Search results for ""debate""

Learning to argue and persuade in a highly competitive environment is only one aspect of life on a high-school debate team. Teenage debaters also participate in a distinct cultural world--complete with its own jargon and status system--in which they must negotiate complicated relationships with teammates, competitors, coaches, and parents as well as classmates outside the debating circuit. In Gifted Tongues, Gary Alan Fine offers a rich description of this world as a testing ground for both intellectual and emotional development, while seeking to understand adolescents as social actors. Considering the benefits and drawbacks of the debating experience, he also recommends ways of reshaping programs so that more high schools can use them to boost academic performance and foster specific skills in citizenship. Fine analyzes the training of debaters in rapid-fire speech, rules of logical argumentation, and the strategic use of evidence, and how this training instills the core values of such American institutions as law and politics. Debates, however, sometimes veer quickly from fine displays of logic to acts of immaturity--a reflection of the tensions experienced by young people learning to think as adults. Fine contributes to our understanding of teenage years by encouraging us not to view them as a distinct stage of development but rather a time in which young people draw from a toolkit of both childlike and adult behaviors. A well-designed debate program, he concludes, nurtures the intellect while providing a setting in which teens learn to make better behavioral choices, ones that will shape relationships in their personal, professional, and civic lives.

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The regime of Kim Jong-Il has been called "mad," "rogue," even, by the Wall Street Journal, the equivalent of an "unreformed serial killer." Yet, despite the avalanche of television and print coverage of the Pyongyang government's violation of nuclear nonproliferation agreements and existing scholarly literature on North Korean policy and security, this critical issue remains mired in political punditry and often misleading sound bites. Victor Cha and David Kang step back from the daily newspaper coverage and cable news commentary and offer a reasoned, rational, and logical debate on the nature of the North Korean regime. Coming to the issues from different perspectives-Kang believes the threat posed by Pyongyang has been inflated and endorses a more open approach, while Cha is more skeptical and advocates harsher measures-the authors together have written an essential work of clear-eyed reflection and authoritative analysis. They refute a number of misconceptions and challenge much faulty thinking that surrounds the discussion of North Korea, particularly the idea that North Korea is an irrational nation. Cha and Kang contend that however provocative, even deplorable, the Pyongyang government's behavior may at times be, it is not incomprehensible or incoherent. Neither is it "suicidal," they argue, although crisis conditions could escalate to a degree that provokes the North Korean regime to "lash out" as the best and only policy, the unintended consequence of which are suicide and/or collapse. Further, the authors seek to fill the current scholarly and policy gap with a vision for a U.S.-South Korea alliance that is not simply premised on a North Korean threat, not simply derivative of Japan, and not eternally based on an older, "Korean War generation" of supporters. This book uncovers the inherent logic of the politics of the Korean peninsula, presenting an indispensable context for a new policy of engagement. In an intelligent and trenchant debate, the authors look at the implications of a nuclear North Korea for East Asia and U.S. homeland security, rigorously assessing historical and current U.S. policy, and provide a workable framework for constructive policy that should be followed by the United States, Japan, and South Korea if engagement fails to stop North Korean nuclear proliferation.

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With a wide-ranging set of contributions, this book provides a compilation of cutting-edge original research in the field of entrepreneurial opportunities. The book reopens the subject from diverse perspectives focusing on theories and approaches to entrepreneurial opportunities. It provides a brief history of the idea of opportunity and a framework how opportunities develop in space and place. Further, this Research Handbook looks at process and context-based views on the topic. It also includes the latest research on impact factors, such as individual values on creating entrepreneurial opportunities. The book has been complemented by an outstanding Delphi panel of six leading scholars of the field: Lowell Busenitz, Dimo Dimov, James O. Fiet, Denis Grégoire, Jeff McMullen and Mike Wright. This carefully edited selection of current and topical contributions will be of immense value to students, researchers and scholars interested in the field of entrepreneurial opportunities.Contributors include: C. Albornoz, J.E. Amorós, T. Baker, B. Bjerke, L. Busenitz, M. Chiasson, D. Dimov, J.O. Fiet, J. Gaddefors, W.B. Gartner, D.A. Grégoire, A. Haas, T.P. Kenworthy, S. Korsgaard, A. Kurczewska, C. Léger-Jarniou, F. Linán, M. Marchesnay, J.S. McMullen, S.P. Sassmannshausen, F. Sautet, B.T. Teague, S. Tegtmeier, S.J. Vliamos, R.D. Wadhwani, M. Wright

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Human rights is all too often the first casualty of national insecurity. How can democracies cope with the threat of terror while protecting human rights? This timely volume compares the lessons of the United States and Israel with the "best-case scenarios" of the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Germany. It demonstrates that threatened democracies have important options, and democratic governance, the rule of law, and international cooperation are crucial foundations for counterterror policy. The contributors include: Howard Adelman, Colm Campbell, Pilar Domingo, Richard Falk, David Forsythe, Wolfgang S. Heinz, Pedro Ibarra, Todd Landman, Salvador Marti, and, Daniel Wehrenfennig.

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This volume presents a state-of-the-art debate on the controversial topic of development aid. The contributors are all experts in the field of international development. Presents some challenging conclusions about the role that aid plays in catalysing, or stifling, development. Represents a wide range of different analytical perspectives.

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Extensively revised and updated, this new edition of The debate on the English Reformation combines a discussion of successive historical approaches to the English Reformation with a critical review of recent debates in the area, offering a major contribution to modern historiography as well as to Reformation studies. It explores the way in which successive generations have found the Reformation relevant to their own times and have in the process rediscovered, redefined and rewritten its story. It shows that not only people who called themselves historians but also politicians, ecclesiastics, journalists and campaigners argued about interpretations of the Reformation and the motivations of its principal agents. The author also shows how, in the twentieth century, the debate was influenced by the development of history as a subject and, in the twenty-first century, by state control of the academy. Undergraduates, researchers and lecturers alike will find this an invaluable and essential companion to their studies.

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The unique approach taken within The Ethics of Patriotism brings together the differing perspectives of three leading figures in the philosophical debate who deliver an up-to-date, accessible, and vigorous presentation of the major views and arguments. Brings together the differing perspectives of three leading philosophers, who, together, explore the major positions on the ethics of patriotism Connects with several burgeoning fields of interest in philosophy and politics, including nationalism, civic virtue, liberalism and republicanism, loyalty, and cosmopolitanism Demonstrates that it is possible to make progress on the question of the ethics of patriotism while taking an ecumenical approach to larger theoretical questions A timely and relevant response to the upsurge of interest in nationalism, patriotism, and secessions

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The downfall of Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom and other large American firms, and the resulting shockwaves in the world economy, have brought the subject of corporate governance to the forefront of business thinking. As well as new theorising on the subject, many researchers in academia, business and the public sector are turning to the events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which in many ways parallel those of today. The rise of big trusts and corporations in the USA in the late 19th century was accompanied by serious legal and ethical abuses of power by these corporations and their managers. The result was a bitter battle between the business establishment on the one hand and reforming journalists, lawyers and economists on the other, a battle which focused around a single idea: what is the purpose of the business corporation? What is its place in society? What are its duties to that society, and what are the responsibilities of its managers and owners? This set includes works by a number of major early writers on corporate governance. The books presented here capture that debate in all its variety, and the views of their authors continue to resonate today.

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We invoke the ideal of tolerance in response to conflict, but what does it mean to answer conflict with a call for tolerance? Is tolerance a way of resolving conflicts or a means of sustaining them? Does it transform conflicts into productive tensions, or does it perpetuate underlying power relations? To what extent does tolerance hide its involvement with power and act as a form of depoliticization? Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst debate the uses and misuses of tolerance, an exchange that highlights the fundamental differences in their critical practice despite a number of political similarities. Both scholars address the normative premises, limits, and political implications of various conceptions of tolerance. Brown offers a genealogical critique of contemporary discourses on tolerance in Western liberal societies, focusing on their inherent ties to colonialism and imperialism, and Forst reconstructs an intellectual history of tolerance that attempts to redeem its political virtue in democratic societies. Brown and Forst work from different perspectives and traditions, yet they each remain wary of the subjection and abnegation embodied in toleration discourses, among other issues. The result is a dialogue rich in critical and conceptual reflections on power, justice, discourse, rationality, and identity.

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Children and child welfare sit at the heart of New Labour's plans for social inclusion - but how does the government view 'children' - is it reflecting public opinion, or leading it? How does New Labour perceive 'child welfare'? What are the motivations behind, and objectives of, current social policy for children? Are the 'Rights of the Child' being subsumed under 'duties and responsibilities'? This revisionist account provides critical answers to these questions within a historical framework and from a child-centred perspective. The book not only offers a provocative account of contemporary policies and the ideological thrust behind them, but also provides an informed historical perspective on the evolution of child welfare during the last century.

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In light of the recent demise of the Soviet Union and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces from Central Europe, the debate between neoliberal institutionalism and neorealism has taken on a new relevance. Neorealism and Neoliberalism concentrates on issues of conflict and cooperation with their implications for post-Cold War international relations. Essays by some of today's most prominent political theorists debate the importance of anarchy versus the importance of interdependence in determining state behavior; the feasibility of international cooperation; the impotance of absolute gains versus relative gains as incentive for cooperation; the trade-offs between economic welfare and military security; the importance of state intentions versus state power; and the significance of the emergence of numerous international regimes and institutions. The collection features: -An introduction by David A. Baldwin; -Robert O. Keohane on the realist challenge after the Cold War; -Joseph M. Grieco on relative gains and the limits of cooperation; -Helen Milner on anarchy in international relations theory; -Stephen Krasner on national power and international cooperation; -Charles Lipson on international cooperation in economic and security affairs. Cutting to the heart of the debate over the possibility of a "new world order," Baldwin's collection is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the post-Cold War world.

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We invoke the ideal of tolerance in response to conflict, but what does it mean to answer conflict with a call for tolerance? Is tolerance a way of resolving conflicts or a means of sustaining them? Does it transform conflicts into productive tensions, or does it perpetuate underlying power relations? To what extent does tolerance hide its involvement with power and act as a form of depoliticization? Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst debate the uses and misuses of tolerance, an exchange that highlights the fundamental differences in their critical practice despite a number of political similarities. Both scholars address the normative premises, limits, and political implications of various conceptions of tolerance. Brown offers a genealogical critique of contemporary discourses on tolerance in Western liberal societies, focusing on their inherent ties to colonialism and imperialism, and Forst reconstructs an intellectual history of tolerance that attempts to redeem its political virtue in democratic societies. Brown and Forst work from different perspectives and traditions, yet they each remain wary of the subjection and abnegation embodied in toleration discourses, among other issues. The result is a dialogue rich in critical and conceptual reflections on power, justice, discourse, rationality, and identity.

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Postmodernism may seem a particularly inappropriate term when used in conjunction with a region that is usually thought of as having only recently, and then unevenly, acceded to modernity. Yet in the last several years the concept has risen to the top of the agenda of cultural and political debate in Latin America. This collection explores the Latin American engagement with postmodernism, less to present a regional variant of the concept than to situate it in a transnational framework. Recognizing that postmodernism in Latin America can only inaccurately be thought of as having traveled from an advanced capitalist "center" to arrive at a still dependent neocolonial "periphery," the contributors share the assumption that postmodernism is itself about the dynamics of interaction between local and metropolitan cultures in a global system in which the center-periphery model has begun to break down. These essays examine the ways in which postmodernism not only designates the effects of this transnationalism in Latin America, but also registers the cultural and political impact on an increasingly simultaneous global culture of a Latin America struggling with its own set of postcolonial contingencies, particularly the crisis of its political left, the dominance of neoliberal economic models, and the new challenges and possibilities opened by democratization.With new essays on the dynamics of Brazilian culture, the relationship between postmodernism and Latin American feminism, postmodernism and imperialism, and the implications of postmodernist theory for social policy, as well as the text of the Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatatista National Liberation Army, this expanded edition of boundary 2 will interest not only Latin Americanists, but scholars in all disciplines concerned with theories of the postmodern.Contributors. Xavier Albó, José Joaquín Brunner, Fernando Calderón, Enrique Dussel, Néstor García Canclini, Martín Hopenhayn, Neil Larsen, the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group, Norbert Lechner, María Milagros López, Raquel Olea, Aníbal Quijano, Nelly Richard, Carlos Rincón, Silviano Santiago, Beatriz Sarlo, Roberto Schwarz, and Hernán Vidal

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As South Africa’s democracy matures, this book raises pertinent questions: How does the state mediate between traditional tribal authority and constitutional law in matters such as initiation customs or the rights of women, children, and homosexuals? What are the limitations on artistic freedom in a society where sensitivities over colonial- and apartheid-era representations are acute? How does race open up discussions or close down dialogue? and What are the parameters of freedom of speech when minorities fear that hateful language may trigger actual violence against them? Examining disputes over South African art, music, media, editorial cartoons, history, public memory, and a variety of social practices, the culture wars' perspective is extended to new territory in this study, demonstrating its cross-cultural applicability and parsing critical debates within this vibrant society in formation.

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Bringing together the contributions of the most influential philosophers in the English-speaking world, this book deals with the contemporary debates about identity formation, multi-culturalism, and diversity. It explores the pacifying role of democratic law-making as a possible solution to the issues of diversity, justice and solidarity.

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While many current analyses of democracy focus on creating a more civil, respectful debate among competing political viewpoints, this study argues that the existence of structural social inequality requires us to go beyond the realm of political debate. Challenging prominent contemporary theories of democracy, the author draws on John Dewey to bring the work of combating social inequality into the forefront of democratic thought. Dewey's 'pragmatic' principles are deployed to present democracy as a developing concept constantly confronting unique conditions obstructing its growth. Under structurally unequal social conditions, democracy is thereby seen as demanding the overcoming of this inequality; this inequality corrupts even well-organized forums of political debate, and prevents individuals from governing their everyday lives. Dewey's approach shows that the process of fighting social inequality is uniquely democratic, and he avoids current democratic theory's tendency to abstract from this inequality.

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"Contentious Traditions" analyzes the debate on sati, or widow burning, in colonial India. Though the prohibition of widow burning in 1829 was heralded as a key step forward for women's emancipation in modern India, Lata Mani argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state. Mani radically revises colonialist as well as nationalist historiography on the social reform of women's status in the colonial period and clarifies the complex and contradictory character of missionary writings on India. The history of widow burning is one of paradox. While the chief players in the debate argued over the religious basis of sati and the fine points of scriptural interpretation, the testimonials of women at the funeral pyres consistently addressed, the material hardships and societal expectations attached to widowhood. And although historiography has traditionally emphasized the colonial horror of sati, a fascinated ambivalence toward the practice suffused official discussions. The debate normalized the violence of sati and supported the misconception that it was a voluntary act of wifely devotion. Mani brilliantly illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to look at women and men, at 'tradition', custom, and modernity.

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A philosophically and historically sensitive account of the engagement of the major protagonists of Victorian British philosophy, "Reforming Philosophy" considers the controversies between William Whewell and John Stuart Mill on the topics of science, morality, politics, and economics. By situating their debate within the larger context of Victorian society and its concerns, Laura J. Snyder shows how two very different men - Whewell, an educator, Anglican priest, and critic of science; and Mill, a philosopher, political economist, and parliamentarian - reacted to the challenges of their times, each seeking to reform science as a means of reforming society as a whole. The first book-length examination of the dispute between Mill and Whewell in its entirety, "Reforming Philosophy" provides a rich and nuanced understanding of the intellectual spirit of Victorian Britain and will be welcomed by philosophers and historians of science, scholars of Victorian studies, and students of the history of philosophy and political economy.

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Although Simon Peter was evidently a central figure in both the ministry of Jesus and the mission of the earliest church, his life and thought are shrouded in historical uncertainty. Markus Bockmuehl approaches this problem through focused studies of Peter's highly diverse profile and reception in subsequent Christian sources from Rome and Syria. In Part I of this book, Bockmuehl documents the persistent presence of Peter in personal and collective memory - a phenomenon that usefully illustrates his importance as a "centrist" figure in the early church. The author goes on to examine the apostle's place in recent historical Jesus research as well as in ongoing debates concerning the so-called "New Perspective on Paul" and the problem of Peter's relationship with Paul. Part II discusses the complexity of that Petrine memory in Syria and Rome in particular, paying specific attention to Ignatius, Justin and Serapion in the East, as well as to the significance of Roman memory for the long-standing debate about the place of Peter's death. Finally, in Part III of the book Bockmuehl reconnects this investigation of the apostle's "aftermath" to more conventional historical and exegetical problems, seeking to shed light on their generative function for his subsequent prosopographical profile. In this vein the author examines Jewish meanings and implications of Peter's names, the cultural and religious significance of his origin in the newly excavated village of Bethsaida, and the puzzling Lucan theme of Peter's "conversion" as this came to feature in early Christian faith and praxis.

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The first full-length treatment of the operatic querelles in eighteenth-century France, placing individual querelles in historical context and tracing common themes of authority, national prestige and the power of music over popular sentiment. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, French cultural life seethed with debates about the proper nature and form of musical expression, particularly in opera. Expressed in a flood of pamphlets, articles, letters and poems as well as in the actual disruption of performances, these so-called querelles were seen at the time as a distinctively French phenomenon and have been mined by scholars since for what they can tell us about French politics and culture in the revolutionary period. This is the first full-length treatment of the entire history of this phenomenon, from its beginnings in the last years of Louis XIV to the 1820s when the new musical challenges of Berlioz and Wagner put an end to this particular form of debate. Arnold analyses the individual querelles, showing how they reflected and played their part in wider political and cultural events. At the same time, hetraces themes common in varying degrees to them all - questions of authority, the issue of national prestige, and the relation of language to music. Where some scholars have characterised these disputes as simply politics by proxy, Arnold paints a more nuanced picture, showing that music itself was taken seriously beyond artistic circles because it was seen as having great, potentially limitless, power over popular sentiment and thus implicitly power to reform society and change the world. R.J. Arnold is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London

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While numerous provocative works have sought to justify why women should be ordained as Catholic priests, "When Women Become Priests" is the first sustained reflection on the differences that would obtain with women at the altar. In the face of a centuries-old tradition of a male priesthood, what are the implications for the Catholic church of ordaining women? Would women priests become co-opted into the male clerical caste, particularly in relation to celebrating the sacraments? In an analysis that deftly unites feminist criticism, psychoanalysis, and Catholic theology, Kelley A. Raab explores the symbolic implications of women at the altar, providing rich insight into issues of gender, symbolism, and power. "When Women Become Priests" addresses critical issues about the effect of a female priest on the parishioners she would serve, on the sacrament of communion, and on the significance of the symbolism of Jesus that priests maintain during certain ceremonies. Rooted in her firm belief in the place of women within the Catholic priesthood, Raab's work is one that - rather than reducing religious convictions to psychological construct - seeks to re-invigorate these convictions for the contemporary world. Supported by interviews with women in the Episcopal priesthood (which has ordained women since 1977), Raab draws upon object-relations theory, Freudian concepts of the unconscious, and French feminist thinkers Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray to show how the celebration of mass by women priests would require a constructive reenvisioning of core dimensions of Catholic theology.

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Can animals be regarded as part of the moral community? To what extent, if at all, do they have moral rights? Are we wrong to eat them, hunt them, or use them for scientific research? Can animal liberation be squared with the environmental movement? Taylor traces the background of these debates from Aristotle to Darwin and sets out the views of numerous contemporary philosophers—including Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Mary Anne Warren, J. Baird Callicott, and Martha Nussbaum—with ethical theories ranging from utilitarianism to eco-feminism. The new edition also includes provocative quotations from some of the major writers in the field. As the final chapter insists, animal ethics is more than just an “academic” question: it is intimately connected both to our understanding of what it means to be human and to pressing current issues such as food shortages, environmental degradation, and climate change.

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In this volume of his work, the author starts a debate taking two full volumes to answer the objections that are often raised concerning social mixing and keeping a woman’s face uncovered in Muslim society. This is a tradition in Islamic studies, when scholars present their views in opposition to other scholarly views. They state the view they disagree with, showing its basis and the arguments that are stated in its support before responding to it. The author gives an in-depth study showing that the rulings that were specific to the Prophet’s wives are not addressed to other women. Therefore, emulating the Prophet’s wives in these particular aspects is neither required nor recommended.

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As debates around sexuality rumble on within certain sections of the church, and become increasingly entrenched and embittered, there is an increasing need from non-evangelicals and evangelicals alike to grasp the historical and cultural context in which current debates about sexuality are happening. Offering a detailed examination of the development, consolidation and fracturing of an evangelical anglican consensus on the sexuality, Defusing the Sexuality Debate seeks to explain why current disagreements are so intractible and offer some suggestions as to how all sides could facilitate a more constructive conversation. Building on an exploration of the development of tradition and biblical scholarship in evangelical anglicanism during the twentieth century, the book makes the case that conflicts over sexuality are symbolic of deeper disagreements over the place of christianity in the modern world.

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Postcolonial theory has developed mainly in the U.S. academy, and it has focused chiefly on nineteenth-century and twentieth-century colonization and decolonization processes in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Colonialism in Latin America originated centuries earlier, in the transoceanic adventures from which European modernity itself was born. Coloniality at Large brings together classic and new reflections on the theoretical implications of colonialism in Latin America. By pointing out its particular characteristics, the contributors highlight some of the philosophical and ideological blind spots of contemporary postcolonial theory as they offer a thorough analysis of that theory’s applicability to Latin America’s past and present. Written by internationally renowned scholars based in Latin America, the United States, and Europe, the essays reflect multiple disciplinary and ideological perspectives. Some are translated into English for the first time. The collection includes theoretical reflections, literary criticism, and historical and ethnographic case studies focused on Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, the Andes, and the Caribbean. Contributors examine the relation of Marxist thought, dependency theory, and liberation theology to Latin Americans’ experience of and resistance to coloniality, and they emphasize the critique of Occidentalism and modernity as central to any understanding of the colonial project. Analyzing the many ways that Latin Americans have resisted imperialism and sought emancipation and sovereignty over several centuries, they delve into topics including violence, identity, otherness, memory, heterogeneity, and language. Contributors also explore Latin American intellectuals’ ambivalence about, or objections to, the “post” in postcolonial; to many, globalization and neoliberalism are the contemporary guises of colonialism in Latin America.Contributors: Arturo Arias, Gordon Brotherston, Santiago Castro-Gómez, Sara Castro-Klaren, Amaryll Chanady, Fernando Coronil, Román de la Campa, Enrique Dussel, Ramón Grosfoguel, Russell G. Hamilton, Peter Hulme, Carlos A. Jáuregui, Michael Löwy, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, José Antonio Mazzotti, Eduardo Mendieta, Walter D. Mignolo, Mario Roberto Morales, Mabel Moraña, Mary Louise Pratt, Aníbal Quijano, José Rabasa, Elzbieta Sklodowska, Catherine E. Walsh

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During the Reformation, Europeans were engaged in a debate that would alter the course of European history. This debate was about how to understand and practice the Christian faith. Never before had so many people weighed in on a topic of such importance. This book presents the debates of the Reformation era through over eighty primary sources. Some of the documents present formal debates. Others represent informal debates or disputes, with one text responding directly to the other. Still other sections present texts that offer divergent approaches to or perspectives on specific ideas. These too were part of the century-long debate that characterized the Reformation. The author provides an essay on how to read primary sources. Each chapter opens with a brief introduction, and each group of primary sources is preceded by information on historical context as well as focus questions. Further readings are provided at the end of each chapter, and a map of Europe divided by religions is included.

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Jürgen Habermas is well known for his scholarly writings on the theoretical foundations of the human sciences. The New Conservatism brings to light another side of Habermas's work, showing him to be an incisive commentator on a wide range of contemporary themes. The 1980s have been a crucial decade in the political life of Western democracies in general, and of the Federal Republic of Germany in particular. The transformations that accompanied a shift from 13 years of Social democratic rule in Germany to government by the conservative Christian Democrats are captured in this series of insightful, often passionate political and cultural commentaries. The central theme uniting the essays is the German problem of 'coming to terms within the past,' a problem that has important implications outside Germany as well. Of particular note are the essays on what has come to be known as the Historian's Debate: Habermas's attack on the revisionist German historians who have been trying to trivialize and "normalize" the history of the Nazi period, and his defence of the need for a realistic and discriminating approach to the Nazi period and its legacy. Habermas also takes up the recent debate concerning Martin Heidegger's involvement with Nazism and the rise of the neoconservative movement in Europe and America. In particular, the essay on The New Obscurity combines Habermas's analysis of the problems of the welfare state with his suggestions for avenues open to utopian impulses today.

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A compelling overview of the major debates in contemporary education policy. In statehouses, school boards, and communities across the US, battles are raging over the direction of education policy--from the standards that are shaping what students learn to how test results are being used to judge a teacher's performance. These battles are being waged against a backdrop of shifting demographics, rapidly developing technology, a transforming economy and workplace. What's more, the COVID-19 pandemic is prompting educators to rethink the school's mission in society. In The Education Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know®, nationally recognized education authority David Kirp and Kevin Macpherson provide a balanced, accessible overview of the key policy and practice issues in pre k-12 education today. They expose the fault lines of the major debates--what values should guide education and how can those values best be incorporated in policy and practice. They focus on equity and equality of opportunity as well as the tension between market and bureaucratic mechanisms as drivers of school improvement. Many of the topics they address, including racial integration, charter schools, student rights and teachers' unions, are hotly contested. In an area where partisanship reigns, Kirp and Macpherson take an approach guided by research and not driven by ideology. A primer for educational policymakers and administrators, parents, and undergraduate and graduate students in education courses, The Education Debate offers a solid grasp of the major debates in contemporary education policy.

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This fascinating and highly useful book examines the rise of the British empire and the various debates among historians of imperialism over the past two hundred years. It discusses why the empire is so attractive to historians, why there is so much debate and controversy surrounding the subject, and how different generations of historians have read the various episodes in the history of the empire often radically differently.Chapters look at the enduring fascination with the empire among historians; early twentieth century economic explanations for the dynamic expansion of the empire in the Victorian period; the controversies surrounding empire in the 1950s; post colonial theory and its critics; religion, race, gender and class; and debates on capitalism and the empire since the 1980. The final chapter investigates how Britain’s imperial history might be viewed in years to come.An engaging and useful work of historiography, this book will be essential reading for students of British imperialism attempting to get to grips with the subject.

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One of our most influential literary critics challenges those who too easily dismiss religion and faith Terry Eagleton’s witty and polemical Reason, Faith, and Revolution is bound to cause a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith and people of no faith, as well as general readers eager to understand the God Debate. On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the “superstitious” view of God held by most atheists and agnostics and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity.There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade—Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular—nor for many conventional believers. Instead, Eagleton offers his own vibrant account of religion and politics in a book that ranges from the Holy Spirit to the recent history of the Middle East, from Thomas Aquinas to the Twin Towers.

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The author addresses laypeople and pastors with a concise explanation of the science of textual criticism and refutes the proposition that the King James Version is superior to contemporary translations.

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This book investigates what influence online incivility—through user-generated comments on news websites—has on public debate. Built on the premise that public discussions about important topics are vital to a healthy democracy, the book analyzes 3,508 online comments in order to understand what factors in comments make them more susceptible to incivility, defined as nasty remarks rife with profanity. It also examines comments for attributes of deliberation, which are discussions across difference supported by evidence and rational arguments. Using an experiment, the book shows that uncivil comments jumpstart a chain reaction, leading first to negative emotion and then to greater intention to get politically involved. Overall, Online Incivility and Public Debate: Nasty Talk argues that while incivility mars online debate, it may also spark interest in important topics and allow for positive “deliberative moments” of quality discussion.

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Though the scientific community largely agrees that climate change is underway, debates about this issue remain fiercely polarized. These conversations have become a rhetorical contest, one where opposing sides try to achieve victory through playing on fear, distrust, and intolerance. At its heart, this split no longer concerns carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, or climate modeling; rather, it is the product of contrasting, deeply entrenched worldviews. This brief examines what causes people to reject or accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Synthesizing evidence from sociology, psychology, and political science, Andrew J. Hoffman lays bare the opposing cultural lenses through which science is interpreted. He then extracts lessons from major cultural shifts in the past to engender a better understanding of the problem and motivate the public to take action. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate makes a powerful case for a more scientifically literate public, a more socially engaged scientific community, and a more thoughtful mode of public discourse.

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Recent years have seen the development of new theories of market failure based on asymmetric information and network effects. According to the new paradigm, we can expect substantial failure in the markets for labor, credit, insurance, software, new technologies and even used cars, to give but a few examples. This volume brings together the key papers on the subject, including classic papers by Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof and Paul David.The book provides powerful theoretical and empirical rebuttals challenging the assumptions of these new models and questioning the usual policy conclusions. It goes on to demonstrate how an examination of real markets and careful experimental studies are unable to verify the new theories. New frontiers for research are also suggested.The first systematic analysis of these important new theories, Market Failure or Success is required reading for all who seek to better understand one of the most exciting debates in economics today.

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This book seeks to elucidate the concept of justice, not so much as it is expressed in law courts (retributive and procedural justice) or in state budgets (distributive justice), but as primary justice - what it means and how it can be grounded in the inalienable rights that each human being possesses qua human being. It draws inspiration from two recent works of philosopher Nicolas Wolterstorff, but also from the groundbreaking Islamic initiative of 2007, the Common Word Letter addressed by 138 eminent Muslim scholars and clerics to the pope and all Christian leaders. This document affirmed that the two highest commandments in both Judaism and Christianity are also at the heart of the Islamic tradition - love of God and love of neighbor. In a style that lends itself to the classroom and beyond, the book's six chapters all begin with a case study of justice, so as to emphasize that justice must also be embodied in righteous social, political and economic practices. Along the way, leading contemporary scholars and activists from both traditions urge the reader - Muslim, Christian, or whatever - to look afresh at an age-old conundrum: how do justice and love interact so as to create a world in which everyone finds his or her rightful place?

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What is it like to experience disability? What are the prevailing cultural attitudes toward those who experience disability? How do social norms and public policies affect those experiencing disability? This book provides a vivid and concrete introduction to the wealth of social, political and ethical debates that surround the experience of disability. Beginning with an exploration of the perspective of persons with disabilities, the essays demonstrate the extent to which the disability experience is affected by social and cultural values, attitudes, and policies. In addition to these first-person reflections, there are essays relating to such issues as: -The disability rights movement -Disability studies -Social policy relating to disability Physician-assisted suicide, genetic testing, selective abortion, the moral status of handicapped newborns, and living and dying with dignity Written in an engaging style with a focus on the concrete, this collection of essays includes contributions by John Hockenberry, Oiver Sacks, Peter Singer, and others. It is a marvelous resource for enabling the reader to comprehend the experience of disability and to explore contemporary issues involving the disability community.

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We have been making use of different energy sources for thousands of years. But we are using more energy now than ever, and we wonder about the future. Fossil fuels may run out, and scientists are looking for other sources of energy. Will nuclear, wind, solar, water, biomass or geothermal energy be our future? Or does the future of energy lie in a combination of sources? You decide!

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Following centuries of debate about "nature and nurture" the discovery of DNA established the idea that nature (genes) determines who we are, relegating nurture (environment) to icing on the cake. Since the 1950s, the new science of epigenetics has demonstrated how cellular environments and certain experiences and behaviors influence gene expression at the molecular level, with significant implications for health and wellbeing. To the amazement of scientists, mapping the human genome indirectly supported these insights. Anthropologists Margaret Lock and Gisli Palsson outline vituperative arguments from Classical times about the relationship between nature and nurture, furthered today by epigenetic findings and the demonstration of a "reactive genome." The nature/nurture debate, they show, can never be put to rest, because these concepts are in constant flux in response to the new insights science continually offers.

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Tell me, sir, is it on your grandmother's or your grandfather's side that you are descended from an ape? In June of 1860, some of Britain's most influential scientific and religious authorities gathered in Oxford to hear a heated debate on the merits of Charles Darwin's recently published Origin of Species. The Bishop of Oxford, "Soapy" Samuel Wilberforce, clashed swords with Darwin's most outspoken supporter, Thomas Henry Huxley. The latter's triumph, amid quips about apes and ancestry, has become a mythologized event, symbolizing the supposed war between science and Christianity. But did the debate really happen in this way? Of Apes and Ancestors argues that this one-dimensional interpretation was constructed and disseminated by Darwin's supporters, becoming an imagined victory in the struggle to overcome Anglican dogmatism. By reconstructing the Oxford debate and carefully considering the individual perspectives of the main participants, Ian Hesketh argues that personal jealousies and professional agendas played a formative role in shaping the response to Darwin's hypothesis, with religious anxieties overlapping with a whole host of other cultural and scientific considerations. An absorbing study, Of Apes and Ancestors sheds light on the origins of a debate that continues, unresolved, to this day.

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