Abstract:With the development of literati gardens during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the layout and design level of gardens reached an unprecedented height. As the representative of Suzhou gardens, The Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuozhengyuan, 拙政园, 1530) has unique natural conditions and mature garden design, and its water management art is particularly exquisite. The best-preserved graphic information of The Humble Administrator's Garden are the poems and paintings by Wen Zhengming (文徵明, 1470–1559), including Thirty-One Scenes of The Humble Administrator's Garden (拙政园三十一景图, 1533), thirty (...) landscape poems, and the biography Wang's Humble Administrator's Garden (王氏拙政园记, 1533). As the research object, this article aims to restore the image of The Humble Administrator's Garden by analyzing the water scene of the garden, summarizing its water technique and art, and extracting "Source of inflowing water" (为有源头活水来), "Esteem the mountain, revere the water, imitate the heaven and earth" (敬山畏水, 象天法地), "Fusion of the imitation of nature and the subjective ideas of the artist" (外师造化, 中得心源), and "Free and unfettered, enjoy the joy of leisure" (逍遥自得, 享闲居之乐) as the water aesthetic thoughts of the garden. In addition, this article provides some reference for the current landscape design. (shrink)

The need for sustainable corporate governance has gained the interests of researchers for a while now and it has been found as a very significant component of successful organizational operations. The current paper has examined the role of sustainable corporate governance in achieving sustainable economic space along with measuring the indirect impact of technological innovation and IT governance on the whole process. This paper has followed the quantitative-positivism approach to measure the hypotheses developed in the study. The population considered in (...) this study are the managers currently employed in the corporate sector in China. The data is analyzed using the Smart-PLS 3.3.3 software for checking the data for preliminary screening and the measurement of hypotheses. The findings of the study show that the three components of sustainable corporate governance, i.e., concern for employees, sustainable corporate governance awareness, and the environmental aspects have a significant as well as a positive effect on technological innovation and hence on the sustainable economic space. Similarly, the study has recorded a significant moderating effect of IT governance on the relationship of technological innovation and the sustainable economic space. Overall, it can be seen that corporate governance, innovative technology, and a sustainable digital economy share a reciprocal relationship. Where corporate governance helps as a supporting force to keep both innovation and sustainability in action. Whereas IT governance provides enhanced communication and delivery of public services, business, and advanced human capital. The study will be of high advantage for the corporate sector in China for devising and modifying their policies that consider the employee’s concerns for the governance mechanisms prevailing at priority in the organizations. Further, it will be interesting for the organizations to incorporate the IT governance mechanism in their technological innovations for achieving a sustainable economic space. (shrink)

Low parental awareness and knowledge about newborn screening have been identified as a public issue. This study explored Chinese parents’ self-evaluation of awareness, knowledge, and methods of receiving information about newborn screening. Using convenience sampling, we included 614 respondents who were expectant parents or parents of children aged 0-3 years. Our self-made questionnaire comprised four sections: sociodemographic characteristics, self-evaluation of awareness, detailed knowledge about newborn screening, and practical and expected methods of receiving newborn screening information. We found that 72.9% of (...) participants were classified as aware of newborn screening. However, only 14.2% of the participants received a passing score on the newborn screening detailed knowledge questions. Knowledge level about newborn screening was significantly associated with gender (P <.001), age (P <.05), education level (P <.05), residence (P <.05), family income (P <.05), and number of children (P <.05). The knowledge acquisition about newborn screening mainly came from hospital-related training (62.1%). Additionally, nearly half of the respondents (48.0%) expressed a preference for learning more about newborn screening through social media platforms, such as WeChat. While the majority of expectant or new parents were aware of newborn screening, only a minority had a thorough understanding of it. Various sociodemographic factors were associated with the level of parental knowledge about newborn screening. It is recommended to use hospital lectures or social media initiatives to educate parents in China. (shrink)

This study investigated the impact of online product reviews on consumers purchasing decisions by using eye-tracking. The research methodology involved development of a conceptual framework of online product review and purchasing intention through the moderation role of gender and visual attention in comments, and empirical investigation into the region of interest analysis of consumers fixation during the purchase decision process and behavioral analysis. The results showed that consumers’ attention to negative comments was significantly greater than that to positive comments, especially (...) for female consumers. Furthermore, the study identified a significant correlation between the visual browsing behavior of consumers and their purchase intention. It also found that consumers were not able to identify false comments. The current study provides a deep understanding of the underlying mechanism of how online reviews influence shopping behavior, reveals the effect of gender on this effect for the first time and explains it from the perspective of attentional bias, which is essential for the theory of online consumer behavior. Specifically, the different effects of consumers’ attention to negative comments seem to be moderated through gender with female consumers’ attention to negative comments being significantly greater than to positive ones. These findings suggest that practitioners need to pay particular attention to negative comments and resolve them promptly through the customization of product/service information, taking into consideration consumer characteristics, including gender. (shrink)

Patients with advanced Alzheimer's disease experience cognitive impairment and physical disabilities in daily life. Currently, there are no treatments available to slow down the course of the disease, and limited treatments exist only to treat symptoms. However, deep brain stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert has been reported to improve cognitive function in individuals with AD. Here, we report the effects of NBM-DBS on cognitive function in a subject with severe AD. An 80-year-old male with severe AD underwent surgery (...) for bilateral NBM-DBS electrode placement. After 10 weeks of stimulation, Mini-Mental State Examination assessment improved from a score of 5 to 9 points, and assessment using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale showed a marked reduction in total score from 43 to 33 points, suggesting cognitive benefits from NBM-DBS. The patient's postoperative course was complicated by a subdural effusion that occurred several days after surgery, with complete recovery. Interestingly, the subject also displayed abnormal thermoregulation with stimulation initiation and stimulation parameter modifications. NBM-DBS may serve as a potential therapy for severe AD patients.Clinical Trial Registration: ChiCTR1900022324. (shrink)

Online creative idea generation is often considered an extension of traditional creative idea activities on the Internet platform, in which digital technology plays an important role. Consistent with the studies on traditional creative idea activities, the studies on online creative idea generation take the creativity of mass psychology as the core, and believe that digital technology can stimulate people’s creative output. This study challenges the past research paradigm from the perspective of media materiality, redefines the processes and activities of online (...) creative idea generation, and further suggests that it may affect people’s psychology by reducing their creativity without real awareness. The study is innovative in both theory and practice. We also discuss the limitations and future directions of the study. (shrink)

This paper argues in favour of the conservation of the Latin script, transmitted by the manuscripts, of the word cathetos at Ps. Cens. frg. 6,3.

Tulisan ini bertujuan mengurai makna dan retorika penciptaan mantra Cenning Rara sebagai salah satu perwujudan sastra lisan suku Bugis di Sulawesi Selatan. Mantra Cenning Rara adalah sejenis ilmu pengasihan, berisi doa-doa pemikat, dipercaya masyarakat Bugis dapat memikat hati lawan jenisnya. Saat ini, mantra tersebut mulai tergerus dan jarang digunakan dengan sejumlah alasan, satu di antaranya terkoptasi oleh nilai-nilai religi yang berkembang belakangan. Berdasarkan latar belakang tersebut, penelitian ini dilakukan untuk (1) mengetahui makna mantra Cenning Rara, serta (2) retorika penciptaan yang (...) mendasarinya berfungsi sebagai mantra pemikat lawan jenis. Metode yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kualitatif, memperoleh data dalam bentuk narasi bukan angka. Objek penelitian ini terdiri dari dua; objek material dalam hal ini hasil transkripsi dan terjemahan mantra Cenning Rara, dan teori semiotika Riffaterre dan formula Albert B. Lord sebagai objek formal. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa mantra Cenning Rara secara heuristik mengandung makna keterpesonaan terhadap seseorang. Sementara secara hermeneutik, keterpesonaan tersebut diekspresikan tidak berdiri sendiri, tetapi dibarengi unsur-unsur seperti keyakinan, paksaan, dan ancaman; bahwa mantra adalah media yang dapat mengobati sekaligus melukai. Selain itu, retorika penciptaan mantra Cenning Rara melalui formula sebagai sarana penyampaian gagasan, selain dilandasi oleh keyakinan dan kepercayaan—juga didorong oleh kepandaian penutur dalam menciptakan wacana estetik yang ritmis dan puitis. (shrink)

Dans la préface de cet ouvrage, Mona Ozouf associe les femmes et les hommes à la Révolution française au titre d’un espace d’interdépendance entre le politique et le civil, le public et le privé où la famille, et la femme en tant que membre de cette unité, touchent au plus près à « l’universalité ». Ce qui revient à entrer dans une explication socio-historique de la mise à l’écart des femmes et nous renvoie à une pensée politique de l’unité « (...) universelle » d’intérêts entre l’homme et la femme... (shrink)

This article analyses the relationship between the Belgian government and the national Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN) in the renegotiation of the mission and organization of Big Science in Belgium. While the founding decades of nuclear laboratories are often characterized by ever-increasing budgets and the establishment of large infrastructure, I show that downsizing or transforming Big Science demanded a new form of politics on the organization of science. Drawing on archival material, this article will demonstrate how the mission and management (...) of SCK CEN were critically followed by a variety of stakeholders. Furthermore, the Belgian government explicitly aimed to allow corporate principles to guide the reorganization of the research centre by hiring consultants from Arthur Andersen. This episode in the history of nuclear research invites historians of science to reflect upon both the politics of Big Science in an era in which its original principles were fundamentally questioned and the historical development of new norms and expectations attached to this phenomenon. (shrink)

We discuss the implementation of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) within a project for the development of an AI-supported exergame for assisted movement training, outline outcomes and reflect on methodological opportunities and limitations. We adopted the responsibility-by-design (RbD) standard (CEN CWA 17796:2021) supplemented by methods for collaborative, ethical reflection to foster and support a shift towards a culture of trustworthiness inherent to the entire development process. An embedded ethicist organised the procedure to instantiate a collaborative learning effort and implement RRI (...) in a translational context. Within the interdisciplinary setting of the collaboration and with the support of a technoethicist, we successfully identified relevant, project-specific challenges and developed a roadmap with derived actions, thus meaningfully integrating RRI into the development process. We discuss the methodological procedure in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency, the allocation of responsibilities and roles, particularly regarding potential frictions in the interdisciplinary context with embedded ethics, and the challenges of the translational context. We conclude that the responsibility-by-design standard effectively established a productive workflow for collaborative investigation and work on ethical challenges. We reflect on methodological difficulties and propose possible avenues to our approach. (shrink)

This volume is one of the most remarkable works in the history of economic thought. First published in 1893, its principal significance rests in its argument that economic theory, however technical or pragmatic, is necessarily formed by and derives its meaning from larger moral and philosophical systems and assumptions. Bonar traces the inexorable presence of this moral and philosophical element in a vast, though highly nuanced, survey of the economic aspect of major thinkers from Plato to Darwin and demonstrates how (...) modern economic thought, in turn, grew out of one or another branch of philosophy. Bonar begins with a consideration of Plato and Aristotle, examining their conceptions of wealth, production and distribution, and civil society. Discussions of the Stoics, Epicurians, and early Christianity explore complications introduced by these bodies of thought. His analysis of the classical and medieval world is followed by an extensive treatment of the concept of natural law, from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment, describing its influence and its relation to ideas of natural rights. The book's later sections concentrate on the dominant modes of ninteenth-cen-tury thought: utilitarianism, idealism, and materialism. Bonar identifies and explores the philosophical topics on which the conduct of technical economic analysis makes assumptions: human nature and human wants, the nature and role of the state, the relation of the individual to society, the nature and origin of property, and the role of ideals in socioeconomic life. He concludes by examining the implications for economics of the theory of evolution arising from the work of Darwin and others. The continuing interest of this volume for economists, philosophers, and sociologists lies in Bonar's contention that at the heart of the relationship of philosophy to economics is the problem of order: the ongoing need to reconcile conflicts between freedom and control, continuity and change, hierarchy and equality. In his reading, the fundamental question to which philosophy and economics are both brought to bear is that of changing the structure of power and opportunity in the social economy. This is, in short, a classic in the history of economics as well as the economic element in intellectual history. (shrink)

A prefrontal control system that is less mature than the limbic reward system in adolescence is thought to impede self-regulatory abilities, which could contribute to poor dietary choices and obesity. We, therefore, aimed to examine whether structural morphology of the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala are associated with dietary decisions and obesity in children and adolescents. Seventy-one individuals between the ages of 8–22 years participated in this study; each participant completed a computer-based food choice task and a T1- and T2-weighted (...) structural brain scans. Two indices of obesity were assessed, including age- and sex-specific body mass index and waist-to-height ratio. The behavioral task included rating 60 food stimuli for tastiness, healthiness, and liking. Based on each participant’s self-ratings, 100 binary food choices were then made utilizing a computer mouse. Dietary “self-control” was calculated as the proportion of trials where the individual chose the healthier food item over the total number of trials. Cortical thickness and amygdala subnuclei volumes were quantified using FreeSurfer 6.0 and CIT168 atlas, respectively. We found that WHtR was negatively associated with the thickness of bilateral superior frontal, left superior temporal, right insula, and right inferior temporal regions. We also found WHtR to be positively associated with the volume of the central nucleus region of the amygdala, after adjusting for the hemisphere, age, sex, and intracranial volumes. A similar data pattern was observed when BMIz was used. Moreover, we found that across all participants, thinner right superior frontal cortex and larger left CEN volumes predicted lower dietary self-control. These results suggest that differential development of the PFC and amygdala relate to obesity and dietary self-control. Further longitudinal studies are merited to determine causal relationships among altered PFC to amygdala neural circuitry, dietary self-control, and obesity. (shrink)

The most striking region of structural differentiation of a eukaryotic chromosome is the kinetochore. This chromosomal domain plays an integral role in the stability and propagation of genetic material to the progeny cells during cell division. The DNA component of this structure, which we refer to as the centromere, has been localized to a small region of 220–250 base pairs within the chromosomes from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The centromere DNA (CEN) is organized in a unique structure in the cell (...) nucleus and is required for chromosome stability during both mitotic and meiotic cell cycles. The centromeres from one chromosome can stabilize small circular minichromosomes or other yeast chromosomes. The centromeres may therefore interact with the same components of the segregation apparatus regardless of the chromosome in which they reside. The CEN DNA does not encode any regulatory RNAs or proteins, but rather is a cis‐acting element that provides genetic stability to adjacent DNA sequences. (shrink)

In 2005, the relative risk of death was 30% higher for African Americans than White Americans, with differences in cardiovascular mortality accounting for the largest portion of this disparity (Cen...

This article aims at analyzing the relation between what „ghetto“ signifies beginning in the Christian Middle Age (the Jewish Quarter) up to the modern time (the Cen- tral-European Jewish Ghetto, the West-European labor district, the Afro-American neighborhood of North-Ameri- can cities ) and what the “closed area” (any kind of district situated in a contemporary metropolis) signifies. I have tried to analyze this relation in its evolution, ap- proaching both the continuity, the similarity of original types of ghettoes to contemporary (...) ones, and the dis- continuity, the differences existing between the two types of ghetto. The segregation and self-isolation poli- cies define and differentiate the ghetto in its essence. Starting from a contemporary point of view, I try to analyze the ghetto from a theoretical perspective, and from an architectural point of view. (shrink)

Poetizing is the originary naming of the gods. But the poetic word first obtains its naming power when the gods themselves bring us to speak. Martin Heidegger The first decades of the twentieth cen...

Religious congregations of women have been socialized in a tradition rich in gospel values, but one which was also hierarchical and patriarchal. My own congregation, the Little Company of Mary, is an international one, involved in health care since our foundation in Victorian England. Within both spheres, religious and medical, the patriarchal influence was strong and uncritically accepted until the second half of the twentieth cen tury. Here, I attempt to bring feminist and nursing philosophy to bear on the care (...) debate within nursing. An ethic of care demands that we go beyond competence, important as that is. This ethic, found to be at the heart of our LCM identity, suggests to us today, that our founder, Mary Potter was a feminist ahead of her time. (shrink)

Most interpretations of Orwell's political thought have concentrated on his critique of the ideology of totalitari-anism, especially as this ideology manifested itself in the 1930's in the Soviet Union under Stalin and in Nazi Germany under Hitler.2 These interpretations have provided valuable insights into Orwell's own perceptions of the dangers of cen-tralized state tyranny. However, they suffer from two weak-nesses connected with the concept of totalitarianism. First, the concept of totalitarianism as it has been developed in aca-demic political science has (...) been related specifically to the Soviet and Nazi experiences, and, thus, does not adequately account for other types of tyrannical regimes.3 Second, the application of the totalitarian model to the examination of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four tends to emphasize the pro-phetic aspects of the novel and to diminish its character as an investigation of contemporary political life.4 Instead of using the normal rubric of totalitarianism, I shall examine Orwell's political thought as expressed in Nineteen Eighty-four in terms of the conception of the modern state as a teleocracy, a con-cept which was elaborated by the political philosopher Michael Oakeshott. (shrink)

Excerpt from The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas Several methods may be used in attempting a comprehensive state ment of the philosophy of a great thinker, but frequently no one method alone Will enable us to grasp the essence of his system. Sev eral methods must be used to Obtain a comprehensive knowledge of an extensive and important philosophical system. Because Of the receptive character Of Scholasticism, especially in the thirteenth cen tury, and because of its high regard for tradition (...) and authority, we shall consider the thinkers and philosophical movements to which St. Thomas was indebted. But this method is by no means the only one or the most important. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

The anal y sis is based on a the ory that con cen trates on com mu ni ca tion as the axis of in ter me di a tion be tween pol i tics and de moc - racy. It at tempts to an swer the ques tions: i) Should pol i tics be de fined as a com mu ni ca tive fact?, ii) Can so ci ety’s com mu ni ca tive sy..

This ar ti cle pro poses to out line a gen eral itin er ary as to the emer gence of a gen der pro - posal based on fem i nism and its pro mo tion in the in ter na tional and Latin Amer i can en vi ron ment. It also de fines this cat e gory which dates from XVII cen tury France, and of fers some..

Animalism is the view that we are primarily living beings of the species Homo sapiens. Being alive consists in the realization of biological processes. Accordingly, our conditions of existence and persistence have nothing to do with things like mental continuity. Hence, mental capabilities seem to be irrelevant to understanding the core of our nature as human beings. In recent years, the debate on animalism has focused on certain intractable ontological puzzles. However important these puzzles may be, they do not get (...) to the heart of the widespread reluctance to accept animalism. One crucial reason lies in the fact that this view does not seem to respect our deeply entrenched understanding of ourselves as mental beings. The aim of my paper is thus to provide a stronger conception of the ontological relevance of our mental capabilities – without giving up the cen- tral claims of animalism. In particular, I discuss three proposals: first, the idea that being a human being involves the potential to develop mental capabilities; second, the idea that it is an essential feature of human beings to have a brain with the natural function of developing mental capabilities; and third, the idea that the ontological relevance of mental capabilities may emerge in the context of specifying something like the general human form of life. (shrink)

the present article aims at reconstructing Robert Nozick’s cen-tral arguments about the extreme positions held by North American li-bertarians who do not distinguish between Welfare state and totalitarian state. Despite divergences on a pivotal question, that of the state, there are some affinities between Nozick and this current of thought. Contrary to the anarchist theory, the Minimal state is preferable to the state of nature as described by John locke.

During the Middle Ages, the principle of legitimate or right authority constituted a central part of the just war tradition. The question of which actors had the authority to declare war was so cen...

BackgroundThe neural activity of irritable bowel syndrome patients in the resting state without any intervention has not been systematically studied. The purpose of this study was to compare the resting-state brain functions of IBS patients with healthy controls.MethodsThe published neuroimage studies were obtained from electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core, CNKI Database, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, and CBMdisc. Search dates were from inception to March 14th, 2022. The studies were identified by the preidentified inclusion and exclusion (...) criteria. Two independent reviewers compiled the studies and evaluated them for quality and bias.ResultsAltogether 22 fMRI studies were included in this review. The risk of bias of the included studies was generally low. The findings indicated that in IBS patients, increased or decreased brain areas were mostly associated with visceral sensations, emotional processing, and pain processing. According to brain network research, IBS may exhibit anomalies in the DMN, CEN, and emotional arousal networks. The fluctuations in emotion and symptoms in IBS patients were associated with alterations in the relevant brain regions.ConclusionThis study draws a preliminary conclusion that there are insufficient data to accurately distinguish the different neurological features of IBS in the resting state. Additional high-quality research undertaken by diverse geographic regions and teams is required to reach reliable results regarding resting-state changed brain regions in IBS. (shrink)

Of all the Cambridge Platonists, Henry More has attracted the most scholar ly interest in recent years, as the nature and significance of his contribution to the history of thought has come to be better understood. This revival of interest is in marked contrast to the neglect of More's writings lamented even by his first biographer, Richard Ward, a regret echoed two centuries after his 1 death. Since then such attention as there has been to More has not always served (...) him well. He has been dismissed as credulous on account of his belief in witchcraft while his reputation as the most mystical of the Cambridge 2 school has undermined his reputation as a philosopher. Much of the interest in More in the present century has tended to focus on one particular aspect of his writing. There has been considerable interest in his poems. And he has come to the attention of philosophers thanks to his having corresponded with Descartes. Latterly, however, interest in More has been rekindled by renewed interest in the intellectual history of the seventeenth century and Renaissance. And More has been studied in the context of seventeenth-cen tury science and the wider context of seventeenth-century philosophy. Since More is a figure who belongs to the Renaissance tradition of unified sapientia he is not easily compartmentalised in the categories of modern disciplines. Inevitably discussion of anyone aspect of his thought involves other aspects. (shrink)

There is a traditional view, maintained by Aquinas and others, which holds that there is a mutual entailment between the power to Create Ex Nihilo and the property of omnipotence. In his Metaphysical Disputations, however, Suarez attacks the traditional view by pointing out a seriousflaw in Aquinas’s argument. Suarez claims that there is no reason in principle why God cannot miraculously bestow CEN-power to creatures––albeit in a limitedform––even on the assumption that God cannot make creatures omnipotent. In this paper the (...) authors argue that the debate can be resolved in favor of Aquinas;that CEN-power does indeed strictly imply omnipotence. After clarifying a sufficient condition for the property of omnipotence, the authors argue that attention to amodest possible worlds semantics and some interesting properties of counterfactuals are together sufficient to show that beings with CEN-power are in every case beings that are omnipotent. (shrink)

The development of nuclear energy technologies in the second half of the 20th century came with great hopes of rebuilding nations recovering from the devasta-tion of the Second World War or recently released from colonial rule. In coun-tries like France, India, the USA, Canada, Russia, and the United Kingdom, nuclear energy became the symbol of development towards a modern and technologically advanced future. However, after more than six decades of experi-ence with nuclear energy production, and in the aftermath of the (...) Fukushima nuclear disaster, it is safe to say that nuclear energy production is not without its problems.Some of these problems have their origins in the very materiality of the technolo-gies involved. For example, not only does the use of highly radioactive materials give rise to risks for the current generation (e.g., in the potential for disaster when reactors melt down) but high-level radioactive waste from nuclear energy production presents a serious intergenerational problem for which an acceptable final solution or its implementation remains elusive. Moreover, nuclear energy technologies have specific social and political consequences. For example, they have been said to be authoritarian technologies (Winner, 1980), requiring cen-tralized authority, secrecy, and technocratic decision-making. While some of these problems could have been foreseen before nuclear energy technologies were introduced, others only arose after these technologies were already integrated into the social and infrastructural fabric of our lives. Addition-ally, new technologies (e.g., Generation III, III+ and IV reactors) are still being developed, bringing with them new and uncertain hazards and risks. Ignorance and uncertainty about the possible deleterious effects of introducing a new technology are inevitable, especially if the technology is complex, large time-scales are involved, or risks depend on social or political factors unforeseen in the design stage. However, this should not deter us from developing and intro-ducing new technologies. Rather, it should motivate us to organize these ‘exper-iments’ with new technologies in society in such a way that we can learn about their possible hazards and risks as effectively and responsibly as possible (van de Poel, 2011, 2015). In this way, it is possible to minimize risks and avoid unwant-ed moral, social or political developments. However, organizing such experi-ments responsibly also means that one could come to the conclusion that continuing an experiment is no longer responsible or desirable. Should we be prepared for such a scenario, and if so, how could we do that? One possible strategy to tackle this issue is that the technology and its introduction should be reversible. The aim of this thesis is to further explore this strategy by answering the following main research question (RQ) and accompanying subquestions (SQ):RQ: What are the implications of reversibility for the responsible develop-ment and implementation of nuclear energy technologies?SQ1: Under what conditions can nuclear energy technologies be considered reversible?SQ2: Why should nuclear energy technologies be reversible?SQ3: If so, how could the reversibility of nuclear energy technologies be achieved?After the introductory chapter 1, the chapters that form the main body of this dissertation each provide a distinct contribution to answering the three subques-tions and, by extension, the main research question. Guided by three historical case studies of nuclear energy technology development (i.e., India, France and the USA), chapter 2 answers the first subquestion by formulating the two condi-tions under which it can be considered reversible, i.e., 1) the ability to stop the further development and deployment of a that technology in society, and 2) the ability to undo the undesirable outcomes (material, institutional or symbolic) of the development and deployment of the technology. Chapter 3 subsequently tackles the second subquestion by establishing the general desirability of technological reversibility by virtue of its relation to responsibility in Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical phenomenology. It argues that technology development is a legitimate response to responsibility but inevitably falls short of the responsibility that inspires it, incessantly calling for technological and political change in the process. Having thus argued that nuclear energy technologies should ideally be reversible, chap-ters 4 and 5 work towards specific strategies to achieve technological reversibil-ity. Chapter 4 first investigates the processes that make it difficult to stop the further development and implementation of a nuclear energy technology in society, thus provid-ing input on how to fulfill the first condition for the reversibility of nuclear energy technologies. To do so, it presents a phenomenological perspective on technology and its adoption based on the work of Alfred Schutz. It also explores different ways in which technology adoption drives the processes of path depend-ence towards technological lock-in. Chapter 5 examines the history of geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the USA. It identifies a number of concrete policy pitfalls that could lead to lock-in and that should consequently be avoided. It also presents a number of general design strategies that could facilitate the undoing of undesirable consequences of a technology, thus providing input on how to fulfill the second condition for the reversibility of nuclear energy technol-ogies.Chapter 6 summarizes the central findings of the thesis and explains how these help to answer the research questions. On top of this, it reflects on a number of complications connected to reversibility considerations. Based on this, it is concluded that the question of irreversibility and reversibility is context- and technology-specific and a matter of degree. The chapter concludes with a reflec-tion on generalizations and limitations of the results. Finally, chapter 7 discusses the implications of this dissertation’s results for responsibly experimenting with nuclear energy technologies in society. (shrink)

Uto pia has had am ple dis cus sion and re - quires per ma nent re for mu la tion in each at tempt at def i ni tion or dis cus sion. The changes pro - duced on the his tor i cal and philo soph i cal plane to wards the end of the XXth cen tury im posed a re vi sion of this con cept, es pe cially..

El programa del Papa Francisco es la reforma de la Iglesia en salida misionera. Una Iglesia en salida se descentra, porque se centra en Cristo por la conversión, y en el ser humano por la misión. Dado que el discípulo com- parte la vida con la Persona, y la misión de Jesús, la conversión a Él lleva a parti- cipar de su misión. Esta es la figura del discípulo misionero. Solo si se está cen- trado en Dios es posible ir (...) hacia las peri- ferias del mundo. Hoy preferimos una Iglesia accidentada, herida y manchada por salir a la calle, antes que una Iglesia enferma por la comodidad de aferrarse a las propias seguridades, una Iglesia que salga a las periferias, más que una temerosa de equivocarse y sometida a estructuras anquilosantes. (shrink)

Xenocrates of Athens was a sculptor and theoretician of the 3rd cen. B.C., whose now lost writings were used as basic sources by Pliny the Elder in his 34th and 35th Books of Natural History, about Sculpture and Painting respectively. It is strongly believed that the progressive model of the development of art in both books has Xenocratian origins: influenced by the tradition of Democritus, Xenocrates had explained the evolution of art as a process of resolution of artistic problems. His (...) narrative was, though, a descriptive one without a theoretical or philosophical background. A similar case had prevailed in the Historiography of Art for many centuries, up to the beginnings of the 20th cen., when the rise of Philosophical Hermeneutics changed the picture. Art Historians began to create theories and methods trying for the first time to explain at a theoretical level the phenomena both of the development of art and of the capability of later perceivers to understand previous artworks and their changes through time. Ernst Gombrich’s theory that combines modern and postmodern ideas is to be understood as influenced both by the Xenocratian idea that there is always an innovative person who first overcomes traditional methods triggering the progress of art’s development and by the Popperian notion of “trial and error” as the main schema for the development of science. (shrink)

While previous research has suggested that adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse may be more prone to produce false memories, little is known about the consequences of childhood neglect on basic memory processes. For this reason, the authors investigated how a group of women with a history of childhood emotional neglect and diagnosed with recurrent Major Depressive Disorder performed on the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm in comparison to control groups. The results indicated that women with MDD and CEN were actually (...) less prone to produce false memories relative to both women with MDD but no CEN and healthy women without MDD and any form of childhood maltreatment. These findings were explained in terms of the inability to extract/retrieve gist memories that support false recognition of critical lures, an explanation that seems to fit well with emerging MRI findings linking childhood neglect to reduced volume of brain regions associated to memory function. (shrink)

Excerpt from Opera Omnia The Works of J ohn of Salisbury have never before been collected together, nor have they ever until now, either wholly or in part, been printed in this country. Yet the writer was without doubt superior to all his contempo raries, and his Works are by far the most valuable compositions which have come down to us, from the twelfth and thirteenth cen tuties. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic (...) books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:A New Essenism: Heinrich Graetz and MysticismJonathan M. ElukinSince the Reformation, European Christians have sought to understand the origins of Christianity by studying the world of Second Temple Judaism. These efforts created a fund of scholarly knowledge of ancient Judaism, but they labored under deep-seated pre judices about the nature of Judaism. When Jewish scholars in nineteenth-century Europe, primarily in Germany, came to study their own history as part (...) of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, they too looked to the ancient Jewish past as a crucia l element in understanding Jewish history.A central figure in the Wissenschaft movement was Heinrich Graetz (1817–1891). 1 In his massive history of the Jews, the dominant synthesis of Jewish history until well into the twentieth century, Graetz constructed a narrative of Jewish history that imbedded mysticism deep within the Jewish past, finding its origins in the first-cen tury sectarian Essenes. 2 Anchoring mysticism among the Essenes was crucial for Graetz’s larger narrative of the history of Judaism, which he saw as a continuing struggle between the corrosive effects of mysticism [End Page 135] and the rational rabbinic tradition. An unchanging mysticism was a mirror image of the unchanging monotheistic essence of normative Judaism that dominated Graetz’s understanding of Jewish history. Ironically, this narrative model of the history of mystic ism may have been influenced by Christian attacks on Judaism itself, a point which I can briefly take up at the conclusion of the article. First let us turn to the role that the Essenes played in Graetz’s historical ideology of mysticism.Graetz inherited a long intellectual tradition about the identity of first-century sectarians. Ever since the fourth-century historian Eusebius asserted that the therapeutae, a group mentioned by Philo, were actually Christian monks, the religious identity of these Alexandrian sectarians—distinct from the Essenes—had been the subject of constant debate. 3 Were they Jews or Christian ascetics? During the Middle Ages the tradition articulated by Eusebius gave the Church an additional claim for the antiquity of one of its central institutions. The religious identity of the Essenes, a seemingly similar sectar ian group mentioned by Josephus and other ancient historians, also became a point of dispute. 4 The secluded, monastic life of the Essenes made them equally likely candidates to be proto-Christians. The dispute over the alleged Christian nature of the therapeutae and the Essenes would survive, after generations of Catholic and Protestant sch olarly polemic, into nineteenth-century scholarship on late antique Judaism. 5It was in the work of Graetz that the Essenes and their putative relationship to Christianity received the fullest treatment by a Jewish historian. 6 Since the only documented therapeutae were in Alexandria, they could not be considered [End Page 136] likely sources—even if they were Jewish—for a nascent Palestinian Christianity. The Essenes offered more fertile ground to explore the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity.Graetz’s argument that Jesus and Christianity had their origins among the Essenes developed in the context of a fierce scholarly polemic between Christians and Jews in the nineteenth century as well as in the context of internal Jewish debates. Before exp loring this larger background, let us first see how Graetz made his case for the connection between Jesus and the Essenes. Making this connection was crucial for Graetz if Christianity was to be understood as the first systematic expression of a mysticism that had flourished among the Essenes.The Essenes were the first, according to Graetz, to articulate a firmly held belief in the coming of the Messiah, a belief which had grown in intensity during the turmoil and oppression of Roman rule. 7 Christianity, “or rather this Essenism intermingled with foreign elements,” had its origins in this messianic longing. 8 It was no surprise that John the Baptist was the first to proclaim the arrival of the Messiah, since he was so obviously an Essene. 9 Graetz makes his case for John’s Essene background on the apparent similarity of their habits, most notably the common theme of daily immersion and the fact that both John the Baptist (“oder richtiger der Essäer” [“or rather... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS Men Astutely Trained: A History of the Jesuits in the American Cen· tury. By PETER McDONOUGH. New York: Free Press, 1992. xxi +616 pp. $24.95. Last summer in Paris, sitting at one of the sidewalk tables that line the Boulevard S. Germain, a young Jesuit priest just finishing his doc· toral studies narrated some of the horror stories associated these days with " the joh market." Having (...) suffered through my own variation on that theme, I could only share with him the results of my own experi· ence. This novelty in the Jesuit stance provides Peter McDonough with a major theme in his narrative, for he describes the change in the So· ciety " from a rule-governed hierarchy to a role-driven network " (p. 459). He locates this transition in what he calls " the American century," roughly from 1900 to 1965. McDonough's study, an exciting and profitable read, traces the shift from Aquinas to the Age of Aquarius. Especially for an extern (i.e. a non-Jesuit), he has taken on a formidable challenge. Generally well received by the Jesuits, Men Astutely Trained tells how American Catholicism moved from an immigrant church to an upwardly mobile society. In the shifting loyalties, aggravated by the Second Vatican Council, Jesuits and their institutions felt the crunch. Since this innovation, loosely identified with " the democratization of culture," has precipitated the Society of Jesus "into the most serious crisis in its history " (p. xiv), McDonough must do a counterpoint he· tween the inner life and its external expressions. So the saga gains both breadth and depth. Without denigrating the accomplishment, at once earnest and literate, I want to take issue with the hook. As one of my colleagues taught me many years ago, we cannot stimulate discourse if everybody is con· tinually agreeing. First then, I want to comment on the flawed methodology. Next, I will say something about its thesis and conclude with a few reflections on "modernity." For Jesuits of my generation, the work of Malinowski proved normative. The anthropologist spent ten years among the natives who in· habited the Trobriand Islands in Melanesia. It apparently took that long for him to understand the stories and symbols, their myths and rituals. When he put his encyclopedia together, he could describe their institutions and social structures. In short, he worked from the inside out. McDonough, on the other hand, works from the outside in. In my 711 712 BOOK REVIEWS opinion, this represents a major failing in methodology. Two consequences flow from this deficiency. The author is never able to relate the works of the Society to the principal texts of the Society. The Spiritual Exercises, for example, does not rate even a mention. The Constitutions merits a fleeting reference on p. 160. St. Ignatius himself does not appear. Divorced as he is from the principal experience of Jesuits, our author cannot provide an adequate understanding for any of their priorities. This awareness makes his claim to present "the inside of the Society of Jesus" (p. 462) somewhat pretentious. Because he does not have the interior life in focus, many of the readings strike me as unnecessarily cluttered. He has yet to recognize the validity of John Stuart Mill's principle, "No man's synthesis can be greater than his analysis." While he has not left out three-fourths the data, perhaps he has neglected one-half. Secondly, he does not acknowledge Jesuits principally as churchmen. Instead, he makes us look like an acephalous torso. The church-con· nection reveals a major dimension to understanding the Society's coherence and institutions. It does not occur to the author that Jesuit priests are also bound to the universal discipline of the Church as found, for example, in the Codex Juris Canonici (1917). According to the Pio-Benedictine Code, all priests (and not just Jesuits) are expected to recite the breviary, to stay away from politics, and to avoid all "spectacles" including baseball games. Moreover, it is not entirely true to say that Jesuits acted independently of local bishops. Jesuits were able to establish their schools precisely because the local bishop invited them and encouraged the work. The ecclesial dimension becomes especially... (shrink)

Ve své práci se autor zamýšlí nad používáním metod exaktních věd v ekonomii. Upozorňuje na problémy dnešních ekonomik vyvolané hospodářskou recesí a nalézá ideje, jimiž bylo dnešní ekonomické uvažování ovlivněno. Pouští se do analýzy racionalistického myšlení 19. století, které stálo za změnou obsahu výrazu "věda" a zamýšlí se nad následky, které to pro budoucí vývoj mělo. Dále analyzuje hloubku ovlivnění ekonomie exaktními vědami a svá zjištění demonstruje na příkladu laureátů Nobelových cen za ekonomii. Zjišťuje, že některé ceny byly uděleny spíše (...) za aplikaci matematických metod a pokusů o kvantifikaci, nežli za skutečnou analýzu lidského jednání. V druhé části práce se autor zamýšlí nad možnostmi vytváření svobodnější a "spravedlivější" společnosti a možnostmi vědců v této oblasti. Analyzuje činnost plánovačů a podstatu liberálního řádu. (shrink)

Cómo pueden las emociones favorecer una sociedad democrática más justa y estable? En tal sentido, es necesario preguntarse por el papel que han de jugar las Humanidades, para dar viabilidad y continuidad a tal proyecto. El presente artículo se cen-tra en el análisis de dos tragedias de Sófocles, Áyax y Filoctetes. A través de sus obras, Sófocles propone una revisión crítica de la moral agonal del héroe. Es preciso desplazar la mirada desde el campo de batalla a la pólis. Por (...) ello se necesita un nuevo ciudadano, y repensar conceptos como los de venganza, crueldad, honor, justicia, compasión. Las trage-dias cumplen así una función doble: cuestionar la moral tradicional, revisando el presente, y modificar las emociones y pensamientos de los espectadores. A través de sus tragedias, Sófocles nos propondrá un humanismo cívico, donde la libertad y la responsabilidad han de ejercerse en un contexto de interacciones personales, sabiendo que es imposible tener todo bajo control. Por ello, irremediablemente surgirán conflictos trágicos, que habrá que abordar desde su complejidad, apelando a la moderación y a la prudencia, desde la plena conciencia de nuestra humana finitud y vulnerabilidad. (shrink)