Men think in terms of models. Their sense organs abstract the events which touch them; their memories store traces of these events as coded symbols; and they may recall them according to patterns which they learned earlier, or recombine them in patterns that are new. In all this, we may think of our thought as consisting of symbols which are put in relations or sequences according to operating rules. Both symbols and operating rules are acquired, in part directly from interaction (...) with the outside world, and in part from elaboration of this material through internal recombination. Together, a set of symbols and a set of rules may constitute what we may call a calculus, a logic, a game or a model. Whatever we call it, it will have some structure, i.e., some pattern of distribution of relative discontinuities, and some “laws” of operation. (shrink)

Most people believe that everything happens for a reason. Whether it is “God’s will,” “karma” or “fate,” we want to believe that an overarching purpose undergirds everything, that nothing in the world--especially a disaster or tragedy--is a random, meaningless event. This dilemma presents itself provocatively in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that, in the conventional scientific understanding, is driven by random chance. Reconciling chance and divine purpose poses challenges to the Judeo-Christian tradition. But the Hebrew Scriptures, in the ancient and (...) powerful story of Job, reveal that questions of purpose and order have long been a part of the conversation. Although the Bible generally affirms that God blesses the righteous in an orderly way, the story of Job is a powerful counterexample to this orderly scheme. The achingly beautiful but tragic story of Job, in concert with the modern quantum picture of the world, push back against the idea that “everything happens for a reason.”. (shrink)

God's action in the world poses a challenge for the Christian scholar. At the scholarly level of one's discipline, invocations of divine Providence as an explanatory category are considered unacceptable. Yet the scholar-believer necessarily acknowledges that God is indeed active in His Creation. Generally, this tension is resolved via the assumption of methodological naturalism at the level of one's discipline and the embrace of theism at the level of one's faith. This can result in an incoherence between the commitments of (...) one's discipline and one's faith. Yet both theology and physics suggest that this tension may be relieved somewhat by acknowledging that the physical universe is no longer understood to be closed to the possibility of divine action. Consequently, Christian historians may want to reconsider the value of Providence as an explanatory category. (shrink)

The Anthropic Principle suggests that the universe may have been designed for human life. This anthropocentric, anti-Copernican, notion elicits a variety of responses from scientists, including some elaborate attempts to invalidate it by trying to show that there may be an infinity of alternative universes. These attempts may be challenged as unreasonably speculative and presumptive. What emerges is the suggestion that cosmology may at last be in possession of some raw material for a postmodern creation myth. If the Anthropic Principle (...) can be integrated with biological explanations of human origins, and the result joined to the traditional Biblical Creation story, what emerges is a possible recovery of a religiously traditional, yet scientifically coherent, creation story for our generation. (shrink)

This paper uses two techniques to build a socially responsible portfolio of U.S. equities and examines prospective performance using publicly available data. The first technique eliminates stocks from consideration using categorical exclusions with a restrictive Environment, Social and Governance screen. The paper shows that stocks surviving the screen have a significantly higher average projected Value Line alpha and are more likely to have a Morningstar 5-star rating. Using categorical exclusions, however, introduces a sector bias in that the ESG screen is (...) more likely to restrict stocks from the manufacturing sector than the service sector. The second technique does not introduce a sector bias because it uses a best-in-class optimization approach in place of screening. The paper introduces a linear programming model called Data Envelopment Analysis to the application of SRI portfolio development to find the best financially and socially performing companies within each industry sector. When compared to a categorical exclusions portfolio, a DEA portfolio is rated significantly higher by Morningstar and Value Line. Depending on the specific needs of a socially responsible investor, the DEA technique could be a better tool in developing a financially and socially balanced equity portfolio. (shrink)

This work represents a linguistic excursion into the “spatial conflict” field—defined here as a “theatre of war” or more precisely “technocratic security model” that intersects with the “lives of i...

This timely work provides the fullest account to date of “agnotology”—the study of ignorance—and how much of this ignorance is produced by science whether intended or unintended.1 Whether it be glo...

Volume 27, Issue 7-8, November-December 2022.

Volume 25, Issue 4, June 2020, Page 475-480.

An Imperial State at War: Britain from 1689 to 1815. Edited by Lawrence Stone (London: Routledge, 1994), 374 pp., £40.00 cloth.

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 393-398, June 2012.

In this provocative, insightful challenge to contemporary U.S. military performance, Dr. Donald Stoker argues that America endures needlessly prolonged, if not inconclusive, wars because its leader...

Sir Herbert Butterfield was one of the leading British historians of the twentieth century. A diplomatic historian by training, he branched out into a variety of fields including historiography, the history of science and international theory. The International Thought of Sir Herbert Butterfield brings together material from Butterfield's previously unpublished papers and a critical commentary from two leading Butterfield scholars: Sharp and Schweizer. They recover Butterfield's contribution to international thought, particularly his role as a founding member of the British Committee (...) on the theory of international politics (also known as the English School). (shrink)

The traditional conception and validation of state identity, if not legitimacy, has in recent decades, so argues Jason Royce Lindsey, undergone profound alterations in response to novel transformat...

A notable development in world politics today is the increasing unpredictability of state behavior—a dynamic producing various patterns of uncertainty, chronic anxiety and escalation that increase...

In this innovative work, Gustav Kuhn offers the first coherent attempt to explore the psycho-neurological processes underlying the experience of magic, utilizing scientific precepts to provide intr...

The present work explores what is distinctive about science by analyzing the nature of scientific knowledge within a wider than conventional framework: broadening the focus on “physical science” to...