The Spirit of Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Näsström
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Classical Work ◽  
Democratic Practices ◽  
Fundamental Uncertainty ◽  
Political Form

How does one revitalize democracy in times of crisis? Democracy is today challenged by populism and elitism, as well as by the resurgence of new forms of authoritarianism. The Spirit of Democracy: Corruption, Disintegration, Renewal shows that while we have good reasons to worry about the corruption of democratic practices and ideals, these worries are often attributable to questionable assumptions about what democracy is. Drawing on Montesquieu’s classical work on the spirit of laws, the book sets out to reconceive the ways in which we understand and conceptualize modern democracy: from sovereignty to spirit. According to Montesquieu, different political forms are animated and sustained by different spirits: a republic by virtue, a monarchy by honor, and a despotic form by fear. This book argues that modern democracy is a sui generis political form animated and sustained by a spirit of emancipation. The removal of divine, natural, and historical authorities in political affairs unleashes a fundamental uncertainty about the purpose and direction of society. In a democracy, we respond to that uncertainty by sharing and dividing it equally. It emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage. Based on this argument, the book develops a new theoretical framework for studying the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy: what it is, how it begins, and where in society it plays out.

scholarly journals Religion and political form: Carl Schmitt's genealogy of politics as critique of Jürgen Habermas's post-secular discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 975-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIO CERELLA
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Cultural Pluralism ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Western Democracies

AbstractJürgen Habermas's post-secular account is rapidly attracting attention in many fields as a theoretical framework through which to reconsider the role of religion in contemporary societies. This work seeks to go beyond Habermas's conceptualisation by placing the post-secular discourse within a broader genealogy of the relationships between space, religion, and politics. Drawing on the work of Carl Schmitt, the aim of this article is to contrast the artificial separation between private and public, religious and secular, state and church, and the logic of inclusion/exclusion on which modernity was established. Revisiting this genealogy is also crucial to illustrating, in light of Schmitt's political theory, the problems underlying Habermas's proposal, emphasising its hidden homogenising and universalist logic in an attempt to offer an alternative reflection on the contribution of religious and cultural pluralism within Western democracies.

A Constitution for Israel According to the Torah

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-98
Author(s):  
Alexander Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Orthodox Jews ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
Modes Of Thought ◽  
Legal Centralism ◽  
Religious Zionism

This chapter describes the new legal centralism that Herzog brought to religious Zionism in Palestine and Israel. He composed the draft of a constitution for Israel that was based on traditional Jewish law (halakha). To allow halakha to be more suited to the needs of a modern democracy, he used inventive interpretations of precedent to make halakha more egalitarian and more acceptable to people who were not Orthodox Jews. He also created a vision of halakha that conformed to the theoretical framework of modern European legal centralism. These changes are understood against the backdrop of European colonialism. Herzog’s adoption of European jurisprudence was similar to the intellectual strategies of many nationalist leaders, who resorted to European modes of thought in their struggle against European colonial rule.

Mind wandering as data augmentation: How mental travel supports abstraction

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrthe Faber
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Important Addition

Abstract Gilead et al. state that abstraction supports mental travel, and that mental travel critically relies on abstraction. I propose an important addition to this theoretical framework, namely that mental travel might also support abstraction. Specifically, I argue that spontaneous mental travel (mind wandering), much like data augmentation in machine learning, provides variability in mental content and context necessary for abstraction.

Ancient and Modern Democracy

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfried Nippel ◽  
Keith Tribe
Keyword(s):  
Modern Democracy

Adaptive and Maladaptive Neural Plasticity Due to Facial Nerve Palsy

2016 ◽  
Vol 224 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten M. Klingner ◽  
Stefan Brodoehl ◽  
Gerd F. Volk ◽  
Orlando Guntinas-Lichius ◽  
Otto W. Witte
Keyword(s):  
Facial Nerve ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Cortical Plasticity ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Motor Nerve ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Cortical Reorganization ◽  
Nerve Lesion ◽  
Peripheral Facial Palsy

Abstract. This paper reviews adaptive and maladaptive mechanisms of cortical plasticity in patients suffering from peripheral facial palsy. As the peripheral facial nerve is a pure motor nerve, a facial nerve lesion is causing an exclusive deefferentation without deafferentation. We focus on the question of how the investigation of pure deefferentation adds to our current understanding of brain plasticity which derives from studies on learning and studies on brain lesions. The importance of efference and afference as drivers for cortical plasticity is discussed in addition to the crossmodal influence of different competitive sensory inputs. We make the attempt to integrate the experimental findings of the effects of pure deefferentation within the theoretical framework of cortical responses and predictive coding. We show that the available experimental data can be explained within this theoretical framework which also clarifies the necessity for maladaptive plasticity. Finally, we propose rehabilitation approaches for directing cortical reorganization in the appropriate direction and highlight some challenging questions that are yet unexplored in the field.

Social justice consciousness: Theoretical framework and training implications

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Oleen-Junk ◽  
Stephen M. Quintana ◽  
Julia Z. Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
And Training
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