Hellenized Antagonism toward Hellenism

This chapter examines the work of Tatian (Tatianus), whose apologetic document has many of the same goals as that of his mentor, Justin the Martyr, except that Tatian’s final product is shorter and blunter, and vehemently argues that the “men of Greece” possess no originality and their very claim to being philosophers is manifestly false. Tatian’s style is surely more acidic than his mentor’s, but it is inaccurate to depict Justin as a “negotiator,” while designating Tatian as the combative confrontationist with the aim of presenting a general condemnation of Greek culture.

‘Sons of Belial’

Lesley A. Hall examines the fear of the sexualised male body as a vector for diseases capable of disrupting both familial and social dynamics. While academic research has tended to focus on the potential for damage caused by the sexually diseased female body, Hall redresses the balance by considering the pariah status attributed to those, such as soldiers and sailors, considered to be over-sexed or lacking in self-control. But the prejudice was extended to those men in general society either afflicted by syphilis or gonorrhoea or regarded as threatening through their moral laxity the reproductive healthiness of family life. Hall shows how this threat became increasingly public in wider culture during the last decades of the nineteenth century, bringing about both general condemnation and legislative amendment. Reinforcing such anxieties about wayward male concupiscence was an equally virulent condemnation of masturbation as consciously self-harming. Hall asserts that masturbation was considered more than a personal vice, being viewed as potentially contaminative – seminal loss producing not just a range of frightful pathologies for the individual but a transmission of harmful agents to others.

The Meaning of Eugenics: Reflections on the Government of Genetic Knowledge in the Past and the Present

ArgumentThe recent development of molecular genetics has created concern that society may experience a new eugenics. Notions about eugenics and what took place in the 1930s and 1940s are actively shaping questions about which uses of the new genetics should be considered illegitimate. Drawing upon a body of historiographical literature on Scandinavian eugenics, this paper argues that the dominant view of eugenics as morally and scientifically illegitimate is not tenable when it comes to the uses of compulsion, political motivation, and scientific acceptability. In spite of a general condemnation of eugenics, health authorities today are trying to prevent individuals with deviant behavior from reproducing or at least from rearing children. This may not be argued with reference to the risk of transmitting defective genes, but rather the risk of producing undesirable social problems. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, the paper concludes that eugenics and new genetics should be seen as two historically specific forms of biopower.

Reason and Morality in the Age of Nuclear Deterrence

The argument in this paper is that although rationality and morality are distinguishable concepts, there is nevertheless a rational morality, a set of principles, namely, which it is rational of all to require of all. The argument of this paper is that such a morality would certainly issue in a general condemnation of aggressive war. (Whether this also makes it irrational for States to engage in such activities is another, and not entirely settled, matter). Correlatively, it would issue in a strong right of defense. Would this right be sufficient to include resort to nuclear deterrence, if need be? It is argued that the answer must be in the affirmative - although the question of ‘need’ is by no means settled in current circumstances.

The urgent need to apply the rules of humanitarian law to so-called internal armed conflicts

The 12th of August 1949 is without doubt one of the most important dates in humanitarian law and in the development of the idea of the protection of man. It was then that four new Conventions were adopted in Geneva relative to the protection of victims of armed conflicts. In so far as they express general condemnation of war crimes committed during the Second World War, as well as the determination to prevent their recurrence in any possible sort of future conflict, the Geneva Conventions must be regarded as a bastion for the protection of all victims of armed conflict as well as a serious warning to all those who might be disposed to make a misuse of force or violate humanitarian principles. This great victory of the humanitarian spirit and of the principles which it inspires, by virtue of which one should not only avoid inflicting suffering on those who are deprived of protection or on non-combatants, but one should also accord them assistance and care for them if necessary, is due to a large extent to the Red Cross. The forces of progress have given their support to this idea and have made possible its realization within the framework of the International Conventions of the Red Cross. The new Geneva Conventions, which in the evolution of humanitarian law at present represent a decisive phase in a given sector, constitute an extremely solid and complete legal code which has been meticulously drawn up and which is both logical and coherent.

How Congress Functions Under its Reorganization Act

There is no subject on which all human beings agree; but in the political field in the United States an almost universal tendency exists to blame Congress for everything undesirable in the life of the nation. That is not so about the President; for always there is a large group who think of the current President as “that man” and another to whom he is a hero. As for the Supreme Court, whether it be made up of the “Nine Old Men” or the “Nine Young Men,” a certain veneration is attached to its activities which makes all-inclusive attack seem a little sacrilegious.When Congress is discussed, party affiliations and liberal or conservative views are surmounted in the general condemnation. Oddly enough, this national whipping-boy happens to be the nearest thing to the voice of the American people in our country. Under the Constitution and by the almost untrammeled votes of our citizens, the men and women who sit under the dome of the Capitol have been assigned the function of interpreting the desires of those citizens and of making the policies which supposedly carry them to fruition.My words must not be taken to indicate disagreement with or resentment of the popular attitude toward Congress. First, any Congress that fails to carry out the desires of the American people deserves all of the criticism it may receive.

On the Error introduced into Mortality Tables by Summation Formulas of Graduation

The controversy which took place a few years ago (J.I.A. xxvi, 77 and 420 ; xxix, 59, 232 and 236) between Dr. Sprague and the late Mr. Woolhouse on Summation Formulas for the graduation of mortality tables, and more particularly on that of Mr. Woolhouse himself, left the question in a very unsatisfactory state, as a few extracts from the writings of these two great, but divergent, authorities will sufficiently show:Dr. Sprague, xxvi, 111, said, “We must include in one “general condemnation all such graduation formulas as “Mr. Woolhouse's, Mr. Higham's, and Mr. Ansell's. They all “have a tendency to distort the true law of the facts”; and, again, xxix, 61, “I see no sufficient reason for distinguishing “between his (Mr. Woolhouse's) formula, and others of a like “kind ; and I include them all in one general condemnation.”In contradiction of this, Mr. Woolhouse, xxvi, 424, said, “The method (his own) stands alone, as systematically based on “rational principles”; and, again, xxix, 241, “I emphatically” repeat that, with practicable data, the application of my system “of adjustment to a mortality table will always give the best ”possible results.”

Increasing Reversionary Charges

Some years ago I had the privilege of reading a paper on Contingent Reversions, &c., before this Institute, and the proposals I then made for the treatment of the premiums on the insurances to be set up in connection with reversionary transactions were received with general condemnation, nor have they since, so far as I know, met with any practical support, although I have seen no reason to alter my opinion of the soundness and practicability of the views I then put forward. I am not afraid on this occasion of meeting with like opposition, as the methods I am now going to deal with have been carried into practice already by the Society with which I am connected, and by way of reassurance, if not otherwise, have examples on the books of many of the life offices, both in England and Scotland.