The aim of this volume is to showcase a distinctive approach to interpreting Kant’s writings, which emphasizes those elements in his thinking that derive from the Scholastic-Aristotelian tradition. We call instances of this approach Aristotelian Readings of Kant (ARs). In this introduction, we set out central characteristics of the approach and give an overview of the essays collected here.

This collection addresses some of the injustices associated with modern European politics. It begins by addressing the evils of conquest, of Christian oppression and the crusades. Then follows a series of poems denouncing the human debasement and the immorality of slavery. Nationalism is decried. Some European defenders of peace and justice are cited, including Bartolomé de Las Casas, Fénelon, and Montesquieu. Their contribution to a more just history of humankind, described here as a natural history of humankind, is acknowledged. Prominent historical figures such as Vasco de Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, Hernán Cortés, and Francisco Pizarro are condemned for their acts of conquest. A model of perpetual peace based on universal fairness, humaneness, and active reason is put forward as an alternative to that offered by Kant. On this basis, several practical dispositions to peace are given. The damaging effects of a history based on illusions of progress are described, and, with James Burnett, Lord of Monboddo, as an example, a non-teleological history is promoted. The collection ends with an appeal to true Christianity, which is seen as dictating the good of all humanity.

The book ends with a brief discussion of key conclusions. My four substantive chapters demonstrate different accounts of making-good-again. Read together, they show how the conduct of restitution emerges as a material question of responsibility which is asked through texts and objects in different genres, including law. Responsibility as a material practice is shown to be dynamic, contingent and contextual, shaped by personae and places.

For a long time, criminal justice typically operated through the human body. Historically, the intentional infliction of severe physical harm, such as through quartering and the rack, has been central to both criminal investigation and punishment. This centrality of the human body in criminal justice arguably changed with the rise of carceral punishment and, as of the mid 1900s, with the emergence of human rights protection to the integrity of persons. Yet, it is still the case that nowadays the use of physical force by state officials makes many appearances in modern criminal justice, ranging from handcuffing, taking bodily material for DNA analysis and using pepper spray on arrest, to physical force strip searches in prison and mechanical restraint in forensic hospitals. Moreover, capital punishment, as the supreme corporal sanction, is permitted under international human rights law and still applies in many jurisdictions worldwide.

Until recently, our inner mental lives have enjoyed a considerable degree of natural protection from others’ gaze and influence. Third parties are sometimes able to attribute particular mental states to us on the basis of our behaviour, particularly if they know us well. These parties are also often able to influence our mental states by means of rational persuasion or manipulation. But our thoughts, desires and emotions have typically had some defence against others’ access and influence by virtue of the fact that these mental phenomena play out in our brains, shielded by a solid skull.

This foundational chapter asks a counter-intuitive question: Must individuals pay taxes somewhere? Can taxpayers be blamed for accepting offers from sovereign states to reduce or even wipe out their personal tax burden? And should anyone be to blame, given the intrinsic and often confirmed value of fiscal autonomy as a central feature of statehood? It is found that – as long as there is no global tax organisation providing global public goods or global redistribution and as long as no state (neither the state of origin nor the state of destination) has a clear prerogative and obligation to tax those individuals – individuals are not morally obliged to submit to meaningful taxation in ‘some’ state.

A dispute arose among hospital staff members regarding the ongoing use of ECMO (over several months) for a young woman with lung failure following stem cell transplantation and the development of multiple lung infections, as well as pulmonary hemorrhage. The patient was not a candidate for lung transplantation, and few believed her lungs could recover to allow separation from the circuit. Some staff members felt that continued use of the scarce resources associated with ECMO (machinery and highly specialized personnel) could not be justified. The patient and family repeatedly indicated a desire to prolong life as long as possible. The case prompted three separate requests for ethics consultation and raised multiple issues surrounding resource allocation, management of tense patient-family-staff relationships, and the institutional status of the ethics consultation process. The reasoning and recommendations of the ethics consultants challenged established power and authority within the institution, making the situation uncomfortable for all.

The most immediate and tangible musical influence that can be attributed to Robert and Clara Schumann is that which flowed between themselves, in terms of published compositions (Op. 37/Op. 12), compositional critique, and performance. Next in significance is Brahms, whose relationship with Clara continued for four decades after Robert’s death. Robert’s Piano Quintet, Op. 44, emerges as particularly influential, in terms both of its scoring and employment of ‘cyclic’ thematic devices: these are pursued in later works by Saint-Saens and de Castillon, as well as in d’Indy’s composition treatise. The French reception of Robert’s Lieder is considered, as is the broader question of how and whether ‘influence’ may be reliably discerned in given contexts. Finally, and ironically, one must acknowledge the negative influence of Clara on her husband’s legacy as reflected in her suppression of late works such as the Violin Concerto.

This chapter uses the first Italian bibliography – Anton Francesco Doni’s La libraria (1550) – to reflect on the process of compiling literary history, and analyse approaches and attitudes to poets and poetry in the Cinquecento. It considers the degree to which current critical interest in the concept of social communities in poetry, especially in relation to Petrarchism, correspond to Cinquecento concerns. Petrarchism is ubiquitous in Doni’s work, and especially visible in praise for Tuscan and eminent models like Pietro Bembo, Iacopo Sannazaro and Vittoria Colonna, but it co-exists alongside poets who overtly reject the Tuscan model and/or satirise the obsessive fascination with a narrow set of rules for writing lyrics. Listing authors by name rather than genre emphasises the extent to which most Cinquecento writers composed in a variety of modes and reveals a more expansive conceptualisation of authorship not yet constrained by Romantic notions of individual genius.

Threats to the ability of democratically elected governments to drive and preserve their citizens’ economic development and thus promote their human rights are threats to the confidence of their citizens in democracy itself. Threats to the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure assets — that enable and preserve economic development — are threats to that very confidence. This chapter positions the technical backbones for digital public infrastructure (DPI), which delivers digitally native essential services, as critical infrastructure assets. This chapter uses the approach to DPI of the world’s largest democracy as a case study. It explores how India’s DPI — built per an open standards-based paradigm, implemented by protocols and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that comprise the ‘India Stack’ – operates at the scale of the world’s largest population. It finds the cyber resilience of the technical backbones for India’s DPI vital to India’s democratic resilience. This chapter thus calls on India to prosecute systemic cyber risks to these backbones that stem from the critical software running on them. India must incentivise vendors of that software to invest in the security of their software development life cycles and mitigate software supply chain risks. India must also manage open source software risks to its DPI appropriately. This chapter concludes by putting forward how India can export its approach and the India Stack. Other democracies, especially India’s Global South partners, stand to gain from its experience, including by strengthening the trust and confidence of their citizens in democracy itself, as well as by implementing norms for responsible state conduct in cyberspace that were approved by the United Nations General Assembly. Such benefits will be reinforced by Indian advice on how to deploy DPI in a cyber-resilient manner, informed by the multilateral consensus on DPI, software security and cyber resilience, which India forged as G20 President in 2023.