“How Does Heaven Come to Speak?”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihwa Choi
Keyword(s):  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Opposing Faction

After the death of emperor Zhenzong, scholar-officials challenged the legitimacy of the Heavenly Text and the cult of the Sacred Ancestor. They argued that because there was no way that Heaven could speak through the proposed revealed text, the Heavenly Text was fabricated. A consensus was reached between Emperor Renzong and officials that Confucian canonical rituals would be the sole orthopraxis of imperial rituals, and the cult of the Sacred Ancestor would be reduced to a private ritual of the royal family. Later, those who advocated increasing the power of the bureaucracy at the expense of the monarch took the lead in deploying the ancient ritual laws as a means to compel compliance by the emperor and also to attack officials of the opposing faction. As “three-year mourning” became a legal obligation for all civil officers, many politically charged allegations were made, which in turn further stimulated the study of the canonical rituals.

The Prince of Wales's Children Act, 1889

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-354
Author(s):  
Benjamin Sacks
Keyword(s):  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
Queen Victoria ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Court Life

Nothing was more abrasive to the popularity of the British monarchy than the civil list during the reign of Queen Victoria. The repeated requests to parliament for annuities and dowries for her children brought accusations against the sovereign of evading the responsibility to take care of her own family. The chief critics were the Radical M.P.s, a sort of left wing in the Liberal party. A few were theoretical republicans but tempered their views by an acknowledgement that the constitutional monarchy was in reality a veiled republic capable of yielding the most advanced political and social reforms. Their twin interests would seem to have been 1) to complete the Gladstonian principle of fiscal economy by its extension to the royal family and 2) to make court life a model of simplicity in harmony with the nineteenth-century goal of human dignity.What brought the matter to a climax was the prospective requests in the eighteen-eighties for the children of the Prince of Wales. As the Radical M.P.s saw the issue, parliament was about to be asked to take care of the Queen's grandchildren numbering more than a score. What seemed imperative was the appointment of a select committee to determine both the extent of the legal obligation of parliament and the ability of Queen Victoria to find the money from her available funds. Sir Charles Dilke, Chelsea, whose outbursts against civil list expenditures had aroused the anger of the Queen in 1871-72, had been suggesting such a body. But he agreed that the children of the Prince of Wales (whom he met frequently at social events) merited grants as they were in the line of succession but not those of the Queen's younger sons and daughters. Dilke was more specific on May 27, 1883 (or as Lee states May 7), when he dined at Marlborough House. The Prince of Wales raised anew the needs of his children. Dilke assured him of support and favored a lump sum to be distributed by the Prince of Wales rather than piecemeal legislation as had been the case with the Queen's own children.

Hegel's Conception of the Study of Human Nature

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 32-47
Author(s):  
H. B. Acton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Dialectical Materialism ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Formal Logic ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Dialectical Method ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Creation

It is easy to understand why Hegel's philosophy should be little studied by English-speaking philosophers today. Those who at the beginning of the twentieth century initiated the movement we are now caught up in presented their earliest philosophical arguments as criticisms of the prevailing Anglo-Hegelian views. It may now be thought illiberal to take much interest in this perhaps excusably slaughtered royal family, and positively reactionary to hanker after the foreign dynasty from which it sometimes claimed descent. Hegel was a systematic philosopher with a scope hardly to be found today, and men who, as we say, wish to keep up with their subject may well be daunted at the idea of having to understand a way of looking at philosophy which they suspect would not repay them for their trouble anyway. Furthermore, since Hegel wrote, formal logic has advanced in ways he could not have foreseen, and has, it seems to many, destroyed the whole basis of his dialectical method. At the same time, the creation of a science of sociology, it is supposed, has rendered obsolete the philosophy of history for which Hegel was at one time admired. In countries where there are Marxist intellectuals, Hegel does get discussed as the inadvertent forerunner of historical and dialectical materialism. But in England, where there is no such need or presence, there do not seem to be any very strong ideological reasons for discussing him. In what follows I shall be asking you to direct your thoughts to certain forgotten far-off things which I hope you will find historically interesting even if you do not agree with me that they give important clues for an understanding of human nature and human society.

scholarly journals Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 693
Author(s):  
Danilo Russo ◽  
Valeria B. Salinas-Ramos ◽  
Luca Cistrone ◽  
Sonia Smeraldo ◽  
Luciano Bosso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
River Quality ◽  
Surrogate Taxa ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Sampling Problems ◽  
The Eu

Bats show responses to anthropogenic stressors linked to changes in other ecosystem components such as insects, and as K-selected mammals, exhibit fast population declines. This speciose, widespread mammal group shows an impressive trophic diversity and provides key ecosystem services. For these and other reasons, bats might act as suitable bioindicators in many environmental contexts. However, few studies have explicitly tested this potential, and in some cases, stating that bats are useful bioindicators more closely resembles a slogan to support conservation than a well-grounded piece of scientific evidence. Here, we review the available information and highlight the limitations that arise in using bats as bioindicators. Based on the limited number of studies available, the use of bats as bioindicators is highly promising and warrants further investigation in specific contexts such as river quality, urbanisation, farming practices, forestry, bioaccumulation, and climate change. Whether bats may also serve as surrogate taxa remains a controversial yet highly interesting matter. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators include taxonomical issues, sampling problems, difficulties in associating responses with specific stressors, and geographically biased or delayed responses. Overall, we urge the scientific community to test bat responses to specific stressors in selected ecosystem types and develop research networks to explore the geographic consistency of such responses. The high cost of sampling equipment (ultrasound detectors) is being greatly reduced by technological advances, and the legal obligation to monitor bat populations already existing in many countries such as those in the EU offers an important opportunity to accomplish two objectives (conservation and bioindication) with one action.

Denial of Health Care and Informed Consent in English and American Law

1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-71
Author(s):  
Frances H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Rationing ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
American Law ◽  
Care Rationing ◽  
Increased Pressure

Health care rationing has gained greater visibility in the United States and the United Kingdom, for quite different reasons. As patients in both countries become more aware that potentially beneficial medical services can be denied them on economic — as opposed to purely medical — grounds, they are beginning to seek help from the judiciary. This Article contends that as rationing becomes more explicit, the doctrine of informed consent will come under increased pressure. The Article suggests that courts and legislatures consider imposing a legal obligation on physicians to inform their patients when potentially effective treatment is to be withheld for economic or other non-clinical reasons.

Between Islamists and Liberals: Saudi Arabia's New “Islamo-Liberal” Reformists

2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Lacroix
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
The Government

The last few years in Saudi Arabia have witnessed the rise of a new trend made up of former Islamists and liberals, Sunnis and Shi'ites, calling for democratic change within an Islamic framework through a revision of the official Wahhabi religious doctrine. These intellectuals have managed to gain visibility on the local scene, notably through a series of manifestos and petitions, and their project has even received support from among the Royal Family. Indeed, the government has since then taken a number of preliminary steps towards political and religious reform. But does this mean that Saudi Arabia is about to enter the era of Post-Wahhabism?

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document