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1941 results in Cambridge Elements

Page 3 of 98

Contemporary Non-Positivism

Contemporary Non-Positivism
  • Emad H. Atiq
  • Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 February 2025
  • This Element defends and clarifies the thesis that the legality of a system of rules depends on its moral features. Positivists who deny this dependence struggle to explain: (1) the traditional classification of moral norms as a form of a priori law; (2) judicial reliance on moral norms in legal discovery; (3) persistent theoretical disagreement about intra-systemic, law-determining facts; (4) why radically arbitrary or immoral schemes of social organization represent borderline cases of law; and (5) why law, like other artifacts, can be evaluated in a kind-relative sense (“as law”). Meanwhile, traditional versions of non-positivism overstate the dependence going further than the desiderata warrant. A moderate theory is formulated: law is an artifact whose existence depends on adequately performing an essentially normative function. The theory's justification lies in its explanatory power: a comparison with other “value-driven” artifacts, such as artworks, proves vital for understanding legal language, reasoning, and practice.
Scientific Realism

Scientific Realism
  • Timothy D. Lyons
  • Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 February 2025
  • The scientific realism debate directly addresses the relation between human thought and the reality in which it finds itself. A core question: Can we justifiably believe that science accurately describes the reality that lies beneath the limits of human experience? Exploring this question, this Element begins at the most foundational level of scientific realism, the endeavor to justify belief in the existence of unobservables by way of abduction. Raising anti-realist challenges, some much discussed in the literature but also some generally overlooked, it works its way toward more refined variants of scientific realism. Because scientific realism is the default position of many scientific realists themselves often assuming it is the default position of scientists– the emphasis will be on the challenges. Those challenges will also motivate the variants of scientific realism traced. The Element concludes with a brief articulation of the author's own position, Socratic scientific realism.
Central Asia - Russia's Near Abroad or Crossroads of Asia?

Central Asia - Russia's Near Abroad or Crossroads of Asia?
  • Richard Pomfret
  • Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
  • This Element assesses the claim that Central Asian countries hold a special position as Russia's near abroad. The region has been important for millennia, and only after conquest in the second half of the nineteenth century did Russia become important for Central Asia. This connection became stronger after 1917 as Central Asia was integrated into the Soviet economy, with rail, roads, and pipelines all leading north to Russia. After independence, these connections were gradually modified by new trade links and by new infrastructure, while Russia's demand for unskilled labour during the 1999–2014 oil boom created a new economic dependency for Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. In 1991, political independence could not be accompanied by economic independence, but over the next three decades economic dependence on Russia was reduced, and the Central Asian countries have felt increasingly able to adopt political positions independent of Russia.
The League of Nations

The League of Nations
  • Joseph Maiolo, Laura Robson
  • Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 February 2025
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  • The Element challenges histories of the League of Nations that present it as a meaningful if flawed experiment in global governance. Such accounts have largely failed to admit its overriding purpose: not to work towards international cooperation among equally sovereign states, but to claim control over the globe's resources, weapons, and populations for its main showrunners (including the United States) – and not through the gentle arts of persuasion and negotiation but through the direct and indirect use of force and the monopolisation of global military and economic power. The League's advocates framed its innovations, from refugee aid to disarmament, as manifestations of its commitment to an obvious universal good and, often, as a series of technocratic, scientific solutions to the problems of global disorder. But its practices shored up the dominance of the western victors and preserved longstanding structures of international power and civilizational-racial hierarchy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Scholarly Editing in Perspective

Scholarly Editing in Perspective
  • Wim Van Mierlo
  • Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
  • Scholarly Editing in Perspective offers a critical reflection on the theory and methods of textual editing, as a contribution to a wider, comparative understanding of editorial practice. The analysis, written in a cogent, concise and accessible manner, offers an insight into the textual-philosophical principles and foundations of scholarly editing from the beginning of the twentieth century to the new opportunities offered by digital technologies in the twenty-first. Scholarly editing is presented as a process that makes an intervention in the text whereby the editor mediates between competing versions of textuality, authorship, and authority. In analysing the assumptions, beliefs, and critical underpinnings of scholarly editing, this Element provides a new perspective on the standard editorial models within the English tradition, how they have evolved, and how they are adapted for the digital age.
Maximos the Confessor

Maximos the Confessor
  • Androprimacy and Sexual Difference
  • Luis Josué Salés
  • Published online:
    18 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
  • Maximos affirms in various texts (such as Difficulty 41) that sexual differentiation into male and female is inconsistent with the divine intention and will therefore be eschatologically eradicated. His affirmations have elicited a half-dozen conflicting interpretations, such as the metaphorization of these statements, where 'male' refers to drive (thymos) and 'female' to desire (epithymia), which become subordinate to reason (logos). Others maintain that he refers to the resolution of male–female agonistics. Yet others have criticized accounts that mollify the starkness of Maximos' affirmations. This Element goes further in arguing that Maximos tacitly envisions the elimination of sexual difference as sublimation of all sexual difference into male singularity. This Element overviews the exegetical and medical-anthropological precedents that framed Maximos thinking on this subject and examines some of his key texts, including his famed Difficulty 41 and several passages centered on explicating Eve and Adam, and Mary and Christ.
The Form and Theory of Literary Doodling

The Form and Theory of Literary Doodling
  • Jeremiah R. Mercurio, Daniel Gabelman
  • Published online:
    18 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
  • This Element investigates the phenomenon of literary doodling—the making of playful verbal and visual creations by professional authors while engaged in another activity. The first part focuses on defining the form and structure of doodles, comparing and contrasting them with adjacent genres such as sketches, caricatures, and illustrations. The second part explores the modality of doodling, examining doodles through the lenses of spectrality, liminality, and play. Drawing on a wide range of theories and backed up with numerous close readings, the Element argues that doodles, despite their apparent triviality, provide valuable insights into the creative processes, authorial habits, and finished works of literary doodlers. Ultimately, this study aims to legitimise doodles as worthy of serious critical attention, demonstrating how they trouble the meaning of texts, introduce semantic flexibility into literary works and their reception, and rejuvenate the joy of readerly discovery.
Reduction, Emergence and the Metaphysics in Science

Reduction, Emergence and the Metaphysics in Science
Learning from COVID-19 for Climate-Ready Urban Transformation

Learning from COVID-19 for Climate-Ready Urban Transformation
  • Darshini Mahadevia, Gian C. Delgado-Ramos, Janice Barnes, Joan Fitzgerald, Miho Kamei, Kevin Lanza, William Solecki, Minal Pathak, Martha Barata, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Maria Dombrov, Cynthia Rosenzweig
  • Published online:
    17 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
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  • Cities have suffered from three years of the COVID-19 pandemic and are increasingly experiencing exacerbated heatwaves, floods, and droughts due to climate change. Going forward, cities need to address both climate and public health crises effectively while reducing poverty and inequity, often in the context of economic pressure and declining levels of trust in government. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps in city readiness for simultaneous responses to pandemics and climate change, particularly in the Global South. However, these concurrent challenges to cities present an opportunity to reformulate current urbanization patterns and the economies and dynamics they enable. This Element focuses on understanding COVID-19's impact on city systems related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and vice versa, in terms of warnings, lessons learned, and calls to action. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Muslim Women in Science, Past and Present

Muslim Women in Science, Past and Present
  • Elmira Akhmetova
  • Published online:
    17 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025
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  • This Element examines issues related to Muslim women's engagement in science and scholarship both past and present. The first two parts discuss the contributions made by Muslim women to scholarly, scientific, and technological advancements. The third part discusses the factors that have contributed to a decline in Muslim women's scholarly involvement in Islamic civilisation, the veracity of historical accounts, and the constraints in original knowledge production in contemporary Muslim societies. It finds that there are no religious restrictions rooted in the Qur'an that forbid women from pursuing a profession in science, whether as learners or practitioners. Yet some economic and political circumstances, cultural influences, and outdated interpretations of Islam produce discrimination against women in Muslim societies, and lead to their underrepresentation in scientific research and academia.
The Problem of God in Buddhism

The Problem of God in Buddhism
  • Signe Cohen
  • Published online:
    17 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 March 2025
  • Since Buddhism does not include a belief in a personal god instrumental to the creation of the world or to human salvation, it is often assumed that gods play no part in Buddhism at all. This Element complicates the simplistic assessment of Buddhism as an 'atheistic religion' and discusses the various roles deities play in Buddhist texts and practice. The Problem of God in Buddhism includes a comprehensive analysis of the Buddhist refutations of a creator God, the idea of salvation without divine intervention, the role of minor deities in Buddhism, the question of whether Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can function as gods in certain forms of Buddhism, and the notion of the sacred as apart from the divine in Buddhist traditions.
About Suffering

About Suffering
  • On Louise Glück
  • Christos Hadjiyiannis
  • Published online:
    17 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 March 2025
  • Poetry has always courted suffering. Poets sing their suffering, we've been told, and there can be no poetry without suffering. Louise Glück wasn't too sure about that. Suffering features centrally in her poetry and she discussed its role in poetry in her critical writing, where she often retained the language of poetry as martyrdom. However, she was keen to stress that suffering's part in composition has been misplaced and misunderstood, its function idealised and fetishised. Surveying a wide range of texts about poetry's relationship to suffering, and drawing surprising links between very different voices, this book situates Glück both in the tradition of Rainer Maria Rilke's lyrical suffering and in the tradition of T. S. Eliot's impersonal approach to poetry. Glück's most powerful and characteristic discussion of suffering, it argues, takes place in her 1992 volume, The Wild Iris.
Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

Evolution and the Fate of Humankind
  • Peter A. Corning
  • Published online:
    15 February 2025
    Print publication:
    27 February 2025
  • In recent years we have come to understand better the forces that have shaped biological evolution over the course of time. Evolved purposiveness (teleonomy) in living systems themselves has been an important influence. Cooperative effects (synergies) of various kinds have also been influential. And the bioeconomics (functional costs and benefits) have been important constraints. Now we are facing a mounting survival crisis that may determine the future of life on Earth. We need to make a major course change, utilizing our insights into these important influences. Here is a review, and a 'prescription.'
Pure Cloning

Pure Cloning
  • Tuija Takala, Matti Häyry
  • Published online:
    14 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 March 2025
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  • This Element explores the rationality and morality of the kind of human reproductive cloning that does not involve genetic enhancements or other biological alterations in the individuals produced. The analysis is needed because, sooner or later, the technique will be safe enough to be tested; yet its pros and cons have not been sufficiently investigated. The literature abounds with defenses and criticisms of cloning but these do not distinguish between impure and pure forms, the one allowing the combination of reproduction and amendments, the other not. Therefore, cloning is condemned or condoned on grounds that have more to do with enhancements than the reproductive act. This Element shows how the conceptual landscape changes when the distinction is made visible and the arguments targeted at the production of a new life without the support or burden of the enhancement factor. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Transnational Crusoe, Illustration and Reading History, 1719–1722

Transnational Crusoe, Illustration and Reading History, 1719–1722
  • Sandro Jung
  • Published online:
    14 February 2025
    Print publication:
    06 March 2025
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  • Bringing illustration studies, the history of reading and transnational book history together, the Element offers an original micro-history of illustrated editions and iconic interpretations of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Unlike earlier accounts, it takes into account not only the copyright holder's editions but also studies Continental visualizations alongside a lower-end London abridgment issued by Edward Midwinter and illustrated by twenty-nine woodcuts. The Element covers the period from 1719 (the year of the work's first publication by William Taylor) to 1722 (the year Midwinter published his abridgment) and examines the illustrated editions published during that time, including those featuring translations of the work issued in Amsterdam (where Dutch and French translations were published) and in Germany. It recovers a hitherto unexplored archive of illustrations that played an essential role in the reading history – in Britain and abroad – of Robinson Crusoe. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Core Concepts in English for Specific Purposes

Core Concepts in English for Specific Purposes
  • Helen Basturkmen
  • Published online:
    13 February 2025
    Print publication:
    30 January 2025
  • This Element examines the foundational building blocks of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching. The emergence of ESP teaching as a global movement has been driven by economic, social, and educational factors. Currently, examples of ESP teaching can be seen across a wide variety of learner groups and contexts. Underlying this variety, two core concepts unify the field – teaching addresses learners' work- or study-related language needs, and teaching targets specialized English. These mainstay concepts have come to assume a taken-for-granted status in the field, and recent discussion and analytical review of them has been limited. The Element scrutinizes the concepts, examines the ideas behind them, identifies potential issues in their application and attempts to forge new links.
State-Owned Enterprises in Developed Market Economies

State-Owned Enterprises in Developed Market Economies
  • Theory and Empirics
  • Chiara F. Del Bo, Massimo Florio, Marco Frigerio, Daniela Vandone
  • Published online:
    13 February 2025
    Print publication:
    06 March 2025
  • After briefly reviewing the received doctrine prior to the waves of privatisations beginning in the 1980s, this Element offers a survey of various analytical frameworks on State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) from the perspective of applied welfare economics. The focus then shifts to a positive analysis of the comparative performance of private versus public enterprises, with a specific emphasis on SOEs in developed market economies over the past two decades; key metrics examined include profitability, productivity, internationalisation, innovativeness, and environmental sustainability. The Element also addresses empirical methodological issues, alongside contextual conditions and institutional factors that help explain the outcomes. It reviews selected contributions from public economics, industrial organisation, corporate governance, management studies and other social sciences. Overall, the Element aims to redefine a neglected research area in public economics, considering the new circumstances of the twenty-first century, where SOEs compete with other firms in developed market economies.
International Investment Income

International Investment Income
  • Joseph P. Joyce
  • Published online:
    13 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 March 2025
  • International investments yield returns in the forms of multinational profits, dividends and interest on equity and debt, and the charges on bank loans. These payments are recorded in the current account of the balance of payments and constitute a significant component of many countries' current accounts. Foreign direct investment- (FDI)-generated income is often channeled by firms through countries with low tax rates and regulations. Emerging markets regularly have large FDI income deficits, but a substantial portion of these payments are reinvested. Portfolio securities provide income from diversified securities and lower risk. Global banking offers financing from foreign sources, which may support stability during periods of domestic crises.
Incorporating Purpose

Incorporating Purpose
  • The New Legal Foundations for the Corporation and its Management
  • Blanche Segrestin, Kevin Levillain, Armand Hatchuel
  • Published online:
    11 February 2025
    Print publication:
    06 March 2025
  • In this Element, emerging legal forms of purpose-driven corporations are analyzed, revealing two important insights. First, within the traditional corporate law, a purpose is neither protected nor enforceable over time. While companies can have goals beyond profit, these are controlled by shareholders, who also appoint corporate managers. To protect social or environmental ambitions, especially during shareholder changes, a legal commitment from the company is essential. Second, these new legal forms highlight the need to redefine the corporation's legal foundations. In an era when management decisions impact entire populations and the planet, the law inadequately conceptualizes the conditions necessary for responsible management. The Element argues that embedding a purpose in the constitution of corporations can provide these new legal foundations. Ultimately, the Element suggests that purpose provides a unified theoretical framework for understanding the variety of corporate legal forms and for discussing their respective potentials and limitations in holding corporations accountable in the face of upcoming transitions.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Intercultural Citizenship in Higher Education

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Intercultural Citizenship in Higher Education
  • Irina Golubeva
  • Published online:
    10 February 2025
    Print publication:
    27 February 2025
  • Traditionally, the fields of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICitE) have been treated separately in Higher Education (HE) and beyond, with DEI often being associated with domestic diversity, while ICitE is often situated within international contexts. Although such binary perception is no longer adequate due to the superdiversity that characterizes today's university communities, the origins of this categorical distinction can be explained through an examination of the disciplinary roots, theoretical foundations, primary focus, and implementation approaches. Despite this difference in perspectives between the two fields, the Element argues that DEI and ICitE can complement each other in a variety of positive and productive ways. It does so by identifying the intersections between these two distinct yet interrelated fields and by providing an example of how they can be intentionally synergized in HE practice.

Page 3 of 98