This fifth chapter explores the issue of conscientious provision and its role in the regulation of conscience. It first argues that conscientious provision ought to be protected in a similar manner to conscientious objection. It argues that it is problematic to fail to consider conscientious provision as worthy of protection. It then examines what the protection of conscientious provision might entail and what a model for its regulation would be. It tests this model in relation to the provision of an abortion in the United States after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org, et. al.

The Epilogue speculates on what Haydn might think about a study of his minuets and considers further applications of the research to other repertoires and fields.

In this chapter, we focus on the neuronal networks underlying the socio-affective capacities empathy and compassion. We first provide definitions of empathy and compassion and give an overview of the historical development in social neuroscience related to empathy and compassion research, with a focus on differentiating between empathy, empathic distress, compassion, and related concepts of social understanding like Theory of Mind. We then examine the neuronal networks underlying these distinct social capacities and discuss the latest discoveries in this field. Next, we turn to the plasticity of the social brain and compare training approaches in their efficacy in improving socio-affective and socio-cognitive capacities. This is followed by the exploration of how psychopathological symptoms are differentially related to empathy, compassion, and socio-cognitive skills. Lastly, we conclude the main findings of this chapter and provide questions for future neuroscientific and psychological research on empathy and compassion.

Building on the foundation in Chapter 14, this chapter focuses on more complex modifying forms, including strategies for using adjective (or adjective-like) forms in more grammatical contexts. The first section explores equative (or copular) clause structures and predicative modifiers. The second section moves on to nonfinite verbs and the ways they can be used in clause structures to function in adjectival, nominal, and even adverbial roles. The third, and final, section investigates comparative forms in languages. This chapter will expand your language’s treatment of different types of modification and nonfinite verb forms.

The Colombo Plan gradually shook off the taint of British Treasury designs to become an experiment of shared interest by a growing number of newly-independent regional governments. An expanded membership brought tentative explorations of regional ideation and practice. It was also necessary for members to build a distinctive identity in a region being shaped by the Cold War, and amidst other organisations such as the UN’s Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. They did so through elaborate hospitality in annual meetings and the showcasing of iconic development projects.

During the Jim Crow era, jails were an essential tool for the enforcement of white supremacy. For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the long-term goal of the civil rights movement was to destroy the Jim Crow system through a vigilant strategy of nonviolent protest that would fill the jails and shine a light on injustice. King elevated this strategy through his own arrest, incarceration, and subsequent Letter from Birmingham Jail. King’s letter offered a scathing indictment of the gradualist strategy for achieving racial justice in Alabama that had led to unsolved bombings of Black institutions, unfair treatment in the legal system, and police brutality. In response to those who criticized his presence in Birmingham for the march, he wrote that he could not “sit idly by” in Atlanta and continue to be indifferent. “Injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere.”

Humans are inherently social beings, driven by a fundamental need to belong. To fulfill this need for social connection, neural circuits of reward processing are co-opted to value social rewards derived from social interactions. These circuits play a critical role in our pursuit of social relationships, enabling us to learn about others and strengthen connections. In this chapter, we delve into basic reward circuitry that facilitates social learning, and how such circuitry supports brain networks involved in unique social phenomena, such as theory of mind and empathy. We then explore how this understanding of neural mechanisms informs decision-making in complex social situations. Furthermore, we discuss how research into rewarding social outcomes can shed light on coping mechanisms for challenges such as isolation and pervasive social media use. By examining the interplay between our social nature and neural processes, we gain insight into navigating the complexities of human interaction and well-being.

This chapter surveys three broad categories of sexual violence—a term I use to designate rape, threatened assault, and kidnapping—portrayed in travel writing produced in Eurasia between the fifth and fifteenth centuries. These three categories of violence are differentiated by their perpetrators: foreign strangers; men upon whom women depend to facilitate their travel, particularly at sea; and trusted travel companions. The first scenario promulgates the popular myth that ‘real rape’ entails violence from a stranger and occurs only when women venture outside the household’s safe confines. Authors often use this scenario in overtly racist or xenophobic ways. The second situation centres on predation by male workers who provide necessary transportation or hospitality to traveling women, while the third sheds light on the intimate treachery of male travel partners. All three categories of violation hinge on the issue of trust in different ways. But medieval travel texts do more than share cautionary tales about the dangers of women’s travel in a patriarchal world. They also feature affirming and emancipatory strategies of resisting rape deployed by women traveling far from home.

There is growing evidence that language plays an important role in emotion because it helps people acquire emotion concept knowledge. In this chapter, we argue that language plays a mechanistic role in emotion because emotion concept knowledge, once acquired, is used by the brain to predictively and adaptively regulate a person’s subjective emotional experiences and behaviors. Building on predictive processing models of brain function, we argue that the emotion concepts learned via language during early development “seed” the brain’s emotional predictions throughout the lifespan. We review constructionist theories of emotion and their support in behavioral, physiological, neuroimaging, and lesion data. We then situate these constructionist predictions within recent neuroscience research to speculate on the neural mechanisms by which emotion concepts “seed” emotional experiences.

This chapter compares the mediation efforts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. It shows that Norway’s investment in mediation is unique in its allocation of resources and long-term commitment. There are also indications of slightly different mediation profiles among the three countries. Norway has also involved nongovernmental organizations. In the case of Sweden, the chapter discusses a possible difference in approach between conservative and social democratic governments. The chapter demonstrates that there is a common Nordic emphasis on logic, trust building, and rationality, and also on women’s roles in mediation and solutions. With respect to contacts with terrorist actors, the chapter suggests that Norway’s record differs from those of the other two countries, which are both EU members.

Almost entirely surrounded by the sea, the Iberian Peninsula witnessed voyages that would change the face of the known world forever. Travellers crossed the Mediterranean and Atlantic, undertook journeys to Mecca and the Holy Land, to the Near and Far East, to Europe and Africa. In 1492, the New World was discovered when Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, and in 1500 Brazil was claimed for the Portuguese by a fleet heading for India commanded by the diplomat Pedro Álvares Cabral. Travel writers from Iberia departed from a place with a fluid geographical and cultural identity in its own right. Playing host over the course of its history to people of different ethnicities, religions, and languages, Iberia has always been a place of cultural interchange and political flux. Travel writing is also a key part of medieval Iberia’s rich narrative tradition in which it presents universal and particular experiences which are contingent on the delicate relationship between fact and fiction.