Early Thinkers Research Articles

Automobile design history: what can we learn from the behavior at the edges?

The paper is developed from a larger evaluation of the history of automobile design. This evaluation used categorical principal component analysis to analyze the direction of the product history, investigating how automobiles developed from 1878 to the present (2013), particularly focusing on whether automobile designers appear to be working within what are termed product paradigms. Rather than looking at how design thinking and paradigms became established in automobile design, this paper takes a sideways look at the variations and quirky automobiles that have been built by investigating the outliers of the analysis and categorizing them into three categories: those that are always outside of general trends, those that are throwbacks to earlier thinking, and those that are innovative and ahead of later thinking. The paper ends with a brief look at how and why novelty might become innovation and hence alter the course of the greater product history rather than remaining outliers, interesting as they are. This is where the novelty demonstrates significant advantages for the customer and manufacturer. The conclusion is that the process of investigating statistical outliers is useful and may lead to insights when investigating changes, developments, and innovations and their causes.

Shoah Theology in America: First Responses and Interfaith Statement

In a post-Shoah world, theological exploration of Shoah issues and events questions the interrelationship between human and divine responsibility, often shaking and rendering radical reorientation to faith belief and living among ashes of evil. This paper summarizes and, to some extent, critiques the thought of early key thinkers of Shoah theology in America, including Eliezer Berkovits, who attempted to understand and explain religiously Shoadicy. It also argues for cooperative Jewish-Christian dialogue and activity in dealing with Shoah-related matters, a position neither engaged in nor supported by Berkovits.

The Elemental Sallis: On Wonder and Philosophy's “Beginning”

It is a well-known teaching in the writings of both Plato and Aristotle that wonder (thauma) is the beginning of philosophy. But few philosophers have given wonder much thought—certainly, no philosopher that I am aware of has, like Professor Sallis, returned time and again to think through wonder. Sallis’s thinking through wonder is guided by his reading of ancient Greek philosophy, and furthermore, as I hope to show, it opens up a reengagement with Greek philosophers—in particular, with those early Greek thinkers who are known collectively as the “Pre-Socratics.” In what follows I hope to make clear, first, what Sallis understands by wonder as the archē of philosophy and, second, how his own “rememorative” thinking of this archē—especially by way of what he calls “the elemental”—remains attentive to the wondrous in such a way as to return us to the insights of Pre-Socratic thought. But to understand wonder in the way that Sallis does requires that we have a sense of what it does not mean for wonder to be the beginning of philosophy. The Elemental Sallis: On Wonder and Philosophy’s “Beginning”

Marking a New Holy Community: God's Neighbors and the Ascendancy of a New Religious Hegemony in Israel

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Menny Ya'ish's recent film God's Neighbors (2012, ...) opens on a peaceful Friday eve with Avi (Ro'ee Asaf ), a rough-looking but attractive young man, who performs the ritual of Kiddush, or sanctification of the wine, that ushers in the Jewish Sabbath. When he is done eating alone with his father, Avi retires to his room to study scripture, basking in the sweetness of the Torah and relishing the peace and quiet of the holy day after a long week of hard work. But his blessed reverie is soon interrupted by loud music that comes from the street below. Looking down, he sees a group of young Russians drinking and loudly making merry in the yard to the sound of booming music. Faint cries by neighbors in surrounding flats to keep the music down in honor of the Sabbath are rebuffed vulgarly and dismissively by the carousing Russians. This incenses God's first neighbor, Avi, who calls on God's two other neighbors, his friends Koby (Gal Friedman) and Yaniv (Itzik Golan), to help him drive the Russians out. What follows is probably one of the most articulated action scenes in Israeli cinema to date-a rapid action sequence, in the course of which the Russians are violently beaten and forced to leave, bleeding and humiliated, to the sound of cheering neighbors.Piety and violence distinguish God's three neighbors-Avi, Koby, and Yaniv-who, since their return to the faith, have become religious vigilantes in their working-class urban neighborhood of Bat Yam. Avi is the leader of the gang. During the day he helps his father in their produce store. In his free time, he makes religious trance music. Having recently joined the Breslev Hasidic sect, the three friends practice their newfound faith in some of their former gang ways, imposing God's laws on their neighbors by force: they beat up drunks, impose the Sabbath on local businesses, force neighborhood women to dress more modestly, and fight a rival Arab gang. Their lives are a strange mixture of a lackadaisical drug culture, religious faith, and tough street action.1 But Avi's life changes when a pretty young woman, Miri (Rotem Zisman Cohen), moves into the neighborhood. At first Avi tries to impose a stricter dress code on her, but eventually he falls in love with her and is transformed by his love into a kinder and less vengeful religious person.I want to propose that God's Neighbors marks a significant cultural moment in the legitimation of Jewish religiosity in Israel and records an important milestone in the country's metamorphosis in recent years from a secular, liberal society to a more fundamentalist religious one. The film demonstrates this change in three interrelated ways. First, by combining Jewish religiosity with a powerful and aggressive Israeli Mizrahi2 masculine identity, the film relegitimizes Jewish religiosity, presents it as attractive and sexy, and declares it as the new Israeli hegemony. Second, by not killing off the members of a rival Arab gang , the film symbolically minimizes the conflict between Jews and Arabs, and advances the importance of mythical Jewish time over Zionist historical time. Finally, by ending happily with a union between Avi and his girl, Miri, the film provides a neat closure that offers an alluringly simple, Hasidic-like tale of Jewish life in Israel today, promising rewards to the righteous who believe in Hashem, the Lord.3The secular nature of early Zionism is fairly well known by now and needs little elaboration.4 Zionist culture, which was greatly influenced by the civic religion of European bourgeois nationalism, also developed as a reaction against Jewish traditional life and religious practices in Eastern Europe.5 But Zionism not only preserved the secular liberalism of the Haskala, the Jewish Enlighten- ment. It was also inspired by the great social reform movements of the time, such as socialism and communism, which were decidedly antireligious. When Zionism was later transferred to Palestine and developed there, it continued to be animated by the antireligious sentiments of its early thinkers, a sentiment that eventually grew to the outright animosity of what came to be known as the Zionist or Israeli negation of exile. …

J.H. King and a Pentecostal Theology of Religions and Interreligious Ecumenism: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for Future Research

The 2007-2010 Journal of Pentecostal Theology debate between Tony Richie and me about J.H. King’s theology of religions focused on both historical theology and constructive-theological method relative to the use of King’s writings as a resource for developing a twenty-first century Pentecostal theology of religions. For me, two major lessons emerged which suggest that future study of King’s and perhaps other early Pentecostal thinkers’ theology of religions will need to be especially attentive to at least two broad tasks: careful historical research and pursuit of a common and precise inclusivist terminology by collaborating scholars. This work is necessary because it relates directly to the issue of the extent of King’s pertinence for the construction of both a Pentecostal theology of religions and a Pentecostal theology and praxis of interreligious ecumenism. If King was merely an accessibilist-inclusivist, and I firmly believe that was the case, then his relevance is greatly diminished.

Towards a Socio‐Economics of the Brain Drain and Distributed Human Capital

AbstractThis paper derives from our joint interest in understanding how scientific mobility affects developing countries. Many authors have addressed the topic previously, both from an economic and from a sociological perspective. However, recent literature evinces dissatisfaction with both analytical frameworks and the framing of public policies addressing the brain drain problematic. This paper is a contribution to understanding the historical and theoretical foundations of the “brain drain” debate. We aim to improve conceptual clarity regarding the itinerancy of human beings and the mobilization of human capital. We develop a critical review of the economics of the brain drain, highlighting the work of some key early thinkers and pointing out the way in which subsequent work has taken up selected aspects of their approaches leaving other challenges aside. We then consider the diaspora networks literature, which is characterized as taking a “connectionist” approach to the brain drain. We identify two fundamental problems: the sidelining of complementarity and context dependency as basic properties of human capital; and a failure to adequately disentangle the concepts of human resources for science and technology (HRST) and human capital in academic and policy discourse about the brain drain.

Script and Symbolic Writing in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

We introduce the question whether there are specific kinds of writing modalities and practices that facilitated the development of modern science and mathematics. We point out the importance and uniqueness of symbolic writing, which allowed early modern thinkers to formulate a new kind of questions about mathematical structure, rather than to merely exploit this structure for solving particular problems. In a very similar vein, the novel focus on abstract structural relations allowed for creative conceptual extensions in natural philosophy during the scientific revolution. These preliminary reflections are meant to set the stage for the following contributions in this volume.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: Henry Thornton and the Evolution of the Theory of Fiduciary Money

Perceptive thinkers have been writing intelligently about money for at least five centuries. However, nearly all of the early thinkers developed theories designed to explain the behavior of full-bodied metallic money or the opposite extreme, fiat money issued by governments. However, late in the eighteenth century Great Britain gave rise to a fiduciary monetary system in which the assets regularly used to make commercial payments were debt instruments issued not only by the Bank of England but also by a myriad of country banks. Furthermore, a variety of privately issued commercial paper was regularly used to make commercial payments. While thinkers of the stature of David Hume and Adam Smith utilized the quantity theory of money or the real bills doctrine to explain the monetary system, Henry Thornton broke new ground by developing a theory that recognized the essential truth that most of the “monies” used in England (and Scotland) were merely promises to pay.

A Mystic Impulse: From Apophatics to Decreation in Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart and Simone Weil

This article articulates a mystically motivated apophatic subjectivity that emerges from Simone Weil's life and thought. It does so genealogically, via excursions into Pseudo-Dionysius's and Meister Eckhart's negative theologies. These genealogical excursions expose Weil's resonances with and differences from these earlier thinkers of Christian apophasis. To highlight these differences, this article pays particular attention to two spiritual exercises, attention and decreation, which when taken together point out a tragic sense pulsing through and informing Weil's remarkable religious thought and praxis.

Forging Traditional Liturgy. Exegesis, Mission, and Medieval Baptism

At the end of the 8th century, the high stakes of Christian mission led Alcuin of York (d. 804) to develop an approach to Christian formation that became normative for medieval Christianity. In the shadow of the Frankish missionary debacle among the Saxons and with the conversion of the recently conquered Avars on the horizon, the mechanics of catechesis was a burning issue in the Frankish World. This article explores the origin, development, and legacy of an influential approach to Christian formation forged at the end of the 8th century. It highlights the careful attention afforded by early medieval thinkers to patristic exegesis as well as how the bible informed their approaches to liturgy. It also illumines the profound and enduring influence of Carolingian theology on Western Christianity.

Virtue, Identity, and Agency

Despite a vibrant revival of the ethics of virtue, now spanning several decades, the discourse of virtue in later medieval and early modern thought and the distinctive forms this reflection takes across varying genres and social settings have been insufficiently integrated into narratives of the history of virtue ethics. The aim of this special issue is to remedy this lack by bringing together philosophical, theological, historical, and literary studies of virtue and the virtues in key thinkers, texts, and sociocultural contexts from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Varied as these essays are, common preoccupations emerge: with the dependent or independent character of virtuous agency, with the problems posed by self-love in both individual and collective manifestations, and with identifying the social conditions for the discernment and cultivation of the virtues. Even if the pagan discourse of virtue had been adopted by Christianity in its earliest centuries, both medieval and early modern European thinkers continued to wrestle with the interface between divine formation and social formation and their implications for the character of human moral agency.

Rediscovering the Steady State of Classical Economics: Discussion on the Origin of the Economic Theory of Sustainability

Sustainability is not a new concept; rather it originated with the earliest thinkers in the philosophy of economics.   Adam Smith and others of his generation wrote about stationary economies and uneconomic growth centuries before modern thinkers rediscovered these issues.   This discussion paper explores how neo-classical economics has strayed from the core beliefs of early authors and negligently built on their legacy by espousing ideals of uneconomic growth.   If society does require a sustainable human enterprise how can researchers and policy maker’s best describe this in language that is acceptable to society at large.

Is Australia a tectonically stable continent? Analysis of a myth and suggested morphological evidence of tectonism

Occasional references to the relative tectonic instability of the Australian continent have been published over the last hundred years or so. Youthful tectonic forms were described from various parts of the continent throughout that period. Despite this, it was repeatedly claimed that the shield lands in particular were tectonically stable, and as recently as this century reference has been made to a concept embracing a tectonically inert continent. However, some 60 years ago, the accumulated evidence convinced E.S. Hills that in Australia all land surfaces, including the shield lands, and even recent alluvial plains, were tectonically disturbed. This conclusion was reinforced by analyses of seismicity and faulting; by regional geological mapping that revealed widely distributed tectonic forms and especially fault-related features, many of them of neotectonic age; by technological advances that allow faulting episodes to be closely dated; by the recognition of underprinting; and by the realization that many minor forms, previously unrecognized or attributed to other mechanisms or processes, are associated with crustal stress and are of tectonic origin. Thus, while Australia is a relatively stable continent, it is subject to widespread small-magnitude earth movements. Ironically, in view of earlier thinking, neotectonic forms may be better developed and preserved on the shields than elsewhere.

Seeing bodies in pain: From Hippocrates to Freud

The study of pain has a history as long as that of Western medicine. In the 20th and 21st centuries much has been made about the epistemological problem of seeing somatic as well as psychic pain in the clinical setting. The two schools seem to be those which rely on self‐reporting and those that rely on the interpretation of visual materials (expression or brain scans) by trained specialists. That this problem was central to the 19th century study of pain is clear as these origins (especially Darwin) are often cited in today’s literature as ‘proof’ of their validity. That the problem was also central to one of the early 20th century thinkers most indebted to Darwin, Sigmund Freud, is less well known and how he resolved this paradox of self‐reporting versus seeing seems to have been overlooked.

Alain Locke on Race Relations: Some Political Implications of His Thought

Although Alain Locke’s works are well known, they have rarely been assessed for their direct significance as political theory. In this article, the author undertakes such an assessment by exposing the political implications of Locke’s formulations on race in a number of lectures he conducted in 1916. Specifically, this article shows that although Locke’s works have been interpreted as advocating a critical pragmatism on race, they put forth a new kind of racialism that is neither critical nor conservative, although decidedly radical. Exposing this makes it easier to see the connection between Locke’s works and the earlier thinkers on race before the European Enlightenment as well as ways in which they anticipate important trends in contemporary political thought.

Xunzis Theory of Human Nature and His “Emptiness, Unity, and Stillness” Psychology

Xunzi (C.310-219 B.C.E) is the one of great early Confucian thinkers. In the history of ancient Chinese theory and literary, he is undoubtedly a master of character. Many of his thoughts contain profound reflections on psychology, ethics, society and politics. Although his theory is not accepted by the two thousand years of feudal regime, but its influence was very large. So Tan Sitong (1865-1898), an eminent Chinese revolutionist in the late Qing Dynasty who was in support of liberal reform, said that “Chinese culture in two thousand years is Xunzi’s theory ”. Unfortunately, in the history of Chinese thought, Xunzi has been treated unfairly. Scholars tend to emphasis on researching Mencius and other philosophers of Si-Meng School, respected Mencius but belittled Xunzi. Xunzi and his theory have been neglected for a long time. In the 20 century, with the revival of studying Confucianism, scholars started to focus on it, but compared to the research of Confucius, Mencius and other traditional Confucian, researches are still not enough. This is inconsistent with the contribution of Xunzi, because some of his theories are very insightful, especially his psychology. My study of his Psychology will begin with a review of his ethnics and moral philosophy, then talk about his psychology theory, as emptiness, unity, and stillness about human mind. 2 Xing(human nature)

The Human Face of Early Modern England

This essay traces out the context that allowed numerous early modern thinkers to deny that animals had faces. Using early- to mid-seventeenth-century writing by, among others, John Milton, John Bulwer and Ben Jonson, it shows that faces were understood to be sites of meaning, and were thus, like gestural language and the capacity to perform a dance, possessed by humans alone. Animals, this discourse argued, have no ability to communicate meaningfully because they have no bodily control, and as such they are faceless beings without individuality and without a sense of self-consciousness. The ethical implications of such a reading of the human face are far reaching.

Thought, Utterance, Power:

AbstractTo the ancient mind, magic was a powerful force to be subjected to or to control. Egypt, more than any other early culture, stressed the importance of intellectual agency as the antidote to the imperfection perceived between foundational thinking and anti-foundational speaking. Just as rhetoric seeks to express the conceptual ideal pursued by philosophical inquiry, these earlier thinkers stressed magical language as the key to unlocking the power of the cosmos. This article will explore the Ancient Egyptian concept of rhetorical magic as a practical wisdom that allows an individual to function fully within the boundaries established by a perceived cosmic order. The Ancient Egyptians applied rhetorical magic to ease the dissonance felt between intellectual engagement and the semiotically saturated cosmology in which they dwelt. These same ancient rhetorical practices hold promise in assisting our own attempts to navigate a world inundated with information.

Editorial: the philosophy of trade union rights

lUR H EDITORIAL Editorial: the philosophy of trade union rights It journal organisations isa fairly would safe and agree bet that that that trade most trade union ifnot unions rights allreaders are areimportant important ofthis journal would agreethat trade unions areimportant organisations andthat trade union rights areimportant rights. But itisby nomeans certain that allreaders would agree astowhy trade union rights areimportant. Itistothis seemingly straightforward question that weturn our attention for the current edition ofIUR. Wehave encouraged our contributors totake us right back tophilosophical basics, examining how a number oflines ofphilosophical reasoning might beapplied tothe question. Wedonot suggest that the philosophers inquestion supported trade union rights. Rather that the ideas they put forward canserve asjustifications orrationales for trade unionism and /or for the protection of trade union rights. Most of thephilosophical theories weconsider inthis edition are concerned with the articulation of human rights orsocial justice .Our contributors were asked toreflect onthe extent to which these diverse theoretical positions could besaidto support arguments infavour of trade union rights. Early thinkers took their cuesastowhat wasmorally right from principles handed down bythechurch orfrom the emerging theory ofnatural innate rights ofman. Academic lawyer Filip Dorrsemont examines the evolution of the official teaching of the Catholic Church ontrade unionism and concludes that the Church offers a timid andrestricted vision of trade union rights, but notes that ithasconsistently emphasised its support for these rights. Tonla Novltz, alsoa legal academic, examines the more secular side ofnatural rights thinking inorder toexamine how a novel aspect ofLocke's 17thCentury natural rights framework, property rights, might serve workers' interests. The18th Century German thinker Immanuel Kant was concerned with the'good'.Hethought that morally right principles could beascertained by abstract reasoning by a disinterested person, and that a person could live a moral life by reflecting onwhat these principles were and by respecting them intheir conduct. Contemporary philosopher Nina Power takes usthrough some of these ideas inanoverview ofoneofthetrue giants ofthehistory ofphilosophical thought. Kant, asPower tells us,'clears the ground for trying toimagine what equality anduniversality would look like inpractice'. 20th Century American liberal philosopher John Rawls alsorelied onthis ideaofdisinterested metaphysical reflection, employing a radical 'thought experiment' toask the question astowhat principles of justice individuals would agree towhen designing society if they hadnoideawhat their placewould be within that society. Contemporary philosopher Stuart White talks usthrough thedemocratic, liberal concept ofsociety that Rawls believed his'original position' thought-experiment entailed. Materialists, suchas 19th Century German thinker Karl Marx, reject theideathat quiet, disinterested metaphysical reflection canalone provide solutions tomoral andpolitical problems. Rather, materialists argue that moral and political problems arerooted clearly in the material world, in the relations ofthesocial classes, andaround themeans ofproduction . John Kelly, professor ofindustrial relations, argues that 'diffuse notions offairness' probably influence unions more than serious Marxist analysis. From a democratic position professor Steven Friedman takes upa materialist mode ofargument andtells usthat unions are'essential' engines ofengagement that facilitate participation bythe poor Inpolitics anddecision-making. German philosopher andlegal critic Jürgen Habermas alsocited much of his early work ina Marxist context though inlater years histhinking became rather more complex. Legal academic Ruth Dukes explains Habermas' communitarian views. Contemporary American philosopher Michael Sandel is another communitarian, butonewhose ideas evolved from Rawlsian liberalism rather than Marxism. Alan Bogg argues that Sandel's ideashave direct relevance to trade unionists. Heargues that the participation ofcitizens inpublic life, facilitated by trade unions, canhelp toproduce a more just world. Inclosing, egalitarian thinker andco-author of TheSpirit Level Richard Wilkinson outlines how heseetrade unions fitting within a framework of social equality. Crucially for trade union internationalists heshows how the Cold War period of ideological confrontation influenced social conditions and thinking onequality inthe 20th Century. Looking around us today Wilkinson reminds usthat internationally there isa correlation between countries with strong trade union movements andgreater equality. Daniel Blackburn andElizabeth Molinari INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 2Volume 18Issue 42012 Next issue of IUR Articles between 850and1,900words should besentbyemail (mail@ictur.org) andaccompanied bya photograph andshort biographical note oftheauthor. Photographs illustrating thetheme ofarticles arealways welcome. Allitems must bewith usby20March 2012if they are tobeconsidered for publication inthenext issueofIUR. Subscribe toIUR: tosubscribe, complete theboxbelow. I/we would like tosubscribe toInternational Union Rights andenclose£20/US$30/€25. Name/Organisation Address PostCode Four issues£20/US$30...

If Designers are Problem Solvers: What is a “Real” Problem, A Problem for Whom?

Meikle describes American industrial designers in the 1940's as nothing more than a service to industry and responsible for the development of consumerism, rather than solving real problems? What is a real problem as opposed to a perceived problem or even a wicked problem? Problems always exist in one form or another, so should designers begin to view the world in a more scientific way and look for real problems within situations that require resolution, in the way that Heidegger asks the question: What actually calls for thinking?; real food for thought as opposed to reactive design thinking. It could be argued that designers such as Dyson already do this to some extent, but should not all designers become much more proactive in terms of path-finding, leading and design management? Designers today only provide assistance when they should provide overall direction or redirection for tomorrow. Redirecting and addressing the impact of socio-economic problems we are now facing, as well as climatic change or natural disaster especially where there is potential for re-occurrence and the real problem may be floods, storms, volcanos, erosion, rising tides, extreme heat or cold. In a sense we tend to treat our environments as a constant war with nature, yet earlier thinking; due in part to limitations of machine and lack of technology in the past, was to adapt to our environment. Today we solve many problems by simply trying to dominate nature as we possess the power and technology to do this, without fully appreciating the long term implications of our designs. To begin to solve this real problem we have to move the designer from a reactive service industry to proactive design thinking, path-finding and profession of leaders.