bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Human Rights Bodies and the Structure of Institutional Obligation
Authors: Klabbers Jan
Published: January 2020

This chapter addresses the ever-present tension between the individual and the collective, examining how institutional interests may interact with individual interests. It does so by exploring three examples: the UN’s response to allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers; the European Court of Human Rights’ attitude in a case involving genocide denial, and the decision by the Yugoslavia Tribunal’s prosecutor not to initiate proceedings over the bombing of Belgrade to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The examples suggest that human rights institutions too are susceptible to the protection of institutional interests, something one would perhaps not expect or hope for when it comes to human rights institutions—one would likely hope for a less institution-minded ethos on the side of such institutions.
The Limits of Law
Authors: Banda Fareda
Published: January 2020

In her chapter, Professor Nussbaum suggests that CEDAW has failed to have the transformative effect on women’s lives that was anticipated at its adoption. Framing CEDAW as part of a social movement, Professor Nussbaum shows that there has been what she calls modest progress, but concludes that much remains to be done. This in turn leads her to question the efficacy of CEDAW and international law in the struggle for women’s equality. This response argues that the Committee has made a great deal of normative progress in three of the key areas identified in Professor Nussbaum’s chapter: intersectionality, reproductive rights, and violence against women. It also highlights how much CEDAW has impacted positively on the work of other Committees and in the development of human rights standards globally.
Schrödinger’s Derivation of the Wave Equation
Authors: Baggott Jim
Published: January 2020

Bohr’s theory of the atom was in trouble as soon as it was formulated. Further detailed spectroscopy studies encouraged a proliferation of quantum numbers and ‘selection rules’ in what became known as the Bohr–Sommerfeld model. It couldn’t last, and by 1925 the theory was in crisis. The immediate concern was with the quantum numbers themselves. Where did they come from? Could de Broglie’s hypothesis shed any light? In October 1925 the attentions of Erwin Schrödinger were drawn to a footnote in one of Einstein’s recent papers. Intrigued, Schrödinger acquired a copy of de Broglie’s PhD thesis. Although he eventually published a more obscure derivation, Schrödinger essentially applied the de Broglie relation to the classical equation of wave motion. He applied the result to the hydrogen atom, and showed that the quantum numbers emerge ‘in the same natural way as the integers specifying the number of nodes in a vibrating string’.
Born’s Interpretation of the Wavefunction
Authors: Baggott Jim
Published: January 2020

Schrödinger hoped that his wave mechanics would help to re-establish some sense of ‘visualizability’ of the physics going on inside the atom. In searching for a suitable interpretation of the wavefunction, he focused on the density of electrical charge, which he associated with the wavefunction ψ‎ multiplied by its complex conjugate. Hidden in his words is the interpretation that would eventually come to dominate our understanding of the wavefunction. Max Born had no hesitation in concluding that the only way to reconcile wave mechanics with the particle description is to interpret the modulus-square of the wavefunction as a probability density. It was Wolfgang Pauli who proposed to interpret this not only as a transition probability or as the probability for the system to be in a specific state, as Born had done, but as the probability of ‘finding’ the electron at a specific position in its orbit inside an atom.
Von Neumann and the Problem of Quantum Measurement
Authors: Baggott Jim
Published: January 2020

Heisenberg was an ‘anti-realist’. Although Bohr was infamously obscure in many of his writings, it seems that he adopted a generally anti-realist interpretation, too. As their debate became more bitter, in early June 1927 Pauli was called in to mediate. With Pauli’s help, they forged an uneasy consensus, which became known as the Copenhagen interpretation. Einstein didn’t like it at all, setting the stage for a great debate about the quantum representation of reality. Although von Neumann’s formalism broadly conforms to the Copenhagen interpretation, he saw no need to introduce an arbitrary split between the classical and quantum worlds. But eliminating the split poses the problem of quantum measurement: when scaled to classical dimensions, a superposition of different measurement outcomes appears contrary to our experience, exemplified by the famous paradox of Schrödinger’s cat. Von Neumann was obliged to break the infinite regress by postulating the ‘collapse of the wavefunction’.
Formalizing morphological phenomena
Authors: Jackendoff Ray , Audring Jenny
Published: January 2020

This chapter applies the tools of Relational Morphology, developed in the previous chapters, to a wide range of canonical and noncanonical morphological patterns, primarily in English, German, and Dutch. The phenomena discussed include affixes that occur in only a single word; words with legitimate affixes but nonlexical bases (a.k.a cranberry morphs); idioms; conversions and other zero morphology; linking elements; cumulative exponence; multiple exponence; sister words; sister schemas; blends and truncations; umlaut and other stem allomorphy; infixation and reduplication. In most of these cases, the complications turn out to lie in the interface between morphosyntax and phonology. In addition, many of the phenomena involve the use of sister schemas (also known as second-order schemas) and the same-except relation, which give the grammar great flexibility
Applying the tools to other domains
Authors: Jackendoff Ray , Audring Jenny
Published: January 2020

This chapter shows how the constructs of the Parallel Architecture and Relational Morphology can be applied outside morphology. Some extensions fall within the larger linguistic system: nonproductive schemas and sister schemas in syntax; the encoding of speech register, bilingualism, and dialect; orthography; and the mapping of phonology to meter in poetry. More speculatively, it shows that memory in other cognitive domains shares some of the character of Relational Morphology’s lexicon. The domains briefly explored are music; the understanding of the form and function of physical objects; knowledge of geography and spatial layout; and social knowledge, including customs and morality. The tentative conclusion is that these domains indeed share interesting features with language, including a vast and highly structured lexicon with multiple levels of representation, hierarchical constituency, schemas, and relational links.
Introduction
Authors: Trappenberg Thomas P.
Published: January 2020

This chapter provides a high-level overview of machine learning, in particular how it is related to building models from data. It starts with placing the basic concept in its historical context and phrases the learning problem in a simple mathematical term as function approximation as well as in a probabilistic context. In contrast to more traditional models, machine learning can be characterized as non-linear regression in high-dimensional spaces. This chapter points out how diverse subareas such as deep learning and Bayesian networks fit into the scheme of things and motivates further study with some examples of recent progress.
Machine learning with sklearn
Authors: Trappenberg Thomas P.
Published: January 2020

This chapter’s goal is to show how to apply machine learning algorithms in a general setting using some classic methods. In particular, it demonstrates how to apply three important machine learning algorithms, a support vector classifier (SVC), a random forest classifier (RFC), and a multilayer perceptron (MLP). While many of the methods studied later go beyond these now classic methods, this does not mean that these methods are obsolete. Also, the algorithms discussed here provide some form of baseline to discuss advanced methods like probabilistic reasoning and deep learning. The aim here is to demonstrate that applying machine learning methods based on machine learning libraries is not very difficult. It offers an opportunity to discuss evaluation techniques that are very important in practice.
Anthropoid adaptations
Authors: Murray Elisabeth A. , Wise Steven P. , Baldwin Mary K. L. , Graham Kim S.
Published: January 2020

In this chapter, a pig wins the Kentucky Derby; people remember bugs and beasts; and monkeys take flight. But mainly we consider memories that evolved in anthropoids. As these ancestors evolved from small animals into larger ones, they needed to travel long distances to obtain food. They used high-power vision and a new kind of color perception to detect distant sights indicating ripe fruit. The memory of these perceptions helped guide their choices toward the most valuable food items both near and far. The sounds made by boisterous, feeding birds provided similar information. Other new memories involved representations of quantities, such as the number of food items and their distance. Eventually, the new memories evolved by anthropoids also helped them recognize and communicate with members of their social group.
The Secret Alliance, 1971–1987
Authors: Bertrams Kenneth , Marmol Julien Del , Geerts Sander , Poelmans Eline
Published: January 2020

This chapter opens with the signature of a secret share swap between Belgium’s two leading brewing companies in 1971. Under this furtive agreement, the dynamics of which are analysed in detail, the breweries see their domestic market share grow even more, to about 60 per cent, and continue the foreign expansion started in the two previous decades, in Europe and Africa. In Belgium, Stella Artois tumbles under the effect of reputation and product quality issues while Piedboeuf surges with the help of its star brand, Jupiler. These evolutions put the corporate governance of Artois and the secret association under strain. In 1987 the two companies end up openly merging under the name Interbrew, following a strategic rethinking of the group’s strategy, structure, and corporate governance as well as a destabilizing tax scandal.
Creating Fair (Economic) Space for Social Innovation? A Capabilities Perspective
Authors: Ziegler Rafael , Jacobi Nadia von
Published: January 2020

Economic space for social innovation is not bounded by markets. Further to the money-based exchange relations in markets, there is self and informal provision based on social norms such as reciprocity, community, public provision of entitlements and of public goods organized via political processes, and professional provision based on expert knowledge. Although these ideal-types blur in practice, they show the rich contours and collaborative pluralism of economic space. Fostering fair space for social innovation requires taking all these modes and their relations into account. Social innovations as messages signal to the public where a change in mode or a reconfiguration of modes is demanded. Fairness as a matter of taking the perspective of those marginalized and least advantaged, calls for evaluative scrutiny with respect to such messages: do social innovations empower beneficiaries to become agents; and do they consider their well-being as patients?
Trajectories of Social Innovation
Authors: Schimpf Gudrun-Christine , Mildenberger Georg , Giesecke Susanne , Havas Attila
Published: January 2020

The chapter deals with the trajectory of social housing as a social innovation in European countries from the nineteenth century to the present. The long-term analysis of this comprehensive case study is guided by the Extended Social Grid Model (ESGM). Following a short description of seven different phases of social housing, the chapter turns to the role of social powers and the capability approach. All in all, the involvement of various actors and social networks in shaping a successful innovation becomes visible. Another important point is the insight that social innovations have to adjust to ever changing contexts du their trajectory. The analysis sheds light on supporting conditions of successful social innovations and reflects on the co-evolution of social and business innovations.
Creating Alternative Economic Spaces
Authors: Maestripieri Lara
Published: January 2020

Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) are emblematic of social innovation in agriculture. Scholars coined the term to refer to groups of individuals who organize themselves to collectively buy primary goods, avoiding mass retailers’ intermediation and putting in question the actual economic relations behind the system of food distribution. Their main declared aim is to foster the economic and social conditions of the producers they collaborate with. A closer look at their inner functioning, however, gives a more nuanced panorama, in which the altruistic dimensions of SPG activities do not exclude paternalistic practices. Drawing from forty interviews conducted in Italy in 2015, the chapter highlights how and to what extent their socially innovative practices have reduced the economic marginalization of producers.
Capital and Capacities
Authors: Naastepad C. W. M.
Published: January 2020

Marginalization has many dimensions. One significant dimension can be characterized as ‘credit marginalization’—lack of access to capital on terms that derive from circumstances of the user of capital rather than the demands of the providers of capital. It is this aspect of marginalization that this chapter focuses on. Credit marginalization is due to a one-sided focus on material growth, the solution to which is to widen our understanding of capital as it relates to capabilities or capacities (i.e. non-material growth). Linking capital and capacities requires ‘open access credit’ (OAC)—or a change in the conditions on which capital is made available to individuals that is enabling in terms of capacities—with whatever consequences this may have in terms of the cultural, political, and economic aspects of social life.
Common Humanity
Authors: Theunissen L. Nandi
Published: January 2020

The author confronts the unavoidable topic of “speciesism,” and the questions about grounding, and about the scope of an account of the value of humanity, to which it gives rise. The author rejects the view that there is something distinctive about all and only human beings which justifies our special moral status. Instead, proposing to account for the value that is typical of human beings, she argues that we are one among other bearers of value that give rise to reasons to be treated in certain ways and not others. The author defends a value-based approach to practical reason, and by working through various distinctions in goodness, she outlines the components of a theory of the value of humanity.
Of Absolute and Relative Worth
Authors: Theunissen L. Nandi
Published: January 2020

Theunissen explores Kant’s legacy. As she reads him, a crucial dimension of Kant’s view that human beings are absolutely valuable is that human beings are of value independently of the good they do or stand to do. Absolute value is importantly a benefit-independent form of worth. The author brings out Kant’s significant departure from ancient (and in particular Socratic) conceptions of value according to which there is a conceptual connection between goodness (or value) and benefit. The author uncovers the sense in which contemporary readers are likely to inherit Kant’s elision of benefit with instrumental value, something that is regarded as a lowly and even morally worrisome form of worth. She gives reason to resist this identification.
Emergency Powers of International Organizations
Authors: Kreuder-Sonnen Christian
Published: January 2020

This book explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This “IO exceptionalism” is observable in the crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization. Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs’ authority structures (the “ratchet effect”). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the “rollback effect”). To explain these variable outcomes, the book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors’ ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system’s current legitimacy crisis.
The Lachrymose Crusader
Authors: Spencer Stephen J.
Published: January 2020

Despite the amount of scholarship dedicated to various aspects of crusader spirituality, there has not yet been a detailed assessment of the religious and social roles of weeping in crusade texts. This chapter examines the religious significance of, and functions assigned to, the crusaders’ tears in twelfth- and thirteenth-century sources, charting continuities and changes over time as well as similarities and differences between source types. It is argued that in the ecclesiastical texts, weeping featured as a legitimate form of affective piety, and that the crusaders’ tears were chiefly understood to be mediators between temporal and heavenly worlds—devices that allowed for the petitioning and thanking of God. The representation of weeping in these works, it is suggested, not only reflected the influence of scripture, but also the Christian theology of tears, against which monastic writers and their audiences would have interpreted their own tears.
Zealous Wrath for the Holy Land
Authors: Spencer Stephen J.
Published: January 2020

The scant attention anger has received in a crusading context has focused almost exclusively on positive manifestations of that emotion, especially ira per zelum (anger through zeal). It is contended here that the importance of crusading in providing a setting for the legitimate outpouring of anger against non-Latins has been overstated. While zelus and the idea of crusading as vengeance continued to intersect and to be espoused after 1216, the terminus date of Susanna Throop’s 2011 study, zelus proves to be an ambiguous term, and one relatively poorly attested in twelfth- and thirteenth-century narratives of the crusades. Moreover, when the semantic field is broadened to encompass other anger terms, it becomes clear that anger was not an integral component of crusading ideology; and a close reading of accounts of righteous wrath, especially in relation to rulers, suggests that crusading did little to popularize or modify pre-existing attitudes towards anger in western Europe.
Conclusion
Authors: Spencer Stephen J.
Published: January 2020

The main findings of the previous chapters are brought together, leading to several overarching conclusions regarding the ways in which emotional language intersected with broader themes, the literary functions emotions performed, continuities and changes in the emotional landscape of crusading, the factors and traditions which influenced chroniclers, and how modern historians should approach the affective registers of historical narratives. Three major conclusions are outlined. Firstly, the traditional approach of simply accepting the emotional language found in crusade narratives as straightforward evidence of protagonists’ lived feelings needs to be supplanted by a methodological framework which deals primarily with textual representation and function. Secondly, the emotional landscape that contemporaries applied to crusading was not unique. Finally, the various religious, social, and political functions that emotions performed in the texts undermine any notion that the crusades took place in an era of emotional immaturity.
Rituals and Feasting as Incentives for Cooperative Action at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe
Authors: Dietrich Oliver , Dietrich Laura
Published: January 2020

During the tenth and ninth millennia BC, at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Anatolia monumental circular buildings that include monolithic and richly decorated limestone pillars were erected by early Neolithic communities. The present contribution addresses the question how these rather small-scale groups were able to generate and maintain social cohesion not only on a level basic to their survival but also sufficient for the realization of this enormous construction work. The distribution of the characteristic imagery, centred on animal motifs, shows that people from distances of up to 200 km gathered at the site. Large amounts of bones and cooking equipment are evidence of large, ritualized feasts as a mode to gather workforces and ensure cooperation. Evidence for beer-like beverages adds another nuance to these feasts. Altered states of consciousness may also have played a key role in the rituals held within the buildings, that further fostered intragroup cohesion.
Does Nationhood Promote Egalitarian Justice?
Authors: Holtug Nils
Published: January 2020

The national identity argument suggests that sharing a national identity fosters social cohesion. This chapter considers a specific version of the argument, according to which shared national identities are required for, or at least facilitate, trust and solidarity and therefore egalitarian redistribution. The argument is assessed in terms of the theoretical arguments that can be provided for believing that national identities create trust and solidarity, more specifically, the ‘sympathy account’ and the ‘predictability account’ are considered. Furthermore, empirical studies that test the proposed causal relationship between national identity and social cohesion are scrutinized, focusing in particular on a recent Danish study. It is concluded that neither these theoretical considerations nor the available empirical evidence supports the national identity argument.
Reflection and Refraction
Authors: Guenther B. D.
Published: January 2020

We explore the propagation of a light wave when the propagation velocity of the medium change in a discontinuous way. We rely only on the wave properties of light to obtain the fundamental laws of reflection and refraction and use boundary conditions developed for Maxwell’s Equations to obtain the Fresnel formula for the amount of light transmitted or reflected. We alos turn to the more fundamental Principle of Fermat to derive the two laws but limit detailed examination to the law of reflection. We look at the effects of polarization on reflection and consider the physical cause of Brewter’s angle. The topic of total reflection is covered in more detail because of its importance inf fiber optics. We have ignored any loss in the propagation of light but now we examine reflection from metals and discover the effects on reflection of using a protective coating on metals
Latvia
Authors: Ikstens Jānis , Balcere Ilze
Published: January 2020

Although a profound ethnic cleavage separates the native Latvians and from the Slavic minorities, and institutional thresholds operate to prevent fragmentation of parliamentary politics, Latvia’s voter preferences generate fractured legislatures and a high turnover of parliamentary parties. Coalitions arise from free-style bargaining among a narrow circle of party elites where the head of state (president) plays a rather limited role. Parties are driven by both office-seeking and policy-seeking considerations but control over public resources is notably important to maintain party organizations and fight elections. Notable is also that the Slavic parties are excluded from government coalitions. Regardless of the type of coalition, very similar coalition agreements outline mechanisms for coalition governance, reinforcing the primus inter pares status of the prime minister as defined in the law. Although cabinet duration is rather low, party discipline in the legislature is high and opposition proposals are usually rejected. Technical reasons aside, most cabinets in the twentieth century collapsed due to disagreements over policy while cabinet termination in the twenty-first century is more frequently related to party strategic considerations. Coalitions tend to lose support in elections, but this does not apply equally to all coalition parties.
The Material Circumstances
Authors: Jackson Lucy C. M. M.
Published: January 2020

Chapter 1 brings together the evidence for when and where dramatic choruses danced in the fourth century, providing an historical base for the later discussions of fourth-century dramatic choral activity. After establishing the certain and likely locations for dramatic performances in Athens, Attica, and the wider ancient Mediterranean (and beyond), the chapter considers the question of who the choral performers were, and what their choral training might have involved. Through this focus on the choral performer, and the practicalities of producing so many dramatic productions in each year, the chapter can begin to draw together a new picture of choral industry in the fourth century, an industry that clearly had its roots in the fifth century. Considering the theory that ‘local’, ‘amateur’ choruses would be recruited for travelling groups of actors, it suggests that the evidence supports, instead, a class of skilled choral performers in line with the industry’s professionalizing turn.
Law as Text
Authors: McSweeney Thomas J.
Published: January 2020

Roman and canon law were fields of knowledge based on the interpretation of authoritative texts. In their study of Roman and canon law, the authors of Bracton would have begun to think about the practice of law as a textual practice. This was not an obvious way to think about law in the thirteenth century. In England’s county and manor courts, much of the law was contained in the collective memory of the suitors of the court, not in authoritative texts. Thus, the fact that Bracton’s authors studied Roman and canon law would have led them to think about law in a different manner from many of their colleagues in the central royal courts.
Cases and the Dialectic
Authors: McSweeney Thomas J.
Published: January 2020

Bracton contains more than 500 citations to cases on the plea rolls, the administrative records of the royal courts, and this chapter will demonstrate that the authors of Bracton thought of them as authoritative texts, similar to the authoritative texts of Roman and canon law they had learned from in the schools. The authors of Bracton use and treat citations to plea roll entries and citations to the authoritative texts of Roman law—Justinian’s Digest, Codex, and Institutes—in very similar ways. The authors of the treatise adopt similar citation methods for both, and speak about them in similar terms. The authors of Bracton applied to their case records the scholastic methods of harmonization and reconciliation that they had learned to apply to the authoritative texts of Roman and canon law.
The Meaning of Animal Labour
Authors: Delon Nicolas
Published: January 2020

Proponents of humane or traditional husbandry, in contrast to factory farming, often argue that maintaining meaningful relationships with animals entails working with them. Accordingly, they argue that animal liberation is misguided, since it appears to entail erasing our relationships to animals and depriving both us and them of valuable opportunities to live together. This chapter offers a critical examination of animal husbandry based on the value of labour, in particular the view that farm animals could be seen as workers, and what it entails. It then considers ways in which our relationships to domesticated species could be made meaningful, including through work, without entailing the premature killing of animals raised for food. Meaningful animal lives depend on a proper analysis of the meaning, and value, of labour, which this chapter argues is missing from labour-based defences of humane husbandry.
The Value-Extracting Enablers
Authors: Lazonick William , Shin Jang-Sup
Published: January 2020

This chapter explains historical and systemic sources of institutional activism. Starting from re-examining underlying principles of New Deal financial regulations established in the 1930s that discouraged institutional activism, it argues that they were overturned in the 1980s and 1990s in the name of promoting “shareholder democracy.” It analyzes these misguided regulatory “reforms” including the introduction of compulsory voting by institutional investors, a proxy-voting rule change that greatly facilitated aggregation of proxy votes by predatory value extractors. The chapter argues that those reforms created a large vacuum in corporate voting because, contrary to the ideal of shareholder democracy and particularly with the increasing dominance of index funds, institutional investors had little ability and incentive to vote the shares in their portfolios. The main beneficiaries of these reforms have been the leading proxy advisory firms and a small group of hedge-fund activists intent on looting the business corporation.
Singers and Storytellers
Authors: Pooley William G.
Published: January 2020

In order to understand the folk traditions that Félix Arnaudin recorded, it is important to consider who his informants were. Félix Arnaudin prided himself on his honesty in how he presented these informants, but this chapter suggests that this honesty was only ever partial. Research drawing on birth, marriage, and death certificates, notarial documents, and other sources suggests that Félix Arnaudin exaggerated the age of his informants, and put more emphasis on informants who worked in ‘traditional’ occupations, such as pastoralism, even though many of his singers and storytellers worked in ‘modern’ occupations, as employees of the state, for example.
Silence and Chastity
Authors: Pooley William G.
Published: January 2020

This chapter complements Chapter 6. It focuses on one of Arnaudin’s most prolific singers, a woman named Catherine Gentes. Rather than what Catherine sang, the chapter asks what she did not. By leaving verses out of well-known songs, or by refusing to sing whole songs, Catherine created a very different personal repertoire of singing to the picture presented in Chapter 6 of the bawdy singing of the moorlands. The chapter replaces these singing choices in her life, suggesting that her identity as a seamstress and her physical impairment would have encouraged her community to sexualize her. The fact that she systematically avoided bawdy singing material suggests some of the ways that she attempted to forge an alternative identity, which did not necessarily draw on Catholic models of female chastity.
Passions and Reason in the Ethics
Authors: Sangiacomo Andrea
Published: January 2020

Chapter 5 develops the interpretation introduced in Chapter 4 by showing how the notion of agreement in nature underpins another crucial distinction in Spinoza’s ontology: namely, that between actions and passions. Section 5.2 presents the conceptual link between the individual conatus, the power of acting and the degree of agreement in nature. Section 5.3 discusses how the distinction between activity and passivity relies on the notion of agreement. Section 5.4 argues that passions (under appropriate circumstances) can initiate positive causal feedback loops, which lead to maximizing agreement in nature and fostering activity. Section 5.5 implements this reading to interpret and clarify Spinoza’s techniques to master the passions discussed in the fifth part of the Ethics. Section 5.6 argues that the reading presented in this chapter is better placed than other current interpretations to make full sense of Spinoza’s techniques.
Introduction
Authors: Wolkenstein Fabio
Published: January 2020

In addition to summarizing the book’s main themes as described, this Introduction places special emphasis on connecting the problem animating the book—the apparent incapacity of contemporary parties to mediate between citizens and the state—to current political developments in established Western democracies, showing that the issues the book addresses are not only of academic interest but also directly relevant to ongoing public debates about the state and health of representative democracy. Chief amongst the themes foregrounded here is the rise of so-called ‘populist’ parties on the left and right of the political spectrum, as well as the re-branding of established political actors as ‘movements’ (think, e.g. of Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche). These phenomena are interpreted as part of a larger ‘revolt against intermediary bodies’—meaning first and foremost a rebellion against political parties. The Introduction suggests that this ‘revolt’ brings with it only a temporary shift in how representative politics looks, without actually reversing the disconnect between parties and voters or compelling established political parties to give up their privileges and de-colonize the institutions of the state. This argument sets the stage for the book’s core contention that more thought has to be put into finding ways to reconnect political parties with society.
‘A Very Perfect Forme of a Will’
Authors: Davis Alex
Published: January 2020

In the late medieval and early modern periods, the last will and testament was not just a legal document; it was also a kind of literature. A range of poems and prose that engaged with the conventions of the legal last will became a feature of writing in English from the fourteenth century onwards. Sometimes fictional testaments exist as free-standing pieces of writing; often they are found embedded within larger literary texts. They focus on a range of imaginary testators, ranging from figures from myth and history, through notorious contemporaries, and animals, to the devil himself. Bequests were similarly various, including curses, farts, abstract qualities such as peace, and even the body of the testator. This chapter discusses fictional testaments by (amongst others) Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, Robert Henryson, George Gascoigne, and Isabella Whitney.
Exponents
Authors: Danesi Marcel
Published: January 2020

Mathematicians have devised notations and symbols to compress information and to explore mathematics via the symbols themselves. In the 1500s the invention of exponential notation, which was devised as a type of shorthand to facilitate the cumbersomeness of just reading repeated multiplications of the same digit, was a watershed event. Exponential notation not only saves space and lessens the mental energy required to process the relevant information, it is critical for writing larger and larger numbers. Moreover, mathematicians started to play with exponential notation in an abstract way, discovering new facts about numbers, leading to the notion of logarithms and all the discoveries that this, in turn, has brought about. This chapter will deal with exponents and logarithms, and their significance to the history of mathematics—a history often characterized by problems of notation that have led serendipitously to new ideas and branches.
Infinity
Authors: Danesi Marcel
Published: January 2020

The paradoxes of Zeno in antiquity might seem like sophisms, but, as it has turned out, they shed light on mathematical infinity and have led to many derivative ideas in mathematics and science. Zeno’s paradoxes portray movement in terms of discrete points on a number line, where a move from A to B is done in separate (discrete) steps. But the gap in between is continuous. So, to resolve the paradoxes a basic distinction between discrete and continuous is required—a gap that was filled with the calculus much later. The infinity concept became in the nineteenth century the basis for the discovery of new numbers—by the German mathematician Georg Cantor—which seemed at the time to be counterintuitive. This chapter looks at the paradox of infinity and at Cantor’s ingenious discoveries.
Decidability
Authors: Danesi Marcel
Published: January 2020

How do we know if a problem is solvable or a theorem provable? This mode of reasoning takes us into the heart of mathematics. Obviously, if something cannot be solved or proved, we should not be wasting our time trying to find a solution or proof; that is, if it can be shown to be undecidable, that is the end of the matter. This is a central principle on which computer science is built. If something can be programmed to produce a certain output, then the algorithm used shows that it is decidable in the first place; if it does not produce an output, then it is undecidable. This chapter deals with the question of decidability and its basis in logic, culminating with Kurt Gödel’s remarkable proof that within any formal system of logic there are propositions (statements) that can be neither proved nor disproved. Since then, mathematicians have embraced a much more flexible way to do mathematics, without discarding the previous ways.
The algorithm
Authors: Danesi Marcel
Published: January 2020

Mathematics has formed a partnership with computer science, since at least the 1940s. Devising algorithms and turning them into computer programs is akin to deconstructing a problem, a proof, or a theory into its key components. In other words, a computer can be used to attack the problem of decidability, discussed in the previous chapter, on the basis of the validity (or not) of some algorithm. This chapter deals with this key notion, completing the chain of ideas described in this book that started with Pythagoras. Although not named in this way, the concept of algorithms goes back to Euclid and his Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. Computers are adept at solving all kinds of problems that involve pattern and structure. They do so by computing all possibilities for a problem, rather than providing a theoretical explanation for the solution. The latter is left up to the programmer—in this case, the mathematician.
Leaving It Out
Authors: Montgomery Will
Published: January 2020

Chapter 23 shows how in the modernist era rhythm was no longer a stable background pattern, but became part of the overall acoustic texture of the poem—with short-form poetry the most powerful vehicle for rhythmic innovation. Poetry had, for most of English literary history, generally been held to be metrical—rhythmic in a consistent pattern. Ezra Pound helped shape modernist poetics, and the author focuses on the Poundian line of influence, with particular emphasis on the writing of the American poet Robert Creeley. While his verse is not “musical” in the tightly patterned sense of balladry, his precise and economical use of language encourages rhythmic innovations comparable to those of twentieth-century musical pioneers such as the composer Anton Webern or the bebop drummer Max Roach. The author argues that brevity and ellipsis are integral to a modernism best approached through the modernist dictum Dichten = condensare (to poetize is to condense).
The Unquiet River
Authors: Saikia Arupjyoti
Published: January 2020

At the turn of the twentieth century the human reshaping of the Brahmaputra and its extended ecological relations has become a reality. This biography of the Brahmaputra reimagines the layered history of Assam with the unquiet river at the centre. The Unquiet River combines a wide range of disciplinary scholarship to unravel the river which has always been an agent in both landscape engineering and the crafting of different livelihoods. This biography of the Brahmaputra, by way of an environmental history of the river, tells the story of the making of the river, its floodplains, and the human lives around it. Offering a longer history of the Brahmaputra, this book pays attention to the geological forces as well as human endeavour which shaped the river well into the twentieth century. This book treats both the river and human history equally without privileging one over the other. It offers an illuminating account of one of the world’s most turbulent rivers. Wonderfully described with archival detail and interwoven with narratives and striking connections, the book unravels the making of a river, its floodplains, and its people. This evocative and compelling book will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the past and the present of a river confronted by the twenty-first century’s ambitious infrastructural designs to further re-engineer the river and its landscape.
The Ebb and Flow of Riverine Pursuits
Authors: Saikia Arupjyoti
Published: January 2020

This chapter describes how the river opened up ecological spaces for humans, plants, and animals to survive in. The river itself, its banks, floodplains, and grasslands were home and habitat to an array of life forms. Domesticated animals grazed on the floodplain; folklore involving the swamps, high grass savanna, and short grasslands indicate the presence of vast pastures. Monsoons and floods shaped lives and livelihood patterns in specific ways. The chapter further narrates how the river—full of water, mud, silt, and powerful currents, and blessed by a long spell of monsoon and a vastly expansive floodplain ecology—was home to a range of complex yet interlinked artisanal activities.
In the Time of Earthquakes
Authors: Saikia Arupjyoti
Published: January 2020

Do earthquakes shape the river and its history? This chapter discusses long-term impacts of the earthquakes, including alterations in the courses of rivers, drainage systems, sedimentation levels of riverbeds, or levels of the floodplains, and changes wrought in the peasant economy. Earthquakes are among the significant long-term drivers of environmental changes. Geologists studying the Brahmaputra Valley agree that earthquakes essentially redesigned the landscape of the region. Unlike the previous earthquakes, the ones in 1897 and 1950 are well documented in archives. The records offer convincing proof of the centrality of earthquakes in changing the environmental fate of the river. These two earthquakes repeated the actions of earlier tremors, once again overhauling the physical history of the river and the surrounding landscape.
Reining in the Unquiet River
Authors: Saikia Arupjyoti
Published: January 2020

This chapter tells how floods increasingly came to be viewed as posing a danger to the general well-being of Assam and the government was seen as a controller of floods. River embankments came to dot Assam’s landscape, leading to a reconfiguration of the floodplains or rearrangement of human settlement patterns. This ensured a new form of relationship between the river and the people around it. With rivers and floods beginning to be viewed as subjects to be tackled via specialist expertise, civil officials gave way to engineers. This chapter also tells how the era of technocrats, engineers with extensive power, had begun.
Oppressed ‘Self/Selves’
Authors: Pandit Mimasha
Published: January 2020

An attempt has been made in this chapter to show how performance, with all its attributes, became a temporal and spatial arena for communicating/transforming the notion of nationhood, as conceived by the performer-ideologue, into the understanding/comprehension of the audience. Therefore, it is at this juncture that we have to pay close attention to understand the process of transubstantiation and how it engendered an emotional bond/nationhood that substituted one meaning for the other, and the muted voices found release in the nuanced perception of a Swadeshi nationhood.
Comparative Method of Legal Research
Authors: Bhat P. Ishwara
Published: January 2020

The relevance of comparative legal research (CLR) consists in comparative evaluation of human experience occurring in legal systems of different jurisdictions. It involves a logical and inductive method of reasoning. It is valuable as it brings out the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches, procedures, and institutions. It has a long history and strong tendency of growth in contemporary times. Appropriate choice of comparative components and choice of the criterion of comparison become crucial for the success of comparative legal research. Functionalist study and cultural immersion give social dimension to the comparison. In the context of multicultural society and march of globalization, CLR has attained great scope and potentiality. Its limitations include inadequate understanding of the social background of other jurisdiction, language barrier, and so on. Its attainments are many in various fields of law.
Empirical Legal Research
Authors: Bhat P. Ishwara
Published: January 2020

This chapter discusses the use and merits of empirical legal research as an evidence-based method of conducting research that systematically carries out the task of unearthing, analysing, and interpreting facts in relation to law and its functioning. This method, presupposing that scientific device, rather than tradition, shall determine the establishment and functioning of legal postulates, illuminates the working of the legal system, its weaknesses and strengths as revealed in social facts. This chapter discusses this method use of interdisciplinary research and focus on the grass-roots level of legal process. Finally, it discusses the applicability of this kind of research in policy, action, and feminist research, its successful application in the domain of public law, family law, criminal law, environmental law, legal procedure, and alternative dispute resolution.
Multi-method Legal Research
Authors: Bhat P. Ishwara
Published: January 2020

Multifaceted study of law, owing to complex social problems attached to it, calls for the combination of several methods of research. Integration rather than isolated application of methods of research leads to multi-method legal research (MMLR). It combines doctrinal and non-doctrinal research, qualitative and quantitative research, and a combination of various methods within each. This method is highly valuable as it looks at law from different angles, uses interdisciplinary research, collaborates with community or stakeholders, and avoids undetected errors arising from the use of mono-method. The synergy of using deductive and inductive reasoning enhances quality of research. The procedure of MMLR is not rigid. Therefore, research design should consider the suitability of combination; combination of methods should be linked with theory; sequential or simultaneous application of multiple methods should be carefully executed; and management of MMLR should be smooth. MMLR’s use in research on vulnerable groups, development issues, and biographical and behavioural studies is of great importance.