bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kant's Mechanical Determination of Matter in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science
Authors: Carrier Martin
Published: February 2006

This paper deals with the interpretation of the Mechanics chapter of Kant’s Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786). It is aimed at clarifying the procedure Kant invokes for the transcendental determination of the quantity of matter in mechanical respect. Kant’s intention is to ground mass measurement on the moving force that matter possesses by virtue of its motion, and that moving bodies display by setting other bodies in motion. An important issue in this context concerns the role of gravitation as compared to mechanical processes in the narrow sense of “pressure and impact”.
Kant on the Scientific Status of Psychology, Anthropology, and History
Authors: Makkreel Rudolf A.
Published: February 2006

Kant’s efforts to replace psychology as a theoretical natural science with anthropology as a pragmatic science are examined on the basis of his anthropology lectures. For Kant, psychology posits the soul as a distinct substance, but his pragmatic anthropology makes no such metaphysical assumption. It can succeed by limiting itself to providing historical rather than rational cognition, being descriptive rather than explanative, and having a worldly rather than an academic perspective. Kant’s reflections on culture in the Critique of Judgment are claimed to account for certain final changes in the anthropology that was published in 1798.
All Is Not Vanity
Authors: Abbey Ruth
Published: February 2006

Friedrich Nietzsche believes that self-love is a necessary ingredient for healthy individualism. This chapter explores the connections between his conceptions of egoism, self-love, and vanity in the middle period works. It is argued that the roots of Nietzsche’s later concept of ressentiment appear in these works, for several of the features associated with vanity, such as heteronomy and the absence of self-love, come to be characteristic of ressentiment. The chapter then moves into a discussion of what room there might be for a conception of justice, in an analysis that imputes so much power to egoism.
The Soul‐Friendship of Two People of Differing Sex
Authors: Abbey Ruth
Published: February 2006

At times in the works of the middle period, Friedrich Nietzsche accepts that higher friendship is possible between men and women, and holds love and marriage in high esteem. Sometimes, he even models marriage on friendship. While he does say some damning things about love and marriage, this chapter tries to balance his critical comments against his more positive ones to allow for a clearer, albeit more complex, appreciation of his stance to be achieved. This analysis also requires some reconsideration of the commonplace view that Nietzschean free spirits abjure marriage and family life.
The Invention of Invention
Authors: Abbey Ruth
Published: February 2006

The image of Friedrich Nietzsche as a radical critic of the western philosophical tradition pervades the literature dedicated to his thought. He is often depicted as a sui generis thinker, whose thoughts evolve out of his peculiar genius. Yet this image is accepted partly because of the picture he draws of himself, for in his later works, Nietzsche repeatedly invents himself as inventor rather than legatee. Only with a knowledge of middle period writings is it possible to see how Nietzsche has constructed this image of himself. The works of the middle period disclose a thinker who presents himself as constructively engaged with the western intellectual tradition, as continuing some of its ideas, expanding some of its possibilities, and repudiating other of its claims. This chapter discusses Nietzsche’s distinctive writing style in the middle period works. It then uses some of his reflections on interpretation to question the view that Nietzsche advocates an ad hominem analysis of the work of others.
Visible Identities
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

In the heated debates over identity politics, few theorists have looked carefully at the conceptualizations of identity assumed by all sides. Drawing on both philosophical sources as well as theories and empirical studies in the social sciences, this book makes a strong case that identities are not like special interests, nor are they doomed to oppositional politics, nor do they inevitably lead to conformism, essentialism, or reductive approaches to judging others. Identities are historical formations and their political implications are open to interpretation. But identities such as race and gender also have a powerful visual and material aspect that eliminativists and social constructionists often underestimate. This book analyses the political and philosophical worries about identity and argues that these worries are neither supported by the empirical data nor grounded in realistic understandings of what identities are. The book develops a more realistic characterization of identity in general through combining phenomenological approaches to embodiment with hermeneutic concepts of the interpretive horizon. Besides addressing the general contours of social identity, the book develops an account of the material infrastructure of gendered identity, compares and contrasts gender identities with racialized ones, and explores the experiential aspects of racial subjectivity for both whites and non-whites. In several chapters the book looks specifically at Latino identity as well, including its relationship to concepts of race, the specific forms of anti-Latino racism, and the politics of mestizo or hybrid identity.
The Philosophical Critique
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

This chapter discusses the philosophical critique of identity. In order to understand the current aversion to cultural identity, one needs to retrace the development of the philosophical treatment of the self in modern, Western philosophy. Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self (1989) is the best recent attempt to do this, and the chapter begins with an overview of some of the main ideas in his philosophical history that relate to the question of identity. Based on readings of Hegel, Sartre, and other key figures, a genealogy of the philosophical critique of identity is developed, which shows that its more fundamental basis is not actually in the Western concept of rationality but in the modern Western treatments of the Other developed in the context of the European colonialism. Finally, it is shown how this legacy lives on today in some aspects of postmodern philosophy.
The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

Cultural feminists define women by their activities and attributes in the present culture. In contrast, poststructural feminists attack the category and the concept of woman by problematizing subjectivity. Each response has serious limitations, and it has become obvious that transcending these limitations while retaining the theoretical framework from which they emerge is impossible. This chapter discusses the inadequacies of these responses. It then argues that these inadequacies are inherent and develops an alternative response.
Racism and Visible Race
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines the relationship between racism and the visibility of racialized identity. It has been argued in earlier chapters that social identities are hermeneutic locations attached to historical experiences that are also concrete sites of interpretation and understanding. On this account, racial identity is not a product of “race”, but is historically evolving and culturally contextual, and thus it remains unclear that racist hierarchies are necessarily entailed. The historical legacy of racial identities will always carry as a central feature the history of racism, and in this way there is an association of race with racism, but future meanings of racial identity itself are open-ended.
The Whiteness Question
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

This chapter provides evidence of the increasing visibility of whiteness to white people themselves. It explores a variety of responses by white people as they struggle to understand the full political and historical meaning of white identity today. Topics discussed include white women and identity, white antiracism, new traditions in Mississippi, and white doubleconsciousness.
Latinos and the Categories of Race
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

This chapter focuses on the Latino identity. It calls for the understanding Latino identity as an ethnic identity. This option could allow for more internal heterogeneity and resist the racializing that brings racism as well as the mischaracterization of the Latino's sense of self. However, it is also argued that the “ethnic option” is not fully adequate for contemporary social realities, and may inhibit the development of useful political strategies for diverse Latino communities. The main argument in this chapter will take the form of a negative: the ethnic option is not adequate. The very failure of the ethnic option will establish some of the necessary criteria for such an alternative.
Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Black‐White Binary
Authors: Alcoff Linda Martín
Published: February 2006

This chapter argues that even if we try to build coalition around what might seem to be our most obvious common concern — reducing racism — the black-white paradigm that dominates racial discourse in the United States inhibits our comprehension of the variety of racisms and racial identities and thus proves more of an obstacle to coalition building than an aid. It uses the situation of Latinos and Asian Americans to explore the black-white binary, what it is, how it operates, and how it is limiting. It then discusses the black-white paradigm.
A Conception of Autonomy
Authors: Friedman Marilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter presents the author's basic account of autonomy, considering its social context and dimensions. It then explores the difference between a substantive and a content-neutral conception of autonomy, opting for the latter. This is followed by some thoughts about the prospects for autonomy under dangerous or oppressive conditions. The chapter concludes with some remarks about possible counterexamples to the conception of autonomy presented.
Autonomy and Social Relationships: Rethinking the Feminist Critique
Authors: Friedman Marilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter surveys prominent feminist writings that call for a relational conception of autonomy and that criticize the philosophical mainstream for lacking such an account. It shows that prominent mainstream accounts of autonomy do acknowledge the importance of social relationships, thus tending to converge on this point with the prevalent feminist view. Feminists' objections to mainstream conceptions of autonomy are considered, focusing on the charge that mainstream accounts do not take account of social relationships.
John Rawls and the Political Coercion of Unreasonable People
Authors: Friedman Marilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter focuses on John Rawls's recent approach to liberal political legitimacy. His views on reasonableness and rationality are considered. It is argued that Rawls's legitimation pool for political liberalism is defined precisely in such a way as to exclude those whose prior (illiberal) commitments would lead them to reject political liberalism. The challenge for Rawls is to find good but politically independent reasons for eliminating so-called unreasonable people from the legitimation pool.
Legislating Morality
Authors: Peach Lucinda
Published: February 2006

This book examines the place of religion in political life. It considers the problems that may arise between religious beliefs and lawmaking. It discusses the liberal and communitarian proposals for addressing the dilemma of religious lawmaking, focusing on theories of Kent Greenawalt and George Herbert Mead. It then proposes an alternative legal strategy for religious lawmaking that is based on an expanded test for Establishment Clause violations. The strategy invalidates religiously influenced laws in a limited range of circumstances when Establishment Concerns are present, and when infringements on Citizenship Rights cannot be fully justified by a secular rationale and/or by a compelling state interest.
The Dilemma of Religious Lawmaking
Authors: Peach Lucinda
Published: February 2006

This chapter begins with a discussion of the meaning of the term religious lawmaking. It then describes the factors that make religious lawmaking constitutionally problematic in a morally and religiously pluralistic society. It argues that religious lawmaking in the U.S. is contentious for several reasons, including the publicly inaccessible character of religion; the consequent tendency of religiously based laws to alienate, exclude, coerce, or be politically divisive of nonbelievers; the gender bias of prominent religious traditions in the U.S.; and the magnification of that bias when incorporated into the binding laws of a morally and religiously pluralistic society. These problems are evident in the religious influences on abortion laws.
The Constitutional Dimensions of Religious Lawmaking
Authors: Peach Lucinda
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines the problems that religious lawmaking pose for constitutional rights and interests. It presents a brief overview of religious lawmaking in the specific context of abortion regulation. It shows how religious lawmaking interferes with constitutional rights, and analyzes the Supreme Court’s failure to resolve constitutional problems raised by religious lawmaking.
Liberal Approaches to Religious Lawmaking
Authors: Peach Lucinda
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines liberal proposals for addressing the dilemma of religious lawmaking, focusing on the work of Kent Greenawalt. It shows that liberal approaches to religious lawmaking reflect problematic assumptions about the nature of religion as voluntarist, of religious convictions as a matter of choice rather than compulsion, of religion as a private rather than public matter, and of the moral self as divisible into private and public aspects. Greenawalt’s approach, which permits a larger role for religion in lawmaking, is an improvement over traditional liberal theories. However, these proposals remain inadequate, particularly in their failure to recognize or protect the Citizenship Rights and interests of pregnant women.
Rationality and Intelligence
Authors: Russell Stuart
Published: February 2006

This chapter considers how to formalize intelligence or rationality in a way that has value for the development of agents built for a specific application and of general theories of intelligence. It presents three candidates that traditionally have stood as formalizations of intelligence: perfect rationality, calculative rationality, and meta-level rationality. Perfect rationality is an abstraction that does not correspond to any physical reasoner. Calculative rationality fails to scale up to problems of sufficient and interesting complexity. Meta-level rationality pushes the problem into a never-ending regress. As an alternative, this chapter considers the notion of bounded optimality as a workable proxy for theorizing about machine intelligence. This notion rests on two crucial elements: that behaviors and decisions happen in real time and that an agent is defined by a particular (software and hardware) architecture and a particular program that runs on that architecture. Under this view, an agent is bounded optimal if it maximizes the utility of its behavior for a task within the demands of the environment. The chapter then elaborates on the role of adaptive, inductive mechanisms as the means for making gains in calculative and meta-level rationality for real-world application systems, and for bounded optimality more generally.
The Logical Foundations of Means‐End Reasoning
Authors: Pollock John L.
Published: February 2006

This chapter focuses on one aspect of practical cognition — plan-construction. Human plan-construction is generally based on means-end reasoning. Means-end reasoning is concerned with finding the means for achieving goals. The basic idea is a simple one: to achieve a goal, we consider an action that would achieve it under some specified circumstances and then try to find a way of putting ourselves in those circumstances in order to achieve the goal by performing the action. Putting ourselves in those circumstances becomes a subgoal. The idea is to work backward from the goal through subgoals until we arrive at subgoals that are already achieved. The resulting sequence of actions constitutes a plan for achieving the goal. A precise logical theory of plan-construction is formulated that completely characterizes means-end reasoning.
The Logic of Ordinary Language
Authors: Harman Gilbert
Published: February 2006

This chapter considers whether there is a naive or folk logic of ordinary language, a set of principles that plays the same role in our understanding and use of language as, say, the principles naive physics play in our understanding of the everyday world. A distinction is made between true logical and nonlogical principles: the truth of the former is a matter of their form, while the truth of the latter is a matter of their content. It is argued that logical principles can inform a reasoner about the acceptability of an argument's structure but not how the argument is to be assembled or even whether the argument's conclusion should warrant a change in belief state. It is also argued that a (loose) logic of ordinary language embodies our commonsense knowledge about language and how we use it to reason and speak fluidly about what is known in the world and what is said about the world.
The Wu-men kuan (J. Mumonkan)
Authors: Shūdō Ishii , Welter Albert
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines the Wu-men kuan, one of the most widely read Zen texts in the canon. This text offers 48 kung-an or koan cases that have been significant in Zen practice since the late Sung. Ishii’s essay seeks to trace the development of this text and its genre to the Tsung-men t’ung-yao chi and other earlier Zen sources. The essay seeks to understand why this text was favored so prominently in Japan, and how its structural features relate to the context of Sung dynasty Chan textual history.
Chanyuan qinggui and Other “Rules of Purity” in Chinese Buddhism
Authors: Foulk T. Griffith
Published: February 2006

This essay examines an entire class of Zen literature, the so called qinggui (J. shingi) or “rules of purity.” It demonstrates that the qinggui is actually several genres, some written to regulate one particular monastic community and others intended more broadly for all Chinese Buddhist communities. This essay traces the historical origins of this broad genre, its steady development, and its relations to early Buddhist vinaya. Its goal is to clarify the relations between these widely used texts, and show how changing social and political contexts are reflected in them.
The Complexity of Moral Psychology
Authors: Arpaly Nomy
Published: February 2006

This chapter explores some complexities of moral life that have not received due attention, but should be of interest to moral psychologists. It presents a collection of cases in which phenomena that occur in real life appear to be different from the paradigmatic cases contemporary moral psychologists try to accommodate. These include the cases of inadvertent virtue and misguided conscience; belief formation “under the influence” or intentionally induced belief; external desires and the closet homosexual; self control and unconscious motivation; deliberation, reflection, and getting through the day; and rationality and unconsciousness.
On Acting Rationally Against One's Best Judgment
Authors: Arpaly Nomy
Published: February 2006

This chapter argues against a common assumption in moral psychology — that akrasia is always irrational, or at least, always less rational than the corresponding self-controlled action. It contends that sometimes an agent is more rational for acting against her best judgment than she would be if she acted in accordance with her best judgment. There are cases where following her best judgment would make the agent significantly irrational, while acting akatrically would make her only trivially so, and as rational as most ever are.
Moral Worth
Authors: Arpaly Nomy
Published: February 2006

This chapter proposes a quality-of-will based theory of moral worth. It argues that people are praiseworthy for acts of good will and blameworthy for acts of ill will or absence of good will, and the amount of praise or blame they deserve varies with the depth of their motivation or extent of their indifference. Since good will is wanting to perform actions that have whatever property it is that makes action right, a full account of moral worth is impossible until the property that makes actions right is known.
Righteous Riches
Authors: Harrison Milmon F.
Published: February 2006

Does God want us to be wealthy? Many people believe that God offers not only eternal joy in the hereafter but also material blessings in the here and now. Other Christians see this “prosperity theology”, as nothing more than vulgar materialism, incompatible with orthodox Christianity. This book examines the Word of Faith movement, an independent, non-denominational Christian movement that preaches the so-called “health and wealth gospel”. Drawing on the author's personal experiences as a former insider and in-depth interviews with members, this book takes the reader inside the movement, revealing what it is like to belong, and how people accept, reject, and reshape Word of Faith doctrines to fit their own lives. Analyzing the movement's appeal to African Americans, the book argues that because of their history of oppression and discrimination, African American religious institutions have always had to address the material ' as well as spiritual ' concerns of their members.
Living the Faith Message
Authors: Harrison Milmon F.
Published: February 2006

This chapter continues to focus on the three people introduced in Chapter 1 and presents their stories about how the Word of Faith Movement changed their lives. How members integrate the whole of the Faith Message into some of the most mundane aspects of their daily lives is discussed.
Negotiating the Demands of Membership at Faith Christian Center
Authors: Harrison Milmon F.
Published: February 2006

This chapter focuses on the difficult positions faced by some people as they attempt both to live out the teachings of the Faith Message and to serve the needs of the ministry. It discusses four coping strategies church members use to cope with the demands placed upon them: filtering, venting networks, break taking, and, leaving the church permanently. Filtering is the active, intentional practice of accepting certain parts of the pastor's interpretation of scripture (or definition of the situation in terms of practice) while consciously rejecting others. Venting networks emerged out of social interactions in which members — who may or may not be deemed “disgruntled” but who have something to say that may be interpreted by others as against the dominant view — are able to critique and to give voice to their disagreements or discontents concerning some aspect of their experiences in the church. Break taking involves members voluntarily removing themselves either from their position in the church as a worker for a period of time before returning at some later date or staying away from the ministry altogether for a period of time.
Prosperity in African American Religion
Authors: Harrison Milmon F.
Published: February 2006

This chapter begins with a discussion of the significant role played by African Americans in other religious movements that have synthesized New Thought metaphysics with evangelical, charismatic Christianity. It then discusses African American religious materialism, economic development and the contemporary Black church, Christian capitalism in the African American community, and Black megachurches.
Conclusion
Authors: Harrison Milmon F.
Published: February 2006

This concluding chapter discusses the overall meaning of the Word of Faith Movement and the doctrine that has captivated so many believers. Topics covered include the Faith Message and social class, the Faith Message in African American religious history, Word of Faith Movement as contemporary American religion, and the Faith Message as ideology of transition.
Strange Bed fellows?
Authors: Shuman Joel James , Meador Keith G.
Published: February 2006

In the past 30 years, physicians and social scientists have begun to study the salutary effects of religious belief and practice on mental and physical health, concluding in general that a correlation exists between religiosity and health. Recently, some of these researchers have written for popular audiences, books and articles advocating religiosity for its health benefits. Generally speaking, these authors assume the existence of religion as such and of a universal human capacity for religiosity. This chapter suggests that the religion of this contemporary rapprochement is a distinctly modern phenomenon, a product of contemporary culture's cult of the self‐interested individual and a variant of the ancient Christian heresy called Gnosticism.
Christian Reflections on the Birth of “Religion”
Authors: Shuman Joel James , Meador Keith G.
Published: February 2006

This chapter sketches a genealogy of the religion of the contemporary rapprochement. Modern religion has its origins in the turn away from the biblical narrative and to natural philosophy among theologians and philosophers in the sixteenth century. The existence of God was tied during that time to the regnant philosophical and scientific discourses; when those discourses proclaimed themselves no longer in need of God as an explanatory apparatus, theology (as exemplified by the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher) turned to the thinking and feeling human subject as the basis for all religious belief. As Ludwig Feuerbach pointed out, however, the divinity described by this ontotheology could be explained as nothing more than a projection of deep human desire onto an imaginary being.
The Faithfulness of the Cross and the Idol of the Therapeutic
Authors: Shuman Joel James , Meador Keith G.
Published: February 2006

From the perspective of Christianity, religion as such is always liable to becoming idolatry. For Christians, the religious life is properly always a response to God's self‐giving in the life and the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. As such, the Christian response to sickness and suffering are also properly shaped by God's presence to the world in Jesus; this chapter suggests that that response may properly be characterized as apocalyptic.
Models and Models
Authors: Costa Newton C. A. da , French Steven
Published: February 2006

It has long been argued that the model-theoretic approach acquires a certain plausibility from the fact that models are also extensively used in science itself. However, the sense of “model” here is apparently quite different from that discussed in the previous chapter. This chapter starts by discussing the models of model theory and the models of science. It presents various arguments around this subject. The chapter goes on to discuss icons and analogies, in other words the fundamental idea that a model is an icon. The chapter continues by discussing partial structures and partial isomorphisms. The question is asked: Can we construct an overarching account of models in science? The criticisms and ideas of Achinstein are described in great detail in relation to this topic.
Partiality, Pursuit, and Practice
Authors: Costa Newton C. A. da , French Steven
Published: February 2006

This chapter analyzes the heuristics of scientific practice in terms of the objects of that practice and their structural qualities. The notion of partial isomorphism will be crucial to this picture of the development of new theories and models from the old. The “social interests” approach and the more recent “mangle” of scientific practice are considered and rejected. Both downplay the heuristic force of the structural elements of theories and models themselves.
Three Levels of Teaching Durkheim
Authors: Tiryakian Edward A.
Published: February 2006

This chapter presents a pedagogical approach to Durkheim proposing three faces or three levels of Durkheim for undergraduate and graduate students. For the first level the students are given an initial exposure to Durkheim, typically through an introductory courses of sociology. The second level is more advanced, notably an undgergraduate level, where students take sociology of religion and sociological theory (depending on the academic institution, these courses may be open to both undergraduates and graduates). The third level is postgraduate level.
Teaching the Critics
Authors: Godlove, Jr. Terry F.
Published: February 2006

This chapter presents a sympathetic portrayal of Durkheim's “theory of religion” in the Elementary Forms of Religious Life (EF) in the context of major criticisms of that work. It shows that EF puts forward two independent approaches to its subject. One approach is functionalist; it tries to account for the existence and persistence of religion by appealing to the cohesion religion supplies to society; it accounts for the behavior and beliefs of individuals as an appeal to the needs of the whole. The other approach posits a causal mechanism by which religious ideas and symbols are generated in the very act of assembly — the theory of collective effervescence — what William Pickering calls “effervescent assembly” and Randall Collins “ritual solidarity”.
AIDS and the Ecology of Poverty
Authors: Stillwaggon Eileen
Published: February 2006

This book examines the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the social and economic context of poverty and economic crisis in developing and transition countries. It challenges the assumption — implicit in AIDS policy — that differences in sexual behavior are adequate to explain differences in HIV prevalence between populations. Using an epidemiological approach, the book shows how people who are malnourished, burdened with parasites and infectious diseases, and who lack access to medical care are more vulnerable to all diseases. It explains the specific mechanisms by which undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, malaria, soil-transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, and other parasitic illnesses increase the risk of HIV transmission and epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS in poor populations. A theme throughout the book is that the sexual transmission of HIV diverts attention from the social and economic context of profound poverty. The distraction of sex is compounded by Western stereotypes of African sexuality, perpetuated through reliance on anecdotal evidence and the construction of a notion of fundamental dissimilarity among peoples of different world regions. The book evaluates current methods in epidemiology and health economics, which do not take account of the interactions among diseases that increase risk of transmission of HIV in poor populations. It criticizes HIV-prevention policies as narrow, shortsighted, and dead-end because they fail to address the economic and social context in which risky behaviors occur. Finally, the book offers pragmatic solutions to social, economic, and biological factors that promote disease transmission, including the spread of HIV.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Stillwaggon Eileen
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines the economic and health variables that distinguish sub-Saharan Africa from affluent countries which have lower rates of HIV. It shows the biomedical effects of economic conditions in Africa — such as poverty, inequality, lack of transport, lack of sanitary infrastructure, and lack of access to medical care — that contribute to poor health in general and consequently high rates of HIV transmission. Widespread malnutrition, malaria, schistosomiasis, and other parasitic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa contribute to higher risk of HIV transmission. This economic/biomedical conclusion implies a broad policy response for confronting HIV/AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Dualism in Latin America and the Caribbean
Authors: Stillwaggon Eileen
Published: February 2006

This chapter applies the lessons of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean. Economic and biological factors are important determinants of HIV transmission. Poverty, malnutrition, and parasites are endemic in much of the region, which also has additional risk factors for HIV transmission, including injecting drug use and millions of street children. Statistical analysis shows high correlation between HIV prevalence and GDP per capita, international migration, urbanization, and calorie supply. The results reflect the dualism of the Latin American and Caribbean economies and their dual HIV epidemics, and suggest the reasons why HIV is spreading fastest in lower-income groups.
Introduction
Authors: Richardson John
Published: February 2006

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Nietzche's hostile views about Darwin and Darwinism. However, it is argued that this pointed animosity is misleading. Nietzsche appropriates the central idea of Darwinism, and his attacks on Darwinists really express the ways he tries to extend or build beyond it. This Darwinism in four areas of Nietzsche's philosophy is discussed: his biology, metaethics, ethics-politics, and aesthetics. An overview of the subsequent chapters in this book is presented.
Biology
Authors: Richardson John
Published: February 2006

This chapter presents a precise account of Nietzsche's biology, i.e., his explanation of organisms by those drives and wills. It is argued that we cannot understand Nietzsche's views on our values without seeing first and precisely how he thinks we are animals with drives. And we should only take those views about values seriously, if we have reason to think these foundations might let them be true.
Aesthetics
Authors: Richardson John
Published: February 2006

This chapter begins with a discussion of the “opposition” between beauty and truth, and the way Nietzsche seems to divide his loyalty between them. It then considers Nietzsche's genealogy and argues that Nietzsche wants us to redesign our aesthetic aims once again, by “self selecting” them. This fourth locus of Darwinism in Nietzsche is probably the most surprising of all.
Vocabulary
Authors: Richardson John
Published: February 2006

This chapter presents a list of the English words the author uses as stand-ins for Nietzsche's German.
Common Morality
Authors: Gert Bernard
Published: February 2006

The first part of this book provides a detailed description of the moral system that is commonly used, although usually only implicitly, by people when they are making thoughtful moral decisions and judgments. This system includes moral rules that prohibit doing the kinds of actions that need justification so as not to be considered immoral; moral ideals that encourage doing the kinds of actions that, if they do not involve violations of moral rules, are universally considered to be morally good actions; and a two-step procedure for determining when the violation of a moral rule is strongly justified, weakly justified, or unjustified. The first step of this two-step procedure uses the morally relevant features to provide a morally relevant description of the action. The second step involves estimating whether more harm would be caused by publicly allowing such a violation or by not allowing it. The second part of the book provides an analysis of the concepts of rationality and impartiality, and of morality as a public system that is known by all normal adults, and that it is not irrational for any of them to use to govern their own behavior and to judge the behavior of others. These analyses are used to provide a justification for the moral system — that is, to show that all rational persons who satisfy some plausible conditions would endorse the moral system as the system to govern the behavior of all of them — and to provide an answer to the question why one should be moral.
Zen Buddhism as the Ideology of the Japanese State
Authors: Welter Albert
Published: February 2006

This chapter reassesses Eisai and his attempt to reform the Japanese Buddhist state along the lines suggested by the model of Sung Ch’an, by examining the message of the Kōzen Gokokuron and the Ninnō-kyō (Sutra of Benevolent Kings), both texts central to Eisai’s theoretical vision. Eisai is a major figure in the Japanese Zen tradition, known for introducing Zen and winning major political support for it in the newly formed Kamakura bakufu. The discussion emphasizes not only the ideological sway that this text had over Eisai, but also how Eisai conceived of the practical implementation of the text’s ideological vision in terms of Ch’an institutions and practices observed by Eisai in Sung China. The study examines the Kōzen gokokuron in terms of three leading ideas around which Sung Ch’an had been formed: lineage, institutional organization, and conceptions of Ch’an vis a vis the Buddhist tradition as a whole. This examination concludes with a comparison of how Yen-shou was understood in the Kōzen Gokokuron and the Jōtō Shōkaku Ron, a text associated with Nōnin and the Daruma faction, a leading early contender for the mantle of establishing a separate Zen “school” in Japan.
Imagining Indian Zen
Authors: Mohr Michel
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines the reasons Tōrei Enji’s Darumatara zenkyō settsū kōsho has been neglected despite its importance, bringing up the debate between the sectarian self-understanding and ideology of the present Japanese Zen schools, each of which claims the highest degree of authenticity as the true recipient of the historical Buddha’s legacy, the famous “special transmission outside [scholastic] teachings” (kyōge betsuden). The Ta-mo-to-lo ch’an ching, the Chinese translation of a canonical text primarily concerned with essential Buddhist meditation techniques, is a little-known sutra that has nevertheless played an interesting role in the development of the Chinese and Japanese Buddhist traditions, particularly the Ch’an/Zen schools. The Indian meditation treatise was translated into Chinese in the early fifth century CE, which attracted renewed interest among Sung Ch’an people as a text associated with Bodhidharma, and that was transmitted to Japan and later “rediscovered” by the eighteenth-century Japanese Zen teacher Tōrei Enji (1721-1792). The result of this encounter is his voluminous commentary entitled Darumatara zenkyō settsu kōsho, first published in 1784. Despite the importance of Tōrei in Rinzai Zen and the erudition of his commentary, there is no modern printed edition of the text and, seemingly, no in-depth study of it.
Meditation for Laymen and Laywomen
Authors: Riggs David E.
Published: February 2006

The text that is discussed in this chapter is about meditative practice and it confronts this misunderstanding in its very title, which emphasizes the ultimate realm of the awakening of the Buddha, not the details of meditation technique. The Buddha Samadhi (Jijuyū zanmai) is an informal piece written by Menzan Zuihō (1683-1769) during the early years of his teaching career at the request of laymen and laywomen, and was published some twenty years later in 1737. Menzan was a learned monk and a leading figure in the comprehensive reforms, which were sweeping the Sōtō schools during the eighteenth century. The expressed intention of the text is to help ordinary people to practice meditation, but the text is in fact an extended sermon in praise of the teaching of Dōgen (1200-1255), who is now regarded as both the founder and the source of all teachings for the Sōtō school.
Modernity and the Mystical: Technoscience, Religion, and Human Self-Creation
Authors: Carlson Thomas A.
Published: February 2006

This essay questions common assumptions about science as distinct from religion. Carlson starts by noting the intimate and practically inseparable connection between science and technology, arguing how “techno-science” is involved not only in producing knowledge of the world, but also a sense of what it means to be human. This sense of humanness involves a connection of techno-science and modernity in general, with the mystical realm usually associated with religion. Techno-science is understood precisely in the opposite sense as eliminating ignorance, of knowing (and mastering) all. Building upon the work of Weber and Heidegger, Carlson argues that this “will to mastery” is framed in the positing of an objective reality, which the knowing subject masters, based on the certainty of the knowing subject as framed historically in Protestant theology and the philosophy of Descartes. Yet, given the inaccessibility of much of the actual process of techno-science to most people, there is an important component of faith, Carlson cites the argument of Derrida that any authority is hence grounded on a “mystical foundation.” Carlson emphasizes that this act of human self-creation is based on an essential un-knowing of oneself, in particular, one’s destiny. The result, via our participation in increasingly powerful networks of knowledge and power, is a type of omniscience without comprehension of where we are heading-a sense of the human experience as conveying not finitude but infinitude, instability.
The Depths and Shallows of Experience
Authors: Putnam Hilary
Published: February 2006

This essay focuses on the dimension of human experience; Putnam seeks to dispense the shallow notion of experience (including, but not limited to, religious experience) as something utterly reduced to sensations. He does so by carefully comparing the shallow Humean conception of experience, based on impressions or “pictures” formed on the senses, and the Kantian conception which combines perception and conceptual ideas in a continuous self which fuses these experiences over time. Putnam then extends this Kantian notion of experience to discuss Kant’s aesthetic argument concerning “indeterminate concepts,” those that both involve and extend the creative imagination. Putnam applies Kant’s treatment of indeterminacy to morality as a means of suggesting its relevance to religious experience, and also extends this notion to science, arguing that the technological and aesthetic process of scientific knowledge production is far more complex than a sense-data view would suggest. Putnam then returns to religious experience, specifically the problem of skepticism which may seem to result from a rejection of immediate sense-impression and embrace of indeterminacy. He discusses several responses, ultimately siding with the existentialist approach which stresses responsibility to live (and hence make choices) in spite of what cannot be fully proven following “reasonable” means. He concludes by noting the symmetry between atheists and fundamentalist fanatics, since for both, religious belief or nonbelief is obvious. This obviousness in his mind betrays a simplistic notion of experience, again pointing to the centrality of rethinking human experience prior to deep consideration of science and religion.
Science, Religion, Metaphor, and History
Authors: Russell Jeffrey Burton
Published: February 2006

This essay begins by distinguishing between universe and cosmos, the human understanding of the universe. To Russell, both science and religion are concerned with cosmos or meaning, yet cosmos is seriously fragmented in modern times, so he proposes an exploration of history and metaphor to heal cosmos. Augustine understood that God’s creation of the universe was a creation of meaning (cosmos) as well as substance, and biblical truths were understood in a symbolic as well as overt sense. Dante’s Paradiso culminated this rich tradition of cosmos, yet by the 16th century, religious reformation led to overemphasis on literal truth and de-emphasis on symbolism. With the growth of a concept of science in the 17th and 18th centuries, the reduction of cosmos to universe was secured. The loss of cosmos can, however, be healed by considering the importance of metaphor; metaphor opens up the meaning of reality. Russell introduces the term “metaphorical ontology” to suggest how deep meanings of things — cosmos — can be suggested in language, and claims that the proper language of religion is thus metaphor. The healing of cosmos will be aided by metaphorical ontology as it is enacted through religion, science, and other vistas on the ultimate nature of reality, leading humankind along paths yet unknown.
Experiencing Evolution: Varieties of Psychological Responses to the Claims of Science and Religion
Authors: Numbers Ronald L.
Published: February 2006

This essay examines in some detail a range of positions that people have adopted in coming to personal terms with evolution. Numbers focuses on four individuals, all from the United States and with scientific backgrounds, who struggled with reconciling evolutionary theory and theistic faith. He begins with Joseph LeConte, well-known in the late 19th century for his efforts at harmonizing theism and evolution. LeConte’s deep personal struggles over the loss of a two-year old daughter and his rejection of the atheistic “dragon of materialism” formed a powerful emotional thrust toward an espousal of evolution which avoided materialism, supported the hope of immortality, and maintained a resolute if not altogether traditional theism. Numbers’s second and third examples, J. Peter Lesley and George Frederick Wright were both trained in geology and had deep religious backgrounds. Both accepted modified forms of Darwinism, yet rejected full-bore evolutionary thought, understandable via life events and quite different forms of engagement with Christianity; Lesley rejecting much of it though not, in turn, embracing evolution, and Wright growing more fundamentalist with time. His final example, early 20th century creationist George McCready Price, found personal and professional satisfaction in well-publicized rejections of evolution. Numbers candidly recounts his own life story, in which emotional crisis precipitated in part by reconsideration of evolutionary theory, eventually led to rejection of a fundamentalist upbringing. Numbers closes by reiterating his belief that “feelings count often more than facts,” suggesting that this is why so many Americans continue to call themselves creationists rather than evolutionists.
Uneasy Alliances: The Faith Factor in Medicine; the Health Factor in Religion
Authors: Harrington Anne
Published: February 2006

This essay explores the overlap between faith and science in the context of medicine: Does the mind, or do higher powers accessed by the mind, have power to heal the body? Harrington considers four related claims, all offering some scientific validation. The first is that participation in religious services is good for one’s health, which can apparently be explained only in part by religious communities serving as high-quality social networks. The second is that meditation reduces physical stress and aids healing, whether or not the meditator has any knowledge of or connection with a religious tradition. The third claim is that religious belief of any sort can heal the body, which has strong roots in American religious history, but seems to derive more from innate healing capacities of the mind rather than any sort of divine power. The fourth, in contrast, is that prayer conveys healing benefits, whether or not it is the patient or an intercessor who prays. This fourth claim is bolstered by certain controversial studies, and differs from the other three in its implicit support for divine power, thus divinity, whereas the remainder are exceedingly pragmatic in overtones — religion is important because it works. All four claims, however, are somewhat distinct and hardly form a coherent package. Overall, Harrington is concerned with the broad assertion that religion heals the body due to its insistence that science has provided conclusive proof, as well as its utilitarian emphasis on medicinal therapy versus any other benefits conveyed by religion. What may result is not the spiritualization of medicine, but the medicalization of religion.