1 Evidence-based policy requires researchers to provide the answers to ecological questions that are of interest to policy makers. To find out what those questions are in the UK, representatives from 28 organizations involved in policy, together with scientists from 10 academic institutions, were asked to generate a list of questions from their organizations. 2 During a 2-day workshop the initial list of 1003 questions generated from consulting at least 654 policy makers and academics was used as a basis for (...) generating a short list of 100 questions of significant policy relevance. Short-listing was decided on the basis of the preferences of the representatives from the policy-led organizations. 3 The areas covered included most major issues of environmental concern in the UK, including agriculture, marine fisheries, climate change, ecosystem function and land management. 4 The most striking outcome was the preference for general questions rather than narrow ones. The reason is that policy is driven by broad issues rather than specific ones. In contrast, scientists are frequently best equipped to answer specific questions. This means that it may be necessary to extract the underpinning specific question before researchers can proceed. 5 Synthesis and applications. Greater communication between policy makers and scientists is required in order to ensure that applied ecologists are dealing with issues in a way that can feed into policy. It is particularly important that applied ecologists emphasize the generic value of their work wherever possible. (shrink)

Biological ontologies are used to organize, curate, and interpret the vast quantities of data arising from biological experiments. While this works well when using a single ontology, integrating multiple ontologies can be problematic, as they are developed independently, which can lead to incompatibilities. The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies Foundry was created to address this by facilitating the development, harmonization, application, and sharing of ontologies, guided by a set of overarching principles. One challenge in reaching these goals was that the (...) OBO principles were not originally encoded in a precise fashion, and interpretation was subjective. Here we show how we have addressed this by formally encoding the OBO principles as operational rules and implementing a suite of automated validation checks and a dashboard for objectively evaluating each ontology’s compliance with each principle. This entailed a substantial effort to curate metadata across all ontologies and to coordinate with individual stakeholders. We have applied these checks across the full OBO suite of ontologies, revealing areas where individual ontologies require changes to conform to our principles. Our work demonstrates how a sizable federated community can be organized and evaluated on objective criteria that help improve overall quality and interoperability, which is vital for the sustenance of the OBO project and towards the overall goals of making data FAIR. Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. (shrink)

While the United States is an important Asia-Pacific actor, its engagement with the region is complex and often difficult. Not only must US regionalism balance the diverse requirements of an ambitious policy agenda, but also US policy norms and priorities often clash with those of other regional actors. This has important implications for the capacity of the United States to provide regional leadership. Recent years have seen growing policy convergence between the United States and other Asia-Pacific actors, particularly in economic (...) terms, but US regionalism continues to feature competition alongside collaboration. (shrink)

This is a moving human record of a quiet sage reflecting in the almost lost art of conversation upon the eternal topics of the human condition—history, science, religion, personality—ending with the frank admission: ‘This awareness of worth in human beings develops very early. Most attempts to formulate it in words fail... one always knew it when encountered. Truly, I may say to you that this is the only thing of any importance that I know; and, as you see, I cannot (...) communicate it.... Words do not express our deepest intuitions. In the very act of being verbalized they escape us’. (shrink)

Scholastic terminology, with roots in theology and the now largely unfamiliar Latin language, is a perpetual obstacle for the uninitiated and a potential cause of misunderstanding and cross-argument in communication with non-Scholastics. Yet if any jargon is legitimate, one tried by centuries of definition and discussion of fundamental problems has classic value and is a fit object of study in the modern mood of linguistic analysis. The present welcome addition to the English language is a compact collection of some 1,600 (...) common terms and phrases current in the general stream of Thomist Aristotelian philosophy. Its ideal is the crisp definition which the author’s pedagogical experience suggests is necessary to understand a general course of such philosophy. Choice of matter is practical, not exhaustive and makes no attempt to trace the diversity of historical usage. Occasionally a precise reference is given to the classic origin of its decisive definition, mainly to the works of Aristotle and St. Thomas and occasionally to Augustine, Boethius, Scotus and Suarez. For fuller information reference is also made to current Thomist monographs in English. (shrink)

Printed attractively for ready reference, this compact dictionary surveys some 650 key terms and doctrines of dogmatic theology, alphabetically arranged in articles which range from a few succinct lines of lucid non-pedantic language to ten pages of historico-doctrinal synthesis. Père Bouyer draws upon his mature knowledge of Scripture and Church teaching in a personal exposition of topical relevance, limiting his speculative references usually to the Summa theologiae of St Thomas, illuminated by his grasp of the historical evolution of theology. In (...) our age of religious aggiornamento laymen and students alike will welcome this synthetic introduction to the high topics of theological discussion, which a final systematic table logically relates to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed. (shrink)

This admirable study, the mature fruit of some twenty-five years’ meticulous reflection upon records, critical editions and their manuscript sources, decisively illuminates the human personality and life of an enigmatic genius of the late eleventh century, the most original intellect produced in the monastic life and one of the formative forces of the Anglo-Norman Church. Its distinctive approach is through Anselm’s intimate relationship with Eadmer, his Saxon biographer and monastic companion for the sixteen years he was Archbishop of Canterbury; but (...) its details include an analysis of the effect upon the Church of the Norman conquest of Britain, the first controversies between the Canterbury archbishops and the conquering kings, the mid-eleventh century burgeoning of speculative and spiritual writing and the gradual change of monastic life. (shrink)

This practical work, first published as the Compendium Theologiae Asceticae in Hong Kong 1921, was written by a Belgian Capuchin novice-master to guide Franciscan novices and religious in the practice of the spiritual life according to the simple ideals of St Francis. Aiming at the reformation of man’s soul from sin, to increase the life of Christ within oneself, it offers detailed counsels for self-control through custody of the senses, the appetites, the tongue, the will and the intellect. But the (...) practice of poverty does not prohibit the use of intelligence as an unnecessary luxury. St Bonaventure’s completion of the first Founder’s rule prescribes study to prevent idle aridity and to equip scientifically the Christian preacher. Thus he explains the Franciscan passage: ‘And those who are illiterate shall not be anxious to learn; but let them endeavour to have what is to be above all things desired, the spirit of the Lord and His holy operation’. (shrink)

This practical work, first published as the Compendium Theologiae Asceticae in Hong Kong 1921, was written by a Belgian Capuchin novice-master to guide Franciscan novices and religious in the practice of the spiritual life according to the simple ideals of St Francis. Aiming at the reformation of man’s soul from sin, to increase the life of Christ within oneself, it offers detailed counsels for self-control through custody of the senses, the appetites, the tongue, the will and the intellect. But the (...) practice of poverty does not prohibit the use of intelligence as an unnecessary luxury. St Bonaventure’s completion of the first Founder’s rule prescribes study to prevent idle aridity and to equip scientifically the Christian preacher. Thus he explains the Franciscan passage: ‘And those who are illiterate shall not be anxious to learn; but let them endeavour to have what is to be above all things desired, the spirit of the Lord and His holy operation’. (shrink)

These two handsome tomes, printed in double columns and bound with German thoroughness, introduce an impressive survey of the basic themes of Christian theology, which will be completed in six volumes and published simultaneously in five other European languages. A set of systematic essays in alphabetical order, they are translated from the original texts of expert contributors for whom the Catholic tradition of theological thinking has been expanded by Vatican Council II beyond a juridically controlled scholasticism and whose broadly concordant (...) views do not exclude individual differences in articulating individual problems. The disciplined study today of the authentic sources of Christian truth is salted with an unsanctimonious awareness of the personal problems posed by life and thought in a changing world. The Editors’ General Preface confesses that present-day developments in theological investigation may be characterized as. (shrink)

These two handsome tomes, printed in double columns and bound with German thoroughness, introduce an impressive survey of the basic themes of Christian theology, which will be completed in six volumes and published simultaneously in five other European languages. A set of systematic essays in alphabetical order, they are translated from the original texts of expert contributors for whom the Catholic tradition of theological thinking has been expanded by Vatican Council II beyond a juridically controlled scholasticism and whose broadly concordant (...) views do not exclude individual differences in articulating individual problems. The disciplined study today of the authentic sources of Christian truth is salted with an unsanctimonious awareness of the personal problems posed by life and thought in a changing world. The Editors’ General Preface confesses that present-day developments in theological investigation may be characterized as. (shrink)

This is a newly-revised edition of a French work, which originally appeared in 1930 as “a kind of Thomist manifesto, especially directed to the French Catholic public”. Apart from those who do not share M. Maritain’s religious faith, some may reject the confessedly “youthful emphasis and rhetoric” with which this very personal introduction to the basic verities of his intellectual life is warmly presented. Yet M. Maritain can claim truly to be a pioneer in the “great historic novelty” of making (...) the rediscovered basic insights of Thomas Aquinas “emerge, from a school tradition restricted to the intellectual preparation of clerics, into the open and global compass of contemporary thought”. (shrink)

This admirable volume is the first book of a new translation of the Summa Contra Gentiles by the general editor, Dr. Pegis. Made from the manual Leonine text of 1934, the closest critical edition of St. Thomas, it is meticulously presented with precise references to sources, a concise analysis of argument and a double index of matters and authors. The translation has a clear simplicity which systematically denies itself any attempt to improve the original text: the editor properly thinks it (...) his “business to set down what St. Thomas said, not what he meant” and, therefore, resists the urge to clarify or interpret by personal additions to his statement. The resulting version is so literally faithful that it incorporates some Latin words bodily into the English language. Thus, Ch. 14 is headed: “That to Know God We Must Use the Way of Remotion”. The fifty years’ old version of Fr. Joseph Rickaby has the flowery heading: “That in order to a Knowledge of God we must use the Method of Negative Differentiation”. The new translation is obviously closer to the simple original but its self-discipline tends to sacrifice native idiom and may affront or bewilder the literary reader. (shrink)

The contemporary secular student approaching the traditional summit of philosophy, like a candidate approaching an exalted political office, is troubled by the question: ‘Is its future now behind it?’ Seven centuries ago an over-loyal witness to the virtue of St. Thomas anticipated the question with a hyperbolic flourish: “in fine conclusit, quod idem Fr. Thomas in scripturis suis imposuit finem omnibus laborantibus usque ad finem saeculi, et quod omnes deinceps frustra laborarent”. He was promptly contradicted by lively divisions within Scholasticism (...) itself and later by the unexpected and rich development of secular philosophies, whose wars have ended by generating a general suspicion of the validity and position of metaphysics itself. The problem now is to restore a respected significance to that surviving science, as is bluntly stated by Dr. Owens: “the difficulty to-day for metaphysics is to take even the first step toward a proper place in the advanced and complicated culture which is ours”. (shrink)