_A moving meditation on recent geopolitical crises, viewed through the lens of ancient and modern tragedy__ “Spare, elegant and poignant.... If there is a single contemporary book that should be pressed into the hands of those who decide issues of war and peace, this is it.”—John Gray, _New Statesman_ “It is tragic that Robert D. Kaplan’s luminous _The Tragic Mind_ is so urgently needed.”—George F. Will_ Some books emerge from a lifetime of hard-won knowledge. Robert D. Kaplan has (...) learned, from a career spent reporting on wars, revolutions, and international politics in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, that the essence of geopolitics is tragedy. In _The Tragic Mind_, he employs the works of ancient Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, German philosophers, and the modern classics to explore the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence, and the mistakes of power. The great dilemmas of international politics, he argues, are not posed by good versus evil—a clear and easy choice—but by contests of good versus good, where the choices are often searing, incompatible, and fraught with consequences. A deeply learned and deeply felt meditation on the importance of lived experience in conducting international relations, this is a book for everyone who wants a profound understanding of the tragic politics of our time. (shrink)

The return of STS to its historical roots / Baird Callicott -- Phil-tech meets eco-phil / Don Idhe -- Is technology use insidious? / Kyle Whyte, Ryan Gunderson, Brett Clark -- Resistance to risky technologies / Paul Thompson -- Remediation technologies and respect for others / Ben Hale -- Early geoengineering governance / Clare Heyward -- Design for sustainability / Ibo van de Poel -- Industrial ecology and environmental design / Braden Allenby -- Ecodesign in the era of symbolic consumption (...) / Zhang Wei -- Do we consume too much? / Mark Sagoff -- Sustainable technologies for sustainable lifestyles / Philip Brey -- Sustainable animal agriculture and environmental virtue ethics / Raymond Anthony -- Technology, responsibility, and meat / Wyatt Galusky. (shrink)

Food is a challenging subject. There is little consensus about how and what we should produce and consume. It is not even clear what food is or whether people have similar experiences of it. On one hand, food is recognized as a basic need, if not a basic right. On the other hand, it is hard to generalize about it given the wide range of practices and cuisines, and the even wider range of tastes. This book is an introduction to (...) the philosophical dimensions of food. David M. Kaplan examines the nature and meaning of food, how we experience it, the social role it plays, its moral and political dimensions, and how we judge it to be delicious or awful. He shows how the different branches of philosophy contribute to a broader understanding of food: what food is (metaphysics), how we experience food (epistemology), what taste in food is (aesthetics), how we should make and eat food (ethics), how governments should regulate food (political philosophy), and why food matters to us (existentialism). Kaplan embarks on a series of philosophical investigations, considering topics such as culinary identity and authenticity, tasting and food criticism, appetite and disgust, meat eating and techno-foods, and consumerism and conformity. He emphasizes how different narratives help us navigate the complex world of food -- yet we all have responsibilities to ourselves, to others, and to animals. An original treatment of a timely subject, Food Philosophy is suitable for undergraduates while making a significant contribution to scholarly debates. (shrink)

The first book-length treatment of Paul Ricoeur's conception of philosophy as critical theory.

Qu'est-ce que la vérité? F. Kaplan tente de faire un examen exhaustif de toutes les théories, non seulement soutenues, mais concevables, pour répondre à cette question, ainsi que de tous les arguments et de toutes les critiques qu'on a ou qu'on aurait pu apporter pour soutenir ou réfuter ces théories. Pour spécialistes.

This chapter contains section titled: Introduction: What is Phenotypic Plasticity? Developmental Conversion and Developmental Sensitivity: Two Forms of Phenotypic Plasticity Environmental Heterogeneity, Cues, and Plasticity Phenotypic Plasticity and Developmental Buffering The Future of Phenotypic Plasticity Research Acknowledgments References Further Reading.

In this theological essay, Grant Kaplan revisits the key figures and debates that shape how faith and reason relate. Divided into three parts, Kaplan invites readers into a conversation that has helped to shape Christianity and modern civilization. Readers will encounter the words and arguments of some of Christianity's greatest thinkers, some well-known (Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Newman) and others nearly forgotten. Readings of these fifty figures bring them to life in an accessible manner for a range of audiences: (...) theologians and philosophers, instructors, graduate students, seminarians, lay study groups, and undergraduate theology majors. Rather than simply summarizing their thought, Kaplan traces their arguments through key texts. (shrink)

The focus of this article is community supported agriculture (CSA) as an alternative food movement and a bottom-up response to the problems of the dominant food systems. By utilizing social innovation approach that explores the relationship between causes for human needs and emergence of socially innovative food initiatives, the article examines how the CSA projects emerge and why, what is their innovative role as part of the social economy and what is their transformative potential. Based on qualitative data from four (...) different models of CSA case studies in different regions of Wales, UK, and by using concepts from an alternative model for social innovation (ALMOLIN) as analytical tool, the article demonstrates that the Welsh CSA cases play distinctive roles as part of the social economy. They satisfy the needs for ecologically sound and ethically produced food, grown within communities of like-minded people and they empower individuals and communities at micro level, while at the same time experiment with how to be economically sustainable and resilient on a small scale. The paper argues that in order to become ‘workable utopias’, the CSA initiatives need to overcome the barriers that prevent them from replicating, participating in policies and decision-making at macro level, and scaling up. (shrink)

Contemporary philosophy is torn between a reliance on the pragmatic meanings of designated objects and a foundation based on formal theory. This book shows that philosophical knowledge, which no more has a terminal state than an infinite set has a last term, advances when the dialectical relationship between the two approaches is synthesized. The choice of designations is intimately related to theory and the form of theory is intimately related to the character of designated objects. The intimate dialectical relationship between (...) theory and meaning is explored in detail in the area of international theory. The recent emphasis on realism rests on a regressive misunderstanding of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice that loses Newton's acute understanding of it, an understanding that underlies the great advances of physics, and that is lost in the contemporary social sciences. (shrink)

Faith and Islam -- Honesty and veracity -- Belief in God -- Generosity and contentment -- Belief in the angels -- Fairness, selflessness and mercy -- Belief in divine books -- Friendship, hypocrisy and jealousy -- Belief in the Prophets -- Sincerity and patience -- Belief in the hereafter -- Backbiting and sinful suspicion -- Belief in divine destiny -- Humility tolerance and politeness -- Ablution and the daily prayers -- Seriousness, piety and dignity -- Prayer -- Respect to parents (...) and maintaining the bonds of kinship -- Fasting -- Secrecy and constultation -- Prescribed purifying alms and charity -- Distinction of the lawful and unlawful, loyalty and fidelity -- The major and minor pilgrimage -- Justice, chastity and modesty. (shrink)

The strong focus seen on »culture«, as it describes itself or is described, has lead to critical reflection on the term's ubiquitous use. In the current article various forms of »culturalisation« are traced and put in the context of a wider diagnosis of time, based on the example of the treatment of Muslim immigrants. Thereby, both the attribution of a collective identity and governmental strategies for the construction of an accountable Muslim community are examined. On the other hand, the attribution (...) of a collective identity can be included in a modern theoretical programme that perceives the integration of a minority to be a cultural task. Finally, culturalisation arises, being explicitly used as a strategic argument in the interpretation of conflict insofar as it points out the »societal« causes of problem as an alternative to putting the emphasis on cultural origin. (shrink)

Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund kommen im Zuge des demografischen Wandels zunehmend in ein Alter, in dem die Wahrscheinlichkeit, pflegebedürftig zu werden, steigt. Insbesondere Demenzerkrankungen in vorangeschrittenen Stadien führen zu hochgradiger Pflegebedürftigkeit, die eine ausschließlich häusliche Pflege durch Angehörige erschwert. Aktuellen Untersuchungen zufolge werden Pflegebedürftige mit Migrationshintergrund jedoch zumeist zu Hause ausschließlich durch Familienangehörige gepflegt und es werden nahezu keine ambulanten Hilfen in Anspruch genommen. Die geringe Inanspruchnahme von ambulanten und stationären Angeboten ist zurückzuführen auf unzureichende Information und die vom Pflegesystem unzureichende (...) Berücksichtigung der Pflegesituation und -bedürfnisse dieser heterogenen Bevölkerungsgruppe. Auch das Verständnis der Demenzerkrankung ist in unterschiedlichen Kulturen heterogen. So wird die Krankheit häufig nicht als solche akzeptiert, sondern die Symptome als „gewöhnliche“ Alterserscheinungen interpretiert, wodurch die Inanspruchnahme ärztlicher Versorgung erst spät erfolgt. Diese Faktoren führen im medizinischen und pflegerischen Alltag häufig zu ethischen Konflikten zwischen pflegenden Angehörigen und Professionellen, aber auch innerhalb des familiären Kontextes. Der Artikel stellt, ausgehend von zentralen Ergebnissen einer empirischen Studie, ethische Konflikte bei der Versorgung demenzerkrankter türkeistämmiger Menschen in Deutschland anhand von zwei Fallbeschreibungen dar. Die ethischen Herausforderungen an das ärztliche und pflegerische Handeln im stationären und häuslichen Setting bei demenzerkrankten Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund werden erörtert. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit diese Konflikte auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen „kulturalisiert“ werden und welche Implikationen sich für die Medizin- und Pflegeethik ergeben. (shrink)

As healthcare institutions expand and vertically integrate, healthcare delivery is less constrained by geography, nationality, or even by institutional boundaries. As part of this trend, some aspects of the healthcare process are shifted from medical centers back into the home and communities. Telehealth applications intended for health promotion, social services, and other activitiesprovide services outside clinical settings in homes, schools, libraries, and other governmental and community sites. Such developments include health information web sites, on-line support groups, automated telephone counseling, interactive (...) health promotion programs, and electronic mail exchanges. Concomitant with these developments is the growth of consumer health informatics, in which individuals seeking medical care or information are able to find various health information resources that take advantage of new information technologies. (shrink)

Phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI 3-kinase) is an important enzyme that is involved in the regulation of a variety of biological processes such as apoptosis, cell division, and ion channel activity and can play a role in the pathological development of a number of diseases, including AIDS and cancer. The authors’ data indicate that external qi of Yan Xin Life Science Technology (YXLST) can modulate enzyme activity in two directions. Within a time window of 3 days of the initial emission of (...) external qi of YXLST, PI 3-kinase activity was restored in an outdated enzyme sample that had lost activity, and PI 3-kinase activity was suppressed in a freshly purified sample relative to an untreated control sample so that its activity was nearly undetectable. The data presented are consistent with the hypothesis that external qi of YXLST can alter molecular events. The uniqueness of this and other observations mandates further study. (shrink)

The current study is designed to propose and test a model about the ethical reputation of a target manager who must decide whether to engage in earnings management. We employ an experimental approach to examine the potential negative reputation effects within the internal labor market of a firm that occur as a consequence of earnings management. We examine participants’ responses to a hypothetical (target) manager when both the target’s behavior and the corporate incentives were manipulated. Participants assessed how ethical they (...) believed a target manager to be, based on the target’s decision regarding earnings management and the nature of the corporate incentives. Participants also assessed the target’s managerial ability. Participants’ judgments regarding the target’s morality were significantly affected by the target’s behavior, but were not affected by the incentive structure. Ability judgments were significantly and positively related with morality assessments. Further analysis indicates that morality assessments mediate the relationships between the target’s behavior and the participants’ willingness to extend work-related opportunities to the target. Implications of these results for management control systems design and for future research are discussed. (shrink)

Completeness is an important but misunderstood norm of explanation. It has recently been argued that mechanistic accounts of scientific explanation are committed to the thesis that models are complete only if they describe everything about a mechanism and, as a corollary, that incomplete models are always improved by adding more details. If so, mechanistic accounts are at odds with the obvious and important role of abstraction in scientific modelling. We respond to this characterization of the mechanist’s views about abstraction and (...) articulate norms of completeness for mechanistic explanations that have no such unwanted implications. _1_ Introduction _2_ A Balancing Act: When Do Details Matter? _3_ The Norms of Causal Explanation _4_ The Norms of Constitutive Explanation _5_ Salmon-Completeness _6_ From More Details to More Relevant Details _7_ Non-explanatory Virtues of Abstraction _8_ From Explanatory Models to Explanatory Knowledge _9_ Mechanistic Completeness Reconsidered _10_ Conclusion. (shrink)