scholarly journals Imperfect Accomplishment: The Fo Guang Shan Short-Term Monastic Retreat and Ethical Pedagogy in Humanistic Buddhism

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Laidlaw ◽  
Jonathan Mair
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Residential Program ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Lay Members ◽  
Humanistic Buddhism

Fo Guang Shan (佛光山; Buddha’s Light Mountain), an international Buddhist movement headquartered in Taiwan, regularly runs what it calls a short-term monastic cultivation retreat, a week-long residential program designed to provide lay members with an opportunity for intensive cultivation (修養; xiuyang or 修行; xiuxing). Contributions to the anthropology of ethics have recently drawn sharp distinctions between ordered, systematic ethics associated especially with religious traditions, and the compromise and accommodation that result from the exigencies of everyday life. This retreat, we argue, shows that the experience of ethical shortcomings can be a positive instrument and aspect of religious striving. While much debate in the anthropology of ethics assumes an a priori conceptual framework that opposes ordinary or everyday exigency to ordered transcendence, exigency and order in the Fo Guang Shan retreat are instead mutually constitutive and dynamically related. Here, failing and being corrected are not imperfections in, but central and ritually scripted elements of its ethical pedagogy. 摘要 總部設於臺灣的佛光山是具有世界影響力的佛教組織。其各地道場定期舉行之「短期出家修道會」活動通常持續一周，旨在為信眾提供密集修行機會。目前倫理人類學研究領域已明確區分了兩種道德實踐：其一為具有完美性和秩序性特質之系統，如宗教；其二為在日常生活應對道德困境時形成的具有折衷性和適應性的倫理。本研究透過分析佛光山「短期出家」活動，提出：（1）「不圓滿」體驗在個人宗教修行中具有獨特的積極促進作用；（2）兩種倫理是相輔相成，互動共生的。在佛光山「短期出家」中，活動參與者的行為錯誤與被矯並非通常認為的「不圓滿」所在，而是修行教育體系中至關重要的核心部分。 摘要 总部设于台湾的佛光山是具有世界影响力的佛教组织。其各地道场定期举行“短期出家修道会”，活动通常持续一周，旨在为信众提供密集修行机会。目前伦理人类学研究领域明确区分了两种道德实践：一是具有完美性和秩序性特质的系统，如宗教；二是在日常生活应对道德困境时形成的具有折衷性和适应性的伦理。本研究通过对佛光山“短期出家”活动的分析，提出：（1）“不圆满”体验在个人宗教修行中具有独特的积极促进作用；（2）两种伦理是相辅相成，动态共生的。在佛光山“短期出家”中，活动参与者的失败感与被矫正经验并非通常认为的“不圆满”所在，而恰是修行教育体系中至关重要的核心部分。

Nesting Expectations: What Can the Mexican and Argentinean Cash Transfers Tell Us about the Development of Development?

1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Andrés Dapuez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Cash Transfers ◽  
Conditional Cash Transfers ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Transfer Programs

Latin American cash transfer programs have been implemented aiming at particular anticipatory scenarios. Given that the fulfillment of cash transfer objectives can be calculated neither empirically nor rationally a priori, I analyse these programs in this article using the concept of an “imaginary future.” I posit that cash transfer implementers in Latin America have entertained three main fictional expectations: social pacification in the short term, market inclusion in the long term, and the construction of a more distributive society in the very long term. I classify and date these developing expectations into three waves of conditional cash transfers implementation.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori G. Beaman
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Key Concepts

Beginning with a story that exemplifies some of the key concepts in the book, this chapter outlines the conceptual framework that guides the chapters that follow. Key concepts include deep equality, the ‘non-event’, contaminated diversity, and agonistic respect. The chapter discusses the limitations of law in thinking about equality, and sets up the parameters and scope of the arguments and themes in subsequent chapters. The unique methodology upon which the book is built is outlined, including the use of narrative, the challenges of studying everyday life, and the necessity of drawing from a range of disciplines to think about complex futures.

Positive Psychology’s A Priori Problem

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara S. Held
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
A Priori ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Negative Numbers ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Optimal Functioning ◽  
Conceptual Muddles ◽  
Negative Phenomena

The positive/negative distinction works well in many fields—for example, in mathematics negative numbers hold their own, and in medical pathology negative results are usually celebrated. But in positive psychology negativity should be replaced with positivity for flourishing/optimal functioning to occur. That the designation of the psychological states and processes deemed positive (good/desirable) and negative (bad/undesirable) is made a priori, independent of circumstantial particularity, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, does not seem to bother positive psychologists. But it should, as it results in conceptual muddles and dead ends that cannot be solved within their conceptual framework of positivity and negativity. Especially problematic is an ambiguity I find in positive psychologists’ a priori and a posteriori understandings of positivity and negativity, an ambiguity about constitutive and causal relations that pervades their science and the conclusions drawn from it. By eliminating their a priori dichotomy of positivity and negativity, positive psychologists might well find themselves in a better position to put back together the psychological reality that they have fractured in their ontologically dubious move of carving up psychological reality a priori into positive and negative phenomena. They then might find themselves better placed to “broaden and build” their own science of flourishing.

Women’s Bodies and the Evolution of Anti-rape Technologies: From the Hoop Skirt to the Smart Frock

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 30-54
Author(s):  
Caroline Wilson-Barnao ◽  
Alex Bevan ◽  
Robyn Lincoln
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Online Searches

In this article, we explore smart deterrents and their historical precedents marketed to women and girls for the purpose of preventing harassment, sexual abuse and violence. Rape deterrents, as we define them, encompass customs, architectures, fashions, surveillant infrastructures, apps and devices conceived to manage and protect the body. Online searches reveal an array of technologies, and we engage with their prevention narratives and cultural construction discourses of the gendered body. Our critical analysis places recent rape deterrents in conversation with earlier technologies to untangle the persistent logics. These are articulated with reference to the ways that proto-digital technologies have been imported into the realm of ubiquitous computing and networks. Our conceptual framework offers novel pathways for discussing feminine bodies and their messy navigation of everyday life that include both threats to corporeal safety and collective imaginings of empowerment.

The duration dilemma in opioid agonist therapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-358
Author(s):  
Anjali Dhanda, MD ◽  
Edwin A. Salsitz, MD, DFASAM
Keyword(s):  
Maintenance Treatment ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Agonist Therapy ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Opioid Agonist ◽  
Adequate Treatment ◽  
Opioid Agonist Therapy ◽  
Optimal Outcomes

Objective: Studies dating back to 1964 consistently support the effectiveness of methadone as a maintenance treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), and since 2003, the effectiveness of buprenorphine. Short-term detoxification has not proven to be an effective treatment, as it results in high relapse rates when compared with maintenance treatment with an opioid agonist therapy (OAT). The question about the duration of maintenance treatment for OUD has been debated with recommendations ranging from a minimum of 1 year, 2 years, to indefinitely. Other factors such as misconceptions, regulations, and insurance barriers also have an impact on the duration dilemma of OAT.Design: There were no a priori criteria for article inclusion and this is not a structured literature review. It is a review of articles of convenience from 1964 to 2018.Main outcome measure: This paper aims to address the dilemma of the ideal duration of OAT and to discuss the factors that could affect this decision.Results: Sustained OAT has had significantly better long-term outcomes than short-term detoxification or time limited maintenance. Optimal outcomes are dependent on adequate treatment duration.Conclusions: Addiction is a chronic brain disease and its treatment should be similar to the treatment of other chronic medical and psychiatric diseases. Long-term, sometimes lifetime, continuation of OAT for the treatment of OUD results in optimal outcomes when measuring morbidity and mortality. The accumulated evidence does not support any arbitrary limitation to the duration of OAT. 

Advances in Research on the Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME)

2021 ◽  
pp. 230-249
Author(s):  
Allison Eden ◽  
Ron Tamborini ◽  
Melinda Aley ◽  
Henry Goble
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Moral Intuitions ◽  
Process Perspective

This chapter describes the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME), which examines connections between moral judgment and exposure to narrative media. The MIME explicates distinct, a priori–defined domains of moral intuitions that cut across cultural boundaries and identifies underlying processes that shape related social perceptions to describe how media and moral judgment are intertwined. The model’s dual-process perspective suggests some moral judgments are determined by quick gut reflexes and others by reflective deliberation. The MIME’s multistage process contains short-term and long-term components. The short-term component describes how exemplars that prime moral intuitions affect the appraisal of media content, which then prompts selective exposure to media that upholds primed intuitions. The long-term component describes how aggregate patterns of exposure to media that upholds primed intuitions encourages further (mass) production of content featuring those intuitions. This reciprocal process describes how media systems and audiences influence the salience of one another’s moral intuitions.

Grenzen und Möglichkeiten der (paepckeschen) Hermeneutik

2021 ◽  
pp. 395-428
Author(s):  
Philippe Forget
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
The Status ◽  
Functional Orientation ◽  
Human Orientation ◽  
The Relationship

After the author explicates how his academic relationship to Paepcke began in the 1970s, he proceeds to discuss critically the latter’s reflections on language and translation. Latent contradictions in Paepcke’s conceptual framework and in his understanding of the relationship between theory and practice are brought to the fore. This conceptual tension shows that Paepcke’s understanding of and approach to dealing with texts is problematic. Using concrete examples, the author demonstrates that Paepcke did not rely on the text as the criterion for constituting meaning. Rather Paepcke relied on historically mediated conceptual constructs which were given the status of authoritative units of sense, and these units guided Paepcke in his process of establishing the meaning of the whole. The reason for this can be found in unreflected preliminary decisions that are seen as “a priori evidence.” This also explains why Paepcke’s real achievement lies in the contrastive analysis of comprehensive concepts – of traditionally rich concepts developed over the course of time (human orientation) as well as in rationalized contemporary language (functional orientation).

Economic Issues in Land Administration

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dale ◽  
John McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Land Registration ◽  
Forest Reserves ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Rural Thailand

Land is of such fundamental importance that the land administration function has tended to be taken for granted. Increasingly, however, there is a debate as to how much money should be allocated to this area and with what priority. A host of concerns have been raised with respect to: 1. documenting the benefits and costs of titling and registration projects; 2. financing the construction and ongoing management of land administration infrastructure; 3. developing appropriate pricing strategies and policies for land administration services and products; and 4. examining the economic issues associated with determining the most effective roles for government and the private sector in the land administration field. Where more fundamental assessment of the role of real property has taken place, two schools of thought have emerged that are not mutually exclusive. The first has been based on traditional arguments for detailed a priori benefit/cost assessments (factoring in both quantifiable and non-quantifiable variables); the second and more recent has argued for minimal initial investment in the infrastructure, leaving it to market forces to dictate subsequent developments. The classic work of Gershon Feder and his World Bank colleagues on assessing the benefits of titling and registration has recently been reported in Feder and Nishio (1998). Feder developed a conceptual framework for the economics of land registration, initially in the context of a study on rural Thailand (Feder et al 1988). Two links between titles and economic performance were highlighted: the enhancement of tenure security and the role of titles in collateral arrangements that would facilitate access to institutional credit. Feder’s conceptual framework for evaluating landownership security and farm productivity is illustrated in Figure 11.1. Using empirical evidence from rural Thailand, Feder and his team compared the economic performance of two groups of farmers: one group was without legal titles and operated in forest reserves while the another group had legal titles and operated outside the forest reserve boundaries. Study sites were selected from four provinces, with the comparative groups operating in geographical proximity and within a similar agrarian and climatic environment.

Material Culture and Embodiment in American Religion

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Body ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Will

In recent years, the study of religion has undergone a useful materialization in the work of many scholars, who are not inclined to define it in terms of ideas, creeds, or doctrines alone, but want to understand what role sensation, emotion, objects, spaces, clothing, and food have played in religious practice. If the intellect and the will dominated the study of religion dedicated to theology and ethics, the materialization of religious studies has taken up the role of the body, expanding our understanding of it and dismantling our preconceptions, which were often notions inherited from religious traditions. As a result, the body has become a broad register or framework for gauging the social, aesthetic, and practical character of religion in everyday life. The interest in material culture as a primary feature of religion has unfolded in tandem with the new significance of the body and the broad materialization of religious studies.

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