Universal Equality Research Articles

No one is going to rock up and tell you! How a hidden blend of family capitals facilitates access to and success in structured instrumental music education in Ireland

ABSTRACT While the dominant orthodoxy within the field of educational research tends to document educational inequalities, it often fails to name the key drivers of advantage. By reflecting on core concepts of Bourdieu this article seeks to name the complex blend of parental capitals that enable access to and success in structured, extra-curricular activities (ECA) such as instrumental and vocal music education (IME). Besides the intrinsic benefits of IME, the article points to a particular extrinsic benefit that is unique to Ireland, in that performance is one of the essential activities on the Leaving Certificate (LC) music syllabus. This is important as it has implications for universal equality of access and opportunity. The research draws data from selected interviews conducted with mothers whose children were engaged in structured IME. In highlighting the often hidden and taken for granted capitals needed for IME access, the research also raises the issue of intra-class differences which can and do impact on outcome when navigating the structured IME market in Ireland. It also seeks to operate as a springboard for a set of broader theoretical arguments and highlights the role of institutional demands and material forces when considering the power of family capitals in this context.

What’s UPDOG? A novel tool for trans-ancestral polygenic score prediction

Background Polygenic scores provide an indication of an individual’s genetic propensity for a trait within a test population. These scores are calculated using results from genetic analysis conducted in discovery populations. Where the test and discovery populations have similar ancestries, the predictions are better than when the ancestries differ. As many of the genetic analyses are conducted in European populations this hinders the potential for maximising predictions in many of the currently underrepresented populations in research. Methods To address this, UP and Downstream Genetic scoring (UPDOG) was developed to consider the concordance of genetic variation around lead variants between the discovery and test cohorts before calculating polygenic scores. Where there was non-concordance between the discovery cohort and an individual in the test cohort, the lead variant’s effect was down weighted for that individual. Results UPDOG was tested across four ancestries and six phenotypes and benchmarked against five existing tools for polygenic scoring. In approximately two-thirds of cases UPDOG improved trans-ancestral prediction, although the increases were small. Conclusions The development of novel methodologies aimed at maximising the efficacy of polygenic scores for the global population is of high importance and enables progress towards personalised medicine and universal equality in healthcare.

Thermodynamics of Computations with Absolute Irreversibility, Unidirectional Transitions, and Stochastic Computation Times

Developing a thermodynamic theory of computation is a challenging task at the interface of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and computer science. In particular, this task requires dealing with difficulties such as stochastic halting times, unidirectional (possibly deterministic) transitions, and restricted initial conditions, features common in real-world computers. Here, we present a framework which tackles all such difficulties by extending the martingale theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics to generic nonstationary Markovian processes, including those with broken detailed balance and/or absolute irreversibility. We derive several universal fluctuation relations and second-law-like inequalities that provide both lower and upper bounds on the intrinsic dissipation (mismatch cost) associated with any periodic process—in particular, the periodic processes underlying all current digital computation. Crucially, these bounds apply even if the process has stochastic stopping times, as it does in many computational machines. We illustrate our results with exhaustive numerical simulations of deterministic finite automata processing bit strings, one of the fundamental models of computation from theoretical computer science. We also provide universal equalities and inequalities for the acceptance probability of words of a given length by a deterministic finite automaton in terms of thermodynamic quantities, and outline connections between computer science and stochastic resetting. Our results, while motivated from the computational context, are applicable far more broadly. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Культура вредна для нас? Современные тенденции осмысления социального функционирования искусства

The critical review of trends in modern sociological interpretations of the artistic culture problems in Western countries presented in this article is based on the analysis of scientific publications of the last two decades. It demonstrates the breadth of the subject field of the sociology of art, the diversity of the author’s concepts and trends in theoretical understanding of artistic life. Today, in the sociology of art, as in other social sciences, there is an obvious rejection of immutable truths and taboos, and the interpretation of empirical facts is often polemical. They increasingly reflect the personality of the author and their attitude to moral and ethical aspects that go beyond the framework of cultural life — social justice and inequality, racial, gender and other problems of modern society. The revision of axiological guidelines and the relativity of modern criteria of truth can give rise to doubts not only about the importance of the empirical study of artistic life, but also about the practical need for public support for art and even about the epistemological potential of science. The desire for absolute freedom of art from external influences, for universal equality in cultural consumption and social justice in the literal sense of the word, sometimes paradoxically turns into a denial of the humanistic essence of art and even leads to statements about the dangers of artistic culture for people. However, most scientists in the West still agree that in order to maintain the positive social role of art, we must continue the attempts to comprehend the challenges posed by the global trends of our time. In this regard, it is extremely important to find common ground for uniting the efforts of art-centric and empirical areas of the sociology of art.

Fluctuation theorems and thermodynamic inequalities for nonequilibrium processes stopped at stochastic times.

We investigate the thermodynamics of general nonequilibrium processes stopped at stochastic times. We propose a systematic strategy for constructing fluctuation-theorem-like martingales for each thermodynamic functional, yielding a family of stopping-time fluctuation theorems. We derive second-law-like thermodynamic inequalities for the mean thermodynamic functional at stochastic stopping times, the bounds of which are even stronger than the thermodynamic inequalities resulting from the traditional fluctuation theorems when the stopping time is reduced to a deterministic one. Numerical verification is carried out for three well-known thermodynamic functionals, namely, entropy production, free energy dissipation, and dissipative work. These universal equalities and inequalities are valid for arbitrary stopping strategies, and thus provide a comprehensive framework with insights into the fundamental principles governing nonequilibrium systems.

Habermas Meets China: The Legacy of the Late Qing/Early Republican “Public Sphere” on the Modern Chinese Social Imaginary

The debate over the existence of a “public sphere” in China’s Late Qing/Early Republican era began nearly three decades ago, but it has yet to generate a special socio-cultural review on the “Confucian social imaginary” of the Chinese people. The article builds on existing “economic-political approach” and “idea-communication approach” to argue decisive factors hindering the development of a Habermasian “public sphere.” These includes (1) people’s traditional-collectivist lifestyle, (2) lack of understanding of “universal equality,” (3) conservative self-positioning during social transition, (4) regionalist attitude toward outsiders, (5) lack of access to Enlightenment ideas, (6) disregard for parliamentary systems, and (7) ignorance of the rule of law.

The Gendered Consequences of Abolition and Citizenship on Nineteenth-Century Gorée Island

Abstract: In the spring of 1848, the French Second Republic abolished slavery and made citizens of most adult male residents in its overseas territories. Gorée Island (Senegal) became a French exclave, where free and freed women experienced socioeconomic and political decline. The patriarchal French state that “liberated” enslaved women and “enfranchised” former female slave owners simultaneously limited Goréen women’s avenues to economic prosperity and political authority. French republicanism unsettled a significant sociopolitical distinction, the slave–nonslave divide, making gender a more salient factor mediating Goréens’ access to liberty and the public sphere. Goréen women experienced their formal integration into the Second French Republic—with the regime’s patriarchal republican laws and institutions—as colonialism. Goréens became members of a French Republic that championed universal equality, gendered difference, and patriarchy. French republican tenets excluded Goréen women from civic politics and the public sphere and created female colonial subjects on an island of citizens.

Positive Peace in the Islamic Perspective of International Relations: The Case of Iran’s Foreign Policy

The characteristics of the interpretation of the concepts of “positive” and “negative” peace within the framework of the Islamic paradigm of international relations, as well as the application of Islamic approaches to conflict settlement by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) are analyzed. The relevance of the study is due to the need to rethink approaches to peacekeeping and move away from Western peace strategies and initiatives, since these approaches have demonstrated their inadequacy over the past 50 years. Based on the hermeneutic method of studying the Islamic sacred texts and comparative analysis, as well as the approach to “negative” and “positive” peace of the Norwegian sociologist J. Galtung, the authors justify the existence of two strategies for achieving peace, based on Islamic ideals - “resistance strategy” and “non-violence strategy,” using as an example of the first one the foreign policy activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to resolve regional conflicts, taking Syria, the Palestinian problem and the Hormuz Peace Initiative as examples. The authors come to the conclusion that Islam considers only “positive peace” to be true peace, capable of ensuring security, a fair world order and universal equality. Iran, guided by the ideological attitudes generated by the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979 (spirituality, the fight against corruption and economic injustice, the protection of the ‘oppressed’ and the fight against the ‘oppressors,’ the rejection of violence in social movements, the elimination of social discrimination, governance based on the people’s decision), seeks to introduce Islamic principles into its foreign policy practice, particularly in the Middle East. However, with a number of Arab countries in the region pursuing anti-Iranian policies, some of Tehran’s initiatives remained unrealized and did not gain support. Nevertheless, in the current context where the Western-centric world order is being revised, it is more relevant than ever to explore alternative approaches to conflict resolution and to identify their advantages and significance, based on practical examples that already exist.

Идея отмирания права в раннесоветской теории права (1917–1930 гг.)

In the legal literature, the traditional idea is that Soviet legal scholars until the early 1930s rationally expected the withering away of law as socialism was being built. In this regard, this article aims to critically review the views on this problem that existed in the USSR and to check if such a theory (group of theories) really existed. To do this, the author checked the internal logic and detailing of the views of some leading Soviet legal philosophers (P. I. Stuchka, E. B. Pashukanis, M. A. Reisner, and I. P. Razumovsky). Their views on the problem of the withering away of the law were also compared with other elements of their scientific theories and with the provisions of classical Marxism. It has been established that none of the considered works contains a full-fledged scientific theory of the withering away of law. P. I. Stuchka never supported this idea, and in his works, he wrote about the “withering away” of only certain liberal legal doctrines (freedom of contract, the autonomy of will, etc.). E. B. Pashukanis, known as the most influential Soviet legal nihilist, argued that the law would be completely replaced by technical norms, but did not provide any explanation for this statement. In many contemporary phenomena of politics and economics, he saw signs of the degradation of law but did not explain in any way how this would lead to the withering away of law itself. The replacement of law by technical norms was also predicted by M. A. Reisner, but his view was even more general — the law should have disappeared by itself when universal equality and justice would have been established in society. The philosopher I. P. Razumovsky also described the withering away of law only in general and, apparently, saw it as nothing more than an ideological stamp. The inability to formulate a detailed theory of the withering away of law, we believe, demonstrates the stability of the Western tradition in the face of many years of determined attempts to deconstruct it.

Odczytanie marksizmu przez Antonio Gramsciego i jego znaczenie dla współczesnej kultury

Italian Marxist – Antonio Gramsci – is known primarily from the new interpretation of Marxism. We can say, that he has set a framework for a new cultural revolution. Center of gravity, in his opinion, no longer based on the material means of production, but on the culture. He was convinced that the “pacification” of cultural differences (not material as Marx expected), could provide the expected, universal equality. Gramsci proved that unifying element of society is not the organization of work, but the culture and in the culture of the most important is the role of religion. Wishing to create a new culture (without hitting directly in religion), as the basis of change to the new order, he accepted mechanism for the gradual annihilation of the old values. The legacy of cultural Marxism, which created the foundations of Gramsci, took over the Frankfurt School, whose idea was continued in both the USA and Europe. Ideological base developed by Gramsci, become a tool of depreciating the existing structure of society and the decay of contemporary culture.

Criminal Proceedings Against Certain Categories of Persons: Russian and International Aspects

The article examines the question of including criminal procedure guarantees for persons with a special status into Russian and international legislations. The author disagrees with the opinion of scholars that the very existence of Chapter 52 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation contradicts the constitutional principle of universal equality before the law and the courts. At the same time, a critical assessment is given to the absence of this principle in Russian criminal procedure legislation. The author compares the scope of people entitled to criminal procedure immunity with the legislation of other countries, primarily, the CIS countries, whose legal culture is most similar to that of Russia. It is noted that the legislators of foreign countries have a different approach to determining both the scope of such people and the limits of immunity established by law. Specifically, a positive assessment is given to the exception of guarantees against criminal prosecution to the judicial immunity in Kazakh and Polish legislations, and the limitation of functional immunity for the members of the US Congress to the period of Congressional sessions in the United States. It is concluded that different countries have different approaches to determining the scope of persons with a special procedural status: in some of them, functional immunity is seen as vital for special persons performing acts of state, while in others the institute of functional immunity is applied to a wide range of officials whose work is sometimes not connected with acts of state. Russian legislation is among the latter, as it contains an extensive list of persons immune from criminal prosecution. Nevertheless, according to the author, a special and more complex procedure for certain categories of persons enshrined in Russian criminal procedure legislation is objectively justified, and the legal basis for its validity is the priority of the principle of separation of powers and independence of the actions of persons representing them, over the principle of universal equality before the law.

Understanding the pay equity from the idea of universal equality in traditional Chinese philosophy.

Pay equity is not only a manifestation of social behavior but also a reflection of gender attitude. In view of the close interactions between pay equity, gender attitude and cultural value, it is necessary to examine the social-psychological connotations behind the pay equity concept and to seek its theoretical basis and support at the philosophical level. By examining the main ideas in Chinese philosophy, this paper claims that traditional Chinese culture contains rich connotations related to the pay equity concept and the pursuit of gender equality. These ideas can not only shape implicit nondiscriminatory gender attitudes but also inhibit the male superiority and intergroup prejudice through the self-regulation mechanism. The collision between traditional ideological insights and the modern pluralistic society will certainly promote the renewal of gender equity and concomitant changes in social attitude and employment behavior.

Formations and their driving forces

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare three systems: capitalism, socialism and digitalism through empirical and theoretical research methods. Its objectives are to describe the uniqueness of each formation, identifying their driving forces and the features used in the process of formation of one or another political-economic system. In defining capitalism, we note its reliance on capitalist capital as the main instrument and engine of expansion. As distinct from the liberals, the socialists declared as their principle the idea of universal equality, using as a catalyst the processes of unification of the working classes of the peoples and the struggle of the enslaved until the total victory of the exploited over the exploiters. Thus, to achieve the paradise of a communist political-economic formation the socialists needed a world revolution and the total suppression of the oppressed against the oppressors. Through studying these systems we can infer that they are similar in purpose and in the means of achieving their goals.

Phase-space quantum Wiener-Khintchine theorem.

We derive a quantum version of the classical-optics Wiener-Khintchine theorem within the framework of detection of phase-space displacements with a suitably designed quantum ruler. A phase-space-based quantum mutual coherence function is introduced that includes the contribution of the detector. We obtain an universal equality linking resolution with coherence. This is illustrated with the case of Gaussian states and number states.

Исторический опыт народа в эпопее Зейтуна Толгурова «Большая медведица»

In this research area, interest is an epic - scale canvas by the Balkarian prose writer Z. Tolgurova “Big Dipper”. According to all structural and content parameters (large format, panoramic view, aim reflection and comprehension of historical events, the length of the narrative in time and space, during battle scenes, parallel developing storylines, the conjugation of the destinies of the people and the main characters of the work) it is classified as an epic novel. Nationality is singled out as a defining feature. The purpose of the study is to identify the epic features of the novel and reflection degree in it of the historical experience of the people (the process of planting Soviet ideology, the tragic consequences of breaking the old patriarchal world, the denial of the former moral and ethical norms, the difficulties of coexistence of people in society, human adaptation to a spontaneously changing reality. The result of the dramatic events was not the achievement of universal equality or freedom of choice, but alienation and disunity in the ethnic environment, mutual hostility based on class. The reality of the period of the October Revolution is considered by Tolgurov in the evolution's context of individual consciousness. The study of the conceptual layers of the literary text made it possible to trace the transformation of the characters, to deter-mine the spiritual and moral potential of each image, to determine the level of awareness and in-volvement of the characters in the historical process. The author’s evaluation line contributed to the realization of humanistic concepts and ideas. The work gradually reveals the ideological atti-tudes of representatives of different social strata, subjective ways of translating the mental com-ponent of the people (using the example of the ideological antipodes of the Nuh and the Cossack). All these provisions confirm the scale of the writer’s reflection of the specifics of the era, the rel-evance and artistic and aesthetic value of the novel.ts, the length of the narrative in time and space, the presence of battle scenes, parallel developing storylines, the conjugation of the desti-nies of the people and the main characters of the work) it is classified as an epic novel. Nationality is singled out as a defining feature. The purpose of the study is to identify the epic features of the novel and the degree of reflection in it of the historical experience of the people (the process of planting Soviet ideology, the tragic consequences of breaking the old patriarchal world, the denial of the former moral and ethical norms, the difficulties of coexistence of people in society, human adaptation to a spontaneously changing reality. The result of the dramatic events was not the achievement of universal equality or freedom of choice, but alienation and disunity in the ethnic environment, mutual hostility based on class. The reality of the period of the October Revolution is considered by Tolgurov in the context of the evolution of individual consciousness. The study of the conceptual layers of the literary text made it possible to trace the transformation of the characters, to determine the spiritual and moral potential of each image, to determine the level of awareness and the degree of involvement of the characters in the historical process. The author's evaluation line contributed to the realization of humanistic concepts and ideas. The work gradual-ly reveals the ideological attitudes of representatives of different social strata, subjective ways of translating the mental component of the people (using the example of the ideological antipodes of the Nuh and the Cossack). All these provisions confirm the scale of the writer's reflection of the specifics of the era, the relevance and artistic and aesthetic value of the novel.

The Racial Horizon of Utopia: Unthinking the Future of Race in Late Twentieth-Century American Utopian Novels

The Racial Horizon of Utopia: Unthinking the Future of Race in Late Twentieth-Century American Utopian Novels

The ideal of Universal Equality in Nezami's Iskendername (The Book of Alexander) and Makhzan al-asrār (The Treasury of Mysteries)

Düşünce tarihinin en başından beri iki figür öne çıkar. Bu figürlerden biri şair diğeri ise filozoftur. Şairi ve filozofu birbirine yakınlaştıran önemli bir nokta ise ideal tutkularıdır. Şair ideal sözü ararken; filozof ise ideal varlığı arar. Şair ve filozof her zaman çok iyi anlaşamazlar fakat her zaman birbirlerine çok şey borçludurlar. Nizâmî Gencevî, felsefe ile şiirin birbirini tamamlayan şeyler olduğunu düşünür ve şiir ile felsefeyi buluşturmayı bu yolla da ideal varlığın ideal söz ile dile gelmesine aracılık etmeyi amaçlar. 1141-1214 yılları arasında yaşadığı tahmin edilen Nizâmî, epik ve lirik şiirin önemli isimlerinden olup hamse türünün de kurucularından kabul edilmektedir. Nizâmî’yi şair kimliğinin dışında özellikle İskendername ve Mahzen-i Esrar adlı eserlerindeki yaklaşımları ile bir düşünür ve filozof olarak da değerlendirmek mümkündür. Bu yazıda daha çok İskendername ve Mahzen-i Esrar adlı iki eserini merkeze alarak Nizâmî’nin hümanizma temelinde, evrensel bir eşitlik inancına sahip olduğu ileri sürülecek ve bunu nasıl savunduğu gösterilmeye çalışılacaktır.

ПЛАТОН І ГРИГОРІЙ СКОВОРОДА: СИСТЕМНІСТЬ І ГУМАНІЗМ

The problem of an ideal society and an ideal state has interested mankind at all times – from antiquity to the present. The works of the Greek philosopher Plato show that as early as the fifth century BC, the concept of a just state was created, where everyone would do their job and live happily. Holistic philosophical concept in the XVIII century. created by Ukrainian philosopher H. Skovoroda. The idea of vocation work became fundamental to his philosophy. The development of the concept was the so-called “upper republic”, where all people got their bread working by vocation and according to their natural inclinations. In addition to ancient sources, the philosopher used the Bible, which he considered a separate ideal world, according to which all people should live. H. Skovoroda considered love, common property, universal equality and republican rule to be the main principles of a harmonious ideal state.

Drei Stufen der Gleichheit?

The text develops three theses: First, equality has three juridical aspects, namely universal equality, particular equality and social equality. Second, liberal freedom must always appear in these three aspects simultaneously in order to become concrete and real. Third, equal freedom is not exhausted in this liberal juridical form but strives beyond it by itself for quasi-revolutionary change.

Практики поведения «новой женщины» в условиях массового голода начала 1920-х годов

The article discusses the behavioral practices of a "new woman" in the conditions of mass famine in the early 1920s. It is noted that this social group was inconsiderable in number, but its influence in public life was very high. The author draws attention to the social origin of the representatives of this social group, the level of their education, the specifics of the worldview formation based on the ideals of universal equality and justice. It was noted that the behavior of the “new women” in conditions of mass starvation significantly differed from the generally accepted patterns, such as seeking help from the authorities, migrating to other regions, selling property, begging and other social deviations. The desire to contribute to the construction of a socialist society led to the ignorance of the problem of hunger and a reorientation from their daily life to social life. This was manifested in the behavior of the “new woman” in the form of collecting funds for the needs of the hungry, selfless work, refusal to relocate to prosperous areas. Social class background – origin from peasants and workers, high involvement in social activities, young age, membership in the Komsomol organisation were the factors that formed non-standard options for survival in the situation of mass famine among the “new women”. It is concluded that the conditions of hunger contributed to the strengthening of the social positions of the “new women”, their further advancement on the social ladder. The downside of strengthening the social position of the “new women” was the further erosion of the foundations of their traditional perception of the world based on family and motherhood.