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Introduction

Alan Harding

in The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion: A Sect in Action in Eighteenth-Century England

There was no significant new study of the Countess of Huntingdon between the complex and confused Life and Times by A. C. H. Seymour (1839) until after the opening up of the Cheshunt College archive ... More

There was no significant new study of the Countess of Huntingdon between the complex and confused Life and Times by A. C. H. Seymour (1839) until after the opening up of the Cheshunt College archive in the late 1960s. The archive contains a major part of the correspondence that Lady Huntingdon received in the last twenty-five years of her life, and shows in detail what day-to-day life was like in the Connexion during that period. Two major studies of Lady Huntingdon were published in the 1990s (by Welch and by Schlenther); the focus of the present work is different from theirs, in that it is concerned principally with the Connexion, rather than its founder. It considers the origins and development of the Connexion, its relations with other sections of the Evangelical Revival, and its impact on the broader religious life of late eighteenth-century England.Less

Reduction, Kinds, and Essences

John Heil

in The Universe As We Find It

The concept of reduction is discussed in the context of a discussion of the origins of ‘non-reductive physicalism’. Reduction is identified as a relation among terms, or predicates, or theories, not ... More

The concept of reduction is discussed in the context of a discussion of the origins of ‘non-reductive physicalism’. Reduction is identified as a relation among terms, or predicates, or theories, not a relation among properties. Three influential anti-reductive arguments — Davidson’s advocacy of anomalous monism, Fodor’s defense of the autonomy of the special sciences, and Boyd’s discussion of special science kinds — are discussed and shown to be best understood as pertaining to predicates, not properties. The result is a depiction of the universe as answering to autonomous taxonomies definitive of the special sciences. Considerations are advanced suggesting that this picture is compatible with the idea that the deep truth about truthmakers for truths of the special sciences is provided by fundamental physics. Kinds and essences are discussed and explicated in a manner inspired by Descartes and Locke.Less

Epilogue

Carmeta Albarus and Jonathan H. Mack

in The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo: The D.C. Sniper

This epilogue examines the lessons that can be learned from Lee Boyd Malvo's story. Ten years since the events recounted in the first three chapters of this book, John Muhammad has been executed and ... More

This epilogue examines the lessons that can be learned from Lee Boyd Malvo's story. Ten years since the events recounted in the first three chapters of this book, John Muhammad has been executed and Lee Boyd Malvo remains incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison, where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life. In Malvo's story, issues of neglect, abuse, abandonment, and the missing father prevail. Such a crisis often begins with the break in the family unit; this is significant because it puts the child at greater risk for socially inappropriate behavior, including delinquency, by their teenage years. To prevent cases like Malvo's, the UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out fifty-four articles and two Optional Protocols that spell out the basic rights of children everywhere: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse, and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural, and social life.Less

Risk, Media, and Parenting in a Digital Age

Lynn Schofield Clark

in The Parent App: Understanding Families in the Digital Age

This chapter introduces the main themes that structure this book: class, risk, and the role of communication media in creating and sustaining class-related cultural distinctions. The book's ... More

This chapter introduces the main themes that structure this book: class, risk, and the role of communication media in creating and sustaining class-related cultural distinctions. The book's perspective on the role of risk in relation to technology and parenting is closely related to our experiences of economics and social class. Because news and entertainment media aim to appeal to the wealthiest demographic, norms of parenting in advice manuals and in other media are focused on the upper middle class parenting value of “expressive empowerment”. The media-driven definition of middle class life also supports the culture of fear that pervades discussions of technology and leisure and sees media as a distraction. This chapter discusses the relationship between risk and digital/mobile media to get a clear perspective about what is new in the new media environment, how sociologists review these new situations in relation to society-wide heightened risk, how parents and young people address themselves to these new situations.Less

Women’s Space, Queer Space: Communes, Landykes, and Queer Contact Zones in the Lesbian Feminist South

Jaime Harker

in The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon

This chapter explores the spatial reimaginations of Southern lesbian feminists, from communes to queer contact zones. This chapter uses geography to reassess the landyke movement and its role in ... More

This chapter explores the spatial reimaginations of Southern lesbian feminists, from communes to queer contact zones. This chapter uses geography to reassess the landyke movement and its role in lesbian feminism literature, which reimagines and queers space.Less

Imitation, Hayek, and the Significance of Cultural Learning

H. Allen Orr

in A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species

This chapter discusses biologist H. Allen Orr's two large and interesting questions about Robert Boyd's model of cultural learning. He wonders, first, whether Boyd exaggerates the contrast between ... More

This chapter discusses biologist H. Allen Orr's two large and interesting questions about Robert Boyd's model of cultural learning. He wonders, first, whether Boyd exaggerates the contrast between the “Big Brain” model, which emphasizes cognitive explanations for human success, and the imitative model that Boyd prefers. Orr argues that successful imitation often requires considerable “neuronal firepower.” In addition, Orr usefully describes the partial convergence of Boyd's view with that advanced by the well-known free-market economist and social theorist Friedrich Hayek. Hayek also emphasized that social success and progress depend on the use of tacit and dispersed local knowledge, culturally transmitted social norms and ethical mores, and institutions that are the product of social evolution. Orr wonders whether scientists and social scientists pay less attention to Hayek than they should because of Hayek's politics.Less

Adaption without Insight?

Kim Sterelny

in A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species

This chapter looks at how philosopher Kim Sterelny endorses the main contours of Robert Boyd's argument that humans are outliers in their capacity to adapt to many environments. However, Sterelny ... More

This chapter looks at how philosopher Kim Sterelny endorses the main contours of Robert Boyd's argument that humans are outliers in their capacity to adapt to many environments. However, Sterelny asks whether Boyd goes too far in reducing the role of “our distinctive human intelligence” in explaining humans' ecological adaptability. Sterelny at least partly defends the “library” or “Big Brain” model that Boyd argues against. Tacit, practical know-how is a form of knowledge. In addition, Sterelny contends that Boyd relies too heavily on a simple and “conformist” or “trusting social learning heuristic.” As a final point, Sterelny wonders whether and how social learning has changed across “domains and across time.”Less

Inference and Hypothesis Testing in Cultural Evolution

Ruth Mace

in A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species

This chapter demonstrates how evolutionary anthropologist Ruth Mace applauds Robert Boyd's multidisciplinary approach to the study of human evolution, while stressing her own belief in the importance ... More

This chapter demonstrates how evolutionary anthropologist Ruth Mace applauds Robert Boyd's multidisciplinary approach to the study of human evolution, while stressing her own belief in the importance of empirical testing. She points out that many questions remain about how norms arise, why they vary, “how they are maintained, and how easily they change.” In a more critical vein, Mace suggests that some of the behaviors that Boyd attributes to social norms and sanctions might better be explained based on individual benefits. This includes the decision to participate in warfare. Mace then describes her own empirical research on intergroup conflict in Northern Ireland and raises the question of whether “competition and conflict between groups, such as interethnic warfare, leads to parochial altruism (that is, altruism directed only within the group).”Less

Adaptable, Cooperative, Manipulative, and Rivalrous

Paul Seabright

in A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species

This chapter explores economist Paul Seabright's argument that there is a “darker dimension to what makes us human,” which Robert Boyd largely leaves aside. Human beings are the most ecologically ... More

This chapter explores economist Paul Seabright's argument that there is a “darker dimension to what makes us human,” which Robert Boyd largely leaves aside. Human beings are the most ecologically adaptable and massively cooperative species on the planet. Seabright argues that humans are also the most spectacularly and violently competitive, and the most deviously manipulative of all species. This might seem an incoherent description, but in fact the latter qualities are deeply implicated in the former ones. It is precisely the fact of humans' extraordinary cooperativeness that allows them to create the massive resource gains that provoke their competitiveness and manipulativeness. Indeed, Seabright contends that “a much larger part of the communication that takes place around norms in most societies is about individuals manipulating other individuals” than one would think from Boyd's examples.Less

Chapter One: Te Ara's Scars

Geoffrey Sanborn

in Whipscars and Tattoos: The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, and the Maori

Chapter One reconstructs the life history of Te Ara, a Maori chief who led a massacre of the crew and passengers of the British ship Boyd in 1809 in retaliation for having been whipped by the ship's ... More

Chapter One reconstructs the life history of Te Ara, a Maori chief who led a massacre of the crew and passengers of the British ship Boyd in 1809 in retaliation for having been whipped by the ship's captain. The chapter shows, there was a remarkable effort, beginning around 1815, to represent Te Ara's vengeance as the understandable response of an upper-class man to the intolerable insult of a flogging. The true origin of the incident, according to most of the post-1815 commentators on the event, was not the “savagery” of Te Ara but the “imprudence and temerity” of the captain who whipped him.Less

“The Impact of Such a Thing Would Be Phenomenal”

Shawn Francis Peters

in The Catonsville Nine: An American Story

All of the prisoners at Lewisburg and Allenwood were aware of the presence there of Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters leader who had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and fraud. Although ... More

All of the prisoners at Lewisburg and Allenwood were aware of the presence there of Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters leader who had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery, and fraud. Although Hoffa and his lieutenants exerted enormous influence among the prison population, the congenitally suspicious labor kingpin generally distanced himself from inmates who weren't part of his inner circle. But the Berrigans, Hogan, Mische, and Melville were different—they were fellow Catholics, and Hoffa seemed to think that they all were political prisoners. Hoffa took a particular interest in the welfare of Phil Berrigan. Not long after the Baltimore priest arrived at Lewisburg, Hoffa arranged a meeting in which he offered his assistance. But even with Hoffa's protection, Berrigan could not escape discord at Lewisburg. The worst of his woes arose from dealings with a fellow inmate named Boyd Douglas. Douglas approached most of the Baltimore-area draft protesters and told them that he enjoyed a range of special privileges at the prison and offered to smuggle out letters for the men. Most of the men smelled a setup, but Berrigan took the bait. Despite his friends' warnings, he began using Douglas to communicate with friends and confederates outside the prison walls. More a con artist than a committed activist, Douglas surreptitiously copied many of the documents he passed between Berrigan and his supporters outside Lewisburg, and he eventually turned them over to the FBI. It was through Douglas's cooperation that the federal government was able to arrest Dan Berrigan on Block Island and put an end to his time as a fugitive.Less

My Thank-You Note

Joe B. Hall, Marianne Walker, and Rick Bozich

in Coach Hall: My Life On and Off the Court

Joe B. thanks the many people in his life who have been influential in his growth and success, including his family and his assistant coaches.

Jefferson's Papers

Francis D. Cogliano

in Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy

Having established the importance of primary sources to Jefferson's understanding of history, Jefferson carefully preserved the corpus of his personal papers-more than forty thousand letters as well ... More

Having established the importance of primary sources to Jefferson's understanding of history, Jefferson carefully preserved the corpus of his personal papers-more than forty thousand letters as well as state and personal papers. He intended that these should published. This chapter reviews the history of the publication of Jefferson's papers which have gone through several editions since 1829, including the origins and evolution of the definitive Princeton edition of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson begun by Julian P. Boyd.Less

The Silence of the Askaris: William Boyd's An Ice-Cream War and the European History of the First World War in East Africa

Simon Lewis

in British and African Literature in Transnational Context

The chapter compares and contrasts Gurnah's Paradise and William Boyd's An Ice-Cream War. In the process, and throughout this section, it becomes clear that even well-meaning British writers about ... More

The chapter compares and contrasts Gurnah's Paradise and William Boyd's An Ice-Cream War. In the process, and throughout this section, it becomes clear that even well-meaning British writers about Africa cannot fully free themselves from the confines of colonial discourse. Although many of Boyd's works satirize British governing class attitudes this one particular novel An Ice-Cream War reproduces closely related features familiar from colonial discourse. The main concern of the novel is with the European history of East Africa. However, Gurnah's writings are clearly in contrast with those of Boyd.Less

Joe Dan Boyd: Farm Writer, Country Singer

Gene Logsdon

in The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse

This chapter discusses Joe Dan Boyd, the assistant managing editor at the Farm Journal in Philadelphia. Boyd grew up on a farm in Texas, and is an almost perfect example of a cultural unity that can ... More

This chapter discusses Joe Dan Boyd, the assistant managing editor at the Farm Journal in Philadelphia. Boyd grew up on a farm in Texas, and is an almost perfect example of a cultural unity that can be achieved when art and agriculture join hands. The chapter looks at Boyd's achievements as a writer through the years, starting with his first byline when he was fourteen years old. It also looks at Boyd as an authority on farm songs in music circles and as an authority on cotton in farming circles.Less

The Aftermath: From History to Memory

Timothy J. Minchin and John A. Salmond

in After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965

When Josephine Boyd Bradley first entered Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North California in September 1957, she faced several physical threats, racial slurs, and insults from both the students ... More

When Josephine Boyd Bradley first entered Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North California in September 1957, she faced several physical threats, racial slurs, and insults from both the students and the faculty as she was the only African American in the entire student body. She gained support from three white students who befriended her and consequently they had to face exclusion. She was the first black student in the state to graduate from a previously all-white high school. When she returned to the school in 2006, she served as an honored guest and was recognized as a pioneer of civil rights in the school. Dorothy Counts also received comparable recognition for being one of the first to integrate the Charlotte school system. Many of these experiences never made the news, but each of these tributes celebrate various aspects of the civil rights movement and how this has brought on several significant changes to society.Less

‘Batter my Heart’: On the Three-Disciplined Search for Meaning

Jeanne Gaakeer

in Law and Religion: Current Legal Issues 2001 Volume 4

This chapter examines the interrelatedness of law, literature, and religion as ethical systems. It considers the congeniality of the views of Martha Nussbaum, James Boyd White, and Milner Ball, ... More

This chapter examines the interrelatedness of law, literature, and religion as ethical systems. It considers the congeniality of the views of Martha Nussbaum, James Boyd White, and Milner Ball, because the ethics of empathy proposed by these authors offers a valuable foundation from which to pursue fundamental questions of law, literature, and religion alike in contemporary pluralistic societies. It then offers two illustrations of performances with language as ethical performances to clarify the idea of justice as reciprocity following from this.Less

Richard Dawkins: The Mathematical Sublime

Alan G. Gross

in The Scientific Sublime: Popular Science Unravels the Mysteries of the Universe

In an episode of The Simpsons, “Black Eyed, Please,” Ned Flanders has a nightmare. He visits his “personal hell” where they “worship famous atheist Richard ... More

In an episode of The Simpsons, “Black Eyed, Please,” Ned Flanders has a nightmare. He visits his “personal hell” where they “worship famous atheist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion,” a devilish figure in the process of “making Catholic-saint stew.” Irreverent enough to be attracted to the program’s irreverence, and enough of a celebrity to be asked to do the show’s voice-over, Dawkins is content to appear as a parody of himself. But his skepticism is no act. It is deep-seated, with roots in his early childhood. Concerning his 18-month-old self, Dawkins says: …At Christmas a man called Sam dressed up as Father Christmas and entertained a children’s party in Mrs. Walter’s house. He apparently fooled all the children, and finally took his departure amid much jovial waving and ho-ho-ho-ing. As soon as he left, I looked up and breezily remarked to general consternation, “Sam’s gone!”… This precocious skepticism blossoms in Dawkins’s later views, a set of convictions in which science does not so much supplement as substitute for religion: “a friend . . . persuaded me of the full force of Darwin’s brilliant idea and I shed my last vestige of theistic credulity probably about the age of sixteen.” To Dawkins, biology is no more—and no less—than a rigorous skepticism applied to the living world. No need for Father Christmas. Without question, Dawkins’s vision of biology, a living world ruled by mathematics, is a “grand conception,” readily comparable to the origin stories of Weinberg, Greene, Randall, and Hawking, a saga of “how unordered atoms could group themselves into ever more complex patterns until they ended up manufacturing people.” In his work, Dawkins has employed mathematics to create, as Adam Smith said of Copernicus, “another constitution of things, more natural indeed, and such as the imagination can more easily attend to, but more new, more contrary to common opinion and expectation, than any of those appearances themselves.” Less

Celso’s Vendetta

Rudolph J. Vecoli and Francesco Durante

Donna R. Gabaccia (ed.)

in Oh Capitano!: Celso Cesare Moreno - Adventurer, Cheater, and Scoundrel on Four Continents

This chapter examines how Celso Cesare Moreno plotted his revenge after the debacle in Hawaii and describes his role in the education of three Hawaiian students: Robert William Wilcox, Robert ... More

This chapter examines how Celso Cesare Moreno plotted his revenge after the debacle in Hawaii and describes his role in the education of three Hawaiian students: Robert William Wilcox, Robert Napu'uako Boyd, and James Kaneholo Booth. Moreno left Honolulu for San Francisco onboard the steamer Zealandia. He wanted James M. Comly, whom he believed was primarily responsible for his downfall, removed as the U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Hawaii. He enrolled Wilcox, Boyd, and Booth in three different military schools—Royal Academy of Civil and Military Engineers in Turin, Royal Naval Academy in Livorno, and Nunziatella Military Academy in Naples, respectively. The chapter also discusses Moreno's travel across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe with King David Kalākaua and his dignitaries, which included William Nevins Armstrong, now Royal Commissioner of Immigration. Finally, it reflects on the death of Booth due to cholera.Less