bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Global Atmospheric Emissions Model of HCFC142b with Respect to Extruded Polystyrene Foam Applications
Authors: Paquet Andrew N. , Mutton John , Lee Simon P.
Published: April 2009

This paper will address significant issues related to discrepancies between the atmospheric measurements of HCFC142b and estimated emissions from production and use data, and attempt to improve the agreement between them. Current discussions and regulations regarding materials used to make extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) are using insufficient and incorrect data. This poor information may affect current and future use of an important energy management product. This paper presents new data and information regarding emissions of HCFC142b used to make XPS products. The data are from a variety of governmental and industry sources. Furthermore, as HCFC142b is being phased out of use in developed XPS markets, its use is increasing significantly in emerging markets, particularly China. The new information is used to develop a bottom-up model for HCFC142b that reasonably estimates atmospheric measurements. It is a reliable tool for assessing use scenarios of HCFC142b, and can be used to develop useful management actions for the use of this material, and develop appropriate policies for replacement materials for HCFC142b in XPS products.
The Impact of Unions on Pay Levels in Lower-Skilled Jobs
Authors: Forth John , Millward Neil
Published: April 2009

The decline in trade union influence over the past two decades raises the question of whether pay levels in lower-skilled jobs now lie outside the unions' sphere of influence, as tacitly acknowledged by their acceptance and later endorsement of the principle of the statutory minimum wage. This article examines pay levels among lower-skilled jobs in the private sector in Britain using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 1998. It shows that trade unions still had a positive impact upon pay levels in lower-skilled jobs and identifies those forms of unionism associated with the largest premiums. However, the article also shows that the activities of trade unions did little to counteract the forces generating the lowest levels of pay.
The Foundation of ‘Partnership’? Union Effects on Employee Trust in Management
Authors: Bryson Alex
Published: April 2009

This article addresses the question: what impact do trade unions have on employee trust in management? Using nationally representative data on employees in theBritish Social Attitudes Survey(BSAS) 1998, we assess associations between measures of unionisation and employee perceptions that managers usually keep their promises to employees. The article provides broad support for the three hypotheses explored here. First, employee trust in managers is higher where there is a balance of power between unions and management at the workplace. Secondly, employees' trust in managers is higher where management supports union membership, and is lowest where management actively discourages membership. This is equally true among employees in unionised and non-unionised workplaces. Thirdly, employees' perceptions of union effectiveness are positively associated with higher trust in management.

The positive association between managerial support for union membership and employee trust in management can be interpreted in various ways. But the finding suggests that management can influence employee perceptions of them for better or for worse through their engagement with unions.

Management can also foster a high trust relationship with employees by ensuring that unions have sufficient power to make a positive contribution to the running of the workplace, since unions with the ‘right amount of power’ are associated with higher trust in management. Weak unions are particularly bad for employee perceptions of management, raising the question why employers often recognise unions for pay bargaining, but preside over a decline in union strength at the workplace.

Unions are best able to create a climate in which employees trust management where they are perceived to be doing their job well, where they have regard to union members' problems and complaints, and where they contribute to the smooth running of the workplace. In these circumstances, trust in management is generally no different from that found among employees in non-unionised workplaces. However, where unions are viewed as ineffective, trust in management is lower than in comparable non-unionised workplaces.
An Historical Perspective on Forecast Errors
Authors: Clements Michael P. , Hendry David F.
Published: April 2009

Using annual observations on industrial production over the last three centuries, and on GDP over a 100-year period, we seek an historical perspective on the forecastability of these UK output measures. The series are dominated by strong upward trends, so we consider various specifications of this, including the local linear trend structural time-series model, which allows the level and slope of the trend to vary. Our results are not unduly sensitive to how the trend in the series is modelled: the average sizes of the forecast errors of all models, and the wide span of prediction intervals, attests to a great deal of uncertainty in the economic environment. It appears that, from an historical perspective, the postwar period has been relatively more forecastable.
Risk and Equity Market Weakness: Their Implications for the World Economy
Authors: Barrell Ray
Published: April 2009

The terrorist attack on New York on 11 September 2001 caused considerable disruption to the US economy, and especially to the US financial markets. The initial reaction of the financial markets was to increase the discount factor on future profits and reduce future profit projections, and hence stock market valuations fell markedly, as can be seen from charts 1 and 2. This fall has been largely reversed since the attack, but markets have in general continued their decline from their peaks a year or so ago. Falls have been particularly precipitate since July 2001, with the German and French stock market indices falling by 20 per cent over the last three months, whilst the Canadian markets have fallen even more. Stock market falls of the scale we have seen since July are almost bound to impact on the level of economic activity in the major economies. They are likely to reduce the rate of growth of the world economy over the medium term as well as change the structure of saving and investment.
The Role and Use of Vocational Qualifications
Authors: Eraut Michael
Published: April 2009

Most vocational qualifications have been gazumped by general educational qualifications that have higher selection value, and their relative esteem is self-perpetuating. The use value of vocational qualifications depends on (1) the appropriateness of, and interconnection between, their work-related and work-based components, and (2) further work-based learning after qualification to ensure that the acquired knowledge and skills can be used in the particular circumstances and conditions of the current workplace. The NVQ experience has confirmed that detailed national specifications cannot match the diversity of workplace learning needs, so a more flexible approach is needed. Qualification policy should be based on evidence of fitness for purpose, rather than political troubleshooting or wishful thinking; and backed by a programme of incisive research.
Yet More Maths Problems
Authors: Howson Geoffrey
Published: April 2009

This article considers several key problems facing the teaching and learning of mathematics at secondary level. In particular, it studies the need for better defined aims for mathematics teaching; the standards currently being attained by students viewed from an international perspective; the validity of many of the assessment procedures on which the government places such emphasis; and the underlying problem, that of an insufficiency of well-qualified mathematics teachers — a problem that, for several decades, governments have chosen to ignore. Suggestions are made on how the various aims of mathematics education might be better met.

‘Does “Mathematics for all” mean “No mathematics for all”?’ Title of a lecture given by J. de Lange in 1983.

‘A calculator, …, a friend or an independent financial advisor can substitute for an education in mathematics for instrumental purposes’ (Bramall, 2000).

‘Q. I would like to know the rate of inflation for the years since 1987 to the present time to work out the true value of my savings. Can you help?

A. Certainly. Since 1987 the cost of living has gone up by 70 per cent. So £1 today is worth the equivalent of only 30p then.’ Reader's question and financial expert's answer in ‘Your money’, Saga Magazine, April 2001.
The UK and EMU: Choosing the Regime
Authors: Barrell Ray
Published: April 2009

The UK has to make a decision on membership of EMU in the next two years. The monetary and fiscal regimes in the Euro Area and in the UK do not differ greatly. However, we argue that membership of EMU will increase the stability of the economy and the credibility of the policy framework, and hence will enhance the prospects for growth and higher incomes and employment. There appear to be no major problems associated with joining EMU at around 1.50 euros to the pound, although there are risks to the UK if the euro appreciates against the dollar after we have entered. However, the costs associated with this risk have to be offset against the probability of the significant output gains that could come from EMU membership in the medium term.
Towards a New Economy? Recent Inflation and Unemployment in the United Kingdom
Authors: Sargent J. R.
Published: April 2009

This is the last article in the series contributed to the Review from the CLARE Group of economists. Since the Group was formed in 1976, with the aim of counteracting the polarisation of opinion among economists at the time, over fifty articles have been published, initially in the Midland Bank Review. But members of the Group have lately come under increasing pressure of time from academic and other commitments, and it has reluctantly decided to dissolve itself. On doing so, it would like to record its warm thanks to the National Institute Economic Review for the hospitality of its pages since 1988. As for previous articles, drafts of this one have been discussed among members of the Group, but responsibility for the views expressed rests with the author alone.

From 1993 to 2000 in the UK, there was a welcome twist to the relationship between unemployment and inflation, subverting received ideas about the ‘Phillips Curve’. This is best accounted for by the onset of a relatively moderate rate of growth of real wages, which also helped the monetary authorities to keep inflation close to the target set. Several causes can be suggested for this moderation, but the major issue now is the extent to which it can be reckoned on to continue. There are reasons for taking a cautious view of the prospects.
The UK Economy
Authors: Barrell Ray , Riley Rebecca
Published: April 2009

GDP growth picked up in the second quarter and has remained close to trend over the course of the summer after an initial dip in the first quarter of the year. Preliminary estimates of GDP suggest the economy expanded by 0.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2003. The recovery of growth from the relative weakness observed throughout most of 2001 and 2002 has arrived somewhat earlier than we thought at the time of our July forecast. GDP growth was revised upwards from 0.1 and 0.3 per cent per quarter in the first two quarters of the year to 0.2 and 0.6 per cent per quarter. Chart 1 shows our forecast of quarterly GDP growth to the end of 2004. We expect growth to remain close to trend over this period. For this year as a whole our central projection shows the economy expanding by 2.0 per cent this year and by 2.6 and 2.7 per cent per annum in 2004 and 2005.
An Evaluation of Business Start-Up Support for Young People
Authors: Meager Nigel , Bates Peter , Cowling Marc
Published: April 2009

The article describes some evaluation findings from a longitudinal study of young people receiving business start-up assistance, through the Prince's Trust (with financial support from the Government). Unusually for evaluations of self-employment schemes, it focuses not solely on issues of deadweight and business survival, but also looks at the impact of programme participation on the subsequent labour market outcomes of participants. It uses a matched comparison group methodology to model programme impact, and finds no statistical evidence that supported entry to self-employment has an impact on participants' subsequent ‘employability’. After controlling for other factors, those who leave the programme are no more likely than those in the comparison group to be in employment, and if in employment their earnings are no higher than those in the comparison group.
Inmate Assaults on Prison Staff
Authors: Lahm Karen F.
Published: April 2009

Most of the extant literature on prison violence has explored inmate-on-inmate assaultive behaviors rather than inmate-on-staff assaults. In addition, the bulk of this past literature considered only one level of an analysis, the inmate or the prison, while ignoring the importance of prison context on inmate behavior. This study enhances past research by combining both inmate- and prison-level data into a multilevel model predicting the likelihood of inmate-on-staff assaults. Self-report data from more than 1,000 inmates and 30 prisons revealed that, at the inmate level, age and aggression were the most robust predictors of inmate-on-staff assaults. In terms of contextual effects, inmates housed in prisons with a greater proportion of non-White inmates and a larger staff-to-inmate ratio were more likely to assault prison staff members. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Nurslings, Milk and Moral Development in the Greco-Roman Context: A Reappraisal of the Paraenetic Utilization of Metaphor in 1 Peter 2.1-3
Authors: Tite Philip L.
Published: April 2009

A scholarly tradition exists linking the nursling-milk metaphor in 1 Pet. 2.1-3 with Jewish (or Jewish-Christian) motifs from, for example, the Odes of Solomon and Qumran. This article attempts to broaden the cultural associations of this metaphor to include the broader Greco-Roman world—specifically the role of the wet nurse, the idealized mother, and formative moral development of the child through breast-feeding and childminders ( nutrix and nutritor). This article will then link these cultural referents to the rhetorical strategy of this section of 1 Peter's paraenesis.
Welcoming a Child as a Metaphor for Welcoming God's Kingdom: A Close Reading of Mark 10.13-16
Authors: Spitaler Peter
Published: April 2009

The purpose of this article is threefold: to analyze the structural markers in Mk 10.13-16 that signal that the reader should render the simile in 10.15 `welcoming the kingdom of God as one welcomes a child', to sketch the narrative and symbolic functions of this simile within its immediate literary context, and to highlight those aspects of 10.13-16 that indicate this passage is an expanded Markan relecture of 9.33-37.
`Do not Judge who is Worthy and Unworthy': Clement's Warning not to Speculate about the Rich Young Man's Response (Mark 10.17-31)
Authors: Clarke Andrew D.
Published: April 2009

Since the earliest commentators, Mark's account of the rich man has almost universally been read as evidently suggesting the character's ultimate rejection of Jesus' call. However, if this man is typical of Mark's portrayal of minor characters, then he may be regarded as a positive foil to the disciples; and his sadness in departure is nonetheless consistent with considered reflection on the severe cost of discipleship. Such a reading is also consistent with Mk 8—10, which challenges that true discipleship is indeed costly, and not to be entered upon lightly. Jesus subsequently gives a critical rejoinder to the precipitate self-congratulation of the disciples—`many who are first will be last, and the last will be first'. Mark's silence about whether or not the rich man did, after due reflection, accept Jesus' invitation encourages the reader to focus rather on the cost of following Jesus, than speculating about what has been left unstated.
Minding the world
Authors: Hammer Espen
Published: April 2009

Against Jürgen Habermas’ view that Adorno’s thinking is characterized by a commitment to a philosophy of consciousness, and that therefore the only alternative to identitarian reason is to appeal to an intuitive competence operating beyond the range of conceptual thought, it is arged (1) that Adorno conceptualizes the modern epistemic subject (the subject of a philosophy of consciousness) as based on a reification, and (2) that he denies the possibility of a concept-transcendent (foundationalist) constraint on judgments. In seeking to demonstrate against versions of subjective idealism and foundationalism how thought can be responsive to a non-identical (mind-independent) reality, Adorno defends an intersubjectivist and historicist view of knowledge according to which the operative and yet anamnetic aspiration of knowledge is to know reflectively the object as it is in itself. The conclusion is that although Adorno questions the modern (Kantian) stress on epistemic autonomy, he does not take leave of modernity in the sense ascribed to him by Habermas.
An essay on the principles of Rousseau’s anthropology
Authors: Muchnik Pablo
Published: April 2009

Against the impression that Rousseau is an eclectic thinker, this paper is an attempt to reconstruct the systematic core of his anthropology. First, I discuss the methodological starting-point. Second, I develop the structural framework required to make the concept of nature operative as an ideal within social contexts. Finally, I interpret Rousseau’s genetic account in terms of this framework. Such a procedure allows me to solve two interpretative problems, the aporia of the origin of wickedness and the question of man’s natural isolation. A twofold notion of logic is introduced to integrate the demands of history and structure, which overlap with those of freedom and necessity in Rousseau’s thought. This organizes my argument in a mirror-like way. I call this undertaking an essay, for it is the endeavor to think what Rousseau must have thought in order to write what he wrote.
Beyond the ‘French Fries and the Frankfurter’
Authors: Landry Lorraine Y.
Published: April 2009

Debates between Habermas and the poststructuralists - specifically, Derrida, Foucault and Lyotard - over the nature of critiques of Enlightenment rationality and modernity are investigated in order to argue for an agenda for critical theory beyond the ‘French Fries and the Frankfurter’.1 Part I interrogates key elements of Habermas’ theory of communicative rationality in his reconstruction of Enlightenment modernity and his critique of the poststructuralists. This orients the discussion toward an evaluation of Habermas’ neo-Kantianism, theory of language (discourse ethics), and the ‘critique’ he employs in his bid to defend and complete the project of modernity.

Part II delineates some common ground between Habermas and the post-structuralists and argues for the value of maintaining a fruitful tension among their critiques of Enlightenment modernity. Points of unproductive tension among their critiques are taken up in light of the above value. These generally pertain to commitment to neo-Kantian approaches to critique, linguistic relativism and philosophical scepticism. The conclusion indicates that there are features of the constructive tension in the postmodernism debates which are integrally related to Marx’s work. Indeed, the debates’ contemporary perspectives upon and commitment to critical-practical engagement with ideological features of the Enlightenment legacy and capitalism can be revitalized by the contributions of Marx’s materialist critique.
Liberalism and its critique
Authors: Maffettone Sebastiano
Published: April 2009

Starting with the assumption that liberalism is under attack both from political and from philosophical alternatives, this paper is limited to a discussion of one family of critical arguments toward liberalism, namely the arguments that stress the importance of process as contrasted with substance. According to these arguments philosophical and political liberalism is based on substantive principles of justice, whereas a proper democratic theory should be founded on more procedural theories of justice. Such criticism ranges from democratic deliberative approaches to republican theories of politics. I examine some of these critiques of liberalism - from Habermas to Cohen, Gutmann and Thompson, from Pettit to Sunstein and Michelman - and conclude that all of them arrive at a final impasse: either they smuggle into their critiques substantive parts of liberalism or their theories do not match our philosophical and political needs. That is why I maintain that sometimes the therapy (namely democratic deliberation and republicanism) can be worse than the disease (namely liberalism).
Reconstruction or deconstruction?
Authors: Allen Amy
Published: April 2009

I argue that Johanna Meehan’s call to examine the extralinguistic psychic, affective and biological dimensions of gender identity is extremely important both for feminist theory in particular and for contemporary Continental philosophy in general. However, I suspect that such an examination might necessitate more than a mere expansion or reconstruction of Habermas’ views; on the contrary, I suggest that Meehan’s line of argument might lead instead toward a radical deconstruction of Habermasian critical theory.
On recovering Marx after Marxism
Authors: Rockmore Tom
Published: April 2009

If Marx is to survive as a source of unparalleled insight into the modern world, he needs to be recovered. This article will begin to address some of the difficulties which arise in recovering Marx, above all the need to free Marx from Marxism. Marx has always been studied through Marxism, hence in a way which profoundly distorts his philosophical ideas. If we remove this Marxist ‘filter’, we see a rather different, more philosophical, and more philosophically-interesting thinker, Hegel’s most important student, a full member of German idealism, who comes closer than anyone else to grasping the nature of the modern industrial world.
The City
Authors: Domingues José Maurício
Published: April 2009

Weber's piece on the development of the north-European Western city has not commanded attention in the recent theoretical literature. This article argues that it can however provide fresh insights into some key problems of Weber’s diagnosis of modernity and into his general sociological theory, especially as to his theory of action and creativity. A more open-ended conception of modernity can be gained from its analysis, which is more compatible with Weber’s own methodological assumptions. A different relationship between freedom and rationality may be derived as a theoretical and political consequence from the discussion of The City.
Self–other relations and the rationality of cultures
Authors: Healy Paul
Published: April 2009

As attested by Taylor, Calhoun and others, recognition is central to (cultural) identity and to a related sense of self-worth. In contrast, by denying the comparable worth of other cultures, non-recognition represents a potentially damaging mode of intercultural relations. Although not widely acknowledged, a related consideration has been at issue in the rationality debate, initiated by Peter Winch, throughout its several phases. Briefly stated, the problem is that the polarized alternatives of ethnocentric universalism and self-sealing relativism that have characterized this debate serve either to preclude mutual recognition altogether or to promote ‘invidious comparison’ (Dascal). As will be apparent, these alternatives pose significant barriers to intercultural research and relations on terms of mutual recognition and respect.

The present paper seeks to come to terms with this problem by developing an account of cultural rationality, and a concomitant account of the logic of cross-cultural inquiry, which can promote growth of understanding through intercultural learning, and so help to foster more productive modes of intercultural relations. Specifically, the intent is to identify the conditions that need to be fulfilled if this more productive mode of cross-cultural inquiry is to be possible. Throughout, appeal is made to core hermeneutic tenets to ground the viability of a conception of cross-cultural inquiry that can transcend the terms of reference of the original Winchian debate. Following elucidation of the requisite conditions, the paper concludes with a reflection on possible barriers to their acceptance and implementation.
Adorno, ideology and ideology critique
Authors: Cook Deborah
Published: April 2009

Throughout his work, Adorno contrasted liberal ideology to the newer and more pernicious form of ideology found in positivism. The paper explores the philosophical basis for Adorno’s contrast between liberal and positivist ideology. In Negative Dialectics, Adorno describes all ideology as identity-thinking. However, on his view, liberal ideology represents a more rational form of identity-thinking. Fearing that positivism might obliterate our capacity to distinguish between what is and what ought to be, Adorno sought a more secure foundation for his critique of existing conditions. He found this basis in liberal discourse. In the concept of freedom, for example, Adorno located ideas or ideals that negate and transcend the given. One of the conditions for the possibility of critical thought lies in such ideas; critical thinking consists in wielding the more emphatic content of concepts against the pathic rationality of existing conditions. Far from prescribing mimesis as the antidote to a damaged social, political and economic reality, then, Adorno advocates a more dialectically inflected use of concepts as the basis for social criticism.
Distorted communications
Authors: Johnson Pauline
Published: April 2009

The paper reviews the extent to which main formulations in Habermas’s recent major work, Between Facts and Norms, make ground against feminist objections to the Habermasian project. Although the later work does not tamper with the core project of Habermas’s theory of modernity, the terms in which the procedural norms of democratic interaction are now conceived clarify the sympathetic relevance of Habermas’s project to feminism’s own vital concerns. There is reason to suppose Habermas’s construction of the motivations that prompt and guide struggles to achieve personal autonomy is rather too narrowly conceived to capture the range of impulses that inform contemporary feminism. Despite this, I suggest that there remain good reasons for supposing that the recent conception of the project opens up the possibility for a more positive stage in Habermas’s dialogue with feminism.
We the people/s
Authors: Seigfried Hans
Published: April 2009

This paper tries to shed some light on the paradox that people cling to national ideologies at just the time when nations are counting less and less in social, cultural, economic and political affairs, and when transnational corporations and international organizations increasingly determine the framework of things. Many nations still rigidly think of themselves as independent and sovereign, accountable to no one but themselves, even when our global interdependence can no longer be ignored or denied. Ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity testify to the dangers of isolationist tendencies, such as blind conservatism, which we may escape only by cultivating and advancing democracy and a shared public life on a global scale, i.e. by developing transnational institutions on strictly empirical and experimental grounds that could assist people in coping with the newly emerging world-order.
Derrida’s deconstruction of authority
Authors: Newman Saul
Published: April 2009

This article explores the political aspect of Derrida’s work, in particular his critique of authority. Derrida employs a series of strategies to expose the antagonisms within Western philosophy, whose structures of presence provide a rational and essentialist foundation for political institutions. Therefore, Derrida’s interrogation of the universalist claims of philosophy may be applied to the pretensions of political authority. Moreover, I argue that Derrida’s deconstruction of the two paths of ‘reading’ - inversion and subversion - may be applied to the question of revolutionary politics, to show that revolution often culminates in the reaffirmation of authority. Derrida navigates a path between these two strategies, allowing one to formulate philosophical and political strategies that work at the limits of discourse, thereby pointing to an outside. This outside, I argue, is crucial to radical politics because it unmasks the violence and illegitimacy of institutions and laws.
Genealogy and the problem of affirmation in Nietzsche, Foucault and Bakhtin
Authors: Evans Fred
Published: April 2009

Genealogy is a critical method employed most notably by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. Although he does not explicitly acknowledge it, Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian linguist and philosopher of language, also uses this method. I examine the way these three thinkers construe both the critical and the affirmative roles of genealogy. The ‘affirmative role’ refers to what genealogy itself valorizes in exposing the limits of the universal claims it critiques. I identify three tasks of the critical role of genealogy and explore what I feel are two limitations of its affirmative side: the anonymity of Nietzsche’s ‘eternal return of the same’ and the indeterminacy of Foucault’s ‘undefined work of freedom’. I argue that a judicious use of Bakhtin’s notions of ‘voice’ and ‘dialogized heteroglossia’ can help genealogy to overcome these two limitations without resurrecting the totalizing systems of thought that all three thinkers repudiate.
The embodiment of the categorical imperative
Authors: Levin David Michael
Published: April 2009

Am I enjoined and moved by a sense of moral responsibility that, prior to consciousness, prior to volition, has always already informed and predisposed the very nature of my flesh? How could we account for this experience without recognizing that it is the flesh that first bears the order of the moral law? This study undertakes a hermeneutical reading of some texts in which the question of the embodiment of the categorical imperative, the responsibility enjoined by the procedural form of the moral law, is introduced. It is hoped that this reading will contribute to our understanding of the body of experience, the so-called body-subject, showing the body to be not only an object-body, not only, as in the work of Foucault, a material substratum for the application of power, but also, as Levinas thought, the primordial bearer of a certain rudimentary moral compass, at the very heart of which there lies, if only deeply encrypted, the categorical assignment of the moral law. Thus, the human body is not, as some postmodern writers contend, a totally unruly, uncivilized nature without any implicit order of its own, but is a first nature always already disposed, if only in a preliminary and rudimentary way, to bear the moral development that society requires us to undertake.
Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet
Authors: Gimmler Antje
Published: April 2009

The internet could be an efficient political instrument if it were seen as part of a democracy where free and open discourse within a vital public sphere plays a decisive role. The model of deliberative democracy, as developed by Jürgen Habermas and Seyla Benhabib, serves this concept of democracy best. The paper explores first the model of deliberative democracy as a ‘two-track model’ in which representative democracy is backed by the public sphere and a developing civil society. Secondly, it outlines the normative concept of the public sphere and its basic ideas, namely the uncoerced communication of equal participants with equal access and equal rights to intervene or propose themes. The third part for discussion shows how the internet could fit into this concept of public sphere and influence the quality of political debates, and emphasizes the important role it can play in the political process.
Politics and the art of suffering in Hölderlin and Nietzsche
Authors: Michaelis Loralea
Published: April 2009

This paper develops an analysis of the relationship between politics and suffering in the writings of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). Both thinkers uphold the tragic idea of suffering as a crucible in which the uniquely human powers of self-creation – having reached, apparently, their lowest point – are revealed in all of their grand majesty. Yet they diverge dramatically when it comes to working out the political implications of this idea. Whereas Hölderlin deploys the tragic revaluation of suffering on behalf of democracy, Nietzsche deploys this same revaluation against democracy. My argument suggests that the differences between Hölderlin and Nietzsche refer more to their different points in the development of the modern age than to any substantive difference in the structure of their thinking, and that unearthing Nietzsche’s origins in Hölderlin enables us to retrieve the wider compass of the idea of suffering on which Nietzsche relies in developing his critique of modern democratic politics, and so also a wider compass for settling some of the debates that have arisen around his political thought.
Scattering community
Authors: Lindroos Kia
Published: April 2009

In discussing the cultural history of the 19th century, Walter Benjamin diagnosed the emergence of the modern novel and its form of narration as the sign of a fracturing experience. The split in experience is related to the scattering of a homogeneous idea of space and time, constituted especially during the Enlightenment and in the German historicism. Benjamin's claim reflected the fracturing temporality of modern communities as well as the transformations in the understanding of the meaning of tradition. Here, I begin by discussing Benjamin's conceptions of experience and memory in detail. Secondly, I consider his ideas on history in the framework of challenging the new forms of narration. In the end, I consider the loss of a unified community, especially by indicating ways in which the after-modern community reflects the relationship between aesthetics and politics in Jean-François Lyotard's thought.
Communication and rational justification
Authors: Vandevelde Pol
Published: April 2009

As a response to the common criticism that phenomenology is handicapped by its descriptive faith, this article outlines a program for showing what a rational justification can be from a phenomenological perspective. The phenomenological position defended here stands between Rorty’s thesis of objectivity in solidarity and Habermas’s view of rationality through universal claims. In the first part of the article, I show how a justification of a stance, an action, or a behavior can only make appeal to standards and criteria which derive from a culture; in the second part, I argue that, since justification involves the making of claims, a claim makes both its author and its community accountable and liable for what is claimed; the third part shows how the encounter between cultures and communities exerts a greater scrutiny on claims made in one culture or community, thereby leading to progress in the justification process
Justice is strife
Authors: Hampshire Stuart
Published: April 2009

It has always been recognized that proposals about the sense of ‘reason’ and ‘rationality’ will have moral and political implications. I shall argue that it has been a misfortune that the term ‘reason’ was interpreted by Plato and Aristotle as referring to a faculty of the divided soul. The parallel between the city/social order, rightly conceived and planed, and the soul, put in order by nature, is carefully worked out. In it, political choice is to be guided by the analogy with the natural subordinations recognized in the soul. I suggest that, reversing the tradition, we start at the other end of the analogy and proceed in the opposite direction, and look at the ways that natural rational processes have both a public and inner mental use.
From fight to debate
Authors: Leibovici Martine
Published: April 2009

In A History of Florence, Machiavelli recounts revolts, especially of the Ciompi of 1378, which display the repeated surfacings of the desire for freedom navigating ceaselessly between the desire to abolish freedom through the recourse to absolute power and moments when virtue triumphs over fortuna and achieves an order that, while fragile, makes the antagonisms fit in such a way that instead of fights they become debates. For Machiavelli, the speeches made in these situations serve to both analyze the circumstances within which the struggles take on meaning and to display the desire for freedom carving out its path using the energy deployed via the negativity of the desire not to be dominated.
Specters of postmodernism: Derrida’s Marx, the New International and the return of situationism
Authors: Debrix François
Published: April 2009

In Specters of Marx, Derrida proposes a return to the spirit of Marxism as a way of dealing with the ‘repoliticization’ of contemporary realities. I suggest that Derrida’s rediscovery of Marx allows one to map out what I call the end(s) of postmodernism, that is to say, the point(s) where the cultural free-play characteristic of the postmodern mood is confronted with renewed questions of politics, ideology and technology. Through a micro-reading of Derrida’s text, two possible end(s) of post-modernism are identified. One is a ‘retro-(post)modernist’ discourse which turns liberal and provides the vision of a ‘New International’ as an end result. The other is a ‘(post)-postmodern’ approach which finds a way of tackling politics and ideology by rediscovering a mode of situationist engagement. By investigating the ‘specters’ of postmodernism through Derrida’s recent work, this paper contributes to the debate over what type of theoretical formations may emerge after postmodernism.
A space of one’s own: autonomy, privacy, liberty
Authors: Cooke Maeve
Published: April 2009

The value of a negatively defined private space is defended as important for the development of personal autonomy. It is argued that negative liberty is problematic when split off from its connection with this ideal. An ethical interpretation of personal autonomy is proposed according to which a private space is one of autonomy’s preconditions. This leads to a conceptualization of privacy that is fruitful in two respects: it permits an account of privacy laws that avoids certain pitfalls, and it serves as a basis for criticizing privacy-related failures of autonomy together with the social forces that produce them. Negative liberty is, furthermore, rejected as an adequate basis for modern law and democracy. Here, too, an ethically defined personal autonomy, of which negative liberty is a precondition, is held to be the most convincing normative foundation. A critical reading of Habermas’ cooriginality thesis is offered in support of this argument.
The choice of tradition and the tradition of choice: Habermas’ and Rorty’s interpretation of pragmatism
Authors: Koczanowicz Leszek
Published: April 2009

The paper is aimed at discussing two interpretations of pragmatism in a broader framework of general rules of philosophical interpretation. J. Habermas’ and R. Rorty’s uses of pragmatism are considered in detail and confronted with general assumptions of pragmatic philosophy. It is shown that in both cases the original ideas of pragmatism are changed in order to fit the philosophies of interpreters. The paper ends with discussion of a possibility of applying the rule of interpretative charity and dialogue to philosophical analyses.
The pessimistic spirit
Authors: Dienstag Joshua Foa
Published: April 2009

Pessimism today is poorly understood. Indeed, such is the disdain that pessimism engenders, that it often has difficulty being taken seriously as a theoretical position. Yet pessimism, which is distinct from skepticism and nihilism, has much to offer those who have discarded the Enlightenment’s expectation of progress. Through an examination of Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Unamuno, this paper traces out some of the common themes of pessimistic thought. Pessimism, it is argued, is concerned with the burden of time and with the problem of organizing the best kind of human life in the absence of a promise of progress, happiness, or salvation for society as a whole. But it need not urge passivity or resignation in response to these conditions. The figure of Don Quixote, first appealed to in this context by Unamuno, illustrates pessimism’s capacity to craft a positive ethic of personal conduct for life in a disordered and disenchanted world.
Reconstructing the subject of human rights
Authors: Hughes Cheryl L.
Published: April 2009

Recent philosophical criticisms of individual rights and the post modern deconstruction of the sovereign subject raise serious questions for the defense of universal human rights. This paper critically examines Paul Ricoeur's effort to reconstruct a viable notion of the human subject as the bearer of human rights. Ricoeur's analysis of the narrative structure of human experiences and action takes account of the recent philosophical criticisms of sovereign subjectivity; it avoids both the fiction of the atomistic individual of liberal political philosophy and the fragility of a completely relativized and decentered subject. By extending Ricoeur's work on narrative identity and by developing a humanism based on the ethical primacy of the other-than-self, this paper aims to provide new insights into the complexity of implementing and defending universal human rights.
Strategies of justice
Authors: Foster Roger
Published: April 2009

This paper presents the philosophies of J.-F Lyotard and J. Habermas as motivated by the common goal of conceiving a credible theory of social justice whilst avoiding the aporias of the philosophy of subjectivity. It is argued that each constructs a conception of social justice through conceiving domination within the philosophical framework furnished by the linguistic turn. This argument will involve an examination of the divergent readings given by these thinkers of the relation between injustice and language use. Lyotard's critique of Habermas's philosophy is then examined. It is maintained that Lyotard's notion of aesthetic presentation sheds light on an important deficiency in Habermas's attempt to conceive justice in terms of the emancipatory potential of communicative speech. Lyotard's theory of justice is then defended against the charge that it constitutes a renouncement of normative critique. However, the defence of Lyotard is tentative, since, it is argued, the commitment to the paradigm of Kantian aesthetics poses problems for Lyotard's critique of the subjective foundationalist project.
Review essay : Ethics for an age of globalization and exclusion
Authors: Mendieta Eduardo
Published: April 2009

Dussel's ethics begins with a consideration of the importance of history for ethics in general and for us, in particular, in an age of globaliz ation and exclusion. The first part of the work concerns foundational ethics, where he grounds three principles: a material principle, a formal or validity principle, and a feasibility principle. The second part deals with critical ethics, where he grounds three additional principles of ethics: a principle of the recognition of the corporeal dignity of co-subjects, the critical-discur sive principle, and the liberation principle. This ethics offers itself as a third way between neo-Kantianism and neo-Aristotelianism, and as an ethics that reflects out of the pressing problem of the growing impoverishment of 75 per cent of humans on the planet.
Existence and the communicatively competent self
Authors: Matus Martin Beck
Published: April 2009

Most readers of Habermas would not classify him as an existential thinker. The view of Habermas as a philosopher in German Idealist and Critical traditions from Kant to Hegel and Marx to the Frankfurt School prevails among Continental as much as among analytic philosophers. And the mainstream Anglo-American reception of his work and politics is shaped by the approaches of formal analysis rather than those of existential and social phenomenology or even current American pragmatism. One may argue that both these readings eclipse richer existential dimensions of a thinker who challenges the notorious methodological and political splits among analytic, Continental and pragmatist orientations. I argue that Habermas’ critical relation to Heidegger’s a historical history of Being and his misguided political career cannot explain a competing narrative of his own affirmative appropriation of existential-ethical dimensions of thought and activism. Second, if one sets in the foreground this competing narrative, there emerges a weak thesis, whether or not a plausible complementarity between the communications critical social theory and concrete existential categories can be established. Third, one may inquire further into a stronger thesis whether or not this link must be developed in order to render Habermas’ own theory of a communicatively competent self sufficiently concrete and critical.
Agonism and pluralism
Authors: Deveaux Monique
Published: April 2009

This paper assesses the claim that an agonistic model of democracy could foster greater accommodation of citizens' social, cultural and ethical differences than mainstream liberal theories. I address arguments in favor of agonistic conceptions of politics by a diverse group of democratic theorists, ranging from republican theorists – Hannah Arendt and Benjamin Barber – to postmodern democrats concerned with questions of identity and difference, such as William Connolly and Bonnie Honig. Neither Arendt's democratic agonism nor Barber's republican-inflected account of strong democracy purports to include citizens' group-based cultural identities, and so cannot further the claim that agonistic politics is more inclusive of cultural and social differences. Postmodern agonistic democrats such as Connolly and Honig rely upon Arendt's account of the relationship between agonism and pluralism, and wrongly assume that her view of politics is compatible with formal respect and recognition for citizens' cultural group identities. While agonistic democracy helpfully directs us to attend to the importance of moral and political disagreement, I argue that the stronger claim that an agonistic model of democracy could more readily include culturally diverse citizens is simply unfounded. By contrast, recent liberal variants of agonistic democracy that conceive of legal and political institutions as tools for recognizing and mediating citizens' moral and cultural differences may suggest ways to deepen our democratic practices in plural societies.
Instrumental reason's unreason
Authors: Sherratt Yvonne
Published: April 2009

In this article I argue that Adorno makes an internal critique of instrumental reason. I depict Adorno's notion of instrumental reason by showing how he combines Freud's materialistic epistemology with his own German Idealist inheritance. I outline his argument for the decline of instrumental reason into mythic ‘animism’.