The Transformative Effects of Military Intervention on Grand Strategy

This chapter develops the first systematic theory—the informational theory of strategic adjustment—to explain why military interventions can be crucibles of grand strategy. It argues that, by prosecuting a military intervention, states glean rich and rare information about adversaries’ capabilities and intentions, as well as their own military power and cost tolerance. The uniquely costly nature of warfighting renders this data particularly credible. Amidst background conditions of intense interstate competition and pervasive uncertainty, states face strong incentives to reassess their grand strategies in light of this new information. This process of grand strategic updating begins with a reassessment of the strategic assumptions directly tested on the battlefield, but it doesn’t end there. Indeed, the grand strategic effects of military interventions are far-reaching because information conveyed via warfighting is widely extrapolated to related strategic assessments.

‘The Mute Compulsion of Economic Relations’: Towards a Marxist Theory of the Abstract and Impersonal Power of Capital

According to Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy, capitalist relations of production rely on what Marx refers to in Capital as ‘the mute compulsion of economic relations’. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that this constitutes a distinct form of economic power which cannot be reduced to either ideology or violence, and to provide the conceptual groundwork for a systematic theory of capital’s mute compulsion.

Critical Theory and the Critique of Capitalism: An Immanent Critique of Nancy Fraser's “Systematic” “Crisis-Critique” of Capitalism as an “Institutionalized Social Order”

The predominant approach to contemporary critical theory lacks a critical theory of capitalist society. Nancy Fraser has endeavored to provide such a critical theory in her “systematic” “crisis–critique” of capitalism as an “institutionalized social order.” Yet Fraser's “systematic” theory is not systematic, but fragmentary and internally inconsistent. The Marxian premises of Fraser's theory are at odds with its ensuing Habermasian notions of capitalism, contradiction, crises, and emancipation, and her theory consequently lacks a robust explication of these dynamics. This raises the alternative possibility of developing a contemporary critical theory of the crisis–ridden reproduction of the negative totality of capitalist society that brings Adorno and Horkheimer's critical theory together with the subterranean strand of contemporary critical theory: the New Reading of the critique of political economy as a critical social theory.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology

75 entries The Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology brings together leading scholars from the vast and varied global domain of educational psychology and its allied academic fields to provide a common language for researchers, practitioners, and students. The Encyclopedia is the first truly comprehensive, systematic, theory-driven, and evidence-based reference work on educational psychology and distinguishes itself through its strong international representation. It situates educational psychology within the larger contexts of psychology and education, and its totalizing view provides new insights into the intricate relationships among the various mechanisms operating in educational psychology. The empirical findings have practical implications for practitioners in education and beyond, and for all individuals engaged in learning, whether it be school learning or everyday learning.

Track Finding

There is no systematic theory of track finding yet. Therefore, the first section of this chapter presents a list of basic techniques which have been successfully used, stand-alone or in combination, in past and present experiments. Among them are the conformal transformation, the Hough and the Legendre transform, cellular automata and neural networks, pattern matching, and track following by the combinatorial Kalman filter. The following section gives a brief excursion into online or real-time track finding in the collider experiments CDF, ATLAS, and CMS. As track finding in most cases delivers some candidates that do not correspond to actual particle tracks, the concluding section discusses methods for an efficient selection of valid candidates.

A Listening-Centered Approach to Democratic Deliberation

Chapter 4 proposes a listening-centered alternative to empathy-based approaches to deliberation. The chapter begins by discussing how the concept of listening is used in everyday language and then introduces a more systematic “theory of listening acts.” Using the categories of speech act theory to identify corresponding categories of the listening act, the author distinguishes between auditory, perauditory, and ilauditory listening. With this listening act theory, the author shows that listening is more than simply hearing what is said (auditory listening). Similarly, listening should not be equated with the outcomes it brings about, including consensus or mutual understanding (perauditory listening outcomes). We also act in listening (ilauditory listening). In listening to our fellow citizens we enact the deliberative ideal, acknowledging that their perspectives are relevant to our collective judgements and decisions. The chapter shows that fair consideration is predicated on ilauditory listening, or what the author calls “performative democratic listening.”

Beyond Empathy and Inclusion

Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation considers how to improve democracy under the politically divided conditions we currently face. The book argues that while democracy does not require that citizens reach an agreement, it does require that they listen to one another. The book goes on to offer a systematic theory of listening acts to explain the democratic force of listening. Modeled after speech act theory, Scudder’s listening act theory shows how we do something in listening, independent of the outcomes of listening. In listening to our fellow citizens, we recognize their moral equality of voice. Being heard by our fellow citizens is what ensures we have a say in the laws to which we are held. The book offers a realistic view of listening, one that does not assume it will always produce empathy or even understanding. Listening is not the answer to all of our problems. In fact, listening can even produce certain undemocratic effects. The book argues that despite these challenges and risks, listening is a key responsibility of democratic citizenship. It also tackles questions regarding the limits of toleration in a democratic society. Do we owe listening even to democracy’s enemies? The book shows how listening can be used defensively, to protect against threats to democracy. The democratic listening this book prescribes is admittedly hard, especially in pluralistic societies. This volume investigates how to motivate citizens to listen seriously, attentively, and humbly even to those with whom they disagree.

Music and the Soul

The belief that music can affect the human soul was deeply rooted in ancient Greece. Many philosophers tried to describe the sympathetic responses of human beings to musical performances and their ethical consequences, even without framing their remarks within a consistent and systematic theory. “Music and the Soul” aims at analyzing the cultural background and the contemporary intellectual milieu in which Plato operated, in order to assess earlier or alternative views of the ethical power of mousikē overshadowed by his influential theorization. To this end, the chapter focuses on the role of music in the early Pythagorean environment and the evidence for sophistic (in the broadest sense) epideixeis on the psychagogic effects of music and the anti-ethical reaction documented by the fourth-century Hibeh papyrus.