bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Ramani Samuel
Published: September 2023

Russia’s foreign policy towards Africa is commonly described as transactional and reactive to its growing isolation from the West. This chapter challenges these assumptions by highlighting continuities in Russian foreign policy over the past three decades and emphasizing the ideational drivers of Russia’s influence in Africa. These factors ensure that Russia is a “virtual great power” in Africa. Russia is Africa’s leading arms vendor and leverages its UN Security Council veto to protect isolated autocracies from sanctions. However, its trade with Sub-Saharan Africa lags Turkey and India, and its counter-terrorism operations have largely failed to produce lasting stability. The chapter concludes by providing a brief outline of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union’s strategies in Africa, as historical legacies and experiences profoundly shape Putin’s current approach.
The Dawn of Russia’s Resurgence in Africa
Authors: Ramani Samuel
Published: September 2023

This chapter examines Russia’s renewed assertiveness in Africa during Vladimir Putin’s first two terms as president. Russia’s strategic ambitions in Africa were largely overlooked by the U.S. and allegedly welcomed by France, which allowed it to advance its goals with little Western pushback. Putin’s approach to Africa blended former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov’s playbook with inputs from the Federation Council and experts affiliated with the Moscow-based Institute of African Studies. Russia strengthened its ties with African countries facing isolation from the West, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, and reasserted itself as a great power in North Africa by resolving debt disputes with Algeria and Libya. However, Russia also revealed continent-wide influence aspirations, which saw it deepen partnerships with key regional powers, such as South Africa, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Russia also directly engaged with Western partners. An early example of this strategy was Putin’s April 2001 meeting with Gabon’s President Omar Bongo, who had a decades-long partnership with France. Putin’s April 2005 meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Cairo strengthened Russia–Egypt relations.
The Medvedev Interregnum
Authors: Ramani Samuel
Published: September 2023

This chapter explores the intensification of Russia’s outreaches to Africa during Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency from 2008–12. As Russia and the West sought to reset relations following the 2008 Georgian War, combatting piracy in Somalia emerged as a rare area of cooperation. This collaborative spirit was eviscerated by the end of Medvedev’s tenure. Russia’s counter-revolutionary position on the Arab Spring, opposition to NATO’s 2011 military intervention in Libya and media criticisms of France’s 2011 intervention in Cote d’Ivoire exacerbated tensions with the West. Despite this volatility, Russia’s influence in Africa made some significant strides under Medvedev’s leadership. Medvedev’s 2009 four-day trip to Egypt, Namibia, Nigeria, and Angola reaffirmed Russia’s continent-wide aspirations, while development assistance and strengthening alignments with fellow critics of U.S. unilateralism in Libya broadened Moscow’s coalition of partners.
Russia Rebuilds Its Influence in North Africa
Authors: Ramani Samuel
Published: September 2023

This chapter lays out how Russia preserved its influence in North Africa after the Arab Spring. Despite concerns that Mohammed Morsi’s June 2012 election triumph would beget Islamic extremism, Russia opted to pragmatically engage with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government. Russian commentators initially welcomed General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s July 2013 coup but suspicions about his pro-Western orientation lingered. Egypt’s growing tensions with the US over human rights and desire to purchase Russian arms reversed this negative dynamic and contributed to Vladimir Putin’s endorsement of Sisi’s May 2014 election bid. Sisi’s election was followed by Rosatom’s development of the El Dabaa nuclear energy project, ideational bonding on moderate Islam with Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and closer cooperation on Syria and Libya. Algeria’s endorsement of Russia’s 2015 military intervention in Syria helped assuage energy market competition in Europe. Russia managed to reverse its isolation in Libya after Muammar al-Gaddafi’s overthrow by establishing closer ties with the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and Libya National Army chieftain Khalifa Haftar. Russia’s outreaches to Tunisia and Morocco were less fruitful but Moscow’s diplomatic engagement with Western Sahara’s Polisario Front separatists expanded.
Russia’s Africa Policy in the Age of COVID-19
Authors: Ramani Samuel
Published: September 2023

This chapter presents an in-depth analysis of Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and efforts to preserve the momentum generated from the 2019 Sochi Summit. Russia’s swift unveiling of Sputnik V gave it a unique opportunity for vaccine diplomacy. Regulatory setbacks, such as South Africa’s resistance to adopting the vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund’s unrealistic distribution targets and price-gouging scandals derailed Russia’s Sputnik V distribution efforts. The election of President Joe Biden sharpened US efforts to contain Russian influence in Africa and the Kremlin’s inability to meaningfully cooperate with China and Turkey undercut its power projection aspirations. Nevertheless, Russia’s diplomatic agility in Africa, which was evidenced by its balancing strategy between Egypt and Ethiopia, remained a significant asset for the Kremlin.
Governing Commodity Flows in the Somali Borderlands
Authors: Kefale Asnake , Rasmussen Jacob
Published: September 2023

The authors of this chapter scrutinize the processes and practices that shape the governance of cross-border trading within Somali East Africa. Focusing on livestock, sugar, charcoal, electronics, and other goods traded across the Somali–Ethiopian and Somali–Kenyan borders, the chapter analyzes the shifting roles of state and state-like authorities in regulating, facilitating, and interrupting the circulation of goods. The chapter highlights how Somali traders and a host of other actors along the Berbera and Kismayo corridors have specialized in maintaining the flow of goods, releasing them when they encounter friction(s), and putting them back into circulation.
Afterword
Authors: Little Peter D.
Published: September 2023

This chapter, written by Peter Little who inspired the Trade Makes States book, critically reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the book’s arguments, and the wider applicability of these. The chapter addresses three interrelated themes from the book—economy; globalization and global networks; and governance and state building—and identifies important gaps that future researchers must give attention to. These concern the relationship between trade and economic inequality; gender analysis that examines the role of Somali women in urban and import/export trading and other economic sectors; and consideration of the quality and democratic depth of different governance structures, in other words, whether there are autocratic, oligarchic, and other undemocratic tendencies embedded in new governance structures which have evolved in Somali East Africa.
The Culture of Consumption
Authors: Trefon Theodore
Published: September 2023

Chapter 5 presents the drivers of consumption by responding to the question: “why eat it?” The response is complex and sometimes contradictory. There are patterns and nuances but no over-riding motivation. Tradition, taste, availability, cost, and lack of alternative proteins are the main intertwining reasons.
Introduction
Authors: Hansbury Paul
Published: September 2023

This chapter uses three incidents to illustrate the nature of the Lukashenka regime and its use of propaganda. These incidents are: the shooting down of a hot air balloon in 1995; the forced landing of a passenger plane to arrest a critic, Raman Pratasevich, in 2021; and the media campaign against an Olympic athlete, also in 2021. It also outlines the key arguments made in the book—that Belarus’s post-2020 political crisis was rooted in a weak political culture and that western policy towards Belarus has been motivated above all by human rights concerns rather than geopolitical considerations, while recognizing that the 2020 crisis—especially through its relationship to the Russia–Ukraine war—has geopolitical consequences.
Lukashenka’s Rise
Authors: Hansbury Paul
Published: September 2023

This chapter discusses the political landscape in Belarus when it attained independence, the election campaign that brought Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power in 1994, and the ways he consolidated his grip on power in the 1990s. It explains his use of referendums to push through constitutional changes. The chapter’s coverage also includes an assessment of the appeal of the Belarusian Popular Front, the early carriers of a national idea anchored in the territory’s shared history with Lithuania and Poland, and the forced “disappearances” of a small number of Lukashenka’s opponents in 1999. In particular, it explains how Lukashenka strived to prevent the emergence of civic and political institutions that engaged the public and how this stymied the development of a richer political culture in the county.
The Opposition’s Rise?
Authors: Hansbury Paul
Published: September 2023

This chapter argues that, in the years leading up to Belarus’s 2020 presidential election, it became apparent that the population was gradually withdrawing its consent from the autocratic regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In the context of a struggling economy, Belarus’s leader made a number of mistakes, including in his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter further argues that the organized political opposition had long struggled with a lack of cohesion and in many respects 2020 was no different; the eventual challenger on the ballot paper, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, reflected a zeitgeist more than the product of political acumen. Mass street protests against the patently rigged result persisted despite the fact that most opposition leaders were either detained in prison or had fled the country to avoid arrest. The protests took in all parts of society, from workers’ strikes to pensioners’ protests to officials quitting their jobs, with crowdfunding initiatives and encrypted messaging apps (e.g. the Telegram messaging app) as key instruments of mobilization.
Civil Society
Authors: Hansbury Paul
Published: September 2023

This chapter assesses the state of civil society in Belarus and the challenges it has faced in a repressive political environment, an environment in which the state has used mass re-registration requirements as a means of vetting NGOs, civic initiatives, and political parties. This has meant the situation has always been precarious for third sector organizations. In the 2010s the Belarusian state, seemingly in an effort to intensify nation building and strengthen national identity in ways marking differences from Russian identity, experimented with a gentle embrace of some cultural and historical symbols traditionally associated with the opposition and civil society in a process dubbed “soft Belarusisation” (or “soft Belarusianisation”). The chapter also looks at religion in Belarus and the relationship between the state and the Belarusian Orthodox Church. Finally, the chapter summarizes the key factors that led to the political crisis in 2020.
International Relations
Authors: Hansbury Paul
Published: September 2023

This short chapter assesses Belarus’s international relations in the years leading up to its 2020 political crisis. It pays particular attention to how the Ukraine crisis, beginning in 2014, affected Belarus’s international relations. The chapter argues that Belarus’s relations with the United States and European Union were better than they had been for a long time when the political crisis broke, whereas relations with Russia had become unusually strained. The chapter also looks at how Belarus has invested energy in relations with China as both an economic and security partner.
The United Nations Cannot Rest on Past Laurels
Authors: Blackett Adelle
Published: September 2023

In their quest for racial justice, African Americans and Pan-Africanist leaders have repeatedly turned to international organizations like the United Nations and the International Labour Organization. This chapter unmasks how these organizations are falling short of their founding documents, which link international peace, security, and social justice. Rather than relying on ad hoc statements and past antiracist efforts, the United Nations should take action to redress anti-Black racism throughout the United Nations system. This chapter recommends that a fitting place to initiate necessary internal work would be to name a Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General on People of African Descent, with a mandate to look closely and carefully at the United Nations’ past, present, and future role in addressing anti-Black racism while building proactive measures to ensure critical representation of people of African descent throughout the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
Sacrifice
Authors: Bridges Emma
Published: September 2023

This chapter considers the meaning of sacrifice in the context of military families. It examines the notion of the family and the military as ‘greedy institutions’ which place considerable, and often competing, demands on service personnel. After considering some of the ways in which, in contemporary society, being married to a member of the military places particular demands on the spouse of the serving partner, the chapter focuses on the myth of Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia as an ancient worked example of the impact of the ‘greedy’ military on Clytemnestra as Agamemnon’s wife. It discusses two Athenian tragic plays of the fifth century bce—Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (from the Oresteia trilogy) and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis—and examines the ways in which these plays consider Iphigenia’s sacrifice as a motivating factor in Clytemnestra’s later murder of Agamemnon.
Isotopic Fractionation
Authors: Cotrufo M. Francesca , Pressler Yamina
Published: September 2023

“Isotopic Fractionation” explores the processes that control how stable isotopes cycle through components of the environment. The chapter describes the emergence of isotopic discrimination during physical processes and chemical reactions involving open and closed systems. Mass-dependent isotope effects in non-equilibrium processes and in thermodynamic equilibrium are discussed. The fractionation factor (α) and the heavy isotopic discrimination (Δ) and their equations are introduced. Photosynthesis is presented as a comprehensive example for understanding isotopic fractionation during both physical processes, such as diffusion, and chemical reactions in the environment. The chapter examines variation in natural abundance of stable isotopes due to fractionation processes.
Measuring Stable Isotopes
Authors: Cotrufo M. Francesca , Pressler Yamina
Published: September 2023

“Measuring Stable Isotopes” describes principles and methods for quantifying stable isotopes in ecological systems. The chapter examines how mass differences of isotopocules are used for their quantification via isotope ratio mass spectrometry, while differences in their absorbance are used for the quantification via laser absorption spectroscopy. A brief historical overview of the development of both methods is provided. Common preparation methods and instruments required to enable isotope analysis of samples of ecological interest in gas, liquid, or solid states are illustrated. Further, nano secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) approaches are introduced. Foundational concepts and practical guidance for quantifying stable isotopes are given.
Trust and Evidence
Authors: Simpson Thomas W.
Published: September 2023

It has frequently been claimed that what is distinctive about trust is that, in some sense, it goes beyond the evidence for another’s trustworthiness. This chapter argues for the contrary. There is a kind of trust which is proportioned to the evidence that the trustor has for the trustworthiness of the trusted, which I call ‘evidence-constrained’ or ‘evidence-following’ trust, and which is illustrated by a case in which an explorer depends on someone to resupply him when his life is at stake. Not only are there situations where one’s trust may permissibly be constrained by the evidence, there are other situations where it ought to be. The chapter closes by considering some initial incompatibility objections, which argue that following the evidence is incompatible with trust.
Prepositions and prefixes
Authors: Wood Jim
Published: September 2023

This chapter focuses on nominalizations of verbs that take PP complements. These cases form the basis of another argument for the complex heads analysis. The argument is connected to the three basic patterns that we find in the nominalizations of PP-selecting verbs: the preposition is prefixed to the derived nominal and repeated in the complement, the preposition is prefixed but not repeated, or the preposition is not prefixed at all. The idea is that prepositions can do two things: (a) introduce thematic semantics of their own, and/or (b) condition allosemy on the verbal root. The three patterns reflect this: prepositions are prefixed to condition allosemy, but they introduce complements when they have their own meaning. The overall picture supports the complex head analysis: in the phrasal layering analysis, there is no reason to expect prefixing to be connected to meaning in this way.
Introduction
Authors: Jacobsen Knut A.
Published: September 2023

This chapter introduces the topic of Hindu diasporas, analyses some central concepts, and discusses the topic of Hinduism and migration. The chapter defines some of the main concepts. It discusses the shifting understandings of the ‘overseas Indians’ or the ‘Indian global nation’ by the Indian nation state and the shift in India’s relationship to the communities now included in the ‘diaspora’. The chapter discusses some of the main literature on Hinduism and migration and distinguishes between ‘old Hindu diasporas’ and ‘new Hindu diasporas’. Finally, it introduces the chapters of the book and states that the purpose of the chapters is to offer a foundation for understanding the Hindu traditions in some of their global diasporic contexts and the dynamic developments around the world.
Hinduism in the Caribbean
Authors: Persaud Prea
Published: September 2023

The history of Hinduism in the Caribbean began with indentured labourers who were brought from India to the Caribbean between the years 1838 and1920. Although Indians began as a minority group in the Caribbean, they now represent a large portion of the population in countries like Trinidad and Guyana and have made significant contributions to the landscape, food, and culture of the Caribbean. Their religious practices reflect the backgrounds of the indentured labourers, including the dominance of the Rāmcaritmānas, the existence of rituals such as the firepass ceremony, and newly developed traditions such as Gangadhaara, which work to sacralize the local landscape. Indo-Caribbeans have also established religious schools, remodelled their temples to combat conversion tactics, developed Hindu organizations, and advocated for Indo-Caribbeans and Indian representation at all levels of government including working to establish the recognition of Indian Arrival Day in several islands. As a result, the Hinduism that emerges out of the Caribbean demonstrates a combination of the particularities of the Caribbean context with the traditions Indians brought with them in the nineteenth century and later developed to better suit their physical and social environment. Caribbean Hinduism has been shaped by the restrictions of the plantation system, tensions with Afro-Caribbean communities, the influence of the Canadian Presbyterian Church and Hindu missionary groups from India, as well as a desire to sustain and celebrate their hyphenated identities as Indo-Caribbeans.
Hindu Diasporas in Europe
Authors: Jacobsen Knut A.
Published: September 2023

The chapter analyses the diversity of religious traditions of the Hindu diasporas in Europe. It identifies the Hindu presence in Europe and describes some of the diversity of these Hindu diasporas and gives an overview of the research literature on Hinduism in Europe. The chapter thereafter divides the encounter of Europe with Indian Hinduism historically into four periods and argues that of any of the continents other than Asia, Europe has the most complex relationship with India and Hinduism. The chapter analyses the history of Hindu migration and the institutionalization of Hinduism in Europe and, finally, suggests Hindu diversity, importance of the temples, sacralization of sites, and the dominance in many countries of Īḻam Tamil Hindus as four characteristics of Hinduism in Europe.
Hindutva, Hindu Organizations, and the Hindu Diasporas
Authors: Long Jeffery D.
Published: September 2023

This chapter seeks, first, to clarify the discourse surrounding ‘Hindutva’ by discussing several distinct definitions of this term which are presupposed by various contributors to this discourse: a discourse which has both popular and scholarly iterations. Four such definitions are presented and analysed. Concerns are raised about the essentialist deployment of this term in scholarship. The focus then shifts to one specific definition which has gained the most currency in scholarly discourse, namely, Hindutva as Hindu nationalism, a form of ethno-nationalism which identifies India as a Hindu nation. A brief overview of the history and character of Hindu nationalism is presented, including a discussion of the polarized nature of the discourse that surrounds this ideology, as well as the fact that it includes both moderate and extremist formulations. Following this discussion, the focus of the chapter shifts again to the Hindu diasporas. After a broad overview of diasporic Hinduism, the presence of Hindu nationalism as a diasporic Hindu phenomenon is explored, mainly via the various organizations that have emerged amongst diasporic Hindus, many of which have ties to this ideology. The degree to which specific Hindu organizations express a current of Hindu nationalism is explored, as well as reasons for the appeal of Hindu nationalism for diasporic Hindus.
Persistent Fictions
Authors: Lucia Amanda
Published: September 2023

This chapter traces the trajectory of a variety of Indian gurus as they expanded their reach to develop followings beyond the borders of India throughout the long twentieth century. Focusing particularly on diasporic developments in the United States, it shows how in the first half of the century, these newly global gurus repurposed Orientalist divisions between ‘spiritual’ Indians and ‘materialist’ Westerners to justify their proselytizing missions to the West. Also, in response to Orientalist and colonial critiques of Indian patriarchy, they largely attracted white female followers because of their advocacy for women’s uplift, education, and even ordination. In the second half of the century, additional new global gurus immigrated and attracted large global followings as a result of the relaxation of US immigration policy, the advent of American multiculturalism, and the ascendant religious exoticism of the Age of Aquarius and New Age movements. This chapter argues that despite the fact that these newer global gurus attracted more ethnically diverse followings—drawing together Anglo-Europeans, Indians, and smaller populations of African Americans and Asian Americans—they continued to enliven antiquated Orientalist racial stereotypes that, although largely false in their increasingly hybrid and cosmopolitan communities, continue as persistent fictions in many global guru movements.
Kant on Modality
Authors: Leech Jessica
Published: September 2023

This chapter presents the relevant elements of Kant's philosophy which inspire many of the ideas and arguments in the book. In particular: (1) Kant’s distinction between mere thought and cognition. (2) The ramifications of Kant's distinction between mere thought and cognition for the distinction between objective and subjective representations. (3) Kant’s distinction between logical modality and real modality. (4) One can understand Kant as bearing some commitment to taking at least some kinds of necessity and possibility to be relative modalities. (5) Kant provides accounts of the function of various kinds of modal judgments and concepts. Logical modal concepts have a role to play in the unity of consciousness, and real modal concepts have a role to play in the possibility of objective representation.
Metaphysical Necessity in a Formal System
Authors: Leech Jessica
Published: September 2023

This chapter gives attention to some of the more formal aspects of the proposed account and formulation of metaphysical necessity and possibility. The chapter presents definitions of metaphysical necessity and metaphysical possibility that could be added to a formal modal logical system for metaphysical modality. It is considered how, in such a system, we might accommodate the conjunction property: that if it is metaphysically necessary that A, and metaphysically necessary that B, then it is metaphysically necessary that A and B . The chapter defends the result that, strictly speaking, metaphysical necessity and possibility are not duals in the system, and shows how this interacts with our understanding of absolute necessity. It is considered whether we should endorse the validity of familiar modal schemas such as T, 4 and 5, and it is discussed in general what to make of iterated metaphysical modalities. The chapter also considers the extent to which it is justified to continue using a possible worlds semantics for this modal logical system in spite of also endorsing a non-worlds modal metaphysics.
Selling the Last War of Religion
Authors: de Boer David
Published: September 2023

Around the turn of the eighteenth century, the Cévennes region became home to a series of millenarian movements, which culminated in the Revolt of the Camisards, France’s last war of religion. This chapter explores how through print media an international group of advocates tried to steer England and the Dutch Republic toward a military intervention to aid the insurgents. Press coverage of the situation in the Cévennes reveals an evolving sense among early modern news consumers that the printing press could be a powerful political weapon in an increasingly interconnected media landscape, one to which people within and outside government circles had access. The chapter also shows that pamphleteering was at the same time an unreliable tool to steer foreign policy. Trying to convince multiconfessional audiences, advocates for intervention had to walk a tightrope between appeals to confessional solidarity and supraconfessional solidarity. Moreover, publicity could cause irritation among the very governments which advocates were hoping to mobilize.
Newtonian mechanics and the deterministic world
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: September 2023

After briefly discussing the contributions of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the main contributions of Newton are presented. His major contributions, including the law of gravitation and the laws of motion, initiated the modern age of science. Newtonian laws painted a deterministic picture of the universe—if the location of all the objects in the universe and the forces acting upon them at a given time are known then the future can be predicted precisely. Newton’s views on space and time are also presented. Most of these ideas were challenged by the modern theories of nature, namely the special and general theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Black holes
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: September 2023

The existence of black holes is among the most stunning consequences of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. These are point-like massive objects whose gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape and time slows to a complete stop. This exotic object is the last stage in the death of a massive star. The nature of black holes is discussed. The processes that result in the formation of black holes are described. Steven Hawking’s discovery that a black hole will eventually evaporate is explained. The characteristics of rotating black holes as described by the Kerr metric are very different from those of stationary black holes as described by the Schwarzchild metric. A rotating black hole can be potentially an immense source of energy. Some properties of wormholes are also discussed.
Dark matter and dark energy
Authors: Zubairy M. Suhail
Published: September 2023

One of the most startling and amazing facts about our universe is that what we see or able to see constitutes less than five percent of the universe. The rest of the universe, over ninety five percent, is hidden from us—it consists of dark matter and dark energy whose effects we see but cannot see or measure them directly or indirectly. At present we have no clue about their structure. This is a deep mystery. One of the most baffling questions facing scientists today is: What is the nature of the dark matter that constitutes twenty five percent and the dark energy that constitutes another seventy percent of the known universe? In this chapter, the discovery of dark matter and dark energy is discussed. Some possible explanations of these elusive constituents of the universe are also presented.
The Abuse of Constitutional Identity in the European Union
Authors: Scholtes Julian
Published: September 2023

The idea of constitutional identity has been central to the negotiation of authority between EU and national constitutional orders. Many national constitutional courts have declared that the reach of EU law is limited by certain core elements of the national constitution, often labelled ‘constitutional identity’. With the rise of illiberal democracies within the EU, the idea of constitutional identity has increasingly come under criticism, being seen as easily embedded in authoritarian, nativist rhetoric and vulnerable to being abused in bad faith. This book provides novel insights into how European authoritarians have utilized the concept of constitutional identity to further their illiberal goals. Employing a comparative theoretical perspective, it identifies the factors behind legitimate constitutional identity claims and critically analyses the ways in which these claims can be abused. The abuse of constitutional identity is examined in three distinct dimensions: generative, substantive, and relational. The generative dimension looks at how constitutional identity claims come about, while the substantive dimension looks at a claim’s broader relation to a normative theory of constitutionalism. The relational dimension, on the other hand, considers how constitutional identity claims are advanced and whether they are employed as a means of constitutional dialogue or constitutional disengagement.
Introduction
Authors: Scholtes Julian
Published: September 2023

This chapter explains the argument, purpose, approach, and structure of this book. The book aims to develop the idea of constitutional identity abuse in the specific context of the European Union. This chapter elaborates on the central concepts and themes of the book and provides additional background to the rationale behind the argument that drives it. It furthermore explains the relevance of the idea of constitutional identity abuse in the context of relevant literature, and explains the three conceptual dimensions (generative, substantive, and relational) that will drive this book’s approach to constitutional identity abuse: constitutional identity claims can be abusive by virtue of how they have come about (the generative dimension), by virtue of their substantive content (the substantive dimension), and by virtue of how they are advanced (the relational dimension).
Generative Abuse of Constitutional Identity
Authors: Scholtes Julian
Published: September 2023

This chapter tackles the generative dimension of the abuse of constitutional identity: constitutional identity arguments can be abusive by virtue of how they have come about. An extended theoretical discussion of the relationship between constitutional identity and the closely related concept of constituent power sets the scene for a broader discussion of processes of constitution-making, constitutional change, constitutional adjudication and the regulation of historical memory, all of which contribute to the generation of constitutional identity claims. Using the example of Hungary, but drawing upon further case studies where appropriate, limits to the generation of constitutional identity claims will be discussed.
What’s the Point of Living?
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

Some have argued that if the universe lacks a purpose, our lives are meaningless. Others think that cosmic purpose would be entirely irrelevant to the meaning of our lives. This chapter argues for a middle way between these two extremes. Our lives can be meaningful in the absence of cosmic purpose, but if there is cosmic purpose, then there is the potential for our lives to have much greater meaning. The ‘Digging Deeper’ section of the chapter explores the question of whether value is subjective. It is argued that a certain kind of David Hume-inspired subjectivity about value is incoherent. We then examine the horrors of value nihilism: the view that there is no value in anything. The chapter concludes by arguing that threat of value nihilism is removed by the evidence for cosmic purpose that we will explore in later chapters.
Why Science Points to Purpose
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

Our current best science suggests that the universe is fine-tuned for life, in the sense that for life to be possible, certain of the constants of physics had to have values falling in a certain very narrow range. This chapter argues this fine-tuning is evidence that some sort of goal-directedness towards things of value, such as life, played a fundamental role in shaping the early universe. The ‘Digging Deeper’ section of the chapter provides an accessible introduction to the Bayesian view concerning the nature of evidence, and frames the argument of the chapter more precisely in these terms. A variety of objections are then responded to, including arguing that the attempt to explain fine-tuning in terms of a multiverse involves fallacious reasoning.
Why Consciousness Points to Purpose
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

The most discussed examples of conscious states involve the qualities of sensory experience: colours, sounds, smells, and tastes. But human consciousness is also permeated with meaning and understanding. As you look at this page, for example, you don’t experience meaningless squiggles but meaningful words. We can call this aspect of consciousness ‘experiential understanding.’ This chapter explores two philosophical challenges that arise when we try to explain experiential understanding: the meaning zombie problem and the mystery of psycho-physical harmony. A meaning zombie is a hypothetic creature: a physical duplicate of a human being that has consciousness but lacks experiential understanding. Meaning zombies pose a challenge to evolutionary accounts of the emergence of experiential understanding. Given that meaning zombies would survive just as well as us despite lacking experiential understanding, why did experiential understanding evolve? Why aren’t we meaning zombies? The challenge is further deepened by the mystery of psycho-physical harmony, the puzzle of explaining why consciousness and behaviour tend to be correlated in a rationally appropriate manner (something which any evolutionary explanation of consciousness presupposes and so cannot explain). To solve these problems, the author defends pan-agentialism, the view that fundamental physical entities are conscious and disposed to respond rationally to the character of their experience. Finally, it is argued that the pan-agentialist world is one that embodies purpose at the fundamental level of reality. The ‘Digging Deeper’ section gives a Bayesian version of the argument for pan-agentialism, and responds to a few objections, including the charge that libertarian free will is not coherent.
Why the Omni-God Probably Doesn’t Exist
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

In the previous chapters we have argued for cosmic purpose, the view that goal-directedness plays a fundamental role in determining what happens in the universe. A familiar way of accounting for cosmic purpose is via the postulation of the Omni-God: an all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly good creator of the universe. This chapter argues against the existence of the Omni-God, on the grounds that it would be immoral for a being who could do anything to create a universe with so much suffering in it and, hence, if our universe was created by an all-powerful designer, that designer is not perfectly good. We explore and reject the attempts of Richard Swinburne to explain why God might allow suffering, and the argument that the Omni-God is needed to explain why the universe exists. The ‘Digging Deeper’ section responds to skeptical theists, who concede that we can’t think of anything that could justify an Omni-God allowing suffering but nonetheless argue that this gives us no reason to doubt that there is such a justification available to God, if not us. Finally, it is suggested that the argument of the chapter is a middle way between the logical problem of evil and the evidential version of the problem of evil, at least as the latter is standardly understood.
Cosmic Purpose without God
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

Having dispensed with the Omni-God as a foundation of cosmic purpose, this chapter explores two alternative sources of cosmic purpose. The first alternative is a non-standard designer, i.e. a designer that is not the Omni-God. The chapter considers a variety of such non-standard design hypotheses: an evil designer, an amoral designer, a limited designer, and the simulation hypothesis (the hypothesis that we live in a computer simulation created by a naturally evolved designer). The second alternative is teleological laws: laws of nature with purposes built into them. The ‘Digging Deeper’ section of the chapter explores how the hypotheses discussed in the main body of the chapter would account for the pan-agentialist theory defended in Chapter 4. There is also a rejection of the simulation hypothesis, on the grounds that a computer simulation of a universe would not contain consciousness.
Living with Purpose
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

Having argued for the reality of cosmic purpose, this chapter examines the implications for human existence. We explore a way of living out cosmic purposivism, the belief in cosmic purpose. This involves (i) a certain conception of spiritual advancement, rooted in working to see the emptiness in conditioned ways of seeing the world, (ii) spiritual communities built in part upon religious fictionalism (i.e. an engagement with traditional religion which takes many of their claims to be useful fictions), and (iii) an effort to ‘see through’ the myth of natural, inviolable rights to property. It is argued that cosmic purposivism is a deeply meaningful way of living a human life.
P.S. Is Taxation Theft?
Authors: Goff Philip
Published: September 2023

This addendum to Chapter 7 explains why there is no serious political theory according to which my pre-tax income is ‘mine’ in any morally significant sense. We explore three theories of property rights: right-libertarianism, left-libertarianism, and social constructivism. It is argued that the latter two theories are more plausible than the first, whilst only right-libertarianism can ensure a moral claim on one’s pre-tax income. However, even if right-libertarianism is true, a person has a moral claim on their pre-tax income only if they live in the kind of society advocated by right-libertarianism, as opposed to the real world. Hence, nobody living in the real world has a moral claim on their pre-tax income.
From Cathedral of the Mind to Bulwark of Orthodoxy
Authors: Van Der Biest Jarrik
Published: September 2023

This chapter assesses whether the term ‘professionalisation’ can be applied to the momentous changes the programme of the Louvain Faculty of Theology underwent during the sixteenth century. These various educational shifts were not the result of a coherent visionary policy implemented by the collegium strictum, the Faculty board, but rather the outcomes of external pressures on the Faculty. Rising student numbers, state-building tactics of the Habsburg monarchy, and the Council of Trent’s programme for Catholic Reform presented diverse challenges to the curriculum that the theologians accommodated through negotiation. Although disparate, these developments did dovetail into a new programme of theological studies, a professionalised one at that. Moreover, by changing the way theological knowledge was transmitted, the knowledge itself altered. Ultimately, the early modern curriculum signals a transformation of the ‘epistemological field’ in which theological ideas were produced and thus indicates a changing conception of theology as a discipline at large.
Beyond the Ars Historica
Authors: de la Porte Eleá
Published: September 2023

This chapter addresses how the ars historica lived on and was transformed in a different institutional setting in the Dutch Republic: that of learned societies. Because the activities of Dutch learned societies after 1750 coincided with the public debate on Dutch decline, most members aspired to gather ‘useful’ knowledge that could improve Dutch society. The chapter then analyses the academic prize contests on history of Teyler’s Second Society from 1780 and 1785, placing these entries about historical Pyrrhonism within earlier and broader European debates about historical scepticism and the status of history as a science. It discusses why the authors of the winning entries were optimistic about the possibilities of gaining sound historical knowledge. The chapter also argues that the members of Teyler’s Second Society built upon this optimistic outlook in their subsequent prize contests on history and explains why the content of their prize contests and the assessment of the entries were driven by a strong preference for ‘philosophical’ historiography. Finally, it reflects on the relevance of studying learned societies and academic prize competitions to better understand the development of Dutch and European historical thought in its diverse institutional settings.
Valentina Lepri, Knowledge Transfer and the Early Modern University. Statecraft and Philosophy at the Akademia Zamojska (1595–1627) Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, vol. 26. (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2019), pp. xiv + 192.
Authors: Frost Robert
Published: September 2023

This chapter reviews Valentina Lepri’s Knowledge Transfer and the Early Modern University. Statecraft and Philosophy at the Akademia Zamojska (1595–1627) (2019). This book demonstrates how the history of the Zamość Academy raises interesting questions about the purpose and the nature of institutions of higher education in the two centuries following the coming of printing and the breaking apart of the Roman Catholic church. The history of the Academy is inextricably bound to the vision of its founder, Jan Zamoyski, who, through talent and ruthlessness, rose from the ranks of the middling nobility in southeastern Poland to dominate Polish politics as grand chancellor and grand hetman. He founded the Academy without a faculty of theology; this shows that the Zamość Academy was by no means a standard European university. Zamoyski, who had played a considerable role in the constitutional revolution between 1572 and 1576, conceived his academy as a scola civilis, whose main purpose was to train young men for an active political life. The major strength of Lepri’s account is her detailed reconstruction and analysis of the nature of the Academy’s curriculum, the scholars who taught it, and the literature on which it was based. However, her presentation of the Polish-Lithuanian political system is not always as precise or as sound as might be wished.
“One Global War on Poverty”
Authors: Jahanbani Sheyda F.A.
Published: September 2023

Chapter 6 explores the policy implications of the emergence of a theory of global poverty among liberals in the years after World War II. Focusing on the ideas and work of Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, this chapter shows how Shriver framed “manpower” as the solution to underdevelopment and built the Peace Corps around that concept. When he became the head of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver incorporated the Peace Corps idea into this domestic anti-poverty program. Focusing on the establishment of Volunteers in Service to America, this chapter shows how the same logic underlay poverty-fighting at home and abroad under Shriver’s leadership. Finally, it introduces the little-known Reverse Peace Corps as the most complete realization of the global war on poverty liberals had been working to commence since the 1940s.
Serum ferritin/C-reactive protein ratio is a simple and effective biomarker for diagnosing iron deficiency in the context of systemic inflammation
Authors: Urbanski G , Chabrun F , Lavigne C , Lacout C , Delattre E , Reynier P , Requin J
Published: September 2023

Background

Diagnosing iron deficiency is challenging in the presence of systemic inflammation.

Aim

To investigate the relationship between plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), serum ferritin (SF) and transferrin saturation (TS), with the objective of establishing a straightforward ratio applicable in the presence of inflammatory syndrome.

Design

Test prospective cohort and validation retrospective cohort.

Methods

A prospective cohort of inpatients (n = 140) assessed the correlation between CRP and SF/TS levels. The diagnostic performance of a determined ratio was evaluated for identifying iron deficiency (ID) using different definitions and in the presence of inflammation and/or chronic heart and/or kidney failure. A large validation cohort (n = 795) further assessed the predictive power of this ratio.

Results

In a training cohort (median age 76 years [57–84]), a linear relation was observed between SF (µg/l) and CRP (mg/l), unlike with TS. The SF/CRP ratio accurately predicted ID, with receiver operating characteristic-area under the curve (ROC-AUC) values ranging from 0.85 to 0.92 for different ID definitions. A threshold of ≤6 demonstrated the highest Youden index (0.61). In the validation cohort (age 72 years [57–84]), the SF/CRP ratio exhibited an ROC-AUC of 0.88 [95% CI: 0.85–0.90], with an odds ratio of 37.9 [95% CI: 20.3–68.9] for the threshold of ≤6.

Conclusion

In this study, we demonstrated that the SF/CRP ratio, with a threshold of ≤6, is a simple and effective biomarker for ID, even in the presence of systemic inflammation or comorbidities. This ratio could potentially replace the complex set of criteria currently recommended by learned societies.