bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
What Kind of Bargain Is a Plea?
Authors: Meernik James
Published: February 2014

I examine the correlates and consequences of plea bargains at the ad hoc international criminal tribunals. I first examine the prevalence of those factors that are associated with the occurrence of plea bargains in order to better understand the circumstances under which they occur. I analyse whether certain types of case characteristics appear to be associated with plea bargains, such as instances in which the defendant surrenders. I also look to see what case characteristics tend to occur in concert with plea bargains, such as cooperation with the prosecution. My purpose here is to elucidate the context in which plea bargains occur in order to better understand their role in the international criminal justice enterprise. I find that plea bargains do not always lead to reduced sentences as many would expect.
Human Rights in the Criminal Code? A Critique of the Curious Implementation of the EU and Council of Europe Instruments on Combating and Preventing Terrorism in Belgian Criminal Legislation
Authors: Dewulf Steven
Published: February 2014

Different international instruments on the prevention and suppression of terrorism from the European Union and the Council of Europe task States with adopting new terrorist offences. At the same time, several provisions in these international instruments remind States of their obligation to fully adhere to their human rights obligations when implementing, interpreting and applying these new offences. Following these provisions, Belgium decided to insert a rather curious human rights clause in its Criminal Code. This article will critically examine this peculiar clause and the decision(s) made by the Belgian legislator. The key question is whether or not States should indeed also implement such human rights provisions in their criminal legislation, and if so, in what way they should best proceed. It will be argued that inserting such a specific human rights clause for one particular offence in a domestic criminal code might not only be superfluous, but could even have unforeseen, unwanted and hazardous effects.
Opening Address at the Symposium: Epigraphical Evidence for the Formation and Rise of Early Śaivism
Authors: Bremmer Jan N.
Published: February 2014

In my contribution I note the influence of emergent Latin and Greek epigraphy on the birth of Indian epigraphy as well some differences in the location of inscriptions between ancient Greece and India. Subsequently, I make some observations on the usage of the terms ‘sect’ and ‘sectarian’ in the study of Indian religion.
Empiricism in Sixteenth-Century Medical Practice
Authors: Stolberg Michael
Published: February 2014

Based on an analysis of some 4.000 pages of manuscript notes on ordinary medical practice which the little-known Bohemian physician Georg Handsch (1529–1578?) wrote from the late 1540s, this article traces the central place which empiricist attitudes and approaches held in mid-sixteenth-century learned medical practice. While explicit epistemological statements are rare, the very effort which Handsch put into recording thousands of observations he and other physicians around him had made, and the value they attributed to the experiences of ordinary lay persons and even “empirics” reflects a profound belief in the value of sensory experience and personal observation. The paper traces the uses of empiricist key terms like “experientia,” “historia” and “observatio,” it highlights the epistemic effects of personal observation, from confirming and challenging established notions to the creation of new general knowledge from particulars, and it suggests, in conclusion, that such brief notes on ordinary medical practice played an important role in the history of “facts.”
Learning to Read Nature
Authors: Giglioni Guido
Published: February 2014

Francis Bacon’s elusive notion of experience can be better understood when we relate it to his views on matter, motion, appetite and intellect, and bring to the fore its broader philosophical implications. Bacon’s theory of knowledge is embedded in a programme of disciplinary redefinition, outlined in the Advancement of Learning and De augmentis scientiarum. Among all disciplines, prima philosophia (and not metaphysica) plays a key foundational role, based on the idea of both a physical parallelism between the human intellect and nature (psycho-physical parallelism) and a theological parallelism between nature and God (physico-theological parallelism). Failure to assess Bacon’s distinctive position concerning the way in which the mind mirrors both the natural and the divine world, that is to say, the meaning of “reality,” has resulted in notoriously jejune discussions on Baconian empiricism, monotonously driven by epistemological concerns. As a result, the standard view on Bacon’s empiricism is as epistemologically comforting as it is imaginary, an “idol” in a genuinely Baconian sense. In this article, Bacon’s notion of experience will be discussed by examining those steps that he considered to be the crucial initial stages in the formation of human experience, stages described as a process of experiential literacy (experientia literata) or, in emblematic terms, as a hunting expedition led by the mythological figure of Pan (venatio Panis). I argue that a well-rounded analysis of Bacon’s experientia literata needs to take into account the complementary notion of the “spelling-book of nature” (abecedarium naturae), that is, the original code of the primordial motions of matter. By getting acquainted with the first rudiments of experience through its spelling-book (on both an individual and a cosmological level), one learns to read the book of nature and, most of all, to write new pages in it.
Biblical and Pastoral Reflections on the Impact of Urbanization on Christians in China
Authors: Zhang Wenxi
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This article looks at the significant phenomenon of urbanization in China, and its impact on Chinese Christians, focusing on Catholics. The author highlights pastoral challenges that urbanization brings to Christians in China. From the reality of urbanization the author reflects on models of caring for migrants from a biblical viewpoint. He then proposes creative ways of providing pastoral care to migrant workers drawn from these reflections. A sense of urgency is needed among church leaders as people face the ongoing process of the urbanization of the Chinese population; if not, indifference might well result in a two-generation vacuum in faith.
‘Kitchen Knowledge’, Desperate Foods, and Ritual Healing in Everyday Survival Strategies during the Great Famine in China, 1958–62
Authors: Xun Zhou
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread of malnutrition, starvation, epidemic disease, and increased mortality. This paper focuses on the period of the Great Leap Famine in China between 1958 and 1962. Based on newly-collected oral interviews and archival evidence, it gives voices to ordinary villagers from different parts of China—from various counties in one of China’s biggest and most populated Sichuan province in the southwest to Shandong in the east and Hunan in central China and examines their experiences and their survival strategies in times of hunger, illness, and death. It shows that an integral part of everyday famine culture, particularly in rural China, which was worst hit, concerns the kitchen knowledge and practice of healing and nutrition. Many traditional recipes that were used in previous times were rediscovered and used as everyday hunger-coping techniques. Some are dated back to the Ming dynasty—a few were recorded inMateria Medica for Famine Relief(Qiuhuang bencao救荒本草,c. 1406). Using the methodology of oral history set against the historical background of traditional materia medica, this paper elicits how ordinary people in rural China devised complex and plural strategies to cope with fundamental biological crises.
The Clinical Utility of the Concept of Jing in Chinese Reproductive Medicine
Authors: Maxwell Daniel
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The concept ofjingis fundamental in Chinese medicine (CM). However, English-language discourse reveals the term to be polysemous, confusing, and contradictory. In the currently flourishing field of Chinese reproductive medicine in the West, clinicians claim to be able to provide treatment for age-related pathologies of the human gametes—ascribed by modern CM to be manifestations ofjing—that seem dubious from the perspective of modern biomedicine. Such practitioners reveal scripts that diverge significantly from their biomedical peers. In the context of the unclear modes in which the concept ofjingfunctions, and the emotive sphere of reproductive medicine in which it operates, this paper uses a grounded theory approach to make a thematic analysis of the relevant English-language discourse relating tojing. Interpretive analysis of the resulting themes shows the term being used differently by clinicians and scholars of CM, and that such modes are predicated according to the specific requirements and agendas of the author. Finally, recommendations for clinicians, scholars, and researchers are made along with concluding remarks.
‘Treating Illness’: Translation of a Chapter from a Medieval Chinese Buddhist Meditation Manual by Zhiyi (538–597)
Authors: Salguero C. Pierce
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This translation is an excerpt from a meditation treatise by one of the most important figures in East Asian Buddhist history, the Chinese scholar-monk Zhiyi (538–597). Zhiyi was notable as a systematizer and domesticator of Buddhist knowledge, and particularly for his writings onśamathaandvipaśyanāmeditation. The excerpt translated below is a complete chapter from the shorter of his meditation treatises. It focuses specifically on how various strands of Indian and Chinese medical and religious knowledge could be employed to diagnose and treat illness while the practitioner remained engaged in seated meditation. Incorporating both foreign and domestic knowledge into the framework ofśamathaandvipaśyanā, this chapter represents one of the earliest examples of systematic Indo- Sinitic medical syncretism, and one of the most important expressions of a unique medieval Chinese Buddhist perspective on healing.
Christine Korsgaard’s Self-Constitution
Authors: Cuneo Terence , Harp Randall
Published: February 2014

Christine Korsgaard’s 1996 book, The Sources of Normativity, attracted a great deal of attention. And rightly so. It is a highly engaging attempt to answer what she calls the normative question, which is the question of what could justify morality’s demands. Korsgaard’s latest book, Self-Constitution, develops and defends the broadly Kantian account of action and agency that hovers in the background of Sources, drawing out its implications for the normative question. In this review, we present the main lines of argument in Self-Constitution, raising objections to both Korsgaard’s account of action and agency and her most recent attempt to address the normative question.
Responding to Walter Brueggemann’s Practice of Prophetic Imagination
Authors: Moore Rickie D.
Published: February 2014

This appreciative response to Walter Brueggemann’s Practice of Prophetic Imagination is set within the context of the long and fruitful engagement of Pentecostal scholars with Brueggemann and his work, including his previous visit with the Society for Pentecostal Studies in 1998. This response proceeds to trace the fresh moves in Brueggemann’s new work in terms of how they move beyond his now classic volume, The Prophetic Imagination, first published in 1978. Moore concludes by offering some thoughts from his Pentecostal perspective on the importance of personal testimony coming together with social witness in the practice of prophetic imagination, whether for the prophets of old or for us today.
J.H. King and a Pentecostal Theology of Religions and Interreligious Ecumenism: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for Future Research
Authors: Moon Tony G.
Published: February 2014

The 2007-2010 Journal of Pentecostal Theology debate between Tony Richie and me about J.H. King’s theology of religions focused on both historical theology and constructive-theological method relative to the use of King’s writings as a resource for developing a twenty-first century Pentecostal theology of religions. For me, two major lessons emerged which suggest that future study of King’s and perhaps other early Pentecostal thinkers’ theology of religions will need to be especially attentive to at least two broad tasks: careful historical research and pursuit of a common and precise inclusivist terminology by collaborating scholars. This work is necessary because it relates directly to the issue of the extent of King’s pertinence for the construction of both a Pentecostal theology of religions and a Pentecostal theology and praxis of interreligious ecumenism. If King was merely an accessibilist-inclusivist, and I firmly believe that was the case, then his relevance is greatly diminished.
Chinese Political Values in Colonial Victoria: Lowe Kong Meng and the Legacy of the July 1880 Election
Authors: Macgregor Paul
Published: February 2014

Abstract

Lowe Kong Meng (Liu Guangming 劉光眀, 1831-1888),1 pre-eminent merchant and community leader of gold-rush Melbourne, was active in Australian politics, self-regarded as a British subject yet engaged with the Qing dynasty and was likely the first overseas Chinese awarded rank in the Chinese imperial service. Victoria’s mid-1880 election was a watershed: the immediate aftermath was the re-introduction of regulations penalising Chinese, after over 15 years of free immigration and no official discrimination. After the election it was claimed that Lowe Kong Meng persuaded Victoria’s Chinese to vote for the government, but was it in his interests to do so? This article examines the nature of Lowe Kong Meng’s engagement in European and Chinese political activity in the colony, as well as the extent of his leadership in Chinese colonial and diasporic life and explores how much he could have used that leadership to influence electoral outcomes. The article also examines how Lowe Kong Meng and the wider Chinese population of the colony brought changing political agendas to Victoria and developed these agendas through their colonial experiences.
Confucian Heritage, Public Narratives and Community Politics of Chinese Australians at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
Authors: Kuo Mei-fen
Published: February 2014

Abstract

This paper focuses on the meanings of Confucian heritage for the Chinese ethnic community at the time Australia became a Federation. It will argue that public narratives about Confucian heritage provided a new agency for mobilizing urban Chinese Australian communities. These narratives politicized culture, helped to shape Chinese ethnic identity and diasporic nationalism over time. The appearance of narratives on Confucian heritage in the late 19th century reflected the Chinese community’s attempt to differentiate and redefine itself in an increasingly inimical racist environment. The fact that Chinese intellectuals interpreted Confucian heritage as symbolic of their distinctiveness does not necessarily mean that the Chinese community as a whole aligned themselves with the Confucianism revival movement. By interpreting Confucian heritage as a national symbol, Chinese Australian public narratives reflected a national history in which the Chinese community blended Confucian heritage into a nationalist discourse. This paper argues that this interpretation of Confucian heritage reflects the Chinese community’s attempts to redefine their relationship with the non-Chinese culture, they were a part of, in ways which did not draw on colour or race.
Mink’s Riddle of Narrative Truth
Authors: van den Akker Chiel
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The problem how to ascertain the truth about the past is as old as history itself. But until the work of Louis Mink, no clear distinction was made between questions concerning the truth of statements on the past and questions concerning the truth of historical narratives as a whole. A narrative, Mink argues, is not simply a conjunction of statements on the past. Therefore its truth cannot be a function of the truth of its individual statements. The problem of narrative truth is according to him thus: although each statement (or set of statements) asserting a relation between events is subject to confirmation and disconfirmation, the combination of interrelations as established by the historical narrative is not, even though such combination of interrelations represents a real combination in past reality and is claimed to be true. As if to further complicate the problem, Mink maintains that history shares its form with fiction. Three and a half decades after Mink formulated the problem of narrative truth, it has not been dealt with in a satisfying manner. Mink does not solve nor dissolve the problem he posed. That task is taken up in this essay. It will move us away from the vocabulary of literary theory towards a pragmatist account of narrative truth.
Misleading Images
Authors: Heeren Jörg , Zick Andreas
Published: February 2014

As part of the multi-methodological and explorative project ‘Muslims in the European Mediascape’, we conducted focus group interviews with media users of Muslim background. The analysis shows that Muslims in Germany tend to mix media sources in order to get a balanced view on news and current affairs. A large share uses German mainstream media as well as specialized media that cater to the needs and interests of Muslims. The fear of a so-called ‘parallel media society’ of Muslims appears unjustified; however, focus group participants as well as journalists that were also interviewed during the project observed a radicalization of Muslims who were previously indifferent to their religion. Some Muslims seem to have developed a stronger sense of a Muslim identity and loyalty to Muslim communities because they were pushed and encouraged by the often prejudiced media coverage on Muslims and Islam. In this survey of Muslims and non-Muslims we show how the estimation of stereotyped and unbalanced coverage on Muslims and Islam differs among Muslim and non-Muslim media users.
Cost Recovery and Water Pricing in Water Services and Water Uses in Germany
Authors: Reese Moritz
Published: February 2014

Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive requires Member States to take account of the cost recovery principle with regard to “water services” and to provide, by water pricing policies, adequate economic incentives for an efficient and environmentally sound water usage. This contribution exposes the interpretation and implementation of Article 9 WFD in Germany. It shows that a stringent cost recovery approach is applied to classic water supply and that an incentivizing pricing instrument is implemented by most German States in the form of a water abstraction levy. However, this levy is not applied in all Stats and those applying it are making considerable exemptions for important water using industries. It is concluded that this is barely in line with Article 9 WFD.
Nationally Exclusive Support Schemes for RES Electricity Production and the Free Movement of Goods
Authors: Kröger James
Published: February 2014

Directive 2009/28/EC requires Member States to adopt support schemes for the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) while explicitly allowing them to exclude RES electricity produced in a different Member State from their scope of application. In its notorious PreussenElektra-judgment, the ECJ held that this geographical limitation could be justified on environmental protection grounds. The pending Essent Belgium case now provides an opportunity to reconsider the conformity of nationally exclusive support schemes with the rules governing the free movement of goods. In his opinion, Advocate General Bot deems nationally exclusive support schemes to be no longer compatible with the internal market for electricity. This paper, in contrast, argues that nationally exclusive support schemes remain necessary in order to guarantee their effectiveness and cost-efficiency in the absence of a harmonised approach to RES support policies at EU level. Furthermore, it regards their national design as being in line with the principles of EU environmental and energy policy.
Second Thoughts? Ordinum Pietas and the Tractatus de Jure Magistratuum
Authors: van Dam Harm-Jan
Published: February 2014

Within 10 months after the publication of Ordinum Pietas Grotius finished work on another book partly on the same subject, his Tractatus de jure magistratuum, which remained unpublished. In 1997 that work was rediscovered in manuscript form. In this paper the author examines the differences and correspondences between the two treatises, and gives a characterization of them. He suggests answers to the question why Grotius wrote the Tractatus as he did, and why he did not publish it after all.
The Evolution of Erastianism: Hugo Grotius’s Engagement with Thomas Erastus
Authors: Gunnoe Charles D.
Published: February 2014

This article tracts the development of Erastianism from the Heidelberg disciplinary controversy of 1568 to the works of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). Thomas Erastus (1524-1583), a Swiss-Reformed Physician and lay theologian working in the Electoral Palatinate, developed a theory of church-state relations which privileged the magistrate and denied independent disciplinary power to the church consistory. His program served as a counter-ideology to the prevailing disciplining urges of International Calvinism. Such Erastian ideas, whether from Erastus or other Swiss theorists such as Rudolf Gwalther, resonated with Dutch Libertines and Arminians before Grotius wrote his strongly Erastian Ordinum Pietas in 1613. While the Ordinum Pietas reveals only limited dependence on Erastus, other works of Grotius such as De Imperio display significant engagement or parallel themes with Erastus’s thought. “Grotian Erastianism,” with a healthy measure of Hebraism, is an apt descriptor for the seventeenth-century theories of church-state relations which favored the magistrate.
Phylogeny and reclassification of Pristocera Klug (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae)
Authors: Zamprogno Lidiana N. , Azevedo Celso O.
Published: February 2014

The current classification ofPristoceradoes not have taxonomic or cladistic support, which results in mistakes during the allocation of its species, especially within the generaDicrogenium,Kathepyris,NeodicrogeniumandDiepyris. This study aimed to verify the monophyly and to present a cladistic hypothesis for the genus. The analyses were based on 147 characters of 50 terminal taxa. Parsimony analyses under both equal and implied weightings were performed. All cladograms obtained by the implied weighting recoveredPristoceraand all four related genera as polyphyletic. A monophyletic group withPristoceraand the other genera of the inner group was formed. This group was supported by 13 synapomorphies, with one of them exclusive, as follows: the presence of a hypopygium that was divided into two parts. Based on our results, the following new genus-group synonyms were established:Dicrogenium,Kathepyris,NeodicrogeniumandDiepyrissyn.n. forPristocera, and their 39 species were combined with the latter. The following new names are proposed to avoid homonyms:Pristocera zatanom.n. forDicrogenium bequaertiBenoit,Pristocera zelanom.n. forKathepyris katangensisBenoit,Pristocera zinticanom.n. forKathepyris uelensisBenoit,Pristocera zontanom.n. forNeodicrogenium bequaertiBenoit andPristocera zuncranom.n. forNeodicrogenium tuberculatum(Turner). Therefore,Pristoceranow comprises 124 species from the Old World.
THE CROATIAN SPRING: INTERPRETING THE COMMUNIST HERITAGE IN POST-COMMUNIST CROATIA
Authors: Zubak Marko
Published: February 2014

The article focuses on various interpretative traditions dealing with the 1971 Croatian national movement. A taboo theme during Yugoslav communism, the process failed to attract much interest within the post-1990 Croatian academic discourse. After identifying the causes for this scholarly gap, the bulk of the article provides schematic categorization of the few available interpretations, mainly memoirs written by the actual participants, depending on their ideological background. Finally, an analysis of the student participation in the movement is provided in order to suggest one possible approach that could prove helpful to further research.
International Development Assistance and Economic Growth: the Case of Four Southeast European Countries
Authors: Liargovas Panagiotis , Repousis Spyridon
Published: February 2014

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of international development assistance on economic growth in the case of four Southeast European countries, Albania, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, during the period 1991-2010. Foreign aid as additive to domestic savings is expected to cause an increase in economic growth and domestic savings. Surprisingly, our empirical results do not support this hypothesis, since foreign aid is negatively related to domestic savings. These results are consistent with the notion that foreign aid transfers can distort individual incentives, and hence hurt savings and growth, by encouraging rent-seeking as opposed to productive activities.
Le personnage de Rostam dans Bīžan et Manīže de Ferdowsī
Authors: Bazzi Rachid
Published: February 2014

Résumé

Examiner de plus près les différents emprunts qui ont abouti à la formation du personnage de Rostam tel qu’on le trouve dans Bīžan et Manīže de Ferdowsī est d’importance cruciale pour l’étude du récit de facture populaire. Qu’est-ce à dire sinon que l’envergure du personnage de Rostam n’a pas valeur explicative et que le lecteur attentif de l’œuvre de Ferdowsī finira par découvrir que plusieurs apports, dont ceux provenant d’un autre héros, aux traits moins marqués certes, Esfandyār en l’occurrence, ont permis à l’illustre pahlavān de prendre consistance et de s’affirmer le long de son parcours ?
Entre mémoire lettrée et vécu institutionnel : La compilation de nawāzil dans le grand Touat (Algérie) aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles
Authors: Warscheid Ismail
Published: February 2014

Résumé

Zone de frontière et de passage entre le Maghreb et l’Afrique de l’Ouest, l’archipel oasien du grand Touat dans l’extrême sud de l’Algérie se développe à l’époque moderne comme un des grands pôles de l’érudition musulmane dans l’espace sahélo-saharien. Son essor est lié aux activités savantes d’un collectif de lettrés autochtones, issus d’un réseau de zaouïas dont les contours s’esquissent aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Notre principale source pour sonder ces milieux d’ulémas ksouriens est une série de recueils de jurisprudence (nawāzil ; ajwiba) qui ont été colligés grosso modo entre 1750 et 1850. L’article se propose de restituer le processus de la genèse de ces corpus selon une double optique. D’un côté, la compilation jurisprudentielle contribue à forger une mémoire lettrée dont la transcription moyennant le recours à un genre littéraire canonique assure précisément aux maîtres oasiens une inscription dans le champ intellectuel plus vaste de la Tradition malikite. De l’autre, elle participe à la formation d’une mémoire institutionnelle de la justice islamique dans les oasis. C’est dire que la collecte des traces de l’agir juridico-normatif des ulémas locaux ainsi que la constitution consécutive de cet amas de traditions en un certain nombre d’ouvrages de référence relèvent autant de la fabrication d’une archive sous forme littéraire, que de l’élaboration de cadres analytiques indispensables à la mobilisation de cette documentation empirique dans les conjonctures litigieuses du présent.
A ‘Legend’ in Crisis: The Debate Over Plato’s Politics, 1930–1960
Authors: Demetriou Kyriakos N.
Published: February 2014

From the early 1930s to the early 1960s many scholars, whether liberalminded or socialist ideologues, Marxist or scientific positivists, classical scholars or political theorists and historians, have shown a widespread consensus in discrediting and assailing the man and political philosopher Plato. Such an extensive assault led the ‘Platonic Legend’ to an unprecedented crisis. Philosophically, it was a reaction to the undisguised Platonolatry coming from Oxford and the school of the British Idealists. Ideologically, the appropriation of Plato by Nazi apologists fostered further this vehement indictment. But a lot of other causes worked to the same effect. The general anguish and humanistic anxiety on the eve ofWorldWar II and the postwar traumas led scholars to reconsider the meaning of history and historicism, the psychology of the masses and the ethical responsibility of the citizen, the role of propaganda and state education. Such complementary elements converged in sustained anti-Platonic polemics, which in turn provoked a vigorous defence. Here an attempt is made to offer a preliminary survey of this complex debate and to provide a general intellectual framework in terms of which that controversy can be further explored.
Apology of Socratic Studies
Authors: Brickhouse T.C. , Smith N.D.
Published: February 2014

In this paper, we defend Socratic studies as a research programme against several recent attacks, including at least one recently published in Polis (by William Prior). Critics have argued that the study of Socrates, based upon evidence mostly or entirely derived from some set of Plato’s dialogues, is sfounded upon faulty and indefensible historical or hermeneutical technique. We begin by identifying what we believe are the foundational principles of Socratic studies, as the field has been pursued in recent years, and we then show how the research programme that derives from accepting these principles is not defeated by any of the most common recent criticisms of it. Specifically, we argue that challenges to sorting Plato’s dialogues by date, more general challenges to historicist interpretations of Plato’s dialogues, as well as recent literary criticisms of Socratic studies all fail to undermine the research programme. We conclude with some thoughts about how and why Socratic studies has proved itself a valuable and fruitful research programme.
Unravelling the Shroud for Laertes and Weaving the Fabric of the City: Kingship and Politics in Homer’s Odyssey
Authors: Silvermintz Daniel
Published: February 2014

Building on the work of Scheid and Svenbro (Craft of Zeus, 1996) regarding the political significance of weaving in Greek literature, this essay attempts to proffer the Odyssey’s political teaching through an interpretation of Penelope’s wily weaving of the burial shroud for the former king, Laertes. Homeric scholars have often noted the multiple oddities surrounding the shroud; few critics have noted the peculiarity of the dethroned Laertes. In spite of recent attempts by scholars such as Halverson, ‘The Succession Issue in the Odyssey’ (1986), to discredit political interpretations of the Odyssey as well as Homer’s understanding of kingship, I contend that Homer is presenting the institution in a state of transition. The shroud for Laertes will thus provide an interpretive key for narrating both the change of office enacted by Odysseus’ rule and the new political order formed at the end of the Odyssey.
On Plato’s Phaedrus: Politics Beyond the City Walls
Authors: Bentley Russell
Published: February 2014

This paper presents a political reading of the Phaedrus. It is argued that the dialogue’s speeches on love describe types of political leadership and that, using the Socratic account of the statesman as someone who promotes moral improvement, political relations are not bound by institutions. Political relations become those in which one person affects the moral development of another and, thus, political ‘space’ is between people, not in specific locations. As a result, this new kind of forum must affect the way we think of critical Socratic citizenship. Specifically, it introduces a more extensive understanding of critical engagement and incorporates an imperative to be self-critical through interaction with others.
Two Rival Conceptions of Sôphrosunê
Authors: Pichanick Alan
Published: February 2014

Many commentators still take the Delphic speech in the Charmides as Socrates’ (or Plato’s) opinion of sôphrosunê. This is a misreading. The speaker is Critias, a future tyrant, and close analysis reveals his conception of self-knowledge, as a godlike and self-certain wisdom, to be perverted by his tyrannical views. His conception of sôphrosunê must be distinguished from Socrates’ (‘knowledge of ignorance’), and while the former conception is refuted in the dialogue, the latter is not.
Ernest Barker: Classics, England-Britain, and Europe, 1906–1960
Authors: Stapleton Julia
Published: February 2014

Ernest Barker’s contributions to the study of classical political thought have remained a benchmark in that field for much of the twentieth century. This introduction seeks to place his output in historical context, examining the professional, political and personal factors which underpinned his success as an interpreter of Plato and Aristotle, especially. It considers his education, the popular nature of his work, his ambiguous relationship to the establishment, his English-British patriotism, his European connections and perspective, his dual career as a scholar and journalist, and his liberalism as central to the cultural authority he acquired in the first half of the twentieth- century. The introduction emphasises the close relationship between Barker’s ‘national’ status as a classical scholar, the methodological, democratic, and religious sensibilities that informed his work, and the deep sense of public mission by which he was moved, down to his last years. In doing so, it draws together themes which are explored more fully in the special issue as a whole.
The Disillusioned Hegelian: BarkerS Readings of Plato
Authors: Simpson Peter
Published: February 2014

Ernest Barker wrote two books on the political thought of Plato, both of which were also directly related to his study of the political thought of Aristotle. This essay examines the way Barkers readings of Plato changed, first from the earlier to the later of his two books, and then from the later of these books, written during WWI, to his translation of Aristotles Politics, written during WWII. The contention is that, as Barker himself partly confessed, WWI led him to read hopes into Platos works that he not had before and that he abandoned in WWII. This shift in reading Plato was essentially a shift in Barkers allegiance to political Hegelianism (of the sort he imbibed from T.H. Green), which, while it intensified during WWI, had given way entirely to a thoroughly English Whig Constitutionalism by the end of WWII. The abandonment of Hegel enabled Barker to reach not only a better understanding of Plato in his Aristotle book but also a better and more wry understanding of German philosophy.
Giving Thrasymachus his Due: The Political Argument of Republic I and its Reception
Authors: Nederman Cary J.
Published: February 2014

This paper focuses on the first iteration of Thrasymachus’ claim as reported in Book I of Plato’s Republic that ‘justice is the interest of the stronger’, namely, a ‘political’ interpretation, according to which ‘justice is the interest of the stronger party in each polis as established in the law’. The author contends that this argument is logically and rhetorically distinct from Thrasymachus’ subsequent restatements of his position in Republic I. The ‘political’ version of the Thrasymachean position enjoyed currency after the composition of the Republic — and in a way that was not entirely negative. The current paper examines two cases of this reception: the first, in Plato’s own late work, the Laws, where he reengages with the Thrasymachean doctrine; the second, in the De republica Anglorum of Sir Thomas Smith, an early modern theorist who self-consciously defended Thrasymachus’ theory of justice. The paper’s immediate purpose is to suggest that Thrasymachus’ conception of ‘political’ justice, in particular, has far more coherence and power than the supposed ‘refutation’ of it in the Republic might leads us to believe.
Athenaion Politeia 34, 3, about Oligarchs, Democrats and Moderates in the Late Fifth Century Bc
Authors: Rocher Laura Sancho
Published: February 2014

The prevailing historiographic reconstruction of the political struggle in Athens during the last years of the fifth century originates from the discovery of the text of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia [Ath.]. According to this reconstruction, three political options and three political programmes were in effect. These were, on the one hand, traditional democracy and opposing oligarchy; on the other, a new third way, that of ‘the moderates’, who under the leading of Theramenes represents a solution to the stasis. The political program of themoderates is supposed to include the following fundamental items: a return to an ancient constitution (patrios politeia), the reduction of the number of citizens and their political rights, the sovereignty of law, and the recuperation of accord (homonoia) between citizens. This paper tries to highlight the weakness of this interpretation by analysing the difficulties in grasping from the sources this whole program and their adscription to a leader and to a distinctive political group. The misinterpretation was already implicit in the author of the Athenian Constitution, perhaps a disciple of Aristotle. He wrote influenced by the Aristotelian political theory and thereby he interpreted all that he had read about Theramenes, the Five Thousand and the patrios politeia as if the Aristotelian ideals of the mesotes (as a virtue) and of mese politeia (as the best possible constitution) were actually proposed and temporally achieved in Athens by the efforts of Theramenes and his supporters.
The Telos of Citizen Life: Music and Philosophy in Aristotle’s Ideal Polis
Authors: Koeplin Aimée
Published: February 2014

Recently, scholars have disagreed over how to understand the telos, or goal, of citizen life in Aristotle’s Politics. In Book VII, Aristotle claims that philosophy is a virtue necessary for a life of leisure. But the sketch of the educational programme that we get in Book VIII does not include philosophy; it is focused almost entirely on music. This has led some scholars to argue that a life of leisure spent appreciating music and the other arts is the telos of citizen life. This paper argues that although we do not have a programme for philosophical education in the Politics Book VIII as we have it, the telos of citizen life is philosophical activity in its narrowest sense of theoria.
The Success or Failure of Magnesia: Exploring the Tension Between Sōphrosunē the City and the Citizen
Authors: Creller Aaron
Published: February 2014

The main political responsibility of the legislator to the citizens is to create laws and institutions for the sake of promoting the virtues of citizens. In Plato’s Laws, there is a tension between desiring a strong sense of virtue for the population while settling into a pessimistic acceptance of the inability of most humans to even approach it. This article draws out the tension between a strong sense of virtue and amore practical and achievable sense of virtue within the text by examining sōphrosunē as the key method of raising up the citizen. Considered in contrast to the legislators’ attempts to instil self-control and moderation in the citizens are the ways in which the legislators undermine their own project through indoctrination, coercion and the lack of opportunities to practise sōphrosunē.
A Partial Cure for the Political Epicurean: Plutarch’s Advice to the Statesman’s Friend
Authors: Shiffman Mark
Published: February 2014

Plutarch’s epistolary essay, That a Philosopher ought to Converse especially swith Men in Power, has been neglected because not recognized for what it is: an attempt to persuade an addressee attached to Epicurean principles that his attraction to political friendship should be honoured rather than eradicated. Rather than attack Epicureanism, Plutarch attempts to expand the horizons of a hedonic and utilitarian ethics so as to include noble benefaction on a political scale. This requires him to undermine the Epicurean insistence on restricting friendship to private like-minded circles, and to expand its hedonism into a political utilitarianism. Unlike Cicero’s De Finibus (a dialogue with a rising statesman), Plutarch’s letter offers an indirect critique, and preserves elements of Epicurean ethics suitable to the moderating influence a friend and advisor can exert on the statesman’s eros.
The Search for the Political Thought of the Historical Thrasymachus
Authors: Betti Daniel
Published: February 2014

Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, as a famous rhetor and an infamous interlocutor in the Republic, has experienced a rebirth in the disciplines of political science, history and rhetoric. A major question concerning work in these fields is the extent to which the historical Thrasymachus can be separated from the character of the Republic. In the historical record, Thrasymachus is an opaque figure. Only a single fragment of a speech survives for posterity. From this fragment, research has tried to distil a system of political thought.What did Thrasymachus think of politics? In which political camp did he reside? Attempts to answer these questions run into a formidable wall: the abject paucity of evidence. Given few definitive clues, research into the political thought of the historical Thrasymachus has reached no tenable conclusions. Thrasymachus remains a fairly obscure rhetor most famous for a fictional confrontation with Socrates.
Law, Compulsion and Community in Plato’s Republic
Authors: Phillips John-Otto
Published: February 2014

This article examines Plato’s claim that the founders of the ideal city ought to establish a law compelling the philosophers to rule. This claim is perplexing as it seems to suggest that in the ideal city justice is not in the best interests of its possessor, for by obeying the law and ruling the philosopher will in turn be made very unhappy. Following a critical appraisal and ultimate rejection of a number of different attempts to make sense of this tension, this article advances a ‘communitarian’ interpretation. According to this interpretation, the existence of a law compelling the philosopher to rule is ultimately in her best interest because her ruling will lead to a well-educated and intellectually virtuous community. The existence of this virtuous community will, in turn, allow the philosopher better to achieve her principal goal—the attainment and preservation of truth.
Generosity and Inequality in Aristotle’s Ethics
Authors: Ward Ann
Published: February 2014

This article explores the virtues of generosity and magnificence in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Generosity involves private individuals giving moderately; magnificence is spending by individuals on a grand scale for public purposes. Inequality, it is argued, grounds and motivates these virtues. For Aristotle, generosity and magnificence are products of inherited wealth, and the generous and the magnificent person seek the noble in their actions rather than the benefit of their recipients. The generous and the magnificent intend to place themselves in a superior position to those who receive their gifts.Moreover, magnificence flows from a great inequality of wealth and requires that the provision of public goods be in private hands. Aristotle, this article suggests, means to critique rather than embrace these virtues by pointing to the inequality and privacy at their foundation. The way in which Aristotle’s theory of justice supplements his analysis of generosity and magnificence is also brought to light.
Mongolian Sexuality: A Short History of the Flirtation of Power with Sex
Authors: Terbish Baasanjav
Published: February 2014

This paper describes a brief history of sexuality in Mongolian society as related to the various types of political regime that dominated the course of the last century. Based on the assertion that sexuality is subject to change, the central argument of the paper is that, by looking at the nature of sexual practices and values, it is possible to describe the very nature of political power that is one of the important drivers to bring about such changes.
Why Do Some Tibetan Women Climb the Highest Mountains? Gendering Mountaineering Practices on the Roof of the World
Authors: Nodari Maria Luisa
Published: February 2014

This paper explores the lives of a number of Tibetan mountaineering women who have risen to celebrity by climbing the highest peaks in the world. It shows how they negotiated their gender and ethnic identity within the highly complex context of modern Tibetan mountaineering in the People’s Republic of China. Even though they use mountaineering as a means for emancipation, these Tibetan women enact gender roles in ways that are more complicated than the simple binary opposition between ‘old society’ and ‘new society’, reflected in Chinese modernisation narratives, suggests.
Medically Assisted Procreation and International Human Rights Law
Authors: Pavone Ilja Richard
Published: February 2014

Since the birth of Louise Brown in 1978, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilisation (IVF), developments in reproductive medicine have opened up new opportunities to solve problems related to sterility/infertility and to avoid the transmission of serious genetic diseases to offspring. This article evaluates some challenges to human rights protection arising from medically assisted procreation (MAP), with particular reference to artificial insemination from a donor (AID) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). It analyses the regulation of MAP at the international, regional and domestic level. Specific attention is paid to two landmark judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on MAP (S.H. v. Austria and Costa and Pavan v. Italy), with a special focus on the interpretation of the concept of family and private life contained therein and on the effects of the ECtHR rulings on the Italian legal order. It concludes that national legislation concerning MAP should be minimal, i.e. should afford substantial freedom and autonomy to the couples in their procreative choices, in accordance with their right to respect for private and family life.
Renewed Latvia. A Case Study of the Transnational Fascism Model
Authors: Kuck Jordan
Published: February 2014

This article examines the lesser-known authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis, the Vadonis [Leader] of Latvia from 1934-1940, as a case study of transnational fascism. Specifically, by investigating the nature of Mazpulki [Latvian 4-H] – an agricultural youth organization modeled on American 4-H which became during the Ulmanis regime a sort of unofficial ‘Ulmanis Youth’ institution – and its international connections, and particularly with Italy, the article contends that we should view the Ulmanis regime as having been part of the transnational fascist wave that swept over Europe in the period between the two world wars. The article also makes the historiographical point that the transnational fascism model offers key analytical methods for interpreting fascism’s syncretic nature, especially in the case of those regimes which had some recognizable features of ‘generic’ fascism but which have previously been categorized as merely authoritarian. Future studies of such regimes will expand our understanding of the nature of and links between the many varied manifestations of interwar fascism.