bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Persian Persecutions of the Jews
Authors: Kalmin Richard
Published: September 2006

This chapter attempts to exemplify the contention first presented in the introduction that significant aspects of the history of the Jews of late antiquity will have to be rewritten once the latest developments in Talmud text criticism are taken into account. Although these developments greatly complicate the historian's task, they add depth and subtlety to the historian's arguments and ensure that conclusions rest on a firmer literary foundation. Among the more significant findings will be the discovery that there is less reason than earlier scholars thought to view early Babylonian rabbis as important players in the Jewish community's interactions with the Persian government. The chapter strengthens and adds subtlety to one of the central arguments of this book: that the Babylonian Talmud tends to portray Babylonian rabbis as inward-looking, with the study house to a significant extent the sum total of their experience, even in situations where it had been the consensus of earlier scholarship that they served as the pre-eminent leaders of the Jewish community.
Josephus in Sasanian Babylonia
Authors: Kalmin Richard
Published: September 2006

This chapter compares rabbinic and Josephan traditions about the Sadducees. It shows that traditions in the Bavli tend to be hostile toward the Sadducees, while traditions in Palestinian compilations tend to reflect a more neutral perspective. The Palestinian traditions acknowledge, or even revel in, the existence of individual Sadducees who are wicked, but these individuals are always quickly punished with death by God for their evil deeds, and the Sadducees as a group are harmless, obedient, in fact, to the rulings of the Pharisees. It is also shown that since it is a fundamental tenet of rabbinic thought that the rabbis possessed traditions that were authoritative despite their independence from scripture, the introduction into Babylonia of traditions that portray the Sadducees as accepting only scripture and rejecting traditions external to the Bible motivated these hostile Babylonian portrayals. It is argued that the Bavli's portrayal of the Sadducees as a group that accepts only scripture derives either from (1) Josephus, or (2) traditions drawn upon independently by both Josephus and the rabbis.
The Idea of the Holy Grail
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on the idea of the Grail. It explains Wolfram's declaration by unfolding the nature and purpose of the stone Grail as it is found in his epic poem of Parzival, and then, based on its role and characteristics in the epic, to identify, if possible, the actual one.
The World of Precious Stones
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on the significance of the gemstone in Wolfram. Wolfram not only identifies the Grail as a precious stone but also uses stones to mark the inner structure of his work by identifying its two foci: first, the progress of his hero toward feeling the compassion necessary for “owning” the Grail, and second, the suffering of the community on Mount Salvation as they faithfully await the healing of Anfortas. Wolfram has not only supplied two new chapters/books to be the ending of the tale that Chrétien did not finish but also added two new books to be the beginning of the story whose function it is to give Parzival a pagan brother and thereby to raise the thematic question of the waters of baptism in the context of the Grail stone. The two books at the beginning stand in parallel to the two that Wolfram has placed at the end. These four books form a distinctive framework, marked by the roles of precious stones, that guides the reader to a new interpretation of the traditional Grail material received from Chrétien.
The Crusaders' Quest
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

This chapter argues that Wolfram's two great epics, Parzival and Willehalm, are a poet's protest against the whole notion of religious crusade, and in particular against Christian-Muslim enmity. In both works he attempts to make his contemporaries realize that a Christian crusade aimed at killing Muslims in order to secure possession of Christ's grave and restore his feudal territory to him is a mistake of literalness concerning the whereabouts of the Lord Christ's rock grave and the location of his “territory.” He suggests that the literalness is a sign of profound sickness causing both suffering and ugliness among the baptized who live on Mount Salvation. In his attempt at enlightenment, Wolfram's unexpected poetic weapon is the gemstone.
The Frame Story
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

Wolfram clearly used the text of Chrétien's doubly named Perceval, or The Story of the Grail, and he, too, wove together what are two perhaps quite different tales, the folktale of the naive young man who goes forth to seek his fortune, and the more mysterious tale of the enigmatic Grail castle and its inhabitants. Since Wolfram did follow Chrétien's story line, it is helpful to attempt to contrast the two versions in order to determine what the authorial intent of Wolfram was, especially if Wolfram's version is seen in the light of inventions of plot and gemstone symbolism found in the framing Chapters 1 and 2 and 15 and 16. This chapter examines Wolfram's vision of the Grail, contrasting it with that of Chrétien whenever appropriate and possible, and first and most of all, by examining it in the light of the Christian-pagan frame story invented by Wolfram.
The Frame Story Ending
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on the ending of the story of Parzival. It shows that helmets, when they work effectively and because they work effectively, enable violent fighting to occur because they make personal recognition of kinship impossible. In book 14 of Parzival, Wolfram brings the heroes of the two strands of the inner Grail story (from books 3 to 14) together, Gawan and Parzival. The two relatives and fellow knights of the Round Table meet each other in a fight like no fight in the story, with their helmets on. Parzival's experience in this penultimate fighting contest is one of realization; he becomes aware of the helmet's unexpected relationship to blindness.
Afterword
Authors: Murphy G. Ronald
Published: September 2006

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It considers the question of whether Wolfram's concept of the Grail was understood. And whether his readers/listeners entered through the sixteen gates of his epic and found and appreciated what he had realized about the Grail's nature.
Three Problems of Experience
Authors: Stoljar Daniel
Published: September 2006

The problem to be discussed is the logical problem of experience, which focuses on three inconsistent theses: there are experiential truths; if there are experiential truths, every truth is entailed by, or supervenes on, some non-experiential truth; and if there are experiential truths, not every truth is entailed by, or supervenes on, some non-experiential truth. This problem is distinguished from two others: the empirical problem and the traditional mind-body problem.
The Skeptical Challenge
Authors: Stoljar Daniel
Published: September 2006

This chapter discusses the idea that it is mistaken to suppose that there is a genuinely philosophical problem of experience at all. According to one version of the challenge, the problem should be rejected on methodological grounds: it is mistaken to reason from conceivability to possibility at all. It is argued that this reasoning is ubiquitous in philosophy, and thus to the extent that there is a problem here it is everyone’s rather than the author’s. According to another version of the challenge, the problem should be rejected on conceptual grounds: the thesis of physicalism certainly made sense at a particular moment in the history of science, but that moment is long gone and contemporary interpretations of it do not permit the questions typical of philosophy of mind to be legitimately raised. Physicalism and related concepts play an illustrative or inessential role, rather than an essential role, in the logical problem, and once this is appreciated, the basis for skepticism evaporates.
Historical Precedent
Authors: Stoljar Daniel
Published: September 2006

This chapter proceeds by pointing out that the epistemic view is known to be correct for older philosophical problems that are structurally analogous to the logical problem, problems which concern not the phenomenal character of experience but the intellectual character of thought and the chemical features of physical objects. The suggestion of the chapter is that these historical cases should be viewed as a guide to our present situation.
Genuine Rivals, Revelation, and Concluding Remarks
Authors: Stoljar Daniel
Published: September 2006

This chapter concludes the book by doing three things: reviewing the reasons for rejecting eliminativism and primitivism; criticizing an independent argument for these views that would, if successful, also undermine our own position — this is an argument founded on the idea, known as “revelation”, that understanding experience means knowing its essence; and finally, summarizing and making explicit some general morals.
Paul as Another in Israel's Story
Authors: Meech John L.
Published: September 2006

In order to reconstruct the kind of self presupposed in Paul’s letters, this chapter explores the relation between Pauls self-understanding and the story he tells to identify Israel. As a dyadic personality, Paul understands himself in relation to Israel: “I have been crucified with Christ” signifies that Paul has died in Israel. Sacrifice symbolizes the death and resurrection of the sinner; thus, that Christ is a sacrifice means that Israel has passed through death and resurrection in its King, Jesus. Christ can be raised because he goes to the cross anointed with God’s Spirit. Christ is the righteous community in the world that goes into death and rises again. Paul recognizes, in retrospect, that this is the event that “the faith of Abraham” had always anticipated. The Pauline categories of spirit and conscience relate the crucified and resurrected self to the Spirit in the community that dies and rises with Christ.
The Deferred Self: Paul Ricoeur'sOneself as Another
Authors: Meech John L.
Published: September 2006

In his hermeneutics of the self, Ricoeur executes a series of detours to the self through several accounts of selfhood. Yet he refuses to grant the last word to any one of these accounts alone but puts them all into play at once in a journey led by the question of who: Who speaks? Who acts (and who suffers)? Who tells her story? Who is responsible? While Ricoeur acknowledges the role of community in the constitution of the self, he never takes the explicit detour to the self through community. In a final detour to the self through community, the self can be glimpsed reflexively as the correlate of a community when ethical conflicts put the self and community at stake together. In such conflicts, the need to identify the community in a narrative attains the status of something attested, and constitutes a first aporia in Ricoeur’s account. A second aporia appears when imputation, responsibility, and recognition are affirmed of the self who is the correlate of a community. These aporias are overcome by letting the community appear as “person” through the metaphor of the “spirit” in the community.
After the Revolution
Authors: Nevin Thomas R.
Published: September 2006

Chateaubriand, Lamennais, and Renan all figured centrally in any chronicle of 19th-century French Catholicism, while Thérèse Martin, the Little Flower, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux kept a marginal position. However, these men, who lived long and wrote much, are for the greater part forgotten, and she, dead at twenty-four, has become one of the most beloved woman in modern times. This chapter illustrates these men under three sorts of temptation, none of which is strictly comparable to those Christ faced in the wilderness but each of which St. Augustine identifies: the rage for feeling, libido sentiendi; for commanding, libido dominandi; for knowing, libido sciendi. As these men did not think, work, write in a vacuum, some brief remarks on the political and spiritual life of their age are provided.
How They Paved the Little Way
Authors: Nevin Thomas R.
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on conventual life in Carmel during the time of Thérèse. Carmelites are espoused to the same man, whom they meet only in images and in prayer. They, by their pledge to him, are pledged to a life with each other. They are closely confined, as in a prison, and remain so till death. Visitors are received only at a grille and for only thirty minutes a week. For all but family members, a dark curtain is drawn between the interlocutors, and there is always another sister, known as a tierce, attendant to the conversation. The only men with whom these women are directly in contact are their confessor priest and their physician, who also has to use the grille. They sleep apart in spartanly furnished rooms. They pray, sing, eat together. They work singly and collectively.
Thérèse Writes Her Self
Authors: Nevin Thomas R.
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on Thérèse's account of herself. Thérèse started her autobiography in January 1895. By that time she had already established herself as a kind of writer in residence at the Lisieux Carmel: she had composed fifteen poems for various occasions, such as feast days or the investiture of novices. Some were written on request. She had also composed, in January 1894, the first of two dramas about Jeanne d'Arc. The occasion that prompted her autobiography came casually as she was telling stories about her childhood to her natural sisters. Marie, appreciating Thérèse's narrative gift, with its penchant for mimicry, urged that she write the story of her childhood.
On Her Theatricality
Authors: Nevin Thomas R.
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on Thérèse's plays and poetry. Thérèse's prayers and poems, the letters, the autobiography foremost — all have been translated and long circulated. However, her plays or récréations pieuses as they were known within Carmel, have been neglected. It is a strange and unhelpful neglect; unhelpful, because the plays open to us, no less than do the poems, valuable windows onto Thérèse's spirituality; strange, because in them we have a concrete and lively idea of the communal physics of Carmel and how its sisters — its prisoners, Thérèse might have said — lifted themselves from routine through an inspired, if generally mediocre pen. On those feast days, they relaxed, they enjoyed, they learned, they even laughed.
Inconclusions
Authors: Nevin Thomas R.
Published: September 2006

This chapter focuses on the things that set Thérèse apart from other Carmelites: her particular intelligence and her writing itself. Thérèse demonstrated an exception of self manifested early on; the precocity of learning, limited only in the bookish sense; an adeptness in storytelling and in such seemingly minor skills as mimicry, which is the gift of an observant, satiric mind; the imaginative, even audacious reading of Scripture. These are outward signs of what became in her writing and talking the fully flourishing intellect, one which took on with a kind of bravura the task of interpreting Christianity to the Carmelites in a new and vital way.
Interconnections
Authors: Taylor Gabriele
Published: September 2006

The structural similarities between the different vices means that there will be overlaps between them, or that those in the grip of one of these vices should also naturally be exposed to another. One example is the relation between resentment and envy. The resentful and the envious share feelings of impotence and of hostility towards others. These are miserable feelings, and suffering them will reinforce both their sense of failure and their vengeful attitude towards the world. The avaricious, envious, proud, and resentful can all be said to be inordinate in their desire to have a certain position for themselves secured or maintained. Covetousness is a prominent component of lust and gluttony, and thus be that which links these to the other vices.
‘Capital Vices’
Authors: Taylor Gabriele
Published: September 2006

The characterization of the vices as ‘deadly’ has been explained in terms of the fatal harm they bring to those who possess them. Little has as yet been said about their effect on others, though there have been indications that at least potentially, they are likely to be harmful to others as well. A question is raised on whether the disposition of the vicious is such that by possessing a particular vice, they have further vicious tendencies as well.
Countervailing Virtues
Authors: Taylor Gabriele
Published: September 2006

The vicious are self-destructive in their attitude towards themselves. A countervailing virtue should then be, in some way, a good to that self; where the vices destroy and corrupt, a countervailing virtue should heal and hold the self together. Such ‘self-healing’ virtues are not necessarily what might be regarded as strictly ‘moral’ virtues, which require some form of altruistic motivation. A self-healing virtue offers the agent a manner of escape from the burden of his or her self, which provides him or her with the opportunity of leading a happier life.
Value and Context
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This book seeks to further the debate between ‘cognitivists’ and ‘non-cognitivists’ about the possibility and the nature of moral knowledge. The book is divided into four parts. Part I presents the theoretical framework for the revision of cognitivism. Part II examines the challenge to the revised form of cognitivism developed from two sophisticated forms of non-cognitivist strategy: expressive/projective strategy and non-objectivism. Part III develops proposals for the solution of the problems described in Parts I and II. Part IV focuses on the work of John Rawls.
The Case for Cognitivism
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter sets out the position of Wiggins and McDowell. This theory is fatally incomplete, rather than fatally flawed. It is a view of moral truth and enquiry that has been much misunderstood, not least because of a failure to appreciate the deep differences between Wiggins and McDowell over the issue of realism. Some important background materials from the work of the later Wittgenstein are examined, followed by discussions on the ways in which cognitivism is grounded in the phenomenology of moral experience and how that phenomenology is best explained.
Values, Norms, and the Practical
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter rejects the view that Wiggins’s and McDowell’s theories of moral motivation postulate an objectionable form of inherent normativity in a moral agent’s recognition of value. Their position is no worse off in this regard than anyone else’s, specifically Korsgaard’s. McDowell’s position, and the conflation of different considerations in his metaphor of ‘silencing’ and Wiggins’s genealogy of categorical obligations are described.
Internal Reasons and Contractualist Impartiality
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines a proposal concerning the nature of practical reasons: that all such reasons are internal reasons. It is the first obstacle that was placed in the way of the Wittgensteinian cognitivists’ position by Bernard Williams. Williams’s arguments are presented in a different light from the way in which they are usually understood. The mention of Humeanism in his initial presentation of his ideas led to Williams being viewed as a representative of someone committed to the Humean theory of motivation, or to a Humean view of the self or of the psychological. Williams’s position is seen as a set of relatively neutral constraints on the very idea of a practical reason.
A Contextual Model of Moral Justification
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter develops an application of contextualism in the specific case of moral knowledge. The overall aim is the final vindication of a contextualist account of moral justification that supports a cognitivist interpretation of morality. It explains how contextualism compares and contrasts with the dominant coherentist model of moral epistemology in contemporary ethics, namely, an understanding of Rawlsian reflective equilibrium as a coherence theory of justification. It argues that contextualism can be seen as arising from Rawls’s methodological assumptions, if one retains the assumption that considered moral judgements retain a direct source of moral justification even when they derive further warrant from their embedding in a context of justification.
Tradition Based Moral Enquiry
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter explains how a contextualist can argue for rationality both within a tradition of moral enquiry and, equally importantly, across such traditions. An essential part of the latter task is reiterating why, in some cases, an apparent challenge to our ethical outlook does not constitute a challenge at all. The work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor are considered, in order to argue that in so far as their tradition-based models of moral reasoning are plausible, they instantiate contextualism.
Political Liberalism and Contextualism
Authors: Thomas Alan
Published: September 2006

This chapter puts contextualism to work in analyzing Rawlsian liberalism. Political Liberalism marked a shift in focus in Rawls’s project from the presentation of a conception of justice and its stability to the wider question of what constituted a legitimate conception of justice for a modern society marked by a certain kind of moral pluralism. Some commentators have erroneously taken this shift to represent a revision in Rawls’s initial presentation of his conception of justice. Others have accepted that this part of the view remains unchanged while nevertheless expressing reservations as to whether the issue of legitimacy needed to be raised in the way in which Rawls raised it. It is argued that focusing on the contextualist model of justification underpinning Rawls’s view can alleviate both sources of concern.
Shocks and Accommodation: The Dichotomy and Mechanics of High Inflation
Authors: Bruno Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the dynamics of high inflation under accommodation to price shocks. One simple approach to the budget as a source of the inflationary process is to consider the link of the form of finance, namely seigniorage revenue and the average rate of inflation, on the hypothetical assumption that one is observing fluctuations around steady states. This gives at least some lead on the possible long-run relationship between the monetization of deficits and the rate of inflation. A closer historical look at the changing trade-off between inflation, real GDP growth, and the current account leads to the detailed dynamics of the inflationary process without which the ‘shocks and accommodation’ nature of the process cannot be understood. Part of the reason for the progressive acceleration of inflation will be found in the connection between the budget deficit and the balance-of-payments deficit, and the government response in the form of devaluations and subsidy cuts.
The Fight over Stabilization and the Structural Adjustment Process, 1985–1991
Authors: Bruno Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter analyzes the efforts to establish the credibility of both fiscal and nominal anchors in the aftermath of sharp stabilization as well as the ongoing structural reform process. It begins with an analysis of the initial stabilization phase, and then considers various alternative interpretations of the business-cycle phenomenon. It defends the real fundamentals, namely the establishment of credible fiscal discipline. This is followed by an analysis of the struggle led mainly by the Bank of Israel, over the defence of the nominal anchor, including the evolution of the exchange-rate regime in the aftermath of stabilization, and the gradual and costly learning process it entailed in wage and labour-market behaviour. The successful introduction and gradual phase-out of price controls, financial restructuring in ailing enterprises, financial market reform, and structural reform in the real economy are discussed.
Stabilization and Reform in Eastern Europe
Authors: Bruno Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter considers the most recent stabilization and reform experience in six Eastern European countries, starting with the earlier Yugoslav and Polish shock programmes of 1990 and followed by Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania in 1991. Hungary, which had a much longer and earlier reform experience, also carried out a successful and more conventional stabilization programme in 1991. The analysis of the dramatic developments in Eastern Europe focuses on the underlying similarities of the macro-economics of stabilization across countries and regions, and attempts to isolate the particular problems that are common to Eastern and Central Europe but substantially different from the earlier experience elsewhere.
Synthesis, Policy Lessons, and Open Questions
Authors: Bruno Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter returns to a number of common issues that emerged from the cumulative experience reviewed in previous chapters, considers open theoretical questions, and discusses some of the policy lessons. It looks at some of the theoretical arguments that have been suggested to explain the long delays in the adoption of stabilization programmes. It asks whether a universal paradigm has emerged on the necessary basic components of stabilization and structural reform programmes. It then broadens the question by asking if any generalizable lessons can be learned on the optimal sequencing of the various components of reform and whether there exists a real choice between ‘big bang’ and gradualist stabilization and reform strategies.
The Influence of PBGC Insurance on Pension Fund Finances
Authors: Coronado Julia , Liang Nellie
Published: September 2006

It is sometimes argued that firms sponsoring defined benefit pensions are led to take higher risks because pension insurance premiums and funding requirements do not reflect the riskiness of the pension plan portfolio or sponsor bankruptcy risk. This perspective is tested by linking company data on expected default probabilities with newly-available information on pension plan assets. It is shown that moral hazard induced by the current pension insurance environment has influenced corporate pension plan sponsor funding outcomes, even controlling for cash availability. There is no evidence that the share of plan assets invested in equities is related to firm bankruptcy risk or the plan’s contingent claims on the pension insurance entity.
Risk‐Sharing in Retiree Medical Benefits
Authors: Wagoner George , Rappaport Anna , Fuller Brian , Yeager Frank
Published: September 2006

The increase in both retiree medical care expenditures and the retired fraction of the population has put pressure on retiree health care insurance providers. This chapter assesses future prospects for retiree health insurance, focusing on traditional approaches to retiree health benefits where the employer assumes most risk, and on defined contribution approaches where significant risk is shifted to the retiree. It also examines government benefits for retirees, including new Medicare prescription drug benefits. It models future retiree health care costs and opportunities to save before retiring, highlighting public policy obstacles and issues for employer-provided retiree health benefits.
Understanding and Allocating Investment Risks in a Hybrid Pension Plan
Authors: Albrecht Peter , Coche Joachim , Maurer Raimond , Rogalla Ralph
Published: September 2006

This chapter analyzes pension plan costs and investment strategies in the context of alternative hybrid pension plans, which are optimal either from the perspective of the plan sponsor or the beneficiaries. It evaluates the impact of minimum and maximum limits for pension benefits as well as minimum guarantees and caps on members’ investment returns. For low/medium risk portfolios, minimum benefit guarantees tend to be more expensive than minimum return guarantees, but for the latter, costs increase exponentially with investment risk. It is also shown that the sponsor’s portfolio choice differs from that of the participants, depending on plan design and risk aversion. One way to resolve these differences is to combine minimum return guarantees and caps on investment returns, which shares investment risks and returns more equally between sponsor and beneficiaries, and keeps pension plan costs under control.
Financial liberalization in Vietnam: impact on loans from informal, formal, and semi-formal providers
Authors: Lensink Robert , McGillivray Mark , Thi Thu Trà Pham
Published: September 2006

Since 1986, Vietnam has gone through a process of economic reforms — a so-called ‘doimoi’, which included the liberalization of the financial sector. The most profound financial sector reform came in 1995, when commercial banks were allowed to freely set deposit rates to enhance competition in raising funds. This paper commences with an overview of the Vietnamese financial sector and a survey of the main reforms to this sector implemented since the late 1980s. A descriptive analysis is then provided, which compares some key characteristics of pre- and post-financial reform borrowing and savings activities using the Vietnam Living Standard Surveys of 1992/93 and 1997/98. The paper then provides an econometric analysis of the determinants of loans from different types of lenders, examining the extent to which this was affected by the financial reforms.
Blocking human potential: how formal policies block the informal economy in the maputo corridor
Authors: Söderbaum Fredrik
Published: September 2006

This paper deals with one of the most interesting cross-border micro-regions in Africa: the Maputo corridor. In the mid-1990s, the governments of South Africa and Mozambique agreed to reconstruct the Maputo corridor through the implementation of the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC) and its gigantic portfolio of large-scale private investment projects. The analysis shows that the MDC is designed for the purpose of crowding-in external capital in order to build industrial and infrastructural mega-projects such as the USD 2 billion Mozal aluminium smelter, whereas the endogenous capacities and entrepreneurship of the people living in the corridor are largely neglected or even seen as problematic. Hence, the fundamental problem with the MDC lies in its bias towards a capital-intensive industrialization strategy, which fails to utilize and unlock the human potential of Mozambique’s population and its informal economy.
Microinsurance for the informal economy workers in India
Authors: Guha-Khasnobis Basudeb , Ahuja Rajeev
Published: September 2006

It has become mandatory for all formal insurance providers to service the low-income and disadvantaged segments of the population in India. Formal insurance providers have introduced a range of ‘micro insurance’ products targeting informal economy workers and their family members. At the institutional level, numerous civil society associations are playing an active role in extending the reach of insurance designed especially for the target segment. This paper analyses the early evidence available in this regard, highlighting the current debate on strengthening micro insurance activity in the country and suggesting ways to help promote insurance to the target segment.
2 Who Are the Members?
Authors: Whiteley Paul , Seyd Patrick , Billinghurst Antony
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the social and demographic profiles as well as the political attitudes of Liberal Democrat party members, drawing upon an earlier study of Liberal Democrat party to identify changes in their profiles during the 1990s. Comparisons are made between the social backgrounds of party members and those of Liberal Democrat voters to determine what differences, if any, exist between the two types of party supporters. Activism within the party and whether there is any evidence of a decline in participation in recent years are analyzed. The evidence suggests that while many party members are active, there has been a decline in party activism over time and a weakening of the ties between the party and its members.
4 Why Join the Party?
Authors: Whiteley Paul , Seyd Patrick , Billinghurst Antony
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the pathways to Liberal Democrat Party membership. The recruitment process is discussed, followed by what it means for the average respondent to be a party member. The key issue of why people join the party is then considered. In examining motives for joining, two theoretical models of political participation are utilized: the civic voluntarism model and the general incentives model. Both resources and choices are important in explaining why people join the party. Members have more resources in the sense of higher incomes, better educational attainments, and higher status class characteristics than voters, but incentives are also important for influencing the decision to join the party. Thus, both models appear to be relevant in explaining why people join.
6 Local Campaigning and the Liberal Democrat Vote
Authors: Whiteley Paul , Seyd Patrick , Billinghurst Antony
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the role of the Liberal Democrat Party members in influencing voting behaviour in the 1997 general elections. Debates in literature about the importance of campaigns in elections are reviewed. To evaluate the impact of Liberal Democrat campaign activity on the election, it is important to take into account the campaign activities of its main rivals, Labour and the Conservatives. This is done using data from a survey of Labour party members conducted in 1997, together with local campaign spending data for all three parties. The results suggest that local campaigning plays a very important role in influencing the Liberal Democrat vote.
8 Conclusions
Authors: Whiteley Paul , Seyd Patrick , Billinghurst Antony
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the political prospects of the Liberal Democrat Party. The big question is whether or not it can replace its rivals as the second, or even the first, party of British electoral politics. It begins with an analysis of the necessary conditions for the Liberal Democrats to replace one of the other parties as the second party of British politics. This leads into an examination of the likelihood that these conditions will be met in the foreseeable future. The evidence suggests that the party has a real opportunity to break the existing two-party hegemony at a general election in 2009 or 2010.
Ignorance of Language
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

Is Chomsky right about the psychological reality of language? What is linguistics about? What role should linguistic intuitions play in constructing grammars? What is innate about language? Is there “a language faculty”? The book gives controversial answers to such questions: that linguistics is about linguistic reality and not part of psychology; that linguistic rules are not represented in the mind; that speakers are largely ignorant of their language; that speakers’ intuitions do not reflect information supplied by the language faculty and are not the main evidence for grammars; that thought is prior to language in various ways; that linguistics should be concerned with what idiolects share, not with idiolects; that language processing is a fairly brute-causal associationist matter; that the rules of “Universal Grammar” are largely, if not entirely, innate structure rules of thought; and that there is little or nothing to the language faculty.
1 Introduction
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

In Chomsky’s view, linguistics is about a psychological state, the speaker’s knowledge of language which constitutes her linguistic competence. This knowledge is said to underlie her linguistic intuitions. The rules (principles) of the language are thought to be “psychologically real” in that they are represented — the Representational Thesis (RT) — or otherwise embodied in the language faculty. This book’s plan is described, which is to look critically at these views and propose others. The chapter concludes with some clarifications of the book’s relation to I-languages, to grammatical levels and to linguistic details; and of the importance of its conclusions.
2 A Grammar as a Theory of Linguistic Reality
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter argues against Chomsky’s view that linguistics is a branch of psychology, and hence concerns a psychological reality: the speaker’s linguistic competence. With the help of three quite general distinctions, including that between structure rules and processing rules, and between being a structure rule and “respecting” one, it is argued that there is something other than psychological reality for a grammar to be true of: it can be true of a linguistic reality. Given the weight of evidence, it is plausible that the grammar is indeed more or less true of that reality. The grammar might also be true of a psychological reality, but to show that it is so requires further psychological assumption. It will prove hard to establish a psychological assumption that will do the trick.
3 Some Possible Positions on Psychological Reality
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter describes possible positions on psychological reality, on linguistic competence, that vary according to whether or not the rules of the language are embodied in the mind; to whether or not some processing rules for language are represented in the mind; and to whether or not some processing rules operate on metalinguistic representations of syntactic and semantic properties of linguistic items. The uncontroversial minimal position — committed only to there being a psychological reality that “respects” the linguistic rules — is the most that can be sustained without some powerful psychological assumption that is independent of anything revealed by the grammar of a language.
5 The Rejection of Behaviorism
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter looks critically at what might be called “philosophical arguments” for the Representational Thesis (RT) view of linguistic competence. It considers an argument sometimes suggested although perhaps not embraced by anyone: the argument from the rejection of behaviorism. This rejection is compatible with many alternatives to RT.
11 Language Use
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter argues that language use does not provide persuasive evidence for the Representational Thesis (RT) view of linguistic competence, and that RT is implausible. RT is not supported by the apparently popular “only-theory-in-town” abduction, nor it is supported by the psychology of skills in general, an appropriate place to look because linguistic competence appears to be procedural (implicit) knowledge acquired by implicit learning. The chapter also argues for some tentative proposals: that language processing is not governed by the unrepresented structure rules of the language; that language processing does not involve metalinguistic representations of the syntactic and semantic properties of linguistic expressions, but rather is a fairly brute-causal associationist process; and that if the Language-of-Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) is false, then the rules of a language are not, in a robust way, psychologically real in a speaker.
12 Language Acquisition
Authors: Devitt Michael
Published: September 2006

This chapter takes the familiar arguments for nativism to establish the interesting nativist thesis that “the initial state” of linguistic competence is sufficiently rich that humans can naturally learn only languages that conform to the rules specified by “Universal Grammar” (the UG-rules). It rejects Fodor’s “only-theory-in-town” abduction for the very exciting “I-Representational Thesis”, the thesis that the UG-rules are represented in the initial state. It argues that this thesis lacks significant evidence and is implausible. The chapter also argues for some tentative proposals: that the UG-rules are, largely if not entirely, innate structure rules of thought, a proposal resting on the Language-of-Thought Hypothesis (LOTH); that if LOTH is false, then the UG-rules are not, in a robust way, innate in a speaker; and that there is little or nothing to the language faculty. The chapter concludes the book-long argument that there is no significant evidence for the Representational Thesis (RT) and that it is implausible.
1 Introduction
Authors: Carnevali Francesca
Published: September 2006

This chapter explores the literature on the economic importance of small firms in terms of employment and technological change. It considers why small firms are reliant on commercial banks for finance, and why information asymmetries can make a difference in the nature of this relationship.
2 Banking Cartels and Industrial Concentration in Britain
Authors: Carnevali Francesca
Published: September 2006

This chapter considers how by the 1920s Britain developed the most concentrated banking structure in the world, and whether this pattern was repeated in industry. It explores the role played by government policy in this process.
5 Italy's Alternative Model of Industrialization
Authors: Carnevali Francesca
Published: September 2006

This chapter explores the nature of Italy’s ‘dual model’ of economic development up to the early 1930s, and how this is linked to the existence of a segmented banking system. It also analyses the political connections between government, small local banks, and regional economies.
8 Germany and the Limits of Organized Capitalism
Authors: Carnevali Francesca
Published: September 2006

This chapter analyses the reasons for the persistence of small firms in Germany after 1945 and of the ‘decentralized industrial order’. Crucial to this persistence has been the role played by government policy in preserving and strengthening the links between small firms and local and regional banks.
1 Antiochus of Ascalon
Authors: Karamanolis George E.
Published: September 2006

This chapter begins with a discussion of Antiochus’ debate with Philo of Larissa. It then analyses Antiochus’ thesis on the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. According to Antiochus, the most essential part of philosophy, particularly Plato’s philosophy, is ethics, and his most crucial doctrine is about how to achieve a good life. Antiochus shares the Stoic view that virtue requires secure knowledge; without such knowledge, no ethical system can exist. He is convinced that Plato has coherent and systematic ethics, which he reconstructs from that of Aristotle and Polemo. Antiochus is neither an eclectic nor a syncretist, as has often been claimed. Antiochus did not muddle various doctrines from Plato and Platonists, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Rather, he had a certain conception of Plato’s philosophy which he tried to reconstruct as faithfully as he could through the testimonies of the early Academics, Aristotle, and the Stoics, according to the degree to which they were indebted to Plato.
2 Plutarch
Authors: Karamanolis George E.
Published: September 2006

This chapter begins with a discussion of Plutarch’s Platonism and knowledge of Aristotle’s work. It then presents Plutarch’s most substantial discussion of how Aristotle’s philosophy compares with that of Plato. Plutarch held that Aristotle often preserves Plato’s doctrine in a more systematic form on a number of crucial issues in ethics, psychology, metaphysics, and epistemology. A different kind of systematization is provided by the case of Aristotle’s categories; this theory may be a new construction, but in Plutarch’s view, it is a development of originally Platonic elements. To the extent that Plutarch regards Aristotle as a source of Plato’s doctrine, he feels free to draw on Aristotle’s work. Thus, it is a mistake to hold that he simply used Aristotle as an ally in his polemic, compromising his Platonism. Because Plutarch is committed to Plato’s philosophy, he shows great awareness of Aristotle’s divergences from Plato’s doctrines and does not hesitate to criticize him.
4 Atticus
Authors: Karamanolis George E.
Published: September 2006

This chapter contends that Atticus wrote with the aim of castigating the widespread use of Aristotle’s work by Platonists and Peripatetics, who tended to use Aristotle as a guide to Plato’s philosophy on the assumption that Aristotle preserved Plato’s doctrines and/or often also followed them. Atticus argues that Aristotle opposed Plato’s philosophy systematically and that no doctrine of his can be of help in understanding Plato, or for doing philosophy in general. He holds such a view because, like Numenius, he construes Plato’s philosophy as a system based on the metaphysics of the transcendent Forms, which determine all entities including ethical values, and considers immanent Forms derivative from them. Also crucial for the evaluation of Aristotle’s doctrine is his tendency to be inspired by Stoicism and to reconstruct Plato’s doctrines relying on the parts of Plato which inspired the Stoics, as is the case with his view on the divine providence or with his view that the soul is essentially rational and yet a separable substance (against the Stoics). For Atticus, Aristotle’s difference on the Forms, the providence, and the nature of the soul entails a substantially different position in ethics. Since for Atticus ethics is the purpose of all philosophy, Aristotle’s divergence from Plato in this is taken as indicative of the fundamental conflict between Aristotle and Plato.
6 Plotinus
Authors: Karamanolis George E.
Published: September 2006

This chapter examines the instances in which Plotinus compares Peripatetic and Platonic views, and attempts to sketch a preliminary answer to the question of how Plotinus saw the relationship between Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies. It is argued that Plotinus’ attitude to Aristotle’s doctrines is complex and differs from case to case. In general, Plotinus is cautious in accepting Aristotelian views and when he does so, he subjects them to critical judgment. This cautiousness results from his belief that Aristotle’s metaphysics is considerably different from that of Plato and results in serious problems and inconsistencies, which Plotinus sets out to show, often targeting Alexander’s interpretation of Aristotle. Despite this, Plotinus does not show hostility to Aristotle; quite the opposite, he sometimes refrains from criticizing him. Several different uses of Aristotle by Plotinus are identified.
7 Porphyry
Authors: Karamanolis George E.
Published: September 2006

Porphyry was much more involved in the study of Aristotle’s work than any other Platonist before him. It is shown that Porphyry criticized Aristotle, but he also considered him to have agreed with Plato in all crucial philosophical issues in physics, psychology, ethics, and metaphysics. Porphyry did not deny that Aristotle sometimes contradicted Plato. What he denied was that these contradictions undermined their essential accord. In Porphyry’s view, most of Aristotle’s disagreements with Plato can be reduced either to difference in perspective, or to Aristotle’s misunderstandings of Plato, or to misunderstandings of Aristotle by later interpreters.