2. The case for atheism

‘The case for atheism’ investigates the case for atheism, which does not depend on proving God does not exist but on making a good case for naturalism. The atheist’s naturalism consists in the view that a human being is a biological animal rather than some kind of embodied spiritual soul, as many religious believers think. The strong evidence all points to our biological nature. We need to think about inductive and abductive arguments concerning atheism as well and differentiate atheism from agnosticism, before assessing whether atheism is a faith position. What are the arguments for religious belief?

Case Studies: A Brief Introduction and Suggested Guidelines for the Field

Case studies are a common teaching and learning tool within entrepreneurship and its parent discipline, business, as a method of bringing the nuances of realism to complex theoretical problems. However, within the arts entrepreneurship field, they are used less frequently for pedagogical purposes and often with hesitation. Consequently, in this guide to the Case Study Edition, I aim to briefly: provide a rationale for using case studies in arts entrepreneurship education; illustrate what makes a good case study; highlight the mechanics of writing case studies by clearly outlining the expectations of a submission to JAEE for both traditional research cases and teaching cases; summarize the cases within this special issue and highlight why they demonstrate best practice example cases.

Not a Penny off the Pay, Not a Second on the Day: Long-term Wage Settlement at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

This case study presents the delicately poised situation of the workers who were on strike, demanding better wages from their employer, during wage negotiations in India. It highlights the dispute resolution mechanisms, the rubric to evaluate the strike as well as whether wages are to be paid for the duration of the strike period within the framework of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, of India. This case study is based on the strike, which occurred in September 2019, during the wage settlement at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It is developed completely from secondary and publicly available reports and information. The researchers have used the specific legislative framework of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, of India to understand certain practical aspects of the applications of the legislation. The major issues highlighted in this specific case study are the process outlined for the workers to go on a strike, rubric to evaluate a strike and whether wages are to be paid for the duration of the strike period. It is also a good case study to explore the strategies for effective collective bargaining when one is at a relative disadvantage as opposed to their opponents.

Social Capital Management. A Case Study of the Town of Racibórz

For many years, social capital has been the subject of research in various areas and social environments. What is worth diagnosing is not so much its functioning or formation, but its management, i.e. deliberate development aimed at achieving individual or collective benefits. The cultural borderland region of the Racibórz area, especially the town, is a good case for an analysis of such phenomena, because, over the centuries, the town has been part of various administrative and economic regimes and thus has developed forms of social capital independent of state structures. The main research questions in this paper are the following: What remains of them today? Are they subject to management processes?

Commentary to: Prediction, Testing and Analysis of a 50 m Long Pile in Soft Marine Clay-Journal of the Deep Foundations Institute, 13(2) 1-7

This paper presents an excellent illustration of the best practice for installation and testing of a long displacement pile in soft clay to minimize installation disturbance. This loading test is also a good case study for the application of the SHANSEP-based approach described by Saye et al. (2013) and corresponding LRFD calibration of the SHANSEP-based approach by Stuedlein et al. (2020).

Clinical Radiology Case Presentation: Do’s and Don’ts

Clinical case presentation is part of daily routine for doctors to communicate with each other to facilitate learning, and ultimately patient management. Hence, the art of good clinical case presentation is a skill that needs to be mastered. Case presentations are a part of most undergraduate and postgraduate training programs aimed at nurturing oratory and presentation design skills. This article is an attempt at providing a trainee in radiology a guideline to good case presentation skills.

In Their Own Best Interest. Is There a Paternalistic Case for Welfare Conditionality?

This paper examines paternalism as a justification for welfare reforms making benefits conditional on participation in activation programs. We clarify different types of what we denote ‘throffer paternalism’ – a paternalism conjoining an offer with a threat – and ask whether there is a good case for any of them. We argue that hard but non-perfectionistic paternalism provides the most promising defense for mandatory activation but conclude that it does not give a convincing justification for this type of welfare policy.

Benefit Points – An Overview

We give a nontechnical overview of the main techniques in this book. It all starts with providing benefit estimates in the form of benefit points. Combining benefit estimates and cost estimates produces a benefit-cost index, with which one can order and reorder backlogs. Benefit points also offer a way to monitor and control the construction of beneficial functionality, not just the amount of functionality. Benefit points and size points can be instantiated with monetary values that reflect bad, most likely, and good case scenarios based on uncertainty assessments.