Some Methodological Insights from a Reflexive “Insider” Ethnography of Shiatsu Practice

Presented as a collaborative reflexive account, this article has evolved through a series of discussions between the first author—who carried out an “insider” ethnography of Shiatsu practice—and her two supervisors. We highlight the challenges that she faced as an ethnographer in a field already familiar to the researcher and demonstrate how it was possible to use this tension to advantage in crafting an enhanced methodological approach. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s (1996, 24) notion of “forgetfulness of self,” we explore how the first author was able to harness and hone her key abilities, disposition, and innate knowledge as an experienced Shiatsu practitioner in order to forge a blended approach. Finally, the article suggests that this approach, based on sensitive skills involving “listening,” intuition, and touch—the essence of Shiatsu—can enhance ethnographic practice in general.

A Review of Trends and Crime Patterns of Arson Offences in India: 2009-2018

Crime statistics provide innate knowledge on different types of crimes, their jurisdictions, current status and future predictive trends in society. This research paper is based on the review of data available in the national open access publication of crime data in the country. It focuses on arson offences in India for the last decade from 2009 to 2018. It is important to study national crime statistics to enhance policing and criminological studies in different trends encountered through research. Explaining the trends of a crime in a country can help in establishing better policies, reporting systems, investigative methods and ultimately, a better criminal justice system. While Criminology studies have been generally focused on behavior, causes, etc. associated with violent crimes like offences against the body, violence against women, offences against children; this paper is aimed at discussing trends with respect to arson, a lesser known offence in our country.

A Review of Trends and Crime Patterns of Arson Offences in India: 2009-2018

Crime statistics provide innate knowledge on different types of crimes, their jurisdictions, current status and future predictive trends in society. This research paper is based on the review of data available in the national open access publication of crime data in the country. It focuses on arson offences in India for the last decade from 2009 to 2018. It is important to study national crime statistics to enhance policing and criminological studies in different trends encountered through research. Explaining the trends of a crime in a country can help in establishing better policies, reporting systems, investigative methods and ultimately, a better criminal justice system. While Criminology studies have been generally focused on behavior, causes, etc. associated with violent crimes like offences against the body, violence against women, offences against children; this paper is aimed at discussing trends with respect to arson, a lesser known offence in our country.

Wolfhart Pannenberg, Openness to the World, and the Sensus Divinitatis

One of the foundational concepts for Wolfhart Pannenberg’s theological anthropology is his notion of ‘openness to the world.’ Openness to the world, according to Pannenberg, is essential to human identity in that one’s identity is established in their openness to the world, to the other, and, ultimately, to God. I aim to bring Pannenberg’s openness to the world into dialogue with the concept of the sensus divinitatis as articulated by John Calvin and further developed by Alvin Plantinga. The question driving this paper is whether or not Pannenberg’s openness to the world can rightly be understood as the sensus divinitatis, and, if so, what might be some benefits of it. I conclude that Pannenberg’s understanding of openness to the world is a fruitful way of understanding the sensus divinitatis and a fruitful way of arguing for and explaining humanity’s innate knowledge of God.

Recollection and Innatism in the Phaedo

It’s often thought that the theory of recollection posits innate knowledge. Chapter 6 asks whether the Phaedo’s account of recollection does so. It also asks whether the argument for the claim that what we think of as learning is really just recollecting is as bad as it has sometimes been thought to be: it has been argued that it is invalid, that it is circular, and that it begs the question. The chapter argues that the argument is not as bad as it has been taken to be. It also argues that the Phaedo, so far from countenancing innate knowledge, rejects its existence. Indeed, Plato’s argument for recollection depends on rejecting it. The chapter also distinguishes among varieties of innatism.

De verwerving van woordklemtoon in perspectief

The acquisition of word stress in perspectiveThis paper reflects on the acquisition of Dutch word stress reported in Nederlandse Taalkunde 1 (1996), where I argued that children systematically build up a grammar for word stress that fits a parameter framework without assuming innate knowledge. In the past 25 years this work has been praised and criticized because (a) the theoretical framework changed to Optimality Theory, (b) the proposed stages did not always adequately fit the data, and (c) new evidence from infant speech perception suggested that children know the word stress system before they start speaking. To fully understand how children acquire word stress, the next 25 year requires researchers from various disciplines to join forces to study representations and perception-production processes in tandem, the mechanisms that cause learning, and the interaction of word stress with other linguistic subdomains.

Innateness Stories

Innate knowledge—the possibility that certain notions might be inborn in us simply because we are humans—has been the topic of endless controversy throughout our intellectual history. This chapter reviews some of these exchanges in philosophy and in modern cognitive and brain sciences. But these discussions are not the sole purview of academia. Laypeople also have some strong opinions on such matters. This chapter thus begins by describing some of our nativist intuitions. We next contrast these views with science. While laypeople maintain that knowledge cannot be innate, the results emerging from science suggest that innateness is a viable possibility. What is the source of our antinativist intuitions? We explore several explanations, and in short order, the conclusions point back right at innate knowledge itself. We see that the very principles that make the human mind tick (principles that are likely innate) can explain why people are reluctant to accept that knowledge can be innate.

The Tempest Is Brewing

Why are people biased against innate knowledge? We first review several previous proposals; each of these theories has merits, but they cannot explain the results from the previous chapter. We thus outline a novel theory that links our antinativist intuitions to two principles of core knowledge—Dualism and Essentialism. This chapter considers each of these principles and reviews some of the evidence in their support. Of particular interest is whether these principles could be innate in humans. Here, the jury is still out, but there is some evident to suggest that they could well be universal and inborn. We will next see how Dualism and Essentialism collide to form a perfect epistemic storm. If, per Dualism, knowledge is immaterial, whereas if per Essentialism, innate biological traits must be material, it follows that knowledge cannot be innate.