bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Logic of Information
Authors: Floridi Luciano 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This is a book on the logic of design and hence on how we make, transform, refine, and improve the objects of our knowledge. The starting point is that reality provides the data, to be understood as constraining affordances, and we transform them into information, like semantic engines. Such transformation or repurposing is not equivalent to portraying, or picturing, or photographing, or photocopying anything. It is more like cooking: the dish does not represent the ingredients, it uses them to make something else out of them, yet the reality of the dish and its properties hugely depend on the reality and the properties of the ingredients. Models are not representations understood as pictures, but interpretations understood as data elaborations, of systems. Thus, the whole book may also be read as an articulation and defence of the thesis that knowledge is design, and that philosophy is the ultimate form of conceptual design. This is the third volume in a tetralogy that includes The Philosophy of Information (OUP 2011) and The Ethics of Information (OUP 2013). The three volumes are all written as stand-alone, but they are complementary. By working like a hinge between the two previous books, this third one prepares the basis for volume four, on The Politics of Information. There, the epistemological, conceptual, and normative constructionism supports the study of the design opportunities we have in understanding and shaping what I like to call “the human project” in our information societies.
Philosophy as Conceptual Design
Authors: Floridi Luciano 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
Philosophy, understood as the study or science of open questions and their answers, becomes primarily a form of conceptual design. This is what we are going to see in this chapter, which offers an account and a defence of constructionism, both as a metaphilosophical approach and as a philosophical methodology, with some references to the philosophical tradition that has inspired it, the so-called ‘maker’s knowledge’ tradition. Here, we shall see that such constructionism needs to be reconciled with naturalism (recall that philosophy as conceptual design may be critical but also respectful of the best knowledge and reasonings we may have).
A Defence of Information Closure
Authors: Floridi Luciano 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
In this chapter, the principle of information closure (pic) is defined and defended against a sceptical objection similar to the one discussed by Dretske in relation to the principle of epistemic closure. If successful, given that pic is equivalent to the axiom of distribution and that the latter is one of the conditions that discriminate between normal and non-normal modal logics, one potentially good reason to look for a formalization of the logic of ‘S is informed that p’ among the non-normal modal logics, which reject the axiom, is also removed. This is not to argue that the logic of ‘S is informed that p’ should be a normal modal logic, but that it could still be, insofar as the objection that it could not be, based on the sceptical objection against pic, has been removed. In other words, this chapter argues that the sceptical objection against pic fails, so such an objection provides no ground to abandon the normal modal logic B (also known as KTB) as a formalization of ‘S is informed that p’, which remains plausible insofar as this specific obstacle is concerned.
The Logic of Design as a Conceptual Logic of Information
Authors: Floridi Luciano 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This final chapter outlines a logic of design of a system as a specific kind of conceptual logic of the design of the model of a system, that is, the blueprint that provides information about the system to be created. Section 1 uses the method of levels of abstraction to clarify that we have inherited from modernity two main conceptual logics of information understood as logics of modelling systems: Kant’s transcendental logic of conditions of possibility of a system, and Hegel’s dialectical logic of conditions of in/stability of a system. A logic of design is a third conceptual logic that is still missing and needs to be developed. Thus, section 3 outlines this third conceptual logic of information and then interprets the conceptual logic of design as a logic of requirements, by introducing the relation of ‘sufficientization’. In the conclusion, it is argued that the logic of requirements is exactly what we need to make sense of, and buttress, a constructionist approach to how we model systems informationally, that is, a shift from a representationalist (mimetic) to a constructionist (poietic) understanding of knowledge.
The Comparative Agendas Project
Authors: Walgrave Stefaan , Boydstun Amber E. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This chapter looks at what scholars of the CAP community have been interested in and working on during the last decade. What are CAP scholars actually doing with their data? Therefore, the study draws on a meta-analysis of the papers that have been presented at CAP conferences 2006–17. We analyze not only the type of agendas that have been examined, but also whether these analyses tried to grasp effects from one agenda on another, whether the data were comparative (more than one country), whether all issues and thus a general pattern was examined or rather a single (or a few) issues, which countries have been mostly looked at, and all that in a longitudinal perspective. Our meta-analysis suggests that CAP scholars are mostly interested in mainstream political science questions focusing on representation. They use agenda data to answer questions about power and about how politics reacts to societal changes and demands. A notable weakness is the small number of comparative studies; and, so far, inter-country comparison does not seem to be on the rise yet.
The Belgian Agendas Project
Authors: Walgrave Stefaan , Joly Jeroen , Sevenans Julie 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The Belgian Agendas Project started in 2001 and has been funded by four different research grants. Initially, the Belgian Project used a codebook other than the common CAP codebook widely used right now. The bulk of the data has been coded manually and now mostly covers the 1999–2010 period (with many datasets going back to earlier periods). A peculiarity of the Belgian data is the fact that it comes from two, largely separate political systems that ‘clash’ on the national level. Party and media systems, for example, are entirely separate. The Belgian media agenda is coded particularly extensively, as the Belgian team started from an interest in the media’s effect on politics. The Belgian team has also played a pioneering role in the party manifesto coding and the protest coding.
The Italian Agendas Project
Authors: Borghetto Enrico , Carammia Marcello , Russo Federico 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
Since the beginning of its Republican history, the Italian political system has functioned according to two rather different logics. From 1948 to 1994 the Christian Democratic Party was uninterruptedly in office, often in coalition, while the Communist Party remained the major opposition party. After the collapse of these parties, a new system based on the alternation between a centre-right and a centre-left coalition emerged. To date the Italian Policy Agendas Project has released six datasets covering party manifestos, parliamentary questions, investiture speeches, laws, decrees, and budgetary data. Through their analysis, it is possible to assess the elements of stability and change that characterized Italian politics since the mid-eighties as well as some recent evolutions such as the mediatization and personalization of politics, the crisis of mainstream parties, and the advent of anti-establishment and populist parties as key actors of the system.
The Dutch Policy Agendas Project
Authors: Timmermans Arco , Breeman Gerard 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The Dutch political system with its coalition governments, backed by a parliamentary majority and a strongly plural media system is mirrored in the datasets collected so far. The legislative process can be seen as the business of turning coalition intentions into bills, which become law in the majority of cases. Increasing sensitivity to issues attended to by the media and raised in parliamentary questions has influenced this policymaking machinery and led to sometimes drastic agenda changes during the term in office. This is visible in the annual speeches from the throne, in the way party think tanks address policy topics, and in the attention to problems given by advisory bodies of the government. An analysis of safety issues shows that attention cascades over different topics related to safety and impact on longer-term policy plans.
The Turkish Policy Agendas Project
Authors: Bulut Alper Tolga , Yildirim Tevfik Murat 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
How do politicians respond to the policy priorities of the public in developing democracies? Do policymakers take into account their electoral mandate during their tenure in parliament? How does the relationship between media and politics work in a country that has a history of authoritarianism? The Turkish Policy Agendas Project aims to answer questions similar to these by providing systematic institutional data. The project content codes various parliamentary activities such as parliamentary debates, oral and written questions, parliamentary bills and laws. It also includes budget data dating back to the founding of the Turkish Republic. This chapter explains the construction of the dataset from data collection to coding, describes its features, and provides examples of possible applications.
The UK Policy Agendas Project
Authors: Bevan Shaun , Jennings Will 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The UK Policy Agendas Project has collected a wide range of data on the policy agenda of major institutional venues in British politics and on the public and media agendas. This rich data source allows systematic and consistent analysis across institutions, and across countries, extending back over a century in the case of some agendas. The data provide measures of the policy agenda of the executive (the Speech from the Throne) and the legislature (Acts of UK Parliament), along with aggregate survey data about the public agenda (public opinion about the most important problem), media (front-page stories of The Times), Prime Minister’s Questions, and bills and hearings of the Scottish Parliament. Through its extensive collection of data, the project has enabled novel insights into the policy agenda of UK government, how it responds to shocks and external pressures, and how patterns of policy change and stability compare to other countries.
The US Policy Agendas Project
Authors: Eissler Rebecca , Jones Bryan D. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The US Policy Agendas Project studies the many outputs of the US national policy process, ranging from the formal institutions to mass public opinion and mood. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the US political system and the datasets that are currently collected and managed by the Project. These include media, interest-group, legislative, and executive activities, as well as spending data over many decades, typically since 1947. Finally, this chapter offers an illustrative example of how scholars can use the data to study attention in the policy process, by looking at attention to healthcare over time and different parts of the political system.
Agenda-Setting in the Florida Legislature
Authors: Fahey Kevin , Merle Patrick , Cornacchione Teresa , Weissert Carol 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The Florida? Policy Agendas Project was founded in?2014?to assess issue attention in the legislature and news media of Florida. Stemming from a multi-disciplinary approach, this project explores individual state legislators’ priorities in the policymaking process and how sub-national actors deviate from longstanding theories of national legislatures. A recent network analysis highlights the role of non-partisan networks in legislators’ agenda-setting. The relatively fixed nature of legislators and their districts promote stability in the legislative agenda. And the interdependence of legislators’ decisions helps explain the infrequent, but rapid shifts in the agenda; occasionally the decisions of a few legislators will reverberate throughout the network, creating a cascade of attention to new topics. Our work helps explain when those transformative shifts are likely to occur. The project is managed exclusively at Florida State University.
Pennsylvania Policy Database Project
Authors: Jennings Jay , Kasparek Stefanie , McLaughlin Joseph 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The Pennsylvania Policy Database Project is the first sub-national digital archive within the Comparative Agendas Project. It provides a wide range of government documents, public opinion records, and media data going back as far as 1979. This chapter provides a historical overview and the general political context to the government system of Pennsylvania. In addition to the information available at the Comparative Agendas Project websites, the Pennsylvania Policy Database Project website maintains further extensive supplementary datasets on Pennsylvania. To provide an example of how this data can be used, the chapter concludes with an analysis of drinking water safety records and how this policy area relates to natural gas fracking policies in Pennsylvania.
Protest and Agenda-Setting
Authors: Walgrave Stefaan , Vliegenthart Rens 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This chapter discusses the relevance of the protest agenda; it is an indicator of what active segments of the public care about. The literature about the agenda-impact of protest is briefly reviewed, there are few systematic and comparative studies. Almost all protests have as an aim to increase political attention to the underlying issue. But studies examining this agenda effect have come to mixed conclusions. The chapter then explores the CAP protest data from a comparative perspective. It looks into the overall similarity of the protest agenda in six countries, and it examines whether the same issues gain protest attention at the same time.
Horizontal and Vertical Attention Dynamics
Authors: Breeman Gerard , Timmermans Arco 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This chapter presents an empirical analysis of rises and falls in attention to environmental issues on the political agendas of four EU member states (Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and show how the pattern is affected by a multilevel dynamic and an issue competition dynamic with other policy issues. European environmental policymaking is a multilevel game and thus we study and link policy agendas at the EU member state level with the European Union level. The attention to the environment, however, is also seriously affected by issue competition dynamics with other topics—especially with the economy. We conclude that political attention for environmental policies is sensitive to cyclic attention patterns, and that attention to the environment in the Netherlands and Denmark is more affected by the issue-competition dynamic, whereas in Spain and the United Kingdom more by the multilevel dynamic.
‘In Corona Populi’
Authors: Kesselring K.J. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
Chapter 2 examines the coroner’s inquest, asking how homicides become known and categorized, and how this changed over the period. Coroners held an office that dated from the late twelfth century, but one freshly charged from around 1487, when statutes sought to press the coroners to action through fees and fines. The coroners’ determinations of the nature of a sudden death, in early years, focused on the financial incidents owed to the king. Over time, financial interests in a killing became more diffuse and the king’s interests became more expansively understood. The active intervention of the Privy Council and the Court of Star Chamber helped police the efforts of inquests. The mix of lay participation and central oversight gave the early modern inquest a special flavour. Coroners’ inquests came to be seen as serving not just the king’s interest and the king’s peace, but something conceived as public justice.
‘An Image of Deadly Feud’
Authors: Kesselring K.J. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
Chapter 3 turns to the history of private satisfaction-seeking, or feuding, and focuses on compensation for homicide. It shows that payments continued longer than we might have thought. When such compensation served as a means to bypass legal sanctions, it hindered the successful imposition of the king’s peace, let alone any emerging notion of a public peace. Mediated through the ancient mechanism of the appeal, however, compensation continued into the sixteenth century and beyond, thanks in part to the needs and actions of victims’ widows. But appeals did decline over the early modern period. Here, too, a statute of 1487 played a part, as did the uses judges made of the new manslaughter verdict. Judges and others derided appeals as ‘suits of revenge’, tainted by association with the feud and an approach to peace-making and satisfaction-seeking that had less and less legitimacy as public justice came to supersede private interests.
Religion and the Philosophy of Life
Authors: Flood Gavin 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This book considers how religion as the source of civilization transforms the fundamental bio-sociology of humans through language and the somatic exploration of religious ritual and prayer. It offers an integrative account of the nature of the human, based on what contemporary scientists tell us, especially evolutionary science and social neuroscience, as well as through the history of civilizations. Part I contemplates fundamental questions and assumptions: the current state of knowledge concerning life itself, the philosophical issues in that understanding, and how we can explain religion as the driving force of civilizations in the context of human development within an evolutionary perspective. Part II offers a reading of religions in three civilizational blocks—India, China, and Europe/the Middle East—particularly as they came to formation in the medieval period. It traces the history of how these civilizations have thematized the idea of life itself. It then takes up the idea of a life force in Part III and traces the theme of the philosophy of life through to modern times. On the one hand, the book presents a narrative account of life itself through the history of civilizations and, on the other, it presents an explanation of that narrative in terms of life.
Sacrifice
Authors: Flood Gavin 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
The affirmation of life through a culture of hunting was a major element in early human practices, but with the Neolithic farming revolution, we have new modes of producing food and new kinds of societies that could be much larger; the first urban landscapes beginning to appear in places such as Jericho, along with the emergence of religion characterized by sacrifice. While the origins of sacrifice are obscure, sacrifice is a category central to our understanding of religion and of human cultural life generally. Sacrifice has had a central place in the history of civilizations as an attempt at human self-repair and bringing people into a fullness of life, attempting to fulfil the desire for life itself and to go beyond death.
The Sacrificial Imaginary
Authors: Flood Gavin 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This chapter examines the vitalism entailed in Vedic sacrifice, the Axial transformation of that theme in the Upaniṣads, and the philosophies that attempted to categorize and analyse life into specific components. Finally, we will see how a full philosophy of life comes to articulation in the tantric traditions. All these modes of thinking and practice were deeply concerned about offering repair, correcting ignorance and giving relief from the constant suffering entailed by life, and the desire for life that has so often been negatively evaluated in this history. The chapter examines the earliest sources that articulate some understanding of the category of life itself in terms of sacrifice, namely the Vedic scriptures, and goes on to discuss medieval Brahmanism, the tantric traditions, and modernity.
Philosophies of Life
Authors: Flood Gavin 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
On the one hand, we have the development of science from the seventeenth to nineteenth century, while on the other, we have a focus on life in philosophy at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Here, life is understood in terms of nature as a dynamic process linked to impulse or drive. Partly stemming from a mystical discourse in the seventeenth century, the concern for life comes to be disseminated through the history of both Romantic poetry and Romantic philosophy. This vitalist spirit can be traced through to the twentieth century. Life itself comes to be articulated through a mystical theological discourse that ends in Romantic poetry and through a philosophical discourse that ends in phenomenology.
Spenser, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the Decline of the Preacher’s Plough
Authors: Mottram Stewart 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
This chapter focuses on Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender (1579) and View of the Present State of Ireland (c.1598), showing how both use the language of medieval rural complaint to attack greed among the protestant owners of former monastic lands. Beginning with the Calender’s September eclogue, the chapter brings new evidence to bear on previous identifications of the shepherd, Diggon Davie, with the Elizabethan bishop of St David’s, Richard Davies, tracing the influence of Davies’s Funeral Sermon (1577) for Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, into Diggon’s language in ‘September’. The language of medieval complaint had blamed unscrupulous abbots for enclosing ploughlands, but in his own writing, Richard Davies argues that post-dissolution landowners were having an even more detrimental impact on the religious life of rural Wales, not only refusing to free up former monastic lands for ploughing but also hindering the work of the ‘church-ploughing’ preacher, because refusing to pay preaching ministers a proper wage. The chapter shows how Spenser uses the pseudo-Chaucerian Plowman’s Tale to turn Davies’s local response to the situation in St David’s diocese into a general complaint against unscrupulous farmers of church livings across England and Wales. It concludes by exploring Spenser’s similar attitude in A View towards Adam Loftus and other protestant farmers of church livings in late Elizabethan Ireland, arguing that Spenser here evokes the ruins of churches and monasteries in order to return to his comments in The Shepheardes Calender on the greed of post-dissolution landowners and their neglect of the preacher’s plough.