Historical Precedent Research Articles

A Biocultural Dialogue between Thoreau and Taoist Thought: Rethinking Environmental Ethics, Nature, Spirituality and Place

A fundamental question of the 21st century centers around the role and place of humans in their environment. Given the great acceleration of consumptive practices engaged in the 20th century, humans stand on the brink of a 6th extinction event. In order to determine our place and role in our global environment, we need to reflect on where we are and what the future will be—we need to focus on the habits of our “co-inhabitation” of the planet. Given the positive and negative impacts of international and global activities, intercultural dialogues are necessary for the care of the ecology of the planet, and one of the most prescient dialogues is between Eastern and Western world views. While much comparative research has been conducted regarding the connection between American Transcendentalism and Chinese ancient philosophy, relatively little philosophical work has been conducted to demonstrate the connectivity between Henry David Thoreau and Taoism. Yet there are, in fact, profound similarities between the American naturalist and Chinese philosophy, in particular Taoism. This paper aimed to discover and manifest the connection and similarities between the philosophy of Thoreau and the ancient worldview of Taoism. Through this comparative study and intercultural dialogue, we seek to trace historical precedents and intercultural dialogue between American Transcendentalism and ancient Chinese philosophy in order to explore the groundwork for a new vision of environmental awareness in order to promote a better future with a community of co-inhabitants and emphasis on the well-being of all.

Healing as God’s Intention for Ministers of Reconciliation

There is something missing in our view of the intentions of God and the purposes of the church in global mission. Tracing the historical precedent for the church as a healing agent in the world, and challenging narrow views of what healing means, a biblical healing metanarrative emerges as the primary telos of God, and reconciliation as an essential part of healing. By reconciling salvation and healing, spirit and matter, as well as healing and suffering, the ongoing work of the reconciling Healer is highlighted along with the implication that healing is an indispensable part of collective global mission.

Chabacano Legends: A Reflection of Zamboangueño’s Faith

The primary goal of this study is to recognize, examine, and comprehend the Zamboangueños' religious beliefs as they are portrayed in the Chabacano stories of Zamboanga City. The stories of fifteen (15) written legends taken from Teresita P. Semorlan's "Chabacano Legends" and Orlando B. Cuartocruz's "Zamboanga Chabacano Folk Literature" (1990) were analyzed using historical and sociological precedent (1984). According to the study's findings, there are seven different types of religious belief held by Zamboangueños, including historical and traditional religion, unwavering faith, common or human faith, strong faith, rooted faith, active faith, and belief in miracles or apparitions. To completely capture and comprehend the meaning and interpretation of various faiths, the researcher spoke with several locals. It was determined that Zamboangueños, irrespective of their religion, have unwavering confidence in God.

The Archetypal Hero Coyote: Etching Psycho-Social, Cultural Dynamics And Identity Renderings For Human Living

Coyote is often viewed as the archetypal trickster symbol with misdeeds and foolhardy behavior. Here, in the present Jungian psychological research, the Coyote is decoded as a cultural-socialization agent and a cultural hero. Coyote as the libidinal life-force’s flow, guides the masculine and the feminine representation in the society, carrying the cultural legacy yet manifesting, shaping socio-cultural roles progressively. A Northern Paiute tribe Coyote myth is selected in this paper, reflected and investigated through the interdisciplinary prism and Jungian research tool of archetypal amplification. It resulted in understanding the existential expression, identity, cultural legacy, traditions, representation of male-female roles and the functioning of society as well as its culture at large, through the acts and learnings of the archetypal hero. This myth is also a dive into the collective memoir of the historical precedents of the Native American tribal movement, settlements and identity struggles indicated through the latent symbols of the physical problems of the Coyote and the granddaughter in the myth.

Entente versus Alliance: When Should States Be Friends but Not Allies?

ABSTRACT When faced with a common threat, states have various alignment choices. Formal alliances offer explicit military obligations of support. Others, such as the Triple Entente that preceded World War I, are more ambiguous understandings. These entente-like alignments make no formal pledges of armed support in the event of hostilities. However, they do not entirely rule out military support either. Why might states embrace this form of strategic ambiguity over firm alliance commitments? Our formal explication addresses this question via the prism of collective action. Our modeling efforts, combined with historical precedents, suggest that an entente might be a more effective alignment choice than a formal alliance for states to balance against powerful threats. An entente permits states to strike the middle ground between entrapment and deterrence. The strategic ambiguity inherent in these two seemingly self-contradictory goals of an entente is a key component of its success as an alignment strategy, especially when external threats are large. However, asymmetry in strength between two states can result in divergent preferences between alliance and entente.

Communication of the Judiciary

The author describes the limitations of the freedom of expression of judges and courts in the context of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which, due to its prominent position in a democratic constitutional state, is limited in content compared to the general one, also in view of the historical precedents in Hungary. Starting from the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions and in the light of the practice of the Venice Commission and the European Court of Human Rights, the study outlines and analyses the possibilities for individual judges and courts to express their opinions. The paper presents, through a number of pragmatic examples, the prevailing practice in Hungary on the subject under study, which works with undoubtedly one of the most stringent regulatory solutions.

Potential for surprising heat and drought events in wheat-producing regions of USA and China

Previous analyses of the possibility of global breadbasket failures have extrapolated risks based on historical relationships between climate and yields. However, climate change is causing unprecedented events globally, which could exceed critical thresholds and reduce yields, even if there is no historical precedent. This means that we are likely underestimating climate risks to our food system. In the case of wheat, parts of the USA and China show little historical relationship between yields and temperature, but extreme temperatures are now possible that exceed critical physiological thresholds in wheat plants. UNprecedented Simulated Extreme ENsemble (UNSEEN) approaches use large ensembles to generate plausible unprecedented events, which can inform our assessment of the risk to crops. We use the UNSEEN approach with a large ensemble of archived seasonal forecasts to generate thousands of plausible events over the last 40 years and compare the results with historically observed extreme temperature and precipitation. In the US midwest, extreme temperatures that would have happened approximately 1-in-100-years in 1981 now have a return period of 1-in-6 years, while in China, the current return period is on the order of 1-in-16 years. This means that in the US midwest, extreme temperatures that used to have a 1% chance to occur in 1981 now have a 17% chance to occur in any given year, while in China, the chance increased from 1% to 6%. Record-breaking years exceeding critical thresholds for enzymes in the wheat plant are now more likely than in the past, and these record-breaking hot years are associated with extremely dry conditions in both locations. Using geopotential height and wind anomalies from the UNSEEN ensemble, we demonstrate that strong winds over land pull dry air towards the regions these during extremely hot and dry unseen events. We characterize plausible extremes from the UNSEEN ensemble that can be used to help imagine otherwise unforeseen events, including a compound event in which high impacts co-occur in both regions, informing adaptation planning in these regions. Recent temperature extremes, especially in the US midwest, are unlikely to be a good proxy for what to expect in the next few years of today’s climate, and local stakeholders might perceive their risk to be lower than it really is. We find that there is a high potential for surprise in these regions if people base risk analyses solely on historical datasets.

Three Early Shaw Plays That Interrogate Marriage, the Family, and Women’s Roles (Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, and You Never Can Tell)

Three Early Shaw Plays That Interrogate Marriage, the Family, and Women’s Roles (Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, <i>and</i> You Never Can Tell)

Artifacts from the Perspective of Effutu Masquerade Performance: An Aesthetic Album

Artifacts from the Perspective of Effutu Masquerade Performance: An Aesthetic Album

Conscription to Fight a War of Aggression under International Criminal Law

Abstract The criminalization of the unlawful use of force in international relations is not usually linked to conscription of an army to fight such a war. However, historical precedent in the Nuremberg and Tokyo International Military Tribunals established that conscription was part of the common plan to wage a war of aggression. After a brief history of conscription and its justifications, this article examines that precedent and then analyses how it could be put to use in a prosecution of the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Finally, it argues that there is a normative case for the inclusion of conscription within the scope of the crime of aggression because of the harm done to both the conscripts and the state and people of the place they invade.

World population growth over millennia: Ancient and present phases with a temporary halt in-between

Enormous growth of the world population during the last two centuries and its present slowing down pose questions about precedents in history and broader forces shaping the population size. Population estimates collected in an extensive survey of literature (873 estimates from 25 studies covering 1,000,000 BCE to 2100 CE) show that world population growth has proceeded in two distinct phases of acceleration followed by stoppage—from at least 25,000 BCE to 100 BCE, and from 400 CE to the present, interrupted by centuries of standstill and 10% decrease. Both phases can be fitted with a mathematical function that projects to a peak at 11.2 ± 1.5 billion around 2100 CE. An interaction model can account for this acceleration-stoppage pattern in quantitative detail: Technology grows exponentially, with rate boosted by population. Population grows exponentially, capped by Earth’s carrying capacity. Technology raises this cap, but only until it approaches Earth’s ultimate carrying capacity.

In the Time of the Law

Abstract In 1850 Harvard University commissioned daguerreotypes of seven enslaved people — Delia, Renty, Jem, Alfred, Fassena, Drana, and Jack — as part of its effort to popularize the racist theory of polygenesis. Today the same university retains possession of the photographs but now reframes them as evidence of a liberal idea of shared humanity. This article argues that such reframings are a form of harm made possible by Harvard's proprietary and discursive capture of the photographs, which is currently being contested in a reparations lawsuit brought by Tamara Lanier, a descendent of Renty and Delia. Focusing on this lawsuit and its historical precedents, this article claims that the spectral forms of Renty and Delia recur in Harvard's institutional mediascape not only because they are routinely instrumentalized by the university but also because the ongoing harms of slavery and anti-Blackness have not yet been acknowledged, much less repaired, within or beyond the US legal system.

Introduction

Abstract This special section of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East ties together a series of modern histories and contemporary ethnographies of Buddhist spaces spread across the Indian subcontinent. Underlining each of the four essays is a concern for the modern fashioning and reimagining of India as a Buddhist “homeland.” In the past century and a half, Buddhist homeland discourses in South Asia have fostered heightened contact between national leaders, Buddhist royalty, entrepreneurs, artists, monastics, and pilgrim-travelers in ways that build upon historical and ritual precedents while simultaneously crafting new paradigms within a transnational, postcolonial arena. Taking inspiration from this translocative orientation, the contributors explore precolonial histories of Buddhist movement alongside more recent networks of Buddhist restoration in the subcontinent, with particular focus on the role of social memory and material culture in shaping the modern episteme. The essays gathered here further these inquiries by exploring how these connections have changed in the context of modern India and how the textures of these encounters cut across national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and doctrinal lines.

Historicizing the homology problem

There is widespread agreement that “homology” designates something of fundamental biological importance, but no consensus as to how precisely that “something” should be defined, recognized, or theorized. Philosophical observers of this situation commonly focus on tensions between historical and mechanistic explications of homological sameness by appeal, respectively, to common ancestry and shared developmental resources. This paper uses select historical episodes to decenter those tensions and challenge standard narratives about how they arose. Haas and Simpson (1946) influentially defined “homology” simply as “similarity due to common ancestry.” They claimed historical precedent in Lankester (1870) but seriously oversimplified his views in the process. Lankester did prioritize common ancestry, but he also raised mechanistic questions that resonate with contemporary evo devo work on homology. The rise of genetics inspired similar speculations in twentieth-century workers like Boyden (1943), a zoologist who engaged Simpson in a 15-year debate over homology. Though he shared Simpson's devotion to taxonomy and his interest in evolutionary history, he favored a more operational and less theoretical homology concept. Their dispute is poorly captured by current analyses of the homology problem. It calls for further study of the complex relationship between concepts and the epistemic goals they serve.

Monastics and the Medieval Chinese Buddhist Mythos: A Study of Narrative Elements in Daoxuan’s Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu (Collected Record of Miracles Relating to the Three Jewels in China)

Miracle tales are didactic stories related to Buddhist figures, objects, and places that describe supernormal occurrences brought about by acts of great piety and fervent devotion. They present the audience with concrete examples of the workings of karma, while simultaneously setting verifiable historical precedents in a bid to prove the religious efficacy of Buddhism in China. These were also historiographical works, providing a wealth of detail regarding not only religious life and belief in China, but also local lore, politics, architectural trends, and much more. This paper will focus on a text called the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄 (T2106), a collection of miracle tales compiled by the seventh-century scholar-monk, Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667 CE). This text is a collection of narratives drawn from literary and epigraphy sources, as well as orally transmitted stories. As a Buddhist figurehead and as the author of many seminal historiographical works, Daoxuan played a central role in the overall localization of this tradition in China. Bearing this in mind, this paper seeks to interpret the “collective images” presented in Daoxuan’s collection of miracle tales, those representations of the miraculous and the supernormal.

HF01-04 THE VIRGINIA STERILIZATION ACT: A CATALYST FOR AMERICAN EUGENICS

You have accessJournal of UrologyCME1 Apr 2023HF01-04 THE VIRGINIA STERILIZATION ACT: A CATALYST FOR AMERICAN EUGENICS Davis Moore, Theodore Cisu, and Adam Klausner Davis MooreDavis Moore More articles by this author , Theodore CisuTheodore Cisu More articles by this author , and Adam KlausnerAdam Klausner More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000003243.04AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The origins of the American eugenics movement are rooted in the Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act of 1924. This set a historic precedent that led to the Supreme Court ruling in Buck v. Bell (1927), which legitimized sterilization to prevent the birth of more “defective” individuals. More than 3,000 men underwent forced sterilization via vasectomy in Virginia alone. METHODS: A review of historical and medical literature was undertaken, as well as analysis of academic texts on American sterilization and eugenics. RESULTS: In the early 20th century, an increasing number of physicians promoted forced sterilization of “feebleminded” men and women to prevent the propagation of undesirable character traits in American society. One notable early proponent of eugenics was Harvey E. Jordan, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia and president of the American Genetic Association. The movement gained support from other prominent physicians including acclaimed urologist and birth control advocate William J. Robinson who wrote the early seminal books on contraception, including Eugenics, Marriage, and Birth Control in 1917. Although the first eugenic sterilization law was passed in Indiana in 1907, it was not until the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924 that the practice of eugenic sterilization was codified as a legitimate medical practice. In its historic Buck v. Bell decision of 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that forced sterilization did not violate the 14th Amendment. The case centered around Carrie Buck in Charlottesville, VA who was deemed “defective” and “feebleminded” after being raped by the nephew of her foster parents. She was institutionalized after giving birth, and later sterilized in October 1927 as a result of the Supreme Court decision. Over the next four decades, the rate of eugenic sterilization soared nationwide. Estimates of the number of men and women undergoing forced vasectomies and salpingectomies in Virginia range from 7,300 to 8,300 between 1924 and 1979, with historical estimates of more than 60,000 sterilizations across the US. The American eugenics movement has been credited with lending inspiration to Adolf Hitler and the architects of the Holocaust. CONCLUSIONS: Virginia remained the last state to practice eugenic sterilization, repealing the statute in 1974. More than 3,000 forced vasectomies were performed in the state, and tens of thousands others across the country. The now infamous Buck v. Bell decision has yet to be overturned. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner issued a formal apology in 2002 for Virginia’s embrace of eugenics for more than five decades. Source of Funding: N/A © 2023 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 209Issue Supplement 4April 2023Page: e257 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2023 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Davis Moore More articles by this author Theodore Cisu More articles by this author Adam Klausner More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

물질종교 관점에서 본 영대

This article apprehends Yeongdae (靈臺), the most sacred shrine of Daesoon Jinrihoe which has earlier historical precedents, as an example of material religion. In East Asia, the first Yeongdae was a structure that King Wen of Zhou commissioned to be built. As the time passed by, the meaning of Yeongdae was changed to signify a mental yeongdae, the object and the aim of cultivation, and the notional mindset that appears in the Daoist meditation, Cunsi (存思, visualization). This implies that Yeongdae has signified both material and non-material objects. Throughout most of history, these two concepts had never been related to each other, but shifted in form and meaning depending on context. Daesoon Jinrihoe, which emerged in the modern era of Korea, used the concept of investiture of gods and combined the two into one. Accordingly, the Yeongdae, referred to by King Wen to indicate his shrine, was expressed as a spot wherein the gods were enshrined on the earth. As an innovation, Daesoon Jinrihoe argued that gods correspond to properly eligible human beings according to the degree of their cultivation and that sacred space was instead defined a spot within the human mind, a mental yeongdae, where the gods could be enshrined into humanity (神封於人). From the perspective of Lévi-Strauss, the factors that are discovered in the tradition of East Asia, namely, the Yeongdae of King Wen and the mental yeongdae of Zhuangzi can combined with consistency and established in the doctrinal system of Daesoon Jinrihoe. Such an attempt refers to bricolage which re-creates the traditional concepts of the past. In this regard, the concept of invented tradition coined by Eric Hobsbawm could also be used to conclude that the Yeongdae (the shrine of gods) of Daesoon Jinrihoe can be expressed as an invented Yeongdae, which transcends the existing categories of material yeongdae and non-material yeongdae.

Buffer allocation in construction projects: a disruption mitigation approach

PurposeA variety of buffer allocation methods exist to distribute an aggregated time buffer among project activities. However, these methods do not pay simultaneous attention to two key attributes of disruptive events that may occur during the construction phase: probability and impact. This paper fills this research gap by developing a buffer allocation method that takes into account the synergistic impact of these two attributes on project activities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper develops a three-step method, calculating the probability that project activities are disrupted in the first step, followed by measuring the potential impact of disruption on project activities, and then proposing a risk-informed buffer allocation index by simultaneously integrating probability and impact outputs from the first two steps.FindingsThe proposed method provides more accurate results by sidestepping the shortcomings of conventional fuzzy-based and simulation-based methods that are purely based on expert judgments or historical precedence. Further, the paper provides decision-makers with a buffer allocation method that helps in developing cost-effective buffering and backup strategies by prioritizing project activities and their required resources.Originality/valueThis paper develops a risk-informed buffer allocation method that differs from those already available. The simultaneous pursuit of the probability and impact of disruptions distinguishes our method from conventional buffer allocation methods. Further, this paper intertwines the research domains of complexity science and construction management by performing centrality analysis and incorporating a key attribute of project complexity (i.e. the interconnectedness between project activities) into the process for buffer allocation.

BEYOND FLAT SURFACES PARAMETRIC DERIVATIONS OF HISTORICAL ISLAMIC GEOMETRIC DESIGNS

This paper sets out to identify a guiding methodology and define algorithms to extend the existence of Islamic geometric designs beyond flat surfaces. The paper discusses two computational approaches to deriving various non-flat geometric compositions: Euclidean Point Extrusion and Curved Surface Fitting. The paper examines historical precedents, conducts an in-depth analysis of patterns employed to generate those elements, then establishes a computational process to explore the potential of translating 2D Islamic Geometric Designs into 3D non-flat surfaces.

The Temporary Transfer of Presidential Powers in the Czech Republic

Abstract The Presidency plays a central role in the functioning of the Czech political system. Among others, the President convenes the first sitting of the Chamber of Deputies after elections and must appoint the Government before it can seek parliamentary confidence. Therefore, the emergency hospitalization of President Miloš Zeman after the 2021 parliamentary election presented politicians with a hitherto unprecedented dilemma. Although a full-scale constitutional crisis was eventually averted, the incident still demonstrated the ambiguity and limitations of constitutional provisions on presidential inability and the temporary transfer of presidential powers in the Czech Republic. This article discusses the respective constitutional provisions and assesses their expedience in light of recent events. Drawing on historical precedents and political debates from the last 30 years, the article proposes options for reform and argues that constitutional crises will remain a real possibility unless political actors agree on at least a minimum of procedural requirements and codify these in organic law.