bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reconceptualizing the Organism
Authors: Nicholson Daniel J.
Published: July 2018

This chapter draws on insights from non-equilibrium thermodynamics to demonstrate the ontological inadequacy of the machine conception of the organism. The thermodynamic character of living systems underlies the importance of metabolism and calls for the adoption of a processual view, exemplified by the Heraclitean metaphor of the stream of life. This alternative conception is explored in its various historical formulations, and the extent to which it captures the nature of living systems is examined. Next, the chapter considers the metaphysical implications of reconceptualizing the organism from complex machine to flowing stream. What do we learn when we reject the mechanical and embrace the processual? Three key lessons for biological ontology are identified. The first is that activity is a necessary condition for existence. The second is that persistence is grounded in the continuous self-maintenance of form. And the third is that order does not entail design.
From Organizations of Processes to Organisms and Other Biological Individuals
Authors: Arnellos Argyris
Published: July 2018

The emphasis on the collaborative dimension of life overlooks the importance of biological individuals (conceived of as integrated, self-maintaining organizations) in the build-up of more complex collaborative networks in the course of evolution. This chapter proposes a process-based organizational ontology for biology, according to which the essential features of unicellular organismicality are captured by a self-maintaining organization of processes integrated by means of a special type of collaboration (realized through regulatory processes entailing an indispensable interdependence) between its constitutive and its interactive aspects. This ontology is then used to describe different types of collaborations among cells and to suggest the type that yields a multicellular organism. The proposed organizational framework enables us to critically assess hypercollaborative views of life, especially issues related to the distinction between biological individuals and organisms and between life and non-life, without however underestimating the central biological role of collaboration.
A Processual Perspective on Cancer
Authors: Bertolaso Marta , Dupré John
Published: July 2018

This chapter attempts to illuminate the dynamic stability of the organism and the robustness of its developmental pathway by considering the biology of cancer. Healthy development and stable functioning of a multicellular organism require an exquisitely regulated balance between processes of cell division, differentiation, and death (apoptosis). Cancer involves a disruption of this balance, which results in unregulated cell proliferation. The thesis defended in this chapter is that the coupling between proliferation and differentiation, whether normal or pathological (as in cancer), is best understood within a process-ontological framework. This framework emphasizes the interactions and mutual stabilizations between processes at different levels and this, in turn, explains the difficulty in allocating the neoplastic process to any particular level (genetic, epigenetic, cellular, or histological). Understanding these interactions is likely to be a precondition of a proper understanding of how these mutual regulations are disrupted in the processes we call cancerous.
Baumgarten and Kant on Clarity, Distinctness, and the Differentiation of our Mental Powers
Authors: Makkreel Rudolf A.
Published: July 2018

This chapter examines Baumgarten’s empirical psychology by comparing it with Kant’s discussion of the same material in his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Through a careful analysis of both texts, Makkreel shows that while Kant clearly adopts much of the structure and terminology of his own empirical psychology directly from Baumgarten, he nevertheless reworks and reorganizes these in quite different ways. According to Makkreel, this can be explained by Kant’s removal of empirical psychology from the realm of metaphysics, and his repurposing of Baumgarten’s ideas for the sake of developing a pragmatic, and ultimately morally directed, theory for the cultivation of the mind.
Are the Senses Silent?
Authors: Wilson Keith A.
Published: July 2018

Many philosophers and scientists take perceptual experience, whatever else it involves, to be representational. In ‘The Silence of the Senses’, Charles Travis argues that this view involves a kind of category mistake, and consequently, that perceptual experience is not a representational or intentional phenomenon. The details of Travis’s argument, however, have been widely misinterpreted by his representationalist opponents, many of whom dismiss it out of hand. This chapter offers an interpretation of Travis’s argument from looks that it is argued presents a genuine and important challenge to orthodox representational views of experience. Whilst this challenge may not (pace Travis) be insurmountable, it places a substantial burden upon the representationalist to explain not only how experiences come to have the contents that they do (the individuation question), but how those contents come to feature in our conscious mental lives (the availability question).
Aspects, Properties, and Ingredients
Authors: O’Sullivan Michael
Published: July 2018

Some philosophers have argued for predicative or representational views of perception by way of appeal to seeing-as or aspect experiences as discussed by Wittgenstein. This chapter argues that such a tactic is bound to fail. This is because it depends upon a confusion between (in Wittgenstein’s terms) properties and ingredients. The provision of a proper separation of properties and ingredients will make available a relational view of perceptual experience of the kind Travis espouses, which properly accommodates aspect experiences. Concomitantly, the chapter seeks to illuminate the profound connection between the relational view of perception and Travis’s approach to predication and generality in thought more generally.
Narrow content and ur-content
Authors: Yli-Vakkuri Juhani , Hawthorne John
Published: July 2018

In Chapter 3 we explore how the question of whether the ordinary notion of content—what we call ‘ur-content’—is narrow, trying as best as we can, on behalf of the internalist, to fend off well-known objections that emerge from the work of Hilary Putnam and Tyler Burge. Those objections turn out not to be completely decisive. However, the project of arguing that ur-content is narrow is portrayed as deeply unpromising.
Argentina
Authors: Aiello Ana Laura
Published: July 2018

Argentina is a monist state. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been part of its domestic law since 2008, and has constitutional status. This chapter provides an overview of how the CRPD is being applied by Argentinian courts. For this purpose, seventy-four judgments are analysed. There are two major findings: first, most relevant judgments involved legal actions against the social welfare system and legal capacity issues; second, most judgments tended to draw on the CRPD as an interpretive aid to domestic law or simply included generic references to the CRPD without putting it to any obvious use in the judgment. An analysis is also provided of how the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), a quasi-judicial body, is applying the CRPD.
Germany
Authors: Aichele Valentin
Published: July 2018

This chapter analyses the use and interpretation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in sixty-nine decisions of German federal courts between 2009 and mid-2016. German courts’ failure to be proactive in demonstrating ‘friendliness towards public international law’ when dealing with international human rights norms has been criticised. The National CRPD Monitoring Mechanism addressed problems in the application of the law. This chapter investigates the courts’ understanding of basic CRPD concepts, judicial techniques, interpretation methods and specific CRPD provisions. The importance of the concepts of self-executing provisions and direct effect is discussed. In quantitative terms, German courts have referred to the CRPD more often than any other UN international human rights instrument. Furthermore, in qualitative terms, federal courts have become more receptive towards the CRPD. However, it is clear that much of the potential for courts to use the CRPD in the realisation of the rights of persons with disabilities remains untapped.
Mexico
Authors: Smith Matthew S , Stein Michael Ashley
Published: July 2018

This chapter analyses how Mexico’s Supreme Court has applied the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to decide cases involving persons with disabilities following its 2011 constitutional reform. Although the Court has c to develop instructive case law on incorporating the CRPD into the domestic legal order, it has frequently failed to do so in an even-handed manner. Even when the Court has sided with petitioners with disabilities, its application of the CRPD to the facts of the case has been erratic, both making it difficult to predict how the Court will adjudicate future claims and also hindering the CRPD’s transformative potential for changing how individuals, organisations and society at large act towards persons with disabilities through its expressive value. Civil society organisations that have advocated for progressive rulings have a responsibility for educating the Court to develop workable judicial tests for CRPD-based claims.
Russia
Authors: Bartenev Dmitri , Evdokimova Ekaterina
Published: July 2018

This chapter analyses how Russian courts have approached principles and standards of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) since its ratification by Russia in 2012. Given the monist features of the Russian legal system, the Convention has been used in a relatively large number of judgments. In the majority of cases the CRPD has been used only to reinforce the standards already provided by domestic laws. In a few cases, however, judges interpreted the Convention provisions to establish new legal concepts or to apply progressively Russian laws concerning human rights of people with disabilities. The chapter provides a critical insight into different ways of interpreting (or failing to interpret) CRPD provisions used by Russian courts and it concludes that the impact of the CRPD on case law has so far been limited despite its implementation in the Russian legal system.
United Kingdom
Authors: Lawson Anna , Series Lucy
Published: July 2018

This chapter explores how courts in the United Kingdom have used and interpreted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by analysing the seventy-five cases mentioning the CRPD prior to June 2016. These cases are unevenly spread—in geography and in subject matter. In a significant number of these cases, civil society organisations and equality bodies supported disabled litigants (eg through third party interventions). The Public Sector Equality Duty has been construed as giving judges very little power to use the CRPD to hold public sector bodies to account. The CRPD was used as an interpretive aid only in connection with understanding how ECHR and EU law should be understood in the domestic context—suggesting that, were ECHR and EU law no longer to be part of United Kingdom law, the CRPD would play a greatly diminished role in guiding case law in the United Kingdom.
Interpreting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Domestic Courts
Authors: Lawson Anna , Waddington Lisa
Published: July 2018

This chapter reflects on the ways in which courts in the thirteen jurisdictions included in this study have interpreted the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Firstly, it explores the interpretations which CRPD provisions (from the Preamble to Article 30) have been given by different courts in cases analysed in this study. Secondly, it considers various issues concerning the interpretations of the CRPD adopted in the thirteen jurisdictions. This discussion begins by reflecting on the extent to which interpretations of the various provisions appear to converge before moving on to consider the nature of the interpretation techniques being used. It also considers the extent to which judges appear to be drawing on UN guidance and transnational judicial dialogue to inform their understandings of CRPD provisions.
Uses of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Domestic Courts
Authors: Lawson Anna
Published: July 2018

This chapter draws on data provided in Chapters 2–14 to carry out a functional analysis, identifying and exploring seven ways in which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been used in the court judgments in the cases analysed in this study: first, its use to invalidate or declare unconstitutional national or regional legislation judged to be inconsistent with it; second, its use to overturn or radically reinterpret domestic jurisprudence or legal doctrine; third, its use to provide normative content to proactively ‘fill gaps’ in domestic law; fourth, its use to help resolve ambiguities in domestic law (statutory or otherwise); fifth, its use to bolster or support decisions based on domestic or other international authorities; sixth, its use to affirm the importance of the human rights of disabled people; and, finally, its use as a check on executive or public body decision-making. Christopher McCrudden’s comparative international law analysis is referenced to illuminate the discussion.
Human Rights Theory and Comparative International Law Scholarship
Authors: McCrudden Christopher
Published: July 2018

An account of what we know about the use by domestic courts of international human rights law is identified, based on the findings in this volume and earlier work on the use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). From that, three aspects of the domestic functions of international human rights treaties are tentatively identified as particularly significant: international human rights law is only partly internationally-directed; domestic courts very seldom appear to be acting as ‘agents’ of international human rights law; and ‘human dignity’ (sometimes by itself, sometimes alongside ‘autonomy’ and ‘equality’) acts as an important meta-principle in the domestic use of international human rights law. The implications these functions have for normative theorising about human rights, in particular practice-dependent theories of human rights, is considered, and a theory of human rights law consistent with this practice is identified.
Semantic Singularities
Authors: Simmons Keith
Published: July 2018

This book aims to provide a solution to the semantic paradoxes. It argues for a unified solution to the paradoxes generated by the concepts of reference or denotation, predicate extension, and truth. The solution makes two main claims. The first is that our semantic expressions ‘denotes’, ‘extension’, and ‘true’ are context-sensitive. The second, inspired by a brief, tantalizing remark of Gödel’s, is that these expressions are significant everywhere except for certain singularities, in analogy with division by zero. A formal theory of singularities is presented and applied to a wide variety of versions of the definability paradoxes, Russell’s paradox, and the Liar paradox. The book argues that the singularity theory satisfies the following desiderata: it recognizes that the proper setting of the semantic paradoxes is natural language, not regimented formal languages; it minimizes any revision to our semantic concepts; it respects as far as possible Tarski’s intuition that natural languages are universal; it responds adequately to the threat of revenge paradoxes; and it preserves classical logic and semantics. The book examines the consequences of the singularity theory for deflationary views of our semantic concepts, and concludes that if we accept the singularity theory, we must reject deflationism.
Identifying Singularities
Authors: Simmons Keith
Published: July 2018

Chapter 4 lays out the central notions that allow us to identify the singularities of a given occurrence (in ordinary English) of ‘denotes’, ‘extension’, or ‘true’. Key notions are those of the primary representation of an expression, and the primary tree of an expression. The primary tree displays the semantic network that the expression generates. The notions of pathology and singularity are then defined in terms of the notion of primary tree. The chapter argues that the singularity account respects Tarski’s intuition that natural languages are universal. The chapter concludes with a comparison of the singularity treatment of the simple paradox of denotation (introduced in Chapter 2) with those of Field and Scharp. Chapter 4 anticipates the fully formal singularity theory to be presented in Chapter 6.
A General Theory of Singularities
Authors: Simmons Keith
Published: July 2018

Chapter 6 presents the singularity theory in formal detail. The theory is pitched at a sufficiently general level to handle in a unified way the notions of denotation, extension, and truth. The central notions of semantic pathology and singularity are defined, and a procedure for determining the semantic value of a pathological token is provided. The chapter gives precise expression to the idea that our semantic expressions are significant everywhere except for certain singularities. Key ingredients of the formal theory include the notions of primary representation, primary tree, and determination tree. Paradoxical cases from previous chapters are used throughout the chapter to illustrate the formal definitions.
Consequences for Deflationism
Authors: Simmons Keith
Published: July 2018

Chapter 10 investigates the consequences of the singularity theory for deflationary theories in general and disquotational theories in particular. The chapter argues that if we accept the singularity theory, we must reject deflationary theories of truth, denotation, and extension. The phenomena of repetition and rehabilitation (introduced in Chapter 2, and discussed throughout the book) show that pathological expressions, such as Liar sentences, may be successfully assigned semantic values. As a consequence, there are truths from which ‘true’ cannot be disquoted away (and similarly with ‘denotes’ and ‘extension’). The chapter argues that one leading motivation for the deflationist-namely, the role that ‘true’ plays in expressing generalizations-is fully captured by the singularity theory.
Structural Transformation and Inclusive Growth
Authors: Sumner Andy
Published: July 2018

This chapter reviews currents in theory with a focus on modernization and neoclassical statements of comparative advantage on the one hand, and structuralism, dependency, and other theories of underdevelopment on the other. The latter theories of underdevelopment hit their zenith in the policies of the import-substitution industrialization of the 1960s and 1970s. They were largely dismissed in the 1980s as the limits of import-substitution industrialization became apparent and as East Asia industrialized, undermining any argument that structural transformation was problematic in the periphery. This chapter theorizes that neither orthodox nor heterodox theories of structural transformation adequately explain the development of late developers because of the heterogeneity of contemporary capitalism. That said, heterodox theories, which coalesce around the nature of incorporation of developing countries into the global economy, do retain conceptual usefulness in their focal point, ‘developmentalism’, by which we mean the deliberate attempts at national development led by the state.
Conclusion
Authors: Sumner Andy
Published: July 2018

In this concluding chapter, we draw together the book’s discussion. This chapter provides a retrospective of the book and the main arguments, and responds to three core questions outlined in the introduction: How deep, and of what nature, was the structural transformation and inclusive growth in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand? How did Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand deal with the distributional tensions that rapid change often entails? And how did Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand achieve such rapid economic and social transformation in a relatively short space of time? In other words, what does the experience of those countries imply for theories of economic and social transformation?
Hope, Telos, Xenos
Authors: Oklopcic Zoran
Published: July 2018

Rather than repudiating the proposition that the people is the bearer of constituent power, Chapter 4 moves beyond it in five ways: (1) by recuperating a commonsensical understanding of the moment of its exercise; (2) by redeeming the neglected dimensions of the concept of constituent power; (3) by distinguishing between two visions of ‘constituting’: constituting as founding, and constituting as taking part in ‘making-with stand’; (4) by reimagining constituent power as the configuration of three, more specific, types of constitutive powers: the enterprising enthusiasm, the forming force, and the capacity for responsiveness; and finally by (5) by raising the profile of the figures of hope and purpose: two intimately related forward-looking expectant mental states that give power to constitutive power.
An Isomorphic Pluriverse
Authors: Oklopcic Zoran
Published: July 2018

The task of Chapter 9 is to outline the vista beyond the Vattelian imaginary of sovereign equality. Instead of embracing one of its already existing alternatives, this chapter confronts the wagers, the assumptions, and the commitments that separate the most influential, but thus far mutually indifferent, five; but also a set of more basic images that they continue to share with the Vattelian imaginary even as they insist they have left it behind. One of the important tasks of these images, as this chapter hopes to show, is reconciliation—between infinite responsiveness and bounded power, between asymptotic orientation and situational equilibrium, between spatial scale and temporal pace, between the stability of structures and the dignity of transformations. To move beyond in this context is to ask: Can those pairs be reconciled differently? And more importantly: what for?
Drifting Through a Planetary System
Authors: Schrijver Karel
Published: July 2018

This chapter describes how the first found exoplanets presented puzzles: they orbited where they should not have formed or where they could not have survived the death of their stars. The Solar System had its own puzzles to add: Mars is smaller than expected, while Venus, Earth, and Mars had more water—at least at one time—than could be understood. This chapter shows how astronomers worked through the combination of these puzzles: now we appreciate that planets can change their orbits, scatter water-bearing asteroids about, steal material from growing planets, or team up with other planets to stabilize their future. The special history of Jupiter and Saturn as a pair bringing both destruction and water to Earth emerged from the study of seventeenth-century resonant clocks, from the water contents of asteroids, and from experiments with supercomputers imposing the laws of physics on virtual worlds.
The Worlds of Exoplanets
Authors: Schrijver Karel
Published: July 2018

The landscapes of exoplanets are likely to be incredibly diverse: exoplanets come in a large range of sizes and masses, and therefore surface gravities. Atmospheres can be thick layers, or absent. The interior makeup of exoplanets is even harder to know, but the formation scenarios of the giant planets and the remains of planets found in white-dwarf atmospheres provide insights. All that knowledge, combined with information on the central stars and other exoplanets within a system, provides a view of past, present, and future environments. This chapter reviews sample exoplanets and the conditions on their surfaces.
Hobbes on the Motives of Martyrs
Authors: Chadwick Alexandra
Published: July 2018

Hobbes acknowledges the threat to civil order posed by those who are prepared to sacrifice their bodily life for the sake of life eternal. Accordingly, his arguments aimed to restrict the circumstances in which it is necessary for Christians to choose martyrdom over obedience to a sovereign’s commands. Yet Hobbes’s consideration of the motives of would-be martyrs has often been thought to be in tension with his mechanistic-materialist psychology, in which all motivation is tied to the preservation of the body’s ‘vital motion’. This chapter shows that Hobbes’s psychology is able to account for the motives of martyrs. Reading Hobbes’s materialist model of motivation in the context of the Christian-Aristotelian account it was intended to replace, it argues that Hobbes’s psychology furthers his attempt to neutralize the danger religious motives pose to political order. For Hobbes, martyrs are not only mistaken about Scripture, but about their nature as human beings.
A Profile in Cowardice? Hobbes, Personation, and the Trinity
Authors: Newey Glen
Published: July 2018

This chapter addresses the development of Hobbes’s political theology during the 1660s, particularly in the Appendices to his Latin translation of Leviathan. It challenges the widely held view that Hobbes adapted his views through fear of being arraigned for heresy after his being named during parliamentary proceedings on the Atheism Bill. Hobbes was not in serious danger of being tried for heresy. Regardless of whether he took the risk seriously, Hobbes uninhibitedly restated controversial theological doctrine, notably in applying his theory of personation to the Trinity, and in certain respects made his position more rather than less radical. There is little interpretative merit in juxtaposing the English Leviathan of 1651 with the Latin version of 1668, and assuming that the latter aimed to accommodate resurgent Restoration Anglicanism. The wider moral is to beware of applying personal or political context too mechanically to the historical interpretation of philosophical texts.
Remaking French Alsace
Authors: Carrol Alison
Published: July 2018

The end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France, and celebrations in Paris and Alsace marked the region’s ‘homecoming’. Yet return proved trickier than expected, as voices inside and outside the region grappled with the question of how to undo almost fifty years of German rule, and how to make the region French again. These problems proved particularly acute in the areas of citizenship, administration, and laws, which raised the questions of who and what are French? This chapter traces the debates over these areas of life. It suggests that discussions were characterized by mutual misunderstandings and misperceptions, with opinion divided at both the centre and periphery and shaped by forces inside and outside France’s national borders. The result was a multi-cornered struggle, and this chapter suggests that integration must be understood as an ongoing and contested process.
How Including Labour Can Improve Corporate Governance
Authors: Hancké Bob
Published: July 2018

Involving labour in decision-making has the potential to improve corporate governance, even in adversarial industrial relations systems such as the ones found in Anglo-American economies. This chapter approaches corporate governance as an information problem—how do shareholders and other interested parties to the activities of a company know that management is working in their best long-term interest? If both labour and business are represented in decision-making, the information asymmetries that each faces are significantly alleviated by the presence of the other, which leads to more balanced outcomes. Representatives of business know relatively little about how the company is run, but a lot about how the company is doing in its key product markets. Labour may have only a tenuous grip on competitive strategy, but it is quite cognisant of how the company is run internally. A board system where representation is shared imposes transparency.
Canada’s Middle Class—Forever Further Behind?
Authors: Osberg Lars
Published: July 2018

This chapter highlights Canada’s distinctive trajectory of inequality and living standards. Inequality rose markedly because real incomes grew strongly at the very top but stagnated for most of the rest of the income distribution until the resource-led boom of the 2000s. The importance of macroeconomic policy is brought out, in particular the role of monetary policy in choking off growth in order to keep inflation low, at the cost of substantial unemployment. The growth in incomes at the very top may be underestimated by the available estimates, while the weakening of redistribution via the tax and transfer systems has accentuated the trend to greater inequality. The consequences of a sustained ‘squeeze’ on middle incomes and living standards are spelled out and the implications for the future, in the absence of a major shift in the growth strategy, are discussed.
The Driving Forces of Rising Inequality in Spain
Authors: Ayala Luis , Cantó Olga
Published: July 2018

This chapter describes the major changes in the Spanish economy over the period since the late 1970s and how these gave rise to the trends in inequality and household incomes it tracks. The substantial increases in real wages and incomes over the period, and how these differed over different sub-periods in the context of macroeconomic fluctuations, are emphasized. The changes in employment at individual and household level that took place alongside significant developments in the tax and transfer systems are brought out as major factors underpinning household income change. The contrast between the growth registered in the decades up to the economic Crisis and the severity of the recession it brought on is highlighted, and the extent of the impact of the recession on employment and household incomes is driven home.
Sovereign Defaults Before Domestic Courts
Authors: Kupelyants Hayk
Published: July 2018

The monograph examines sovereign debt litigation before the English and New York courts. English and New York courts are the two main jurisdictions customarily chosen to resolve sovereign debt disputes. The book sets out parties’ litigation choices at various stages of proceedings and provides the legal background against which parties to a sovereign bond may wish to negotiate. The defining characteristic of the monograph is that it examines sovereign debt litigation through the prism of private law. The monograph clearly grounds its analysis in the law as it exists, rather than purely policy-oriented reasoning (albeit it keeps a critical eye on the reasoning of the courts). The monograph concentrates on diverse litigation tactics and arbitrage strategies available to bondholders and sovereign debtors that appear before the English courts. In most cases, private creditors may obtain summary judgments with relative ease. That said, often serious issues arise at the stages of assumption of jurisdiction, determination of the governing law of sovereign bonds or substantive resolution of the claims in English proceedings. Similarly, the enforcement of sovereign bonds against the assets of the sovereign often presents serious obstacles, most significantly the doctrine of State immunity. The book offers an exhaustive account of litigation tactics available to bondholders and sovereign debtors alike. The book is unique in the breadth of its coverage. It examines issues of jurisdiction and choice of law at the preliminary stages of litigation, substantive challenges of various sorts to sovereign debt restructurings and to the repayment of bonds on merits, and enforcement of final judgments against the State and its assets in the post-judgment phase.
Jurisdiction and Cognate Matters
Authors: Kupelyants Hayk
Published: July 2018

Chapter 3 examines the international jurisdiction in sovereign debt disputes and particularly the following matters: service of proceedings; the jurisdiction under the Brussels Regulation, the jurisdiction under English national rules; individual standing of beneficial bondholders; class actions. The chapter also examines the issue of pre-emptive strikes in sovereign debt litigation, in other words whether private creditors may initiate legal actions before the conclusion of the sovereign debt restructuring and how courts may constrain such litigation. The chapter argues that the English courts may stay proceedings if they are brought in contravention of the powers of bondholders under majority action clauses. The chapter lastly addresses the issue of whether the majority may modify the bonds after the English court has issued a judgment.
Governing Law of Sovereign Bonds
Authors: Kupelyants Hayk
Published: July 2018

Chapter 4 examines the law applicable to sovereign domestic bonds in the absence of a choice of law provision. It is commonly believed that the domestic debt is necessarily governed by the law of the sovereign. The chapter challenges that premise by arguing that the law of the creditor should apply instead on the ground that the creditor is the party providing the characteristic performance. The chapter examines the possibility of escaping the governing law in favour of, among others, the law of the sovereign debtor. Lastly, the chapter examines the applicability of mandatory provisions in sovereign debt litigation.
A Taxonomy of Challenges to Sovereign Debt Restructurings
Authors: Kupelyants Hayk
Published: July 2018

Chapter 7 presents a taxonomy of challenges to the outcomes of sovereign debt restructuring, i.e. in what cases private creditors may argue that the restructurings was abusive, oppressive or otherwise invalid and has to be eviscerated accordingly. The starting point here is that the afflicted minority bondholder may challenge the abusive application of collective action clauses, at least in actions couched against the majority of bondholders that put the collective action clauses to use. The source of that power is the obligation of the majority to exercise its broad powers in good faith for the benefit of all bondholders and not to oppress minority bondholders. The chapter then proceeds to discuss the various iterations of this idea in respect of different collective action clauses.
Enforcement of Sovereign Debt
Authors: Kupelyants Hayk
Published: July 2018

Chapter 8 reviews the law on sovereign immunity in English and New York courts. The chapter analyses both immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from enforcement. The chapters pays particular attention to immunity from interim measures and disclosure of information. The immunity of State entities is examined lastly.
The Travis–McDowell Debate
Authors: Gersel Johan
Published: July 2018

The included papers by John McDowell and Charles Travis deserve a separate introduction. They are the latest instalments in an ongoing debate that has stretched across a series of exchanges (the main texts are Travis (2013a), Travis (2013b), McDowell (2009...
Do Perceptions Justify Beliefs?
Authors: Gauker Christopher
Published: July 2018

Why should we believe that perceptions justify beliefs? One argument starts with the premise that sentences of the form “a looks F” may be used to justify conclusions of the form “a is F”. That argument will show that perceptions justify beliefs only if we can find a reading of “a looks F” on which utterances of that form report the contents of perceptions and not the contents of non-perceptual beliefs. There might be a reading of “a looks F” on which utterances of that form report the contents of perceptions, but, when read in that way, such utterances do not justify a conclusion of the form “a is F”.
Objects and the Explanation of Perception
Authors: Brewer Bill
Published: July 2018

Persisting macroscopic material objects play a fundamental role in our commonsense understanding of the world around us, and this is central to our appreciation of their status as mind-independent things. I offer a characterization of one central aspect of this explanatory role and elaborate a conception of such objects themselves that I argue is essential to their playing it. I conclude that the objects that play this fundamental explanatory role meet the conception that I elaborate. The material objects that we encounter in perception are evidently independent of our perceptions of them; and, as such, they conform to what I call the Natural Continuants View.
Scepticism and the Senses
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: July 2018

This chapter considers some lessons that can be learned from philosophical scepticism and some strategies to be pursued in understanding human knowledge in the right way. It examines the conception of perceptual experience and what is needed for a more accurate—and hence more trouble-free—account of what we can and do in fact perceive. It also discusses René Descartes’s sceptical argument and his notion of perceptual knowledge before concluding with an explanation of what it calls propositional perception to account for knowledge of the world. It argues that we can perceive particular objects without believing or knowing anything about them. It is only with such ‘propositional’ objects of perception that direct perceptual knowledge of the world is possible, since knowledge is knowledge of what is so.
Seeing What is So
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: July 2018

This chapter argues that seeing is not only believing but also knowing. An ability to see things involves having one’s attention visually drawn to the object, or discriminating it from its surroundings in some way, or responding to it attentively, perhaps tracking it with your gaze if it is moving. The chapter considers ‘relational’ or ‘objectual’ seeing and its significance for all thinking about objects, while also emphasizing that thinking something about the objects you see requires considerably more than just seeing them. It suggests that any satisfactory understanding of human perceptual knowledge must make room for the fact that we know things about the world around us by perception alone. Since we can and do know many things about the world around us by perception alone, all such restrictive views of perceptual knowledge must be rejected.
Judgement, Self-Consciousness, Idealism
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: July 2018

This chapter considers the kind of self-consciousness that must also be present among the capacities required for propositional thought. It asks whether this self-consciousness involves some kind of activity, or some awareness of something, on the part of the thinker, and if so, what activity, or awareness of what. This question raises the spectre of idealism. Can the role of self-consciousness in thought be understood without implying that the truth of propositional thoughts is dependent in some way on the activities or experiences of the thinkers of them? This chapter argues that a capacity for judgement is indispensable for the possibility of thought and experience and examines the views of Rolf Peter Horstmann regarding the connection between self-consciousness and propositional thought.
Feelings and the Ascription of Feelings
Authors: Stroud Barry
Published: July 2018

This chapter is a philosophical discussion of beliefs, knowledge, sensations, and feelings. It also discusses self-ascription of actions and intentions. In particular, it examines David Finkelstein’s response to some remarks by Ludwig Wittgenstein about the conception of oneself, or the kind of self-consciousness, involved in ascribing feelings and sensations rather than thoughts or beliefs to ourselves. It also considers Finkelstein’s rejection of John McDowell’s claim that a sensation must be understood as ‘something that is not present prior to or independently of its being brought under a concept’. The chapter argues that when we come to the capacity for self-predication, knowledge of the truth of what is said is also part of competent self-ascription.
The Life‐Saving Argument
Authors: Sullivan Meghan
Published: July 2018

This chapter presents a well‐being argument against near bias: (1) At any given time, a rational agent prefers that her life going forward go as well as possible. (2) If you are near‐biased, then in distant tradeoffs you will prefer and choose the present, lesser good over the greater future good. (3) Your life going forward would go better if you preferred and chose the greater, future good in a distant tradeoff. (C) So near‐biased preferences are not rational, insofar as you face a distant tradeoff choice. Sections 2.3 and 2.4 consider and respond to objections to (1), including challenges from neo‐Humean conceptions of rationality. Section 2.5 examines (3) and considers three approaches for measuring whether a life “as a whole” is going better or worse: the Simple Approach, Structuralism, and Narrativism. It argues that Premise (3) of the Life‐Saving Argument is plausible on all three approaches.
The No Regrets Argument
Authors: Sullivan Meghan
Published: July 2018

This chapter introduces two well-being arguments against future bias. The Mixed Tradeoff Argument appeals to the premise that if you are indifferent between some amount of a good and some hedonic experience in the future, then you are rationally required to be indifferent between the same amount of the good and the experience when it is in the past. This premise is defended with cases in which past discounting makes an agent’s life worse. The No Regrets Argument appeals to the Weak Forecasting principle: if we will always have access to the relevant reasons, it is permissible for us to prefer any optionwe knowwewill never regret in favor of one we know we will eventually regret. The chapter argues that if Weak Forecasting is true, then being future-biased will lead one to prefer that her life go worse.
The Cartesian Element in Locke’s Anti-Cartesian Conception of Body
Authors: Hill James
Published: July 2018

Locke’s conception of body evolves in the Drafts of the Essay in visible engagement with the Cartesian view. The chapter makes the case that Locke’s agnosticism on the essence of matter is paradoxically derived from the most Cartesian elements in his theory of bodies. The sharp differences between the two thinkers are made possible by background agreement. Locke’s distinction between hardness and impenetrability parallels that of Descartes. The parallel is to be found not only in the relativity to sensation characteristic of hardness, but also in the conceptual or demonstrative status of the assertion that all bodies are impenetrable. This makes it impossible to ascribe to Locke a strict adherence to the atomistic view, which considers that the indivisibility of the ultimate particles results from their perfect hardness.
Locke and Descartes on Free Will
Authors: Kambouchner Denis
Published: July 2018

The chapter considers striking parallels in the evolution of Descartes’s and Locke’s thoughts and formulations with regard to the problem of free will, which, from almost opposite starting points, bring them closer together. The ‘family resemblance’ between them (also seen in Malebranche) is due to the recognition of the irreducibility and complexity of the problem concerning the determination of the will—a problem that cannot be solved with simplistic formulations such as ‘the will is necessitated’, or ‘the will is absolutely free’. Both Descartes and Locke carefully distinguish between various aspects of the question: whether the will can or cannot be compelled, whether it can resist the attractiveness of certain perceptions, whether the determination of the will obeys rules. When we examine their most carefully considered positions, what appears prima facie as an antinomy between the two doctrines must be significantly nuanced, to the point that the affinities prevail.
Social Evolution, Hamilton’s Rule, and Inclusive Fitness
Authors: Okasha Samir
Published: July 2018

Inclusive fitness theory, originally due to W. D. Hamilton, is a popular approach to the study of social evolution, but shrouded in controversy. The theory contains two distinct aspects: Hamilton’s rule (rB > C); and the idea that individuals will behave as if trying to maximize their inclusive fitness in social encounters. These two aspects of the theory are logically separable but often run together. A generalized version of Hamilton’s rule can be formulated that is always true, though whether it is causally meaningful is debatable. However, the individual maximization claim only holds true if the payoffs from the social encounter are additive. The notion that inclusive fitness is the ‘goal’ of individuals’ social behaviour is less robust than some of its advocates acknowledge.
The Astronomers' Magic Envelope
Authors: Saha Prasenjit , Taylor Paul A.
Published: July 2018

This is a conceptual introduction to astrophysical processes, at the advanced-undergraduate level. Topics are developed in more or less their historical order of discovery, but from a modern perspective. The book begins with orbits, gradually building in complexity to chaos, relativistic orbits and gravitational lensing, and eventually a semi-classical treatment of gravitational-wave sources. The second part is about how stars work, including related topics like the mass—radius relations for planets and stellar remnants. The third part is about the expanding universe and its history, the concluding section being about fluctuations in the microwave background. More than 60 exercises range from small conceptual puzzles to numerical solution of differential equations, for example, to find the value of Chan-drasekhar’s limit. An unusual feature of the book is the adaptive choice of units according to context, and unit con-versions, such as to and from Planckian units, are an important thread in the book. Observed phenomena are generally derived from basic principles and processes, with an emphasis—as highlighted in the title—on physical problem solving and approximation throughout.
Nuclear Fusion in Stars
Authors: Saha Prasenjit , Taylor Paul A.
Published: July 2018

This chapter enumerates some of the many nuclear reactions in stars. It focuses on a general principle: nuclear fusion requires overcoming the Coulomb barrier between nuclei, which is possible through the relatively infrequent process of quantum tunnelling. The tunnelling probability depends on the atomic num-bers and mass numbers of the nuclei involved, and also on their relative speed. These translate into steep and interesting temperature dependencies for nuclear reactions. Analytic approximations yield a rate that is almost vanishingly rare, yet within the incredibly large number of potential interactions within stars quantum tunnelling can still provide the underlying ignition of nuclear reactions.
The Expanding Universe
Authors: Saha Prasenjit , Taylor Paul A.
Published: July 2018

This chapter covers the now generally accepted ‘concordance model’ of the Universe, along with a few other historical models that were leading candidates previously. The theoretical underpinnings of the Cosmological Principle and its observational evidence are presented. The formalism of the Friedmann equation and the Robertson–Walker metric are introduced (without derivation), and the key concepts of lookback time and comoving distance are explained. The different mass–energy constituents in the concordance cosmology (including curvature, dark matter, and dark energy) are also described, along with their developmental histories. As a somewhat tangential but exciting development, the production of gravitational waves from compact object binaries is explained using semi-classical arguments.