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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Tzachi Zamir, Ethics And The Beast: A Speciesist Argument For Animal Liberation, Robert C. Jones Nov 2009

Tzachi Zamir, Ethics And The Beast: A Speciesist Argument For Animal Liberation, Robert C. Jones

Robert C. Jones, PhD

No abstract provided.


Fear And Projection As Root Causes Of War, And The Archetypal Energies "Trust" And "Peace" As Antidotes, Carroy U. Ferguson Sep 2009

Fear And Projection As Root Causes Of War, And The Archetypal Energies "Trust" And "Peace" As Antidotes, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

I want to use this opportunity to discuss a phenomenon that continues to plague the human experience. It is called the game of war. War is perhaps the deadliest game that humanity has created. The conflict itself represents what appears to be opposing views about the way things should be. Each side believes that it is right and that its actions are justified. Each side therefore seeks to impose its views on the other or to defend its views against the other. Each side fears the other as an enemy and each side projects its fears onto its perceived “enemy.”


"Applying Carl Schmitt To Global Puzzles: Identity, Conflict And The Friend/Enemy Antithesis,", Emma R. Norman Aug 2009

"Applying Carl Schmitt To Global Puzzles: Identity, Conflict And The Friend/Enemy Antithesis,", Emma R. Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper demonstrates the broad appeal and usefulness of the political and legal thought of Carl Schmitt to scholars of international relations by applying his seminal friend-enemy antithesis to current global problems as well as to current IR theories used to negotiate them. I argue that Schmitt’s contemporary appeal lies, first, in his insistence that collective identity is necessarily formed through conflict (enmity); and second, that identity lies at the very base of what motivates behavior on the international stage (at the sub-national, national and transnational levels). By implication, Schmitt’s theories offer some fresh insights into the sources and nature …


Violence And Deprivation: Arendt And The Pervasiveness Of Superfluous Life, Emma Norman Mar 2009

Violence And Deprivation: Arendt And The Pervasiveness Of Superfluous Life, Emma Norman

Emma R. Norman

This paper emerges from, and engages with, the current proliferation of discussions concerning Arendt’s views on sovereignty, humanity, and superfluousness. Tracing some of the different strands of her notion of human superfluousness, I look at how the exclusion and deprivation inherent in the idea of superfluousness is reflected in, and illuminated by, contemporary questions surrounding stateless persons, and several key experiences of terrorism. I argue that the strong and radical connections this notion has with Arendt´s concept of violence deserve more emphasis than it has hitherto received. For the link between superfluousness and the biopolitical ‘administration of bare lives’ undertaken …


Ethics, Evolution, And Games Among Neighbors, Ted C. Bergstrom Mar 2009

Ethics, Evolution, And Games Among Neighbors, Ted C. Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

Several similar maxims, known as "Golden Rules" are found in the writings of moral philosophers and religious teachers. Though similar, these maxims appeal to di#11;fferent principles; and do not always recommend the same actions nor lead to the same equilibrium outcome in interactive games. This paper examines some of these rules and explores the way that they may emerge as a result of biological or social evolution.


Strategy, Meta-Strategy, And Anti-Capitalist Activism, Stephen J. D'Arcy Dec 2008

Strategy, Meta-Strategy, And Anti-Capitalist Activism, Stephen J. D'Arcy

Stephen D'Arcy

Whereas Marxism is a theory, or rather a cluster of theories, Leninism is something else: a political strategy. And as Lenin himself pointed out, strategies are neither true nor false, but only effective nor ineffective, depending largely on the context within which they are carried out. In the context of contemporary North America, however, the adoption by radical activists of the standard Leninist norms for anti-capitalist organizing would be counter-productive. What is needed now is a very different approach: a strategy of attrition, as Lenin would have said, rather than a strategy of overthrow. This article concludes by sketching an …


Participatory Democracy And The Renewal Of Radical Politics, Stephen D'Arcy Dec 2008

Participatory Democracy And The Renewal Of Radical Politics, Stephen D'Arcy

Stephen D'Arcy

In recent decades, the project of radically transforming societies to create communities that are in some sense 'socialist' has undergone a profound crisis. This crisis has sometimes looked like a complete collapse of the radical Left. In this paper, I make the case for a cautiously optimistic assessment of the prospects for a self-reinvention by the North American radical Left, on the basis of grassroots organizing for a non-statist, egalitarian and participatory-democratic alternative to capitalism.