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The account of the best life for humans – i.e. a happy or flourishing life – and what it might consist of was the central theme of ancient ethics. But what does it take to have a life that, if not happy, is at least worth living, compared with being dead or never having come into life? This question was also much discussed in antiquity, and David Machek's book reconstructs, for the first time, philosophical engagements with the question from Socrates to Plotinus. Machek's comprehensive book explores ancient views on a life worth living against a background of the pessimistic outlook on the human condition which was adopted by the Greek poets, and also shows the continuities and contrasts between the ancient perspective and modern philosophical debates about biomedical ethics and the ethics of procreation. His rich study of this relatively neglected theme offers a fresh and compelling narrative of ancient ethics.
A growing awareness of climate change and looming planetary crisis has put unprecedented pressure on the near future, leading to an increasing amount of fiction being set there. But what do these disparate works have in common, other than their temporal setting? And what can the imagination of the near future tell us about where we live now? The Near Future in 21st Century Fiction ranges across novels and films to reveal how our contemporary near future splits between two divergent paths. One seeks to retreat from climate change and the disruption it threatens to affluent lifestyles; the other tries to imagine new forms of community, and radical change, but struggles to locate a genre adequate to the task. It in this struggle, however, that we begin to glimpse the outlines of an emergent near future form: a revolution fit for the Anthropocene.
Financial models are an inescapable feature of modern financial markets. Yet it was over reliance on these models and the failure to test them properly that is now widely recognized as one of the main causes of the financial crisis of 2007–2011. Since this crisis, there has been an increase in the amount of scrutiny and testing applied to such models, and validation has become an essential part of model risk management at financial institutions. The book covers all of the major risk areas that a financial institution is exposed to and uses models for, including market risk, interest rate risk, retail credit risk, wholesale credit risk, compliance risk, and investment management. The book discusses current practices and pitfalls that model risk users need to be aware of and identifies areas where validation can be advanced in the future. This provides the first unified framework for validating risk management models.
Saving endangered species presents a critical and increasingly pressing challenge for conservation and sustainability movements, and is also matter of survival and livelihoods for the world's poorest and vulnerable communities. In 1973, a global Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was adopted to stem the extinction of many species. In 2015, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 15) the United Nations called for urgent action to protect endangered species and their natural habitats. This volume focuses on the legal implementation of CITES to achieve the global SDGs. Activating interdisciplinary analysis and case studies across jurisdictions, the contributors analyse the potential for CITES to promote more sustainable development, proposing international and national regulatory innovations for implementing CITES. They consider recent innovations and key intervention points along flora and fauna value chains, advancing coherent recommendations to strengthen CITES implementation, including through the regulation of trade in endangered species globally and locally.
Political scientists designing experiments often face the question of how abstract or detailed their experimental stimuli should be. Typically, this question is framed in terms of tradeoffs relating to experimental control and generalizability: the more context introduced into studies, the less control, and the more difficulty generalizing the results. Yet, we have reason to question this tradeoff, and there is relatively little systematic evidence to rely on when calibrating the degree of abstraction in studies. We make two contributions. First, we provide a theoretical framework which identifies and considers the consequences of three dimensions of abstraction in experimental design: situational hypotheticality, actor identity, and contextual detail. Second, we field a range of survey experiments, varying these levels of abstraction. We find that situational hypotheticality does not substantively change experimental results, but increased contextual detail dampens treatment effects and the salience of actor identities moderates results in specific situations.
This popular undergraduate quantum mechanics textbook is now available in a more affordable printing from Cambridge University Press. Unlike many other books on quantum mechanics, this text begins by examining experimental quantum phenomena such as the Stern-Gerlach experiment and spin measurements, using them as the basis for developing the theoretical principles of quantum mechanics. Dirac notation is developed from the outset, offering an intuitive and powerful mathematical toolset for calculation, and familiarizing students with this important notational system. This non-traditional approach is designed to deepen students' conceptual understanding of the subject, and has been extensively class tested. Suitable for undergraduate physics students, worked examples are included throughout and end of chapter problems act to reinforce and extend important concepts. Additional activities for students are provided online, including interactive simulations of Stern-Gerlach experiments, and a fully worked solutions manual is available for instructors.
Networks contain complex patterns of dependency and require multiple levels of analysis to explain their formation, structure, and outcomes. In this Element, the authors develop the Multilevel Network Framework. The framework serves as (i) a conceptual tool to think more deeply about network dynamics, (ii) a research tool to assist in connecting data, theory, and empirical models, and (iii) a diagnostic tool to analyze and categorize bodies of research. The authors then systematically review the network literature in public administration, management, and policy. They apply the Multilevel Network Framework to categorize the literature; identify significant gaps; examine micro, macro and cross-level relations; and examine relevant mechanisms and theories. Overall this Element helps readers to (i) understand and classify network research, (ii) use appropriate theoretical frameworks to examine network-related problems, (iii) understand how networks emerge and produce effects at different levels of analysis, and (iv) select appropriate empirical models.
The way the brain, body, and mind interact with social structure to shape communication has so far not received the attention it deserves. This book addresses this gap by providing a novel account of communication as a social, biological and neurological force. Combining theories from communication studies and psycholinguistics, and drawing on biological and evolutionary perspectives, it shows how communication is inherently both biological and social, and that language and the neural systems that support it have evolved in response to a complex social environment. It introduces a clear set of terms based on current research, and illustrates key concepts using real-life examples from everyday conversation - speaking to a number of current debates around the evolutionary and biological basis of language, and the relationship between language, cognition, and environment. Thought provoking and engaging, it will change the way we think about the relationship between communication and cognition.
Reproductive aging is a natural and universal process. Women frequently overestimate the age at which a significant decline in fertility occurs as well as overestimate the success of assisted reproductive technologies to circumvent age-related infertility. Yet there is much that modern medicine can do to improve conception rates in women who delay childbearing and to manage subsequent pregnancies. This book offers guidance on winning strategies for maximizing the live-birth rate and limiting the risk for women trying to conceive later in life. It is intended to assist in navigating this challenging journey and lead to peace of mind that women have been seen, heard, and treated as individuals in the process. Written by leading experts addressing medical options of applying advanced reproductive technologies, psychological, nutritional, lifestyle, systematic approaches to optimizing fertility care for the most challenging demographic of women in a practical, clinically orientated, and most importantly, positive way.
The conventional approach to law and religion assumes that these are competing domains, which raises questions about the freedom of, and from, religion; alternate commitments of religion and human rights; and respective jurisdictions of civil and religious courts. This volume moves beyond this competitive paradigm to consider law and religion as overlapping and interrelated frameworks that structure the social order, arguing that law and religion share similar properties and have a symbiotic relationship. Moreover, many legal systems exhibit religious characteristics, informing their notions of authority, precedent, rituals and canonical texts, and most religions invoke legal concepts or terminology. The contributors address this blurring of law and religion in the contexts of political theology, secularism, church-state conflicts, and the foundational idea of divine law.
The Reinventing Capitalism series seeks to feature explorations about the crisis of legitimacy facing capitalism today, including the increasing income and wealth gap, the decline of the middle class, threats to employment due to globalization and digitalization, undermined trust in institutions, discrimination against minorities, global poverty and pollution. The series is intended to be a collection of authoritative literature reviews of foundational topics on renewing capitalism. Being grounded in a business and management perspective, the series incorporates insights from multiple disciplines that promise to substantiate the causes of the current crisis and potential solutions what needs to be done. This Element provides an overview of the series, explains the background of its development and contains eight sections that deal with various facets of the subject from the perspectives of a group of top-notch authors.