bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unprecedented Relationships
Authors: Hertz Rosanna , Nelson Margaret K.
Published: October 2018

This chapter introduces the concept of networks of strangers linked by reliance on the same sperm donor. It draws on participants’ use of the language of genes and the language of choice to explain how these networks develop. Because the relationships within these networks are unprecedented, the members have to decide for themselves naming conventions and social norms. The introduction suggests the importance of these relationships at a time when family size is shrinking. It includes a discussion of research methods, describing how the authors located respondents and the characteristics of respondents (212 parents and 154 donor-conceived children). It also explains how the authors chose to feature particular networks that reflected different eras, different age groups of children, and different internal dynamics.
Parents Make Contact with Genetic Strangers
Authors: Hertz Rosanna , Nelson Margaret K.
Published: October 2018

This chapter describes how parents use the number assigned to the donor to begin locating others who purchased vials from the same donor. It explains the steps parents make to form connections with others: signing up on a registry at a bank or an independent registry; providing information allowing someone else to make contact; reaching out to someone who has left identifying information; creating or joining an existing Facebook group; participating actively by making posts or commenting on the posts of others; engaging in private communications with network members (e.g., by text or phone); and meeting others in person once or more. The chapter discusses the motivations parents have for making this contact and the strategies they develop to cope with the experience of being pioneers in a land populated by genetic strangers. It also discusses serendipitous encounters among parents who have relied on the same donor.
Connected Soul Mates
Authors: Hertz Rosanna , Nelson Margaret K.
Published: October 2018

The Soul Mates network is distinctive on two counts. First, it is a large network with over twenty-two children. Second, it represents a turning point in network creation: the initial group formed when all of the children were toddlers. The children in this network thus have known about donor siblings for as long as they can remember. Among the members of this network one finds neither group cohesion nor bland disinterest. Rather the network provides opportunities for pairs of parents and pairs of children to find particular meaning in their relationships with each other. The fact that there is a medical issue of autism spectrum disorder (which might come from the donor) running through some offspring complicates—and sometimes intensifies —these relationships. Born between 2003 and 2006, the children interviewed are eleven- and twelve-year-olds.
American Catholic Theology of Penance in Nineteenth-Century America
Authors: Carey Patrick W.
Published: October 2018

This chapter portrays the American Catholic defense of sacramental confession, that part of the Catholic penitential tradition that was under the most severe criticism in nineteenth-century America. The Catholic apologetic, begun during the People v. Phillips court case, continued during the entire nineteenth century in polemical tracts, dogmatic manuals, parish missions, broadsides, parish sermons, newspapers, and episcopal conciliar statements. The Catholic apologetic took four different forms that justified sacramental confession, emphasizing the biblical, doctrinal, and theological foundations; the beneficial moral, social, and political consequences; the spiritual and psychological blessings; and the primitive Christian historical origins. By the end of the nineteenth century, though, a few Catholic priests were beginning to criticize some of the confessional practices that had developed during the nineteenth century.
From Confession to Reconciliation, Vatican II to 2015
Authors: Carey Patrick W.
Published: October 2018

This chapter delineates the dramatic decline between 1960 and 2015 in the practice of sacramental penance and other penitential practices and a weakened consciousness of the biblical penitential language associated with the practices. The American cultural revolution of the 1960s and the paradigmatic shift in theology at the Second Vatican Council influenced those developments. The post-conciliar church, however, created new sacramental rites of confession that emphasized the social and ecclesial dimensions of sin and reconciliation, hoping to generate a renewed penitential consciousness. A loss of the sense of sin, though, made it very difficult for popes, bishops, and priests to revive the penitential confessional tradition. In its long history, the church experienced major changes in the theology and practice of penance, but the rapidity of the change in the fifty years after Vatican II was unprecedented, with the possible exception of the changes that took place during the Protestant Reformation.
Conclusion
Authors: Carey Patrick W.
Published: October 2018

The conclusion highlights some lessons that this history has for American Catholicism in particular and American society in general. This history recalls the ways in which one people dealt with sin (personal and social), repentance, confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation—issues that were widely shared in various religious traditions and in American society in general in the past, which have been significantly neglected or marginalized in the present religious as well as political culture. The examination of a particular tradition can help to throw light on how American society got to its present condition and how a specific religious tradition contributed to the present state of affairs. What happened within American Catholicism had an effect on society’s language and values. The post-Tridentine American Catholic tradition on penance and the most recent breakdown of penitential language and discipline in the Catholic Church reflected and/or contributed to the same phenomena in American society.
Introduction
Authors: van José
Published: October 2018

The introduction puts forward the notion of the “platform society,” which emphasizes the inextricable relation between online platforms and societal structures. It refers to a society in which social and economic traffic is increasingly channeled by a (corporate) global online platform ecosystem that is driven by algorithms and fueled by data. In turn, an online platform should be understood as a programmable digital architecture designed to organize interactions between users—not just end users but also corporate entities and public bodies. It is geared toward the systematic collection, algorithmic processing, circulation, and monetization of user data. Crucially, platforms cannot be seen apart from each other but evolve in the context of an online setting that is structured by its own logic.
Urban Transport
Authors: van José
Published: October 2018

Platformization affects the entire urban transport sector, effectively blurring the division between private and public transport modalities; existing public–private arrangements have started to shift as a result. This chapter analyzes and discusses the emergence of a platform ecology for urban transport, focusing on two central public values: the quality of urban transport and the organization of labor and workers’ rights. Using the prism of platform mechanisms, it analyzes how the sector of urban transport is changing societal organization in various urban areas across the world. Datafication has allowed numerous new actors to offer their bike-, car-, or ride-sharing services online; selection mechanisms help match old and new complementors with passengers. Similarly, new connective platforms are emerging, most prominently transport network companies such as Uber and Lyft that offer public and private transport options, as well as new platforms offering integrated transport services, often referred to as “mobility as a service.”
Governing a Responsible Platform Society
Authors: van José
Published: October 2018

This chapter shifts the focus from the analytical and the descriptive to the normative and the reflective. A key issue is how public values can be forced upon the ecosystem’s architecture—an architecture whose core is overwhelmingly controlled by (US) tech giants pushing economic values and corporate interests, often at the expense of a (European) focus on social values and collective interests. The mechanisms of datafication, commodification, and selection seem to afford tech companies unprecedented infrastructural, sectoral, and intersectoral powers. However, the ecosystem’s architecture is adaptable to changing societal norms and awareness about potential harms. This book’s search for underlying patterns and systemic mechanisms prompts a final reflection on the “what,” “how,” and “who” of governance: what kind of public values do we want to incorporate into the design of the platform society, how do we do that, and who is responsible for doing so?
Epilogue
Authors: van José
Published: October 2018

The epilogue sketches a few scenarios on potential geopolitical consequences of the global paradigm shift toward multiple online platform “spheres.” Currently, the neoliberal US-based platform ecosystem dominates. This ecosystem revolves around the promotion of individualism and minimal state interference, leaving checks and balances to the market. On the other end of the ideological spectrum is the Chinese ecosystem, in which the autocratic regime controls the platform ecosystem via regulated censorship of tech corporations. Squeezed between the US and the Chinese models is the European Union, whose member states neither own nor operate any major platforms in either ecosystem. For European democracies to survive in the information age, its cities, national governments, and supranational legislature need to collaborate on a blueprint for a common digital strategy toward markets and public sectors.
The Birth of Ethics
Authors: Pettit Philip
Published: October 2018

The Birth of Ethics begins from a counterfactual world, Erewhon, where the residents are like us in various respects, including the use of natural language, but lack any sense of ethics or morality. The claim is that the inhabitants of that society would more or less inevitably develop certain practices and concepts, and that this development would effectively make them into moral creatures: agents versed in concepts like those of good and bad, right and wrong, and ready to apply them in assessing and regulating their own behavior and that of others. Anxious to establish their reputations with one another, they would use language to communicate their attitudes, making commitments not to prove misleading in the avowal of beliefs and desires, and in the pledging of intentions and actions. And as a result of doing that, they would inevitably evolve evaluative, regulative concepts like those of moral desirability and responsibility. This narrative, if persuasive, serves a number of important purposes. It naturalizes morality insofar as it explains how people could enter ethical space as a result of cumulative, naturalistically intelligible steps. It provides the basis for analyzing various moral concepts, since the referents of the concepts that emerge in Erewhon offer plausible candidates for the referents of our corresponding terms. And, finally, it gives morality a distinctive rationale and cast. The practices of commitment that the narrative places at the source of morality are associated with the practices, arguably, that make us persons: they require each of us to speak for a self that we invite others to rely on, and to organize our lives around that bespoken, beholden persona. Morality, in the emerging story, goes hand in hand with personhood in that sense; they are two sides of the one coin.
Introduction: The Guiding Ideas
Authors: Pettit Philip
Published: October 2018

H.L.A. Hart’s (1961) book The Concept of Law already caught my fancy as an undergraduate student in Ireland. It seemed to do more in illumination of its theme than most of the tomes in analytical, continental or scholastic philosophy to which I was introduced in a wonderfully idiosyncratic syllabus. What I attempt here, many years later, is guided by a desire to explore the possibility of providing for ethics and morality the sort of perspective that Hart gave us on the law....
Committing with Others
Authors: Pettit Philip
Published: October 2018

I will have the means of avowing the beliefs and desires of individual others as well as myself—and this, even if we are not organized in any way—insofar as I am authorized by them to do so or can presume successfully on their later authorization: on their not raising an objection. Conversation progresses on the assumption of such co-avowal, as we each manifestly endorse an increasing set of common attitudes, enabling any one of us to presume on the authorization of others to speak for what we all believe or want. And so, the motive for conversation explains the motive for co-avowal. We can have the confidence to make this sort of co-avowal insofar as we can presume on the common availability of certain data and desiderata and on our having broadly common dispositions to respond to these. I may also co-avow or co-pledge the intentions of individual others as well as myself but only in special circumstances; and I may co-avow or co-pledge the special intentions I hold jointly with others, whether within or without corporate bodies. But despite the importance of joint intentions, the focus here will be on the co-avowal of beliefs and desires alone.
Commentary on Philip Pettit’s The Birth of Ethics
Authors: Tomasello Michael
Published: October 2018

Philip Pettit begins his account of the evolution of morality with early human individuals reporting their experiences to others linguistically, and he maintains that language is a crucial and necessary part of the process throughout. The key is that there were social pressures on early humans to be honest in their reporting in order to maintain a good reputation. But informing others of things truthfully and helpfully is a cooperative social action that may be effected non-linguistically, for example, by pointing to relevant referential situations. And the reputation one creates by engaging in such behavior is not as a skillful language user but as a cooperative one: telling the truth only matters if it either helps or hinders the recipient in her behavioral decision-making. And so, Tomasello’s claim is that what is actually doing the work in Pettit's account is not language per se, but rather the cooperative intentions and social actions that underlie certain kinds of speech acts. This suggests the possibility of an account of the evolution of morality based not on language but on cooperation more generally.
Introduction
Authors: Heim Maria
Published: October 2018

This opening chapter introduces the fifth-century CE Buddhist scholar Buddhaghosa, and suggests how he can be read for his theory of text, his philological practice, and his distinctive philosophical contributions. Buddhaghosa was the chief commentator of the Pali tradition, and also composed his own substantial volume, the Visuddhimagga. Buddhaghosa’s theory of scripture and exegesis has different assumptions and aspirations than modern historicist philology, and the Introduction shows several examples of how these work. Canonical praises of the Buddha’s words (buddhavacana) were often taken by Buddhaghosa to indicate interpretative cues that commentators could use to draw out meaning. The Introduction also discusses the commentarial theory of the Buddha’s omniscience and its implications for interpreting scriptural infinity.
Scripture, Commentary, and Exegetical Distinctions
Authors: Heim Maria
Published: October 2018

This chapter shows how Buddhaghosa describes the three “genres” or areas of expertise that the Buddha taught: Suttanta, Abhidhamma, and Vinaya. It discusses Buddhaghosa’s interpretation of his school (Vibhajjavāda) as engaging in the practices of analysis. It then describes the chief commentarial building blocks that inform the rest of the book: Buddhaghosa’s distinctions between teachings stated briefly and in detail; the ideas of meaning and phrasing; how teachings can be rendered conventionally and in the furthest sense; definitive and interpretable statements; and contextual and categorical forms of the teaching. All of these are descriptions of the Buddha’s words that then provide interpretative cues for the commentator. The chapter explores how these distinctions can be learned from Buddhaghosa through following his examples and practices, rather than as a set of general principles of interpretation.
Disentangling the Tangle
Authors: Heim Maria
Published: October 2018

Chapter 4 argues that Buddhaghosa interpreted the Abhidhamma as a series of methods of analysis, oceanic and immeasurable in scope and practice. Its lists and formulas are distilled from the contextually embedded narrative contexts of the suttas, to provide, in an abstract form, the analytical practices to examine experience. Such lists and methods are, in principle and in practice, unending. This argument is counter to interpretations of Abhidhamma and Buddhaghosa that suggest that they be read as offering a metaphysics of irreducible reals or essences, and the chapter refutes these positions. It shows how the many phenomena listed in the Abhidhamma matrices operate in a modal and modular fashion as practical methods to help one to “know and see” within the therapeutic aims of the Buddhist path.
Conclusion
Authors: Heim Maria
Published: October 2018

The conclusion recapitulates the main arguments of the book, describing the argument that the Buddha’s qualities and omniscience were considered essential for Buddhaghosa’s theory of scripture and commentarial practice. It also restates claims made throughout the book about the importance of context, noting that the distinction between contextual knowledge as given in the Suttanta and the Vinaya is to be contrasted with the more categorical and abstract teachings of the Abhidhamma. The Conclusion also notes the importance of studying traditional commentarial theories of text, genre, and exegesis, and how these may differ from modern philological assumptions and theories. It suggests that Buddhaghosa has taught us how to read canonical texts and his own work as generatively expansive in the immeasurable unfolding of meaning and application of the Buddha’s teachings.
Philosophical Justifications of State Power over Immigration
Authors: Song Sarah
Published: October 2018

Chapter 3 turns to political theory to explore the normative foundations of the state’s power over immigration. It examines theories based on (1) the value of cultural and national identity, (2) the right to property, (3) freedom of association, and (4) freedom from unwanted obligations. The first three appeal to the value of collective self-determination. On the nationalist view, the fundamental imperative of immigration control is the preservation of culturally distinctive nations. The property argument derives the right of immigration control from the labor of citizens. The freedom-of-association argument regards citizens as parties to associations, such as marriage or a golf club, which have the right to refuse association with nonassociates. The freedom-from unwanted-obligations-argument does not directly engage with the idea of collective self-determination. I argue that each of these theories falls short of providing a convincing theory of state authority over immigration.
Does Justice Require Open Borders?
Authors: Song Sarah
Published: October 2018

Chapter 5 examines the global distributive justice argument for open borders. It challenges two key assumptions underlying this argument: (1) that global distributive justice requires global equality of opportunity and (2) that global distributive justice requires open borders. It argues that equality and justice are fundamentally relational ideals. Our particular relationships and institutional contexts matter for the types of distributive obligations we have. This does not mean we have no global obligations. The chapter examines different forms of global inequality and identifies circumstances where global inequality does constitute global injustice, but even in such cases, an open borders policy is a limited response. Alleviating global poverty is the major animating concern of the global distributive justice argument for open borders, but it is typically not the world’s poorest who migrate and the departure of a country’s more-skilled members tends to deepen, not alleviate, global inequality.
Discretionary Admissions
Authors: Song Sarah
Published: October 2018

Chapter 9 explores discretionary admissions, cases in which the decision to admit prospective migrants is not morally required because their basic interests are not threatened. In such cases, what kinds of reasons should inform public deliberation about whom to exclude and include? The chapter begins by considering temporary admissions programs, asking whether they are permissible or whether all migrants must be admitted on a permanent basis. It then assesses different criteria for excluding and selecting migrants for admission. The criteria of exclusion discussed include ones based on race and ethnicity, national security concerns, public health issues, and economic impacts. The criteria of admission considered include family ties, cultural affinity, protection of vulnerable cultural groups, and economic skills.
The Rights of Noncitizens in the Territory
Authors: Song Sarah
Published: October 2018

Chapter 10 considers what is owed to noncitizens already present in the territory of democratic countries. It focuses on three groups of noncitizens: those admitted on a temporary basis, those who have been granted permanent residence, and those who have overstayed their temporary visas or entered the territory without authorization. What legal rights are these different groups of noncitizens morally entitled to? How should their claims be weighed against the right of states to control immigration? The chapter argues that the longer one lives in the territory, the stronger one’s moral claim to a more extensive set of rights, including the right to remain. The time spent living in a place serves as a proxy for the social ties migrants have developed (social membership principle) and for their contributions to collective life (fair-play principle).
The Cartography of Culture Zones
Authors: Sykes Jim
Published: October 2018

This chapter criticizes the “cartography of culture zones”—the standard way cultural history is described in Sri Lanka—which locates traditional cultures in ethnically defined, regionally based culture zones. First, the chapter expands on the book’s previous exploration of Sinhala and Tamil musics by introducing the musics of Sri Lankan Muslims (an ethnic and religious category), Christians (a heterogenous religious category), Burghers (Eurasians), Kaffirs (Sri Lankans of African descent), and Väddas (the indigenous population). The chapter argues that scholars tend to adopt the European-derived idea that music belongs distinctly to humans with cultural histories rigidly demarcated along ethnic, religious, and regional lines. The chapter then traces histories of musical connection between Sri Lankan communities and culture zones. All the same, the chapter avoids debunking Sinhala Buddhist music as “Hindu” in character (a mistake of colonial era scholarship). The chapter respects difference while arguing for the importance in the Sri Lankan public sphere of recognizing connections.
The Counterstrategy Illustrated: Transnational Legal Process in Action
Authors: Koh Harold Hongju
Published: October 2018

This chapter illustrates how the counterstrategies of rope-a-dope and transnational legal process have played out since the start of the Trump Administration. The outside strategy of domestic litigation has been combined with other forms of external and internal pressure from many stakeholders in a wideranging effort to resist President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies, particularly the Travel Ban, or Muslim Ban. The chapter also describes the core strategy of internalized bureaucratic resistance to efforts to reimpose torture as an “enhanced interrogation tactic.” This counterstrategy, which gives meaning to the slogan “This is what democracy looks like,” will likely continue whether or not the Trump Administration successfully defends its immigration policies in the courts.
America’s Wars
Authors: Koh Harold Hongju
Published: October 2018

This chapter describes the various ways that using international law as smart power can help to bring an end to America’s wars. These include concluding the war against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State through a combination of hard and soft power, and reexamining the doctrine of humanitarian intervention (or Responsibility to Protect (R2P)) as a means of jumpstarting stalled diplomacy backed by force in Syria. Ending America’s Forever War would mean disengaging from America’s longest war in Afghanistan, finally closing Guantanamo, and narrowing and ultimately repealing two open-ended congressional Authorizations for Use of Military Force that have existed since 2001.
Epistemic Crisis
Authors: Benkler Yochai , Faris Robert , Roberts Hal
Published: October 2018

This chapter describes the contours of the epistemic crisis in media and politics that threatens the integrity of democratic processes, erodes trust in public institutions, and exacerbates social divisions. It lays out the centrality of partisanship, asymmetric polarization, and political radicalization in understanding the current maladies of political media. It investigates the main actors who used the asymmetric media ecosystem to influence the formation of beliefs and the propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere, and to manipulate political coverage during the election and the first year of the Trump presidency, , including “fake news” entrepreneurs/political clickbait fabricators; Russian hackers, bots, and sockpuppets; the Facebook algorithm and online echo chambers; and Cambridge Analytica. The chapter also provides definitions of propaganda and related concepts, as well as a brief intellectual history of the study of propaganda.
The Origins of Asymmetry
Authors: Benkler Yochai , Faris Robert , Roberts Hal
Published: October 2018

This chapter examines the origins of asymmetry in the American public sphere by charting the rise of second-wave right-wing media. Taking a political economy approach, this chapter investigates how institutions, politics, culture, and technology combine to explain why Rush Limbaugh, televangelism, and Fox News were able to emerge as mass media when they did, rather than remaining, as first-generation right-wing media after World War II had, small niche players. The chapter also considers how the emergence of the online right-wing media ecosystem followed the offline media ecosystem architecture because of the propaganda feedback loop. It shows that asymmetric polarization precedes the emergence of the internet and that even today the internet is highly unlikely to be the main cause of polarization, by comparison to Fox News and talk radio.
Spinoza’s Ethics
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

This chapter provides an introductory overview of Spinoza’s philosophy as expressed in his Ethics. It includes descriptions and analyses of his “rationalist” approach to philosophical understanding; his monistic substance/mode metaphysics and his naturalistic pantheism; his necessitarian account of the parallelism and identity between mind and body; his theory of the emotions and the universal striving for self-preservation; his ethical doctrines as expressed in propositions about virtue, reason, freedom, and the good; and his conceptions of blessedness, intellectual love, and the mind’s eternity. In doing so, it shows how each of these elements depends logically on those that come before it in the Ethics.
PostscriptArguments for God’s Existence Revisited
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

Chapter 2 (“Spinoza’s ‘Ontological’ Argument”) offers on Spinoza’s behalf (1) an argument against the existence of substances other than God (that is, substances of fewer-than-all attributes); and (2) an explanation of why no such substances exist. In his important 2002 article “Spinoza’s Substance Monism,” Michael Della Rocca offers on Spinoza’s behalf an alternate argument and an alternate explanation, both of which he claims better serve Spinoza’s purposes and better capture Spinoza’s intentions than those provided in chapter 2. After proposing three terminological clarifications (concerning “necessary existence” and “a priori”) and two substantive amendments to the argument of the chapter, this postscript rebuts those claims.
Truth, Method, and Correspondence in Spinoza and Leibniz
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

This chapter discusses Spinoza’s and Leibniz’s specific criticisms of Descartes’s use of his so-called “truth rule”—that is, the principle that whatever is perceived clearly and distinctly is true—and explores the relation of these criticisms to the two philosophers’ own conceptions of truth as requiring both the internal adequacy of ideas and the external correspondence of those ideas to their objects. One conclusion is that, for both Spinoza and Leibniz, the conception of truth as requiring internal adequacy of ideas explains their rejection of Descartes’s methodological skepticism. A second conclusion is that, for both philosophers, the problem of establishing that all ideas with internal adequacy must correspond with their objects can only be satisfactorily solved by embracing logical necessitarianism.
Spinoza’s Theory of Scientia Intuitiva
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

The Ethics distinguishes three kinds of cognition (cognitio): (1) opinion or imagination (opinion vel imaginatio); (2) reason (ratio), and (3) intuitive knowledge (scientia intuitiva). This chapter explains Spinoza’s theory of the highest and most desirable kind of cognition, scientia intuitiva, and, in doing so, it answers three puzzling but fundamental questions about it. First, what are the “essences” of attributes and of things on which scientia intuitiva is said to depend? Second, given that all cognition requires an “adequate” idea of an attribute of God, in Spinoza’s view, how does scientia intuitiva differ from the other two kinds of cognition? Third, can everything be known by scientia intuitiva, in Spinoza’s view, or are some truths beyond its reach?
Representation and Consciousness in Spinoza’s Naturalistic Theory of the Imagination
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

Margaret Wilson argued that Spinoza’s theory of mind cannot “recognize and take account of” such specific phenomena of human mentality as ignorance of many internal bodily states, representation of the external world, consciousness, and the expression of mentality in behavior. By resolving a set of puzzles about the scope, representational content, consciousness, and bodily expression of imagination more generally, this chapter defends Spinoza’s panpsychistic theory of mind against these objections. The key lies in understanding his theory of the imagination itself; his doctrines concerning a number of closely related topics such as inherence, intellect, confusion, conatus, perfection, and “power of thinking”; and what may be called his “incremental naturalism” that is, his guiding conviction that intentionality, desire, belief, understanding, and consciousness are already present in their most rudimentary forms throughout nature. The chapter argues that Spinoza identifies consciousness (conscientia), in its various degrees, with power of thinking (cogitandi potentia).
Representation, Misrepresentation, and Error in Spinoza’s Philosophy of Mind
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

Spinoza seems to commit himself to two implausible doctrines about representation: (1) that no idea can represent what is not the case and (2) that every idea of imagination represents a truly vast amount of what is or has been the case. This chapter examines the roles of confusion and causation in Spinoza’s theory of imaginative representation. In doing so, it uncovers a promising way in which he could use his distinctive conatus doctrine—that “each thing, insofar as it is in itself, strives to persevere in its being” (Ethics 3p6)—both to constrain the otherwise vast extent of the imaginative representation of what is and to explain how imaginative misrepresentation is possible.
“A Free Man Always Acts Honestly, not Deceptively”
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

Ethics 4p72 states: (1) “A free man always acts honestly, not deceptively.” It is also plausible to ascribe to him three further doctrines: (2) it is always good to act so as to best preserve one’s own being; (3) one can sometimes best preserve one’s own being by acting deceptively; and (4) it is never good to act contrary to the way in which the free man acts. Yet these four propositions taken together are inconsistent. This chapter argues that Spinoza accepts (1–3) but rejects (4), on the grounds that the actions that constitute the best actions to achieve a given ideal state are not always the same actions that one would perform if one were already in that ideal state.
Spinoza’s Ethical Theory
Authors: Garrett Don
Published: October 2018

This chapter analyzes Spinoza’s ethical theory in the context of his philosophical naturalism, his doctrine that the actual essence of each thing is its striving for self-preservation (conatus), and his psychology of the emotions as it concerns both “bondage to the passions” and the active emotions such as intellectual joy. It explains how Spinoza’s ethical precepts are expressed chiefly through demonstrated propositions about good and evil, virtue, the guidance of reason, and “the free man.” Particular attention is given to questions about (1) the meaning of ethical language, (2) the nature of the good, (3) the practicality of reason, (4) the role of virtuous character, (5) the requirements for freedom and moral responsibility (especially in light of his necessitarianism), and (6) the possibility and moral significance of altruism. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the significance of Spinoza’s ethical theory and its place in the history of ethics.
Perpetua’s Passio
Authors: Gold Barbara K.
Published: October 2018

This chapter discusses the text of Perpetua’s Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis: its authorship, date, authenticity, structure, genre, Latinity, manuscripts, and the later Acta, which are based on the earlier, longer version. A summary of the content of the twenty-one sections of the Passio is given, with attention to the three parts of the narrative. It also analyzes the language and meaning of Perpetua’s four visions or dreams and the words for “seeing” used throughout the text. Both the Latin and Greek manuscripts are discussed. The chapter includes a summary and analysis of the Acta, later and shorter versions of the Passio.
The Conditions of Martyrdom in the High Roman Empire
Authors: Gold Barbara K.
Published: October 2018

This chapter examines the conditions of martyrdom in the Roman empire; the distinctions between pagan and Christian martyrs; how frequent persecutions and martyrdoms really were; what the word “martyr” meant and how it evolved; the act of voluntary death, chosen death, or suicide; and the Christian as sufferer. It also discusses the earliest groups of Christian martyrs before Perpetua’s time (the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne and the Scillitan martyrs). It explores the kinds of punishment visited upon the martyrs and the physical, social, and conditions in the arena where power and spectacle were on display.
The Nachleben of Perpetua
Authors: Gold Barbara K.
Published: October 2018

This chapter explores the legacy of Perpetua and her text in later versions of the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis and in later authors, and the ways in which Perpetua was transformed according to the worldviews of the writers who wrote about her and molded her character. It first discusses the Acta (the later and shorter versions of Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis), then church writers such as Augustine, Quodvultdeus, and Notker. It explores the male characters in the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis with whom Perpetua interacts, writers up to our own day who have shaped and reshaped Perpetua’s character, behavior, and significance; and women as a site of feminized virility or virilized femininity.
Introduction
Authors: Holes Clive
Published: October 2018

This chapter outlines the scholarly background of the study of Arabic historical dialectology, and addresses the following issues: the early history of Arabic: myth and reality; the definition and exemplification of ‘Middle Arabic’ and ‘Mixed Arabic through history’; evidence for the early occurrence of certain Arabic dialectal features; examples of substrates and borrowing in Arabic dialects; the dialect geography of Arabic and its typology, especially the ‘sedentary’ and ‘bedouin’ divide; how and why dialects have undergone change, large-scale and small-scale, and the causative social factors; a classification of the typology of internal linguistic change in Arabic; causes of the social indexicalization of dialectal features of Arabic; examples of the pidginization and creolization of Arabic, and the reasons for the apparent rarity of this phenomenon.
The formation of the Egyptian Arabic dialect area
Authors: Behnstedt Peter , Woidich Manfred
Published: October 2018

This chapter deals with the sedentary dialects of Egypt, excluding the bedouin dialects of Sinai and the Libyan bedouin dialects on the Mediterranean coast. It attempts to combine historical information on the settlement of Arabic tribes in Egypt with accounts of present-day Egyptian dialects and those of the regions from which those tribes came, initially Yemen and the Levant, later Hejaz, and then the Maghreb. The diversity of the Egyptian Arabic dialect area is partly explained by external factors, namely different layers of arabization over centuries. It is also explained by internal factors, namely dialect contact, which implies phenomena such as hyperdialectisms. Egypt is seen as a dialect area in its own right, but one that shows phenomena of a transitional area between the Arab East and West. A case study of Alexandria deals with dialect death. The role of substrata is discussed, but is considered negligible.
The Northern Fertile Crescent
Authors: Prochazka Stephan
Published: October 2018

This chapter attempts to reconstruct the linguistic history of the Arabic dialects spoken in south-eastern Turkey and the northern parts of Syria and Iraq. This area is characterized by religious pluralism and by a high linguistic diversity. It can be seen as a transitional zone between the archaic Iraqi-Anatolian dialects and the more innovative Syrian sedentary and Arabian bedouin dialects. The chapter discusses both common features, and striking innovations shared by all or most dialects of the region. The latter in particular may indicate that the sedentary dialects spoken at the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent may have a common origin. Many dialects of the region exhibit a high degree of both preservation and generalization of old features. The region also stands out because of contact-induced innovations that are partly the result of the significant influences that Aramaic, Kurdish, and Turkish had and still have on the local Arabic varieties.
Historical and typological approaches to Mauritanian and West Saharan Arabic
Authors: Taine-Cheikh Catherine
Published: October 2018

Mauritania, a Muslim country the majority of whose population speaks Ḥassāniyya Arabic, is at the western edge of the Arabic-speaking world. At the birth of Islam, the western part of the Sahara was inhabited by Berbers, with Black African populations bordering their territories to the south and south-east. After the arrival of the Banī Maˤqil at the end of the thirteenth century, Arabic- and Berber-speaking groups coexisted more or less peacefully, the Arabic speakers achieving supremacy little by little, starting in the military and political sphere and ending with cultural and linguistic domination. But if the close contact between those groups made a deep impression on Zenaga Berber (resulting ultimately in its disappearance), Zenaga also contributed a number of its characteristics to the Ḥassāniyya Arabic dialect. This chapter reviews the different stages of Arabization and offers a historical reconstruction of Ḥassāniyya through an assessment of the features shared with other Arabic dialects.
South Arabian and Arabic dialects
Authors: Watson Janet
Published: October 2018

This chapter examines phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic data from a number of contemporary Arabic varieties spoken within historical Yemen—i.e. within the borders of current Yemen and up into southern ˁAsīr in Saudi Arabia—with (a) data from the Ancient South Arabian language, Sabaic; (b) what has been called ‘Ḥimyaritic’, as spoken during the early centuries of Islam; and (c) the Modern South Arabian languages, Mehri and Śḥerɛ̄t. These comparisons show a significant number of shared features. The density of shared features and the nature of sharing exhibited lead to the tentative suggestion that some of these varieties may be continuations of South Arabian with an Arabic overlay rather than Arabic with a South Arabian substratum.
Liberty
Authors: Dwan David
Published: October 2018

Freedom was Orwell’s great ‘hurrah-concept’. It is a key refrain of his journalism and the ultimate goal of much of his fiction. Yet all of his fictional bids for freedom end in failure and this raises questions about the tenability of the general concept. Orwell’s account of Swift—a man dedicated to ‘despising authority, while disbelieving in liberty’—easily rebounded on himself. This chapter sets out to explore what Orwell might have meant by freedom and why it remains such an elusive ideal in his work. It outlines his deep attraction to a negative ideal of liberty—involving a perfect absence of impediments or constraints—and the problems this produces in his politics. The pursuit of unfettered freedom would seem to clash with a range of goods and even connives against freedom itself.
Equality
Authors: Dwan David
Published: October 2018

‘The whole English-speaking world’, Orwell believed, ‘is haunted by the idea of human equality’. Orwell was convinced that the principle had never been properly realized, but he remained hopeful nevertheless: ‘equality is technically possible whatever the psychological difficulties may be’. The psychological difficulties may have been considerable, but the issues were also conceptual and semantic: people meant many things when they called for equality. Orwell’s own career testified to the ambiguity of the concept. The ‘democratic socialism’ he defended contained a ragbag of equalities—moral, political, and economic—and Orwell had significant trouble deciding which should take priority. This chapter shows how Orwell’s classic parable Animal Farm captures the dizzying complexity of equality as an ideal, emphasizing both its nobility and elusiveness.
Defining the child’s curriculum, and its role in the life of the community
Authors: Trevarthen Colwyn , Dunlop Aline-Wendy , Delafield-Butt Jonathan
Published: October 2018

We invited experts in early child development, education, and care to clarify issues of universal importance for the well-being of human worlds. They include teachers who appreciate that every child is born for a life of learning and needs to develop this in a community of joyful friendships to share its culture of arts and techniques. We address the difficulties of children and their families struggling to live in social deprivation or poverty when the administration and politics of an ambitious government are principally concerned with how industry makes wealth for a minority. Evidence we present demonstrates that leadership to address and support the creative abilities of all children and their families in their years before school is essential. Such leadership recognizes the importance of these abilities for the development of healthy, cooperative, and self-confident citizens who can secure the health of the community and benefit its economic productivity in a rich and peaceful world.
The importance of play
Authors: Bruce Tina
Published: October 2018

The importance of play demonstrates the challenges of pinning down the umbrella word ‘play’ against a backcloth of terminology that leads to fragmentation of the word. In the educational context an emphasis on the lighter side has developed, such as playfulness, which leaves the more serious side shaded with consequent underemphasis of the self-healing nature of early childhood play. To address these challenges, the focus of the chapter is on the importance of 12 features of play, which bring some solidarity and unity to the study and practice of play without forcing conformity of view. The influence of philosophy, theories, and the sustained impact of Froebelian approaches to play on government documents in the UK provides navigational tools for practitioners, supported by research evidence, giving status and articulating the importance of play.
Early human relations set the foundation for adult health and working life
Authors: Sinclair Alan , Baillie Tam
Published: October 2018

Investing in early years is close to magic, without being magic. The United Nations has given greater prominence to the early years through a General Comment on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Health research is gravitating to a view that adult physical and mental conditions have their origins in the womb and the earliest months and years of life. More than any other skills, employers want people who can talk, listen, and work with others: attributes that are largely picked up before school. Economists have demonstrated that the best return on investment in ‘education’ is in supporting parents and children, in the years before school. While evidence, analysis, and experience, which we review, points in one direction, it leads to three questions. Where are we now in child well-being and supporting parents and their very young children? Why are we not doing better? What can be done?
The courage of utopia
Authors: Duckett Robin , Reding Catherine
Published: October 2018

What can education look like, if we attend to the innate human spirits of enquiry, knowledge-making, and expression? In this chapter, so titled because we need to bring courage and vision to this task, we open a window into the living possibilities of an education rooted in the recognition that children are born vibrant, full of curiosity, with the desire to connect and construct meaning. We review professional experience and action in UK early childhood education over the past 30 years, which has been animated through eureka moments, risk, and work, and by connections with like-minded educators internationally. It is a journey of learning in itself, intended to be constructive, not compliant. If we—and you—are to make an education fit for children, we need to listen, think, and work together, with passion and humanity and with intelligence. Children do not have a second chance at childhood.