Which Equalities Matter?

Book Description

This book explores for the first time the broad range of ways in which Christian thought intersects with American legal theory. Eminent legal scholars-- including Stephen Carter, Thomas Shaffer, Elizabeth Mensch, Gerard Bradley, and Marci Hamilton--describe how various Christian traditions, including the Catholic, Calvinist, Anabaptist, and Lutheran traditions, understand law and justice, society and the state, and human nature and human striving. The book reveals not only the diversity among Christian legal thinkers but also the richness of the Christian tradition as a source for intellectual and ethical approaches to legal inquiry. The contributors bring various perspectives to the subject. Some engage the prominent schools of legal thought: liberalism, legal realism, critical legal studies, feminism, critical race theory, and law and economics. Others address substantive areas, including environmental, criminal, contract, torts, and family law, as well as professional responsibility. Together the essays introduce a new school of legal thought that will make a signal contribution to contemporary discussions of law.

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Relevant contribution for legal thought in general.......2003-10-09

Western Law owes much to Christianity. American Law in particular, owes much to Christianity, since the Bible played a very important role in the foundation.Marci Hamilton's article on "The Calvinist Paradoz of Distrust, Hope at the Constitutional Convention" is particularly clear on this point. The Declaration of Independence speaks about nature and nature's God as the foundations of liberal constitucional government.I wonder how America would be like, it its Constitution had been based on the "self-evident truth" that "all man are the result of a meaningless, purposeless and pointless evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection, and so they have no self and no rights".

One of the points that needs to be made by Christian legal scholars, time and again, is the special dignity of human beings, against its materialistic, naturalistic, neo-darwinistic detractors. Alschuler points out the excessive influence of the "nasty" Oliver Wendel Holmes in American Law. In fact, influenced by the dominant naturalistic paradigms of poswitivistic scientism, O.W. Holmes once said (as quoted by Alschuler): "I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand." Well, as a christian I see at least one substantial reason not to do so: Man (male and female) was created in the Image of God, as a rational and moral being, with free will and responsability. From this perspective, Man has nothing to do with baboons or grains of sand. Not even with chimps, as they are trying to make us belief with that "scientific myth" of 98,5% DNA homology.

Because of Man's sin, God himself assumed the image of Man, through Jesus Christ, and became the advocate that payed, through His life and physical ressurection, the penalty due for our sin. Thus created and redeemed, Man is incapable of being understood by means of naturalistic reduction.

Another point worth making is that of "Law as moral design", not just a random aggregate of adaptive strategies of "our" "selfish genes" (Richard Dawkins)or a kind of purposeless "self-organization of complex systems" (Stuart Kauffmann). As the dicta of Oliver Wendell Holmes about Man, baboons and grains of sand goes to show, Philip Johnson may have a point after all, with his seminal book "Darwin on Trial", when he warns against the ideological agenda behind the "scientific myth" of "particles-to-people evolution".

In fact, it is this ideological agenda, and not so much Holmes' nastyness, that has taken over a significant part of american legal scholarship, christian scholars notwithstanding. Christian legal scholarship, it seems to me, has no choice but to debunk naturalistic and darwinian accounts of the law, and to start from creationist and intelligent design assumptions. Science shouldn't be a christian's final authority, since "science" per se doesn't exist apart from basic assumptions (v.g. teism, deism, naturalism, uniformitarianism, catastrophism). However, thanks to the works of William Dembski, Michael Behe, Phillip Johnson, Werner Gitt, Jonathan Wells, Michael Denton, etc., it is becomming much easier to dismiss evolutionary arguments on purely scientific terms. Besides, darwinists have never proven their case with preponderance of evidence, much less beyond reasonable doubt.

As you suggest in your article, christian assumptions are far from giving us imediate answers to legal the questions and hard cases we have to deal with, such as abortion, homosexual marriage, freedom of expression, progressive taxation, redistribution, public policies, etc. I couldn't agree more. I spend a large part of my time trying to convince my fellow christian believers that that is in fact the case.

These assumptions may not even direct us christians to the adoption of a specific natural law theory, like those of man such as Augustin, Aquinas, Blackstone or John Finnis. Christian scholarship is compatible with adhering to different lines of legal theory. Only intolerant christianity would suggest otherwise.

Personally, I must say that I am very confortable with a liberal contractarian tradition building on names such as John Locke, John Rawls, Thomas Scanlon Jr. and Brian Barry (although, like Michael McConnell, I tend to favour a greater inclusion of religious discourse qua tale in the public sphere. This is the true liberal tradition that has its roots in the Protestant Reformation. Like McConnel, I find comprehensive liberalism disturbing.

But I also enjoy reading and learning from legal theory schools such as CLS, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Jurisprudence, Civil Republicanism, Communitarianism, Law and Literature, Law and Economics, Law and Music, and so on. As the Apostle Paul suggested, I try to examine all schools of thought and retain that which is good. I think this collection of articles does just that.

Christian assumptions are still important though. In international law, for instance, it has become particularly clear to me that anti-mataphysical, naturalistic, darwinistic assumptions have reinforced positivism, statism, realism and pragmatism in the XIX and XX centuries.

Book Description

This book presents an engaging collection of essays exploring "catholic" and "Catholic" perspectives on American law--catholic in their claims of universal truths, and Catholic in their grounding in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. What emerges is a model of human freedom and flourishing that has its foundation in the transcendent vocation of each and every human person.

The 2000-year-old Catholic Church played a pivotal role in the formation of the western legal culture. Does it have anything of relevance left to offer that culture in the 21st century? The contributors to Recovering Self-Evident Truths answer with a resounding yes.

The opening essays present the guiding premises of the volume as a whole: human persons must be respected by governments and law because their objective dignity arises from being made in the image and likeness of God. Reasoning from these premises, the next set of essays situates the person within community, exploring the implications for the American legal system of taking seriously Catholic understanding of subsidiarity, solidarity, the common good, and the relationship between freedom and truth. The next set of essays concludes the foundational material by engaging dominant secular political and legal theory from a Catholic perspective.

With the foundation set, the essays in the second half of the book explore eight specific substantive areas of the law--Contract Law, Property Law, Tort Law, Criminal Law, Labor Law, Family Law, Immigration Law, and International Law--through a Catholic lens.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Michigan Law Review, published by Michigan Law Review Association on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 5598 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought.(Book Review)
Author: Mark V. Tushnet
Publication: Michigan Law Review (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Michigan Law Review Association
Volume: 101 Issue: 6 Page: 1858(11)

Article Type: Book Review

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Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought
Yale University Press
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSBIUY

Book Description

Prokaryotic gene expression is not only of theoretical interest but also of highly practical significance. It has implications for other biological problems, such as developmental biology and cancer, brings insights into genetic engineering and expression systems, and has consequences for important aspects of applied research. For example, the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenicity has implications for new antibiotics and in crop development. Prokaryotic Gene Expression is a major review of the subject, providing up-to-date coverage as well as numerous insights by the prestigious authors. Topics covered include operons; protein recognition of sequence specific DNA- and RNA-binding sites; promoters; sigma factors, and variant tRNA polymerases; repressors and activators; post-transcriptional control and attenuation; ribonuclease activity, mRNA stability, and translational repression; prokaryotic DNA topology, topoisomerases, and gene expression; regulatory networks, regulatory cascades and signal transduction; phosphotransfer reactions; switch systems, transcriptional and translational modulation, methylation, and recombination mechanisms; pathogenicity, toxin regulation and virulence determinants; sporulation and genetic regulation of antibiotic production; origins of regulatory molecules, selective pressures and evolution of prokaryotic regulatory mechanisms systems. Over 1100 references to the primary literature are cited. Prokaryotic Gene Expression is a comprehensive and authoritative review of current knowledge and research in the area. It is essential reading for postgraduates and researchers in the field. Advanced undergraduates in biochemistry, molecular biology, and microbiology will also find this book useful.

Expression of cloned genes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Gene amplification and analysis)

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Expression of cloned genes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Gene amplification and analysis)

Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Prokaryotic Gene Expression (Frontiers in Molecular Biology)

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Prokaryotic Gene Expression (Frontiers in Molecular Biology)
Simon Baumberg
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKXQSO

Book Description

This book provides a wide-ranging, state-of-the-art survey of small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering (SAS) theory (including scattering from fractal systems), instrumentation, data analysis, and new experimental techniques, and emphasizes applications in biology and materials science. These include investigations of nucleic acid-protein complexes; lipoproteins; time-resolved measurements of phospholipid phase transitions; porosity in ceramics; phase separation and defect agglomeration in metals and alloys; catalysts; complex fluids; bulk polymers; and dissolved polymers under flow conditions. The capabilities offered by SAS for exploring such properties as size, shape, structure, morphology, dispersity and interactions of scatterers, on the scale between atomic and macroscopic, are demonstrated.
The volume extends and supplements basic texts. It is intended for new practitioners, scientists active in SAS who wish to learn more about applications outside their immediate expertise, and those desirous of exploring the potential applicability of SAS to their research.

Book Description

In 1925 Einstein predicted that at low temperatures particles in a gas could all reside in the same quantum state. This gaseous state, a Bose-Einstein condensate, was produced in the laboratory for the first time in 1995 and investigating such condensates is one of the most active areas in contemporary physics. The authors of this graduate-level textbook explain this exciting new subject in terms of basic physical principles, without assuming detailed prior knowledge. Chapters cover the statistical physics of trapped gases, atomic properties, cooling and trapping atoms, interatomic interactions, structure of trapped condensates, collective modes, rotating condensates, superfluidity, interference phenomena, and trapped Fermi gases. Problem sets are also included.

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In 1925 Einstein predicted that at low temperatures particles in a gas could all reside in the same quantum state. This gaseous state, a Bose-Einstein condensate, was produced in the laboratory for the first time in 1995 and investigating such condensates has become one of the most active areas in contemporary physics. The study of Bose-Einstein condensates in dilute gases encompasses a number of different subfields of physics, including atomic, condensed matter, and nuclear physics. The authors of this graduate-level textbook explain this exciting new subject in terms of basic physical principles, without assuming detailed knowledge of any of these subfields. Chapters cover the statistical physics of trapped gases, atomic properties, cooling and trapping atoms, interatomic interactions, structure of trapped condensates, collective modes, rotating condensates, superfluidity, interference phenomena, and trapped Fermi gases. Problem sets are also included in each chapter.

Customer Reviews:

Best so far in the subject, good but not great........2003-10-30

Of the three main books on laser cooling and BEC that are on the market right now (Laser Cooling by Metcalf and Atom Optics by Meystre) this one is by far the best. There are a lot of details here, but unfortunately a lot more are still left out. Chapter 8, and sections 11.3, and 14.3 in particular should be rewritten. Too many equations are written down from nowhere without any derivation. Some sections, like 13.2, are clearer in the original papers. So while this book is a vast improvement over the current state of affairs, there is quite a ways to go for a truly good textbook in this subject. Still, while the quality of the exposition varies wildly from chapter to chapter, many of the chapters ARE well written, and so you can still learn a great deal from this book. Until a better book comes along, this is the book to buy in this subject.

Nicely balanced.......2002-07-12

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get into the field of Bose-Einstein condensation. Myself being a novice to the subject, I found a very well structured text with an exceptional balance between experiment and theory. All dicussions are well supported with examples. The theory parts are very detailed so that even the unexperienced reader can easily follow.

Book Description

In his writing, Borges always combined high seriousness with a wicked sense of fun. Here he reveals his delight in re-creating (or making up) colorful stories from the Orient, the Islamic world, and the Wild West, as well as his horrified fascination with knife fights, political and personal betrayal, and bloodthirsty revenge. Spark-ling with the sheer exuberant pleasure of story-telling, this collection marked the emergence of an utterly distinctive literary voice.

Customer Reviews:

some mistake or misunderstanding?.......2007-06-10

Well:I not so happy because I ordered this book in Spanish,following an ad I saw in your site.The book arrived in English.I put a complain,asking for the Spanish version,and I received the book ,English version again!!!I have to ask for a label to send it back.Actually,were two different Jorge Luis Borges's books.Thanks

"Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity.......2005-07-27

there is none that doeth good."

Jorge Luis Borges is thought by many to be the 20th century's greatest Spanish-language writer. Borges was a poet, essayist and short story writer. Although born in Argentina in 1899, Borges spent most of his early years in Europe until his family returned to Buenos Aires in 1921. "A Universal History of Iniquity", originally published as "A Universal History of Infamy" was published in 1935. The stories represent a collection of stories originally published in the Argentine newspaper Critica between 1933 and 1934. The stories were a huge success for the newspaper and established Borges as a writer of the first rank in Argentina.

Each of the stories in Universal History of Iniquity was designed by Borges to give his newspaper readers a small glimpse of the evil that men (and sometimes women) do. They vary from slave owning states in the pre-U.S. Civil War south in "The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell", to the China Seas in "The Widow Ching - Pirate", to feudal Japan in "The Uncivil Teacher of Court Etiquette Kotsuke no Suke", Turkistan in "Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv" and the mean streets of Buenos Aires in "Man on Pink Corner". Borges acknowledges that these stories were all loosely based on little known historical treatises, the Arabian Nights, and other pieces of fiction. Lazarus Morell was clearly an homage to Mark Twain's Mississippi River stories.

Although this is Borges earliest work one can already see the creative, almost whimsical approach he takes to the art of telling a story. He constantly throws the reader off balance and engages in little acts of mis-direction, perhaps starting a story by telling the reader he will not set out the facts behind a story and then proceed to do just that. In the Preface to the First Edition, Borges writes that certain techniques are "overly used: mismatched lists, abrupt transitions, the reduction of a person's life to two or three scenes." While these are certainly valid self-criticisms the reader should remember, as Borges was no doubt aware, that these stories were written for publication in newspapers with severe word limitations. I thought the condensed nature of the stories heightened their impact and think that perhaps Borges was engaging in yet another act of misdirection.

I came to this book after reading Danilo Kis' "A Tomb for Boris Davidovich". The structure and theme of Tomb for Boris Davidovich was intended by Kis to be part of a literary polemic between Kis and Borges, specifically concerning the title of Borge's Universal History of Iniquity. Kis seven stories all involved iniquities performed by those involved in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, a horror that Kis felt made Borges' iniquities look quaint by comparison. Kis asserted that the universal infamies related by Borges were those of gangsters, pirates and highwaymen. Kis argues that as far as infamy was concerned, "infamy is when in the name of the idea of a better world for which whole generations have perished, in the name of a humanistic idea, you build camps and destroy both people and their most intimate drams of a better world." Now that I have read both books I think this may be something of an apple and oranges comparison. Nevertheless, reading one book enhanced the experience I got from reading the other. If the reader likes Borges' stories they might also enjoy Kis.

I think "A Universal History of Iniquity" is a wonderful entry point for anyone wishing to discover the work of a wonderful, compelling writer.

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A Universal History of Iniquity
Jorge Luis Borges
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MPLLT2

A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics)

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A Universal History of Iniquity (Penguin Classics)
Andrew Hurley Jorge Luis Borges
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ9FC6

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