Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Cambridge Elements
  4. Published Elements

Refine listing

Refine listing

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2068 results in Cambridge Elements

Page 95 of 104

Reduction and Mechanism

Reduction and Mechanism
  • Alex Rosenberg
  • Published online:
    30 April 2020
    Print publication:
    04 June 2020
  • Reductionism is a widely endorsed methodology among biologists, a metaphysical theory advanced to vindicate the biologist's methodology, and an epistemic thesis those opposed to reductionism have been eager to refute. While the methodology has gone from strength to strength in its history of achievements, the metaphysical thesis grounding it remained controversial despite its significant changes over the last 75 years of the philosophy of science. Meanwhile, antireductionism about biology, and especially Darwinian natural selection, became orthodoxy in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology. This Element expounds the debate about reductionism in biology, from the work of the post-positivists to the end of the century debates about supervenience, multiple realizability, and explanatory exclusion. It shows how the more widely accepted 21st century doctrine of 'mechanism' - reductionism with a human face - inherits both the strengths and the challenges of the view it has largely supplanted.
Contractualism

Contractualism
  • Jussi Suikkanen
  • Published online:
    24 April 2020
    Print publication:
    28 May 2020
  • This Element begins by describing T.M. Scanlon's contractualism according to which an action is right when it is authorised by the moral principles no one could reasonably reject. This view has argued to have implausible consequences with regards to how different-sized groups, non-human animals, and cognitively limited human beings should be treated. It has also been accused of being theoretically redundant and unable to vindicate the so-called deontic distinctions. I then distinguish between the general contractualist framework and Scanlon's version of contractualism. I explain how the general framework enables us to formulate many other versions of contractualism some of which can already be found in the literature. Understanding contractualism in this new way enables us both to understand the structural similarities and differences between different versions of contractualism and also to see the different objections to contractualism as internal debates about which version of contractualism is correct.
The Rise of Sophisticated Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia

The Rise of Sophisticated Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia
  • Lee Morgenbesser
  • Published online:
    22 April 2020
    Print publication:
    16 April 2020
  • This Element offers a way to understand the evolution of authoritarian rule in Southeast Asia. The theoretical framework is based on a set of indicators (judged for their known advantages and mimicry of democratic attributes) as well as a typology (conceptualized as two discreet categories of 'retrograde' and 'sophisticated' authoritarianism). Working with an original dataset, the empirical results reveal vast differences within and across authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia, but also a discernible shift towards sophisticated authoritarianism over time. The Element concludes with a reflection of its contribution and a statement on its generalizability.
London and the Modernist Bookshop

London and the Modernist Bookshop
  • Matthew Chambers
  • Published online:
    17 April 2020
    Print publication:
    14 May 2020
  • The modernist bookshop, best exemplified by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co. and Harold Monro's Poetry Bookshop, has received scant attention outside these more prominent examples. This writing will review how bookshops like David Archer's on Parton Street (London) in the 1930s were sites of distribution, publication, and networking. Parton Street, which also housed Lawrence & Wishart publishers and a briefly vibrant literary scene, will be approached from several contexts as a way of situating the modernist bookshop within both the book trade and the literary communities which it interacted with and made possible.
Aquinas's Ethics

Aquinas's Ethics
  • Thomas M. Osborne Jr
  • Published online:
    17 April 2020
    Print publication:
    07 May 2020
  • This Element provides an account of Thomas Aquinas's moral philosophy that emphasizes the intrinsic connection between happiness and the human good, human virtue, and the precepts of practical reason. Human beings by nature have an end to which they are directed and concerning which they do not deliberate, namely happiness. Humans achieve this end by performing good human acts, which are produced by the intellect and the will, and perfected by the relevant virtues. These virtuous acts require that the agent grasps the relevant moral principles and uses them in particular cases.
The Edited Collection

The Edited Collection
  • Pasts, Present and Futures
  • Peter Webster
  • Published online:
    15 April 2020
    Print publication:
    04 June 2020
  • Edited collections are widely supposed to contain lesser work than scholarly journals; to be incoherent as volumes, no more than the sum of their parts; and to be less visible to potential readers once published. It is also often taken as axiomatic that those who make decisions in relation to hiring, promotion, tenure, and funding do so agree. To publish in or edit an essay collection is thought to risk being penalised for the format before even a word is read. After examining the origins of this critique, this Element explores the modern history of the edited collection and the particular roles it has played. It examines each component part of the critique, showing that they are either largely unfounded or susceptible of solution. It proposes the edited collection as a model of one possible idea of scholarly community: collaboration, trust, and mutual obligation in pursuit of a wider good.
Machine Learning for Asset Managers

Machine Learning for Asset Managers
  • Marcos M. López de Prado
  • Published online:
    04 April 2020
    Print publication:
    30 April 2020
  • Successful investment strategies are specific implementations of general theories. An investment strategy that lacks a theoretical justification is likely to be false. Hence, an asset manager should concentrate her efforts on developing a theory rather than on backtesting potential trading rules. The purpose of this Element is to introduce machine learning (ML) tools that can help asset managers discover economic and financial theories. ML is not a black box, and it does not necessarily overfit. ML tools complement rather than replace the classical statistical methods. Some of ML's strengths include (1) a focus on out-of-sample predictability over variance adjudication; (2) the use of computational methods to avoid relying on (potentially unrealistic) assumptions; (3) the ability to “learn” complex specifications, including nonlinear, hierarchical, and noncontinuous interaction effects in a high-dimensional space; and (4) the ability to disentangle the variable search from the specification search, robust to multicollinearity and other substitution effects.
Experimental Beckett

Experimental Beckett
  • Contemporary Performance Practices
  • Nicholas E. Johnson, Jonathan Heron
  • Published online:
    28 March 2020
    Print publication:
    30 April 2020
  • How do twenty-first century theatre practitioners negotiate the dynamics of tradition and innovation across the works of Samuel Beckett? Beckett's own tendencies toward fluidity of genre, iteration/repetition, and collaboration – modes that also define the 'experimental' – allow for greater openness than is often assumed. Reading recent performances for creative uses of embodiment, environment, and technology reveals the increasingly interdisciplinary, international, and intermedial character of contemporary Beckettian practice. The experimentation of current practitioners challenges a discourse based on historical controversies, exposing a still-expanding terrain for Beckett in performance.
Technology and the Global Adolescent

Technology and the Global Adolescent
  • Judith L. Gibbons, Katelyn E. Poelker
  • Published online:
    24 March 2020
    Print publication:
    16 April 2020
  • Around the world, adolescents use technology for education, to further their identity and socio-emotional development, to access health information, engage in civic activities, and for entertainment. For many, technological advances, especially social media, have drastically influenced how they communicate with family, friends, and romantic partners. Challenges of technology use include the digital divide, internet addiction, and exposure to cyberbullying. The diversity of adolescents' cultural context results in heterogeneous bidirectional influences of technology and teenagers with respect to education and close relationships. Researchers, parents, and policy makers must consider the role of culture in the complex interactions of teenagers with technology.
Shakespearean Charity and the Perils of Redemptive Performance

Shakespearean Charity and the Perils of Redemptive Performance
  • Todd Landon Barnes
  • Published online:
    23 March 2020
    Print publication:
    09 April 2020
  • This Element examines recent documentaries depicting marginalized youth who are ostensibly redeemed by their encounters with Shakespeare. These films emerge in response to four historical and discursive developments: the rise of reality television and its emphasis on the emotional transformation of the private individual; the concomitant rise of neoliberalism and emotional capitalism, which employ therapeutic discourses to individualize social inequality; the privatization of public education and the rise of so-called “no-excuses” or “new paternalist” charter schools; and the emergence of new modes of address infusing evangelical conversion narratives with a therapeutic self-help ethos.
Converging on Truth

Converging on Truth
  • A Dynamic Perspective on Factual Debates in American Public Opinion
  • James A. Stimson, Emily M. Wager
  • Published online:
    16 March 2020
    Print publication:
    09 April 2020
  • Much of the science of public opinion focuses on individuals, asking if they perceive or misperceive and why. Often this science will emphasize misperceptions and the psychological processes that produce them. But political debates have outcomes in the aggregate. This Element turns to a more systematic approach, emphasizing whole electorates and examining facts through a dynamic lens. It argues public opinion will converge toward truth over time and frequently finds correct views of facts grow stronger under information flow, while misperception recedes.
Agent-Based Models of Polarization and Ethnocentrism

Agent-Based Models of Polarization and Ethnocentrism
  • Michael Laver
  • Published online:
    13 March 2020
    Print publication:
    16 April 2020
  • Building on the Cambridge Element Agent Based Models of Social Life: Fundamentals (Cambridge, 2020), we move on to the next level. We do this by building agent based models of polarization and ethnocentrism. In the process, we develop: stochastic models, which add a crucial element of uncertainty to human interaction; models of human interactions structured by social networks; and 'evolutionary' models in which agents using more effective decision rules are more likely to survive and prosper than others. The aim is to leave readers with an effective toolkit for building, running and analyzing agent based modes of social interaction.
Agent-Based Models of Social Life

Agent-Based Models of Social Life
  • Fundamentals
  • Michael Laver
  • Published online:
    13 March 2020
    Print publication:
    16 April 2020
  • Social interactions are rich, complex, and dynamic. One way to understand these is to model interactions that fascinate us. Some of the more realistic and powerful models are computer simulations. Simple, elegant and powerful, tools are available in user-friendly free software to help you design, build and run your own models of social interactions that intrigue you, and do this on the most basic laptop computer. Focusing on a well-known model of housing segregation, this Element is about how to unleash that power, setting out the fundamentals of what is now known as 'agent based modeling'.
The Guarantee of Perpetual Peace

The Guarantee of Perpetual Peace
  • Wolfgang Ertl
  • Published online:
    04 March 2020
    Print publication:
    26 March 2020
  • This Element addresses three questions about Kant's guarantee thesis by examining the 'first addendum' of his Philosophical Sketch: how the guarantor powers interrelate, how there can be a guarantee without undermining freedom and why there is a guarantee in the first place. Kant's conception of an interplay of human and divine rational agency encompassing nature is crucial: on moral grounds, we are warranted to believe the 'world author' knew that if he were to bring about the world, the 'supreme' good would come about too. Perpetual peace is the condition that enables the supreme good to be realized in history.
Defense, Peace, and War Economics

Defense, Peace, and War Economics
  • Christopher J. Coyne
  • Published online:
    28 February 2020
    Print publication:
    02 April 2020
  • This Element surveys the field of defense, peace, and war economics with particular emphasis on the contributions made by Austrian economists. I first review treatments of defense, peace, and war by the classical economists. I then discuss the rise of a distinct and systematic defense, peace, and war economics field of study starting in the 1960s. Next, I consider the contributions by Austrian economists to the field. This includes the economic analysis of the nature of the war economy, problems with the public good justification for the state-provision of defense, the seen and unseen costs of war, the idea of the liberal peace, and the realities and limitations of foreign intervention. I conclude with a discussion of some open areas for future research.
The Missing Two-Thirds of Evolutionary Theory

The Missing Two-Thirds of Evolutionary Theory
  • Robert N. Brandon, Daniel W. McShea
  • Published online:
    25 February 2020
    Print publication:
    26 March 2020
  • In this Element, we extend our earlier treatment of biology's first law. The law says that in any evolutionary system in which there is variation and heredity, there is a tendency for diversity and complexity to increase. The law plays the same role in biology that Newton's first law plays in physics, explaining what biological systems are expected to do when no forces act, in other words, what happens when nothing happens. Here we offer a deeper explanation of certain features of the law, develop a quantitative version of it, and explore its consequences for our understanding of diversity and complexity.
The Anatomy of Deep Time

The Anatomy of Deep Time
  • Rock Art and Landscape in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia
  • Esther Jacobson-Tepfer
  • Published online:
    22 February 2020
    Print publication:
    12 March 2020
  • Petroglyphic rock art in three valleys of Mongolia's Altai Mountains reveals the anatomy of deep time at the boundary between Central and North Asia. Inscribed over a period of twelve millennia, its subject matter, styles, and manner of execution reflect the constraints of changing geology, climate, and vegetation. These valleys were created and shaped by ancient glaciers. Analysis of their physical environment, projected from the deep past to the present, begins to explain the rhythm of cultural manifestations: where rock art appears, when it disappears, and why. The material and this remote arena offer an ideal laboratory to study the intersection of prehistoric culture and paleoenvironment.
Child Helpers

Child Helpers
  • A Multidisciplinary Perspective
  • David F. Lancy
  • Published online:
    20 February 2020
    Print publication:
    26 March 2020
  • In most of the worlds' distinct cultures, children – from toddlerhood – eagerly volunteer to help others with their chores. Laboratory research in child psychology supports the claim that the helper “stage” is biologically based. This Element examines the development of helping in varied cultural contexts, in particular, reviewing evidence for supportive environments in the ethnographic record versus an environment that extinguishes the drive to be helpful in WEIRD children. In the last section, the benefits of the helper stage are discussed, specifically the development of an ability to work and learn collaboratively.
Uneven Trajectories

Uneven Trajectories
  • Latin American Societies in the Twenty-First Century
  • Gabriela Benza, Gabriel Kessler
  • Published online:
    05 February 2020
    Print publication:
    13 February 2020
  • This Element presents the main characteristics of the current social structure in Latin America. It focuses on demographic trends, migration, families, incomes, education, health and housing, and examine the general policy trends for all of these issues. The main questions are: what is the social structure in Latin America like today? What changes have taken place in recent decades, particularly since the turn of the millennium? The authors argue that although in some dimensions there are continuities, including the persistence of problems from the past, they believe that the Latin American social structure, viewed as a whole, experienced significant transformations.
The Role of Mathematics in Evolutionary Theory

The Role of Mathematics in Evolutionary Theory
  • Jun Otsuka
  • Published online:
    05 February 2020
    Print publication:
    17 October 2019
  • The central role of mathematical modeling in modern evolutionary theory has raised a concern as to why and how abstract formulae can say anything about empirical phenomena of evolution. This Element introduces existing philosophical approaches to this problem and proposes a new account according to which evolutionary models are based on causal, and not just mathematical, assumptions. The novel account features causal models both as the Humean 'uniform nature' underlying evolutionary induction and as the organizing framework that integrates mathematical and empirical assumptions into a cohesive network of beliefs that functions together to achieve epistemic goals of evolutionary biology.

Page 95 of 104