bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Metal Clusters: Bonding and Reactivity
Authors: Li Wai-Kee , Lee Hung Kay , Ng Dennis Kee Pui , Cheung Yu-San , Mak Kendrew Kin Wah , Mak Thomas Chung Wai
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents 20 problems covering the subject of bonding and reactivity of metal clusters, along with their corresponding solutions.
A Question of Character
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: January 2019

This chapter focuses on epistemic vices that are character traits and, in particular, on the epistemic vice of closed-mindedness. The nature and significance of this epistemic vice is explained by reference of the failure of Israeli intelligence to anticipate the 1973 Yom Kippur surprise attack on Israel. Closed-mindedness is a high-fidelity epistemic vice, that is, one that requires a high degree of behavioural consistency. It is underpinned in many cases by a high need for closure and a low tolerance for ambiguity. Character accounts of epistemic vice are not undermined by situationism but they do need to acknowledge the insights of structuralism since flawed epistemic conduct can have structural as well as personal explanations.
Vicious Thinking
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: January 2019

Judicial thinking in the Birmingham Six trials is used to illustrate the category of thinking vices, epistemically vicious ways of thinking that are distinct from character vices. Thinking that is epistemically vicious in some respect or other isn’t the exclusive preserve of thinkers with the corresponding character vice. There are vices of slow thinking and of fast thinking. Some vicious thinking, such as conspiracy thinking, is only conditionally vicious. A distinction is drawn between thinking vices proper and subject-specific thinking vices and it is argued that the extent to which a given piece of thinking is epistemically vicious is determined by the extent to which it displays thinking vices proper.
Vice and Knowledge
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: January 2019

This chapter discusses the view, associated with David Hume and Saul Kripke, that the supposed epistemic vice of dogmatism can play a positive role in protecting our knowledge. It discusses Kripke’s dogmatism paradox and Kuhn’s view that dogmatism can play a positive role in normal science. This chapter argues that the supposed epistemic benefits of dogmatism have been greatly exaggerated and its epistemic drawbacks underestimated. The appropriate response to the claims of Holocaust deniers and other conspiracy theorists is not to avoid or ignore them but to rebut them. Knowers have responsibilities, including the responsibility not to dismiss challenges to their beliefs without good reason.
Vice and Responsibility
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: January 2019

This chapter explains and defends the distinction between blame and criticism and makes the case that epistemic vices can merit criticism even if they aren’t blameworthy. We are blameworthy for our epistemic vices only if they are epistemically harmful and we are, in the relevant sense, responsible for them. A distinction is drawn between responsibility for acquiring a vice (‘acquisition responsibility’) and responsibility for having a vice that one can change or revise (‘revision responsibility’). Revision responsibility requires the ability to control or modify the vice in question and there are three different varieties of control: voluntary, evaluative, and managerial. To the extent that we have effective control over our character vices that control is managerial rather than voluntary or evaluative.
Stealthy Vices
Authors: Cassam Quassim
Published: January 2019

Stealthy vices, such as closed-mindedness, are epistemic vices that are inherently hard to detect because it is in their nature to block their own detection. This chapter defends the view that at least some epistemic vices are stealthy and some are stealthier than others. The stealthiness of stealthy vices is explained on the basis that such vices negate or nullify the epistemic virtues on which active critical reflection on one’s own vices depends. The stealthiness of stealthy vices is the vice epistemological analogue of the Dunning-Kruger effect, but traumatic experiences can sometimes open one’s eyes to one’s own epistemic vices. In such cases one acquires self-knowledge by transformational insight rather than by active critical reflection.
Renewable Energy: Policy Dynamics at the Macro-, Meso-, and Micro-Levels
Authors: Sewerin Sebastian , Schmidt Tobias S.
Published: January 2019

Renewable energy is a distinct policy field encompassing both economic and environmental considerations. How these are balanced in the face of the 2007–8 economic crisis is an important question relating to the general stickiness of environmental policies. In this chapter, we investigate long-term policy dynamics across both EU and non-EU countries and across three levels of policy change. Using an Index of Policy Activity (IPA) dataset of 562 policies, we analyse the general direction of overall change in policy mixes (macro-level), the dynamics of policy instrument type use (meso-level), and change to policy design (micro-level). We find that, while the crisis marks a turning point in the speed of policy change, the direction of policy change alters only in Ireland and the UK—namely towards policy dismantling. However, we show that dismantling and expansion unfold differently at the policy meso- and micro-levels, adding further nuance to the empirical analysis of dynamics of policy change.
Environmental Policy and the Economic Crisis
Authors: Skovgaard Jakob , Hildingsson Roger , Johansson Bengt
Published: January 2019

This chapter employs qualitative analysis to apply the Index of Policy Activity (IPA) to climate policy in Sweden and Demark—two countries often identified as environmental leaders. It finds that the economic crisis that started in 2007–8 had substantial impacts in both states. However, Denmark, which was hit harder and for a much longer period of time than Sweden, witnessed more dismantling of its environmental policy. The analysis suggests that in both countries the political orientation of the government and changes of government proved to be key factors shaping policy ambition. Path dependence, manifested in an entrenched commitment to ecological modernization, helped to maintain support for progressive environmental policy. International pressure was also central in pushing Sweden in particular to express leadership and to promote ambitious climate policy.
Advertisement
Authors: Skow Bradford
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the theory of events and the theory of acting that the rest of the book relies on. Again, those theories use the distinction, from the study of lexical aspect, between stative and non-stative verbs. “If S, then an event occurred in virtue of the fact that S” is true when the main verb in the clause going in for “S” is non-stative, and “In Ving X did something” is true iff V is a non-stative verb. The chapter then summarizes the main claims and arguments of the four following chapters.
A Theory of Background Conditions
Authors: Skow Bradford
Published: January 2019

The common view about background conditions is that the difference between causes and background conditions is pragmatic, drawn in language not the world. This chapter defends an alternative view, on which the difference is metaphysical, drawn in the world not in language. This alternative says that something is a background condition to C’s causing E iff it is a state (rather than an event) that is a reason why C caused E. This theory is used to answer the question of what it is to manifest a disposition; briefly, something manifests a disposition to M in C if its having that disposition is a background condition to the Cing causing the Ming.
Introduction
Authors: Reutenauer Christophe
Published: January 2019

In a short article written in Latin in 1875 [C1], Elwin Bruno Christoffel introduced a class of words on a binary alphabet, now called Christoffel words. They were followed in the twentieth century by the theory of Sturmian sequences, introduced by Morse and Hedlund in 1940 [...
Words
Authors: Reutenauer Christophe
Published: January 2019

Basic results on bases of the free abelian group Z2 are proved by elementary and geometric methods. Bases are characterized by determinants of matrices. Primitive triangles and primitive parallelograms are introduced and characterized by tiling of the plane. Christoffel words are introduced by discrete geometric means: they code paths which discretize finite segments with integral endpoints. Their inner maximal factor is a palindrome, which is the cutting word associated with the segment. Their standard factorization is studied; uniqueness is proved (Borel and Laubie). The tree of Christoffel pairs is studied using Sturmian morphisms: these are the substitutions that preserve conjugates of Christoffel words.
Markoff Numbers
Authors: Reutenauer Christophe
Published: January 2019

The Markoff equation is the diophantine equation x2 +y2 +z2 = 3xyz. A solution is called a Markoff triple. The main result in this chapter is a bijection between lower Christoffel words and Markoff triples. The bijection uses several ingredients: a special representation of the free monoid into SL2(N), the so-called Fricke relations, which relate the traces of two matrices in SL2, their product and their commutator (an equation reminiscent of the Markoff equation, as noted first by Harvey Cohn). Another lemma describes the socalled Markoff moves: they relate Markoff triples each to another. The chapter ends with a statement of the famous Frobenius conjecture: it asks whether the parametrization of Markoff numbers (that is, components of a Markoff triple), which is surjective by the theorem, is also injective.
The Markoff Property
Authors: Reutenauer Christophe
Published: January 2019

The Markoff property is a combinatorial property of infinite words on the alphabet {a,b}, and of bi-infinite words. Such a word has this property if whenever there is a factor xy in the word,with x,y equal to the letters a,b (in some order), then itmay be extended into a factor of the formym’xymx, wherem’ is the reversal ofm, and where the length ofmis bounded (the bound depends only on the infinite word). As discussed in this chapter, the main theorem, due toMarkoff, is that this property implies periodicity, with a periodic pattern which must be a Christoffel word. It is one of the crucial results inMarkoff’s theory.
Historical Notes
Authors: Reutenauer Christophe
Published: January 2019

Short review of some earlier work on the classical Markoff theory, by Christoffel, Markoff, Hurwitz, Frobenius, Series, Smith, Bachmann, Remak, Dickson, Cassels, Cusick, Flahive, Heawood, Perron, Cassels, Bombieri, Aigner.
Introduction
Authors: Kershaw Jane
Published: January 2019

The Introduction sets out the scope and aims of the book, and explains how it departs from earlier publications dealing with similar themes. It then discusses the four themes around which the fourteen chapters are structured: the monetary and quasi-monetary functions of silver; the role of precious metals in primarily non-monetary (i.e. social and ritual) contexts; the sources of silver as assessed through archaeometric methods; and the monetary role of non-silver currencies, namely gold, cloth, and butter. The processes by which non-silver currencies were given value as currency are considered, alongside the social implications of the large-scale production of such currencies, particularly with respect to women’s economic agency.
Silver Fragmentation
Authors: Jankowiak Marek
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the phenomenon of silver fragmentation from the evidence of silver hoards deposited in the Baltic area. Focusing on the evidence of dirhams, it charts an increase in silver fragmentation in an anticlockwise direction around the Baltic Sea. This culminates in hoards from the west Slavic lands (Poland and eastern Germany), in which dirham fragments often weigh just fractions of a gram. Chronological and geographical patterns are presented to suggest that the degree of dirham fragmentation reflects not local monetary circulation, but the number of times dirhams changed hands in commercial transactions. In this sense, the degree of fragmentation reflects the distance dirhams travelled from their source. The implication is that silver was above all a means of payment in transactions related to the long-distance trade—especially in slaves and furs.
Reflections on Kingship, the Church, and Viking Age Silver in Ireland
Authors: Sheehan John
Published: January 2019

This chapter considers the wealth of some of Ireland’s kings, as represented by Viking Age silver hoards, and relates it to investment in the ecclesiastical sphere. While the rich Irish annals do not contain references to hoards or hoarding, there are some mentions of the phenomenon in early literary sources, and these relate to the church. Considering the occurrence of hoards and silver-working on ecclesiastical estates, as well as the status of the cross-marked ingot, it is argued that Viking Age silver hoards were deposited on church land with higher frequency than has hitherto been appreciated. This finding, in turn, suggests Irish secular elites obtained considerable quantities of silver wealth from the Scandinavians and gifted it to the church, with whom they often had close dynastic connections.
Beyond Economics
Authors: Audy Florent
Published: January 2019

In this chapter, the social, symbolic, and cultural attributes of Viking Age silver is addressed through an exploration of coin-pendants: coins taken out of circulation and suspended on necklaces to be worn as jewellery. Surveying material from a newly collated dataset, the chapter first outlines the key features of coin-pendants from across Scandinavia, including the rate of transformation of different coin types and their technical features. It then addresses the question: what made coin-pendants desirable? Discussion considers the aesthetic and bullion content of the pendants, as well as their value as exotic items and/or as items with long life histories. A case study is presented of an Arabic dirham-pendant, found in an inhumation grave at Birka, Sweden.
From Local Supply to Long-Distance Trade Networks
Authors: Sarah Guillaume
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the third theme of the volume: the sources of Viking wealth. It presents a theoretical and methodological framework for ‘fingerprinting’ early medieval silver by archaeometric methods. A combined approach, integrating elemental (especially gold and bismuth) and lead isotope analysis, is advanced. The methods involved, including state-of-the-art laser ablation ICP-MS, are introduced, and the limitations of the approach clearly laid out. These methods are then used to evaluate the diffusion of silver produced at the mine of Melle (Aquitaine, France): a major source of silver coinage in the Frankish kingdoms, which the Vikings acquired through their raids in Aquitaine during the ninth century.
Gold as a Means of Exchange in Scandinavian England (c.AD 850–1050)
Authors: Kershaw Jane
Published: January 2019

The Viking bullion economy is often characterized as a silver economy, based on the weight and fineness of silver objects, regardless of their form. In this chapter, new archaeological evidence from England is presented which suggests that gold objects had a greater monetary role than has previously been appreciated. The material consists of tested gold ingots, hack-gold, and weight-adjusted gold ornaments, found in areas of documented Scandinavian activity and settlement. The date of the items suggests that most belong to the ninth century. A case is made for linking the monetary use of gold with the contemporary activity of the Viking Great Army and their heightened gold resources following Viking raids in western Europe. The mounting evidence for gold bullion highlights the diverse material forms ‘money’ could take in the Viking Age, providing a more rounded and accurate view of Viking Age exchange.
Low-Rent Mauritius as a Developmental Counterfactual for High-Rent Trinidad and Tobago
Authors: Auty Richard M. , Furlonge Haydn I.
Published: January 2019

Mauritius’s existential Malthusian crisis at independence incentivized a developmental government to promote competitive diversification through a dual track reform strategy. The Mauritian government deployed its modest tapering rent stream to expand a dynamic market economy in Track 1 while postponing reform of the rent-distorted economy in Track 2 until the market economy could absorb it. Mauritius shows how expanding labour-intensive exports absorbs surplus labour, which triggers the labour-market turning point when structural change drives competitive diversification into more skill-intensive manufacturing and a proliferating range of export services (tourism, ICT, and finance). Critically, the omission of the labour-intensive industrialization phase of the competitive diversification model in Trinidad and Tobago prompted governments to combat rising unemployment by deploying rent to subsidize uncompetitive jobs. Even after a growth collapse, policy remained rent dependent because gas-based industrialization is a minimal economic diversification.
Naked Open-Market Manipulation and Its Effects
Authors: Fox Merritt B. , Glosten Lawrence R. , Rauterberg Gabriel V.
Published: January 2019

More than 80 years after US federal law first addressed stock market manipulation, there is still dispute about manipulation law’s foundational principles; this chapter aims to provide clarity by offering an analytical framework for understanding a specific manipulation. There has been a sharp split among the federal circuits concerning manipulation law’s central question: Can trading activity alone ever be considered illegal manipulation? Economists and legal scholars do not agree on whether manipulation is possible in principle, let alone on how to address it properly in practice. The framework offered by this chapter aims to help clarify federal law and may guide regulators in successfully prosecuting financial law’s most intractable wrong. We draw on the tools of microstructure economics and the theory of the firm to provide an analysis of a particular form of manipulation, identify who is harmed by it, and evaluate the social welfare effects.
Happiness
Authors: Goldman Alan H.
Published: January 2019

Accounts of happiness in the philosophical literature see it as either a judgment of satisfaction with one’s life or as a balance of positive over negative feelings or emotional states. There are sound objections to both types of account, although each captures part of what happiness is. Seeing it as an emotion allows us to incorporate both features of the accounts thought to be incompatible. Emotions are analyzed as multi-component states including judgments, feelings, physical symptoms, and behavioral dispositions. It is shown that prototypical happiness contains all these components, and each is explicated. Happiness is similar to other emotions in many respects, including the phenomenon of adaptation, the “paradox of happiness,” and the existence of both paradigm and borderline instances. In secondary senses happiness can be a mood or temperament, higher level dispositions. Happiness is both a judgment of and a component of well-being, but not the whole of it.
Introduction
Authors: Goldman Alan H.
Published: January 2019

This introductory chapter sets out the topics to be discussed throughout the book. It gives a brief indication of the nature of pleasure, happiness, well-being, and meaning in life. The complex relations between these four categories will be a major topic of this book: the chapters to follow will relate each of these states to motivation and personal value. Well-being is the all-inclusive category of personal value. It consists in the satisfaction of deep rational desires. None of the other states is to be equated with it, although they are both partial causes and effects of well-being (and in the case of happiness, in part a judgment of it).
The Context
Authors: Osterlind Steven J.
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the historical context that gives meaning to the contemporaneous developments in probability theory. It shows how one can only realize the true meaning of quantification by realizing how history set the context for the great number of mathematical developments. The period is defined as the “long century,” starting with the rise of the Enlightenment and lasting well into the age of the Industrial Revolution: roughly 1790 to 1920. Most of this relatively short chapter describes the main historical events that took place during the late-eighteenth century, throughout the nineteenth century, and in the beginning of the twentieth century. This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book, in which those who invented probability theory and developed the methods of probability estimation will be examined within their historical context.
Beginning in Observation
Authors: Osterlind Steven J.
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the idea of “observation.” Early astronomers only used their “best observation.” However, later on, astronomers started using the mean of all their observations instead. Seeing shortcomings in this approach, the eighteenth-century astronomer Tobias Mayer developed a data-gathering protocol to generate what he termed a “combination of observations.” Unfortunately, as his contemporary, the mathematician Leonard Euler, did not view this method as being particularly advantageous, it was rejected at the time, although Euler did contribute to it indirectly through his codification of modern mathematical terminology. The chapter goes on to discuss Isaac Newton, who set the ideas for the scientific method and modern calculus, and Blaise Pascal, who supplied many of the missing pieces to Newton’s calculus. In addition, a brief, lay-person’s description (nontechnical) of calculus is provided, along with examples of where it is used.
At Least Squares
Authors: Osterlind Steven J.
Published: January 2019

This chapter focuses on the next important mathematical invention: the method of least squares. First, it sets the historical context for its invention by describing the events in France and Germany leading up to the French Revolution. Next, the chapter describes how the method of least squares was invented twice, first by Adrien-Marie Legendre (as an appendix to his celestial investigations in Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes), and then in a more sophisticated version by Carl Gauss, in Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. After that, an easy-to-understand description of method itself is given. Thus, the chapter goes from observation to probability and on to prediction, through regression, discussing ordinary least squares (OLS), intercepts, and slopes.
Related to Relativity
Authors: Osterlind Steven J.
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides the context for the early twentieth-century events contributing to quantification. It was the golden age of scientific exploration, with explorers like David Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, and intellectual pursuits, such as Hilbert’s set of unsolved problems in mathematics. However, most of the chapter is devoted to discussing the last major influencer of quantification: Albert Einstein. His life and accomplishments, including his theory of relativity, make up the final milestone on our road to quantification. The chapter describes his time in Bern, especially in 1905, when he published several famous papers, most particularly his law of special relativity, and later, in 1915, when he expanded it to his theory of general relativity. The chapter also provides a layperson’s description of the space–time continuum. Women of major scientific accomplishments are mentioned, including Madame Currie and the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani.
The Path to Immortality
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

Newton’s theories of mechanics and gravity laid the foundations for the development of modern science. Newton is introduced through his activities at the Royal Mint. Newton’s ideas reigned supreme for over 200 years. Newtonian gravity was only superseded by Einstein’s theory of general relativity just over 100 years ago.
The Rosetta Stone and Quantum Waves
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

It was discovered in the early decades of the twentieth century that light and matter exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behaviour and this led to the development of quantum theory. Thomas Young demonstrated the wave-like behaviour of light 200 years ago. Thomas Young had wide-ranging interests and played an important role in deciphering hieroglyphic inscriptions. In 1905 Einstein showed that light also behaves like a stream of particles. Louis De Broglie suggested that particles such as electrons might also show wave-like behaviour and his prediction was soon verified in the laboratory. This led to the development of quantum mechanics, as well as important technological applications, such as the electron microscope.
We’re Having a Field Day!
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

Space is permeated by fields, such as the electromagnetic field, that transmit forces between objects that are not in direct contact. This idea was first devised by Michael Faraday and its mathematical realization for the electromagnetic field was achieved by James Clerk Maxwell. Light is an electromagnetic wave that ripples through the electromagnetic field. Richard Feynman invented a diagrammatic representation of the interactions between particles that plays an important role in quantum field theory. Maxwell’s theory was the inspiration for Einstein when developing his new theory of gravity. Newton was criticized for suggesting the gravitational force acts between bodies that are not in contact. Einstein resolved this issue when he devised general relativity which is a gravitational field theory.
Cosmic Ripples
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

Gravitational waves generated by violent collisions in the distant universe were recently discovered by the LIGO detector. Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity and are the gravitational equivalent of electromagnetic waves. Because gravity is so much weaker than electromagnetism, only the most violent cosmic events such as black hole mergers produce waves that could conceivably be detected. LIGO is an incredibly sensitive laser interferometer.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

The emission and absorption of light by atoms produces discrete sets of spectral lines that were a vital clue to unravelling the structure of atoms and their elucidation was an important step towards the development of quantum mechanics. In the middle years of the nineteenth century Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered that spectral lines can be used to determine the chemical composition of stars. Following Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus, Bohr devised a model of the hydrogen atom that explained the spectral lines that it produces. His work was developed further by Pauli, who postulated the exclusion principle in order to explain the structure of other types of atom. This enabled him to explain the layout of the Periodic Table and the chemical properties of the elements.
Most of the Universe is Missing!
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

Most of the matter in the universe exists in an unknown form called dark matter. All estimates of the mass of galaxies and galaxy clusters suggest they contain far more matter than is visible to us in the form of stars. Conventional explanations, such as the existence of large quantities of burnt-out stars known as MACHOs or dark gas clouds, have been ruled out. The most popular explanation is that dark matter consists of vast quantities of hypothetical stable particles known as WIMPs that were produced in vast quantities in the very early universe. Many laboratories around the world are searching for signs of these particles. These include the Italian Gran Sasso laboratory running the XENON100 experiment. Some theorists have suggested the evidence for dark matter would disappear if we had a better theory of gravity. Analysis of the Bullet Cluster indicates such proposals will not work.
Doctor Atomic and the Black Hole
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

The existence of black holes was proposed by Oppenheimer and Snyder in 1939. Three years later Oppenheimer was appointed head of Los Alamos, the secret weapons laboratory of the Manhattan Project. Cygnus X-1 was the first black hole candidate to be studied. We now know it is a black hole with almost 15 times the mass of the Sun. Quasars are now thought to be generated by material falling into supermassive black holes in distant galaxies.
Supermassive Black Holes
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is aiming to image the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Andrea Ghez has mapped out the orbits of stars around this supermassive black hole and deduced it has a mass of four million Suns. An even bigger supermassive black hole of six billion solar masses lies at the centre of the M87 Galaxy. Shep Doeleman has marshalled several of the world’s radio telescopes to form the EHT with the aim of imaging the event horizons of these black holes.
The Gorgon’s Head!
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

The astronomer John Goodricke was first to realize the star Algol in the constellation Perseus regularly fades for several hours because it is periodically eclipsed by a fainter companion star. In antiquity the strange behaviour of Algol led to its mythological identification with the head of the gorgon Medusa, and this is the source of its name. Goodicke’s explanation of the variability of Algol was published in 1783. He also discovered other eclipsing binaries as well as the first Cepheid variable. Tragically, Goodricke died at the age of just 21.
To Boldly Go …
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

The Breakthrough Starshot project was launched in 2016 with the aim of developing the technology to send robot spacecraft to the nearest stars. The first spacecraft to head out of the Solar System were launched in the 1970s. Pioneer 10 carries a plaque offering information about Earth and its inhabitants to any alien species that might one day intercept the craft. The Breakthrough Starshot panel included Stephen Hawking and Freeman Dyson. The idea is to use banks of lasers to accelerate mini robot craft to one-fifth of the speed of light with the aim of reaching the Alpha Centauri system within about twenty years.
Somewhere over the Rainbow
Authors: Mee Nicholas
Published: January 2019

Frank Drake devised the Drake equation to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy with the aim of gathering support for SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The earliest attempts to detect radio signals from extraterrestrials date back to the 1960s. Paul Allen has funded the Allen Telescope, Array which is dedicated to searching for such signals. When complete it will include 350 radio dishes. The citizen science project SETI@Home allows anyone with a home PC to participate in analysing the data amassed by the SETI project.
Reading, Reception, and Elite Education
Authors: Eastlake Laura
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines representations of identity formation in boys through acts of reading and particularly through acts of learning to grapple with the Latin language. This relationship between manhood and reading is evidenced in both the content and the semantic structures of schoolboy fiction. For Tom Brown, Eric, and Stalky—each of whom attend a different calibre or type of Victorian school—Latin is both the process through which boys become men and the designator of that manliness, with senior male figures like Thomas Arnold often being constructed as Caesar-like figures at the top of an ascending scale of maturity and seniority. Rome is often presented as both the maker and the marker of elite Victorian manliness in both its physical and intellectual varieties. Yet this chapter is also interested in changes and challenges to the classical curriculum in the nineteenth century as competing styles of masculinity emerged in the form of the captains of industry and science.
New Imperialism and the Problem of Cleopatra
Authors: Eastlake Laura
Published: January 2019

This chapter demonstrates how, by the closing decades of the century, Rome had eclipsed both Greek and Germanic pasts as a model for figuring ideal imperial masculinity. This is most apparent in late Victorian writing about Egypt. Britain’s newest imperial acquisition in 1882 was also, significantly, the backdrop for ancient Rome’s triumph over the East and over Egypt’s most famous queen, Cleopatra. This chapter demonstrates how Henry Rider Haggard’s novel Cleopatra (1889) and the various stories now referred to collectively as ‘Mummy Fiction’, dramatize the extent to which British imperial identity and experience had become aligned with Roman examples by the end of the century. The New Imperialist is cast as a modern-day Caesar or Antony in his relationship with empire, as territorial and sexual desires become conflated and focused on the figure of Cleopatra herself.
Introduction
Authors: Simmons J. Aaron
Published: January 2019

This general editorial introduction to the volume attempts to answer why another book on Christian philosophy is even needed today. J. Aaron Simmons argues that in light of continued debates regarding the relationship between philosophy and theology, it is important to think carefully about the different ways of making sense of philosophical subcategories defined by the particular commitments of the various participants in the debates. In this way, Simmons suggests that the idea of Christian philosophy needs careful historical analysis and hermeneutic evaluation. The introduction then offers a brief history of recent Christian philosophy as a distinct philosophical approach and anticipates the various criticisms that might be leveled against it.
“Christian Philosophy”
Authors: Marion Jean-Luc
Published: January 2019

In this chapter, Jean-Luc Marion offers a sweeping account of the history of recent Christian philosophy (especially in light of the debates between Émile Bréhier and Étienne Gilson). Arguing that the majority of Christian philosophy has functioned according to a “hermeneutic” approach, Marion suggests that far from being marginalized in recent history, Christian philosophy has been quite prominent. Despite the substantial pedigree of hermeneutic Christian philosophy, Marion considers three objections to it as the best way forward. Proposing instead a “heuristic” approach that allows for a specifically phenomenological conception of revelation and charity, Marion attempts to open new spaces for thinking about Christian philosophy in ways that are both philosophically substantive and theologically responsible.
The Two-Fold Task of Christian Philosophy of Religion
Authors: Benson Bruce Ellis
Published: January 2019

Using Pierre Hadot’s idea of “philosophy as a way of life,” Bruce Ellis Benson argues that Christian philosophy of religion is ultimately about the practical task of living our lives. But he contends that this task is two-fold: it includes both theory and also practice. While analytic philosophy of religion (APR) tends to emphasize theory and continental philosophy of religion (CPR) tends to emphasize practice (admittedly, these generalizations are only true to a certain extent), APR and CPR are both part of a two-fold task. Throughout the chapter, Benson puts into question any hard distinction between theory and practice.
Discerning the Spirit
Authors: DeRoo Neal
Published: January 2019

In this chapter, Neal DeRoo argues that the primary task of Christian philosophy is discerning the “spirit” of the age and not merely offering rational defenses of theism. It begins by articulating the notion of “spirit” (drawn from the later Husserl) that is at work in this chapter. Then it articulates a philosophical anthropology that makes clear how such “spirit” is pre-theoretically operative as a dynamic, religious force in all human action. Next, it argues that discerning, articulating, and clarifying the nature of this “spirit” as it functions in a particular culture or community is the task of Christian philosophy. It ends by showing how diagnosing these spirits of the age is not only an intellectual project, but enables the Christian philosopher to provide a concrete service to the broader Christian community.
The Strategies of Christian Philosophy
Authors: Simmons J. Aaron
Published: January 2019

In this chapter, J. Aaron Simmons argues that philosophers who are Christians now find themselves in a situation where continuing to engage in Christian philosophy, in the technical sense as laid out by Plantinga, is likely to be a problematic strategy on three fronts. Philosophically, it is problematic because it can close down potential lines of inquiry that might profitably be pursued and, thereby, lead to a problematic professional insularity. Theologically, it is problematic because it can lead to theological triumphalism and arrogance that cut against the humility and invitation found in the example of Christ. And socially, it is problematic because it can foster extremism at the level of one’s justificatory appeals. Simmons concludes by suggesting that Merold Westphal offers an approach to Christian philosophy that is well suited to the contemporary situation.
Philosophy, Religion, and Worldview
Authors: Oppy Graham
Published: January 2019

Alvin Plantinga’s “Advice to Christian Philosophers” begins with a triumphalist narrative that forms the backdrop for the advice to Christian philosophers. In this chapter Graham Oppy argues (a) that the triumphalist narrative is over-egged, and (b) that what is of value in the advice applies to all philosophers, Christian or otherwise. Oppy’s critique of the triumphalist narrative is based on demographic and other data that suggests that while (a) we have no reason to think that there is a higher percentage of Christians in academic philosophy now than there was in the late 1940s (and, indeed, we may even have good reason to think that there is a lower percentage of Christians in academic philosophy now than there was in the late 1940s), (b) we do have reason to think that there is a larger absolute number of Christians in academic philosophy now than there was in the late 1940s.
Responding to Challenges
Authors: Hasker William
Published: January 2019

In this chapter, William Hasker responds to the challenges to Christian philosophy offered by the other chapters in this section. Graham Oppy argues that the widely acclaimed surge in Christian philosophy is more a myth than a reality. Paul Moser thinks that, insofar as there has been something of a surge, the philosophy produced falls short of being properly Christian. John Schellenberg’s view is even more ominous: the result of the surge is something that is not really philosophy at all. Aaron Simmons accepts that a surge has occurred: he worries that it may lead to both exclusivism and triumphalism among the philosophers involved in it. It is argued here that, while the criticisms have some merit, the project of Christian philosophy can be vindicated against them and remains a viable and promising enterprise.
Introduction
Authors: Harrison Peter
Published: January 2019

The introduction to this volume begins with some preliminary distinctions and definitions before offering a description of the content of individual chapters and how they relate to each other and to the overall themes of the book. It briefly explores definitions of naturalism, providing an account of the difference between methodological and metaphysical naturalism. It also explains how and when a distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ first emerged, and the different ways in which that distinction has been deployed in scientific explanations. The key concept of laws of nature, which is central to a number of chapters, is also briefly introduced.
Laws of God or Laws of Nature?
Authors: Harrison Peter
Published: January 2019

The appeal to laws of nature as an explanatory principle is often regarded as fundamental to naturalism. Yet when the idea that there were immutable, mathematical laws of nature first rose to prominence in the seventeenth century it was deeply connected to a theological understanding of natural order. Descartes thus imagined laws of nature to be divine commands, and attributed their immutability to the immutability of their divine source. For Descartes, Boyle, and Newton, the invariable uniformity of nature was understood as a consequence not of God’s withdrawal from the world, but of his direct and incessant engagement with it. It followed that the world was to be investigated empirically, because this was the only way in which the otherwise inscrutable will of God could be discerned. Over the course of the following centuries, however, laws came to be reimagined as simply observational generalizations, or brute features of the natural world.
Chemistry with and without God
Authors: Brooke John Hedley
Published: January 2019

Chemistry has been distinctive in its relations with religious and anti-religious belief. In its alchemical formation it minimally provided analogies for spiritual transformation. By the late-nineteenth century it was a prominent resource for scientific materialism and reductionism. Currently, it underpins ambitious projects for biosynthesis, usurping a vocabulary of ‘creation’. The aim of this chapter is to identify turning points as chemistry became a fully naturalized science. Five theses are introduced: that a simple antithesis between natural science and supernatural religion is inadequate; that chemistry, for much of its history, could be on the side of the angels; that, conversely and in other contexts, it could be corrosive of religious belief; that, as a catalyst for both belief and unbelief, it could be ambiguous in its cultural implications; and that the importance of scientific naturalism as an agent of disbelief is easily exaggerated.
Anthropology and Original Sin
Authors: Clark Constance
Published: January 2019

The legacies of rejected nineteenth-century models of evolutionary anthropology remain influential. Nineteenth-century founders of the discipline such as E. B. Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan aspired to study human societies, including morals and religion, as natural phenomena, reflecting a natural order. In the context of shared assumptions about race and empire they postulated a trajectory from primitive society to civilization, identifying ‘primitive’ societies as remnant populations arrested at early stages of evolutionary development—the ‘childhood of the race’. Rejecting the racial and teleological implications of this trajectory, Franz Boas argued that anthropology and other historical sciences differed fundamentally from the nomothetic, law-giving physical sciences. Naturalism has become problematic for some anthropologists—not in the sense that the ‘God hypothesis’ has returned as methodology, but manifested in an uneasiness about definitions of culture and of human nature in naturalistic, deterministic, reductionist, and biological terms.
The Theology of Victorian Scientific Naturalists
Authors: Lightman Bernard
Published: January 2019

The Victorian scientific naturalists are particularly important for an understanding of the history of naturalism. They were the first group of scientists and intellectuals to adopt secular naturalism to forge an identity aimed at setting themselves apart from colleagues who remained loyal to Christianity. Three of the most important Victorian scientific naturalists, the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, the physicist John Tyndall, and the philosopher Herbert Spencer, drew on several concepts closely associated with the Christian theology of their day to articulate, largely in a secularized form, some of their deepest beliefs about nature and the human condition. These beliefs were integral to their science and their vision of scientific progress. They were elements of a ‘theology’ in line with modern science.
School Ties
Authors: Shuffelton George
Published: January 2019

In the early nineteenth century, as alumni associations quickly became commonplace, Oxford and Cambridge colleges established their own alumni magazines and societies. This raises questions such as: what kinds of friendships were created at medieval universities? How commonly did university men retain lasting connections with those they had met years ago as scolares? The answers to these questions tell us something about the medieval universities as institutions capable of forging new social identities for their members. This chapter reviews the available evidence for friendships among old members of medieval Oxford and Cambridge. Nearly all of the evidence discussed comes from previously published sources, including institutional records and official correspondence, letters from formularies and at least one real-life example of how such formulas might be employed, the theories of friendship taught in the classroom and those theories as embodied in popular handbooks for students, and the evidence of wills.
‘A Claim on Their Gratitude’
Authors: Sullivan, OSB Thomas
Published: January 2019

This chapter focuses on the individuals immortalized in the portrait panels in the new library of the Collège de Sorbonne. Built on a north-south axis, the long sides of the new library’s upper floor feature thirty-eight windows that not only provided necessary light but also serve as the library’s principal ornamentation. Twenty-five of the windows were embellished with portrait panels, presenting in each window an individual who had some ‘claim on the college's gratitude’. These individuals are Robert of Sorbon, William of Saint-Amour, Henry of Ghent, Godfrey [of Fontaines], Thomas of Ireland, Henry of Hesse, John of Pouilly, Peter Plaoul, John Luillier, Francis of Fon-tenay, Martin of Andocilia, John Noseret, Francis of Segovia, John of Pardo, John Jassa, John Quentin, John of La Rochelle, Gilbert Guérin, Peter Voleau, Dominic Beguin, Andrew of Château-Neuf, Gilles Boileau de Bouillon, John Charron, Gilbert Fournier, and John Standonck.
Traces of a University Career in Renaissance Brandenburg
Authors: Omodeo Pietro Daniel
Published: January 2019

This chapter reviews the intellectual and professional career of John Craig of Edinburgh (died c.1620). Craig is one of those Scottish intellectuals who travelled across continental Europe, received a higher education in the main academic and cultural centres of the Renaissance, and eventually brought back to Britain experience and knowledge gained abroad. He spent about ten years at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt on Oder. After serving for many years as a professor of mathematics and logic, and obtaining a medical degree from Basle, he returned to Scotland. He probably practiced medicine before becoming court physician to James VI of Scotland. He followed James to England at the time of his coronation in 1603. There, he was incorporated in the College of Physicians, as well as at Oxford University.
Paul W. Knoll, ‘A Pearl of Powerful Learning’: The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century.
Authors: Shank Michael H.
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents a review of Paul W. Knoll’s ‘A Pearl of Powerful Learning:’ The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century. The book covers topics such as the foundation, the urban context, institutional issues, all the faculties, intellectual trends, and libraries. Not the least of this book’s accomplishments is its digestion and synthesis, in English, of a large body of important Polish scholarship. In addition to its specific foci, Knoll’s scholarship contributes an invaluable case study to a growing literature that undercuts the stereotype of the late-medieval university as an institution in decline. Indeed, the University of Cracow was not alone in its vitality and socio-political engagement.