bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Fear of Smell
Authors: Shiner Larry
Published: June 2020

This chapter reviews and counters the arguments philosophers have used to justify treating the human sense of smell as cognitively null and of little use, especially for aesthetic judgment. The first section, “ The Historical Prejudices Against Smell” traces the negative views on smell and its aesthetic potential from Plato and Aristotle, through Kant and Hegel, to Roger Scruton, Dennis Dutton and others. The second and third sections, “The Case Against Odors” and the “Case Against the Sense of Smell” examine specific arguments against odors and the sense of smell, e.g. that smell is disreputable, deficient, deceptive, and dispensable. The discussion on deception draws on current philosophy of perception. Chapter 1 closes by arguing that analytic arguments of the kind I have used on behalf of the sense of smell need to be corroborated by the best current work on olfaction in the sciences.
Language, Culture, and Smell
Authors: Shiner Larry
Published: June 2020

Chapter 6 draws on linguistics and anthropology to show that many non-Western cultures and languages have sophisticated ways of expressing smell and that peoples of some of these cultures can quickly and easily identify and name odors. The first section deals with the learning, labeling, and classification of smell in Western languages. The third section on smell in non-Western cultures and languages shows that many of those languages have complex smell vocabularies, some including abstract terms, and that native speakers are able to identify and name odors with facility. This suggests that psychological experiments showing Westerners’ poor ability to name and describe odors may not reflect a universal human trait.
The Meanings and Morality of Scenting the Body
Authors: Shiner Larry
Published: June 2020

Chapter 13 begins with the views of Plato, Aristotle, Roman moralists, and the early Christian theologians on the ethics of wearing perfumes, views that have continued to reverberate down into the present. After briefly considering the absence of such moral suspicions in Asian and Arab-Islamic cultures, the chapter examines conflicting contemporary ideas about the meanings and morality of scenting the body. Dividing the contemporary meanings and motivations into externally and internally directed, the chapter first examines the objections to externally directed perfume wearing aimed at seduction, masking, or artifice. A second section considers such internally directed and motivated meanings as identity, pleasure, and spirituality.
Prophecy and History in Calvin’s Lectures on Daniel
Authors: Pitkin Barbara
Published: June 2020

In his lectures on Daniel (published in 1561), John Calvin saw clear analogies between the situations facing Daniel during the Babylonian exile and sixteenth-century Reformed Christians. However, he relates these two in a surprising and unprecedented way that evidences a strong sense of historical anachronism. He limits the scope of Daniel’s prophecies to Christ’s first advent—that is, to historically past events. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not view the book of Daniel as an eschatological handbook for the end times, and he has been credited with inaugurating a critical shift in the interpretive history of this biblical book. Calvin relates the prophecies of the four empires and the seventy weeks to the time leading up to the first century ce and does not find reference to the Antichrist. Analogies to later times are possible not because they are inherent in the prophet’s original message, but because of the connectedness of historical events under divine providence.
So Why Not Socialism?
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

This chapter considers some of the more influential arguments for socialism. These turn out to support different guises of socialism. Two key internal questions for socialists are (1) whether a socialist economy is based on coercion or voluntary cooperation, and (2) whether production should involve markets and competition. Different combinations of answers serve to separate utopian, Marxist, and market socialism from each other (we also comment briefly on anarchism and fascism, which can be seen as retaining elements of socialism). The goal of this chapter is to compare and contrast these different schools of socialist thinking, with a view to seeing how each variety of socialism can be defended.
Low Wages and Lousy Jobs
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

This chapter addresses some principal questions about labor market justice. Some of these are old concerns about the persistence of poverty due to the forces that keep wages low among unskilled workers. This leads to worries about exploitation. It will also examine the concern, most often associated with Marx, that much paid work is of a character that is detrimental to human flourishing, or serves to “alienate” workers from their labor. The focus then moves to more recent trends, such as the rise in executive pay and other aspects of “labor market polarization.” These motivate some discussion of whether it’s unjust for a few people to earn so much more than everyone else.
Why Are We Still Working So Hard?
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

This chapter discusses various questions about how a market society might develop, such that its citizens spend less time in paid employment. This can occur by way of an increased displacement of labor by technology or “automation” in the production process and/or by government regulation that limits the amount of time that people spend working. Discussion of these matters leads to some interesting questions about the place of technology in labor markets (particularly whether it should be feared), the value of leisure time, and the overall future of work (including whether work even has a future).
Boldly Going Where No Market Has Gone Before—Should Some Things Not Be for Sale?
Authors: Halliday Daniel , Thrasher John
Published: June 2020

Many of the questions covered in earlier chapters of this textbook have been undergoing philosophical and economic analysis for decades or centuries. This chapter examines questions that have arisen more recently, though the philosophical literature on them is already very lively. More specifically, it focuses on the sorts of exchanges that might be “off limits” to markets, due to reasons of “commodification.” This involves the idea that putting a price on a good or service is morally disrespectful to that good or service, and/or to whomever might be buying or selling it. Here there is an opportunity to compare and evaluate intuitive reactions to a number of interesting cases.
Death, Dying, and Meaning
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

Chapter 3 discusses Atul Gawande’s views about the choice between trying to live on by way of medical treatment and trying to retain meaning during one’s dying process through hospice care. It first compares medical and philosophical conceptions of death and dying. It then considers how Gawande’s views relate to Bernard Williams’ distinction between categorical and conditional desires and how they compare with views discussed in Chapter 2 about when it can make sense not to resist the end of one’s life. There is discussion of Gawande’s conception of the dying role, fear, the importance of how things end, and meaning in life. Suggestions are offered about possible meaningful use of suffering and death.
Death Wish
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

Chapter 6 examines Ezekiel Emanuel’s reasons for thinking that after a “complete life” (by around age seventy-five) it can be reasonable (at least for some) to omit easy preventive measures (e.g., flu shots) that would extend life even when such life would not be worse than death. To better understand such a position the chapter makes use of the views of Susan Wolf and Bernard Williams on meaning in life and reasons to go on living, and also considers different ways of judging the worth of activities. It further compares Emanuel’s views with those of Atul Gawande, B. J. Miller, and Douglas MacLean. Finally, it considers whether Emanuel’s arguments succeed and also whether they support the moral permissibility of suicide and assisted suicide.
Five Easy Arguments for Assisted Suicide and the Objections of Velleman and Gorsuch
Authors: Kamm F. M.
Published: June 2020

This chapter presents five arguments in favor of the moral permissibility of, and even a duty to engage in, physician-assisted suicide both to end suffering and for other reasons in those who are and are not terminally ill. It considers objections to these sorts of arguments presented by David Velleman from a Kantian perspective and by Neil Gorsuch (now associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) who argues against intentionally causing death. The chapter considers how to identify intention, the significance of it for moral and legal permissibility, and the role of the Doctrine of Double Effect in arguments about assisted suicide. It also deals with the difference between assisted suicide for the good of some enabling versus causing harm to others.
Discursive turns and critical junctures
Authors: Porta Donatella della , Gattinara Pietro Castelli , Eleftheriadis Konstantinos , Felicetti Andrea
Published: June 2020

The introductory chapter presents the theoretical framework of the research, its empirical design and the content of the volume. Our analysis of the Charlie Hebdo attacks addresses in particular the claims, frames, and justifications that civil society actors introduce in multiple public spheres. We want to understand both the content and the forms of these interventions by considering the appropriation of existing discursive opportunities by collective actors, but also their embeddedness within strategies of resource mobilization. Locating our research within social movement studies, we point at the cultural dynamics during discursive critical junctures, showing the ways in which different actors address transformative events which challenge their visions. As a “transformative event” the attacks point at the capacity of action itself to produce contextual opportunities and organizational resources that are mobilized in the strategic interactions of various actors. In this chapter, we first reflect on the concept of transformative events as triggering critical junctures, defined as moments in which changes happen suddenly rather than incrementally (as well as subsequent choice points), and on the very conceptions of citizenship that are affected by them. We then move to a discussion of the forms that debates might take in the public sphere (referring in particular to the concept of deliberation). After that, we present our analytic model, followed by a justification of the research design and the methodological choices. The chapter ends with a presentation of the volume.
Encountering Women’s Voices in Letters, Diaries, and Life-Writing
Authors: Kennerley David
Published: June 2020

This chapter examines the extent to which the restrictive attitudes to women’s voices encountered in conduct literature are traceable in sources that give insight into the daily life of the British concert-going classes, such as letters, diaries, and life-writing. It confirms that similar attitudes to women’s voices can be found among those from evangelical, middle-class backgrounds. It also reveals, however, that a range of different, more affirmative attitudes to the use of women’s voices can be found both among members of the aristocracy, and among non-evangelical sections of the middle classes, whether Broad or High Church Anglicans, Roman Catholics, or rational dissenters and Unitarians. While some individuals were clear in their stance, this chapter also emphasises that ambiguous and conflicted attitudes were commonplace, particularly among those with mixed religious influences in their social milieu. Overall, this chapter highlights the profound divisions and diversity of attitudes towards female voices among contemporary audiences.
The Self-Secularization of Religion
Authors: Roy Olivier
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on the Catholic Church's transition to modernity, which did not initially occur by way of theological reform. It came about through pastoral and missionary praxis as well as the rise in power of lay Christian actors: between two popes known for their intransigence, Pope Leo XIII, without compromising on any religious dogma, opened the way for the Church to engage with secular politics. Moreover, Pope Leo XIII took into account the ‘social question’, acknowledging that people were no longer living in a traditional society. The issue was no longer to bring the faithful back to church. The Church now had to reach out to secular society, which meant organizing open, socially oriented pastoral work and using secular political instruments—in other words what was to become Christian democracy—which no longer required religious observance but simple adherence to secularized Christian values. Ultimately, for global Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) hailed the adaptation of theology and ritual to modernism, ending a decades-long fight. Some have described it as a Protestant approach, or a Catholic version of the self-secularization of religion.
Introduction
Authors: Neumann Peter R.
Published: June 2020

This chapter introduces the book, defines key terms, reviews the literature, and describes the process of research. It also sets out the book's structure, and summarizes the argument, which is that Trump's War on Terror may, in many respects, not look different from the counter-terrorism campaigns of his predecessors, but that his counter-terrorism doctrine -- which can be summed up as "killing terrorists" and "keeping Muslims out of the country" -- is deeply at odds with established views of American values and America's role in the world. Since taking office, American counter-terrorism has become more militaristic and less interested in causes and consequences. Far-right extremists feel emboldened. The biggest shift, however, has been the systematic ideological conflation between terrorism, immigration, and Islam, which has undermined the idea of America as an ethnically and religiously diverse nation. Trump's War on Terror has not only made the world and America less safe, but weakened America's greatest soft power asset -- they very idea of America.
Rules of Engagement
Authors: Neumann Peter R.
Published: June 2020

This chapter deals with Trump's military counter-terrorism approach. It shows that his "generals" have moved the operational needles in the direction a more heavily kinetic approach, resulting in greater risks for soldiers and civilians, and lessening the extent to which policymakers were able to control the political consequences of military operations. At the same time, and despite Trump's willingness to sign off on virtually anything, they also decided to keep many of the existing rules in place, maintained Obama's framework for distinguishing between war zones and other areas of conflict. They preserved most of the standards and procedures for avoiding civilian casualties, and they rejected nearly all of Trump's most extreme proposals. Contrary to what one might have expected, therefore, the national security establishment was more cautious and significantly less hawkish than the President they served.
Conclusion
Authors: Neumann Peter R.
Published: June 2020

This chapter provides a summary and conclusion of the book. It argued that, contrary to the view of many commentators, Trump's impact has been tangible. While some of the damage he has inflicted was the result of ignorance and incompetence, other factors have been idiosyncrasy, ill-disciplines, and -- most worryingly -- his populist nationalist ideology, which has not just openly accommodated racists and the extreme right, created significant opportunity costs such as the "Muslim travel ban" and "extreme vetting", but undermined the very idea of America as a religiously and ethnically diverse nation. Trump has claimed to be tougher on terrorism than anyone, but there is no reason why Americans should feel safer now than they were under his predecessors. On the contrary, while much of his War on Terror has been bluster, its effect has been to leave America and the world more exposed to terrorist threats.
Jean Sibelius's Violin Concerto
Authors: Ramnarine Tina K.
Published: June 2020

This book highlights the unique insights that Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor (op. 47) offers into the composer’s musical imagination, violin virtuosity, and connections between violin-playing traditions. It discusses the concerto’s cultural contexts, performers who are connected with its early history, and recordings of the work. Beginning with Sibelius’s early training as a violinist and his aspirations to be a virtuoso player, the book traces the composition of the concerto at a dramatic political moment in Finnish history. This concerto was composed when Finland, as an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, was going through a period of intense struggle for self-determination and protest against Russian imperial policies. Taking the concerto’s historical context into consideration leads to a new paradigm of the twentieth-century virtuoso as a political figure, which replaces nineteenth-century representations of the virtuoso as a magical figure. The book explores this paradigm by analyzing twentieth-century violin virtuosity in terms of labor, recording technology, and gender politics, especially the new possibilities for women aiming to develop musical careers. Ultimately, the book moves away from the compositional context of the concerto and a reading of the virtuoso as a political figure to reveal how Sibelius’s musical imagination prompts thinking about the long ecological histories of musical transmission and virtuosity.
Science, Spirit, Sound, and Sign
Authors: Bergman Rachel
Published: June 2020

Viktor Ullmann’s 1935 opera Der Sturz des Antichrist, based on Albert Steffen’s anthroposophic “dramatic sketch” of the same title, presents us with two complementary narratives of good versus evil and the inner workings of Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy. Not only does the text suggest allegorical and anthroposophical narratives, but Ullmann also enhances these narratives in several important ways: he distinctly sets each act to represent the three different worlds of Steffen’s text (physical world, soul world, and spiritual world); he draws upon Rudolf Steiner’s views on music in key moments of the opera; he develops an intricate system of leitmotivs; and he incorporates two significant quotations in the final act. The chapter addresses each of these topics within the context of Raymond Monelle’s (2000) music-text framework.
Motives and Motivations
Authors: Baker Michael
Published: June 2020

A broad survey of Britten’s compositional output reveals a predilection toward linkage technique––the carrying over of pitches from the end of one phrase or segment to form the beginning of the next. Whereas linkage can be found in many genres, Britten frequently employs this technique in his operas to depict certain aspects of a character’s thoughts and motivations, either spoken or unspoken, as the drama continues to unfold on stage. Consideration of musical texture reveals three typical uses: (1) accompaniment linkage between the vocal melody and the instrumental accompaniment, (2) interlude linkage between vocal phrases separated by an intervening instrumental interlude, and (3) character linkage between the music sung by different characters in an opera. Consideration of linkage has practical implications for performers, directors, and choreographers, who may use insights gained through score analysis to craft a staged, gestural interpretation at moments of linkage.
Heir Apparent
Authors: Smith Steven C.
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on Max Steiner’s musical education, both formal (at the Imperial Academy) and informal (through acquaintanceships with Johann Strauss Jr., Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler). Apprenticed by his father, who by now managed multiple theaters in Vienna, Steiner scored his first success while in his late teens, writing short operettas. In addition to describing the style of Steiner’s early compositions, the chapter chronicles the wide variety of influences to which he was exposed. Among the most indelible: concerts by Claude Debussy and John Philip Sousa, and the premiere of Richard Strauss’s cause célèbre opera Salomé. Drawn to both modernistic dissonance and the elegant light music of Vienna, Max Steiner matured from an initially indifferent music student to a composer highly motivated to achieve artistic and commercial success.
Working Night and Day
Authors: Smith Steven C.
Published: June 2020

As musical director of RKO, Steiner oversaw music in all of the studio’s productions. At the same time, he was writing full scores for RKO’s most important releases. Workaholic by nature, Max loved the creative challenges dictated by such future film classics as Of Human Bondage and John Ford’s The Lost Patrol (a failure when previewed, until Steiner’s music added the missing element of tension). But his round-the-clock schedule was pushing the 46-year-old toward collapse. Finally, during the exhausting production of The Gay Divorcee, starring Astaire and Rogers, Steiner snapped, writing a sarcastic memo to RKO president B. B. Kahane. The twist-filled story of Steiner’s firing and rehiring is told here for the first time. Work was not Max’s only source of anxiety: Adolf Hitler was now chancellor of Germany, and Steiner feared for the safety of his parents in nearby Austria.
Yours, Herman Hupfeld
Authors: Smith Steven C.
Published: June 2020

Amid Casablanca’s many justly celebrated aspects is its soundtrack—the subject of much of this chapter. Surprisingly, Steiner hated the 1931 song “As Time Goes By,” which producer Hal Wallis insisted be featured in the underscoring (Max wanted to pen an original tune for Bogart and Bergman). But Steiner’s consummate professionalism is demonstrated by the ingenious ways he adapted Herman Hupfeld’s melody into one of the movies’ greatest love themes, in a score with many other musical highlights. This chapter also examines the ways in which Steiner’s music became part of Hollywood’s propaganda efforts during World War II, from the controversial, pro-Russia Mission to Moscow (which required the personal approval of Josef Stalin), to the sublime Americana of The Adventures of Mark Twain, one of Steiner’s most underappreciated scores.
Decline in Everyday Functioning in MCI and Dementia
Authors: Mis Rachel , Giovannetti Tania
Published: June 2020

Performance of everyday activities requires the coordination of a variety of complex cognitive processes; thus, as cognition changes over time, so too does the ability to perform everyday activities. This chapter will review the extant literature on everyday functioning in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia from a neuropsychological perspective. The chapter first briefly reviews the various terms used to denote everyday functioning and associated difficulties/impairment. It also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the methodological approaches to everyday function assessment. Next, the chapter reviews reports of associations between overall level of cognitive function and the ability to perform everyday tasks. Studies mapping the relations between specific cognitive processes and everyday functioning also are reviewed. The authors include a discussion of neuropsychological models (e.g., resource theory, omission–commission model) that have been proposed to account for the observed relations between cognition and everyday function. Finally, the authors make suggestions for future research on everyday functioning in older adults.
Cassirer’s Reception of Dedekind and the Structuralist Transformation of Mathematics
Authors: Reck Erich H.
Published: June 2020

Ernst Cassirer was a keen observer of development in the mathematical sciences, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this essay, the focus is on his reception of Dedekind’s contributions to the foundations of mathematics, and with it, on Dedekind’s mathematical structuralism. Cassirer adopts that structuralism early on, defends it against a number of criticisms, and embeds it into a rich historical account of the structuralist transformation of modern mathematical science. He also adds some original elements to our understanding of structuralism, e.g., by relating it to the Kantian notion of the “construction of concepts” in mathematics, by introducing a basic distinction between “substance concepts” and “function concepts”, and by tracing the “unfolding” of structuralist aspects far back in the history of thought. Overall, Cassirer’s approach is guided by the conviction that the metaphysics of modern mathematics should be approached by way of its distinctive methodology.
Methodological Frames: Paul Bernays, Mathematical Structuralism, and Proof Theory
Authors: Sieg Wilfried
Published: June 2020

Mathematical structuralism is deeply connected with Hilbert and Bernays’s proof theory and its programmatic aim to ensure the consistency of all of mathematics. That aim was to be reached on the basis of finitist mathematics. Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem forced a step from absolute finitist to relative constructivist proof-theoretic reductions. This mathematical step was accompanied by philosophical arguments for the special nature of the grounding constructivist frameworks. Against that background, this chapter examines Bernays’s reflections on proof-theoretic reductions of mathematical structures to methodological frames via projections. However, these reflections are focused on narrowly arithmetic features of frames. Drawing on broadened meta-mathematical experience, this chapter proposes a more general characterization of frames that has ontological and epistemological significance. The characterization is given in terms of accessibility: domains of objects are accessible if their elements are inductively generated, and principles for such domains are accessible if they are grounded in our understanding of the generating processes.
Gravitation and Black Holes
Authors: Moffat John W.
Published: June 2020

Einstein’s theory of general relativity introduced the concept of black holes to physics and astronomy. But, eminent physicists such as Einstein and Eddington did not believe in the existence of black holes. Schwarzschild solved Einstein’s equations and disclosed a possible dark compact object with an event horizon. This is a membrane in spacetime surrounding the object, from which nothing can escape, not even light. The chapter describes the contributions of Chandrasekhar, Kruskal, Wheeler, Oppenheimer, Landau, Kerr, and others to help promote black holes in the physics and astronomy communities. It details ideas about the origins of black holes and the conundrums they still present, such as the singularities (infinitely dense matter) associated with them.
Alternative Gravitational Theories
Authors: Moffat John W.
Published: June 2020

There have been many proposed modifications of gravitational theory, beginning with Einstein’s general relativity, modifying Newtonian gravity, and Weyl’s attempt at unifying gravity and electromagnetism. The standard model of cosmology, the Lambda CDM model, requires dark matter and dark energy to fit experimental data. There is a lack of direct evidence for dark matter and dark energy. An alternative theory called modified gravity (MOG) seeks to fit the observational data for the dynamics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies without dark matter. The MOG gravitational theory has a solution for a black hole that modifies the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions, and can be tested using the data collected on supermassive black holes by the Event Horizon Telescope. There are many modified gravity theories proposed to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe, generally ascribed to dark energy. However, Einstein’s cosmological constant is the simplest explanation for the accelerating expansion.
Offering Neurointerventions to Offenders With Cognitive-Emotional Impairments
Authors: Focquaert Farah , Assche Kristof Van , Sterckx Sigrid
Published: June 2020

A wide variety of medications and neuromodulation techniques are being investigated to manage risk factors for deviant behavior. If certain neurointerventions can restore impaired moral decision-making and behavior in offenders, should the criminal justice system be permitted to use such neurointerventions and, if so, under which conditions? In this chapter, the authors argue that it can be ethical to offer neurointerventions to offenders as a condition of probation, parole, or sentence reduction, provided that the fulfillment of five minimal ethical conditions is verified on a case-by-case basis. The authors further argue that forcing neurointerventions as part of an offender’s sentence or as a postprison requirement is both ethically and practically problematic, with the possible exception of benign neurointerventions without side effects.
Being
Authors: Silva José Filipe
Published: June 2020

The chapter is divided into three main sections covering Kilwardby’s work on natural philosophy. The chapter starts with the basic issues of composition of corporeal substances and proceeds to consider the question of the nature of composition (versus simplicity) of the human soul. It also attempts to understand Kilwardby’s philosophical commitments underlying his involvement in the Oxford Prohibitions of 1277. Particular attention is paid to the notion of matter and simplicity that offers cues to the identification of the view(s) Kilwardby may be targeting in this event. In this chapter, I also show the nature of the events surrounding the 1277 Oxford Prohibitions in such a way that it makes clear that Kilwardby was not and could not be acting alone or even at his own initiative. Rather, the claim is that he was probably spearheading a philosophical and theological movement of opposition to certain interpretations of Aristotelian ideas, especially in natural philosophy. The final section of the chapter offers Kilwardby’s account of the nature of celestial change and the relation between celestial motion and time.
The Science of Diversity
Authors: Weissmark Mona Sue
Published: June 2020

Using a multidisciplinary approach, The Science of Diversity reveals the theories, principles, and paradigms that illuminate people’s understanding of the issues surrounding human diversity, social equality, and justice. Noted psychologist and educator Dr. Mona Weissmark assembles a rich array of research from anthropology, biology, religious studies, and the social sciences to write a scholarly diorama of diversity. This book contextualizes diversity historically, tracing the evolution of ideas about “the other” and about “we” and “them” to various forms of social organization—from the “hunter-gather,” face-to-face, shared resource model to the anomie of megacities. Moreover, it explicates the concept of diversity, analyzing its meaning over time, place, and polity—from ancient Greece to the time of Donald Trump, from biblical parables to United Nations pronouncements. Ultimately, drawing on the author’s groundbreaking research work with the children of Nazis and the children of Holocaust survivors, the book suggests that one potential antidote to ethnic strife lies in the pursuit of Immanuel Kant’s mandate, sapere aude (dare to know), combined with the development of compassion.
Visual Representations of Black Samson
Authors: Junior Nyasha , Schipper Jeremy
Published: June 2020

Since the mid-nineteenth century, visual images of Black Samson have developed in editorial cartoons, film, paintings, comic books, graphic novels, and television alongside traditions about him in American literature and music. Similar to his literary representations, some artists from different racial backgrounds have created Black Samson figures that address various social and political controversies in the United States. From his nineteenth-century appearance in Harper’s Weekly to his twenty-first-century appearance on the History Channel, visual representations of Black Samson in popular culture have continued to shape Black Samson into a racially polarizing American icon. In this chapter, we trace the use of Black Samson figures in the visual arts from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
The Challenging Data of Neuroscience and the Challenges Mounted from That Data
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: June 2020

The suppositions about the psychology of moral agency are challenged by neuroscience in four ways: first, by denying that the choices of persons can be uncaused (and thus “free” in this contra-causal sense); second, by denying that the choices of persons actually cause the actions that are chosen, such actions rather being epiphenomenal with such actions, co-effects of some common cause in the brain; third, by denying that the minds of persons are anything but the brute, dumb firing of two valued switches in the brains of such persons, a mere mechanism or machine; fourth, by denying that persons have the kind of privileged access to their own mental states that gives persons the knowledge needed for control and for responsibility. Two responses to these four challenges are previewed, a response denying the truth of these claims and a response denying the relevance of these claims to responsibility. The attempt to sidestep these challenges known as “cheap compatibilism” is also reviewed and rejected.
The Libertarian, Fictionalist, and Compatibilist Responses to Hard Determinism
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: June 2020

This chapter surveys the various responses to hard determinism, all of which seek to salvage responsibility in the face of the thought that all of our actions and choices are caused by factors over which we have no control. Those responses are grouped into three large categories: libertarianisms, fictionalisms, and compatibilisms. Libertarians believe that we do possess contra-causal free will, at least some of the time. Fictionalists believe that we must fictionalize responsibility so that we can construct it so as to be compatible with the determination of human choice by factors themselves unchosen. Compatibilists believe that there is no contradiction between free and responsible action, on the one hand, and determination of human choice, on the other. Various subcategories of each of these groupings are explored, and a case is made to subscribe to one of the forms of compatibilism, classical compatibilism. Ten amendments are offered to classical compatibilism aimed at eliminating the many problems that have been raised for classical compatibilism these past sixty years.
Journalism and Intellect
Authors: McDevitt Michael
Published: June 2020

Journalism’s resentment toward intellect is tangled up with the profession’s democratic commitments: its egalitarian ethos, identification with “the public,” ambivalence toward experts, and pleasure in holding up the haughty and highbrow to ridicule. Chapter 1 illustrates the vexed orientation of news media to intellect in templates such as the ridicule of aging Marxists and the willingness of reporters to humiliate themselves in sciencey-sounding stories. Some of these tropes could be viewed as harmless eccentricities of newswork, but the introduction reveals journalism’s complicity in reification and rationalization of a punitive public. A tactical relationship to intellect is in some respects innate to journalism. Communication is constitutive of community, which is bound by core beliefs, which are inevitably dissected by intellect. A reticence to engage with intellect can veer into bouts of overt hostility, a dynamic shaped by the obligation of mainstream media to defend moral foundations of sanctity, loyalty, and authority.
Closing of the Journalism Mind
Authors: McDevitt Michael
Published: June 2020

Chapter 8 measures anti-intellectualism among mass communication students for the first time and finds that support for journalistic anti-intellectualism is condoned in the views of emerging adults as they develop attitudes toward news, audiences, and authority. Data are drawn from questionnaires distributed to undergraduates at five colleges. Majoring in the news and support for traditional press roles such as the interpretive function fail to inoculate students against the endorsement of journalistic anti-rationalism and anti-elitism. While reflexivity is often viewed as conducive to critical thinking, students’ affinity for transparency in newswork associates with suspicion of intellectuals and their ideas. Many students are drawn to journalism as practice and as a field of study because of its populist mythos. Educators should emphasize a critical autonomy that makes room for transparency but does not succumb to climates of opinion.
In My Buggy
Authors: McDevitt Michael
Published: June 2020

Interviews of 25 scholars targeted by watchlists probe how public intellectuals invest in trusting relationships with reporters in ways that ensure the successful brokering of ideas. Chapter 9 documents practices of “dangerous professors” that allow them to navigate uncertainty and vigilante blowback. The academic-media nexus can seem like a kaleidoscopic space, where public scholars experience reversals of hierarchy and where rules of engagement are, at best, implicit and contingent. Over time, risk-tolerant and conflict-seeking activists should become sensitive to constraints of news production on the free play of intellect. One way or another, they must rework relationships with reporters to confront the news as a paradigm of conventional wisdom. For a reporter, striking gold in interviews sometimes requires the acknowledgment of a scholar’s critique of the news. The disorientation of a hybrid field is consequently generative of reflexivity in efforts to reconcile intellect with journalism.
Government Debt
Authors: Pareti Keith , Kennedy Rob
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on the origin and functionality of U.S. government debt (Treasuries). Debt in the U.S. has been increasing for many decades, especially since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. The types of debt securities are discussed along with the auction process to obtain these investment vehicles. All investments involve risks and rating agencies attempt to rank and grade the risk associated with sovereign debt. Default rates, derivative contracts, and risk are important in making investment decisions with government debt. Investors could range from long-term investors, short-term speculators, and others. This chapter concludes with the outlook into the future and the historic high debt-to-gross-domestic product ratio.
Municipal Bonds
Authors: Deng Xiaohu , Goebert Christopher , Morgulis Gershon , Yates Isaac
Published: June 2020

This chapter discusses various types of municipal bonds, which represent an important part of the bond market. After providing a brief history of municipal bonds, the chapter then discusses two major types of municipal bonds: general obligation and revenue bonds. The next topics focus on tax exemption, credit considerations, and municipal bond structuring alternatives such as fixed, variable, and serial debt. Next, the chapter discusses the municipal bond value proposition resulting from comparatively low rates of default coupled with relatively high investment returns on a taxable equivalent basis. The chapter also highlights several “hot button” issues facing the municipal bond market such as pension bonds, private-public partnerships, and types of bond sales.
Derivatives Markets
Authors: Kiymaz Halil , Simsek Koray D.
Published: June 2020

Interest rate derivatives markets have enjoyed substantial growth since the late 1990s. This chapter discusses the development of these markets since 2000 and introduces the most popular interest rate derivative instruments. Although forward rate agreements and interest rate swaps are important examples of over-the-counter (OTC) products, futures on interest rates and bonds are innovations of organized exchanges. Both OTC interest rate options and exchange-traded options on interest rate futures are discussed to illustrate an overlapping area of both types of derivatives markets. Participants in debt markets are also exposed to both interest rate and credit risk. To mitigate the latter risk, the OTC fixed income derivatives markets provide credit default swaps (CDSs). As credit derivatives are also a subset of fixed income derivatives, CDSs are discussed further.
Models of the Yield Curve and Term Structure
Authors: Davis Tom P. , Mossessian Dmitri
Published: June 2020

This chapter presents an overview of the modern state of term structure modeling techniques. It provides an analytical framework that is applicable to all short rate models and considers them from the point of view of the classic approach of pricing by replication. The market price of risk and its relation to the drift of a short rate model are important considerations in modeling the term structure. The notable short rate models used in the industry for relative value pricing are introduced with a brief description of the class of affine short rate models employed for forecasting the real-world dynamics of bond prices. The chapter also includes a description of the Heath-Jarrow-Morton derivative pricing framework and an analysis of the LIBOR market model.
Floating Rate Notes
Authors: Abraham Aby , Casares John , Shah Jibran Ali
Published: June 2020

This chapter provides an overview of floating rate notes (FRNs). Although FRNs originated in Europe, their first introduction in the United States came in 1974 when Citicorp sold $650 million worth of its 15-year notes. Since that time, FRNs have evolved into a variety of types. FRN types covered in the chapter include the plain, capped, floored, collared, reverse, super, deleveraged, perpetual, and flip-flop. An FRN can have a maturity of up to 30 years and include periodic interest rate adjustments throughout its life. An FRN uses a reference rate, such as London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR), Treasury bill (T-bill) rate, prime rate, or domestic certificate of deposit rate plus a spread to determine its coupon rate. The chapter provides a discussion of such risk factors as interest rate risk, credit risk, call/reinvestment risk, liquidity risk, and market risk. Additionally, it covers FRN valuation using spread for life, effective margin, total adjusted margin, discount margin, and option-adjusted spread methods.
Factors Affecting Bond Pricing and Valuation
Authors: Wu Mark , Gao Xiang , Wieczorek Robert (Bob)
Published: June 2020

The bond market is extremely important because it provides necessary financing support for both public and nonpublic sectors. The U.S. bond market is much larger than the equity market, and its sheer size makes understanding the factors that could influence bond pricing and bond valuation important. This chapter discusses the most important economic elements that could influence bond prices, including the Treasury yield curve, credit risk, liquidity risk, equity volatility, corporate governance, accounting quality, product market competition, creditor rights, and financial innovation. The content presented in this chapter has profound implications for today’s bond market and can help investors have a better understanding of bond valuation.
Valuing and Analyzing Bonds with Embedded Options
Authors: Cheng Yiying
Published: June 2020

This chapter introduces the analysis and valuation of bonds with embedded options. For callable bonds, it discusses their unique reinvestment risk and negative convexity. For both callable bonds and puttable bonds, the chapter introduces two additional measures to gauge their risk: yield-to-call and yield-to-put, respectively. The chapter reviews the application of the spot rate curve in bond valuation and introduces the Z-spread to measure bond-specific risk more accurately. To model interest rate risk, the chapter builds a binomial interest rate model and calibrates it with on-the-run Treasury issues. The option-adjusted-spread (OAS) is introduced to measure the bond-specific risk excluding the option effect. The difference between Z-spread and OAS represents the option effect. Common measures of convertible bond risk and value are discussed including the possibility of valuating a convertible bond using option-pricing models and its drawbacks.
Bond Auctions
Authors: Wu Mark , Herb Patrick , Paudel Shishir
Published: June 2020

Each week, billions of dollars (or local currency) of government debt securities are sold in auctions to market participants. Central governments want to use the auction mechanism that minimizes both borrowing costs and chances of market manipulation. A liquid secondary market is also pivotal to the success of the auctions. This chapter begins by providing the definitions, mechanism design, bidding process, and method ranking of government debt auctions with a focus on U.S. Treasury auctions. The next section discusses some important issues including the common value assumption, role of private information, and winner’s curse. Large and active markets coexist before and after the auctions, creating possibilities of a short squeeze. When comparing prices in the pre- or post-auction markets with auction prices, the literature documents positive bidder profits (underpricing) on average.
Microstructure of Fixed Income Trading
Authors: Jerabeck Matthew John , Perkins Marc , Petruzzellis David
Published: June 2020

Some fixed income securities trade infrequently with high transaction costs. Although equity securities trade mostly on centralized exchanges or platforms, many bonds are inaccessible without an intermediary. Broker-dealers help create a channel between these otherwise illiquid and fractured markets, enabling the flow of information and capital between participants. These agents provide a critical service to developing markets, but they are increasingly threatened by modernization. Two forces are shifting the landscape of fixed income trading: (1) regulation is increasing the cost of business and (2) automation is squeezing profit margins. Although these changes may improve market efficiency in the long-term, they may come at the cost of short-term volatility and price shocks. This chapter describes the microstructure of fixed income trading, focusing on the mechanisms through which prices and liquidity are discovered in the Treasury, corporate, and municipal bond markets.
Why and How
Authors: Snodgrass Jennifer
Published: June 2020

Administrators and faculty around the country are working together to examine teaching approaches that better meet the needs of the 21st-century music student. These conversations have led to many institutions redesigning their curriculum. However, before any specific curricular decisions are made, the question of “why” changes are needed should be addressed and discussed. Based on several research studies, there are new trends in topics that are taught in both music theory and aural skills, and the ordering of material and the pace vary between institutions. There is no one-size-fits-all curriculum, and it is up to administrators and faculty to better understand the curriculum design that best fits the needs of individual students in their program.
The Buddha
Authors: Bommarito Nicolas
Published: June 2020

This chapter provides a background of the Buddha. Buddha is not someone's name. This particular title refers to someone who has solved the problem and successfully changed their orientation to the world on a fundamental level. It literally means someone who is awake. There have been many Buddhas. When one talks about the Buddha, they are referring to the historical Buddha, the one who started Buddhism. His name was Siddhartha Gautama and, being from the Shakya clan, he is often known as Shakyamuni Buddha. It is worth learning about the life of the historical Buddha for a few reasons. It is, of course, an important part of Buddhism and known by Buddhists all over the world. However, it also serves as an example, a vision not only of someone who has solved the problem, but what the process of solving it looks like.