Ideas of Liberty in German Humanism

1962 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis W. Spitz
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The West ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dreams And Visions ◽  
Individual Human ◽  
Totalitarian State

In today's world the most powerful appeal of any spokesman for the West is to champion liberty against the oppressiveness of a monolithic society and the tyranny of the totalitarian state. The call for freedom appeals to the deepest aspirations of peoples and touches upon the longing of masses of individual human beings. No rellying cry is so effective in creating a durable ethos among the democratic nations and in bringing to their consciousness a sense of those values by which they live or ought to live. No idea is more useful in destroying the image of the West as the self-satisfied defender of the status quo and in dramatizing the authentic revolutionary tradition, for men live by their dreams and visions.

scholarly journals A critical analysis of human improvement projects from the perspective of the self-organization theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Mariana C. Broens
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Status Quo Bias ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
The Status

Based on the theory of self-organization, the objective of this paper is tocritically discuss the theses defended by the postulators of two projects that aim toimprove human nature: eugenics and transhumanism. We will try to show that the“science of eugenics”, proposed by Francis Galton (1883), and the contemporarytranshumanist project, outlined since the second half of the 20th century, share thecontroversial belief that human beings, through science and technology, are able tosuccessfully control the evolutionary processes of human species. We will try to showthat this belief disregards the central characteristics of the complex self-organizedadaptive evolutionary processes of organisms in general. For this purpose, we willcritically analyse the central theses of the transhumanist project and the “status quo bias”argument proposed by Bolton and Ord (2006) in defence of such theses. We conclude byemphasizing that the proponents of the contemporary transhumanist project would benefitfrom a fallibilistic perspective that would allow them to face the project's social andethical possible implications with epistemic prudence.

scholarly journals “I Am Not Good at Any of This.” Playing with Homoeroticism in The Arabian Nights

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 480
Author(s):  
Frank G. Bosman
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
French Translation ◽  
The West ◽  
Arabian Nights ◽  
Safe Environment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
And Gender

The story collection known in the West as The Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights, is famous, among other things, for its erotic playfulness. This eroticism was (and is) one of the key reasons for its continuous popularity after Antoine Galland’s French translation in 1704. The Arabian Nights includes, besides traditional, heterosexual acts, play, and desires, examples of homoerotic playfulness—even though we must tread lightly when using such Western concepts with an oriental text body such as this one. The homoerotic playfulness of The Arabian Nights is the subject of this article. By making use of a text-immanent analysis of two of the Nights’ stories—of Qamar and Budûr and of Alî Shâr and Zumurrud—the author of this article focuses on the reversal of common gender roles, acts of cross-dressing, and, of course, homoerotic play. He will argue that these stories provide a narrative safe environment in which the reader is encouraged to “experiment” with non-normative sexual and gender orientations, leaving the dominant status quo effectively and ultimately unchallenged, thus preventing the (self-proclaimed) defenders of that status quo from feeling threatened enough to actively counter-act the experiment.

Bioethics, Adaptive Preferences, and Judging the Quality of a Life with Disability

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-220
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Stramondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Clinical Ethics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Self ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Adaptive Preferences ◽  
The Status

Both mainstream and disability bioethics sometimes contend that the self-assessment of disabled people about their own well-being is distorted by adaptive preferences that are only held because other, better options are unavailable. I will argue that both of the most common ways of understanding adaptive preferences—the autonomy-based account and the well-being account—would reject blanket claims that disabled people’s QOL self-assessment has been distorted, whether those claims come from mainstream bioethicists or from disability bioethicists. However, rejecting these generalizations for a more nuanced view still has dramatic implications for the status quo in both health policy and clinical ethics.

How Well Does R2P Travel Beyond the West?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faith Mabera ◽  
Yolanda Spies
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Domain State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Emerging Powers

R2P invokes the power-morality nexus in international relations and interrogates the rules of engagement that anchor international society. Conceptualization of R2P as a liberal Western construct can therefore be divisive, especially when operationalization of the norm—as happened during the 2011 intervention in Libya—feeds into a West-against-the-Rest narrative. This is unfortunate because the R2P doctrine has deep roots in the non-Western world—Africa in particular—and Global South perspectives continue to strengthen its conceptual development. Emerging powers challenge the status quo of structural power and their rhetoric on R2P often invokes mistrust of Western altruism in international politics. Their actions, on the other hand, prove that they are no less prone to realpolitik in the normative domain. State actors in the normative middle of international politics, including developed as well as developing countries, are well placed to bridge the West-versus-the-Rest schism and to provide leadership in the R2P discourse.

scholarly journals Considerations on Armenian Political Elites, Diasporas and Armenian Economy in 1991-2019 Period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ersan Bocutoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
The West ◽  
Mental Transformation ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Set Up

After the liberation of Dağlık Karabağ and close vicinity from the long-standing Armenian occupation by Azerbaijan in 2020, different scenarios concerning the future of Armenia and South Caucasus have come to fore. Therefore, there should be a realistic evaluation of status quo of Armenian political elites, diasporas and Armenian economy relations before taking into account of the scenarios. It is not difficult to estimate that since the realization of optimistic scenarios need a mental transformation of Armenian political elites and diasporas that takes considerable time, they are not likely to happen let alone in the short run but even in the medium run. The aim of this paper is to investigate the status quo of Armenian political elites, diasporas, and Armenian economy relations during 1991-2019 period so as to be able to set up a scientific base on which the evaluation of scenarios concerning the future of Armenia and South Caucasus is placed. The method adopted in the paper is a descriptive one and data are collected via internet. Paper suggests that the divergence of Armenian political elites and diasporas on fundamental issues such as Armenia-diaspora relations, Armenia-Russia relations, Armenia-the West Relations and Armenia-Turkey-Azerbaijan relations blackens not only the future of Armenia but also the future of South Caucasus.

scholarly journals International Slavic Studies: Concepts, History and Evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenfei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The West ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Formal Establishment ◽  
Slavic Studies

Abstract This paper departs from the definition of Slavistics and reviews the history of international Slavic studies, from its prehistory to its formal establishment as an independent discipline in the mid-18th century, and from the Pan-Slavic movement in the mid-19th century to the confrontation of Slavistics between the East and the West in the mid-20th century during the Cold War. The paper highlights the status quo of international Slavic studies and envisions the future development of Slavic studies in China.

Book Review: How Stella Saved The Farm- A Tale about Making Innovation Happen

GIS Business ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Author(s):  
Jitender Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Great Success ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Working Through ◽  
The Status

How Stella Saved the Farm is a simple and logical book based on a story which narrates the learning process about making innovation happen. The book is divided in two parts and consists of total nineteen chapters. First part carries nine chapters and remaining are under the second part, which explains the conversion of idea into innovation and then great success. The story is about the competition of two farms one run and managed by animals (Windsor farm) and another by human beings (McGillicuddys farm). Windsor farm is working through change and innovation where the status quo is no longer good enough. Interestingly, in view of poor performance of Windsor farm McGillicuddy is hoping to take over the Windsor farm, but due to the innovations, Windsor farm crosses all hurdles and gets a remarkable status in the business.

A ‘Fareej-in-the-Sky’: Towards A Community-Oriented Design for High-Rise Residential Buildings in The Uae

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-70
Author(s):  
Khaled Galal Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
The West ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Residential Developments ◽  
The Status ◽  
Cultural Traits

Most of the native citizens in the UAE live in public or private single-family houses. Given the tremendous cost of developing this type of housing and the inability of providing single-family houses to cover all the current and future needs for public housing, high-rise residential buildings seem to offer an alternative. But the question is; does this type of housing suit the local communities in the UAE, especially in light of the failure of the previous western experiences?. Through addressing this question, the research proposes an approach towards a community-oriented design for high-rise residential buildings in the UAE. The research first investigated the reasons behind the community-relevant shortcomings of the traditional high-rise residential developments in the West. Afterwards, it briefly reviewed the status quo of the community-relevant considerations in the design of the recently built high-rise residential buildings in the UAE, where it has been found that little concern has been devoted to the community needs. In an effort to find an answer to this problem, the research examined four recent design experiences as examples for the current universal efforts to design community-responsive high-rise residential developments. Some conceptual approaches were derived from these experiences that are envisaged to help reach an approach for the case of the UAE. Nonetheless, because of the unique social and cultural traits of the UAE native society one cannot rely on these global conceptual approaches alone. Instead, the research proposes an approach that, while benefiting from the relevant global experiences, is chiefly pivoted on the vertical reconfiguration of the idea of the ‘fareej’ as the smallest unit in the residential urban context both traditionally and in the future official urban plans in the UAE.

What Revolutionary Action Means Today

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon S. Wolin
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Western History ◽  
Democratic Citizen ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Masses ◽  
First Time

Tocqueville claimed that American democracy had eliminated the causes of revolution. He believed that the revolutionary impulse would wither because for the first time in Western history the masses of ordinary human beings had a tangible stake in defending the status quo. This chapter, however, asks, is it right for the democratic citizen to undertake revolutionary action when the political system retains some of the formal features of democracy but is clearly embarked on a course that is progressively antidemocratic without being crudely repressive? What are the precise ways in which a system that is formally democratic conceals its antidemocratic tendencies? Are pseudo-democratic substitutes introduced that create the illusion of democracy? Was the idea of a democratic citizen partially skewed at the outset so that its development in America was truncated? And, finally, does it make sense even to discuss the possibility of revolution under the circumstances of an advanced, complex society? In what terms would it make sense to talk of revolution today—what would revolutionary action by democratic citizens be?

Self within World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Culliney ◽  
David Jones
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Dynamic Flow ◽  
The West ◽  
Self In Relation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Constructive Interaction

We describe the foundations of the fractal self in relation to the Chinese notion of personal development and enhancement of adeptness in the world and mutualism with the other. This seeking, described in the codified system of Daoism, is a pathway that may progress to the highest level of achievement of such a self: that which defines a sage. The chapter introduces the view that a sage is a fractal self that achieves a peak of intimacy and constructive interaction with the world. We detail the development of human beings on this pathway, emerging beyond the core embodiments of empathy, sympathy, and rudimentary morality observed in apes. The self for the early Chinese was always a being that was embedded in the world and dynamic flow of forces. This self was defined in intimate terms as adaptable and adept, seeking to be a microcosmic contributor to some holistic macrocosm. In this chapter, Daoism leads our thinking on how the fractal self engages with the world. In turn, this way of understanding selfness and its potential to enrich its system from within resonates with discussions of the interactive self of Buddhism and was also in the minds of Pre-Socratic thinkers in the West.

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