History, Inheritance, and Vulnerability

Being Born ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 55-84
Author(s):  
Alison Stone

This chapter describes the complex relations amongst being born and birth-giving, mothers, women, and child-caring, and then defends the view that Western culture has concentrated narrowly on death at the expense of birth, taking existentialism’s focus on mortality as a case in point. Three aspects of natality are then examined. First, reception and inheritance: in dialogue with Camus and Beauvoir, it is argued that to be born is to receive and inherit the meaningful fabric of our lives and involvements from others around and preceding us. Second, vulnerability: the chapter distinguishes vulnerability in being born—coming into existence in more or less advantageous locations in the world—from vulnerability by virtue of being born—as infants who are helpless and so depend on adult care-givers. Third, negativity: being born is not an exclusively positive condition but has a negative side, in part through its links with vulnerability.

Being Born ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 85-117
Author(s):  
Alison Stone

This chapter looks at four features of human existence—dependency, the relationality of the self, embeddedness in social power, and situatedness—and shows how they are connected with birth. We are dependent both as infants and children—natal dependency—and also to varying degrees throughout life. Because we begin life dependent on adult care, we attach to our care-givers very intensely; these attachments shape our selves and personality structures, partly through processes of identification as they are theorized in psychoanalysis. This makes us highly receptive in early life to social power relations, which even shape our possibilities for criticizing social power in later life. Finally, at birth we begin life situated within the world with respect to many variables, including culture; gender, race, class, and other social divisions; geography; history; body; and placement in a specific set of personal and wider relationships such as kin networks and generations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 117-129
Author(s):  
Natali Cavanagh

While infection has always haunted civilizations around the world, there are very few diseases that have had as much of an impact on Western culture as cancer has. The abundance of bereavement literature about characters with cancer begs the question; why cancer? This paper discusses ways in which cancer narratives reinforce Western obsession with control, through the lens of rhetoric and narrative structure. The author will specifically discuss how Patrick Ness’ 2011 novel, A Monster Calls, combats modern illness and cancer narratives and challenges themes of control threaded into Western culture


Author(s):  
Michael C. Legaspi

This is a book about wisdom. It is an inquiry into the beginnings of a particular way of thinking about life in the world. Seen in terms of wisdom, the world is not a meaningless array of disconnected things but something that is experienced as an ordered reality. This holistic way of understanding life in the world characterized pursuits of wisdom in a two-sided classical and biblical tradition that exercised a profound influence on Western culture. This book examines the development of that tradition in a wide range of texts from Homer to Plato and in the writings of early Jewish and Christian authors.


Author(s):  
Luciana Bellatalla

From its first appearance in western culture, philosophy has been considered able to build up reality, to educate people, and to disclose truth. Plato proposed philosophers as governors in life-long pursuit of philosophical learning. Socrates was the ideal paradigm of an educating philosopher: he tried to wake up human minds so that they could be aware of themselves and of the world, criticizing tradition and prejudices in a logically consistent perspective. A critical and dialogic approach—not by mere chance defined as "Socratic"—to problems has been considered until now the most profitable method of teaching. Socrates is a pioneer in discussing the question of a philosophical (paideia), as he defined his method "maieutic." He was not an authoritarian teacher, but a sparring partner in the process of self-education. Moreover, he considered himself as the most learned and, at the same time, the wisest in Greece, just because he was conscious of his ignorance. Therefore, he understood for the first time in our cultural tradition that knowledge is an endless process rather than a product, within marked bounds.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (01) ◽  
pp. 250-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca S Williamson ◽  
Brooke O Cherven ◽  
Jordan Gilleland Marchak ◽  
Paula Edwards ◽  
Michael Palgon ◽  
...  

Summary Background and Objectivs: Survivors of pediatric and adolescent cancer are at an increased risk of chronic and debilitating health conditions and require life-long specialized care. Stand-alone electronic personal health records (ePHRs) may aid their self-management. This analysis characterizes young adult survivors and parents who meaningfully use an ePHR, Cancer SurvivorLinkTM, designed for survivors of pediatric and adolescent cancer. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of patients seen at a pediatric survivor clinic for annual survivor care. Young adult survivors and/or parent proxies for survivors <18 years old who completed ePHR registration prior to their appointment or within 90 days were classified as registrants. Registrants who uploaded or downloaded a document and/or shared their record were classified as meaningful users. Results: Overall, 23.7% (148/624) of survivors/parents registered and 38% of registrants used SurvivorLink meaningfully. Young adult registrants who transferred to adult care during the study period were more likely to be meaningful users (aOR: 2.6 (95% CI: 1.1, 6.1)) and used the ePHR twice as frequently as those who continued to receive care in our institution’s pediatric survivor clinic. Among survivors who continued to receive care at our institution, being a registrant was associated with having an annual follow-up visit (aOR: 2.6 (95% CI: 1.2, 5.8)). Conclusions: While ePHRs may not be utilized by all survivors, SurvivorLink is a resource for a subset and may serve as an important bridge for patients who transfer their care. Using SurvivorLink was also associated with receiving recommended annual survivor care.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nollert ◽  
Sebastian Schief

Most welfare state typologies still characterize Switzerland as a liberal welfare regime. However, recent research shows that its welfare state did not retrench but instead moved towards the conservative type. Nevertheless, higher social expenditure has not been accompanied by increases in taxation. Moreover, Switzerland managed to overcome the so-called trilemma of the service economy. After analyzing the shift of the Swiss welfare state from a liberal to a conservative welfare regime, we argue that the Swiss economic success story of the twentieth century is based on a favourable policy mix (tax system, labour market, financial sector) used to compete successfully in the world market for protection. We conclude that, as a political entrepreneur, Switzerland has the capability to receive taxes and investments from foreign individuals and enterprises, wealthy residents and high-skilled and well-paid immigrants to finance the welfare state and to overcome the trilemma of the service economy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-398
Author(s):  
Philip G. Ziegler

Over several decades during the second half of the last century, the Romanian-born Parisian intellectual E. M. Cioran penned a series of uneasy works whose despondent obsession with God is matched only by their utter disavowal of the reality of the divine. Wrestling pessimistically with nihilism in a world forged by chronic insomnia, illness, nicotine, and despair, Cioran confronts the theologian with a particularly radical articulation of unbelief hard-won at the “verge of existence,” and existence suffered as an “accident of God.” This short article explores the form and substance of Cioran’s biting and aphoristic expression of modern unbelief in an attempt to discern something of its theological significance. Perhaps theology would do well to receive this work as a necessary ascesis of its inapt and faithless contentment and ease with the world. And could it be that theology stands to be schooled in the near impossibility and profundity of hope by the cynicist’s surprising confession that, “Each time the future seems conceivable to me, I have the impression of being visited by Grace”?


1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (02) ◽  
pp. 242-248
Author(s):  
A. C. Fuller

Marine Safety Information is defined as the coordinated service of navigational and meteorological warnings, meteorological forecasts and distress alerts.It represents the core information which the Master of a ship is required to receive under the provisions of chapters IV and V of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS).In essence these cover the responsibilities of nations to broadcast messages relating to marine hazards, the obligation placed upon Masters to report such hazards, and to receive messages broadcast about them.Three separate kinds of information are dealt with in the SOLAS Convention. First, Meteorological Services: these are the business of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which seeks to coordinate the work of various national meteorological administrations. Unfortunately a multitude of overlapping services and areas have grown up out of an expanding practical requirement and capability. This has resulted in overlap of services and consequent multiplication of effort.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 07001
Author(s):  
Norfarizah Mohd Bakhir ◽  
Mohamad Omar Bidin ◽  
Ahmad Amirul Bin Abdul Aziz

The Malay folklore is something that our ancestor inherits to us for so long now. Nowadays, Malaysian folklore is beginning to fade from the face of our country due to the western media that’s beginning to dominate the world. Youngsters nowadays prefer to watch western movies and western related stories rather than our own folklore. Not only that, youngsters nowadays is keen towards the western culture due to the innovation of modern technology such as tablets, smartphones, and other devices. There are three important objectives in this research. First is to determine the suitable Malaysian folklore to be converted into an interactive comic. Second is to give a new experience to the audience to enjoy and attract youngsters nowadays. The third is to test the effectiveness of this interactive comic to the young generation from age 13 to 15 years old. This interactive comic is for youngsters who nowadays don’t know about the Malaysian folklore and to prevent it from fading from the eyes of our country. As a conclusion, this research is to help preserve and protect our Malaysian folklore from extinction by using modern technologies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mal Boyle

Worldwide, 2020 was a difficult and challenging year for everyone, including for publishers of scientific journals. Many journals had difficulty sourcing reviewers because people were busier in unexpected ways and could not review a manuscript, or those who were able to review a manuscript often struggled to get it done in the prescribed time due to work and personal commitments. Even with this challenging year, the AJP published 51 research-related articles, slightly more than in 2019. We are confident that 2021 will also prove to be a positive in a publishing sense as we continue to receive manuscripts from national and international authors covering a broad range of topics. So, as we enter another year of uncertainty, the AJP’s editorial team look forward to meeting the challenges of 2021 as we continue to publish peer-reviewed articles from Australasia and around the world.


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