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Reptiles: A Very Short Introduction

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Abstract

Reptiles: A Very Short Introduction introduces the extraordinary diversity of reptiles that have walked the Earth, from the dinosaurs and other reptiles of the past to modern-day living species. It discusses the adaptations reptiles made to first leave the water and colonize dry land, which fitted them for their unique ways of life. Considering the variety of different living groups of reptiles today, from lizards and snakes to crocodiles and turtles, it explores their biology and behaviour. Finally, this VSI assesses the threat of extinction to modern-day reptile species due to over-exploitation, habitat destruction, and climate change, and considers what can be done.
... Plato juxtaposed two arguments about education: instruction can dictate content to learners so that they commit to memory facts and/or ideas; learning environments can support students discovering knowledge on their own (Thomas, 2013). These opposing viewpoints introduced ongoing discussions on learning environments that have endured for centuries. ...
... While Aristotle and the Romans included coercion and corporal punishment in education, Plato took a different stance, introducing the concept of "play" in learning (Thomas, 2013, p. 5). Rather than following a master teacher in a rigid, restrictive environment (Thomas, 2013) often managed with punitive measures, Plato's play facilitates successful learning by sparking interests, stimulating epiphanies, and developing deeper intellectual comprehension. ...
... Organic learning borrows theoretical and practical applications from three areas: constructivist psychologists (Piaget, 1932(Piaget, , 1936(Piaget, , 1945(Piaget, , 1957(Piaget, , 1958(Piaget, /2013Piaget & Cook, 1952), social psychologists (Bruner, 1957(Bruner, , 1960(Bruner, , 1961(Bruner, , 1966(Bruner, , 1973Vygotsky, 1962Vygotsky, , 1978Vygotsky, , 1987Vygotsky, /1934, and behavioral psychologists (Skinner, 1938(Skinner, , 1948(Skinner, , 1951(Skinner, , 1953). Piaget's constructivism refers to individuals construct their own mental image of the world (Thomas, 2013). While Bruner claims that scaffolding should be used to provide learners with support until they are able to work independently without them. ...
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Organic learning engages undergraduates in discovering new knowledge based on prior learning through variety of guided activities that stimulate inquiry-based learning and critical thinking in the research process. Some activities include searching, browsing, accessing, gathering, evaluating, assessing, reflecting, organizing, linking, and synthesizing. Learning how to access information by using a variety of search strategies as well as delivery platforms such as Google, discovery, individual databases, and the internet can be overwhelming and challenging. When students discover how to search and access desired sources through a variety of explicitly designed information literacy instructions with clearly defined learning outcomes, they take ownership of developing their learning and research skills. Through organic learning, they experience lightbulb moments, asking questions, discussing topics, and then searching again for more information. Organic learning unconsciously involves students in self-education, engaging them in the research process without pressuring them to practice redundant, rote exercises. Often undergraduates encounter difficulty in conceptualizing the research process as complex and multi-faceted. The authors argue that organic learning strategies to activate prior learning that builds advanced searching skills and increase new scholarly knowledge.
... Aesthetic judgment (sometimes called aesthetic response) encompasses a wide range of emotional and critical responses which can go from extreme pleasantness to unpleasantness . Aesthetic judgment (Scruton (2009) uses judgment of beauty) involves a claim about the aesthetic quality of an object. According to Kant (2008Kant ( (1790) aesthetic judgment is an individual judgment that cannot be other than subjective. ...
... We also have, for example, senses of heat, balance and pain. Scruton (2009) notes that it is important to distinguish sensation related to emotional response from other kind of sensations. He points out that this emotional response occurs through connection of the senses to the mind. ...
... emissions from cars). Scruton (2009) suggests that smell is less capable of systematic organisation than sight and sound and therefore has limited value when approaching aesthetic experience, at least compared to vision and sound. ...
Thesis
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Summary The aesthetic experiences of cyclists in urban spaces have received limited attention in academic research and have not been studied as related to commuting before, but the valuation of aesthetics in this relationship may provide important knowledge of how to design urban spaces that stimulate pleasurable cycling to and from work. The purpose of this PhD study has been to investigate the way the physical features of urban space influence the experience of commuting bicyclists in terms of aesthetic meaning, identify these features and find out how such experience is of importance for their evaluation of the quality of their commuting routes. The study consists of three papers. The first paper gives a theoretical perspective on how bicycle commuters can be expected to experience features of urban space with an aesthetic meaning. For this purpose a conceptual framework of the components of importance was laid out for the complex study of the aesthetic experience of commuting cyclists. The definition of components in the framework was based on three theoretical fields: 1) phenomenology of sensory perception and experience, 2) urban design theory, and 3) environmental aesthetics. Interpretation of the aesthetic quality and meaning of the results from the study is proposed through applying theories within the field of environmental aesthetics, including a verbal scaling system on affective qualities proposed by James A. Russell and colleagues. The second paper explores the physical features of urban spaces that affect the aesthetic judgment of commuting cyclists, how other features influence their aesthetic experience and what “urban space types” include the identified features. A new qualitative mobile method was used, called a “bike-through” evaluation, in order to explore cyclist’s perspectives on their experiences of urban spaces. This evaluation included four pre-planned “bike-through” tours, cycled through up to eight defined “space types” with invited participants, and a qualitative group interview after each tour. Four tours were conducted within central areas in Reykjavík and Trondheim, which were chosen as cases to study. The third paper involves a study of how aesthetic experiences of urban spaces are involved in the perceived quality of commuting routes. For this investigation an online survey, with respondent’s embedded Google sketches of commuting routes, was conducted in Odense, Trondheim and Reykjavík. The results from the study showed that vegetation, proximity to the natural environment and quietness were the most important aesthetically pleasant features. The urban spaces that could be interpreted as lacking aesthetic quality were described in the appraisals as “boring” or “ugly” and referred to human-made environments constructed of concrete and overwhelmingly car-oriented landscapes. The priority given to the private car, reflected in the character of the environment, was found to symbolise the way in which the environment meets the needs of motorised transport before cyclists, causing cyclists to feel unwelcome. The motivational factors for a cyclist influence his/her valuation and definition of aesthetically favourable features. Aesthetically favourable urban spaces for commuting cycling include one or more of the aesthetically favourable features at close proximity, fulfil an acceptable functional quality, such as the ability to remain in a constant pace on the bicycle, and do not require attention that reduces perception of possible aesthetic features. Such urban spaces are of high importance for the quality of a bicycle route and the longer part of the total route length, the better. However, moderately changing characteristics in urban spaces also seem to have value in stimulating curiosity about and attention to the surroundings.
... Descartes was a rational thinker, influencing a 'constructive scepticism' movement, which did not openly defy, rather, was compatible with, Aristotelian thought predominant at the time (Hatch, 2003;Sorell, 2000). Aristotelian philosophy stemmed from the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 Before Common Era or BCE). ...
... Descartes' "I think therefore I am" legacy Descartes' standing legacy, thought to be his first and most general rule of metaphysics and philosophy, is 'Cogito, ergo sum' (in its Latin translation) (Garber, 1998(Garber, , 2003Sorell, 2000). This phrase has been interpreted and translated in the following ways; 'I think, hence I am' (Descartes, 1901/1962, 'I am thinking, therefore I am' (Sorell, 2000), and 'I am thinking, therefore I exist' (Audi, 1999). ...
... Descartes' "I think therefore I am" legacy Descartes' standing legacy, thought to be his first and most general rule of metaphysics and philosophy, is 'Cogito, ergo sum' (in its Latin translation) (Garber, 1998(Garber, , 2003Sorell, 2000). This phrase has been interpreted and translated in the following ways; 'I think, hence I am' (Descartes, 1901/1962, 'I am thinking, therefore I am' (Sorell, 2000), and 'I am thinking, therefore I exist' (Audi, 1999). Literal interpretation of text taken out of context can produce discrepancies. ...
Article
Home economics literature that references Cartesian philosophy often assumes a basic level of knowledge about René Descartes’ work. To address this erroneous assumption, this paper seeks to shed light on the nuances of Descartes' philosophy in the hope that home economists may appreciate better how their thinking has been shaped over the past millennium. This paper provides an historical critique of Descartes’ philosophy in relation to how he thought that human knowledge was possible. Aside from explaining several basic elements of his philosophy (especially dualism), this article celebrates Descartes’ method of doubt as the foundational tool for scientific inquiry and critical self- reflection. However, the paper also asserts that this ‘scientific’ approach to home economics practice negates respect for the complexity of life, and for ways of knowing that are not informed by scientific knowing (including spirituality, wisdom, consciousness, and intuition).
... These contradictions present opportunities for organizations to develop. Hegel explained that societies are always in a process of constant change because complex societies have components that are in contradiction with one another, i.e. thesis versus antithesis (Singer, 2001). With time, a synthesis forms to resolve the situation, but this synthesis, in turn, becomes the thesis of a new situation. ...
... The dialectical method is critical, not just because of the historical role of dialectics for CHAT, but because dialectics undergirds the underlying premises of CHAT; the elements of an activity system are not separate entities. The dialectic method of exposition, Hegel argued, is a method of scientific exposition that works because the world operates in a dialectical manner (Singer, 2001). This is an approach future scholars of IPLP can benefit from. ...
... In comparison, Chwe's use of 'ritual' is closer to the notion of institution, as it refers explicitly to population-level phenomena, such as the use of universally recognized artefacts and the public nature of actions in larger communities such as audiences at public places. 5 5 We are aware of the vast literature on ritual in anthropology, religious studies and sociology, aptly overviewed by Stephenson (2015). In the spatial limits of this paper, we refrain from exploring these connections. ...
... In institutional economics, this has also been suggested by North (2005), referring to Hutchins' (1995) seminal work. in question also include religious dimensions of kinship, expressions of status in social structure and so forth. However, we wish to emphasize two specific ideas that have emerged in cross-disciplinary research on ritual: -One is that ritual induces a reversion of the roles of agency and doing in understanding action (Stephenson 2015). In rituals, doing the ritual overwhelms individual agency in the sense that the doing is no longer determined by individual choice and decision. ...
... Die Fachliteratur greift daher oft auf binäre Kategorien zur€ uck, um die Vielfalt der Anti-Terror-Maßnahmen zu klassifizieren und eine gewisse Ordnung in ein un€ ubersichtliches und komplexes Thema zu bringen (Crelinsten und Schmid 1992). Zum einen spricht man hier von verschiedenen Ebenen, auf denen Anti-Terrormaßnahmen stattfinden können, zum Beispiel ‚nationale' und ‚internationale' Maßnahmen (Townshend 2002;Bensahel 2006) und zum anderen von unterschiedlichen Zeiten, € uber die sich solche Maßnahmen erstrecken, zum Beispiel ‚kurzfristige' und ‚langfristige' (Crelinsten und Schmid 1992), oder ‚voraus-' und ‚zur€ uckblickende' Anti-Terror Maßnahmen (Heymann 2001(Heymann /2002. Weiterhin differenziert man zwischen Maßnahmen, die sich auf Situationen ‚vor', ‚während' und ‚nach' (Steven und Gunaratna 2004) einem Terrorangriff konzentrieren. ...
... Außer den verschiedenen Ebenen und zeitlichen Kategorien wird hinsichtlich der benutzten Mittel differenziert. In der Literatur unterscheidet man diesbez€ uglich zwischen ‚aktiven' und ‚passiven' Maßnahmen (Townshend 2002), ‚offensiven' und ‚defensiven'; (Faria 2006;Arce et al. 2005;Posen 2001Posen /2002, ‚standortspezifischen' und ‚generellen' (Powell 2007), ‚zielorientierten und ungezielten' (Heymann 2000), ‚beschwichtigenden' und ‚repressiven' Maßnahmen (Sederberg 1989). Daneben gibt es auch ungewöhnlichere Unterscheidungen wie zwischen ‚sichtbaren' und ‚unsichtbaren' Maßnahmen, wobei die visuelle Präsens das Kriterium ist (Bueno de Mesquita 2007). ...
Chapter
Terrorismus gilt als eine der größten sicherheitspolitischen Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts. Zugleich zählen Terrorismus und seine Bekämpfung zu den am heftigsten umstrittenen (politischen) Phänomenen unserer Zeit. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick des Forschungsstandes und diskutiert Begriffe, Ursachen und Gegenstrategien sowie aktuelle Entwicklungen von Terrorismus. Traditionellen Ansätzen werden hierbei Konzepte der kritischen Terrorismusforschung gegenübergestellt, um prinzipielle Probleme des Forschungsgegenstandes und deren Überwindung zu illustrieren.
... In modern mathematics, the coordinate system is the most usual tool. The usual coordinate system is the Cartesian coordinate system.[22] For describing different object, on the principle of convenience, the polar coordinate system,[23] the fractal coordinate system[24] and the high dimensional coordinate system[25] are used. ...
... We shall discuss this problem in Sec.2.5 In Euclidean geometry, a series of deductions to prove the relationship among the line, angle and circle are developed. In 17 th century, René Descartes developed analytic geometry.[22] Within the Cartesian coordinate system, any point, line and form can be expressed with the numbers (x,y,z) and the equation of these numbers. ...
Research
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The invariance of the speed of light is taken as the fundamental of modern physics. But, in recent, the faster-than-light was observed. It requires that the fundamental of the whole physics be reassessed. In this paper, in the mathematics, the definitions in Euclidean Elements are stressed. It is pointed out that these definitions are only the concepts. They are not related to a certain real object or body. In physics, the Newtonian framework is stressed. It is pointed out that, in Newtonian theory, the abstract concepts are used as the definitions in Euclidean Elements. For example, the Sun is treated just as a point particle. And the initial law only is an abstracted concept which cannot be checked with experiment while it can be understood by our brain. According to the Euclidean Elements and Newtonian theory, some of the mathematical and physical concepts in modern physics are discussed. For example, it is pointed out that the extra dimension in modern physics is not a mathematical concept of Euclidean geometry as it is related to a real pillar. It is stressed that high and fractional coordinate systems are used to describe the object that can be described with the Cartesian one. And, the equations of physics in different coordinate systems and the transformation of the equations among different coordinate systems are discussed.
... Birds are reptilian; they are warm-blooded animals with scales and lay eggs, while amphibians live partly in water and on land. Fish are ectotherm, aquatic, vertebrate animals, having gills for respiration and fins for locomotion (Kemp, 2019). The following is a discussion of how this taxonomy assists researchers in identifying species, naming, evaluating relationship characteristics, and even designing conservation measures. ...
... Birds are reptilian; they are warm-blooded animals with scales and lay eggs, while amphibians live partly in water and on land. Fish are ectotherm, aquatic, vertebrate animals, having gills for respiration and fins for locomotion (Kemp, 2019). The following is a discussion of how this taxonomy assists researchers in identifying species, naming, evaluating relationship characteristics, and even designing conservation measures. ...
... The chelonians (Testudines) are an order of reptiles characterized by a body covered with a special bony shell, commonly named turtles (marine chelonians), tortoises (terrestrial chelonians) and terrapin (freshwater chelonians) throughout the world (Flanagan 2015;Kemp 2019). In Malaysia, about 24 species or 6.7% of chelonians have been reported consists of Asian Hard-Shell Turtles (Geoemydidae), Softshell Turtles (Trionychidae), Sea Turtle (Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae), Land Tortoises (Testudinidae) and New World Turtle (Emydidae) (Mohd Salleh et al. 2022). ...
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Kamaludin M, Alipiah RM, Nordin NSN, Afiqah N. 2023. Public choice for payment vehicles of turtle conservation in Terengganu, Malaysia. Biodiversitas 24: 636-644. Sea turtle is known as the iconic natural heritage in Terengganu, Malaysia. Unfortunately, the turtle populations are declining these days due to many threats such as incidental catch, human activities, coastal development, irresponsible tourism, and poaching. Besides, erosion occurs on some beaches, reducing the area available for turtle nesting. This study determines marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for sea turtle conservation programs with two different payment vehicles i.e. tax collection and trust fund in Terengganu, Malaysia. The choice experiment (CE) method was utilized to calculate the marginal WTP of four attributes (population of sea turtles, communities involved, conservation activities and tax/trust fund). The study found that public placed a higher value of the marginal WTP on the ‘conservation activities’ attribute with RM3.32 (tax) and RM110.11 (trust fund), while the public exhibited higher values of WTP on the medium of payment vehicle (trust fund), where the coercive payment was not favorable among them. Therefore, a workable and suitable medium of payment is essential to support the efforts in protecting sea turtles and keeping coral reefs and sea grass beds healthy. After all, more sea turtles will survive and thrive to maintain the fragility of ecosystem's balance in the ocean.
... This neglect reflects a deeper intellectual phenomenon, which has been diagnosed as 'excarnation' by philosopher Charles Taylor (2007). In modern sociology and philosophy, ritual does not have the status of a central theoretical term, but has been relegated to specific social domains, especially religion, or to a certain range of practices in everyday life (Stephenson, 2015). This differs fundamentally from the Confucian view: If we approach Confucianism as a philosophy, then certainly ritual is the foundational concept (Wong, 2020). ...
Chapter
East Asian business systems are often referred to ‘Confucianism’, grounded in influential global value studies. We present the case for moving ‘ritual’ at the centre and approaching Confucianism only as a theory of ritual, but not as covering core beliefs and practices. Our testing ground is family business since the family is a core concern in Confucianism, and we compare Japan and China. Based on a discussion of ritual theory, we show how in Japan rituals mediate and generate the corporate identity of the family business and kinship as a form of organizational membership. In China, rituals of kinship define a network of relations which transcends organizational borders. In conclusion, Confucianism cannot cover these divergent performances of ritual across East Asia but can be conceived as a non-Western social theory that explicitly recognizes the central role of ritual in social order, including domains such as family business.
... It seems it was Revolutionary in 1850s. (Townshend, 2011) that the tactics of the IRA were "those of weakness 138 ", and it "had not beaten the British, nor won the war, they had only prevented defeat 139 ". ...
Thesis
This research was done to understand the concept of terrorism, from critical and historical approach.
... In order to understand how to improve reading fluency, two extremes can be considered: Students either lack the required skills, or they lack the required motivation (Thomas, 2013). There is evidence for both extremes. ...
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Important strides have been made in the science of learning to read. Yet, many students still struggle to attain reading proficiency. This calls for sustained efforts to bridge theoretical insights with applied considerations about ideal pedagogy. The current study was designed to contribute to this conversation, namely by looking at the efficacy of an online reading program. The chosen reading program, referred to as MindPlay Virtual Reading Coach (MVRC), emphasizes the mastery of basic reading skills to support the development of reading fluency. Its focus on basic skills diverges from the goal of increasing reading motivation. And its focus on reading fluency, vs. broad literacy achievement, offers an alternative to already existing reading enrichment. In order to test the efficacy of MVRC, we recruited three school districts. One district provided data from elementary schools that used the MVRC program in Grades 2 to 6 (N = 2,531 total). The other two districts participated in a quasi-experimental design: Six 2nd-grade classrooms and nine 4th-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) instruction as usual, (2) instruction with an alternative online reading program, and (3) instruction with MVRC. Complete data sets were available from 142 2nd-graders and 172 4th-graders. Three assessments from the MVRC screener were used: They assessed reading fluency, phonic skills, and listening vocabulary at two time points: before and after the intervention. Results show a clear advantage of MVRC on reading fluency, more so than on phonics or listening vocabulary. At the same time, teachers reported concerns with MVRC, highlighting the challenge with reading programs that emphasize basic-skills mastery over programs that seek to encourage reading.
... Terrorism is not novel; it has remained part and parcel of human development as far back as the struggle for emancipation and liberation (Martin, 2013). However, the difficulty in attaining an accepted definition of terrorism lies on the premise that terrorism occurs for several reasons: such as nationalistic, religious, political and ideological, among others (Laqueur, 2000;Martin, 2013;Baker, 2003;Townshend, 2011). ...
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Terrorism has been part of human development dating back to the era of the struggles for independence and liberation but still defy attempts at an accepted definition. Hence, it has become increasingly necessary for governments to tackle this menace by whichever counter-terrorism measures possible. However, one pivotal means is the use of military force introduced by the then President of the United States, George W. Bush through his “War on Terror” speech on September 20, 2001. This paper tries to assess the pros and cons of this measure and other counterterrorism strategies.
... Science set free: 10 paths to new discovery. New York, NY: Chopra Books Sorell, T. (2000). Descartes: A very short introduction. ...
Book
In Ancient Egypt and Modern Psychotherapy, Todd Hayen explores what the spiritual concepts of the enigmatic ancient Egyptians can teach us about our own modern psyches and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Hayen examines the ancient Egyptians’ possession of a concept contemporary academics have labeled “consciousness of the heart”: an innate knowledge of the entirety of the universe. While all human beings possess this consciousness of the heart, our modern culture has largely lost the ability to tap into this inborn knowledge. By examining the material accomplishments of ancient Egypt, and how the Egyptians’ seemingly deeper awareness of their inner world created a harmonious outer world, we can begin to understand how modern psychotherapy, through a Jungian perspective, could be instrumental in achieving a more profound and meaningful personal experience of life. Ancient Egypt and Modern Psychotherapy will be insightful reading for analytical psychologists in practice and in training, Jungian psychotherapists and psychologists, and academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies and ancient spirituality.
... In particular, we have sought to understand whether, when people read or listen about events concerning the war on terrorism, they discern war from terrorism and, if so, focus on the actors or the targets involved. As a first result, we found confirmation of the definitions of terrorism provided by Townshend (2002) and Wagner (2006). Indeed, the data on the war-terrorism scale showed that participants effectively distinguish between war and terrorism, and that this distinction is based on the target of the action: war refers to actions against military targets, while terrorism concerns innocent and non-combatant targets. ...
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Enemy Construction After 9/11: aggressor identity effect on the representation of terrorism Construção do Inimigo após o 11 de Setembro: os efeitos da identidade do agressor na representação do terrorismo Construcción del Enemigo Después del 11 de Setiembre: los efectos de la indentidad del agresor en la representación del terrorismo Abstract At the time of the research, there were daily reports in the media regarding terrorist acts. What is it that indeed characterizes an act as being a terrorist one? From a psychosocial perspective, an ambiguous notion of terrorism may legitimate the ingroup/outgroup differentiation that affects intergroup relations. The aim of this research is to understand what people refer to when they talk about terrorism and to study the influence of different variables on the interpretation of some actions such as war or terrorism acts. Results on a sample of 251 University students confirm that the basic criterion for the evaluation of the actions is founded upon the distinction between military or civilian targets (i.e. target effect). However, some subjects use also a criterion based on the aggressor's ethnic-cultural identity (i.e. actor effect).
... Hence, Galileo is believed not to have conducted any actual experiment at the leaning tower of Pisa in order to demonstrate that bodies of differing mass fall at the same speed. As such, the experiment is widely referred to as mythical in the relevant literature (Drake 2001). Galileo merely conducted compelling thought experiments that made everyone realize that his propositions must be true. ...
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Like any social science, management and organization sits astride two literary and epistemic disciplines; the empirical and the conceptual. I argue that emphasizing the former to the detriment of the latter, as is often the case in management and organization research, creates a conceptual blindness that compromises progress in the field. I show how adopting a more philosophically attuned methodology buttresses the conceptual tools of management and organization research via deduction, induction, normative grounding, and overcoming the illusion of unanimity.
... Unlike lone wolves, the terrorist group relies on 'mutual commitment and trust' and 'the cooperation between groups', as demonstrated by the four 9/11 hijacking groups, which is 'radically inconsistent with the psychopathic personality' [38]. In fact, Townshend writes that terrorists are 'disturbingly normal people' and Crenshaw notes: 'What limited data we have on individual terrorists… suggest that the outstanding characteristic is normality' [39] [40]. Without the supposition of mental illness – a denigration due to a fundamental attribution error -psychological profiles resort to assigning subtler personality traits found in many sane members of the public [41]. ...
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'This paper critiques the claim that terrorists can be profiled – that is to say that terrorists possess distinguishable attributes that can be conceivably identified by an observer. In doing so, the most prominent profiling parameters - racial, gender, age, pathological, psychological and socioeconomic – are investigated. The above approaches are found to have little to no applied value in identifying terrorists from a societal population. The dominant criticisms of these methods emphasise their crude reductionism, an absence of internal and external validity, and their lack of practical application. Current evidence indicates that the profiling of terrorists is a futile venture.'
... It indicates that brands aspiring to iconic status should not strive for lucidity, transparency, specificity, as the textbooks recommend, but attempt to keep something back to keep customers coming back. It serves to remind managers that, in a world where storytelling is touted as the key to branding success ( Sachs, 2012), mysteries are one of the bestselling literary genres ( Sutherland, 2007). When the mystery is resolved, what's more, readers rapidly move on. ...
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Purpose – Retro-marketing is rampant. Throwback branding is burgeoning. Newstalgia is the next big thing. Yet marketing thinking is dominated by the forward-facing discourse of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to challenge innovation’s rhetorical hegemony by making an exemplar-based case for renovation. Design/methodology/approach – If hindsight is the new foresight, then historical analyses can help us peer through a glass darkly into the future. This paper turns back time to the RMS Titanic, once regarded as the epitome of innovation, and offers a qualitative, narratological, culturally informed reading of a much-renovated brand. Findings – In narrative terms, Titanic is a house of many mansions. Cultural research reveals that renovation and innovation, far from being antithetical, are bound together in a deathless embrace, like steamship and iceberg. It shows that, although the luxury liner sank more than a century ago, Titanic is a billion-dollar brand and a testament to renovation’s place in marketing’s pantheon. It contends that the unfathomable mysteries of the Titanic provide an apt metaphor for back-to-the-future brand management. It is a ship-shape simile heading straight for the iceberg called innovation. Survival is unlikely but the collision is striking. Originality/value – This paper makes no claims to originality. On the contrary, it argues that originality is overrated. Renovation, rather, rules the waves. It is a time to renovate our thinking about innovation. The value of this paper inheres in that observation.
... Might the creation a police state and the bankrupting of our public coffers with security measures be just what some terrorists had in mind for us? [6] Instead, we might begin to conceive of a future in which we protect our freedoms as individuals and our liberty as a people with the least surveillance and lowest expenditure possible. What if, rather than the massive offices and ghettoized residential developments in which so many of the wealthy of the world now live and work, we imagine communities of people who know and watch out for each other, who have enough different options of living and working that they can avoid crowds and congestion, and who interact with such a diversity of fellow citizens that no one place will become a target? ...
... For Nixon, 'terrorism' implied both an external and internal threat to the United States; that is, terrorism could refer to the Communist enemies in Vietnam and to students protesting the US-Vietnam foreign policy (ibid, p. 21). Rhetorically, Nixon (1969) used the term 'reign of terror'a special phrase that invokes a set of historical meanings drawn from the French Revolution, Nazi Germany and from Stalin's Great Terrorto describe the political situation in Vietnam (Townshend, 2011). On the other hand, when answering press inquiries, Nixon (1970) claimed: '[…] when students on university campuses burn buildings, when they engage in violence, when they break up furniture, when they terrorize their fellow students and terrorize the faculty, then I think "bums" is perhaps too kind a word to apply to that kind of person'. ...
Article
A frequent argument in the literature on the US-led war on terror is that the war and its public discourse originated with the George W. Bush administration. This article seeks to explore the political discourse of terrorism and counterterrorism practices during the Clinton administration in order to challenge this perspective. By examining US administration discourses of terrorism, this article demonstrates deep continuities in counterterrorism approaches from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton, through to George W. Bush. The research suggests that, based on Reagan’s initial ‘war on terrorism’ discourse, Clinton articulated the notion of ‘catastrophic terrorism’ or ‘new terrorism’, which became a formative conception for the United States and its allies in the post-Cold War era. Clinton’s counterterrorism discourse then provided an important rhetorical foundation for President Bush to respond to the 2001 terrorist attacks. In other words, far from being a radical break, Bush’s ‘war on terror’ represents a continuation of established counter-terrorist understanding and practice.
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Gregory David Roberts is a contemporary Australian author who had been involved in several criminal activities and was therefore convicted to prison sentence earlier in his life. In 2003, he published the semi-autobiographical novel Shantaram largely based on his experiences in the Indian city of Bombay. The novel, which became a best-seller around the globe is an astounding account of a westerner’s spiritual voyage in the outskirts of India. Shantaram deals with a great many themes and issues such as ethics, violence and good vs. evil, but the theme which lies at the core of the narrative is the binary opposition between dualism and materialism. While dualism defends the autonomy of the mind/soul over the body, materialism affirms that all living beings are bound to material laws. This article aims to analyse Roberts’ Shantaram through the binary opposition of dualism and materialism, and specifically from a dualistic perspective. As the founder of modern philosophy and dualism, René Descartes’ theories will be applied to the text as opposed to the contrasting philosophy of materialism. In this respect, dualism is compared and contrasted with materialism and physicalism with reference to several influential thinkers who contributed to this thought from Greek antiquity to modern philosophy such as Aristotle, Plato, Lucretius, Kant and George Berkeley. Thus, a Cartesian analysis is implemented to Shantaram in order to expose the dualism emphasised in the subtext of Roberts’ narrative. All in all, the study concludes that Shantaram exhibits depictions of Cartesian dualism through the protagonist’s experiences in the slums of Bombay and determines that dualism overcomes materialism in Roberts’ story as the mind/soul asserts its autonomy over the body and its physical sphere.
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In this cartography, I examine M.K. Gandhi’s practice of fasting for political purposes from a specifically aesthetic perspective. In other words, to foreground their dramatic qualities, how they in their expressive repetition, patterning and stylization produced a/effected heightened forms of emotions. To carry out this task, I follow the theater scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte’s features that give name to her book Äesthetik des Performativen (2004). The cartography is framed in a philosophical presentation of Gandhi’s discourse as well as of his historical sources. Moreover, as a second frame, I historicize the fasts, by means of a typology and teleology in context. The historically and discoursively framed cartography maps four main dimensions that define the aesthetics of the performative: mediality, materiality, semioticity and aestheticity. The first part analyses the medial platforms in which the fasts as events have been historically recorded and in which they have left their traces and inscriptions. These historical sources are namely, newspapers, images, newsreels and a documentary film. Secondly, the material dimension depicts Gandhi’s corporeal condition, as well as the spatiality and temporality of the fasts. In the third place, I revise and reformulate critically Fischer-Lichte’s concepts of “presence” and “representation” with resonating concepts of G. C. Spivak and J. Rancière. This revision illustrates Gandhi’s fasts and shows the process of how an individual may become the embodiment or representation of a national body-politic. The last chapter of the cartography explores the autopoetic-feedback loop between Gandhi and the people and finishes with a comparison of the mise en scène of the hunger artists with the fasts of the Indian social reformer, spiritualist, prophet and political agitator. The text concludes interpreting Gandhi’s practice of fasting under the light of the concepts of “intellectual emancipation” and “de-subjectivation” of the philosopher J. Rancière. The four main concerns of this cartography are: Firstly, in the field of Gandhi’s reception, to explore the aesthetic dimension as both alternative and complementary to the two hegemonic interpretative lenses, i.e. a hagiographic or a secular political understanding of the fasts. From a theoretical perspective, the cartography pursues to be a transdisciplinary experiment that aims at deploying concepts that have been traditionally developed, derived from and used in the field of the arts (theater, film, literature, aesthetic performance, etc.) in the field of the political. In brief, inverting an expression of Rancière, to understand politics as aesthetics. Thirdly, from a thematic point of view, the cartography inquires the historical forms of staging and perception of hunger. Last yet importantly, it is an inquiry of the practice of fasting as nonviolence, what Gandhi, its most sophisticated modern theoretician and practitioner considered its most radical expression.
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The whole system of modern physics is investigated. The important result is that the possible development of physics is explored. Especially, the recent breakthrough experiments are introduced. We emphasize, these experiments mean that some of the current conclusions in modern physics were falsified and the ground for developing new theory was founded. In addition, we presented some new results, such as manipulating gravity with magnetic/electric field, measuring the gravitational wave in laboratory, new particle and new force for black hole and neutron star, possible reason of quantum entanglement, and so on. We believe, modern physics should be revolutionarily developed in a short time.
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No sería exagerado decir que la belleza ha sido la noción más importante de la que se ha ocupado la estética filosófica, ni tampoco que ha sido la más controvertida, pues pocas cosas como ella desafían tanto el espíritu teórico de la disciplina. Intentar dar cuenta de aquello que compartan todos los fenómenos que se consideren bellos nos devuelve a la advertencia que Platón hacía en el Hipias, a saber, que lo bello es difícil. Además, lo que sea la belleza ha captado el interés no sólo de filósofos sino, entre otros, de literatos, historiadores del arte, artistas, psicólogos, neurocientíficos, antropólogos, etc. Vista así, cualquier aproximación general al tema está avocada al fracaso, o al menos, a dejarse demasiados elementos en el tintero. Susan Sontag (2005) dijo que “la mejor teoría de la belleza es su historia”. Por lo que, a pesar de todo, se intentará dar cuenta aquí de lo que habrían sido los dos grandes “momentos en su historia” (Bozal, 1998a, 105) en el pensamiento filosófico occidental. Atenderemos pues a una primera época, pre-moderna, en la que la belleza que observamos en las cosas y que nos proporciona placer depende de una belleza que se sitúa al margen de nuestra percepción, es objetiva y aparece concebida como un valor fundamental en estrecho vínculo con otros como lo bueno y lo verdadero. A esto le sigue un segundo momento, moderno, en el cual la relación se invierte, situando el origen de la belleza en la respuesta placentera del sujeto a ciertas propiedades del objeto, lo que se llamará una experiencia estética. Lo estético (esto es, lo sensible o perceptible a los sentidos) modifica la consideración de la belleza situándola en el ámbito de la apariencia, ligada al gusto y al placer sensorial, y también de forma especial al arte y a su apreciación crítica. Ahora bien, precisamente la irrupción del concepto de lo estético acabará en gran medida desplazándola del lugar central que había tenido en la tradición estética y artística. En el siglo XIX se inicia un declive que se acentúa con las revoluciones artísticas que recorren el siglo XX y que parecía del todo consumado hasta que, llegando a su final, ha sido testigo de un renovado interés que para algunos estaría marcando su posible regreso.
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Interdisciplinary orientations of the philosophical counseling-Role in difining identity, personal development and spirituality. The paper is based on the more recent philosophers' orientation to practice philosophy for people in the form of specialized practices, tending to become a new occupation, the philosophical counseling. We present some aspects of the role that these philosophical practices can play in defining a person's identity and we present the interdisciplinary connections with other areas of activity. The paper examines the relationships of philosophical counseling with three categories of activities, from the field dedicated to human health, bioethics and life sciences, the second fields are education, applied ethics and personal development, and we continuing with human spirituality manifested through theology and religions. The resulting conclusion is for on active role of philosophical counseling and its interdisciplinary involvement in the personal development of those persons involved in these counseling process. Lucrarea face referire la un concept apărut mai recent în România, consilierea filosofică, care s-a manifestat destul de timid la început, fiind prezentat iniţial ca o practică aplicată persoanelor şi efectuată sporadic de profesori de filosofie, îndeosebi din mediul universitar. Mai târziu s-a trecut la organizarea unor cursuri şi programe în domeniul filosofiei practice, care au deschis porţile spre practica filosofică şi altor specialişti, proveniţi din domenii umaniste, care au manifestat un interes în a învăţa şi a deprinde abilităţi şi competenţe specifice consilierii filosofice, prezentată fiind ca ocupaţie distinctă de cea clasică a filosofului. Oameni cu diverse situaţii de viaţă pot apela şi în România la acest nou tip de consiliere, problemele lor pot fi soluţionate cu instrumente specifice filosofiei aplicate, de către specialiştii în consiliere filosofică. Unele dintre situaţiile de viaţă sau dilemele personale pot avea şi caracter identitar, cu referire la persoană şi existenţa sa, motiv pentru experienţa unui consilier filosofic poate fi benefică, ajutând astfel la definirea identităţii sale ca persoană şi identificarea unei viziuni proprii despre lume şi viaţă.
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As an instance of the critical dystopia, The Last of Us lets the player enact a post-apocalyptic story in which human society has been severely decimated by the Cordyceps infection and where nature has made an astonishing return. This paper examines the ecological rhetoric of The Last of Us by laying emphasis on the empirical player’s emancipated involvement in the gameworld (virtualized storyworld) and how s/he engages in a creative dialectic with the implied player. In suggesting the utopian enclave of a life in balance with nature, The Last of Us scrutinises the ills of our empirical present and lays a negative image on the latter. As such, The Last of Us is a magnificent example of the video game dystopia and succeeds in triggering a powerful aesthetic response in the empirical player, which might result in a call to action in the real world.
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The 17th-century Rationalist philosopher, Descartes, famously uttered “cogito ergo sum,” or “I think; therefore, I am.” (1980, 61). Although this declaration caused an irreversible shift in philosophical thought, does it genuinely capture the bond between the nature of existence and consciousness? This essay will commence with an overview of Descartes’s method of doubt, and why it led him to conclude that correct reasoning necessarily leads to certain knowledge of self and an awareness of one’s uniqueness as a substance (1980, 62-64). Next, by entering the skeptical approach of Immaterialist philosopher George Berkeley, this piece will attempt to cast uncertainty on this foundational Cartesian claim. Lastly, this paper will assert why it is that Berkeley’s “esse est percipi,” or “to be is to be perceived,” portrays the link between existence and thought more precisely than what may be Descartes’s most profound articulation.
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Treść monografii stanowią rozważania teoretyczne i praktyczne, skupione wokół relacji między muzykoterapią a sztuką i refleksją estetyczną. Praca skonstruowana jest z trzech części. Pierwsza z nich proponuje opis współczesnych modeli muzykoterapii praktycznej w aspektach kluczowych dla procesu terapeutycznego oraz ważnych w perspektywie artystycznej. Część druga zawiera teoretyczną analizę porównawczą wybranych zjawisk w muzyce i myśli estetycznej z wątkami muzykoterapeutycznymi. Praktyczna egzemplifikacja opisywanych zjawisk stanowi ostatnią część opracowania. W zakończeniu pojawia się wreszcie autorska definicja muzykoterapii, skonstruowana na podstawie przedstawionego materiału.
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Zusammenfassung Obwohl zunehmend Bemühungen feststellbar sind, die Perspektive des Kindes zu erheben und auszuwerten, sind den vorliegenden Zugängen methodisch Grenzen gesetzt. Weltsichten, Deutungsmuster, Narrative, die man bei Erwachsenen durch Interviews erheben kann, sind hier kaum zugänglich, weil das Interview als Königsweg der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung (König 1962) nicht auf vergleichbare Weise in Anschlag gebracht werden kann. Die vorliegende Darstellung methodischer und konstitutionstheoretischer Implikationen eines rekonstruktiven Zugangs zu kindlichen Bildungsprozessen ist programmatisch. Wir schlagen vor, Kinderzeichnungen als Niederschlag kindlicher Welt- und Selbstaneignung systematisch zu nutzen. Sie bieten Einblick in die Perspektiven von Kindern, da sich in ihnen Bildungsprozesse protokollieren. Auf der Grundlage einer kritischen Sichtung vorliegender Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Gegenstand Kinderzeichnung wird sein Potenzial für eine rekonstruktive Bildungsforschung zu Kindern erschlossen. Das bildnerische Handeln von Kindern wird als eine Form des Nachdenkens , als eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem zum Ausdruck gebrachten inneren Erleben gefasst. Die Metaphern (Philosoph und Künstler) sollen ein damit verbundenes konstitutionstheoretisches Bild des Kindes einfangen und begrifflich verfügbar machen. Die Analyse einer Kinderzeichnung soll exemplarisch das methodische Vorgehen veranschaulichen.
Article
There is a widespread tendency among academics, state institutions and international organisations to regard intention to cause fear and intimidation as a key definitional characteristic of terrorism. This article argues that such a conceptualisation of terrorism is unfounded. A survey of mainstream terrorist doctrines (propaganda by the deed, foco theory–urban guerrilla warfare and armed propaganda, and jihadist doctrines) and writings of several pre-eminent terrorist ideologues provides little evidence to suggest that the main tactical goal of terrorism is to spread fear and intimidation. Rather, regardless of their ideological orientation and the historical period in which they operated, terrorists seem to be preoccupied with similar goals: mobilising what they regard to be their constituency, avenging their fallen comrades, extracting retribution for their allegedly wronged constituency, or, simply, with the physical destruction of their perceived enemies. This survey is complemented with a number of “crucial case studies”, where “most-likely cases” of terrorist justification of indiscriminate attacks and a detailed analysis of terrorist literature, which explicitly deals with the question of “fear”, are used to test the validity of the claim that terrorists aim to cause fear and intimidation. In both type of cases the hypothesis is invalidated. In cases of justification of indiscriminate attacks, there is no evidence to suggest that the aim of the terrorists is to spread fear and intimidation. Moreover, in the case of one particular terrorist ideologue who explicitly addresses the question of fear, the analysis of the texts indicates that fear among a population is not seen as an aim to be achieved but as an obstacle for mass mobilisation: an obstacle, which can only be overcome by the terrorist tactics. Thus, in this particular “most-likely case” the aim of terrorist tactics turns out to be encouraging masses for insurrection rather than intimidating them.
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Recognition of "outrage" in the face of the "outrageous" Terrorism as primary source of outrage? Terrifying outrageous acts conventionally dissociated from terrorism Problems as evocative of outrage -- or not ? Emotional outrage at outrageous opinions, conditions and actions Indignation, protest, consciousness raising, radicalisation? Strategic necessity of responding outrageously to the outrageous? Case for a Wiki-indignation, a Wiki-outrage, or a Wiki-outrageous? Representing systems of outrage in a global context?
Chapter
Since the terror attack of September 11, 2001, counterterrorism has become a major responsibility for police agencies in the Western world. This relatively new and unique task raises new problems and questions for democratic police agencies, yet most of what we know to date about the implications of policing terrorism, in terms of both crime-control and police-community relationships, is based on theoretical hypotheses and reasonable speculations. In this book we bring the first large-scale, multi-method study we are aware of, in which the effects of policing terrorism on police performance in “classic” areas of responsibility and on the relationship between the police and the public have been examined empirically. Our analyses focus specifically on Israel, because it is a setting that provides a unique opportunity to carry out such an examination. In this introductory chapter we discuss the importance of empirically assessing the implications of policing terrorism and the potential consequences of policing terrorism as understood to date. We also review the Israeli context for studying the outcomes of policing terrorism; the Israel National Police (INP), its history, structure, and model for policing terrorism; and our research questions and structure of the book.
Chapter
Ancient and medieval empires gave an extraordinary impetus to the development of ports in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Alexandria under the Ptolemaic emperors represented a new level of harbor economy. Under the Roman Empire, a chain of port cities grew around the Mediterranean Sea, providing an unprecedented infrastructure for seaborne commerce. The rise of Islam linked the ports of the Mediterranean to Central Asian trade, and later the Mongol Empire opened up an overland connection between the ports of the Muslim world and China. By the 13th century a vast China-centered trade network existed in the ports of the eastern Indian Ocean, and a system of seaborne commerce linked Indian and west Asian ports with Africa. Thus while the European empires of the 16th century did represent a breakthrough to a truly global economy, it is important to understand the remarkable achievements of earlier imperial port systems.
Article
This study contends that an analysis of the nexus between leadership and security offers useful insights into explaining conflict by stating that the conceptualisation of these argots, especially through the definition of leadership as a process, helps to explain and address Nigeria’s security challenges. By arguing that leaders’ ability to establish mutuality with their followers in any situation and set collectively-generated means for attaining these set goals for societal security, the study shows how such a relationship creates a secured state. This is not the case in Nigeria, where leaders’ security decisions are influenced by external actors rather than by their followers. By showing that the Nigerian ruling elite’s security agendas intersect with dominant global notions of security while neglecting genuine security interests of ordinary Nigerians, the study contextualises the complex global and local security interests in Nigeria. The lack of an intersection at home, however, has contributed to the emergence of extremists such as the Boko Haram sect, as well as the escalation of the acts of violence they perpetrate. As national insecurities become complex and intractable, ‘elegant’ or unilinear solutions – such as a military approach – lack the capacity to address these problems.
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This chapter explores the ways in which panic could be instrumentalized to silence anti-colonial critics and justify draconic ‘counter-terrorism’ measures in the British Empire. Focusing on the assassination of a high-ranking colonial official in London in 1909, the chapter explores how clichés about Hindus as simultaneously cowardly and violent were used as part of a new rhetoric about colonial ‘terrorism’. The actual perpetrators of anti-imperial violence were dismissed as brainwashed or mentally unstable by government officials and the press. The subsequent need to find a ‘puppet master’ of the deluded activists led to the demonization of the political work of the Indian anti-colonial activist Shyamji Krishnavarma. In the wake of the panic over the ‘London outrage’, Krishnavarma, a sober rationalist with liberal leanings, was reduced by the media to a two-dimensional religious fanatic and demonic wire-puller, allegedly manipulating weaker minds into merciless killing.
Chapter
When U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked about soft power in 2003, he replied, “I don’t know what it means.”1 In February 2006, in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, however, Rumsfeld was forced to concede: Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today’s media age, but for the most part we, our country, our government, has not adapted. Consider that the violent extremists have established media relations committees—these are terrorists and they have media relations committees that meet and talk about strategy, not with bullets but with words. They’ve proven to be highly successful at manipulating the opinion elites of the world. They plan and design their headline-grabbing attacks using every means of communication to intimidate and break the collective will of free people … They know that communications transcend borders and that a single news story handled skillfully can be as damaging to our cause and helpful to theirs as any other method of military attack. And they’re doing it. They’re able to act quickly. They have relatively few people. They have modest resources compared to the vast and expensive bureaucracies of Western governments. Our federal government is really only beginning to adapt our operations to the 21st century. For the most part, the U.S. government still functions as a five and dime store in an eBay world.2
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The main tasks of the Chaplain Branch of the Canadian Armed Forces (CF) are to “advise commanders on spiritual, religious, moral and ethical issues affecting Canadian Forces personnel and their families during operations and in static situations.” This paper explores the nature of one particular facet of this mandate, ethical expertise, in the complex ethical environment of the contemporary military organization. The study lists criteria necessary to evaluate and substantiate ethical expertise (knowledge, skills, abilities), and relates these to the chaplain’s dual accountability to her or his faith tradition as well as to the military. The study examines the traditional role of the chaplain, the expectations (implicit and explicit) that attach to that role; the role conflict of being a faith group representative and at the same time being embedded in the military organization; the role of faith-based ethics in a pluralistic and public arena; an examination of the criteria that would define “effective” provision of ethical advice; and a discussion of the implications for equipping new and existing chaplains to fulfill this role. The secular and pluralist military environment, dual accountability, and traditional role expectations, all increase the complexity of the task of advising the commander. Moreover, giving ethical advice is on a different plane of moral complexity than that of being personally ethical, and requires a level of expertise that is here defined by specific attributes.
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Dieser Beitrag möchte eine kurze Einführung in den Stand und die Perspektiven der politikwissenschaftlichen Terrorismusforschung bieten. In der Politikwissenschaft sind vor allem drei Fragestellungen immer wieder im Mittelpunkt der Forschung zu finden: Was ist Terrorismus? Was verursacht Terrorismus? Welche Gegenmaßnahmen können gegen den Terrorismus eingesetzt werden? Der Artikel trägt die jeweils einschlägigen Forschungsergebnisse zusammen und bietet so einen Überblick über den derzeitigen Erkenntnisstand bezüglich dieser policy-relevanten Fragen. Darüber hinaus möchte der Beitrag einige der Problematiken der Terrorismusforschung aufzeigen und über neuere Entwicklungen wie der Kritischen Terrorismusforschung reflektieren. Im Ergebnis wird festgestellt, dass sowohl traditionelle als auch kritische Herangehensweisen häufig um dieselben Probleme kreisen und substanzielle Fortschritte so erschwert werden.
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Terrorismus gilt als eine der größten sicherheitspolitischen Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts. Zugleich zählen Terrorismus und seine Bekämpfung zu den am heftigsten umstrittenen (politischen) Phänomenen unserer Zeit. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick des Forschungsstandes und diskutiert Begriffe, Ursachen und Gegenstrategien sowie aktuelle Entwicklungen von Terrorismus. Traditionellen Ansätzen werden hierbei Konzepte der kritischen Terrorismusforschung gegenübergestellt, um prinzipielle Probleme des Forschungsgegenstandes und deren Überwindung zu illustrieren.
Article
Political Islam continues to gain adherents across the African continent. In an attempt to understand why this is the case, this article explores the historical evolution of political Islam or Islamism. Three case studies are then provided to examine the implementation of this ideology—the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sudan’s National Islamic Front and Al Shabab in Somalia. In conclusion, we examine the future of political Islam from the perspective of secularism.
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There can be little doubt, at least in the Western world, that autonomy is the ruling principle in contemporary bioethics. In spite of its 'triumph' however, the dominance of the utilitarian concept of autonomy is being increasingly questioned. In this paper, I explore the nature of autonomy, how it came to displace the Hippocratic tradition in medicine and how different concepts of autonomy have evolved. I argue that the reduction of autonomy to 'the exercise of personal choice' in medicine has led to a 'tyranny of autonomy' which can be inimical to ethical medical practice rather than conducive to it. I take the case of Kerrie Wooltorton as an illustration of how misplaced adherence to respect for patient autonomy can lead to tragic consequences. An analysis of autonomy based on the work of Rachel Haliburton is described and applied to the role of autonomy in a recent bioethical debate - that arising from Savulescu's proposal that conscientious objection by health-care professionals should not be permitted in the NHS. In conclusion, I suggest Kukla's concept of conscientious autonomy as one promising pathway to circumvent both the limitations and adverse effects of the dominance of current (mis)understandings of autonomy in biomedical ethics.
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This paper looks at the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015 against the backdrop of historical encounters with terrorism in Europe, the dangerous and hybrid character of the Islamic State (IS) as well as previous European counterterrorism experiences. It argues that terrorism is about spreading fear and that European societies and politicians must not allow fear to dictate their policies as this would constitute a victory not only of the IS but of terrorism in general. Terrorism can best be countered by thought-through, sound, and sensible policies that maintain the rule of law, the basic principles of democracy, our open societies, and way of life.
Article
If many studies on terrorism that analyze the event structure of terrorist operations tend to privilege terrorist scenarios that come closest to drama, the reverse also holds true: modern plays that deal with terrorism generally favor dialogic, conflictual and climactic terrorist plots over short incidents of terrorist violence. Consequently, hostage takings not only feature prominently in the theorization of modern terrorist dramaturgies but are also the most frequently dramatized type of terrorist operation to date. This is not to say that hostage takings themselves are a modern phenomenon; what is new, however, is their perception as being co-related to drama. This essay will provide a selective survey of hostage plays since the 1950s – Brendan Behan’s The Hostage (1958), Christopher Hampton’s Savages (1974), and Frank McGuinness’s Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (1992) – before analyzing one play in more detail: David Greig’s The American Pilot (2005). The conflict between the United States and the Middle East is treated allegorically in The American Pilot. Numerous conflicting allusions in the play establish its location as an impossible composite of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Greig also points to a larger historical pattern by linking one of the major incidents of the plot, an American pilot’s rescue from execution, to one of the foundational myths of the United States, the rescue of John Smith by ‘Indian Princess’ Pocahontas: in both cases, the rescue of the Anglo-American has fatal long-term consequences – not for the rescued but for the rescuer’s culture and community.
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