bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conclusion
Authors: Gelderblom Oscar
Published: November 2017

This concluding chapter summarizes the book's main findings about the ways that urban competition influenced the organization of international trade in the Low Countries. In particular, the book has shown how urban competition gives rise to inclusive institutions that facilitate exchange and help merchants deal with conflicts as well as losses from violent assaults. It has also discussed how Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam supported a variety of institutions for conflict resolution to help merchants address any kind of agency problem. The chapter considers three conditions that enabled Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam to transform an extremely heterogeneous institutional framework into a widely shared body of open access institutions: access to domestic and foreign markets, footloose merchants, and urban autonomy. Finally, it examines the implications of the history of Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam for current theories of institutional change.
Farewell, Spinoza
Authors: Schwartz Daniel B.
Published: November 2017

This chapter analyzes the Spinoza image in the work of Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) in three stages. First, relying primarily on Singer's autobiographical writings, this chapter charts Singer's path from worship to wariness of Spinoza in Warsaw between the wars, the very period that witnessed a broad and ecumenical revival of the Amsterdam philosopher and a veritable explosion of his popularity within Yiddish literature. It then turns to an analysis of the two works in Singer's canon most pivotal to his use of Spinoza, “Der Shpinozist” (“The Spinoza of Market Street”) and Di familye mushkat (The Family Moskat). These two works reflect the range of the Spinoza theme in Singer, from the miniature scale of the short story to the multigenerational novel, and from gentle comedy to harsh post-Holocaust tragedy.
Introduction: The Mystery
Authors: Reemtsma Jan Philipp
Published: November 2017

This introductory chapter reflects on the question often uttered by people when they hear of people doing reprehensible things, “How one earth….” It argues that we have always known that humans are capable of committing atrocities that leave us speechless. The real question, the one behind the screen, is: how is it possible that murderers became our “ordinary” fathers? The question is tortuous because it necessitates in us an excruciating ambivalence while confronting us with a set of unresolved moral issues. And it continues to do so despite the many real and fictionalized revolutions of 1968 and the innumerable attempts at literary reckoning with our fathers and grandfathers. The chapter also argues that the form of life we have taken to calling modernity not only ought not to have been compatible with the occurrence of violent excess in the twentieth century; once it did occur modernity at least ought to have perished as a result. Our persistent trust in modernity despite our knowledge that it is other than we presumed is the subject of this book.
Trust and Modernity
Authors: Reemtsma Jan Philipp
Published: November 2017

This chapter argues that modernity's trust in the whole consists in the whole not entering the equation. We still trust in the whole, but the preservation of that whole rests on everyone's shoulders. Trust in the stability of functional differentiation is not something modernity can demand; and any attempt to do so is rendered harmless by its own absurdity. Modern trust rests on the belief that the absence of such a demand is guaranteed. This guarantee arises from legal regulations that enable us to meet one another as parties to a contract, as beneficiaries of certain legal rights. The state monopoly on violence enforces these legal regulations, producing a society in which individuals or groups are forbidden from using violence to settle their disputes, and punished if they do. This sense of mutual trust—the expectation of nonviolence in one's interactions—is a consequence of the monopoly on violence, but it is also its prerequisite.
Trust in Violence
Authors: Reemtsma Jan Philipp
Published: November 2017

This chapter considers the question of why people lose the trust they place in violence. The answer might be as simple as this: pleasure in the (imagined) reality of apocalypse eventually gives way to fear of it. Violence paved the road to modernity in the Soviet Union, yet to stay on that road, the Soviet Union had to curb some of the violence that got them there. Germany's confidence in the power of violence enabled it to subjugate large parts of Europe and commit mass murder, yet this confidence lasted “only” twelve years. These cases suggest that historical events were what refuted trust in violence. But if this is true, then those historical events ought to have destroyed our trust in modernity as well.
Can We See the “Hoplite Revolution” on the Ground? Archaeological Landscapes, Material Culture, and Social Status in Early Greece
Authors: Foxhall Lin
Published: November 2017

This chapter considers what a site survey might reveal about the appearance of a new class of small farmers in archaic Greece. It gives a brief history of the discipline and explains the strengths and limitations of using its findings for historical analysis. This study of eight survey projects across Greece, including Boeotia, the Argolid, Laconia, and Pylos, focuses on data for the Geometric through the Hellenistic periods. The chapter suggests that the archaeology tells us a different story than the historical record of citizens, soldiers, and property owners. The survey data show the rise of a densely populated countryside of small-scale farmers neither in the eighth century nor, universally, in the sixth century.
Of Monsters and Flowers
Authors: Wells Peter S.
Published: November 2017

This chapter first discusses the new style of imagery and ornament that emerged during the fifth century BC. The new style has been the source of endless controversy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Strange creatures, part human, part beast, were crafted onto gold and bronze jewelry and cast onto the handles and lids of bronze vessels. Metalsmiths created lush new forms of decoration—incised and relief ornament based on floral motifs such as leaves and petals, with spirals, S-curves, and whirligigs decorating objects ranging from pottery to sword scabbards. This style was a radical departure from the forms of representation and decoration that preceded it. The chapter then sets out the book's purpose, namely to study a two-thousand-year period in Europe, from 2000 BC to the Roman conquests during the last century BC and the first century AD, known by the terms “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age.”
The Visual Worlds of Early Europe
Authors: Wells Peter S.
Published: November 2017

This chapter discusses the visual world of late prehistoric Europe. It first uses Teniers's painting of the interior of an inn at the beginning of the chapter in order to introduce the topic of light as an important issue in any consideration of seeing in times previous to the ready availability of electric light. It then describes changes in the landscape, in the character of settlements, houses, and in other aspects of the visual environment during the two millennia between the beginning of the Early Bronze Age and the end of the Iron Age. These changes were most often gradual. A number of significant trends are recognizable in the environmental evidence pertaining to changes in the landscape; and there is archaeological evidence pertaining to changes in tool use, the digging of ditches, the building of walls, and the construction of settlements and houses.
The Visuality of Objects, Past and Present
Authors: Wells Peter S.
Published: November 2017

This chapter argues that the “Roman conquest” of parts of temperate Europe was not as all-changing as most history books would suggest. The idea of a “Roman Europe,” in the sense of European provinces practicing Roman culture—in particular, Roman ways of seeing—needs considerable revision. Much evidence suggests that Middle Iron Age modes of visual perception and ways of crafting objects continued throughout the period of Roman political domination to reemerge in the so-called “early Germanic” style of the early Middle Ages, as well as in “Celtic” objects such as the Book of Kells and the traditions known as “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” art.
Nihilism
Authors: Michalski Krzysztof
Published: November 2017

This chapter argues that Nietzsche's philosophy arises from rejection, from outrage at the world, from the pain that the world causes. It is only when we learn to deal with this pain, when we discover its power, that we will understand the world as it is. This demands that we confront nihilism. For our lives are nihilistic through and through: the negation of life is one of its inherent features, hidden within the project of values that arrange the world into a rational whole. We cannot blame life for this, nor are history and its (ostensibly) ironclad laws to blame; life and history do not go on independently of our participation. History is real only as our history: it is only in what we do that history happens. As such, nihilism itself is the sickness of our actions, a pathology of the force expressed in them.
The Time Is at Hand
Authors: Michalski Krzysztof
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines Nietzsche's argument that all knowledge is inherently moral, as applicable to science. Regardless of the content of scientific assertions, scientific activity is an endeavor undertaken for one reason or another and, as such, expresses the conscious or unconscious preferences of those who engage in it; it testifies to what they believe is good, and what they believe is evil. Science carries this moral sense, too. However, according to Nietzsche, the moral character of modern science consists of its lie and its deception (in other words, its nihilism): it tries to turn our attention away from the Apocalypse, from the end of everything and the new beginning hidden in every moment of our lives.
Size, Scope, and Bias: What Differentiates Local Electoral Politics?
Authors: Oliver J. Eric , Ha Shang E. , Callen Zachary
Published: November 2017

This chapter outlines a relatively simple way of understanding the dynamics of local democracy. Across the universe of democracies, three characteristics are the most powerful and widely applicable predictors of their electoral politics: size, scope, and bias. Once we know a democracy's population (size), the magnitude of its constitutive powers (scope), and how uniformly it distributes its resources (bias), we can predict a great deal about who votes, who runs for office, and whether factors like incumbency, parties, ideology, issues, interest groups, and candidate charisma shape vote choices. In other words, we can best predict how people will vote in a particular election if we first understand what is distinctive about that democracy's politics and, if we know its size, scope, and bias, we can predict what those electoral politics are like. The political dynamics of size, scope, and bias are examined in turn.
Who Votes in Local Elections?
Authors: Oliver J. Eric , Ha Shang E. , Callen Zachary
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines who votes in local elections and whether their low electoral turnout is problematic for the legitimacy of their local democracies. The evidence suggests that, for the overwhelming number of American municipalities, low turnout is not a problem because of the types of people who vote in local contests: educated homeowners who are long-term residents of their communities. These “homevoters” are not only more committed to their communities but are also more likely to be politically engaged and informed about local affairs. Although they tend to be more fiscally conservative than renters, they do not systematically differ in their opinions about all political and social issues. Whatever biases do exist as a result of low turnout in local elections are tilted toward policies that protect property values and suppress property taxes. However, given the difference in political knowledge and interest between voters and nonvoters, it is not clear that higher turnout would change this, largely because nonvoters would probably have less clearly informed preferences.
Constraints and Dynamics
Authors: Paolo Malanima , Kander Astrid , Warde Paul
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the dynamics of the early modern European economy in order to highlight both the possibilities for development and the constraints of the old European world. It first considers population and climate, focusing on two main changes: saving land, which implied a transition in the kind of energy carriers, and saving labor, which indicated a transition in the kind of converters used to engender mechanical work. The chapter proceeds by discussing the demographic transition in Europe, the last phase of the Little Ice Age, and the output of the soil in Europe. It also assesses energy scarcity, taking into account energy prices, real wages and living conditions, fuels, the decline in energy consumption per head, and the rise in efficiency. Finally, it describes the use of coal and peat in Europe.
A Modern Energy Regime
Authors: Paolo Malanima , Kander Astrid , Warde Paul
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the emergence of a modern energy regime in Europe. It begins with a discussion of the increase in energy consumption and how a combination of coal, engine, and iron coalesced to form the “development block” that characterized and drove the first industrial revolution. It then considers the role of coal in the new geography of energy supply, divergence in energy regimes, and urbanization and pollution. It also describes the rise and relative decline of traditional energy sources such as calories from the soil, food demand, working animals, firewood, water power, and wind power. The chapter shows that the amount of renewable energy available to each inhabitant in Europe was falling in the case of every single carrier except food, as population growth outstripped supply.
The Coal Development Block
Authors: Paolo Malanima , Kander Astrid , Warde Paul
Published: November 2017

This chapter focuses on coal development blocks. From an energy point of view, the key aspects of the first industrial revolution were coal, steam, and iron. The development block was built around two core innovations, the steam engine and new techniques in metallurgy, saving on both labor and land. The chapter first considers the core innovations of the period, including the steam engine, the complementarity of coal and steam power, James Watt's engine and rotary motion, and innovation in iron. It then discusses the growth dynamics of the coal development block, focusing on market widening and market suction with respect to coal and iron, and concludes with an analysis of the transport revolution during the period.
Value Matters in Epistemology
Authors: Sosa Ernest
Published: November 2017

This chapter takes up how value matters in epistemology, and considers the Meno problem (“In what way is knowledge better than merely true belief?”) as to the content and plausibility of the claim that knowledge is always better than would be the corresponding merely true belief. It first asks whether knowledge is always better—at least in epistemic respects—then explores the relation between knowledge and proper action. The chapter then goes on to show how the value-of-knowledge intuition acquires further interest through its equivalence with the view of knowledge as a norm of assertion. Finally, this chapter steps back to examine what we might mean in saying that to know is always necessarily better than to get it right by luck while remaining in ignorance.
Epistemic Circularity
Authors: Sosa Ernest
Published: November 2017

This chapter defends the epistemic circularity involved in meta-aptness and thereby in the full aptness of knowing full well. It begins by explaining two forms of bootstrapping: the inference from the perceptual belief that a seen surface is red to the conclusion that in so believing we are not misled by a white surface in bad light, and the inductive inference from the track record of a gauge to the conclusion that it is a reliable gauge. Each is formally valid, yet neither could possibly provide adequate justification for its conclusion. The chapter offers an explanation for why this is so, before moving on to the reliability of a competence that is not reason-involving. Finally, this chapter advances an argument in defense of trust in our epistemic faculties, one that involves circularity of a sort, and how such circularity can be considered virtuous.
Economics With a Human Face?
Authors: Boldizzoni Francesco
Published: November 2017

The major misunderstanding about cliometrics comes from the subsequent spread of Douglass North's new institutional approach. North claims to have challenged traditional economic theory, which he found inadequate. This chapter shows how this approach, besides being patently unhistorical, rests on flimsy foundations. In order to do so, it draws on a variety of evidence from the social and historical sciences. It also compares North's synthesis with the example of social science history offered by Moses Finley, the eminent ancient economic historian. Finley made a powerful argument against the application of modern economic theory to the past. Furthermore, he developed an alternative interpretation for the origin of institutions, rigorously demonstrating the logical precedence of society over the economy. The chapter begins by considering the criticism that Karl Polanyi made against neoclassical economics in the mid-twentieth century. In fact, both North's and Finley's works can be read as a response to Polanyi.
Building on the Past
Authors: Boldizzoni Francesco
Published: November 2017

This chapter is a manifesto for the reconstruction of economic history and calls for a new pact between history and the social sciences in order to counter the way economists have abused the past. The chapter cites the need for European economic historians to organize themselves with greater awareness and regain the courage to construct the type of historical models of past generations. It claims that economic history is in the midst of an intellectual crisis faced, as evidenced by the growing marginalization of the discipline in the universities. It further argues that economic history has to lift itself out of the difficult situation it is now in by becoming involved with the genuinely “social” sciences and with all those scholars who are interested in an innovative interaction with historians without imposing any particular point of view.
Truth
Authors: Burgess Alexis G. , Burgess John P.
Published: November 2017

This book is a concise introduction to current philosophical debates about truth. Combining philosophical and technical material, the book is organized around, but not limited to, the view known as deflationism. In clear language, the book covers a wide range of issues, including the nature of truth, the status of truth–value gaps, the relationship between truth and meaning, relativism and pluralism about truth, and semantic paradoxes from Alfred Tarski to Saul Kripke and beyond. The book provides a rich picture of contemporary philosophical theorizing about truth, one that will be essential reading for philosophy students as well as philosophers specializing in other areas.
Kripke
Authors: Burgess Alexis G. , Burgess John P.
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines Saul Kripke's mathematically rigorous, paradox-free treatment of truth for certain formal languages. Kripke adds hints about how his formal construction might model some features of natural language, but his hints steer a path between an inconsistency view and a vindicationist one. The chapter first compares Kripke's notion of truth with that of Alfred Tarski before discussing what Kripke calls the minimum fixed point, the first level where no new sentences get classified as true that were not already so classified at some earlier level. It also considers the ungroundedness of a sentence, along with the concepts of transfinite construction, revision theories, and axiomatic theories of truth.
Insolubility?
Authors: Burgess Alexis G. , Burgess John P.
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the more purely philosophical aspect of the question of the paradoxes of truth. It first considers a particular paradoxical derivation that uses the equivalence principle not in the form of the T-biconditionals (which immediately raise questions about what kind of conditional is involved), but of rules of T-introduction and T-elimination. It then explains the concept of revenge as well as logical and contextualist “solutions” and the so-called “paraconsistency.” It concludes with a discussion of inconsistency theories such as defeatism and deflationism. The background assumptions about meaning behind an integrated deflationist/defeatist theory might run as follows. Meaning can be given by rules, but rules can be inconsistent. There is even a result in mathematical logic (Church's theorem) to the effect that there is no mechanical test for inconsistency of rules, making it unlikely we have any filter preventing us from ever internalizing inconsistencies.
Favoritism under Social Pressure
Authors: Palacios-Huerta Ignacio
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the effect of social forces as determinants of behavior, in particular the role of social pressure as a determinant of corruption, through the lens of professional soccer. First, it shows and quantifies the referee's bias. The premise is that the amount of extra time should not systematically depend on the identity of the team that is leading at the end of a game. Second, the hypothesis that referees show a bias for the home team because of social pressure means that the bias should be stronger when the crowd's rewards from winning are higher. Third, what is the specific mechanism that could plausibly underlie this behavior? The hypothesis underlying this chapter is that it is the actual crowd in the stadium that puts pressure on referees.
Citizens, Groups, and the State
Authors: Laurence Jonathan
Published: November 2017

This chapter places European governments' relationships with contemporary Muslim communities into historical and theoretical context, by reviewing earlier encounters with new categories of citizens and state-building challenges. For the past two centuries, the religion bureaus of interior ministries across Europe have asserted state authority by structuring and mediating the activities of religious organizations. Against the view that the accommodation of religious communities is the equivalent of “capitulation,” this chapter shows that formal recognition has been the method through which the modern state has historically asserted its authority over new citizen groups. The view that Islam is inherently incompatible with, or otherwise presents an unprecedented challenge to, state authority in western democracies is critically examined.
Classical Liberalism
Authors: Tomasi John
Published: November 2017

This chapter offers an intellectual history of liberalism, focusing on the classical view that was eventually displaced by modern, “high” liberalism. It first considers classical liberalism's notion of equality and property rights as well as economic liberty before discussing the ideas of thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, and F. A. Hayek. It then explores the emergence of market society, with particular emphasis on what Smith called “the system of natural liberty.” It also examines classical liberal ideas in action during under revolutionary America and concludes with an analysis of the essential features of classical liberalism: a thick conception of economic liberty grounded mainly in consequentialist considerations; a formal conception of equality that sees the outcome of free market exchanges as largely definitive of justice; and a limited but important state role in tax-funded education and social service programs.
Two Concepts of Fairness
Authors: Tomasi John
Published: November 2017

This chapter considers two concepts of fairness, starting the discussion by focusing on market democracy's thick conception of economic freedom in relation to social justice. Market democracy breaks with traditional classical liberal and libertarian traditions in founding politics on a deliberative ideal of democratic citizenship, even as it makes room for a variety of rival conceptions of the nature of public reason. The chapter offers a market democratic interpretation of John Rawls' notion of justice as fairness. It also examines what free market fairness says about a society in which citizens are experiencing the blessings of liberal justice, along with its alternative perspective to social democracy's emphasis on instilling in the citizenry a sense of democratic solidarity. Finally, it compares the interpretations of social democracy and free market fairness regarding justice as fairness and the difference principle, respectively.
Execution of Population-Based Survey Experiments
Authors: Mutz Diana C.
Published: November 2017

This chapter aims to eliminate the need for others to learn by trial and error. The practical issues addressed here range from the process of explaining a population-based experiment to the Institutional Review Board (IRB), to the issue of maximizing the effectiveness of a treatment in a population-based experiment. Different disciplines had different problems adapting to the idea of a population-based experiment, and the chapter uses various war stories to illustrate the kinds of problems most likely to plague users from different disciplines. The challenge of producing effective treatments involves simultaneously increasing the extent to which the independent variable is varied and reducing measurement error. Consideration of ethics and human subjects comes into play because there are important limits on what investigators can do by way of manipulation in the context of surveys.
Analysis of Population-Based Survey Experiments
Authors: Mutz Diana C.
Published: November 2017

This chapter addresses three common problems that emerge in the analysis stage. These include the misguided practice of doing randomization checks, whether and how to use survey weights, and the use and misuse of covariates. Investigators tend to approach the analysis and interpretation of population-based experiments from the perspective of usual practices in whatever their home discipline happens to be. However, as it turns out, some of these choices go hand in hand with common errors and faulty assumptions about the most appropriate way to analyze results from population-based experiments. Usual practices are not always appropriate, particularly with disciplines that favor observational methods. The chapter aims to provide guidance on the best practices and to explain when and why they make a difference.
Political Engagement as Intrinsic Good
Authors: Berger Ben
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines Hannah Arendt's views on the intrinsic value of political engagement as well as her attitude toward moral engagement. It begins with a discussion of Arendt's visionary political theory: her ideals of a free political realm, the politically engaged life, and the associated rewards of public freedom, public happiness, earthly immortality, and glory. It then considers Arendt's cautionary political theory: her warnings against the rampant materialism and deadly totalitarianism that threaten her ideals. It also explores Arendt's association of the social, marginalization, enslavement, and totalitarian domination with the concepts and metaphors of isolation, darkness, invisibility, bodily needs, and the eternal nothingness of oblivion. Finally, it points out some logical inconsistencies in Arendt's defense of political engagement as intrinsic good while acknowledging her many other insights on politics.
Abandoning Judgment
Authors: Casson Douglas John
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes how the crisis of authority led some to abandon the possibility of public justification altogether and others to seek out a type of knowledge that would be invulnerable to skeptical objections. Michel Montaigne and his popularizer, Pierre Charron, argued that in the absence of universally acceptable standards, wise men should defer to established traditions and reigning authorities. In contrast, René Descartes sought to resolve the problem of multiple authorities by erecting a new, apodictic science built on unassailable foundations. Although he hoped that his project would eventually yield absolute certainty in the contested realms of morals, politics, and religion, Descartes nonetheless counseled his readers to follow the customs and laws of their localities until such certainty could be achieved.
Liberating Judgment
Authors: Casson Douglas John
Published: November 2017

This chapter explains that for Locke, the capacity to experience freedom is tied to the capacity to make probable judgments. Although Locke joins Thomas Hobbes in arguing that liberty is a type of self-expression through action, he insists that it also requires a type of self-transcendence through judgment. Locke argues that man's “reasonableness” cannot simply be measured by internal coherence, but must always be gauged by his conformity to that which lies outside. It is man's ability to adjust his behavior to the authoritative signs of nature that ultimately makes his free self capable of self-governance. By learning to make judgments based on nature's probable deliverances, individuals become both reasonable and free.
The Great Recoinage Revisited
Authors: Casson Douglas John
Published: November 2017

This concluding chapter reviews how Locke's attempt to establish a stable and trustworthy monetary standard was nothing short of a fiasco. When the secretary of the Treasury proposed to stabilize the currency by lowering its silver content coins, Locke rejected the idea. He argued instead that coins should not represent anything other than the “intrinsick value” of their silver content. If the government abandoned the “natural” worth of coins, they would further undermine the trust that people have in their currency. Locke's insistence that Parliament ensure the worth or trustworthiness of the currency by maintaining its weight led to the Great Recoinage of 1696. However, most contemporary economists believe that England would have been better off had Locke lost the argument and allowed the Treasury to debase the coin.
Complex Surfaces and Coverings
Authors: Tretkoff Paula
Published: November 2017

This chapter deals with complex surfaces and their finite coverings branched along divisors, that is, subvarieties of codimension 1. In particular, it considers coverings branched over transversally intersecting divisors. Applying this to linear arrangements in the complex projective plane, the chapter first blows up the projective plane at non-transverse intersection points, that is, at those points of the arrangement where more than two lines intersect. These points are called singular points of the arrangement. This gives rise to a complex surface and transversely intersecting divisors that contain the proper transforms of the original lines. The chapter also introduces the divisor class group, their intersection numbers, and the canonical divisor class. Finally, it describes the Chern numbers of a complex surface in order to define the proportionality deviation of a complex surface and to study its behavior with respect to finite covers.
Private Regulators in Global Financial Markets
Authors: Büthe Tim , Mattli Walter
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the role of private regulators in global financial markets, with particular emphasis on institutional structure and complementarity in accounting regulation. It first provides an overview of how the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) became the focal institution for setting financial reporting standards at the international level before discussing the institutional structures of IASB and corresponding institutions at the domestic level in the United States and in three European countries: Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (as well as pertinent European Union-level regional institutions). It compares accounting standard-setting in the United States and in these three countries and shows that the resulting differences in institutional complementarity put U.S. firms in an advantageous position over their European counterparts when standard-setting shifts to the international level.
Contributions to the Theoretical Debates in Political Science, Sociology, Law, and Economics
Authors: Büthe Tim , Mattli Walter
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the implications of complementarity for our theoretical understanding of the relationship between power and institutions. It also evaluates the contributions of the book's empirical investigation of private standard-setting in transnational focal rule-making institutions to several current debates among scholars of political science, sociology, law, economics, and business administration about issues such as the changing nature of regulatory politics and nontariff barriers to trade. Institutional complementarity theory implies that we should be more cautious than optimistic when looking to standards as a way to overcome asymmetries. Unless proponents of good standards succeed in shaping the—national yet nongovernmental—positions of their respective countries, international standardization may not yield major improvements for overcoming information asymmetries.
The Justice of My Feelings for Frank O’Hara
Authors: Izenberg Oren
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines two problems presented by Frank O'Hara's poetry: one of which is related to aesthetics and the other to ethics. It argues that O'Hara's dependence on preference does not restrict the extension of his poetry. Rather, by totalizing the scene of judgment—by treating the whole world as a magnification of the art world—O'Hara dramatizes the consequence for social life of using a single scale—not taste, but love—to determine the value of a thing, regardless of what sort of thing it is. In his effort to respect both the particularity and the abstraction of his loves, O'Hara reimagines a world in which any kind of person has the potential to be valued, whether or not any particular person happens to value him.
70 CE–1492
Authors: Botticini Maristella , Eckstein Zvi
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes how many Jews there were, where they lived, and how they earned their living from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple to the mass expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. During the six centuries between the time of Jesus and the time of Muhammad, the number of Jews declined precipitously. Throughout these six centuries, most Jews earned their living from agriculture, as farmers, sharecroppers, fixed-rent tenants, or wage laborers. During the first century, the largest Jewish community dwelled in the Land of Israel. By the mid-twelfth century, Jews could be found in almost all locations from Tudela in Spain to Mangalore in India. By then, their transition into urban skilled occupations was complete. Their specialization into these occupations remains their distinctive feature until today.
Nonlinear Structure and Halo Formation
Authors: Loeb Abraham , Furlanetto Steven R.
Published: November 2017

This chapter studies the evolution of perturbations in the nonlinear regime. It focuses for the most part on analytic models that shed light on the physical processes involved. The advent of computer technology has made numerical studies of nonlinear evolution almost routine, and many of today's theoretical calculations follow this path. The analytic approaches described here inform these calculations, but the numerical simulations help to sharpen this chapter's conclusions and predictions. The chapter discusses this synergy and describes “semianalytic” models that can be written analytically but whose ultimate justification lies in their good agreement with numerical simulations. It also describes the fundamental aspects of computational methods.
Surveys of High-Redshift Galaxies
Authors: Loeb Abraham , Furlanetto Steven R.
Published: November 2017

This chapter details the study of high-redshift galaxies. It first outlines the telescopes used for observing these galaxies: the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and its follow ups, as well as the next-generation telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Next, the chapter discusses the methods for isolating candidate high-redshift galaxies from the foreground population of feeble lower-redshift galaxies. After outlining the observational techniques for identifying high-redshift galaxies, the chapter turns to the luminosity and mass functions, before enumerating strategies to constrain the statistical properties of galaxies, including “one point functions” like the luminosity or stellar mass functions as well as spatial correlations.
The 21-cm Line
Authors: Loeb Abraham , Furlanetto Steven R.
Published: November 2017

This chapter describes how the 21-cm line is used to study the high-z Universe. It introduces the spin-flip or the hyperfine line—a transition driven by the interaction of the spins of the proton and electron, whose relative directions affect the energy of the electron's orbit. An atom in the upper state eventually undergoes a spin-flip transition, emitting a photon with a wavelength of 21 cm. As the chapter shows, this transition is extremely weak, so the effective intergalactic medium (IGM) optical depth is only of the order of 1 percent: this makes the entire neutral IGM accessible during the cosmic dawn. Moreover, the transition energy is so low that it provides a sensitive thermometer of the low-temperature IGM, and as a low-frequency radio transition, it can be seen across the entirety of the IGM against the cosmic microwave background.
Confirmation and Verisimilitude
Authors: Yablo Stephen
Published: November 2017

This chapter argues that logical subtraction has a role to play in confirmation theory via the notion of surplus content. Subject matter does, too, via the notion of content-part. Content-part lets us define a new type of evidential relation; E pervasively probabilifies H if it probabilifies “all of it,” meaning H and its parts. This helps with the tacking and raven paradoxes. Equivalent generalizations can be about different things, which affect their evidential relations. Inductive skeptics do not care about confirmation, but they derive some benefit too, for they care about verisimilitude—one theory having more truth in it than another—and the truth in a theory is made up of its wholly true parts.
Life before Oxygen
Authors: Canfield Donald Eugene
Published: November 2017

This chapter discusses the nature of life on ancient Earth before the evolution of oxygen production. It suggests that the Earth enjoyed an active and diverse biosphere well before the evolution of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria. This biosphere was fueled, mainly, by chemical compounds liberated during volcanism, underscoring again the importance of plate tectonics in shaping life on our planet. Geological evidence indicates that many of the processes that we have imagined were part of the early biosphere that was in place 3.5 billion years ago. These processes include methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and decomposition of dead organic biomass, which was likely aided by a host of different fermenting bacteria. It seems likely, though, that this early biosphere was much less active than what we enjoy at present.
The Early History of Atmospheric Oxygen: Biological Evidence
Authors: Canfield Donald Eugene
Published: November 2017

This chapter discusses the history of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time. One of the giants in this discussion is Vladimir Vernadsky 1863–1945), a Ukranian mineralogist turned geochemist and visionary thinker. In 1926 he published his magnum opus The Biosphere, in which he systemically explored how life works as a geological force. One subject he touched upon was the history of atmospheric oxygen. He initiated this discussion by stating that in all geological periods, the chemical influence of living matter on the surrounding environment has not changed significantly. He concluded that the phenomena of superficial weathering clearly show that free oxygen played the same role in the Archean Era that it plays now. The chapter then explores early Earth biology, focusing on signs of cyanobacteria, without which oxygen could not have accumulated into the atmosphere.
Neoproterozoic Oxygen and The Rise of Animals
Authors: Canfield Donald Eugene
Published: November 2017

This chapter considers the significance of the Ediacaran Fauna. Until the late 1980s, the Ediacaran Fauna were usually thought to represent ancient, primitive animal forms. Debate was sparked when leading paleontologist Dolf Seilacher from Tubingen, Germany, reinterpreted these fossils as something completely different. He argued that, instead of animals, they were long-extinct varieties of living organisms, a result of failed lineages with no successors. The rocks on the Avalon Peninsula of southeastern Newfoundland house the oldest known representatives of the Ediacaran Fauna. These so-called rangeomorphs date back to 575 million ago and appear relatively soon after the end of the Gaskiers glaciation some 580 million years ago. Evidence suggests that Ediacaran Fauna of the Avalon Peninsula emerged into an ocean undergoing oxygenation.
Venus: Energy Transport and Winds
Authors: Ingersoll Andrew P.
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the modern-day climate of Venus, focusing on the role of winds in energy transfer. It first explains how radiation and convection influence the temperature structure of Venus's atmosphere before discussing other basic physical processes such as Hadley cells and the accompanying winds. It also considers gases in hydrostatic equilibrium, adiabatic lapse rate and stability, the flux and intensity of electromagnetic radiation, blackbody radiation and the Planck function, blackbodies in the solar system, radiative transfer, optically thick atmosphere, radiative-convective equilibrium, emission of radiation to space, equilibrium temperature, energy transport by fluid motions and eddies, eddy momentum transport, and the phenomenon of superrotation.
Mars: Long-Term Climate Change
Authors: Ingersoll Andrew P.
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the processes underlying long-term climate change on Mars, focusing on the so-called “faint young Sun paradox,” in which evidence of ancient rivers contradicts results from astronomy that the Sun's output in the first billion years of the solar system was seventy percent of its current value. The fascination with Mars stems in part from the possibility that life could have evolved there. Searching for evidence of liquid water, past and present, is therefore a major objective. Another objective is understanding Mars's climate, past and present. As on Earth, climate change is recorded in Mars's sediments and ice deposits. The chapter first provides an overview of Mars's climate before discussing the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It also considers condensation, evaporation, greenhouse warming, atmospheric water vapor, and the process of terraforming on Mars.
Nutrition and Darwin’s Entangled Bank
Authors: Simpson Stephen J. , Raubenheimer David
Published: November 2017

This introductory chapter expands on three important themes that form the backdrop of this book's study: nutrition touches and links all living things; nutrition is complex; and there have been benefits both from the highly specific and detailed approach of applied nutritional sciences and the simplified, general approaches adopted in the ecological sciences. At the most conspicuous level, nutrition is a primary factor defining the geographic distribution and temporal pattern of activity for many animals. Achieving nutritional homeostasis involves a complex interplay between multiple and changing nutrient needs and variable foods. The detailed studies of human and animal nutritionists have yielded a wealth of information for deriving dietary recommendations for human health, formulating animal feeds, designing dietary regimes for captive animals, supplementing the nutrition of free-ranging animals—and many other important practical applications.
Less Food, Less Sex, Live Longer?
Authors: Simpson Stephen J. , Raubenheimer David
Published: November 2017

This chapter examines the relationships between nutrition, life span, and sex. It considers the view that dietary restriction without severe malnutrition prolongs life. It is generally believed that the benefits of dietary restriction arise from eating fewer calories. However, Geometric Framework experiments on insects in which the effects of macronutrients have been separated indicate that, rather than calories, a key determinant of the relationship between diet and longevity is the balance of protein to nonprotein (fat and/or carbohydrate) energy in the diet. Meanwhile, the presumption in much of life history theory that life span and reproduction trade off against each other for limiting resources is shown to be too simplistic. These two life-history variables certainly have differing nutritional optima, but they can be dissociated and do not inevitably trade off. Reproductive senescence and aging may proceed at different rates in males and females, as predicted by sexual selection theory.
How Does Nutrition Structure Ecosystems?
Authors: Simpson Stephen J. , Raubenheimer David
Published: November 2017

This chapter assesses the consequences of individual nutrition for populations and the assemblages of species that comprise ecological communities. However, the ecological consequences of nutrition are not restricted to the effects of diet on individual organisms but include as well the direct and indirect interactions occurring among individuals within populations and between species. Understanding the complex network of interactions that produce food webs and structure ecosystem dynamics requires the understanding of the participants' differing nutritional requirements, priorities, and regulatory capacities. Geometric Framework analyses have shown that these features differ between species and across trophic levels. Nutritional space is one part of the fundamental niche of an organism, and there is a need to integrate nutrition with the biophysical ecology of organisms. Evolutionary processes also need to be taken into account, and agent-based models offer promise toward development of a new understanding of the evolutionary ecology of nutrition.
Perspectives
Authors: Simpson Stephen J. , Raubenheimer David
Published: November 2017

This concluding chapter looks at some of the big issues that remain in nutritional biology. Exploding protein into its constituent amino acids means having to deal with 19 extra dimensions, which is fine in theory but daunting in practice. However, such an expansion is what will be needed to understand the mechanisms of protein appetite, the role of protein in aging, obesity, and immune function, or the behavioral and metabolic consequences of replacing marine-based animal proteins with plant-derived alternatives in the diets of farmed fish. The next step will be to associate primary response variables such as life span, disease susceptibility, and fecundity with associated physiological, metabolic, and geometric responses. Other issues include nutritional epigenetics and early-life prevention of metabolic disease, human obesity, nutritional immunology, and modeling nutritional interactions.