bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Alternatives to War
Authors: Pattison James
Published: July 2018

If states are not to go to war, what should they do instead? In The Alternatives to War: From Sanctions to Non-violence, James Pattison considers the case for the alternatives to military action to address mass atrocities and aggression. He covers the normative issues raised by measures ranging from comprehensive economic sanctions, diplomacy, and positive incentives, to criminal prosecutions, non-violent resistance, accepting refugees, and arming rebels. For instance, given the indiscriminateness of many sanctions regimes, are sanctions any better than war? Should states avoid ‘megaphone diplomacy’ and adopt more subtle measures? What, if anything, can non-violent methods such as civilian defence and civilian peacekeeping do in the face of a ruthless opponent? Is it a serious concern that positive incentives can appear to reward aggressors? Overall, Pattison provides a comprehensive account of the ethics of the alternatives to war. In doing so, he argues that the case for war is weaker and the case for many of the alternatives is stronger than commonly thought. The upshot is that, when reacting to mass atrocities and aggression, states are generally required to pursue the alternatives to war rather than military action. Pattison concludes that this has significant implications for pacifism, Just War Theory, and the responsibility to protect doctrine.
Rum, Sodomy, Prayers, and the Lash Revisited
Authors: Seligmann Matthew S.
Published: July 2018

There is an old story about Winston Churchill, which relates that, during his time as First Lord of the Admiralty, he made a proposal for reform that was strenuously opposed by the naval officers around him. The reason given was that Churchill’s measure was not in accord with naval tradition. Hearing this objection, Churchill immediately retorted, ‘Naval tradition? Naval tradition? Monstrous. Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash.’ The quotation is frequently dismissed as apocryphal or a jest, but, interestingly, all four areas of naval life singled out were subject to major reform initiatives while Churchill was in charge of the Royal Navy between October 1911 and May 1915. During this period, not only were there major improvements in pay and conditions for sailors, but detailed consideration was given to the future of the spirit ration; to the punishing and eradicating of homosexual practices; to the spiritual concerns of the fleet; and also to the regime of corporal punishment that underpinned naval discipline for boy sailors. In short, under Churchill, the Royal Navy introduced a social reform programme perfectly encapsulated in this elegant quip. And, yet, not only has no one studied it; many people do not even know that such a programme even existed. This book rectifies that. It shows that Churchill was not just a major architect of welfare reform as President of the Board of Trade and as Home Secretary, but that he continued to push a radical social agenda while running the Navy.
A Goddess from Bengal
Authors: Datta Krishna
Published: July 2018

Feared as the ruler of snakes, Manasā, a late entrant to the pantheon of Hindu deities, is a fiercely partisan goddess who is vengeful to her adversaries and bountiful to her adherents. Legends of her origin and history vary but her cult has roots in pre-Hindu religious beliefs absorbed through time into the Hindu tradition, though she has remained outside the circle of the major Hindu goddesses and exercises only regional, not pan-Indian, authority. She is worshiped, often by Hindus as well as Muslims, mainly in the more snake-infested regions of India, particularly eastern India and part of South India. In Bengal her cult has produced a popular narrative tradition in her praise called maṅgalakāvya that has deeply influenced Bengali literature. With little or no philosophical underpinnings, the cult of Manasā has historically arisen and flourished out of a simple binary of fear and expectation of gain.
The Divine Mother Comes to Michigan
Authors: Pintchman Tracy
Published: July 2018

This chapter explores the nature of the goddess at the Parashakthi Temple in Pontiac, Michigan, also known in English as the Eternal Mother Temple. The Divine Mother worshiped in this temple is named as the goddess Karumāriyammaṉ, “Black Māriyammaṉ.” The discourse and practices promulgated at the Parashakthi Temple help construct a form of religiosity that is rooted in Indian Hindu vernacular goddess traditions but transforms such traditions in dynamic conversation with the temple’s American and translocative context. In Michigan, the goddess and her temple are emplaced in the American landscape; yet they simultaneously participate in a transcultural, transnational, and transhistorical economy of divine power that reveals the nature of both goddess and temple as entities that ultimately transcend the types of religious and ethnic boundaries that characterize the mundane human world.
Dispositionalism
Authors: Anjum Rani Lill , Mumford Stephen
Published: July 2018

Since the advent of modern philosophy, causation has been treated as a relation between two separate events. Any worldly dynamism is then provided by the succession of essentially static events. Recent decades have seen a revival of interest in powers, but this has been hampered by an acceptance of many of the presuppositions of modern philosophy, most conspicuously those of Hume. Simply placing powers on top of the static Humean framework will not do. Causal dispositionalism offers a more dynamic notion, where an instance of causation involves a unified process rather than a relation between distinct events. This theory has a number of advantages. It can account for change as well as stability, long- and short-lived processes, genuine complexity and real emergence, non-linear interaction of causes, extreme context-sensitivity, and contrary powers. This is a more plausible framework for understanding causation in biology, ontologically and epistemically.
A Process Ontology for Macromolecular Biology
Authors: Guttinger Stephan
Published: July 2018

This chapter argues (a) that macromolecules are fundamentally relational entities and (b) that only a process ontology can account for them. The basis for the argument is the ecological model proposed in 1981 by Charles Birch and John B. Cobb, which states that all entities, from atoms to populations, are ecosystems and hence fundamentally relational in character. The chapter first discusses how Birch and Cobb use the concept of internal relations to argue that ecosystems are processual in nature. It then shows that their account fails when it comes to macromolecules, as it does not offer an understanding of macromolecular behaviour in terms of internal relations. Following this, two case studies—symbiosis and enzyme function—are used for developing a fully relational account of molecular behaviour. This enables the expansion of Birch and Cobb’s ecological model into a process framework that also applies to macromolecules.
Baumgarten, Wolff, Descartes, and the Origins of Psychology
Authors: Hatfield Gary
Published: July 2018

This chapter moves away from discussion of Baumgarten’s relation to Pietism and the Leibnizian–Wolffian philosophy to examine its place, with particular attention to psychology, within the wider tradition initiated by Descartes. Hatfield focuses specifically on Descartes’ innovative development of a mechanical psychology to complement his rationalist doctrines, and argues that while Baumgarten fails to recognize the importance of the former, he nevertheless makes several important contributions to the latter, which had a significant impact on the future of the discipline.
Baumgarten and Kant on Existence
Authors: Fugate Courtney D.
Published: July 2018

This chapter reexamines Baumgarten’s definition of “existence” with an eye to evaluating Kant’s criticisms of this definition in his pre-Critical writings. Fugate shows that Baumgarten sharply distinguishes existence, as a specific content, from actuality, as the determination of that same content, in a way that has gone unnoticed by previous commentators. After explaining the implications of this discovery for our understanding of Baumgarten’s view of existence in general, Fugate uses it to reconstruct Baumgarten’s version of the ontological argument. Fugate highlights the originality of Baumgarten’s version of the argument vis-à-vis Wolff and argues that Baumgarten’s conception of existence allows him to avoid the objections brought forward by Kant in the Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of God’s Existence.
Just What Is It That Makes Travis’s Examples So Different, So Appealing?
Authors: Hansen Nat
Published: July 2018

Odd and memorable examples are a distinctive feature of Charles Travis’s work: cases involving squash balls, soot-covered kettles, walls that emit poison gas, faces turning puce, and ties made of freshly cooked linguine all figure in his arguments. One of Travis’s examples, involving a pair of situations in which the leaves of a Japanese maple tree are painted green, has spawned its own literature consisting of attempts to explain the meaning of color adjectives. For Travis, these examples play a central role in his arguments for occasion-sensitivity. But how, exactly, do these examples work? This chapter draws on recent experimental investigations of some of Travis’s examples to question an assumption at the heart of his own view of them—namely, that they are illustrations of a single, unified phenomenon.
Baltic States
Authors: Hedberg Masha , Kasekamp Andres
Published: July 2018

Since the end of the cold war, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been confronted with four major milestones that necessitated the cardinal transformation of their national security and defence policies: the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO membership, EU accession, and the resurgence of Russia under Putin. This chapter analyses the countries’ responses to these changes and challenges, tracing and explaining the evolution of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian national strategies, military doctrines, and capabilities since 1989. It both provides an analytical overview of how the countries collectively have adjusted to the new regional and international security order, as well as compares the similarities and differences in their security outlooks, postures, and actions, in order to shed light on the degree of convergence and divergence among these three post-communist states.
Greece, Cyprus, and Albania
Authors: Chourchoulis Dionysios
Published: July 2018

This chapter examines the development of the defence policies of Greece, Cyprus, and Albania. Worried about Turkey’s pressure and perceived revisionist goals mainly in the Aegean Sea, Greece has maintained powerful armed forces since the end of the cold war. Greek–Turkish tension has been eased, while Greece has reorganized the Hellenic Armed Forces and contributes a NATO Rapid Deployable Corps (the NRDC-GR), but it has significantly reduced its military budget. Along with Cyprus, which always seeks to hold a minimal balance of forces in the divided island, it faces additional challenges emanating from endemic instability in the wider region. A recent development of great significance was the establishment of a Greek–Cypriot–Israeli political and military cooperation. As for Albania, during the 1990s its small military apparatus virtually collapsed, but since the early 2000s the country has eventually opted for NATO membership (officially joining the alliance in 2009), and the Albanian Armed Forces has launched an ambitious modernization programme.
Development and Distribution
Authors: Sumner Andy
Published: July 2018

Since the Second World War, surprisingly few developing countries have experienced a truly sustained episode of economic and social convergence towards the structural characteristics of the advanced nations. The region of the world that has gone the furthest in that convergence is East Asia. Much has been written on comparative industrialization and development in North East Asia but relatively less on South East Asia. This book focuses on the latter and, more specifically on Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. These three nations have all undergone a major transformation—in a way never anticipated—from being poor, agrarian countries to middle-income countries that have developed an industrial and manufacturing base. The ‘puzzle’ that flows from that achievement is as follows: how did MIT achieve such a transformation, and how did they achieve the transformation with a form of economic growth that was driven by structural transformation, but that was also ‘inclusive’? Given that historically it has been thought that structural transformation tends to push up inequality, whilst inclusive growth necessitates static or even falling inequality, this last point is particularly salient to developing countries. Understanding how the transformation was possible in a relatively short space of time, the extent to which it was inclusive, and the caveats and prospects for South East Asia is thus an area of enquiry significant to all developing countries as they seek economic and social transformation.
Rationalist Metaphysics, Semantics, and Metasemantics
Authors: van Roojen Mark
Published: July 2018

Rationalism offers an account of moral properties as a subset of the properties which serve to rationalize right actions, and these properties are fit to be the referents of our moral terms. That fitness can be exploited in constructing an externalist theory of reference determination for these terms. The resulting externalist theory draws support from standard responses to Moral Twin-Earth scenarios. The relevance of these responses to moral semantics has recently been vigorously challenged by Dowell and by Schroeter and Schroeter. The social character of meaning relations, which can explain the openness of questions about an analysis, may thereby also make Twin-Earth judgements beside the point. But the resources available to translators go beyond semantic competence and it is these resources that nonetheless make the Moral Twin-Earth responses relevant.
Naturalistic Moral Realism, Rationalism, and Non-Fundamental Epistemology
Authors: McPherson Tristram
Published: July 2018

This chapter takes up an important epistemological challenge to the naturalistic moral realist: that her metaphysical commitments are difficult to square with a plausible rationalist view about the epistemology of morality. The chapter begins by clarifying and generalizing this challenge. It then illustrates how the generalized challenge can be answered by a specific form of naturalistic moral realism, joint-carving moral realism. Both the framing of this challenge and its answer advertise the methodological significance of non-fundamental epistemological theorizing, which defends and deploys epistemological claims without adverting to the most fundamental epistemological facts.
Hobbes, Calvinism, and Determinism
Authors: Cromartie Alan
Published: July 2018

In his debate with Bramhall, Hobbes claimed that his determinism could derive support from mainstream Calvinist theology. This claim is often taken at face value. But an examination of writers from Martin Luther to William Perkins reveals that mainstream Calvinism was not determinist. As Bramhall was able to show, Hobbes’s interpretation of these writers was characterized by crude misunderstandings. In this and in other respects, Hobbes’s professed theology reveals a startling ignorance of and/or indifference to the details of the English church’s doctrines. His thinking on these matters was more influenced by Suarez than by any Protestant. It is, however, possible that his determinism reflects another kind of religious commitment.
Mosaic Leviathan
Authors: McQueen Alison
Published: July 2018

This chapter defends three connected claims. First, we can account for Hobbes’s turn towards the Hebrew Bible by understanding the place of biblical Israel in the political and religious debates of seventeenth-century England. Second, Hobbes’s particular focus on the Mosaic polity is harder to explain. This focus is puzzling because, for both contextual and textual reasons, the period of Davidic kingship seems to fit much better with Hobbes’s philosophical account of the basis of sovereign authority. Third, Hobbes’s focus on the Mosaic polity is best seen as a rhetorical and polemical move designed to appropriate the images and narratives of parliamentarians, republicans, and radicals, and to subversively redirect them in the service of absolutism. There is suggestive textual evidence that Hobbes knew that this was both a radical and a risky strategy.
The Return of Alsace to France, 1918-1939
Authors: Carrol Alison
Published: July 2018

In 1918 the end of the First World War triggered the return of Alsace to France after almost fifty years of annexation into the German Empire. Enthusiastic crowds in Paris and Alsace celebrated the homecoming of the so-called lost province, but return proved far less straightforward than anticipated. The region’s German-speaking population demonstrated strong commitment to local cultures and institutions, as well as their own visions of return to France. As a result, the following two decades saw politicians, administrators, industrialists, cultural elites, and others grapple with the question of how to make Alsace French again. The answer did not prove straightforward; differences of opinion emerged both inside and outside the region, and reintegration became a fiercely contested process that remained incomplete when war broke out in 1939. The Return of Alsace to France examines this story. Drawing upon national, regional, and local archives, it follows the difficult process of Alsace’s reintegration into French society, culture, political and economic systems, and legislative and administrative institutions. It connects the microhistory of the region with the macro levels of national policy, international relations, and transnational networks, and with the cross-border flows of ideas, goods, people, and cultural products that shaped daily life in Alsace. Revealing Alsace to be a site of exchange between a range of interest groups with different visions of the region’s future, this book underlines the role of regional populations and cross-border interactions in forging the French Third Republic.
Corporate Governance and Family-owned Companies
Authors: Sikka Prem
Published: July 2018

It is often claimed that the ownership structure and the close involvement of family members alleviates agency problems and gives them a long-term orientation compared to a corporation with dispersed shareholding and control. Through a case study relating to the demise of BHS, one of the biggest UK retailers, the chapter probes these claims. BHS was an epitome of shareholder capitalism. It was owned and controlled by Sir Philip Green and his family. The control enabled the Green family to extract large amounts of cash from BHS through dividends and complex intragroup transactions, with virtually no questions from board members, regulators or auditors. The flawed corporate governance of BHS inflicted considerable hardship on other stakeholders. The demise of BHS should encourage reflections on the claims (agency theory) that an alignment of the interests of shareholders and directors somehow leads to better governance and socially responsible management.
The Material Theory of Practical Reasoning
Authors: Dancy Jonathan
Published: July 2018

This chapter lays out distinctions between various forms of practical relevance. Being a reason for or against is only two such forms; enabling a consideration to be a reason, or preventing it from being one, are others, as are attenuating or intensifying a consideration that is already a reason. These distinctions are to be used in mapping particular instances of reasoning. The chapter also considers similar suggestions by Toulmin and Raz and McDowell. It suggests that there is urgent need for more work on this topic, if we are to have any hope of mapping all instances of complex reasoning, such as in the law.
Inequality amid Stagnation
Authors: Brandolini Andrea , Gambacorta Romina , Rosolia Alfonso
Published: July 2018

This chapter describes how inequality and real incomes evolved in Italy from the 1980s through the double-dip recession it experienced after the Global Financial Crisis. It brings out how the crisis Italy experienced in the early 1990s marked a major turning point, with inequality increasing and economic growth subsequently low. The labour market and tax–transfer reforms implemented in the following years are also discussed. The severe impact of the economic Crisis and very limited recovery seen to date reinforce pre-existing cleavages across the generations and geographically. Substantially improved macroeconomic performance is seen as central to the restoration of significant real income growth for ordinary households.
Travis on Frege, Kant, and the Given
Authors: McDowell John
Published: July 2018

Travis thinks my view that there is a myth, the Myth of the Given, to be avoided is based on a conception that would entail that our conceptual capacities cannot make contact with the non-conceptual. I explain why he is mistaken. I explain why he is wrong to connect the supposed Myth with an idea he finds in Kant, the idea that there must be a match in form between our thoughts and what we think about. I take issue with his suggestion that something fundamental to Kant is contradicted by Frege’s insistence that thoughts are not put together out of self-standing building-blocks. And I argue that he misreads Frege about how something non-sensible ‘unlocks the outer world’ for us, about the relation between the conceptual and the non-conceptual, and about the possibility of conceiving thoughts as, not objects, but contents of sensory consciousness.
Agents and Goals in Evolution
Authors: Okasha Samir
Published: July 2018

In evolutionary biology, there is a mode of thinking which is quite common, and philosophically significant. This is ‘agential thinking’. In its paradigm case, agential thinking involves treating an evolved organism as if it were an agent pursuing a goal, such as survival and reproduction, and treating its phenotypic traits, including its behaviours, as strategies for achieving this goal. Less commonly, the entities that are treated as agent-like are genes or groups, rather than individual organisms. Agential thinking is related to the familiar Darwinian point that organisms’ evolved traits are often adaptive, but it goes beyond this. For it involves deliberately transposing a set of concepts—goals, interests, strategies—whose original application is to rational human agents, to the biological world at large. There are two possible attitudes towards agential thinking in biology. The first sees it as mere anthropomorphism, an instance of the psychological bias which leads humans to see intention and purpose in places where they do not exist. The second sees agential thinking as a natural and justifiable way of describing or reasoning about Darwinian evolution and its products. The truth turns out to lie in between these extremes, for agential thinking is not a monolithic whole. Some forms of agential thinking are problematic, but others admit of a solid justification, and when used carefully, can be a source of insight.
Reconceiving Spinoza
Authors: Newlands Samuel
Published: July 2018

In Reconceiving Spinoza, Newlands returns to Spinoza’s self-described foundational project and provides an integrated interpretation of his metaphysical system and the way in which his metaphysics shapes, and is shaped by, his moral program. One of the overarching theses of this book is that conceptual relations form the backbone of Spinoza’s explanatory project and perform a surprising amount of work in his metaphysics and ethics. Conceptual relations are the philosophical grease that keeps the Spinozistic machine running smoothly, allowing him to do everything from reconciling monism with diversity to providing non-prudential grounds for altruism within an ethical egoist framework. One of the author’s main goals is to exhibit how much work conceptual relations do for Spinoza and how much seeing this changes our understanding of his philosophical outlook. Furthermore, given Spinoza’s metaphysics of individuals, a moral agent’s interests and even self-identity can vary, relative to some of these different ways of being conceived. This will have the startling implication that Spinoza’s ethical egoism, when combined with his concept-sensitive metaphysics, is ultimately a call to a radical kind of self-transcendence. We will thus be challenged to reconceive not only the world, but also Spinoza’s project, and perhaps even ourselves, along the way.
Homer in the Gutter
Authors: Porter James I.
Published: July 2018

In antiquity Homer may have been the most revered of poets, and the foundation of all literary criticism and philology; but he was also the most maligned and interfered with of ancient poets. He spawned entire traditions of literary critique, parody, subversion, and revision that kept his image alive down through the centuries and well into modernity. Homer lived on, in other words, both in the gutter and at the top tier of the literary and cultural canons of the West. Examples from Heraclitus to d’Aubignac will lay out the case for this puzzling bipolar reception, which throws a troubling light on what it means to be a canonical poet of the western world. Two case studies will then reinforce the consistency of these patterns of reception over the course of the tradition: Dio’s ‘Trojan Oration’ (Discourse 11) and Butler’s Authoress of the Odyssey.
Shaping the Geography of Empire
Authors: Clarke Katherine
Published: July 2018

This is a book about the multiple worlds that Herodotus creates in his narrative. The constructed landscape in Herodotus’ work incorporates his literary representation of the natural world from the broadest scope of continents right down to the location of specific episodes. His ‘charging’ of those settings through mythological associations and spatial parallels adds further depth and resonance. The physical world of the Histories is in turn altered by characters in the narrative whose interactions with the natural world form part of Herodotus’ inquiry, and add another dimension to the meaning given to space, combining notions of landscape as physical reality and as constructed reality. Geographical space is not a neutral backdrop, nor simply to be seen as Herodotus’ ‘creation’, but it is brought to life as a player in the narrative, the interaction with which reinforces the positive or negative characterizations of the protagonists. Analysis of focalization is embedded in this study of Herodotean geography in two ways—firstly, in the configurations of space contributed by different viewpoints on the world; and secondly, in the opinions about human interaction with geographical space which emerge from different narrative voices. The multivocal nature of the narrative complicates whether we can identify a single ‘Herodotean’ world, still less one containing consistent moral judgements. Furthermore, the mutability of fortune renders impossible a static Herodotean world, as successive imperial powers emerge. The exercise of political power, manifested metaphorically and literally through control over the natural world, generates a constantly evolving map of imperial geography.
Conclusions
Authors: Bebbington Anthony , Abdulai Abdul-Gafaru , Bebbington Denise Humphreys , Hinfelaar Marja , Sanborn Cynthia A. , Achberger Jessica , Huber Celina Grisi , Hurtado Verónica , Ramírez Tania , Odell Scott D.
Published: July 2018

This chapter synthesizes findings from Bolivia, Ghana, Peru, and Zambia. It concludes that political settlements influence the relationships between resource-dependent economies and patterns of social inclusion. However, neither authoritarian, dominant leader forms of politics, nor competitive democratic politics has fostered significant economic diversification or reduced levels of resource dependence. The extractive economy does, however, influence the dynamics of national political settlements. The rents that resource extraction makes possible, and the high cost of engaging in extractive industries, induce asymmetries and create incentives for political exclusion. Colonial and post-colonial histories of resource extraction give political valence to ideas that have helped mobilize actors who have challenged relations of power and institutional arrangements. The materiality of subsoil resources has direct implications for subnational forms of holding power that can influence resource access and control. Mineral and hydrocarbon economies bring both transnational and local political actors into the constitution of national political settlements.
Doubling Down on the Nomological Notion of Human Nature
Authors: Machery Edouard
Published: July 2018

This chapter defends the nomological notion of human nature according to which human nature is the set of properties that humans tend to possess as a result of the evolution of their species. In particular, I show why it is appropriate to single out the traits that are typical of human beings (the ‘universality proposal’) and the traits that have evolved (the ‘evolution proposal’). According to the former, traits that belong to human nature must be typical of human beings; according to the latter, they must have evolved. This proposal has been extensively criticized, and the goal of this chapter is to address these criticisms and to improve the nomological notion of human nature. In particular, the chapter aims to distinguish those traits that can be proper targets of explanations appealing to evolutionary information from those that can’t.
The Social Construction of Human Nature
Authors: Laland Kevin N. , Brown Gillian R.
Published: July 2018

What is the job that the term ‘human nature’ is expected to do? Three notions are prevalent but are problematic: (1) Distinguishing what is biological from what is cultural/environmental. Here the term fails. (2) Characterizing the defining features of humanity, thereby allowing us to be distinguished from other species. This stance is tenable but contributes little. (3) Characterizing what is universal or typical about humanity, because of our ‘evolved biological heritage’. Here the term is tenable but misleading and hence counterproductive. ‘Human nature’ is equally reciprocally caused by gene–culture coevolution and niche construction. Given that the term has little explanatory power but carries extensive baggage, we suggest that it should be abandoned. It can be replaced with descriptions of human behaviour and cognition as the product of socially mediated internal and external constructive processes operating over both developmental and evolutionary timescales.
Bonhoeffer on Resistance
Authors: DeJonge Michael P.
Published: July 2018

A recent flurry of references to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the context of political resistance shows that the story of his struggle against the Third Reich continues to animate imaginations across a broad political spectrum. Curious readers have long had access to a variety of Bonhoeffer biographies, all of which devote space to his resistance. And there are more specialized historical treatments that place his story in the context of the broader resistance to the Nazis. Beyond these biographical and historical accounts, however, there has been no comprehensive and accessible account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking. He was, after all, not only a resister but a theologian in resistance, trained by vocation to reflect on and write about what the message of the Bible and the tradition of Christian theology might have to say about political life. In this book, internationally recognized Bonhoeffer scholar Michael DeJonge provides an account of Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking as a whole, situated in the context of his thinking about political life in general and ultimately in the context of his theology. He presents Bonhoeffer’s resistance thinking chronologically according to three phases of development and systematically according to a sixfold typology of resistance. Overall, what emerges is Bonhoeffer’s surprisingly systematic, differentiated, and well-developed vision of political resistance anchored by his vision of the word of God entrusted to the church.
The Community of Advantage
Authors: Sugden Robert
Published: July 2018

Normative analysis in economics has usually aimed at satisfying individuals’ preferences. Its conclusions have supported a long-standing liberal tradition of economics that values economic freedom and views markets favourably. However, behavioural research shows that individuals’ preferences, as revealed in choices, are often unstable, and vary according to contextual factors that seem irrelevant for welfare. The Community of Advantage proposes a reformulation of normative economics that is compatible with what is now known about the psychology of choice. Other such reformulations have assumed that people have well-defined ‘latent’ preferences which, because of psychologically-induced errors, are not always revealed in actual choices. According to these reformulations, the economist’s job is to reconstruct latent preferences and to design policies to satisfy them. The argument of this book is that latent preference and error are psychologically ungrounded concepts, and that economics needs to be more radical in giving up rationality assumptions. The book advocates a kind of normative economics that does not use the concept of preference. Its recommendations are addressed, not to an imagined ‘social planner’, but to citizens, viewed as potential parties to mutually beneficial agreements. Its normative criterion is the provision of opportunities for individuals to participate in voluntary transactions. Using this approach, many of the normative conclusions of the liberal tradition are reconstructed. It is argued that a well-functioning market economy is an institution that individuals have reason to value, whether or not their preferences satisfy conventional axioms of rationality, and that individuals’ motivations in such an economy can be cooperative rather than self-interested.
Community Interests in International Law
Authors: Besson Samantha
Published: July 2018

The chapter explores the nature and scope of community interests in international law and assesses how they should best be identified. It rejects the prevalent assumption that states act selfishly and hence pursue interests that are at odds with community interests. The chapter argues that states often do and should pursue both individual interests and collective ones, whether domestic or global. It submits that invoking collective interests should be done with caution, and should always be justified: The priority of community interests over other values and interests, including states’ interests, in the legitimation of international law cannot simply be taken for granted.
Mass-transfer properties of overcontact systems in the Kepler eclipsing binary catalog
Authors: Kouzuma Shinjirou
Published: July 2018

We selected mass-transferring binary candidates from the catalog of Kepler eclipsing binary stars and investigated the dependence of the mass-transfer rate on several astrophysical quantities, including orbital period, semi-major axis, mass ratio, fill-out factor, temperature, and mass. We selected the candidates using O − C diagrams and calculated their mass-transfer rates. Primary masses were obtained from the mass–temperature relation, and the temperatures of the component stars were extracted from a catalog of temperatures for Kepler eclipsing binary stars. The mass-transfer rates of overcontact systems have associations with astrophysical quantities that seem to differ from those of semi-detached or detached systems. These associations indicate that mass exchange from more- to less-massive components (less- to more-massive components) generally becomes rapid (slow) as the mass exchange evolves. However, for mass exchange from more- to less-massive components, this tendency is not reasonable for binaries with a short period (P < 0.4 d) and low mass (M1 < 1.2 M⊙) because the correlations of these binaries are opposite to those of binaries with a long period and high mass. These different correlations likely arise from differences in correlation between subtypes of W UMa systems (i.e., W- and A-types). Alternatively, when mass exchange from more- to less-massive components reoccurs after a mass-ratio reversal, its properties may differ from those of the first mass exchange.
A high dust emissivity index β for a CO-faint galaxy in a filamentary Lyα nebula at z = 3.1
Authors: Kato Yuta , Matsuda Yuichi , Iono Daisuke , Hatsukade Bunyo , Umehata Hideki , Kohno Kotaro , Alexander David M , Ao Yiping , Chapman Scott C , Hayes Matthew , Kubo Mariko , Lehmer Bret D , Malkan Matthew A , Michiyama Tomonari , Nagao Tohru , Saito Tomoki , Tanaka Ichi , Taniguchi Yoshiaki
Published: July 2018

We present CO J = 4–3 line and 3 mm dust continuum observations of a 100 kpc-scale filamentary Lyα nebula (SSA22 LAB18) at z = 3.1 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We detected the CO J = 4–3 line at a systemic zCO = 3.093 ± 0.001 at 11 σ from one of the ALMA continuum sources associated with the Lyα filament. We estimated the CO J = 4–3 luminosity of $L^{\prime }_{\rm {CO(4-3)}}=(2.3 \pm 0.2)\times 10^{9}\:$K km s−1 pc2 for this CO source, which is one order of magnitude smaller than those of typical z > 1 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) of similar far-infrared luminosity LIR ∼ 1012 L⊙. We derived a molecular gas mass of $M_{\rm {gas}} = (4.4^{+0.9}_{-0.6}) \times 10^{9}\, M_{{\odot }}$ and a star-formation rate of SFR =270 ± 160 M⊙ yr−1. We also estimated a gas depletion time of τdep = 17 ± 10 Myr, which is shorter than those of typical DSFGs. It is suggested that this source is in the transition phase from DSFG to a gas-poor, early-type galaxy. From ALMA to Herschel multi-band dust continuum observations, we measured a dust emissivity index β = 2.3 ± 0.2, which is similar to those of local gas-poor, early-type galaxies. From recent laboratory experiments, the specific chemical compositions needed to reproduce such a high β for interstellar dust at the submillimeter wavelengths. ALMA CO and multi-band dust continuum observations can constrain the evolutionary stage of high-redshift galaxies through τdep and β, and thus we can investigate the chemical composition of dust even in the early Universe.
An application of the Ghosh & Lamb model to the accretion-powered X-ray pulsar X Persei
Authors: Yatabe Fumiaki , Makishima Kazuo , Mihara Tatehiro , Nakajima Motoki , Sugizaki Mutsumi , Kitamoto Shunji , Yoshida Yuki , Takagi Toshihiro
Published: July 2018

The accretion-induced pulse period changes of the Be/X-ray binary pulsar X Persei were investigated over the period of 1996 January to 2017 September. This study utilized the monitoring data acquired with the RXTE All-Sky Monitor in 1.5–12 keV and the MAXI Gas-Slit Camera in 2–20 keV. The source intensity changed by a factor of 5–6 over this period. The pulsar was spinning down for 1996–2003, and has been spinning up since 2003, as already reported. The spin-up/down rate and the 3–12 keV flux, determined every 250 d, showed a clear negative correlation, which can be successfully explained by the accretion torque model proposed by Ghosh and Lamb (1979, ApJ, 234, 296). When the mass, radius, and distance of the neutron star were allowed to vary over a range of 1.0–2.4 solar masses, 9.5–15 km, and 0.77–0.85 kpc, respectively, the magnetic field strength of B = (4–25) × 1013 G gave the best fits to the observations. In contrast, the observed results cannot be explained by the values of B ∼ 1012 G previously suggested for X Persei, as long as the mass, radius, and distance are required to take reasonable values. Assuming a distance of 0.81 ± 0.04 kpc as indicated by optical astrometry, the mass of the neutron star is estimated as M = 2.03 ± 0.17 solar masses.
A novel nutritional intervention improves lung function in overweight/obese adolescents with poorly controlled asthma: the Supplemental Nutrition in Asthma Control (SNAC) pilot study
Authors: Bseikri Mustafa , McCann Joyce C. , Lal Ashutosh , Fong Edward , Graves Kirsten , Goldrich Alisa , Block Devan , Gildengoren Ginny L. , Mietus‐Snyder Michele , Shigenaga Mark , Suh Jung , Hardy Karen , Ames Bruce N.
Published: July 2018

Asthma in the obese is often severe, difficult to treat, and characterized by less eosinophilic inflammation than asthma in the nonobese. Obesity‐associated metabolic dysregulation may be a causal factor. We previously reported that a nutrient‐ and fiber‐dense bar [Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI)‐bar], which was designed to fill gaps in poor diets, improved metabolism in healthy overweight/obese (OW/OB) adults. In this pilot trial, OW/OB adolescents with poorly controlled asthma were randomized to weekly nutrition/exercise classes with or without twice‐daily CHORI‐bar consumption. Intent‐to‐treat analysis did not indicate CHORI‐bar‐specific effects. However, restricting the analysis to participants with acceptable compliance and a relatively low fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO; <50/ppb, a surrogate for noneosinophilic asthma; study participants: CHORI‐bar, n = 16; controls, n = 15) indicated that CHORI‐bar‐specific, significant improvements in lung function (forced vital capacity, percent‐predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s, and percent‐predicted forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of forced vital capacity), primarily in participants with low chronic inflammation (high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein <1.5 mg/L). (We previously observed that chronic inflammation blunted CHORI‐bar‐induced metabolic improvements in healthy OW/OB adults.) Lung function improvement occurred without weight loss and was independent of improvements in metabolic and anthropometric end points and questionnaire‐based measures of asthma control and quality of life. This study suggests that a nutritional intervention can improve lung function in OW/OB adolescents with asthma and relatively low FENO without requiring major changes in dietary habits, lifestyle, or weight loss and that this effect is blunted by chronic inflammation.—Bseikri, M., McCann, J. C., Lal, A., Fong, E., Graves,K., Goldrich, A., Block, D., Gildengoren, G. L., Mietus‐Snyder, M., Shigenaga, M., Suh, J., Hardy, K., Ames, B. N. A novel nutritional intervention improves lung function in overweight/obese adolescentswith poorly controlled asthma: the Supplemental Nutrition in Asthma Control (SNAC) pilot study. FASEB J. 32, 6643–6654 (2018). www.fasebj.org
Seasonal ocular allergy and pollen counts
Authors: Prince Arianna , Norris Matthew R. , Bielory Leonard
Published: July 2018

Purpose of review

The purpose of the article is to provide a historical overview of literature regarding pollen sensitization and ocular allergy with an emphasis on developments that have occurred over the past 5 years.

Recent findings

Currently, pollen studies have examined the molecular and cellular pathways involved in initiating allergic conjunctivitis to find targets for therapeutics. Studies have also documented the threshold, linear increase and plateau point in the relationship between pollen levels and allergic conjunctivitis symptoms.

Traditionally, intact pollen grains are counted as a means of correlating patient symptoms to allergen exposure. However, establishing a dose–response relationship between pollen grain exposure and allergic conjunctivitis has proven to be difficult. It has been observed that ocular allergies induce a two-fold response including early-phase and late-phase IgE-mediated reactions. Sensitization itself is a combination of pollen exposure over time in genetically predisposed individual. However, symptoms appear to reach an asymptotic point at which clinical severity plateaus. More studies are needed to clearly define differences in pollen sensitization by plant species.
Advancing Holistic Review for Faculty Recruitment and Advancement
Authors: Harris Toi Blakley , Thomson William A. , Moreno Nancy P. , Conrad Sarah , White S. Elizabeth , Young Geoffrey H. , Malmberg Erik D. , Weisman Bonnie , Monroe Alicia D.H.
Published: July 2018

Problem

The challenges to developing a physician and scientific workforce that both reflects and provides quality care for the complex and richly diverse population of the United States are considerable.

Approach

One medical school (Baylor College of Medicine) sought to adapt the Holistic Review in Admissions process developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges and apply it to faculty. In the fall of 2016, academic leaders received on-site training and completed several workshop exercises. The goal was for the leaders to build consensus around a holistic review framework for hiring and advancing faculty that is based on the institution’s mission, vision, and values.

Outcomes

This training occurred during Baylor’s ongoing strategic planning and helped inform improvements in the faculty recruitment and hiring process, in the guidelines for faculty appointment and promotion, and in the pilot of an administrative leadership candidate rating tool, the “experiences–attributes–academic metrics model.” The model that developed from the pilot translates the holistic review concept into a tool for identifying, hiring, and promoting faculty members and administrative leaders that is aligned to the values of Baylor. The utility of this framework lies in the clear delineation of metrics and qualifications along with the prioritization of attributes and experiences.

Next Steps

This innovation is being piloted and evaluated to determine its effect on advancing the institutional mission of Baylor.
A Prognosis for Health Systems Science Courses: Observations From Current Students
Authors: Pines Andrew R. , Khurana Aditya , Mastorakos George M. , Richter Kent R. , Asprey Walker L.
Published: July 2018

Certain medical schools have begun teaching courses in health systems science (HSS) to train medical students in skills aimed to improve health care in the United States. Although substantial research has been done on the potential benefit of HSS courses, reactions from students have not been reported. In this Invited Commentary, five medical students who have completed the first year of a longitudinal HSS course at the Arizona campus of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine offer their observations of how early exposure to HSS affected their reactions to subsequent course work and current events in health care. The authors describe the HSS course and outline three benefits they have observed from their experience so far: (1) thinking more critically about health care delivery during all educational experiences, (2) gaining a better understanding of the complexity of the health care system, and (3) having a greater consideration for the many facets of health care delivery. The HSS course helped the authors identify health systems problems, develop solutions that incorporated diverse domains of health care delivery, and recognize the role and responsibility of the physician as an agent of change in a health care system.