This chapter contains section titled: “How Is That Fair? How Is That in Any Way Fair?” “We Make Our Own Laws Now, Our Own Justice” “The Shape of Things to Come?” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: Cylons and the Capacity for Reason Cylons and Mental States Cylons and Language Cylons and Social Relationships Do We Have a Plan? Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “A Holdover from the Cylon Wars” The Resurrection Ship The Limit on Cylon Intelligence “The Cylons Send No One” “The Shape of Things to Come” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “Life is a Testament to Pain”: Suffering, Ignorance, and Interdependent Arising “All of This Has Happened Before…”: Karma and Rebirth “How Could Anyone Fall in Love with a Toaster?” Cylons as Persons? Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “We Must Survive, and We Will Survive”—But How? “Death Becomes a Learning Experience” “I Am Sharon and That's Part of What You Need to Understand” “It's Not Enough Just to Survive”—Or Is It? Notes.

The question of personal identity—what makes a person the same person over time—is puzzling. Through the course of a life, someone might undergo a dramatic alteration in personality, radically change her values, lose almost all of her memories, and undergo significant changes in her physical appearance. Given all of these potential changes, why should we be inclined to regard her as the same person? Battlestar Galactica presents us with an even bigger puzzle: What makes a Cylon the same (...) class='Hi'>Cylon over time? There are only twelve different models, but there are many copies of each. So what makes the resurrected Caprica Six the same Cylon as the one who seduced Gaius Baltar into betraying humanity, and yet a different Cylon from the tortured Gina or Shelly Godfrey? (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Master Morality and Slave Morality Escaping Slavery by Creating Souls The Spiritual Move from Slave to Equal “They Have a Plan” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “A More Meaningful Impact” “Desperate People Take Desperate Measures” “An Extension of the Cylons' Corporeal Authority” “We're Gonna Be There, Tyin' the Knots, Makin' 'em Tight” “A New Day Requires New Thinking” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “You're Right. There's No Earth. It's All a Legend” “I'm Not a Cylon!…Maybe, But We Just Can't Take That Chance” “You Have to Have Something to Live For. Let it be Earth” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: The Good Life: Booze, Pills, Hot and Cold Running Interns? “Be the Best Machines (and Humans) the Universe Has Ever Seen” “Be Ready to Fight or You Dishonor the Reason Why We're Here” “Each of Us Plays a Role. Each Time a Different Role” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “We're in the Middle of a War, and You're Taking Orders from a Schoolteacher?” “While the Chain of Command is Strict, It is Not Heartless. And Neither Am I” Helo's Halo: Can Genocide Ever be Justified? “It's Not Enough to Survive. One Has to be Worthy of Surviving” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “I Don't Have to Listen. I'm the President” “Are You Alive?” Notes.

This article considers the state of research on the two-way relationship of causation between politics and war in ancient Athens from the attempted coup of Cylon in 632 BC to the violent overthrow of its democracy by the Macedonians in 322. Also canvassed is how a closer integration of Ancient History and Political Science can enhance the research of each discipline into the important problem of democracy's effect on war- making. Classical Athens is well known for its full development (...) of popular politics and its cultural revolution, which clearly was a dependent variable of the democracy. By contrast, few are aware of its contemporaneous military revolution, which saw the classical Athenians intensify the waging of war and gain an unrivalled record of military success and innovation. Although a prima facie case exists for these military changes being due to popular government, ancient historians have conducted very little research on the impact of democracy on war. In the last decade our discipline has also witnessed the collapse of the longstanding understanding of the affect of military changes on political developments in ancient Greece, which means we can no longer explain why Athenian democracy emerged and was consolidated during the classical period. For the sake of ameliorating this situation the article proposes new directions and a social-science approach for research into the military and non-military causes of Athenian democratisation and the relative effect of Athenian democracy on warfare. At a time when established democracies face complex challenges of foreign policy such research into the case study of ancient Athens is of real contemporary relevancy. (shrink)

This article considers the state of research on the two-way relationship of causation between politics and war in ancient Athens from the attempted coup of Cylon in 632 BC to the violent overthrow of its democracy by theMacedonians in 322. Also canvassed is how a closer integration of Ancient History and Political Science can enhance the research of each discipline into the important problem of democracy’s effect on war-making. Classical Athens is well known for its full development of popular (...) politics and its cultural revolution, which clearly was a dependent variable of the democracy. By contrast, few are aware of its contemporaneous military revolution, which saw the classical Athenians intensify the waging of war and gain an unrivalled record of military success and innovation. Although a prima facie case exists for these military changes being due to popular government, ancient historians have conducted very little research on the impact of democracy on war. In the last decade our discipline has also witnessed the collapse of the longstanding understanding of the affect of military changes on political developments in ancient Greece, which means we can no longer explain why Athenian democracy emerged and was consolidated during the classical period. For the sake of ameliorating this situation the article proposes new directions and a social-science approach for research into the military and non-military causes of Athenian democratisation and the relative effect of Athenian democracy on warfare. At a time when established democracies face complex challenges of foreign policy such research into the case study of ancient Athens is of real contemporary relevancy. (shrink)

This thought-provoking book examines the philosophical issues arising from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, revealing how the ragtag fleet's outward journey to Earth is also an inward exploration for the human survivors and their Cylon pursuers.

This chapter contains section titled: “Red, You're an Evil Cylon” “You Can't Fight Destiny”—or Can You? Manichaean “Sleeper Agents” “A Broken Machine Who Thinks She's Human” Will the Real Boomer Please Stand Up? “We Should Just Go Our Separate Ways” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: Should We Stay or Should We Go Now? Frak the Numbers! Saving Starbuck? The Mark of Cain “Evil Men in the Gardens of Paradise?” Sacrifice Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “We Are All Playing Our Parts” “God Has a Plan for You, Gaius” “Out of the Box Is Where I Live” “It's Time to Make Your Choice” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: Peirce and Adama: Hopeful Pragmatism James and Roslin: Religious Hope Apollo and Tyrol: Social Hope Hope vs. Fear “A Flawed Creation” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “If This Is the Work of a Higher Power, Then They Have One Hell of a Sense of Humor” “I Am God” Giving Oneself Over to God “Could There Be A Connection…?” Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “One Must Die to Know the Truth” “Prayer to the Cloud of Unknowing” Bored, as in Really Bored The Boxing of D'Anna Biers Notes.

This chapter contains section titled: “A Rational Universe Explained Through Rational Means” “That Is Sin. That Is Evil. And You Are Evil” “You Have a Gift, Kara… And I'm Not Gonna Let You Piss That Away” “The Gods Shall Lift Those Who Lift Each Other” “You Have to Believe in Something” Notes.