bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notions of Place, Legend, and Broadway in Monty Python’s Spamalot
Authors: Woller Megan
Published: April 2021

This chapter shifts to the Broadway musical Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005). As an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot adds numerous songs written by Eric Idle and John du Prez. These songs not only send up Arthurian legend but common musical theater tropes, augmenting the “meta” tone of the show for fans of musical theater history as well as Monty Python. Furthermore, the musical incarnation increases many of the roles from the original film and includes new characters, extending the connections to the world of Arthurian legend. The musical’s expanded pantheon of references and musical theater send-ups highlight the interpretive layering in a meaningful way. The author’s analysis triangulates the legend with Holy Grail and Spamalot, arguing that while Monty Python may play fast and loose with ideas of fidelity, their versions of Arthurian legend remain true to the malleable spirit of the tale.
Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-Being
Authors: Ryff Carol D. , Boylan Jennifer Morozink , Kirsch Julie A.
Published: April 2021

This chapter provides an overview of hedonic and eudaimonic approaches to well-being, both with roots traceable to the ancient Greeks. The authors examine the history of each approach and describe scientific endeavors seeking to translate the ideas to empirical assessment tools. They review how these two varieties of well-being are distributed in the general population by attending to their associations with major demographic factors (age, socioeconomic status, gender, race) as well as the interplay (intersectionality) of such factors. Such information contextualizes what is known about who reports they are or are not experiencing various aspects of well-being. The authors then examine how hedonic and eudaimonic well-being are linked with multiple indicators of health (self-reported, morbidity, mortality, biological systems). There is a paucity of studies that have jointly examined both types of well-being. The authors then draw attention to changing historical conditions and what this means for the future study of well-being and health.
“Positive Biology” and Well-Ordered Science
Authors: Farrelly Colin
Published: April 2021

Philosophers have long asked profound questions such as “What is knowledge?” and “What is the good life?” Such questions compel us to engage in a deeper level of introspection. The philosophical question contemplated in this chapter is “What constitutes ‘well-ordered science’?” Invoking a virtue epistemological construal of knowledge as “success from ability,” the author argues that the study of pathology must be supplemented by the study of the determinates of exemplary positive phenotypes (e.g., healthy aging and happiness). This requires transcending the limitations of what the author calls “negative biology” and treating “positive biology” as an integral element of well-ordered science. Positive biology can help bring to the fore the importance of understanding the evolutionary and life history of our species, thus helping to provide the intellectual frameworks needed to inspire the development of novel and feasible interventions to improve human health and happiness.
The Legal Status of Decisions by Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Authors: Borlini Leonardo , Crema Luigi
Published: April 2021

Academic analysis of pronouncements of human rights treaty monitoring bodies has tended to focus on their contribution to the promotion of human rights in domestic jurisdictions, particularly to convey the desire of scholars to see more use of these pronouncements by domestic courts. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the issue of their legal status in light of the supervisory function of human rights monitoring bodies. This chapter starts with a thorough analysis of a few recent cases by national courts, which commented on the legal value of the work of these bodies. The chapter then challenges two recurring arguments in the legal scholarship: their assimilation to judicial bodies, and the existence of a procedural obligation on states to consider their views. Next, it focuses on the interpretive weight of the pronouncements of these treaty bodies in international law, and, accordingly, in national jurisdictions. The chapter argues that the alleged existence of a general procedural obligation on states to consider the pronouncements of human rights treaty monitoring bodies is controversial, and that their work does not have a specific, or privileged, legal position in defining the ordinary meaning of a treaty. The conclusions point out that supervisory bodies have a specific and important role in the international legal order, different from that of courts, which bears preserving.
The Continuing Jurisprudential Cross-Fertilization in the Case-Law of International Tribunals in Their Common Mission of Realization of Justice
Authors: Trindade Antônio Augusto Cançado
Published: April 2021

The continuing jurisprudential cross-fertilization by contemporary international tribunals keeps on evidencing their essentially complementary labour, and the unity of the law, in the exercise of their common mission of the realization of justice. This extends to distinct domains of international law wherein those tribunals operate. Jurisprudential cross-fertilization fosters the cohesion of law and the endeavours of contemporary international tribunals to contribute jointly to the humanization and the progressive development of international law.
Conclusion
Authors: LiVecche Marc
Published: April 2021

The book concludes by acknowledging that while just war realism provides resources for overcoming guilt, it simultaneously recognizes war’s inherent tragedy. Human beings rarely act with absolute purity of intention. It is here that the distinction between moral injury and moral bruising comes back into view. It is entirely likely—possibly even desired—that while warfighters can pass through the battlefield without suffering moral injury, they cannot, in fact, emerge without impact traumas of some kind. Therefore, this conclusion points to the need for social and institutional practices for the moral treatment of returning warfighters.
The art of being earnest
Authors: Dmitriev Sviatoslav
Published: April 2021

This chapter assesses the methods of later authors who used Demades’s rhetorical images to illustrate relations between Greek cities and the people in power, by focusing on the famous story of Demades’s alleged address to the victorious Philip II after the battle of Chaeronea. Even though three vastly different surviving versions of that story accentuated specific aspects of this form of interaction, they all centered on the importance of properly applying rhetorical skills in the interests of political success, and developed the use of parrhesia, or frankness, as a rhetorical tool to cover what was, in fact, kolakeia, or flattery. The address of Demades exemplified the so-called rhetorical parrhesia, which actually was itself a form of flattery, although the two concepts continued to be juxtaposed with each other into late antiquity and beyond.
The Monocle
Authors: Wilk Stephen R.
Published: April 2021

A monocle is a single lens contained within a decorated rim and held in place between the brow ridge and the cheekbone or suspended with one hand. They became very popular, starting in the eighteenth century as “quizzing glasses”. A monocle, being only a single lens, can at most correct the vision in one eye at a time. Yet virtually all monocle users require optical correction in both eyes. What good does it do to only correct one side and ignore the other? Wouldn’t this make one’s vision “unequal”? And why was this device so popular with the wealthy and powerful?
Expectations of the Ubiquitous Presidency
Authors: Scacco Joshua M. , Coe Kevin
Published: April 2021

This chapter assesses journalistic and public expectations of the presidency and its communication. It analyzes news media and public reactions to uncover patterns in how presidents are characterized as “presidential.” The chapter then employs a survey experiment to test how partisanship shapes opinions around acts of presidential communication. It ties the implications to increasing political polarization. The chapter concludes by leveraging national and statewide survey data, including never-before-used measurement approaches, to gain insight into how members of the U.S. population expect presidents to communicate. The cross-sectional survey data, collected in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign and then again during the summer of 2019, include a randomly selected sample of more than 15,000 likely voters across 16 states. The analysis compares the demographic and political factors that influenced standards of presidential communication in the final months of the Obama presidency and at the midpoint of the Trump administration.
The Pleistocene Social Contract
Authors: Sterelny Kim
Published: April 2021

No human now gathers for himself or herself the essential resources for life: food, shelter, clothing and the like. Humans are obligate co-operators, and this has been true for tens of thousands of years; probably much longer. In this regard, humans are very unusual. In the living world more generally, cooperation outside the family is rare. Though it can be very profitable, it is also very risky, as cooperation makes an agent vulnerable to incompetence and cheating. This book presents a new picture of the emergence of cooperation in our lineage, developing through four fairly distinct phases. Our trajectory began from a baseline that was probably fairly similar to living great apes, who cooperate, but in fairly minimal ways. As adults, they rarely depend on others when the outcome really matters. This book suggests that cooperation began to be more important for humans through an initial phase of cooperative foraging generating immediate returns from collective action in small mobile bands. This established in our lineage about 1.8 million years ago, perhaps earlier. Over the rest of the Pleistocene, cooperation became more extended in its social scale, with forms of cooperation between bands gradually establishing, and in spatial and temporal scale too, with various forms of reciprocation becoming important. The final phase was the emergence of cooperation in large scale, hierarchical societies in the Holocene, beginning about 12,000 years ago. This picture is nested in a reading of the archaeological and ethnographic record, and twinned to an account of the gradual elaboration of cultural learning in our lineage, making cooperation both more profitable and more stable.
An Interest-Based Theory of Religion and Support for Democracy
Authors: Hoffman Michael
Published: April 2021

This chapter presents a new theory of religion, sectarian interests, and regime preferences. Religious behaviors shape regime preferences, and do so through a sectarian lens. Communal religious practice heightens the intensity of sectarian identity, and in doing so, frames regime politics as a group issue. Depending on the interests of the group with respect to democracy (namely, the rights and privileges that a group would gain or lose in the event of democratization), communal prayer may have pro- or anti-democratic effects. A number of potential benefits and threats may accompany democracy; certain groups may gain or lose political voice, while others may benefit or suffer due to economic redistribution. In either case, group interests help to predict when religion will enhance support for democracy---and when it will do just the opposite.
Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties
Authors: Yadav Vineeta
Published: April 2021

Religious parties are increasingly common in all parts of the world. Their rise in Muslim-majority countries has been particularly prominent, as they increasingly participate in elections, win legislative seats, and join governments. Since they are often founded on orthodox principles that are inconsistent with liberal democracy, the consequences of their rise and success for the prospects of liberal democratic values and practices have inspired much heated debate and discussion. This book considers a question that has been central in these debates: will the rise and success of religious parties lead to declines in the civil liberties of their citizens? This book addresses this question by focusing on a relationship that is central for understanding the politics of religious parties—their relationship with religious lobbies. It identifies the religious organizations that are actively involved in lobbying on these issues in Muslim-majority countries and outlines the policy preferences and institutional interests that motivate them. It then identifies the political and economic conditions that shape how their relationship with religious parties evolves and, when religious lobbies are able to or unable constrain the actions of religious parties. The book explains when the rise of religious parties leads to a significant decline in civil liberties and when it does not. To test its claims, it leverages original data on religious parties, religious party governments, and religious lobbies for all Muslim-majority countries for almost 40 years and uses original surveys of political elites in Turkey and Pakistan for a thorough and original analysis.
Religious Parties, Religious Organizations, and the Decline of Civil Liberties
Authors: Yadav Vineeta
Published: April 2021

Chapter 3 presents a theoretical argument that explains when and how religious parties and religious organizations coevolve and the consequences of their relationship for civil liberties in a country. First, the chapter argues that religious organizations undergo a significant increase in their socioeconomic institutionalization only when a country is experiencing an inflation crisis and there is a concentrated bloc of religious parties in the legislature. Next, it explains why religious parties are compelled to curb civil liberties when they are in government in the context of highly socioeconomically institutionalized religious organizations, and why the absence of institutionalized religious organizations allows religious parties to moderate their positions on civil liberties. Thus, the presence of religious parties leads to religiously derived declines in civil liberties only in the presence of highly institutionalized religious organizations. These arguments lead to two testable hypotheses that are subjected to empirical tests in the rest of the book.
Resilience and Decline: Religious Parties, Religious Organizations, and Institutionalization in Pakistan
Authors: Yadav Vineeta
Published: April 2021

This chapter introduces and analyses the case of Pakistan. First, it identifies the theoretically appropriate religious groups and organizations that are active in Pakistan, then discusses their institutional interests and policy preferences, particularly regarding civil liberties, and their lobbying capacity. Using data on religious parties’ parliamentary concentration and on inflation rates, the chapter identifies two theoretically distinct periods that correspond to different outcomes for religious organizations’ institutionalization. Based on Hypothesis 1, these conditions predict that religious parties would find conditions conducive to strengthening Pakistani religious organizations starting in 2008. Therefore, it is only after this period that Pakistani religious organizations would establish a moderate institutional presence in the for-profit education, welfare, media, and business sectors. The chapter then uses evidence from an original survey of about 150 Pakistani politicians, analytical narratives from Pakistani political history, and quantitative data to test support for Hypothesis 1 and its corollaries in Pakistan and finds strong support for them.
A Concluding Remark
Authors: Pippin Robert
Published: April 2021

The three fictions offer to the reader an experiential absorption in a fictional world that stands as a rival to what has come to be known as philosophy, the inheritor of classical rationalism, something now pretty much exclusively what is written by academic, professional philosophers. The basic notion of a rival implies some competition on the same playing field, and so the term suggests an implicit claim that the fictions purport to do better, with respect to some things we would like to understand better, than a traditional analytical approach, where “do better” also means in a way that is more significant, more valuable. That is not the same as saying the fictions are just doing something else.
Political Corruption
Authors: Ceva Emanuela , Ferretti Maria Paola
Published: April 2021

This book discusses political corruption and anticorruption as a matter of a public ethics of office. It shows how political corruption is the Trojan horse that undermines public institutions from within via the interrelated action of the officeholders. Even well-designed institutions may go off track if the officeholders fail to uphold by their conduct a public ethics of office accountability. Most current discussions of political corruption and of why it is wrong have concentrated either on explaining and assessing it in terms of an individual’s corrupt character and motives or a dysfunction of institutional procedures. This book brings out the common normative root of these two manifestations of political corruption. It discusses them as instances of the same relationally wrongful practice that consists in an unaccountable use of the power of office by officeholders in public institutions. From this perspective, political corruption is an internal enemy of public institutions that can only be opposed by mobilizing officeholders to engage in answerability practices. In this way, officeholders are responsible for working together to maintain an interactively just institutional system.
Introduction
Authors: Kageyama Taro , Hook Peter E. , Pardeshi Prashant
Published: April 2021

This chapter introduces the volume’s scope and purpose. It provides an outline of the verb-verb complexes found in many languages of Asia alongside illustrative examples from Japanese, Korean, Urdu, and Marathi. It also offers an overview of the descriptive and theoretical issues in the study of verb-verb complexes, including morphological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic questions, and discusses the geographical distribution of these constructions.
The matrix of verb-verb sequences in Tamil
Authors: Annamalai E.
Published: April 2021

Verb-Verb sequences characterize many types of grammatical constructions in Tamil. A subset of these sequences, called V-V sequences, characterize a predicate construction which is known otherwise as a complex predicate or compound verbs or serial verbs, though these are not identical. This predicate construction is shared by most Indian languages and found also in languages outside India such as Japanese. One of the verbs in the V-V sequence does not have lexical status referentially, or often even structurally. The comparison of Tamil and Japanese shows that the grammatical functions and the structural features of the verb sequence differ from language to language. An interesting conclusion drawn from this comparison is that specific members of each type of the sequence may be distributed differently across a matrix of types. In other words, an instance of a V-V sequence of Type 1 in one language may belong to Type 3 in another language.
Semantically related verb verb combinations in Tibetan and Ladakhi
Authors: Zeisler Bettina
Published: April 2021

Tibetic languages are, from the very beginning, very rich in verb verb combinations that are not simply due to the omission of contextually given arguments. Some of these combinations have grammaticalized into temporal-modal-evidential constructions, modal verb constructions, and causative constructions. A fourth type of combination, which will be described here as ‘semantically related verb verb combinations’, is rather problematic. Formally, the first verb modifies the second verb, while semantically, one might argue that they form a compound. I will show that particularly the most frequent combinations have to be analyzed as biclausal modifying constructions, while other, less frequent constructions show a greater degree of compositionality or even grammaticalization.
Verb-verb complexes in Avar
Authors: Yamada Hisanari
Published: April 2021

This chapter discusses syntactic V-V complexes involving a semantically main verb in the nonfinite form (first verb) and a syntactically main verb (second verb) in Avar. Avar employs no morphological V-V complexes. Avar syntactic V-V complexes include periphrastic tense forms, V-V complexes whose tense is indicated by a first verb, and V-V complexes whose tense is denoted by a second verb. The third type of V-V complexes uses twenty-eight second verbs. Most of them are also used as lexical verbs. Twenty-three of these second verbs do not change the number of arguments of first verbs. They are mostly used to express aspectual or modal meaning. Some of them are only employed with a restricted number of first verbs. Some second verbs permit bi-absolutive constructions. There are two types of bi-absolutive constructions. Avar second verbs tend to immediately follow first verbs, but other word orders are possible.
A Theory of the Executive Branch
Authors: Cohn Margit
Published: April 2021

The executive branch in Western democracies has been handed a virtually impossible task. Expected to ‘imperially’ direct the life of the nation through thick and thin, it is concurrently required to be subservient to legislation meted out by a sovereign parliament. Drawing on a general argument from constitutional theory that prioritizes dispersal of power over concepts of hierarchy, the book argues that the tension between the political dominance of the executive branch and its submission to law is maintained by the adoption of various forms of fuzziness, under which a guise of legality masks the absence of substantive limitation of power. Under this 'internal tension' model, the executive branch is concurrently subservient to law and dominant over it, while concepts of substantive legality are compromised. Drawing on legal and political science research, the book classifies and analyses thirteen forms of fuzziness, ranging from open-ended or semi-written constitutions to unapplied legislation. The study of this unavoidable yet problematic feature of the public sphere is addressed descriptively and normatively. Adding detailed examples from two fields of law, emergency and air-pollution law, in two systems (the UK and the US), the book ends with a call for raising the threshold of judicial review, grounded in theories of participatory and deliberative democracy. This innovative book, concerned with an area that has been surprisingly under-researched on a general level beyond extensive studies of national executives, offers a theoretical foundation that should ground all analyses of the arguably most powerful branch of modern government.
Maintaining the Internal Tension Model
Authors: Cohn Margit
Published: April 2021

This chapter is dedicated to an overview of the ways the internal tension model operates to empower the executive branch, simultaneously under law and beyond its confines; the maintenance of the internal tension between the need to grant power and the need to retain a façade of legality, is achieved through practices under which an authorizing rule may present a façade of legality that derives from its binding formal status, while its content or application offer broad options for action (and possible abuse) which conceals a reality of a-legality. Beyond general and philosophical studies of the indeterminacy of law, the scholarship in this context has been conducted under the parallel paths discussed in this chapter (delegation and discretion; ‘soft law’; ‘fuzzy law’; and ‘grey holes’. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to an analysis of thirteen types of such fuzzy/grey legal constructs, organized according to the identity of their generators—the constitution, the legislature, and the executive. The resulting taxonomy of thirteen different forms of fuzziness offers a basis for the next part of this book, dedicated to case-studies of several such fuzzy measures.
The Nature and Use of Unilateral Executive Measures
Authors: Cohn Margit
Published: April 2021

Constitutions and constitutional constructs offer executives a repository of fuzzy sources of power which enable unilateral action. This chapter focuses on one of these forms: executive making of (semi)-formal unilateral measures. These orders and edicts have an important edge: on their face, they are ‘lawlike’, and seemingly carry the imprimatur of binding law, even when their legal status is fuzzy. The chapter uses comparative methodology in order to show the strong similarity between such measures as they emerged and continue to be applied in the two systems compared in this book. Orders in Council, Executive Orders and the like, such as the ones brought before the courts in Bancoult and Youngstown, have been at the focus of extensive study; yet to date, such measures, issued in both systems, have never been conjointly discussed. This chapter offers the first comparative analysis. This novel comparative exercise leads to the discovery of a surprising convergence—surprising, if attention is focused on structural regime elements. The findings support two of the main themes advanced in this book: that the emergence and retention of fuzzy legality is an unavoidable feature of the state, despite the ingrained danger it poses to the proper functioning of democracies. A third theme, concerned with the need to constrain fuzziness by robust judicial oversight, is addressed in the last chapter of this book. This chapter also offers new insights on the unclear distinction between constitutional- and statute-derived fuzziness, again, a feature shared by both systems.
Keeping the Internal Tension Under Check
Authors: Cohn Margit
Published: April 2021

Concerned with the role of the judiciary as a constraining agent of fuzzy law, the chapter is laid out in two layers. First, in light of the special problems attached to reliance on fuzzy law, it advances arguments that call for enhanced review in this context. Secondly, the chapter joins the ongoing general debate over the role of the judiciary in the shaping of the public sphere. The argument for active review is based both on the principles reflected in the rule of law ideal, and on an argument from governance. Setting judicial review in a framework that seeks to enhance participation, the judiciary, stripped of accusations of supremacy over all other forms of decision-making, operates as an intermediator by offering members of society, especially those who do not have direct access to government corridors, an additional forum for voicing their concerns and thereby contributing to public deliberation over all contested aspects of social and political life.
Metaphysical Emergence
Authors: Wilson Jessica M.
Published: April 2021

The special sciences and ordinary experience present us with a world of macro-entities trees, birds, lakes, mountains, humans, houses, and sculptures, to name a few which materially depend on lower-level configurations, but which are also distinct from and distinctively efficacious as compared to these configurations. Such appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there actually any metaphysical emergence? In Metaphysical Emergence, Jessica Wilson provides clear, compelling, and systematic answers to these questions. Wilson argues that there are two and only two forms of metaphysical emergence making sense of the target cases: ‘Weak’ emergence, whereby a macro-entity or feature has a proper subset of the powers of its base-level configuration, and ‘Strong’ emergence, whereby a macro-entity or feature has a new power as compared to its base-level configuration. Weak emergence unifies and accommodates diverse accounts of realization (e.g., in terms of functional roles, constitutive mechanisms, and parthood) associated with varieties of nonreductive physicalism, whereas Strong emergence unifies and accommodates anti-physicalist views according to which there may be fundamentally novel features, forces, interactions, or laws at higher levels of compositional complexity. After defending each form of emergence against various objections, Wilson considers whether complex systems, ordinary objects, consciousness, and free will are actually either Weakly or Strongly metaphysically emergent. She argues that Weak emergence is quite common, and that Strong emergence, while in most cases at best an open empirical possibility, is instantiated for the important case of free will.
The viability of Strong emergence
Authors: Wilson Jessica M.
Published: April 2021

Wilson considers and responds to a range of objections to the schema for Strong emergence and the associated ‘new power’ approach to physically unacceptable emergence. These objections include that satisfaction of the conditions in the schema renders Strong emergence naturalistically unacceptable or ‘scientifically irrelevant’, is compatible with physicalism, is impossible owing to the base entity or feature inheriting any purportedly novel power, or is not necessary for physically unacceptable emergence. Each challenge admits of one or more responses available on any sensible implementation of the schema for Strong emergence; certain additional responses draw on features of Wilson’s preferred ‘fundamental interaction-relative’ account of Strong emergence.
Learning through Pleasure, Pain, the Noble, and the Shameful
Authors: Jimenez Marta
Published: April 2021

This chapter offers a first step towards explaining how the learners’ motivational outlook is shaped in habituation by exploring the role of pleasures and pains. The view proposed is that moral development is not the acquisition of a taste for the new pleasures of the noble, but a development and shaping of the already-present capacity to enjoy nobility and be pained by the shameful. In other words, the taste for the noble does not appear in learners ex nihilo, or through an ascent where we are first attracted only to mere appetitive pleasures and later learn to appreciate the pleasures of the noble, but that instead the taste for the noble is present in us from the start, just as the desire for pleasure and the desire for benefit. Moral upbringing is thus the development and shaping of our natural (but imperfect) tendency to appreciate the noble.
Connecting Shame with Honor and the Noble
Authors: Jimenez Marta
Published: April 2021

The goal of this chapter is to argue that the complex nature of shame, and its responsiveness to the moral views of others, is precisely what makes shame a good catalyst for moral development. Shame’s connection to honor, reputation, and praise often leads modern authors to consider it as a morally dubious emotion: heteronomous, superficial, and possibly rooted on the unchecked questionable customs of a stratified society. This chapter is devoted show that the interpretation of shame as a superficial concern with reputation or external recognition comes about as a result of overlooking the connections that Aristotle makes between love of honor and love of the noble. For Aristotle, shame’s connection to honor, reputation, and praise, far from making it an heteronomous and superficial emotion, is what makes it the emotion that puts us in the path towards true autonomy and virtue.
Folkes and His Social Networks in 1720s London
Authors: Roos Anna Marie
Published: April 2021

Folkes’s social networks are the subject of chapter four, which analyses his participation in the Grand Masonic Lodge, and the revived Order of the Bath, as part of what Antti Matikkala has termed ‘The Chivalric Enlightenment’ a movement ‘essentially rhetorical, learned, antiquarian and eclectic’. Although the term ‘Enlightenment’ itself is contested, with so-called ‘Enlightened historians’ often scorning antiquarian pursuits, others, such as Folkes, had enlightened interest in the past which he and the Royal Society promoted. This chapter will also analyse the ties between the Masons and the Royal Society, and to what extent Folkes’s religious beliefs and participation in these organizations shaped the teaching of Newton’s work at Cambridge, as well as his editing of Newton’s Chronology and Ancient Kingdoms Revised with Thomas Pellett. We also will delineate how and why his participation in these social networks did not guarantee him the Royal Society Presidency when Newton died in 1727.
Introduction
Authors: Jónsson Jóhannes Gísli , Eythórsson Thórhallur
Published: April 2021

The chapters in this volume are concerned with syntactic features and their role in restricting syntactic change. Most of the contributions propose analyses in accordance with the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, stating that all parameters of variation are attributable to differences in the features of particular items in the lexicon. The syntactic topics are of four types: the first three reflect different domains of the clause, while the fourth type is concerned with methodology. A great number of languages and dialects figure in the discussion, including languages that have not previously received a thorough treatment in terms of diachronic syntax such as Romeyka and Middle Low German. Other languages also discussed from a fresh theoretical perspective, e.g. Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, English, and Austronesian languages, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. This volume confirms the validity of the view that diachronic syntax is a scientific tool of inquiry in its own right.
Degree semantics, polarity, and the grammaticalization of comparative operators into complementizers
Authors: Bacskai-Atkari Julia
Published: April 2021

Focusing on German, the paper presents a cross-linguistic study of the diachronic development of comparatives, providing a formal account for why comparative operators generally grammaticalise into complementisers in degree equatives more readily than in comparatives proper. It is argued that this is so because comparatives mark degree inequality overtly in a head position. This feature must be acquired by the original operator during grammaticalisation, while in equatives the operator has all the features necessary for grammaticalisation and must only lose any additional features incompatible with a complementiser. The extension of an equative complementiser into a general comparative complementiser is possible only if the relevant functional head undergoes feature change, in line with the Borer–Chomsky Conjecture. The changes under scrutiny can be well observed in the history of German and Hungarian, and similar asymmetries surface in synchronic patterns in many other languages, too.
Cyclic changes in Hungarian relative clauses
Authors: Bacskai-Atkari Julia , Dékány Éva
Published: April 2021

Relative operators stem from demonstratives or from wh-operators and may subsequently be reanalyzed as complementizers. In Hungarian, unlike English, the reanalysis of wh-operators into relative operators preceded the reanalysis of the matrix demonstrative pronoun, and the demonstrative was reanalyzed into [Spec,CP] via cliticization onto the wh-based relative pronoun, rendering morphologically complex relative pronouns. This change was enabled by environments in which a morphologically unmarked (singular, nominative) matrix demonstrative was immediately followed by a relative operator. The demonstrative was subsequently renewed in the main clause. We argue that this had two important prerequisites. First, the original wh-based relative operator did not lose its lexical features and was not grammaticalized into a functional head. Second, the matrix demonstrative lost its original definiteness feature, [+def], and became unspecified for this feature. Ultimately, it is this feature change that brought about the emergence of a new morphosyntactic paradigm, in line with the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture.
Syntactic reconstruction based on linguistic fossils
Authors: Kiss Katalin É.
Published: April 2021

This paper argues that the reconstruction of the featural content of functional projections is possible, and the method to be employed is a version of the comparative method, where the correspondence set consists of the features licensed by the same functional head across related languages. Linguistic fossils bearing imprints of agreement relations in earlier periods of the given language are also potential sources of reconstruction. This is illustrated by a case study reconstructing object marking in Proto-Ugric, and somewhat more tentatively, in Proto-Uralic. It is argued that the Uralic parent language had differential object-verb agreement licensed by a TP-external Obj head with a [+topic] feature. Accusative assignment was licensed under the same conditions; it was another manifestation of the agreement relation between the object and the Obj head, i.e., Obj was specified as [+topic] and [+accusative]. The [+topic] feature of Obj has been reanalysed as [+specific] in Udmurt, and as [+definite] in Hungarian. In Hungarian and Tundra Nenets, accusative assignment has been generalized to all objects, i.e., the [+topic] and [+accusative] features have been divorced, and accusative case has come to be associated with v.
Oxide Thin Films and Nanostructures
Authors: Netzer Falko P. , Noguera Claudine
Published: April 2021

Nanostructured oxide materials ultra-thin films, nanoparticles and other nanometer-scale objects play prominent roles in many aspects of our every-day life, in nature and in technological applications, among which is the all-oxide electronics of tomorrow. Due to their reduced dimensions and dimensionality, they strongly interact with their environment gaseous atmosphere, water or support. Their novel physical and chemical properties are the subject of this book from both a fundamental and an applied perspective. It reviews and illustrates the various methodologies for their growth, fabrication, experimental and theoretical characterization. The role of key parameters such as film thickness, nanoparticle size and support interactions in driving their fundamental properties is underlined. At the ultimate thickness limit, two-dimensional oxide materials are generated, whose functionalities and potential applications are described. The emerging field of cation mixing is mentioned, which opens new avenues for engineering many oxide properties, as witnessed by natural oxide nanomaterials such as clay minerals, which, beyond their role at the Earth surface, are now widely used in a whole range of human activities. Oxide nanomaterials are involved in many interdisciplinary fields of advanced nanotechnologies: catalysis, photocatalysis, solar energy materials, fuel cells, corrosion protection, and biotechnological applications are amongst the areas where they are making an impact; prototypical examples are outlined. A cautious glimpse into future developments of scientific activity is finally ventured to round off the treatise.
Methods of study
Authors: Netzer Falko P. , Noguera Claudine
Published: April 2021

The experimental and theoretical characterization of oxide nanostructures is addressed. The experimental techniques are classified according to their information content, revealing atomic geometry, chemical composition, electronic structure as well as magnetic, vibrational and chemical properties. Due to the nanometer scale dimensions of oxide nanosystems, many experimental techniques are derived fom the field of surface science and involve ultrahigh vacuum technology. The quantum-theoretical simulations for the description of oxide materials are presented by progressing from simple to increasingly sophisticated methods; the latter become necessary to accurately treat electron correlation effects, which are significant in many oxide materials, in particular at low dimension. Electronic structure methods, total energy methods and atomic structure simulation methods are introduced and discussed.
Synopsis and outlook
Authors: Netzer Falko P. , Noguera Claudine
Published: April 2021

The synopsis part of this last chapter gives a brief summary of the book content. The outlook attempts to identify future areas of scientific activity, in which according to the authors´ visions nano-oxide materials may promote new developments. Among them are the controlled synthesis of oxide nanosheets and the experimental realization of oxide nanoribbons. The preparation of well-defined oxide heterostructures may reveal novel emergent states and new topological phases of matter. Mixed nano-oxides will be of interest for band structure engineering and to adjust band edges for photochemical reactivity. Programmable defect chemistry may open up new selective pathways for catalytic reactions. In parallel with experimental progress, advanced theoretical and simulation methods will take advantage of the ever-increasing computer power to tackle highly correlated materials and allow highthroughput computing. The interaction of nano-oxides with biological systems has great potential for opening up new avenues in the biotechnological area.
Relativistic symmetry
Authors: Buchbinder Iosif L. , Shapiro Ilya L.
Published: April 2021

This chapter discusses relativistic symmetry, starting from the Lorentz transformations. Basic notions of group theory are introduced before a more detailed discussion of the Lorentz and Poincaré groups is given. Tensor representations and spinor representations of the Lorentz group are described, although full proofs of the theorems are not given. The chapter ends with the irreducible representations of the Poincaré group. This chapter provides all of the necessary notions for group theory, although it is not intended to replace a textbook on the subject.
Quantum fields in curved spacetime: renormalization
Authors: Buchbinder Iosif L. , Shapiro Ilya L.
Published: April 2021

In this chapter, which forms the central chapter of Part II, the effective action of quantum matter fields in curved spacetime is formulated in terms of functional integrals. A qualitative, albeit incompletely conclusive, analysis of divergences and renormalization in curved space is given. Both non-covariant and covariant methods of calculations are discussed. Normal coordinates and local momentum representation are used to derive the effective potential. The basic elements of the Schwinger-DeWitt technique are elaborated in detail, resulting in the general formulas for one-loop divergences. The heat-kernel technique is also discussed.
One-loop renormalization in quantum gravity
Authors: Buchbinder Iosif L. , Shapiro Ilya L.
Published: April 2021

This chapter demonstrates the basic methods of one-loop calculations in quantum gravity. Basing its discussion on the general results obtained in chapter 10, it first presents a detailed analysis of the gauge-fixing dependence of one-loop divergences in quantum general relativity and higher-derivative models of quantum gravity. After that, a detailed derivation of divergences in quantum general relativity is given, with the simplest parametrization of the quantum metric and minimal gauge fixing. One-loop divergences in the general (non-conformal) fourth-derivative quantum gravity are then derived in less detail. For a similar calculation in the superrenormalizable polynomial model (superrenormalizable gravity), the chapter just presents and discusses the final result.
The induced gravity approach
Authors: Buchbinder Iosif L. , Shapiro Ilya L.
Published: April 2021

This short chapter includes a general review and analysis of the induced gravity approach. Induced gravity is regarded as one way of resolving the contradiction between renormalizability and the presence of higher-derivative terms in quantum gravity. Following the classical works by Zeldovich and Sakharov, the chapter considers gravity induced from the cut-off and shows that the purely induced version does not provide a satisfactory output. After that, using the results of chapter 12, models of gravity induced from phase transitions in scalar field theory are discussed. The general result is that induced gravity does not resolve the fundamental problem of quantum gravity, owing to the presence of ghosts and their corresponding instabilities. In the last section of this chapter, the cosmological constant problem is discussed as another, equally fundamental problem, which remains unsolved to this day.
Thales’ Riddle of the Night
Authors: Sorensen Roy
Published: April 2021

Which is older: day or night? Thales is said to have answered “Night is the older by one day.” Recent research bridges this mysterious riddle with the first conceptual puzzle published by Lewis Carroll: “Where does the day begin?” Once understood in its context, Thales’s day and night riddle presents an opportunity to view astronomy in a sort of reverse perspective. In addition to stimulating this gestalt switch, the day and night riddle fuels speculation that Thales had an insight into the hidden antiquity of the night (and day) and that he correctly inferred that the night is older than the Earth itself.
Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit
Authors: Goldschmidt Tyron , Lebens Samuel
Published: April 2021

Could there have been no concrete beings? Could there have been no contingent beings? If there could have been no such beings, why then are there any? This chapter argues that various modal metaphysics rule out the possibility of there being nothing at all. It concludes that the most prominent pictures of the nature of possibility entail the existence of something, and thus answer the question of why there is something rather than nothing.
Saying Nothing and Thinking Nothing
Authors: Keller John A. , Keller Lorraine Juliano
Published: April 2021

This chapter treats empty thoughts and nonsense that appears to make sense. They argue for the existence of what Gareth Evans termed ‘illusions of thought’, and reply to arguments, especially from Herman Cappelen, against their existence, focusing especially on work by Herman Cappelen.
Explanatory Relevance and the Doing/Allowing Distinction
Authors: Ross Jacob
Published: April 2021

This chapter by Jacob Ross clarifies the traditional moral distinction between actions and omissions. He levels various objections against counterfactual and causal ways of drawing the distinction, and proposes instead an explanatory view that avoids the objections while capturing our moral judgments about the relevant cases.
Knowledge, Action, and Defeasibility
Authors: Pavese Carlotta
Published: April 2021

This essay reviews some motivations for a ‘knowledge-centered psychology’—a psychology where knowledge enters center stage in an explanation of intentional action (Section 8.2). Then it outlines a novel argument for the claim that knowledge is required for intentional action (Section 8.3) and discusses some of its consequences, in particular for the debate on the defeasibility of know-how. Section 8.4 argues that a knowledge-centered psychology motivates the intellectualist view that know-how is a species of know-that. In its more extreme form, the view is committed to an epistemologically substantial claim—i.e., that the epistemic profile of know-how is the same as that of propositional knowledge. Now, it is widely believed that know-that can be defeated by undermining and rebutting defeaters (e.g., Chisholm 1966; Goldman 1986; Pollock and Cruz 1999; Bergmann 2000). If that is correct, one corollary of intellectualism is that the defeasibility of know-how patterns with that of knowledge. A knowledge-centered psychology does predict that, for it predicts that both know-how and knowledge are defeated when one’s ability to intentionally act is defeated. In Section 8.5, by replying to a challenge raised in the recent literature (Carter and Navarro 2018), I argue that this prediction is actually borne out.