- Table View
- List View
We Piano Teachers and Our Demons: Socio-psychological Obstacles on the Road to Inspired and Secure Performance (Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education #32)
by Zecharia PlavinThis book focuses on piano teachers and the many pains they encounter in their careers. These pains play an essential role in blocking the musical inspiration of their students. The author identifies with the sensitivities of the teachers, aiming at the inspiration permeated and safer playing of their students.The book penetrates the protective mechanisms of the teachers that, on the one hand, maintain their professional functioning, while on the other hand, block refreshing ideas. It combines exploration of secure and culturally informed inspired playing, coping with exaggerated anxiety and understanding the interaction of piano actions with pianist’s physiology.This book helps to open teachers’ perceptions of the ways to enable more secure and more inspired performances while remembering the inner feelings of the piano teachers.
The Affective Intensities of Masculinity in Shaping Gendered Experience: From Little Boys, Big Boys Grow
by Amanda KeddieThis book tells a story of masculinity through the experiences of one boy, ‘Adam’. From four different studies and time periods, it tracks moments of significance in his life over a period of 20 years. These moments highlight the ways in which Adam is both drawn towards and away from a hegemonic masculinity of physical toughness, domination, competition and an opposition to ‘the feminine’. The book is set against the backdrop of a long history of contentious gender politics in Australia and globally but particularly responds to the renewed attention to the social construction of masculinities in the current #MeToo climate. Against this backdrop, nuanced and longitudinal accounts of boys’ and men’s experiences of masculinity are significant because they can offer insight into the complex bodily, social, economic, and historical forces that configure masculinities. Such understandings are important in our endeavours as those who educate, support and work with boys and men to transform gender inequalities.
Voices from the Contemporary Japanese Feminist Movement (Palgrave Macmillan Studies on Human Rights in Asia)
by Emma Dalton Caroline NormaThis book introduces six key influential feminist activists from Japan’s contemporary feminist movement and examines Japanese women’s experience of and contribution to the international #MeToo movement. Set against a backdrop of pervasive sexual inequality in Japanese society—on a scale that makes Japan an outlier in Asia as well as the rest of the advanced democratic world—this book offers a snapshot of Japan’s contemporary feminist movement and the issues it faces, including, primarily, sexual violence and harassment of women and girls. The six feminist activists interviewed to create this snapshot all work toward eradicating sexual violence against women and girls—they are: Kitahara Minori (instigator of the Flower Demo and public commentator), Yamamoto Jun (activist for sex crime law amendments), Nitō Yumeno (advocate for sexually exploited girls), Tsunoda Yukiko (feminist lawyer), Mitsui Mariko (former politician and current activist), and Yang-Ching-Ja (comfort women activist).
Sound and Reason: Synesthesia as Metacognition (Palgrave Studies in Sound)
by Sven Hroar KlempeThis book is about the human mental capacities that are mostly veiled in the use of language yet can be revealed through music activities. In speech, just one word is articulated at the time, whereas in music different pitches sound simultaneously. This conflict demonstrates that rationality must be regarded as relative, as rationality in music may create chaos in speech. Moreover, investigating the role of sound in synesthesia reveals that its aesthetic combinations are related to the human capacity to enjoy different types of harmonies in music. Drawing on new research regarding synesthesia as a more fundamental basis for human cognition, this book brings this a step further by introducing synesthesia as a general metacognitive process, hinting at the aesthetical origin of fundamental logical operations. Bringing together a number of cultural perspectives on music, language, and mathematics, this volume expertly illustrates that music reveals a fundamental system that deeply combines the sensorial and the intellectual human capacities.
Natural Law & Government: After the COVID-19 Revolution
by Joseph DrewSince the dawn of civilisation philosophers and sages alike have been concerned about the potential for government to become a Leviathan-like monster. In this book Professor Drew shows how a careful application of natural law principles can mitigate this threat of Leviathan and also contribute to the flourishing of people. To do so Natural Law and Government examines the trade-off between human dignity and the common good during the public policy response to COVID-19. Specifically, Professor Drew details his concerns regarding the emergence of concentrations of power and competence in government – changes that have sadly given rise to the repression of the vitality of citizens. This ground-breaking work explains the changes to thinking, institutions and public management that are necessary for people to reclaim their right to thrive as humans. In sum, this is a handbook for what needs to be done after the COVID-19 revolution.
Service-Learning Capacity Enhancement in Hong Kong Higher Education (Quality of Life in Asia #14)
by Grace Ngai Daniel T. L. ShekThis book provides an in-depth, multi-faceted look into capacity building for service-learning, using the case of the higher education landscape in Hong Kong. Service-learning has been proven to be an effective pedagogy for the holistic development of students, as well as promotion of their well-being. It also attempts to promote the well-being of the service recipients and the community. While service-learning is becoming increasingly popular in many higher educational institutions around the world, the learning gains that can be attained from service-learning are only as good as the learning experience allows, and poorly-developed or motivated service-learning may potentially do adverse harm to students and the community. This book reinforces the imperative to enhance the capacity of the institution, teachers, students and community partners by exploring a diverse range of methods for achieving capacity building among different stakeholders. Examples of the methods explored include formal course-based professional development, scale development, action research, and communities of practice. Furthermore, the book includes a series of detailed, qualitative case studies that are aimed at embodying good practice, unpacking “what matters” from service-learning. Aa a useful resource for scholars and educators who are passionate about holistic youth leadership development, this book is also relevant to researchers in the intersection between well-being and higher education.
A Buddhist Theory of Killing: A Philosophical Exposition
by Martin KovanThis book provides a philosophical account of the normative status of killing in Buddhism. Its argument theorises on relevant Buddhist philosophical grounds the metaphysical, phenomenological and ethical dimensions of the distinct intentional classes of killing, in dialogue with some elements of Western philosophical thought. In doing so, it aims to provide a descriptive account of the causal bases of intentional killing, a global justification and elucidation of Buddhist norms regarding killing, and an intellectual response to and critique of alternative conceptions of such norms presented in recent Buddhist Studies scholarship. It examines early and classical Buddhist accounts of the evaluation of killing, systematising and rationally assessing these claims on both Buddhist and contemporary Western philosophical grounds. The book provides the conceptual foundation for the discussion, engaging original reconstructive philosophical analyses to both bolster and critique classical Indian Buddhist positions on killing and its evaluation, as well as contemporary Buddhist Studies scholarship concerning these positions. In doing so, it provides a systematic and critical account of the subject hitherto absent in the field. Engaging Buddhist philosophy from scholastic dogmatics to epistemology and metaphysics, this book is relevant to advanced students and scholars in philosophy and religious studies.
Work, Inheritance, and Deserts in Joseph Conrad’s Fiction
by Evelyn Tsz ChanThis book focuses on the complex relationships between inheritance, work, and desert in literature. It shows how, from its manifestation in the trope of material inheritance and legacy in Victorian fiction, “inheritance” gradually took on additional, more modern meanings in Joseph Conrad’s fiction on work and self-making. In effect, the emphasis on inheritance as referring to social rank and wealth acquired through birth shifted to a focus on talent, ability, and merit, often expressed through work.The book explores how Conrad’s fiction engaged with these changing modes of inheritance and work, and the resulting claims of desert they led to. Uniquely, it argues that Conrad’s fiction critiques claims of desert arising from both work and inheritance, while also vividly portraying the emotional costs and existential angst that these beliefs in desert entailed. The argument speaks to and illuminates today’s debates on moral desert arising from work and inheritance, in particular from meritocratic ideals. Its new approach to Conrad’s works will appeal to students and scholars of Conrad and literary modernism, as well as a wider audience interested in philosophical and social debates on desert deriving from inheritance and work.
Essentials of Fuzzy Soft Multisets: Theory and Applications
by Anjan Mukherjee Ajoy Kanti DasThis book discusses major theories and applications of fuzzy soft multisets and their generalization which help researchers get all the related information at one place. The primary objective of this book is to help bridge the gap to provide a textbook on the theories in fuzzy soft multisets and their applications in real life. It is targeted to researchers and students working in the field of fuzzy set theory, multiset theory, soft set theory and their applications. Uncertainty, vagueness and the representation of imperfect knowledge have been a problem in many fields of research, including artificial intelligence, network and communication, signal processing, machine learning, computer science, information technology, as well as medical science, economics, environments and engineering. There are many mathematical tools for dealing with uncertainties. They include fuzzy set theory, multiset theory, soft set theory and soft multiset theory.
Analysis of Legal Argumentation Documents: A Computational Argumentation Approach (Translational Systems Sciences #29)
by Hayato Hirata Katsumi NittaThis book introduces methods to analyze legal documents such as negotiation records and legal precedents, using computational argumentation theory.First, a method to automatically evaluate argumentation skills from the records of argumentation exercises is proposed. In law school, argumentation exercises are often conducted and many records of them are produced. From each utterance in the record, a pattern of “speech act +factor” is extracted, and argumentation skills are evaluated from the sequences of the patterns, using a scoring prediction model constructed by multiple regression analyses between the appearance pattern and the scoring results. The usefulness of this method is shown by applying it to the example case “the garbage house problem”. Second, a method of extracting factors (elements that characterize precedents and cases) and legal topoi from individual precedents and using them as the expression of precedents to analyze how the pattern of factors and legal topoi appearing in a group of precedents affects the judgment (plaintiff wins/defendant wins) is proposed. This method has been applied to a group of tax cases. Third, the logical structure of 70 labor cases is described in detail by using factors and a bipolar argumentation framework (BAF) and an (extended argumentation framework (EAF) together. BAF describes the logical structure between plaintiff and defendant, and EAF describes the decision of the judge. Incorporating the legal topoi into the EAF of computational argumentation theory, the strength of the analysis of precedents by combined use of factored BAF and EAF, not only which argument the judge adopted could be specified. It was also possible to determine what kind of value judgment was made and to verify the logic. The analysis methods in this book demonstrate the application of logic-based AI methods to the legal domain, and they contribute to the education and training of law school students in logical ways of argumentation.
L. S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works, Volume 3: Pedology of the Adolescent I: Pedology in the Transitional Age (Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research #11)
by L. S. VygotskyThis book contains the first complete translation of the first half of the Pedology of the Adolescent by the Soviet thinker, educator, and teacher L.S. Vygotsky. It was the longest work published in his lifetime and was a correspondence course written by Vygotsky for teachers across the Soviet Union. The book is a sustained argument about the borders of pedology, the nature of the transition between childhood and adulthood, and the concrete character of the distinction between the lower psychological functions that we largely share with animals and those that are specific to fully socialized humans. After an initial methodological introduction, three kinds of maturation—general anatomical, sexual, and sociocultural—are explored. This book will be followed by a companion volume covering pedology of the transitional age as a psychological and social problem.
Philosophical Semiotics: The Coming into Being of the World of Meaning
by Yiheng ZhaoThis book attempts to solve the question whether semiotics is a methodology as is generally held and if the studies of meaning and the mind can shed light on a series of metaphysical issues, so that the edifice of semiotics could be erected on a philosophical ground. It proposes that a philosophical semiotics is, by necessity, a semiotic phenomenology about the construction of the “world of meaning” by signs, and any discussion about semiotics has to proceed around two core issues: meaning and the mind.This book particularly exemplifies the semiotic connections in various schools of traditional Chinese philosophies. In the “Pre-Imperial Age” (before BC 300), there emerged an abundance of semiotic thinking in China, from Yijing the first sign system that aims to explain everything in the world, to the Namists’s subtle argument about the form of meaning, from the Yin-Yang/five elements of the Han, to the “Things are non-existent while mind is non-non-existent” principle of the Vijñāptimātratāsiddhi School of Buddhism in the Tang, and from the Sudden Revelation of Chan Buddhism to the “Nothing outside the mind” endorsed by the Mindist Confucianism in the Ming. The mighty trend of philosophical heritage provides rich food to our understanding of the form of meaning.
Reading Sri Aurobindo: Metaphysics, Ethics and Spirituality
by Bindu PuriThis book presents contemporary perspectives of scholars working on different aspects of the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo- the idea of evolution, integral yoga, the transformation of the individual, society and earth, theories of nation and human unity, philosophy of emotions and ethics of the environment. Contributors examine Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, its close conceptual relationship to classical Indian philosophy and its relevance. It sheds light on how his philosophy deals with the twenty-first century's fundamental problems and offers possible solutions. The book brings out the modern debate in Western philosophy involving thinkers like Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, and their predecessors, such as Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche. This book is an exercise in comparative Philosophy,one that unpacks the mind of Sri Aurobindo in the context of Indian, European and Anglo-American philosophical discourse. It is of great relevance for a new generation of students, scholars of Indian philosophy, politics, religious studies and those interested in knowing the thought and practice of the twentieth-century Indian, thinker and yogi, Sri Aurobindo.
Statecraft in Symbols: Policy and the Life of the Chinese Nation
by Paul CheungThis book presents a study of how urban residency in China is regulated by state policy in the second decade of the 21st Century. Far from a straightforward divide between natives and newcomers, policy in this period has created delicate cross-classifications of internal migrants and attendant conditions under which they reside in particular urban areas. With reference to some of the most profound social theorists of the present day, such symbolic acts of division are explained as acts of statecraft carried out by different levels of public administration in the face of multiple quandaries. The book will appeal to those with an interest in the governance of population and territory in China, and by extension, in other parts of the contemporary world.
Regenerating Cultural Religious Heritage: Intercultural Dialogue on Places of Religion and Rituals
by Olimpia NiglioThis book introduces important reflections on understanding the meaning of cultural-religious heritage in an international context and their relationship with issues of sustainability at the local community level. Through a holistic approach, the book charts new courses in analyzing different cultural policies and methods for preserving and enhancing cultural heritage. Stemming from an intercultural seminar promoted by the International Scientific Committee Places of Religion and Ritual (ICOMOS PRERICO) under the theme of “Reuse and regenerations of cultural-religious heritage in the world: Comparison among cultures,” the book examines the scientific diplomacy and cultural strategies promoted by countries in dialogue with the UN 2030 Agenda, as well as Agenda 21 for Culture. The book seeks to reinforce the value of local cultural policies for supporting and enhancing cultural-religious heritage through specific programs and collaborations in dialogue with government policies. This collection is relevant to scholars working in areas relating to cultural heritage, religious heritage, architectural restoration, protection of the local inheritances, law, and management of the cultural sites.
My Mathematical Life: Yuan Wang in Conversation (Springer Biographies)
by Yuan WangThis book is an autobiographical interview with Chinese Academician Yuan Wang on his experience in mathematical research. The book looks back on Wang's collaboration with his teacher Hua Loo-Keng and younger scholars, offering insights into fruitful cooperation in mathematical research.In this book, Yuan Wang’s path of studying Goldbach conjecture is revealed in detail from motivation to method. Then his work on algebraic number theory is traced back in a separate chapter. The book ends with two chapters which introduce Wang’s interest in history of mathematics and his hobbies outside of mathematical research. Wang shows how a mathematician can in the same time be a historical and popular science writer and, in particular, a well-received calligrapher. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students studying number theory. Researchers who are willing to learn from the experience of an established mathematician, as well as math amateurs and general audience who are interested in Yuan Wang's life story might also find this book appealing.
The World of Dual-Brain
by Weizhi ZhangThis book leaves the template of the inertia of natural human society and traditional ideological thinking, to illustrate the mechanism of the generation of the Sociality Brain and to explore the construction path of the human-computer symbiosis order. At the same time, this book proposes concepts including ‘wisdom sharing system’, ‘the Sociality Brain’, ‘dual-brain world’, ‘off-site economic civilization’, ‘basic contradictions in the intelligent world’, and ‘class analysis and division of the dual-brain world’, etc. This is a philosophical thinking about the intelligent world beyond the categories of natural human society and biological brain.
Sovereignty Blockchain 2.0: New Forces Changing the World of Future
by Lian YumingThis book is a continuation and deepening of Sovereign Blockchain 1.0. It mainly includes three views: 1) Blockchain is a super public product based on digital civilization. 2) The Internet is an advanced level of industrial civilization, the core of which is connection; blockchain is an important symbol of digital civilization, the essence of which is reconstruction. 3) Digital currency will trigger a comprehensive change in the economic field, and digital identity will reconstruct the governance model in the social field, thereby changing the order of civilization.This book is not only a popular science book based on blockchain thinking, theory and application research, but also a scholarly work on the technical and philosophical issues of governance and the future. By reading Sovereign Blockchain 2.0, policymakers can quickly understand the basic knowledge and frontier dynamics of science and technology; science and technology workers can grasp the general trend, seize opportunities, face problems and difficulties, aim at the world's science and technology frontier and lead the direction of science and technology development; experts and scholars in law and legal fields can see new ideas, concepts and models of data governance; social science researchers can discover data sociology and data philosophy issues.
Consultative Democracy or Consultative Authoritarianism?: Understanding Chinese Consultative Politics
by Rongxin LiThis book theorizes Chinese politics, specifically about China’s “deliberative democracy (xieshang minzhu 协商民主)”. Creating a China-West comparative framework, the author interrogates China's government's claims to give representation to citizens, allowing readers to see how all of these concepts interact within Chinese ideology, democratic discourse, and governance, and their relationship with Chinese authoritarianism. Above all, this book represents a sustained hybridization of political theory, one which is neither a simple democratic-authoritarian dichotomy, nor a reinterpretation of the official propaganda. This study will interest scholars of Chinese politics and statecraft, shedding light on an emergent discourse of the state – Chinese xieshang minzhu. More importantly, this book goes beyond a simple rhetorical and linguistic use of ‘deliberative democracy’ in the Western sense, and rather emphasizes the very consultative nature of Chinese politics, which facilitates and reconsolidates Chinese authoritarianism.
The Viral Politics of Covid-19: Nature, Home, and Planetary Health (Biolegalities)
by Vanessa Lemm Miguel VatterThis book critically examines the COVID-19 pandemic and its legal and biological governance using a multidisciplinary approach. The perspectives reflected in this volume investigate the imbrications between technosphere and biosphere at social, economic, and political levels. The biolegal dimensions of our evolving understanding of “home” are analysed as the common thread linking the problem of zoonotic diseases and planetary health with that of geopolitics, biosecurity, bioeconomics and biophilosophies of the plant-animal-human interface. In doing so, the contributions collectively highlight the complexities, challenges, and opportunities for humanity, opening new perspectives on how to inhabit our shared planet. This volume will broadly appeal to scholars and students in anthropology, cultural and media studies, history, philosophy, political science and public health, sociology and science and technology studies.
Principle of Interest Politics: Logic of Political Life from China’s Perspective (Interests Politics Series)
by Puqu WangThe book aims to build a political theory of interest politics by adopting an interest-analyzing approach of Marxism to explore the dual characteristics of social interests. Based on the logical start-point, the book unveils the foundations, nature, and characteristics of social-political life such as political power and political right. Then, a systematic research is conducted from perspectives of political behavior, political system, and political culture, following the two logical thread lines as political power and right. Finally, the book sees the analysis of social and political development in accordance with the inter-function of political power and political rights caused by the changes and development of social interests. It is a must-read book for readers interested in the political theory and political development in China.
New World Order and Small Regions: The Case of South Caucasus
by Emil AvdalianiThe book provides a comprehensive understanding of the unfolding geopolitical changes in the South Caucasus in the age of increased great power competition across Eurasia. Recent research on the geopolitics of the South Caucasus focuses either on interstate relations among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia or on each of regional actor’s (Russia, Turkey and Iran) ties with the region’s one or all three states. Little attempt has been made to see the region’s shifting geopolitical importance from a global perspective: growing US-China rivalry and shifting balance of power in Eurasia; recalibration of the US’ military and diplomatic vision in western Eurasia to adjust to the Chinese challenge. The book argues, from a theoretical point of view, that the increased competition in the region fits into the global pattern of unfolding great power competition, when military and economic calculations drive regional powers to increase their influence on immediate neighborhoods sidelining the collective West from the negotiating table and the emerging new security architecture.
Edification in the Chinese Philosophy of Confucianism (Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture)
by Jinglin LiThis pivot focuses on “the concept of edification” in a bid to systematically expound its connotative structure and logical evolution. It is divided into ten chapters, embracing various issues, such as human nature as the foundation of edification, the development of edification and cultivation, the evolution of edification and the resultant life based on ritual and music, the political orientation and ultimate care of edification, and the nurturing of social edification, in an effort to offer a panoramic view of the intellectual features of Confucianism, and consequently a profound reflection on the cultural consciousness of contemporary China. The book is expected to satisfy the needs for a better understanding of edification as a Confucian concept, and the conceptual features of Chinese philosophy, or rather, Confucianism.
R-Calculus, III: Post Three-Valued Logic (Perspectives in Formal Induction, Revision and Evolution)
by Wei Li Yuefei SuiThis third volume of the book series shows R-calculus is a Gentzen-typed deduction system which is non-monotonic, and is a concrete belief revision operator which is proved to satisfy the AGM postulates and the DP postulates. In this book, R-calculus is taken as Tableau-based/sequent-based/multisequent-based to preserve the satisfiability of the Theory/sequent/multisequent to revise, or sequent-based, to preserve the satisfiability of the sequent to revise. The R-calculi for Post and three-valued logic is given. This book offers a rich blend of theory and practice. It is suitable for students, researchers and practitioners in the field of logic.
Diagrams of Power in Benjamin and Foucault: The Recluse of Architecture
by Mark Laurence JacksonThis book’s overarching premise is that discussion and critique in the discourses of architecture and urbanism have their primary focus on engagements with form, particularly in the sense of the question as to what planning and architecture signify with respect to the forms they take, and how their meanings or content (what is “contained”) is considered in relation to form-as-container. While significant critical work in these disciplines has been published over the past 20 years that engages pertinently with the writings of Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault, there has been no address to the co-incidence in the work of Benjamin and Foucault of an architectural figure that is pivotal to each of their discussions of the emergence of modernity: The arcade for Benjamin and the panoptic prison for Foucault have a parallel role. In Foucault’s terms, panopticism is a “diagram of power.” The parallel, for Benjamin, would be his understanding of “constellation.” In more recent architectural writings, the notion of the diagram has emerged as a key motif. Yet, and in as much as it supposedly relates to aspects of the work of Foucault, along with Gilles Deleuze, this notion of “diagram” amounts, for the most part, to a thinly veiled reinstatement of geometry-as-idea. This book redresses the emphasis given to form within the cultural philosophy of modernity and—particularly with respect to architecture and urbanism—inflects on the agency of force that opens a reading of their productive capacities as technologies of power. It is relevant to students and scholars in poststructuralist critical theory, architecture, and urban studies.“This is a book about Foucault and Benjamin and it is grounded in a deep knowledge of and reflection upon their works, but it is also underpinned by an impressive erudition. There are reflections on Hegel and Heidegger (central to the author) and Derrida, along with Kierkegaard, and others. This leads to a rich and suggestive discussion … in staging a spatial-architectural-political conversation between Foucault and Benjamin.”- Anonymous Reviewer“Mark Jackson’s Diagrams of Power in Benjamin and Foucault, The Recluse of Architecture juxtaposes and interrogates its two leading actors so as to draw from and through them a theory of architecture, which is inseparable from its recluse. In doing so it elaborates a series of complex connections with their various interlocutors and inspirations, Hegel, Heidegger, Derrida, the Kabbalah, Agamben, allegory, Marx, Deleuze, Klossowski, tragedy, capitalism, modernity, and so on. The list is long and impressive. This is not only done with an extremely high degree of scholarship, but is presented in a light, lucid and very compelling manner in a voice both personal and authoritative. The recluse is the figure of mimesis itself, the appearance of a withdrawal, always already a ruin. This book not only contributes a highly astute reading of its philosophical objects, but it enacts the ontology of the recluse through its own unfolding, simultaneously revealing and withholding the meaning of architecture ‘as such’, so that we not only understand its meaning, but feel the pulsing differential of the book’s object as if it were alive within us.”- Stephen Zepke, Independent Researcher, Vienna