bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
3 Tracking: More and Better
Authors: Roush Sherrilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter introduces the rules of applying the tracking conditions, and discusses the upshot of formulating the tracking conditions in terms of probability and counterfactuals. Criteria are introduced which provide a solution to the generality problem for tracking. Special kinds of epistemic luck are discussed, and the new view is defended against charges that tracking is too weak as an account of knowledge.
4 Tracking over the Rivals
Authors: Roush Sherrilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter argues that the new tracking view is superior to externalist rivals: process reliabilism, the safety view, and the relevant alternatives view. This is because of the generality problem, and treatments of reflective knowledge, lottery propositions, direction of fit with the world, the power property, and knowledge of logical and other necessary truths. A new view of logical truth is introduced, which is in keeping with the tracking view that knowledge is a matter of responsiveness to the way the world is.
6 Real Anti‐realism: The Evidential Approach
Authors: Roush Sherrilyn
Published: February 2006

This chapter argues that confirmation theory is relevant to the debate between epistemological realism and anti-realism about scientific theories, because typical realist and anti-realist claims about evidence are measure-dependent. It contends that no known measure makes Constructive Empiricism viable, but this is not the victory for the realist that it is assumed to be. Using the measure (standard of evidence) most suited to defending the realist’s general claims, it is argued that this standard is not actually fulfilled for any high-level theories in science. However, it is fulfilled for many low-level claims that go beyond observables. Whether the catch-all for a hypothesis can be evaluated is the crucial question for realism and anti-realism.
7 Majority Control and Executive Dominance: Parliament–President Relations in Putin's Russia
Authors: Chaisty Paul
Published: February 2006

The relationship between the parliament and president has become more majoritarian under the Putin presidency, giving Putin a basis of political support not enjoyed by his predecessor. This chapter examines the partisan, institutional, and policy effects of this move towards majoritarianism. Despite the change in the nature of inter-branch relations, the executive’s dominance of the legislative sphere is not absolute. Putin remains constrained by the particularistic interests that hampered Yeltsin’s presidency. Nonetheless, the conflicts on legislation that previously spilled out on the floor of the assembly are now largely confined to the government’s party, United Russia.
Putin's Popularity and Its Implications for Democracy in Russia Stephen Whitefield
Authors: Whitefield Stephen
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines how and why ordinary Russians evaluate their presidents and their political system, and support Vladimir Putin and others electorally. The results highlight the ambiguities about Putin and his democracy. Those who support Putin tend to be more committed to democratic norms than other Russians. There are Russians who favour leadership with a ‘strong hand’, but are not drawn to Putin. Thus, Putin may be faced with a difficult and untimely political choice — between his own supporters and his tendency to pursue anti-democratic policies.
Putin and the ‘Oligarchs’: A Two‐sided Commitment Problem
Authors: Tompson William
Published: February 2006

One of Vladimir Putin’s primary objectives as president was to re-establish the authority of the Russian state. He sought to strengthen the presidency by redefining the Kremlin’s relations with the Federal Assembly, the regional elite, and the so-called oligarchs — wealthy tycoons who dominated Russian politics under Boris Yeltsin. This chapter examines how Putin went about pursuing his objective. It argues that no stable accommodation between Putin and oligarchs was possible, because both sides have strong incentives not to uphold terms of any deal.
11 Putin's Reform of the Russian Federation Neil Melvin
Authors: Melvin Neil
Published: February 2006

Putin’s reform of the Russian Federation can be viewed as both promoting and restricting democracy. While moves to challenge the democracy of Russia’s regions can be seen as a positive step, considerable doubts remain about whether the reforms involved gains in terms of democracy and effectiveness. Beyond increased stability, there is little evidence that the regional reforms fundamentally altered the networks of political and economic relationships that underpinned regional activism and the non-democratic regimes of many regions in the 1990s.
Two Communities
Authors: Cantor Geoffrey
Published: February 2006

This chapter provides a brief outline of the histories of the Quaker and Anglo-Jewish communities, from the mid-17th century to the end of the 19th century. The development of Quakerism is charted from its radical roots, through the ‘quietism’ of the 18th century, to the evangelicalism that dominated the 19th century. In discussing Anglo-Jewry, the inter-related themes of assimilation, toleration, and discrimination are explored, with particular emphasis on the early-Victorian perception that British Jews had not contributed adequately to literature, music, and science.
Scientific Institutions
Authors: Cantor Geoffrey
Published: February 2006

This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no corporeal oath was required. The membership patterns of both Jews and Quakers displayed networks of business and of patronage, as illustrated by the career of Emanuel Mendes da Costa among others. Quakers flocked to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), which they found ideologically appealing. Quaker social and political interests were also reflected in the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Ethnological Society, where they adopted a monogenist stance that was opposed by other ethnologists. Jewish concerns with assimilation and improvement were manifested in the Jews’ and General Scientific and Literary Institution (1844-59). Both communities were greatly attracted by the Great Exhibition (1851), but in different ways: for the Anglo-Jewry, it raised the question of whether Jews were intellectually able; the Quakers saw it as a harbinger of world peace.
Quaker Responses to Evolution
Authors: Cantor Geoffrey
Published: February 2006

This chapter examines a variety of answers to the question: How did Quakers respond to Darwin’s theory of evolution? When Quakers were writing for fellow Quakers, the older evangelicals tended to be suspicious of evolution, while many younger Quakers adopted it enthusiastically as part of their engagement with modernism. However, by the time of the Manchester Conference (1895) — which marks the eclipse of evangelicalism and the rise of modernism — a doctrine of progressive revelation became aligned with evolutionary ideas. Turning to Quaker naturalists, while some encompassed evolution as an essential theory for any practising botanist or zoologist, others considered that natural selection needed to be supplemented by some other process, especially in accounting for the development of mind. Despite this diversity, Quakers were generally supportive of Darwin’s theory and were critical of those Christians who rejected the theory on religious grounds.
Jewish Attitudes and Practices
Authors: Cantor Geoffrey
Published: February 2006

This chapter opens with a discussion on some of the contexts in which science was deployed intersected with Jewish observance during the 19th century, including calendar-making, the use of electric light on the Sabbath, and the possibility of chemical tests for non-kosher additives to food. During the early 19th century, some Jewish writers followed Christian authors in trying to ascertain the natural philosophy hidden in the Torah text, but this project was largely abandoned by mid-century. In contrast to Quakers, Anglo-Jewry made little use of design arguments, these being directed primarily to children and, on occasions, to working men. Jewish writers on science appear to have been more willing to entertain speculative hypotheses than contemporary Quakers.
Economic Liberalization and Integration in East Asia
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

This book examines East Asia’s economic development and integration following the Asian crisis of 1997-1998. The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 describes the development experiences of East Asia’s emerging economies, their characteristics and accomplishments, and then provides an overview of some of the critical failures of the East Asian development model. Part 2 examines the causes and consequences of the Asian crisis, together with a reassessment of the IMF reform program. Part 3 covers the topics of corporate and institutional sector reform, the role of government, and the need for improved social welfare and industrial relations policies. Part 4 assesses the progress in three key areas for the region: reform of the financial sector, the pros and cons of a floating exchange rate regime, and the degree and effect of capital account liberalization. Part 5 reviews the key sectors of trade and financial integration in East Asia, the prospects for continued economic cooperation and integration, and the need for policy coordination with regard to the record foreign currency reserves held by East Asian economies, which resulted in a Transpacific trade imbalance. Part 6 considers the road ahead for East Asia and outlines the characteristics of a new paradigm for development. It is argued that merely adopting liberal economic reform measures will not ensure successful development. This new and evolving development paradigm — distinct from the old system yet not an Anglo-American system — is the key to ensuring success in the region.
Introduction
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The book’s objective is to analyze the implications of major developments in East Asian economic liberalization and integration, and its future prospects.
Characteristics and Accomplishments of the East Asian Development Paradigm
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

Before the crisis, the most notable economic achievement of East Asia was rapid growth. This chapter analyzes the development experiences of East Asian economies, which share a number of structural characteristics. Different growth models are then explored to understand the Asian miracle of economic growth and development, including the relevance of so-called Asian values.
Failures of the East Asian Development Model: An Overview
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

East Asian countries were showing many structural strains and rigidities prior to the crisis, partly due to cosmetic reform efforts. Four critical failures are identified: benign neglect of the conflicts between government mechanism and the democratic polity and market liberalization, the inability to restructure the financial system, the closed and non-transparent corporate sector, and focus on an export-led development strategy.
Failures in Governance and Institution Building
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The governance of consultative polities in East Asia lost its place in the process of political and economic liberalization, most notably in managing industrial relations. Democratization ushered in periods of political instability and a new and far more assertive labor movement. The demise of the consultative mechanism unveiled serious coordination problems at the national, industrial, and enterprise levels, and underscored the need for effective bureaucratic and government institutions.
Weaknesses of the Corporate and Financial Sector
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

Two of the most distinctive characteristics of East Asian corporations are the concentration of ownership among a few large families, and the affiliation of many corporations with an industrial group. These provided a number of advantages including the capacity to pool internal resources and information, and easy financing. However, the Asian crisis dramatically altered the positive assessment of the role of large corporations in economic development because of their malaise in corporate governance, bank-based financial market, and crony capitalism.
The Buildup of the Crisis
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The Asian crisis occurred due to massive foreign investments in East Asia which created strong inflationary pressures, overvalued currencies, and growing current account deficits. An examination of the post-crisis period questions whether the rapid recovery can be attributed to the IMF structural reform programs.
A Re-evaluation of the IMF Reform Program: Wrong Diagnosis and Wrong Prescription
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The IMF reform programs for the crisis countries did not have a well-defined roadmap to guide the formulation and implementation of stabilization policies, financial and corporate restructuring, and institutional reforms. The most important reason for this ineffectiveness was the IMF’s failure to recognize the crisis as a capital account crisis. This led to a wrong diagnosis, thus a wrong prescription.
Reform of Government and Industrial Policy
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The role of government and proper policy action in adopting effective development policies is discussed for both developing and developed East Asian economies. These include efficient export-led development strategies and more comprehensive industrial policies.
Institution Building for Governance
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The quality of governance and institutions is important in economic growth. Although there is no need to transplant western rules and institutions into Asia, there is a need to overcome vested interests and the advantages held by large conglomerates. This can be achieved by establishing legal, social, and political institutions for the implementation of an effective democratic political regime with deregulated open markets.
Social Welfare and Industrial Relations
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

The role of government is changing from that of leading economic development to leading social development. Two key areas are explored: the need for East Asian governments to make policy adjustments to expand the social safety net, and the increased demands of labor movements for labor market reforms.
Prospects for Economic Cooperation and Integration in East Asia
Authors: Park Yung Chul
Published: February 2006

Numerous institutional and political issues are hampering East Asian integration. The most important are the absence of leadership, and the different geopolitical interests of China and Japan. The possibilities for trade and financial integration are examined in light of these constraints.
PAIN AS A SENSORY QUALITY
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

The book starts by examining sensations of pain and pleasure because of their importance for hedonism. The main claim of this chapter is that the painfulness of a bodily sensation consists in its having an indefinable, sensory quality of painfulness. This quality is supervenient upon other qualities of the sensation in a sense defined. The view that a sensation being one of pain consists in its being the object of a negative reaction of dislike is rejected.
BEYOND HEDONISM
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

Two kinds of enjoyment are distinguished: the enjoyment of sensations of pleasure and the enjoyment of activities in which one takes interest. The opposite of the former is suffering, while the opposite of the latter is rather boredom. This distinction between two kinds of enjoyment is enough to reveal the falsity of psychological hedonism.
AN ANALYSIS OF DESIRE
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

Several distinctions with respect to desiring or wanting are presented: between intelligent desire (which is manifested in intentional action) and non-intelligent (instinctual) desire, between wanting and wishing, between wanting something for its own sake and wanting it for the sake of something else, between wanting to do something and being forced (to want) to do it, between wanting and intending, and between dormant and occurrent desires. A dispositional analysis of desire is offered according to which a desire is an internal state, which manifests itself both in action and thought. It is claimed that a desire in a specified sense is necessary for intentional action, but denied that desiring requires having any feelings.
A TYPOLOGY OF EMOTION
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

The chief purpose of this chapter is to provide a classification of types of emotion which will be of use for the discussion of responsibility in part V. The classes of emotions which are of particular relevance for this discussion are ‘agent-oriented’ emotions, such as anger, gratitude, remorse, and feelings of guilt, and ‘comparative’ emotions, like pride, shame, admiration and contempt. These emotions all involve taking someone to be an original or ultimate cause of something in an epistemic sense of a cause which is not in its turn taken to be caused by something else. It will be seen that this link is something these emotions share with the concept of desert.
THE DESIRE RELATIVITY OF VALUE
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter supplies a subjectivist definition of intrinsic value in terms of what satisfies intrinsic desires in a specified sense, and of derivative value by reference to intrinsic value. Other subjectivist accounts proposed by Peter Railton, Henry Sidgwick, and Michael Smith, which appeal to better informed desires, are critically examined. According to subjectivism, all value is value for some subject, but a narrower sense of value for personal value is defined in terms of what satisfies self-regarding desires.
THE RATIONALITY OF PARA-COGNITIVE ATTITUDES
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter explains that according to subjectivism, a desire can be rationally required only relative to some other desire. Thus, only derivative desires can be rationally required; intrinsic desires can only be rational in the sense of not being irrational. It is pointed how this account of the rationality of desires is superior to the similar account given by Richard Brandt, but the latter is also defended against some criticisms that have been levelled against it. Two notions of rational thinking are also distinguished. The chapter closes with a summary of the kinds of reasons which have been discussed in part II of this book.
WEAKNESS OF WILL
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

The possibility of akrasia or weakness of will, i.e., the phenomenon of agents acting against their best judgement or reasons, presents a problem for internalism. This chapter reviews and rejects a number of accounts of weakness of will by Donald Davidson, Christine Korsgaard, Alfred Mele, Gary Watson and others. It ends by providing an account weakness of will which is consistent with internalism, as acting against the best reasons that are dispositionally stored in the agent’s mind, but which fail to be causally operative by failing to become occurrent.
INTRODUCTION: THE NOTION OF A TEMPORAL BIAS
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter introduces two temporal biases which will be discussed in part III of the book: the bias towards the near (future) and the bias towards the future. It also analyses the irrationality of Derek Parfit’s Future-Tuesday-Indifference. It ends by arguing that we have an experience of time as having a direction from the past to the future which makes tensed beliefs indispensable.
THE IRRATIONALITY OF THE BIAS TOWARDS THE NEAR
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

The main objective of this chapter is to analyse the irrationality of the bias towards the near, i.e., the tendency to be more concerned about what happens to oneself in the near future than in the more distant future. In opposition to Derek Parfit, it is argued that the root of this irrationality is in representational distortions, owing to the bias towards the perceived and the mechanism of spontaneous induction. The root of the irrationality cannot lie in our conception of the nature of time being erroneous, for in that case we would exhibit the bias towards the near also when we consider the futures of other beings than ourselves, but we do not do so, at least not to the same degree.
THE DILEMMA AS REGARDS TEMPORAL NEUTRALITY
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

Since it has been found that the biases towards the near and the future are irrational, it follows that people who are rationalists, in the sense that their dominant aim is to lead a life in which they have only rational attitudes, must rid themselves of these biases. But since it has also been found in these chapters that these biases involve the bias towards the perceived and the mechanism of spontaneous induction, this amounts to getting rid of the latter two as well. This chapter argues that getting rid of the bias towards the perceived exposes one to a sense of the meaninglessness of life, in which local matters dwindle into insignificance in a cosmic perspective, and that getting rid of the mechanism of spontaneous induction exposes one to a sense of the precariousness of life, a pervasive sense of insecurity. Therefore, this aim is at odds with the satisfactionalist aim of maximizing the desire-fulfilment of one’s life. Hence, the first of three dilemmas or conflicts between two fundamental aims are encountered: the rationalist and the satisfactionalist aims.
INTRODUCTION: THE BIAS TOWARDS ONESELF
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter introduces another bias whose (ir)rationality is the leitmotif of part IV of the book: the bias towards oneself or the tendency to be more concerned that things go well for someone if that person is identical to oneself. This bias can be rational in the relevant sense only if the relation of personal identity is such that it can justify special concern. Consequently, part IV starts by analysing this relation, before it turns to the question whether it is rationally justifiable to base self-concern upon it.
SELF AND BODY
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter contends that one’s perception of one’s own body from the inside, in proprioception, plays a prominent role in one’s self-reference by means of ‘I’ and, thus, in one’s conception of one’s self. It describes this perception of our own bodies as a perception of a three-dimensional solid which forms the centrepiece of our perceptual world. The chapter ends by criticizing various kinds of immaterialism or non-reductionism which take personal identity to consist in the identity of a subject of some sort of continuity of consciousness which could obtain in the absence of any bodily or physical underpinning.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF OUR IDENTITY
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter is a sustained critique of different versions of the view that personal identity consists in some psychological relations that have in basis in brain states or some other material states. First, it seems these theories cannot preserve the full sense in which we take ourselves to be something apart from our experiences when we view ourselves as subjects of experience. Secondly, it is hard to specify any psychological relations which are necessary for our identity in view of our inclination to say that we could persist even though our minds are successively reduced until we are in a persistent vegetative state. Thirdly, various fission cases cause troubles for the idea that psychological relations are sufficient for identity. Fourthly, a new version of the so-called circularity objection, that it is circular to define personal identity in terms of experiential memory because it involves identity, implies that our identity rather consists in the identity of our bodies. The chapter closes by suggesting that the attraction of these forms of psychologism stems from the fact that we are prone to identify ourselves, in a non-literal, evaluative sense with our minds because we view them as that of ourselves which we see as most important.
CONCERN FOR AND APPROVAL OF OTHERS
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter tries to explain concern for and approval of others in a way similar to how concern for and approval of oneself were explained in chapter 24. It argues that because love of another individual (a strong form of approval) is always love of that individual because it has certain properties — which may be highly specific –love is transferable to any other individual with these properties. It also attempts to explain altruism or sympathy for another as arising out of empathy, or imagining having the experiences of another, which is an act of the same sort as anticipating one’s own experiences.
PRUDENCE: MAXIMIZATION OR IDEALISM?
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter argues that in the realm of prudence, we are not rationally required to maximize the desire-fulfilment of our lives. It is not irrational to adopt ideals, such as the rationalist ideal of leading a life in the light of reason, though this is in opposition to the maximization of fulfilment of one’s life. Arguments to the contrary by R. M. Hare, Thomas Nagel and John Rawls are examined and rejected.
INTRODUCTION
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter takes a preview of the argument of part V. It draws the fundamental distinction between direct and ultimate responsibility. Direct responsibility is the responsibility we have for our actions in virtue of their being controlled by our intentions or foresight. This responsibility is compatible with determinism and sufficient for a forward-looking justification of punishment and reward, blame and praise. Ultimate responsibility requires that we are responsible for our intentions and other states in virtue of which we have direct responsibility. It is presupposed by backward-looking justification in terms of desert but, irrespective of whether determinism or indeterminism is correct, it is still the case that we are not ultimately responsible.
PREDICTABILITY AND THE EXPERIENCE OF FREEDOM
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter explores two factors which account for experience of freedom. The first is that predictions of our decisions are in principle impossible. The second is that we do not experience any mental causation, i.e., we do not experience our mental episodes as being causally related to each other, or to the external world and our behaviour. The connections here are by way of the content of these mental episodes.
COMPATIBILIST FREEDOM OF ACTION
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter begins by conceding Harry Frankfurt’s point that responsibility for an action does not require that we could have acted otherwise at the time in question. But it goes on to argue that it requires that, at the time of action, we believe that we can act otherwise if we decide to do so and, thus, unless we are victims of a grand illusion, that we can often act otherwise; otherwise, serious deliberation would be ruled out. This chapter also argues that this compatibilism is not defeated by the argument by Peter van Inwagen that in a world in which determinism is true, we cannot act otherwise because we can change neither the past nor the laws of nature.
COMPATIBILIST FREEDOM OF WILL
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

If the fact that you could have acted otherwise is to be given a conditional analysis as that you could have acted otherwise if you had decided to do so, the ‘if’-clause must be understood as presupposing that you could have decided to act otherwise in some suitable sense. This chapter suggests that this sense is an epistemic one, supplied by the principled unpredictability of decisions defended in chapter 31. This epistemic possibility of deciding otherwise is incompatible with irresistible and compulsive desires whose strength is independent of the thrust of the agent’s reasons. An account of coercion is then added to the sketch of a direct responsibility. The chapter ends by pointing out that, even though compatibilism can account for direct responsibility, there is still the question whether we can have ultimate responsibility.
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RATIONALISM AND SATISFACTIONALISM
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: February 2006

This chapter summarizes the three dilemmas between rationalism and satisfactionalism, as regards temporal neutrality, personal neutrality, and responsibility. To the extent that we are rationalists, we are forced into a retreat of reason far removed from our everyday frame of mind, while we must let reason retreat from the pretension to fully control our attitudes if we are satisfactionalists. This chapter also points to some factors in our mental constitution which are responsible for the fact that we encounter these sorts of dilemma: (1) we tend mentally represent much more vividly that which is present to our senses than that which is perceptually absent, and (2) our attitudes and concepts are shaped by how we perceive things in everyday life, but this everyday perception does not agree with what reality is like according to our best scientific theories.
Modality and Tense
Authors: Fine Kit
Published: February 2006

This book is collection of the the author’s previously published papers on the philosophy of modality and tense and it also includes three unpublished papers. The author provides an exposition and defence of certain positions for which he is well-known: the intelligibility of modality de re; the primitiveness of the modal; and the primacy of the actual over the possible. He also argues for some less familiar positions: the existence of distinctive forms of natural and normative necessity, not reducible to any form of metaphysical necessity; the need to make a distinction between the worldly and unworldly, analogous to the distinction between the tensed and the tenseless; and the viability of a nonstandard form of realism about tense, which recognizes the tensed character of reality without conceding there is any privileged standpoint from which it is to be viewed.
1 Reference, Essence, and Identity
Authors: Fine Kit
Published: February 2006

An attempt is made to distinguish three problems which are often confused: the problem of making sense of de re modal discourse; the problem of individuating objects across possible worlds; and the problem of whether any term can refer to its bearer independently of how it is described.
2 The Problem ofDe ReModality
Authors: Fine Kit
Published: February 2006

It is maintained that Quine had two arguments against quantified modal logic; one rooted in an opposition to the idea of an essential property; and the other rooted in an opposition to the idea that one might intelligibly quantify into opaque contexts. These arguments are critically examined and shown to lead to very different conclusions and considerations.
Mystical Encounters with the Natural World
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

The present study is devoted to mystical experiences of the natural world and the disparate ways in which they have been explained. Typically, these so-called ‘extrovertive mystical experiences’ are characterized by some combination of unity, deepened knowledge, sense of contact with reality, self-transcendence, altered time-experience, light, bliss, and love. The experiences are well represented in modern collections of spiritual testimonies, but unlike some other extraordinary experiences, they have received little sustained investigation in recent years. In Part I of the book, the experiences themselves take centre stage, with attention given to definition, phenomenology, present-day incidence, historical occurrence, circumstances, and after-effects. The classic characterizations of extrovertive experience are found wanting, and a more nuanced survey of characteristics is attempted. In Part II, attention turns to the explanation of extrovertive experience, with a survey and critique of a hundred years of explanations that range from the spiritual and metaphysical to the psychoanalytic, contextual, deconstructive, and neuropsychological. Theorists covered include R. M. Bucke and Edward Carpenter on the evolutionary path to cosmic consciousness, liberal Christian thinkers on the divine presence in nature, W. T. Stace and Robert Forman on pure consciousness, Bruce Garside and Steven Katz on the contextual construction of mystical experience, H. N. Wieman and Arthur Deikman on deconstructed, nondual awareness, R. C. Zaehner and Erich Neumann on regression to the Jungian unconscious, Sigmund Freud on the oceanic feeling, neuropsychologists on the biological basis of mystical experience, Aldous Huxley on filtration of Mind at Large, and idealist thinkers on contact with universal consciousness. A recurrent theme is the lack of attention given by theorists to extrovertive phenomenology: many explanations fall down because they fail to address the full range of experiential characteristics. Although no firm conclusion can at present be reached on the essential nature of extrovertive mystical experience, the author favours a transpersonal form of explanation that is rooted in idealist metaphysics, but which is also attentive to the contributions of neuropsychological, collective, and contextual factors.
Introduction
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

This chapter sets the scene for the two major topics under investigation, extrovertive mystical experiences (Part I), and their explanation (Part II). The experiences are introduced by means of some examples and a preliminary attempt at definition: the experiences can be called ‘mystical’ because they bring a sense of unity, knowledge, and reality, and they are ‘extrovertive’ because they are orientated towards the natural world. The study of intense and unusual experiences is defended against critics. A historical survey previews the many ways in which extrovertive experience has been explained. Transpersonal, contextual, and intrapersonal contributions to mystical experience are distinguished, and various types of explanation are identified, reductionistic and non-reductionistic. A place for metaphysical enquiry in the study of mystical experience is affirmed, and the benefits and drawbacks of a scholar‘s insider familiarity with mystical experience are noted.
1 Extrovertive Mystical Experience
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

Key questions about mystical experiences of the natural world are addressed.What are the experiences like? Some detailed accounts of extrovertive experience, and a feature list of their common or notable characteristics are provided. Are extrovertive experiences necessarily sense-mediated? Unlike many theorists, the author does not assume that extrovertive contact with the world is always through sensory channels. How common are the experiences? The results of survey studies suggest that a small but significant proportion of the US and UK populations have some familiarity with extrovertive unity, at least in its milder forms. Are the experiences a recent development, inspired by Romantic thinkers, or do they have precedents in the world’ s religious traditions? Although not definitive, the evidence suggests that extrovertive experience long pre-dates its Romantic expressions.
3 Sex, Drugs, and Beethoven?
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

Extrovertive mystical experiences occur under a variety of circumstances. Beautiful nature scenery and psychological distress are common, whilst other circumstances, such as childbirth and sleep, are reported less often. More controversially, sex and drugs seem to be able to trigger genuine extrovertive experiences, and near-death experience can have extrovertive contents. The after-effects of extrovertive experience are often beneficial, but there can also be difficulties. Re-adjustment to ordinary life can be problematic. Communication issues are liable to arise: there can be a taboo on discussion of the experiences, and the ineffability of mystical experience, if only partial in the case of extrovertive experience, can make description difficult.
4 Divine Cosmos
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

The study of explanations in Part II commences with some notable transpersonal approaches to extrovertive mystical experience from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. R. M. Bucke and Edward Carpenter put forward evolutionary theories of cosmic consciousness, and Carpenter’s theory of race-consciousness and the Ideas anticipated C. G. Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and the archetypes. Liberal Christian thinkers balanced transcendent mysticism with the immanent path of nature mysticism, and thereby established an influential twofold typology of mystical experience. These thinkers looked outside a narrowly conceived Christianity for ideas that would enrich their explanatory frameworks: W. R. Inge drew on Plotinian philosophy, Evelyn Underhill on Henri Bergson’s vitalism, and Rudolf Otto on post-Kantian epistemology.
7 On the Couch, in the Lab
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

The focus here is naturalistic explanations that put great weight on the functioning or malfunctioning of the brain or mind. R. C. Zaehner turned against nature mysticism and put forward several unflattering explanations. He likened extrovertive experience to the mania of manic-depressive illness, but his most promising explanation calls upon an inner mental model of the world. Freud supposed that the extrovertive ‘oceanic feeling’ is a vestige of infantile ideation, and object-relations theorists have suggested that mystical experience aims to repair the psychological damage inflicted by childhood loss. There is good evidence that the brain plays some role in religious and mystical experiences, but the nature of the role is presently unclear. Neuropsychological theories due to V. S. Ramachandran, James Austin, and Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg are raised, but they do not deal convincingly with the full range of extrovertive phenomenology and are best regarded as provisional efforts that will be superseded by more sophisticated theories when neuroscientific understanding of brain function is better understood.
8 Mind Beyond the Brain
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

Spiritual approaches to mystical experience can be fleshed out with insights from the sciences and philosophy. Two overlapping ways of understanding the consciousness expansions of mystical experience are distinguished. Filtration theorists, such as Henri Bergson, William James, and Aldous Huxley, believe that access to previously subconscious material takes place when neurological or psychological valves open. Psychophysical theorists draw on mind-body metaphysics to explain how consciousness can reach into the world at large. Several metaphysical alternatives are considered, including dualism, dual-aspect theory, and neutral monism, but idealism emerges as best suited to the task. J. E. Mercer and Edward Carpenter proposed idealist explanations, and more recently, T. L. S. Sprigge has raised idealism in connection with nature mysticism. A panpsychic form of idealism that reworks Leibniz’s monadology is a particularly fertile option. It not only addresses the deeper unitive and noetic facets of extrovertive experience but may also shed light on the relativity and holism of modern physics.
9 Fashions, Failures, Prospects
Authors: Marshall Paul
Published: February 2006

Two general approaches to the explanation of extrovertive mystical experience have emerged as tenable, centred respectively on the intrapersonal psychological and biological factors of naturalistic science, and the transpersonal factors of religious and metaphysical thought. The contributions of religious and cultural context undoubtedly have a supporting role, but they do not appear to be fundamental. At present, it is not possible to decide between naturalistic or transpersonal explanation, but evidence from parapsychology, neuroscience, and physics may help to swing the matter one way or the other. The author favours explanation in which transpersonal factors are made fundamental, with intrapersonal, contextual, and collective factors given supporting roles.
Thinking about God in an Age of Technology
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

This book argues that the contemporary crisis of radical theology, from John Robinson to deconstruction, is connected with theology’s failure to take the technological nature of modern society seriously. An overview of modern theologians who did take technology into account, such as Teilhard de Chardin and Jacques Ellul is presented, although their judgments were mostly negative. This is followed by an exposition of Heidegger’s critique of technology, with emphasis on his notion of ‘enframing’ as a central feature, and his view that technological models are in the process of colonizing traditional scholarly modes of thought. Chapters four, five, and six attempt to formulate a model of thinking about God that would be resistant to such colonization. The freedom and patience required of such thinking are emphasized, and it is argued that the language in which these are best articulated will be subjunctive and paratactic, a language of possibility and openness. However, language must have a vision. The vision that is called for is reversed vision, in which we see ourselves as if from the outside. The possibility of such a vision is kept open for believers in the action of liturgical remembrance. Chapters seven, eight, and nine look at the possible applications of this model in relation to ethical questions arising from genetic engineering, the life of the contemporary university, and the world of the arts ‘in an age of technical reproducibility’. The concluding chapter questions how far the model might relate to traditional Christian ideas of God. A postscript meditates on the experience of contemporary urbanity as a testing-ground for the approach that has been explored.
The Long Goodbye
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

This chapter surveys the history of modern radical theology from John Robinson through the theology of the Death of God, to deconstruction and radical orthodoxy. It argues that even when positioning itself as answering to contemporary concerns, theology has typically overlooked the technological nature of contemporary society. This undermines any claims theology might have to leadership in the contemporary thought.
We are Free to Think about God
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

This chapter sketches possibilities for thinking about God as a counter-movement to technology, that nevertheless accepts the reality of the technological society. One still remains free to think about God, even if it is uncertain that one’s thinking answers to anything ‘real’. Such thinking is allowed by the power to think beyond any provisional world-picture that fails to do justice to the wholeness of one’s experience of the world. In mysticism, there is a perennial emphasis on allowing ourselves to be led by the mind’s longing for God. Yet, rather than self-assertion, thinking about God would have to wait upon the self-revealing gift of its object.
Putting it into Words
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

Thinking about God involves more than the wordless longing of the heart. Thinking must also be put into language, even if the role of silence is admitted. Apophatic and mystical traditions have always acknowledged the limitations of language. An approach is developed that looks to kinds of language other than the propositions that have been the stuff of traditional philosophical theology. These might include a shift to the subjunctive mood and the acceptance of parataxis, as in Heidegger’s exposition of Parmenides. Examples are taken from George Herbert and Pascal; John Milbank’s account of pleonasm as the modality of religious language, and of the need to construe language as dialogical are discussed.
Cyberversity or University?
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

Heidegger’s account of the impact of technologization on university life is borne out by recent developments. The background to Heidegger’s views in German debates about the nature of the university are explored, with reference to Schleiermacher’s contribution to the vision for Berlin University and Heidegger’s own involvement in the ‘co-ordination’ of Freiburg University with the Nazi state. The latter resembles the features of the contemporary management models being applied to universities, whilst the impact of inappropriate models of ‘science’ and research being imposed on the humanities, especially Religious Studies and Theology, is considered. Schleiermacher and Newman are used to sketch an alternative approach, emphasizing the complex space of university life with its multiple para-academic activities.
The Religion of Art in an Age of Technology
Authors: Pattison George
Published: February 2006

Since early modern times, art has paralleled religion in its response to technology as illustrated by Ruskin’s thoughts on the colour purple. Heidegger also turned to art, especially the poetry of Hölderlin, as an alternative to technology. Against the background of Benjamin’s essay on ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproducibility’, the question is asked whether the thoroughly technicized art of film can become a focus for such creative counter-technological thinking. A positive answer is developed with reference to Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Nostalgia.
Rethinking Augustine's Early Theology
Authors: Harrison Carol
Published: February 2006

Having been at the centre of a century long debate which cast doubt on the nature of Augustine’s conversion, one might assume that Augustine’s early works (386-96) have now been rescued and given their rightful place. This book suggests that these are now threatened by an equally destructive trend in Augustine scholarship, which, over the last fifty years, has become an almost unquestioned norm of interpretation. This is the idea, fatefully and poignantly depicted by Peter Brown in the chapter of his seminal biography entitled The Lost Future, that the early optimistic and philosophical Augustine was dramatically transformed into the mature, pessimistic theologian of the Fall, original sin, and grace by his reading of Paul in the mid-390s. This interpretation of the first decade of Augustine’s life has since become such an idée fixe in scholarly as well as popular accounts, leaving two very different Augustines: one, the young convert, fired to pursue Wisdom by an optimistic confidence in the rational disciplines of the liberal arts, human free will, and a glorious ideal of perfection; the other, the older and wiser bishop of Hippo, convinced of human fallen ness and of the need for grace to will or to do any good work. This book argues that in order to do justice to Augustine’s conversion, to his early theology and understanding of the Christian life, and to the early works themselves, such caricatures must be resisted. It seeks to demonstrate that there is a fundamental continuity in Augustine’s thought, which does not undergo any dramatic change when he re-reads Paul in the 390s; that there is only one Augustine, for whom human weakness and divine grace were the central axes of his Christian faith and life from the very beginning.