fate; Christian virtues and imperial rule.
Creation, the Fall, and the Regime of the Passions
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

The chapter discusses Augustine’s presentation in Books 11–14 of the origins of the two cities, heavenly and earthly. The focus is on the creation of the universe, the angels and the rebellion of some of them, and Adam, Eve, and the Fall. Specific themes include: Genesis exegesis; the elaboration of the history theme, with good and bad angels as ‘prologues’ to the two historical human cities; good and evil in the universe; angelic rebels and the nature of the will; death and resurrection; Platonist and Christian views on the body; Pauline flesh and spirit; emotions and passions; sexual desire in paradise and since the Fall; love of self and love of God, and the application of this contrast to the two cities.
Final Destinations
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

This chapter discusses the themes of Books 19–22, which focus on the ends of life (in the sense both of overriding values and of final states) in philosophy and in Christian biblically determined belief. The principal themes discussed are: the concept of hierarchical degrees of peace and order; the question of the realization of justice and virtue in earthly historical societies; the definition, in dialogue with Cicero, of the res publica (state); the appropriate behaviour of Christians in the Roman state; God’s last judgement, and the biblical evidence for the doctrines of afterlife rewards and punishments; the plausibility of eternal bodily punishment; bodily resurrection, and Platonist objections to it; the eternal bliss of those humans who are predestined to be saved; what ‘seeing God’ might mean.
The Place of the City of God in Augustine’s Writings
Authors: O'Daly Gerard
Published: November 2020

The City of God, like other major works of Augustine—such as the De Trinitate (begun in 399 and concluded in the years 422–6) and De Genesi ad Litteram (written between 401 and 414)—took shape over several years. In common with the other works just mentioned, it explores central themes of Augustine’s thought. This chapter briefly relates City to other writings of Augustine. Special attention is given to two earlier works, De Vera Religione (On True Religion), De Catechizandis Rudibus (First Catechetical Instruction), where themes of City are anticipated: true religion, Platonic influences, use of antitheses, biblical history and its use in catechesis, order, eschatology.
A Multicomponent Model of Working Memory
Authors: Baddeley Alan , Hitch Graham , Allen Richard
Published: November 2020

The multicomponent model aims to provide a broad theoretical framework enabling both more detailed fractionation and analysis of its components, and a capacity for it be used fruitfully beyond the laboratory. In its current form it comprises four interacting components. Two of these are modality-specific memory storage systems, one verbal-acoustic, the phonological loop, and one visuospatial, the sketchpad. Information in both these stores can be temporarily maintained via focused attention termed ‘refreshing’, while the phonological loop can also maintain familiar verbalizable material by subvocal or overt rehearsal. Both subsystems are controlled by a third component, the central executive, a supervisory system with limited resources. The central executive is principally concerned with internally directed attentional control processes but also has a role in the attentional selection of perceptual information. Information from these three components is coordinated with information from perception and long-term memory through the fourth component, a multidimensional, multimodal episodic buffer. This component is capable of holding up to around four episodic chunks, and is a valuable but essentially passive storage system, controlled by the central executive and accessible to conscious awareness. The multicomponent model has been systematically developed using a number of experimental tools. These include, principally, similarity effects to identify the type of coding involved, concurrent task methods to assess the contributions of the various subsystems to complex tasks, and neuropsychological evidence, in particular from the study of single cases with very specific deficits. The model continues to evolve and has proved successful both in accounting for a broad range of data on memory and related cognitive areas and in its application to the understanding of a wide range of cognitive activities and populations.
An Embedded-Processes Approach to Working Memory
Authors: Cowan Nelson , Morey Candice C. , Naveh-Benjamin Moshe
Published: November 2020

In the embedded-processes model, working memory is represented as a two-phase process with the activated portion of long-term memory holding features temporarily, including newly learned information and, within it, the focus of attention holding up to several integrated items or chunks. This chapter focuses on the motivation to use the structure of modelling in which processes are embedded, and it considers how the model helps in the organization of extant data and guidance of research. It will consider how the model has changed over the years and will clarify some often-misunderstood points about the model.
A Dynamic Field Theory of Visual Working Memory
Authors: Wijeakumar Sobanawartiny , Spencer John
Published: November 2020

The main objective of this chapter is to introduce concepts of dynamic field theory, a continuous attractor neural network, and its implementation of visual working memory. In dynamic field theory, working memory is an attractor state where representations are self-sustained through strong interactions between self-excitation and lateral inhibition. The chapter discusses a visual working memory model with fields represented by stabilized attractor states. Using this model, it demonstrates how encoding, consolidation, maintenance, and comparison occur in correct and incorrect, same and different trials in a change detection task. Further, the model captures accuracy and capacity limitations when visual working memory load is manipulated. Critically, the chapter reviews work from the authors’ research group by demonstrating how the model captures behavioural performance and makes haemodynamic predictions in early childhood, young adulthood, and older adulthood. Using the model, the chapter posits that developmental changes in visual working memory processing occur as a result of the modulation of strength and width of excitation and inhibition. Finally, the chapter describes how the dynamic field theory account compares with current views on a domain-general account and distributed nature of working memory processing.
Mending Democracy
Authors: Hendriks Carolyn M. , Ercan Selen A. , Boswell John
Published: November 2020

This book advances the idea of democratic mending in response to the growing problem of disconnections in contemporary democracies. Around the globe vital connections in our democratic systems are wearing thin, especially between citizens and their elected representatives, between citizens in polarized public spheres, and between citizens and their complex governance systems. The wide scale of disrepair in our democratic fabric cannot realistically be patched over through institutional redesign or one-off innovation. Instead this book calls for a more connective and systemic approach to repairing democracies. For reform inspiration the authors engage in a critical dialogue between systems thinking in deliberative democracy and contemporary practices of political participation. They present three rich empirical cases of how everyday actors — citizens, community groups, administrators, and elected officials—are seeking to create and strengthen democratic connections in unpromising or challenging circumstances. The cases uncover the practical and varied work of democratic mending; these are small-scale, incremental interventions aimed at repairing disconnects in different parts of democratic systems. The empirical insights revealed in this book push forward ideas on connectivity in democratic theory and practice. They demonstrate that even in moments of dysfunctional disconnection, considerable learning, adaptation, and improvisation for democratic renewal can emerge. Ultimately, this book pioneers an approach to analysing democratic politics which might spark a ‘connective turn’ in the way scholars and practitioners think about and seek to improve democracy at the large scale.
Hassidic Idealism: Responding to Problems
Authors: Lebens Samuel
Published: November 2020

The previous chapter suggests that a radical idealism follows from the most basic tenets of Judaism. This chapter responds to various problems that arise from that idealism: does it allow for free will; does it rob us of ontological significance; does it exacerbate the problem of evil; and does it allow for true contradictions? All of these questions are answered with the use of various philosophical tools developed in the philosophy of fiction.
Hassidic Idealism: Some Hidden Benefits
Authors: Lebens Samuel
Published: November 2020

Having responded to various problems with Hassidic Idealism in chapter 4, this chapter charts some hidden benefits. The view helps to make sense of two central Jewish traditions that would otherwise collapse into heresy or nonsense, or both: the tradition that I call Jewish Nothing-Elsism; and the tradition of the sefirot (or mystical emanations or attributes of God). Hassidic idealism also recasts a central debate in the philosophy of religious language. Most importantly, this chapter ends by sketching some of the religious significance that can be found upon adopting Hassidic Idealism.
Redeeming the Past
Authors: Lebens Samuel
Published: November 2020

This chapter sketches the general shape of Jewish eschatology. After laying out the minimal description that the Messiah is expected to fulfill, this chapter argues that the philosophy of time, properly understood, allows us to hope for a much more radical end of days; one that doesn’t just redeem our future, but one that also redeems our past.
“De summa rerum”
Authors: Lærke Mogens
Published: November 2020

This chapter is dedicated to a perplexing set of philosophical fragments today known as “De summa rerum”. Written by the young Leibniz in 1675–6, toward the end of his formative years in Paris, they deal with fundamental topics of philosophy including the first principles of philosophy, the nature of mind and perception, the nature and existence of God, the derivation of particular things from God, and modal philosophy. The “De summa rerum” fragments do not represent a unified philosophical attempt. Written at a time when Leibniz’s intellectual mindset had been both upset and profoundly stimulated by his encounter with the Parisian intellectual scene and his discovery of mathematics, they rather read like a set of philosophical test balloons flying in a great many directions. This chapter focuses on one particularly important strand of these reflections, informed by Spinoza and Spinozism via Leibniz’s exchanges with Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus.
The exception to the rule
Authors: Van Rooy Raf
Published: November 2020

Chapter 3 offers a case study of the thirteenth-century scholar Roger Bacon, who contrasted the terms lingua and idioma in a way prefiguring the later language/dialect distinction. Bacon was able to do so because of his exceptionally broad intellectual and linguistic horizon; he was familiar with English, French, Latin, Greek, and other tongues, as well as the regional variation within some of them. His mastery of Greek in particular was unique in his times. His linguistic outlook was a central precondition and a triggering circumstance for his lingua / idioma distinction. Bacon was in good company, since the renowned philosopher Thomas Aquinas presupposed a similar metalinguistic contrast in his exegetical works; yet Thomas was much less explicit about it. Chapter 3 finishes with a brief exposé on biblical exegesis as an overlooked source for ancient and medieval ideas on regional variation.
Consolidation by elaboration
Authors: Van Rooy Raf
Published: November 2020

Chapter 11 draws the balance of the way in which the conceptual pair became anchored in the metalinguistic apparatus of scholars. It does so, first and foremost, by surveying the seven major interpretations of the language / dialect distinction which originated roughly in the century between 1550 and 1650, and the ways in which they interacted with each other. These conceptions were, the chapter argues, shaped by three main related circumstances: Greek tradition, scholarly interests, and sociolinguistic realities. The chapter contends that in the period 1550–1650 the conceptual pair did not undergo only consolidation by elaboration but also an emancipation from the Greek heritage. This de-Hellenization resulted in the degradation of dialect as secondary to language on nearly all levels, even though a strictly political interpretation of the distinction was only marginally present in the early modern period.