bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dōgen's Interpretations of This Lotus Sutra Story
Authors: Leighton Taigen Dan
Published: May 2007

This chapter gives a close reading of a range of references throughout Dōgen's writings on Lotus Sutra Chapters 15 and 16, organized in terms of earth, space, and time. It also looks in to how Dōgen uses these citations as practice encouragements for his students. These commentaries reveal Dōgen's strong lifetime allegiance to the Lotus Sutra text, and also his approach to awakening as a function of the nature of reality, intimately connected with the dynamic support of the earth, space itself, and a multidimensional view of the movements of time.
Christus Proficiens?
Authors: Madigan Kevin
Published: May 2007

This chapter provides a rich exegetical context for Thomas's exegesis of Luke 2:52. Only in this context can the distinctiveness and originality of Thomas's position be appreciated. It is argued that although Thomas borrows elements from the interpretations of Ambrose of Milan and John of Damascus, the figures with whom Thomas begins his mature discussion, he differs from both in significant ways. Having outlined the major patristic interpretations of the verse, the positions of four major thinkers from the high-scholastic period (Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and the early Thomas himself) are then analyzed. It is shown that all four thinkers denied that Jesus progressed in knowledge, at least in the sense that he passed from ignorance of something to knowledge of it. Thomas's disagreement with his patristic predecessors and his scholastic contemporaries is also considered.
Christus Nesciens?
Authors: Madigan Kevin
Published: May 2007

The Arian writers made much of the blunt admission by Jesus that he was ignorant of the Day of Judgment. This chapter examines orthodox responses to the charge that this was proof of the inferiority of the Incarnate Word's nature.
Christus Passibilis?
Authors: Madigan Kevin
Published: May 2007

Jesus' Agony in the Garden (Matt 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46) was a plague and embarrassment to patristic and medieval interpreters. Few narratives in the New Testament were so inimical to receive christological assumptions. Ancient and medieval interpreters — at least those judged ultimately to be “orthodox” — ascribed to the Incarnate Word the qualities of divine consubstantiality, omnipotence, omniscience, obedience, and impassibility. However, the pericope, at least in its Markan and Matthean versions, presents them with a figure who appears in all-too-human form, that is, powerless, ignorant, recalcitrant, and passible. In large part because of these narrative qualities, the Markan and Matthean narratives generated an enormous explanatory literature over the course of the first thirteen centuries of Christian history. This chapter analyzes, in the high-medieval interpretation of these narratives, a portion of that literature which again sharply focuses some fundamental questions on the use of patristic tradition in Christian thought, in particular on the perennial issue of continuity and change.
Introduction
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the main focus of the book, namely structural reforms in the product and labour markets, and the method adopted in the analysis of structural reforms. It then considers the relevant interactions among institutions and the question of whether these interactions can be exploited to obtain political support for reforms. Government exploitation of labour market reforms and the delegation of power to supranatural authorities are also discussed.
Introduction
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter introduces the first part of the book, which examines the question: do product market reforms contribute to Europe's poor growth and productivity record? The key finding is that although reforms are difficult to implement and do not always deliver the expected gains, particularly in the short term, deregulation of services in all three countries analysed is found to be associated with faster productivity growth and competitiveness both in the service sector and in the rest of the economy. This latter result is largely due to the fact that services play a much more pervasive role in the overall economy than generally acknowledged as they have a significant input into non-service activities like manufacturing and agriculture. Consequently, changes in efficiency, quality, and costs of services delivered trickle down to large competitive gains in the overall economy. The bottom line is that liberalization in services has the potential to bring large welfare gains and governments need to persevere in their effort to reform the service sector.
The Impact of Services Regulation
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter illustrates how regulation in services affected the performance of other sectors in the economy through input-output linkages. The analysis compares the performance of twenty-four non-service (mostly manufacturing) industries in Germany, Italy, and the UK. It is shown that regulation, however measured, has a negative impact on foreign direct investment (FDI).
Introduction
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter introduces Part II of the book, which focuses on how to gain political support for reforms. The succeeding chapters focus on the political feasibility of these reforms, in an attempt to provide some policy advice on how to push forward with structural reforms. The case studies include a broad array of economic areas — such as labour and product markets, the welfare state, and privatizations — and of political institutions, ranging from majority systems, such as the UK, to proportional systems and consensus democracies, such as Denmark, to hybrid systems (Italy), and to new democracies (Russia and the Czech Republic). Although this methodological approach may fail to identify universal ‘laws’, the wide range of economic and political framework conditions analysed will provide common lessons on how to design politically feasible reforms.
Evidence and Theory of Reforms
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter analyses reform over time across countries and sectors. Four scenarios for reforms are identified. In a scenario characterized by strong concentration of power in the hands of the policy-makers, a reform attempt in markets that do not feature entrenched interests may be carried out by exploiting this political power. Policy-makers lacking a substantial concentration of power can instead adopt a consensus building strategy to reform by tailoring the reform package to widen the political base. In the presence of strong entrenched interests, when some specific groups are both too strong to be confronted at once and too expensive to buy out, policy-makers may adopt a strategy of divide and conquer. In several circumstances, the reform efforts of policy-makers are largely affected by the existence of international laws or regulations that make reforms inescapable. Almost regardless of their political power and of the market or institution to be modified, the policy-maker may exploit these external constraints to carry out the reform.
Exploit a Parliamentary Majority
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter concentrates on the reform opportunities that emerge when a government exploits its parliamentary majority. For example the privatizations and pension reforms carried out in the UK by the Thatcher government. When backed by a large parliamentary majority, the policy-makers' only constraint is the need to win a future election, which provides freedom of action in most cases. Yet, this strategy is not always valuable. The mix of successes and failures suggests that other institutional elements are crucial, such as the (lack of) internal cohesion in coalition governments or the existence of strong opposition. A strong parliamentary majority can thus be insufficient to generate sufficient coalition building.
Widen Your Political Base
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter discusses an alternate strategy that policy-makers tend to use when they do not enjoy sufficiently strong political power, and when they address reforms in broad-reaching sectors that affect a large fraction of the population. In the absence of a large parliamentary majority or in the presence of strong opposition in the economic or social arena, policy-makers widen the political base for their reform by resorting to social dialogue and to a more consensual style. The need to gather wider social and political support induces policy-makers to increase the share of winners from the reform, while raising expenses for the losers.
Exploit External Constraints
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter takes a different angle on policy-making by recognizing that several successful reforms were actually implemented under pressure from external constraints. Although strong governments may prefer to be free to select their reform options, governments facing strong opposition may need to rely on external constraints to increase their bargaining power in the coalition building phase and to limit the opposition of lobby groups. The recipe provided in this chapter is hence to exploit external constraints, such as those imposed by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the Stability Pact, or International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality rules. The chapter concentrates on the reform experience of two transition countries — the Czech Republic and Ukraine — to highlight the role of commitment to reform provided by a truly external constraint; in this case, the European Union.
How to Reform: Pulling the Strings
Authors: Boeri Tito , Castanheira Micael , Faini Riccardo , Galasso Vincenzo , Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Stéphane Carcillo , Haskel Jonathan , Nicoletti Giuseppe , Perotti Enrico , Scarpa Carlo , Tsyganok Lidia , Wey Christian
Published: May 2007

This chapter presents a synthesis of the case studies discussed in the preceding chapters. European countries faced with increasing globalization, intensifying international competition, or the rise of newly industrializing countries such as China, must adjust their economies to move ahead. They must develop their growth potential, create jobs, and adapt their various welfare systems to the new economic and demographic realities.
4 Statebuilding in Kosovo
Authors: Zaum Dominik
Published: May 2007

This chapter analyses the statebuilding efforts of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) that was established after the Kosovo war in 1999. It is divided into three parts. While the first part outlines the background to the intervention, analyses the scope of the international authority, and discusses the transition to local rule, the other two sections contain detailed case studies of statebuilding: the reform of the judicial system, and the privatization of socially owned enterprises, one of the most controversial reform efforts of UNMIK. The chapter not only shows the influence of norms on UNMIK's statebuilding policies, but also the problems of ‘statebuilding without statehood’: building political and administrative institutions if the future legal status of a territory remains unresolved.
6 The Sovereignty Paradox
Authors: Zaum Dominik
Published: May 2007

This last chapter brings together the findings from the analysis, and raises a range of theoretical and practical questions that arise from the analysis of the normative framework underlying statebuilding. Part One discusses the implications of the findings for our understanding of the role of sovereignty in international society. Part Two considers the implications of the book's findings for the governance and development efforts of international administrations. It examines whether international administrations possess the legitimacy and authority themselves that they try to establish in the territories they govern and restructure, and how their authority could be strengthened. It also looks at some of the pathologies of international administration, and concludes by discussing what the book's findings suggests for exit strategies of international administrations.
Cultural Exclusion and the Definition of Art
Authors: Crowther Paul
Published: May 2007

This chapter proposes that formalist and Institutional approaches to the definition of art are both conceptually flawed and involve cultural exclusion in an unacceptable way. A sustained critical assessment of Bell and Beardsley, and then Dickie and Danto's difficulties in these areas is offered. An alternative approach is then developed, which emphasizes the image's interpretative style as a distinctive mode of the aesthetic, and explores its important connections with mental imagery and the structure of self-consciousness. This offers the basis of a normative definition of art with a universal orientation, rather than one based on the centrality of marginal western idioms.
Defining Art, Defending the Canon, Contesting Culture
Authors: Crowther Paul
Published: May 2007

This chapter criticizes fashionable anti-foundational relativism and its aesthetic counterpart, the Institutional definition of art. It shows that both involve unconscious racism and are conceptually problematic in their implications for non-western representation. It is argued that the aesthetic is an integral part of the making and perception of representational artifacts, even in non-western contexts. However, it is western culture which has developed this as a specialist practice, so it is then argued further that such a pursuit has significantly developed the logical scope of art media. If this development is related to a comparative horizon of of diachronic history, it is possible to establish the idea of a canon and to justify aesthetic judgements on an objective, universalist basis.
From Beauty to Art: Developing Kant's Aesthetics
Authors: Crowther Paul
Published: May 2007

This chapter provides a sustained phenomenological development of Kant's aesthetics of beauty and theory of art. This allows both aesthetic experience and art's distinctive articulation of it to be disclosed in great detail. Importance is assigned to the harmony of imagination and understanding as the basis of aesthetic experience, and to disinterestedness as a logical criterion of it. The chapter then outlines briefly a theory of artistic beauty derived from Kant's general position, and then goes on to more sustained consideration of his theory of art. Special attention is paid to the notions of originality and exemplariness as a basis for canonic value, and to the special character of those ‘aesthetic ideas’, which are central to Kant's account of the art object.
Introduction
Authors: Engster Daniel
Published: May 2007

Caring practices are essential for the survival, development, and social functioning of human beings, but until recently have generally been overlooked as a moral grounding for a theory of justice. This chapter suggests that caring practices can, and should, be placed at the heart of any consistent theory of justice. The unique nature of a caring theory of justice is demonstrated by contrasting it with other contemporary justice theories including liberalism, communitarianism, and natural law theory. Care theory is further situated in relation to contemporary feminist theories of justice. A caring theory of justice is shown to have special relevance in addressing contemporary social problems relating to the care of children, the elderly, and other dependent individuals, and in generating a minimal account of justice that can accommodate diverse cultural and religious views.
Adversaries on the Left: Revolutionary Rhetoric and Reformist Realities
Authors: Hayward Jack
Published: May 2007

Weak party and trade union organizations have been fragmented by fascination with revolutionary rhetoric despite recourse in practice to reformism. Following a contrast between anarchist outsiders and Radical insiders, the vicissitudes of partisan French socialism are recounted. The secular decline of the sectarian Communist Party has coincided with the collapse of Marxism's ideological hegemony.
Epilogue: Confronting the National Identity Crisis
Authors: Hayward Jack
Published: May 2007

Republican values embodied in the French model have lost credibility and await a crisis to shake protectionist France out of its lethargy.
Patents as an Incentive to Innovate
Authors: Guellec Dominique
Published: May 2007

This chapter investigates the rationale of patents, their economic role, and the circumstances in which they are the most effective. The utilitarian theory considers patents as an incentive — a policy instrument used by society for encouraging inventions. Patents are a response to the public good nature of knowledge, which makes imitation easier than invention. They are one of the instruments of innovation policy along with grants, prizes, subsidies, universities, and public laboratories. Compared with other instruments, patents are more market friendly, leaving all technical and economic choices to firms and customers; and they restrict the use of knowledge. The evidence so far supports the view that patents are quite effective in encouraging innovation, especially in certain industries like pharmaceuticals or chemicals, and less so in electronics, and have little direct effect in other industries, especially in services.
The Problem of Evil
Authors: van Inwagen Peter
Published: May 2007

This book contains in eight chapters the revised text of eight Gifford lectures, which were delivered at the University of St Andrews in 2003. The problem of evil may be formulated as a question addressed to theists: why would an all-powerful and benevolent God permit the existence of vast amounts of truly horrible suffering? Many reflective people are convinced that this question has no answer. The reasons that underlie this conviction can be formulated as an argument for the non-existence of God, the so-called argument from evil: if there were a God, he would not permit the existence of vast amounts of truly horrible suffering; since such suffering exists, there is no God. The examination of the problem of evil in these chapters is largely an examination of the argument from evil, which the author of the book regards as a paradigmatically philosophical argument. The conclusion of the main argument of the chapters (which takes the form of a debate centred on the ‘free-will defence’) is that the argument from evil is, like most philosophical arguments, a failure. The following topics receive special attention: the concept of God; success and failure in philosophical argument; versions of the argument from evil that depend on the vast amount of evil in the world and versions of the argument that depend on a particular evil, such as the Holocaust; the free-will defence; animal suffering; and the problem of the hiddenness of God.
The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Evil
Authors: van Inwagen Peter
Published: May 2007

This chapter is a defence of the author's approach to the problem of evil, by way of an examination of the argument from evil. Several different ‘problems of evil’ and ‘arguments from evil’ are examined. The contention that there is an ‘overarching’ problem of evil, a problem that confronts both theists and atheists, is considered and rejected.
The Idea of God
Authors: van Inwagen Peter
Published: May 2007

This chapter considers a more or less traditional list of the ‘divine attributes’. The following theses are defended: (i) this list represents an attempt to flesh out the Anselmian notion of a ‘something than which a greater cannot be conceived’; (ii), the concept of God should be understood in this Anselmian sense; (iii) it is implausible to suppose that a ‘something than which a greater cannot be conceived’ should lack any of the attributes in the traditional list. The chapter raises and attempts to answer the question: to what extent is it possible to revise the traditional list of divine attributes without replacing the concept of God with another concept?
Grundlagen
Authors: Potter Michael
Published: May 2007

If our ability to count depends on the structure of space and time, this may explain its applicability to the things we intuit in space and time, but it will also limit its applicability to just those things: we shall, in short, be left without the ability to count anything that is not made up of spatio-temporal elements. This evidently did not bother Kant, but it has seemed implausible to many subsequent thinkers. The most notable of these was Frege, who published Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik (The Foundations of Arithmetic), a book arguing against Kant's conclusion, in 1884. Frege was the first to put forward the thesis, now known as logicism, that logic is capable of grounding mathematical truths without thereby rendering them wholly trivial.
The Tractatus
Authors: Potter Michael
Published: May 2007

Ludwig Wittgenstein studied with Russell in Cambridge from 1911 to 1913, and wrote the Tractatus while on active service in the Austrian army during the First World War. Large parts of the book are devoted to explaining and correcting errors in the conception of logic to be found in Principia. Wittgenstein did not, as is sometimes suggested, reject the idea of a hierarchy of types, but he did reject the notion that mathematics (and in particular arithmetic) could be based, as in Principia, on classes. For this reason although the account of arithmetic given in the Tractatus is in a sense logicist, it is very different from Russell's.
Ramsey
Authors: Potter Michael
Published: May 2007

Frank Ramsey was involved in preparing the English translation of the Tractatus as an undergraduate at Cambridge. He developed an account of the theory of types which avoided the difficulties associated with the axiom of reducibility by following what he took to be Wittgensteinian principles. In December 1924, he wrote an essay which was eventually published under the title ‘The foundations of mathematics’. The material in the essay that is relevant here falls into three distinct parts: in the first Ramsey showed how to develop a theory of types on Wittgensteinian principles that had no need of the problematic axiom of reducibility; in the second he dealt with the derivation of the theory of classes from the theory of types; and in the third he addressed the problematic dependence of the theory on the axiom of infinity.
Emotion As Cognitive and Its Therapy
Authors: Sorabji Richard
Published: May 2007

The idea of philosophy as psychotherapy goes back to 5th century BCE Presocratics. All ancient philosophers regard emotions as involving cognition in some way, though the point is hidden in Gorgias. In the 4th century BCE, Plato's Socrates goes so far as to say that fear actually is expectation of harm, but that intellectualist treatment of an emotion was not further developed until the Stoics. Aristotle discusses emotion in psychology, logic, ethics, rhetoric, and poetics. The last two contexts are inter-related and require close attention to the content of thoughts, but he does not yet contrast appearance with judgement, like the Stoics. The Epicureans recognize the role of cognition and even of unconscious beliefs. But this book focuses more on the Stoics, because they took the subject much further forward, and had a huge influence on philosophers, including the Christians.
Posidonius
Authors: Sorabji Richard
Published: May 2007

Posidonius denied that Chrysippus' judgements were necessary for emotion in the cases mentioned in Chapter 4 of disowned judgements, animals or infants, and response to wordless music. There may more often be some appearance of good or bad, but not always judgement in Chrysippus' sense of assent to appearance.
The Traditions Of Moderation and Eradication
Authors: Sorabji Richard
Published: May 2007

The Stoic advocacy of freedom from emotion (apatheia) is opposed to Aristotle's of moderate emotion (metriopatheia), which was the majority preference, although Plato has shifting emphases. Some saw the two states as ideals for different people or (Plotinus) for different stages of progress. Freedom from emotion is associated with Anaxagoras, the Socratics and Cynics. Pyrrhonians claimed to free themselves from emotion but not from unpleasant sensation. Philodemus' ‘natural anger’ is not so far from Stoic freedom from anger, but the substantive dispute was wrongly called merely verbal. This was part of an attempt not to take opponents seriously, which also often misunderstood the idea of first movements, good emotions (eupatheiai), or selection of indifferents as if these let in emotion, and tendentious paraphrases of the idea of emotion as perturbation or disease were exploited to make the dispute seem verbal.
First Movements In Augustine
Authors: Sorabji Richard
Published: May 2007

Augustine agreed that sin starts when we enjoy or prolong bad thoughts, and concluded that we need to seek forgiveness by saying the Lord's Prayer every day. He was against the view he ascribed to Pelagians that one might reach the stage of sinlessness or Stoic apatheia through one's own efforts. But he misinterpreted Stoic first movements, inferring that the Stoics disagreed with him only verbally, because Aulus Gellius' Latin report of the Stoics used an ambiguous word, when it said that the Stoics allowed pavor. Augustine took it to mean that they abandoned apatheia by allowing real fear, whereas what they allowed was only jitters, a first movement. Another misunderstanding occurred in Augustine's treatment of lust as more bad, unlike anger, because disobedient to the will. He overlooked that he was comparing the first movements of lust with actual actions of anger.
Augustine On Lust and the Will
Authors: Sorabji Richard
Published: May 2007

Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he could not agree with Pelagians that in marriage lust was good in moderation. He chose a weak ground for calling lust a bad thing, namely that it was disobedient to will. He thought that in the Garden of Eden, either sex would have been possible without lust, or lust would have been obedient to will. The Pelagian, Bishop Julian of Eclanum, replied that the desire to eat or drink, salivation, digestion, and sleep are also not commanded by will, but like lust, have the consent of will, and sleep, like lust, impedes thought, yet Augustine does not deplore them. Elsewhere, Augustine worried whether lustful dreams were sinful, for the opposite reason that the will does consent.
The Intuitive Cosmology of Fictional Worlds
Authors: Skolnick Deena , Bloom Paul
Published: May 2007

Young children and adults understand the difference between reality and fiction. But recent work in developmental psychology has found that this is not the only distinction that children and adults make: members of both age groups also consider different fictional worlds to be metaphysically separate from each other. This surprising finding reveals that both adults and children impose a much more nuanced structure onto the stories they hear than previously thought. This chapter explores the origins of this structure, arguing that it is the result of how adults and children create and conceptualize the fictional worlds they encounter. Because each fictional world is based on the real world, the entities and relationships that hold in the real world will also tend to hold in any given fictional world. Objections and extensions to this theory are considered.
Modality, Modal Epistemology, and the Metaphysics of Consciousness
Authors: Hill Christopher S.
Published: May 2007

Cartesian modal arguments for property dualism presuppose that facts about the essential natures of pain and other qualitative properties can be grasped a priori by merely conceiving of them or imagining them. This chapter argues that this presupposition fails. It then proposes a theory of metaphysical necessity that in effect reduces it to the subjunctive conditional — to say that it is metaphysically necessary that p, it claims, is equivalent to saying that p would be the case no matter what else was the case. Using this theory of metaphysical necessity as a foundation, the chapter gives an account of how claims concerning metaphysical necessity can be known to be true. This account allows that such claims can, in many cases, be known a priori, but it implies that in many other cases, our grasp of them is a posteriori. The account sustains the criticisms of Cartesian modal arguments offered in the early sections of the chapter.
The Pluralism of Disadvantage
Authors: Wolff Jonathan , De-Shalit Avner
Published: May 2007

This chapter discusses the nature of disadvantage. It opens with an analysis of the pluralism of disadvantage, and rejects the ‘monist’ view. If instead of building a theory of equality on imaginary examples, theorists start by examining real life cases, it will become clear that not all disadvantages are reducible to each other, and therefore disadvantage is plural in its nature. But this pluralism implies that there will be a problem of indexing: deciding which disadvantages are more important or urgent. The capability approach, developed by Amartya Sen and others, serves as the starting point for the theory advanced here. According to this theory, in order to understand how well or badly someone's life is going, we need to attend to what they can ‘do and be’; their ‘capability to function’.
The Indexing Problem
Authors: Wolff Jonathan , De-Shalit Avner
Published: May 2007

If disadvantage is plural, how could we know who are the least advantaged? One possible way of treating this ‘indexing problem’ is to claim that pluralism is not the problem but the solution: that is, the state should isolate each functioning and challenge each area of disadvantage separately (sectoral justice). It is argued this approach is unable to show how to set priorities between different budget heads. A method is suggested for indexing disadvantages relying on the idea of ‘weighting sensitivity’, which looks for convergence in ordering between different weighting schemes. However, this method is complex and a simpler, pragmatic method is proposed, which looks directly for clustering of disadvantage between six ‘high-weight’ functionings which appeared as the most important ones in the interviews: life, bodily health, bodily integrity, affiliation, control over environment, and sense of imagination and thought. Those who do poorly on several of these categories will be among the least advantaged in society.
Chapter 6 Measuring Functionings
Authors: Wolff Jonathan , De-Shalit Avner
Published: May 2007

In the previous chapter, it was assumed that it is possible to measure the functioning level of each representative individual for each functioning. This chapter explores how and why such measurement can and should be done. It suggests that such a method should combine both subjective and objective measures, gaining the benefits of both, but providing a cross-check on each other. The York model — named after research on poverty conducted by scholars from the University of York — provides a sound approach which, from the point of the view of the current project, has many advantages. It is suggested that using one subjective and two objective measures, and looking for overlap between at least two measures is a very promising way of assessing disadvantage within possibly each category of functioning.
Conclusion
Authors: Wolff Jonathan , De-Shalit Avner
Published: May 2007

This concluding chapter shows how this project brings together theory and practice, and draws out some ways in which the book contributes to the understanding of equality. These include redefining advantage and disadvantage; tracking the least advantages; relevance to real life; including the voices of disadvantaged people; and justification for focusing on the least advantaged.
Introduction
Authors: Samely Alexander
Published: May 2007

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of rabbinic texts. Rabbinic texts constitute a scholarly discourse in that their statements are concerned with halakhic norms, or linguistic meaning in Scripture. And they are presented in a framework of arguments, and often contested. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is also presented. Thirteen small literary forms are described, which constitute apparently self-sufficient units of meaning and some of them occur in most rabbinic works. How the small forms are combined to build larger documents of various types is explained. Typical features of selected rabbinic genres are considered, including the Mishnah; Midrashic Bible commentaries and homilies; and the Babylonian Gemara.
The Works of Rabbinic Literature
Authors: Samely Alexander
Published: May 2007

This chapter explains the main categories by which rabbinic documents can be sorted into groups. It introduces thirteen key small forms which make up the bulk of rabbinic literature. Also it presents five main arrangement principles according to which the small forms are put together in extended texts. An artificial synthesis of rabbinic ideas about God, the Torah, and Israel is developed, and why such syntheses have no direct evidence to support them, is also explained.
Appropriating Scripture
Authors: Samely Alexander
Published: May 2007

This chapter explains the importance of Scripture for the rabbinic world-view, using the analogy of modern sciences. The presence of the idea of ‘canon’ in rabbinic writings is discussed, and how cutting Scripture down to segments makes it possible to appropriate biblical words for rabbinic themes is explained. It is suggested that the segments are treated as if they constituted the divine response in a conversation with the rabbis. Some common techniques of rabbinic Bible interpretation are listed.
The Literary Device of Quoting Rabbis
Authors: Samely Alexander
Published: May 2007

This chapter examines the fact that many individual statements occurring in rabbinic texts are quoted as direct speech by named rabbis. Speech reports are interpreted as minimal narratives which provide the form, but not the contents, of a ‘history’ of rabbinic texts. Concentrating on the Mishnah, the anonymous voice which does the quoting is distinguished from the named voices which are quoted. Attention is drawn to the importance of disputes, where the two types of voices become mixed.
Conclusion
Authors: Samely Alexander
Published: May 2007

The preceding chapters show that rabbinic thought is intertwined with the nature of its texts, with rabbinic textuality. In the absence of a compelling textual Gestalt, the formal self sufficiency and independence of the single statement allows it to enter into many diverse relationships with other statements, so that it can be difficult to determine its exact scope and import. Direct knowledge of the halakhic practice of a text's own time and place, which would resolve many such ambiguities, is mostly not available. Nevertheless, the absence of a sentence-connecting Gestalt is not a mere lack. It is, like all sustained text formation, an achievement and a contrivance: Gestalt of another order. Several factors are discussed in detail, which contribute to this outcome in various measure.
Single-molecule biophysics: at the interface of biology, physics and chemistry
Authors: Deniz Ashok A , Mukhopadhyay Samrat , Lemke Edward A
Published: May 2007

Single-molecule methods have matured into powerful and popular tools to probe the complex behaviour of biological molecules, due to their unique abilities to probe molecular structure, dynamics and function, unhindered by the averaging inherent in ensemble experiments. This review presents an overview of the burgeoning field of single-molecule biophysics, discussing key highlights and selected examples from its genesis to our projections for its future. Following brief introductions to a few popular single-molecule fluorescence and manipulation methods, we discuss novel insights gained from single-molecule studies in key biological areas ranging from biological folding to experiments performed
in vivo
.
Extreme environmental variation sharpens selection that drives the evolution of a mutualism
Authors: Siepielski Adam M , Benkman Craig W
Published: May 2007

The importance of infrequent events for both adaptive evolution and the evolution of species interactions is largely unknown. We investigated how the infrequent production of large seed crops (masting) of a bird-dispersed tree (whitebark pine,Pinus albicaulis) influenced phenotypic selection exerted by its primary avian seed predator–disperser, the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). Selection was not evident during common years of low seed abundance, whereas it was replicated among areas and favoured traits facilitating seed dispersal during infrequent years of high seed abundance. Since nutcrackers act mostly as seed predators during small seed crops but as seed dispersers during the largest seed crops, trees experienced strong selection from nutcrackers only during infrequent years when the interaction was most strongly mutualistic. Infrequent events can thus be essential to both adaptive evolution and the evolutionary dynamics of species interactions.
Shell bone histology indicates terrestrial palaeoecology of basal turtles
Authors: Scheyer Torsten M , Sander P.Martin
Published: May 2007

The palaeoecology of basal turtles from the Late Triassic was classically viewed as being semi-aquatic, similar to the lifestyle of modern snapping turtles. Lately, this view was questioned based on limb bone proportions, and a terrestrial palaeoecology was suggested for the turtle stem. Here, we present independent shell bone microstructural evidence for a terrestrial habitat of the oldest and basal most well-known turtles, i.e. the Upper Triassic
Proterochersis robusta
and
Proganochelys quenstedti
. Comparison of their shell bone histology with that of extant turtles preferring either aquatic habitats or terrestrial habitats clearly reveals congruence with terrestrial turtle taxa. Similarities in the shell bones of these turtles are a diploe structure with well-developed external and internal cortices, weak vascularization of the compact bone layers and a dense nature of the interior cancellous bone with overall short trabeculae. On the other hand, ‘aquatic’ turtles tend to reduce cortical bone layers, while increasing overall vascularization of the bone tissue. In contrast to the study of limb bone proportions, the present study is independent from the uncommon preservation of appendicular skeletal elements in fossil turtles, enabling the palaeoecological study of a much broader range of incompletely known turtle taxa in the fossil record.
Evolutionary self-organization in complex fluids
Authors: McCaskill John S , Packard Norman H , Rasmussen Steen , Bedau Mark A
Published: May 2007

This paper explores the ability of molecular evolution to take control of collective physical phases, making the first decisive step from independent replicators towards cell-like collective structures. We develop a physical model of replicating combinatorial molecules in a ternary fluid of hydrocarbons, amphiphiles and water. Such systems are being studied experimentally in various laboratories to approach the synthesis of artificial cells, and are also relevant to the origin of cellular life. The model represents amphiphiles by spins on a lattice (with Ising coupling in the simplest case), coupled to replicating molecules that may diffuse on the lattice and react with each other. The presence of the replicating molecules locally modulates the phases of the complex fluid, and the physical replication process and/or mobility of the replicating molecules is influenced by the local amphiphilic configuration through an energetic coupling. Consequently, the replicators can potentially modify their environment to enhance their own replication. Through this coupling, the system can associate hereditary properties, and the potential for autonomous evolution, to self-assembling mesoscale structures in the complex fluid. This opens a route to analyse the evolution of artificial cells. The models are studied using Monte Carlo simulation, and demonstrate the evolution of phase control. We achieve a unified combinatorial framework for the description of isotropic families of spin-lattice models of complex phases, opening up the physical study of their evolution.
Incidence of Galactorrhea in Young Women Using Depot-Medroxyprogesterone Acetate
Authors: Omar Hatim A. , Zakharia Rana M. , Kanungo Shibani , Huff Marlene , McClanahan Kimberly
Published: May 2007

Galactorrhea is rarely mentioned as a possible side effect of the use of Depot-Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA). Over the last few years, we have noticed an increased number of patients complaining of galactorrhea. A review of clinical data showed that between 1999 and 2005, 360 adolescents in our clinic used DMPA for at least 6 months. After medical follow-up, 13 (3.6%) of these patients were found to have developed galactorrhea. The mean age of the patients was 19.4 years with a range from 13—24. Prolactin levels in these patients were normal, and in all subjects, the galactorrhea resolved spontaneously within the next year in both patients who continued use and those who discontinued use of DMPA. It appears that galactorrhea is a benign side effect and as previous reports have suggested, it did not seem to be related to changes in Prolactin levels in our patients. It is thought that this is a progesterone-mediated effect. We believe that reassurance and education of patients is sufficient and there is no evidence of need for further intervention. Since the sample size is small in this study, additional research is recommended as to validate the presence of progesterone-mediated effects secondary to the use of DMPA.
The Expression of MMP-2 Following Immobilization and High-Intensity Running in Plantaris Muscle Fiber in Rats
Authors: Carmeli Eli , Haimovitch Tal Gal
Published: May 2007

The effect of 2-week, high-intensity running and a 2-week immobilization on muscle fiber type composition of the plantaris muscle from 18 female, 6-month-old Wistar rats (running, n = 6; immobilization, n = 6; sedentary control, n = 6) was bio- and histochemically investigated. The high-intensity treadmill running began with 20 min (32 m/min, 0% gradient, 75% VO2max), up to 50 min/day. Right hind limbs were immobilized by an external fixation procedure for 13 days. Muscle mass of the plantaris muscle in the immobilized groups was reduced by 16% in comparison with the sedentary control group. High-intensity running and immobilization increased both mRNA and protein levels of matrix metalloproteinase type 2 (MMP-2) in plantaris. Running and immobilization decreased the percentages of transverse sectional area of fast-twitch glycolytic (FG) type IIb fibers, running increased relative cross-sectional area of fast-twitch oxidative glycolytic (FOG) type IIa muscle fibers, whereas immobilization increased relative cross-sectional area of slow-twitch oxidative (SO) muscle fibers (type I). Our results suggest that both high-intensity running and immobilization are enough to induce overwhelming changes in plantaris.
Preventive Adolescent Health Care in Family Practice: A Program Summary
Authors: Knishkowy Barry , Schein Moshe , Kiderman Alexander , Velber Aliza , Edman Richard , Yaphe John
Published: May 2007

The AMA Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) has been the cornerstone of preventive care for teenagers since its publication in 1994. Despite this, there has been little documentation of their implementation in the family medicine literature. This article gives an overview of a family practice–based adolescent preventive health program based on GAPS recommendations, and reports on compliance, feasibility and health issues. A Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) program targeted all adolescent patients aged 12—18 years in two Israeli family practices. 321 teenagers were invited to participate. Every 7th and 10th grader was invited for a preventive health visit with the family physician and nurse. The visits included a medical evaluation, screening and counseling regarding health issues recommended by GAPS, and counseling regarding personal health concerns. Parents were also invited to meet with the staff. 184 (57%) of the adolescents invited for health visits attended. The overall visit time was 47 minutes, including 12 minutes for a questionnaire and 35 minutes with providers. Common biomedical problems included overweight, acne and dysmenorrhea. Health risk behaviors and psychosocial problems included cigarette or alcohol use, dieting, infrequent/never seat belt use, and feeling depressed. 78% wanted to discuss at least one personal health issue. 27% were invited for follow-up visits. Only 3% of the parents came for visits. A community-oriented approach facilitates bringing adolescents for preventive health visits. Many previously undetected health issues, particularly psychosocial and behavioral, are revealed during these visits. A concerns checklist aids in addressing personal health concerns.