In relativistic classical and quantum mechanics with Poincaré-invariant parameter, particle worldlines are traced out by the evolution of spacetime events. The formulation of a covariant canonical framework for the evolving events leads to a dynamical theory in which mass conservation is demoted from a priori constraint to the status of conserved Noether current for a certain class of interactions. In pre-Maxwell electrodynamics—the local gauge theory associated with this framework —events induce five local off-shell fields, which mediate interactions between (...) instantaneous events, not between the worldlines which represent entire particle histories. The fifth field, required to compensate for dependence of gauge transformations on the evolution parameter, enables the exchange of mass between particles and fields. In the equilibrium limit, these pre-Maxwell fields are pushed onto the zero-mass shell, but during interactions there is no mechanism regulating the mass that photons may acquire, even when event trajectories evolve far into the spacelike region. This feature of the off-shell formalism requires the application of some ad hoc mechanism for controlling the photon mass in two opposite physical domains: the low energy motion of a charged event in classical Coulomb scattering, and the renormalization of off-shell quantum electrodynamics. In this paper, we discuss a nonlocal, higher derivative correction to the photon kinetic term, which provides regulation of the photon mass in a manner which preserves the gauge invariance and Poincaré covariance of the original theory. We demonstrate that the inclusion of this term is equivalent to an earlier solution to the classical Coulomb problem, and that the resulting quantum field theory is renormalized. (shrink)

Despite the many successes of the relativistic quantum theory developed by Horwitz et al., certain difficulties persist in the associated covariant classical mechanics. In this paper, we explore these difficulties through an examination of the classical. Coulomb problem in the framework of off-shell electrodynamics. As the local gauge theory of a covariant quantum mechanics with evolution paratmeter τ, off-shell electrodynamics constitutes a dynamical theory of ppacetime events, interacting through five τ-dependent pre-Maxwell potentials. We present a straightforward (...) solution of the classical equations of motion, for a test event traversing the field induced by a “fixed” event (an event moving uniformly along the time axis at a fixed point in space). This solution is seen to be unsatisfactory, and reveals the essential difficulties in the formalism at the classical levels. We then offer a new model of the particle current—as a certain distribution of the event currents on the worldline—which eliminates these difficulties and permits comparison of classisical off-shell electrodynamics with the standard Maxwell theory. In this model, the “fixed” event induces a Yukawa-type potential, permitting a semiclassical identification of the pre-Maxwell time scale λ with the inverse mass of the intervening photon. Numerical solutions to the equations of motion are compared with the standard Maxwell solutions, and are seen to coincide when λ≳10−6 seconds, providing an initial estimate of this parameter. It is also demonstrated that the proposed model provides a natural interpretation for the photon mass cut-off required for the renormalizability of the off-shell quantum electrodynamics. (shrink)

In the framework of off-shell quantum electrodynamics—the quantum field theory of a covariant symplectic mechanics, in which events evolve according to a Poincaré-invariant parameter τ—we study the low-energy scattering of identical scalar particles. It is shown that exchange of mass is permitted in the formalism, and we calculate scattering cross-sections for this case. In these cross-sections, the usual forward pole of the standard scalar QED splits into two poles and a zero, slightly offset from the forward direction. As (...) mass exchange vanishes, a pole-zero pair cancel, the remaining pole moves to θ = 0, and the standard cross-section is recovered. (shrink)

We explore certain difficulties in the covariant classical mechanics associated with off-shell electrodynamics, through an examination of the classical Coulomb problem. We present a straightforward solution of the classical equations of motion for a test event traversing the field induced by a “fixed” event (an event moving uniformly along the time axis at a fixed point in space). This solution reveals the essential difficulties in the formalism at the classical level. We then offer a new model of the (...) particle, as a certain distribution of events on the worldline, which eliminates these difficulties and permits comparison of classical off-shell electrodynamics with the standard Maxwell theory In this model, the “fixed” event induces a Yukawa-type potential, permitting a semiclassical identification of the pre-Maxwell time scale λ with the inverse mass of the intervening photon. Numerical solutions to the equations of motion are compared with the standard Maxwell solutions—they are seen to coincide when λ > 10–6 sec, providing an initial estimate of this parameter. (shrink)

It is shown that an approach to quantum phenomena in which charged particles are treated as macroscopically extended periodic disturbances in a nonlinear c-number field, interacting with each other via massless excitations of that field, leads almost uniquely to the five basic equations of classical electrodynamics: the Lorentz force law and Maxwell's equations. The fundamental electromagnetic quantity in this approach is the 4-vector potential Aα—interpreted absolutely as a measure of the local shift of each particle off its mass (...) class='Hi'>shell—rather than theE andB fields, and it thus provides a new viewpoint on the questions of Aharonov-Bohm phase shifts, the existence of magnetic monopoles, and the role of gauge invariance. (shrink)

We explore certain difficulties in the covariant classical mechanics associated with off-shell electrodynamics, through an examination of the classical Coulomb problem. We present a straightforward solution of the classical equations of motion for a test event traversing the field induced by a “fixed” event (an event moving uniformly along the time axis at a fixed point in space). This solution reveals the essential difficulties in the formalism at the classical level. We then offer a new model of the (...) particle, as a certain distribution of events on the worldline, which eliminates these difficulties and permits comparison of classical off-shell electrodynamics with the standard Maxwell theory In this model, the “fixed” event induces a Yukawa-type potential, permitting a semiclassical identification of the pre-Maxwell time scale λ with the inverse mass of the intervening photon. Numerical solutions to the equations of motion are compared with the standard Maxwell solutions—they are seen to coincide when λ > 10–6 sec, providing an initial estimate of this parameter. (shrink)

Gauge invariance of a manifestly covariant relativistic quantum theory with evolution according to an invariant time τ implies the existence of five gauge compensation fields, which we shall call pre-Maxwell fields. A Lagrangian which generates the equations of motion for the matter field (coinciding with the Schrödinger type quantum evolution equation) as well as equations, on a five-dimensional manifold, for the gauge fields, is written. It is shown that τ integration of the equations for the pre-Maxwell fields results in the (...) usual Maxwell equations with conserved current source. The analog of the O (3, 1) symmetry of the usual Maxwell theory is found to be O (3, 2) or O (4, 1), depending on the space-time Fourier spectrum of the field. We argue that the structure that is relevant to the description of radiation in interaction with matter evolving in a timelike sense is that of O (3, 2). The noncovariant form of the field equations is given; there are two fields of electric type and one (divergenceless) magnetic type field. The Noether currents are studied, and some remarks are made on second quantization. (shrink)

We analyze the correspondence between a five-dimensional U(1)gauge invariant theory and four-dimensional scalar QED, where the fifth dimension (τ)is an invariant parameter of evolution of the manifestly covariant one-particle sector as well as for the full Fock space. The correspondence is represented by the limit in which the width of the photon mass distribution Δs tends to zero and large τ correlations occur. In the limiting procedure, calculation of a twopoint diagram shows that the PauliVillars regularization is intrinsically related to (...) these longrange correlations. (shrink)

The requirement of gauge invariance for the Schwinger-DeWitt equations, interpreted as a manifestly covariant quantum theory for the evolution of a system in spacetime, implies the existence of a five-dimensional pre-Maxwell field on the manifold of spacetime and “proper time” τ. The Maxwell theory is contained in this theory; integration of the field equations over τ restores the Maxwell equations with the usual interpretation of the sources. Following Schwinger's techniques, we study the Green's functions for the five-dimensional hyperbolic field equations (...) for both signatures ± [corresponding to O(4, 1) or O(3, 2) symmetry of the field equations] of the proper time derivative. The classification of the Green's functions follows that of the four-dimensional theory for “massive” fields, for which the “mass” squared may be positive or negative, respectively. The Green's functions for the five-dimensional field are then given by the Fourier transform over the “mass” parameter. We derive the Green's functions corresponding to the principal part ΔP and the homogeneous function Δ 1 ; all of the Green's functions can be expressed in terms of these, as for the usual field equations with definite mass. In the O(3, 2) case, the principal part function has support for x2⩾τ2, corresponding to spacelike propagation, as well as along the light cone x2=0 (for τ=0). There can be no transmission ofinformation in spacelike directions, with this propagator, since the Maxwell field, obtained by integration over τ, does not contain this component of the support. Measurements are characterized by such an integration. The spacelike field therefore can dynamically establish spacelike correlations. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the Dirac monopole in the framework of Off-Shell Electromagnetism, the five-dimensional U(1) gauge theory associated with Stueckelberg–Schrodinger relativistic quantum theory. After reviewing the Dirac model in four dimensions, we show that the structure of the five-dimensional theory prevents a natural generaliza tion of the Dirac monopole, since the theory is not symmetric under duality transforma tions. It is shown that the duality symmetry can be restored by generalizing the electromagnetic field strength to an element (...) of a Clifford algebra. Nevertheless, the generalized framework does not permit us to recover the phenomenological (or conventional) absence of magnetic monopoles. (shrink)

This paper discusses the discrete symmetries of off-shell electromagnetism, the Stueckelberg–Schrodinger relativistic quantum theory and its associated 5D local gauge theory. Seeking a dynamical description of particle/antiparticle interactions, Stueckelberg developed a covariant mechanics with a monotonically increasing Poincaré-invariant parameter. In Stueckelberg’s framework, worldlines are traced out through the parameterized evolution of spacetime events, which may advance or retreat with respect to the laboratory clock, depending on the sign of the energy, so that negative energy trajectories appear as antiparticles when (...) the observer describes the evolution using the laboratory clock. The associated gauge theory describes local interactions between events (correlated by the invariant parameter) mediated by five off-shell gauge fields. These gauge fields are shown to transform tensorially under under space and time reflections—unlike the standard Maxwell fields—and the interacting quantum theory therefore remains manifestly Lorentz covariant. Charge conjugation symmetry in the quantum theory is achieved by simultaneous reflection of the sense of evolution and the fifth scalar field. Applying this procedure to the classical gauge theory leads to a purely classical manifestation of charge conjugation, placing the CPT symmetries on the same footing in the classical and quantum domains. In the resulting picture, interactions do not distinguish between particle and antiparticle trajectories—charge conjugation merely describes the interpretation of observed negative energy trajectories according to the laboratory clock. (shrink)

It has been shown by Gupta and Padmanabhan that the radiation reaction force of the Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac equation can be obtained by a coordinate transformation from the inertial frame of an accelerating charged particle to that of the laboratory. We show that the problem may be formulated in a flat space of five dimensions, with five corresponding gauge fields in the framework of the classical version of a fully gauge covariant form of the Stueckelberg–Feynman–Schwinger covariant mechanics (the zero mode fields of (...) the 0, 1, 2, 3 components correspond to the Maxwell fields). Without additional constraints, the particles and fields are not confined to their mass shells. We show that in the mass-shell limit, the generalized Lorentz force obtained by means of the retarded Green's functions for the five dimensional field equations provides the classical Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac radiation reaction terms (with renormalized mass and charge). We also obtain general coupled equations for the orbit and the off-shell dynamical mass during the evolution as well as an autonomous non-linear equation of third order for the off-shell mass. The theory does not admit radiation if the particle does not move off-shell. The structure of the equations implies that mass-shell deviation is bounded when the external field is removed. (shrink)

In 1927, Paul Dirac first explicitly introduced the idea that electrodynamical processes can be evaluated by decomposing them into virtual (modern terminology), energy non-conserving subprocesses. This mode of reasoning structured a lot of the perturbative evaluations of quantum electrodynamics during the 1930s. Although the physical picture connected to Feynman diagrams is no longer based on energy non-conserving transitions but on off-shell particles, emission and absorption subprocesses still remain their fundamental constituents. This article will access the introduction and the (...) initial reception of this picture of subsequent transitions (PST) by conceiving of concepts, models, and their representations as tools for the practitioners. I will argue for a multi-factorial explanation of Dirac’s initial, verbally explicit introduction: the mathematical representation he had developed was highly suggestive and already partly conceptualized; Dirac was philosophical flexible enough to talk about transitions when no actual transitions, according to the general interpretation of quantum mechanics of the time, occurred; and, importantly, Dirac eventually used the verbal exposition in the same paper in which he introduced it. The direct impact of PST on the conception of quantum electrodynamical processes will be exemplified by its reflection in diagrammatical representations. The study of the diverging ontological commitments towards PST immediately after its introduction opens up the prehistory of a philosophical debate that stretches out into the present: the dispute about the representational and ontological status of the physical picture connected to the evaluation of the perturbative series of QED and QFT. (shrink)

In the covariant Hamiltonian mechanics with action-at-a-distance, we compare the proper time and dynamical time representations of the coordinate space world line using the differential geometry of nongeodesic curves in 3+1 Minkowski spacetime. The covariant generalization of the Serret-Frenet equations for the point particle with interaction are derived using the arc length representation. A set of invariant point particle kinematical properties are derived which are equivalent to the solutions of the equations of motion in coordinate space and which are functions (...) of either the proper time or the dynamical time. Expressions for the quantities are given for the example of the covariant harmonic oscillator and comments are offered regarding the measurability of the dynamical time. (shrink)

The electronic and muonic hydrogen energy levels are calculated very accurately [1] in Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) by coupling the Dirac Equation four vector (c ,mc2) current covariantly with the external electromagnetic (EM) field four vector in QED’s Interactive Representation (IR). The c -Non Exclusion Principle(c -NEP) states that, if one accepts c as the electron/muon velocity operator because of the very accurate hydrogen energy levels calculated, the one must also accept the resulting electron/muon internal spatial and time coordinate operators (...) (ISaTCO) derived directly from c without any assumptions. This paper does not change any of the accurate QED calculations of hydrogen’s energy levels, given the simplistic model of the proton used in these calculations [1]. The Proton Radius Puzzle [2, 3] may indicate that new physics is necessary beyond the Standard Model (SM), and this paper describes the bizarre, and very different, situation when the electron and muon are located “inside” the spatially extended proton with their Centers of Charge (CoCs) orbiting the proton at the speed of light in S energy states. The electron/muon center of charge (CoC) is a structureless point that vibrates rapidly in its inseparable, non-random vacuum whose geometry and time structure are defined by the electron/muon ISaTCO discrete geometry. The electron/muon self mass becomes finite in a natural way due to the ISaTCOs cutting off high virtual photon energies in the photon propagator. The Dirac-Maxwell-Wilson (DMW) Equations are derived from the ISaTCO for the EM fields of an electron/muon, and the electron/muon “look” like point particles in far field scattering experiments in the same way the electric field from a sphere with evenly distributed charge “e” “looks” like a point with the same charge in the far field (Gauss Law). The electron’s/muon’s three fluctuating CoC internal spatial coordinate operators have eight possible eigenvalues [4, 5, 6] that fall on a spherical shell centered on the electron’s CoM with radius in the rest frame. The electron/muon internal time operator is discrete, describes the rapid virtual electron/positron pair production and annihilation. The ISaTCO together create a current that produce spin and magnetic moment operators, and the electron and muon no longer have “intrinsic” properties since the ISaTCO kinematics define spin and magnetic moment properties. (shrink)

In this third paper in a series on stochastic electrodynamics (SED), the nonrelativistic dipole approximation harmonic oscillator-zero-point field system is subjected to an arbitrary classical electromagnetic radiation field. The ensemble-averaged phase-space distribution and the two independent ensemble-averaged Liouville or Fokker-Planck equations that it satisfies are derived in closed form without furtner approximation. One of these Liouville equations is shown to be exactly equivalent to the usual Schrödinger equation supplemented by small radiative corrections and an explicit radiation reaction (RR) vector (...) potential that is similar to the Crisp-Jaynes semiclassical theory (SCT) RR potential. The wave function in this SED Schrödinger equation is shown to have thea priori significance of position probability amplitude. The other Liouville equation has no counterpart in ordinary quantum mechanics, and is shown to restrict initial conditions such that (i) The Wigner-type phase-space distribution is always positive, (ii) in the absence of an applied field, the only allowed solution of both equations is the quantum ground state, and (iii) if a previously applied field is suddenly turned off, then spontaneous transitions occur, with no need for a triggering perturbation as in SCT, until the system is in the ground state. It is also shown that the oscillator energy is a fluctuating quantity that must take on a continuum of values, with average value equal to the quantum ground-state energy plus a contribution due to the applied classical field. (shrink)

Gravestones and inscription stones, which are among the oldest indicators of the phenomenon of death engraved in the public memory with images and rituals, are the ancient interpreters of the consciousness of death, which is the redemption of human beings as conscious beings. The phenomenon of death or dying, which was domesticated through a natural spirituality in antiquity, and a monotheistic religiosity in the Middle Ages, loses its spirituality by becoming profaned in the hands of consumer culture and is brutalized (...) today in terms of lifestyle by being cut off from existence in positivist paradigm in epistemological terms. The study deals with the secular perception of death and the individual and social crises caused by this perception in the context of tradition and modernity. The purpose of the study is to draw attention to the spread of natural and materialist assumptions in the perception of death and the strengthening of the profane elements in mourning ceremonies and to make sense of the traces left by this process in the individual and society. It is seen in the study that the efforts to cover up and intimidate the deceased and the subject of loss bring existential crises, alienation, and violence against oneself or others. On the other hand, it is also understood that it is not a coincidence that the traces of the culture of reconciliation built between death and life by the traditional perception of death in the countryside as an alternative perception faced. The study has been conducted with the document analysis design method, which is a qualitative research type. The approaches to the phenomenon of death have been subjected to a chronological literature reading in the study, and the diagnoses of the 21st century attitudes of the death perception, which were reached by going back to early days, were tested in historical and semiotics terms with the films Making Ships from Watermelon Shell (2004) and Shattered (2021), which were chosen to represent two different paradigms as documentary data. The study is important in that it examined the changing perception of death and the culture of mourning in detail and created a current topography and contributes to the studies of the sociology of death, which is still a fresh field. (shrink)

The case describes Shell’s evolution within the context of sensitive human rights issues related to oil exploration and exploitation in Nigeria. Given that much of the revenue from Nigerian oil resources was being “siphoned” off by corrupt state governors, the case focuses on issues relevant to government transparency and corruption. It describes Shell’s involvement in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and its collaboration with the Nigerian Government to instigate a more transparent reporting on oil revenues. However, since (...) two senior Shell executives involved in EITI and negotiations with the government are about to retire from the company, the prospect of briefing their successors on the complexity of the Nigerian situation brings a number of questions, that still remain to be answered, “to the table”. Learning objective: Participants learn about the invasive nature of corruption and its effect on human rights, but more specifically about the role of a multinational versus the role of the government when trying to deal with such issues. Participants will also learn a great deal about the complexity of sustainability issues for corporations, particularly human rights issues. There is also learning about the scope and limits of corporate responsibility, and the difficulties that all players face in tough market conditions and on a “non-level playing field”. Participants can develop new insights on ways of operating responsibly, creating valuable partnerships and interacting in a global, but socially responsible, context. (shrink)

The case describes Shell’s evolution within the context of sensitive human rights issues related to oil exploration and exploitation in Nigeria. Given that much of the revenue from Nigerian oil resources was being “siphoned” off by corrupt state governors, the case focuses on issues relevant to government transparency and corruption. It describes Shell’s involvement in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and its collaboration with the Nigerian Government to instigate a more transparent reporting on oil revenues. However, since (...) two senior Shell executives involved in EITI and negotiations with the government are about to retire from the company, the prospect of briefing their successors on the complexity of the Nigerian situation brings a number of questions, that still remain to be answered, “to the table”. Learning objective: Participants learn about the invasive nature of corruption and its effect on human rights, but more specifically about the role of a multinational versus the role of the government when trying to deal with such issues. Participants will also learn a great deal about the complexity of sustainability issues for corporations, particularly human rights issues. There is also learning about the scope and limits of corporate responsibility, and the difficulties that all players face in tough market conditions and on a “non-level playing field”. Participants can develop new insights on ways of operating responsibly, creating valuable partnerships and interacting in a global, but socially responsible, context. (shrink)

We present Helmholtz's argument against Weber's electrodynamics. It is related with a fixed charged nonconducting spherical shell and a charged particle moving inside it. Then we utilize Weber's electrodynamics plus Schrödinger's expression for gravitational interactions in order to obtain the equation of motion and to study this situation. We show that this approach avoids the problems pointed out by Helmholtz. Moreover, it indicates that the effective inertial mass of the charged particle will depend not only on the (...) electrostatic potential of the shell but also on its velocity. This is a relevant aspect of Weber's theory. (shrink)

Commentators on the work of Immanuel Kant have long held that his later "critical" writings are a radical rejection of his earlier, less celebrated efforts. In this pathbreaking book, Susan Shell demonstrates not only the developmental unity of Kant's individual writings, but also the unity of his work and life experience. Shell argues that the central animating issues of Kant's lifework concerned the perplexing relation of spirit to body. Through an exacting analysis of individual writings, Shell maps (...) the philosophical contours of Kant's early intellectual struggles and their relation to his more mature thought. The paradox of mind in matter and the tensions it generates—between freedom and determinacy, independence and community, ideal and real—are shown to inform the whole of his work. Shell's fresh, penetrating analysis of the precritical works will surely catapult them to new prominence in Kant studies. Shell's critique goes further to consider the context of contemporary intellectual life. She explores the fascinating realm of Kant's sexual and medical idiosyncracies, linking them to the primary concerns of his critical philosophy. She develops a sure-to-be controversial treatment of the connection between Kant's philosophy and his chronic hypochondria, and illuminates previously unforeseen connections in a remarkable convergence of life and thought, with important theoretical and practical implications for modern times. (shrink)

Carazan's dream : Kant's early theory of freedom -- Kant's archimedean moment : remarks in observation concerning the feeling of the beautiful and the sublime -- Rousseau, Count Verri, and the true economy of human nature : lectures on anthropology, 1772-1781 -- The paradox of autonomy -- Moral hesitation in religion within the boundaries of bare reason -- Kant's true politics : Völkerrecht in toward perpetual peace and the metaphysics of morals -- Kant as educator : conflict of the faculties, (...) part one -- Archimedes revisited : honor and history in the conflict of the faculties, part two -- Kant's Jewish problem. (shrink)

Kant’s thought from the 1750s onward can usefully be understood as a series of efforts to overcome the challenge posed in Machiavelli’s Prince: namely, to reconcile our idea of justice with what is actually possible given human nature as it is, rather than as reason tells us that it “should” be. Especially following his reading of Rousseau, this effort took the form of successive translations of the metaphysical concept of a world into the juridical language of world-citizenship, which transformed a (...) rational and physical cosmology into moral and historical cosmopolitanism. The thought of both Hobbes and Rousseau proved instrumental to those efforts. Initially, Kant thought human history oscillated between Hobbesian and Rousseauian conceptions of civil order—i.e., between orders that guarantee, respectively, security and freedom. In his later works, Kant suggested that history progressed from Hobbes to Rousseau, but he hesitated to declare that a transformation from prudence-based security to virtue-based civil independence was completable even in principle. Speaking generally, Kant sought to reconcile a kind of historical providentialism with the sovereign authority of reason. This reconciliation blurs the distinction between, on the one hand, the metaphysical and/or religious and, on the other hand, the secular—a distinction on which Michael Rosen’s perspicuous intellectual history tends to focus. That this earliest version of Kant’s rational providentialism makes reward of effort morally central also suggests that it is ultimately even more important to Kant than the punitive theme on which Rosen himself focusses. (shrink)

"Shell offers admirably close readings [which are] often brilliant... Summary could do little more than hint at the riches laid open."-- The Eighteenth Century "A remarkable piece of work. Valuable for a wide range of readers from the expert to the inquiring generalist."-- Religious Studies Review In Money, Language, and Thought , Marc Shell explores the interactions between linguistic and economic production as they inform discourse from Chretien de Troyes to Heidegger.

Unlike that of most liberal thinkers, Kant's theory of punishment is unabashedly retributive. For classical liberals punishment is justified only by the harms it can prevent, not by any allegedly intrinsic good served by making the guilty suffer. Here Hobbes' blunt insistence that the aim of punishment ‘is not a revenge, but terror’ is prototypical in substance, if not in style. Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Bentham and Beccaria, for all their differences, agree that punishment must look to future good rather than (...) to avenging past wrongs. This attitude on the part of classic liberalism toward retribution is not surprising, given its association with the kind of theocratic politics liberalism arose to combat. (shrink)

This book presents the first full translation of the correspondence of Leo Strauss and Gerhard Krüger, showing for each the development of key and influential ideas, along with seven interpretative essays by leading Strauss scholars. During the early to mid-1930’s, Leo Strauss carried on an intense, and sometimes deeply personal, correspondence with one of the leading intellectual lights among Heidegger’s circle of recent students and younger associates. A fellow traveler in the effort to “return to Plato” and reject neo-Kantian conventions (...) of the day, Krüger was also a serious student of Rudolf Bultmann and the neo-orthodox movement in which Strauss also took an early interest. During the most intense years of their correspondence, each underwent significant intellectual development: in Krüger’s case, through a penetrating series of studies of Kant and Descartes, respectively, ultimately leading to Krüger’s conversion to Catholicism; and, in Strauss’s case, through the complex stages of what he subsequently called his “reorientation,” involving what he for the first time calls “political philosophy.” Readers interested in tracing the development of Strauss’s thoughts regarding a theological alternative that he found helpfully challenging—if not ultimately compelling—will find this correspondence to be an accessible point of entry. (shrink)

The following remarks are intended to help clarify Kant's position on international right and, specifically, the so-called ‘right of war’. They are part of a more general study of Kant's politics; but I also make them here in the hope that Kant's view of international law can furnish us with some much-needed practical help and guidance. More specifically, I will try to show that Kant is less averse to the use of force, including resort to pre-emptive war, and far more (...) attuned to possibilities for political catastrophe, than he is often taken to be. A greater appreciation for Kant's actual position can, I hope, make a small contribution toward mending the growing rift between so-called ‘Kantians’ who underrate the need for force, and self-styled ‘Hobbesians’ who underestimate the power of moral principle. (shrink)

Kant's brief ‘Postscript of a Friend’ serves as a peculiar coda to his life work. The last of Kant's writing to be published during his lifetime, it is both a friendly endorsement of Christian Gottlieb Mielcke's newly competed Lithuanian–German and German–Lithuanian Dictionary and a plea in Kant's own name for the preservation of minority languages, Lithuanian in particular. This support for minority languages has no visible precedent in his earlier writings, in which national, civic and linguistic identities and associated loyalties (...) tend to overlap. Indeed, Kant's understanding of the commonwealth as nation-state seems predicated on the fact or myth of ethnic and linguistic unity and homogeneity. The same apparent lack of precedent also applies to the Nachschrift's singling out as a people of peculiar civic merit of the Lithuanians, who are not otherwise mentioned in any of Kant's published or unpublished writings. The work thus raises an obvious question: why does Kant devote his last published work to a topic and cause in which he does not seem to have taken much earlier interest? (shrink)

For hundreds of years, Muslim Spain was the most tolerant place in Europe. Christians, Muslims, and Jews were able to live together there more or less peacefully. The three religious groups maintained a tolerant convivencia, or coexistence, thanks partly to a twofold distinction among kinds of people that was essential to the particularist doctrine of Islam influential in Spain. Islamic doctrine distinguishes first between Muslim and non-Muslim peoples and second between those non-Muslims who are, like Muslims themselves, “Peoples of the (...) Book” and those non-Muslims who are “pagan.” These two distinctions, taken together, could amount to the difference between life and death. For example, Muslim courts ruled on the basis of the Koran that those “others” who were Peoples of the Book could not legally be put to the sword for refusing to convert to Islam while those “others” who were pagan could be. Christians and Jews had to be put up with, and usually were.2 1. Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries , p. 264; my emphasis; hereafter abbreviated I.2. The Koran grounds the series of divisions outlined and is consistent with the well-known Pact of Umar I, which established special regulations for Christians and Jews living in Muslim lands: “’There is to be no compulsion in religion. Rectitude has been clearly distinguished from error. So whoever disbelieves in idols and believes in Allah has taken hold of the firmest handle. It cannot split. Allah is All-hearing and All-knowing’” . See also Sura 109:6: “To you your religion, to me my religion.” Marc Shell, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow for 1990-95, is head of the department of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. His books include The Economy of Literature , Money, Language, and Thought: Literary and Philosophical Economies from the Medieval to the Modern Era , and The End of Kinship: “Measure for Measure,” Incest, and the Ideal of Universal Siblinghood . Children of the Earth is forthcoming. (shrink)

Should the Western democracies, contrary to their prevailing self-image as "planned" and "managed," be seen as highly disorganized systems of social power and political authority? If so, what are the symptoms, consequences of, and possible remedies for these disorganizing tendencies?In these ten essays, Claus Offe seeks to answer such questions. Moving beyond the boundaries of both Marxism and established forms of political sociology, he focuses on the growth of serious divisions within the work force, the importance of the "informal" sector, (...) the severe difficulties faced by trade unions in coping with the present economic crisis, the vulnerability of neocorporatist mechanisms, and the failures of state policymaking based on either majority rule or bureaucratic administration.In examining these and other fundamental problems of advanced capitalist democracies, Offe also contests some widely held assumptions of contemporary social science. He calls into question the neutrality of liberal democratic mechanisms of participation and representation, the centrality of the category of work and the division between labor and capital, and the feasibility and desirability of full employment.Claus Offe is the author of numerous books and essays, including Contradictions of the Welfare State. He is currently Professor of Political Science and Sociology in the Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, West Germany. John Keane is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory and Sociology at the Polytechnic of Central London. Disorganized Capitalism is included in the series, Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy. (shrink)

Wharton School professor G. Richard Shell lays out a systematic, values-to-action process that employees at all levels can use to manage conflicts, maintain their integrity, and achieve success in their lives and careers. Driven by dramatic, real-world stories from the front lines of today's workplace and based on the latest research, [this book] shows how to create value-based workplaces where everyone can thrive."--Back cover.

Kant's Observations of 1764 and Remarks of 1764–5 document a crucial turning point in his life and thought. Both reveal the growing importance for him of ethics, anthropology and politics, but with an important difference. The Observations attempts to observe human nature directly. The Remarks, by contrast, reveals a revolution in Kant's thinking, largely inspired by Rousseau, who 'turned him around' by disclosing to Kant the idea of a 'state of freedom' as a touchstone for his thinking. This and related (...) thoughts anticipate such famous later doctrines as the categorical imperative. This collection of essays by leading Kant scholars illuminates the many and varied topics within these two rich works, including the emerging relations between theory and practice, ethics and anthropology, men and women, philosophy, history and the 'rights of man'. (shrink)

If there is one generally acknowledged “take away” from the election of Trump, it may well be that the old divisions between right and left no longer hold. Trump supporters were seemingly moved less by traditional conservative appeals to free markets and small government than by anger against perceived condescension and indifference on the part of the cultural elite to their own deeply held moral beliefs and sense of personal dignity. Kant offers both insight into and potential remedies for the (...) dilemmas growing out of our present situation. This is particularly true in matters of economic policy and civic engagement, where “top down” solutions have often left their would-be beneficiaries feeling ever more powerless and disrespected. By addressing these concerns in the name of common citizenship, Kant’s thought helps restore the meaning of the core constitutional principles of freedom, equality, and civic dignity that Trump’s presidency increasingly puts in question. (shrink)