Unlimited Desires Research Articles

A Comprehensive Literary Review of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) in Ayurvedic Perspective

The reasons for the rise in metabolic disorders in society include busy schedules with abnormally pressured lifestyles, altered food habits and their patterns, insufficient sleep, and a lack of observance of Dincharya, Ritucharya, Ratricharya and Sadvritta. Achieving the unlimited desires in a very short period of time produces different types of anxiety, worry, anger, fear and depression which directly or indirectly leads to various types of G.I. tract disorders and Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of them. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which affects most nations and their populations, has become a widespread ailment over time. Reflux, or the backflow of stomach contents into the esophagus, throat, lungs, and airways, is a common complaint among GERD sufferers. Nowadays people do not follow the rules like ‘Dincharya’ and ‘Ritucharya’. All these things disturb the balance of ‘Tridosha’. In addition to these, addition to various vices such as smoking and alcohol results in the disturbance of normal physiology of the body, which again affects G.I. tract and thus produces G.I. disorders. The Pitta Dosha is disturbed by all of the aforementioned elements. The Vyadhis like Amlapitta, Ajirna, Annadravashoola and Parinamashoola can be correlated with GERD. In Amlapitta there is mainly vitiation of Pitta Dosha. Normally Pitta has Katu Rasa but when Katu Rasa becomes Vidagdha and attains Shuktibhava, it creates Amlata in Amashaya, it is called vitiation of Pitta Dosha. Amlapitta is one of the disorders caused by vitiated Pitta. These three Vyadhis come under Annavaha Srotas and Agnimandya is their underlined cause which should be treated. To gain an insight this review will aim to understand the Ayurvedic perspective of gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Designing and estimating an amphibious house using lightweight materials to mitigate the devastating effects of floods

Floods are the cause of massive-scale destruction. Flooding is a natural process that cannot be restricted or prevented from happening. Everyone must be prepared to minimize the damage caused in flood-prone areas. It is challenging to live against the water, but it is possible to live with the rising water. Due to rapid population growth, there is no more free land to live away from marine areas, so people are forced to live in areas near the sea or rivers. There is a law of nature: When the time comes, nature treats humans as humans have treated it. Misunderstanding human needs leads to the destructive use of new technology. In order to fulfill the unlimited desires of human beings, an imbalance is created in the environment, causing the temperature of the earth to rise and creating a problem such as global warming. Cloudbursts are also responsible for the occurrence of floods. Over 40 million hectares of the total 329 million hectares of geographical area are at risk of flooding. Floods in India over the past three decades have not only caused significant financial losses but also affected millions of people and claimed nearly 4,000 lives. Recently, after the cloudburst in Uttarakhand and Western Orissa, the situation was so bad that some people became homeless, and others lost their lives. This paper highlights the significant financial losses and the impact of flood disasters on the people of India. This paper presents amphibious house design as a potential solution, emphasizing the need for innovative solutions to address the challenges caused by flooding. Efforts have been made to focus on the construction of a house in flood-prone regions that ensures the safety of lives and assets. An amphibious house of 10 m * 10 m for EWS/LIG/ MIG has been designed, and the estimated cost is Rs 2,11,799.

The Posthuman Homo Faber in Atwood’s Oryx and Crake: An Ironic Portrayal

As a dystopia, Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake speculates the looming consequences of scientific inventions and technologies manifested in the destruction of natural equilibrium and posthuman complexities. Homo sapiens' unlimited desires and aspirations for enhancement and excellence have driven humans to enact the Creator. Crake, almost a mad scientist in the novel, creates the Crakers — genetically modified humans. To analyze this life force, the paper uses theoretical insights of humanists like Giannozzo Manetti, Rene Descartes and Friedrich Nietzsche regarding their celebration of human exceptionalism, reason, and free will. But, to counter-argue transgression in the pretext of progress, the paper also uses Donna Haraway’s concept of inter-speciesism and Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanism. They promote interdependence, critical review of the past and abstinence to address the posthuman crises and existential dilemmas. The enhanced Crakers are immune to starvation and ordinary diseases, devoid of art, imagination and creativity; but ironically feed on grass and their own excrement, and lack the essence of being human. They challenge Crake's genome project by transcending the lab-limitations but adapting to natural evolution. Hence, this paper examines Atwood's speculation of how modern science and technology distorts the symbiosis and disfigures the humans resulting in unwanted negotiations for survival. A post-human homofaber, Crake tries to resolve the existential crisis by eliminating the Bastion of humanity itself but ironically dehumanizes the human. The question is how far will humanity overrule nature? Who is accountable to repair the earth? Thus, this paper enables a thought exercise to retrospect on human insensibility and undergo abstinence of desires and luxury to save the future of this planet and lives from facing the impending apocalypse, as shown in the novel.

Sacramental desire

The work considers the theoretical dispute between different concepts of desire: "classical", structuralist, and post-structuralist. This dispute unfolds in two aspects: the social desire production and desire-scarcity connection. The author shows this dispute to be axiomatic and reflect the process of transition from an industrial society, which is based on shortage and lagging consumption, to a post-industrial society, which is based on excess and advanced consumption. The author relies on Lacan's and Kojve's concepts of desire and criticizes post-structuralist ideas of Deleuze, Guattari and Lyotard, particularly the concept of unconditional and unlimited desire. The article distinguishes between the concepts of innermost and sacramental desire in order to define the boundaries of the "desiring production". This distinction is applied in the analysis of "Solaris" by S. Lem and "Stalker" by Tarkovsky.

Impact Examination of the Lockdown on the Status of the Heavy Metal Pollution Index and Health Risk of Ganga River Water Quality

Ganga River is the lifeline for socio-economic development of India. The unlimited desire of human and anthropogenic activities degraded the water quality of Ganga River, especially in Haridwar. The present study investigated the significant impact of lockdown on physio-chemical status of the Ganga River in Haridwar. Study also revels the significant augmentation of heavy metals as lockdown released, however, average daily dose and hazard index has advocacy in suitability of Ganga River water in Haridwar for their utility. Moreover, this is the first study that highlights Cancer Risk value of Arsenic (As) and Chromium (Cr) in Ganga River water in Haridwar exceeded over the target risk of 1 ×10<sup>−4</sup>. The values for As was calculated as 0.000172 - adult and 0.00074 - children, whereas, for Cr was estimated as 0.000067 - adult and 0.00029 - children. This indicates the ingestion of Ganga River water (except for Cr values for adult which is less than targeted value) in Haridwar for long time may increase the probability of cancer to the population. Therefore, it is imperative to formulate such policies and strategies that keep ritual values and maintain water quality.

Globalization and Postmodern Ecology: A Study of the Anthropocene in Contemporary Climate Fictions

Purpose of the study: Globalization has become a primary source for implementing capitalistic life. The advancement in human development has led to the Anthropocene. This paper focuses on how globalization impacts global climate change and the loss of identity and home due to humans' exploratory attitude toward the environment and its effect on surroundings. Issues in the study are addressed from a postmodern ecological perspective.
 Methodology: The researcher has taken ecocriticism as the analyzing theory to expose the ideology of anthropocentrism, which keeps humans at the centre of the earth and nature at its periphery. Apocalypticism is chosen theoretical tool of ecocritical analysis. Environmental ethics and justice is used to analyze ecocentric issues. Intertextuality and comparative study of novels are taken as the primary methods.
 Main Findings: Globalization is responsible for urban areas' rapid development, and anthropocentric variants are responsible for ecological disasters or climate change. This study demonstrates that human beings' perception of nature as a commodity/object to satisfy humans' unlimited desire has endangered nature. It is time to critically question the human interference in nature and create hope for rebuilding a new ecocentric mindset.
 The Application of the study: Eco literature deals with ecocentric issues through literary genres. The present paper studies the human-nature relationship and analysis how contemporary ecocentric novels deconstruct the culture-nature binary and anthropocentric hegemony. Hence, it is interdisciplinary. The above concerns are addressed from the perspective of climate fiction- The Hungry Tide and MaddAddam. The study's findings are not just restricted to the academic domain; instead, it appeals to all humans to change their notion of nature and aim for a sustainable environment.
 Novelty/Originality: In general, environmental and ecological studies scholars have resolved the ecocentric issue. In contrast to the above, the issue has been discussed from the lens of eco literature. Besides theorizing this academic discourse, the everyday human-nonhuman relationship is also portrayed through climate fiction.

ЖАДНОСТЬ КАК ФАКТОР ИСТОРИЧЕСКОГО ПРОЦЕССА

Greed is regarded as a human characteristic that occurs naturally in the course of social evolution. Under capitalism, unlimited desire of possession acts as the main motive of economic and any other activity, which leads to a number of objective technical, ecological, social, cultural and moral consequences – both positive and extremely negative. Greed has influenced the development of civilization constructively but it slowing down the social process increasingly in the modern era. Greed should be taken away from the historical stage. Curbing the demon of greed is required not only for the modern world reality, but also for the challenges that are expected by humanity in the future. The experience of the Soviet project implementing, based on an appeal to the over-utilitarian motives of the individual, demonstrates the objective possibility of building a collectivist society in which greed is perceived not as a norm, but as a deviation.

ANALISIS KRIMINOLOGI KEJAHATAN PENGGELAPAN DAN PENIPUAN DANA UMROH OLEH BIRO PENYELENGGARA PERJALANAN IBADAH UMROH PT.NABILA TRAVEL DI KOTA MEDAN

The rise of fraudulent umrah funds by companies that organize Umrah trips is inseparable from the role of the government as the party that gives business permits and is the party responsible for supervising the conduct of business activities carried out by the Bureau of Organizing Umrah Worship Travels.Based on the results of the study, it was found that the regulation of fraud and embezzlement of prospective Umrah pilgrims in Indonesian legislation, there are at least three relevant laws, namely Law No. 1 of 1956 concerning the Criminal Code, Law No. 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection and Law No. 13 of 2008 concerning the Implementation of Hajj and Umrah services. The cause of the fraud and fraud of Umrah funds by PT. Nabila Putra Mandiri is an encouragement in the suspect to fulfill unlimited desires (lusts) and a culture of people who are trustworthy and tempted by lure that is profitable. The government policy prevented the embezzlement of pilgrimage pilgrimage funds by the umroh travel organizer bureau, namely by making a new policy in the system of Hajj and Umrah administration through the Integrated Umrah Supervision Information System and Special Hajj which was based on electronics.Keywords: Criminology analysis, embezzlement, Fund Umrah.

Inter-Provincial Water Conflicts in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis

42 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 43, No.2, Winter 2020 Inter-Provincial Water Conflicts in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis Adil Khan* Nazakat Awan** Introduction Human history is predominantly a history of wars and conflicts. These wars and conflicts were the outcome of unlimited desires of mankind to conquer and control the natural resources. Water remained one of these natural resources which caused a number of wars. Most of the great civilizations emerged and flourished around the great rivers like Sindh, Euphrates, Nile and Ganges etc. Water, which once was used for irrigation and domestic purpose only, with the passage of time, has become a very important component of industrial growth in the modern world. Production of different commodities requires the consumption of water also. ‘The scale of water consumption for producing different commodities is increasing with rapid industrial expansion. For example in order to produce one litter of petroleum, one container of vegetables, one kilogram of paper and one ton of woollen cloth, it is necessary to consume ten litters, forty litters, hundred litters and six hundred litters of water, respectively’1 .This exponential growth of water usage in addition to water scarcity due to a number of *Adil Khan. is serving as a lecturer in the Department of Pakistan Studies, Hazara University Mansehra He earned his PhD in Politics and International Relations from the International Islamic University, lamabad, Pakistan. His interests are democratization and Pakistani politics. **Nazakat Awan is a lecturer in the department of English, at Hazara University Mansehra. He is pursuing his PhD in linguistics from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. his recent publication entitled ‘Hybridity and linguistic pluralism: a study of university academic discourse’ is published in Global Social Science Review, Islamabad, Pakistan. 1 Encyclopedia Britannica Macrop/Edia, (Chicago: Helen Hemming Way, 1973-74, Vol.: 19). 43 climatic factors has given birth to a range of new conflicts. These conflicts range from inter-state to intra-state conflicts. he history of water related conflicts in sub-continent predates partition of Indo-Pak. The first water related conflict in Western India, which now constitute Pakistan, emerged in the post-World War I period among Punjab, Sindh, Bhawalpur and Bekaner states over the water sharing mechanism of river Indus.2 The upper and lower riparian regions relied on different arguments to win more water share. The upper riparian, Punjab, demanded more share on the basis of its greater contribution to the overall economy, whereas, the lower riparian, Sindh, demanded this share on the basis of its greater needs. The conflict was ultimately managed by the British Government acting as neutral arbitrator and facilitating negotiations among the conflicting parties.3 Water related conflicts in the post partition period once again emerged not only at interstate level, between India and Pakistan, but also at the domestic intrastate level, among the federating units of Pakistan. The Indus Water Treaty (TWT) in 1960 to some extent resolved interstate conflict between India and Pakistan, but it gave birth to a new controversy in West Pakistan, at intrastate level, as Pakistan lost its right on the waters of three major rivers; Sutlej, Bias and Ravi, resulting in a great imbalance of demand and supply of water. This imbalance and the resulting conflict not only negatively affected the economic growth in Pakistan but it also had serious implications for the federal structure. This article explores the causes of inter-provincial water conflicts, critically analyzes the arguments posed by various federating units, evaluates the performance of various commissions formed over the period since independence to resolve these conflicts, and finally explores the implications of inter-provincial water conflicts for the federation of Pakistan. This paper is organized broadly into four sections. The first section includes discussion on overall demand of water in Pakistan and the volume available to satiate this demand. The second section is a critical analysis of the causes of inter-provincial water conflicts. The third section comprises debates on major water related issues and an evaluation of the performance of various commissions formed to address the water conflicts among federating units. The fourth and concluding section is an attempt to 2 Michal-Aloys Arthur (1967), The Indus...

Permintaan, Penawaran Dan Keseimbangan Harga Dalam Prespektif Ekonomi Mikro Islam

In general, we believe that humans are social creatures with the need to complement each other’s lives, with each other's unlimited desires. While a Muslim is only allowed to consume halal and good. In Islamic teachings, illicit goods for consumption are not allowed to be made the basis of buying and selling or other transactions. In the demand and supply curves of Islam there are restrictions that must be done as a Muslim which is used as a basis for economic behavior. These restrictions are prohibited from making mafsadah, gharat, maisir, usury. This paper will answer the question how is the demand, supply and price balance in the perspective of Islamic microeconomics. The results of research shows that the concept of demand and supply in Islamic Islam aims to obtain prosperity or victory in the hereafter (falah) as a derivation of the belief that there is an eternal life after death, namely the after life, so that the existing budget must be set aside as provisions for the afterlife, such as alms and zakat. This means that there is a significant difference between conventional demand theory and Islamic demand theory. In conventional economics, consumers and producers have motivations that are dominated by the values of satisfaction, but in Islamic economics emphasizes only the level of need. The Islamic price balance mechanism in Islam is determined by the balance between demand and supply. This means that the price balance in the market is formed naturally, not because there is interference from the capitalist who can distort the market. This shows that the price regulation is left to the natural impersonal market mechanism. Keywords: Demand, Supply, Islamic perspective

ЩОДО ПРОЕКТУ СТВОРЕННЯ «НОВОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ» - ПОСТКАПІТАЛІЗМУ (АКСІОЛОГІЧНА ТА СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНА ОЦІНКА)

The system elements on which kept modern capitalism has exhausted its possibilities. In this regard, groups of the world elite put forward a project to create a economy and society – post-capitalism. To critically and holistically understanding the essence and characteristics of the system is possible only on the basis of the spiritual and moral paradigm. This is the purpose of the article. The defining element of any socio-economic system is its spiritual and cultural component, first of all, values-goals. The key goal is the value of the system – the power of the global and deep order. It is achieved by creating of a new person and a technological system for management of group and mass consciousness and behavior in order to realize the interests of the supranational elite. The main feature of the post-capitalist society is the control over the information and psycho-spheres, along with the control over the resources. A modified person is the main condition for its existence. New and newest (convergent) technologies already now allow influencing for the state of the intellect and the human psyche, and to control group and mass consciousness and behavior, which is confirmed by the research of scientists. The global contradictions of capitalism consisting in the unlimited desire for profit with limited demand and resources within the framework of post-capitalism will be solved by building a control and distribution economy. Post-capitalism will be a totalitarian, control-distributive, rigidly stratified and fragmented system, managed on the basis of technologies of 5 and 6 technological structures. The basic socio-economic categories in it will lose their previous content.

The jurisdictional return on investment from processing the backlog of untested sexual assault kits

The economic problem for the forensic laboratory is a problem faced in all arenas; limited resources are available to address seemingly unlimited desires. This is as true for entities in the public sector as it is for any private concern. To assist decision-makers in the allocation of those scarce resources, we synthesize existing research on the benefits of additions to the DNA Database and the potential benefits from diverting resources to analysis of the backlog of sexual assault kits. We offer some guidance for the optimum use of limited resources, through the measurement of the return on investment (ROI) at the jurisdictional level (i.e., that is, the net benefits to society relative to the investment itself). These net benefits include those to survivors from a resolution to their assaults, the benefits to others from the prevention of repeated assaults from serial rapists, and the prevention of societal costs external to those directly victimized. Those external costs extend from the effects on friends and family to expenses for preventive measures to anyone aware of sexual assaults. Such metrics surrounding ROI will assist the public sector in the optimal allocation of scarce resources to the justice system by providing a measures of the marginal social welfare improvement from alternative allocations of these scarce resources in light of objectives of public sector entities. The analysis demonstrates that the societal return on investment from the testing of all sexual assault kits ranges from 9,874% to 64,529%, depending on the volume of activity for the laboratory conducting the analysis. There are extreme economies of scale in effect that are suggestive of some policy alternatives.

Fantomy rossiiskogo obshchestva by Zh. T. Toshchenko (review)

Reviewed by: Fantomy rossiiskogo obshchestva by Zh. T. Toshchenko S. A. Kravchenko Zh. T. Toshchenko. Fantomy rossiiskogo obshchestva. 668 pp. Moscow: Tsentr sotsial’nogo prognozirovanniia i marketinga, 2015. ISBN 9785906001221. This fundamental work by Russian Academy of Science Corresponding Member Zh. T. Toshchenko is a logical extension of his long-term study of paradoxicality1 and kentavrizm (centaurism)2 in Russian society. However, this study has an individual, pioneering quality, as for the first time in the sociological literature it offers a justification for the conditions and the production mechanism of distinct, contradictory cases, paradoxical social realities as phantoms. By “phantoms” the author has in mind the phenomena and processes that embody specific, extravagant forms of social consciousness and activity, the bearers of which have hypertrophied characteristics—the inordinate thirst for power, the unlimited desire to possess wealth, and the morbid desire for fame. In its latent form, the phantom phenomena have always existed, but in times of radical change, when the foundations of the state and public life are breaking down, they tend to manifest themselves as a significant social phenomenon, bringing destructiveness at all levels of social organization (54–55). An undeniable advantage of this research is that it reveals the underlying causes and origins of the rise of phantoms in public consciousness and behavior. The sharp increase in phantom forms is now characteristic for virtually every country transitioning from industrial modernity to reflexive modernity and postmodernity, which is due to the total dispersion of the social unit against the backdrop of increasingly complex social and cultural dynamics.3 However, in our country these processes were encumbered by revolutionary radicalism, which, as P. A. Sorokin has previously stated, merely brings illusions of faith in a fast and easy materialization of high ideals, at the same time giving rise to “abruptly promoted” top-level managers, who possessed neither professional nor personal qualities.4 According to Toshchenko, the collapse of the Soviet [End Page 355] Union led to the dissolution of a deeply-rooted way of life, to a reexamination of attitudes and values; the very foundation of people’s world views disappeared. The advent of opportunistic capitalism and market relations based on an irrational drive for profit,5 stimulated the appearance of people who, due to their personal social and psychological characteristics, saw an opportunity in the new situation “not only to change their life, but to lay claim to an even higher social status, a ‘worthy’ official status and recognition. Often this coincided with an inadequate assessment of their own abilities and capabilities” (65). These high-status positions were achieved through both legitimate and illegitimate, or a combination thereof. The main claims of these public figures were wealth, power, and fame. In order to disguise their true intentions, they actively used a “method of donning false masks,” actively assisted by such additional devices as establishing political parties, social movements, and lobbies, as well as support by the mass media, especially television (69). These performances with masks, which are becoming all the more widespread in today’s world, as shown by J. Alexander, have given rise to a process of re-encoding the meaning of man and his activities. The paradoxical phantom takes the form of a “dual embodiment”: on the one hand there is the real body of the individual which, as a rule, possesses its ordinary abilities; but on the other hand there is a body representing a “hero” of the public, which seeks quick and easy solutions for their daily problems.6 Phantoms are far from harmless; on the contrary, they bring destructiveness and dysfunctionality to society, they pose a threat to the self-sufficiency of society, which, according to T. Parsons, interferes with society’s ability to control both internal processes and its relationship with its environment.7 Many of the new socio-economic and political conflicts in Russian society have originated precisely through such phantoms. Fortunately, phantoms seem to be a short-lived phenomenon. Similar figures have appeared suddenly and just as quickly disappeared from the pages of history of society and the state, which still “awaits interpretation” (64). In order to interpret the phenomenon of short-lived phantoms, let us make three points...

The Spectacular City, Mexico, and Colonial Hispanic Literary Culture

Although you can’t tell a book by its cover, Stephanie Merrim’s study seeking to understand the complexity of Colonial Spanish American urban culture is remarkably illustrated by Cristóbal de Villalpando’s seventeenth-century bird-eye’s view of Mexico City’s main plaza, depicting in minute detail nearly 1,200 people of all walks of life, its busy market place, and a riot-destroyed skyline. It is a spectacular vision, with a rich literary pedigree rigorously documented in Merrim’s book and epitomized in Bernardo de Balbuena’s well-known urban pastoral Grandeza mexicana. How can one tell the multiple stories that unravel in this vibrant, awe-inspiring but contradictory and heterogeneous urban maze? Merrim approaches this question from the vantage point of Spanish Ameri-can literary culture, examining a broad selection of iconic sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts that depict the New World city, its festivals, and its wonders. From Hernán Cortés and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo to Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, as well as a number of lesser-studied writers such as Francisco Cer-vantes de Salazar, Agustín de Vetancurt, and Buenaventura de Salinas, Merrim analyzes how Spanish residents (radicados) and creoles write the city, coding its spaces morally, racially, and sexually. As Merrim clearly shows in each text approached, the depiction is not a straight rendition of the city but a thick and coiled discursive thread, rhetorically crafted with and drawing from a burgeoning colonial archive as well as classical, biblical, European, and Amerindian sources. These writers are nonetheless confronted with a rich and heterogeneous reality that resists discursive enclosure.The argument is developed contrasting the Renaissance and the Baroque visions of the city, rightly pointing out that one of the key studies of the colonial Spanish American city conflated both, Angel Rama’s Ciudad letrada (1984). The imperial dream of a transparent, orderly space is present from Cortés’s letters to Philip II’s 1573 Ordenanzas. The colonial city’s heterogeneous society is problematically inscribed and objectified in descriptions of the marketplace, where autochthonous natural produce like guavas, mameys, and sapotes stand in for the Indians (p. 76). The market is also a high point of Balbuena’s poem celebrating Mexico’s greatness as a wonder cabinet offered as a gift to the empire (p. 127). The creole writers will take these renditions and rework them to affirm their place in colonial society and inscribe themselves in the Hispanic world, in what represents a creole cultural nationalism. Carving a space of their own, the key point in the cultural politics of the New World Baroque literary production is how deeply these writers engage the plurality of their own societies on this side of the Atlantic. Merrim recognizes that the colonial writers selected — mostly Spaniards and creoles — ultimately seek to contain the heterogeneous urban space. Another perspective could be presented by looking at the ample archive of postconquest Nahuatl texts, such as the Annals of Tlatelolco, Nahuatl dramas, and local histories written by don Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Hernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc and don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin. From another point of view, Merrim’s study shows that an epistemological aperture within Western-based texts is also possible. One of the quintessential preoccupations of the Baroque is precisely the limits of knowledge. Merrim demonstrates this splendidly in her examination of the creoles’ appropriations of Athanasius Kircher’s works, Sor Juana’s in particular, who uses the well-reputed Jesuit’s thought to defend against his embittered confessor and to assert her unlimited desire for knowledge in the Answer. Still, Merrim convincingly argues that Sor Juana distances herself critically from Kircher in Primero sueño by highlighting the impossible quest for truth.As stated above, Merrim looks primarily at sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mexican literary culture. The thick of the argument concentrates on the Baroque, highlighting nuances brought forth by the New World Baroque. Six of seven chapters are dedicated to Mexico with the last one examining texts from New Granada, Potosí, and Lima, which gives breath to the study without losing coherence. This is high-caliber scholarship that draws from postcolonial and transatlantic studies to underscore the predicament of Latin America’s colonial legacy. In this view, it is not gratuitous that creoles imagined Babel when faced with colonial violence. But, as Merrim optimistically points out, the creole imagination also holds hope for a better world. With no doubt, this conceptually well-defined and rigorously developed project allows us to understand better the intricate discursive web and the cultural politics of colonial writers. In sum, The Spectacular City is excellent reading for colonial Latin American literary and cultural scholars as well as advanced and graduate students.

Social aspects of engineering

This article discusses the relationships and linkages between the extended engineering profession and other intangible facets of human society. While describing how basic human needs, which engineers were used to satisfy, had transformed in the 21st century into a milieu of almost unlimited desires, the author emphasizes the new challenges engineering faces today. One of outcomes resulting from this change of desires affects the designing, planning and crafting of buildings, products and services, which now must meet vague desires and fuzzy ideas. In that way they differ totally from the previous conventional duties and mission of engineering. Future engineering should therefore, be more imaginative and emotional, inclining to encompass touchy subjects and intangible and spiritual concerns. Thus, engineering should be perceived as a combination of art and science. Key words: Engineering, human needs and desires, emotional engineering.

Pauvreté et fausse richesse chez J.-J. Rousseau

Résumé Rousseau associe paradoxalement la pauvreté des sociétés marchandes au développement d’une mauvaise richesse. Soumis au désir d’une richesse infinie, le mauvais riche ne peut percevoir le malheur du pauvre ni éprouver de pitié devant sa souffrance. La pauvreté ne s’analyse pas d’abord comme l’effet d’une production insuffisante de richesse, ou d’une distribution inéquitable des richesses produites, mais comme la conséquence d’un désir de consommation sans limite. La justice économique se définit non comme une égalité des ressources que l’État aurait pour tâche d’organiser, mais comme un sentiment d’égalité, qui repose sur une éthique.

Aristotle’s Natural Wealth: The Role of Limitation in Thwarting Misordered Concupiscence

I argue that Aristotle’s approach to the proper type of acquisition, use-value, want, and accumulation/storage of wealth is oriented less to excluding commercial activity, such as that of Aristotle's Athens, than to forestalling misordered concupiscence – the taking of an inherently limited good for the unlimited, or highest, good. That is, his moral aversion to taking a means for an end lies behind his rendering of the sort of wealth that is natural. By stressing the limited nature of natural wealth, Aristotle distinguishes such wealth qua limited from an artificial unlimited desire for profit in order to drive home his point that wealth ought not be taken as an objective good (i.e., good in itself).

The evolution of the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the problem of humanizing the economy

Many years of experience with market economies show that without the Church, as a social institution, it is quite problematic to create an environment for a fair economy. That is why a voice of such moral authority, which is capable of improving the moral climate of the modern economy, is extremely necessary in our time. In particular, Catholic social teaching has long paid attention to economic issues. The Roman Catholic Church has been, and remains, indifferent to the issues of international economy, private property, labor, humanization of the economy and a range of other problems. Poverty, hunger, unlimited desire for profit and benefits are a painful topic in papal speeches, encyclicals, and epistles. Along with changing social conditions, the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church itself evolved. This fact could not but affect the consideration of economic issues in Catholic social doctrine.

The Remarkable Abigail: Story-Telling for Character Education

As character education continues to be an objective of the social studies, the more effective educators have taken up the challenge by first understanding the principles of their discipline and opportunities for examining the values of character to be encountered. Strategy then comes to the forefront. Social studies is rediscovering the focus on the actual men and women of history as a major cog in teaching character, a method that John Dewey asserted was once widely used in American schools and is currently utilized successfully in foreign schools (Brooks and Goble, 1997). But this focus cannot be a matter of simply relating irrelevant facts. Rather, it requires the art of story-telling. History abounds with stories of the human struggle. When approached from that perspective as opposed to coldly looking at events only, a myriad of opportunities available. Lockwood and Harris (1985) noted that true historical stories involving dramatic moments of moral conflict especially useful in engaging students to reflect upon values. These stories relate individuals making personal decisions involving truth, integrity, honesty, and loyalty, among many others, and encourage students to analyze the issues and choices made. At the very least, such stories help students realize that others before faced the same dilemmas that they do, by making the right choices, persevered. More importantly, they also prove that the values of good character not restricted to people of a particular place or time (Sanchez, 1998). Egan's (1988) study of the way students successfully conceptualize and understand information about one's culture further supports the idea that applying the story metaphor may serve to bring in-depth, overall meaning to history instruction. Specifically, Egan noted that information such as historical/cultural/political values does not make sense to the contemporary student unless presented in a way which connects information with a larger sense-making picture, a picture which reveals the basic dynamics of why and how things happen; in other words, a story that relates an individual's values. He went on to point out that the story has all of the properties necessary to organize and connect bits of information into an overall understandable image. story works so well because of the way it encodes and makes sense of its contents. Our concern in teaching, also, is not simply to have students store knowledge.., but rather to have students remember because it makes vivid sense to them (p.79). This dynamic is easy to see if one looks closely at the elements of a story itself. A story is essentially driven by characters and their actions. These characters often in conflict with forces inside themselves (as in many Greek and Roman myths), with each other, and/or with some physical force or forces. Conflict in a social setting is further heightened by the basic circumstances of human existence noted by economists: humans have unlimited desires for things but resources limited. Conflict within characters or between characters then shapes and generates the story's plot. Consequently, the basic theme of the story is usually about 1) conflict and resolution of the conflict to one degree or another; and 2) psychological/personal changes that may occur with the characters by the time of resolution. Note further that such resolution need not necessarily be an unqualified victory. The changes that may occur in a character's personal because of decisions the character makes regarding the conflict often carry relevant personal/psychological truths for the listener/reader (Henderson, 1964). Campbell (1988) noted the sheer power of historical/cultural stories to impart important ideas and values to ensuing generations, stating that such stories are about the wisdom of life (p.4). He also lamented that present education lacks such emphasis. Because of educators' apparent reluctance or perceived inability to not only utilize the story-telling strategy but more importantly to relate social values, what student learning in school is not the wisdom of but merely information and technology. …

Economie et technoscience (1) Une perspective d'anthropologie économique

Economy and techno-science. (1) A economico-anthropological view The market system and techno-science are part of the same dynamic, underpinned by an unlimited desire to rationally control the world. But neither man nor nature are commodities in the ordinary sense of the word. The sense of incompletion highlighted as much by Polanyi as by Heidegger, necessitates ever increasing means to correct and oust the effects of rationalization. Amongst these means, supposed progress plays a primordial role.