bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In vivo
fragmentation of heparan sulfate by heparanase overexpression renders mice resistant to amyloid protein A amyloidosis
Authors: Li Jin-Ping , Galvis Martha L. Escobar , Gong Feng , Zhang Xiao , Zcharia Eyal , Metzger Shula , Vlodavsky Israel , Kisilevsky Robert , Lindahl Ulf
Published: April 2005

Amyloid diseases encompass >20 medical disorders that include amyloid protein A (AA) amyloidosis, Alzheimer's disease, and type 2 diabetes. A common feature of these conditions is the selective organ deposition of disease-specific fibrillar proteins, along with the sulfated glycosaminoglycan, heparan sulfate. We have generated transgenic mice that overexpress human heparanase and have tested their susceptibility to amyloid induction. Drastic shortening of heparan sulfate chains was observed in heparanase-overproducing organs, such as liver and kidney. These sites selectively escaped amyloid deposition on experimental induction of inflammation-associated AA amyloidosis, as verified by lack of material staining with Congo Red, as well as lack of associated polysaccharide, whereas the same tissues from control animals were heavily infiltrated with amyloid. By contrast, the spleens of transgenic mice that failed to significantly overexpress heparanase contained heparan sulfate chains similar in size to those of control spleen and remained susceptible to amyloid deposition. Our findings provide direct
in vivo
evidence that heparan sulfate is essential for the development of amyloid disease.
Early events in the folding of four-helix-bundle heme proteins
Authors: Faraone-Mennella Jasmin , Gray Harry B. , Winkler Jay R.
Published: April 2005

Topologically homologous four-helix-bundle heme proteins exhibit striking diversity in their refolding kinetics. Cytochromeb562has been reported to fold on a submillisecond time scale, whereas cytochromec′ refolding requires 10 s or more to complete. Heme dissociation in cytochromeb562interferes with studies of folding kinetics, so a variant of cytochromeb562(cytochromec-b562) with a covalentc-type linkage to the heme has been expressed inEscherichia coli. Early events in the electron transfer-triggered folding of FeII-cytochromec-b562, along with those of FeII-cytochromec556, have been examined by using time-resolved absorption spectroscopy. Coordination of S(Met) to FeIIoccurs within 10 μs after reduction of the denatured FeIII-cytochromes, and shortly thereafter (100 μs) the heme spectra are indistinguishable from those of the folded proteins. Under denaturing conditions, carbon monoxide binds to the FeII-hemes in ≈15 ms. By contrast, CO binding cannot compete with refolding in the FeII-cytochromes, thereby confirming that the polypeptide encapsulates the heme in <10 ms. We suggest that Fe-S(Met) ligation facilitates refolding in these four-helix-bundle heme proteins by reducing the conformational freedom of the polypeptide chain.
G Protein-coupled Receptor Kinase 2–mediated Phosphorylation of Ezrin Is Required for G Protein-coupled Receptor–dependent Reorganization of the Actin Cytoskeleton
Authors: Cant Sarah H. , Pitcher Julie A.
Published: April 2005

G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) phosphorylates and desensitizes activated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Here, we identify ezrin as a novel non-GPCR substrate of GRK2. GRK2 phosphorylates glutathione S-transferase (GST)-ezrin, but not an ezrin fusion protein lacking threonine 567 (T567), in vitro. These results suggest that T567, the regulatory phosphorylation site responsible for maintaining ezrin in its active conformation, represents the principle site of GRK2-mediated phosphorylation. Two lines of evidence indicate that GRK2-mediated ezrin-radixinmoesin (ERM) phosphorylation serves to link GPCR activation to cytoskeletal reorganization. First, in Hep2 cells muscarinic M1 receptor (M1MR) activation causes membrane ruffling. This ruffling response is ERM dependent and is accompanied by ERM phosphorylation. Inhibition of GRK2, but not rho kinase or protein kinase C, prevents ERM phosphorylation and membrane ruffling. Second, agonist-induced internalization of the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) and M1MR is accompanied by ERM phosphorylation and localization of phosphorylated ERM to receptor-containing endocytic vesicles. The colocalization of internalized β2AR and phosphorylated ERM is not dependent on Na+/H+exchanger regulatory factor binding to the β2AR. Inhibition of ezrin function impedes β2AR internalization, further linking GPCR activation, GRK activity, and ezrin function. Overall, our results suggest that GRK2 serves not only to attenuate but also to transduce GPCR-mediated signals.
Introduction
Authors: Styers Randall G.
Published: April 2005

The introduction opens with an exploration of the prominence of magic in the scholarly literature of numerous modern academic disciplines and then offers a broad outline of the distinctive roles magic plays in this literature. Modern debates over magic turn on competing views of the nature of human subjectivity and the relation of the individual to society and to the material world. Scholars have used these debates as a site at which to articulate--and to challenge--norms for life in modernity.
Categories and Principles of the Understanding
Authors: Dicker Georges
Published: April 2005

This chapter introduces Kant’s theory of categories and corresponding principles. It explains and evaluates Kant’s attempt to derive his categories from forms of judgment. It also discusses in detail the principles that do not depend on the Transcendental Deduction–namely, the Axioms of Intuition, the Anticipations of Perception, the Postulates of Empirical Thought–and introduces those that do depend on the Transcendental Deduction–namely, the Analogies of Experience.
The Central Argument of the Analytic (II)
Authors: Dicker Georges
Published: April 2005

This chapter expounds on the distinction Kant makes in the Analogies between the subjective and the objective time-orders. Drawing on the work of P. F. Strawson, it shows how if this distinction can be established, it leads to the vindication of the categories of substance and cause. It then shows how the second version of the first edition Deduction can be developed to yield the two-time orders. It also offers a reconstruction of the second edition Deduction, showing how it too leads to the two time-orders.
The First Analogy
Authors: Dicker Georges
Published: April 2005

This chapter gives a detailed analysis of the First Analogy. It argues that Kant tries to establish both a Permanence Thesis according to which time requires a permanent perceptual stand-in, and a Permanence-of-Substance Thesis on which that stand-in must be sempiternal substance(s). It reconstructs and assesses the arguments for each of these distinct theses.
Kant's Refutation of Idealism
Authors: Dicker Georges
Published: April 2005

This chapter first reconstructs and criticizes the version of the Refutation of Idealism that Kant offers in the Critique. Next, it reconstructs and defends an improved version of the Refutation, found by Guyer in Kant’s later “Reflexions.” Finally, it discusses the relation of the Refutation of Idealism to both the strong on the weak versions of Transcendental Idealism.
Making Things Happen
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This book develops a manipulationist theory of causation and explanation: causal and explanatory relationships are relationships that are potentially exploitable for purposes of manipulation and control. The resulting theory is a species of counterfactual theory that (I claim) avoids the difficulties and counterexamples that have infected alternative accounts of causation and explanation, from the Deductive-Nomological model onwards. One of the key concepts in this theory is the notion of an intervention, which is an idealization of the notion of an experimental manipulation that is stripped of its anthropocentric elements. This notion is used to provide a characterization of causal relationships that is non-reductive but also not viciously circular. Relationships that correctly tell us how the value of one variable Y would change under interventions on a second variable Y are invariant. The notion of an invariant relationship is more helpful than the notion of a law of nature (the notion on which philosophers have traditionally relied) in understanding how explanation and causal attribution work in the special sciences.
Introduction and Preview
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This chapter considers what the goal of a theory of causation and explanation should be and some of the constraints--epistemic and otherwise--that such a theory should satisfy. Causal and explanatory claims are central to science and to ordinary life. The role of such claims in ordinary life suggests that they must have some practical point or pay-off. A manipulability theory takes this pay-off to have to do with our interest in manipultion and control. A satisfactory account of causation and explanation need not be reductionist but it should clarify the differences among different causal concepts and illuminate the epistemology of causal inference.
Causation and Manipulation
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

Directed graphs and equations are useful devices for representing causal relationships. We may distinguish among a number of different causal concepts–direct causes, total causes, contributing causes, actual causation and each of them may be given (interestingly different characterizations) in manipulationist terms. In addition, such an account clarifies the relationship between causation and probabilities.
Interventions, Agency, and Counterfactuals
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This chapter clarifies the notion of an intervention and compares my version of this notion to the characterizations provided by other writers such as Glymour and Pearl. Very roughly, an intervention on a variable X with respect to a second variable Y is a special sort of causal process that changes the value of X in such a way that any change in the value of Y can occur only as a result of the change in Y. The chapter also discusses the relata of the causal relationship, causal realism, agency theories of causation, and the relationship between my account of causation and that of David Lewis.
A Counterfactual Theory of Causal Explanation
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This sets out my positive account of causal explanation. According to this account, successful explanations must answer what-if-things-had-been-different questions: they must cite conditions such that changes in those conditions (produced by interventions) are associated with changes in the phenomenon being explained. It follows from this account that nomothetic models of explanation according to which laws are required for sucessful explanation are mistaken. This is a highly desirable result since explanations that do not cite laws are common in the special sciences. Explanation has to do with the exhibition of relations of dependency, not with nomic subsumption.
Invariance
Authors: Woodward James
Published: April 2005

This chapter systematically explores the notion of invariance, which is the key feature that a generalization must possess if it is to figure in causal explanations. A generalization is invariant if it is stable in the right way under interventions. A generalization may be invariant even if it fails to satisfy such traditional criteria for lawfulness as exceptionlessness, expressability in ter m s of purely qualitative predicates, and wide scope. Laws are one kind of invariant relationship but not the only kind. Invariance is also different from Skyrms’ notion of resiliency, and satisfaction of the Mill-Ramsey-Lewis criteria for lawfulness is neither necessary nor sufficient for invariance.
Preaching Eugenics
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

Preaching Eugenics tells the story of a heretofore-unexamined group of eugenics enthusiasts in the early half of the 20th century: American religious leaders. It describes how Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish leaders adapted to, rejected, and, in many cases, enthusiastically embraced eugenics-a movement emblematic of modern science and progressive thought in the early 20th century. Facing new challenges from scientists and intellectuals, adapting to the dramatic social changes wrought by immigration and urbanization, and often internally riven by doctrinal controversies among modernists, liberals, and fundamentalists, leaders of churches and synagogues in the early 20th century found themselves forced to defend their faiths on numerous fronts. Preaching Eugenics describes these challenges through an exploration of religious leaders’ confrontation with eugenics. Many religious leaders embraced eugenics, often arriving at their support through their involvement with other social reform movements, including campaigns to sterilize the “feebleminded” in the states; new efforts by the state to regulate marriage; the birth control movement; efforts to combat “social evils” such as venereal disease; and the movement to restrict immigration. The book draws on a wide range of sources: the records of the American Eugenics Society; religious and scientific books and periodicals of the day; and the personal papers of religious leaders such as Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Rev. John M. Cooper, Rev. John A. Ryan, biologist Charles Davenport and Yale geographer Ellsworth Huntington. In a period when religion and science were engaged in critical dialogue and in bitter feuds, the story of how religious leaders confronted one of the era’s newest “sciences,” eugenics, offers insight into the history of ideas and the history of religion in the early 20th century.
Fervent Charity
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

This chapter traces the interaction of some of the earliest Protestant and Catholic supporters of the eugenics movement, and describes the earliest efforts to form an institutional eugenics movement. Ministers such as Rev. Oscar Carleton McCulloch and Samuel Zane Batten, for example, married Protestant Social Gospel rhetoric with eugenic sentiment in their efforts to control the “menace of the feebleminded” through social policies. Their efforts were mirrored by those of two prominent British Protestant ministers, Rev. Frederick Brotherton Meyer and Rev. James H.F. Peile. At the same time, biologist Charles Davenport was beginning to develop eugenics institutions such as the Eugenics Record Office, trying to control a movement that had already gained a number of amateur enthusiasts who published books and tracts supporting eugenics — many of which invoked biblical justification for eugenic science. Finally, this chapter explores early debates among Catholics such as Fr. Stephen M. Donovan, Msgr. Jules DeBecker, and Father Thomas Gerrard about eugenic sterilization of the feebleminded.
Protestant Promoters and Jewish Eugenics
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

This chapter continues the discussion of religious enthusiasts of eugenics by tracing the support the movement garnered from prominent Protestants such as Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, who helped eugenics supporters such as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg organize the First and Second National Race Betterment Conferences in 1915 and 1916. At the same time, Reform rabbis such as Max Reichler began to assess the eugenics movement in light of the teachings of the Jewish faith at a time when fears about Jewish and Catholic immigration to the United States were rising; at the same time, a heated debate was occurring among Jews about the benefits and dangers of intermarriage. Finally, this chapter discusses how opponents of immigration, such as eugenicist Madison Grant, were employing eugenic rhetoric to argue that the American “melting pot” could no longer absorb new arrivals.
Eugenicists Discover Jesus
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

This chapter explores the creation and growth of the American Eugenics Society, whose energetic efforts to woo religious supporters met with remarkable success throughout the 1920s. The chapter describes the Society’s Committee on Cooperation with Clergymen, headed by Rev. Henry Strong Huntington, which counted many prominent religious leaders as members, as well as the Society’s multiple “eugenic sermon contests,” which drew enthusiastic entrants from across the country and from a wide denominational spectrum. The chapter traces the participation of religious leaders such as Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Bishop William Lawrence, Rev. Guy Emery Shipler, Rev. Phillips Endecott Osgood, Bishop Francis John McConnell, and Rabbis Louis Mann and David de Sola Pool. It also describes the successful efforts of the society’s most skilled eugenics propagandist, Albert Edward Wiggam.
Twilight Converts
Authors: Rosen Christine
Published: April 2005

By the mid-1930s, when the eugenics movement was under steady attack by geneticists, social scientists, Catholics, and conservative Protestants, it nevertheless continued to garner some religious support, including a large conference held in 1939 on “The Relation of Eugenics and the Church.” This chapter describes that support, as well the story of two late converts to the movement, Rev. George Reid Andrews and Rev. Kenneth MacArthur, and links their activities to the larger decline of eugenics as a viable social-scientific movement. It also outlines the attempts by Frederick Osborn to reform the American Eugenics Society.
Introduction
Authors: Luftman Jerry N.
Published: April 2005

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion on the importance of alignment in managing information technology (IT). It argues that organizations must draw “a line” in the sand, and ensure that the process of aligning IT and business is appropriately managed. It identifies six key components to assess an understanding of IT-business alignment. An overview of the chapters in this volume is then presented.
Assessing Strategic Alignment Maturity
Authors: Earl Michael J.
Published: April 2005

An approach for assessing the maturity of a firm’s business-IT alignment is presented. This chapter is divided into the following sections: the Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment Description, Six Strategic Alignment Maturity Criteria, and Conducting a Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment. A summary of strategic maturity alignment research to date is then discussed.
Integrating Business and IT Strategy
Authors: Earl Michael J.
Published: April 2005

Firms need to integrate their business and IT thinking whether or not they choose to integrate their formal business and IT strategies. This chapter presents the T-Portfolio framework that looks for a balance in investments that are competing for today and tomorrow. Put another way, it searches for evidence that IT is both supporting business strategy and shaping it.
Creating and Sustaining IT-Enabled Competitive Advantage
Authors: Feeny David , Ives Blake , Piccoli Gabriele
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents a framework for examining IT-enabled sustainable competitive advantage. It presents the potential drivers of sustainability of IT-enabled strategic initiatives. The model identifies potential sources of sustainability and explains how these operate. The concepts of sustainable competitive advantage and barriers to imitation are also discussed.
Toward the Future of Enterprise Integration
Authors: Markus M. Lynne , Axline Sheryl , Edberg Dana , Petrie David
Published: April 2005

External systems integration involves the electronic connections between an organization’s systems and those of its business partners. This chapter addresses the question of what external systems integration is, and why it is important. It then discusses alternative approaches to external integration, and key issues in developing an external systems integration strategy.
Information, Strategy, and Attention
Authors: Davenport Thomas H.
Published: April 2005

The availability of excessive amounts of information has left organizations with the challenge of effectively allocating attention to the information and knowledge that matters. Making information worthy of attention is difficult and expensive. Information strategies must assess what information really matters to different audiences within an organization.
Information Technology Investments
Authors: Clemons Eric K.
Published: April 2005

One of the reasons for investing in costly information systems projects is to exploit strategic opportunities. This chapter presents a mechanism for determining which contingencies to prepare for, and thus, which investments to make. It examines the decision to invest in systems for direct distribution and online sale to customers, and considers alternative scenarios for e-commerce.
The Influence of Wireless Networks on Information Technology Strategy
Authors: Senn James A.
Published: April 2005

This chapter examines the role of wireless networking in business enterprises. It discusses the rapid growth of wireless devices and technologies and the different categories of wireless networking applications emerging in practice. It argues that unless information technology managers face a set of key issues today, they will encounter difficult strategic challenges in the future.
Strategic Alignment as a Process
Authors: Luftman Jerry N.
Published: April 2005

The most important objective for IT management is to be architects of alignment, linking business and IT. Achieving alignment requires conscious attention by IT and functional management to enhance the enablers of alignment. The alignment process must focus on all six strategic alignment maturity assessment criteria to be effective.
Learning and Earning From E-Commerce
Authors: Earl Michael J.
Published: April 2005

Four important IT management practices have emerged from the development of e-commerce projects. These practices address four central and classical questions of IT management: strategic information systems planning, IT architecture planning, managing IT-user relationships, and systems development methodology. All four are important components of Luftman’s Strategic Alignment Maturity Assessment.
What Does the Hajj Mean?
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

Modernist Islamic thinkers see the hajj as a treasure house of fluid symbols carrying infinite meanings everyone is free to interpret and reinterpret as they choose. In their view, “reading” the hajj’s inner meanings is similar to reading any sacred text, including the Qur’an–every mortal mind can grasp a fraction of God’s message, but no human authority, no matter how learned and esteemed, can monopolize the discussion or claim the final word. Three writers have produced widely influential reinterpretations portraying the hajj as a powerful agent of social and political reform–Muhammad Iqbal of India, ‘Ali Shari‘ati of Iran, and Mohammed Arkoun of Algeria. Iqbal’s revivalism, Shari‘ati’s rebelliousness, and Arkoun’s humanism have merged into a modernist stream of hajj interpretation that enjoys mass audiences in dozens of languages and nations. Their views are constantly discussed and debated by a cosmopolitan hajj community that is increasingly youthful, female, educated, urban, and non-Middle Eastern.
The Growth of the Hajj
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

Geographically and culturally, today’s hajj is nearly universal. The highest rates of hajj activity are still in countries closest to Mecca, but air travel allows Muslims throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas to participate with equal frequency. The strongest predictor of hajj activity is per capita income rather than distance from Mecca or the proportion of Muslims in the national population. Female participation is a special dimension of pilgrimage, demonstrating the enduring power of culture. Hajj growth has been accompanied by a steady rise in the proportion of women pilgrims to about 45% of the total, yet in many countries regional disparities in female pilgrimage reflect virtually separate societies with incompatible views of the value and freedom that women deserve.
Nigeria
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

Nigerian politicians such as Ahmadu Bello and Shehu Shagari threw so much money into the hajj that Christians became convinced they were creating an Islamic state. By the time Muslim army officers seized power, the specter of religious warfare drove Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha to sponsor a Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem as well. Nigeria is one of the few countries where the state sponsors both Muslim and Christian pilgrimages–a policy that is intended to assuage complaints of religious discrimination but that more frequently aggravates conflicts between rival regions, denominations, and ethnic groups.
The West Is Not Alone
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: April 2005

The international relations of the hajj are a fascinating interplay of power, law, and religion. Debates over hajj policy frame the struggle for power in Islamic international organizations, promoting greater bargaining and cooperation between blocks of Arab, Asian, and African states. The hajj is an evolving international regime based on customary international law but, more important, it is the clearest embodiment of a worldwide religion subordinating the interests of nation-states to the universal duty to comply with God’s commands. Advocates of Islamic modernism rely on the ideals of the hajj to support calls for greater world community and morality that are strikingly similar to the arguments of Western writers who are leading the current theoretical revolutions in international relations and international law.
Inventing Temperature
Authors: Chang Hasok
Published: April 2005

This book presents the concept of “complementary science” which contributes to scientific knowledge through historical and philosophical investigations. It emphasizes the fact that many simple items of knowledge that we take for granted were actually spectacular achievements obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and serious controversies. Each chapter in the book consists of two parts: a narrative part that states the philosophical puzzle and gives a problem-centred narrative on the historical attempts to solve the puzzle; and the analysis part which provides in-depth analyses of certain scientific, historical, and philosophical aspects of the story.
To Go Beyond
Authors: Chang Hasok
Published: April 2005

This chapter discusses how the challenge of extending the numerical scale beyond the temperature range in which it was established was addressed. It focuses on the investigations into the freezing point of mercury, and the master potter Wedgwood’s efforts to create a thermometer that could measure temperature in his kilns. A revitalized version of Percy Bridgman’s operationalist philosophy is used to shed light on the process of extending concepts beyond the domains of phenomena in which they were originally formulated.
Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress
Authors: Chang Hasok
Published: April 2005

This chapter argues that in attempting to justify measurement methods, a circularity inherent in empiricist foundationalism is found. Dealing with this circularity means accepting it and admitting that justification in empirical science must be coherentist. Within such coherentism, epistemic iteration provides an effective method of scientific progress, resulting in the enrichment and self-correction of the initially affirmed system.
Complementary Science—History and Philosophy of Science as a Continuation of Science by Other Means
Authors: Chang Hasok
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents an in-depth discussion of the aims and methods of complementary science. Complementary science is presented as a productive direction for the fields of history and philosophy of science, without denying the importance of other directions. It can trigger a decisive transformation in the nature of scientific knowledge by adding a body of knowledge that combines a reclamation of past science, renewed judgment on past and present science, and exploration of alternatives.
Personalization and Historicization of the Combat Motif: In Prayer and Prophecy
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter argues that while myths derive their effect because they narrate something ancient and believed true, mythic metaphors open up an ironic space between the image (the dragon or the sea) and its vehicle (the person or the nation). These are effective because they are perceived to be both true and not true at the same time. The mythopoesis in Job 7:12 and Psalm 44 are discussed.
Conclusions and Other Considerations
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

The agon model — a theology of combat against the forces of chaos or disorder — has been the focus of the analysis on biblical myth and mythmaking. The model illustrates how the common ancient Near Eastern topos of divine combat with sea was realized in Israelite sources. Analysis shows that there is no disjunction between the pagan and monotheistic texts, and no indication in biblical materials that the sea is a fully distinct divine personality with its own biography. Biblical versions link the prototypical conflict at the beginning of the world order (Urzeit) with its recurrence within the sacred history of Israel during the exodus from Egypt, and its anticipated recurrence in new forms thereafter, up to and including the final defeat of the sea in the future (Endzeit).
God and the Primordial Waters
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

The old myths of Near Eastern antiquity were filtered and reformulated by many tradents in the east and west. This chapter explores accounts on divine combat and primordial waters, and the waters of Tehom and the temple. Topics covered include the separation of the waters, suppression of the sea, the cycle of strife and suppression, suppression of the Tehom, and Okeanos and Torah.
Conclusions and Other Considerations
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter begins with a discussion on the development paths of ancient rabbinic myth and mythmaking. These developed along two themes: the first marked by a thematic continuity with mythic topics, images, and scenarios found in earlier ancient New Eastern and biblical sources or traditions; the second is marked by thematic innovation, wherein new mythic themes, figures and topics are developed. It is argued that these myths are not independent genre but linked to Scripture and presented alongside it. Analyses on the concepts of myth and traditions, and myth and history are presented.
Introduction
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter begins with an exploration of the diverse sources that carried rabbinic myths to the Middle Ages. Three patterns are noted: a defence of the straightforward sense of Scripture and the Midrash, where they speak in bold imagery about God, a denunciation or denial of the apparent, straightforward sense of these and other passages, and an affirmation of the religious language and depictions in these corpora as sacred code of higher mysteries. The manifestation and mystery of the book of Zohar is discussed.
Final Conclusions
Authors: FISHBANE MICHAEL
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents a synthesis of all chapters discussed in this book. Three specific concepts are emphasized. The first is that this book is an exploration of the morphologies of myth and mythmaking found in three distinct bodies of literature: the Hebrew Bible; clusters or anthologies of Midrash; and the book of Zohar. Second is that the myths studied are cultural forms and the concrete expressions of a vital mythic imagination found in classical texts of the Jewish monotheistic tradition. Finally, that the three literary corpora investigated provide different accounts of perceptions of what is called the theosphere and its relation to the biosphere.
Political Competition and the Reform Trajectories of Post‐Communist States
Authors: Vachudova Milada Anna
Published: April 2005

The quality of political competition at the moment of regime change determined whether East European states embarked on a liberal or an illiberal pattern of political change after 1989. It was initially determined by the presence or absence of an opposition to communism strong enough to take power in 1989, and secondarily by the presence or absence of a reforming communist party. This chapter makes the theoretical case for why political competition is central to understanding variation in the domestic trajectories of post-communist states. It also presents a model of the causal mechanisms that translate different levels of political competition into liberal and illiberal political outcomes.
Liberal and Illiberal Democracy After Communism
Authors: Vachudova Milada Anna
Published: April 2005

The empirical variation between the political trajectories of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, on the one hand, and Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, on the other, is striking in the early 1990s. The presence or absence of an opposition to communism strong enough to take and hold power in 1989 put the first group of states on the road to liberal democracy, and the second group on the road to illiberal democracy. This chapter compares the two groups of states in three areas: the nature of the opposition to communism and of the regime change in 1989; the political, economic, and national policies of the first post-communist governments; and the quality of the left alternative available to voters after1989.
The Impact of Passive Leverage: The EU and Eastern Europe, 1989–94
Authors: Vachudova Milada Anna
Published: April 2005

The EU had a negligible impact on the course of political change in the new democracies from 1989 to 1994. This chapter traces empirically the relationship between the EU and the liberal and illiberal pattern states during this period. The EU’s passive leverage merely reinforced the (relatively) comprehensive reforms adopted by governing elites in the liberal states, while failing to avert or modify the rent-seeking behaviour of elites in the illiberal states. This chapter also reveals how the liberal states came to appreciate fully the benefits of EU membership through exposure to the protectionism of the EU during the negotiation and the implementation of the Europe Agreements. Meanwhile, the EU itself slowly came to terms with the prospect of a future eastern enlargement.
The Endgame of the Negotiations and the Future of an Enlarged European Union
Authors: Vachudova Milada Anna
Published: April 2005

Ten new members, eight of them post-communist states, joined the EU on 1 May 2004. This chapter takes up three issues that will shape the future of an enlarged EU. First, the EU’s active leverage has had a substantial impact on the political and economic institutions of the new members: has it promoted robust democratic institutions and a vigorous economy, as I have argued, or did it in fact undermine them? Second, the endgame of the negotiations forced unfavourable terms of accession onto the new members: will these unfavourable terms translate into a permanent second-class status? Or will the new members, bargaining hard to improve their position and importing diversity, bring European integration to a standstill? I argue that both concerns are overblown. Third, why did the EU decide to enlarge to these eight post-communist states, and how much further it is likely to go? The EU’s active leverage has been working in parts of the Western Balkans and in Turkey, and it could work elsewhere. The costs of foreclosing future membership for countries such as Turkey, Ukraine, or Belarus could be substantial, yet EU elites and publics are far from reconciled to further enlargements.
4 The Discovery Problem
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: April 2005

Begins the second part of the book, in which the author argues that commitment to the naturalistic research programme precludes one from accepting realism about material objects and materialism. The argument turns on the prospects (or lack thereof) that naturalists have for solving what the author calls the Discovery Problem. Roughly, the Discovery Problem is just the fact that intrinsic modal properties seem not to be discoverable by the methods of science. Describes this problem in Ch. 4, and argues that if there is good reason to think that the problem cannot be solved, then naturalists cannot be justified in accepting realism about material objects.
7 What Price Antirealism?
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: April 2005

Argues that, having been forced to give up realism about material objects, naturalists are committed to accepting constructivism, the view that the modal properties of material objects are mind‐dependent. Also argues that, in accepting constructivism, naturalists must give up materialism. Finally, shows that, once materialism has been given up, standard arguments against mind‐body dualism turn their teeth against realism about other minds.
Supernaturalism
Authors: Rea Michael C.
Published: April 2005

Supernaturalism is a research programme wherein one takes at least the methods of the natural sciences and religious experience as basic sources of evidence. Argues that embracing supernaturalism offers our best hope of avoiding the consequences of naturalism described earlier in the book. However, the author also argues that not just any version of supernaturalism will do the job, but only those that give rise to evidence for the conclusion that our world and, in particular, our cognitive faculties are the products of intelligent design.
Defining Hinduism
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

Bengali Hindu Swami Vivekananda sought to establish a new Hindu identity, which emphasized the individual’s right to unmediated access to the religious culture of India. His goal was to create a new basis for national unity and religious ethic that would encourage charitable work among the poor. Vivekananda endorsed a philosophical system called Advaita Vedanta, founded by the great teacher Sankara around 800 CE. This branch of Hinduism stresses the non-duality of reality and claims that the only thing that exists is Brahman, the Absolute. Everything, including self is identical with this Absolute, and it is only illusion caused by ignorance which makes us perceive them as individual entities separate from the Absolute.
Swami Vivekānanda and the Politics of Religion
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

Swami Vivekananda sought to establish a new Hindu identity under a programme of national solidarity and uplift. He championed tolerant Hinduism, while emphasizing that other religions were subordinate. For Vivekananda, Hinduism was the essence of religion, and encompassed all sects. Buddhism and Jainism were religions in the meaning creeds or sects, unable to meet the requirements for a universal religion.
Anagārika Dharmapāla and the Politics of Religion
Authors: Brekke Torkel
Published: April 2005

Anagarika Dharmapala applied his new ideas on Buddhism by attempting to take over Buddhist sites in India, particularly Bodh Gaya. Buddhists had a special historical connection with Eastern India because this was where Buddha reached enlightenment and founded his religion. Dharmapala believed that the identity of Buddhist Sri Lanka was defined by its ties to the symbolic centre of their religion, which lay in the heart of India — the Bodh Gaya. His long struggle to gain control over Bodh Gaya was a struggle to define Buddhist identity for himself and the Sinhalese nation in relation to their symbolic centre.
1 Rights
Authors: Rodin David
Published: April 2005

This chapter explores the logical structure of rights and the right of self-defence. Drawing on jurist Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld’s theory of rights, it argues that self-defence is a justification, a feature which explains why a normally prohibited act becomes either not impermissible or is a positive good. The justification of self-defence consists in a simple Hohfeldian liberty to commit homicide (or a lesser assault). The exceptional nature of the liberty together with its recurring and readily identifiable nature enables it to function as a genuine right within legal and moral normative systems.
International Law
Authors: Rodin David
Published: April 2005

This chapter explores the concept of the right of national self-defence. National self-defence is conceived in international law as a right — a consideration capable of asserting normative force against the consequentialist requirements such as those of peace and security. By locating the notion of national-defence within a framework of ideas generated in the context of personal defensive rights, the Just War Theorist can show how a state’s military action in defending its own sovereign power can be morally justified.
Conclusion: Morality and Realism
Authors: Rodin David
Published: April 2005

This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in the preceding chapters. It argues that a detailed analysis of the concepts of self-defence and national-defence can help identify and prevent the abuse of these concepts by politicians. By locating the conditions which can justify military action, we can identify the forms of military action which are, if not perfectly justified, close to being just compared to others. The need to rethink for traditional conceptions of international law and international ethics is also raised.
Motivational Judgement Internalism 6
Authors: Shafer-Landau Russ
Published: April 2005

Presents a taxonomy of internalisms, considers the amoralist as a counter‐example to motivational judgement internalism, provides the author's own examples to bolster the prospect of genuine amoralism, and tries to defuse the two primary worries about the author's form of motivational externalism.
Rationality and Disagreement 9
Authors: Shafer-Landau Russ
Published: April 2005

Distinguishes two strands of the classic antirealist argument from moral disagreement. The first has it that the extent of actual disagreement provides the basis of an inference to best explanation to antirealism. The second claims that ideal observers would disagree about moral matters, and this justifies an antirealist verdict. The author Replies to these criticisms in a number of ways, but the one the author likes the most invokes an ethics‐philosophy parallel. Since intractable disagreement among wise, informed and rational people about philosophical matters does not license a verdict of philosophical antirealism, it should not do so when the subject is ethics proper.
The Second Thousand Years
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

This chapter describes the second millennium of Catholic Christianity, before and after the 1492 discovery of the Americas. Up to Columbus, European Catholicism was shaped by building programmes, religious foundations, the sacramentalizing of daily life, crises in the papacy, reform movements, and the rise of national states. After Columbus, Christianity expanded as Europeans spread around the world. Grave abuses helped to trigger the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, which overlapped with the growth of the new learning facilitated by the invention of printing. The chapter closes with the coming of the world Church, symbolized by the Second Vatican Council (1962–5).
The Tripersonal God and the Incarnate Son
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

After summarizing the emergence of Jewish monotheism and the personifications of divine activity (as Word/Wisdom and Spirit), the chapter moves to the way Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and claimed both a more than human authority and a unique, intimate relationship with God as Abba. This datum, along with their experience of his resurrection from the dead and the coming of the Holy Spirit, led Paul and other early Christians to worship Christ as divine Lord and the only Son of God. Thus, the New Testament laid the ground for the subsequent, creedal confession of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The chapter ends by spelling out the two natures and one person of Christ, along with his work as Saviour of the world.
The Human Condition: Created and Sinful
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

This chapter first sets out the relationship between creator and creature, paying particular attention to the unique place of human beings and their call to be stewards of creation. Then, the chapter describes sin, both ‘original’ sin inherited from the first human beings and personal sin (either grave or venial).
The Life of Grace and the Hope of Glory
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

This chapter examines the present communion with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the consummation of this graced life in the final kingdom. The Catholic doctrine of grace emerged through two controversies. In the fourth and fifth centuries, Pelagius represented human beings as capable of achieving salvation largely through their own resources. In the sixteenth-century, Protestant Reformers highlighted the damage done by original sin, which has made human beings incapable of any good actions. In the twentieth-century, biblical, ecumenical, liturgical and patristic influences have enriched Catholic teaching on grace. The chapter ends by presenting Christ as the glorious destiny of the whole world, and by explaining the “last things”: death, resurrection, judgement, purgatory, heaven, and hell.
Catholic Moral Life and Teaching
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

This chapter begins by recalling several developments in Catholic moral teaching and practice (on usury, torture, and slavery), and then examines some distinctive Catholic moral convictions: about respect for life, the sexual order, truth, justice, care for the needy, human dignity, and human rights. The chapter ends by proposing two fundamental principles for forming one’s moral conscience: the following of Christ and docility to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Current Challenges
Authors: O'Collins SJ Gerald , Farrugia SJ Mario
Published: April 2005

Besides the economic, political, and social challenges that face all human beings, the Catholic Church must cope with various particular issues: the need for ongoing conversion to Christ; a better practice of collegiality and subsidiarity, which will reduce over-centralization; more room for the ministry of laywomen and laymen; a happier balance between dialogue with ‘others’ and the mission to proclaim Christ.
The State of the Question and Plan of this Book
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

Reflects on the reception of the consensus by the majority, its resistance by a minority, and the consequences of the question for the academy and the Church. Outlines the three empirical bases for the consensus and sets the orientation for the study that will follow. Finally, it gives attention to a critical but seldom examined factor in the debate, the ‘quotation standard’ employed by scholars to determine literary borrowing on the part of early writers. While ‘clear’ or ‘explicit quotations’ are desired and often demanded before scholars will affirm that a given source was used by a given writer, such standards do not always accord with known practices in antiquity.
Gaius of Rome and the Johannine Controversy
Authors: Hill Charles E.
Published: April 2005

Gaius of Rome, thought to have been a presbyter or bishop in the early years of the third century, is said to have rejected both the Johannine Gospel and Apocalypse, attributing one or both to the heretic Cerinthus. Gaius very probably did reject the Apocalypse, but when legend and later scholarly accretions are untangled, the opinion that he opposed the Fourth Gospel is seen to be based upon very shaky evidence. In any case, neither he nor anyone else appears ever to have charged John’s Gospel with being gnostic, docetic, or with supporting such tendencies. Further, the belief that Gaius was a presbyter or bishop is based on a case of mistaken identity. The portrait of Gaius as a conserver of orthodox sensibilities in orthodox Rome, who wanted to enforce a long-held suspicion of the tainted Johannine Gospel, is a figment of the modern, critical imagination, attributable mainly to Walter Bauer.