Fundamental Clash Research Articles

‘Magnificent Intellect’: Character, Intelligence, and Genius in Sherlock Holmes

Since his first appearances in print, Sherlock Holmes has served as literature’s resident genius. But what does ‘genius’ mean in a world that increasingly conceptualises intelligence as a quantifiable and measurable phenomenon? This essay considers the characterisation of Holmes’s intelligence in the context of a revolution in the way human intelligence is understood – a revolution instigated by Francis Galton’s 1869 Hereditary Genius and emblematised by the invention of the IQ test in 1905. This historical context situates Holmes’s character at the crux of a shift in the conception of intelligence, as encapsulating a moment of cultural wavering between ‘genius’ as a mysterious quality or gift, and ‘genius’ as a higher-than-average number on a scale. Ultimately, this essay suggests that these competing models of the characterisation of intelligence in the Holmes stories illuminate a fundamental clash between the novelistic ideal of portraying incommensurable individuality on the one hand, and the de-individualising trend of the IQ model of intelligence on the other.

Trumpism and the rejection of global climate governance

This paper explains the ideational foundations of Donald Trump’s rejection of global climate cooperation and its implications for the future of global climate governance. We argue that Trumpism’s antipathy is a fundamental normative challenge to the key ideas that underpin global climate cooperation. Here we explore two specific norm contestations: (1) Collective action versus extralegal sovereignty, and (2) Common but Differentiated Responsibility versus fairness-as-reciprocity. Trump’s aggressive norm rejections are quite novel. His rejection of climate politics in particular and his desire to return to a status quo ante in world politics, positions him as a distinct type of actor in the spectrum of norm contestation – a reactionary norm entrepreneur. We contribute an ideational explanation of Trumpism’s rejection of global climate cooperation by identifying the fundamental clash of ideas and his role as a reactionary norm entrepreneur within the broader framework of global climate governance. It offers a case study in a high-profile instance of norm contestation and its implications for the survival of the global climate change regime.

The Hindutva Brand of Populist Politics and the Women Question

This study maps the interactions of the Hindutva brand of political populism, which is in rise in India, with the feminist politics and concerns. To study this interaction, the article qualitatively studies the phenomenon of Hindutva-populism and feminist politics and uses the Bhartiya Janata Party, the Hindu-rightist political party, as the site to explore the gendered political culture and the complex relationship that populism and feminism share on the women question in their quest for political and social transformation in India. For this purpose, the article focuses on the broad themes, highlighting the differential visions of both projects, of: the lens through which the problems are diagnosed, the solutions proposed to these problems and the role of the related variables such as power, state and leadership, which puts them in a fundamental clash with each other.

Artificial intelligence with American values and Chinese characteristics: a comparative analysis of American and Chinese governmental AI policies

As China and the United States strive to be the primary global leader in AI, their visions are coming into conflict. This is frequently painted as a fundamental clash of civilisations, with evidence based primarily around each country’s current political system and present geopolitical tensions. However, such a narrow view claims to extrapolate into the future from an analysis of a momentary situation, ignoring a wealth of historical factors that influence each country’s prevailing philosophy of technology and thus their overarching AI strategies. In this article, we build a philosophy-of-technology-grounded framework to analyse what differences in Chinese and American AI policies exist and, on a fundamental level, why they exist. We support this with Natural Language Processing methods to provide an evidentiary basis for our analysis of policy differences. By looking at documents from three different American presidential administrations––Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden––as well as both national and local policy documents (many available only in Chinese) from China, we provide a thorough comparative analysis of policy differences. This article fills a gap in US–China AI policy comparison and constructs a framework for understanding the origin and trajectory of policy differences. By investigating what factors are informing each country’s philosophy of technology and thus their overall approach to AI policy, we argue that while significant obstacles to cooperation remain, there is room for dialogue and mutual growth.

Online and Offline Battles: Usage of Different Political Conflict Frames

Conflict framing is key in political communication. Politicians use conflict framing in their online messages (e.g., criticizing other politicians) and journalists in their political coverage (e.g., reporting on political tensions). Conflicts can take a variety of forms and can provoke different reactions. However, the literature still lacks a systematic and theoretically-grounded conceptual framework that accounts for the multi-dimensionality of political conflict frames. Based on literature from political epistemology, political communication, and related fields such as psychology, we present four conceptual dimensions of political conflicts: (1) the style (civil/uncivil); (2) the subject (personal/substantive); (3) whether it is about underlying moral/epistemic principles or not (deep/superficial conflict); and (4) whether it concerns a normative or factual issue. Results of a content analysis of newspaper articles and politicians’ tweets confirm the usage of these conflict dimensions in the Netherlands during a non-election period. Interestingly, most of the conflicts are civil, substantive, and do not highlight deep fundamental clashes. In light of the current societal concerns about the lack of respect in political debates and the deepening of our political divides, these findings can be considered encouraging.

Complexity and Dissonance: Islamic Law States and the International Order

AbstractIt is safe to say that much of international law—the bedrock of the international order—has been shaped by the Western legal doctrine. How does the Islamic legal tradition relate to international law? What are Islamic law states’ (ILS) stance toward the global order and international relations? This article offers a fresh perspective of similarities and differences between international law and Islamic law. ILS’ patterns of commitments to a number of international treaties and institutions reveal a nuanced picture of these states’ position in the contemporary global order. I bring together the English-language-dominated field of international relations and the Arabic-language literature on global order and Islamic law. I trace Islam's contributions to international law and argue that international law and Islamic law share more similarities than they are given credit for. However, the inherent diversity of Islamic law and the lack of an authoritative body of Islamic international law muddle effects of historical cross-fertilization between Islamic law and international law. In reality, ILS’ position in the global order is not about a fundamental clash of values. A much more intricate picture emerges. In an important way, this paper sketches an emerging research agenda for understanding ILS’ position in the modern global order.

Tolerance: Too Little for Clinical Ethics in a Pluralist Society?

"Virtually all Western societies embrace liberalism as a political and moral; it emphasizes individual rights and liberty, democracy, autonomy, limited government, consent, pluralism, and tolerance. Clinical ethics in these societies reflects those priorities. Human migration has made Western societies more diverse and expanded the plurality of values represented within them. As a consequence, clinical ethics consultants (CEC) have encountered cases which reflect a clash between the liberal values of contemporary medical ethics and non-liberal values of patients. Because CECs are steeped in liberalism, their default attitude toward the values outside of that tradition will be tolerance. This paper will argue that because tolerance implicitly contains a judgment of inferiority to other values, it is the wrong attitude for CECs to adopt towards parties whose fundamental values clash with medical ethics. In such cases, this attitude can disrespect to the holders of the values, endorse a consequentialist compromise of values, and leave medical professionals prone to moral distress. Agonism democracy is a political philosophy that accepts that values conflicts are inevitable, and there will be winners and losers from them. It aims to channel this conflict positively by promoting a process marked by openness to questioning fundamental values and genuine consideration of (even contrary) alternate values. As an alternative to tolerance, this paper will explore if cultivating an attitude of agonism can be a better disposition for CECs in such cases. It will use a case study to compare the results of the two approaches in cases of fundamental values clash. "

‘Love mounts to the throne with law’: citizenship in Northern Ireland and Seamus Heaney’s Antigone

ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine disputes about citizenship in Northern Ireland though the lens of poet Seamus Heaney’s 2004 version of Antigone, The Burial at Thebes. Citizenship and identity in Northern Ireland – if people are Irish or British – has been a central issue of the conflict there. The 1998 peace agreement promised to allow people to identify however they wished, and not be forced to adopt an identity they rejected. But recent controversies, including Brexit and a major legal challenge, have shown that the legal concept of citizenship has not been able to fulfil this promise. Sophocles’ Antigone presents a great clash between the authority of the State and deep personal/morality commitments, and the tragedy that result. Heaney’s Antigone casts light on the fundamental clash at the centre of citizenship, and points us toward a flexible, contextual multi-level citizenship as a solution to law’s rigid conception of what a citizen must be.

Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-evaluation

In responding to the long-drawn debate between Islam and liberalism, Joseph J. Kaminski’s Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-evaluation offers two things: first, a critical analysis of the basic categories and constructs that comprise “Islam” and “liberalism” via a clearly defined methodological mode of inquiry; and second, plausible solution to the fundamental clashes between Islam and liberalism. What makes this book even more interesting, instead of taking a “scratch on the surface” approach with a spattering of references and anecdotes, the author dissected Islam and liberalism using ontological inquiry based on the primary and canonical sources. By doing so, he was hopeful that it ultimately serves as a useful asset and contribution for those studying comparative political theory or the relationship between international politics and religion.

‘Love Mounts to the Throne with Law’: Citizenship in Northern Ireland and Seamus Heaney’s Antigone

In this paper, I examine disputes about citizenship in Northern Ireland though the lens of poet Seamus Heaney’s 2004 version of Antigone, The Burial at Thebes. Citizenship and identity in Northern Ireland—if people are Irish or British—has been a central issue of the conflict there. The 1998 peace agreement promised to allow people to identify however they wished, and not be forced to adopt an identity they rejected. But recent controversies, including Brexit and a major legal challenge, have shown that the legal concept of citizenship has not been able to fulfil this promise. Sophocles’ Antigone presents a great clash between the authority of the State and deep personal/morality commitments, and the tragedy that result. Heaney’s Antigone casts light on the fundamental clash at the centre of citizenship, and points us toward a flexible, contextual multi-level citizenship as a solution to law’s rigid conception of what a citizen must be.

Fixing a Swamp of Cobras: The Clash between Capital and Water in Shaping Urban Vulnerabilities

AbstractThis paper addresses how capital can refashion landscapes and patterns of risk and vulnerability. Drawing on the emblematic case of the conversion of Thailand’s Cobra Swamp into Suvarnabhumi International Airport we argue that there is a fundamental clash between the internal logic of capital accumulation and the ecology of water that occurs in places in which land is under water for much of the year. Counterintuitively investment in public infrastructure such as airports targets locations that are exposed to flood risks. While the literature on capital fixes tends to treat “land” writ large, this paper adds a dimension that has been overlooked in the theoretical work, by highlighting the significance of the ecology of the land in which such fixes occur as a means of understanding patterns of investment, land use change and vulnerability. Our analysis draws on three separate but related concepts of capital “fixes”—spatial, technological and high/low road fixes. We argue the importance of recognising the specific ecological characteristics of land that capital “fixes”. This perspective has global significance in providing critical insight into the ways in which capital creates and accommodates the kinds of vulnerabilities and risks associated with climate change.

Indigenous Wisdom, Capital, Technology and Education.

This article contrasts specific aspects of indigenous world views and wisdom on the one hand with specific themes in capitalism, colonisation, corporate interests, technology and education, on the other and argues that there is a fundamental clash of values between them. There is no assumption of a homogenous indigenous wisdom and no claim is made about novel insight into capitalism, colonisation, corporate interests and technology and education. The contribution is in tracing lines of thought in all of them and, by juxtaposing them in the context of a contemporary upsurge in digital/online/blended learning with particular attention to the global techno-corporation, to expose a fundamental clash of values that deserves more thorough scrutiny than it is getting. The paper does not present a linear argument, but rather a woven tapestry of themes. The conclusion is that education would be better served by the insights of indigenous wisdom and a more critical and tempered view of capitalism and technology.

Diplomatic Devices: the Social Lives of Foreign Timepieces in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century Japan

Abstract The present paper explores the social lives of European timepieces as a particular set of objects in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Japan, when the archipelago first encountered the “Southern Barbarians” from Portugal and Spain. Rather than viewing them solely as instruments of time measurement or as decorative objects, I discuss clocks as actors that moved within networks of exchange primarily between Europe and Japan, but also, significantly, within East Asia and Japan itself. Along their trajectory, these devices assumed shifting and at times contradictory meanings for various actors; this is particularly true in view of the fundamental clash between European and Japanese systems of time-reckoning, which essentially rendered early European-style mechanical clocks ‘timeless’ in Japan, with its equinoctial system of variable hours. For Jesuit missionaries and foreign emissaries who brought these early devices to Japan, they were timekeepers, objects of ecclesiastical use, paragons of European ingenuity, and above all diplomatic tools that granted access and established connections with the Japanese ruling elite. For the Japanese, by contrast, these global objects assumed meaning within their highly developed local gift-culture as desirable novelty items, particularly within the socially volatile environment of the unification of the country under Tokugawa control. My contention is that these microhistories of exchange help us understand why mechanical clocks did not have the same ‘revolutionary’ effect on time-reckoning in Japan as they did in Europe; the social lives of these objects strikingly illustrate the power imbalances in diplomatic negotiations that made Japan impervious to coercion by the European powers.

Discussing rights and wrongs: Three suggestions for moving forward with the migrant health rights debate.

Claims for improving migrants' access to care often draw on universalistic ethical notions, such as the principle of equity as it is specified in human rights law and public health ethics. These claims contrast with political realities across most welfare states. In the underlying public discourses, the frontline arguments against greater inclusion have often focused on practical concerns, such as the costs of healthcare provision. Yet it has also been suggested that ultimately context-specific moral frameworks play a key role in demarcating legitimate right-holders from undeserving others. Hence, is this a conflict between ethical principles and practical concerns? Or between different ethical perspectives? And why would that question matter? We propose that awareness of the nature of the arguments involved and respect for different ethical views are critical for coherent and constructive debates. This paper looks at the ways in which ethical concepts are used to justify exclusionary policy decisions. In particular, it examines the rationales that inform health policies towards documented and undocumented labor migrants in two welfare states, Germany and Israel, through the qualitative analysis of policy documents and 71 in-depth interviews. The study points to the central role of particular concepts of health-related deservingness. These results lead to the proposition that the fundamental clash in the discussion on migrants' access to care is one, albeit not solely, between contrasting ethical perspectives. Drawing on process-oriented approaches to ethical decision-making, the paper concludes with three suggestions for moving forward with the migrant health rights debate.

“Heaven or Las Vegas”: Competing institutional logics and individual experience

Significant research has been dedicated to the study of the dual constitutive core at the field and organizational levels but less attention has been paid to the micro‐dimensions of the collision of competing logics, namely in terms of how individuals experience and navigate through them and how that influences organizational ethos and strategy. We study how one individual, founder of the organization behind the independent music label 4AD, made sense and lived through the fundamental clash of two logics: ‘music as art’ and ‘music as business’. We analyse how the personal struggles of the founder allowed the construction and maintenance of a strong, solid and continued organizational identity for 4AD. We uncover four factors accounting for the protection of 4AD's sustained artistic integrity in face of a transforming industry.

From Hercules to Pareto: Of bathos, proportionality, and EU law

This article is a critique of the legal reasoning of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its free movement case law, which relies mainly on the principle of proportionality. The Court initially presents free movement cases as involving fundamental clashes between conflicting considerations of the highest order, most often between market freedoms and non-economic interests (including the preservation of the competences of member states, fundamental rights, national policies and EU-wide values), and thus frames its role as that of a balance—a truly Herculean task. However, the Court does not actually solve these cases by balancing. Instead, it (implicitly) resorts to an alternative, technocratic framework, through which it reduces the cases to technical issues of pure fact and, on the basis of Pareto efficiency, limits itself to weeding out objectively superfluous regulations. The reasoning of the Court is thus characterized by a certain form of bathos: it abruptly and radically shifts from a Herculean balancing of values framework to a seemingly innocuous and purely factual review of Pareto efficiency. It ambitiously, and yet awkwardly, combines an exalted appeal to values with the objectivity and irresistible innocuousness of efficiency review. It is nevertheless doubtful whether the Court’s argumentative structure is at all persuasive: value statements are reduced to declamatory devices of no operational importance, while the Court’s recourse to Pareto efficiency only serves to hide the (obviously) controversial implications of its free-movement case law.

Fairness and equal recognition

An important contribution of Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition is the conception of neutrality that grounds his defence of minority cultural rights. Built in to his conception of neutrality of treatment is a notion of ‘fairness’ whose effect is to provide an upfront, across the board limitation on the demands cultural minorities may legitimately make on the rest of society. There must be limits on the duty to accommodate, but it obscures more than it illuminates to build this into the content of the right to equal recognition itself. We see more clearly what is at stake in these conflicts by articulating the value of self-determination independently and taking account of necessary limits to its satisfaction as part of a second-stage analysis of what duties may be claimed and against whom. Familiar principles of discrimination law exemplify this alternative model. This presents the interest in self-determination more robustly, while acknowledging that the claims of duty arising out of it are defeasible. The result is a more flexible and nuanced exploration of the complex moral issues involved when fundamental interests clash.

Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy in Ovarian Cancer: Where Do We Go From Here?

The ongoing debate regarding a potential role for hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the management of ovarian cancer represents an excellent example of the rarely publicly discussed fundamental clash between the requirements of evidence-based medicine and the roles of clinical innovation and optimization of care for the individual patient.

Polityka i czas, czyli zderzenie epok: tradycyjności, moderności i postmoderności

A number of authors have described the clash of civilizations as the main form of conflict in today’s world. The author argues that a far more fundamental clash is taking place: the clash of epochs. It constitutes a hitherto little-noticed ground in which various forms of conflict can take place. It contributes to the weakening of Western civilization. The clash of epochs, as manifested in the conflict between tradition, modernity and postmodernity, has impelled the West to a point where it is torn apart internally and increasingly incapable of withstanding emerging challenges. To resist its postmodern deconstruction, the West must rediscover itself as a cultural entity. It must return to the classical tradition that for hundreds of years contributed to its strength. It must review it anew in today’s complex context of postmodernity and globalism.

Approach to the treatment of multiple myeloma: a clash of philosophies

AbstractIn this Perspective, we summarize some of the most contentious issues surrounding diagnosis and treatment of myeloma. We outline how a fundamental clash of philosophies, cure versus control, may be at the heart of many of the controversies. From the very definition of the disease to risk stratification to the validity of current clinical trial endpoints, we highlight the major areas of debate and provide alternative viewpoints that have implications for trial design and interpretation, as well as clinical practice.