bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The King as the Embodiment of Egotism
Authors: Lang Karen C.
Published: October 2003

The Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa, as well as Indian legal and political treatises, support belief in the king's divinity. Buddhists regard kingship not as divinely inspired, but as an elective process. Legitimate moral authority and the right to govern belong only to righteous kings, who govern with generosity and compassion. Unrighteous kings, ruling in the age of discord (kali yuga), allow passion to dominate their behavior. They devastate the world through their exercise of war. Candrakiriti rejects both divine origins of kings and the notion that heaven is the reward for a royal warrior who dies in battle.
Rejecting the Illusion of Purity
Authors: Lang Karen C.
Published: October 2003

The third chapter discusses the mistaken apprehension of impure things as pure, and once again takes the human body as its example. Candrakiriti's condemnation of sexual desire encompasses both the physical impurity of female bodies and the mental impurity of lustful men's minds. He reaches an egalitarian conclusion: all human bodies are impure, impermanent, painful, and insubstantial in nature.
“Negotiated Surrender”: American Planning and Occupation
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

Describes the U.S. government's wartime (1942–1945) planning of the occupation of Japan. American planners clashed over the role of Japan's emperor in a postwar democratic nation. Joseph Grew and Henry Stimson favored his retention, but failed to get their view in the Potsdam Declaration, which defined the conditions for Japan's surrender. Washington's directive to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), General Douglas MacArthur, was ambiguous on constitutional reform and treatment of the emperor. This gave MacArthur an opportunity to interpret U.S. policy and place his indelible imprint on Japan's postwar political structure.
“A Liberal and Enlightened Constitution”: The Scap Model
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

Shows how General MacArthur, early in February 1946, seized on a “scoop” by the newspaper Mainichi that convinced him that the Japanese cabinet was making little headway toward revising the Constitution. It recounts how a small group of officers at Government Section, under the leadership of General Whitney, Colonel Kades and Commander Hussey, drafted a model constitution for Japan in a week's time. Built on the parliamentary model, it placed sovereignty in the people, kept the emperor as a “symbol” of the nation, banned war and armed forces, and set forth a new bill of rights. The chapter concludes with the dramatic presentation of the draft to stunned representatives of the Japanese cabinet on Wednesday, February 13.
“A Very Serious Matter”: The Cabinet's Initial Reactions
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

Describes how Whitney pressured the Japanese government to accept the SCAP draft as the basis of a new constitution. Following talks with MacArthur and Whitney, the Shidehara cabinet accepted SCAP's demands and charged Matsumoto with preparing a draft for presentation to Government Section. Whitney and his staff expected the Japanese to submit essentially a translation of the SCAP draft, while Matsumoto believed he could determine the contents of the draft so long as he included the “fundamental principles” (the emperor as “symbol” and renunciation of war) mentioned by MacArthur to Shidehara. This misunderstanding caused a serious conflict when the two sides met to consider Matsumoto's March 2 draft.
“Free and Untrammeled Debate”: The Emperor's Prerogatives
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

On June 29, the speaker of the House of Representatives named 70 members (chosen to represent the parties proportionally) to serve as an ad hoc committee on [constitutional] revision. This chapter shows that, from the outset, members displayed considerable anguish about the draft's language (was it a mere translation of a foreign proposal?), and particularly its rude restrictions on the emperor's role. It examines the mounting tensions led, in mid‐July, to a dramatic quarrel between Colonel Kades and the cabinet minister in charge of the revision project, Kanamori Tokujirō, focusing on whether kokutai (Japan's unique polity) had survived in the revision.
“Fervent Hopes”: Pacifism and Human Rights
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

Recounts the intense debate in the revision committee over Article 9, renouncing war and armed forces, and the contents of the bill of rights (Chapter III). The chapter reveals sharp quarrels between Chairman Ashida Hitoshi and representatives of the left about viewing the Weimar Constitution as a model for Japan's new democracy. It sets forth the debate over human rights: what would be the status of religion under the new constitutional structure? Would Japan's traditional family structure survive in the new emphasis on the rights of individuals? A notable speech by a newly elected female member, Katō Shizue, and rejoinders by Kimura Tokutarō and Tanaka Kōtarō, ministers of justice and education, respectively, explored these questions.
“Fresh Trouble”: The House Subcommittee Frames Amendments
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

The last week of July was a critical period for the framing of Japan's postwar Constitution. Ashida Hitoshi appointed 14 Diet members (including Kita Reikichi and Inukai Takeru) to a special subcommittee. It was assigned the delicate task of combing through the text and, where necessary, preparing amendments, based on the preceding weeks’ discussions. Ch. 16 recounts how the subcommittee – under the watchful eye of Charles Kades, deputy director of SCAP's Government Section (GS) – devoted particular attention to the preamble, the correct terms to express popular sovereignty, and Article 9, renouncing war and armed forces. It was during this period that Article 9 was significantly amended. Ch. 16 carefully examines the intentions of the framers of these amendments.
“A Borrowed Suit”: Peers Accept the Inevitable
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

On August 31, a “special committee,” consisting of 45 members of the House of Peers, began a series of secret meetings that would last until October 3. Attention focused again on the emperor's role (kokutai), popular sovereignty, and the proposed electoral review of judges. Peers also criticized the American‐sounding rhetoric of the preamble and the notion in Chapter X of the constitution as “supreme law.” Notable during these debates were exchanges between Takayanagi Kenzō and Sasaki Sōichi. In the end, after making a few minor amendments, the House of Peers added its approval of the revision.
Conclusion
Authors: Moore Ray A. , Robinson Donald L.
Published: October 2003

The Conclusion notes that Japanese political leaders are currently considering whether to amend their Constitution, particularly article 9, renouncing war and armed forces. In this light, it is important to recognize that the postwar Constitution emerged from a collaboration – one might almost say a conspiracy – between American and Japanese leaders, personified by General MacArthur and Prime Minister Yoshida.
Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities
Authors: Hayes Christine E.
Published: October 2003

For more than a century, scholars of ancient Judaism and early Christianity have assumed that ancient Jews viewed Gentiles as ritually impure, and that this alleged principle of Gentile ritual impurity was the basis for a strict and burdensome policy of separation between Jews and non‐Jews. The present volume corrects decades of erroneous scholarship on the question of Gentile ritual impurity and the history of Jewish perceptions of Gentiles in antiquity. Although purity and impurity were intimately connected with questions of identity and otherness in ancient Jewish culture, the terms “pure” and “impure” were employed in various ways by different groups of Jews to describe and inscribe sociocultural boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. Close analysis of biblical, Second Temple, New Testament, patristic, and rabbinic sources, shows that at least four distinct modes of impurity were associated with Gentiles by different groups – ritual impurity, moral impurity, genealogical impurity, and carnal impurity. This unexpected diversity of ancient Jewish views of Gentile impurity is tied to widely differing definitions of Jewish group identity and the access of Gentiles to that identity. Consequently, ancient Jews exhibited widely varying attitudes towards intermarriage and conversion – the two processes by which group boundaries might be penetrated. These diverse views of the permeability of the Jewish–Gentile boundary through intermarriage or conversion, deriving in turn from diverse conceptions of Gentile impurity and Jewish identity, contributed to the rise of sectarianism in Second Temple Judaism, and to the separation of the early church from what would later become rabbinic Judaism.
Impurity, Intermarriage, and Conversion in Second Temple Sources
Authors: Hayes Christine E.
Published: October 2003

While most Second Temple sources follow the Pentateuch in permitting marriage with Gentiles who renounce idolatry and immorality, others – such as Jubilees and 4QMMT– do not. In these two works, Ezra's universal ban on intermarriage based on a holy‐seed ideology develops into a full‐blown principle of Israelite genealogical purity, which must be preserved not merely from profanation but also from defilement that arises from sexual unions with Gentiles. According to Jubilees and 4QMMT, profane seed cannot become holy seed and thus Gentiles can never overcome their profane status and acquire Jewish identity. Since conversion is impossible, marriage is impossible and any sexual connection between a Jew and a Gentile – regardless of the moral state of the latter – is by definition a sinful (and defiling) act of fornication, explicitly prohibited by Mosaic law. These texts valorize various biblical heroes – such as Abraham and Pinhas – as champions of zealous separatism.
Gentiles and Ritual Impurity in Rabbinic Sources
Authors: Hayes Christine E.
Published: October 2003

Rabbinic sources, tannaitic and amoraic, maintain that Gentiles are not subject to the laws of ritual impurity and do not convey ritual impurity to Jews according to Torah law. Passages adduced by scholars as evidence of a rabbinic principle of Gentile ritual impurity (especially m. Pesahim 8:8) have been badly misinterpreted. The rabbis do assert, however, on their own authority that Gentiles should be deemed to convey ritual impurity like a gonnorheic (zav). This declaration of a limited ritual impurity for Gentiles is a legal novum of the tannaitic period, explicitly going beyond the prescriptions of the biblical text. The motivation for this decree is considered and the notion that the ritual impurity of Gentiles is grounded in the impurity of idols (as argued by Gedaliah Alon) is discounted.
Gentiles and Genealogical Impurity: Converts and Their Offspring in Rabbinic Texts
Authors: Hayes Christine E.
Published: October 2003

The rabbis break with Ezra, Jubilees, and sectarian sources that democratize the priestly requirement of genealogical purity. According to the rabbis, genealogical purity is not an end in itself for ordinary Jews, but an optional matter relevant only in determining fitness for marriage into the priesthood and appointment to certain positions of leadership. Over the course of centuries, the rabbis took steps to eliminate the disadvantages of genealogical blemish and narrow the gap between native‐born and nonnative Jews. Two halakhic developments brought greater parity between native‐born Jews and converts: the gradual prohibition of unions between converts and persons prohibited to native‐born Jews (e.g., the mamzer) and the campaign to permit intermarriage between converts (or their descendants) and priests.
The Quest for Reality
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Explores the metaphysical question of the relation between reality and human perceptions, thoughts and beliefs with reference to colours. Posits an absolute independent reality of which knowledge is sought through the testing of beliefs about it, and analyses physicalism and scientific explanation in an attempt to argue that, though colour's reality may be rejected, colour cannot be properly referred to or explained through exclusive reference to scientific facts and physicalism or through the language of science since colour is understood as belonging to the realm of psychological facts. Utilises the concepts of perception, thoughts and beliefs in investigating psychological facts, and rejects the possibility of both a direct and an indirect connection between objects of perception and thoughts on the colour of these objects. Presents the argument that the metaphysical question cannot be fully answered in a subjectivist or objectivist manner or through metaphysical error theory, as abstraction from all beliefs about colour is neither possible nor desirable, and outlines the failure of the project of unmasking perceptions of colour. Concludes that disengagement from the world is needed for an answer to the metaphysical question of whether colours are objectively real, but the answer is unattainable.
Introduction
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Outlines the philosophical quest for reality, and how humans are related to the real world through perceptions, thoughts and beliefs. A discussion of what constitutes a metaphysical question is followed by a brief outline of certain philosophers’ ideas on reality through history, focusing on causality, subjectivity and objectivity, physicalism (or materialism) and giving a critique of correspondence theory. Introduces the subject of whether certain ideas, such as colours and morality, are real both as human perceptions and in a correspondent reality.
The Philosophical Conception of an Independent Reality
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Analyses the possibility of objective knowledge of an independent reality, characterised by its independence from knowledge and belief, through a process of testing the correspondence of beliefs to reality. Refers to Bernard Williams's idea of the ‘absolute conception of reality’ which highlights the relations between conceptions connected to knowledge and the possibility of an absolute, objective conception of reality through the elimination of partiality and relativity by a process of correction. Aims to test the idea that colours do not belong to independent reality.
Perceptions of Colour and the Colours of Things
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Examines and argues against the possibility of an indirect connection between objects of perception and thoughts on the colour of these objects, either through sensations or through perceptions of properties which do not equate with the properties of physical objects. Analyses the perception of colour and counters the subjectivist, positionalist point of view.
Perception, Judgement, and Error
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Argues against the existence of a direct connection between objects of perception and objects of thought as a way of understanding the fact that colours do not belong to an independent world outside the mind. With direct connection, predicational seeing is possible, linked to propositional thought and judgement and to human beliefs about the object in question, even though physical objects may be found to have no colours perceived or believed to exist by humans. Argues that there cannot be the jettisoning of all beliefs about colour in order to reject truths about it, and shows that the metaphysical error theory is unsustainable by itself.
Engagement, Invulnerability, and Dissatisfaction
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: October 2003

Argues that the goals of the investigation into the relation between colours and independent reality lead to dissatisfaction. This arises because the metaphysical question cannot be fully answered. Objectivity and subjectivity are both seen as approaches which are not fully applicable to the question of the relation between colours and independent objective reality.
Introduction
Authors: Luoma Tapio
Published: October 2003

Recent historical research on the relationship between theology and the natural sciences shows that, contrary to what is generally supposed, there is no essential conflict between the two disciplines. Rigorous after the era of the Enlightenment, materialistic interpretations of the issue have given way to viewpoints revealed by theories of relativity and quantum physics, thus opening new possibilities for interdisciplinary discussion and theological reflection. The Scottish Professor Thomas F. Torrance is perhaps the most widely known theologian in the Reformed tradition who has met the challenge posed to theology by the modern natural sciences. His originality lies in his insistence of the centrality of the doctrine of the Incarnation for the relationship between the two disciplines.
The Impact of Theology on the Natural Sciences
Authors: Luoma Tapio
Published: October 2003

Torrance's claim that it is Christian theology that has provided the basis for the emergence of the modern natural sciences is another example of the idea of contribution, entertained for various reasons in Christian traditions. Torrance holds that the Incarnation and especially the notion of the homoousion, as used by the Church Father Athanasius, negates any possibility of gaining trustworthy knowledge of God outside the incarnate Logos. Accordingly, he affirms the positive significance of the notion for epistemology both in theology and in the natural sciences. Not only these claims of the relevance of the homoousion for a correct epistemology but also those for a correct ontology of the creation would need more evidence to be convincing. Torrance's way of linking together the patristic understanding of space and time and Albert Einstein's relativity theory faces similar problems.
Conclusion
Authors: Luoma Tapio
Published: October 2003

Torrance's view of the relationship between theology and the natural sciences is based on the doctrine of the Incarnation, involving the patristic term homoousion, and the three ideas detectable in his work, namely those of contribution, compulsion, and reminder. In all of the three, ideas coincide with other concepts such as realism, relativity theory, quantum physics, Christology, contingency, openness, and rationality. The power of Torrance's arguments lie in three points: first, he is able to get the Christian Church involved in the theology–science dialog; second, he adheres to a realist position; and, third, because both theology and the natural sciences share in the same Logos‐based rationality, revealed in the incarnate Christ, both the disciplines are homoousioi, of same being.
Distributive Justice, Participative Justice, and the Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality
Authors: Shrader‐Frechette Kristin
Published: October 2003

Using case studies focusing on offshore oil development, especially in siting decisions, the chapter analyzes and defends the concept of prima facie political equality. It shows how threats to equality and informed consent underlie violations of environmental justice. After analyzing historical, ethical, and economic explanations for how particular groups of people have been victimized in environmental decision making, the book shows the strengths and weaknesses of federalism versus localism, in decision making. It argues that federalism ought not be used to justify imposition of inequitable risks on poor people and minorities.
Appalachians, Access to Land, and Procedural Justice
Authors: Shrader‐Frechette Kristin
Published: October 2003

Using case studies focusing on Appalachian coal and California farmland, the chapter argues that ordinary people typically have unequal access to natural resources like land. A major reason for this unequal access is the power of agribusiness and the corporate control of coal and other resources. It also shows that Appalachia is, in many ways, a region victimized by colonialism, even though it is within the U.S. Analyzing the concepts of end‐state justice and procedural justice, it shows that the arguments of Nozick, often used to justify environmental injustice in cases like Appalachia, are flawed. It also argues that a correct understanding of property rights, as explained in John Locke and John Rawls, can support this chapter's appeal for equal access to natural resources.
Of Borders and Margins
Authors: Machado Daisy L.
Published: October 2003

The westward movement of people connected to the nineteenth‐century expansionism of the developing U.S. helped promote the growth and expansion of many of the mainline Protestant denominations that traveled to the southwest borderlands of this country. Following the expanding western frontier, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) entered what is today the state of Texas and came face to face with the Tejanos. Bringing Protestantism as a new element in the southwest borderlands of Texas, the Disciples of Christ also carried with them the Euro‐American ideologies and self‐definitions that would function at two levels. First, these would shape their relationship as English‐speaking Protestants with the Spanish‐speaking Roman Catholic Tejanos, and secondly, an ethos was created that would influence the Disciples’ ministry to the Mexican population. This shaping and influence were notable in the often racist and paternalistic missionary ideology of the Disciples throughout the late nineteenth century, into the twentieth century, and even to the present day. This is one slice of the religious history of the nineteenth‐century borderlands where the frontier ethos – with its manifest destiny ideology about a chosen race, a virgin land, divine providence, and democracy – prevented Protestantism from developing and maintaining helpful and empowering relationships with the Tejano‐Mexican community it encountered.
The Making of a Nation
Authors: Machado Daisy L.
Published: October 2003

One important piece in understanding the history of the western expansion of the U.S. is the significance of the Texas borderlands. It was in the nineteenth‐century southwestern frontier that the Euro‐Americans of the Stephen Austin colony first encountered the borderlands people who were in many ways new and foreign to them. The Tejano‐Mexican was non‐Caucasian and racially mixed, spoke a different language, was Roman Catholic, and had a cultural worldview shaped by the mestizo culture of Nueva España. In understanding how the Euro‐Americans reacted to, how they related to, and why they ultimately conquered the Texas borderlands and its people, one can also begin to understand how the U.S. imagined and interpreted itself as a nation.
The Disciples in Texas
Authors: Machado Daisy L.
Published: October 2003

Colonizers from the U.S. began to enter the Texas borderlands in the 1820s when Spain and then the newly formed Mexican republic gave land grants to men like Moses Austin and his son Stephen Austin, who worked as an empresario. The arrival of these U.S. colonizers also meant the arrival of Protestantism since Austin's colony claimed members, lay and clergy, from various denominational groups. Despite efforts by the Mexican government to keep Roman Catholicism as the only legally recognized religion in the Texas borderlands, Protestant missionary work could not be stopped. However, it quickly became clear that the Protestant colonizers had no idea of what the Texas borderlands were about. The borderlands people, culture, language, and faith were seen as “other.” Devalued and ultimately excluded, the Texas borderlands people became foreigners in their own land.
A View from the Twenty‐First Century
Authors: Machado Daisy L.
Published: October 2003

The very scant and meager records that tell about Disciples work among the Mexican‐Texans point to San Antonio as the site for the first mission, which met for the first time in 1899. However, when reviewing the history of these early Disciples Mexican‐Texan missions, a very significant practice stands out. In all the new missions, the Disciples ministers assigned to be pastors were from Mexico. This dependence upon Mexico to provide the leadership for Disciples churches in Texas proved to be highly detrimental with long‐lasting negative results. An examination of the missionary writings from this period reveals a sense that the Mexican Disciples in Texas were not like the Euro‐American Disciples, not really American and not really Protestant.
Moses in America
Authors: Wright Melanie Jane
Published: October 2003

This book is about the representation of Moses and the Exodus narrative in three North American texts: Moses in Red by Lincoln Steffens; Moses, Man of the Mountain (1926), by Zora Neale Hurston (1939), and Cecil B. DeMille's film, The Ten Commandments (1956). It does not seek to judge the merits of these works, but rather to ask why and how they recast the biblical narrative as they did, and how their images of Moses were received. The study holds in tension the roles of producers and consumers, valuing both as interpreters and creators of the Moses story.

Drawing on insights from cultural studies the books and the film are located in the “religious” contexts of their day (e.g., in relation to changing attitudes to biblical interpretation and authority, and to popular movements within American religion) and in broader political frameworks (e.g., in relation to conflicts like the Cold War, or vis‐a‐vis ethnic or gender issues). In examining Steffens's, Hurston's and DeMille's Moses images, this book lays bare the dynamics involved in the afterlife of a figure who remains central to the identity of American civilization. It also argues that the scope of biblical studies should develop to embrace more fully, the critical study of popular culture and the ways in which “ordinary people” think about the Bible.
Introduction
Authors: Wright Melanie J.
Published: October 2003

This chapter outlines the theory and methodology that underpins the rest of the study. It touches on the history of literary and artistic representations of Moses. It then describes cultural studies, approaches to religion, and the discipline of reception studies, both of which inform the study. Finally, it discusses the contemporary expansion of the concerns of biblical studies, and sketches key features of American religious life as they relate to the study – more particularly, the use of Exodus typology in American public life.
Back to the Future
Authors: Wright Melanie J.
Published: October 2003

This chapter discusses muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens's 1926 book Moses in Red in relation to developments in historical criticism, and social gospel Christianity. It also looks at Steffens's identification of Moses with Lenin, and the Promised Land with Soviet Russia. It discusses the difficulties surrounding the publication and promotion of the book, particularly in relation to similar, yet popular competitors such as Bruce Barton's The Man Nobody Knows, and argues that Moses in Red (from its author's standpoint) unexpectedly failed because it breached the cultural agreement about the meanings of the Exodus story in 1920s America.
Coming in from the Cold (War)
Authors: Wright Melanie J.
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 biblical epic film The Ten Commandments. The analysis of the film and its reception draws on insights from cinema studies, particular in relation to the history and status of the motion picture industry in mid‐twentieth‐century America. The Hollywood epic has typically been characterized as superficial and banal by biblical scholars and film critics alike, but this study argues for the rehabilitation of DeMille's Moses as a complex example of innovative biblical interpretation, shaped by DeMille's desire to champion American values in the context of Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union.
Conclusions
Authors: Wright Melanie J.
Published: October 2003

Previous chapters in this book have considered in depth how Lincoln Steffens, Zora Neale Hurston, and Cecil B. DeMille represented Moses and the exodus in twentieth century America. These studies were capable of being read as discrete units and contain their own interim conclusions. This final chapter outlines conclusions that arise from the book in toto. It touches on the currency and contestedness of the biblical text in modern America; it also argues for an expansion of the concerns of biblical studies, to include popular cultural forms and nonelite readings. This move at once enhances and relativises the position of the professional biblical interpreter.
The Press as Shaper of Events
Authors: Jamieson Kathleen Hall , Waldman Paul
Published: October 2003

In the dispute over Florida's vote in the 2000 election, Al Gore and George W. Bush fought a fierce battle to determine the press frames that would govern the debate. Bush was far more successful, pushing frames including “chaos” and “military ballots” to the forefront. Subsequent analyses reveal that had press coverage been different, Gore could have won Florida and the presidency.
The Press as Patriot
Authors: Jamieson Kathleen Hall , Waldman Paul
Published: October 2003

In times of crisis, the press acts in a patriotic role, fostering national unity and defending American institutions. After George W. Bush was inaugurated, the press ignored evidence that Al Gore had as much of a claim to be the victor in Florida as Bush, shaping stories about postelection analyses of the Florida vote to make only a Bush victory seem legitimate. On September 11, journalists filled in rhetorical gaps in Bush's performance, then changed the criteria by which the president was judged.
Minding the Matter of Necessity: A Paradox Regarding Causation
Authors: Russell Paul
Published: October 2003

Hume's views on the subject of free will rest on his specific interpretation of the nature of causation and necessity. In this chapter, I provide an interpretation of Hume's “two definitions” of causation. I argue that the two definitions of causation must be interpreted in terms of Hume's fundamental ontological distinction between perceptions and (material) objects. Central to Hume's position on this subject is the claim that, while there is a natural tendency to suppose that there exist (metaphysical) causal powers in objects themselves, this is a product of our failure to distinguish perceptions and objects. Properly understood, our idea of causation involves no suggestion that there is anything more to causation among objects themselves than constant conjunction.
The Naturalism of Hume's “Reconciling Project”
Authors: Russell Paul
Published: October 2003

In this chapter, I provide a “naturalistic” interpretation of Hume's “reconciling project.” According to Hume, to hold a person responsible is to view them as the object of a moral sentiment, which is a calm form of love or hate (which are indirect passions). One of the major objectives of his “science of man” was to discover under what circumstances people are felt to be responsible and to describe the “regular mechanism” that produces these passions. Hume's specific arguments showing why “liberty of indifference” would make morality impossible, and why “necessity” is essential to it, must be interpreted, within the framework of his account of the mechanism that generates the moral sentiments. Clearly, then, Hume's arguments on this subject are very different in nature from those associated with the central tenets of classical compatibilism.
Hume's Naturalism and Strawson's Reconciling Project
Authors: Russell Paul
Published: October 2003

The best way to reveal the contemporary relevance and interest of the naturalistic interpretation of Hume's “reconciling project” is to show the striking affinities between it and P. F. Strawson's influential views on this subject. Whereas the classical interpretation presents Hume as an obvious and notable target of Strawson's criticisms, the naturalistic interpretation presents Hume as anticipating the general strategy that Strawson advances in his influential paper “Freedom and Resentment.” There are, however, several significant points of contrast, as well as resemblance, between Hume and Strawson, and this includes Hume's more detailed concern with the relevance of necessity for the actual operation of the moral sentiments.
The Involuntary Nature of Moral Character
Authors: Russell Paul
Published: October 2003

Hume claims that we are responsible for those qualities of mind or character that affect others and ourselves in pleasurable or painful ways. Insofar as our action and deportment express our character, to that extent we are accountable for it. This brings us to the question of the extent to which our traits of character are shaped and conditioned by our own choices and willings. Hume maintains that our ability to shape or control our moral character is very limited, and that in this respect we are all inescapably subjected to “moral luck.” My discussion of these issues also covers Hume's controversial view that we are morally accountable for our natural abilities.
Liberty, Equality, and Abortion
Authors: Shrage Laurie
Published: October 2003

The standard civil liberty defenses of a woman's right to abort involve principles that justify a right somewhat narrower than the right defined by Roe v. Wade. In particular, freedom from social coercion, involuntary servitude, or nonconsensual bodily use do not require six months of unrestricted access to abortion, when women have access to a full range of effective contraceptives, including backup early abortion. Because public opinion on abortion varies in accordance with the gestational stage at which abortions are performed, decreasing the time span for unrestricted abortion, while simultaneously removing restrictions that block women's access to effective birth control and therapeutically necessary abortions, would help to make abortion more widely acceptable. Winning broad public support for legal abortion will not be accomplished by clarifying its constitutional justifications – e.g., the right to privacy, to deny help, or to self‐defense – but rather by promoting women's greater access to reproductive healthcare while simultaneously adopting a moderate regulatory scheme restricting abortions that most offend public sensibilities – especially second‐trimester nontherapeutic abortions.
A Law Book for the Diaspora
Authors: Van Seters John
Published: October 2003

The foundation for all scholarly study in biblical law is the shared assumption that the Covenant Code, as contained in Exodus 20:23–23:33, is the oldest code of laws in the Hebrew Bible and that all other laws are later revisions of that code. This book strikes at that foundation by arguing that those laws in the Covenant Code that are similar to Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code are in fact later than both of these, dependent upon them as sources, and therefore do not constitute the oldest code and cannot be taken as the foundation of Hebrew law. The first chapter reviews the history of research on the Covenant Code that led to the conviction that it was the oldest code and why that view is called into question. In successive chapters, Van Seters defends his radical hypothesis with a systematic comparison of the Covenant Code with the other legal codes and the broader ethical traditions of the Hebrew Bible. The book first examines the legal framework of the Covenant Code, its opening laws and closing epilogue, and the code's place within the narrative of the Sinai pericope. The author next considers the corpus of the code's civil laws in comparison with both the Babylonian law codes and the parallel laws in the other biblical codes. Finally, the laws consisting mostly of humanitarian demands, general religious obligations, and the regulations for Sabbath and festivals are those containing the most parallels with the other biblical codes. From this detailed comparison of laws, Van Seters concludes that the Covenant Code must be placed in the time of the Jews’ Babylonian exile as a code for the diaspora with minimal cultic requirements, strong humanitarian concerns that include social contact with non‐Jews, and laws for a semiautonomous community within the larger imperial rule. The Covenant Code was never an independent legal corpus but was an integral part of the literary work known as the Yahwist. The effect of this reading is to challenge not only the traditional dating of law codes in the Hebrew Bible but also the conventional understanding of the history of ancient Israel.
The History of Research on the Covenant Code
Authors: Van Seters John
Published: October 2003

In a review of past research on the Covenant Code, this chapter addresses the relationship of the code to the E source of the Documentary Hypothesis and the use of form criticism of law and tradition history as arguments for the primitive character of this law code. It examines the more recent studies of redaction criticism that treat the Covenant Code as an originally independent entity with a long development. And it considers the various evolutionist/typological and historical/diffusionist methods of comparison between this biblical code and similar Near Eastern codes as arguments for the Covenant Code's early date. This review concludes that all these approaches have failed to establish the priority of the Covenant Code in the development of Hebrew law.
The Civil Laws, or Mishpatim
Authors: Van Seters John
Published: October 2003

This chapter deals with civil laws of the casuistic type most common in Near Eastern codes and one of these, having to do with the Hebrew slave (Exod 21:2–11), occurs also in both Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code and is therefore key to the relative dating of these laws. Some of the casuistic laws are closely paralleled in the Hammurabi Code, such as injury to a pregnant woman or the law of the goring ox, but others are supplemented by material from Deuteronomy or extensions of a Deuteronomic law, as in the law regarding the violation of the unmarried virgin. Still other laws of the apodictic type (participial prohibitions) are more Hebraic in form and must be viewed within the context of similar laws in the Holiness Code and Ezekiel. The use of lex talionis within the Covenant Code shows evidence of borrowing from both the Hebrew and Babylonian laws, thus suggesting that throughout the civil laws, there is a constant interweaving of the Babylonian and Hebrew legal traditions.
Ethical Demands and Religious Obligations
Authors: Van Seters John
Published: October 2003

Within the second half of the code are social and humanitarian commandments concerned with the poor, the widow and orphan, and the stranger who are not to be exploited, but must be supported by social welfare. These concerns are expressed in regulations regarding the practice of usury, fair treatment in a court of law, fair labor practices, and animal welfare. There are various apodictic prohibitions and injunctions on religious matters, including one that has been linked to the practice of child sacrifice, to which special attention is given. The last group of religious injunctions deals with the Sabbath and festival laws. Many of the laws within this half of the Covenant Code have their counterparts within the other biblical codes, as well as the larger biblical tradition, which call for careful comparative analysis.
Finite and Infinite Goods
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

The book proposes a framework for ethics that is organized around a transcendent Good and its relation to the many finite goods of our experience. Two main themes are the central role of the Good in ethics and the transcendence of the infinite Good, which is identified with God. Part One (Chs. 1–4) is devoted to the nature of the Good, arguing that a theory that assigns to God a role as definitive archetype of Good, analogous to the role of the Form of the Good in Plato, is the most satisfactory metaphysics of morals and compatible with the most plausible semantics of morals. Among types of good, it assigns the primacy to intrinsic excellence, and argues that human well‐being and the value of persons as persons are best understood in terms of excellence. The conception of excellence advocated here is closely connected with the idea of love. Part Two (chapters 5–9) focuses on the question of how it is good to love the Good, addressing relationships between God's love and ours, and between love for the Good as such and love for particular goods. Part Three (chapters 10–14) takes up the place of obligation and the related concepts of right and wrong in an ethical framework in which the Good rather than the right is the primary ethical concept. It argues for a social conception of the nature of obligation in which morally valid requirements are authorized by divine commands. It also addresses questions about the political implications of an excellence‐centered framework for ethics. Part Four (chapters 15–16) proposes a doxastic practice epistemology for ethics, and deals with questions about the place of revelation and faith, in ethics.
Well‐Being and Excellence
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

Intrinsic excellence holds a primary place among types of value in the theory developed here. Today, many moralists are reluctant to grant such a place to excellence. Well‐being (what is good for a person) is a much more popular type of value. In vindication of the centrality of excellence, this chapter argues that well‐being is actually best understood in terms of excellence, as a life characterized by enjoyment of the excellent; whereas currently the most influential type of theory of well‐being, in terms of desire‐satisfaction, cannot adequately account for the ways in which people often desire what is not good for them.
The Sacred and the Bad
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

Badness is not understood here, in parallel with goodness, as resemblance to a transcendent Bad. Rather it is understood in relation to the Good, as privation of goodness, more gravely as opposition to goodness, or in the most horrifying cases as violation of something sacred. This chapter takes a widely shared sense of moral horror at certain actions as a clue in developing the relevant concepts of violation (here preferred to that of defilement) and the sacred. The treatment of the sacred in terms of images of God provides a context for an account of the special value of persons as persons.
Eros
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that Eros is an intrinsically excellent as well as beneficial form of love that deserves a place in our conception of God's love and in our ideal of human love. As Eros is conceived here, its central feature is relational desire: the lover desires or prizes, for its own sake, some relationship with the beloved, where the beloved is typically a person but may be an impersonal object such as mathematics or philosophy. It is argued that Eros is not always selfish or even self‐interested, though it is essentially an agent‐centered motive.
Idolatry
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

Not all devotion to good things is good. Under the heading of idolatry, this chapter offers a partial anatomy of good motives gone bad. This subject is discussed (1) in relation to priorities and excessively consuming passions, (2) in relation to inappropriate “needs” and the sense that life would not be worth living without particular finite goods, and (3) in relation to misidentification of finite goods with the supreme Good.
Obligation
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that obligation (unlike goodness or value) is essentially social, being a matter of what is required of persons by persons in a context of social relationship. The social nature of obligation is discussed in relation to social and psychological sanctions, to guilt, and to the reasons, which valuing one's social bonds gives one to take social requirements seriously. The chapter also argues, however, that human societies are not good enough for their requirements to define morally binding obligations.
Divine Commands
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

This chapter defends a divine command theory of obligation, proposing God as the one whose requirements are good enough to define morally binding obligations. It discusses (1) the history of divine command metaethics, (2) the reasons for treating divine commands as morally binding, (3) the advantages of conceiving of obligation in terms of divine “commands” rather than divine will, (4) the nature and epistemology of divine commands, and (5) the compatibility of divine commands with human autonomy.
Abraham's Dilemma
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

This chapter addresses the greatest fear about divine commands – that God may command something evil – focusing on a modernized version of Genesis 22 (influenced by Kierkegaard), in which Abraham finds it difficult to reject any of the following jointly incompatible beliefs: (1) whatever God commands is not morally wrong to do, (2) God commands me to kill my son as a sacrifice, (3) such human sacrifice is morally wrong. It argues that divine command theorists should not reject (1) but that in any cultural and religious context in which the dilemma can be taken seriously, (2) is the belief to reject.
Politics and the Good
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues, contrary to some leading versions of political liberalism, that considerations of excellence have a legitimate place in political ethics, and even in the most plausible grounding of the civil rights that most concern liberals. It defends the pursuit of excellence from charges that it must offend against a reasonable egalitarianism. It argues also for a type of separation of church and state, and for contextually sensitive state action to promote and protect widely recognized goods involving excellence.
Moral Faith
Authors: Adams Robert Merrihew
Published: October 2003

Theistic metaethics has been suspected of imposing on morality a need for faith. This chapter argues that morality has such a need in any case, with or without theism. It argues this with regard both to faith in morality itself and to faith in moral ends (for instance, faith that human life and the moral life are worth living). It explores cognitive, volitional, and emotional aspects of moral faith.
Freedom and Indeterminism
Authors: O'Connor Timothy
Published: October 2003

The author considers versions of two types of indeterminist accounts of free will: simple indeterminism, on which an agent's control over his own action is entirely noncausal, and causal indeterminism, on which control is exercised through the indeterministic causation of one's action by one's reasons. He argues that neither approach gives a plausible account of the kind of freedom that is required for moral responsibility. The work of Ginet, Nozick, McCall, and Kane are discussed.
The Agent as Cause
Authors: O'Connor Timothy
Published: October 2003

The concept of agent causation is introduced and queried through an examination of the account given by the eighteenth‐century Scottish philosopher, Thomas Reid, and the more recent accounts of Richard Taylor and Roderick Chisholm. With Reid, the author emphasizes that an exertion of active power is not prior to or logically independent of the intention that is the agent's immediate effect. Against Taylor, he argues that an exertion of active power cannot itself be causally produced. Finally, contra Chisholm, once we recognize that an agent's exertion of active power is intrinsically a direct exercise of control, there is no need to further explain how the agent controls this event itself.