This book examines how different individuals approach and manage endings and beginnings in the life cycle from babyhood to old age and what helps or hinders them to learn from these experiences.

Experiencing Endings and Beginnings highlights the emotional turmoil which, to a greater or lesser extent, accompanies the changes we experience throughout life. It considers the nature of the anxieties aroused by a new situation, changes in our circumstances, beginnings, and endings of relationships, gains and losses and the ending of a previous state throughout the lifespan. Endings and beginnings are shown to be closely related, for every new situation entered into, more often than not, involves having to let go of (...) some of the advantages of the previous one as well as losing what is familiar and facing fear of the unknown. Isca Wittenberg shows how all these aspects of change evoke primitive anxieties, stemming from our earliest experiences of coming into this world. The book considers life changes including birth and weaning, going to nursery and school, beginning work, marriage, parenthood, and retirement, with reference to clinical examples. This revised edition includes a new chapter by the author examining advanced old age. Experiencing Endings and Beginnings will be essential reading for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in practice and in training. It will also be of great interest to other professionals and to readers interested in understanding change across the lifespan. (shrink)

This article aims to clarify and expand our conceptual repertoire for understanding domestic violence and abuse by making legible different characteristic harms, particularly those that cannot be made sense of in terms of physical harm. Sections 2 and 3 of this article review popular understandings of the harms of domestic violence and abuse. These often emphasize either (a) pain and suffering or (b) the loss of capacities for self-governance as characteristic harms of domestic violence and abuse. In its second half, (...) this article argues that domestic violence and abuse characteristically involve yet another harm to the victim, one that cannot neatly be explained in terms of hedonistic welfare or concerns for a victim's capacities for self-governance. More specifically, this article argues that through the characteristic social isolation of domestic violence and abuse, perpetrators alienate victims from what motivationally roots them to the world. Although relationships that motivationally root us to the world might make us fundamentally dependent on others and can cause us great pain, they nevertheless play a profoundly valuable role in our lives by giving us reasons to go on living. (shrink)

This article charts the broad and transforming effects of the European Enlightenment and the Jewish Haskalah on Zionism and on modern Israel’s government, judiciary, and political discourse. It tra...

Mindfulness, as the word is commonly used in contemporary meditation teaching, refers to both being aware of our present moment's experience, and relating to that experience without grasping, aversion or delusion. All three habitual tendencies distort our perception of what is happening, and lead us to futile and misguided efforts to deny or control our experience. Loving-kindness is a quality of the heart that recognizes how connected we all are. Loving-kindness is essentially a form of inclusiveness of caring, rather than (...) categorizing others in terms of those whom we care for and those who can be easily excluded, ignored or disdained. Any reduction in our tendency to fall into attachment, aversion or delusion helps refine and expand the force of loving-kindness. A deepening of insight will inevitably include seeing how all of our lives are inextricably interconnected. The diminishing of grasping, aversion and delusion and the increase in insight are both reasons mindfulness naturally leads us to greater loving-kindness. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that victims of domestic violence characteristically suffer from two distinct kinds of moral harm: moral damage and moral injury. Moral damage occurs when the ability to develop or sustain good moral character has been compromised by an agent’s circumstances. Moral injury refers to a kind of psychological anguish that follows from when an agent causes or becomes causally implicated in actions that we ordinarily would understand to be morally grievous offenses because of their circumstances. A (...) person can experience moral damage or moral injury separately, but the experiences of moral damage and moral injury can also overlap. Because abusers often expect victims to adopt morally deficient dispositions and often implicate victims in wrongdoing, I argue that victims of domestic violence characteristically suffer from both moral damage and moral injury. By appreciating the different yet overlapping moral experiences of the victim, we become better positioned to identify strategies for responding to and repairing the different harms they suffer. (shrink)

Complexity is pleased to announce the installment of Prof Hiroki Sayama as its new Chief Editor. In this Editorial, Prof Sayama describes his feelings about his recent appointment, discusses some of the journal’s journey and relevance to current issues, and shares his vision and aspirations for its future.

At a university where demand for an introductory ethics course is huge and spans many disciplines, it is challenging to achieve the appropriate degree of generality such that many students could take the course as their single exposure to ethics while others would find it sufficiently challenging and interesting to continue in philosophy. This paper discusses the considerations that led to a course focused on “expert ethical discourse.” Directed to a primarily non-traditional student body, this course aims for analytical skills (...) that are highly relevant to students’ lives. Its goal is thus closer to “ethical literacy” than familiarity with the Western ethical canon (e.g. Aristotle, Kant, Mill). Taking seriously a number of feminist and post-modernist criticisms applicable to traditional ethics courses, “Ethical Inquiry” seeks to introduce students to dominant discourses on ethics (those which are highly influential on how people think and talk about ethics). Most of these discourses belong to disciplines other than philosophy, but the course uses philosophical tools for understanding and critiquing them, resembling a “moral critical theory” approach. After recounting faculty objections to this approach, the author reviews the course’s texts, how each discourse’s limits were approached, and the benefits and drawbacks of each text in the classroom. (shrink)

Dieses Buches zeigt auf, dass Arendt mit ihrem Spatwerk eine profunde Konzeption des menschlichen Selbst vorlegt, die sich in einer Traditionslinie mit den Selbstkonzeptionen von Kierkegaard, Jaspers und Heidegger befindet. Diese Ansatze nimmt Arendt auf, erweitert und gestaltet sie aber auch in bedeutender Weise zu einem ganz eigenstandigen Ansatz um, indem sie in phanomenologischer Manier die Konstitutionsbedingungen dieses Selbst aufzeigt, das als ein Umgangsverhaltnis mit sich aus dem Umgang mit Anderen hervorgeht. Aus diesem wechselseitigen Bedingungsgefuge folgt fur Arendt ein narratives (...) Selbstverhaltnis mit ethischen Konsequenzen: Kein Mensch hat das Recht, Verantwortung an Andere abzugeben, jeder Mensch kann sich fragen, was er selbst zu seiner Geschichte machen mochte und was nicht. (shrink)

What are the semantic representations that underlie language production? We use structural priming to distinguish between two competing theories. Thematic roles define semantic structure in terms of atomic units that specify event participants and are ordered with respect to each other through a hierarchy of roles. Event structures instead instantiate semantic structure as embedded sub‐predicates that impose an order on verbal arguments based on their relative positioning in these embeddings. Across two experiments, we found that priming for datives depended on (...) the degree of overlap in event structures. Specifically, while all dative structures showed priming, due to common syntax, there was a boost for compositional datives priming other compositional datives. Here, the two syntactic forms have distinct event structures. In contrast, there was no boost in priming for dative light verbs, where the two forms map onto a single event representation. On the thematic roles hypothesis, we would have expected a similar degree of priming for the two cases. Thus, our results support event structural approaches to semantic representation and not thematic roles. (shrink)

Introduction: Time travel and the mechanics of narrative -- Macrological fictions: evolutionary utopia and time travel (1887-1905) -- Historical interval I: the first time travel story -- Relativity, psychology, paradox: Wertenbaker to Heinlein (1923-1941) -- Historical interval II: three phases of time travel--the time machine -- The big time: multiple worlds, narrative viewpoint, and superspace -- Paradox and paratext: picturing narrative theory -- Theoretical interval: the primacy of the visual in time travel narrative -- Viewpoint-over-histories: narrative conservation in Star Trek (...) -- Oedipus multiplex, or, the subject as a time travel film: Back to the future -- Conclusion: The last time travel story. (shrink)

Elected politicians—legislators and, in some systems, members of the executive—can choose to exercise authority themselves or to delegate that authority to any number of agencies. Such delegation of power can occur at the constitutional stage, but is most common at the post-constitutional stage. Two categories of delegation can be distinguished: domestic delegation to agencies within the legislators’ jurisdiction, and international delegation to supranational or international bodies. While some research has been done on domestic delegation, especially in the context of delegation (...) to administrative agencies in the U.S., as well as on delegation to supranational bodies, especially with regard to the E.U., these activities have not been analyzed within a unified framework. This paper attempts to inquire into these issues and provide a general picture of the decision-making process regarding whether to delegate authority and to which body to transfer the authority. The past decade has been a period of rapid change in Central and Eastern Europe. Almost all of these countries have either passed entirely new constitutions or substantially modified the old ones. This is a unique situation in which constitutional delegation of powers can be performed almost simultaneously with post-constitutional delegation. The constitutional process in Israel is very different. It has been underway for fifty years. However, it can also be characterized by simultaneous constitutional and post-constitutional choices. In this paper, we examine such delegation choices in nine countries. We describe the main differences among these countries with regard to delegation of power, try to trace their origins and analyze their effects on delegation of powers. One question raised is what are the ramifications of a quasi-simultaneous constitutional and post-constitutional choice? Have constitutional rules been chosen in anticipation of the necessary compatibility with the rules of international organizations that one wants to join? Has membership in international organizations led to a boost in credibility of those governments concerned? (shrink)

L'auteur discute le critérium de la supériorité biologique. Il voit ce critérium dans la mesure, dans laquelle un être vivant est capable d'explorer et d'exploiter le milieu; c'est-à-dire la capacité de se créer les conditions internes nécessaires, les conditions externes étant données. Cette capacité devient plus grande au fur et à mesure que les êtres gagnent une indépendence relative envers le mileu, par le développement de l'homéostasie.Pour pouvoir réagir d'une manière plus efficace envers les facteurs du milieu, il est nécessaire (...) que les fonctions de l'organisme soient plus précises. Cette précision est dimensionnelle et quantitative . L'auteur discute en détail seulement l'aspect de la précision dimensionnelle des fonctions, considérant celle-ci comme la mesure proprement dite de l'évolution morpho-physiologique.Il montre, que le coté spacial-morphologique et celui temporel-physiologique de cette évolution sont non seulement parallèles, mais encore analogues selon leur nature: sous les deux aspects, l'évolution signifie une augmentation de la complexité, une réduction des dimensions relatives des éléments composants; sous l'aspect physiologique, cela veut dire une augmentation de la vitesse des processus. Dans cette augmentation des vitesses voit l'auteur l'aspect physiologique de l'évolution du monde animal.On discute ensuite le problème des dimensions relatives: du „temps propre“ et de l'„espace propre“.En conclusion, l'auteur montre l'insuffisance des études comparatives morphologiques pour élucider la marche de l'évolution, le progrès biologique. L'évolution a de même un aspect physiologique, aussi important que celui morphologique. Seulement l'étude combinée des deux aspects permettra les recherches précises, quantitatives sur l'évolution.Der Verfasser bespricht das Kriterium der biologischen Superiorität ; er sieht dieses Kriterium in dem Mass, in dem ein Lebewesen fähig ist die Umwelt zu erforschen und auszunützen, d.h. sich die nötigen inneren Bedingungen an Hand der äusseren Bedingungen zu schaffen. Das Wachsen dieser Fähigkeit ist mit dem allmählichen Erlangen einer relativen Unabhängigkeit der Lebewesen der Umwelt gegenüber, durch die Entwicklung der Homöostasie, verbunden.Damit die Reaktionen der Lebewesen auf die Umweltsfaktoren möglichst wirksam sind, ist eine grösstmögliche Genauigkeit der Funktionen erforderlich. Diese Genauigkeit ist dimensionell und quantitativ . Der Verfasser bespricht ausführlich nur den dimensionellen Genauigkeitsaspekt der Funktionen, da er diesen als das eigentliche Mass der morpho-physiologischen Evolution betrachtet. Er zeigt, dass zwischen der räumlich-morphologischen und der zeitlichphysiologischen Seite dieser Evolution nicht nur ein Parallelismus besteht, sondern auch eine Wesensanalogie: beide Aspekte der Evolution bedeuten eine Steigerung der Komplexität, eine Verkleinerung der relativen Dimensionen der zusammensetzenden Elemente; vom physiologischen Standpunkte aus, bedeutet dieses eine Geschwindigkeitssteigerung der Vorgänge. In dieser Geschwindigkeitssteigerung, die in der phylogenetischen Reihe vor allem auf dem Gebiete der „animalische“ Funktionen festgestellt wurde, sieht der Verfasser den physiologischen Aspekt der Tierweltevolution.Dann wird das Problem der relativen Dimensionen besprochen: der „eigenen Zeit“ und des „eigenen Raumes“.Abschliessend, zeigt der Verfasser, dass die vergleichenden morphologischen Studien nicht genügen um den Gang der Evolution, den biologischen Fortschritt, zu klären. Die Evolution hat auch seinen physiologischen Aspekt, der genau so wichtig ist wie der morphologische. Nur das gleichzeitige Studium beider Aspekte wird eine genaue, quantitative Erforschung der Evolution ermöglichen.The author discusses the criterion of the biological superiority ; he sees this criterion in the measure in which a being is able to explore and to make use of its environment, that means to create for itself the necessary internal conditions on account of the external ones. The increase of this capacity is dependent of a gradual gaining of a relative independence of the beings towards the environment, by the development of homoiostasy.In order that the reactions towards the factors of the environment shall be more efficatious, a greater precision of the functions is necessary. This precision is dimensional and quantitative . The author discusses in detail only the aspect of the dimensional precision of the functions, meaning that this is the real measure of the morpho-physiological evolution. He shows that between the spatial-morphological aspect of this evolution and the temporal-physiological one there is not only a parallelism, but an analogy of nature: under the two aspects evolution means an increase of complexity, a reduction of relative dimensions of component elements; under physiological aspect this means an increase of the speed of processes. In this increase of speed the author views the physiological aspect of the evolution of the animal kingdom.Than the problem of relative dimensions is discussed: of the “own time” and “own space”.In conclusion the author shows that comparative morphological studies are not sufficient to elucidate the way of evolution, the biological progress. Evolution also has a physiological aspect, as important as the morphological one. Only the concomitent study of both aspects will permit a precise, quantitative research on evolution. (shrink)

RésuméLes tentatives modernes entreprises pour fonder définitivement les mathématiques ont mis à nu la situation suivante:si l'on essaie d'éliminer les antinomies et les concepts «trop forts» de la théorie des ensembles tout en conservant un point de vue platonicien analogue au point de vue classique, on est forcé de recourir à des restrictions motivées de façon purement dogmatique;si, d'autre part, l'on essaie d'adopter un point de vue formaliste intégral, on se heurte à la nécessité d'envisager des «vérités platoniciennes» relatives aux (...) systèmes formels;enfin l'essai hilbertien d'envisager la théorie de ces systèmes formels comme une théorie d'objets concrètement donnés ne tient visiblement pas compte des réalités.Il s'ensuit que les méthodes usuelles de la théorie moderne des fondements des mathématiques ne permettent pas d'accéder à un point de vue objectif sans cornposante dogmatique — ceci pour des raisons de méthode primaires par rapport aux détails des solutions proposées.Il est alors nécessaire d'envisager un type tout à fait différent de théorie des fondements des mathématiques. La réflexion mathématique sur des objets abstraits apparaît comme une donnée épistémologique qu'il faut étudier en tant que telle — antérieurement à toute interprétation, platonicienne ou autre. Une telle étude partira de la constatation que par le fait même de disposer de certains concepts, nous disposons de certaines connaissances. Elle cherchera à faire une étude épistémologique de celles‐ci.Cette façon de poser le problème déborde nécessairement le cadre des mathématiques. Elle nous réfère à une étude épistémologique du langage.SummaryThe modern attempts to establish a deflnitive foundation for mathematics have laid bare the following situation:if one tries to eliminate the antinomies and the 6 very strong R concepts of set theory whilst preserving a Platonist standpoint analogous to the classical one, one is obliged to establish restrictions that are justified only by dogmatic reasons;on the other hand if one tries to maintain a purely formalist point of view, one finds oneself confronted with the necessity of introducing «platonic truths» with respect to the formal systems;finally the Hilbertian attempt to build the theory of these systems as a theory of concretely given objects is obviously not based on facts.The consequence of all this is that the usual methods in the foundations of mathematics do not enable us to reach apurely objective standpoint devoid of dogmatic components. ‐ The reason for this lies in questions of method which are of a primary nature as compared with the details of the various solutions that have been brought forth.This entails the necessity of taking into account quite a different type of theory for the foundations of mathematics. Mathematical reflection about abstract objects appears as an epistemological dafum that ought to be studied on its own account ‐ previous to any interpretation, Platonist or not. The starting‐point of such a study will be the fact that merely by disposing of certain concepts we dispose already of a certain knowledge. Its object will be an epistemological study of this knowledge.This way of posing the problem necessarily takes us beyond the limits of a purely mathematical‐logical investigation; it refers us to an epistemological investigation of human language. (shrink)

The stable differentiation of cells into other cell types typically involves dramatic reorganization of cellular structures and functions. This often includes remodeling of the cell cycle and the apparatus that controls it. Here we review our understanding of the role and regulation of cell cycle control elements during cell differentiation in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although the process of differentiation may be more overtly obvious in metazoan organisms, those systems are by nature more difficult to study at a mechanistic level. (...) We consider the relatively well‐understood mechanisms by which mating‐type switching and the pheromone‐induced differentiation of gametes are coupled to the cell cycle as well as the more obscure mechanisms that govern the remodeling of the cell cycle during meiosis and filamentous growth. In some cases, the cell cycle is a primary stimulus for differentiation whereas, in other cases, the signals that promote differentiation alter the cell cycle. Thus, despite relative simplicity of these processes in yeast, the nature of the interplay between the cell cycle and differentiation is diverse. BioEssays 25:856–867, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Philosophers have almost always relegated the topic of revision to the sidelines of their discipline, if they have thought about it at all. This book contends that acts of revision are central and indispensable to the project of philosophizing and that philosophy should be construed essentially as a practice of rereading and rewriting. The book focuses chiefly on Heidegger's highly influential interpretation of Nietzsche, conducted in lectures during the 1930s and 1940s and published in 1961. The author closely analyzes the (...) rhetorical means by which Heidegger repositions Nietzsche's thinking within a broad history of metaphysics, even as Heidegger positions his own reinterpretation as that history's more 'proper' reading. In addition to being the first book-length published study of Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche, the book also examines the work of Hans-Robert Jauss, Harold Bloom, and other critics of revision. (shrink)

The author assumes that the biological evolution must reflect itself also in the energetic processes of the organism. Several concept are discussed, in view of a characterization of the energetic economy of the organism. Two of these are thought to have particular significance related to evolution: the energetic efficiency and the capacity for energetic production . E is the ratio of the performed useful work to the amount of energy “spent”; P is the ratio of the performed useful work to (...) the product of the mass of the living system and time. An evolution of both E and P during the animal phylogenesis is assumed. The evolution of E is generally evident at the level of more elementary metabolic processes, while that of P at the level of more complex functions or of the organism as a whole. In many cases, the increase of P is associated with a decrease of E. The main evolutionary feature of biological energetic economy is the increase of the capacity for energetic production. This holds true even if the increase of P can be achieved only at the expense of a reduction of the energetic efficiency, of a “waste” of energy, especially in the most highly developed systems of the organism.L'évolution biologique doit se refléter, selon l'avis de l'auteur, aussi dans les processus énergétiques de l'organisme. On discute quelques notions qui pourraient caractériser l'économie énergétique de celui-ci. Deux de celles-ci ont une signification évolutive particulière: le rendement énergétique et la capacité de production énergétique . E est le rapport du travail util effectué à la quantité d'énergie “dépensée”; P est le rapport du travail util effectué au produit de la masse du système vivant avec de le temps. L'auteur considère qu'il y a une évolution des deux grandeurs au cours de la phylogénèse animale. L'évolution d'E se manifeste spécialement au niveau des processus métaboliques élémentaires, tandis que celle de P au niveau des fonctions plus complexes ou de l'organisme entier. Dans beaucoup de cas, l'accroissement de P entraîne une diminution de E. Le trait évolutif principal de l'énergétique biologique c'est l'accroissement de la capacité de production énergétique, même si cela suppose une réduction du rendement, une “dissipation” d'énergie, surtout dans les systèmes les plus développés de l'organisme.Die biologische Evolution soll sich, nach dem Erachten des Verfassers, auch in den energetischen Vorgange des Organismus kundtun. Es werden einige Begriffe erörtert, welche den Energiehaushalt des Organismus kennzeichnen können. Zwei von diesen Begriffen haben eine besondere entwicklungsgeschichtliche Bedeutung: die energetische Leistung und das Vermögen zur Energieproduktion . E ist das Verhältnis der geleisteten nützlichen Arbeit zur verbrauchten Energiemenge; P ist das Verhältnis der nützlichen Arbeit zum Produkt von Masse des lebenden Systems und Zeit. Der Verfasser ist der Meinung, dass es eine Evolution von E und P während der tierischen Phylogenesis gäbe. Die Evolution von E äussert sich meist in der Ebene der elementaren metabolischen Vorgänge, hingegen die von P an komplexeren Funktionen. In zahlreichen Fällen, vermindert E während P wächst. Die evolutive Grundzug der biologischen Energetik ist das Anwachsen der Fähigkeit zur Energieproduktion, sogar wenn dieses nur auf Kosten einer Verminderung der energetischen Leistung, einer „Vergeudung“ der Energie verwirklichen kann. (shrink)