bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
David, Faith, and the Confusion of History in Calvin’s Commentary on the Psalms
Authors: Pitkin Barbara
Published: June 2020

This chapter considers John Calvin’s portrayal of the psalmist David as a paradigm for the faith of sixteenth-century Christians and illuminates a development in his doctrine of faith that his commentary on the Psalms (1557) makes especially clear. In contrast to most of the earlier exegetical tradition, Calvin focuses on the historical person, David, and downplays David’s prophetic status. In order to retrieve David’s faith as an example for his own day, Calvin takes a restrained view of traditional messianic interpretations and posits a similarity between David’s situation and the present that acknowledges but also bridges the vast historical distance—and the two dispensations of the one covenant. Calvin depicts David’s faith using perceptual metaphors and offers perspective on faith’s response to the confusion of history.
The Consolation of History in Calvin’s Sermons on Second Samuel
Authors: Pitkin Barbara
Published: June 2020

In May 1562, John Calvin began a series of sermons on Second Samuel, seeking to shape the response of ordinary Genevans to the first French religious-civil war by appealing to biblical history to illuminate the present. Calvin teaches how to learn from scripture and distinguish elements of perpetual significance from anachronisms relevant only to the history of Israel. He presents sacred history as a unique record of the past that, unlike profane history, can speak to the present through its chronicle of past events. Calvin urges his listeners to compare the events depicted in Second Samuel to their own experience. This historical vision, in which biblical history becomes a living and lived lesson, also shapes a treatise written during the third war by François Hotman, Calvin’s colleague and theorist of legal history. Hotman also sought and found the consolation of the Holy Spirit through Old Testament history, viewed afresh from the experience of wartime affliction. For both Reformed thinkers, the biblical past and the experience of war combined to forge a key spiritual weapon: a historical vision of the present tied into divine providence throughout the ages.
Epilogue
Authors: Pitkin Barbara
Published: June 2020

This epilogue reflects on what John Calvin’s historicizing approach to scripture, evidenced in his actual engagement with the biblical writings, figures, and themes examined in Calvin, the Bible, and History, might contribute to an understanding of Calvin’s sense of history more broadly. As Euan Cameron has noted, Calvin was not a historian in a strict sense, but he was quite historically minded. This book demonstrates that the sine qua non for understanding Calvin’s broader concept of history lies in grasping the historical consciousness manifested in his engagement with the biblical past. Contributions include a more nuanced view of Calvin’s understanding of the Bible as a historical document and source, a more refined perspective on how he squares his historicizing convictions with his search for contemporary religious meaning, and insight into his concept of history: the relation of sacred and profane accounts of past time and history as a temporal process, under the guidance, to be sure, of divine providence.
De-Mobilizing a Mobilized Society
Authors: El Kurd Dana
Published: June 2020

What impact does authoritarianism have on political mobilization? Despite high levels of mass mobilization in the past, Palestinian society today finds itself polarized and demobilized. Concurrently, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has gained control as a governing apparatus, and has become increasingly authoritarian in nature. But, the PA does not have complete control over the territories; its level of control varies based on the Oslo II/Interim Agreements of 1995. This variation in control (over a homogeneous population) allows us to isolate the effect of authoritarianism on mobilization patterns and social dynamics. Using an original dataset and a qualitative assessment of the PA's historical development, I find that mobilization has declined systematically in places where the Palestinian Authority has more direct control. Counter-intuitively, political mobilization today is actually more prevalent in areas under direct Israeli occupation. Findings suggest the PA has a direct role in this dynamic, using selective cooptation and repression. Overall, authoritarian strategies have inhibited social cohesion, and led to a decreased capacity for mobilization.
Getting Out of Feudalism— and Staying Out!
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

This chapter expands on the concept of feudalism as an economic system distinct from both capitalism and socialism. The focus will be on what feudalism’s central injustices are and how early work on the moral foundations of capitalism sought to emphasize the role of markets in rescuing people from feudal servitude. Later sections of the chapter look at some important contemporary concerns about the resurgence of some elements of feudal economic order and the sorts of economic injustices to which they give rise, particularly with regard to inherited wealth, access to housing, and alleged employer domination in labor markets.
We Are the World; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Trade
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines some concerns about capitalism with respect to relations between different countries, or people within them. The main focus is on trade across borders and its connection to problems of global justice, such as inequality between rich and poor nations and the abject poverty that continues to afflict such large swathes of the global population. As with many of the themes in this book, it is noted that early defenses of capitalism from the golden age saw trade as a force for prosperity, and possibly justice. Once again, the reasons behind this view prove useful for evaluating how things have turned out since, and for working out how things might be better. This helps with the assessment of contemporary “economic nationalism,” which is a rising force in politics but makes some of the old mistakes addressed during the golden age. Attention will also be given to important questions facing pro-trade views, particularly justice in the structure of global institutions.
Operation Urgent Fury: Grenada
Authors: Poznansky Michael
Published: June 2020

This chapter analyzes Ronald Reagan’s decision to intervene in Grenada in October 1983 to remove the left-leaning New Jewel Movement from power. Plans for regime change began in earnest in mid-October after the sitting Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, was ousted by hardliners, and culminated in a full-scale invasion on October 25. The evidence affirms the book’s central predictions, namely that the availability of two legal exemptions enabled the Reagan administration to pursue a public regime change. The first was the presence of endangered medical students enrolled in St. George’s Medical School on the island. The second legal exemption was an invitation for the United States to intervene to restore order from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, a collective security regime. Senior officials relied heavily on these exemptions over the course of the intervention and beyond as a means of demonstrating the legality of their actions to allies and other friendly regimes.
Almost Over
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

This book is a discussion of philosophical, legal, and medical issues related to aging, dying, and death. It considers different views about whether and why death is bad for the person who dies, and whether these views bear on why it would be bad if there were no more persons at all. The book looks at how the general public is being asked to think about end-of-life issues by examining some questionnaires and conversation guides that have been developed. It also considers views about the process of dying and whether it might make sense to not resist death, or even to bring about the end of one’s life, given certain views about meaning in life and what things it is worth living on to get and do. Some hold that it is not only serious illness but ordinary aging that may give rise to some of these questions and the book considers various ways in which aging and the distribution of goods and bads in a life could occur. Physician-assisted suicide would be one way to end one’s life and the book examines arguments about its moral permissibility and whether or not it should be legalized as a matter of public policy. This discussion draws on capital punishment debates concerning state action and also on methods of balancing costs and benefits. The book examines the views of such prominent philosophers, doctors, and legal theorists as Shelly Kagan, Susan Wolf, Atul Gawande, Ezekiel Emanuel, Cass Sunstein, Neil Gorsuch, and others.
Advanced and End-of-Life Care
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

Chapter 4 considers proposals for advanced and end-of-life care and for helping the general public make decisions about such care. Possible conflicts are identified between the aim of respecting people’s preferences and meeting objective standards of best practices, satisfying family preferences, and meeting requirements of informed consent. The chapter considers in detail questions suggested for conversations about advanced and end of life care. It locates imprecision, nudging, and framing effects in those questions that may interfere with their correctly eliciting people’s preferences. It also suggests that there may be attempts to promote specific values and goals favored by end-of-life care professionals, such as peacefulness and avoiding invasive treatments. The possible connection between the aim of a good life to the end and the use of assisted suicide is also examined.
Death and the State
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

Chapter 8 considers how one should reason about assisted suicide as a matter of public (and legal) policy in the absence of a constitutional right to it by critically examining anti-legalization views such as those of Ezekiel Emanuel. The chapter considers the role of (i) moral rights and wrongings and how they come about as well as (ii) harms and benefits and how to aggregate them. How arguments for the distinctive role of the state in enabling or interfering with behavior bears on these issues is considered by reviewing some arguments about capital punishment. Finally, in the light of empirical data about effects of legalizing physician-assisted suicide and given what else Emanuel believes, the chapter considers whether he should no longer oppose legalization.
Religious organizations
Authors: Porta Donatella della , Gattinara Pietro Castelli , Eleftheriadis Konstantinos , Felicetti Andrea
Published: June 2020

Chapter 7 addresses the discourses by religious groups, including Christian (both Catholic and Protestant), Jewish, and Muslim actors. An important but often neglected part of those debates took place between mainstream actors and religious organizations but also among religious organizations themselves. These debates were embedded within distinct frameworks of institutional and political opportunities, especially concerning the place of religion in society and the importance of religion in understanding national identity that differed greatly among the countries under study. These factors, in turn, influenced the recognition of religious actors as legitimate partners in the public debates as well as the attention paid to their views and the frames used for their understanding (from the French laïcité to the British multiculturalist model). In all cases, however, religious organizations sought to mobilize available resources and take into account discursive opportunities to reach audiences within and outside their respective religious spheres, and to express their views on a variety of issues ranging from radicalism to peaceful coexistence, from inter-religious affairs to national identity, from Islamophobia and anti-Semitism to integration.
Justifications in the debate on citizenship
Authors: Porta Donatella della , Gattinara Pietro Castelli , Eleftheriadis Konstantinos , Felicetti Andrea
Published: June 2020

Chapter 8 is devoted to an analysis of the justifications used by the different actors in debating the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In particular, it looks at the ways in which participants in the public debates use justifications for their claims, which become all the more relevant in “critical moments.” Referring to the “imperative to justify,” the chapter analyzes the moral principles referred to in the everyday debate. Among religious organizations, justifications refer to communitarian versus cosmopolitan views, freedom entering in tension with offenses against religion (blasphemy), and liberty with claims about security. Ecumenical arguments are also countered by claims about the superiority of one’s own religion. With regard to the justifications in the radical right, the Charlie Hebdo attacks gave more leverage to a justification based to a certain extent on civic values—such as defending freedom—but strongly bridged within justifications coming from the traditional world of worthiness. In general, the left addresses the Charlie Hebdo attacks with some difficulty, with tensions between a traditionally inclusive position toward migrants and minorities and the defense of freedom—which is perceived as a collective, rather than individual, right.
Introduction
Authors: Kennerley David
Published: June 2020

This introductory chapter sets out the key arguments, theoretical frameworks, and historiographical context of the book, and also presents summaries of each chapter. It reviews theoretical approaches to the concept of “voice” and explains this book’s stance towards exploring the cultural history of voices. It demonstrates how this focus on voice advances the gender history of this period, particularly in relation to moving beyond the longstanding debate over the “separate spheres” paradigm. It explains why this period is particularly important for the history of female voices, emphasising both the growth of middle-class audiences for music, and the impact of the evangelical revival on British culture. It concludes by offering some thoughts about the ways in which the present study draws upon and draws together recent developments in both history and musicology that have brought the two disciplines into closer alignment.
Criticising Women’s Voices in the Musical Press
Authors: Kennerley David
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines how professional female singers’ voices were described, and critically evaluated, in the music press. It focuses on comparing and contrasting critics’ responses to the voices of Catherine Stephens, Giuditta Pasta, and Eliza Vestris, three very different female singers. It demonstrates how concerns about class, religion, and nationality were instrumental in shaping critical commentary on these women’s voices. It argues that the sound of women’s voices was central to debates between partisans of opera and oratorio, and between advocates of “English” and “Italian” styles of music, methods of singing, and attitudes to gender. In particular, it explores the connections between the range of attitudes to women’s voices encountered in Chapters 1 and 2, and the contrasts in critics’ responses to these three singers’ voices, illustrating the ways in which social divisions over the nature of femininity shaped the development of the musical world.
Dorothea Solly’s Musical World
Authors: Kennerley David
Published: June 2020

This case study explores the musical and social world of Dorothea Solly, a keen amateur musician and singer. It builds on Chapter 2 by arguing that Solly’s middle-class background, combined with a Broad Church Anglican milieu and her marriage into a Unitarian family shaped her strongly affirmative approach to female voices, in ways that contrasted sharply with the attitudes on display in conduct literature. In particular, she exhibited great admiration for, and sought to acquire herself, the advanced vocal technique of leading stars of the Italian opera, such as her singing teacher, Cecilia Davies. In her advocacy of both female professional performers and composers, and in her own style of singing, Solly and her social milieu encapsulate an important, emerging section of the British musical public that was open both to the idea of female musical creativity and professionalism, and comfortable with an empowered, confident, assertive style of envoicing femininity.
Does Secularization Mean Dechristianization?
Authors: Roy Olivier
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines secularization. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, there has no longer been only one form of Christianity: a choice has to be made between Protestantism and Catholicism. But more important is the development, from the eighteenth century onward, of what is commonly called secularization. The term actually refers to two different phenomena, which may or may not coincide. The first form of secularization is based on a legal and constitutional concept: the autonomy of the political sphere, leading either to the separation of the state from religious institutions, or to the political takeover of the religious sphere. The second form of secularization is sociological in nature: it denotes the decline in religious observance and the disappearance of religion as the focus of social and cultural life. This is what is called dechristianization in Europe. However, the decline in religious practice across Europe does not necessarily make references to religious identity irrelevant. That people no longer believe in God does not mean society is no longer Christian in its values, such as respect for human dignity, and its institutions.
Bluster
Authors: Neumann Peter R.
Published: June 2020

Donald Trump promised to defeat terrorism, but there is no easy way to make sense of his war on terror. Is it a genuine strategic shift from previous administrations? Or is it all bluster, a way to score points with his base?
Hamstrung by his administration's weakness, Trump hasn't actually changed much about counterterrorism. What is different is the ideological agenda--excessively militaristic and short-sighted. Foreign alliances have deteriorated, right-wing extremists feel emboldened, and the US no longer seems like a multi-cultural haven. So what is it all for?
Peter Neumann compellingly argues that Trump's war on terror looks strong and powerful in the short term, but will cause damage over time. His self-serving approach has failed on its own terms, made the world less safe, and undermined the US' greatest asset--the very idea of America.
Banning Muslims
Authors: Neumann Peter R.
Published: June 2020

This chapter shows that there is little evidence that the "Muslim travel ban" or the idea of "extreme vetting", which Trump both presented as counter-terrorism measures, were workable or made the country safer. The reason was that immigration was not the main problem, and existing systems for vetting immigrants or visitors worked as well as they could. For Trump's "true believers", however, this had never been the point. In their mind, both the "Muslim ban" and "extreme vetting" were part of their (ideological) project of challenging multi-culturalism and the idea of America as a "nation of immigrants". The ultimate purpose was not to counter terrorism or protect the American people, but to promote "America first".
Stormy Weather
Authors: Burton Deborah
Published: June 2020

Operatic Formenlehre seems to be alive and well—witness the wealth of publications on the solita forma (after Ritorni, Basevi, and Powers) and on concerto-like sonata forms in Mozart arias as early as the 1768 La finta semplice (after Mann and Rosen). But even standard operatic forms have often been thwarted—throughout opera’s long history—by dramatic exigencies. The purpose of this chapter is to explore and define subcategories of deformations in operatic storm scenes by identifying formal types along the continuum between closed operatic numbers and continuous, fragmentary musical flow. Formal (and deformational) categories are examined here in light of the topos of storm scenes from operatic selections of the Baroque, Galant, and Romantic periods, and avoiding the more traditional loci of continuous music, such as act finales.
Potential of Blood- and CSF-Based Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnostics
Authors: Goldwaser Eric L. , Nagele Robert G.
Published: June 2020

Currently, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) depends on some combination of the expression of telltale symptoms, patterns of performance obtained from neuropsychological tests, and brain imaging. Recognition that AD-related pathology can be ongoing for as much as a decade prior to the appearance of symptoms is the impetus behind a tremendous research effort aimed at identifying and developing biomarkers for AD that are linked to pathology and can be used for early disease screening, early diagnosis, and disease monitoring. The long list of recent failures of AD clinical trials has increased the intensity of the search for biomarkers that would make possible early detection and earlier enrollment into clinical trials, hopefully increasing the chances of a successful outcome. This chapter reviews progress along these lines, with emphasis on highlighting the various biomarkers found in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid that are relevant to the early pathology of AD.
Introduction and Overview
Authors: Reck Erich H. , Schiemer Georg
Published: June 2020

The core idea of mathematical structuralism is that mathematical theories, always or at least in many central cases, are meant to characterize abstract structures (as opposed to more concrete, individual objects). As such, structuralism is a general position about the subject matter of mathematics, namely abstract structures; but it also includes, or is intimately connected with, views about its methodology, since studying such structures involves distinctive tools and procedures. The goal of the present collection of essays is to discuss mathematical structuralism with respect to both aspects. This is done by examining contributions by a number of mathematicians and philosophers of mathematics from the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries.
The Functional Role of Structures in Bourbaki
Authors: Heinzmann Gerhard , Petitot Jean
Published: June 2020

In the history of 20th-century mathematical structuralism, the figure of Bourbaki is prominent and sometimes even identified with the philosophical doctrine of structuralism. However, the Bourbaki group consisted of pure mathematicians, among them the greatest of their generation, most of whom seemed little inclined to, and even hesitant about, philosophy. This essay proposes to explore this tension in line with the recent philosophical interest in scientific practice. The working assumption is that the use of the concept of structure in Bourbaki is not mainly conceptual and foundational, but pragmatic and functional. This functional interpretation is governed by the principle of the unity of mathematics. In addition to their deductive “vertical” dimension, taking into account structures can reveal various “horizontal” connections between different theories.
Saunders Mac Lane: From Principia Mathematica through Göttingen to the Working Theory of Structures
Authors: McLarty Colin
Published: June 2020

Saunders Mac Lane heard David Hilbert’s weekly lectures on philosophy and utterly believed Hilbert’s declaration that mathematics will know no limits. He studied algebra with Emmy Noether, and both mathematics and philosophy with Hermann Weyl. As a young algebraist he created today’s standard working method for mathematical structure: category theory, with topologist Samuel Eilenberg. As one step, they created the now standard definition of “isomorphism.” They originally saw categories as just a working tool. But in the 1950s, Mac Lane saw Alexander Grothendieck and others radically extend the range of the theory, and in the 1960s, he took up William Lawvere’s idea of categorical foundations. The essay relates all of this to current philosophical structuralism, especially concerning isomorphisms and automorphisms of structures. It concludes by comparing Mac Lane’s motives for structuralist working mathematics with current philosophical motives for structuralist ontology.
“If Numbers Are to Be Anything At All, They Must Be Intrinsically Something”: Bertrand Russell and Mathematical Structuralism
Authors: Heis Jeremy
Published: June 2020

Bertrand Russell was one of the first philosophers to recognize clearly the philosophically innovative nature of Richard Dedekind’s philosophy of arithmetic: a position we now describe as non-eliminative structuralism. But Russell’s response was deeply negative: “If [numbers] are to be anything at all, they must be intrinsically something” (Principles of Mathematics, §242). Nevertheless, Russell also played a significant positive role in making possible the emergence of structuralist philosophy of mathematics. This chapter explains Russell’s double role, identifying three positive contributions to structuralism, while laying out Russell’s objections to Dedekind’s non-eliminative structuralism.
The Shadow of the Black Hole
Authors: Moffat John W.
Published: June 2020

The author visits one of the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory (LIGO) sites in the United States, at Hanford, Washington. This is where scientists are detecting gravitational waves generated by faraway merging black holes and neutron stars. He meets the people who work there and has discussions with some of them. The director gives him a tour of the LIGO experimental installation, describing the work, the technological details of the apparatus, and answers his questions. On the final day of the visit, the author gives a talk to the LIGO group on gravitational waves and on an alternative gravitational theory.
Thermodynamics, Quantum Physics, and Black Holes
Authors: Moffat John W.
Published: June 2020

A major question confronting physicists studying black holes was whether thermodynamics applied to them—that is, whether the black holes radiated heat and lost energy. Bekenstein considered heat and thermodynamics important for the interior of black holes. Based on the second law of thermodynamics, Hawking proposed that black holes evaporate over a very long time through what we now call Hawking radiation. This concept contradicts the notion that nothing can escape a black hole event horizon. Quantum physics enters into Hawking’s calculations, and he discovered the conundrum that the radiation would violate quantum mechanics, leading to what is called the information loss problem. These ideas are still controversial, and many physicists have attempted to resolve them, including Russian theorists Zel’dovich and Starobinsky. Alternative quantum physics interpretations of black holes have been proposed that address the thermodynamics problems, including so-called gravastars.
The Biggest Eyes in the Sky: The EHT
Authors: Moffat John W.
Published: June 2020

The international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project aims to observe the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way and the more distant M87* in the galaxy M87. Using Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry, the project can observe the shadows of the supermassive black holes that block the bright light emitted by their accretion disks. The EHT ties together radio telescopes ranging across the western hemisphere of Earth to create, in effect, a planet-size telescope. The EHT will determine the size of the shadow, which can be compared to the predictions of general relativity and modified gravity theories. The EHT will also observe the physics of the accretion disks surrounding supermassive black holes. These observations can potentially determine whether a black hole event horizon exists.
Cognitive Enhancement
Authors: Levy Neil
Published: June 2020

According to the parity principle, the means whereby an agent intervenes in his or her mind, or the minds of others, is irrelevant when it comes to assessing the moral status of the intervention: what matters is how the intervention affects the agent. This chapter sets out the case for the parity principle, before defending it from recent objections due to Christoph Bublitz and Reinhard Merkel. Bublitz and Merkel argue that direct interventions bypass agents’ psychological capacities and therefore produce states over which agents have less control and which are less reflective of who they genuinely are. I argue that indirect interventions that are processed psychologically may be no less destructive of control or of the degree to which the resulting states are reflective of the agent and, further, that direct interventions may be morally unproblematic. Given that right now and for the foreseeable future indirect interventions threaten our autonomy far more often and far more deeply than direct, the distinction between direct and indirect interventions doesn’t even provide a useful heuristic for assessing when an intervention into the mind/brain is problematic.
Neurobionic Revenge Porn and the Criminal Law
Authors: McCay Allan
Published: June 2020

Brain computer interfaces make possible a form of neurobionic agency in which people interact with the Internet by mental action, without the need for a bodily movement. This chapter considers the possibility of someone uploading intimate images of another person, without their consent, onto social media by way of brain–computer interface. The author highlights the novel and perhaps problematic nature of the options for response to such offending (given current doctrine) that are available to the criminal law. The example of revenge porn is used as a case study to very tentatively consider the criminal law’s response to neurobionic offending more generally. While the law has criminalized bodily actions, omissions and certain kinds of status, neurobionic agency falls into none of these traditional categories, and some issues flow from this failure. The author argues that neurobionic revenge porn would present a challenge to the criminal law relating to the determination of the conduct that constitutes the actus reus. Thus, if the courts are required to respond to this kind of offending, it will raise questions about a concept that is currently central to the criminal law.
Chemical Castration as Punishment
Authors: Sifferd Katrina L.
Published: June 2020

This chapter explores whether chemical castration can be justified as a form of criminal punishment. The author argues that castration via the drug medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), or some similar drug, does not achieve the punishment aims of retribution, deterrence, or incapacitation, but might serve as punishment in the form of rehabilitative treatment. However, current U.S. chemical castration statutes are too broad to be justified as rehabilitative. The state is warranted in targeting psychological states in criminal defendants for rehabilitative treatment where such states (a) act as a primary cause of a criminal offender’s crime and (b) give rise to extraordinary worries that the offender will recidivate. Current statutes qualify criminal offenders for castration who do not have overwhelming sexual urges or other psychological states causally related to their crime that may be treated with MPA. Thus, even assuming the efficacy of MPA, such statutes are unjustifiable because they apply chemical castration to offenders for whom castration will have no rehabilitative effect.
Foundational Facts for Legal Responsibility
Authors: Davies Paul Sheldon
Published: June 2020

The project of restorative neurointerventions has the ambitious aim of restoring specific competencies to some baseline. This includes the restoration of capacities integral to practical reasoning, and thus to various form of legal responsibility, that are deficient in some way. The goal is to restore such persons so they may legitimately be held legally responsible for future actions. The thesis of this chapter is that this project faces serious skepticism. This skepticism derives not from doubts that relevant capacities can be restored. It derives rather from the apparent fact that at least some of the capacities we intuitively take as integral to legal responsibility are capacities that human beings in general do not possess, including humans not afflicted by any statistically aberrant incapacity. This apparent fact—that humans in general do not possess capacities that are taken to be integral for responsibility—derives from the integration of findings in affective and cognitive neuroscience and in social psychology. If the proposed integration is correct, then the alleged foundational facts for legal responsibility fail to apply to organisms like us, and the project of neurorestoration cannot succeed unless the actual capacities (if any) that render us genuinely responsible are discovered.
Neuroenhancement, Coercion, and Neo-Luddism
Authors: Erler Alexandre
Published: June 2020

This chapter addresses the claim that, as new types of neurointervention get developed allowing us to enhance various aspects of our mental functioning, we should work to prevent the use of such interventions from ever becoming the “new normal,” that is, a practice expected—even if not directly required—by employers. The author’s response to that claim is that, unlike compulsion or most cases of direct coercion, indirect coercion to use such neurointerventions is, per se, no more problematic than the pressure people all find themselves under to use modern technological devices like computers or mobile phones. Few people seem to believe that special protections should be introduced to protect contemporary Neo-Luddites from such pressures. That being said, the author acknowledges that separate factors, when present, can indeed render indirect coercion to enhance problematic. The factors in question include lack of safety, fostering adaptation to oppressive circumstances, and having negative side effects that go beyond health. Nonetheless, the chapter stresses that these factors do not seem to be necessary correlates of neuroenhancement.
Neurointerventions and Business Law
Authors: Hopkins Patrick D. , Fiser Harvey L.
Published: June 2020

Neurointerventions of various sorts open up options that law can have a hard time dealing with. While the effects of neurotechnology on criminal law have been extensively investigated, the effects on business law are just as important. New and potential technology could allow for more powerful methods of job candidate screening, monitoring, and performance improvement than the conventional methods of interviewing, training, motivational programs, and free caffeine dosing in the staff break room. This chapter examines the legal, social, and moral issues involved in workplace neurointerventions, showing how different the business law context is from the criminal law context, how a different set of rules and expectations govern employment relationships, and how both employers and employees could be motivated to use neurointerventions, and we describe a basic set of different policy options for how to regulate such technology that vary according to what social values are maximized.
Knowing
Authors: Silva José Filipe
Published: June 2020

The longest chapter of the book examines Kilwardby’s theory of knowledge, from sense perception to intellectual cognition. The key texts to understanding Kilwardby’s interpretation of Aristotelian and Augustinian epistemology are considered and the original solutions presented. Kilwardby combines an active theory of perception of Augustinian influence with a standard interpretation of the doctrine of abstraction. Also examined in this chapter is Kilwardby’s moderate realist interpretation of universals and how their discovery and application is found in scientific demonstrations. The conditions for and the nature of scientific demonstrations are examined in detail.
Incarnating
Authors: Silva José Filipe
Published: June 2020

The chapter examines Kilwardby’s account of the doctrine of the Incarnation from the threefold perspective of its metaphysics, its epistemology, and its emotion theory. Adopting the medieval structure of analysis of the doctrine of the incarnation in Book III of the Sentences, the chapter considers in three different sections the core issues of the Christological debate: first, how do the two natures of Christ (divine and human) come together in constituting one person? Second, what kind of knowledge was available to Christ as both human and divine, namely does he acquire new knowledge and is thus changed? Third, was the incarnated Christ subject to suffering as other human beings, that is to say, was Christ’s soul affected by passions like fear?
What Is Diversity?
Authors: Weissmark Mona Sue
Published: June 2020

This introductory chapter traces the history of ideas about race and human classification systems, from the bible to the Classical period and on to the first “scientific” attempts to rank differences and ascribe characteristics to races. Starting with the view from the Tower of Babel came the notion that linguistic and cultural diversity was the Supreme Being’s punitive response to such human hubris of reaching for heaven on earth. Following that came a litany of scholars, scientists, and doctors, who established hierarchies that left white Europeans on the top of the intellectual period, and other races lagging behind. Among these was Hippocrates, who wrote that the forms and dispositions of human beings corresponded with the nature of the country, their region’s climate and topography. Meanwhile, the French physician Francois Bernier developed the first post-Classical racial classification system, basing it on physical attributes. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was the first phrenologist, and although he also classified race, he asserted that all races belonged to a single species. Physician George Morton measured cranial size and then estimated brain size in an effort to rank humans based on intelligence. The chapter then looks at more modern concepts, such as Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution; scientific rejection of the notion that races were biologically different; and UNESCO’s statement that social issues give rise to racism.
Diversity and Relationships
Authors: Weissmark Mona Sue
Published: June 2020

This chapter outlines key issues in scientific literature concerning how evolutionary processes have shaped the human mind. To that end, psychologists have drawn on Charles Darwin’s sexual selection hypothesis, or how males compete for reproduction and the role of female choice in the process. Darwin argued that evolution hinged on the diversity resulting from sexual reproduction. Evolutionary psychologists posit that heterosexual men and women evolved powerful, highly patterned, and universal desires for particular characteristics in a mate. Critics, however, contend that Darwin’s theory of sexual selection was erroneous, in part because his ideas about sexual identity and gender were influenced by the social mores of his elite Victorian upper class. Despite this critique, some researchers argue similarly to Darwin that love is part of human biological makeup. According to their hypotheses, cooperation is the centerpiece of human daily life and social relations. This makes the emotion of love, both romantic and maternal love, a requirement not just for cooperation, but also for the preservation and perpetuation of the species. That said, researchers speculate that encounters with unfamiliar people, coincident with activated neural mechanisms associated with negative judgments, likely inspire avoidance behavior and contribute to emotional barriers. This suggests the need to further study the social, psychological, and clinical consequences of the link between positive and negative emotions.
Israel’s Neighbors and the Problem of the Past
Authors: Doak Brian R.
Published: June 2020

Tellingly for their importance to ancient Israelite audiences, Israel’s closest geographical neighbors—the Canaanites, Arameans, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, and Phoenicians—appear nearly as much in the Hebrew Bible as the three dominant empires of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. Indeed, several of these smaller neighboring groups individually feature more frequently in the Bible than the mighty Assyrians. These numbers tell us that Israelite authors and their audiences were frequently engaged with their bordering neighbors. The story Israel has to tell about itself deeply involves these smaller, lesser-known nations. By way of beginning the investigation, this chapter clarifies some issues of geography and discusses key terms, such as nation, state, tribe, and addresses other problems of describing borders and national neighbors in the ancient (and modern) world.
The Canaanites
Authors: Doak Brian R.
Published: June 2020

The Canaanites become one of the most intriguing examples of the neighboring group as “other” in the Bible, and because the narrator of the book of Genesis repeatedly calls the land Israel’s ancestors occupy “Canaan,” we begin with them. It is not too much of a stretch to say that the Canaanites are Israel’s first neighbor, their most primordial neighbor, setting a pattern of tensions and interaction that prove instructive for thinking about other neighboring groups. The archaeological record of the Canaanites in the period before “Israel” arrives on the scene is difficult on many fronts, and the problem doesn’t end when Israel arrives either, since the Canaanites seem to coexist alongside Israel in an ambiguous manner. The Hebrew Bible considers the Canaanites and groups associated with them—Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, and Girgashites—constituting what tradition calls the “seven nations of Canaan,” as distinct people who are to be variously resisted or destroyed.
The Technology of Warfare on Land
Authors: Plank Geoffrey
Published: June 2020

Chapter 5 examines the weapons and logistical equipment warriors and soldiers in Europe, Africa, and the Americas deployed in warfare on land. The introduction of gunpowder weapons and the erection of new kinds of fortifications for artillery combat transformed warfare in Europe in the early modern era in a process often described as a military revolution. Nonetheless, Europeans did not possess any technological advantage in warfare in Africa or the Americas comparable to the supremacy ships gave them at sea. The chapter analyzes several technologies of war including firearms, poisoned arrows, canoes, and the use of dogs and horses in warfare.
Horror
Authors: Plank Geoffrey
Published: June 2020

Chapter 7 explores how warfare affected the way rival communities across the Atlantic viewed each other. When Europeans, Africans, and indigenous Americans began to engage each other militarily they did not share a common, effective way of interpreting each other’s actions. The warring peoples of Africa, the Americas, and Europe had distinctive methods of sending messages through violence. On each continent, with regional variations, rituals and codes of conduct defined the terms of acceptable behavior, for example authorizing or forbidding torture, sexual violence, execution, dismemberment, the display of body parts, the killing of noncombatants, and other demonstrative acts associated with warfare. In the confusion of violent encounters myths arose that helped define and divide the peoples of the Atlantic world, promoting stereotypes and steering discriminatory patterns of behavior. In many places, misunderstandings and fears contributed to elaborately exaggerated perceptions of racial difference, encouraging animosity and pre-emptive and retributory action.
Rescuing the Volitional Excuses from Compatibilism (the “Overshoot” Problem for Compatibilism)
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: June 2020

Chapter 9 explores the nature of the volitional excuses and whether such nature can be reconciled with the classical compatibilism explored in the last chapter. The volitional excuses are those excuses whereby the accused does not claim ignorance or mistake about the wrong-making characteristics of his actions; rather, the claim of excuse is founded on the difficulties some actors have in either choosing or doing what they know is the right thing to do. Classical compatibilism has the danger of eliminating all volitional excuses; the chapter aims to reformulate the counterfactual analysis of ability at the heart of classical compatibilism in ways that do not eliminate volitional excuses. The chapter also assays the extent to which contemporary neuroscience might aid in formulating and/or verifying the presence of, the volitional excuses.
Nothing But a Pack of Neurons
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: June 2020

Seemingly separate from the concerns raised by either hard determinism or epiphenomenalism are the concerns raised by physicalistic reductionism. The separate worries for responsibility spawned by physicalism stem from the neuroscience claim that at bottom we are just mechanisms, physical machines. The claim seems to belittle our most cherished attributes like our creativity, our capacity to love, our responsible agency. To be “nothing but a pack of neurons” seemingly is to be less than the image we had of ourselves. The chapter examines the meaning of reductionism in the sciences generally, and of mind to brain more specifically. A variety of metaphysical views (of the relation of mind to brain) are examined, each of which raises this distinctive challenge of physicalism despite the differences between them. A view often called “reductionist” but which in fact is not—eliminative materialism—is also distinguished. The chapter then sifts the evidence thus far produced by neuroscience that some form of mind-brain reductionism is true, and assays the extent to which such reductionism actually challenges responsibility.
Addiction, Responsibility, and the Potential Contributions of Neuroscience
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: June 2020

This concluding chapter seeks to preview the help that neuroscience can offer to moralists and criminal lawyers once its revolutionary ambitions are put aside. The topic of addiction is a well-developed topic in contemporary neuroscience, and that literature is probed for the contributions it has made, and might yet make, to a question that has long bedeviled moralists and lawmakers, namely, does addiction excuse because it compels? The chapter explores the arguments over how addiction should be defined; surveys the competing explanations offered up in psychology for continued drug use by addicts; and evaluates whether any of those explanations, if true, would be excusing. The chapter then surveys how the insights of neuroscience could change, deepen, and enrich these definitional, explanatory, and evaluative tasks.
What Intellectual Journalism Would Look Like
Authors: McDevitt Michael
Published: June 2020

The book concludes with a discussion of how intellectual journalism would forge a healthier relationship with the public by overcoming recursion. The uptake of authoritarian thinking is not easily reversed in political communication as a self-reinforcing system. For realists, truth is obtained in a correspondence between statements and facts. In recursion, truth is experienced as reassurance in a compressed universe of legitimate and legitimating discourse. Earlier chapters examined aftershocks of the 2016 election, professional education, and other contexts that might engender a rethinking of media engagement with intellect. Drawing on these insights, the final chapter suggests where to look for intellectual journalism as an emerging ethos. Intellectual journalism asserts itself in a shift from public-oriented to craft-oriented accountability; the wisdom to reject misguided reform; alliances with risk-tolerant scholars; and forms of resistance that reject the bad faith of insincere objectivity.