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Reflective Equilibrium and the Principles of Logical Analysis: Understanding the Laws of Logic (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Jaroslav Peregrin Vladimír SvobodaThis book offers a comprehensive account of logic that addresses fundamental issues concerning the nature and foundations of the discipline. The authors claim that these foundations can not only be established without the need for strong metaphysical assumptions, but also without hypostasizing logical forms as specific entities. They present a systematic argument that the primary subject matter of logic is our linguistic interaction rather than our private reasoning and it is thus misleading to see logic as revealing "the laws of thought". In this sense, fundamental logical laws are implicit to our "language games" and are thus more similar to social norms than to the laws of nature. Peregrin and Svoboda also show that logical theories, despite the fact that they rely on rules implicit to our actual linguistic practice, firm up these rules and make them explicit. By carefully scrutinizing the project of logical analysis, the authors demonstrate that logical rules can be best seen as products of the so called reflective equilibrium. They suggest that we can profit from viewing languages as "inferential landscapes" and logicians as "geographers" who map them and try to pave safe routes through them. This book is an essential resource for scholars and researchers engaged with the foundations of logical theories and the philosophy of language.
Reflective Practice in Social Work (Transforming Social Work Practice Series)
by Terry Scragg Christine KnottReflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice that aims to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including 'what is reflective practice?', how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?, how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts? . There are sections on writing reflective journals, communicating well with service users and carers and reflective practice while on placements. "
Reflective Practice in Teaching: Pre-service Teachers and the Lens of Life Experience (Reflective Teaching Ser.)
by Gretchen Geng Pamela Smith Paul Black Yoshi Budd Leigh DisneyThis book investigates the ways in which pre-service teachers develop and articulate their professional knowledge by presenting their reflections on contemporary issues and topics they have explored during their own teaching practicums. It uses reflective practice to connect pre-service teachers’ personal backgrounds with their placement experience concerning a self-selected topic, including teacher educators’ reflections on the pre-service teachers’ reports on these placement topics. By illustrating the broad range of issues encountered by pre-service teachers, sharing multiple perspectives on the complexity of classroom practice, and demonstrating the importance of reflective practice, it also provides a valuable mentoring framework. Moreover, the book studies how examining pre-service teachers’ life experience can facilitate in-depth understanding, specifically in the context of pre-service teachers’ reflections on their own practices in different educational settings. In short, the book helps current and prospective pre-service teachers and teacher educators get to know their students and themselves better using reflective practice.
Reflective Teaching: An Introduction (Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series)
by Daniel P. Liston Kenneth M. ZeichnerThis popular text provides a clear, succinct explanation of how reflection is integral to teachers’ understandings of themselves, their practice, and their context, and elaborates how various conceptions of reflective teaching differ from one another. The emphasis on the importance of both self and context is embedded within distinct and varied educational traditions (conservative, progressive, radical, and spiritual). Throughout the text the reader is encouraged to examine his/her assumptions and understandings of teaching, learning, and schooling and to reflect on self and context. The major goal of this book is to help teachers explore and define their own positions with regard to key topics and issues related to the aims of education in a democratic society. Its core message is that such reflection is essential to becoming more skilled, more capable, and in general better teachers. New in the Second Edition: Underscores use of critical educational texts and film to encourage reflection; highlights emotional features of teaching and reflection; addresses spiritual/contemplative domains in educational traditions; Companion Website.
Reflex: Reflections, poems and other stories
by Aimar RollanReflex is a set of reflections, poems and stories of different topics. There is no order or concert, just flashes, reflections of ideas embodied in the paper. The word reflex shares roots with the word reflection, and for that reason I’ve chosen that title for this book, since every reflection is nothing but a highlight of universal mind in each mind. There’s no total truths when they’re expressed by a human being, just partial truths, just reflections of the great world of ideas. I hope and wish, that these reflections, that these highlights, serve to entertain readers and make them reflex on the plethora of topics discussed here.
Reflexiones a orillas del camino: Aforismos de un caminante
by Carlos Blanco FadolUn cromatismo sorprendente de las variopintas manifestaciones vivenciales del ser humano que inspiraron al autor a lo largo del peregrinaje de su vida por países de los cinco continentes. «El conjunto de aforismos que dan lugar a Reflexiones a orillas del camino forma un cromatismo sorprendente de las variopintas manifestaciones vivenciales del ser humano, traducido en pensamientos con dosis de surrealismo, poesía, desencanto, amor, desarraigo, humor... que inspiraron al autor a lo largo del peregrinaje de su vida por países de los cinco continentes. »Carlos Blanco Fadol, hispano uruguayo peregrino del viento, deja prevalecer en este libro el sentimiento de caminante con tanta intensidad que relega a un segundo plano su brillante trayectoria artística musical, colmada de premios y reconocimientos mundiales, donde incluye dos candidaturas a los Premios Príncipe de Asturias: a las Artes en 2006 y a la Concordia en 2009. »Sin duda, estamos ante una obra singular, donde el amplio abanico de situaciones humanas que tienen cabida en estos aforismos, muchos de ellos de marcado trasfondo poético, identifica profundamente al lector con sus circunstancias, como un faro dispuesto a iluminar las sombras de las realidades humanas». Carmen Posadas, escritora y consejera de la Universidad Europea y ganadora del Premio Planeta 1998
Reflexiones sobre la guillotina
by Albert CamusEl breve pero gran ensayo del Nobel de Literatura, Albert Camus, contra la pena de muerte en Francia: uno de los textos más poderosos y persuasivos jamás escrito contra este castigo. A lo largo de la historia, algunos libros han cambiado el mundo. Han transformado la manera en que nos vemos a nosotros mismos y a los demás. Han inspirado el debate, la discordia, la guerra y la revolución. Han iluminado, indignado, provocado y consolado. Han enriquecido vidas, y también las han destruido. Taurus publica las obras de los grandes pensadores, pioneros, radicales y visionarios cuyas ideas sacudieron la civilización y nos impulsaron a ser quienes somos. Este poderoso texto, uno de los más hermosos y persuasivos que escribió Albert Camus, sitúa el respeto a la vida humana por encima de la necesidad de cumplimiento de la ley. Sus argumentos contra la violencia de Estado y las penas ejemplares tienen plena vigencia hoy, y conforman una obra clave para entender el pensamiento ético del premio Nobel.
Reflexive Emotions: Shame, Humor, Humility (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy)
by Menachem FischThis book looks closely at three first-order reflexive emotions—shame, humor and humility—that are shown to be not only exclusively human, but definitive of major aspects of human selfhood, agency and normativity. A separate chapter that covers second-order emotions, shows that when negative, they display a crucial and equally exclusive aspect of human normative self-critique. In addition to jointly delineating agency, sapience, normativity, rationality, and the ability to critically self-reflect, this book further demonstrates the inevitable role of the we in the I (to paraphrase Axel Honneth), namely, how realizing one&’s full human potential necessarily requires engaging others. This book appeals to students as well as researchers and looks closely at how these three reflexive emotions bestow categorical value on otherness, rendering normative diversity not merely something to be tolerated or rationally overcome, but a rare and necessary blessing.
Reflexive Governance for Global Public Goods
by Eric Brousseau Tom Dedeurwaerdere Bernd SiebenhünerGlobal public goods (GPGs)--the economic term for a broad range of goods and services that benefit everyone, including stable climate, public health, and economic security--pose notable governance challenges. At the national level, public goods are often provided by government, but at the global level there is no established state-like entity to take charge of their provision. The complex nature of many GPGs poses additional problems of coordination, knowledge generation and the formation of citizen preferences. This book considers traditional public economy theory of public goods provision as oversimplified, because it is state centered and fiscally focused. It develops a multidisciplinary look at the challenges of understanding and designing appropriate governance regimes for different types of goods in such areas as the environment, food security, and development assistance. The chapter authors, all leading scholars in the field, explore the misalignment between existing GPG policies and actors' incentives and understandings. They analyze the complex impact of incentives, the involvement of stakeholders in collective decision making, and the specific coordination needed for the generation of knowledge. The book shows that governance of GPGs must be democratic, reflexive--emphasizing collective learning processes--and knowledge based in order to be effective.
Reflexive Historical Sociology (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought #Vol. 22)
by Arpad SzakolczaiThis book reconstructs and brings together the work of a number of social and political theorists in order to gain new insight on the emergence and character of modern Western society. It examines the intersection point of social theory and historical sociology in a new theoretical approach called "reflexive historical sociology". There is analysis of the works of Max Weber, Michel Foucault, Norbert Elias, Eric Voegelin and a number of others. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 examines the works of Eric Voegelin, Norbert Elias, Lewis Mumford and Franz Borkenau. Part 2 is concerned with the major conceptual tools such as experience, liminality, process, symbolisation, figuration, order, dramatisation and reflexivity, and themes such as the history of forms of thought, subjectivity, knowledge and closed space and regulated time. Finally, the book examines the most important insights of the thinkers discussed, concerning the historical processes that led to modernity.
Reflexive Pronouns: A Theoretical and Experimental Synthesis (Language, Cognition, and Mind #8)
by Darcy SperlichThis book presents a comprehensive picture of reflexive pronouns from both a theoretical and experimental perspective, using the well-researched languages of English, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In order to understand the data from varying theoretical perspectives, the book considers selected syntactic and pragmatic analyses based on their current importance in the field. The volume consequently introduces the Emergentist Reflexivity Approach, which is a novel theoretical synthesis incorporating a sentence and pragmatic processor that accounts for reflexive pronoun behaviour in these six languages. Moreover, in support of this model a vast array of experimental literature is considered, including first and second language acquisition, bilingual, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic and clinical studies. It is through both the intuitive and experimental data linguistic theorizing relies upon that brings out the strengths of the modelling adopted here, paving new avenues for future research. In sum, this volume unites a diverse array of the literature that currently sits largely divorced between the theoretical and experimental realms, and when put together a better understanding of reflexive pronouns under the auspices of the Emergentist Reflexivity Approach is forged.
Refocusing the Self in Higher Education: A Phenomenological Perspective (Routledge Research in Higher Education)
by Glen ShermanIn higher education literature, theories of learning and development have largely been adapted from psychology to the exclusion of basic insights from philosophy. This volume addresses the gaps in higher education’s theoretical base created by this inattention to philosophy and reflects on the significance of the history of philosophy for the field of higher education. Key insights from phenomenological and then deconstructive philosophy are explained in an accessible and useful way and woven into a practical theory of the student-subject and its implications for learning and development. Finally, narrative theory is introduced in conjunction with these philosophical considerations as the author considers alternative ways of conceptualizing the student, the student’s experience, and the unification of the curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular aspects of higher education.
Reform Processes and Policy Change
by George Tsebelis Thomas König Marc DebusGeorge Tsebelis' veto players approach has become a prominent theory to analyze various research questions in political science. Studies that apply veto player theory deal with the impact of institutions and partisan preferences of legislative activity and policy outcomes. It is used to measure the degree of policy change and, thus, reform capacity in national and international political systems. This volume contains the analysis of leading scholars in the field on these topics and more recent developments regarding theoretical and empirical progress in the area of political reform-making. The contributions come from research areas of political science where veto player theory plays a significant role, including, positive political theory, legislative behavior and legislative decision-making in national and supra-national political systems, policy making and government formation. The contributors to this book add to the current scholarly and public debate on the role of veto players, making it of interest to scholars in political science and policy studies as well as policymakers worldwide.
Reform, Inclusion and Teacher Education: Towards a New Era of Special Education in the Asia-Pacific Region
by Chris Forlin Ming-Gon John LianThis ground-breaking book considers current perspectives on special education reform in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a major focus on a new era of special education, and how this relates to education reform towards inclusive education. With major changes being proposed under current educational reform and confusion as to how to instigate these measures, this book provides ways to better prepare teachers. It is helpfully divided into three different sections of education reform: "Education Reform in the Asia-Pacific region" reviews broad trends and issues in special education across the region, including Taiwan, Korea, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong. "Preparing Teachers to work in Inclusive Classrooms" focuses on curricula and pedagogical practices for teacher education. This section considers different approaches to preparing teachers such as cross-categorical, collaborative, innovations, and the impact of teachers’ attitudes, perceptions and concerns on inclusion. "Effective Special & Inclusive Practices" draws upon evidence–based research to provide best practice models to assist in developing inclusive school communities. Each section addresses a list of objectives and questions; suggests best practice pedagogy; and concludes with a support section with useful websites and suggested professional development activities. This book will interest teachers, teacher educators, university lecturers in education and post graduate students.
Reformation Reputations: The Power of the Individual in English Reformation History
by David J. Crankshaw George W. C. GrossThis book highlights the pivotal roles of individuals in England’s complex sixteenth-century reformations. While many historians study broad themes, such as religious moderation, this volume is centred on the perspective that great changes are instigated not by themes, or ‘isms’, but rather by people – a point recently underlined in the 2017 quincentenary commemorations of Martin Luther’s protest in Germany. That sovereigns from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I largely drove religious policy in Tudor England is well known. Instead, the essays collected in this volume, inspired by the quincentenary and based upon original research, take a novel approach, emphasizing the agency of some of their most interesting subjects: Protestant and Roman Catholic, clerical and lay, men and women. With an introduction that establishes why the commemorative impulse was so powerful in this period and explores how reputations were constructed, perpetuated and manipulated, the authors of the nine succeeding chapters examine the reputations of three archbishops of Canterbury (Thomas Cranmer, Matthew Parker and John Whitgift), three pioneering bishops’ wives (Elizabeth Coverdale, Margaret Cranmer and Anne Hooper), two Roman Catholic martyrs (John Fisher and Thomas More), one evangelical martyr other than Cranmer (Anne Askew), two Jesuits (John Gerard and Robert Persons) and one author whose confessional identity remains contested (Anthony Munday). Partly biographical, though mainly historiographical, these essays offer refreshing new perspectives on why the selected figures are famed (or should be famed) and discuss what their reformation reputations tell us today.
Reformation im Islam: Perspektiven und Grenzen
by Jörgen Erik Klußmann Michael Kreutz Aladdin SarhanDass der Islam in der modernen Welt, die von Demokratie, Säkularismus und Fortschritt geprägt ist, nur bestehen könne, wenn er eine Reformation durchlaufe, wird von den einen behauptet, von den anderen bestritten und ist Gegenstand einer bis heute andauernden Debatte, die sich mindestens bis auf das frühe 20. Jahrhundert zurückverfolgen lässt. Dieser Sammelband lässt Stimmen für und wider eine Reformation im Islam zu Wort kommen und rückt die Debatte in das Licht aktueller Ereignisse und Herausforderungen, zu denen nicht zuletzt der Aufstieg des Salafismus gehört. Der InhaltEinführungReformation als HerausforderungIslam und PolitikReformation und die Geschlechterfrage Vergleichende PerspektivenDie ZielgruppenPhilosophenTheologenSozialwissenschaftlerPolitik- und ReligionswissenschaftlerHistorikerDie HerausgeberJörgen Erik Klußmann ist Studienleiter an der Evangelischen Akademie im Rheinland und nebenberuflich Coach und Trainer für soziokulturelle und religiöse Sensibilisierung sowie für systemische Konflikttransformation.Dr. Michael Kreutz ist Politologe und Orientalist in Bochum mit den Arbeitsschwerpunkten Moderne Geschichte des Nahen Ostens und Südosteuropas, politische Ideengeschichte, Europa und der Islam, Religion und Politik.Aladdin Sarhan ist Islamwissenschaftlicher Referent und Sachverständiger in der Abteilung Staatsschutz des Landeskriminalamts Rheinland-Pfalz.
Reformatting Politics: Information Technology and Global Civil Society
by Geert Lovink Jodi Dean Jon W. AndersonThis book examines the ways in which new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used by civil society organizations (CSOs) to achieve their aims through activities and networks that cross national borders. These new ICTs (the internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and television) have allowed these civil society organizations to form extensive networks linking the local and the global in new ways and to flourish internationally in ways that were not possible without them. Reformatting Politics consists of four sections containing essays by some of the top scholars and activists working at the intersections of networked societies, civil society organizations, and information technology. The book also includes a section that takes a critical look at the UN World Summit of Information Society and the role that global governance has played and will play in the use and dissemination of these new technologies. Finally, the contributors aim to influence this important and emerging field of inquiry by posing a set of questions and directions for future research. In sum, Reformatting Politics is a fresh look at the way critical network practice through the use of information technology is reformatting the terms and terrains of global politics.
Reforming Higher Education in Vietnam: Challenges and Priorities (Higher Education Dynamics #29)
by Grant Harman Thanh Nghi Pham Martin HaydenVietnam is a dynamic member of the community of Southeast Asian nations. Consistent with aspirations across the region, it is seeking to develop its higher education system as rapidly as possible. Vietnam's approach stands out, however, as being extremely ambitious. Indeed, it may be at risk of attempting to do too much too quickly. By 2020, for example, Vietnam expects its higher education system to be advanced by modern standards and highly competitive in international terms. This vision faces many challenges. The economy, though growing rapidly, remains reliant on the availability of unskilled labour and the exploitation of natural resources, and decision making in many areas of public life continues to be hamstrung by a legacy of over-regulation and centralised control. A large number of goals and objectives have been set for reform of the higher education system by 2020. The success of these reforms will have a major bearing on the future quality of the system. This sober assessment Vietnam's global competitiveness forms a backdrop to the subject matter of this book, that is, the state of Vietnam's higher education system. The book provides a comprehensive and scholarly review of various dimensions of the higher education system in Vietnam, including its recent history, its structure and governance, its teaching and learning culture, its research and research commercialisation environment, its socio-economic impact, its strategic planning processes, its progress with quality accreditation, and its experience of internationalisation and privatisation.
Reforming Law and Economy for a Sustainable Earth: Critical Thought for Turbulent Times (Environmental Politics)
by Paul AndersonFew concerns preoccupy contemporary progressive thought as much as the issue of how to achieve a sustainable human society. The problems impeding this goal include those of how to arrest induced global environmental change (GEC), persistent disagreements about the contribution of economic activities to GEC and further differences in views on how these activities can be reformed in order to reduce the rate of change and thus to mitigate threats to much life on Earth. Reforming Law and Economy for a Sustainable Earth aims to help resolve these problems in two ways. Since addressing GEC will require global coordination, the book first clarifies the conditions necessary to achieve this effectively. Paul Anderson explores these conditions with the aid of a sustained analysis of key concepts in influential disciplines, particularly in social and political theory and law, relating to the transition to a sustainable economy. Second, Anderson tackles the problem of how to arrest GEC by incisively evaluating two leading theoretical positions in terms of their capacity to support the conditions required for effective global coordination. From this basis, the book offers an extensive critique of the idea that global environmental problems can be solved within the framework of global capitalism. It also critically reviews and advances the proposition that global sustainability can be achieved only by changing the capitalist form of organizing the economy. Enriched by a genuinely interdisciplinary approach, the originality of Reforming Law and Economy for a Sustainable Earth lies in the manner it combines a rigorous analysis of the requirements for global sustainability with decisive conclusions as to what are, and what are not, viable means of fulfilling those requirements. The book advances research on sustainability within key disciplines, among them political theory, law and social science, by offering a timely and insightful statement about the global environmental predicament in the 21st century.
Reforming Local Government: Consolidation, Cooperation, or Re-creation?
by Joseph DrewThis book is a bold prescription for local government reform that moves well beyond the old arguments regarding consolidations (also referred to as amalgamations) and co-operation (sometimes referred to as shared services) to paint a picture of an efficient, effective tier of government that strikes a balance between the right of persons to pursue their existential ends and the need to promote the common good. The book presents a system of local government that balances human dignity with the common good, restrains Leviathan, provides a voice for the disenfranchised (and even the disinterested), and delivers goods and services efficiently and effectively. Ironically, what is often argued to be the weakness of local government in many jurisdictions – the fact that it is merely a creature of statute – is also the best hope we have of making the oft cited rhetoric about how ‘local government is the closest to the people that serves the people best’ become reality.
Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha
by Wael HallaqReforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities.Hallaq argues that Taha’s project departs from—but leaves behind—the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. Taha systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century—nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha’s oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha’s ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq’s conversation with Taha’s work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.
Reforming Pedagogy in Cambodia: Local Construction of Global Pedagogies (Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #62)
by Takayo OgisuThis book presents a sociocultural account of logic, or a pedagogy, that governs Cambodian education, from policy-making to classroom practices. In so doing, it seeks to not only provide an introduction to Cambodian education, but also to help readers understand the complexities involved in reforming educational practices by drawing on an ethnographic multi-level case study of an ongoing pedagogical reform policy. The book reveals what is actually taking place in today’s Cambodian classrooms and how actors view their own practices in response to the new pedagogy. Importantly, the book situates Cambodian pedagogical reform efforts amid the global wave of student-centered pedagogies and sheds new light on the political economy of educational policy-making and policy implementation along a global-local axis.
Reforming Regulatory Impact Analysis
by Winston Harrington Lisa Heinzerling Richard D MorgensternOver the past decades, considerable debate has emerged surrounding the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to analyze and make recommendations for environmental and safety regulations. Critics argue that CBA forces values on unquantifiable factors, that it does not adequately measure benefits across generations, and that it is not adaptable in situations of uncertainty. Proponents, on the other hand, believe that a well-done CBA provides useful, albeit imperfect, information to policymakers precisely because of the standard metrics that are applied across the analysis. Largely absent from the debate have been practical questions about how the use of CBA could be improved. Relying on the assumption that CBA will remain an important component in the regulatory process, this new work from Resources for the Future brings together experts representing both sides of the debate to analyze the use of CBA in three key case studies: the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Mercury Rule, and the Cooling Water Intake Structure Rule (Phase II). Each of the case studies is accompanied by critiques from both an opponent and a proponent of CBA and includes consideration of complementary analyses that could have been employed. The work's editors - two CBA supporters and one critic - conclude the report by offering concrete recommendations for improving the use of CBA, focusing on five areas: technical quality of the analyses, relevance to the agency decision-making process, transparency of the analyses, treatment of new scientific findings, and balance in both the analyses and associated processes, including the treatment of distributional consequences.
Reforming UN Decision-Making Procedures: Promoting a Deliberative System for Global Peace and Security (Routledge Research on the United Nations (UN))
by Martin Daniel NiemetzThe institutional procedures for the UN’s decision-making on issues of global peace and security, first and foremost the Security Council (SC), were conceived with the objective of enabling a swift but internationally coordinated response to irregular situations of crises. Today, however, the UN is constantly involved in situations of conflict and has expanded its range of activities. This book offers a concrete and practically applicable answer to the question of how to reform the UN and increase the legitimacy of the UN’s decision-making procedures on issues of global peace and security. In order to provide this answer, it connects the minutia of institutional design with the abstract principals of democratic theory in a systematic and reproducible method, thereby enabling a clear normative evaluation of even the smallest technical detail of reform. This evaluation demonstrates that there is a range of feasible proposals for reform that could improve the SC’s accountability both to the General Assembly and to the general public, that could increase the opportunities for effective input from the UN membership and NGOs. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the United Nations, International Organizations and regional governance.
Reforming the Art of Living
by Rico VitzDescartes's concern with the proper method of belief formation is evident in the titles of his works--e. g. , The Search after Truth, The Rules for the Direction of the Mind and The Discourse on Method of rightly conducting one's reason and seeking the truth in the sciences. It is most apparent, however, in his famous discussions, both in the Meditations and in the Principles, of one particularly noteworthy source of our doxastic errors--namely, the misuse of one's will. What is not widely recognized, let alone appreciated and understood, is the relationship between his concern with belief formation and his concern with virtue. In fact, few seem to realize that Descartes regards doxastic errors as moral errors and as sins both because such errors are intrinsically vicious and because they entail notably deleterious social consequences. Reforming the Art of Living seeks to rectify this rather common oversight in two ways. First, it aims to elucidate the nature of Descartes's account of virtuous belief formation. Second, it aims both (i) to illuminate the social significance of Descartes's philosophical program as it relates to the understanding and practice not of science, but of religion and (ii) to develop a kind of Leibnizian critique of this aspect of his program. More specifically, it aims to show that Descartes's project is "dangerous," insofar as it is subversive not only of traditional Christianity but also of other traditional forms of religion, both in theory and in practice.