El contexto de la crisis sanitaria por la Covid-19 ha exigido una profunda reflexión sobre el presente que vivimos. Una de las propuestas es asumir este momento como una “coronacrisis”, entendida como una categoría para significar cómo la pandemia exacerba la crisis multifacética de la civilización capitalista occidental en su era neoliberal; lo que ha puesto al desnudo la dialéctica de la muerte y la vida, posicionada en el centro de la lucha contra la negritud. Las consecuencias de la pandemia (...) rápidamente se analizaron desde los códigos de la blancura. En este artículo proponemos un acercamiento a este fenómeno, desde la zona del no ser de la herencia afro de nuestro continente. Situándonos en este momento de la enunciación, no sólo se abre la oportunidad de una mayor comprensión de lo vivido hasta ahora, sino que, de igual manera, podemos buscar y encontrar salidas a dicha crisis. (shrink)

La problemática anterioridad que Kant le atribuye a los _juicios de percepción_ respecto a los _juicios de experiencia_ en los _Prolegómenos_, puede explicarse por una suerte de solapamiento conceptual con los _juicios provisionales_ que Kant distingue de los _juicios determinantes_ en la _Lógica_ y en el _Legado póstumo_. El análisis del ejemplo de los planetas en el §13 de los _Prolegómenos_, interpretado a la luz de la _segunda analogía de la experiencia_ y del estudio evolutivo del concepto de _apparentia_, mostrará: (...) 1) En su traslape con los _juicios provisionales_, los _juicios de percepción_ cumplirían en los _Prolegómenos_, entre otras, la función de explicar la posibilidad del error empírico; 2) Una instancia de reflexión previa a la determinación del conocimiento objetivo empírico, preventiva del error, que es propia de los _juicios provisionales_. (shrink)

ResumenLa doctrina de la imposibilidad del error total (DIET) es una expresión de la profunda confianza en las posibilidades de la razón humana que Kant suscribe de modo radical y original. La apuesta por la razón exige detenerse ante todo aquello que vaya contra el orden de nuestras disposiciones racionales a fin de descubrir el fundamento del error, la apariencia ilusoria y el vicio. Si el conflicto cosmológico gatilla la meditación sobre el error como paradoja del entendimiento, la solución de (...) la antinomia permite reconocer el fundamento de la DIET en la Crítica de la razón pura ―en el principio de concordancia de la razón consigo misma― el cual se habría ido explicitando tempranamente en diálogo con la filosofía moral.Palabras claves: error total; vicio; criterium veritatis; subrepción; apariencia ilusoria trascendental; verdad formal. (shrink)

The three volumes I am considering in this review essay constitute a living archive of the political and epistemic movement called decolonial feminism. Together, Tejiendo de Otro Modo: Feminismo, Epistemología, y Apuestas Descoloniales en el Abya Yala, Feminismo Descolonial: Nuevos aportes metodológicos a mas de una década, and Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala, collect the principal contributions to the profoundly important production of critical theory and radical politics. The editors and contributors include a diversity of key figures in decolonial feminism, (...) reuniting intellectual-activists mostly from Latin America and US Latinxs, a geohistorical landscape denominated Abya Yala, an Indigenous Kuna category that stands for “the territory of all of us.” The publication of this review essay as part of a special issue of Hypatia is a meaningful move because it was in this journal that María Lugones published her foundational articles on what she termed “the modern/colonial gender system,” as well as an invitation to cultivate decolonial feminism. (shrink)

The objective in this article is to apply a Daoist model of an ethic derived from the Laozi on writings of the Huang Lao tradition to offer a unique Daoist cosmically derived ethic in its own terms. Having our point of departure in the Laozi we refer to its paradoxical language as a living riddle that is inherent to the tradition, and as such it suggests a “model of modeling.” We find this model in Laozi 25, according to which self-so (...) (ziran自然) serves as foundation for an ethic that is neither dichotomizing nor rests on human moral conventions, rather as a guiding philosophy of living. On this basis we explore the question of an ethic in the Huang Lao tradition. (shrink)

The objective in this article is to apply a Daoist model of an ethic derived from the _Laozi_ on writings of the Huang Lao tradition to offer a unique Daoist cosmically derived ethic _in its own terms_. Having our point of departure in the _Laozi_ we refer to its paradoxical language as a _living riddle_ that is inherent in the tradition, and as such it suggests a "model of modeling." We find this model in _Laozi_ 25, according to which self-so (...) (_ziran_ 自然) serves as foundation for an ethic that is neither dichotomizing nor resting on human moral conventions, but serves rather as a guiding philosophy of living. On this basis we explore the question of an ethic in the Huang Lao tradition. (shrink)

Recent studies revealed how the reference to Zhuangzi played a determining role in the evolution of Heidegger’s thinking. Among the sources is a work written in 1945 under the title _Country Path Conversations_. The last of these conversations presents strong similarities with another between Confucius and Yan Hui, imagined by Zhuangzi at the beginning of the fourth chapter. Analogies between these two conversations are so numerous that it is surprising that it has not been noticed until now. However, the establishment (...) of this rapprochement is crucial. It might show how deep is the echo that Heidegger acknowledged between his work and the Lao-Zhuang perspective. Moreover, it reveals that this resonance is not limited to the themes of the “path” and the “letting be,” but also concerns the essential problem of evil and the way to face it. (shrink)

Au Laos, pays majoritairement bouddhiste, toujours dirigé par un État-parti communiste rigide et répressif, les cultes aux génies continuent à se développer et se transforment, en réponse aux contraintes vécues par la population et à ses désirs d’y échapper. La dimension de refuge des cultes et en même temps, d’échappement imaginaire par le haut à des oppressions de toutes sortes, en est un trait récurrent, manifeste en particulier dans les années quatre-vingt-dix dans l’exaltation des figures royales, opposées aux cadres politiques (...) rendus impuissants de l’État-parti communiste. Aujourd’hui les homosexuels masculins trouvent désormais dans les cultes aux génies, en perpétuel remaniement tant au plan des pratiques que des élaborations des personnages mythiques, une atmosphère accueillante, très séduisante en regard des barrières auxquels ils se heurtent dans la vie quotidienne. Les cérémonies se présentent alors, en résonance avec les images en provenance de Thaïlande, comme des dépassements possibles en phase avec un contexte de globalisation idéologique où les plateaux LGBT rayonnent de leurs potentialités libératoires. (shrink)

Maffesoli) Este Diccionario intenta articular en torno al tema de la existencia, los aspectos relevantes y asuntos fundamentales de la vida humana.

«La relación entre la vida y el pensamiento supone una dificultad constante para la teoría.» «[...] la vida se despliega al margen del pensamiento [...] Se trata de observar la vida sin prejuicios, sin premoniciones, en suma, sin nada que la clausure a priori». Este Diccionario intenta articular en torno al tema de la existencia, los aspectos relevantes y asuntos fundamentales de la vida humana. La vida en correlación con la muerte, el amor y el odio, la felicidad y el (...) sufrimiento, lo divino y lo demoníaco, lo espiritual y lo material, lo sublime y lo abyecto, la sabiduría, la caducidad, la persona, el hombre, la mujer, la soledad... (shrink)

Background: Although ethics consultation has been introduced to clinical practice for many years, the results of empirical studies to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation are still controversial. The design of randomised controlled trials is considered the best research design to evaluate the effect of a clinical practice on the outcomes of interests. In order to understand the effects of ethics consultation, we conducted this search for studies with the design of randomised controlled trials to evaluate ethics consultation.Objective: To provide (...) an integrated review of studies with the design of randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation.Methods: PubMed was used to search for studies using the randomised controlled trial design to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation. The search term used was “ethics consultation”. The selection criterion was limited to “randomised controlled trial”.Results: Four articles that met both search criteria were retrieved. One of these articles reported a study that did not actually use the design of a randomised controlled trial and is excluded from the following discussion.Conclusions: To apply randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics consultation is extremely difficult as long as two issues are not resolved: the standardisation of ethics consultation and a placebo for ethics consultation to eliminate the placebo effect. Thus, the results generated by the design of randomised controlled trials are always problematic. Furthermore, as long as the two issues exist, the results generated by the design of quantitative research methods always pose problems. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Universal "One"Toward a Common Conceptual Basis for Chinese and Western StudiesMing Dong GuIn the world today, rapid globalization has drastically shrunk the geographical distance between the East and the West and greatly facilitated exchanges between different cultures and traditions. In the comparative studies of Eastern and Western literatures and cultures, however, an opposite trend characterized by the anxiety of cultural relativism prevails. It has been aptly reduced to (...) this claim: "[T]he East and the West are so distinctly different that ways of thinking and expression cannot be made intelligible from one to the other, and therefore the knowledge of one must be kept apart from that of the other" [Longxi Zhang xvii]. The viability of comparative studies, as is recognized, rests on the fundamental notion that two cultural objects juxtaposed for comparison should share some common ground, or that a valid frame of reference be applicable to both of them. In the comparative studies of Chinese and Western traditions, because these traditions are recognized as founded on different and often unique ontological premises and epistemological assumptions, it is difficult to locate a common conceptual entry point for a two-way dialogue, let alone a common conceptual basis undergirded by Chinese and Western philosophical thought, to establish a viable paradigm of comparison. The current absence of such a conceptual basis in the international context of globalization, which calls for dialogues between different cultures and traditions, cannot but force us to ask: is there a Chinese philosophical concept that signifies, as another Western philosophical concept does, the ontological and epistemological conditions of human existence, one that can be used as a conceptual premise upon which to build a bridge across the divide between the Chinese and Western traditions?Undaunted by the seemingly unbridgeable gap between Chinese and Western traditions, some scholars have made valiant efforts to locate a common conceptual ground. Following the lead of Qian Zhongshu, a Chinese erudite of the twentieth century, some scholars have also noted that the Dao (Tao) in Chinese philosophical thought and Logos in Western philosophical thought are remarkably comparable [Qian 408]. The compatibility of the Dao and Logos, however, has been problematized by other scholars, who argue that the differences between the Dao and Logos are more profound than their apparent similarities. James J. Y. Liu, for example, questions the universality of logocentrism as claimed by Longxi Zhang in both the Dao and Logos: "Zhang's comparison of dao to logos fails to take into account an important difference: in the West, logos is identified with God, but Lao Zi took great pains to say that dao is not the true name of the ultimate" [Liu 25]. Moreover, while in Lao Zi's conception, the Dao is a [End Page 86] feminine concept, the Western Logos, through its emphasis on presence, is obviously masculine in nature. More significantly, the pairing of the Chinese concept of Dao with the Western concept of Logos as a conceptual common ground has a fundamentally incommensurable point: namely, while the former is predicated on a fundamentally monistic view of the universe as a spontaneously self-generating entity, the latter, like Plato's Idea, is founded on a dualistic view of the universe as constituted by one world of essence and another of appearances, created by a powerful personal god.To establish a model for cross cultural studies, it is of little value to simply juxtapose a Chinese concept and a Western concept and find their similarities. In comparative studies, we need to find a conceptual model based on the pairing of similar concepts from different traditions that may yield promises of paradigms and methodologies. For this reason, my exploration is not concerned with the question of whether it is viable to pair the Dao and Logos together. I am more concerned with another question: Is it possible to build a conceptual and methodological model based on the near commensurability between the Dao and Logos? Some scholars suggest that the striking similarity invites and encourages further exploration. But in which direction or directions should we pursue the subject further? In my view, previous scholars' preliminary explorations have been promising, but too narrowly focused on the local... (shrink)

El budismo actual presenta dos grandes ramas. La más antigua es la hinayana, el “pequeño vehículo”, representado actualmente por la escuela Theravada, arraigada fundamentalmente en Birmania, Laos, Tailandia, Camboya, Sri Lanka y Malasia. La otra, es el budismo mahayánico, el “gran vehículo”, surgido en el siglo segundo antes de nuestra era, y característico de China, Mongolia, Corea, Tíbet y Japón, y de la cual el budismo zen es una de su principales expresiones. La escuela Theravada tiene c..

Recently implemented Chinese health insurance schemes have failed to achieve a Chinese health care system that is family-oriented, family-based, family-friendly, or even financially sustainable. With this diagnosis in hand, the authors argue that a financially and morally sustainable Chinese health care system should have as its core family health savings accounts supplemented by appropriate health insurance plans. This essay’s arguments are set in the context of Confucian moral commitments that still shape the background culture of contemporary China.

Discussion of a short text on ethics, originally Greek, translated into Arabic and Hebrew, and adopted by some Christians, Muslims and Jews for guiding their lives.

Societies are composed of groups that interact. Symbiotic groups are those in which agents complement each other in resources that they have in excess. Symbiotic groups are useful especially when the resources in an environment are distributed unevenly, because they enable agents to trade resources easily. However, for trading to happen successfully, agents in symbiotic groups need to cooperate, i.e., they should be willing to donate resources when appropriate. Similarly, if some agents in a symbiotic group are defectors, they should (...) be identified by others and eliminated from the group for the well-being of the remaining agents. Accordingly, we first study Edmonds’ tag-based model of symbiotic groups to understand the lifespan of symbiotic groups (e.g., why some groups live shorter than others). Then, we enhance Edmonds’ model by adding the capability of reciprocal interactions to agents, thus achieving a hybrid model. We capture reciprocity in three different models and study their effects on the elimination of defectors in symbiotic groups. Our experimental results show that the groups that are built with the proposed hybrid model can eliminate more defectors and earlier than tag-based models. Further, the hybrid approach can generate symbiotic groups more effectively and efficiently. (shrink)

In this paper, I suggest an outline of a new interpretation of core issues in Spinoza’s metaphysics and philosophy of mind. I argue for three major theses. (1) In the first part of the paper I show that the celebrated Spinozistic doctrine commonly termed “the doctrine of parallelism” is in fact a confusion of two separate and independent doctrines of parallelism. Hence, I argue that our current understanding of Spinoza’s metaphysics and philosophy of mind is fundamentally flawed. (2) The clarification (...) and setting apart of the two doctrines will also put us in a position to present my second major thesis and address one of the more interesting and enduring problems in Spinoza’s metaphysics: how can the attribute of thought be, on the one hand, isomorphic with any other attribute, and yet, on the other hand, be isomorphic with God himself, who has infinitely many attributes? In the second part of the paper, I present Spinoza’s solution to this problem. I argue that the number and order of modes is the same in all attributes. Yet, modes of Thought, unlike modes of any other attribute, have an infinitely-faceted internal structure so that one and the same idea represents infinitely many modes by having infinitely many facets (or aspects). (3) This new understanding of the inner structure of ideas in Spinoza will lead us to my third thesis in which I explain and solve another old riddle in Spinoza’s metaphysics: his insistence on the impossibility of the human mind knowing any of God’s infinite attributes other than Thought and Extension. In the third part, I show some of the major ramifications of my new interpretation and respond to some important objections. In my conclusion I discuss the philosophical importance of my interpretation. I explain why Spinoza could not embrace reductive idealism in spite of the preeminence he grants to the attribute of Thought. I argue that Spinoza is a dualist -- not a mind-body dualist, as he is commonly conceived to be, but rather a dualist of Thought and Being. Finally, I suggest that Spinoza’s position on the mind-body issue breaks with the traditional categories and ways of addressing the subject by suggesting a view which grants clear primacy to Thought without accepting any idealist reduction of bodies to thought. (shrink)

McFetridge (in Logical necessity and other essays . London: Blackwell, 1990 ) suggests that to treat a proposition as logically necessary—to believe a proposition logically necessary, and to manifest that belief—is a matter of preparedness to deploy that proposition as a premise in reasoning from any supposition. We consider whether a suggestion in that spirit can be generalized to cover all cases of absolute necessity, both logical and non-logical, and we conclude that it can. In Sect. 2, we explain the (...) significance that such an account of manifestation of belief in absolute necessity has for the prospects of a non-realist theory of modality. In Sect. 3, we offer a sympathetic articulation of the detail that underlies the McFetridge conception of belief in logical necessity. In Sects. 4 and 5, we show that the conception so articulated will not generalize to encompass all cases of belief in absolute necessity and proceed to offer a remedy. Our proposal is based upon a distinction between two kinds of suppositional act: A-supposing and C-supposing (Sect. 6). In Sect. 7, we then explain and defend our central thesis: (roughly) that (manifestation of) belief in absolute necessity is a matter of preparedness to deploy as a premise in reasoning under any C-supposition. Finally, we indicate that there is some promise in the parallel thesis that manifestation of the treatment of a proposition as a priori is a matter of preparedness to deploy as a premise in reasoning under any A-supposition (Sect. 8). (shrink)

影響全球的COVID-19已經進入第三年，在疫情時代或後疫情時代的種種爭論中，相關的倫理考量依然是學界關注的議題。本期的論文涉及具體的醫學倫理學問題，包括香港抗疫倫理焦點、ECMO的使用、疫情防控中的 道德兩難、現代科技大數據所引發的對個人隱私的焦慮、疫情處境中的善終和臨終關懷、審視傳統中醫學有關疫情控制的歷史研究、傳統墨家思想對現當下防疫管理的啟示作用。本期的論文的研究方法各有不同，包括哲學的、倫 理學的、實證的、歷史的、及比較的，其宗旨是引發人們對這些問題的反思和探討。.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Meeting of Minds: Intellectual and Religious Interaction in East Asian Traditions of ThoughtDeborah SommerMeeting of Minds: Intellectual and Religious Interaction in East Asian Traditions of Thought. Edited by Irene Bloom and Joshua A. Fogel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp. 391.Meeting of Minds: Intellectual and Religious Interaction in East Asian Traditions of Thought, a volume of eleven essays written in honor of Wing-tsit Chan and William Theodore (...) de Bary, proposes to explore how Confucian and Neo-Confucian traditions have responded to and have influenced other traditions (Buddhist, Taoist, folk, Japanese nativist, and so on) in China and Japan. The essays are arranged first geographically (seven articles on China precede four on Japan) and then roughly chronologically. All essays, save one, describe Sung or post-Sung developments. A few sentences per essay must suffice in this review.Irene Bloom's "Three Visions of Jen" is the only essay on the classical period. Informed especially by Wing-tsit Chan's work on jen and shaped by Sung and later notions of the transmission of the way, the essay examines the notion of jen in the Analects, the Mencius, and Chu Hsi's "Jen shuo" (Discussion of jen), succinctly [End Page 318] emphasizing the significant differences of perspective therein. Nodding to the book's larger intent of examining intellectual interactions with other traditions, some attention is given in the conclusion to comparisons with the Mohist, Yangist, and Ch'an traditions. Rodney Taylor's "Chu Hsi on Meditation" is also deeply indebted to Wing-tsit Chan and starts by resurveying much terrain already explored in Chan's 1989 "Chu Hsi and Quiet-Sitting" (in Chu Hsi: New Studies, published by University of Hawai'i Press). Taylor enlarges upon Chan's work especially in his discussion of Chu Hsi's practices of breath-control techniques to improve health. In keeping with the larger direction of the book, Taylor contrasts Chu's emphasis on quiet sitting as a support for study with the different spiritual goals of Ch'an Buddhism.Patricia Ebrey's "Sung Neo-Confucian Views on Geomancy" examines a topic that is seldom encountered in American scholarship: the attitudes of such figures as Ssu-ma Kuang, Ch'eng I, Chu Hsi, and Ts'ai Yan-ting toward popular practices governing the placement of graves. Ebrey outlines the views of those who, as it were, are "for" or "against" geomancy (Chu and Ts'ai took geomancy seriously, although Ssu-ma and Ch'eng viewed it with apprehension) but also provides textual evidence that allows one to see the grayer areas between support for, and condemnation of, feng shui and other arts. Julia Ching's "Chu Hsi and Taoism" considers Chu's interpretations of such classical texts as the I ching, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Ch'u tzu and also assays his commentaries on such later texts as the Ts'an-t'ung-ch'i (an alchemical text Chu commented on with the assistance of Ts'ai Yan-ting) and the Yin-fu-ching (a commentary that Ching concludes is most likely not Chu's work). She also explores in some detail the specifics of Chu's regimen of breathing practices.Moving from specific thinkers of the Sung to general developments in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Chn-fang Y's "The Cult of Kuan-yin in Ming-Ch'ing China: A Case of Confucianization of Buddhism?" describes how the cult of Kuan-yin served the aims of Confucian family values and facilitated the realization of women's domestic expectations of filiality and fertility. Y explores the little-studied practice of ke-ku, or the cutting off of one's flesh to feed another, and relates Kuan-yin's role as a protector of those who engage in such filial excisions.Koichi Shinohara's "Ta-hui's Instructions to Tseng K'ai: Buddhist 'Freedom' in the Neo-Confucian Context" returns to the Sung but continues the focus on Buddhism, finding an example of Buddhist-Confucian interaction in the religious instruction given by the monk Ta-hui to a vice minister of rites. But what is particularly Confucian about minister Tseng K'ai's interest in Buddhism? The... (shrink)

Abstract:The increasing needs for housing in Ghana is a result of urbanisation which is also a sign of improvement in the socio-economic lives of the people. Building of houses usually replaces prime vegetation land. The rate of indiscriminate devegetation for housing purpose in Ghana is as a result of the lack of a comprehensive land use policy implementation in the country. It is clearly stated in the country's land use policy that ‘the principle of optimum usage for all types of (...) land uses will be assured by the state and that, the state will ensure every socioeconomic activity is consistent with sound land use through sustainable land use planning in the long-term. But, evidence in the country is contrary to what is stipulated in the land use policy document. The study therefore, contributes to the environment-spatial land use conflict debate. It does this by focusing on the fast rate at which agricultural land at the fringes of urban Ghana is mainly used for housing purposes. It uses Accra and Tamale as examples to argue that if the content of the land use policy is not implemented to minimise the excessive devegetation for housing, the country stands the chance of losing utterly, its natural vegetation, especially, the forest vegetation. With the help of old maps, GIS and researchers’ observations, the study describes how the land use cover in areas close to the cities of Accra and Tamale has largely been replaced by housing. It ends by advocating sound sustainable housing typologies which will reduce the rate of devegetation in the country. (shrink)

At the current level of economic development, the digital transformation of society is an important factor in advancing any social structure. The purpose of the present study was to explore the transformation of a traditional society into a digital one, with a focus on ethical and environmental aspects. The study draws on a variety of information analysis methods to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of digitalization, including the environmental aspect. Our research revealed that in Russia, the only highly digitalized (...) sectors were information technology and finance. Digitalization is strikingly different in the European countries, where only transport and building industries slowly implemented digital technologies into their business processes. We also examined digitalization levels in 7 Moscow universities. The universities managed to improve their digitalization scores with the help of recommendations developed for online learning, such as selection of quality software, having qualified teaching staff, constant monitoring, and evaluation of knowledge. The findings can be used in economic, social, and environmental spheres since they highlight the ambiguous effects of digitalization using practical examples. (shrink)

The most important moral question concerned with the problem of political obligation relates to the limits of obedience of a citizen owed to the state. The problem of political obligation raises the questions such as – (1) To what extent the citizen has an obligation to obey the laws of the state? (2) Is the citizen of a state, whether democratic or otherwise, under an obligation to obey the unjust laws of the state? There are two different viewpoints concerning the (...) character of obligation to obey the laws of the State. (1) The first position states -- “one has an absolute obligation to obey the law and therefore disobedience to the state law is never justified”. (2) The second position asserts -- “one has a prima facie obligation to obey the law, but this obligation can be overridden by conflictingobligations. Hence disobedience to the state law can be justified in the presence of outweighing circumstances”. (shrink)

Abstract Building on Philip Converse's understanding of public opinion, John Zaller sees the evidence for the public's ?nonattitudes? as reflecting individuals? ambivalence concerning political issues. Because neither individuals nor the public collectively have what Zaller would call real attitudes, he concludes that the effectiveness of democracy rests on competition among intellectual and political elites. In truth, however, the public has many real attitudes that depend heavily on elite leadership, in ways that Converse did not initially emphasize but that are consistent (...) with both his observations and Zaller's model of mass opinion. The quality of the public's attitudes are, however, a point of serious contention. (shrink)

On most accounts present in the literature, the complex experience of shame has the injury to self-esteem as its main component. A major objection to this idea is that it fails to differentiate between shame and disappointment in oneself. I argue that previous attempts to respond to the objection are unsatisfactory. I argue further that the distinction should refer to the different ways the subject's self-esteem is formed. A necessary requirement for shame is that the standards and values by which (...) the subject judges himself are borrowed from a canon of values the subject accepts as a given. The proper focus of shame is the fact of conformity to that canon. Those agents who have a different conception of self-esteem and who freely set and alter their own values are prone to self-disappointment, but not to shame. (shrink)

Rabbi HaCohen Kook’s essay on vegetarianism and peace, first published in instalments in 1903–4, and reissued 60 years later, is the only treatise in rabbinic Judaism on the relationship between humans and animals. It is here examined as central to his ethical beliefs. His writings, shaped by his background as rabbi and mystic, illuminate the history of environmental and applied ethics. A century ago, he perceived the main challenge that confronts reform movements: multiculturalism.