The Constitution of 1787, Based on Reason and Revelation

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168
Author(s):  
James D. Moseley ◽  

The framers of the U.S. Constitution of 1787 understood that its principles are those of the Declaration of Independence, based upon reason and revelation, “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” Yet, following so-called progressivism at the turn of the twentieth century, the principles of the American founding were questioned by historicism and moral relativism in the social sciences and humanities, with the most egregious effects today in constitutional law. This has been called “the crisis of the West.” Some perceive that the United States lacks a strong moral foundation, and call for redrawing the Constitution. However, before doing so, we may want to better understand its founding principles. We need to turn to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, as found in reason and revelation, which support the moral order of the Constitution. John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln referred to passages from the Bible to illustrate the preeminent position of the Declaration to the Constitution. And they, like the founders, believed the Constitution’s principles must be adhered to for the nation to survive.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-178
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Koos

A Review of: Bhardwaj, R.K. (2017). Information literacy in the social sciences and humanities: A bibliometric study. Information and Learning Science, 188(1/2), 67–89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-09-2016-0068 Abstract Objective – To determine the scope and distribution of information literacy research documents in the humanities and social sciences published from 2001 to 2012. Design – Bibliometric analysis. Setting – N/A Subjects – 1,990 document records retrieved from a Scopus database search.  Methods – Using the database Scopus, the author created and conducted a search for documents related to the concept of information literacy. Articles, review papers, conference articles, notes, short surveys, and letters were included in the results. Only documents published from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2012 were included in the study. The author then performed various bibliometric analyses of the results. Main Results – The author found that the number of publications and citations have increased over time, although the average citations per publication (ACPP) decreased significantly during the time period being studied. The majority of the literature published on this topic is in English and produced within the United States. The Transformative Activity Index was calculated to determine changes in publishing patterns across countries from 2001 to 2012. The amount of research collaboration across countries was calculated as well, with the U.S. being the most collaborative. The top journals publishing on this topic were identified by calculating the h-index. An individual from Universidad de Granada in Spain published the greatest number of articles from a single author, and this university was found to have produced the greatest amount of research. Documents produced by the United Kingdom have the highest citation rates. A total of 1,385 documents were cited at least once, and each item on average was cited five times. Conclusion – Most of the articles on information literacy in the social sciences and humanities comes from developed countries. The results of this study may help to inform those interested in researching this field further.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Alexander

Abstract Identifying a shift away from a more humanistic approach in the sociology and political science practiced in the United States since the 1950s, Jeffrey Alexander seeks to recuperate an intellectual tradition of the social sciences that places the cultural meanings and subjective dimensions of social actions at the very centre of analysis, while simultaneously considering the structure nature of social life. Opposing the ‘great divide’ between social sciences and humanities, therefore, Alexander proposes, via his strong program of cultural sociology, a conception of sociology that considers social facts not as ‘things’ but as ‘texts,’ analysing how cultural meanings are socially rooted and structure social life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-305
Author(s):  
Hoyoon Jung

As Brazil emerges as a significant and influential country in the global arena, studies related to Brazil have drawn keen scholarly interests from a number of fields of study. In this regard, “Brazilian Studies” has grown considerably in the last several decades and has solid representation in most disciplines, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. In South Korea, Brazilian Studies has also become a competitive and promising discipline through the effort of pioneer Korean brazilianists, yet less lively compared to Brazilian Studies in the United States and other European countries that have guided this field. Employing web-based methods, including online-based searching, and bibliographical analysis based on the data collected by DBpia, this study aims to introduce and examine the issues, trends and current state of Brazilian Studies education and research in South Korea, particularly focusing on the social sciences and humanities.


Author(s):  
Walter D. Mignolo

This book is an extended argument about the “coloniality” of power. In a shrinking world where sharp dichotomies, such as East/West and developing/developed, blur and shift, this book points to the inadequacy of current practices in the social sciences and area studies. It explores the crucial notion of “colonial difference” in the study of the modern colonial world and traces the emergence of an epistemic shift, which the book calls “border thinking.” Further, the book expands the horizons of those debates already under way in postcolonial studies of Asia and Africa by dwelling on the genealogy of thoughts of South/Central America, the Caribbean, and Latino/as in the United States. The book's concept of “border gnosis,” or sensing and knowing by dwelling in imperial/colonial borderlands, counters the tendency of occidentalist perspectives to manage, and thus limit, understanding. A new preface discusses this book as a dialogue with Hegel's Philosophy of History.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan-Hoang Vuong

Valian rightly made a case for better recognition of women in science during the Nobel week in October 2018 (Valian, 2018). However, it seems most published views about gender inequality in Nature focused on the West. This correspondence shifts the focus to women in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8335
Author(s):  
Jasmina Nedevska

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool as societies steer towards sustainable development. Although the litigation mainly takes place in domestic courts, the implications can be seen as global as specific climate rulings influence courts across national borders. However, while the phenomenon of judicialization is well-known in the social sciences, relatively few have studied issues of legitimacy that arise as climate politics move into courts. A comparatively large part of climate cases have appeared in the United States. This article presents a research plan for a study of judges’ opinions and dissents in the United States, regarding the justiciability of strategic climate cases. The purpose is to empirically study how judges navigate a perceived normative conflict—between the litigation and an overarching ideal of separation of powers—in a system marked by checks and balances.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Mohamed Amine Brahimi ◽  
Houssem Ben Lazreg

The advent of the 1990s marked, among other things, the restructuring of the Muslim world in its relation to Islam. This new context has proved to be extremely favorable to the emergence of scholars who define themselves as reformists or modernists. They have dedicated themselves to reform in Islam based on the values of peace, human rights, and secular governance. One can find an example of this approach in the works of renowned intellectuals such as Farid Esack, Mohamed Talbi, or Mohamed Arkoun, to name a few. However, the question of Islamic reform has been debated during the 19th and 20th centuries. This article aims to comprehend the historical evolution of contemporary reformist thinkers in the scientific field. The literature surrounding these intellectuals is based primarily on content analysis. These approaches share a type of reading that focuses on the interaction and codetermination of religious interpretations rather than on the relationships and social dynamics that constitute them. Despite these contributions, it seems vital to question this contemporary thinking differently: what influence does the context of post-Islamism have on the emergence of this intellectual trend? What connections does it have with the social sciences and humanities? How did it evolve historically? In this context, the researchers will analyze co-citations in representative samples to illustrate the theoretical framework in which these intellectuals are located, and its evolution. Using selected cases, this process will help us to both underline the empowerment of contemporary Islamic thought and the formation of a real corpus of works seeking to reform Islam.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Beatriz Marín-Aguilera

Archaeologists, like many other scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities, are particularly concerned with the study of past and present subalterns. Yet the very concept of ‘the subaltern’ is elusive and rarely theorized in archaeological literature, or it is only mentioned in passing. This article engages with the work of Gramsci and Patricia Hill Collins to map a more comprehensive definition of subalternity, and to develop a methodology to chart the different ways in which subalternity is manifested and reproduced.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Rynkiewich

Abstract There was a time when mission studies benefitted from a symbiotic relationship with the social sciences. However, it appears that relationship has stagnated and now is waning. The argument is made here, in the case of cultural anthropology both in Europe and the United States, that a once mutually beneficial though sometimes strained relationship has suffered a parting of the ways in recent decades. First, the article reviews the relationships between missionaries and anthropologists before World War II when it was possible to be a ‘missionary anthropologist’ with a foot in both disciplines. In that period, the conversation went two ways with missionary anthropologists making important contributions to anthropology. Then, the article reviews some aspects of the development of the two disciplines after World War II when increasing professionalism in both disciplines and a postmodern turn in anthropology took the disciplines in different directions. Finally, the article asks whether or not the conversation, and thus the cross-fertilization, can be restarted, especially since the youngest generation of anthropologists has recognized the reality of local Christianities in their fields of study.


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