bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identifying Public Health Problems
Authors: Burris Scott , Berman Micah L. , Penn, and Matthew , Holiday Tara Ramanathan
Published: September 2018

Chapter 5 discusses the use of epidemiology to identify the source of public health problems and inform policymaking. It uses a case study to illustrate how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners detect diseases, identify their sources, determine the extent of an outbreak, and prevent new infections. The chapter also defines key measures in epidemiology that can indicate public health priorities, including morbidity and mortality, years of potential life lost, and measures of lifetime impacts, including disability-adjusted life years and quality-adjusted life years. Finally, the chapter reviews epidemiological study designs, differentiating between experimental and observational studies, to show how to interpret data and identify limitations.
Using Evidence and Knowledge Critically in Policy Development
Authors: Burris Scott , Berman Micah L. , Penn, and Matthew , Holiday Tara Ramanathan
Published: September 2018

This chapter starts with the recognition that policymaking usually precedes evidence of what laws are effective in solving the problem at hand. That does not mean that policymaking cannot be guided by evidence. Policymakers can usually draw on extensive evidence defining the problem and evidence of analogous policy cases. This chapter identifies sources of policy recommendations and direct evidence of policy impact, including systematic reviews, narrative reviews, models, cost-benefit analysis, and individual studies. It reviews strategies for identifying bias and source credibility and tools for “educated guessing” about policy options in matters where evidence is scarce or incomplete, including causal mapping and the Haddon matrix. Finally, it introduces the Health in All Policies approach and the use of health impact assessments as tools to consider broader impact and cross-sectoral cooperation.
Administrative Challenges
Authors: Burris Scott , Berman Micah L. , Penn, and Matthew , Holiday Tara Ramanathan
Published: September 2018

This chapter introduces the basic elements of administrative law and some key related legal doctrines. It covers administrative procedures acts that govern how agencies make or promulgate regulations and the rights of the public to have input. It then addresses the law governing legal challenges to the validity of the rules that agencies succeed in issuing, such as the ultra vires doctrine, and how agencies defend their decisions through legal doctrines such as Chevron deference. Finally, the chapter discusses how people establish standing to challenge agency actions, both through administrative channels and via the writ of habeas corpus.
Public Health Advocacy
Authors: Burris Scott , Berman Micah L. , Penn, and Matthew , Holiday Tara Ramanathan
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores the basic components of the many ways that individuals and organizations introduce their policy preferences into law and practice. The chapter describes the basic steps in developing and implementing a program of advocacy, specifically comparing the Collective Impact Model and the Collaborating for Equity and Justice Framework. It also explores the fundamental debate about the public health advocacy process and reviews legal limitations on political advocacy by public employees and tax-exempt organizations, limitations that have important effects on how advocacy works in public health practice.
Why Is There Anything at All?
Authors: Rasmussen Joshua , Weaver Christopher Gregory
Published: September 2018

This chapter marks out a two-stage argument from contingency for a maximally great being. In the first stage, the authors support premises in a modal cosmological argument for a Necessary Foundation of contingent things. The discussion ends with an examination of objections to this idea. In the second stage, it is argued from “modal continuity” that this Necessary Foundation would be maximal with respect to its causal capacities and other basic attributes. The authors suggest that if their argument is sound, then the best explanation of why there is anything is ultimately in terms of a maximally great, necessary being. A key aspect of the chapter’s argument is that the totality of necessary concrete reality cannot have arbitrary non-maximal limits with respect to its basic, uncaused attributes.
The Argument from the Confluence of Proper Function and Reliability
Authors: Arnold Alexander
Published: September 2018

Plantinga’s Argument from the Confluence of Proper Function and Reliability purports to find support for theism in the claim that most of the human mind’s cognitive powers are reliable when functioning properly in the right environments. This chapter evaluates this argument and concludes that its prospects are mixed. On one hand, it does not show that such a claim provides significant support for theism over non-theistic evolutionism. However, the argument does highlight a non-trivial problem for naturalists, namely, providing a naturalistically acceptable psychosemantics. The chapter’s first section reconstructs Plantinga’s argument as a likelihood argument. The discussion then turns to a critical examination of the two key premises of that reconstruction. The fourth section concludes with some thoughts on various issues raised by the argument.
The Argument from Simplicity and (M) The Argument from Induction
Authors: Monton Bradley
Published: September 2018

This chapter presents a new thermodynamic argument for the existence of God. Naturalistic physics provides evidence for the failure of induction, because it provides evidence that the past is not at all what you think it is, and your existence is just a momentary fluctuation. The fact that you are not a momentary fluctuation thus provides evidence for the existence of God—God would ensure that the past is roughly what we think it is, and you have been in existence for roughly the amount of time you think you have. There is no definitive way for the atheist to refute this argument, but one suggestion is given that relies on physics-based simplicity considerations. The chapter closes with an epistemological discussion of self-undermining arguments.
The Mozart Argument and (V) The Argument from Play and Enjoyment
Authors: Tallon Philip
Published: September 2018

Many atheistic philosophers concede that the prevalence of natural beauty is much more likely on theism than on naturalism. It is fairly easy to argue that beauty counts as evidence for God's existence. But how strong is this evidence? And what account of beauty are we using? This chapter examines several versions of the argument from beauty for God's existence, evaluates them, and presents a modified version of the argument offered by Alvin Plantinga. The chapter contends that beauty, as well as play, fit into the picture of Christian theology, and do not fit well within naturalism. An open-minded investigator should infer that Christian theism provides the best explanation for them, and that Christianity provides the best hope for satisfying our desire for beauty and play. In addition, the chapter offers a brief appraisal of Plantinga’s argument from play, and attempts to further it.
C.S. Lewis’s Argument from Nostalgia
Authors: Buras Todd , Cantrell Michael
Published: September 2018

This chapter shows that in certain circumstances desires are a guide to possibility, and that, in these circumstances, human beings desire at least one state of affairs for which the existence of God is a necessary condition. It follows that God’s existence is possible; or, more modestly, anyone with the relevant desires has a reason to believe God’s existence is possible. Thus, a new argument in the tradition of C.S. Lewis’s argument from nostalgia is offered, an argument from certain desires to the possibility premise of the modal ontological argument. It is argued, further, that support for the possibility premise does not succumb to the problem of equipollence, a problem that undermines many attempts to support the possibility premise.
Afterword*
Authors: Walls Jerry L. , Dougherty Trent
Published: September 2018

Alvin Plantinga shares his current thoughts on natural theology, including which arguments he thinks hold the most promise in this interview with Trent Dougherty at the “Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments” Conference hosted by both the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and the Program for Philosophical Study of Religion at Baylor University. Plantinga cites the moral arguments as among the most compelling. He also addresses the reasons for various arguments’ strengths. Some are useful for helping people who don’t believe in God to come to believe in God. He also finds that some arguments are useful when it comes to shoring up one’s own belief. The interview also probes Plantinga’s personal experiences with employing these arguments with people, including atheists.
Prophecies
Authors: Phillips Jason
Published: September 2018

Focusing on Edmund Ruffin, this chapter interprets the prophecies of secessionists. During a national craze for John Brown relics after the Harpers Ferry raid, Edmund Ruffin circulated Brown’s pikes to each southern legislature or governor to promote southern nationalism and secession. This chapter inverts memory studies to interpret how antebellum novels by Ruffin, John B. Jones, and Beverley Tucker forecasted civil war and elevated white supremacy. The prophetic imagination of secessionists like Ruffin empowered masters at the expense of women, yeomen, and slaves. By identifying themselves as conservative prophets rebelling against modern transgressions of timeless laws, southern nationalists adopted a historical consciousness that predicted a looming revolution to restore order and harmony. Their prophecies imagined bloodshed and destruction that exceeded the actual war and echoed earlier revolutions, particularly the American, French, and Haitian.
Expectations
Authors: Phillips Jason
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on wartime expectations of death and destruction. Instead of anticipating a glorious war that would revitalize the nation, many Americans expected a ruinous conflict that would bring death to their doors. Women understood how a future beyond their control would arrive with letters, newspapers, and telegrams. Meanwhile, African Americans prayed for a conflict that would endure long enough to destroy slavery. Instead of imagining a future shaped by historical actors, these Americans believed impersonal or supernatural forces would determine their future. Diverse people felt this way, from women at home to refugees on the road, from former slaves to Wall Street speculators, from generals and statesmen to common soldiers.
Prologue
Authors: Bomberger E. Douglas
Published: September 2018

The activities of eight musicians on New Year’s Eve 1916 reflected their positions in the varied musical tapestry of the United States. Two symphony orchestra conductors, three classical soloists, two jazz musicians, and a military bandleader entertained patrons in a wide range of settings as they and their audiences prepared for the year ahead. As the old year ended, Europe was at war, but the United States was not. This fortunate situation created lucrative opportunities for performers of both classical and popular music. Their positions in the musical hierarchy were about to be upended in the turbulent year of 1917.
Explosions
Authors: Bomberger E. Douglas
Published: September 2018

On 2 April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to enter the European war, and Congress voted to do so on Friday, 6 April. On the 15th of that month, Victor released the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s record of “Livery Stable Blues” and “Dixieland Jass Band One-Step”; it caused an immediate nationwide sensation. James Reese Europe travelled to Puerto Rico in search of woodwind players for the Fifteenth New York Regiment Band, and the Creole Band ended its vaudeville career when it missed the train to Portland, Maine. German musicians in the United States came under increased scrutiny in the weeks after the declaration of war, as the country prepared to adopt new laws and regulations for wartime.
Winding Up
Authors: Bomberger E. Douglas
Published: September 2018

The first selective service registration on 5 June forced Schumann-Heink’s sons, the members of the ODJB, and millions of other American men between twenty-one and thirty to register for the draft. George M. Cohan’s song “Over There” was introduced to the public by singer Nora Bayes. James Reese Europe played a concert before seven thousand on 22 June but underwent thyroid surgery days later. The ODJB took a two-week vacation, during which Dunbar’s Tennessee Ten took their place on the Reisenweber’s bandstand. The board of the Oratorio Society of New York replaced popular conductor Louis Koemmenich with Walter Damrosch against the wishes of the membership.
Preparation
Authors: Bomberger E. Douglas
Published: September 2018

The Fifteenth Regiment’s disciplined response to racial harassment during a two-week stay at Camp Wadsworth, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, earned it the right to be among the first units ordered to France. Nick LaRocca represented the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in a Chicago lawsuit to stop the unauthorized publication of the sheet music to “Livery Stable Blues” by former bandmate “Yellow” Nunez, but the judge ruled that all blues were the same and therefore not subject to copyright protection. The Victor Talking Machine Company, using the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, made the first recordings employing the full symphony orchestra. The concert seasons of orchestras across the country opened amid intense scrutiny of their repertoire choices and patriotism.
The Politics of Aesthetics
Authors: Patton Raymond A.
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores punk’s intersection with politics in the East and West following its collision with the mass entertainment industry. Examining debates over punk in the Polish Communist Party and the UK Parliament, and efforts to integrate punk into Poland’s Solidarity movement, it shows how politicians struggled to accommodate punk to their worldviews, since punk defied traditional late Cold War sociopolitical categories. Instead, politicians in the First and Second Worlds alike fell back on the model of Matthew Arnold, interpreting culture in terms of “sweetness and light” versus chaos and anarchy—with punk often identified as the latter. While mainstream politicians struggled to fit punk to their worldviews, marginal voices on the Left and Right sought to integrate punk through affiliation with groups such as the Socialist Workers Party (in Rock Against Racism) and the right-wing National Front, ultimately also finding that punk fit poorly with their worldviews.
Culture Wars
Authors: Patton Raymond A.
Published: September 2018

This chapter shows how the growing culturally oriented divisions in and around punk peaked in the mid-1980s in culture wars that emerged simultaneously in societies across the First and Second Worlds. In the United States, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) formed in Washington, DC, to combat profanity in music; in the United Kingdom, Crass faced obscenity charges; and governments of several Eastern European countries cracked down on punk and its offshoots, new wave and heavy metal. However, by the mid-1980s, a new coalition of forces began to form in opposition to the neoconservative reaction against punk at the beginning of the decade, defined by cultural openness, progressivism, and “coolness.” Punk thereby helped cement a political reorientation that cut across ideological and socioeconomic groupings in the East and West, realigning societies according to progressive versus conservative identities—categories that would continue to define politics long after the end of the Cold War era.
The Party, The Guests, and Why Viṣṇu Ananta Deva?
Authors: Hiltebeitel Alf
Published: September 2018

Why did Bose send a statuette of Viṣṇu from distant Kerala to Freud for his 75th birthday rather than a Bengali goddess? The first half of chapter 7 looks at clues about the choice of the statuette of “Viṣṇu Ananta Deva.” The second half then examines various icons of Viṣṇu (or his avatars) on the hypothesis that the snake as seat and hooded backdrop represents the unconscious, which would befit Ananta contemplating his navel. A comparison with a sanctum image of Viṣṇu in a more familiar pose of lying on Ananta’s coils on the cosmic waters suggests that the two images were interreferential. In that case, the banyan leaf is interchangeable with the serpent couch and hood, and Viṣṇu is interchangeable with the pre-Oedipal baby Kṛṣṇa. The snake also appears as seat and hooded protector for Viṣṇu in his Man-Lion form, where the iconography suggests unconscious Oedipal themes.
Whether and How
Authors: Hicks-Keeton Jill
Published: September 2018

Chapter 5 sets Joseph and Aseneth’s intervention in ancient debates about gentile inclusion alongside that of Jubilees and that of the apostle Paul—both of whom also play with the epithet “living God” as they wrestle with questions of gentile access to Israel and Israel’s God. Like Joseph and Aseneth, Jubilees depicts Israel’s “living God” as the creator God, but whereas Joseph and Aseneth exploits the theme of universal creator to universalize (potential) inclusion, Jubilees employs creation imagery to underscore the exclusivity of the relationship between God and (gentile-free) Israel. By contrast, Paul employs the epithet as scriptural warrant for gentile inclusion. Joseph and Aseneth and Paul share a discursive project: to construct a “myth of origins” for gentile inclusion. A comparison of the two myths proves productive for articulating the radical definition of insider identity that Joseph and Aseneth espouses.
Conclusion
Authors: Costley White Khadijah
Published: September 2018

I conclude that the press played much more than an instrumental role in relaying the Tea Party brand and that this study highlights the specific ways in which the distinctions between campaigners, political strategists, and news media professionals are becoming increasingly irrelevant. At its core, the Tea Party news story was a narrative that questioned authenticity in a branding environment, a cultural text indicative of a period marked by skepticism, terrorism, anxiety, and doubt about both the virtual and physical worlds (and their interplay). These news narratives provide insight into American culture and expose the function of the press and political news in an era marked by advances in digital technology and media segmentation.
Dialogic Teaching and Translanguaging in Deaf Education
Authors: Swanwick Ruth
Published: September 2018

This chapter proposes a pedagogical framework for deaf education that builds on a sociocultural perspective and the role of interaction in learning. Pedagogical principles are argued that recognize the dialogic nature of learning and teaching and the role of language as “the tool of all tools” in this process. Building on established work on classroom talk in deaf education, the issues of dialogue in deaf education are extended to consider deaf children’s current learning contexts and their diverse and plural use of sign and spoken languages. Within this broad language context, the languaging and translanguaging practices of learners and teachers are explained as central to a pedagogical framework that is responsive to the diverse learning needs of deaf children. Within this pedagogical framework practical teaching strategies are suggested that draw on successful approaches in the wider field of language learning and take into account the particular learning experience and contexts of deaf children.
Effects of Family Variables on Spoken Language in Children with Cochlear Implants
Authors: Cejas Ivette , Quittner Alexandra L.
Published: September 2018

This chapter reviews the effects of family variables on spoken language in the largest, longitudinal multisite study of the effects of cochlear implants on young deaf children’s development. Data published to date on 188 deaf and 97 hearing children indicate that parents report high levels of context-specific parenting stress and less sensitivity during parent–child interactions and use fewer higher-level language techniques. Children’s language was related to higher rates of behavior problems, which were associated with higher parenting stress. After implantation, children made impressive gains in spoken language, and these were directly related to maternal sensitivity and use of facilitative language techniques. Our results indicated that cochlear implantation should be accompanied by parenting interventions that increase sensitivity and use of higher-level language strategies and foster a stronger parent–child relationship.
The Influence of Signs on Spoken Word Learning by Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Authors: van Berkel-van Hoof Lian
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on factors that support word learning for both hearing and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Vocabulary development is first discussed in hearing children and then DHH children. The chapter suggests several interventions for improving DHH children’s language skills and reviews studies on the efficacy of sign-supported speech for word learning. Sign-supported speech is frequently used in schools for the deaf in the Netherlands. Professionals working with DHH children indicate that this helps the children to better understand the spoken message; however, it is unclear whether this mode of communication aids spoken word learning. Implications for educational practice and future directions are discussed.
Many Ways to Reading Success
Authors: Miller Paul
Published: September 2018

On average deaf readers end up being poor readers. Their reading weakness has been claimed to reflect primary deficits in their ability to access and process the phonology of written words, but evidence from research with deaf Hebrew readers and deaf readers of other language backgrounds suggests that the role of phonology in explaining their poor reading comprehension has been overstated. To corroborate this conclusion, the author presents evidence from three sources. The first demonstrates the ability of a deaf youngster to acquire a language through reading and writing. The second presents evidence of deaf preschoolers’ ability to acquire effective word reading skills without phonological mediation. The third shows how deaf readers’ underdeveloped morpho-syntactic understanding improves when they are exposed to an interactive computerized learning environment that visually demonstrates how language rules operate. A paradigm shift in how reading skills should be developed in prelingually deaf individuals is discussed.
Parents Count
Authors: Wauters Loes , Dirks Evelien
Published: September 2018

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children are more at risk for mathematical difficulties than hearing children. The few studies that have focused on preschoolers showed that even at this age DHH children already lag behind their hearing peers. Early math skills are important for later mathematics performance and school success in general, so early stimulation of these skills is needed. Research has shown that the home environment plays an important role in the development of early math skills. Because parent–child math activities predict later achievement, it is important to increase parents’ awareness of the importance of math activities for young DHH children. This chapter focuses on early math skills in DHH children and describes how parents can enhance these skills in the home environment.
Neurocognitive Functioning in Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants
Authors: Kronenberger William G. , Pisoni David B.
Published: September 2018

Cochlear implantation restores some attributes of hearing and spoken language to prelingually deaf children. However, reduced access to auditory and spoken-language experiences for children with cochlear implants can alter the development of downstream neurocognitive functions such as sequential processing and self-regulatory language skills, which are critical building blocks for executive functioning. Executive functioning is the active regulation of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional processes in the service of planned, organized, controlled, goal-driven behavior. This chapter presents findings from two primary lines of research on the development of executive functioning in prelingually deaf, early implanted children with cochlear implants. The first is identification of specific executive function domains that are at risk for delay in children with cochlear implants compared to hearing children. The second is reciprocal influences of executive function and spoken-language skills throughout development in children and adolescents with cochlear implants.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-Being in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students
Authors: Dammeyer Jesper
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers two main explanations for the high prevalence of mental disorders among children with congenital deafness. The first is a medical explanation and focuses on the possibility of shared biologic causes for the hearing loss and the associated mental disorders. The second is multifactorial and focuses on interrelated psychological and social factors, in particular the psychosocial impact of a child’s delay in learning language. According to this account, hearing loss risks language delay, which in turn risks delays in social and cognitive development, which in turn increases the risk of mental disorders. The chapter goes on to discuss other risk and protective factors, including deaf identity, type of education, and cochlear implantation, as well as prevention and treatment services and programs.
Escaped Nuns
Authors: Yacovazzi Cassandra L.
Published: September 2018

Just five weeks after its publication in January 1836, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery sold over 20,000 copies. By “escaped nun,” Maria Monk, the book provided a shocking exposé of convent life, from licentious priests to tortured nuns to infanticide. Despite Maria Monk’s unveiling as an imposter, her book went on to become the second bestseller before the Civil War, after Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Far from representing a curious aberration, Monk’s book was part of a larger phenomenon, involving riots, propaganda, and politics. The campaign against convents was intimately connected with cultural concerns regarding reform, religion, immigration, and in particular the role of women in the republic. At a time when concern for “female virtue” consumed many Americans, nuns were a barometer of attitudes toward women. The veiled nun stood as the inversion of the true woman, needed to sustain the purity of the nation. She was a captive for a foreign foe, a fallen woman, a “white slave,” and a “foolish virgin.” In the first half of the nineteenth century, ministers, vigilantes, politicians, and writers, both male and female, crafted this image of the nun, locking arms against convents. The result was a far-reaching antebellum movement that would shape perceptions of nuns and women more broadly in America.
Burning Babylon
Authors: Yacovazzi Cassandra L.
Published: September 2018

The burning of Mount Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts, was one of the worst acts of nativist violence in American history. On August 11, 1834, a group of men attacked the convent as nuns and female pupils scrambled to safety. The rioters torched the building, inflicting over $50,000 worth of damages that were never repaid. Although a small group of men attacked Mount Benedict, sermons and speeches given prior to the event, the firemen’s neglect to intervene, and the acquittal of the rioters point to a larger conspiracy. The first convent narrative appeared two years before the burning along with other anti-Catholic materials. These works reinforced the conviction that nuns were dangerous women, in need of rescue or retribution. In this chapter I describe the burning of Mount Benedict in the context of the gendered critique of nuns and the birth of the convent narrative.
The Biography and Bibliography of a French Reformed Baron
Authors: Van Raalte Theodore G.
Published: September 2018

In order to familiarize the reader further with Chandieu’s fascinating life and to justify the choice of treatises that this monograph probes, this chapter relays much about the biography of Chandieu, with some points never mentioned by other scholars. Questions such as the following are answered: What education did he receive? When and why did he become a Reformed pastor? When and where did he teach theology? It also arranges in chronological order all of his writings, both poetic and scholastic, provides context, offers translations of some of his poetry, and notes many of the written responses of his opponents. In doing so, this chapter provides essential context for all those chapters which follow.
“Very Commonly Used by the Ancients”
Authors: Van Raalte Theodore G.
Published: September 2018

Chandieu was able to recommend the rather novel idea of using hypothetical syllogisms for “demonstrative truth” in Reformed theology because he considered his antecedent in each syllogism to arise out of the express words of Scripture, which are an indubitable source of truth for the theologian. His use of hypothetical syllogisms as such is more Stoic than Aristotelian, but is also highly dependent on the medieval theologians and philosophers. The terminology he uses for the parts of the syllogism is accurate. The most likely recent precedent for the use of hypothetical syllogisms for demonstrative truth is not Claude Aubery, but Jacob Schegk. Ten important conclusions close this chapter.
Introduction
Authors: Legaspi Michael C.
Published: September 2018

This is a book about wisdom. It is an inquiry into the beginnings of a particular way of thinking about life in the world. Seen in terms of wisdom, the world is not a meaningless array of disconnected things but something that is experienced as an ordered reality. This holistic way of understanding life in the world characterized pursuits of wisdom in a two-sided classical and biblical tradition that exercised a profound influence on Western culture. This book examines the development of that tradition in a wide range of texts from Homer to Plato and in the writings of early Jewish and Christian authors.
Wisdom and Knowledge in the Hebrew Bible
Authors: Legaspi Michael C.
Published: September 2018

In the Hebrew Bible, wisdom is distinguished from knowledge. As a form of understanding that corresponds, necessarily, to the knower, the knowledge that humans gain is limited by who and what humans are. Though a divinely ordered world is indeed intelligible to humans, it is only partially so. Inasmuch as wisdom is a program for life ordered to an account of the whole—a whole that confounds our inescapably subjective judgments—it must be based on a holistic form of understanding that guides and directs in the face of ignorance and deep existential uncertainty. Instead of knowledge, then, wisdom identifies this form of understanding with the recognition of metaphysical vulnerability. Wisdom is based on fear. Yet because it is based on fear of one who is the author of a “good” creation, wisdom is closely allied with piety and the pious person’s hope for a just and blessed life.
Introduction
Authors: Schlieter Jens
Published: September 2018

The introduction to Part I defines as the primary object of the study the reports of near-death experiences. As such, the latter are part of a literary form and specific genre. Experiences, and reports of experiences, it is argued, adapt to a complex network of expectation, anticipation, and confirmation of the anticipated. Therefore, they are culturally specific. Although of importance, fictional near-death reports as conveyed in literature and film will not be treated in the study if no autobiographical claim is visible, namely, that the experiences were made in biographically identifiable situations “near death.” The author’s aim to relate to a text-external world can be called “reference ambition” (Markus Davidsen).
Introduction
Authors: Schlieter Jens
Published: September 2018

This introduction to Part III explains the shift of perspective in Part III, focusing now on societal factors that contributed to the intensification of near-death discourse in the 1960s and 1970s: the privatization of death and dying, the improvement of resuscitation technology, brain death and coma, or the institutional change of religion in Western societies.
Introduction
Authors: Schlieter Jens
Published: September 2018

This introduction to Part IV analyzes near-death memoirs and narratives as parallel to religious conversion narratives. If the experiencers raise claims that the near-death event changed their lives, their reports often equal those of conversion narratives. Consequently, communicating the experience may not only inform of experiences, but searches for empathetic responses in significant others. This chapter, however, discusses the well-known obstacles in autobiographical reporting of experiences. Psychologist Robert A. Kastenbaum argued in respect to near-death experiences that their specific content is often the result of a later development of a “revisionist,” postexperiential interpretation. On the other hand, experiences may sometimes also conform to expectations that were, at the time of the near-death event, already an integral part of the “experiencer’s” religious outlook.
The Presence of Religious Metacultures in Near-Death Discourse (1580–1975)
Authors: Schlieter Jens
Published: September 2018

The conclusion of the discursive history outlines that in contrast to studies that argue for a broad decline of Christian narratives of deathbed experiences in the early modern centuries, there is ample evidence of a continuous stream of Christian reports. These reports are, from the 18th century onward, seconded by a broad current of Spiritualist–Occult and Gnostic–Esoteric reports. Transmitters of these reports were mostly religiously interested individuals—preeminently spokespersons of non-mainstream churches and denominations such as Pietists, Theosophists, Occultists, and Spiritualists, joined, in the early 20th century, by parapsychologists. Most common are descriptions of a paradisiacal realm, tranquility, quietness, and feelings of peace or mental clarity. Handed down in religious contexts were descriptions of a border, God, or angels. However, other elements such as the life review (absent in premodern narratives), autoscopic out-of-body experiences, or the “tunnel” clearly developed over time and assumed new meanings.
The Religious Functions of Near-Death Experiences
Authors: Schlieter Jens
Published: September 2018

This final chapter secures the result of the survey by discussing the religious functions of near-death experiences for affected individuals, but also the functions of the reports for the audience. It outlines (a) ontological, (b) epistemic, (c) intersubjective, and (d) moral aspects. It has been argued that experiencers feel closer to God, are less attracted to religion, and are significantly more inclined to believe in life after death. A function of the narratives consists in the claim that, in atheistic and secular times, individual religious experience is still possible. Several reports argue with a copresence of life and death. Discussing cognitivist approaches, the chapter finally concludes that, given the Latin etymology of “experience,” harboring, among others, the meaning of “being exposed to danger” or “passing a test,” near-death experiences can be seen as a match for conceptions of religious experience as a transformative, gained by surviving a life-threatening danger.
Acting Globally
Authors: Brysk Alison
Published: September 2018

Chapter 3 chronicles the international repertoire that has grown to respond to gender violence. We will trace the growth, rationale, and mechanisms of the regime. Global standards and programs, regional organizations, foreign aid and diplomacy, and cross-cutting development and health linkages have raised consciousness, empowered advocacy, diffused law, fostered policy, and built capacity to contest violence. We will see how global action against gender violence has evolved from humanitarian protection to human rights to broad connections with multiple facets of human security and development. This chapter will track global institutions, foreign policy, and transnational advocacy—and plant the need for local response.
Reform, Resist, Create
Authors: Cabrera Luis
Published: September 2018

While there have been numerous recent analyses of the legitimacy of suprastate governance institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or United Nations Security Council, few accounts have considered individual duties in relation to those institutions, broadly analogous to suprastate political obligation. Identified in this chapter are three categories of duties that should be salient to a range of institutions. These include duties to support their reform, to resist specific institutional features or practices, and to reject the continued operation of some institutions and support the creation of alternate ones. These duties would correspond roughly to how well an institution would appear to fit into a global institutional scheme that actually would fulfill cosmopolitan aims for rights promotion and protections and related global moral goods. An implication is that the current global system itself is a candidate for rejection, given its inherent tendencies toward the gross underfulfillment of individual rights.
Kant on the Way to His Own Philosophy of Logic
Authors: Lu-Adler Huaping
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers how Kant, from the mid-1760s through the mid-1770s, navigated between existing accounts of logic before finding his own voice. It highlights two breakthroughs that would contribute most to his mature theory of logic. The first breakthrough concerns Kant’s division of logic into two essentially different though complementary branches: a logic for the learned understanding and one for the common human understanding (to make it healthy), precursors to “pure logic” and “applied logic” respectively. This distinction not only marks a clear departure from the Leibnizian-Wolffian take on the relation between artificial and natural logics, but also pays homage to the humanist and Lockean practices of emphasizing certain ethical dimensions of logic. The second breakthrough is the emergence of “transcendental logic” from Kant’s efforts to secure metaphysics—particularly the first part thereof, ontology—as a proper science.
Synaesthesia
Authors: and Bruno
Published: September 2018

Synaesthesia is a curious anomaly of multisensory perception. When presented with stimulation in one sensory channel, in addition to the percept usually associated with that channel (inducer) a true synaesthetic experiences a second percept in another perceptual modality (concurrent). Although synaesthesia is not pathological, true synaesthetes are relatively rare and their synaesthetic associations tend to be quite idiosyncratic. For this reason, studying synaesthesia is difficult, but exciting new experimental results are beginning to clarify what makes the brain of synaesthetes special and the mechanisms that may produce the condition. Even more importantly, the related phenomenon known as ‘natural’ crossmodal associations is instead experienced by everyone, providing another useful domain for studying multisensory interactions with important implications for understanding our preferences for products in terms of spontaneously evoked associations, as well as for choosing appropriate names, labels, and packaging in marketing applications.
Attention and Learning
Authors: and Bruno
Published: September 2018

Attention can be defined as a multifaceted gateway to consciousness. We use attention to focus on specific sensory signals (selective attention), to allocate resources to concurrent relevant sources (divided attention), to switch between tasks (alternate attention), to maintain focus on a task for a prolonged period (sustained attention), to ready ourselves for a quick response to sudden novel information (alertness); and all these processes, to some extent, control what sensory signals are processed up to the level of conscious awareness. The multifarious functions of attention often involve multisensory interactions, and in this chapter, will we discuss three broad issues in studying multisensory attention. We will start by considering multisensory spatial attention to signals within different sensory channels in a goal directed manner, in comparison to conditions whereby attention is automatically engaged by external multisensory signals. Next, we will discuss multisensory non-spatial attention. In conclusion, we will discuss the implications for multisensory learning and memory.
Slave Societies, Societies with Slaves
Authors: Lewis David M.
Published: September 2018

This chapter analyses the common distinction in slavery studies between ‘slave societies’ and ‘societies with slaves’. It looks at the various proposals for how to conceptualize these categories, and considers their relative advantages and disadvantages. It shows how a mechanical application of this approach will invariably result in a black-and-white picture, and that this approach fails to take into consideration differing levels of knowledge about ancient societies and their economic underpinnings. Finally, it shows that much research in Near Eastern slavery has been conducted without awareness of these categories, leading to skewed comparisons between the classical and Near Eastern worlds.
The Persian Empire
Authors: Lewis David M.
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores the role of slavery in several regions of the Persian Empire. The first section looks at elite estates in Anatolia, in particular examining the estate of Asidates discussed in Xenophon’s Anabasis (7.8.7–22), and shows that slave labour likely played a prominent role in their cultivation. The second section examines the role of slavery in the estates in Egypt of the Persian satrap Aršama, which presents a similar picture. The third section analyses the so-called ‘royal economy’ of Fars, known from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, and argues that a significant component of the kurtaš workforce was constituted by enslaved war captives and their descendants.
Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage
Authors: Powers Melinda
Published: September 2018

Demonstrating that ancient drama can be a powerful tool in seeking justice, this book investigates a cross section of live theatrical productions on the US stage that have reimagined Greek tragedy to address political and social concerns. To address this subject, it engages with some of the latest research in the field of performance studies to interpret not dramatic texts in isolation from their performance context, but instead the dynamic experience of live theatre. The book’s focus is on the ability of engaged performances to pose critical challenges to long-standing stereotypes that have contributed to the misrepresentation and marginalization of under-represented communities. Yet, in the process, it also uncovers the ways in which performances can inadvertently reinforce the very stereotypes they aim to challenge. This book thus offers a study of the live performance of Greek drama and its role in creating and reflecting social, cultural, and historical identity in contemporary America.
Challenging the Stereotype of the ‘Disabled Veteran’ in Aquila’s A Female Philoctetes and Outside the Wire’s Ajax
Authors: Powers Melinda
Published: September 2018

My final chapter considers a different type of minority community, US veterans. Although veterans today, particularly those with disabilities, are a minority population that comprises less than 1 per cent of the total population, in ancient Athens, veterans had a direct connection to ancient Greek drama, and the majority of the ancient playwrights and the audience would have had direct experience of combat. By focusing on Aquila Theatre’s A Female Philoctetes, and Outside the Wire’s Theater of War Ensemble’s reading of Sophocles’ Ajax, I explore the ways in which Greek drama can function to challenge the stereotype of the ‘disabled veteran’, but can also reinforce stereotypes about the members of this community, who struggle not only for equality but also with the process of reintegrating into civilian life.
Longobardi in the Sixth Century without Paulus Diaconus
Authors: Geary Patrick
Published: September 2018

This chapter attempts to construct a model of the relationships between Pannonia and Italy in the sixth century from archaeological, textual, and genetic sources without recourse to the master narrative imposed by Paulus centuries later. Although frequently criticized, the seductiveness of his account and his putative reliance on the Origo gentis Langobardorum and a lost history of Secundus of Trent have inevitably led scholars to attempt to reconcile his account of Longobard early history with fragmentary material evidence and the testimony of authors contemporary to the events Paulus recorded over two hundred years later. However, since the Origo is itself a seventh-century text and Secundus, too, was writing in the seventh century, it is perhaps worthwhile to consider, as a thought experiment, what the history of the Longobards would look like if one attempted to reconstruct it from sixth century sources without recourse to Paulus or to the Origo. The purpose of this chapter is not ultimately to reject Paulus or the Origo in their entirety, but rather, as a thought experiment, to ask what image might emerge of Pannonia and Italy in this crucial period without them.
Gender and the Gift
Authors: Stafford Pauline
Published: September 2018

This chapter responds to Chris’s interest in gifts and giving—and to his recent half-turn linguistically. It aims to fill—or to begin to fill—one of the acknowledged gaps in a recent volume with which he was associated, The Languages of Gift, by looking at marriage and the giving and receiving of women. It underlines some of the things which that volume stressed—notably that gifts are multivocal—and can and do change in meaning contextually, but also that the contextual and changing meaning of the gift is rooted in and constrained by structures—which set that general framework of meaning. This chapter is also concerned with those structures and thus, I hope, responds to Chris’s lifelong concern with the bigger models and heuristic devices which are necessary to our understanding of the past. It will be especially concerned with England—in particular late Anglo-Saxon England. But it will draw on wider material in an attempt to understand that—inspired, once again, by Chris’s constant interest in comparative history.
Bastard Feudalism and the Framing of Thirteenth-Century England
Authors: Coss Peter
Published: September 2018

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.