bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A functional guide to functional diversity measures
Authors: Petchey Owen L. , O’Gorman Eoin J. , Flynn Dan F. B.
Published: September 2009

This chapter asks the questions: what kinds of resources do organisms exploit, where do they exploit them, and when do they exploit them? Each of these characteristics, and many others, can be a component of functional diversity. One critical reason that functional diversity might link organisms and ecosystems is that it implicitly contains information about how species will compensate for the loss of another. Another illustration of the interactions that are implicitly represented in measures of functional diversity is that the effect on functional diversity of losing a particular species (or adding a particular species) is context-dependent. The context here is the other species present in the community. Functional diversity is a measure of diversity that implicitly incorporates some mechanisms of ecological interactions between species. At present, much attention is focused on how to measure it, and that is the broad subject of this chapter.
Biodiversity and the stability of ecosystem functioning
Authors: Griffin John N. , O’Gorman Eoin J. , Emmerson Mark C. , Jenkins Stuart R. , Klein Alexandra-Maria , Loreau Michel , Symstad Amy
Published: September 2009

Concern that the rapid anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity may undermine the delivery of ecosystem services has prompted a synthesis of community and ecosystem ecology over the last decade. Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research is central to this emerging synthesis, asking how biodiversity is related to the magnitude and stability of ecosystem processes. Isolating species richness effects from species composition has been a chief goal of BEF research. This BEF perspective recognized that fluctuating abundances of component species may not produce instability at the community or ecosystem level because compensatory reactions among species dampen fluctuations of aggregate abundance. Within the BEF framework, experiments and theory explicitly relating to the effect of species richness on community-level aggregate properties (mainly biomass) have focused on variability through time in relation to background environmental variation (temporal stability) as well as on the impact (resistance) and recovery (resilience) of such properties to discrete, and often extreme, perturbations. This chapter reviews recent empirical studies examining the links between species richness and these three facets of stability.
Incorporating biodiversity in climate change mitigation initiatives
Authors: Díaz Sandra , Wardle David A. , Hector Andy
Published: September 2009

Climate change mitigation initiatives based on biological sequestration of carbon have paid little attention to biodiversity, with important implications both for climate change mitigation and for ecosystem services that depend on biodiversity. Here the chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical evidence for forest biodiversity effects on carbon sequestration. This chapter suggests that protection of primary forests is the most effective option for maximizing carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems, and should be included in future international agreements. Because carbon sequestration is a long term goal, this chapter presents the case that avoidance of losses should be emphasized over short term uptake, and that maintenance of mixtures of dominant and subdominant species and genotypes are the safest option for carbon sequestration in plantations and agroforestry systems. Biodiversity conservation should be included in the development of policy for climate change mitigation initiatives based on carbon sequestration in forested systems, including those related to the Kyoto Protocol.
Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem function: will an integrated approach improve results?
Authors: Wright Justin , Symstad Amy , Bullock James M. , Engelhardt Katharina , Jackson Louise , Bernhardt Emily
Published: September 2009

Ecological restorations often focus on restoring communities while ignoring ecosystem functioning, or on ecosystem functioning without regard to communities. This chapter argues that the biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) perspective provides an opportunity to integrate these views and potentially improve the success of restoration. First, the restoration of biodiversity may lead to desired levels of ecosystem properties and processes through "classical" BEF mechanisms such as complementarity or selection effects. Second, BEF theory suggests that biodiversity may enhance temporal stability of the provisioning of ecosystem services in restored ecosystems. Finally, in restored ecosystems with multiple management goals, biodiversity may enhance the provisioning of multiple services. Assessing the relative benefits of biodiversity for risk management and the provisioning of multiple services requires economic as well as ecological analyses. Scientists, managers and policy makers will need to ask relevant questions and collaborate in interpreting results if BEF theory's potential to impact restoration is to be realized.
Origins of metazoan body plans: the larval revolution
Authors: Raff Rudolf A.
Published: September 2009

Bilaterian animal body plan origins are generally thought about in terms of adult forms. However, most animals have larvae with body plans, ontogenies, and ecologies distinct from their adults. The first of two primary hypotheses for larval origins suggests the earliest animals were small pelagic forms similar to modern larvae, with adult bilaterian body plans evolved subsequently. The second suggests that adult bilaterian body plans evolved first and that larval body plans arose by interpolations of features into direct-developing ontogenies. The two hypotheses have different consequences for understanding parsimony in evolution of larvae and of developmental genetic mechanisms. If primitive metazoans were like modern larvae and distinct adult forms evolved independently, there should be little commonality of patterning genes among adult body plans. However, sharing of patterning genes in adults is observed. If larvae arose by co-option of adult bilaterian-expressed genes into independently evolved larval forms, larvae may show morphological convergence, but with distinct patterning genes, as is observed. Thus, comparative studies of gene expression support independent origins of larval features. Precambrian and Cambrian embryonic fossils are also consistent with direct development of the adult as primitive, with planktonic larval forms arising during the Cambrian. Larvae have continued to co-opt genes and evolve new features, allowing study of developmental evolution.
Beyond linear sequence comparisons: the use of genome-level characters for phylogenetic reconstruction
Authors: Boore Jeffrey L. , Fuerstenberg Susan I.
Published: September 2009

The first whole genomes to be compared for phylogenetic inference were those of mitochondria, which provided the first sets of genome-level characters for phylogenetic reconstruction. Most powerful among these characters has been comparisons of the relative arrangements of genes, which have convincingly resolved numerous branching points, including some that had remained recalcitrant even to very large molecular sequence comparisons. Now the world faces a tsunami of complete nuclear genome sequences. In addition to the tremendous amount of DNA sequence that is becoming available for comparison, there is also the potential for many more genome-level characters to be developed, including the relative positions of introns, the domain structures of proteins, gene family membership, presence of particular biochemical pathways, aspects of DNA replication or transcription, and many others. These characters can be especially convincing because of their low likelihood of reverting to a primitive condition or occurring independently in separate lineages, so reducing the occurrence of homoplasy. The comparisons of organelle genomes pioneered the way for using such features for phylogenetic reconstructions, and it is almost certainly true, as ever more genomic sequence becomes available, that further use of genome-level characters will play a big role in outlining the relationships among major animal groups.
MicroRNAs and metazoan phylogeny: big trees from little genes
Authors: Sperling Erik A. , Peterson Kevin J.
Published: September 2009

Understanding the evolution of a clade, from either a morphologic or genomic perspective, first and foremost requires a correct phylogenetic tree topology. This allows for the polarization of traits so that synapomorphies (innovations) can be distinguished from plesiomorphies and homoplasies. Metazoan phylogeny was originally formulated on the basis of morphological similarity, and in some areas of the tree was robustly supported by molecular analyses, whereas in others was strongly repudiated by molecular analyses. Nonetheless, some areas of the tree still remain largely unknown, despite decades, if not centuries, of research. This lack of consensus may be largely due to apomorphic body plans combined with apomorphic sequences. Here, the chapter proposes that microRNAs may represent a new dataset that can unequivocally resolve many relationships in metazoan phylogeny, ranging from the interrelationships among genera to the interrelationships among phyla. miRNAs, small non-coding regulatory genes, shows three properties that make them excellent candidates for phylogenetic markers: 1) new microRNA families are continually being incorporated into metazoan genomes through time; 2) they show very low homoplasy, with only rare instances of secondary loss, and only rare instances of substitutions occurring in the mature gene sequence; and 3) are almost impossible to evolve convergently. Because of these three properties, this chapter proposes that miRNAs are a novel type of data that can be applied to virtually any area of the metazoan tree, to test among competing hypotheses or to forge new ones, and to help finally resolve the correct topology of the metazoan tree.
Comparative genomics of insect immunity
Authors: Kafatos Fotis , Waterhouse Robert , Zdobnov Evgeny , Christophides George
Published: September 2009

This chapter compares the Drosophila group with mosquitoes and honeybees to disentangle common themes from specific components of immunity. Honeybees, for example, have a relatively small set of immune genes which demonstrate a high degree of conservatism. They are most intriguing when compared with non-social insects, as the differences between them are attributable to the evolution of sociality in bees and other Hymenoptera. The chapter highlights how the use of comparative genomics led to the unravelling of evolutionary novelties. Genes containing leucine-rich repeats are an example, which led to the discovery of a new complement-like mechanism in mosquitoes.
2 Financial Governance in the Neo-liberal Era
Authors: Dymski Gary
Published: September 2009

This chapter assesses the governance problems associated with the macrostructural changes that have been at work in global financial markets since the dawn of the neoliberal era — that is, since the end of the Bretton Woods era. The argument proceeds in four steps. First, the chapter identifies and elaborates on the key macrostructural changes currently ongoing in contemporary markets for finance. Second, the chapter exposits the macrostructural changes that have arisen from the shifts in financial firms' and investors' structures, strategies, and behaviours during the neoliberal era. Third, the chapter describes how the interaction of geo-economic imbalances, strategic shifts, and new financial instruments have altered the landscape of financial risk. Finally the chapter delineates the implications of these shifts for the macro governance of risk in the financial system, using the most recent global financial crisis triggered by massive defaults and arrears on subprime mortgage debt in the U.S. as a case in point. The principal assertion of this final section is this: the complex and far-reaching transformation of risk and risky behaviour implies that the macro-governance of risk must encompass a range of instruments — oversight by national and international authorities, macroeconomic stabilization policy, and emergency interventions and guidance by international financial institutions. Because of new developments in financial markets, the difficulties of identifying the locus of risk, and of intervening in contemporary financial crises to the satisfaction of all the interests involved are greater than ever before.
6 The Role of Proximity in Secondary Equity Markets
Authors: Wójcik Dariusz
Published: September 2009

This chapter analyses the role of proximity between investors and corporations with equity traded on public secondary equity markets in financial risk management. Combining insights from recent research on home and local bias in financial economics, with economic geographical research on proximity and financial markets, that proximity, even if defined narrowly as geographical proximity, has significant implications for: investors (in terms of performance and trade-off with liquidity); the investment industry as a whole (in terms of size, structure, and strategy); issuers (in terms of access to capital and liquidity); communities (in terms of herd behaviour and financial literacy); and policy makers (in terms of market structure, competition, and international harmonization). The consideration for cognitive, social, organizational, and institutional proximity enriches the understanding of secondary equity markets, by complementing the analysis of geographical proximity, but does not make the latter redundant.
9 Managing Financial Risks in Urban Environments
Authors: Randalls Samuel
Published: September 2009

Financial risks relating to the environment are frequently concentrated in cities, both in the source of risks and in the management of those risks. Urban areas are prone to a number of environmental concerns including brownfield biodiversity, flooding, and potential relations to climate change, and the effects of ‘everyday’ environmental changes, for example the weather, on productivity. Managing these risks will frequently be found in the city too through mainstream financial institutions like banks and insurers that seek both physical and financial protection for themselves and their clients from the worst environmental effects. One clear example is decision-making about the Thames Barrier in London, which aims to protect the financial heartland of the UK from severe flooding. At the same time, in nearby offices, a wide range of new products are being created to manage these urban environmental risks, including diverse catastrophe bonds, weather derivatives, and global warming indexes. This chapter explores the range of financial risks emerging from environmental changes and the ways in which these are being managed. This brings together both an appreciation of the nature of these risks as well as a financial focus on environmental risks. Relatively little has been written in geography on these products and this chapter provides an overview that is both introductory, but also based on contemporary research on these issues that addresses much deeper questions. If environmental risks are to be successfully managed, then it is clear that there will need to be an appreciation of the raft of financial responses, both current and potential, that will be introduced by companies to achieve this.
Divine Talk
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

The corpus of the Attic orators has long been recognized as a source for information about the mindset and life of ordinary Athenians. This book contributes to a differentiated understanding of religion in the Athenian public discourse by studying the references to religion and the use made of them in the corpus; it explores how the prominent orators differ in the sets of motifs they employ, in their strategies of persuasion, and thus in the image they convey of themselves. Part I analyses the rhetorical strategies behind the employment of religion in each of Demosthenes' public forensic speeches and links them with their legal, historical, and social background, showing that argumentation based on religion is not used randomly. Part II deals with deliberative and private speeches, in which religion plays a much less prominent role, and orators dispense with denigration and most other open use of religious argumentation; in the assembly the use of religious ideas serves instead as a signal helping to characterize the political situation, whereas in the private speeches it is most prominently the religious form of procedural elements that is exploited. This book presents various factors that could influence the appropriateness of references to religion, showing that careful consideration e.g. of the public relevance of a case is necessary in the interpretation of speeches.
1 Against Midias (Or. 21)
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

This chapter deals with Demosthenes' public speeches shows how Demosthenes gradually introduces a religious component in or. 21, which appears not to have been the basis or a necessary element of the case. However, he does not use the religious aspect to portray Midias as an impious person to be condemned on these grounds; instead, the religious connotations of the offence contribute to characterizing his opponent as incompatible with society. Demosthenes avoids open religious accusation regarding the attack at the Dionysia, only to use it when he defends himself against similar accusations from Midias.
4 Demosthenes as Speechwriter
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

This chapter demonstrates that Demosthenes uses religion in a different way when he writes for delivery by other speakers. Of the three speeches on illegal proposals, in Against Aristocrates the Athenian rules on homicide procedures are characterized as in compliance with religious requirements and the opposite is accordingly accused of undermining these rules and exposing the city to pollution. Androtion is likewise accused of religious misconduct in the speeches against himself and Against Timocrates. In contrast to the speeches discussed in Chapters 1–3, the attacks made in Demosthenes' logographic speeches rely on their religious nature.
Conclusion I: The Importance of the Individual
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

This chapter summarizes the results from the analysis of the public speeches. Speeches delivered by the same speaker prove similar in the selection of religious arguments; the same need not be true for speeches written by the same person. This suggests that there was a need for a consistent exploitation of a speaker's argumentation qua performer, i.e., a consistent ethos of the public speakers; the personal beliefs of speechwriters seem not to have any influence. Demosthenes dispenses with argumentation that works only on the religious level. Religion is rather exploited in its public role, as a force for social cohesion.
6 Demosthenes' Assembly Speeches
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines the evidence for religious references in deliberative oratory before the Athenian assembly; outside speeches on religious matters, such references are mainly found in times of crisis. Demosthenes' practice is compared with the speeches in Thucydides and Xenophon; religious argumentation is prominent in his assembly speeches only as an appeal to use the god-sent opportunity, and only in a certain period, in the early 340s. This is interpreted as an attempt on Demosthenes' part to arouse attention to himself by the use of a particular motif; he thereby suggests to the Athenians that their city is in danger while they are inactive.
7 Against Leptines (Or. 20)
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

The trial against the law of Leptines on tax exemption combines elements of assembly debate and public trials, with the former prevailing. In the speech Against Leptines this is reflected by the absence of (religious) denigration. Instead, propitious language is prominent. In two places religious concepts seem to be alluded to, used to hide flaws in the argument, but either not addressed explicitly or not turned into allegations of faulty religious behaviour.
8 Private Speeches I: Ritual Acts with Probative Force
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

This chapter outlines the use of religion in standard patterns in the private speeches. References to religious acts, in particular oaths, that form part of the procedure are more prominent than in public speeches because the aggressive use of religion as a means of accusation is normally dispensed with. The formal elements of the trial are not exploited for their religious content, whereas extra-judicial cult practices can be introduced exactly because of their religious significance.
9 Private Speeches II: Non‐Probative Arguments
Authors: Martin Gunther
Published: September 2009

Few private speeches contain significant references to religious concepts that go beyond the procedural acts of the previous chapter. This chapter presents the most obvious examples from Demosthenes 47, 54, 57, and Isaeus 6. These instances partly start from ritual acts mentioned in Chapter 8, but are all close to motifs that have been found in the public speeches.
2 The eternal election of humanity in Jesus Christ (Barth)
Authors: Greggs Tom
Published: September 2009

This chapter considers the implications for soteriology of Barth's doctrine of election. Following an introduction to the doctrine, this chapter reflects on criticism of Barth, and offers an analytical approach to the doctrine within the framework of the larger theme of universality in Christ. Primarily, it argues that the doctrine of election is the foundation of Barth's soteriology in terms of the eternal election of humanity in Christ. It is advocated that this doctrine tends very strongly in a universalist direction. However, the principal focus is to demonstrate that these universalist leanings do not in any way undermine particularity. This is demonstrated through a special focus on Barth's doctrine of eternity. This chapter provides part of the reflective theological material for the formative aspect of the book's interpretation of universal salvation in the Son in Chapter 4.
3 Pre‐existence and restoration: Logos and and Logika (Origen)
Authors: Greggs Tom
Published: September 2009

This chapter seeks to explore the relationship between pre-existence and restoration in Origen's soteriology. It considers how eschatology and protology are mutually self-determining in the Son. It does this by charting the journey of the soul in Origen's theology from pre-existence to restoration, considering the connection between Origen's two highly controversial doctrines of pre-existence and apokatastasis. It is considered that this connection is the foundation for speaking about Origen's soteriology, and marks Origen's way of discussing the chief concern of philosophy contemporary to him — the question of the relationship between God and humanity in providence. A special focus is Origen's notion of varied participation in the Logos which provides the means for particularity within a universalist schema. The material contained here will be developed creatively and formatively for the question of universal salvation in Chapter 4.
6 Spiritual growth: The work of the Spirit in the saints of God (Origen)
Authors: Greggs Tom
Published: September 2009

This chapter advocates that Origen achieves a place for Christian faith and practice through the person of the Holy Spirit within a theology which points towards universalism. The Spirit provides for the place of growth towards God in salvation, and for human involvement in God's saving act. While the end may well be as the beginning, the Spirit is the person who, after Christ has ascended to the Father, works between creation and the eschaton. The chapter considers the relationship between Spirit and Son in Origen's Trinitarian theology, and then moves to discuss the role of the Spirit in bringing Christ to humans and in establishing faith in Christ. The economic ‘remit’ of the Spirit is further considered with regard to sanctification in the present, through which the Spirit establishes Christian particularity. Concludes with a discussion of the role of human involvement in the economy of God's salvation.
7 Dialogue: Restoring particularity through the Holy Spirit
Authors: Greggs Tom
Published: September 2009

The logic of universalism could at a superficial level lead one to ask why there is any need for faith. This chapter proposes a way through this seeming contradiction by considering the problem from the perspective of pneumatology. This helps to avoid speaking of salvation in the simple binary opposition of saved-damned. The Spirit allows for the continued particularity of the Christian and the non-Christian while retaining the possibility of universal salvation. Through the establishment of the church and the Christian by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Christian and the non-Christian are enabled to be united in Christ precisely as Christian and non-Christian. The Spirit allows for human and Christian particularity without limiting God's work of salvation. The Spirit ever deepens God's love for humanity in the church and the individual lives of Christians without in any way detracting from the love of God for all creation.
The Subject of Treaty Interpretation in WTO Dispute Settlement
Authors: Van Damme Isabelle
Published: September 2009

This chapter defines the subject of treaty interpretation in WTO dispute settlement and discusses how and what the Appellate Body considers as WTO treaty language. Special attention is given to schedules of commitments and to the suggested constitutional status of the WTO covered agreements.
Inherent Powers and Treaty Interpretation
Authors: Van Damme Isabelle
Published: September 2009

This chapter focuses on the inherent powers of the Appellate Body, and how the availability and exercise of such powers influences the interpretation and application of procedural rules in WTO dispute settlement. The analysis in this chapter builds on the distinction, made in Chapter 4, between procedural and substantive silences in WTO treaty language and the Appellate Body's interpretation of those silences. The chapter helps to explain how and why the appreciation of the judicial function of the WTO Appellate Body is commonly too narrowly construed on the basis of the DSU.
WTO Treaty Interpretation Against the Background of Other International Law
Authors: Van Damme Isabelle
Published: September 2009

This chapter develops the argument that the influence of general international law and other fields of international law on the meaning of the WTO covered agreements does not depend only on the (implicit) application of Article 31(3)(c) VCLT. Relying on previous chapters, it posits that Article 31(3)(c) VCLT is only an ancillary justification for interpreting the WTO covered agreements against the background of international law.
Conclusions
Authors: Van Damme Isabelle
Published: September 2009

This final chapter summarizes the conclusions of the book. This book has tried to explain how the Appellate Body approaches the interpretation of the WTO covered agreements, and the hope is that it will contribute to a more wide-ranging understanding of how treaties are interpreted in practice.
3 Response to Elio Lo Cascio
Authors: Bagnall Roger
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses the criteria of definition of urban communities in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, the non-agricultural character of the regional capitals, rates of urbanization in relation to estimates of total population and growth over time. It suggests possible reasons for the fact that Roman Egypt had a greater number of larger urban centres and larger villages than Roman Italy.
14 Some Numismatic Approaches to Quantifying the Roman Economy
Authors: Howgego Christopher
Published: September 2009

This chapter outlines prospective numismatic contributions to the quantification of the Roman economy. Attention is drawn to the potential of the programme of metal analysis of the Roman silver coinage being undertaken by Ponting and Butcher. By way of example, four economic topics which may be illuminated by their work are identified: (1) the use of debasement as an indicator of the fiscal inadequacy of the Roman Empire; (2) the analysis of the extent to which price change was driven by monetary change; (3) the relevance to economic modelling of the extent to which monetary change proceeded in parallel across the Roman world; and (4) the significance of the maintenance of a fixed bimetallic system to our understanding of the Roman economy and its potential contribution to economic theory.
15 Earnings and Costs: Living Standards and the Roman Economy
Authors: Rathbone Dominic
Published: September 2009

This chapter presents the few wheat prices known from the Roman Empire, military and some other official and private earnings, and a small selection of items from Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices. It attempts to assess our ability to determine whether there was an integrated market for goods and labour in the Roman Empire, what the living standards of different groups were, and whether significant changes across time are visible in market integration or living standards. The conclusion is that the Romans acted and thought as if the empire was an integrated market, although there are indications of regional zones of prices and, more sharply, wages, that the prices in Diocletian's Edict appear to be unhistorical, inconsistent and unreliable, and that there was a dramatic rise in the purchasing power of gold in late antiquity.
16 How Prosperous were the Romans? Evidence from Diocletian's Price Edict (AD 301)
Authors: Allen Robert C.
Published: September 2009

This chapter compares the standard of living of labourers in the Roman Empire in 301 AD with the standard of living of labourers in Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. Roman data are drawn from Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices. The real wage of Roman workers was like that of their counterparts in the lagging parts of Europe and much of Asia in the middle of the 18th century. Roman workers earned just enough to buy a minimal subsistence consumption basket. Real wages were considerably higher in the advanced parts of Europe in the 18th century, as they had been in Europe generally following the Black Death in 1348–9.
8 Response to Alan Bowman
Authors: Bagnall Roger
Published: September 2009

This chapter suggests ways in which we can utilize models to quantify agricultural economic activity in Egypt and, on the basis of the available documentation, including tax records, to build up a detailed picture of the distribution and productivity of villages landholdings in particular areas and the level of urbanization.
Roman Rationale of the Civilian Distinction
Authors: Descheemaeker Eric
Published: September 2009

This chapter seeks to verify the hypothesis put forward at the end of the previous chapter. After looking at the concepts of dolus, culpa and casus, the chapter provides a systematic argument for the proposition that delicts squared in Roman law with fault (culpa)-based liability, while quasi-delicts corresponded to strict or situational liability. The troublesome case of the ‘judge who makes the case his own’ (iudex qui litem suam fecit) is given particular attention. Coupled with the historical development of the taxonomy of Roman law, this confirms the idea that the concept of delictum would have shrunk historically from an unlawful to a blameworthy civil act. A possible explanation for this development, as well as a parallel with the history of the lex Aquilia, are offered.
3 Landscaping
Authors: Mileson S. A.
Published: September 2009

Many recent scholars have identified elements of design and aesthetic appreciation in the layout of medieval parks. This chapter explores the extent to which parks really were landscaped to provide a contrived stage for aristocratic living. The evidence for the use of parks to enhance the appearance of castles and manor houses is examined, as well as the utilization of parkland for leisure activities other than hunting. There is also an analysis of the relationship between parks and gardens. The lack of contemporary documentary as opposed to literary evidence for an interest in park landscaping is noted, as well as the practical limitations imposed by finite resources. It is concluded that any interest in landscaping was subsidiary to the desire to create a hunting reserve.
4 Status
Authors: Mileson S. A.
Published: September 2009

This chapter deals with the important question of how far parks were regarded as status symbols. It looks at the nature and significance of social competition within aristocratic society and at the particular features of parks which may have helped their creators to assert social leadership and high status. Existing ideas about the social role of hunting and the creation of hunting reserves are tested through a detailed analysis of the particular circumstances and characteristics of park-makers across the middle ages. In this way, the frequently asserted but little tested idea of parks as symbols of power and lordship is given greater depth and precision.
Conclusion
Authors: Mileson S. A.
Published: September 2009

This concluding chapter provides a summation of the main findings of the book as a whole. Parks were much more important to the concerns of the aristocracy than has usually been suggested, and they had a strong, and often negative, effect on many rural communities and some urban ones. The central place of hunting in the creation of parks is emphasized, along with the significance of organized hunting as an expression of power and authority. It is also suggested that an interest in leisure, as expressed through the reservation of land for hunting, had an impact on the extent to which lords organized their estates in a commercial or market-focused way. The negotiations and confrontations that surrounded parks are shown to have been an important part of the early history of enclosure, a process that involved the shaping of social norms as well as of agrarian practices.
1 Why Can't We All Just Get Along with Each Other?
Authors: Wolterstorff Nicholas
Published: September 2009

A prominent theme in the mentality of modernity is that in situations of religious pluralism, determinate religion harbours coercion and violence, and that such religion must ‘shape up’ if it is to be compatible with liberal democracy. Different writers have proposed different ways of ‘shaping up’. This book argues that all such proposals are bound to fail, and that the relevant question is, accordingly, what are the structural principles concerning the relation between religion and the political order that a determinate religion must affirm if it is to accept liberal democracy. The book suggests a number of such principles.
2 Citizenship, Religion, and Political Liberalism
Authors: Plant Raymond
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines the thought of the late John Rawls about the nature of the relationship between citizenship and religious belief and identity in liberal societies. In particular, it takes issue with Rawls's rejection of a teleological or perfectionist theory of citizenship, casting doubt on the success of political liberalism in rescuing the normative basis of citizenship from comprehensive theories that invoke some definite conception of the human good. Instead, the chapter suggests that a more promising approach is to be found in the ‘natural law’ thinking of Alan Gewirth and John Finnis, which argues for general human goods that are the common preconditions of any comprehensive doctrine.
3 Between Postsecular Society and the Neutral State
Authors: Junker‐Kenny Maureen
Published: September 2009

This chapter compares John Rawls's and Jürgen Habermas's concepts of ‘public reason’ in their starting points and methods as the framework for the role accorded to religious convictions within democratic opinion- and will-formation. Differences identified as crucial for the place of comprehensive doctrines are: the understanding of the tasks imposed by pluralism; the status and scope accorded to morality; autonomy as the normative basis of democracy; the public/private distinction; the relationship between reason and consensus; and the hermeneutical or critical function of philosophy. Habermas's new move to accept religious contributions to public reason is based on his understanding of democracy as a learning project and on his appreciation of their motivating and critical potential over against the pathologies of liberal societies. His demand for mutual ‘translation’ between secular and religious fellow-citizens is evaluated theologically. It needs to be developed to encompass the relations between reason, revelation, and inculturation, as well as practical reason and its hope for the highest good, to allow for the creativity of new cultural syntheses.
4 Translation, Conversation, or Hospitality?
Authors: Bretherton Luke
Published: September 2009

Within Western liberal democracies a variety of answers are given to the question of how, within a polity wherein a plurality of different visions of the good life coexist, some form of common life is to be forged. This chapter outlines three of these answers and situates them within wider philosophical and theological debates about the role of religious reasons in public political deliberation. The first approach assessed is the translation model. The work of John Rawls is assessed as a paradigmatic example of such an approach. An alternative to the translation model is the conversation model. The emphasis in this model is on the attempt to take seriously the actual beliefs and practices of particular traditions as the basis for common deliberation. The work of Jeffrey Stout and Alasdair MacIntyre are discussed as examples of this approach. It is argued that they attempt to develop an account of how diverse and incommensurable moral traditions can deliberate about common action without having to find some agnostic or neutral language into which all ‘thick’ language must be translated. The third approach outlined is the hospitality model. While there is much overlap with the conversation model, the hospitality model represents a specifically Christian theological approach to determining common action between diverse traditions. Like the conversation model, the hospitality model seeks to give an account of how different traditions can engage directly with each other. But its emphasis is on common public action, rather than conversation or dialogue. The article ends with a comparative analysis of all three models.
5 Messianic Ethics and Diaspora Communities
Authors: Kroeker P. Travis
Published: September 2009

This chapter argues that most forms of political liberalism — including those of theorists such as Jeffrey Stout who are receptive to the consideration of religious reasons and theological ethical contributions in a secular democracy — prohibit serious discussion of the religious cosmologies underlying religious ethical discourse. In particular, it is argued that secular state sovereignty rooted in Hobbesian political theory effectively eliminates all forms of messianic political theology from public consideration. The chapter goes on to argue that a messianic ethics engages secular pluralism critically in a public stance that is neither accommodationist nor separatist, but ‘diasporic’. It acts ethically from a ‘weak Messianic’ power (Benjamin) exercised not through the coercive enforcement of political ideals but in quotidian acts of community service that build up the well-being of the saeculum from below.
6 Christian Hope and Public Reason
Authors: Gascoigne Robert
Published: September 2009

This chapter is concerned with the relationship between Christian hope and public reason, especially as articulated in John Rawls's essay ‘The Idea of Public Reason Revisited’. With reference to Matthew 25, it argues that Christian hope goes beyond history, but that Christian love is expressed within history and that this tension can be the source of a specifically Christian service to democratic societies. Hope is crucial to the ethical life of democratic societies in three particular ways: it inspires a discernment of human capacities which evokes moral virtue; maintains a conviction of the openness of the future to human striving; and teaches a certain detachment from the fruits of that striving. The chapter considers how Christian hope can serve this public political hope while at the same time maintaining a distinctively Christian identity, focussing on the use of the religious language of hope by Christians in the public political forum.
7 Not Translation, but Conversation
Authors: Biggar Nigel
Published: September 2009

This chapter opposes the secularist view that religious or theological speech should be banned from public discourse or translated into publicly accessible language. First, it presents an argument against the legalization of voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, which, it claims, is at once thoroughly theological and publicly accessible. This involves critical reflection on what it means to be ‘thoroughly theological’ and ‘publicly accessible’. Next, against this understanding of a theological argument the chapter proceeds to assess the relevant theories of Jürgen Habermas, John Rawls, and Jeffrey Stout. This assessment analyzes the variety of things that ‘public reason’ can mean, and it explains why the requirement that theological speech be translated into secular discourse is wrong. Finally, the chapter concludes that Stout's model of candid public conversation is implicit in the unofficial late Rawls, and is more satisfactory than the model of translation espoused even by the recent, religion-friendlier Habermas.
8 Religious Education and Democratic Character
Authors: Weithman Paul
Published: September 2009

This chapter attempts to identify the grounds of reservations that theorists of democratic education have about religious schools. It argues that those reservations arise from commitment to a certain conception of democracy, here called ‘strong deliberativism’. It then locates the grounds of the reservations in the requirements of a ‘deliberatively democratic character’, the set of dispositions good citizens must have if they are to govern themselves well on the basis of democratic deliberation. The chapter argues that some of the requirements of strong deliberativism are misconceived, and that religious schools can contribute to education for democracy.
9 Religion and Public Reason in the Global Politics of Human Rights
Authors: Hogan Linda
Published: September 2009

This chapter transposes the debate about the role of public reason onto the international plane, suggesting that since matters of basic justice and constitutional essentials are increasingly determined at a global level, the question of how agreement on such matters should be sought must also be considered in global terms. It argues that public reason is not sufficient to this task, suggesting that a global conversation must be pursued in a manner that recognises the manifold commitments that individuals and communities have. It further suggests that recent developments in human rights discourse means that it may be capable of generating a variegated and nuanced consensus on matters of basic justice and constitutional essentials in the global public square, and as such is worth supporting.
10 The Public Presence of Religion in England
Authors: Sedgwick Peter
Published: September 2009

This chapter presents a discussion of Rawls' argument that ‘public reason’ expressed in the legislature should exclude explicitly religious voices. There is religion participation in England in the legislature, through the membership of some of the bishops of the Church of England in the House of Lords, as Lords Spiritual. The chapter examines the discourse of these religious leaders, both against the argument that such discourse will invalidate the nature of public reason, and against the charge that such discourse will be theologically weak. A case study is presented of two bishops who were active in public policy debates. Finally, the speeches of Rowan Williams, who is both a distinguished theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury, throw a different light on the concerns of Rawls. Williams' contribution is not made principally in the legislature, but in the ‘background culture’.
12 Islam and the Secularized Nation
Authors: Cesari Jocelyne
Published: September 2009

This chapter compares the variety of relationships between Islamic communities in Europe and in the United States. In particular, it displays the variety of forms that the ‘establishment’ of religion in European countries takes, tracks the ‘secularization’ of Islamic organizations, observes the emerging public face of American Islam, and argues that the presence of Muslims in the West has weakened secularist ideology and contributed to the decline of the Modernist narrative.
Conclusion
Authors: Biggar Nigel
Published: September 2009

This chapter develops reflections on a selection of important questions, which have been raised in the body of the book, which are: How best may we interpret Rawls and Habermas? How does real conversation proceed? To what extent does communication between ideological strangers involve ‘translation’? What is a religious argument? How should we conceive ‘the secular’? Can the state's establishment of religion ever be liberal? And what does all this imply for current negotiations between Islam and the liberal West?
The Order of Writing
Authors: Glasner Ruth
Published: September 2009

Averroes wrote three commentaries on the Physics and revised all three. Therefore a diachronic study is absolutely essential. It is usually assumed that Averroes' commentaries in general were written in the ‘natural’ order: first the short, then the middle, and finally the long commentary. Recently, however, this assumption was challenged by Alfred Ivry, arguing that the long commentary on De anima was written before the long commentary. This brief chapter adduces evidence to show that the commentaries on the Physics were written in the natural order, and throws some light also on the case of De anima.
Versions and Revisions
Authors: Glasner Ruth
Published: September 2009

Chapter 4 shows that all three commentaries on the underline Physics were massively revised by Averroes himself. The differences between the manuscripts of the short commentary have been studied by Puig Montada who published a critical edition of this text. The different versions of the middle commentary are found by comparison of the two Hebrew translations of this text. The different versions of the long commentary are revealed by comparison of the Latin and Hebrew translations of this text. The long is the most heavily revised of the three commentaries on the underline Physics and possibly in the whole corpus of Averroes' commentaries.
The Late Stratum of the Long Commentary
Authors: Glasner Ruth
Published: September 2009

The late stratum of the long commentary consists of edited or rewritten passages. Characteristic of the late stratum are: (1) a particular interest in the work of Alexander of Aphrodisias, (2) a formal approach that is manifest in the abundance of logical comments and in attempts to present some of Aristotle's arguments in syllogistic form, (3) the writing of formal introduction, following the late Greek tradition that developed in the school of Alexandria.
The Turning Point of PhysicsVIII: The Breakdown of Determinism
Authors: Glasner Ruth
Published: September 2009

Physics VIII starts with the succession argument: before any motion there must underline have been a previous motion or change. Averroes was intensively occupied by this argument, and its possible deterministic implications. He kept coming back to it, and during the years radically changed his interpretation of it. His agenda was to establish indeterminism as a scientific doctrine based on a firm Aristotelian foundation. He attempts a new interpretation of the succession argument that can support an indeterministic philosophy.