bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Religion and Religiosity in the US
Authors: Pollack Detlef , Rosta Gergely
Published: December 2017

Although the countries of Western Europe are very similar to the US in terms of their social, political, and economic conditions, they differ greatly when it comes to religion. Chapter 10 discusses how these differences can be explained. The empirical analysis shows that, besides the considerable differences in the level of religiosity between the US and Western Europe, there are also surprising similarities in the weakening church ties and religious practices. The findings demonstrate that it is in many respects not Europe but America that is the exception. This relates among other things to the level of social inequality, which is unusually high for a modern society, the strong tendencies towards functional dedifferentiation, such as between religion and politics, and the traditionalism of the culturally accepted system of values.
Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Movements in Europe, the US, and Brazil
Authors: Pollack Detlef , Rosta Gergely
Published: December 2017

The growth of Evangelical Protestantism and Pentecostalism is widely regarded as a potent argument against the validity of secularization theory. To explain this growth, Chapter 12 draws on theoretical approaches to analysing new social movements, which allows an expansion of the repertoire of explanations concerning religious change and a testing of alternatives to the models provided by secularization theory. To explain the worldwide growth and relative resilience of the Evangelical and Pentecostal movements, the chapter identifies a number of conditions and explanatory factors: cultural and social confirmation, religious syncretism, social deprivation, and the widespread magical worldview and broadly accepted spiritistic beliefs in Latin American countries that are conducive to the acceptance of Pentecostal experiences and healing rituals.
Macro- and Microsociological Explanations for Differences between Countries
Authors: Pollack Detlef , Rosta Gergely
Published: December 2017

After the individual case studies presented in the previous chapters, the book now investigates whether the results of the individual case analyses can be generalized, which depends on whether they can also be confirmed against the background of a larger sample. A multilevel analysis involving a total of fifty-four countries was therefore carried out. Church attendance and belief in God, as well as indexes of individual and church religiosity, were used as dependent variables. The guiding set of questions developed in Chapter 3 was operationalized in the selection of the independent variables: the compatibility of religion with functional differentiation, the relationship between religion and differentiation between levels, and the relationship between religious vitality and religious plurality. One interesting result of the multilevel analysis was that belief in God that is part of church interaction is contextually more independent than belief in God that is not tied to the church.
Introduction
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

There is little question that experimental philosophy constitutes one of the most significant developments in analytic philosophy in the last couple of decades. What is less clear is what its philosophical significance is, or has been. Whereas its proponents tend to present it as a way of moving forward in philosophy, I would argue that its singular contribution thus far has been that of pressing analytic philosophers to reflect on their favored method of inquiry, thereby helping to bring out fundamental problems with that method. More specifically, the present book argues that the new experimental movement and the responses to it by traditional, “armchair” philosophers have helped to make clear that what is known in contemporary analytic philosophy as “the method of cases”—that is, the widespread philosophical practice of theorizing on the basis of the “application” of terms to “cases”—rests on substantive and challengeable assumptions about language.
Methodological Confusion in Armchair and Experimental Philosophy
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

The chapter closely examines John Hawthorne’s introduction of the “lottery paradox” in Knowledge and Lotteries (2004) and Joshua Knobe and Sean Nichols’ “Experimental Philosophy Manifesto” (2008), together with other related works of experimental philosophers, with the aim of illustrating the deep confusion about the method of cases on the part of both its armchair practitioners and their experimental critics/reformers. The examination of these texts also serves to raise some of the main issues that will be discussed in subsequent chapters.
The Method of Cases and the Representationalist Conception of Language
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

The chapter articulates more fully the representationalist conception of language that underlies Williamson’s and Cappelen’s arguments in defense of the method of cases, and shows that essentially the same conception underlies Frank Jackson’s argument in defense of the method; and this despite the fact that Jackson seems to disagree quite fundamentally with Williamson and Cappelen on what the method is supposed to accomplish. On the representationalist conception, language is essentially an instrument for recording and communicating classifications of worldly “items.” The chapter argues that those “items” are, at best, posits of what may well turn out to be a bad theory of language.
Contemporary “Contextualism” and the Twilight of Representationalism
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

The chapter considers the bearing of contemporary semantic “contextualism”—as championed by philosophers such as David Lewis and Charles Travis—on the philosophical method of cases. In maintaining that the contribution a word makes to the overall sense of an utterance depends in part on the context of the utterance, contemporary contextualism already challenges the philosophical method of cases as commonly practiced. The chapter argues, however, that in holding on to the representationalist conception of language, contemporary contextualism does not go far enough in revealing the misguidedness of the philosophical method of cases. The chapter also argues that, though J. L. Austin has commonly been identified as a forefather of contextualism, his work actually points away from the representationalist conception of language to which contemporary contextualists are still committed.
The Alternative Conception of Language
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

Drawing on ideas of Wittgenstein’s and of Merleau-Ponty’s, this chapter presents a conception of language on which the method of cases—even after contextualist amendments—is fundamentally misguided and liable to lead us astray. The alternative conception combines context-sensitivity with pragmatist non-representationalism, or what Huw Price has called “functional pluralism,” while at the same time emphasizing the synchronic and diachronic plasticity of language. Following Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty, as well as Austin, it argues that the basic unit of linguistic sense is the speech act, an act wherein a speaker—drawing more or less creatively on the history of her language—positions herself significantly by means of words, in relation to others and in a world shared with others. This sort of positioning is precisely what we do not do—or even so much as simulate—when we give our answers to the theorist’s questions.
Acquiring “Knowledge”—An Alternative Model
Authors: Baz Avner
Published: December 2017

The chapter argues that empirical studies of first-language acquisition lend support to the Wittgensteinian-Merleau-Pontian conception of language as against the prevailing conception that underwrites the method of cases in either its armchair or experimental version. It offers a non-representationalist model, inspired by the work of Michael Tomasello, for the acquisition of “knowledge,” with the aim of showing that we could fully account for the acquisition of this and other philosophically troublesome words without positing independently existing “items” to which these words refer. The chapter also aims at bringing out and underscoring the striking fact that, whereas many in contemporary analytic philosophy regard and present themselves as open and attentive to empirical science, they have often relied on a conception of language that has been supported by no empirical evidence.
Buildings
Authors: Rez Peter
Published: December 2017

Most of the energy used by buildings goes into heating and cooling. For small buildings, such as houses, heat transfer by conduction through the sides is as much as, if not greater than, the heat transfer from air exchanges with the outside. For large buildings, such as offices and factories, the greater volume-to-surface ratio means that air exchanges are more significant. Lights, people and equipment can make significant contributions. Since the energy used depends on the difference in temperature between the inside and the outside, local climate is the most important factor that determines energy use. If heating is required, it is usually more efficient to use a heat pump than to directly burn a fossil fuel. Using diffuse daylight is always more energy efficient than lighting up a room with artificial lights, although this will set a limit on the size of buildings.
Nuclear Power Generation
Authors: Rez Peter
Published: December 2017

The primary advantage of nuclear power is that a lot of energy can be generated from very little material—that too with no ongoing CO2 production. The disadvantage is the problem of dealing with radioactive waste—in particular,137Cs. Although somewhat challenging, it still appears to be manageable. Progress in nuclear fusion research has been slow, but the ultimate reward of almost unlimited energy would make it worthwhile to keep going.
Transportation: Fuel Energies
Authors: Rez Peter
Published: December 2017

Transportation efficiency can be measured in terms of the energy needed to move a person or a tonne of freight over a given distance. For passengers, journey time is important, so an equally useful measure is the product of the energy used and the time taken for the journey. Transportation requires storage of energy. Rechargeable systems such as batteries have very low energy densities as compared to fossil fuels. The highest energy densities come from nuclear fuels, although, because of shielding requirements, these are not practical for most forms of transportation. Liquid hydrocarbons represent a nice compromise between high energy density and ease of use.
Summary—What Should Be Done?
Authors: Rez Peter
Published: December 2017

Energy policy should start with an analysis of what physics and engineering say is possible, followed by an analysis of economics, and not be driven by mandates that favour renewable energy sources. In practice, it is very hard to make renewables such as solar and wind work, owing to their intermittency, and so widespread adoption might not lead to any reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, as demonstrated by the German ‘Energiewende’. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, all base load electrical demand should be generated by nuclear power, as in France. To cut down on energy requirements, industrial countries should transition from a ‘throwaway society’ to a ‘repair’ society, and people should cut down on travel and meat consumption.
Introduction
Authors: Kirchin Simon
Published: December 2017

This chapter introduces the distinction between thin and thick concepts and then performs a number of functions. First, two major accounts of thick concepts—separationism and nonseparationism—are introduced and, in doing so, a novel account of evaluation is indicated. Second, each chapter is outlined as is the general methodology, followed, third, by a brief history of the discussion of thick concepts, referencing Philippa Foot, Hilary Putnam, Gilbert Ryle, and Bernard Williams among others. Fourth, a number of relevant contrasts are introduced, such as the fact–value distinction and the difference between concepts, properties, and terms. Lastly, some interesting and relevant questions are raised that, unfortunately, have to be left aside.
Conceptual Relations
Authors: Kirchin Simon
Published: December 2017

This chapter is designed to lay the foundations for the consideration of three anti-separationist strategies, in Chapters Four, Five, and Six. It lays out two models of how thin and thick concepts may relate to one another: the genus–species model and the determinable–determinate model. It argues that the genus–species model is simply separationism by another name. It argues that nonseparationists should not adopt either model because neither can accommodate ‘evaluative flexibility’, which is itself introduced and motivated. The chapter ends by suggesting a different model of conceptual relations that nonseparationists can adopt to understand the relation between thin and thick concepts.
Thick Evaluation
Authors: Kirchin Simon
Published: December 2017

Having dismissed two other anti-separationist strategies, this chapter presents the best way of attacking separationism and articulating nonseparationism. It is denied that thick concepts can be split into thin evaluation and nonevaluative descriptive content by showing that thick evaluation is itself a basic and fundamental response to the world. Evaluation cannot be reduced to stances that are merely pro or con, as separationists do, because doing so results in a strange view of the world. This idea is elaborated in many ways: the proposal’s radical nature is revealed since the notion of the evaluative is shown to stretch further than one might think; it is suggested that there is no obvious clear dividing line between evaluative and nonevaluative concepts; there is a final discussion of evaluative flexibility; and two worries from Chapter Two are met. Work by Jonathan Dancy, Philippa Foot, Gilbert Ryle, and Bernard Williams is discussed.
Evaluative Cognitivism
Authors: Kirchin Simon
Published: December 2017

This final chapter considers what implication this study’s account of thin and thick concepts has for metaethics more generally. If one thinks that thick concepts are basic and fundamental concepts, does that mean one is committed to the existence of thick properties? Or, in other words, is there a (thick) evaluative reality? This chapter unpicks a number of assumptions lying behind some evaluative realist accounts (particularly mind-independent accounts of evaluative properties) and shows the way in which a more modest cognitive account of evaluation may work. The chapter ends by indicating at least one further direction for our thoughts, namely the question of how one should understand the difference between concepts and conceptions, and what implications this has for how people communicate with each other and how one should conceptualize agreement and disagreement.
From the Bending of Beams to the Problem of Free Will
Authors: Wilson Mark
Published: December 2017

Leibniz supplied the first differential equation model for an elastic wooden beam and realized that doing so involves a number of methodological oddities that remain with us in modern science, such as the “greediness of scales” problems discussed in Essay 5. The present essay details how many of the metaphysical extravaganzas of Leibniz’s notorious metaphysics can be closely linked to these underlying sources of methodological concern. A close study of his beam model supplies us with a concrete illustration of his celebrated labyrinth of the continuum and the manner in which his two kingdoms of explanation interface with one another.
Two Cheers For Anti-Atomism
Authors: Wilson Mark
Published: December 2017

Pierre Duhem’s celebrated writings on methodology have been profoundly misunderstood through a failure to consider the thermomechanical framework in which he worked. In particular, little attention has been paid to the carefully layered manner in which Duhem outfits “temperature” and “entropy” with a reliable range of real-world applications. These architectural underpinnings derive from the fundamental utilities that thermal vocabularies offer: codifying the energetic degradations that inevitably arise within a physical system as time wears on. Duhem’s cogent analysis of thermal usage supplies detailed insight into the gradualist manners in which other forms of descriptive vocabulary adapt themselves successfully to the requirements of the physical world. These studies should serve as a valuable corrective to popular semantic views in which traits like “temperature” are assigned simplistic “natural kinds” referents.
Is There Life in Possible Worlds?
Authors: Wilson Mark
Published: December 2017

Scientists have developed various collections of specialized possibilities to serve as search spaces in which excessive reliance upon speculative forms of lower dimensional modeling or other unwanted details can be skirted. Two primary examples are discussed: the search spaces of machine design and the virtual variations utilized within Lagrangian mechanics. Contemporary appeals to “possible worlds” attempt to imbed these localized possibilities within fully enunciated universes. But not all possibilities are made alike and these reductive schemes should be resisted, on the grounds that they render the utilities of everyday counterfactuals and “possibility” talk incomprehensible. The essay also discusses whether Wittgenstein’s altered views in his Philosophical Investigations reflect similar concerns.
Isaac of Nineveh’s Eschatology
Authors: Scully Jason
Published: December 2017

This chapter shows that the primary source for Isaac’s eschatology is John the Solitary’s depiction of the life of the future world. According to John, transformation in the future world represents the fulfillment of God’s promise of future glory and forms the basis of the hope that should define the life of the monk. Isaac’s selection and use of the same Pauline biblical phrases used by John, such as “hope to come,” “way of the new life,” and “inner man,” together with John’s non-biblical serpent analogy reveals Isaac’s dependence on John’s eschatological formulations. The main difference between John and Isaac is that while John encouraged monks to obtain knowledge of the future world in order to provide them with hope amidst their current struggles, Isaac explicitly states that perfect Christians can experience the transformation of the future world while still in this world.
The Syriac Sources for Isaac of Nineveh’s Development of Wonder and Astonishment
Authors: Scully Jason
Published: December 2017

This chapter shows that Isaac derives his conceptual framework for the concept of ecstasy, along with the technical terms wonder and astonishment, from sources that were originally written in Syriac. In particular, both Ephrem and John the Solitary situate wonder and astonishment within the framework of the future world, which means that Isaac’s desire to frame wonder and astonishment in terms of the mind’s ability to wander into heaven and acquire knowledge of the future world demonstrates his dependence on a trajectory of thought that arises from these two authors. Isaac, however, offers the distinct contribution of describing this connection between wonder and knowledge of the future world with the language of itinerancy. According to Isaac, perfect Christians obtain heavenly knowledge during the moment of prayer, when their minds become itinerant and wander into heaven in order to receive a pledge of the heavenly mysteries from the Holy Spirit.
The Greek Sources for Isaac of Nineveh’s Development of Wonder and Astonishment
Authors: Scully Jason
Published: December 2017

This chapter shows that Isaac derives specific definitions for the ecstatic experience of wonder and astonishment from Syriac translations of two sources that were originally written in Greek: Pseudo-Dionysius’s Mystical Theology and a series of Evagrian texts. The first section of this chapter concludes that Isaac uses language from the first chapter of Pseudo-Dionysius’s Mystical Theology in order to establish a connection between language of light and darkness and the theme of the Shekinah, on the one hand, and wonder and astonishment on the other. The second section shows that Isaac explicitly equates either wonder or astonishment with two Evagrian technical terms—“solitary knowledge” and “purity of mind”—and two Evagrian concepts—the joy that occurs during prayer and angelic visitation.
Conclusion
Authors: Scully Jason
Published: December 2017

The conception and development of wonder and astonishment is one of Isaac’s most influential contributions to Syriac theology. The conclusion briefly points to areas where further study will reveal the depth of influence that Isaac’s use of the terms wonder and astonishment have had on later Syriac authors. In particular, the conclusion examines areas where Isaac’s conception of wonder and astonishment influenced two eighth-century East-Syriac authors who had recourse to his texts: John Dalyatha and Joseph Hazzaya. First, this chapter points out that John and Joseph follow Isaac in connecting wonder with the cessation of impulses. In addition, John Dalyatha manifests a linguistic dependence on Isaac with his use of the constellation of the terms astonishment, wonder, silence, and limit, while Joseph Hazzaya depends on Isaac in connecting wonder with both study and tears.
Introduction
Authors: Iliopoulos John
Published: December 2017

The discovery of a new elementary particle at LHC, the large hadron collider operating at CERN, has stirred great emotion not only in the scientific community, but also in world media. In this little book we argue that this is due to the potential scientific of the discovery: it was the last missing piece in our struggle to understand the structure of the world and it may shed light on the origin of masses in the early Universe. We will explain that this particle is the remnant of a phase transition which occurred when the Universe was only a tiny fraction of a second old. In doing so we will uncover a surprising connection between the laws of physics which we discover in our laboratories while studying the microscopic structure of matter and those which govern the large scale evolution of the world.
The Standard Theory
Authors: Iliopoulos John
Published: December 2017

All ingredients of the previous chapters are combined in order to build a gauge invariant theory of the interactions among the elementary particles. We start with a unified model of the weak and the electromagnetic interactions. The gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken through the BEH mechanism and we identify the resulting BEH boson. Then we describe the theory known as quantum chromodynamics (QCD), a gauge theory of the strong interactions. We present the property of confinement which explains why the quarks and the gluons cannot be extracted out of the protons and neutrons to form free particles. The last section contains a comparison of the theoretical predictions based on this theory with the experimental results. The agreement between theory and experiment is spectacular.
The usage game
Authors: Pullum Geoffrey K.
Published: December 2017

It would be rational to expect users of works on grammar and usage to want to be treated like adults, and given authoritative information to help make their minds up about controversial points of Standard English. In reality it doesn’t seem that way: the evidence suggests that they want to be berated and dominated, or even humiliated and disciplined. Judgemental compilations of fiercely stated but unmotivated prohibitions far outsell careful scholarship on usage. Usage guide authors face a dilemma: to go along with the public’s desires for harsh rulings seems like pandering to a masochistic perversion; yet offering evidence to refute false notions of correctness often leads to charges of lowering standards and promoting anarchy. The linguist who wants to avoid both horns of the dilemma is in an awkward position. Usage books might do better to simply omit some time-worn topics rather than perpetuate grammatical myths.
Introduction
Authors: Hoffmann George
Published: December 2017

On a warm summer afternoon in 1561, Calvin’s chief editor donned a heavy stole, thick robes, and a gleaming tiara and proceeded to strut and fret his hour upon the stage in a comedy of his own devising. For little more than a century, Christians in the West had celebrated on August 6th Christ’s Transfiguration as the son of God in shining robes. But on this Sunday in Geneva, the city council, consistory, and an audience fresh from having attended edifying sermons at morning service gathered to applaud the transfiguration of the learned Conrad Badius into the title role of ...
The Devotional Force of Incredulity
Authors: Hoffmann George
Published: December 2017

Geographic foreignness (more often imagined than not) could also transform into temporal alienation to the degree that reformers’ ideal of resuscitating the primitive Church of apostolic times implied they belonged to another time. Temporal estrangement frequently figured itself as “incredulousness” at the mores of contemporary France. Though at times seeming skeptical in spirit, this incredulity proved one of “holy horror.” Thus, the Reformation’s sense of historical detachment did not lead to modern disenchantment. Although the religious conflicts could drive away some French sympathizers (Rabelais proves particularly instructive in this regard), Reformation attacks on credulity aimed at the traditional understanding of religion as an exchange of debts and did not harbor hidden secular impulses.
Adaptability
Authors: Armsworth Paul R. , Larson Eric R. , Boyer Alison G.
Published: December 2017

This chapter asks how organizations that society relies on to deliver biodiversity conservation perform in the face of rapid and unpredictable change. While much has been written about how species and ecosystems respond to environmental change, the same attention has not been given to how the human institutions charged with conserving species and ecosystems cope with change. The chapter examines nonprofit organizations active in conservation and how these organizations plan for and respond to changing economic conditions. On the one hand, empirical analyses show that conservation nonprofits are impacted less by major economic swings than might be feared. But on the other, the analyses also suggest conservation organizations could do much more to take a proactive approach to planning for and coping with change. The chapter concludes by reviewing what a more proactive approach to planning for changing conditions by conservation organizations would look like.
Food webs with humans: In name only?
Authors: Fuller Emma C.
Published: December 2017

This chapter highlights the importance of considering people as integral to foodwebs. Despite extensive recent research on coupled human-natural systems, lacking are models that incorporate human behavior in a way that yields pragmatic insights into the management of multispecies fisheries. Using the US West Coast commercial fisheries system as a case study, this chapter develops a novel network approach of linking the social system (i.e., fishing communities) to the ecological system (the fish). The analysis reveals that fisheries that seem unconnected biologically, such as benthic Dungeness crabs and pelagic tuna, can in fact be strongly linked by fishing vessels that are active in both fisheries. Understanding how human behavior connects seemingly disparate ecological systems has important implications for fisheries managers seeking to balance human well-being with sustainable populations of fish.
A good story
Authors: Marris Emma
Published: December 2017

This chapter begins with a viral video about a trophic cascade initiated by the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. It then challenges the narrative of that video. How strong is the evidence for the trophic cascade that has been claimed to exist in Yellowstone? A survey of the relevant literature suggests that the matter is far from settled. But the absence of a scientific consensus is not reflected in the popular press. Analysis of a random sample of newspaper articles about wolf reintroduction shows that a simplistic version of the scientific story is reported far more often than the more complex, but more accurate, tale of an unresolved hypothesis. A particular study on wolf-mediated effects on grizzly bears, via elk and berries, is examined in more depth. Ultimately, the chapter makes the case that the more nuanced story is not only more factually accurate, it also tells an essential truth about the nature of ecology.
Genetically modified crops
Authors: Marvier Michelle
Published: December 2017

This chapter explores ongoing debates surrounding the environmental safety of genetically modified (GM) crops. Systematic review and meta-analysis provide convincing evidence that Bt crops are safer than insecticides for non-target invertebrate species, such as honeybees and ladybird beetles. In addition, widespread adoption of Bt crops has resulted in reduced use of insecticides and other benefits for the environment. Despite such evidence, there remains a substantial opinion gap between the general public and scientists regarding the safety of GM crops. While systematic review and meta-analysis can help to correct for bias in environmental and conservation science, the oversimplification of environmental issues into blackand- white dichotomies such as pro- versus anti-GM crops can stymie the adoption of genuine solutions.
Are payments for ecosystem services benefiting ecosystems and people?
Authors: Ferraro Paul J.
Published: December 2017

This chapter examines the evidence surrounding whether payments for ecosystem services (PES) have delivered the anticipated benefits for people and nature. Proponents claim PES are scalable and clearly link conservation investments to conservation objectives. PES also materially reward rural households, thereby potentially alleviating poverty and reducing conflict between conservation and rural communities. The reality is not so simple. Theory yields ambiguous predictions, even implying that the more participants gain from PES, the less the environment gains, and offering no reason to expect win-wins to automatically arise. The empirical evidence is scant, with very few examples of even modest environmental and social impacts. Nevertheless, alternative conservation approaches have no better evidence of transformative impacts (and often much worse evidence). Given that solutions exist for making PES more likely to achieve their purported environmental benefits, scholars and practitioners would be ill-advised to abandon PES programs, but well advised to design better assessments.
Fighting Corruption
Authors: Arena Valentina
Published: December 2017

Corruption was seen as a major factor in the collapse of Republican Rome, as Valentina Arena’s subsequent essay “Fighting Corruption: Political Thought and Practice in the Late Roman Republic” argues. It was in reaction to this perception of the Republic’s political fortunes that an array of legislative and institutional measures were established and continually reformed to become more effective. What this chapter shows is that, as in Greece, the public sphere was distinct from the private sphere and, importantly, it was within this distinction that the foundations of anticorruption measures lay. Moreover, it is difficult to defend the existence of a major disjuncture between moralistic discourses and legal-political institutions designed to patrol the public/private divide: both were part of the same discourse and strategy to curb corruption and improve government.
The Corrupting Sea
Authors: Bond Sarah E.
Published: December 2017

The chapter focuses on a period that has often been described in terms of a moral and institutional decline. It interrogates both legal and literary sources pertaining to imperial Roman administration, and asks to what extent do they offer evidence of increasing corruption or merely greater awareness of its debilitating effects. In addition, it also explores the extent to which the rhetoric of corruption itself can be seen as an anticorruption tactic on the part of some elites, with the power to shape norms outside the formal remit of the law. Ultimately, what it shows is that, though corruption may not have been a problem unique to the later Roman Empire, the array and severity of anticorruption tactics introduced during this period do distinguish it from previous eras of Roman history.
Late Medieval Polities and the Problem of Corruption
Authors: Vitória André
Published: December 2017

This chapter explores how politics and private interest affected the anticorruption apparatus gradually put in place by French, English and Portuguese kings between 1250 and 1500. This apparatus was comprised of judicial prosecution and procedures for appointing and replacing officials, rules defining the duties and duration of office, improved record-keeping and accounting practices and mechanisms for administrative supervision. The chapter also argues that these royal regimes were structurally incapable of punishing and restraining corruption effectively and in a sustained manner, essentially because they could not control political society directly and because political constraints and their dependence on informal service often made a strict approach to corruption injudicious. Late medieval states, therefore, were confronted with the dilemma of having to fight corruption with inadequate means and without unduly disturbing the social and political equilibrium on which their authority depended.
“A Water-Spout Springing from the Rock of Freedom”?
Authors: Bernard G.W.
Published: December 2017

Taking as its point of departure the career and legacy of the early Tudor courtier Sir William Compton (c. 1482–1528), this chapter reflects on royal favor, gift-giving and patronage in sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century England, and on the appropriateness of studying a sociopolitical reality structured around those practices from the perspective of corruption and anticorruption. The chapter argues that in the early Tudor period, when private and public interests were deeply enmeshed, corruption was not a primary concern and anticorruption measures were therefore scarce. Embezzlement and theft were certainly condemned, but informal fees and annuities, which were widespread and widely accepted, cannot be readily interpreted as corruption because they were not intended to secure special favor. Rather, they were a conventional element of sociability, which provided unsalaried or poorly salaried officials with an additional source of income, thereby saving royal government from having to support them directly.
Corruption and the Ethical Standards of British Public Life
Authors: Moore James
Published: December 2017

This chapter goes deeper into a period that is often seen as one in which early modern “old corruption” was finally eliminated in Britain: namely, the period from 1880–1914. It argues that anticorruption measures and developments have often been held to account for this change. This chapter then changes perspective and, based on the author’s own analysis of local politics, makes clear that at the local and municipal level corruption remained a problem in Britain, thereby strengthening the argument that the effectiveness of certain ambitious anticorruption laws and the “end of corruption” in modern British society depends very much on one’s perspective.
François Poulain de la Barre on the Subjugation of Women
Authors: Reuter Martina
Published: December 2017

This chapter demonstrates how French thinker François Poulain de la Barre (1648–1723) made a profound contribution to feminist thought by adapting Cartesian ideas towards arguments for the liberation of women in the early modern era. First, it shows that Poulain embraces Cartesian method, and highlights the freedom of the intellect in all human beings, in order to establish that women are intellectually equal to men. Second, this chapter discusses Poulain’s contention that in order for women to overcome their own internalized prejudices, they must realize that their subjugation to men is neither a natural nor a justified state of affairs. Finally, this chapter examines Poulain’s claim that a woman’s self-knowledge—knowledge of herself as a human being, an immaterial mind united to a material body—is a necessary prerequisite for the attainment of her liberty. The upshot is that, for Poulain, self-knowledge is the key for women overcoming their subjugation.
Freedom and Necessity in the Work of Margaret Cavendish
Authors: Boyle Deborah
Published: December 2017

This chapter argues that Margaret Cavendish is a libertarian with respect to the freedom of natural individuals. It takes account of the passages within Cavendish’s corpus that seem to imply she is a determinist and compatibilist, by examining debates about freedom and determinism current in her time, and by tracing the development of Cavendish’s views on this topic. This chapter also grapples with the claim that Cavendish lauded libertarian freedom in the political realm, which causes significant difficulties for the idea that she is a Royalist, ultimately rejecting this interpretation by focusing on Cavendish’s interests in the human’s inappropriate drive for fame.
Introduction
Authors: Christensen James
Published: December 2017

This chapter introduces our subject and describes the book’s methodological approach. It distinguishes between ideal and non-ideal approaches, and between integrationist and isolationist approaches. It also identifies those who may bear trade-related duties of justice. Finally, it outlines the book’s contents.
The Harms of Trade I
Authors: Christensen James
Published: December 2017

This chapter begins our enquiry into the harms of trade. More specifically, it considers various ways in which trade poses serious threats to physical safety. The largest part of the chapter explores the international arms trade. It argues that we must refrain from selling certain kinds of weapons, and that selling weapons to certain kinds of government will rarely be justifiable. It also considers the practice of arming revolutionary groups. The next part of the chapter considers the permissibility of selling drugs to states which are likely to use them to administer the death penalty. It argues that states which oppose the death penalty on the grounds that it violates security rights may sometimes be permitted, and even required, to export drugs commonly used to execute convicts. The final part of the chapter considers the practice of transferring hazardous waste to developing countries.
The Harms of Trade II
Authors: Christensen James
Published: December 2017

Whereas Chapter 2 argues that trade must be restricted in order to protect humans from serious physical harms, this chapter contends that trade must be restricted in order to protect the physical integrity of non-human animals. For strategic reasons, it aims to defend animal-protecting trade restrictions without appealing to the claim that animals have rights, or that animal interests carry as much weight as human interests. The first part of the chapter identifies the aims of animal-protecting trade restrictions, the values they are intended to serve, and the nature of the harms they are used to prevent or reduce. The second part of the chapter examines a variety of objections to animal-protecting trade restrictions, and argues that those objections are unsuccessful.
The Opportunities of Trade
Authors: Christensen James
Published: December 2017

Here our focus shifts from the burdens of trade to its benefits. The trade regime provides its members with opportunities to access the markets of others, and this chapter addresses the claim that the distribution of these opportunities should be regulated by a principle of ‘formal equality’, according to which all states are to receive and offer equal, or uniform, treatment (e.g., by matching the market liberalization efforts of others). The first section of the chapter explicates the idea of formal equality and its rationales, identifies a number of positive arguments for departing from formal equality, and rebuts several objections to granting ‘special and differential treatment’ to developing countries. The second section analyses one specific element of formal equality in the trade regime, namely, the principle of reciprocity. The third section considers the claim that without policy ‘harmonization’, market access will be impeded by a slanted playing field.
Aretaios of Kappodokia
Authors: King Daniel
Published: December 2017

This chapter turns to the neglected author, Aretaios of Kappodokia, and his nosological writings. Aretaios develops an anatomically informed vision of pain perception which employs Aristotelian ideas about perception; he describes these symptoms in a manner which combines specific and formal medical terminology with more quotidian language and metaphors for various pain symptoms. This combination of linguistic registers helps provide a structure for the recognition and diagnosis of different symptoms and their conditions. Aretaios combines these two aspects of his nosology with a vision of the patient and his interaction with them that emphasizes their joint, heroic confrontation of pain and disease. Aretaios stresses, ultimately, the patient’s and doctor’s joint or combined confrontation of pain and disease.
Pain and Language Recalibrated
Authors: King Daniel
Published: December 2017

This chapter concludes the discussion of the representation of medical pain in Lucian, Plutarch, and Aristeides. It emphasizes two points. Firstly, that these Imperial writers used different generic connections to help construct pain experience. Tragedy and epic play a key role in shaping not only how the pained individual is understood in this society, but how individuals navigate and understand the question of their pain. Of particular importance is the way in which these authors use the framework of the heroic figure to help lionize or ridicule those who felt pain; the way in which tragedy and epic are used to explore the relationship between pain and the ways it is communicated; and finally, the way these generic connections help to shape the relationship between pain perceiver and others.
What’s in a View?
Authors: King Daniel
Published: December 2017

This chapter draws together the main themes of the last three analyses of viewing culture in the Imperial period. Viewing the traumatized body is important because it speaks to this culture’s shared assumptions about what one imagines in the destroyed bodies of others. It shows how different formulations of viewing constructed, interrogated, and contested different aspects of pain experience. These discussions of viewing have shaped how those who are physically violated are imagined to feel on the basis of the viewer’s interpretation of their emotional context, and the characteristics of the body. In addition, they are asked to navigate their own emotional and cognitive reactions to what they see. Viewing shapes both the imagined experience of the viewed, and their relationship with the viewed.
Markets, States, and Institutions
Authors: Stiglitz Joseph E.
Published: December 2017

The chapter describes both the evolution of thinking—from a single-minded focus on markets to a broader inclusion of institutions—and how even that broader perspective is excessively narrow and, too often, insufficiently nuanced. Markets do not operate in a vacuum; they need strong institutions including the state, interacting among themselves to create the right checks and balances. Market economies, left untampered, lead to forces that threaten their own survival. Too often they lead to greater inequality and injustice; erosion of trust; and weakening of the state. The institutional checks and balances that are so vital for the functioning of institutions and markets do not work when there is excessive inequality.
Sensitivity of Stationary Equitable Preferences
Authors: Mitra Tapan
Published: December 2017

The paper studies the sensitivity implications of the class of monotone social preference orders on infinite utility streams which satisfy the axioms of Equity (Finite Anonymity) and Stationarity (Independent Future). The principal result of this investigation is that representability of such preference orders implies a certain lack of sensitivity to the utility stream of any finite number of generations, which we refer to as ‘insensitivity to the present’. Our result points to a fundamental difficulty in implementing the sustainability principle, which requires intertemporal social preferences to reflect fairly the interests of the generations in the present and in the future.
Relation-Based Governance and Competition
Authors: Dixit Avinash
Published: December 2017

If formal institutions of contract governance are absent or ineffective, traders try to substitute relational governance based on norms and sanctions. However, these alternatives need good information and communication concerning members’ actions; that works well only in relatively small communities. If there are fixed costs, the market has too few firms for perfect competition. The optimum must be a second best, balancing the effectiveness of contract governance and dead-weight loss of monopoly. This chapter explores this idea using a spatial model with monopolistic competition. It is found that relational governance constrains the size of firms and can cause inefficiently excessive entry, beyond the excess that already occurs in a spatial model without governance problems. Effects of alternative methods of improving governance to ameliorate this inefficiency are explored.
Holding India Together
Authors: Singh Nirvikar
Published: December 2017

One of the main institutional aspects of managing heterogeneity to preserve national unity is the structure of Indian federalism. This chapter traces some of the features of Indian federal institutions, focusing on their contribution to this ‘holding together’. It reviews the conceptual and analytical underpinnings of the role of federal structures in sustaining unity, and summarizes historical developments and current institutional structures in the Indian case. It assesses the role of federal dimensions of political, administrative, and judicial structures in the holding together function. It also examines fiscal federal institutions and their impacts, including distributional and growth issues. It also separately focuses specifically on the special treatment of what may be characterized as India’s periphery.
The Dividend of Diversity for India’s Corporate Sector
Authors: Deshpande Ashwini
Published: December 2017

This chapter argues the normative case for greater diversity in the workforce of private corporations in the specific context of caste disparities in India. It offers evidence from the literature which indicates a positive association between profits and more diverse workforce teams as well as management boards for large firms. This suggests that ensuring greater diversity, in addition to enabling social inclusion especially of marginalized groups, would make good business sense. However, the discussion on diversity might be more relevant to large corporations. Small and micro-enterprises that are owned and populated by members of marginalized groups might face discrimination on account of their identity, adversely affecting their performance. This indicates that discrimination based on social identity manifests itself in different ways in different segments of the market depending on the size of the firm.