Books on the topic 'Aesthetical and dramatic value'

This chapter addresses processes of genre formation, exploring the role that concepts of radiogénie played in developing new programming forms and a larger sound-mindedness in period producers and audiences. Beginning with a survey of early radio genres and debates surrounding their sonic appropriateness, the chapter then pursues a more detailed case study of the period’s dominant genre, musical variety. Responding to pressures for programming with unity and distinction while ensuring varied content with broad appeal, producers pursued three key strategies for this genre: (1) inclusion of a program host as central unifying figure, (2) interstitial continuity uniting musical selections around a common theme, and (3) the “continuity program,” with weak dramatic frame stories linking otherwise diverse musical offerings. Fulfilling larger economic imperatives without compromising aesthetic potential, this third format was championed as proof of radio’s capacity to offer unique and valued contributions to an expanding field of modern sound art.

The idea that the moral character of a work may be intimately linked to its artistic value can be traced back to Aristotle, who suggests that moral criteria help pick out tragedies that are good or bad as such. Indeed, when outlining the correct standards in dramatic art, he claims that ‘it is correct to find fault with both illogicality and moral baseness, if there is no necessity for them and if the poet makes no use of the illogicality (as with Euripedes and the case of Aegeus) or the baseness (as with Menelaus's in Orestes)’. One way of taking this claim is to hold that the moral character of a work may affect its artistic value indirectly. This article turns first to an examination of this kind of view.

This book explores the intellectual history, nature, and consequences of commodification. While many use the term “commodification,” few realize that it was only introduced in the 1970s by Marxist scholars in Britain and the United States. However, while Marxists initially used commodification to challenge capitalism, subsequent scholars used it mainly to criticize certain markets and certain forms of exchange. The result is what this book identifies as moral and pragmatic critiques of commodification. In contrast, this book follows the materialist critique and, subsequently, argues that commodification entails the subjugation of use value, or usefulness, to market value, or the ability to generate profit. To capture this process, the book distinguishes between formal, real, and fictitious commodification. While capitalism depends on commodity production, the extent of commodification can differ, depending on market regulation and public provision. The book examines a range of neoliberal policies that promoted (re)commodification, including privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. The primacy of profits over needs has major consequences on how social needs are satisfied. The book identifies twelve consequences that have troubling effects for social reproduction and the environment, including the exclusion of those who cannot pay, the focus on highly profitable wants at the expense of less profitable but socially more relevant needs, collectivization of costs, and speculation. Given the negative effects, the book also discusses limits of commodification and argues that the ecological limit is the most dramatic one. In order to avoid catastrophic decommodification, the book proposes an alternative that is based on the maximization of use value rather than market value.

This chapter examines several dramatic historical experiences that are consistent with the “rational expectations” view but that seem difficult to reconcile with the “momentum” model of inflation. The idea is to identify the measures that successfully brought drastic inflations under control in several European countries in the 1920s, namely: Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Poland, all of which experienced a dramatic “hyperinflation” in which, after the passage of several months, price indexes assumed astronomical proportions. The experience of Czechoslovakia is also considered. Within each of Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany, there occurred a dramatic change in the fiscal policy regime, which in each instance was associated with the end of a hyperinflation. Czechoslovakia deliberately adopted a relatively restrictive fiscal policy regime in order to maintain the value of its currency.

Chapter 8 considers the implications of this analysis for how we think about public policy and its value for achieving national goals. It also highlights the lessons that the success of landmark higher education policies holds for how lawmakers can promote equal opportunity. To fully understand the progress that American women have made in the last half century, we must take into account the landmark federal higher education programs that have contributed to the dramatic increase in women’s higher educational attainment. In a political context characterized by considerable hostility toward traditional welfare state programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and food stamps, federal higher education programming represents one of the most politically viable methods of redistribution in the United States. Considering the value of higher education for promoting socioeconomic stability and political engagement, American lawmakers interested in promoting equal opportunity would do well to find ways to continue expanding access to college degrees.

This chapter contains many classroom activities and demonstrations to help students understand basic probability calculations, including conditional probability and Bayes rule. Many of the activities alert students to misconceptions about randomness. They create dramatic settings where the instructor discerns real coin flips from fake ones, students modify dice and coins in order to load them, students “accused” of lying based on the outcome of an inaccurate simulated lie detector face their classmates. Additionally, probability models of real outcomes offer good value: first we can do the probability calculations, and then can go back and discuss the potential flaws of the model.

The Industrial Revolution may have ended for Britain in 1867, but it had only just begun elsewhere. ‘The spread of the Industrial Revolution abroad’ charts the different regions’ share of world manufacturing. The second industrial revolution was in Western Europe, whose share of world manufacturing increased from 12 per cent in the 18th century to 28 per cent in 1913. Even more dramatic was the rise of the North American share: from less than 1 per cent in the 18th century to a peak value of 47 per cent in 1953. Other regions experiencing industrial revolutions in the 20th century were the former USSR, East Asia, and China.

This book offers a sustained analysis of normative concepts and theories of political conduct and power, focusing on why we (should) value ‘the political way’, by examining Shakespeare’s dramatic treatments of the puzzles of domination and sovereignty, and how the dramas explicitly pose questions of action and theatricality. Politics—in the broadest sense, as contestation over and for power to govern—is commonly associated with ethical dubiety. Much political thought, accordingly, focuses on conditions of citizen and governor virtue and wisdom, or on displacement of politics in favour of constitution and law, private exchange, or some other source of authority such as religion. Some, though, focuses on the positive values of political action—its creativity or immanent values of commitment and forgiveness. Shakespeare’s characters and plots for the most part treat political power as a species of wickedness (in particular as ‘machiavellian’), ironically (with play on the idea of ‘politic’ action); or as ineffectual (compared with voluntaristic love, the power of money, patriarchal authority, or violence). But readings (sometimes against the grain of text, plot, and established interpretations of the psychology and ethics of the plays) taking into account the theatrical engagement of Shakespeare’s drama with the politics and power of his time produce complex accounts of the hope and promise of a political way of resolving human dilemmas and difficulties. The chapters develop an original approach to theories of political power, showing the particular value of examination of these issues through the frame of Shakespeare’s drama.

The history of epistemology displays a long quest for the elusive domain of sensory privilege, the place where sensory indubitability finds vindication in some measure of infallibility. There have been the most dramatic disagreements and reversals and confusions regarding where in the world this domain is to be found, disagreements that in turn fuel the notorious disputes over the cognitive value of perception. The focus of this chapter is on those who take there to be some external locus of sensory privilege, beginning with Aristotle and the surprisingly different story among later Aristotelians, then moving on toward the crisis that emerges when the privileged sensory domain of scholastics philosophers turns out to be illusory. From this crisis emerge the various modern theories of perception: subjective, reductive, and dispositional.

At the heart of Augustine’s intellectual and spiritual autobiography is a search for wisdom that demands of him sophisticated epistemological reflection. The results—in particular, his identification of the category of rational or justified assent on less-than-certain grounds and his inquiry into the nature and epistemic value of testimony—break dramatic new ground in the history of epistemology. He articulates a concept of belief (as assent to a proposition on the basis of testimony) and distinguishes it from understanding (assent to a proposition on the basis of reasoned insight). Exploiting that distinction, he develops both a rationale for and a detailed account of a systematic method for the rational investigation of theological matters, which he characterizes as belief seeking understanding. Augustine’s famous reflections on the paradox of evil and on the nature of the divine Trinity provide compelling illustrations of his application of this rational method and its results.

This chapter presents the argument that financialization, as a broad economic trend, has increased the opportunities for financial crime among firms both within and outside the financial services industry. The growth of the financial services industry, increasing dependence of many economies on financial services, increasing focus on share value by firms, and dramatic increases in compensation within the financial services industry have all contributed to increases in the frequency and scale of financial crime in recent years. To illustrate these trends, three case studies are reviewed: (1) the manipulation of electrical energy prices by investment bank subsidiaries; (2) the deliberate rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor); and (3) the fixing of foreign exchange rates by investment bank traders. The case studies involve efforts by financial industry insiders to profit by manipulating the infrastructure of those markets, tinkering with the mechanisms by which prices and rates are set.

American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction traces three massive waves of immigration from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and analyzes the nature of immigration as a purposeful, structured activity, attitudes supporting or hostile to immigration, policies and laws regulating immigration, and the nature of and prospects for assimilation. There have been some dramatic developments since 2011, including the crisis along the southwestern border and the intense conflict over illegal immigration. The population of the United States has diverse sources: territorial acquisition through conquest and colonialism, the slave trade, and voluntary immigration. Many Americans value the memory of immigrant ancestors, and are sentimentally inclined to immigrant strivings. Alongside this sits the perception that immigration destabilizes social order, cultural coherence, job markets, and political alignments. The nearly 250 years of American nationhood has been characterized by both support for openness to immigration and embrace of a cosmopolitan formulation of American identity and for restrictions and assertions of belief in a core Anglo-American national character.

This book is about good government, especially an ethical and fair government and constitution. It has five key ideas. Understanding these ideas is critical to addressing the problems besetting the American political and economic systems. First, the book proposes the new principle of distributive autonomy to guarantee first-order rights. The principle sharply contrasts with modern, individualistic libertarian ideas. Good governance must be centrally concerned with the distribution of freedom for all. If your own autonomy matters, so does everyone else’s. Valuing the autonomy of others is authentic autonomy. A core aspect of ethical governance must value the autonomy of everyone. Second, the book demonstrates how the campaign finance cases violate distributive autonomy and completely subvert the American system of government. Third, the book deploys Thomas Piketty’s data to correlate the campaign finance cases with the dramatic rise in wealth and particularly income inequality in the United States. Fourth, the book demonstrates that the distorted allocation of income has adversely affected the centrally important demand curve of the American economy, which may be helping to drive economic stagnation and the debt overhang. Fifth, the book concludes that political freedom, in the sense of distributive autonomy, is necessary for participatory democracy and that participatory democracy may be a necessary condition to sustain long-term, prosperous capitalism.

Following the 1960s, the decade's focus on consciousness-raising transformed into an array of intellectual projects far afield of movement politics. The mind's powers came to preoccupy a range of thinkers and writers: ethicists pursuing contractual theories of justice, radical ecologists interested in the paleolithic brain, cultists, and the devout of both evangelical and New Age persuasions. This book presents a boldly revisionist argument about the revival of subjectivity in postmodern American culture, connecting familiar figures within the intellectual landscape of the 1970s who share a commitment to what the book calls “neo-idealism” as a weapon in the struggle against discredited materialist and behaviorist worldviews. In a heterodox intellectual and literary history of the 1970s, the book mixes ideas from cognitive science, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, deep ecology, political theory, science fiction, neoclassical economics, and the sociology of religion. It also delves into the decade's more esoteric branches of learning, including Scientology, anarchist theory, rapture prophesies, psychic channeling, and neo-Malthusianism. Through this investigation, the book argues that a dramatic inflation in the value of consciousness and autonomy beginning in the 1970s accompanied a growing argument about the state's inability to safeguard such values. Ultimately, the thinkers who the book analyses found alternatives to statism in conditions that would lend intellectual support to the consolidation of these concepts in the radical free market ideologies of the 1980s.

This book assays how the remarkable discoveries of contemporary neuroscience impact our conception of ourselves and our responsibility for our choices and our actions. Dramatic (and indeed revolutionary) changes in how we think of ourselves as agents and as persons are commonly taken to be the implications of those discoveries of neuroscience. Indeed, the very notions of responsibility and of deserved punishment are thought to be threatened by these discoveries. Such threats are collected into four groupings: (1) the threat from determinism, that neurosciences shows us that all of our choices and actions are caused by events in the brain that precede choice; (2) the threat from epiphenomenalism, that our choices are shown by experiment not to cause the actions that are the objects of such choice but are rather mere epiphenomena, co-effects of common causes in the brain; (3) the threat from reductionist mechanism, that we and everything we value is nothing but a bunch of two-valued switches going off in our brains; and (4) the threat from fallibilism, that we are not masters in our own house because we lack the privileged knowledge of our own minds needed to be such masters. The book seeks to blunt such radical challenges while nonetheless detailing how law, morality, and common-sense psychology can harness the insights of an advancing neuroscience to more accurately assign moral blame and legal punishment to the truly deserving.

After Injury explores the practices of forgiveness, resentment, and apology in three key moments when they were undergoing a dramatic change: early Christian history (for forgiveness), the shift from British eighteenth-century to Continental nineteenth-century philosophers (for resentment), and the moment in the 1950s postwar world in which ordinary language philosophers and sociologists of everyday life theorized what it means to express or perform an apology. The debates in those key moments have largely defined the contemporary study of these practices. The first premise of this book is that because these three practices are interlinked—forgiveness is commonly defined as a forswearing of resentment in response to an apology—it makes sense to study these practices together. The second premise is that each practice has a different historical evolution. It thus makes sense to identify a key moment to examine what is arguably the most important mutation in the evolution of each practice. After looking at the debates in those three key moments, After Injury takes up the important contemporary questions about each of the practices. For the practice of forgiveness, those questions center on whether forgiveness is possible, and what place it occupies in relation to retribution. For resentment, the questions involve the value and risks of holding on to what is admittedly the disabling emotion of resentment in order to affirm the injustice of the past. For the practice of apology, a key question is what to make of a shift from personal to collective, from private to public apologies.

Homicide can seem timeless, somehow, determined by unchanging human failings. But a moment’s reflection shows this is not true: homicide has a history. In early modern England, that history saw two especially notable developments: one, the emergence in the sixteenth century of a formal distinction between murder and manslaughter, made meaningful through a lighter punishment than death for the latter in most cases, and two, a significant reduction in the rates of homicides individuals perpetrated on each other. This book explores connections between these two changes. It demonstrates the value in distinguishing between murder and manslaughter, or at least in seeing how that distinction came to matter in a period which also witnessed dramatic drops in the occurrence of homicidal violence. Focused on the ‘politics of murder’, the book examines how homicide became more effectively criminalized from c. 1480 to 1680, with chapters devoted to coroners’ inquests, appeals and private compensation, duels and private vengeance, and print and public punishment. The English had begun moving away from treating homicide as an offence subject to private settlements or vengeance long before other Europeans, at least from the twelfth century. What happened in the early modern period was, in some ways, a continuation of processes long underway, but intensified and refocused by developments from the late fifteenth to late seventeenth centuries. Exploring the links between law, crime, and politics, bringing together both the legal and social histories of the subject of homicide, the book argues that homicide became more fully ‘public’ in these years, with killings seen to violate a ‘king’s peace’ that people increasingly conflated with or subordinated to the ‘public peace’ or ‘public justice’.

The study is funded by Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation, and is a collaboration between the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration of London, Ontario; University of Guelph, Ontario; and University of Calgary, Alberta, all located in Canada; and the Doha International Family Institute, Qatar. The study received research ethics approval from the University of Guelph and the University of Calgary. This study aims to assess the impact of pre- and post-migration on marital relationships and family dynamics for Arab refugee families resettled in Canada. The study also examines the role of professional service providers in supporting these Arab refugee families. The unique experiences of Arab families displaced from their countries due to war and political conflict, and the various hardships experienced during their stay in transit countries, impact their family relations and interactions within the nuclear family context and their interconnectedness with their extended families. Furthermore, these families encounter various challenges within their resettlement process that interrupt their integration. Understanding the impact of traumatic experiences within the pre-migration journey as well as the impact of post-migration stressors on recently settled Arab refugee families in Canada provides insight into the shift in spousal and family relationships. Refugee research studies that focus on the impact of pre-migration trauma and displacement, the migration journey, and post-migration settlement on family relationships are scarce. Since the majority of global refugees in recent years come from Arab regions, mainly Syria, as a result of armed conflicts, this study is focused on the unique experiences of Arab refugee families fleeing conflict zones. The Canadian role in recently resettling a large influx of Arab refugees and assisting them to successfully integrate has not been without challenges. Traumatic pre-migration experiences as a result of being subjected to and/or witnessing violence, separation from and loss of family members, and loss of property and social status coupled with experiences of hardships in transit countries have a profound impact on families and their integration. Refugees are subjected to individual and collective traumatic experiences associated with cultural or ethnic disconnection, mental health struggles, and discrimination and racism. These experiences have been shown to impact family interactions. Arab refugee families have different definitions of “family” and “home” from Eurocentric conceptualizations which are grounded in individualistic worldviews. The discrepancy between collectivism and individualism is mainly recognized by collectivist newcomers as challenges in the areas of gender norms, expectations regarding parenting and the physical discipline of children, and diverse aspects of the family’s daily life. For this study, we interviewed 30 adults, all Arab refugees (14 Syrian and 16 Iraqi – 17 males, 13 females) residing in London, Ontario, Canada for a period of time ranging from six months to seven years. The study participants were married couples with and without children. During the semi-structured interviews, the participants were asked to reflect on their family life during pre-migration – in the country of origin before and during the war and in the transit country – and post-migration in Canada. The inter - views were conducted in Arabic, audio-recorded, and transcribed. We also conducted one focus group with seven service providers from diverse sectors in London, Ontario who work with Arab refugee families. The study used the underlying principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology to guide interviewing and a thematic analysis was performed. MAXQDA software was used to facilitate coding and the identification of key themes within the transcribed interviews. We also conducted a thematic analysis of the focus group transcription. The thematic analysis of the individual interviews identified four key themes: • Gender role changes influence spousal relationships; • Traumatic experiences bring suffering and resilience to family well-being; • Levels of marital conflict are higher following post-migration settlement; • Post-migration experiences challenge family values. The outcome of the thematic analysis of the service provider focus group identified three key themes: • The complex needs of newly arrived Arab refugee families; • Gaps in the services available to Arab refugee families; • Key aspects of training for cultural competencies. The key themes from the individual interviews demonstrate: (i) the dramatic sociocul - tural changes associated with migration that particularly emphasize different gender norms; (ii) the impact of trauma and the refugee experience itself on family relation - ships and personal well-being; (iii) the unique and complex aspects of the family journey; and (iv) how valued aspects of cultural and religious values and traditions are linked in complex ways for these Arab refugee families. These outcomes are consist - ent with previous studies. The study finds that women were strongly involved in supporting their spouses in every aspect of family life and tried to maintain their spouses’ tolerance towards stressors. The struggles of husbands to fulfill their roles as the providers and protec - tors throughout the migratory journey were evident. Some parents experienced role shifts that they understood to be due to the unstable conditions in which they were living but these changes were considered to be temporary. Despite the diversity of refugee family experiences, they shared some commonalities in how they experi - enced changes that were frightening for families, as well as some that enhanced safety and stability. These latter changes related to safety were welcomed by these fami - lies. Some of these families reported that they sought professional help, while others dealt with changes by becoming more distant in their marital relationship. The risk of violence increased as the result of trauma, integration stressors, and escalation in marital issues. These outcomes illustrate the importance of taking into consideration the complexity of the integration process in light of post-trauma and post-migration changes and the timespan each family needs to adjust and integrate. Moreover, these families expressed hope for a better future for their children and stated that they were willing to accept change for the sake of their children as well. At the same time, these parents voiced the significance of preserving their cultural and religious values and beliefs. The service providers identified gaps in service provision to refugee families in some key areas. These included the unpreparedness of professionals and insufficiency of the resources available for newcomer families from all levels of government. This was particularly relevant in the context of meeting the needs of the large influx of Syrian refugees who were resettled in Canada within the period of November 2015 to January 2017. Furthermore, language skills and addressing trauma needs were found to require more than one year to address. The service providers identified that a longer time span of government assistance for these families was necessary. In terms of training, the service providers pinpointed the value of learning more about culturally appropriate interventions and receiving professional development to enhance their work with refugee families. In light of these findings, we recommend an increased use of culturally integrative interventions and programs to provide both formal and informal support for families within their communities. Furthermore, future research that examines the impact of culturally-based training, cultural brokers, and various culturally integrative practices will contribute to understanding best practices. These findings with regard to refugee family relationships and experiences are exploratory in their nature and support future research that extends understanding in the area of spousal relationships, inter - generational stressors during adolescence, and parenting/gender role changes.