As library collections and services have increasingly moved from print to digital, much of the work that used to be done by libraries themselves with regard to creating, maintaining, and managing the systems that hold collections and facilitate user access to them is now done primarily by vendors. This change to the information services landscape for academic libraries is the occasion not only of technical and procedural challenges, but also some internal conflicts concerning the ethical demands of the library profession. (...) This essay examines the ways in which these conflicts become acute and obvious when attention is paid to the way in which attempts to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are undermined by the handover of library services to vendors, even when—or perhaps especially when—those vendors use their control of content and platforms to commodify diverse content instead of making the necessary systemic changes required by truly effective EDI efforts. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of philosophers have suggested that the aesthetic value sometimes depends on moral value. In this paper, I motivate and defend the inverse position: the view that aesthetic value sometimes partially grounds moral value. I appeal to Grand Budapest Hotel and The Lovely Bones to show that maudlin treatments of morally serious subject matter are sometimes disrespectful, in part because they are maudlin; I appeal to Madame Bovary to show that lyrical treatments of morally serious subject (...) matter are compassionate, in part because they are lyrical. I go on to clarify that aesthetic value and descriptive facts about the subject matter of an artwork jointly ground its moral value, and I conclude by considering and rejecting a number of potential objections to the aestheticist thesis. (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

In this paper, I examine Plantinga’s (1993, 2000, 2011) Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN). While there has been much discussion about Plantinga’s use of probabilities in the argument, I contend that insufficient attention has been paid to the question of how we are to interpret those probabilities. In this paper, I argue that views Plantinga defends elsewhere limit the range of interpretations available to him here. The upshot is that the EAAN is more limited in its applicability than Plantinga alleges.

What should judges do when faced with immoral laws? Should they apply them without exception, since “the law is the law?” Or can exceptions be made for grossly immoral laws, such as historically, Nazi law? Surveying laypeople (N = 167) and people with some legal training (N = 141) on these matters, we find a surprisingly strong, monotonic relationship between people's subjective moral evaluation of laws and their judgments that these laws should be applied in concrete cases. This tendency is (...) most pronounced among individuals who endorse natural law (i.e., the legal-philosophical view that immoral laws are not valid laws at all), and is attenuated when disagreement about the moral status of a law is considered reasonable. The relationship is equally strong for laypeople and for those with legal training. We situate our findings within the broader context of morality's influence on legal reasoning that experimental jurisprudence has uncovered in recent years, and consider normative implications. (shrink)

This book provides the student and general reader with a comprehensive overview of Plato's thought. It includes an introduction to the life and times of Plato and a precis of each of his dialogues, amongst which the Apology, Laches, Gorgias, Symposium, Phaedrus, Phaedo, Meno, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Republic, and 18 others.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This book expands our understanding of a growing, yet largely unstudied phenomenon: the flow of children across borders through intercountry adoption. What explains the spread of intercountry adoption through the international system over time? McBride investigates the interconnected networks of states, individuals, and adoption agencies that have collaborated to develop the practice of intercountry adoption we see today. This book tells the story of how adoption agencies mediate between individuals and states in two ways: first by teaching states about intercountry (...) adoption as a policy, and second by helping states implement intercountry adoption as a practice. McBride argues that this process of states learning about intercountry adoption from adoption agencies has facilitated the global development of the practice in the past seventy years. (shrink)

A glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in culture in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from topics such as Sally Rooney, sadomasochism, and women who wait.

This paper explores the added value of studying intra- and inter-speaker variation in grammaticalisation based on idiolect corpora. It analyses the usage patterns of the English let alone construction in a self-compiled William Faulkner corpus against the backdrop of aggregated community data. Vast individual differences (early Faulkner vs. late Faulkner vs. peers) in frequencies of use are observed, and these frequency differences correlate with different degrees of grammaticalisation as measured in terms of host-class and syntactic context expansion. The corpus findings (...) inform general issues in current cognitive-functional research, such as the from-corpus-to-cognition issue and the cause/consequence issue of frequency. They lend support to the usage-based view of grammaticalisation as a lifelong, frequency-sensitive process of cognitive automation. To substantiate this view, this paper proposes a self-feeding cycle of constructional generalisation that is driven by the interplay of frequency, entrenchment, partial sanction and habituation. (shrink)

'Live and die in Aristotle’s works.' - Christopher Marlowe, _Faustus_ Aristotle is without doubt one of the most influential people in history. His belief that philosophy should be grounded in observation laid the foundation for the scientific method. His moral philosophy exerted a profound influence on religious thinking and has recently returned to prominence with the resurgence of virtue ethics. His works are so thorough and wide-ranging as to constitute a quasi encyclopaedia of Greek knowledge. Amongst the most important are (...) Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, On the Soul, Poetics, and the Organon, with which he created the field of logic and dominated it so thoroughly and for so long that even Kant thought that he had said the last word upon it. This book aims to provide the student and general reader with a comprehensive overview of Aristotle’s thought. It includes an introduction to the life of Aristotle, and – for the first time – a précis of each of his works, including the Organon, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, On the Soul, Poetics, and several others. _Author description:_ Dr Neel Burton is a philosopher and psychiatrist and prize-winning author who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. His other books include Plato’s Shadow, The Art of Failure, and The Meaning of Madness, all also with Acheron Press. (shrink)

Of the most recent turn to literary practices in contemporary art, this article studies one facet: that which relates to the lyric tradition. It hopes to make a case for ‘lyric images’, drawing on the works by artists Tacita Dean, Day for Night (2009), and Roni Horn, Still Water [...] (1999). Read around poems by Emily Dickinson, John Fuller and Margaret Atwood, how these artworks utilize photography’s natural capacity to mirror both the recursive syntactic structure and the blending of instantaneity (...) with immortality common to the lyric poem is explored. Particularly, the article considers notions of cyclical seriality – as composed of singular moments, yet tending towards the infinite – both formally and referentially. Whether these qualities provoke an imaginative and/or emotive looking that contrasts with our response to previous assumptions of the written form in conceptual art practices (e.g. Art and Language) is also reflected upon, in order to contemplate why this particular hybridising may be current in photographic practice. (shrink)

In this paper, I raise an objection to Philip Goff’s “Revelation Thesis” as articulated in his Consciousness and Fundamental Reality. In Sect. 1 I present the Revelation Thesis in the context of Goff’s broader defence of pan-psychism. In Sect. 2 I argue that the Revelation Thesis entails the identity of indiscriminable phenomenal properties. In Sect. 3 I argue that the identity of indiscriminable phenomenal properties is false. The upshot is that the Revelation Thesis is false.

The earliest recorded philosophical use of the term "phusis" occurs in the fragments of Heraclitus (most notably at B1 and B123). Phusis, in the non-philosophical writings relevant to Heraclitus’s time (e.g. from Homer to Aeschylus and Pindar), was generally used to characterize the external physical appearance of something. Heraclitus, on the other hand, seems to have used the term in the completely opposite manner: an object’s phusis is hidden (kruptesthai) and greater (kreissōn) than the external appearance (B123 and B54). Despite (...) this difference, Heraclitus’s use has an affinity with the common use in his time: phusis is used to characterize things. In B1, for example, Heraclitus makes it clear that he is interested in explaining the nature of each thing as opposed to some cosmic principle of Nature. By examining various fragments, I make the case that the phusis of a thing, for Heraclitus, can be defined as the set of opposites necessarily inherent in an object upon which all objects of that kind depend for their existence. The interesting result is that Heraclitus’s novel use of phusis happens to be the foundation for one of the ways in which opposites form a unity. This particular thesis states that there are essential properties inherent in objects which are pairs of opposites sufficient to determine the unity of the object in question. If this is right, then we can read some fragments which contain descriptions of worldly objects (e.g. bows, lyres, rivers, barley drinks etc.) in a new light. These descriptions of worldly objects might not be meant to stand as metaphoric symbols for cosmic principles, as is often thought; rather, they can be read as instances of Heraclitus attempting to do a metaphysics of objects. (shrink)

I present a problem concerning the predication of elemental qualities in Aristotle’s On Generation and Corruption: What is the subject of predication for the elemental qualities? The usual answer in the scholarship is either the elements themselves, or prime matter (traditionally conceived). I argue that neither can perform this role. Instead, I explore the possibility that the elemental qualities are individually predicated of their own material principle. I show that this solution fits the text and solves the problem of predication (...) of elemental qualities. I conclude by offering some comments on the status of the elemental contraries and demonstrate the benefits of my view in conjunction with some recent scholarship on the elemental contraries. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways novice social studies teachers perceived difficult discourses in their classrooms. Specifically, we sought to understand what social studies teachers think is difficult about navigating political discourses, and how they describe the nature of those discourses in order to draw conclusions about why some teachers choose to avoid or engage in political or social issues discussions with students. We used a collective case study and a grounded theory analysis of video recorded (...) class sessions and video guided debriefings with teachers to explore this phenomena. We found that the degree to which teachers thought the discourse to be difficult to navigate was shaped by: emotional safety of students, teacher's own ideologies, and the distances of students’ identities from the discourse. (shrink)

The early Greek philosophers pioneered important philosophical and theological concepts that are still with us today. The concept of omnipresence is a case in point. Thales is reported to have said that ‘all things are full of gods’. Anaximander states that a boundless substance ‘contains all things and steers all things’; Xenophanes that God is immobile but shakes all things with his mind; Anaxagoras that ‘everything is in everything’. With respect to specifically divine omnipresence, it isn’t until Heraclitus that we (...) find a clear and robust commitment to an omnipresent God. What sets Heraclitus’ theology apart from his predecessors’ is that it is more developed and integrated into a holistic metaphysical worldview. Heraclitus also invented a philosophically rich metaphor for the mode of divine omnipresence in the world: oil-spice mixture. This chapter offers an examination of Heraclitus’ theology and explores its relation to the concept of divine omnipresence in philosophical-theology. (shrink)

Are there any metaphysically basic (i.e., absolutely fundamental) entities in the cosmos on which all the other entities in the cosmos depend? If not, how are the various entities in the cosmos related to each other in terms of relative fundamentality? These questions have been of interest since the birth of philosophy. In this paper I argue that, for the early Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, there are no metaphysically basic entities. Rather, 1) the various entities in the cosmos are metaphysically interdependent (...) and 2) the cosmos itself and its parts are metaphysically interdependent. I call this view cosmic interdependence. I demonstrate its distinctiveness and argue for its contemporary significance with respect to the grounding structure of quantum entanglement. (shrink)

The distribution of competences between the national state, the communities and the regions is subject to criticism. The state reform laws f 1980 have admittedly led to many confiicts, due to a lack of clearnessof the terms of the law and to the incomplete character of the reform.A clear option is to be made between a federal regime as such, a regionalised state and separatism; so far this option has only been postponed, which leaves the actual state structure rather confused (...) and hardly workable.A series of conditions both of a politica! and a legal nature have to be fulfilled in order to clear the situations. (shrink)

In the beginning, Rome was ruled by kings. Their expulsion heralded the foundation of the Republic, a political system strong enough to withstand both internal and external threats to the state. Among these internal threats was the possibility of an elite man trying to set himself up as a king. Modern scholarship agrees that there were three such attempts to recreate a monarchy in the early Republic: Spurius Cassius in 485, Spurius Maelius in 439 and Marcus Manlius Capitolinus in 385/4. (...) Theaffectatores regnipurposefully courted the plebs in order to gain supreme power. But Roman virtue was too strong; all three men were caught, tried (either publicly or privately) and executed. Their possessions were seized and consecrated to the gods; their families shunned their memory. These attempts to establish tyranny revealed both the fragility and the power of the Republic. (shrink)

Theodore Dreiser's works, rather than being read as historical artifacts, prove their relevance for a twenty-first-century readership when analyzed alongside contemporary political philosophy. Dreiser's novels are first examined within the rubric of Dominic Fox's "cold world" theory of dysphoric militancy. I argue that the Dreiserian character partially matches Fox's model of the dysphoric militant, falling short only in the final, revolutionary stage. The novels are then examined through the political philosophy of Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, with particular focus on (...) Žižek's idea of historical potentiality and Badiou's critique of law, sin, and love in St. Paul. (shrink)

In several recent papers and a monograph, Andreas Stokke argues that questions can be misleading, but that they cannot be lies. The aim of this paper is to show that ordinary speakers disagree. We show that ordinary speakers judge certain kinds of insincere questions to be lies, namely questions carrying a believed-false presupposition the speaker intends to convey. These judgements are robust and remain so when the participants are given the possibility of classifying the utterances as misleading or as deceiving. (...) The judgements contrast with judgements participants give about cases of misleading or deceptive behaviour, and they pattern with judgements participants make about declarative lies. Finally, the possibility of lying with non-declaratives is not confined to questions: ordinary speakers also judge utterances of imperative, exclamative and optative sentences carrying believed-false presuppositions to be lies. (shrink)

Efforts to recruit and retain farmers have traditionally supported the farm business through a focus on access to land, capital, and business skills. While these efforts are critical, a small body of work indicates that these may be insufficient because they rarely account for the social and economic needs of farm households and how the (in)ability to meet these needs interacts with the development and economic viability of the farm enterprise. Social and economic needs include, but are not limited to (...) access to health insurance and health care, childcare, adequate household and retirement income, affordable housing, and food security. This article introduces a symposium intended to shed light on these underappreciated needs and how they connect to the farm enterprise. We contend that a greater understanding of farm households’ lived realities meeting their social and economic needs could lead to a paradigm shift in how we understand and support farm families’ resilience. We set the stage for the eight articles in this symposium in two ways. First, we present the theoretical and empirical reasons why considering household-level needs is crucial when working towards supporting the agricultural sector. Second, we review the literature on farm households’ social and economic needs. We then thematically summarize the key insights from the eight articles. Despite variations in topics studied, research designs, and geographical contexts, we note a clear pattern in what the authors see as the implications of their findings. Namely, they reaffirm the need to challenge the traditional view that separates household needs from farm enterprise activities and outcomes. Their collective call for stronger social and agricultural programs and policies is noteworthy and may in part be connected to the structural underpinnings of the challenges meeting social and economic needs highlighted across the articles. (shrink)