bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cognitive Neuroscience and Religious Language
Authors: McNamara Patrick , Giordano Magda
Published: May 2018

Communication between deities and human beings rests on the use of language. Religious language has peculiarities such as the use of a formal voice, reductions in first-person and elevation of third-person pronoun use, archaistic elements, and an abundance of speech acts—features that reflect and facilitate the binding of the individual to conceived ultimate reality and value, decentering the Self while focusing on the deity. Explorations of the neurologic correlates of these cognitive and linguistic processes may be useful to identify constraints on neurocognitive models of religious language, and metaphor. The key brain regions that may mediate religious language include neural networks known to be involved in computational assessments of value, future-oriented simulations, Self-agency, Self-reflection, and attributing intentionality of goals to others. Studies indicate that some of the areas involved in those processes are active during personal prayer, whereas brain regions related to habit formation appear active during formal prayer. By examining religious language, and the brain areas engaged by it, we aim to develop more comprehensive neurocognitive models of religious cognition.
The Muslim Prophetic Tradition
Authors: El-Sharif Ahmad
Published: May 2018

This chapter surveys the major conceptual metaphorical source domains in the Prophet Muhammad’s Tradition and their mappings with reference to Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The Prophetic discourse makes great use of metaphors whose source domains vary considerably. These metaphors are systematically classified in particular spatial domains. In addition, the Prophetic metaphors show considerable discrepancy in terms of their degree of generality and specificity: many metaphoric schemas are generic in their mapping, while a large number are very specific in their mapping. Furthermore, the majority of the Prophetic metaphors are common, due to the ontological and structural functions of most of the Prophetic metaphors. This can be attributed to the fact that Islamic religious discourse is packed with abstract notions, and metaphorical language is the most accessible method of conceptualising and facilitating the understanding of such religious abstraction.
Afterword
Authors: Woodruff Paul
Published: May 2018

Justice entails a range of obligations to give, not all of which are strictly philanthropic. Neither the duty of restitution nor the duty to pay one’s fair share is philanthropic in Kant’ sense. Some considerations of justice are coincident with effective altruism, but some point in other directions. Much of the wealth and happiness in the rich world has been built on sacrifices forced on others, foreign or domestic, and our obligations to those others may be complex. So we may have justice-based obligations to give that compete with each other as well as with philanthropic duties. Philanthropic duties are wide and may be fulfilled in a number of ways. By contrast, duties of justice must be narrower; they may be fulfilled only toward certain recipients and (in some cases) in certain amounts. Duties of justice include reciprocity, paying one’s fair share, and avoiding free-ridership.
The Death of Mūsā al-Kāzim (d. 183/799)
Authors: Haider Najam
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines Twelver Shī‘ī scholarly treatments of martyrdom, with a particular focus on historical and theological discussions surrounding the figure of the Imām. Shī‘ī scholars attempted to reconcile two potentially contradictory positions: (1) a maximalist notion of the Imām’s knowledge; and (2) a belief that many (if not all) of the Imāms were murdered by their enemies. If both of these premises are true, then is an Imām ultimately complicit in his own death? If he takes no steps to avoid his own murder, then is this suicide? This chapter addresses these questions through a case study centered on the seventh Twelver Shī‘ī Imām, Mūsā al-Kāẓim (d. 183/799) as discussed by three early Shī‘a scholars: Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṣaffār al-Qummī (d. 290/902–03); Muḥammad b. Ya‘qūb al-Kulaynī (d. 329/940–41); and Ibn Bābawayh (d. 381/991–92).
Apologia for Suicide
Authors: Hafez Mohammed M.
Published: May 2018

Suicide attacks have become a conventional tactic in the arsenal of militant Islamists. Yet suicide is strictly prohibited in the Islamic heritage. Radical Salafists have succeeded in framing suicide attacks as religiously permissible, indeed venerable, by elevating human intentionality above textual forms of authority, and by euphemistically labeling such acts as martyrdom. They have also inferred a normative paradigm from Islam’s formative generations, pointing to examples of excessive risk-taking by the Prophet’s companions. In making these rationalizations, Salafist jihadists have cast aside their strict constructionist ethos and unveiled figurative meanings (ta’wil) in original verses and traditions to permit acts of self-immolation. In other words, in seeking to affirm their religious authenticity, they have violated their Salafist methodology. This methodological slippage has permitted other interpretive innovations, such as the permissibility of killing civilians and coreligionists in the course of justified warfare.
The Meanings of Sacrifice
Authors: Schonthal Benjamin
Published: May 2018

In this chapter, I reevaluate the question of whether Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) memorialization in Sri Lanka does or does not root itself in religion. I argue that “the religion question” has at times had the unhelpful effect of encouraging scholars to seek interpretive singularity in symbols, rhetoric, and events that may in fact be conspicuously and deliberately multivocal, and to see consistency in practices that have changed substantially over time. Looking at LTTE commemoration practices outside the context of the religion question allows one to see that, rather than simply religious or non-religious, LTTE memorialization practices were purposefully ambivalent. Moreover, it allows one to recognize how the nature of that ambivalence, itself, has changed since the 1990s.
What It All Comes Down To
Authors: Tzohar Roy
Published: May 2018

This chapter assembles the pieces of the puzzle, reconstructing Sthiramati’s argument in his commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśika that all language use is metaphorical. It demonstrates how Sthiramati joins many of the elements introduced in the previous chapters of this book into an innovative philosophical theory of meaning. The innovation lies in tying together, through the pan-figurative view, the Yogācāra understanding of the causal activity of consciousness with a linguistic theory of sense. This theory enabled Sthiramati to present a unique understanding of discourse that distinguishes among varying levels of truth within the conventional realm. This understanding sat well with the Yogācāra’s soteriological and theoretical needs, and most important, allowed Sthiramati to defend the meaningfulness of the school’s own metaphysical discourse in the face of the Madhyamaka’s radical conventionalism. This suggests that the prominent dispute between the early Yogācāra and the Mādhyamika turned on linguistic rather than ontological issues.
Introduction
Authors: Kim Sungmoon
Published: May 2018

This chapter introduces the conception of pragmatic Confucian democracy understood as a mode of democracy whose political institutions and social practices, which together make democracy a way of life, are justified on pragmatic grounds under the circumstances of modern politics in East Asia, whose civic culture remains characteristically Confucian. It offers a preliminary explanation for three key background assumptions that underpin pragmatic Confucian democracy, with a view to illuminating its distinctive features as a political theory relative to the existing proposals of Confucian democracy. Those background assumptions are (a) circumstances of modern politics, (b) second-order value of democracy, and (c) democracy as a social experience.
Humanitarian Intervention
Authors: Kim Sungmoon
Published: May 2018

This chapter argues that for the classical Confucian account of punitive expedition to be relevant to the modern international world and to be the theory of humanitarian intervention, focused on the suffering of the people rather than the moral qualification of the intervening ruler, it must undergo a democratic reconstruction with full attention to the circumstances of modern politics on both national and international levels. It argues that applying Confucian virtue politics, as it is, to the modern pluralist world as a form of political meritocracy is difficult to justify due to both internal and external obstacles posed by value pluralism, domestically as well as internationally. It stipulates that intervention be morally justified, first to the people of the intervening state, second to those who are intervened, and third to the international community, which has a moral duty to protect the well-being of the people in the world.
See No Evil
Authors: Hardt Heidi
Published: May 2018

As a second empirical chapter, Chapter 4 employs a comparative case approach to test the book’s argument against competing explanations in three cases of contemporary NATO crisis management. The results of these cases draw on NATO elites’ responses to open-ended survey questions. The first case assesses elites’ memory of strategic errors from a long crisis management operation: ISAF in Afghanistan. The second case presents elites’ memory of strategic errors from a short operation: Operation Unified Protector in Libya. The third case discusses elites’ memory of strategic errors in a crisis management case where no operation occurred: NATO’s actions in response to the crisis in Ukraine. The chapter begins by describing the methodology and then provides evidence of institutional memory development in each case. The chapter concludes with a discussion of findings that support the book’s argument as elites employed informal processes when contributing to NATO’s institutional memory.
The soft or hard borders of French identity: Honegger’s iconic role and subjectivity during Vichy
Authors: Fulcher Jane F.
Published: May 2018

Arthur Honegger was used symbolically by Vichy and the occupant, but even after the reality of French state collaboration became clear he refused to assume an unequivocal resistance stance. While Schaeffer gradually grew recalcitrant and then entered the Resistance, Honegger, who had been recruited through his friends, was expelled from the Resistance for his hesitation to thwart his use as a Vichy icon. Conveniently for the Vichy regime, his ambiguous cultural identity as a Swiss (German-speaking) national born and living in France, who intermingled German and French traits in his compositions, made him an emblem of Franco-German cultural collaboration. This chapter examines the way in which the French and Germans employed Honegger and his works, above all his opera Antigone, premiered in France in 1943.
Tracking the Camels of Love
Authors: Lipton Gregory A.
Published: May 2018

This chapter is based on a revised reading of Ibn ‘Arabi’s most famous verses from The Interpreter of Desires (Tarjumān al-ashwāq) that claim to follow “the religion of Love” via a heart “capable of every form.” It thus argues that modern Euro-American presuppositions regarding the nature of “religion” as a “system of beliefs” inform how the celebrated verses are commonly received and interpreted. While Ibn ‘Arabi’s claim to a heart “capable of every form” is synonymous with a claim to be capable of every belief, it is not tantamount to accepting the validity of every religion. Rather, the celebrated verses profess to inherit the comprehensive perfection of Muhammad as God’s beloved and, in so doing, reflect a discourse of religious absolutism and a subsumptive cosmology of power. It is precisely this cosmology of power that has been almost completely occluded by readings equating religion with belief.
Return of the Solar King
Authors: Lipton Gregory A.
Published: May 2018

This chapter challenges the widely held Perennialist view that Ibn ‘Arabi rejected the supersessionist doctrine of abrogation (naskh), by demonstrating that his positions on the religious Other should be understood within a larger religio-political cosmology that envisions all religions and their laws as subject to the cosmic rule of Muhammad. Even though this chapter clearly shows that Ibn ‘Arabi held Judaism and Christianity as abrogated by Islam, it nuances this assertion by showing that through obedience to the Qur’anic command requiring submission and the payment of the indemnity tax (jizya), the People of the Book are metaphysically subsumed within the broader cosmography of Ibn ‘Arabi’s conception of Islam and the absolute cosmological authority of the Prophet Muhammad.
Kant on Evil, Self-Deception, and Moral Reform
Authors: Papish Laura
Published: May 2018

Kant on Evil, Self-Deception, and Moral Reform explores the cognitive dimensions of evil and moral reform in Immanuel Kant’s mature ethical theory. Its questions include what self-deception is for Kant, why and how it is connected to evil, and how we achieve the self-knowledge that should take the place of self-deceit. Crucial related issues discussed in the book include the role of hedonism in Kant’s practical philosophy, the adequacy of Kant’s theory of character, Kant’s accounts of moral weakness and moral strength, the alleged universality of evil in human nature, how social institutions and interpersonal relationships facilitate self-knowledge, and the role of the ethical community in moral reform. Working with both Kant’s core texts on ethics and materials less often cited within scholarship on Kant’s practical philosophy (such as Kant’s logic lectures), this book addresses a significant gap in the existing literature, which generally favors—but does not adequately discuss or defend—Kant’s repeat allusions to the idea that evil requires self-deceit. Through its exploration of how self-deceptive rationalization and self-cognition relate, respectively, to evil and its overcoming, this book investigates, defends, and provides a new lens for understanding Kant’s treatment of evil while engaging the most influential—and often scathing—of Kant’s critics.
Self-Deception, the Necessary Conditions of Evil, and the Entrenchment of Evil
Authors: Papish Laura
Published: May 2018

This chapter considers two ways that self-deception might relate to an evil that is rooted in human beings or “radical” in nature. It is asked, first, whether self-deception is a necessary condition of evil, and, second, whether self-deception explains the entrenchment or obstinate quality of evil. It is argued that Kant has grounds for concluding that self-deception plays both these roles. Kantians and contemporary philosophers who resist seeing self-deception as a necessary condition of evil are addressed, as are Kant’s accounts of diabolical evil, the passions, and temptation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how Kant’s commitments to transcendental freedom are implicated in his views regarding evil and temptation.
The Trouble with Justice
Authors: Goodhart Michael
Published: May 2018

This chapter offers a review and critique of the core assumptions and procedures of ideal moral theory, the dominant approach to theorizing questions of justice and injustice in global normative theory. It does so with the aim of defamiliarizing readers with this approach, that is, of making it seem less like a natural, sensible, coherent, and necessary approach to theorizing injustice than like a strange, bewildering, and profoundly problematic one. The chapter stresses two important but rarely discussed assumptions of ideal moral theory: it conceptualizes injustice as the absence or opposite of justice, and it presumes that only justified moral principles can provide an adequate and reliable guide for critique and reform. These assumptions are problematic and contribute to three pathologies that cripple ideal moral theory: analytical paralysis, a reflex to subordinate politics to morality, and a disposition to distortional thinking.
Barking Up the Wrong Trees
Authors: Goodhart Michael
Published: May 2018

This chapter shows that three of the central debates within global normative theory are afflicted by the three pathologies associated with the dominant approach. Constructivist methods for identifying principles of justice are both blatantly undemocratic and severely distortional; debates about the scope of justice are depoliticizing, question begging, and philosophically irresolvable; claims about how the global order affects the poor depoliticize and distort power relations in the global economy and ignore the ideological context in which the claims themselves operate. The argument is not that IMT gives problematic answers to these questions but rather that the questions themselves are unhelpful and unnecessary, artifacts of the approach. In making these arguments, the chapter continues the work of defamiliarization begun in the previous chapter.
Getting Real?
Authors: Goodhart Michael
Published: May 2018

Chapter 3 engages with realist political theory throughcritical dialogues with leading realist theorists. It argues that realist political theories are much more susceptible to conservatism, distortion, and idealization than their proponents typically acknowledge. Realism is often not very realistic either in its descriptions of the world or in its political analysis. While realism enables the critical analysis of political norms (the analysis of power and unmasking of ideology), it cannot support substantive normative critique of existing social relations or enable prescriptive theorizing. These two types of critique must be integrated into a single theoretical framework to facilitate emancipatory social transformation.
A Democratic Account of Injustice
Authors: Goodhart Michael
Published: May 2018

Chapter 5 articulates a democratic account of injustice from the core principles of freedom and equality for everyone. My aim in this chapter is to show how theorists can do substantive normative or partisan work within the bifocal approach. This account locates injustice in deformities of power relations—in domination, oppression, and exploitation—and recommends specific feminist epistemological tools and dialectical methods of inquiry appropriate for a democratic conception of injustice. The chapter illustrates the advantages of the bifocal approach, showing how it changes the way we think as theorists about the type and purpose of the normative work we undertake as ideologists.
Contentious Engagement
Authors: Moseley Mason W.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the cross-national determinants of protest participation in Latin American democracies, testing several central expectations from the protest state theory. Drawing on data from the AmericasBarometer, a biennial survey conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) from 2004 to 2014, and World Bank governance indicators, I use multilevel modeling techniques to evaluate how country-level institutional characteristics interact with individual-level indicators of political engagement to explain protest behavior. Rather than offering support for dominant grievance-based explanations of protest or theoretical perspectives couched solely within the resource mobilization or political opportunities traditions, I find that an interactive relationship between institutional context and civic engagement best explains why Latin Americans choose to protest.
Protest from the Top Down
Authors: Moseley Mason W.
Published: May 2018

This chapter tests another observable implication of the protest state theory; namely that where protest has normalized as an everyday form of political voice, political elites actively mobilize demonstrators in pursuit of their goals. In other words, rather than serving only as a spontaneous political expression of the masses, protest is often orchestrated and managed by formal political organizations. I first investigate how linkages to political organizations fuel contentious behavior in protest states like Argentina and Bolivia, but are more strongly associated with conventional participation in strongly institutionalized contexts like Chile and Uruguay. Then, utilizing a unique battery of questions from the AmericasBarometer national surveys of Argentina and Bolivia, I also test the hypothesis that clientelism can motivate protest participation in a context where protest has normalized as a standard form of political voice.
Democracy in the Protest State
Authors: Moseley Mason W.
Published: May 2018

The book ends with a chapter on the implications and conclusions to be drawn from its findings, and avenues for future research. Few scholars have examined the consequences of varying levels of institutional quality for mass political participation in Third Wave democracies, making the findings of this book an important addition to our understanding of important political phenomena in Latin America. Moreover, by connecting these institutional factors to recent trends in political engagement in the region, it explains how socioeconomic gains can produce heightened rates of protest participation in certain institutional environments. Overall, the findings from this book call for a recalibration of the received wisdom on the nexus between political institutions, civic engagement, and contentious politics, and deepen our understanding of Latin American democracy today.
Tonal Structure
Authors: Yust Jason
Published: May 2018

The concept of tonal structure is intimately associated with the person of Heinrich Schenker, but ultimately in order to enter dialogue with Schenker the theory of tonal structure must take the place of “Schenkerian analysis” in our discourse. A number of useful principles of tonal structure may be derived from Schenker’s theory: Schenkerian notation agrees with the network representation for temporal structure, and linear progressions are a good starting point for a tonal structure discovery procedure. The theory of the Ursatz, however, cannot be understood as an empirical claim but rather as a collection of grammatical norms. Also, Schenker’s dismissal of the concept of key is disputed, and a theory of tonal structure to which keys and modulation are integral is presented.
Timespan Intervals
Authors: Yust Jason
Published: May 2018

David Lewin’s concept of timespan interval is applied to theories of hypermeter and rhythmic structure. The special property of timespan intervals is that the distances between them are measured relative to their lengths. They are therefore useful for equating hierarchical structures of timespans appearing at different levels of rhythmic structure, as an analysis of hemiolas in the F major prelude J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier book I shows. A system of transformations is defined for navigating hierarchical networks of timespans, including translations, containment relations, and projections. The operations used to define rhythmic classes (swing, squeeze, syncopation, and meter change) are defined in terms of extensions and truncations applied within a structural network.
Syncopation
Authors: Yust Jason
Published: May 2018

Syncopation is notoriously hard to define, and is sometimes understood as a rhythmic property, sometimes as a rhythmic transformation. This chapter disambiguates many forms of syncopation—contrapuntal syncopation, tonal syncopation, structural syncopation, and metrical and rhythmic dissonance. These are united by a common source in some type of displacement. Extended analysis of Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony, first movement, and a related C.P.E. Bach symphony, illustrates the use of rhythmic dissonance and interactions between syncopation and counterpoint. Further examples demonstrate the possibility of syncopation at hypermetrical levels, concluding with two extended analyses of hypermetric syncopation in Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony Scherzo and op. 95 String Quartet where rhythmic irregularities play crucial roles in the formal narrative.
Counterpoint
Authors: Yust Jason
Published: May 2018

Counterpoint, the stratification of a musical texture into structurally independent voices, occurs in the domains of rhythm, tonality, and form. In all situations, we recognize the structures of individual voices, and a total structure that results from the combination. The methods of combining structures are similar in rhythm and form. Rhythmic counterpoint is an especially important technique for Brahms, as a number of examples illustrate. Schenker’s concepts of unfolding and horizontalization describe coordination of counterpointed structures in the tonal domain. Formal counterpoint is a more novel concept, but by analogy to rhythmic and tonal counterpoint, we can understand recapitulation-based forms like sonata form and rounded binary as a manifestation of formal counterpoint.
The Great Divergence
Authors: McCabe Joshua T.
Published: May 2018

Chapter 2 looks at the “great divergence,” when logics of appropriateness were institutionalized in public policies. It shows just how similar all three countries were in the interwar period. Prior to World War II, American, British, and Canadian policymakers held similar views on when it was appropriate to provide direct cash benefits to families with children. Nascent projects for postwar reconstruction changed this in Canada and the UK as each country introduced family allowances in the mid-1940s. Children were recognized for the first time ever as deserving of direct cash benefits according to a new logic of income supplementation. The US on the other hand never introduced family allowances. The unintended result was the noninstitutionalization of the logic of income supplementation for families. The policy legacies established during this period were crucial for shaping later responses to inflation and child poverty.
Death as Transition in Judahite Mortuary Practices
Authors: Suriano Matthew
Published: May 2018

Death is transitional in the Hebrew Bible, but the challenge is in understanding how this transition worked. The ritual analysis of Judahite bench tombs reveals a dynamic concept of death that involved the transition of the dead body. The body would enter the tomb during primary burial; there it would receive provisions as it rested on a burial bench. Eventually the remains of the dead would be secondarily interred inside the tomb’s repository. This final stage, the repository, is marked by the collective burial of bones. The transition of the dead, therefore, involves the body in different conditions, first as an individual corpse and then as a collection of bones. The process of burial and reburial inside the bench tomb offers new insight into the idea that postmortem existence in the Hebrew Bible is predicated on the fate of the body.
Death, Dying, and the Liminality of Sheol
Authors: Suriano Matthew
Published: May 2018

The term “Sheol” that occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible has two general senses related to death. It can be used to refer to a mythologized realm of the dead, or, more commonly, it appears as a type of tomb. The two senses overlap, but they are important to distinguish when analyzing the poetic imagery associated with Sheol, because they both form contexts of death that surround the psalmist. This chapter’s review of four psalms explores the sense of death that is associated with Sheol. In these psalms, Sheol conveys an idea of liminality that is consistent with the transitional nature of death. Sheol represents the boundaries that separate the living from the dead. It is something that marginalizes those it affects, and as such it reflects a dynamic nature of death.
Comparisons across World Regions
Authors: Soest Christian von , Stroh Alexander
Published: May 2018

Scholars often pay insufficient attention to bridging the research divide between different world regions. The authors argue that structured qualitative comparisons across world regions offer a sound middle ground for the integration of universal approaches and context knowledge. The chapter puts forward suggestions about how to deal with challenges in cross-area comparisons at the conceptual, methodological, and practical level. First, scholars should integrate region-centered academic discourses to foster conceptual advancement and empirical research, thereby overcoming the restricted horizons of specific knowledge communities. Second, systematic research designs and case-selection criteria should be aligned with area awareness to reap the benefits of cross-regional CAS. Third, the authors’ notion of “applied CAS” implies that practical considerations for successful comparative research must be understood as an important constituent of any successful research strategy. Cross-area comparisons are indispensable if social science aims to provide truly universal explanations in touch with the diverse realities of a globalized world.
Context, Concepts, and Comparison in Southeast Asian Studies
Authors: Huotari Mikko , Rüland Jürgen
Published: May 2018

This chapter argues that the value of comparative area studies (CAS) depends on some original frame of reference, here the field of Southeast Asian studies. We trace the evolution of this field in view of research on other world regions and general methodological debates. The chapter also highlights the role of CAS in overcoming increasingly rigid methodological divides over such core issues as context-sensitivity and the challenges of comparative research practice. We outline a methodologically pluralist framework of area studies comparisons. This requires methodological bridges between mainstream disciplines and area studies as well as innovative approaches to conceptual problems associated with comparing different regions and cultures. In the process, CAS can also increase attention to non-Western regions, which sometimes get short shrift in theory building in the social sciences. Thus, CAS is in a particularly strong position to mediate the ongoing internationalization and “de-Westernization” of global knowledge.
American Political Development in the Mirror of Europe
Authors: Ahmed Amel
Published: May 2018

Area-specific knowledge is indispensable for studying political development, but this can also lead to “blindspots” when conducting historical research if one’s horizons are limited to conventionally defined “areas.” Focusing on the 19th century, the author argues that the compartmentalization of the study of European and American political development has restricted our understanding of both. Particularly in struggles over democratization, pre-democratic elites in both regions saw their fates as linked and adopted similar strategies. In fact, one such strategy—the manipulation of electoral systems to limit working-class influence—was a mainstay of European politics, but first emerged in the American context. This finding illustrates the benefits of a comparative area studies (CAS) framework. A context-sensitive comparison of European and American political development offers a new perspective on the question of institutional endogeneity in Europe, while offering a new take on the question of “why no workers’ parties in the United States?”
Comparative Area Studies and the Analytical Challenge of Diffusion
Authors: Ahram Ariel I.
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the contribution of comparative area studies (CAS) in explaining global diffusionary processes. Diffusion is a methodological and theoretical challenge to all social science inquiry. CAS innovates beyond traditional area studies by emphasizing three distinct comparative strategies: intra-regional, interregional, and cross-regional. Each strategy rests on different ontological bases and deploys different logics to explain its comparative choices. Collectively, though, these three approaches provide an integrated perspective on how political processes transcend national and regional boundaries. In using the example of the Arab Spring, the chapter demonstrates the utility of CAS in explaining how protests spread so quickly, how regimes responded, and why they had different impacts in different regimes. Ultimately, no single methodology—much less a single study—can adequately capture every dimension of diffusion. Collaboration between induction and deductive, between idiographic and nomothetic tendencies, is key.
Organizing Production across Regions
Authors: Chen Calvin P.
Published: May 2018

Wenzhou, once a neglected locale on China’s southeastern seaboard, has in the post-Mao era experienced tremendous economic growth and produced some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs. With the acceleration of Chinese out-migration in the post–Cold War era, key features of the “Wenzhou model”—extensive use of social capital, self-reliance, and risk-taking—have appeared among Chinese businesses across Europe. This chapter examines this phenomenon through a cross-regional ethnographic approach. Although ethnography is typically site-specific, for the purpose of tracing diaspora practices and experiences, it is feasible and fruitful to conduct ethnography across areas. Such an approach illuminates surprising parallels between the “Wenzhou model” and its newer incarnation in Prato, Italy. It also traces economic success of the Chinese there to their ability to recognize and exploit certain similarities between Wenzhou and Prato, and to the Wenzhounese’s long-standing ability to adapt core business practices to “fit” better with different environments.
Uncontested Legal Practices
Authors: Nelson William E.
Published: May 2018

Chapters 1 and 2 focus on colonial legal practices that Parliament challenged in the1760s and 1770s and that Americans turned to rebellion to defend. This chapter turns to important legal practices in the colonies that Parliament did not challenge. First was a practice of nascent federalism. Second was a trend toward disestablishment of specific Protestant denominations together with the emergence of a generic Protestant religiosity. Third is a contrast between slavery in New England, where people of African descent were treated as human beings, and slavery in the South, where they were treated as chattels. The chapter also discusses developments in the law of property and the law of debtor-creditor.
Government Failure in Two Colonies
Authors: Nelson William E.
Published: May 2018

The institutions of imperial governance, however, could not maintain their authority or at times even maintain minimal law and order in North Carolina and northern New York. Both colonies faced open rebellion. The legal system was dysfunctional throughout North Carolina during much of the 1730s and 1740s, and the western, frontier sections of the colony were in open rebellion in the late 1760s and early 1770s. New York faced scattered, periodic rebellions in the Taconic region, the Mohawk Valley, and what is now Vermont from 1750 onward.
Weakening the Bonds of Empire
Authors: Nelson William E.
Published: May 2018

This chapter analyzes a series of cases between 1735 and the 1760s in which members of the legal profession opposed royal officials and royal policies and in the process articulated a body of constitutional doctrine that ultimately pointed the thirteen colonies toward independence. The results in the cases and the doctrines growing out of them were widely publicized and disseminated. The chapter begins with the Zenger Case, turns to a dispute in Virginia over the governor’s demand for a fee for sealing land patents, continues with the Parsons’ Cause, and ends with the Writs of Assistance Case, in which James Otis, Jr., first articulated the American doctrine of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislation.
Testing the Bonds of Empire
Authors: Nelson William E.
Published: May 2018

This chapter turns to two British laws that pushed Britain’s thirteen colonies toward revolution and independence—the Proclamation of 1763 and the Stamp Act. The Proclamation of 1763 did not lead directly to revolution, but it did make Americans like George Washington think that the British ministry had “a malignant disposition to Americans.” The Stamp Act produced more violent protest, together with a series of cases in seven colonies that, either in specific language or in practical effect, held Parliament’s Stamp Act unconstitutional. None of the cases examined in this chapter have ever been analyzed in the literature concerning Marybury v. Madison and the origins of the American doctrine of judicial review.
Conclusion: Legal and Constitutional Legacies
Authors: Nelson William E.
Published: May 2018

The conclusion makes two arguments. First, it takes the position common in the historical literature that the American Revolution was a comparatively placid one, with few killings of civilians, little property destruction, and no reign of terror. It argues that the placidity was a consequence of legal continuity—the same courts, judges, and juries that had governed the colonies in 1770 in large part continued to govern the new American states in 1780. During the course of the War of Independence itself, legal and constitutional change occurred almost entirely at the top, and, except in the few places occupied by the British military, life went on largely as it always had. The conclusion also argues that old ideas of unwritten constitutionalism persisted during and after the Revolution, but that a new idea that constitutions should be written to avoid ambiguity emerged beside the old ideas.
Orthodoxy and Authority
Authors: O'Hara Alexander
Published: May 2018

The fight against religious deviance and heresy was among the missionary activities of Columbanus’s followers, but the struggle for orthodoxy was also a problem the community had to face, most notably during the Agrestius affair after his death. In 626 Eustasius of Luxeuil had to answer charges of religious deviance at a council in Mâcon. In the end, the abbot of Luxeuil and his counterpart were forced to reconcile, but the conflict still smoldered. This chapter sheds light on the tensions between the missions among the gentes and the role of allegations of heresy in the internal conflicts of the Columbanian community in the 620s against the backdrop of the wider worries about orthodoxy in the seventh century. It also addresses the textual dimension of the issue and tries to illuminate the reasons for how Jonas of Bobbio presents Eustasius and the Agrestius affair in the Vita Columbani.
Between Metz and Überlingen
Authors: O'Hara Alexander
Published: May 2018

After Columbanus was expelled from Luxeuil, he journeyed to Paris and Metz. Theudebert, ruler of Austrasia, proposed that Columbanus found a monastery on the eastern edges of his kingdom. Columbanus consented and led his monks to the Lake Constance area, where they engaged in a failed missionary attempt. They angered the local populace with their forceful proselytization and were soon driven out of the region. Columbanus resumed his initial plan to relocate to Italy, but one of his monks, Gallus, was left behind and later set up a small hermitage near the Steinach stream. Jonas of Bobbio described the entire episode in terms of mission, but Columbanus was not literally a missionary. His Alamannian activities are best understood when compared to his other attempts at monastic foundation. This chapter explores the political undertones of the Alamannian mission, the reasons for its ultimate failure, and the later achievements of Gallus.
Introduction
Authors: Nicholls Simon , Pushkin Michael , Ashkenazy Vladimir
Published: May 2018

This introduction offers an explanation of the book’s content and an overview of the background to Skryabin’s artistic development: the currents of thought of Russian symbolism and the debate about the significance of art; the relevance of the ‘Russian idea’; the concept of ‘ecstasy’ in Russian philosophy and Russian symbolism. It explores differences between Russian and Western approaches to philosophy, and gives a brief summary of the main influences on Skryabin. This is followed by an account of elements in Skryabin’s life which affected his development and outlook: loss of a talented mother in infancy; isolated upbringing; and personal setbacks: an injury which threatened to prevent him from performing, disappointment in first love, an unsuccessful marriage, a new relationship, exile in Switzerland and Belgium, return to Russia, and sudden death from blood poisoning, which brought to birth a ‘Skryabin myth’. It also examines personal and artistic (mostly philosophical and literary) influences.
Commentary
Authors: Nicholls Simon , Pushkin Michael , Ashkenazy Vladimir
Published: May 2018

Sources of the thinking are given, preceded by an investigation of the relation between philosophy and music, an account of the idiosyncratic way Skryabin studied, an interview between Skryabin and a philosopher of the period and a memoir by a student and patron summarizing the thought. The titles of the sections show the sources and influences: Ernest Renan, Greek philosophy, German idealism, Russian philosophy, and Russian symbolism, Conference at Geneva (this was a philosophical conference of which Skryabin studied some of the material), the influence of theosophy, and Indian culture. These influences were combined by Skryabin, not into a system but into a world view which vitally affected his creative work.(114)
Supplementary Texts by Alexander Skryabin
Authors: Nicholls Simon , Pushkin Michael , Ashkenazy Vladimir
Published: May 2018

Two notes from Skryabin’s youth: an account of his hand injury and its effect on his religious beliefs, and a statement of his inner aspirations. Three music-related texts: annotations to an unfinished Ballade, the text of a song, and a poem to complement the Fourth Sonata. Early letters to Natalya Sekerina showing Skryabin’s philosophical relation to nature. Letters to his partner Tat’yana de Schloezer concerning the creative process, to his patron Margarita Morozova on the sources of his thinking and his attitude to contemporary politics. An open letter to Aleksandr Bryanchaninov on the significance of the War.
Introduction
Authors: Buchler Justin
Published: May 2018

Spatial theory is divided between models of elections and models of roll call voting, neither of which alone can explain congressional polarization. This chapter discusses the history of spatial theory, why it is important to link the two strands of spatial models, and the value of reversing the order of conventional models. Conventional models place an election before policy decisions are made. This chapter proposes a unified spatial model of Congress in which the conventional order is reversed. First, there is a legislative session, then an election in which voters respond retrospectively, not to the locations candidates claim to hold, but to the bundles of roll call votes that incumbents cast to incrementally adopt their locations in the policy space. Such a model is best suited to explaining three puzzles: why do legislators adopt extreme positions, how do they win, and what role do parties play in the process?
Conclusions
Authors: Buchler Justin
Published: May 2018

Several puzzles remain unresolved by the unified model. The first is why legislators have noncentrist preferences in the first place. The unified model, because it begins with a legislative session, takes preferences as initial conditions, so it is unsuited to explaining this puzzle. Second, while the model focuses on explaining polarization in the House of Representatives, the Senate too has become more polarized. Finally, it remains to be seen what will happen to the divisions among congressional Republicans as the legislative agenda shifts back to an agenda under unified government. Moving forward, spatial models of elections must consider the institutional rules of the office being sought, and explore alternative structures. Party scholars must also rethink the role of parties in representation if their primary purpose is to prevent responsiveness to legislators’ constituents.
The Power of Screen Stories
Authors: Plantinga Carl
Published: May 2018

Stories presented on screens have the potential to influence individuals and cultures because they are pervasive, because they are stories (in narrative form), and because they partake of the special capacities of audiovisual media. This chapter surveys a broad spectrum of responses to the power of screen storytelling, discussing social worker Jane Addams, the Production Code of 1930, government censorship, attempts to harness the narrative power of screen storytelling in propaganda, and experiments in social engineering through telenovelas. The chapter goes on to consider the role of storytelling in human cultures from an evolutionary perspective. It considers the specific nature of storytelling on screens and through audiovisual media and describes the ubiquity of mass narratives and their viewing contexts in contemporary culture. The chapter also describes storytelling techniques unique to audiovisual media.
The Personal and the Political
Authors: Plantinga Carl
Published: May 2018

This chapter describes the “personalistic bias” argument against taking characters as moral agents, and argues that although the argument identifies a real concern, to fail to see fictional characters as moral agents does more harm than good. The most salient objection against taking fictional characters as moral agents is that it distracts viewers from politics, institutions, systems, and contexts. The chapter argues that the personal is political, in that the representation of a fictional character can become a “public mythology” with significant cultural influence. Paying attention to characters as moral agents is also important because the representation of individual characters in a narrative context elicits emotions in relation to narrative paradigm scenarios, and those emotional responses have significant cultural importance.
Narrative Structure
Authors: Plantinga Carl
Published: May 2018

After a discussion of the most important thought about narrative closure and ethics, this chapter goes on to explore one sort of ending—the frame shifter—that was a feature of many episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone. Ethical critics have tended to assume that closed endings are nearly always ethically inferior to open endings. The chapter examines some of the chief arguments made for this claim, rejecting them as totalizing. The chapter argues that some kinds of closed endings, such as the “frame shifter,” have the capacity to encourage the kind of critical thinking favored by many critics, one that allow spectators to experience rapid perspective shifts that can encourage perspective-taking.
Narrative Paradigm Scenarios
Authors: Plantinga Carl
Published: May 2018

This chapter examines the revenge scenario, arguing that, from an ethical perspective, screen storytellers should approach the scenario with caution and, when using it, complicate, nuance, and question it. The revenge scenario works because it is a reliable way to elicit the strong emotions that draw viewers. The pleasures of revenge scenarios depend upon Manichaean distinctions between good and evil—the good tribe and the bad tribe, the morally upright protagonist and the vile offender. If humans are tribal creatures, the typical revenge scenario exaggerates tribal feelings through narrative means and uses them to elicit strong and pleasurable emotional responses dependent on clear distinctions between us and them and simplified exaggerations of the Good and the Bad. The chapter examines the revenge scenario as it is employed in Django Unchained, Funny Games, and True Grit.
Introduction
Authors: Rosenblatt Fernando
Published: May 2018

This chapter presents and develops the research question, What explains the ability of a given party to remain a vibrant organization over time and across junctures? It defines the dependent variable as party vibrancy, and presents the four hypothesized causal factors: Purpose, Trauma, Channels of Ambition, and moderate Exit Barriers. The literature on political parties is among the oldest in political science. Hence, the chapter engages in a dialogue with the literature, in order to establish the theoretical foundation of this research. The chapter also considers rival empirical hypotheses and develops the main aspects of the qualitative case study research that guided the empirical assessment.