John W. Cairns and Paul J. du Plessis
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627936
- eISBN:
- 9780748651474
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627936.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This book contributes to the debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world. This debate, which was initiated by the work of John Crook in the 1960s, has had a profound ...
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This book contributes to the debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world. This debate, which was initiated by the work of John Crook in the 1960s, has had a profound impact upon the study of law and history and has created sharply divided opinions on the extent to which law may be said to be a product of the society that created it. This work is an attempt to provide a balanced assessment of the various points of view. The chapters within the book have been specifically arranged to represent the debate. The chapters address this debate by focusing on studies of law and empire, codes and codification, death and economics, commerce and procedure. This book does not purport to provide a complete survey of Roman private law in light of Roman society. Its primary aim is to address specific areas of the law with a view to contributing to the larger debate.Less
This book contributes to the debate about the relationship between law and society in the Roman world. This debate, which was initiated by the work of John Crook in the 1960s, has had a profound impact upon the study of law and history and has created sharply divided opinions on the extent to which law may be said to be a product of the society that created it. This work is an attempt to provide a balanced assessment of the various points of view. The chapters within the book have been specifically arranged to represent the debate. The chapters address this debate by focusing on studies of law and empire, codes and codification, death and economics, commerce and procedure. This book does not purport to provide a complete survey of Roman private law in light of Roman society. Its primary aim is to address specific areas of the law with a view to contributing to the larger debate.
Stephen Clucas
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264133
- eISBN:
- 9780191734649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264133.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter examines Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia, the first Petrarchan sonnet sequence in English. It explains the use of Hekatompathia to investigate the status of imitation in late ...
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This chapter examines Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia, the first Petrarchan sonnet sequence in English. It explains the use of Hekatompathia to investigate the status of imitation in late sixteenth-century Europe. It analyses the variety of ways in which Watson articulates the relationship between his poems and the originals, from faithful, line-by-line renderings to various kinds of partial translation, to centoni and paraphrase.Less
This chapter examines Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia, the first Petrarchan sonnet sequence in English. It explains the use of Hekatompathia to investigate the status of imitation in late sixteenth-century Europe. It analyses the variety of ways in which Watson articulates the relationship between his poems and the originals, from faithful, line-by-line renderings to various kinds of partial translation, to centoni and paraphrase.
David Womersley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199255641
- eISBN:
- 9780191719615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255641.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter suggests how the militantly Protestant vision of Foxe's Actes and Monuments came gradually to exert a hegemonic influence over the English past during the 1570s and 1580s. Focusing on ...
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This chapter suggests how the militantly Protestant vision of Foxe's Actes and Monuments came gradually to exert a hegemonic influence over the English past during the 1570s and 1580s. Focusing on accounts of the reign of Henry V, Foxe's strengthening influence is traced in the two versions of Holinshed's Chronicle (1577 and 1587), which are contrasted with the histories of Hall and Christopher Watson. In the work of Hall and Watson, the values of reformed religion were not accorded the unquestioned primacy they subsequently attained. Given the importance of the second edition of Holinshed as source material for the historical drama of the 1590s, it emerges that Foxe's vision of the national past could be influential on such drama, even when Actes and Monuments was not the proximate source for a play.Less
This chapter suggests how the militantly Protestant vision of Foxe's Actes and Monuments came gradually to exert a hegemonic influence over the English past during the 1570s and 1580s. Focusing on accounts of the reign of Henry V, Foxe's strengthening influence is traced in the two versions of Holinshed's Chronicle (1577 and 1587), which are contrasted with the histories of Hall and Christopher Watson. In the work of Hall and Watson, the values of reformed religion were not accorded the unquestioned primacy they subsequently attained. Given the importance of the second edition of Holinshed as source material for the historical drama of the 1590s, it emerges that Foxe's vision of the national past could be influential on such drama, even when Actes and Monuments was not the proximate source for a play.
Crawford Gribben
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195326604
- eISBN:
- 9780199870257
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326604.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter describes the orthodox consolidation of evangelical prophecy fiction, especially as it was influenced by the rising movement of Protestant “fundamentalists.” Like successive instalments ...
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This chapter describes the orthodox consolidation of evangelical prophecy fiction, especially as it was influenced by the rising movement of Protestant “fundamentalists.” Like successive instalments of The Fundamentals, early prophecy novels grew in their Protestant self-consciousness. The chapter juxtaposes these texts with a Roman Catholic novel from the same period—Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World (1907)—and suggests that its articulation of fears of a pan-European dictatorship and an ensuing clash of civilizations should qualify claims for the particularity of the evangelical prophecy fiction tradition. These prophecy novels—emerging from across the Christian denominational world—were responding to a shared sense of religious and political crisis. But evangelical prophecy novels were increasingly reflective of the theology of dispensational premillennialism. This chapter advances on the basis of close readings of Joshua Hill Foster’s The Judgment Day (1910) and the series of prophetic novels by Sydney Watson.Less
This chapter describes the orthodox consolidation of evangelical prophecy fiction, especially as it was influenced by the rising movement of Protestant “fundamentalists.” Like successive instalments of The Fundamentals, early prophecy novels grew in their Protestant self-consciousness. The chapter juxtaposes these texts with a Roman Catholic novel from the same period—Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World (1907)—and suggests that its articulation of fears of a pan-European dictatorship and an ensuing clash of civilizations should qualify claims for the particularity of the evangelical prophecy fiction tradition. These prophecy novels—emerging from across the Christian denominational world—were responding to a shared sense of religious and political crisis. But evangelical prophecy novels were increasingly reflective of the theology of dispensational premillennialism. This chapter advances on the basis of close readings of Joshua Hill Foster’s The Judgment Day (1910) and the series of prophetic novels by Sydney Watson.
Rosemary Scott
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264577
- eISBN:
- 9780191734267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264577.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
William Watson (1917–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was a scholar whose contribution to the field of Asian art and archaeology was both multifaceted and far-reaching. He earned a scholarship ...
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William Watson (1917–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was a scholar whose contribution to the field of Asian art and archaeology was both multifaceted and far-reaching. He earned a scholarship to Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge to read Modern and Medieval Languages (1936–1939), and it was at Cambridge that he met a fellow-student Katherine Armfield, whom he married in 1940. After World War II, Watson took up his first post in the arts in 1947, joining the staff of the British and Medieval Department of the British Museum. In 1966, he left the British Museum and moved to the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art to become its Director and take up the professorship of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Watson travelled widely and often, and he became fascinated with the arts and language of Japan.Less
William Watson (1917–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was a scholar whose contribution to the field of Asian art and archaeology was both multifaceted and far-reaching. He earned a scholarship to Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge to read Modern and Medieval Languages (1936–1939), and it was at Cambridge that he met a fellow-student Katherine Armfield, whom he married in 1940. After World War II, Watson took up his first post in the arts in 1947, joining the staff of the British and Medieval Department of the British Museum. In 1966, he left the British Museum and moved to the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art to become its Director and take up the professorship of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Watson travelled widely and often, and he became fascinated with the arts and language of Japan.
Robert W. Weisberg
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195381634
- eISBN:
- 9780199870264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381634.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
It is commonly believed that creative thinking—the cognitive processes that bring about novel ideas and objects—is based on thinking “outside of the box.” Creativity is assumed to require that we ...
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It is commonly believed that creative thinking—the cognitive processes that bring about novel ideas and objects—is based on thinking “outside of the box.” Creativity is assumed to require that we break away from our knowledge, and use some sort of extraordinary thought process to leap into the unknown. This chapter proposes, in contrast, that “inside-the-box thinking” is the basis for creativity: innovation is based on extensive knowledge in the area in question and moves beyond what is known in increments—small steps—based on ordinary cognitive processes, such as retrieval of knowledge from memory, analogical thinking, and logical reasoning. Examination of historical case studies of seminal innovations—Watson and Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix; the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane; Edison's invention of the kinetoscope (the first moving pictures); Picasso's creation of his great painting Guernica; and a case study of innovation in industry, IDEO's development of a new shopping cart—supports the idea that creative thinking was based first on a deep knowledge of the area. The thinkers moved beyond what was known in increments, rather than leaps, and they built on the past, rather than rejecting it. The idea that creativity is based on inside-the-box thinking and ordinary cognitive processes has implications for corporate innovation, several of which are discussed.Less
It is commonly believed that creative thinking—the cognitive processes that bring about novel ideas and objects—is based on thinking “outside of the box.” Creativity is assumed to require that we break away from our knowledge, and use some sort of extraordinary thought process to leap into the unknown. This chapter proposes, in contrast, that “inside-the-box thinking” is the basis for creativity: innovation is based on extensive knowledge in the area in question and moves beyond what is known in increments—small steps—based on ordinary cognitive processes, such as retrieval of knowledge from memory, analogical thinking, and logical reasoning. Examination of historical case studies of seminal innovations—Watson and Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix; the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane; Edison's invention of the kinetoscope (the first moving pictures); Picasso's creation of his great painting Guernica; and a case study of innovation in industry, IDEO's development of a new shopping cart—supports the idea that creative thinking was based first on a deep knowledge of the area. The thinkers moved beyond what was known in increments, rather than leaps, and they built on the past, rather than rejecting it. The idea that creativity is based on inside-the-box thinking and ordinary cognitive processes has implications for corporate innovation, several of which are discussed.
Michael McKenna
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199740031
- eISBN:
- 9780199918706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740031.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, General
P. F. Strawson's theory of moral responsibility is assumed to involve three theses. First, morally responsibility is interpersonal because the nature of being responsible is essentially linked to the ...
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P. F. Strawson's theory of moral responsibility is assumed to involve three theses. First, morally responsibility is interpersonal because the nature of being responsible is essentially linked to the practices and norms of holding responsible. Second, holding responsible is to be understood by reference to morally reactive attitudes, which are a collection of emotions that are elicited in response to the perceived quality of will in the behavior of a morally responsible agent. Third, holding responsible is more fundamental or basic than being responsible, and so the latter should be explained in terms of the former. In this chapter, the first two Strawsonian theses are advanced, while the third is rejected. The first two are developed in a manner consistent with there being facts about being responsible and about the propriety of holding responsible. These interpersonal features of the theory are explained by comparison with a ledger theory of responsibility whereby being morally responsible is simply a matter of facts about an agent obtaining independently of considerations of holding morally responsible. The third is rejected in favor of explicating being and holding responsible as mutually dependent such that neither is metaphysically more basic than the other.Less
P. F. Strawson's theory of moral responsibility is assumed to involve three theses. First, morally responsibility is interpersonal because the nature of being responsible is essentially linked to the practices and norms of holding responsible. Second, holding responsible is to be understood by reference to morally reactive attitudes, which are a collection of emotions that are elicited in response to the perceived quality of will in the behavior of a morally responsible agent. Third, holding responsible is more fundamental or basic than being responsible, and so the latter should be explained in terms of the former. In this chapter, the first two Strawsonian theses are advanced, while the third is rejected. The first two are developed in a manner consistent with there being facts about being responsible and about the propriety of holding responsible. These interpersonal features of the theory are explained by comparison with a ledger theory of responsibility whereby being morally responsible is simply a matter of facts about an agent obtaining independently of considerations of holding morally responsible. The third is rejected in favor of explicating being and holding responsible as mutually dependent such that neither is metaphysically more basic than the other.
Michael McKenna
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199740031
- eISBN:
- 9780199918706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740031.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, General
This chapter sets out the conversational theory of moral responsibility. it is established that an agent's incapacity to hold others responsible incapacitates her for being responsible. is because ...
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This chapter sets out the conversational theory of moral responsibility. it is established that an agent's incapacity to hold others responsible incapacitates her for being responsible. is because reasons presented to others in holding them responsible are reason to which one who is responsible must be sensitive. interdependence is like the relation between a speaker's ability to communicate with others and her ability to understand others who communicate with her. the latter ability impedes the former. Building on the analogy, the conversational theory is presented and defended. An agent's actions are bearers of meaning that are indicative of her quality of will. Those who hold her responsible respond to her as if engaging in a conversation that the responsible agent initiated by way of her action. It is then open to the agent to extend that “conversation” by offering a plea, accepting responsibility, apologizing, or in some other way. The meaning at issue, agent meaning, is like speaker meaning. Speaker meaning can come apart from sentence meaning; likewise, agent meaning can come apart from action meaning, where the latter is a function of the kind of quality of will typically associated with types of actions.Less
This chapter sets out the conversational theory of moral responsibility. it is established that an agent's incapacity to hold others responsible incapacitates her for being responsible. is because reasons presented to others in holding them responsible are reason to which one who is responsible must be sensitive. interdependence is like the relation between a speaker's ability to communicate with others and her ability to understand others who communicate with her. the latter ability impedes the former. Building on the analogy, the conversational theory is presented and defended. An agent's actions are bearers of meaning that are indicative of her quality of will. Those who hold her responsible respond to her as if engaging in a conversation that the responsible agent initiated by way of her action. It is then open to the agent to extend that “conversation” by offering a plea, accepting responsibility, apologizing, or in some other way. The meaning at issue, agent meaning, is like speaker meaning. Speaker meaning can come apart from sentence meaning; likewise, agent meaning can come apart from action meaning, where the latter is a function of the kind of quality of will typically associated with types of actions.
Andrew Glazzard
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474431293
- eISBN:
- 9781474453769
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474431293.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The Case of Sherlock Holmes uncovers what is untold, partly told, wrongly told or deliberately concealed in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes saga. This engaging study uses a scholarly approach, ...
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The Case of Sherlock Holmes uncovers what is untold, partly told, wrongly told or deliberately concealed in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes saga. This engaging study uses a scholarly approach, combining close reading with historicism, to read the stories afresh, sceptically probing Dr Watson’s narratives and Holmes’s often barely credible solutions. Drawing on Victorian and Edwardian history, Conan Doyle’s life and works, and Doyle’s literary sources, the book offers new insights into the Holmes stories and reveals what they say about money, class, family, sex, race, war and secrecy.Less
The Case of Sherlock Holmes uncovers what is untold, partly told, wrongly told or deliberately concealed in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes saga. This engaging study uses a scholarly approach, combining close reading with historicism, to read the stories afresh, sceptically probing Dr Watson’s narratives and Holmes’s often barely credible solutions. Drawing on Victorian and Edwardian history, Conan Doyle’s life and works, and Doyle’s literary sources, the book offers new insights into the Holmes stories and reveals what they say about money, class, family, sex, race, war and secrecy.
Ishtiyaque Haji
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199899203
- eISBN:
- 9780199949885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199899203.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Chapter 7 defends the view that an alternative possibilities requirement for the truth of judgments of objective reasons threatens a variety of prominent compatibilist approaches, such as versions of ...
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Chapter 7 defends the view that an alternative possibilities requirement for the truth of judgments of objective reasons threatens a variety of prominent compatibilist approaches, such as versions of a Frankfurtian, a Strawsonian, and a reasons-responsiveness approach, to moral responsibility.Less
Chapter 7 defends the view that an alternative possibilities requirement for the truth of judgments of objective reasons threatens a variety of prominent compatibilist approaches, such as versions of a Frankfurtian, a Strawsonian, and a reasons-responsiveness approach, to moral responsibility.
Ian Clark
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199556267
- eISBN:
- 9780191725609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556267.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter establishes the key working concept of hegemony: its adaptation of English School thinking to present it as a possible institution of international society. It reviews the unsystematic ...
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This chapter establishes the key working concept of hegemony: its adaptation of English School thinking to present it as a possible institution of international society. It reviews the unsystematic writings of Hedley Bull, Adam Watson, and Martin Wight on hegemony. It then tries to excavate a coherent concept from their other writings, mainly on the balance of power and the role of the great powers. Key to this approach is its acceptance of the role of recognition in the status of the great powers. By analogy, it suggests that hegemony might become a recognized status in conditions of primacy. The English School approach abounds in paradoxes, such as its treatment of war. An English School theory of hegemony is no more paradoxical because it views hegemony both as a threat to international society, but also as a potential instrument for securing its own ends.Less
This chapter establishes the key working concept of hegemony: its adaptation of English School thinking to present it as a possible institution of international society. It reviews the unsystematic writings of Hedley Bull, Adam Watson, and Martin Wight on hegemony. It then tries to excavate a coherent concept from their other writings, mainly on the balance of power and the role of the great powers. Key to this approach is its acceptance of the role of recognition in the status of the great powers. By analogy, it suggests that hegemony might become a recognized status in conditions of primacy. The English School approach abounds in paradoxes, such as its treatment of war. An English School theory of hegemony is no more paradoxical because it views hegemony both as a threat to international society, but also as a potential instrument for securing its own ends.
Roy T. Cook
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Cook’s simple question belies a deep and careful exploration – and ultimately a refutation – of the “panel transparency thesis”: the premise that “characters, objects, events, and locations within ...
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Cook’s simple question belies a deep and careful exploration – and ultimately a refutation – of the “panel transparency thesis”: the premise that “characters, objects, events, and locations within the fictional world described by a comic appear, to characters within that fiction, as they are depicted within the panels of that comic.” By way of Kendall Watson’s explorations of “fictional truth,” Cook examines the Joker’s various physiognomies in print, suggesting that, “although the Joker cannot both have and not have six-inch teeth, there is nothing contradictory about imagining that he appears to us one way during one story and that he appears to us another way during another story.” Suggesting that, given the Joker’s “multiple choice” approach to outlining his origin story, we might best understand the rendering of the character to be always already a metaphorical act, Cook concludes counter-intuitively that “we in fact know almost nothing about the Joker’s appearance.”Less
Cook’s simple question belies a deep and careful exploration – and ultimately a refutation – of the “panel transparency thesis”: the premise that “characters, objects, events, and locations within the fictional world described by a comic appear, to characters within that fiction, as they are depicted within the panels of that comic.” By way of Kendall Watson’s explorations of “fictional truth,” Cook examines the Joker’s various physiognomies in print, suggesting that, “although the Joker cannot both have and not have six-inch teeth, there is nothing contradictory about imagining that he appears to us one way during one story and that he appears to us another way during another story.” Suggesting that, given the Joker’s “multiple choice” approach to outlining his origin story, we might best understand the rendering of the character to be always already a metaphorical act, Cook concludes counter-intuitively that “we in fact know almost nothing about the Joker’s appearance.”
Paul A. Dudchenko
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199210862
- eISBN:
- 9780191594199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199210862.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter provides an overview of early studies of spatial cognition, focusing on maze learning. It begins with a description of the first maze studies which were based on the Hampton Court maze. ...
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This chapter provides an overview of early studies of spatial cognition, focusing on maze learning. It begins with a description of the first maze studies which were based on the Hampton Court maze. Next, it considers behaviourism and its early proponent, John Watson. Watson and his colleagues argued that animals do not need vision or other senses to solve a maze, but rather rely on a sequence of well-learned motor responses, termed motor kinaesthesis. One of the challenges to this view comes from a series of studies on spatial learning by Edward Tolman and colleagues. Tolman argues that rats, in running through a maze, develop a representation of its entire layout. This he referred to as a cognitive map.Less
This chapter provides an overview of early studies of spatial cognition, focusing on maze learning. It begins with a description of the first maze studies which were based on the Hampton Court maze. Next, it considers behaviourism and its early proponent, John Watson. Watson and his colleagues argued that animals do not need vision or other senses to solve a maze, but rather rely on a sequence of well-learned motor responses, termed motor kinaesthesis. One of the challenges to this view comes from a series of studies on spatial learning by Edward Tolman and colleagues. Tolman argues that rats, in running through a maze, develop a representation of its entire layout. This he referred to as a cognitive map.
Paul Hurley
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199559305
- eISBN:
- 9780191721212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559305.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter harnesses Bernard Williams' classic alienation and integrity arguments against Smart's act utilitarian consequentialism in order to sharpen the challenge to consequentialism. The first ...
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This chapter harnesses Bernard Williams' classic alienation and integrity arguments against Smart's act utilitarian consequentialism in order to sharpen the challenge to consequentialism. The first Williams-inspired sharpening of the challenge is built upon his demonstration that the theory presupposes that rational agents have good non-impersonal lower-order reasons. Insofar as the impersonal standpoint makes any demands upon such a rational agent, such demands reflect an additional higher-order reason. Such a higher-order reason, however, is but one among the agent's reasons, and Gary Watson's work on higher-order desires allows us to see that there is no reason to accord such a higher-order reason any special place among the agent's reasons. The second Williams-inspired sharpening of the challenge builds upon his suggestion that among agents' lower-order reasons, the reasons properly taken into account in any higher-order ranking of states of affairs, are certain distinctively moral lower-order reasons: impersonal evaluation of states of affairs presupposes non-impersonal moral reasons, hence the impersonal standpoint is not the fundamental moral standpoint.Less
This chapter harnesses Bernard Williams' classic alienation and integrity arguments against Smart's act utilitarian consequentialism in order to sharpen the challenge to consequentialism. The first Williams-inspired sharpening of the challenge is built upon his demonstration that the theory presupposes that rational agents have good non-impersonal lower-order reasons. Insofar as the impersonal standpoint makes any demands upon such a rational agent, such demands reflect an additional higher-order reason. Such a higher-order reason, however, is but one among the agent's reasons, and Gary Watson's work on higher-order desires allows us to see that there is no reason to accord such a higher-order reason any special place among the agent's reasons. The second Williams-inspired sharpening of the challenge builds upon his suggestion that among agents' lower-order reasons, the reasons properly taken into account in any higher-order ranking of states of affairs, are certain distinctively moral lower-order reasons: impersonal evaluation of states of affairs presupposes non-impersonal moral reasons, hence the impersonal standpoint is not the fundamental moral standpoint.
Helga Drummond
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198289531
- eISBN:
- 9780191684722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198289531.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, HRM / IR
The first public sign that Project Taurus was in trouble came in January 1991 when implementation was postponed for six months, from October 1991 to April 1992. The delay was blamed upon the ...
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The first public sign that Project Taurus was in trouble came in January 1991 when implementation was postponed for six months, from October 1991 to April 1992. The delay was blamed upon the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) failure to produce the regulations in time. In May 1991, a reduced compensation fund of 100 million pounds was agreed with the DTI and the draft regulations duly published. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) Council had been dissolved and replaced by a board to give the LSE a more commercial ambience. Touche Ross was to undertake the building of Taurus but it was sacked from the project as part of cost-cutting. The delays put project manager John Watson under intense pressure. Chief executive Peter Rawlins also had his doubts and considered stopping the project, but the various reassurances he had received and his preoccupation with other matters led him to act against his better judgement.Less
The first public sign that Project Taurus was in trouble came in January 1991 when implementation was postponed for six months, from October 1991 to April 1992. The delay was blamed upon the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) failure to produce the regulations in time. In May 1991, a reduced compensation fund of 100 million pounds was agreed with the DTI and the draft regulations duly published. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) Council had been dissolved and replaced by a board to give the LSE a more commercial ambience. Touche Ross was to undertake the building of Taurus but it was sacked from the project as part of cost-cutting. The delays put project manager John Watson under intense pressure. Chief executive Peter Rawlins also had his doubts and considered stopping the project, but the various reassurances he had received and his preoccupation with other matters led him to act against his better judgement.
Ingmar Persson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199276905
- eISBN:
- 9780191603198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276900.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The possibility of akrasia or weakness of will, i.e., the phenomenon of agents acting against their best judgement or reasons, presents a problem for internalism. This chapter reviews and rejects a ...
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The possibility of akrasia or weakness of will, i.e., the phenomenon of agents acting against their best judgement or reasons, presents a problem for internalism. This chapter reviews and rejects a number of accounts of weakness of will by Donald Davidson, Christine Korsgaard, Alfred Mele, Gary Watson and others. It ends by providing an account weakness of will which is consistent with internalism, as acting against the best reasons that are dispositionally stored in the agent’s mind, but which fail to be causally operative by failing to become occurrent.Less
The possibility of akrasia or weakness of will, i.e., the phenomenon of agents acting against their best judgement or reasons, presents a problem for internalism. This chapter reviews and rejects a number of accounts of weakness of will by Donald Davidson, Christine Korsgaard, Alfred Mele, Gary Watson and others. It ends by providing an account weakness of will which is consistent with internalism, as acting against the best reasons that are dispositionally stored in the agent’s mind, but which fail to be causally operative by failing to become occurrent.
Michael Neill
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183860
- eISBN:
- 9780191674112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183860.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Death assumes a variety of guises in Hamlet. Robert Watson argues that Hamlet, like all revenge tragedies, embodies a fantasy of overcoming death, its perennially compelling power deriving from ‘the ...
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Death assumes a variety of guises in Hamlet. Robert Watson argues that Hamlet, like all revenge tragedies, embodies a fantasy of overcoming death, its perennially compelling power deriving from ‘the idea that revenge can symbolically restore us to life by defeating the agency of our death, conveniently localised in a villain’. Hamlet is a play that dramatises its hero's resistance to the entrapment of this all-too-familiar narrative – a resistance which is also William Shakespeare's, since the plot was among his givens, something with and against which he had to work. Ironically enough, however, Hamlet has become so much the best-known example of revenge tragedy, whose premisses it explores and questions, that it is difficult to recognize how significantly it reshaped the genre to which it belonged.Less
Death assumes a variety of guises in Hamlet. Robert Watson argues that Hamlet, like all revenge tragedies, embodies a fantasy of overcoming death, its perennially compelling power deriving from ‘the idea that revenge can symbolically restore us to life by defeating the agency of our death, conveniently localised in a villain’. Hamlet is a play that dramatises its hero's resistance to the entrapment of this all-too-familiar narrative – a resistance which is also William Shakespeare's, since the plot was among his givens, something with and against which he had to work. Ironically enough, however, Hamlet has become so much the best-known example of revenge tragedy, whose premisses it explores and questions, that it is difficult to recognize how significantly it reshaped the genre to which it belonged.
Michael E. Bratman
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195187717
- eISBN:
- 9780199893058
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195187717.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter revisits the important exchange between Harry G. Frankfurt and Gary Watson concerning the psychological structures involved in significant forms of free agency. It also aims to deepen ...
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This chapter revisits the important exchange between Harry G. Frankfurt and Gary Watson concerning the psychological structures involved in significant forms of free agency. It also aims to deepen the account of how to be a wholehearted, pluralist, self-governing agent by drawing on Joshua Cohen's interpretation of the Rawlsian “idea of reasonable pluralism.” It also develops further the central—and broadly Frankfurtian—claim that agential authority is a matter of the non-Platonic psychological role in the Lockean organization of our temporally extended agency. This is true even for those evaluative attitudes that both have agential authority and track the good: their agential authority derives from their non-Platonic psychological role. And the normal hierarchical structure of self-governing policies helps them play these Lockean organizing roles. This chapter treats the initial debate about desire, hierarchy, and value judgment as part of the debate about the psychological structures and forms of functioning that are central to human self-governance. Finally, it proposes an intention-based theory.Less
This chapter revisits the important exchange between Harry G. Frankfurt and Gary Watson concerning the psychological structures involved in significant forms of free agency. It also aims to deepen the account of how to be a wholehearted, pluralist, self-governing agent by drawing on Joshua Cohen's interpretation of the Rawlsian “idea of reasonable pluralism.” It also develops further the central—and broadly Frankfurtian—claim that agential authority is a matter of the non-Platonic psychological role in the Lockean organization of our temporally extended agency. This is true even for those evaluative attitudes that both have agential authority and track the good: their agential authority derives from their non-Platonic psychological role. And the normal hierarchical structure of self-governing policies helps them play these Lockean organizing roles. This chapter treats the initial debate about desire, hierarchy, and value judgment as part of the debate about the psychological structures and forms of functioning that are central to human self-governance. Finally, it proposes an intention-based theory.
Sherri Snyder
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813174259
- eISBN:
- 9780813174839
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813174259.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter further delineates multiple factors that will impact the character, behavior, and life of young Reatha Watson. Societal influences are examined, particularly those pertaining to the ...
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This chapter further delineates multiple factors that will impact the character, behavior, and life of young Reatha Watson. Societal influences are examined, particularly those pertaining to the imposition of Victorian restraints upon the American way of life and those culminating in society’s subsequent rebellion against and dismantling of such restraints. Reatha’s inherent personality traits are described. The effect of Reatha’s family (specifically her father, William, and mother, Rose) and their way of life upon her formative years is again touched upon. The beginning of Reatha’s education in a convent school is additionally highlighted, as it is during this time that her recurring ambition to become a nun first appears.Less
This chapter further delineates multiple factors that will impact the character, behavior, and life of young Reatha Watson. Societal influences are examined, particularly those pertaining to the imposition of Victorian restraints upon the American way of life and those culminating in society’s subsequent rebellion against and dismantling of such restraints. Reatha’s inherent personality traits are described. The effect of Reatha’s family (specifically her father, William, and mother, Rose) and their way of life upon her formative years is again touched upon. The beginning of Reatha’s education in a convent school is additionally highlighted, as it is during this time that her recurring ambition to become a nun first appears.
John E. Kelly and Steve Hamm
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231168564
- eISBN:
- 9780231537278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231168564.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
This coda suggests that machine cognition and human cognition are complementary. The opportunity presented by cognitive systems is not to replicate human cognition, but to use computers to help ...
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This coda suggests that machine cognition and human cognition are complementary. The opportunity presented by cognitive systems is not to replicate human cognition, but to use computers to help people to reason over human-created data—communications, documents, images, and designs. In a memo to IBM managers on April 25, 1960, CEO Thomas Watson Jr. addressed head-on the issue of “thinking machines.” He wrote: “Computers will never rob man of his initiative or replace the need for his creative thinking. By freeing man from the more menial or repetitive forms of thinking, computers will actually increase the opportunities for the full use of human reason. Only human beings can think imaginatively and creatively in the fullest sense of these words.” Ultimately, the alliance of human and machine has the potential to make life on earth more sustainable.Less
This coda suggests that machine cognition and human cognition are complementary. The opportunity presented by cognitive systems is not to replicate human cognition, but to use computers to help people to reason over human-created data—communications, documents, images, and designs. In a memo to IBM managers on April 25, 1960, CEO Thomas Watson Jr. addressed head-on the issue of “thinking machines.” He wrote: “Computers will never rob man of his initiative or replace the need for his creative thinking. By freeing man from the more menial or repetitive forms of thinking, computers will actually increase the opportunities for the full use of human reason. Only human beings can think imaginatively and creatively in the fullest sense of these words.” Ultimately, the alliance of human and machine has the potential to make life on earth more sustainable.
