bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Jesuit Missionaries, Indian Polities, and Environmental Transformation in the Lagoon March of Northeastern New Spain
Authors: Martinez-Serna Gabriel
Published: February 2014

The introduction of European agriculture and livestock transformed the natural and human landscape of the Americas profoundly. In the borderlands of the continent, it was often missionaries who introduced these practices to areas where mobile Indians groups had adapted their cultures to an environment that was irrevocably changed. Transforming a landscape usually doomed a mobile ethnic group to forced adaptation, migration or extinction, but could also prove a catalyst to an ethnogenesis that could not have occurred without the effects the Columbian Exchange brought about by the missionaries. The so-called Lagoon March (Comarca Lagunera) of the northeastern borderlands of New Spain experienced perhaps the most dramatic of these episodes in this story of Colonial North America. This region was home to the Lagunero Indians, the most populous pre-contact group in the borderlands, and as late as the last decade of the sixteenth century it was a lush lagoon environment surrounded by wooded mountains. The Jesuits founded the Parras mission there in 1598, and within two generations, the Laguneros had largely disappeared, and the area was transformed into an archipelago of highly productive oasis surrounded by scrub barely suitable for livestock. Viticulture made the area the richest non-mining region of the entire frontier, and a magnet for population. Tlaxcalan (Nahua) colonist that had lived in the mission and survived the Lagunero extinction became a borderlands community intrinsically attached to viticulture and communal rights to water from the region’s only major spring, giving them a legal status that distinguished them from other Indian groups (including other Tlaxcalans) and underlining a social cohesion that lasted until the Independence period. Thus, the unintended effects of the Jesuit presence transformed the Parras environment and the way Indian identity related to it.
Context Operationalized
Authors: Maloney J. Christopher
Published: February 2014

The meanings speakers and auditors assign to utterances are exquisitely context sensitive, with contexts and their elements varying wildly with the linguistic occasions. This paper investigates a theory of how linguistic agents might assign meanings to utterances in a contextually sensitive manner consistent with the agents’ evident inability cognitively to identify what within their systems of mental representation is contextually relevant to the utterances of the moment. According to the proposed account, the contexts determinative of meaning function in the manner of adverbial operators on utterances serving so to fuse context and utterance as to render context transparent to agents.
English (Zero-)Relatives and the Competence-Performance Distinction
Authors: Culicover Peter W.
Published: February 2014

This article considers English zero-relatives ((this is) a book ∅ you should read). Zero-relatives are unacceptable, and arguably “ungrammatical”, when what is initial in the zero-relative is something other than a subject noun phrase. An analysis of the evidence suggests that the unacceptable cases do not reflect the grammar or grammatical principles, but processing complexity. This observation leads in turn to the proposal that what is considered to fall under linguistic competence (grammar) is much more restricted than is typically assumed, and that many supposedly grammatical phenomena are to be explained in other terms.
The Province of Syria and the Mutasarrifiyya of Mount Lebanon (1866-1880)
Authors: Abu-Manneh Butrus
Published: February 2014

The establishment of the autonomous Mutasarrifiyya of Mount Lebanon in 1861 introduced a major factor into the political life of Syria. The Porte under Ali and Fuad Paşas responded to the challenge that the Mutasarrifiyya posed by uniting the two provinces of Damascus and Saida into one. Appointed governor general Mehmed Rashid Paşa aimed to bring the province and the Mutasarrifiyya closer. Rashid stimulated the “Nahda” and helped to promote the concept of Syria as a fatherland. After the death of Ali Paşa in 1871 Rashid was recalled and the behaviour of the new governors general resulted in disaffection and agitation for joining the Mutasarrifiyya or having a similar status, as is clear in the placards of 1880. Antonius regarded these placards as evidence of the rise of Arab nationalism. Actually, they were no more than agitation against mal-administration and a wish to join the Mountain.
Mass petitions as a way to evaluate ‘public opinion’ in the late nineteenth-century Ottoman empire? The case of internal strife among Gaza’s elite
Authors: Ben-Bassat Yuval
Published: February 2014

This article evaluates collective petitions (arz-ı mahzars) sent to Istanbul from Gaza at the end of the nineteenth century as a way of assessing the political mood of the elite in Ottoman provincial towns. Gaza was the theatre of considerable tension, cleavages, and rivalry among its elite. One of the key questions in this context is the implications of sending collective petitions from towns such as Gaza to the imperial centre given the political censorship and the absence of free press at a time when there was nonetheless greater communication between the centre and the provinces, and an altered relationship between the state and its subjects. Thus more than ever before collective petitions represented local political alignments and what could be very cautiously defined as ‘public opinion’ among the elite in provincial Ottoman towns such as Gaza.
Plato As Public Intellectual: E.R. Dodds’ Edition of the Gorgias and its ‘Primary Purpose’
Authors: Todd R.B.
Published: February 2014

E.R. Dodds’ 1959 edition of Plato’s Gorgias is a conventional treatment of this dialogue, aimed at audiences interested in close study of the text. Dodds himself regretted this outcome. He felt he had lost sight of an earlier goal, formulated at a time of political turmoil on the eve of WorldWar II, of using the Gorgias to bring out ‘both the resemblance and the difference between Plato’s situation and that of the intellectual today’. The present paper attempts to reconstruct that goal, as it survives residually in his edition, surfaces in his The Greeks and the Irrational, and appears in some writings from the 1930s, particularly in unpublished lectures. Dodds did frequently juxtapose ancient and modern conceptions of the intellectual, and in a way that cast Plato in a positive light, as someone politically engaged and self-critical, and acutely sensitive, as Dodds himself was, to the political implications of social psychology.
Ruling Oneself: Platonic Hedonism and the Quality of Citizenship
Authors: Bentley R.K.
Published: February 2014

In this paper, I examine how the idea of self-rule is dramatised and articulated in the Protagoras and the Gorgias with respect to the apparently different treatments of hedonism. Looking at the former dialogue, I describe how the hedonist premise develops from a dramatic image of disorder, specifically the absence of self-rule. I then consider whether the evidence from that dialogue has any bearing on the Gorgias’ discussion of hedonism. I conclude that the Socratic rejection of hedonism in that text is about the Calliclean abandonment of any concern for self-rule, an abandonment that actually masquerades as a commitment to self-rule. This analysis is used to present a more general account of what Socrates considers to be the capacities required for good citizenship.
In Search of the Greek State: A Rejoinder to M.H. Hansen
Authors: Berent Moshe
Published: February 2014

In a collection of articles based on my Cambridge doctoral thesis (1994) I have argued that, contrary to what has been traditionally assumed, the Greek polis was not a State but rather what anthropologists call ‘a stateless society’. The latter is characterized by the absence of ‘government’, that is, an agency which has separated itself out from the rest of social life and which monopolizes the use of violence. In a recent article Mogens Herman Hansen discusses and rejects my notion of the stateless polis. This paper is a rejoinder to Hansen’s criticism and offers critical analysis of the concept of ‘The Greek State’ which has been employed by Hansen and by other ancient historians. Among the questions discussed: To what extent did the polis have amonopoly on violence? To what extent do the relations between the polis and its territory resemble those of (tribal) stateless communities? Could the State/Society distinction be applied to the Greek polis? How is the Greek distinction between the private and the public different from its modern counterpart and how is this difference related to the statelessness of the Greek polis?
Aristotle, Citizenship, And The Common Advantage
Authors: Khan Carrie-Ann Biondi
Published: February 2014

In the early chapters of Book III of his Politics, Aristotle engages in a discussion of citizenship and it quickly becomes apparent that the issues involved in citizenship are more complex than many may realize. This discussion has led to disputes over what Aristotle’s account of citizenship is and whether it leads to an incoherence in his political theory, specifically whether his account makes it impossible to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate types of constitutions. After discussing the interpretive controversy over Aristotle’s account of citizenship, I consider two arguments with promising solutions regarding its alleged incoherence with Aristotle’s overall political theory. I argue that neither one of these attempted solutions — provided by Donald Morrison and David Keyt — ultimately proves adequate. What emerges from this examination is not an alternative solution, but the surprising conclusion that Aristotle’s account of citizenship, when conjoined with his classification of constitutions, does not lead to any incoherence at all.
True Statesmanship as True Rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias
Authors: Whidden Christopher
Published: February 2014

In the Gorgias, Plato explores the relationship between statesmanship and rhetoric. Socrates argues that the true statesman uses the true rhetoric in the attempt to make others better through speeches. In the conversation with Gorgias, Socrates forces him to see the potentially disastrous consequences of teaching a kind of rhetoric that is morally neutral, which suggests the need for an uncompromisingly true or just rhetoric. In the exchange with Polus, Socrates attempts the just reformation of rhetoric into true rhetoric to counter the unjust rhetoric of Polus. In his discussion with Callicles, Socrates uses the true rhetoric to try to moderate him, but his failure reveals the limits of true statesmanship. By examining these three exchanges, I shed light on a unique and neglected paradox of the Gorgias. As clearly as the dialogue articulates what constitutes a true statesman, it challenges his own practice. Socrates, as the true statesman possessing the true rhetoric, is powerless to achieve his goals. However, a potential way to expand the success of the true statesman can be seen by going back to the discourse between Socrates and Gorgias and forging an alliance between them.
Aristotle on Physis: Human Nature in the Ethics and Politics
Authors: Ward Julie K.
Published: February 2014

In EN II.1, Aristotle claims that our nature (physis) is inadequate for moral virtue. We are not, he says, in the same relation to virtue as a stone falling to earth; moral excellence is neither by nature nor contrary to our nature but reached by habituation (cf. 1103a15–20). Other texts such as Pol. I.13 and Pol. VII.12 about natural capacities, as well as those like Phys. II.1 and Meta. V.4 about physis in general, complicate the picture concerning the bases for moral excellence in EN. This essay considers the range of applications of physis, focusing on the practical works, so as to examine the extent to which Aristotle thinks moral and political nature is amenable to external determinants such as cultural education.
Democracy in Ancient Greek Political Theory: 1906–2006
Authors: Wallach John R.
Published: February 2014

The notion of ‘democracy’ as found in ancient Athens and the work of ancient Greek political theorists has crucially functioned as a critical, distant mirror for major authors of twentieth-century political thought — starting importantly with Ernest Barker but continuing along diverse paths in the works of Karl Popper, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt in the wake ofWorld War II, as well as for recent theorists of democracy who have read Athenian practices and critical discourses against the grain of contemporary philosophy, politics, and culture. In all of them, images of ‘democracy’ in ancient Greek political theory operate simultaneously as historical discoveries, theoretical constructions, and rhetorical supplements for critical renditions of the political realm. As such, they evidence the slippery centrality of ideas of democracy in ancient Greek political thought for the necessary, problematic, and divergent efforts of recent political theorists to justify their ideas as historically rooted, philosophically true, and politically relevant.
The Aristē Politeia and Aristotles Intended Audience in the Politica
Authors: Mulhern J.J.
Published: February 2014

While Aristotle adverts in the Politica to those who have declared themselves about the aristē or best politeia without qualification, he actually devotes much of his attention here to telling his intended audience how to establish and maintain the aristē politeia for each of the different places in which each of them is engaged, given the circumstances. In the face of this contrast in the Politica, scholars look to EN 1135a5 for clarification. According to the established interpretation of EN 1135a5, Aristotle means that there is only one politeia that is best by nature for every place. According to the alternative interpretation, Aristotle means that, for every place, there is only one politeia that is best by nature for it. In this paper it is argued that the alternative interpretation fits both works better than does the established interpretation.
How do Democracy and War Affect Each Other? The Case Study of Ancient Athens
Authors: Pritchard Pritchard
Published: February 2014

This article considers the state of research on the two-way relationship of causation between politics and war in ancient Athens from the attempted coup of Cylon in 632 BC to the violent overthrow of its democracy by theMacedonians in 322. Also canvassed is how a closer integration of Ancient History and Political Science can enhance the research of each discipline into the important problem of democracy’s effect on war-making. Classical Athens is well known for its full development of popular politics and its cultural revolution, which clearly was a dependent variable of the democracy. By contrast, few are aware of its contemporaneous military revolution, which saw the classical Athenians intensify the waging of war and gain an unrivalled record of military success and innovation. Although a prima facie case exists for these military changes being due to popular government, ancient historians have conducted very little research on the impact of democracy on war. In the last decade our discipline has also witnessed the collapse of the longstanding understanding of the affect of military changes on political developments in ancient Greece, which means we can no longer explain why Athenian democracy emerged and was consolidated during the classical period. For the sake of ameliorating this situation the article proposes new directions and a social-science approach for research into the military and non-military causes of Athenian democratisation and the relative effect of Athenian democracy on warfare. At a time when established democracies face complex challenges of foreign policy such research into the case study of ancient Athens is of real contemporary relevancy.
Universal Justice and Epieikeia in Aristotle
Authors: Hewitt Annie
Published: February 2014

As laws are written in ‘universal terms’ they offer inadequate guidance for those difficult cases that do not fall neatly under one general rule or another. While Aristotle is clear that written laws are essential to secure justice in a political community, he is quick to recognize that alone they are insufficient to achieve this aim. Bridging the gap between legal principle and concrete situation is Aristotle’s concept of epieikeia: that virtue which ‘corrects’ the law where it falls short. Through an acute attentiveness to relevant mitigating factors, epieikeia allows the judge to discern what — beyond rigid application the law — a just decision entails. However, though triggered by and tied to particular circumstances, epieikeia does not sanction egregious deviation from established law. This is because it serves the ends of ‘universal’, or ‘natural’ justice (itself derived from the fixed nature of man) and so is guided, and therefore constrained by its fixed and unchanging principles. In conclusion, this article explores the normative repercussions of incorporating epieikeia into legal decisions, specifically how it might work to transform justice into a virtue which promotes mercy, kindness, and forgiveness.
Criticism Ancient and Modern. Observations on the Critical Tradition of Athenian Democracy
Authors: Piovan Dino
Published: February 2014

This essay considers the tradition of criticism against Athenian democracy, in both ancient and modern times. Often this critical tradition has been seen to adduce greater interest than the very democratic experience from which it arose; in this it has been aided, in part, by the asserted absence of an ancient theory of democracy. Yet there are significant traces of a democratic theory in the ancient sources, which ought to serve both as a theoretical and ideological riposte to the critics. Some of the modern objections to classical Athenian democracy take up the argument of the ancient critics and display an anti-democratic orientation (German scholarship between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). Others, however, are motivated by a certain sensibility, grown out of liberalism and the legal state, as well as the emancipation of women and the abolition of slavery. Nevertheless, these objections are sometimes lacking in historical perspective. If we reassess Athenian democracy, it may yet be seen to constitute a useful point of reference, at a time when the current model of democracy finds its legitimacy questioned.2
Thrasymachus’ Attachment to Justice?
Authors: Stauffer Devin
Published: February 2014

Thrasymachus is one of the most infamous villains in Plato’s dialogues; but he is not as villainous as he appears to be. Thrasymachus’ attack on justice and his debunking definition of justice are guided by a complex set of concerns, including a desire to expose the fraud that he thinks rulers are perpetrating against the ruled. Thrasymachus thus shows a concern for justice even in his expression of an argument that is regarded as the classic sophistic critique of justice. Thrasymachus’ attachment to justice, however, has to be considered in light of his struggle with the problem of justice, a struggle that has driven him neither to a complete rejection of justice nor to a simple or solid commitment to it. By presenting Thrasymachus’ wavering positions, Plato presents an example of an apparent cynic whose concerns continue to be shaped by an unrecognized attachment to justice. In this way, Plato teaches a lesson about the power of justice in the human soul.
Does Plato’s Account of Politeiai in Republic 8 Merit Our Attention?
Authors: Coumoundouros Antonis
Published: February 2014

Several commentators since Aristotle have sought to convince us that Plato’s discussion of political constitutions or politeiai in Republic 8 is full of problems. In effect, such commentators argue that Plato’s account is not all that helpful in our efforts to understand political life. This paper argues that, despite several objections to Plato’s discussion of political constitutions in Republic 8, there is much that is helpful for thinking about political life. The following issues are taken up in an effort to clarify Plato’s account of regimes: the role of such an account in the main ethical argument of the dialogue (that justice is better than injustice); whether Plato’s discussion has both an a priori perspective and one based on experience; the analogy of the city and the soul and whether this holds together in Republic 8; Plato’s depiction of regime change in temporal/historical terms; and the fact that the account of political regimes seems incomplete because each regime is presented in the manner of a sketch.
Moderation and Socratic Education in Xenophon’s Memorabilia
Authors: Lorch Benjamin
Published: February 2014

This essay examines the first stage of the positive part of the Socratic education in Xenophon’s Memorabilia, whose subject is moderation concerning the gods. This stage of the Socratic education investigates whether providential gods exist and whether it ismoderate to be pious. Socrates does not accept either one of the two teleological sarguments in favour of the existence of providential gods that he advances in the Memorabilia. Instead, he holds that human beings cannot know whether or not the gods exist, and moderation refers to the manner in which Socrates deems it reasonable to proceed in light of this uncertainty. Socrates suggests that the smoderate alternative to piety is justice, and this essay concludes by considering why justice is moderate but piety is not.
Aristippus at the Crossroads: The Politics of Pleasure in Xenophon’s Memorabilia
Authors: Johnson David M.s
Published: February 2014

In two passages from Xenophon’s Memorabilia, Socrates refutes Aristippus, first by a rather brutal brand of Realpolitik (2.1), then by refusing to answer Aristippus’ questions about the good and the beautiful (3.8). This article argues that the nasty politics that emerge in Memorabilia 2.1 are not Socratic, but rather the natural consequence of Aristippean hedonism. Political considerations of another sort drive Socrates’ tactics in Memorabilia 3.8, where his evasive manoeuvres are driven by his desire to avoid a direct confrontation with hedonism. ocrates’ own views are hedonistic in some sense, as revealed by his otherwise irrelevant discussion of pleasing home plans and altar sites at the end of 3.8, but Socrates does not wish to reveal as much to companions lacking his self-control. Socrates’ treatment of Aristippus has as much to do with politics as with pleasure.
Socratic Politics in Xenophon’s Memorabilia
Authors: McNamara Carol
Published: February 2014

Xenophon’s intention in writing the Memorabilia was to show that Socrates was neither naïve nor aloof with regard to the political fate of Athens. In a section on ‘Socratic Politics’ (3.1–7), Xenophon shows us that Socrates was a teacher of practical politics by recounting, in the first part of that section, Socrates’ conversations with aspiring and practising, but mostly anonymous, Athenian politicians about the limitations and practical requirements of military and political leadership; and, in the second part, applying those lessons to well-known Athenians. This article argues that, according to Xenophon, Socrates’ objectives in teaching politics were three-fold: first, he aimed to moderate the ambitions of his companions by instructing them about the proper ends and practice of a decent politics; second, he provided advice to these politicians that pointed Athens towards a non-imperial and hence more moderate political life; and finally, he sought to carve out within the city a private sphere reserved for friendship and philosophy.
The City On Trial: Socrates’ Indictment of the Gentleman in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus
Authors: Nee Laurence D.
Published: February 2014

Xenophon’s Oeconomicus presents the boldest possible response to the city’s charge that Socrates corrupted the young: the city itself, not Socrates, is guilty of this charge. The city’s teaching about what constitutes a noble human being cannot be reconciled with the good of the human being as such; it actually opposes this good. While the would-be gentleman’s desire to be noble shapes his understanding of household management, it fails to bring him the god-like self sufficiency he seeks. Socrates’ critique of the perfect gentleman’s education of his wife demonstrates why the sacrifices made for the household and the gods do not benefit those who seek to be noble. Over the course of the dialogue, images of the Socratic way of life emerge. By revealing the nature of philosophy and its relationship to the good and noble things which the city extols, this dialogue teaches its readers why the Socratic way of life benefits human beings
Athenian Democracy Refosunded: Xenophon’ss Political History in the Hellenika
Authors: Dobski Bernard J.
Published: February 2014

This article aims to shed new light on the character of political history as written by Xenophon, by exploring the first two Books of the Hellenika, which, it is argued, implicity correct Thucydides’ judgment that the regime of the Five Thousand in Athens was the best Athenian regime during his lifetime. Thucydides and Xenophon thus appear to disagree about the best regime, a theme central to classical political philosophy. But when we consider Thucydides’ praise of this regime in light of Xenophon’s Socratic defence of traditional political authorities (especially as presented in Euryptolemus’ speech), we see that the two treatments complement each other. Xenophon’s endorsement of a regime rooted in traditional authorities protects the Socratic way of life, while Thucydides’ praise of a non-conventional regime endorses those conditions that make such a life possible.
Is Greed Good?: An Interpretation of Plato’s Hipparchus
Authors: Samad Joy
Published: February 2014

The Hipparchus features a conversation between Socrates and an un-named companion, at an unknown time and place, about gain (or profit) and whether we should in any way limit our pursuit of gain. Socrates argues intransigently that we should not place any limits on our pursuit of gain, while the companion, despite being unable to counter his arguments, is equally firm in his rejection of Socrates’ moral position. The dialogue thus shows the strength of the conviction, in the souls of decent people, that unrestrained pursuit of the good things is not good for you. This conviction exists prior to calculation, and the action of the dialogue thereby testifies to the existence of man’s natural conscience.
The Historic Model of Plato’s Statesman in Politikos
Authors: Herman Hansen Mogens
Published: February 2014

In Politikos Plato draws a picture of the true statesman, a picture that has baffled several of the scholars who have analysed the dialogue, because it appears to be very abstract and remote from what we know about the development of the political organization of the poleis in the Archaic and Classical periods. In this article I argue that there is a clear historical background to the person whom Plato calls a statesman, viz., the famous legislators of the Archaic period, in particular Lykourgos, Charondas, Zaleukos and Solon. My argument proceeds in two parts: first a survey of Plato’s general description of the statesman and second a sketch of the historical prototype of Plato’s statesman.
The Problem of the Partheniae in Aristotle’s Political Thought
Authors: Shuster Amy L.
Published: February 2014

This article examines Aristotle’s discussion of the Spartan revolt of the Partheniae in Politics V.7. Aristotle appears to use the Partheniae as examples of two sources of instability within so-called aristocracies, but the analysis of this case raises delicate interpretive issues. Sections I–III draw upon surviving accounts of the Parthenian revolt from Antiochus, Ephorus and Myron of Priene in order to illuminate the significance of this example for Aristotle’s ethical and political thought. Section IV reconstructs the state of the Spartan constitution around the time of the revolt in order to understand what Aristotle might have thought about what precipitated the revolt. This article argues that generational politics is at stake in the revolt, and Section V locates the revolt’s politics within its broader historical and cultural context. In the end, this article finds that Aristotle may have intended to leave the interpretation of this example ambiguous due to his own unresolved views towards the politics at stake in this revolt.
Plato’s Crito On the Nature of Persuasion and Obedience
Authors: Garver Eugene
Published: February 2014

The Crito dramatizes the impossibility, and the indispensability, of persuasion sby locating it between two extremes, Socrates and the Laws, the truths of philosophy and the force of politics. The question is whether those two limits are themselves inside or outside rhetoric. Can philosophy persuade, ormust it always be an alternative sto persuasion? Socrates insists on ignoring the opinion, and the power, of the many, and so the Laws have to show themselves as different from the opinion of the many in order for him to obey. If Socrates and the Laws cannot talk to each other, it is because philosophy and politics are incommensurable. If there is common ground, it is because persuasion can make the two, philosophy and politics, commensurable to each other. Socrates exhibits the philosopher’s task as transforming himself from a universal thinker into a particular agent, while the Laws face the opposite challenge, aspiring to a generality that makes them rational and normative, and so open to discourse and persuasion. The many whom Socrates constantly denigrates have the particularity of being fickle and changeable, while the Laws look rigid. Socrates, as he says in the Apology, is always the same. Both sides look to the flexibility and adaptability to circumstances central to rhetoric.
Tyrant and Philosopher: Two Fundamental Lives in Plato’s Myth of Er
Authors: German Andy
Published: February 2014

What is the significance of the recurring link between tyranny and philosophy in Plato? Often, Plato’s treatment of tyranny is discussed either in the context of moral psychology—as a problem of agency, moral choice and akrasia — or political science, where it is the limit case of political decline. It is suggested, however, that a close inspection of the myth of Er and an elucidation of its neglected links, not just with the rest of the Republic but also with dialogues such as the Philebus and the Symposium, shows that Socrates’ fascination with tyrannical characters points to a deeper theme — nature, and specifically the problem of its benevolence to our purposes and its very ambiguous relation to human excellence and degradation. Philosopher and tyrant, for all the radical differences between them, both illuminate the internal instability of the human being in Plato’s thought.
‘Cleaning the City’: Plato and Popper on Political Change
Authors: Arruzza Cinzia
Published: February 2014

This paper examines an issue that seems particularly overlooked in the debate on Plato and Popper, namely that of political change. The aim of the paper is to challenge the largely unchallenged assumption that modern liberal democracy can play the role of the general standard, upon which basis we can judge the thinkers of the past. Indeed, in the Open Society liberal democracy sets the boundaries of what is considered as a ‘rational’ political change, thus revealing that Popper holds a form of teleological conception of historical development. The paper argues for a different interpretation of Plato’s approach to the question of political change, against Popper’s claim that the final aim of the utopian city of the Republic is the elimination of change. The conclusion is that Plato’s utopian construction provides us with better tools than Popper’s framework for thinking of change in politics.
A Mongolian Source on the Manchu Manipulation of Mongolian Buddhism in the Seventeenth Century: The Biography of the Second Neichi Toyin
Authors: Ujeed Uranchimeg
Published: February 2014

This paper explores the Manchu manipulation of Mongolian Buddhism during the early stages of their empire building period by looking at the Kangxi Emperor’s patronage of the Second Neichi Toyin (1671–1703) based on his biography written in 1756 by Dharma Samudra (Nomundalai).
History of the Historiography of Spanish Textbooks and Treatises on International Law of the 19th Century
Authors: Chopo Yolanda Gamarra
Published: February 2014

The bibliography of Spanish international law textbooks is a good indicator of the evolution of the historiography of international law. Spanish historiography, with its own special features, was a recipient of the great debates concerning naturalism v. positivism and universalism v. particularism that flourished in European and American historiography in the nineteenth century. This study is articulated on four principal axes. The first states how the writings of the philosophes continued to dominate the way in which the subject was conceived in mid-nineteenth century Spain. Secondly, it explores the popularization and democratization of international law through the work of Concepcion Arenal and the heterodox thought of Rafael Maria de Labra. Thirdly, it examines the first textbooks of international law with their distinct natural law bias, but imbued with certain positivist elements. These textbooks trawled sixteenth century Spanish history, searching for the origins of international law and thus demonstrating the historical civilizing role of Spain, particularly in America. Fourthly, it considers the vision of institutionist, heterodox reformers and bourgeois liberals who proclaimed the universality of international law, not without some degree of ambivalence, and their defence of Spain as the object of civilization and also a civilizing subject. In conclusion, the article argues that the late development of textbooks was a consequence of the late institutionalization of the study of international law during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the legacy of the nineteenth century survives in the most progressive of contemporary polemics for a new international law.
The Enrica Lexie Incident: Law of the Sea and Immunity of State Officials Issues
Authors: Ronzitti Natalino
Published: February 2014

This article examines the case of the Enrica Lexie, a commercial ship having on board military personnel engaging in anti-piracy duties who was involved in an incident with persons on a fishing vessel off the Indian coast. It takes into consideration India’s claim to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over the Italian marines indicted of having killed two Indian fishermen, the judgments passed by India’s courts and the multiple aspects of the ensuing controversy between India and Italy. It is argued that the two marines enjoy functional immunity, even if it is admitted that India has jurisdiction over the case. The article concludes that new conventional law is needed for incidents like that of the Enrica Lexie paralleling Article 97 UNCLOS on collisions on the high seas.
Russian Fascism in Exile. A Historical and Phenomenological Perspective on Transnational Fascism
Authors: Hohler Susanne
Published: February 2014

Based on the example of Russian fascism in Harbin, Manchuria, this paper demonstrates how the concept, ‘transnational’ can relate to fascism in three ways: as a transnational phenomenon, as a transnational movement and in terms of the study of fascism from a transnational perspective, focusing on the relations and exchanges between fascist movements and how fascism crossed borders. One way of approaching implementing this perspective is to focus on the appropriation and adaptation of fascist bodies of thought into various local contexts. This paper argues that in this context the studies in fascism from a transnational perspective can profit from by focusing on a contemporary understanding of fascism instead of a priori academic definitions. Harbin fascists perceived fascism as a universal idea, which assumed distinct manifestations depending on the particularities of each nation. Therefore in the view of contemporaries fascism also constituted a transnational movement. In a second step this paper reflects on the question to what extend fascist studies could also benefit from the extension from a transnational to a transcultural perspective to better grasp the diverse influences on various manifestation of fascism and deepen our understanding of change and entanglements between fascist movements as well as their respective environments on a global scale.
Changing the Arctic Paradigm from Cold War to Cooperation: How Canada’s Indigenous Leaders Shaped the Arctic Council
Authors: Axworthy Thomas S. , Dean Ryan
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Between 1987 and 1997, through an impressive coalition of Nordic governments, the Government of Canada, scientists, environmentalists, foundations and Indigenous groups, the world witnessed the creation of a new body, the Arctic Council, a breakthrough in co-operative Arctic governance. Impressive for the relative speed of its creation, the Council – made up of eight states, six Permanent Participants and several observers – has continued to evolve at a steady pace, and recently became the primary forum for negotiating an Arctic search and rescue treaty.

Many contributed to the creation of the Arctic Council, but insofar as a Canadian contribution, one of the leading drivers of the effort was a skilled group of Indigenous leaders. Aboriginal leaders like Mary Simon, supported by foundations, became the advocates of an Arctic Council that gave unprecedented status to Indigenous representatives to sit at the same table as foreign ministers through the innovation of a Permanent Participant category. This victory for the Indigenous community in the creation of the Arctic Council was an early indication of the growing presence and sophistication of the world’s Indigenous populations. Their current importance, as highlighted by the U.N. Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, has as a precedent the invention of the Permanent Participant membership category of the Arctic Council a decade earlier.
The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law: Contemporary Reflections and Twenty-First Century Challenges
Authors: Rothwell Donald R.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The polar regions are increasingly coming to the forefront of global affairs in ways that are beginning to approach the prominence given to the polar regions during the ‘heroic era’ of exploration at the beginning of the twentieth century. This contemporary focus is, however, very much upon governance and the capacity of the existing and future legal frameworks to govern the Antarctic and Arctic effectively. This article revisits foundational research undertaken in 1992–1993 and reassesses the impact of the polar regions upon the development of international law. Particular attention is given to environmental management, living and nonliving resource management, the regulation and management of maritime areas, and governance mechanisms and frameworks. The article seeks to critically assess whether the existing legal frameworks that operate in Antarctica and the Arctic are capable of dealing with their increasing globalisation, or whether there will be a need for new legal and governance regimes to be developed to address twenty-first century challenges.
Environmental Assessment in Russian Law: Can It Promote Sustainable Development in the Russian Arctic?
Authors: Ignatyeva Inna A.
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The current plans of the Russian Federation to intensify significantly economic and other activities in Russian Arctic include the widespread exploitation of Arctic natural resources. At the same time, however, high vulnerability of the Arctic environment has been recognized in the country’s legislation. The plans for development in such a vulnerable region as the Arctic give rise to concern as to how it can be realized sustainably. For this reason, it is useful to examine one legal tool of environmental protection, an environmental assessment (EA) procedure, since this institution at least provides the possibility to enable the exploitation of Arctic’s natural resources in a way that protects the environment. Yet, as the article will point out, the conditions for effective EA have been in recent years severely limited, which can be seen in the current legislation. It is hence justifiable to be concerned of the future of Arctic vulnerable environment and, as the article proposes, restore some of the elements of the past EA legislation, which enable a stronger EA mechanism.
Social Impact Assessment, Including Impact Assessments in Relation to Mineral Extraction in Greenland
Authors: Hansen Thomas Trier , Mortensen Bent Ole Gram
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Social Impact Assessment is in general used in connection with larger mineral extraction projects in Greenland. Such assessments are not part of the environmental impact assessments, and different authorities are involved.

Recent amendments of the relevant legislation have strengthened the quality of the mineral extraction legislation. However, the legal framework and its implementation still leave a lot to the discretion of the Government and could be improved.
Revitalisation of Ainu Culture and Protection of their Right to Culture: Learning from Norwegian Sami Experiences
Authors: Maruyama Hiroshi
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The Ainu people in Japan have been deprived of their land, culture and language in the wake of the ruthless assimilation policy of Japan and their forcible relocation of them from the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin to Hokkaido. In June 2008, the Ainu were ultimately recognized as indigenous people by the Japanese Government, but their right to culture is not protected by the Japanese legal system. In fact, the Ainu still suffer from the losses of their traditional culture and moreover, are excluded from the decision making process in matters affecting them. Nevertheless, the Ainu have been trying to revitalise their culture as a right belonging to them – a right recognized by international human rights law. This paper examines Ainu traditional knowledge and the current situation of grain cultivation that was prevalent among the Ainu living in the Saru River Basin and its surroundings in Hokkaido before the assimilation policy. Further, the paper explores Ainu right to culture, both from a human rights standpoint and an environmental rights point of view using international treaties and the relevant instruments. In addressing this question, the paper aims to compare the Ainu perspective with that of Norwegian Sami.
Reflections of Buddhist Thought in Kagura Dance, Song, and Structure
Authors: Averbuch Irit
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The influence of Buddhist thought, cosmologies and practices on the formation of folk kagura and other minzoku geinō (folk performing arts) forms in medieval Japan is widely recognized. The Buddhist worldview was often spread through the ritual performing arts of the yamabushi (Shugendō practitioners) of medieval times. Today the evidence for such influences is relatively obscure, due to the impact of Shintō policies since the nineteenth century. However, traces of Buddhist cosmologies, ideas and practices can still be found, to a greater or lesser degree, in most forms of kagura. Such ‘traces’ may range from but a preserved memory of abandoned practices in some schools, to explicit Buddhist texts in others. This paper presents examples of Buddhist ‘echoes’ in a number of kagura schools from around Japan. These serve to illuminate the extant to which Buddhist ideas and practices were imbedded in the ritual texts and kami uta of the various kagura schools, in their dance choreographies, and in the structures of their kagura spaces. A special characteristic common to all (otherwise extremely variegated) kagura forms is the construction of the kagura space as a symbolic universe. This paper argues for a probable Buddhist origin of the kagura stage-universe.
Scope of the ‘Liberalization Program’ in the Andean Community
Authors: Schroder Humberto Zúñiga
Published: February 2014

Among efforts of community cooperation worldwide, the Andean Community in South America is a notable example. This sub-regional organisation aims to achieve social and economic cooperation among its Member Countries with a view to the gradual formation of a Latin American common market. To attain this objective, the Cartagena Agreement provides, among other measures, the possibility to implement a trade Liberalization Program, aimed at eliminating any restriction or levy that affects imports of products originating in the territory of any Member Country. This paper focuses on the analysis of that Program, and how it falls within the so-called ‘constitutional’ or ‘original’ sources of the Andean legal system. It also examines the attributions of the Andean Community General Secretariat to determine through an investigation procedure whether a particular measure constitutes a levy or restriction.
Hybotidae of the Galápagos Islands (Diptera: Empidoidea: Tachydromiinae)
Authors: Sinclair Bradley J. , Cumming Jeffrey M.
Published: February 2014

Three genera (IsodrapetisCollin,ChersodromiaWalker,ElaphropezaMacquart) and six species of Tachydromiinae (Hybotidae) are recorded from the Galápagos Islands. One new species ofIsodrapetis(I. meridionalissp. n.) and three new species ofChersodromia(C. floreanasp. n.,C. galapagensissp. n.,C. isabelasp. n.) are described.Elaphropeza zonalis(Curran) is redescribed and a fourth species ofChersodromiais identified based on a single female specimen. A key to all Galápagos species is provided.Isodrapetisis recorded for the first time outside of New Zealand. The affinities of the Galápagos Tachydromiinae to the New World fauna are discussed.
The Bupleurum (Apiaceae) feeding species of Trifurcula (Glaucolepis): new species, biology and distribution (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae)
Authors: Laštůvka Zdeněk , Laštůvka Aleš , van Nieukerken Erik J.
Published: February 2014

The Bupleurum feeding species of Trifurcula (Glaucolepis) Braun, 1917 are revised. Five species are recognised: T. bupleurella (Chrétien, 1907), T. sanctibenedicti Klimesch, 1979, T. megaphallus van Nieukerken, Z. Laštůvka & A. Laštůvka sp. n. feeding on Bupleurum gibraltarium in southern Spain, T. chretieni Z. Laštůvka, A. Laštůvka & van Nieukerken sp. n. feeding on Bupleurum rigidum in southern France, Spain and Portugal, and T. siciliae Z. Laštůvka, A. Laštůvka & van Nieukerken sp. n. feeding on B. fruticosum in Sicily. The group is restricted to southwestern Europe and northern Africa, the area where most shrubby Bupleurum species occur. A NJ and Bayesian analysis of DNA barcodes of four out of five species suggest a single origin of Bupleurum feeding in the subgenus Glaucolepis.
Colloquium 6: When The Middle Comes Early: Puzzles And Perplexeties In Plato’S Dialogues
Authors: Byrd Miriam
Published: February 2014

In this paper I focus on the problem of accounting for apparent inconsistencies between Plato’s early and middle works. Developmentalism seeks to account for these variances by differentiating a Socratic philosophy in the early dialogues from a Platonic philosophy in the middle. In opposition to this position, I propose an alternative explanation: differences between these two groups are due to Plato’s depiction and use of middle period epistemology. I argue that, in the early dialogues, Plato depicts Socrates’ use of the “summoners” described in Book 7 of the Republic, and that Plato uses Socrates’ failed attempts to summon interlocutors for the purpose of summoning readers. In conclusion, I suggest that the hypothesis that Plato uses summoners provides a framework for addressing the wider problem of inconsistencies within the Platonic corpus.