Empirical Reality Research Articles

Complications (Complexity) between Normative and Descriptive: A challenge for Clarity

This article will address descriptive and normative concepts vis-à-vis their inferential value and epistemic evolution within the social sciences. The analysis focuses mainly on the normative concept, which arises in the intersection between various disciplines of the social sciences, blending within itself a dialectic between the subjective and the objective, between the individual and the social. The descriptive concept – which acts as a link between logos qua language and the empirical reality – will have less elaborated analysis. The article’s purpose is convenient for readers acquainted with the field in question as well as those for whom the topic is less known. Indeed, the article is intended to address the above concepts from the point of view of the political scholar. However, during the research process, it was considered appropriate that these conceptions have an interdisciplinary heuristic reflection in order to be of value and interest to scholars of political science, philosophy, and law. As a first step, we will present in classical form the meaning and explanation of the concepts in question, based on linguistic and philosophical dictionaries. The article also focuses on the solid definition given to the concept of normativity – understood in legal terms – by Hans Kelsen through his idea of a Base Norm (Grundnorm) and his critique of Max Weber’s sociological conception of norms. Secondly, we will outline the dichotomy between the concepts of “is” and “ought” – the former analyzed by Kant as a hypothetical imperative, as a determinant of goals and actions based on desires and, the latter considered as a categorical imperative, as a normative determinant based on reason. Another dimension of normativity is seen from the perspective of analytical jurisprudence, the dialectic created between formalists and anti-formalists in the treatment of morality, both in subjective and social terms. Finally, the emphasis will be placed on normativity in politics and in spoken language, dimensions that define the normative approach.

Fair Use Provisions under the Indian Copyright Act: Awareness Among Librarians of Colleges and Universities in Maharashtra

Indian Copyright Act, 1957 provides a private right in copyright which extensively deals with provisions that guarantee access to knowledge as well. Copyright is an exclusive and assignable legal right given to the author for a particular period for original literary, dramatic, artistic works, and musical work whether published or unpublished. These rights are not absolute but subject to restrictions and limitations imposed by law. Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 is one such provision that restraints the exclusive enjoyment of rights given to the copyright holder. As per Section 52 (1)(o) of the Copyright Act, 1957 a non-commercial library is permitted/allowed to make three copies of a book for library use, provided such books are not available for sale in India. The present article is about the concept of fair dealing which is originated from the Common of laws of England. Although, the concept of fair use and fair dealing are used synonymously, the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 deals with fair dealing under Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The reproductions of works for research or private study, taking photocopy for research and educational purpose, etc., are covered under the doctrine of fair use. This paper will explain the conceptual framework of the Indian Copyright Act and the empirical reality in libraries of Maharashtra. It attempts to empirically test the usage of fair use provisions under the Indian Copyright Act and the awareness among librarians of Colleges and Universities in Maharashtra. The research methodology used for the present study is both doctrinal and non-doctrinal. It was observed that most of the librarians are aware of Copyright Law and copyright exceptions but when it comes to the implementation librarians also face difficulty and it leads to the infringement of copyright.

СЕЛЬСКОЕ НАСЕЛЕНИЕ В СИСТЕМАХ ЦЕНТРАЛЬНЫХ МЕСТ

The main quantitative indicator of the Central Place Theory (CPT), which makes it possible to put forward many of its provisions, is the share of the central place in the population of the area it serves (k). Earlier, we proposed a complete version of the proof of the constancy of k for all hierarchical levels for any values of k, and also established an upper bound for their set in the form of a nonstrict invariant. However, what is k in itself? At first glance, the answer is obvious: this parameter is the quotient of dividing the population of the central place by the population of the area it serves. At the same time, what population size should be taken for consideration? All domestic and foreign studies within the CPT proceed from the assumption that, comparing theory with empirical reality, we should consider urban settlement systems not as closed systems, but as fragments of the settlement continuum. The article examines the phenomenon of uniform distribution of the rural population in the systems of central places. It is shown that in the works of our predecessors, the systems of central places were actually considered not as part of a continuous and infinite continuum of settlement, but as independent systems. It has been established that within the isolated systems of central places, the rural population is not distributed evenly, but in the corresponding hierarchical settlements. An equation is derived for the dependence of the share of the rural population in the total population of the system on the fundamental parameters of the latter Thus, for isolated systems, the total population includes the number of not only the central places, but also the rural population. At the same time, we substantiated the possibility of the existence of such within isolated areas – within state borders or, for example, on the islands. Consideration of the latter was undertaken by researchers earlier, however, the possibility of their existence was not proved and, as a result, their consideration from the point of view of the CPT was not substantiated.

Public AI imaginaries: How the debate on artificial intelligence was covered in Danish newspapers and magazines 1956–2021

Abstract This article investigates the media's construction of public perceptions of future human–machine relationships related to artificial intelligence (AI) development and reflects on how such perceptions play a role in shaping strategies for the use of AI in Denmark. Through a critical discourse analysis of 253 newspaper and magazine articles published from 1956 to 2021, it shows how conflicting discursive positions are constructed, representing what I refer to as public AI imaginaries. The analysis shows that newspapers and magazines tend not to distinguish between futuristic descriptions of the human–machine relationship of AI and the human-centred principles of intelligence amplification (IA). Furthermore, it demonstrates how principles of IA are reflected in the Danish strategies for AI in practice. While the discursive ambiguity has fuelled public debate, it leaves the term AI relatively vague, thereby creating uncertainty rather than possibilities for a form of human-centered AI in empirical reality.

The issue of the foundations of justice

This article analyzes justice as a category. Like all aspects of human activity, justice needs grounds that provide reliability. This article shows that in the history of human thinking, two approaches to comprehending the foundations of justice have been created. The first approach is based on recognition of the dominance of moral principles as the foundation for justice, and independence from empirical reality, political, social changes, and scientific discoveries. This is the independent path, which recognizes the independence of the fundamental principles of justice from facts. The second approach was formulated in the theory of justice by J.Rawls. He made an attempt to create a universal view of justice and was associated with the justification of justice by scientific theories created by scientists in political science, psychology, sociology, and other fields of knowledge. This approach was called dependent way, and its representatives consider justice to be a product of real society and recognize the consent of citizens as the basis of justice, in the normative life of society, giving preference to contractual relations. Both ways of solving the problem of the justice foundations have their strengths and weaknesses, but neither of them, taken separately, gives a satisfactory result. The experience of the Russian unity philosophy reveals a harmonious way to the solution of this problem. It shows that the foundation of justice is created by each individual personally, in condition that any person considers the circumstances of one’s life through the prism of his spiritual nature. This process looks like a practical application of norms that are absolute in nature, while deviations and fluctuations are possible but in the end there is always a return to the original position. The authors call this position flexible transcendence.

Precariedade na Antropologia Global: Reflexões nas margens do Global Survey of Anthropological Practices

Abstract In this essay, we draw primarily on the 2018 Global Survey of Anthropological Practice in order to develop a series of considerations on the issue of precarity in Anthropology. Other reports and available literature are also taken into consideration in the proposed analysis. We start by introducing the issue of precarity in Anthropology as both a trending research topic and an empirical reality in the very practice of our discipline. Then, we analyse the WCAA Global Survey by focusing on its findings regarding employment and salary. In the third and fourth sections of the article, global differences in anthropological practice are taken into account from the perspective of a South-North divide. The fifth section is devoted to reflections on the epistemological dimensions of precarity, neoliberalism and anthropology. We conclude by highlighting ongoing actions and pointing to possible horizons. The main purpose of this essay is, by drawing on available data on anthropologist’s working conditions, to address specificities and challenges that discipline must face when it comes to precarity.

Кантовский «коперниканский переворот»: синтез эмпирического реализма и трансцендентального идеализма

Transcendental philosophy of Kant is the first theory of experience (scientific knowledge) related to the solution of the (semantic) problem set in his famous letter to M. Hertz: what is the ground of the relation of the representation to the object? There are two ways to solve it, and Kant himself chooses the sec­ond of them, thus making his “Copernican Revolution”. Does the idea that Kant is an idealist follow from that, all the more as he often refers to his phi­losophy as to transcendental idealism? The analysis of the internal structure of this revolution shows that it is possible to highlight two vectors: the empiri­cal, from the thing-in-itself to representations, and the noumenal ones, from the transcendental unity of apperception or transcendental object to the thing-as-it-appears-to-us. Keeping empirical vector says that Kant’s theory of experi­ence is an empirical realism and his transcendentalism is a reflective (meta – level) epistemological (methodological) superstructure above it. Our semantic interpretation of Kant meets the modern “revolutionary” interpretation of tran­scendentalism, developed in the works of G. Bird, G. Prauss, H. Allison et al., which was called as the theory of “two aspects”. On this basis, we develop a realistic interpretation transcendentalism, which is relatable to the contem­porary interpretation of Kant, represented in works of W. Röd, A. Collins, P. Abela, K. Westphal, L. Allais and others.

Kant's Copernican revolution as an altered method of thinking [in metaphysics]: its structure and status in the system of transcendental philosophy

Kant’s transcendental philosophy of Kant is the metaphysics of possible experience related to the solution of the [semantic] problem set in his famous letter to M. Hertz (02.21.1772): “What is the ground of the relation of that in us which we call 'representation' to the object?” There are two possible ways to solve it: empiricism and apriorism, – and Kant chooses the second of them, thus making his “Copernican Revolution”. In the Preface to the 2nd ed. Critique Kant correlates his Copernican turn/revolution with "altered method of our way of thinking [in metaphysics]" [BXVIII] and considers it as an analogue of the hypothetico-deductive scientific method of Copernicus – Galileo – Newton. The analysis of structure of the Copernican Revolution shows that it is possible to pick out two vectors: the empirical (from the thing-in-itself to representations) and the noumenal ones (from the transcendental unity of apperception [or transcendental object] to objects of experience). The introduction of an a priori vector (resp. a priori forms) means that Kant's conception is not empirical, but Kant’s keeping empirical vector says that it is compatible with empirical realism [A370–1]. Thus, Kantian transcendentalism is a synthesis of realism (basic level) and transcendental idealism (as a meta-level superstructure above it), whose task is to find out and analyze the transcendental conditions [possibility] of our knowledge of objects.

Essentially Embodied Kantian Selves and The Fantasy of Transhuman Selves

By “essentially embodied Kantian selves,” I mean necessarily and completely embodied rational conscious, self-conscious, sensible (i.e., sense-perceiving, imagining, and emoting), volitional or willing, discursive (i.e., conceptualizing, judging, and inferring) animals, or persons, innately possessing dignity, and fully capable not only of free agency, but also of a priori knowledge of analytic and synthetic a priori truths alike, with egocentric centering in manifestly real orientable space and time. The basic theory of essentially embodied Kantian selves was spelled out by Kant over the course of slightly less than two decades, between 1768 and 1787, but above all, it flows from an empirical realist and metaphysical reading of the “Refutation of Idealism” that Kant inserted into the Postulates of Empirical Thought section in the 1787 edition of the first Critique. In my opinion, all rational but also “human, all-too-human” creatures like us are, synthetic a priori necessarily, essentially embodied Kantian selves. Let’s call that the essentially embodied Kantian selves thesis, or for short, EEKST. If EEKST is true, then it’s synthetic a priori impossible for the selves of creatures like us to exist independently of our own living organismic animal bodies or beyond the deaths of those bodies, whether temporarily or permanently, by any means whatsoever. Indeed, the very ideas of disembodied selves, their survival after death, and of human immortality, while minimally logically consistent, are in fact conceptually empty and incoherent, even over and above the synthetic a priori impossibility of such things, since the term “myself” indexically picks out an essentially embodied Kantian self, all of whose core features require grounding in a particular living organismic animal body. According to the recent and contemporary movement of transhumanism, the selves of creatures like us can not only exist independently of our bodies, as functional systems of representational content that are inherently able to be implemented or realized in digital-mechanical technology and uploadable to servers, but also to survive accidental or natural human death in server-limbo, then be downloaded into technologically enhanced partially mechanical humanoid bodies or even into wholly artificially-created completely mechanical non-humanoid bodies, survive in these new implementations or realizations for an indefinitely long time, repeat that process, and possibly even become immortal. Transhumanism is in fact metaphysically equivalent to Swedenborgianism, which Kant so effectively criticizes and wittily derides in his 1766 book, Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics. Moreover, and more importantly, if EEKST is true, then, just like Swedenborgianism, transhumanism is not only conceptually empty and incoherent, but also synthetic a priori impossible. And what’s more, it’s also existentially and morally reprehensible. In short, then, the belief in transhuman selves is nothing but a reprehensible noumenal fantasy or Hirngespinst.

Falling between the Cracks of the Governing Systems: Risk and Uncertainty in Pastoralism in Northern Norway

Abstract Rapid and interacting change poses an increasing threat to livelihoods and food production, and pastoralists in Nordland, northern Norway, are at a crossroads both economically and culturally. Some of these changes are localized and pertain to changing weather and grazing conditions caused by climate change and land fragmentation. Others, driven by national management policies and governance specifically related to predators, are poorly adjusted for the different and localized contexts. The pastoralists are inherently adaptive and have a long history of responding well to variable changing conditions. This is now changing with the continued increasing pressures from many directions. The central government systematically ignores pastoralists’ traditional knowledge and enforces narrow sector policies to be implemented at regional and local levels. We address the effect of how institutional, physical, and societal constraints challenge pastoralists’ prospects for sustainable adaptation. Our results show how pastoralists’ livelihoods become compromised and potentially threatened because they are forced to respond in ways that they know are counterproductive in the long run. Adaptation outcomes are affected by different approaches and epistemologies that are situated across scale and context in terms of regional and national regulations versus local empirical reality among the pastoral communities. This study concludes that radical change is needed toward a more holistic governance in which multiple knowledge systems are integrated to ensure sustainable adaptation at all levels. This study is based on extensive and long-term fieldwork among reindeer herders and sheep farmers in Nordland, through a collaborative process of knowledge coproduction.

Space and Time as a Priori Forms of Human Intuition in Kant’s Epistemology

This work offers a concise exposition and critical appraisal of Kant's notion of space and time as a priori forms of human sensibility or intuition. He dwells on these issues in his Critique of Pure Reason, under the Transcendental Aesthetics section. Owing to the fact that Kant published two editions of the Critique of Pure Reason, both editions are being referenced. Letters A and B are used to denote the first and second edition respectively. Kant identifies the a priori forms of sensibility: space and time, which the mind contributes, to make experience possible. The reason is that an event cannot be experienced at all, unless it is recognized as being in ‘space’ and occurring in ‘time.’ Thus, the possibility of human experience is anchored on the spatiotemporal framework of empirical reality, which embraces both the experiences and their objects. Kant's most original contribution to philosophy is his "Copernican Revolution," in which he argues that it is the ‘representation’ that makes the object possible, and not the ‘object’ that makes the representation possible. With this he presents the human mind as an active originator of experience rather than just a passive recipient of perception. His opinion was that the rational structure of the mind reflected the rational structure of the world, even of ‘things-in-themselves.’ In other words, the operating system of the processor, by modern analogy, matched the operating system of reality. It follows from the way in which appearances are given to us that those things given in space and time must be unified in accordance with the categories, and since the ‘objects of experience’ are given to us in space and time, it follows that they must be unified in accordance with the categories. All representations are subject to the transcendental unity of apperception. Space and time, as forms of human sensible intuition, structure the manifold of appearance, since such a manifold can only occur in accordance with this form. But, space and time are represented by us not only as forms of sensible intuition, but also as intuitions themselves, and therefore as possessing a unity of the manifold of empirical intuition within them. This unity precedes all concepts, and it presupposes a synthesis which does not belong to the senses but through which all concepts of space and time first become possible. So the unity of space and time is explained in terms of the synthetic activity of the understanding. Space and time stand under the synthetic unity of apperception, and in so far as they are represented as unities they are themselves the product of the effect the understanding has upon sensibility, and are thus subject to the categories of human understanding.

Epistemologi Kritis: Telaah Pemikiran Hermeneutika Jurgen Habermas

Habermas hermeneutic theory is perhaps a new breakthrough to bridge the tension between objectivity and subjectivity, between ideality and reality, between theoretical and practical. And this is an achievement of Habermas in the discipline of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics, which initially focused on the area of ​​idealism, by Habermas has been pulled "forcibly" down to be able to understand the field of empirical realism. Hebermas provides a new breakthrough in understanding text and context, so that the point of view resulting from Jurgen Habermas' critical hermeneutic epistemology is to marry objectivity with subjectivity, between the scientific and the philosophical, between the authentic and the articulate, so that the resulting understanding is more objective and in accordance with the context at hand

The type individuation problem

Lockean justifi cations of intellectual property postulate the appropriation of immaterial entities, in various contexts called types, patterns, designs, or technologies. It is widely believed that the ownership of such entities gives the owner a right to control their physical embodiments and prohibit imitation. For the prohibition to be meaningful, a condition identifying forbidden objects must be formulated. It must cover not only objects which are identical to some original artifact or its exact, ideal description, but also those which are only similar. This requires systematic answers to three questions: (1) which material structures and which of their subsets should be compared? (2) which of their characteristics should be compared? (3) how to combine these characteristics into a decision rule for token identification? There is no underlying empirical reality that could be independently consulted by individuals in order to incontestably answer these questions. Meanwhile constant evolution in technology and arts requires addressing them repeatedly. Consequently, intellectual property regimes must rely on political institutions incessantly dictating the scope of prohibition, and hence they cannot originate or exist in a prelegal state of nature.

Disaster Preparedness and Coping Among Older Adults: Empirical Analysis and Virtual Reality Platform Development

This symposium included 4 studies that use national and regional data to examine older adults’ disaster preparedness and coping. The first study examined age differences in preparedness for the continuation of COVID-19 with a sample of 443 residents in Dallas, TX. The findings highlight older adults’ resilience and special needs for different types of support during the pandemic. The second study examined the association of having COVID-19 and intergenerational relationships using the COVID-19 module of the Health and Retirement Study with a sample of 3266 respondents. Using a national sample of 1,467 respondents from the 2017 U.S. National Household Survey, the third study examined age differences relationships among the type of disasters (i.e., disasters with different lead-time), response efficacy, and disaster preparedness. The findings highlighted older adults’ unique vulnerability and resilience in different types of disasters. The fourth study discussed a pilot virtual reality platform under development to assist older adults to develop tailored household emergency preparedness plans and practice those plans with simulated extreme weather conditions and warnings for older adults to practice disaster response and develop relevant knowledge and skills as well as test and revise their emergency preparedness plans. Overall, this symposium emphasizes the uniqueness of older adults’ needs, vulnerability, and resilience to disasters.

Semantic Struggles in the Face of Crisis: ‘The West’ as Contested Key Concept in West German Parliamentary Debate (1973/74)

This article suggests to read West German parliamentary debate on the first oil crisis as a semantic struggle on the concept of the West. Drawing on latest research, the West is considered to be a narrated concept with its meaning being negotiated upon when being evoked. Even though the West does not refer to any empirical reality, it is not an arbitrary concept either. Rather it repeatedly presents itself in three ideal typical narrative forms: being the civilisational, the modern and the political narrative. As shown by the analysis of the parliamentary protocols of the winter 1973/74, West German parliamentarians applied all of these narratives. However, with the civilisational narrative being referred to only marginally and the modern narrative applied with consent, it was foremost the political narrative that led to parliamentary dispute. Whereas the conservatives interpreted the political narrative in terms of the Cold War geopolitics, the social-liberal government under Chancellor Willy Brandt tried to renegotiate the political narrative by shifting focus to the European integration process. In West German parliamentary debate, the oil crisis of 1973 henceforth functioned as a catalyst for expressing different interpretations of the concept of the West, and above all, the political West. Against the background of the Cold War, these different interpretations of the political narrative of the West reflected the domestic struggle on German identity.

Epistemological and Metaphysical Development in Advaita Vedanta

Gaudapada, the grand teacher of Sankara, admits the transcendental reality only. Duality is mere illusion. Gaudapada leads us from gross reality to subtle reality. In meditation also there is a gradual unfolding of subtlety. Sankara deals with both Advaita metaphysics and epistemology. According to him, the source of cognition (pramana is a mental mode (antahkaranavrtti). It removes the ignorance of the object. Brahmakara antahkaranavrtti is the final mental mode. In Advaita epistemology there is a gradual unfolding of mental mode. Sankara advocates three levels of reality- the transcendental reality, empirical reality and apparent reality. All objects, Sankara holds, are real in their own levels of existence. His philosophy teaches us the gradual unfolding of reality.

Javanese Cultural Heritage Building (Case Study: Joglo House)

For centuries East Java is one of the tribes in Indonesia that has a unique cultural treasure. This culture has been passed down from generation to generation since the days of the kingdom. Model approach in this research is leading to a descriptive qualitative ethnographic, in which the empirical reality a result, demanding researchers go directly to the location of the study, to be able to live up to their tradition, and the symptoms of everyday life that is full of social phenomena local culture. The relation between construction is a structure which is strongly influenced by the manifestation process mythology and cosmology Java). This means that the traditional Javanese house is not just a place to shelter (practical function), but also understood as a manifestation of the ideals and outlook on life or a symbolic function. In this case the traditional Javanese houses are not only placed as an autonomous element, a separate stand alone, but being seen in context, particularly relevant to the context of allied Javanese cosmology that underlie the view that the Javanese philosophy of life.

Adelaida Reyes: Pioneer in the Field of Music and Forced Migration

Within the ever-expanding field of ethnomusicological research in contexts marked by socio-political, financial, and environmental crisis, a newly emerging area of study has been that of music in contexts of forced migration. This article explores the groundbreaking contribution of one of the pioneering figures in ethnomusicological research in that field: Adelaida Reyes. The article’s goal is to encapsulate a framework that could be adopted and adapted by, and inspire new researchers on music and forced migration. After an introduction to the personal background of Adelaida Reyes, the article discusses three main positions that permeate her inaugural research in urban contexts, particularly that of New York. These are the interdisciplinary conceptualization of the socio-political context; the study of music of groups of people without essentialist preconceptions, and the adjustment of fieldwork methods to correspond to theoretical concerns and the empirical reality. The article then proceeds to link Reyes’ core thoughts with the particular innovative theoretical and methodological concepts she applied in her multi-sited research with Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. and in refugee camps in the Philippines, as well as in her research with refugees from South Sudan in Uganda. Informed by anthropological refugee studies, her pioneering approach perceives forced migration as a unified experience and context, consisting of pre-departure features, departure-related, and finally, those related to resettlement. Musical meaning then becomes intensively transforming and dependent on a plethora of factors. On the one hand, as Reyes' ethnomusicological research in urban settings had pointed out, there was complexity, heterogeneity, and blurred boundaries, and on the other, emerging in particular experiences of forced migration, there was psychological distress; processes of institutional labeling; living in refugee camps; asymmetrical power relations between refugees and the larger society; and the emotional and political relationship with the past homeland. In the conclusion of the article, Reyes’ priceless contribution is discussed alongside recent ethnomusicological research on music and forced migration.

Adelaida Reyes: Pioneer in the Field of Music and Forced Migration

Within the ever-expanding field of ethnomusicological research in contexts marked by socio-political, financial, and environmental crisis, a newly emerging area of study has been that of music in contexts of forced migration. This article explores the groundbreaking contribution of one of the pioneering figures in ethnomusicological research in that field: Adelaida Reyes. The article’s goal is to encapsulate a framework that could be adopted and adapted by, and inspire new researchers on music and forced migration. After an introduction to the personal background of Adelaida Reyes, the article discusses three main positions that permeate her inaugural research in urban contexts, particularly that of New York. These are the interdisciplinary conceptualization of the socio-political context; the study of music of groups of people without essentialist preconceptions, and the adjustment of fieldwork methods to correspond to theoretical concerns and the empirical reality. The article then proceeds to link Reyes’ core thoughts with the particular innovative theoretical and methodological concepts she applied in her multi-sited research with Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. and in refugee camps in the Philippines, as well as in her research with refugees from South Sudan in Uganda. Informed by anthropological refugee studies, her pioneering approach perceives forced migration as a unified experience and context, consisting of pre-departure features, departure-related, and finally, those related to resettlement. Musical meaning then becomes intensively transforming and dependent on a plethora of factors. On the one hand, as Reyes' ethnomusicological research in urban settings had pointed out, there was complexity, heterogeneity, and blurred boundaries, and on the other, emerging in particular experiences of forced migration, there was psychological distress; processes of institutional labeling; living in refugee camps; asymmetrical power relations between refugees and the larger society; and the emotional and political relationship with the past homeland. In the conclusion of the article, Reyes’ priceless contribution is discussed alongside recent ethnomusicological research on music and forced migration.

Why Medieval Allegory?

Why Medieval Allegory?