bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Šitil
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

Focuses on the Mandaean mythological figure of Šitil, who figures largely in Mandaean prayers and other texts, along with his brothers, Hibil and AnuŠs. All three are ‘utras (Lightworld (heavenly) figures) but Šitil is the purest of the pure, against whom the souls of all departed Mandaeans are tested on their way to the Lightworld. The story of how Šitil obtained this purity (by dying for his father Adam, at his request) is told, and in the telling a great many other Mandaean mythological figures are encountered and described. Šitil is regarded essentially as a dual figure, in having both human and Lightworld aspects.
Ruha
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

Focuses on the Mandaean mythological figure of Ruha (Spirit), who is presented largely as a leader of the forces of darkness opposing those of the Lightworld. She has been traditionally regarded as evil, although there are good reasons to regard her as a fallen wisdom figure. It examines the Mandaean stories in which Ruha appears as ambiguous (double‐sided or dual) or in a positive light. Four sets of mythological traditions, taken from a variety of texts, illustrate the points made: the descent of the ‘utra (Lightworld (heavenly) figure) Hibil Ziwa (Radiance) into the Underworld; the creation of Tibil (the earthly world) and of the human beings; Ruha and the ‘utras; and Ruha's self‐revelations and identifications with Lightbeings.
To the River
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

Starts the second part of the book, on Mandaean rituals. It gives an account of the author's visit to the Mandaeans of Iran in April 1996. Descriptions are given of customs, ceremonies, and rituals.
Baptism (Maṣbuta)
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

The Mandaean ritual of Mašbuta or baptism is described. This is a process of immersion in running water (which is the form that the Lightworld takes on earth), and is not an initiatory baptism, but rather repeated immersions that mark preparations and rehearsals for entry into the Lightworld – an entry that only happens properly at the death of the body. After an outline of the proceedings at a Mašbuta, specific interpretations and interpretative problems associated with it are addressed. It is argued that the Mašbuta is best understood within the greater horizon of Mandaean cosmology, as one of the means of constantly recreating the laufa (the connection between earth and the Lightworld).
The Initiation of the Tarmida
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

Centers on the creation of the tarmida, who is a lower ranking (first‐level) Mandaean priest. The entire ritual takes 68 days and requires a set clusterings of rituals and ritual segments. The sequence of events is described: preparation; baptism and crowning; marriage and insignia; baptism of the rba (the novice's teacher) and zidqa brikha (blessed oblation); the 60‐days’ exclusion; and the masiqta (death mass) for the rba. In addition, two issues are addressed in particular: the relationship between the novice and his teacher, and the emphatic instructions regarding the inclusion or exclusion of certain words or formulas at specific points in the ceremonial.
Mandaean Language Games and Obstacles
Authors: Buckley Jorunn Jacobsen
Published: October 2003

The Mandaean alphabet, the abagada, consists of 24 letters and is so named because of the first four of these (A, B, G, D); one of them is not a real letter, for the D, the relative particle “of”, is added on as the penultimate letter of the alphabet, and the first letter, A, is repeated at the very end of the abagada in order to make the auspicious number, 24. The abagada comes from the female, primordial Wellspring, the aina (often paired with its corresponding male principal, the Datepalm), and the letters, created prior to the universe and human beings, are the Wellspring's children. It could be said that no universe could have been made prior to the letters because neither speech nor writing were possible until the abagada came into being. The Mandaeans accord a somewhat disturbing autonomy to the abagada, and it is a question of how much power human beings have in their use of it: who is in charge, the letters or the people? To explore this problem, this chapter focuses on errors, subversive word games, jokes, double entendres, and polemics – in short, they are the kinds of language games that people play on the alphabet, or that it plays on them. If it is assumed that Mandaeism sides with the letters, and therefore in a sense against itself, then religion is playing a joke on itself.
Nathaniel Taylor, New Haven Theology, and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

Nathaniel William Taylor (1786–1858) was arguably the most influential American theologian of his generation. Despite his tremendous national influence, however, his views were chronically misunderstood. He and his associates always declared themselves to be Edwardsian Calvinists – working in the train of “America's Augustine,” Jonathan Edwards – but very few people, then or since, have believed them. In this revisionist study, Douglas A. Sweeney examines why Taylor and his associates counted themselves Edwardsians. He explores what it meant to be an Edwardsian minister and intellectual in the nineteenth century, how the Edwardsian tradition evolved after the death of Edwards himself, how Taylor promoted and eventually fragmented this tradition, and the significance of these developments for the future of evangelical America. Sweeney argues that Taylor's theology has been misconstrued by the vast majority of scholars, who have depicted him as a powerful symbol of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism and the triumph of democratic liberalism in early national religion. Sweeney instead sees Taylor as a symbol of the vitality of Edwardsian Calvinism throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, a vitality that calls into question some widely held assumptions about this era. Charting Taylor's contribution to the modification, diversification, and ultimate dissolution of the Edwardsian tradition, Sweeney demonstrates his role in the translation of Edwardsian ideals to the ever‐expanding evangelical world that would succeed him. The Edwardsian tradition did not die out in the early nineteenth century, but rather grew rapidly until at least the 1840s. Nathaniel W. Taylor, more than anyone else, laid the theoretical groundwork for this growth – contributing, to be sure, to the demise of New England Theology, but at the same time making it accessible to an unprecedented number of people.
Birth of a Theologian
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, Nathanael Taylor, was a prominent Old Calvinist, Nathaniel William Taylor's religious horizons were expanded under the tutelage of Azel Backus, the prominent New Divinity preacher and successor to Joseph Bellamy's pulpit in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Backus molded the young Taylor's mind – as well as his piety and his preaching style – after the Edwardsians.
Coming of Age Among the Edwardsians
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

Sweeney reconstructs the New England religious culture that shaped the life of Taylor, and that derived much of its theological substance from the two distinctive foci of Edwardsian New Divinity: its distinction between natural and moral ability, and its insistence on immediate repentance. With the establishment of the New Divinity “schools of the prophets,” men such as Joseph Bellamy, Charles Backus, and Nathanael Emmons influenced the next generation of Edwardsian preachers and leaders. The direct result of widespread Edwardsian preaching in New England was what could only be called an Edwardsian enculturation of Calvinist New England by the first third of the nineteenth century.
Taylor at the Reins of the “One‐Hoss Shay”
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

Sweeney argues that three key relationships grounded Taylor even deeper in the Edwardsian culture – his close friendships with Lyman Beecher and Timothy Dwight and his marriage to Rebecca Marie Hine. Just prior to his wedding to Rebecca, Taylor received his license to preach, and upon the recommendation of Timothy Dwight, then president of Yale, he began preaching at New Haven's prominent First Church, to which he was called as pastor in 1812. When Yale added a divinity school, Dwight's son endowed a chair in his father's honor to which Nathaniel Taylor was invited. His placement secured Taylor's reputation as a cultural leader. At Yale, Taylor used his platform to further his Edwardsian agenda, steeping his students in Edwards's theology and modeling and Edwardsian approach to ministry.
“He Can if He Won't”
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

The chief theological concern in Taylor's doctrine of original sin lay in avoiding the notion that sin resided as a property or component of humanity's natural constitution. While many Old Calvinists held to the belief that depravity passed to humans through natural procreation, Taylor argued that this made God the author of sin, an unacceptable conclusion. In opposition to the Exercisers, Tasters, and Tylerites, who put the majority of their emphasis on human inability, the Taylorites worked hard to maintain what they believed to be continuity with the Edwardsian tradition as it related to the doctrine of original sin. Taylor recognized that there was a delicate balance between the doctrines of natural ability and divine dependence that required constant redress. In the end, the difference between Taylor's emphasis on the human ability to obey God in spite of the fact that sin was certain to prevail prior to regeneration proved largely semantic; but even this semantic difference was significant for his relationships with fellow Edwardsians and his identity as a theologian.
“To Make Himself a Holy Heart”
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

Consistent with the Edwardsian emphasis on revival, Taylorite preachers inundated New England audiences with constant pleas for immediate repentance. Taylor's doctrine of regeneration crystallized in response to a treatise by Gardiner Spring, Dissertation on the Means of Regeneration. Taylor's doctrine led to charges of Pelagianism from his opponents. Sweeney argues that through his understanding of regeneration, Taylor sought to shape a theology that proved both modern and well grounded in evangelical Calvinist orthodoxy. Thus, while he worked with all his might to promote the human duty to have faith, he found this effort perfectly consistent with a doctrine of dependence.
The Decline and Fall of the Edwardsian Culture
Authors: Sweeney Douglas A.
Published: October 2003

Threatened by Unitarianism and Finneyite progressives, the Edwardsians of the 1820s banded together to fight off the encroachment of theological liberalism and “new measures” revivalism. By 1828, with the publication of Taylor's Concio ad Clerum, the fissures in the Calvinist front that remained hidden during the first part of the decade became more noticeable. Fears spread that Taylor had fallen into Arminianism and abandoned Edwardsian Calvinism. As Lyman Beecher moved to Cincinnati to take the presidency of Lane Seminary, Bennet Tyler continued to warn of the dangers of Nathaniel William Taylor's teaching. By 1850, when the sabers ceased rattling between Taylor and Tyler, Catharine Beecher publicly began teaching a form of Arminianism, which she claimed she learned from Taylor. In his seventies, Taylor was unable to fight the errant claims. Sweeney argues that the battle between Taylor and Tyler was symptomatic of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism in New England. The true decline of New England Calvinism began when the leaders of New England Theology became so self‐absorbed in their minor theological battles that they lost their voice in the culture wars of the mid‐nineteenth century.
In Defense of Moral Rights
Authors: Feinberg Joel
Published: October 2003

This essay examines the relation between law and morality with respect to a particular concept – a right. In opposition to the view defended by Jeremy Bentham and, more recently, Raymond Frey and L. W. Sumner that only institutionally conferred rights are real rights, the argument here is that moral rights are common parts of the conceptual apparatus of most, if not all, people when they make moral and political judgments. The point is not simply that many of these rights are ones people feel ought to be legal rights (their appropriateness as legislation is an additional feature); rather, the point is that people recoil at the violation of these rights as moral rights. This defense of moral rights, which invokes moral principles to establish truth claims about rights that have nothing necessarily to do with human institutions, is not guilty of reinterpreting those noninstitutional principles as if they were special institutional rules.
Evil
Authors: Feinberg Joel
Published: October 2003

Although people are understandably disturbed by the idea of pure evil, they are mistaken to replace it with ideas about sickness and cure. The language family associated with pure evil, or sheer wickedness, focuses not on the sick human being, but on the rationally functioning nonhuman being: the superhuman or the subhuman who has little choice but to be wicked. Even so, wickedness and mental illness (or sick! sick! sickness) have a tendency to fuse at their extreme points. This chapter considers the interrelation between sickness and wickedness as it applies to, among other things, serial killers, medical and nonmedical conceptions of sickness, personality disorders (or ‘personal’ disorders), and the relation between moral blameworthiness and mental illness.
Is It Time for a Common Currency for the Americas?
Authors: Corbo Vittorio
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the costs and benefits of full dollarization in Latin America. Dollarization may benefit countries with poor records on financial stability, and whose bulk of trade in goods and capital flows occur with the United States. However, for open economies with a decent record of financial stability and large tradable sectors, dollarization would be a major obstacle to the adjustment process.
Dollarization
Authors: Edwards Sebastian
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the economic performance of dollarized countries. It argues that dollarized nations have slower growth, similar fiscal record, have not been spared from major current account reversals, and have significantly lower inflation. The case of Panama demonstrates that external shocks result in greater costs, in terms of lower investment and growth, in dollarized than nondollarized countries.
What Problems Can Dollarization Solve?
Authors: Eichengreen Barry
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the impact of dollarization on the pace of fiscal, financial, and labour market reform. It argues that despite the existence of theoretical models, and evidence from countries with pegged and floating rates, little is known about the effect of dollarization on reforms. Lessons learned from this discussion are presented.
The OCA Approach to Exchange Rate Regimes
Authors: Willett Thomas D.
Published: October 2003

This chapter reviews recent developments in optimal currency area (OCA) theory. It argues that criticisms do not undermine the OCA approach, but rather add to the number of relevant considerations as well as influence the relative weights that should be given to traditional criteria. Thus, OCA criteria do not always provide clear signals about what exchange rate regime a country should adopt.
Dollarization Does not Make Sense Everywhere
Authors: Williamson John
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that dollarization should not be debated in the abstract, assuming that the advantages are the same everywhere. Policy should differ in accordance with different circumstances. It urges Mercosur to consider the establishment of its own monetary union, rather than for its members to adopt the currency of another country that is unwilling to share its monetary sovereignty.
The Problem of Dollar Encroachment in Emerging Markets
Authors: McKinnon Ronald I.
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the monetary and exchange rate policies of Canada, Latin America, and East Asia toward the dollar. The central role of the dollar in international finance has the potential to displace national currencies for domestic uses. Only Canada and a few other countries can safely act unilaterally against dollar encroachment. In other parts of the world where regional trade is important but a regional common currency is not politically feasible, establishing an efficient common monetary standard is more of a collective choice.
Which Countries in the Americas Should Dollarize?
Authors: Salvatore Dominick
Published: October 2003

This chapter discusses the benefits and costs of full dollarization. Benefits include lower transaction costs, lower inflation and interest rates, and increased openness and international financial integration. Costs include lost seigniorage, loss of independent monetary and exchange rate policies, and loss of lender of last resort. The best candidates for full dollarization are small countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with small open economies for which the United States is the dominant economic partner.
Pressures for Currency Consolidation in Insurance and Finance
Authors: von Furstenberg George M.
Published: October 2003

E-commerce, regional economic integration, and global liberalization have eroded the monopoly of small currencies in their home markets. These factors now threaten the continued viability of these currencies in the medium-term. Partial currency consolidations are likely to be unsuitable in the new environment leading to regional monetary union.
Latin American Official Dollarization
Authors: Schuldt Jürgen
Published: October 2003

Most of the economies of the Latin American subcontinent are expected to dollarize officially before 2010. When this occurs, two or more similar monetary blocs will emerge, configured like the so-called wild gees flock paradigm foreseen by Kaname Akamatsu (1962) for the productive sphere. Ordered groups of countries will form that will adhere to the dollar, euro, or yen. The countries that decide to fly alone, without the guidance of “geese-leaders” will be left aside by the dynamics of the new international division of labour.
The Political Economy of Dollarization in Mexico
Authors: Auerbach Nancy Neiman , Flores‐Quiroga Aldo
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the dollarization debate in Mexico. It explains the political economy of dollarization by disaggregating interests among key domestic actors, and considering the policymaking context, i.e. the status quo. It argues that the costs and benefits of dollarization must be assessed in the specific context of current Mexican politics to make sense of the debate.
Lessons of the Euro for Dollarization
Authors: Dellas Harris , Tavlas George S.
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the implications of the euro experiment for dollarization in Latin America. It is argued that for Latin American countries, the potential political benefits of a new currency appears to be less than for euro-area countries. Dollarization would entail greater political costs than a currency board or a flowing exchange rate regime.
North American Currency Integration
Authors: Courchene Thomas J. , Harris Richard G.
Published: October 2003

This chapter presents the case for a North American monetary union (NAMU). It focuses on three issues: the downsides of Canada’s floating exchange rate, the arguments for increased exchange rate fixity, and that the long-term objective of exchange rate fixity should be a NAMU. It argues that the NAMU should have a place in Canada’s policy and research agenda, given the emergence of currency arrangements as a supranational public good.
Why Canada Needs a Flexible Exchange Rate
Authors: Murray John D.
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the flexible exchange rate regime in Canada and the renewed interest in a common currency with the United States. The flexible exchange rate has not undermined Canada’s economic performance. The economy country made not have coped with the Asian crisis and decline in world commodity prices without a depreciating Canadian dollar. However, it is possible that the Canadian economy may change in ways that make a common currency more attractive in the future.
What Exchange Rate Arrangement Works Best for Latin America?
Authors: Rojas‐Suarez Liliana
Published: October 2003

This chapter looks into the implementation of dollarization and flexible exchange rate regimes in Latin America. The current features of Latin American countries do no warrant the immediate implementation of a single currency. The severe constraints facing Latin American countries warrant the use of increased flexibility in exchange rates to deal with trade and financial shocks. Exchange rate flexibility should be complemented by the appropriate provision of liquidity and effective use of monetary instruments.
Argentina's Currency Board and the Case for Macroeconomic Policy Coordination in Mercosur
Authors: Fanelli José María
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the pros and cons of macroeconomic policy coordination in Mercosur. It reviews the macroeconomic functioning of the Argentine economy under convertibility, and the exchange regimes and trade structure of Mercosur countries. It argues that Mercosur countries would greatly benefit from gradually advancing into macro coordination. The first step is to reduce the remaining volatility in the evolution of nominal and relative prices within the bloc.
Cuba
Authors: Ritter Archibald R. M. , Rowe Nicholas
Published: October 2003

This chapter examines the dollarization in the Cuban economy. It argues that switching to the euro would create more problems than it would solve, despite its political attractiveness to the government. A better option would be to restore the position of the peso in the economy. A basic approach for this process is presented.
American Pragmatism
Authors: Hamner M. Gail
Published: October 2003

The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes pragmatism uniquely American. She argues that the inextricably American character of the pragmatism of such figures as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James lies in its often‐understated affirmation of America as a uniquely religious country with a God‐given mission, and as populated by God‐fearing citizens. By looking at European and British thinkers whom the pragmatists read, Hamner examines how pragmatism's notions of self, nation, and morality were formed in reaction to the work of these thinkers. She finds that the pervasive religiosity of nineteenth‐century American public language underlies Peirce's and James's resistance to aspects of the philosophy and science of their non‐American colleagues. This religiosity, Hamner shows, is linked strongly to the continuing rhetorical power of American Puritanism. Claims made for and about Puritanism were advanced throughout the nineteenth century as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual changes. It was in this religiously and politically charged environment that Peirce and James received and reinterpreted non‐American voices. Hamner traces the development of pragmatism by analyzing the concepts of consciousness, causality, will, and belief in two German thinkers (Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt) and two Scottish thinkers (William Hamilton and Alexander Bain), and by examining how their ideas were appropriated by Peirce and James. The book is arranged in three main parts: Evolution of German psychology; Evolution of Scottish psychology; and Pragmatic reception of European psychology.
Alexander Bain
Authors: Hamner M. Gail
Published: October 2003

The first concern of this chapter is to present the phenomenology of belief of the Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain in order to delineate the relations he asserts among belief, consciousness, and action; these are the most direct ways in which Bain becomes an interlocutor of the pragmatists. Of special emphasis in this regard is action, which the American pragmatists mutate into concepts of behavior (Charles Sanders Peirce) and willed effects (William James). The relations of belief, consciousness, and action can be interpreted in many ways, some of which emphasize the importance of a person's character (developed dispositions) and others of which do not; the distinction displays itself in Bain's theory of causality, a term he divides into a psychological concept and a scientific concept. On the one hand, in insisting on the importance of character, Bain shares Peirce's desire to focus on conduct rather than on individual acts, but on the other hand, his confusing resolution of the complexities of causality into a dual scheme that separates psychology from science, foreshadows the way James attempts to secure a proper realm for scientific inquiry in The Principles of Psychology with a similar use of dualities. Thus, the second concern in the chapter is to expound on the relations of will, causality, and action as substantiated by Bain through his theories of psychological association and the law of relativity.
Conclusions
Authors: Hamner M. Gail
Published: October 2003

The chapters in part III of the book (on the American pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) began with psychological concepts and ended with discussions of self, God, and nation, but this chapter inverts the direction of analysis, and offers a close reading of lectures written almost contemporaneously by James and Peirce. First, James's Puritan image of self, God, and nation is clarified, and then it is argued how these visions arise out of and/or parallel to James's understandings of consciousness, causality, will, and belief. Having established that Jamesian pragmatism delineates a strong version of the myth of the American self, the chapter concludes with a reading of Peirce that demonstrates how his pragmatism offers an alternate version of this myth. Peirce stands as the operative unthought of James; his views on self and nation engage the Puritan imagery as surely as those of James, but with less triumphalism and more humility. Perhaps the recent renewed interest in Peirce's complicated vision of the world can be attributed, at least in part, to precisely this sobriety and to the alternative genealogy he offers of the self and its relations to community and the cosmos.
Protecting the Ozone Layer
Authors: Parson Edward A.
Published: October 2003

Offers the first comprehensive history of international efforts to protect the ozone layer by abandoning the use of chlorofluorohydrocarbons (CFCs), and underlines that this is the greatest success yet achieved in managing human impacts on the global environment. The arguments advanced to explain how this success was achieved are theoretically novel and of great significance for the management of other global problems, particularly global climate change. An account is provided of ozone‐depletion issues from the first attempts to develop international action in the 1970s to the mature functioning of the present international ozone protection regime. Examines the parallel developments of politics and negotiations, scientific understanding and controversy, technological progress, and industry strategy that shaped the issue's development and its effective management. Important new insights are offered into how the interactions among these domains influenced the formation and adaptation of the ozone protection regime. In addressing the initial formation of the regime, the book argues that authoritative scientific assessments were crucial in constraining policy debates, and shaping negotiated agreements. Assessments gave scientific claims an ability to change policy actors’ behaviour that the claims themselves, however well known and verified, lacked. Concerning subsequent adaptation of the regime, the book identifies a series of feedbacks between the periodic revision of chemical controls and the strategic responses of affected industries, which drove rapid application of new approaches to reduce ozone‐depicting chemicals. These feedbacks, promoted by the regime's novel technology assessment process, allowed worldwide use of the CFCs to decline further and faster than even the boldest predictions — by nearly 95%t within ten years.
Setting the Stage
Authors: Parson Edward A.
Published: October 2003

The linked histories of science, policy, and strategy over the first decade of policy concern about the ozone layer (1970 to 1980) are detailed. First, the controversies of the early 1970s over potential ozone depiction by supersonic aircraft (through the effects of water vapour and nitrogen oxides from aircraft exhausts), and their significance for subsequent debates, are reviewed. Then the domestic controversy over chlorofluorohydrocarbons (CFCs) and ozone depletion in the USA, the parallel but more muted discussions in other countries, and the first unsuccessful attempts to develop international action on the issue are discussed. A brief account is also given of industry's initial research into CFC alternatives, and of the early ozone policy debates.
Industry Strategy and Technical Innovation, 1987–1992
Authors: Parson Edward A.
Published: October 2003

Examines the major changes in technology that followed the adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 and the completion of the period of initial formation of the ozone protection regime. Examines the reactions of major producers and users of chlorofluorohydrocarbons (CFCs) to the challenge posed by the negotiation and adoption of the Protocol. Discusses how major CFC producers in the chemical industry revived previously abandoned efforts to commercialize less ozone‐damaging chemical alternatives to CFCs. Also examines how CFC users, many of whom faced more serious risks from CFC restrictions than the producers, responded with intense efforts to reduce their dependence on all ozone‐depleting chemicals — efforts that reduced most CFC uses much faster than had seemed possible, and directed large shares of former CFC markets away from similar chemicals entirely.
Philosophical Relativity
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: October 2003

Challenges the deeply held assumption that many of the most central philosophical problems admit of deterministic, objective solutions. The position argued for here, philosophical relativism, is the view that the conclusions we arrive at are, in many cases, relative functions of arbitrary assumptions made at the outset of our inquiry, and that the opposing conclusions could have been reached via distinct but equally arbitrary assumptions. Philosophical relativity is a consequence of semantic relativity, the view that there obtains no objective answer to the question of what semantic content our terms bear, being applied to central terms within particular philosophical problems. The contrast between invariantism (that a term's semantic content is an absolute matter, fixed by its literal meaning) and contextualism (that a term's semantic content is a nonabsolute matter, a function of the speaker's intentions), is appealed to in order to establish the hypothesis of semantic relativity itself, as either position may be adopted as a consequence of there being no objective criteria via which one of the two positions may be established on a firmer foundation than the other. The philosophical problems appealed to are “epistemic skepticism,” “freewill and determinism,” “causation,” and “explanation.” In direct contrast to usual philosophical method, the goal throughout is not to demonstrate that one position on such issues (and many others) is better than another. Rather, philosophical relativism turns on demonstrating that, with regards to several competing positions, neither is any better off than its rivals in so far as its being a reflection of deterministic, absolute, objective fact is concerned.
The Hypothesis of Philosophical Relativity
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: October 2003

Introduces the notion of philosophical relativity, the thesis that the answers we give for many philosophical problems are functions of arbitrary assumptions made at the initial stages of inquiry, and ipso facto that such problems lack objective solutions. Philosophical relativity is argued for via semantic relativity, the thesis that many of our terms do not have objectively specifiable semantic content. Semantic relativity is in turn argued for via an explication of the conflict obtaining between contextualism, the view that the semantic content of a lexical expression is whatever the speaker intended it to be, and invariantism, the view that the semantic content of a lexical expression is always its literal meaning. If semantic relativism can be shown to hold with regard to terms central in philosophical debate, then we have established philosophical relativism. Parallels with Quine's indeterminacy of interpretation thesis are drawn, with the present scenario being intralanguage indeterminacy as opposed to interlanguage indeterminacy. Strong indeterminacy is rejected, in an irregular move, via an appeal to a semantic holism.
Aspects of Semantic Relativity
Authors: Unger Peter
Published: October 2003

Examines the common sense attractiveness of contextualism over invariantism, and ultimately takes such a common sense attractiveness to be a function of our intellectual habits as opposed to a reflection of objective fact. The claim that there do not exist semantic approaches that are more favorable than either contextualism or invariantism is made and argued for via an appeal to sortalism (a rejected attempt to arbitrate between the two), superinvariantism, and supercontextualism (extreme versions of invariantism and contextualism, respectively), which are also rejected as brutally implausible. The possibility that any of these three semantic approaches might be as good as either contextualism or invariantism merely serves to support semantic relativity. A foundation for semantic relativity is located within the vagueness of natural language terms.
Our Secret Constitution
Authors: Fletcher George P.
Published: October 2003

This book asserts that the Civil War marks the end of one era of American legal history, and the beginning of another. Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysberg Address is viewed as the beginning of a new kind of “covert” constitutional law – one with a stronger emphasis on equality in the wake of the abolition of slavery – which was legally established in the Amendments made to the U.S. Constitution between 1865 and 1870. The author asserts that the influence of this “secret constitution”, which has varied in degree from Reconstruction to the present day, is visible in the rulings of the Supreme Court on issues hinging on personal freedom, equality, and discrimination.
Redemption Under Law
Authors: Fletcher George P.
Published: October 2003

This chapter discusses the influence of religious ideas on legal values and experience, citing examples from religious law (especially Jewish law and the Talmud), the French civil code, and the German Constitution. The idea of law as a path to redemption for a people or nation is examined. The author points out that he considers the “original intent” of the framers of the Constitution (and its subsequent Amendments) irrelevant for the purposes of this book's analysis.
A Maxim of Justice: Its Birth and Rebirth
Authors: Fletcher George P.
Published: October 2003

This chapter asserts that the U.S. traces the principle of equality to the idea that human beings were created in God's image, and discusses the evolution of the doctrine of equal protection via Supreme Court opinions as various as Chief Justice Roger Taney's in Dred Scott, and the oft‐cited Yick Wo. The author also discusses, at length, Justice John Paul Stevens’ gradual shift from an advocate of equality as status quo to equality as an active, “hands‐on” principle, as in the case of affirmative action.
Considerations of God, Man, Time and Eternity
Authors: Smith Jane Idleman , Haddad Yvonne Yazbeck
Published: October 2003

To understand how Muslims view the matter of life after death, it is necessary to see what the Qur’an says about God, about human beings, and about the structure of time. God, creator of all, is both just and merciful and works within the linear flow of time. Human lives proceed from birth to death individually, and are collectively rejuvenated and gathered for judgment by God at the end of time. Final dispensation is directly related to ethical choice, for which humans are fully responsible.
The Eschaton, the Judgment, and the Final Dispensation: Classical Islam
Authors: Smith Jane Idleman , Haddad Yvonne Yazbeck
Published: October 2003

A cluster of events to take place before and on the day of resurrection is detailed in the Qur’an. This chapter describes these events and examines how traditional Muslim commentators and theologians have interpreted them. Among these events are the cataclysmic changes that will happen to the earth heralding the resurrection, the appearance of the savior figure, the resurrection of bodies and rejoining with souls, the judgment, and the consignment to final abodes of reward or punishment.
Black Puritan, Black Republican
Authors: Saillant John
Published: October 2003

In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.
A Further Liberty in 1776
Authors: Saillant John
Published: October 2003

Lemuel Haynes was separated at birth from his parents, described in his lifetime as an African man and a white New England woman. Haynes matured as an indentured servant in Granville, Massachusetts, and served as a militiaman, a minuteman, and a soldier in the War of Independence. His essay, ”Liberty Further Extended” (1770s), attacked the slave trade and slavery. Like his contemporary Olaudah Equiano, Haynes was loyal to Calvinism. He studied with ministers of the New Divinity persuasion as he prepared for his ordination, which occurred in 1785.
How to Improve the Provision of Global Public Goods
Authors: Kaul Inge , Conceição Pedro , Le Goulven Katell , Mendoza Ronald U.
Published: October 2003

Explains the purposes underlying the structure of the four main parts of the book—to review and sharpen the analytical concepts employed; to clarify the stake‐holder interests, which comprise ‘publicness’; to examine issues affecting the efficiency of production of public goods; and to identify the ways in which the interface between national and transnational decision‐making affects the strategic management of the provision of global public goods.
Public Goods: A Historical Perspective
Authors: Desai Meghnad
Published: October 2003

Provides a brief historical survey of the provision of public goods since the Middle Ages, explaining how a long pattern of ‘statist’ provision has over the past fifty years come to be replaced by a changing mixture of state‐private provision. This transformation calls for a revision of public goods theory to bring it up to date with current political realities.
Advancing the Concept of Public Goods
Authors: Kaul Inge , Mendoza Ronald U.
Published: October 2003

Examines the implications of translating the concept of public goods, originally developed in the setting of a domestic national economy, to that of global public goods set within a transnational global economy. This requires important adjustments to the concepts of ‘triangle of publicness’ (publicness of consumption, of benefits, and of decision‐making), as well as new typologies of public goods.
International Aspects of Public Goods Provision
Authors: Sandmo Agnar
Published: October 2003

Examines the theoretical aspects of extending Samuelson's statist model of public goods provision into a global context, and what theoretical adjustments might be necessary. The most problematic part of extension involves the desirability of global production efficiency and the separation of equity and efficiency conditions, which play an important role in Samuelson's formulation.
Political Globalization: Trends and Choices
Authors: Held David , McGrew Anthony
Published: October 2003

The emergence of a growing number of global issues—global public goods and bads—has started to erode the distinction between domestic and foreign affairs. Discusses three issues that highlight the changing constellation of politics. First, it examines how globalization is altering state politics and policy‐making. Then, it explores the implications of these political transformations for the notion of a political community. Finally, it discusses the policy choices available and required to govern, democratize, and civilize globalization more effectively than at present.
Governing the Provision of Global Public Goods: The Role and Legitimacy of Nonstate Actors
Authors: Edwards Michael , Zadek Simon
Published: October 2003

The provision of global public goods will impose two tasks (1) increase the role of non‐state actors (2) do this without permitting the operation of special‐interest politics to jeopardize their legitimacy. While non‐state actors are crucial to rebuilding the legitimacy of the international system, they are only likely to be accepted and effective in this role if they succeed in strengthening their own legitimacy in the eyes of governments, inter‐governmental organizations, and the general public.
Steps Toward Enhanced Parity: Negotiating Capacity and Strategies of Developing Countries
Authors: Chasek Pamela , Rajamani Lavanya
Published: October 2003

An important problem in the management of global public goods lies with the imbalance of bargaining power as between developed and developing countries in the multilateral negotiations involved. Looks at characteristics of the negotiation process; the composition and strength of developing country negotiation teams; and tactics and methods for improving their bargaining position. Current constraints on negotiating capacity often reflect a lack of national policy analysis, design, and management capacity. One of this chapter's main recommendations is to increase national policy‐making capacity.
Getting to Fairness: Negotiations Over Global Public Goods
Authors: Albin Cecilia
Published: October 2003

To manage and provide global public goods effectively, it is necessary to ensure that considerations of justice and fairness are properly reflected in the negotiations and agreements involved—in terms of structure, agenda setting and process.
Creating Incentives for Cooperation: Strategic Choices
Authors: Barrett Scott
Published: October 2003

A key difference between public goods and global public goods is that the latter concept lacks the coercive authority, which the nation state enjoys. This means that the provision of global public goods requires a much more highly developed mechanism of incentives. Examines firstly, the different incentive structures that can underlie the provision of global public goods—for example, international trade agreements; secondly, the way in which these structures can be manipulated to foster international co‐operation and increase the provision of such goods.
Financing Global Public Goods: A New Frontier of Public Finance
Authors: Kaul Inge , Le Goulven Katell
Published: October 2003

Explores how policy‐makers have addressed the need for international co‐operation on resource allocation in financing global public goods. It analyses the range of policy tools currently available, and suggests ways in which resource allocation methods could be improved in the future.
Managing the Provision of Knowledge: The Design of Intellectual Property Laws
Authors: Correa Carlos M.
Published: October 2003

Considers the efficiency effects of intellectual property rights (IPR), with a focus on patent rights. Specifically, it examines the dilemma facing policy‐makers in fostering innovation: how to reconcile the restrictions that intellectual property rights impose on the use of innovations—to encourage their creation by knowledge providers—with society's interest in maximum use of innovative products. First discusses two types of efficiency—static and dynamic—and the different considerations for achieving them. It then examines how IPR can influence the balance between the two types of efficiency. Next, it considers the options available under the TRIPS (Trade‐Related Aspects of International Property Rights) Agreement to increase either or both. Finally, it discusses the possibility of compulsory licensing as a means of increasing static efficiency.
International Financial Stability and Market Efficiency as a Global Public Good
Authors: Griffith‐Jones Stephany
Published: October 2003

Examines the global public goods of financial stability and market efficiency by focusing on one of their main elements, the international financial architecture, and the question of how far it serves, or could be optimized to serve, the interests of developing countries.
Beyond Communicable Disease Control: Health in the Age of Globalization
Authors: Arhin‐Tenkorang Dyna , Conceição Pedro
Published: October 2003

Public health is one of the most prominent global public goods, yet the history of international co‐operation to control communicable diseases reveals mixed results. To help understand why some diseases have been tamed while others have not, three challenges are analysed. The main finding is that problems tend to persist when the publicness of the response is limited. Here, publicness refers to the three key inputs—available medical knowledge, public health infrastructure and private household spending on complementary goods and services. Examines this relationship in the light of four examples—polio, HIV/AIDS, infection by antimicrobial‐resistant agents, and sickle cell disease. Concludes with a discussion of options for enhancing publicness as defined.
Global Trade for Local Benefit: Financing Energy for All in Costa Rica
Authors: Castro René , Cordero Sarah
Published: October 2003

While access to energy is one of the most prominent global public goods, undisciplined pursuit of energy resources can produce serious public bads in respect of environmental impact. The case of Costa Rica illustrates both the dependency and the vulnerability involved, and provides a clear example of the benefits of ‘emissions trading’, if an international regulatory agreement to be achieved.