To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Optimistic and pessimistic problems.
Books on the topic 'Optimistic and pessimistic problems'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 37 books for your research on the topic 'Optimistic and pessimistic problems.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse books on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Davis, Angela Kay. Beyond the numbers: An analysis of optimistic and pessimistic language in earnings press releases. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2006.
Find full text
2
Hasselaar, Jan Jorrit. Climate Change, Radical Uncertainty and Hope. Amsterdam University Press, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789048558476.
Full textAbstract:
Views on climate change are often either pessimistic or optimistic. In this book Jan Jorrit Hasselaar discovers and explores a third way, one of hope. A debate within economics on risk and uncertainty brings him to theological questions and the concept of hope in the work of the late Jonathan Sacks—and to a renewed way of doing theology as an account of the good life. What follows is an equal conversation between theology and economics as has hardly been undertaken in recent times. It emerges that hope is not contrary to economic insights, but remarkably compatible with them. Communication between these fields of expertise can open the way for a courageous and creative embrace of radical uncertainty in climate change. A key notion here is that of a public Sabbath, or a ‘workplace of hope’—times and places set aside to cultivate inspiration and mutual trust among all parties involved, enabling them to take concrete steps forward.
3
Wilkinson, Angela, and Betty Sue Flowers, eds. Realistic Hope. Amsterdam University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789462987241.
Full textAbstract:
We are running out of water, robots will take our jobs, we are eating ourselves to an early death, old age pension and health systems are bankrupting governments, and an immigration crisis is unravelling the European integration project. A growing number of nightmares, perfect storms, and global catastrophes create fear of the future. One response is technocratic optimism — we’ll invent our way out of these impending crises. Or we’ll simply ignore them as politically too hot to handle, too uncomfortable for experts — denied until crisis hits. History is littered with late lessons from early warnings. Cynicism is an excuse for inaction. Populism flourishes in the depths of despair. Despite the gloom, there is another way to look at the future. We don’t have to be pessimistic or optimistic — we can find realistic hope. This book is written by an international and influential collection of future shapers. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning to refresh the present, forge new common ground, and redesign the future.
4
Curtis, Luke T. Elder nutrition: How adults in their seventies, eighties, and nin[e]ties can obtain and maintain good health and stay active by proper nutrition, exercise, social support, and a positive mental attitude : a practical and optimistic guide based on Dr. Curtis's experience in treating hundreds of elder patients with nutritional problems and based on hundreds of recent published studies on nutritional research. Xlibris Corp., 2010.
Find full text
5
Richardson, Seth. Messaging and the Gods in Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386844.003.0010.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter addresses worshippers’ messages to Mesopotamian gods and explores the duality of this kind of communication. Richardson classifies “genres” of communication according to the roles assigned to worshippers and gods and according to the places of these genres in an elaborate communications infrastructure of formulae, personnel, and locales. Richardson also discusses the problem of failure of communication, and describes the protocols with which to account for failures. He identifies a characteristic Mesopotamian style for religious communications: it is at once elaborate and pessimistic, and so it contrasts with Mesopotamian commercial letters, which are straightforward, if not optimistic.
6
Davis, Justin Christopher. A Pessimistic View of an Optimistic Love Story. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
Find full text
7
Harlov, Alicia, Allyssa Stratton, and Alexandra Warden. Navigating Navicular Disease: An Optimistic Guide for a Pessimistic Diagnosis. Humble Hoof, The, 2024.
Find full text
8
Analysis of Optimistic and Pessimistic Language in Earnings Press Releases. GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2013.
Find full text
9
Amit, Raut. Academic Aspiration Confidence and Optimistic Pessimistic Attitudes among Vocational and Non-Professional Students. Phoebus Publishing Company, 2022.
Find full text
10
Alvey, James E. Adam Smith: Optimist or Pessimist? : A New Problem Concerning the Teleological Basis of Commercial Society. Ashgate Publishing, 2003.
Find full text
11
Crandall, Arthur George. Optimistic Medicine: Or The Early Treatment Of Simple Problems Rather Than The Late Treatment Of Serious Problems. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007.
Find full text
12
Crandall, Arthur George. Optimistic Medicine: Or The Early Treatment Of Simple Problems Rather Than The Late Treatment Of Serious Problems. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007.
Find full text
13
Tesón, Fernando R. Appendix The Iraq War. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190202903.003.0007.
Full textAbstract:
RECENT EMPIRICAL RESEARCH HAS CONFIRMED what most of us suspected: some humanitarian interventions succeed, others fail.1 Neither optimistic liberal interventionism nor pessimistic realist noninterventionism have carried the day. Taylor Seybolt lists as reasonably successful interventions the protection of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1992,...
14
Rozenberg, Julie, and Stéphane Hallegatte. Poor People on the Front Line: The Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty in 2030. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198813248.003.0002.
Full textAbstract:
The impacts of climate change on poverty depend on the magnitude of climate change, but also on socio-economic trends. An analysis of hundreds of baseline scenarios for future economic development shows that the drivers of poverty eradication differ across countries. In this chapter, two representative scenarios are selected from these hundreds, one optimistic and one pessimistic regarding poverty. Results from sector analyses of climate change impacts—in agriculture, health, and natural disasters—are introduced in the two scenarios. By 2030, climate change is found to have a significant impact on poverty. But the magnitude of these impacts depends on development choices. In the optimistic scenario with rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development, climate change increases poverty by between 3 million and 16 million in 2030. The increase in poverty reaches between 35 million and 122 million if development is delayed and less inclusive in the pessimistic scenario.
15
alvey, James. Adam Smith, Optimist or Pessimist? : A New Problem Concerning the Teleological Basis of the Commercial Society: A New Problem Concerning the Teleological Basis of the Commercial Society. Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.
Find full text
16
Rosenberg, Alex. Lessons for Cognitive Science from Neurogenomics. Edited by John Bickle. Oxford University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195304787.003.0007.
Full textAbstract:
This article discusses the lessons from neurogenomics that are applicable to cognitive science. It argues that the work of some leading cognitive scientists who employed the resources of neurogenomics has already provided strong grounds to be pessimistic about the representations to which a computational theory of mind is committed, and to be optimistic about the syntactic character of processes of thinking and reasoning in the brain. It also discusses research findings concerning how the brain recalls memories and the storage of explicit memories.
17
Desai, Anjali, and Andrew S. Epstein. Doctors’ Prognostic Accuracy in Terminally Ill Patients (DRAFT). Edited by Nathan A. Gray and Thomas W. LeBlanc. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190658618.003.0031.
Full textAbstract:
“Doctors’ Prognostic Accuracy in Terminally Ill Patients” reviews one of Christakis and Lamont’s landmark articles, which investigated the factors associated with prognostic accuracy (and prognostic error) in doctors’ prognoses for terminally ill patients. The article explored the extent and determinants of optimistic errors, pessimistic errors, and correct predictions among doctors who were estimating prognoses for their terminally ill patients. This chapter offers a concise breakdown of the study’s design and salient study results while also pointing out study limitations. The chapter summarizes other relevant studies exploring prognostic estimates and prognostic disclosure by physicians to terminally ill cancer patients. Finally, the chapter provides a clinical case to illustrate some of the study’s practical implications for patient care.
18
Olson, James S., ed. Historical Dictionary of the 1960s. Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798400663970.
Full textAbstract:
Few eras in U.S. history have begun with more optimistic promise and ended in more pessimistic despair than the 1960s. When JFK became president in 1960, the U.S. was the hope of the world. Ten years later American power abroad seemed wasted in the jungles of Indochina, and critics at home cast doubt on whether the U.S. was really the land of the free and the home of the brave. This book takes an encyclopedic look at the decade—at the individuals who shaped the era, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the women's movement, and the youth rebellion. It covers the political, military, social, cultural, religious, economic, and diplomatic topics that made the 1960s a unique decade in U.S. history.
19
Back, Kerry E. Heterogeneous Beliefs. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190241148.003.0021.
Full textAbstract:
There is a representative investor in a complete single‐period market if all investors have log utility or if all investors have CARA utility, even if investors have different beliefs. This extends to dynamic markets for log utility but not for CARA utility. With CARA and other LRT utility, the concept of a representative investor can be extended to include a random discounting factor that is either a supermartingale or a submartingale. If there are short sales constraints, then assets may be overpriced relative to average beliefs, because pessimistic investors are constrained from trading on their beliefs. The overpricing is an increasing function of the dispersion of beliefs. In a dynamic market with short sales constraints, prices can exceed even the values of optimistic investors (a speculative bubble).
20
Almeida, Joseph A. Solon’s Reception of Hesiod’s Works and Days. Edited by Alexander C. Loney and Stephen Scully. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190209032.013.41.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter presents observations about the relationship between the poetry of Hesiod and of Solon (Works and Days 213–326 and Solon frr. 4 and 13). In the first half of fr. 4 Solon, through a series of allusions, incorporates into his poem Hesiod’s authority on dikē to validate condemnation of injustice in his own city, and in the second half of the poem he turns the Hesiodic pessimism of this injustice into an optimistic hope for his city’s just future. In fr. 13 Solon expands Hesiod’s notion of Zeus as the punisher of injustice to create a pessimistic view of human life darker than Hesiod’s own. A final discussion of the scholarly division on the question of whether dikē in Solon is essentially Hesiodic or something new in Greek thought rounds out the observations on the relation between the poets and confirms Solon’s dependence on Hesiod.
21
Segev, Mor. The Value of the World and of Oneself. Oxford University Press, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197634073.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
This book examines the long-standing debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. Philosophical optimists maintain that the world is optimally arranged and is accordingly valuable, and that the existence of human beings is preferable over their nonexistence. Philosophical pessimists, by contrast, hold that the world is in a woeful condition and ultimately valueless, and that human nonexistence would have been preferable over human existence. Schopenhauer criticizes the optimism he locates in the Hebrew Bible and in Spinoza for being unable to square the presumed perfection of the world and its parts, including human life, with the suffering and misfortunes observable in them, and for leading to egoism and thereby to cruelty. Nietzsche, in turn, criticizes Schopenhauer’s overtly pessimistic view, inter alia, for furtively positing a perfect state for one to aspire to, thus being latently optimistic. Similarly, Camus charges Nietzsche, who announces his rejection of both optimism and pessimism, with deifying the world and oneself, thereby reverting to optimism. Interestingly, Aristotle countenances an optimistic theory, later adopted and developed by Maimonides, that is arguably capable of facing Schopenhauer’s challenge. Aristotelian optimism accounts for the perfection of the world in terms of a hierarchy of value between its parts, with human beings ranked relatively low, and recommends an attitude congruent with that ranking.
22
Annas, Julia. Citizen Virtue. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198755746.003.0006.
Full textAbstract:
In the Laws citizens’ virtue will prominently feature sōphrosunē, which is typically associated with self-control and discipline, but here linked more with moderation in a variety of contexts. Citizens’ virtues will be more focussed on cooperation and less on self-assertion than typical Greek virtues. It is now apparent that life in Magnesia, the city of the Laws, will be much less exciting and adventurous than life in Athens, and tamer than life in the military societies of Sparta and Crete—another way in which a life focussed on virtue as a whole differs from life centred only on military virtue or on individual ambition. All citizens will be virtuous, to a lesser degree than the rulers of the Republic, but to a greater degree than the Republic’s other members. The Laws is not a pessimistic fall-back from the Republic because the level of virtue required in lower, but an optimistic attempt to sketch a society where all citizens can become virtuous.
23
Fumerton, Richard. Reasoning to the Best Explanation. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198746904.003.0005.
Full textAbstract:
The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore the viability of reasoning to the best explanation as a fundamental source of epistemically rational beliefs and a potentially useful weapon for use in responding to the skeptic. After making some important distinctions among various forms of explanationism, I’ll reach a somewhat pessimistic conclusion about the prospects for explanationist epistemologies solving fundamental epistemological problems. Explanationist epistemologies don’t seem to be fundamental sources of epistemically rational beliefs. As a result, fundamental epistemological problems, such as the threat of skepticism, are not solved by appeals to reasoning to the best explanation. We must look elsewhere for philosophically satisfying responses to these problems.
24
Kepes, Sven, and John E. Delery. HRM Systems and the Problem of Internal Fit. Edited by Peter Boxall, John Purcell, and Patrick M. Wright. Oxford University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199547029.003.0019.
Full textAbstract:
Previous reviews of the fit perspectives in SHRM have had a pessimistic tone and concluded that there was little evidence of the assumption that ‘fit’ leads to organizational success, although most reviews did not specifically focus on internal fit. This article aims to revisit the theoretical foundation of internal fit and provide a review of the literature addressing this issue. Specifically, it sets out to explore the theory and research behind the internal fit perspective in an attempt to summarize and advance our knowledge behind HRM systems and internal fit. In doing so, it addresses the theory behind ‘fit’, the interplay between external and internal fit, issues of the level of abstraction (e.g. focus on HRM philosophies, policies, or practices in measuring HRM systems), different types of internal fit, problems stemming from levels of analysis issues, and the empirical evidence, before summarizing and concluding.
25
Markussen, Thomas, Smriti Sharma, Saurabh Singhal, and Finn Tarp. Inequality, institutions, and cooperation. UNU-WIDER, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.35188/unu-wider/2020/884-9.
Full textAbstract:
We examine the effects of randomly introduced economic inequality on voluntary cooperation, and whether this relationship is influenced by the quality of local institutions, as proxied by corruption. We use representative data from a large-scale lab-in-the-field public goods experiment with over 1,300 participants across rural Vietnam. Our results show that inequality adversely affects aggregate contributions, and this is on account of high endowment individuals contributing a significantly smaller share than those with low endowments. This negative effect of inequality on cooperation is exacerbated in high corruption environments. We find that corruption leads to more pessimistic beliefs about others’ contributions in heterogeneous groups, and this is an important mechanism explaining our results. In doing so, we highlight the indirect costs of corruption that are understudied in the literature. These findings have implications for public policies aimed at resolving local collective action problems.
26
O’Connell, Henry, and Brian Lawlor. Alcohol and substance abuse in older people. Oxford University Press, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199644957.003.0049.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter highlights the importance of alcohol use disorders (AUDs), inappropriate medication use (IMU) and use of illicit drugs in older people. Such problems are associated with considerable morbidity and will become more important with the ageing ‘baby-boomer’ generation in coming years. AUDs are under-detected, misdiagnosed and often completely missed in older populations. However, despite ageist and pessimistic assumptions, AUDs in older people are as amenable to treatment as in younger people. IMU in older people includes abuse of prescribed medications such as benzodiazepines and opiates, unnecessary treatment of medical and psychiatric conditions and toxic drug reactions related to inappropriate polypharmacy. Screening and treatment programmes for IMU could lead to considerable improvements in individual and population health. Misuse of illicit drugs, e.g. marijuana, cocaine, opioids and stimulants, by older people is not yet a major problem, but will probably become more prevalent and be a more important clinical issue for future generations of older people.
27
Woods, Philip. Newsreel Cameramen. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190657772.003.0007.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter looks at the work of the only two newsreel cameramen filming the campaign, Alec Tozer and Maurice Ford. It raises the practical problems of filming in tropical and jungle conditions. It brings into question the faking or reconstruction of battle scenes, but also the gap between what the cameramen reported and the stories that reached the cinema audiences. It argues that for reasons intrinsic to the cinema industry, the newsreels gave an altogether more optimistic and therefore more misleading view of the campaign than the newspapers did.
28
Reyes, Alfonso. The X on the Brow. Translated by Roberto Cantú. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190601294.003.0018.
Full textAbstract:
In these assorted reflections, written throughout his career, Alfonso Reyes considers the constitutive power of Mexican history and culture on modern Mexican identity. Acknowledging the omnipresence of the Mexican indigenous past and the demands placed on contemporary Mexicans by modern European culture, Reyes paints a portrait of the modern Mexican in a perpetual struggle to resolve contemporary problems, both political and existential, and to fulfill an unknown destiny. Despite painting Mexicans as mistrustful, doubtful—natural “disciples” of Descartes—his is an optimistic portrait nonetheless, and Reyes, always highlighting the Mexican difference, has faith in the future of Mexico and Mexicans.
29
Krenn, Michael L. Carl Rowan and the Dilemma of Civil Rights, Propaganda, and the Cold War. University of Illinois Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252038877.003.0004.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter considers the influence of Cold War politics and policies exerted on journalist and State Department spokesperson Carl Rowan during the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that Rowan's contention that “the civil rights issue was being dealt with in an effective and speedy manner” was not an indication of his naïve optimism about America's racial problem, but rather speaks to his understanding of the need for propaganda in America's struggle against communism. Once the Cold War was well over, as his book The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call attests, Rowan considered America's racial problems in a much less optimistic light.
30
Stoljar, Daniel. The Argument Defended. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198802099.003.0004.
Full textAbstract:
This chapter defends the argument of Chapter 3, optimistic argument 1 (OA1), by focusing on eight objections: 1) the successor objection: is there not a successor problem to any solved philosophical problem? 2) The impossible denial objection: isn’t it impossible to deny the boundary theses constitutive of boundary problems? (3) the negativity objection: isn’t any progress made of an objectionably negative sort? (4) the wrong problem objection: isn’t any progress made on the wrong sort of problem? (5) the standards objection: isn’t the case for progress based on overly easy standards? (6) the triviality objection: couldn’t any problem be represented as a boundary problem? (7) the wrong people objection: isn’t any progress made due to scientists rather than philosophers? (8) the reasoning objection: doesn’t the reference to ‘reasonably many’ problems mean that the overall reasoning is no good?
31
Clasen, Mathias. Haunted Houses, Haunted Minds. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190666507.003.0011.
Full textAbstract:
Stephen King’s The Shining (1977) is one of the most popular horror novels of all time. It tells the story of a family snowed in at a haunted hotel. The father, Jack Torrance, dreams of literary success and succumbs to the evil ghosts and supernatural forces of the hotel, eventually attacking his own family. This chapter argues that the central conflicts of the novel have their roots in human nature, reflecting evolutionarily recurrent adaptive problems of balancing conflicting evolved motives, most crucially motives for dominance versus motives for prosociality, and of surviving the hostile forces of nature. Moreover, the supernatural elements of the novel resonate with evolved cognitive dispositions for magical thinking and metaphysical dualism. The Shining effectively evokes and explores biologically salient conflicts and fears, offering a compellingly hard-nosed but ultimately optimistic perspective on those conflicts and fears.
32
Schliephake, Christopher, ed. Ecocriticism, Ecology, and the Cultures of Antiquity. Lexington Books, 2016. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781666993318.
Full textAbstract:
Although current environmental debates lay the focus on the Industrial Revolution as a sociopolitical development that has led to the current environmental crisis, many ecocritical projects have avoided historicizing their concepts or have been characterized by approaches that were either pre-historic or post-historic: while the environmental movement has harbored the dream of restoring nature to a state untouched by human hands, there is also the pessimistic vision of a post-apocalyptic world, exhausted by humanity’s consumption of natural resources. Against this background, the decline of nature has become a narrative template quite common among the public environmental discourse and environmental scientists alike. The volume revisits Antiquity as an epoch which witnessed similar environmental problems and came up with its own interpretations and solutions in dealing with them. This decidedly historical perspective is not only supposed to fill in a blank in ecocritical discourse, but also to question, problematize, and inform our contemporary debates with a completely different take on “nature” and humanity’s place in the world. Thereby, a productive dialogue between contemporary ecocritical theories and the classical tradition is established that highlights similarities as well as differences. This volume is the first book to bring ecocriticism and the classical tradition into a comprehensive dialogue. It assembles recognized experts in the field and advanced scholars as well as young and aspiring ecocritics. In order to ensure a dialogic exchange between the contributions, the volume includes four response essays by established ecocritics which embed the sections within a larger theoretical and practical ecocritical framework and discuss the potential of including the pre-modern world into our environmental debates.
33
Hamera, Judith. The Labors of Michael Jackson. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199348589.003.0002.
Full textAbstract:
Chapter 1 establishes Michael Jackson’s deindustriality, which is too frequently ignored in favor of white artists like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever or Bruce Springsteen. Jackson is the exemplary transitional subject of the deindustrial; his popularity peaked as manufacturing sector contractions became increasingly visible as national problems. His racial assertiveness and virtuosic dancing marked his own extraordinary social mobility while conjuring an industrial imaginary that was both fictively racially inclusive and apparently in the process of collapsing. Jackson simultaneously incarnated the trope of the human motor—one of the defining figures of industrial modernity—and offered a compelling, cruelly optimistic spectacle of the exceptional individual’s ability to glide away from this collapse with pleasure, precision, and hard work. The chapter also offers a theory of virtuosity as a relational process linking performers to audiences and, in Jackson’s case, accounting for his status as an icon of deindustrial mobility.
34
Stoljar, Daniel. Philosophical Progress. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198802099.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
Can there be progress in philosophy? On the one hand, it is often thought that problems in philosophy, in contrast to those in science, are perennials for which it is pointless to expect a solution. On the other hand, professional philosophy seems to have organized itself, perhaps unconsciously, around the opposite view: how else to explain the panoply of books, papers, journals, conferences, graduate programmes, websites, etc.? Who is right? And what turns on who is right? This book defends a reasonable optimism about philosophical progress. Optimistic, because the author argues that, contrary to a widespread attitude of pessimism common even among professional philosophers, we have correctly answered philosophical questions in the past and therefore should expect to do so in the future; The work discusses several examples from philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology. Reasonable, because the optimism the author has in mind does not extend to every instance of the sort of problem called ‘philosophical’ or even to every subkind of that sort of problem.
35
Pampel, Fred C., and Seth Pauley. Progress against Heart Disease. Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 2004. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9798216001812.
Full textAbstract:
In the last 35 years, declining deaths from heart disease have translated into 13 million lives saved and extended. Medical treatments and lifestyle changes have dealt successfully with the serious heart problems of Vice President Richard Cheney, talk show host David Letterman, Disney-ABC CEO Michael Eisner, and countless other less famous people. In the past, those with serious heart disease would have died young, but today can live long and active lives. Few families have not benefited from improvements in the way we treat and prevent heart problems, yet we often hear that poor lifestyles and the limitations of modern medicine threaten our health and well-being. Although room for improvement always remains, this book provides evidence to the contrary: we have made and continue to make tremendous progress in dealing with heart disease. In reviewing the progress being made in this crucially important area of health, Pampel and Pauley offer an optimistic view of the potential for continued improvement and for longer, healthier lives. Despite the prevalence of heart disease, deaths from this cause have declined greatly in past decades. From its peak in 1968, the heart disease mortality rate has fallen by 52% for men and 48% for women. That translates into over 13 million lives saved and extended. The lives saved are not limited to the very old. To the contrary, heart disease mortality has fallen faster among the young and middle aged.
36
Kroenig, Matthew. The Return of Great Power Rivalry. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190080242.001.0001.
Full textAbstract:
The United States of America has been the most powerful country in the world for the past seventy years, but will Washington’s reign as the world’s leading superpower continue? The U.S. National Security Strategy declares that the return of great power competition with Russia and China is the greatest threat to U.S. national security and economic well-being. Perhaps surprisingly, international relations scholarship does not have much to say about who wins great power rivalries, and many contemporary analysts argue that America’s autocratic rivals will succeed in disrupting or displacing U.S. global leadership. In sharp contrast, this book makes the novel argument that democracies enjoy built-in advantages in international geopolitics. Drawing on the writings of political philosophers—such as Herodotus, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu—and cutting-edge social science research, this book explains the unique economic, diplomatic, and military advantages that democracies bring to the international arena. It then carefully considers the advantages and disadvantages possessed by autocratic great powers. These ideas are then examined in a series of seven case studies of democratic-versus-autocratic rivalries throughout history, from ancient Greece to the Cold War. The book then unpacks the implications of this analysis for the United States, Russia, and China today. It concludes that, despite its many problems, America’s fundamentals are still much better than Russia’s and China’s. By making the “hard-power” argument for democracy, this book provides an innovative way of thinking about power in international politics and provides an optimistic assessment about the future of American global leadership.
37
Sigalas, Emmanuel. The European Union Space Policy. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.183.
Full textAbstract:
The European Union Space Policy (EUSP) is one of the lesser known and, consequently, little understood policies of the European Union (EU). Although the EU added outer space as one of its competences in 2009 with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the EUSP roots go back decades earlier.Officially at least, there is no EUSP as such, but rather a European Space Policy (ESP). The ESP combines in principle space programs and competences that cut across three levels of governance: the supranational (EU), the international (intergovernmental), and the national. However, since the EU acquired treaty competences on outer space, it is clear that a nascent EUSP has emerged, even if no one yet dares calling it by its name.Currently, three EU space programs stand out: Galileo, Copernicus, and EGNOS. Galileo is probably the better known and more controversial of the three. Meant to secure European independence from the U.S. global positioning system by putting in orbit a constellation of European satellites, Galileo has been plagued by several problems. One of them was the collapse of the public–private partnership funding scheme in 2006, which nearly killed it. However, instead of marking the end of EUSP, the termination of the public–private partnership served as a catalyst in its favor. Furthermore, research findings indicate that the European Parliament envisioned an EUSP long before the European Commission published its first communication in this regard. This is a surprising yet highly interesting finding because it highlights the fact that in addition to the Commission or the European Court of Justice, the European Parliament is a thus far neglected policy entrepreneur. Overall, the development of the EUSP is an almost ideal case study of European integration by stealth, largely in line with the main principles of two related European integration theories: neofunctionalism and historical institutionalism.Since EUSP is a relatively new policy, the existing academic literature on this policy is also limited. This has also to do with the degree of public interest in outer space in general. Outer space’s popularity reached its heyday during the Cold War era. Today space, in Europe and in other continents, has to compete harder than ever for public attention and investment. Still, research on European space cooperation is growing, and there are reasons to be optimistic about its future.