bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction: Setting Up
Authors: Gillett Rachel Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the book. It argues that music making in interwar Paris was a form of cultural politics. It contextualizes the subject with a short overview of French colonial history, describes the groups involved in making Afro-diasporic music in interwar Paris, analyzes how their music making was political, and considers what it means to feel “at home” through music. It argues that the cultural politics of Black music making in Paris included challenging prevailing ideas about race and racial hierarchies. It shows how various groups of Africans, Antilleans, and African Americans in interwar Paris were brought together by music while their music making also revealed differences and factions among Black networks and communities both in Paris and globally.
The Flip Side of Jazz
Authors: Gillett Rachel Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the entry of jazz into Europe in 1919 after World War I. It demonstrates how the jazz craze presented French men and women of color with opportunities for recognition but also threatened them with widespread misrepresentation. French Antilleans and Africans responded to the jazz craze by offering their own interpretations of Black music and Black identity in political meetings, journalism, and literary reactions. By 1924, police were monitoring these activities carefully. The chapter argues that musical developments contributed powerfully to an interwar context within which racial representation in France was both widespread and contested. It shows how the French state responded by surveilling Black francophone populations closely even in their “leisure” activities such as music making. The chapter emphasizes throughout how the tumulte noir catalyzed Black French to articulate their differences from Black Americans in print and in performance.
H. P. Blavatsky’s Acquaintance with the Language of the Gods
Authors: Santucci James A.
Published: February 2021

This chapter shows how Sanskrit is understood within the framework of Helena Blavatsky’s account of history related to the fall of Atlantis and a supposedly even older language known as Senzar, which embodied the ancient universal Wisdom-Religion. Sanskrit is perceived as a highly accurate direct descendent of this older, more profound mystery language and thereby signifies a central source of the esoteric wisdom teachings. In relation to this conceptualization of the importance of Sanskrit and the fact that Blavatsky is one of the most important early proponents of Theosophy, the chapter explores the long-overdue question of Blavatsky’s actual knowledge and use of Sanskrit.
“The Real Pure Yog”
Authors: Bowen Patrick D.
Published: February 2021

This chapter demonstrates how yoga was introduced to Western readers interested in occultism and the East in the pages of The Theosophist in the early 1880s. In 1885, the newly formed occult society the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (HB of L), which took inspiration from Theosophy, began instructing its members to read about and practice Theosophy-connected forms of yoga as a way to prepare for occult initiation. It was presumably the first society to do so. Using newly unearthed letters of early members of the Theosophical Society and the HB of L, the chapter pioneeringly traces the early history of the introduction of the practice of yoga in these organizations, which later, through Rev. William Ayton, led to Aleister Crowley and other British occultists’ interest in yoga.
Emergent Representations of the East
Authors: McCann Gillian
Published: February 2021

Using The Lamp, a publication of the Toronto Theosophical Society, as its primary example, this chapter examines the ways in which Theosophists advanced their cause both inside and outside the mainstream through their periodicals. The Theosophical journals functioned as platforms for cultural brokers between the East and West and included the exchange of a great number of topics related to the East, including ancient philosophy; sub-continental politics; and debates around cremation, karma, imperialism, and Indian immigration to countries such as Canada and Australia. The chapter demonstrates how the Theosophists in this way consciously participated in the creation of the occult counter-public sphere that helped to introduce new ideas into the mainstream. It was this oppositional sphere that was their key means for engaging with the public.
Philosophical Background Matters
Authors: Alger Bradley E.
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the rift between science and philosophy, but argues that scientists can benefit from philosophical insights without becoming philosophers. It presents an elementary introduction to philosophical concepts that recur throughout the book, including deduction, induction, inference, and others. It covers the problem of induction and the Uniformity of Nature assumption, and reviews Hume’s critique of induction. Other technical issues that confuse the public debate about science, concern explanation, uncertainty, and levels of organization of science, are in here as well. A central issue is the question of how we can resolve two opposing notions: the widely agreed on principle that scientific findings are never completely certain, and our conviction that some findings are certain: e.g., the earth goes around the sun in an elliptical orbit. The chapter sorts out this and other common misunderstandings.
Advantages of the Hypothesis
Authors: Alger Bradley E.
Published: February 2021

This chapter makes the case for the scientific hypothesis from two quite different points of view: statistical and cognitive. The consideration of statistical advantages picks up from the discussion of the Reproducibility Crisis in the previous chapter. First, it explores reasoning that shows that hypothesis-based research will, as a general rule, be much more reliable than, for example, open-ended gene searches. It also revives a procedure, Fisher’s Method for Combining Results that, though rarely used nowadays, underscores the strengths of multiple testing of hypotheses. Second, the chapter goes into many cognitive advantages of hypothesis-based research that exist because the human mind is inherently and continually at work trying to understand the world. The hypothesis is a natural way of channeling this drive into science. It is also a powerful organizational tool that serves as a blueprint for investigations and helps organize scientific thinking and communications.
Automatic Thinking
Authors: Alger Bradley E.
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the role of “automatic thinking,” in hypothesis formation. Automatic thinking refers to the default operations of our mind that affect how we view and understand the world. These operations are behind cognitive biases and heuristic reasoning, inductive reasoning, and, most importantly, our tendency to engage in continual, conscious and unconscious, hypothesis generation. Unconscious hypotheses allow us to predict what will happen next and see why things “make sense.” They also account for our susceptibility to the “cognitive illusions,” that lead us astray. The chapter also questions whether “inductive reasoning” should count as a form of “reasoning” at all, since the ability to recognize and respond to regularities in the environment appears to be an adaptive trait shared by all animals and, perhaps, plants as well. This chapter argues that much of the criticism of the hypothesis has failed to take these automatic mental processes into account. The chapter suggests that a better sense of our automatic mental activity can lead to improvements in scientific thinking.
Thinking Rationally About Heuristics and Biases
Authors: Alger Bradley E.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 12 continues the discussion of biases in “automatic thinking” that began in the preceding chapter. This chapter takes up the topic of specific biases and their origins in heuristics and examines scientific thinking from two opposing points of view—one that focuses on the errors that automatic thinking causes us to commit, the other that stresses the adaptive utility of automatic thinking. These points of view reflect two distinct interpretations of rationality. In one, rationality is strictly logical and is exemplified by the tenets of Expected Utility Theory. Being rational in this sense means adhering to the principles laid down by economists seeking to characterize unemotional, machine-like, thinking that only looks at the bottom line. The other concept of rationality, called ecological rationality, typifies actual human behavior which, even though not strictly logical, nevertheless usually serves well enough for people to survive and thrive. Ecological rationality prizes efficiency and swiftness in mental functioning. It recognizes the constraints on careful thought that are imposed by limited information and time. The chapter argues that both interpretations have valuable lessons for scientific thinking. The chapter covers subjects ranging from biases and “negative data” to the egocentric factors that go into scientists’ ability and willingness to state their scientific hypotheses explicitly.
The Future of the Hypothesis
Authors: Alger Bradley E.
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates two possible futures for the hypothesis in scientific thinking in the age of Big Data. In one, the Big Data Mindset entirely shuns hypotheses and the scientific goal of understanding nature, settling instead for correlations teased from gigantic datasets by computer algorithms that even their developers don’t understand. In the other, Robot Scientist becomes capable of designing and executing complex though constrained hypothesis-based experiments. The day of the Robot Scientist has already dawned in the form of a fully automated laboratory that can experiment on simple organisms. The Robot Scientist and the Big Data Mindset take diametrically opposed approaches to scientific thinking. The Big Data Mindset is represented by the rise and fall of Google Flu Trends, a program that tried and failed to predict the outbreak of flu epidemics by analyzing disorderly masses of internet search terms. The Robot Scientist deals with Big Data intelligibly via neural networks and translations of logical natural language concepts into computer-friendly motifs. They are both enormously powerful strategies for exploiting opportunities afforded by Big Data, and today both have serious limitations. The Big Data Mindset renders people impotently dependent on its calculations; the Robot Scientist can’t invent truly innovative hypotheses. Nevertheless, we are very still early on in the computer revolution and both the Big Data Mindset and the Robot Scientist promise to work drastic transformations on the worlds of science and scientific thinking as their powers increase.
Quantum Theory for Chemical Applications
Authors: Autschbach Jochen
Published: February 2021

‘Quantum Theory for Chemical Applications (QTCA): From basic concepts to advanced topics’ is an introduction to quantum theory for students and practicing researchers in chemistry, chemical engineering, or materials chemistry. The text is self-contained such that only knowledge of high school physics, college introductory calculus, and college general chemistry is required, and it features many worked-out exercises. QTCA places special emphasis on the orbital models that are central to chemical applications of quantum theory. QTCA treats the important basic topics that a quantum theory text for chemistry must cover, and less-often treated models, such as the postulates of quantum theory and the mathematical background, the particle in a box, in a cylinder, and in a sphere, the harmonic oscillator and molecular vibrations, atomic and molecular orbitals, electron correlation, perturbation theory, and the basic aspects of various spectroscopies. Additional basic and advanced topics advanced topics that are covered in QTCA are band structure theory, relativistic quantum theory and its relevance to chemistry, the interactions of atoms and molecules with electromagnetic fields, and response theory. Finally, while it is not primarily a guide to computational chemistry, QTCA provides a solid theoretical background for many of the quantum chemistry methods used in contemporary research and in undergraduate computational chemistry laboratory courses. The text includes several appendices with important mathematical background, such as linear algebra and point group symmetry.
Self-consistent Field Orbital Methods
Authors: Autschbach Jochen
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the concepts underlying the Hartree-Fock (HF) electronic structure method. First, it is shown how the energy expectation value is calculated for a Slater determinant (SD) wavefunction in the case of orthonormal orbitals. This leads to the definition of the electron repulsion integrals (ERIs). Next, the energy is minimized subject to the orthonormality constraints. This leads to the HF equation for the orbitals. The HF orbital energies are Langrange multipliers representing the constraints. An unknown set of orbitals can be determined from an initial guess via a self-consistent field (SCF) cycle. The HF scheme is discussed for closed-shell versus open shell systems, leading to the distinction between spin restricted and unrestricted HF (RHF, UHF). Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) is introduced and its approximate version is placed in the context of ab-initio versus semi-empirical quantum chemistry methods.
From Atomic Orbitals to Molecular Orbitals and Chemical Bonds
Authors: Autschbach Jochen
Published: February 2021

It is shown how an aufbau principle for atoms arises from the Hartree-Fock (HF) treatment with increasing numbers of electrons. The Slater screening rules are introduced. The HF equations for general molecules are not separable in the spatial variables. This requires another approximation, such as the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) molecular orbital method. The orbitals of molecules are represented in a basis set of known functions, for example atomic orbital (AO)-like functions or plane waves. The HF equation then becomes a generalized matrix pseudo-eigenvalue problem. Solutions are obtained for the hydrogen molecule ion and H2 with a minimal AO basis. The Slater rule for 1s shells is rationalized via the optimal exponent in a minimal 1s basis. The nature of the chemical bond, and specifically the role of the kinetic energy in covalent bonding, are discussed in details with the example of the hydrogen molecule ion.
Angular Momentum and Rotational Motion in Three Dimensions
Authors: Autschbach Jochen
Published: February 2021

This chapter treats rotations in three dimensions and the angular momentum quantum mechanically. The angular momentum is a 3-vector that plays the same role in the kinetic energy of rotating particles as the linear momentum 3-vector plays in the kinetic energy for translational motion. The quantum operator for the three components do not commute, i.e. the full vector cannot be known. Each component commutes with the operator for the square-length of the angular momentum vector, and therefore one opts for calculating the square-length and one of the components, z, referred to as the projection. The angular momentum is quantized. The (azimuthal) quantum number ℓ = 0,1,2,3… quantifies the square-length as ℓ(ℓ+1), and the projection is quantified by the (magnbetic) quantum number mℓ = -ℓ…ℓ in integer steps. The eigenfunctions are called spherical harmonics. A ‘rigid rotor’ model is set up to treat the rotational spectrum of a diatomic molecule.
Dynamic Fields and Response Properties
Authors: Autschbach Jochen
Published: February 2021

It is shown how electronic transitions can be induced by the interaction with an electromagnetic wave of a suitable frequency. The rate of a transition between two electronic states induced by a time-dependent field is derived. The transition rate expression is used to calculate the absorption coefficient due to electronic transitions. The differential absorption coefficient for left and right circular polarized light is specific to chiral molecules and has different signs for a pair of enantiomers. The discussion then shifts to general functions describing the response of an atom or molecule to an external. The ideas developed thus far are then applied to the dynamic polarizability, molecular linear response functions in general, and the optical rotation. Linear response theory is set up within time-dependent molecular orbital theory. The Chapter concludes with a discussion of non-linear response properties and two-photon absorption.
Models of Sentence Processing
Authors: Reichle Erik D.
Published: February 2021

This chapter first describes what has been learned about how readers process sentences, using information from individual words in combination with linguistic knowledge to generate larger units of meaning corresponding to phrases and sentences. The chapter then reviews what has been learned about sentence processing using various methods, but most notably, the measurement of readers’ eye movements. The chapter then reviews precursor theories and models of sentence processing—models that provide early attempts to explain how readers construct the meanings of phrases and sentences, and that motivate much of the subsequent research to understand the relative contributions of syntactic versus semantic information in sentence processing. The chapter then reviews a large, representative sample of the models that have been used to simulate and understand various facets of sentence processing. These are presented in their order of development to show how the models have evolved to accommodate new empirical findings. The chapter concludes with an explicit comparative analysis of the sentence-processing models and discussion of the empirical findings that each model can and cannot explain.
Models of Discourse Representation
Authors: Reichle Erik D.
Published: February 2021

This chapter first describes what has been learned about how readers represent the meaning of discourse by integrating the meanings to individual sentences to construct the representations needed to understand larger segments of text. The chapter reviews the key findings related to text processing and how this sparked an ongoing debate about the extent to which the making of inferences during reading is obligatory. The chapter reviews precursor theories and models of discourse representation that attempt to explain how discourse representations are generated via the interaction of language processing and memory. The chapter then reviews a large, representative sample of the models that have been used to simulate and understand aspects of discourse processing. They are reviewed in their order of development to show how the models have evolved to accommodate new empirical findings. The chapter concludes with an explicit comparative analysis of the discourse-processing models and discusses the empirical findings that each model can and cannot explain.
Drum Programming Minus One (Beginner)
Authors: Humberstone James
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes a lesson that uses a software step sequencer and portable speaker to teach students how to construct rhythmic patterns (or “beats”) uncomplicated by pitch, thereby learning about rhythmic values and patterns within meter. In the process of learning how to make beats, students will learn about concepts such as tempo and meter. By neglecting pitch, students can more easily grasp complex aspects of rhythm, such as individual rhythmic values (eighth note, 16th note, etc.). This is a lesson minus-one (or zero, if you prefer) because it is a pure constructivist approach to teaching drum programming. It can be used with young kids, or kids who might not have used music technology before.
Music Production Clusters
Authors: Michael Pignato Joseph
Published: February 2021

The lesson described in this chapter was originally designed for middle and high school students as part of their general music curriculum. The goal of the lesson is to create spaces for students that resemble those used by musicians outside of traditional school music contexts to simulate practical music industry experience (e.g., those environments one might find in a recording studio, in a project studio, or at a DIY music venue). This lesson encourages discovery-based learning, using common music production software, hardware, and instruments. The materials, context, and instructions will illustrate how teachers can create environments in which their students will engage, explore, discover, create, and collaborate.
Sonic Signatures (Beginner)
Authors: atrick bell adam p , Bolden Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This experiential activity is comprised of a series of exercises with the end goal of creating “sonic signatures”—micro-compositions of just a few seconds that represent the individual as a musical being. Creating a sonic signature is typically associated with marketing, but engaging in this exercise can also serve as a way to: (1) reflect and share on how we experience and make meaning from music in everyday life, (2) consider how these experiences shape our respective personal identities, and (3) create representations of these identities through the visual and sonic arts.
Podcast Your Story with Music (Intermediate)
Authors: Bolden Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This chapter details an activity designed for post-secondary students to produce a three- to five-minute podcast in which they combine personally significant excerpts of music—and/or excerpts that represent personally significant interactions with music—with commentary reflecting on their relationship with music at various points in their lives. Creating a podcast requires students to learn basic DAW skills such as recording and editing audio, and how to record audio with their devices. Students will also explore their interactions with music, which will help them better understand their relationships with music and perhaps also the relationships others (including their future students) might have with music.
Storytelling Remix (Intermediate)
Authors: Cooper Patrick K.
Published: February 2021

Students can use storytelling as a source of inspiration to create original music. In this project, students will use existing illustrations from a children’s story to create a new story, complete with a soundtrack and recorded narrations. In this activity, the grade four to nine students must synthesize their own narrative from preexisting material. Students use a DAW, visual art production program, and film editing program to complete their project. By using music and their voice to enhance their chosen story, students will gain confidence in their own creative voice and deepen their understanding of the communicative capacities of sound.
Story Time (Intermediate)
Authors: McCready Richard
Published: February 2021

In this project designed for high school students, learners make an audio book of a children’s story. They record the narration, add music and sound effects, and mix down the final product. This project demonstrates how a DAW like Ableton Live, and hardware such as Push or Launchpad, can be used for more than making beats. The project gets students thinking about sound design, working collaboratively, learning to use a microphone properly, and working on real-life tasks. Although this project can be completed as a solo project, students enjoy the opportunity to work in small groups because they can delegate tasks based on each other’s preferences and strengths.
Video Jingle (Intermediate)
Authors: Willey Robert
Published: February 2021

This is a problem-based learning project in which students create a 30-second video with original music featuring a local business or public agency. Designed for first-year university students majoring in music composition or music production, this group task gives students experiences communicating and collaborating with a community partner. The project also provides students experiences working with a DAW and video editing software to make a professional quality advertisement. Students may find this assignment useful for their future in the music business by improving their entrepreneurial skills and getting a taste for contract work while also being able to use the final product on their resumés.
Found Sounds
Authors: Moir Zack
Published: February 2021

This recipe encourages learners to develop their critical and analytic listening skills by seeking and recording sounds in their environment as a basis for music composition. The use of unorthodox (i.e. not inherently musical) sounds in a compositional context develops critical listening, creative use of recorded material, and encourages the exploration of the sonic and functional possibilities afforded by DAW technologies in working with and manipulating audio as a basis for composition. Designed for first-year university students studying popular music composition, learners may find this activity engaging and enriching as it encourages outside-of-the-box thinking and attuning to a more vast world of sound and music.
FX Roulette (Beginner)
Authors: patrick bell adam
Published: February 2021

FX Roulette is a game designed to teach undergraduate students with little to no music production experience how audio effects work. It is a fun way to obliviously improvise and compose music at the timbral level. It also fosters the development of music production literacy, specifically the skills associated with remixing as pioneered by King Tubby in Jamaican dub music. In this game-based activity, learners begin by creating their own “insta-songs” with a DAW, which they then apply a randomly assigned audio effect. By using audio effects on their own songs, learners gain experience discerning the sonic results of applying audio effects such as an equalizer, compressor, distortion, delay, and reverb.
Hunting for Pops and Clicks
Authors: Van Bibber Ryan
Published: February 2021

This activity hones high school students’ deep listening skills, along with their ability to edit audio in Pro Tools. It introduces the primary editing tools of the user’s DAW, including selection, grabber, trimmer, zoom, scrubber, and fade tools. Students will learn how to use these tools by removing pops and clicks from a faulty audio recording. As recording equipment can be expensive, this lesson may help those who are looking to increase the quality of their music while working with gear that is lacking. It also shows those new to music production the methodical and detail-oriented work needed to create high quality music.
Standard 3-point Micing Technique (Advanced)
Authors: Pras Amandine
Published: February 2021

How can you make a guitar sound full, large, and deep even if it was recorded in a bedroom? In this advanced lesson, I introduce the “standard 3-point micing technique,” which picks up the different personalities of an electric guitar and amplifier with a “bright” mic, a “dark” mic, and a “back” mic. This recording approach mirrors the “standard 3-point lighting technique” and its “key” light, “fill” light, and “back” light to form the basis of most lighting approaches for video, film, and still photography. The “standard 3-point micing technique” offers multiple mixing options based on different mic combinations, creative panning, and time delay.
What a Wonderful World
Authors: Greher Gena R.
Published: February 2021

In the activity outlined in this chapter, students will explore some basic functions of the Scratch programming language to learn coding through music. As an introductory exercise, using a pre-programmed musical puzzle, students will sequence existing melodic phrases as well as program two missing phrases to complete the musical sequence. They will explore the internal MIDI functions, play note blocks, and control blocks of Scratch. By engaging in this activity, students can learn critical listening skills through structural/macro analysis, such as chunking, structural dictation, form, pattern recognition, and the ability to hear the slight differences that occur in similar musical phrases.
Dining on Painted Rice Cakes
Authors: Garfield Jay L. , Priest Graham
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the ways that Dōgen employs paradox and contradiction in his philosophical essays. We show that in Shōji, Dōgen reiterates and endorses paradoxes entailed by Indian Madhyamaka thought. We then turn to Gabyō and show that Dōgen endorses the contradiction that reality both is and is not illusory. We then show that in Uji, Dōgen argues for the identity and difference between beings and time. In each case, we show that Dōgen endorses the contradictions he asserts. Finally, in Kattō, we look at Dōgen’s view on the relationship between speech and silence.
Epilogue
Authors: Sharf Robert H.
Published: February 2021

In this final chapter we argue that the paradoxes explored in this volume are not merely analytic, but existential. That is to say, the contradictions are not merely the result of pushing up against the limits of language and thought, but, more fundamentally, they emerge from the fact that we are, inescapably, both subjects and objects to ourselves. In exploring the nature and significance of this conundrum, we draw upon various philosophers from outside the East Asian tradition, including Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and Nagel.
Learning China’s History Lessons
Authors: Reilly James
Published: February 2021

This chapter draws upon extensive Chinese-language scholarship to explain how China’s experience as a target and practitioner of economic statecraft forged a distinctive strategic culture regarding economic statecraft. Chinese experts and policymakers express confidence that economic resources can be deployed for both strategic leverage and reassurance, faith that economic statecraft can be deployed in ways that advantage both China and the recipient country, and a belief that the Party-state can and should mobilize commercial actors to advance Beijing’s foreign policy goals. They justify China’s ambitious approach by skepticism toward Western claims of morality, identification of China as a developing country, and faith in the overriding benefits of economic growth. The chapter concludes by describing how this collective belief system influences experts’ views on policy challenges and their proposed solutions.
Orchestrating China’s Economic Statecraft
Authors: Reilly James
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains how domestic institutional structures shape the three core techniques of China’s orchestration approach to economic statecraft. First, China’s “nested” orchestration combines direct action with delegation and orchestration. Top leaders implement some economic statecraft initiatives, while delegating authority to line ministries and government agencies. In turn, these agencies deploy orchestration techniques to mobilize and manage financial institutions, enterprises, and regional authorities. Secondly, line ministries and financial institutions establish policy initiatives and investment funds that reward companies and regional officials for developing innovative projects. The Belt and Road Initiative is the latest and largest manifestation of this technique. Finally, Beijing also relies upon economic statecraft techniques designed to facilitate interest alignment among the implementing actors. As a result, China’s economic statecraft frequently only requires a light touch. After describing how institutional structures and governance practices shape each technique, this chapter concludes with several weaknesses of Beijing’s approach.
The Many Meanings of Non-Affiliation
Authors: Ammerman Nancy T.
Published: February 2021

This chapter shows that non-affiliation means different things in different cultural contexts and among people with different social resources. Some religious traditions, such as Judaism, do not make affiliation central, so non-affiliation matters less. Similarly, many immigrants come from places where belonging and belief are not typical ways of being religious. Not all “nones” are alike. Nor are less well-off nones like the more privileged non-affiliates often imagined. Using the Faith Matters Survey, this chapter shows that less highly educated nones are more likely to hold religious folk beliefs and less likely to be politically liberal, for example. But most important is that the people who are at the bottom of the status hierarchy are—if they are also unaffiliated—more pessimistic, less trusting, less engaged in their communities, and less empowered. They may even be less healthy. The absence of religious ties exacerbates the effects of being on the social and economic margins.
Non-religiosity, Secularism, and Civil Society
Authors: Campbell David E.
Published: February 2021

Understanding the secular population requires differentiating between people who are not religious (defined by what they are not) and those who are secular (defined by what they are). Non-religiosity is measured as the absence of the usual markers of religiosity—no religious affiliation, no religious attendance, and so on. Secularism is defined with new measures that reflect whether someone has a secular identity, receives guidance from secular sources, and has a secular worldview. Distinguishing between nonreligious and secular Americans reveals that they have very different levels of civic engagement. The former are civically disengaged, while the latter are often engaged in civic activity. Since both religionists and secularists share a high level of participation in civil society, it suggests the possibility of building bridges between them. But making such social connections will require conscious effort to overcome mutual suspicion.
China
Authors: Gent Stephen E. , Crescenzi Mark J. C.
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines how the pursuit of market power over rare earth elements (REEs) influences China’s use of strategic delay in East and South China Seas. As the dominant global producer of REEs, China has the ability to set prices in this market. The desire to maintain this market power motivates China to continue to push its long-standing claims to sovereignty over seabed resources in the East and South China Seas. International institutions such as UNCLOS and the International Seabed Authority do not provide a dispute-resolution option that allows China to maintain unfettered access to deep sea mineral extraction. At the same time, China’s economic dependence on Japan and the global REE market constrains China from turning to military escalation to press its claims. Instead, China has relied upon strategic delay and gray zone tactics to gradually expand its presence in the East and South China Seas.
Law and Public Reason
Authors: Moyar Dean
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides an account of Hegel’s conception of the law and of the law’s realization within Civil Society and the State. It is argued that Hegel is a legal positivist because he holds that right is binding only when it has been promulgated as law, and that law can be valid even if it does not measure up to the standard of right. The chapter gives an account of Hegel’s contextualism and shows that he is committed to an essential but limited role for philosophy in determining the content of the law. Ultimately Hegel’s view is best understood as a public reason conception of the rationality of law. The court system is a prototype of public reason in that its goal is to guarantee standards of evidence and publicity in a setting of mutual recognition. The chapter argues that Hegel does believe in the need for a written constitution, and that his view of the legislative power is a further elucidation of public reason based on the idea of representative interests.
Conclusion
Authors: Smith John Howard
Published: February 2021

“Perilous times are coming,” William Blackstone warned readers of Jesus Is Coming, “this wicked world, which is so radically opposed to God, and under the present control of His arch enemy, is not growing better. On the contrary, judgment, fire and perdition are before it.” This sentiment, omnipresent but subdued in early American Christianity, gained ascendance and increasingly defined its expression in the years immediately surrounding the Civil War, achieving dominance by the early twentieth century. Apocalypticism comforts its believers that there is nobility in the suffering of injustice at the hands of an evil oppressor, and that endurance will bring vindication. The righteous shall triumph over the wicked and unholy in a war to end all wars, and the meek shall inherit a sweeping creation of a perfected new world that will be the recreation of that lost paradise.
Biofuels in Kenya’s Tana Delta
Authors: Neville Kate J.
Published: February 2021

This chapter tracks the dynamics of contestation over biofuels projects in Kenya’s Tana River delta, providing the first of two case study chapters that analyze how the dynamics of financing, ownership, and trade shaped local responses to proposed energy projects. Enthusiasm from some community members for producing bioethanol and biodiesel in coastal Kenya collided with concerns about land transformation and access, livelihoods and identities, and the distribution of benefits and burdens. By examining the adaptive strategies and shifting composition of pro- and anti-biofuels coalitions and campaigns in and beyond the delta, the chapter reveals how political economy characteristics of development initiatives shape mobilization efforts. The chapter exposes that biofuels debates bring together local social histories and economies, national interests, transnational activists, foreign investors, and international markets. As a result, it argues, a blended political economy and contentious politics analysis is needed to understand resistance to agriculturally based renewable energy projects.
The Return of Pathological Science Accompanied by a Pinch of Replication
Authors: Bausell R. Barker
Published: February 2021

No discussion of irreproducible science would be complete without at least a brief consideration of what happens when scientists go a step or two beyond questionable research practice (QRP)-driven research. So, continuing the metaphor of scientific journeys, Robert Park’s iconic book title, Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, encapsulates the interdisciplinary examples of what Irving Langmuir (a Nobel Prize recipient in chemistry) termed pathological science more than 65 years ago. The chapter discusses more recent examples of this phenomenon in some detail from both the physical sciences (cold fusion) and their sociobehavioral counterparts (the Daryl Bem psi episode). The latter (undoubtedly a virtual mentee of Joseph Banks Rhine whose exploits were exposed by Professor Langmuir) is given more prominence here because of its influence on the genesis of reproducibility crisis itself.
Multiple-Study Replication Initiatives
Authors: Bausell R. Barker
Published: February 2021

The “mass” replications of multiple studies, some employing dozens of investigators distributed among myriad sites, is unique to the reproducibility movement. The most impressive of these initiatives was employed by the Open Science Collaboration directed by Brian Nosek, who recruited 270 investigators to participate in the replication of 100 psychological experiments via a very carefully structured, prespecified protocol that avoided questionable research practices. Just before this Herculean effort, two huge biotech firms (Amegen and Bayer Health Care) respectively conducted 53 and 67 preclinical replications of promising published studies to ascertain which results were worth pursuing for commercial applications. Amazingly, in less than a 10-year period, a number of other diverse multistudy replications were also conducted involving hundreds of effects. Among these were the three “many lab” multistudy replications based on the Open Science Model (but also designed to ascertain if potential confounders of the approach itself existed, such as differences in participant types, settings, and timing), replications of social science studies published in Science and Nature, experimental economics studies, and even self-reported replications ascertained from a survey. Somewhat surprisingly, the overall successful replication percentage for this diverse collection of 811 studies was 46%, mirroring the modeling results discussed in Chapter 3 and supportive of John Ioannidis’s pejorative and often quoted conclusion that most scientific results are incorrect.
Understanding the Invisibility Bargain
Authors: Pugh Jeffrey D.
Published: February 2021

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of the invisibility bargain in order to explain how the informal strategies chosen by migrants to resolve conflicts, participate politically, and gain access to resources respond to the set of unwritten expectations within the host society that govern social relations between migrants and citizens and establish the “rules” by which the host population will tolerate or accept the physical presence of migrants in the country. It traces how the perception of migrants’ valued contribution, combined with their social and political invisibility, is often the price of the host population’s acceptance of their physical presence in the country, and argues that violation of these expectations may lead to social sanctions and a hostile backlash against migrants by the host population. The invisibility bargain lays important conceptual groundwork for the main argument of the book.
War in a Globalized World
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

From 1904 on, the British government conducted further studies into the strategic implications of globalization. The fragility of the globalized economic system deeply impressed those involved in these investigations. This impression underlay the widespread pre-1914 belief that a major war between urban-industrial societies must be short, lest the disruption to economic systems swiftly lead to social revolution. Seeing opportunity as well as danger, the Admiralty devised a plan, approved by the government, to exploit British monopoly control over the underpinning infrastructure of the global trading system—finance, ships, and communications. It envisioned a massive denial-of-service attack upon Britain’s enemies. Upon the outbreak of war, British plans to wage economic warfare both offensively and defensively met with mixed success. Over the next few months, policy was modified and adapted according to experience.
Two Problems, One Solution
Authors: Lambert Nicholas A.
Published: February 2021

At its meeting on January 13, 1915, the War Council supposedly authorized an attack at the Dardanelles in order to meet a Russian request for assistance and relieve pressure on the Western Front. This is incorrect. Not only did the government’s interest in the Dardanelles have other sources, but in fact it was leaning at this point toward offensives in Syria and the Balkans rather than Turkey. Churchill, however, continued to push for his Dardanelles operation and in so doing created chaos inside Admiralty, straining his relations with the admirals. On January 20 Asquith approved an offensive in the Balkans, but in so doing underestimated French resistance to the diversion of resources away from the Western Front.
Philo and the Origins of Political Theology
Authors: Vatter Miguel
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses why Philo became an essential source for the development of political theology in the West through his conception of the prophet as nomos empsychos or living law. The chapter addresses the controversial interpretation of Philo proposed by Erwin Goodenough, which establishes a new paradigm on how to think about the relation between Athens and Jerusalem, pagan philosophy and Jewish revelation, in Hellenistic Judaism. The chapter argues that this interpretative approach to Philo sheds light on why he became a decisive source for the renaissance of Jewish political theology in the 20th century, starting with Hermann Cohen’s foundational work.
Franz Rosenzweig and Religious Constitutionalism
Authors: Vatter Miguel
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Franz Rosenzweig’s political theology in light of the tension between nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Christian political theology is based on a message of universal love and brotherhood, but Rosenzweig points out how the reception of this message in the West took the form of nationalism and a sanctification of imperialism. This chapter offers a new reading of Rosenzweig’s wartime unfinished work on geopolitics, Globus, as an early meditation on what we now call “globalization.” It then reconstructs his masterpiece The Star of Redemption as a treatise on political theology that opens an alternative path to peoplehood based on the possibility of a cosmopolitan empire of law that is not territorially delimited and an access to citizenship that is not ethno-culturally predetermined. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the contested interpretation that Rosenzweig gives of Islam in the Star of Redemption and the problem of “holy war.”
Leo Strauss and the Concrete Order of Law
Authors: Vatter Miguel
Published: February 2021

This chapter is dedicated to Leo Strauss’s attempt to recover the medieval Islamic and Jewish conceptions of the prophet as a political founder of the perfect legal order. The chapter situates Strauss’s political theology within the Weimar debate between proponents of legality and defenders of an extra-legal conception of legitimacy. It argues that Strauss turns back to the ancient conception of law as nomos in order to give a philosophical foundation to legality beyond Christian conceptions of legitimacy. Christian political theology has always pivoted around the polemical claim that Mosaic law was “tyrannical” in some way. Strauss’s contribution to Jewish political theology consists in examining Jewish and Islamic prophetology by formulating it in terms of the so-called tyrannical teaching of Platonic political philosophy. The chapter shows that Strauss ultimately held to the view of a profound compatibility and mutual need between the traditions of Greek philosophy and biblical prophecy.
Confirming U.S. Attorneys
Authors: Boyd Christina L. , Nelson Michael J. , Ostrander Ian , Boldt Ethan D.
Published: February 2021

In this chapter, we explore the selection and appointment of federal prosecutors. We review the historical development of the Senate confirmation process for U.S. Attorneys, emphasizing that these officials are a rare federal office in which all three branches of government play a role in the staffing process. We then turn to an empirical examination of how politics plays an important role in determining whether U.S. Attorney nominations are confirmed by the Senate as well as how long it takes to receive confirmation. We reveal wide disparities in the extent to which Democrat and Republican Administrations have valued demographic diversity among federal prosecutors. Moreover, we demonstrate that, while presidents nearly always succeed in their nominations of U.S. Attorneys, confirmations are speedier and more likely to be successful when the president and Senate are ideologically aligned and when the president enjoys widespread popularity.