Distinct Standpoints Research Articles

Fictional Country Houses of the 1980s: Isabel Colegate, Kazuo Ishiguro, and V.S. Naipaul

The renewed interest in English country houses in the 1980s was part of a focus on the idea of “English heritage,” and it was accompanied by a flourishing of historical novels and costume dramas. In the twenty-first century, scholars have investigated the links between country houses and the British Empire. A careful reading of Isabel Colegate’s The Shooting Party (1980), Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1988), and V.S. Naipaul’s The Enigma of Arrival (1987) shows that these writers took a critical view of the myth of the English country house. Each of them in some way addresses the colonial and imperial connections of the country house, and they each extend a venerable literary tradition in a manner that addresses the concerns of the late twentieth century and anticipates those of the twenty-first. The three novelists make use of a variety of perspectives in their representation of the country house, with significant attention to the experience of servants. Colegate writes out of a personal knowledge of the upper class from her own family background, while Ishiguro and Naipaul are English writers who were born in other parts of the world, giving them distinctive standpoints from which to consider English history and society.

Love and Desire in Coetzee’s Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians: A Levinasian Approach

This paper explores the possibility of presenting a philosophical analysis of two novels, Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee, through a Levinasian ethical perspective. Levinas’s philosophy is premised on the ethical responsibility of the self for the other. Redefining philosophy as the wisdom of love, Levinas embarks upon a revisionary approach to re-defining concepts such as love, desire, and responsibility that dominate and mediate the relationship between the self and the other. These reconfigured terms accommodate Levinas’s distinctive ethical standpoint, one that is geared towards valorizing the other over the self. The novels examined in this article similarly manifest a tendency to prioritize the other in its destitution and vulnerability. My discussion of Waiting for the Barbarians will be built around the relationship between the Magistrate and the Barbarian girl. I contend that their non-carnal relationship can be interpreted in terms of a transcendental and nonontological conception of desire. As such, desire becomes an obsession which cannot be shaken off. Desire of this kind liberates the self from egoism. In Disgrace I will explore the concept of love as maternity. Lucy’s refusal to abort her pregnancy reverberates with Levinas’s argument about maternal love as a self-effacing form of devotion. In both novels the question of the ethical body and its vulnerability will also be examined. The aim is to show how insatiable desire and maternal love can be manifestations of the ethical responsibility expounded by Levinas

A topic enhanced approach to detecting multiple standpoints in web texts

Internet has become the most popular platform for people to exchange opinions and express stances. The stances implied in web texts indicate people's fundamental beliefs and viewpoints. Understanding the stances people take is beneficial and critical for many security and business related applications, such as policy design, emergency response and marketing management. Most previous work on stance detection focuses on identifying the supportive or unsupportive attitudes towards a specific target. However, another important type of stance detection, i.e. multiple standpoint detection, has been largely ignored. Multiple standpoint detection aims to identify the distinct standpoints people hold among multiple parties, which reflects people's intrinsic values and judgments. When expressing standpoints, people tend to discuss diverse topics, and the word usage in the topics of different standpoints often varies a lot. As topics can provide latent information for identifying various standpoints, in this paper, we propose a topic-based approach to detecting multiple standpoints in Web texts, by enhancing generative classification model as well as feature representation of texts. In addition, we develop an adaptive process to determine parameter values in our approach automatically. Experimental studies on several real-world datasets verify the effectiveness of our proposed approach in detecting multiple standpoints.

<i>Alagadd?pama Sutta</i> as a Scriptural Source for Understanding the Distinctive Philosophical Standpoint of Early Buddhism

The Alagadd?pama Sutta is the 22nd discourse of the Majjhima-nik?ya of the Pali canon. In the sutta itself it is mentioned that the Buddha’s delivery of this discourse was necessitated by the need to refute a wrong view held by one of his disciples named Ari??ha. Parallel versions of the sutta are found preserved in the Chinese ?gamas. The two main similes used in the sutta, those of the snake and of the raft, are referred to in the scriptures of a number of non-Therav?da Buddhist traditions as well, showing that the Buddhist doctrine represented in it is early and authentic and the message contained in the sutta was considered to be extremely significant by many early Buddhist traditions. The Alagadd?pama Sutta shows the Buddha’s role as one of the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy who engaged in a critique of the craving for metaphysics and dogma frequently exhibited in those who propound worldviews. The Buddha did not value a belief or a worldview on grounds of the logical skill with which it was constructed but on grounds of the transformative effect it could have on the character of an individual and the sense of wellbeing it could promote. There are several discourses of the Pali canon which give prominence to this aspect of the Buddha’s teaching. Among them the Brahmaj?la Sutta of the D?gha-nik?ya and the A??hakavagga of the Suttanip?ta need special mention. The Buddha is seen to have consistently avoided engagement in speculative metaphysics, pointing out that the goal of his teaching goes beyond all such engagement. The Buddha himself distinguished his own worldview as a Teaching in the Middle (majjhena) avoiding the common tendency of humankind to be trapped by either of the two extremes, Eternalism or Annihilationism. These distinctive standpoints of the Buddha are all seen to be amply represented in the Alagadd?pama Sutta.

THE DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES: A WARFARE BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY

ABSTRACT:The plants and animals, from the very beginning of their existence, are being studied by two widely distinct standpoints viz., (i) the philosophical and (ii) the utilitarian. The plants especially from the latter standpoint were/are studied as a source of medicine and agriculture. The science of medicine was/is based on ‘cause and effects’, apart from certain other theories and philosophies. One such philosophy is ‘the doctrine of signatures’. However, it has been criticized since its beginning. The present communication is the result of analysis of the knowledge of ancients and author’s own observations. It is aimed at inviting attention of intellectuals to revive and point out relevance in its totality.The paper sheds light on history and development of this doctrine, contributions of pioneers, types of signature, background of planetary influence, comparison of signatures from ethnomedicine to modern medicine, echo of doctrine of signatures on common plant names in various human societies, various views of proponents and opponents of the doctrine, etc. It is concluded that the drug sources based on the doctrine alongwith verification on scientific lines is a better way to human welfare.KEY WORDS: Doctrine of signatures, History, Myth, Reality.

Self as an emic object: A re-reading of William James on self

Building on an emic conception of the self that William James articulated in his seminal chapter on the “Consciousness of Self” (1890/1950), this article defines the self as an object that the individual takes to be him- or herself. This object, which is subjectively identified by the individual, has an empirical dimension that constrains the subjective identification of the individual. As an emic object, the self is neither synonymous with the individual nor the equivalent of the individual’s self-concept; rather, it is the unity of the empirical existence of the individual and the individual’s perception of that existence. The self is an individual’s own person viewed from the standpoint of that individual, which may differ from what others perceive from their distinct standpoints. The implications of this new formulation for research and self-understanding are also discussed.

Visibility or Quality? The Role of Vertical Specialization in the Video Game Industry (1980-2011)

Complementing the traditional supply side approach of current research, this study explores the influence of vertical specialization on product performance from a distinctive audience standpoint. S...

Tocqueville and Nietzsche on the Problem of Human Greatness in Democracy

AbstractNietzsche and Tocqueville share a common concern with the tendency to mediocrity and loss of human greatness in democratic life. This essay explores the many similarities in their diagnoses of this problem, which they both view from the distinctive standpoint of aristocracy. Both thinkers focus on the way in which the individualism, preoccupation with material comfort, restlessness, and valorization of compassion that belong to democracy undermine human aspiration, intellectual excellence, and spiritual depth. Nevertheless, they differ sharply in their responses to the problem of human greatness in democracy. Tocqueville calls chiefly upon religion to elevate democratic citizens but otherwise resigns himself to the mediocrity that comes with democratic life. Nietzsche starts from the pessimistic premise that God is dead but more optimistically affirms the possibility of reestablishing aristocracy and finding a new greatness for human beings. The essay ultimately finds Nietzsche's solution more convincing but not without difficulties.

Addressing High Food Prices: A Household Vulnerability Analysis in Rural Burundi

This work tackles the food crisis through two distinct standpoints. On the one hand, international price surge is addressed in its most financial view – i.e. the price generation process - and the related information within connected. On the other, the drawbacks such dynamics may have triggered are analysed in terms of rural household consumption and production. That is to say how this crisis has turned for a great part of the world population from being purely a financial issue into a matter affecting food provision, or the capability to get adequate amounts of food or not. The main research question is whether or not high food prices are pro poor and, if not, which are the households most affected in terms of their vulnerability. This work is organized as follows: the first part reviews the possible implications of soaring food prices in terms of speculation and behavioural aspects related to food stock accumulation. The dynamics of commodity futures prices in terms of stationarity and non-stationarity are then described as well as the role of structural breaks in the price generation process. Finally, structural breaks findings are compared against relevant food policy events and financial crisis turmoil. The second part addresses most specifically the question of high price consequences on rural households, reviewing the literature on first and second-round effects, and linking the main findings with household model theory. The investigation then converges into the field of uncertainty at very low levels of consumption, where the rural households are the most affected in terms of possible drawbacks related to food price inflation. The third part conceptualizes these drawbacks in the general field of vulnerability to poverty, assessing and theorizing the received different definitions and measures. Consequently, arising from these contributions, some major findings are reported in order to sketch an operational background for the proceeding empirical part. The last part addresses the main research issue against the case study in rural Burundi. A multilevel model is presented, to take advantage of the sampling procedure. Full description of the empirical setting is provided, as well as the econometric results. Finally, vulnerability sources influence by soaring prices is measured and broken down, with regards to different household settings.

A critical realist rationale for using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods

Although using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is widely advocated, there is considerable scope for confusion due to the complex ontological and epistemological issues that need to be resolved. This paper examines some of the issues that may arise when the methods are combined. Three distinct standpoints with regard to using mixed method approaches are highlighted: a methodological purist position, a pragmatic standpoint and an anti-conflationist position. It is suggest that an anti-conflationist approach that is underpinned by the philosophy of critical realism is compatible with all three of the purposes of methodological triangulation identified by Risjord and his co-authors (Risjord et al., 2001, 2002) and that adopting a critical realist perspective may circumvent many of the problems that are associated with paradigm ‘switching’. The case for adopting a critical realist framework is illustrated by a case study, in which a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to explore how and why gatekeeping decisions emerge at the interface between primary care and community mental health teams.

Narrative in Social Work

We examine how the concept of narrative has entered social work over the past 15 years, with special emphasis on research applications. Approaching our task from distinctive standpoints and locations, the article reviews definitions of narrative, criteria for ‘good’ enough narrative research, and patterns in social work journals. Our evaluation uncovered few studies, in contrast to the volume of narrative research in education, nursing and other practicing professions. Three exemplars of narrative inquiry - model research completed by social workers - show the knowledge for practice that can be produced with careful application of narrative methods, in all their diversity. Drawing on our respective locations and experiences, we cautiously suggest some reasons for the paucity of quality research in the USA, and greater representation in Europe.

SELF-CREATING BRANE WORLDS

Several boundary conditions for the universe have been hitherto suggested, basing on different philosophical approaches. In particular, one may choose between the notions that the universe was created either from nothing or by itself. The quantum state of a universe created from nothing has been already formulated under distinct standpoints by Hartle, Hawking, Vilenkin and others. In this paper we have concentrated on deriving a quantum theory for a self-created universe. Thus, we have first considered the spacetime structure of a six-dimensional de Sitter space with a multiply connected region and, by using a cutting and pasting procedure, we have then been able to show that one can introduce a four-brane in such a spacetime whose evolution can also be considered within the context of ekpyrotic and cyclic universes, and quantized in terms of the sum-over-histories formulation, according to the rules of the generalized quantum theory developed by Hartle.

Epistemology of measurement

The paper introduces what is deemed as the general epistemological problem of measurement: what characterizes measurement with respect to generic evaluation? It also analyzes the fundamental positions that have been maintained about this issue, thus presenting some sketches for a conceptual history of measurement. This characterization, in which three distinct standpoints are recognized, corresponding to a metaphysical, an anti-metaphysical, and relativistic period, allows us to introduce and briefly discuss some general issues on the current epistemological status of measurement science.

Desecuritizing the Water Issue in Singapore—Malaysia Relations

********** A number of scholars have argued that water may be a determining factor sparking armed conflict between Singapore and Malaysia. They highlight Singapore's dependence on Malaysia for half of its water needs (a supply guaranteed by two compacts signed in 1961 and 1962), and speculate that Malaysia prematurely abrogates the agreements, water-stressed Singapore will have no qualms about invading its neighbour to secure access to the water stocks. This article examines Singapore's water situation and argues that the prevailing scholarship is too alarmist. It maintains that Singapore has the means to achieve a measure of water self-sufficiency and is not vulnerable to Malaysia's use of the water link as leverage. Consequently, scholars should begin to regard the water issue between Singapore and Malaysia as desecuritized. Introduction Within the past decade, a burgeoning studies literature coalescing around the phrase security has emerged. The deluge of articles and books calling for the redefinition of beyond the confines of military threats to include the environment has generated a lively debate within academia. (1) Within this broad environmental school, two distinctive standpoints on the scope of the scholars' or policy-makers' concerns have emerged. One has tended to view the environment as a dependent variable for analysis, such that thus takes on the meaning of of the environment. (2) The other posits the environment as an independent variable and is interested in the conflict dimension of interstate relations as they crop up in political, economic, diplomatic, or military confrontations stemming from environmental antagonism, be it local, regional, or global in nature. (3) Security studies of the latter genre argue that resource scarcity or one state's forcible deprivation of a resource from another plays an important contributory role in inducing wars. Analysts taking the latter approach and studying the linkage between nation-states, water security, and conflict, in particular, have generated insightful hypotheses about the respective independent! dependent variable relationship between a renewable resource like fresh water and war. They argue that, assuming water is fundamental to a country's survivability, sovereignty, economic development, and, social and political stability, any attempt to curtail that state's access to the resource may trigger violent retaliation. (4) As Peter Gleick contends, if water provides [a state with] a source of economic or political strength... ensuring access to water provides a justification for going to war, and water-supply systems can become a goal of military conquest. (5) Informed by fresh theoretical perspectives, a number of case studies focusing on the links between water scarcity or deprivation and interstate conflict have appeared. Indeed, scholars advancing the water agenda have added an important dimension to scholarly understanding of how access to water resources may influence geopolitical events in the water-stressed Middle East, or the humid Mekong region in tropical Southeast Asia. (6) The clarion call for more attention to be given to a state's water could not have been timelier for those concerned about the situation in Singapore. In recent years, a number of scholars examining bilateral tensions among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have suggested that water may be a determinant factor sparking violent conflict between Singapore and Malaysia. (7) The central assumption behind that assertion is that Singapore is bereft of sufficient domestic water reserves and is highly reliant on Malaysia for at least half of its water supply, a provision guaranteed by two compacts signed in 1961 and 1962 and expiring respectively in 2011 and 2061. (8) Although Singapore separated from Malaysia in August 1965 under acrimonious circumstances, the water links continued. …

Icosahedral order in glass-forming metallic melts

The role of icosahedral order in glass formation from metallic melts is examined from two distinct standpoints. On the one hand, experimental evidence is reported that icosahedral order indeed occurs in liquid alloys which produce quasi-crystals upon solidification. In contrast, an example is shown in which no icosahedral order is detectable although the material freezes in the amorphous state. On the other hand, computer simulations are used to show how a network of two kinds of particle may become amorphous though no icosahedral order is present. It is suggested that icosahedral order is not necessarily related to disordering in amorphous alloys and that its long-standing status as universal criterion for glass formation should be reconsidered.

Reduction of Sulfur Dioxide on Perovskite Oxides

Abstract Reactions of sulfur dioxide on perovskite oxides have been investigated from two distinct standpoints. First sulfur dioxide is a poison for reactions of carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and hydrocarbons (1–11). How to mitigate this poisoning and how to regenerate the catalyst is therefore of importance when designing pollution abatement catalysts for motor cars. However the reaction between sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, catalyzed by perovskites, itself may provide an important route for the removal of a major pollutant (12–16).

Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought

Black women have long occupied marginal positions in academic settings. I argue that many Black female intellectuals have made creative use of their marginality—their “outsider within” status–to produce Black feminist thought that reflects a special standpoint on self, family, and society. I describe and explore the sociological significance of three characteristic themes in such thought: (1) Black women's self-definition and self-valuation; (2) the interlocking nature of oppression; and (3) the importance of Afro-American women's culture. After considering how Black women might draw upon these key themes as outsiders within to generate a distinctive standpoint on existing sociological paradigms, I conclude by suggesting that other sociologists would also benefit by placing greater trust in the creative potential of their own personal and cultural biographies.

Problems of Scientific Revolution: Progress and Obstacles to Progress in the Sciences

Rom Harre (ed) London: Clarendon/Oxford University Press 1975 pp vi + 104 price £1.75 (paperback) £4.00 (cased) One hundred pages of penetrating thought from distinct standpoints provide us with the optimistic view that science, despite its tensions and hurdles, is progressing nevertheless. How the 'progress' happens and where the 'obstacles' arise were discussed at the 1973 Herbert Spencer lectures.

Human Nature

The concept of human nature usually enters discussions of the nature and implications of the social sciences in connection with one or another form of ‘relativism’. Confronted with the enormous and apparently conflicting variety of phenomena of human life at different places and times, we are inclined to ask whether there is not something which holds these phenomena together and unifies them. Stated thus baldly this question is no doubt so vague as to approach meaninglessness; it will have to be posed in different forms — and probably answered differently – according to the particular phenomena of human life which we happen to have in mind. In this lecture I shall concentrate my attention on some questions about the relevance of sociological investigations to our understanding of ethics and about the treatment of ethics in such investigations. I shall be particularly interested in the way in which the concept of human nature enters into such discussions; and I shall devote a good deal of attention to Professor Alasdair Maclntyre's recent Short History of Ethics. It is a large merit of this book that it explicitly and invigoratingly relates the manner of its historical exposition to a distinctive philosophico-sociological standpoint concerning the nature of morality. I call this a ‘merit’ and want to stand by that characterisation even though I think that there are important confusions enshrined in Maclntyre's approach. A large part of the task which I want to set myself in this lecture is to make clear the nature and importance of these confusions.

Human Nature

The concept of human nature usually enters discussions of the nature and implications of the social sciences in connection with one or another form of ‘relativism’. Confronted with the enormous and apparently conflicting variety of phenomena of human life at different places and times, we are inclined to ask whether there is not something which holds these phenomena together and unifies them. Stated thus baldly this question is no doubt so vague as to approach meaninglessness; it will have to be posed in different forms — and probably answered differently – according to the particular phenomena of human life which we happen to have in mind. In this lecture I shall concentrate my attention on some questions about the relevance of sociological investigations to our understanding of ethics and about the treatment of ethics in such investigations. I shall be particularly interested in the way in which the concept of human nature enters into such discussions; and I shall devote a good deal of attention to Professor Alasdair Maclntyre's recent Short History of Ethics. It is a large merit of this book that it explicitly and invigoratingly relates the manner of its historical exposition to a distinctive philosophico-sociological standpoint concerning the nature of morality. I call this a ‘merit’ and want to stand by that characterisation even though I think that there are important confusions enshrined in Maclntyre's approach. A large part of the task which I want to set myself in this lecture is to make clear the nature and importance of these confusions.