The chapter addresses the history of the Synod of Bishops, created by pope Paul VI in September 1965 and reformed by Francis I between 2018 and 2023, with an analysis of the different phases: from the proposals emerging from the bishops during the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), to the Synods’ assemblies of Paul VI (r. 1963–78), John Paul II (r. 1978–2005), and Benedict XVI (r. 2005–13). After half a century of its life, the Synod of Bishops has changed, especially during pope Francis I’s pontificate, from an expression of episcopal collegiality (representing the bishops only), useful as a device of papal primacy, to an institution of ecclesial synodality, giving voice to all kinds of members in the Catholic Church, including women and lay people.

This chapter problematises popular and Orientalist discourses concerning ‘Islam and Peace’, recognising that both are heterogeneous and contested concepts in the fields of Islamic studies and moral philosophy. It proposes a more fruitful approach founded on systematic philosophical reflection on specific exemplars within their respective cultural and historical contexts.

Did the popes, through the medium of decretals, make law or not? Against a long-established tradition expressed forcefully by Walther Ullmann, Harold Berman, and many others, this chapter argues that the legal authority of the medieval papacy, manifested most spectacularly in the issue of thousands of decretal letters, represented not legislation but jurisdiction; that it was generated by the demands of appellants and consultants from across the whole of the Latin Church, from Trondheim (Norway) to Esztergom (Hungary) and Palermo (Sicily); and that the impetus to compile collections of these papal decisions began not in Rome but in the regions, for use in episcopal courts and in the nascent universities where canon law was studied. A selection of rescripts (replies to judicial appeals) and consultations (answers to questions) offers a fascinating insight into these dynamic processes, which helped to shape the development of European law.

A speech by Isaeus allows us to observe in detail a family chorus caught up in the turmoil of the Athenian civil war. It is at its heart that the heroine of this chapter, Hegeso, lived for most of her life. “Hegeso (daughter) of Proxenus”: her name is engraved on a beautiful funerary monument located in the Kerameikos Cemetery. A woman alone, whose portrait is on display in a public space, without any male presence: It’s a rare enough occurrence that we may be tempted to think this stele is an exceptional document testifying to a particular form of recognition not of womankind, but of an individualized woman. However, this would be wrong. For the very name of Hegeso can only be established through interaction with the other funerary monuments nearby, and this tends to erase the singularity of her presence by confining her to the role of the model wife. Above all, Hegeso finds herself at the crossroads of a family feud between two branches of the family of Proxenus, her father, caught up in the events of 404/3. Far from constituting a zone of withdrawal and intimacy, families were rife with political conflicts. The memorial of Hegeso nevertheless exhibits the harmony of the family sphere in the form of two half-choruses singing in tune: the regulated game of exchanges from which marriage proceeds, as well as the regulated gender divisions within it. Celebrating the fixity and the permanence of family lineage, this portrayal masks, or staves off, political turbulence by presenting the oikos as existing in an unchanging temporal space: that of its cyclic reproduction from one generation to the next.

This chapter comes in two related but distinct parts. The first presents general trends in the neurosciences and considers how these impact upon psychiatry as a clinical science. The second picks up a recent and important development in neuroscience which seeks to explain mental functions such as perception and has been profitably extended into explanations of psychopathology. The second part can be viewed as a working example of the first’s overarching themes.

Chapter 4 focuses on childcare and adoption services, at this time a motley array of provisions that included long- and short-term supervision by impoverished private entrepreneurs, whose negligence or callous calculation, in a few proven cases, resulted in infant deaths. Despite the public’s strength of feeling on the issue, neither the authorities nor the medical press were ever able to demonstrate the existence of neglect or infanticide on a systemic scale. Undeterred, undercover journalists conducted lurid and manipulative investigations into so-called baby farmers and abortionists that effectively created their own discursive object of enquiry. Tracing this development, we show how investigative journalism harnessed popular outrage and a spirit of vigilantism to call for greater state regulation. This investigative context is crucial to understanding the force of George Moore’s Esther Waters (1894), in whose climactic scene the heroine refuses a baby-farmer’s offer to dispose of her illegitimate child.

This chapter explains the project to which the book is devoted: to develop a descriptive-explanatory theory of social change resulting from the struggle against domination and use it to develop a normative theory of social change, a theory that can identify when social change is morally progressive. The descriptive-explanatory dimension of my theory of social change wrought by the perpetual struggle between hierarchs and resisters is an account of how change occurs. It makes no judgments as to whether changes are progressive or otherwise. The normative dimension evaluates changes produced by the struggle, identifying some of them as morally progressive. This chapter has two goals: to clarify the nature of the descriptive-explanatory dimension of my theory and to defend its normative dimension against two assaults on the very idea of moral progress.

This chapter begins by explaining why understanding social change is of exceptional importance. The first reason is that humans are historical beings: To understand who and what we are now, it is necessary to know where we came from and that requires understanding the changes that have shaped the social environment that shapes us. The second reason is forward-looking: If we understand the processes and patterns of past social changes, we may be able to exert more control over future changes and perhaps even increase the probability that they will be progressive. Or at least we may be able to avoid the most regressive changes.

Some social changes are more important than others. Those I examine in this book are among the most important: changes in the concepts and norms we use to evaluate the unequal power relations that constitute hierarchies and changes in the institutions that embody and regulate hierarchies. I will explain how major changes in moral concepts, norms, and institutions are produced by the struggle between hierarchs and those who resist hierarchical power. That struggle is a contest for extremely high stakes. It is, among other things, a battle for freedom. So, there are two ways to look at this book: more generally, as a study of social change; and more specifically, as an examination of the nature of the struggle for liberation.

This chapter analyses the spiritual ideas on universal peace developed by Sri Lankan teacher Bawa Muhaiyaddeen in terms of their South Asian and North American cultural syncretism and his development of classical Sufi ideas of the microcosmic ‘Perfect Man’ into a globalised but decidedly anti-modern ‘cosmopiety’.

This chapter assesses whether the adoption of the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement would bring a transformative change to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and analyzes its relationship with WTO agreements related to trade in goods and intellectual property rights. The study finds that rules under existing WTO agreements already apply to measures related to investment to some extent, despite the long-time reluctance of WTO members to introduce investment rules. The IFD Agreement would complement existing WTO agreements and contribute to enhanced transparency and streamlined administrative procedures and requirements. As international transactions expand beyond traditional trade in goods to services and intellectual properties, the multilateral rules under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the WTO have evolved to cover such areas. The IFD Agreement is seen as another step in the evolutionary development of the WTO, rather than a transformative change. Formal negotiations on the IFD Agreement began in September 2020.

The conclusion considers the limits of undercover journalism as illustrated by the special case of prison investigating. Though widely considered impossible to infiltrate, prisons were in fact among the earliest social realms to attract undercover investigators. Yet the reports brought back by these intrepid journalists ultimately confirm the experiential gap separating the ostensible subjects of undercover reporting and the observers.

China’s approach to investment facilitation is embodied in China’s views during the active participation in negotiations for the WTO’s Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement, G20 Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking, and Free Trade Agreements, besides China’s foreign investment and outbound investment laws and regulations. China’s approach to investment facilitation is advancing with the times and displays certain specific characteristics and is continuously improving and developing. China’s comprehensive approach to investment facilitation is conducive to the shared sustainable development of China and other actors. In the future, China’s policies and measures to investment facilitation should adhere to the spirit and guidance of shared sustainable development and competitive neutrality.

Three factors – Rome’s peripheral position, its rivalry with other sees, and the role of Roman aristocrats – shaped the ecclesiastical policy of the popes in late antiquity. Their claims to ecclesiastical authority across the empire were based on the reputation of the City of Rome. In addition, the Petrine tradition became crucial for the representation of late antique popes. From an Eastern perspective, however, they were no more than the patriarchs of the West. As they were not under the direct grip of the emperor, the popes possessed more agency than Eastern bishops, but this made it more difficult for them to influence imperial politics directly. Therefore, they composed treatises about the relationship between emperor and bishop, which answered concrete challenges, but were interpreted as fundamental texts later. In retrospect and in retrospect only, late antique papacy was the first step of a scale towards universal papacy.

This chapter clarifies the concept of revolution, to prepare the way for later chapters that present a theory of revolution as the most dramatic form of resistance to hierarchy. Revolution is distinguished from coups, secessions, and more limited rejections of authority. A distinction is also drawn between political and social revolutions. The chapter then goes on to provide a comprehensive account of what ideologies are and of the explanatory power of appeals to ideology in theories of social change, with special emphasis on the role of ideologies in revolutions. Ideologies are defined as coherent but not necessarily consistent sets of beliefs, attitudes, and belief-management processes that provide individuals with shared evaluative map of the social world. Next, the chapter explains the ways in which ideologies can, depending on the circumstances and the nature of the ideology, either contribute to social change or help maintain the status quo. This chapter emphasizes the fact that the motivating power of ideologies is due, in large part, to their including moral norms and commitments. The chapter also explains that it is by virtue of these moral elements that ideologies can either enable or inhibit collective action aimed either at changing the status quo or sustaining it.