bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aspects of Agency
Authors: Mele Alfred R.
Published: May 2017

Libertarianism about free will is the conjunction of a negative thesis and a positive thesis. The negative thesis is that free will is incompatible with determinism. The positive thesis is that there are actions that are or involve exercises of free will—free actions, for short. While remaining neutral of the negative thesis, this book develops a detailed version of the positive thesis that represents paradigmatically free actions as indeterministically caused by their proximal causes and pays special attention to decisions caused in this way. The bulk of the book is a defense of this thesis against popular objections to theses of its kind. This defense includes solutions to problems about luck and control that are widely discussed in the literature on free will and moral responsibility. Various key concepts are clarified, including complete control, direct control, and its being up to an agent what is decided; and it is argued that free will may be accommodated without invoking agent-causation. The seven chapters on free will are preceded by an introductory chapter and three chapters on central issues in the philosophy of action that bear on standard treatments of free will—deciding to act, agents’ abilities, and commitments of a causal theory of action explanation.
Actions, Explanations, and Causes
Authors: Mele Alfred R.
Published: May 2017

This chapter defends a causalist position on the explanation of intentional human actions. It defends the thesis that one necessary condition for an adequate explanation of such an action is that the explanation cite a cause of the action. Various options for a required causal condition are identified, including causation by reasons, by beliefs, desires, or intentions, by neural realizers of mental states of these kinds, or by facts about something the agents believed, desired, or intended. Leading anticausalist proposals are rebutted. A major problem highlighted for these proposals features cases in which an agent who has two or more reasons for performing a certain action performs it for only one of those reasons.
Agents’ Abilities
Authors: Mele Alfred R.
Published: May 2017

This chapter distinguishes among three kinds, levels, or grades of ability to act: simple ability to A; ability to A intentionally; and a more reliable kind of ability to A associated with promising to A. The chapter’s topic is kinds, levels, or grades of ability—not the metaphysics of ability. It is argued that theorists who disagree with one another about the metaphysics of ability can and should accept the three-part distinction. Topics addressed include a distinction between general and specific abilities, commitments of a commonsense conception of ability, differences between compatibilist and incompatibilist conceptions of ability, connections between ability and control, and the nature of directly free actions.
Complete Control and Disappearing Agents
Authors: Mele Alfred R.
Published: May 2017

This chapter rebuts Derk Pereboom’s disappearing agent argument against event-causal libertarianism and explores a notion of complete control over whether one will decide to A. Support is offered for the view that agents with no agent-causal powers can decide freely and be morally responsible for decisions they made. Settling whether a particular decision will occur is a key notion in Pereboom’s disappearing agent argument. Various interpretations of the notion are considered, and the argument is found to be unpersuasive on all of these interpretations. The bearing of agent causation on settling, luck, and control is discussed, and differences between deciding and overt actions are examined.
Libertarianism and Human Agency
Authors: Mele Alfred R.
Published: May 2017

This chapter’s guiding question is about indeterministic agent-internal processes that are still at work in a decision-producing causal stream when a decision results. The question is this: If incompatibilism is true, what contribution might such processes make to there being directly free decisions beyond being sufficient for the falsity of determinism? Two answers are offered, one for philosophers who believe that freely A-ing does not depend on being able to do otherwise than A and one for philosophers who reject this belief. Topics discussed in the course of developing these answers include Frankfurt-style cases, evidence of indeterministic processes in decision-producing causal streams, and evidence regarding the existence of agent-causal powers.
Righting Epistemology
Authors: Johnsen Bredo
Published: May 2017

David Hume launched a historic revolution in epistemology, but allies appeared only in the twentieth century, in the persons of Sir Karl Popper, Nelson Goodman, and W. V. Quine. Hume’s second great contribution to the field was to propose reflective equilibrium theory as the framework within which to understand epistemic justification. The core of this book comprises an account of these developments from Hume to Quine, and an extension of reflective equilibrium theory that renders it a general theory of epistemic justification concerning our beliefs about the world. In chapters on Sextus, Descartes, Wittgenstein, and various aspects of Hume’s epistemology, the author defends new readings of those philosophers’ writings on skepticism and notes significant relationships among their views. Finally, in appendices on Hilary Putnam’s “Brains in a Vat” and Fred Dretske’s contextualism, the author shows that both fail to rule out the possible truth of radical skeptical hypotheses. This is not surprising, since those hypotheses are in fact possible. They do not, however, have any epistemological significance, since epistemic justification is a function of the extent to which our bodies of beliefs are in reflective equilibrium, and no extant conception of knowledge is of any epistemological interest.
Sextus Empiricus
Authors: Johnsen Bredo
Published: May 2017

Sextus and his Pyrrhonian Skeptic colleagues were not skeptics as that term is now understood; they did not deny that we have knowledge. They neither asserted nor denied any statement about how things are, but assented only to statements about how things appeared to them to be, not least because it appeared to them that appearances sufficed as a guide to life. The author in this chapter defends Pyrrhonism against multiple charges of incoherence, both ancient and modern. He shows that there is a striking affinity between Sextus and Quine. He also notes two features of Sextus’s arguments that are closely related to some contemporary ones.
René Descartes
Authors: Johnsen Bredo
Published: May 2017

In this chapter the authors offer a new reading of Meditation I. First, there is no such thing as “the dream argument” to be found in it; Descartes offers two entirely distinct dream-centered arguments in Meditation I. Second, he never says that any of his three radical skeptical hypotheses—that he has no body, that he is being massively deceived by God, or by a Demon—is possible. The reason he does not do so is that those scenarios are incompatible with the necessary existence of God, which he thinks he has proven. Meditation I is a spectacularly successful rhetorical effort to get his readers to join him in his investigations.
Warp and Woof
Authors: Shields James Mark
Published: May 2017

Chapter 3, “Warp and Woof: The New Buddhist Discovery of Society,” provides a detailed examination of the Warp and Woof Society (Keiikai 経‎緯‎會‎) and the New Buddhist Fellowship (Shin Bukkyō Dōshikai 新‎仏‎教‎同‎志‎会‎) of the 1890s and early 1900s, as embodied and expressed in the life and work of the New Buddhists Furukawa Rōsen, Sakaino Kōyō, Takashima Beihō, Sugimura Sojinkan and Watanabe Kaikyoku. With the exception of Furukawa, who died the year before it was founded, all of these figures contributed to the journal Shin bukkyō新‎仏‎教‎, published by the New Buddhist Fellowship from 1900 through 1915. In particular, the chapter focuses on the turn within New Buddhism to society as a locus for Buddhist practice and awakening. The chapter concludes with an overview of institutional and lay Buddhism during the last two decades of Meiji.
Extremes Meet
Authors: Shields James Mark
Published: May 2017

Chapter 6, “Extremes Meet: Radical Buddhists of Early Shōwa,” examines the intellectual discussions on modernity of the 1930s, as well as the struggles of Buddhist leaders, priests, scholars, and laypeople to adjust to the rising tide of nationalism. The chapter focuses in particular on the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism (Shinkō Bukkyō Seinen Dōmei 新‎興‎仏‎教‎青‎年‎同‎盟‎), led by Nichiren Buddhist layman Seno’o Girō. The case of Seno’o is used to explore some of the problems and tensions inherent in “engaged Buddhism,” as well as the use of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren/Nichirenist ideas as a locus for progressive Buddhist politics. The chapter ends with a discussion of the life and work of Sano Manabu 佐‎野‎学‎ (1892–1953), a leader of the interwar communist movement who “converted” to the imperial cause while espousing an alternative form of Buddhist Marxism.
Introduction
Authors: Shields James Mark
Published: May 2017

The Introduction establishes the theoretical framework for this study through sustained reflection on the meaning and implications of some its key tropes—“progress(ivism),” “radical(ism),” “modernity/modernism,” and “socialism”—both in a general sense as well as in relation to Buddhist thought and practice. By giving substance to these key terms, which were self-consciously employed (though not always with the same intent) by many figures associated with the various “New Buddhisms” of the period, the reader is able to better situate these individuals and movements in their diversity as well as in relation to contemporaneous developments in the world of thought and activism—including, crucially, the ideological and institutional developments that gave rise to nationalist or imperialist ideologies.
Scripturalectics
Authors: Wimbush Vincent L.
Published: May 2017

This book is about the work we make texts do for us, a transdisciplinary theoretical essay in the politics of language and communication. The author engages such politics by problematizing and excavating “scriptures,” a word first used to refer simply to “things written” and then by the nineteenth century associated almost exclusively with the center-holding and power-defining (“sacred”) texts of the “world religions.”
“Pacification of the Primitive Tribes”
Authors: Wimbush Vincent L.
Published: May 2017

This chapter opens a window onto the colonial project as it was played out in Umuofia, with a focus on the savage politics of knowledge, of the Book. It is the latter around which turns the politics of power and knowledge and communication. Also reflected and developed as a part of such politics is a radical Manichean worldview in which reality is either black or white. This reality represents a hierarchy of structured relations that determines what is known and how knowing is experienced. Those persons and traditions on the other side are crushed. Those within this world are managed or manipulated by politics of the discursive.
Summary Conclusion
Authors: Wimbush Vincent L.
Published: May 2017

This book represents the unsettling of some widely shared assumptions, among them the following:

1. Scriptures have to do with specific isolable objects, a “there there” (“text”/“book”).

2. “They” are projections from, about, and for a specific cordoned-off domain (“religion”).

3. “They” represent and project this or that (“great” = worldwide) tradition (e.g., Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu)....
The American Nonvoter
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

The book explores the impact of uncertainty in the national campaign context on nonvoting in presidential and midterm House elections from 1920 through 2012. While previous studies have focused on individuals' motivations to vote and candidates' mobilization efforts, this book considers how uncertain national circumstances in the months before the election affect whether people vote or not. Uncertainty is defined as decision makers being unable to accurately predict future conditions, possible options, or final outcomes based on the current situation. Within the national campaign context, uncertainty arises from economic volatility, technological advances in mass communication, dramatic national events including wars, and changes in suffrage requirements. The book examines this uncertainty across four historical periods: the government expansion period (1920–1944), the post-war period (1946–1972), the government reassessment period (1974–1990), the internet technology period (1992–2012). The book considers the nature of politics during these periods with key occurrences including the economic swings of the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, the post-World War II boom, and the Great Recession, voting rights for women, African-Americans, and young people, and the effects of radio, television, cable television, and the Internet on nonvoting. It concludes that the higher the degree of uncertainty in the national scene, the more likely eligible voters will go to the polls. Conversely, the lower the degree of uncertainty, as the national scene remains stable, the less likely eligible voters will participate. As one example, throughout all four historical periods, economic change decreases nonvoting, while economic stability increases nonvoting.
Introduction
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

This chapter presents how uncertainty in the national campaign context affects whether people vote or not. The focus on the uncertainty of the national campaign context is in contrast to four primary explanations for nonvoting. Prior research has suggested that nonvoters lack sufficient psychological involvement in politics, are limited in their personal resources including education and income, are hampered by inadequate social networks, or have not been sufficiently mobilized by candidates’ campaigns. Instead, the chapter suggests that it is uncertainty associated with economic change, the invention of new mass communication technology, dramatic national events, and suffrage expansion that helps understand how many people do not vote and who does not vote.
Campaign Context, Uncertainty, and Nonvoting
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

Abstract: The chapter introduces the specific indicators of uncertainty in the national campaign context, which include economic volatility, technology shock (with the invention of new mass communication devices, including radio, television, cable television, and the Internet), dramatic national events such as US involvement in major international conflicts, and federal expansion of the franchise. The more change in each indicator, the greater the increase in uncertainty. The increase in uncertainty produces a decrease in nonvoting. Conversely, the more stable the indicator, the less uncertainty and the more likely nonvoting increases. The chapter tests an aggregate model across the full time frame from 1920 through 2012 for presidential and midterm House elections. The results show that relative to such personal factors as age and education, measures of economic volatility, new communication technology, and visible national events decrease nonvoting in both presidential and midterm House elections.
Who Are Nonvoters?
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

Abstract: Examining nonvoting at the individual level, this chapter identifies four types of nonvoters in both presidential and midterm elections. The chapter draws a theoretical distinction between external uncertainty found in the national campaign context and internal uncertainty among eligible citizens about whether a specific candidate will adequately address the external uncertainty. The four types of nonvoters respond to this internal uncertainty differently. The politically ignorant nonvoters do not follow the campaign or the candidates, so avoid internal uncertainty about them. The indifferent follow the campaign and candidates but see no differences between them as internal uncertainty remains. The dissatisfied know a good deal about the campaign context and candidates but see one or more candidates negatively; they do not vote because internal uncertainty about the candidates remains unresolved. The personal hardship nonvoters pay attention to the campaign and candidates but do not vote due to personal hardship associated with unemployment.
The Post-War Period: 1946–1972
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also boasts the highest economic growth rate of any of the four periods, coupled with the early days of television which transformed politics in the 1950s. In general, economic growth and the introduction of television move nonvoting rates downward. The chapter also considers in detail the struggles leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the law’s impact on nonvoting rates among African Americans. It also uncovers that in the 1960s the Vietnam War increased nonvoting. The chapter begins an analysis of nonvoting at the individual level. The less individuals know about the campaign context and the less they form comparisons between the candidates, the more likely they will say home on Election Day.
The National Campaign Context in Retrospect
Authors: Ragsdale Lyn , Rusk Jerrold G.
Published: May 2017

This chapter summarizes the book. The central conclusion of the book is that when uncertainty is high, nonvoting decreases. Three generalizations arise about this uncertainty. First, dramatic changes in economic conditions reduce nonvoting. This is true when the economy is moving upward or downward. When there is economic stability, nonvoting rates increase. Second, technology shocks with the advent of new forms of mass communication technology decrease nonvoting. The rise of radio, network television, and the Internet creates uncertainty about how the communication will work and nonvoting decreases. Third, in general, the rising costs of war reduce nonvoting. The greater the uncertainty about the war the more likely people will go to the polls.
Confronting Democracy’s Many Foes
Authors: Dallmayr Fred
Published: May 2017

In modern history, democracy’s dilemma or deficit is evident particularly in the international arena: the imposition of autocratic rule through imperialism and colonialism. In his Conquest of America, Tzvetan Todorov points to the annexation of the Americas by the Spanish empire in the course of which some 70 million native inhabitants perished. The most prominent feature was the lack of relational equality—a lack which persisted in later forms of imperialism. In the 20th century, a new type of autocracy emerged in the modern “center”: totalitarianism. More recently, a newer danger emerged in the bosom of democracy itself. Todorov distinguishes between three constitutive elements: the people (founding community), political agents, and shared purpose. Each of these factors can lead to antidemocratic abuses: the people to reactionary “populism”; individual agents to “hyper-liberalism”; collective purpose to “messianism” or the policy of “imposing democracy by bombs.”
Introduction
Authors: Phelan Helen
Published: May 2017

This chapter introduces the core theme of the book: an exploration of the singing voice in ritual contexts and its potential role in facilitating experiences of belonging. Set against the backdrop of “the new Ireland” of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it charts Ireland’s growing multiculturalism, changing patterns of migration, the diminishing influence of Catholicism, and synergies between local and global forms of cultural expression in its investigation of rights and rites of belonging. It introduces the structure of the book, with each chapter exploring a range of religious, educational, civic, and community-based rituals, as well as theoretical engagement with one of five core characteristic of singing: resonance, somatics, performance, temporality, and tacitness. This weave of somatically and ethnographically grounded experience with theoretical discourse proposes ritually framed singing as a key site for the negotiation and performance of belonging.
Repertoires of Belonging
Authors: Phelan Helen
Published: May 2017

Chapter 2 explores the act of singing through the lens of culturally specific repertoires. The emphasis on repertoire in ritual contexts often leads to an ideologically driven understanding of the role of singing. Focusing on the body as the instrument of the singer through a theoretical engagement with somatics is proposed as a useful counter to the appropriation of sung repertoire for ideological positioning. An examination of an Easter Triduum liturgy in contemporary Limerick, as well as a historical exploration of the role of chant in the modern liturgical movement, leads to a proposal that a “both/and” approach to repertoire through an emphasis on the singer (embodied experience) rather than the song (repertoire) enables experiences of inclusivity.
Singing Belonging in the Ritual Lab
Authors: Phelan Helen
Published: May 2017

Chapter 4 explores the introduction of Ronald Grimes’s ritual laboratory as a pedagogical tool in the teaching of a ritual song module within the context of a Master’s in Ritual Chant and Song at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. An examination of feedback and correspondence on the lab from students over the last decade and a half supports a view of the lab as a space of welcome, hospitality, and belonging. A central aspect of singing, explored in the lab, is its relationship with temporality. It suggests that it is the ability of music to collapse the clear boundaries between time and space that makes singing (particularly in ritual contexts) so successful in facilitating a sense of belonging.
‘This Modern Grotius’
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This introductory chapter discusses the life and work of Polish–British scholar and lawyer, Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (1902–75). Alexandrowicz pioneered the historical study of international law in its extra-European contexts, a vein of research that is fundamental to the history of international law and to global history more generally. Unlike contemporary scholars who assume that international law was an exclusively European phenomenon, or those who find only Eurocentrism in various forms in the history of European thought on international and global affairs, Alexandrowicz recognized international law’s complicity with European imperial expansion and sought to find in history resources for a more egalitarian and less Eurocentric international order.
Kautilyan Principles and the Law of Nations (1965–66)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter analyses the Kautilyan tradition as followed in India or Further India during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It draws upon Kautilya’s Arthasastra (fourth century BC), one of the most significant sources indicating the principles of inter-sovereign conduct. Some of the most significant principles include: individual responsibility of each sovereign within the collectivity or concert of all sovereigns in the circle of states for the maintenance of a measure of inter-state public order; balance of power within the circle, modified by the evolution towards centralization of power and potential unification of states under a supreme authority; the principles relating to the treatment of foreign settlements; and negotiation to the limit before resort is made to sanctions or force (or even voting) for the solution of conflicts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the impact of these principles on the development of the system of international law.
Mogul Sovereignty and the Law of Nations (1955)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

The historian of the law of nations, when considering Mogul sovereignty, is concerned with two main problems: first, the legal status of the Mogul Empire within the family of nations and the type of law applicable to inter-state relations at that time; and second, the internal structure of the Empire, which was essentially based on a network of suzerain–vassal relationships. This chapter discusses a few characteristic events to shed more light on these problems. Such events may be chosen from Anglo-Mogul relations in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The period between the reign of Emperor Akbar and Emperor Aurangzeb saw the greatest expansion of the Empire and one of the most remarkable episodes during this period—an episode which helps to illustrate the legal nature of relations between India and the West, the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of Agra.
Le Droit des Nations aux Indes Orientales Aux XVIE, XVIIE, XVIIIE siècles (1964)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter challenges the projection of nineteenth-century assumptions onto the historical reality of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries by arguing that the earlier transactions between European and Asian powers took place under the rubric of the law of nations. The classical European authors founded their theories on natural law and considered the family of nations universal, and Europeans acquired territorial rights in Asia in accord with principles of European law, through conquest or treaties of cession. The law of nations in Europe at this time was still in formation, and juridical developments were affected by the practice of states in the Indian Ocean. The chapter considers uncertainties and debates around sovereignty (vassals, suzerains, trading companies), territorial title, and maritime law, particularly in the controversy between Grotius and Freitas, and the rise of discriminatory monopolistic treaties that restricted Asian sovereigns’ ability to deal with more than one European power.
Grotius and India (1954)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter discusses the work of two European writers who made outstanding contributions to the formation of the law of nations: Franciscus de Vitoria, professor at the University of Salamanca (1480–1546) and Hugo Grotius (1533–1645). Grotius has been hitherto considered the father of the law of nations but this accolade seems to have shifted to Vitoria: pater semper est incertus. The first of Grotius’ main works which kept his paternity alive is Mare Liberum. However, Mare Liberum, if compared with Vitoria’s De Indis Noviter Inventis, reveals itself as a transposition of legal arguments of the Spanish school from the case of America versus Spain to the case of Asia versus Portugal.
A Persian–Dutch Treaty in the Seventeenth Century (1958)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

It is generally believed that commercial treaties between European and Asian powers prior to the nineteenth century focused on the establishments and privileges of European traders in Asia. However, there are exceptions where establishments of Asian traders in Europe received the same type of benefits as those enjoyed by European traders in Asia. This chapter focuses on one example, a treaty concluded on 7 February 1631 at The Hague between the King of Persia and the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands in which the latter, in return for privileges accorded to the Dutch in Persia, conceded reciprocal benefits to Persian traders in the Netherlands. In terms of international law, the treaty secured national treatment to Persians, granting them the same franchises and rights as those enjoyed by the inhabitants of the Netherlands, even by persons of quality in high positions whenever they engaged in trade.
G. F. de Martens on Asian Treaty Practice (1964)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines the works of Georg Friedrich von [de] Martens in relation to Asian treaty practices. These include his principal treatise, the Précis du Droit des Gens Modernes de l’Europe fondé sur les traités et l’usage (1789); Cours Diplomatique ou Tableau des Relations extérieures des Puissances de l’Europe tant entre elles qu’avec d’autres états dans les diverses parties du globe; and Recueil des Traités. The interrelationship between these three works has been largely ignored by historians of the law of nations and deserves careful attention. While Martens does not draw any specific conclusions from the Asian treaty material which he had collected and included in his works, the material suggests compelling reasons for conceiving the existence of a fairly wide meeting ground on which European and Asian countries were not only able to engage in trade but also to exchange cultural values and legal ideas.
The Legal Position of Tibet (1954)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter assesses the legality of China’s claim to Tibet. The Chinese government justified their invasion of Tibet by their claim to suzerainty. It is argued that if the history of Chinese suzerainty over Tibet is allowed to be justified, China has no right and has violated the independence of Tibet. If, on the other hand, China is allowed to rely on treaties, old titles, and legal conceptions which are believed to be dead, such reliance defeats the most sacred notions of international law in Asia, according to which such treaties, titles, and conceptions must give way whenever the independence of nations in this and other parts of the world is at stake.
Is India a Federation? (1954)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

Rigid definitions of law and the impossibility of fitting reality into these definitions have prompted lawyers to multiply so-called quasi-institutions. For example, the controversy over delegation of legislative power has led constitutional lawyers to speak about quasi-legislative power, which is power transferred by the legislature to the executive in spite of the principle of separation of powers. Some constitutional lawyers and political scientists have also adopted a rigid definition of the federal principle. Since many federations do not correspond in theory or practice to this definition, the institution of quasi-federation, which is midway between a real Federation and a unitary State, was introduced into the picture. The questions then arise whether the term quasi-federation can serve any practical or academic purpose, and if so, what is the real meaning of quasi-federation? This chapter addresses this question with particular reference to the Federation of India.
Le rôle des Traités dans les relations entre les puissances européennes et les souverains africains
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter divides the history of treaty-making between European and African powers into three periods. In the pre-colonial period through the end of the eighteenth century, European treaty relations with primarily North African powers reflected a non-discriminatory law of nations. During a transitional period leading to the 1885 Congress of Berlin, provisions of equality and reciprocity disappeared from European treaties with African powers. Still, as European powers sought to secure juridical title to African land through bilateral treaties of territorial cession and protection with African sovereigns, the latter retained a measure of influence over negotiations. After the Congress of Berlin, the majority of international jurists, members of the positivist school, defied the rules of traditional international law with a new conception of colonial protectorate that gave European powers carte blanche to occupy and annex the territory of ‘protected’ states.
The Partition of Africa by Treaty (1974)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter analyses the partition of the African continent via treaties. It begins with an introductory examination of pre-nineteenth-century European–African treaty-making and references some classic writers to Africa. It then discusses relevant documents on the ‘scramble’ for titles to African territory. These demonstrate the extent to which normal institutions of the law of nations as originally applied to European–African relations degenerated into instruments of colonial penetration in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly after the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, which led to a multilaterally conceived plan of partition of the whole continent. Partition took place in two phases, i.e. the transfer of legal titles to territory from the African transferor to the European transferee wherein the ruler still played an active part, and then the absorption of territory by annexation. Effective occupation by the Europeans usually came much later than the acquisition of legal title.
The Role of German Treaty Making in the Partition of Africa (1980)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines Germany’s participation in the scramble for African territory, in particular the history of treaty making. It compares pre-nineteenth-century African treaties with treaties concluded subsequently. It draws attention to the undisputed legal character of African treaties concluded under the regime of the classic law of nations which, according to its natural law premises, was a universal and non-discriminatory law operating irrespective of civilisation, religion, race, or continent. It discusses protracted co-existence in South-West Africa under German protection; a mixture of protection and sovereignty in Togo and the Cameroons; and the situation in East Africa where absorption followed soon after the conclusion of treaties.
Empirical and Doctrinal Positivism in International Law (1974–75)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter first considers the attacks levelled against nineteenth-century German historian Leopold Ranke in post-war German literature on Afro–Asian history (including the history of the law of nations). It then turns to the transformation of international law caused by the appearance or reappearance of the Afro–Asian States, arguing that doctrinal positivism must not be applied to such transformation. Positivism is by its nature empirical and should respect and follow the facts of international life without any a priori discrimination. Ranke and his followers were wrong in identifying Western history with universal history and classifying nations into those who make history and those who lack history. The pride of nations in their history must be mutually respected, the chapter states. This chapter argues that it will certainly take the sting of bitterness out of the colonial controversy, which is no more than an ordinary chapter of power politics.
Israel in fieri (1951)
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

Under international laws states may establish sovereignty over a certain territory via the acquisition of an original or derivative title. In the first case their title is independent of any previous title; if they acquire territory by occupation, they enter an international legal vacuum. In the second case, sovereignty is transferred from one state to another state by cession and the subsequent title depends on the validity of the previous title. There may, however, be the case of a state whose title is not derived from that of another state, but who cannot be considered an original occupier of the territory. This chapter examines the case of Israel. The state of Israel established effective control first over the area assigned to it under the November Resolution and later over territory lying outside that area, in the Negev area and elsewhere, where the question arises whether and how Israel acquired sovereignty.
New and Original States
Authors: Alexandrowicz C. H.
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines the case of States that lost their sovereignty to a colonial power and then gained political independence in the twentieth century. Should they be classified within the category of ‘original’ or ‘old’ states rather than ‘new’ states? It argues that upon regaining independence, States reverted to sovereignty rather than joining the family of nations as newcomers. A state reverting to sovereignty must be presumed to revert, not only to the measure of sovereignty which it lost in the past, but also to the régime of the law of nations (with the ensuing rights and obligations) which it was forced to abandon at the time of its elimination from the community of the law of nations.
The Sources and Structures of Power and Activity in Plotinus
Authors: Corrigan Kevin
Published: May 2017

This chapter offers an overview of Plotinus’ doctrine of dunamis, enriched by a brief introduction on Neoplatonism and Plotinus’ general world view. The author’s main claim is that Plotinus inaugurates a new way of thinking about powers by inscribing the Aristotelian theory of dunamis to the Platonic one. While addressing primarily metaphysical questions, in its last section, this chapter contains some interesting ethical observations on human agency and freedom.
Iamblichus on Divination
Authors: Struck Peter T.
Published: May 2017

This chapter argues that Iamblichus draws a distinction between two opposed types of divination: on the one hand, ‘true’ or ‘divine’ or ‘authentic’ divination, which is anchored solely to divine power; on the other, ‘non-divine’ divination, which is enmeshed in the material world, attributable to lower-order human cognitive power, and akin to what modern observers would call human ‘intuition’. A closer look at the third book of Iamblichus’ De mysteriis not only reveals the philosopher’s particular reshaping of the powers of the divine in new and more remote ways, but also brings into sharper focus the fact that, before him, the notion of human intuition had been left without designation, being referred to under the large and robust Greek cultural form of divination.
The Sceptre and the Sickle
Authors: Álvarez Marco Antonio Santamaría
Published: May 2017

The Orphic Hieros Logos in Twenty Four Rhapsodies is one of the last Greek theogonies dating between the late Hellenistic and early Imperial era. The chapter seeks to analyse the way in which divine power is transmitted through six subsequent divine kingships, from Uranus to Dionysus, in the Rhapsodies. In doing so, it argues for a series of significant theological innovations in comparison to both Hesiod’s Theogony and previous Orphic theogonies (Derveni papyrus). The main novelty is that the violent transmission (as symbolized by the sickle) is complemented by the voluntary and pacific transmission (as symbolized by the sceptre), performed by Phanes, Night, and Zeus.
The Power of God in Some Early Christian Texts
Authors: Edwards Mark
Published: May 2017

This chapter delineates a typology of the power of God in early Christian sources, including the New Testament, Justin Martyr, and other apologists of the second century, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Athanasius. It argues that any investigation of the concept of dunamis in early Christian writings must begin with an acknowledgement of the Scriptures, maintaining that late antique Christianity should be considered as a distinct philosophical school, which had its own first principles, interpreted its own texts, and gave its own sense to terms that it used in common with other schools. Thus, a specifically Christian notion of divine power could have been born of reflection on the common ‘reservoir’ of Christian thought, any other influence being strictly secondary.
Powers and Properties in Basil of Caesarea’s Homiliae in hexaemeron
Authors: Radde-Gallwitz Andrew
Published: May 2017

This chapter puts Basil’s account of the powers of the elements into dialogue with Galen and Aristotle, pointing out to the way in which the interaction with Greek philosophical sources is intentionally muted. It subsequently illustrates the awkwardness with which Basil, continuing a tradition inaugurated by Philo, attempts to preserve the biblical literalism. It argues that on Basil’s reading the properties of water and earth play important roles in the creation of living beings, and thereby Basil answers the criticism that Genesis portrays God’s creative work as arbitrarily imposed on the natures of things. It concludes that this attempt results in Basil’s being of two minds with respect to the powers and properties of things created—they are inherent in the elements themselves, but also dependent upon divine command and artistry. For Basil, divine power is not mere force, but also craftsmanship.
Gregory of Nyssa on the Creation of the World
Authors: Marmodoro Anna
Published: May 2017

The Church Fathers held that God created the world from nothing, by an act of will, at a particular time. But how can an immaterial entity be the cause of the material world? Isn’t this a violation of the causal principle that ‘the like causes the like’ which all ancient thinkers endorsed? Gregory of Nyssa (c.335–395) is a very interesting player in this debate. Marmodoro argues that Gregory’s solution to the philosophical conundrum of the world’s creation is to posit that an immaterial God created immaterial qualities of objects; but such qualities are physical aspects of objects, and they compose with one another to give rise to material bodies.
International Collaborations as Research Infrastructure
Authors: Viswanathan P.K. , Parthasarathy R. , Bandi Madhusudan
Published: May 2017

This chapter examined the availability of the facilities for international collaboration for research, with a focus on two prime organisations, the University Grant Commission (UGC) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which are engaged in promoting international collaboration. Beside this data also collected from various central and state universities. The study found that UGC has cultural exchange program with 48 countries, which include joint research project, exchanges of faculty, fellowship such as post-doctoral project-based exchange, and exchange of scholar programmes with several countries.
Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

The reign of Henry VII is important but mysterious. He ended the Wars of the Roses and laid the foundations for the strong governments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Yet his style of rule was unconventional and at times oppressive. At the heart of his regime stood his new men, low-born ministers with legal, financial, political and military skills who enforced the king’s will and in the process built their own careers and their families’ fortunes. Some are well known, like Sir Edward Poynings, governor of Ireland, or Empson and Dudley, executed to buy popularity for the young Henry VIII. Others are less famous. Sir Robert Southwell was the king’s chief auditor, Sir Andrew Windsor the keeper of the king’s wardrobe, Sir Thomas Lovell the chancellor of the exchequer so trusted by Henry that he was allowed to employ the former Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel as his household falconer. Some paved the way to glory for their relatives. Sir Thomas Brandon, master of the horse, was the uncle of Henry VIII’s favourite Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. Sir Henry Wyatt, keeper of the jewel house, was father to the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. This book, based on extensive archival research, presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of the new men. It analyses the offices and relationships through which they exercised power and the ways they gained their wealth and spent it to sustain their new-found status. It establishes their importance in the operation of Henry’s government and, as their careers continued under his son, in the making of Tudor England.
Caitiffs and villains of simple birth
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

The central role played in Henry VII’s government by low-born lawyers, financial officials, and household men was recognized by contemporaries and has been stressed by historians. Yet, with a few exceptions, their careers have not been examined in detail. This chapter introduces those of Henry’s ‘new men’ already well known from the work of other scholars—Sir Reynold Bray, Edmund Dudley, and Sir Richard Empson—and others who demand further investigation. These include financial officers and household administrators such as Sir Thomas Lovell, Sir Henry Wyatt, Sir Andrew Windsor, Sir John Hussey, and Sir Robert Southwell; courtiers, military commanders, and diplomats like Sir Edward Poynings and Sir Thomas Brandon; and servants of Prince Henry like Sir Henry Marney.
Principles and talents
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

The talents and ideas of the new men can be elucidated using contemporary fiction and satire in verse and drama as well as their own writings, notably Edmund Dudley’s Tree of Commonwealth. They valued order and justice, the elevation of royal power, and the promotion of the common weal. Their attachment to the crown was shaped by the common law, their loyalty to the king by chivalry. They were quick to punish treason and to display the king’s badges on their possessions. They were efficient, persuasive, and shrewd. While they did not scorn what ancestry they had, they drew their status more from the positions the king gave them than from their blood. But contemporaries were alarmed by their rise and charged them with ruthless self-advancement and overweening pride.
Borderlands, war, and diplomacy
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

The new men’s work extended from the centre of the realm to its peripheries. They were involved in the government of Wales and the Marches, in the duchy of Cornwall, and, on occasion, in Ireland and on the Scottish borders. Some were also important diplomats. All fought for the king, many served in military administration, and Poynings was a commander of note. All recruited men to serve the king in war and equipped them from their substantial armouries. Their retinues drew on their household servants and estate tenants but also on their friends and relations and the offices they held on the royal lands.
Towns and stewardships
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

Urban elites sought the protection and advice of the new men in their dealings with the king and their consolidation of oligarchical power. Most of the new men acted as patrons to one or more towns, but Poynings’s relationships with the Cinque Ports were particularly close. Dudley had an intense but often confrontational engagement with London, where Lovell’s dealings were happier. In towns and in rural manors alike, stewardships, combining judicial oversight with military recruitment, were important offices in consolidating the new men’s power. They held them in large numbers, as they did other local posts, such as the constableships of castles and the keeperships of parks.
Followers
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

Loyal and effective deputies, servants, and retainers were necessary for the new men to carry out their many tasks. Their personal servants not only managed their private affairs but also assisted them in governmental duties. Many of their posts, especially those in local government, had to be exercised by deputy. Henry encouraged them to build up licensed retinues of military and political followers, and a list of Sir Thomas Lovell’s enables its membership to be reconstructed in detail, showing how his power spread deep into society in many parts of England. Those of Empson and Dudley can be analysed more sketchily using evidence produced at their trials.
Families and friends
Authors: Gunn Steven
Published: May 2017

Wider relations of friendship and kinship were also important in the new men’s exercise of power. Brothers, sons, uncles, and nephews often played roles in local affairs that complemented the activity of the new men at the centre of government, while kin of all sorts were important in securing landed property. Close relations with circles of gentry likewise anchored the new men in county society. Relations with senior churchmen and noblemen could be more ambivalent, ranging from the close cooperation at the centre of Henry’s conciliar elite to wary recognition of one another’s power. The new men stuck close to one another, but also split into groups, leaving Empson and Dudley increasingly isolated as the reign neared its end.