Human Affairs Research Articles

Altruistic giving and risk taking in human affairs

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to provide a general proposition of the relationship between altruism and risk taking. As explained in the body of the paper, we diverge from a result reported in Stark et al. (2022) and provide an expansion and a generalization of a preliminary result reported in Stark (2024). In a broad utility framework, we study the risk aversion of an altruistic person who is an active donor (benefactor) and the risk aversion of a beneficiary of an altruistic transfer. In both cases, we find that altruism lowers risk aversion. The specific case in which the utility functions of the benefactor and of the beneficiary are constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) functions constitutes a vivid example of lesser risk aversion characterization. We conclude that in terms of risk-taking behavior, a “population” endowed with altruism is uniformly more willing to take risks than a comparable “population” devoid of altruism.

Fang Dongmei's View on the Universality of "Consistency" in Chinese Philosophy

In Chinese philosophy, although the ultimate pursuit of human beings by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is different, as Fang Dongmei said, "Confucianism lies in promoting the sage's atmosphere, Taoism is intoxicated with poetry and art, while Buddhism seeks the spiritual illumination of human spirit with painstaking wisdom", but the starting point of all three is to show that the universe and life are a coherent whole by-pass. Confucianism tends to regard human affairs and heaven as a whole, Taoism tends to regard human beings and nature as a whole, Buddhism tends to regard human beings and the universe as a whole, and Neo-Confucianism tends to regard Confucianism as the basis. Tuning, taking into account the other two, linking man and nature is another form. The consistency and complementarity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism affect the existence of Chinese philosophy and the thinking mode of Chinese people.

Natural contra human sciences: the conflict between nomothetic and idiographic sciences, with special reference to S. J. Boëthius

ABSTRACT This article tackles issues central to most academic disciplines, including scientific boundary demarcation, the battle of the faculties, the theory of science, and the conflict between nomothetic and idiographic methodologies, that is, between the two main approaches to science. It does so through discovering and rethinking a Methodenstreit in Swedish political science, an academic dispute involving Professor Rudolf Kjellén, the father of geopolitics, and his greatest rival, Professor S. J. Boëthius. Shortly after retiring from the Johan Skytte Professorship at Uppsala University, S. J. Boëthius published a great but inaccessible work on state theory and its history entitled Om statslivet (On the life of the state, 1916). The book critiques the positivistic and nomothetic (law-searching) approaches of the burgeoning social sciences, which were emancipating themselves from their father, history, and becoming independent disciplines. Boëthius critiqued the nomothetic studies of history, economics, statistics, sociology, and geopolitics for overemphasizing the significance of historical, economic, statistical, sociological, and geographical environments and structures. Thus, the exponents of these new or changing disciplines were criticized for neglecting the most important driving force of human affairs in Boëthius’s mind, namely, the power of personality and individual free will.

Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue on the relevance of the philosophy of A.N. Whitehead to Human Affairs

Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue on the relevance of the philosophy of A.N. Whitehead to Human Affairs

A review of the legitimacy of FIFA’s participation in Qatar’s human rights governance

ABSTRACT Respecting and protecting human rights is one of the fundamental principles stipulated in the FIFA Charter. In the case of labour issues in Qatar, there is a legality issue with FIFA’s participation in Qatar’s human rights issues. FIFA has not clarified either its legal status or responsibilities in participating in human rights governance. FIFA claims that its involvement is based on the International Bill of Human Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, but neither of these gives FIFA the right to directly intervene in the human rights affairs of other sovereign states. Therefore, it is necessary to review the legal insturments of the human rights sanctions imposed by FIFA in the Qatar case and deduce from various legal documents those activities in which FIFA is entitled to engage, and the role it had played and would play in human rights issues deduced from the FIFA’s practice in Qatar.

Human Resource Management in Improving The Quality of A Productive Educational Environment From Al-Qur'an Perspective; Analysis of Jalalain's Tafsir

Human resource management is the most critical component in running an educational institution to provide quality education. Human resource management actively involves all aspects of an organization's human affairs in achieving established goals. This research aims to explore the Qur'an verses regarding Human Resource Management in Improving the Quality of a Productive Educational Environment from the Qur'anic Perspective: Analysis of Jalalain's Tafsir. This type of research is qualitative research using a literature review. This research uses a thematic approach, combining several verses from the Koran that discuss human resource management and improving the standards of the learning environment. The primary data sources in this research are the Al-Qur'an and Tafsir Jalalain. Meanwhile, secondary data is taken from books, journal articles, and websites related to the discussion. The data analysis technique uses content analysis. The research results show that human resource management in improving the quality of a productive educational environment is: (1) Totality in human resource development; (2) Justice in human resource management; (3) Responsibility and trust in developing human resources; (4) Increased potential in supporting human resource management and (5) Participation in improving human resources. The conclusions of this study emphasize the importance of taking on the task of increasing the productivity and quality of the educational environment.

MERAPATKAN JURANG PENGETAHUAN: MENGHARMONIKAN KONSEP TEKNOLOGI KONTRAK PINTAR DAN PERSPEKTIF HUKUM ISLAM

The rapid development in technology, especially smart contract technology, poses challenges in aligning its principles with the Shariah perspective. Although this technology has great potential to facilitate human affairs in various fields, including the financial, zakat and halal sectors, the gap between Shariah researchers and the understanding of this technological innovation is wide due to the complexity of smart contracts involving technical aspects and new innovations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the challenges in understanding smart contract technology from the perspective of Islamic law. A qualitative approach based on library research was applied to achieve the objectives of the study by referring to relevant documents and literature. The collected data was then analyzed using thematic content analysis methods, enabling the identification of themes and patterns in the literature related to smart contracts and Shariah principles. The results found that there is a significant gap in the understanding of smart contracts among Shariah researchers, mainly due to the technical complexities involved and limited accessibility to relevant information. To address the knowledge gap, it is important to increase access to comprehensive resources that describe the technical aspects of smart contracts along with Shariah principles. Collaboration between technologists and Shariah scholars are important to facilitate mutual understanding and bridge the gap between the two domains. Additionally, ongoing research and discourse is encouraged to refine the understanding of smart contracts within the Shariah framework.

О причинах политических кризисов в работах П.А. Сорокина российского периода

P.A. Sorokin is one of the most renowned and peer-reviewed scientists of the XX century. In his anniversary and in modern conditions it seems important to address his explanation of the genesis of political crises in the early period of his work, since his recommendations for the preservation of eternal peace given in his later works have not been fulfilled. The article focuses on P.A. Sorokin’s ideas of political crises. For analysis, the concepts presented in his main monographs of the Russian period: “Sociology of Revolution” and “Hunger as a Factor in Human Affairs” are used. The article compares the ideas expressed in them with lesser-known publicistic and scientific articles by P.A. Sorokin of that time. For a better understanding of the context, the biographical material of the scientist was used, showing the complex environment of the formation of his intellectual heritage. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the importance of revisiting P.A. Sorokin’s works on political crises during the Russian period. His ideas provide valuable insights into the causes of political crises and offer guidance for maintaining perpetual peace. It is essential for modern scientists and policymakers to engage with Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin’s ideas and apply them to current challenges in global politics.

Thoroughly Exploring Secularism in an Islamic Perspective: History, Dynamics, and Interpretation of the Qur'an

Secularism, a concept that emerged in the West and spread throughout the world, including Indonesia, has become a subject of debate in relation to religion, especially Islam. This research aims to explore the definition of secularism, its development in various fields, the changes that arise as a result, the interpretation of Qur'anic verses related to secularism, and scholars' perspectives on this matter. Through a qualitative method, this research utilises secondary data sources, such as journal articles and books, to provide a deeper understanding of this topic. The results show that secularism is considered as the separation of human affairs from God's affairs in all aspects of life, including education. Yusuf Qardhawi expressed his concern over the influence of secularism and atheism in the Islamic world, fuelled by colonialism and modernity. In the context of Qur'anic verses, this study found references to secularism in Surah Al-Isra' and Surah Hud. In this context, the contrast between worldly and afterlife orientations, as well as warnings against mere worldly pleasures, take centre stage. As such, this study provides a deep insight into how Islam understands and interprets secularism.

Ham Sok Hon: Bridging Spirituality and Politics

Ham Sok Hon: Bridging Spirituality and Politics

Behavioral insights: The problem of control in education governance

This article offers a historical inquiry into behaviorism and its impact on standard of judgement concerning education policies. Drawing from Aldous Huxley’s reservation towards behaviorism as a scientific movement that naturalizes the role of control in human affairs, the paper maps the impact of behaviorism on economics of education. By tracing the influence of behaviorism in both rational (human capital theory) and quasi-rational (behavioral insight) economics, we draw attention to the activity of knowledge-making that describes and prescribes agency. The paper demonstrates how policy instruments and outcomes are intimately linked to assumptions about personhood, and in the case of behavioral insight, they contribute to the scope of decision-making entrusted to government and business. Utilizing a genealogical approach, the paper invites ethical reflections on the long-term implications of behavioral economics in light of automation.

God of iron and iron working in parts of Ǹsúkkā cultural area in Southeast Nigeria

This study is aimed at evaluating the influence of the god of iron on ironworking communities in Ǹsúkkā cultural area. In the study area, the Supreme God – Chúkwú Òkìkè, Chínēkè or Chúkwú Ábíàmà is believed to control the affairs of humanity. He is worshipped through intermediaries such as Ányánwù [Sun God], Àmádíòhà, Áhàjīōkù [fertility goddess], Àlà [earth goddess] and the god of iron, which is called by different names in the study area such as Ékwéñsū-Úzù, Òkóró-Údùmè, Chíkèrè Àgùrù and Áshéné. But, how effective is the god of iron in the study area? To provide answers to this question, ethnographic research method, involving in-depth structured interviews, field observation and photographic documentations, was used to gather data on the subject matter while data collected were analysed descriptively. This article is of the view that the influence of the god of iron in the study area is whittling down as a result of Westernisation and Christianity.Contribution: The study indicates an increasing resistance to the Euro-centrism, which has suppressed beliefs in the god of iron and the associated practices.

Modernism, modernity and contemporality: conceptualizing the modern in Scotland’s modern studies

ABSTRACT This paper offers an analysis of Modern Studies, a school subject unique to Scotland. First taught in the 1960s, Modern Studies was originally conceived as an option for students discontinuing their studies in history and geography. Since then, though, Modern Studies has carved a distinctive curricular niche and has become one of the most popular subjects in Scottish schools. Despite this popularity—or, perhaps, because of it—Modern Studies has not received the same critical analysis as other subjects in the school curriculum. The subject remains one defined by its content (political literacy, social issues, and international relations), rather than by its disciplinary or epistemic underpinnings. This paper uses Toulmin’s (1990) conception of modernity to analyse course documents and examination papers. This analysis suggests that Modern Studies was imbued from the start with three foundational assumptions. First, a positivist ontology that believes certainty about the social world is possible. Second, a belief that Weberian means-end rationality is the most appropriate approach to evaluating and making sense of social relations. Third, a telos which positions liberal capitalism as the inevitable end-state of human affairs. Modern Studies is, therefore, not just ‘modern’ but modernist. The paper explores and develops these critiques with reference to specific examination questions and concludes by proposing a programme for renewing and reinvigorating the subject in an age of epistemic uncertainty and global environmental crises.

Wanwuyiti and Finding God in All Things: A Comparative Study between Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation and Ignatian Spirituality

It seems that the early Jesuits misinterpreted the key Neo-Confucian terms taiji/li from an Aristotelian perspective in the seventeenth century, thereby leading to a dialogical failure in their initial encounter with Neo-Confucian tradition. What necessitates interreligious dialogue today is a pluralistic stance that deems all religious quests worthy in their own context. Therefore, this paper renews the dialogue between two spiritual traditions, long overdue, by reading two representative texts, side by side, from each tradition on self-cultivation: Reflections on Things at Hand (twelfth century) and The Spiritual Exercises (sixteenth century). The comparison showcases that the notion of “wanwuyiti”, a concomitant of the Confucian ren, is tantamount to a religious imperative for human ethical engagements, and the Ignatian axiom “Finding God in All Things” energizes a spiritual self-transformation to forge an intimate bond with God and the world. While Neo-Confucian cultivation focuses on the removal of desires, seeking to maintain “equilibrium” and “centrality”, the Ignatian exercises foreground commitment to “discernment” and “indifference”. The Neo-Confucians address human and worldly affairs in a procedural manner, with ever-broadening horizons, to establish an orderly society. In contrast, the Ignatian self is directed toward an orderly life to serve, love, and bring ever more to God’s Divine Majesty.

‘Following along with things’ in different ways Zhuangzi’s thoughts on how to manage external affairs

ABSTRACT What underlies Zhuangzi’s thought is the fundamental finitude of the self, meaning that we cannot and should not alter or control things around us at whim or solely in our favour. Consequently, Zhuangzi recommends that we remain open to things instead of going against them, leading to a fulfilled life. This article discusses Zhuangzi’s underlying philosophy of openness, noting that he proposes two different strategies to do so with a distinction between the natural and the human. The former primarily appears in Zhuangzi’s discussions of life and death. To overcome the fear of death, Zhuangzi calls on us to see it in the light of the ‘heavenly patterns’ or processes that can be grasped through the circularity of life and death. Yet, this picture reveals only half of Zhuangzi’s thoughts—he also shares his wisdom on how to address human affairs that are barely discernable or absent in such patterns. Here, Zhuangzi urges us to apply a different strategy: closely and attentively sensing the situations and their vicissitudes and preparing our actions as per such (shifting) data.

Role Reversals and Permeable Bodies in the Modern Robinsonade: From Postcolonialism to Ecocriticism

This essay argues that the particular lens of Bakhtinian body theory as developed for the Robinsonade by Rebecca Weaver-Hightower will help to shed light on a process observable over the past fifty years, in which colonial and postcolonial authors first embraced and then quickly abandoned the technique of role reversal in drafting their castaway stories. Enamoured of its comedic potential, Adrian Mitchell wrote Man Friday (1973). Derek Walcott was somewhat more circumspect in his Pantomime (1978), based on the realisation that role reversal demands the ascription of univocal roles and identities, something he did not see in evidence in the creolised world of the Caribbean. Later colonial and postcolonial writers such as J. M. Coetzee and Patrick Chamoiseau were then at pains to avoid questions of identity altogether, making epistemology and discourse their preferred topics. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, the clichéd identities formerly applied to Indigenous peoples (physical strength, close connection to nature) could be brought to bear on the idea of nature itself, thus making animal Robinsonades such as Life of Pi (2001) and The Red Turtle (2016) tremendous successes that could forgo the messiness of human affairs and simply champion the everlasting superiority of nature over civilisation as an expression of contemporary environmental preoccupations.

Heterogeneous texts, hybrid genres and Anthropocene poetics: Juliana Spahr’s ‘Unnamed Dragonfly Species’ (2011) and Sarah Moss’s Summerwater (2020)

Juliana Spahr’s generically hybrid ‘Unknown Dragonfly Species’ and Sarah Moss’s composite novel Summerwater are here read in the light of their textual hybridity and with a focus on their short fiction qualities. Different in form, style and content, the two texts share a confrontation of plots concentrating on social concerns – a group of New York friends, an anonymous ‘they’, in Spahr’s ‘Unnamed Dragonfly Species’, old and young couples, families, groups of friends on holiday in Scotland in Moss’s Summerwater – with short texts (chapters in Moss, proper names of endangered species in Spahr) that point to a world beyond the human and that ironically subvert the anthropocentrism and egocentrism that drives many of the characters involved. Read against the backdrop of Ricardo Piglia’s ‘Theses on the short story’, the confrontation of different text types is shown to avoid a one-dimensional focus on human affairs and thus helps to transcend the scope each individual genre – short story, poetry or novel – might cover on its own. Looking at ‘Unnamed Dragonfly Species’ and Summerwater as textually hybrid environmental short fiction, the article argues how the genre perspective may help to produce scenarios in which the human and the more-than-human worlds permeate each other in ways that presage a poetics for the Anthropocene.

To Reach Flourishing, Turn Right Sharply at the Next Corner

Modern humans are failing to attain their existential potential, expressed as flourishing. Simultaneously, megaproblems like climate change have arisen as unintended consequences of normal societal behaviors. Both failings lie at the deepest root of modern culture, the way we think we think, and consequently choose our norms and design our cultural institutions. The paper explicates a transformative model of cognition, recently developed by Iain McGilchrist, that raises the possibility of flourishing. According to the model, each brain hemisphere attends to the world differently and, thus, produces two distinctive actors. When the right is master, actions reflect the immediate external world, that is, they care for it. When the left controls, actions reflect a virtual world of facts and theories that have been abstracted from experience and stored in the left hemisphere. Its actions are instrumental and treat the real world as a resource. The ills and failings of modernity spring from an excess of left-brain domination. Flourishing, as the desired state of human and natural affairs, requires rejuvenating the right side as master. Some practical approaches, for example, mindfulness exercises, are offered. Pragmatic inquiry, importantly, should become the primary method for dealing with such large, complex problems.

The evolution of the gliotoxin biosynthetic gene cluster in Penicillium fungi.

Fungi biosynthesize diverse secondary metabolites, small organic bioactive molecules with key roles in fungal ecology. Fungal secondary metabolites are often encoded by physically clustered genes known as biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Fungi in the genus Penicillium produce a cadre of secondary metabolites, some of which are useful (e.g. the antibiotic penicillin and the cholesterol-lowering drug mevastatin) and others harmful (e.g. the mycotoxin patulin and the immunosuppressant gliotoxin) to human affairs. Fungal genomes often also encode resistance genes that confer protection against toxic secondary metabolites. Some Penicillium species, such as Penicillium decumbens, are known to produce gliotoxin, a secondary metabolite with known immunosuppressant activity. To investigate the evolutionary conservation of homologs of the gliotoxin BGC and of genes involved in gliotoxin resistance in Penicillium, we analyzed 35 Penicillium genomes from 23 species. Homologous, lesser fragmented gliotoxin BGCs were found in 12 genomes, mostly fragmented remnants of the gliotoxin BGC were found in 21 genomes, whereas the remaining 2 Penicillium genomes lacked the gliotoxin BGC altogether. In contrast, broad conservation of homologs of resistance genes that reside outside the BGC across Penicillium genomes was observed. Evolutionary rate analysis revealed that BGCs with higher numbers of genes evolve slower than BGCs with few genes, suggestive of constraint and potential functional significance or more recent decay. Gene tree-species tree reconciliation analyses suggested that the history of homologs in the gliotoxin BGC across the genus Penicillium likely involved multiple duplications, losses, and horizontal gene transfers. Our analyses suggest that genes encoded in BGCs can have complex evolutionary histories and be retained in genomes long after the loss of secondary metabolite biosynthesis.

More-Than-Human Promise: Relationality, Materiality, and Performativity

By analysing the relevant case law, this article argues that the promise must be understood as a more-than-human practice rather than merely a human affair of exchanging commitments to make agreements. Promise is always rolled into, and complicated by, the heterogenous networks formed up by humans and nonhumans in the world. Within the broader scope of this special issue – to build dialogues between comparative law and legal geography – this article, by analysing the legality and spatiality of promise, unpacks spatio-legal tangles, which are dynamic, contextual, and territorial, producing knowledge about law and society. It assesses three cases of promise in different spatio-legal settings: first, a piece of legislation about seismic risk management in Türkiye; second, a judicial decision regarding land use rezoning in Hong Kong; and, third, some disputes over property rental arrangement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. These cases are analysed through three interrelated aspects of making sense of the social world: relationality, materiality, and performativity. Different material objects, which can help relate and unrelate actants, are embedded in the performance of the law’s territory. The identification of these three components begins with the provocative vision shared by the scholarship of both comparative law and legal geography that aims to understand how the world is ordered, as well as with the awareness of comparison and spatiality. When using these three notions, the theoretical framing is not only limited to the analysis of the promise, but it can also be extended to make sense of other aspects of law and society.